Bad Blogger Award...

...goes to me.

I am SO sorry I've been absent for the past two months, but those two months have possibly been the craziest of my life. I increased my course load at school, I started crew and didn't get back home til 7:45 each night, so my blog had to take a backseat.

But I'm baack!

With the holiday break, I'm starting to catch up on my reading and the ARCs that lovely authors and publishers have continued to send me, even though I haven't been very consistent in my posts recently.

These books include:

So. Reviews will becoming for those soon, as well as a review for DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver in January.

Stay tuned!

Review: Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

Title: Past Midnight
Author: Mara Purnhagen
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 216

Source: Author (ARC)

Summary:

Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I'm not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV…no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I'm usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven't gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents' research trip in Charleston—and now I'm being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fit into a new school and keeping my parents' creepy occupation a secret from my friends—and potential boyfriends—is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear. All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive….

Review:

That summary makes the book sound SO STUPID, and it in no way embodies the MC Charlotte.

But don't let the summary stop you form buying a copy of this, because it is a very intriguing read.

Mara Purnhagen has an envy-worthy gift for story telling, as is obvious from Past Midnight, the first title in the series. She created an interesting plot and effortlessly weaved paranormal into a contemporary setting. The science and, dare I say, logic behind the energies in this story almost made me believe in ghosts! (i'm still undecided ;) ).

However.

The mysteries in this book were not complex enough for my taste and I figured them out on my own. But that's probably because this is geared for the younger side of YA, maybe upper middle grade? Also, Charlotte didn't have much of a personality. I kept searching for a character flaw or something that made her unique apart from her parents' occupation, but couldn't find one. I would have like a little more personality infused into her, but I have a feeling that will pop up more in the later books.

If you love a quick, eerie read, Past Midnight is for you. I will be eagerly awaiting the next in the series, One Hundred Candles, which is to be released in March 2011.

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+

Review: Take Me There by Carolee Dean

Title: Take Me There
Author: Carolee Dean
Release Date: July 2010
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Length: 327

Source: Publisher
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

In My Mailbox (9)

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren

The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff

September 1, 2010

(i've already started reading this one and so far i love the prose!)

The absolute value of any number, positive or negative, is its distance from zero: |-1| = 1

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.

Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

September 1, 2010

(this was a surprise in my mailbox-- i didn't know it was coming! but i'm super excited for it because i loved Tagged!)

Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I'm not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV…no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I'm usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven't gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents' research trip in Charleston—and now I'm being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fit into a new school and keeping my parents' creepy occupation a secret from my friends—and potential boyfriends—is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear. All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive…

In My Mailbox (8)

In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren

(ARC) Release Date: November 2010

One family, two sisters, and a secret that will forever change the way they think of each other.

Julia just graduated as her high school valedictorian, has a full ride to college in the fall and a coveted summer internship clerking for a federal judge. But when her older sister, Sophie, shows up at the graduation determined to reveal some long buried secrets, Julia's carefully constructed plans come to a halt. Instead of the summer she had painstakingly laid out, Julia follows Sophie back to Vermont, where Sophie is opening a bakery—and struggling with some secrets of her own. What follows is a summer of revelations—some heartwarming, some heartbreaking, and all slowly pointing Julia toward a new understanding of both herself and of the sister she never really knew.

(ARC) Release Date: October 2010

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.

(ARC) Release Date: October 2010

**i've already received a copy of this, so maybe a giveaway is in the near future???

A riveting exploration of how love can lead to lies.

On the surface, Emily Meckler leads the perfect life. She has three best friends, two loving parents, and the ideal setup at the Connecticut prep school where her father is the headmaster. But Emily also suffers from devastating nightmares about fire and water, and nobody knows why. Then the enigmatic Del Sugar enters her life, and Emily is immediately swept away—but her passionate relationship with Del is just the first of many things that aren't quite what they seem in Emily's life. As the lies she's been told start to unravel, Emily must set out to discover the truth regarding her nightmare; on a journey that will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about love, family, and her own idyllic past.

This companion novel to Warman's critically acclaimed Breathless proves that sometimes the biggest lies are told to the people you love the most.

(ARC) Release Date: September 2010

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.

Release Date: August 2010

** i already have a copy of this as well so I'll probably have a giveaway.

What if love refused to die?

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.

Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Dear Kody Keplinger,

The Duff is unlike any other YA book I've ever read.

The snark,

The spunk,

The attitude,

The romance,

The whole package,

Was perfect.

You created a character that other YA authors should be required to study, because you nailed Bianca. You nailed the teenage voice. You nailed this book.

You carved Bianca with a dagger in your right fist, and a heart in the other. She was brutal and tough as nails, but fragile and confused.

You wrote like you had nothing and everything to lose.

