Waiting on Wednesday #8 » The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine spotlighting some upcoming releases that I literally cannot wait to get my hands on!

The Girl From Everywhere

By Heidi Heilig
Release Date: 2/16/16
Published by Greenwillow Books

Goodreads Description
Nix’s life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix’s father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he’s uncovered the one map he’s always sought—1868 Honolulu, before Nix’s mother died in childbirth. Nix’s life—her entire existence—is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix’s future, her dreams, her adventures . . . her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who’s been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.

I have heard so many fantastic things about this book and everyday they make me want to read it even more. I love the cover of this book and I admit! The title is definitely enticing!

Top Ten Tuesday » Top Ten Best Books I Read in 2015

This meme is hosted by the amazing Broke and Bookish. She has an amazing blog and some cool tweets to share so go check her out!

This week for Top Ten Tuesday I'm gonna share some of the best book I've read in 2015. 2015 has been a great year for books and next year will be even better. I will admit, I am writing this Top Ten Tuesday post a couple weeks in advance. Why? Because this week is finals. Yay. No I am not excited for finals at all. So wish me luck as you read this. Onto my actual picks! 

#1: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
I love Sarah J Maas' works. Every single one of them. When A Court of Thorns and Roses came out I didn't expect anything but an amazing story. I totally got an amazing story.

#2: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 
I'll be honest, at the beginning of this year wasn't as crazy about books as I am now. I didn't research new books to read beforehand either. I just saw  Red Queen on the shelf of my local bookstore and it looked really awesome. I had heard some things about it but certainly not many. Red Queen blew me away and am highly anticipating it's sequel: Glass Sword. 

#3: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Woah. Six of Crows was such a great book. I received an ARC of this book at SDCC and was blown away. Leigh became such a great writer and am totally looking forward for the second book in it's duology.

#4: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
I was not expecting the amazingly awesomeness of this book. A Darker Shade of Magic had a unique quality to it that I honestly couldn't describe. It was magical and different, dark and light all at once!

#5: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
I myself have never read A Thousand and One Arabian Nights but because of this book, I now intend to read it in my spare time. This book was very cute and I enjoyed that it took place not in America and it had a very clever main character!

#6: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
Okay, I'm gonna be honest with you, this book was freaking amazing and it deserves way more credit in the book community. I was shocked I had barely heard much word about this book at all and I LOVED this book, you can check out my review here. I'm gonna do this book some respect and represent it as one of the top ten books I've read in 2015

#7: The Witch Hunter
This book is as self explanatory as it gets. This book has witches. And they are some badass awesome witches. I have to say The Witch Hunter made me want to read more books about witches because it was THAT good!

#8: Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett
I wasn't really anticipating this book. I had heard about it but I wasn't bouncing off the walls in anticipation. I received an ARC of Blood and Salt at SDCC and woah. Blood and Salt was an awesome mix of freaky horror and even darker romance that was written beautifully!

#9: Splintered by AG Howard
This book didn't come out in 2015 but I couldn't NOT include it. Splintered was sweet and magical. With sparks of romance and adventure. Splintered also carries a disease, it's called: after you read this book you'll be obsessed with Wonderland Syndrome. 

#10: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Also, not a 2015 release, but still amazing. Though the cover and title are slightly cheesy, slightly being an understatement. This isn't your typical romance. It's a dark and demonic one that made this book my favorite work so far of JLA's! You can read my full review of it here!













Hey guys! Hope you liked my picks for Top Ten Books I Read in 2015! If you haven't read them yet, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DO! :)

Underappreciated Authors #1

      Well, this is just an idea of mine. Not sure if it's a meme, it wasn't really meant to be one, but if you come across this and like the idea, by any means we can call it a meme! Please, I do ask if you credit and link my name and blog! Thanks. Anyways, this segment, meme, whatever the heck this is, is about underappreciated authors. There are so many authors I feel deserve way more attention and each time I do this segment I will pick 3 authors!
      Well, let's get to this and spread some word about these amazing hidden authors.


#1: Kelly Thompson, The Girl Who Would Be King

• Kelly Thompson is such an amazing writer. Her book The Girl Who Would Be King is fantastic, not only that but it has this totally gorgeous title and cover. I mean, look at that cover! And it has a plot with a good old fashioned light vs dark, hero vs villain vibe!

#2: Sarah  Dessen, Just Listen

• Sarah has her fans, don't get me wrong. But I definitely think in the book community she could be seen more. I don't often see many of her works on many blogs. Sarah's books are fantastic, though don't get me wrong I haven't read all her books, some of my favs are Along for the Ride and Just Listen. Also, Sarah wrote the first contemp. book I ever read so all her books have a special place in my heart. 

#3: Gina Damico, Croak

• Her books are utterly unique and fun. Plus we got some awesomely adorable shipping which is always good! Gina writes such a fun and great novel with a serious aspect to overlay it. A book about teenage Grim Reapers. I will leave you at that.

These authors are amazing. Every single one of these authors have something to share, even the ones not listed. Check out their book and have faith I have strong deciding skills (I don't)! Thanks guys!

