February Wrap Up & March TBR

This post is going up a little later than I had planned, however I thought it would be nice to share my monthly wrap up here on my blog, in the hope that it will encourage me to keep up with my reading gal for the year.  Alongside that, my hope that is by sharing a TBR each month, I can set myself an achievable goal each month.  I always know roughly which books I want to read next, and even keep a TBR stack on my bedside table.  But I’m hoping that by sharing them here I might stick to my TBR a little more.

For the month of February I read 4 books.

                               

My plan for from January onwards has been to re-read a Harry Potter book either every other book I read, or at least one a month, and so far I’m on track!! Also, after reading City of Bones in January (which I fell in love with!) I have decided to read the rest of the series by reading one a month.  I want to read them all straight away, but don’t want it to stop me reading other books along the way.  You can find my review of Carrie by Stephen King here.

That being said, I’m currently behind on this months TBR (which was to read another 4 books) as I’m still on my first one!  I am currently reading City of Glass by Cassandra Claire and while I am really enjoying it so far, I’ve just been super busy! My goal for march is to finishing reading City of Glass and them move onto American Sniper by Chris Kyle, You and Me, Always by Jill Mansell and Carry On my Rainbow Rowell.

              

               

Fingers crossed I can pick the pace back up and move on to these book within March! I will be sure to keep you updated, and I’ve been keeping my Goodreads a lot more up to date now, so feel free to check out my profile to see how I’m getting on with my Reading Goal!

If you enjoyed this blog post, please let me know in the comments below and don’t forget to tell me your favourite book from February and your March TBR plans! 🙂

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Carrie; Stephen King

I’ve been a fan of Stephen King for quite a while now, and I’m always finding more books of his that I want to read.  Carrie has been on my TBR for years and years, and I finally got around to reading it last week.

[The Plot]: Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed… But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction…

I’m so glad I finally got around to reading Carrie, and I can’t believe I didn’t know this was Stephen Kings first novel.  Carrie is a loner, she has no friends and was raised under her mothers strict rule.  She’s a complete outcast in school, the butt of every joke and naive in every way.  All until one fateful gym class where it all gets too much for Carrie and she snaps.

Carrie has her first ever period in the shower after gym class, and has no idea what is happening to her.  So when the other girls all laugh and shout at her, she snaps and sends up being sent home.  Carries mother’s religious views are so intense that she genuinely believes Carrie has gotten her period as punishment for a sin. The more Carrie is starting to understand what is happening to her and her body, the angrier she is getting, towards her mother for not explaining things to her, and to her peers at school for laughing at her and mocking her.  She starts to realise that she can move things with her mind, and at first it takes a lot of effort, but with practice, she becomes stronger and stronger.

Carrie seems to be in a better place up until her senior prom.  Sue Snell, one of the girls shouting and laughing at Carrie in the shower room, had felt so guilty about what had happened she has convoked her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom.  As a friendly gesture.  However, things go sour from there on in.  Carrie is once again humiliated in a horrible prank, in front of the entire prom and she fully looses it.  I don’t want to give away too much (although I’m sure many of you will have read the book, or seen the film), but Carrie uses her new found power to pay back those who have hurt for all these years.

The only reason I didn’t rate this book five stars, was purely for the fact that I was expecting it to be much more scary.  I found it to be tense and somewhat thrilling, but not so much scary, so I was a little disappointed.  The next Stephen King book I intend to read is The Shining, but please leave any more recommendations in the comments below.

I rate this book four out of five stars.

Those were just my bookish thoughts, but I would love to hear yours in the comments below.

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Harry Potter Collection…

I thought that seeing as I’ve been re-reading my beloved Harry Potter books recently, I thought I would share my Harry Potter collection with you all.  I’ve been collecting Harry Potter books and memorabilia for years and years, and it is honestly one of my most prized possessions. So, let’s get stuck in..

