Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Waiting On Wednesday-- Wolfsbane

Waiting on wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer
Genre: Paranormal YA
Release date: July 12, 2011

What it's about:
Betrayal, loss, pain, fear. How many trials can love endure and still survive?


Why?
I read the first book (Nightshade) two or three weeks ago (I'll post the review soon once my hw is all done) and fell madly in love with it. I'm hoping that this book will help me decide, REN OR SHAY??? Because right now, I can't decide.
Also, LOOK HOW PRETTY THE COVER IS! I love it! Her eyeshadow is gorgeous!

Top Ten Tuesday- BFF's

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This weeks top ten is 10 characters you'd like as a BFF. Mine are...

1. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter
2. Rose from Vampire Academy
3. Shane from Morganville Vampires
4. Rachel Morgan from The Hollows
5. Evie from Paranormalcy
6. Dru from Strange Angels
7. Jace from Mortal Instruments
8. Katrina from Coffeehouse Angel
9. Alice from Twilight
10. Chloe from Darkest Powers

These characters seem to be on almost every one of my lists. How could you not love them though?

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Book of the Week--Edward Lear

Book of the week is a weekly post I do in order to give more attention to books I think deserve it.

The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear
Genre: Nonsense Poetry
320 pages

What it's about:
This is a book filled full of Edward Lear's limericks, poems, songs, and illustrations.

Why?
Edward Lear has always been my favorite poet. Him and Shel Silverstein. I love the sing song flow of his poems and how they are absolute nonsense. Lear was the father of Nonsense. Anyone who called Queen Victoria an "absolutely marvelous duck" was a cool guy. "Owl and the Pussycat" will always be my favorite poem (I've had it memorized since I was 4) and I had to write a paper on it this last week. I've been thrown in an Edward Lear faze. Make sure to read Owl and the Pussycat, along with The Jumblees. Those are the best!

Friday, November 26, 2010

50% off books sale is dangerous

Borders has decided to test my self control and see if they could tempt me to come in and buy lots of books. First they gave me $10 in Borders bucks, then $5 in borders bucks, then an email with a 50% off anything coupon. Then to make it worse, the black friday adds came along and had a free coffee coupon and another 50% off coupon.

*Sigh* so I couldn't control my spending. I had to go buy lots of books. So in the last two weeks here are the books I've got.

*I Am Number Four by Patticus Lore
*Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney
*Enchanted Ivy by Beth Durst
*Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
*and a certain book for a certain family member which can't be said on here cause that certain person reads my blog. haha.

And then two weeks ago, Suzanne Selfors sent me a copy of her new book, Mad Love. It has been a pretty good couple of weeks book wise for me!

Sadly I plan on buying more books cause I still have more coupons. Borders knows I have no self control when it comes to books.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Blog Hop and Follow!

Book Blogger Hop
Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy for Books

This weeks question:
What is your favorite Book cover?

My answer:
Oh... hmm... favorite book cover??? I have two series for which I love all the covers.

 City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
All of her covers are amazing but this one sticks out with me the most. That could be cause this was my favorite of all her books.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
This is my other favorite cover. I did a painting of all the HP covers last year and fell madly in love with the painting techniques for the covers of all the US HP books. I love how they are actual paintings and not graphic images. The painter in me drools whenever I see these covers. Beautiful.


I'll be adding on Follow friday when it is posted :)

If you decide to follow my blog, please leave a comment saying you are following! I like to follow back and that is the easiest way for me to follow back. I am a very lazy person so it's great when little things are made easy for me. haha.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday-- Shift

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Breaking the Spine.

Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready
Published by Simon and Schuster
Genre: YA paranormal
384 pages
Release date: May 3, 2011

What it's about:
Aura's life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend Logan died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows that he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can't deny her connection to the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she's not sure that she wants to.



Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.


As Aura's search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets...and her heart.

Why?
I loved the first book in this series, Shade, and I can't wait to see how this story continues. Why is Aura's and Zach's birthdays so important? How are they going to save Logan? I want the answers!! 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish
This weeks is top ten favorite holiday books. Because I couldn't think of a single holiday book I like to read (weird, I know), I'm going to do my favorite movies! Because I have a few favorite holiday movies.

