Ely's Recommendations #6

Aaaaaand, I'm back with more recommendations! As usual, you can find the other parts of my endless recommendation series here- #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5.

1. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
This had been on my TBR for the longest time (ever since it came out and Chami bought herself a copy), then for Christmas last year Chami bought me my own copy. (Words cannot describe how excited I was when I unwrapped it.) Then recently, I just had this sudden urge to read it. I absolutely loved it- it was so quick and enjoyable and just ALL THE FEELS.

2. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
I didn't think this would ever be my thing, but then my lovely friend Michelle talked out in one of her videos and suddenly I'd borrowed the book and was already 200 pages into it. This is a really fun read- it just made me really, really happy even though things have been kind of suckish lately. It's definitely a nice pick-me-up read.

3. On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
A few months ago now (I think), the wonderful Ebony read and reviewed this and ever since then I have been stalking every bookstore possible for a nice copy of this. Eventually, I caved and just borrowed it from the library but it was SO GOOD that now I need my own copy. This book is a little bit difficult to get into and follow along with, but it's totally worth pushing on with.

4. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
This is one of those books that I've raved about to a couple of people already. It just completely destroyed me. Then I wrote this massive review about it.

5. Adorkable by Sarra Manning
I finished this book about an hour ago and it's the whole reason I wanted to do one of these posts. This was another one I picked up because of Michelle. It was just AMAZING. I went through literally every emotion while reading this book - from anger, to sadness, to happiness. It was just what I needed!

Let me know if you're going to pick any of these up, or if there are any books that you'd like to recommend to me! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend :)

Ely's Recommendations #5

It's been a while since I did one of my recommendation posts, or any other post for that matter, but I had a little time to spare today and I thought it'd be a good time to recommend you all some more books! As usual, here are recommendations #1, #2, #3 and #4.

1. Pivot Point by Kasie West
To be honest, going into this book I didn't have high expectations- the only reason I ended up reading it was because I won the second book in a giveaway. However, this totally blew me away. I was not expecting to enjoy it half as much as I did. Words cannot describe how excited I am for the sequel (which I keep putting off because I suck at finishing series).

2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
This was my first ever Neil Gaiman book, and it was just...wonderful. I never saw the animated movie so I had no idea what to expect going into this, but I really enjoyed. It was a fun, extremely quick read and now I just spend all my time sobbing over how expensive all of Neil Gaiman's books are.

3. Solitaire by Alice Oseman
I wrote a really, really long review of this which you can check out here, but I'm just going to sum up my feelings here. THIS IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO AMAZING. READ IT. GO. READ IT NOW. Seriously though, why are you still here?

4. Green Rider by Kristen Britain
I wrote another long review for this so I'll link that here. Basically, this is an amazing first book in a fantasy series that seriously blew my mind. The characters are amazing and the plot is great and I just can't handle the awesomeness of this book.

5. Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
This is a very different type of book than what you'd usually see here and very different from what I'd usually read. This is Mindy Kaling's autobiography, and it's just hilarious. There really isn't another way that I can describe it- it's just so funny that I cried multiple times.

So that's it. That's part five of my endless recommendation post series. I've kind of been stuck in this terrible reading slump for the past two months or so, so I don't know when I'm going to have my next recommendation post up or review- I'm really hoping I can be a little more active on the blog in the coming months. As always, thank you all for reading!

Ely's Recommedations #4

Do you know what time it is? That's right...IT'S RECOMMENDATION TIME! You can see my other recommendation posts here: #1, #2 and #3. I've read so so much since my last recommendation post that I had a seriously hard time cutting this down to just five, but without further ado, here they are:

1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
You might not know this, but Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is one of my all-time favourite books but I think Jamaica Inn is making it's way up that list. Both of these are mystery novels, but this one has a little bit more romance than Rebecca. That's not why I love it. I love it because there are some many twists and turns and the love interest, Jem Merlyn, is to die for. Also, the brand new BBC miniseries is glorious.

