March Wrap Up

Welcome to my March wrap up post. March went really quickly. 




Goodnight, Beautiful 
- 14 books completed
- 10 books ahead of schedule 
- 58% of my challenge complete
- Review HERE

I’ve already done a book review on Goodnight, Beautiful as I read it last year.  

Eat, Pray, Love
- 15 books completed 
- 10 books ahead of schedule 
- 15 out of my 24 read
- 63% Complete
- Review HERE

I wasn’t a massive fan of the book I felt as I hated then loved the author. Then wanted to hit her with the book to give her a massive hug.  

If I Stay and Where She Went
- 17 books completed 
- 13 books ahead of schedule
- 17 out of 24 books read
- 71% Complete
I love these two books. And I can’t believe that it’s got me almost 3/4 of the way through my 24 books. 


The Next Best Thing
- DNF
- 13 books ahead of schedule 
- 18/24 books read
- 75% Complete 
Ok so I DNFd the book but still have it on my wrap up. That’s because I don’t think I’ll ever go back to it and I’ve read as much as I can. 

Lauren

xoxo

Books That Took Place In Another Country

Welcome to a Top Ten Tuesday on books that took place in another country. This is really easy and really hard at the same time because not a lot of books I read take place in Canada but the books I do read seem to all be from America or England.  



- Anything by Nicholas Sparks 
Set in North Carolina USA 

- The Ice Cream Girls 
Set in Brighton England 

- Eat, Pray, Love
Set in Italy, India and Indonesia  

- Harry Potter
England  and Scotland 

- The Kite Runner
Afghanistan 

If I Stay || Book Review

Book: If I Stay 

Author: Gayle Forman 

Pages: 261 (that includes the Discussion questions and an author Q&A)

Start Date: March 15th 2018

End Date: March 20th 2018

Good reads Rating: 3*

If I Stay is the first book I ever read by Gayle Forman years ago.  

Throughout the whole book I really felt for Mia. Her parents and brother had gone but her grandparents and friends were still there and she has to choose between life and death. 

I always thought the book was longer then it actually is. The actual book is like really short and it has the discussion questions, a Q&A with the author, a few chapters from Where She Went and from I Was Here. Even with all the extra bonus content it’s still no where near the 350-360pages a normal first book is.  

I like the fact that rather then chapters to determine the book it’s time as things are happing. 

I remember liking it a lot more then I did this time. I still like it but not as much. When I first read it I gave it a 3* and this time it’s still at a 3.  


Mia has to make such a hard decision to live or die. Each side has something to “offer”. Her parents and brother have died while her grandparents, friends and boyfriend are still living. The spirit of Mia looking over those who she loves and cares for who are at the hospital want her to live but what would you do when the three people you’ve grown up with are no longer there and the life you had before isn’t going to be the same.  

I was planning on doing the discussion questions that were in the book but when I looked through them I just couldn’t come up with what to say and make it functional.  

Birthday Book Wish List

With my birthday only a week away I thought I’d do a top 5 books that I’d like to receive 


- The Book Thief
    - Markus Zusack
I’ve seen the movie and I love it. I’ve seen various reviews on the book.  

- Reconstructing Amelia
    - Kimberly McCreight
With Reconstructing Amelia I keep seeing it and think “I need to pick the book up” the forget about it then something jogs my memory and I think “oh yeah. I wanna read that book”

- Revenge Wears Prada 
    - Lauren Wiesburger 
I love the first book of the Prada series The Devil Wears Prada and never knew there was a second book until recently. 

- Room
    - Emma Donoghue 
I’ve seen very few reviews for the book, but those that I have seen are really positive. 

- Gone Girl
    - Gillian Flynn
I’m not someone’s who’s into thrillers. I’ve read my fair amount of John Grisham books (thanks mum) but I want to get into books like Gone Girl 

Books I Wanna Read || Spring TBR 2018

 Welcome to what was supposed to be a Top Ten Tuesday, but forgot to post it.   About books on my spring TBR 



- The Choice

I’ve tried to start the book so many times but over spring I want to actually finish it. 

- Chasing Harry Watson/ Everyone Worth Knowing/ Last Night At Chateu Marimont

Ok so I could say I love Lauren’s writing style but only having read one book of hers I can’t. (The Devil Wears Prada is literally one of my favourite book). In spring I want to read either one of the books.  

- Reached

I want to complete the series. But wanted a bit of space between the second and third book. 

- The Next Best Thing

Finding free books is always great. Especially by an author you already own but haven’t read before.  

- Great Expectations

Ok so I have a bad reading record when it comes to reading classic books. I have started so many and Just DNFd then it’s not even funny. But there is something about Great Expectations that I wanna try with it 

when summer comes around I will be doing a review 

Lauren

xoxo

Eat, Pray, Love

Book: Eat, Pray, Love
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert 
Publish Date: October 1st 2007
Start Date: February 16th 2028
End Date: March 18th 2018
Good reads Rating: 2*

Eat, Pray, Love is about the author Elizabeth Gilbert’s year long trip in Italy, India and Indonesia. 

Reading it I felt as if it was diary entries that she had expanded to make into a book. 

