Letterbox Love #34

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Double event time this week! Apologies for the lateness of this post, but it has been manic.        

Received for Review:

Geek Girl 2: Model Misfit by Holly Smale

I’m SO happy to finally have my own copy of this, thanks to Harper Collins! I read the ebook version, and review to come soon! (Spoiler: It was epic 😀 )  

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Thanks very much to Quercus! Look out for the cover reveal posted on Monday for this one.

Shadowlark by Meagan Spooner

Thanks Random House! This looks good but is the second in a series so not sure when I’ll be able to read it.

Bought:

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

The Running Dream by Wendelin van Draanen

Won:

Love Is a Number by Lee Monroe

This is a second copy. I originally won this from Michelle at Much Loved Books, but thought it had got lost in the post so they kindly sent a second copy, and now I have both of them! I don’t understand the postal system.

Swapped:

Call Down Thunder by Daniel Finn

Vanished by Meg Cabot

Thanks very much to Georgia for these! I love a good book swap 😀

Tempest and Vortex by Julie Cross

Shift by Em Bailey

Dead to You by Lisa McMann

Thanks Lucy! I can’t wait to read the Julie Cross books and Dead to You was a lovely surprise.

The Farm by Emily McKay

Thanks to Katie for this one which I’ve had my eye on for a while!

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Letterbox Love #31

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Yay book post 😀     

Received for Review:

Siege by Sarah Mussi

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Thanks to Hodder for sending me these lovely copies! 

Shine by Candy Gourlay

I love surprise books! Thanks very much Random House.

Perfect Ruin by Lauren Destefano

Eek! I requested this a little while ago and Harper Voyager have kindly sent a manuscript. 

Geek Girl 2: Model Misfit by Holly Smale

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Perhaps my MOST anticipated book of 2013, I am absolutely dying to read this. Drop everything, this book is next to read 😀 Thanks Netgalley and Harper Collins. 

Bought:

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle

Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman

Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin

 Won:

Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham

Thanks to Siobhan for signing and sending me this! I can’t remember where I actually won it from, so if it was you then let me know 🙂

Swapped/Gifted:

Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew

Drummer Girl by Bridget Tyler

Eep! Thanks Hawwa from It was Lovely Reading You for sending these over! Sooooooooooo excited for Drummer Girl! 

        

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Top Ten: Books I’d Like to See on the Big Screen

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. 

Today I am sharing with you the top ten books that I would like to see adapted for tv or film. When done well, adaptations can be AWESOME and catapult a book into the forefront of the public’s minds.  

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan: I could have picked any of his novels that I’ve read. I chose BMB as the secondary characters were as good as the main ones, and I would make this into a tv series if I had the choice. 

The CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore: Again, an awesome idea for a TV series. Each episode or set of episodes a different mission. Done properly, this would make my LIFE. 

      

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: Such an emotional summer read, this would make an excellent movie. 

                The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud: The start of a new adventure packed series, I can already picture it on the big screen! 

                 

Geek Girl by Holly Smale: Funny yet brutally honest, I need more geeky films in my life! Especially when they involve Harriet and Toby. (And Harriet’s dad, of course). 

Dust Lands series by Moira Young: An amazing dystopian / postapocalyptic series. I love the unique style of this one, and am dying to read the third book! 

          

          

  Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer: This book is GORGEOUS and the illustrations really make it come to life (the irony, I know!). A film would be epic. 

The Timeriders series by Alex Scarrow: Similar to Muchamore’s CHERUB series, I can only imagine the endless adventures the Timeriders team could embark on. 

           

 

 

 

 

 

The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter: While I haven’t read all the books in this series, I have really enjoyed it so far and the boarding school feel would make for perfect movie material.      

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel: MONKEYS. No other explanation is needed.  

Series are definitely my favourite choice! Can you think of anything I’m missing? Leave me some recommendations! Do you agree/disagree with my choices? Link me to your TTT below!   

Bookish Events

This year I’ve been luckily enough to attend lots of bookish events. However, there are lots I missed out on but am planning for next year! I thought I’d just give you an overview of the types of event I have attended and the pros and cons of each. 

Usually reserved for popular books or authors, these signings are good for racking up signatures in books. Not usually so good for spending time with the author! 

The signings that I’ve attended like this include Cassie Clare, Stephenie Meyer and Michael McIntyre. While I was thrilled to be able to meet them and get a coveted signature, you do just feel like part of an assembly line. Often it doesn’t allow much time to speak to the author. It does, however, usually involve lots of waiting around in a queue beforehand!

I think so far this is my favourite type of event. The ones I have attended have mostly been at Waterstones Piccadilly, and involve one or more authors. They have an opportunity to talk about their book, answer questions and then have a signing at the end.

As well as getting a greater insight into the author and the story behind the book, it allows for talk with other bloggers while the signing line goes down!

