Post University Book Haul

Books

The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

We Were Liars – E. Lockhart

The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton

Allegiant – Veronica Roth

City of Heavenly Fire – Cassandra Clare

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

Click the title of each book and it will take you to the Waterstones website where you will find a full synopsis.

The end of my degree marked the end of a period in my life where my reading choices were dictated to me 90% of the time. Whilst I relished the chance to be introduced to new genres and authors that I would never have come across outside of university, I did feel the strain of having no time to fit my own reading choices in around my set texts. As a voracious reader I had been counting down the weeks until I would have the freedom to choose what I wanted to read and have no hindrances at reading them straight away.

So, as any newly free bookworm would do, I went a little mad. Most of the books I bought had been on my wish-list for a while and I had plans firmly set in place to go on a book buying spree once I was done with uni, as a little well done present to myself.

The Shock of the Fall and Gone Girl were not on my wish-list but were an impulse buy after, inevitably, wandering into my local Waterstones on a trip into town. Neither of them are the type of book I would normally pick up but I have been hearing great things about both so fingers crossed I enjoy them!

I bought We Were Liars after seeing so many book bloggers and book-tubers talking about it a couple of weeks ago. E. Lockhart is a popular Young Adult author but isn't one I am familiar with so I'm looking forward to giving her work a go. I saw a lot of excitement on twitter about it during an organised read-a-long which piqued my interest. With it being a short book I hope I can get round to reading it pretty soon.

The Luminaries has been on my wish-list since it was announced on the long list for The Man Booker Prize. It is a behemoth of book and as a reader who adores long reads I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. The reviews that are featured in the book are actually what prompted me to finally pick it up, with it being described as an 'epic novel' and 'irresistible and gripping.' I think I may save this one for my holiday in August, I love nothing more than having a huge novel to lose myself in whilst relaxing in the sun.

Allegiant and City of Heavenly Fire are definitely my most anticipated YA reads of the year. CoHF more so than Allegiant because The Mortal Instruments series became a fast favourite of mine after taking the first three on holiday with me last year. I have yet to read Allegiant but I started CoHF as soon as it got delivered two days ago. I'm only fifty pages in because of having to be at work but I can already tell I am going to love it. I will get round to reading Allegiant soon, I have managed to avoid spoilers for it so far but I have seen a few people say it tore their hearts out so it's set to be an interesting conclusion to the Divergent series.

The Goldfinch is another book that has been on my wish-list since it's release. Donna Tartt is an author I have heard an awful lot about but have never actually read. I have The Secret History sat on my shelf but have not managed to get round to it because of uni. Once again it is a monster of a book and I have a feeling I am going to have to dedicate some time to reading it. The reason I ended up buying it was because it was reduced from £20 to £7 on Amazon. I had decided to wait until the paperback was released to buy it but I just couldn't resist an offer like that for such a beautiful hardback book, even if it does limit the places I can read it to just at home.

So there you have it, my post-uni, well-done-for-not-having-breakdown-during-your-dissertation book haul. I don't have a clue when I'll get round to reading all of them and I'm probably not going to review every single one in detail but each one will feature in a monthly wrap-up at some point in the future!

Tell me what books you bought recently or are planning to buy in the comments.

Happy reading!