Goals for 2012

For this blog, my "New Year's Resolution" is to post more blog posts than I did during the 2011 year. I had some help since 22 posts were technically part of my class assignment, but it got me in the swing of blogging and I am going to continue the tradition. 

The main goal I want to accomplish beginning tomorrow is to read/blog about 100 YA books or topics. Another goal I would like to attempt is to read YA books that are geared toward guys or have guys as the narrator of the story. I think those two goals will keep me busy for the next year regarding this blog :-) 

Have a safe New Year's Eve and I'll be back next year with new YA posts!

Book Giveaway @ The Book Swarm: Everneath

There is a book giveaway over at another blogspot - The Book Swarm - where the book, Everneath is up for grabs! I've been hearing great things about this book and wanted to share this wonderful giveaway to you, while also trying to win it for myself ;-)

Of course, if I win it, I would do a review and put it on my blog. And after reading the description from the link below, I'm even more excited to read it!

So go on over to the blog at this link: http://bookswarm.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-lovers-holiday-hop.html and try to win it for yourself as well!

Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck

Isn't this a gorgeous cover?! Can't
wait to see the next one!

This is the third book in the Tiger's series, and I've blogged about the first book, Tiger's Curse, and the second one, Tiger's Quest, a few months ago (click the title of the books to see those posts!).

I love this series! And to top it off, this is the author's debut series! She's amazing and I can't wait for the next book to come out (sometime in 2012). According to Goodreads, there are now 5 books to this series, instead of 4 like I originally thought.

Okay, so if you went to look at my previous reviews, you would have saw that I was conflicted about Kelsey - during this book, I had no such feelings toward her. I actually think she was an amazing character and is starting to slowly find herself through these quests with the two princes.

I was also conflicted on which guy I would have chosen if I were Kelsey... This is still a main theme of Tiger's Voyage and Kelsey still hasn't figured out exactly what she wants - or who she wants I should say.

However, I completely understand why she can't choose that easily. Both princes are so different from one another and complete Kelsey in two different ways. I have my guess on who Kelsey would pick, but I definitely know who I would pick: Kishan. He's more quiet, reserved, and observant than Ren is, but Kelsey also likes to talk, ask questions, and read poetry, which is a que for Ren for sure.

During this book, both Ren and Kishan are traveling with Kelsey to fulfill the next mission to gain the prince's wish to be fully human. Throughout this quest, all 3 of the characters are going to meet 5 dragons, who will test each character in different ways for Kelsey and the 2 princes to find the Druga necklace.

Each dragon made each character realize something about themselves, making these tasks harder than say, killing a dragon. We also saw some of Lokeish's evil plans and how his overall goal has changed from the beginning of the first book. Instead of wanting to kill the princes, he now wants to have all of the power than anyone - and to do that, he thinks Kelsey is the key!  Didn't the 3 of them already have enough problems? Now they have to worry about one more!

Houck leaves us suspended with a cliffhanger at the end of this book (doesn't she always?!) and I'm unsure when the next book, called Tiger's Destiny, will come out. I'll be anxiously waiting for it, though, because I want to know what happens on the final quest to humanize the princes and the choices Kelsey will make between Ren and Kishan!

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Beautiful, amazing cover. Love it!

Aaaahhh!!!!!! Nora and Patch just can't catch a break! Okay... on to the review:

Right in the beginning of Silence the reader finds out that Nora was found in a cemetery with no memory of how she got there, what day it was, or... anything! We come to find out that Nora has been missing for 3 months and has lost her memory of the last 5 months - the time where Hush Hush began. So, really, Nora has no idea who Patch is! And no one is talking about him! It's as if he never existed, except Nora keeps having visions of the color black.

Throughout this novel, we follow Nora while she starts to slowly.... very slowly... remember what has happened in the last 5 months and what has happened in the fallen angel world.

It was a great novel, don't get me wrong. I just want Patch and Nora to have about 50 pages in a novel that are NORMAL. Where they can be happy, joyous, TOGETHER, and not have something keep them apart from one another.

Eventually Nora got her memories back and found Patch, creating some scenes into the story that I was happy with. But with this ending, I can tell that Nora and Patch's relationship are in for a rough ride when Fitzpatrick writes her next novel in the series. I'm just hoping that with the situation of Nora and Patch that they will be working together rather than trying to avoid the other one to protect one another. We've had enough of that, now we want to see them as a couple!


Overall, love this book and the character/plot advancements. The author definitely left room to continue the story and make it great with the concepts already stirring between all of the key characters. I'm not sure when the next book comes out, but go read these 3 very quick reads before that happens!

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

In this second book of the Hush Hush series, Fitzpatrick leads the readers into Nora and Patch's life after a startling cliff hanger. At first, everything seems to be going well for Nora and Patch. They are dating and have had no life or death moments for 2 months. Seems simple right? Of course not.

When Nora professes her love to Patch, things start to go downhill very quickly. Patch starts to avoid being with Nora and instead is seen hanging out with her arch nemesis Marcie. Because of that, Nora tells Patch that they are over with - that she doesn't want to be or see him again.

Then, Nora slowly starts to find out what really happened to her father a year ago, and what that means for her in the present time. In other words: she's back in the life or death situation.

