Book Bonus 2018 + Giveaway

I am so excited to share with you an online read-a-thon called Book Bonus that aims to raise funds to support children’s literacy in Australia. It is linked to the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, which I remember doing when I was in primary school! Students who participate in Book Bonus will be able to seek sponsorship from their family, friends and giving strangers and the money raised will go towards the schools and Dymocks Children’s Charities to supply new books to participating schools and schools in need to tackle Australia’s low and declining literacy rates.

The Book Bonus goal is $50000 and Dymocks Children’s Charities will contribute 125% of the total funds. That is $62500 going towards schools in NSW if the goal is met! On top of that, Dymocks Children’s Charities will award an additional 25% of the total funds raised to schools in need. Book Bonus has already started and will run until the end of the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge (31st August 2018). Currently, the total stands at $2672 from 102 donations. But we can do better!

What can you do to help? If you have kids attending primary schools in NSW, why not get them to participate too? If your child’s school isn’t listed as a participating school, why not get the school involved? Developing literacy skills is important and we need to tackle these declining rates now. Get the whole school involved! If you don’t live within NSW or don’t have kids, there’s still a way that you can contribute! Why not make a donation that will go towards a worthy cause? Any donation, small or large, will help.

I have made a donation to my primary school, Eastwood Public School, which currently has no students participating *sad face*. But if you get stuck, feel free to donate there so that you can encourage more students to participate. There are also lots of cute faces on the homepage that you can support. Just choose one to show your encouragement!

To encourage donations, I will be giving away $50 worth of books to one winner.

THE RULES

• The only thing you need to enter is to make a donation of at least $5 to Book Bonus.
• There will only be ONE winner who will win $50 worth of books from Dymocks (or another online retailer if there are specific editions you are looking for).
• The winner must be able to supply a copy of their donation receipt for verification.
• This giveaway will be open until 11:59pm AEST on Friday 20th April.
• The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of the closing date and if I don’t receive a reply within 48 hours, I will choose a new winner.
• The giveaway is open to Australian residents only.

Click here to go to the Rafflecopter giveaway page!

Good luck and support children’s literacy!

Book Bonus || Dymocks Children’s Charities || DCC Twitter || DCC Instagram || DCC Facebook

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Blog Tour: Differently Normal by Tammy Robinson

Welcome to my stop on the Differently Normal blog tour. Going into the book, I had no expectations given that this was my first experience with Tammy Robinson’s writing, but I was definitely blown away by the writing and the storytelling.

Publisher: Hachette New Zealand
Release Date: January 30, 2018
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 344
Goodreads || Angus & Robertson || Booktopia

For Maddy, life is all about routine. It has to be, to keep her sister with autism happy and healthy. With just Maddy and her mother as Bee’s full-time carers, there’s no time in Maddy’s life for complications like friends, let alone a boyfriend. So when Bee joins a new Riding for the Disabled stable and they meet Albert, the last thing on Maddy’s mind is falling in love.

Some things, she’s about to learn, are outside of our control. Albert has resigned himself to always being a disappointment to his strict father. When he meets Maddy, he gets a glimpse of what being part of a family can be like, and of the tremendous sacrifices that people will make for the ones that they love.

DIFFERENTLY NORMAL is a heart-wrenching tale of love and loss, because sometimes it takes letting someone else in to discover who you really are . . .

MY THOUGHTS

Thank you to Hachette for providing a review copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this novel. It was so real and honest, and I couldn’t help but connect with it emotionally. Differently Normal is written from the perspectives of our main characters Maddy and Albert. Maddy’s sister, Bee, has autism and Maddy finds herself spending her days working at a photo desk and taking care of Bee when her single mother is at work. Albert works at a stable by day and spends his nights avoiding his verbally abusive father. His immediate plan is to save up and move far away from his dad and equally abusive older brother. But when Maddy and Albert meet at the stable where Bee is taking riding lessons, the two must reevaluate their plans if they want to stay together.

