Today I am going to share what I thought the Top 10 best Young Adult books of 2012 were. These are all books that were published in 2012 and I thought this would make a great post since the year is near an end! I am really excited to read a lot of the upcoming books in 2013 and I posted a list of books I'm looking forward to on a previous blog post that you can view here. Now onto my favorite reads of 2012! Also- these are in no particular order of which was my favorites are such and most of them are parts of a series.
1. Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I really enjoy reading Ellen Hopkins books and Tilt was one of my favorites. This book had a lot of great characters, and I really love reading verse novels thanks to this author!
2. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare. This book is the 5th book in the Mortal Instruments series, and this is one of my all time favorite series and author. I have mentioned how much I love this series before in previous posts.
3. Insurgent by Veronica Roth. This is the 2nd book in the Divergent Trilogy and though I didn't like this book as much as Divergent it was still a great and highly anticipated book this year for me!
4. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia. This was the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicle series. It was such a good read and a great finale to this series. It just made me love the series so much more.
5. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood. This is the first book and the authors debut novel in The Cahill Witch Chronicles and I was really surprised on how much I enjoyed this book. It's a historical fiction book about witchcraft and if you have not read this I encourage you to check it out! I can't wait for the sequel to come out this upcoming June.
6. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead. 2nd book in the Bloodlines series. This is another book/author/series that I have talked about loads of time in previous posts. I also cannot wait for the next book in this series to come out this February.
7. Taken at Dusk by C.C Hunter. The 3rd book in the Shadow Falls Series.
8. Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter. The 4th book in the Shadow Falls series. It is definitely a plus when an author releases 2 books in the same series in the same year! I absolutely love this series and this is another one that was mentioned a lot in my blog.
9. The Haunted by J.A Templeton. This is the 2nd book in the MacKinnion Curse series.
10. The Departed by J.A Templeton. This is the 3rd book in the MacKinnion Curse series. Again major plus when an author releases 2 books in the same year! This series was a recent discover of mine but its one that I fell in love with quickly. You can purchase these books on an e-reader really cheap (the first book is free!) You can read my review for the whole series here!
This concludes my top 10 YA books for 2012! It was definitely a great year for reading and like I said before, I am looking forward to a lot of great books for 2013! I will also have my December reading wrap up posted in a few days! I have stuck to my reading goal/challenge of only re reading books that I have already read all month long with no exceptions!
Thank you all for reading and have a great New Years!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
The Reading Habits Tag!
Hey Everyone! Today I am going to do another book tag called The Reading Habits Tag, which is another one that I found on YouTube. This tag is a short one about reading habits and I thought it looked fun so I decided to join in on the tag myself! I will post the link to the original tag video from the creator of the tag here if you'd like to watch the video.
Questions:
1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? If I am reading at home I am usually found reading while sitting on my couch. Unless I am trying to finish sometimes I will read in bed before I go to sleep but that is very rare. Sometimes I read on my Kindle while I'm in bed, but usually I don't get much reading done at home. I read 90% of the time while I am at work.
2. Bookmark or random piece of paper? I normally just use a random piece of paper for my book marks. Occasionally I will use a book mark but somehow I lost all of my book marks that I use to have and only have 2 or so left and I think that they are stuck in books right now and I don't know where they are. LOL.
3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages? I just stop reading where ever. Like I said before, I do most of my reading at work so most of the time I'm not able to stop after a chapter or certain amount of pages.
4. Do you eat or drink while reading? Not usually unless I have a coffee with me or something.
5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading? I prefer to just read with no tv or music but occasionally I have the tv.
6. One book at a time or several at once? One at a time. I can't pay attention to multiple stories at once.
7. Reading at home or everywhere? I do most of my reading at work, but if it wasn't for that I'd prefer to read at home.
8. Reading out lout or silently in your head? In my head!
9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages? Most of the time no, but sometimes I do have wandering eyes and will glance to the next page or sometimes I look at the last page while I am looking to see how long the book is. :(
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new? I usually like to keep my books looking like new, but breaking the spine happens lol.
11. Do you write in your books? No, I have never written in any of my books. I recently highlighted things that I liked while reading Looking for Alaska for the second time. I never usually highlight things either, but I felt compelled to do so for some reason. I normally just bend the corner of the page if I find something that I like on it.
This is all for the Reading Habits book tag and I hope you enjoyed it! Happy Reading!!
Questions:
1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? If I am reading at home I am usually found reading while sitting on my couch. Unless I am trying to finish sometimes I will read in bed before I go to sleep but that is very rare. Sometimes I read on my Kindle while I'm in bed, but usually I don't get much reading done at home. I read 90% of the time while I am at work.
2. Bookmark or random piece of paper? I normally just use a random piece of paper for my book marks. Occasionally I will use a book mark but somehow I lost all of my book marks that I use to have and only have 2 or so left and I think that they are stuck in books right now and I don't know where they are. LOL.
3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages? I just stop reading where ever. Like I said before, I do most of my reading at work so most of the time I'm not able to stop after a chapter or certain amount of pages.
4. Do you eat or drink while reading? Not usually unless I have a coffee with me or something.
5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading? I prefer to just read with no tv or music but occasionally I have the tv.
6. One book at a time or several at once? One at a time. I can't pay attention to multiple stories at once.
7. Reading at home or everywhere? I do most of my reading at work, but if it wasn't for that I'd prefer to read at home.
8. Reading out lout or silently in your head? In my head!
9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages? Most of the time no, but sometimes I do have wandering eyes and will glance to the next page or sometimes I look at the last page while I am looking to see how long the book is. :(
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new? I usually like to keep my books looking like new, but breaking the spine happens lol.
11. Do you write in your books? No, I have never written in any of my books. I recently highlighted things that I liked while reading Looking for Alaska for the second time. I never usually highlight things either, but I felt compelled to do so for some reason. I normally just bend the corner of the page if I find something that I like on it.
This is all for the Reading Habits book tag and I hope you enjoyed it! Happy Reading!!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Upcoming Book Releases for 2013!
Today I am going to share some up coming YA book releases for 2013 that I am excited about! I found quite a few books while I was browsing Barnes and Noble's website in their coming soon section. All of these books are coming out this winter and early spring for 2013. A few of the books are parts of series that I love and have been waiting (impatiently) for the new book to come out! I hope you all enjoy reading this list of books that I am excited for!
-Splintered by A.G Howard coming out on January 1st.
This is a book retelling/based off of Alice in Wonderland. It sounds so good and this is probably one of the books that I am most excited about. This is A.G Howard's debut novel and I can't wait to read it!
-Empty by K.M Walton coming out on January 1st.
This book seems like a good, real life contemporary novel about "A girl tumbles into a downward spiral when a romantic encounter turns violent" (from barnes and noble's description).
-Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz coming out of January 1st.
This is another contemporary novel about a boy named Rudy who moves away to a remote island to help save his younger brother who is sick. He meets a girl named Teeth who has terrible and violent secrets of her own and they form a connection that he has never had with anyone before. This book sounds so good and I can't wait to read it! I'm a sucker for any contemporary novel that sounds as good as this one does!
-Crash by Lisa McMann coming out on January 8th.
I am super excited about this one because I absolutely loved Lisa McMann's Wake Trilogy and this book sounds really good! About a girl who has recurring visions that haunt her!
-The Archived By Victoria Schwab coming out on January 22nd.
This is a supernatural fantasy/thriller book that sounds super good and original. It doesn't sound like any book that I have ever read before and that is why I'm excited to read it. "Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive." (from barnes and noble's summary).
-The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead coming out on February 12th.
This is the 3rd book in the Bloodlines series which is the spin off series to the author's Vampire Academy series. I can't wait for this book to come out! The ending to the Golden Lily was so amazing and I wish I could have read this book right when I was finished!
-Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare coming out on March 19th.
This is the third book in the Infernal Devices series which is the prequel series to The Mortal Instruments series. I absolutely love this series and the whole world that Cassandra Clare has created and I can't wait to read this one! The cover to this book is just so beautiful as well!
-Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter coming out on April 30th.
This is the 5th and final book in the Shadow Falls series. This is a series that I really enjoy reading and each book in the series keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to find out what happens, but I'm sad that this will be the last book in the series!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and happy reading!
-Splintered by A.G Howard coming out on January 1st.
This is a book retelling/based off of Alice in Wonderland. It sounds so good and this is probably one of the books that I am most excited about. This is A.G Howard's debut novel and I can't wait to read it!
-Empty by K.M Walton coming out on January 1st.
This book seems like a good, real life contemporary novel about "A girl tumbles into a downward spiral when a romantic encounter turns violent" (from barnes and noble's description).
-Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz coming out of January 1st.
This is another contemporary novel about a boy named Rudy who moves away to a remote island to help save his younger brother who is sick. He meets a girl named Teeth who has terrible and violent secrets of her own and they form a connection that he has never had with anyone before. This book sounds so good and I can't wait to read it! I'm a sucker for any contemporary novel that sounds as good as this one does!
-Crash by Lisa McMann coming out on January 8th.
I am super excited about this one because I absolutely loved Lisa McMann's Wake Trilogy and this book sounds really good! About a girl who has recurring visions that haunt her!
-The Archived By Victoria Schwab coming out on January 22nd.
This is a supernatural fantasy/thriller book that sounds super good and original. It doesn't sound like any book that I have ever read before and that is why I'm excited to read it. "Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive." (from barnes and noble's summary).
-The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead coming out on February 12th.
This is the 3rd book in the Bloodlines series which is the spin off series to the author's Vampire Academy series. I can't wait for this book to come out! The ending to the Golden Lily was so amazing and I wish I could have read this book right when I was finished!
-Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare coming out on March 19th.
