Saturday, January 3, 2015

December Wrap Up + Book Haul

Hellloooooo how are you all enjoying the new year?

I've been spending the first few days of 2015 re-organising my bookshelf and...

DID YOU GUYS NOTICE THE NEW THEME? I spent 6h making it haha. I used the 'Awesome' green Blogger template and mass tweaked it - I spent a good 2h in Photoshop making the background and re-working until I created a pattern I liked. Then it was choosing a colour scheme (Tiffany's blue yay!), creating banners, widget headers and editing code all over the place until I was satisfied with the final result. I'm really happy with this theme, it's much cleaner and fresh, looks hella more sophisticated. My old blue rose one I was unhappy with it from the beginning when I made it but was too busy to do anything about it until now :D

After my Book Christmas Tree came down, I had to re-organise my shelves (new year and what not) and it took me a good 8h+ over the course of a few days. The final result ladies and gentlemen.




Now onto the actual post..

My December wrap up and book haul are a tad delayed this year because I only just came back from holiday last week and already had a few posts scheduled. I almost didn't do this post but then I realised I have so many people to thank because the bulk of this haul is comprised of lovely Christmas gifts!

I only read three books in December as I was doing a lot of gaming catch up and marathoning Charmed lel



Reviews Posted:
This Shattered World (Starbound #2) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner - 4.5/5

Other Posts:

I was actually quite a good girl this month and didn't buy too many books myself!

Graphic Novels and Manga


Books



Review Copies




Thank you Bloomsbury Australia and Hachette Australia for these review copies!


Gifts

I also received a few gifts from lovely friends and Secret Santa!



Alexa from Alexa Loves Books sent me these goodies. As part of the Maas Thirteen, Bloomsbury USA had given each member a signed ARC of Heir of Fire and the beautiful Crown of Midnight tote bag. They couldn't send to Aus so Alexa sent them to me. We also ordered stationery from May Designs which does personalised notebooks and greeting cards and she sent these with the package. SO MUCH AWESOME. Thank you Alexa!



My Aussie YA Secret Santa who was Nemo from The Moonlight Library got me I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I've been wanting to read this for ages so I was really happy to get this, thank you Nemo! It's in the edition I wanted too.


Mel from YA Midnight Reads got me this beautiful gift - infinity symbol earrings and necklace, beautiful card, Unite Me (Shatter Me #1.5 and #2.5) by Tahereh Mafi and Trouble by Non Pratt. So excited to read both of these *hugs Mel*


The lovely Ellis surprised me with Bunheads by Sophie Flack which I have been dying to read. *Hugs Ellis* thank you so much!


And finally I received this lovely package from my The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa, Cassie from Cassie the Weird. A cute Mickey Mouse plushie, coloured pens, an awesome procrastination list, A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Such a perfect gift and I have been hearing raving reviews about Ready Player One so YESSS. Thanks Cassie :D

Wao thank you everyone for all the lovely gifts


11 comments:

  1. SO MANY THINGS TO COMMENT ON. First of all I LOVE the new design. Such a beautiful colour!! I can just imagine how long it would have taken O_O and all those beautiful books too...starting 2015 with a bang :D

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    1. THANK YOU EMILY <3 It's like my favourite colour omg. And yessssss I feel 2015 will be amazing :D

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  2. I'm loving the new design! It's definitely a lot more clean than it was before. The Tiffany blue is literally the perfect colour! And your bookshelves though. ♥ One day, you will have your own personal library and it will be epic! You got so many awesome gifts, yay! I love the May Designs stuff but shipping is sah expensive. I would totally buy some for myself if it was cheaper. I love the design that you got! Also, thank you so much for your Secret Santa present Jaz! I really really appreciate it. ♥ And so sneaky too! ;)

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    1. Thank you! I WILL HAVE THE LIBRARY FROM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. I was lucky Alexa split shipping with me and she sent the May Designs stuff over here. They ARE gorgeous though.
      Did you ever guess that it was me when The Walled City turned up on your seat? LOL

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  3. Love the new design. It's very pretty. It shows that you put a lot of work and thought into it. The Tiffany Blue is a nice color indeed. You got some great books. I hope you love them all.

    Grace @ Books of Love

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    1. Thank you Grace! It practically did my head in haha. Thanks again :D

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  4. Ah, here's the explanation about the new design! 6 hours, woah :O

    READY PLAYER ONE IS SO GOOD! It's especially awesome if you're a bit of a geek haha. So many pop culture references- most of which I didn't get because I'm slightly too young, but still, GAMING! :P

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  5. Wow Jaz, you got so many awesome books for Christmas and I just loved your bookish tree! That Legend trilogy hardcovers, they look amazing. Glad to hear you had a good month lovely! Can't wait to hear what you think about There Will be Lies.

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  6. Love the new color scheme, Jaz! Tiffany blue <3 <3 <3 Also, I am happy to send you packages every so often, like any good friend would be! ;)

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  7. SO MANY AWESOME GIFTS! I hope you enjoy all your new books, and is it possible to procrastinate from writing things on the procrastination list? OMG that book tree!!!! I am envious

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  8. I loved "Breaking the Rules" as Echo and Noah defy the odds in their struggle to love and forge a future together. Katie McGarry remains one of my favorite romance authors.

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