Top 5 Wednesday is hosted by GingerReadsLainey and you can see the complete list of Wednesday-ers here. This week's topic is 'top 5 anticipated pre-orders for the rest of the year'. I haven't actually pre-ordered these as I'm hoping to get some of them for my birthday so I decided to just list the releases that I definitely want to get hold of when they come out. So here they are in order of release date...

01. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - July 14th
Now this is kind of cheating as it's already been released by the time this post goes up but it was still one of my most anticipated releases of the year. This is the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the most important books of the last century. I read To Kill a Mockingbird at school and fell in love with it, just like everyone else. I'll be picking up Go Set a Watchman as soon as I can get to my local independent bookshop and re-reading TKAM because I haven't read it since I was 16.

02. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness - August 27th
"What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again."
I love Patrick Ness, and since reading all of his YA books this summer he's become one of my auto-buy authors. I've always wanted to read a fantasy or dystopian book from the perspective of a normal person, rather than the one who's saving the world so The Rest of Us Just Live Here sounds right up my street. This is one that I might actually pre-order because Waterstones are currently offering signed copies with free delivery upon release. 

03. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - September 29th
This is a standalone novel set in the world of Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy, it follows an unlikely band of thieves attempting to pull of a heist. Although I haven't yet finished the Grisha trilogy, I do plan to this year so I'll hopefully be getting this when it comes out.

04. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay - October 6th

05. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell - October 8th 
Carry On is a spin-off of Rowell's earlier novel Fangirl, which is one of my favourite books of all time. This isn't a spoiler so don't worry, but in Fangirl the main character Kath writes fan-fiction about the Harry Potter esque series Simon Snow. Carry On is set in the world of Simon Snow and follows his final year at wizard school. I'm so ridiculously excited to get into this, but again will probably have to wait until my birthday in November.

So those are the books I'm most excited for this year!

Are you looking forward to any of these? Let me know in the comments!

I was doing so well with buying less books up until the end of the month, and then charity shops happened and I just couldn't resist. Anyway, I'm not going to shame myself for buying books because most of the books I buy are from charity shops, so I'm just doing a good deed really, right?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - £1.99, Oxfam Books.
I actually have no idea what this book is about and the blurb doesn't really give too much away, but I've heard a lot of booktubers talk about this and I'm pretty sure it's the first book in YA fantasy series, which sounds good to me. I just couldn't resist this beautiful hardback for such a good price.

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham - £2.49, Oxfam Books.
Ever since reading The Day of the Triffids, I've been really interested in reading more John Wyndham. So obviously I had to pick up this lovely edition of The Kraken Wakes, a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic novel where fireballs reign down from the sky into the ocean, followed by mysteriously sinking ships and 'sea tanks' coming to claim people. It basically sounds like it's along the same lines of The Day of the Triffids with less monstrous plants and more reasons to be terrified of the ocean - I can't wait!

Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr by Christopher Paolini - £1.49 Oxfam Books, £1.49 Oxfam Books and £1.00, Cancer Research UK.
I've always been interested in The Inheritance Cycle (because dragons - duh) and have had my eye out for them for a while and managed to pick up the entire series over the course of a couple of days for brilliant prices - winner! I think I'm really going to enjoy this one, it's pretty much a YA classic, so I can't wait to get into it.

Fangirl (the special collector's edition) by Rainbow Rowell - £9.81, The Book Depository
Now this was a purchase I had been uh-ming and ah-ing over for quite a long time, and after constantly seeing it on bookstagram and blogs and whilst feeling particularly crappy one night I decided to just go for it and made my order. I read Fangirl last summer and it was definitely one of my favourite books of the year, I already own a paperback copy but I'm so glad I invested in this beautiful special collector's edition which includes a specially designed hardcover, fanart and an exclusive preview of Rainbow Rowell's upcoming Fangirl spin-off novel: Carry On. It's just a lovely addition to my collection and I'm planning a re-read soon to fully appreciate it's awesomeness. See below for a sneak peek at the wonderful fanart on the inside covers:



So those were all the books I bought in June, I don't think I did too badly and overall I'm pretty pleased with the bargains I managed to get. Here's to a hopefully just as thrifty July...

