book cake tag

Here's a fun little tag for you, because who doesn't love cake and books? The main idea of this tag is to pick a book that fits each ingredient for delicious, wonderful cake. Like this: 

I don't know who this tag was started by, and I don't have any intention of tagging anyone else, so we're just gonna answer the questions and get back to our merry lives. Sound good?

1) Flour - A book that was a little bit slow to start off but that really picked up as it went along. 

Throne of Glass! For some reason, I could not get into it for the first hundred pages or so. But damn - once I was hooked, there was no looking back. 

2) Margarine - A book that had a really rich and great plot. 

The entire Harry Potter series. Hidden eggs everywhere, just perfect.

3) Eggs - A book that you thought was going to be bad but actually turned out quite enjoyable. 

I'll probably have to go with Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway. It's not that I thought it was going to be bad, it's just that I loved Audrey, Wait! so much and didn't really hear a ton about it from other people. So when I picked it up, I was kind of scared that Audrey, Wait! was a fluke and I would be disappointed. 

4) Sugar - A sugary/sweet book. 

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler. Mostly because the title just fits so well, but also because it actually was such a nice, sweet book. (And also because it made me crave cupcakes like nobody's business, but let's not dwell on that.)

5) Icing - A book that covered every single element that you enjoy about a book (funny moments, action moments, sad moments, etc.). 

The first one that comes to mind is Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman. It was one of my first ventures into the world of graphic novels, and I absolutely adored it. By the way - Tracy, if you're reading this, which I know you are: READ IT NOW! 

6) Sprinkles - A book series that you can kind of turn to for a little pick me up when you're feeling down. 

Again, Harry Potter. It will forever be my favourite. 

7) The cherry on top - Your favorite book this year so far. 

It's an extremely close toss-up between Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Both of them were absolute, sheer perfection. 

Well, I'm hungry now and have a sudden urge to bake until my hands fall off. 

waiting on wednesday (on thursday) - this is where it ends

Well, hi! I know this is a day late but we're rolling with it. Because we're rebels. And since I'm late for almost everything else in my life, I thought this would be fine. You forgive me, right? 

Can we just talk about my new WoW header for a second? How cute is it? I have another one for Top Ten Tuesday that you'll get to see next week. Spoiler alert: it's also adorable. 

Anyway. I'm doing another Waiting on Wednesday (thanks to Breaking the Spine for hosting this every week!). This week's pick is.... 

a new look

Hi, all! This really has nothing to do with books, but if you happened to see my post yesterday (it was only up for about an hour before I had the issue fixed), I was complaining about how I couldn't reply directly to comments. 

Well, I got a new template/blog theme, and all is well. I'm absolutely obsessed with how it looks right now, and even better - I can reply to comments! I hope you guys like the new layout and colour scheme. It definitely fits my personality better than the pink did! There may be a couple new updates as time goes on, but for now, I'm loving it. 

what's in a name? (harry potter update #1)

Full disclosure here: my Harry Potter re-read isn't going so well. I haven't even finished Philosopher's Stone yet, if we're being completely honest. My excuse is that BookTube-a-Thon took up a week of potential HP reading time, and my newfound obsession with the Throne of Glass series isn't helping much. So I am hereby revoking my promise to have the series done by September. Basically, I'll finish it when I finish it. Definitely Hopefully by January, when my Harry Potter class starts. 

One of the things I've noticed so far is that J.K. Rowling is really quite fantastic and placing little hidden eggs throughout the text. It's especially fascinating look at these hints from the perspective of someone who has already read the series, watched the movies, bought the t-shirts, the whole nine yards. 

bout of books 14 tbr!

Hello, all! So I recently (read: fifteen minutes ago) found out about the Bout of Books readathon and decided that I'm going to take part in it this year. Luckily for me, it just started today so I'm really not behind at all! Since there are a couple highly anticipated books coming out this fall that happen to be part of series, I thought this week would be a good opportunity to catch up on a couple that I'm most excited about. You're not going to see me reading any standalones during this readathon, that's a promise. 

Here's what I'll be reading this week: 

The Assassin's Blade  by Sarah J. Maas 

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas 

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer

I won't be doing today's challenge but I'm going to try to do all of them for the rest of the week! Let's hope I have an incredibly productive reading week and can power through all these massive books. Wish me luck! 

waiting on wednesday - queen of shadows

Hello, lovely people. Today is another Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. If you didn't know, WoW is a weekly feature where we get to talk about our most anticipated upcoming releases. This week, my can't-wait pick is... 

booktube-a-thon 2015 wrap up

We have officially reached the end of BookTube-A-Thon (well, as of 11:59 tonight), and I 'm here to share with you how my reading went over the past week. You may have noticed that my posts on this blog have been quite lacking in the past few days, and I'll proudly say that the blame lies with my constant reading. While I didn't complete all of the challenges, I feel like I did pretty well overall, and I'm proud of my progress. 

ten fairytale retellings on my tbr

Happy Tuesday, my lovely little unicorn friends! And for my fellow Canadians, I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! I had a little bit of a Disney binge over the weekend - I watched The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Well, it turns out this was very fitting, because this week, Top Ten Tuesday (hosted weekly by The Broke and the Bookish!)  is all about fairytale retellings! Now, I'm going to stretch this a little bit to incorporate some other stories - things like myths, legends, ancient tales, you get the gist. All in all, these are some of the retellings that I'm dying to read!

