Like And Subscribe - Book Review

Two posts in one day?! Well aren't i the productive one today!

This review is slightly different to the other reviews i have done on this blog so far because it's of a short story, something i'm not usually a big fan of...well i've definitely changed my mind!

Like and Subscribe is an amazing short story from the ridiculously amazing Jay Bell, and let me tell you, it is just as great as his other work! The story is about a guy called Evan, and it tells the story of how he came to learn the truth about love. omg it's good.

I feel like anyone who has ever been subscribed to a YouTuber should read this story and see how much like reality it is! I think Evan perfectly captures the essence of being a YouTube fanboy/fangirl, and that Tony is the perfect example of how we can never really know what our favourite YouTubers are like no matter how much we love and adore them.

I love the evolution between Evan and Tony's boyfriend Orlando, and how Evan starts to see how the persona that Tony puts on for his YouTube audience is far from what he is like in reality. Something that a lot of YouTube lovers need to see, because not everyone on YouTube is as perfect as they seem.

Honestly, Jay Bell is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and every new thing i read by him the more in love i fall with his writing! I cannot wait to read more! In fact, i'm going to wrap up this post and go read his short story Language Lessons...I AM EXCITED!

Meghan x

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Something Like Winter - Book Review

Hello there again people of the internet! I'm back again today with another review for you all! Up this time is Something Like Winter by Jay Bell, which is the sequel to the wonderful Something Like Summer, here we go!!

Something Like Winter was everything i ever could have wanted in a sequel and oh so much more! All the aspects that i completely fell in love with during Something Like Summer were still there, but there were also these other amazing parts that i never knew i wanted. The parts that were 100% Something Like Winter were possibly the parts of this book that i loved the most, and the whole book was simply perfect.

Something Like Winter tells the story of Tim from Something Like Summer, and shows us his perspective of that first year with Ben, as well as all the other times that their characters came together in Something Like Summer, but with oh so much more. The parts of the book that told the story of Tim without Ben, something i longed for while reading Something Like Summer, were so brilliantly and beautifully written, and i even loved the characters that i hated. Tim's story was a perfect blend of familiar and original, mixing the best parts of his story with Ben with a story so uniquely his own in such a beautiful and heartbreaking way.

The new characters were all amazing, all of them being this amazing blend of good and bad characteristics that Jay Bell seems to have mastered. Getting to know the characters from Something Like Summer that i felt i knew so well in a whole new way was amazing, as was getting to know characters who i wanted to know more about the first time round. *cough*ERIC*cough* I never wanted this book to end!

Since i finished Something Like Winter i haven't prepared enough mentally yet to take on Something Like Autumn and Something Like Spring, but omg i cannot wait to get stuck into them both! As soon as i finish my current book i will be all over Something Like Autumn! I miss the characters, i miss Jay Bell's writing, and i miss being so involved in a story.

It's such a wonderfully perfect series so far, and i cannot suggest it enough! If you decide to give this series a chance, i promise you will not regret it one little bit!!

Meghan x

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The Book Sacrifice Tag

Hello there internet! I hope we're all good today!

Today i thought that i would take on The Book Sacrifice TAG created by the very wonderful Ariel Bissett  and i thought it looked like a really fun tag to do! HERE WE GO!

Scenario One: An Over-Hyped Book - Let's start this off with a zombie apocalypse! Let's say you're in a book store, just browsing, when BAM! ZOMBIE ATTACK! An announcement comes over the PA system saying that the military has discovered that the Zombies' only weakness is over-hyped books. What book that everyone else says is amazing but you really hated do you start chucking at the zombies knowing that it will count as an over-hyped book and successfully wipe them out?

Okay, what book is too over-hyped? I'm going to go for Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman . Everyone i have heard talk about this book has said how amazing it is, and how the series is the best thing ever, and honestly? I cannot stand it! I tried so hard to get into it, i read the first two books and i really wish i had just given up during the first one. So those zombies have got hoards of noughts and crosses being aimed their way.

Scenario Two: A Sequel - Let's say you've just left the salon with a SMASHING new haircut and BOOM! Torrential downpour. What sequel are you willing to use as an umbrella to protect yourself?

New Moon. New Moon. New Moon. I actually really like the Twilight series...no judging! But is there any need for New Moon? Really? It's just a terrible book, and going from the first book in a series to the third should feel like you've missed something, but jumping from Twilight to Eclipse doesn't feel like that. So sorry New Moon you're getting wet. 

Scenario Three: A Classic - Let's say that you're in a lecture and your English teacher is going on and on about how this classic changed the world, how is revolutionized literature, and you get so sick of it that you throw the classic right at his face because you know what? This classic is stupid and it's worth detention just to show everyone how you feel! What classic did you throw?

