April Was Insanely Busy and I Am Weak.

Awkward hello.

So the last you heard of me, I was all HELL YEAH BOOK HAUL AND NEXT WILL BE MY TBR AND REVIEWS

Aaand then I vanished. Because I am weak.

To cut a really long, drawn out story short, I got drawn into a project at work, and it gave me a lot of extra hours and pretty much zero time to myself, and I’d come home exhausted and curl up in bed and die.

And theeeen…I sort of, went to the European Premiere for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and slept (napped for three hours.) on the concrete floor outside the venue with a tonne of other fans, and then got to meet the Avengers. So that was something!

But this is just a brief post to say I’m sorry for being absolutely lackluster at using this blog for what I intended it for – reviewing things I love and talking about life – and letting those who care know I am alive, and I am back.

I’ve read a tonne of books and a few graphic novels, all of which I enjoyed, and I’m getting all excited about payday. Because more books.

Hopefully I’ll have a post up tonight about what my TBR was and how far I got into it, and then either tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll be posting up reviews, wrap ups and also a massive Age of Ultron post, which will include the premiere, photos, and a completely spoiler-free thought process on the movie (Which I will be seeing tomorrow for the second time. Because I really loved it that much.)

I hope all of you are doing well, know that I have been reading all your posts which I get in lovely email form and I’ve been rooting for all of you!

Fare thee well,

Fran

March Payday Book Haul!

(Minus one book that hasn’t arrived yet. Damnit post office.)

I don’t have a problem I swear.

So in my book haul this month, I bought four paperback novels and seven graphic novels.

In the paperback novels category I got;

The Assassin’s Blade – Sarah J. Maas.

The Assassin’s Blade is the collection of prequel novella’s to the Throne of Glass series. I’ve fallen head over heels for this series, and I’m so happy to have just a little something to hold onto as I eagerly await the release of Queen of Shadows in September!!! I’m also really interested to find out more about Arobynn and how Celaena ended up in the predicaments she’s in at the beginning of the series.

Also once again, gorgeous cover is gorgeous.

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell.

I’ve heard nothing but praises for Rainbow Rowell for years now; she writes a lot of contemporary, teenagey romance fiction, and all of it is apparently very fabulous. I decided to dive in with Fangirl – I thought the premise sounded sweet, and I hear there’s a tonne of Harry Potter references, which I am a thousand percent here for. I’m excited to read this and hopefully it’ll encourage me to pick up more of her work!

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Claire North

I stumbled across this on amazon while adding some other books to my wishlist, and the premise grabbed me right away. This is the story of a man named Harry August, who lives, dies and then is reincarnated with all his memories of his past life. Then in one life, he’s told by a woman the world is going to end, and he has to stop it.

What an amazing premise!!! I went and read some reviews and it’s all been good stuff, so I am really thrilled I picked it up.

And my final novel is The Miniaturist – Jessie Burton

This is a story set in the 1600’s, of a woman in an arranged marriage. As a wedding gift, she’s given a small dollhouse that is a miniature replica of her family home – but then the house starts to reflect some much darker secrets about her home.
It sounded creepy as all hell and I’m kind of a sucker for creepy, thriller-esq stories, so I’m stoked to give this a go and scare the hell out of myself.

Then, come the seven graphic novels, because obviously the several graphic novels and the shelf full of unread single issues clearly wasn’t enough.

Graphic novel wise, I picked up Saga – Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

I actually have little to no idea of the premise or anything – I’m pretty sure it’s about aliens and it’s science fiction! But I have been told nothing but really really amazing things, and the cover is already pretty interesting. So I picked it up for pretty cheap and I’ll hopefully be grabbing the next three on the website soon!

Sex Criminals – Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky.

When I first saw the title of this, I was skeptical. Then I saw who wrote it. And then I read the premise.

Matt Fraction wrote the wonderful recent Hawkeye series that I also really really love; it’s snappy, fun and he really wrote a great Clint Barton. So when I saw he wrote this, I decided to look into it, and I am so glad I did.

The premise is that there is a woman who has a supernatural ability; when she has sex, time stops. And one day she encounters a man with the same ability; so there’s only one thing to do with this sort of incredible revelation.

Rob banks.

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to get into this series.

Rat Queens – Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch.

The cover and artwork instantly pulled me in with this one, and again, I hear nothing but good things across the internet. Booktubers have said it’s hilariously funny, and full of really cool epic fight scenes, monsters and dialogue. I’m all about a team of female heroes, and I hear it’s a mix between Lord of the Rings and Bridesmaids; what could possibly go wrong?!

