June reading round up...

I had to go into to hospital this month to have surgery so knew I wouldn't get as much reading in as usual. I didn't do too badly though so thought I would still do a round up...

The Lie by C.L. Taylor
This was an ok thriller about Jane a woman trying to escape a tragedy that happened five years before. When she starts getting messages about it she realised she will have to face her past and find out what really happened. Read my full review here.

Normal by Graeme Cameron
A thriller told from the perspective of a serial killer... Sounds intriguing. Unfortunately this wasn't anywhere near as dark or twisted as I'd hoped. Full review soon!

Nailbiter Vol.1 by Joshua Williamson & Mike Henderson
This is a new horror series about a town that has produced sixteen serial killers. When his FBI profiler friend goes missing, agent Finch must team up with Sheriff Crane and notorious serial killer Edward "Nailbiter" Warren to find his friend. I found this to be a poor mans rip off of The Silence of the Lambs mashed up with Seven. The characters where pretty dull, and the story didn't really pull me in. The best thing about it was the amazing cover...

Hawkeye Vol.1 My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, David Aja & Javier Pulido
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Hawkeye, and I really enjoyed this comic. It didn't take itself too seriously, had plenty of action and I loved the very purple colour palette. Will definitely be continuing with this series. 

My favourite single issues of the month were A- Force #1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer S10 #14, and And Then Emily Was Gone #1- I have a big pile that I'm still yet to read so I'm sure next month's favourites will  be a lot longer!

Book review: The Lie by C.L. Taylor...

The Lie is a dark thriller about Jane Hughes, who has a loving partner, works in an animal sanctuary and lives in a small cottage in rural Wales. She's happier than she's ever been. Except Jane Hughes doesn't exist. Five years earlier Jane and her three best friends went on a holiday to Nepal. It should have been the trip of a lifetime, but rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.

Jane has to try and put the past behind her, but someone knows the truth about what happened and they won't stop until they've destroyed Jane and everything she loves.

The story alternates between present day and five years earlier as we slowly find out what happened on Jane's holiday. As we are first introduced to the four friends I must admit I rolled my eyes at the clichés (there was the snooty one, the "slut", the butch lesbian, and the outsider) there just didn't seem to be any depth to the characters and I found myself wondering why Jane was friends with them anyway. 

As we learn more about the nightmarish trip it does get quite engrossing, there's a lot of suspense but It did seem a little unbelievable how these four women could so easily be suckered into a cult without even really noticing or trying to do anything. Pretty much on the first day things started getting weird and that would have been my cue to go! I know Taylor wanted to play on the 'who can you really trust' theme, but the women had been close friends for years and turned on each other literally overnight to extreme levels. With friends like that who needs enemies...

I suppose the protagonist Jane is likeable (although a little annoying and naive at times), and Al is ok, but other than that none of the others had any redeeming qualities and I was pretty much hoping something bad would happen to them! I also found the present day story quite weak and slow, and found myself racing through it to get back to the trip.  

The ending was anti-climatic, and obvious but I still gave The Lie three stars. Despite the story being unbelieveable I did find myself drawn into the chapters about the holiday. The writing was suspenseful enough to keep me reading, but overall the book suffered with the weak present day story. 

For more book reviews go here!
Find me on Goodreads.

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award...

I was kindly nominated by Little Miss Dreamer (who's blog is super cute, go check it out!) to take part in the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers tag.

The Rules:
1. Answer the ten questions you have been sent, thanking the blogger who nominated you.
2. Come up with ten questions of your own.
3. Nominate up to ten bloggers.

Here's my answers...

 1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

There are so many places in the world I would love to visit to but number one on my list is Japan. I've had a deep fascination with Japan and it's culture for years. I would also love to travel around America. But in terms of living I'm not so sure...

 
2. Favourite author and/or book?

1984 by George Orwell is my all time favourite book. I've never read a book that's had such a powerful effect on me. It's scary, and shocking and brilliant and more relevant now than ever. I also love To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, another book that had a huge effect on me and I think it's one everyone should read.  

3. Do you have a secret obsession with anything?

I have quite an obsessive personality so get stupidly obsessed with all sorts of stuff! Mainly films, music and TV shows... and you've probably noticed my *slight* obsessions with Pop! Vinyls.

4. What is the one beauty/make-up item you couldn't live without?

It's a bit of a boring one, but Mac Carbon eyeshadow. I use it on my brows- they are the only make up I can't leave the house without. My natural brows are horrible! I plucked them to death in my teen goth era!

5. Favourite television show?

BUFFY! I've seen each episode a ridiculous amount of times. If I added up the hours then I've probably spent about a decade of my life just watching Buffy. I regret nothing!

6. What or who makes you happy in life?

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure. My family makes me happy. And books. And coffee.

7. What made you decide to start blogging?

I started 'YouTubing' years ago, and I was running out of ideas for videos so decided to start a blog, as I find it a lot easier to review thing on my blog rather than in a video- It's also a lot less time consuming. Over the last year or so I realised I preferred blogging.

8. If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you take?

My ipod, laptop and dvd collection! (forget practical thinking!)

9. Favourite youtubers and/or bloggers?

There's loads! Some of my favourite blogs are Little Miss Dreamer, Famous in Japan, Sami Spoon, Little Owl's Diary, Just Me Leah, Nerd Burger, Imogen's Typewriter, Sailboat, and Self-constructed Freak. 

10. What is your number one dream you'd like to make come true?

I'd love to be able to live with/ manage my illness a lot better, and also get a degree in psychology (which I will hopefully be starting in October.) 

Now for my ten questions...

