July Wrap-Up & August TBR!

So, I haven't posted in so long.... Everything has been crazy... But, I'll hopefully be able to post on the weekends now even though I'm starting my senior year this year! (I just started yesterday and so far, so good!) But, I've been trying to get my booktube channel up and going and this is my most recent video! Let me know if you guys like it!

~Allie

April 2017 Book Haul!

Hey again! This post is dedicated to all of the books that I received (either bought or was given as gifts) this past month! I....may or may not have gained 13 new books this month....😂 By the way, the reason there are three pictures is because I accidentally forgot about three
of them and was too lazy to retake the picture...😂

Okay, let's get started! All except for three of these books were bought at thrift stores, and the other four were early birthday presents!

The first book I got was A Time To Die (Out of Time trilogy - Book 1) by Nadine Brandes(pictured left)! This was part of an early birthday present that I got from my friend Sierra! I'm currently buddy reading it with Sierra and it's really good so far!

 The next books I got were Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and Frozen (Heart of Dread - Book 1) by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston! I honestly barely even know what Sense and Sensibility is about, but I loved Pride and Prejudice, so I'm very excited to read another one of her books! As for Frozen, I probably wouldn't normally pick it up, but it sounds pretty interesting and, I'm sorry, but this book is beautiful!

Next was The Vanishing Sculptor (The Chiril Chronicles - Book 1) by Donita K. Paul, Dragons of the Watch (The Chiril Chronicles - Book 3) by Donita K. Paul, and Beauty and the Beast by Elizabeth Rudnick. These were the second part of my birthday present from my friend Sierra! I am so excited to read these books!!!

The last books were The Illustrated Works of Jane Austen by Jane Austen, Seasons of the Heart (Seasons of the Heart - Books 1-4) by Janette Oke, Unthinkable (Impossible - Book 2) by Nancy Werlin, The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles - Book 1) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter - Book 1) by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter - Book 2) by J. K. Rowling, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter - Book 3) by J. K. Rowling. I technically already the Harry Potter books, but these are hardcover and my paperback versions are kind of beat up....so hardcovers it is!

And that's all of the books I bought in April!! Bye for now!

~Allie

April 2017 Wrap-Up!

I am on a roll with posting on time this month! 😂 So I read six books this month! I've been buddy reading two books, along with my book that I'm reading whenever I'm able to, so not a whole lot of books got finished! This amount actually doubled because I participated in a 24-hour readathon on Twitter yesterday so I was able to finish my current read and read two more books! Out of the six I read this month, one was a 3 star read, three were rated 4 stars, and the other two were given 5 stars! My favorite read this month was Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, and my least favorite was the 11th volume of Shugo Chara!

Since it was taking me so long to get through books this month, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete my book challenge this month since the prompt was A Book Published Before I Was Born, but I actually read The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket, which was published a year before I was born, so I succeeded! 😂 May's prompt is A Book Published This Year and I'm hoping to get The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan for my birthday so I can read that one! I'm so excited for that book!

Now, on to the books I read this month, along with my mini reviews!

• March 21st/April 3rd - Inkspell (Inkworld - Book 2) by Cornelia Funke - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I'm buddy reading the Inkworld trilogy with my friend Shelby and this is by far my favorite of the trilogy so far! I loved this book so much! I definitely enjoyed it more than Inkheart, but my favorite character (*cough* Dustfinger *cough*) had a bigger part in this one, and the world this one takes place in is so amazing! The ending was absolute and utter pain - I hyperventilated when I read it - but I also loved it as well, and I can't wait to see how the trilogy ends!  

• March 16th/April 9th - City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments - Book 1) by Cassandra Clare - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This book was technically my book for last month's prompt of a book that intimidated me, but I wasn't able to actually finish it until this month! I absolutely love Jace and his sass. 😂 And even though I knew about the major plot twist at the end, and what ends up happening already, it was written so well that I wasn't sure if I actually did know what happens or not. 😂

• 9th/11th - The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events - Book 1) by Lemony Snicket - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I'm working my way through the beginning of this series so that I can actually make it to the end! I really want to finish it, especially now that the show is out! Now that I'm re-reading this series, I've noticed more little details that I didn't before, such as how the last picture at the end of each book hints at where they go in the next book! (Ex. at the end of The Bad Beginning, there's a snake slithering across the ground)

• 16th/29th - The Selection (The Selection - Book 1) by Kiera Cass - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I re-read this beauty for my book club read this month! I still absolutely love this book! Maxon is such a sweet little dork. 😂 This is the only book in the series I've read so far, so I'm excited to see how the rest of the series goes! 

• 29th - The Road to the Future (Shugo Chara - Book 11) by Peach-Pit - ⭐⭐⭐ - This is technically the last book in the Shugo Chara series because book 12 is kind of an epilogue. The reason I gave this one three stars is because in about the first half of the book I barely had any idea what was going on. It was pretty confusing and it didn't really get fully explained even by the end. I did enjoy the ending of the book, along with the pairing they announced, but it definitely was not my favorite in the series. 