I was conflicted about this novel. I LOVED Hush Hush. Love it. And I was expecting amazingness from this book... But Nora just seemed a bit whinny. Granted, if I had to go through what Patch put her through, I would be royally ticked off. But at the same time, what Fitzpatrick tried to make as Nora going off on her own and sticking to her morals about the way Patch treated her just didn't quite make it there and actually made Nora... an annoying girl that guys try to stay away from.

When Nora found out the whole story of why Patch did what he did, she understood right away and the drama was gone. She just waited 300 pages to finally stop complaining long enough to hear what Patch had to say...

I think as a strong willed female character, Nora did exactly what she was supposed to. As a girlfriend in a relationship where trust is involved, she definitely failed. I'm hoping that the situation where the cliffhanger in Crescendo leaves the reader will be resolved in the 3rd book, along with some character building where Nora is concerned.

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

I'm going to do a quick overview of Hush Hush, one of my all time favorite young adult novels written by Becca Fitzpatrick. I've read this book about 5 times and now I'm reading the 3rd book that just came out Silence, but I wanted to give you an idea of the setting and subject of this series when I review the 2nd and 3rd books.

Hush Hush is about a girl, Nora, who is a junior in high school and lives a normal life. At least, it was normal before she started getting attention from the transfer student in her science class, Patch. Then things started to get a little interesting and dangerous (not particularly in a good way either).

See, Patch is a fallen angel. He lost his wings years ago and now he's set his eyes on Nora to get those wings back. This isn't the lovey-dovey attention either. Instead, Nora is part of a blood line that will inadvertently help Patch get the goal he's set out to get. I'm not going to tell you how she's supposed to help him - you can go read it for yourself to find out :-)

Along the way of getting Nora to do what Patch wants, though, comes trouble for Patch. See, he's a pretty elusive guy who wants everyone to think that he's a "tough, bad" guy. Then he starts to admire Nora.... And then he starts to feel attracted to her. Also, keep in mind that while Patch has one perception of himself, he's really good looking and mysterious to others, making him very easy to be attracted to her...

And boy do those scenes do justice for the Chemistry they have (and let me just say that science?! Enough of Twilight scenes... thank goodness this has nothing to do with vampires!)

Okay, I think that's the amount I'm going into for Hush Hush. It's an amazing book and I'm rereading the second book Crescendo for the newest installment, so keep an eye out for a new post soon!

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Even though this book, The Iron Knight, is about Ash with Ash's point of view, I have to say: I LOVE Puck and Grim. Just love them. Without them, I wouldn't have laughed the 100 times I did throughout this novel. (Okay it might not have been 100 times, but it was a lot!)

(By the way, Puck is a trickster faerie and Grim is a cat, a cait sith, in the novel - so now I hope the following quote will make sense to those who haven't read this series yet)

I'm going to give one excerpt to try to make you understand why I love them so much. It describes Puck's and Grim's personality throughout the 300+ pages in this novel:

...then [I] stepped onto the platform near the back, grabbing the long wooden pole. As Puck entered, looking pensive, I nodded at Grimalkin, still sitting on the barrel. 'You coming or not, cait sith?'

He gave the raft a dubious glance, curling his whiskers. 'I suppose I must if I wish to see you to the End of the World.' Standing, he tensed his muscles to leap off the barrel, but hesitated, narrowing his eyes. 'Although, I will issue this one warning. If I end up in the river because some idiot decides to rock the boat-- he flattened his ears at Puck, who gave him a wide-eyed look of innocence '-I know severel witches who would be happy to bring down a particularly potent curse on said idiot's head.'

 LOVE IT!!! Okay, I'm over my obsession of Puck and Grim! On to the review!

Kagawa did an amazing job with this novel. I loved the ending of The Iron Queen accepting the fate that lead each character to her ending. However, I much prefer this ending to the series because everyone gets a final ending to their story. This story helped tie up loose ends that fans wanted answers to, wrapping up the story very well.

I did miss Meghan, as I'm used to her narrating the story in the last 3 novels, but Ash was a great character to choose for this novel. Ash was always a mystery to me, which was why I loved him. He always kept his emotions under wraps, never letting anyone know what he was really feeling, so this was a great narration that I finally understood where Ash was coming from.

The only thing I think could make this series even better is if we had a book written in Puck's view point - to have each of the characters really tell the reader what they feel and how they go through life with the memories they have like Ash did throughout The Iron Knight. However, it's not necessary because I had Puck's everlasting impression throughout this novel, showing me things that I was able to uncover through Ash's eyes.

Overall, great, GREAT book. I believe (but don't quote me on this) that the series is completed! So now you can start and finish this series in one sitting ;-) starting with The Iron King, Winter's Passage, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, Summer's Crossing, and The Iron Knight.

...So what are you waiting for?! Go into the fairy world Kagawa created! Go on, you'll thank me later ;-)

The Great Month of November

So far, I'm loving November! I've gotten 3 books that continue amazing series that I read (even though I had to wait forever for them) and now I have the tough decision of what to read first and if I want to read the beginning of the books in the series. Tough life, I know ;-)

Here are the three books I've bought and will be reviewing soon in the future after I've read them:

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick: The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for-and their love-forever. (From Goodreads)

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa: My name-my True Name-is Ashallyn'darkmyr Tallyn. I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. 


And I am dead to her. 


My Fall began, as many stories do, with a girl...


