Liebster Award: Nominated and nominations!

After receiving my first nomination for the Liebster award i was dying of happiness, well not literally dying but i was seriously really happy! I'm sure that if i were to throw up the stuff that would come out would be liquid euphoria.

I'm really excited to get started! 

If you don't know what the Liebster award is, basically:

•  It's an award given to new bloggers in order to welcome them to the blogosphere.

 I was nominated by the lovely Morrighan Rose at Elysian Fields Book Reviews. I'd like to thank her very much for this award! :) much appreciated! 

The rules are simple: 

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you have nominated them for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!).

Now let's get started! Here are the eleven questions! 

1. What is your favorite genre of book to read and your favorite book from that genre?

Fantasy for sure. I love to read fantasy because it gives you this kind of escape from the real world.

My favorite book is Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, which is the third novel in the Throne of Glass series.

Heir of Fire will be released on September 2nd. Here is a link to my review!

2. If you could live in any world from a book, which would it be and why?

Hmm, that's a pretty hard question. There are so many worlds to choose from! Probably... Tril from Soulbound by Heather Brewer. Only because i'd get to be best friends with Kaya and kill graplars with bad-ass katanas! :D 

I just want to say that this book was great! Seriously, go read it. Now. There's lots of mystery and action. Just how i like it.

3. Who is your favorite fictional character of the same sex? Does this character remind you of yourself, or someone you would like to be?

Luna Lovegood! :D As you probably know (if you don't then what's wrong with you?!), Luna is a side character from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. She appears first in The order of The Phoenix(Book 5) and i positively love her. I don't really see myself in her because i'm never as calm as she is.

I'm usually all over the place.

She's just so cool. Everybody thinks she's high or something but she's actually really smart and... yeah, she's amazing.

4. Who is your favorite fictional character of the opposite sex? Why? 

mmmm. You can't make me choose! I'm torn between Chaol Westfal from Throne of Glass an George Weasley from Harry Potter :/ 

I can't pick... like, it's not possible. They're both awesome! I suppose... no, just no. I pick both of them! HA.I'm just bad-ass like that.

5. Tell me the most random fact about you. 

Wait, am I not supposed to give you 11 facts already? I'm cutting this from the others! Hmph, i'm not about to give up free information! 

 If I don't like a book's cover i probably won't read it.

I know, I know. Don't judge a book by it's cover... but come on. If you had to choose between this:

Or these:

Actually...One second thought. I'd probably read the zombie raccoons book Because hey, they're zombie raccoons! 

6. When did you start your blog, and why?

I started about a month ago... mainly because i was bored :/ Is that a bad thing? xD

7. If an alien invasion started tomorrow and you had to hide in a bomb shelter, name three things you would bring with you. 

Aside from the clothes i'm wearing? Probably food, water and matches.

8. How many books do you own? (Physical and e-books included)

Really? ...*sigh* Now i have to count all my Ebooks... this is going to take a while.

168 books. That's actually less than i expected! Hmm, that means i should get more *goes to goodreads*

9. If you could pick one supernatural trait to have, what would it be?

Like..ANY supernatural trait? um..compulsion would be kinda awesome. Jup, compulsion it is. I could just compel the whole world to love me :D and i could compel you to comment on this post! *wink wink* *nudge nudge* You should leave a comment!

10. What is your all-time favorite book or series?

Harry Potter. 

That's self explanatory.

11. What book are you most anticipating reading, whether it not be released yet, or you just haven't gotten around to it?

I can't wait to read A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sara J. Maas. She's currently one of my favorite authors and has never ceased to amaze me with her novels... Plus it's a Beauty and The Beast retelling! Whohoo! :D Oh, and it will be released on may 5th 2015! I can't wait!

Next up are 10 facts about bee! 

1. I sniff books. What? It's pretty addicting *sniffs book* Hmmmm....
2. Every now and then i get a reader's block and have to take a break from reading for at least 4 days :/
3. I have a dog! ^.^ Her name is Bruna and she's like the most annoying and stupid thing ever. I love her :D 
4. The letter "H" is missing from my keyboard. I know, so interesting huh?
5. Green candy is always the best. If you can pick a color candy; always take green.
6. I love Muse and Green Day :D 
7. I don't have a favorite color
8. I procrastinate waaaaay too much :/ It's a bad habbit.
9. I like to dance to rock music and sing along when i'm home alone... after making sure that all windows and doors are shut tightly xD
10. I have read through the night multiple times... for example the vampire academy series? Yeah, i read all 6 books in 2 days. 48 hours of reading. non stop... It was bad. And i drank too much coffee.

