#TBRTakedown 2.0 last day and what I have read...

Hello,
So I have not finished all of the books I wanted to but I feel like I made a good attempt!

I managed to finish Legend by Marie Lu on the first day as it was a quick graphic novel. I can see why people love her novels so much.

On the second and third day I read ella minnow pea by Mark Dunn and finished that off, it was a really interesting and quirky read!

Next, I read Soulless by Gail Carriger which I finished yesterday but in between reading the last too books I also read: LOW volume 1 and Mr. Men in London.

I am currently over half way through The Book of Lillit by Rober Brown which is a strange but also interesting read. I hope to finish this book tonight.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to read This Shattered World but I am putting that on top of my TBR list.

I hope you all managed to read all your chosen books,
Sofiee

An Unespected Book Crawl Around London

My boyfriend and myself decided to have a day in London and didn't know what to do. We tried to visit some interesting bookshops so without further ado here are the shops and books bought:

Persephone Books
William-an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton
(Recommended by the bookseller!)

The Persephone Book of Short Stories

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred  Watson
(This is a movie and I didn't know...)

Foyles 
The Days and Nights of London Now-As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It an Long for it LONDONERS by Craig Taylor

Suicide Squad by Adam Glass et all

Mr. Men in London by Roger Hargreaves
(Just because)

Orbital Comics
LOW Volume 1 by Remender Tocchini

Death Note (Black Edition) by Tsugumi Ohba

Waterstones
Armada by Ernest Cline

The Runaway by Elizabeth Anne Hart (A £1 clearance from Persephone books!)

Now for a book buying ban!
Sofiee

MINI REVIEW: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J.Maas *No Spoilers*

I read this book for TheBookLife's (www.thebooklife.co.uk) readalong for July. There will be a live show on the August 1st at 9PM UK time/4PM EST time.

Here are my thoughts on the novel:

When I first started reading A Court of Thrones and Roses I thought that I wouldn't like due to the description. However, as I got used to Maas' writing style (this was the first book I have read of hers) I really, really enjoyed the novel.

The story is about a young woman named Feyre whose family lost their fortune and their Mother. Feyre has to hunt for meat and one day comes across a wolf and shoots it dead. However, this wolf was actually a magical creature and killing a magical creature is forbidden. She has to pay the price for her crimes...

This plot if full of twists and some very interesting sub plots. I absolutely love the love story too...

I would definitely recommend this book :)
Sofiee

Birthday Book Haul!

On the 20th of July I turned 21! I got given and bought some books that I thought I would share with you :) On my birthday I went to Paris and went to the Shakespeare and Co bookshop were some of these books are from.

Legend: A Graphic Novel by Marie Lu (reading for the #TBRTakedown)

New Suicide Squad: Volume one Pure Insanity

YOU by Caroline Kepnes

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

How To Run Your Home Without Help by Kay Smallshaw (Persephone books on sale!)

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

HATE a romance by Tristan Garcia

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger

Pulchritude by Ana Mardoll

ODY-C Vol 1 - Off To Far Ithicaa by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward

Shakespeare and Company book

If you have read any of these or want to review let me know :)
Sofiee

#TBRTakedown 2.0 tbr...

In preparation for the TBR Takedown readathon (midnight of 25th to 31st July) I have decided on a few books for the challenges. This readathon is lead by the lovely Leaninglights at https://twitter.com/leaninglights and youtube.

The challenges and books I have chosen are...

1) First book in a series
Soulless by Gail Carriger

2) Sequel book in a series
This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spoonner

3) Out of your comfort zone (genre, author ect)
The Book of Lilith by Dr. Robert G. Brown

4) On your shelf for over a year (or thee longest)
ella minnow pea: A novel without letters by Mark Dunn

5) Most recently hauled book
Legend: The Graphic Novel by Marie Lu

I am hoping to read most of these but I will be busy everyday during the time of the readathon!

Good luck book worms,
Sofiee

My Hong Kong Adventure week two

Hong Kong Adventures continued...

Day Eight
Today we went to Ocean Park, a theme park and zoo situated half on the peak of a mountain. We started at the bottom, called 'The waterfront', where most of the animals are kept. We saw pandas and red pandas (my favourite), then saw the fishes. We went on the sea life carousel too.

After this we got the cable car to 'The Summit' to see the sharks and dolphins. Did a log flume called 'Raging River' that had a rather large drop... The 'The Rapids' was the other water ride where we sat in a large rubber ring with seating whilst being sprayed with water, very refreshing! We walked to the Arctic Zone for the 'South Pole Spectacular' (penguins) and the 'North Pole Spectacular' (walrus and sea lions). The final ride we went on was 'Arctic Blast', a very high speed roller-coaster and went around twice :S.

We saw a ocean show with amazing dolphins and two walruses. I wanted to get the train down the mountain instead of the cable car so we did that, the train was made to look very futuristic. Then to finish the trip we visited to bakery and souvenir shop.

Day Nine
One of our friends was going home this day so we decided to do something not too far from the apartment. We got a tram to the top of the Peak (further up the Peak than we were staying) and got a cheeky Starbucks, then did some souvenir shopping.

We had an earlier dinner of pizza and then got the taxi to take our friend to the train station to go to the airport. The remaining two of us went to Happy Valley horse racing course. Shared a jug of beer and watched the racing and then the Brazilian dancers.

Day Ten 
Had a lay in and then went to Joy Ocean to try foot reflexology which was a strange experience as the masseuse was hitting my calf muscle during the massage. We did a spot of shopping and then had Vietnamese for dinner, Pho Tia (beef soup), soo good! After we went to TST to see the light show where some of the buildings on the main land light up in time to the music.

