UPDATE: Changes!

Hey readers!
I'm sorry for being gone for a while. I won't make any excuses, I just wasn't motivated to blog. I want to make some changes on this blog and it might take a little while. First, I want to change my new year bookish resolution because I'm finding it impossible to accomplish all of the things I wanted to do at the beginning of the year.

I'm giving up the 2016 PopSugar Reading Challenge because right now, I'm doing a lot of challenges and it gets really confusing and stressful.

I will keep the 120 books in 2016 for now. However, it will probably change during the semester when I don't get enough time to read.

I will still buy less than 35 physical books this year and I'm actually doing pretty well on that because I haven't bought any books "for pleasure" yet.

I'll try to finish series that I have already started. I will give you guys an update on that probably during the summer or the end of the year.

Okay, so I haven't been doing the resolution "Write a book review/week". I'm completely failing. I'm just writing some book reviews on Goodreads right now.

The books I've received for review are still unread on my kindle/iBooks. I'm trying to really motivate myself to read them. I just don't want to read them when I don't feel like reading that genre because I might end up hating the book.

I'm still planning to reread some books and give books I've DNF'ed another chance.

I haven't started reading the Bible yet. Hopefully soon though.

Right now, I'm reading Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan. I like the story, but I'm not really in the mood for fantasy, so I'm not reading it as fast and I'm not quite motivated to read it when I get the chance.

I can't tell you when I'll be posting next since school just started for me.

I'm really active on instagram, so if you want to see what I'm up to, follow @biblioaddict.

That's it for now.

Have a good weekend! (:

x

Rochelle

SHUFFLE BY LISA SWALLOW

Today we are sharing a chapter from SHUFFLE by Lisa Swallow. This is a contemporary romance title and the second book in the series Ruby Riot! The book will be released January 28th and it is available for pre-order now, exclusively through amazon.

 

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BLURB:

Will Campbell, Ruby Riot bassist, is back at university and failing badly at everything apart from partying. With Ruby Riot on a break, Will returns to university to finish his degree. He needs major help if he wants to pass his final year and attempts to join a not-very-rock star study group. Will is horrified to discover the person organising the group is Fleur Roberts, the girl he’s secretly crushed on for two years and who recently threatened him with a restraining order. Fleur’s rock stars are history academics. She has no interest in any variety of pierced, tattooed slacker, especially not the jackass rock star who humiliated her at a party. There’s no way in Hell that Will Campbell is joining her group. Faced with losing the easiest way to fix his academic problems, Will has the perfect solution: pretend he’s his twin, Nate. Will and Nate have swapped identities before so nothing can go wrong. Surely. Fleur is successful academically, but her love life is a failure. Following a number of disastrous dates, she finds herself falling in love with a guy who is lying to her. But Will’s deceit isn’t the only thing about to shatter her world. When another man Fleur trusted betrays her, and she attempts to retaliate, Fleur discovers how dangerous he is. And when Will becomes involved, the repercussions threaten both of their futures. Shuffle is the second standalone book in the Ruby Riot series and can be read separately to the first book.

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Purchase the previous book in the series

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CHAPTER REVEAL:

