Down the TBR Hole #3

Source: ♥

Down the TBR Hole is a meme/feature hosted by Lia (Lost in a Story). Hopefully this will remind me to read some of these long-lost, woeful books that have been sitting untouched, forgotten on these bookshelves of mine.

Rules

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Let's get started!

Current TBR count: 443

[Review + Giveaway] The Peony Lantern by Frances Watts

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 01/07/2015

Publisher: ABC Books

Pages: 289

Source: Library (I have since bought a copy)

Genre: YA {Historical | Asian}

#LoveOzYA

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes

♪ Ai Otsuka - Planetarium ♪

My Rating

4/5 stars

My thoughts

I am in awe. The Peony Lantern was unlike anything I have previously read before, and while it started off quite slow I was glued to the pages by the end! Watts is sure to be an Aussie YA author I will need to follow closely from now on. If you're interested in reading a YA historical fiction set in Feudal Japan, you need to read The Peony Lantern!

The Peony Lantern is set in Japan in Ansei (安政) 4, 1857. Clumsy and outspoken 16-year-old Kasumi is selected by a respected samurai from Edo (now Tokyo), Lord Shimizu, to travel with him and his nephew back with them to be his wife's lady-in-waiting. His father agrees to the proposal, for there is no refusing a samurai. There, she quickly falls into a routine with her mistress Misaki, and they eventually become friendly. But there is something unusual about her behaviour, and when attacks by anti-Shogun rebels become increasingly frequent and deadly, Kasumi is worried that somehow she has fallen into unsafe territory. Will she ever live to see her family again?

Waiting on Wednesday (47)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I've Read This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. Every week a new topic is chosen, and I love answering questions so I'm going to try and post regularly. :)

[Review] Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 07/07/2016

Publisher: Chicken House

Pages: 272

Source: Library

Genre: YA {Contemporary}

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Trigger warning: self harm

Book Tunes

♪ Ingrid Michaelson - Die Alone ♪
♪ Goo Goo Dolls - Iris ♪

My Rating

5/5 stars

My thoughts

US Cover

My heart is (still) in a frenzy. Under Rose-Tainted Skies was absolutely perfect back when I read it in March, and I could not be more grateful that there is a book like this out in the world. I had been wanting to read this book for a while and had been holding out to buy the US version of the book because I find it to be infinitely superior to the UK edition, so I was able to read this book courtesy of my local library. This one is a must-buy for me as I will certainly want to read this again in the future.

[Book Tag] Aussie Book Tag!

Source: ♥ (I had my own graphic ready but I like using the original!)

The Aussie Book Tag was created by Ngoc @ Happy Comes First. I actually saw this on another Aussie book blog, and I wasn't tagged, but that won't stop me from doing it anyway! I am so glad that Australia has a great book community, it's pretty overwhelming actually! Why, I went to the A.S. King event at Kinokuniya, Sydney a couple of weeks ago and there was a squad of like 10 teenage girls, which was pretty cool. Anyway, I digress. On to the books!!!

To add the challenge I'm going to include Aussie books/authors ONLY.

[Review] The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 01/01/2013

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Pages: 321

Source: Library

Genre: YA {Historical | Asian}

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes

♪ Katy Perry - Rise ♪

My Rating

4/5 stars

My thoughts

Reading The Fire Horse Girl was a long time coming. Back in 2013 it was placed highly on my wishlist and I knew that I needed to read it. How often do you read about an Asian female protagonist who cross-dresses as a man to escape China in the 1920s? My interest in this book was tied largely with my intense obsession with the Disney hit film Mulan - see: Asian female cross-dressing - but that desire to read it had dulled somewhat when I began to worry about the potential disappointment. What if I didn't like it? Thus why I never picked up my own copy, and I was even about to return this library book back to where it came from when I thought to revisit Goodreads, and luckily for me the reviews I skimmed through were favourable enough that my curiosity was piqued and so the journey began...

Down the TBR Hole #2 + Giveaway

Source: ♥

Down the TBR Hole is a meme/feature hosted by Lia (Lost in a Story). Hopefully this will remind me to read some of these long-lost, woeful books that have been sitting untouched, forgotten on these bookshelves of mine.

Rules

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

I've added a twist: if there are any books that I do decide to let go, I'm going to host a giveaway. First person who says they want it, gets it! Aussie only. (After one month, I will put them up for donation/sale.)

Let's get started!

Current TBR count: 441

Waiting on Wednesday (46)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

[Review] Remind Me How This Ends by Gabrielle Tozer

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 27/03/2017

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 352

Source: Bought

Genre: YA | Contemporary

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes

♪ Rudimental - Free (feat. Emeli Sande) ♪
♪ Avril Lavigne - Mobile ♪

My Rating

3.5/5

My thoughts

So now this is the part where I start to post reviews of books that I missed out on reviewing back when I was away from the blog. I only read this book last month so thankfully this one won't be too difficult to revisit. Let me say that I was super excited for Remind Me How This Ends. First off, look at that cover! It is stunning, and I am reluctant to let go of this book simply because of the beautiful cover. Secondly, it is a #LoveOzYA title! I love to support local authors and I think all Aussie readers should make more effort to read more Aussie YA! Now, on to the review.

