Book Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Yesterday I finished reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. This book is a young adult contemporary novel that seems to be highly talked about and loved within the book community. This was the first book by John Green that I've ever read and I had really high hopes for this book. I can safely say that I was not disappointed one bit. I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was very different from any book that I've read before. I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting for this book, but both the writing style and the whole plot/book it's self was different for me. I was pleasantly surprised on how much I ended up enjoying the book. Now onto my thoughts and the summary!

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

So this book is about a boy name Miles who goes to a boarding school in Alabama and leaves his family and old school behind. He didn't have many friends in his old school so he was excited to start something new while he was looking for his "Great Perhaps." While he is at his new school he meets some new friends and starts to fit in and find his place. The book goes through their lives at Culver Creek boarding school, it deals with real life issues, etc. Along with making friends with The Colonel, Takumi, and a girl named Alaska Young, Miles finds himself falling in love with her as well.

 I really, really loved all of the characters in this book. I thought they had really strong personalities and great character development. Miles character grew so much in this book it was really amazing to see. I absolutely loved The Colonel. He was hilarious and so fun to read. My favorite character was Alaska Young. She deals with her own personal problems in the book which makes her a little mysterious at times because a lot of the time she doesn't share what she's going through. When she does share part of her self or past in the book it just makes her 10 times more amazing because it's so awesome when you start to understand who she is. Her character was so well written and beautiful, I felt like she was a real person and not just a character in the book.

This is definitely a book that I would recommend reading if you haven't read it yet. I cannot wait to read some of John Green's other book soon. I have put The Fault in our Starts on my fall TBR list but I will definitely be checking out his other books as well! I'm currently reading The Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin. This book will probably take me 10 years to read because its so long!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my book review.

Upcoming New Releases

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some upcoming new releases that I'm excited about for this fall. Most of these books are part of young adult series that I've already started reading and can't wait for the new books to come out!

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I love Ellen Hopkins books and I'm really excited about this one coming out soon on September 11th.

Shadowfell by Juilet Marillier coming out on September 11th. I have not herd much about this book but I saw it while browsing Barnes and Nobles website and it looked interesting!

Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter on October 2. The fourth book in the Shadow Falls series and I am so excited about this one. I absolutely love this series!

Hidden by P.C Cast, 10th book in the House of Night series.

Finale by Bacca Fitzpatrick, 4th book in the Hush, Hush series.

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia, 4th book in the Beautiful Creatures series. This series is one of my favorites and I can't wait to see what happens in this book. The last book was so AHHH at the end. :p

Everyday by David Leviathan. I believe this book comes out on August 28th (tomorrow). I have not read any David Leviathan books before but some of them are on my TBR list and I thought this one sounded really good.

The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa, which is three short novellas for the Iron Fey series. I also believe this one comes out tomorrow on the 28th of august as well! I have two of them already on my kindle which i downloaded for free, but I have not read them. I'm excited you can get all three in an actual book which I would rather read from!

I'm sure there are many other books coming out this fall that are going to be really awesome reads along  with all these that I have listed. I know I've already started my new release TBR list for 2013 as well!
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day :)

Top 10 stand alone novels

Hello Eveyone! Today I'm going to share with you my top ten favorite stand alone novels. I recently did a blog post on my top favorite book series which you can read here if you are interested.
These are all of my favorite stand alone novels (books not in a series) and unlike my top ten favorite series, these ones are not fantasy books or young adult books like the series are.  Some of these books were highly popular ones and were made into movies as well. I'm such a sucker for reading books that are being turned into a movie, especially if it's some chick-lit romance book :p




1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
3. The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Night Road by Kristin Hannah
5. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
6. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
7. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
8. Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks
9. Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
10. The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Each and every one of these books is amazing in my opinion. I recently just finished reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult so that book had made it onto my favorites list as well. I had first written down Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult in its place because that is an amazing book as well but I loved The Pact a lot more! I highly recommend any of these books to anyone who hasn't read them yet. I'm a sucker for Nicholas Sparks and Kristin Hannah books as you can see. :)

