Top 5 Crime Novels

First can I apologise for our weird activity last week, it was a busy week for us but we’re back and ready to roll. This week we decided to pick our top five Crime novels because I don’t know about Ellie but its one of my favourite genres.

1. ‘I let you go’ by Clare Mackintosh -Honestly I can never stop singing praises for Clare Mackintosh’s books. I adored I Let You Go and I See You was just as good! Both were packed with thriller vibes and I loved their plots. Both of her current novels are fantastic standalones and it’s no surprise that they’re my first thought when I think of my favourite crime novels.
2. Clive Cussler novels – Cussler has been my guilty pleasure for as long as I can remember. It’s definitely not the sort of thing that people would expect me to read but I can’t get enough of the Oregon crew series and the others are quite good too!
3. ‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn – How could this not make it to the list? I mean this book was all kinds of messed up (in a good way) but I didn’t suspect any of it which what makes it such a great crime novel.
4. Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen – Basically any one of the books from her Rizzoli and Isles series. They’re great and it’s got to be one of my favourite crime series, Tess Gerritsen is such a great writer. There’s actually a tv series called ‘Rizzoli and Isles’ based from her books.
5. Bones series by Kathy Reichs  – Once again this isn’t a specific book but her whole series based around Temperance Brennan and once again there is also a tv show called ‘Bones’ based around these books. If you haven’t heard of them or you’ve watched the show but haven’t read the books I’d definitely recommend you do so!

Top 5 Super Powers

It’s Monday again, I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with this day – personally our plus side of it is doing our top 5. It’s one of my favourite posts we do. This week we decided to do top five superpowers, mainly because I’ve just finished reading ‘Starcrossed’ and there are quite a lot of powers and abilities in the book so we thought it would be cool to pick our personal favourites. We’d love to hear some of yours too, so comment down below what power you’d have if you could have any.

1. Flying – Wouldn’t you just love to be able to fly anywhere you want? There would be no stopping you. I’ve always liked the idea of just being able to fly away from all your problems and visit somewhere new. Could you imagine just flying over to Italy or France for some dinner? This is literally the best power ever in my opinion.
2. Water Manipulation – There’s a lot that comes under this heading and maybe I just miss the good old H20 days, but water manipulation has always been my favourite super power, for as long as I can remember. I always loved the idea of manipulating water, whether it was just to make giant bubbles or for splashing around in like an idiot. If I could have any ability, it would have to be this one.
3. Clairvoyance – If you’d be allowed to use your powers for personal gain, this would definitely be the power to have. You could do so much with it. The best being able to predict the lottery numbers.
4. Chronokinesis – I’m one of these people that always feel like time is slipping away, and I always worry that time is passing me by to quickly. I think it’s because of this that I would love to be able to have some sort of control over time, whether that would be to slow time down and cherish the moment or just something else. I think this is a power everyone would love to have after thinking about the possibilities with it.
5. Invisibility – Yes, we’re suckers for the traditional. But who doesn’t love a bit of invisibility. This is one of the most popular super abilities used in modern literature, but also one of the most underused, as far as I’m concerned anyway! Harry had the invisibility cloak for how long and never once did he use it for a fun prank (not even on Umbridge)! How fun would that have been? Then there’s all of the battles that could have been made much easier with a bit of invisibility goodness. I just really love this super power, okay?

Top 5 First Meetings

It’s that week, it’s the week! The week that Paige and I finally meet for the first time and I’m so excited! We’ve been friends for so long that it seems insane that the two of us haven’t met yet but it’s finally going to happen! So we just had to choose this for our top 5 of this week! There’s plenty of cute first meetings, but these are our favourites!

