Thursday, April 26, 2012

Feature & Follow Friday (18)

Feature & Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkiee's View & Alison Can Read. Check out their blogs and the two Featured Bloggers of the week! This is great for finding amazing new blogs to follow and for gaining followers yourself!

This weeks question is: 
"Have you had a character that disappointed you? One that you fell in love with and then "broke up" with later on in the series or stand-alone book? Tell us about him or her." 


My answer: 
I absolutely loved Jace from The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, but by the 4th book he started to annoy me. He went from the sarcastic badboy to just whining all the time. Hopefully that was just temporary behavior and he'll be back to his old self in City of Lost Souls. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

What about you? Leave your answer to this weeks question in the comments below.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Review (27): There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones

There You’ll Find Me
by Jenny B. Jones

Series: None
Other Reviewed Titles: None
Release Date: October 4, 2011
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pages: 314
Source: NetGalley ARC
Challenge: None


My review:
I’m not a particularly religious person nor did I even know that this was a Christian novel until after I finished reading, but I was hooked from the very first page and could not seem to put it down! The book follows the life of Finley Sinclair, a now high school senior who is still struggling with the death of her brother two years before. Along with that, an upcoming audition for a school in NYC and being the new exchange student in Ireland, Finley has to deal with anxiety that only seems to get worse as her audition nears. This was definitely not a light and fluffy read nor was it extremely depressing. It was a book about loss, crisis of faith, and friendship that had me in tears just as often as it had me laughing my head off. 

I absolutely loved every character in this book, even grumpy Cathleen Sweeney. Both Finley and Beckett were great characters alone, but even better together because they seemed to strengthen each other. Their romance was sweet and fun to read about, especially since both were so adamant about not liking each other even though it was obvious from the beginning that they would be perfect together. The fact that Beckett constantly “forgot” her name and their witty banter had me laughing most of the time. Both deal with issues throughout the book that are relatable which just makes it even easier to fall in love with them.

The cover is strong, simple and gorgeous! The couple holding hands shows strength which is just what Beckett and Finley’s relationship is all about.

The only thing I disliked about this book is that it intensified my already very intense desire to visit Ireland. This was my first time reading one of Jenny’s book, but it will definitely not be my last!

Rating: * * * * * 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Feature & Follow Friday (17)

Feature & Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkiee's View & Alison Can Read. Check out their blogs and the two Featured Bloggers of the week!

This weeks question is:
"Fight! Fight! If you could have two fictional characters battle it out (preferably from books), who would they be and who do you think would win?"

 This is a tough question. The first fictional character that popped into my head was Jace from The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. And I feel that the only worthy person to face off against him would be Ash from The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. As for who would win, I honestly don't know.
What about you?

Monday, April 16, 2012

Guest Post: Kate Evangelista

Taste Book Trailer and Excerpt Reveal

Release Date: May 2012
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.
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BOOK TRAILER:




Song Credits: "Hunger" 
© Noelle Pico. 
Full Download available at http://sheisnoelle.bandcamp.com
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EXCERPT: 
I mentally stomped on the intimidation their perfection brought into my mind and said, “Excuse me.”

The group froze, startled by my words. The girls had their brows raised and the boys stopped mid-speech, mouths agape. They stared at me with eyes the shade of onyx stones.

I smiled and gave them a little wave.

The boy a step ahead of the rest recovered first. His stunning features went from shocked surprise to intense interest. He reminded me of a hawk eyeing its prey. I gulped.

“A Day Student,” he said, his eyes insolent and excited.

Something about the way he said “Day Student” made my stomach flip. “Excuse me?”

They snickered. The boys looked at each other while the girls continued to stare, muffling their laughter by delicate hands. I seemed to be the butt of some joke.  

“You broke the rule.” The boy’s grin turned predatory.

The students formed a loose semi-circle in front of me. My gaze darted from face to face. Hunger filled their eyes. The image of lions about to chase down a gazelle came to mind. I mentally shook my head. I was in the mountains not the Serengeti for crying out loud. 

I took a small step back and cleared my throat. “Can any of you give me a ride back to the dorms?”