To cold faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing gentler feelings the Winter Prince might have had. Or so he thought. (From Goodreads)

Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck: With the head-to-head battle against the villainous Lokesh behind her, Kelsey confronts a new heartbreak: in the wake of his traumatic experience, her beloved Ren no longer remembers who she is. As the trio continues their quest by challenging five cunning and duplicitous dragons, Ren and Kishan once more vie for her affections-leaving Kelsey more confused than ever. 


Fraught with danger, filled with magic, and packed with romance, Tiger's Voyage brings Kelsey and her two tiger princes one step closer to breaking the curse. (From Goodreads) 

Okay, off to start my great new books! Reviews to come soon, after zipping through these books! Yay!

Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

The ending of the Wicked Lovely series... So sad, endings are always gut wrenching as I never want a good storyline to end. However, Melissa Marr did an amazing job wrapping up each storyline throughout this series, which I think is AMAZING because there were so many characters that needed to be followed, mentioned, and find their ending to the Faerie world.

I'm not going to give too much away from Darkest Mercy, because... well it's the final book! Go read the first 4 and then you can enjoy this amazing ending!

So, at a glance, I'm going to mention the main - er, submain and even lower main - characters of this series to explain just how happy I was for their ending.

Aislinn - Seth - Keenan - Donia: These four have had it rough. Between the different courts they were associated with to who they loved to who they desired, it's enough to make 1 person go crazy - let alone FOUR! But Marr found the perfect (in this crazy messed up quatro) ending for all of the characters, making each one happy with the decisions made.

Niall - Irial - Leslie: While Leslie was barely in here, she was a main part of the ending for this particular trio. With this particular group, Marr lead the reader on a very gut wrenching journey, scaring many by the choices the character makes and maybe even making the readers very, very angry. In the end, though, each character was in a good place, able to keep their connections and find a ... balance ... between the three.

Ani - Devlin - Sorcha - Bananach: While Ani, Devlin, and Sorcha were not talked about throughout this novel, they are very key characters in this series. We got the happy ending for Ani and Devlin in Radiant Shadows (click here for my post on that book) and Sorcha was content at the beginning of this book for things happening in Faerie land. Bananach... well she wasn't very nice, being WAR and all, so she got the ending that she deserved.

Seeing all of the courts complete and whole, with a few additional surprises thrown in for good measure, made me appreciate Melissa Marr's writing abilities. She did a great job for the ending of an addicting series, so while I'm not thrilled that my Keenan, Seth, Devlin, Niall and Irial fix is finite/done/gone, I'm very pleased with the ending.

Oh, and also... If this review didn't convince you to go read the books... then I give up! I think everyone should give 'em a go, though :)

Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr

The fourth book of this series, Radiant Shadows, delved deeper into the Faerie Courts, this time into the High Court and Dark Court following the two characters Devlin and Ani.

We met both of these characters throughout the first 3 novels, but now the reader finds out that Devlin knew about Ani before she was even born! This makes their history together very linked, so it was bound for them to become a part of one's lives throughout this story.

Ani is different. She's a Hound, part of the Dark Court where she feeds off of touching others. But she's also mortal, and a mortal/faerie in the Dark Court feeds off of emotions.

With the two types of feeds, she's a dangerous person to be around, especially when someone is touching her and allowing Ani to feel her emotions. She could drain their essence.

Devlin is the High Court Assassin. He does the High Queen's dirty work, showing no emotion and killing without a thought. He just follows Sorcha's orders - until Devlin was ordered to kill Ani many years ago, and didn't.

Now, Ani and Devlin are drawn together for many different reasons. Ani is different than any fey and Devlin was created in a way that made him different than other fey. When they travel together, trying to find a way to save the fey, secrets are let out and attractions are unvieled that neither character knew they wanted/needed before they met one another.

Melissa Marr did it again. She took two characters and made the fey land very real, explaining the process of each court to the reader to make the understand not just the Summer Court where she first started the Wicked Lovely series, but each Court associated with the fey. I can't wait to read the final installment of this series - which I'm going to start right ... now!

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

After finishing this novel, my initial thought is "poor Ash!" That girl has gone through too much during her 17 years and this book made her life incredibly hard. I would not have wanted to have been her at all.

*Note* If you have not read any of the previous books in this series and do not want to read spoilers, I'm kindly letting you know that now would be the time to stop reading. I'm not going to give away anything in this book, but I will be talking about the previous books.

In Fragile Eternity, I was pleasently surprised that many of the initial characters from the first two novels were discussed in more detail: Seth, Ash, Donia, etc. and we were introduced to new characters throughout the Faerie Courts: Sorcha, Bananach.

Ash has a lot to deal with: being the new Summer Queen, fighting off Keenan's affections, and staying true to Seth and her love for him, all while trying to live the "mortal" life with her school, school friends, and see her grandmother (Like I said: Poor Ash!). Seth, on the other hand, is getting frustrated with just being a "mere mortal". He's tired of Ash going off with Keenan to do Court stuff and he's getting a tad jealous. So, to fix this, he decides he wants to become a faery himself!

This novel travels with Seth (mostly: it veers off to Ash, Keenan, Donia, and Niall a little bit, keeping the reader on their toes and learning new tidbits of the other Faerie Courts) and his journey to try and find a way to be with Aislinn forever - so she would never have to pick between her mortal boyfriend and her faery king.

In the end, though, Seth was not able to see the ... problems that would arise with his decision that has left ALL of the courts in a bit of a tussle...

