Pretty Little Liars or PLL is about a group of four girls, Emily, Hanna, Aria and Spencer whose best friend Alison goes missing. Years later, Ali is found dead and the girls not only mourn but sigh in relief. Why? Because Ali knew all their secrets, secrets that even the other girls didn't know about. Until each of them receives emails, messages, etc. from an anonymous "A" and the panic starts to come through.

I'm not going to lie, this series is a guilty pleasure.

It's not necessarily the kind of book -- or television show that I would be interested in but man, its addicting. 

I started reading a portion of this series when I was in middle school and I loved it, although how long it pulled through (I believe theres somewhere between 12-16 books in this series) really bored me. 

I'm hoping to read the whole series this time around so you'll get to hear all my thoughts within the next few months or so! 

Generally, I love mystery/thriller novels but this plot in particular wouldn't be something I'd read at the store and bring it home with me. I find that perhaps the plot is aimed more towards younger teens - as it is, but I seem to be addicted to it regardless. 

The writing style is definitely straight to the point and specific. The writing itself doesn't make you think, but perhaps the plot does. It is very suspenseful, I'll admit and the reader will always be wondering who "A" is.

I think Pretty Little Liars fits the perfect "YA Trash" genre. Not because its bad "trash" but because it's a novel thats so cheesy almost, perhaps cringey to some, but it is incredibly addicting.

My favourite aspect was the characters. Each of the four girls had very interesting stories and secrets. And usually, at times like this where more than one character is portrayed, you either get caught up with one of the characters and leave the rest out, or you're just not in tune to the anyone, really.

But Sara Shepard does a great job making all four of the characters' stories memorable ones -- where its hard to pick a favourite character.

I love love the diversity as always. You follow different stories of these four girls, involving different sexualities, perhaps sometimes different races they encounter, etc. And it's quite interesting. For the most part, it feels like you're almost part of these group of friends.

Alison also gets very annoying (the girls all have frequent flashbacks including her) but its hard to dismiss her as she's a main character of this series.

Overall, am I embarrassed as an 19 year old girl who be addicted to PLL? Kind of, honestly. Will I continue to read them? Duh.

City of Bones follows are main character Clary in her quest to find her mother who has disappeared. Whilst looking for her mother, she finds out a huge secret about their family that Clary's mother has been keeping from her: they are Shadowhunters, angelic people who save mundanes from the demon world. Through this knowledge, Clary meets new people, just like her who help her save her mother.

City of Bones will forever be one of my favourites. I've loved the Shadowhunter world and what it contains since I entered this magical realm. But of course, as I grow, so does my opinions. 

I guess we'll start off with the world itself. I love how Cassie Clare formed this new world for readers. Personally, I love how in depth she thought about this Shadowhunter world and how it all alligns together with the three series (which I'll get more into once I start reviewing the other books and series) The idea of putting a world inside our current world -- Earth of course, and mash them together I thought was very well done. 

Cassandra Clare does a great job at portraying urban fantasy which is typically a lot harder for other authors I find. 

Writing was beautiful. There were some parts which I thought sections ran on or it wasn't interesting enough to read, but of course there were many suspenseful moments that really overtook the negative.

Character-wise, I thought the main character Clary was annoying. And honestly, the older I get, the more she annoys me. I felt like for majority of the book she only cared about herself and didn't care much about the other Shadowhunters -- except Jace.. in some circumstances. 

Izzy and Alec were my top favourite characters - especially Izzy for her bada** female portrayal. Although, the rest of the characters were just as amazing. 

My favourite aspect of this book/series is how diverse it is. With Alec and Magnus being gay and different races of the characters, I love how diverse and perhaps even relatable these characters are!

Surely enough, since I started reading this series, I've always wanted to be a Shadowhunter as well.

The books turned out so successful that it is not only a movie but now also a television show on Freeform! 

If you lovelies want me to review either, definitely let me know! 

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King is one of his more recent short story collections with dozens of stories about various topics, themes, and of course.. fears. 

Stephen King never lets me down. I fell in love with his short stories after reading Skeleton Crew a few months earlier but I'l definitely admit this collection might be even better. 

The writing style in this book alone is fantastic. All the stories were written well and had very interesting and relatable characters. I also loved how in some circumstances of the short stories, there are aspects that will make you feel like this could happen to anyone. 

I guess I won't go too in depth with the reviews because there is at least 20 short stories in all.

One of my favourite stories in this collection was Mile 81 which brought a mix of every horror/infamous Stephen King book into one. 

