ARC Review: The Dead and Buried

The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

Published by Scholastics Point

Release date: Jan. 1, 2013

Genre: YA paranormal/mystery

$17.99 (US hardback)

304 pages

 

 

What it's about:



A haunted house, a buried mystery, and a very angry ghost make this one unforgettable thriller.

Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?

 

My thoughts:
I have read Kim Harrington's, Clarity series a few times. I thought that she had done a marvelous job with keeping the suspense and creepiness going through the whole story. When I saw The Dead and Buried on Netgalley, I couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately the book was a miss for me. It just didn't live up to my expectations.

I never really felt any connection to the characters in the book. Jade moves to this new house in the city and then she starts her new school. Immediately she is accepted and falls for the outcast, Donovan and the school hottie falls for Jade. All the sudden she is dating both boys and is in with the dead girls crowd. Jade was very accepting of everyone and everyone to her and I just couldn't believe that. Not within a matter of a day or two.

Another miss with me was the writing. it was all in lower case, with a few random Capitals thrown in. WTF? It drove me crazy. I very much need my i's to be correct, I want the names to be capitalized as well. It goes against everything I've had drilled into my head since I was six and it just seems wrong. Unfortunately this seems to be a trend in writing techniques because I've been seeing a lot more of it lately. Maybe this was also part of the reason for my disconnect with the book.

In Clarity, the killer wasn't obvious. Harrington had kept the reader guessing, but in Dead and Buried, I thought it was obvious almost from the very beginning. There wasn't any guessing on my part and all the big moments in the book didn't seem like big moments. There wasn't any "Ah HA!" moments for me. I kept waiting for them and it just never happened.

My rating: 6/10

Review: Something Like Normal

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

Published by Bloomsbury

Genre: YA contemporary

$16.99 (US hardback)

214 pages

 

 

What it's about:



When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.


My thoughts:
This book was beautiful. Going into it, I knew that it was about a kid coming back from the war and that his family life was pretty crappy, and that he falls for a girl named Harper. I don't know why, but I was sort of expecting the whole war and family life parts to be shoved in the background and that it would focus on Travis and Harper. I was so so so so wrong and this book caught me by surprise and I'm so glad for that. I'm glad that it wasn't just another sappy teen romance.

I immediately liked Travis, though at times I wanted to punch him in the eye just like Harper did because Travis was being so stupid! Ugh, I know he was hurting but really, Paige? Travis acting like a normal, heart broken, and beaten down by life boy was so sad, but so real. He acted like a real boy, he sounded like a real boy, in other words, he was completely believable. It is obvious that this whole book was on a subject that was very near and dear to Trish Doller. She was able to capture the horror I can only imagine the war in Afghanistan is like, along with the awkwardness of coming back from that situation. Doller was also able to get me to love and care for, and mourn, a character you never actually meet. I cried right along with Travis. I've read books before that you end up meeting a character after they die and it never really worked for me before. Yeah sure, I was always a little sad reading it, but I never felt that persons loss. That wasn't the case for me in SLN. I felt it, I cried.
I would also like to say that the cover and the description of this book threw me off. Like I said, it made me think it was a love story, and while that is partly true, I would never label this a love story. At least not in the normal way. Travis and Harper do have their love story in it, and while it is adorable, it is real. So very real. And yet it is not all the story is about.

The thing about this book is that I started it at around 9pm tonight. It is currently a little after 3am and I've finished it, and instead of going to bed like I know I should, I had to hop on my laptop and write this review. I wanted to write a review for this book after I finished reading it because I wanted all my emotions from the book to just spill out onto the keyboard. I didn't want to think about what I was saying, I just wanted how this book made me feel to show in the review. Hopefully that happened, not quite sure. For being such a short little book, I thought it was extremely moving. I adored it.

My rating: 10/10

Book Blogger Confession-- Dear Santa!

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

This weeks question:

December 17th: Dear Santa! What would you put on your blogging/bookish wish list if the sky was the limit? A new blog design? A house filled with new bookshelves? Even MORE books?

 

Dear Bookish Santa,

I've been a good reader this year. I've been volunteering at my local library every week almost all year, I have been using said library this year a lot more than I ever have before, and I've cut back on my book buying. It's this last one that has me a little upset because I miss buying books. My city lost its new bookstore and now we only have small used ones. I do use them, but I miss Borders and would very much like them to come back. I miss walking around the store, just browsing all the books. I miss the smell of the store, and I also miss going and making flirting eyes at the very, very, very cute guy behind the counter. I also miss Borders hot chocolate (did you know they used to stick a whole giant piece of chocolate on top of the whip cream? It was delicious), they also had mint chocolate mochas that were to die for. I miss those as well. Borders used to also have a awesome used online section with free shipping for Borders Plus members that saved me hundreds of dollars. Dear Santa, could you please bring me back my Borders?

 

If you can't bring me Borders, can you at least bring me a local Powells (driving an hour to the Beaverton or Portland one is costing me a lot in gas money), or at least a Barnes and Nobles? I just need a new bookstore in my city.

Also, if it's not too much to ask, I would also like a credit card just for books. But I want someone else to pay for this credit card each month. Unfortunately I do not make enough in my jobs to pay for all the books I want. I would also really appreciate a newbookcase (all real wood please, none of that cheap, flimsy wood they make most bookcases out of now). I've run out of room for all my books. Oh, I will need my room to be extended as well to fit this bookcase. So maybe just turn the whole new wall into one giant bookcase? That is, if it's not too much trouble.

 

Thank you in advance, Santa. I look forward to all the new book gifts from you.

