Reading Update

I'm back!

I haven't posted since May, after being extremely busy with exams and such, I just haven't found the time to write any new posts. Now I have time! Yay! So I wanted to do an update on what read in the last week, I hope you enjoy!

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I finished this about a week ago and really enjoyed it. I bought this back in January and didn't pick it up because I wasn't sure about it. Some reviews said this book was 'absolutely terrifying', others said it 'wasn't even scary'. I'm not sure about the horror genre, as I'm personally not a big fan of that kind of thing. Anna Dressed in Blood wasn't too scary, slightly graphic, but it didn't affect me much. Overall I did enjoy it, the romance wasn't my favourite, but I liked Cas, the main character. The first half of the book was definitely more gripping to me than the second. I would recommend this book to someone who wants to try out horror.

Overall I gave it 4 stars.

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

After waiting (not so patiently) for what felt like a life time, I finally read Isla and the Happily Ever After. This is the third book in Stephanie Perkins' companion novel series, the first being Anna and the French Kiss. Stephanie did it again, she made us swoon, made us fall in love with another book. If you haven't picked up these books yet, then I strongly urge you to, they are some of my absolute favourites.

Although Anna and the French Kiss is still my favourite in the trilogy, I loved this book. I didn't connect with Isla's character as much as the other two, but I still loved her. I could read Stephanie's books forever.

Overall I obviously gave it 5 stars.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

I finally read it! I have waited so long for it to finally come out in the UK, and I have devoured it already. Last night I picked it up and finished it this morning, I believe there will be another book after this (THANKYOU).

Lara Jean's character is so cool and quirky, I adored her and her story. After reading The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy and the two books that are out of the Burn for Burn trilogy, Jenny Han is definitely one of my favourite authors. To All the Boys I've Loved Before did not let me down, I highly recommend it, just so fantastic. Not to mention the cover, I love the cover alot.

Overall, another 5 star book from Jenny Han

So those are the books I read in the last week, I recommend them all. I have no idea what to read next, but I guess we will see... Thankyou for reading,

-Darcy

Top 5 books that make me cry!

The title explains this post... These are the top 5 books that make me cry!

To be honest, I'm not a huge crying person, but there are some books which get me. FOR EXAMPLE THESE ONES. Ofcourse, these aren't all the books that have made me cry, these are the ones that have made me cry most. All the books on this list are my favourite books/ series... Which I can't help, I guess its just how attached to the characters you get!

Also, the books are in no particular order! There will be NO spoilers.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Do I need to explain this? Was it the most obvious one?

TFIOS made me sob, I literally stared at the wall, just crying. You will know what I mean if you have also read it (which is most people), if you didn't show any emotion during this book, you are not human!

Eventhough I was spoiled, John Green still managed to make me sob. If you haven't read this book and have been put off because you know it is sad... Just read it, the sadness is worth it and is also such a huge part of what makes this read so beautiful. 

It is so easily one of my favourite books and many other peoples.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

*sighs* TID fans will know what I'm talking about...

I adore this book, this trilogy and honestly, Cassandra ended The Infernal Devices so perfectly... The rest of the book makes me so happy, but that one part... I was crying whilst reading, I needed to carry on reading! But I couldn't stop crying, it was a mess.

I got way too attached to this book, so for the rest of the day after reading it... I kept thinking about it and welling up. It got to the point where I had to stop thinking about it. 

I love The Infernal Devices trilogy, I think I slightly prefer it to The Mortal Instruments (I love both, don't get me wrong) so everyone HAS to read it.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Yup. Ofcourse this one had to be on here. 

I don't think it helped that I read the end of this at about midnight, I sat and cried for about 20 minutes- it wasn't good. I had to put the book down whilst I cried continuously. 

Allegiant was my least favourite book of the Divergent trilogy, it was good... But I much preferred the first two books.

Being a huge fan of the trilogy, when the 'thing' happened, I was distraught. It is genuinely really difficult talking about this without spoiling! But I will not spoil!

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Do I really need to explain myself? The end of my favourite series, so ofcourse it makes me cry every time I read it. The Half Blood Prince also makes me cry, however The Deathly Hallows... ITS THE END. The end of the WHOLE series, the series that I, and so many others, grew up with! I cannot help but cry.

I remember finishing it and thinking, 'this is the end. There won't be another one.' That ofcourse broke my heart!

The Deathly Hallows and The Goblet of Fire are my favourite books in the series, definitely. 

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Ahh. Mockingjay. Breaker of hearts, killer of feels.

Other than Harry Potter, The Hunger Games trilogy is my favourite series. It will be difficult telling you which parts made me cry without spoiling... Lets just say it was that part, that part and the end. I went into serious book after shock mode when finishing Mockingjay, 'this cannot be the end. No. This is not the end. It is not over.' It was a problem.

