Hi my name's Sarah.

I'm 24 nearly 25 and I don't know how I feel about that, I graduated two years ago and only just got a 'proper' job and that's okay, I feel the most content by the sea, whenever I eat chips I have to drink milk with them, I don't ever mix the corner into the yoghurt when I eat Muller crunch corners, I think I'm almost completely intolerant to alcohol, my boyfriend hates my birkenstocks but I don't care, I don't like coffee but I wish I did, I'm pretty obsessed with drag queens, I want to go off the pill because I'm scared of what eight years of taking it might have done to my body, I love pink but I only really wear black, I moved out of my parents' house this year, I'm rewatching CSI from the beginning, I take a lot of selfies and I love a good filter.

This post was inspired by the ultimate inspiration and all-round wonderful human, Grace Latter.

Total number of books read: 3
Total number of pages read: 761
Genres: 2 YA Fantasy, 1 short story collection.
Nationality of author: 1 Ireland, 1 UK, 1 India.

It's been a little quiet around here lately, hasn't it? I started a new job in June so between that and focusing on my health I haven't had a lot of time left for blogging. But I think now that I'm settled in I'm going to try and balance things a little better - so expect some more posts!

Although I haven't been blogging, I've still been reading, so there's quite a lot of reviews to catch up on! Today I'll be tackling the books I read in July - I only read three but they were all pretty great, so let's get into the reviews...

The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy | ☆☆☆
Pushkin Press kindly offered to send me The Wildings for review and I was really intrigued by the concept so of course I said yes! The Wildings is the first book in a series about a group of street cats who roam the alleys of Nizamuddin, Delhi and a mysterious force that shakes up their world, and it's told from the point of view of the cats! I don't think I've ever read a novel from the perspective of animals before so I was really excited to pick this up. I found the plot to be a little slow moving but the character development was strong and I really enjoyed getting to know each of the cats of Nizamuddin. Nilanjana Roy's writing is really strong and it looks to be a great start to a new series.

Treats by Lara Williams | ☆☆☆☆
I first heard about this short story collection from Leena of JustKissMyFrog, who raved about it and I was so pleased when the lovely people at Freight Books sent it to me. Treats is a collection of beautifully written stories focusing on women, dating and relationships and I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed a short story collection this much in a long time. Lara William's writing is dark and delicious and so sharp and witty that it made me want to write, whilst also knowing I could never write something so brilliant.

The Call by Peadar O'Guilin | ☆☆☆☆
Earlier this month I participated in the blog tour for the wonderful The Call by Peadar O'Guilin, which I actually read in August, you can see my stop for the tour here. The Call is a YA fantasy set in a dystopian Ireland, where teenagers are spontaneously 'called' to a dimension called the 'grey land' in which they have to fight for survival. Only 1 in 10 survive. I know what you're thinking, sounds a bit too Hunger-Games-y, but it's definitely not. Don't get me wrong, I love The Hunger Games, but this is a whole different ball game. The Call is so gripping and well written that I devoured it in a single sitting, I couldn't put it down, I had to find out what happened. It's dark and horrifying and so BLOODY INTENSE and I really really enjoyed it. What are you waiting for? Go and read it.

Those were the books I read in July, stay tuned for my August reviews!

The Call by Peadar O'Guilin
Published by David Fickling Books
Release date: 1st September 2016
Source: David Fickling Books via ED public relations, paperback proof copy.

Goodreads | Hive | Wordery

What if you only had 3 minutes to save your own life and the clock is already counting down...

Three minutes. 
Nessa, Megan and Anto know that any day now they wake up alone in a horrible land and realise they've been Called.

Two minutes.
Like all teenagers they know that they'll be hunted down and despite all their training only 1 in 10 will survive.

One minute.
And Nessa can't run, her polio twisted legs mean she'll never survive her Call will she?

Time's up.


Today is my stop on the blog tour for the excellent new YA The Call by Peadar O'Guilin! I absolutely adored this book. I went in not really knowing anything about it and not knowing what to expect and it completely blew me away. I read it in one sitting, I rearranged plans to finish this book - it's that good.

Although The Call is a work of fantasy, it grew in Peadar's mind from Ireland's rich and complex history - from folk tales and conquests and whispers of magic. At the heart of the Ireland within The Call, is The Book of Conquests, an almost sacred text that holds details of survivors and in Nessa's mind, the key to survival. But this fictional Book of Conquests is in fact based on a real piece of Irish history.

Here's Peadar himself to tell us more about the real Book of Conquests: