Thursday, March 23, 2017

Here are the books I've been fangirling about lately ^^

Hey guys. In today's post, I want to share with you those books that I've been really loving lately. Let's start!

Wires and Nerve Vol. 1 by Marissa Meyer & Douglas Holgate

This is a graphic novel spin-off of Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series, which follows the adventures of Iko, an android unlike any other and the best friend of the main series' lead character, Cinder. While the format is different, this book still manages to capture the same sci-fi/fantasy universe the Lunar Chronicles were set in and faithfully portrays all those characters we fell in love with in the main series. I loved the art style. Plus it was really cool to be back in this universe. I read this in one seating the moment I got home after buying it and now I can't wait for the sequel to be finally released. 


Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

This is the first book in Clare's new series set in the Shadowhunter universe. While it's not my favorite Shadowhunter book, I still really enjoyed it. In fact, I feel like Cassie Clare's writing has got even better with this book. It's just that I couldn't connect with the characters as well as with those of her other series. Maybe it's because it's the first book. I still fangirled hard throughout the book though XD. Like, the emotions, the story twists, the reveals... As with all Shadowhunter books, this one was one hell of an emotional ride and I loved it! 


Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare & others

You HAVE to read Shadowhunter Academy BEFORE Lady Midnight. This collection of short stories takes us where The Mortal Instruments left off and leads right to the beginning of The Dark Artifices. Not only are those stories essential for understanding a lot of stuff that goes on in TDA, including some hints that other readers might not pick up on, but the stories were also superbly written. Plus, the main character is Simon Lewis, so yeah! The stories were fun, they were full of cameos from our favorite characters from the Shadowhunter universe, and many of them added a lot of backstory on certain events and characters we never encountered in the main series. Shadowhunter legend and lore, so to speak. So yeah, if you love Cassie Clare's Shadowhunter universe, you need this book in your life.


An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld by Cassandra Clare & Cassandra Jean

Okay, that's a looong title. This is essentially a collection of character portraits of characters from all of Cassie Clare's Shadowhunter series. For each character we have a gorgeous full color portrait, along with fun trivia about them. This book is a Shadowhunter fan's dream come true! The illustrations are really, really beautiful and it was fun to learn new stuff about all these characters. 


So those were some of the books I've been loving lately. Yes, I'm having a bit of a Shadowhunter binge at the moment! I seriously can't wait for the next book in the Dark Artifices to come out. I need it now >_< 

So what have you been reading lately? Let me know down in the comments!

Until next time, take care and read on 💛

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Am I still a blogger? Yes! I totally am and now I'm back ^^

I'm back!


Hey guys... So um, I'm back ^^ Okay, I know I've been gone for a looong time. In fact, my last post was a Halloween themed one. HALLOWEEN guys!!! That's like more than four months ago. What can I say? I thought I could juggle university life and blogging easily. Well, turns out I was wrong!

So where the hell have I been?


So for those of you who don't know, I'm currently doing my Masters abroad. So right now, I'm living and studying in Malaysia. I'm from Mauritius by the way, for those of you who are new here ^^ I might write a post about my life here and share some snapshots of Malaysia and my uni. So let me know if that's something you'd like to see.

Why did I suddenly stop blogging?


I used to blog super frequently back when I was still doing my Bachelor degree, uploading new posts almost twice a week. So when I decided to do my Masters, I didn't think it would affect my blog too much. After all, a Master degree can't be that different from a Bachelor degree, right? *Sigh* Boy, was I naive back then! 

My course being a research-based one, I don't have exams. And while I love that, it also means that I get lots of assignments and research papers to write. And it didn't take that long for me to realize that this was going to seriously affect my blogging. In fact, for many months, I was so overwhelmed by everything - life abroad, living on my own for the first time, the studies - that I didn't even read as much as I used do.


When blogging started to feel like a chore...


So yeah, with my time taken by my studies, blogging was starting to become tedious. In fact, it got to a point where it felt like work. And I don't know about you, but when a hobby starts to feel like a chore, that's when I can't do it anymore. And I didn't want to feel that way about blogging. 

I wasn't enjoying blogging simply because I didn't have the time I would have wanted to spend on it. So instead of struggling with it like with a difficult assignment, I told myself that I would take a break from my blog and only return to it when my life was a bit more under control and I could devote my full love and attention to it.

It's good to be back guys ^^


Now that I'm in my third uni semester and I've gotten a little better at the whole 'living by myself in a foreign country' thing, I feel confident enough to finally get back to blogging. I've also been reading more lately. But more on that in next posts ^^


What can you expect from my blog now?


I have a lot of exciting posts for you guys in store and I'm very happy to be preparing and writing them for you. But most importantly, I missed my friends from the blogsphere. So I'm also really happy to reconnect with all of you people of the Internets.

This year, I'm reading a bunch of new and exciting stuff like more mangas, comics and graphic novels, more classics and a bunch of new series including Goosebumps, which I've decided to read ENTIRELY. So you can expect my content to be a little different from my old posts. But what's never going to change is my undying love for books. So do expect lots of fangirling on my part for old and new favorites in future posts.

Leave me a comment and let's catch up with some chitchat ^^


Comment down below to share your thoughts with me! You can tell me what you've been reading, share a link to your latest post or just drop me a line for some random chitchat. Or even just say hi ^^ 

So until next time, take care and read on 💛