More than anything, I loved the characters in this novel. I understood them so completely even though I’ve never had the same experiences as them. Tammy Robinson gave such great insight into their personalities, desires and fears that it was impossible not to fall in love with them. It was also impossible not to admire them for the sacrifices that they’ve made and what they’ve gone through. The side characters also had great depth and played their own parts in the story. I especially loved Albert’s mother, Wendy, who was so tired of her husband bullying them that she gradually started moving into the laundry. I also really liked Maddy’s work colleague, Kyle, who was flamboyant and funny. All in all, the characterisation was A+!

I loved the representation of autism in this novel and liked how prominent it was in the story. The other themes of family, friendship and dreams of the future were also really nicely executed and explored. I also really enjoyed the plot and liked that the novel was written from alternating dual perspectives. I enjoyed being able to read from both Maddy and Albert’s perspectives and further understand their thoughts and feelings. I liked the progression of time in the story and liked how the story skipped forward subtly without all the boring in-betweens. More importantly, the plot was interesting and I was engrossed in what would happen next. The climax of the book was intense and I loved the way the novel ended.

Overall, I highly enjoyed Differently Normal and loved the characterisation and plot of the novel. It’s probably one of the more enjoyable books that I’ve read in recent months.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tammy Robinson is writer from New Zealand. She has four books available for purchase on amazon and is currently at work on her fifth.

After years spent working her way round the world on cruise ships and at Club Med resorts (and yes, the rumours are all true) Tammy now lives in the beautiful Bay of Plenty with her husband, their two beautiful girls, a scatty black Labrador and a grumpy black cat who occasionally requires a two week course of anti-anxiety medication to stop him from pulling his own fur out. Seriously.

When not being drooled/vomited/pooped on, Tammy manages to squeeze in some writing, assisted by copious amounts of coffee and chocolate. (Ok and the odd wine)

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Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: September 5, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 384
Goodreads || Book Depository

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure and to live a lifetime in a single day.

In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.”

MY THOUGHTS

I received a review copy of this novel from HarperCollins Canada. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love contemporary and I love Adam Silvera but I did not love They Both Die at the End. I found it to be quite underwhelming in its world building and plot and didn’t really connect with it at all. Adam Silvera’s two previous novels both made me cry but I didn’t really feel a single thing as I was reading this book (besides a moment when one of the characters visited his dad who is in hospital… but only because my dad recently passed).

The plot and premise of the novel itself is quite intriguing. Main characters, Mateo and Rufus, both find out from Death-Cast that they are going to die that day. But they don’t know when and they don’t know how. Both of them sign up to an app called Last Friend and become each other’s Last Friend, meaning that they get to spend the day together, doing things that they would never do otherwise. Now this sounds like a wonderful story with lots of adventure and character development (at least until they die), but I was quite disappointed with the plot. The book lacked excitement and adventure and I felt like I was literally just watching two kids walking around New York City, not doing much at all. The premise of the book reminded me of Denton Little’s Deathdate, which I highly enjoyed, and was kind of disappointed that They Both Die at the End didn’t really live up to my hype. And don’t even get me started on the ending…

I also had a really big problem with the lack of world building and explanation in this book (and now that I think about it… Adam Silvera’s other books too). There was no explanation of how Death-Cast works or how it even came about. While I can forgive this in a near-future contemporary, I can’t really forgive it in a book that is set in 2017. I wanted much more background on the whole system and there was really none given at all. Because I’d already read about a very similar system in Denton Little’s Deathdate, this novel and this world really needed a lot more to capture my attention.

I did like Mateo and Rufus as characters and I enjoyed how different they were. Mateo was very much the quiet and passive one of the two and Rufus was kind of the bad boy. I liked what they did for each other and how their characters grew throughout the course of the day that they spent together. But I didn’t really find their friendship to be that special and I also didn’t really feel any spark between them. Which brings me to the romance in the book. I found the romance to be quite unnecessary and I felt that it detracted from the story. It felt forced and really reinforced my current dislike for books that throw in a romance even though there are stronger and more important themes to be explored in the book.

