Stacking the Shelves/Showcase Sunday (4)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea.

These memes are is a replacement of The Story Siren's In My Mailbox.

Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday make a place to showcase your new books,

whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.

Here's a quick reminder to join in my new meme From The Review Pile and to enter my 800 Follower Giveaway! Now, here's my books:

 I received three really exciting books for review this week! Those were The Selection, Saving June and Against All Odds. I've already finished Saving June and I really enjoyed it - I'll be posting the review for it tomorrow. I'd also like to thank Aliaa El Nashar for sending me her book!

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the show Mrs Brown's Boys, but I watch it and find it absolutely hilarious! I was really lucky this week as I walked into a bookshop that had the trilogy which the books, that the show was based on, on offer! I didn't even know the series was based on books, so that was a really pleasant surprise. I bought The Mammy, The Chisellers and The Granny in their new paperback editions (unfortunately I can't find the covers online). I have started The Mammy and I was nearly crying with laughter after reading only 10 pages, so needless to say I'm enjoying it! 

 I hope you've all had a really great week and I'm excited to see what books came into your home this week - leave a link!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Paperback,336 pages

Expected Publication: 7th June 2012 by Corsair

My shelves: arc-or-review, dragons, fae, fairy-tales, fantasy, magic, not-for-me, read-in-2012, series-or-companions, supernatural, title-appeal, to-be-reviewed, young-adult

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Gather up your courage and your wishes; grab a little pinch of luck - and prepare to be swept away, in a ship of your own making, to a land unlike any other. September is a twelve-year-old girl, Somewhat Grown and Somewhat Heartless, and she longs for adventure. So when a Green Wind and a Leopard of Little Breezes invite her to Fairyland - well, of course, she accepts (mightn't you?).

When she gets there, she finds a land in crisis and confusion - crushed by the iron rule of a villainous Marquess - she soon discovers that she alone holds the key to restoring order. Having read enough books to know what a girl with a quest must do, September sets out to Fix Things.

As September forges her way through Fairyland, with a book-loving dragon and a partly human boy named Saturday by her side, she makes many friends and mistakes; loses her shadow, her shoes and her way. But she finds adventure, courage, a rather special Spoon, and a lot more besides . . .

Click here to purchase the book with

free worldwide shipping!

My thanks go to Corsair for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've been trying hard to put off this review, or rather, trying hard to think how to rate and review it - it's been very difficult for me. I think that the only thing I can do is say it outright - this is a truly fantastic book, but it's just something that I just couldn't get away with. If I had to rate my enjoyment of this book, it'd be around 2 stars, but if I had to rate the quality of the book, I can honestly say that it'd probably be around 4 or 5 stars.


This book is set in Fairyland and it is obvious that is where we are - the whole setting, the characters... absolutely everything in this book is magical. The writing was lovely - the imagery was very vivid without being overly descriptive. This book is so quotable - there were so many lovely phrases and ideas used throughout. I particularly liked the direct narration to the audience - it was strong, sometimes emotional and very easy to connect to the messages. There's nothing wrong with Valente's writing, it is very clear that she is talented. 


September, our twelve year old main character is quite real, she has the inquisitiveness, the curiosity and the braveness of a child and it is good to see Fairyland through a child's eyes, it makes it even more special. It wasn't just September who was imaginative and whimsical though, the other characters we are introduced to are just as intriguing, if not more so. I absolutely loved the character 'A through L' (or Ell), a wyvern who was just so friendly, fun and totally loyal to September throughout her journey. A myriad of other supporting characters with equally bizarre names are scattered throughout the book and they are also very amusing.  


So why didn't I enjoy this as much as I could? It was confusing. It was one of those things that just went over my head. It was all, quite frankly, nonsense, but it's meant to be - I just guess that's not for me. I think that thought that the separate sections are the stories were quite interesting and it did help me to follow things a little bit, but it was a bit too random for me and the jumping around from place to place, person to person, left me lost. 


Overall, I really do not want to put anyone off reading this book - I think a lot of people will appreciate it and love it. Valente is a genius for writing this (extremely) creative piece of writing and I only wish I could've followed it more. If you're looking to get carried away into a fantasy world and meet lots of magical creatures, this one is for you. If you're easily confused, perhaps try a few pages until you fully commit to it. I will be posting an excerpt of the book on the blog tour soon, so hopefully then you'll be able to see for yourself if it's your kind of thing.

Check out an excerpt of this book when the Blog Tour

drops by my blog soon! For now, to give you an idea of

how this book is, check out the book trailer.

 

From the Review Pile (2)

 From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

This week, I'm going to showcase The Things We Did For Love by Natasha Farrant

The Things We Did For Love by Natasha Farrant

Hardback, 240 pages

Published March 2012 by Faber and Faber

France: February, 1944.

As war rages in Europe, teenagers Luc and Arianne fall passionately in love. But German forces are closing in and Luc, desperate to atone for his family's past, is drawn into the dangerous world of the Resistance. Arianne will do almost anything to keep him safe, but someone else is secretly in love with her - someone who will stop at nothing to get rid of his rival...

Click here to purchase the book with

free worldwide shipping!

800 Follower Giveaway

Wow, wow, wow! 

I woke up this morning to see that I have 800 GFC followers! That's amazing, especially after only around 5 months of blogging, so thank you all so much! I really appreciate all of the support you've given me with my blog and reviews.

To say thanks and to celebrate, I'm hosting an

800 Follower Giveaway!

These giveaways are INTERNATIONAL!

One winner will be randomly selected to win ONE BOOK OF THEIR CHOICE from the below 'Young Adult' book list.

One winner will be randomly selected to win the TWO 'Middle Grade' books listed below. 

How do you enter? 
It's simple - All you have to do is be a GFC follower of this blog and fill out the Rafflecopter forms below! You're very welcome to enter both of these giveaways. If you're wanting to follow me on Twitter/Facebook or want the Giveaway Button, look to the left hand of this page where you will find all you need for extra entries!

You can win ONE YA book of your choice from the following options:

(All books apart from 'My Saucy Stuffed Ravioli (Hardback)' are in paperback)

 To enter to win one of these YA books, be a GFC Follower and fill in this form:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can win both of these books!

Both of these books are paperbacks

To enter to both of these MG books, be a GFC Follower and fill in this form:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!