 

Love, Ariel


*edit*
After reading a bunch of other peoples wish lists, I'd like to add in that I also want to go to ALA and BEA. I want someone else to pay for the hotel, flights, food, ect. I also want my sister to get the days off work and go with me. That way, I'd have someone to get all excited to go right along with me, like we did for Wordstock.
Also, Leakycon is being held in my home state this year and I'd really like my friend and I to go. I want the rock star passes for both of us, but once again, I can't pay for them. So I'd really like that as well.
I also want to meet more of my favorite authors, like John Green. I want to get a big group of them together with a few other bloggers and friends and have lunch or something and just hang out. It'd be a lot of fun. 

Too many shootings

If you guys haven't heard, there has been a unusual amount of shootings this week. My favorite mall ever, Clackamas Town Center in Portland, had a shooting in it a few days ago, three dead, and this morning there is a new kind of horror and someone has brought in guns and killed 27 people (18 of which are kids) in a CT elementary school.

My heart is absolutely breaking for the families and friends in both cases. It just reminds me how cruel this world can be. Everyone, go hug  your family, go hug your friends, go bring some happiness into the world. It is needed right now.

Waiting on Wednesday: different version

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine

Today when I opened up my email, Powells (the coolest bookstore you could ever visit) emailed me saying that today there was free shipping! How am I supposed to pass that up? I went through my list of books I want, found two I've been wanting for what seems like forever and bought them.

So now I'm waiting on them to come in the mail, hense the new waiting on Wednesday!

 

 

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

Published by Bloomsbury

Genre: YA contemporary

$17.99 (US hardback)

214 pages

 

 

What it's about:



 

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

 

 

 

Chosen Ones by Tiffany Truitt

Published by Entangled publishing

Genre: YA dystopian?

$9.99 (US paperback)

400 pages

 

What it's about:

 

Life is bleak but uncomplicated for sixteen-year-old Tess, living in a not-too-distant future where the government, faced with humanity's extinction, created the Chosen Ones, artificial beings who are extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly.

When Tess begins work at Templeton, a Chosen Ones training facility, she meets James, and the attraction is immediate in its intensity, overwhelming in its danger. But there is more to Templeton than Tess ever knew. Can she stand against her oppressors, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?

Review: Pushing the Limits

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Published by Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA contemporary

$17.99 (US hardback)

392 pages

 

 

What it's about:

 

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

My thoughts:
This book has been getting insane reviews for a while now. Everyone was freaking out about how amazing it was and for some reason, instead of making me want to read it, I was wary. Lately I have been pretty disappointed in all of the hyped up books.

I am so annoyed at myself that I didn't read this book sooner.

It was fantastic. Could I have loved this book more? No, I don't think I could. Is there anything I'd change about it? Nope, not a thing. I was immediately drawn into the story. I wanted to know what happened the night Echo got her scars. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Noah and his brothers. I wanted to know when Echo was finally going to notice the real Noah and not the persona he had for school.

I don't know what else to add to this review. I don't know how much I can add to the review without it turning into a big pile of mush of me saying how much I adore this book. So I'll leave you saying that that this was a realistic teen love story. Echo and Noah don't have a insta-love start. They have to get past first impressions and outward appearances. They work at becoming friends and go from there. It was a refreshing love story with interesting characters the reader can instantly fall in love with.

My rating: 10/10

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Published by Blazer + Bray

Genre: YA horror/suspense

$17.99 (US hardback)

294 pages

 

What it's about:

 

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. House party.
White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

My Thoughts:
It's no secret that I'm madly in love with Agatha Christie. I talk about her books all the time, so when I saw that someone wrote a newer, teen version of Ten Little Indians (or for you British people out there, And Then There Were None) I was excited, really really really excited.

Then the reviews started coming in. All the Agatha Christie lovers out there were saying run, run away as fast as you can from this book. I still have not seen one review from a Christie fan that has liked this book. Obviously, this made me a little nervous going into the book.

Knowing both the book and the play version of TLI, I knew what to expect. I knew that there are two possible outcomes for this book and that it was most likely going to be the play version. This did take away some of the suspense of the book, but McNeil added a lot of her own characteristics to the book. The one big big big change McNeil made to her version is that the death message is on a dvd, is a little cheesey, and didn't explain much. Part of the brilliance of TLI is the little song that is posted on the table with the little Indian figurines. The party guests didn't think anything of it until a few deaths in. But with Ten, you didn't have that. You didn't know how each person was going to die and there wasn't the added song to make it errie. Because of this, it took away from the cleverness of the story and turned it more into a teen horror movie feel.

So for being an adaptation of a beloved story, it was okay. Adaptations of other stories can be very difficult and I think that McNeil did a pretty good job taking TLI and adding her own twist to it. I would definitely recommend mood setting while reading this book. Read it at night, a cold, rainy night. In a dark house. Set yourself up for the mood of the book and I think this could be a really fun read.

My rating: 7/10

Review: Undeadly

Undeadly by Michele Vail

Published by Harliquen Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$9.99 (US paperback)

272 pages

Format I read: Netgalley

 

What it's about:

 

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper—and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she's shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite boarding school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath.

Life at Nekyia has its plusses. Molly has her own personal ghoul, for one. Rick follows her there out of the blue, for another...except, there's something a little off about him. When students at the academy start to die and Rath disappears, Molly starts to wonder if anything is as it seems. Only one thing is certain—-Molly's got an undeadly knack for finding trouble....

My thoughts:
This book had such potential and yet fell short.

