New books! #42… plus a book launch!

(Just adding here that this book haul post is the answer to life, the universe and everything.)

(42, guys… 😀 Hitchhiker’s reference.)

This week was cool! I only bought (well, mum bought for me…) one book, and I received one in the post too. But, this week I also went to the book launch for Liz de Jager’s BANISHED. More of that at the end of this post!

Book Haul:

Goose by Dawn O’Porter: I really loved Dawn’s first book, Paper Aeroplanes, and I fell in love with the two main characters, Flo and Renee. I’m so excited to read more about them in Goose! It looks brilliant, and I think I’m going to re-read Paper Aeroplanes before starting Goose. Thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me a copy!

Banished by Liz de Jager: This was actually bought last week and it was in my last book haul, but it ended up in my photo as I had it signed at the book launch on Thursday.

Phoenix by SF Said: I’ve read this and d have a copy, though only a Netgalley edition! Though Phoenix got a five-heart rating in my review last year, I think I couldv’e enjoyed it even more if I had a physical copy- the illustrations didn’t come out right on my kindle. I’m hoping to reread this very soon! I spotted it in Foyles after Liz’s book launch… and, eeeeeee! Foyles had signed copies!

Banished Book Launch: This happened on Thursday in London! You can see the review-graphic of Banished I posted on Wednesday, here, by the way (: . Though I didn’t know many people there, I did get to speak to Kendra Leighton, who wrote GLIMPSE, which is out in June- and also a few bloggers! It was nice to meet you people! There were cool cookies too. Seriously cool cookies. Quick night-in-pictures thing:

Top left- me (unable to look at a camera…) & Liz. Other pictures are of the Blackhart cookies and the Banished display window- which is at Foyles: Charing Cross Road- definitely worth going to see!

Thanks to Liz for being awesome and signing my book for me, too, which is why Banished is in my book haul above again!

So that’s the awesomeness for the week. Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts if you’ve read any of the books! If you’re a blogger, link back to your own hauls too! 😀

Review-Graphic: Banished by Liz de Jager

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I read Banished, book one of the Blackhart Legacy, over the weekend- and I loved every second of it. It’s a brilliant new urban fantasy, and I think it’s going to be huge! I tried drawing Kit, the protagonist. Yup, obsessiveness. I decided to make a review graphic of the book, because I haven’t done one in a while- and the design & colour scheme for the cover is awesome! So, enjoy (: If you find any parts of the image hard to read, just click on it to bring up a bigger version.

Banished is published by Tor books UK, February 27th 2014.

Note: I just want to point out that my review is not biased in any way- I do know Liz in person (she used to co-run a book blog!) but in no way at all did that affect my thoughts on the book. My review is completely honest and all my opinion.

I purchased a copy of Banished from a bookstore.

Book Review: Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy

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Published 6th February 2014 by Hot Key Books.

18482238 Goodreads Synopsis: Kate Rickman seems just like any other nineteen-year-old girl. She goes to university, she dates nice, normal boys and she works in her local tourist office at the weekend. But Kate’s not really normal at all. ‘Kate’ is in fact a carefully constructed facade for a girl called Jennifer Jones – and it’s a facade that’s crumbling fast. Jennifer has spent the last nine years frantically trying to escape from her horrifying past. Increasingly desperate, Jennifer decides to do something drastic. She contacts the only other girl who might understand what she’s dealing with, breaking every rule of her parole along the way. Lucy Bussell is the last person Jennifer expects any sympathy from, but she’s also the last person she has left. Finding Jennifer Jones is the powerful sequel to the highly acclaimed, Carnegie Medal nominated Looking for JJ. It is a tense, emotional thriller about guilt, running away and wondering if you can ever truly know yourself.

My Review: Looking for JJ was brilliant… Finding Jennifer Jones completely blew me away. A lot of the time, the sequel to a book is never as strong as the first book, but I actually think this was even more thrilling and clever than the first title! I’ve left it a bit late before reviewing, so I don’t think I can do it enough justice.