1. On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher – This has to be one of the cutest meetings that I’ve ever read in a book! It’s not so much a singular meeting than a series of meetings but the basics are that the two of them met in a train station. He was a busker and she was a passenger and when she passed she left him a sweet every day until he finally asked her out on a date. In my opinion it was adorable and I think that Carrie did an amazing job with coming up with this one!
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre’s first meeting with Mr Rochester had to make it to our list. The scene is so dramatic and intense! And to top it off she doesn’t even realise he’s her employer – talk about awkward! I’d hate injuring my boss the first time I met them!
3. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini  – Imagine meeting a stranger for the first time and then just attacking them for no apparent reason, and to top it off – doing it in front of the whole school. Embarrassing right? That’s why Helen and Lucas’ first meeting had to make it to our list. If you haven’t read starcrossed, I’d certainly recommend it!
4. Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan – One of the most rememberable first meetings of all time was when Percy met Thalia for the first time. After all, how many times can you say that you’ve seen a tree turn into a person? Not many I’d bet, but for Percy that was the first time that he ever met Thalia Grace. Bit spectacular, right?
5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Finally we want to close by quickly mentioning Cinder by Marissa Meyer. There’s an abundance of ways that two people could meet and this one could be considered slightly overused but I really loved the way it was done. Cinder works on a stall at the local market and that was when the prince suddenly turned up out of nowhere. The prince! At her stall! Of course she just had to be embarrassed by her robot best friend.

Do you have any favourite first meetings? If so feel free to tell us!

Top 5 Gold books

So we know that we did top 5 book covers for this month last week, but when we were coming up with a theme for the top 5, the most obvious choice would be the olympics! And as we haven’t really read many sports-themed books (suggest some if you know some 😉 ) we decided to celebrate Adam Peaty setting a new world record and winning the first gold medal for the UK! Way to go Peaty!!

1. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir is the most obvious choice for gold books as far as we’re concerned. Not only does it look amazing anyway but the gold specks scattered across the cover of this hardback are mesmerising. It’s such a gorgeous book and one of my favourite book covers.
2. The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne is a bit orange and a bit yellow as well but we love the cover of this colour and it does technically have a bi of gold in there! My favourite thing about this hardback is when you actually ditch the jacket and reveal the golden stamp against the black background of the book. It looks amazing.
3. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini is the third book in the Inheritance trilogy, which was one of my favourite reads when I was younger. I adored the story of Eragon and though the film didn’t exactly do it justice, Paolini created a magnificent world. I just had to stick Brisingr in here because of that and also because I love the covers in this series and the golden dragon in this one is so majestic!
4. Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Leviathan So although I haven’t actually read this book or any other books by Leviathan but the cover was gold and sparkly which seemed to be a must for our list. I did read a few reviews of the books and they seemed to be positive.
5. The Travelling Bag by Susan Hill I love the title of this book, but the reason we picked it was the gold accents on the front cover and it was super pretty. I’m almost tempted to add this to my to read list just because of the cover and title.

Top 5 Book Covers

It’s Monday, obviously, but it’s also the first of the month which I don’t know about you guys but I find it so satisfying that the first day of the month is Monday. Anyway, I’m going off track! I don’t know if you remember but Ellie and I decided to do top 5 book covers once every two months. You can find out last one here, now it’s come to that time again which we’re super excited about because we love just talking about all the pretty book covers that we’ve seen.

1. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff – I tweeted about this cover when he did the new cover reveal because it was super pretty. I do like the original cover too though because that’s super pretty too. I honestly don’t know which one to get! I might just wait until he released the new cover and then guy that one, but I might buy the original cover too because why not?
2. Rebel of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton – I haven’t read this yet but it’s definitely on my to read list! The cover is what first attracted me to it. I love it. It kind of reminds me of the Egyptians, with the blue and gold colours, which kind of makes sense seems as it’s based in a desert. Anyway, I think I would be so shocked if someone told me they didn’t like the cover.
3. Riverkeep by Martin Stewart – This cover has the same sort of colours as ‘Rebel of The Sands’, so maybe it’s something about the colours that’s made me love the covers so much. I’m not quite sure what it is, but either way they’re so beautiful. This one is bold and eye catching yet it still has a sort of mystical feel to it.
4. The Raven King by Maggie Steifvater – I just really got into the Raven Cycle series and I’m currently working my way through them all. The moment I finished Raven Boys I just had to order the rest and it was only when the others turned up that I finally got to see the covers for them and I just fell in love with the Raven King in seconds. I adore the watercolour, blended effect that the cover designer created on the deer. It looks amazing.
5. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare – Cassandra Clare’s books always have gorgeous covers (especially the reprints for her the Mortal Instruments series. The spines!!) but we both agreed that Lady Midnight was especially beautiful. Maybe we just love blue but this one really got to us! It’s gorgeous to look at and the fact that it has a killer plot as well doesn’t affect our decision at all. Nope.Not at all we tell you… Maybe 😉