Romeo and Juliet. You can use plays for this question right? Either way i have to throw Romeo and Juliet, mainly because that's all i wanted to do when we studied it at school. I love Shakespeare, but i have a special piece of hatred reserved for Romeo and Juliet. I don't think it's anywhere near Shakespeare's best play, nor can i really find any redeeming feature in it. I think a big part of me hating R&J so much is the way it's taught as this amazing love story and how it's THE love story you know? It's not. Two teenagers fancy each other and everyone ends up dead because they're idiots. Ugh yeah i'm throwing this book so hard.

Scenario Four: Your least favourite book of life - Let's say that you're hanging out in a library when BAM global warming explodes and the world outside becomes a frozen wasteland. You're trapped and your only chance for survival is to burn a book. What is the book you run to first, your least favourite book of all life. What book do you not fully regret lighting?

*Don't hate me* My least favourite book of life is...The Great Gatsby. I have read this thing like 4 times? (i'm not sure i finished it the fourth time) and i still can't get myself to like any part of it. I don't know what it is, but i just really cannot enjoy this book. And i know that everyone else loves it, but if i'm stuck in a freezing library, this sucker is being burnt!

Meghan x

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Something Like Summer - Book Review

Hello there internet!! How are we all today? Oh good! :)

I'm here today with another book review, and it is one i am VERY excited about! The book is Something Like Summer by Jay Bell. I read this book about two weeks ago in one sitting, and i have wanted to type up my review ever since, however the almighty power of university work has pushed back everything i want to do. Hopefully that's cooled down for a bit now!

Anyway, on to the review!! (I am warning you now, there may be a lot of OMG!!!!'s and AHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!'s...you have been warned!)

OH. MY. GOD. I am so in love with this book! 

Much like with Boy Meets Boy  i read this in one sitting and i have absolutely fell in love with every single second of it! As soon as i finished it i bought the other three books in the series, two short stories by the same author, and then immediately missed the story. I don't think i've fell so in love with a book in a long time.

The story follows a guy called Ben, who falls for the new, straight, guy at his school - Tim. The first part of this book focuses on the first year that they met and the friendship, relationship, heartache, that happened in that first year. This part made me want to reach into my kindle, pull them out of 1996 Texas and give them the biggest hugs ever. Also to shake some damn sense into them both! When this section of the book ended, i cried. I haven't cried to a book in a long, long time, and it doesn't really happen very often. It was so beautifully written and wow it was just so perfect and heartbreaking. 

Then in part two of the book, Ben is in college in Chicago, and his love life hasn't gotten any better since part one. BUT THEN something happens that means he has to go back to Texas, and on the flight he meets a flight attendant called Jace, and wow Ben falls in love and all seems like it's actually going well for once! Hurrah! He moves to Austin to live with his best friend, and life is good...BUT THEN uh oh who does Ben see in a coffee shop....TIM!! (OMG RIGHT) Ugh i love this part of the book so so so so so much!!

There is then a part three...which i am not going to discuss in this review, because to do that i'd have to spoil things that are major plot lines in part two. And i think that this part is so beautifully written, and oh so heartbreaking, that it's something that you should go into blind and just get lost in the story because it's just perfect!

I'm currently just over halfway through the second book Something Like Winter  and i am just as much in love with this book as i was the first. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series (there's also Something Like Autumn and Something Like Spring) and also get into the short stories of Jay Bell's because i am so in love with the way he writes!

Meghan x

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Boy Meets Boy - Book Review

Hello again internet! I'm back today with another book review (ooh aren't i being good with my resolutions this year..) and i am so excited about this one!

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. Oooh it was such a good book! This is the first book in a long time that i sat and read in one sitting, i just couldn't put it down! I absolutely LOVED it.

At first i wasn't sure that i'd fully get into it, there's just something about the way it's written that made it seem a little weird to me, but once i got over that, i fell in love.

I adored all of the characters and the way they interacted with each other. I laughed. I wanted to give them all a big hug. I felt sad. I felt really happy. It was such a lovely, and perfect little book, even the sad parts ultimately made me feel happy.

Paul was great. Noah was cute as hell. Tony was heart breaking. Everyone was just so well written and developed that i felt like i actually knew them. It felt like i was reading about people that i've known for years. It was so lovely and refreshing to see that not a single character was ever seen as being 'perfect' and everyone was written as so perfectly normal. It was beautiful really. Each and every character was relatable in some way and i really, really loved that. Even when characters weren't exactly being the best/nicest people in the world, you completely understood why.

I honestly have fallen in love with this book, and i can't wait to read more by David Levithan, hopefully they'll be as wonderful as Boy Meets Boy.

