Mini Reviews - My January Wrap-Up

Hi guys! Today I'll be reviewing 3 of the books I read last month. So in January I read 23 books. Yep, 23 books! January was definitely a great reading month for me because I ended up reading a bunch of different stuff. To see all the books I read and the rating I gave each one of them, feel free to check out my Goodreads shelf by clicking here ^^

And now let's start with the reviews...

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

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Genre: YA Fantasy 

My Rating: 4 stars

The Plot: Celaena Sardothien, one of the kingdom's best trained assassins, is taken out of the salt mines where she had been enslaved following her capture by the king's men, in order to participate in a secret competition organized by the king. The end game? If she is able to defeat the other contestants, she will have to serve as the king's personal assassin for a few years after which she will be granted her freedom. With this contest as Celaena's last shot at freedom, she accepts the challenge...


My Review: This book was such a fun ride! I was pleasantly surprised by how complex the plot ran and really enjoyed the writing. Celaena was such as awesome main character, too. I love how she was both kick-butt while retaining a softer side to her personality along with a unique sense of humor. Celaena was strong but she was also a realistic character with her set of fears and desires. The romance in this book also felt fresh as compared to other YA books and that's because it actually builds up over the course of the entire book rather than pop up as soon as Celaena meets the male leads. I already have the other books and will probably be finishing them up throughout February!

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Genre: YA, Retelling 

My Rating: 5 stars

The Plot: Tiger Lily is the daughter of her tribe's shaman. She's an accomplished hunter and is seen as being very different and strange by the other tribe members. Peter Pan is known among them as one of the most dangerous beings in Neverland. And yet, one day, as Tiger Lily's and Peter's paths cross, despite everything Tiger Lily thinks she knows about Peter, she lets him slowly drag her into his world. Before Wendy, there was Tiger Lily and her story is as beautiful as it is tragic.

My Review: The prose was very beautiful and world building was simply on point, making it very easy to envision this book’s version of Neverland and the things that were happening there. The pacing of the story was also very well done. Despite the book being on the short side, at no point did I feel like the story was rushed. In fact, everything unfolded at a nice pace, resulting in a very unique and well developed ending. And speaking of the book’s ending, regardless of whether you’ve read the original material or not, I can assure you that the ending isn't predictable at all. Character-wise, the author did a fantastic job portraying Peter Pan and Tiger Lily. They were unique enough to stand apart from any cliché associated with their characters in popular culture and had distinct and complex personalities. I also really enjoyed the character of Tinker Bell. She’s the narrator of this story, which I think was a really nice idea. She’s a sort of silent observer, not participating herself in the story, but seeing and remembering all of it anyway. While I was not expecting to love this book so much, it ended up completely blowing me away and I can definitely see myself re-reading it soon.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA Fantasy 

My Rating: 4 stars

The Plot: Four friends, called the raven boys for the emblem of the academy they all attend, are hunting for ley lines. These are magical energy spots, said to make strange and mystical things happen where they exist. It is also said that if you follow the ley lines, they’ll lead you to the resting place of an ancient sleeping knight. Whoever is able to find him and wake him from his slumber, will be then granted a magical favor. As the hunt becomes even more complex, the raven boys cross the path of Blue, the daughter of a local psychic, who also takes an interest in the boys’ quest. But Blue and the boys are not the only ones searching for the ley lines and soon, their hunt begins to take a darker and more dangerous turn that any of them could have anticipated.

My Review: Wow, I hadn’t thought I would end up enjoying this book as much as I did! I loved all the characters. All of them! The titular Raven boys were all so cool, each with a well-fleshed out and complex personality of his own, and with one of the best friendships I’ve read in YA so far. Our main female character, Blue, was also pretty unique and was a refreshing take on a YA female lead. I loved Stiefvater’s writing. It flowed so well and was very descriptive. The world building was nice and we got to visit some pretty cool, mystical places. The story moved at a really nice pace and each chapter came with a fresh load of twists and surprises that made it very hard for me to put the book down! I love how this book’s main story was pretty much resolved within this book itself. Overall, this was a really well written book with a fresh and unique plot and fantastic character dynamics. I definitely recommend it!

So those were my reviews for some of the books I read in January. What were your favorite books of last month? Let me know in the comments :)

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My Bucket List (2016 Edition)

Hi guys. Today I have a more general type of post for you. 2015 has been a year of challenges and self-discovery for me and while it wasn't always easy, today I know myself a little better and I'm starting to have a better view of where I want to be later in my life. This is why I've decided to put together a bucket list. I feel I've grown just enough as a person to know which dreams are worth pursuing and what are those which will never be anything more than a fancy. And so, here's my bucket list ^^

I want to visit the French countryside with my sister

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It's going to be a sister only trip to France with Pooja, my little sister. The plan is to visit the countryside rather than actual cities and spend our trip at a B&B. There's a French TV program we both love which features beautiful B&B places in small French towns and that's what got us enamored with the idea. These towns are famous for their castle ruins and local produce like cheese and jam and that's the side of France we want to discover. 

I want to have a library in my house

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Once I have my own place, I want to have a room dedicated solely to my books. It's kind of a rational dream too since by the time I get my place, I would have probably accumulated enough books to fit a room anyway. Mine would probably not look like the library in the picture but a girl can dream right?