This is the third book in the Infernal Devices series which is the prequel series to The Mortal Instruments series. I absolutely love this series and the whole world that Cassandra Clare has created and I can't wait to read this one! The cover to this book is just so beautiful as well!
-Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter coming out on April 30th.
This is the 5th and final book in the Shadow Falls series. This is a series that I really enjoy reading and each book in the series keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to find out what happens, but I'm sad that this will be the last book in the series!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and happy reading!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Books vs Kindle
Hello everyone! Today my blog post is going to be on reading books vs reading on a Kindle, or an e reader. I will always be partial to reading from books but I do enjoy reading on my kindle as well. I debated for about 2 years on weather I wanted to get a kindle or not because I love books so much that I wasn't sure I would like an e reader or not. I am over all happy that I have one and I hope my list of pros and cons helps anyone else make their decision on weather or not to get one. Books don't have many cons to them but I am going to post the pros and cons of each a book and an e reader. These are all just my personal opinions, and this is what I like and dislike about them.
Books- Pros:
-I really love the feel of a book in my hand. It's comforting to me.
-I love to turn the pages in a book.
-I love to see how many pages are in a book, and also when I'm reading I always like to see how many pages I have left before I finish.
-You could definitely say that I am a book hoarder. I always like to own books rather than borrow them or get them from the library. I love to collect books and I take pride in my collection.
-I love to smell my books, particularly old books.
-If there is a series of books that I'm reading, I like to display the series all together on my book self.
Books- Cons:
-Books can tend to be a little bit bulky. I'm always carrying a book (or 2) with me in my purse. They tend to get heavy.
-Even though I love my collection, Books take up a lot of space.
-Unless you have a book light, books can't be read unless you have light (obviously lol). Even with a book light, I find it kind of difficult or uncomfortable to read in the dark.
Kindle- Pros:
-As I said before, books get heavy and bulky. A Kindle or an e reader is very light weight and it is easy to bring with you on the go or when you are traveling.
-If you are somewhere with a wi-fi connection or have an internet source, then you can purchase books right on your kindle and have them instantly. This has come in handy for me plenty of times.
-Since I have the Kindle Fire, you can definitely read in the dark since the screen is always lit up. This is probably my favorite thing about the kindle. It's easy for me to read in before before I go to sleep.
-The kindle can hold tons of books, though I'm not sure exactly how many, it makes for easy book storage.
-It is fairly easy to read on, and it is easy to get use to reading on it. It doesn't bother my eyes, or give me a head ache like other electronics tend to do. (computer, t.v, video games etc)
-If you have the Kindle fire or Nook tablet/color, you can do a lot of other things on it other than reading. (even though 99% of the time I only use it for reading LOL)
-You can change the font size, color, and color of the page on the kindle.
-You can easily highlight something in the kindle so you can find it later.
-If you tap on a word while reading, the kindle will give you the definition of the word.
-A lot of book are cheaper when purchased in an e book rather than a regular book (but not all books are cheaper) and there is a lot of free books also!
-The Battery Life of a kindle last a pretty long time. I have never had it die on me.
-If you have a smart phone and can get the kindle app, or have internet access, you can purchase a book from there and it will go right on your kindle as well.
-There is a book mark so you don't lose your place.
Kindle- Cons:
-If you are reading in bright light, there is a slight glare on the kindle screen. It's not too bad and I think I have gotten use to it.
-Like I said before, I like to own my books and keep them on display in my book shelf, and with the kindle you can't do that.
-I also like to share my books and loan them out to people, and with a kindle you can't do that either unless you don't mind lending your kindle to someone.
-There is no page number on an ebook, there is a location number and it shows you the percentage of how much you have read in the book. This just isn't the same as seeing the page number in a book.
-Even though you get the cover picture in the ebook, its just not the same as seeing the actual cover of a book.
This is all for my list of pros and cons for kindles and books. Even though I have a lot of pros for a kindle (more then books) I will never like an e reader as much as I love books. There is just something wonderful about books that is just simply unexplainable and an e reader won't compare to that. There definitely is a lot of pros that I have found in my kindle though and I enjoy reading on it as well. I have read some great books on my kindle, but if I find a book I really want to read, I am more likely to buy the actual book rather than purchasing it on my kindle.
I hope everyone enjoyed this post and thank you so much for reading!!
Books- Pros:
-I really love the feel of a book in my hand. It's comforting to me.
-I love to turn the pages in a book.
-I love to see how many pages are in a book, and also when I'm reading I always like to see how many pages I have left before I finish.
-You could definitely say that I am a book hoarder. I always like to own books rather than borrow them or get them from the library. I love to collect books and I take pride in my collection.
-I love to smell my books, particularly old books.
-If there is a series of books that I'm reading, I like to display the series all together on my book self.
Books- Cons:
-Books can tend to be a little bit bulky. I'm always carrying a book (or 2) with me in my purse. They tend to get heavy.
-Even though I love my collection, Books take up a lot of space.
-Unless you have a book light, books can't be read unless you have light (obviously lol). Even with a book light, I find it kind of difficult or uncomfortable to read in the dark.
Kindle- Pros:
-As I said before, books get heavy and bulky. A Kindle or an e reader is very light weight and it is easy to bring with you on the go or when you are traveling.
-If you are somewhere with a wi-fi connection or have an internet source, then you can purchase books right on your kindle and have them instantly. This has come in handy for me plenty of times.
-Since I have the Kindle Fire, you can definitely read in the dark since the screen is always lit up. This is probably my favorite thing about the kindle. It's easy for me to read in before before I go to sleep.
-The kindle can hold tons of books, though I'm not sure exactly how many, it makes for easy book storage.
-It is fairly easy to read on, and it is easy to get use to reading on it. It doesn't bother my eyes, or give me a head ache like other electronics tend to do. (computer, t.v, video games etc)
-If you have the Kindle fire or Nook tablet/color, you can do a lot of other things on it other than reading. (even though 99% of the time I only use it for reading LOL)
-You can change the font size, color, and color of the page on the kindle.
-You can easily highlight something in the kindle so you can find it later.
-If you tap on a word while reading, the kindle will give you the definition of the word.
-A lot of book are cheaper when purchased in an e book rather than a regular book (but not all books are cheaper) and there is a lot of free books also!
-The Battery Life of a kindle last a pretty long time. I have never had it die on me.
-If you have a smart phone and can get the kindle app, or have internet access, you can purchase a book from there and it will go right on your kindle as well.
-There is a book mark so you don't lose your place.
Kindle- Cons:
-If you are reading in bright light, there is a slight glare on the kindle screen. It's not too bad and I think I have gotten use to it.
-Like I said before, I like to own my books and keep them on display in my book shelf, and with the kindle you can't do that.
-I also like to share my books and loan them out to people, and with a kindle you can't do that either unless you don't mind lending your kindle to someone.
-There is no page number on an ebook, there is a location number and it shows you the percentage of how much you have read in the book. This just isn't the same as seeing the page number in a book.
-Even though you get the cover picture in the ebook, its just not the same as seeing the actual cover of a book.
This is all for my list of pros and cons for kindles and books. Even though I have a lot of pros for a kindle (more then books) I will never like an e reader as much as I love books. There is just something wonderful about books that is just simply unexplainable and an e reader won't compare to that. There definitely is a lot of pros that I have found in my kindle though and I enjoy reading on it as well. I have read some great books on my kindle, but if I find a book I really want to read, I am more likely to buy the actual book rather than purchasing it on my kindle.
I hope everyone enjoyed this post and thank you so much for reading!!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
City of Bones Movie TRAILER!
Hey Everyone! I just wanted to share the movie trailer for City of Bones here on my blog. City of Bones is the first book in the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and it is also one of my favorite book series of all time! I love this series so much and the whole world that Cassandra Clare has created. I am really excited about this movie and I can't wait for it to come out in August 2013. I hope you all enjoy watching the trailer and feel free to leave your thoughts about it in a comment below! :)
Sunday, December 2, 2012
December Book Challenge!
Hey Everyone, Happy December!! For this month of reading I have decided to create a book challenge/goal for myself! I am going to only read books this whole month that I have already read. There are tons of books that I have been wanting to re read for quite a while but I never do because I always have so many new books to read. Even though I still have tons of new books, I am going to take a break from them and re read some of the great ones I already have. I thought December would be a perfect month for this challenge since it is the last month of the year! I'm really excited about this and I can't wait to share with you all the books that I choose to re read. I did a blog post in the past on books worth reading twice, which you can check that out here! I may read some books from this list but I might pick some other ones that are not on there as well.
Since I am going to be re reading a lot of books this month, I might not post a whole lot of books reviews. There might be a few books that I will do a review for but I know there are some books that I'm going to read that I will not being doing a review for, because it would be a book I don't find necessary to review or I might have already done a review for it. I will keep an update along with different kinds of book related posts on here instead of reviews!
When I do my monthly wrap up post for December I will be sure to include why I chose to re read the books that I did as well. I'm not 100% sure which ones I'm going to be re reading yet, I do have a few ideas in mind. I might just start out with a Harry Potter book ;).
I will also be doing a lot of other themed reading challenges/goals in the future as well. I won't be doing it every month but I will be doing some more in the near future. If anyone has any suggestions for a theme for the reading challenge feel free to comment below and leave your suggestions! If anyone would like to join me on this read challenge then please do so! Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
November Wrap Up
Hey all! It's time again to make my monthly wrap up post for all of the books that I read this month. This month in November I read 8 books! (woo hoo!) This has been the most books I've read in a month in quite a while and I'm so excited about it. A few of the books I read were fairly short, but this month was definitely a great reading month for me. The books I read are: Hidden by P.C Cast, which is the 10th book in the House of Night series. The Deepest Cut, The Haunted, The Departed, The Beginning: The MacKinnion Curse all by J.A Templeton which is the whole MacKinnion Curse series plus a short novella that is the prequel book. Damaged by Cathy Glass. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia which is the 4th book in the Caster Chronicles series. And Lastly, I read Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa which is a collection of 3 novellas that are part of the Iron Fey series. I really enjoyed each book I read this month, and I'm going to tell you a short summary of my thoughts on each one.
