A fantastic insight into our beloved fictional home, Hogwarts. I loved learning more of its secrets and some interesting facts about artefacts such as the Mirror of Erised and the Marauder's Map. It's interesting to see J. K. Rowling's opinion on the world that she created as she reflects honestly on items such as the Time Turners. I've loved each of the shorts in this Pottermore series.

I actually liked this book more than I liked Shadow and Bone. There was so much character development for Alina and I loved it! I also really like the way this plot is developing and I thought the new characters that were introduced were all great too.

Siege and Storm picks up where Shadow and Bone left off. Alina and Mal are on the run from the Darkling but it's not long before they are back in his hands. With the assistance of the charming Sturmhond

aka PRINCE NIKOLAI - he is swoon worthy, let's be honest!

, they once again make their escape from the Darkling, this time ending up back in Ravka in the Little Palace.

As far as the plot went, I felt that we made more baby steps than huge bounds. I am in love with the direction that this plot is being taken but I felt that overall the plot was a little slow in this book (must remember this is the second book in a trilogy!!). I did, HOWEVER, love the amount of information I was able to learn and soak up in this book. I learnt a lot about the Grisha and their power, I learnt about some Grisha history and I really, really care about what happens to the Grisha and Ravka. That being said, there is some serious action towards the end of this novel and I loved every second of it!

The characters continue to be incredible. Alina experiences such enormous character development in this book. I love seeing how her personality is transforming into something much more sinister at the same that her power is developing and building. I can't wait to see where she will end up in book 3. I fell in love with Sturmhond in this book. He is such a charming little devil and I love that he is a complicated character with many faces and layers. Mal continues to be Mal. I liked him a lot more in the first book, I felt that he became a lot more whiny in this installment, but we shall see. The Darkling was as creepy as ever (despite not physically being there for most of the book!). I also liked the addition of Tolyar and Tamar. I think they are great characters and I love their loyalty to Alina.

I loved being wrapped up in this Russain-esque world that Bardugo has created. I adore the characters and I think the plot has a strong direction. I'm really looking forward to what Book #3 will bring!

Okay, I've finally gathered my emotions enough to write this review.

4.5*'s

Ruin and Rising takes us on a journey to locate the firebird and unite Alina with the third and final amplifier that she requires if she is to beat the Darkling. Mal, Genya, Zoya, Tolya, Tamar and David all accompany us on this journey, as well as a few others. After a plot twist that I was not expecting, Alina finally faces the Darkling in a battle of destruction.

There were a lot of things that I really liked about this book: the plot twist with the final amplifier struck me side on, I was not expecting that at all; Genya and David were the cutest; the building tension in the second half of the book as we neared the final meeting; Alina learning to manipulate and use her power more; the Darkling became even more layered than I expected him too and we actually saw quite a lot of emotion from him here and I just generally really liked the whole story.

The characters were excellent, once again. There were huge leaps of character development throughout this book. I love the way that Bardugo writes her characters. They all somehow feel relatable, even in a world so different to ours. I particularly like Genya and Zoya as characters, there is something about these women that really connects with me. Nikolai is as charming as ever and I couldn't get enough of his interactions with Alina.

As far as the romance went (and I'm not going to spoil this!), I genuinely think that Alina could have ended up with Mal, the Darkling or Nikolai. She certainly had a connection with each of them. Despite some insta love back at the beginning of the series, I was actually pleased that the romance didn't completely take away from the plot and actually it was a welcome part of this series.

I've seen quite a lot of reviews that say they weren't happy with how this series ended. I actually think that Bardugo tied up this trilogy nicely. Most of the characters were given an ending and the final few chapters felt quite emotional. I LOVED the epilogue, I loved seeing what they (mysterious couple) had achieved with the rest of their lives and it just seemed so perfect to me.

The Grisha trilogy has an exceptionally well built universe with an incredible cast of characters and a strong plot. I know that for as long as I shall live, I will autobuy anything and everything that Leigh Bardugo writes.

I had been toying with the idea of reading this book for quite some time before I actually picked it up. I have been a fan of the film adaptation for a while now and with Halloween fast approaching I thought this was the perfect time of year. I have only read two other King novels previous to The Shining and I've enjoyed his writing style.

