Sunday 18th January – Weekly Update

Hi all!

Firstly, sorry for the lack of posts in the later half of this week! I have been slowly writing reviews for the books which I have finished, but I have spent a great deal of time editing the first couple of videos to go up on mine and my friend’s new YouTube channel (if you’re interested, our welcome video is up, but will be set to private for a few more days while we make some last-minute checks). Anyway, expect a few more posts this week as I churn out the reviews that should have been up by now.

Another thing that I would like to say is a massive THANK YOU to everyone who reads this blog. Since getting this up and running properly in November (yes, it started in July, but as it was only up for about two weeks and was viewed about 20 times – all by my dad – I do not tend to count this period) this blog has received over 1,000 views and is approaching 100 subscribers, which for me is a pretty big deal. When I started off, I was not expecting any more than a handful to even see it, so to know that there are people out there who see my posts is kind of overwhelming. So, a huge thank you to all of you, and here’s hoping for the next personal milestone!

Since last Saturday’s update, I have finished 5 books. The first, ‘Keeper of the Lost Cities’ by Shannon Messenger, already has a full review here, but in short, I really enjoyed this middle-grade book and hope to read on with the series, as well as quite possibly picking up Messenger’s YA novel, ‘Let the Sky Fall’, which I’ve had my eye on for a while. This book earned the full 5 stars, being the first book of the year to do so. The second book I finished this week was ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ by C.S. Lewis, the first book of the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’. I am not going to review this in full as it is a very short children’s classic, and I feel like I have little to say, but also as this book is one which so many people have read and enjoyed, there is nothing I can say which you have not heard before. I will give a brief overview in my monthly wrap-up, but I gave this book 3.5 stars. The next three books should all have full reviews coming: firstly, ‘The Book of Ivy’ by Amy Engel (which I immensely enjoyed and gave 4.75 stars), then ‘Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian’ by Rick Riordan (the front-runner for my favourite read of the month, 5 stars) and lastly, and very definitely least, ‘Forsaken’ by Jana Oliver (which gets a meagre 1.5 stars). Look out for these reviews over the next week!

I am currently reading ‘The Lost Hero‘ by Rick Riordan; I was sad to finish the ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ series so moved straight onto the ‘Heroes of Olympus’. I am 3/4 of the way through this, and I am loving it just as much as its predecessor. I have warmed to the three protagonists and I am glad to jump straight back into the world which I was beginning to miss. Before picking up ‘The Lost Hero’, I was 1/3 of the way through ‘Uglies’ by Scott Westerfeld, a TBR list book, but it evidently got shelved for Rick Riordan. I will be finishing it as soon as I have finished ‘The Lost Hero’. After completing part one of ‘Uglies’,  I have to say that my thoughts are inconclusive, and I feel like I need to finish it to solidify an opinion.

Finally, as ‘Forsaken’ was a TBR jar pick, I got to pull another slip from my jar to add to my TBR list, and the chosen book was ‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind. I am very excited for this one, as I have wanted to read it since analysing the opening passage in my English class in September, so now I have the motivation to do so, although I probably will not reach it until February.

Thank you for reading!

Emma 🙂

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