Hidden by P.C Cast-
This is the 10th book in the House of Night series, and while I do love reading these books I also have a love/hate relationship with these books. I always forget what happens in them before the new books comes out, so by the time I start reading them I never know whats going on. This makes reading the books a little less enjoyable, BUT by the time I'm half way through or so I get sucked into the story and the ending are always awesome! I did not do a review on this book but I look forward to reading the next book in the series when it comes out.
The MacKinnion Curse series by J.A Templeton-
I really enjoyed this series a lot. It's one of the best ghost series that I've read. The first book had me hooked, and I finished the whole series within a week. I have my review for all 4 books here.
Damaged by Cathy Glass-
This was a wonderful and heartbreaking story of an 8 year old girl who has been abused by her parents in every possible way told from the POV of her foster mom. This book has extremely mature content in it, and it's not pleasant to read and it also non fiction and a true story. This book will break your heart but it will also give you hope as well. You can read my full review for this book here.
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia-
This is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicles series and it was absolutely amazing. I love this series so much and I was sad to see it come to an end but this book was a great conclusion to the series. I look forward to reading more works by this author in the future and I can only hope that it will be as great as this series was! You can read by review for this book AND see the movie trailer for the first book Beautiful Creatures here!
Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa-
This is a collection of 3 short novellas written in the Iron Fey series. This is another one of my all time favorite series and these 3 novellas were no exception to the greatness in this series. These stories are written in between the books, and I especially liked the last story because it happens after The Iron Kinght (which is the last book in the series) so it was nice to see what happens after the series is finished. In this book I think it has a little bit of foreshadowing for Julie Kagawa's new book called The Lost Prince, which takes place in the same Faery world but in the future with a new main character. I cannot wait to read The Lost Prince and continue to get lost in the world that Kagawa hs created.
This is all for my monthly wrap up post. I hope you all enjoyed and Happy Reading! :)
Hidden by P.C Cast-
This is the 10th book in the House of Night series, and while I do love reading these books I also have a love/hate relationship with these books. I always forget what happens in them before the new books comes out, so by the time I start reading them I never know whats going on. This makes reading the books a little less enjoyable, BUT by the time I'm half way through or so I get sucked into the story and the ending are always awesome! I did not do a review on this book but I look forward to reading the next book in the series when it comes out.
The MacKinnion Curse series by J.A Templeton-
I really enjoyed this series a lot. It's one of the best ghost series that I've read. The first book had me hooked, and I finished the whole series within a week. I have my review for all 4 books here.
Damaged by Cathy Glass-
This was a wonderful and heartbreaking story of an 8 year old girl who has been abused by her parents in every possible way told from the POV of her foster mom. This book has extremely mature content in it, and it's not pleasant to read and it also non fiction and a true story. This book will break your heart but it will also give you hope as well. You can read my full review for this book here.
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia-
This is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicles series and it was absolutely amazing. I love this series so much and I was sad to see it come to an end but this book was a great conclusion to the series. I look forward to reading more works by this author in the future and I can only hope that it will be as great as this series was! You can read by review for this book AND see the movie trailer for the first book Beautiful Creatures here!
Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa-
This is a collection of 3 short novellas written in the Iron Fey series. This is another one of my all time favorite series and these 3 novellas were no exception to the greatness in this series. These stories are written in between the books, and I especially liked the last story because it happens after The Iron Kinght (which is the last book in the series) so it was nice to see what happens after the series is finished. In this book I think it has a little bit of foreshadowing for Julie Kagawa's new book called The Lost Prince, which takes place in the same Faery world but in the future with a new main character. I cannot wait to read The Lost Prince and continue to get lost in the world that Kagawa hs created.
This is all for my monthly wrap up post. I hope you all enjoyed and Happy Reading! :)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Book Review: Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia + Movie Trailer!
Hello Everyone! Today I'm going to be doing a book review on Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl which is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicles series. (the other books are Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos) This is one of my absolute favorites book series of all times and I loved this book a lot and it was a great finale to the series. I have not done a book review for any of the other three books in the series, but this review may contain so spoilers for those who have no read the series but I will try to keep them minimal. I kind of find it difficult to do a review on a book thats part of the series that is not the first book because I don't like to give away too many spoilers and such and since I haven't review the others books I don't exactly know where to start. (I'm such a noob) So for today's review I'm going to try a different approach at this, and I'm going to make a list of things that I did and didn't like about this book, so I won't be doing much explaining about what the book was about and such. Also, there is a movie being made for the first book in the series, Beautiful Creatures, which comes out this February. I am really excited for the movie and I will be sharing the trailer and my thoughts on it at the end!
Summary:
Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?
Ethan Wate always dreamed of leaving the stifling Southern town of Gatlin.
But he never dreamt that finding love with Lena Duchannes would drive him away. Lena is a Caster girl whose supernatural powers unveiled a secretive and cursed side of Gatlin, so powerful it forced him to make a terrible sacrifice.
Now Ethan must find a way to return to Lena - and Gatlin - as she vows to do whatever it takes to get him back. Even if it means trusting old enemies or risking their loved ones' lives.
Can Ethan and Lena rewrite their fate and their spellbinding love story in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series?
What I liked about the book:
-I really liked that parts of the book was from Lena's POV. Lena is definitely my favorite character in this book and I was so excited to see things from her POV. I think that the series would be so much better if the other 3 books had a little bit from her in them as well.
- I loved the fact that we got to spend some time with Ethan's mom in this book.
-There was a lot of adventure in this book and the story line was perfect for what was happening in this one.
-I feel like we got a little more personal with all of the characters in this last book, especially one that we didn't before.
-Towards the end when we meet up with Sarafine again I was blown away by everything that she does.
-We get to learn a lot of things that really tie everything together from all of the books.
I know some of these statements do not make sense but I can't explain them without spoilers!!
Things I didn't like:
-For some reason these books always start out really slow.
-There were a few brief mentions of The Book of Stars in this book, which is the spell for for light casters. I've always been really intrigued by The Book of Moons in this book, which is the dark caster book and we've learned about it in previous books. So when they mentioned The Book of Stars I was intrigued by that as well, but it was only mentioned in passing and I was a little disappointed that it wasn't in the book more and that we didn't get to learn about it, or see in in previous books.
-Even though Ethan was brought back to life at the end, I was really sad to see Amma go. I was completely heart broken at the end of the third book when Ethan sacrificed himself but I was really happy that there was a 4th book to this series and he got to come back.
This is all for my likes and dislikes about this book. I know my lists are kind of short, but like I said before I can't give away too many spoilers for this wonderful series that everyone should experience for themselves! :P Now onto the movie trailer for Beautiful Creatures!
Here are my thoughts on this trailer: For one, I am super excited about this movie and from the trailer it looks like it's going to be really good. However, I was a little disappointed in the choice of characters. They weren't how I pictured them at all, particularly Ethan and Lena. I like how Lena looks, but her personality is really off for me. I can't exactly put my finger on why but we all have that idea in our head when we read a book of how everything is suppose to be right? Anyways, that's all I really have to say on the trailer other than I can't wait!
I hope everyone enjoyed this post and the trailer as well! Thank you so much for reading!
Summary:
Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?
Ethan Wate always dreamed of leaving the stifling Southern town of Gatlin.
But he never dreamt that finding love with Lena Duchannes would drive him away. Lena is a Caster girl whose supernatural powers unveiled a secretive and cursed side of Gatlin, so powerful it forced him to make a terrible sacrifice.
Now Ethan must find a way to return to Lena - and Gatlin - as she vows to do whatever it takes to get him back. Even if it means trusting old enemies or risking their loved ones' lives.
Can Ethan and Lena rewrite their fate and their spellbinding love story in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series?
What I liked about the book:
-I really liked that parts of the book was from Lena's POV. Lena is definitely my favorite character in this book and I was so excited to see things from her POV. I think that the series would be so much better if the other 3 books had a little bit from her in them as well.
- I loved the fact that we got to spend some time with Ethan's mom in this book.
-There was a lot of adventure in this book and the story line was perfect for what was happening in this one.
-I feel like we got a little more personal with all of the characters in this last book, especially one that we didn't before.
-Towards the end when we meet up with Sarafine again I was blown away by everything that she does.
-We get to learn a lot of things that really tie everything together from all of the books.
I know some of these statements do not make sense but I can't explain them without spoilers!!
Things I didn't like:
-For some reason these books always start out really slow.
-There were a few brief mentions of The Book of Stars in this book, which is the spell for for light casters. I've always been really intrigued by The Book of Moons in this book, which is the dark caster book and we've learned about it in previous books. So when they mentioned The Book of Stars I was intrigued by that as well, but it was only mentioned in passing and I was a little disappointed that it wasn't in the book more and that we didn't get to learn about it, or see in in previous books.
-Even though Ethan was brought back to life at the end, I was really sad to see Amma go. I was completely heart broken at the end of the third book when Ethan sacrificed himself but I was really happy that there was a 4th book to this series and he got to come back.
This is all for my likes and dislikes about this book. I know my lists are kind of short, but like I said before I can't give away too many spoilers for this wonderful series that everyone should experience for themselves! :P Now onto the movie trailer for Beautiful Creatures!
Here are my thoughts on this trailer: For one, I am super excited about this movie and from the trailer it looks like it's going to be really good. However, I was a little disappointed in the choice of characters. They weren't how I pictured them at all, particularly Ethan and Lena. I like how Lena looks, but her personality is really off for me. I can't exactly put my finger on why but we all have that idea in our head when we read a book of how everything is suppose to be right? Anyways, that's all I really have to say on the trailer other than I can't wait!