When I first started, it was the perfect pace. It explained everything just enough to not bog down the book but told you enough that you could follow along. I was really enjoying it and then all the sudden the pace sped up and there were so many story plots going on that it was becoming increasingly hard to focus on all of them. Some got left behind and then at the end had to be picked up real fast and explained. With all these story lines going on, it also meant that the characterization was starting to lack. I never really got to learn all the quirks of the characters, was never really able to connect with them. I found it odd that the second Molly gets to school, she all the sudden has these great friends and an enemy. I would have liked to see a lot more of this.

What I really want to say is that this book just needed to be longer. Take the time to fully explain what is going on, let the reader get emotionally involved in what is happening to Molly. It had some really good ideas, I loved the whole Anubis angle and how zombies are an every day thing. It reminded me of the end of the movie Shaun of the Dead. I just really wish the book was longer. It has a fantastic voice to it and Molly is a character that could have been a lot of fun to follow around. This book was just too short.

My rating: 7/10

Cover Reveal: A Darkness Strange and Lovely

Today Susan Dennard revealed the cover to her second book, A Darkness Strange and Lovely!

 

I'm madly in love with this cover. The dress is gorgeous but I also love her makeup and the hat, and of course the steampunk background.  So So So pretty. ADSaL comes out July 23, 2013. Which seems like forever from now.

Review: Poison Princess

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Published by Simon & Schuster

Genre: YA paranormal dystopian

$18.99 (US hardback)

384 pages

 

 

What it's about:



She could save the world—or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can’t do either alone.

With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side….

My thoughts:
I've been a fan of Kresley's PNR books for a while now and couldn't wait to see how she would take on the world of YA paranormal/dystopian.

When I first started the book and saw that Evie is retelling everything that happened, I was pretty excited. I like when stories begin that way because there is always a good twist at the end and Kresley did not fail me on that. But once I got to the part when the Flash happens and all hell breaks loose, I started losing interest in the story. It wasn't because the world was so depressing (but it truly was) it was because I couldn't stand Evie or Jack. Evie is such a damsel in distress. I know that not many people would know how to survive in the situations that Evie was put into, but I really wish she would have smartened up. She was driving me crazy with how naive she was being. Ironically I didn't end up liking her character until the very end (if you read the end you will understand why it's ironic.) Jack I just never liked. He was broody and moody and always played the "it's cause I'm poor isn't it?" card. No Jack, it's not cause you are poor, it's because you are a pig.

This is one of the few times that I can say that I actually liked a book while I hated the characters. Normally I'm all about the characters, but I really enjoy Kresley's writing and the idea behind this book is fantastic. It's a bunch of different books meshed together but with a new twist and great writing. If you enjoy violent dystopians, I'd say read it. If you are reading it for the romance, you might want to stay away.

My rating: 8/10

ARC Review: The Lost Prince

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Published by Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$9.99 (US paperback)

379 pages

Release date (US): Oct. 23rd 2012

What it's about:

Don't look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase's unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he's dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister's world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

My thoughts:

AHHH!!!! Oh how I love Julie Kagawa's fey series!

When I saw that NetGalley had The Lost Prince on there, I squealed really loud and requested my copy. Thankfully Harlequin Teen always allows me to get copies real fast so within the hour I had my hands on a copy of Lost Prince.

It only took me two sittings to read the book and that was only because I had to force myself to put the book down so I could get a few hours of sleep. Otherwise, it would have been a one sit read.

It made me a little sad thinking about how the adorable little Ethan who loved his sister so much and called her Meggy turned into this brooding, angry teenage boy. I wanted to hug him during the whole book and tell him everything will be okay, and then beat the crap out of some fairies for him.

This is definitely a part two series. There is constant reminders of what happened in all of the Iron Fey books throughout all of LP. All the same characters we know and love are back along with some new and interesting ones. There is new bad guys, new settings, and awww, new love as well. Can't forget the new love lines.

While this is a new Iron Fey book (sorta) it definitely has the same feel as Meghan's story, yet it is completely different. I'm really excited about this series and can not wait till the next book comes out.

Book Blogger Confessions--Scary books and literary costumes

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that is every on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question:
Happy Halloween! Do you like to read scary books? Why or why not? If so, what is the scariest book you ever read and why does it deserve that honor?

Bonus question! Just for fun – have you ever dressed as a literary character for Halloween? Brave enough to show a photo if you have one?

Answer:
I love to read scary books!!! I'm always on the lookout for good scary books. I'm one of those people that get really into (most) holidays and my moods and therefore the books I read during the holidays are themed. October is definitely the month that I search really hard for good scary books even though the last few years my October has been lacking scary books. Some of the top scary books I've read are The Devouring, Sorry Night by Simon Holt, Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance, and Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake. Anna being the scariest. I had to get up and turn on all the lights while reading that book. The reason why any of these books were scary is the mood and setting I created while reading it. Just like with scary movies, if you watch it in the day, with the sun shining and the birds singing, it's going to take away from it. But watch it at midnight during a storm and it adds to it. That's how I read my scary books. In the middle of the night during bad weather (which  lets face it, in Oregon that's all you are going to get most of the time).

I used to be the biggest scaredy cat there was. When I was 4 and my parents took me to Disneyland for the first time, the only ride I didn't freak out when we went on it was It's A Small World, and then I made my mother literally go on it 13 times in a row. Yes, feel free to pity my mother for that. But as I got older, I've become more of a scary addict. I love horror movies, I love giant roller coasters, and can't get enough of scary books.

As for dressing up as literary characters for Halloween, I am one almost every year or try to be if I can afford it. Two years ago a big group of us went as Alice In Wonderland characters. I was the Queen of Hearts.

