Book Haul #7

Hello!! Today I am going to share a book haul of all the books I picked up recently. I had felt the urge to add to my never ending TBR pile on my book shelf.

The first 4 books in the picture are the first 4 books in the Pretty Little Liars series. I have wanted to watch this TV show but was curious if the books were better. I saw someone reading one of them in my work and asked if they were good books and got good feed back on them. I decided to buy the box set for the first 4 books because it was only $20 as opposed to $10 for one book. Better deal!

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. After reading this authors first book, Anna and the French Kiss, I had to get this one too. I'm so excited to read this I can't even contain myself. Does it bother anyone else when books in a series have not matching covers?? It's bothering me how this book cover isn't the matching one to Anna and the French Kiss. Unfortunately this is the only one that Barnes and Noble had, so I got it anyways. I'm crazy.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. If you've read my latest  Exploring Random Bookstores post, then you've already seen this book when I purchased it. 

Three Weeks with my Brother by Nicholas Sparks. This is the only Nicholas Sparks book that I have not read or owned. This one is a memoir of the time he spent 3 weeks with his brother. I have only read a handful of memoirs before and they aren't my favorite but hey it's Nicholas Sparks and I need to read everything that he has written to be satisfied. I've been meaning to pick up this book for a few years now. 

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris. This is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood series. I recently got recommend this book from someone and she said it's a book that I won't be able to put down once I read it. I always love books like that so we will see!

That is all for my book haul, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! 

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Hello everyone!! It's been such a long time since I did a book review! I think I kind of fell out of the loop for a while. There hasn't been many books that I've read in the past few months that I have wanted to review. I just finished reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins the other day so I thought it would be the perfect book to review to get back into reviewing books!


Summary from Goodreads:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming,beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend. 

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?






So this book features Anna, who gets sent for her Senior year of highschool to Paris, France. Her father is making her go to a boarding school here, but luckily it's an American Boarding school. Naturally, she's not happy about it because she has to leave her friends, and this guy she's crazy about behind.  At her new school she meets a great group of friends quickly, including a boy named Etienne St. Claire.

First I want to say I devoured this book. I heard so so many great things about this that I don't know why I didn't pick it up sooner. From the minute I started reading this I feel completely in love with this book. It's such an amazing YA contemporary that you (who is reading this review) needs to go out and buy/read this book. Now.

OK now that i'm done gushing over how great this was, I will actually tell you why I loved it. I'm going to start off with the characters. I loved Anna as a main character. She's your typical teenage girl who has emotions, problems, crushes, etc but she just really great to read from. She's not annoying or immature like a lot of characters in their teenage years. She has a great personality and I found myself laughing at a lot of her humor and things she said. She was someone who I felt I connected with right away. I also loved all her friends in this book. They weren't bland and had different personalities as well. That's another reason I loved the characters, because sometimes in books it seems that there is so much focus on the main characters and the minor ones just seem blah and have no personalities at all. They all seem like the same person with different names, but in this book it was definitely not the case.  Anna's love interest in this book is Etienne St. Claire. I seriously swooned over these two characters together. Etienne is charming and is a very likable character as well. It was easy to see why Anna fell for him. Etienne has a girlfriend through most of the book but it's clear as day how him and Anna felt about each other. Those two drove me crazy by how long they made me wait for something to actually happen!

I also loved the setting of this book. I mean who wouldn't love to go to Paris!! I also loved how it was not only set in Paris, but we get to read about Anna exploring this city. She visits different famous buildings and land marks etc., so I thought that was really great. I especially loved it when Etienne takes her out around the city. So romantic!

This has definitely became one of my favorite books. I absolutely loved everything about it!! I can't wait to go pick up Lola and the boy next store now! Thank you all for reading!