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The main attraction in my collection is my Harry Potter books.  These are the books I have had since I first fell in love with the Wizarding world at around 8 years old, and then as and when the later books were published. These books were a huge part of my childhood, and hold a very special place in my heart.  On the same shel I keep my Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beadle the Bard book, along with my house bookmarks (I’ll pop a close up below).

My larger shelf holds the majority of my collection. Most of the space is taken up with my collection of wands, and my second set of books.  I also keep my copy of Half Blood Prince here as it is the only adult cover I own (I really want to collect the full series in
his cover, maybe one day…).

This part of my bookshelf shows a couple of my favourite things within my collection.  Firstly, you get a glimpse of my wand boxes, which I’ll show you in just a minute.  You can also see my time-turner necklace sat in it’s display case, which I’ve never actually worn as I’m always worried I’m going to break it or something bad will happen.  There are also some chocolates, my chocolate frog and some peppermint toads, which I picked up while I was visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London a couple of years ago.    And the last item in this image is my little sorting hat.  This was actually a one of the cake toppers on my 21st birthday cake and I can’t bear to get rid of it.

A fairly recent addition is my huge Harry Potter theme books.  These include my illustrated edition of Philosophers Stone, ‘Harry Potter Page to Screen’, ‘Harry Potter The Creature Vault’ and I also keep my photo of me riding a broom at the Harry Potter Studio Tour on this little shelf.

This is my second out of three sets of the Book series, as I also have the ebooks on my kindle (y’know… just in case I neeeeeed to read them when I’m away from home!).  This was very lovingly gifted to me a couple of christmases ago, and I love it!  It is of course the Signature collection of the seven book, all beautifully displayed in a shiny red box.  Every time I re-read Harry Potter I go back to my original copies, so these have never been read or had their spines broken, mainly because they look so pretty in their box that I don’t want to ruin them!

This is my wand collection… so far.  I’ve been collecting these for the last 5 years or so and I can’t wait to expand my collection even further.  From left to right we have, Harry Potter, Voldemort, Hermione Grange, Albus Dumbledore (The Elder Wand), Fleur Delacour and Luna Lovegood. All but one of these wands have been gifted to me for birthdays and christmases over the years, as my family and boyfriend are incredible  and know we wayyyy too well.

Finally, I wanted to show you a couple of novelty items from my collection.  First is a ‘Hogwarts A History’ book I made for a halloween costumer years and years ago.  I dressed up as Hermione and decorated this book (which is also a box) to use as a makeshift bag for the evening.  I figured that seeing as Hermione always has a book to hand, it would be a cool idea to keep my purse and phone inside a book instead of taking a bag out with me.  Second is my Hogwarts letter and ticket to platform 9 3/4.  This was a gift from my sister a couple of christmas’ ago, and I thought it was a really sweat idea.  And the very sat thing I wanted to show you is my set of House bookmarks.  Again, this is something that sits with my collection that I have never used, they ooh so lovely and I am always afraid them may get damage it I use them.

I really hope you have enjoyed me sharing my Harry Potter collection with you, and would love to hear about any memorabilia you may have collected, or what is on your Harry Potter wish list in the comments below.  I really enjoyed writing this post, so let me know if you would like to see more like this by giving it a like.

Even Angels Fall; F L Darbyshire

Even Angels Fall by F L Darbyshire isn’t the type of book I would typically pick up, however, when Fay contacted me offering to send me the book in exchange of an honest review, I took to Goodreads to see if it was something I would be interested in.  After reading the blurb and a couple of reviews, it had definitely sparked an interest.

[The Plot]: After suffering an unthinkable loss, Abbey Miller and her family move to Leeds to rebuild their lives and start again, but the pain and grief that Abbey carries with her is impossible to escape. As she finds herself becoming increasingly isolated from her family, she develops a firm friendship with Lucy, Nathan and Liam, who introduce her to a brand new and exciting world, far removed from all of her problems. But will her new friends bring her the light hearted relief she has longed for? Or will she find herself getting drawn deep into their dangerous and intoxicating world?