Have you read any of these books? What have you been buying recently?

I haven't done a Top 5 Wednesday in such a long time but I couldn't resist this topic, I can't wait to see what other people come up with for this! 

As always, Top 5 Wednesday is hosted by GingerReadsLainey and you can see the complete list of Wednesday-ers here. Today's topic is 'things on your bookshelf that aren't books', now my bookshelves aren't the neatest in the world, I only really have one main bookshelf so all the books are double parked and there are all sorts of bits and bobs perching on top of them. I like the idea of really neat, minimalist shelves but with the amount of stuff I have it was just never going to happen, I also think that becuase my shelves are so filled it adds interest and personality.

So for this post I decided to just pick out a few things that are quite special to me or things I just think are cool, so here they are in no particular order...

01. My Little Ponies and fairy dust
I have absolutely no idea where these little guys came from but they're unbelievably cute so they ended up on my shelf along with a couple of little bottles of 'fairy dust' which I also couldn't tell you the origin of. I just think this little area is quite sweet and magical.

02. My wand
I visited the Harry Potter studio tour for my 21st birthday and my boyfriend surprised me with a wand from the gift shop as my birthday present, it's probably one of my favourite presents ever. I chose Hermione's wand because I probably connect with her the most and it's just so beautiful, it's really intricately designed and looks as if delicate vines are wrapped around it. It sits in pride of place alongside my Harry Potter books and it's definitely one of my most prized possessions.

03. My photo snow globe
This is just one of the things that I think is pretty cool, I love snow globes and this one has a photo inside of when I went to Berlin with some of my best friends.

04. A parade of elephants
My sister lives and works in Malawi so I went to visit her in October last year, it was one of the best trips of my life so of course I had to bring back some souvenirs. These carved wooden animals are very common in Malawi and can be found at pretty much every market. I have quite a few different ones in different places around my room, including a hippo by my bed and a giraffe on my desk. They're all so amazingly well-crafted and I think they're just really beautiful. These elephants are sold in sets of twelve as an 'elephant calendar', I believe you're supposed to put another one out as the months pass. However I just liked the idea of having them set up, I gave six to each of my best friends and the remaining six are parading along my bookshelf. These mean a lot to me as they remind me of my sister each time I see them.

05. Jon Snow
This is another present from my brilliant boyfriend who knew I'd been wanting a funko pop figure for ages. Little Jon Snow sits next to my complete A Song of Ice and Fire collection. He is the sword in the darkness, the watcher on the bookshelf and he is the shield that guards the realms of books. I love him! 

So there's a little peek into some of the things that are dotted around my bookshelf, there's a whole lot more where that came from and at some point I might do a bookshelf tour if anyone would be interested in that. 

What things do you keep on your bookshelf that aren't books?

In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become “companions”, permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.

For the girls left behind, the future – as a concubine or a teacher – is grim.

Best friends Freida and Isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions – they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight. ..
And then, into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.

Freida must fight for her future – even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known. . . [summary from Goodreads]

My Rating: ☆☆☆

This is one of the most difficult reviews that I've written as I'm so unsure how I feel about this book. Firstly, as I said in my June wrap up, if you're triggered by anything to do with body image, eating disorders or similar then I really recommend that you don't read this book, just don't even think about picking it up. I'm not usually triggered by these kinds of things but even I found it had a strange effect on me and made me feel very uncomfortable and pretty upset. Now that that's out the way, I'm going to try and put my very confused thoughts about this book into words...

