Michelle Madow author interview + international GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate my almost 100 bloglovin followers, I have a little suprise for you all! Michelle Madow wanted to help out and we planned on doing a fab giveaway! I asked her 3 questions about her new book 'The prophecy of Shadows', this book will be published January 26th and will be the 1st book in her new series called 'Elementals'. Michelle has written books before. One of her biggest succes being the Secret Diamond sisters trilogy published by HarlequinTeen.

About Michelle
Michelle Madow grew up in Baltimore, graduated Rollins College in Orlando, and now lives in Boca Ranton, Florida. She wrote her first book in her junior year of college, and has been writing novels since. Some of her favorite things are: Reading, Pizza, Travelling, Shopping, Time travel, Broadway musicals, And spending time with her friends and family. Michelle has toured across America to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruiseship.


What is Elementals, the prophecy of shadows about?
When Nicole Cassidy moves from sunny Georgia to gloomy New England, the last thing she expects is to learn that her homeroom is a cover for a secret coven of witches. Even more suprisingly.... she's apparently a witch herself. Despite doubts about her newfound abilities, Nicole is welcomed into this ancient circle of witches and is bedazzles by their powers-and, to her dismay, by Blake-the school's notorious bad-boy.

Girls who get close to Blake wind up hurt. His girlfriend Danielle will do anything to keep them away, even if she must resort to using dark magic. But the chemistry between Blake and Nicole is undeniable, and despite wanting to protect Nicole to Danielle's
wratch, he finds it impossible to keep his distance.

When the Olympian comet shoots through the sky for the first time in three thousand years,Nicole, Blake, Danielle and to others in their homeroom are gifted with mysterious powers. But the comet has another effect-it opens the portal to the prison world that contained the Titans for centuries. After an ancient monster escapes and attacks Nicole and Blakem it's up to them and the others to follow the clues from a cryptic prophecy so that they can save their town... and possibly the world



As I said, I asked her 3 questions for this mini-interview! here they are!
1. Who or what inspired you to start writing this book?
I wrote Elementals: the prophecy of shadows when I was a seniour in College. I've always loved magic, witches and greek mythology, And thought it would be cool to write a book that combined those elements. When I came up with the idea for Elementals and shared it with friends and family, they all loved it and encouraged me to write it, so I did!
2. This book is totally different in Genre than The secret Diamond sisters, why did you choose to do this?
My first series, the transcend time saga, has reincarnation and time travel, als most of my other book ideas all have fantasy elements in them as well. Fantasy and sci-fi have always been what I love most as a reader and as a writer. I think the secret diamond sisters is different than all my other books and ideas! The reason for that is for me, Las Vegas has always felt like a fantasy world, so I loved setting that series in there. But while it was fun to write a contemporary series, from now on, expect most of my books to have fantasy or sci-fi elements in them, because those genres are really what I truly love!
3. If you look to yourself as an author, do you feel having accomplished certain dreams and goals?
There are some dreams I've already accomplished (like finishing my 1st novel and getting a major publishing deal), and others that I still want to accomplish (like seeing my books on a bestseller list). I'm proud of all my accomplishments, and hope to see myself fulfill even more of my dreams in future!


Giveaway!
for my 'almost' 100 bloglovin followers Michelle and I are giving away 1 Ebook of her new book called 'Elementals' the prophecy of shadow + a signed bookmark, and also 1 signed bookmark to the 2nd winner!
The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL! For the prizes I'll contact the winners on January 25th and will be needing their email address and home address. The giveaway is from age 16+ or parental permission, this because I need your home address to send you your prize.

If you have any questions you may leave a comment on this post and I'll answer it as soon as I can!
May the odds be in your favour ;) and good luck participating!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas Films!

Now that it is Christmas I'd love to share the Christmas films I've watched this December.
December 6th I started watching those films and got a pretty huge list at the moment. Don't you just love it as well to get into the Christmas mood? going to bed early, drinking some tea or hot chocolate, reading a book or watch a film under the warm blanket. Oh god, I just love it!

as I said, the list of Christmas films I watched is pretty huge! here they come:
- Chalet girl
- A princess for Christmas
- Elf
- A royal Christmas
- Anastasia
- Christmas with the Kranks
- love actually
- the santa clause
- the santa clause 2

Out of these I had some favorites as well! I'll be sharing my 3 favorites I've seen this year :)

The one I liked most out of all these was the film ELF!
Elf is about, well you can guess that, an elf! he was adopted as a child by one of santa's elfs and became an elf at the workshop for some time. Until he wanted to find his real dad somewhere in New York. When he goes to New York he finds his dad and his little step mom and brother, He now has to prove he can function as a 'normal' human in the actual world ;)

The 2nd one I liked most is 'A princess for christmas'. I just love this film so much! Katie McGrath and Sam Heughan are in it, Couldn't have a better combination! This film is about this woman called Jules and she is the adoptive parent of her sister's 2 kids, The sister and her husband died a year earlier at christmas time. Suddenly someone comes and asks if the kids and Jules want to spend Christmas in Europe with their granddad, who turns out to be a Duke. When in Europe jules meets the other son of the Duke, Ashton, and they start spending time together .......

