Alicia's BookLust

Divergent.

2012-01-23T15:56:00.001-06:00

First book finished in 2012.

Book 27. Wake.

2011-06-14T23:17:00.000-05:00

Title: Wake
Author: Lisa McMann
Pages: 227
Date Started: June 11, 2011
Date Finished: June 11, 2011
Did you like it?
I did enjoy reading it. Wake was written in a very interesting and slightly unexpected style for me. I put off reading it (even though I very much wanted to) because most stores were charging $8 for it and the size of the print with the amount of pages just didn't seem like it was worth it, and after reading the novel, i still stand by that. Good thing I got it for free. Parts of the novel seemed to have to reason or rhyme for why point A led to point C, but other than that, it was an enjoyable read. I'd give it a 4/6.

What's it about?

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant..

She gets in other peoples dreams, she can't control it, there's a lot of mystery surrounding her "gift" and it seems like it's going to be explained and honed better in the next few novels of the series, which I'm hoping to get my hands on soon.

Books 18-26.

2011-03-24T02:24:00.000-05:00

This shall be mini reviews and my ratings of each books because I'm majorly behind and I don't remember all of them enough to write a full review and/or I don't feel I'm up to it at this moment in time.
All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab.
Murder. Boy questioning everything. Boy and dead girls cousin decide to get to the bottom of the murder. Lots of plot twists and the story comes from different characters perspectives. Amazing. amazing. Amazing. 6/6
Eon; Dragoneye Reborn
Lots different from what I would normally read. China. Lots of different customs. Dragons choose their dragoneyes. Dragoneyes protect provinces of china from disaster. Main character is a girl pretending to be a boy. A little long. Still really good. 5/6.
My Soul to Take
Banshee. Different take on it. Fun to read. Story wasn't all that hard to think about, it was nice for a change. Main character falls in love, finds out she's a banshee, boy loves her is a banshee too. People are unexpectedly dieing and she has to solve why using her banshee powers. 4/6.
Crescendo.
Most of this book I was angry at the protaganist because she loved a boy who she was convinced didn't love her back but it was always her blowing things out of proportion and me wanting to beat some sense into her. Mystery wasn't much of a mystery. Disappointing second in series. 3.5/6.
My Soul to Save.
Second Banshee book. Was okay .Got tired of the whining. Find out an executive is trading pop stars souls for the betterment of the company. Main character solves the mystery and saves some pop stars. 4/6.
Nevermore
Based off of Edgar Allan Poe's life. Was really interesting but too drawn out. It could have been better, but it wasn't. Plus the book was 600+ pages with hardly any resolution, and there are two more in the series. Disappointment would be one word for it. 4/6.
Captivate
I missed Zara. I enjoyed this book. I love Astley. I can never be team Nick. It happens. Pixies were badass as usual. The storyline was really good. It ended pretty well, but it's good that I had one book after the other as it ended with a giant cliffhanger, that would've sucked. I'mma do a better review on this and Entice vecause I can. But I finished Entice this evening.

Book 17. Wintergirls.

2011-02-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

Title: Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 278
Date Started: Feb 15th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 15th, 2011
Did you like it? Before I go on about this review, I would like to state that I had no idea it was about anorexia/bulimia. My wonderful library filed it under "Fun Winter Reads" and though yes, it was just WOW to read, it wasn't exactly "fun" or "winter-related". With that all being said, yes I did enjoy it. Though in the course of reading it, I became very food oriented...was I hungry? If the answer was yes, did I really need to eat or could I be stronger than my hunger? This book was touching and terrifying all at the same time. Being a person who loves food, it was odd to see things through the eyes of someone who obsessed over being the smallest person in her highschool. But the book is about more than that. Lia was a strong female lead, she always wanted to be in control and when she wasn't she kind of fell apart. But in the case of this novel, it wasn't the characters that made me love it so much, it was the writing, the beautiful writing and plot of one Laurie Halse Anderson that won this book it's 6 out of 6 from me.

What's it about?

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another. I am that girl. I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.
In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

I think that description does the novel a lot of justice. There wasn't a lot of meat to the book, and that was really just fine. It was more about the progression of Lia into the darkness and then coming back to the light when it seemed like it was almost the end that this book is really all about.

Book 16. The Replacement.