Also the cover is badass as hell.

I Kill Giants – Joe Kelly and JM Ken Nimura.

Again, this was another accidental stumble across while adding other books to my wishlist. But the blurb was instantly gripping to me. Again, female protagonist; who doesn’t just tell people she’s on a quest to kill giants with her gigantic magical Norse hammer – she believes it. But it starts to become clear that Barbara’s giant slaying is a distraction for something much bigger.

I did read this as soon as it came, and I’ll be talking about it in another post!

Ms. Marvel Volume’s 1 & 2 – G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona.

I need more Marvel Comics in my life, and I have, again, heard nothing but great things! I’m so so stoked to read this; because not only is it a female protagonist taking centre stage, she’s a Muslim-American woman. It’s so refreshing and wonderful, and the covers are amazing! The first cover is so powerful and strong, then the second is so utterly playful and creative. I really genuinely can’t wait to get stuck into these and be seriously upset at waiting for Volume 3!

Then finally, the book that hasn’t arrived yet; In Real Life – Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang.

I heard about this from the YouTuber Kristina (previously “I Talk to Snakes”) – and I hear good things, again! The art work looks utterly adorable. The premise is fairly simple. A young girl plays online roleplaying games (sort of, World of Warcraft esq games) and discovers a man who is selling his in-game items for real life money, which is a massive no-no in the rules of the game and could see him banned for life from the server. However, her integrity about the game is challenged when she realises this is the man’s livelihood, and to report him means he will lose his only income.

It sounds short but sweet, and also a topic I really enjoy myself, so I am eagerly awaiting it to come through the door! Come on Book Depository!!!

Also honorary mention to The Wicked and the Divine: The Faust Act – Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. I was instantly drawn in by the bright and wonderful artwork, and also the fact that both these awesome guys worked on Marvel Now’s short run of Young Avengers which I really thoroughly enjoyed. I picked this up at the beginning of March but haven’t got around to it yet, sadly.

And that is my haul of unspeakable length and a lot of “wow I’m so excited” – because I am incredibly excitable.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these books and how you felt about them! No spoilers though please!

I hope you’re all having awesome days.

Fare thee well,

Fran

March Wrap Up’s!

Good afternoon.

It has been infinitely long since I wrote on here, and I have read a few books! And now I would like to share those reads with you.

The first book I read/finished in March was Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. I wrote a full review on the book which you can read here, but in short; I loved it, it was a great piece in the Throne of Glass series and I’m really really thrilled that Queen of Shadows will be out in September this year!

The next book, sadly, was a Did Not Finish, and that was Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles.

I just. No. I couldn’t do it. I was promised endless hilarity and a super fun read and I felt like what I got was a bland, overly sarcastic man who was just as boring as his friend who’s apartment he’s looking after. I got about 48 pages in and decided, life is too short to read a book that is boring you out of your damn mind. So I put it down and moved on. Sorry Mr Wiles!

I decided, I was finally going to pick up the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan.

The first in this series is The Lightening Thief, where we are introduced to a young man named Percy Jackson. Percy is having it pretty bad, especially by eleven year old boy standards; he’s been kicked out of countless schools, his grades are awful (mostly in part to misunderstanding teachers towards his ADHD and dyslexia), and his step-father is an abusive jerk. But all of that is about to become nothing to Percy when he discovers he’s part of a world of Greek Gods.

I have completely fallen in love with this series, and this was such a great introduction to it. This book is for sort of “middle grade” readers, but it does tackle some fairly dark, serious issues, such as ableism, domestic abuse, family relations – everything is extremely true to character and Percy is a really great portrayal of an eleven year old boy who’s been thrown into a land of myth and magic.

On top of that, the integration of Greek Mythology with the modern world is so seamless and creative; it includes all the big stories and characters, and their appearances are always an absolute delight. I really really enjoyed the characters and following them on their adventure, so much so I gave it 5/5 on Goodreads.

So naturally after such a great beginning, I had to move on to The Sea of Monsters.

The Sea of Monsters, I won’t blurb because it might spoil the first book. But know that it’s just as action-filled, dark and hilarious as the first, and involves Percy travelling to the infamous Sea of Monsters.

It felt…a bit shorter, and a bit less drastic and urgent than the first? But I still had a lot of fun with it, and gave it a 4/5 rating on Goodreads.

So these are what I read in March. I’m planning a March Book Haul because I bought seven graphic novels and four books, and I also plan to add all seven of those graphic novels and all my single issue comics and unread graphic novels to my March TBR, in honor of Age of Ultron coming out in the UK this month!