June 2013

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Reading Wrap-Up // June 2013

Posted on Sunday, June 30, 2013


This was a really good reading month for me. I finished nine books in total, and since I'm usually a pretty slow reader, I don't think I've ever read that many books in a month. I enjoyed most of the books I finished, and I've reviewed about half of them.

The first book I finished was Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver, and you can see my review of it here.
I didn't enjoy it as much as Delirium, and I gave it 3.5/5 stars.

The next book I finished was The Elite by Kiera Cass. The Elite is the sequel to The Selection, which follows America Singer, who gets chosen to participate in a competition to marry the prince. In The Elite, there are only 5 remaining girls, and America is still figuring out if she still wants to be in the competition or not. I liked it a lot, even though I have some issues with the world building, but I still gave it 5/5 stars.

Then I listened to An Abundance of Katherines by John Green on audio book. The book is about a child prodigy who only dates girls named Katherine. Colin is working on a theorem to determine who will dump who in a relationship and while the book is described as a road trip-book, the road trip ends after about 100 pages. The book was pretty boring. I thought the plot sounded interesting, and it was, but the writing style and John Green's ability to write very similar characters in all his books, made it pretty uninteresting and difficult to get through. I gave the book 3/5 stars.

The Next book I read was Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. You can find my review of it here.  Scarlet is the sequel to Cinder, it takes place in both New Bei Jing and France, and is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. I gave it 5/5 stars.

The next book I finished was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I was a bit hesitant to pick it up, because the author seems like an asshole, but I downloaded it(illegaly, didn't want to support the author) and I did not regret it! Ender's Game is about  a boy named Ender who gets chosen to become some sort of a super soldier(I had some difficulties understanding that part) the book is really action packed and probably my favorite sci-fi book. I can't wait to continue with the series! I gave Ender's Game 5/5 stars.

I also finished The Enemy by Charlie Higson and you can check out my review of it here! It was a really great, action packed zombie book and I gave it 4/5 stars.

I finished A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin only a few hours ago. It is the second book in A Song of Ice and Fire and the sequel to A Game of Thrones. It was really great to finally finish it after reading it for several months. I gave it 4/5 stars because I didn't enjoy the plot as much as the first book, but I still really, really enjoyed every page. It was good to read something different than only YA!

The last two books that I finished, I read as a part of Books of Amer's Debut-A-Thon! I did mini reviews in this blog post, and the books I read were If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch and Pivot Point by Kasie West. See my reviews and read more about the read-a-thon here!

 What books did you finish this month?

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Debut-A-Thon Wrap Up

This weekend I participated in Books of Amber's Debut-A-Thon. If the name doesn't tell you what it's about, it's a read-a-thon where you read as many 2013 debuts as possible.

I still have about six hours left of this read-a-thon, but I decided to only read two books even though I know I could have finished at least one or two more. I simply don't own any more debuts, and I don't have the money to buy any more books for a little while.

The books I finished were If You find Me by Emily Murdoch and Pivot Point by Kasie West. I read both of them in about a day, and I liked both of them a lot.


If You Find Me follows two sisters, Carey and Janessa who has been living in the woods with their mentally ill mother for as long as they can remember. When their mother leaves them and two strangers appear to take them into the city, the girls have to adapt to the outside world. It was a beautiful book about neglect, love and loyalty  What made me love the book so much, was the way Carey saw things. The book is told from her perspective, and seing her go to school and meet her father again was just heartbreaking. She was clever for her age, and her love for her sister was beautiful to read. There are a few mysteries in this book; Why doesn't Janessa speak to anyone but Carey? What made their mother run away with her daughter into the woods in the first place? All the mysteries wrapped up perfectly and I ended up giving the book 5/5 stars. It is definitely one of my new favorites! 

I also really love the cover, and although I read the book on my kindle, I think I might purchase a physical copy of the book just to see the beautiful book on my shelf. 


Pivot Point by Kasie West follows the story of Addison Coleman who has the ability to see both outcomes when faced with a choice. When her parents tell her that they are getting a divorce, Addison looks into the future to see what her life will be like with each of her parents. In one future, she moves out of the compound she previously lived in and starts school with "norm" kids, meaning kids without powers like she has. She meets Trevor, who quickly becomes her best friend. In another future, she becomes the girlfriend of a quarterback and with love and loss in poth possible futures, she has to face a difficult decision. I liked this book a lot, but not near as much as If You Find Me. I had some problems with understanding the world and powers of the people in the compound and I felt like the middle part was a bit boring. I also have to admit that I skipped a few of the chapters from the future where she stays in the compound, because they simply didn't interrest me. I gave the book 4/5 stars.

This book also has one of my all time favorite book covers, even though I don't want to spend any more money on purchasing the physical book.

Did you participate in the debut-a-thon?

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Scarlet // Marissa Meyer

Posted on Friday, June 28, 2013

This review contains mild spoilers for Cinder.


Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles and the sequel to Cinder. Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and follows both Cinder and Prince Kai as well as Scarlet Benoit - a badass new character. In stead of a long, red cape, Scarlet has a red hoodie and a handgun, and her mission in this book is to find her grandmother, who has been kidnapped or killed.

The book starts off right where the last one ended - Cinder and a fellow inmate, Captain Carswell Thorne, manage to escape from prison. They are on the run, and queen Levana will stop at nothing to find them.
Scarlet Benoit lives in a small town in France, and she could probably beat up every other dystopian heroine out there. She does not need anybody's help, and she is not afraid to pull out her gun to get what she wants. Her grandmother is missing, and when no one else seems to care, Scarlet take matters into her own hands, and decides to pair up with the mysterious Wolf to go find her grandmère.

In most of the reviews I've read, people seem to like Wolf. He is mysterious, tall, with dark hair and muscles, and even though he isn't your typical "tough guy" (he is a bit shy and awkward) which made him stand out, I didn't like him a lot. I didn't like the "insta-love" between him and Scarlet either. They fall in love pretty quickly, and as much as I loved Scarlet - I couldn't understand why she liked Wolf.

I loved the plot of the book though. It was fast-paced, with great character development and you got to know all the characters really well. I think I liked the first book a bit more, even though Scarlet is my new favorite character!

If you haven't read Cinder yet - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Go pick it up right now!

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The Enemy // Charlie Higson

Posted on Wednesday, June 26, 2013

London is in chaos. Everyone over the age of 14 is either dead or has turned into zombie-like, hungry creatures and they only want to eat one thing: children. The Enemy follows a group of kids living at Waitrose supermarket in Holloway, they are running out of food, and when a boy appears and tells them that the Buckingham Palace is safe, they go with him on a dangerous journey across London.
Meanwhile, Little Sam is separated from the group and has to fight the grown ups on his own while searching for his sister. Along the way, he gets captured by several groups of grown ups and his storyline was definitely the most interesting one.
We also get a few chapters about Callum, the only kid who chose to stay at the supermarket while the others left for Buckingham Palace. As many of the other characters, Callum really grew on me. I didn't like him a lot at the beginning of the book, but towards the end I felt really bad for him and wanted to give him a hug.

You get introduced to a lot of characters, which was a bit confusing in the beginning. It wasn't until I got about 100 pages into the book that I really started to care about the characters. You meet Arran, Maxie, Freak & Deak, Blue, Ollie and a lot more characters. I mixed some of them up in the beginning, but everyone has their own unique personality that made them easy to separate once you learned the names. Little Sam teams up with a girl named Rhiannon and a mysterious boy called "The Kid". The three of them ended up being my favorite characters and I can't wait to read more about Little Sam in the rest of the books.

You realize pretty quickly that no one is safe in this book. After 150 pages, Higson has already killed off two main characters, and by the end of the book, there are a lot more dead kids. The book was very unpredictable. You never knew if the kids were going to get to Buckingham Palace, if Little Sam was going to reunite with the group or if Callum would go after the others. You never knew who would die next. The book was a bit "choppy" at some points. It didn't always pick up where the last chapter ended, and that was a bit irritating. The writing style was great and pulled me in very quickly.

The book is filled with blood and gore, and it's really really action-packed and fast-paced. I recommend it for anyone who want's a good zombie-book!
I ended up giving this book 4.5/5 stars, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

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#FridayReads 21.6.2013

Posted on Friday, June 21, 2013

This weekend I'm going to be starting The Enemy by Charlie Higson, which sounds really awesome and action-packed! The book is set in London after all the grown ups have been turned into zombies(?) and the remaining kids try to survive. It's been on my shelf for a while, and I'm in the mood for something fast paced, so I'm hoping to fall in love with it!

I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it this weekend, though. The day is almost over, and tomorrow is my birthday, so I'll be busy almost the entire day! On sunday I'm celebrating with my friends, so I probably won't have the time to read until I go to bed, and whenever I try to read in bed, I just end up falling asleep. Oh well, I'm hoping to read at least 100 pages today and finish the book next week!

As always, tell me what you're reading down below!

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#FridayReads 14.6.2013

Posted on Friday, June 14, 2013

This has been a pretty bad reading week for me, but I'm hoping to fix that this weekend. I started Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, and I'm more than halfway through it, so I think I'll finish it today.
Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles, and I don't really like doing reviews of sequels if I don't have a review of the first book, but I think I might review this anyway!

When I finish Scarlet I think I'm going to pick up An Abundance of Katherines. I didn't finish A Clash of Kings last weekend like I was hoping, but I might pick it up this weekend as well! I'm hoping to finish as many books as possible in the near future, because I'm a little behind on my reading challenge.

What are you reading this weekend?
Remember to enter my giveaway! Click to: Enter through my blog Enter on YouTube

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Top 10 Summer Songs of 2013

Posted on Thursday, June 13, 2013

Another non-book related blog post. I actually haven't finished any books since my last post, but it's very close to summer break and school has been crazy lately.
Here are my top 10 summer songs of 2013. I chose mostly light, fun, feel-good songs, because that's what I like to listen to in the summertime. Let me know down below what your favorite summer songs are!
Daughter - Landfill
This song is really beautiful, and probably my favorite song by Daughter. It's really great for those calm days with lots of sun. I'm going to see Daughter this summer as well! Ah, I can't wait.

Jonas Alaska - I Saw You Kid
I've added some Norwegian artists in here, and Jonas Alaska is one of them. His new album is pretty good, but I Saw You Kid is definitely my favorite song out of the bunch.



Bastille - The Weight of Living part 1 & 2
Bastille has become one of my favorite bands, and my favourite summer songs on their new album is Weight of Living part 1 and 2. If I had to pick a favorite out of the two, I would probably choose part two though, because of the electronic beat, and I overall think it's more catchy.


Mikhael Paskalev - I Spy
Another Norwegian artist. His voice is pretty similar to Jonas Alaska's, and some of the songs on both of their albums are pretty similar, but I like I Spy better than most of Alaska's songs. I think I like Jonas Alaska better overall though. This song is definitely worth checking out!



Daft Punk - Get Lucky
I had to include this song, didn't I? It's the summer song of the year, and oh god, it's catchy. I'm just praying that there won't be another hit like Call Me Maybe that pushes it off the top of the charts. I don't like a lot of other songs by Daft Punk, so this is definitely my favorite.


Walk The Moon - Anna Sun
This was released in January 2012 but I'm still not tired off it.  It's not my favorite song on this list, but I still recommend it.


Jonas Alaska - In The Backseat
Another song by Jonas Alaska. This was his first single and it was released in 2011. It was played a lot on the radio here in Norway, so most Norwegians know the song, but not a lot of people know the artist. I really recommend Jonas Alaska, and I love this song.



Tegan and Sara - Closer
This was released in November, but I think it works all year round. Tegan and Sara are both really talented, and this song is super catchy!



CHVRCHES - Recover
I just discovered CHVRCHES and I'll definitely listen to them a lot this summer. I love Lauren Mayberrys voice as well!

 I hope you discovered some new songs! What are some of your favorite summer songs?

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#Friday Reads 7.6.2013

Posted on Friday, June 7, 2013

This weekend I'm going to continue with, and hopefully finish A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. It's the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series and I'm currently at page 673 of 913 (including the information about the houses in the last pages) I don't think it's impossible to finish it in two or three days, and I'm really looking forwards to finishing it!

If I finish A Clash of Kings this weekend, I'm either going to pick up the next book right away, which is A Storm of Swords, or pick up something lighter, like An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

What are you reading this weekend?

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Cats



My cat must be so tired of me taking pictures of him by now. Oh well, at least they turned out pretty good. The middle one is a cat from my neighborhood, she's really cute but we're not friends because she likes to get into cat fights(literally) with my cat.
I'll probably post things that aren't book related on here sometimes, too. Hope you don't mind!

Do you own any cats?

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Currently Reading: Clash of Kings

Posted on Thursday, June 6, 2013

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days, but I haven't finished any new books, so I didn't have any books to review. I'm currently reading A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin, the second book in A Song of Ice and Fire. I have about 300 pages left and my goal is to finish it this week!

What are you reading right now?

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Giveaway!

Posted on Sunday, June 2, 2013

So I decided to do a giveaway where you can get up to two entries. Here are the rules:

1. You can get two entries by leaving a comment on this blog post and this youtube video
2. You have to subscribe to me on youtube
3. You have to leave me with a way of contacting you, so either leave your youtube username or your email address
4. In the comments, tell me wich book from thebookdepository you would like(make sure they ship to your country) , the book can cost up to  £15 or $22

The winner will be chosen in about three weeks, after my birthday!
Good luck!

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Pandemonium // Lauren Oliver

Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2013

Pandemonium is the sequel to Delirium, a book I loved. Delirium ended with Lena escaping into the wilds, leaving Alex behing, presumably dead.  Pandemonium alternates between "then" and "now", the "then" part picks up right where Delirium ended, with Lena getting saved by a group of Invalids, and the "now" part follows Lena in New York City as a part of the resistance. While she is in NYC, she gets kidnapped by a group of Invalids called the Scavengers and she meets a boy named Julian. The book is about them falling in love while Lena is still coping with losing Alex, and about them escaping from the Scavengers.

I really did not like the alternating chapters. They were confusing, and the "then" chapters became less important deeper into the book. Lauren Oliver's writing style is so beautiful, but I was not interested in this book at all during the first 250 pages, I actually put it down for about two weeks because it didn't pull me in at all. I didn't feel an attachment to any of the new characters, especially Raven, whom I did not like very much and while I liked Julian, I didn't care a lot about him until the last 50 pages.

The last chapter was pretty long and really action packed. I was on the edge of my chair the entire time, cursing and probably making some really weird facial expressions. Those last pages was what pulled up my rating off the book. And the last page - OH MY GOD. Someone had already spoiled the ending for me, but I was still in shock for an hour after finishing the book, and now I'm really mad at myself for not buying Requiem before I finished Pandemonium.

If you have yet to pick up Delirium, definitely do it!

What did you think of Pandemonium?