2011-02-17T10:00:00.025-06:00

Title: The Replacement
Author: Brenna Yovanoff
Pages: 343
Date Started: Feb 13th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 14th, 2011
Did you like it? This book was harder for me to get into. I went about 50 pages before I really started to get into the story or even understood what was going on in the first place. But once I got into it, man was I hooked. I had to take a break to sleep (Regrettably) but just Wow. Mackie was an excellent hero. Maybe more like an anti-hero in the beginning, but he became a hero because he got done what needed to be done. The only thing that threw me off with him, was the seeming disconnect between what was going on in his head/body and what he said out loud. Like before he expressed his feelings for Tate, the reader didn't know...I mean there were hints but he wasn't like pining over her like he was Alice. It was different, but I think I liked it. Then there is the relationship between Mackie and Emma. Pretty much everyone knows that Mackie is not like him, but the people he is closest to accept him all the same, and this is maybe tripletrue for Emma, his sister. She was amazing and fierce and everything you'd want in an older sibling. It wasn't so much the storyline that made the book so good for me, it was the characters and their relationships that got me. I give this book a 5 out of 6 for it's amazing characters and Yovanoff's lovely writing ability.

What's it about?

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Mackie is a replacement. The real Mackie Doyle was taken in infancy and this Mackie replaced him. In the small town of Gentry, things like this are normal. People look the other way. No one really gets worked up over it. No one but Mackie...but not at first. In the beginning, Mackie is obsessed with blending in, until he learns that all his efforts to blend in have just made him more visible. So he ends up embracing who he is and what he is to make the town a better place. He finds people who can help him, in exchange for him helping them and begins his "mission" to fix the town. I'm kind of at a loss as to how to describe this book and what happens in it. It's all mystery and romance and being the good guy when every body around you thinks that you're the bad guy.

Book 15. Stargazer.

2011-02-16T15:58:00.000-06:00

Title: Stargazer
Author: Claudia Gray
Pages: 329
Date Started: Feb 11th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 13th, 2011
Did you like it? Okay, I'm going to try to put my feelings out there as unbiasedly as possible. I have a lot of issues with Bianca as a character and I feel they overshadow a lot of good parts in the book for me. She's a vampire, yes I get that, but she's also like mostly human or something. She's confused but she's sure. She's weak but she's strong. I don't know. I felt like almost every decision she made, she made with her heart and not with her head. She was all about what felt right and not what might have actually been the correct decision. Even at the end of the book...I was just frustrated with her the whole way through. I would give this book a 3.5 out of 6, the writing was good, the choice the characters made could have been much better...and I felt there was a disconnect between Bianca's brain and every single decision she made.

What's it about?

Evernight Academy: an exclusive boarding school for the most beautiful, dangerous students of all—vampires. Bianca, born to two vampires, has always been told her destiny is to become one of them.

But Bianca fell in love with Lucas—a vampire hunter sworn to destroy her kind. They were torn apart when his true identity was revealed, forcing him to flee the school.

Although they may be separated, Bianca and Lucas will not give each other up. She will risk anything for the chance to see him again, even if it means coming face-to-face with the vampire hunters of Black Cross—or deceiving the powerful vampires of Evernight. Bianca's secrets will force her to live a life of lies.

Yet Bianca isn't the only one keeping secrets. When Evernight is attacked by an evil force that seems to target her, she discovers the truth she thought she knew is only the beginning....

So basically, Bianca is still at Evernight. And most of the book is spent pining after Lucas, which let me just state now, Alicia does not like Lucas. I feel he is selfish and if we learned anything from Twilight, it's that humans and vampires can't be together, lest the human almost dies whilst giving birth and then has to changed into a vampire and be bestowed with some shitty power. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. Basically the book is all about when can Bianca and Lucas meet again? Oh and there's Balthazar's sister who makes a totally badass/crazy appearance. And there's Vic who is by far my favorite character because who doesn't love a totally laid back, brainy, surfer dude? Bianca also has to deal with ghosts in the book, and you find out that her parents had to make a dirty deal in order to be able to have a child...and that they want payment for their help. So I'll just have to see where this goes next.

Waiting On Wednesday. Feb 16th.

2011-02-16T15:36:00.000-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

This week I chose Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer. Normally I wouldn't chose a book with a premise like this one but One. The cover kills me with it's beauty, like right now I'm literally dead. And Two. It actually sounds pretty fantastic.
Here's the synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Tansy Piper moves with her grandfather and her mother, a horror writer, to the setting of her mother's next book--a secluded house outside of a tiny, desolate West Texas town. Lonely and upset over the move, Tansy escapes into her photography and the dark, seductive poems she finds hidden in the cellar, both of which lure her into the mind and world of a mysterious, troubled young man who died sixty years earlier.

