Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In OR Top Ten Characters I'd NEVER Want To Trade Places With


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this week's topic is Top Ten Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In OR Top Ten Characters I'd NEVER Want To Trade Places With, Enjoy!

1. The Hunger Games By: Suzanne Collins

I have to admit that as much as I love Katniss, I could never be her. I am not brave enough to handle everything that comes her way 













2. Throne Of Glass By: Sarah J. Maas

I could never be Celaena, another bad ass that I could never be but, I could not handle being around Chaol all the time like she was because I love him LOL, but she has to be so tough and strong all the time and with everything that she has had to deal with. 















3. Delirium Trilogy By: Lauren Oliver

I would not want to live in a world without love, and I don't know anyone that would want to live that way.


















 4. Uglies By: Scott Westerfeld

A world that is focused on looks is not one that I would want to live in,  People are so much more then what you see on the outside. 



















5. The Chemical Garden Trilogy By: Lauren DeStefano

The world of this series is not a great place to be a woman, everything that Rhine has to deal with is something I would never want to face myself. 

















6. Shatter Me Trilogy By: Tahereh Mafi

I would not want to be Juliette, honestly whenever I read this books I am on the fence about which team I am on, which is why I would not want to be her. I can never completely decide between Adam and Warner. 

















7. The Darkest Minds By: Alexandra Bracken 

 I would not want to live in a world where the children are in camps and the world is in ruins!





















Friday, January 24, 2014

Review: Relativity By: Cristin Bishara



Title: Relativity
Author: Cristin Bishara
Published: September 10th, 2013
Source: E-Galley from Netgalley
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!
Goodreads Summary:


If Ruby Wright could have her way, her dad would never have met and married her stepmother Willow, her best friend George would be more than a friend, and her mom would still be alive. Ruby knows wishes can't come true; some things just can't be undone. Then she discovers a tree in the middle of an Ohio cornfield with a wormhole to nine alternative realities.


Suddenly, Ruby can access completely different realities, each containing variations of her life—if things had gone differently at key moments. The windshield wiper missing her mother’s throat…her big brother surviving his ill-fated birth…her father never having met Willow. Her ideal world—one with everything and everyone she wants most—could be within reach. But is there such a thing as a perfect world? What is Ruby willing to give up to find out?


My Thoughts :


I was really curious to read this one, I had been putting it off for a while because so many parallel universe books came out last year and I was reading them all around the same time. I waited to read this one so that I wouldn’t be tired of this type of book and I am so glad that I waited to read this one because I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. Bishara incorporated more of a scientific aspect then many of the other YA parallel universe reads.


Ruby Wright is not happy, she has just moved to a new town courtesy of her dad new marriage and she is stuck with a crazy stepsister and stepmother that she doesn’t want. What she finds in a tree behind her new house. Their is nine parallel universes each a varaiation of her life. Ruby is determined to find the perfect one, the one where everything is just the way she wants her life to be. Adventures along the way, Ruby finds so many different things that she wants her perfect life to involve.


I really love parallel universes, I love imagining the different scenarios in which your life could be depending on the different choices you have made or things that have happened in your life that may have never happened. Relativity is full of that, Ruby recognizing when certain events happened that changed her life her that happened or were different that made her realize how much she was missing. The only thing that bothered me was that Ruby never really thought about the effects she was having on the universes while she was there.


Ruby was definitely determined to say the least, no matter what was happening to her or what her danger she is in. She loves physics and the science of it all, and was very interested in how the parallel universes and the tree went to be.

Relativity is a great read for a younger audience when it comes to parallel universes, a story filled with lessons on loving the life that you have and realizing that who you are is built up of so many moments that make you who you are.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Waiting On Wednesday!



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, that highlights upcoming book releases that everyone is waiting on.

