Sunday, November 25, 2012

Giveaway of Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout!



So there's this awesome series called the Lux series (which is about aliens by the way, and I may have a minor obsession with ALIENS!).
Well, the third book in the series, Opal, is coming out this December...
And the author is having a giveaway for 3 SIGNED COPIES!!!!!

(Don't you just LOVE GIFS?)
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!
You can find the giveaway HERE!
Yes, I know that I WILL NOT win it since I am not that lucky :(
But I am trying to be positive!!!!
OH! Here's a pic of the books!!!
Aren't they just so lovely 0___o    *hand reaches towards books*

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Stacking The Shelves #2

A meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where all the book nerds can post about the lovely (or not so lovely) books that got this week.

It has been quite awhile since I've made my FIRST Stacking The Shelves so...
I seem to have gotten A LOT of books!!!! (And that's a good thing, people!)
P.S. If you click the book's link, it will take you to the GoodReads page.
Books I've Read This Week!







See those 3 books that are a little to the left? Those books are irking me! THEY ARE NOT CORRECTLY CENTERED!!!! But am I able to fix it? Noooooooo!!!!

Checked Out From The Library!



Yeah, I know that I said that "I'm on a library ban" but these books were on hold for me! I had to go get them!

Netgalley!


I am fully aware that I listed this twice...

Books I Bought!




I know that I also said in the last Stacking the Shelves that "due to the lack of money, i'm not going to buy any books" but...
I donated some books to Book-a-holic (a really really awesome used bookstore in my town!) and I can't just go to the bookstore and not buy any books! So I got these for less than $10!!! That's how awesome Book-a-holic is!
BOOKS I WON!!!!
Yes, I ACTUALLY WON SOME BOOKS!!
Be prepared to see some ULTRA crappy pictures!
For some reason I need to show the actual books...


I got this book thanks to Fiona Paul @ fionapaulbooks who just so happens to be the author of the book Venom which came out last month!
It also came with this handy-dandy book mark!
See! That's a bookmark! XD

I got this book thanks to Bookworm Lisa
I've been wanting to read this book for a long time!

And the last book, but certainly not least!!!
Divergent is one of my favorite books of ALL FREXING TIME!!!! Notice the fact that I also have a copy of Insurgent? Well, I've had that book for awhile! But Insurgent has been so lonely without Divergent! BUT NOW THEY'RE TOGETHER AGAIN!!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!
Wait a second... that's not the best part!
  IT IS SIGNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See, that is a signature! A real signature! (And no, I am not trying to insult your intelligence)
BUT IT'S A REAL SIGNATURE!!!!!
DO YOU REALIZE HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME?!!!

What? Are you saying "Shut up and tell me where you got the book"?
Okay then, I got this book from EpicReads, which is a really cool book site!
But every Wednesday (except for next Wednesday,  due to Thanksgiving) Team EpicReads puts on this type of web show thingy at 3:45 New York time. If you are on Twitter during the show, you are automatically entered into the giveaway mentioned in the show.
And that's how I got DIVERGENT!!!!

Hopefully, I made sense....
I also got some SWAG for being a Lieutenant in The Army of Ten which is also a pretty cool site!
So I suggest that you... join the army!

Well, that's it for the books I got!
Hopefully, your book list is either as awesome as mine or AWESOMER!!!!
Have a great day!


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

REVIEW: Renegade by J.A. Souders

Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles, #1)
Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie.

Her memories have been altered.

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.


Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.




THE RUN-DOWN 
Evelyn Winters lives in Elysium, an underwater utopia that is perfect in every way. But when a Surface Dweller ends up in Elysium, Evie grows curious.
The Surface Dwellers are savages, the caused the war that almost ended the world.
Still Evie wonders if this is really true and begins to find out that the things she's been told, her life is a lie. 
And she also just so happens to decide to help the Surface Dweller escape...

MY THOUGHTS 
Yes, I realize that my "run-down" was not the best run-down but let's get to the point!
This book begins with everything all perfect, nice, pretty, shall I add another positive adjective?
But by the end of the book, Evie is living in a horror movie.
And you know what? I LOVED IT!!
I love the storylines where there's a utopian society that actually turns out to be dystopian! What can I say? I LOVE dystopians!
I also happen to like it when books have a splash of horror and this book had just that!
Now that can't possibly be the only thing I liked, right?
I also liked Evie's inner battle.
Throughout the whole book Evie has to fight herself.
She is losing her memories, and fighting to regain them.
Her mind for many moments in the book is not her own...
Then you add the fact that Evie also has battles outside of her mind at the same time.
I found her inner battles interesting. It showed the transition from perfect to horror movie.
It also brought that edge to the book.
Without Evie's inner battles this book wouldn't be as interesting and would probably put people to sleep.
In summary: I loved how Evie's inner battles were put into the story.