Day Eleven
This was the day I was excited about! Going to Disneyland! We got the Disney train which was pimped out with mickey mouse handlebars and all.

We started in 'Adventure land', based around the story of Tarzan, there was a boat ride and a walk around Tarzan's tree house. Later we went back to this land to see 'The Festival of the Lion King' which is much like the West End Show I believe.

We moved to 'Grizzly Gulch' for the 'Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine', a roller-coaster that also went backwards. We came back to go on this ride again later too, one of my favourites!

Next land after this one was 'Mystic Manor', a ride that was electric seating that moved around the house showing artefacts coming to life. We also came back to this ride.

After was 'Toy Story land' for a ride called 'Slinky Dog Spin'. Then I went to 'Andy's Toy box' to get a souvenir.

For lunch we walked to 'Tomorrowland' and we went to 'Star liner Diner'.

Back-tracked to 'Fantasyland' for: 'It's a Small World', 'Mad Hatter Teacups', 'Cinderella Carousel', 'The mainly Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' and finally 'Mickey's PhilharMagic' (a 3D movie).

Then, we went back to 'Tomorrowland' to go on the rides there. I was forced onto 'Space Mountain' which actually wasn't too bad in the darkness. After that my throat was aching from screaming too much! We did 'Autopia' but this was a very boring driving track.

Finished the night watching a parade and eating a Mickey Mouse waffle.. yum!

Day Twelve
This day was spent walking through Causeway Bay looking for a particular present that my brother wanted, they didn't have the present in the end. We got to have some ice cream in a Haagen-Dazs shop though so all was okay.

Day Thirteen
Went back to Stanley for a lazy beach day and got another two bags in the market. We had drinks at Vern's Beach Bar, an american style bar.

Day Fourteen
Home day :'(
Luckily my case didn't weight too much! Had to leave the apartment around 6am to get the Airport Express to the Airport. Then 13 hours later I was back home!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip!
Sofiee

My Hong Kong Adventure week one

We did some much within the two weeks that we went away for so I thought I would break it up into two posts...

Day One
Got Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong airport. I didn't realise how many classes there could be on a airline! I was in economy of course. Twleve-ish hours later and we made it. We had a quick shower and went out for a Chinese ;).

Day Two
We stayed on the Peak so there were quite a few steps down to get to the station. Our first day was spent at Stanley Island, where we saw the Pak Tai temple. We ate a really good salad and sandwich at Stanley's Cave, then browsed the market.
On the way back to the flat we got an ice cream with toppings that was smushed together as if rolling dough... very interesting. After we got a cheeky holiday cocktail from a bar called Lotus in SOHO.

Day Three
We planned to get up early so we could get the escalators down the Peak (they stop going down at 10am and then starting running up). However, we didn't make it in time. We got a ferry to Lama Island where I got sea sick! We walked through the island to the beach, here we swam to the pontoon and I struggled a bit to swim back... The rest of the walk took us an hour to get to the other side of the island. Then we stopped for an Indian meal at the waterfront. After this we went back to the apartment.

Freshened up to go to the Night market where we got some goodies and got a drink at Castro's (I had a Mai Tai).  

Day Four
Today was Big Buddha day which meant getting a train to Tung Chung and then a cable car (fear of heights kicked in!) to the top of the mountain. We went to a traditional tea shop and had a rose black tea and a jasmine flower tea. Our server was being trained so the whole sequence of tea making took a while. After our refreshment we walked up the 200 steps to the Big Buddha and had a nosey around. Downstairs we saw the Po Lin Monastery.

The next part of our day was to catch a coach to Tai O to go see the pink dolphins... however, we didn't manage to see any :'(.

Got back to the apartment to get ready for a night on the town! We had Thai for dinner at Koh Thai, they have a-mazing green curry. Them, we went to a pub called  Stormies in Lang Wai for drinks and jelly shot syringes. We decided to go out clubbing and picked Deja Vu for the music, we danced and made some friends.  

Day Five
After the night before we decided to have a lazier day so we visited the Zoological gardens to see some animals and a hollow water fountain. We then got the MTR to Mong Kok for the Ladies' market where I managed to buy four bags... eeek.
That night we had Mexican food (very multi-cultural food trip) and got some more drinks.

Day Six
Dragons's Back walk in Shek O day. This was a two hour hike over rocks and the trail is meant to resemble a dragon's back in shape and colour. However, it did rain halfway through which was refreshing but made the ground slippery.
After we hydrated on beer (not a good idea) and got Thai food again. We had a quite night in after all the walking.

Day Seven 
We managed to get a lot done on this day... We started at the Nan Lian Gardens and had a wander round. The gardens led to the 'Nunnery' in Chi Lin where the doors have steps to get into a room in order for the devil not to enter as they believe the devil cannot jump.
After we had lunch which was Dim Sum (the guide book said to try it) in a veggie restaurant and we sat inside a water fountain! Then,
we made our way to Wing Tai and visited the Temple which was very pretty, I especially like the little bridge. Got the train to Sha Tin to the 10,000 Buddha's Monastery. Some of the status looked almost comical, with eyebrows down to their feet and one very long arm. There was a lot of steps to do here too and got the Star Ferry, the oldest ferry company in Hong Kong, to Central. We got burgers for dinner at Wagyu (really good food).
P.S. I bought a Moon cake... it was gross.

The Big Buddha... excuse my face.

That is the end of my Hong Kong trip part one, stay tuned for part two!
Sofiee