Posted on by Caroline · 12 Comments

Jetlagged and back in the UK!

After an incredible rollercoaster ride of a trip I am now home from Australia!

  
I loved everything about OZ (apart from the 51 degree heat in the outback – phew!) but am so excited to get back to my books and most importantly readying for Creeping Shadow’s release date in – deep breath – 4 DAYS TIME!!

I’d like to say a massiveeeeeee thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and review their advanced copies of Creeping Shadow over the past month. I have been completely overwhelmed by the positive response to my debut novel and can’t deny I was very emosh reading some of the incredible comments and (most excitingly for me) those who can’t wait to read the sequel!

If you’d like to check out the reviews for Creeping Shadow you can do so here on Goodreads – and if you would still like an advanced reader copy you have fouuuuur dayssss to ask me for one 😝

  

Posted on by Caroline · 10 Comments

I’m Off To Australia!

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Hi guys! I’m off to Australia and I don’t know how much access I’ll have to wifi as I’ll be moving around a lot!

Please be aware I may not be able to respond to comments and book tags etc. until I return in December.

Thanks for all your book suggestions! I will be very entertained on the flight!

I have several posts scheduled to go out over the next few weeks for you to enjoy 🙂

Good luck to anyone participating in NANWRIMO!!

Posted on by Caroline · 27 Comments

Twilight Reimagined….W…T…F…

Have you heard? Stephanie Meyer has written a 400 page reimagining of Twilight where Bella is a boy (Beau) and Jacob (Julie) and Edward (Edythe) are girls as part of the 10th anniversary edition. I don’t know whether to be crazy excited or a little weirded out…what I do know is, is that this picture is amazing….😂

  

Posted on by Caroline · 28 Comments

Book Characters that the Movies Got So Wrong or So Right

I don’t know about you but I just LOVE seeing movie adapatations of books that I’ve read. But one major thing that makes or breaks the film for me is if they got the cast right for the characters…

City of Bones:

Right: Clary

  

I think they got Clary perfect with Lily Collins! I was over the moon but then……then I saw Jace…

Wrong: Jace

  
This meme just sums it up for me! I actually genuinely wanted Alex Pettyfer (top) to play Jace he was the first actor that sprang to mind when I heard it was going to be a film. But no…..they cast Jamie Campbell Bower…

And the biggest joke of all is that Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower are a genuine couple! Maybe I’m not seeing the attraction here? But I’m pretty sure she’s out of his league…

Maze Runner (Scorch Trials):

Right: Minho and Thomas

  
In my eyes these two guys were cast to perfection! And in all honestly I fancy them both just a little 😍

Wrong: Brenda 

  

I was so excited about finding out who was gonna be cast as Brenda. Rosa Salazar just didn’t look right to me. My suggestion would have been Alexandra Daddario from Percy Jackson but that’s just me…

 
 

Divergent:

Right: Tris

  
I wasn’t completely sold on Shailene Woodley but when I saw her in the film I think she really pulled it off!

Wrong: Christina

 

Christina was all wrong lookswise I would personally have chosen Karidja Touré from Girlhood…
   

 
Fifty Shades of Grey

Right: Christian Grey

  
I loved Jamie Dornan in The Fall and when I heard he was playing Christian Grey I was thrilled! He played a sexually charged psychopath in The Fall so….you do the maths – okay so maybe his northern irish accent slipped through occassionally but was anyone really focusing on his -ahem- accent

Wrong: Anastasia Steele

  
Dakota Johnson was just all wrong for me BUT she won me over because of her seriiouuss bravery in this role. I mean, how many girls would get butt naked for that amount of time knowing full well everyone you went to school with is gonna be sitting in the frint row on release day. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I would have chosen someone like….

  
Considering that Fifty Shades was originally Twilight fanfiction and the fact that Kristen Stewart was the perfect Bella in my eyees (though I’m not generally a fan of her outside of Twilight….). I don’t think she should have done it but someone closer to her looks would have been right for Anastasia.


Harry Potter

Right: Snape

  

I think they got a lot of characters right in Harry Potter including the main three but could any of them have walked straight out of the book and into the film like Snape did? There wasn’t a single greasy strand of hair on his head that was wrong

Wrong: Ginny
  
Ginny was so wrong and I think it was because they cast her so early and they didn’t know the part she was gonna play in the end…could they have recast her? Probably. But did they? Not even a little…

Here’s my choice Rachel Hurd Wood from Peter Pan

  

Posted on by Caroline

Cover Reveal for Linked (Cage of Lies, #2) YA Dystopia

I’m super excited to reveal the cover of Linked the second book in The Cage of Lies series by Susanne Valenti! It’s going to be released on October 15th so if you haven’t yet read book one (Chained) you can head over to amazon and purchase it for a bargain price of $2.99 or £1.99 here

  
Here’s the blurb for Linked enjoy!

In a world she never knew existed, Maya is coming to terms with how much her life has changed. Danger lurks around every corner, nothing is as she expects and she’s never felt so alive. But the choices she makes could change everything and jeopardise the things she cherishes most. There is so much to learn and so much to love but her heart is pulling her back. The Guardians are hiding in the shadow cast by their Wall, concealing the truth from the people inside. It’s a shadow that darkens her happiness and she can’t stop fighting until the truth comes to light. It would be easier to walk away but Maya has never run from anything and she’s not about to start now.