I hope everyone enjoyed this post and the trailer as well! Thank you so much for reading!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Book Review: Damaged by Cathy Glass
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I am getting back on track with my book reviews yay! So today I am going to be doing review on the last book I read which is Damaged by Cathy Glass. This was another cheap kindle book that I found for only .99 cents and I thought it sounded interesting so I went ahead and read it. Also- in my last post I talked about free/cheap kindle and nook books, and if you are wondering where I get them from, I get a daily email from the site called bookbub.com and they send you kindle and nook deals in your email everyday.
The first thing I want to say about this book before I post my review is that it is a non fiction book. I normally don't read works of non fiction very often but this is still a story and I didn't even know it was non fiction until almost the end, so no worries if you don't like non fiction either. This is also a book that has very mature content in it, and it is also very, very sad, heart wrenching and very disturbing in some parts. so if you cannot handle reading things like that then this book is not for you. Now on to my review!
Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass. At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being placed in an institution. Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face. As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs. Unfortunately Jodie becomes increasingly withdrawn, and it's clear she needs psychiatric therapy. Cathy urges the Social Services to provide funding, but instead they decide to take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie's future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what -- her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable.
I decided to read this book because anything that has to due with psychological issues is an interest to me so I'm usually drawn to books about it. As you can see from the description, this book is about a foster mom named Cathy, who takes in a very disturbed child that has very unusual and bad behavior. Jodie is 8 years old but doesn't have the mentality of an 8 year old at all. Her learning and motor skills aren't developed, and she is very violent towards herself and others. This is all due to the physical, sexual and mental abuse that she went though. This book was very interesting but like I said before, there is a lot of mature content in it and it is sad and disturbing. I wasn't expecting this book to be as i depth as it was. The details of the sexual abuse that Jodie went though was almost too much for me to read. It made me sick to my stomach and I thought to myself a few times "I can't read this". I did finish this book despite all of the graphic details because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jodie. Once we got more into the psychological aspect of the book I enjoyed it a lot more. We get to learn about the split personality disorder that Jodie develops, and also why she acts the way that she does, and why she does the certain things that she does. Also like it says in the description, Jodie is eventually placed into a residential unit for children with psychological problems who have suffered from abuse. I was slightly disappointed in the end because (possible spoiler!) we never really got to know what happened to Jodie down the road and how she turned out when she grew up. Being that this was a true story, I was really interested to find out these details. None the less, this was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it. It's a quick read and I gave it 5/5 stars on good reads. Cathy Glass has written many other books and some of them are based on true stories as well and I look forward to reading them in the future!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review! I am currently reading Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia which is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicals series! Expect a review coming on this book soon along with my November Wrap up post!
Find me here on goodreads!
The first thing I want to say about this book before I post my review is that it is a non fiction book. I normally don't read works of non fiction very often but this is still a story and I didn't even know it was non fiction until almost the end, so no worries if you don't like non fiction either. This is also a book that has very mature content in it, and it is also very, very sad, heart wrenching and very disturbing in some parts. so if you cannot handle reading things like that then this book is not for you. Now on to my review!
Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass. At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being placed in an institution. Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face. As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs. Unfortunately Jodie becomes increasingly withdrawn, and it's clear she needs psychiatric therapy. Cathy urges the Social Services to provide funding, but instead they decide to take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie's future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what -- her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable.I decided to read this book because anything that has to due with psychological issues is an interest to me so I'm usually drawn to books about it. As you can see from the description, this book is about a foster mom named Cathy, who takes in a very disturbed child that has very unusual and bad behavior. Jodie is 8 years old but doesn't have the mentality of an 8 year old at all. Her learning and motor skills aren't developed, and she is very violent towards herself and others. This is all due to the physical, sexual and mental abuse that she went though. This book was very interesting but like I said before, there is a lot of mature content in it and it is sad and disturbing. I wasn't expecting this book to be as i depth as it was. The details of the sexual abuse that Jodie went though was almost too much for me to read. It made me sick to my stomach and I thought to myself a few times "I can't read this". I did finish this book despite all of the graphic details because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jodie. Once we got more into the psychological aspect of the book I enjoyed it a lot more. We get to learn about the split personality disorder that Jodie develops, and also why she acts the way that she does, and why she does the certain things that she does. Also like it says in the description, Jodie is eventually placed into a residential unit for children with psychological problems who have suffered from abuse. I was slightly disappointed in the end because (possible spoiler!) we never really got to know what happened to Jodie down the road and how she turned out when she grew up. Being that this was a true story, I was really interested to find out these details. None the less, this was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it. It's a quick read and I gave it 5/5 stars on good reads. Cathy Glass has written many other books and some of them are based on true stories as well and I look forward to reading them in the future!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review! I am currently reading Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia which is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicals series! Expect a review coming on this book soon along with my November Wrap up post!
Find me here on goodreads!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Book Review: The MacKinnon Curse series.
Hello Everyone! I am going to do a review on a book series that I just finished reading called The MacKinnon Curse series by J.A. Templeton. I discovered this series through the first book on my kindle. The First book was a free kindle book that I decided to try. I don't usually read the free books for kindles or nooks because even though I'm sure there are a ton of other great free books out there, I usually have a hard time getting into the free books. I find that sometimes they aren't as well written as regular priced books and that bothers me. Although, this series is a proof that free/cheap books that are great do exist! Anyways, there are three books in the series and a short novella that is a prequel as well. The first book is The Deepest Cut, the second is The Haunted, followed by the final book called The Departed. As I said before, the first book is free, and the 2nd and 3rd books are $2.99 each. The prequel, called The Beginning: The MacKinnon Curse is also free. So basically these books are very affordable and I encourage anyone with a kindle or nook to check them out. The first book is also on barnes and nobles website in paperback for $8.99. I am going to be doing a short review on each of the book in this post so this might be a long one. I am going to try to keep the spoilers in the reviews to a minimum so that anyone who has not read this can still read my reviews, but I will warn you that there may be a few spoilers anyways. Theses are very quick and short reads and I read all four books within the same week as starting them. I hope you all enjoy this post and sorry for such a long intro! I will post the summary of the first book but I will not for the other three due to some spoilers.
Book one: The Deepest Cut-
Sixteen-year-old Riley Williams has been able to see ghosts since the car crash that took her mother’s life and shattered her family. Guilt-ridden over the belief that she’s somehow responsible for her mom’s death, Riley is desperate to see her mother’s elusive spirit to gain her forgiveness.
When her father moves the family to Scotland so they can all start over, Riley believes her life couldn’t get worse––that is until the ghost of nineteen-year-old Ian MacKinnon catches her purposely cutting herself. An uneasy truce quickly turns into friendship, and soon Riley’s falling hard for Ian.
Riley believes her gift could help Ian end the curse that has kept him tied to the land for centuries, but that would mean letting him go forever and she’s not sure she is strong enough to do that. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, the spirit of the woman who killed Ian returns and she’ll stop at nothing to keep Riley from helping Ian find eternal peace.
So as you can see from the description, this book is about a girl named Riley who can see ghosts. Ever since her mother died in a car crash while Riley was in the car with her she has obtained the ability to see ghosts. After she moves to Scotland with her dad and brother, she meets a ghost named Ian MacKinnon. Ian lived in the castle next to Riley's house 200 years ago and he is cursed to the land. Riley also meets a ghost named Laria and is being haunted by her for being close to Ian. Back in their time, Laria killed Ian because she was in love with him and he was in love with someone else. So as Riley and Ian get closer and start to fall in love, Laria starts threatening Riley and trying to kill her.
This book had a lot of different aspects that I liked. It was well written and the characters had good development. There wasn't a character in this book that I didn't like, even the evil ghost Laria. I think that Riley and Laria both were very well developed characters and through out the series I enjoyed some of the minor characters just as well. I thought that this book was a little creepy/scary and I usually tend to stay away from ghost books because I get scared easily (LOL) but this one was just way too good to stop reading because of the creepiness. Also as you can tell from the description, Riley is really depressed from her mothers death and she also cuts herself (also where the title is from as well). However, even though this is how she meets Ian, I don't really think the aspect of cutting in this book was important or even necessary. It was kind of just thrown into the story randomly with not much purpose. There were only a few times in this book where it was mentioned and I just didn't find it to do anything for the book considering that it is a serious topic in general. Laria uses this again Riley sometimes and eventually her new friends find out, but I just didn't think it was necessary in the book considering how nonchalant it is in the book. This book kept me on edge while reading it and I couldn't put it down because I just kept wanting to know what was going to happen.
Book two: The Haunting
This book picks up right away from where the first book left off. At the end of last book Riley meets a guy named Kade MacKinnon, who now lives in the castle next to her house where Ian grew up. Kade and his family are decedents of Ians family. Kade reminds Riley so much of Ian that she falls hard and fast in love with him which I found kind of annoying. There are a lot more friendships and romance growing in this book than the first one and I really enjoyed that. Laria is still in the book haunting Riley, and we learn so more about the ghosts and there is even some possession going on as well. This book kind of lacked a little bit of action, and I didn't like the ending as much. It just kind of stopped and ended with nothing really happening. I was a little disappointed that Ian wasn't in this book much, since he was such main character in the last. It kind of seemed that Riley forgot about him a little bit since she is with Kade now. There isn't much else to say about this book without giving away anymore spoilers!
Book three: The Departed.