Despite all my criticisms, I did like the writing in the novel. Adam Silvera’s prose is beautiful as always and I really liked the extra POVs of minor side characters that he threw in. It added to the narrative of the book and I found that it made the novel much more interesting to read. They Both Die at the End is definitely not one of my favourite contemporaries of this year but it did tick all the boxes when it came to writing and tone.

Review: Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
Release Date: September 7, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 400
Goodreads || Book Depository || Booktopia

They think I hurt someone.
But I didn’t. You hear?
Cos people are gonna be telling you
all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.

Joe hasn’t seen his brother for ten years, and it’s for the most brutal of reasons. Ed is on death row.

But now Ed’s execution date has been set, and Joe is determined to spend those last weeks with him, no matter what other people think …

From one-time winner and two-time Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this poignant, stirring, huge-hearted novel asks big questions. What value do you place on life? What can you forgive? And just how do you say goodbye?

MY THOUGHTS

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for providing a review copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s no secret that I love Sarah Crossan’s books and Moonrise was definitely no exception. It might actually be my favourite of all of Sarah Crossan’s books. It involved such a hard-hitting topic and the way that Sarah Crossan’s writing made me feel has definitely skyrocketed the book into one of my top five favourite books of the year so far. In fact, it affected me so much that I couldn’t bring myself to write a review until now.

This novel is about 18-year-old Joe whose family has been torn apart since his older brother, Ed, was arrested 10 years ago. Joe hasn’t seen Ed since he was arrested but now finds himself moving alone to Texas after Ed’s execution date was set. While staying in a filthy apartment and trying to work to keep himself alive, Joe finds himself visiting and spending time with Ed, all the while wondering whether Ed is innocent or guilty… and whether he can live knowing the answer. It’s a story about family, loss, and life and death, and Sarah Crossan definitely does all of these themes justice with her story. I thought the topic was handled brilliantly and the importance of having conversations about issues like these really came through. I loved how raw and emotional the novel was and how much it made me feel. I definitely had a big ugly cry fest at the end of it but the story was just that good.

I loved all of the characters in the book and how they were all flawed in some way. There is Joe who may be too forgiving, according to some of the other characters in the book, but is also willing to do whatever it takes to have a roof over his head and food in his belly. There’s Ed, who Joe remembers to be a warm and loving brother, but may have committed a crime worthy of the life penalty. There’s Aunt Karen who may have given up on Ed too soon. All of these characters added something to the story, no matter how badly you wanted to hate them or love them. And there’s really nothing I love more than when every character is integral to the story.

‘Be happy,’ Ed says.
‘It’s your duty to me, man.’

As always, the verse poetry as beautiful and added to the emotion of the novel. There were so many poems that I absolutely loved and wanted to share with everyone who would listen to me. Every page that you flip to contains a wonderfully quotable poem. Sarah Crossan’s writing is just so impactful and beautiful to read and I cannot wait for her next release.

GIVEAWAY: It’s My Birthday, 2017 Edition

Has it really been 2 months since I last posted here?! Life has just gotten really hectic for me this year and I’ve also been in a massive reading slump, which has contributed to this blogging slump. I went through a rough few months, with my dad passing away in July. I didn’t really want to tell anyone because I didn’t (and still don’t) want messages from everyone sending their regards. It was enough for me to know that people were thinking of me without having to receive countless messages reminding me of it all the time, if that makes sense.

I’m now on a research lab visit at the University of Toronto until November and that has added a lot of extra stress, and I’ve been homesick and missing my family and friends. But it’s my birthday today and although I’m not really a fan of celebrating my birthday, I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway!

I’m 25 this year so I’m going to be giving away $25 AUD to spend on Book Depository to 3 winners! Check out the rules below and click on the Rafflecopter link to enter!