1. The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer
Inspired by: Cinderella/Little Red Riding Hood/Rapunzel/Snow White
Exciting news, guys! I finally started reading Cinder! I'm currently about a hundred pages into it and absolutely adoring it so far. Really don't know why I didn't read this sooner!

2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 
Inspired by: Beauty and the Beast
Ever since I started the Throne of Glass series, I've been hooked on Sarah J. Maas's writing. Not to mention the fact that Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favourite Disney movie (is there any book lover who doesn't want that library?)

3. A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston 
Inspired by: A Thousand and One Nights
I met E.K. Johnston when she did a signing/panel at my local Chapters with Kendare Blake and Michelle Krys, and she was awesome. I haven't read her other books yet, but this is very high on the tbr. And just look at that cover.

4. The Wrath and the Dawn  by Renee Ahdieh
Inspired by: A Thousand and One Nights
My friend Tracy (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY!) recommended this one to me and of course I had to buy it. And judging by the reviews and how hyped up this book has been, I'm sure it'll be worth it.

5. Antigoddess by Kendare Blake  
Inspired by: Greek mythology
Again, Kendare Blake was at the signing in Chapters a couple months ago, and she was awesome. I loved Anna Dressed in Blood (it's set in my hometown), so I was immediately a fan of Kendare after reading that! I'm also very interested in Greek and Roman mythology, so this is definitely appealing to me.

6. Never Never by Brianna Shrum
Inspired by: Peter Pan
I'm going to be honest here: I've never been a huge, die-hard Peter Pan fan. I know a lot of people are, but I never fully connected to it as much as some other stories. Nevertheless, I've always been intrigued by books that tell the villain's side of the story, and that combined with the fact that I kinda think Peter's a bit of a jerk makes me very excited for this!

7. The Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout 
Inspired by: Greek mythology
Jennifer L. Armentrout is one of those authors that I never fully jumped on the bandwagon for. I loved the one book I read by her, but I've never been as addicted as some people seem to be. I really want to get into her books more, and I feel like a mythology-based series is the perfect way to do it!

8. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
Inspired by: The Handless Maiden
How deliciously creepy does this sound?! I'm all about the non-watered-down, terrifying original Grimm stories, and this sounds like it's not going to hold back any punches when it comes to sticking to the original. Tracy also read this one and said it was pretty disturbing, so weirdly enough, I can't wait to be scared shitless.

9. Alice in Zombieland  by Gena Showalter

Inspired by: Alice in Wonderland 

I don't even feel like I need to explain this one that much. I mean, Alice and zombies. I've heard kind of mixed reviews about this one to be honest, but I don't even care. I'm giving it a try and that's all there is to it! 

10.The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman 

Inspired by: Sleeping Beauty 

Would you believe me if I said I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman? I think a nice, illustrated retelling of Sleeping Beauty would be a wonderful start to my collection. I've been eyeing up this particular set of his books for a while now, so I think I'm going to read this one and then take the plunge into some of his other books.



What fairytale retellings are on your must-have list? Let me know in the comments!

booktube-a-thon 2015 tbr!

It's that time of year, and we're going to make it count. That's right: BookTube-A-Thon 2015 is upon us! If, for some reason, you haven't heard of BookTube-A-Thon before, here's what we're looking at: a week-long readathon (August 3-9) hosted by a lovely group of BookTubers. Throughout the week, there are seven reading challenges that you can choose to complete, as well as a ton of other fun challenges that will get you PRIZES! Every day, a different BookTuber will host the readathon and upload a video to the BookTube-A-Thon YouTube channel, which you can check out here. 

Today, we're going to be looking at the seven reading challenges for 2015, and I'll tell you how I plan on completing them.

1. Read a book with blue on the cover. 

Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn

2. Read a book whose author shares the first letter of you last name. 

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick 

3. Read someone else's favourite book. 

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 

4. Read the last book you acquired. 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

5. Finish a book without letting go of it. 

Wytches by Scott Snyder 

6. Read a book you really want to read.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer 

7. Read seven books. 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 

Are you guys taking part in the readathon this week? Let me know what's on your tbr!