12/01/2015

Top Ten Tuesday || 2016 Debut Novels I'm Looking Forward To

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week I'm talking about some of the 2016 debut novels I'm looking forward to reading. Honestly, I hadn't heard much about most of these, and they were pretty much all found on a late night GoodReads browse. However  I like the sound of all of them, so I'm definitely interested in getting them, or you know, at least reading them. (also, as far as I know, all of these are debut novels, but if not, then you're welcome to tell me so)




I didn't really feel like I could narrow it down to 10, so the list ended up having 15 books instead. Oh Well. These are in no way put in any order of release date, or even which I'm most excited to read. Of course there are some that I'm more excited to read than others, but isn't there always? I think that If I Was Your Girl, These Vicious Masks, The Girl From Everywhere, and The Way I Used To Be are the books I'm looking forward to the most. At least as of right now, but it might change. 

What 2016 debut novels are you looking forward to reading?

11/17/2015

Review || Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson

Title: Trust the Focus
Author: Megan Erickson
Publisher: InterMix
Published: March 27th 2015
Format: eBook
Genre: NA, LGBTQ
Series: In Focus #1
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Find on: Goodreads

Summary:
With his college graduation gown expertly pitched into the trash, Justin Akron is ready for the road trip he planned with his best friend Landry— and ready for one last summer of escape from his mother’s controlling grip. Climbing into the Winnebago his father left him, they set out across America in search of the sites his father had captured through the lens of his Nikon.

As an aspiring photographer, Justin can think of no better way to honor his father’s memory than to scatter his ashes at the sites he held sacred. And there’s no one Justin would rather share the experience with more than Landry.

But Justin knows he can’t escape forever. Eventually he’ll have to return home and join his mother’s Senate campaign. Nor can he escape the truth of who he is, and the fact that he’s in love with his out-and-proud travel companion.

Admitting what he wants could hurt his mother’s conservative political career. But with every click of his shutter and every sprinkle of ash, Justin can’t resist Landry’s pull. And when the truth comes into focus, neither is prepared for the secrets the other is hiding.


Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. The premise of it all sounded interesting, and I think it delivered what it set out to do. It was very sweet and cute, but in the end, I wasn’t blown away by the story, and I was left with wanting more from it. Or, I think I expected to get something more from it. The story deals a lot with growing up. Both boys have just graduated college, and is at that point in life where they need to figure out where to go. I really liked how the theme was shown throughout the whole book.

The romance in the story was so sweet, and there were some absolutely adorable moments between the two characters. These were usually scenes where not much was happening, but it was the small things that mattered, and that absolutely melted my heart. However, I would have liked some more build-up to that romance. Because we don’t get that much back story on the characters, and where they have already been in regards to the romance, it loses some of what could have been a build-up to it.


“Trust the focus and put down the camera.”

  
The characters made the story interesting. I really liked both characters, even though they could be difficult to tell apart some times, because their voices were, in many ways, very similar. I feel like we got to know so much about Justin and not enough about Landry. I would have loved to get more back story on him, which in turn, I think, would round the character more, and make him stand out from Justin Not having that much on Landry made him seem a little flat and, at times, unrealistic as a character. But besides them falling a little flat from time to time, they seemed real to me. They both got frustrated, and they both lashed out, and when they did, it felt real – that’s something I really appreciated about the book and the writing.

I enjoyed reading from the perspective of Justin. I think he made for an interesting main character, but at the same time, I would have liked, again, to hear from Landry. Granted, it made parts of the book seem more real, and more uncertain, because we had no idea what was really going on, but that also frustrated me to no end. There were some intense parts in the book, but they seemed far to short. That's one of the problems I have with this book. I kept wanting more, more drama, more intense scenes, more yelling and conflicts. It could be because of Justin's personality, that he wants to avoid the all too intense feeling, but as a reader, it gets frustrating to read. 