And the last movie is Love Actually. Oh gosh, every year again I love this so much! A film full with great British actors and actresses who play the Christmas spirit so well! A film about love, hope and joy!

What were your favorite Christmas films this year?
Merry Christmas!

NEWS!

I'm kinda excited to make a blogpost about this, but recently I started co-blogging at a dutch blog called Coffee & bookpages.

The blog is run by 2 girls named Melanie and Kimberly and now I have joined them as well. The blog is mainly a dutch blog but they will also do some posts in English for the english readers. I'll be helping posting Dutch posts and also the English reviews. 

They just started out but we'll be more than happy if you had a look at the website!
https://coffeeandbookpage.wordpress.com

Of course my main blog will be this one. On this blog I post all of the news and my opinions on things in English and will post as many posts a week as usual.
I'll just be a co-blogger at the Dutch blog. Consider it as a 2nd activity! :)

I'm more than happy to join their team and i'm looking foreward to work together!

Recensie: Monsterboek door Alice Hoogstad

Titel/Auteur: Monsterboek door Alice Hoogstad

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2014 door Lemniscaat

Genre: Tekstloos prentenboek, kinderboek

Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: Ik heb dit boek gelezen omdat de vormgeving mij zeer aansprak

Rating: 4 van de 5 sterren

In dit tekstloze prentenboek duiken overal monsters in prachtige kleuren op. En de mensen in het zwart-witte stadje houden nog wel zo van rust en orde! Heeft het meisje met haar krijtjes er misschien iets mee te maken?

Review: 

Om te beginnen wil ik toch echt even kwijt wat een leuk prentenboek ik dit vond. De afbeeldingen vond ik geweldig leuk getekend en het sprak mij vanaf het begin aan! Het prentenboek is een tekstloos prentenboek, dit is wel eens fijn omdat je zelf je verhaal maken kan als ouder of juf.

In het boek komt er een meisje in een stad en begint opeens dingen te kleuren en te tekenen met haar krijtjes. Even later komen deze dingen tot leven, het zijn monsters! En deze monsters kleuren de hele stad. De bewoners kijken heel verbaasd en snappen er niet veel van, maar het meisje vind het geweldig. Ze tekent steeds meer monsters zodat de stad snel meer kleur krijgt. Totdat de regen het weer wegspoelt. 

Zoals ik al zei vond ik dit boek ontzettend leuk. Zeker een aanrader voor iedere ouder of groep 1/2 juf. 

De afbeeldingen vond ik mooi getekend en ook zeker modern. Die kleurenmonsters waren best spannend! 

Het boek is dit jaar (2015) bekroond met een gouden en zilveren penseel. 

Het boek heb ik 4 van de 5 sterren gegeven! 

Talk bookish with ...... Nakita! (2)

Hello!

My name is Nakita veltman and I'm 17 years old. I love reading since I was little. As a Child we went to the libary with school and that was twice a week! We could choose two books and read them when we started with school. We had the first 30 minutes to read and more time when you were done with your work. I was most of the time very fast so I read much and loved it. I start reading in the breaks and enjoyed many stories!

I stopped a couple of years because I wanted to play outside,play soccer and other games and enjoyed my school but in high school after my parents divorced I started again because my friends read. The stories didn't make me think on the hard world. I was 11 when my parents broke up and it was hard because I was Just pubering. The first series I read was the ranger's Apprentice! I Loved it and wanted to read more!

Now I have I think a 1000 books and collect it them for 3/4 years. My sister has her own house so if I need to do something and this is something good and stumulate my brains. When people ask me why I read I ask them most of the time why they breath. They told me that they have to to leave and I told them that reading feels the same for me!

I love to read bloody thrillers and enjoy of the hard stories and mystery in it. Sometimes I want to read a contemporary because every one has kinda love moments. Fantasy is still the genre that I love most! The world is most of the time big and full of adventures! The young adult books are also interesting but the most look like the others. The hunger games, divergent, the programm, i'll give you the sun, books that I read and love! I Just need to read much stuff! But you understand the statement : " so much books and so little time".

I hope that you enjoy my Story and will share your Story as well! It was awesome to do and I feel special that Claire asked me! Much reading fun!!

Questions:

1. What is or are your all time favorite book(s)?

My favorite books and series are : 1. is the hunger games, because I love the way of Collins' writing style and the Story. There is one girl and there are two boys fighting for her, but she has her own problems as well. She have to take care of her family and be strong. It's awesome to read how she do everything and how strong she is. On number two are the books from John Flanagan!

