Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Title: Between Shades of Gray Author: Ruta Sepetys Published: April 1st 2011 Source: Audiobook Pages: 344 Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds...

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Do You (try to) Read a Book Before Watching Its Movie Adaptation?

You hear about an upcoming movie adaptation of a book you've not read (but have always wanted to), what do you do? 1. Sit tight and wait for the movie because you're too busy to read the book/plain lazy/the movie would be a good substitute. 2. Run out and buy/borrow the book asap and read it before watching the movie adaptation. 3. I don't watch movie adaptations, books>movies. If I am really interested in a book, I usually try to read it first before its movie adaptation is out because: A) I want the full experience that the movie might not be able to give. After watching the Harry Potter movie franchise, I was so glad that I actually read the books first. The movies just did not...

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Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa tahir

Title: An Ember in the Ashes Author: Sabaa Tahir Published: April 28th 2015 Source: Hardcover Pages: 446 Series: An Ember in the Ashes #1 Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do. But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason,...

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Top Ten Tuesday #10: 10 Books I'd Love to See as Movies/TV Shows

hosted by The Broke and The Brookish 10 Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows If I had my way, every book should have an accompanying movie/tv show. Imagine getting to see all the hot and gorgeous characters 'in the flesh'. How awesome would that be? p.s. click on the covers to go to their Goodreads pages Contemporaries       Eleanor & Park/Attachments: I really enjoyed these two books and being a sucker for contemporary movies, I would love to see this translate to the big screen! On the Island: It would be interesting to actually watch T.J and Anna go through all the obstacles they face when they were on the island! I love movies/shows were...

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May Wrap Up

I can't believe an entire month has passed, where did all the time go? I spent a lot of time on the blog this month to prove to myself that even though this is a hobby, I can be good at it! I've been a little dejected at the traffic and engagement of the blog for a few months and then I realised that I cannot simply expect more readers when I am not actually putting in an equal amount of effort! So I started by changing up the blog layout a little, did more research about blogging, putting in more effort to create quality posts, interact more with other bloggers, networking etc. And lo and behold, my hard work has paid off! I have a better stream of readers now and I am actually enjoying...

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Weekly Bursts #2: Book sale, Armchair BEA & maybe a Readathon?

[I am linking this post up with Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews & The Sunday Post by Kimba @ Caffinated Book Reviewer.]  Sorry this post is late! I was at a book sale the whole of yesterday (there was also a Body Shop sale and Food Expo there) and my boyfriend came over to my place so I didn't have time to post. I had a great time at the book sale and I managed to get 3 books for a total of only $14 (usd$10)!! Scoreeeee! I was expecting to get more books but the sale mainly consisted of old stocks and a TON of the divergent series. There is going to be another book sale next weekend and I am hoping to get more books then. I also participated in Armchair BEA...

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Feature & Follow Friday #12

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Every week, 2 blogs will be featured allowing everyone to discover some new blogs! I would really appreciate it if you followed me through GFC or Bloglovin', leave a comment below and I would definitely follow back! :) You can also follow/friend me through Goodreads or Twitter! Question of the week: How many books have you got on your TBR list? I am not really sure if this refers to my physical TBR or my Goodreads list of books that I would love to read someday so I shall talk about both! My physical TBR consists of about 60-70 books. I can't seem to get this down because of...

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Armchair BEA 2015: Day 2 - Social media

If you didn't know Book Expo America is happening from May 27th-29th in NYC but if you can't attend it, like me, you might wanna check out Armchair BEA. There will be daily blogging themes and discussions related to the topics at BEA and giveaways will also be held on the 30th! Today's topic is Social Media Book blogging can get really boring and mundane if you just stay in your own little bubble and wait for the occasional person to stumble upon your blog. You can promote your blog, interact with other book bloggers/publishers/authors on social media! Social media can really bring your blog to the next level. :) TWITTER Before I really got involved with Twitter, the traffic to...

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