Weekly Recap: I'm Drowning In A Sea of Books


Hey guys, it has been forever since my last post. Life has just been beyond hectic recently and I have just had zero time to do anything. It has been a ton of working and then endless social commitments. And, yes, I will totally have to admit to getting addicted to Pokemon Go and allowing it to take over my life. Ooooops!

I've had a week off from work, which has allowed me to catch up on a ton of things. So time to catch up on everything I have been up to since my last post.

Chapter 5 Proof Party: I was lucky enough to get invited to the Chapter 5 Proof Party that was held in London at the beginning of July. It was held on the top floor of The Old Crown Pub near Tottenham Court Station and was such a fun evening. There was books galore and author Jennifer L Armentrout came to talk about her books and sign any that people had brought along with them, or taken from the ones offered to us by the wonderful people at Chapter 5. I was extra excited to receive three amazing proofs: Replica by Lauren Oliver, Caraval by Stephanie Garber and Frostblood by Elly Blake.

 My birthday: It was my birthday two weeks ago and I had an incredible day. I invited friends and family over for a barbecue and the day was perfect. The weather was beautiful, the food was tasty and the company was the best I could hope for. Plus they all knew me so well and gifted me a ton of Funkos! A bunch of us were still up at 2am playing games, drinking and devouring the leftovers from the day, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

Bookstagram: I have spoke a lot about my addiction to bookstagram. I can't stop myself, I just absolutely love it. I know a large part of the reason I haven't blogged is because I have been spending all my free time taking, editing and posting my bookstagram photos. And I have zero regrets, This month I hosted my first ever bookstagram monthly challenge and it was so much fun! I have loved seeing everyone's photos. It has also been wonderful to see all my hard work paying off, as my Instagram has grown so much over the last few weeks. I will be hosting another challenge this August, so if you are interested then definitely feel free to take part! I also hit a huge milestone on Instagram: 10,000 followers! So keep an eye out for a giveaway going up there soon!

 London Film and Comic Con: As this post goes live, I will be at the second day of YALC and LFCC and I will probably be hot, sweaty, exhausted but super excited and having a wonderful time regardless. This is my third year attending and I am so excited. It's always so much fun. I get a ton of books and meet some amazing authors - this year I will get to meet V.E. Scwhab and Maggie Stiefvater! And I can't wait!!! I will also spend far too much money on bookish items and other things.




I am usually totally not embarassed by my hauls, but even I think this months is a little excessive! Ooops. I couldn't stop myself. A bunch of these were all sent by publishers, so that makes me feel less bad. And a lot of the ones I bought were on special. I got a ton in Waterstones Picaddily on sale, for £1 each, even for hardbacks. All the adorably cute Funkos are what family and friends bought me for my birthday, although I forgot to include Mrs Potts, Chip and Cogsworth.


I recently read Replica and found the format was so fascinating. This is a story where we have two main characters, Lyra and Gemma, and you can choose which story you want to read first. You can either start with Lyra's and then go to Gemma's or vice versa, or you could read them a chapter each or something completely different. Caraval and Frost Blood, as well as Replica, were ARCs I received at the Chapter 5 party and can't wait to read them. I have heard nothing but amazing things about Caraval and I will be getting to that asap. I received Things We Know By Heart, Frost Like Night and Aerie from the wonderful people at Harper 360. I am currently reading and loving Things We Know By Heart. Look out for my review on the 3rd August, as I am participating in the blog tour for it.

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab, And I Darken by Kiersten White, Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh, My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows, 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger

This Savage Song and My Lady Jane are two books I received in my most recent Owlcrate boxes and I am excited to read both. Ivory and Bone is another one that was sent to me by Harper 360 and I have heard a lot of good things about this one. And I Darken is one that I bought for myself as I love the sound of it, a gender-swapped retelling of Vlad the Impaler. 5 to 1 sounds really weird but it was £1 in Waterstones for the hardback, so I couldn't help myself.


A Small Free Kiss in the Dark is another one that I got for £1 and it actually looks really interesting, it is one I hope to read really soon and it looks like one I can read really quickly. Looking for JJ is one I have wanted to read for a long time, as I once read another book by the author that I loved. The Painted Man is a fantasy book that I won on Goodreads and I have seen some amazing reviews for it, so I am intrigued by that one. Oblivion and Half-Blood are two that I got at the Chapter 5 party. I now have two copies of Half-Blood, so I will probably give the spare away or donate it to work.


Obsidian, The Return and Don't Look Back were the others that I got from the Chapter 5 party. got to get all my JLA pretties signed by the author whilst I was there. I have spares for a few of these and will give them away. Lydia and Dear Charlie are two review copies I was sent recently and will be reading asap.


Queen of Hearts is one I bought myself on special in Waterstones Piccadilly, and I am intrigued by it but also nervous to read it. You Don't Know Me and The Castle were two more books I got for £1 from Waterstones. I read and loved the authors latest book, so I couldn't not pick these up and I really hope I love them. Lying About Last Summer and Two Summers were both on offer in ASDA and sounded interesting, so I picked them up - I can't stop myself, I have a huge book buying problem.



After You is another one I bought myself, I quite enjoyed Me Before You and curious to see what happens for Lou next. A Little In Love, Under Rose Tainted Skies and The Shadow Queen  are the others I bought on special in ASDA. United as One was sent to me by a publisher, even though I had let them know that I had only read book one in the series, but they seemed to want it to be shared on social media more than anything, so that is probably why they still sent it.


