april 2017 book haul

So when I looked back to all the books I thought I had bought in April I didn’t really think that I had bought that many, however I think I have bought over 15 books, which is quite a lot for me. I think I’m just going to do a quick run through of all the books and give the basic information I have been doing for my wrap ups and my reviews as well as a link to the goodreads page so that if you want to see a synopsis you can go over and check it out there!

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Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 4 April 2017
Publication Date: 27 March 2007
Pages: 510 pages
Rating: ★★★
Full review: city of bones by cassandra clare
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/YizKhH

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Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 4 April 2017
Publication Date: 25 March 2008
Pages: 416 pages
Rating: ★★★★
Full review: city of ashes by cassandra clare
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/YizKhH

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Title: City of Fallen Angels
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 4 April 2017
Publication Date: 5 April 2011
Pages: 424 pages
Rating: ★★★★
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/TIIM4H

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Title: City of Lost Souls
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 4 April 2017
Publication Date: 8 May 2012
Pages: 535 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/AbGoIK

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Title: City of Heavenly Fire
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 4 April 2017
Publication Date: 27 May 2014
Pages: 725 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/C03hyr

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Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Date Bought: 6 April 2017
Publication Date: 24 March 2009
Pages: 541 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/8wDD77

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Okay so quick note just to add that I already owned the Mortal Instruments series before this month, which is why in my full reviews I have available for the first two books in the series I say that it was a reread. I also have ratings available for all the books in the series because I read them all last year but I don’t have full reviews because I haven’t reread them since I started my blog! I wanted to change my editions to matte versions and I found them on a good deal, I also bought City of Glass for my kindle because I wanted to read it on there when I reread this book soon!

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Title: The Female of the Species
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Date Bought: 7 April 2017
Publication Date: 20 September 2016
Pages: 352 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/gdNm8J

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Title: The Bermudez Triangle
Author: Maureen Johnson
Date Bought: 8 April 2017
Publication Date: 17 May 2007
Pages: 384 pages
Rating: ★★
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/7XUqQX

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Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Date Bought: 10 April 2017
Publication Date: 20 October 2015
Pages: 599 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/0EUo8p

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Title: Him
Author: Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
Date Bought: 10 April 2017
Publication Date: 28 July 2015
Pages: 361 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: him by elle kennedy and sarina bowen
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/RgiUeu

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Title: Us
Author: Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
Date Bought: 11 April 2017
Publication Date: 8 March 2016
Pages: 328 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: us by elle kennedy and sarina bowen
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/zdil60

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Title: The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Date Bought: 11 April 2017
Publication Date: 11 April 2017
Pages: 336 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/HK6inf

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Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Date Bought: 12 April 2017
Publication Date: 3 January 2012
Pages: 387 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/wMKfwJ

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Title: Geekerella
Author: Ashley Poston
Date Bought: 25 April 2017
Publication Date: 4 April 2017
Pages: 320 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/iQWHaR

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Title: rock
Author: Anyta Sunday
Date Bought: 27 April 2017
Publication Date: 1 October 2014
Pages: 251 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/gYcSi6

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Title: Note To Self
Author: Connor Franta
Date Bought: 30 April 2017
Publication Date: 18 April 2017
Pages: 320 pages
Rating: not read
Full review: not available
Goodreads Link: goo.gl/h1iunG

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So that is all the books that I bought in April 2017, I think I could have done a lot better at saving some money but hopefully I won’t have as many books next month!

 

 

april 2017 wrap up

So in April 2017 I read five books, which I’m pretty happy with, I was kind of wishing I could have finished my current read too, but hopefully that’ll be done in a couple of days and you can see it in my May wrap up!

I also have a full review for every book I read this month, so I’ll link to each one down below! This is just a smaller version of every review I posted and just a quick overview of everything I read this month.

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Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date: 27 March 2007
Pages: 510 pages
Start Date: 1 April
Finish Date: 10 April
Rating: ★★★
Full review: city of bones by cassandra clare

This book took me quite a while to read this time around, I read it for the first time last year and gave it a higher rating then. I didn’t particularly love any of the characters, the plot was good though, I felt it was constructed in a way that made me want to finish the chapter. The world building was what really built this book up for me and that was the part I enjoyed the most.

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Title: Him
Author: Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
Publication Date: 28 July 2015
Pages: 361 pages
Start Date: 10 April
Finish Date: 11 April
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: him by elle kennedy and sarina bowen

I LOVED THIS STORY! I loved the characters and I loved the plot and I loved how real it all felt. I don’t read much new adult but this has made me want to pick up so much more of the genre! I started this on the night of 10 April and stayed up until 3am reading, which hasn’t happened to me in so long, I read this in 24 hours. This was easily my favourite book of the month and I recommend it a lot.