GIVEAWAY RULES

• This giveaway will run for 2 weeks and end at 11:59pm AEDT on October 6, 2017.
• This giveaway will be open to all countries that Book Depository ships to. If you’re not sure, you can look it up here.
• There will be THREE winners who will be able to choose up to $25 AUD worth of books from the available titles on the Book Depository. Remember to change the currency to Australian Dollar on the website when you’re browsing!
• The winners will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter.
• I will contact the winner on October 7th and if I don’t receive a response within 48 hours, I will choose another winner. I will be checking the winner’s entries so please don’t cheat!
• I will be ordering the books for the winner and will require an address, so please make sure that you have parental permission if you are under 18 years of age.
• Book Depository will be sending out the order so I take no responsibility for damaged or lost parcels. I will send you a shipping confirmation and keep you updated on the process though.

ENTER NOW

Click here to enter the giveaway through Rafflecopter!

Blog Tour: If Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books
Release date: June 29, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 352
Goodreads || Book Depository || Booktopia

Linny has been living life in black and white since her sister Grace ran away, and she’s scared that Grace might never come back. When Linny witnesses the return to Miami of a cult movie star long presumed dead, she is certain it’s a sign. Surely Álvaro Herrera, of all people, can tell her why people come back – and how to bring her sister home?

Sebastian has come to Miami seeking his father, a man whose name he’s only just learned. An aspiring astrophysicist, he can tell Linny how many galaxies there are, how much plutonium weighs and how likely she is to be struck by a meteorite. But none of the theories he knows are enough to answer his own questions about why his father abandoned him, and why it left him in pieces.

As Sebastian and Linny converge around the mystery of Álvaro’s disappearance – and return – their planets start to collide. Linny’s life is about to become technicolor, but finding the answers to her questions might mean losing everything that matters.

MY THOUGHTS

Welcome to my stop on the If Birds Fly Back blog tour!

If Birds Fly Back is a summer contemporary about missing people and those who are left behind. The book follows Linny and Sebastian and is told from dual perspectives. Linny’s sister, Grace, ran away from their stifling home environment and Linny has been trying to understand what happened ever since. When she shows up to her volunteering job at a nursing home and finds Alvaro Herrera, who was presumed dead three years ago, she decides that this is her chance to figure out why people disappear in the hopes of bringing her sister back. Sebastian is in Miami in search for his long lost father, whose identity he has only just learned. His and Linny’s paths cross and both mysteries start to unravel.

I enjoyed the concept of this novel a lot and thought that it had a wonderful message. However, I didn’t find the plot to be very engaging and I had a little bit of trouble staying invested in the story. It was a bit of a slow-paced novel that didn’t have a lot of plot so I found the middle third of the novel to be a bit hard to get through and slightly forgettable. The themes weren’t as fully developed as I would have liked and the whole book felt a little bit too light despite the heavy topics that it was tackling. However, I enjoyed the reveal towards the end and the way the story came together at the end. I also really enjoyed some of the alternate formatting in the book, such as the film transcripts, and appreciated what they added to the story.

My favourite part of the book was the characterisation. I loved both Linny and Sebastian’s characters and liked how well-developed they were. Linny is a film geek and it was great to see that she was so passionate about it. Sebastian is an aspiring astrophysicist and I also really enjoyed seeing him display his knowledge of scientific theories. It was these aspects that kept the book enjoyable for me. I also liked the side characters for the most part but they had very minor roles in the novel and were a little bit forgettable. Having said that, Linny and Sebastian more than made up for this and I would happily read another book about these two characters.

Despite how much I loved Linny and Sebastian as individuals, I wasn’t as big of a fan of the romance. The novel really isn’t about the romance so I found it to be a little bit unnecessary, especially in the middle of the novel where nothing was really happening except the romance. However, I thought it was really cute and they were wonderful together. I just wish that more focus had been placed on the plot and the themes rather than the romance.

