Something Wicked Returns: Giveaway Blog Hop

Something Wicked Returns hosted by Heidi @ Rainy Day Ramblings, Candace @ Candace's Book Blog, Maja @ The Nocturnal Library and Ali @ My Guilty Obsession. 

Yay for another giveaway! I decided to join the Something Wicked Returns Giveaway Blog Hop. My giveaway is going to be nice, simple and international! My prize is going to be your choice of any paranormal, supernatural, or Halloween themed e-book/s. Not only one, you get $20 worth which means that you can choose as many as you like. Plus, just for the fun of it, you can choose an album to listen to as well. Why not? After all, my blog is Music Plus Books. The album can be anything you'd like because it's my special addition. You can live anywhere in the world as long as I can e-mail you the prizes. It runs for all of October, from now, October 1st, all the way to October 31st. I'm ready for this. Are you? There are heaps of blogs participating and heaps of chances to win win win. Let's get excited for the lead up to Halloween!
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Sit Tight Sunday #7: Pure Heroine by Lorde

Sit Tight Sunday is a weekly feature on my blog for me to showcase upcoming music. The original post can be found here.

Genres: Indie-Pop, Pop, Music
Released: 27 September 2013
℗ 2013 Universal Music NZ Ltd.

New Zealand represent. Okay, I'm not from New Zealand but I'm Australian so I'd say that's close enough. I'm really glad that Lorde is getting more international recognition at such a young age. I'm super excited for her new album coming out on the 27th of September. I'm sure that I will love each and every track include. Royals is one of my favourite songs right now and I swear I could just listen to it on repeat. You can check out my mini review here.

Pure Heroine Tracklist:
1. Tennis Court
2. 400 Lux
3. Royals
4. Ribs
5. Buzzcut Season
6. Team
7. Glory And Gore
8. Still Sane
9. White Teeth Teens
10. A World Alone
Pre-order on iTunes

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Stacking The Shelves #5: Prodigy by Marie Lu

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted on Tynga's Reviews. Basically you share what books you acquired that week whether it be physical or digital. Info here.

Sadly, this month, I only got one book! I know, I have such a sad life. It's okay though, I probably will never be able to get through the books I already have anyway. I'd get like 4 books in a week and then read at a 1 book per week pace. But anyway, this month, I got Prodigy by Marie Lu. Is it just me, or do you get mixed up with the d and the g too? Probably just me, I always think it's Progidy. *Face palm*.



Ebook/s
Prodigy by Marie Lu | Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon

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Vamps vs Zombies Blog Hop: Giveaway

My Shelf Confessions is having a month long event celebrating all things Zombie and Vampire! All info here.

I had heaps of fun doing the Books, Brains ‘n Blood Read-a-Thon and now I will be participating in the Giveaway Hop. YAY for giveaways like usual. This is going to be heaps of fun because after you enter my giveaway, you can enter the next. Tens of bloggers have joined this blog hop with their own separate giveaway. So what I'm I giving away? I'm giving away FIFTY DOLLARS, or $50 worth of any e-books you like. As long as they're vampire or zombie themed. I might make a few exceptions but I'll see.

This giveaway is INTL as long as I can send you the prizes through email. I can most likely get your books in any format so that means it doesn't matter if you have an iPad, Kindle, Nook or any other generic e-reader, you can join! The giveaway runs from the 17th-30th. Drop a comment telling me what book/s you might want if you won. Also, if you've followed my blog, you can come back each day for more entries. Follow once, and get more and more entries each day. Good luck everyone! I hope yous have heaps of fun!
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Feature and Follow Friday #15: Tricks Learnt + Last Time

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.
Click here for more info!

Q: Share something you’ve learned about book blogging or just blogging in general in the last month.

I've learnt many many things in the process of blogging. In the past month, I've learnt how to do things such as the slider that features my latest posts. It was excruciatingly hard but it wasn't too bad. I know, paradox but it was only hard because I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my blog. My experience with blogging has been amazing because I've learnt how to do so many things with blog design. I'm Asian, which makes me really cheap, which means I still have yet to pay someone to do my blog design. I'm guess I'm glad I never did though because otherwise, I would've never learnt how to do things like my blockquote, slider and how to use Photoshop CS6. Just while I'm talking about blog design, just a reminder that I offer free blog designing for all the simple stuff. If there are any elements on my blog that you'd like to see on yours, feel free to contact me.

I know that weekly memes are meant to be forever. I feel really bad 'quitting' but at this point, I don't want to continue doing the Feature and Follow Friday posts. I still and always will follow back anyone who lets me know that they have a blog. Nowadays, I have so many posts that I have to do and this post takes up a day of what could be a different post. I don't like posting too much on one day. Once again, I will still follow back everyone because I love my followers, I've just decided that I don't want to do these posts again. Farewell guys. Especially to Jessica @ a GREAT read who manages to leave a comment on every single one of these posts.