This weeks selection is:



Title: Princess Of Thorns
Author: Stacey Jay
Published: December 8th, 2014
Goodreads Summary:

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm's fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

My Thoughts:

I am so curious about this one, I haven't read anything by Stacey Jay yet but, I can't wait to check this one out!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Review: Avalon (Avalon #1) By: Mindee Arnett



Title: Avalon (Avalon #1)
Author : Mindee Arnett
Published: January 21st, 2014
Source: ARC from publisher
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!
Goodreads Summary:

A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his cre
w of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Avalon is the perfect fit for teens new to sci-fi as well as seasoned sci-fi readers looking for more books in the YA space-and a great match for fans of Joss Whedon's cult hit show Firefly.

My Thoughts:

I was really excited and curious to start Avalon, last year I read Arnett’s debut The Nightmare Affair and I enjoyed it. I am not a huge sci fi reader, so I wasn’t sure what to expect and I was a bit hesitant and wasn’t sure what to expect. Arnett definitely made a book that is perfect for readers who aren’t into sci fi, it wasn’t overly complicated and it was fast paced and exciting. The book was fast paced and I never felt bored and I was definitely glued to the pages wanting to find out what happens next.

Jeth and his crew are teenage thieves, working for a crime boss to steal spaceships and anything else he may need. but, Jeth’s real reason for doing these jobs is he wants to buy back his ship the Avalon, it is the only thing that he has left of his parents after they were executed by the  government for treason. He is the leader of the group and he definitely feels a lot of pressure to take care of his friends and make sure that everything goes the way that he is supposed to, his little sister Lizzie is now a part of his crew and he definitely wants to take care of her and eventually get them all away from this life that they are leading. But, this new job that Jeth and his crew are assigned to changes each of their lives in ways that they never could have imagined.

Jeth was a great male narrator, I always love getting to read a male perspective in YA, I definitely think that their is a different feel when you get to be inside their head then in a female. Jeth has a lot of pressure on his shoulders and has really had to grow faster than any kid should have.

The secondary characters were each interesting in their own way. They each had their own stories as to how they ended up at the place where they were teenage thieves for a crime boss. They brought a lightness and humor to the book at times and I enjoyed each of them so much.

Overall, Avalon was great beginning and I can’t wait to find out what happens next, I definitely recommend this book for hesitant sci fi readers and hesitant YA readers. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, I couldn’t put it down!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Bookish Growth and Reading Tastes

Today, I wanted to talk about reading growth and bookish taste. I don’t what makes me feel like I have grown out of a book, while other series I could read a million times and never not enjoy it. The books that brought me back into reading  was Harry Potter and the Twilight series. I absolutely loved the Twilight series when I read it but, now years after I have read the series and the whole craze, I don’t love it as much as I used to. When I have seen the criticisms of the series and the reasons why people didn’t enjoy it or don’t like the series, I can see why and it has changed thoughts about the series now that I am older and haven’t read it in a few years.


On the other hand, Richelle Mead is one of my favorite authors and I love the Vampire Academy series and I try to read or listen to the series at least once a year. It is one of those series that no matter how many times I read it I still love, I haven’t grown out of my love for the series and no matter what I read about it I still really love it. I don’t know what changed for me with the Twilight series, maybe it was one of the first YA reads that I have read and maybe just the reawakening of my love of reading was overshadowed by some of the issues that were in the book that I didn’t notice at first.


Reading growth is something that I think is very important for a person who like us bookworms read a lot. I made one of my goals to read more from adult authors and read some of the series that I loved just for fun like the Stephanie Plum By: Janet Evanovich, and also Kay Scarpetta series by: Patricia Cornwell. I think that it is so important to read just for fun as a blogger. No pressure and no reviews. I haven’t read either of this series in such a long time and I can’t wait to read them again.


As a blogger I think many of us read so much and reading growth is inevitable. As someone reads so many books that are of their favorite genre or a lot of books from a certain genre, for example for me dystopians. I have higher standards and I feel like I do review books more harshly because I have read so many books from this genre and for a book to really blow me away it has to be very good and surpass so many of the other books that I have read in that genre.

How do you feel about your own bookish growth and reading tastes? Is there books that you once loved that no longer are your favorites? Have your reading tastes changed over the years? Let me know in the comments!

