Top 5 Wednesday: Books Over 500 Pages

Top 5 Wednesday was set up by Lainey over at GingerReadsLainey. Every week you have a new topic and you pick your top 5 choices for each topic. This is done in Vlogs, but I think it will be great for Bloggers to do as well. Today's topic is Big Books Don't Lie. Well, now I'm lying. It's Favourite books over 500 pages long!

Christmas time is the perfect time for big books because we get more time to ourselves, that is if you've already finished your shopping, like me.

 

A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin - I haven't read this series, but I know everyone either loves the books or the TV show, so I know it'd be perfect to recommend and take my 5th place. It's a high fantasy with a lot of death. Enjoy!

 

50 Shades of Grey by E. L James - This isn't the best written trilogy ever, but it's a very quick read. I read all three books in three days and really enjoyed them. Plus I've met E L James and she's super nice! Also you get to read them before the movie comes out. (I'm going to see it with some friends)

 

The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs -  I officially read three chapters on Wattpad, but bought the book when it came out. This book is an amazing, sexy novel about kidnappings and Vampires. It's brilliant!

 

The Host by Stephenie Meyer - This Dystopian is incredible. I loved the movie, but when I read the book I was blown away. It was...unique. Great writing, great editing and an amazing storyline. It is over 600 pages long, but totally worth it.

 

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness -  This is my all time favourite series and the first book clocks up an epic 680 pages long. It's an adult fantasy that includes Witches, Vampires and Daemons. I was 14/15 when I read this and even faked that I was ill to finish reading it!

 

 

What are some of your favourite books that are over 500 pages long?

Top 5 Wednesday: Ugly Book Covers!

Top 5 Wednesday was set up by Lainey over at GingerReadsLainey. Every week you have a new topic and you pick your top 5 choices for each topic. This is done in Vlogs, but I think it will be great for Bloggers to do as well. Today's topic is Top 5 Ugly Book Covers. The shame is that most book covers published in America are gorgeous, but then the UK publishers change them for other here and they suck!

For this T5W I will be using books I own, so that it's fair.

Anyway, here are my Top 5 Ugly Book Covers.


FIFTH PLACE: 50 Shades of Grey by EL James.

I met EL James back in July at The Book of Life publication event in London and she was super lovely, so open and welcome. The covers do represent the books, which I have read and somewhat enjoyed, but they're not interesting. It's a tie with a grey background, so fancy, not! These covers even started a trend in publishers using covers like this for other books for them to boost sales, but they just do not work. These aren't the worst covers ever, but they're not the best.




FOURTH PLACE: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.

Okay, so this is technically me cheating since I don't own this book, but I must include it because these covers are so so so bad! The whole face thing is normally an American trend, so I have no idea why they followed it, but these covers are a mess! Her face is light white (By light I mean actual photo editing light effects, so poorly done.) and what is with the font? It's terrible. These are books I'd rather own on Kindle or iBooks, so that I won't have the covers on my shelf. Hideous.





THIRD PLACE: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.

Shoot me. Literally. These covers are some of the worst in the Young Adult genre. The US editions are pretty nice, simple, but they wor
k. These covers look like the book is aimed for a Barbie obsessed eight year old. Not cool! There are so many cool things they could've done for the cover, but they went with cartoonised objects made to look like a dress. Were the designers high? because it looks like they were to me. The shameful thing is that I own this edition on my shelf, good thing is that it'd hidden. However, the content inside is really good, it's just a pity about the lame-ass cover!




SECOND PLACE: Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Okay. The US publishers had everything right all the way down to the smallest details and then the UK publishers come along and mess with everything. They took away the bright colours and bold cover and replace it with something that doesn't even look decent. The model in the cover looks completely awkward and all she is doing is sitting down and the birds? The birds are too big. But it's not just that, the awesome font has been replaced with something less grand and the color is murky. The book sold well, but it would've sold so much better if we had the US cover. It's basically the story of The Ugly Duckling...expect this ugly duckling stays ugly.



FIRST PLACE: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

WHAT. THE. HELL?! What even are these? These are worse than the first editions published in the UK. I understand that these are the new rebel editions, but nothing in them works. I'm happy slating these because the books are terrible and the covers match what I feel. The color is all off and the font (which looked decent on Mockingjay) is terrible. It's too big and too much and just a mess. They would've been better just sticking to the nice plain editions with the black background and the pin in different colors. Would I say these are the worst edition ever? Yes. A very big, fat yes! I feel sorry to the people who have them on their bookcase because if I had these then they'd be locked up in a wardrobe so no one could see them. Period.


So......do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Let me know and tell me what your top 5 ugly book covers are.

Book Review: Take Me Under by Rhyannon Byrd

Book Name: Take Me Under
Author: Rhyannon Byrd
UK Release Date: 2013
UK Publishers: Headline Eternal
Summary:

Ben Hudson had a thing for shy, sexy Reese Monroe from the moment he first saw her three years ago. Back then, she was married and living in Boston—two very good reasons for the Miami detective with a bad boy reputation to stay away.

But that was then…

Now Reese is divorced and moving to Florida, where her mother has rented her a small beach house—one that happens to be owned by Ben. Living right next door, he can’t get Reese’s soft curves out of his mind. He’s waited three long years to touch her in all the ways he’s been dreaming about, and this time he won’t let anything get in his way.

For Reese, Ben’s sudden advances are thrilling, but leave her stunned. With her limited experience in the bedroom, she never expects a man with such a wicked reputation to go after her. She knows she should be on guard, but he’s a temptation she can’t resist. And when trouble follows her down from Boston, threatening her life, Ben may be the only one who can help her

 

Praise for Rhyannon Byrd:

'Lip-biting sexual tension and sizzling romance.' Shayla Black

'A gift for beautiful, sensual storytelling.' Cheyenne McCray

'Raw, addictive, and blisteringly hot!' Romantic Times

Review:

 

I'm going to start off and say that I received a copy for an honest review. This does not affect my opinions.

 

The book starts off where Ben has seen Reese for the first time and he's pining for her. She looks pretty, but there's something else about her that burns his skin. And I found it to be great because we got to see the real Ben. However, three years later, he's not changed at all. I didn't see any maturing in his character.

 

In my opinion I don't think this was the best written book. It's not E L James bad, but it isn't anything great. Rhyannon was very repetitive and I think she used 'I want to fuck her long and hard' at least 15 times through out the entire novel. She also over used the word wry and I kind of felt like that was the only emotion she actually knew because it came up everywhere. And my biggest hate was the ... these came up everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! Even in sentences when they were not needed. I think Rhyannon relied on them to add depth, but it fell flat in my opinion.

 

And sadly, Rhyannon created my biggest book pet peeve. Characters meeting and kissing in the first chapter. It doesn't feel real, I know you can say it's fiction, but who meets someone and kisses them on that night? Only someone who's drunk, and Reese was not drunk. She moved into her house.

 

That was the bad stuff about the book, but there was a few positives as well. I liked Reese's character and I felt Rhyannon knew her well, I also liked the friendship between Ben and Brit because they had banter and it worked well. The premise had so much promise, it was a shame it hit a dead end for me.

 

Overall, I gave this book a 2/5 STARS!