15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: Who are your book blogging BFF's?

In my uni holidays I went to the Penguin Teen Aus Live book event in Sydney, here I finally got to meet some of the book bloggers who I have meet through twitter/goodreads/ranting about books.

Kim from two girls and a novel, we finally got to meet at the PTA Live event! Kim and I share the love of the Gallagher Girls throughout twitter... a lot... at least twice a week we bring conversations back to Gallagher Girls and Zach and the fact that Ally Carter is torturing us with tweets about GG6! She even tweeted us when we were on a GG re-read and told us something that happens in GG6! Safe to say we fangirled a lot. I also got to be meet Kerrie who is also from two girls and a novel, who like me is super excited that the Socceroos are going to BRAZIL THE 2014 SOCCER WORLD CUP!

So tomorrow it is State of Origin and that means that twitter will be fuelled with Kim, Kerrie and me tweeting furiously at Lisa from Badass Bookie who is a Queenslander! The only time that we do not say nice this to Lisa, but lets face it, she does it back!

Jaz from Fiction and Ficition who I also got to meet up with at PTA Live! Jaz has pretty cool hair, it's half blue! Jaz is another blogger who I have meet through twitter and is the reason I am doing this 15 day challenge, because she found it tweeted about and I liked the idea of it!

Hannah from The Girl in a Cafe I unfortunately haven't meet Hannah yet! She lives on the other side of Australia. Like me she loves travelling and Kim and I may have got her to read Gallagher Girls... (we are trying to spread the word of the awesomeness)

Shaheen from Speculating on SpecFic I was going to meet Shaheen at the PTA Live event but unfortunately she was sick :( Shaheen has helped me out a few when I am stuck on chemistry questions which I am forever grateful for as me and chemistry don't get along much. Kim and I have also got her to read Gallagher Girls, I am pretty sure that we try to get everyone to read the series...

Other awesome Aussie book bloggers:

• Shirley from shiirleyys bookshelf 
• Cat from Little Book Owl (also a booktuber!)
• Celine from forget me not
• Claire from Claire Reads

Keely xx

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 2

Day 2: What's your bedtime reading ritual?

Most of the time unless it is the weekend, the only time I can find for reading is when I am about to go to bed. I set up in my bed with super warm blankets (because you know it is winter and cold in Armidale!) I have been lately re-reading some e-books because I just having been wanting to start any new books because I will not put the book down, hence why I am re-reading. 

I am the person who will just keep on reading on into the early hours, because I struggle putting down a book if I haven't read it before. Seeing as uni takes up a lot of my time these days and because I don't live at home I live off $100 a week, which means I never have any money for physical books, sometimes I can buy a cheap e-book but that is it. 

Each night I try to read around 100pgs of a book or I watch a TV episode before bed, depending on if I can manage to read a book. So that is pretty much what I do when I read before bedtime!

What is your ritual? Link me to yours!

Keely xx 

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 1

Hey everyone! So I have been on twitter and this challenge popped up thanks to Jaz @Fiction in Fiction  who is also doing this challenge! 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge was started by April @ Good Books and Wine and seeing as I haven't been posting much, because I haven't been reading much/cannot find words to write reviews!

Day 1: 15 Related Book Confessions

1. I go through goodreads lists on and find random books which I think I might like and add to my goodreads shelf... this is the reason why I have so many to-read books

2. I like books about faeries and magic more than I like books about vampires and werewolves (expect maybe Vampire Academy & Bloodlines)

3. I don't mind reading Adult romance, contemporaries or paranormal books

4. I am person who will swoon over many guy characters... all the time

5. I am a contemporary person, I like romance and realistic/relate-able scenarios

6. I like e-books, they are cheap and help me avoid the whole Australia gets everything later than the U.S, especially when I want that book right then

7. The only hardbacks I own is the Adult cover version of Harry Potter

8. Paperbacks are so much cheaper than hardbacks in Australia & I will wait if a book is on book depository is hardback for the paperback

9. I have worn out my favourite series (Gallagher Girls) from re-reading them so many times, once the whole series is out I will buy a Hardback box set because it is my favourite

10. I love assassins & spies, hence why Gallagher Girls and Maria V. Synder books are my favourite

11. I don't mind the whole new-adult craze that is going on, a few are bad, but some are good

12. I love mysteries and murder books, like the body finder series by Kimberly Derting 

13. I haven't read the hunger games, I have read books 2 and 3 but that is it

14. I have trouble re-reading/reading a book after I have seen the movie

15. The only books I finished in high school was To Kill a Mockingbird (loved it), Shakespeare's plays Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth and The Fifiteh Gate (I don't even know how I finished that one!)

Keely xx

Waiting on Wednesday #7

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. For this week, I am eagerly anticipating -

Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally

They’re from two different worlds.

He lives in the estate house, and she spends most of her time in the stables helping her father train horses. In fact, Savannah has always been much more comfortable around horses than boys. Especially boys like Jack Goodwin—cocky, popular and completely out of her league. She knows the rules: no mixing between the staff and the Goodwin family. But Jack has no such boundaries.

With her dream of becoming a horse jockey, Savannah isn’t exactly one to follow the rules either. She’s not going to let someone tell her a girl isn’t tough enough to race. Sure, it’s dangerous. Then again, so is dating Jack…

Out: December 3rd 2013!

