Paris in Pictures

Hello there. As you may know, I went to Paris for a few days at the beginning of April and I'm finally here to show you some proof. I went with a few friends from work and we had a really great time even if the weather wasn't always the best.

We arrived on Thursday night and only had time to find our apartment before falling into bed. Unfortunately the weather was still quite rainy on Friday, so we made the best of it and spent the entire day shopping (six girls in Paris together, you can't really blame us). Then we had a lovely and delicious dinner at Miss Ko.

On Saturday, we did the first bit of sightseeing. The weather was still pretty bad but we went to see the Eiffel Tower (for the first time) and Sacré Coeur anyway. Then we made our way to the Galeries Lafayette for some more (window) shopping. That night's restaurant of choice was Buddha Bar for some more deliciousness. Unfortunately it was too dark to take pictures of the food though, so you'll just have to believe me that it was amazing.

 

On Sunday we actually got to see some of the Parisian sun, so of course it was the day we took the most pictures and did the most sightseeing. We started off at and in the Louvre and then walked along the Seine to Notre Dame. Then we went to see the Eiffel Tower (again), this time up close. In the evening, after another tasty dinner at Brasserie Bofinger, we went to see the Eiffel tower again because we also wanted to take some pictures of it in the night with all the pretty lights (totally worth it!).

Then on Monday, after lots of fun, shopping and good food, we made our way back to Switzerland. 

Overall, my first time in Paris was amazing and I fell in love with this beautiful city that I've heard so much about in books. I totally get it now, Anna and Lulu.

April Wrap-Up

Hello there. I considered simply ignoring this post because I'm not ready for May. Not at all. But since you would most likely all be devastated if I didn't tell you about the books I read in April, I decided to go ahead and sit down to write this anyway (the new month looming ahead has made me into a bitter and sarcastic person, I'm sorry. I blame University).

What I Read

I read a total of 10 books this month and, ignoring the fact that I should've spent most of that time studying, I'm really happy with this number. It's the most I've read in a month in 2015 so far. Most of these were pretty quick reads and since they're mostly in the New Adult genre, I'm not really surprised at the number of books I managed to get through. Whenever I'm in the mood for NA, I get addicted to the books really fast and don't do anything other than read them for a couple of days until my NA cravings have been satisfied for another month or so. Which is exactly what I did this month. So here's what I read:

• When I'm Gone by Abbi Glines, ★★★★★ 
This is book #11 in the Rosemary Beach series and I love these books, soooo I had to read this immediately after it came out at the beginning of the month. I really loved it, it's one of my favorites in the series so far.


• Losing It by Cora Carmack (ebook), ★★★
As I said, once I get started on NA, I won't stop for a while. I'm not a  fan of student-teacher relationships but other than that I really enjoyed this book, hence the three star rating.


• Faking it by Cora Carmack (ebook), ★★★★★
More NA, what a surprise. I LOVED the sequel to Losing It, it was so much more fun (but also more serious) than the first one and I thought that was great. I also liked the characters in this one a lot more than in the first book. Also, I really wish someone could come up with decent covers for these books.


• The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, ★★★★
I started this last installment in the Mistborn trilogy at the end of March but because it was kind of slow, I decided to pick up the three books above while also reading this one. Unfortunately, I didn't love this book as much as the others in the trilogy and the ending was really disappointing to me, so I 'only' gave it four stars.


• I Was Here by Gayle Forman, ★★★★
I FINALLY picked this up in April. It's been sitting on my shelf ever since it came out in January and I just never got to it. I don't think I could ever hate a Gayle Forman book and I Was Here did not disappoint. I love Forman's writing and while this was definitely not my favorite book of hers (it'll take a lot to beat the Just One Day duology), I still really enjoyed it.


• Whatever Life Throws At You by Julie Cross, ★★★★
More NA, yay! I really enjoyed the sports aspect of this book (even though I literally understood none of the baseball talk) but the characteres didn't grow on me that much, which is why I would give it more of a 3.5 stars. It was still a fun read that I have never heard of before and I'm glad I picked it up.


• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, ★★★★
I liked this book a lot but it didn't blow me away. I wrote a full review here.


• Kiss The Sky by Krista and Becca Ritchie (ebook), ★★★
Aaand we're back with the NA. I didn't like this one too much but it was still fun to read and I really liked the characters, which is why I decided to give the other books in the series a try.


• Addicted To You by Krista and Becca Ritchie (ebook), ★★★★
What book belongs to which series is a little confusing here but according to the recommended reading order, I should've read this one before Kiss The Sky. Oops. It didn't bother me at all, though, and I still enjoyed this book even though I kind of knew what would happen.


• Hothouse Flower by Krista and Becca Ritchie (ebook), ★★★★
Now this is the sequel to Kiss The Sky and my favorite out of the three books in this series that I've read so far. It focuses on my two favorite characters, so of course I was going to love it.

What I Bought

I bought a total of six books in April and I think that's okay. I'm going to try to not buy any books in May (except the ones I have preordered) so that I can buy some more in June that I want to read during the summer holidays. I have it all planned out. Now I just need to stick with it.

So these are the books I bought in April:

• When I'm Gone by Abbi Glines
I had this one preordered and then it actually arrived before the publication date. I made a little happy dance around the living room because usually when I preorder books, they arrive about 1-2 weeks after publication date. I order them form amazon Germany, so they have to ship them to Switzerland, which obviously takes some time. So this was a very nice surprise! Of course I also read the book right away.


• Whatever Life Throws At You by Julie Cross
Another book that I've already read and that always makes me proud.


• The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen
After finishing the Mistborn trilogy, I craved light and quick reads, preferrably in the NA genre. So I ordered a bunch of NA books, including this one (and Whatever Life Throws At You).


• Slammed by Colleen Hoover
Another part of my NA order that I'm super excited to read. The only other Colleen Hoover book I've read so far, Hopeless, did not quite make me fall in love with Hoover's writing yet, so maybe this one will. I keep hearing the best things about Hoover's books and I just couldn't resist.


• I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
This one came out at the beginning of February and I was so excited for it. Somehow, I managed to keep myself from buying it until now but I just couldn't resist any longer.


• Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo
I need more of Laini Taylor's beautiful writing which is why I simply had to get this one. 

May TBR

I have one goal for May: to not read so much. This might seem strange but I really need to focus on University. I just started The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien because I absolutely can't read a fast paced story that I'll get too invested in and I hope that, because I've already seen the Lord of the Ring movies, I will be able to put this book down when I should be studying. Other than this, Jess over at My Reading Dress has strongly recommended (if not shouted at me through snapchat) that I read Vicious by V.E. Schwab and I intend to to that very soon as well.

On The Blog

Here are all the blog posts I've uploaded in April, in case you're interested:

• My March Wrap-Up
• A review of the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
• My very first Top Ten Tuesday post: Top Ten Inspiring Book Quotes
• My Top Ten Alltime Favorite Authors
• A review of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

So that's it for April. I hope you had a fantastic month and that May will be even better for you. Also, since I talked about how I'm going to Paris in my March Wrap-Up: I still intend to upload some pictures of the trip (even though it's been almost a month). I never take a camera on trips like that because my friends usually have much better ones (I know, how can I even have a blog when I don't own a decent camera?) so I had to wait to get their pictures.

Do you have any exciting plans for May?

Or any good books you read in April?