Top 5 Vampire Novels

There’s no reason for this one. We just like vampire novels. Cool? 😉

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker – This of course had to make it to the list, I mean, it’s a classic after all. I’m pretty sure this was probably one of the first vampire novels I’d ever heard of. It wasn’t until a few years after that when I first read it. I wouldn’t say it was an easy read, but I do think it’s a good one. I could probably think of better but it’s on our top five because it’ll always be a classic and it always be the first book we think of when we think about vampire novels.

2. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – It was actually only this year that I read this book. I had to read it for my Gothic module in university, not many people know this but this book actually came before Dracula, so I guess you could say this is one of the original vampire novels. Considering when the book was actually written, it’s quite risque and I’d even go as far to say it was written out of it’s time as it includes subjects that would have made people in the era the book was written uncomfortable.

3. The Stoker & Holmes series by Colleen Gleason – What’s there not to love about steampunk? And vampire hunters? Especially when Sherlock Holme’s neice and Bram Stoker’s sister are the main characters. These books got me so hard. I just adored the two main characters and they clashed so much but still managed to be utterly badass! I was addicted in minutes and I just found out there’s a third book, so I’ll be snatching that up pretty quickly!

4. Night World by L. J. Smith – Night World is one of those series that I love. But I hate. Or rather I hate L. J. Smith. The series was first released back in 1996 with Secret Vampire and although I didn’t start reading them until 2009, I loved them! The books are awesome and all of the character plots intertwine so well. The only sad bit is that we still don’t have an ending! It’s heartbreaking! L.J. please tell us what happens!!!!!!

5. Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley – I came for the pun (and the pretty cover, I won’t lie) and ended up staying for the plot. It was super cute and pretty funny at times and I just adored Mina as a person! Her snarky comments about our modern day views on vampires (Myth: Vampires sleep in coffins. Truth: That’s totally gross. It would take a total freak to want to sleep in a coffin.) were brilliant and had me laughing so much. This was such a fluffy fun read and just like Stoker & Holmes, it’s a nice twist on the usual vampire books.

Top 5 Summer Reading Spots

The UK is currently experiencing what is expected to be the hottest week/s of the year and we’re all melting! It’s the perfect time for ice cream and chilling in the garden but Paige and I were arguing over our favourite Summer reading spots, which leads up to this top 5.

1. The Car – While I couldn’t possibly imagine sitting and reading in a hot car, this is one of Paige’s favourite places to read. She loves reading in the car on a way out for a Summer adventure. I guess with the air-con blowing it could be nice and cool.
2. In Bed – This one I do agree with!! When I finish my first part of work and get my break, the first thing I do is crash on my bed and pull my book out. Then it’s nice and cool and I comfortable as well. The perfect relaxation time before I have to head back again. It’s also so nice to read while falling asleep as well. As long as I remember to put it down before I actually fall asleep!
3. By the River – With the sun high in the sky, one of my favourite places to read is by the cool river. There’s plenty of nice shade and some cool water to dip my feet in and there’s usually no one around, unlike at the beach! It also means that I get to take my dog with me. He loves splashing around in the shallows and then crashing down by my side when he’s tired. This is my perfect summer reading spot!
4. In the Ice Cream parlour – Is this a bad choice? Nah. There’s this amazing tea room in my town centre that does the nicest banana split! Today I took a trip down there with Carrie’s new book and spent half an hour just sitting there eating ice cream, drinking iced coke and enjoying a good book. It was such a nice break and I loved every second. You should all give it a go if you get the opportunity! It’s a love pause from the heat and exhaustion to just relax.
5. The Garden – Paige and I both agreed that the perfect place to read would be under a huge willow tree with the long leafy strands trailing down around us. We’d have a book in our hands, resting against our legs and the shade would be cast down over our bodies. But, since neither of us have this, we both agreed that the garden would have to suffice.I have so many chairs in my garden because of my mother’s garden furniture obsession so I spent many lunch times lazing around enjoying the sun and turning those pages. Per-Fect.

