Welcome to the NEW Reviews from a Bookworm: Celebrations, A Tag & Giveaway!!!

Welcome!

I can't begin to express my excitement to finally unveil the new look for Reviews from a Bookworm! I hope you guys love it as much as I do, I honestly couldn't be happier with with it. The new design is all thanks to Evie, over at Evie's Bookish Designs - the woman is clearly a genius. I've wanted a new look for  Reviews from a Bookworm for so long, I just don't really have the skill or knowledge to do it myself. I definitely did the best I could with what I knew, that just happened to be very little. So I knew if I was going to get a design I was truly happy with, I would need to find someone else.

That's where Evie comes in! Amanda over at Nellie and Co. was the person who suggested her and thought she'd be a good person to work with and Amanda was right. She asked so many questions and managed to coax out of me what I wanted, because when I started the design I still had absolutely no idea what I truly wanted. But, I shouldn't have worried, Evie had a better idea than I had myself and seemed to know exactly what I wanted, even when I didn't.

Top Ten Tuesday: Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke & The Bookish.

This weeks topic is:

Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession 

This is hard as I have gained about 40+ books in the last two weeks alone. I went a bit too crazy on Amazon, but then I also got a lot of review copies through. The main reason for the mass buy is for books to take with me to get signed at YALC, it will work out cheaper for me this way rather than buying them on the day.

Bought

The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy

I'm going to pretend it's not cheating to count these 9 books as 1! It's a series after all and I bought them as 1 item on Amazon... so IT COUNTS!

The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare

I am cheating again, but I bought this in a boxset so I am letting them count as one. I bought these as I plan to get them signed by Cassandra Clare when I am at YALC.

Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales: Review

Title: Tonight the Streets Are Ours 
Author: Leila Sales
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux 
Buy this book: Amazon (US) / Amazon (UK) / Book Depository

Seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley is recklessly loyal. Taking care of her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But she's tried of being loyal to people who don't appreciate her-including her needy best friend and absent mum.Arden finds comfort in a blog she stumbles upon called "Tonight the Streets Are Ours," the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter. When Peter is dumped by the girl he blogs about, Arden decides to take a road trip to see him. During one crazy night out in NYC filled with parties, dancing, and music-the type of night when anything can happen, and nearly everything does- Arden discovered that Peter isn't exactly who she thought he was. And maybe she isn't exactly who she thought she was either. 

I read and reviewed Leila Sales other book, This Song Will Save Your Life, way back in December of 2013, during my first few months of blogging. That book turned out to be one of my favourite books of the year and is still a book I consider a favourite of mine. When I heard the great news that Leila was finally releases another YA book, I might have been ridiculously excited/ridiculously nervous (We all know the feeling!). I saw the cover, which is stunning and makes me want to own the book just so I can photograph it, and the summary and I got way more excited than nervous. The book sounded so good and I was adding it to my to-read shelf on Goodreads and getting frustrated that I had to wait for it. I finished the book and I can't quite say that I loved it, but I did enjoy it and I didn't feel disappointed or that it didn't live up to my expectations.

The book starts with the words:

Like all stories, the one you are about to read is a love story. If it wasn't, what would be the point?

And the fact that it also ends with similar words, it seems only right that I had assumed that this book was going to be a love story. And I guess, in the end, it was.... just not at all in the way you were probably expecting. What struck me the most about this story was the fact that I came away from it really enjoying the book as a whole, whilst seemingly hating all of the characters. It just goes to show the kind of writer that Sales is, she can write those flawed characters that make you want to shake them, but they're real. I appreciate real characters, even if I do want to reach into my book and whack them all upside the head.

Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Pitch Perfect 2

This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.

This weeks movie review will be for:

Pitch Perfect 2

I still remember the first time I saw Pitch Perfect, me and my mum were having a day out together and decided to go see a movie. It was the only movie that sounded even slightly appealing and the trailer had me eager to see it. But I honestly didn't know what to expect from it, I had no idea if it was going to be a huge disappointment, just okay or a new favourite. But my mother and I both absolutely loved it and had such a fun time watching it. We laughed so hard it hurt, we sang along with the awesome tunes and we left wanting to go back in and watch it all over again. So maybe it seems weird that the announcement of a sequel had me way more nervous than it did excited. I just worried that it would be another sequel that didn't live up to my expectations, another sequel that just ended up disappointing.

I can't even begin to describe how shocked I was to find that I ended up absolutely loving this one. I loved it so much that I felt it was almost as good as, if not better in some ways, to Pitch Perfect. My mother preferred Pitch Perfect 2, I think because it had her laughing a lot more than the first did, which is saying something as we laughed so much at the first film. Her vote has been cast, but I am still undecided about which movie I prefer, I will have to decide after a rewatch of both back to back once the DVD is released.

How To Survive YALC: Advice and Tips

How To Survive YALC 2015!

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to attend all two days of the YALC event at the LFCC. For anyone who doesn't know, and has clearly been living under a rock, YALC was the UKs first ever YA literary convention. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I loved every single second of it, despite the sweating and the queueing and how much of my money disappeared from my account quicker than I could blink. It was an amazing two days, but I do wish I had gotten some more information before going, just simple tips that could have really helped me out. So I am here to share them with you guys!

1. Be Prepared For Endless Queueing 

No one likes queueing, 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.