Saturday 28 February 2015

The Infinity Dreams Award


First of all, thanks so very much to the wonderful Jay of Books By Jay for nominating me to do this!  As with most of these, there are some basic rules:

-  Thank and follow the blog that nominated you
-  Tell us 11 facts about you
-  Answer the questions that were set up for you
-  Nominate 11 and make your questions for them

And as with most of these that I do, I am going to probably break them.

I'll start off with the facts about me:

1.  I become easily attached to television shows.  I don’t know what it is, but as soon as I watch more than 3 episodes, I know that I’m going to at least finish the season.

2.  I have strange thumbs.  They are unusually…wide.  I looked it up one day and I found this wikipedia page for the “condition” and a support group!

3.  I don’t really like shopping.  I like the satisfaction of finding something that I need and I like the feeling of having something new, but all the in between stuff… not so much.  The notable exception to this are book stores.

Wednesday 25 February 2015

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Review (Spoilers)

*This is a review which will be filled with spoilers for The Book Thief.  Please don’t continue if you have yet to read this wonderful novel!*

So, after endless recommendations and the release of a movie, I finally read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak in Janurary.  Well, mostly December I think it was.  The amount of hype surrounding this book is unbelievable, but, I think, well deserved.  Even with my super high expectations, I was not disappointed.

Monday 23 February 2015

Bookentine's Day


I wasn't tagged, and it's not Valentine's Day (or even week) anymore, but I saw this on the lovely Noelia's blog, and it looked too fun to pass up!  The tag was created by The Story Goes, so you can go check out the original post there.
Now I'm going to get straight into the questions!

My OTP (One True Pairing):
Despite the "one", I have quite a few true pairings - mostly they're from TV shows though.
From books: Will and Tessa from The Infernal Devices, Karou and Akiva from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, Penryn and Raffe from the Penryn and the End of Days trilogy, Sophie and Howl from Howl's Moving Castle and Malva and Orpheus from The Princess and the Captain.
From TV Shows: Clark and Lana from Smallville, Scott and Allison from Teen Wolf, Rumpelstiltskin and Belle as well as Emma and August from Once Upon a Time and Emily and Jack from Revenge.
I can't cut this list down because I am seriously that passionate about all these pairings.
(Also, notice how a lot of them are beeping DOOMED?)

From now on, I'll try to pick other ships for the questions.

My Favourite Ship to Ship:
That has to go to Penryn and Raffe right now, because their trilogy is not over yet.  I absolutely cannot wait for End of Days!





Favourite LGBTQ Ship:
Magnus and Alec from The Mortal Instruments wins this.  After reading The Bane Chronicles I love this ship even more.  They make each other better, and that's one of my favourite things to see from a ship.

Favourite YA Contemporary Romance Book:
Unfortunately, I'm going to be terribly cliche here and say The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  I haven't read much contemporary romance, okay!?

Favourite Ship From a Book That Isn't Contemporary Romance:
Tris and Four from Divergent.  I think they're great together.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Top Ten Tuesday - Things I Dislike When it Comes to Romances in Books


Hi, it's me, Sabrina.  I know I've been pretty absent lately, but hopefully you haven't forgotten me!  I'm here today with the Top Ten things that I dislike in romances in books - the theme for this week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This is going to be a tricky list, but I can think of at least a few things that get on my nerves...

1.  Keeping Secrets
This is the one that annoys me the most!  I absolutely hate it when couples keep secrets from each other, whether it's because they don't want their partner to be hurt or if they just think it will make them think less of them.  The worst thing about this is that usually the partner ends up finding out and they have a huge fight - over keeping secrets from each other, not what the secret actually was!
Notable example:  Allegiant by Veronica Roth

2.  "I'm Leaving You To Keep You Safe"
I think this one is fairly self explanatory, but this makes my blood boil!  Especially, since in most cases, the couple is safer together and one of the members of the relationship leaving puts the other in danger.
Notable example:  New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

3.  Nonsensical Love Triangles
Perhaps surprisingly, love triangles as a whole don't irritate me too much.  It's only when it's obvious (obvious) who the main character is going to end up with that they annoy me.  If the triangle is done right and I have no clue who's going to be the final couple, I'm cool with it.  I guess it also bothers me when the main character doesn't go for my favourite :P 
Notable example:  Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

4.  Indecision (Particularly When the Right Decision is Clear)
This leads on from the nonsensical love triangles, but it's so annoying that it gets its own point.  I hate it when a character can't decide who they should be with, and in the meantime, basically cheat on their partner with the other member of the triangle.  I don't think you deserve either of them if you're cheating on them!
Notable example:  The Elite by Kiera Cass

5.  "I'd Die Without You"
This is more of a pet peeve of mine.  I dislike when characters say this because it implies that nothing in the world is more important than your "true love".  There are times when saying this is acceptable (These Broken Stars had a good example of this),  but mostly it just sounds silly and overdramatic to me.






Tuesday 3 February 2015

January Wrap Up and February TBR











1.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (4 stars)
2.  She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick (4 stars - review)
3.  Tiger's Promise by Colleen Houck (3.5 stars - review)
4.  A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray (3.5 stars)
5.  The Bane Chronicles (5 stars)
6.  The Maze Runner by James Dashner (3.5 stars)
7.  Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (5 stars)
8.  The Inventors by Alexander Gordon Smith and Jamie Webb (4.5 stars)

This month was another of my productive reading months, which was such a relief after my December slump.  I finished seven books in January, and I finished another yesterday - to be honest, that's why this wrap up is a little late; I wanted the table of pictures to be even!

I'm hoping to have reviews up for The Book Thief and A Thousand Pieces of You very soon, so I won't say too much about those, only that I was happy enough with both.  Once I'm finished The Maze Runner trilogy, I may do a series review, so all I will say about that is that it was a little too frustrating for my liking, although I thought the concept was cool and it creeped me out a couple times.
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