Sunday, June 21, 2015

Book Edition & Mega Haul(Part Two!) #12 | & Father's Day♥

Sunday, June 21, 2015



Mid-monthly News is a recap at Feminist Reflections of two weeks showcasing upcoming posts, recap, books I have read, book haul and other news!

It's inspired froStacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviewsand the Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It will be a combination of book haul and my personal reflections.
  • Hello June! It's been three weeks since I last updated with my mid-monthly posts, I can't always post them every week because I'm too busy these days..  The posts will too much so I will just highlight what were the most popular posts this June. Lots of books these past three weeks - I've already read some of these so I'll try including an update about the actual content of the book as well! Happy reading :)
  • My birthday was on June 5, I turned 22 years old! No more forever 21 which is rather depressing. My mother surprised me in bed by singing "Happy Birthday" and giving me balloons. I spent the later of the day with family at home where I cut my ice cream cake. I would have taken pictures of the balloons, but they have almost died out now. 
  • My older sister's birthday was this June as well, I would reveal her age but it's impolite to do that so let's just skip that. We're both Gemini's! We went by the lake and then to the Afghan restaurant that we all love. Our car actually broke down because my mother unintentionally left the headlights on which caused the battery to die, but later on we jump start it and it was fine. (LOL what a birthday!)
  • I'm kind of in a blogging slump for the past week, I have tons of amazing ideas of reviews and discussion, but I just took a break from my laptop. It was more relaxing time for me, since I feel overwhelmed with all the review copy deadlines and college work. I'm much better now though & oh, yeah I'm still coughing. Now that much anymore, but it's still there.
  • Happy father's day to all the amazing fathers out there as well as mine :)
  • Ramadan has started on my end! Happy Ramadan Mubarak to those who are celebrating it - Ramadan is an 30 day fast that lasts a month. It starts with the dawn prayer at 3:45 a.m and it ends at 7:31 p.m. The timings change according to the sunrise and sunset. We're not allowed to eat, drink, abstain from music, sexual activity, profanity, and so on. The idea behind Ramadan is to keep our bodies pure and keep our minds humble when we fast, but also when the fast ends we shouldn't forget what we been doing - we also give a lot to charity, and the humbling part comes in when we realize the importance of simply water and food. We realize how the poor must feel and we thank Allah for everything he has blessed us with. It's a beautiful month, and it does reward you in the end with the Muslim Holiday Eid-Ul-Fitur and later Eid-Ul-Adha. We dress in our prettiest traditional clothes, in the morning we attend Eid prayers at the mosque. I find it really beautiful that 200 people bow down at the same time and pray together. Later, we go out with family and friends and stuff ourselves with the finest of the food at a hotel/restaurant. Our gatherings usually involve around 200 people, and trust me, the food is very diverse and delicious. We also hold rafflecopter giveaways and prizes and we don't play music there. There is a fee, but it depends. Sometimes the indvidual pays, other times the organizer does. It's not only for Muslims, if you have a non-Muslim friend who wants to come - they can. This is probably the day we binge eat because we've been abstaining from food and drinking for so long. 
6/22 P.S I Still Love You by Jenny Han
6/25 Feminist Reflections Discussion Topic
6/26 #Eight Mini Reviews Damage Done, Everything Everything, Delicate Monsters, I've Got Your Number, Devoted, Remembering Us, The Shattered Court, and Brutal Youth.


Thank you to St. Martins Press/Griffin, Kate Publicity, Penguin Teen, Amazon SKyscape, Abram Books, Soho Teen, HarperTeen, Luxury Reading, Simon & Schuster Teen, BloomHill Books, Albert Whitman Teen for the review copies! These are just so many to add the links for goodreads individually. I'll do the tags only for the ones I have read so far.
  • Broken Skies: A treasure that is really underrated, I would really recommend. 4/5.
  • More Happy Than Not: Yay to diversity in young adult books, a well-written book on LGBT.
  • P.S I still Love You: I loved this one much more than the first one, although the concept of this four square is very cliche. 4.5/5
  • Delicate Monsters: I'm not sure if I even understood this book, it wasn't for me. 2.5/5
  • Damage Done: Well, this was one was amazing.. recommends for fans of Dangerous Girls.