2. The Purgatorium by Eva Pohler
If you want a proper review for this, you can check out the one I did earlier this month here. In short, this book gets into your head and you don't know which characters you can trust and which you should dislike. It's absolutely brilliant.

3. Finnkin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
I've been meaning to read Melina Marchetta for ages, but this just happened to be the first one I got to. It's amazing. It's fantasy with some romance with a little bit of mystery and magic thrown in too. It's incredibly fun to read, and the character Evanjalin is seriously amazing.

4. Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier
I warned in my review of this that I was probably going to talk about this one for the next couple of years until everyone is completely bored of me. To sum it up, this is brilliant and so very different to everything else that's out there at the moment. It's definitely become a new favourite of mine and I'm determined to get everyone else on this planet to read it too. Also, you should my review and enter the giveaway (AUS only).

5. The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
This one is also a fantasy, but it's more Middle Grade than Finnikin of the Rock. I can't even begin to describe how fun this book is, I laughed so many times while reading. I also fell completely in love with the protagonist, a fifteen year old boy named Will. And yeah, I might be older than him but true love knows no age. But really guys, you should read this!

Some notable mentions are: Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, North and South, Reboot and Rebel, The Raven Boys, My Life Next Door and Finale. See what I mean when I said I had trouble deciding?

Now, what are your recommendations? Have you read any of these? Have I influenced you to pick any of this up?

As we all know, Chami has taken to an event called, "Let's destroy Ely's post by adding some Chami stuff into it as well". So, Hi everyone. It's me here again. 

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead
If you are put off just by the title having "Vampire", then you don't deserve to read this series becomes your one dimensional and just damn judgemental. This is one of my favourite series EVER and if you are seriously worried about the fact that there are vampires in it, think of it as a culture. Because in this series, it is. Give this series a good two books to fall in love. Because when you fall. You fall hard.

I can't even mention anything else because everyone needs to read this series. Have you read it? Did you love it? Comment down below and tell us what you think?

Ely's Recommendations #3

 IT'S RECOMMENDATION TIME! You can see my other recommendation posts here: #1 and #2. The five books I have for you today are all ones I've recently read (which is how I plan to do the rest of these posts).  So, let's get it started in here!

1. The Violet Eden Chapters by Jessica Shirvington
I've kind of been freaking out about this series a lot recently. I marathoned the whole series last month before I actually met Jessica Shirvington (which was amazing). This series is very fun and unique and the characters are amazing. I wrote a proper series review so you can read that here. (P.S. This series is also called The Embrace series in the UK)

2. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
This one is quite popular, but I feel the need to mention it anyway. THIS IS SO GOOD! I don't actually remember every being scared because of a book until this one. I don't even know why, there's just this aspect to the book that makes it seem so very real and possible- it's terrifying. You need to read this, it's just that simple. Also, special thanks to Kelly for Diva Booknerd for supporting me after this book was finished, I could not have survived without you!

3. The Great Gatsby: Graphic Novel by Nicki Greenberg
This one's very different from any of the others. As you can tell from the title, it's a graphic novel...but it's not just any graphic novel it's a graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby. (How many times do I need to say graphic novel?) It's so amazing, and unique and the characters are all this little funny creatures and the art is amazing (and originally hand-drawn by Nicki). I'm working on a very special post dedicated to this so look out for that.

4. Searching for Sky by Jillan Cantor
I'm being a bit mean here as this one isn't out until July, but I just HAD to mention it. This is really amazing, it's being described as a sort of 'reserve-dystopian' but personally, I believe it's more of a survival story with a twist. I can't tell you much more, but my review will be out late June!

5. Tomorrow, When The War Began by John Marsden
As many of my fellow Aussies will tell you, this is a YA classic down here. It's the first book in seven book series about a bunch of teenagers fighting for survival after Australia is invaded. It's action-packed, and just wonderful. I studied this in school a while back so this is a re-read for me, but if you're an Aussie who hasn't read this you need to get on it, and if you're from anywhere else...you need to read this just as much!