Obviously exclusive for bloggers, these events are great in getting to communicate with authors and publicists. My first event as a blogger was Holly Smale’s Geek Girl party. Here I met some bloggers that I consider to be great bookish friends now, and often see at other events. It’s also nice to meet the publicists behind the emails and the proofs, and to get to know them personally. 

I can say the only real negative about blogger events is not getting invited to them, especially when it seems everyone else in the world is going. I’ve definitely experienced this more than once, but its still amazing to hear about them afterwards and see all the goodies! 

The bonus of launch parties is that friends of the author quite often attend. And those friends are quite often authors themselves. I discovered this when I went to James Dawsons’ launch for Cruel Summer, and found myself face to face with people such as Patrick Ness and Tanya Byrne. While I didn’t speak to these personally (I was too in awe!) it gives an amazing opportunity to meet lots of authors in one place. The other plus is that it is such a relaxed environment, usually involving drinks and snacks and lots of conversation. 

I haven’t yet attended a book festival. I’m planning to go to one day of Bath Kids Lit Festival, but I would love to spend a whole weekend or week immersed in books. Earlier this year I swooned over all the people over the ocean going to BEA, and I hope in the next couple of years I can make this dream a reality.

A bit closer to home, and I also missed out on the London Book Fair this year due to other arrangements. Faye wrote a post about her experience, and the seminars sounded like a really awesome insight into the book and publishing world. I am definitely putting it on my calendar for next year, so watch this space!

What events have you attended? What is your opinion on the best format? Any events that you would recommend? 

Cover Reveal: Geek Girl 2 + Geeky Things I Have Planned

I am absolutely BOUNCING to reveal the cover for Geek Girl 2: Model Misfit by Holly Smale! 

It’s everything I expected for her sequel: funny, emotional and geeky! I adore the yellow, and I love that they’ve kept a good theme with the first one. In my review for Geek Girl, I gave it 4 sofas. It is one of my favourite UKYA books, and I won’t hesistate to mention Geek Girl everywhere I go. It’s one of my most-wanted books of 2013, so I encourage you to preorder GG2 now, and go read the first one if you haven’t already!

To celebrate the geekiness that is Model Misfit, I thought I’d share with you some geeky things I’ve got planned for the rest of the year!

 
 

1.  In September, they are having a screening of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark in the grounds of a local castle. I’ve never been to an outside film screening before, so I’m really excited! I’ve also not seen Indiana Jones before (I know, right) and it seems the perfect way to end the summer 🙂 Lets just hope its not raining…

2. Harry Potter Studio Tour. I attended this with one of my friends last year, but I snapped up the opportunity to go again! I don’t think I will ever get enough Harry Potter, and there is SO MUCH AWESOMENESS that you can’t really take it all it at once.

3. Bookish things! They are many amazing book-related events coming up, and I adore attending them. Not only to meet authors, but I love spending time with other bookish people, and have made some really lovely friends through these events. Some of the authors I am planning on seeing are David Levithan, Phil Earle, Sarah J Maas, RJ Palacio, Laura Jarrett, Sally Gardner, Lauren Kate and Tanya Byrne.

4. ?? 

This is where you help me out! What geeky events would you recommend (preferably UK based)? I’m always looking to add things to my list so I’d love to hear geeky things you have planned. Also let me know if you’ve been somewhere lately and thought it was awesome! 

Letterbox Love #15

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Welcome to my 2-week haul post! Lots of exciting things happened in the last two weeks!

First my library/print book piles:

*Sigh* SO MUCH GOODNESS these last two weeks. First the library books! I ordered ‘If I Stay‘ by Gayle Forman because I stupidly picked up the second in the series a couple of weeks ago. Luckily this is only short, so should only be a day’s reading. This week I also collected ‘Delirium‘ by Lauren Oliver because she’s doing an event in London in a couple of weeks for Requiem, and I wanted to reread the series beforehand. 

Last week I went to a book signing for Nicholas Sparks as his latest book, ‘Safe Haven‘, is being released in the cinemas. The two stars from the film were also there, and they all answered questions before Nicholas signed books. 

    

I’m hoping to see this film next weekend so I’ll let you all know what it’s like! 

While I was in Waterstones I picked up ‘Attachments‘ by Rainbow Rowell. I absolutely ADORE her, and I have been after this for ages. Unfortunately all the copies I’ve seen in the bookshop are dirty, or have crumpled pages, and I’m a perfectionist! I’ll hopefully be rereading this soon, as I want to follow the playlist she has created for the book.

I also picked up ‘Between the Lines‘ by Tammara Webber, as I need more New Adult books in my life, and this looks really good. It also sparked a conversation with Laura from Bookish Treasures about where to shelve new adult books, as she is my NA guru!

