Where do I buy my books? (Bol.com, Thebookdepository.com, Bruna, etc ... )

I got this question quite a lot and I have to say it's quite a good one. Because I live in the Netherlands I'm kinda limited on where I buy my books. I mainly read English books and normal bookstores actually don't sell them over here.
Here I have a list of websites and bookstores where I buy most of my English or Dutch books:

1. Bol.com
Bol.com is a Dutch website where you can basically get anything, you can compare it to Amazon.com. over the years I have bought many things there, from make-up to perfumes and books. Books are however pretty expensive on bol.com, around 2 to 4 euros more expensive than for example thebookdepository.com, which brings us to number 2!

2. Bookdepository.com
I have to say this is my most used website for buying books. Around 80% of the books I own I have bought on this website. They have a really good customer service and the good thing is you can pay with paypal, which is great for when not having a credit card. paperbacks cost around 6,7,8 euros a piece, which I find a great price! hardcovers are more expensive. They cost around 16,17 euros a piece. When buying hardcovers I always compare bol.com and thebookdepository.com, sometimes bol.com has hardcovers which are little cheaper :) When having problems with your order it is easy to mail the customer service at thebookdepository.com, they reply to answers very fast and when something is wrong or if your order hasn't been delivered they just give you back your money!


3. Bruna
In our village we have 1 shop called Bruna. They sell magazines, pens, things for your printer and books as well. Bruna has tons of stores across the Netherlands. Our Bruna sells paperback books and sometimes hardcovers as well. Most paperbacks vary from 10-20 euros, this because they have been translated to Dutch. Dutch books or translated books always are more expensive than the English ones. Our Bruna also has a section of German books, which I find great. The area I live in is very popular among German tourists, so that's why this shop sells also German books. I never bought a German book in there but I'm planning on doing soon.

4. Waterstones
I go to Brussels several times a year (I live close to the Belgian border). Brussels has a waterstones shop which is pretty huge and they sell tons of English books over there. Every time I visit brussels I make sure to have some time to stop by :)

5. Betterworldbooks.co.uk
Betterworldbooks is one of my favorite websites to buy books on. They only sell 2nd hand books and they ship them to Europe for free! The money they get for the books go to literacy funds and high schools to support libraries. In the past I've had some pretty good deals on there. At least once a month I check if they have new books added to their YA section and when I found one I like I also buy them straight away. Their prices vary on the condition and the popularity of the book. And now comes the bonus point for them : You can pay with PayPal as well!

These were the places I buy most of my books. Sometimes I wish that I could support independent bookshops more, but the stupid thing is we don't have any close to where I live. I also really want to buy books on amazon, but because I have no credit card I can't :(
Where do you buy your books mostly?

Recensie: Meester Jaap houdt van iedereen! door Jacques Vriens

Titel/Auteur: Meester Jaap houdt van iedereen! door Jacques Vriens

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2006 door van Holkema en Warendorff

Genre: kinderboek
Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: omdat ik toekomstig lerares zal worden sprak mij dit zeer aan 

Rating: 3.5 van de 5 sterren

Meester Jaap krijgt een groep 5/6. Als de kinderen voor het eerst bij hem binnenstappen, kruipt groep 5 gauw bij elkaar en gaat groep 6 ook apart zitten. 'Dat wil ik niet' roept de meester en hij zet meteen de hele klas op zijn kop. En als de kinderen denken dat hun meester verliefd is op Myrthe, zegt hij: 'ik hou van jullie allemaal. De ene dag wat meer dan de andere, maar meestal wel'.
Meester jaap zorgt ervoor dat het gezellig is in zijn klas. Hij verzint grappige oplossingen als er problemen zijn, hij komt op voor kinderen die gepest worden en rijdt zelfs in een rolstoel.
Japie is af en toe een beetje gek vindt Quinten.
De anderen zijn het met hem eens, maar ze vinden hem ook keigaaf!

