The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Hello Book Lovers!!!

I've decided to get my head stuck into another series and this time it's The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner. I thought this would be a great series to read now as the second film is coming out very soon and I still haven't seen the first film so this needs to happen soon!!!

I really don't know much about this series at all so I'm going into it pretty blind but so many people love this series and the first film was also loved by many people.

Is this going to be another series which gives me all the feels?!?!? Let find out!!!

So as you've probably guessed, this is the first book in the series and then I will be continuing on with the second book, The Scorch Trials :)

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx

Annie by Thomas Meehan - Review

Hello Book Lovers!!!

I've finished Annie by Thomas Meehan and I have to say I have a lot of thoughts on this book as it is quite a bit different to the film and I really didn't expect that!!! There are some parts I loved about the book that weren't included in the film and there were some bits in the film that I loved that unfortunately weren't included in the book. Anyway, lets get to it!!!

Annie is a little orphan girl who has spent most of her childhood growing up in a girls orphanage. Miss Hannigan, the owner of the orphanage is a nasty woman that treats the girls horribly. All Annie wants is to find her parents and get out of the orphanage.

After thinking about this properly, Annie realises she's never going to find her parents if she's stuck in the orphanage, so sneaks into the laundry basket the day it's due to be picked up. She escapes and finds herself on the streets of New York with no money, food etc.

After wandering the streets, she follows a guy who has been selling apples all day and finds a group of homeless people camping out under a bridge. She decides to stay with them but eventually gets caught by the police and taken back to the orphanage.

A young lady visits the orphanage who works for Oliver Warbucks, one of the richest men in the world and tells Miss Hannigan he would like to have an orphan stay with him over the Christmas period. Annie is the chosen orphan and when she arrives at Mr Warbucks' house she can't believe her eyes!!!

Annie and Mr Warbucks build a strong friendship and soon Mr Warbucks decides he wants to adopt Annie. But Annie tells him before he has chance to tell her the news, that she wants to find her parents. Mr Warbucks sends out a search party for Annie's parents and offers a $50,000 award for the finding of Annie's parents. Unfortunately only frauds come forward, including Miss Hannigan's brother and his friend/girlfriend, as they are only interested in the money.

Later on Annie discovers that her parents died just after she was taken to the orphanage. This upsets Annie greatly but after hearing about Mr Warbucks' offer to adopt her, she can't believe it. Miss Hannigan along with her brother and his friend/girlfriend get arrested and Mr Warbucks' makes sure the other orphans get adopted and live a happy life. 

As you can see, the book follows the storyline we all know and love, but there are a few differences, such as in the book we see the orphans in school and the trouble they have there. We also don't read about the famous scene in the film where Annie gets chased up the bridge. That isn't included in the book at all.

Overall I really enjoyed the book in terms of seeing Annie and the orphans in school and how they dealt with the bullying. I also liked the characters of the orphans and thought they were described really well. I knew which orphan was which as they were described well early on in the story.

I didn't however like how little they were in the book. I loved how much they were in the film and how they escaped to go looking for Annie when she got kidnapped by Miss Hannigan, her brother and his friend/girlfriend. As Annie didn't actually get kidnapped in the book, that whole section of the film wasn't written out and therefore the famous bridge scene didn't exist.

I would still definitely recommend this book as I really enjoyed the different take on the story, and it's a quick read so you can fly through it :)

Rating /5

4

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx

Annie by Thomas Meehan

Hello Book Lovers!!!

Lets start off the month with a story we have all heard of :) And that story is Annie by Thomas Meehan. It's a fabulous story but I've only ever seen the film, not read the book. I love the film so can't wait to read the book :) It won't take me long to read at all as it is a small book and the font is huge!!!

For all of you that have been living in a hole, Annie is an orphan girl who gets adopted by Oliver Warbucks, the richest man alive!!! I'll post a more in depth synopsis in my wrap up so keep your eyes open for that :)

Can I also just say, how cute is this cover!!! I love it :)

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx

August 2015 Wrap Up

Hello Book Lovers!!!

