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Showing posts from May, 2012

B&DERM: Final Wrap-Up!

Hello! This is the final post for Bella & Daph's Epic Review Month! We hope you enjoyed it, we certainly did! Hopefully you managed to make a dent in your towering TBRs and get some reviews written have been sitting waiting for ages. I didn't get as much as reading done as I'd have like, due to revision and schoolwork, but I think it's definitely helped to know other people are reading as much as they can too! What I read this month: We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid Struck by Jennifer Bosworth The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers Like I said, with revision and everything, I think I've done pretty well! I'm also part-way through The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, but there's no way I'll finish that tonight so I won't count it... What have you read this month? This is the part where you tell us what you read! Make a post and link below, or jus

B&DERM: Q&A #5: All about NetGalley

Hello! Welcome to the fifth and last B&DERM question and answer post! I have one question and answers from five awesome bloggers, as well as your hosts, Daph from Loving Books and myself! We hope they'll be interesting for you ;) This week's question is... If you use NetGalley, do you tackle that TBR the same way as you tackle your physical TBR pile? Do you prioritise one over the other? Stacey from Pretty Books : I tend to tackle them in the exact same way - e-galleys/proofs/review copies are all on my schedule, but I'll be honest and say that I tend to give priority to physical copies. This is because they're mostly from publishers that I've personally talked to, and so I'd feel bad if I neglected them for too long. I do love to get my NetGalley list down though! It's nice to switch between formats too. Ashley from What's Your Story? : I don’t treat my Netgalley titles any differently than a normal review book. They go onto my Kind

Book Review: We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

Title:  We'll Always Have Summer Author:  Jenny Han Series:  Summer, #3 Pages:   304 Publisher:  Puffin Date of Publication:  3rd May 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: One girl. Two brothers. The biggest decision of her life . . . Just when she thought she had all the answers . . . Isabel has only ever loved two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. One broke her heart; the other made her happier than she ever thought she'd be. But each brother is keeping a secret, and this summer Isabel must choose between the Fisher boys, once and for all. Which brother will it be? My Thoughts: This series really surprised me - I never expected to like it quite as much as did. It was one of my first YA contemporary reads and I wasn't really all that sure as to what I should expect, and to be honest, from the covers, it wasn't promising me too much. And then I loved it, and you can guess how I excited I was when this book, We'll Always Have S

B&DERM: Wrap-up #4 and UK Giveaway

Hey! The fourth(ish) week of May is now over and it's time for our fourth wrap-up post for Bella & Daph's Epic Review Month! Hopefully you've managed to make a dent in your TBR pile - a bigger one than I have! :)  What I read: I've only read one book in the last two weeks - and that was The Gathering Dark  by Leigh Bardugo (called Shadow and Bone  in the US). I've had my first exams (and they went well, I think) but I've still got revision to do so I probably won't get much else read! But, I have read 60 pages of Fall For Anything  by Courtney Summer, which isn't a review book, but shhh ;P  What have you read this week? Leave a comment below telling us what you read this week and what you thought of it, etc etc! Or, you can write your own wrap-up post and link up in the linky below :)  Written any reviews for books you've read this month? If you have, link them below! They'll make you eligible for a giveaway ;P A couple sentences on Good

Book Review: When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle

Title:  When You Were Mine  Author:  Rebecca Serle Series:  Standalone Pages:  352 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Books Date of Publication:  26th April 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Rosaline has been best friends with Rob since they were little kids. Recently, something deeper and more electric has entered their friendship, and when Rob returns after the summer break and asks Rosaline on a sort-of date, it seems they are destined to become a couple, just as Rosaline always knew they would be. The next day at school, a mysterious, beautiful girl arrives: Rosaline's long-lost cousin, Juliet. And suddenly it looks as if Rosaline might be about to lose her best friend AND her new boyfriend… This review is kind of spoilery. Not anything you couldn't guess from it being a retelling of Romeo & Juliet , but still it's kind of spoilery. But only a bit. My Thoughts: This book was amazing. I loved it so much more than I tho

B&DERM: Q&A #3: Do you have a review format?

Hello! Welcome to the third B&DERM question and answer post! I have one question and answers from five awesome bloggers, as well as your hosts, Daph from Loving Books and myself! We hope they'll be interesting for you ;) This week's question is... Do you have a particular format or way of reviewing (for example, talking about characters, then setting, then plot, etc for every book you read) or do you just write whatever comes to mind for each particular book? Stacey from Pretty Books : It's different for every book. I always provide a spoiler-free summary and then just talk about what I enjoyed, which may be the plot, or the characters, or the world-building, or the writing. I tend to write one sentence at the end to summarise how I felt about the book overall and then give the book a rating out of five (which I think is good for people who don't want to read the review yet but want to know whether I enjoyed the book or not). Ashley from What's Yo

B&DERM: Wrap-up #2 and UK Giveaway

Hello! The first full week of May has gone by, and now it's time for our second Bella & Daph's Epic Review Month weekly wrap up post! We hope you got lots of review book reading done - I did, I think! :) What I read: So since the beginning of May, since I didn't do a wrap-up post for myself last week, I have read three books! I'm pretty proud of that, as I have exams coming up soon and I'm constantly revising (okay, that's more than a little bit of an overstatement - I'm maybe doing an hour and a half a night AND I have school ;P ) and so I have less reading time, but it's going okay. Here's what I've read and what I thought: We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han - A wonderfully lovely ending to an amazing series. Team Conrad!! Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid - A completely different contemp to the WAHS - and nearly as good. The writing at the beginning was a little slow but the story was incredible and the journey the characters to

Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title:  The Immortal Rules  Author:  Julie Kagawa Series:  Blood of Eden, #1 Pages:  485 Publisher:  MIRA Ink Date of Publication:  24th April 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind

Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Title:  Insurgent Author:  Veronica Roth Series:  Divergent, #2 Pages:  525 Publisher:  HarperCollins Children's Books Date of Publication:  1st May 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting

B&DERM: Q&A #1: How do you tackle your TBR pile?

Hello! Welcome to the first B&DERM question and answer post! I have one question and answers from five awesome bloggers, as well as your hosts, Daph from Loving Books and myself! We hope they'll be interesting for you ;) This week's question is... How do you tackle your TBR pile? Do you try to read everything before release date (if it’s a proof) or do you just read whatever takes your fancy?  Stacey from Pretty Books : I do try to read everything before/around the publication date but I'm failing miserably at the moment! I still have February books I've not gotten to. I read about 1-2 books a week, so it's difficult to catch up if I'm behind. I have a note on my phone with them all listed by publication date and I try to go through it in order. I do skip over some books sometimes if I'm not in the mood to read them, and I also prioritise others (for example, I'll definitely be reading Insurgent as soon as it arrives!). Ashley from Wha

Bella and Daph's Epic Review Month: Kick-Off

Hello! Welcome to the kick-off post for Bella & Daph's Epic Review Month! May has finally arrived, so our month of reading and reviewing can get started - and so can yours! :D If you missed the announcement, basically, Daph from Loving Books and I are using May as a chance to read and review as many review books as we can, to get our review piles down to make room for all of the awesome new releases coming out in the next couple of months. We decided to make it a feature, so you can join in too! If you don't have review books - that's fine - just read as much as you can! :D For more info go here or here . Here's what I'm planning on reading... Unrest by Michelle Harrison We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han Struck by Jennifer Bosworth Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid Rules of Attraction & Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles *whispers* And then I have some sneaky exceptions to the review only rule... Fall For Anything by Courtney Summ