December/January Book-haul.. so many books!

Hello! As you have noticed, I have been on a writing spree today. Sorry about the spam of reviews, but I wanted to put them out there once and for all after some time away from this blog. Worked pretty much every day in December which resulted in just reading and no reviewing because my head barely functioned.. Even drawing things every day in December was tough as my imagination was more or less non-existent most of the days. (Challenged myself to draw every day from 1. January - 31. December which I completed!! Yey!!) Anyways. So, in the meantime, while running low on energy and creativity, I might have gotten few more books since last time I was here... ahem...*cough*12 more books *cough*

Perlmann's Silence by Pascal Mercier
The Silk Merchant's Daughter by Dinah Jefferies
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent
The Woods by Harlan Coben
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
1Q84 (The Complete Trilogy) by Haruki Murakami
Insomnia by Stephen King
Cell by Stephen King
Seconds Away (#2 Myron Bolitar) by Harlan Coben
The Farm (#1 The Farm) by Emily McKay
Fellside by M.R. Carey

I ordered Seconds Away without knowing that it was the second book in Harlan Coben's series... Guess I have to buy the first book before I start on that one.. Both Harlan Coben books are actually "research books" which is why I bought them btw😉

The three first books in the list were a christmas present from my grandmother, The Passenger was a christmas present from my boss (I got to choose a book from the shelf and chose that one😊) So technically I only bought 8/12 of these books😋

And that was all the books for now! My reviews are up-to-date and the same with this book-haul. What an effective few hours this has been😝

Hope to see you again soon!

Bye xx

Oh and Happy (belated) New Year! Here's to another year filled with more books!

An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes is the first book in the An Ember in the Ashes series and also the first book I have ever read by Sabaa Tahir. I can safely say that I'M SO GONNA READ THE REST OF THIS SERIES!!

The Blurb:

Under the martial empire.

Defiance is met with death.

When Laia's grandparents are brutally murdered and her brother arrested for treason by the empire, the only people she has left to turn to are the rebels.

But in exchange for their help in saving her brother, they demand that Laia spy on the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, the Empire's greatest military academy. Should she fail it's more than her brother's freedom at risk... Laia's very life is at stake.

There, she meets Elias, the academy's finest soldier. But Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he's being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined - and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

My Thoughts:

One of my co-workers has been talking highly of this book for a while and, in the end, I decided to finally buy it and do a little research. And here I am, writing this review. 

Where to begin? This was something completely different from what I expected. I fell in love with this book and now I understand why my co-worker's been talking so much about how great An Ember in the Ashes was.

The story begins with Laia and the dreadful night when her grandparents gets killed and her brother arrested. When she comes to Blackcliff, things starts to happen. And the Commandant.. oooh the Commandant... let's just say that Voldemort is like a puppy in comparison. Yeah. If someone is just one second late, they get punished or killed. Depends on her mood. So you can imagine how Laia must feel when she pretends to be a slave and spy on this ruthless human being. 

Poor Elias.. just wanting to be free. And I completely understand him! The reasons I can't say because then I will spoil things and I really don't want to do that. Not with this book. But there are things, bad things he has to go through if he wants to be free.

I like that the author gives us both Elias' and Laia's point of view. And you also get to know them very well. The stories behind these two that builds up their personalities are great. You get to understand why they act like they do. There where times that I ended up wanting to tell Laia over and over again that Elias is not a bad person!!! Trust him!! He's not like the others!! But of course.. I really understand why she's scared of him. One of his people did murder her grandparents so.. yeah.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend reading An Ember in the Ashes! If you like dystopia novels then this is waaay up your alley. Seriously..

So looking forward to read the next in this series! (Patiently waiting for the paperback to get re-published again 😢)

Bye! xx

5/5

Currently reading: Stephen King - Insomnia

Mara Dyer Trilogy

Here's the reviews for the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin! They are not that great because I read them last month and it kinda made it difficult to separate the two stories 🙊 

But here they are and I hope I did alright... If not then you will get more information on goodreads or other pages 😉

The Evolution of Mara Dyer

The Retribution of Mara Dyer

The Sunrise - Victoria Hislop

The Sunrise is the first book I have read by Victoria Hislop so I didn't know what to expect from her. I got this book as a present from my parents few years ago and if it wasn't for them I don't think I would have had bought this for myself. The blurb sounds great, but not really my kind of book. After diving into it, I got surprised. I actually liked it! I think want to check out more of her books tbh :)

The Blurb:
Cyprus, 1972.
Famagusta is the Mediterranean's most desirable resort, a city bathed in the glow of good fortune. An ambitious couple open the island's most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony.

Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city's façade of glamour and success, tensions is building.

When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers.

In the deserted city, just two families remain.
This is their story.

My Thoughts:
I started writing this review early December last year and I think it's time to maybe finish it? Yup..

I don't remember much since I finished reading it over a month ago so this might be a short review. My apologies.

When I jumped into this book I immediately found out that this was not my type of book. Not much happened and it was all about this hotel called The Sunrise and all that rich interior that was in it and in the end I was like: yeah.. I get that now.. it's a wonderful (and really expensive) hotel! And the characters... I like books with main characters from the start, but this one started with how glorious this hotel was and didn't really know who the characters were. But! After some chapters, when things actually started to happen and the characters became more "present", I actually started to enjoy this book very much. There was lots of drama, tragedies, loss, betrayal.. you name it. Talking about the lack of characters in the beginning, there turned out to be a quite few of those after a few chapters, so you had to remember which character belonged to whom. It got bit confusing, but still managed somehow to connect them to "their right family" 😛

After Turkey invades Famagusta, two families decides to stay behind because of their sons who's been gone/missing right before the whole invading started. It's not only those to families you get to read about. There's also a couple - the couple who owns The Sunrise - that is a part of this story as well. Their escape from Famagusta and how they survive the travel and stuff. Not going to reveal to much! It was a thrill read (in the end) and you do get a little bit attached to some of the characters.

All in all, I'm glad that I didn't give up reading The Sunrise to be honest. Because it was so, so much better than I thought it would be.

And that's it. That's the only things I remember at the moment.

Bye!

3/5

Two more books

Gonna run out of place preetty quick if I continue to buy more books...
Oh well! These books have actually been on my desk for over a week now, but I haven't had the time nor energy to sit down and write tbh. Been in a zombie mode for a while..

Until now.. Hello!

So here we are again! New books (and less space left in my bookshelf)! I did actually have some kind of a reason for purchasing these two books though😛 They might sound weird but in my head these reasons sounded perfectly reasonable at the time. Almost..

The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (The original screenplay) by J. K. Rowling

Book #1: Lack of space for new english books in the store - Bought this one to get at least some space that I could fit some of the new ones. Did not take one just to get some space, I actually wanted to check it out as well so it was a "win-win" situation (and also a reason to buy a book)..

Book #2: Was the first to unpack these gorgeous looking copies of Fantastic Beasts at work - Bought one in case we ended up selling everyone by the end of the day. Turned out this was not as popular as the other HP book.. we still got plenty left in stock. But hey! At least I got one 😛

Excuses, excuses.. I know, but.. you know.. it sounded reasonable enough in my head😆


And that's the end of the last blog entry for today. Hopefully it won't be long till the next entry. I am currently reading The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop so there will be a new review up soon-ish. Gonna try and write it the same day I finish reading the book unlike the other review that took me almost 2 weeks to write. It's up now though so.. better late than never..?

Bye! xx

Daughter - Jane Shemilt

I actually started on this review almost two weeks ago, but haven't had the time nor energy to finish it (been in a zombie mode this passed week so all the energy I have had, I used on my daily drawings..)😴

Anyway... back to the review!😉

Daughter was the first book I've read by Jane Shemilt. I didn't know that much about this book before I started, but I was not that disappointed 😊 

The Blurb:

The night of the disappearance

She used to tell me everything.

They have a picture. It'll help.

But it doesn't show the way her hair shines so brightly it looks like sheets of gold.

She smells very faintly of lemons.

She bites her nails.

She never cries.

She loves autumn, I wanted to tell them. She collects leaves, like a child does. She is just a child.

FIND HER

One year later

Naomi is still missing. Jenny is a mother in the brink of obsession. The Malcolm family is in pieces.

Is finding the truth about Naomi the only way to put them back together?

Or is the truth the thing that will finally tear them apart?

My Thoughts:

Like I said in the beginning of this review, I started writing this review almost two weeks ago which means that it's been around two weeks since I read this book. So.. I might have forgotten some of the things that happened in this story, but I will try my best!🙊

So this is one of the typical disappearance stories about someone who's missing and the mother (or another family member or someone else) who wants to find the truth of what happened that horrible night. And it also got this mysteriousness to it that keeps people like me wanting to find out more and ends up reading the whole book 😛  There's also a twist in the end as it usually is with these kind of stories.