I can't wait to read the next book to see what Ash and Seth decide, and to see if Bananach gets her way, since she is War and wants all of the courts to start fighting one another. This series just gets better and better; Marr has a great writing style and she is entrapping me into her stories, making me anticipate what will happen next. (Thank goodness I have all 5 books and won't have to wait!)

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

The second novel in Marr's series, Wicked Lovely, we get to follow Leslie's story about the Dark Court in Ink Exchange. While we visited Aislinn, Seth, Keenan, and the Summer Court throughout this novel, Leslie was our main focus and the reader was able to finally see Leslie's personal life and how she transitioned into the faerie world as Aislinn did throughout the first novel.

Again, Marr created a love triangle in this novel, tying Niall, Leslie, and Irial into a web that was so tight, it was hard not to fall in love with each characters. Niall and Irial are so similar that it seemed Leslie was almost falling for the same person sometimes.

However, for me Niall won because of his heart - he tried to do the right thing for Leslie whereas Irial, being the Dark Court king, had to do things for his court instead of what was right for Leslie.

Don't get me wrong, Irial had some great moments throughout this novel, especially the end where the king of the Dark Court started thinking of someone else's feelings and got trapped by Leslie's viewpoint. He also did the right thing with his court at the end of the novel. I just think overall Niall was able to fight the temptation throughout the novel better than Irial did.

Leslie is definitely a different character than Aislinn was in the first novel, which is why I like her so much. If she was another Ash, I would have gotten bored with the story, but Leslie was a victim in the beginning of the novel. She was scared, timid, frightened and she just wanted to get out of the situation that her family put her in.

Throughout the novel, Leslie was able to grow farther and start to make her own decisions - due to mainly Irial's bad intentions, but at the end of the novel, Leslie was able to finally make her own choice, whereas in the beginning of the novel she wouldn't have have the courage to do so.

While I didn't get to see the storyline grow between Keenan, Seth and Aislinn, I'm very glad that I was able to see one of Aislinn's friends background and how she conquered her fears in this novel. I also liked how Marr was able to change the viewpoint in the series because we obtained more information about another Court in this storyline, tying some more key points together from the first novel and leaving more holes to be answered in future novels.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

I've finally got my own copy of Wicked Lovely book series and am rereading them! This first book of the series is amazing - I love Aislinn. She's a strong character who seems timid at first when she cowers away from the fey that she has been able to see all of her life. However, I think that is very smart rather than cowardly because she was able to throw the faeries for a loop when they discovered that she has been able to see them her entire life.

Keenan's a character - a Summer King who is used to getting whatever and whoever he wants, but he meets resistance when he wants Aislinn. Throughout the novel the kind pouts a lot because he's not able to figure Ash out, but by the end of the book he realizes that this is a different century where females don't have to look dotting at him and he can start his reign of the Summer Court in a different style than the court has seen.

And Seth. I adore Seth - he's got that older, mysterious aura around him that makes anyone associated with him want to find answers to his secrets. I love that he waited for Ash to come to her senses about the two of them and I want to read more about Seth in the upcoming novels.

If you like faeries, a love triangle, or the paranormal, these books are definitely for you! And the best part? All of the books in the series are complete and ready for you to checkout/buy! So no waiting for the next installment - you can fly through all 5 novels as fast as you can read! Now... what are you waiting for? Go check out Wicked Lovely!

If I Die by Rachel Vincent

Rachel Vincent did it again by creating an amazing book in the Soul Screamer series! I don't want to talk too much in detail about this book because it is the 5th book in the series, but I do want to say that everyone should go out right now and either buy or check out all of these books at the library! Vincent's writing is incredible, entrapping me into her story for ours straight. (I stayed up until 3:30 am and forced myself to stop reading!)

Here's a small portion of what happens in the story (without trying to give away too much about the previous 4 books): Kaylee is a banshee - she gets the urge to scream when anyone around her is dying. When she screams, she can keep their soul from moving on, and if she's with a male banshee, they can put the soul back into their body. 

But it comes with a price: when one is saved, another will die.

Kaylee knows all about borrowed time; she died when she was 3 years old in a car accident and her mother and father saved her - but her mother died in her place. Now, it's Kaylee's turn to die, as she's dying on the day that her mother would have died if they didn't upset the natural order of life. 

Throughout this novel, Kaylee realizes what's important to her. She only has 6 days to live - she's going to make the most out of it and not do things that she doesn't want to do. Now she's reevaluating her life and finding out that there are people she can and can't forgive for past actions, and she's going after what she wants rather than what she thinks other want her to do. 

Again, this was an amazing book. There are so many surprises and, yes, there is a cliffhanger at the end of the novel, but I know that Vincent is working on the next novel right now and it will hopefully be out very soon! I can't wait to see the ending of this amazing series and I hope everyone will go out and read these books!

Rachel Vincent Overload!

Today I finally got my amazon books that I ordered awhile ago. Inside this box had 4 books involving Rachel Vincent, one of my favorite YA authors! Here's what the box contained:

 

  

I already have the rest of the Shifter series (the books that go in between Stray (1st books) and Alpha (last book)). Also, if you have no idea about the first two books, Enthralled has a novella for the Soul Screamer series and If I Die is the newest book in the series!

Now.... I just have to figure out what to read first! It's going to be an amazing few days where I get to read all of these books :)

Books similar to Hunger Games

To avoid doing homework, I helped a former library boss but still a great friend to find books that are similar to Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I found about 12-15 books and thought to share it with everyone else in case you have just read or want to read other books that have the same qualities of Hunger Games, but don't want to re-read the books (But, come 'on, who wouldn't want to re-read them?!)