Overall, I enjoyed If Birds Fly Back and thought that it was a unique story that I haven’t really encountered before. The  characters were beautifully written and I enjoyed the relationships in the novel.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Carlie Sorosiak lives in London via North Carolina. For the last five years, she’s split her time between the UK and the US, hoping to gain an accent like Madonna’s. Her pastimes include petting cats and drinking copious amounts of tea.

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Review: Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

Publisher: Bonnier
Release date: April 26, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 400
Goodreads || Book Depository

How do you survive a mage’s duel without magic? Kellen’s about to risk everything: His family, his home, even his own life…

When you’re a Jan’Tep initiate approaching your sixteenth birthday, you’d better be ready to prove your worth as a mage. Either that or have a miracle on the way. And Kellen isn’t counting on either. He knows he’ll need a few tricks up his sleeve to avoid disgracing his family and becoming a Sha’Tep servant. So when a sassy, straight-talking traveller arrives in town, Kellen is all ears. Ferius Parfax is jaded but worldly, an exile who lives by her wits and the three decks of cards she carries. She can’t teach him to spark his bands and access the seven magics, but with the hand that Kellen’s been dealt, he knows he needs all the help he can get… A rich, compelling and laugh-out-loud new series for all teen, YA, adult and fantasy readers. Perfect for fans of The Dark Tower, Firefly, Hunger Games and Guardians of the Galaxy.

MY THOUGHTS

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for providing a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Trigger warning: animal cruelty

Spellslinger is the first book in a new YA series by Sebastien de Castell. This novel follows 15 year old, Kellen, who is a boy without magic, living in a world full of magic. Even though Kellen is the son of a powerful Lord Magus, he shows no sign of having any magical abilities and is at risk of becoming a Sha’Tep and serving the powerful and magical Jan’Teps for the rest of his life. When a strange lady, Ferius, arrives in town, Kellen begins to learn that there are alternative ways to be the hero that he’s always wanted to be.

That was kind of a vague synopsis of the novel but I’m having a really hard time recalling what actually happened or what the book was about. The plot was a little bit messy and confusing and seemed to jump around quite a bit. I just wanted a little bit more flow from it. I couldn’t really engage with the story and it took me a really long time to finish what was actually a really fast-paced book. I did like the magic system for the most part but I found bits of it to be confusing and underdeveloped. There were so many different aspects and I couldn’t really grasp the rules of the magic system because it seemed to be kind of limitless. I appreciate that the author wanted to put in a lot of plot and action but for a fantasy series… I wish he’d spent a little bit more time setting up the world and magic system at the start. The world building was kind of lacking and I didn’t really get a good sense of where they were or what the culture of the world was… besides the part where all the female characters were subservient and submissive.

Having said that, I did like Kellen’s character a lot and I think this redeemed the book for me. He was sassy and funny, and I found him to be strangely relatable. I most appreciated that he wasn’t the Chosen One (in fact, he’s kind of the opposite) and it was really easy to connect with him because he was kind of completely ordinary. I really enjoyed his character development throughout the book and the way that he found himself and who he wanted to be by the end of the novel. But I can’t say that I liked the rest of the characters as much. Ferius was an okay character for me. She was extremely enigmatic and I didn’t know what her motivations were by the end of the novel. I loved that she was there for Kellen and supported him but I don’t really know how I feel about her. I also liked Reichis, Kellen’s squirrel cat friend (or business partner, as he calls himself), and I can’t wait to see more of him in the upcoming books. I do have to mention though that there is some animal cruelty in this book and there was one particular scene that had me shuddering in horror.

The rest of the characters, I found extremely unmemorable and bland. And it also didn’t really help that it was difficult to remember their names. Some characters were from the same family and had really similar names that were easily confusable. And on top of that, a lot of the characters actually changed their names during the book, once they’d reached mage status. I also wasn’t a huge fan of any of the other characters and thought that they were either pure evil or just terrible, terrible friends. I didn’t care about any of them and wasn’t really that invested in their stories or what was happening to them.

All in all, I don’t think Spellslinger was for me. I liked the action in the novel and Kellen’s character a lot but I couldn’t latch on to anything else. I wasn’t able to get into the world or the magic system so the book ended up being a little bit of a drag for me.

Review: My Name is Victoria by Lucy Worsley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release date: June 1, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Pages: 372
Goodreads || Book Depository || Booktopia

‘You are my sister now,’ Victoria said, quietly and solemnly. ‘Never forget it. I love you like a sister, and you are my only friend in all the world.’

Miss V. Conroy is good at keeping secrets. She likes to sit as quiet as a mouse, neat and discreet. But when her father sends her to Kensington Palace to become the companion to Princess Victoria, Miss V soon finds that she can no longer remain in the shadows.

Miss V’s father has devised a strict set of rules for the young princess, which he calls the Kensington System. It governs her behaviour and keeps her locked away from the world. He says it is for the princess’s safety, but Victoria herself is convinced that it is to keep her lonely, and unhappy.

Torn between loyalty to her father and her growing friendship with the wilful and passionate Victoria, Miss V has a decision to make: to continue in silence, or to speak out.

By turns thrilling, dramatic and touching, this is the story of Queen Victoria’s childhood as you’ve never heard it before.

MY THOUGHTS

Thanks to Bloomsbury Australia for providing a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My Name is Victoria is a historical retelling of Queen Victoria’s youth, with a twist. While the novel contains historically correct information, the plot of the book is fictional and set in a “parallel world”, as described by the author herself. I didn’t really have any expectations going into the book, because even though I love historical fiction, I have a very general knowledge of Queen Victoria’s life. And because of my lack of expectations and prior knowledge, I ended up really enjoying the novel because of how accessible and interesting it was.

The story follows a young girl named Miss V, who is given the task of being Princess Victoria’s playmate. Miss V’s father is the comptroller of the Duchess of Kent, who is Victoria’s mother, and he plays a big role in the management of their estate and finances, as well as a crucial role in ‘the Kensington System’. Miss V is extremely proud of her father’s position, until she gradually becomes closer with Victoria and others living at Kensington Palace and discovers that not everything is as it seems. I liked the writing style of the novel. It had a simplistic writing style that was easy to read and suited the story perfectly. What I loved most about the story was that it wasn’t as slow-paced as most historical fiction novels out there. I sped through the book in a few hours and it never felt like a drag. It was definitely still on the slow side because there isn’t a lot that happens and the story spans a period of 7-8 years. But the passage of time was done quite seamlessly and besides the beginning when we were getting to know the characters and their situation, there wasn’t any section in the book that felt long-winded and tiresome. My only real criticism of the plot and story was that the last 50 or so pages felt a little bit rushed. It seemed like everything was happening all at once and the resolution of the book came a bit too easily. I would’ve liked if it had been developed a little bit more.

There wasn’t really a character that I latched on to and absolutely loved, though I did find Miss V to be very relatable and likeable. I admired how much she did for Victoria and how much she was willing to give up for her friend. The friendship that developed between Victoria and Miss V was really great to see. It was nice to see that Miss V never really resented Victoria for any of the things that she had to endure, such as dressing extremely plainly in public so as to not upstage Victoria and giving up her future and any romantic opportunities. I also really liked Prince Albert once he made an appearance in the book. He was really sweet, kind and intelligent, and just my idea of a great book boyfriend.

Overall, I really enjoyed My Name is Victoria and learnt a lot about Queen Victoria’s youth. It made me want to go out and learn more about her life, and it’s a historical fiction novel that I’d recommend to anyone who is interested in learning more about her.

My Name is Victoria was published by Bloomsbury Australia on 1st June 2017. It is available at all Australian retailers for $14.99.

Two Year Blogoversary Q&A and Giveaways!

