Never Judge A Book by It's Cover

Hey Everyone! Today I am going to do a blog post that I've had in mind for a while called Never Judge A Book by it's Cover. Now I know we have all herd this saying before, and if we are keeping this topic specifically related to books, then I'm sure I'm not the only one who has ever picked up a book because I was drawn to the cover of it. I've picked up so many books with beautiful covers that I ended up not liking. And this also goes the other way as well. I've been reluctant to pick up some books because of their 'ugly' covers, but I've found with a lot of them that once I did read them they were ones that I really enjoyed. See, never judge a book by its cover. Anyways, onto the actual point of this blog post. I'm going to list 5 books that had ugly covers that I ended up loving, and I'm going to post 5 books with beautiful covers that I ended up not enjoying. Sounds fun right?

Books with Not so pretty covers:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Before I read these books, I was really reluctant because the whole concept of the book sounded really strange to me. On top of that, I was always turned off by the covers because I always thought they looked really boyish or masculine. After I read them though, I did not mind the covers and I actually really like them now, especially the cover for Mockingjay.

2. Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz. This cover has fish hooks and fish scales on it. Not pretty. This story however is very uniquely strange and it's one that I enjoyed.

3. The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle series by L.J. Smith. I listed both these series in here because their covers look very similar. I've always hated the covers for these books for some reason. I don't know why but the faces on them are weird to me and I don't like the writing on the covers. Actually I just recently purchased all of the Secret Circle books and I ended up getting the ones with the newer cover versions and I like them much better.

4. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender. It's not that I don't like this cover, it's just really creepy. First off, this is a ghost book and I'm always really reluctant to read ghost stories because they scare the crap out of me. It took me forever to pick this one up even though I wanted to read it for years. Every time I went to the bookstore and seen it, I basically cringed away from it's creepiness. LOL.









5. Evernight series by Claudia Gray. This is actually a series that I purchased because a few of the books were on amazon for really cheap so I thought I'd try them. I ended up really enjoying them but I don't care for the covers. I think the colors are kind of loud and too much, and I don't necessarily like the girls face on them either.








Books with Beautiful Covers that I did not enjoy: (so deceiving)


1. Wither by Lauren DeStefano. OK first I want the say that I didn't exactly dislike this book. I actually enjoyed it okay and would someday like to finish the series. BUT for how freaking beautiful this book cover is, the book does not add up to it at all. This is probably one of my favorite book covers of all time and the picture doesn't even do it justice.








2. Entwined by Heather Dixon. This is another one that I didn't really dislike or like. I enjoyed it but it was just okay. This is another cover that is really beautiful that the story isn't as great as the cover.









3. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin. This cover is really beautiful. It's even more beautiful in person than in the picture. But I really, really hated this book. I rarely will say that about a book, but this one I did not like one bit. End of story.







4. The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge. This was a book that I didn't even finish. I made it probably half way or a little more and just couldn't read anymore. I tried really, really hard and was a little disappointed that I didn't like it. I really love the cover though because it's so dark and just beautiful.










5. Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer. This is another one that I didn't finish. I was really disappointed because I loved Nightshade and I loved the cover for that one, too. I thought the cover to Wolfsbane was really beautiful.










This is all for my Never Judge a Book by it's Cover post. I know it was kind of random, but I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading!

Top 5 Favorite Books with Male Main Characters

Hey Everyone! Today I am going to do a post of my favorite books (top 5) that have male lead characters. I wanted to do this post because I find that being a girl, it's some times hard to read from a boys point of view. I'm not sure if it's just me or not but sometimes I don't connect well with a story thats from a male's voice. I have found a few books though that I love with male main characters so I wanted to share them here on my blog incase anyone else has the same problem as I do.



Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia. I wanted to list this one first because I think this might have been the first series that I've read with a male main character. I'm sure there has been others maybe in the past but I don't remember. I noticed right away while reading this book that it was hard to get into because I was use to reading from all female perspectives. I also lent a friend this book and she said the same thing. The main character, Ethan, is a really great character though and he is easy to read from. It took me a little while but once I got into the story it was no big deal.





The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa. This the the 4th book in the Iron Fey series, and it's the only one told from a male's POV. I really love this series a lot and I loved reading from Meghan's POV in the other three books, but reading from Ash's POV in this one was just as great. This just did such a phenomenal job at writing from Ash's POV. I think this is my favorite book in the series as well just because he was so wonderful to read from. I do have to say that while reading the spin off series, The Lost Prince, which has another male lead charter, I did not enjoy as much as reading from Ash's POV. Ash is probably one of my top male characters in general too.