The boy wagged his forefinger like a metronome. “Ah, that’s unfortunate for you.” 

One of the girls pinched the bridge of her nose. “Eli, you can’t possibly—”

“It’s forbidden, Eli,” another boy interrupted, pronouncing the word “forbidden” like a curse. 

The nervous murmur at the pit of my stomach grew louder. Six against one. Not good odds. Instinct told me to cut my losses and run. Bad enough I faced expulsion, now it seemed like weird, beautiful people who’d suddenly appeared on campus wanted to beat me up. No, scratch that. Judging from the way they studied me, beating me up wouldn’t satisfy them. Something more primal prowled behind their looks. 

I definitely wasn’t going down without a fight. Years of self-defense and hand-to-hand combat classes had me prepared. While other children from rich and important families got bodyguards, I got defense training. But I think my father meant for my skills to go up against potential kidnappers, not against other students who may or may not be crazy. Oh God! Maybe I stepped into a parallel universe or something when I reentered Barinkoff. 

“None of the students are supposed to be on campus,” I said. Then, realizing my mistake, I added, “Okay, I know I’m not supposed to be here either. If one of you gives me a ride back to the dorms, I won’t say anything about all this. Let’s pretend this never happened. I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me.”

“We’re not ordinary students,” Eli answered. “We’re the Night Students.”

He’d said “Night Students” like the words were capitalized. I didn’t know Barinkoff held classes at night. What was going on here?

Eli smiled with just one side of his mouth and said to the group, “She’s right, no one will have to know. We’re the only ones here. And it’s been so long, don’t you agree?” 

The rest of them nodded reluctantly.

“What’s been so long?” I challenged. I fisted my hands, ready to put them up if any of them so much as twitched my way.

“Since the taste of real flesh passed through my lips,” Eli said. He came forward and took a whiff of me then laughed when I cringed.

“Flesh.” Yep, parallel universe. 

“Yes,” he said. “And yours smells so fresh.” 

Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind and yanked me back before I could wrap my mind around the meaning behind Eli’s words. In a blink, I found myself behind someone tall. Someone really tall. And quite broad. And very male. 

I realized he wore the same clothes Eli and the other boys did. Not good. He was one of them. Although… I cocked my head, raking my gaze over him. He seemed born to wear the uniform, like he was the pattern everyone else was cut from. My eyes wandered to long, layered, blue-black hair tied at the nape by a silk ribbon. Even in dim light, his hair possessed a sheen akin to mercury. 

I looked down. The boy’s long fingers were wrapped around my wrist like a cuff. His fevered touch felt hotter than human standards, hot enough to make me sweat like I was standing beside a radiator but not hot enough to burn. 

“I must be mistaken, Eli,” the boy who held my arm said in a monotone. “Correct me. Did I hear you say you wanted to taste the flesh of this girl?”

A hush descended on us. It had the hairs at the back of my neck rising. How was it possible for the atmosphere to switch from threatening to dangerous? Unable to help myself, I peeked around the new guy’s bulk. Eli and his friends bowed. They all had their right hands on their chests. 

“Demitri, I’m sure you misheard me,” Eli said. 

So the guy standing between me and the person who said he’d wanted to taste me was named Demitri. I like the sound of his name. Demitri. So strong, yet rolls off the tongue. Definite yum factor.

“So, you imply I made a mistake?” Demitri demanded.

“No!” Eli lifted his gaze. “I did no such thing. I simply wanted to show the girl the consequences of breaking curfew.”

“Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!”

Demitri ignored my protest and continued to address Eli. “So, you threatened to taste her flesh.” His fingers tightened their grip around my wrist. “In the interest of investigating this matter further, I invoke the Silence.”

All six students gasped, passing surprised glances at one another.

Before I could ask about what was going on, Demitri yanked me down the hall toward the library. But why there? Oh, maybe we were getting my things. No, wait, he couldn’t have known about that. Everything was too confusing now.

Eli and the others didn’t try to stop us when we passed them. Demitri’s cold command must have carried power. Handsome and powerful, never a bad combination on a guy. 

