Sunday, August 31, 2014

August Wrap Up!

Hi everyone! This month has been a mix of uni and mid-trimester break and I defiantly needed the break! I actually haven't read too much this month or bought many books either. The first two weeks were completely uni focused with tests and assignments due, last week I spent the week either trying to do uni work or being completely addicted to Game of Thrones (I know I'm late to the party but it is freaking awesome!) which I plan on reading over the summer since my step-dad got the box set for Christmas last year. I am also working on a few reviews to be up on the blog over the next month hopefully since September is pretty much uni, uni, uni all the time expect for when I am off to Aussie Uni Games for waterpolo which should be a fun week! Then I have my two week exam block before I am off on summer holidays even though it will still be spring but 4 and half month break, yay!

Last weekend I went down to Sydney to Kinokuniya bookstore with my best friend to meet Kylie Fornasier the author of Masquerade which was a great book! It is pretty much 18thC Gossip Girl which was awesome. I also got to do a bit of shopping whilst I was there, which was fantastic.


My signed Masquerade book! Plus my shopping purchase


Bought:

  • Masquerade by Kylie Fornasier
  • Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
Review:
  • Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer- this is the final book in the elementals series and I didn't want to start this book because I knew that this was the end, although it is freaking fantastic none the less.
E-Books:
  • More Than Forever by Jay McLean- Funny story with this book, I was bored in my 2 hour HUBS lecture and I started reading this book, got to a hilarious part and had to stop myself laughing so I started paying attention to the lecture where they just started talking about pooping whilst giving childbirth. It was really hard to keep the laughter in!
  • Fairytale Love by Melanie Shawn
  • Seducing Lauren by Kristen Proby
  • Without You by Kelly Elliott
  • A Whole New Crowd by Tijan
  • Seaside Dreams by Melissa Foster
  • Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole
So that is my August Wrap Up! Link me below to what books you got this month!

Keely xx

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Review Time #66

Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole


We all have secrets.

Secrets well buried.

Until we find the one soul who makes the burden of such secrets just that little bit easier to bear.


Lexington "Lexi" Hart is a senior at the University of Alabama. Surrounded by her best friends, her loving family and having fulfilled her life-long dream of making the Crimson Tide cheer squad, everything is going exactly as she always dreamed it would. But beneath her happy exterior, demons lurk, threatening to jeopardize everything Lexi has worked to achieve. When events in her life become too much to cope with, Lexi finds herself spiraling down into the realm of her biggest fear. Lexi falls hard, victim once again to the only thing that can destroy her and, on the way, finds herself falling straight into the dangerous tattooed arms of a guy from the wrong side of the tracks.

Austin Carillo, starting Wide Receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide, must get picked in this year's NFL draft. He needs it. His brothers need it. Most importantly, his mother desperately needs it. Brought up in a world where the poor are forgotten, the sick are left to fend for themselves and no hero miraculously appears to pull you out of hell, Austin had no other choice but to make a living on the wrong side of the law—until football offered Austin the break to get his life back on track. But when a family tragedy drags him back into the clutches of the gang he believed he had left far behind, Austin finds himself falling. Falling back into criminal ways and falling deep into a suffocating darkness. Until a troubled yet kindred spirit stumbles across his path, where Austin quickly finds he is falling for a young woman, a young woman who might just have the power to save him from his worst enemy: himself.

Can two troubled souls find a lasting peace together? Or will they finally succumb to the demons threatening to destroy them?


I normally don't review New Adult books on my blog even though currently it is pretty much what I read, but this book I just had to write a review for. Sweet Fall is book three in the Sweet Home series but it can be read as a standalone as it follows two different main characters, Lexi and Austin.

Both Lexi and Austin are facing their own problems when fate seems to be pushing them together for better and worse. Lexi is struggling her illness which is starting to take over her life again after her best friend past away from the same illness, anorexia nervosa. What hit home about this was that through my degree I have studied anorexia the risks, the signs and why people face this, so seeing in a NA book just really put the illness out there and how people face the demons from it. 

Austin is facing his own demons his mother is slowing dying from ALS, his old gang has recruited his 14 year old brother, his older brother is dealing on campus, and the dean is just looking for a reason to throw him out of college. Austin is close to the NFL draft, a chance to get out of this life that haunts him and his family, he cannot risk anything ruining his chances at the NFL.

After one of Lexi's psychiatrist appointments at the hospital she finds Austin alone and vulnerable after finding out some not so great news about his mother. These two were really thrown together and after run a few times they finally realise that they need each. To everyone else Lexi is a cheerleader goth with her dark makeup & black hair, but no one knows how much Lexi is hiding. Austin is the strong football player with gang tats, but not the vulnerable guy who doesn't know what is going to happen to his family or life. 