You can continue to leave comments on this post and I will follow you back.
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Sit Tight Sunday #6: Applause by Lady Gaga

Sit Tight Sunday is a weekly feature on my blog for me to showcase upcoming music. The original post can be found here.

Genres:
Released: 19 August 2013
Interscope Records

Applause by Lady Gaga is set to be released on the 19th. It will be her first released single from her upcoming album ARTPOP. There has been heaps of talk about it lately but I'm still not sure what the official album cover will be. I'll try to update this post once it's official. Lady Gaga has been gone for a really long time and I'm ready for her return. There's also still no official teaser but again, I'll try to update this post. Gaga did tweet about a teaser but it was just a troll, literally.

HERE'S A SNIPPET FROM MY NEW SINGLE! http://t.co/2sXB8kSmQL OUT IN HQ AUGUST 19TH!!!

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 9, 2013

Buy on iTunes

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Stacking The Shelves #4: ARCs Galore

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted on Tynga's Reviews. Basically you share what books you acquired that week whether it be physical or digital. All info here.

This week, I received 3 unexpected lovelies in the mail. I will be reading and reviewing these as soon as possible. I normally try to get the reviews up on the day the book comes out in Australia but these may be coming a bit earlier since they are already out in most other places. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. If you like any of these authors, let me know in the comments.

For Review
All The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry | Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon
It's Raining Men by Milly Johnson | Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon
Killer Queens by Rebecca Chance | Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon

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Feature and Follow Friday #14: Back To School

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.
Click here for more info!

Q: Back to School time! Create a reading list for the imaginary English Lit class you'll be teaching this semester.

After a lot of thinking, I thought I'd do an author study kind of thing. If I was teaching an imaginary English Lit class (which by the way, I have no idea about since I live in Australia), I would have to expose them to John Green! His not my all time favourite author but I don't think Nicholas Sparks books would be appropriate for school. Even though John Green explores a lot of scary themes, I still think that his writing is amazing. I still have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like his books. I've read all his books except for The Abundance of Katherines which I really do need to read one day.

Like normal, I love all my followers. I just hope you guys stay loyal. If you like my blog, feel free to follow whichever way is easiest for me. Don't forget to drop your links in the comments so that I can check out your blog too!
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Sit Tight Sunday #5: Roar by Katy Perry

Sit Tight Sunday is a weekly feature on my blog for me to showcase upcoming music. The original post can be found here.

Genres: Pop, Electronic, Dance, Rock
Released: 12 August 2013
Capitol Records

It's Katy Perry, I don't know what else I have to say. Who doesn't love Katy Perry? I can't wait until she comes back. Roar will be the first single she released from her upcoming album. The album, Prism, if I'm not mistaken, will come out on the 22nd of October. If you haven't already watched the teaser below, you have to. A 30 second clip of Katy Perry burning the blue wig she wore in California Gurls. You can tell that she's going for a much darker concept compared her first albums. August 12th. So close yet so far away, I can't wait!



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Books, Brains ‘n Blood Read-A-Thon: Cover Lover Challenge

My Shelf Confessions is having a month long event celebrating all things Zombie and Vampire! All info here.

Who is having fun with the Read-A-Thon? I know I am and now, here's a challenge giveaway to make it even better. I'm hosting the Cover Lover Challenge. It's testing how well you know your Vampire and Zombie themed book covers. The giveaway runs from the 4th to the 10th of August to make sure you have a decent amount of time to enter. International as long as you're a part of the Vamps vs. Zombies event. Here's your chance to win $20 worth of any Vampire or Zombie themed e-books.

Hint? The top row are Vamp books and the bottom row are Zombie books. Good luck and have fun!

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Books, Brains ‘n Blood Read-A-Thon: Progress

My Shelf Confessions is having a month long event celebrating all things Zombie and Vampire! All info here.

Hey everyone. The Books, Brains 'n Blood Read-A-Thon has officially started! This is the post that will contain all of my progress across the five days of the Read-A-Thon. I will also be doing my Wrap Up here. So when the Read-A-Thon is over, I'll just write a short summary of how I though I went. To see my goals and sign up, you can check out the post here. I will also be hosting a challenge from the 4th to the 10th and that will be in a separate post. I'm started to get pumped. Are you? Let's get excited!