The story changed between the past (the days before the disappearance and after) and present (round a year later). I know I've said something like this before, but the way the chapters changed between then and now was not as confusing as it can be when it comes to these kind of stories. I did go back once to almost at the beginning to check something out that turned up at the near of the book, but that was it 😛

I can say that the ending was quite a surprise. I did not see that coming at all! I had some suspicions in my head, but this ending was not one of them. I was not that disappointed either about the end. I actually want to know what happens next, but I know I will never find out. I think. 

All in all, this was a nice and suspenseful thriller with a huge twist at the end and (like I said) I was not disappointed! I will definitely check out more of her books one day😊 

And that's the end of this review! Can't think of anything else to say so this is it. 

Bye! x

(I'm going to upload a new blog entry pretty soon that was also supposed to be up a while ago.. whoopsie!)

(Also..just discovered the emojis that's been added recently as you probably have noticed by now 😛)

Currently reading - The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

On the Other Side - Carrie Hope Fletcher

On the Other Side is Carrie Fletcher's debut novel (apart from her biography called All I Know Now). I found out about her through her brother, Tom (from McFly, my all time favourite band) some years ago and been watching her yt channel and stuff since then. When she announced that she was writing a book, I was excited to see how it would turn out! And here I am, writing my review on her book :)

The Blurb:
Your soul is too heavy to pass through this door: Leave the weight of the world in the world from before.

Evie Snow is eighty-two when she quietly passes away in her sleep, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. It's the way most people wish to leave the world, but when Evie reaches the door of her own private heaven, she finds that she's become her twenty-seven-year-old self and the door won't open.

Evie's soul must be light enough to pass through so she needs to get rid of whatever is making her soul heavy. For Evie, this means unburdening herself of the three secrets which have weighed her down for over fifty years, so she must find a way to reveal them before it's too late. As Evie begins the journey of a lifetime, she learns more about life and love than she ever though possible, and somehow, some way she may also find her way back to the only man she ever truly loved...

Powerful, magical and utterly romantic, On the Other Side will transport you to a world that is impossible to forget. This is a love story like no other which will have you weeping because of the sheer joy and beauty of it all.

My Thoughts:
This was such a lovely novel! I got sad, angry (at her mother in particular and the tradition the family had.. grrr! What a cold mother she was!) and happy reading about Evie and the other characters in this story. I also had tears in my eyes at one point! The story between Evie and this guy called Vincent (you get to know him after few chapters so no spoilers there) was so sweet, and romantic and also sad. The things she had to let go because of reasons I'm not going to say was devastating.

I liked the way the chapters were divided into different sections between the three secrets she had to let go of. The chapters were divided between Evie's "afterlife" (how she ended up there, what she had to do to reach these people to get to the other side), the past (were we find out what happened when she was young and in love) and the present (the people she have to tell her secrets to). It sounds like it could be bit difficult to follow because of the timelines, but it wasn't. She did a great job with that :) There were also chapters were you first read about one person and in the middle of the page, you end up reading from another character's perspective, which also sound confusing, but wasn't :P (this whole explanations of the chapters sounds confusing to understand....oh well)

There were also moments when I had to read the same things over and over again to figure out wether some of the things that happened was a metaphor or if it literally happened. Like, for example:"my face turned into stone", is it just a metaphor or did my face literally got turned into stone?... (weird example, but you know..) So there were few times were I just sat there and didn't know if there was some magic involved or not :P Other than that, I really liked the way this story turned out. It had some disney-ish about it (like the surnames of the characters and some things that happened) and there was also a Once Upon a Time reference in there as well. I liked that :P

After finishing this, I'm pretty sure there was some real magic going on in there because of the things that happened :P

The ending was amazing and I had a huge grin on my face at the end of it (and maybe some happy tears). All in all, this is truly a wonderful "girlie book" were magic things happens and hearts gets broken. All in true disney style (that sounded weird but I wanted to write something like that so there it was). And maybe, just maybe, there's chance of a happy ending for Evie after all..? Who knows?

Guess you have to find out for yourself! ;)

I know this review sounds confusing and stuff, but I have a reason for that (for once)... I've been really tired today and my head has been a derpiederp all day (even at work I felt like I was a "walking dead"...you know.. the zombies, not the main characters) but I wanted to write this review today anyway so here it is :P

And here I am, signing off.

Bye! xxx

4/5
Next book to read: Daughter by Jane Shemilt