Bout of Books 10 | Spell It Out Challenge

The challenge for today is hosted over at KimberlyFaye Reads and it is the Spell It Out Challenge. I decided to use my name, Christine, and pick books that I have read overall. Here is my challenge entry:

I decided to incorporate books that I read recently and loved, and some old favourites which I loved from childhood such as the Harry Potter series and Stargirl. 

If you participated in this challenge, let me know in the comments below! :)

Bout of Books 10 | Day 3 Update

Books I am currently reading: 

• Rebel Heart by Moira Young

Total # of pages read today: 52

Books I completed reading:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Total # of pages read overall: 511

Yesterday was not a really good reading day for me, since I was only able to read a few pages in the morning. I was out all day, and the reason of that you will find out soon in a new series on my blog, but I have started the next book in Moira Young's series and I am really enjoying that there is Jack's perspective already and it is shifting to Saba's perspective to, so awesome! :D Can't wait to read more of it today and I hope to finish it today too since my boutofbooks is off to a bit of a slow start compared to the last one. 

How is your reading going?

Magical Items | Top 5 Wednesday

So, this is a starting trend on booktube and bookblogs recently, so I thought I'd join in on it. There is a topic for every wednesday and you list your top 5 of "______". You can check out the goodreads group here where all the topics are listed. To start off.. it is top magical items! :D

1. One Ring from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy & The Hobbit

It is THE ring. I mean, how can you not include this in your top 5? 

2. Riptide from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. 

When it isn't a powerful sword, it takes the form of a ballpoint pen. How awesome is that!

3. The Elder Wand from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. 

It is THE wand of all wands. And it looks good too! 

4. The Invisibility Cloak from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Who wouldn't want an invisibility cloak? You can go anywhere undetected!

5. Remembrall from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. 

I remember this from the first movie and how Neville needed it. This is such a cool concept and I realyl wish it existed. It would do wonders used with a calendar! 

That is it for this week's Top 5 Wednesday. I hope you enjoyed this instalment and I will see you next week! :D

Bout of Books 10 | Day 2 Update

Books I am currently reading:

• Rebel Heart by Moira Young

Books I completed reading:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young 

Total # of pages read today: 255 pages

Total # of pages read overall: 459 pages

So I finally finished Blood Red road yesterday and I really enjoyed it overall. It was a bit difficult in the beginning to get into the language, but overall, it really picked up the pace for me once I got used to it. I really enjoyed reading Saba's story and Emmi's story. I am currently onto reading the next one, so I am hoping to see more of Lugh's perspective and Jack's. 

I will be attempting to go to a movie set today, so a lot of the day will be spent waiting, so hopefully I get a lot of reading done. I hope you are all doing well with your reading! :D

Bout of Books 10 | Bookish Battle Royal Challenge

Here is my challenge entry for the Bookish Battle Royal Challenge which is hosted over at My Life in Books! The rules and details are located here :) I am going to post one entry here, but I am coming up with a bunch, so I may post some more over on twitter using the hashtag, so be sure to follow me over there @fleurdylys ;)

So for my Bookish Battle Royal, I decided to pick female characters from YA novels. Here are my picks!

The Combatants 

Tris Prior 

Divergent series by Veronica Roth

Strengths	Weaknesses
Resourceful	Tobias "Four" Eaton
Trained at Dauntless	Forgiving
Strong	Independent

Clary Fray 

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Strengths	Weaknesses
Shadowhunter	Careless
Create new runes	Indecisive
Brave	Jace Lightwood

Rose Hathaway

Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

Strengths	Weaknesses
Dhampir Guardian	A bit reckless
Strong	Indecisive
Unpredictable	Loyal

The Victor

Why Did Rose Hathaway win the Battle? 

First of all, in the gif above, she flips Dimitri with one hand out of commission. She has been trained since birth for battle and she is a dhampir which makes her part human and part vampire. She basically has the strength and agility of a vampire but does not suffer the weaknesses a regular vampire would suffer from. She is loyal to the bone to her best friend Lissa Dragomir and has protected her at every time. She is a bit reckless and unpredictable, refusing to conform to authorities at time. She also has that tricky love interest of hers Dimitri Belikov who can sometimes complicate things. Ultimately, she is one bad ass character and sadly, Tris and Clary would not stand a chance with her strength and wit. 

That is it for my challenge entry. I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments what you thought of this battle. Do you agree or disagree? 

Bout of Books 10 | Books You're Looking Forward to Challenge

So for one of today's challenges, it is Books You've Been Looking Forward To hosted over at River City Reading and you can read all the details for it here! :) It is simply make a list of whatever books you are looking forward to reading and you can include a theme.. so I am going to come talk about books that are not yet released and that I am looking forward to reading (and buying!) Here is my list:

10 UPCOMING YA RELEASES I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO READING:

1. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Release Date: May 20, 2014

2. Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Release Date: November 4, 2014

3. The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Release Date: November 20, 2014

4. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: August 19, 2014

5. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare 

Release Date: May 27, 2014

6. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith 

(I know this is technically considered adult, but I really wanted to include it!)

Release Date: June 19, 2014

7. Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Release Date: July 29, 2014

8. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Release Date: June 17, 2014

9. The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Release Date: October 7, 2014

10. P.S I Still Love You by Jenny Han

Release Date: Expected Publication 2015

Well that is it for my list. What upcoming YA releases are you looking forward to? Are there any books here that I didn't include and you think I should be keeping a look out for? Let me know in the comments below! 

Bout of Books 10 | Day 1 Update

Hi everyone, I hope that you are all doing well. Right now marks the end of the first day of the read-a-thon. I was finishing up the #AYearAThon stuff last night so I did not read a whole lot right at midnight and today was a busy day where I met up with friends for a book signing, so I did not read a whole lot today, but I am proud of the progress I made thus far and cannot wait to continue reading tomorrow. 

Number of books I am currently reading: 1

Books:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Total # of pages read today: 204 pages

I am really enjoying Blood Red Road at the moment. It took me a little while to get into it because of the language, but once I got used to it, it really started picking up for me. I am really enjoying the characters and the overall plot of the story and I can't wait to see where the rest of the story is headed. I hope to finish this by tomorrow and start (and maybe even finish? hopefully! we shall see) the next book in the series. I picked up the final book today (so pretty btw) so that I might continue on and finish the series or pick something else up from my tbr, I really haven't decided yet. 

How did you make out for the first day? Let me know in the comments below!