I found the first 30ish pages seemed to take me FOREVER to read. In fact, I was very close to giving up as I was convinced it would end up taking me weeks to finish this book having only succeeded with a few chapters in a few hours. However, knowing how much I enjoyed the movie and that things were sure to pick up pace, I stuck with it. Little did I realise how addictive this book was going to be. One minute I was on page 33, a couple of hours later I had read over 200 pages. Then I ended up sat late into the night to get it finished.

Despite the slow start and a few chapters which felt a little irrelevant, this suspense and horror build beautifully in this book. King really is a master of suspense. I loved how, as readers, we subtly detect the changes in Jack's personality as the Overlook starts to take hold of him. The constant wiping of his lip, the muttering to himself, the vivid visions he has of the murder of his wife and son. These build slowly over time and lead us to a hell of a conclusion at the end.

I liked the family dynamic in this book. They were by no means an ideal family at all but a family who were fighting for each other. Even at the very end, Danny does not want to give up on his Daddy. I liked Danny as a character and I was interested by the concept of his 'shine', although I did frequently forget that he was supposed to be five years old. There was a huge amount of dialogue with Danny in the book which I wasn't expecting as he is more quiet in the movie.

This book is full of plenty of creepy scenes and definitely gave me those horrible shivers down my spine at times. All in all this was a great book and I can see why it is such a popular read. With The Shining, King has created a terrifyingly horrific story that will stay with me for a long time.

A super quick yet entertaining read from the Harry Potter world. I love how much detail J.K. Rowling has created about the Wizarding World. It is very easy to forget that Quidditch is fictional whilst reading this. I love everything that JKR shares with us about this world and I thought this was a great addition to the Hogwarts Library.

I think that maybe this just wasn't my type of book. It was a SUPER quick read, I read the whole thing in just under an hour and that's not because I skim read or rushed, but because the style of the book allows for a very quick read.

This is a series of 20 prose-poems. They are from 20 different characters and the poems are linked to each other in some way. I liked the idea behind this but I've never been a huge lover of poetry. I thought that some of the poems worked really well and I was able to make strong connections with the characters in a very short space of time. On the other hand, some of the poems gave very little for me to attach to and also didn't seem to lead me anywhere.

A great idea and a diverse read, but the writing style wasn't quite my cup of tea.

I've had an ebook of The Maze Runner for well over two years now and for some reason I just never felt the need to read it. I had seen the film before reading this but couldn't remember a single thing about it, needless to say that I will watch it again now that I've read the book.

This is your classic young adult dystopian and I think I arrived to this series a little too late to really be captured by it. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this book. I thought it was a well crafted story and a unique idea. It just doesn't seem to have the exciting and addictive thrill to it that I had when I first read series such as The Hunger Games or Divergent. Granted, I read those a few years back and I definitely think that my feelings towards The Maze Runner are strongly linked to missing my peak time for reading this.

I really liked the world that Dashner has created here. There is no doubt that this is a well thought out novel with plenty to keep the reader guessing and moving swiftly through the story. The short chapters were really useful in creating more of a rhythm whilst reading this and I often found myself thinking 'just one more'. I really, really liked the fact that Dashner created his own dialect for the Gladers. It struck me as odd and disjointed when I first started reading the book, however, similar to Thomas, it did not take long for me to catch on and soon I was reading the dialect as if I used it myself. I thought this was a clever way of engaging us as readers to Thomas' new surroundings. We're just as new to this as he is.

I thought there was an interesting array of characters. I did like Thomas, although he seemed a little too perfect at times. I was really interested in Teresa's character (a female, finally!) and I'm looking forward to learning more about her and Thomas' connection as there is definitely a lot more to them. I liked how it turned out that the boys' names linked with different scientists, another clever element. Chuck was probably my favourite character. I just thought he was completely adorable and I loved his loyalty to Thomas.

There is certainly plenty to like about this series, I just wanted something more exciting. It has definitely given me enough of a flavour to continue with this series at some point and I'll definitely be watching the film again to see if I actually understand it this time!

Never for a second did I think that Gemina could possibly be as good as Illuminae but I was proven wrong. This is another fantastic novel from Kaufman and Kristoff, I just can't get enough of this series.

