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!

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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!

AUS GIVEAWAY: We Come Apart, One, & The Bombs That Brought Us Together

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan was released in Australia a few days ago and I have a full review of the book here. It’s a book about immigration, racism and bullying and I absolutely fell in love with it.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Australia, I am giving away a copy of We Come Apart, along with One by Sarah Crossan and The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan to one lucky Australia-based winner. One is the winner of the 2016 Carnegie Medal and is a story written in verse about conjoined twins. It was a highly emotional book and I have a full review of it here. The Bombs That Brought Us Together is the winner of the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award and is a sci-fi dystopian novel about war and friendship.

GIVEAWAY RULES

• This giveaway is only open to Australian residents.
• The giveaway will until Sunday 19th March at 11:59pm AEDT.
• There will be ONE winner who will win all three books listed above. The winner will be randomly drawn and contacted through email. If I don’t receive a reply within 48 hours, I will randomly draw a new winner.
• You will be required to provide me with a shipping address if you win and Bloomsbury Australia will be shipping the prize to you. If you are under 18, please make sure you have parental permission to share your address.
• I will be checking all entries so no cheating please.

please click this link to enter through Rafflecopter.

 

Semi-Hiatus and Giveaway

 

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted as regularly this month as I usually do. In fact, I’ve only posted twice in the past two weeks, when usually I post on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday/Monday every single week.

I’ve just been struggling with work and real life, and I think I need to take a bit of a break. I’m an academic tutor/TA (whatever you want to call it) at university and I’m swamped with assignments to mark, which has pretty much made me lose the will to live. The last thing I want to do at the moment is read more words and write words/blog posts/comments. I know that I’ve been abysmal at commenting and replying to comments in the past few weeks and I think it would help immensely if I stopped writing blog posts for people to comment on (even though I LOVE your comments!).

I’m also going to be going on a two-week work trip in mid- to late-November and won’t be able to stay up to date with blogging and commenting while I’m preparing for the trip and when I’m overseas. So I’ve decided to take a bit of a short break. I have some posts planned (but have not written yet) and I intend to still post them but I have no idea when I’ll be able to reply to the comments. (I’ll be putting up an October haul and wrap-up soon. I’m part of the blog tour for Moon Chosen by P.C. Cast so expect a post for that on November 3. And I plan to post my review of Heartless by Marissa Meyer on Tuesday November 8).

I will still be posting every Wednesday on Happy Indulgence as usual but for now, my posts on this blog will be pretty sporadic. I’ll resume blogging when I get back from my trip, but I might reduce the number of posts to 2-3 a week because 3-4 (plus one more on Happy Indulgence) is just too much for me to handle right now.

To make up for my absence and my terrible commenting record, here is a small giveaway:

GIVEAWAY Rules

The giveaway prize is a one month subscription to CraftedVan. You will be receiving their December package. (This giveaway is not sponsored. I just really love magnetic bookmarks.)

RULES:

• This giveaway will end at 11:59pm AEDT on November 8, 2016.
• This giveaway is open to all countries that CraftedVan ships to (which should be every country).
• There will be ONE winner who will win the December subscription package from CraftedVan. You can choose either the planner option or the booknerd option.
• The winner will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter.
• I will contact the winner on November 9th and if I don’t receive a response within 48 hours, I will choose another winner.
• CraftedVan will be sending out the subscription package so I take no responsibility for damaged or lost parcels. However, I will liaise with CraftedVan if there are any issues at all.
• I will be checking all entries and disqualifying invalid ones, so please don’t cheat!

CLICK THIS LINK TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY THROUGH RAFFLECOPTER!!!

Good luck!

Birthday Giveaway: Preorder for an Upcoming Release

My birthday is coming up next week and I’m holding two giveaways to celebrate!

Part one of my giveaways is on Twitter and it’s for a hardcover copy of The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, which I recently read and loved. It also has the most stunning cover! I mean, LOOK AT IT.

Part two of my giveaways is going to be run through Rafflecopter. I’m giving away a preorder of any upcoming release of your choice, valued up to $25 AUD on Book Depository. The rules are listed down below.

Giveaway Rules

• This giveaway will end at 11:59pm AEST on September 22, 2016 (my birthday!).
• This giveaway is open to all countries that Book Depository ships to. If you’re not sure whether Book Depository ships to you, you can look it up here.
• There will be ONE winner who will be able to choose any upcoming release to preorder (up to $25 AUD in value).
• The winner will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter.
• I will contact the winner on September 23rd 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 an order confirmation though.

Enter now

CLICK THIS LINK TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY THROUGH RAFFLECOPTER

(Sorry, I was too lazy to make an image for you to click).
Here are some of my most anticipated upcoming releases if you need inspiration:

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
• Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin
• Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
• When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

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I am also running a 1K followers giveaway on Twitter. One person will win a one month CraftedVan subscription. Enter here.

Here’s a look at their August and September #readhappy subscription packages (books are not included).

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!

Birthday Giveaway: $40 for Book Depository! [CLOSED]

Edit [23.09.15]: Congratulations to the winner of my giveaway, Kelly @ Dancing Through The Pages.

Later this month, I will be turning 20-something (clue: it’s an odd number) so I wanted to do a giveaway for you guys!

I’ve been saving up reward points at Dymocks, which is basically the Australian version of Barnes and Noble, and I now have a grand total of $52 in credit points (including $10 I was given for my birthday). I’ve decided to keep the $10 for myself and give away the $40 I saved up. Because I wanted to make this an international giveaway and Dymocks only ships within Australia, I’m going to make this a Book Depository giveaway. Who doesn’t love free shipping?

I wanted to do this giveaway because I’ve made so many new friends since I started this blog. There are people I talk to almost everyday and I’ve just had so much fun fangirling and sharing recommendations with everyone. I’ve spoken to so many people who have wanted editions of books that are not available in their country, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for one person to have pretty much anything they wanted, as long as it’s available from Book Depository.

However, I also know that some Australian YA books that I’ve reviewed aren’t available overseas. If there’s an OzYA book that’s not available on Book Depository (I recommend The Flywheel by Erin Gough), I can purchase it from a local bookstore and ship it to you!

GIVEAWAY RULES

• This giveaway will end at 11:59pm AEST on September 22, 2015 (my birthday!). I apologise for living in a timezone that is almost a day ahead of everyone else.
• 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 ONE winner who will be able to choose up to $40 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 winner will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter.
• I will contact the winner on September 23rd 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 through Rafflecopter!

Good luck!