Book Review: Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

Wintersong – S. Jae-Jones

*Warning – may contain spoilers*

Author: S. Jae-Jones

Publisher: Titan Books

First published: 2017

Edition: First edition paperback

Pages: 508

Blurb:    All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They’ve enraptured her spirit and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen, Liesl can’t help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away.

But when her sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl must journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds – and the mysterious man who rules it – she soon faces an impossible decision. With time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.

History of my copy: Wintersong was the featured book of the 6^th Illumicrate box, from February 2017. See my unboxing post here. It came with a letter from S. Jae-Jones, a bookmark and a signed bookplate.

Wintersong isn’t the sort of book I would pick up for myself to read, despite my love of music and its obvious connections to that. However, I absolutely adored it, and that is one of my favourite things about book boxes – being introduced to books that I wouldn’t normally read.

Plot: Wintersong follows Liesl, the eldest of 3 siblings, who is overlooked by everyone. Her sister is kidnapped by the Goblin King to become his bride in a retelling of Labyrinth. Liesl’s job is to save her, without getting lost in the Underworld herself. However, that is easier said than done. After all, the Goblin King is still looking for his Queen…

Setting: As you can gather, a large part of the book is set in the Underground home of the Goblin King. I’ve never read a book where the setting, which should be so desolate, was so simply enchanting. Despite the savagery that comes with the goblins, the whole book is so beautifully described that you can’t help but fall a little bit in love with it all.

Characters: I related to Liesl so much she is my favourite. She had so many issues that are delved deep into throughout the story. She’s a composer but is told to ‘grow up’ and ‘focus on other things’ whilst being lost against her beautiful sister and brilliant musical brother. Whilst I tend to get a little fed up of the ‘selfless heroine who is constantly in the shadows but is actually super lovely and talented’, I couldn’t help but adore Liesl.

                I also loved the character of the Goblin King. Sorry not sorry but I’m an absolute sucker for a bad guy that is just lost underneath it all. I like villains that aren’t true villains, enemies that you can learn to love, and the Goblin King is one of them. This book is just as much about them finding each other as it is about them finding themselves.

To read or not to read: Read. Read. Read. I absolutely adored this book!

Complete Anatomy Colouring Book Part 2

The next part of the colouring book featured the spinal cord and spinal nerves.

Again, you can see that I've used the crayola pencils to create a bright, colourful schematic to help me identify which parts are which. 

| Part 1 |

Book Review: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

The DUFF – Kody Keplinger

*Warning – may contain spoilers*

Author: Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books

First published: 2010

Edition: Paperback with movie cover

Pages: 341

Blurb:    Seventeen-year old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl at school, but she has a loyal group of friends, biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She’s also too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut Wesley. But when he casually refers to Bianca as the Duff of her crew – the designated ugly fat friend – the gloves are off!

But things aren’t so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it, and before she knows it she’s in a secret enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly wrong. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.    

History of my copy: I picked up The DUFF at a charity book sale for only 50p. It’s not my usual sort of book, but I received a copy of the film so I knew I had to read it before watching it…

I only took 5 days to read The DUFF, which is pretty good going for me! With uni and work, I don’t have much time to read so I’m quite impressed with how quick I read it.

Plot: The basic plot of this book is that Bianca ends up secretly getting with Wesley, a complete douche who has always been a bit mean to her. Lo-and-behold, then end up falling for each other, since they used to be good friends when they were younger. It’s simply a straight forward, generic story of a ‘complicated’ high school romance.

Setting: The book is set in America and I don’t think there was anything particularly remarkable about it.

Characters: To be quite honest, none of the characters really stood out. Bianca was okay as a character, had a bit of depth, but her narrative got annoying quickly. All attempts to make Wesley a little more 2D just seemed to make him even more cliché than before.

To read or not to read: Don’t read. Whilst a small part of me enjoyed the book as an easy-to-read, high-school romance, it was certainly nothing special.

Illumicrate Number 8 Unboxing (August 2017)

Continuing my Illumicrate unboxing theme, this is my unboxing of the 8th box from August 2017.

Check Illumicrate out here!

As you can see, the box is full of goodies, including two books!

Silly me forgot to take a photo of the packing list, so here is what was included:
- Copy of Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo with red sprayed edges and a pin badge
- Red Church Tea
- Shakespeare zip bag
- Wisdom journal
- Alethiometer coaster
- Sticky bookmarks
- Extras: Ringer bookmark, After the Fire bookmark, The Bear and the Nightingale bookmark, Moxie badges, Nyxia arc and bookmark



I will admit that I wasn't too keen on the book choice. I'm not a DC fan, but I will give the book a go.

This tea, quite simply, ruined my life. It got me into loose-leaf tea which has cost me a bomb, but I love it. This tea was delicious!

I use this cute little pouch as a book case for any smaller paperback books I'm reading, so that they don't get damaged in my bag.

This is a cute little dot grid notebook which I am sure I will use at some point!

This coaster is gorgeous! Although I haven't finished His Dark Materials, I do love the books and this lovely golden coaster has a special place on my desk to hold my coffee mug.

I adore this book jar! Although it's actually a money box, I'm eventually going to use it to store the names of all my TBR books so that I can pick my next read randomly from it.

I'm not someone who annotates books as I read them, but I'm sure I'll put these cute sticky notes to use when doing university work!

I love the bookmarks Illumicrate adds! They give me ideas of new books to buy, and are cute essentials.

I love to match the bookmark to the book I am currently reading, so that I use all the bookmarks I own (and it aesthetically pleases me...)

Like bookmarks, the postcards are a cute addition, especially ones that advertise books.

Another bookmark!

I'm not a pin badge person, but I do think they're cute! Illumicrate has since (spoiler alert) included a badge banner, and I can't wait to fill it!

Nyxia was the ARC included. I can't wait to read it!












Thanks for reading!