1. Nightmare Before Christmas:
This one works as both a Halloween movie and Christmas. I tend to watch it during Halloween. Love it!

2. The Nutcracker Prince:
This will always and forever be my favorite Christmas movie! It's so sweet and a great version of Nutcracker.

3. Tiny Toons how I spent my Summer vacation:
Yup, I'm counting this as a holiday movie cause to me, summer is a holiday. I watch this movie every single summer at least once since I was about 8 years old. I can't go to the movies without thinking "the audience is now deaf" because of this movie. hahahah

4. Goofy Movie:
Yup, this one also counts as a summer holiday movie. By far one of the best Disney movies out there! "How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?"

5. Rudolf the Red nosed reindeer:
I try and watch this every Christmas on tv. Last few years I've missed it, but it's still a favorite of mine. I love all those old claymation cartoon movies.

6. The Grinch:
Jim Carrey is awesome in this movie! I much prefer the real live movie to the old cartoon one. I love the make up and stage art. The artist in me freaks out every time I see it.

7. Elf:
It's an incredibly retarded movie, but I love it. I always like Will Farrell movies though.

8. Hocus Pocus:
Ah!!! This movie is so awesome!!! I saw it in theaters when I was 4 and apparently I cried every time the cat died. haha. This movie still cracks me up. Plus it has the guy from NCIS in it when he was way young. Me and my bff thought he was really cute when we were younger.

9. Casper:
I'm talking about the Casper movie that came out in the 90's. The first one, not the horrible one with Hilary Duff in it. "It'll be cake, a piece of crumb cake." haha.

10. Zombieland:
This one just got added last Halloween, but it's now going to become a tradition to watch it every Halloween. The movie is too awesome not to watch it all the time.

11. Mickey's Christmas Carol:
This one is so sweet. Whenever I see tiny Tim and how sick he is, I get all teary eyed. Damn you Disney for making all the characters so cute!

*sigh* my friend is making fun of me for posting about movies and not books. She can't believe I can't think of holiday books besides The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Scared of Anything and The Stinky Cheeseman. I just don't read holiday books I guess. So what is everyone's favorite holiday books/movies?

****EDIT****
While I was looking at other peoples Top Ten's, I couldn't believe I forgot a couple of movies.

Love Actually:
One of my all time favorite movies! Not even for just the holidays. It has so many cool people in it, like Alan Rickman!

The Holiday:
This one should have been obvious just because of the name. I adore Kate Winslet and this is one of my favorites of hers.

I'll Be Home For Christmas:
JTT!!!!!!!! I've had a fan girl crush on him since I was 6 or so. That's what makes this movie so awesome.

Review: Beautiful Darkness

Beautiful Darkness by K. Garcia and M. Stohl
Published by Little Brown Books
Genre: Paranormal YA
$17.99 (US hardback)
503 pages

What it's about:
Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.


Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems

My thoughts:
This book reminded me of New Moon so much it wasn't even funny. Then add in a little Deathly Hallows, and Battle of the Labyrinth and you have the plot of Beautiful Darkness.

The main reason this book reminded me of new moon is...
1) You have a relationship between a mortal and a paranormal person
2) Something happened to the mortal in the first book, and now the Paranormal is freaking out and blaming themselves for it.
3) The Paranormal leaves and this leaves the mortal depressed and not willing to move on
4) Mortal finds  a new mortal friend and they think about a relationship with them
5) paranormal gets in a life or death situation and mortal has to save them.

Doesn't that sound so familiar? Same outline, different plot. The one thing different about Beautiful Darkness is while Ethan does mope around for a while, he actually doesn't take no for an answer and tries to save Lena throughout the book.

While I loved Ethan and Lena's relationship in the first book, this one sort of ruined Lena for me. I thought that she was being ridiculous. She was acting like such an idiot and I had a hard time liking her after this book. Let's hope the next one makes her look really good.

 There are a few things that have me a little confused, like how did Ethan not recognize his mother, or how does Ethan wake up all wet or dirty from his dreams. Those are some things that I don't really understand.

