It is all about A Novel Idea these days, stemmed from a pub brainstorm session trying to come up with a bookish hashtag.
The story: a few weeks ago I entered a competition with Mira Ink who are looking for a freelance resident blogger for their YA audience and others in the book world alike.
I entered the first round, excited to have a chance to write a blog post talking about books, but standing out enough from just a standard book review, not thinking.much else of it - or maybe slightly trying to ignore the thought of getting through to not panic myself!
But I made it through to the top 10 into round 2 - this time to make a book video! The thought of sitting in a room talking to a camera about why I love books and should be picked sounded both terrifying but also bit boring. I wanted to do things abit differently, inject some of the creativity into it. Plus the task is to make it as viral as possible across social media and let's face it, noone is going to want to share a video of me talking. I knew I had to make something that people would want to share simply for itself rather than just because I begged them to. And so after a long think about what books meant to me and why I love them so much, my video took shape and a few books tied in trees later, it is done and out there on the big wide web!
I've managed to get to an amazing over 500 views in the past 4 days, but still with 6 days to go I am not slowing down, I have some truly amazing friends and family who are putting all their efforts into sharing it but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve to hopefully get the edge.
Can you tell how much I want this yet?
Check it out for yourself and please share, comment, like or contact me! I'm using the #anovelidea on Twitter along with the MiraInk #blogink one and you can tweet me on @Emzfinn. Let me know what you think, or maybe just what books mean to you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2H-1YAHlY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Blood Shadows is an amazing novel by Lindsay J Pryor, the first of the Blackthorn series.

Summary: "For vengeance - would you trust a vampire? For justice - could you betray your family? For love - are you ready to question everything you believe in? Gifted with the ability to read the shadows of 'third species' beings, Caitlin Parish is the Vampire Control Unit's most powerful agent. Despite that, her mission to hunt down Kane Malloy - a master vampire - comes with a death wish. Many have tried, but few have survived. For Caitlin, tracking Kane is about more than just professional reputation. With her parents both mysteriously killed 7 years apart to the day, Caitlin knows that without Kane's help she is next. She has four days to make a deal with the wicked, the irresistible, the treacherous Kane Malloy, The vampire who despises everything she stands for, Or die."

Living in a paranormal world where humans and vampires along with other 'third species' are in opposition; the humans rule and have Vampire Control Units keeping in line those who don't follow suit. Alongside this is the journey of Kane and Caitlin, him vampire and her human. They both have their own missions and a time limit so they have to work with, and against, each other in order to get revenge for their loved ones' deaths. The book plays with the idea of loyalty to one's own species and how quickly that can be compromised in different situations. It opens a whole world of things to come giving you just enough to understand what is happening but leaving you with this curiosity of wanting to know more and what is going to happen in the next book. It also tests resistance of physical, sexual and emotional desire, you watch as the characters fight against themselves and each other to resist these desires, which makes them that even more tempting. This story is definitely just the beginning and I think it is going to turn out to be a really amazing series.

One of the things that makes it a compelling read is the spark between Kane and Caitlin, it has enough passion and heat that you can really believe it and you can feel the depth of love between them, whether they fight it off or not. It is the kind of depth that made other popular paranormal books like Twilight so compelling, you want to fall in love just like they do. I liked how fun and fierce both characters were, they played off each other in their battles for power and fearlessness, trying not to let the other overtake them but as you are given the story from both perspectives throughout you get to really see inside their heads to know how they really feel and how they perceive each other. There are constant sub-tones of things to come; darker, more political social wars between species and their greed for control and power. Definite intriguing hints of dark, even deadly drama to come in the series.


I found it was written really well and an easy read which kept me hanging on to each page. I literally could not put it down! It combines what I wanted to happen with enough curve balls to make it unpredictable and make me want to find out how it all resolves in the end. I really enjoyed it and am already looking forward to reading the sequel!

Once again my posting has fallen behind. It has been an intense summer - having finished my degree, leaving Leicester and moving back home, then graduation and then my amazing Interrail trip around Europe for over a month! It's been abit non stop but I have loved every minute of it! And even better I have managed to read so many books. I loved my degree and the reading choices attached to that (well most of them!) but it is such a relief to be able to read anything now and I'm making the most of it. The problem I seem to have these days is just purely so many books that I want to read all at once and just not enough time in the day!
I am also 52 books through my 100 books Goodreads target for this year, so I've got to speed up and get reading!