Friday, January 17, 2014

Review: Birthmarked (Birthmarked Trilogy #1) By: Caragh M. O'Brien



Title: Birthmarked (Birthmarked #1)
Author: Caragh M. O’Brien
Published: March 30th, 2010
Source: Bought
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary:

In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother's footsteps Gaia has become a midwife, delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over to be "advanced" into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve. Now Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught, but her choice is simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

My Thoughts:

I love dystopians, I really hadn’t heard much about this series and I was really curious about it. I didn’t have many expectations going into this book but, I really loved it! The story started off with the action and it kept my attention by never slowing down. The only problem I had at times with this story was that at times it read a little bit young even for YA. Somethings were overexplained or explained in very simple terms.

Gaia Stone has always lived outside the wall of the Enclave with her family, but her and her mother have served the enclave as long as she can remember. Her mother is a midwife and every month she has to deliver the first four babies to the Enclave. The children are adopted by families of the Enclave and they have the opportunity to come back to their families outside the walls of the Enclave but, they never do. Gaia had just thought that serving the Enclave was something that was their duty until her parents are arrested by the Enclave and she doesn’t know what happened to them.

I really enjoyed Birthmarked, it was so fast paced and engaging I was never bored and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Gaia was a great character and she would do anything to help her family and finding out that everything she believed in was wrong.  

Overall, Birthmarked was an exciting beginning to a trilogy that I can’t wait to continue, I definitely recommend for a younger reader or a hesitant dystopian reader.  

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Waiting On Wednesday!



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, that highlights upcoming book releases that everyone is waiting on.

This weeks selection is:


Title: Trust Me, I'm Lying
Author: Mary Elizabeth Summer
Published: October 20 14
Goodreads Summary:

Julep Dupree is a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at a swanky Chicago private school. When she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep's carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel.

My Thoughts:

I am definitely curious about this one, I really like the cover and I can't wait to find out more about it!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2014 Debuts I'm Excited For!


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this week's topic is Top Ten 2014 Debuts I'm excited for, Enjoy!


1. The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1) By: Lindsey Cummings 

Goodreads Summary:

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings

I think that this one sounds awesome and creepy!!


2. Landry Park (Landry Park #1) By: Bethany Hagen

Goodreads Summary:

Downton Abbey meets The Selection in this dystopian tale of love and betrayal

In a fragmented future United States ruled by the lavish gentry, seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry dreams of going to the university. Unfortunately, gentry decorum and her domineering father won't allow that. Madeline must marry, like a good Landry woman, and run the family estate. But her world is turned upside down when she discovers the devastating consequences her lifestyle is having on those less fortunate. As Madeline begins to question everything she has ever learned, she finds herself increasingly drawn to handsome, beguiling David Dana. Soon, rumors of war and rebellion start to spread, and Madeline finds herself and David at the center of it all. Ultimately, she must make a choice between duty - her family and the estate she loves dearly - and desire

I love dystopians so this one definitely sounds like something I might enjoy!

3. The Prisoner Of Night and Fog By: Anne Blankman 

Goodreads Summary:

In 1930s Munich, danger lurks behind dark corners, and secrets are buried deep within the city. But Gretchen Müller, who grew up in the National Socialist Party under the wing of her "uncle" Dolf, has been shielded from that side of society ever since her father traded his life for Dolf's, and Gretchen is his favorite, his pet.

Uncle Dolf is none other than Adolf Hitler.

And Gretchen follows his every command.

Until she meets a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter named Daniel Cohen. Gretchen should despise Daniel, yet she can't stop herself from listening to his story: that her father, the adored Nazi martyr, was actually murdered by an unknown comrade. She also can't help the fierce attraction brewing between them, despite everything she's been taught to believe about Jews.

As Gretchen investigates the very people she's always considered friends, she must decide where her loyalties lie. Will she choose the safety of her former life as a Nazi darling, or will she dare to dig up the truth—even if it could get her and Daniel killed?