Although there are still links to Illuminae and cameos from some of our favourite original characters, Gemina is very much a whole new story. I really liked the new characters. I thought that Hanna, Nik and Ella were all very different to one another and I was somehow able to identify with all of them, something which is essential for me when reading a book. Hanna is sassy and strong-willed, Nik is a softie deep down and Ella is actually pretty badass. There were some really funny moments between these three and I really felt quite attached to them.

The plot was exciting but maybe not quite as thrilling as Illuminae. Whereas the idea of the Phobos virus was completely terrifying, I wasn't so terrified by the alien-like creatures in Gemina. I mean, they weren't exactly fluffy puppies but I didn't really feel that they featured enough to truly be scary to me as a reader. Saying that, plenty happens and this book is still rammed full of delicious twists and turns that kept me wanting more.

I again loved the formatting of the book. These books are so unique to me and I honestly will never get bored of them. I would have really loved to see more of the doodles from Hanna's journal that we saw at the beginning. There were a lot of surveillance reports in this which made it feel wordier than Illuminae, but this didn't affect me enjoyment at all.

The ending of this book was so abrupt that I found myself searching for more pages. I'm not sure how I'm going to wait for the next instalment!

The first thing I have to say is that it took me a while to really get into this. I am a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles and dived into this thinking it would be a fantastic retelling of the famous Alice in Wonderland. At first I was disappointed to find that it wasn't what I expected at all. Heartless is not a retelling (I think I just convinced myself it would be), at least not in the way that TLC were. Heartless is the side of the story we never really saw: the childhood of the Red Queen.

I'm a big Alice in Wonderland fan and I've always loved the Red Queen and how she is portrayed. I think she is a fantastic villain and once I got used to the book, I was fascinated to see Meyer's take on Cath's childhood and how she ended up becoming the Red Queen.

The instalove did put me off a little but this really is a wonderful story with plenty to keep you busy. There are endless description of food, especially desserts, so you may want to have a snack with you whilst you read this.

The plot was slow at times, towards the beginning I really didn't know where this was going, but it did pick up a lot towards the end of the book. I particularly liked the descriptions of the Three Sisters and Cath, Jest and Hatta's journey to reach Chess. My favourite scene from the whole book has the be the chapter about Hatta's tea party where we are reunited with some old friends such as Hatta, Haigha (Hare) and the little dormouse.

The characters were well built. I really liked Cath as a character and the way in which she started out as such a loving, caring person and seeing her journey to becoming the Red Queen. She went through some serious character building throughout this book which I enjoyed.

All in all I thought this was a really interesting read and I wasn't disappointed. Great characters, a charming story and an original idea. Another great book for fans of retellings.

3.5 stars

Contemporary novels are not my usual choice but I had this one on my Kindle and thought I would give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I read this. It was an easy read and the writing style was simple and addictive.

The Distance Between Us tells the story of Caymen, a girl who lives with her mother and works in their doll shop (a little creepy), and Xander, the rich son of a client, who Caymen quickly falls for.

Most of this book is spent looking at the reasons why Caymen feels that Xander is out of her league and it all boils down to their class difference. I liked how realistically this was portrayed and how the differences between them were so obvious in a material world, yet emotionally those differences didn't matter. I thought that this was one of the most important messages in this book.

There was too much of an 'instalove' element for me, which is why I usually don't get on too well with contemporary novels. I was most intrigued by the background story of Caymen and her mother and the secret her mother was so obviously hiding from her. To me, it felt like the story ended just where it was picking up most. I would have loved a few more chapters exploring what happened next in the story of Caymen, Xander and her mother. It just finished too soon.

I really liked Caymen as a character. Yes, she certainly had her flaws, but her sarcastic nature really made me connect with her. I laughed out loud several times whilst reading this because I knew exactly how Caymen felt in certain situations. Some of the responses she gave were so similar to the kind of thing that I would say and I loved how real that made her feel as a character. Kasie West certainly has a lot of wit about her.

On the whole this was a lovely read. A nice story line with some interesting twists and turns, I just felt that there were a few too many loose ends that needed to be tied up to make it 4*'s.