December Wrap-Up! Hey Guys, So, I'm currently writing this on NYE, so for once I'm sort of on time with writing my wrap-up. However, this will probably be posted a lot later, so it probably won't be on time. Anyway, this month was one of the most successful reading months I've had in a long time and I'm so pleased with the amount I've read. Also, I manged to sort of stick slightly to my December TBR, so I'm quite happy with myself this month. Some of the books I read this month have been on my TBR for such a long time and it honestly makes me so much happier to be able to take more books off my TBR and gives me hope that one day I will be able to complete it (Haha, defo not happening anytime soon). Enough rambling, let's get into my December wrap-up... Title - The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour by Amy Alward (Potion #2) Date Started - 1/12/2016 Date Finished - 11/12/2016 I do have a review coming soon for this, which may or may not be up before this. If it's up it will be linked below. Anyway, this is the sequel to The Potion Diaries, which I read earlier on this year. I've had this on my shelf since October and was glad to take another sequel off my TBR. Overall, I think this was such an amazing sequel! There were so many twists and turns and I loved teh storyline. I think it carried on from the first book really well and it was just as full of adventure as I expected it to be. The one thing that lowered my rating was that I found the start a bit slow to get into, but just might be being impatient. I'm really looking forward to continuing on with thise series when the next book is released, especially after that cliffhanger ending, ugh! Rate - 4-4.5/5 REVIEW - GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30973551-the-potion-diaries?ac=1&from_search=true BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Potion-Diaries--Royal-Tour/9781471143588 Title - Girl Online On Tour by Zoe Sugg (Girl Online #2) Date Started - ?/12/2016 Date Finished - 17/12/2016 When I mentioned above that I read some books that had been on my TBR for ages, well this is one of them. This had been on my TBR since it came out so over a year. I finally got fed up of it being on my TBR as I also had the next book to read as well, so I finally just decided to read them. I was a bit unsure about reading this as I did enjoy teh first book, but after all the controversy surrounding it, I wasn't sure whether to continue on. I am glad that I did though. I really enjoyed this sequel and found that the storyline did keep me interested. I loved the idea about the tour and what they expected, but what actually happened. Also that twist near the end was quite surprising, I knew someone had been causing trouble, but I didn't expect it to be who it was. This book once again featured anxiety as the main character, Penny, does experience panic attacks and I think it was dealt with very well. Overall, I did enjoy this as a sequel and I'm glad that I decided to continue on with the series. I'm thinking of doing a series review of Girl Online and including mini-reviews on each book etc, so if that's something you guys would want let me know below. Rate - 4.5/5 GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23208406-girl-online-on-tour?ac=1&from_search=true BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/Girl-Online--On-Tour--2/9780141359953 Title - Girl Online Going Solo by Zoe Sugg (Girl Online #3) Date Started - 17/12/2016 Date Finished - 18/12/2016 After finishing Girl Online On Tour, I decided to jump straight into Girl Online Going Solo and I think that was the best thing to do. I was able to get straight into the story without any problems. There were parts of the storyline in here that I really wasn't happy with and I thought some thing should've been done differently. I also found that Penny was starting to annoy me a bit when she just wouldn't tell people what she wanted to. However, I did really love the ending and loved what happened with certain people in the book. I think there was a lot to fit into this book, but it was manged really well and I loved the idea of some new characters being introduced, though I didn't like all of them. It was nice to see a reappearance of Megan. Megan did appear in Gir Online On Tour, but not as much as did in this one. I loved that Leah Brown was back as I really love the friendship between her and Penny. Overall, I did enjoy this book and thought it was a great sequel and I guess it was the end of the series. Rate - 4 - 4.5/5 GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30340276-girl-online-going-solo?from_search=true BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/Girl-Online--Going-Solo--3/9780141372174 Title - Looking For Alaska by John Green Date Started - 18/12/2016 Date Finished - 18/12/2016 Synopsis: A deeply affecting coming-of-age story, Looking for Alaska traces the journey of Miles Halter, a misfit Florida teenager who leaves the safety of home for a boarding school in Alabama and a chance to explore the "Great Perhaps." Miles has a quirky interest in famous people's last words, especially François Rabelais's final statement, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Determined not to wait for death to begin a similar quest, Miles convinces his parents to let him leave home. Once settled at Culver Creek Preparatory School, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his roommate Chip―commonly known as the Colonel—who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful and unpredictable Alaska, whom Miles comes to adore. The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year filled with contraband, tests, pranks, breakups, and revelations about family and life. But as the story hurtles toward its shattering climax, chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event―one that will change Miles forever and lead him to new conclusions about the value of his cherished "Great Perhaps." I'm just going to start this off by saying that honestly, I'm not sure what I feel about this book yet. I can't decide whether I loved it, hated it or whether I'm just in the middle. I thought I'd insert the synopsis above as I don't really know how to explain what the book is about without spoiling it. I'm just going to say that like other John Green book, this one does still follow some of the similar traits that basically all of his books feature from what I've heard from other people. I do have to say that my favourite of his books that I've read is still Paper Towns, but I think this probably follows it. This book is one of the books that has been on my TBR the longest and I'd never really been interested to pick it up since I bought it, but for some reason this month I was. I read this pretty quickly as it is quite short compared to some of John Green's other books. I enjoyed the story, though I did find the start a bit slow to get into and some of the days afterwards I feel repeated the same things. I loved the idea of the heading saying certain days before the evnt happened and then