Sunday Post 24th June 2018

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, it's a chance to post a recap on the past week, show the books we have received and share what we plan for the coming week. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality and the aim is to show our newest books and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops or downloaded on to their e-reader.

Last Week:

• Unboxing Book Box Club
• Top 5 Favourite LGBTQ Novels
• Unboxing Owlcrate
• Discussion Review: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews

Books We Got This Week:

Most of these came from Unboxings! Seeing Red was sent to me by the publisher and I'm excited enough for it that I might mess up my entire review schedule just to read it now! Wicked and the Wallflower was an auto-buy for me because Sarah MacLean is my second favourite Romance writer (Lisa Kleypas being first of course) and I love her books so much. Of the other four (you can watch the unboxings linked above) I think I am most excited for The Boneless Mercies because it's an ARC from one of my favourite writers (she does creepy so very well) and also Grump just because I'd never heard of it before and I love fairy tale retellings! 

Reading Update:

Kiss the Girl by Melissa Brayden: 5 stars, I've been looking for LGBTQ contemporary romance like this for so, so long. This was just like a Sarah Morgan novel. Light and fluffy, with an amazing friendship group, a gorgeous sexy romance, and some personal drama that really makes you fall for the characters. I am currently reading book 2 in the series and badly want to do a series review when I am done!! 

Sunday Post 17th June 2018

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, it's a chance to post a recap on the past week, show the books we have received and share what we plan for the coming week. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality and the aim is to show our newest books and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops or downloaded on to their e-reader.

Books We Got This Week:

All of these are books that I'm excited about but have heard mixed things of! Except for Girl Made of Stars as I've tried to avoid reading reviews of it. It might be a difficult read for me so I'll need to be in the right frame of mind but I'm really intrigued to see how it's carried out. If you've read any of these, let me know what you thought because I'm getting such conflicting views on them! 

Reading Update:

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews: 4 stars, This was such a strong read. The abuse was handled incredibly well and the story was compelling. I will be posting a discussion review of this soon over at The Regal Critiques! 

Fiona by Meredith Moore: 4 stars, Surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It sounded like a fairly typical Jane Eyre retelling but it was anything but. It was super dark and twisted in places and the main character wasn't always likable. I don't think I enjoyed this as much as I Am Her Revenge (Moore's first book) but it was still tense and exciting. 

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan: 3 stars, I feel bad on this one because teenage me would have loved it. But it was so hard for me to relate to the characters who seemed (appropriately) immature and that affected my enjoyment overall. This is more of a me-problem though as I feel like teenagers should love this! 

Sundark by Elizabeth Watasin: 3 stars, It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to figure out whether this was alternate history or actual history - I loved the central couple but didn't see as much of their relationship as I would have liked. The psychic element was interesting but ultimately I didn't find this as compelling as I wanted to. I would still read more though.

Monday Highlights #58

The idea is to just link your favourite blog post from the past week (for example a post you're very proud of or just had a lot of fun making) and then I, and hopefully others, can discover new blogs to follow and interact with and discover more posts from blogs we may already follow!

Sunday Post 10th June 2018

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, it's a chance to post a recap on the past week, show the books we have received and share what we plan for the coming week. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality and the aim is to show our newest books and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops or downloaded on to their e-reader.

Last Week on the Blog:

This week we launched our YouTube Channel!! We very much wanted to do more vlogging and unboxings and thought this would be a good way of doing that! You can find our first video here (and feel free to subscribe to catch more of our videos).

Books We Got This Week:

Exile by S.M. Wilson: This is the sequel to The Extinction Trials which I read and loved last year. Jurassic Park meets The Hunger Games was always going to be a big draw for me.

Onyx and Ivory by Mindee Arnett: This came in a subscription box an it is huge and gorgeous with sprayed pages. I am so very much looking forward to this and have heard some great things.

Too Wilde to Wed by Eloisa James: I haven't read the first book in this series yet (although I do own it) - but Eloisa James is pretty much an auto-buy for me.

Never World Wake by Marisha Pessl: This sounds dark and intriguing. I've heard some good things but I'm trying not to hear too much because it seems like it might be easily spoiled. 

Reading Update:

The Forbidden Orchid by Sharon Biggs Waller: 4 stars, There was a lot I loved about this and then a few tiny gripes. I will be posting a full review over at The Regal Critiques next week so keep an eye out for that. But on the whole this was a good, interesting and exciting historical fiction read.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: 3 stars, It's taken me this long to read a Woolf book which seems so odd to me. I was intrigued by this but ultimately a bit underwhelmed. The writing style just wasn't for me I think.

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin: 4.5 stars, This was gorgeously written, atmospheric, hugely emotional and I adored the romance. The mystery itself was brilliant. I solved it just slightly before the main characters and it ramped up the tension so, so much. And the ending was perfect.

Announcement!!

Today is our three year Blogoversary and to celebrate we have started our own YouTube Channel!!

  

This is our first video - check out Ann being a total YouTube natural and me being a completely awkward idiot! We've had a lot of ideas that don't work so well in blog format so wanted to add videos. We'll be posting vlogs (from YALC for example) and some hauls and subscription unboxings on the channel. We're totally new to this so apologies!!!

My Pride Month TBR

Happy Pride Month everyone!! To celebrate I'm going to be reading as many LGBTQ books as I possibly can! And please leave your suggestions down below for new or old favourites I should be adding to my list!! 

The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve

A transgender male protagonist, an historical murder mystery - and so, so many good reviews so far! I'm really, really excited for this one!

Cloaked in Shadow by Ben Alderson

The second book is coming out soon (or maybe already has) so I need to get on this! I've been watching and loving Ben's videos for years now and I'm thrilled to read something he wrote! 

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the best burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding

Vera @ Regal Critiques told me this was brilliant and I've been desperate to read it for the longest time! Plus I'm so in love with the rainbow cover!

Lizzie by Dawn Ius

Anything Lizzie Borden instantly goes on my TBR but this is even more intriguing than normal because its set in modern times. I'll be interested to see how the author does moving the events and in making Lizzie a compelling Main Character as she deserves to be.

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
A gender fluid protagonist is something I don't think I've ever read before and it is so wonderful to see this representation! I've had this since it released but I've been out of the "fantasy" mood lately so haven't read it yet but I aim to change that soon!


Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn MarshThis is the most cover lust - and it has a bisexual protagonist AND there is necromancy. Which makes this basically my dream book! I can't wait to dive into this! 

Monday Highlights #57

The idea is to just link your favourite blog post from the past week (for example a post you're very proud of or just had a lot of fun making) and then I, and hopefully others, can discover new blogs to follow and interact with and discover more posts from blogs we may already follow!