Ranger's Apprentice is his first series of 12 books. It's full of adventure and is very fast to read because first it are books for children, but so nice to read! He have a writing style that you read it so fast that it feels like a movie!
Brotherband is his second serie. It's about the skandiers in Skandia and they are most of the time on the sea. It are big guys and they love fun!
The last book that I love is "i'll give you the sun". It's a book full of feelings and art. They speak like an artist and they tell a Story on a style that I never met! It's so Beautiful! At the first time I don't want to read the books because people say; skip the first 100 pages but I Loved them too!


2. Who's your favorite author and why?
This is a hard one! I love Suzanne collins and John flanagan the most because the stories that I read make me smile and remember me on the happy moments and I remember the stories. I read every week a book and this are the books that I still love and remember!

3. Do you have any signed books?
Yes! I have 2 mini closets with signed books! The most are dutch or translated. I love signed books and the talk with the writer to know why they Wrote a certain story.

4. What's your favorite reading spot? Most of the time I read in my bed. A soft pillow and a blanket to keep me warm. A good orange juice and some music and it's good! Almost perfect. It's perfect when I can hug with someone! I can read everywhere when I have a good book and Some nice music. The only things that I need then is a place where I sit confortable.

5. Show us your bookshelves or bookcase!
These are the pictures. I love books so much that I will never stop expanding my collection!

6. What are your favorite book blogs?I read most of the time dutch blogs : A 1000 ways to read, Zon en Maan, young adult boeken, Kwante in Wonderland and have my own on wordpress!


Thank you Claire for this interview! If you'd like to have a look on my blog here's the link: https://nakitaslibrary.wordpress.com/
Hope you enjoyed my post!

Bye!

#FridayReads 18-12

YAY! The holidays have finally started today. Have yours started as well? The past week was exhausting! School again was actic and we got late hours. But now I'm happy we can call this friday weekend!

I actually haven't turned a page and also haven't touched a book. But this weekend I hope I will! also on saturday I'm going to a Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike concert at the sportpaleis in Antwerp so I'm more than excited to have weekend!

This weekend and week I'll be reading the books De stem van de zee by Mara Li (hopefully I'll finish it soon!) and also the Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa. I'm also planning on reading The yellow balloon by Charlotte Dematons. This is a picture book for children.

Which book will you be reading over the weekend?

Have a great day!

Recensie: Soms laat ik je even achter door Daan Remmerts de Vries

Titel/Auteur: Soms laat ik je even achter door Daan Remmerts de Vries

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2014 door Querido

Genre: Kinderboek, Prentenboek

Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: het boek heeft een zilveren griffel in 2015 gekregen

Rating: 3 van de 5 sterren


Soms is het heerlijk om even alleen te zijn. Daarom laat een meisje haar beer achter in het bos.

Beer is eerst bang, maar dan ontmoet hij de indianenberen. Van hen leert hij een wilde beer te zijn. Hij gaat zelfs op jacht!

Het meisje laar haar beer natuurlijk niet lang alleen. Want wat is er fijner dan elkaar terugvinden, aan het eind van de dag?

Review:
Het boek gaat over deze beer, die alleen gelaten wordt door zijn vriendinnetje (het meisje), want ze wilde graag even alleen zijn. Wanneer ze wat te ver loopt raakt ze beer kwijt en beer haar. Beer gaat erop uit om haar te zoeken maar komt de indianenberen tegen van wie hij veel leert. Als de avond valt besluiten ze te gaan jagen. En ja hoor, ze zien een prooi! Als hij erop afrent ziet hij dat het geen prooi is maar zijn vriendinnetje. Zo vonden ze elkaar weer terug en eindigt het verhaal.

Dit boek is een prentenboek geschikt voor de jongsten onder ons. De afbeeldingen waren zeer aantrekkelijk en het boek is ook zeker mooi vormgegeven. Door de inkleuring vond ik het boek opvallen. Wat ik minder leuk vond was de verhaallijn, zelf vond ik deze een beetje 'vaag' overkomen. waarom legt het meisje de beer in het bos en wat is de reden dat ze alleen wil zijn. Natuurlijk is dit wel mooi in te vullen door de ouder van een kind of door de leerkracht. Je krijgt zo inspiratie om zelf een invulling aan het verhaal te geven. Wat ik niet weet is of dat ik de bekroning terecht vindt. Natuurlijk heeft de griffeljury meer gezien in het verhaal dan ik deed.

Ik raad het verhaal wel aan bij ouders wiens kinderen graag prentenboeken voorgelezen krijgen of aan een leerkracht die bezig is met een sociaal-emotionele les. Hierbij kan worden gedacht aan: waarom wil je af en toe even alleen zijn? waarom kun je niet altijd alleen blijven en heb je ook vriendjes en vriendinnetjes nodig? en Wat zou jij wel eens achter willen laten voor eventjes? dit zou een boek zijn geschikt voor een les op het gebied van vrienden of gevoelens.

