January Book Haul

Hello my fellow bibliophiles! Thank God it’s the weekend, am I right? Except, of course, I just got back from writing a math exam. On. A. Saturday. I am pretty sure that is illegal. If not, then somebody needs to make that happen.

Anyway, I have given myself a few hours off from studying, and I have decided to just quickly type up a Book Haul – these are all the books I got in January. I am pretty happy with it; I didn’t go completely overboard… sort of. It is a little weird, because I bought a lot of my books, like, months ago, but I’ve only just received them… Anyway, here we go!

• This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner. This is the second book in the Starbound trilogy, and I thought it was amazing. This book followed different characters than the first one, but I love how the old characters were incorporated into the story.
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. Already one of my favourite books that I’ve read this year. It was completely amazing, breathtaking, funny – I loved everything about it. Click to see my review here.
• Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater. The first time I saw this book was in Oxford, two years ago. I had decided to not buy it, and I’ve regretted it ever since. I was so excited when I found it at the bookstore in MonteCasino – insta-buy. It was pretty good, but I did not like it as much as I liked Shiver.
• After the End by Amy Plum. I loved Plum’s other series, The Revenants, but this was such a let down. I really did not like anything about it, to be honest. ‘

• Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray. LOVED. This book is the sequel to A Thousand Pieces of You, and the second book in the Firebird trilogy. Parallel universes and good times. You can find my review for it by clicking here.
• To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. Super cute contemporary novel; you can expect a review coming soon!
• P.s. I Still Love You by Jenny Han. This is the sequel to the previous novel, and I loved it just as much. A review will be coming for this one soon.
• Soundless by Richelle Mead. I had a good time with this one, I thought it was really interesting… but kind of short. I honestly would have liked a couple more chapters of world building and such. Also, it lacked that spark that exists in VA and Bloodlines, in my opinion.

• Da Vinci’s Tiger by L.M. Elliott. I don’t know much about this novel other than it has something to do with Da Vinci? I plan on reading it next, so I’ll let you know my thoughts on it soon!
• Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS! I won’t get this book until Monday, but I am still going to include it in this haul, because I thought that I would get it last Monday. Do you want to know when I actually bought this book? Black Friday, 2015. That was last year! I have no idea what this book is about, but I know it includes some political intrigue and major plot-twists. I need to get on this bandwagon, like, yesterday.
• The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski. Same story with this one guys; months of living in agony. I actually saw it at Science Fiction Bokhandeln in Malmö when I was there last summer, but I did not buy it because I already had 20 something books at home. A major regret of mine. From what I can tell, this book is also political with plot-twists, so fun times awaits!

So… 11 books is not that bad. Yeah, okay, I know – but it can be worse! I got a few books on my kindle as well, but those are my embarrassing romance-y books, so I decided to not include them. If you desperately want to know what they were and my reviews on them, let me know in the comments’ section below, and I’ll think about it. Seriously though, some of the stuff I read is weird.

I also got a book called The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev’s Freedom to Putin’s War by Arkady Ostrovsky. Yep, this book is for school, as I am doing a large project on Gorbachev and Reagan, vs. Putin and Obama. I have been reading it on and off for a week, and it is going slowly.

Anyway, those are all the books that I got in January. I am going shopping today, so I’ll let you know if I decide to buy any more. I seriously doubt it though, guys; books are pretty expensive, and I have bought a lot recently.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderfully bookish day, and I’ll see you soon!

/Emilia

A Thousand Pieces of You – Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You

By Claudia Gray

Genre: Parallel Universes (know this isn’t an actual genre, but deal.)

Reading Level: Medium(ish)

Pages: 368

Review: 5 / 5

Synopsis: 

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure. (Goodreads)

Links to purchase:

• Amazon
• Book Depository
• Adlibris

Opinion:

HOLY GUACAMOLE! Guys, I have found one of my favorite books of the year – and it is this one! For real, this book is amazing. I know I am a complete sucker for parallel universes, which might be why I loved this book so much, but I loved everything else as well. For some reason, I haven’t seen all that much hype surrounding this book – not in my ‘book-circles’ anyway – which is strange because it is incredible.

Plot-wise, I thought the author did a really good job describing how the parallel-universe-traveling worked; usually, authors are like, “And then this magical thing happened and BAM! Another universe,” which isn’t exactly very convincing. So, in that sense, I thought Gray did a very good job by applying so much physics to it. However, I was a little meh in the beginning because Gray kind of just threw us into the story, rather than easing us in. I don’t like that in novels – I want to be spoon-feed in the beginning – but Gray explained things along the way, until, after a while, I completely forgave the beginning.

Plus, as I am completely gullible – PLOT TWISTS everywhere! None of which I foresaw at all. Good job Gray.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray cover image.

Also, and I am not going to expand on this at all, but as I am right now studying the Russian Revolution, I thought a specific portion of this book was REALLY interesting. There. A small spoiler, but you’ll live.

I loved the characters – and how utterly complex they were. I thought things about them in the beginning, that never really stopped being true, but so many layers were added, that eventually they felt like different characters. Definitely no static characters here. And their emotions weren’t simple – there were moments when they didn’t know what to do/think, which is exactly how it is in real life as well.

And now, I need to spend a few sentences on the cover… it is the prettiest cover I have ever seen. THE. PRETTIEST. COVER. EVER. Guys, I saw this book on the internet a few months before it came out, and thought that it was the prettiest cover I had ever seen. And guess what? It is even prettier to look at in real life.

So… if you like books, then you’ll love this one! That is the only recommendation I can make. Or if you like Doctor Who – that as well.

Have a wonderfully well-read Sunday!

/Emilia