I entered this picture in Kim Harrison's halloween costume contest back in 2010 and got 2nd place! My dog was also the White Rabbit but you can't see her in the picture.

I've also been Clary from Mortal Instruments, Matalena from the Hollows series, and a few others. This year I'm moving on from literary characters to tv show characters. I'm going as Amy Ferrah Fowler from Big Bang Theory.

Just for fun, here are some of my pumpkins I've carved in the last few years.

And somehow I lost my picture of the Bella and Edward pumpkin I did a few years ago. Bummer cause it was awesome and took me over 3 hours to carve.

Review: Eve and Adam

Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

Published by Feiwel & Friends

Genre: YA sci-fi

$17.99 (US hardback)

291 pages

 

What it's about:

 

And girl created boy…

In the beginning, there was an apple—

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die—not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect... won’t he?

 



My thoughts:
I read a few reviews for this and a couple of them said that the book was funny and not all down in the dumps like it could be. I don't really agree with this because I feel the word "funny" doesn't fit this book. I can see what they mean, the book is a little more light-hearted than one would expect, but I wouldn't say it was funny.

Going into this, I thought it would be more psychological and less action. I thought it would be more about Eve creating Adam and all the decisions one would have to make when creating a person. How do you decide what traits to give a person? Not just physical but mental as well. How do you decide what to make a person? This takes up very little time in the book and is only a part 2 of the story plot. The book is told mostly from Eve and Solo's POVs and a little of Adam at the end. While we are in both Eve and Solo's heads, we never really get to know them. Their personalities are just skimmed and not in depth. I had a hard time believing both of their feelings. They were just lonely, misunderstood, horny teens. That's about it. We never get to know much else about them. Sad really.

This is an incredibly fast read. The book is less than 300 pages and has a giant font. I would have liked to see this book be about double in size and had much more in depth characters and plots. This book could have been fantastic but it fell short. I wasn't really wanting some weird sci-fi action flick, I wanted sci-fi drama.

My rating: 7/10

Review: Whispers at Moonrise by CC Hunter

Whispers at Moonrise by CC Hunter

Series: Shadow Falls #4

Published by St. Martin's Griffin

Genre: YA paranormal

$9.99 (US paperback)

 

What it's about:

Shadow Falls Camp is back in session with the most explosive installment yet. A shocking new threat will rock Shadow Falls—changing it forever and altering Kylie’s journey in ways she never imagined.

Even at a camp for supernatural teens, Kylie Galen has never been normal. Not only can she see ghosts, but she doesn’t seem to belong to any one species—she exhibits traits from them all. As Kylie struggles to unlock the secrets of her identity, she begins to worry that Lucas will never be able to accept her for what she is, and what she isn’t…a werewolf. With his pack standing in their way, Kylie finds herself turning more and more to Derek, the only person in her life who’s willing to accept the impossible.

As if life isn’t hard enough, she starts getting visits from the ghost of Holiday, her closest confidante. Trouble is, Holiday isn’t dead…not yet anyway. Now Kylie must race to save one of her own from an unseen danger before it’s too late—all while trying to stop her relationship with Lucas from slipping away forever. In a world of constant confusion, there’s only one thing Kylie knows for sure. Change is inevitable and all things must come to an end…maybe even her time at Shadow Falls.
.

 



My thoughts:
I have a few things I want to say about this book. Don't worry, they won't be gushers about how much I love the characters, settings, and so on. Those reviews will be found in my first three reviews for the other books in the series.

First thing I want to say. This is the 4th book in the series (and thankfully not the last), so while I'll try to not post spoilers, there very well might be spoilers to the other books in the series. If you have not read the first 3 books, I wouldn't recommend finishing this review. Just warning you.

Second thing. The love triangle. Oh that damn love triangle between Kylie, Lucas, and Derek. I follow CC's blog and she has asked lots of questions to her readers, one being which team are you on, Lucas or Derek. About 85% (if not more) of us said Lucas. I personally think that this was sort of shocking for CC by some of the comments she made in that post and I believe that is who she plans on having Kylie be with. Since there really aren't many team Derek people out there, during most of WaM I felt that CC was trying to sway people away from Lucas to being team Derek. Lucas's actions didn't seem to fit in with how he acted in the first 3 books and some of the situations with him were just a little ridiculous. It felt a little forced and that tainted my views of this book. I couldn't really get over it the whole time I was reading.

One thing that I really enjoy about this series and also kinda bugs me is that you are thrown right into it. The first sentence of this book is literally the next sentence from the last paragraph in the last book. There is no rehashing of what happened in the last book (well, there is some, but not like how most books do it) so you really need to remember what happened in the previous books. This is a good thing if you are reading all the books right in a row. You don't have all those pesky reminders you know are only there to help the reader to remember what happened constantly getting in the way. But this is sort of a problem when you are reading the next book after waiting 6+ months for the next book to come out. Overall though, I love how CC Hunter trusts the readers to remember what previously happened.

WaM definitely has a different tone than the three previous books in the series. Poor Kylie just has everything piling up on her. While I found one (maybe 2) of the plots of this book pretty forced and not all that necessary (and NEVER explained. Pissed me off that did), I still really enjoyed the book as a whole and cannot wait till the 5th and final book of the series comes out April 2013.

My rating: 9/10

Top Ten Older Books to Remember

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten "Older" Books You Don't Want People To Forget About (you can define older however you wish. Basically just backlisted books you think are great. Basically the point is to share books that could be forgotten about in the midst of all the new releases)


The thing is, I don't read many "older" books. I seem to stick with the newer ones. Older to me are the midgrad books I read when I was a preteen. Hmmm so this list might be a little all over the place.

