Angel Reads

08 Nov

Last Ten Books I’ve added to my TBR

Posted by angelreads Features, Top Ten Tuesday 11 Comments

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list that members at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone join as you please. This week’s topic is: Ten Books I’ve Added To My TBR List Lately

I always forget to add books to be ‘to read’ shelf on Goodreads, even some of my most anticipated books aren’t on there. Most of the time I know what I want to read, the books that I normally add to the list are ones that I have never heard of before, that have just caught my eye. The thing is I don’t even go back on it to reference – anyway, here at the last ten books, I’ve added to my tbr.

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Caraval by Stephanie Garber: The sound of this book intrigues me from the get go. It sounds like the magic is going to sweep me up and take me on a journey.

Asking for It by Louise O’Neill: Books that explore that is happening right now, how women/girls are treated always catches my attention. I feel like Asking for it will be raw, real and hard to read.

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab: I have yet to read anything by Victoria Schwab, but I have heard next to nothing bad, about her books. I will get to it someday. Where should I start?

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Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan: I read You Know Me Well earlier this year and saw David during the Melbourne Writers Festival and damn he was good. I just want to read everything by him now.

Nova by Rebecca Yarros: Here is another one of those that I forget to add books I am looking forward to. I have loved Rebecca Yarros’ books in the past and Nova is book 2 in her new series. It’s coming out soon…I hope. (This is the cover for the first book since Nova’s cover hasn’t been released)

Lucky in Love by Kasie West: It’s Kasie West do I need to say more? Her books and heartbreaking and adorable and always what I need.

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Now I Rise by Kiersten White: I loved And I Darken earlier this year and I cannot wait for more. The world is intriguing and I want to know what is going to happen on Lada and Radu’s journey.

Cold Summer by Gwen Cole: I hadn’t heard about this until I saw it pop up on my Goodreads feed a couple of weeks ago. It’s a mix of science-fiction and history partly set in World War 2 – yes, please.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas: I loved when I read The Darkest Corners by Kara a while ago. Gosh, it messed with me, but I have a feeling that this is going to be 10 times as worse. I need it.

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Avenged by Amy Tintera: When I read Ruined at the stat of the year, I knew that this series will be for me and with that ending I need Book 2 – now.

What have you recently put on your TBR? Do we share any? Have you read any of the books on my TBR? Let’s Chat!

You can find me @angel_reads, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Goodreads. You can also follow Angel Reads on Bloglovin and via email (in the sidebar)

06 Nov

The Secret Life of a Book Blogger

Posted by angelreads Book Tag, Discussions 5 Comments

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I was tagged my the lovely Ely over at Tea and Titles to do the Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag. I haven’t done a tag in a while because I always forgot, so I thought why not.

Question Time:

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This February it will be my 5^th anniversary, so next year I will be going into my sixth year of blogging.

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I don’t really know when. I love blogging, it has been a big part of my life and it has gotten me to where I am today. But most likely when I get a full-time job, hopefully in the publishing industry.

There are a couple of things that I love about Blogger.

I able to talk about things that I love and people share that same love.
I have made so many amazing friends from blogging and some of those I have been friends with for nearly 5 years – which is crazy and amazing at the same time. There are some friends from the other side of the world that I may never meet, but I know that I can talk to them online. And then I have made friends that live 10 minutes away from me and we went to the same high school. Blogging is a crazy world.

Some of the amazing friends I have made are Ely, Michelle, Millicent, Lu, Eddie, Miranda and more.

Jessica S Books

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Again there is a couple things that are really hard about being a blogger. I just want to say that not everyone is like this and I am not calling out anyone.

Rudeness and harshness. Going onto twitter every day and seeing that there is something new burning. I just want to close my screen and leave. I don’t like to fight, but I do believe in speaking up for what I believe in, so when I see someone saying mean and unnecessary things to people, I do have to step in.
Blogging takes up a lot of time and there are times when I can’t blog because of life or university and sometimes I cannot be bothered. But I hate that when I do that I lose followers, likes, conversations etc. Sometimes I need a break and I don’t want people to think that I won’t be coming back. I try and not feel upset about this, but sometimes you can take it personally.

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I normally take my own pictures so depending on the weather from 10-15 minutes. Taking a couple at a time of different things, so then I have a stockpile waiting for me when I need to use them. I then have to edit them, which again it doesn’t take me long because I suck at it.

I do, however, make a fair few graphics which again I make myself and depending on how detailed it is can take up to 15 minutes.

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This is really hard, but at the moment it has to be Julian Blackthorn from Lady Midnight. Just my heart and him – lord.

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I have a fair few amazing authors on Angel Reads through a series I did highlighting Australian YA, but if I could have any international authors it would have to be either Cassandra Clare or Richelle Mead.

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If I am at home, leggings and a T-shirt or jumper, but of I do it while I am in the city for University: jeans and a top or a dress.

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Prepare for what? If we are talking about posts here. I am really bad and preparing posts and getting them up before they are supposed to. It’s not the first time I am writing a review the day it has to go up.