Looking for Alaska by John Green. I know I've said this a million times, but John Green is amazing. He writes amazing books, and he writes amazing characters. I've actually loved all of his male lead characters, especially Miles (Pudge) from Looking for Alaska and I really enjoyed Quentin from Papertowns. I was going to list Papertowns as well in this post, but I decided to just mention it here because no one wants to here me write about how much I love John Green twice in one post. ;)






The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan. This is a series that I read a few years ago that I really enjoyed. Actually, I still have not read the last book in the series (sad) I don't know why but I never picked it up. I do think I read this one before Beautiful Creatures, (oops) but even though these books are great they are a bit more childish. They are from the children's section at the book store and I'm not saying that people who aren't children shouldn't read them, I just mean childish by the characters. I think the characters are middle school-ish ages? I'm not sure. Anyways, I think that the main character Percy being younger made it easy to read from his POV. OK moving on.




Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan. This is a new book that I've read recently, and even though it's a great book I wouldn't exactly call it a favorite. However, the main character Crash was a really great and well written character. He was really easy to read from, and this book is just so real that you kind of forget that you're reading from a males POV. It's more like sometimes is telling you a really intense story that you just have to listen to.









So this is my top 5 favorite male lead characters. There is alot of other books I could have included too, (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Outsiders, Harry Potter (duh), Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green). But I wanted to include Percy Jackson in this because it is a book that I haven't talked about before here on my blog. A lot of the books in my list, and the ones I just named are ones that I've already talked about a million times. Also, I wanted to say that I really love Adrain from the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead, and even though none of the books are told from his POV the next book in the series is going to alternate POVs from him and the other main character Sydney. I am so freaking excited!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Movie Trailers: Catching Fire and City of Bones Trailer #2

Hey Everyone! Today I am going to share the movie teaser trailer for Catching Fire and the 2nd trailer that was released for City of Bones. I am so excited for both of these movie and I was completely ecstatic when I watched the one for Catching Fire this morning. Over the weekend I was going to watch the City of Bones trailer and I saw that there was a new one out and I was really excited about that too because it explains more of the story in this trailer than the first one. These are two of my all time favorite book series so I really cannot wait for these movies!

Catching Fire Trailer 

This movie looks like it might be better than the first one! ;) This one will be released in November.

City of Bones Trailer #2

This trailer is a lot more in-depth from the first trailer that is released! This movie will come out in August. 

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed these trailers! Leave you thoughts on them in the comments below!

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Today I am going to share my review for Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. This book was a new release this year in February, and it is a YA contemporary. I was really excited about this one because it had tons of great reviews on goodreads and I herd a lot of great things about it. I really enjoyed this book a lot and there were a lot of things I really liked about it. I'm going to post the summary of this book down below and then get started with my review. I'm going to do this review in a list form of what I liked and disliked because I think that it will be easiest and will fit this book the best.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.

“Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it’s like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book.”—John Green, The New York Times Book Review

So this book alternates points of views between the two main characters, Eleanor and Park. Eleanor is the new girl at parks school. She doesn't exactly fit in, and she's really different from anyone else. She had bright read hair, wears weird obnoxious clothing, and isn't skinny like all of the popular girls who make fun of her. Park has lived here his whole life, and is in the 'in crowd' at school but he's a lot different from all of the popular kids as well. Him and Eleanor meet on this bus, and Park lets her sit by him because she doesn't have anywhere else to sit. They don't talk to each other for a while, but they become friends because Park notices Eleanor is silently reading his comic books with him that he brings on the bus everyday. Eventually they form a relationship and start dating. It's hard on both of them because Eleanor is really self conscious about herself and doesn't understand why Park likes her. Park doesn't really understand this himself either, he just knows that he needs Eleanor in his life.

What I liked about this book:
-This book is very cute. The story line is cute. And the cover is so freaking adorable that I'm just in love with it. I also love how simple the title is.
-I really liked Park and he was a great character to read from. He really learns a lot of self discovery in this book. He learns about what matters and what doesn't. And he learns not to care about what other people think, which is great.
- I really like his parents as well. I love how his mom is from Korea, and the way she talks. His dad was pretty cool too. I usually don't like parents in books very much.
-I really love much Park cares about Eleanor. He accepts her for who she is as a person.
-I really just LOVE the name Eleanor. Ha.
-I love how Eleanor and Park listen to music together and share comic books.
-I like how awkward they are together. That sounds weird but their awkwardness is too perfect for this book. And they are pretty much comfortable in their awkwardness.
-I really like Eleanor's character too. She also has a lot of self discovery in this book. I was constantly feeling bad for her though. She has a really hard life at home and at school also. She gets teased a lot at school and she is always feeling self conscious and hurt.