So, here's a list of the books and I'm linking the title to Goodreads so you can get a better sense of what the books are about. These aren't in any particular order, just the books that came to me throughout the night.

Enclave by Anne Aguirre

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

Divergent by Veronica Roth

XVI by Julia Karr

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

The Running Man by Stephen King

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Eden by Keary Taylor

So, what do you think? Anything look interesting to you? I've read Delirium, the Uglies series, and Girl in the Arena and they all have similar qualities as Hunger Games. I'm really interested to read Enclave, Divergent, and Eden, though. They look really intriguing!

Banned Book Week + Amazon card giveaway

So this week is Banned Book Week and in honor of this week, a blog that I follow, The Book Swarm, is giving away 2 gift cards to Amazon.com for $15! Maybe with that gift card you can buy a banned book! Or anything else that you've been wanting for awhile... But either way, it's a giveaway! So go on over to their blog and fill out the giveaway requirements before October 1 for a chance to win!

The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

This is a sad story, but very well written and the ending showed the characters came to terms with what happened and found a way to accept the past events.

Laurel is a very academic driven student. She made a bet with her father that for every point she gets after 700 on each of her tests of her SATs, she'll get a dollar. Getting good grades to get into a top notch school like Yale has always been in her mindset, so when he family and the Kaufman's get together for dinner, then go out for ice cream, she decides to walk home to study some more for the SATs.

Later that night, though, a police officer is at her door telling her that her mother, father, and younger brother, along with Mr. and Mrs. Kaufman were in a car accident. Everyone died on impact except for Mr. Kaufman, who was driving the vehicle.

After that, Laurel's life was turned upside down. She was alone and her grandmother came to live with Laurel, to be with her during this crisis. In a sense, though, Laurel wasn't exactly alone. David Kaufman, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Kaufman, also didn't go out for ice cream, so he found out that his mother died and his father was in a coma at the hospital, stable, but not responding to any tests.

Throughout the novel, Laurel tries to come to terms with what happened. She gets the pity treatment from her teachers and classmates; the awkward silence with a boy who likes her but is always walking on eggshells around Laurel; and starts to keep secrets from her best friend, Meg, because she's not sure how to tell her things anymore.

During all of these changes in Laurel's life, though, she finds some comfort around David. He knows what she's going through, and even though he's MIA for most of the book, when they do converse and see one another, there's this knowing between the two of them that Laurel can't feel with anyone else.

This was a really great book. Jennifer Castle, I think, did a really great job putting into words what one would think, feel, and react in a situation of losing one's family. It's heartbreaking, lonely, and hatred, all wrapped up together that can't be released for fear of side effects. I would recommend this book to everyone, just because it is so beautifully written and narrated. I wouldn't recommend it if someone wanted a happy, cheerful book, but this is definitely something that everyone should read at one point or another in their life.

Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

This third, and final, book of the Perfect Chemistry series was well worth the wait! I was interested to see how Luis would turn out to be compared to his older, reckless brothers, and I wasn't disappointed.

One thing that I really loved about this book was that the author changed the scenery back to Illinois. I'm biased since I live in IL, but when the characters reflected about the weather and the formation of land in IL, I was definitely able to relate to it and it made the story more "real" for me.

Luis Fuentes is the younger brother of 3 boys, which the other 2 brothers have been associated with gangs and had a hard time going through high school with the rivalry gangs, etc. Luis was, fortunately, able to stay away from that scene since he moved away from the high school his brothers went to, and was looked at as the "good" brother - the one who didn't get into trouble.

However, Luis's family moved back to IL and everything started to spiral from there. Luis had straight A's, a goal for a college and a career aspiration - so his next 10 years were already planned out. He didn't expect to fall in love with a Mexican girl, who is more American than Mexican having grown up on the "high society" life with white people, or getting initiated into the gang that his older brother, Alex, was a part of while in school.

Dealing with all of these situations that occurred, Luis has to decide what to do with his life - should he stick to his 10 year plan, or should he join the Latino Blood gang to gain additional "family"?

I liked this book. It wasn't the best out of the series (which, in my opinion, is Perfect Chemistry!) but it was nice to get Luis's viewpoint and know his attitude of life after living with Alex and Carlos. Also, I got the feeling that Luis was more badass than the girl in the book, Nikki. The reviews of the book I've read stated that Nikki was the bad girl in the story, but overall, I think it was the opposite. It might just be me, but with the situations that occurred in the story, I feel that Luis was definitely the "bad boy". And I'm okay with the bad boy instead of the bad girl!

These are the actors who played the Fuentes brothers in the
booktrailers. Order from left to right: Alex, Carlos, and Luis.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, I would just say that I think everyone should read the books in order to fully understand the characters in this book. It can be a stand alone, but the reader will fully appreciate the family scenes between the 3 brothers if the other 2 were read beforehand.

Very Excited!

I got Vampire Diaries season 2 on DVD Thursday! I haven't had time to watch it yet because I'm trying to finish up Lost (on the last season right now!) so I might not watch the whole season again before the 3rd season starts (this upcoming Thursday!!!). However, I will watch the last few episodes before Thursday to refresh what happened and I'll definitely watch the bloopers and deleted scenes.

