February Book Haul! Wait. What!?

So I went a little crazy this month. Woops. I bought ten books this month, one ebook and nine physical books. I also won a book from GoodReads. Yikes. And out of those eleven, five have blue covers! I must have a thing for blue. LOL

So the books I bought/won are: 

• Dreamless by Josephine Angelini (Starcrossed #2)
• Bewitching by Alex Flinn
• Vicious by V.E. Schwab
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
• Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (Graceling #3)
• Frostbite by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy #2) 
• Erasing Time by C.J. Hill (Erasing Time #1)
• The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #3)
• The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking #2)
• Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris (Unraveling #1)
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab (The Archived #1) 

So if you can see in the pictures, the ones with the flags are obviously the two books that I've read. Vicious and Daughter of Smoke and Bone both have reviews up on this blog. You can read them here and here.

So the reason you don't see The Archived in the above picture is because I bought it as an e-book when there was the $.99 deal on all platforms.

Anyways, I have a story about Frostbite. Originally, I had borrowed the book from my best friend to read a long long time ago and so I ended up only having all the books except the second one and I never got around to getting myself a copy of it. So when I saw that on the Book Depository they had the original cover of the second book, I was so excited, because everywhere only sold the new covers .It came in the mail and I found the new cover sitting in the package instead of the old one. Oh well. Maybe I can find the old cover in a thrift store or something.

In the end, I blame Chapters/Indigo for this giant book haul. They were having a 3 for $10 sale and also I got lost in the bargain books section. I doubt I'll be getting any books next month, but I'll be sated for now with all these that need reading.

Happy Reading, y'all!

Review . . . Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Synopsis:: 

Victor and Eli, due to a research project gone wrong, become ExtraOrdinaries with supernatural powers. Ten years later Victor escapes from prison,determined to get his revenge on the man who put him there, while Eli has spent the years hunting down and killing other EOs. Driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge...

Five flakes out of five! 

Review under the cut!

SHELFIE!

So I don't have too much time to write a blog post this week. I have tons of homework to catch up on and it sucks. Midterm marks count.

So as you can see. I clearly have a lot of books. It's ridiculous. The arrangement has since changed from this picture, but no new books have been added. 

The bottom shelf contains my manga magazines and manga novels. And also some manga in French and adult fiction. 

The next row up has a lot of vampire books and my Nancy Drew collection. Behind them are mostly my collection of classics and my Series of Unfortunate Events books. 

The row above that holds my dystopian and angel books and behind them are some contemporaries, historical fiction and spy/crime YA. 

And on the top shelf, there is a lot of my favourite books, from the harry potter books, the vampire academy books, and the Rick Riordan books. Behind them is just a mishmash of middle grade and YA books. 

So that's my book shelf in a nutshell. :) 

Have a great day, y'all!

Review . . . Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

I received this book for free thanks to GoodReads' First Reads program and also Little Brown. So thank you both!

Here's my review!

Okay so wow. This book takes the classical angels and demons to a whole new fantasy level and it’s so fresh and it is really well done.

Laini Taylor’s writing is so beautiful and so rich that I can’t even. The way she describes Akiva and also Prague is so breathtaking and I can’t even.

“It was cold, and it was dark – in the dead of winter the sun didn't rise until eight – but it was also lovely. The falling snow and the early hour conspired to paint Prague ghostly, like a tintype photograph, all silver and haze.”

“Fairy-tale city. From the air, red rooftops hug a kink in a dark river, and by night the forested hills appear as spans of black nothing against the dazzle of the lit castle, the spiking Gothic towers, the domes great and small. The river captures all the lights and teases them out, long and wavering, and the side slashing rain blurs it all to a dream.”  

Um. Yes. She is a master at describing and painting these beautiful pictures in the reader’s head. The descriptions mostly have this overall running theme of beauty and dream-like.

There’s a Romeo and Juliet-esque love to this story, the love shared between an angel and a demon. As the first page says, “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”

Zuzanna and Mik were super cute. Their love is adorable and it’s almost a foil to the love that Akiva and Karou have.

Also, the chimaera! I like that we get to see past Brimstone’s stony exterior and learn of his past. I love Issa and her snakes and Yasri and the pastries.

The thing that was also interesting is the exchange of pain for wishes that come true. I like that there is a system that one must pay something that is equivalent to what one desires. It brings to light the question of how much pain is a person willing to pay to have a wish.

The half star came off just because I wasn’t completely and irrevocably in love with the book, but it was close enough.

This was such a well-executed story and I can’t wait to read the next book. Well done, Laini Taylor. I applaud you!

I recommend this book for sure, especially if you want a different kind of angel book.

Happy Reading!

Pretty Things . . . Vol.01

1.  Marchesa by Revlon nail wraps. I got these during my Christmas break because I'm obsessed with nail things and also Marchesa dresses are so gorgeous. I couldn't resist. These are gorgeous and I have yet to use them, but I will!


2. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore is the third and final book in the Graceling series. I adore this series and once I saw what the book itself looked like, I could not resist. What you see in the picture is only the end pages. There are more illustrations on the inside with diagrams and maps. It really is so very beautiful!


3. Kesho-Wakusei nail polish in RS01 is one of my favourite nail polishes of all time. I got it in Japan when I visited about three years ago or so. It reminds me of Nars' Orgasm, though this I believe is more pink than gold. 

Photography:: Ice Storm 2013

So. The ice storm in Southern Ontario happened. . . .

It was pretty freaky outside, but it made for some pretty great photos!



Gorgeous, right? If only I had a hot cup of coffee right now, though it is a tad late. 

Anyways, happy snapping!