You wrote with raw humor. You wrote with raw emotion. You wrote with misunderstanding, and confusion, and infused your work of art with the life and the passion of an adolescent.

Forever a fan,

Bailey

Dear Kody Keplinger,

You are brave.

You tackled issues that adults are to afraid to. Issues that adults are afraid to admit exist in teenage lives.

They will disagree with you.

They will oppose you.

Some will probably not like you.

But then there will be the others.

Like me.

Who will love you.

And your work.

Because you were honest. And that is a quality only true writers possess.

But you probably know this already.

Why?

Because you're Kody Freakin Keplinger.

And you are AWESOME.

Keep writing. I'll keep reading. And I'm sure millions of others will as well.

Forever a fan,

Bailey

1. Characters 21/20
2. Writing 20/20
3. Plot 20/20
4. Accurate YA voice 21/20
5. Cover 9/10
6. Title 10/10

Overall score: 101 or A++

Review: The Mosts by Melissa Senate

Title: The Mosts
Author: Melissa Senate
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte/Random House
Length: 225 pages

Source: Random House (publisher)
Format: ARC

Summary:

"Madeline finished freshman year at Freeport Academy just as invisible as when she started. But after a summer in Italy with her sophisticated aunt, she returned as a sophomore with cool clothes, European attitude, and a hot new boyfriend, Thom.

Maddie's part of the in crowd . . . the Mosts. Her best friend, Caro? Most Beautiful. Her other friends, Fergie, Annie, and Selena? Most Stylish, Most Hilarious, and Most Hot, respectively. And Madeline? Most Popular. Her life is great.

While it lasted.

Now Thom's moved to California—so Maddie's no longer the girlfriend of a popular guy. The guy Caro likes only has eyes for Madeline—can you say social suicide? And a group of misfits at school are begging Madeline to help make them over.

Madeline knows there's a fine line between being a Most . . . and being a Not. She doesn't want her status to change . . . but what if she doesn't have a choice?"

Review:

The Mosts is the Most Adorable book of the season! Hands down. It was a cute, breezy, fast summer read, following the events of Madeline after her boyfriend of two years moves away. She's in the popular crowd, until she's roped into helping give misfits a makeover. She, of course, has motivation for doing so: they are paying her $400, which is enough to afford a one-way ticket to California, where her boyfriend, Thom now lives.

One thing that Melissa Senate excelled at was character development. Madeline's attitude change throughout the book was so well thought-out and so well paced. Her reasons for changing were completely legit, and they happened at a realistic pace. Well done.

Unfortunately, the YA voice was not up to par. The characters were in their sophomore year of high school, but acted much younger. Maybe it was in part because Madeline and her four amigos were truly convinced that every girl in California wore bikinis to school, or how Madeline would freak if Thom didn't text her back, or the lack of swearing. Actually, there was no swearing. Which was weird. As much as adults deny it, teenagers have really foul mouths. The characters in this book would say "beyotch" (I'd spell it biotch, but that's not a big deal) instead of "bitch." So, the YA voice was not a true, realistic depiction.

Still, The Mosts was a tender and sweet tale of Madeline's high school drama. I recommend it to anyone in search of a quick, breezy, and delightful summer read.

Grading:

1. Characters: 18/20
2. Writing: 19/20
3. Plot: 20/20
4. Accurate YA: voice 16/20
5. Cover: 10/10
6. Title: 10/10

Overall Score: 93 or B+

In My Mailbox (5)

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

Nomansland by Lesley Hauge

June 22, 2010

Sometime in the future, after devastating wars and fires, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women. Among these women is a group of teenaged Trackers—expert equestrians and archers—whose job is to protect their shores from the enemy. The enemy, they’ve been told, is men.

When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects—high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, make-up—found there. What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed—at all costs?

Reminiscent of The Giver but with a feminist twist, Nomansland is a powerful, shocking story that will challenge young readers’ perspectives and provoke much discussion over the timely and controversial issues presented.

What did you get this week?

Review: Where the Truth Lies by Jessica Warman

Title: Where the Truth Lies
Author: Jessica Warman
Release Date: October 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 308 pages

Source: Jessica Warman (author)
Format: ARC

Summary (from Goodreads):

On the surface, Emily Meckler leads the perfect life. She has three best friends, two loving parents, and the ideal setup at the Connecticut prep school where her father is the headmaster. But Emily also suffers from devastating nightmares about fire and water, and nobody knows why. Then the enigmatic Del Sugar enters her life, and Emily is immediately swept away—but her passionate relationship with Del is just the first of many things that aren't quite what they seem in Emily's life. As the lies she's been told start to unravel, Emily must set out to discover the truth regarding her nightmare; on a journey that will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about love, family, and her own idyllic past.

This companion novel to Warman's critically acclaimed Breathless proves that sometimes the biggest lies are told to the people you love the most.