The cover and photos provided in the case are so beautiful! I wonder how they find such gorgeous people to cast in this show. I can't wait to see if Stephen is still going to be evil and what may (or may not) happen between Damon and Elana. So many mysteries and soon they will start to get more dramatized and hopefully answered!

Kindles / E-Books

As a "librarian in training", I've come to accept that Kindles and other formats that allow e-Books to be downloaded on are the style in today's society and they are a great source for a lot of books in one storage space.

I've also realized that while I may accept them, I won't want one for my own personal use. I'm a physical book kind of gal and I need to have the book in my hand. I stare at this electronic device (laptop) almost all day that I don't want to stare at another electronic device (Kindle) for the other part of the day.

That being said, I really dislike when authors publish books ONLY in Kindle - e-Book formats!!! It almost makes me want to get a Kindle even though I won't use it as often as I should to even out the difference of the amount I would pay for a Kindle.

Here's one great example of a book that would get me to finally buy a Kindle:

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn't drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend America, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. 


Travis Maddox, lean, cut and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs-and wants-to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby's resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month, If Abby loses, she must live in Travis' apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match. 


(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)


Now, doesn't that sound like an amazing book?? I definitely want to read it, but alas, it's only in an e-Book format! :( I really hope that the author will publish it into a paper format sometime in the future so I can get my hands on it!

If there are more books like this that comes out in the near future, my resistance to Kindles and e-Books might be cracked as I will not be able to accept that I will NEVER read those books just because I won't covert my personal library to a digital format...

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

For my internship this semester, I had to read Fahrenheit 451 as it's part of the freshmen class assignment and it's also part of the banned book month coming up for the library's display. As an English major, I'm ashamed to say that I had not read this book before now, and after the first few pages I actually enjoyed the book and the message that it gave to the reader.

When I found out that the firemen were burning books instead of putting out fires, I was very sad. Who would want to burn books?!?

Following Guy's thoughts and feelings throughout him thinking about his life and his career was very interesting and it showed how this society in Bradbury's novel thought they way they did to destroy all books. Knowledge for us today is a great thing to have, but in this society, only knowledge about doing things was deemed important - not about things that made others think and criticized why things worked the way that they did.

This novel definitely made me think more about books in the sense that one gains critical information through the words rather than for pleasure or entertainment purposes like I do with my young adult novels that I fly through.

New TV Show Obsession

I've been wanting to watch a tv show for quite a while now but didn't want to buy all 6 seasons - I wasn't sure if I would like it THAT much. So I decided that I would find links online to watch the first season.

What, may you ask, is this show? It's none other than Lost which finished airing last year. I'm so upset that I didn't watch this show when it was on ABC! I LOVE it!

The reason I started watching this show was because Ian Somerhalder is in it. I know he's not a main, main character, but after being obsessed with Vampire Diaries (which I pre-ordered the second season already, eek!) I wanted to see other roles that he's acted in. I did stumble upon him in the pilot episode of Fearless (which is talked about in detail at this link) and now I'm flying through the first episodes of Lost.

Thankfully I have an account on www.sidereel.com where I can track shows, current or completed, and they provide a ton of links that I'm able to watch.

So, suffice to say, I love this show and while I may be able to restrain myself from buying all of the seasons on DVD, I'm definitely going to be spending a lot of my free time watching the shows because it hooked me right from the first episode.

Teeth: Vampire Tales by Ellen Datlow

I picked up this anthology of novella's about vampires because there were stories by Cassandra Clare and Holly black included, so I wanted to see what these two authors wrote about vampire wise. However, their story The Perfect Dinner Party wasn't my favorite out of the 20 stories, which kind of disappointed me.

Many of the stories were alright in my opinion. I'm not going to go and give a review to all 20 stories because some I just skimmed or skipped it entirely. There are two poems in here that caught my attention, but my 3 favorite stories were Flying by Delia Sherman, Transition by Melissa Marr, and Why Light? by Tanith Lee.

Overall, I'm glad that I got this at the library and didn't buy it to have for my own copy. It just wasn't that good. I read the reviews on Goodreads that said pretty much the same thing, but I had to give it a go for myself because of the hit names that were included in this anthology of stories.

Bloodspell (Giveaway) by Amalie Howard

Isn't this cover great!
Definitely want to read it!

I'm following another blog called "The Book Swarm" and they are doing a giveaway for the book called Bloodspell by Amalie Howard. The description of this book looks really great and I'm definitely going to read it in the near future (so it will be going on my "to reads" on Goodreads!)

Here is the website if anyone else is interested in going into the giveaway for the book, which closes August 13.

August!

I want my walls at my house to look like this!

I have blogged about one thing or another for 2 whole months! This is very exciting, as some of my friends can agree, because I talked about blogging for 2 years before I finally did it... It was a late process haha.

However, now that it's August, I don't think I'll blog every day. I'll be starting my internship for 2-3 days, working my normal job for 2-3 days, and homework will start to roll around in the middle of the month so I won't be reading AS MUCH as I did for the last 2 months. I'll probably blog once a week, just to still stay in the process of blogging.

Also, I've requested a few more books from the library to narrow down my "to reads" on Goodreads, so I'll have those still before I either slow down in reading or reread a bunch of books that I've been wanting to read all summer.