Check out Susanne Valenti on Goodreads and Facebook

Posted on by Caroline · 4 Comments

The Reading Habits Tag

Thank you Aura Willow for tagging me! Check out her blog it’s great!

So here goes…
1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

I either read in bed or on my spot on the sofa by the window – but I can pretty much read anywhere! I completed the maze runner trilogy on a sun lounger in Thailand!

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Random piece of paper or…anything random. I currently have a wedge of cotton wool marking my place in Throne of Glass

I’ve been known to use tissues, pens, crisp packets and even another book…..

But never would I dare to fold the corner of the page! Never! 🙉

3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop at the end of a chapter / after a certain amount of pages?

I can stop at a natural break but I prefer to stop at the end of the chapter. If the end of a chapter is really suspenseful though I’ll read on just enough to know everyone’s okay! 🙆🙋🙅

4. Do you eat or drink while reading?

Yep! I set up my kindle in front of me over breakfast! I prefer having a kindle for that reason alone it’s easier for me to multitask – must keep reading! 😲
5. Multitasking: music or TV whilst reading?

Yeah I do both. If I’m super into my book I won’t hear anything beyond it though.

I often get someone being like: “Caroline?…..caroline!”

And im like “hmmmmm?” with one eye still on the book
6. One book at a time or several on the go?

ONE BOOK!!

I just wanna fully immerse myself in one world at a time. I have to give everything to it!
7. Read at home or everywhere?

I usually read at home but it’s not uncommon that I’ll throw my kindle in my bag just-in-case-ies
8. Read aloud or silently in your head?

Silently! Who reads out loud? Is that a thing people do when they aren’t reading to someone else?
9. Do you read ahead or skip pages?

I’d never read ahead! Neveeerrrr!

Apart from one fateful day when I ACCIDENTLY read the title of the last Harry Potter Chapter in the last Harry Potter (I tried to unsee it but I just couldn’t! Did it really give anything away? I assumed Harry survived but then I second guessed it later….) THE BOOK JUST FELL OPEN ON IT! Can you imagine….
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it new?

I don’t actively do either so I suppose my spines are fairly bent. I try to avoid bending the book back to read a page because I wouldn’t wanna hurt it – not that books have feelings or anything right? Ha..ha….ha…😶
11. Do you write in books?

Blasphemy! Haha no I wouldn’t. I’m not sure what I’d even write (even as I imagine it I’m seeing it in pencil so it could be rubbed out)

Now for my tags!

I nominate……

Josephine

Rachelloon

Bookwormgirls123

Posted on by Caroline · 8 Comments

Five Symptoms of Writer’s Syndrome

Think you’ve come down with a bad case of Writer’s Syndrome? Check out these five signs that’ll help you diagnose yourself….

1) Do you fantasize about writing? 

About what your characters could get up, about their pasts and futures, love interests and enemies? Do you gaze off into the distance with an evil smile on your face as your antagonist does something deliciously cruel in your mind? Do you lose yourself so completely that you literally cannot remember what you were just doing? And, most of all, do you answer people’s questions with “hmmm?” Or “huh?” As you’re dragged out of your reverie? 

   
2) Are you emotionally attached to the imaginary people in your mind?

Do you laugh, cry, feel angry, embarressed or sad when something happens to your characters? Have you decided on a character’s death only to reach that scene and almost/do back out of killing them because you just can’t bear killing off the fake person who you’ve grown to actually love? (And post-death have you sobbed into a pillow the  eaten a barrel of chocolate to help yourself cope?) Are you genuinely excited about what’s going to happen in the story you conjured from nothing? And can you honestly say you’ve never wanted to actually be friends with some of your characters? (Like the fictional people in your head you created – those people!) 

  
3) Do hours seem to slip away as if time has somehow sped up?

Do you settle yourself in to writing early in the morning then you look up and it’s lunchtime? Do you forget about mealtimes and are only reminded to eat because of your tummy rumbling so loudly it drags you back to reality? Does it get to midnight and you think “five more minutes” then suddenly it’s 4am and you have to be up in a couple of hours to do actual real life things?  Do you feel like there isn’t enough time in the world to get your writing done?

  
4) Do you ever worry that even if you lived for two hundred years you’d never be ‘done’? 

Do you feel that no matter how much you wrote, no matter how many hundreds, thousands or millions of words you got down you’d never reach a maximum? Is writing something you’re compelled to do like it has become as important to you as eating or sleeping?

  
5) Do you sometimes have to force yourself to be social to make sure you don’t become a hermit that lives in the hills?

When in writing mode do you have to make a conscious effort to put the story away and just be in the real world for a while? Do you plan social events in advance so you can keep that time aside for being away from your writing? But do you also, when being out, think about writing when you get back home later and find yourself being inspired for events that could happen in your book while you’re out?

  

If you answered yes to any of these questions (especially if it was more than one…) I’m afraid you just got diagnosed with Writer’s Sydrome!

Congratu-miserations?