Blogoversary Bash: Day 6

Today is the sixth day of my Blogoversary Week! I've been blogging for three years now and to celebrate I asked some of my best book blogging buddies if they wanted to celebrate with me. Today my favorite BookTuber Lisa from Blonde Book Bee is sharing her  

Top Three Upcoming Releases of 2014

Hi Life of Karin readers! Isn’t it fantastic that Karin has been writing on this blog for three years? Congrats Karin! And thank you for asking me to celebrate it with you and the other bloggers. It would’ve been nice to celebrate it in person, but we should take a rain check until we meet again.

As you probably have seen already, Karin has asked us to compose a top three. And mine is the top three upcoming releases of 2014.

 

#3: Vicious by Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars #16)

The biggest reason why I’m excited for this book is because the series will finally be over *crosses fingers*. I really enjoyed the first four books, the next four were still enjoyable, but from book nine onward the series has been going downhill. You may wonder: “Why are you still reading it if you don’t like it?” Because I have the bad habit to finish every series I start. It works out most of the time since there are usually only 3-4 books, but now there are sixteen. I was tired of Pretty Little Liars, but now that book 16 will be the final one I’ve become excited for the end of this money draining pit.

 

#2: Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending toBe a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig

GRACE HELBIG. Do I need to say more? She is a queen on the internet and because of her I realised that I like dry humour and clever puns. She also made me realize that you can fake your way out of almost everything. I need to be taught more ways to pretend to be a grown-up, because I’ll be turning 22 on October 19^th and I’m as far away from being an adult as possible. Please guide me, Grace!

#1: The World of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin

One thing almost everyone knows about me is that I’m obsessed with everything Game of Thrones related. I have read all the books, some even twice, own the graphic novels, watched all the episodes a few million times etc. etc. This is not just another piece to my collection. No no no it is so much more. It’s like a history book, in a fun way, that talks about everything related to the world (the countries) in which the story is set and I can’t wait to learn even more about the history and geography and EVERYTHING! My body is ready!

Happy third blogoversary Karin!

Thank you Lisa  for sharing your top three upcoming releases of 2014 with us today. Not only is today the second-to-last day of my Blogoversary week, it is also Lisa's birthday tomorrow :) If you want to wish her a happy birthday, you can find her on Twitter.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Sending you lots of love and a row of cupcakes! 

Blogoversary Bash: Day 5

Today is the fifth day of my Blogoversary Week! I've been blogging for three years now and to celebrate I asked some of my best book blogging buddies if they wanted to celebrate with me. Today the amazing Ellice co-blogger at Paper Riot is sharing her

Top Three Favorite and Dissapointing Books of 2014 (so far)

I was thrilled when Karin invited me to join her blogoversary celebration. Three years is an incredible milestone, and I have enjoyed getting to know her so much over my past year as a co-blogger at Paper Riot. She has been so helpful and great, welcoming me into the book blogging family. We’ve shared many late-night (late for me, anyway!) Twitter conversations because I’m often on European time and can’t sleep. I think it’s a sign from the universe that I need to come visit my European friends, no?

Anyway, since I always look forward to filling out the end of the year survey and sharing my favorite books from the past year, I decided I’d use this opportunity to get a head start on that! So, I thought long and hard about which books were my top 3 absolute favorites so far this year, as well as the three books that have disappointed me the most. Why three? Well, because Life of Karin is turning THREE, of course! :)

So, without further adieu, I present to you my THREE favorite books of 2014 (so far!):

1. The One & Only by Emily Giffin – This book was a total surprise for me. I was expecting to enjoy it, but I had no idea that it would become a new all-time favorite. Football, family, romance, more football, more romance… All of these elements combined to equal the perfect book for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who comes in the library and asks for my opinion (and sometimes even when they don’t ask for it. Ha!).

2. Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally—It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of Miranda’s Hundred Oaks series, but the newest installment is by far my favorite. Annie is dealing with the grief of losing her boyfriend, and she’s training to run a marathon to finish what he had started before he died. While training, she meets Jeremiah, her running coach’s brother, and well, let’s just say he is swoony with a capital S. Don’t walk, RUN (haha, no pun intended), to the bookstore if you haven’t read this book yet!

3. One Plus One by JoJo Moyes – Okay, it’s incredibly difficult to narrow it down to my top three favorites, but I knew that this book HAD to be on the list. I actually drove three hours to Nashville to listen to JoJo talk about this book and then meet her (squee!), and she is so lovely. She told us that she loves road trip books (as do I!), so she wanted to write her own take on a road trip, and One Plus One was born. Her quirky characters are what make it such a wonderful book though. If you haven’t read a JoJo Moyes book yet, I highly recommend starting with this one.  

Unfortunately, there have also been a few disappointing reads this year as well. Here are the top three books that I expected to love but that have fallen flat for me:

1. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson – To be honest, I had to DNF this one. I read about 65% but had been stuck on it for over a week and just could NOT make myself finish. The story is told in the alternating POV of twins Noah and Jude, and I just couldn’t identify with either one of them. Truthfully, I found myself not really caring what happened to them or even how the book ended. I was super disappointed because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year!