I want to start with saying, straight away, that this book isn’t for the faint hearted.  There are some really serious issues that are dealt with throughout this book and it really takes you on an emotional roller coaster.

At the very beginning of the book, we learn about Abbey’s traumatic year and how she has had to deal with not only the loss of her twin brother, but also the fact that her family is falling apart.  I don’t think I’ve felt this passionate whilst reading in a long time, and as we learn more about Abbey and her family, the more angry I was with both her mother and her brother.  I had to keep telling myself that they are not real people, they are just characters.  However, Fay’s writing made me feel like they were genuine people who were treating Abbey in this way and I couldn’t help myself but hate them, and just feel so angry that I had to put the book down for the afternoon.

As the story progresses, things get worse and worse with Abbey and her family.  However, she finds solitude in her new friends and takes on a whole new lifestyle.  In order to breakaway from the family who dismiss her when she needs them most, Abbey takes to skipping class and partying with her new friends.  Slowly but surely Abbey becomes a part of their ‘group’, eventually taking recreational drugs and moving in with her new boyfriend.  While Abbey’s choices go against everything I have ever believed in, I couldn’t help but be happy for her.  She has a new supportive structure surrounding her, new friends who would do anything for her.  A boyfriend who loves her.  And most importantly she is dealing with her grief instead of burying it away like her family had been doing for the last year.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers as I really think this is a book you should all read, and get the full impact as the story twist and turns.  But I will say that things slowly start to spiral out of control and Abbey has to face some big and serious decisions.

Even Angels Fall is Fay’s debut novel and I think she has done an incredible job.  It was so emotional and captivating that after taking a small break after getting angry at Abbey’s family, I couldn’t put the book back down.

I rate this book four out of five stars.

Those were just my bookish thoughts, but I would love to hear yours in the comments below.

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City of Bones; Cassandra Clare

For years I have had people tell me I need to read this book, and I have no idea why I didn’t listen to them sooner.

[The Plot]: Clary Fray is seeing things: vampires in Brooklyn and werewolves in Manhattan.  Irresistibly drawn towards a group of sexy demon hunters, Clary encounters the dark side of New York City- and the dangers of forbidden love.

As I’ve already said, I put off reading this book for a long long time, and I have no idea why.  By just reading the blurb it sounds like a book I would love, and with recommendations from people I know have good taste in books, I really had no reason to put it off for so long.

Clary Fray is living a 100% normal teenage life.  Her mom is strict and over protective, she goes out and spends time with her friends.  She has no idea she could be something completely different until she sees something no one else can see in a club in New York City.  Clary sees two guys with a knife, and after alerting her friend Simon and stupidly going after them, she realises it’s a completely different story.  The guys with the know turn out to be shadow hunters, and invisible everyone else there.

From here on in, Clary’s life changes dramatically.  With her mom missing and demons hiding around every corner, Clary has to rely on the group of beautiful strangers to help her fix this new world she had no idea existed.

Simon and Clary’s relationship is so close, and even though Clary is pretty naive to not see how Simon really feels about her, they overcome a lot and Simon accepts this new world with her without any hesitation.  He makes it very clear that he doesn’t like Clary’s new friends, except Isabelle of course, but instead of causing a huge amount of tension or leaving Clary to fix everything alone, he does his best to help.

I love the way the story progressed and didn’t want to put it down at all, finishing it in just two or three sittings. The story id fast paced and so much happens in such a short amount of time, I’m itching to read City of Glass.   Are there any other books out there I’m missing out on, that I should definitely read? Let me know in the comments below.

I rate this book four out of five stars.

Those were just my bookish thoughts, but I would love to hear yours in the comments below.

Please like,share and follow if you enjoyed this post, and feel free to leave recommendations in the comments.