Winner of the 400 Follower Giveaway!

Hi! The giveaway ended on the 28th with over 2921 entries altogether!

The winner was.... Alyssa! She has been contacted and her book is on the way!

She chose Legend by Marie Lu. Hope you enjoy your new book Alyssa!

To everyone else: thank you so much for entering and stick around for more giveaways in the future! Once summer hits the blog will be busier, I promise! And welcome to all my new followers. :)

Cover Reveal: Breaking the Reins by Juliana Haygert

Hello! Today I've got a lovely cover to reveal. I don't know about anyone else but I tend to adore the general style of NA book covers.

Breaking the Reins by Juliana Haygert
Publication date: August 2013
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Description:

Horses, mansions, tea parties, and lies are twenty-year-old Hannah Taylor’s life. To others, her family and her relationship with Eric is perfect. But she knows the truth. She lives it. 

After a fire takes her grandma’s life and kills her horse, Hannah’s immaculate life spirals out of control. Her father disapproves of her decision to run her grandma’s ranch instead of focusing solely on learning the family business; Animal Control brings her Argus, a mistreated horse that she can’t turn away even though she’s not ready for another horse; and her boyfriend, Eric Bennett, a world famous polo player, becomes possessive and authoritarian. Despite her best efforts to disguise it, Hannah grows wary of him. 

Then, Leonardo Fernandes struts onto the polo scene. A cocky rookie with a messy life of his own, he’s drawn to Hannah and isn’t afraid of showing it, even when Eric makes it clear she is his and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Hannah suffers for Eric’s jealousy. The abuse only gets worse when Leo steals the title of best polo player in the world from Eric.
But the title isn’t enough for Leo. He wants Hannah too, and she can’t deny her attraction to him either. Somehow, she must find a way to break free from abusive Eric before he breaks every bone in her body.

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Stacking the Shelves #13

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, where bloggers showcase the awesome books they bought/received/borrowed during the week.

Hello all! It's been ages since I've posted a book haul and I've begun to miss it! I haven't been posting any because I haven't been buying books- I have far too many to get through as it is! However, some books just can't be resisted, so I have purchased a couple lately in preparation for the summer. These weren't all bought this week but they're my most recent purchases! 

  

• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
  Fairly predictable purchase! I'm reading it at the moment and kind of wishing I'd refreshed my mind on the previous book! 
• Breathe by Sarah Crossan
  I went back and forth about buying this book but something was just "pulling" me towards it so I said why not! Will get to it soon.... and the other 3 million books I want to read 
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
  This book just sounds so beautiful; I can't wait to get lost in it. 

• Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson
  I saw a review for this AGES ago (I wish I could remember which blog, I'll have a think on it) and it made me so excited to read it. I snatched it up when I saw a secondhand copy in my local bookshop. 

That's it for me this week folks... can't wait to see what all of you got :) 

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Divergent #2)

Title: Insurgent

Author: Veronica Roth
Publication date: May 1st 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia
Cover rating: 5/5
Content rating: 5/5
Buy: Amazon

Description via Goodreads: 

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. 

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

My thoughts:
I actually read Insurgent quite a while ago but haven't gotten around to putting a review up until now! In 2011, Divergent absolutely blew me away. It quickly earned its place in my top five favourite books of all time. Well, now I think Insurgent may have just knocked it off its spot because it was absolutely superb. I expected great things from this book but Veronica Roth really went above and beyond in delivering a heart-racing, thrilling read. This book was so insanely emotional and if I hadn't required sleep, I would have definitely devoured all 525 pages without even looking up from the book.

Insurgent picks up right where its predecessor left off. It wastes no time in recapping the events of book one, so I was incredibly glad I had a re-read of that very recently. It was really needed! From the very beginning, I was sucked back into the world and it held its grip on me until I was finished. There is a very sad tone running throughout this whole book so it was a bit depressing at times. It was amazing how the characters could deal with so much yet never lose their sense of humour. Within the first 50 pages, I wanted to laugh hysterically and I wanted to cry.

There is so much going on in this book that there is literally never a boring moment. Just when you think things are settling down or going to be okay, something else shocking happens. I had to close the book several times because I could hardly handle it! Tris was as awesome as ever and she beats herself up way too much! And what is there to say about Tobias, really? He's so fantastic, sweet, funny and tortured. I really wanted more of Tris and Tobias together! Their relationship was really tested during this one and it was hard to read about!

By the last seventy pages or so, I was getting a little impatient. I was worried that some things wouldn't be resolved at all until the next book but it actually turns out fine! I guessed some of the ''big secret'' but I could never have guessed the finer details. The very last page was particularly shocking, and when I turned the page in a rush and only saw the ''acknowledgments'' page, I was crushed! The wait for book 3 is gong to be a tough one but I bet it will be worth it!

Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Title: Slide

Author: Jill Hathaway
Publication date: March 1st 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Cover rating: 4/5
Content rating: 3/5
Buy: Amazon / The Book Depository

Description via Goodreads:

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. 

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.  

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.  

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

My thoughts:
I had my eye on Slide from the first time I heard it was going to be released. I'm definitely into mystery books this year for some reason and I adore anything to do with paranormal 'gifts'. Since I won a signed copy of this, I was really hoping I would like it. And I did! It was a good read and absolutely worth my time. Jill Hathaway is certainly a talented author and I can't wait to see what else she writes in the future. This was a really enjoyable debut novel! I hadn't realized there was going to be a sequel but I will definitely read it.

Slide is about a teenage girl, Sylvia ''Vee'' Bell, who has an unusual gift. When she touches something that somebody else previously touched, she gets pulled into their mind and can watch everything they're doing at that exact moment. I love this whole concept! It was interesting watching Vee try to deal with this. While often, she sees pretty mundane things, this one time she witnesses a murder- the bigger problem is, everybody thinks it was a suicide. I felt so sorry for Vee as she tried to deal with this on her own because she knew people would not believe her.

This book kept me on my toes for the most part. I was rushing through, eager to know how everything was going to end up. There are a few suspects due to circumstances and it was fun trying to figure out who was innocent and who wasn't. However, I figured it out way before Vee did! It was kind of obvious after a while and then I was left just sitting there, waiting for Vee to catch on too. She saw all the clues yet took way too long to put them all together. That did ruin a little of the suspense for the last quarter of the book and I wish it had been either more subtle, or Vee had been a little more clued in.

I'd be lying if I said this book didn't have me hooked though. There was something kind of infectious about it and I loved many aspects of it. Hathaway's writing flows well and it was easy to get lost in Vee's world. I enjoyed all the secondary characters and the plot in general. It did get kind of crazy towards the end which was interesting. All in all, I would recommend this for the characters and the paranormal aspect, but the mystery was lacking for me. Which I suppose is a big deal in a mystery book!