Friday
Books completed so far: 0
Pages read so far: 66
Pages read today:  66
Percentage of current book: The Summoning - 17%

Saturday
Books completed so far: 0
Pages read so far: 183
Pages read today: 117
Percentage of current book: The Summoning - 47%

Sunday  
Books completed so far: 1
Pages read so far: 391
Pages read today: 108

Percentage of current book: The Immortal Rules - 1%

Monday

Books completed so far: 1
Pages read so far: 500
Pages read today: 109

Percentage of current book: The Immortal Rules - 21%

Tuesday

Books completed so far: 1
Pages read so far: 572
Pages read today: 72
Percentage of current book: The Immortal Rules - 34%

Wrap Up
I didn't go so well but it's okay. I was really busy and I'm glad I read as much as I did. If this read-a-thon wasn't on, I probably would've read a lot less. I could of regret reading The Summoning because I only read thinking it was a vampire book but oh well, at least I liked it. Unfortunately I couldn't get to Feed but I might still read it one day. 

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Stacking The Shelves #3: Books, Brains 'n Blood

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted on Tynga's Reviews. Basically you share what books you acquired that week whether it be physical or digital. All info here.

This week the only books I acquired are for the Books, Blood 'n Brains Read-A-Thon. I tried looking for all of them in the library but sadly, only found one. They had the second and third books in the Darkest Powers trilogy but of course, they didn't have the first. I wouldn't of been able to order the other books and get them shipped in time so instead I got the e-books.

Library
The Immortal Rules
by Julie Kagawa

E-books

The Summoning
by Kelley Armstrong

Feed
by Mira Grant 

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Feature and Follow Friday #13: Bad Books

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.
Click here for more info!

Q: How do you handle a book you don’t like? Do you DNF or do you power through?

I normally try my very hardest to power through the books. I think I've only ever marked 3 books as 'Did Not Finish'. Those books were Stolen, A Game of Thrones and The Time Traveler's Wife. Most of the time, I push through because I feel like I have a responsibility to finish them.

I love all my followers no matter how you follow. Just do what's easiest for you! Also, I hope you can maybe check out some of my other posts as well. Finally, one last favor, I hope you can vote in the poll, located in the sidebar, to let me know which comment system is your favourite.
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Music Of July 2013!

This month in music, I've found quite a few songs that I like. It's easy to say that some songs definitely stand out more than others. Some of my absolute favourite this month include Burn and Hurricane. As always, I definitely recommend checking out all of these songs. I'm really disappointed by the amount of reviews I've done though. I hope to improve next month. If there are any songs that I should listen too, drop them in the comments. Today, because I'm super lazy, I'm ordering songs randomly because I can't be bothered to make them alphabetical.

Xiah Junsu - Incredible

New To My Playlist:
Ooh La La - Britney Spears
Falling In Love - 2NE1
11am - Xiah Junsu
Incredible - Xiah Junsu
Burn - Ellie Goulding
Made In The USA - Demi Lovato
Shadow - BEAST
Take Back The Night - Justin Timberlake
Me & My Girls - Fifth Harmony
I Like 2 Party - Jay Park
Hurricane - B.A.P
Acapella - Karmin
NoNoNo - Ailee
Counting Stars - One Republic
Baby I - Ariana Grande
Best Song Ever - One Direction
Go To War For Ya - Chris Brown
Rum Pum Pum Pum - f(x)
Unbreakable - Kim Hyun Joong
Kill Bill - Brown Eyed Girls

Songs I've Done Reviews Of:
Kill Bill
Baby I
Me & My Girls
Burn

Sit Tight Sundays:
City of Bones Soundtrack
Shadow by BEAST
Baby I by Ariana Grande
Illusion by ZE:A

Buy K-Pop at Yesasia!
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Sit Tight Sunday #4: Illusion by ZE:A

Sit Tight Sunday is a weekly feature on my blog for me to showcase upcoming music. The original post can be found here.

Genres: Pop, Dance, K-Pop
Released: 9 August 2013
Members: Kevin. Kwanghee. Siwan. Junyoung. Taeheon. Heechul. Minwoo. Hyungsik. Dongjun.
Star Empire Entertainment

ZE:A aren't an extremely popular band and the only member anyone seems to know is Kwanghee. Honestly, I'm not a massive fan of them either but that doesn't mean that I'm not highly anticipating their album. Coming out next month is their new album Illusion. So far, all the teaser photos that have been released have a really cool concept. I'm waiting to see the teaser of their title track of course the album itself. ZE:A have been releasing songs for their subunits and now finally, their coming back with all nine members!

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Books, Brains ‘n Blood Read-A-Thon: Sign Up + Goals

My Shelf Confessions is having a month long event celebrating all things Zombie and Vampire! All info here.

I've been devouring read-a-thons lately. They're just so much fun and I can't help but do them. This time, I'm doing the Books, Brains ‘n Blood Read-A-Thon which is a part of the one month event Vamps vs Zombies. The read-a-thon runs from August 2 – 6th. I will also be hosting a challenge on the 4 – 10th which I'm super excited about. This is my sign up post just to let you know that I'll be joining. I'll also tell you what books I really want to read. Okay so now to the books. To fit the Vamps vs. Zombies theme, I want to read 2 vampire themed books and 1 zombie themed book.

