A Sunday Retrospective (17)

A Sunday Retrospective is inspired by In My Mailbox at The Story Siren and TGIF at GReads!, where I share the books that I've acquired during the week, last week's posts and interesting links.

It's Sunday again friends, and you know what that means - it's time for my weekly retrospective! One of the reasons that I really enjoy putting these posts together for Sundays is that it gives me an opportunity to share links to posts that I've enjoyed, as well as to thank people who have sent me some awesome books in the mail (or to find out what you guys think of books that I've borrowed/purchased recently!). Without further ado, here's what happened this week:

IN MY MAILBOX

from Macmillan (Thank you Ksenia for the finished copy!)

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

from the library
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta 

ON THE BLOG

Reviews

I kicked off the week with good ol' reliable Nicholas Sparks, who surprised me with something in his novel Safe Haven. I then encountered a bit of difficulty at the beginning of Defiance, but powered through and ended up falling in love a third of the way in. The same thing happened to me with Finnikin of the Rock, though Melina Marchetta's writing was impeccable as always. I finished out the week with my first review for an adult novel in a long time, Me Before You.

Other Fun Stuff

I shared with you guys some of the books that are on my spring to-be-read list, and got a little nostalgic thinking about my grandfather's fifth death anniversary.

AROUND THE COMMUNITY

• Girls, here's a post that we can relate to from Magan about her PMS kit ;)
• Thanks to Jen, here's a post about a few famous guys caught reading...
• Betty shared some tips to care for your skin (and I want to try them!)
• Jamie's post made me think about so many things, specifically the fact that there's so much out there and I probably won't get to experience it all...
• Hannah wrote a seriously awesome post about series. Series-ly.
• Kristilyn shares a few tips on how to write discussion posts. So helpful!
• Margot did a lovely fauxto for Mila 2.0, which makes me want to read the book immediately.
• I don't think there's even been a week where I don't feature a cool discussion post from Jamie!
• My friends Hannah, Betty, Judith and Amber kicked off the Recaptains site, where they recap books from popular series! Be sure to check it out because it is awesome. 

COMPANION NOVELS CHALLENGE

This month, I've been reading Something Borrowed and Something Blue by Emily Giffin for the challenge. While I have read the series before, it's one that I like to revisit, mostly because I find the stories pretty darn addictive. I finished Something Borrowed and am about halfway through Something Blue. Anyone have any thoughts on either of these books?

Don't forget that next month, we'll be reading Perfect Chemistry, Rules of Attraction and Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles! Vi will be hosting for the next two months (April & May), so we'll all congregate on her blog this time. I'm looking forward to starting this series because I've never read it, but have heard good things about it.

(For more info about this challenge and our planned schedule, please feel free to check out this post.)

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE READ-ALONG

A Game of Thrones has officially become addicting. On Monday, I picked up my paperback copy from the library intending to read just one or two chapters. Instead, I ended up reading all ten of the chapters slotted for this week. It's just so hard to stop once you start! I do admit that reading it in doses definitely helps me out because I feel less intimidated by the length of the novel. How is everyone else faring?

(For more info about this read-along and the schedule, please feel free to check out this post.)