This is the final book and I thought it was a great conclusion to the series. Riley gets more involved with her friends and her relationship with her bother grows a lot. She seeks help from them, along with Kade about her ghost problems. However, now that her friends and family are involved, thing are going to start to get nasty and complicated. Laria is being more ruthless, and we learn a lot more about her and the witch coven she was apart of. Thus being said, a lot more ghosts are involved in the haunting. This book is definitely the creepiest of the three but that makes it so much better. Still, Ian isn't in this book a lot and Riley calls for help from her mom and other ghosts a lot but not Ian. We finally figure out why Riley is connected to Ian and Kade so much in this book and it is nice to make that discovery. We get to see a more emotional side to all of the characters in this book as well, especially from Riley's brother, Shane, and from Laria as well. I absolutely loved everything about this series and this was a perfect conclusion.
Short Novella: The Beginning- The Mackinnion Curse.
This is a short novella told from Ian's point of view of the time when he was living. I really enjoyed reading this because we get to see what Ian's life was like before and after he died. In this story we learn a lot about Ian and Laria and what their relationship was like while living. Laria was a servant in Ian's household and she was also in love with Ian, but Ian didn't love her back. There was more about Ian's family, and his brother Duncan who plays a bigger role in this book. I really enjoyed seeing how Ian was when he was living and also how Laria was. We also get to see the character Margot who was the girl Ian was suppose to marry. In the pervious books, Margot was in them briefly and we learned a little bit about her but this story really ties it all together. This book shows all of the events leading up to both Ian and Larias death, but I wish there was more story to them being ghosts and what happened afterwards besides Laria cursing him to the land he lived in. It ends when Ian first met Riley which I though was appropriate. I didn't enjoy reading this as much as the other books in the series because a lot of it was stuff we already knew from the previous books but just a little more in depth. Overall it was still a great edition to the series.
This concludes my review on the MicKinnon Curse Series, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. This was such a long post and I'm sorry if it was a little boring with all of the reviews! I hope you all give this series a try and thank you for reading!
Book one: The Deepest Cut-
Sixteen-year-old Riley Williams has been able to see ghosts since the car crash that took her mother’s life and shattered her family. Guilt-ridden over the belief that she’s somehow responsible for her mom’s death, Riley is desperate to see her mother’s elusive spirit to gain her forgiveness.
When her father moves the family to Scotland so they can all start over, Riley believes her life couldn’t get worse––that is until the ghost of nineteen-year-old Ian MacKinnon catches her purposely cutting herself. An uneasy truce quickly turns into friendship, and soon Riley’s falling hard for Ian.
Riley believes her gift could help Ian end the curse that has kept him tied to the land for centuries, but that would mean letting him go forever and she’s not sure she is strong enough to do that. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, the spirit of the woman who killed Ian returns and she’ll stop at nothing to keep Riley from helping Ian find eternal peace.
So as you can see from the description, this book is about a girl named Riley who can see ghosts. Ever since her mother died in a car crash while Riley was in the car with her she has obtained the ability to see ghosts. After she moves to Scotland with her dad and brother, she meets a ghost named Ian MacKinnon. Ian lived in the castle next to Riley's house 200 years ago and he is cursed to the land. Riley also meets a ghost named Laria and is being haunted by her for being close to Ian. Back in their time, Laria killed Ian because she was in love with him and he was in love with someone else. So as Riley and Ian get closer and start to fall in love, Laria starts threatening Riley and trying to kill her.
This book had a lot of different aspects that I liked. It was well written and the characters had good development. There wasn't a character in this book that I didn't like, even the evil ghost Laria. I think that Riley and Laria both were very well developed characters and through out the series I enjoyed some of the minor characters just as well. I thought that this book was a little creepy/scary and I usually tend to stay away from ghost books because I get scared easily (LOL) but this one was just way too good to stop reading because of the creepiness. Also as you can tell from the description, Riley is really depressed from her mothers death and she also cuts herself (also where the title is from as well). However, even though this is how she meets Ian, I don't really think the aspect of cutting in this book was important or even necessary. It was kind of just thrown into the story randomly with not much purpose. There were only a few times in this book where it was mentioned and I just didn't find it to do anything for the book considering that it is a serious topic in general. Laria uses this again Riley sometimes and eventually her new friends find out, but I just didn't think it was necessary in the book considering how nonchalant it is in the book. This book kept me on edge while reading it and I couldn't put it down because I just kept wanting to know what was going to happen.
Book two: The Haunting
This book picks up right away from where the first book left off. At the end of last book Riley meets a guy named Kade MacKinnon, who now lives in the castle next to her house where Ian grew up. Kade and his family are decedents of Ians family. Kade reminds Riley so much of Ian that she falls hard and fast in love with him which I found kind of annoying. There are a lot more friendships and romance growing in this book than the first one and I really enjoyed that. Laria is still in the book haunting Riley, and we learn so more about the ghosts and there is even some possession going on as well. This book kind of lacked a little bit of action, and I didn't like the ending as much. It just kind of stopped and ended with nothing really happening. I was a little disappointed that Ian wasn't in this book much, since he was such main character in the last. It kind of seemed that Riley forgot about him a little bit since she is with Kade now. There isn't much else to say about this book without giving away anymore spoilers!Book three: The Departed.
This is the final book and I thought it was a great conclusion to the series. Riley gets more involved with her friends and her relationship with her bother grows a lot. She seeks help from them, along with Kade about her ghost problems. However, now that her friends and family are involved, thing are going to start to get nasty and complicated. Laria is being more ruthless, and we learn a lot more about her and the witch coven she was apart of. Thus being said, a lot more ghosts are involved in the haunting. This book is definitely the creepiest of the three but that makes it so much better. Still, Ian isn't in this book a lot and Riley calls for help from her mom and other ghosts a lot but not Ian. We finally figure out why Riley is connected to Ian and Kade so much in this book and it is nice to make that discovery. We get to see a more emotional side to all of the characters in this book as well, especially from Riley's brother, Shane, and from Laria as well. I absolutely loved everything about this series and this was a perfect conclusion.Short Novella: The Beginning- The Mackinnion Curse.
This is a short novella told from Ian's point of view of the time when he was living. I really enjoyed reading this because we get to see what Ian's life was like before and after he died. In this story we learn a lot about Ian and Laria and what their relationship was like while living. Laria was a servant in Ian's household and she was also in love with Ian, but Ian didn't love her back. There was more about Ian's family, and his brother Duncan who plays a bigger role in this book. I really enjoyed seeing how Ian was when he was living and also how Laria was. We also get to see the character Margot who was the girl Ian was suppose to marry. In the pervious books, Margot was in them briefly and we learned a little bit about her but this story really ties it all together. This book shows all of the events leading up to both Ian and Larias death, but I wish there was more story to them being ghosts and what happened afterwards besides Laria cursing him to the land he lived in. It ends when Ian first met Riley which I though was appropriate. I didn't enjoy reading this as much as the other books in the series because a lot of it was stuff we already knew from the previous books but just a little more in depth. Overall it was still a great edition to the series.This concludes my review on the MicKinnon Curse Series, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. This was such a long post and I'm sorry if it was a little boring with all of the reviews! I hope you all give this series a try and thank you for reading!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Day and Night book tag!
Today I'm going to do another book tag survey! I usually find this tags somewhere on youtube and I always think they are so fun so today I am going to do the Day and Night book tag. Basically you go through each letter from day and night and it asks you a question about reading! I hope you enjoy this post and happy reading :)
QUESTIONS:
D: Do you read more in the morning or at night? I would say I read mostly in the morning/day time because I get most of my reading done while I'm at work during my down time. After I get home from work at 7pm I am usually doing other things and don't have time to read. Unless I am really close to finishing a book (50pgs or so) I will read before I go to sleep so I can get the book finished and start a new one in the morning.
A: Are there any books that changed the way you thought about things? Lots of books have changed the way I think about things. I have read many books that have brought different aspect to my attention and blew my mind away. Each and every book I read is important to me and gets me thinking about some thing or another.
Y: YA or Not? Definitely! I love reading young adult books.
A: Are there characters that you honestly believe are real? Only Harry Potter. ;)
N: Nobody touches my books or I don't mind loaning my books out? I don't mind loaning my books out. When I read a really great book I love to share it. I'm always thinking 'Who can I let read this book?'
D: Do you ever smell your books? Sometimes. If I have acquired a really old book for instance, I will smell it to see if it has that old book smell.
N: Not everyone loves books...is this a positive or a negative? Negative!! Just kidding, liking books is a personal preference. Although, I wish everyone would love to read as much as I do. Talking about books makes for a great conversation.
I: I keep my books in the best condition or maybe not? Which are you? I try to keep mine is the best condition. I love for my books to look brand new but I do have some that don't and I am fine with that too. I always have a book in my purse and the paperback ones tend to get bent a little.
G: Gosh I have to many books! True or False? You can never have too many books! No but really, I am a book hoarder.
H: Have you ever spilled or stained your books before with something, and if so how? Only once! I knocked water over my copy of The Notebook on accident one time. It definitely has some water damage to it and I was really upset at the time but it dried out and is still readable.
T: Toned or untoned while reading? ..or in other words...Do you read and workout at the same time? LOL no. I have never tried to read while working out, but I might enjoy listening to an audio book while working out. Maybe I will try it.
QUESTIONS:
D: Do you read more in the morning or at night? I would say I read mostly in the morning/day time because I get most of my reading done while I'm at work during my down time. After I get home from work at 7pm I am usually doing other things and don't have time to read. Unless I am really close to finishing a book (50pgs or so) I will read before I go to sleep so I can get the book finished and start a new one in the morning.
A: Are there any books that changed the way you thought about things? Lots of books have changed the way I think about things. I have read many books that have brought different aspect to my attention and blew my mind away. Each and every book I read is important to me and gets me thinking about some thing or another.
Y: YA or Not? Definitely! I love reading young adult books.