Recensie
Dit boek gaat over een meester, meester Jaap. Dit schooljaar krijgt hij een deelklas, groep 5/6. Dit idee vindt hij vreselijk en spreekt daarom af met de klas dat hij het woord deelklas niet meer horen wil. Dit jaar zijn ze de klas van meester Jaap. Iedere dag maakt de klas allerlei dingen mee en vindt iedereen de meester geweldig. Er zijn regels in de klas waardoor alle kinderen goed met elkaar omgaan. Ook als er nieuwe kinderen in de klas komen worden deze allemaal hartelijk verwelkomt.
Er gebeuren ook vaak grappige dingen in de klas, zoals meester jaap die crepe papier per ongeluk in de fik laat vliegen! :O Dit vinden de kinderen maar al te grappig.

Dit boek las ik voornamelijk omdat het onderwerp van een schoolmeester mij wel leuk leek. Het boek had leuke grapjes en vooral dat de situaties ook soms wel echt in een klas voorkomen.

Er waren ook wat minpunten, daarom heb ik het boek een 3.5 van de 5 sterren gegeven. Wat ik vooral hinderlijk vond waren de korte hoofdstukjes en de constant nieuwe verhaaltjes in het boek. Er was wel samenhang tussen de verhaaltjes maar toch ook weer niet. Het ging telkens over wat anders, een andere dag of een andere les en dat was soms wel wat frustrerend. Het boek op zich was ook wel wat kort wat eigenlijk wel wat langer had gemogen.

De schrijfstijl van Jacques Vriens vind ik wel heel leuk. Hij schrijft de situaties zo, dat kinderen er ook echt plezier aan beleven zo een boek te lezen. Vooral de kinderen in het boek waren echte schatten!

Review: Through the woods by Emily Carroll

                                                  

Title/author: Through the woods by Emily Carroll

Originally published/ year published: July 2014 by Mcelderry Books

Genre: Graphic novels, young adult, horror

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: It sounded very mysterious and exciting to me!Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.'

Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss.

These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll.

Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there......

Review

ohmygod! this story was so scary! The first couple of pages already were! this book contains 5 short stories,  following men and women in their lives. In all the stories the woods play an important keyrole. The story I liked most was the one that takes place in the 18th century and is called 'a lady's hands are cold'. Also the title sounded so scary! This story follows a woman who is going to marry a wealthy man and they live happy, until she hears strange sounds and voices. She gets out of bed and follows the sounds she hears, until she walks into a wall. The sounds come from behind this wall. She decides to smash the entire wall into pieces and finds a body, cut in pieces, and a head, of another woman. When she lays all the pieces on the floor in the right order she sees this person was a woman, now dead. She actually now is kind of a ghost and talks as well. The woman finds out it was her husband who did this, and this was his ex wife. He acting nice to her was all a scam. The dead woman also decides to keep haunting the new lady of the house....

yes, I was scared to death when I read this graphic novel. The images are so well drawn and the stories have the right amount of horror, which makes it just perfect!
I enjoyed reading this very much, although it totally was outside my comfort zone. I liked the thrill it gave me. However, this book really is not for the faint hearted! you can easily get nightmares because the images give you a good reality.

The book mainly is colored black, red and blue, which give it the mysterious look. In every story the black and red come back the best, which gives you a dark feeling.
I gave this book 4 out of  5 stars and can recommend this to everyone who dares to read it!

#Fridayreads 19-02

It's time for another #Fridayreads! I had a busy week and did a lot of schoolwork. But I'm proud on myself and the work I did. It's friday, so finally having weekend again! This weekend is pretty busy again, I want to do some schoolwork and also am going out tomorrow evening with friends. It's the last weekend of my best friend, before he leaves to Paris on thursday, so we decided to have a nice last weekend! We'll be going out in Knokke, which is a nice place.

This weekend I'll be reading 2 books:
-The princess diaries, a royal disaster by Meg Cabot

- Winterdieren by Bibi Dumon Tak
I already started both books and like them both so far. I recently read the 1st princess diaries book and totally loved it! The 2nd one is really good as well so far! Can't wait to finish it!
I recently bought the hardcover version of Passenger by Alexandra Bracken on Bol.com, this will arrive tomorrow!