Twenty-two books from my older sister on my 22nd birthday. She's the best! She actually wanted to buy me a professional canan/nikon camera that costed more than $500, but I asked for books instead. I love photography, I really do but I have no need for a super expensive camera as of right now - I will let her get that for me next year. Hey atleast, she was getting a bargain - the total for these books came out to be $150. The 22 books was really unintentional, she wanted me to buy 25 books, but I was taking forever to narrow it down and I chose 22 instead. (Ignore the bad quality of this picture). I've only read two of these books yet, I've Got Your Number(5/5) and The Shattered Court(2/5).



borrowed these books below from the library actually, I have to do a separate tag for them later, feeling lazy right now. I have read most of these already, I tend to read library books faster than any other books.
  • Pivot Point: Kasie West has done it again, the covers are gorgeous for this series, and I really liked the paranormal aspect of this book. 4.5/5
  • Daughter of Smoke & Bone: I renewed this again, since I didn't get to finish it the last time.
  • Princess of Thorns: So disappointed in this one when I loved the author's previous work. I'm quite fed up with the girl pretending to be a boy, please stop copying Mulan. 1/5
  • Beauty Queens: I heard so much about this book, but it's just so weird, I didn't like any of the characters. 1/5
  • The Orphan Queen: Defo.. not for me. It was very boring, and it offered nothing new. 1/5
  • Fairest: The writing bored me.. It wasn't for me. 1/5
  • Alienated Cliche, cliche cliche. SOO disappointed. Beautiful cover though. 1/5
  • Obsidian: I'm not sure why people like the idea of a cocky, judgmental alien who thinks he "knows how you are" at first meeting.. I didn't like any of the characters at all. 1/5
  • Graceling: I can't get into this series, it's very boring.
  • Cinder: I just cannot get into this series, I DNF the first time, but then I tried it again and read more than halfway, and it's still a DNF. It's just boring for me, and it has nothing like the Cinderella concept. A Mechanical Cinderella? That's different, but the writing bores me. Pretty cover though. 1/5
  • The JewelThe first half was amazing, but in the second half, the insta love annoyed me and the romance was a disaster. 3.5/5



 The best book I've read this month would be I've Got Your Number, and the worst book I've read this month would be Obsidian. 

The series Shatter Me has been optioned for tv.. [Yikes! More action, less romance please]
Elizabeth Banks is directing the movie Red Queen.. (oh why please I hated RQ??)
Ellen DeGeneres will produce Uprooted(Omg yes yes! I love them both)
Christian Grey has his own book! I admit, I have a bit curious now.
Faye @ The Social Potato shares a hilarious Vampire Academy review with bubbles.
Amir @ Not So Literary discusses plagiarism is not a game and what's on her kindle(hilarious!)
Heidi @ Rainy Day Ramblings discusses what makes a memorable read?
Cait @ Paper Fury wants to guess what style of book cover do you love?
Jeann @ Hapy Indulgence Books wants a social media off button.
Lola @ Lola Reviews discusses what influences your enjoyment in books.
Jillian @ Jillian's Books shares new spotlight features including one on underrated books.
Mel @ The Daily Prophecy shares unpopular opinion tag.


What about you guys? What books did you get? 
Have you read any of these before?

Thank you for reading this! Have an amazing month of June - Leave your blog links in the comments & I'll be sure to check them out & drop by :) Stay in tuned pretty creatures..

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” —Nora Ephron 
femmmefatalee@gmail.com


46 comments:

  1. I've just gotta say WOW on the haul! I have to try to do an update every week or else it takes too long to do one just once a month. :-)
    Check out my Sunday Post

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    1. Yes, I should try that as well. This post takes hours to create ♥

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  2. Can we say HAUL? Enjoy...and thanks for sharing.

    Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

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  3. Glad you had a great birthday and wow! Look at that boo haul, that is amazing! Huge congrats!

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  4. Dang, so many great books here, looks like you have a lot to look forward to! Glad you had a nice birthday, mine is in June as well, yay for June babies!

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  5. Look at all the books! Holy cow! Have fun reading the ones you haven't read already. :)

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  6. WOW Benish! I think this is the biggest haul I have ever seen. :D Happy late birthday! Twenty two books is an AMAZING present. :)

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  7. HOLY MOLY WHAT AN INTENSE HAUL BENISH! Loving all the books you got this week, and I can't wait to see what you think of them all - especially Pivot Point & Cinder as I love those two. And happy belated birthday as well - I hope it was a great one! ♥

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    1. Pivot Point was really amazing, although Cinder not so much lol thank you Zoe ♥

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  8. So many books! I understand what you mean about feeling a little bit overwhelmed as well, but I am sure we can handle these! I saw you got a Game of Thrones, which makes me so happy. I can't wait to see what you think of it! I can see that we have quite a few review copies in common too so I am looking forward to seeing what you think of those ones. Have fun reading those :)

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    1. I know, I'm so excited to read Game of Thrones, but its' super looooong like over 800 pages o.O

      Thank you for dropping by! ♥

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  9. Glad you had a great birthday!! WOW on the haul - so many good books and so many I want to read. Hope you enjoy them all!

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  10. *drools over all the books* HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! And books make an epic and perfect present. WELL DONE. So so much awesome. Ohhhhhh. I want to read so many of these, particularly More Happy Than Not right now. XD I only just heard of that one and the cover just totally intrigues me. XD I SPY UNHINGED AND ENSNARED. Zomg, I love that series an astronomical amount. FJADLKSAFD

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    1. Thank you so much Cait ! ♥ I have yet to read Splintered although I do own the copy, the covers of this series are all beautiful!

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  11. Happy belated birthday Benish^^ I think I gave you an early birthday wish but here's a late one too, just in case ;) I'm glad that you had a lovely birthday and HOLY EPIC HAUL BATMAN^^ Wow, so many gorgeous books!! ♥ Out of those lovelies, I've read: Darkfever, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Cinder, Fairest and I loved them all ( a little less for Fairest but still a good read) I own: Graceling, Scarlet, Shiver, Unearthly, Obsidian, Alienated and The Darkest Part of the Forest but I've yet to read them and I want to own: Unhinged, Ensnared, Dreamer's Pool, Game of Thrones and Princess of Thorns :D I hope you enjoy ALL your pretties! Happy reading xxxx

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    1. Thank you for dropping by & for the birthday wish! ♥ Princess of Thorns was just blah though, her other book Of Beauty and Beast was much better. Alienated and Obsidian weren't my type either. I have yet to read the others though! Happy reading x

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  12. Holy book haul! Those are amazing! Happy belated birthday to you, and I hope the blogging slump is better. I find that taking a break gives me all kinds of new creative energy *hugs*

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    1. Thank you! ♥ & aww hugs! The blogging slump is turning out better now, but I'm still in that bump for another week maybe..

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  13. 22 books, what a crazy awesome present :D! I'm not sure where I have to look, with all those pretty covers looking at me. I spot A madness so discreet and I absolutely adored it. I also notice Dreamer's pool and Scarlet, books I LOVE. And also Cinder and Graceling :D Happy belated birthday and enjoy all your goodies!

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    1. Aw thank you Mel. I actually bough Scarlet, and Dreamer's Pool based on your reviews :)

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  14. First off, happy birthday! So many beautiful books. *-* I'm sad you can't seem to get into The Lunar Chronicles. I guess it's just not for everyone. I read Graceling and Fire as well but couldn't fully enjoy it either. I appreciated that the author have worked a lot on the story because it's complex (as far as I remember) but I couldn't get into the story, nor could I relate to the characters. I'm glad you enjoyed I've Got You Number because I'm going to read it soon and I'm really excited for it!
    Hope you'll enjoy your new books. :)

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    1. Thank you Veronika! ♥ & I know, everyone seems to love that series but I'm the odd ball out .. as always lol I've Got Your Number was hilarious though, I honestly loved it.

