Waiting on Wednesday (#1)

Is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I'm most excited about this week is...

Title: The Story of Us
Author: Deb Caletti

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: April 24th 2012

Blurb from Goodreads:

Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend—but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son—Ash—complications arise:

Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs—Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser—seem to be declaring war.

While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....

Deb Caletti is on my list of authors that I can’t wait to get around to reading this year. So what better book to start off with, than The Story of Us. Ever since I heard about this book last July I’ve been slightly giddy with anticipation. The cover looks absolutely gorgeous and the story comes across as complicated but fun. I also have a feeling this book will have me sighing with some swoony scenes.

I‘d love to hear your thoughts on my pick and what you’re waiting on this week.

Top Ten Tuesday (#2)

Is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where each week they post a new top ten list and ask fellow bloggers to share their lists on that topic.

Today’s top ten Tuesday topic is Top Ten books that were totally deceiving. This could be in terms of covers which didn’t fit books, covers which were different to their summary or books you expected to be fluff by which were actually serious.

1.       Past Perfect by Leila Sales
2.       Delirium by Lauren Oliver
3.       Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Covers I just didn’t get; I honestly have no idea why these specific covers were chosen for these books. To me they don’t fit the story at all. But despite the weird covers I unexpectedly did enjoy these books.

4.       Kiss Crush Collide by Christina Meredith
5.       Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

Covers with public display of affections but misleading; I went in to these books enticed by the covers, but these scenes were completely missing.

6.       Fury by Shirley Marr
7.       Paradise by Jill S. Alexander

Don’t judge a book by its cover; I went in to paradise expecting it to be a fluffy light-hearted read. But I couldn’t have been more wrong some of its serious undertones completely blew me away. The same with Shirley Marr’s book. I didn’t know what I’d be getting myself into just by looking at the cover, but it was such a dark book with an intricately woven plot.

8.       Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
9.       Where it began by Ann Redisch Stampler
10.   Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry

Beautiful covers but disappointing story; these three covers are absolutely stunning, especially Halo, it’s a pity not much could be said about the story.

So which books made it to your Top Ten books that were totally deceiving?

In my Mailbox (#1)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren in which bloggers share their books which they have recently received.

My mailbox this week actually covers the books I have received over the last two weeks, you should have seen my face when I received some of my books, as usual it means my reading schedule has gone out of the window, but I don't mind as I have some awesome little gems to devour.

Night Sky by Jolene Perry and Spectral by Shannon Duffy. Thank you to Tribute Books for the review copies. I finished Night Sky the other day and it was a surprisingly good read. I will have my review up soon.

Overprotected by Jennifer Laurens. Thank you to Wendy from The Midnight Garden for the heads up on this freebie on Amazon.

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris. This book has been popping up everywhere and after I read Maja from the Nocturnal Library and Sam from Realm of Fiction's review I knew I needed to get my hands on a copy. So thank you to Edelweiss for this exciting review copy. (You can read Maja's review for this book here and Sam's review here)

Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson and The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman. A big thank you to Random House and Netgalley for these awesome books. I hadn't even realised until just before it's publication date that The Book of Blood and Shadow was up on NetGalley, I really thought that I had missed out, but thankfully received a copy. I found it really diffiult to get into, but now I just can't put it down! I'm absolutely loving it.

Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer. I won this at Realm of Fiction, a big thank you to Sam for hosting the giveaway!

So that's me done, looks like I'll have a fun reading week ahead! I'd love to know what you got in your mailbox this week?

Review: I Heart Vegas by Lindsey Kelk

Title: I heart Vegas
Author: Lindsey Kelk
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: 8th December 2011
My rating: 4 stars






Lindsey Kelk’s books have quickly become my guilty pleasures, her books just like Meg Cabot’s and Sophie Kinsella’s I know I can turn to when I need a quick pick me up; they easily bring a smile to my face and they’re the perfect comfort reads. I’ve been glued to Angela’s adventures ever since she ran away from London 18 months ago in I Heart New York. Each time I’m about to start a new book there’s always a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach, worried about what she will get up to this time. You always kind of know Angela’s going to mess something up somehow or cause some sort of controversy, but then there’s always the fun and laughter along the way which makes up for Angela being a total nutter. (A good nutter!)