Austin and Lexi once they tell each other their secrets they are inseparable but no one knows that they are together because Austin is worried that his old gang might come after her to get him back in. That is until his younger brother gets in trouble and then Austin leaves Lexi when she needed him most.

This book is not an easy one read, your heartbreaks as you read Lexi's point of view with the way that she degrades herself and makes herself eat less and less. The story is raw and emotional from both points of view it makes you feel and understand what both of them are going through and how much they need each other. Sweet Fall was fantastic despite the heartbreaking, emotional and raw story that you read. 

Rating: 5/5

Keely xx

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Review Time #65

On The Fence by Kasie West

For sixteen-year-old Charlotte Reynolds,

aka Charlie, being raised by a single dad and three older brothers has its perks. She can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows—including her longtime neighbor and honorary fourth brother, Braden. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world of makeup, lacy skirts, and BeDazzlers. Even stranger, she's spending time with a boy who has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game.

To cope with the stress of faking her way through this new reality, Charlie seeks late-night refuge in her backyard, talking out her problems with Braden by the fence that separates them. But their Fence Chats can't solve Charlie's biggest problem: she's falling for Braden. Hard. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.


I am so glad that I read this book in Australia's Autumn when it was still warm so it felt like a summer read which is exactly what it is! Currently it is pretty damn freezing where I am at uni so there is no way I would be able to read this book right now. 

I absolutely adored this book! It is a perfect summer read and a great light contemporary read. Charlie is a girl who loves playing sports and just hanging around with her 3 brothers & neighbor. Expect now that Charlie has gotten another speeding ticket her father who is a cop is making her get a job & work off the cost of the tickets. Working in a clothing store is completely not Charlie, she wears tight jeans and flowery tops which is not her normal tom-boy look.

I love the relationship that Charlie has with the three of her brothers, Jerom, Nathan & Gage, they all get along and have fun which is exactly what this family relationship was. Charlie has the most in common with Gage since they are the closet in age & the banter & tips that what Charlie should look for in a guy are hilarious like:

"Never date a guy whose jeans don'y cover his ankles."

Braden is her neighbor and Gage's best friend who pretty much spends all his time over that their house. After Charlie's nightmares start to get worse about what happened the night her mother died it is Braden who starts to help her through these nightmares & times when she cannot sleep. It becomes known as their "fence" chats which also draw them closer together. 

Charlie really grows as a character through working at the clothing store with Linda and Skye becoming friends with them. The girls even manage to get Charlie to go on a date with Evan which puts a strain on her relationship with Braden. Evan was a great character even though he was really more suited as a friend for Charlie he got along with all her brothers which made him become more apart of the story. 

I really loved Charlie she wasn't our average female protagonist she was sporty, a tom boy, doesn't care about make up and dress she just did what she wanted to and had fun. When she finds out why she has been having the nightmares, Braden and Gage are really there for her which is what makes her relationship to each of them unique in the book. 

On The Fence is a great summery read about growing up, learning to deal with traumatic events and first love. 

Thanks Harper Collins Australia for the ARC!

Rating: 5/5

Keely xx

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Review Time #64

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.

Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive. 

For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .

Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.


WARNING: THE FIERY HEART SPOLIERS AHEAD

I don't know how I feel about Silver Shadows. I feel like that the series has changed from the first three books which I loved, but after TFH and SS I feel like the series has gone backwards to me. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed TFH and SS but just not as much as the first three, Vampire Academy and The Age of X.

Silver Shadows picks up about 6 months after Sydney was taken into re-education by the Alchemists. I admired Sydney a lot in the opening chapters with her bravery and determination to not give into the alchemists and being able to withstand everything that they threw at her. Adrian however I wanted to hit up the side of the head! After Sydney was taken to re-education, he completely lost focus on everything and relapsed into his bad habits that he had worked so hard to kick.

Adrian had a lot of home issues too and being back at court will was good in theory was horrible idea in practice. Queen Lissa wasn't very helpful with Adrian's situation about Sydney since no besides the Palm Springs crew knows about Sydney and Adrian and the fact that she has to be diplomatic enough to not piss of the Alchemists. 

Sydney made some allies in the re-education centre and now how she went about it was pure Sydney Sage logic. The new characters in re-education were written perfectly with them wanting to follow the rules but still didn't want to abide by the Alchemists rules. The Palm Springs gang was completely lost about what to do without Sydney and Eddie, god love him, really needs to tell Jill about his feelings *shake some sense into the poor guy*. 

Also the cliffhanger man, Richelle Mead you sure know how to leave your fans hanging!

The great thing about Mead's writting is that you are never going to know what she will throw at you and Silver Shadows was no different with car chases & Vegas, oh and the fact that Adrian is in this story the impulsiveness shows!

Thank you Penguin Teen Australia for this e-arc!

Rating: 4/5

Keely xx