Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

 Book: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Crown Publisher
Release Date: August 16th, 2011

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Stand Alone Sunday

 Happy Sunday, everyone! Hope ye're all having a great weekend. I felt like doing a post today, so why not a meme? I found this yesterday, and since today is Sunday, it's the perfect time to introduce it to this blog!

Standalone Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by  Megan @ bookslayerreads.  Standalone Sunday was created to let others know about all the standalone books you have loved, but maybe don’t get the attention they need. Megan created the banner as well and anyone joining in can use it too.

I'm always going to love series, and getting three or four books to fall in love with characters and get the development they deserve. But sometimes, after reading a particular heavy series that would crush you emotionally (looking at you, Sarah J Maas) I love to read a stand alone book that has its issues solved in one book and always ends happily ever after.  

The book I'm going to focus on today is one I'm currently reading, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

 

Synopsis:

 

 In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

I think this book is being made into a movie, so next year this could be in every bookshop all over the world, with new covers being released with the actors on the front. Who cares? If it will get people reading this book, I don't care. I may not be finished it yet, but I can't put it down! It's addicting, intriguing, mysterious, and every other adjective you can think of that makes books so amazing. If you were born in the 80's, you're going to appreciate this book even more than me, (a 90's kid) as I don't get all the references all the time. However, that doesn't take away from the ingeniusness of this book and I'm so glad I picked it up after so many years on my TBR.

What stand alone book is your favourite? Or do you read them at all? Have you read this one? Let me know in the comments below!

Review: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Book: Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Vintage Books
Release Date: August 31^st, 2010

 As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

Re-Reading has come to Goodreads!

Guess what! Rereading has come to Goodreads! That's right - books that you have read previously will now be added to your Reading Challenge! Is this not the best news ever? 

Last year, I wanted to read 100 books, but I found it quite difficult as I wasn't as enthusiastic about reading because none of the books I'd read had really grabbed me. So I ended up re-reading three different series that I loved, but of course none of them counted toward my challenge, which really frustrated me. So you can see just how ecstatic I am that any book I read, no matter whether it's the first time or the millionth time I've read it, it will still count toward my challenge and I won't have to panic and get stressed whenever it tells me I'm "one book behind schedule".

How about you? Are you delighted that Goodreads has finally added rereads? Let me know in the comments below!

*Check out blog post on Goodreads for more information!
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/817-rereading-is-here-let-s-say-it-again-rereading-is-here*

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Book: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Series: Standalone

Publisher: Balzer and Bray

Release Date: January 28^th 2014

 Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way - by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom - all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.