Happy Tuesday my lovely readers!

I've always wanted to do a Q&A post and thought, well, I've been posting on my book blog for over a year now and so I thought I'd go for it!

I added a little question section to my Instagram story and received so many questions - way more than I thought I was going to get. Therefore, I thought I'd dive into it!

How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging for almost three years, although with jessreadsalatte and taking blogging seriously, over a year now.

How do you manage your time to post on Intagram. read, blog in addition to doing everything else?

That is actually a really good question that I am kind of trying to get used to myself. I do work a lot, but every time I have some sort of free time, I'm either blogging or reading.

Will you ever try BookTube?

Possibly. I really want to, but I am juggling a lot of things right now. But I've been told by so many of you that I should start a BookTube channel!

Why did you start a Bookstagram?

Mainly to talk to people who love books just as I do. I don't know many booknerds in my personal life so I decided to try the internet, and I made so many new friends because of it!

Do you annotate your books. If so, how do you do it?

I do annotate my books. I was so against it when I first joined the book community, officially. But since this year, I've decided to write and highlight like it's nobody's business. I want to do a blog post on this where I'll go more in depth, but I basically use a matching coloured pen to jot notes and underline, and a highlighter - and they usually match the colour on the cover of the book! 

Does your boyfriend read and if so, what are his favourite books?

Eric doesn't read as avidly as myself but he does read here and there. He's a huge comic book/ graphic novel guy though (He's the reason I am obsessed with Marvel - RIP Stan Lee) and his favourite comic books are The Walking Dead, The Amazing Spiderman, the Superman and Batman comics. He is also slowly but surely getting through A Game of Thrones. 

If you could be friends with any BookTuber, who would it be?

I would definitely say InsaneReader because I think we both have very similar sassy personalities and humour, but also Ashley Outpaged and A Dash of Ash because I have very similar personalities and interests with both of those BookTubers as well!

What books are out of your comfort zone that you want to get into?

I really want to say, historical fiction and non-fiction. I want to be able to read and recommend everything.

Is Eric supportive of your writing?

Very supportive. I run through all of my ideas with him and he tells me if they are dumb or amazing.  He is brutally honest and I appreciate that.

How do you get ARCs?

(ARC stands for Advance Readers Copy) My best advice is to reach out to your favourite publishers about upcoming books. Chances are, they will send you what you are requesting or add you to the blogger list!

Fave Stephen King book?

Just one? I absolutely love IT because of Pennywise and The Loser's Club, but also Desperation, The Stand, The Shining and Night Shift. If I could only pick one, I'd definitely say The Stand.

Ever had a book signed by an author?

I do have signed books but I've never actually been to a signing from what I can remember.

Can I get ARCs if I'm not a Book Blogger or Bookstagrammer?

For the most part, I don't think so. Only because the reason for an ARC is to get the word about the book, out there. I don't think publishers make money off of giving ARCs (correct me if I'm wrong) but I believe ARCs are for promotion almost, so they can make better sales when the book comes out. With that being said, GoodReads does a lot of ARC giveaways so that might be your only option.

How do you choose when to upload?

I try to upload on my blog every day I am free. My blog ideas list grows rapidly and if I'm not consistently posting, I'd have at least 50 posts waiting for me. Some days I'm busier than others or I forget though, so as long as I have a little bit of time, I post a blog post. As for Instagram, it's a very similar idea to my blog but I try to post just a little more on there since the posts require less effort.

Who inspires you to write and why?

Stephen King. I love how easily it is for him to not only write a huge book in a short period of time, but how he constantly gets ideas for new plots.

Advice for starting a blog?

Write what you want to write about. It makes the process so much more enjoyable. And with that, you'll find an audience who loves you for you because they love the voice you have created on your blog. That means, if you want to post only reviews, go for it. You want to post book tags? Go for it. Post what you want.

How do you post so much?

Whenever I get the chance, I pre-write and pre-photograph every photograph I can. It makes it so much easier on the rest of the days I am free; it is just a click of a button. Although, I'll admit I don't think I post as much as I'd like to

Revival by Stephen King

Revival follows our main character Jamie Morton throughout stages of his life: childhood, teenage years, adulthood and even beyond. Through all of these stages, a man named Charles Jacobs, a Reverend at Jamie's church, has impacts Jamie, starting with when he met him as a young boy. When Jacobs' family overcomes a tragedy, the preacher curses God and goes against him, moving away from his local town. Fast forward about 30 years, Jamie is a heroin addicted and was kicked out of his long-time band, when he meets Jacobs again and they find out their bond may seem more devilish than the Devil himself.

This book is so freaking good.