At the end, I'll choose which type I prefer because after all, this is Vamps vs. Zombies. It'd probably be unfair if I do end up only reading one zombie book but oh well. May the best man, ahem, book type, win.

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Stacking The Shelves #2: Pivot Point + Thy Will Be Done

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted on Tynga's Reviews. Basically you share what books you acquired that week whether it be physical or digital. All info here.

Last week, I had a massive book haul to show but like I said, that means I probably wouldn't have much anymore. I haven't had time to go to the library this week so if I do, tomorrow or in the following days, I'll include those books in my next Stacking The Shelves. Honestly though, my reading list has grown extensively and I'll have way too much to read for a long time. So today, I have a very little haul for you guys. Just two books. One I received for review and one I got the e-book for because I couldn't find it on my library's catalog. The e-book I downloaded was Pivot Point and it's for the Book BFFs group. I'm super excited!

For Review
Thy Will Be Done
by Julie Fisher

E-book/s
Pivot Point 
by Kasie West

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Feature and Follow Friday #12: After Reading

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.
Click here for more info!

Q: What do you do with your books after you are done reading them?

Since I read books from the library, well after I read them, I return them. It's sad but true. I also read e-books and so I just leave them there on my device. Being the weird person I am, after I read books that I own, I put them in a drawer. I know what you're thinking but yeah, I have a book draw.

Like normal, I appreciate all followers no matter how you want to follow. All my links can be found in the FF button. They are also in sidebar or in my header. Drop your links in the comments because I'd love to return the favour. I hope you can check out my other posts as well.Thanks guys, have a magical weekend!
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Guest Post: Music+Writing by YA Author Taylor L. Stimac

Music and writing have always gone hand and hand for me. There is nothing like putting a playlist on shuffle and letting the first thing that fills your ears set the scene. So many times while writing my debut novel, Trusted, I would pop in my earbuds and just let the songs take me away. There is something freeing about letting the vibes of a good song work their magic through your words. Music has always served as an escape for me and it's no different when I'm writing.

There were many times while completing my novel that a particular song would captivate not only me, but the characters as well. While they weren't specifically named in the book itself, each song left it's imprint on the overall product. Below is the playlist that I worked up for Trusted. Each of these songs were scene setters that just wouldn't let go.

TRUSTED PLAYLIST

Taylor Swift                 Everything Has Changed

Weezer                                  Island In The Sun

Alice Cooper                                 School's Out

YB Mobstaz                                       Umbrella

Modest Mouse         Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes

Nirvana                                                Plateau

Foo Fighters                                   All My Life

Stone Sour                                 Through Glass

The Goo Goo Dolls                          Better Days

The White Stripes     We're Going To Be Friends

• 
  

Music continues to inspire me as I write and I love sharing the songs that influence my characters.

How does music inspire you?

Trusted, the debut novel by Author Taylor L. Stimac, is available exclusively on Amazon.

Interested in receiving a free copy in exchange for an honest review? Click here.

To find out more about Taylor and her writing:

Visit Webpage | Follow on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Connect on Goodreads

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Movie Times!

Today, I'm introducing MOVIETIMES.COM.AU! Movie Times is a new site that is perfect for all the movie lovers out there. Basically, it combines all the cinemas in Australia so that you know what movies are available at what times and where. There are so many different book to movie adaptations that I really need to watch. Even though I haven't read The Host, World War Z or The Great Gatsby, they are all movies that I really want to watch. And then there are the movies that are coming soon. City of Bones and CATCHING FIRE! Both books I've read and have been waiting for. By the way, the trailers for both are amazing. I watched new the theatrical trailer for Catching Fire and now I'm even more pumped than I was before.

So now, with the introduction of Movie Times, I can make my pre movie watching experiences the easiest they can be. The website also works super well on mobile devices since it can detect your location as well. Basically, there are three ways to use this site.

When you click on 'Movies', you can scroll over one, you can view the details and the trailer. You can also click on 'Find Sessions' to of course find the perfect 'Date & Time' as well as 'Cinema & Location'. The other two options basically work the other way around. If you choose 'Date & Time', you can select one and it will show you the movies that will be airing at that time. The same goes for 'Cinema & Location'. Once this is all done and you've selected you time, it will take you the that cinema's site. Normally, you'd have to select all the details but in this case, it's all done for you. All you have to do is select which ticket you want, eg. Child, Adult etc. as well as things like your seat and how you want to pay.

Overall, I think Movie Times is a really easy to use and useful site. It's perfect for all you movie addicts out there. Also for all the people like me who need to watch the book to movie adaptations.

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