These recommendations posts are quickly becoming a 'see how many Australian authors I can fit in' (3 today) kind of post, and I love that. If you've read any of these books, please let me know so we can gush about them in the comments, and if you haven't, please consider giving them a go. I'll see you all next time with some more recommendations, until then...

Ely's Recommendations #2

Heeeello, and welcome back to my second recommendations post. Firstly, if you'd like to see my first post, just click here. So I've got another five books/series to recommend today. This list is more about series that are hugely popular, but in case you may not have read them, I've decided to mention them today!

1. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
This one probably goes without saying. I started this series way back when I was thirteen and I have loved it ever since. The story is amazing, but one of the main reasons I love this series so much is because of Rose Hathaway. I'm a big fan of kick-ass girls, and I think Rose is the reason. She's incredibly bad-ass, but at the end of the day she's really a normal girl- she makes mistakes and bad decisions just like everyone else, but I will continue to love her until my dying day. Plus, I'm not ashamed to admit that I adore Dimitri, Adrian and Christian too!


2. Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi
Again, for anyone who's been following our blog for a while, you should not be surprised by this one. Both Chami and I absolutely adore this series to no end. Warner is definitely the main reason for this, but Tahereh's writing is so lovely and so unique which makes us love it even more. We honestly never shut up about this series, to the point that we just make references to the characters and quotes way more than is healthy. We have no regrets though.


3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
This isn't one that is really talked about anymore, I suppose because it finished a few years ago back in 2006 but this is one of my ALL-TIME favourite series. This is probably one of the first series that I religiously read as a child and to be honest, I think I even read all of it way before I got into the Harry Potter books. I remember counting down the days until the next book would be released and then buying it the moment it came out, only to finish it within a few hours and go back to counting down again. I don't think any series ever could replace the spot in my heart that this series dominates.

4. The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting
This one doesn't have quite the same scope as the others, but this one is still quite popular. I had my doubts about it before I begun but this series is truly awesome. The premise of the book is so unique and it's definitely pulled off well. I think my favourite thing though is the romance in these books, it's so sweet and realistic and I just love Violet and Jay so much! I haven't actually read the final book yet but I can't wait to get my hands on it!

5. Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray
This is the same sort of deal as The Body Finder in the sense that I have yet to read the final book (in my defense it's 800 pages long!) but I love the first two books so much that I had to include it. These are quite different to what I usually read, the series is about witches in Victorian England. They're incredibly amazing, although quite dark and heavy at times. The characters are all amazing, and I can't wait to finish the series!

Ely's Recommendations #1

So a few months back, I made a post recommending books to a friend of mine and I really enjoyed that. So I thought I'd start a new little series in which I recommend about some of my favourite books. In each part, I'm going to name five books/series and then talk about them a bit. This is mostly YA, but I'll include other genres now and again.

1. The Wounded Guardian by Duncan Lay | Goodreads
I have yet to write a proper review of this book, but there was no way I could not put it on this list so a review will probably be up next week. To put it simply, I adored this book. I don't usually read epic fantasy novels, but this one just completely blew my mind. I think part of the reason I love this book so much was that I was lucky enough to meet Duncan Lay last month. I can't even describe how amazing he was at pitching his books to my friend and I. I'll talk about my thoughts more in my actual review. But, if you only pick up one book from this list, make it this one.

2. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner  | Goodreads
This one has a bit more hype surrounding it than most of the books on this list but I just couldn't not talk about it. I haven't written a proper review for this one either (yet), but I'm actually planning on re-reading it next month- the fact that I only read it in January should speak volumes as to my feelings towards this book. I honestly stayed up until 2am reading this and then was unable to sleep the rest of the night because I was shaking from this book.  I really can't even describe how much I love this book or how many feels I felt. You just have to read it to understand it.