Even re-reading it, I had the same problems. When a series you love ends, it is very difficult to come to terms with that fact. I cried. More than I care to admit.

So! Those are the books that killed my feels, made me sob and tore out my heart. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, I am going to say now, if you have not read any of the books in this post: do it, do it now. 

Thankyou for reading,

-Darcy

This Weekend: What I'm Reading

This post is going to be a relatively short one about the books I am reading over this weekend! I hope you enjoy it.

The One by Kiera Cass
So, this book is not yet out, however, currently there is a website, Unlock The One, which allows the fans to unlock chapters from The One! Currently, the first 7 chapters are unlocked, so if you want to, you can go and read them! To unlock more chapters, just use the hashtag #UnlockTheOne on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram or Facebook. We have the chance to unlock a total of 10 chapters.
If you didn't already know, The One is the final book in The Selection trilogy. As it is one of my favourite series, I have been reading the available chapters on the website. Hopefully the last few chapters will be unlocked soon so I can read those!

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
The second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. This was on last weeks 'What I'm Reading', however it is a very long book, so I am still reading it this weekend! So far it is brilliant, I have no idea what is in store for the rest of the book... But I have heard it is even better than the first, which means it must be good.
Let me know if you have read this book in the comments as I would love to know your thoughts- but no spoilers!
I will also be watching season 1 of the show over the weekend, I am currently on episode 6, it truly is great! 

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The second book in The Heroes of Olympus series.
I have been reading this one for ages! It shocks me that I haven't finished it yet, honestly, I am a huge fan of Percy Jackson. But this weekend I am going to pick it up and finish is once and for all. I have been loving it, however I kept on getting distracted by other books! There is only a small part of the book left for me, so I will finish it and definitely have a review up soon, I adore this series..
If you have not read any of Rick Riordan's books yet, I don't know why, but you really should! He is a fantastic author with a writing style that I personally love!

So, that will be the end of this post, it was quite short but I will have another post up extremely soon! Thankyou for reading,
-Darcy

My Top 10 Most Influential Books

Hello! This is going to be my post about the most influential books in my life. I am not going to go into much detail at all about why, just a brief sentence. I hope you enjoy it! These are in  no particular order!






Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
1) Quite an obvious pick, a huge part of my child hood.










The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
2) Taught me a lot, heart break, life, love.











Divergent by Veronica Roth
3) This one showed me choices, fear and so many feels.










The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4) A book that I fully invested myself into, I cannot describe my love for it. It influenced me in so many ways.










Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
5) What can I say? This one affected me in so many different ways.










Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
6) It taught me a different kind of love.











To Kill A Mockingbird
7) I love books that can teach me things, this one definitely did, the history element is also something I loved.










The Selection by Kiera Cass
8) This had a huge impact on the way I see books and how much I love to read... The book and the author, Kiera Cass, just make me want to write.










A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
9) Although I read this recently, I feel like it has given me a completely different perspective to BOOKS.

Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson
10) When I read this in middle school, it meant so much so me, as I was quite young it opened the world for me a little.






I really enjoyed making this post! It was so great looking back on the books which have influenced me. I hope you enjoyed this post,
-Darcy

May: To Be Read

This is an extremely exciting post! As I can now put in some of the books I have been waiting over a year for... Today I am going to tell you about all the books I hope to read in the month of May. EXCITEMENT.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
WHAT. It comes out this month! It is so weird, I have been waiting for this, the 6th and final book in The Mortal Instruments series for what feels like forever. Words cannot fathom how excited yet terrified I am to read this, please do not let any of my favourite characters die Cassie... Just, please. 
COHF comes out on May 27th and I just can't wait... I have theories but to be honest, I have no idea what is going to go down in this book... All I know is that Cassandra Clare is one of my favourite authors and that she will not less us down!
Why does this series ever have to end? Don't let Jace come to any harm, Cassie, just do this for me...

The One by Kiera Cass
WHAT. This one, I have been waiting for since The Elite, the second book in the trilogy came out... And now it is here, the final book. I do not want this series to end. Another of my favourite series, why are all my favourite series ending?!
If you have yet to pick up the first book, The Selection... DO IT! I adore this trilogy with all my heart, the attachment to the characters is unreal.
The One comes out May 6th... I cannot describe the anticipation.
If you have read this trilogy, comment down below and tell me what you thought about it, it really is ONE of my favourites.
Kiera is another author I know won't let us down...
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
The second book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, following A Game of Thrones.
This was on my last to be read, but this month I really am going to tackle it! I loved the first one, but am finding it difficult to get past the prologue... However after this post I am definitely going to attack that prologue and am going to read as much of the book as possible! It is such an amazing series which I honestly don't know what to expect from. I thought the first book was incredible, so I will probably (hopefully) finish it by the end of May!
I'm looking over at it right now, man, it sure is huge....