We reached the heavy double doors in seconds. He jerked one open effortlessly. I’d needed all my strength just to squeeze through that same door earlier. To him, the thick wood might as well have been cardboard. I raised an eyebrow and mentally listed the benefits of going to gym class.

“Why are we here?” I asked after my curiosity overpowered my worry. I’d almost forgotten how frightened I’d been right before Demitri showed up. I wasn’t above accepting help from strangers. Especially from gorgeous dark-haired strangers with hot hands and wide shoulders. 

Demitri kept going, tugging me along, snaking his way deeper into the library. I had to take two steps for every stride his legs made. I tried to stay directly behind him, praying we didn’t slam into anything. 

He stopped suddenly and I collided with him. It felt like slamming into a wall. 

“Hey,” I said, momentarily stunned. “A little warning would be nice!”

He faced me, and I gasped. His eyes resembled a starless night, deep and endless. Their intensity drilled through me without pity, seeming to expose all my secrets. I felt naked and flustered beneath his gaze.

“You could have died back there,” he warned.

A lump of panic rebuilt itself in my throat.
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AUTHOR:
When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing. Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing. Today, she has four completed Young Adult novels.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Feature & Follow Friday (16)

Feature & Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkiee's View & Alison Can Read. Check out their blogs and the two Featured Bloggers of the week!

This weeks question is:
"What is one book that you would be nervous to see a movie adaption of because you think the movie could never live up to the book?"

My answer:
I'm always hesitate to see any of my favorite books become movies because I always set really high expectations and then get disappointed, which I'm sure everyone does, but I'm particularly nervous about the upcoming adaptation of City of Bones by Cassndra Clare. I devoured that series when I first read it and absolutely loved it. And while I'm excited that I will be able to watch it, I'm just scared they won't do a good job with it. The books are very long and are filled with so much detail that unfortunately most of it will probably get cut out. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
What about you?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Crossed off Challenge List: The Lying Game


Rating: * * * * 1/2

This post is purely to announce that I have read and crossed The Lying Game (The Lying Game, book 1) by Sara Shepard off of the following challenge lists:


This is just a way for me to easily keep track of my progress, no review to come.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Review (26): Belles

Belles
by Jen Calonita

Series: Belles Series, book 1
Other Reviewed Titles: None
Release Date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 368
Source: ARC
Challenge: None

Fifteen-year-old Isabelle Scott loves her life by the boardwalk on the supposed wrong side of the tracks in North Carolina. But when tragedy strikes, a social worker sends her to live with a long-lost uncle and his preppy, privileged family. Isabelle is taken away from everything she’s ever known, and unfortunately, inserting her into the glamorous life of Emerald Cover doesn’t go so well. Her cousin Mirabelle Monroe isn’t thrilled to share her life with an outsider, and in, addition to dealing with all the rumors and backstabbing that lurk beneath their classmates’ Southern charm, Isabelle finds out a secret about her new family that she can’t ignore. 
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Plot:  The plot of ‘Belles’ is very predictable and reminded me of many other books and movies. The twists and turns really weren’t all that exciting and the big secret at the end wasn’t all that shocking, however, I still really enjoyed it. It was just what I expected it to be; cute, quick and fun to read. I was very pleased to find out that this is in fact a new series, I can’t wait to see what happens next with the Belles.

Characters: The characters definitely made up for the plot’s lack of unexpected twists and turns. They were all relatable and likable (except for Savannah and her minions of course). The alternating view points made it really easy to get to know Izzie and Mira. Both girls have misconceptions about each other and by including the alternating view points, we get to actually see who each girl is and not who each girl thinks the other is which was great because both girls are very, very different. Izzie is really down to Earth, knows exactly who she is and won’t take crap from anyone, while her cousin, Mira, has a harder time breaking away from her circle of popular friends and being herself. It frustrated me every time Mira plotted against her own cousin. After all, family first, right?

Cover: The cover is simple, cute and girly and I’m assuming the girl on the cover is supposed to represent Izzie? I like it, I would definitely pick it up if I came across it in stores.

Overall Impression: I absolutely love all of Jen Calonita’s books and this one was no exception!
Rating: * * * *