Okay, fine, it’s not actually Christmas yet.
BUT IT’S GETTING CLOSE.
School is over for the year. It feels like it’s both gone super-quick and super-slow. I have SO MUCH homework over the holidays, but I’m also going to be chilling out. Literally, because I’m going to England (have you heard it enough yet?).
And I have some final few books that I’ve received recently to show you.
Crash by Sean Williams – this is thanks to Kristy @ Book Nerd Reviews, as well as Allen and Unwin. I own the first book – now just to squeeze in time to read them!
Delirium by Lauren Oliver – my wonderful Secret Santa got this for me for Christmas! See, this is why I have awesome friends – they get me books.
The Elite by Kiera Cass – A friend of my sister’s gifted this to us (I mean, she’s going to claim it but I thought I’d put it in here anyway). I really liked the first book so it’ll be interesting.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – I actually put this in last week…but anyway, it’s from my Secret Santa from the Aussie YA Readers and Bloggers group.
Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill – this one’s thanks to Simon and Schuster. Hopefully I get a chance to read it before I leave for England!
Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews – ditto with this one. They both look really interesting and I can’t wait to dive in.
A School Christmas
We also had a little celebration at school for Christmas. We even decorated a tree.
Shut up, it’s beautiful.
ALSO, Cait from Paper Fury got me a Christmas card. And it exploded. Everywhere.
But it’s beautiful and I love it. I LOVE IT.
Books Read Since Last Week
I KNOW, only two books! But to be fair, there was a LOT of last-minute school stuff I had to do. Plus a presentation night that went for about twenty hours. Not fun.
My True Love Gave to Me was adorable and I loved it. Some stories were better than others, but overall, a very fun read – and such a beautiful book!
The Retribution of Mara Dyer…I….I don’t know what to think. I loved it, but the ending was kind of disappointing. But you can read all about that when I get around to reviewing it.
Currently Reading
I shall let you know what I think…
But so far I’m really enjoying it! Plus Alina is such a pretty name…
Reading Next
Because I can’t take these with me to England, and they’ll be short reads, and they look DELICIOUSLY CREEPY.
Gif of the week
You should all give yourselves self-fives for what has hopefully been an excellent year – I know mine has.
Posts on the blog
Monday: Gabrielle Tozer and I interviewed each other for the blog tour of her new book Faking It
Tuesday: the top ten Aussie releases of 2014
Wednesday: my writing wishlist – the things I’d like to write one of these days
Thursday: mini-reviews of Atlantia by Ally Condie and Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire
Friday: the heroine tag! Lots of excellent and not-so-excellent leading YA ladies
Saturday: I flailed about Faking It by Gabrielle Tozer
Look at me, posting every day of the week. Nice job, Emily. You deserve that self-five.
Anyway, I’ll be posting a couple of days before Christmas to let you know what you can expect while I’m over in Pommyland. There’ll be lots of photos when I get back, promise.
But just in case I disappear, I hope you all have a fantastic holiday period, whatever you celebrate or don’t celebrate, and make sure you all eat lots of food, yeah? Good.
I’ll see you all soon!
The Loony Teen Writer 
My library just purchased Rethinking Normal and Some Assembly Required! I would’ve checked them out, but… I was already over the limit. (We’re only supposed to have 10 books out and I had 20. Because I’m friendly with the librarians. 😀 ) Anyway. I’ll read them eventually, I suppose. 🙂
Omg, speaking of HP + Christmas, have you see the 2014 Twitter Yule Ball? The HP fandom is… wild, to say the least. 😛
YAY. I requested them because I’ve only ever read one book about a transgendered teen and I am pitifully ignorant. Lol knowing the librarians is always a good trick though 😉
The Twitter Yule Ball? Doesn’t surprise me. Those Potterheads can be crazy (I used to be part of that crazy fandom…now I’m content to sit on the outskirts).
Ooh, what was the book?
(Psst… it’s “transgender,” not “transgendered.”)
Ha, same here! Now I really only get excited about HP headcanons.
It was I Am J. And yeah, exactly – see how ignorant I am? Even Tumblr has been useless 😛 (plus Tumblr’s starting to annoy me lately…)
I used to write HP headcanons for a Facebook page. They were always sad for some reason haha.
YOUR COPY OF SHADOW AND BONE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!
I know what you mean by the ending of Retribution being tad bit dissapointing. I felt like that too for about a solid hour but then got over it. *shrugs* I’ve come to accept these way too open-ended endings. I blame Contemporaries…
I can’t wait to read My True Love Gave to Me! I’ve heard that some are A+++++ some are “I might read you again if if I finish my years long TBR” and some are just “You do not deserve to be in this anthology”.
Great post! Have fun with the book!
~Fari
ISN’T IT, THOUGH? Purple! Yay!
Yeah I was really disappointed with Retribution. I wanted something MASSIVE and it kind of…fizzled.