Half Bad by Sally Green

This is one of those books that I keep talking about but have not yet gotten around to reading! I read 50 pages of it, but it didn't grip me as much as I wanted it to at the time. But I have heard lots of people say that it is all a bit confusing at this point anyway.
So, I will read it in May! I have wanted to read it since January, so I don't know why I am hesitating about it so much!
Ofcourse, I will let you know what I think once I have finished it, the concept is so interesting but so far it hasn't hooked me!
If you are interested it this book then you should definitely check it out, many different people would enjoy it!
Those are the only books that I know I will read this month, otherwise, I am just going to read whatever I feel like reading! If I put pressure on myself to read certain books, then I may not feel like reading them. But these ones I know that I will get around to! I hope you enjoyed this post, I will have a new post up as soon as possible, thankyou for reading,
-Darcy

Review: Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Book- Rebel Belle

Author- Rachel Hawkins

Genre- Fantasy, romance

My rating- 5 stars

I am sure alot of you have heard of this book as it is an extremely new release and is getting alot of hype! Just going to put this out there- it is worth the hype.

I found Rebel Belle engaging, exciting, funny and just really awesome! When I first saw the cover I was not completely eager to read it, as it looked extremely girly! But that has taught me not to judge a book by its cover, ofcourse there are girly aspects to the book, however the action is fantastic. 

You may have read or heard of Rachel Hawkins' Hex Hall series, which personally I have not yet read but definitely will after loving this one! 

A little about Rebel Belle-

Southern belle Harper Price thinks that everything is perfect, she is soon going to be the homecoming queen, she has a great boyfriend and her biggest worry is the shade of her lip gloss. And that is what started it all off, being at homecoming having forgotten to apply lip gloss. Quickly heading to the bathroom the fix this, she has no idea what is waiting for her there.

Because everything started to go wrong that night and she finds herself with crazy abilities. She is now a paladin, a protector. And the person she has to protect, just happens to be the person she hates most. David Stark.

I absolutely loved this book, there was never a dull moment, the characters were all amazing, the plot was well built... I cannot wait for the next book in this series to come out.

If you are wondering whether to read this, I would definitely recommend you check it out, you won't regret it. The way the story flows is brilliant, along with a great voice. Harper tells the story in an extremely engaging way, I loved the use of language and how it feels like Harper is telling YOU the story.

I am going to start talking spoilers, so if you haven't read Rebel Belle yet, I would recommend you stop reading here! 

So, if you haven't already gathered, I really liked this book, it was so action packed and ENGAGING- I feel like that is the word that describes this book really well. I love David Stark. He genuinely is such an awesome character and you can tell he really likes Harper. However, I am scared for his future now that he has these super-crazy-oracle powers, it feels like it is going to end badly for himself and Harper. 

One thing that I seriously did not see coming, was Blythe taking Bee! I absolutely adored Bee's character and how she was such a good friend to Harper. Another thing, was THE PUNCH. I don't understand why I didn't realise that was going to happen. I would absolutely hate to be in Harper's position at that point- having to defend yourself against your own Aunt...  The punch was really clever, but I found it hard to believe that all those people would have drank the punch... I don't know why but I find that unconvincing.

The lotion. You may or may not know what I'm talking about, but when Harper is trying to test out her abilities she chucks a pen at a girl... The teacher catches her and Harper explains that she was just writing so fast and she had lotion on her hands, so the pen flew out of her hand! Welldone Harper, for possibly THE worst excuse anyone on this planet has ever come up with! I was laughing so much. I am going to use this perfect gif of Tom Hiddleston to explain... I love you Tom Hiddleston.

Now, can we talk about Saylor? I was more sad than I care to admit when she died, I felt so sorry for David, apart from Harper she was all he had. I was so disappointed that Ryan was the new Mage, his character just wasn't the most interesting for me, I honestly would have loved Bee to be (haha, Bee to be) the new Mage... But maybe I will prefer Ryan as Mage in future books. It was funny how awkward it was between David, Harper and Ryan though.

That will be the end of this post. The next book is definitely one of my most anticipated books from now, I hope it is as awesome as Rebel Belle. Let me know what you thought of this book down in the comments as I am really interested in what others are making of it! Thankyou for reading,

-Darcy

April Wrap Up

So, I may be slightly early to do a wrap up, but I don't think I am going to get any more books read this month as I am quite busy right now!

The month of April was a VERY good reading month for me... I read 2 novellas, 3 mangas and 9 books! The reason for this was because I went on holiday so I had much more time to read... I hope you like this wrap up!

Firstly I am going to talk about the mangas I read, as I don't want to go too into those as this is technically a book blog! I love manga, this month I read the first three volumes in Attack on Titan and absolutely loved them. I thought they were worth mentioning because they were just fantastic! If you are into manga then I definitely recommend you pick them up. Tell me if you have already read them in the comments!

