YALC 2017 Recap and Haul

I think it's official. I'm going to go to the YA Literature Convention every year for the rest of my life. I'm not a big socialiser and I didn't really talk to anyone other than the three friends I went with, but the atmosphere of book nerdiness and being surrounded by fiction is enough for me to have an amazing time.

Book Review // Timekeeper by Tara Sim

Have you ever wanted to give a book a hug? I knew little about Timekeeper before I started, but now I want to hug and thank it for its utter cuteness.

The Cover Changing Curse

I'm pretty sure one of my earliest readerly woes was when the Artemis Fowl series changed covers. I had just finished the third book when I went to the bookstore and found that the fourth book was there, but looked entirely different. I spent hours searching on the internet to try and find copies of the remaining books in the covers I loved, but they were all painfully expensive and disappearing off the face of the earth by the second. And so I had to settle for a cover change.

Series Review // Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab

My love of Schwab's fantastical worlds is not a love I keep secret. Every book of hers I have read is conceptually unique, and it is these wondrous worlds that keep me coming back to her stories. The Monsters of Verity duology were not my favourite of her books, but they still hold a place in my heart.

Books I Almost Put Down But Thankfully Didn't

It's rare for me to put a book down with no intention of picking it up again. When I do this, it's normally because I get super frustrated in my inability to get into a story, and it's often made worse if the book is very hyped.

Diversity Spotlight #4

Diversity Spotlight Thursday is hosted by Bookshelves and Paperbacks, and involves featuring 3 diverse books every week. This week I have chosen to focus on diverse Science Fiction, because truthfully there aren't a lot that come to mind. I'm so glad that with the surge for more diversity in our fiction there are authors who are challenging our expectations of what kind of characters can lead a sci-fi, and I think a lot of these authors are also challenging the entire conventions of what the genre can be.

Book Review // Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor has the most beautiful ability to shape worlds from words. It was her world and her words in Daughter of Smoke and Bone that had me instantly captured, and wondering this: how can one mind create such curious beauty?

Meddling Kids // a darker, more adult and twisted version of Scooby-Doo

Meddling Kids is a book totally outside of my comfort zone, and a completely unexpected new love. It took me some time to get into, but once I did I was so hooked that I didn't want to stop.

Fellow Bloggers: I Need Your Advice on Custom Domains!

I've been considering getting a personal domain for my blog for a while now (basically cutting out 'blogspot' from my URL), but I just don't know how/where/if it's worth it.

May & June Wrap Up

I've combined my wrap up post for May and June because I did really little reading in May and was also on a blogging break for most of that month. But I am back once more, and after a bit of a struggle to get back into reading, I actually found a couple of books I really loved.