11 questions for my nominees!

1. There's a fire in your room! You only have time to grab one book and make a run for the door, which book is it?
2. Say, you get to interview any  author, either alive or dead, who would it be?
3. A new Twilight spin-off will be made! Love it or hate it? Why?
4. A cheesy romance novel or a toe-curling horror story?
5. Pure, milk or white chocolate? Why?
6. Honestly, do you reply to every review request you get?
7. Did you ever stop reading a book because it was "too much"?
8. What's the worst book you have ever read?
9. What book do you want to see as a movie? Which actor should play the main character?
10. What do you like the most about blogging so far?
11. Have you learned anything since you started your blog? If so, what did you learn?

Now, here are my 5 nominees! You've all earned it!

• Lauryn at April Books
• Whiskey & Bailey at Unladylike Reviews
• Lauren at Always Me
• Megan at Books of Fascination
• Laura at Blue Eye Books

Lots of luck,
Bee

The ZOMBIE apocalypse Book Tag!

Okay! So i found this Tag on youtube ^.^ It was invented by This Guy. He's really hilarious so go check out his channel!

Basically, I have chosen 5 physical books from my shelves. Each book will answer two questions. The first name I see when I flip through the book will be the answer of that question. For example: Who is the first to get shot? *opens book at random page* Daemon Black! Oh my, poor daemon *smirks* I will only go to your funeral if there's cake ;). Because i'm just that awesome.

5 beautiful books on my ugly table ^.^ 

Here are the books i chose! ------>

So the first book is Half Bad by Sally Green

 ^.^ I loved that book. It was really interesting and written beautifully.

Then there's the three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. In the picture you might notice that it's actually I Tre Moschettieri... That's because it's written in Italian :P

Next up is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by you know who. God i love this book so much! 

Aaaand then we have Catching fire by Suzanne Collins! Written in Dutch as you might have noticed :P.

I loved the hungergames.. Mockingjay was my favorite of the trilogy. You know, war and everything. I hated Katniss though. Selfish piece of human.

And LAST LAST BUT NOT LEAST we have Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!

Love this book. 'Nuff said.

Now let's get down to the actual page flipping skedaddle shall we? :D We shall!

The first book that i will use isssss *drum roffle* CATCHING FIRE! *throws confetti* 

First question for catching fire is The first person to die? Haymitch! D: No... i liked Haymitch... *cries* Ugh. Atleast he didn't turn into a zombie.

Second question for Catching Fire is The person you trip to get away from the zombies? Sad thing is... i totally see myself tripping someone xD Peeta! HA DIE PEETA! You won't be missed >:)

Next books will beeeeeeeeeeee Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!! *takes precious book in hands* Careful now...

Third question! The first person to turn into a zombie? Headless Nick... But he's already dead! D: that doesn't count! *flips again* Slughorn! hmm, i actually see him turning into a zombie xD Would be fun. I'd keep his head with me in a basket and sell it on Ebay ^.^

fourth question! The person that trips YOU to get away from the zombies? D:<  Marvolo What! I hate you right now! No way i'm joining your crew anytime soon! HMPH

Moving on to Half Bad! :D

Fifth question. The IDIOT of the team? Oh this is going to be interesting. Gabriel! HA he is an idiot though. I hated Gabriel. F you Gabriel! I'll kill you anyway if when you become a liability ^.^

sixth questionnn. The "brains" of the team? Jessica. WHAT no. I'm not going to be in this group if JESSICA is the smart one! D:< She's like the meanest, dumbest, annoyingest (yes, that's a word), traitorous bastard ever!