Can you believe it’s been two years since I first started blogging? I’ve met so many great friends (happy 2 year blogoversary to my blogging twin, Aentee @ Read at Midnight) and had so many awesome opportunities along the way. Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on my posts, even though my posting schedule has been sporadic at best and I’ve been a complete failure at replying to comments.

But to thank you all, I have some exciting giveaways and I also posted on Twitter a few weeks ago asking for Q&A questions, which I’ll answer today.

Q&A

I don’t know what this girl is talking about because she reads even faster than I do and churns out reviews like a machine! And this is on top of her hectic schedule as a senior in high school and all of the extracurriculars she does. I’ve actually read much fewer books this year than usual because of my reading slump and busy work schedule. But I’m on track to meet my goal of 100 books this year.

I’ve actually written a blog post before on why I read contemporary and why it’s my favourite genre. You can check out the post here. But to summarise, I love that contemporary is usually relatable and realistic and I love that I can usually connect with the characters and their stories more than I can when it comes to fantasy.

As much as I would love to say that my one true pairing is me and Draco Malfoy, my #1 OTP is actually Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs. Theirs is just the ultimate bromance and their parabatai bond can never be severed. If you’ve read The Infernal Devices, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things since I’ve started blogging but my favourite is being able to meet my fellow bloggers in person. I’ve been lucky enough to have met both of my Happy Indulgence co-bloggers, Jeann and Aila last year. I also got to see Aentee a couple of times last year and once this year. I met Jesse @ Books at Dawn and Joey @ Thoughts and Afterthoughts when I was in Toronto last year (and will be hanging out with them for 3 months when I move temporarily to Toronto next month). And later this month, I’ll be seeing CW @ Read Think Ponder when she visits Sydney for a few days. There’s nothing better than getting to hang out with like-minded people and going book shopping together.

This question is literally torture. (For those of you who don’t know, Werner is the lead male character from my favourite novel, All the Light We Cannot See). As much as I love Draco Malfoy, I probably wouldn’t marry him because I’ll be marrying Will Herondale, my ultimate book boyfriend ❤ . Will loves to read and is extremely loyal and loving so it’s gotta be him. Argh I dunno. This is too hard. Okay I’ll kiss Draco and cliff Werner. SORRY, I DIDN’T MEAN TO.

Let’s never speak of this again. Haha, in case you don’t know what this is about… when I stayed with Jeann for a weekend last year, she talked me into doing two booktube videos with her. I was so unnatural and I literally was a bobblehead the entire time.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever done anything that I would consider to be super crazy. But I’ve gone to meet up with bloggers in different cities on my own. The first time I met Aentee, she got mad at me that I didn’t tell anyone where I was going in case she was a serial killer HAHA.

I’m going to be working in Toronto for three months so it’s the first place that comes to mind. But if I could choose any other place right now, I’d probably say Sweden… or just Scandinavia in general. One of my friends is currently holidaying in Europe and her pictures from Sweden look AMAZING.

Haha not at this moment. It’d have to be beyond spectacular to knock All the Light We Cannot See from its spot as my favourite book of all time.

I’ve had a really great blogging journey so far and I don’t think there’s anything that I regret. There are definitely things that I wish I could do better, like posting more regularly and commenting back promptly, but those are just my shortcomings and not really regrets.

Well this is the million dollar question. I’m not sure yet. There is a lot that I can do so I’m trying to keep my options open right now. It would be really cool to be able to work abroad but I’m also really happy to just stay here in Sydney and keep doing the things I love.

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GIVEAWAYS

Just like last year, I’m running three giveaways to celebrate my 2 year blogoversary. Two of the giveaways are international and one is for Australian residents only.