Top 5 Space Novels

I don’t know about anyone else but one of the biggest things for us from the last week was the Juno probe reaching Jupiter! We’re so excited to see what happens and so we decided that, following this theme, talking about our top 5 space novels would be a great topic to cover this week. Unfortunately we realised that we’ve only read 5 space novels between us! Oops!! Meaning that this isn’t top 5 but total 5, however we couldn’t miss this opportunity so we decided just to go with it!

1. The Martian by Andy Weir – The Martian has to be one of my favourite books of last year. I managed to read it before the huge craze started and I fell in love with Watney’s sarcasm. The family feeling that I got from the crew was just perfect and the ending was just perfect in my opinion. It has to be my favourite space book just because I enjoyed the  way it was put together and I personally liked all of the science information, even if some people found it annoying.
2. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – If I had to choose an alien-themed book rather than just a space book then this probably would have been my top read. Just like with the Maritan, ALWSAP has such a strong sense of family on the ship and their relationships were just written so well in my opinion! Although I had a few issues with it that you can see in my review (x), I did really enjoy this book and if you don’t mind the somewhat lack of plot it’s really good.
3. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – Out of all of the books I’ve used for this list, this one is probably the most serious of them all. While the Martian focuses on a real life stranded situation and ALWSAP focuses on long haul trips and strange and wonderful alien species, Ender’s Game is orientated around aliens and the war that we could have with them. It is admittedly mostly focused around the training than actual space but I just had to include it on this list!
4. Zenith by Lindsay Cummings and Sasha Alsberg – Zenith is such an enjoyable read! It may only have the first instalment out (which sucks by the way, I need more!!) but the kickass female crew is already close to my heart and I’m so excited for the plot that has been set up. There’s not been much in the way of space building yet but there’s a lot of promise and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
5. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl – I know. I know. I just couldn’t think of another space book but I still think this is a solid choice! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a huge part of my childhood and I devoured pretty much all of the Roald Dahl books when I was younger. Then I came across this one and it was so strange and wacky but still had my favourite characters in it and it was so nice to see them all again.

So that’s our (my) list. Not very impressive I know, but I am desperate to grow it! I’m in such a mood for space books and I want the opportunity to read more of them so, if you have any suggestions please let me know!

Top 5 Summer Reads

Most of the criteria for the perfect summer read differs from person to person. Some people prefer action, while others prefer a bit of summer loving. But together Paige and I managed to narrow it down to a couple of simple points: 1. It has to be memorable – in the sense that you can put the book down, to go to a family meal or to a swim and be able to pick it straight back up again without forgetting where you’d were. We also think that it should be 2. engaging. No one wants a summer book that they get bored of after the first chapter. They want something that will draw them in and keep them entertained while enjoying the calm of their holiday. With this in mine, we drew up this list. But of course this is our personal opinion and we’re probably missing so many golden choices. So, please tell us, what’s on your list?

1. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – I can’t yell loud enough that everyone should give Me Before You a read. It’s just such an amazing novel and I adored every second of it. With a beautiful romance tale and some amazing adventures, it’s the perfect pool side read!
2. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh – For those of you that want a little more thrill to your summer holidays, what’s better than a little crime and mystery? I Let You Go brings all of that and more. It’s such a good read with a couple of twists to keep you guessing (or completely side-blind you as the case may be). Either way it’s definitely something that will keep you hooked all Summer! Or for the two days that you spend religiously reading just to get to the end. Don’t look at me like that. 
3. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – This is an either you love it or you hate it one. I know some people that adore the sweet story that’s promised within the pages, and then there’s some people thought it was over-the-top and hated the main character. It’s a complete toss up but if you like a bit of accidental confessing to your crushes (both of present and the past) and the chaos that ensues after that then give this a go!
4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – Of course we needed to add a classic to the mix, and what better than one of the best crime/mystery novelists books? I honestly can’t express my love enough for Agatha Christie and her amazing mystery novels. This is a book that will keep you on your toes and have you kicking yourself when if you can’t work out whodunnit.
5. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks – This book was the first Nicholas Sparks novel I read and I’ve not read another one since. Safe Haven was the perfect mix of romance and a little bit of a darker mystery hidden behind it all. Unlike his other books this has an underlying more serious tone. There was a lot more suspense and I think that just kept me hooked way more than any other Sparks novel could.

Top 5 Notps

This week the UK went through Brexit, as we’re sure many of you are aware. As we like to try to keep our top 5’s on theme with current topics, we debated whether to do top 5 break ups but couldn’t really come up with anything other than Bella and Edward (which really doesn’t deserve to be in the top 5. I mean, seriously, how long can a girl mope around for? Taylor lasted 2 weeks before she’d bagged Hiddles). So instead we decided to do our top 5 Notps. Or, rather, top 4 and an argument!

1. Cosette and Marius from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – I could understand how some of you may think these two were cute and I’d agree with you, but saying that I did want Marius to get with Eponine. I don’t know if my opinion has been tarnished by the film and the musical (I’m honestly trying just to think about the book but it can’t be helped when some of the scenes from the film and the musical slips into my head) but I thought these two were adorable. I know it was one sided and some may say Cosette deserved Marius more than Eponine – but she gave her life up for him! You can’t trump that, which is one of the reasons I could never really get behind shipping Marius and Cosette.
2. Tomek and Anna from The Vow by Felicity Goodrich – How could we be expected to ship a relationship where there’s no love involved? Okay, so you may argue that Tomek loved Anna but she didn’t love him – I’m not even sure if she liked him deep down. I guess, Tomek was kind of cute how he was going to stand by her when he found out what had happened to her and he always had her future in mind. Still, they didn’t understand each other as people. If they did get together it would only end in tears. I could never help but to feel all that Tomek really wanted was a housewife.
3. Louisa and Patrick from Me Before You by JoJo Moyes – Honestly I have no clue how Lou and Patrick even ended up together in the first place. Patrick is so hell-bent on his sports and being in the best physical shape that he can possibly be in, while Lou is much more of a dreamer. I just don’t know how they ever worked together and, even from the start of the book, I could feel a rift between them. They were just a major Notp for me.
4. Feyre and Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – I’m sorry for everyone who loves Feyre and Tamlin but I just don’t like them! As I said in my review of the book, I really couldn’t feel the fire that supposedly burned between the two of them. It was adorable the way she sacrificed herself for him, in order to be with him again, but I just wasn’t a fan of their relationship! Maybe I’m just missing something but it definitely felt more forced for me than actual chemistry between the characters.
5. Katniss and ? from the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins – We can’t decide! I’m definitely pro-Gale. I mean they grew up together and fought for their lives together. They taught each other to hunt and constantly broke the rules just to supply for both of their families! Look at their history?! How can you even choose Peeta over that? I totally get what Ellie is saying but personally I felt Gale could be a bit whiny at times and there was a few times I felt like he pressured Katniss and made her feel guilty just to get what he wanted (which was her obviously). I totally get the the whole Katniss and Peeta thing was forced and faked but then it actually grew into something which was cute and they were so protective of each other that I couldn’t help but to ship it. I can definitely see both sides on this one – what about you guys?!