• 29th - Shugo Chara Encore (Shugo Chara - Book 12) by Peach-Pit - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - That being said about book 11, I enjoyed this one a lot more! I loved that each section was about a different pair of characters ending up together and I was definitely happy with who ended up with who! All in all, I'd say it was definitely a good way to end the series! I would've been happy with more, but this still wrapped everything up pretty well! 

That's it for the books that I read this month! I'll be posting an April Book Haul soon as well! Bye! 

~Allie

2 Year Anniversary!!!

So I was just randomly going through old posts and realized that today is the exact day that I made my blog two years ago! I can't believe that it's been two years already.... It doesn't seem like that long!! Hopefully I will continue to blog in the upcoming years too! 

This is a really short post because I wasn't planning on posting today, but I just wanted to acknowledge my blog's 2nd anniversary! 

I plan on posting my April wrap-up this weekend (or upcoming week if I have time) and maybe even an April book haul soon! 

Also, if you hadn't noticed, I now have a link to a YouTube channel under my social media links! I made a BookTube channel today, along with my first video which has already been posted! Bye for now!!

~Allie

--Oh! By the way, I added reaction buttons to the bottom of my posts so that people actually have the ability to react to the post without having to have a Google account or share the post! 

Home Library Tour! (Among Other Little Things)

Look at who remembered to post this week! *celebratory dance* Yep, major nerd here. 😂 I do have to say that I momentarily blanked on what to post before realizing that I can show off my home library! Also known as, "the place where most of my books have lived for months and I haven't announced it once"... 😂 Anyways, I just reorganized all of my shelves - twice - in two days. Let's just say that I'm very picky about my shelves. 😂

After much, and I mean much, deliberation, I finally decided to organize my books by color. It was definitely a lot of fun to do! I'm kinda proud of myself for doing this in a little over a day. 😂 I learned that I apparently really like blue books... Pretty sure I have more blue books than anything else. (I'm actually in the middle of counting how many books of each color I have. 😂)

The sad thing is.... The amount of these books that I have actually read could probably fit in one of the small bookshelves...and might not even fill it up. 😂 I really need to get reading...


Before I end this post, I wanted to say that I'm planning on starting a booktube channel! I'm hoping to make my account tomorrow, but we will see! I've been watching a ridiculous amount of booktube videos tonight in order to figure out how to make my own. 😂 Wish me luck!

~Allie

Update!

And.... it's the middle of April....... I have seriously been so busy these past few months between school, dance, and acting! But now my acting performance is in two weeks, my dance recital is in less than a month.....and I....am in a boot because I sprained my ankle last week. 😒I am hoping so badly that my ankle will be healed by the time my dance recital comes around... But we'll see! Anyway, since I have a bit more free time right now, I thought I'd take the chance to give a bit of an update about what's happened over the past few months! (Also, I'll be putting Goodreads links to each book that I mention in my posts so you can check them out!)

Since I've missed my February and March wrap-ups, I thought I'd just say how many books I read and what my favorites and least favorites were, along with my book for my challenge that month!  

So in February, I read 13 books! I rated seven 5 stars, five 4 stars, and one 3 stars! My favorite book (not including my re-reads) in February was probably Wandering Star by Romina Russell! I mean, this book seriously gives you all of the feels....It's so good!!! My least favorite was definitely George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl. I pretty much struggled through reading this... My challenge prompt for February was A Book I Can Finish in a Day, and I read Molly and the Movie Star by Valerie Tripp! This was one of my 4-star reads!

In March, I only read 6 books... Three of them were rated 5 stars, and the other three were 4 stars! My favorite book was probably Inkheart by Cornelia Funke! I actually enjoyed it more this time around than the first time that I read it! Even though the rating was probably leaning a bit more towards 4.5 stars instead of 5, I love the characters in this book so much! I actually don't have a least favorite for March.... 😂 My challenge prompt for March was A Book That Intimidates Me. I chose City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, but unfortunately, I was not able to finish it by the end of March and ended up finishing it this month instead! I did really enjoy it though (that ending!)! 

Also, right now I'm in the middle of reading three (technically four) books! I'm buddy reading Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke with my friend Shelby, buddy reading A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes with my friend Sierra (early birthday present and it's signed!!), and re-reading The Selection by Kiera Cass for my book club! The reason I said "technically four" is because I started Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels last Tuesday, but I'm only on, like, page 3? And because of my buddy reads and The Selection, I haven't been able to pick it back up yet.....😂😂 

Okay, I think that's a pretty good update! I will try to remember to post next week! Bye!

~Allie

January Wrap-Up!!

