2013: What an amazing year it's been!

Wow, what an amazing year it has been, I can't believe it's almost over, but also super exciting for Christmas, New Year and what's to come!

Lots of blogs and sites are doing a round up of the best books of 2013 (which I love to browse through) but I think this video from the New York Times is great - they've made a mini animation of their top 10 covers for 2013: http://nyti.ms/1hz0NlS

Also this competition by We Love This Book called Got it Covered is great too - they have taken 100 snippets of book covers published in 2013 and if you guess them all you could win £100 National Book Tokens.
http://www.welovethisbook.com/got-it-covered2013

It's trickier than you might think - it ranges from adult fiction, children's, non fiction, cookbooks etc. I'm on 
71/100 so far but it's taken a while!

What are your favourite books of 2013? 
My instant reaction is to say mine is John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (I'm on my third reading of it, it amazes me each time!) but going through my Goodreads 'Your Year in books' I realise that there have been so many amazing books I've been blown away by this year: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Kite Runner, The Book Thief, Life After Life and the Pushing the Limits series. But I could keep going on...

(I couldn't fit them all on one screenshot, so here's a small snippet!)

I've read some amazing books this year, new and old ones and I'm pleased to have hit my GR challenge target of 75 books (with still 10 days of December reading to go!)


I also want to say that I've had an absolutely amazing year blogging on the Mira Ink blog and thankyou all for reading, sharing and interacting! I've had the honour of writing about all the upcoming releases, including cover reveals, trailers, blog tours and giveaways as well as starting up discussions on book-themed topics at the time.
It's been such a great year and I've loved every minute of it and I can't wait to see what Mira Ink has in store for next year, so keep your eyes peeled!!

Have a great new year!

Literary Christmas Gifts

Christmas is 12 days away!! Are you more excited or scared?? Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet? I've done nearly all of mine now and it's safe to say that a lot of people are getting books (whether they like it or not!) but one of the things I love about Christmas time is all the amazing book-themed gifts you finally have an excuse to browse through and maybe even buy!

I've picked out some of my favourite literary christmas gifts:


- Anything from the Folio Society, their books are so beautiful!

- Go Away I'm Reading mugs - who doesn't need these mugs when they're having some time with a cup of tea and a book!?

- Classic book ereader cases - the best way to make an e-reader feel like you're still reading a physical book!

- Anything from Out of Print Clothing - I totally think book t-shirts are amazing, they're quite subtle but they are still really cool. The trouble I'm having is there are just too many to choose between!

- A complete novel on a poster - I got the Great Gatsby version of this for my birthday and it's one of the best presents I've had, it's huge though! But it's definitely something different! They do practically every classic possible plus some fun ones too like Harry Potter











- Who doesn't love Penguin classics merchandise? There's something about having one of these bad boys in your kitchen cupboard that shows you're a massive book fan. I have The Great Gatsby one at home (I couldn't resist) and now having to force myself not to buy more of them, but they're still great and colourful!

What are your ultimate literary christmas gifts? Or would you rather just still to traditional books to read instead? (or both!?) 

Only 12 days left and counting!!

Taste of Darkness Book Trailer

As a Friday special I've been given the honour of releasing the book trailer for Maria V. Snyder's new book Taste of Darkness! I'm so excited, Taste of Darkness is the third book in the 'Avry of Kazan' (Healer) series and one of my favourite Mira Ink series so far.

And here's the trailer...

What do you think of the trailer? Isn't it great?

The series follows Avry of Kazan, the last healer in the Fifteen Realms. So far she has survived plagues, wars and death as well as finding and losing the boy she loves and yet she's still not given up and is back for more! (That was the very summarised version, read the Goodreads descriptions for the proper action!)
She is a strong, fiesty character with a very hot boyfriend and I think the books do a fantastic job of weaving magic with action. It's the kind of book I wish I had written first!
Plus the covers together look amazing!
Intrigued yet? You can pre-order it here!