Exploring Random Book Stores: St. Ignace, Michigan

Hello Everyone! I am doing my second Exploring Random Book stores post! I did a post similar to this a few months ago which was from a bookstore than I went to in Ann Arbor, Michigan which you can read here. After I did the first post I decided than whenever I find a random book store that I've never been in before, that I would take some pictures and blog about the book store. For Labor Day weekend, my husband and I went up to St. Ignace, Michigan, which is in the Upper Peninsula. It's the first city than you come to after you cross the Mackinaw Bridge and it sits right on Lake Huron. It was a really beautiful little city and it had a lot of random shops in the downtown area, one of which was the book store that I went into. 

The bookstore that I went into was called Book World, and they actually had a good selection of books. It was a decent sized book store and it was really nice inside. 

This bookstore had a good selection of Young Adult books and that's basically what I mostly look for when I go into bookstores. Most smaller and random book store than I've been in don't have a good selection of YA books, so I got really excited when this one did. Also, going into these random bookstore, my goal is to buy at least one book from them as a sort of souvenir.

The book I picked up was Second Chance Summer by by Morgan Matson. I was just looking at this book a few days ago on Goodreads and made a mental note to read/buy this book soon. I was really excited when I saw this on the shelf of Book World. 

Here is the little bookmark/bookstore detail thingy that they put inside your bag when you make your purchase. I kept the one from the bookstore I went into in my last Exploring Random Bookstore post, so I will keep this one inside my book I bought as well!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed! 

August 2013 Wrap Up!

Hello All! I know I say this every month, but seriously I can't believe it's already September! I'm really excited for Fall, and that usually means I have a little bit more time to read!! I ended up reading quite a few books last month in August. I normally do most of my reading while I'm at work, but lately I have been reading at home as well before I go to bed at night. I decided to re read one of my favorite book series at home, which is the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, and then while I'm at work I just read whatever other book that I'm reading at the moment. This has been great for me because it gives me more reading time, plus I'm re reading a series and falling in love with it all over again!

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally was the first book I read in August. This is the 2nd book in the Hundred Oaks series, but this is a series that is companion novels that have different main characters so you don't necessarily have to read them in order. I picked up this book on my Kindle because it was on sale for really cheap a few weeks ago. This is a book that I completely fell in love with and it is now one of my favorite contemporary books ever. I loved all of the characters and the story so much! Also after I finished this book I knew I had to read all of the other books in the series by this Author.







Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally. This is the 3rd book in the Hundred Oaks series, also a companion novel. All of these books are set in the same town/school with the same character but a different main character. I liked this book alot as well, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Stealing Parker. I like these books because they are fast and easy reads, but also have great stories in them.






Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. This is the first book in the Hundred Oaks series, which I read last. Since I read the other two books first, I pretty much knew somethings that were going to happen in this book. That was okay with me and I still enjoyed this one a lot. Stealing Parker is still my favorite, but I did enjoy this one more than Things I Can't Forget. If you like YA contemporary books, then this is such a great series that I highly recommend.





Matched by Ally Condie was the 4th book I read last month. This is the first book in a dystopian series that I have wanted to pick up for a while now. I borrowed this first book from a friend to see if I liked it. The book started off really good and interesting but then towards the middle I found it really boring. I thought it dragged a lot and I couldn't wait to finish it. The ending wasn't bad but I'm not sure if it was enough to make me continue reading the series or not.






Frostbite by Richelle Mead. This is the 2nd book in the Vampire Academy series, and this was my 3rd time re reading it. I started re reading this series in July with the first Vampire Academy book. When I re read it, I fell in love with this series all over again and I decided I'm going to try to read all 6 books, plus the 3 books in the Bloodline series (spin off series) before the new book in the Bloodlines series comes out in November. This 2nd book in the series was just as great as the first two times I read it. I still found my self loving the characters and crying at the end of this book even though I knew what was going to happen.


