Book Haul #2 July/August 2017 + I’M BACK BABY

Hello readers!

I am back! I want to thank you guys for sending me such wonderful and caring comments while I was out, I was very, very happy to read them. You’re all very sweet and the messages made my day a little brighter!

I took some days off to breathe a little and concentrate on getting better and disconnecting. Although I love blogging, it was starting to feel like a chore, so I took a step back from that as well. I’ve been slowly getting back to answering comments, reading posts and such, and the past couple days I’m basically back to the normal rhythm.

Things are getting better but there’s still a long way to go. Depression and anxiety aren’t fun to deal with, nor do they go away easily. If you feel like things have been getting too much, please look for help. Talking to friends and family WILL help and they will not think it’s stupid. If it feels too scary to tell them, write honestly what is going on, everything, in detail, just for yourself. Tangible things are easier to deal with, and simply seeing your problems in front of you can help you find a solution. Don’t hesitate to contact someone in your area, or try apps like 7 Cups of Tea.

So now I feel more like myself and I’M BACK BABY!

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(don’t do like Sarah, take care of yourself 🙂 )

ARC Review: Murder in Montparnasse, by Kerry Greenwood

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction

Goodreads / Amazon

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries series, so when I saw this book on Netgalley, I just had to read it! I was pretty psyched when I saw it got approved, as you can imagine.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

The divine Phryne Fisher leads another dance of intrigue. Seven Australian soldiers, carousing in Paris in 1918, unknowingly witness a murder and their presence has devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead … under very suspicious circumstances.

Review: Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Goodreads / Skoob

This book has been highly recommended by Never Not Reading and a few more people to me, and I am so glad I listened! Fangirl is so adorable and sweet.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words… And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Dreamy Book Covers Tag

I was tagged at Coffee Loving Bookoholic for this really nice tag! Thank you so much, Alex!  If you don’t know her blog, you’re missing out – I really enjoy her blog (this post about top 10 classics to read was pretty amazing). I’m a sucker for a good cover, so this will be quite fun to answer!

The rules:

• Thank the person who tagged you
• Mention the creator of this tag (tiana @the book raven)
• Use the original tag image in your post.
• At least tag one fellow blogger for doing this tag!
• List the rules

ARC Review: The Word is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Crime, Thriller, Fiction

Goodreads / Amazon

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out today, August 24th 2017!

I have been wondering how to review this book since I started reading it and, now that I’m finished, I am still not sure. The first thing to say is that it’s unique, not your typical murder mystery, and it’s strange. I was not sure if I’d liked it until it was over, and I think a better way to describe is that it definitely left an impression on me. It stuck in my mind and got me googling all through the story. So: yes, I enjoyed it!

ARC Review: The Other Girl, by Erica Spindler

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Thriller, Crime

Goodreads / Skoob / Amazon

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Girl comes out today! I read this book in one sitting. Need I say more?

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Goodreads Synopsis: 

Officer Miranda Rader of the Hammond PD in Louisiana is known for her honesty, integrity, and steady hand in a crisis—but that wasn’t always so. Miranda comes from Jasper, just south of Hammond, a place about the size of a good spit on a hot day, and her side of the tracks was the wrong one. She’s worked hard to leave the girl she used to be behind and earn respect in her position as an officer.

Books I’m Not Sure If I Should Add to My TBR #1

Hello readers!

I would like your help! As explained on my Anti-TBR post, I am quite critical of the books that make it to my TBR. A lot of times they don’t make it, and a lot of times they do. Most of the time, however, the books simply remain on a sort of limbo, where I am not sure if to read them or not. So I convince myself I will add them if I keep hearing about them and if I still want them after a few weeks, but sometimes it isn’t that simple!

Some of the books below I have simply been unable to decide for years. Because I normally don’t take note of the “limbo” books, I had to force my memory a bit here. I’m sure there are many more that I will remember, which is why I wrote this post as a series.

If you’ve read any of the books below, please let me know in the comments what you thought!

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The Princess Saves Herself in this One, by Amanda Lovelace 

I don’t like poetry a lot and I hardly ever read them. So I am very hesitant to add one to my TBR, but this one sounds so interesting! I’ve read very few reviews, and they either say “I hate this, it’s not even poetry”, or “I love it so much, it resonates with me a lot”. It tells a story through four point of views: the princess, the damsel, the queen, you. It sounds like a wonderful feminist piece, but it also sounds like it could be underwhelming.

Getting to Know You Better Tag

I have been tagged by Mia the Book Addict to answer Getting to Know You Better, and I am so excited! This is such a cute tag, and I love talking about blogging and book habits!

Rules:

• Answer the questions down below.
• Credit the creator of  the tag (Ink Girl and Words).
• Nominate as many blogger as you want, it has to be 5+ though.

How long have you been blogging?

Since May this year – so about 3 months!

Do you enjoy doing tags?

I do! It’s such a nice way to get to know one another, find out more things we have in common with fellow bloggers and find out other people’s bookish habits.

Do you follow the blogs that follow you?

Most people!

Describe your blog in 5 words?

Passionate, random, friendly, cozy (?), opinionated

How many posts have you made on your blog? (Not counting this tag)

Around 55.

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy blogging?

Honestly, I am still pretty fresh in the blogging community, so for me it’s a 10. I love talking about books, getting book recommendations and spending time editing previous reviews, working on social media, reading other people’s posts… I could literally do this all day, every day. This will probably change with time, though!

Post some links to blogs you enjoy reading

Honestly I tend to click on posts without really checking who posted it… but some of my auto-like (like before even reading) blogs are: Diary of a Bookfiend, The Introverted Book Nerd, Clues and Reviews, Darque Dreamer Reads, Chelle’s Book Ramblings, Paper Fury

Writing or reading blog posts?

Both? I started this blog because I love writing & books & I talk too much about books, so eventually decided to create a blog where my thoughts could be shared and maybe find a person or two who read similar genres so I could get inspiration from. The blogs I found out because of it absolutely blew. My. Mind. So many creative posts, from honest and thoughtful discussions to hauls (I love those!), funny tags, reviews with such unique styles. I always look forward to sharing my posts and it gives me a bit of a butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling to post something and hope you guys enjoy the content. But finding out there’s people out there being as in love with reading as I am, and even more, was and is so awesome.

I am tagging some of the last blogs I started following recently:

A Taste for Books

Boston Book Reader

Linda’s Little Library

Phannie the Ginger Bookworm

City of Novels

Of course, if you don’t want to answer the tag, you absolutely don’t need to.

Mental Health Break

Hello guys,

I’m taking the next few days off. I’ve been dealing with some personal issues that need my attention now, and I am not sure when I will be back entirely – could be this weekend, next month, no idea. I don’t think I will be 100% off (I love blogging, after all), but will decrease the frequency of my interactions a lot. There are 3 weeks worth of posts already programmed here, so the blog won’t suffer too much from it. Just letting you guys know.

With love,

Naty

Update: I’ve been getting lots of love from you guys, thank you so much! ❤ you are awesome!

 

Review: And I Darken, by Kiersten White

Rating: ★★★★★

Recommended: Yes

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Alternate History, Young Adult, LGBTQ+

Add it to your TBR: Goodreads, Skoob

This is a great year for fantasy YA for me. I’m discovering a bunch of books I had heard some blurb about before but hadn’t picked it up because I was for a while all about contemporaries, literary fiction and historical fiction. Do get ready for another review where I swoon a lot. Spoiler alert: And I Darken is awesome.