I've been in a terrible reading slump the last couple of days and I doubt I am going to be able to get out of it and finish anything during the last days of July, so I'm just going to post my stats right now. ^_^
In the month of July, I have read a staggering amount of 25 books. 25! Yes, that's right, I usually took a book, read it and finished it the same day, in case you were wondering how that is accomplished. It's crazy. I probably won't be able to do half as much in August because school is starting again but I'm very very happy with July. :D
And, here are my reads:
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent
With All My Soul
Author: Rachel Vincent
Release: March 26th 2013
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, YA
#7 in the Soul Screamers series
Series: My Soul To Take (#1), My Soul To Save (#2), My Soul To Keep (#3), My Soul To Steal (#4), If I Die (#5), Before I Wake (#6)
Plot:
What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America? It's time to kick some hellion butt...
After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.
But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has....
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The Book Burger TAG
Because I didn't have enough to say about Shift & Shine, the two sequels to Shade, I didn't do a book review for them. Instead, I present you this nice little tag. This was created by RyanReadsBooks on YouTube and I discovered it via Charley Reads. :)
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Review: Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
Shade
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Release: May 4th 2010
Genre: Paranormal, Ghosts, YA
#1 in the Shade trilogy
Sequels: Shift (#2), Shine (#3)
Plot:
Love ties them together. Death can't tear them apart.
Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a critical gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.
Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.
Well, sort of.
Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.
It doesn't help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.
As Aura's relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart…and clues to the secret of the Shift.
Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Dearly, Departed
Author: Lia Habel
Release: October 18th 2011
Genre: Steampunk, Dystopia, Zombies, YA
#1 in the Gone With The Respiration series
Sequel: Dearly, Beloved
Plot:
Love can never die.
Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
Monday, July 22, 2013
BookTube-A-Thon Wrap-Up!
Okay, so the week is over and so is the BookTube-A-Thon, and I thought it might be worth posting an update for, since YES, I did participate. If you participated as well, you can take the time and fill out this survey for Raeleen and Ariel. :)
Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Release: December 2nd 2010
Genre: Contemporary Romance, YA
#1 in the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy
Sequels: Lola and the Boy Next Door (#2), Isla and the Happily Ever After (#3)
Plot:
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.
But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
The Near Witch
Author: Victoria Schwab
Release: August 2nd 2011
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, YA
Plot:
The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.
If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.
And there are no strangers in the town of Near.
These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.
But when an actual stranger-a boy who seems to fade like smoke-appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.
The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.
As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know-about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.
Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget.
Review: Sever by Lauren DeStefano
Sever
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Release: February 12th 2013
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, YA
#3 in the Chemical Garden trilogy
Plot:
Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy.
With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.
In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Fever
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Release: February 21st 2012
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, YA
#2 in the Chemical Garden trilogy
Plot:
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.
The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.
In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.
Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Release: March 22nd 2011
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, YA
#1 in the Chemical Garden trilogy
Plot:
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
Friday, July 19, 2013
San Diego Comic Con 2013: Divergent News!
Last Night, there have been some new from SDCC about Divergent, the movie as well as the final book in the trilogy, Allegiant, which I am very excited to talk about!
Review: The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
The Crown of Embers
Author: Rae Carson
Release: September 18th 2012
Genre: High Fantasy, YA
#2 in the Fire and Thorns trilogy
Series: The Girl of Fire and Thorns (#1), The Bitter Kingdom (#3)
Plot:
In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny.
Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds. A breathtaking, romantic, and dangerous second volume in the Fire and Thorns trilogy.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Review: Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood
Star Cursed
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Release: June 18th 2013
Genre: Supernatural, Witches, Historical, YA
#2 in The Cahill Witch Chronicles
Series: Born Wicked (#1), Sisters' Fate (#3)
Plot:
With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.
Cate doesn't want to be a weapon, and she doesn't want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood's schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.
In the highly anticipated sequel to Born Wicked, the Cahill Witch Chronicles continue Cate, Maura and Tess's quest to find love, protect family, and explore their magic against all odds in an alternate history of New England.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Review: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
Born Wicked
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Release: February 7th 2012
Genre: Supernatural, Witches, Historical, YA
#1 in The Cahill Witch Chronicles
Sequels: Star Cursed (#2), Sisters' Fate (#3)
Plot:
Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.
Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.
If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.
Review: Endlessly by Kiersten White
Endlessly
Author: Kiersten White
Release: July 24th 2012
Genre: Supernatural, YA
#3 in the Paranormalcy trilogy
Series: Paranormalcy (#1), Supernaturally (#2)
Plot:
Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate.
The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands.
So much for normal.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Review: Supernaturally by Kiersten White
Supernaturally
Author: Kiersten White
Release: July 26th 2011
Genre: Supernatural, YA
#2 in the Paranormalcy trilogy
Series: Paranormalcy (#1), Endlessly (#3)
Plot:
Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be...kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.
But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.
So much for normal.
Literary Identification TAG
I saw Jesse doing this Tag on YouTube and since I'm on a tag roll, I'm doing this right now. I don't know, but I just enjoy these things so, so much. So, here goes!
By the way, I have been re-reading The Iron Fey these past few days and can I say they never, not once, fail to make me bawl and sob like a two-year-old at the end of Iron Queen & Iron Knight?
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Paranormalcy
Author: Kiersten White
Release: August 31st 2010
Genre: Supernatural, YA
#1 in the Paranormalcy trilogy
Sequels: Supernaturally (#2), Endlessly (#3)
Plot:
Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.
But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.
So much for normal.
Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt TAG
I have been wanting to do this Tag ever since I first watched a video of it on YouTube, and I thought: Why not turn it into a blog post? You don't have to be a vlogger to do this tag. So here goes.
Before I start, though, R.I.P. Cory Monteith. I was so shocked to discover his demise this morning on Tumblr.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Review: Everbound by Brodi Ashton
Everbound
Author: Brodi Ashton
Release: Janury 22nd 2013
Genre: Mythology, Supernatural, YA
#2 in the Everneath trilogy
Plot:
Nikki Beckett could only watch as her boyfriend, Jack, sacrificed himself to save her, taking her place in the Tunnels of the Everneath for eternity — a debt that should’ve been hers. She’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. And every night Jack appears in her dreams, lost and confused and wasting away.
Desperate for answers, Nikki turns to Cole, the immortal bad boy who wants to make her his queen — and the one person least likely to help. But his heart has been touched by everything about Nikki, and he agrees to assist her in the only way he can: by taking her to the Everneath himself.
Nikki and Cole descend into the Everneath, only to discover that their journey will be more difficult than they’d anticipated — and more deadly. But Nikki vows to stop at nothing to save Jack — even if it means making an incredible sacrifice of her own.
Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Everneath
Author: Brodi Ashton
Release: January 24th 2012
Genre: Mythology, Supernatural, YA
#1 in the Everneath trilogy
Plot:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.
As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.
Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.
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