Giveaway Rules

• Giveaways 1 and 2 will end at 11:59pm AEST on 3rd July 2017. Giveaway 3 will end at 11:59pm AEST on 1st July 2017. This is because I will be shipping the prize for Giveaway 3 myself and I need to do that before I fly out to Toronto.
• Giveaways 1 and 2 are open internationally but Giveaway 3 is open to Australian residents only. I will 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 for Giveaway 3 on July 2nd and Giveaways 1 and 2 on July 4th 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 order for Giveaway 1. For Giveaway 2, I will choose an online retailer depending on the postal address of the winner (e.g. Barnes & Noble if you live in the US, Book Depository if you live in the UK). I take no responsibility for lost or damaged parcels as they will be sent by the retailer. I will send you a shipping confirmation and keep you updated on the process though.

Giveaway 1: $35 AUD for Book Depository (INTL)

Click the image above oR this link to go to the Rafflecopter giveaway page.

Giveaway 2: Your Choice of One of My Favourite 2017 Reads in Hardcover (INTL)

Click the image above or this link to go to the Rafflecopter giveaway page.

For this giveaway, you need to choose one of the five books shown above:

• The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
• The End of Our Story by Meg Haston
• Geekerella by Ashley Poston
• When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Giveaway 3: Paperback set of Passenger and Wayfarer (Aus Only)

Click the image above or this link to go to the Rafflecopter giveaway page.

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Thanks for visiting as always and good luck!

Review: The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release date: May 16, 2017
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Pages: 384
Goodreads || Book Depository

There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: the boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: the brooding, dark-souled guy who is dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose the Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be—whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

MY THOUGHTS

I love supporting Aussie authors and I was so excited to check out The Love Interest because it had an intriguing synopsis and a really stunning cover. But I was left feeling really disappointed because I don’t think the book lived up to its full potential.

The book is told from the perspective of Caden, who is a Love Interest. He grew up in this secret organisation where he was groomed to become a Love Interest to someone important or powerful enough to have an impact on the world. Love Interests are spies who are expected to report back to the organisation with secrets about their partners. However, in order to be in the lives of their partners, they need to first have a fight to the death with another Love Interest who is also vying for the attention and love of that partner. When the partner makes their choice, the Love Interest who has lost is killed. Caden and Dylan are Love Interests fighting for the love of Juliet, who is a genius scientist and inventor. But a friendship between them forms when they realise that nobody else in the world understands them better than each other.

I actually really liked the first 70 or so pages of the novel. I was captivated by the concept and the world of the Love Interest organisation and I found it to be addictive in a reality TV show/The Bachelor kind of way. But as I progressed through the book, I became a little bit bored with the lack of plot and the lack of development in the story. There wasn’t very much that happened and it just came across as a boy trying to get a girl to fall in love with him using very dramatic and unrealistic methods. I couldn’t connect with the story because of how unrealistic and cheesy it was. I struggled a lot of how little of a learning curve Caden needed to fit into the real world when he’s never actually been in the real world. He seemed to know exactly where to go at school and he seemed to have zero problems starting a job at Starbucks. I know Caden fitting into society wasn’t the focus of the book, but I was just extremely disconnected with everything that happened because there was so little realism.

My biggest problem was with the characterisation. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters in the book, though I did really like Dylan. They just weren’t developed very much and they all kind of just came off as the same person to me. I felt no emotional connection to the characters and this was probably due to the fact that the novel didn’t really explore any of the characters’ emotions. We got to briefly see Caden’s doubts about what he was doing and the guilt he felt at being responsible for Dylan’s death if he won. But none of this was explored in very much detail, which again made me feel like there was a wall between myself and the novel and its characters. The character that I felt the most frustrated with was probably Juliet. She was described as a genius who had been inventing things from a young age. But that never really came across to me throughout the book. She came off as a regular girl, sometimes whiny, and there didn’t seem to be anything special about her. The only time her inventions and her ability came into play was in a very deus ex machina kind of way towards the end of the book, and by that time, it was too late for me to change my opinion of her.

Overall, there wasn’t very much that I could latch onto. I did like the first 70 pages and maybe the last 30 or so pages but aside from that, I was kind of bored and disappointed with the novel.