I want to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

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If you've been around for a while now, you probably know how much of a Potterhead I am. You might also remember that time I decided to turn my house into Hogwarts for my sister's 18th birthday. So ideally, I'd not only visit the park, but I'd also have my sister with me. Sporting our Gryffindor and Slytherin scarves no less. She's the Slytherin by the way...

I want to read the complete X-Men comic series

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So this one might be a little tricky, especially since X-Men has practically countless spin-offs and that some of its first issues are hard to find. I did already start reading the first issues from the 60s though and I'm already in love enough with the world and the characters to be motivated to make it all the way through the series. There are over 300 issues in the main series so this goal will probably linger on my bucket list for a few more years. But that's okay 'cause I do enjoy reading these comics. 

I want to visit Disneyland (again)

Taken at Disneyland Hong Kong, December 2014

I was able to visit Disneyland Hong Kong with my family in December 2014 and it was so magical that I can only hope to do it again one day. I'm as big a fan of Disney as I'm a Potterhead so Disneyland simply has to be on my bucket list. In the best of worlds, I'd also get to actually stay in one of the hotels in the park. There's no age to have breakfast with Mickey. Just sayin'...

I want to visit Japan

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I love Japan from all the books I've read by Haruki Murakami and all those anime I've watched. I'm not sure if you can call me an otaku though since I tend to be fan of anime most people often haven't even heard of. I'm completely enamored with Japan though and would love to see it's tech-crazy cities and walk under the branches of sakura blossoms.

I want to work in the publishing industry

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Originally, my dream was to study languages or creative writing and pursue a job in the publishing industry. Then, I realized that we don't actually have creative writing courses here in Mauritius and that our publishing industry is basically nonexistent. No, publishers of primary school textbooks don't count. My dreams kinda squashed, I instead went for a bachelor degree in Marketing. Now, 4 years later, I'm glad things happened the way they did. After I started this blog, I realized that maybe I could still participate in the publishing industry as a blogger and a reviewer. And now, having graduated from uni, I've realized that my life doesn't have to be restricted to something as trivial as geography. So yes, I still dream of working in the publishing industry. I may have to move abroad and it's certainly going to be hard, but I'll do my best to make it happen. 

So that was my bucket list. I wonder what the 2017 edition will look like. Hopefully I'd have made a dent in my X-Men TBR by then. All the travelling will have to wait though 'cause I still have my Master degree to start this year. Not to mention that I don't actually have a job yet XD.

And now, tell me...

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How I organize my blog

Hi guys! Today I want to share with you some tips to help you get more organized and make your blogging more efficient. Back when I had just started this blog, I didn't plan ahead much and would write post sometimes only a few hours before they were due to be posted. Now, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of spontaneity but with life getting more hectic later during the year, I quickly found that this freestyle approach to my blogging was becoming a little strained. So, after a few months of blogging, I began to change the way I plan and organize my posts. 

Whether you're a new blogger or you've been blogging for some time now and want to make things more efficient, I hope you'll find these tips useful ^^

Keep a blog journal

It doesn't have to be anything fancy so long you have something where you can jot down blog post ideas and quick post drafts. I use this beautiful cloth bound journal covered in dragon patterns that I bought in Hong Kong during my 2014 Christmas vacation there. The purpose of a journal is to give you a place where you can store all your ideas and bits and pieces of writing that cross your mind. Once you have all of your thoughts and ideas in one place, later, it'll be easy for you to reference to them when writing a blog post. Like I said, your journal doesn't have to be overly fancy. However, things that visually appeal to us are more likely to motivate us. So if you're going to be using a journal, you might as well pick one that'll motivate you to use it ^^

Make lists of ideas

You can list down all the blog post ideas that come to your mind in your journal so that when you need to write a post, you only need to pluck an idea from your list. You can add to your lists ideas inspired by other blogs and YouTube videos, Pinterest boards and things you come across in your everyday life. You can have different lists for different categories of posts. You enjoy doing tags? Why not make a list of all the cool tags you enjoy? Thus, whenever you feel like writing a tag post, you'll can have your pick from all those in your list. You can have different lists of ideas to cover as many topics and post categories as you choose. You can use color tags or sticky notes to index your various lists in your journal to make the referencing easier for you.

Use a planner or an agenda

Once you have all your ideas in one place, it's easy to allocate specific posts to specific dates. Aside from my journal, I use a planner where I write the specific post titles I want to publish on specific dates. I usually publish around 7 posts every month. So whenever I'm planning a particular month's post schedule, I simply pick out 7 post ideas that I'd like to do from my journal and decide on which day I want to do each of them. Thus, when I open my planner to a particular month, I know at a glance what are the posts I need to write for that month.

Write your posts in advance

Having your posts already planned for the month makes it simple to write them in advance. You already know what you need to write about so there's no need to spend hours browsing Pinterest boards for blog post ideas. I usually have around 4 posts written in advanced and ready to be published. I spend a couple of days during the week working on the upcoming month's posts and then I take a break from writing during the remaining days of the week. I use that free time to catch up and comment on the posts of other blogs I enjoy reading. Whether you're still studying and you have assignments creeping on you unexpectedly or life suddenly just gets crazy, having at least one or two pre-written posts can help you account for those days where you simply don't have time to sit down and write a full post.

So those were a few tips on how you can organize your blog to make it more efficient. I hope you found these useful. If you have other tips for me, feel free to share them with me in the comments! Happy blogging guys ^^

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Cover art by Of Stacks and Cups via Pagemodo