What a month. I think I was so close to giving most of these books five stars. It has really been an exceptional month for me and I can’t quite believe it. It has also been one of my best reading months in terms of quantity as well as quality! I read 12 books, which is my joint highest month with January.
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This post is based on the questions for the ‘Mid-Year Freak Out Tag’, but I’ve edited it to suit my needs a bit better. I’m pretty sure most of these will be to no one’s surprise but let’s see! I’m still going to be doing a June Wrap up, which you will be able to find here, but for some more specific check ups, here’s how my 2019 is going!
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This is becoming a theme now, but welcome to the mess that is my life. I haven’t posted in over 20 days and that’s the longest I haven’t posted all year. I’ve said this at the start of all my wrap ups, but I’m still proud of myself that it’s only 20 days. Last year I was less consistent and my 2019 views for 5 months have already exceeded the entirety of 2018!
I’ve been having some issues with reading slumps and moods – I’ve been very much on a romance kick without having a lot of unread romance on my shelves. Also just life has been kicking me in the bum so Imi’s been absent – sorry, kids. Expect a comeback sometime soon.
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My wonderful friend Kate started the Easter Readathon last year, which is quite simply four days of pure reading bliss. This year she’s added some extra challenges and reading sprints on twitter. For the full announcement post, click here!
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Having spoken about it earlier this week, I am now starting my new style of post – my first ever weekly wrap up of mini-reviews and how my writing is going so that I’m not spending all my time on my blog instead of writing the actual bloody book.
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Name: Illuminae (Illuminae Files #1)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genres: Young Adult, Sci Fi
Publisher: Rock the Boat
Format: Paperback
Source: Waterstones, Taunton
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
KEY WORDS: Outerspace apocalypse, Non-prose, IMs, Computer geek girls(!!).
This review is long overdue, having read this book over a month ago, but the Christmas period has been a busy one at work and I’ve had little time to actually rest. But I’m back! And now you’ve had two reviews in a week! I’m hoping to catch up with all the books I’ve missed but we’ll see how that goes.
Illuminae was so different from anything I’ve read before. You’ll understand what I mean if you’ve ever flicked through it, and if you haven’t I recommend going to a bookshop just to see. As the synopsis says, the story is told through “a dossier of hacked documents including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more” and that is truly what it is. There is no prose in the way you would expect, even other diary-style, IM-style novels have some form of narrative prose, but this is purely a dossier of information as found in a manila folder in a security company’s filing cabinet. I LOVED that. It was so different and interesting and like nothing else I’ve read before.
Kady is a fantastic protagonist, geek-girl and badass woman intent on saving the universe, or maybe just her ex-boyfriend. Sounds cliche and maybe a little adolescent, but honestly, it was heartwarming and emotional.
AIDAN as a villain was also brilliant. If you have any interest in AI, then this book is something you should experience, and it is an experience more than a read, because AIDAN makes everything so much more intriguing. You question everything and can never believe what is being said by anyone.
A short review, but in truth that’s all I need to say. One of the most original concepts I have experienced and I look forward to Gemina.
Have you read Illuminae? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
Genres: Young Adult, Sci Fi
Publisher: Rock the Boat
Format: UK Paperback
Source: Waterstones, TauntonThis morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
What are you reading right now? Are you enjoying it? Tell me in the comments!
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish and I love a good list so here goes!
I have so many books on my TBR that I actually have a spreadsheet detailing what I need to read and by when. It’s long and organised and mad but these ten books below are the ones I’m most looking forward to!
Ringer (Replica #2) by Lauren Oliver
Release: 3rd October 2017
I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of Replica this time last year and absolutely adored it, so when Ringer was released on Edelweiss, I snapped it up! It’s next on my TBR once I finish Tower of Dawn!
The Replica series tells the story of two girls, Lyra and Gemma, when their lives become intertwined after Lyra and a boy known only as 72 escape the Haven Institute, a clandestine research facility where thousands of replicas, or human models, are born, raised, and observed.
The Fandom by Anna Day
Release: 5th October 2017
I somehow managed to get this beautiful paperback ARC at YALC, moments after I walked into the convention hall. I am really intrigued by the concept and will definitely be reading this one soon.
A YA fantasy, set within a YA fantasy. Cosplayers go to comic-con and, after a freak accident, find themselves trapped within the fantasy world from their favourite fandom.
A Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo
Release: 26th September 2017
I am unbelievably excited to be transported back into the incredible Grishaverse. Leigh Bardugo is one of the best world-builders out there right now and I have loved everything she has written. Give me more.
Six short stories set within the Grishaverse which explore familiar lands and new, inspired by myth, fairytale and folklore.
Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Release: 3rd October 2017
I have read every CoHo book, some more than once, and her books mean so much to me. They tear me apart and stitch me back together. I cry a lot. They are my catharsis and I’ve heard lots of good things about her next novel, her first YA since Losing Hope.
Without Merit explores family dynamics and the layers of lies that tie a family together through the eyes of the imperfect daughter, Merit Voss.
Bad Mommy by Tarryn Fisher
Much like Colleen, I love Tarryn’s writing. Plus, sometimes it hard to like one and not the other considering what a double act Hoover/Fisher are. Bad Mommy is one of the few that I haven’t yet read along with the new release Athiests Who Kneel and Pray. Both are on my bookshelf begging to be read.
When Fig Coxbury buys a house on West Barrett Street, it’s not because she likes the neighbourhood, or even because she likes the house. It’s because everything she desires is next door: The husband, the child, and the life that belongs to someone else.
Illuminae series by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
My friends kept going on and on at me telling me I would love this series so I decided to buy them and now they’ve been sat on my shelves a month or so, waiting to be read. I guess I’d better get on with it!
Kady’s planet has been invaded and she and her ex-boyfriend need to work together to fight their way to an evacuating fleet. Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews and more.
False Hearts by Laura Lam
Having read the Micah Grey trilogy and fallen in love, I figured I should add Laura Lam’s other novels to my TBR. I’m sure I’ll love this adventure just as much as the last.
Two formerly conjoined sisters are ensnared in a murderous plot involving psychoactive drugs, shared dreaming, organized crime, and a sinister cult.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Top of the NY Times bestseller list since its release, The Hate U Give, has been widely recognised as the book to read in 2017… so I read it I must!
A young, black girl, trapped between the two worlds of her poor neighbourhood and surburban preparatory school, has her life turned upside down after she witnesses the fatal shooting of her unarmed, childhood best friend by a police officer.
And I Darken by Kiersten White
I purchased this and its sequel, Now I Rise, at YALC having had it on a long list of books I should get for a while. Yet, since its purchase, I have had more pressing things to read. It sounds just like my kind of book so I would love to get around to this soon.
A gender-swapped, historcal YA retelling the story of the Prince of Wallachia, also knowsn as Vlad the Impaler. Political and historical with a ruthless heroine, stabbing, murder and volatility.
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Another novel that I haven’t stopped hearing about since it’s release so I feel the need to see what all the fuss is about. Especially with the tv series going ahead, I want to read it before that comes out.
A murder mystery surrounding five high school students who have detention together, but only four come out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
What’s on your Autumn TBR? Have you read any on my list that I should read sooner? Let me know in the comments or link me to your TTT for me to check out!
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