Review:

I wish I was lying when I said I have no idea how to grade this book. It had a lot of problems, but for some reason I couldn't put it down.

**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!**

Such a WEAK main character.

*Emily Meckler is a goody two shoes who falls "in love" with the first guy to say that he loves her, gets pregnant in like October, survives the entire school year without anyone, including her parents (her dad is the headmaster of the school) noticing or suspecting she has little teensy human inside of her, goes to New York in the summer to stay with a celebrity and his daughter to have the baby, then loses all the weight within a month.

WHAT? Um, no. No no no no no. It was ridiculous. She was a weak character in the beginning, whining about how her friends call her father "Dad" without second thought, babied her roommates, claimed she was in love with Del, then Ethan.

Blah blah blah.

All the characters were weird. I didn't find anything realistic about them.

But despite me wanting to strangle every single character and just tell them to MOVE ON! and GET A LIFE! and GET OVER YOURSELF!, I ripped through this book. I enjoyed it. I have no idea why.

Maybe it's like a fast food cheeseburger. Yucky, greasy, makes you wanna barf, but you still enjoy them.

I am just confused. Can't ya tell?

Grading:

1. Characters: 15/20

2. Writing: 18/20
3. Plot: 16/20
4. Originality: 16/20
5. Cover 10/10
6. Title: 9/10

Overall Score: 84 or B-

p.s. Sorry for the craptastic photo of the cover, I couldn't find one online. So I took the picture on my couch. Where I'm sitting right now. Cuz I'm too stinkin lazy to get up and model it. Ciao.

In My Mailbox (4)

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

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

August 24, 2010

What if love refused to die?

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.

In My Mailbox (3)

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

The Mosts by Melissa Senate

June 8, 2010 by Random House

"Madeline finished freshman year at Freeport Academy just as invisible as when she started. But after a summer in Italy with her sophisticated aunt, she returned as a sophomore with cool clothes, European attitude, and a hot new boyfriend, Thom.

Maddie's part of the in crowd . . . the Mosts. Her best friend, Caro? Most Beautiful. Her other friends, Fergie, Annie, and Selena? Most Stylish, Most Hilarious, and Most Hot, respectively. And Madeline? Most Popular. Her life is great.

While it lasted.

Now Thom's moved to California—so Maddie's no longer the girlfriend of a popular guy. The guy Caro likes only has eyes for Madeline—can you say social suicide? And a group of misfits at school are begging Madeline to help make them over.

Madeline knows there's a fine line between being a Most . . . and being a Not. She doesn't want her status to change . . . but what if she doesn't have a choice?"

Review: Birth Marked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Title: Birth Marked
Author: Caragh M. O'Brien
Release Date: March 2010
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Length: 362 pages
Format: ARC

Summary (from Goodreads):

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents are arrested.

Badly scarred since childhood, Gaia is a strong, resourceful loner who begins to question her society. As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she herself is arrested and imprisoned.

Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where one girl can make all the difference, and a real hero makes her own moral code.

Review:

I had a lot of trouble with this book in the beginning. I was so bored the first 50 pages. Painfully bored, and I wasn't a fan of the writing either. Technically, nothing was wrong with the writing, but it felt so... thick, for lack of a better word. I felt like I had to trudge through it since it did not flow well for me.

But then.

The story took off for me. The writing improved, the story got going, I fell in love with Gaia, with Capt. Grey, the story line-- everything. I was intrigued by the world, similar yet so different from our own, and how smart the book was. It involved genetic codes, DNA, all this scientific stuff that I hate in real life, but somehow O'Brien made it work for me. Made it interesting and compelling for me. I was flipping through the pages, unable to read fast enough, unable to figure out or guess how the story would end.

Gaia was an extremely strong female character, something that is not common in today's teen market. If she wanted to accomplish something-- like save her parents, deliver a 9 month baby whose mother had just been executed-- she went out and did it. She did not let any one, not even the government manipulate her own beliefs. Gaia had a backbone. She was a hero, not only to the characters in the book, but to me as well.

And I think there might be a sequel, judging by how open the ending of the story was. Any one know??

Grading:

1. Characters: 20/20
2. Writing 18/20
3. Plot 20/20
4. Originality 20/20
5. Cover 9/10
6. Title 10/10

Overall score: 97 or A

In My Mailbox (2)

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

I'm a bit behind with my IMM, so this post is going to be from what I've received the past few weeks/since my last IMM.

ARCS for Review:

(cover not final)

Where the Truth Lies by Jessica Warman

(sorry couldn't find a picture of a cover for this one, but here is the authors website: http://jessicawarman.com/)

Store-Bought

Other:

Swag for the Body Finder (autographed)

Swag for the The Tension of Opposites

So what did you get this week?