Thank you for reading all of my blogs all summer! I'll try and find good books throughout the Fall semester and keep blogging :)

Fearless Pilot (TV show)

So I did a review on the book series Fearless by Francine Pascal (here's the link to the review) awhile ago. Well, I didn't mention that CW (or WB or whatever they are calling themselves now) tried to make a tv show about it! This was about 5 or more years ago when I was still in high school and apparently they released the first pilot show!

This episode is based on the series of Fearless FBI where Gaia is in the FBI and out of high school. I was a little disappointed with the person they chose for Gaia (Rachel Leigh Cook) not because I don't like her (I actually love her as an actress) but because she isn't the right description for Gaia's character which is long blonde hair, blue eyes, and doesn't care about her appearance. However, I still would have watched this show religiously if it would have kept airing.

Sadly, it didn't get any farther than that show on air. I hunted, and I mean HUNTED, to find this show online and while the quality it not the best, I did find the episode :) It's in 5 parts and I'm including the link's below (1st link is the first part, and so on.)

Part 1 out of 5:

Part 2 out of 5:

Part 3 out of 5

Part 4 out of 5:

Part 5 out of 5:

Hope you enjoyed it and maybe it will make you want to read the 40+ books in the series :D Or, maybe not!

What Happened to Goodbye

I love Sarah Dessen. I got into a period where I found all of her books and read them all, picking my favorite one out of the bunch. While I really liked What Happened to Goodbye, it wasn't my all time favorite of hers.

Mclean has moved to 4 different places in the last 2 years. Her dad is a representative of EAT INC. and goes to restaurants that aren't doing so well, changed the appearance, food, staff, etc. to make it better, and then moves on to the next location. Each time Mclean is enrolled into a new school, she decides to change herself. One time she was a preppy cheerleader, another she was involved in every club or association, etc.

When Mclean moves to her last place before she graduates high school, she was making a new identity when somehow she was being called Mclean by her classmates and teachers. Usually she fixes that mistake and says, call me ______ (like Eliza or Beth). Now she's starting to try and find her real identity instead of the people she's made up in the past 2 years.

While all of this is happening, Mclean is also trying to get past the hatred she feels for her mother because 3 years ago her mom cheated on her dad, got a divorce, and is now a rich wife with twins to boot. Her mom wants everything to go back to normal with Mclean, but Mclean doesn't want her old life because her parents aren't together anymore and everything is different.

This was a great story. I love Sarah Dessen's writing and it really entrapt me when I was reading. I would have done the same thing as Mclean with what she did with her mom, but I think it would be very interesting to try and be a part of different cliques every school. I can't imagine being in one clique, let only 4!

If you've ever read any of Sarah Dessen's books, this is a must read. If you've never read her books, you MUST!!! They are great, realistic reads and will make you laugh at times.

Wild Ride

Now doesn't this cover capture your
attention??

When reading the back of this book, I didn't think that I would be able to fully understand the story because it clearly stated that it was a sequel to another book. However, every time I went to the library this book spine and cover just kept grabbing my attention and I always picked it up, knowing that I've already read the blurb, so I gave in and checked it out.

It actually wasn't that bad of a book. It's very short and easy to read, and reading about a girl in love with motorcycles was a different twist for me. It definitely isn't my favorite book, but it was a nice little read and following January's experiences with the new boarder at her house, Willow (another motorcyclist), and her feelings about the nerdy computer boy, Liam, at school was definitely entertaining for most of the story.

Jacqueline Guest did a really great job with this book in showing January's thoughts, and if I can find time, and more of Jacqueline's books, I might try and read a few more of her novels that she's written.

Steel

Jill competes in the sport of fencing, and she misses going to the next level of competition by half a second when her opponent hits her first. A few months after that disappointment, Jill goes on vacation with her parents and 2 younger siblings, where she's supposed to relax and enjoy the time off from practice and working out to be better in fencing.

On the beach at their vacation site, Jill finds a tip of a rapier sword, all rusted and unused. She then goes on a tour boat for one of the features during her vacation and falls off of the boat, with the rapier tip in her pocket! When she is fished out of the water, she's surrounded by real life pirates, hundreds of years in the past!

Jill is trying to survive day by day with the pirates, following Captain Cooper's order, who thankfully is a female pirate. While scrubbing the deck and getting a horrible sunburn, and dry skin on her hands, Jill tries to find ways to go back home to her family and her time, many years in the future.

Throughout the entire time she's on the ship with her new "crew", Jill learns to fight with a rapier instead of the padded swords she used in her fencing competition, and she learns to take care of herself more and more among the unpredictable pirates that surround her.

I liked this book. I thought it was going to be different, but it turned out to be an alright book. I really liked reading and understanding more about how fencing works since I've never seen or done fencing before. This book had a little bit of a slow start, but I liked the ending and the action that took place.

Samurai Girl

A series that was written years ago called Samurai Girl by Carrie Asai, was one of my favorites. It's about a girl named Heaven who was the only survivor from a plane crash when she was only 6 months old. Now, years later, she is being hunted by men who want to marry her for her fortune now that she is of age to be married.

Throughout these 6 novels, we follow Heaven on her journey to learning how to protect herself not only from her want to be suitors but also from people who want her dead because of the image that she presents to her heritage. She learns how to be a Samurai warrior and how to use the elements that are in the title of the books to help protect herself.

I really loved these books and I'm thinking about going back and rereading them, once I figure out where I put them a long time ago!

