Elementals giveaway winners!

yessss! last sunday the Elementals: The prophecy of Shadows, giveaway ended, and I let rafflecopter pick 2 winners :)
The winners are:
Carina van Essen & Nakita P Veltman!
Congratualations to you both!

Carina was the no.1 winner so she gets the Bookmark and the Ebook, Nakita will be getting the Bookmark.

If you're one of the 2 winners please contact me, I've sent you both an E-mail :)

I'd like to thank everyone who has participated in this giveaway and I'm looking foreward to see you soon entering one again!

#FridayReads 29-01

Olaaa!

It's friday again, this week went by incredibly fast! :O

last week I didn't do a fridayreads because I spent most of my day in school and travelling to see my family in Germany (Bonn). But last weekend was a great weekend!
I had a party of my oldest cousin who turned 30 and saturday and sunday spent the day a bit with my family before heading back home by train in the sunday afternoon.
In the train I finished reading the graphic novel 'Saga volume 2', And while being in Bonn I bought 2 great books in an amazing bookstore there. The bookstore used to be an old theater and it was gorgeous! The books I bought while being in Germany are Selection by Keira Cass (read this one in English but am so excited to try it in German too!) and bought Silber, das erste buch der träume by Kerstin Gier. I'm so excited to read both of them!

So, now let's talk about this weekend. The weekend will be kinda boring. I'll be doing schoolwork all weekend long and also will try to read a bit!
At the moment I'm reading 3 books and I plan to finish at least one of them!
The books I'll be reading this weekend are:
The princess diaries by Meg Cabot
My true love gave to me by Various authors
Suske en Wiske, De ringelingschat by Willy Vandersteen

Which book will you be reading over the weekend?

Who inspired my love for books?

When I was younger (age 5 to 14) I just hated reading and just all books in general. I hated that I had to read them for school and also hated them for all of the small letters and stupid stories.

when I went to secondary school I still kinda hated books. just the look of them would have made me vomit! luckily that quickly came to an end! one day I went to school and everyone was suddenly reading the dutch translation of Twilight. That was the day my rescue came!

I was so jealous on everyone who were talking about the book and discussing parts of it. I just had to be able to do the same with my classmates. so even though I hated books I picked up 'Twilight' by Stephanie Meyer. 

At first I found it really hard to get in and understand what was happening but soon I got the hang of it and a new world opened my eyes! I was immediately sold! I read the complete book in under a week (which back then was extremely fast for me). 

That book changed my life and the way I looked to books completely. A whole new door opened and I had acces to even more of those amazing YA books!

Ever since then I started reading properly. the first couple of years (till I was 17) I read maybe 10 books a year but when I met everyone in the booktube community reading became a new addiction and a need  I had to feed.. through booktube and goodreads I met so many great people and so many lovely authors who were nice and welcoming towards their fellow readers! I made new friends and learned to know so much more about books that I just love everything about my bookish life.

I have read all the books in the Twilight series and have watched every film of it! I joined Team Edward and got to live in this magical storyland. even now, 10 years after the release of Twilight I'm reading the gender swap twilight version 'life and death'. the books had it's inpact on me.

After all those years I still have Stephanie Meyer to thank for the amazing book 'Twilight'. It was a magical adventure and you've made a difference to so many people!

in my opinion Twilight was the birth of the YA genre :)

who Inspired your love for reading?

Talk Bookish with ...... Helene! (3)

Hello everyone,

My name is Helene, I’m 28 years old, and I have a BookTube channel which goes under the name ‘Helene Jeppesen’. I live in Denmark (near Copenhagen), and obviously I love books. I’ve had my YouTube channel for over 2 years now, and what I love the most about it is that it allows for me to spread my love for books as well as connect with other people who love books as well. Sometimes, when you read a book, it’s hard to find ‘real life’ people who’ve read the same book and want to discuss it with you, but with BookTube, that’s very easy!

Anyway, here follows some information on me in case you’re interested J I have a full-time job as a high school teacher in French and English, and I’ve been teaching high school students for 3 ½ years now. I love my job, and I love working with teenager who develop very quickly during the three years I get to work with them.

