Samantha Shannon

Let’s face it: no matter how many people recommended it to me, telling me that I would love it, in the end, it just wasn’t for me. They weren’t wrong; the premise of this novel promises everything I love: great world building, an interesting heroine, a mesmerising love interest, who seems to be just how I like my male characters (dark, brooding, mysterious, more or less evil, et al.), and a fascinating plot. Unfortunately, after a strong start, the story began to drag on. Too many flat secondary characters and flash backs as well as a relationship dynamic that wasn’t as intriguing as I hoped it to be sucked the thrill right out of the story. All in all, I feel like the novel wasn’t able to fulfil its potential because one book was not enough to round out all the now unfortunately half-baked aspects . . .

I know, I know, I’m late. I’m always late. It’s just that I’m currently in a reading frenzy and can’t stop devouring one book after the other. Furthermore, the weather is brilliant (and almost a little too hot for my taste already) so I want to spend as much time outside as possible before I’ll have to start working in May …

I’m so so sorry that I haven’t been able to keep you up to date these past two days. I just wasn’t at home much and therefore also haven’t read much …

I decided to participate in this easter special of 7 Days 7 Books, which in a nutshell challenges you to read as many books as you choose (but seven would be nice) in seven days. As a special easter treat, we get an extra day, so it’s actually eight days and you only have to read four novels to take part in the raffle – at least, if you have pledged to do so in advance. Although I trust myself to be able to read four novels over the course of eight days, I decided to go with the other version in which you can choose your own goals …

Talking about my new camera: you have no idea what I went through to get that thing! The retailer messed up twice and I wouldn’t have it yet if it weren’t for a long phone call. It basically took them all of March to ship it to me. But it’s gorgeous and I adore it. Have I mentioned that it has freaking WLAN?! You can remote control it with an app on your mobile. So cool! Naturally, it was quite expensive but I wanted a new camera for ages. I’ve outgrown my beautiful EOS 1000D a while ago and it’s literally getting senile anyway. Ever since we strolled through Vienna on a rainy day in March 2013, it has some kind of error and frequently forgets that it has an SD card to which it’s supposed to save the images. It’s my own fault for not taking care of it properly that day. After all, it survived several wet holidays in Ireland and the UK. The new one is waterproof though I won’t test that anytime soon. I’ve been saving for the last couple of years but could never bring myself to spend that much money. When I finished my bachelor thesis, I decided that it was time to reward myself – although I didn’t know whether the thesis was any good. Turns out it was and now my new camera answers to the illustrious name of Katniss EOS-70D-een …

The reading lists are finally back! Naturally, I failed to fulfil my reading resolutions in January and February but at least I had a good excuse. Now let’s see how this month will turn out …

The last 2013 additions to my library. It’s a colourful mixture of long awaited novels, beautiful covers, unusual genres, hyped series, and some horse novels (well, it’s me, after all) …