Overall, I liked this book. I didn't like it as much as the first one, but it was still good. I'm excited to see how a few things are going to play out in the next book.

My rating: 9/10

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Book of the Week-- Paranormalcy

Book of the week is a weekly thing I do to give more attention to a book I think deserves it.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Published by harper teen
Genre: YA paranormal

$16.99 (US hardback)
335 pages

What it's about:
Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.


Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.


So much for normal.


Why?
This book was so amazing! Every time I see the cover for this book, I always think "That book was so awesome!!!!" I can't get over how much I loved it.
Here is my full review: Tasey!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Hop and Follow Friday

Book Blogger Hop
Blog hop is hosted by Crazy for books
 
This weeks question: "Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"
My answer:
I am most thankful for the fact that all my family and friends are doing great right around now. No one is sick, no one is dying, we are all okay. Hmm as for traditions, we don't have much for thanksgiving. To be honest, this holiday is really boring to me. Every year it switches who hosts thanksgiving and what we do. Most of the time I just lock myself up in my room and read or do homework. 

Follow friday is hosted by Parajunkee's view

This weeks question: How long have you been book blogging?

My answer: It was a year in September. I didn't get really into it until January though.


It's the morning after the HP midnight showing. Hope everyone who went enjoyed it as much as I did and got enough sleep this morning!

If you decide to follow my blog, please leave a comment and let me know so I can follow you back!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Harry vs Voldemort rap off

AHHH!!!! Today is the Harry Potter midnight showing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. I'm going to be decking out in harry potter gear and having my friend (who looks a lot like Harry Potter) dress up too. It's his first HP midnight showing so I think he should go all out.

Thought I'd spread the HP love around and share this hilarious harry vs voldemort rap off video. Enjoy!



Also, here are some of my favorite Harry Potter quotes from the books (sorry if they aren't word for word correct. I was too lazy to go look them up).

"I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing around a wand!" --Prof. Flitwick, HBP

"Why worry about you-know-who when you should be worrying about you-no-poo! It's the constipation sinsation that's gripping the nation!" -- Fred and George, HBP

"Do not pity the dead. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love" --Albus Dumblore, Deathly Hallows

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday-- Last Sacrifice

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at breaking the spine.

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Published by Razor Bill
Genre: YA Paranormal
Release date: Dec 7, 2010

What it's about:
The astonishing final novel in Richelle Mead's epic series!



Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice. Now, with Rose on trial for her life and Lissa first in line for the Royal Throne, nothing will ever be the same between them.


Why?
AHHH!!!! The whole last book was a complete shock to me. I knew some of it was coming but never saw that ending. I'm dying to know how it ends. Will Lissa become the vampire queen? Who will Rose pick? Adrian or Demitri? And how is Rose going to get out of all of this???
Richelle Mead has been posting all the teaser trailers on her facebook. I refuse to look at them. I don't want any hints for this book. December 7th needs to hurry up and get here!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Review: Firelight

Firelight by Sophie Jordon
published by Harper Teen
Genre: YA paranormal
$16.99 (hardback)
323 pages

FTC: I will not be compensated for this review.

What it's about:
With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda’s rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret.

My thoughts:
I had a lot of expectations going into this book. All the reviews I'd read for it (which were a lot of reviews) talked about how amazing it was. Then add in the fact that it sold movie rights a week after being published all said it was amazing. So this one didn't live all the way up to my expectations. To be fair about that, I did read it the day after I finished reading Paranormalcy and that's one of my all time favorite books now.

What I had a really hard time with for this book was that I couldn't picture the dragons. At all. They were this weird hairy bat like things from the way they were described, and I wanted to imagine them looking more like the dragon from Shrek. So this was all on me, but for some reason I took issue with it.

I really liked the relationship between Jacinda and Will. I felt the connection between them and was hoping they would have a chance to be together. The relationship that really annoyed me was the one between Jacinda and her mother. I absolutely couldn't stand the mother. She was horrible.

While this book didn't live up to my expectations (which were unrealistically high) it was still a good book. I finished it in one or two sittings. Is it going to go on my top 15 favorites of the year? No, probably not, but I still liked it.