1. Chasing Red Bird by Sharon Creech:
I used to read this book all the time. This is by far my favorite childhood book. This is why I reread it this year, just for nostalgia.

2. Just Ella by Margaret Petterson Hadix:
This book used to crack me up. I read it again this year and while I didn't like it as much as I used to, I still enjoyed it.

3. Janey's Girl by Gayle Friesen:
I was so madly in love with this book when I read it way back when. I think about it all the time and I know it's not completely forgotten because I had to put it on the holding shelf for someone at my library and it made me so so happy.

4. Just One Wish by Janette Rallison:
This book has made it onto plenty of my TTT posts, but that's because I ADORE IT. Janette is pretty well known but not as well known as I'd like. To me, this is her best book and I have to force myself to not constantly reread it all the time. I need to try and get more books off my tbr list and not reread the same things all the time.

5. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson:
Ah!!! I love this book!!! I think this is by far one of the best YA contemporary book out there. I really hope it sticks around for a long time.

6. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins:
I know that most people liked Anna better than Lola, but not me. Lola was my favorite of the two and it definitely doesn't get as much attention.

7. Far From You by Lisa Schroeder:
Most beautifully written book ever.

8. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons:
This is the most epic of love stories. Awwww

9. Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors:
This was one of the first books I ever wrote a review for. It's just so dang cute.

10. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
I have no words for this book.

Book Blogger Confessions-- Blogger Envy

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme hosted on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question: Blogger Envy: Do you have a bad case of blogger envy? Do you covet thy neighbor bloggers book hauls/follower numbers/blog design? How do you tamp down the green eyed monster?

Oh gosh, yes I do have blogger envy. There are a few blogs that I would love to run. They have amazing designs, always get the arcs I'd LOVE to have, and they have great follower numbers (and certain ones get to go to movie sets and interview the actors. Who wouldn't want to do that???). The ones I really envy though are the ones that are still having a lot of fun blogging. You can always tell which ones these are because they are perky and always have lots of comments because they still have the time to visit all the other blogs and make connections with other bloggers. And that more than the arcs and the designs is what I envy. I miss the excitment of blogging.

Whenever I start to feel really jealous of these blogs, I just remember how much work and time they put in it. Then I think about how much time I put into mine and how that time has been lacking a lot lately. I think of the money that I could spent to hire someone to help me fix the design problems I have with my blog. I think of the connections I could make with effort to help my blog, and know that there are things I can do to get my blog running the way I'd like, but know that I'm probably not going to do any of it. I've had other things on my mind lately and the blog is taking the hit.

Hopefully sometime or another, my blog will be what I'd like it to be and I can stop being jealous of other bloggers.

Book I Gave Up On-- Alice In Zombieland

Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$18.99 (US hardback)

404 pages

 

What it's about:

 

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….


I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Why I Gave Up:

So here's why; it was ridiculous. I have this problem, every time I see anything Alice In Wonderland related, be it movie, book, ect. I must have it. Because of this problem, I've read a lot of crap and seen a lot of horrible movies. It's hard to recreate the wacky world of Wonderland and very few can pull it off. Gena Showalter can not pull it off.

So in the beginning of AIZ, you find out that Alice's whole family was killed by the "monsters." You also find out that her dad is a raving lunatic that doesn't allow the family outside at all after dark. He patrols the house with a gun all night long and during the day he sits around drinking and getting drunk. He says there are man eating monsters that come out of the graveyards every night and they eat people. Alice also notes how her dad has tried going to shrinks, taking meds, all of that good stuff to get over his paranoia and it just got worse. Then on Alice's 16th birthday, she convinces her parents to go out at night. In the end, the dad gets so paranoid while being the passenger in the car while driving past the cemetery, he freaks out and ends up killing everyone but Alice.

The face I made the whole time I was reading

Okay, so let me get this straight, zombies come out of their graves every night, go on a rampage, and then tuck themselves back in their coffins at night, cleaning everything up in the process, and NO ONE NOTICES??? What kind of crap is that? How is it that the half eaten corpses are not in the news every day? How is it that a crazy drunk is the only one that has taken notice of this living dead phenomena?
I do not care if this is explained later on in the story (I guess they are like ghost zombies from what I've heard from other reviews), I'm still not buying it at all. Even if there are zombies out there and Alice becomes some kind of zombie hunter, she can't really have a "you killed my father, prepare to die" rage because zombies didn't kill her family, her dad did. This whole thing just makes me sad. A whole family killed because they didn't really do anything to help her father.

To add on top of this, if you think that Alice In Zombieland has ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH ALICE IN WONDERLAND, you are wrong wrong wrong. You think that it would, but it really truly doesn't. Alice does not go to some different land and kill the evil creatures like the title and cover would suggest. So if you are reading it because of the AIW connection, run, run away and never return. It is a blatant ripoff to get people to read the book that they otherwise might not have picked up.

Top Ten Tuesday- Unfinished Series

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks top ten is Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished (because either you didn't like them, you just have procrastinated, etc.

I have these posts I do every once and a while called  "Book Breakup" in which I talk about series I've given up on. The first four on here I've done those posts for.

As for series I haven't finished, there seems to be a ton of them. These were just the first ones to pop into my head but definitely not the only ones I haven't finished. I seem to be giving up on series easier lately. Plus I haven't been wanting to read series because then I have to try and remember everything that happened in the previous books. Too much work.