But, of course, there has to be things that I didn't like about the book.
Like Elysium, this book was not perfect.
As you must know, throughout almost the entire book is about Evie and Gavin's (who is the Surface Dweller) escape.
But to me it seems that it took too long for them to escape.
I realize that escaping would not be easy but i'm actually surprised that they didn't get caught (Not that I wanted them to get caught!).
One of the reasons why I felt that it took them awhile to escape is that at certain moments they discovered journal entries.
The entries were honestly important to what was going on but how long did it take them to read them?
They were on the run but I honestly don't think to it only took them a few minutes to read them.
It just makes me very curious...

I also must say that I didn't like the ending.
I WILL NOT be giving the ending away!
I am never happy when others tell me spoilers so I know that you will also not be happy with me if I give you spoilers.
Let's just say that it hit one of my pet peeves.
(It WAS NOT a cliffhanger by the way! Cliffhangers do happen to be one of my pet peeves but this ending did not contain one)

IN CONCLUSION 
I really did like this book!
You see those fuzzies? I don't give 4 fuzzies to every book!
In fact, if you took away that irking ending I would have probably give this book 5 FUZZBALLS!!!!
But sadly, endings are very important to me so I have to knock off that one star...

So...do I recommend this book? Heck yes!


I hereby give this book
4 Wheels
Meaning: It was AMAZING but not AWESOME.

Goodreads 


Monday, November 12, 2012

REVIEW: Entangled by Nikki Jefford

Two months after dying, seventeen-year-old witch Graylee Perez wakes up in her twin sister Charlene’s body.

Until Gray finds a way back inside her own body, she’s stuck being Charlene every twenty-hour hours. Her sister has left precise instructions on how Gray should dress and behave. Looking like a prep isn’t half as bad as hanging out with Charlene’s snotty friends and gropey boyfriend.

The “normals” of McKinley High might be quick to write her behavior off as post-traumatic stress, but warlock Raj McKenna is the only person who suspects Gray has returned from the dead.


Now Gray has to solve the mystery of her death and resurrection and disentangle herself from Charlene’s body before she disappears for good.



THE RUN-DOWN Graylee Perez is a witch and after dying mysteriously in her sleep she wakes up two months later in the body of her twin sister...
Turns out that Graylee's mom tried to bring her daughter back to life but didn't specify how she wanted her daughter back. So now Graylee and her sister, Charlene, both share the same body. With Graylee taking over every other day. But of course she can't be herself! Graylee is dead, right? So Graylee's stuck living Charlene's life which closely resembles a soap opera.
Graylee will do anything to get her body back, but how can she do that when she's already deaf\d?

MY THOUGHTS This was a really quick read, I finished it in only a few hours!
Is that a bad thing? HECK NO!
In fact, the main reason why it was a quick read was because the story was so interesting, I couldn't stop reading it!
And for those of you that don't know, INTERESTING = GOOD!
Anyway, I loved the idea of the story! 
I know, that's the reason why most people pick up a book (the other way being by the cover which also got me to read this book).
But you could read a book with an interesting synopsis and end up hating it!
With this book though it had an interesting synopsis and an interesting story!
The difference between the one I hated and this book?
This book actually created the story and caught my attention.
While the other book only told the story making the story...boring.
(Hopefully i'm making sense!)

So do I recommend this book? Yes.



I hereby give this book
3.4 Wheels
Meaning: I liked it.In fact, I liked it enough that it was almost amazing! (and the almost is not a bad thing either).



Friday, November 9, 2012

REVIEW: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.
But all that changes when the Lynburns return.
The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

I originally read this book in 2012 but when book two came out I did not read it. Flash forward six years and I still hadn't read the sequel and had forgotten everything that happened in this book except that I found some parts mildly funny. In order to complete this series, I had to reread it. my feelings for the book have not changed much since 2012 but I think there were so many positive reviews when this book came out that I was afraid to voice why I could not give it five stars, so I am writing a much more detailed review. Though I am keeping my awful review from 2012 on here at the very bottom, like an embarrassing time capsule.