Finding Jennifer Jones visits JJ, under yet another name, Kate, as she’s studying in Exeter University. After knowing the events of her horrifying past, the police immediately suspect Kate of a recent murder in the area. Kate, or JJ, realises that she’ll never be able to fully escape her past, no matter how many new identities she’s given- so she decides to revisit her past, by contacting Lucy Bussell: The girl who witnessed what JJ did nine years ago… I was so nervous to see how everything would unfold; I only recently read Looking for JJ and I wasn’t sure the sequel would be as thrilling. But, it definitely was, and I fell in love with it. It felt really nostalgic, going back to meet Lucy again- even though I only read about her in book one a few weeks ago!

I wasn’t expecting to read more detail on what happened to JJ, Lucy and Michelle, though there are more flashback scenes in Finding Jennifer Jones that reveal more about everything. I really loved the fact that at the end of these two books, now, I have a completely clear picture of the whole crime plot. It all fits together so, so well- and the ending to Finding Jennifer Jones- wow. I wasn’t expecting it, but I loved JJ even more for it.

JJ- or, Kate- is so well developed. I grew quite attached to her in book one, and I loved her character even more this time! She was even more confident and brave here. I hadn’t actually read the blurb to Finding Jennifer Jones fully when I started- I wanted it all to be a surprise- so I wasn’t expecting to hear from Lucy Bussell. I really felt sympathetic for her in Looking for JJ. It was really great to see her character developing a lot, years later.#

Overall, Finding Jennifer Jones was a breath-taking follow up to a great crime book. It’s well paced, original and addictive; I couldn’t come out of the story while I was reading it! I was really shocked at the ending, because that was the last thing I’d predicted Kate/JJ to do. But, it was a perfect ending. I really enjoyed the plot, and revisiting characters from JJ’s past, too. If you’ve read the first book, I really highly recommend buying this! If you haven’t- I really can’t recommend the books much higher. They’re captivating and thrilling.

My Rating:

I received a copy of Finding Jennifer Jones form the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

New Books! #41… Also, Nerdfighter stuff :)

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S0, this week’s haul is exciting 😀 There was a lot of squealing. Also, I’m taking photos of my books now instead of using the book jackets from Goodreads, because Hawwa’s book photography tutorial is awesome and even though my photos are awful compared to hers, especially the last one I took in a rush this morning, they look nicer than my rushed Picmonkey collages (Or, so I’m hoping)!

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris: *dances* I’ve been looking forward to finding a copy of this for a couple of months now! I was in the lovely London Forbidden Planet on Monday, looking at the Sci-Fi/Fantasy charts, and saw it was number one. The hardback was so pretty, so I picked a copy off the shelves, then looked closer and saw it was signed. There was much squealing and jumping up and down and people-looking-at-me-weirdly. But I don’t care, I have a copy now! Yay! I’m so excited.

Daughters of Time by the History Girls: This came through the letterbox on Thursday… and the copy is so gorgeous! I’m looking forward to starting it; Daughters of Time is all about the women in History who’ve shaped today’s world. I’ll also be participating in the blog tour, very soon, so keep an eye out! thanks to Templar for sending this to me.

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer: This looks and sounds amazing. I’ve definitely seen the cover around, but I’ve never actually had a proper look at the book before. After hearing and reading about its Costa book awards win, I decided I’d buy a copy, to see what it’s like. I read the blurb in the store and was just… wow-ed. I think this is going to be amazing.

The Blackhart Legacy, #1: Banished by Liz de Jager: I can’t even put into words how excited I am for this! I’ve been waiting for ages to be able to read it; pretty much since I found out the lovely Liz had gotten a book deal, months ago. The cover’s absolutely stunning, and the first two chapters are too- they’re on Tor’s blog. I’m completely ditching the TBR pile for this: I’ve already started it, and I’m loving it. Definitely worth the waiting for!

RUN by Gregg Olsen: I received this from the lovely people at Newbooks magazine, so thanks, you lovely people! I love the magazine, which comes out every month, and I’m really excited to get the chance to review in it, starting with Run… and hopefully getting to review future titles for them, too! 😀 Run sounds brilliant; like a really gritty, thrilling crime book, so I’m positive I’ll enjoy it. It’s from Hot Key, and I don’t think they’ve released any/many crime books yet, so I’m eager to see what this one’s about.