I doubt I would have time to review all the books I have read over the summer, especially the ones on my Kindle while I was traveling, but I thought I'd kick off this post by talking about the book I just finished reading today, one that I bought on Kindle with view of reading it across Europe but not having time to. Jojo Moyes' 'The Last Letter From Your Lover' was simply amazing.
I have read Me Before You by Moyes and 'The Last Letter...' has always been on my must read list since it was published, so I knew it would be good but there was something about it that just made it stick with me.

Goodreads summary: "It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband. Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance."

I found myself wanting to shout at the characters in the book, so they would do what I wanted them to - stop ruining their relationships and start seeing clearly and following how they really feel (to name a few). I found I sympathised with Jenny's husband Larry for a large proportion of the book having to endure his wife's lack of attention and sympathy towards their marriage, but then when you get introduced to the sheer depth of her love to Boot and how Larry becomes distasteful and a bully towards his wife it suddenly all falls into place and you love the characters you are supposed to and you empathise with all her actions, which just breaks your heart even more so when things don't go the right way.
It definitely became one of those books for me that every time I had to stop reading (during commute train-changes:having mastered the art of reading and travelling across busy stations or at the end of my journey) I was disappointed and wanted to get back to finishing it to find out how things worked out.
My only real criticism of the book - whether it is a Kindle layout issue or just in general, was that I found the transitions between 1960's before and after the accident were quite interchangable and it took me a while until Boot was introduced to realise that they were different times. A more distinguishable time shift would've been helpful, but I got to grips in the end!
I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely seek out some more Jojo Moyes books and recommend this one to as many people as I can so we can discuss it!



I think what makes this such a fine novel is how Moyes manages to completely capture the true essence of the love story and as the modern journalist Ellie falls deeply into the story I felt I did too. Even though I have no real connection to the story - I'm not living in the 60's or part of a adulterous married relationship or anything of the sort, I somehow felt like I could relate to every part of it. I think Moyes has written a true love story, based around the romanticism of the old fashioned love letter.

Wow! Having read Jenny Colgan's Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe before (which is also an amazing read, especially for cupcake lovers like me!) I knew that I would really enjoy this book as I love her style of writing. It's been sitting on my shelf itching to be read, so I finally allowed myself to! and wow!
I think it is plausible to say that I was engrossed from page 1 and have barely put it down since (unless required with much begrudging).

"Were you a sherbet lemon or chocolate lime fan? Soft chewy ones or hard boiled sweeties (you do get more for your money that way)? The jangle of your pocket money . . . the rustle of the pink and green striped paper bag . . .
Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian s sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong.
Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton's sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets.
Welcome to Rosie Hopkins Sweetshop of Dreams, a novel, with recipes." (goodreads)

The story itself from afar, at first, seems predictable: city girl moves to sleepy village unwillingly, eventually falls in love with the place, dumps useless boyfriend and falls in love with the man of her dreams, but it is told with such magic that you sit on the edge of you seat wondering if that is how it is going to turn out. You really have no idea until right at the end what is going to happen! I found myself torn between wanting to cry over what was going wrong and screaming at Rosie to not go back to London or leave the man she truly loves!
It sounds exaggerated, but it really isn't!

It's such a wonderful book that offers endless (or not as many if you read it as quickly as I did) hours of escapism and really draws you into such a wonderful story that you don't want to leave! All the characters are so beautifully crafted that even the horrid ones you just have to love! As emotional and romantic as it is, it is also really funny! Don't underestimate the humour in a chick-lit! I found myself frequently chuckling outloud! Especially when Edison says he has a stigmatism and that and wearing glasses means he'll be super clever (my mum believe it as much in my case with my stigmatism!).

Jenny Colgan has really captured the beauty of a story, especially one about sweets! And has really gotten into the minds (and hearts) of those fond, english childhood memories of old fashioned sweet shops!
Not to be read without a bag of sweets of this kind though!!

Today has just been one of those weeks - busy central! In fact all this course reading and essay writing got abit too overwhelming this week and I just needed to read something for fun! So my work-free evening on sunday was spent curled up on the sofa reading Paige Harbison's New Girl! I started at about 8ish and could not stop until I had finished just gone midnight! What a way to spend an evening! It just goes to show that I could not put this book down, I had to finish it in one sitting!


"They call me 'New Girl'... 

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her. 

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault. 

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend…but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be. 

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back." (Goodreads Summary)