I’m not a fan of short chapters at all. But the way the chapters are all set out is beyond confusing yet I kind of like it. 


- Eat
    - Italy 
Through her time in Italy I wasn’t sure if I liked Elizabeth (Liz) that much. I think that because she went to Italy right after her divorce was finalized she seemed a bit bitter. 
Her experience between the first time she went to Italy as a 19 year old and then again in the current day in her 30’s are different yet she’s surprised by it. And puts it down to feminism of course. Not the fact that she’s at least 10-15 years older. And people are 10-15 years older and wiser. 
As the Italy part was almost at a close is when I liked her more. Around the time of her friends Thanksgiving Birthday meal and the fact her friends and family would come to visit. 

- Pray
    - India  
Just as I was beginning to like the author the India part of the book was just plain boring and I started to dislike her again. I know she’s on a journey of self discovery but I feel as if she is becoming someone that if she told me these stories about India in real person I would have switched off. 
I liked her a little more again when she was helping people near the of her trip in India.  

- Love
    - Indonesia
Again I hated her at the beginning. But kind of liked her a little more.  

Overall Thoughts
It’s a very hard book to actually get into. Especially as the author of the book is a writer 
I felt let down in some parts but other parts were good enough that it made up for them. 
I didn’t feel connected to her as an author. Every time she was entering a new place I hated her and by the time it was almost time for her to leave she was ok.  

What’s Next

Since doing my first ever What I Am Reading I wanted to do a post on What’s Next
Since I’ve finished Goodnight, Beautiful and still struggling with Eat, Pray, Love I wanted to read another book.  

I was deciding between two books. The Next Best Thing (Jennifer Weiner) or If I Stay (Gayle Forman)


And If I Stay won. I’ve read the book countless of times before but as March is going to be a quick and easy month for me as far as reading goes I wanted something I know I’ll enjoy.

So what will be after If I Stay, well it will be the second book that comes after it which is Where She Went

And then maybe The Next Best Thing. 

Crossed Book Discussion,

I feel like a hypocrite doing this book discussion as I really didn’t take any of the book in and had been a while since I’ve read the book that I can’t really answer the books like normal.  

- Compare and contrast Ky’s narrating style with Cassia’s.
In the beginning I felt as if they were very similar. They were doing the same things just separately. 

- How would Crossed be different if there were only one narrator?
I think up until they meet it would have changed the dynamics of how the story would have been told if it was just Cassia or Ky had to explain to the other what had happened and it being second hand. Where as both of them having alternative chapters was great. And then when they met I felt as if it was forced. 

- Describe Indie’s role in the story relevant to the other characters. How is she alike and dissimilar to Cassia? To Ky?
I think she balanced out Cassia a lot before they met up with Ky. The things that Cassia didn’t know because of her isolated world Indie knew. But then because of her isolated world also helped Cassia and Indie. 

- What are some of the immediately noticeable similarities and differences between the Rising and the Society?
That they are both controlling but in different ways. 

- Compare and contrast the ending of Crossed with its prequel, Matched. How is Cassia’s new situation similar and dissimilar from the end of the last book? What about Ky’s and Xander’s? What is the reader left knowing and not knowing in each?
Both endings are controlled by the Society. Because that’s what they know best. Personally I think 



- Describe Vick’s role in the story relevant to Ky’s. How are they alike and different?

Honestly I think he was just in it because Cassia had someone to do this journey with and Ky needed someone that’s all. I literally blocked him out because I found him irrelevant 

- Describe Eli’s role in the story. What makes him different from the others?
Just like Vick, I found Eli just there because he needs to be. I also blocked him out a lot of the book


- Choose a significant character other than Cassia or Ky from Crossed. Describe how the story might change if it were told from his/her perspective.
I would have liked to have seen more from Xander’s point of view. He is the other ‘main’ character in my eyes and I feel that apart from the small part he was in he was pretty much forgotten about. 

Books That Surprised Me | Top Ten Tuesday

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday is all about the books that have surprised me. 

I am normally someone who gets popular books and wonder why people love them so much and when I get a book that no one has talked about I normally love. 

- Hate List

I hadn’t heard of the book but when I would walk into the bookstore I was always drawn to the book. I wasn’t sure about the book but it surprised me and I loved it. 

- One Day

When I first read the book I didn’t like it to much but the second time I loved it.  

- My Best Friends Girl

When I picked up My Best Friends Girl for the first time years ago, I was at a point in my life where I liked reading but would never pick up books and read. I was either working or out with friends. I just wasn’t interested in reading. So picking the book up was a shock and then when I read it I just fell in love with the story, Dorothy’s effortless way off telling it. I was shocked because I didn’t want the book to end. I would happily read a sequel to My Best Friends Girl without even thinking about it. I was shocked at how much I didn’t want the book to end. 

- Looking For Alaska 

Looking For Alaska was the first John Green book that I ever read (well listen to any way) and I actually enjoyed it. 

- The Ice Cream Girls

One of my all time favourite books. I knew I would like it but I was surprised at how much. I never normally the kind of person who will stay up late and read a book. And with this one I did. 