It's Wrap Up time!!! I had an amazing reading month this month mostly so I can't wait to share what I've been reading and what I thought of them all :) Just like all wrap up's I will also be letting you know what my favourite read of the month was this month at the end of this post :)

So lets get started!!!

The first book I read this month was The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Wow, this book deserves all the hype it gets. I loved it. Following Bilbo's journey with the dwarves to claim the treasure that Smaug the dragon was guarding, and reading about all of their troubles on the way was just incredible. Tolkien is definitely an amazing writer and I will definitely be reading The Lord of the Rings series. I gave The Hobbit 5* on Goodreads.

The next book I read was a graffic novel. It was Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom by Bill Willingham and Lauren Beukes.

This is the 2nd volume in the Fairest Series and I wasn't disappointed :) We follow Rapunzel in her journey to find her children and during her journey, having to reface parts of her life she would rather forget. I wouldn't recommend this to younger readers however as some of the content isn't suitable. I gave this 5* on Goodreads.

The 3rd book I read this month was The Elite by Kiera Cass.

This is the second book in the Selection Series and as I loved the first book I had high expectations for this one. And I wasn't disappointed. I absolutely loved it!!! I loved reading about all the characters and learning more about them all. As well as that, the invasion scenes are fantastically written and kept me intrigued the whole way through :) I gave this 5* on Goodreads :)

And the fourth book I read this month was The One by Kiera Cass

This is the final book in the Selection Series and it was concluded so well!!! With both the invasions on the castle and Prince Maxon still needing to choose his bride, you just wanted to find out more and more constantly. I was so happy with how it ended and the wedding at the end was just perfect :) I also gave this book 5* on Goodreads :)

The next book I read was The Heir by Kiera Cass

This is the first book in the sequel series to the Selection Series. As I enjoyed the Selection Series so much I thought I would give this series as read. The other books to this series aren't out yet but I will be picking them up when they are :) Although I still thoroughly enjoyed this story, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the previous books and that is because I really didn't like Eadlyn, the princess that was running the Selection. Other than that though I still really enjoyed the story and I'm excited for the next book to be released :) I gave this 4* on Goodreads :)

And the final book I read this month was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This book has been so hyped and therefore I went into it with fairly high expectations. Unfortunately it didn't reach my expectations. I liked the book layout, how it changed between Nick and Amy's perspectives, but I felt it was dragged out way to long and that the book could have been half the size. I only gave this book 3* on Goodreads.

So there are all the books I've read this month. I think overall I've had an amazing reading month and because of that, it's making my next decision for my Favourite August Read very difficult. But I think I've decided.

And the award for Favourite August Read goes to.....

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien!!!

You just can't fault Tolkien's work and although I've loved a lot of books this month, this is the one that gave me the biggest book hangover I think I've had all year.

So that's it for August!!! All of my reviews of the above books are also posted on this blog so you can find them down the right hand side :)

Let me know in the comments what you've been reading this month and I'll speak to you all in September!!!

xHannahx

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Review

Hello Book Lovers!!! 

It's time to share my thoughts on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn :) Now, this book has been hugely hyped and so I had quite high expectations going into it. But I can't say I was that impressed.

This book is about a wife called Amy who goes missing and Nick her husband has been getting framed for her murder. 

Each chapter is either from the perspective from Amy or Nick and throughout we learn more and more about each of the characters. At the beginning, it has been written for you to hate Nick but as the story continues, you realise that Amy isn't such an innocent character after all.

Before long you will probably start feeling sorry for Nick and hating Amy.

Like I said above, I didn't like Gone Girl as much as I hoped to and here are some reasons as to why. The story was dragged out way to long and I think the book could have been half the size. I also think that the ending of the book was terrible. You don't expect it which is great but it's just not what I wanted from the story at all.

