Anyone that's read more than one Colleen Hoover book can probably agree with me here: she's the queen of romance. 

I was immediately drawn in by Colleen's writing style and characterization. Her style is conversational, and easy to read. Her characters are real and have depth, it wouldn't be hard to put yourself in their shoes in one way or another, or to picture them as your best friend or as a family member. They feel human in a sense that Colleen never seems to portray one of her characters as 'perfect' as I have often found when reading YA/NA novels. They have scars and imperfections, and they have had plenty of highs, and the lowest of lows. Maybe it's for these reasons alone that I want to keep picking up every Colleen Hoover book that I can get my hands on. But let me tell you a bit about why THIS story in particular was a win win for me.

Aside from the romance which, by the way, was perfect, this story had so many layers to it. I love it when an author can tie together parallel paths within a story and make them come together so beautifully at the end, which is exactly what happened in Confess. 

What made this book a special item to have was that there was art work throughout its pages. The images shown all had a meaning and a place within the story. It was like Colleen decided to write a book, but then did it even better than anyone could have hoped for. It was an experience to say the least. On the one hand the reader is following this story, which was a delight for the imagination. And on the other hand, we're being shown these colorful and exiting images to delight our other senses. Did I mention that I think all books should have artwork in them? Well I'm saying that now. I was blown over by the creativity of this book inside and out. Colleen and her publishers really did a stellar job of this one. 

Now for the characters. Auburn and Owen are the kind of people that I wish were real. I think both were equally as well developed in the telling of the story. One didn't fall short of the other. Auburn was maybe a little innocent for my liking, but a well rounded lead for the story nevertheless. Owen was a little more my cup of tea in a sense that he had a bit more grit to his personality. But both worked well together as a fictional duo because of their differences. I think this book was perfectly balanced in all aspects, which I think is a pretty hard thing to come across in YA/NA books sometimes. They're either full of hormonal teenage angst that detracts from the actual story line, or it lacks that spark completely. There was just enough of everything to leave me wanting more, and then to be completely satisfied with the ending because Colleen looked into my soul and wrote it exactly how I wanted it to be.  

All in all, I think this was a wonderful read. I've already got my next Colleen Hoover book sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to devour it soon!

More to come.

Steph x

So, my book reviews fell by the wayside. Sorry about that. But to be fair a lot has been happening. I got a new job, I discovered The 100 and Game of Thrones, and my debut novel got published. 

The Luminous Illusion was my baby, it still is. When my contracts arrived one Saturday morning, everything else faded into the background. For a year I worked with my editors to get the manuscript up to a standard that everyone was happy with. For me this was extremely hard. Not because editing spelling and punctuation is hard, but because I am without a doubt my harshest critic. I had severe moments of panic and doubts about actually releasing my book to the public. I knew that one day, critique would inevitable, and that I would just have to grit my teeth and grow a thicker skin. I think I'm getting there, slowly but surely I'm building up my social media pages, tweeting about my book in an attempt to raise awareness of its existence and growing in confidence. And it's all getting a little easier as each day passes by. 

I do plan to dedicate more time to this blog. I want to spend more time actually reading as that also fell by the wayside. I will post more reviews and keep you updated with writing and the whole publishing experience in general.

Stay with me people!

Steph x

The Sweet Evil Trilogy is a gorgeous collection of well written, witty, romantic books that I just couldn't put down.

The story is told from Anna's perspective, half angel, half demon. Anna stumbles into the world of demons, Dukes and Nephilim when she meets Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust at a gig one evening. From this moment on, her life changes for ever, when she becomes the only hope for the Nephilim to rid the world of their fathers, the evil Dukes.

Every single relationship in this trilogy was so well developed, Wendy Higgins never spared a single detail. It was fast paced, but also hugely descriptive and that kept my interest throughout the trilogy.

Her relationship with Kai is the main focus of course. It is both heart warming, touching and cheeky that of course it will appeal greatly to the young adult market. It has enough teenage/young adult angst in it to keep you completely entertained.

I was not disappointed throughout the final battle against the Dukes, Wendy took her time, drawing me in with every single word. There were plenty of losses and causalities as I would have expected, but the ending was just perfect.

This is the perfect trilogy for you if you love fantasy/paranormal books, and especially if you love romance. You will not be disappointed.

Also, the actor Adam Gregory is exactly how I pictured Kai the whole way through.

This month, I read the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi.

I will start off by first saying, that I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and even more so now that Tahereh Mafi has said 'maybe' to writing a fourth book, set after Ignite Me.

Fingers Crossed.

The whole trilogy was fast paced from start to finish. I felt that the pace was both easy and enjoyable to read.

Although the main character Juliette's challenge is to overcome the boundaries of her physical condition, which is in fact in many ways, a gift, it was not the challenge that I felt Tahereh focused on.

I felt like Juliette struggled with her relationships more so, although yes, her relationships and power go hand in hand, as she can't touch anyone without killing them. But I felt that the author focused a lot more on her romantic struggles between the two boys Warner and Adam.

This worked for me though, I will read anything will a really kick ass romance in it, especially with a love triangle. I didn't feel that it stood in the way of the story going on around it, the battle between the Reestablishment and Omega Point.

The third and final book, I felt, came to a bit of an abrupt end however. I did think that the final battle was somewhat rushed and pushed into the last eighty pages or so, considering that the rest of the book was about her relationship with Warner in particular. That is why I would be so happy if she wrote a fourth book, continuing on from where she left off.

But this trilogy held my interest, I stayed up late to finish it, I missed the characters when it was over, and I truly felt like I was with Juliette on her journey.

It was a great read, a fine piece of writing and a trilogy that I think every YA reader should read.

 Bloomsbury Books very kindly sent me The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon to review. This is the sequel to The Bone Season.

Thank you Bloomsbury, I look forward to reading this and reviewing it!

Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)

I'm currently contemplating joining the Booktuber community... Has anyone else had experience with reviewing books over YouTube?? 

I've never read anything by Wendy Higgins, but I am thoroughly enjoying Sweet Evil. 

Has anyone else read it? 

Also! My review of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi will be up soon! 

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1)

I wouldn't be able to eat this, this is art!

Today I received another Amazon package with gorgeous goodies inside.

Now this came after having went wild in my local bookstore, and then I felt a great sympathy for my bank balance. 

But let me tell you, it was well worth it. Now, usually if there's a trilogy or a series that I like the look of, I have usually bought all or as much as I could buy at once, of that series. But often at times I've been disappointed. So I decided to buy the first book in each series instead. 

My TBR collection is growing bigger AGAIN because of this. 

And it's only January...

Which leads me to my next topic: Reading multiple book's at once. 

Can you really do this and get the same enjoyment from each book as you would if you had dedicated your time to only one?

I'm currently reading Yes Please by Amy Poehler, and I also have two ebooks that are begging for my attention, as well as my new hard copies that just arrived today. What's a book lover to do?

So, for investigative purposes, I thought that I would at least try.

Has anyone else successfully managed to read multiple books at once? Have you enjoyed it, or not?