I think that the photography aspect tied the story well together. In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure how it would be incorporated, but the way it played into the story just worked so well. I’m glad that it wasn’t just a fleeting theme throughout, but that it actually brought something to the story and the plot.

The ending, for me, was a little bland. I feel like there could have been done something more with it. It was beautiful, and as a whole I liked the ending, don’t get me wrong, but I would have loved a little something more, and I kind of wanted the story to go off with a bang (not literally though).


10/29/2015

Wrap-up & favorites (+ I'm back!) || September 2015

*taps the mic* is this thing on?

So, I’ve been missing in action for about two months or so (probably more). Honestly it wasn’t something I planned to do, but life went in that direction, and so here we are. It turned out that I needed to take the summer, and more, off – mostly to actually think about whether I wanted to continue this blog. In the end I decided that I do want to continue. I can’t promise that I will post regularly or anything, but I will try to get at least one post out a week – hopefully more.

So what have I been doing since you last heard from me? The answer is not that much. Okay, I have done some things. I spend 5 days in London with my family, and I had such a great time. I want to go back there some day and explore even more. Basically I want to see more than just the outside of Wembley Stadium. I mean, it’s a beautiful stadium, but it gets old pretty quick. But besides that, I haven't really been doing that much, other than relaxing a whole lot. School has started again in the beginning of September, and I'm currently not technically in school, but out teaching, which is tough, but I'm loving it.

I haven’t really read anything all that much while I’ve been away from the blog either. I wouldn’t call it a reading slump exactly, but yeah, it pretty much was a reading slump. Most of the time I wasn’t in the mood to read anything, and when I finally was in the mood, I ended up reading a shit ton of Teen Wolf fan fiction. Oh well, at least I was reading.

But without further ado, here are my September wrap-up and favorites. (I'm not posting a wrap-up + favorites for October, because honestly, I haven't really done/read anything)

|| BOOKS READ ||
I read 2 books, 1 graphic novel, and 4 short stories/novellas in September. It may not seem like all that much, but I think it was a pretty decent reading month. I have reviews for some of these coming up sometime in the near future.


Lonely Hearts by Heidi Cullinan ★★★★
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang ★★★
Wonderboy by Angel T Kirkegaard ★★★
Fawn by Nash Summers ★★★★★
Waiting For Clark by Annabeth Albert 
The Best Man by Olley White 
Tonight by Karen Stivali 

|| BOOKS ACQUIRED ||
I bought way too many books in the month of September (I know, I'm sorry), but they are all ebooks, so I don’t feel that bad about it. It didn’t put too big of a dent in my budget. I want to try and spend less money on books, because quite frankly, I have too many right now that I need to read, and I can't really make room for book buying in my budget anymore. So, September is hopefully going to be the last month in a while where I buy a shit ton of book. Nevertheless, here are the 16 books, yikes, that I bought in September.
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Him by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen
Crossroads by Riley Hart
Your Voice Is All I Hear – Leah Scheier
Good Omens – Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Magonia – Maria Dahvana Headley
Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon
Charm & Strange – Stephanie Kuehn
Sex & Violence – Carrie Mesrobian
Two Boys Kissing – David Levithan
Ketchup Clouds – Annabel Pitcher
Nick and Charlie – Alice Oseman
Afterworlds – Scott Westerfeld

|| MOVIE & TV FAVORITES ||
Most of September was spend with re-watching Castle, and Queer As Folk. I haven’t watched season four of Castle in a very long time, so it was lovely to revisit the series again - same thing with Queer As Folk (just.. the entire series). I also went to the cinema with my younger brother to watch Straight Outta Compton. I really enjoyed the movie, but I think it got even better because I watched it with my brother. He does know a little more about the music than I do. I do have a couple of problems with the movie, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

|| MUSIC FAVORITES ||
As a result of watching Straight Outta Compton, I spend the rest of the month listening to a shit ton of Ice Cube and N.W.A. I put it on when I’m on my way to school, and it wakes me up pretty great. Besides that, the past months or so, I’ve finally started listening to Halsey, and I absolutely love her music. It has taken over my playlists, and I’m not mad about it at all.

