Tag Archives: letterboxlove

Letterbox Love No.6

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Letterbox Love is a UK based alternative to the popular US In My Mailbox meme and a fun way for British (and non-British) bloggers to share the fab books we may have got this week and all manner of book and bloggish news.  I know I’ve been absent from this for a while again, but I’m going to attempt to be more regular with this, and I’m only including the books from this week so I don’t overload you with pictures and info as I bought a few books recently (though resisted this week, go me!) and received some awesome books for review! This meme is hosted at the fabulous Lynsey of narrativelyspeaking.com

For Review:


The Forsaken- Lisa M Stasse
The Hunting- Sam Hawksmoor
My Brother Simple- Marie- Aude Murail
Maze Cheat- B R Collins
Breathe-Sarah Crossan

So as you can see I got some fabulous books in the post this week. The Forsaken is a dystopian novel set in a world where teenagers have to take a test to see their criminal potential and if they fail are exiled to an island of warring, feral teenagers whose life expectancy is just eighteen! It’s being compared to the Hunger Games and I’m really excited about this one. Many thanks to Hachette Children’s Books/ Orchard for sending me this.
The Hunting is the sequel to the brilliant The Repossession, which I reviewed earlier this year. Awesomely, I have been quoted on the inside cover, however I have to say in that the quote is actually  not from my review, though more articulately says exactly how I felt ;) I’ve started this one already and am so excited to be back with Genie and Rian on their adventures. I’m also interviewing Sam for the blog soon, I just have to finish this book and get my questions for him so do look our for that. A huge thanks to Hachette/ Hodder Children’s Book for sending me this!
My Brother Simple was a surprise from Bloomsbury and is about a boy who takes in his brother, Simple, who has learning difficulties. I’m hoping this will be a great contemporary read and tug on those heart-strings. It’s been translate from French too. I received an extra copy of this and Maze Cheat so I will be doing a little giveaway soon.
Maze Cheat was another surprise from Bloomsbury. It’s the sequel to Gamerunner, which I haven’t read, but from the looks of the blurb I think I can read it in isolation and it does look awesome. I love these sort of computery-real life novels so am excited for this one.
Breathe is Sarah Crossan’s second YA book this year, her debut The Weight Of Water was out in January and received a lot of praise. Breathe is a dystopian novel and about depleting oxygen levels. It sounds amazing and I am so excited to read this (plus I found out Crossan is a graduate of the same writing course as me, so it’s brilliant to see what alumni are achieving to inspire me even more!) Breathe is out in October and is published by Bloomsbury (who I’m very grateful for providing me with such great reading treats this week)

So as you can see I’ve had a fabulous week of books and goodies, what did you guys get? Link me your Letterbox Love, Stacking the Shelves, Sunday Showcase, IMM or whichever meme you follow :)

Letterbox Love No.5

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Letterbox Love is a UK based alternative to the popular US In My Mailbox meme and a fun way for British (and non-British) bloggers to share the fab books we may have got this week and all manner of book and bloggish news.  I know I’ve been absent from this for a while, but I’m back, and I’m only including the books from this week so I don’t overload you with pictures and info as I bought a few books recently and received some awesome books for review! This meme is hosted at the fabulous Lynsey of narrativelyspeaking.com

Bought:

A Monster Calls- Patrick Ness
I’ve heard such great things about this book and I adore Ness’ writing and general awesomeness so I had to buy this. It has pretty illustrations, a creepy monster and is pretty much guaranteed to make me sob. The bookseller at Waterstones seconded the recommendation of this at the till and generally she and I always agree on books and she’s lovely, so I have every confidence in this book.

Received for Review:

               

Why We Broke Up-Daniel Handler and Moira Kalman
How To Save A Life-Sara Zarr

Both of this books have been highly, highly anticipated by me and arrived on the same day, making my day a lot more happy and awesome. Both are contemporaries too. I’ve actually finished both books already and I loved them.

I received How To Save A Life from Amy at Usborne and am very grateful for the opportunity to read this. How To Save A Life is just a beautiful read and deserves the hype. It’s out in September and I highly, highly recommend it. I heard about it first on twitter and I know that Tanya Byrne, an author I really like and admire the writing of, said she loved Zarr’s books which popped them straight  to the top of my reading list and this one was a brilliant introduction to Zarr’s writing.

I received Why We Broke Up from Electric Monkey as a surprise and was so happy I did actually squeal. I’ve seen bloggers getting this recently and I was desperate to read it, but didn’t want to ask and appear greedy as Electric Monkey have sent me so many amazing books this year, so when it rolled up at my house – I would landed on my doormat, but I had to answer the door so it’s a lie- it was a great surprise and at a time where I was feeling a bit gross and it really brightened my day. The art is so pretty in it, so so pretty and the book is great and very real.

