Book Feast 2016 Book Haul

It's that time of the year where there are exams for everyone, but it's also the time of the year where the annual Book Feast (or for the Dutch people Boekenfestijn) shows up at Ghent! Luckily for me it's always open on a Friday evening too, that way I can visit it after I studied or did my exam! And as per usual, I found some books! Let's get started...

©http://gratisprijzenwinnen.be/

Remember last post about the Book Feast? Then I had a goal: The Hunger Games trilogy! But also this year I had a goal... I'm really obsessed when this Book Feast comes and then I start checking the site to see the advertisements and I saw a book series I wanted to have for a year now: The Mercy Fall trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. I had ordered the first three in Dutch because I couldn't find them with a good and beautiful cover, or I just couldn't find them at all! So I bought it for 20,00 euros and had to wait until the 1st of January 2016, because it was in reprint. Yet after the 1st I didn't receive anything but a mail saying it was delayed... for a whole year! But I said okay I'll wait just because I wanted them so badly!

However I saw the trilogy in a very nice cover for only 15,00 euro's in the advertisements of the Book Feast of Apeldoorn... which is in the Netherlands and not in Belgium. I worried that they'd all be sold there and there wouldn't be any left for Ghent. This is where the story begins! I send a mail to the customer service to ask if they'd be in Ghent too. The woman said that normally they would and they'd keep one apart (which is something they usually don't do!). But things turned out differently...

Friday the 17th of June, I counted down the hours to visit the feast and after checking the entrance with many, many books I went to the service where books would be held for me. But the woman said she didn't know anything about it. I was disappointed because I really want that series. My niece and me started in the aisle of Young Adult afterward and I found the second book in the series on its own: Linger. So I said to my niece: look! This is one of them. The ones I'm looking for! If you find a similar cover tell me! And only two seconds later she said: you mean these? She had found the last package of this series and I was just so happy! So thanks again Marika! 

It feels like the Book Feast is a real adventure! Each year there's something that happens. I'm just really glad I found the series because it's a bargain in comparison to the one I'm still waiting on. It has the nice covers, they're in English and 5,00 euros cheaper! So I'm canceling my order now I have them. Who knows maybe I had to wait even longer after the 1st of January 2017 to receive the reprint! 

For everyone who's not familiar with the series, here's the back of the first book Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater:

When a local boy is killed by wolves, Grace's small town becomes a place of fear and suspicion. But Grace can't help being fascinated by the pack, and by one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. There's something about him - something almost human. Then she meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away...

It's my first book series that contains wolves but I'm really looking forward to it! It's also my first book by Maggie Stiefvater but I know she's really known because of the Raven Boys. And therefore I've heard she's a really good author! I'm really curious...

Okay, so the first pair of books were found but there were more... of course. Last time there was one aisle of Young Adult, this time there were three! Above that I was really surprised that there were so many English books this time around! Which made this Book Trip even more fun. The next book I stumbled upon was one that caught my attention by it's cover. Bound by Sarah Bryant. The cover seemed so dark and mysterious and then this sentence also made me pick up the book: What Happens When an Angel Falls?

The book is about a girl that sees all sorts of things: ghosts, demons,... but she thinks they're all her imagination. Thinking she can escape it, she goes to a little town in Scotland where she meets someone who convinces her there's no such things as her imagination. The things she sees, are real and that person sees them too. 

I don't really know where this will turn to. It could be angel-alike or ghost-alike. All I know is that it really caught my attention and I want an answer on the question that's presented on the cover. Let's just hope it isn't too scary!

After I had that book in my hands, I got back with my niece and her eyes fell on a book we both want to read... badly, Teardrop by Lauren Kate. Only my niece doesn't enjoy reading in English and the book was there in English. So since it was a bargain of 4,99 euros, I couldn't let it slip away and took it with me. We searched if the Dutch version would be there but there was no luck for my niece. Although she did take the book Panic by Lauren Oliver. 

I have read one book by Lauren Kate before, which was Unforgiven, and then I discovered that I really enjoy her writing style so after reading about Teardrop on Goodreads, I kind of was sold. The thing is, each time I went to the bookstore only the second book was there. It's a weird thing in Belgium but I feel like it's only the second book in a series that's available. At least that's what I came across multiple times in bookstores here. Anyways, for the ones that'd be interested in the plot here it is:

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense. Can everything you love be washed away? 