If we are talking about how long it takes me to write posts? It depends on what we are talking about here. If it’s a review maybe an hour, but then I need to edit, create graphics, links etc. If it’s a discussion, this might take days. I might have more things to say but might not know what when I first start writing it. And then edit, make graphics etc.

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I have a love/hate relationship with the book blogging community. Most of the time I love it. I adore that we can post about what we love and people love it back or they might even disagree and that is amazing. There are some incredible people out there and I love reading what they write, their thoughts about books. I love to see different reactions to books and movies.

But I hate the cattiness, the hurtfulness. I hate that there is always fighting and name calling or talking behind each other backs. It’s like we are in high school again, and I hated high school. And to go on what Ely said – I dislike the divide between book bloggers and booktubers and the hate that it all brings – we all love the same thing, we all do the same thing, just in different mediums.

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Be yourself, don’t let anyone tell you to be someone else. Let your personality shine through your blog – like I hope mine shines through. Have fun – don’t think about numbers, followers or ARCS. Do it for yourself, pretend you are the audience.

the unexpected everything

I hope that you liked this post, it was fun answering these questions. I normally forget to do tags, so if you have tagged me in something and I haven’t done it – please tell me. Do you agree with any of my response? Do you disagree? Let’s Chat.

I tag anyone that wants to do it. You can say that I tagged you and link me up when you have posted.

03 Nov

Book Review: The Last Beginning by Lauren James

Posted by angelreads Book Reviews 1 Comment

the-last-beginning The Last Beginning by Lauren James

Pages: 352
Publish date: October 6th, 2016
Publisher: Walker Books
ISBN: 1406358061
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

Sixteen years ago, after a scandal that rocked the world, teenagers Katherine and Matthew vanished without a trace. Now Clove Sutcliffe is determined to find her long lost relatives. But where do you start looking for a couple who seem to have been reincarnated at every key moment in history? Who were Kate and Matt? Why were they born again and again? And who is the mysterious Ella, who keeps appearing at every turn in Clove’s investigation?

For Clove, there is a mystery to solve in the past and a love to find in the future.

The Last Beginning:

I received a review copy of The Last Beginning by Lauren James from Walker Books in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

There will be spoilers from The Next Together

I was intrigued when I read The Next Together and the start of the year. The world was fascinating, and I was allured by the characters, how everything came to be. I loved all the characters from The Next Together so I was excited to meet some new ones in The Last Beginning. With the ending of the first book, I was begging for me and I had no idea what to expect from this one.

The Last Beginning follows Clove Sutcliffe as she learns the life isn’t as simple as she thinks, and when it turns on its head Clove needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. She needs to learn that things you do sometimes have consequences and one little thing can change your own entire life.

Clove was a hard character to ‘get along’ with. She is demanding and a brat at times. I really wanted to like her as much as Katherine and Matthew, but that wasn’t going to happen. I did love how much Clove cared about her family. There were times when she herself though she ‘hated’ them, but the reader is able to tell how much she cares. The relationship between her and her father especially was sweet. Family dynamics are something that I always look for in YA novels and I think I found it here.

One of the main reasons that I loved about The Last Beginning was that Clove was gay. It’s quite rare that you see a gay female protagonist in a young adult book, but it was so enjoyable. I loved seeing Clove’s ups and downs relationship wise and the fact that she rarely second-guessed who she was. What worked well and didn’t take over was the small ‘coming-out’ story. It was nice to see a novel that did include coming out, but that not be what the novel is about.

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Ella was mysterious and overall enjoyable. There may be some ethical issues into how things went down, but otherwise, I liked her inclusion into the story. I enjoyed Ella more than I did Clove simply because of how childlike Clove came across at times. If Ella was a protagonist, I am not sure if I would have liked her the same.

I do wish there was more relationship wise from Ella and Clove. I wanted to see more connection. It lacked a bit, one minute they were friends and then the next, they were a couple. There was something missing.

Katherine and Matthew disappeared sixteen years ago and the world is not the same. They have been made heroes, and there are movies about them, books. And Clove is trying to figure out where she fits into all of this.

I enjoyed the plot of The Last Beginning, however, at times I felt that there was a little too much going on and it made me feel scatterbrain. Clove is an integral part of the plot, but so is everyone else. I loved how all the questions we had at the end of The Next Together, were answered. Everything seemed to fit.

The Last Beginning is set out much like the first book. It’s not just one continuous story. There are different forwards interview and extracts from books. There were times where I felt that I needed a ‘normal’ storyline, nevertheless, I loved that it’s different from other books out there.

Overall, I loved reading The Last Beginning. It’s different, intriguing and enjoyable. The protagonist isn’t enjoyable at times, but I saw things as a learning curve for her. The Last Beginning tells a story of family, love and overcoming. It takes you on a journey through time.

Rating

Have you read The Last Beginning? What did you think of it? Are you planning on reading it? Have you read The Next Together? What did you think of it? Let’s Chat!