  WILL Touring with Blue Phoenix fooled us into thinking we’d hit the big time and would never return to our ordinary lives again. Yeah, Ruby Riot dominates our corner of the music scene, we’re bombarded with questions and posts on social media, fan mail, and the whole deal. But, at the end of the day, we’re three guys and a girl in a band. The band’s progress halted and life rewound when our lead singer, Ruby, danced off into the sunset with the Blue Phoenix guitarist and a baby on the way. Jax lost his shit over Ruby getting knocked up by Jem; but what’s the point in freaking out? She’ll come back; Ruby lives and breathes her music more than any of us. Apart from Jax, who was recently caught in feminine wiles of his own. Tegan, Bryn Hughes sister, kicked his backside into line in a spectacular fashion. I can almost see the thumbprint on his forehead. Things lulled as we finished the album and while Ruby has her baby. Then, we try again. So, me and Nate rewind several months, back to studying and fulfilling our promise to parents. Mine still think we need a back-up plan for when our little musical venture fails. If they’d bothered to pay attention to our lives over the last few months, Mum and Dad would know this isn’t likely to happen any time soon. We spent all our money from the tour within weeks. Now the choice is a job, which equals less time and energy to rehearse, or doing what the parents want and dutifully completing our degrees. No big deal, only a year left now. Okay, big deal because I fucked up last year. I need high marks in all my courses this year or I’m going to fail my degree. An Arts degree. Nobody fails an Arts degree. Living the rock star dream involved more than the odd weekend gig – rehearsals, obligatory partying, and girls. Hangovers equal missed lectures; but somehow, Nate juggled his student/rock star life as adeptly as his drumsticks. Nate studies the same course as I do, but we choose different class times. As only a handful of people in the world can tell us apart, between us we manage to attend at least one of the classes a week and keep our attendance average. Nate became slack at note-taking last year, his hungover haze interfering with the ability to open his laptop, but somehow he muddled through and passed. I came a tiny percentage away from failing the majority of courses. I only have myself to blame. The worst subject is history. Nate talked me into this as our major, and I agreed, thought it would be easy, but no. Hardly any classes to attend, but so much fucking study. We study English lit too; that’s easier to scrape through by reading notes and creating my own crazy theories. History is bloody complicated. Two weeks in, and things are off to a bad start. “Shit!” I throw my paper at Nate, across the table in the cafe. He looks at the assignment-marking sheet on the front and screws his nose up. “Oh, man. Fifteen percent? Was that for getting your name right?” “I’m fucked!” I grumble and sit next to him. “What about you?” “Sixty-three percent.” “How? How do you do that?” “Study?” “I do study!” “Study more.” I swear under my breath and pull out my phone. A text from Dee, the chick I hooked up with at the beginning of term; a starry-eyed Fresher who won’t take the hint I’m not interested. Times like this, I need to remind myself who I am. Will Campbell, bass player for Ruby Riot heading for the big time. Not Will Campbell, failing Arts student trying to keep his parents happy. “What the fuck do I do? I tried this time! Really tried. I’m shit at history.” “Man, if coming back to uni sucks this much, find a job instead.” No way. As long as I’m here, I have cash flow from my parents. I promised that when Ruby Riot started making more money, I’d pay them back a thousand times over. Behind their smiles of agreement, I see what they really think: never going to happen. “I can’t. I’m not doing some shitty job at a supermarket while I wait for Ruby to come back to the band.” “Well, suck it up, princess. Keeps Mum and Dad off our backs if we get a ‘proper’ qualification.” “When do you think they’ll believe we can make a living from the band?” “When we actually do. The album launches next month, we have a few small gigs lined up. A bit of cash. Ruby’s coming.” “With her kid?” “Dunno. Maybe baby-daddy Jem will come and babysit.” I laugh; we both do, at the image of Jem Jones – bad-mouthed, bad attitude, reformed addict – with a baby as his new accessory. “I’d pay to see that. Reckon he changes nappies?” Nate screws his face up. “Dude, I’m eating.” I steal one of his chips and watch the other students around. Most pay little attention to us, although we have hangers-on some days. Their belief we’re partying rock stars draws them to us, and the partying is one of the reason for my bad grades. Nate slurps from his can of energy drink. “There’s a study group if you’re that worried.” I stare. “Study group? Are you mad? I suppose that’s a group of chicks who meet in the evenings in the library and argue about feminist interpretations of history. Like the one in my class, can’t remember her name. Jeez, she doesn’t shut up and the guy teaching the class hardly gets a word in. No wonder I’m not learning anything.” “Just a suggestion.” He pushes my paper across the table. “Fail this semester and you’ll be stacking supermarket shelves.” “As if! What about the album? We’re gonna be big.” “There’s no guarantee, you know that.” Nate stands. “Whose turn is it to go to the Shakespeare class this afternoon? Yours?” “Oh crap, no, please don’t make me sit through that again. I bloody hate Shakespeare.” I stand too. “Your name sake? No affinity there? What did you expect when you signed up for Lit as part of your degree?” “Please,” I beg. “Do this. After that shit mark, I’m not in the mood.” Nate wrinkles his nose at my pleading look. “Fine, but you do the next two classes.” “I love you, man.” I grab the side of his face and kiss his cheek hard. Nate pushes me off. “Jesus, Will!” He hauls his messenger bag across his shoulders and wanders away. Slumping back in my seat, I chew my lip. Study group sounds like a viable option. Unfortunately.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Lisa is an author of new adult romance and writes both paranormal and contemporary, often with a side of snark. Lisa is originally from the UK but moved to Australia in 2001 and now lives in Perth in Western Australia with her husband, three children and dog.        

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter | Amazon

 

JANUARY 2016 PLANNER

READING

THE NIGHT CIRCUS BY ERIN MORGENSTERN

YOU BY CAROLINE KEPNES

#SCANDAL BY SARAH OCKLER

THE MAZE RUNNER BY JAMES DASHNER

DAYS OF THROBBING GRISTLE BY KEVIN COLE

CLOCKWORK ANGEL BY CASSANDRA CLARE

WRITING

WRITE 15,000 WORDS OF YOUR NOVEL

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism
Publication date: September 13th, 2011
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Pages: 512
Rating: 5/5

Summary:
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway--a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per-formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

My review:

"Marco lifts his hand to brush a stray curl away from Celia's face, tucking it behind her ear and stroking her cheek with his fingertips."

In my opinion, The Night Circus is one of those books that demands the reader's complete attention because there are so many informations and details to remember in order to fully understand the story. Also, I took my time reading this book because I wanted to stay in the magical world and in the atmosphere Erin Morgenstern created. It's so entertaining, magical and interesting that you just want to live in it.

I don't read a lot of magical realism books and I was intimidated by this book when I first heard of it last year. I thought that it wasn't for me and that I wouldn't be able to finish it, but now, a year later, this book just made my favourite list and I'm really glad I finally read it and experienced this amazing and magical journey.

I will definitely reread this book in the future because I know that there are some tiny details that I've missed and also because I really really enjoyed reading about all the characters in this book and the plot is amazing overall.

"When all of this is over, no matter which one of us wins, I will not let you go so easily."

I have to admit that the dates are a little confusing. When the story shifts to Bailey and then back to the two main characters, I was kind of lost, but it got easier towards the end so, don't worry.

The romance in this book was a little like the insta-love trope that a lot of readers, including me hate, but surprisingly I find it really really cute and sweet in this novel. I was swooning while reading the scenes when Marco and Celia were together. The love story is just wonderful!

Another thing, I found out that this particular book was written during Nanowrimo and that fact just motivates me to do better and to write a book in 30 days. 

Finally, I recommend this book to readers who wants to read something different or something out of their comfort zone. Like I said before, I don't really read Magical Realism, but I still enjoyed reading this, so if you are exploring for new genres, give this book a try. 

About the author:
Erin Morgenstern is a writer and a multimedia artist, who describes all her work as "fairy tales in one way or another." She grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts with two very fluffy cats.

Website: http://erinmorgenstern.com/