You’re right about My True Love Gave to Me. But it’s worth it just for the amazing stories 🙂
*dances in showers of glitter* YOU KNOW YOU LOVE THE GLITTER ALL OVER YOUR HANDS THAT YOU CAN’T GET OFF FOR SO LONG. *nods* Glitter is notorious. I don’t know why there’s not an apocalyptic book yet where they turn glitter in some sort of weapon. It’s phenomenally sticky.
But I’m glad you liked it. 😉
Eeeep I want to read Some Assembly Required! Mostly because I thought it was a book about teenagers battling IKEA, but still. Whatever it’s about: I need read it.
You know what, I’m going to write my funny dystopian about glitter. It’ll be glorious.
Also a book about teenagers battling IKEA. That sounds excellent.
Those Neil Gaiman books! They’re so pretty 😀 Happy reading!
THEY ARE. I love the illustrations too 🙂
Neil Gaiman wrote a story based on a fairytale? I must find this.
Yup! Oh, and Stardust by him is a fairytale for adults (the movie is better, though).
Have fun in London Emily!!
) And Merry Christmasss!!!
You know I’ve been to every bookstore I know to buy My True Love Gave To Me as a Christmas read, and NO ONE has it. 😦 It’s a shame, but oh well
I’m sure I will!
WHATT they didn’t have it?? I spied it in my Dymocks and nabbed it. 😀
:O Lucky! Nice grab!
Your tree is… okay, I will shut up about it. Hahahaha!
You got a card from Cait? That’s so awesome! And I’m glad you loved My True Love Gave to Me, it’s so beautiful! I even made a playlist for it. 😀 Self-five! 🙂
That is so rude 😛 It’s lovely.
I did! I’m going to treasure it forever and ever 🙂 OOOH a playlist! That’s so cool!
What? You’re going to England? I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED. 😉 Hehe, hope you have a great time over there, though. It’ll be amazing. 🙂 Also, that is a freakin’ awesome edition of Shadow and Bone. I’ve never actually seen that before. I think here it was originally published as The Gathering Darkness? Or at least that was the copy of it my libraries have. Ooh, I’m really interested to read your review of Retribution. 🙂
I KNOW, RIGHT? I’ve been so quiet about it! 😛 The Gathering Darkness? Actually that’s a pretty cool title too.
My review of Retribution will be up…soonish? I think? I’ve scheduled it for some time or another 😛
Ugh my internet is being a total as and I cannot see any of the pics in your post right now *sobs* And i’ve already tried refreshing. Anyhoo, I bet Cait’s card is beautiful as well as your school’s xmas tree, hahah!
merry christmas, lovely <33
Well I guess you’ll just have to come back and look at my glorious Christmas tree 😛
Yay for posting every day of the week and yay for self-fives! (They are awesome and I really need to get back to watching How I Met Your Mother because that is awesome and gah Xmas is only four days away!).
Haha your xmas tree looks pretty cool (tinsel can vamp up anything! :P)
DO I SEE NEIL GAIMAN?! Now I just want to jump into the screen (I may break it, and that would mean no laptop for a while, which is bad, remember that Mahima don’t jump on the Neil Gaiman books – BAD) ISN’T HE THE AWESOMEST WRITER EVER? (Obviously). I love Gaiman. We have a school library (go us!) and there’s a new librarian there and she loves The Graveyard Book to bits and we had a fangirl moment between the two of us for a bit. It was fun. 😀
Oh, and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
Self-fives are great. I don’t know why I get such weird looks when I do them. Hahaha tinsel is awesome, isn’t it??
Yessss Neil Gaiman is pretty good. Although I’ve been disappointed by some of his books 😦 I did love The Graveyard Book, though!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! 😀
Your secret santa has good taste when it comes to covers because that’s my favourite one of Delirium. The other one (that I own oh god) is just nasty hahahahaha
I totally knew you wouldn’t be the biggest fan of the Retribution ending…I just had this feeling hahaha BUT I CAN’T WAIT FOR YOU REVIEW!
AND YOUR SCHOOL IS SO COOL WITH THAT TREE. I remember mine just not caring lol
And it has such a nice-feeling cover. Ohhh did you get the one of the face on the cover? Lol.
You know me too well, Jess! But yeah I’ll tell you why in my review 😛
It’s not even my school! My friends and I just decided we’d decorate that little midget thing 😛
That must be wonderful to be on school holidays and now jetsetting away! It always seems like it’s so sudden isn’t it? I’m working until Christmas Eve and I haven’t had the chance to get into holiday mode yet. What a wonderful card from Cait! Congrats on your Shadow & Bone Secret Santa, have you guessed who it is yes?
My school attempted to have a Christmas celebration although it didn’t turn out exactly like it was meant to. We had a mufti day and decorated the whole school in tinsel. By the end of the day, there was no tinsel left. Everyone stole it LOL!
I really need to read Delirium – it looks so good! I have Shadow and Bone on my TBR pile but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. -.- Hope you enjoy England! 🙂