Extra thing I’m going to randomly add onto the end of this post: A lot of you probably know I’m an avid nerdfighter, a lot of book bloggers are! Especially Lucy, who’s the blogger and booktuber behind Queen of Contemporary. She’s hosting a Nerdfighter Month very soon, with lots of videos and a readathon of John Green’s books, and loads more awesomeness! Get the word out, people of the internet, this is going to be awesome. Dftba, of course. 😀 Here’s the introductory announcement video, which doesn’t seen to embed into this post, for some reason:

Book Review: Bird by Crystal Chan

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Published 30th January 2014 by Tamarind books (A Random House imprint).

13260749 Goodreads Synopsis: ‘Grandpa stopped speaking the day he killed my brother, John. His name was John until Grandpa said he looked more like a Bird with the way he kept jumping off things, and the name stuck. Bird’s thick, black hair poked out in every direction, just like the head feathers of the blackbirds, Grandpa said, and he bet that one day Bird would fly like one too. Grandpa kept talking like that, and no one paid him much notice until Bird jumped off a cliff, the cliff at the edge of the tallgrass prairie, the cliff that dropped a good couple hundred feet to a dried-up riverbed below. From that day on, Grandpa never spoke another word. Not one.
The day that Bird tried to fly, the grown-ups were out looking for him – all of them except Mom and Granny. That’s because that very day, I was born.’

Twelve-year-old Jewel never knew her brother, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Then one night, on her birthday, she finds a mysterious boy sitting in her oak tree. His name is John. And he changes everything.

My Review: Bird is a beautiful book…. there aren’t actually many words to describe it properly and do it justice. It’s a poignant tale about love and loss, and I think it’s going to captivate anybody who reads it.

The story’s completely riveting: Literally right from the first page, where the reader finds out that Jewel was born the day her brother jumped from a cliff, and that their grandfather’s never spoken a word, since. Crystal Chan’s writing is so good, I honestly did have tears in my eyes from the beginning. Chan’s captured the voice of a twelve year old flawlessly. I was sucked right into the story of Jewel, and the complicated relationship with her grandfather and the friendship growing between her and John- a boy who’s staying in the town, who has the same name as her brother.

The plot is flawless- there’s no other way to describe it! Every event was completely unpredictable, and Crystal Chan can make you laugh or cry with every page. The plot is very character driven, exploring the ups and downs of a torn apart family, and focusing on the impact of Jewel’s new friend on her grandfather. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The plot twists are all emotional and shocking, especially the big one about John, Jewel’s friend. I was completely blown away, and I couldn’t stop reading.

Jewel is a character that any reader can instantly fall in love with: She’s so well developed and realistic, and her voice just captured me, and didn’t let me go until the very last page. Her narration is really captivating and she’s probably now one of my favourite contemporary fiction characters. John’s also such good protagonist. Chan made me really mixed on him at points, with those plot twists… but he’s the kind of character you can’t not love!

Overall, Bird is amazing, and a book that I’ll be recommending to everybody I know, regardless of what kind of books they like. The central character were so three dimensional and loveable, I really wanted to read more about them after finishing… I’m pretty sure I’ll be rereading this book! The plot weaves themes of superstition into themes of love and loss, and it’s just beautiful. Bird is moving; more emotional than most books I’ve read this year, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough!

My Rating:

I received a copy of Bird form the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Blue Peter Blog Tour: Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter!

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Hey, blogosphere! I can’t even put into words how excited I am to be posting in the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour (And hosting the first post…. SQUEAL!). The list of books for this year’s awards are absolutely fantastic, and you can read more info, over here.

Onto the blog tour post! So, enjoy this written coverage of Malorie Blackman’s event with Booktrust at the Imagine Festival…

Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter

On Saturday 15^th February, team Laureate battled through the wind and rain to head down to the Southbank Centre, which was teeming with families all taking advantage of the Imagine Festival. With so many author events, storytelling and interactive workshops to go to, there was no danger of children getting bored this half term! We parked up in the café with some strong coffees to get ready for… A DAY WITH BLUE PETER! As part of the Blue Peter Book Awards, the show has been running all sorts of special book content. One of these features is “A Day in the Life of an Author” – and what better author to choose than the Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman? And as Booktrust manage the Laureate and help out with the PR for the prize, we had double reason to go along. Nothing to do with a secret hope of getting a Blue Peter Badge out of it……

Malorie pulled up with the Blue Peter crew and presenter Lindsey Russell, who had been interviewing her en route – we all headed into the green room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where Malorie had a huge stack of books to be signed ahead of the event. We amused ourselves by making use of the glitzy dressing room all for Malorie – with lights around the mirror and everything! Malorie also had a go at playing the green room’s piano – despite protesting she sounded rubbish, Random House publicist Lauren and I were VERY impressed!

