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.