|| LIFE FAVORITES ||
September was a whirlwind of a month. I started school again, and within the first two weeks felt the stress and the pressure. Luckily there were things in September that made some of that stress go away for a little while. One Saturday in September I went out with my cousin, and we danced the whole night. It's been such a long time since I've done that, and we had such a fun time. Another thing is the fact, that I finally decided that, yes, I do want to continue blogging. And though it may not be consistent for the first month or two, I really want to stick with it this time around.

10/27/2015

Top Ten Tuesday || Books On My Halloween Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week is a Halloween freebie, and I decided to list some books that I would love to read this Halloween - not that I think I will.


Okay, truth time, I don’t actually have a Halloween reading list. I don’t even really celebrate Halloween at all. I mean, I do read a scary book (read: try to), watch a scary movie with my dad, and then stuff my face with Halloween chocolate, but that’s about it. Nonetheless, I do love reading creepy books, even though I don’t do it that often – that needs to change (perhaps a 2016 bookish resolution?). These books are not necessarily all horror books, but they are books that I think/I've heard are going to be creepy reads. All of them are books that I, in a perfect reading world, would love to read around Halloween time (not all the books at once, but maybe one or two). Steam, I'm definitely going to read this Halloween, but I still want to try and read one of the others as well.


Bonus - two Halloween-esque movies I'll probably watch this year + one I wish I was watching:
Before I was a reader, I used to spend all my money on DVD's. Honestly, if it wasn't for Netflix, I probably still would.  So as a tiny bonus to this Halloween Top Ten Tuesday, I'm going to list some movies perfect for Halloween.

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: One of my favorite movies of all time. I mean, not it's not a scary movie, but do Halloween movies really need to be that? I don't think so, and I'm definitely going to watch this a little closer to Halloween.

2. Sleepy Hollow: This is a creepy movie. It's a Tim Burton movie, so it's kind of a given. Again, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, and I'm happy to re-watch it once more.

3. It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: I feel like this is such a Halloween classic. I remember watching this on TV as a child, and absolutely loving it. I don't own it, so I can't actually watch it, but I definitely would if I could.

So this was my top ten tuesday for this week. What are some of your favorite movies for Halloween? And what are some of your favorite creepy reads?

9/22/2015

Top Ten Tuesday || Books On My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week I'm back in the blogging game, and I'm going to talk about some of the books I would love to read this fall. Knowing me, I probably won't read any of them this fall, but let's hope.


So I haven't actually been reading all that much in the past months - but more on that in another post. Therefore, I'm not really sure that I'm going to get to any of these, but I certainly hope to. Most of these books have been on my running TBR list for a long time, and I think it's finally time to read them. Then again, isn't that the case with most of the books on our TBR lists? Oh well.  I am very excited to get to all of these. Most of these are on my eReader, so luckily they will be very to lug around, especially when I start teaching again in October. Hooray for not having to carry a million books at a time. Also, all of these books are some that I already own. I do have books that I want to read, that either isn't released, or that have been released, but I just haven't gotten my hands on them. However, I have no idea when I'd get to them, so I decided not to put them on this list.

So these are some of the books on my fall TBR list. What books are you planning on reading this fall?

6/09/2015

Top Ten Tuesday || Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week it's all about some of those books I can't wait to get my hands on. These are books with schedule release dates from July and then forth - at least as far as I know. They are in no way in order of anything, to be honest, just in the order of which I remembered first.
(Also, this post is going to contain and overuse of the words interesting and excited)


Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
I have never read a Leigh Bardugo book before (Shadow and Bone is on my shelf though), but this one sounds absolutely fascinating. I'm not really one for fantasy books (I read mostly contemporary), but I really don't think I can let this one slide.

