February Wrap Up 2019

It's the month of love and, like always, my love exclusively remains saved for books and TV because I'm that kind of gal.

BOOKS
Dry- Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
* * * * *
I'm not even surprised this was spectacular- it's Neal Shusterman! Of course, it's stunning!
This is a sort of apocalyptic story where we've completely run out of water. This book follows the journey of a group of teens in their search for water and ultimately, a quest to just survive. I love how this book explores the price of survival and to what extent we can keep our humanity when trying to keep ourselves and our loved ones alive- it's fascinating! But, I will be honest, this book absolutely terrified me because it was all so realistic and the whole thing seems way too likely to happen one day... which makes me have a panic attack just thinking about it.
Review to come!

February Book Haul 2019

February was Victoria Schwab month for no reason other than I was just in the mood for her books. I've only actually read one Victoria Schwab book before (Vicious), so I'm really hoping it wasn't a fluke and that I love all of her books.

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2)- V. E. Schwab
A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3)- V. E Schwab 
I went a little crazy with V. E. Schwab this month... no regrets. I've had the first book of this series for a couple of years but have never picked it up because I like reading series back-to-back - especially when all the books are released. I hate waiting and I've heard so many great things about this series. (And so far, having just finished the first book, I'm so happy I got these because waiting would've been painful!)

Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2)- V. E. Schwab
And since I was on a V. E. Schwab roll, I thought, what the heck, let's just buy all of her books that the bookstore has. Again, I've had the first book of this series for a while, This Savage Song, but I'm hesitant to go into them without knowing I could read the whole series in one. Now I don't have to worry about that! (Though, I'm not sure of this series is a duology or longer...)

Killing Eve 1x01 'Nice Face' TV TALK

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Yes, I've already reviewed the whole of season one in a single review (linked here, you're welcome) but... I couldn't resist. I love this show so much and, as I'm re-watching season one ready for season two in April, I thought I'd give a little deeper review into each episode!
If you've never heard of or watched Killing Eve, (first of all, how dare you?), I highly urge you to jump onto this train before season two.
Killing Eve is essentially a cat-and-mouse game between an assassin and an MI6 agent, becoming fascinated with each other and kind of stalking each other. This series is full action, remarkable humour and a subtle sexual tension that creates something unique and addictive.
Feeling sufficiently interested in the premise? Good. Go watch it.

TRAILER

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
Straight away, we're introduced to Villanelle and... I think it was love at first sight for me. For no reason at all (other than she's a psychopath), Villanelle dumps ice cream all over a child and... it's so random but kind of funny! It's one of those actions that everybody thinks to themselves ("what would happen if I...") but we never actually do! Got to admire Villanelle's guts.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea- Tahereh Mafi BOOK TALK

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This is such a beautiful and important read! The characters are amazing, the romance swoon-worthy and, more importantly, the representation is on point! It was so lovely to read in Shirin's perspective and the whole story is truly eye-opening.
This is the first contemporary I've read by Tahereh Mafi (having only read her Shatter Me series) and I think she suits this genre perfectly. The romance was so compelling but there was also a lovely message and deeper meaning to the story which I always love. Discrimination and racism are big aspects within this book and it was so eye-opening to read about and Tahaereh Mafi handled the subject superbly.
Honestly, I can see this book becoming a movie one day (especially with other ground-breaking reads like The Hate U Give becoming so popular).

GOODREADS

AMAZON

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
Starting with characters, I absolutely loved Shirin! She was so funny and intelligent and sarcastic and cool and... just perfect. She's definitely someone I'd want to be friends with. And she's such an easy character to admire because she goes through so much but she's extremely resilient and strong.

Valentine's Day BOOK TAG!!!

To distract from my startling single-ness, I'm gonna to spend the month of love professing my undying love of books... I'm perfectly sane, I assure you.
I found this tag on the Epic Reads Youtube channel so definitely go check that out if you're interested.

1. First Book Crush
Zachary Goode- The Gallagher Academy series by Ally Carter 
Zach is the first proper book crush I can remember having and I still love him to this day. The Gallagher Academy is one of the series that truly got me into reading (a secret school for girl spies who go on all sorts of missions? Sign me up) and I fell in love with Zach. He's cool, he's mysterious, he's sassy and my ten year old self was infatuated. (Still am, to be honest).

2. What book would you want as your Valentine?
Since You've Been Gone- Morgan Matson
This has become one of my all-time contemporary reads. Every time I re-read it, I fall more in love. This book contains a very slow-burning romance but, as I've grown older, I've learnt to really appreciate that. This book (and the superb characters in it) would definitely be my Valentine.