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and also based on my favorites list, if anyone has any recommendations for me then feel free to comment and let me know!
<3

Book Review: The Pact by Jodi Picoult

A few days ago I finished reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult and I wanted to share my review of this book on my blog. First off I want to say that Jodi Picoult is a phenomenal writer and if you haven't read any of her books I encourage you to check them out. I've been so amazed by each book that I've read of hers so far. Now on to my review. :)

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described

As you can see from the summary this book is about two families who live next to each other and they have been friends most of their lives. Their children grow up together, etc. This book is about Chris and Emily, who were born three months apart and have known each other forever. Basically, they are soul mates. Growing up they were best friends and they eventually started dating, as everyone knew they would. A terrible accident happens one night that no one in each family ever expected to happen. Emily  is dead from a gun wound to the head and Chris was with her. He's hurt and unconscious when the police find them. There was two bullets in the gun that night and Chris claims the other bullet was for him. They had planned on making a suicide pact, but Chris is still alive. So the ultimate question is, were they really going to commit suicide or did Chris Murder Emily?

The book switches back and fourth between the present day and past time. We get to see what is happening now after Emily's death and we go through all the lives of the characters as well. We get to see when Chris and Emily start dating, as well as all the events leading up to her death.  I loved all of the characters in this book and I felt that they were all written extremely well. I had a slight issue with Chris's character towards the beginning though. I thought he was lacking in emotion a little bit but that changed towards the end. I especially loved Emily's character and I loved reading from her point of view when the book went into the past.

I absolutely loved everything about this book. It was such an amazing read that I can't rave enough about. It's hands down one of the best books I've ever read. This book made me feel so many different emotions while reading it. It was definitely a book that left me completely speechless and I couldn't even gather my thoughts about it for a few days because I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. The last 100 pages or so were so exhilarating, especially when it comes down to the end and you finally find out what really happened the night that Emily died. Through this book I was laughing and crying and there were parts where my heart was beating out of my chest! I highly recommend reading this one to anyone who hasn't yet!

I hope you all enjoyed my review and thanks for reading! I'm currently reading Looking for Alaska by John Green, which was one of the books on my fall TBR list! I will be doing a review on this as well when I'm finished.

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Fall TBR List

I haven't had a lot of time to read this summer because I've been really busy at work and at home as well. I hate it when I don't have time to read because it puts me in a serious reading rut, also I've felt that I haven't picked up a really great book in a while. So that being said, I'm super excited for fall to get here so I will have more time to read! I've started putting together my fall TBR (to be read) list so I thought I would share it here on my blog. I'm not going to go too crazy with it, most of the book on my list are ones that I've already purchased and have been sitting on my shelf for a few months now. Although I've added a few books to my list that are coming out in the fall and I'm really excited about reading!

1. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead. I've had this book since it came out and I've been dying to read it! I can't even believe I haven't read it yet!

2. The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman.

3.  The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

4. Looking for Alaska by John Green.

5. The Forsaken by Lisa M Stasse.

6. Mercy by Jodi Picoult.

7. Home Front by Kristin Hannah.

8. Home Again by Kristin Hannah.

9. Angle Falls by Kristin Hannah.

10. When Lightening Strikes by Kristin Hannah.

11. Waiting fro the Moon by Kristin Hannah.

12. Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosney

13. Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

14. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

15. Endlessly by Keirsten White.

16. The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien.

17. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia (coming out October 23)

18. Whispers at Moonirse by C.C Hunter (coming out October 2)

19. Hidden by P.C. Cast (coming out October 16)

20. The Iron Legends by Julia Kagawa, which is three novellas from the Iron Fey series which comes out on the 28th of this month!!