The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
I fell in love with Rick Riordan's stories late last year, and I really can't turn down a story about Norse mythology. I'm really interested in how this story is going to progress, and what direction it will take.

I read This Song Will Save Your Life last year, and I absolutely loved it. So when I found out that Leila Sales had a book coming out this year, I got really excited. This sounds really interesting, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley
There is not really a lot of information on this book up - at least as far as I've been able to find. However, from what I can see/read, this is going to be a fascinating book, and like something I'd be really interested in.

I've heard a lot of people talking about this one, so I decided to see what they were all talking about. It sounds pretty darn interesting, so I'm looking forward to see how it's going to go.

This sounds oh so very intriguing. It seems as though there are a lot of different things that will play into this book, and it sounds like something right up my alley.

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
I've heard a lot of great things about this book, and it does sound like something I would love. Just, I want to read this so bad.

Focus on Me by Megan Erickson
I read the first book in this (companion?) series earlier this year, and I really feel in love with Megan Erickson's writing. This one sounds just as interesting as the first one, so of course I'm going to pick it up when it comes out.

Underneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul
Truth time: I didn't actually hear about this book until two days ago. I was browsing Goodreads, and I thought the cover looked interesting. Then I read the synopsis, and I'm now very interested in this.

Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall
Actually I didn't hear about this book until last week, but it sounds really interesting. Also, there is a small mention of Bisexuality in the summary, so that does interest me. Even if it's not that big of a plot point, I'm still very excited for this one.

Which rest-of-2015 new releases are you looking forward to getting your hands on?

6/07/2015

Wrap-up & favorites || May 2015

May is over, and June is here. I haven't blogged as much as I wanted to in May, and I don't think I'll be blogging all that much in June either. I've just been so busy with school, and I still have one exam left before I can start my summer vacation. However I will write posts whenever I can get the time. At least I intend to. I also participated in the LGBT Read-a-thon in May. Well, I say participated, but in reality I only read about 23% of one book, and that was that. Mostly I just participated in spirit.

|| BOOKS READ ||
I didn't read much in the month of May. I've been doing a shit-ton of assignments for school, so most of my reading has been related to that. The books I did read though were good, and I pretty much enjoyed all of them. In May I finished the Y: The Last Man series, and I have so many mixed feelings about that whole series. 


One Small Thing by Piper Vaughn & M.J. O'Shea (★)
I've wanted to read this book for such a long time, and I'm glad I finally did. It was a good book, and I will try to have a review of it up it soon.

Trouble & the Wallflower by Kade Boehme (★)
Again a book that I've wanted to read for forever. It was not what I thought it was going to be, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless. The characters were for the most part very likable, and it was just a sweet read.

Imaginary by Jamie Sullivan (★)
This was everything I wanted. It was short and made me tear up so much. The ending felt a little rushed, and I would have loved it to be a longer story. But all in all, this was really good.

Y: The Last Man, Motherland by Brian K Vaughn ()
I have a love-hate relationship with this series. There were parts of this that I completely loved, and then there are the parts that piss me off. This was honestly one of the better parts of the series, and it got me really excited to read the last part.

Y: The Last Man, Whys and Wherefores by Brian K Vaughn
This is the last part of the Y: The Last Man series, and I’m so glad it’s over. It’s been a roller coaster, but the ending was just bad. There was such a big build, and it fell completely flat. The ending felt rushed and like a cop out. I'm so mad at this, and I honestly don't know how to even rate it.