My rating: 8.5/10

Friday, November 12, 2010

Hop and Follow Friday!

Book Blogger Hop
Book blogger hop is hosted by crazy for books.

This weeks question:
"If you find a book that looks interesting but is part of a series, do you always start with the first title?"

My answer:
Yes. Always. I refuse to read books out of order. I don't like not knowing what's going on or trying to figure out all the past histories with the characters. Too much work and it will ruin the book/series for me.
 
 


Follow friday is hosted by Parajunkee.
 
Weekly question:
What is your usual monthly book budget?

My answer:
Oh man, I'm trying to not buy books at all for awhile cause I'm so broke, but I've been caving and buying books anyways. I won't really let myself spend more than $30-$50 a month on books. I've already reached that number so far this month.

And this is my week question:
WHAT BOOK SHOULD I READ NEXT?
1)Nightshade
2)I Am Number Four
3)Angelfire
4)Low Red Moon
5) Mad Love

I just can't decide what should come next!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday

Top ten tuesday is a weekly thing hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks is Top Ten most Unfortunate character names. Lol, I had fun with this one!

1) Master Bates aka Fagin from Oliver Twist:
Just read that name out loud. Yeah.... Dickens, you were a perv.

2) Mundungus from Harry Potter:
If your name has the word "dung" in it, I'm sorry.

3) Pooh from Winnie the Pooh:
He may be stuffed with fluff, but I'm sure even he knows his name is horrible.

4) Eugenie from Storm Born:
It's like Eugene and Genie put into one. That is not the name of a tough, kick ass kind of woman.

5) Cabel from Wake:
This one is just not good. Too many jokes can be made from it.

6) Graves from Strange Angels:
Who would want to be named after death?

7) Peeta from Hunger Games:
He's a bakers son and he's named after a type of bread. That's just baddddddd. Granted it's spelled different, but pronounced the same way.

8) Lend from Paranormalcy:
I may love this character to death, but Lend is a dumb name.

9) Tamani from Wings:
This one isn't actually all that bad, it's kind of fun to say even, I just needed a 9th name and this was all I could think of. haha.

Monday, November 8, 2010

4th Iron Fey book????????

I was blog hoppin over at Marie LOVES Books and she posted that Julie Kagawa is writing a 4th Iron Fey book!!!!!!!!!

This one is Ash's story and it's called The Iron Knight!!!!!!!!

Not only is there one more book, but it's Ash's story. I squeeeee'd so loud I freaked out my dog when I saw this.

Julie, you have just made my day!

Now here's the big question, is it going to be a short story thing like "Winter's Passage" was (aka Iron fey #1.5) or is it a full on book??? If anyone knows, please let me know!
I'm gonna guess full on book cause it starts with "Iron."

Here is the goodreads page: Iron Knight

Book of the Week (16?)-- Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

published by Little Brown
563 pages
$17.99 (Hardcover)
Genre: YA paranormal

What it's about:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a curse. There was a girl. And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.


In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.


Why?
I'm going through a Beautiful Creatures faze right now. I've read the book, listened to the audiobook, and now I'm reading Beautiful  Darkness. I'm all about Gatlin this week, so the book is going to be showcased. These books are amazing. The second one at this moment is reminding me of Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth meets New Moon. WB has bought the rights for this book to be turned into a movie and they hope it will replace Harry Potter.

Anywho, read this book. haha.

Here is my full Book Review and my audiobook review

Friday, November 5, 2010

Cover reveal: The Day Before

Today Lisa Schroeder's new book cover was revealed! I adore Lisa's books and can't wait to get my hands on this one! The cover was revealed over at Elle Strausse but you can also find more info over at Lisa's website here: Lisa's Website


What it's about:
Sometimes there's no turning back.
Amber's life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of her family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself.


Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell that he's also looking for an escape. Together they decide to share a perfect day: no pasts, no fears, no regrets.


The more time that Amber spends with Cade, the more she's drawn to him. And the more she's troubled by his darkness. Because Cade's not just living in the now--he's living each moment like it's his last.