The gruesome killer car was my favourite aspect as at the beginning it was very unexpected to not only myself, but to the characters in the short story as well. 

Bad Little Kid was also an amazing as I thought the characters were quite interesting.

Stephen King also expanded into poetry with this collection and although I thought it was an interesting idea since Stephen King has never written that element.

One of my favourite aspects of this collection is not just the beautiful short stories, but King's introduction to writing. I love the fact that before every short story, he included a little blurb on why he wrote each short story or what inspired it.

I also loved the fact that King included his inspirations for novels and how he always mentions a writer's work is never "complete" until the day the author dies.

Essentially saying that many of the short stories in this collection have been adjusted or added onto within the past 50 or so years King has been writing.

I also love reading and watching interviews of how King finds inspiration of each of his stories: simply researching things about towns, biggest fears from himself and civilians and putting everything together. Which to me was very interesting.

Personally, I love Stephen King's writing and getting deep into his mindset and how he finds inspiration for these works are my favourite aspect.

Carrie. A teenager who has telekinesis. Outcast. When Carrie is invited to Senior prom by a popular girl's boyfriend, she accepts. Not knowing what horrors contributes to her presence and how she decides to stop it.

**I did a poll on Instagram on whether or not I should review both movie adaptations as well and although it was a close call, most of you wanted to hear my thoughts on just the book. The movies I'll cover another day.**

This was King's first book and it wows me to see that this was his first published novel. 

There were so many aspects to this book that made it so unique and interesting. And at some parts, really couldn't get me to put down the book. 

After reading multiple King books in the last little while, I've started to get use to his writing style. But to me, Carrie was different. 

Not necessarily because of it's size; Carrie is a brilliantly written debut novel. 

There were so many aspects that made it different and more unique compared to most Stephen King books. 

For example, the use of reports to explain all of Carrie's incidents were quite interesting to me. And so far, I haven't see anything like that in King's writing. I thought it was incredibly interesting and perhaps unique as well for when it was published. 

I also loved the use of religion in this novel. Not necessarily because Carrie's mother was a die-hard Christian, but perhaps the more sensitive side of it. When you scratch the literal side of religion: churches, cross etc. and you are introduced to the psychological aspect of it, that was well written into the plot line and I thought it brought up quite an interesting kick! 

Character-wise, Carrie was a great main protagonist. She was so well-written to the point where you could feel her pain. The way people treated her as if she was crazy -- she was definitely not crazy, was so heart wrenching. 

To add onto that scenario, the first scene, you really see that not only students but teachers treat her differently as well. I don't want to say too much, but if you've read the book, you'd understand what I mean and I feel like Carries character "development" stemmed from all those situations. 

Regardless, Carrie is definitely one of King's iconic books and definitely one of my favourite in regards to his shorter ones. And I believe it's consistently talked about for a reason.

The frequently asked questions keep coming!

A lot of people, I suppose, see my little collection of signed books from Bookstagram and what not and always ask me where they can get their own. 

And honestly, if you really look, signed books are very easy to find. 

But of course, if you are reading this, perhaps you aren't sure where to get your favourite book signed by the author who changed your life or you want to get your bookish friend a give that will surprise them and also feel quite unique from the rest of them. 

So today, I'll tell you a handful of places to get signed books. 

Book Signings 

Of course, we should start with the obvious first and that is: book signings. Just like musicians and artists have tours after a new album, authors usually have book signings and book tours after the release of a new book. Depending on the popularity of the author, the book tours can either consist of you meeting the author or you attend a Q&A book event with the author. Regardless, you get to go home with a signed book -- which is also personalized! 

But, perhaps, lets say you can't make it to your favourite author's book signing and you're okay with your favourite author not writing your name in the book; there are other ways to get signed books. 

Your Local Bookstore 

Because I typically speak on behalf of my North American readers -- because I do live in Canada, I tend to always mention Barnes and Noble and Chapters/Coles/Indigo. 

Although, I'm sure if you live internationally, your big box bookstores are probably the same. And if not, you can order online from either companies. 

Both book retailers have a spot on their site where you can view books that are signed. Many popular authors such as Sarah Dessen, Sarah J Maas, John Green, Leigh Bardugo etc etc. have signed books on either sites. 

I noticed that the selection of signed books is bigger on the American side (through Barnes and Noble) than through the Canadian side. Perhaps because most authors are American. But both have quite an array to choose from.

John Green's newest book follows our main character Aza whose best friend is set on getting her to pursue an investigation on missing Russell Pickett -- Aza's once childhood best friend's dad. Set on the hundred - thousand dollar reward, Aza's best friend Daisy tries to re-connect Pickett's son Davis and Aza, which becomes quite difficult when Aza finds herself caught up in her own thoughts.