- My Life Next Door

I was surprised with how much I liked it. I’m not sure if it’s because I read it after a book I Disliked or not but I liked it a lot. 

- To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before 

It’s no secret that I dislike this book. I felt let down by how many people raved about it and I felt disappointed with it. 

- FanGirl

FanGirl is a book that everyone was raving about. They loved it. At the time of it’s release being a fan girl of anything was the thing to be. I was surprised because if hoped for better. Even the second time around when I read it I wanted it to be better. 

- Just One Year

I love Gayle Forman’s writing style so when I read Just One Year I was so shocked by the way I suddenly felt so disconnected with the characters in the book. I couldn’t finish it because I felt let down by the book. 

Lauren

xoxo

Currently Reading

I’ve had a blog account for 7 years and started blogging properly about 5, then deleted all those post and started again about 3 years ago where I would do reviews on make up and stuff then about 18 months to 2 years ago I started blogging about books and reading and just random things. 



In the past few years that I’ve mainly blogged about books I’ve never done a currently Reading 📖 post. I think it’s one of the only things I don’t do as a blogger who talks about books on their blogs. 

- Eat, Pray, Love

    - Elizabeth Gilbert 

I am am about half way through the India part of the book and am struggling with it quite a bit. There are times when I want to hit the book over the authors head and other times when I really like it. 

- Goodnight, Beautiful 

    - Dorothy Koomson 

Dorothy can do no wrong in my eyes. This book isn’t my favourite of hers but still love it. I’ve read it before but as I was struggling with Eat, Pray, Love I wanted something to stop me from going insane. 

Favourite Romance Novels

Ok so this is supposed to be a top 5 Wednesday in February but just never posted it
I am not a fan of romance novels at all. But these are books that I like where love is the main storyline

- Safe Haven
If you have ever read a Nicholas Sparks book or seen a movie based on a book by him then you know that he is like the king 👑 of love stories. Out of the two books that I’ve read by him Safe Haven is by far my favourite book of his. (I even love the movie. And think it’s better than The Notebook).

- My Life Next Door
I like when two characters are polar opposites to each other. With My Life Next Door you couldn’t get two people who are so different.

- The Great Gatsby
It’s something about this book that I love. I did the wrong thing and watched the movie first but when I read the book I didn’t see the movie in the book.

- One Day
So I know this book is a lot to do with friendship rather than romance but the underlying theme of the book is love.

quotes || Top Ten Tuesday

So this weeks Top Ten Tuesday inspired post is all on quotes. I’m going to have a massive amount of text on this post. Just because I don’t think it’s needed. My favorite quotes are mainly from Harry Potter

Crossed Book Review

Book: Crossed

Author: Ally Conde

Pages: 367

Publisher: Speak

Publish Date: March 12 2013

Start Date: 29th January 2018

End Date: 20th February 2018

Good reads Rating 2

I want to start by saying that I have seen a lot of mixed - bad reviews on this book which I know I’m going to like the boook 

It’s a very slow start but I am enjoying it. I’m not normally a massive fan of having more than person narrating a book. 

I really like how the each alternate chapters are either Ky or Cassia and that even though they are both doing completely different jobs that there is such similarities between what they are doing. 

I saw a review on Goodreads about the book where the person said she felt that it didn’t really push the story along and was just filler material while I can understand what she’s saying in some places it did feel like that but I felt that both Cassia and Ky’s journey had enough intensity that you just carry on and it’s one of those books that I enjoyed reading. 


*I am at page 176 as I write this next bit*. For most Cassia’s chapters I have found her a bit annoying and I like Cassia normally. I think in some cases so far she has been headstrong and independent, a friend and a leader, but then she has become someone who is clueless and dumb. And I hate it. She is supposed to be this strong woman who is going after her man but is becoming stupid along the way. If things are put to her by other people she shoots them down but if they are her own they are the best

*200 pages in*
I am starting to struggle with the book. I have about 150/160 pages left until I’ve finished reading the book but it’s getting harder and harder. And I can understand why some people don’t like this book as much as the first book. And what is with the page chapters dead in the middle of the book. The book started of so well but is seriously going down hill. 

I can see why people don’t like the book as much as the first. Even though I was just skimming over some of the chapters I started feeling disconnected from the characters more and more and that’s why I started skimming pages. I would have liked them to have stayed in the Society because they made so many decisions for them anyway and forced them to be together that if they stayed in the society it could have been different. 

I admit that I skim read a lot of chapters, but read the last 5 fully. I felt that the ending of the book brought it back up a little. I think it would have been a bit better if Ally Conde had them looking for each other a little longer. I ended up feeling like the book ended up just dragging on even after a good start. 

March TBR,

- Eat, Pray, Love
    - Elizabeth Gilbert
I want to finish Eat, Pray, Love this month. I’ve started it and like any new books by new authors I read I am Struggling with it. But I will carry on 

- Goodnight, Beautiful 
    - Dorothy Koomson 
As March is my birthday month I want to read a book that I know I love 💕. And I choose Goodnight, Beautiful. Because you know. It’s a great book

Lauren

xoxo