What I didn't like about this book:
-I really hated Eleanor's family. Her mom and step dad are complete idiots. And I also really hate it how she doesn't do anything about it. I'm not sure that she was able to, but still.
-I wish we got to know Eleanor more on a personal level. We know she has a hard life at home and she shares a little bit of information on it, but I would have liked a little more elaboration on it. I think that would have helped us understand her better, and we would have connected with her more.
-I wish Eleanor and Park's relationship would have progressed a little more. We knew they cared for each other, but I also felt it was a little lacking. I wished for a little more mature relationship with them. Sometimes I felt like they hardly knew each other.
-The ending was a little bittersweet and the last page kind of left me with questions.

Over all I really enjoyed this book. It was a cute and easy read and I finished it in almost one sitting. I gave this one a 4/5 stars on goodreads because of the few issues I had with it.

I hope you all enjoyed this short book review and thank you all for reading!

Book Review: The Secret Circle by L.J. Smith

Today I am going to share my review for the first book in The Secret Circle series by L.J. Smith. This book has two books in one, the first book is called The Initiation and the second is The Captive part 1. This is a book that I have been wanting to pick up for a while now, ever since I started watching the TV show when it came on the CW a year or so ago. I started to watch season one, but I never finished watching it. I really, really liked the TV series so I always wanted to read the books too (and also finish the TV series). But, I was really reluctant to pick up the books because I don't necessarily like this author. I have read the whole Vampire Diaries series, and a few other books by her as well, but I just never really got into her writing style. It's not that she is a bad author by any means, I just didn't personally like it. I did enjoy the VD books okay, but they were just okay to me and nothing too special. So anyways, (lets get this long intro over with) I'm going to get started on my review and talk about things that I liked and disliked and I will get more into the writing style later.

Summary from Goodreads:

Forced to move from sunny California to gloomy New England, Cassie longs for her old life. Even so, she feels a strange kinship to a terrifying group of teens who seem to rule her school. Initiated into the coven of witched that's controlled New Salem for hundreds of years, she's drawn into the Secret Circle, a thrill that's both intoxicating and deadly. But when she falls for the mysterious and intriguing Adam, Cassie must choose whether to resist temptation or risk dark forces to get what she wants - even if it means that one wrong move could ultimately destroy her.

So this book is about a girl named Cassie, who moves to New Salem with her mom because her Grandmother is getting older and her mom wanted to be around her (or something). At first Cassie is mad/sad because she doesn't want to leave her school and friends, etc. And in her new school, she isn't really making friends, and in fact she feels like everyone hates her. That is until she makes friends with Diana, and learns her family is defended from witches. Diana brings her into the Secret Circle which is made up of 11 other witches who's family has also been in New Salem for hundreds of years.

My first reaction of this book was that I did not like it. I did change my mind later though, but let me explain why. First off, in my opinion, it's really difficult for me to read a book after I've seen a movie or a TV show on it because I already have a picture in my head of how the story is suppose to be. (kind of like when you read a book first and then dislike a movie) And after seeing part of the TV show, it was hard to get into because the book is a lot different. Second, was because of the wiring style. I mentioned this before I know, but I'm saying this again because I did learn to look past the writing in this book. I find the writing style to be a bit 'cheesy' the way the author words things and the way she makes her characters act. Now I had to keep reminding my self that these books were written in the 90s and that is my assumption of why they were written this way. Maybe the way authors wrote was different then than it is now? This is how I looked past the writing in this book, and also because the story line is good, too. I mean these books are about witchcraft. That is one of my favorite fantasy things to read about!!

Now I'm going to talk more about the story and the characters. I thought the beginning of this book was a little confusing. We were introduced to Cassie, and her friend Portia and how Cassie and her mom were visiting. However, it never said where she was 'visiting', or why she was there and away from home. It never explained who Portia was, or how Cassie knew her, etc. So this was confusing and it bothered me a lot. This was before they decided to move to New Salem as well.

Cassie was and okay main character. She was really immature and annoying at some points, and it bugged me how her and Adam didn't even know each other and instantly said they were in love with each other after literally talking to each other once or twice. (This is a great example of what I meant by the story is 'cheesy', and this is exactly what bugged me when reading Vampire Diaries too) All of the other characters were kind of bland and ran together. I don't even really remember the other members of the Secret Circle because there were just so many and no one stood out. Now in the TV show I believe there are only 6 members and that was a lot easier to keep track of everyone.

I really liked the concept of this book though. Like I said before, I love witchcraft books. I loved the different spells that they talked about, the different herbs the use. I loved how there was different gem stones for certain things. And I really, really loved how each family has their own book called their Book of Shadows. I loved this most during the TV show so I'm glad it was in the book too. I found it really intriguing and I was like, Man I wish I had one of those! Lol. The story line gets a lot better once Cassie is initiated into the Circle, and more action starts happening. Things get a lot more suspenseful towards the end of the book, and the ending kind of leaves you hanging a little bit too.

