as told by zaheerah

2015 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t (Yet)

January 12, 2016April 10, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten accordingly.

Red Queen
I saw this book on NetGalley but I was too late to request it, so I’ve been eyeing this book for sooo long. It sounds like a typical fantasy novel but I’ve heard such good things from Aveyard and this book. I was so swamped with reviews and exams last year I never got the time! Once I finish the Lunar Chronicles, I’m definitely going to read this next.

The Girl On The Train
Whenever I passed the Waterstone’s in town last year, I ALWAYS saw this book on their shelves. And some of the reviews I’ve read said fans of Gone Girl will love it, and I loved GG, so I’m definitely going to try and read this book soon.

All The Bright Places
I actually did start reading this book last year but, honestly, it reminded me a lot of TFIOS with the quirky characters but I just put on hold for now. I know I’ll probably get back to this book later on this year since there’s a film coming out soon.

Six Of Crows
I’m so annoyed that I haven’t read this yet! I’ve been wanting to read Leigh Bardugo’s novels and I still have the Grisha novels on my Kindle.

Carry On
I’m wasn’t the biggest fan of Fangirl but I did really like the excerpt of Simon Snow in the novel. However, it looks waay too similar to Harry Potter so I think that’s what put me off from reading it last year.

The Wrath and the Dawn

Was 2015 the year of retellings in YA novels? I’ve read a couple of retellings last year and this one always seemed to pop up after I finished one.

Simon Vs the Homo Sapien Agenda
I received a sample of this book from WHSmith when I was browsing about, and it seems pretty funny.

23395680 Illuminae

I wasn’t actually considering reading this book but after I read The Sleeping Giant, the form of writing really interesting to read and this plot seems average but I think I’ll like it.

24388326 The Heart Goes Last
I actually requested this book on NetGalley but, sadly, my request was denied :'(((( I’ve never actually read an Atwood book before but this sounds really good.

Vanishing Girls

I’ve never read an Oliver book before- I started reading Delirium but I never finished the series but this sounds like it would be completely different to that series.

Books, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout

January 5, 2016April 10, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

you can find the book at:
GoodReads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Author website

my review:

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

In an attempt to escape her music royalty family, Grace Wilde transfers into a Korean boarding school and finds herself falling for a K-Pop star.

If you want a novel with proper representation of Korean culture mixed with likeable characters, I suggest you don’t even bother putting this book on your TBR list. Why? Because this has none of that.
Continue reading “Book Review: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout” →

Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: The Awakened by Sara E. Santana

January 3, 2016April 10, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

you can find the book at:
GoodReads
Amazon
Author website

my review:

NOTE: I’ve already posted this review when I was apart of The Awakened Blog Tour but I wanted to post it again because the review is buried underneath so much blog tour stuff.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

~ARC provided by author in exchange for an honest review~

Zoey Valentine’s life revolves around avoiding her irritating next door neighbour, Ash, and surviving the constant self-defence classes her police officer father makes her take. That is until the zombie apocalypse hits the USA, and the entire country is thrown into a frenzy. What seemed like an unusual illness, is actually turning everyone into a zombie-like state. Except, they’re much faster than the usual. When Zoey learns that the US government decides to bomb every major city, including her home city NYC, she finds herself on the run with her father and Ash in a desperate dash for survival.

This book was really great, in some sense, was really guessable in certain scenes but the way Santana writes makes it a really interesting read with a great cast of characters, each different in their own unique way. I enjoyed the doses of humour and heart within the novel and alongside Sara’s writing style which is easy to follow and compelling to read. She has the makings of a decent storyteller with this fast-paced debut novel.

Anyone who actually read my reviews knows that no good book ever goes unscathed. What really dragged this down was mainly due to certain aspects I personally didn’t like.

I think I’m the only person so far that didn’t like Ash? No offence, but he’s so irritating! Despite he does change in the end, and he ends up with Zoey. But, honestly, I didn’t find it cute that Ash was just terrible to Zoe since she was little. And Zoey knows it but yet she was still attracted to him? If I was being bullied by a boy and would in no way have some sort of attraction to him. Honestly, I would have ditched him the minute the apocalypse started. Despite Zoey telling him explicitly, she doesn’t want to be near him, he continues to flirt with her despite having a girlfriend and she’s already said no? And then when another survivor lowkey flirts with her, he gets annoyed? I just thought that behaviour was problematic and he should’ve backed off a bit.

Also, what was going on with her dad? I honestly hate it when adults assume boys teasing girls means he likes her? Her dad wanted them to get together despite Zoey CONSTANTLY telling him he’s been bullying her at a young age and the way he puts Ash on a higher pedestal than his own daughter was extremely worrying. He does kind of admit it in the end and apologise, but overall, the only character I found myself rooting for was Zoe. The romance in this novel was a bit off to me. Ash and Zoey literally pick the worst moment to get all hot and steamy, especially towards the end.

Kindle Edition, 317 pages

Published by Oftomes Publishing (first published December 1st 2015)

ASIN: B017AD8K9W

Lifestyle, My Year In Books

My Year in Books – 2015

December 29, 2015December 25, 2015by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

Using information from My Year in Books from Goodreads, I decided to make a smaller, shorter summary of my Year In Books for this blog. And show you all my 5 favourite books I’ve read this year. (I was going to do 15 but I realised how long that would make this post.) I was actually really impressed with myself this year in terms of the books I’ve read. I made it my goal to read at least 35 books, and I remember setting that goal in my gaming class, thinking oh man that’s going to so difficult. But in the end I hit 35 before we even hit half way through 2015! And I also started book blogging in late December, early January so it’s been a full year since I’ve started blog and I’ve had so much fun writing for it. And having this blog has really boosted my confident in my career of becoming an author.
Continue reading “My Year in Books – 2015” →

Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Book Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (Themis Files #1)

December 25, 2015July 3, 2016by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

you can find the book at:

GoodReads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Author website

my review:

Rating: ★★★★☆

~ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review~

When a young girl fell into a hole, no one expected to find her lying down on a large metal hand. Year later, that same girl is now helping to find, all over the planet, the missing pieces. Each uncovered from under the earth. They don’t know who put them there or the reason why. But through series of transcripts, conducted through an unknown voice, we follow a group of scientists and military personnel trying to assemble the pieces and uncover its strange powers.

I think this book maybe the weirdest I’ve read this year. But I liked it. I’ve been told its in the same format as World War Z and Illuminae, and now I’m seriously considering bumping those two up my TBR list. The format itself makes it so interesting to read, and I’m loving this format! The premise is also fantastic. I love the idea of us humans scrambling over this gigantic robot which is thousands of years more developed than us in terms of tech. There’s so much political, moral and ethical drama when they realise its potential as a weapon against alien forces.

However, although the science behind was so interesting to read. I did find myself dropping at some parts because the science jargon became too much, and felt so overwhelming. There was also a huge case of telling than showing, and I think that just maybe because of the format, we don’t experience any of this with them (aside from a few scenes where it done over the phone) and only know what happens after it all actually happens.

Overall, what a book! Such a wild science fiction novel with an ending that made me so mad that I’m reading an ARC. I need the sequel now!

Kindle Edition, 320 pages

Expected publication: April 26th 2016 by Del Rey

ASIN: B015F0JSTS

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