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I Haven't Started Yet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. I haven't done one of these posts in years, literally! This week's topic is pretty interesting, and definitely one that I could extend way beyond ten, but let's go with the recommended amount, shall we? Feel free to kick my butt into gear.

[Review] The Things I Didn't Say by Kylie Fornasier

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 02/05/2017

Publisher: Penguin Australia

Pages: 311

Source: Library

Genre: YA - Contemporary (14+)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes

♪ Avril Lavigne - Things I'll Never Say ♪
♪ Gabrielle Aplin - Please Don't Say You Love Me ♪
♪ Ginny Blackmore - Love Me Anyway ♪

My Rating

Another #LoveOzYA gem <3

My thoughts

Somehow, I knew all along that I would fall in love with this book. An Aussie YA novel about a teen female protagonist with Selective Mutism (SM) and social anxiety struggles to find her ability to speak up? Yes, please! This is the book that I didn't even know that I needed. It was so powerful and raw and inspiring and eye-opening; Fornasier has written an important YA novel that will touch readers and improve their ability to empathise. Social anxiety, and SM, is not something that you can just get over; it's not that easy. This is the first time I've read a story revolving around a girl with SM and I felt like Fornasier really did justice in writing an accurate and sensitive portrayal of it.

[Book Tag] This or That

Source: ♥

Hey guys! Anyone who really knows me might know that I absolutely love doing quizzy/survey-ish things, so when I saw this on someone's blog (For What It's Worth), I jumped to the occasion! With these things I never care if I've been tagged or not, but I will definitely tag some people at the end. :)

Originally created by Ayunda @ Tea & Paperbacks. If you choose to tag yourself, please link me in the comments below! I love reading these responses!

#1: Reading on the couch or on the bed?

I normally don't get to the couch because my little brother is always watching the TV. I'm definitely more of a bed reader, as long as I don't fall asleep and/or drop the book on my face!

Down the TBR Hole #1 + Giveaway

Source: ♥

Down the TBR Hole is a meme/feature hosted by Lia (Lost in a Story). Hopefully this will remind me to read some of these long-lost, woeful books that have been sitting untouched, forgotten on these bookshelves of mine.

Rules

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

I've added a twist: if there are any books that I do decide to let go, I'm going to host a giveaway. First person who says they want it, gets it! Aussie only.

Let's get started!

[Review] Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 24/04/2017

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 336

Source: Library

Genre: YA - Anthology (12+)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

My Rating: 

Solid collection of #LoveYA short stories 

My thoughts

This anthology makes me proud to be Australian. What a great collection of short stories full of lively and diverse characters and worlds! I had a hard time pulling away from some of these stories, and this was overall just a really great way of showcasing all the awesomeness that some current Aussie authors have to offer!

[Review] All In Pieces by Suzanne Young

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 01/12/2016

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 259

Source: Library

Genre: YA - Contemporary (14+)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down ♪
♪ Avril Lavigne - I'm With You ♪

My Rating: 

Heartrending and tragically beautiful realistic fiction 

My thoughts

Wow. This was hard to write. 

Reasons:

1. Because this will be the first review that I have written in a long time with the intention of posting on my book blog so I'm a little bit rusty, and
2. Because this is the kind of book that is difficult to talk about. Yes, partially due to the heavy subject content, but also due to the intense need I have bouncing within me to get this right. I want to do justice by this book. I hadn't expected to love this book quite as much as I did.

I'm aliiiiiiiiveeeeeeee.......

It's me!

Honestly, I don't even know if there's a place left for me on the blogosphere but I want to try this thing again, I really do miss blogging. I have been low-key Tweeting for the past week or two, and recent bookish events have reignited my passion for book blogging. While it has been wonderful to be free from the clutches of blogging during this crazy busy last almost-year I really want to fall back into a routine with book blogging. Despite all the tedious editing, hours spent writing reviews and fine-tuning typos and weird HTML glitches (courtesy of Blogger >_>), it was really fun being part of a larger bookish community.

For those who don't know me yet, I'm a now 24 year old paediatric nurse living in Sydney, Australia. I am an ABC (Aussie Born Chinese) and still really don't care for eating rice, serve me pies and burgers over rice any day! I love honest and realistic contemporary YA more than any other genre, though I also adore historical fiction, high fantasy and basically anything that pulls me in with an engaging plot and/or sympathetic characters with whom I can feel a strong connection. I would also love to one day finish writing a novel.

Since my last blog post in August 2016, I have travelled to New Zealand with my boyfriend, travelled to Japan by myself and started a new job (another paeds nurse gig). I'm currently between semesters for my grad cert in Paediatric Nursing. Of course, I have done more, but those are the big things.

I have still been reading during my time away from the blog and maybe I will post reviews of some of them sometime in the future -- we'll see how this goes. I'm not expecting too much. All I wanted out of this blog from the beginning was to get my voice out there, in my own little space. So be it if my words reverberate and bounce off these walls, echoes reaching out to deaf ears (or in this case, unseeing eyes).

If you have managed to make it here, then welcome! Please comment - I promise I'm friendly! I might even follow you back. :)