MY THOUGHTS
Unspoken is essentially about a Kami Glass, an aspiring reporter and a bit of an oddball in her small town. This is in part because she is often seen talking to herself. This habit is because she still has her imaginary friend, Jared, and he talks to her in her head. When the most prominent family in her town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, the Lynburn family make their return, Kami wants to use the opportunity to investigate. This gets tricky when she finds mutilated animals in the woods and her once imagery friend makes a real-life appearance.

The "imaginary friend" aspect of the book was what originally caught my attention and it was done very well and uniquely. The character's personalities were also fantastic! They played so well off of one another and they all had their own details that were uniquely their own. Since the book does occasionally follow other characters, this was helpful. Kami as the main character was very strong-willed. By "strong-willed" I do not mean that she was a warrior girl, but she was not afraid to jump into odd situations and investigate. Even though she did not seem to see herself as a sociable person, she was also extraordinary at getting others to help out and rally. She was also extremely witty.

This book includes many humorous moments in part because of the witty characters. Since I've read other books by Sarah Rees Brennan and have met her in person, I know that this is very much how she is and writes. Sometimes this added entertainment value to the story and helped relieve tension, but other times it made it very difficult for me to take the events happening seriously because the characters kept being witty. Even though the characters were dynamic, this also for some reason made me feel distant from the characters. It's hard to explain, but their oddly humorous reactions and ability to crack a witty retort with ease made then feel less like real people.

Likewise, there were multiple occasions when something seemed important, but again the character seemed to be chill about it or it was never mentioned again. For instance, magical creatures start to appear in the woods slowly through the book, but the characters react indifferently to them and after continuing the series, I saw no further instances of this happening nor was there a sufficient explanation.

There was little to no romance in this book. There were hints of possible romance, but there was no acting on them in this book and there was a strong focus on friendship, which I prefer. I will say that the next book does include romance. That's all I'll say.


IN CONCLUSION
Overall I am okay with this book but it did not pull on my emotions like it did with other readers. The premise and the characters were interesting, I just had trouble with some of the oddities in the novel.


MY ORIGINAL REVIEW
When I first saw the cover I was like this...

It's so pink and original!
It's both awesome and creepy AT THE SAME TIME!!!!
AND THE IDEA!!!
Two people that can read each other's minds?! That are basically imaginary friends of each other?!!

But then I realized that the book wasn't out yet...

(I should get points for having 2 doctor who gifs!)
A few months of impatiently waiting and I FINALLY GOT THE BOOK!!!!

And it was worth it!! (although, I would've have been much happier if I had gotten the book earlier *glares at release date*)

This was a fun book!
It was FULL OF funny moments! XD
And I loved the characters, Kami wasn't afraid of people thinking that she's insane! Now that is the right way of thinking!
You might be wondering though...
"Why did you give this book 4 stars?
If you liked it so much, why not give it 5 or 200?

Well, first off, sometimes this book got too fun (yes, there is such a thing) so when something serious happened you just couldn't take it seriously.
Secondly, there were a lot of moments that made you go "What was the point of that?" because there was no point to that moment, it was just some random thing thrown in there for the heck of it!

BUT IN CONCLUSION!!!!!!
This was a really fun read XD

I hereby give this book...

3.5 Stars
Meaning: It was not quite amazing



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Stacking the Shelves

A meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where all the book nerds can post about the lovely (or not so lovely) books that got this week.
Being that this is my VERY FIRST "Stacking the Shelves" i'm not only going to list the books that I got this week. For Example: I've had some of the library books for more than a month! (I've put myself on a library ban by the way)
P.S. If you click the link, it will take you to the GoodReads page.

So now onto the point...
Books I've Read This Week!




And yes, I realize that I didn't review these (on the blog at least) but since this is a NEW blog , i'm limiting my reviews

Checked Out From The Library!





Netgalley!



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew! That was actually a lot of books! 
But this will probably be the biggest one I'll ever do :(
Next week there will probably only be books in "Books I read this week".
Since, A. I'm on that library ban so no more library books (for now)
B. I'm lacking money right now so I can't BUY any books.
C. I'm probably not going to get anymore "approved" requets on Netgalley...

ANYWAY!
Let's get out of my self-pity and talk about something else, like...
What books did you stack this week?