3. Kill the Music by Nansi Kunze | Goodreads
Do you think I've talked about this book enough? Nope, nope, nope. I don't think there are enough words in the whole world to describe my love for this book and for Nansi. This book is so much fun to read, there's a bit of mystery, bit of music and a whole lot of drama and romance. Plus, Marius is totally the love of my life. But even more than that, Nansi is honestly the most wonderful person ever. I've been lucky enough to meet her twice (totally by accident both times), and I can't even put into words how amazing she is. My new goal in life is to get everyone to read all three of Nansi's books. Also, you can see my review here.

4. The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail | Goodreads
I found out about this book through a book club I was attending at my school in which we read through books that were nominated for awards. As soon as I found out that this book was about the Holocaust, I borrowed it and that was where my love began. Anyone who's been following this blog for a while is likely to know that I adore anything WWII related, this was absolutely no exception. I think my favourite thing about this one, is that it's different- it's set in Auschwitz, but the main character is provided with a unique opportunity, to play piano for the commander. Needless to say, there were many tears throughout this book.

5. Destiny Road by Melissa Wray | Goodreads
This book was actually sent to us for review by Melissa, but I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to include it here. Destiny Road is very different to the other books on this list, it's a contemporary but rather than centering on romance, it focuses on family. I really love stories that are about families and friends as much as I like books about romance. The issues in this book are all based off Melissa's own experiences, which makes it even more realistic and enjoyable. Plus, it's set in Australia and what kind of Aussie doesn't like a book set here? You can see my review here.


So that was my first recommendations post. Somehow, all of these authors turned out to be Australian authors (I believe Meagan Spooner sees herself as an honourary Aussie), which awesome! I hope some of you consider these books because they are honestly amazing and deserve more hype (and ratings on Goodreads). I hope you all enjoyed this post, I'm considering doing one of these every month but we shall see.

Thank you!

Recommendations for Laura #1

I'm promised my lovely, currently new-book-deprived friend, Laura, that I'd give her a couple of book recommendations after she finished reading Divergent. I went a little nuts, to be honest and came up with thirty books in a few different genres for her to read. I've included a brief sort of summary/why they should be read. So here we go...

DYSTOPIA.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis: A dystopic world set on a spaceship. What more could you want?

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken: The book of FEEEELS.

More Than This by Patrick Ness: Not what you'll expect.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver: A different take on dystopia.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: JUST READ IT!

Mystic City by Theo Lawrence: Mind-blowing. Awesome. Feels.

Renegade by J.A. Souders: The same as above.

Genesis by Lara Morgan: Very interesting, little bit different.

  
HISTORICAL.
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder: FEEEEELS, plus lots of action and some mystery.
The Diviners by Libba Bray: 1920's paranormal mystery with some romance.
A Great and Terrible Beauty: Victorian boarding school witches with romance and friendship.
Venom by Fiona Paul: FEELS. Renaissance Venice. Mystery, Romance.

PARANORMAL.

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting: Slightly creepy paranormal, sweet romance.

Fury by Elizabeth Miles: Modern mythology. Mystery. Romance. So much pain.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson: Ripper, Mystery, Romance. Set in London ;)

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer: Werewolves, Romance.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: Words do not describe.

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon: Witchcraft, Romance.

CONTEMPORARY.

The Purgatorium by Eva Pohler: Haven't even finished this yet, but OMG.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: So cute.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Cute romance, boarding school. Set in Paris.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins: Cute romance.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher: Possibly one of the creepiest 'romance' books in existence.

Dangerously Placed by Nansi Kunze: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Amazing.

Mishaps by Nansi Kunze: As above.

Kill the Music by Nansi Kunze: You will die for Marius. Mystery. Romance.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney: Incredibly powerful.

Forgotten by Cat Patrick: Cute, bit of a mystery.

Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington: SO MANY FEELS.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: Just. Can't even.

Those are the ones I can think of at the moment. Who knows, in a few months, I might make another recommendations post for Laura. But then again, I can already feel her glare through my computer screen...I'M SORRY!!!