Ahhh!!! I'm so excited for this book!!! Isn't the cover gorgeous?
This book will be released in June 2011

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Hop and Follow Friday!!

Book Blogger Hop
Book Blogger Hop is hosted over at crazy for books.

This weeks question is: "What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?"

My answer: It's always a bummer when you look at how many followers you have and see that number has gone down. Makes you kinda wonder what you said that had them so annoyed they stopped following you. Granted that's not always the reason, but still. As for the second part of the question, yes I have stopped following a blog before. Just one actually. I was offended at what the blogger was saying and they never once said a nice thing about a book anyways. They kept saying "well this wasn't a HORRIBLE book, but it still sucked" and it would be something like, I dunno, Harry Potter. I don't like following blogs that are always negative. 
 
There is a challenge this week. I will try to do this. I already have a certain number of blogs that I make sure I visit on a regular basis and I always make sure to comment. Because I LOVE COMMENTS and so I like to leave them as well. Like my subtle hint in there? haha.  Anywho, it should be fun to add another blog to the list.
 

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee.

This weeks question:
Who are your favorite authors?

My answer:
Oh man, that's a huge list! JK Rowling, Kim Harrison, Jeaniene Frost, Rick Riordan and SOOOO many more! I have a lovely page that has a list of all my favorite authors. It's right at the top of my blog.

As always, please leave me a comment on here if you decide to follow my blog. I want to make sure to follow you back!

PS: Anyone else having trouble commenting on other blogs? Like the blogs that have been recently made? For some reason the newer blogs won't let me comment. Hmm...

Review: Beautiful Creatures Audiobook

Beautiful Creatures (Audiobook) by K. Garcia and M. Stohl
Read by Kevin T. Collins
2 cds
about 17 hours
$23 (on amazon)

What it's about:
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

My thoughts:
I adore this book! My full review for the book itself can be found here: clicky clicky

There were a few reasons why I adored this audiobook...
1) Kevin T. Collins has a very cool voice.
He does a great job switching character voices and for getting the mood of the book. Plus like I said before, he has a very cool voice to begin with.

2) It plays the 16 moons song.
This song is so freaky. It was one thing to read it, but when you get to hear it, it really makes the mood of the book understood. I love it!

3) It does the sound effects.
When Lena is doing all her crazy weather changes, the audiobook has the sound of wind or rain or whatever else is going on in the background. You can hear fire, creaking floors, people pounding on the door. Collin's isn't just saying "Ethan's dad was pounding on the door" but you get to hear it. I think this is the only audiobook I've ever listened to (and I've listened to LOTS of audiobooks) that they added in the background noises.

One good thing and bad thing about this audiobook is the fact that the discs are in mp3 format. So you can't listen to them in normal cd players and my itunes was having issues uploading them. I  had to copy the files in a different program and then upload them on itunes. One good thing about it though is it makes the files smaller so it takes up less room and I only had to upload two discs.

So pretty much this audiobook rocked. By far one of my favorites I've ever listened to. Now I'm dying to get my hands on the Beautiful Darkness audiobook!

Audiobook Rating: 10/10!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday- A Need So Beautiful

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young
published by Balzer and Bray
Genre: YA
252 pages
Release Date: June 21, 2011

What it's about:
In which a 17-year-old discovers that by performing the good deeds that her body compels her to, she will disappear into the light and be Forgotten, but by fighting “the Need,” her fate could be even more dire.

Why?
When Suzanne was telling me about this book awhile back, I thought it sounded fantastic. It sounds like it's going to be something completely new and fresh. I wish the description above said more of what it's about, but oh well.

Top 10 Tuesday-- books that made you cry

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish
This weeks top ten is Top Ten Books That Made Me Cry. Okay, this list shouldn't be all that hard, I'm a sap and I cry while I read most books. This list WILL have SPOILERS in it. It'd be hard to explain why I cried during a book if I didn't say spoilers. Just a warning.