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Title: Us
Author: Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
Publication Date: 8 March 2016
Pages: 328 pages
Start Date: 11 April
Finish Date: 11 April
Rating: ★★★★★
Full review: us by elle kennedy and sarina bowen

This series is just so good. I read this book in one sitting, I loved it just as much as the first book, so it’s definitely a joint first place for favourite of the month. I loved how this book had a separate storyline from the first book. I would honestly reread them now, even though it hasn’t even been a month since I finished it. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

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Title: Dreamology
Author: Lucy Keating
Publication Date: 12 April 2016
Pages: 336 pages
Start Date: 13 April
Finish Date: 16 April
Rating: ★★★
Full review: dreamology by lucy keating

The plot of this book was what initially drove me to picking this up and it was what kept me reading. It is a contemporary novel with a sci-fi twist, which is definitely a favourite subgenre of mine! The characters weren’t anything spectacular, although I did really like Max. I picked it up in September 2016 but put it down because I just wasn’t in the mood, I just picked this up in April out of nowhere. It was good but nothing I would reread in the near future. Beautiful cover though, would definitely thank the designer for that!

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Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date: 25 March 2008
Pages: 416 pages
Start Date: 16 April
Finish Date: 25 April
Rating: ★★★★
Full review: city of ashes by cassandra clare

This was also a reread for me, I read it a year ago and the hype really affected my experience. I just didn’t enjoy it as much the second time around. It dropped a star from the last reading. The only reason it got a four-star and not a five-star rating is because the ending really bumped it up for me. This, just like City of Bones, just took me so long to read and I just got bored to be honest.

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So that’s all I read this month. It was a pretty decent reading month, nothing below three-stars but the two Mortal Instruments books both dropped a star from the rating since I first read it so I was slightly let down. Here’s to a better May reading month!

city of ashes by cassandra clare

Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date: 25 March 2008
Pages: 416 pages
Start Date: 16 April
Finish Date: 25 April
Rating: ★★★★

This is the second book in The Mortal Instruments series, it continues on from City of Bones, where Clary is first introduced to the Shadow world and her life is turned around. At the beginning of this novel, the Lightwood’s mother, Maryse, has returned from Alicante, angry with Jace and saying she believes he is working for Valentine. We have some Simon and Clary love we have some angry Jace and we have a werewolf murder. Maryse has called the Inquisitor, a member of the Clave who is there to put Jace under trial by the soul sword, one of the mortal instruments of the shadowhunters. The gang from the first book are back again and think Valentine is preparing the killings of downworlder children in order to change the alliance of the soul sword and gain more power. There is a steamy brother/sister kiss in the Faerie land, some special powers introduced, oh, and Simon’s a vampire now?

Like the first book in the series, I read City of Ashes for the first time in April 2016, in 5 days. I loved it and was incredibly excited to see where all the character arcs were going. Like I mentioned in my review of the previous book in the series, I was caught up in the hype. It took me a while to read this, and I think I’m just not loving the series as much as I did last time.

I had the same reading experience for the majority of the novel as I did rereading the first book. I would pick up the book and read a chapter or maybe half a chapter and then put it down and go and do something else. It was only when I got around 75% through I really started to enjoy the story more and I sped through the last 25% in a day.

The relationship between Clary and Jace in this novel made me feel uncomfortable. In this novel, the characters are aware that they’re brother and sister and they still act towards each other in a way that I’m just not okay with. I can vaguely understand that it wouldn’t exactly be easy to turn off feelings for someone, since Jace and Clary weren’t aware they were related at the start of City of Bones, but reading it just wasn’t exactly helpful in making me want them together.

Jace’s witty and sarcastic lines are still here and are just as funny as they always have been. Clary is still the same non-memorable slightly irritating main character who never listens to anyone. Alec is cute and funny, the scene at Luke’s with the fearless rune and so funny and I think my heart actually broke the first time I read the scene on the boat after Izzie gets hurt. Izzie is the same loyal and fierce character I’ve always loved. I still love Magnus too.

The plot in this book was good, it wasn’t overly amazing but I didn’t think about putting it down or anything. I loved Simon’s arc in this book as well as the hints we got about Magnus and Alec. The abilities revealed in this book excite me, they add drama and tension to the arc in this story but makes me more excited to just pick up the next few books because I know what happens next since I’ve read them all.

I feel like this has been a pretty sad review for a four star story, and honestly I think I would have been a three star read if it wasn’t for the ending. Since I read it in a day, it shows that that was my favourite part of the story. The battle on the ship was really dramatic and all the moments with Simon and Jace and Alec and Izzie and just everyone. The ending just saved this story for me.

So I recommend this story if you haven’t read it before. It was a five-star read for me the first time round. It is a fun and enjoyable urban fantasy. The reveals and twists and turns in this are fun to find out but I think the reread just ruined it since I knew everything that was going to happen.