Ik heb het boek 3 van de 5 sterren gegeven. 

Favorite screen characters Tag!

If you can't guess from the title, the point of this tag is to select (if you possibly can) ten of your favorite on-screen fictional characters (yes, only ten!). Then tag ten friends who can do this tag as well and they also choose ten others friends and so on and so on ....

I haven't been tagged by anyone but I just wanted to do the tag anyway! so let's start!

1. The Doctor

I love the Doctor for so many reasons! he's funny and sweet and just wants to help others. When he is in a bad mood he'll always say and he just needs to be surrounded by the people he love. He is a real person with a real heart that also can be broken from time to time. Out of all doctors I think the 10th and 11th are my favorites! you know why? 10 had such a love for Rose he would do anything for her! and 11 because he always brought out the best in people! He brought out the best of Amy and Rory.

2. Sherlock Holmes

Yes, on 2 my kinda all time favorite character as well, Sherlock Holmes! I like him best in the BBC adaption. He's always moody and thinks he always knows best! Although he says he has no friends, his best friend will always be John! How cute they are together. They would absolutely do anything to save each other, no matter what. Sherlock acts like if he has no heart and like he doesn't care but deep inside he does have feelings too, like everyone around him who loves him!

3. Mary Crawley

yes yes, I have a weak spot for Mary from Downton Abbey. It's one of my favorite tv shows ever and I loved mary through all the seasons. She has no eye for people lower in rank and always wants to score the best out of everything. She acts like if she doesn't care but to her Maid Anna she always speaks te thruth. She feels guilt for Matthew as well, when she falls in love with Mr.Pelham. She can be broken and isn't the manipulative biatch she always acts to be. She wants to help people her way and will always fight for what she wants.

4. Claire Fraser

Claire, from the tv show outlander! I discovered it only a couple of months ago but I am so addicted to it already. She is a strong and independent woman who fights for what she believes in. She helps people who are in need and she falls in love on the handsome scottish laird Jamie. She had a rough time by falling through time but she adapted and turned out to be the strong and loyal British woman. 

5. Mr. Harry Selfridge

In a time when nothing was certain, he moved from America all the way to London to follow his dream. He wanted to have his own department store, a place people could shop in all areas without leaving the store. 1 building and 1 place people could meet, shop and talk. He had this dream and made it come through. He left everything behind and he became succesful! That's why I love this character so much. When following a dream you shouldn't be affraid for the outcome, you always need to fight, no matter what!

6. Merlin (emrys)

Merlin from the TV show Merlin. He is so great! He makes people laugh and protects them without them knowing. He becomes friends with the prince, Arthur, who later becomes king. Even though magic is forbidden Merlin keeps this part of him a secret and helps Arthur wherever he can! They are friends, secretly best Friends. He's always there for all his friends and when battle comes, he always sides with Arthur. 

7. Miranda

Who doesn't love some British humor? Mirand Hart is the best! She has her own series called 'Miranda'. In this series she always makes the best jokes and is madly in love with this guy Gary who doesn't know for a long time. Miranda is the most clumsy person ever and that makes a hilarious and witty person. She almost never is unhappy and loves her friends deeply.

8. Damon Salvatore

Sweet sweet Damon.. He'll fight for Elena till the end. He loves her so much and she sometimes doesn't even care. He always plays the bad guy but deep inside he has so much of his humanity left. When he opens his heart, it's full of love! But also pain, regret and humiliation. 

9. Sansa Stark

For all the pain and loss she had to endure she always tries to stay strong. She tries to fight of her enemies as best as she can. She has her own mind. She has been trapped, punished and abused but she always fights for the better. She wants to save what's left of her dad's lands and she has her mind set on becoming the Lady she always intended to become.

10. Emma

I love Emma of the BBC period drama so much! in a time marriages were arranged, people had secrets and couldn't come out for their opinion, Emma is brave enough to ignore all of that! She is a strong 19th century woman and thinks she always knows best, until she one day figures out she doesn't.... She'll do everything for her friends and loves her father deeply. She is making her own choice!

So, this was my top 10 favorite screen characters! I actually have tons more but 10 was the limit. As you can probably see I'm a huuuuge period drama fan. Especially British ones. Hope you enjoyed my choices. For this Tag I need to tag 10 people! These 10 people are: 

1. Amber @OnlyTrueMagic

2. Kwante @KwanteInWonderland

3. Marjolein @SerendipityBooks

4. Jen @TheBookAvid

5. Rowan @MyPinkFairytale

6. Angelica @FeelTheFuture

7. Marlies @TeaTimeBooks

8. Rose @RoseAndBooks

9. Annemieke @aDanceWithBooks

10. Jolien @DaisiesonBookshelves

If you like you can do this tag as well!