Shadow Kissed by Richelle Mead. This is the 3rd book in the Vampire Academy series and my 2nd time reading this book. This 3rd book in the series has always been my favorite, When reading this series the first time, I read books 1-4 right in a row, and then had to wait for the 5th and 6th book to come out. I'm really excited to read the series straight through because sometimes when I have to wait for books to come out I forget some details of the previous books and it tends to annoy me! I still think this 3rd book will be my favorite in the series after re reading them all.




This is all for my August wrap up. I was amazed that I was able to read 6 books last month. I'm currently reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and I will be starting the 4th book in the Vampire Academy series called Blood Promise tonight or tomorrow! Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Upcoming Fall 2013 Releases!

Hello Everyone! Today I am going to share some upcoming new releases for this Fall that I am excited about. But first I wanted to say that I'm sorry about my lack of blogging lately. I have not been posting hardly any book reviews, but I have not read much that I have wanted to review. I read a couple book already this month that I might do a review on. They are all companion novels to each other so I might just do a 3 in 1 review on all of them. Now onto the books that Im excited about!! First and foremost, Nicholas Sparks new book comes out next month so I will be talking about that, and there are alot of YA books that are part of series that I love coming out in October and November!

Asylum By Madeleine Roux coming out on August 20th. This book is about a guy who joins a college prep program, but his dorm room used to be used for an Asylum for the criminally insane. This book sounds so good, I love books about Asylums and crazy people. I find these topics really interesting so I am excited about this book!!

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks coming out on September 17th. I am a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and I really can't wait for this book!! I think he usually releases (or use to) a book every year, but I'm pretty sure it's been two years since his last book came out. It's been way too long since I have indulged a Nicholas Sparks book.







All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry coming out on September 26th. This book is about two girls who went missing from their town 4 years ago, but two years ago only one returned. Now she is unable to speak and lives life in silence, but when their town is attacked again she has to decide if it's time to speak up about what happened or continue to be silent. This book sounds really good and interesting! I can't wait to pick this one up.






Revealed (House of Night book #11) By P.C. Cast coming out on October 15th. This is a series that I've been reading for years! I can't believe that this is the 11th book in the series. 11 books in a series is a little excessive in my opinion, but hey whatever I keep reading them. This use to be a favorite series of mine but I haven't enjoyed the later books in the series as much as the beginning ones. Every time a new book comes out I pretty much forget what had happened in the previous one, so they are hard to get into. But regardless I will still read this one.

Allegiant (Divergent book #3) by Veronica Roth coming out on October 22nd. I feel like I've been waiting for this book to come out for so long. I absolutely love this series and I can't wait to read this one. These book are so amazing and I can't wait to see how the series is going to end!








The Iron Traitor (Iron Fey series #6) By Julie Kagawa coming out on October 22nd. This book is continuing Ethan Chase's story from The Lost Prince. I didn't enjoy The Lost Prince as much as the original Iron Fey series, but I do want to continue reading with this next book. Originally, The Lost Prince was suppose to have it's own series, but now the author has this new book matching the cover and title the the original Iron Fey series. Hmmm confusing.





Teardrop by Lauren Kate coming out on October 22nd. I wasn't a huge fan of Lauren Kate's Fallen series. I only read the first book and didn't like it so I never continued with the series. This new series of hers sounds really good and interesting, and it doesn't sound like anything I've read before. I'm excited to give this author another try with her new book coming out!









Champion (Legend series book #3) by Marie Lu coming out on November 5th. I read Legend and Prodigy a few months ago and this is a really good dystopian series. I also can't wait to find out what is going to happen in this book!







The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines series #4) By Richelle Mead. I think this is the book that I am most excited about this Fall. I can't wait to read it!! I'm pretty much going crazy waiting for it. The last book in the series was amazing and I think this one will be too. I'm a huge fan of Richelle Mead and her Vampire Academy series is one of my favorites. Bloodline is a spin off series, and I think it's just as great. I'm currently re reading the VA books, and I hope I can catch up and re read the first 3 Bloodlines books to get ready for this one!!