The Opposite of Invisible

Alice is a typical 15 year old girl. She's not too popular at school, has a best friend named Jewel who is very artistic and his photos are liked by many at her school, and she tries to find her place throughout the many different cliques at school. So when popular, football boy Simon starts to pay attention to Alice, she's both flattered and stunned, thinking that no one ever saw her except Jewel (and they've been friends since they were 3).

At the same time Alice and Simon started to talk to one another, Jewel kissed Alice, showing her that he wants to be more than friends. Alice has to decide if she wants her old friend as more than a friend or if she wants the popularity that comes with being with Simon.

Along with that mess, Alice goes to a glassmaking class and is surprised to see a popular cheerleader from her school there, giving her an incentive to talk to another person she thought was out of her reach in the social ladder. Throughout this novel, Alice learns that just because some are labeled in certain cliques, doesn't always mean that the clique has to define the person.

This was a nice little read, only 151 pages and it showed the inner struggles Alice went through with all of her decisions. Many high school students will like this story because it will probably reflect some part of their lives in high school and they questions they come up with based on their friends, boyfriends, and enemies.

Tiger's Quest

The second book in Colleen Houck's series was amazing! Kelsey is yet again going off to get another item to save Ren and Kishan from their curse of being a tiger, but this time she's going with Kishan because Ren was stolen by Lokesh. Lokesh is the evil king from 350 years ago that put the curse on Kishan, and now he wants Kelsey because of the amulet and the power that she is receiving from the Indian Goddess.

From my review of Tiger's Curse, you could tell that I was team Ren. I didn't know any better though. Houck has put me in a situation: now that I know how Kishan is and his personality a little bit better, I'm at a loss. Both boys are amazingly handsome, determined, and put Kelsey before anything in their lives.

Also, I have to say that this series gets better and better. At first I was irritated with Kelsey's character, thinking she thought too much and over analyzed everything before she took one step. She has developed into a stronger character and I felt that she has grown more. I can't wait for the next book to come out and see what happens in November 2011 (I'm not going into too much detail because I'll certainly give spoilers from the 1st and 2nd book)

Two upcoming series

I got the first book of 2 series that I bought for very cheap at Goodwill and Borders, since they are going out of business soon.

The first one is The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han and The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Once I get to the library to order the rest of the books in the series (3 total for Jenny Han's books and 4 total for Anna Godberson's books) I'll probably zip right through them and not have to wait for a new one to come out, since the series are already completed :-D

To Be Read Very Soon!

I'm right in the middle of Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck but I got great books from the library in the past 2 days that I'm very excited to start reading! Here's the list of the upcoming reads/reviews I'll have throughout the next few days.

Steel by Carrie Vaughn. This is the one that I've been waiting to read! I'm so excited to see how the main female character gets sucked back into time on a pirate ship!

The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher. I can't wait to read this, it's been on my "to read" list on Goodreads for awhile so now that I have it, it looks like it will be a fast read for how small it is.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I'm not sure if I've read this before, but it's a nice, easy read and something a little bit different than I've been reading lately so it will be a nice change of pace.

Wild Ride by Jacqueline Guest. The cover really got my attention on this book and even though it's a sequel to another book I hope that I enjoy the story line.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I've been wanting to read this book for awhile, especially because everyone in my YA class brings it up, so now I'm officially going to read it!

So there ya have it! What are you wanting to read this weekend, upcoming week?

Tiger's Curse

I've had this book for over 6 months now, just putting it off because I didn't think that I would like it. How wrong was I!!! This is a "retelling" of Beauty and the Beast but with a twist: the beast is an Indian prince, 350 years old, who was turned into a beautiful white and black striped tiger with amazing blue eyes and the Beauty thinks that she is no beauty but just a normal, American 18 year old.

Peak your interest yet?

Kelsey started to work at a circus near her hometown in Oregon, just for a summer job so she can save some money before she goes to a local community college. She didn't include a beautiful tiger that she was always drawn to as part of the circus routine. Whenever Kelsey had any free time (she was staying on the circus grounds for 2 weeks while she worked there) she would always go near the tiger's cage and read from her books, sketch, or just talk to the tiger in a normal discussion.

Kelsey felt sorry for the tiger one day and wished that he was free to roam the wild, like most tigers do. When she said that, it freed Ren, the tiger, somewhat from his curse. He's been forced to be a tiger for 300 years but when Kelsey said that he was able to turn into a man again for 24 minutes every day.

After that, Kelsey went to India to try and help Ren out of the curse he's been forced to live with for so many years and she is also struggling to keep her feelings in that she's starting to feel for Ren. Kelsey definitely wasn't expecting to find magic and mystery during the summer of her 18th birthday, and neither was she expecting to fall in love.

I liked this book. It definitely caught me by surprise - I really didn't think I was going to be too interested in the story and now I just went and bought the second book Tiger's Quest today so I wouldn't have to wait too long to continue Kelsey and Ren's story.

The one thing that annoyed me to no end was Kelsey's reaction to falling for Ren. She lost her parents when she was 15, so she's built a wall around her heart and is unsure if she should let Ren in. But it's sooo obvious that Ren has fallen head over heels in love with her! He's amazingly attractive, royal, and sensitive - she's missing out! If she doesn't want him, I'll certain trade her places :-)

I'm excited to read the next story, even though I'll have to wait for the next 2 books in the series to come out to find out if Kelsey can break the curse that Ren and his brother were trapped in all those years ago.