Hello all! As most of you know I am a bit of a bookworm and recently I set-up an online bookclub in which we could read a book on a monthly basis and then discuss it on Skype.

I decided to name the bookclub after my Twitter/YouTube handle because it is what I am most often referred too, and as this website has evolved into a solo project I would like to full integrate every piece of my online puzzle together.  [Disclaimer: This blog will soon be changing to ObvItsAmy too, just to fit the rest of my social media]

If you would like to check this bookclub out you can here on Goodreads, this page has all the information you need regarding this club and how to get involved into the skype group. There is also an option to create forums to discuss certain chapters or parts of the book, this especially helps if you can't make the call at the end of the month (just please add spoiler warnings).

So I recently dived into a very highly recommended series by Sarah J. Maas, starting with the first book Throne of Glass.

Throne of Glass is a book following Celaena Sardothien the world's best assassin, she is spending a year in the slave mines of Endovier after being betrayed and caught. However the Crown Prince offers her a deal, her freedom in 4 years, if she represents him in a tournament to find the King's champion (aka: personal killing machine). Celaena seems very closed off and not very willing to make friends or allies while she is participating in the tournament but much to her (and everyone else's) surprise she manages to win a few people over, melting her icy heart.

So the only thing I knew about this book was that it was a Young Adult book and this didn't bother me too much as I tend to venture back into various YA books from time to time. Many Booktubers that I watch recommended this one and as the third book comes out in September I thought it would be a perfect time to get involved in the series.

I was pleasantly surprised, I knew I would probably love it because of fantasy elements and I am sucker for books about assassin's, but I didn't realise quite how much I would enjoy it. I ended up reading it in 2 days and found myself completely lost in Sarah J. Maas's world that she had created. There were elements of romance which normally I find quite hard to read as I'm not a romantic person, however they were portrayed in a much less exaggerated way than most YA books.

I found Celaena's character absolutely perfect, she was as badass as they described her, but also had her flaws and vulnerabilities, which proved that she isn't indestructible for the world's most deadly assassin. And we learn that she has also faced her fair share of horrible past times. I found that Maas had made Celaena's character a strong, powerful and independent young lady which is a great protagonist to have for it's target audience. It's not very often I get to read a book about a kickass female assassin anyway...

I loved her attitude towards her love interest in the book, she is sarcastic and not willing to let herself seem venerable to this person, she was very self aware of the situation and what people might have been thinking of her.  I think this is a great way to help the reader get into the mind of Celaena and understand her on a more personal level, just by showing her attitude towards the opposite sex could make the reader apply this into situations they might find themselves in.

I also found myself completely involved with the main storyline, I have not had that 'can't put this book down' feeling since I read American God's last year, and the story within this book really kept me going, a few plot twists were happening at the same time which meant I HAD to stay up way past my bed time and read another 5 chapters. I just fell in love with each and every character in their own way.

I could honestly sit and talk about this book for hours upon hours, I just loved it. I am now making my way through the second book (which will probably only take another few days).

I would recommend this to anyone who may be into fantasy YA books, and if you can bare a slight bit of romance every now and again then pick it up. It's a super cheap book and an excellent easy read, especially in this beautiful heatwave we are having in the UK!

I recently picked up Stardust after falling in love with other Neil Gaiman works, and this novel was just as magical. The setting and pace of the book make me think of christmas, especially those cold winter days when you're tucked up inside with a hot chocolate - so it's a definite re-read for next winter.

In Stardust we follow Tristan Thorn, who lives in a village called Wall which is where we are shown that this is the 'normal' world, and anywhere outside of Wall is the world of Faerie - these two worlds do not meet except from once every few years.

We see Tristan make a promise of finding a 'falling star' to the girl whom he believes is his one true love. Normally people are not allowed to venture outside of Wall until that one fateful day every few years, however Tristan is an exception. And he embarks on his adventure to finding this falling star, meeting various people (and creatures) on his journey and finding out he has a little Faerie inside of him afterall...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and once again fell in love with Gaiman's magical words, and when people ask me which Gaiman book to start with I will now say this one. I was also pleasantly surprised as to how different this was from the movie - I know I probably shouldn't have watched the movie first. However after reading the book I have now realised that the film did not do it justice at all, the book had this magical feeling throughout and I felt as though you got a much better understanding of Tristan especially.

I found that the underlining love story within the book made it enchanting and gripping, especially as I am not the biggest fan of romance novels. The only thing I can say is if you don't like sex in books, this does have a few explicit sex scenes right at the beginning of the books.

As I said before if you want to fall in-love with Gaiman's wonderfully hypnotic writing, then start with Stardust as it's an easy and wonderful read and will guide you into Gaiman's novels easily.