Get ready for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! yayyyyyyy *pets cover affectionatly*

seventh question! The team's medic? SCABBERS?! ...okay, i don't wanna be in this team anymore!

eighth question :D. The weapon expert? Oh this better be good. Ronald I don't know about you, but I don't see him handling a weapon... :/

And at last we have The Three Musketeers! :D :D :D 

ninth question. The Brawler? oehh, can I be the brawler? I could be like... a female Daryl Dickson, even though Daryl doesn't really brawl. Athos! Meh.. I can deal with that. okay. Atleast we have a decent brawler!

LAST QUESTION! :D The team CAPTAIN? *Lays book aside* No book needed. of course I will be the captain. How will you expect everyone to survive without me eh? 

wow :) This was actually pretty fun. Now.. time to tag some people! I tag:

• my buddies The Misses!
• Buddy Tia
• anyone that wants to do this tag! :D put down a link to your post in the comments if you decide to do this tag! :D That way i can read it :)

Lots of Luck,

Bee

Dangerous Reflections (The Adventures of Alexis Davenport, book one) By Shaw West

This book really surprised me, i thought it was going to be one of those stereo-typical girly teen novels where the whole book is about love but the author tries to hide that fact by adding some sort of supernatural skedaddle *cough* Lux *cough* 

But i actually really enjoyed it.

 

Alexis Davenport wants to go home. She hates her new school, her mother for moving her away from her friends, and her father for walking out.

To make matters worse, Alex is haunted by images of strange girls reflected in her mirror. It’s bad enough juggling homework, a relentless bully, boys, and a deadbeat dad; now, she must save the world from an evil presence hell-bent on changing the past – and our futures. Who knew her A+ in history was going to be this important?

Lets start with the plot. I think it was a very refreshing look on time-travel. To be honest, i've never really read any books on such a topic and i thought it would be kind of far-fetched. But hey, i read books about alternative universes where people fight each other with giant flaming pitchforks, so i can't really complain. 

That's actually the first thing that really surprised me, i found myself enjoying the idea of time travel and the way it was showcased in this novel.
I also was very shocked that i actually liked the romance that was going on, which wasn't a lot, but it was nice. I didn't like Beau at all, and i was expecting him and Alexis to end up together (thank the universe that it didn't happen). All in all it was very realistic when Alex was in school. There was bullying, jealousy, love and new-found friendships  ^.^ And the way she dealt with all of the crap everyone gave her just gave it all an extra ounce of realism and...fun.
Also, the action scenes and her time spend in the past were pretty good :). I loved the way she analysed everything and was able to recall all these little facts about important people. Like i said before, the time traveling was described in a very creative way. But... one thing that i found kind of strange is how calm she was when finding out that she could travel through time. Like, sure she was confused and everything, but she adapted pretty quickly and accepted all the stuff that was going on almost immediately.
I would probably have an emotional breakdown in the corner or something.
    I also loved the whole reason why she was traveling through time, (superhero! ^.^) it adds just the right amount of suspense to the book. I'm not often a fan of the whole good guy/bad guy thing, but Shay got me to the point of craving to know what the "evil intentions" of this Master guy were. I'm kind of mad that she left me in my suspense... after this review i'm diving into the sequel, Twisted Reflections, to figure it all out ;).

Alexis was a great character. There, i said it. She most certainly wasn't perfect, but very realistic and witty. What made me love her is that you can really see her grow up as you read. At first she's very insecure and doesn't want to stand up for herself. But as she travels through time and has all these experiences, she just becomes more confident and keeps caring less about what people think of her. It was really interesting to read. She was kind of mean to her mother, though. I really wanted to slap her several times when she gave her mother a hard time. But i suppose that's just how teens are *sigh*.
   Other than Alexis, the other characters really stood out. All of them had their own distinct personalities and were unique.

The best thing about this book was definitely the way it made my stomach turn every time Alex got into trouble while time traveling or when she got bullied. It really made me feel sad and i wanted it all to get better for her. When she started to stick up for herself and have fun i really got happy, to the point that i had this huge grin on my face and my family started asking what the hell was so funny that i had to keep laughing out loud while reading. I even found my heart rate picking up when there was some real action going on. That hasn't happened in ages, usually i just have an impassive face while reading, but Dangerous Reflections really got to me.

Oh, and can I just point out that the cover is BEAUTIFUL! Like, wow. It really catches your attention. I like it very much.