This title will be released March 5, 2011.
I cannot wait!

Book 14. Impossible.

2011-02-16T01:10:00.002-06:00

Title: Impossible
Author: Nancy Werlin
Pages: 384
Date Started: Feb 9th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 10th, 2011
Did you like it? IS THAT SERIOUSLY A QUESTION? Before this book I'd never picked up a novel by Nancy Werlin before. One. This book is beautifully written. Lucy is a strong female lead, and in every way that she could possibly fall down, Zach is there to pick her up. I think as much as I loved Lucy and her struggles, I loved Zach more for being there to help her stand tall, for reminding her of what was important and for being completely selfless in every aspect that involved Lucy. Not that I would actually want a man like that, but the love story of it made it very very appealing. Not to mention that this novel is loosely based on "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkle...man was I sold this whole book through. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. And though a lot of the subjects touched on in the novel I have personal demons with, it was beautifully done. I would easily give this book a 5.5 out of 6, if not the whole 6 points. Congrats Nancy Werlin, you write beautiful/touching/amazing books.

What's it about?

Lucy Scarborough is only 17, but she carries the burden of a curse that has already struck down several women in her family. Each of her afflicted ancestors failed at completing three seemingly impossible tasks, and each succumbed to madness at the birth of her first child. Facing this tragic fate, Lucy braces herself for a losing battle. Mercifully, she has allies in her struggle: intensely sympathetic foster parents and her loyal childhood friend Zach.

Basically, Lucy knows nothing of her families curse. Which really sucks for her. Her biologically mother is "crazy" and thus isn't much help to Lucy either. So she ends up pregnant and figures out that her mother wasn't always crazy and that there are three tasks she has to complete in order to make it so she doesn't turn out the same way as her mother, or her mother's mother, or her mothers' mother's mother and so on. Lucy is backed by a great team, I would call them. Her foster parents are super supportive, even when their idea of making the problem go away is something that Lucy would never agree to in a million years, they don't fight her about it, they just help her do what she needs to do. And Zach, oh my goodness. I'm glad that they had this huge foundation of friendship, it made everything he did soo much better, at least in my eyes. He was a huge part of my loving this novel as much as I did. Plus Lucy being so...badass through the whole thing. No, don't get me wrong, she didn't go out and fight evil creatures like a lot of other female leads these days, she fought for a normal life, and love, and her unborn daughter, and her family and all the women that came before her. Amazing book. Seriously.

Library Support Challenge.

2011-02-15T02:42:00.002-06:00

This challenge is hosted by The Book Junkie's Bookshelf, and it's all about supporting your library by checking out books. This one weighs in a little heavier than the last, with the minimum challenge level being 40 books. That's what I'm going to go with. I might over reach that goal, and if I do, whoopie for me! But I don't want to set a goal that I might not be able to reach, especially since I have other books (ones which I already own) that I'd like to read this year.
[Linked to reviews/my thoughts]

Books.
1. Intertwined.
2. Evernight.
3. Graceling.
4. Hush Hush
5. Impossible
6. Rampant
7. Hex Hall
8. Stargazer
9. The Replacement
10. Wintergirls
11. All Unquiet Things
12. Eon
13. My Soul to Take
14. Nevermore

Buy A Book and Read it Challenge.

2011-02-15T02:33:00.002-06:00

This challenge is hosted by Amy over at My Friend Amy. And even though I'm not like technically a book reviewer, as this site is mainly for me to keep track of my book endeavors and also to keep up with what's going on in the book blogging community, I'm doing the second level of this challenge.
(2) Level Two--Buy one book and read it every month
You don't have to buy a book in January and read it in January, but you must buy 12 books that you also go on to read during the year. This level is ideal for book bloggers notorious for the buying part, but not so much the reading part.

Books

1. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

2. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
3. Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
4. Beautiful Darkness by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
6. Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins 7. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
8. Divergent by Veronica Roth
9. I Am Number Four by Piticus Lore
10. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
11. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
12. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

In My Mailbox (1)

2011-02-13T17:30:00.000-06:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren to share what books you received for review, purchased, or checked out from the library during the past week. Or in my case, bi-monthly because I don't feel I obtain enough books to make a weekly post worth much.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Paranormalcy by Kiersen White

Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

American Beauty by Zoey Dean

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Eye of the God by Ariel Allison

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Book 13. Hex Hall.

