Mel's April & May 2018 Book Haul

April
I got a moderate amount of books in April, But there's definitely a few here that I'm excited to read!

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - As I have just finished rereading the first two books in the Illuminae Files, I really want to see how this series ends!
Reflection by Elizabeth Lim - This is a twisted version of Mulan. I have other books in the collection (not really a series? *shrug*) so I wanted this one too. It's probably the one I want to read most though.
Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton - The final book in another trilogy! I'll be rereading the first one before I get to this and book 2 though.
The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross - This was one that I picked up in store and decided it sounded interesting.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert - Another book I just picked up on a whim.
This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada - I hadn't really looked into this before I bought it, I'd just seen it a lot online and decided to give it a go.
Scythe by Neal Schusterman - I've been seeing this a lot on booktube, but the synopsis of the story is actually interesting to me, so I picked it up.

May
Not too many books this month, mostly because I didn't see many that I thought couldn't wait until later.

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian - I don't know much about this book, but I enetered a givaway on Twitter and won! But it does sound really interesting, so I can't wait to read it.
LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff - I've heard a lot about this book, and this author is an auto buy for me.
Whisper by Lynette Noni - I had only seen this a few times on Twitter, but hadn't heard much about it. I read the synopsis and thought it sounded really good.
The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green - I actually just fell in love with the pretty cover! However, the story does sound quite interesting.
Furyborn by Claire Legrand - I hadn't heard of this book before I saw it in the store, but picked it up after I read the synopsis. It sounds just like my kind of fantasy!

Mel's October, November & December 2017 Book Haul

I haven't done too much book buying over the last three months (compared to usual). That's probably a good thing, considering I'm desperately searching for shelf space! Lol.

October

The Testing and Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau - The store didn't have Graduation Day... *cries* Lol

Nemesis by Brendan Reichs

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff (x2 - one for Jen, which is living at my house until she's back from Hong Kong)

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

A Game of Thrones Illustrated Edition by George RR Martin - Got this dirt cheap! It was just over AUD$18, down from AUD$40 or $50.

Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - found this in an op shop for $1! It was actually a surprise because it is in reasonably good condition and it's also the US cover!

November

13 Reason's Why by Jay Asher - found in op shop for $1

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - found in op shop for $1

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - found in op shop for $1

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton - found hardcover edition in op shop for $1

Yup, I spent $4 in November!

December

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner - found in op shop for $1

Lonely Planet China guide - found in op shop for $1
Ensnared by AG Howard - This was a Christmas gift from Jen, and it completes the series.
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb - This is a series I keep seeing, and have seen for many years now, but I just have never gotten around to looking into the series. I found it in Big W and decided that I would give it a go.
Artemis by Andy Weir - I loved The Martian so much that Andy is an auto-buy, so this was definitely going to end up on my shelf!
Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner - I've heard so many great things about this book! I can't wait to start it!
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie - I've read one other story by Agatha Christie and loved it, and with the new film adaptation for this book, I decided to give it a go.
Everless by Sara Holland - I won an ARC copy of this book from the lovely people over at Hachette, through their Twitter account Date A Book.
By The River by Steven Herrick - Mum had two copies of this book on her shelf and was going to take it to our local coffee shop/book lounge, but I decided I'd read it before she had the chance. I liked it so much that I kept it!
Warcross by Marie Lu - Hardcover edition. Jen bought me this as an early birthday present.

March 2017 TBR

Jen

March is going to be a very crazy month for me because I will be heading overseas to Hong Kong at the end of the month! As such I can imagine that much of my time will be taken up with packing and organising. That doesn’t leave me much time for reading at all so this is a very hopeful TBR for me.

Never Fade (The Darkest Minds #2), In the Afterlight (#3), Through the Dark (novella collection) by Alexandra Bracken

I did actually start reading Never Fade last month, but I wasn’t really in the mood for it, so I didn’t make it very far before I was distracted by other books. I definitely won’t be taking any physical books overseas with me so I really need to get this one finished. And then read the third book in this trilogy as well as finish up the collection of novellas.

Fullmetal Alchemist (3-in-1 Edition) Volumes 4 - 9 by Hiromu Arakawa & Akira Watanabe

Some very sad news for me, apparently manga isn’t big at all over in H.K. I had been hoping to be able to slowly work my way through this series but that’s not going to happen now since I won’t be able to get access to this series via the library over there. Therefore I need to read these six omnibus editions to finish up this manga series before I leave! It seems like a lot but I’m really hoping that it can happen.

Mel
I'm all about fairytale/Disney retellings and manga this month! Then if I have time, there's a few extra books that I've been wanting to read.

InuYasha 3-in-1 Volumes 1, 2 & 3 by Rumiko Takahashi
Tokyo Ghoul Volume 1 by Sui Ishida
Sword Art Online Aincrad by Reki Kawahara, Tamako Nakamura & abec
A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell
Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly
Splintered by AG Howard
Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton

Mel's Updated February 2017 TBR

In the last week or so, I have actually developed a decent TBR for February, so I'm taking the opportunity to update it now, before it's too late in the month. I am actually on a reading binge, and have planned a book a day for the coming week. Here's what I intend on reading:

Cradle and All by James Patterson
Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes
The Last Beginning and Another Together by Lauren James
The Iron Trial, The Copper Gauntlet and The Bronze Key by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black
The Jewel, The White Rose and The Black Key by Amy Ewing
Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
Valentine by Jodi McAlister
Zoo and Zoo 2 by James Patterson
Frost Blood by Elly Blake
Caraval by Stephanie Garber

I am in such a mood for reading that this list may grow, but for now, these are the books I want to read right this moment.

June 2016 Wrap Up

Jen

My reading in June was definitely an improvement on how I went in May. I did have some unexpected days off work which allowed me more time to read, but I also participated in several readathons which gave me a little bit of extra motivation to get those books read! The TomeTopple readathon and the TBR Takedown 4.0 readathon were both so much fun and you can go and check out the wrap ups for those if you want the full breakdown of how I did. Mel and I also did a buddy read of our own and I managed to read all the books that I wanted to for that, so overall I'm super happy with what I read in June.

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas → 5/5

Harry Potter - The Artifact Vault by Jody Revenson → 5/5

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp → 4/5

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson → 5/5

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling → 5/5

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick → 4/5

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi → 4/5

The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum → 4/5

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick → 4/5

The Special Ones by Em Bailey → 4/5

George by Alex Gino → 4.5/5

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern → 3/5 

Mel 

Uhhh... Where the heck did June go? I feel like I just missed the entire month! I have no idea what happened! Oh well, can't go back now.
This month started off really well, I think. I read a few good books and was right into doing the readathons and the buddy read, but somewhere along the way, I derailed. Anyway...

Tomorrow, When The War Began by John Marsden → 5/5
The Leaving by Tara Altebrando → 4/5
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes → 4/5
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton → 5/5
Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings → 3/5
Black by Fleur Ferris → 5/5

Okay, so I did manage to read two books from the Readorama readathon, as mentioned in my wrap up, and I might have mentioned being not well and then slumping a bit; well, that slump didn't want to budge, so I had to stick with reading whatever I was in the mood for. Thus, Black. It's exactly what I needed to get me out of the slump, since I've been so excited to read it! Fleur Ferris is officially on my auto-purchase list! I also have been making a little bit of progress through The Lord of the Rings, since I seem to be obsessing over it lately (blame Lego. I bought the game for Playstation 3. Or blame me for buying it to begin with). So, the buddy read for me just didn't happen. I hope next time is a lot better!

 

Readorama Readathon Wrap Up

This readathon started out on quite a roll! I was flying through the first few books, but sadly I didn't read as much as I wanted to. On the third and fourth day I didn't feel like reading because I had headaches which only sleep seemed to be helping. Then after that I tried to get back into the swing of it and catch up on the time I had lost, but when I did, I just didn't feel in the mood for the books I'd chosen. Great time for a slump :/

Anyway, here's the books I did manage to read.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - I loved this book! The good and the bad. There were funny moments, and there were sad moments, but for all the talk that I'd heard saying that this book will make people cry, it just didn't. That was my only let down really, so I still gave it a 4/5 star rating.

Challenge: A book adapted to film.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton - This was such a quick and easy read and I flew through it in no time! I loved all of the characters, especially Jin (swoon!) and Amani. I love that the story takes place in a pseudo setting, meaning a fantasy location influenced by real locations, eg, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The names sound real, but don't exist outside of this book. It offers a wide racial diversity, which more books these days need.

This book was action packed and had plenty of twists. I love that so far in the series, there's no love triangle, but then again, it is only the first book. Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen! I rated this book 5/5 stars.

Challenge: A book with a protagonist of colour.

So after these two, I attempted to read Ruined by Amy Tintera, but it just wasn't grabbing me. I didn't feel in the mood for any of the other books I'd chosen, so to prevent my slump from getting to me too much, I just hung the challenge and read what I was in the mood for (I've been into The Lord of the Rings lately, since I've been replaying the Lego game on PS3), so I continued reading The Ring Goes South, book 2 of The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. This has prevented my slump from worsening, but unfortunately, this means that I didn't complete the readathon.

However, I am looking forward to participating again next time it comes around! I probably woudn't have read Rebel of the Sands by now if I hadn't participated, so there's some good come of it at least!

I hope to participate in more readathons this year, but after Jen and my buddy read, I think I'll put them off until after September. I have a lot of books to read before then and I know I'm going to want to dive right into Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas when it's released in September!

Readorama Readathon!

I heard about the Readorama readathon on Manda the Glittery Nerd's YouTube channel and I liked the sound of it, so I decided to give it a go!

The Readorama readathon takes place from 13 June - 19 June, wherever you are in the world, so don't be worried about time zones!

There are 8 challenges in total.
1. Read 7 books total.
2. Read a book with R, A, M, A anywhere in the title or author's name. I don't think they have to be together or anything, so this is actually a really easy challenge.
3. Read a book with music in it.
4. Read a book to movie/TV show adaptation. There are so many of these, since so many movies and TV shows are adapted from books these days!
5. Buddy read. Read a book with a buddy!
6. Read a book with a protagonist of colour. This means that you can read books set in other countries or are about different cultures, as long as the protagonist is anything other than white (this is the only rule for this challenge).
7. Read a book of short stories. If you are anything like me, you may have a book of novellas somewhere!
8. Read a book with a one word title. (If you're confused, check my list for an example.)

If you would like more information about the readathon or you need to find a reading buddy, you can do so by visiting Readorama on Twitter.

So, here are the books that I've chosen for this readathon:

1. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas - this is the book I've chosen for the RAMA challenge, since all of those letters appear in the author's name.

2. For the music challenge, I decided to change it up a bit and read a manga series! I have watched the anime for Angel Beats! by Jun Maeda, but I haven't read it yet, and I love the story so much that I can't not read it!

3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - The movie for this book is already out in some places, and I do want to watch it, so this is the perfect time to read it! Plus, this also fills one of my challenges for the buddy read that Jen and I are participating in this month.

4. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - Since this is also the buddy read for the other readathon that Jen and I are doing this month, it makes sense to use it here!

5. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton - This is the book I'm going to read for the protagonist of colour challenge, because it has a very Arabian vibe.

6. Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales by Justin Richards - I could have used The Assassin's Blade for the short stories challenge, but since one challenge is to read 7 books, I couldn't drop a book off the list.

7. Ruined by Amy Tintera - this is the book I've chosen for the one word title challenge, but as a bonus, it is also a book that overlaps with the buddy read we're doing!

And of course, that makes 7 books total, which fulfils the remaining challenge!

Let me know if you want to do the challenge too, and what books you want to read! I'd love to know :)

Mel's February 2016 Book Haul

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. This was February's YA Chronicles book.

Puffin classics collection. How beautiful are these! Believe it or not, this hard cover set at Big W cost less than the paperback set at Collins! I was gobsmacked! Books include: Black Beauty, Peter Pan, The Call of the Wild, The Wind in the Willows, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Secret Garden, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Anne of Green Gables.

The Finisher and The Keeper by David Baldacci. I actually bought The Keeper first, because as a new release, I was surprised to find it in a local op shop for $2! And in perfect condition! So, I went and bought the first book in the series.

The Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken. Finally, FINALLY, found these in a store. The covers of these aren't great, but the spines do look nice on the shelf.

Captive Prince by CS Pacat. I bought this because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I have already finished this one and whilst it is good, it wasn't the book that I expected. I already plan to unhaul this one because I don't think I'll ever read it again.

Doctor Who graphic novel 3 - Conversion. I still don't have issue 2, but oh well. 
Doctor Who - Time Lord Fairy Tales. This is a collection of fairytales rewritten in the Doctor Who universe!

Clariel by Garth Nix. I still need Abhorsen though!

Dreamfever by Kit Alloway. I bought the first book in the series, Dreamfire, last year, so I decided to get this one too.

Bleach omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-3 by Tite Kubo. I've been wanting to expand my manga collection, and since I like the Bleach anime, I decided to pick up the manga!

Outside in by Maria V Snyder. I still don't have Inside Out, but I saw this one going cheap, so I bought it.