A: Are there characters that you honestly believe are real? Only Harry Potter. ;)
N: Nobody touches my books or I don't mind loaning my books out? I don't mind loaning my books out. When I read a really great book I love to share it. I'm always thinking 'Who can I let read this book?'
D: Do you ever smell your books? Sometimes. If I have acquired a really old book for instance, I will smell it to see if it has that old book smell.
N: Not everyone loves books...is this a positive or a negative? Negative!! Just kidding, liking books is a personal preference. Although, I wish everyone would love to read as much as I do. Talking about books makes for a great conversation.
I: I keep my books in the best condition or maybe not? Which are you? I try to keep mine is the best condition. I love for my books to look brand new but I do have some that don't and I am fine with that too. I always have a book in my purse and the paperback ones tend to get bent a little.
G: Gosh I have to many books! True or False? You can never have too many books! No but really, I am a book hoarder.
H: Have you ever spilled or stained your books before with something, and if so how? Only once! I knocked water over my copy of The Notebook on accident one time. It definitely has some water damage to it and I was really upset at the time but it dried out and is still readable.
T: Toned or untoned while reading? ..or in other words...Do you read and workout at the same time? LOL no. I have never tried to read while working out, but I might enjoy listening to an audio book while working out. Maybe I will try it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
What I Read in October
Hello Everyone! I have seriously been slacking on my blog posts, I don't think I have written on here for at least a month, sorry! I had read a lot more books last month in October then in the previous months when I started this blog and I had a lot of reviews planned out. Sometimes life gets in the way and we get side tracked with things, and my heart just wasn't into writing for a little bit. I am back now and I hope to write a lot of posts in the near future.
Anyways, here is my (late) October Wrap up! I read 5 books last month, which were The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter, Hold Still by Nina LaCour, and I finally, finally finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
-The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead was the first book that I read last month. I absolutely fell in love with Rchelle Mead's writing and the whole world she has created all over again when I read this. I put off reading this book for so long and when I finally read it I was like why didn't I read this sooner?! You can read my review for this book here.
-Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan was the second book I read this book. I know I say this about every John Green book I read but, this was definitely unlike any other book I have read before. His books keep amazing me with each one that I read. Both him and David Levithan are phenomenal writers and I encourage anyone who has not read any of their books to do so. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other John Green books that I read, but I still really liked it because of the two different writing styles that were entwined into the book. It made a totally different and interesting aspect to my reading experience that I don't get in a lot of books.
-Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter was another really great book I read. It is the 4th book in the Shadowfalls series, and I sware with each book in this series the books just keep getting better and better. The next book in the series is going to be the final book and I'm so sad that the series is ending. This is such a great series in the YA fantasy/paranormal genre.
-Hold Still by Nina LaCour was another great contemporary novel that I have added to my collection. I read this one on my kindle, and it was a quick read. There were so many aspects in this book that I loved and it is one that I highly recommend. This was one of the books that I planned of doing a review for, but since that didn't happen I will include a mini review here. It has great character development in it, along with some amazing characters. It is about a girl whose best friend commits suicide and she finds her journal she leaves behind. It's a very emotional heart lifting book about their friendship and we get to see the main character heal and gain strength from her grief.
-Lastly, I finally finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin which is the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. I was so proud of myself for reading and finishing this book because it is so long (809 pages!) plus I own the mass market paperback edition so the writing is super tiny! Also, this book has a lot of detail and it's hard to read and pay attention to everything that is going on, at least for me. I tend to stay away from adult novels like this, but I loved the TV show so much that I wanted to read the book. I tried to read the book first, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on so I'm glad I watched the show first. I can't wait to read the next books in the series but they are a little overwhelming because all of the rest are 1000+ pages. Yikes!
This is all for my October wrap up post. This post was a little bit longer than my usual wrap up videos but I wanted to talked a little bit more about the books I read since I didn't do any reviews for them. This month I started reading both Hidden by P.C Cast (10th house of night book) and The Golden Compass but I wasn't really getting into either book. I am still trying to read Hidden so we will see how that goes! Thank you all for reading and have a great day :)
Anyways, here is my (late) October Wrap up! I read 5 books last month, which were The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter, Hold Still by Nina LaCour, and I finally, finally finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
-Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan was the second book I read this book. I know I say this about every John Green book I read but, this was definitely unlike any other book I have read before. His books keep amazing me with each one that I read. Both him and David Levithan are phenomenal writers and I encourage anyone who has not read any of their books to do so. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other John Green books that I read, but I still really liked it because of the two different writing styles that were entwined into the book. It made a totally different and interesting aspect to my reading experience that I don't get in a lot of books.
-Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter was another really great book I read. It is the 4th book in the Shadowfalls series, and I sware with each book in this series the books just keep getting better and better. The next book in the series is going to be the final book and I'm so sad that the series is ending. This is such a great series in the YA fantasy/paranormal genre.
-Hold Still by Nina LaCour was another great contemporary novel that I have added to my collection. I read this one on my kindle, and it was a quick read. There were so many aspects in this book that I loved and it is one that I highly recommend. This was one of the books that I planned of doing a review for, but since that didn't happen I will include a mini review here. It has great character development in it, along with some amazing characters. It is about a girl whose best friend commits suicide and she finds her journal she leaves behind. It's a very emotional heart lifting book about their friendship and we get to see the main character heal and gain strength from her grief.
-Lastly, I finally finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin which is the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. I was so proud of myself for reading and finishing this book because it is so long (809 pages!) plus I own the mass market paperback edition so the writing is super tiny! Also, this book has a lot of detail and it's hard to read and pay attention to everything that is going on, at least for me. I tend to stay away from adult novels like this, but I loved the TV show so much that I wanted to read the book. I tried to read the book first, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on so I'm glad I watched the show first. I can't wait to read the next books in the series but they are a little overwhelming because all of the rest are 1000+ pages. Yikes!
This is all for my October wrap up post. This post was a little bit longer than my usual wrap up videos but I wanted to talked a little bit more about the books I read since I didn't do any reviews for them. This month I started reading both Hidden by P.C Cast (10th house of night book) and The Golden Compass but I wasn't really getting into either book. I am still trying to read Hidden so we will see how that goes! Thank you all for reading and have a great day :)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead: Book Review
Hello Everyone! I'm going to share my book review on The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead today. I finished reading this book a few days ago and I really enjoyed this book. I am a HUGE fan of Richelle Mead, she is a fantastic writer and the Bloodlines series is becoming one of my favorites. I absolutely love the Vampire Academy series so I was really excited when Richelle wrote a spin off series to Vampire Academy and I loved the first book Bloodlines as well.
While reading The Golden Lily, I had forgot a lot of what happened in the first book so I was kind of confused at what was going on, but through each book (vampire academy as well) the author does a good job of explaining things from the previous books when necessary so it was easy to catch on when reading. Also- if you have not read Bloodlines then there could be some spoilers here! Now onto my review!!
Summary from Goodreads:
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.
But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.
When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.
Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?
Like I said before, I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed it better then the first book mainly because of the ending. This book pretty much picks up from the last one with Sydney as the main character. I love all of the characters in this book as well, and it was nice to see how Sydney is developing a more personal friendship with all of them as she is working to help protect Jill. Since Sydney is an Alchemist, she works to protect the human world from Vampires, but since Alchemist don't like Vampires and think everything about this existence is wrong she isn't suppose to be too involved. Through the book Sydney really learns that Humans can be more dangerous then Vampires and as her relationships with them grows she starts to question everything she was taught to know. I was also happy that Dimitri played a bigger told in this book as well. He was in the story a lot and he is one of my favorite characters. This book didn't feature Rose or Lissa at all, so I was happy to see another of one of the previous main characters back.
I thought the plot in this book was a little slow and I was really wanting so more action but the story and characters made up for that a lot. I absolutely love Adrian. He is probably my favorite character in the book. Now while I always liked him in Vampire Academy as well, I was definitely team Dimitri in the whole Rose love triangle relationship. Now since that is all done and over with, Adrian has become my favorite character. I really like Sydney as well, I think she is a strong female character but sometimes I just want to slap her because she won't let herself listen to her heart. Which I won't explain because I don't want to give away any spoilers.
The ending to this book was so amazing and it just leaves you hanging! I love endings like this that are anticipating but I hate waiting for the next book to be released to find out what happens. The ending of this book was what I have been waiting for this entire series :) I was so sad that I couldn't have more because the book ended. I absolutely can not wait for The Indigo Spell to come out!
I definitely gave this book a 5/5 stars on goodreads. I put off reading it for so long because I forgot what happened in Bloodlines. I'm happy that I finally decided to read it because I fell in love with Richelle Mead's writing and the whole Vampire Academy / Bloodlines world all over again!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!
While reading The Golden Lily, I had forgot a lot of what happened in the first book so I was kind of confused at what was going on, but through each book (vampire academy as well) the author does a good job of explaining things from the previous books when necessary so it was easy to catch on when reading. Also- if you have not read Bloodlines then there could be some spoilers here! Now onto my review!!
Summary from Goodreads:
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.
But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.
When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.
Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?
Like I said before, I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed it better then the first book mainly because of the ending. This book pretty much picks up from the last one with Sydney as the main character. I love all of the characters in this book as well, and it was nice to see how Sydney is developing a more personal friendship with all of them as she is working to help protect Jill. Since Sydney is an Alchemist, she works to protect the human world from Vampires, but since Alchemist don't like Vampires and think everything about this existence is wrong she isn't suppose to be too involved. Through the book Sydney really learns that Humans can be more dangerous then Vampires and as her relationships with them grows she starts to question everything she was taught to know. I was also happy that Dimitri played a bigger told in this book as well. He was in the story a lot and he is one of my favorite characters. This book didn't feature Rose or Lissa at all, so I was happy to see another of one of the previous main characters back.
