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Sum it Up Sunday – January 2016

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Sum it up Sunday is a feature post we are going to trial for the closing Sundays of each month. In these posts we’ll detail various things that have excited or upset us over that month.
If you’d like to join us in our summing up, please feel free! Just please, provide a link back to our blog. Thank you.

What are you reading right now?

Paein: Pawn of the Phoenix by Jamie McLachlan

pawn of the phoenix

Ms4Tune: The Haunting by Alex Bell

The Haunting

What was your favourite book this month and why?

Paein: Frostbite – Vampire Academy #2 by Richelle Mead. Because it was unexpected and I cried so much and I loved it.

frost bite

Ms4Tune: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. I just loved the graphics. It was beautifully twisted.

through the woods

What was your least favourite book this month and why?

Paein: Gambit by C.L. Denault
W hat even was that? I stuck it out because I was determined. But it contained many things Vampire Academy did – like the age gap etc – so a comparison was inevitable. Have to say VA did it better.

gambit

Ms4Tune: Rock You by Candy J Starr
I didn’t like that it was advertised as a New Adult when there was very little personal development for the characters or ranchy material. I have dubbed this book a cock-tease.

Rock You

What do you want to read next?

Paein: So many books! Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Truth Witch by Susan Dennard, Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. Harry Potter! ) :  I have some review books this month I need to read too.

six of crows truthwitch bloodlines

Ms4Tune: I can’t choose between The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Into the Dim by Janet B Taylor… Please help!

The Tiger and the Wolf Into the Dim

What books are you hoping to collect next month?

Paein: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer, a collection of Lunar Chronicles novellas, and Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. I can’t wait!!

stars above REBEL OF THE SANDs

Ms4Tune: Assassin’s Heart. So excited about this one. It’s supposedly a Romeo and Juliet meets The Godfather sort of book. Fingers crossed its as good as it sounds! I’m also getting Salt to the Sea and The Dark Days Club, two of the books I previewed in the Penguin 2016 Sampler. And if I can find the right copy (american hardback) for the right price I will definitely be getting A Gathering of Shadows.

Assassins heart salt to the sea the dark days club A Gathering of Shadows Final

How are your challenges going?

Paein: slipped in 6/40 for The Popsugar Challenge and I’ve completed 1 series from the Series Completion Challenge! Going to start on my second Series right now! Though, it’s new so I guess it’s not really a ‘completion’ but never mind!

Ms4Tune: I have two challenges that I’m participating in. The Popsugar Challenge and Series Completion Challenge.
So far the Popsugar Challenge is off to a good start! I’ve managed to complete 6/40. That’s more than the average 3.5 I need to read a month. So I’m quite happy that I’m a head.
The Series Completion Challenge however has been a complete failure. I haven’t completed any series at all! I have caught up with the Embassy Row series by Ally Carter but as I was only one behind I don’t think that’s much of an accomplishment.

Anything you’re going to try and do more of next month?

Paein: Write better reviews! They’ve been slipping. I find it hard to express myself and if I’m not careful I slip back into the ‘it was good. there was stuff’ kind of mentality. I’ve not been careful. I also need to sort out my social media skills. I’ve been posting sporadically on instagram and I’ve not been keeping up with our twitter at all! Sorry about that. I’d also like to clear out another section of my space somewhere. maybe swap a book shelf or two around.

Ms4Tune: I want to:
1. Complete a series!
2. Read more Male Author Books/ Male POV books
3. Keep on top of netgalley arcs (I have a lot that need to be read now)
4. Return to the library.

Did you complete this month’s targets?

Paein: I’ve tried to respond to more comments, though I still don’t have a google+ account, or even another wordpress one. I’ve also been trying to interact more on goodreads.

Ms4Tune: My targets for January were:
Read more Male Author Books: I only managed 1 out of the 11 books I read, this is terrible.
Complete one series a month: as already said, this failed, but hopefully next month I will do better
Return to the library: YES! I did manage this one, and twice! First time I took Soundless back, the second time I took back The Incarnations and got out the lovelies below! (I seem to be very into books set in the past at the moment).
I also love the librarian who, gave me that, ‘Ahh I see, you are clearly one of us’ faces when I got these books out :)

Fortune Hunter past the shallows uninvited miss peregrines the next together

Any rants or raves?
Anything to boast about?

Paein: Clear outs! Been watching some de-clutter videos on youtube. They’re all about choosing one area and doing that area, getting rid of 10 things if you can. It inspired me to check through my kindle books. (Also Ms4Tune did too, she had a list, I wanted a list!) I’ve done the free ones so far and I’ve gone from 304 books to 140! I only kept them if I thought I’d like to read them. If I thought ‘might like it’ or ‘maybe’ and obviously ‘ugh no’ I got rid of them. There’s no point having 500 page kindle books that might be alright when I have about 100 books I really want to read RIGHT NOW! I’ve started on my paid for kindle books too, but that hurts more than getting rid of REAL books, because I can’t give them to anyone else. I’m also itching to re-arrange my shelves SO BADLY. I want to get all the non book items off of three of them. I’d like it off all of them, but one of my bookshelves is also a craft store, so until I find somewhere for that stuff it’s not going anywhere.

I’ve also been watching the Shadow Hunters series on Netflix and I’m really annoyed. I thought they remade it because the film was bad and they wanted to make it better. It’s not even remotely better at all. What the heck?!

Ms4Tune: I got auto-approved by a publisher on Netgalley even though I rated the book poorly. Makes me feel proud as I obviously explained myself thoroughly enough for them to like me even though I didn’t enjoy the book.

I was also quoted on Netgalley by another publisher for an upcoming book – In the praise for previous books part. VERY EXCITING! And another review asked if she could quote part of my review on her blog. Very happy :)

pam id pics paeinpam id pics andpam id pics ms4tune

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