Favourites Friday: Favourite Pets

Hey guys!  I thought it would be fun to have a 'Favourites Friday' once a month to go through my favourite male / female characters, secondary characters, fictional worlds, etc.  We can see how your favourites match with mine and maybe we can both find some new books from each other!  So, the second Friday of each month will now be dedicated to a 'Favourites Friday'!  The topic for this week is favourite fictional pets!

I am a huge animal lover, so it's no surprise that I would adore pretty much any animal that pops up in my favourite books!  To me, adding a pet to a story makes so much sense - even in a complete fantasy world - because so many people love animals and have pets of their own.  Adding a pet to the life of some of our favourite characters can make them seem even more relate-able to us (and they're generally pretty fun to read about too!).  So, here are some of my favourite fictional pets:

• Hedwig, Pigwidgeon, and Crookshanks (Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling)
• Fleetfoot (Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas)
• Daigo and Tova (Age of Legends - Kelley Armstrong)
• Bernie Kosar (Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore)
• Nala and Duchess (House of Night - P.C. and Kristin Cast)
• Shendor (Chloe and Levesque - Norah McClintock)
• Blackie/The Phantom/Zanzibar, Ace, Dark Sunshine, Witch, and Blaze (Phantom Stallion - Terri Farley)
• The Direwolves (A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin)

I feel like I'm probably forgetting some, but I've been through my shelves and haven't come up with any more.  Feel like I'm missing any?  Who are some of your favourite fictional pets?  Let me know in the comments below!

Get To Know Me Questions Tag

Hey guys, I thought a get to know me post would be fun considering you don't really know anything about me!  I found the questions from a few different posts like this and made up some of my own.  So follow along and get to know me!  Even better, fill it out yourself for your own blog or let me know some of your answers in the comments below!

1. When's your birthday?  August 20th

2. How many siblings do you have?  One sister.

3. What did you study in school?  I ended up with a Biology and Medieval Studies double major (which is a really long story) with minors in English and Psychology.

4. Favourite colour?  Red.

5. Favourite song at the moment?  I just discovered Savage by Whethan, Hold My Heart by Lindsey Stirling, and Stay by Zedd & Alessia Cara.  Can't stop listening to the three of them on repeat.

6. Favourite movies?  I always have a hard time answering this question.  I can't choose one, but I've been really into the MCU lately.

7. Favourite TV shows?  I actually watch way too many TV shows.  My all-time favourite is Supernatural.  But I also love Prison Break, Lost, The Walking Dead (and Fear the Walking Dead), Teen Wolf, BBC's Merlin, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and so many more!

8. Favourite books?  The Harry Potter series, obviously.  After that, there are way too many to list.

9. Favourite animal(s)?  Wolves, horses, and tigers.  I also think manatees are adorable.  I really love all animals though . . . except spiders.

10. Do you have any pets?  Two dogs, although only one of them is actually mine.

11. Favourite holiday?  Christmas.

12. Favourite season?  Summer for sure.  I love hot weather.

13. Favourite places to travel?  I've been to Orlando, Florida tons of times (mostly for Disney and Universal Studios).  I was in New York City for a few days and absolutely loved it there too.

14. Favourite sport?  To watch would definitely be hockey.  To actually do myself would be horseback riding or swimming.

15. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?  1. Anywhere in Europe.  I love studying the Middle Ages so living anywhere in the area would be absolutely amazing.  2. New York City.  3. Hawaii or somewhere else really warm.


Want to know anything else?  Post your questions in the comments below!

A Review: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit is a wonderful introduction to Middle Earth, resonating with generations of people.  I re-read it for a class this past term and I loved it once again.  It's a fun and happy story, lacking some of the darkness that later appears in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I will say though that I've always had trouble reading Tolkien's writing.  Oftentimes he focuses, in my opinion anyway, on unnecessary things rather than the story itself.  I find The Hobbit lacks this extensive world building (to an extent) and focuses more on Bilbo's story which is much more enjoyable to me.  (Perhaps because it was written as a children's book it lacks these 'unnecessary' details?)

As always though, the story was a quick and fun read.  I'd recommend it to any age group as it has important themes and messages throughout that anybody can learn from.  If you haven't already, I'd say you should try reading it at least once - just so you know what you've been missing out of!

What did you think of it?  Let me know in the comments below!

Rated: 4/5

Reading Goals & Anticipated Releases

I don't know about you, but for me the new year is always time to set new reading goals. I love being able to use Goodreads (or just keeping track on my own) to know how many books I've finished in a year and which ones they were. Whether your own goal is to read one or one hundred books throughout the year there's no better feeling than once again being able to enter a new world. My own goal for the year is 75 books and you can all watch as I succeed (or fail!) to read them. Here's my reading breakdown for the year.