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

This book is the second in the Lunar Chronicles after Cinder. It was fantastic, action packed and pure awesome. This series is amazing and I cannot wait to get my hands on Cress.

I had been wanting to read this since I finished Cinder in February, but I was on a sort-of-book-buying-ban... Now I am so happy that I have read it. But I am now on another sort-of-book-buying-ban... So I can't buy Cress at the moment! 

I think this series is a perfect mix of sci-fi, adventure and romance with many other different elements mixed in. 

My rating- 5 stars

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

This book is the first book in a trilogy, if you are interested definitely check out my review of the trilogy!

I absolutely adored this book (as well as the whole trilogy) it was amazing. Looking for a perfect summer read? This is it. Everything about this trilogy was perfect for the mood I was in. It was addictive, the character development was great and the plot definitely did not lack.

If you have read this then tell me in the comments what you thought of it! I know that it is a very popular contemporary romance and I can definitely see why!

My rating- 5 stars

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

This book is the second in the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. After adoring the first book I HAD to get my hands on the second as soon as possible. It was just as good as the first if not better in my opinion. I just grew so attached to the characters and laughed out loud so much.

Looking back on different events in this trilogy just makes me feel so happy... I  cannot wait to read some more of Jenny Han's books, all of them look absolutely fantastic.

I can see that it may not be everyone's cup of tea... But definitely check it out anyway!

My rating- 5 stars

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

The perfect ending to such a great trilogy, the final book in the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy (if you hadn't already guessed)

I found the ending of this absolutely fantastic... The start of it was slightly irritating, but the rest of it just makes up for that 10 times over.

I know I have already recommended it... But seriously... I RECOMMEND IT. It will definitely get you in that summer mood, even if where you are it is not sunny! I have genuinely fallen in love with the whole trilogy... 

I hope some of you will take my recommendation and fall in love with it to!

My rating- 5 stars

Red by Alison Cherry 

I read about half of this book  a month ago, then read the other half this month. The reason I took a break from it was that I wasn't very gripped to the story and there were other books that I wanted to read!

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I wanted to. It was good, but maybe not my thing. I liked that it was easy to read, though.

It is about a girl called Felicity who lives in a town called Scarlet-Ville, a town for red heads, if you haven't got red hair then you are not accepted. Felicity has everything, popular boyfriend,  great friends and bright red hair. But she has a secret, she is not a natural red head...

My rating- 5 stars

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

A very well known and popular book, so I'm sure you have heard of it. Like Red, I read half of this a while back then finished it this month! I took a break because once I had put it down I didn't pick it back up for a while.

It has been really hyped up to me, so I went in expecting alot... But honestly, I didn't think it was that great. This is just my opinion, it wasn't my favourite. However, I am going to carry on with the series as I heard it gets better as it goes along!

Vampire Academy was alright, I just didn't think it was that special, not much happened in it. But I will definitely read the next book!

My rating- 5 stars

Paper Towns by John Green

Finally I have read it! I love John Green so much, his youtube and his books!The Fault In Our Stars is one of my favourite books, if you haven't read it yet then I really don't know why...

Paper Towns was excellent, well written (ofcourse, it is John Green) and a perfect story line. I know that most of you reading this will have already read it so I don't know if I need to recommend it... But I am going to anyway. READ IT. It was just so original and unique, different to many other books, this also applies to the characters, original and unique! Especially Margo, her character was very different.

My rating- 5 stars

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This series is one of my all time favourites, so this was a re-read for me.

Even reading it for the second time makes me fall in love with it, the addictive writing style and epic plot combined just make it such a brilliant read. 

I can understand that not everyone would love this book/ series, but I do... I love it so much. Re-reading it makes me super excited for the fifth and final book Opposition to come out! 

And can we just talk about Daemon Black?

My rating- 5 stars (obviously!)

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

When this book came in the post I did a huge happy dance! If you watch booktube, then you may know that some booktubers are doing a massive read-along for it. I was definitely persuaded to but it after hearing amazing things!

Rebel. Belle. Was. Pure. Awesome. 

The romance in this book was so cute, the action was epic.

I don't know how to describe to you how great this was. All I know is that there will definitely be a review for it up soon!

Please check this one out! This is such a promising new series, read it!

My rating- 5 stars

Those are all the books I read, but I also read 2 novellas, which were The Guard by Kiera Cass. This is a novella for The Selection (one of my favourite series!), the third and final book, The One, comes out in may. So excited. My rating- 4 stars

The other novella was Shadows by Jennifer L.Armentrout. This is a novella for Obsidian (the Lux series) and it was excellent. My rating- 4 stars

That is the end of my wrap up, it was quite a long one! I hope you enjoyed this post, I will have another up soon,

-Darcy