Weekly Wrap-Up #38

Hi guys, just me Jasprit this week. I had a bit of a slow week this week, I was off sick from work, as I couldn't do much around the house, my only options were reading and watching tv shows, (no complaints here!). I used this week to catch up with Arc copies, I've really been slacking on this front, if anyone actually wants to buddy read any upcoming arcs, let me know, I'd love the extra motivation. And finishing and starting some new shows!
We link our weekly wrap ups with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer.

WHAT I READ/REVIEWED 
(Click on title for Goodreads link)

 

Despite being home for the week, I had a slow reading week, I blame this entirely on the fact that I have so many books on the go at the same time :/  (I'm currently reading four right now). The Lost Sisters was a quick read, I know a lot of readers were quite impressed with this short story, I unfortunately wasn't. When You Read This ended up being a so-so read, I like the direction the story went it, but didn't really get a real emotional connection as I expected to. 

BOOKS RECEIVED 

 (Click on title for Goodreads link)

  

I had some great holds come in from library this week, I hadn't been on their digital site in forever and was impressed to discover they had copies of One Day in December (a book I'd had my eye on for sometime) and Children of Blood and Bone. Kleypas' Travises and Galbraith's Cormoran Strike are two series I still need to finish and I've been super excited about reading Backman's books! 

NEW TO MY TBR
(Click on Book for Goodreads link)

 

Thank you to Nick for putting Symptoms of a Heartbreak on my radar! And I started Kasie West's Fame, Fate and the First Kiss this week and I'm surprisingly enjoying it, so I went to check out her future releases and came across this book, which sounds super cute! 

  WHAT I'M WATCHING:

 

I finally finished The Good Wife, the finale episode was sort of disappointing, I was hoping there would be some closure on some aspects. Regardless I started The Good Fight which is a spin off show, and I'm almost done with Season 1, I'm really enjoying it so far! And I've made it a resolution this year to finish so many of the shows that I had started ages ago, so I finally started Season 4 of Jane the Virgin! 

EVENTS OF THE WEEK 

So we were given snow weather warnings this week, but luckily we managed to miss it all, we have had a bitter cold wind, but avoided the heavy snow, the rest of the country got! Thought I'd leave you this cute little dog in the snow. 

Source: Alex Beresford Twitter

How was your week?

Top Ten Tuesday: The ten most recent additions to my to-read list

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl where each week a new top ten list is shared and fellow bookish folk share their lists on that topic.

This week's Top Ten post is: The ten most recent additions to my to-read list. 

(Click on title for Goodreads link) 

 

I've read a few of Higgins books this past year and really enjoyed them and so since then I decided to read all her future books. Emergency Contact is a book that I've had my eye on for some time, but I've just not got around to getting myself a copy, I think I'll need to rectify this immediately! I really do love my second chance romance novels, and with so many of my Goodreads friends loving One Day in December, I knew it was a book I had to had to my to read list! 

 

Helena Hunting and Bethany Chase are two authors whose books I've been meaning to read more of, so I'm delighted that they have these new books coming out this year. 

Meg Cabot has always been my go to author, she's always given me great comfort reads that I can turn to when I need a pick me up or even just a great swoony romance, of course these books were added to my to read list immediately when I heard about them. 

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black  

I've been loving the heck out of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians series, I finished book two last week, but have held off in buying a copy, as I have so many of books to get through first, so will treat myself once I finally whittle my pile down. Backman is a new to me author, his books have been cropping up on my Goodreads feed a lot recently, so I knew I needed to give his books a go. And what sort of ending was that in The Wicked King, the wait for The Queen of Nothing is far too long! 

Which books have you recently added to your to-read list? 

Weekly Wrap Up #37

Hi guys, just me Jasprit again this week. It was a quiet week for me this week, I feel like this week just flew by with me doing nothing but reading, which was a good thing, as I had my first five star read in what feels like forever and I'm actually in the mood for reading!! I've got my reading plan for my next couple of books too, which I haven't done in a while. The only time I went out was to watch Glass, which was incredible, more on that later and I got to spend the day with my niece and nephew, what more could I ask for!
We link our weekly wrap ups with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer.

WHAT I READ/REVIEWED 
(Click on title for Goodreads link)

 

Although I didn't enjoy More than Words, as much as Santopolo's The Light We Lost, this story was still a beautiful one. China Rich Girlfriend took up most of my reading time this week, I didn't realise this book was so long, but it was so worth it, as I ended up giving this book five stars. 

BOOKS RECEIVED 

 (Click on title for Goodreads link)

 

Christina Lauren have quickly become my new favourite writing duo, I just love getting lost in their laugh out loud sexy books, so of course I snapped this book up straight away. 

NEW TO MY TBR
(Click on Book for Goodreads link)

Bear Town was a book which kept popping up on my Goodreads feed this week, so I decided to see what it was about, surprisingly I found that all my Goodreads friends who had read it, had rated it five stars, and just from reading the summary it sounds like an incredible read! And of course after reading and loving China Rich Girlfriend, I knew I had to read the next book in what is becoming one of my favourite series! 