There was a pretty funny type-o that i want to share really quickly. there weren't many, but this one made me giggle. Even though it's kind of lame but oh well. ;). So.. after Alex gets kissed for the first time she's all happy and all of that. And then she thinks to herself: My fist kiss! yeah, fist. Not funny at all, i know. Just leave me and my bad sense of humor alone!  D':

I'll give this book 3 bright and shining golden stars! It wasn't perfect, but just fun and light to read. I really recommend this book to you if you're... into time traveling? Jup, i suppose that's right. Dangerous Reflections really is a page-turner and i read it in an hour or two.

That was it for now! You can expect a review of the second book in this series, Twisted Reflections, somewhere in September! I hope you'll be around for a while longer to check that out!

Lots of Luck,
Bee

At One's Beast by Rachel Barnard

Ugh.

That really sums up this book. Brace yourselves for the most negative review in the history of pandas.

Every girl and boy in the village of Frey fears the beast who lives in the forest. Ten years ago, the beast was formed from the town’s rage -- and the evil that lurks inside all people in moments of weakness. Every year since, the townspeople have sacrificed one of their own to appease his anger. This year the sacrifice does not go as planned. A young man saves the chosen girl from fate. She is torn between doing her duty and untangling the identity of her savior and captor. The young man grew up with thoughts of revenge on the town that turned their backs on him, but when he is close to the girl, he is reminded of who he used to be. From once upon a time to happily ever after, the people of Frey will have to rally together to rid the town of evil once and for all, but in the process will they destroy everything that is good in their world?

I wish i could say that At One's Beast at least started off good... but that would be a big lie. So, basically this novel evolves around the city of Frey. But there's some kind of "evil" lingering in the town? That's the first point of how bad this book was. The author gave no explanation whatsowever about this evil or how it got into Frey in the first place. She didn't explain why this Well was so important! Like... why? Why was this evil there, you can't just say EVERYBODY IS EVIL MWUAHHAHAHA and then just go along with that. NO, you can't. it ruined the book, darling. One of the main characters is Zosimos or "Zos" if you will, he fell into the "evil well" that i mentioned above. But that whole scene was so vague that i didn't understand what was going on at all. He heard "voices"in his head that compelled him closer to the well? WHY. Rachel, you need to give explanations, not leave open ends everywhere! It just made the whole reading a pain in the behind because nothing made sense.
Also, after Zos got pulled out of the well, he was covered in black stripes or something. Like tattoos ,i assume, that ran across his body.

Okay Bee, take a deep breath.

Also, i didn't connect to the characters at all. Whenever something happened that brought danger upon any character i just... got bored. I didn't care at al about Alcina, the female main character. The love triangle didn't affect me, because i couldn't be bothered to care about both boys. Alcina just claimed that Aethon was her childhood best friend... but we never saw any real interaction between them.

Hmm, oh. So another infuriating thing about this book is that Zos was supposed to be "the beast" of whom the villagers were all afraid of. But... i don't get WHY they were afraid of him. Because yes, when living in the woods he did raid some shops. But that's it. He didn't kill anyone. a as far as I know he hadn't seen any human for years... so why were the villagers still making a big deal out of him? He was living peacefully in his little house in the woods, nobody had even seen him. So there you have that question again. WHY. Nothing made sense.

I could rant on forever, but i think this is enough negativity for today. 

Okay, maybe just one last thing ;)

the ending... god. Spoiler alert right here.
So it's a happy ending. The people of Frey suddenly accept Zos because he saved some random girl. ... i don't.... WHAT?! For YEARS they were afraid of him. for YEARS they repelled him. And he saves one girl. i repeat, ONE GIRL. And he is welcome back with open arms? No. Fuck that. Also, for some magical reason the stripes on his skin vanish, except for one black tear streak on his cheek.

what

the

fuck

people.

No, just no. I dreaded reading this book. I kept procrastinating and just didn't want to read it -.-
I don't recommend this book to you. And Rachel, if you read this, please consider rewriting your book.
This awful novel deserves no stars at all. But am i allowed to do that? Whatever. 0 stars for At one's Beast.

Lots of Luck,
Bee