I continued my walk and came across all Cassandra Clare's books. Last time I bought the second book in the Infernal Devices in a hardcover (for 5,00 euros my friends!) so I wanted to get the first and last book too, in hardcover. But they were only there in paperback! At that moment I didn't know if I should take them anyway or not but decided against it. Sorry, Cassandra Clare, we'll have to wait for a while...

That didn't let my "bookspirit" die though because I found another book, which is the last book I bought: Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon. Which I just now realize is a second in a series, I saw that it was a sequel but misinterpret it apparently... Oh well! Gives me an excuse to buy more books ;-). It went a little bit like Bound, I saw it, it was mysterious and I flipped the book and read the first two lines and was curious: I am in love with Dante Berlin. He is my soulmate. He saved my life. 

Doesn't it sound promising? It does! Goodreads also tells me this is a good book because it has 4.18 out of five which is not nothing. Did anyone read a book by Yvonne Woon before? What where your thoughts about it? 

With this book as my last book, the end of the Book Trip neared. I can safely say that this time there were more books to pick from and above that we all went home with bargains. The Book Feast is known to sell books but on a much lower price. Sometimes the books are damaged but it's all about taking the book from the bottom... 

"Books are uniquely portable magic" 

  

                                           ~Stephen King

Unforgiven

Last week I did a bookswap for the third time in my life! I never had people around me that liked books until this year, weird right?! So it's only been this school year that I swapped books with Fien, my niece and last week with Nina. She's a good friend of mine and somehow we started talking about books. In the last holiday we went to Ghent and bought books let's just say it like that... So we started talking about the books we bought and I talked about Red Queen and then we decided to swap books. It's as easy as that really! So that's the story behind reading the book: Unforgiving by Lauren Kate.

Someone made a bet with the devil. Cam has 15 days to make sure a girl, he has lost sight of for decades, falls in love with him again. I say decades ago but it's actually 3 millennia, then he broke her heart and ever since that she's being punished because of the crimes he committed. She hates him but who wouldn't hate the person that you loved most when he or she made sure you'd be punished? 
With the deadline and the devil looming around and his love's high school prom is just around the corner, Cam has everything to play for. If he succeeds and makes her fall in love with him again, she'll be set free from this pain she's been living in. They'll be reunited in their love for one another. But if he fails, there's a special place in Hell waiting for him and it won't be the throne. 
Heaven is being with the one you love, Hell is being kept apart. Where will Cam fall?

First things first: it's about Angels and Demons. More importantly the Devil. I can't say how good that already was for me and then we had the cover... God help us! First time you'd look at it, it just seems some pretty boy but then if the lighting is right... Man! He has wings! I hope you guys can see it on the pictures, I wanted both wings to come out but one of them is always half there, half gone.
So for me, I was already excited and I didn't even start yet.

It only became better actually. I was at chapter 3 and I had officially fallen for Cam, he's adorable when he wants to achieve something and he's driven. I guess everything we seek in boys, pity that I only met guys like that in books. So I liked Cam, not only because he's special but also because he wants to achieve and make her fall in love with him again.
As for the Devil, I hated him in this book. I guess it's only because of which part he was fulfilling because a Devil is a Devil and they're bad. I just didn't like the way he made events go, he's a bastard which is what a Devil should be so he's doing his job.
The girl was very intriguing, she loved music. Some way I also could connect with her for some parts which I don't want to get into too much before I spill things. I liked her but I also could tear someone apart because of how she acted toward Cam. That's all because of the Devil so I can't blame her directly but still. 

The story was also amazing, Cam has a deadline and the book makes use of that. Also, it has flashbacks to millennia ago to show what exactly happened between the lovers. Above that there are scenes that were absolutely stunning and cute and I just loved those! What I liked most about the book though was that it had parts where the girl's point of view was explained and then parts where Cam was the voice behind the story. I've always been a fan of books like that because it also gives you the thoughts about the other protagonist.

So the verdict is that I liked the book, the story was good, the characters even better. I've never read a book by Lauren Kate but now I'm eager to find more stories written by her. She has an easy writing style that's still intriguing. I'm curious to what other stories she has to tell but I'm pretty happy with how she wrote this one. She showed that 'every love story has a dark side' which I'd connect with the words 'up and downs' because that's how love stories go. 

"Tick-Tock."