Monday 29 August 2016

Read-a-thon | Bout of Books 17 Wrap Up


Bout of Books

Well! We've reached the end, I think this may have been to least amount I've ever read in a readathon to date.  That said I'm not too upset, I read pretty solidly Sunday morning until I had to get up and go to yoga and I haven't done that for ages.

The first book I finished was the lovely coffee table book:


This had some amazing photography and great insights into each place that is talked about.



I managed to finish one of the books that I'd started, so I'm happy that there is one less on my currently reading.  This was my lazy Sunday read.



I made progress on two other books that I've been reading, The Trees, (which I've been reading for quite some time) and Outlander, which I'd only just started listening to.  I finished 7 discs during the week - thank you commute!!




So at the end of it all, I finished 2 books, listened to 7 discs, all of which adds up to 617 pages.  Hopefully next time I won't have so much on so I'll be able to participate more.  How did everyone else do?  I hope that everyone had fun, (who am I kidding - of course you did!).  Let me know what you read, have you read any of the books I finished?

Until next time, happy reading :)

C.





Saturday 27 August 2016

Series Review | Disruption & Corruption by Jessica Shirvington


Both Disruption and Corruption fast paced reads,  I NEEDED to know what was happening.  I like the characters, the story didn't get too tropey and I had fun listening to both books.  I didn't love The Violet Eden Chapters, Shirvington's other series, so I was unsure what I would think of this and that is partly why I took so long to read it.  But I enjoyed this so much more.

Both books are set in a dystopian world, (and I am a sucker for those.  I think it's that extreme situations bring out the best, and worst, in people.  If the author can write well, they can craft amazing worlds with kick arse characters.  Or maybe I just want to watch the world burn while I read about it from the comfort of my sealy posturepedic wonderland.  Although this isn't 'everything has gone to hell and Maggie is eating burned bread' kinda dystopian.  Maybe I should call it futuristic? Prophetic perhaps,  After all, these days most people are wearing fitbits or smart watches.  In this series everyone legally has to wear an M-band, which monitors everything basically.  Once you're of age, you get to upgrade your band and use pheromones to find a favourable match.  Those with negative ratings, or 'Negs' get taken away for "rehabilitation"...notice I use "" we all know that isn't going to end as they say it does.

For some time before the story starts for us, Maggie has been searching for her father, a scientist that one day gives off a Neg rating and is taken away.  Her whole world changes and rather than forget about her father, she sets out to try and find him.  What she finds is a lot more than she bargained for.

Maggie Stevens is one of those characters, she's strong, flawed and not entirely likable.  But I don't need a character to be that or relatable for me to enjoy the story.  I just need them to not be idjits aka TSTL.  Maggie makes stupid mistakes, but she owns them, she isn't whiny, she doesn't pout and she gets shit done.  She's dogmatic and dedicated in her task - the fallout of that is evident in Corruption. And the sass!  The snark!  I love it.              

Quentin Mercer, be still my heart, from the start I knew that I would like him.  Obviously we as the reader, is clued in that he is going to be more than just the heir to M-Corp empire, you know underneath the usual posturing, privileged school boy - he's going to be a nice guy.

This being YA and dystopian, we know it has to have some romance and thank you Shirvington - it's not instalove!  You know where Maggie and Quentin's relationship is heading, but it was wonderful to read it all unfolding.  That build up and acknowledgement of something they don't quite understand and didn't expect to feel for each other.  I did almost have an a conniption when there was a hint of a love triangle, but thankfully it is resolved pretty quickly.  

The review wouldn't be complete without mentioning Gus, he is a tech wizard and is instrumental in Maggie's plan to find her father.  Maggie is blackmailing Gus, (she does that a lot), and the way he and Maggie bounce off of each other is great.  There are plenty of funny moments thanks to him.  And his and Maggie's relationship starts of with hate and ends up as the best kind of friendship.  

Disruption ends on a major cliffhanger, I recommend having the next book ready to go, I was stalking my holds until it arrived.  Thankfully I only had to wait a few days.  I don't know what I would've done if I'd read the first book when it first came out.  