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  15. Holy shit, I spy Georgina Kincaid. That is my favorite series EVER!!!

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    1. I hope I really like it, it sounds amazing :)

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  16. Holy crap, I'm having a bookgasm just staring at all those beauties! What an amazing sister you have Benish, you must have a wonderful relationship with her to encourage your book habit :D Happy belated birthday hun! Sounds like you had an amazing day, you deserve it <3

    Happy Ramadan! I grew up with a lot of Muslim friends and felt like I was participating in the fasting as well, not being able to eat in front of them. But come sunset, I'd be around their houses eating with them :D That's the kind of friend I am, always showing up for free food.

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    1. Aw thank you Kelly and I know, she's wonderful <3 & haha aww no worries, the more the merrier. I do that as well, always show up for free food.

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  17. WOW. Like, holy wow. Happy birthday!!!! Your haul is SO AWESOME. Super super jealous of Court of Fives!!!!! Sorry to hear about Cinder - it's absolutely one of my favorite books, haha!

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  18. Lots of updates ;) I’m very (VERY) jealous of your book stash!! In your second pile, The Kiss of Deception is pretty good as well as Branded!! I’m sad you couldn’t get in flow with Cinder, I really liked that book and can’t wait to start the next books. I’ve been eyeing that Ensnared for quite some time but haven’t read anything in the series yet. Maybe I can talk my Hubby to buy me my number of books next week for my b-day ;)
    I think it happens to all of us – summer blues from the internet! I will be back to find your reviews for many of the books in your haul.

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    1. I started the Kiss of Deception and as of right now, it's going really slow. I haven't read Splintered yet, but I am looking forward to it soon, thank you for dropping by! I will keep you updated with the reviews :)

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  19. Happy Belated Birthday Benish! I know all about Ramadan. My ex-boyfriend use to practice it every year :) I hope your cough goes away completely soon. It's no fun being sick :( What a great book haul! I really want to read The Moment of Letting Go by J.A. Redmerski. I can't wait to see what you think. I read Fire & Flood, and recently bought Salt & Stone but haven't had time to read it with all of my review books! Hopefully soon! Happy Reading :)

    Lindy@ A Bookish Escape

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    1. Thank you for the birthday wish Lindy! I'm really liking Fire and Blood, it gives me The Hunger Games vibes but it's fine because THG isn't original either lol. I hope you enjoy them :)

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  20. Happy belated birthday Benish! and Happy Ramadan!

    What a fabulous haul! The Fever and Georgina Kincaid series are in my top 5 series of all time :-) I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. What an awesome gift to receive!

    Have a great week & happy reading! Sharon – Obsession with Books

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    1. Thank you Sharon, I hope I enjoy those reads as well :)

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  21. WHAT AN AWESOME COLLECTION OF BOOKS! I am so envious right now!

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  22. Happy belated birthday Benish! I don't know whether you'll appreciate this, but you share your birthday with Draco Malfoy!:) Keeping that aside, where's the cake girl? *taps foot*
    And OMG, that haul! I am so jealous of you! Can I please adopt your sister? Or can you ask her to adopt me? Or can we trade places? Anything that will make me able to get my hands on all those books!:)
    There's so many good books up there, but I recommend you to read Damsel Distressed ASAP! That book is beautiful and it's so special to me, as it deals about insecurity and is quite heartbreaking and emotional.

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    1. Ohh, I wasn't aware of that although I hated Draco from Harry Potter lol :D & aww of course, sharing is caring. ♥ I have already ate the cake though, it was ice cream cake lol and I have yet to try Damsel Distressed, it sounds amazing though.

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  23. Oh, that's a lot of books! 22 books for your 22nd birthday, what a nice idea! Happy belated birthday!

    Happy reading!

    Dreams @ Once Upon A Dream Books

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