the days afterwards. I think it was a great idea to tell the story and made it easier to understand. Overall, I think I did enjoy this book and I'm glad that I've now read it. Rate - 4/5 GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17416065-looking-for-alaska BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/Looking-for-Alaska/9780142402511 Title - When Summer Blew Up by Shervine Thompson Date Started - 22/12/2016 Date Finished - 26/12/2016 Synopsis: "When Summer Blew up, it meant one thing for the ever overly spunky Autumn Vanderpool. That her life was over ,along with her hopes of ever being an elite Olympian Gymnast. Now she is back in Guanela, the island where she grew up,forced to live with her tyranny aunt, whom she considers to be the Joker's identical twin. Her only worry now is survival and to completely forget her past. That's until she met the boy with the red shoes. He is the charming Brainiac while she is the girl who nobody wants to be around, but yet they soon become close friends. Now she is pushed to look at herself in a whole new light, and pursue her dream of becoming an Olympian gymnast, and although she may have gotten on the audition team, staying there is only half the battle. But her dark past and the infamous `they' aren't happy with the new Autumn, and threatens to destroy her new found happiness. When Summer Blew Up follows the friendship of two teens growing up in the 1980s to when they are adults." I was sent an ebook copy for review from the author several months ago and will have a review up soon for it, so I'm only going to talk quite briefly about it. I tried reading this months ago and got like 20 pages in and found it too confusing and gave up. However, I was sent it for review and I didn't want to just leave it, so I decided to give it another go this month and I ended up loving it. In my opinion, the synopsis above which I found on Amazon, really doesn't give the book enough justice. This book is so much more than that and there's more hidden underneath the story that you only find when you read it. I'm so happy that I decided to give this another go as I really did love this book. Don't get me wrong, this book did have its' downside. Before you read the book, you should probably know that it is very long. Not ridiculously long, but on the ebook copy I read I think it was 500+. I feel that maybe some bits of description could've been cut out if it needed to be shorter, but personally I quite liked the length of it as it gave Shervine more space to develop it and add so much more to the story, like she did. I did struggle to get into this at first but I just had to push through it a bit and then I found that I was struggling to put it down. I also still did find some bits confusing as the book does tend to jump around a bit, but you just have to pay attention and use a bit of guesswork. Overall, I did really love this book and I should have a review up for it soon and when it's up it will be linked below. Rate - 4-4.5/5 GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29142902-when-summer-blew-up BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/When-Summer-Blew-Up-Shervine-Thompson/9781514451977 Title - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter #4) Date Started - 27/12/2016 Date Finished - 30/12/2016 This was supposed to be on my December TBR, but I made a mistake and wrote Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince instead, when I really meant this, but I'm counting it as a TBR read anyway. I can't really say too much about this as it's is the fourth book in the series and the majority of people have read it, but once again I did love it, though I struggled to get into it at first and I'm not too sure why. I haven't had any trouble with this series previously, so maybe it was just me. I thoroughly enjoying reading this series for the first time and this book was no exception. I loved all the twists and turns and every page. It was quite long, so it took me a while to get through, but I'm glad I've read it. I am looking forward to continuing on with this series in 2017. Rate - 4-4.5/5 GR -https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43509.Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/Harry-Potter-and-the-Goblet-of-Fire/9781408855683 Title - Mis-Adventures of a Boy named "Popcorn" by ML Cooper (Popcorn Kelly #1) Date Started - 30/12/2016 Date Finished - 30/12/2016 Synopsis: Joey Kelly aka Popcorn Kelly and his friends Doc and Buster try to live up to their motto of “Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. As 5th-grade boys, the Liberty comes when school lets out for the weekend and the Pursuit of Happiness comes from the adventures or misadventures, which they plan and carry out. As they walk to school, the boys choose an abandoned building to explore over the weekend. They imagine all the wonderful things they might find, coins, pieces of broken jewelry, and old bottles, just to name a few. But there was one thing they never expected to find. Their adventure turns into a nightmare when a raging storm appears. Will they be able to find a treasure and can they escape in time? To finish off my year of reading, I decided to pick up another review book I'd had for a while and that was Mis-adventure of a Boy named "Popcorn" by ML Cooper. I only had one more to read in order to complete my Goodread reading challenge of 2016, so I decided to pick this one up as it's probably the shortest book on my shelves. As it is a book I was sent in trade of an honest review, I will probably have a review up in January at some point, so I'm only going to talk briefly about this. I thought it was a great children's book that was full of adventure and there was never a dull moment. I think the book was the perfect length for a Childrens' book and it was just at the perfect pace. It was at quite a quick pace, hence why the book was quiet short, but it fitted really well with what was happening in the book. I think if I was a kid and read this I would end up loving it a lot more. Overall, this was great read and it was quiet relaxing to just sit down and read a book that didn't need my full concentration. I would definitely recommend this book to children and think it'd be a great read for children, who don't necessarily enjoy reading as it's not too long and it's full of adventure. When my review is up, I will try and remember to link it below. Rate - 4/5 GR - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29612587-mis-adventures-of-a-boy-named-popcorn?ac=1&from_search=true BD - http://www.bookdepository.com/The-MIS-Adventures-of-Boy-Named-Popcorn-ML-Cooper/9781532713989 Anyway, that was my December wrap-up. Make sure to let me know what your favourite book that you read in December was below!
BYE!
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AuthorHello and welcome to Books With Beth! I'm Beth and on this blog I share a mix of all my bookish thoughts through reviews, book tours and hauls. Have fun! Categories
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