When I’m not at work, I obviously love to read. I can’t think of a better way to relax after a long and sometimes stressful day. I have started watching quite a lot of tv shows as well (they’re very addicting!), so my spare time basically alternates between books and tv.

I also love spending time with my family and friends – especially during the weekends. I love going to cafés, restaurants and to the cinema. All in all, I think I’m a pretty normal person when it comes to free time activities – I just read more books than most people would probably say is normal J

Questions:
1. What is or are your all time favourite book(s)?

That is always the hardest question to ask a book lover. I do have some favourite books, and I think they alternate very much in genre. My favourite classic, for instance, is “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. I reread that one recently and fell in love all over again with its honesty and its journey it takes you on. I obviously also love all of the Harry Potter books which I grew up with and which absolutely helped developing my love for books. “The Horse Bronzeman” by Paullina Simons is another favourite of mine – that one depicts a romance in Russia during the Second World War. “White Oleander” by Janet Fitch is a must-read, and last but not least I do have a favourite fantasy series, even though I don’t read a lot in that genre, and that is “The Kingkiller Chronicle” series by Patrick Rothfuss.

All of the above mentioned books are very close to my heart, and I definitely recommend that you check them out.

2. Who is your favorite author and why?

So this has got to be the second hardest question to ask a book lover ;) I love Haruki Murakami and J. K. Rowling, whose books are extremely different from each other. John Irving writes hugely intriguing stories, and the same goes for the Brontë sisters.

3. Do you have any signed books? 

I used to have a handful of signed YA books from a book convention I went to in London in Summer 2014. However, I recently decided to give them to charity because I wasn’t interested in those books anymore and I needed the bookshelf space for other books (I know, it seems pretty stupid). BUT I do have a signed copy of “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell which I treasure a lot.

4. What’s your favourite reading spot?

My favourite places to read are my couch and my bed. I always read with a blanket on top of me, my cat Zeus next to me and a cup of café latte near me.

5. Show us your bookshelves or bookcase!

6. What are your favourite book blogs?

I must admit that I predominantly get my bookish inspiration from booktube videos on YouTube. I would like to follow more blogs, but I think that doing both would take up too much of my time (and I need that time to read!). BUT I do have to Danish blogs that I often check out because they have very inspiring book reviews and photos – they are:

www.paperbackcastles.blogspot.com

www.windblownpages.wordpress.com

 Reading books means that you are never alone! (I think I got that quote from somewhere, and it’s stuck to my mind ever since).
Thank you for the post Claire!

Happy Reading!

XO Helene

Review: The Fault in our stars by John Green

Title/author: The Fault in our stars by John Green

Originally published/ year published: January 10th 2012

Genre: Young adult, fiction, romance, contemporary

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: The story looked like an amazing one!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Despite the tumor shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at cancer kid support group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. 

Review
Amazing book, I didn't think I would like it this much!

I read this back in 2014, 2 months before my aunt died of cancer. Back when I read this I knew she wouldn't survive and just felt like wanting a connectuon between the illness and her. The reason I read this was to prepare for her death, which sadly came sooner than thought. My darling aunt, please know I've always seen you as the best mum possible and that I will always love you!

Until now I just didn't have the guts to review this book. I did on goodreads but not here. Now I am finally ready and I'll show you the thoughts on this amazingly written book! I ended up loving this book, altough the end was extremely sad and didn't see it coming!

The book is about a girl called Hazel. She meets this very handsome guy called Augustus at a cancer support group. Yea Hazel has cancer and Augustus used to have..... He immediately falls in love with her and she quite likes him too! They both like reading very much and Hazel recommends him a book. When he likes the book he decides to give his genie wish to Hazel to go to Amsterdam to meet the author of the book. They meet the man, have romantic dinner and visit museums. But soon she discovers Augustus not being well and seeing him in pain. Whe she asks he answers by telling his cancer came back worse than ever. When beeing home it just becomes very bad and suddenly he dies having left a letter from the author to Hazel.

The ending was so sad. I know having cried for days back when I read this, mostly because I was in the cancer situation myself. Cancer is an illness you see so obviously but you can't do anything about. It just kills you seeing someone else in such a pain. Hazel and Augustus made the story really alive and worth living for.

Thank you so much for writing this book John Green!
I gave the book 5 out of 5 stars.