I thought the plot in this book was a little slow and I was really wanting so more action but the story and characters made up for that a lot. I absolutely love Adrian. He is probably my favorite character in the book. Now while I always liked him in Vampire Academy as well, I was definitely team Dimitri in the whole Rose love triangle relationship. Now since that is all done and over with, Adrian has become my favorite character. I really like Sydney as well, I think she is a strong female character but sometimes I just want to slap her because she won't let herself listen to her heart. Which I won't explain because I don't want to give away any spoilers.
The ending to this book was so amazing and it just leaves you hanging! I love endings like this that are anticipating but I hate waiting for the next book to be released to find out what happens. The ending of this book was what I have been waiting for this entire series :) I was so sad that I couldn't have more because the book ended. I absolutely can not wait for The Indigo Spell to come out!
I definitely gave this book a 5/5 stars on goodreads. I put off reading it for so long because I forgot what happened in Bloodlines. I'm happy that I finally decided to read it because I fell in love with Richelle Mead's writing and the whole Vampire Academy / Bloodlines world all over again!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Book Haul #2
Hello Everyone! I wanted to share a book haul here on my blog of all the books that I recently purchased. Most of them are from Barnes and Nobel, I can not help myself when I go in there from buying too many books. Please ignore the horrible lighting on the picture below! I took it when it was dark in my house and apparently I don't have very good lighting ahh!!
The first book I purchased was The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I got this one last week the day after it came out. I was super excited about this book because I was unaware that J.K was releasing another book! It was totally unexpected, so like a little fan girl I freaked out and went and bought the book. I can't wait to read it, and I will probably be starting it some time this weekend.
The Hobbit book that you see in the picture is actually an illustrated edition of the book and it is like a graphic novel. They had a huge display at Barnes and Nobel of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm a huge fan of LOTR and I thought this edition of The Hobbit was pretty cool. I have not read all of the actual book, so I may read this graphic novel edition first.
I also picked up another John Green book which is Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I recently read The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska and loved them both. I plan to read all of John Green's books so this one will be next on my list!
I was really excited when I seen Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter, which is the 4th book in the Shadow Falls series. I totally forgot it came out this month and I absolutely love this series so I was so happy when I seen it.
Lastly, I picked up The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa. This is a collection of three novellas from the Iron Fey series. I do want to read this but I don't think I will be reading it anytime soon. I don't exactly remember what happens in all of the books so I might get confused when I read the novellas because they are short stories in between the books in the series. I pretty much just wanted it to have it as part of my series collection LOL. It is on my fall TBR list though, so hopefully I will get around to reading it sometime this fall.
I hope you all enjoyed my book haul and thanks for reading!
The first book I purchased was The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I got this one last week the day after it came out. I was super excited about this book because I was unaware that J.K was releasing another book! It was totally unexpected, so like a little fan girl I freaked out and went and bought the book. I can't wait to read it, and I will probably be starting it some time this weekend.
The Hobbit book that you see in the picture is actually an illustrated edition of the book and it is like a graphic novel. They had a huge display at Barnes and Nobel of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm a huge fan of LOTR and I thought this edition of The Hobbit was pretty cool. I have not read all of the actual book, so I may read this graphic novel edition first.
I also picked up another John Green book which is Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I recently read The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska and loved them both. I plan to read all of John Green's books so this one will be next on my list!
I was really excited when I seen Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter, which is the 4th book in the Shadow Falls series. I totally forgot it came out this month and I absolutely love this series so I was so happy when I seen it.
Lastly, I picked up The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa. This is a collection of three novellas from the Iron Fey series. I do want to read this but I don't think I will be reading it anytime soon. I don't exactly remember what happens in all of the books so I might get confused when I read the novellas because they are short stories in between the books in the series. I pretty much just wanted it to have it as part of my series collection LOL. It is on my fall TBR list though, so hopefully I will get around to reading it sometime this fall.
I hope you all enjoyed my book haul and thanks for reading!
Monday, October 1, 2012
September Wrap up
Last month in September I only read 3 books again. I read Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, Venomous by Christopher Krovatin, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. However even though I only read three books, I read about 200 pages of A Game of Thrones, which I started at the end of August. I put down that book so I could read different ones because it was taking me forever to read. I hope to finally finish it this month in October.
I really enjoyed Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. It wasn't my favorite book that she wrote, but I still liked reading it. I didn't do a review on this book, but I gave it 4/5 stars on goodreads.
I also enjoyed reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin. It was a fun and quick read but it has a lot of deep and mature content in it. It was different from any kind of book that I've read before. You can read my review on this book here.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was my favorite book that I read this month. John Green is a phenomenal writer and this book definitely did not disappoint me. I did a review on this book as well, and I will leave the link to it here.
I'm currently reading The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, which is the second book in the Bloodlines series. So far I'm enjoying it, but I don't remember all of what happened in Bloodlines so it's a little hard for me to get into. After this book I'm going to be reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I am so so so excited for this book and I can't wait to read it. It was a pleasant surprise that J.K wrote another book!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my (small) September wrap up!
I really enjoyed Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. It wasn't my favorite book that she wrote, but I still liked reading it. I didn't do a review on this book, but I gave it 4/5 stars on goodreads.
I also enjoyed reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin. It was a fun and quick read but it has a lot of deep and mature content in it. It was different from any kind of book that I've read before. You can read my review on this book here.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was my favorite book that I read this month. John Green is a phenomenal writer and this book definitely did not disappoint me. I did a review on this book as well, and I will leave the link to it here.
I'm currently reading The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, which is the second book in the Bloodlines series. So far I'm enjoying it, but I don't remember all of what happened in Bloodlines so it's a little hard for me to get into. After this book I'm going to be reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I am so so so excited for this book and I can't wait to read it. It was a pleasant surprise that J.K wrote another book!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my (small) September wrap up!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: Book Review
Today I wanted to do a review on The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, which I just recently finished reading. This is the second book by John Green that I have read, and he is a phenomenal writer. I really enjoyed reading The Fault in Our Stars (however I liked Looking for Alaska better ^.^) so let's get started with my review!
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
So the main character Hazel has thyroid cancer but she was given a medicine that keeps her tumors under control but has to be on oxygen at all times. Her parents want her to try to be a normal teenager, so they send her to this support group for people who have cancer, are in remission etc. At the support group she meets Augustus, who is in remission and he is definitely interested in Hazel. Augustus and Hazel become friends and eventually start dating as well.
One thing I loved so much about this book was Augustus Waters character. He is the perfect character and it's so hard to not adore him. He is sweet and witty, and has a lot of other great qualities to him as well. I absolutely love how he calls her Hazel Grace instead of just Hazel. I completely melted when he told Hazel he was in love with her. I loved the timing, the way he says it, just everything about that part just made me love the book so much more. I loved Hazel as well, I loved her humor and how she was just a strong female lead character. I loved it when she opened her heart up and let herself love and be loved by Augustus.
There is so much about this book that I loved and it's just such a beautiful story. It's a book about cancer, but not about cancer at the same time. It is definitely a tear jerker, and it broke my heart in places too. The ending to this book was so perfect though, the last pages were such a great way to end the book and it made the story so complete. (so hard not to give any spoilers! And I know this doesn't make any sense at all to anyone who hasn't read the book haha!)
This is a book that I highly recommend reading if you have not, but I will warn you that it's a book that will most likely make you cry!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!
Find me here on Goodreads!
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
So the main character Hazel has thyroid cancer but she was given a medicine that keeps her tumors under control but has to be on oxygen at all times. Her parents want her to try to be a normal teenager, so they send her to this support group for people who have cancer, are in remission etc. At the support group she meets Augustus, who is in remission and he is definitely interested in Hazel. Augustus and Hazel become friends and eventually start dating as well.
One thing I loved so much about this book was Augustus Waters character. He is the perfect character and it's so hard to not adore him. He is sweet and witty, and has a lot of other great qualities to him as well. I absolutely love how he calls her Hazel Grace instead of just Hazel. I completely melted when he told Hazel he was in love with her. I loved the timing, the way he says it, just everything about that part just made me love the book so much more. I loved Hazel as well, I loved her humor and how she was just a strong female lead character. I loved it when she opened her heart up and let herself love and be loved by Augustus.
There is so much about this book that I loved and it's just such a beautiful story. It's a book about cancer, but not about cancer at the same time. It is definitely a tear jerker, and it broke my heart in places too. The ending to this book was so perfect though, the last pages were such a great way to end the book and it made the story so complete. (so hard not to give any spoilers! And I know this doesn't make any sense at all to anyone who hasn't read the book haha!)
This is a book that I highly recommend reading if you have not, but I will warn you that it's a book that will most likely make you cry!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!
Find me here on Goodreads!
Monday, September 24, 2012
Venomous by Christopher Krovatin Book Review.
A few days ago I finished reading Venomous by Chrisotpher Krovatin so I wanted to share my review of this book here on my blog. I heard about this book from someone doing a review on Youtube. It sounded really interesting so I wanted to read it. It's different from any book that I've read before, and I truly did enjoy the book and gave it 4/5 stars on goodreads, however I do have some mixed feelings about the book. Let's get started with my review so I can tell you the things that I did and did not like about this book. :)
Locke Vinetti is a high school junior, disenchanted and more than a little hostile. In fact, for years he’s had a lousy social life because of a problem he has with his anger—a force he calls “the venom.” Ever since he was eight years old and bit off a piece of a classmate’s nose, he’s been something of a loner.
But all that is about to change when he goes out with his one friend, Randall, to meet some of Randall’s crew hanging out at Riverside Park. Because in addition to meeting his kindred spirit, Casey—who has his own problems with his own kind of venom—Locke meets the spikey blue fairy-haircut Goth girl of his dreams. And if their relationship is going to work, he knows he has to rid himself of the venom once and for all.
