Happy 2011! We're now one year closer to the Apocalypse. If 2011 turns out to be an incredibly dull year, we always have the end-of-the-world to entertain us (for a little while, at least. then it just gets scary :O )
Recent Posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Epic Books in 2011
Happy 2011! We're now one year closer to the Apocalypse. If 2011 turns out to be an incredibly dull year, we always have the end-of-the-world to entertain us (for a little while, at least. then it just gets scary :O )
Monday, December 20, 2010
Bad Blogger Award...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Most Popular Posts in the Existence of this Blog
Sunday, October 10, 2010
In My Mailbox (10)
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Review: Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen
Author: Mara Purnhagen
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 216
1. Characters 17/20
2. Writing 19/20
3. Plot 19/20
4. Accurate YA voice 19/20
5. Cover 10/10
6. Title 7/10 (the title itself was fine, but i'm not sure how it pertains to the story. i think i might have missed that explanation.)
Total: 91 0r B+
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Review: Take Me There by Carolee Dean
Author: Carolee Dean
Release Date: July 2010
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Length: 327
Format: ARC
Dylan has a bad-boy past and a criminal record. He knows that rich, beautiful Jess is way too good for him—but she has always been the one person who sees through his tough exterior and straight to his heart, and he has been hopelessly in love with her from the first time they met. He would change his life for a chance with her.
But trouble follows Dylan wherever he goes, and a deadly mistake soon forces him to hit the road and leave his dreams behind. He’s on the run and in search of answers—answers to questions he wishes he’d never asked.
Ok, so I admit I thought this was going to be a fluffy, verging on dull/predictable/ordinary story.
Wrong.
Wrong wrong wrong.
This book was deep, powerful, emotional, and tugged on my heartstrings like so few books have. The narrator, Dylan, had a strong and believable voice, and even though he has made some stupid choices, I couldn't help but find some way to identify with him and his struggles. And who doesn't love a bad boy who writes poetry?
Part mystery, part love story, part self discovery, this book is unlike any other book I've read. It made me appreciate the things my parents sacrifice for me, and what they sacrifice for each other. Carolee wrote with determination and that shone through her characters and her plot.
Please do yourself a favor and read this book. It has the power to change you in a way you don't quite understand.
1. Characters 20/20
2. Writing 20/20
3. Plot 21/20
4. Accurate YA voice 20/20
5. Cover 9/10
6. Title 9/10
Overall score: 99 or A
Sunday, August 8, 2010
In My Mailbox (9)
Noah, Lily, and Simon have been a trio forever. But as they enter high school, their relationships shift and their world starts to fall apart. Privately, each is dealing with a family crisis—divorce, abuse, and a parent's illness. Yet as they try to escape the pain and reach out for the connections they once counted on, they slip—like soap in a shower. Noah’s got it bad for Lily, but he knows too well Lily sees only Simon. Simon is indifferent, suddenly inscrutable to his friends. All stand alone in their heartache and grief.
In his luminous YA novel, Steve Brezenoff explores the changing value of relationships as the characters realize that the distances between them are far greater than they knew.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Cover Comparison Thursday: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Sunday, July 25, 2010
In My Mailbox (8)
In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren
One family, two sisters, and a secret that will forever change the way they think of each other.
The story of a dramatic love triangle, inspired by a historical mystery
Lady Catherine is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite court maidens—until her forbidden romance with Sir Walter Ralegh is discovered. In a bitter twist of irony, the jealous queen banishes Cate to Ralegh's colony of Roanoke, in the New World. Ralegh pledges to come for Cate, but as the months stretch out, Cate begins to doubt his promise and his love. Instead it is Manteo, a Croatoan Indian, whom the colonists—and Cate—increasingly turn to. Yet just as Cate's longings for England and Ralegh fade and she discovers a new love in Manteo, Ralegh will finally set sail for the New World.Seamlessly weaving together fact with fiction, Lisa Klein's newest historical drama is an engrossing tale of adventure and forbidden love—kindled by one of the most famous mysteries in American history: the fate of the settlers at Roanoke, who disappeared without a trace forty years before the Pilgrims would set foot in Plymouth.
A riveting exploration of how love can lead to lies.
This companion novel to Warman's critically acclaimed Breathless proves that sometimes the biggest lies are told to the people you love the most.
A lyrically written, powerful exploration of a girl's struggle within a hidden society.
Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail—and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her best friend has suffered at the hands of her own family member, the adults in her community try to persuade Gittel, and themselves, that nothing happened. Forced to remain silent, Gittel begins to question everything she was raised to believe.
A richly detailed and nuanced book, one of both humor and depth, understanding and horror, this story explains a complex world that remains an echo of its past, and illuminates the conflict between yesterday's traditions and today's reality.
Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.
In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger
2. Writing 20/20
3. Plot 20/20
4. Accurate YA voice 21/20
5. Cover 9/10
6. Title 10/10