I Heart Vegas kicks off with Angela receiving a letter from the immigration and naturalisation service’s revoking her visa; she has 30 days to obtain another visa and if she doesn’t she will be forced to leave the country. So who does Angela turn to in her times of need? Her best friend Jenny Lopez, Jenny can’t believe that Angela has over looked the easiest possible way of staying in America just marry her boyfriend Alex of course! But Angela’s not too sure, as she doesn’t want to marry Alex because it’s a convenience but because they love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. So she has 30 days to hatch a plan to get any of the other visa’s possible otherwise her big American’s dream over, her relationship with Alex will be over and she will be forced to leave America, which has become her home for the last year and a half and go back to her old life with her mum constantly fussing over her.

I’ve always had a topsy turvy relationship with this series. I didn’t really enjoy the first book; I Heart New York but decided to soldier along, the second book I Heart Hollywood was amazing and I thought if the series continued this way; this would probably end up being one of my favourite series. But then came along I Heart Paris which sadly wasn’t all that either. I was definitely considering giving up this series but decided to give it one more shot, and I’m glad I did because I Heart Vegas has to be my favourite book of the series so far. It was fun, full of an impromptu visit to Vegas, scandalous goings on, about misjudging people and Angela royally messing up as usual, but I never laughed so much in a long time!

“I knew he wanted me with

him - he’d said it over and over - but there was no
mention of making it official. We shared an apartment.
we shared a love of pineapple on pizza. We shared a
razor, even though he didn’t know that”

The only thing that miffed me was Angela’s communication problems, it took forever for Angela to tell Alex about her situation, I found myself constantly wanting to throttle her to get her act together.

This book was also full of the clichedness you would expect. At first it was a little unbearable, but then as you got more engrossed with the plot, you kind of get used to overlooking it. Also there was some predictability to the plot, for instance you could guess what would happen at the end, but then there were other aspects which caught me completely by surprise and so sort of made up for the predictableness side of things.

I Heart Vegas was just the sort of book I needed, after finishing a couple of intense books. It was a light, easy going, funny read. I hadn’t realised how much I missed Angela and Jenny’s adventures until I picked up this book. I look forward to more of Angela’s Shenanigans in I Heart London.

Favourite quote:

“All I could think about was weddings. A
trip around the supermarket turned into a trial for
the aisle. Every song on my iPod was a contender
for the first dance. Every time Alex reached into his
coat pocket, my heart stopped – phone or ring? Phone
or ring? Quite often it was chap stick what a girl.”

Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where each week they post a new top ten list and ask fellow bloggers to share their lists on that topic. I’m actually a little obsessed when it comes to making lists, so I thought this would be the perfect meme for me to do!

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Top Ten books to read in a day.

1.       Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella
2.       Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot
3.    Boy meets Girl by Meg Cabot

Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot are two of my guilty pleasures, I know when I need a quick pick me up I can always turn to their books. The above three books are my absolute favourites that I have read time and time again.



4.       Where she went by Gayle Forman
5.       Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

These two books were completely unputdownable. Hunting Lila was just so action packed that it had me constantly on the edge of my seat. Whereas Where She Went I couldn’t put down because it was such a  heart wrenching story and I just couldn’t bear to part ways with the characters especially Adam *sigh*




6.       High Society or Society Girls (in the U.S) by Sarah Mason
7.       Split Ends by Sarah Harvey
8.       Past Perfect by Leila Sales

These three books are the funniest books I’ve ever come across, they always have me in endless hysterics.

9.   Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
10.  Amy and Rogers Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Both of these books left me with warm fuzzies, they’re such feel good books that quickly brought a smile to my face!

I’ve just realised these ten books are typically my rainy day comfort reads, books I can turn to when I need cheering up.

So which books made it to your Top Ten to read in a day?