1. What's your Favourite place?

2. Do you collect anything?

3. If your were a superhero what would you super powers be?!

4. What's your favourite film?

5. What do you do to de-stress?

6. Which beauty product do you swear by?

7. Recommend a book you love...

8. Who's your favourite fictional character?

9. You have £500 to spend in one shop, which shop do you choose? (not really, sorry!)

10. What song do you love right now? 

The blogs I would like to tag are Just Me Leah, Maliberry Makeup, The Lardy Grub, Ray of Glitter, Juyey, Shona Elizabeth and anyone else who would like to take part :) 

Book review: Day Four by Sarah Lotz*

Day Four is the follow up book to The Three, which I reviewed recently and loved. Set a few years after the events of the first book it takes place on a cruise ship. After four days the electricity fails leaving the passengers stranded in the water with no way to call for help. Then everything goes downhill! A norovirus begins to spread, a passenger is found dead, the food begins to run out, people start seeing ghosts, and an on board psychic begins to act very strange. 

Although billed as a sequel this could easily work as a stand alone book, despite the occasional nods throughout to The Three. Lotz switches from the documentary style of the first book to third person here, as we get to see the events from a number of characters points of view. There is definitely a very creepy element to this book, and Lotz is great at building up the suspense.

We get a variety of interesting characters including a phoney psychic and her assistant, the ships doctor, a blogger, on board security and a maid. All of them brought something interesting to the story.

The biggest thing Day Four has in common with The Three is the themes of the power of fear and panic, and how people act in these situations. Again this is what I enjoyed the most (and also found the most frightening!) I found the ending very mysterious but also satisfying, it just worked very well.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you like your thrillers creepy, and full of suspense then you need to check this series out. I can imagine Lotz going in all sorts of directions with this series, and I hope there are more books to come!  

To find my other book review go here!
Find me on Goodreads here.

[*copy provided for honest review]

New stuff...

Here's the stuff I've been buying over the last few months!

This is my first ever purchase from Tee Fury and I'm in love! Catwoman is my all time favourite comic book character and Batman Returns is my favourite Batman film. With it being purple too I feel like this shirt was made for me! Unbelievably this beauty cost less than a tenner including postage from America too. Win!

Of course some comics! I got volume 1 of horror/ mystery series Nailbiter- that amazing cover sucked me in. I also got volume 1 of the new-ish She- Hulk series which I can't wait to read. In Tesco I couldn't resist this Avengers Character Guide for £5. It's packed full of great artwork and character profiles of the many many heroes and villains of the Avengers.

I got some cute Hello Kitty goodies from Home Bargains including a mug to add to my (ridiculously big) collection. I also think the police kitty is kind of hilarious. All this cost under a fiver- bargain :) 

From Simply Be and armed with a discount code I ordered a couple of tops as my wardrobe is mostly black, and thought it needed a bit of a colour injection for the Summer. I got an aqua dip dye top and the troublemaker top was a winner straight away as it's pastel purple! 

Finally, of course there had to be some Pop! Vinyls. These three were all from Amazon marketplace seller Game Dealz who are from the U.S but charge just £7.99 inc postage. Every Pop I've bought from them has arrived in brilliant condition and I definitely recommend. So happy I finally have Mystique- she was always my favourite as a kid! 

Pop in a Box May...

For May's Pop in a Box subscription I decided to streamline my wishlist as the last few months hadn't really blown me away. It paid off big time as this month I got....

Hatsune Miku!! The Hot Topic Exclusive metallic Hatsune Miku!! ＼(*^▽^*)/ This is my first exclusive pop and she is so cute. Yay! ＼（＾○＾）人（＾○＾)／ Thank you PIAB.

Too see my other PIAB posts click here.

May reading round up....

The Three by Sarah Lotz
A brilliant and creepy thriller written documentary style about four planes that crash in different parts of the world and the after effects. Read my full review here.

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill
A very dark young adult dystopian set in a world where women are no longer born naturally, but synthetically created by by men for men. The story follows Freida and the other girls in her school who are soon to graduate and find out the fate the men have chose for them: a companion, a concubine or a chastity. I'll be reviewing this in full in a few weeks.

Day Four by Sarah Lotz
This is the sequel to The Three, set aboard a cruise ship a few years after the events of the first book. Day Four is probably a more traditional horror full of ghosts, and possession after the electricity fails leaving the passengers stranded and panic ensues. I'll be reviewing this in full next Monday!

She-Hulk Vol.1 by Charles Soule & Javier Pulido
A fun series about Jen Walters a.k.a She-Hulk in her down time from the Avengers as she struggles to start her own law firm. As well as Hellcat as her side kick there's plenty of cameos to enjoy. The artwork was nice and full of bold colours but unfortunately the final two issues changed artists and the style was awful! Full of jagged lines, the characters just looked strange and it totally ruined it for me. Volume 2 does go back to the original artist so I probably will continue with it at some point though!  

Rat Queens Vol.2 by Kurtis J. Wiebe & Roc Upchurch
Finally, volume 2 of Rat Queens! I absolutely loved the first volume and the second didn't disappoint. We got to learn more about the characters, there was plenty of action, and as with the first tons of sass! 

Suicide Squad Vol.1 by Adam Glass & Ryan Benjamin 
I haven't read a huge amount of DC comics, and honestly I wasn't too keen on this one. This is about a team of death row super villains recruited by the government to take on dangerous missions. I pretty much got it for Harley Quinn, and although she had a few cool moments she seemed to mainly be there to provide eye candy. I also found the story pretty boring, and the only part I really enjoyed was the little bit of Harley back story towards the end.

I also read a bunch of single issues this month, and these were my highlights: Guardians Team Up #4: She-Hulk Meets Gamora, Jem & the Holograms (the artwork in this series is beautiful), Bob's Burgers, Bitch Planet, And Then Emily Was Gone.