Malorie busy signing

Next we headed into the main auditorium where Malorie recorded her answers to some of Blue Peter’s viewers’ questions. They had some great ones, including “what’s your favourite cheese?” and “Would you rather have a bath of baked beans or a bath of custard?” !! But now it was time to get serious, and have a chat with her event chair Damian Kelleher (who also had his very own dressing room!) The Imagine event was brilliant, with over 600 children who all seemed to have questions for Malorie. Blue Peter dashed about filming the event and a few lucky audience members’ questions.

Malorie with a Blue Peter Presenter

After the talk, it was time to tackle THE EPIC SIGNING QUEUE! There were so many children and teens, bursting to meet Malorie, and lots were interviewed in the queue by Blue Peter too, which only added to their excitement! After an hour and a half, the crowds finally dispersed and Malorie got to rest her hand and voice, but not before the Blue Peter crew and presenters lined up to get their books signed too…

Lindsey and the producers were so lovely, we had such a great day with them – we can’t wait to watch the show which is on TODAY on CBBC at 5:30pm!

The Blue Peter Book Award winners will be announced on World Book Day, 6^th March on Newsround at 7:40am. www.booktrust.org.uk/bluepeter

I am SO jealous- I couldn’t go to this… but the event sounded awesome! I’m looking forward to seeing the show. Make sure to keep up with the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour! Here are the dates and bloggy details:

Thursday 20^th Feb = The Bibliomaniac – Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter

Saturday 22^nd Feb = Much Loved Books – Rooftoppers

Monday 24^th Feb = Being a Mummy – Whale Boy

Wednesday 26^th Feb = Bare Naked Mummy – Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders

Friday 28^th Feb = Live Otherwise – Marvellous Maths

Sunday 2^nd March = Book Sniffer – Animal Infographics

Tuesday 4^th March = My Book Corner – Oliver and the Seawigs

Thursday 6^th March = Winged Reviews – Marcus Sedgwick on being a Blue Peter judge

Fangirling about Favourites! #1

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So! This is another experimental post and I came up with the idea a little while ago. The layout today is a little bit messy, as I created half of it while I was on my old theme, and this week I tried to change parts and… I’ve messed up the colours and things, but oh well… It’ll look better next time! 😉

Fangirling about Favourites, if people like it, will probably go up once a month or so! Every post will focus on a different genre, and focus on one of my favourite books or series form that there. Today it’s Sci Fi and Dystopian- and I’ve picked STRAY and BURN by Monica Hesse…

Book Review: Running Girl by Simon Mason

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Published January 2nd 2014 by David Fickling Books.

17999143 Goodreads Synopsis: Meet Garvie Smith. Highest IQ ever recorded at Marsh Academy. Lowest ever grades. What’s the point, anyway? Life sucks. Nothing ever happens.

Until Chloe Dow’s body is pulled from a pond.

DI Singh is already on the case. Ambitious, uptight, methodical – he’s determined to solve the mystery and get promoted. He doesn’t need any ‘assistance’ from notorious slacker, Smith.

Or does he?

My Review: Running Girl was a book I’d been really looking forward to- and luckily I did really enjoy it! Not entirely as much as I thought I would, but still, it was a really fun mystery to follow.

I started the book with a pretty clear idea of it, as I’d talked to the author at the RHCP crime event about it! I was really absorbed in the story for most of the time: I enjoyed the beginning, especially, which really hooks the reader in. I really did like the pot; it’s a classic crime fiction scenario, though it felt fresh and new, and completely original.

I enjoyed guessing throughout, though Running Girl is so misleading! It’s clever, really clever, though I found a lot of parts quite confusing. It’s a really great crime book in the way that it leads you to think the killer’s one person, when really it’s the person I least expected… though I think so much was going on, I lost track! I ended up re-reading a lot of passages and chapters, because I did get confused.

Garvie’s a really uncommon main character. A lot of books I read centered around mysteries have character that are the complete opposite. Instead, Garvie Smith is lazy, incredibly intelligent but unwilling to do anything, and prefers to hang out with crime-committing kids instead of going to school. Despite his personality, I loved him. He was very much like Sherlock Holmes, only willing to do something if it interests him hugely- and that, now, is working out the mystery behind Chloe Dow’s murder.

