Back from the Canaries

Hey guys,

I’m officially back of my holiday in Tenerife. So I’ll be back to blogging as soon as I’ve caught up on everything. The good thing is, I managed to read a fair few books with the couple I had waiting for review before I went on holiday, I’ll be bringing you reviews on all these. Very mixed opinions I promise!

And whilst I got lots of reading done just before and on my holiday with all these titles, which will be getting reviews for shortly. Here’s a little bit about my holiday.

We had several sunny days, but unfortunately we got the tail end of hurricane Sandy, so storms, rain and wind were definitely part of my holiday and Tenerife hasn’t had very little rain in 18 months and it really came down when I was there. Just unfortunate really, but it was warm and I still got out and had a really good time.

Here’s a few photos:

The result of the rain on some steps….

Some pretty clouds…

Some interesting sand sculptures…

My yummy cocktails…

Some mountains…

A little of me…

And a cute lemon cake to finish it off!

Back from the Welsh Land

Hey guys,

I’m officially back from my holiday from WET Wales. I kid you not. Monday was nice. Tuesday rained in the afternoon, massive downpour. Wednesday. We do not even discuss the state I was in by the end of the day. It took two days for my jacket to dry out which was beneath my waterproof jacket which is no longer waterproof and I had to dry out all my money in my purse, not fun. Thursday was mainly dry with several sharp showers. We had sun at the end of the day—enough for me to get burnt. And Friday was nice and sunny with a shower. So however much I enjoyed Wales, it was very, very WET!

Let’s take a look at my caravan first:

           

That was the living room, which was very pretty. How anybody can be expected to see with the TV so small, I don’t know though. And the twin beds had to be pushed together because I fell out the first night.

Overall the caravan was nice and quaint.

Let’s take a look at Welsh land countryside I visited which was beautiful!

The town’s I visited:

These are pictures of Llandudno and Llangollen. Both were beautiful towns that had a very old world, Victorian feel to them which I loved. Llandudno had the pier and lots of hiking up the hillside, whilst Llangollen had the pretty canal and the horse drawn boat ride I took.

I rode a tramway in Llandudno up part of the hillside.

Then I visited a house in Llangollen that belonged to the Ladies of Llangollen in the 18th century who were two lesbians 13 and 29 who eloped together and had this “unpretentious” cottage to live which was surrounded by some very beautiful gardens.

It had some really neat wood carvings too!

So there is a run down of my time in Wales, which involved eating cake to cheer me up, reading lots of books to keep me entertained, doing lots of walking to keep me fit and sight-seeing a little!

Finally, to finish off a picture of me looking like a giant pea—I’m in need of a new coat, so don’t laugh at me please—in the rain, dressed like an idiot and just generally freezing my ass off! What was I doing, I couldn’t say, BUT I did have a smile on my face! haha. And YES, I’m wearing shorts, which was on the day I attempted to climb Snowdon on the Wednesday. :L I was actually thoroughly soaked and still in absolute downpour at this point…

I’d say take a trip to Wales to visit the beautiful countryside, but try and pick a week with nice weather and if you’re going to climb Snowdon, take the proper gear! I’ve learnt my lesson about not taking all my walking gear, it ended in disaster.

See you soon!

Livvy x

From the Review Pile (5)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Pageevery Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you’ve received for review (or if you don’t receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven’t yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

                              

This week I’m picking a book that I’ve been asked to review. I saw it the other week on Uncorked Thoughts and was thrilled when I got contacted by the author’s publicist about grabbing my own copy. It really looks fantastic!

Crashing Eden by Michael Sussman

Published: May 11th 2012 by Solstice Publishing

For one boy and his friends, the path to Paradise comes at a cost—one they may not be prepared to pay.

When a biking accident leaves 17-year-old Joss Kazdan with the ability to hear things others can’t, reality as he knows it begins to unravel.

A world of legends exists beyond the ordinary life he’s always known, and he is transported to the same Paradise he’s studying in World Mythology. But the strange gets even stranger when his new friends build a device that delivers people through the gates of the Garden of Eden.
Now Samael, the Creator God, is furious. As Samael rains down his apocalyptic devastation on the ecstasy-seeking teens, Joss and his companions must find a way to appease Samael—or the world will be destroyed forever.

Goodreads.

What did you get this week?

Holiday

Hey guys,

So I’m off to Wales for the week. At the time this is posting I should be in, or very much nearing Wales. The pictures below are of the place I’m going and where I’ll be staying. Yes! I’m in a caravan. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but we’ll see how it goes. It also means I’ve have no internet for the next week (or until Friday) so I’ll be relying on my scheduled posting for a couple of my posts for the next few days.

I’m hoping it doesn’t rain and that the weather will stay nice for me. I probably won’t see much of the beach because I intend to walk and maybe take a hike up Snowdon. We’ll see how things go.

I’ll get back to replying to all your comments when I get back.

For now, it’s goodbye and I’ll see you when I get back from Wales.

          

From the Review Pile (4)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you’ve received for review (or if you don’t receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven’t yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

                                       

Well this week I didn’t even realise that I could get access this book, so when I got it through I was thoroughly surprised and excited. Hopefully I’ll get around to it soon, since I have a huge tbr-pile that only ever gets longer.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Expected Publication: August 7th 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children’s

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.
Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her… but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead… quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Goodreads

What did you get this week?

