December Wrap Up 2014!

Hey everyone! It is 2015, how bloody fast did this year go by? It feels like only yesterday that it was the start of 2014 and now a year on, soon I will no longer be a teenager (which is kind of strange) and half way through my degree! I read a lot of books in 2014 (440 when I have written this post), I know that this year I won't read that many because I am going to have to focus more on uni (even though I said that last year) so my goal will be 200 (which is what originally 2014 was). 

I mainly got books for Christmas this year, which I am in no way complaining about! I also got a crystal glass dressing table set (family inheritance/pass down), a hockey stick, money for some shopping in Sydney to come later this month, Veronica Mars S3 & Rizzoli & Isles S4, and Taylor Swift 1989 tickets for November! 

This months posts:

• Review Time #74
• Review Time #75
• Summer TBR
• Top 14 of 2014: YA
• Top 14 of 2014: NA & Adult
• Most Anticipated for 2015

Christmas books:

Some Christmas books/presents

• Fetish, Split, Covet, Hit and Siren by Tara Moss
• Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander
• Dark Triumph and Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers
• Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas
• Breaking The Rules by Katie McGarry

Bought:

The super pretty new hardcover editions of Nancy Drew!

• Nancy Drew #1-#4 by Carolyn Keene
• Captivate by Aimee Carter
• Percy Jackson Series #1-#5 by Rick Riordan

Review Books:

The amazing ARC of I Was Here!

• I Was Here by Gayle Forman
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E.Lockhart
• Jardine by Lessa Bow

Thanks Simon & Schuster, Allen & Unwin and Lessa Bow for these review books!

E-Books:

• Forever With Me by Kristen Proby
• You Were Mine by Abbi Glines
• That One Summer by C.J Duggan
• Mai Tai'd Up by Alice Clayton
• Upside Down by Lia Riley
• Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally
• Jaden by Tijan
• Seaside Sunsets by Melissa Foster

So many books this month! Let me know what books you got for Christmas/this month in the comments! Have an awesome 2015 everyone!

Keely xx

Top 14 of 2014: YA

Hey everyone! Since I have read so many books this year just picking 14 was hard so I split it into two parts, YA and NA/Adult lists!

1. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
This book was just brilliant and I couldn't help but love this 500+ paged fantasy novel filled with assassins and fae!

2 & 3. Secret & Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer 
Secret was my favorite in the series and Sacrifice finished up the series nicely. Nick will forever be mine ;)

4. Head of the River by Pip Harry
I just loved this book, being me & what I study I just couldn't help myself in loving it. PED's in school & college sport is awareness that is needed.

5. Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Love this series and the mystery/thriller all behind it! Teenagers tracking down serial killers!

6. This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
I never like Sci-Fi but this series is the exception, cannot help but enjoy these books.

7 & 8. Corruption & Disruption by Jessica Shirvington
This duology was just fantastic and another exception to my dislike of  Sci-Fi books. Thankfully my love for human biology was quite helpful in understanding a few of things that happened in this series.

9. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
The ending to this trilogy and was my favorite (I have a huge soft spot for Josh). Getting to have both New York and Paris in this novel just made me want to go to New York and back to Paris!

10. The One by Kiera Cass
This series is fantastic America and Maxon *sigh* I am so glad that they have added more books to the series for the next generation of royals!

11. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
I love mystery and thriller books and this book just kept me guessing!

12. On The Fence by Kasie West
This book was just cute and Charlie was just a main character that I could connect to being a tom boy and all that.

13. Cooper Bartholomew is Dead by Rebecca James
An Aussie mystery/thriller, just loved before & present chapter changes.

14. What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
All the cuteness. Seriously the there is so much cuteness.

So what are your favorite books for the year? Let me know in the comments! Don't forget on Wednesday my Top 14 of 2014: NA/Adult will be out!