Being a Book Blogger » HTML and Custom CSS (For Blogger ONLY)

      As said before in the last post regarding blogger tips, I promised some HTML tips! Now, if you're like me, then I assume you know absolutely nothing about HTML or CSS, it's very confusing and I totally understand where you're coming from. But never fear! It is actually very simple (I'm sure you've heard this a million times) and it can make your blog look great! Unfortunately, this HTML and CSS tutorial is ONLY FOR BLOGGER. I'm really sorry, but since I do use blogger, that's what I know. Wordpress is a whole other world for me, maybe one day I'll move to Wordpress with your guys' support!
      Anyways, let's get to it! These are some of the more simple things that will spice up your blog!

Adding Social Media Buttons

• There are various ways to add social media buttons, but I personally find this the easiest way.
•  To find social media buttons look on Pinterest and search up some free ones. Or you can buy them if you find some you REALLY like. For me personally, I won't put any cash into my blog until I feel I've got a good handle on everything blog-related and of course, people are actually seeing my blog. 
• The hardest button to find is the Goodreads button, unfortunately I can't find the link for the free downloadable buttons I used for my blog! Sorry guys! :(

STEP 1 » Once you find the social media buttons you want, download them onto your device and upload them onto a blank post spread!

STEP 2 » Add them to your post. You can move them around so they are in the correct order you want. 

STEP 3 » Highlight the first social media icon 

STEP 4 » Hit the link button which is slightly to the right above the Pinterest button. Add the link to said social media account (i.e Goodreads button to Goodreads main profile link)

STEP 5 » Hit "Ok" and repeat this step to remaining social media buttons. 

STEP 5 » Now you'll notice in the top left corner of a post spread there is a "Compose" button, which is where you write your post, and a "HTML" button. Click the HTML button.

STEP 6 » Once you hit it the pictures of the social media icons will turn into a long list of HTML that will probably make your head hurt. It should look like this:

STEP 7 » Copy paste the entire HTML. ALL OF IT. Once you copy it, leave the post and go down to "Layout". Depending on where you want the social media buttons, click "Add a Gadget". Hit the "HTML/Java Script"gadget.

STEP 8 » Paste the copied HTML from the original post, (see step 6 if you don't remember) into the space provided by the gadget. Click save. 

STEP 9 » You're done! Go check out your blog's page and see some beautiful buttons! :)

I want to give credit to BlogaholicDesigns, this is her tutorial and it helped me so much so I figured I would share it with you guys! 

Center Page Navigation

• For this simply go to "Template" and then "Customize". Scroll down to Advanced designer and from there go down all the way to the bottom to "Add CSS" 

• Obviously you can see I have tons of CSS coding in here, ignore that. Yours is probably blank, and if it isn't, that's awesome! 

Copy/paste this code and insert it into the space given under "Add CSS" 

.PageList {text-align:center !important;} .PageList li {float:none !important; display:inline !important;}

Need to give credit to this amazing blog: icanbuildablog!

Adding a Color Box Behind Text and Pictures

• I'm gonna tell you right now, this is super complicated. It took me awhile. So if you don't get it at first don't give up, this took me a couple tries! 

STEP 1 » Write out all of the things that you want highlighted in your post. For a book blog, it would typically be the author, page #, title, release and description. Maybe more. But first write all of that out, but DO NOT ADD THE PICTURE. 

STEP 2 » Once you have everything written out that you want highlighted, NOT INCLUDING THE PICTURE, switch from compose to HTML. 

STEP 3 » You'll see an HTML pattern for everything you've written so far. Now this part was a bit confusing for me at first, but make space at the beginning of the HTML that currently fills the page.

STEP 4 » Add the following code into the space

• The highlighted red is the color you want your background to be. That is the HTML number for the color grey, that's the color I chose. You can customize this by finding a different color HTML here. 

<a href="YOUR IMAGE URL" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0"  src="YOUR IMAGE URL" width="100"/></a><br/><br/>

<div style="background-color: #D8D8D8

; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;">

• Note: If you copy/paste, say a synopsis from Goodreads, the background of the copy pasted text WILL be highlighted white. To remove this find this HTML code:                                                 <span style="background-color: white;
• Do not delete this entire code, delete it so it will look like this:                                  <span;
• There should be more than one of these so repeat that step over until they are all gone. Once they are gone it should look just like the second picture below. 

• At the end, it should look like this. The picture at first will look small, but just click on the image and change the size, it should then be the size you actually want it to be.

Credit to Small Reviews for this great tutorial!

Hey guys, I hope this was somewhat helpful for you, another one will possibly be up again with even more tutorials on how to spice up your blog! Thanks guys! Sorry for the lack of posts too, finals have me STRESSED OUT! 

Waiting on Wednesday #7 » A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine spotlighting some upcoming releases that I literally cannot wait to get my hands on!

A Gathering of Shadows

By V.E. Schwab
Release Date: 2/23/16
Published by Tor 

Goodreads Description
Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London. In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games—an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries—a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port. But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again—meaning that another London must fall.

      

      A Gathering of Shadows is the sequel to ADSOM, A Darker Shade of Magic, and wow. ADSOM was fantastic and am so excited for A Gathering of Shadows! You have no idea how jealous I am of those of you with ARCS.