I Love Miranda Kenneally's books! They are amazing and I cannot wait for this one to be on my kindle ready for me to read! I love all the covers in this companion series they are all so relevant to the story.

Waiting on Wednesday #6

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. For this week, I am eagerly anticipating -  United We Spy by Ally Carter

It is no mistake how much I am in love with Ally Carter's books and the final book in the Gallagher Girls series is my most anticipated book of 2013! I cannot wait to see how it ends and see who manages to make it Graduation!

Australia Cover

Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet. Cammie and her friends finally know why the terrorist organization called the Circle of Cavan has been hunting her. Now the spy girls and Zach must track down the Circle’s elite members to stop them before they implement a master plan that will change Cammie—and her country—forever.

Release dates (from goodreads): 
Australia: 10/9/13
US: 17/9/13

Keely xx

US Cover

Review Time #38

Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer 

With power comes enemies. Lots of them.

Hunter Garrity just wants to be left alone. He’s learned the hard way that his unusual abilities come at a price. And he can’t seem to afford any allies.

He’s up to his neck in hostiles. His grandfather, spoiling for a fight. The Merrick brothers, who think he ratted them out. Calla, the scheming psycho who wants to use him as bait.

Then there’s Kate Sullivan, the new girl at school. She’s not hostile. She’s bold. Funny. Hot. But she’s got an agenda, too.

With supposedly secret powers rippling to the surface everywhere around him, Hunter knows something ugly is about to go down. But finding out what means he’ll have to find someone he can trust…

Spirit is Hunter's book and not a Merrick, however, do not fear they are always in it! Hunter has had a difficult home life and now that he is angry about everything that has happened since he moved, it gets worse.  Throughout Spirit we get to see a side of Hunter that no one has seen before and it always everyone to understand him a lot better. Kate is new and a guide who has been sent with Silver to find out if the Merrick's are really as bad as they think they are and if they are causing all the fires that have been happening.

Remember at the end of Spark and Calla? Well she's back with vengeance on the Merrick boys and Hunter and this time she doesn't care who gets hurt or killed. She is a piece of work this girl and I would say borderline psychotic. When Hunter is kicked out of home he has no one to turn to, because he has burned almost all those bridges, however, Michael understands what Hunter is going though after going through all this before and decides to help Hunter out. 

Kate is a character that you know shouldn't really like her because she is with the bad guys, but someone who end up understanding and liking (wouldn't say love, she is trying to kill Nick, oh and the other Merrick's). Kate is there for Hunter and helps him finally understand the whole being a guide thing, especially after some information is finally revealed to him. Kate has her own vengence to her story, like Hunter in Storm, her mother was killed by a water elemental however, that may not be the case. 

A lot of secrets come out in Spirit and everyone plays a roll in the events that take place. This one is more darker I would say because Hunter and Kate aren't calm people and Calla is running around on her rampage with fire. At the end, even if you didn't like Hunter to begin with, you end wanting to give him a big hug and help all his grief and angry out of him.

I will still say Storm is my favourite, however, Spirit is allowing everyone to see inside that façade that Hunter has going on.

Rating: 4.5/5

Keely xx

Review Time #37

Steal my Sunshine by Emily Gale

During a Melbourne heatwave, Hannah's family life begins to distort beyond her deepest fears. It's going to take more than a cool change to fix it, but how can a girl who lives in the shadows take on the task alone? Feeling powerless and invisible, Hannah seeks refuge in the two anarchists of her life: her wild best friend, Chloe, and her eccentric grandmother, Essie, who look like they know how life really works. But Hannah's loyalty to both is tested, first by her attraction to Chloe's older brother, and then by Essie's devastating secret that sheds new light on how the family has lost its way. Even if Hannah doesn't know what to believe in, she'd better start believing in herself. 

Combined with Hannah's contemporary story, at the heart of Steal My Sunshine is the revelation of a shameful aspect of Australia's history and how it affected thousands of girls and women - the forced adoptions that saw 'wayward girls' and single mothers forced to give up their babies by churches and hospitals. The practice endured for decades, and only now are the numbers and the heart-wrenching stories coming to light.

Now I am a history person, I love modern history in highschool and would be doing it at uni if I didn't love sport and science that little bit more. Steal my sunshine is an Australian novel which is contemporary with Australian history aspects. 

Hannah life is taking a turn for the worst, her father leaving, her grandmother's secret as to why her mother hates her and all this when she is just starting her final year of school. Her best friend Chloe is hiding a secret and her brother, who she has had a crush on for a while, finally asks her out. Everything in Hannah's life gets complicated and it isn't just her story told either but her grandmother's, Essie's, too. 

The characters each have their own problems and the major secret that Essie has been keeping from her grandchildren is the one that brings everything out.  What I found out that I never even knew happened in Australia was the forced adoptions and Essie was someone who experienced it when her child was taken from her. When Hannah's and Essie's stories are told side by side who can see how this one event 50+ years ago is still affecting the family today. 

The romance in the novel isn't the focus at all, one chapter and that was it, it is about family and how history is still affecting families today and trying to understand who you really are. The way the characters are written is with their imperfections which really allows you understand what is going on in the family and Chloe, especially when she also finds out Essie's secret. 

Steal my Sunshine is an Australian novel with unspoken Australian history which is something that everyone should know about! The way the two stories are told simultaneously allows you to see how one event could change the way families see each other.

Rating: 4.5/5

Keely xx