Reading round up (36)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. DESPERATELY need to get back on track with galleys. I have some books I'm really looking forward to reading so it should be good.

21st July

Started Tabula Rasa, and it must be pretty decent because I read 45% of it in one day. I really like the love interest, and the mystery of the 'hospital' is pretty cool. This is actually the first time I've read about a creepy hospital, even though they're rampant in the genre. The mountainous snowstorm thing is pretty cool as well, reminds me of After The End by Amy Plum a little. Though that could just be the yurt.

22nd July

Currently reading: Tabula Rasa | Kristen Lippert-Martin

Current page/percent: 77%

Read today: 32%

Thoughts: Started off enjoying this but I'm getting bored. I could have done without the "army" guys tbh.

23rd July

Currently reading: Tabula Rasa | Kristen Lippert-Martin

Current page/percent: 100%

Read today: 23%

Thoughts: SO BORED at the end.

24th July

I CAN FINALLY READ ICONS!!!! Aw yeahhhhhhh. One of my favourite books of all time. Read 27 pages and loving it.

25th July

Had a crappy day so only read 37 pages.

26th July

Currently reading: Icons | Margaret Stohl

Current page/percent: page 194

Read today: 130 pages

Thoughts: FINALLY FOUND TIME TO READ. And boy did I read. Powered through a third of the book. Oh Lucas bb my precious thing.

27th July

Currently reading: Icons | Margaret Stohl

Current page/percent: page 337

Read today: 143 pages

Thoughts: I have missed this story so. fuckin. much. I can't wait to start Idols and see what emotions Stohl can make me feel next. I've gone through the whole spectrum with this one.

Books finished this week: 1

(*groaning noises*.)

~

Books added to my collection:

Arrow of The Mist | Christina Mercer

I got a review copy of this once upon a time but it was one of those that expire and I wasn't able to put it on my kindle, so I never got to read it. I bought it from amazon just now, so I FINALLY get to read the damn thing. It's pretty high on my kindle-to-read list for now :)

In other news: the campaign to fund printing and shipping of The Wandering is a go! Donate a pound for your name in the acknowledgements. Donate £3 or more for extra cool stuff, bracelets, bookmarks, rare paperbacks etc. Help me give people more free books!!

Reading round up (34)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. Extended RRU because IT'S LONDON WEEK BITCHESSSSSSSS!!! This week there'll be a London megapost, with photos & ramblings about YALC so be on the lookout for that. I don't anticipate getting much reading in this weekend but I don't care *runs off into the sunset, singing*

7th July

Currently reading: Under Nameless Stars | Christian Schoon

Current page/percent: 67%

Read today: 23%

Thoughts: Really warming to Fane, so of course he gets injured and taken by hostile aliens. Of course.

8th July

SO bored with Earthfall that I think it's gonna have to be a DNF. I don't understand why I'm not loving it, but I'm really disinterested. I read another 15% of Under Nameless Stars, though, which I really like. A whole heck of a lot.

9th July

Finished Under Nameless Stars (17%), and started The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch (44 pages) so I'll finish it in time for YALC this weekend! Liking it so far.

10th July

For some reason I started reading Eren by Simon P. Clark (27%). I recently got approved for a galley of it and I was just excited to read it. So far it's distantly intriguing but nothing much is really happening. Family drama, new friends, mostly it's waffle, but hoping it will get gradually darker. (I say waffle, and waffling, a lot and I just realised it might be an English/British or a Northern thing. Do you understand what I mean when I say that?)

11th July

Guess how much I read today. Guess. Did you guess nothing? I read nothing. I think it's safe to say I won't be finishing the Oathbreaker's Shadow in time for tomorrow.

12th July

Too busy meeting fabulous authors to read.

13th July

Again. Nothing. BUT LONDON!!!

14th July

You already know what I'm saying here, don't you?

15th July

I read 12% of Eren, bringing me to 49%. It's getting more boring with each chapter tbh. And I started The Lovely and The Lost by Page Morgan *confetti erupts from ceiling*. If you don't know, it's the sequel to The Beautiful and The Cursed and I recommend this series to literally everyone who loves a good fantasy novel. It's set in turn of the century Paris and has gargoyle protectors (gargoyle protectors who are also human babes, might I add) and badass ladies finding themselves and demons and demon hunters!!

Books finished this week and half: 1

(Barely anything read but I had a cool weekend.)

~

Books added to my collection:
~*~*London Edition*~*~

yaaaaaaaaaaaas I have SINNER!! and IDOLS!! Also bonus The Lovely and The Lost! I got the latter two for £3.99 each - NEW RELEASES, HOW CRAZY? - because Blackwells was closing down. The others were books I got signed at YALC by their fabulous authors and A Wilderness of Stars I got for free from a free books stall at LFCC.