If you are looking for a happy book, this isn't it. I can definitely understand what O'Neill was trying to do with this book; portraying a future which doesn't really seem too far off in terms of how society treats women, I'm just not sure how well it worked. The reading experience here is obviously designed to be incredibly uncomfortable. The reader is supposed to dislike the characters and feel repulsed by them and the narrative, however I felt at times like it was all just a bit too much. It was like a standard YA 'issue' book amplified to an insane degree, and I understand this is close to the effect that O'Neill was going for but it just didn't quite work for me. O'Neill takes a bunch of issues that teenage girls are dealing with today (body image, eating disorders, drug abuse, bullying etc.) and magnifies them to such an extent that it is all the characters talk about. This is highly effective in making the reader feel uncomfortable and gets the point across to a certain extent but after a while I found myself thinking 'yes, I GET IT, these are serious problems and it's awful that this is all these characters know but just get on with the story already and what are you actually trying to achieve?'. 

I think my main issue here is that the book is driven by characters much more than plot and I feel that a story like this might have been told better with more of a balance between the two. Because basically every single character was despicable, the character-focus kind of ended up like one unending stream of pain, self-conciousness and bitching and the narrative spent a lot of time repeating the same nightmarish situations, which I know is the point but not much actually seemed to be happening and that just frustrated me. None of the cornerstones of YA were there; realisations, growing up and rebellion. Ok yes, the fact that these things were missing means that Only Ever Yours avoids being a typical YA book but my point is that these things are important in YA. Yes, it's important for young readers to be aware of how our society treats women and to give a signpost to a possible terrifying future but it's also important to give a message of resilience, strength and hope. I know that a book like this is supposed to be honest rather than enjoyable and I also know that a book doesn't have to be happy or hopeful to be great. I'm well aware of the importance of books like Lord of the Flies and 1984 but for me Only Ever Yours just didn't quite reach that level.

Although the plot did drag quite a bit, I generally found Only Ever Yours to be a compulsive read, it's difficult to tear yourself away from the horrific brutality of the pages and I read it in two quick sittings. It isn't your typical horror book, but it is definitely horrifying, I constantly felt like someone was ripping out my insides. Despite my issues with the book, O'Neill does write very well and that's what made me give it a higher rating. The emotions delivered by her writing were brutal, raw and gut-wrenching and the hellish situations were finely drawn, I just wish that the plot had developed a little better. Although I didn't particularly like this book, it wouldn't put me off reading others by her. 

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion; pretty much every blogger and booktuber who I have heard talk about this book seemed to absolutely rave about it, so it may be that I just didn't fully connect with it personally. Overall I don't regret reading it and it is definitely a book that will stick with me and gave me some interesting things to think about.

Have you read Only Ever Yours? What did you think?

Hello again and happy July! We've had some pretty amazing weather this week in these parts so I've been spending some much-appreciated time reading in the garden, I hope it's just as nice where you are!

It's that time again where I share with you a few of the books that I plan on reading this month. I really want to tackle my ridiculous physical TBR (currently at 120 books!) so I haven't got any library books out this month. I also don't want to put too much pressure on myself and quite fancy a bit of freedom with my choices this month so I've only planned four books which is a couple less than usual. So without further ado, here are the books I hope to get to in July...

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
This is my classics pick for the month, after reading Persuasion last month and loving it I'm in the mood for some more Jane Austen. I know I've gone on about it before but I really love these editions, they're just so beautiful - I definitely want to collect them all.