All of 2017: 75+ books

January: 7+ books

February: 5+ books

March: 5+ books

April: 5+ books

May: 7+ books

June: 7+ books

July: 7+ books

August: 7+ books

September: 7+ books

October: 7+ books

November: 7+ books

December: 7+ books

Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track with the schedule – I've given myself enough wiggle room to allow for some monthly goals not to be met which will probably be helpful for January-April. I have set up rewards for myself though which allow me to buy myself new books if I complete my goals. If you think you'll struggle with your own book goals, find a reward system that works for you to get in all those books you're itching to read!

Most Anticipated Releases of the Year:

Now that I've set my reading goals, here are my ten most anticipated YA releases of 2017. You just know that I'll be rewarding myself by buying some of these throughout the year:

1. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
2. Missing by Kelley Armstrong
3. King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard
4. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare
5. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
6. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
7. Untitled Throne of Glass #6 by Sarah J. Maas
8. Untitled Falling Kingdoms #6 by Morgan Rhodes
9. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
10. Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

There are so many more but that would take way to long to list. Which books are you most looking forward to this year? And what (if any) book goals have you set for yourself? Let me know in the comments below!

A New Year & New Changes

Happy New Year everybody!

As we start to embark on this new year I'd just like to let you know that there will be some changes coming to the blog.  For those of you who regularly followed my posts you know that their timing was fairly inconsistent.  I initially set out to make new posts every day or almost every day.  Unfortunately, life does get in the way sometimes.  School was extremely busy this past term, leaving little time for anything else, and unfortunately I was not able to post nearly as much as I would've liked.

Since the upcoming term will be the end of my final year, and I'm taking extra courses, I'm likely to be pretty busy again.  So rather than trying - and failing - to post everyday, new posts will be every Sunday, probably between 3:00 and 9:00pm EST (a specific time will be nailed down when I have made enough posts to schedule their uploads in advance).

Thank you to those who have regularly been checking for new posts.  I'm hoping that this new system will allow me to continue uploading reviews for you guys while also allowing me to have plenty of time for my schoolwork.

Have a good week everybody and make sure to check back next Sunday for my next review!  If you have any requests just let me know and I'd be glad to look into doing that for you.  I hope you all have a great year!

A Review: The Dream Protocol (Descent #1) by Adara Quick

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quite honestly, I'm not 100% sure what to make of this book.  In some ways I really enjoyed it, but other parts about it seemed rushed or almost unfinished.  The idea was definitely original, I'm not sure I've even heard of a book with a similar plotline.  I definitely liked the originality of this book and am very interested to see where the story goes.

While most of the major characters were likable, they unfortunately weren't fleshed out enough for my liking.  For whatever reason, there seems to be little in the way of backstories for these characters so I never felt like I actually knew them.  As a result, I wasn't extremely invested in what happened to them.  If the characters had been developed a bit more this wouldn't have been as much of an issue.  That being said however, I did quite enjoy the character of Flynn.

A bigger problem with the book, especially the beginning of it, was the shifting perspectives.  There were a few pages that were constantly changing which character's perspective we were reading from that actually made it quite difficult to understand.  I almost stopped reading the book because of this, worried that it would be like this the entire time.

Ultimately, it was a very interesting story with an original plotline that definitely has potential to lead to an amazing series.  Character development and the pacing of the plot seemed rushed or unfinished, possibly due to the short length of the story.  Overall though, I'm interested in finding out what happens next and would recommend for a quick and fun read.

Rated: 3/5

Owlcrate Review

For those of you who don't know, Owlcrate is a monthly book subscription box that sends you a newly released YA book and assorted goodies to accompany it.  To sign up for a subscription you have to use a credit card or you can purchase past boxes using PayPal.  I've been watching the past boxes available, and when one popped up that I was interested in I finally took a chance and purchased it.

I bought one of the boxes from July which was Good vs. Evil.  My box was Evil and included:

• the book of the month: The Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
• a Draco Malfoy POP Figure
• a Death Star necklace from Vector Engravings on Etsy
• a Queen of Hearts magnetic bookmark
• and more goodies

I have to say, that I absolutely loved this box.  Now, I did purchase this box in August so I already knew what was in it.  However, I was still extremely excited for it and I can only imagine how people are when they're getting the box as a surprise that month.  The goodies are a lot of fun and seem to be good quality items - they're not just filling these boxes with cheap tricks.

The only negative I have about the entire experience was that it took two weeks for me to receive the box after ordering it.  I originally ordered the box on August 24th and it was finally shipped by September 6th.  Even then, it ended up in my neighbours mailbox instead of mine.  That being said, none of this is Owlcrate's fault and shipping may have taken longer because it had to clear customs into Canada and there was a long weekend in the middle of shipping.  Ah well, what can you do?

I'm definitely interested in getting more boxes from Owlcrate in the future and I'll be keeping watch on the boxes they have available.  Perhaps I'll get a subscription someday (hopefully soon!).

Do any of you have an Owlcrate subscription?  How do you feel about their monthly boxes?  Let me know in the comments!