Review: Life and Death by Stephanie Meyer

Title/author: Life and death by Stephanie Meyer

Originally published/ year published: October 2015 by Atom

Genre: Fantasy, young adult

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: I've been a twilight fan for many years, I had to read this one as well. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, By Stephanie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover 'flip book', this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as an exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinary suspensful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.

Review:

Oh my, I just can't believe Stephanie Meyer made this. It actually is very good. I immediatly fell in love with Beau and Edyth (also I've never seen the name written like that). 

In the book Meyer swapped the characters, Bella is a boy named Beau and Edward is a girl named Edyth. Twilight always has been seen as the ultimate girls book because Bella was the 'weak' one, but in this book Meyer made very clear Bella wasn't weak, but actually a human in distress in the world which is a secret supernatural one. 

The characters as I said were the same as in the old book, nothing was changed, only their sexes. Bella's (Beau's) parents Charlie and Rene stayed the same, all the others changed gender. Doctor Cullen (carlisle) became Carine and her husband became Earnest. Carine had more of a storyline than Carlisle had in the original twilight book. 

The gender swap at first made me a bit confused, I was stil in the Bella and Edward story but soon I adapted and reading went really good. Meyer has written the book with an alternate ending, one I personally didn't see coming. Some parts she also left out, like the Jacob part , in the book Beau (Bella) only met the girl version of him only once properly. 

Alice was changed in Archie. He was way cooler than Alice was and that was a bit of a bummer for me. I just loved Alice's character so much! Jasper was Jessine and well, she was totally different than he was. She kinda had her own part in the story. 

I always have been a huge fan of twilight and thought this book might make enjoy the books less, also I expected maybe I wouldn't like this book. After having read the book I can say that it totally matched my overall expecation and that Meyer did her job more than well. 

I do think when you go into the book as a diehard twilight fan and recently having read the original books you might not enjoy it. The book really needs to be read through with another mindset than the original twilight books. 

There of course also were parts I didn't like that much. Because of the alternate ending Charlie and Rene were kinda left in the dark, which in my opinion I think was really sad and Beau just didn't seem to care that much.. Earnest didn't have a proper part in the book as well which I would have enjoyed. Beau's (Bella's) friends also had a smaller part in the book and Jacob you didn't read about much at all. I would have liked the old love triangle to be back. 

I overall really enjoyed this book and the book was just nicely written. therefore give it 4 out of 5 stars. 

November Wrap-up and December TBR

November is over and now it's finally December, which means having a holiday and also Christmas is coming! I have a feeling it will become a great reading month!

In October I read the following books:
- Mees Kees - een pittig klasje by Mirjam Oldenhave
Recensie: Mees Kees - een pittig klasje
- heb je mijn zusje gezien? by Joke van Leeuwen
Recensie: heb je mijn zusje gezien?
- Monsterboek by Alice Hoogstad
- Life and death by Stephanie Meyer

I enjoyed all books a lot but my fav one I read was Life and Death. The other books were childrens books and picture books.

so now my list of books I want to read in November:

- The iron knight by Julie Kagawa

- The Heir by Keira Cass
- De stem van de zee by Mara Li
- Soms laat ik je even achter by Daan Remerts de Vries
- Valentine Joe by Rebecca Stevens
- My true love gave to me : 12 holiday stories by Stephanie Meyer, Holly Black, Ally Carter etc

I hope I'll be able to read all the books. I know the christmas days will be more than hectic and also have to study a lot for my upcoming exams in January. At the moment I'm reading the Iron Knight and so far I'm enjoying the book a lot!

De stem van de zee by Mara Li I also will be reading for sure. I've been chosen to read her book for the Storm Publishers christmasclub (Kerstclub). Storm publishers is a new publishing company in The Netherlands and to get a bit of fame they organised the christmas club. I hope I'll enjoy the book :)

what will you be reading this month?

#FridayReads 04-12

Hi everyone!
hope you all had a great week. the past week I kinda didn't read many books. However I did finish life and death by Stephanie Meyer and also read a picture book called Soms laat ik je even alleen by Daan Remmerts de Vries. The picture book I read in Dutch and life and death of course in English ;)

So, It's Friday! It's weekend again! This weekend I'm going to have a drink with a friend of mine from Belgium and also am going to do tons of homework for internship. Of course I'll also be reading again. Although I might not have much time for it I'll try anyway.

The books I'll be reading are 'The Iron knight' by Julie Kagawa, this is the last book in the iron fey series and I'm so excited for it! I already started it last week and I'm enjoying it very much.
And the other book is one by the Dutch author Mara Li called De stem van de zee.