2011-02-10T17:29:00.001-06:00

Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Pages: 336
Date Started: Feb 8th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 9th, 2011
Did you like it? "Oh my God. Regret cake? Whatever was about to happen must be truly evil." Not that the quote really tells you anything about the book, but it was very much fun to read. Sophie Mercer was a female character that I didn't question her motives through the book. She was a witch with all kinds of problems. . . or so she thought. Really her life was pretty awesome. Rachel Hawkins did an excellent job brining characters to life. The mean girls really were mean girls, I felt the pain of being an outcast through Sophie's relations with Jenna (the resident "killer" vampire). I would give this book a 5/6 for the character development, the plot and the overall enjoyability to read.

What's it about?

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

The novel starts out with Sophie performing a simple love spell for a girl the school punching bag. Needless to say, it goes terribly wrong and Sophie gets sent to the equivalent of a witch/werewolf/fae boarding school. She starts her first day with almost being attacked by a werewolf and then being humiliated in front of everyone. She ends up being the roommate of the school outcast, which most of Jenna's outcast-ness is unfounded, other than the fact that she's the only vampire in the school, and also a lesbian (though her sexuality plays not at all into how people treat her). But Sophie manages pretty well in the beginning. The mean girls want her to be part of their coven, which Sophie refuses and they do turn to mean girls. And it just so happens that the head of the mean girls is dating the boy that Sophie (and every other girl in the school) has a crush on. Then the mean girls start their trickery and Sophie (dumbly) believes them and gets herself into all kinds of trouble. The crush, Archer, defends her and also gets in trouble. Then girls start to die and everyone points the finger at the vampire. Then Sophie learns her family history, something that has been hidden from her because she's never met her father (even though they talk on a regular basis, he lives in London while the novel is set in America). Then she meets the ghost of her great grandmother and begins learning magic from her. Then everything changes, truths are revealed, more girls are hurt, and Sophie's whole world is turned upside down. . .in preparation for the second book in the series, which yes I'm super excited to read when it come out.

Book 12. Rampant

2011-02-10T16:51:00.001-06:00

Title: Rampant
Author: Diana Peterfreund
Pages: 305
Date Started: Feb 5th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 7th, 2011
Did you like it? After reading the first few pages, I knew that I loved Diana Peterfreund's writing. She was all kinds of humorous and witty. And it all showed through the way Astrid acted. Though, to be honest, Astrid's decisions did get on my nerves a few times. The story line was very different from a lot of things about unicorns. . .and it had me wondering "What if it's not the unicorns that are dangerous, what if it's the people?" For me, I didn't get into the story immediately. IT took me maybe 200 pages before I started caring what was happening to the characters, which was a little unusual for me. Overall, I would give this book a 4.5/6.

What's it about?

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns...

Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student ... an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

Astrid goes through a lot of the same things "normal" teenage girls go through. When is the right time to let her boyfriend go all the way? How does she balance out her mothers crazy with her daily life? Why is she the one that has to fight unicorns? Okay, maybe not everyone has to deal with that last one. Astrid doesn't believe in unicorns, she just thinks her mothers crazy ramblings about unicorns are just that, crazy ramblings. Until she sees her first unicorn and that unicorn goes and stabs him with it's horn- leaving him close to death. After this incident, Astrid's mother sends her to Rome to train to be a unicorn hunter. It's something that Astrid very much does not want, and because of this she has a really difficult time relating to the other hunters. She also has a hard time relating to the other hunters because her family line are considered the best hunters. . . but Astrid doesn't believe this. She kind of refuses her powers most of the way through the book. That is, until it comes down to the wire about saving people. Rampant also has the romance element, but it was more of a sex element than a romance thing. It was much more preferable to me this way. And even the romance parts that were in the novel, they were more about being close to the boy rather than being all encompassingly i love with him. (I've noticed that I'm doing less and less overall plot review and more just blabbering because I'm afraid someone is going to read this and it'll ruin the book for them....) She gets to Rome, she trains, her cousin Phil shows up, they meet boys, they continue training, Astrid tries everything to get out of killing the unicorns, Phil thinks it's inhumane. Kirin begin attacking the hunters as well as ravaging the countrysides. Phil gets raped, and can no longer be a hunter because Unicorns are drawn to virgins, and they kill/attack nonvirgins. The funder of the training facility disappears, and the head of the unicorn trainers goes after him, Astrid's mother comes over to run the facility, the unicorns pull an ambush on the hunters and Astrid gets gravely injured. She then meets the "head" of the unicorns and he explains what's going on and why the unicorns are attacking. Astrid then rallies and everything turns out alright. Yay for happy endings!