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling:
While I did get teary eyed in both the 4th and 5th Harry Potter books, I bawled my eyes out when Dumbledore died in the 6th one. I was wearing a white tshirt while reading this and I stained it with my tears. Yeah, that's how much I was crying.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling:
 Okay, I was crying during half of this book! So many good people die. First it was Dobby, which I still can't get over. Then you have Tonks and Lupin, then Fred. AND THEN HARRY!! WTF??? It was like JK was torturing me during all those scenes. I had to stop reading cause my eyes wouldn't stop leaking and I couldn't see anything. It took me over 30 minutes to get over my crying so I could continue.

3.The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons:
This ending could give Deathly Hallows a run for it's money on how much I cried while reading it. I cried for about 30 minutes after finishing it. My dad had to cheer me up. Then I found out there were two more books in the series and I felt much much much better.

4.Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold:
Just read the plot of the book to know why I cried while reading it. The main girl is murdered and she's watching over her family. Very depressing stuff.

5.Blood Promise by Richelle Mead:
Rose goes to Russia so she can kill the love of her life, but first she has to live with his family for a while. Ack! And his funeral! Reading about such a strong character like Rose cry and lose control is so depressing.

6.Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison:
We all saw it coming, but didn't want it to happen. Maddie dies. Poor poor Jenks.

7.At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost:
Okay I honestly can't remember if the part I'm thinking of happened in this book or the second one because it's been two years since I've read it. When Cat thinks Bones is dead and how she was tempted to throw herself off the cliff because she was so sad. Once again it's seeing a incredibly strong heroine fall that is so depressing.

8.I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder:
This book had me crying by page two. If you've ever been to a funeral, you really understand what Ava is going through in this book. I cried during most of the book actually.

9.Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins:
This one took me a while to actually cry because I was in shock, but it set in. The whole freaking last half of the book. All the deaths. Ugh.

10. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls:
If you don't cry while reading the ending of this book, you are cold and heartless. That's pretty much how this one goes.

OMG! I can't believe I forgot to put The Art of Racing in the Rain and Marley and Me on the list!!!!! So I have 12 fantastic books that made me cry on the list.
Those were the ones that I could think of off the top of my head. The Forest Of Hands and Teeth also made me cry but that book didn't get put on my list because I hated it. Only books I liked made it on my list.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Review: Everlasting

Everlasting by Angie Frazier
published by Scholastic
Genre: YA
$17.99 (US Hardback)
329 pages

FTC: I borrowed this book from a friend. I will not be compensated for this review.

What it's about:
Sailing aboard her father’s trade ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a girl of society in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn’t love, or condemn herself and her father to poverty.

On her final voyage before the wedding, the stormy arms of the Tasman Sea claim her father, and a terrible family secret is revealed. A secret intertwined with a fabled map, the mother Camille has long believed dead, and an ancient stone that wields a dangerous—and alluring—magic.

The only person Camille can depend on is Oscar, a handsome young sailor whom she is undeniably drawn to. Torn between trusting her instincts and keeping her promises to her father, Camille embarks on a perilous quest into the Australian wilderness to find the enchanted stone. As she and Oscar elude murderous bushrangers and unravel Camille’s father’s lies, they come closer to making the ultimate decision of who—and what—matters most.

Beautifully written and feverishly paced, Everlasting is an unforgettable journey of passion, secrecy, and adventure.

My thoughts:
This review is going to be super short because I don't have a whole lot to say about this book.
It was a cute little book. I don't read very much historical fiction so it was a nice breath of fresh air. The book takes place in 1855, so there is lots of talk about society and how girls are supposed to act. I always find that time period fascinating and yet incredibly frustrating all at the same time.

One thing that I wish the book would have had was a first person narrator. It would have been nice getting to be inside Camille's head a little more. I liked her character, but I never fully connected with her. I however did really like her character. I liked how she wasn't the typical society girl, how she liked to sail, didn't care about dressing up, and how she loved her father more than anything.

I found the pace of this book sort of odd. It felt like it took a long time to get to the search for the stone even though they started talking about it towards the beginning of the book. Then the end just hit you. It was a little strange and I would have liked to see the end go on for a little bit longer. I would of also liked an epilogue. I like knowing what happens to the characters after the events.

My rating: 8/10
Not over the top fantastic, but still a fun read.