2. #scandal by Sarah Ockler – So this was my very first Sarah Ockler book, and I had heard so many great things about her other books that my expectations were sky high. I think that’s why I ended up being so disappointed in #scandal. It was okay, and I didn’t hate it, but I just didn’t find the story to be memorable or original. I’m hoping for better luck with some of her other titles.

3. We Were Liars by e. lockhart—I think I may be in the minority here, but We Were Liars was just not for me. It’s really difficult to discuss this book without giving away some important parts of the plot. Basically, Lockhart leaves the reader confused for most of the book, and then when I finally realized what was going on, eh, I just didn’t like the ending. At all. This book had some major hype surrounding it, so I was sad that I didn’t end up loving it! Oh well, you just can’t love every book.

Thanks for letting me talk share my list, Karin. This was so much fun! I can’t wait to see how my list grows and changes by the end of the year.

Happy Three Years on the blog, friend. I wish you many more! I’m so honored to be a part of your celebration. :) *throws confetti* 

Thank you Ellice  for sharing your favorite and dissapointing books of 2014 with us today. I was completely blown away by the lenght of your post and I now know that I need to finally read a Jojo Moyes book soon. I totally think you being on European time so much is a sign of the universe for you to at least visit us soon. I am looking forward to it ;) Come back tomorrow for another guestpost by one of my favorite book people.

Blogoversary Bash: Day 4

Today is the fourth day of my Blogoversary Week!

Three years ago, on October 16th, 2011, I started this little blog and never ever expected that I would still love blogging three years later as much as do now. The book blogging community is amazing and I treasure every interaction I have with you guys and I am extremely grateful to have found so many really good friends via blogging. There are a handful of bloggers I talk to (almost) daily and adore. 

Thank you so much for being such an awesome bunch and thank you to each and every one of my readers for sticking with me for three years now and making me feel like I belong. 

Today I want to share with you my

Top Three Favorite Authors

Sir Terry Pratchett

I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels and own all 40 of them - some even two times. I also own Discworld maps, a Discworld planner, Nanny Ogg's Cookbook and much more. Terry Pratchett is a really talented writer with so much imagination and I think he's a genius. His books are filled with fabulous stories that are entertaining, incredibly well written and when you put them down and think about them for a while they all have a connection to our world and he often writes about really important themes likes the economy, death, religion, ...

His stories evolved over the years and after a lot of world building in the first two to three books, the stories and the characters moved into focus and from this moment on the books became my absolute favorites. 

I will forever be glad that I was introduced to them by a colleague of my dad's and I cannot decide which book is my favorite. Weird Sisters was my first and will therefor always have a special place in my heart but I also adore the Moist van Lipwick series or the book set in Death's Domain. 

If you like fanatsy novels with some really quirky and lovely characters, I encourage you to try one of Terry's novels. My recommendations would be to either start with Weird Sisters, Mort or Going Postal. 

Janet Evanovich

I enjoy reading mystery novels and am drawn to stories with quirky, strong characters who can see their own flaws but fight for what they believe in. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is one of my all-time favorites because the storylines are so wonderfully bizarre and the characters are the best. Stephanie, who's longest relationship is with her hamster Rex, the unorganized bounty hunter (who usually leaves her gun in her cookie jar at home) with a tendency to wreck cars by burning them down or because someone installed a bomb in them, is probably my favorite. 

I rave about this series on the blog quite a lot and whenever I need a pick-me-up or can't decide which book I want to read next I will pick up the next book in this series. 

Janet Evanovich recently started writing a new series with Lee Goldberg called the Fox and O'Hare series about an FBI agent Kate O'Hare who is trying to catch con-man Nick Fox but is forced to work with him to solve some really difficult cases. 

Janet's main female characters are strong willed and fight for what they believe in and I admire that. The stories are entertaining and well-thought through and filled to the brim with loveable characters that you want to have in your life. 

If you never read any mystery novels and want to start, please pick up One for the Money and enjoy your trip into Stephanie Plum's world and be prepared to laugh out loud. 

Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger writes steampunk-y, paranormal novels that are the best Steampunk novels I ever read. Her writing style is gripping and unique, her characters are flawed but strong willed and in both her series the main character is a strong willed woman who doesn't take "No" for an answer and does whatever she thinks is the right thing to do. Alexia, from her Parasole Protectorate series, and Sophronia, from the Finishing School series, tend to get into trouble but manage to get themselves out of it too. Keeping in mind that these books are set during Victorian times, this is admirable. I've read quite a lot of Steampunk novels but Gail Carriger's are the best I've come across. 

If you want to get a glimpse into Steampunk paranormal novels, give her books a try. Soulless is the first in her adult series while Ettiquette & Espionage is the first book in her Young Adult series. 

You can also find reviews for (most) the books mentioned in my List of Reviews.

To celebrate three years of blogging I decided to host a giveaway

VII - very important information: 

• to enter please follow the instructions in the rafflecopter form.
• you must be at least 13 years old or have your parents permission to enter.
• this giveaway is open internationally as long as Book Depo ships to you.
• the winner will be announced on the blog after the giveaway ends.
• to protect your privacy please do not leave your e-mail adress in the comment section. 
• the giveaway will be open fromThursday, the 16th till Thursday, the 30th of October.

a Rafflecopter giveaway