Might I say, I LOVED this book!

Originally, I had no intentions of reading this. I was never a die hard John Green fan, so this release wasn't a big deal for me.

I had also read the plot once it came out and thought it wasn't of my taste either so I didn't bother.

But of course, like all books I'm not originally into, I saw it all over bookstagram and people were talking about how amazing it was and I had to.

I read this book in around 24 hours, maybe a little more but not enough to be two days. It was definitely worth it and I loved every second of the book.

I want to start off with the characters; everyone knows my main focus in stories are the characters and the plot.

I loved Aza. I thought she was a great character. She also has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as do I and I found a lot of our ticks were very similar. For example, Aza doing things in a series of numbers -- like when she digs her finger nail in her scalp five times -- five is also my "safety number" in which I do things in intervals of five until it feels alright.

I also really related to the fact that she over researches things -- for example at the beginning of the book she feels like she has a certain disease -- although she does not and continuously researches the symptoms on WebMD and is convinced she has that disease. That's another thing I really struggle with alongside a few other ticks and my boyfriend always makes sure I'm not constantly looking up symptoms to things I don't have.

Personally, I feel as if most books give such a false view of OCD. I've read one other book that I loved and related to, but other than that, most YA Contemporaries feel as if they romanticize the illness.

What I loved most beside the realistic compulsions, was that John Green himself also has OCD. Nothing gets realer than an author writing about his own compulsions through literature and I felt like because of that, it was also more meaningful, more relatable.

On the other side, I didn't really like Aza's best friend Daisy. To me, it felt as if all she cared about was herself and the money. Aza had proper views on how she was going to use the money they earned while Daisy blew all her money at once and tried to persuade Aza to do that same.

Personally, she was my least favourite character of them all.

I also loved the plot. I thought it would be like most YA Comtemp. where it just followed a girl who loved a boy and wanted romance in some way or another. But honestly, this book was almost like multiple plot lines mashed into one and I loved that. I thought it was unique, it wasn't confusing and each plot line contributed to one another.

I also liked how the ending wasn't a fairytale ending. It wasn't what everyone was waiting to hear. It was realistic and almost heartbreaking but it portrayed life so well.

I personally loved the book more than I expected to. I wasn't much of a John Green before this, but now I want to read the rest of the books I had missed out on! 

Can you believe it's 2018 already? 

As every year, I am of course continuing my goal of reading 75 books in a year; 365 days. 

Last year, I did a great job and exceeded my goal reading 85 books instead of 75! 

To reflect on all the books I've read last year, I decided to write a post on my ten favourite books I read in 2017! They don't necessarily need to be published in 2017, let alone some are re-reads I finally enjoyed in 2017 but I decided to add them in this list as well!

They are in no particular order as it was really hard to pick a favourite (more or less IT might have been my number one but who knows *wink wink*) and I also will not give descriptions on what the book is about. But other than that, here are my ten favourite books I read in 2017! 

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo 

This was my first set of short stories I had ever read and it really didn't disappoint. I loved the fact that not only was the book compiled with beautiful work written by Leigh Bardugo, but it was also filled with such beautiful artwork as well. It was also my very first short story bind up which made it also very special!

The Language of Thorns is a bind up of novellas all relating to Bardugo's infamous writings involving her Grisha world. The book itself contains six short stories. 

Might I admit, I've never read a bind up of short stories before this one but wow, it was so good. 

I don't want to go into too much detail with my review, but I'll admit that theres so much about these tales that made me love Leigh Bardugo's writing even more. 

Each short story was beautifully written. It felt as if I'd imagined myself around a campfire as a young child and a superior from myself told folktales. 

Something about Leigh Bardugo's writing honestly just stuns me. I feel as if, with every book, her writing progresses and I love the unraveling of the Grisha world as she continues to publish books revolving it. 

Each story was different and I felt like had different themes than one another, although revolved in the same world. Some stories talked about love whilst others talked about betrayal and revenge. Having different topics and themes made me feel like the book itself can be for many other people with different interests. 

My favourite aspect of the book was the artwork. Each story has a beautiful painting revolving around the story it is based upon. What I loved most was how the paintings progressed through pages. Each page revealed a small boarder of the artwork and as you continued to read the story, more of the artwork was revealed. Until the end of the story where the whole artwork is displayed and its just lovely.

I'd never read short stories before, or a bind up at least but The Language of Thorns really put high standards because I loved it.