I have two books to review

2011-02-09T21:08:00.003-06:00

...why am I procrastinating this?

Book 11. Paper Towns.

2011-02-07T19:44:00.000-06:00

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Pages: 305
Date Started: Feb 4th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 5th, 2011
Did you like it? I did like it. In fact, I liked it very much. I really love books with male protagonists because they are so rare, at least in teen fiction. Quentin was an amazingly fleshed out and believable character. His teenage problems became my teenage problems and I was drawn into the story to try to help him figure out who Margo really was. Alas, I could not do such. Margo, as a character bothered me a little. Through the book she was this idea of a person that Q held so tightly to and then when you meet her, she's this big whiny person. . . until she realizes that Q kind of relates/understands and then she chills. The ending though, I felt didn't really do the book justice, but because the rest of the book was ohmygod amazing, I give it a 5.5/6.

What's it about?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Quentin is a senior in high school, close to graduating. He's had this lifelong crush on this girl , Margo Roth Spiegelman. After a night helping her get her vengeance on a few of her "friends" she disappears. Everyone is used to these disappearances though, and she always always comes back with a story to tell. But this time, Q knows she's not coming back. The clues she leaves for him, in order for him to find her, help him to uncover a whole new world about who Margo really is. The clues show Q that almost the whole time he has known Margo, he's never really seen her for who she is, no one has. He becomes obsessed with finding her, with figuring out who she is and why she left.
The book is full of mystery and extremely well written, though I feel the ending was more of a cinematic experience than a novel one. I felt that closure was needed instead of the pretty words and touches. Maybe that's just me.

Book 10. The Body Finder.

2011-02-05T20:32:00.000-06:00

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Pages: 336
Date Started: Feb 3nd, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 4nd, 2011
Did you like it? It was alright. An acceptable book with acceptable characters. I read other reviews on this book before I started reading it and I was all...Wow, it sounds amazing, why didn't I read this sooner? People ranted and raved about the characters. 1. Violet I felt was a very relate-able character and 2. Jay was, well, an awesome best friend/boyfriend but 3. I really felt that the characters were flat in a lot of ways. Wow, the girl can find the bodies of murdered people/animals? That's cool and all....but I didn't feel that she was ever really affected by it as much as she should have been. *shrug* maybe she just got used to it. And the "romance" aspect of this book? Please tell me I was not the only person to read this and from the first mention of Violets feelings towards Jay to be :omg he feels the same way about you, you dumb girl: well if not, maybe I just ruined that for you...whatever. I found the idea of leaving an echo/imprint after death to be very intriguing and I wondered what mine would be if I ever happened to be murdered. Morbid, but true. This book gets a 3.5/6 from me. The story was good. It was slightly suspenseful at parts, but it never hooked me or interested me enough other than to find out who the killer was.

What's it about?

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.

So, like stated, it's about Violet who can sense murdered things and after 3 or so girls are killed from around her small town, she decides to use her ability to find who is doing this. Each person who is murdered leaves behind an echo...a smell, taste, sound, or sight that somehow pertains to who they are. These echoes call to Violet. And the murderer carries around imprints. ..a kind of residual mark (exactly like the murdered peoples echoes). Violet decides to use this knowledge to try to figure out who has been killing these girls. All things are going well until you find out there are two killers instead of one. Derting also writes a few scenes from the killers perspective and I much preferred those to reading about Violet and Jay and their romantic concerns. Maybe if I was younger and not so critical of teenage love I would have enjoyed the book more. I liked Violets character and I found her ability to be very intriguing, but it just didn't do enough for me to really like the book.

Book 9. Hush Hush.

