Monday 30 June 2014

june wrap-up

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hey guys! today i have my june wrap-up for you!

'is everyone hanging out without me? and other concerns' by mindy kaling (goodreads) - this is a hilarious memoir/autobiography/thing about mindy kaling's life, mostly focusing on how she became successful as an actress and writer. i want to put this straight out there and say i have never seen anything written by/staring/involving mindy kaling, i pretty much have no idea who she is, and i still loved this book. if you like the humour of tina fey/kristen wiig/amy poehler then you're gonna enjoy it. to me mindy is just this super cool girl who's really funny and it was like i was reading something that a friend had written for me. the only downside for me was that i've never seen the US version of the office so some chapters went kind of over my head but it didn't matter because they were still funny! i loved it!

'poison study' by maria v. snyder (goodreads) - i bought this book a long long time ago from the works after seeing sarah churchill haul it, and i have only just got round to picking it up. the synopsis sounded really exciting - it's about a girl who, instead of being executed for murder, is given the opportunity to live and work as the commander's official food taster - but i was put off by the fact that it's a 6 part series and i've never heard anyone talk about it. for the first 200 pages or so i was so uninterested in this book, i just could not have cared less, but after the halfway point it just got SO GOOD. i love the side characters, especially valek, but that might just be because i have a big crush on him. i loved the writing style as well and i'm so excited to get back into the world and can't wait to get the next book in the series. however, having said all this, i will say that i don't care for the magic element at all. i feel like the main selling point of this book (for me, anyway) is the poison tasting and the murder and the dangers that come with that - i feel like the magic element isn't really needed and kind of feels like something that's been put in to create a ~deeper~ story to lead onto a sequel or something. kind of unnecessary. but i still liked it! 4/5 stars!

'ready player one' by ernest cline (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this book so to read a synopsis and to find out what i thought you can read that here!

'across the universe' and 'a million suns' by beth revis (goodreads 1 and 2) - for most of 'across the universe' i completely disliked all of the characters, i felt like the writing was average, i thought some of the dialogue was unrealistic for her characters, but the thing that got me through was how amazing the plot is. the series revolves around this spaceship that has been sent off with a portion of america's population on board to land on a new habitable planet 300 years into the future, and it's all about how that ship would work socially and technically and environmentally and all that jazz - it is EXCELLENT. the marketing for this series is all wrong though - the blurb focuses on a girl called amy on board the ship but she is so unimportant to the story and not in any way an interesting character. the premise alone was enough to drive me on to buy the next in the series and oh wow was i glad i did! 'a million suns' is so much better - it really upped the game and i can't even BELIEVE how beth revis managed to create such good twists two books in a row (although i did guess some of the smaller twists in both books). not only was the plot incredible, but the new characters were FANTASTIC. i CRIED, TWICE, during this book, which is crazy if you think about how little i cared in the first one. it just completely surpassed all my expectations! i LOVE this series and cannot wait for my copy of 'shades of earth' to arrive so i can find out how it ends!

'anna and the french kiss' by stephanie perkins (goodreads) - this book is exactly what you'd expect it to be - a fluffy contemporary that's super cute but makes you want to visit france so badly that you start googling city breaks between chapters. i loved it, but i found anna to be a bit annoying, and it had that thing that i hate in books/tv/anything aimed at teenage girls where it's like, "you can totally look a mess and fall over all the time and constantly embarrass yourself but it's okay because the hot guy will just think you're quirky and fall for you anyway!!" because yeah, that doesn't happen. plus, one thing i couldn't get over was, even though the romance was great and stuff, it was all happening while st. clair was still with ellie, and that just put me off the characters so much. i mean, right up until the very last moment he was still her boyfriend! even in fiction that's such a silly disrespectful thing to do and it ruined the book a little for me. i loved stephanie's writing style though, and it was such a pleasure to read, so i'll definitely be picking up the rest in the series - 'lola and the boy next door' seems right up my street!

'hollow city' by ransom riggs (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this book so to read a synopsis and to find out what i thought you can read that here!

'tiger lily' by jodi lynn anderson (goodreads) - this is a re-telling of peter pan, set before wendy and co. show up in neverland, focusing on tiger lily and narrated by tinkerbell. now, does that not sound like the BEST BOOK EVER? well, yes and no. for one thing, i didn't really feel anything for tiger lily. one of the plot lines is her impending forced marriage, but i felt no sadness for her in that situation at all. also, she seemed so different than who i thought she was - she was stubborn, silent, stocky, antisocial, whilst i always knew her as cheerful and friendly and strong. another thing is that i really disliked how wendy and peter were portrayed. wendy came across as an annoying selfish rich girl who was actively pursuing peter and always got what she wanted, while peter was a grumpy whiny baby who stormed off a lot. peter pan is one of my absolute favourite stories and i just wasn't happy with how jody lynn anderson altered it. however, it was a real treat to be able to explore more into a world that i loved so much and i only read a few chapters at a time so i could keep living in the story; it was a pleasure to read. so, i have mixed feelings about this book, but if you like peter pan then you should definitely give it a go.

so those are all the books i read in june! please let me know what you guys read in the comments below! thanks for reading! xx

1 comment:

  1. I have Anna and the French Kiss in my book collection. It made me want to visit Paris again! I have to agree, having St. Clair fall for Anna while he was still with Ella was kind of a put off for me, but other than that I did enjoy the read! -- Lindsey xx

    http://touchedbythesunshine.blogspot.com

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