Books I Took On Holiday (2016)

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, life has been a bit busy with exams, work experience and life in general; but here I am! I thought I'd share with you the books I took on holiday with me, and I'll probably post reviews of most of these soon.

1.  Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

First of all can we please just appreciate the beauty of this book cover, just look at it, doesn't that just make you happy? This ebook is co written by booktuber Sasha Alsberg (who you should subscribe to if you haven't already), and booktuber and author Lindsay Cummings who previously wrote The Murder Complex - something I still want to read. This ebook was a lot shorter than I expected it to be to be honest with you, I knew it was going to be short as it was always marketed that way, but my gosh my kindle told me it took me 52 minutes to read - it's that short. But, despite it being short and a quick read it's a surprisingly good one packed full of kickass female characters and space action (who doesn't love space action - lets be real here), I really enjoyed this as a quick pick up read and recommend it. I'm looking forward to seeing where the plot goes in the next book.

2. The Humans by Matt Haig

I've never heard of Matt Haig before but this was one of my charity shop finds back in Autumn and I took it with me because it's quite a light paperback, but oh boy am I glad I did both of those things. This kept me quite happy throughout my flight to Spain and it was a lovely quick read, it's not at all what you expect - it's certainly defies all expectations. This book is heartwarming and a brilliant laugh at times, it makes you realise just how weird humans are and it pokes fun at that really well. However, the book does have some serious tones to it as well, and I think that's explored quite well - however I can't fully state this as I have never suffered from depression which is addressed in the book. I think this is a book that suits most ages, ranging from teens to adults as a good summer read.

3. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Is it bad I haven't watched the film yet? Should I be ashamed? Well, I'm not going to be because I read the book which I enjoyed more than I thought. Usually, I struggle with classics, especially one I've something labelled as 'pretentious' somewhere along the line. Admittedly, the book is a little bit pretentious but it is a good  kind of pretentious (if you know what I mean) so I didn't care. It's a quick and a good read, and even though I've heard the film is better I still think you should read this if you have watched the movie. With my copy I also got a few of his short stories which were just nice to read as a little quick break from intense books *cough* I'm look at you An Ember In The Ashes *cough*.

4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabbaa Tahir

So I finally decided it was time to pick this up because all I ever hear about this is just praise, and now I understand why - what a beautiful book. I LOVED THIS. This was such an engaging read and I became very invested with the two protagonists straight away, I really loved them with their flaws and their struggles and I just connected with them.The writing style was easy to follow as well, and despite creating anew world Tahir was able to keep it clear, and I was never confused over certain aspects. We have to wait until January for the next book, and it's going to be a struggle guys, I just hope there isn't another love triangle - but there are signs for one.

5. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

So this was one of my most anticipated reads for 2016 and I finally got around to it!!! I was so thrilled when this went down to a cheap price on kindle, and I spent far too long sat by the pool reading this in over 30 degrees heat. - bad idea, but such a good idea. To be honest I didn't know loads about this book even when I wrote that post in December, I just knew there were parts/tropes in it that I loved - and oh my god, did it exceed my expectations. It was so great to have a female character that excelled in something and had a vicious mother who was just brilliant and strong. You know what else I really loved all the characters in the book, there were good villains, and good good guys and it wads just brilliant. I literally can't wait for the sequel, and I may be buying more of Bracken's books soon...

6. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

This is one that I'm about halfway through reading on my kindle, and I bought it mainly due to the talk surrounding this trilogy, and so far I'm not disappointed. I'm already sensing some character development, and the major plot points at the beginning of this book have set it up so well for a brilliant story. I'm not going to rave about it yet, because there's still time for things to go wrong - but I'm loving it so far.

7. The Queen's Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler

I'm not going to lie, I've never heard of Jeff Wheeler before and I mainly bought this book because of the title and cover - BUT JUST LOOK AT IT, ISN'T THAT JUST BEAUTIFUL. I'm about 25% of the way through this read and so far it's okay, I'm not loving it but it's not hard to continue reading, and I'm hoping the plot becomes more complex and interesting throughout the novel, because it has the potential to be amazing.