The book in Dutch I got for a review from a new Dutch publishing company called 'Storm publshers'. I am also participating in their christmas reading club (kerstleesclub) and this is the book I'll be reading with 11 other people. We'll do facebook discussions on the book and just talk in general about it. The feedback we have will be given to Storm publishers and Mara Li herself.
You kinda can guess I'm pretty excited for it ;)

btw, Storm also publishes books in English. If you became curious here's their website : http://www.stormpublishers.com/

Have a great weekend!

December YA book releases

November, ahh sweet november. we had some great books released last month:
- Winter by Marissa Meyer
- November 9 by Colleen Hoover
- Ten thousand skies above you by Claudia Gray
- half truths by Sally green

did you buy any of the November releases? I unfortunately didn't. *money issues* :P
however, that doesn't make me less excited for December, as this month Christmas is coming, which means many books under the tree from Santa!

I made a little list of the most popular December releases.

The 1st book on the list is: 'their fractured light' by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. this is book 3 of the starbound series (or trilogy?) I've read the 1st book in this series and did like it. this book follows the story of tarver and lilac, in the spotlights, but also a secret life away from the world's gaze. This book will be released on December 1st.

The 2nd book is 'See how they run' by Allie Carter. this will be the 2nd book in the Embassy row series. Grace's past has come back to hunt her, if she doesn't stop she won't be the only one to get hurt. The countries of the world stand like dominoes, one wrong move can make them all fall down. This book will be released on December 22nd.

The next book is 'The trouble with destiny' by Lauren Morrill. After her debur novel 'meant to be' this is her second book published so far. The book follows a girl called Liza Sanders and she's in her senior year at high school. She isn't interested in love, nor the 2 boys Lenny and Russ. She thinks herself of an expert of almost everything, but she definitely isn't an expert when it comes to love. This book will be released on December 8th.

The final book will be 'Did I mention I love you' by Estelle Maskame. This book will be the first book in the DIMLY trilogy. This book follows 16-year-old Eden Munro. She will spend her summer with her father in Santa Monica, California. Her parents are divorced and gone seperate ways. Her father now has a new family, and this summer she'll meet them. She now has 3 stepbrothers. The oldest one is Tyler, he takes her under his wing. Soon she has this feeling of falling in love with the very person she shouldn't fall for... This book was going to be released on December 1st but the publishers decided to have an earlier release date which was July 1st.

Recensie: Heb je mijn zusje gezien? Door Joke van Leeuwen (Nederlands)

Titel/Auteur: Heb je mijn zusje gezien? Door Joke Van Leeuwen

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2006 door Querido

Genre: Prentenboek, kinderboek

Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: Ik heb dit boek gelezen omdat de vormgeving mij zeer aansprak

Rating: 2 van de 5 sterren

Een jongetje zoekt zijn grote zus. Achter iedere muur moet gezocht worden. Achter iedere muur komt weer een andere verrassing tevoorschijn. En zusje?

Review:

Het boek gaat over een jongetje die zijn zusje kwijt is. Waar is ze nu? Dat vraagt hij aan ieder persoon of dier die achter een muur zit. Telkens beschrijft hij beter en beter hoe ze eruit ziet, tot plotseling hij zijn zusje vind. 

Dit boek was niet heel dik of moeilijk. Het verhaal sprak mij wel aan. Vooral de vormgeving van het boek vond ik zeer leuk gevonden. De muren waren ook echt aparte bladen met daarop een muur en achter de muur zat dan een persoon of dier die aan de beschrijvingen van zijn zusje deels voldeed. De tekeningen zijn goed te volgen en vond ik leuk getekend. 

Dit prentenboek is aan te raden aan de jongste kinderen. Het is spannend hoe het jongetje in het boek zijn zusje nu vind, kleine kinderen vanaf een jaar of 3 tot 5 zullen zeker van het boek genieten! 

Ikzelf gaf het boek 2 van de 5 sterren, dit omdat ik gewoon al betere prentenboeken gelezen heb. Dat maakt dit boek niet minder dan anderen maar in zekere zin anders en voor een jonger publiek. 

Recensie: Mees Kees- een pittig klasje by Mirjam Oldenhave (Nederlands)

Titel / auteur Mees Kees- een pittig klasje door Mirjam Oldenhave

jaar & door wie gepubliceerd: 2006 door Ploegsma

Genre: jeugdboek

hoe kom ik aan dit boek: van mijzelf

waarom heb ik dit boek gelezen: mijn zusjes zijn er dol op, moest hem daarom eens proberen!

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

In de klas van Tobias (ik-figuur) komt Mees Kees. Tobias en zijn klasgenootjes moeten Mees Kees nog leren hoe een meester te zijn

Review:

In het boek gaat het over een jongetje, Tobias, zijn klasgenootjes en Meester Kees (mees Kees). Tobias is de ik figuur. Hij ervaart het hele schoolgebeuren door kinderogen.