I went into this novel not knowing anything; and honestly, even my review synopsis above doesn't even cover the whole story, because theres so much to it.

I want to start off with the characterization in this novel because that is one of my favourite things about any book, whether its a comic or a novel.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Jamie as he's a young boy; I believe he's around the age of five - he might be a little older or a little younger but I'm sure he's no older than 6.

Right off the bat, I fell in love with Jamie's character. I love King's characters especially his child characters because they are so realistic and easy to love, almost as if I see them as my own. We see Jamie's shy/humbleness as a kid, so innocent, meeting this new guy that he automatically already trusts. 

We also see his relationship with his older siblings; those who car for him, those who bicker with him, etc. and it seems like a genuine relationship between siblings.

I also absolutely love our introduction to Jacobs as well. He's so genuine, especially with Jamie and they seemed to bond together well.

In all honesty, typically in a book, I'll have at least one character that annoys the crap out of me and in Revival, I had none. Maybe Jacobs near the end but it's really his way of grief - which I'll dive into a little later. 

I loved seeing Jamie grow throughout the book with his angsty, bad boy self into a middle aged man, involve with the same girl he first fell in love with. It was also quite heartbreaking seeing Jamie go through this negative transition of addiction, which I wonder if King ever related himself through Jamie's character.

One of the things that really did interest me was Jacobs' engineer-esque builds. One of our first encounters of Jacobs building something to possibly cure is when one of Jamie's brothers loses his voice and he uses this homemade equipment to bring his voice back to life; which is quite interesting.

 This gives the reader an insight as to what happens in Jamie's future and near the middle to end of the book.

The book ends with a very old and dying Jacobs creating this new machine and using it on a technically, but not quite dead women in hopes that he can create a portal to where people go after they die, in hopes that he can talk to his wife and son.

In doing so, Jamie and Jacobs releases this paranormal being called Mother who is quite dangerous. 

I loved this element. It brings the classic King element into a coming of age story. But I was also quite mad at Jacobs - honestly, I strongly disliked Jacobs' character from when Jamie meets him again until this scene where I start to feel sorry for him. But seriously.

This element was also one of the only things I disliked about this book as well. I spent the whole book waiting for a supernatural element, and although the coming of age story was quite nice. I, personally, waited the whole book just to meet Mother and I noticed that was something I had to deal with, with other King novels I've been reading lately.

But other than that, I love King's writing as always. It was a fast read and I overall did love it, I just wished the supernatural element was added a little earlier.

Have you read Revival? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below or on my Instagram!

I see a lot of conversations or Questions of the Day that involve how long people have been reading, or what were the first series of books they read growing up.

I personally love this topic because I love seeing what people grew up with and if I could relate.

That is how this blog post came about; I was thinking, I don't really talk much about my childhood books as much as I talk about my current favourites - although Percy Jackson has stuck with me since I was a kid and I still love it!

I also started working at a bookstore and it's so interesting seeing what kids are reading these days and seeing new editions of the books I grew up on! It's like nostalgia city!

With that being said, these are the books/series I grew up with as a kid!

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep is basically about these three witches, whom centuries ago, were sentenced to death for witchery. Now, every year, during the same time they die, they briefly come back to steal three weak souls for revenge. Our main character Penny has accepted this fate of the town. But when a new boy moves into town the day before the sisters' return, he has no idea what he's gotten himself into.

I had such high expectations for this book.

I've been eyeing this book for a little while now because not only does it have an amazing plot, but look at that cover!

So for a while now, I've been looking for witchy-based reads beside The Raven Cycle (which I love and want to review on my blog soon) so when I found out this was a witch-based read, I was sold.

The cover first caught my eye, like I said earlier and when reading the plot, I thought this book was perfect for me.

Honestly, I really tried to like this, you guys. I really did. I sat through this whole book, completely ready to love it but unfortunately, that didn't end up working out for me.

One of the things that really wasn't my cup of tea was the characters. You know I love books with well-loved and well-written characters as it's something I look for in every book I read but I just couldn't stick with this group of characters. I wanted to love every character in this and I couldn't.

For the most part, I thought most of the characters were really annoying..

It's been a little while since I've read this book so I have quite a broad memory of what I thought but I can remember that I didn't find any of the characters entertaining or relatable.

I think the main character was the one who annoyed me the most. I felt so much of her could have been likeable but the way she was written just made me want to close the book and never pick it up again.

Another thing I really disliked was the whole fairytale vibe involving the witches.

It is a very interesting concept to me and I was incredibly excited about this aspect but I feel like perhaps it wasn't executed well and that might be why I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Something I really wished occurred, that I might have possibly loved more would be if we were able to read the witches' perspective - whether it was in third or first person, instead of the fairytale/story-like concept.

Although it was beautiful, it really threw me off of the actual plot and topic.

I understand what the author was getting at but perhaps it was just poorly executed.

Another thing that also really threw me off was how dull the storyline really was. In fantasy novels, it is really easy to lose the reader in a plot when nothing is occurring. I think that is exactly what happened to me when I read this book.

Every time I changed the page, nothing new would happen to the plot.

I remember the first 50 or 60 pages would be absolutely nothing eventful and at that point, I was about to DNF the book.

I obviously did pull through the book, but there's so many things I would change in order to love the book and perhaps make it more lovable.

A lot of the time, when I don't like a book, I usually say something along the lines of "I didn't like it, but I'll definitely give it another try in the future." because I know I've probably just read it at the wrong time but I know I'll end up loving it again.

In this case, probably not.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash on the book. I know so many people who have loved The Wicked Deep.

I also don't think it was the timing in which I disliked the book. I just don't think the book was meant for me. But that definitely doesn't mean this book won't be for you reader!

If you want to get into this book and think you'll love it, as I say with all the books I wasn't a fan of, I say go for it!

If you do, I'll love to hear what you guys think! Definitely let me know on my Instagram or in the comments section below if you've read The Wicked Deep! I want to know your thoughts!

Hello, lovelies!

It's that time of the month, my Monthly Wrap Up!

For those who don't know what that is, my monthly wrap ups are posts in which I go back and talk about the books I read the previous month!

A lot of you seem to love reading this, but I also love looking back at the books I read in each month!

Oh, and they are a lot of fun.

Because it is the month of October, I tried to read as many "spooky reads" as I could, and one of my favourite horror icons Jason is here to help me introduce them.

With that being said, let's get into all the books I read in October 2018!

Night Shift by Stephen King

I absolutely love Stephen King's short stories, as you can probably tell. Night Shift was one of the books that so many of you made sure I read soon - and honestly, I'm quite happy that you guys made me read it. This book had so many amazing short stories that I was flying through. I believe I read this book in a couple of days because it was just so good. I just posted a review of it, so if you'd like to read it, it's here.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

I wanted to read as many "spooky" reads as I could in the month of October and well, this one was it. There was a lot of forensic elements in this novel which I was very excited about but honestly wasn't as drawn to the novel as I'd like to be. I'll hopefully have a review of this novel up soon so I can explain my thoughts further. But, I do want to give this book a second try a other time.

The Regulators by Richard Bachman

Another Stephen King book written by his pseudonym Richard Bachman, I loved Desperation which is almost like a parallel universe of this book so I was quite excited to dive into it. I also lacked a lot of Stephen King reading in September so I wanted to read as many King books as I could in October. I still love Tak's character and seeing it almost evolve, in a way, so for the most part, I did enjoy The Regulators as well. 

Revival by Stephen King

Like I said previously, I didn't read that many King books in September so I tried to read a far amount in October. I spent a good while trying to figure out what King book I wanted to read and well, Revival really stuck with me. I went into this book not knowing anything and I'm happy I did. The plot and the characters are so complex yet so heartbreaking. It definitely has become one of my favourites.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

When I think of "spooky reads" the two authors that come into my mind are Stephen King, and Agatha Christie. I haven't read a Christie book yet, but I own a couple so I thought I'd take advantage of this time. I don't think I loved her writing as much as I do King, to be honest. But it was fun diving into the works of a well-loved author that is new to me.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The last book I read in October is The Night Circus. I love circus settings, I'm sure everyone knows that, so I was incredibly eager to dive into this. It reminded me of Caraval by Stephanie Garber, and I loved that book - in fact, I loved both books. I absolutely love circus-based books so if you, reader, have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

And those are all the books I read in October. I thought I read a lot more, and I did, but I didn't finish about three of them, so I won't count them until I've finished them.

How many books did you read in October? Let me know in the comments section or on my Instagram!

Night Shift is another one of Stephen King's collections of short stories. It's one of his first collections, published in 1978 and includes stories like Jersalem's Lot and Children of the Corn.

I have read a lot of King short stories because I love them a lot, as you can tell. I love King's books in general whether they are long or short but his short stories always have a place in my heart.

Like I said in my previous King review, I believe I'm almost done reading all of his short stories; I believe Everything's Eventual, Just After Sunset and Nightmares and Dreamscapes are the last of his collections that I haven't read yet.

I finally decided to read Night Shift which I've put on hold for a while now because I thought I wouldn't be into this book, or enjoy it. Why? I'm not sure, I just didn't think Night Shift would be a collection I would love.

I'm glad I put those thoughts aside though because wow, did I love Night Shift.