These are in no order:
1. Evernight by Claudia Grey:
This was one of the first series I got into when I first started reading YA. I thought the first one was fantastic, and it all went downhill from there. I never bothered to read the last one in the series.

2. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz:
Once my favorite character was killed off, I was done with the books. Why bother reading the rest?

3. Sookie Stackhouse Charliene Harris:
Faeries are having a war? And the vampires are joining? No. Just..no.

4. Evermore by Alyson Noel:
Me and my friend like to call Ever "Ever Stupid" (I know, it's such a clever name) because we feel like her stupidity needs to be added onto her name. I couldn't handle how ridiculous she became.

5. Shade/Shift/Shine by Jeri Smith Ready:
This is just because I'm really behind in my books. I own a signed copy of Shine (and I have my name in the acknowledgments!!!) I really really need to read the last book soon.

6. Body Finder by Kimberly Derting:
When I first read BF, I couldn't have loved it anymore. And then I got an arc in the mail for DotD 8 months before the release date and read it immediately. So when the Last Echo finally came out, I didn't remember much of what happened in DotD and just couldn't get into the story. I gave up pretty fast and hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to get into it.

7. Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick:
I was madly in love with this book when I first read it, then I listened to the audiobook some time later and realized that I didn't actually care for it all that much. Soooo I've never finished the rest of the books.

8. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer:
I had the same problem with this book that I did for Hush Hush. Listened to the audiobook and realized that it was only okay and not fantastic like I remembered. Though I'm still curious as to who she ends up with. Maybe I'll just read the last chapter of the last book. Or even better, if someone would tell me in the comments that would be awesome.

9. Shiver/Linger/Forever by Maggie Stiefvater:
I didn't much care for the second book and while I still own Forever, I haven't read it. I've been told the ending was crap so it is getting pushed way back in my tbr pile.

10. Deadly Little Secret/lies/Games/Touch by Laurie Faria Stolarz:
I read the first 3 books and then realized they are all the same. There is only so many times a girl can get kidnapped and touch things to realize what is happening.

Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: YA historical fiction

$17.99 (US hardback)

549 pages

 

What it's about:



Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

My thoughts:
This is a book that I bought on a whim (which isn't something I do that often. Pretty much never actually). I had money left in trade that I had to use that day and Powells didn't have any more of the books I knew I wanted, so I went with Grave Mercy. It sounded pretty good and it had a good rating on Goodreads so I bought it.

For the book being about assassin nuns (seriously! how cool is that?) and is a historical fiction, it started out insanely slow. I found myself constantly drifting away from the story in the first 60 pages at least. I couldn't focus on what was happening because it just didn't catch my attention. I had to reread multiple pages just to actually understand what I had already read. I think this had to do a lot more with the writing style than the story plot itself. It was so dry. Even the action scenes were blan.

Then we got into the religion bit of the story. This was something I was concerned about even before I started the book. I normally try pretty hard to stay away from any sort of religion in the books I read. Yet I decided to give this one a go anyways because the idea of assassin nuns made me giggle. The women in this book are worshiping the God of Death and are assissins for him. That is their mission. They kill the people the God tells them to. I couldn't hop on board with this because of my own personal reasons, but also because there was a lot of man hate involved with it. I do not like when there is a lot of hate towards either sex in my books.

BUT....
Even though I just complained about how boring the beginning is and how I disliked the religion, once I got about 140 pages into it, I started enjoying the story. It started to fade away from the religion and moved onto a little mystery and politics. It focused on who was going to marry duchess Anne and who is betraying her to the French. Then of course it started to have a love story as well. Became much more interesting.
So even though it took me a long time to get into the book, I eventually did and enjoyed it.

My rating: 7/10

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer!

I did not know that they were moving this fast on this movie. I knew they had cast everyone but had no idea they were pretty much done filming and that we are this close to the release date already. I never ever hear updates about it so it was kinda shocking to see that the first trailer has been released!

While I love that Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons will be in it, what in the world is up with the Ethan pick???? Seriously???? Bleh.

Butttttt the trailer still looks pretty awesome.

Here is the link to the trailer. It won't let me post the video on here. Bummer.

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer #1

My Book Boyfriend-- Bones!

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted every Wednesday by Missie at The Unread Reader and cohosted by Lesley over at My Keeper Shelf


I've been reading the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost since right after the 2nd book came out and am madly in love with it. I had fallen behind in the series and lately I've been catching up. All my love for Bones has come rushing back and so I'm finally doing his MBB post!

About Bones:
Don't we all know Bones by now? Maybe you haven't read his books yet, but I'm sure you've seen the countless other MBB posts about him. So all I'm saying about him is he is a 200+ year old English bounty hunter master vampire.


Who I picture him looking like:
I couldn't help myself, Cat describes him as having incredible cheek bones, blond hair that's gelled, and having a British accent, plus he's a vampire, and I immediately pictured Spike. Funny cause I've never been a Buffy fan, but there it is.

 

“Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact I called to give you the good news. I asked you daughter to marry me. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?”

 

“If I die, I will wait for you, do you understand? No matter how long. I will watch from beyond to make sure you live every year you have to its fullest, and then we’ll have so much to talk about when I see you again…

 

“Right, then, mate, terribly sorry for my unspeakable rudeness, and I do beg your pardon. I can only say that it was caused by my natural affront to the notion of her as my sister. Since I'll be shagging her tonight, you can imagine how I'd be distressed at the thought of rogering my sibling"

"You shmuck! The only thing you'll be shagging tonight is yourself!"
"You wanted sincerity, well, luv, I was sincere.”


Jeepers, there are 23 pages of Jeaniene Frost quotes on Goodreads. That was hard to pick only 3, but I like these ones so that's what ya get.

