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

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

Hop and Follow Friday!!

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!

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.

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.