I admit it was hard to like him at first, but I did really grow to like him! He was brilliant, a really alternative protagonist, that I think a lot of teens and adults will become attached to. I don’t think he developed very much through the events, but I’m hoping to get to know him even better in book two.

Overall, Running Girl is a book that I’m really mixed on, though I’m mainly loving it. Despite the fact I struggled to follow at a few points, the murder plot was really clever. It’s unpredictable and unexpected, and Garvie’s journey is wild and takes him everywhere on a search, from a Casino to a school… I really enjoyed reading about Garvie’s search, because he’s not your average fictional character. Recommended to crime fiction fans. (:

My Rating:

I received a copy of Running Girl from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Oh hai, new blog theme!

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SO IT HAPPENED! New theme! I decided to get it out of the way, today. I’ve had a lot of feedback over twitter and in the comments of my last blog post. Virtual hugs to you all!

I’m now The Bibliomaniac Book Blog, and I’m now blue (No, I mean, just the theme and stuff. I’m cold, but I’m not that cold :P). I have a new theme and a new blog header…

…and to match, I now have new little rating system symbols- still my little hearts in speech bubbles,but slightly differently designed (but, with the same meanings! You can check out my rating system, explained properly, here.):

Post Update! 😀

I was going through older posts, and realised I hadn’t re-designed the book haul banner. So, I did a bit of a rushed one this morning, for Saturday’s post. I think I’ll probably make a better one, but…

And, ta-da! So, it’s all new looking and shiny now! Slightly winter-y. But, I like it, so I hope everybody else does, too. I’m keeping my URL for my blog the same, because otherwise I might lose followers and readers, if I switch, etc.! But, I hope you all like the new layout and the new name. I’m happy with it! Huge thanks to everyone again who gave me feedback and who read the blog (: ❤

Bloggy Changes! (possibly)

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Books and Writers JNR has been running for almost exactly three years now, and I’ve gone through three different themes! In 2011, it had a really simple, normal theme, that doesn’t seem to be on WordPress anymore… (I tried to find a screenshot of it, and failed). Then, and I think this was at the start of 2013, I swapped to this theme:

The Next Saturday Theme

I think that lasted for less than a month… I decided against the colours, and it was a bit too in-your-face for me. A bit later in 2013, I changed to the Crafty theme:

Crafty Theme

And it’s been like that ever since! I never really played around with the themes much, and although I do like this theme at the moment, I’ve found a few others and I think they’ll be better for the blog. A lot of them are paid themes, and I don’t think I want to pay for a theme yet, so this is a free one I like: I can play around with it a lot and it’s a simpler format. I think I prefer it to Crafty, because the Crafty theme makes my blog look a bit… happy, when I don’t think that really reflects what kind of books I read and review! (flowers and a happy looking apple dude in my widgets bar, next to zombie books. Um.)

Minimalizine

I don’t just want to change my blog theme, though- I’ve decided on altering the name a bit. Books and Writers JNR is kinda confusing- I always get asked what the JNR’s for! (If you still don’t know, it’s because this is the ‘jnr’ version of my dad’s Books and Writers blog). After my dad decided to stop blogging at books and writers, I wanted to take the JNR off, but I was never sure I wanted simply Books and Writers. Over the last month I’ve been Googling up lots of blog names, and a lot are already taken- the blogosphere’s huge, and keeps growing, and I’ve been scared I’ll steal a name without realising!

But, I’ve decided on The Bibliomaniac. I like the name, and there’s been a book blog called this before, but as far as I’ve been able to see, it’s been changed. This week I’ve been playing around with header ideas for the blog, and this is one I like- I designed it quickly and it might be temporary, it might not be! I’d love to hear what you think about it, over Twitter on in the comments:

So, that’s the header and the theme that I’m hoping to put up very soon- I just want to hear what people think! I don’t want to actually change my site name, though- I think that will just be kept as booksandwritersjnr.wordpress.com, as I’m not the best at WordPress-y things and I don’t want to mess things up of anything.

S0, I’d love to hear what you think- Do you like the possible new blog name and the header? 😀 I might end up tweaking some things over the next couple of days, but aside from that, my blog should hopefully be re-designed by the end of the month!