I bought ‘The Vincent Boys‘ by Abbi Glines (who is coming to the UK soon!) and ‘Emailing Allie‘ by Julie Lawson because they both sound amazing. ‘Drowning Instinct‘ by Ilsa Bick was on special for only £3.50 so I thought I’d give it a whirl 🙂

Finally, my highlight from the past two weeks (and my year!) was the Geek Girl blogger party. My first blogger event, I got to meet lots of other bloggers, and everyone was super amazing and friendly and never complained that I kept plonking myself in their circles and eavesdropping! 

Holly Smale, authoress of Geek Girl, was so amazingly lovely. I like to stalk her on Twitter, but I was quite shocked when she invited me to the party. But she is such a doll 🙂 Look at the picture of all the goody bagness I received! I didn’t take any pictures, but please check out Kirsty’s post here and Luna’s here for their round ups of the day 🙂

 

 

 

In other book news, I also got a couple of ebooks:

‘The S-Word‘ by Chelsea Pitcher. I’ve heard lots of people talking about this bullying/suicide book, so I was really surprised to be approved! Thanks Simon & Schuster via Gallery books and Netgalley.

I received ‘Picture Perfect‘ buy Alessandra Thomas via Kelly of InkSlinger PR as I am talking part in the release day launch on March 26. When an ex-fashion designer takes to nude modelling after an accident, it causes all sorts of problems. This book sounds really good and I’m so pleased to be able to review it.

 

 ‘The Registry‘ by Shannon Stoker is actually an adult book, but a dystopian one at that, so I had to request it. Thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Collins via William Morrow Paperbacks for the approval!

I received a copy of ‘The Space Between‘ by the author Victoria Smith to review. New adult contemporary romance? Yes please!

 

‘Escape Theory‘ by Margaux Froley is a book I’ve been hearing good things about on the blogosphere. Thanks to Soho Teen and Edelweiss for this copy! I haven’t heard a lot about Soho Teen before, but they’ve got some interesting books coming up so I’ll be keeping my eye out!

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile? I’d love to hear from you! 

Book Review: Geek Girl

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things. She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn’t quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she’s spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend’s dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves. As her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

‘Geek Girl‘ by Holly Smale has such a pretty cover. A book about a gorgeous geek? That sold me from the start, before I’d even read the blurb. My copy was obtained via Netgalley from Harper Collins UK. There’s something so easy about an ebook that just makes you devour the pages. Maybe because it is so simple just to have ‘one more flick’, whereas in paper books I feel the need to finish on a chapter. Also I think because it’s not easy to tell where you are in the book (I know it gives a percentage, but it’s nothing like judging the actual size of a book). 

Anyway, I got through this book really quickly. It is not the kind of book that will change your life, but if you are looking for a lighthearted, funny YA book that Geek Girl fits the bill. Harriet is a definite geek, and everyone knows it. She has one best friend, as well as an arch enemy, a stalker, and a love interest. What more could you want? Harriet somehow stumbles into the world of modelling. Hoping it will transform her into one of the cool kids, Harriet agrees. Even though it is her best friend’s dream to be a model, Harriet goes behind her back to take part in photo shoots with the gorgeous Nick. 

However, when she returns, she discovers she isn’t such a good liar. Her best friend won’t talk to her, her stepmum has left and bizarrely modelling doesn’t make you instantly cool. Harriet has to try and sort her life out before it all blows up. 

There are some really funny, quirky moments in the book, such as when Harriet hides under the table to get away from situations. And her stalker Toby, hides in the bush outside her house. I would definitely recommend this, but only for a quick lighthearted read. It is nice to see geeks get the spotlight, and to show that just because you are pretty, it doesn’t stop you from being a geek. 

4 sofas from me! 

Letterbox Love #9

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. What with my new job and Christmas, I haven’t had a moment spare. But I promise I will catch up over the xmas break, as I have lots of reviews for you! This is a double mailbox as I didn’t post last week, but it’s not a very big one anyway! 

First for the library gems: 

 My good librarian friend recommended ‘Mortal Chaos‘ by Matt Dickinson, and it is on my to-read list for this week. I also stole a proof copy of ‘Meta-Wars‘ by Jeff Norton, as the cover looks good! 

Two books I’ve had on order for a whole are ‘Vets in Love‘ by Cathy Woodman (gotta love a good Christmas romance!) and Sally Gardner’s ‘Maggot Moon‘. I can’t remember why I ordered this, I think it may have been a likeness to Pallacio’s ‘Wonder’, but I’ll have to wait and see. 

‘Geek Girl‘ by Holly Smale was 

 

obtained from HarperCollins via Netgalley. The cover of this looks amazing; a geeky cool girl? If only… I have already started this one, and so far so good! 

A similar-sounding book is ‘Confessions of an Angry Girl
‘ by Louise Rozett. Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin for this. 

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile? I’d love to hear from you!