So the first month of 2017 is already gone..... How did that happen?! I can't believe that it's February already... Unfortunately, I didn't read as much as I wanted to last month, but it was better than I thought I was going to! I thought I was only going to get one or maybe two books read, but I ended up reading four which made me really happy! Out of the four, one was a 3 star, one a 4 star, and the other two were both 5 star! I'd have to say Red Feather Filly was probably my favorite book that I read this month, while Life of Pi was definitely my least favorite! I'll be posting reviews for those soon as I have decided to do reviews on my favorite and least favorite books of each month so I can get back into actually doing reviews again!

As I said in one of my last posts, I started my monthly reading challenge again this year, except I randomized the prompts for each month on my phone! For January, the challenge was A Book I Should've Read For School! This is actually the same prompt that I had for January last year too even though I put it through my randomizer app... 😂 At first, I planned on reading Robinson Crusoe for this one, but at one point last month I was reading four books at one time and just was not in the mood to start another one that I had to finish by a certain day... Thankfully, one of the books I was reading was The Life of Pi by Yann Martel for my Multicultural Literature class for school, so I was actually able to complete this prompt after all! Next month's prompt is A Book I Can Finish In A Day and I plan on reading Molly and the Movie Star by Valerie Tripp!

It hit me today as I was going to make my Wrap-Up collage that I have another app on my phone with way better backgrounds and fonts in the same app instead of switching between two apps like I used to do, so this is the new and improved design for my collages using the Photogrid app! It is an awesome app if you like doing photo edits and collages and I highly recommend it!  

• Dec. 18th/Jan. 8th - Gift Horse (Phantom Stallion - Book 9) by Terri Farley. Still continuing my buddy read of the Phantom Stallion series with my friend Sierra over at 26 Countless Possibilities! This was my one 4 star book of the month! While of course it was really good (as all the Phantom Stallion books are), it just wasn't one of my absolute favorites! I'd still love to re-read it if I ever got the chance!

• Jan. 11th/Jan. 22nd - Red Feather Filly (Phantom Stallion - Book 10) by Terri Farley. Yes, the first two books that I actually finished last month were both buddy reads....😂 I'm actually doing another buddy read with my friend Shelby right now, and between my two buddy reads and my book for school I barely had time to read however much of a book that I wanted until I got some of the others out of the way! I won't give my thoughts on this book now because I'm going to be doing a review on it sometime this month, but I will say that I gave it 5 stars!

• Jan. 12th/Jan. 31st - Life of Pi by Yann Martel. So I had to read this book for my Multicultural Literature class..... I was pretty excited to read this book because I had seen the movie maybe a year or two before and was curious to see how well the movie went along with the book. What I can say is that it was definitely more detailed..... I'll further explain my opinion in my review that I will hopefully have up soon! In case you couldn't tell, this was my 3 star book.

• Dec. 20th/Jan. 31st - DragonQuest (DragonKeeper Chronicles - Book 2) by Donita K. Paul. Thankfully, I was able to finish my month with a 5 star book! I borrowed this book from my friend Sierra in August of last year and she is such an amazing friend for letting me hold her book captive for as long as I have! I was determined to actually read this book instead of just letting it sit on my shelf with my other borrowed books (I seriously have like 6 others...) and I was also very determined to get it finished by the end of January so that I could actually feel somewhat accomplished with my reading month. 😂 I love the way they do everything in this series.....I love the characters so much, all of the dragons are amazing, and I absolutely love the way they portray Jesus and God in these books! I really hope I get the chance to read the next books soon!

~Allie

2016 Wrap-up!!

Oh my gosh, it's 2017... Seriously, where did 2016 go?? I feel like I just celebrated 2016 new years by playing Heads Up with my sister, brother-in-law, and mom until the ball dropped and then staying up until 5 in the morning watching TV with my mom, and all of a sudden it's 2017... Anyways, so Goodreads does this awesome thing called "My Year in Books" at the end of every year where you can see the statistics of the books that you've read that year and I love it so much! I got a little nostalgic looking at all of the books that I read over the past 12 months... 😂 It was so much fun being reminded of all of the books! And I thought I'd write a blog post with the statistics of my reading year!

So I read a total of 105 books in 2016! Which totaled to about 28,105 pages! My average number of pages (as seen below) was about 270 pages! And my average rating on Goodreads was 4.5 out of 5 stars!

The shortest book I read this year was The Queen's Army by Marissa Meyer....I didn't even notice that it was only 18 pages, all I knew was that it was really good...😂



The longest book I read was the first vizbig edition of the Inuyasha manga, which was 576 pages long.... I love being able to say I can read these books in 1-2 days...No one has to know that it's sometimes just looking at pictures! 😂

And finally, the most popular book I read was Pride and Prejudice which apparently has been read by 2,248,650 Goodreads members and the least popular is The Nervous Nephew which has only been read by 15 Goodreads members... Which is actually really sad because I really enjoyed that book!



Well, that's my 2016 in books! I'll be posting a December wrap-up and a Christmas book haul soon!