2011-02-02T18:08:00.000-06:00

Title: Hush Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Pages: 391
Date Started: Feb 2nd, 2011 (around 2am)
Date Finished: Feb 2nd, 2011 (around 5pm)
Did you like it? Oh my goodness yes. The plot was fast moving and it produced enough questions to keep me interested and wondering. Originally I was going to wait until daytime of the 2nd to start it because it's my last library book, but by 5am I was on page 300 and I was so glad I'd decided to read it. There was nothing really about the book that was over insightful for it to warrant a 6, but I would definitely give it a 5 or 5.5 out of 6 for pure storytelling ability and beautiful writing ability. I did feel that even though Nora was the protagonist, I connected very little with her, I did not really feel her while reading, while Patch was this whole mysterious/interesting/captivating character I wanted to know more and more about. I did also feel that the ending was a little rushed, it could have easily been another 25-50 pages to wrap everything up properly. But maybe she wanted to leave room for the next book to explain more things.

What's it about? It's about a girl named Nora Grey and a mysterious boy named Patch. He's cocky and annoying and a general pain in Nora's ass, but the more she is annoyed by him the more she seems drawn to him. They definitely have a magnetism through the whole book. He scares Nora until about half way through the book when she starts trusting him (even though he's kind of planning to kill her- that is until he falls in love with her... typical but this "love" felt more real than a lot of others I've read). Nora finds out, though a whole mess of events, that Patch is a fallen angel. Because of this, he can't feel anything....physically, emotionally he's fine. For two weeks out of the year he gets to possess a nephilim (half fallen angel- half human offspring) and with this possession he is able to physically feel. But Patch wants more than that, he's tired of being an fallen angel, he wants to be human. That is, until he meets the person he has to kill to accomplish this (Nora) and can't (because of love).

Book 8. Graceling.

2011-02-02T17:47:00.001-06:00

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristen Cashore
Pages: 471
Date Started: Jan 30th, 2011
Date Finished: Feb 1st, 2011
Did you like it? At first it didn't really pull me in. The first 100 pages or so were more I could feel the fingers of interest resting on me but they weren't pulling me into the story, into the world. The book had a slow start but definitely made up for it throughout the rest of the novel. It sent me through a whirlwind/roller coaster of emotions but I never found myself having to put the book down because of ridiculousness like I occasionally had to with the Mortal Instruments series. And when the love aspect is introduced into the book, I felt it was necessary, beautiful even. The seagway between who Katsa was and who she became was beautifully done. I would definitely give this novel a 6/6. I cried with the characters, I laughed with the characters, and I clapped with the book was finished. It was an amazing work of art.

What's it about? In the world Kristen Cashore has created, there are people who are graced, called gracelings, who possess an immense amount of skill in one area. These people have two different colored eyes and are mostly avoided by more "normal" people- ones without graces. Katsa is graced with Killing, and this is basically unheardof for a woman. People avoid her like the plague and it definitely doesn't help the situation that her uncle (A King of one of the seven kingdoms) uses her as a type of punishment. Katsa isn't so comfortable with this and the reader arrives in media res to her becoming more and more unlikely to hurt people for her uncle. She's realizing that he's just a big bully. After a few "incidents" she leaves her uncles Kingdom, with Po (the gold and silver eyed Linead graced with fighting) in search of his grandfathers kidnapper. This book is about finding yourself, pushing yourself and learning that other people control you only if you let them. It's a love story and a horror story. It's beautiful and it's gripping. The character of Po is brilliant, he's funny and loving, his grace is amazing and he balances Katsa amazingly. I don't actually want to give a lot of this one away either because I do think people should read it, if you haven't.

Book 7. Evernight.

2011-01-31T00:15:00.001-06:00

Title: Evernight
Author: Claudia Gray
Pages: 336
Date Started: Jan 29th, 2011
Date Finished: Jan 30th, 2011
Did you like it? I did very much actually. Before I started reading it, my mindset was kind of like "Oh great, another vampire book." But I gave it a shot because of all the awesome reviews I'd read/heard for it. Gray did an amazing job with the story line, though a few parts of the book I found my head filling with questions that never quite got answered, and the whole love at first sight thing (though, I feel she did it extremely well). When Lucas "shunned" Bianca, I could feel it, I could feel her distress and her worry. The characters were all very believable, and fleshed out. Even fun to read. Bianca's parents happened to be my favorite. The twist shocked me, and I sat there like "whaaaa?" for a while, but I also feel that it wasn't a smooth enough transition, I was probably 3/4ths of the way through the book before the twist really felt REAL. I would give this book a 5/6.