Meghan x

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City of Ashes - Book Review

Well hello there internet, it's been a while! I've kind of neglected this blog this month as it was essay writing month, and lectures started again, so it's been a university centred month which hasn't left much time for anything else. But i'm back now! And i have quite a few blog posts that i already know i want to write, so hopefully i'll get back into the swing of things quite easily!

Anyway, today i'm here with a book review! Ooh how exciting! One of my new years resolutions was to review every book i read this year, even the re-reads, and today i'm starting that! Just as a warning: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!

I started this year off with a book i was certain that i would enjoy reading before philosophy books took over my life. So i picked up my much loved copy of City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare.

I plan on re-reading the Mortal Instruments series before City of Heavenly Fire comes out in a few months, so City of Ashes was the obvious choice for first book of the year. I love love love this series and i love it even more each time i read one of them! Here we go with the review!

First of all: SCREW YOU VALENTINE!

Okay, now to actual reviewing! I love this book, possibly more than i love City of Bones...but it's a very close call! (Then again, i just love them all so much, i can't decide between them!) I adore everything about this book, seriously. Simon becoming a vampire, Alec and Magnus, Alec's almost coming out, Jace in general, the Inquisitor, every single thing! I'm pretty certain that this is the best second book in a series that i have ever read, and that's pretty amazing seeing as it had such an incredible first book to live up to!!

Jace and Clary...ugh someone needs to go give them the biggest hugs ever, okay? At the end when Clary decides to finally tell Jace how she feels and how she doesn't care about the whole sibling thing, and then he tells her he's going to fight his feelings and be the brother she needs because he thinks that's what she wants...ugh my heart! It's such an emotional moment in the book and it's written oh so perfectly! And no matter how many times i read it i am in no way prepared for it!

The battle on the boat is so great. I really love the way this whole thing is described, it's just so wonderful, even if some of it could have been shortened/cut out, i still really love it. The best part however was the small break from the battle where it cuts to Alec and Magnus is Luke's truck. You know what i mean. The part where Magnus basically tells Alec that he loves him and Alec didn't want to hear it. Ugh so not okay! 

The whole Alec storyline genuinely makes me very sad, and this is one of the moments that makes me want to reach into the book and give him the biggest hug ever, because i think that's what he needs more than anything.

See you soon!!

Meghan x 

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2014 Bookish Resolutions!

Happy New Year internet!! I hope you all had a wonderful new year however you spent the night. As everyone knows the new year is the time when people make resolutions of things they want to do that year, mainly to improve certain aspects of their lives, and i want to do make a list of resolutions all to do with books, reading habits, and all things that revolve around the two. 

Here we go!

1) Make more time for fiction!

Okay this seems like a bit of a silly one, even to me, but for the second half of this year fiction has kind of fell away from my immediate reading pile due to all the reading i have to do for uni. Even though my uni reading isn't going to die down until around September i still want to make more time to read for fun. I miss fiction and i miss getting lost in new worlds, and i'm definitely going to make a lot more of an effort this year!

2) Review everything i read!

So this one is pretty self explanatory, i want to review every single book i read. Well, i want to review all of the books i read for fun, i'll save you from the pain of all the uni reading. I really enjoy reviewing books and i haven't done it as much as i wanted to since i started this blog back in June so i want that to change in 2014.

3) Finish more series'!

I have this bad habit of starting a series, and then just never reading the last book. So this year i will change that! All but one of the books i have planned for immediate reading are the last book in a series. I need to know how these stories end and i keep putting them off because i don't want them to end. I will finish all the series'!

4) Only buy a book for every book i finish!

This is basically me putting myself on a book buying ban for 2014. I keep buying books and then not reading them for the longest time, so i'm only allowing myself to buy a book when i finish one. However i want to add a part to this and say that before i buy a book, with the exception of the two i'm going on the hunt for tomorrow and the one i have on pre-order, i want to read at least ten books before i buy more books.

5) Only buy books i know i'm going to read!

I always buy books that i think will be great when i'm in the shop, then when i get home i realise that i will probably never read them and end up giving them away, so that needs to stop! I have this plan of really looking into books and reviews before i actually buy a book, i know that i won't stick to that plan but it's nice to have it there to start with. 

6) Get more involved in Read-a-thons and BookTube-a-thon!

I really love the idea of these, and i watch all of the videos about them, and then i never take part in any of them, and i want that to change! So starting this year i'm going to take part in any that i can, and hopefully that will help with a few more of my resolutions!

Finally, 7) Start making videos!

I've wanted to get involved with the BookTube community for so long, and i think this is the year i'm going to finally start! I'm not sure when i'm going to start but i know that it's something i really want to do before the end of the year!

Meghan x

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