Previous to reading this, I had a handful of short stories I really loved but not the overall books until I read Different Seasons. Night Shift definitely almost surpassed that for me. It was an incredible read.

Like I always say, it's starting to become a little repetitive when I say I love King's writing because quite frankly, that's pretty obvious. But this novel is so much more than King's amazing writing! It included so much plot thought and psychological twists that I loved.

One of the stories, which I'll get to later, left me in a huge gasp and I had to sit there, still, as I processed what I just read.

To me, Night Shift is considered "Classic King."

The only reason why it isn't a full five star rating was because I wasn't a huge fan of every short story that was included. Not because they were bad or anything but because they didn't give me that heart pulling feeling that the other stories did.

For this review, because there are many stories in this collection, I'll talk about the stories that really stood out to me - whether it was good or bad per se.

Gray Matter and Battleground were probably my least favourites of the collection that I could remember. I know a lot of people are gasping right now because Gray Matter is probably one of their favourites of the handful but it just didn't stick to me - positively - like the other ones.

I didn't feel much about Gray Matter. When I read it, it felt like my brain consumed the words but didn't bother to process it and that is probably why I'm not a huge fan of it.

As for Battlegrounds, I just found that story a little boring in my opinion.

My favourite of the stories were probably The Boogeyman, Jersalem's Lot, Graveyard Shift and Strawberry Spring.

The Boogeyman and Strawberry Spring both left me gasping by the end of the book because of their ending twist which I absolutely love about Stephen King's writing.

I Know What You Need was also quite an interesting read. That story had me on the edge of my chair for most of it, I had different theories and in the end, I was wrong for them all but I was still shocked by the time the story ended.

The last book I'll mention is Night Surf, which definitely reminded me of The Stand. Maybe it's because I read The Stand shortly before Night Surf but the whole disease element really struck me and I thought it was interesting.

Overall though, I loved Night Shift. I would probably consider it one of my favourite Stephen King collections in general.

I want to know, do you guys love short story collections? Let me know in the comments section below or on my Instagram! 

Hello, my lovely readers!

I hope you all are doing well! It's been a while since I posted on both bookstagram and on my blog - well, only a week but it seems like a while to me!

I've received a handful of direct messages asking me how have I been or where did I go, and I wanted to firstly, thank you all for noticing and perhaps even caring!

I've had quite a week and I know it's going to get busier with the upcoming Holiday season ahead, but I thought I'd give you guys a little update on what has been going on in my life and perhaps an insight on what is to come in the future.

So, to start off, I briefly announced last minute that I would be taking a break from bookstgram; just a little week-long break to even out the algorithm (that darn algorithm) and hopefully start off fresh.

While I was taking a break from bookstagram, I thought I'd take a little break from blogging as well, as they both usually correlate together through my postings.

Since last week, I've been incredibly busy and will probably be even more busy as the weeks fly by.

I recently started working at one of my local Chapters/Indigo/Coles chain (I don't want to specify which one for privacy reasons but I know a couple of you know - and if you do, please keep it private) and it has been amazing. 

I've been trying to get a job at one of these book chains since I was 16, so I bet you can imagine how I'm currently feeling.

With that being said, this holiday season, I am working two retail jobs with no days off - unless I'm not scheduled for a certain day that week. As most of you know, it's quite difficult for me to post when I work often because I don't have time to post on both medias; write out captions and blog posts and take photos - especially since my photos are based off of natural lighting.

My sister had mentioned an app in which I can pre-schedule posts so they can upload for me which I'm going to give a try and hopefully all works out and I can go back to posting more regularly, even with my busy schedule!

Starting today, though, I will be as active as I can through my social medias because I love interacting with you guys so much!

I also have made a few changes to my social media accounts! I've finally changed my profile picture on Bookstagram to something similar to the one above (I am so happy to have a King book in my photo now - I know, it has been a while!) but I've also changed all of my social medias to jessreadsalatte so it will be much easier for all of you to find me on the other socials!

On another note, one of my closest bookstagram besties Johely (ninetieslibrary) and myself created a IG book club called ninetiesreadalatte!

Each month, we read a different book and at the end of the month, we talk about it and have a little trivia where you can win prizes!

If you are willing to join, you can message either one of us!

It is also the month of November which also means NaNoWriMo! Or to some, National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, I am writing a novel in hopes of publishing it next year. I'll be taking advantage of this month as well for that reason, hopefully finishing the first draft very soon!

I think that might be all of the general updates that I have. If there is more, I'll have them posted on either my Twitter or my Instagram (both are jessreadsalatte, and links should be really easy to find throughout my blog).

I am so incredibly happy to be back and posting for all my lovely readers again!