June 2015 Wrap Up

Books I read in June (in order read):

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Rating: 5/5

On The Fence by Kasie West

Rating: 3.5/5

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Rating: 3/5

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine [my review here]

Rating: 4/5

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (re-read)

Rating: 5/5

June was the first full month of my summer break from University so it was lovely to get back into reading properly again. The first book I read this month was Far From The Madding Crowd. I went to see the film adaptation with Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts at the end of May and I fell in love with the story immediately so I went out and bought a copy of the book to read before I went to see the film again (I really do love that film!). I really enjoyed the book. I love the characters, Hardy's Wessex... I just love everything. I can definitely see this becoming one of those books that I will re-read over and over.

I also read On The Fence by Kasie West and A Little Something Different by Jenny Valentine. These were both great summer reads as they were cute, fluffy, quick reads. I don't think I'd re-read either of these but they were enjoyable stories so if you're looking for some cute, quick reads to add to your summer reading list then I'd definitely recommend these two.

I was also kindly sent Fire Colour One to review by Maximum Pop! Books. I didn't really know what to expect from this book as I've not read any of Jenny Valentine's books before but I was very pleasantly surprised by Fire Colour One. It's very different to anything I've read before which was nice to encounter!

Finally I re-read City of Bones for the #tmireadathon on twitter. It was so lovely to be in the Shadowhunter world again; I forgot how much I loved these books. I'm really looking forward to carrying on the series with City of Ashes in July now.

What did you read in June? Have you read any of these books?

Currently reading: Nothing at the moment!

Currently drinking: Blueberry White Iced Tea by AriZona

Currently listening to: Dope by BTS

Review: Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Title: Fire Colour One

Author: Jenny Valentine

Series: n/a

Format: Paperback (I was kindly sent a copy by Maximum Pop! Books to review)

Rating: 4/5

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Goodreads description: A teenage girl will soon discover, there are some things which burn even brighter than fire. Iris’s father Ernest is at the end of his life. Her best friend Thurston seems like a distant memory to her. Her mother has declared war. She means to get her hands on Ernest’s priceless art collection so that she can afford to live the high life. But Ernest has other ideas. There are things he wants Iris to know. Things he can tell her and things that must wait till he’s gone. What she does after that is up to her.

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My review: Fire Colour One tells the story of Iris, a sixteen year old girl who has spent most of her life living in New York with Hannah, her selfish, money-obsessed Mother and Hannah's wannabe-actor boyfriend. Her only escapes in life are her best friend Thurston and building fires to let out her anger and frustration.

Iris has been told by her mother all her life that her father, Ernest, never wanted her so it comes as a surprise when Hannah calls up Iris's father in search of money that he requests to see Iris. When Iris finally meets Ernest the truth about her past starts to slowly unravel and Ernest's plans for the future come into play.

This was so unlike any other YA book that I have read before. Jenny Valentine's writing is beautiful and the characters were all so different and captivating; they felt so real that it was almost like reading Iris's memoir of the people in her life than a story at times. It was a really quick read, but like Iris's fires - while this book was short, it burned brightly.

My only gripe with this story was that the narrative is non-linear and it jumped back and forth between different time periods in the characters' lives. This meant that it would go from characters having met in one chapter, back to them having not yet met each other in the next which had a bit of a jarring effect on me. This was the only reason this book lost a star. Otherwise, this is definitely one of those books where the characters and story will stay with me for a long time to come.

Currently reading: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (re-read)

Currently drinking: Cranberry Green Tea by Twinings

Currently listening to: Might Just Die by History

The Top Ten Books On My Summer Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish. To learn more about this meme click here and you can view their post on this week's theme here.

Summer! Freedom from exams, coursework and stupid amounts of stress for four whole months! This summer I mainly want to stick to contemporary/young adult books as they're my favourite kind of easy-reading books which will be perfect for reading curled up in the sunshine! Also as one of my bookish resolutions this year was to finish off some of the series I've started, I've included a few books to work towards this goal.

In no particular order:
1. A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
I've just started reading this and it seems like a really cute and fluffy read - perfect for the summer!

2. The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
The film adaptation comes of The Longest Ride comes out in the UK this week so hopefully I'll get the chance to read this before I see the film. The storyline looks so adorable/heartbreaking from the film's trailer!

3. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
I know next-to-nothing about this book (I didn't even read the description before ordering it!) I've just seen it raved about everywhere so I thought I'd give it a go. Plus as it's a fairly slim book, I'm hoping I can save it to use for BookTube-A-Thon later this summer.

4. The 100 by Kass Morgan
I absolutely devoured the first two seasons of The 100 TV show so I'm hoping I'll love the books too. So many kickass female characters! Plus Bellamy Blake *swoons*.

5. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen & 6. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Another two books I don't know much about but I've seen being mentioned a lot! They both look like they'll be cute, quick reads though which I'm looking forward to breezing through.

7. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
There's currently a TMI readathon going on on Twitter in the lead-up to the new television adaptation where you read one book of the series per month, starting in June. I haven't read the last book in the series yet as I need to re-read the rest of the series beforehand, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finish this series without having to attempt to re-read all the previous books in one go!

8. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
This book sounds so cute! I'm looking forward to catching up with Mia and Adam's stories again and as this book is the second of a duology, that'll be another series checked off my list.

9. All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher
I absolutely love Carrie Fletcher for her lovely, positive personality so I had to buy her book when I saw it in Waterstones! I hope this will make a lovely, feel-good summer read!

10. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
I read Insurgent about two years ago but I still haven't read Allegiant yet. However I saw Insurgent in cinemas recently so I have no excuse not to get this one finished off this summer!

What are you planning on reading this summer? Have you read any of the books I plan to read?

Currently reading: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Currently drinking: Chai Tea by Twinings

Currently listening to: Love Me Right by EXO

May 2015 Book Haul

The 100 by Kass Morgan
Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure & The Kill Order by James Dashner

Hey! Sorry for being absent recently (my last blog post being in March...) but my Spring term at uni ended up being pretty full-on. But I've broken up for the Summer now so I feel like I can breath again! I visited my boyfriend at his parent's house soon after my exams and straight away I went back to one of my favourite pastimes - book shopping! I found Bloodlines and The 100 in charity bookshops for around £1 each! I started Vampire Academy, one of Richelle Mead's other series a while ago and while I haven't got round to finishing it yet I really enjoyed it and I've heard so many great this about this new series. I just need to get round to actually finishing VA now...!

I binged-watched both seasons of The 100 right before I started my exam revision and... Wow. The show is so incredible and it's jam-packed with badass heroines so the book series the show is based on has been on my TBR list ever since. I've heard the books are quite different to the show but I'm looking forward to reading some Bellamy x Clarke canon!

I also watched Far From The Madding Crowd just before I went to my boyfriend's and fell head-over-heels for the story (especially Gabriel Oak. Oh. My.) so I scoured all the charity shops we went in for a copy of the novel but lots of other people must have had the same idea as I couldn't find a copy anywhere! However Waterstones saved the day with this beautiful film tie-in edition for only £4.99 (you can see the cover here).

Lastly, we also visited The Works and when we went in they were doing an offer on The Maze Runner box sets which were reduced to just £5! I've been meaning to start this series for a while as I saw the film a while ago and loved the storyline so I'm looking forward to starting these. Hopefully I can read at least the first two before the next film comes out.

Have you read any of these books? What do you think of them?

Currently reading: Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Currently drinking: Pure Green Tea by Clipper

Currently listening to: I Wanna Know by Legend