By the way, I have a question to all of you! I always know that I love reading and watching book hauls myself and it occured to me I'm not doing this on my blog. Would you guys like to see a monthly book haul on the blog? I was thinking about doing so :)

Happy weekend!

Review: The princess diaries by Meg Cabot

Title/author: The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Originally published/ year published: June 2001 (2015 version by MacMillan Children's)

Genre: young adult, Romance, chick lit, Fiction, Contemporary

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: my all time favorite children's movie! :)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there's nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman who also happens to be flunking Algebra.
Is she ever in for a suprise...
First mom announces she's dating Mia's Algebra teacher. Then Dad has to go and reveal that he is the crown prince of a country called Genovia. And guess who still doesn't have a date for the cultural diversity dance?

Review
As a child I always loved the 2 princess diaries films. Anne Hathaway looked so pretty in them. Who doesn't want to be a princess when they're little right? I think I watched the 2 films over a hundred times each haha.

now, around 12 years later I finally read the 1st book in the book series called 'the princess diaries'. the 1st thing I noticed is that the films are completely different than the books! They made so many changes, but that didn't made me enjoy the book less. differences with the 1st film: Mia's dad is actually still alive in the book and he's the one who tells her she's a princess & Carice (her grandmother) actually is very rude and smokes a lot haha!

Basically this book is about this girl called Mia, who is being told she is the princess of a country in Europe called 'Genovia'. Because her dad can't have any more heirs to the throne she'll have to take the duty on her. Her grandmother comes to New York to give her princess lessons and Mia doesn't enjoy it at all! at some moment the press discovers there's living a princess in New York and they seek her up! also she has her 2 friends Tina and Lilly helping her with it. And oh boy, who does she likes best? Josh or Michael? .......

I looooved this book a lot! Really a lot! It made me all think of the days back when I was a small child. I could imagine all the things in the book and it really was a fun read. Mia was witty and funny but also smart and clever. She clearly has her own mind on things which give her personality a lot of credit.

The book I own in the new MacMillan editions and they are so great to have in your bag. They don't weigh much. However there's also a downside, the book is quite fragile and gets beaten up quickly in a bag. But the new editions overall have a great new look!

The book I gave 5 out of 5 stars. I just loved it!

Top 10 historical settings I'd like to see

So, recently I saw this top ten tuesday post about historical settings in YA books. Many YA books take place in medieval times or fantasy worlds, but there are tons of other settings I'd like to see or see more often.
I've made a little list of the settings I'd like to see most:

1. The 18th century. I'm a total sucker for everything 18th century. The clothes, the manners, the people, the castles etc.... I'm totally in love with this subject!

2. Ancient Egypt. I love the Egyptian civilization a lot and would just love to see this back in ya books.

3. The Roman period. Damn.. how much I would love to read a book about a sexy Roman guy <3

4. Pre-medieval England. how did they live back then and how would this come to it's right in a ya novel?

5. The Napoleontic period +- 1820 France! When I read articles about Napoleon and his battle at Waterloo I clearly can imagine a good ya book in that setting!

6. the Celtic period! woahh vikings and celts! would loooove this!

7. The Dutch golden age! The Michiel de Ruyter times!

8. The 20s. roaring 20s, the age of Jazz music and dance....

9. The very beginning of counting our years, 0! I would love to see a ya novel in the times of Jesus.

10. Books about the stone or iron age.

#FridayReads 12-2

Happy weekend to you all!
It's friday which means we have a new #FridayReads blogpost.