What's it about? It's about a girl, named Bianca and a boy named Lucas, and a school called Evernight. This is actually a book I don't want to give away because the twist was that shocking, even if everyone else has already read this book. If you haven't and you're reading this, go...go read this book. Vampires are central to the theme, but in a different manner than a lot of novels on the scene now. Plus the whole turning a human to a vampire is completely different, which was refreshing and I really enjoyed the outlook on it. Bianca and Lucas fall in love. Bianca is one thing, Lucas is another. There is a lot of lieing and half-truths to keep the other safe. Then there's the third man Balthazar, who totally has the hots for Bianca as well. And her parents are all kinds of quirky and awesome. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book, seriously, I'm dying to know what happens next.

Book 6. Intertwined.

2011-01-30T03:34:00.001-06:00

Title: Intertwined
Author: Gena Showalter
Pages: 304Date Started: Jan 27th, 2011Date Finished: Jan 28th, 2011Did you like it? I did enjoy it, yes. The writing was done very well and I think Showalter did a good job of balancing the characters out and making the story believable even with the fact it had a lot to do with paranormal activities. Her take on vampires and werewolves was very interesting and different to me. Plus the thought of a boy with four souls trapped inside of him, all with different abilities that he could use was what intrigued me with this book in the first place. It wasn't entirely captivating, but there were parts where I couldn't put it down because I just wanted to know what would happen next. I would rate it a 4/6. I liked it, I feel she did really well with the story line, but the story itself didn't blow me away and it was a little boring at some parts.
What's it about? It is mostly about a 16 year old boy named Aden who lives with four souls trapped inside of him. The book says they're in his head, but that's weird for me to think about...he's a whole being, why can't they just be inside of him? Anyway...he's spent most of his life in looney bins being medicated because he talks to "himself" and people think he's schizophrenic. He gets a lucky break though and ends up on this work farm, and after he meets a girl that negates his powers (yes, very happy Aden, having his head space all to himself) He gets to enroll in public school and a whole new world of vampires, werewolves, faeries, demons, goblins and everything else opens up to him. I really loved the character of Mary Anne, the girl who negates his powers. I found her to be very believable and I could even relate to her a few times through the book. Also, Riley...hot werewolf boy. Sometimes I guess I'd just like to see an unattractive, un-god like, un-chiseled werewolf and have the female of the novel still be attracted to him, but that's just a personal gripe. Victoria, for me, fluctuated too much in her emotions ans what she wanted to share to come across as a believable character and most of the scenes she was in, I wished she wasn't. Plus this book had that whole, ~Love at first sight~ thing I really dislike and to me is completely unrealistic no matter the circumstances. Anyway, this book pretty much has it all, drama, intrigue, && high school suckishness.

Book 5. Fragile Eternity.

2011-01-19T18:02:00.005-06:00

Title: Fragile Eternity
Author: Melissa Marr
Date Started: 16 January 2011
Date Finished: 19 January 2011
Did you like it? It was mostly okay. If I had to rate it, I would give it a 4/6 as I liked it, I enjoyed the storyline, but it got very boring at parts and I had to push myself to finish it. Though the book is 400 pages or so, I didn't start to really feel the length until half way through when it began kind of dragging. Yes Seth wants to be a faery so he's not so fragile. Yes Aislinn is struggling with Keenans affections. Yes Donia still loves Keenan. It was like, hello? We've covered all of this way back in Wicked Lovely, can we move on?
What's it about? It's about faeries, again. It's from mostly Seth's point of view, but it also has Aislinn, Keenan, and Donia. As well as the introduction of the Unchanging Queen, Sorcha. Seth wants to be a faery so that he and Aislinn can be together for eternity and so he won't be so gosh darn fragile. He pleads with everyone he knows to help him, but they all refuse to help him, calling what he wants a "curse" rather than a gift. So with the help of the faery that embodies everything War, he meets the High and Unchanging Queen Sorcha who does in fact grant him what he wants. But for a price. He has to spend one month in faerie out of every year, and while there, he will be mortal. What she fails to tell him is that time passes different in faerie, One day in faerie is six days in the mortal world. So unbeknownst to him, he spends six months away from Aislinn. The whole time Aislinn is falling apart and no one is really helping her, they're all fey and have been longer than she's been alive, they all know where Seth is, but no one tells her. It was kind of disgusting to me. Keenan, of course, manipulated the situation to his liking and when Aislinn finally starts to move on, Seth shows back up. Gifted with the essence of Sorcha to make him a faery, ensuring that he'll be strong and be able to make a difference. He's also her son or something at that point. He then confronts Aislinn about everything and tells her that she has to make a choice about who she wants to be with, that she can't forgive Keenan for his manipulations this time. The book ends with Seth visiting Naill to ask for training in combat...which was kind of weird to me. Also, the whole impending war is still impending, so I'm curious to see how it goes in the next two books.