Carry the Ocean by Heidi Cullinan (★)
The best book I read this month. It was such a beautiful read, and I would definitely recommend this. However, I don’t think it’s for everyone. It is very fact heavy, and it can be incredibly slow paced at times. But that was just part of the experience for me, and it added so much more to the book. It deals with a lot of heavy topics, but they are handled beautifully in my opinion.

|| LIFE FAVORITES ||
This month has been stressful for me. I've had so many assignments to hand in, and it has really taken a toll on me. However, May also had some really nice moments. At the end of the month I went to one of my friend's 24th birthday party. It was such a fun night, and really what I needed after all the school stress. We started at her place, and then we went out to dance. I haven't danced that much in a long time. 
Also, it's finally official - I'm going to London at the end of July. We've talked about it for so long, and after I handed in my last assignment, we went online and booked everything. I'm so excited to finally see London. I'm going with my mom, brother, and my cousin. It's a place that I've wanted to visit for a long time, and I'm glad I finally get the opportunity. 

|| MOVIE & TV FAVORITES ||
May was the month that brought us Eurovision. Granted, I don't think it was the best show ever; it lacked some more drama and over-the-top-ness that Eurovision usually have. I watched the show with my cousin, and that made it all a bit better - basically we ate out weight in pancakes, and yelled at the TV all night. It was fun.

Did you read any good books in May? How was your month?

5/27/2015

Read-a-thon || LGBT Read-a-thon: Goals, Updates, and Wrap-Up

It is now Wednesday the 27th of May. The read-a-thon started on Monday, and so far I haven't done so well. I do have an excuse though. Monday was all about preparing for my exam that started Tuesday, so I didn't actually have any time to read. Same thing with reading on Tuesday. It was a 24 hours written exam - which meant I had 24 hours to get everything done. Now I've handed in my exam paper, and I've even gotten a little bit of sleep - I'm still completely dead on my feet, with having had only four hours of sleep in the last 30 hours. But now that that's all over, I have time to read. And read I will.

Goals & Books:
My goal for this week is to read two books, and I feel like even that is setting the bar too high.   But We'll see, I might end up surprising myself and read more than that. I haven't chosen the books that I want to read, except the first one, but I do have a fairly big selection to choose from.

The first books I'm going to read, and have already started, is Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell. It's been waiting for me for too long now, and I have to pick it up. Besides that I don't know what I'll pick up - I'll have to see what looks good to me when I get there. However, I will show you some of the books I have to choose from. There's a couple of physical books, and I also have chunk of eBooks to choose from.

(A small selection of eBooks)

(Some of the beauties I have on my shelve)

Updates Wrap-up
(Throughout the week I will update this page with all of my reading... Or the lack of it)

Honestly there hasn't been all that much to update you all on. I've read about 23% of Something Like Autumn, and that's about it. It's been such a busy week, much busier than I had thought it was going to be. All in all, my participation in this has been a tiny bit of a failure on my side. But I am determined to redeem myself at the next LGBT Read-a-thon at the end of June. And with that said, next time I want to participate on twitter even more than this time.

Did you participate in the read-a-thon? If so, how did you do? Would you participate next time?

5/25/2015

Read-a-thon || LGBT Read-a-thon

LGBT Read-a-thon - 25th to the 31st of May.
The read-a-thon is hosted by Faye @ a daydreamers thoughts.

I've just found out about this read-a-thon that's starting tomorrow (the 25th), and ends on the 31st of May. This sounds like just the thing for me, so of course I've decided to participate. I have a shit ton of books that fall within the LGBTQ+ category, that are just sitting there and waiting for me to pick them up. A read-a-thon like this is a brilliant excuse for me to read them all. Not that I've needed any excuse to read LGBTQ+ books before (if you know me at all, you'd probably know that), but a week with almost nothing but LGBTQ+ books just sounds amazing.

I don't have a set TBR yet, and I probably won't when all comes to it. I just can't deal with having a set TBR, but I may post a picture of possible reads over on my instagram. I'm pretty sure I know where to start though. I've put off reading Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell for far too long now, so it is at the very top of my to-read pile. Besides that one book, I don't really know what I want to read, I'll just have to see where my mood takes me.

I do have an exam on Tuesday though - a 24 hour written exam, so I won't read there, and probably not on Wednesday either. But besides that I will try to read something every single day, and reading will be a great way to recover from my inevitable exam freak out.

Are you participating in the LGBT Read-a-thon? If so, what are you reading for the week?