So as you can see I’ve had a fabulous week of books and goodies, what did you guys get? Link me your Letterbox Love, Stacking the Shelves, Sunday Showcase, IMM or whichever meme you follow :)

Letterbox Love No.4

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Letterbox Love is a UK based alternative to the popular US In My Mailbox meme hosted by Kristi of the Story Siren, and a fun way for British bloggers to share the fab books we may have got this week and all manner of book and bloggish news. This meme is hosted at the fabulous Lynsey of narrativelyspeaking.com.

Received from RHCP brunch:

Now is Good-Jenny Downham (Formerly Before I Die)
Time Between Us-Tamara Ireland Stone
All Fall Down-Patricia McCormick
Muddle and Win-John Dickinson
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (Vintage Children’s Classic)- Lewis Carroll

A big thank you to Random House for their lovely goody bags, which were completely adorable and the brunch was great and thoughtfully put together! Plus yummy, yummy cupcakes and pink lemonade, and perhaps most importantly proper coffee. Yes, sadly everyone has learnt now I am a giant coffee snob as I pretty much squeed when I saw the lovely RHCP staff had made coffee with a cafetiere rather than instant. This is how you make me a happy blogger :p

Bought:

Bitter End-Jennifer Brown
Happyface-Stephen Edmond

I’ve been looking for Bitter End for  ages so was excited to see it was in stock at Foyles online and made sure to get a copy. Poor Faye had to wait while I ran around finding someone to find it for me. They weren’t even on the shelves and I made the poor employee at Foyles search all around until he found the trolley with it on (I did apologise though, honest!). Way back in October, The Hate List was the first book I ever reviewed and I adored it and have been looking forward to Brown’s next novel for ages. This one is about an abusive relationship and I know Clover at Fluttering Butterflies has read and loved it too.
The lovely Carly from Writing Tub recommended Happyface to me and when she compared it to Perks of Being a Wallflower, I had to buy it (after squeeing with Carly that it was also her favourite book) The artwork and what I’ve read is really cool and I’m excited about this book.

Won: 

Shiver-Maggie Stievfater (signed)

I won a signed copy of the awesome Shiver through a Scholastic competition on twitter. Thank you so much Scholastic UK!

Blogging News:

So I went to the RHCP Blogger’s Summer Brunch on Saturday and it was awesome. I will be doing a full write-up, but let’s just say Random House have some truly awesome and amazing looking books coming up. There are few in particular that were mentioned, I will be lining up to harass the poor publicists for copies of! It was also lovely to meet so many more bloggers. I’ve got to know Kirsty, Viv, Casey and Sarah since the last blogger brunch at Hachette, but got to meet even more amazing people I’ve been chatting to for months in the flesh! I apologise for waffling on about how awesome Alcide is after watching an entire season of True Blood while I was ill!

Letterbox Love No.3

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Letterbox Love is a UK based alternative to the popular US In My Mailbox meme and a fun way for British (and non-British) bloggers to share the fab books we may have got this week and all manner of book and bloggish news.

Bought:

                     

Jessie Hearts NYC- Keris Stainton.  I’m on the blog tour for Emma Hearts LA and decided it was high time I read this book; it looks awesome and fun.
Changeling-Phillipa Gregory.

For Review:   

                             

Blackwood- Gwenda Bond *
Shift- Kim Curran *
Poltergeeks-Sean Cummings *
The Assassin’s Curse- Cassandra Rose Clarke *
Saving June-Hannah Harrington  **

* Big thanks to the wonderful Amanda over at Strange Chemistry for sending me this amazing haul, every book look so good and I can’t wait to read them.

** A big thanks to the lovely Elise over at Mira Ink for this one. I heard such great things about it, I had to read it. Also it has a soundtrack, which is amazing and I have discovered some new music from it.

Blogging News:

The amazing Neil (devilslibrary on twitter) at Foyles was kind enough to send me free tickets to Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson’s Q and A in London on Saturday. I was incredibly excited about going and listening to some great authors. It was a hilarious talk and even Sarah Rees Brennan popped in and answered a few questions. Both Clare and Johnson had some great things to say about writing and answered some really interesting questions. I asked one about what the creepiest/weirdest thing they’ve found out in researching a novel is (what can I say, I love the macabre?). I got to meet up with the lovely Casey (Darkreaders), Andrew (Pewterwolf13) and Daniel (Cuds1988). Also the fantabulous, yeah that’s a word – I’ve made it up,  James Dawson attended. If you haven’t read his book Hollow Pike or followed him on twitter you should because he is awesome. I am not joking when I say at the Creative Voices event with Cat Clarke, Tanya Byrne and Kimberly Derting, I wanted them all to be my new best friends and James is so funny and nice.