Overall, I did enjoy this book despite some of the issues that I had with it. I immediately went online and purchased the rest of the books that were in the series because I just wanted to continue to read them. I do plan on watching the rest of the TV series after I read all of the books so I might do a TV/book comparison post on them!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!

March Wrap Up 2013

Today I am going to do my March wrap up post and share all of the books that I read last month. I only was able to read 4 books last month, and I only did a review for one of them. Even though I enjoyed all of the books that I read, I didn't really find any of them wroth reviewing except for Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan. I have a lot of great books on my April TBR list and I hope I can get through more books this month than last.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult was the first book I read in March. I was really in the mood for a Jodi Picoult book so I picked this one because I had purchased it on my kindle for only $2.99. This is one of my favorite adult fiction authors and I have enjoyed every book that I read by her so far. I liked this book pretty well, but I only ended up giving it a 3/5 stars on goodreads. I really liked the concept of the story line in this book, but I did have a lot of issues with it as well. This book switched character POVs way too much and I didn't even know/care about half the people who were in it and I felt like it really took away from the story.




An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This was the only book written by John Green that I had left to read. I really did enjoy this book a lot, but I didn't like it as much as his other books. None the less it was still amazing. I absolutely love John Green's books and all the characters in them. He always has that one funny character that makes the story great and makes me laugh. There is always a cute and quirky romance in it that isn't over the top that I love as well. I did find the main character in this one to be slightly annoying though.








Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah. Like Jodi Picoult, Kristin Hannah is another one of my favorite adult fiction authors, and I was really in the mood for one of her books. I enjoyed this book a lot, and it was a great story. I was pretty much hooked from even reading the back summary of it. Kristin Hannah is a really amazing writer and I've enjoyed all of her books that I've read also.







Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan. This is probably my best read of the month for me. This story is completely insane, heart breaking and one of the most intense books I've ever read. It is a story that will probably stick with me for a long time. Both the stories and characters are really unforgettable. You can read my full review for this book here.







This is all for my (short) March Wrap up post. Hopefully I will have more book to talk about this month than last. I am currently reading Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare, the 3rd book in the Infernal Devices series. I have been waiting for this book for a really long time and I'm really excited to be finally reading it. I also have already finished one book this month which is the Secret Circle book one and two by L.J. Smith and I will have a review of this book soon!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Book Haul #5

Hello Everyone! Today I am going to do a book haul of all the books that I purchased throughout last month in March. I am excluding Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan because I have already done a review on this book (you can read it here)  so I don't feel the need to include it in a haul.

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley is a book that I randomly saw at Target while looking at books and I thought it sounded really good. I looked up reviews for this book on Goodreads and almost everyone gave this book a 5/5 or 4/5 stars! It's about a man whose wife is left brain dead after a terrible accident, and he knows that she would want to be taken off life suppose instead of living a slow and painful death. Then the doctors find out that she is pregnant and he is stuck with trying to decide to give the baby a chance. Now tell me this book doesn't sound completely amazing. I'm a sucker for sad heart breaking stories. Call me crazy but this book sounds beautiful.

Whats Left of Me by Kat Zhang. This is a YA book that I thought sounded really great as well. In this book, everyone is born with two souls but as they grow up one soul fades away. But for Addie and Eva, neither of them faded away and both of them still remain in one body. Finally Eva was said to be gone, but she's not and only Addie knows she's still there. This book sounds super interesting and amazing.

The Secret Circle by L.J. Smith. Actually this is the book I am currently reading and I will have a review up soon. I have been wanting to pick up this book for a while now because I started to watch the TV series when it came on the CW a while back. I absolutely loved the show, but I never finished watching season 1. I was skeptical about picking this one up though, because I don't exactly like this author. I've read quite a few other books by her before, and I never really enjoyed them but I thought I'd give this ones try because I really love books on witchcraft.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. Oh my god. I cannot wait to read this book! I just got it in the mail toady and I will definitely be reading this one first after I finish The Secret Circle. I went to pick this book up at Target last week the day after it was released and it was already sold out! I was so sad so I just ordered it online and had to wait for it to come in the mail. /cry.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. This is another book that has a lot of read ratings and reviews on Goodreads. I think this one is a newer release just in the past month or two (I could be wrong). I've been loving YA contemporary fiction lately and I can't wait to read this one.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. This is another one that I have been wanting to pick up for a while. I really love Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, so I wanted to give this one a try too. I was also skeptical to pick this one up too because I'm not really into vampire books anymore but I've herd good things about this so why not? Also, I'm kind of sad that they changed the cover for this book. I really liked the old one better.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown. This book sounded really good to me and interesting as well. It's about a girl named Valerie and her boyfriend Nick who both make a hate list for people they dislike but Nick uses this list to pick his targets when he brings a gun to school.

That is all for my book haul. I hope you all enjoyed and Happy Reading! :)