This is only 20 books that I've picked to read this fall (even though the list could probably go on forever), I'm going to try to stick to this list but I probably will read a few (or many) other books as well. These are in no particular order but as you can see I'm pretty excited to read The Golden Lily and I did put it first on my list for a reason ;D and I am a huge Kristen Hannah fan so I've purchased a lot of her books this summer that I'm excited to read. Also, I've been wanting to re read the entire Harry Potter Series as well so I hope I can start those books this fall too!! I hope everyone enjoyed reading this post and I encourage you all to make some TBR lists of your own!
Happy Reading :)

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Top 10 favorite book series

Hello Everyone, I wanted to share my top 10 favorite book series here on my blog!



1. Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling
Harry potter will forever be my favorite book series of all time.

2. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
This is a trilogy made up of three books. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angles, and The Sweet Far Thing. This series is completely amazing and everything about it is so magical and enchanting. This is one of the best young adult fantasy series I've ever read.

3. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of glass, City of Fallen Angles, City of lost Souls. I also love the prequel series, The Infernal Devices, but I enjoyed the mortal instruments series a lot more.

4. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, The Last Sacrifice. This is a series that I really loved when I was in my 'vampire book' phase. I still love the series despite the fact that I am not into vampire books anymore because it is a really wonderful series! I also like the spin off series Bloodlines.

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, MockingJay. This probably comes to no surprise that the Hunger Games is another one of my favorites. It will aways be a series that I love as well.

6. Divergent by Veronica Roth
I also love the 2nd book Insurgent and I believe this is going to be a 3 book trilogy. I can't wait until the third book to see how the rest of the story goes!

7. The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale
The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born are the books in this series. I'm not exactly sure if I would consider this series to be in the young adult section. They are pretty long books, but I would say they are more lighter reads then your typical young adult book. It is a fantasy series but it isn't harsh or heavy in action, but there is definitely a great story.

8. The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa
The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, and the Iron Knight. This is the only series about fairies that I've read the I've actually enjoyed.

9. Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia
Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos. I absolutely love this series about caster/witchcraft. I can't wait for the 4th book to come out.

10. The Blue is for Nightmares series by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Blue is for Nightmares, White is for Magic, Silver is for Secrets, Red is for Remembrance, and the graphic novel Black is for Beginnings. This is a wonderful series that I read a few years ago that I often forget about. It's really captivating and a little suspenseful.

This is my top 10 favorite series and they are ones that I've recommend a lot of people to read. I am also planning of doing another blog post of my top 10 favorite stand alone novels as well. As you can tell all of my favorites series are in the fantasy genre, but none of my favorite stand alone novels are! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and look forward to my favorite stand alone novels! :P

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Fragment Friday!

 I watch a lot of youtube videos on book reviews, hauls, discussions, etc and I seen one a while back called Fragment Friday where every friday a youtuber would read a portion or 'fragment' of the book that she was reading. I loved the idea, mainly because a lot of the time it wasn't a book I has read before so it was kind of cool to hear a part of the book that I didn't know and had no idea what was going on in the story. The concept was interesting to me so I've decided to make a blog post on it as well!

The book they I'm currently reading is Tricks by Ellen Hopkins.  I'm sort of on an Ellen Hopkins kick right now and these books are the only ones that I have been reading for the last 3 weeks or so. For anyone who isn't familiar with her books, they are written in verse. It was a little different at first when I started reading them but I've grown to love verse novels. They are such light and easy reads and I've found some beautiful poetry in them which is why I decided to do this post. I found a section of the book that was such a beautiful poem and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it here on my blog.


Reach 

They say you should
           reach for the stars, 
           and I’d like to, but
 my arms
           are much too short. 
           they say to reach 
           out for hope, but I 
don’t 
           understand what hope
           is. They say to reach for
           goals, but I don’t 
know 
           how to define mine, 
           and so I won’t listen. 
           But if you only tell me 
how to 
           love you, I’ll reach 
           into the depth of me 
           and find a way to
 hold you.


I absolutely love this poem. When I read it I thought it was so beautiful and I love things that leave me speechless when I read them.

I hope you enjoyed my Fragment Friday post! Thanks for reading :)