 

Hope you all had a lovely week too, link me to your Letterbox Loves, or equivalent and I shall check them out.

Letterbox Love No.2

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Letterbox Love is a UK based alternative to the popular US In My Mailbox meme and a fun way for British (and non-British) bloggers to share the fab books we may have got this week and all manner of book and bloggish news without having to delve into some of the recent drama in the blogosphere about the Story Siren. Sadly, I can’t actually post any new photos or images of the books this weekend, but as soon as I can I will update the post with them! This meme is hosted at the fabulous Lynsey of narrativelyspeaking.com

Bought:

Until I Die by Amy Plum (I wanted to have the set signed when I met her at Foyles)
Black Dawn by Rachel Caine
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
0.4 by Mike Lancaster

Gifted:

Die For Me by Amy Plum
Unrest by Michelle Harrison
When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle.

What can I say? My parents are beyond awesome. I’ve heard amazing things about all of these books and I cannot wait to start them

Swapped:

I swapped my copy of Hunting Lila with the fabulous Casey at Darkreaders for  Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon.

For Review:

1.4 by Mike Lancaster. This is a sequel to 0.4 which I just finished and is an awesome YA sci-fi so I am incredibly excited about this one.

Between the Lines-Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer. When I was a teen I read a lot of Jodi Picoult’s adult novels and have always thought they have YA crossover appeal so I’m intrigued to see what her first foray into YA will be like, the fact she’s written it with her teenage daughter and the plot sounds absolutely adorable helps too.

Dreams by Danielle Sacerdoti. I’ve heard some great things about this book and a lot of my blogger friends are on the blog tour for this so when I was presented with an opportunity to read it, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a paranormal YA set in the UK too.

Blogging News:

I got to go to the first creative voices event at Foyles on Wednesday and had a fantastic time. I got to hang out with some of my fabulous blogger friends (Viv, Casey) and finally got to meet Laura (Sister Spooky) and Leanne (District YA) as well as Stacey at theprettybooks and BigBookLittleBook too. The panel was presented by Ruth Warburton (who is the biggest sweetie ever and I love seeing), Sara Grant (who is also amazing lovely and I had a lovely chat about writing with her), C J Daughtery (who I geeked out a little at as I’d loved Night School – sorry!) and the amazing Amy Plum (who complimented my dress, was a sweetheart and was just lovely – not just because of complimenting my clothes!)

Letterbox Love 1

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Firstly, as any of you who follow me on twitter may already know, due to recent events in the blogosphere, I have suspended my involvement in both IMM and the Debut Author Challenge. I’ve tried to avoid commenting on this recent event due to the fact I genuinely don’t know what my opinion can offer. I’ve tried to type this a few times, but the best I can do is reinforce fellow blogger, Laura’s ( SisterSpooky) take on it:

“ I’m against plagiarism and pro giving credit where credit is due.  I have nothing against The Story Siren as a person as I’ve never met her and quite frankly some of the epic hate she’s been getting is a bit scary and so I’m just staying out of it if I can.” 

The lovely Kirsty, Emma, Lynsey, Leanne and Laura (if I missed anyone, do let me know!) were chatting on twitter about taking part in a UK drama-free offshoot called Letterbox Love (though, you’re welcome to join in if you’re not from the UK) to chat about the books we got and our blogging news, etc and I was invited to join in, so here I am now. Also check out the lovely logo Casey from DarkReaders designed!

Books Landing Through My Letterbox:

                           

Insurgent-Veronica Roth *
Shift- Em Bailey **
One Moment- Kristina McBride  ***

* Thanks to Harper Collins Children’s Books UK. I’m part of Team Abnegation for the UK blogging celebration of Insurgent’s release.
** Thanks to Electric Monkey/Egmont UK. I’m hopefully going to be part of a blog tour for this one too!
*** Thanks to EgmontUSA and NetGalley.

Other Blogging News:

So on Monday, I hit my 6 month anniversary for ChooseYA. Yes, that is right, I’ve been doing this for half a year now! I love blogging and have absolutely no regrets about starting this little site – only I should have done it sooner. I never expected people to really read this so I’m so happy people are reading and enjoying the site and am so grateful for every follow, comment and visitor.

I was also interviewed as part of the lovely Faye (A Daydreamer’s Thoughts) Blogger Spotlight here. I hope I wasn’t as awkward in my answers as I think I was!

I hope everyone enjoyed this first meme and don’t forget to link me to your own book hauls too!