Top Ten Tuesday-- Bookish People I Want To Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet (Authors, Bloggers, etc.)

As always, these are in no particular order.

1. John Green:
I had a chance to meet him back in January but couldn't get the time off work so I didn't get to go.
:( Super upset about that. I have the biggest fan girl crush on John. Not only are his books beyond brilliant and amazing, but his Vlogbrother videos are hilarious, his Crashcourse History videos entertaining and educating, but he also helps create things like Leakycon and Vidcon, and not to mention him and his brother created Nerdfighters!!!

2. Olivia Cunning:
I think it'd be fun to get all girly with her and talk about hott rocker guys and just gush. She commented on my blog once and I freaked. That was an exciting moment for me. I love when I get author comments or emails. To me, authors are like rock stars themselves so it's always fun when you get to talk to them.

3 & 4. David Levithan and Sarah Rees Brennan:
The reason I put these two together is that next month I have the option of meeting one or the other of them. Unfortunately they will both be in Portland on the same day, different places! So now I have to pick, which amazing person am I going to pick? How do you decide something like that??? Which one would you guys pick?

5. Any blogger:
Yup, I love to meet other bloggers. It's always fun to sit around talking about all the different memes, books, designs, and all the drama that is the book blogging world. Lately I've realized how many Pacific Northwest bloggers there are in particular and think it would be fantastic if we all got together somewhere and hung out. If someone wants to put that together, I would help out.

6. Suzanne Collins:
I had the option of meeting her two years ago on her Mockingjay tour and I didn't go! I'm kicking myself for that now. I want to go and ask her "why Finnick???" I know she's probably heard it a million times, but I've never heard the reasoning and I must know. Hopefully it's not as lame as JK Rowlings "Fred just had to die" statement. Because no, JK, no he didn't.

7. Cayla Kluver:
She was so young when she wrote her first book and is still really young and is about to have her 3rd book published. She's in college for freaking sake. I think it'd be fun to meet her. There aren't that many really young authors out there.

8. Jeaniene Frost:
I've been a fan of hers for years now and have been stalking her blog for that long and yet she has never made it over to the west coast in that time. Why Jeaniene why? West coast needs some love as well.

9. Kiersten White:
While the last two books in the Paranormalcy series were kinda a bummer for me, I'd still love to meet Kiersten. Every time I watch one of her vlogs she cracks me up. She seems like a really fun person to be around.

10. CC Hunter:
I adore her Born At Midnight series and would really like to meet the person who wrote them. They are just too much fun and one of the only series in which I didn't guess the answer to the big question. So rare for me so it's exciting when I meet an author who can actually keep me guessing. Not to mention she has created one of the only good love triangles I have read.

11. Marguerite Gavin:
After reading a bunch of other peoples TTT lists, someone posted a bunch of audiobook readers and I decided I must add Marguerite to the list. She does all of Kim Harrison's books and she is WONDERFUL. The best audiobook reader ever. I read all of Kim's books in her voices now. Now if only they would redo book #6 with Marguerite because the lady they had do it was horrible.


Thought I'd post about some awesome bookish people that were on my "to meet" list that I actually got to meet.
1. JK Rowling:
She came and sat next to my sister and me while we were in the Paris airport waiting to go to Edinburgh. She helped us translate what the stewardess was saying because we couldn't even begin to understand her. This is perhaps one of the coolest moments of my life.

2. Cassandra Clare:
This was an amazing signing. The whole audience nerded out and I actually got to talk to Cassie for a few minutes while she was signing my books. She told me about Alex Pettyfer calling her and talking about Jace, and then we talked about Will and Jem and how Oregonians seem to prefer Jem over Will (except for me, I was the first to pick Team Will. Go me! haha)

3. Kendare Blake:
I just met her a few weeks ago and boy is she cool. One of those people that I wish we were friends because she is just that much fun to talk to. We talked about killing animals in books and how much it pisses us off when it happens. If you've read Anna Dressed In Blood, you will find that ironic.

4. Veronica Roth:
Met her right after Divergent came out. I still can't believe she is the same age as me and yet she has a best selling book that is about to be a huge movie. I told her I want Darren Criss to play Four. She looked at me kinda funny when I told her that Darren is adorable. She doesn't want someone adorable playing Four.

5. Stephanie Perkins:
I drove 4 hours to go to her signing. We talked about Nerdfighteria and did the DFTBA sign for our picture together. Yay for nerdfighters!

6. Kim Harrison:
It wouldn't be a ttt post if I didn't talk about Kim on it at least once. I've met Kim loads of times (I never miss her signings when she comes to Portland). I get a picture with her each time and ask her random questions I have about the series. It's always a blast. So many people show up for her signings and we all mingle and debate the books and who Rachel should end up with (my vote is Trent).

Review: Unspoken

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Series: Lynburn Legacy #1

Published by Random House

Genre: YA paranormal

$17.99 (US hardback)

370 pages

 

What it's about:



Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him

My thoughts:
Be prepared for a gusher of a review. I can't get over how much I ADORE this book.

When I read the synopsis for the book, looked at the cover, and saw people calling it a "goth" book, I obviously expected the book to be pretty dark. I've read Sarah Rees Brennan's Demons Lexicon series and that was a pretty dark series and so I thought Unspoken would be a lot like those books. I was so wrong. I really wasn't expecting this book to be as goofy as it was. I could not stop laughing at many parts and had to stop and write down or bookmark my favorite quotes because they were too priceless. The humor is very British seeing as how the author and the setting are both British. So if that's not your thing, you might just find it awkward rather than funny.  I also wasn't expecting the characters to be so...teenagery. Most YA books lately seem to have characters that are 16 or 17 but they don't act like teenagers. But Kami and her gang are definitely teenagers and I loved it. They were so out there and come up with the weirdest plans, and they most definitely had the "nothing can hurt me" personality that all teenagers have.