So that is my rather giant haul for the month of July... 31 books, which is exactly 1 book a day for the whole month. So that would explain how I have barely read any of them. All my time has been sucked up by work, social events or Pokemon Go. Hopefully I can get some reading done next month.

How was your reading month and haul? Did you get through a lot of books? Anything that you would recommend? And, most importantly, which of my books should I get to first?

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Surviving A Book Convention: Tips & Tricks

How To Survive YALC 2016!

I have attended YALC for the last two years and am so excited to be attending again this year. For anyone who doesn't know, and has clearly been living under a rock, YALC is the UKs first ever YA literary convention. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I love every single second of it, despite the sweating and the queuing and how my money disappears from my account quicker than I can blink. It's an amazing day, but I learnt a lot after my first year there and definitely did things differently on the second year. So I am here to share my tips with you guys!

1. Be Prepared For Endless Queuing 

No one likes queuing, it's just a known fact. So you need to know that you will spend a lot of your day queuing. You will queue for EVERYTHING! You will queue for a long time to get in, then you'll queue to get tickers to events, then queue to get your books signed. Not to mention that you will queue for the toilet and for food too, where you will be charged an extortionate amount. So make sure you either have someone with you to keep you entertained, or bring something with you to keep you entertained whilst you queue. And maybe learn to sit randomly on the floor like a weirdo, because otherwise your legs will ache like crazy by the end of the day.
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These Books Need Way More Love On Goodreads



It's time for Top Ten Tuesday and this weeks topic is:

Best Books With Less Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads

This weeks topic means that we get to talk about books that are completely underrated on Goodreads. Those books that deserve so much more love than they are currently getting. Less than 2,000 ratings is a tiny amount of ratings. The Hunger Games currently has 4,274,543 ratings on Goodreads. Harry Potter has 3,977,522. Even Fifty Shades has 1,336,175 ratings. And I will always say that any book should have more ratings than that book. So here are some of the books I have enjoyed over the years that have so few ratings on Goodreads, but deserve more. I'm going to order them from least to highest rated.



This book is the third book in Jenny's Ladybirds series and it was my favourite of the series so far. The characters have grown up a lot and this feels a lot more YA than the last two books. I loved the beautiful island setting. I adored the characters and the cutesy romance storyline. It was just the perfect summer read.

Love Song

I wasn't very sure of this book when it was sent to me for review. A young adult novel featuring a young girl going to work for a boy band?!? I just wasn't sold on that and thought this was going to be a horribly cheesy book, with zero substance to it. I was totally wrong and felt bad for judging it so quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it was a fun read, and made me want to try more from the author.

Second Chances

This was a book I picked up on a whim whilst strict ordering at work in one of the libraries I worked at. I just browsed the books whilst tidying and read the back of this and was intrigued. It is a murder mystery thriller and one that I ended up really enjoying. It was quite dark and twisted, as a woman seeks revenge on the man she believes murdered her sister. This book is perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain or those looking for an adult Dangerous Girls.

Gemina: The Illuminae Files: Book 2

This is totally cheating as the book isn't officially out yet, which is why it has so few ratings. I DON'T CARE! I am still putting it here just so I can once again tell you that this book is INCREDIBLE! If you haven't started this series yet, you need to. Go, read Illuminae and then prepare for one of the best sequels ever.

The Leaving

I really loved this book. I thought it was really great, even though you finish not really knowing what genre you should even put this book in. I found this book so addictive though, I could not put it down. The writing just completely sucked me in and I ended up finishing this book in one sitting. It follows five teenagers who return home, having gone missing eleven years before. No one knows where they have been or what happened to them. And, most importantly, no one knows what happened to the sixth child who went missing with them and never returned. I really loved this book and the mystery element of it. It was definitely weird, but I really enjoyed that about it. 

I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After

I have been reading a lot of graphic novels recently, thanks to trying and falling completely in love with Saga. I Hate Fairyland is one of my favourites so far, it was hilarious and so dark. Our main character is a woman who has been stuck in Fairyland for 34 years, and she is still stuck in her 6 year old body that she came to Fairyland in. She needs to find a key to leave, and has not been able to find it in the 34 years she has been there. By this point she is basically mad, killing anyone and everyone and doing it all whilst being sarcastically funny and hilarious as anything. I loved it. 

In a Handful of Dust (Not a Drop to Drink, #2)

This is the sequel to the incredible Not a Drop to Drink, and this is a book that definitely deserves to be read more. I know your heart might have been torn out and stamped on at the end of Not a Drop to Drink, so was mine. But the sequel is so worth reading, even if it is just for more of Mindy McGinnis's incredible writing. 
Demon Road (The Demon Road Trilogy, Book 1)
Demon Road by Derek Landy  - 1,697 Ratings

Demon Road by Derek Landy is absolutely perfect for anyone who loves the show Supernatural. That is my favourite show, so of course I loved this book. It is a YA supernatural read and it is awesome. The characters are hilarious and the storyline can be quite dark. I can't wait to devour the sequel when I get a moment. 

Every Breath (Every, #1)

I LOVED this book! It is an Australian, YA retelling of Sherlock Holmes and it is epic. I ship the two main characters like nobody's business. Please, do not be put off by the ugly covers, these books are deserving of your time. I own the two other books in the series and plan to read them asap.


So there you have all the books I have read and enjoyed that have less than 2,000 ratings on Goodreads. They all deserved to have way more than that! Which underrated book do you love?

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