This weekend will again be a busy weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to do schoolwork and better get some things done and on sunday I'm going to the FoodTruck festival in Antwerp (Belgium). Pretty excited about that. What better way to spend valentine's day alone with food? :D yep.
Also this past week was great! On tuesday I went to the Ellie Goulding Delirium concert in Antwerp and yesterday went to see Deadpool in Bruges with couple of friends. Of course I also went to school ;)

Also, I'm going to read some books this weekend. At the moment I'm reading the 2nd book in the Princess diaries series by Meg Cabot called 'A Royal Disaster' & Winterdieren by Bibi Dumon Tak, which is a children's book. This weekend I hope to finish at least one of the 2.

Which book will you be reading?

Review: saga volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn

Title/author: Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn

Originally published/ year published: July 2013 by Image Comics

Genre: Fantasy, sci-fi, young adult, adult

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: I loved the 1st book a lot!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Newborn baby Hazel already survived lethal assasins, rampaging armies and horrific monsters but in the cold vastness of outer space, the little girl encounters her strangest adventure yet ...... grandparents!

Review

After weeks and weeks of reading I finally finished this graphic novel and daaaamn I loved it!

This book follows the 2 main characters Marko and Alana further into the story. They fled the planet and have gone to Marko's parents who are more than excited to see that they have a grandchild, especially Barr, Marko's father. He needs to find something on the island and decides to go find it together with his mum. In the meantime Alana spends some time with Barr and little baby Hazel. Barr soon tells he has not much time to live anymore.. 

Many things suddenly happen and Barr dies. They flea the location they were on and go to another planet, the Planet Alana's favorite author lives on..... 

Omg this second book was amazing! The story developed so amazingly. The characters each got more deapth into themselves and it was a great continuation of the 1st volume. 

Also this book has a great paperback copy!  The pink cover and the drawings on it look amaze! 

Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars! 

February YA book releases

ohmy! January went by incredibly fast! also the books that got published looked extremely good. Also this month, February, I'll be sharing 4 books who are going to be released with you guys! I'm going to start with a book I already pre-ordered, and I've pre-ordered the signed edition! Now hope that Bol.com will send me the right one xD

The book I want to talk first about is Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard! This book will be the 2nd book in the Red Queen series. Although I haven't read red queen yet I still am super excited about this one! Because it's a 2nd book in a series I won't spoil too much about it. The girl in this book has powers of which the court wants to get hold of. She's looking for other Reds&Silvers to fight with her against those very people who want to control her. Will she survive all this?
This book will be released on February 9th by HarperTeen.

The 2nd book I'd like to share with you is 'Stars above' by Melissa Meyer. This book contains all the short stories of her book series 'The lunar Chronicles', which I also haven't read yet :O
This book will come out on February 2nd by Feiwel&friends.

The 3rd book is a book by C.J Redwine and is called 'The Shadow Queen'. This book will be the 1st book in her all new series 'Ravenspire'. The book is about a girl who needs to kill a queen. This guy named Kol needs to bring the queen Lorelai's (the girl) heart. Although he never thought Lorelai would be this different than he expected her to be....
This book will be released February 16th by Balzer+Bray.

The final book which is also being released in February is Starflight by Melissa Landers. This will also be a first book in a new series. This book has a bit fantasy & sci-fi in it and will come out on February 2nd by Disney-Hyperion.

January wrap-up and February TBR

It's February! The month of love! (not that I'm sharing mine with anyone xD) But just call it a new month :P
In January I made a new Goodreads reading challenge. I'll be reading 30 books in 2016 and even hope I'll read more, but so far I've set my goal on 30. Out of those 30, I already read 3 books of that goal in January.
The books I've read are:
- Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn
- De gele ballon by Charlotte Dematons
De gele ballon Recensie
- Of Triton by Anna Banks
Of Triton Review

I'm quite happy I actually read these 3 books, despite the lack of time because of school I had. Means that this month hopefully more books will be read!
I'm planning on reading the following books:
- The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
- Suske en Wiske, De ringelingschat by Willy Vandersteen
- my true love gave to me by Various Authors
- Meester Jaap houdt van iedereen by Jaques Vriens
- through the woods by Emily Carroll

Can't wait to read read read and keep on reading!