  WHAT I'M WATCHING:

Me and my friend went to watch Glass this week, after watching Split and Unbreakable impulsively one day, whilst I was a fan of Split, Unbreakable not so much, we were incredibly excited about watching these three actors come together. Shyamalan once again didn't disappoint, things kicked off from the beginning and had me sitting on the edge of my seat until the very end. If you're new to this Unbreakable series, then it's one I highly recommend watching. 

EVENTS OF THE WEEK 

Me and my friend went to check out the new pizza place which had opened up near where I live; MOD pizza, you can create your own pizza with whatever toppings you want, I was pretty impressed with my pizza at the end. I definitely think I'll be visiting this place again sometime soon. 

How was your week?

Weekly Wrap Up #36 - I'm back

Hi everyone, it's just me, Jasprit. It's been forever since I've done one of these, I got busy with life last year, then went to Canada for the month, then I came back and went to Mykonos, which was absolutely beautiful. Then I wasn't feeling reading or blogging for, but now it's been far too long and I've really missed it all, especially you guys! I won't go over everything since then, but will share my most recent highlights. We link our weekly wrap ups with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer.

WHAT I READ/REVIEWED 
(Click on title for Goodreads link)

 

A sort of mixed week this week, I ended up DNF'ing 99 Percent Mine, I just couldn't connect with the main character and really wasn't feeling the book at all. Magic Burns I ended up giving three stars, I know so many blogger friends who loved this series, so I do want to know what the hype is about, but I think with my mood right now I'm just not feeling it. I did enjoy Wicked King, maybe not as much as The Cruel Prince, but the ending was just so unexpected! 

BOOKS RECEIVED 

 (Click on title for Goodreads link)

I've really enjoyed Bennett's last couple of books that I read, so I'm thrilled that Bennett has a book out again so soon, I'm hoping this will rekindle my love for YA Contemporary books once more. 


NEW TO MY TBR
(Click on Book for Goodreads link)

 

I didn't even know that Meg Cabot had not one but two new releases this year (thanks for the heads up Nick!). I've been the biggest fan of Meg's work for as long as I can remember, so can't wait to devour these new reads! 

  WHAT I'M WATCHING:

It feels like I've been watching this show forever, I loved it from the beginning, then I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue, but now once again I'm obsessed. I'm midway through the final season and don't know what I'm going to watch once I've finished. If you're a fan of Scandal or Suits, I would highly recommend this show, as it's a nice mix of both shows - focusing on both the political and law aspects. 

EVENTS OF THE WEEK 

So it's been freezing cold here this week, and I've been trying to get back on track with the gym and eating, I always seem to let myself down in terms of eating, it doesn't help that I still have biscuit and chocolate boxes left over from my birthday and Christmas! But I'll leave you with the sunset view in Mykonos, the only thing that gets me through my stressful and long weeks! 

How was your week?

Review: Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson

Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson
Publisher: Mulholland Books 
Publication date: December 13th 2018.
My rating: 4 stars

We all know someone like Becca. She has the job everyone wants, a designer wardrobe, a hot-shot lawyer boyfriend, holidays to exotic locations. And she flaunts her perfect life all over social media. It drove her colleague Lizzie mad, but she couldn't stop looking. They were never really friends - and yet Lizzie knew everything about her. Or did she? When chance, and a terrible mistake, pulls Lizzie back into Becca's orbit years after they lost touch, she'll realise that you can't always believe what you see online... and that finding out the truth might be the worst thing you can do. There's no such thing as a perfect life. Only a perfect lie.

I’m not normally one to pick up psychological thrillers, but when it comes to Alderson’s books, I have no hesitation in picking them up, and I’m glad that I ended up giving this book a go, because it seriously messes with your head (in the best way!). Alderson works the unreliable narrator role work so well here, the book starts off with a chapter from an unknown perspective, we don’t really know what’s going on, but as the book progresses you’re led to believe the narrator’s voice. She’s been through a rough time and you really have no reason not to trust her, so when we’re given a chapter from an alternative perspective, I was like no that can’t be true and to be honest I didn’t want to believe this side of the story at all. To the point that I got to right the end of the story and still couldn’t believe what had taken place.  

I don’t want to say too much without giving a lot away, but I’ve always assumed that I’m a pretty good judge of character, but with Friends Like These I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was so swept away by this character’s story and later ordeal that she had to go through because of this other person, that I was totally left dumbfounded by the end of the book. Once again, I have to praise Alderson here with messing with my head, as I could never have imagined that things would have gone down, the way that they had. On top of this my feelings were left all over the place with me wanting to take back all the anger and hate that I had directed at one character throughout the story towards the person that had deserved it all along.  

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book by Alderson, but thank you once again for luring me in with this masterpiece. The only reason I wasn’t able to give this book the five stars it deserves it because of the sick, yet gut wrenching ending, which I’m not sure I’ll ever get over.