I also loved how Brennan didn't go with the obvious love story. Kami and Jared have been able to read each others minds since before they could remember. They are each others not so secret secret. Yet when they finally meet in person, they dislike each other and wish they would go away. It would have been so easy for Brennan to make the characters have insta love yet she went in the other way. I thought that was really interesting and loved watching Kami and Jared figure out how to be around each other and then watching all the other characters try and deal with it as well. I also loved how both Kami and Jared were not all that good looking and not all that remarkable. That was left to the other characters and I really liked that. I liked how not everyone was swooning over Kami and how she was normal looking. Then there is Jared whose flaws are constantly mentioned. He has creepy eyes and a big scar on his face, and an aura that makes you want to flee from him. So not your typical love interest.

I had checked this book out from the library and read it in 3 sittings (would have been one sitting but my social life rudely interrupted my reading). I love this book so much I will be going out and buying myself a copy. I will be rereading this and counting down the days until book 2 comes out. Damn these stupid cliffhangers.

My rating: 9/10

Here is an excerpt that I particularly liked. Don't worry, there isn't really any spoilers.

Kami strode through a froth of daisies to a half-fallen wall that might once have been part of a fortress, but was now a tumble of stones studded with spiky yellow blooms. She bent down, rummaging in the wild tangle of garden around her feet, and chose a pebble. A large pebble. Kami wound her arm back, took careful aim, and threw.
The "pebble" crashed through both glass and curtain.
There was the creak of an old sash window being thrust open, and Jared's head and shoulders appeared at the window. "Hark," he said, his tone very dry. "What stone through yonder window breaks?"
Kami  yelled up at him, "It is the east, and Juliet is a jerk!"
Jared abandoned Shakespeare and demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Throwing a pebble," said Kami defensively. "Uh...and I'll pay for the window."
Jared vanished and Kami was ready to start shouting again, when he reemerged with the pebble clenched in his fist. "This isn't a pebble! This is a rock."
"It's possible that your behavior has inspired some negative feelings that caused me to pick a slightly overlarge pebble," Kami admitted.
Jared's gaze softened slightly. His voice did not. "I saved your life, and you broke my window!"

Let's talk about--Favorite Kissing Quotes

A few days ago, my sister asked me what some of my favorite kissing quotes are because she needed some for a project she was working on. They could be from anything, books, movies, songs, ect.  I then spent the next hour or so looking up all sorts of kissing quotes because I only had four or so memorized that I love. These are my personal favorites.

“Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games


"I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you I'm your biggest fan"
-Nightmare of you, 'My Name is Trouble'


"No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how."
--Rhet Butler, Gone With The Wind


“One day you may kiss a man you can’t breathe without, and find breath is of little consequence.” ― Karen Marie Moning, Bloodfever


"As far as I can tell, there are two basic (kissing) rules: 1. Don't bite anything without permission. 2. The human tongue is like wasabi: it's very powerful, and should be used sparingly.”
― John Green, Paper Towns


Okay, I can't resist, I must add this quote to the list.
“What makes the perfect kiss? Closing your eyes when you kiss is important. Or lifting up the leg, but that's more of a girl thing, I'm manly. Passion is good! She brings out the best in me. (Selena)”
― Justin Bieber

Hahaha oh Justin. What a silly little boy.


So I was just wondering, what are some of everyone elses favorite kissing quotes? Got any good ones?

Review: Don't Turn Around

Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon

Published by HarperCollins

Genre: YA contemp/action

$17.99 (US hardcover)

310 pages

  

What it's about: 

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence her for good.


My thoughts:
When I first started reading this book, I couldn't help but think it read like a movie. Then the further I got, the more I thought "huh, I think I've seen this movie before..." so I read all the blurbs on the cover of the book. Someone said that it is a younger version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and whua-la, I figured out what movie I saw that was a lot like this. Then I really hoped that certain things that happened in that movie were not going to show up in this book.

After finishing the book, I don't have much to say about it. I just don't really have an opinion on it. It was just "eh." The book reads as a movie so most of it was action. And I'm not a fan of action movies either. Just like with those, you get a lot of running and close calls, but you never really get to know the characters very well at all. So everything that happened to them, I thought it sucked and felt bad for them, but I never got connected or cared too much. When I got to the last 60 pages and everything was discovered and the characters were starting to do some really stupid things, I got annoyed. The only reason I finished those last pages was that it was only 60 pages but even then, I ended up skimming them. I hate stupid characters and the fact that I didn't have a connection with them, I was just annoyed.

I think the idea of the book was kinda cool, but I dunno. I wasn't invested in it. There was too much action and not enough character developments. I could have gone without reading the book. The only thing I thought was cool about the book was all the computer hacking. There is just something cool and sexy about hackers.

My rating: 7/10

'Divergent' movie has a release date!

It's been announced, Divergent will be hitting theaters March, 21, 2014!!!!

This news is super exciting for me. I can not wait to see who they cast. Normally I'm pretty nervous about casting for my favorite books, but I figure they can't mess up casting any more than they did for the Mortal Instruments. Now I'm just excited to see who they will cast as Four (I'm hoping for Darren Criss *crosses fingers*) and I dunno who I want for Tris. Maybe an unknown.

Here is the article talking about it.
Divergent movie news