3. Candy hearts or Chocolate?
Chocolate, any day. I mean, who ever heard of candy hearts getting rid of dementors? How ridiculous!

Game of Thrones 6x03 'Oathbreaker' TV TALK

A lot happened in this episode. A lot. A lot. A lot. So many characters, so many plot lines, so many feels!!
I've said it once (I've said it many times) but I'll say it yet again, this show is the show of all shows! You just can't beat Game of Thrones' characters, world-building and plot twists.

TV TALKS:

Season 1:  1x01  |  1x02  |  1x03  |  1x04  |  1x05  |  1x06  |  1x07  |  1x08  |  1x09  |  1x10

Season 2:  2x01  |  2x02  |  2x03  |  2x04  |  2x05  |  2x06  |  2x07  |  2x08  |  2x09  |  2x10

Season 3:  3x01  |  3x02  |  3x03  |  3x04  |  3x05  |  3x06  |  3x07  |  3x08  |  3x09  |  3x10

Season 4:  4x01  |  4x02  |  4x03  |  4x04  |  4x05  |  4x06  |  4x07  |  4x08  |  4x09  |  4x10
Season 5:  5x01  |  5x02  |  5x03  |  5x04  |  5x05  |  5x06  |  5x07  |  5x08  |  5x09  |  5x10
Season 6:  6x01  |  6x02

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
In Essos, Daenerys is back with the Dothraki (talk about full circle) and has been taken to the temple for the Khals' Widows. They don't seem very impressed by her and Daenerys has to go through a trial of sorts to see if she can stay there.... not that she wants to. Jorah and Daario will turn up and everyone there will end up dead. I'm placing my bets now.

Archenemies- Marissa Meyer BOOK TALK

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Marissa Meyer is officially one of my favourite authors. I've always loved The Lunar Chronicles and these books are just reminding me what an absolute genius Marissa Meyer is.
Archenemies is the sequel to Renegades and, while it's a little more slow-burning, it's still amazing. I love how the concept of good vs evil is explored and it makes the whole plot so much more interesting and compelling! The characters are as amazing as always and make every page so easy to turn.
Renegades Book Review

GOODREADS

AMAZON

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
The whole book starts with Sketch's team pursuing Hawthorn and I was so pumped! Our crew work so well together and it was super fun to see them in action.
The whole Agent N plot line was explored in this book and it's such an interesting debate because I feel so conflicted! On one hand, I totally agree with Nova because it's an infringement of human rights and it could totally be abused by the Renegades, but if a prodigy is using their powers to kill people, then they don't deserve any human rights!! You could totally apply this debate to our own world in terms of prison sentence conditions or capital punishment and it just makes everything so much more interesting!

February Releases and TBR 2019

RELEASES
On The Come Up- Angie Thomas 
Bloodwitch- Susan Dennard
Fame, Fate and the First Kiss- Kasie West 
Crown of Feathers- Nicki Pau Preto 
The Blood Spell- C.J. Redwine 

TBR

A Very Large Expanse of Sea- Tahereh Mafi 
I've actually started reading this already and it's spectacular! This is a contemporary about a Muslim girl in high school in the year after 9/11 and it's so powerful so far! I've only read about 100 pages but I'm absolutely loving all the characters and plotlines.

The Lunar Chronicles- Marissa Meyer (Re-read)
We're finally there- the first books I'm planning to re-read this year. I think I've done pretty well to avoid re-reads for this year, though. I haven't re-read this series since first reading them all the way back in 2016 so I'm excited to jump into them again. I've been reading Marissa Meyer's Renegades series so I can't wait to jump back into more of her amazing work. I'll likely love it even more than the first time. 

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe

January Wrap Up 2019

I'm so happy that, this month, I didn't re-read a single book! Last year, I re-read way too much (about 70% of my total books read) and my aim this year was to read at least 50% new books and I started really well this month! I read a total of 6 books and none of them were re-reads!! It was a great start to the year!

The only problem with only reading new books is that I'm running super behind on book reviews so... stay tuned for many of them!

BOOKS
Uprooted- Naomi Novik 
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I've always heard so much hype about this book and I can now agree that it totally deserves every bit of praise. This story had such an intricate plot and concept of magic and it was fascinating! I loved the characters and so much happened! By the time I'd reached 100 pages, I felt like I'd read an entire novel arc.
Review to come.


If There's No Tomorrow- Jennifer L. Armentrout 
* * * * 
In my eyes, Jennifer L. Armentrout can do no wrong. This book was stunning and, while it was a lot heavier emotionally than what I was expecting, it left me awestruck and captivated. This is a drama, romance Young Adult book and it's just so easy and interesting to read.
Review to come.