Book 4. Ink Exchange.

2011-01-16T17:42:00.001-06:00

Title: Ink Exchange
Author: Melissa Marr
Date Started: 15 January 2011
Date Finished: 16 January 2011
Did you like it? Ohyes. I read the prequel, Wicked Lovely last year (or even the end of the year before that, I do not quite remember). I liked that the whole series isn't not about one central character, but more each book switches the main character from the group of central characters.
What's it about? The short answer would be faeries. The longer answer would be as follows. A girl by the name of Leslie has had a very tough life after her mother left her family. Her father is a drunk and a gambler. Her brother is a druggie of every sort and uses Leslie (her body more like it) to buy drugs from his dealer. Life is hard and she's in a place where she chooses to become numb. She thinks a tattoo will solve this, help to make her body hers again. What she doesn't know is that her "best friend" is a faerie (the queen of the summer courts to be exact) and both of the men she is attracted (Naill and Irial) to are also faeries. Anyway, she gets this tattoo and starts being able to see the faeries as well as the faeries become more attracted and interested in her. She allows the king of the faeries to draw emotions of mortals through her to feed on (because apparently that's what the dark fay feed on). In the end she learns that she can't become numb and avoid choices and her life because they are what make her...well her. So she leaves the fay world with the help of Naill and tries to live a "normal" moral life.

Vampire Diaries.

2010-04-05T23:49:00.003-05:00

So. All this hype about vampires. I just want to set the story straight, since sixth grade (yes, eight years ago) I have been obsessed with vampires. Well, reading about them and watching movies and what not. But I'm one of those people that isn't so happy when everyone else starts obsessing over one type of book in a genre...namely, the Twilight series. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved them when they first came out, yeah, my freshman year, when i got made fun of for liking vampires, before the "beautiful" Robert Pattenson was going to play Edward Cullen, who by the way, is much more attractive in my head than no-emotion-Robert could ever be.

Annnnyyyway, to get away from my rant.
I admit I was curious about the Vampire Diaries. But I didn't want to be like those Twilight fan girls that I so hate. So I decided if I read them I wasn't going to make a big deal out of how awesome they may or not be.
I wasn't going to pretend like I discovered this awesome novel of amazingness.
No.
And I'm still not going to do that, because I haven't made a final decision yet.
But I am really enjoying the book.
And despite myself, I'm also loving the WB television series (but I suspect that's simply because I love the way that Ian Somerhalder smiles). But I do like the Elena of the television persuasion better than the Elena of the book, thus far.
Blasphemy, I know.
But we'll see if this becomes an addiction, or just a pleasant series to continue with.
I'm hoping for the latter, but knowing myself, I'm suspecting the former.

InMyMailbox 4-4-10

2010-04-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristy at the Story Siren.

This week. All purchased.

The Awakening by L.J. Smith
Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz
Hunted by P.C. Cast
Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker
Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

In My Mailbox 2-7-10

2010-02-08T00:02:00.001-06:00

I want to start by apologizing for not making a video this time. Things have been really hectic for me these past two weeks, parts of my life are all falling apart, but I still got A LOT of books. So here's my IMM for the past two weeks.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline Le'Engle
The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time
Evermore by Alyson Noel
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
The Luxe by Anna Godberson
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The Devouring by Simon Holt
Frostbite by Rachel Mead
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
Never After by A bunch of people
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs
Tricksters Choice by Tamora Pierce
Girls on Film by Zoey Dean
Back in Black by Zoey Dean
Contact by Carl Sagan
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
Flirt by Laurell K Hamilton

I shall add linkage later. Hope you enjoy. :)

Teaser Tuesdays.

2010-01-26T21:22:00.001-06:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

"I'm not closing my eyes, my father said. "The Italian Stallion here will eat my cookies."

- Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich, page 261.

In My Mailbox [11]

2010-01-25T23:09:00.005-06:00

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren.

Books Mentioned: [all links to shelfari]
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Prachett
Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance
Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Slow Man by JM Cotzee
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Hope you enjoyed!
Let me know what you got. :)