From debut author Anne Blankman comes this harrowing and evocative story about an ordinary girl faced with the extraordinary decision to give up everything she's ever believed . . . and to trust her own heart instead.

I am so curious about this one, I definitely can't wait to read my ARC!

4. Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1) By: Danielle Page

Goodreads Summary:

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling.

What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!

I have always loved The Wizard of Oz and I can't wait to see how it this one is. 

5. Pointe By: Brandy Colbert

Goodreads Summary:

Theo is better now.

She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.

Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

I have always loved ballet so anytime I can read about it I definitely can't wait to do it. 


6. A Mad and Wicked Folly By: Sharon Biggs Waller

Goodreads Summary:

Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London, 1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent, social class means everything, and women are taught to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl.
            
After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her muse—or may be the love of her life. As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out: just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dreams?

I am in love with this cover and I  am looking to read more historical reads this year!

7. Nearly Gone By : Elle Cosimano 

Goodreads Summary:

Bones meets Fringe in a big, dark, scary, brilliantly-plotted urban thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.

Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother's job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone's skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn't trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn't figure it all out soon—she'll be next

I have been dying to read this one since last year!

8. Great By: Sara  Benincasa

Goodreads Summary:

In Sara Benincasa's contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, a teenage girl becomes entangled in the drama of a Hamptons social circle, only to be implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community.

Everyone loves a good scandal.

Naomi Rye usually dreads spending the summer with her socialite mother in East Hampton. This year is no different. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the teenagers who have been summering (a verb only the very rich use) together for years. But Naomi finds herself captivated by her mysterious next-door neighbor, Jacinta. Jacinta has her own reason for drawing close to Naomi-to meet the beautiful and untouchable Delilah Fairweather. But Jacinta's carefully constructed world is hiding something huge, a secret that could undo everything. And Naomi must decide how far she is willing to be pulled into this web of lies and deception before she is unable to escape.

Based on a beloved classic and steeped in Sara Benincasa's darkly comic voice, Great has all the drama, glitz, and romance with a terrific modern (and scandalous) twist to enthrall readers

Can't wait to check out this retelling!

9. The Lonesome Young  By: Lucy Connors

Goodreads Summary:

Get swept away in the first book of the sensational romantic drama that is Romeo & Juliet meets Justified.

WHAT HAPPENS when the teenage heirs of two bitterly FEUDING FAMILIES can’t stay away from each other?

The Rhodales and the Whitfields have been sworn enemies for close on a hundred years, with a whole slew of adulterous affairs, financial backstabbing, and blackmailing that’s escalated the rivalry to its current state of tense ceasefire.

IT’S TIME TO LIGHT THE FUSE . . .

And now a meth lab explosion in rural Whitfield County is set to reignite the feud more viciously than ever before. Especially when the toxic fire that results throws together two unlikely spectators—proper good girl Victoria Whitfield, exiled from boarding school after her father’s real estate business melts down in disgrace, and town motorcycle rebel Mickey Rhodale, too late as always to thwart his older brothers’ dangerous drug deals.

Victoria and Mickey are about to find out the most passionate romances are the forbidden ones.

. . . ON A POWDER KEG FULL OF PENT-UP DESIRE, risk-taking daredevilry, and the desperate actions that erupt when a generation of teens inherits nothing but hate

I love Romeo and Juliet in any form, I like this cover it's so Dirty Dancing to me lol


10. Side Effects May Vary By: Julie Murphy

Goodreads Summary:

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you? 

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most? 

Julie Murphy’s SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

Harvey laughed to himself in a sad way and rubbed his eyes. “You want me to help you with a list of things you won’t disclose to me.” He leaned forward and bit the skin around his thumb. “Classic.”
“You won’t regret it.”
“But—”
“Harvey,” I said, my voice low. “Trust me.”
I knew what this looked like. It looked like I was using Harvey. But here was the reality of the situation: the minute my life went from semi-permanent to most likely temporary, I decided to latch on to everything in my world that had always been permanent, and for me, Harvey was so permanent he was concrete

I have heard some really great things about this book and I can't wait to read my copy!
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