Sign ups for Summer Bookish Bingo (now over on Pretty Deadly Blog) has been extended till July 16th so I've signed up for that one. So I'm quite pleased about that, now I don't miss out on the Summer card.

As the card runs from June to end of August books read in June still count, so some squares I've crossed off already with my June books. 

Out of your Comfort Zone - Black Iris by Leah Raeder

Blue Cover - Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Travel - These Broken Stars by Megan Spooner and Amie Kaufman

POC Writer - An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Face On Cover - Damage Done by Amanda Panitch

I will be creating a Summer 2015 bookish bingo on my tag list.

Now I need a plan for the rest of the squares

Retelling - Cruel Beatuty by Rosamund Hodge (currently reading)

Purple Cover - Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios (currently reading

MC with psychical disability - She Is Not Invisible Marcus Sedgewick (paperback)

Tearjerker - The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand (hardback)

Multi POV: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin (currently reading)

Award Winner - Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (kindle)

Finish a Series - The 100 #3 Homecoming y Kass Morgan (paperback)

Young Adult (over half of my books are YA! How am I supposed to pick one?!) This one will probably change depending on my mood and will most likely be the next book I read and rate 5 stars.

Beach Read - Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (paperback)

Cover Has Been Changed - Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (paperback) I'm planning on taking all my Morgan Matson and Stephanie Perkins books with me when I go on holiday for a week next days that will easily cover these two squares/

Other squares will require some thinking about but that's a starting point :)

After seeing the first post about Bookish Bingo I debated for a while on whether to sign up or not. I don’t usually do reading challenges, but on seeing some of the squares I was already thinking....ooh I could read this book for that square, or this book for another, and it would be a great way to read some of the books I’ve had on my book shelves for ages and never got round to reading. Of course there were lots of squares that were going to be hard to find something for.

But in the end I figured what the hell, cause I was already looking for books to fill those squares. One of the things that was awesome about this particular challenge was that I had to go looking for books to fill some of the squares - Latino MC, set in the Caribbean, Featuring Recovery, Featuring Travel for example. I had no idea what to use to fill those squares. So book hunting I went. I found a whole number of fantastic books I would have probably not found otherwise.

Green Cover - Fates by Laine Bross 

Birds on Cover - The Raven Boys By Maggie Stiefvater

Set During War Time - Prisoner of Night and Fog - Anne Blackman

A New to You Author - Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

A Romance - Montana Mustangs By Danica Winters

Featuring Recovery - Don’t Look Back by Jennifer Armentrout

Child Narrator - 13 on Halloween by Laura AH Elliott

Set in the Caribbean - Devil’s Fire by Matt Matt Tomerlin

Latino MC - Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

About Plants or Wilderness - The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood

Has Been Made into a Movie - Misery by Stephen King

Flower in title or on Cover - The Body Finder by Kimberley Derting

Star (Freebie) The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Spring Release - Sacred Fire by Tanai Walker

Set in California or Florida - Adaption by Malinda Lo

Featuring Travel - Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

April May or June in title - Saving June by Hannah Harrington

Strong Parent/Child Relationships - Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Set in High School - Dare to You by Katie McGarry

1st In a Series - Mortal Danger by Anne Aguirre

Yellow Cover - Fated by Alyson Noel

Starts with S P R I N or G - Seneca Falls by - Jesse J Thoma

A YA book - Undertow by KR Conway

Written by a Woman - City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Zombies - Dearly Departed - Lia Habel

The hardest ones to find for me were featuring recovery and strong parent child relationships. Recovery I had absolutely no idea about...recovery from addiction, recovery from a broken heart, a broken body part...what? I did a lot of searching via Listopia on Goodreads and Google. I found a great list of books  featuring YA novels with darker themes and went out and purchased a few, intending to read Clean by Amy Reed for the recovery square. I ended up finding something else that surprised me for the recovery square but I still think its a really good list in finding some different type of fiction to read that is well out of my usual YA comfort zone.

Child/Parent one was hard as well. I got nothing on Listopia so I just googled it. Usually in YA books the parents are rather absent, and I found a few blogs with lists of books where there were active parental relationships and was delighted to find I actually already owned most of them. And Unearthly by Cynthia Hand not only fit the square but turned out to be one of the best YA angel themed books I’ve read in a long time.

A few books I read were quite disappointing (Deep Blue, Fates, The Poison Diaries) and I only had one DNF (Dearly Departed) My favourite books of the whole challenge were Montana Mustangs, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, City of Fallen Angels, Prisoner of Night and Fog and Devil’s Fire. This challenge is a great way to find books I would have never normally picked up so now I’m done I’m glad I took the plunge.

I was sorting of expecting after reading the blurb for this book a sort of Buffy with fairies instead of vampires. Girl with secret destiny to kill supernatural nasties, with a few helpers and a forbidden romance. Nothing like I thought it would be. An immensely enjoyable read. 

I absolutely loved the subtle touches of steampunk worked in, it didn't overwhelm the story. Action packed, and surprisingly hardly any romance. Lots of fighting and some very imaginative weaponry. And some damned scary fairies. And while all this is going on Lady Aileana still has to deal with her place in Scottish high society. 

My only real issue with the book was that in spite of how awesome the setting and the actual plot was I did not like Aileana much as a lead character. Consumed by an all encompassing need for vengeance and killing fairies, it was pretty much all that she was about. Made even more so when her destiny is revealed later on in the story. She was smart and strong, and had some fantastic weaponry built by herself. Yet there was just something grating about her personality that I found a little irritating and obnoxious. I can certainly see where she's coming from and the story is absolutely compelling and its hard not to feel for her. 

It is a really fantastic read and that ending was a killer!!! Really looking forward to the next one. 


And this completes the freebie star for my Bookish Bingo challenge. (And with the freebie star filled - I have now completed Bookish Bingo!!!!)

This was a surprisingly emotional read for me. I knew it wouldn't be the easiest of subjects. I have never experienced anything like this at all, so I don't know why I should be such an emotional wreck whilst reading this.

I think maybe because it was so easy to understand Harper's tone and character. So well written and provocative it stirred the emotional strings right away. (Other than Aunt Helen and Grace) I don't think there was a single character in this book I didn't love. Despite the emotional difficulty of the story, the first half of the book took a while to get through, after about the 35% mark I read the rest in more or less an afternoon. 

I loved the plot and the music filtering through. More than a few times certain songs have brought me to floods of tears, so the music aspect was something easy for me to understand. Harper's best friend Laney was a pretty awesome friend. Loyal and understanding. And Jake even though he could be a dick was a pretty decent guy. Not swoon worthy for me, but certainly a good hero for the book.

The only thing that bugged me was it did get a little repetitive in Harper's inner monologue sometimes, going on a lot about how hard things were, how things would never be the same and how things were not fine when she kept saying yes she was fine. But given the nature of the story, its something that could be easily over looked. 

I thought it wrapped up in a very honest and believable way too. And yes, I cried my eyes out more than a few times. 

All and all a fantastic read.

And a square crossed off for Bookish Bingo - April May or June in title.