From the Review Pile (3)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday. The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you’ve received for review (or if you don’t receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven’t yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

This week I’m picking a book I’m just about to start as one of my many to-read books. I got this one through NetGalley when I first joined, so I’ve been meaning to read it for a very long time. I hope I’ll enjoy it, but I’m a little wary about this one!

Semi-Charmed Life by Nora Zelevansky Publication: July 3rd 2012 by St. Martin’s Press In Nora Zelevansky’s hilarious debut, Semi-Charmed Life, an Upper West Side naïf, Beatrice Bernstein, gets swept up in the seemingly magical life of socialite Veruca Pfeffernoose, while ghost writing her blog. Veruca’s glitteringly opulent world soon seduces Beatrice away from her own insular, arty family with a promise of fancy parties, travel outside Manhattan (for once) and one desperately cute guy. But when her new glitzy lifestyle starts to take on dark undertones, Beatrice has to decide who she is—once and for all. With her own magical touch, Zelevansky deftly explores the world of rarified Manhattan in this sparkling modern fairy tale of first love, finding one’s voice and growing up.

What have you got this week to read?

Talent on Tuesday (6)

A weekly book meme hosted by Nerdy Book Reviews as a chance to express your opinion on authors you think have talent. Share a quote/cover/excerpt whatever you like to let us know about great authors out there. It can be something you’re reading or an author you love, but let us know why you think they have talent! Please link back to Nerdy Book Reviews, and if you don’t have a blog, feel free to participate in the comments section.

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other-six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Yet none of them relishes killing more than Wrath, the leader of The Black Dagger Brotherhood. The only purebred vampire left on earth, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But, when one of his most trusted fighters is killed-leaving his half-breed daughter unaware of his existence or her fate-Wrath must usher her into the world of the undead-a world of sensuality beyond her wildest dreams.

Quotation:

“You’ve won the evolutionary lottery: You’re a vampire. Let’s go to Disneyland!”

This is one of my favourite quotes from the book, which I absolutely adore. I am very much addicted to J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series and if you haven’t read these books by now, you really should go out and buy them.

I find this book has wit, romance and is really well written. This is the kind of book that you can sink your teeth into, whilst getting all hot and bothered in the sexy scenes.

What do you think has talent?!

TBR Intervention (2)

Intervention is a weekly challenge hosted by Dani @ RefractedLight, Ayanami @Whatever you Can Still Betray, and April @Books4Juliet The aim is to choose a book (or several) you’ve had for more than 6 months (or there about) and read it in the designated week to reduce your TBR-pile.

I finished one book this week, out of the two I’d picked to read. I finished, Graceling by Kristin Cashore. You can find my full review here, but I’ll have to say I very much enjoyed this book and should definitely have picked it up sooner!

I didn’t start, Night Rise by Anthony Horowitz, therefore my book to read next week under the TBR intervention challenge will be Night Rise by Anthony Horowitz.

Night Rise by Anthony Horowitz The world is in great danger and only five kids can save it. But to do that, they must face off against some of the most powerful people in the world. Two of the five, Scott and Jamie, have always known they were different. Twins whose birth is shrouded in mystery, they’ve always been able to communicate with each other telepathically. Their supernatural talent has landed them no farther than a gig in a Z-grade sideshow in Reno, Nevada…until they garner the attention of a very scary clientele. Soon their lives are in jeopardy, with one of them trapped and one of them on the run. In Nightrise, Anthony Horowitz ups the stakes in his most thrilling, intense novel yet.

From the Review Pile (2)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday. The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you’ve received for review (or if you don’t receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven’t yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

This week I’m picking a book I’ve heard a lot of hype about and decided that it was a must read for me! I was incredibly happy to get ahold of this book and I cannot wait to start reading. It was yet again another book to my hefty to-read pile, but I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I hope this young-adult novel lives up to some of the hype and I very much look forward to reading it.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry Expected publication: July 31st 2012 by Harlequin Teen No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

What have you got this week to read and review?

Talent on Tuesday (5)

A weekly book meme hosted by Nerdy Book Reviews as a chance to express your opinion on authors you think have talent. Share a quote/cover/excerpt whatever you like to let us know about great authors out there. It can be something you’re reading or an author you love, but let us know why you think they have talent! Please link back to Nerdy Book Reviews, and if you don’t have a blog, feel free to participate in the comments section.

This week I’ll be taking at a book I’m currently reading which looks to have great premise. Graceling by Kriston Cashore.

In a world where people born with an exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are both feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. Feared by the court and shunned by those her own age, the darkness of her Grace casts a heavy shadow over Katsa’s life. Yet she remains defiant: when the King of Lienid’s father is kidnapped she investigates, and stumbles across a mystery. Who would want to kidnap the old man, and why? And who was the extraordinary Graced man whose fighting abilities rivalled her own? The only thing Katsa is sure of is that she no longer wants to kill. The intrigue around this kidnapping offers her a way out – but little does she realise, when she takes it, that something insidious and dark lurks behind the mystery. Something spreading from the shadowy figure of a one-eyed king…

Quotation:

“This girl she would hurt; this girl she would torture if it would stop her from taking Katsa’s thoughts.”

I’ve heard lots of good things about the book and I’ve just begun reading. It’s really good so far and I hope that it will only get better. It’s been said by Publishers Weekly “Cahsore will slake the thirst of Twilight fans” and there is lots of other great hype surrounding this book.

It’s also part of getting down books of my tbr list, so hopefully the sixth months or so I’ve been waiting to read this book will be ones where I should have picked it up sooner!

What do you think has talent? Post your links in the comments!