Meester Kees is een stagiare dat komt invallen in de klas, want hun juf is met zwangerschapsverlof. Meester Kees is best zenuwachtig omdat hij voor het eerst een klas alleen draait, maar het komt al snel allemaal goed en hij blijkt niet de 'standaard' meester te zijn.

Het boek heeft korte hoofdstukjes wat het voor kinderen makkelijk maakt om te lezen. Ideaal om het boek te lezen rond een jaar of 8. wie wil zo een leuke meester nu niet? Zelf als stagiare leerkracht hoop ik toch ook stiekem een beetje dat de kinderen mij net zo leuk als meester Kees zullen vinden ;)
Mees Kees leert al snel dat het saaie lesgebeuren niet zo bij hem past en maakt er daarom iets grappigs van voor hem en de kinderen. Al snel vinden de kinderen hem helemaal te gek!

De afbeeldingen in het boek passen ook goed bij de passages, kinderen kunnen snel een beeld krijgen van de meester en Tobias.

Zelf vond ik het boek 'okee'. Ik vond de hoofdstukjes wel heel erg kort en ook zat er naar mijn mening niet zo veel detail over de omgeving in het boek (in welke plaats speelt het boek zich af? , hoe oud zijn de kinderen? hoe ziet de klas eruit? enz). Dit vond ik wel jammer, want daardoor kwam het voor mij rommelig over. Mees Kees komt zelf ook over als nog een beetje een kind. Hij leest graag Asterix en Obelix en speelt graag spellen en games. Over mees Kees zelf zitten er dus wel heel wat leuke details in het boek. 
Ik heb het boek daarom ook maar 3 van de 5 sterren gegeven. Het gebrek aan detail was heel vervelend.
Wel is dit een boek dat zeker aan te raden is aan kinderen die geen helden in het lezen zijn of niet graag lezen. Alles verloopt lekker vlot en ook spreekt het verhaal kinderen zeer aan. Het past precies in de alledaagse belevingswereld.

Zoals ik al zei, 3 van de 5 sterren voor de 'volwassen' ik!

Talk bookish with ...... Marlies! (1)

Hi everyone, my name is Marlies from The Netherlands. I live in the north of that little country. I am 22 years old and I am also a bookblogger on TeaTimeBooks.nl. I am having that hobby for 1,5 years and I still like it! It is really cool to share something you love to the world. But I am also a designer. I made the header for this website too.

I am not working at the moment. And I already finished my school. Now I am educating myself with some free courses on the internet. Since Monday I also started with sports again. It was a long time ago (3 years) since I did something like that. 

Currently I am also participate NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Where you have to write a novel in 30 days of 50,000 words. Omg! Last year I also did it and I won, yea! So why don’t join it this year. 

One of my other hobbies is gaming. Last week I bought Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Grand Theft Auto V for PC. This summer I bought an expensive gaming pc J I am soooo happy with it! 

My reading addiction started with Harry Potter, I know it sounds cliché but it’s true. I think I was reading it since book 2 was published. With the last book I couldn’t wait, so that was the first one I read in English. And there started my real addiction. I realized it was cheaper to buy English books, so when I heard we were going to York in Great Britain with school I couldn’t stop searching for bookstores. And really, I bought so many books at bookstores that I had trouble to walk properly. I am the only one in my family who reads this much. So I don’t really have an example to look up to.

I think that’s a pretty long story isn’t it? :P

Questions:

Marlies' favorite reading spot.

1. What is or are your all-time favourite book(s)?
I think that will be Harry Potter, that’s where my addiction to read started. And since that moment I can’t stop reading haha. 

2. Who is your favorite author and why?
George R.R. Martin from the A Song of Ice and Fire series, for sure! I love the way he kills the characters like they are nothing. How can you be so rude, but I also have respect for that.

3. Do you have any signed books?
No L I wish I had some. 

4. What’s your favorite reading spot?
It is my bed. First I always read some before I go off to sleep.

5. Show us your bookshelves or case

 Here you can see my classics collection. The Collins Classics and the Penguin 80^th anniversary collection I have. And my Funko Pops collection, they are so cute!

Some books for review from publishers and some ‘I really have to read these books’. 

some of my series and coloring books and games. 

Books I absolutely can’t miss in my life. I have them on my wardrobe. And I have to step on a chair to reach them haha.

a bit of a disaster, I KNOW

these 2  pictures are my complete bookcase!

6. What are your favourite book blogs?
Ofcourse yours is a fantastic blog! And I also like: MijnBreinIsEenBoekenKast and for the international visitors here I came up to this blog LittleBookOwl.com

I really liked this interview and I am honored to be the first one. Sometimes I think I have too much books, and I know I still have to read most of my shelves. But that can’t stop me from getting to the library and read on my e-reader. Hopefully in the future I have my own little library in my house. That will be one of my dreams.

Thanks for reading and read on!