However, with most books, there are also a few good points so I will also share those with you. I liked how the chapters changed from Amy's perspective to Nick's. I have read a few books like this and enjoyed all of them so I think that kind of layout of a book is something I enjoy. I also liked Margo (Go), Nick's sister. She was probably the only likeable character in the story for me. Even when I started to feel sorry for Nick, I still didn't particularly like him. I understand that you aren't meant to like certain characters but I just felt because it got dragged out so much, I got bored reading about them.

I do really like the idea for the story but for me it just wasn't brought across as well as it could have been.

Rating /5

3

I actually feel like I'm being a little generous on that rating but I didn't hate the book and there were some things I did actually like so that is why I decided to give it a 3/5.

As well as reading the book, I have also watched the film today and although it kept me on the edge of my seat a lot, I also felt like after a while I was getting bored. 

Rating /5

3

Maybe this story just isn't for me and I will obviously love reading about your opinions on both the book and the film so leave those in the comments below :)

That's all for now but be sure to check out my August Wrap Up which will be coming super soon!!!

Speak to you all then :)

xHannahx

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Hello Book Lovers!!!

The next book I'll be reading is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I have no idea why I haven't read this before now as it's been super hyped but I'm reading it now so that's fine right? My sister has already read this and she says it's one of her favourite books so I'm hoping to enjoy it as much as she did. 

I don't know much about this book so I'm going into it pretty blind as I've not seen the film either but I'll probably give that a watch after I've read the book so I'll let you know what I think of that as well :)

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx

The Heir by Kiera Cass - Review

Hello Book Lovers!!!

I've finished The Heir by Kiera Cass and I really enjoyed it :) Although this book took me longer to get into that the original Selection Series, once I got into it, I loved it!!!

In the first book of this series we see Princess Eadlyn begin her Selection process. Princess Eadlyn is the daughter of America Singer and Prince Maxon from the previous series. 35 boys are chosen to take part in the Selection process and Eadlyn soon finds out that one of them is her mother's friends son, Kile, who already lives in the palace. The 35 boys arrive at the palace and it's safe to say that Eadlyn is not impressed by this process one bit. She has no interested in finding a partner and definitely no interest in getting married.

She tells her parents that she will give it 3 months minimum for the public's entertainment but she is not interested in any of it. Not long into the process she makes a decision to go forward with an elimination. This shocks a lot of people as it has been done so early on but she begins to eliminate anyway.

And in one elimination she manages to get rid of 11 boys!!! Leaving one of them in tears. Eadlyn wants to show the suitors who is the boss and so acts rather stern to them all. The boys start to take it into their own hands organising dates as Eadlyn has no interest in doing so. These dates include cooking, performing, playing musical instruments etc. She also finds her self in trouble on a couple of occasions where the suitors have treat her badly and get them eliminated immediately. 

After some time, Eadlyn begins to relax a bit more and enjoy some of the boy's company, including Kile's which she never thought possible. But just as things begin to look more promising, Eadlyn finds out that her brother has left for France to marry and her mother has suffered a heart attack.

Like I said earlier, this book took me a little longer to get into and I think that was because I felt it was slow at times. I also didn't like Eadlyn as much as I liked America. But as the story progressed I began to like her a lot more and felt she opened up a lot to the suitors.

I have grown to love some of the suitors, including Henri, a Finnish boy that speaks no English and needs Erik, a translator to help communicate with Eadlyn. Some of the boys I find to be too clingy and aren't going the right way in winning Eadlyn's heart, especially as she has little interest in finding love.

The only thing I didn't like so much about this book throughout was the lack of Prince Maxon and America. Although they aren't the main focus in this series, it would have been nicer to hear more about how their relationship has developed throughout the years and I don't feel like we got that.

I can't wait to read the next instalment of this series but unfortunately it's not due to be released until May of next year!!! How am I going to wait that long!!!

Rating /5

4

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx