Mel's MASSIVE May & June Book Haul

I finally got around to photographing all of my books for the past two months. There's been a lot of poor weather lately and getting a day with decent lighting is difficult, but basically, I got tired of waiting for a clear day and just made do with what I had.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas - Sarah is an auto-buy for me. I love everything about her writing!

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes - I saw this and liked the sound of it. I have never read a book from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts, so it should be interesting!

Ruined by Amy Tintera - This book sounds really interesting and It's my favourite genre, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

Soldier by Julie Kagawa - I already have the first two books in this series, so I picked this up to complete the set.

Desolation by Derek Landy - I have Demon Road and I've already started it, but I'm loving it so much I had to get the sequel!

 

The Crown and Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass - I recently read the first 3 books in The Selection series, so these were an auto-buy so that I can complete the series.

The Lost Sapphire by Belinda Murrell - This is a teen mystery based in Melbourne, Aus. I bought it because I liked the sound of it. And that cover is gorgeous!

 

Cress and Stars Above by Marissa Meyer - I've almost completed buying the whole of the Lunar Chronicles! I only need Fairest now.

 

Doon and Destined For Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon - I bought these after wanting them for about a year now because I was approved to read the Forever Doon ARC.



 

 

The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas - because I wanted them in hardcover! Sooo pretty!

Black by Fleur Ferris - Having loved Fleur's first book Risk, I was very excited for this book to be released! I have read this already, but the review will be coming later, after Jen has a chance to read it.

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith - I waited to get this because the larger format released earlier didn't match the other Cormoran Strike novels I own.

Conjuror by John and Carole Barrowman - Okay, so I might have bought this because I recognised John Barrowman from Doctor Who and Torchwood, but the description of this book does sound interesting!

The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L Armentrout - I don't often buy YA contemporary, but I've heard a lot about this one. I've not yet read a book by Jennifer, so I think I'll wait to read this until after I've read her Dark Elements trilogy.

The Loneliness of Distant Beings by Kate Ling - I saw this cover and had to see what this is about! Luckily, it sounds just like something I'd read!

Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff - I debated buying this, but after seeing a few people haul this and talk a little about it, I caved.

 

Bleach by Tite Kubo - I've been enjoying Bleach in the manga format, so when I saw my local store had restocked, I grabbed them while I could! Here are volumes 7-15.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando - I was so intrigued by this book that I bought it on the spot. I have already read and reviewed this one, so check out my review on Goodreads.

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 :)

Buddy Read!

In some very exciting news (for Mel and I at least), we are going to be doing a buddy read in June! Mel came across a readathon that involved buddy reading a book and while the challenges for that readathon didn't really fit in with my reading plans for June, I wanted to do the buddy read with Mel anyway. We got so excited about it that we decided we wanted to try the challenges that were part of the BookBuddyAThon. That happened during May and we were both bummed that we missed it, but we wanted to do it ourselves anyway. We did tweak things slightly and gave ourselves the whole month in which to complete all the challenges just so that it would be more enjoyable and less pressure on us. 

The challenges were: 

1. Choose three books and get your buddy to pick one from them for you to read.

2. Buddy read a book with your buddy.

3. Read a book with your buddy's favourite colour on the cover.

4. Read a book that's title starts with the first letter of your buddy's name (or at least appears in the title if not possible).

5. Read a book that you want to... just because.

Jen's Book Picks 

1. The three books that I chose were The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan and Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery and Mel picked The Night Circus! Which worked out well because it overlaps with the Tome Topple Readathon!

2. The book that Mel and I chose was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This was a great choice for me because it was one of my TBR books that Mel picked for me to read in 2016!

3. Mel’s favourite colour is blue so Shatter Me works for this one as well!

4. Shatter Me has an M in the title so I’m just going to cheat a little and use it for this challenge as well.

5. I have chosen This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp for this challenge. I have been wanting to read this book since it was released in January this year and my library finally managed to have a copy available so that was perfect timing!

Mel's Book Picks 
1. I decided to get a bit of a mix of books for my three picks. I picked The Ring Goes South (Book 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring) by JRR Tolkien, because it's a book that I started ages ago and had not continued, Tandem by Anna Jarzab because it has been on my shelf forever and I haven't picked it up yet, and Ruined by Amy Tintera, which is a new book that I'm really excited to start reading. Jen chose Ruined, which I'm really happy about! Not only is it good for the buddy read, but it also fits with the other readathon I'm participating in this month!

2. Our buddy read is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This will be a reread for me, because I've basically forgotten everything about the book and I do want to continue the series, so a refresher will be good.

3. Jen's favourite colour is rainbow, meaning I had a real challenge finding a book with a rainbow cover, however, just in time for the challenge, Jennifer L Armentrout comes to the rescue with The Problem With Forever.

4. Finding a book on my shelves with a J in the title was definitely the hardest part of the challenge, but I've also resorted to bending the rules a little. I've chosen to read a book that has a J in the author's name. So I'll be reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I chose this book because I can also use it in the other readathon that I'm doing.

5. For this challenge, I've chosen to read Demon Road by Derek Landy. I have actually already started this book, but I'm really enjoying it, so I want to finish it! I can use this in my other readathon too.