#FridayReads 20-11

Happy weekend everyone! 

As you might have noticed last week I didn't post a #fridayreads post. This was because of the paris attacks. I decided I wouldn't be blogging on that sad day. 

But this week we have a new week and of course I read some books.

Last week I read 2 picture books in Dutch: 

-heb je mijn zusje gezien? By Joke van Leeuwen 

- Monsterboek by Alice Hoogstad

Reviews of these will be online soon (in Dutch) 

I didn't have time for any other books. 

This weekend i'll still be reading the book 'life and death' by stephanie meyer. It's a pretty big book and because of the lack of time I haven't had time to finish it.  i'll also be reading book 4 in the iron fey series by Julie Kagawa, called 'the Iron Knight'. 

I'm super excited to finally read the last iron fey book! :) and hopefully I'll be able to finally finish life and death. 

What book/which books will you be reading over the weekend? 

Let me know! 

Review: Waiting for winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

Title/author: waiting for winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

Originally published/ year published: 2007 by Hoogland & Van Klaveren

Genre: childrens picture book

How I got this book: library

Why I read this book: I just love winter and had to read picture books for school

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

squirrel has never seen it snow, and this year he is determined to not miss it! he wants his friends, hedgehog and bear, to see it snow too, but it's hard to stay awake. Finally winter arrives, and snow is falling... or is it?

Review:
I so love this book. It's amazingly written and perfect for kids age 3/4/5. When I read this I was really excited, because animals and winter give me the ultimate magical perfect feeling. 

First squirrel finds his friend, hedgehog. and together they'll watch the sky for the moment the first snowflake falls, but this doesn't happen. They almost fall asleep, when suddenly their friend, bear, comes! they decide to wait for winter, with the 3 of them. in the end they almost fall asleep again but then bear suddenly feels something on his nose. it's the 1st snowflake of the  year!

The pictures in this book are so pretty. You almost feel like walking in the forest yourself. the animals are really cute and the story is so appealing to kids. If I had children I definitely would have read this as their bedtime story in winter!

I give the book 5 out of 5 stars!

Downton Abbey has (unfortunately) come to an end

It's been a week ago since Downton Abbey ended. It was one of my favorite tv shows ever! How I enjoyed this series. I know how I started watching as if it was yesterday.

5 years and a bit ago Downton Abbey started airing on ITV. Because I live in the Netherlands we don't have ITV. luckily I saw people on twitter talking about the new show and I just had to give it a go. It really was the show that changed my life completely.
because I love history I enjoyed the show a lot as well. The whole Mary and Matthew story was so amazing and also Branson's and Sybil's one was great! Also downstairs there was the perfect amount of drama going on and immediately fell in love with Bates & Anna.
It was really sad Sybil and Matthew died so early in the show, would have loved to see more of them.

Many things happened during the years the show has runned. The actors and Actresses became very famous and soon the series became one of the best series the Brits have had in years!"

During the show they showed us life during the early 1900s and showed us the effect of the Titanic sinking in England. They showed us world war 1 and how the family was coping with it and also gave us a splendid ending of the women having more to say & being independant during the 20s.

Because of the show I met many people. I was very active on twitter back in the days and learned to know people over the internet. I even met 2 in real life as well. and both were huge Downton fans. One of the girls, Isis I visited in France about 3.5 years ago and we immediately became very good frieds in real life as well and the 2nd girl I met because of Downton was Louise, whome I met recently (October 31st) in Bruges, Belgium. And again, this girl was the sweetest person on the planet!

Because I was/am such a fan I also got the autographs from all series 1 actors of the show! even Maggie Smith (Dowages countess)! and back in Series 1 I wrote Allen Leech (Branson) a letter if he could send me an autograph to add to my Downton collection he even wrote back a letter to me! he was so sweet and thanked me for the support towards him and the show and that he never believed he would create fans. I have to say, everyone of the cast are really nice people and many became very well known during their Downton years.

this last series, series 5 was a very good one! It had it's portion of drama and the Dowager again had the best one-liners you can imagine! I was shocked that lord Grantham almost died though and that Mr. Talbot almost died in a car accident, (poor Mary!). Still can't believe Mary ruined Edith's engagement and Mary has married again. Series 5 really was one of my fav seasons.

I can't believe the show is over just yet. those 5 years went really fast and it all came as a total suprise when Julian Fellowes (the show writer) announced series 5 would be the last series. It was a shock! I have to say I'm still incredibly sad about it, the show meant a lot to me and always will!

The last episode is going to be this year's christmas special. Rose is returning and maybe Edith is going to have her happy end after all.

I want to wish all the actors best! and wanted to thank them for the great adventure as well.
Maybe one day (hopefully), Downton will come back in cinemas and make us fans excited again!


I know this post had nothing to do with books, I just had to share this emotional moment :)