It’s my one year blogoversary! Q&A + Giveaways!

I started this blog one year ago today. During this one year, I’ve posted 227 times and I’ve met so many bookish friends around the globe. Thank you for always visiting and commenting on my reviews and other posts, even though lately it’s been taking me a long time to get back to you all. Here’s to another fantastic year!

In celebration of this wonderful day (since I never thought I’d get to this point), I have a few giveaways and a short Q&A. I posted on Twitter and asked you guys to send through questions for me and here they are:

Q&A

My favourite moment of blogging in the past year is being chosen to be one of Jeann’s cobloggers at Happy Indulgence. I’ve made so many new friends because of coblogging and Jeann and Aila are definitely two of my blogging besties. I love them so much! The hardest part about blogging for me at the moment is replying to comments promptly. I feel really bad about not replying to comments (sometimes for weeks) and it can get me a little bit slumpy with blogging as well. Ooooh I have no idea which post is my favourite. Maybe this one? 😀

Before I started blogging, I was already reviewing books on Goodreads regularly. I started a blog so that I could reach a bigger audience since I love to share my opinions, and make friends with others in the community, which is something that’s a little bit hard to do just on Goodreads.

I don’t know, Joey. Why am I so ceebs?

(For those of you who don’t know, ceebs is short for cannot be bothered. It’s something that I say all the time and Joey makes fun of me for it.)

This is something else that Joey makes fun of me for. I really, really, really hate the cold (I actually also really hate hot weather) and I just have super low tolerance for snow and wind and… just cold weather. But I’m from Sydney, where it doesn’t snow or even get that cold so that’s my excuse. When I visit Joey in Canada later this year, I’ll be complaining the whole time.

I LOVE coblogging with Jeann and Aila over at Happy Indulgence. We just get along with each other so well and we have lots of daily chats. Jeann isn’t afraid to tell us what she wants and I feel so comfortable asking her questions. It’s been a really great time! We actually posted a discussion about the pros and cons of coblogging a few weeks ago.

Hahaha I don’t really have any secrets. My full-time job is being a PhD student and at this point in my candidature, I don’t really have to do any work outside of work hours. So I pretty much only do work when I’m at uni and when I’m not, I just read. It’s been working pretty well for me. I don’t read when I’m at work and I don’t work when I’m at home.

This is such a hard question! Obviously, the standard answer would be Harry Potter right? I’d love to go to Hogwarts! But I also really love the world that Marissa Meyer has created with her Lunar Chronicles series. It would be so cool to live in the future and have all the crazy technology that Marissa Meyer has come up with! But I would also love to be a Shadowhunter. It would be insane and I’d have to do so much training, but totally worth it if I can live in an Institute with one of those hot males 😛 Or maybe the Grisha world? I would love to have Grisha powers and also get to hang out with Kaz and Inej from Six of Crows.

My reviewing process is actually pretty simple. I write down notes on my phone as I’m reading and I turn those notes into a longer review when I’ve finished the book. I write down my thoughts as I go, as well as beautiful quotes that I can use. My reviews pretty much write themselves as I elaborate on and connect my notes together. If I’m not procrastinating, it will usually take me about 30 minutes to write a review. But I don’t make graphics for my posts, so that cuts down on the time it takes. For a Happy Indulgence review, it usually takes me about 1 hour because of all the additional information I need to add in.

Omg this is question is so hard to answer. I’ve read 84 books so far this year and a lot of them I’ve rated very highly. A few that stand out in my mind are I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios, The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore, A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty and Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali.

Hehehe I’m pretty sure most of you will already know the answer to this one. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is my favourite book of all time. My second favourite book of all time is another adult book – A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I’m always very hesitant to recommend it though because it’s very graphic and upsetting and isn’t for everyone. I also really love The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion if you’re looking for something light-hearted and funny. I also love The Lake House by Kate Morton.

*gives Aila powers* She doesn’t need them though. She’s much better at this blogging thing than I am.

This girl needs to stop flattering me. She’s also much more awesome than I am. You need to check out her reviews and discussion posts because they’re so deep and thoughtful.

This question is cruel. Werner is the male protagonist from All the Light We Cannot See and I love him soooooo much! But Draco Malfoy was probably my first fictional crush. There’s just something about his obnoxious gelled-back hair that was super endearing. So I think I’ve gotta choose Draco. But hehehehe, my ultimate book boyfriend is actually Will Herondale XD

I slay them both with my love every single day. You’re not satisfied with my response, are you?

I literally have no social life. I’d much prefer to stay home and read every single night. I don’t think I read particularly quickly but I just spend a lot of time doing it.

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GIVEAWAYS

Eeeep I’m so excited about these giveaways. I much prefer giving people gifts than receiving them and I’m so excited to be giving THREE winners awesome prizes!

GIVEAWAY RULES:

The rules are the same for all three giveaways.

• All giveaways will end at the end of the month on June 30 at 11:59PM AEST.
• Each person is eligible for two out of the three giveaways depending on where you live. Make sure you check which giveaways are open to your country because I will have to disqualify you if you enter a giveaway that isn’t open to you.
• There will be ONE winner for each giveaway and the winners will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter.
• I will contact the winners on July 1 and if I don’t receive a reply within 48 hours, I will choose another winner. I will be checking all entries so please don’t cheat!
• I will require a postage address so please make sure that you have parental permission to give me your address if you’re under 18.
• Book Depository will be sending out the orders for the first and third giveaways so I take no responsibility for lost or damaged parcels. I will send you a shipping confirmation and keep you updated on the process though. I will be personally sending out the prize for the second (Aus YA) giveaway and will provide the winner with tracking information.

Now for the giveaways!!!

GIVEAWAY 1: YOUR CHOICE OF ONE OF MY RECENT FAVOURITE CONTEMPORARIES & ONE PAPERBACK OF YOUR CHOICE (INTERNATIONAL)

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE OR THIS LINK TO GO TO THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY PAGE

For this giveaway, the winner gets to choose one of the three books shown above, as well as one paperback of your choice from Book Depository.

• Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley (Book Depository)
• I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (Book Depository)
• The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson (Book Depository)

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GIVEAWAY 2: YOUR CHOICE OF ONE OF MY FAVOURITE AUS YA NOVELS & ONE MORE AUS YA OF YOUR CHOICE (OPEN TO NON-AUSSIES ONLY)

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE OR THIS LINK TO GO TO THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY PAGE

This giveaway is open only to those who don’t live in Australia so that we can give those who don’t have access to these books a chance to read them too! For this giveaway, the winner gets to choose one of the five books shown above (I left my copy of Frankie on my desk at work…) and one additional Aussie YA book of your choice.

• The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard
• The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis
• The Flywheel by Erin Gough
• The Yearbook Committee by Sarah Ayoub
• Frankie by Shivaun Plozza

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GIVEAWAY 3: A PREORDER OF ONE UPCOMING RELEASE IN US HARDCOVER EDITION (AUS ONLY)

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE OR THIS LINK TO GO TO THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY PAGE

This giveaway is only open to those in Australia, to give them a chance to win a beautiful hardcover edition of a new release. The winner can choose a preorder for any upcoming release in hardcover. The ones pictured above are examples of upcoming releases you can choose from but you can pick any book you want! Of course, special editions like the illustrated edition of Chamber of Secrets are not included.

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That’s it from me! Thank you for your support during my first year of blogging and good luck!