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Every month I pick something from my TBR jar which mainly consists of books that I've had for a while but just haven't got to yet, and this happened to be what came out of the jar this month. I've been intrigued by this book for a while, ever since seeing the movie trailer, and I always like to read the book before watching the film. This book follows four very different people who happen to meet on a rooftop on new year's eve, all with the intention of committing suicide. I'm always interested in books that deal with mental health and I've enjoyed Hornby's work in the past so I look forward to getting into this.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
I've had this book for so long that I actually have no idea when and where I bought it! I know very little about the plot of this book only that it has a teenage protagonist and deals with gender issues. I'm also pretty sure that the narrative goes back into the past and follows the main character's family over a long period of time which is the main thing that's drawing me in. I love stories that trace families back through time and span decades, one of my favourite books is Behind the Scenes at the Museum which does this particularly well. I had mixed feelings about Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides but I can't deny that he's an excellent writer, so I'm really excited about this.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
I started re-reading the Harry Potter series earlier this year but for one reason or another took an extended break around May time. I picked up the fifth book at the end of June and am currently about half way through so expect to finish it soon. I'm really enjoying getting back into this series, it's like sinking into a warm bath or getting into bed after a long day, it just feels like coming home.

What are you planning on reading this month?

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins | ☆☆☆☆
I read the first in this series Anna and the French Kiss last month and really enjoyed it. The sequel follows a new set of characters but a couple of characters from the first book make appearances. I really enjoyed how Perkins linked up the two books in this way and I can't wait to see how she ties it all together in the third book. This book follows Lola, a girl from San Francisco who expresses herself through costume and how she deals with a past flame coming back into her life. I think this contemporary YA series is so much fun, the books are so quick and easy to read and they just provide light relief and lovely romance-y feels. I'm not sure I liked this one as much as Anna but I still really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next in the series.

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill | ☆☆☆
It's pretty difficult to describe what this book is about and even more difficult to pin down how I feel about it. It's essentially set in a dystopian future where women are literally designed in labs to be 'perfect' and grow up in a school (I use this term loosely) where they are taught to be 'perfect' and trained to become teachers, concubines (basically sex slaves) or companions (kind of like wives without any of the love or happiness). As you can tell from my shaky description there, it's very dark. Brutally dark. I can see what O'Neill was trying to do here but I do have a lot of issues with it, so many that I think I'm going to do a separate review/discussion post on this book sometime soon. You should probably just read it and see for yourself what you think about it.
Disclaimer: Do not, I repeat DO NOT, read this if you are triggered by anything to do with body image or eating disorders. I wouldn't usually be triggered by this kind of thing but even I found it pretty upsetting and uncomfortable to read. You have been warned.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness | ☆☆☆☆.5
This is the final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy so I can't really explain what it's about because of spoilers. The conclusion to the series didn't disappoint, it was a wild ride which, although it dragged a little in parts, had me gripped for the most part. I was reading this whilst my boyfriend was sat in the same room gaming and he became concerned when I kept gasping and yelling 'OH MY GOD' and 'I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED!'. This is now one of my favourite series and if you haven't picked it up yet then you definitely should. 

Persuasion by Jane Austen | ☆☆☆☆☆
This was my pick for the 2015 Classics Challenge and I'll be writing a separate post about it soon so won't go on about it too much here. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I expected to appreciate it but I definitely didn't anticipate the level of enjoyment I got from this and how compelling I found the narrative. I actually found that I couldn't put it down and that came as such a pleasant surprise. It was my favourite book of the month and now I really want to read some more Jane Austen.

More Than This by Patrick Ness | ☆☆☆☆.5
This was my TBR jar pick for the month and I went into it knowing very little about the plot but knowing that I'd like it regardless because come on, it's Patrick Ness. I definitely wasn't disappointed. It probably is best to go in blind with this one but I'll just say that it's the story of Seth, who in the very first chapter dies, only to awake naked and bruised in a strange deserted place. This was so unlike anything I've ever read and I really enjoyed it. After finishing it, I'm still not entirely sure what happened but I know that it was ridiculously compelling. I really enjoyed the original concept and the mysterious plot. Ness' writing is so beautiful and atmospheric, this book is really one to lose yourself into.

So that was everything I read this month, I'm keeping my options open for this month and I'll be posting a short TBR on Saturday so stay tuned for that.

Have you read any of these books? What was your favourite read this month?

If you've posted a reading wrap up please link it below, I'm always looking for new blogs to read!