Interspersed with comic book adventures of the fantasy anti-hero alter-ego Locke has invented for himself, Venomous is a fast-paced, funny, and ferocious read about one teenage boy’s struggle with his inner demons.
So as you can see from the summary, this book is about a boy named Locke who has a lot of anger issues that he calls "Venom". He has been dealing with this constant present anger for almost his whole life and he struggles with controlling it. He doesn't have many friends at school except for Randall, but he meets some of his friends at a party and becomes friends with them as well. He also meets Renee, his dream girl finds himself falling in love with her. Renee has a really dark past as well, and she is a little screwed up herself, but she is one of the reasons Locke wants to try to control his Venom so they can make their relationship work. He also meets a guy named Casey, who also has anger issues, so Locke finds some one else he can relate to like he can't with his other friends.
Now this book was pretty well written, but sometimes I didn't like the characters. I liked Locke's character the best because even though I don't usually read books with a Male lead character, it was nice to see a male character written so well and in depth. I was really pleased with the way the author wrote Locke's character because we get to see a male character with such real emotion here in this book. Locke deal with anger issues, but he also shares a lot of his emotion in the book with saying how he feels, he talks about crying, etc. I felt like he was a real person because real people feel real emotions like Locke did and I don't feel like that is usually written and portrayed in books, especially with a male character.
I also liked Randall and Casey in the book, but we didn't get as close to them as we do Locke and Renee. I feel like Casey could have had a little but more depth to him as well, but it wasn't too much of an issues because he wasn't much of a main character. Renee's character however bugged me a little but sometimes. I liked her well enough, but sometimes I felt like her character was just all over the place and there was something missing to her. I can't exactly put my finger on what was missing, but it was definitely something.
In between character of this book, there was a sort of comic book type story of the 'Venom'. Locke said at one part of the story that he use to pretend his Venom was a super hero or something and make up stories about it. (or maybe it was his little brother, Lon, I can't remember >.< ). So I read the first two or so in-between comic book chapters of the book but I wasn't really a fan of them. I didn't really understand why they were there or what purpose the had. It wasn't really explained, so I usually just skipped over them because I thought they were kind of annoying and unnecessary.
Overall this was a fast read and I enjoyed the book. I wish the story would have went a little further and in-depth with the plot. Like I sad before I still gave this a 4/5 stars on good reads. Even though this is a young adult book, I would recommend it to older teens because it has a lot of mature content in it.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this book review! If you have read this book, please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of it!
Locke Vinetti is a high school junior, disenchanted and more than a little hostile. In fact, for years he’s had a lousy social life because of a problem he has with his anger—a force he calls “the venom.” Ever since he was eight years old and bit off a piece of a classmate’s nose, he’s been something of a loner.
But all that is about to change when he goes out with his one friend, Randall, to meet some of Randall’s crew hanging out at Riverside Park. Because in addition to meeting his kindred spirit, Casey—who has his own problems with his own kind of venom—Locke meets the spikey blue fairy-haircut Goth girl of his dreams. And if their relationship is going to work, he knows he has to rid himself of the venom once and for all.
Interspersed with comic book adventures of the fantasy anti-hero alter-ego Locke has invented for himself, Venomous is a fast-paced, funny, and ferocious read about one teenage boy’s struggle with his inner demons.
So as you can see from the summary, this book is about a boy named Locke who has a lot of anger issues that he calls "Venom". He has been dealing with this constant present anger for almost his whole life and he struggles with controlling it. He doesn't have many friends at school except for Randall, but he meets some of his friends at a party and becomes friends with them as well. He also meets Renee, his dream girl finds himself falling in love with her. Renee has a really dark past as well, and she is a little screwed up herself, but she is one of the reasons Locke wants to try to control his Venom so they can make their relationship work. He also meets a guy named Casey, who also has anger issues, so Locke finds some one else he can relate to like he can't with his other friends.
Now this book was pretty well written, but sometimes I didn't like the characters. I liked Locke's character the best because even though I don't usually read books with a Male lead character, it was nice to see a male character written so well and in depth. I was really pleased with the way the author wrote Locke's character because we get to see a male character with such real emotion here in this book. Locke deal with anger issues, but he also shares a lot of his emotion in the book with saying how he feels, he talks about crying, etc. I felt like he was a real person because real people feel real emotions like Locke did and I don't feel like that is usually written and portrayed in books, especially with a male character.
I also liked Randall and Casey in the book, but we didn't get as close to them as we do Locke and Renee. I feel like Casey could have had a little but more depth to him as well, but it wasn't too much of an issues because he wasn't much of a main character. Renee's character however bugged me a little but sometimes. I liked her well enough, but sometimes I felt like her character was just all over the place and there was something missing to her. I can't exactly put my finger on what was missing, but it was definitely something.
In between character of this book, there was a sort of comic book type story of the 'Venom'. Locke said at one part of the story that he use to pretend his Venom was a super hero or something and make up stories about it. (or maybe it was his little brother, Lon, I can't remember >.< ). So I read the first two or so in-between comic book chapters of the book but I wasn't really a fan of them. I didn't really understand why they were there or what purpose the had. It wasn't really explained, so I usually just skipped over them because I thought they were kind of annoying and unnecessary.
Overall this was a fast read and I enjoyed the book. I wish the story would have went a little further and in-depth with the plot. Like I sad before I still gave this a 4/5 stars on good reads. Even though this is a young adult book, I would recommend it to older teens because it has a lot of mature content in it.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this book review! If you have read this book, please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of it!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
7 Deadly Sins of Reading
Hello Everyone! Today I'm going to do a blog post on the 7 Deadly Sins of reading. This is a book tag that I saw going around the book community on Youtube. I thought it was fun, and even though I wasn't tagged, I still wanted to participate in this book surgery!
Greed- What is your most inexpensive and expensive book?
My most inexpensive book that I have purchased is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I bought this at a used book sale for $1 last summer. My most expensive book is probably the 7th Harry Potter book, which on the inside flap has a price for $34.99
Wrath- what author do you have a love hate relationship with?
I'm going to say Nicholas Sparks. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Nicholas Sparks and I love all of his book as well. However I find some of his books to just be okay and not amazing like some of his others. So I picked him for a love hate relationship because I always have really high expectations when he writes new book and I don't like being slightly disappointed when one of his books aren't as good as the others!
Gluttony- What book have you deliciously devoured over and over with no shame at all?
Definitely every single book in the Harry Potter series. I've read the books so many times and I just love them and want to read them again!
Sloth- What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien. I've read half of the first book, some of the second book and none at all of the third. I've also neglected reading The Hobbit, which is on my fall TBR list because the movie is coming out in a few months!
Pride- Which book do you often talk about to sound like an intellectual reader?
I don't really talk about books to make myself intelligent, I mostly read YA novels and I have no shame in that!
Lust- What qualities do you find attractive in male and female characters?
I like characters who are humorous, witty, and who can make me laugh. I also like really strong characters who you can see progress through out the novel/series. I love characters who have really strong and real emotion to them as well. This goes for both male and female characters.
Envy- What books would you most like to receive as a gift?
Any book! Books are my favorite gifts and I love it when people give me a book to read, even if I'm just borrowing them! :)
I hope you enjoyed this post and anyone can feel free to join in on this book tag!
On a side note- I just finished reading Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I'm still not sure if I am going to do a review on this book or not. I sometimes find Ellen Hopkins books hard to review for some reason. If anyone reading this wants me to do a review on this book then I will, just comment and let me know.I'm about 300 pages into A Game of Thrones. This book is taking forever to read. I took a break so I could read Tilt, but I hope to finish reading this book by the end of this month. I'm currently reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin on my Kindle and I'm really enjoying it so far.
Thank you for reading! Find me here on goodreads!
Greed- What is your most inexpensive and expensive book?
My most inexpensive book that I have purchased is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I bought this at a used book sale for $1 last summer. My most expensive book is probably the 7th Harry Potter book, which on the inside flap has a price for $34.99
Wrath- what author do you have a love hate relationship with?
I'm going to say Nicholas Sparks. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Nicholas Sparks and I love all of his book as well. However I find some of his books to just be okay and not amazing like some of his others. So I picked him for a love hate relationship because I always have really high expectations when he writes new book and I don't like being slightly disappointed when one of his books aren't as good as the others!
Gluttony- What book have you deliciously devoured over and over with no shame at all?
Definitely every single book in the Harry Potter series. I've read the books so many times and I just love them and want to read them again!
Sloth- What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien. I've read half of the first book, some of the second book and none at all of the third. I've also neglected reading The Hobbit, which is on my fall TBR list because the movie is coming out in a few months!
Pride- Which book do you often talk about to sound like an intellectual reader?
I don't really talk about books to make myself intelligent, I mostly read YA novels and I have no shame in that!
Lust- What qualities do you find attractive in male and female characters?
I like characters who are humorous, witty, and who can make me laugh. I also like really strong characters who you can see progress through out the novel/series. I love characters who have really strong and real emotion to them as well. This goes for both male and female characters.
Envy- What books would you most like to receive as a gift?
Any book! Books are my favorite gifts and I love it when people give me a book to read, even if I'm just borrowing them! :)
I hope you enjoyed this post and anyone can feel free to join in on this book tag!
On a side note- I just finished reading Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I'm still not sure if I am going to do a review on this book or not. I sometimes find Ellen Hopkins books hard to review for some reason. If anyone reading this wants me to do a review on this book then I will, just comment and let me know.I'm about 300 pages into A Game of Thrones. This book is taking forever to read. I took a break so I could read Tilt, but I hope to finish reading this book by the end of this month. I'm currently reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin on my Kindle and I'm really enjoying it so far.
Thank you for reading! Find me here on goodreads!
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