Corruption continues almost immediately where we leave off.  As I mentioned before, we get to see the consequences of Maggie's actions and how she deals with it all.  The first book is all about finding out what is going on, the second is using that knowledge to do something about it.  There are a lot more characters that are introduced in the second book, many of them help to move the story along, so we don't really get to know much about them.  I think if this was a continuing series I would want more from the background characters.  

I thoroughly enjoyed both Disruption and Corruptions, for me this was a satisfying end to the duology.  That said I would not say no to reading more from Maggie and Quentin.

Both books were narrated by Hannah Norris, hats off to her, she did a great job.

Have you read these?  What did you think of them?  And if you haven't -  I 100% recommend!

Until next time, happy reading :)

C.

Thursday 25 August 2016

Read-a-thon | Bout of Book 17 Update Post



I'm going to have one post that will cover the full week of updates, that way it'll be much easier to update on the fly..lets get started!

Monday 22nd

Pages Read: 54 pages (The Trees by Ali Shaw)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 0
Total number of books read: 0

Tuesday 23rd

Pages Read: 23 (Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 0
Total number of books read: 0

Wednesday 24th

Pages Read: 192 (Best Kept Secrets of Scotland by Michael Kerrigan)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 1 (Best Kept Secrets of Scotland by Michael Kerrigan)
Total number of books read: 1

Thursday 25th

Pages Read: 0
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 0
Total number of books read: 1

Friday 26th

Pages Read: 10 (Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 0
Total number of books read: 1

I've had a pretty woeful reading week, I'm hoping that now I've finished work, I can smash it out of the park...my reading, not my book.  That would be bad!

Saturday 27th

Pages Read: 20 (The Trees by Ali Shaw)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 0
Total number of books read: 1

Sunday 28th

Pages Read: 72 (Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey); 36 (The Trees by Ali Shaw)
Discs Listened to: 1 (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon)
Number of books read today: 1(Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey)
Total number of books read: 2

Monday 22 August 2016

Read-a-thon | Bout of Books 17

Bout of Books

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I've decided at the last minute to participate in round 17 of Bout of Books.  It's Children's Book Week here in Australia so I have a busy work week ahead.  My plan is to go for a pretty laid back approach.  At the very least I'm going to try and finish all of the books I'm currently reading, (which is sitting at about 10).  If by some miracle I manage that, I have some more of the shortlisted CBW books to carry on with, the Man Booker longlist and a couple of book club reads I need to get to as well.

Here are a couple of the titles I'm currently reading:




I've got a little bit of everything going on.  Are you joining in?  Planning on reading a little or a lot?  Let me know and we can chat books together!

Until next time, happy reading :)

C.

Thursday 18 August 2016

Book Haul | National Bookshop Day 2016


This past Saturday is one I look forward to every year - in fact, it's one of the very best days of the year!  National Bookshop Day!!  I know that traditional bookshops can be a lot more expensive than Big W, Target or Kmart.  But I still like to support them, not only to share my #loveyourbookshop feels but it's a local business and I like supporting those as well.

I had to work Saturday morning, but after that I went and visited my local Collins bookstore.  I didn't really have anything in particular that I wanted to buy.  I had a 10% voucher that was burning a hole in my wallet, (one of the perks of buying books at the writers festival last month)*

So here are the new books that I'm welcoming home.  Did you manage to visit a bookshop today? And more importantly what did you buy?!


Oi Frog! is a wonderful kids book, fairly simple in concept, with the frog asking a cat what various animals sit on but the kids & I love it to bits.


This is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare collection and is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew and I'm looking forward to it very much.


* I just realised I didn't show you what I bought at the festival - which I will post about next week, I picked up some fantastic books.

Until next time, happy reading :)

C.

Thursday 4 August 2016

Find me on Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin You can now follow my blog via Bloglovin'! In my infinite wisdom I thought I had already organised this, but as usual me thinking about doing something doesn't necessarily mean it has happened. Oh dear! But it's all sorted now...so on with the reviews and such. Until next time, happy reading :) C.

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