Book Fashion Friday(... on a Tuesday): Icons

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or not following me on Goodreads or Tumblr, you will know that I am currently in love with Icons by the crazy talented Margaret Stohl. And, being my favourite book of the year, I couldn't just let its release date go by without doing something out of the ordinary.

I recently started doing a thing on Fridays where I post fashion inspired by book covers, and I thought I'd do a celebratory Book Fashion Friday ... err, Tuesday, because ICONS IS OUT NOW!! *throws confetti, blows up balloons*

US cover:

And inspired by the cover:

I LOVE this dress. Not only is it flouncy and stormy-blue in colour, but the sparkles looks like a lightning bolt! Could it be any more perfect? 

Available here for $156. If only I had the money to buy it *sighs wistfully*

But enough of wistful sighs! Here's the UK cover:

And inspired by the cover:

A high impact dress for a high impact book. It's just such a dramatic dress! I can totally image lightning bolts flashing in the sky behind someone wearing this.

Available here for $338

But while I love the UK-cover-inspired dress, I'm really prefer the US cover itself. DAMN BEING BRITISH. Look how spectacularly pretty the US cover is. I want it. I'm probably going to end up importing it from Barnes and Noble or Amazon US because I want it that much, and I need to possess this book in hardcover. I do like our cover but LOOK AT THE HOLE! And the fancy text. And - gah! I'm in love with the US cover. I will own it if its the last thing I do.

Blurb:

Your heart beats only with their permission.

Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.

Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.

She's different. She survived. Why?

When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.

Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.

Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts -- in order to save the future.

[Goodreads]

It's epic and heart-wrenching and it will make you throw your e-reader at the wall and completely forget that you probably shouldn't do that because it's not a paper copy and that was an expensive device. True Story. (Damn you, Stohl!)

Go buy it right now!

Amazon UK

Waterstones

Amazon US

B&N

Icons (Review)

Icons: Icons | Margaret Stohl
Sci-fi, Paranormal, Dystopia (YA)

Characters ★★★★★
Setting ★★★★★
Writing Style ★★★★☆

Review:
Icons is absolutely phenomenal. I had first expected it to be a run-of-the-mill dystopian society, but it was written by Margaret Stohl, whose writing I love, so I was always going to read it regardless. But what I actually got, what this book delivered, was so far from what I expected, and a far cry from run-of-the-mill.

Icons is filled to the brim with exhilarating action, captivating, descriptive writing, and unique characters. From the prologue I was hooked and unable to stop reading. Set in a future world in which aliens known as the No Face have seized control of the Earth, and where a constant threat of instant death looms over the remnants of humanity, Icons tells the story of Dol, Ro, Lucas, and Tima, teens who are different, who possess heightened emotions and the ability to sense the feelings of those around them. Known as Icon Children, the four know that they are different and that they must keep their abilities secret to survive. But what they do not know is that they are human weapons created to destroy the Icons, and to bring down the No Face.

The characters of this book are strong, each different in their own ways, and incredibly fascinating people. Dol, a Weeper, feels all of the sadness in the world around her, and though she is constantly overwhelmed by the misery and despair surrounding her she does not, even once, give up. She is a brave and incredibly strong protagonist, and not once does she become whiny or irritating as most characters often do. Dol is one of the best Young Adult female protagonists to grace the pages of a book.

Ro, a Rager, can use fury to produce incredible physical strength, making him capable of just about anything. But despite his physical strength, and despite his powerful anger, Ro has an underlying vulnerability, and his affection and loyalty to Dol shows him as gentle and protective to a fault.

Lucas, while being sketchy at times, and while Dol is unsure whether she is able to trust him, is my favourite character of this book. Despite being the son of Ambassador Amare, a woman with great influence in a world where humans have none, Lucas is not privileged, superior, and condescending as I had expected him to be. He is insecure, broken, and scared more than anything of losing his mother. Though his actions come across as him working against Dol and Ro, beneath everything that he does is a desperate need for his mother's approval - and his mother's love. Lucas broke my heart, and scared me half to death!, and I can't wait to see where the rest of the Icons series takes him.

Tima, the fourth Icon child, is introduced as unfriendly, hostile, and head-over-heels for Lucas. While the latter doesn't change, Tima over the course of the book softens towards Dol and Ro, and she shows herself to be caring, brave, and very loyal. I found myself, against all odds, actually liking her.

The emotions created within this book, within the characters and their words, their actions, and their surrounding world makes this book a turbulent read with vivid and all-encompassing emotion. With breath-taking writing, Stohl creates an Earth that is far-fetched but eerily real and completely believable. Icons is instantly one of my favourite books, and I impatiently await the sequel.

Overall ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Trailer:

Alt cover:

My thoughts whilst reading (from Goodreads):