This is all for the upcoming releases that I'm excited about this fall!! I really can't wait for any of these books to come out!! Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Monthly Wrap Up for July 2013

Hello everyone! Today I am doing my monthly wrap up post for July. I read 4 books last month, and one of them was a re read for me. They were also all fantasy books, which made me kind of happy. I did not have much time to read last month, but hopefully I will this month. I know I have been saying that for a few months now, but summer is busy for me and I don't have much time to read *cries!*



Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins was the first book I read in July. This is the 3rd (and last I think) book in the Hex Hall series. I really loved everything about this book and this series is now one of my favorites. This was a great book and it never ever had a dull moment in it. I could not put this book down while I was reading it.

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins. This is a spin off book to the Hex Hall series featuring a new main character. I was really excited to read this since I loved Hex Hall so much and I had really high expectations for it. Unfortunately this book was not as good as I thought it was going to be. It was not even comparable to Hex Hall and I didn't really enjoy reading this at all. You can read my review for School Spirits here.





Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. This book was a re read for me this month. This was my 3rd time reading this book and I was really excited to re read it again. This is one of my all time favorite book series. I love the world that Richelle Mead has created in this series and it's truly amazing how great this books are. Right now I am reading Frostbite, which is the second book in the series.






The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. I picked this book up because I love this author's other series, The Iron Fey. I was a little reluctant to read this because it's a dystopian book about vampires. I am kind of tired and over the vampire books (besides vampire academy lol) and I am also really picky about which kind of dystopian books I like. I heard this book was really good though, so I decided to give it a go. Sadly, I did not like this book at all and I don't even know how I got through all 400+ pages of it. I have not done a review on this book yet, but if I decide to do one I will elaborate more on why I didn't like it then.



This is all for my July wrap up post. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Book Review: School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Hello All! Today I am going to share my review for School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins. This is the spin off book to the Hex Hall series. After I read Hex Hall it became one of my favorite series so I definitely had to pick up the spin off book. I will post the summary from below and then share my thoughts on this book.

Summary from Goodreads:

Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt? 






So in this spin off book to Hex Hall, the main character is Izzy Brannick. We learned in Hex Hall, that Izzy is Sophie's cousin and Sophie's mom is sister to Aislinn Brannick (Izzy's mom). The Brannicks are descended from powerful white witches, but they have no magic left and they are also Prodigium hunters. Since meeting Sophie and since there are very few Brannicks left, they don't hunt prodigium anymore but rather help keep them in control and send them to the council for punishment. In this book, Izzy's older sister Finley goes missing, and Izzy's mom moves them to a new town so Izzy can do smaller assignments and go to high school to have a somewhat normal life.

So first I want to say that this book was nowhere near as good as the Hex Hall series was. Not even close. I had a really hard time getting into this one, where the hex hall books have you hooked right away. I tried really hard not to compare everything in this book to the things in Hex Hall, but I really couldn't stop myself. When a series is really great, I think the spin offs have a lot to live up to and this book just didn't do it for me. Overall I was really disappointed it in.

While I loved all of the characters in the Hex Hall series, I did not love any in this book. Most of them were bland and boring, even all of the love interests. I liked Izzy okay, but she wasn't as fun to read from as Sophie was. However, I do think there was a little bit of good character development with Izzy, and if there is more books in the series I can see that there will be more progression with her.

The plot for this book was really boring to me. It took the whole book for things to happen and to get to the point of everything. And then when you finally do get to that point, it wasn't even exciting. Reading Hex Hall, there was always so much excitement and action going on. There were a lot of twists and turns, and I couldn't put it down. This book I kind of dreaded reading because it was that boring. I think this book could have had a lot of potential and could have been a lot better than it was. I'm not sure if there is going to be more books in the series, but if there is I will probably pick them up and hope they are better than this one was. I had really high hopes for this book and it was kind of a let down because I loved Hex Hall so much!

This is all for my review, I ended up giving it a 3/5 stars on goodreads because it wasn't horrible, it was just okay. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!