Keely xx

Summer TBR

Hey everyone over the next two weeks I will be posting my Top 14 of 2014 for both YA and NA/Adult as well as a two part posts of my most anticipated for 2015! Today to kick all this off is my Summer TBR!

A few of these books came out earlier this year in Australia's winter and I just couldn't read them because it wasn't summer and these to me are summer books.


1. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Every single time I see this title I start singing:
Since you been gone,
I can breathe for first time,
So moving on yeah yeah
It also makes me want to watch Pitch Perfect. But anyways this book like all of Matson's books just have summer written all over them!

2. Paper Towns by John Green
I bought this earlier in the year, before they announced that it was being made into a movie but I just never got around to reading it. Since it is a road trip book I felt like it had to be read in summer.


3. The Year It All Ended by Kirsty Murray
This is an Aussie YA which I received for review a month or two ago, I didn't get a chance to read then because of uni games and exams, but now I look forward to reading it this summer!

4. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
I received this book about a month and a half ago to review and have put it off because it releases in January. This book likes quite interesting and I cannot wait to get into it the next few weeks!

5. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart 
I read We Were Liars earlier this year and loved it, so I am looking forward to reading this one which also comes out in January and I have a review copy of as well.

6. All Fall Down by Ally Carter
This book is released mid/late January and I cannot bloody wait for this book to be released, I need my Ally Carter fix okay? I don't know what it is about Ally Carter's books but I just love reading them in summer!

So what is on your Summer TBR let me know down below in the comments!

Keely xx

Review Time #63

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island.

A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.

A group of four friends - the Liars - whose friendship turns destructive.

A revolution. An accident. A secret.

Lies upon lies.

True love.

The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense that will leave you reeling.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

I just finished We Were Liars and I don't even, can't even, understand what just happened, what to think. When you go into We Were Liars, go in knowing nothing about the book, it makes it so much better!

Part One: Welcome

"Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict
No one is a failure."

Summer 15 is when everything happened for Cady, Johnny, Gat and Mirren. Gran Tipper has past away before summer 15, grandad Harris is pitting his children against each other for part of his estate. Cady realised that her feelings for Gat is love but he has a girlfriend back in New York. The summer that Cady barely remembers and the summer of the accident.

Summer 16 Cady spends the summer in Europe with her dad. She emails Johnny and Mirren about her summer, but when they don't reply she wonders if her aunts tell them not to because of the migraines from the accident.

Part Two: Vermont

During the year Cady starts writing stories about her family and what happened in summer 15. She also starts giving away her possessions to others and talks her mum and dad out of taking her to Australia and New Zealand for the summer to go to Beachwood Island again.

Part Three: Summer Seventeen 

"I will see Gat soon.
Gat, my Gat, who is not my Gat."

Summer 17 Cady goes back to Beachwood Island, but things are different when she returns. Clairmont house has been completely rebuilt, Bess has moved with Taft, Liberty & Bonnie to Clairmont house with grandad and Mirren, Gat and Johnny are living in Cuddletown house by themselves. Everyone refuses to talk about what happened that summer two years ago to Cady, Grandad is suffering dementia, the aunts are drinking themselves drunk every night, night time walks and nightmares are taking control of the island and Cady has no idea what is going on.

Part Four: Look, a Fire

"I understand our story now."

The relationship between the four liars is strained this summer with Gat pushing Cady away but at times also pulling her towards him. Mirren is tired all the time and refuses to leave the house & Johnny is forgetting things. But then Cady's memories start to return and everything that she knows about the accident is all just a lie, because Cady wasn't ready for the truth then but now she is. 

Part Five: Truth

"My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman.
I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.
I like a twist of meaning.
I endure."

We Were Liars will leave you wondering what just happened, writing mottos on your hands and take you on a summer journey on what happened that summer 15. The story, writing and need to know what happened will drag you in the story and leaving you refusing that the last word is in fact the last word.

Thankyou Allen and Unwin Australia for the review copy!

Rating: 4.5/5

Keely xx