Feature & Follow Friday (20)

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: 

"This Sunday in the U.S. is Mother's Day, in celebration, what are some of your favorite books with strong mother/child relationships?" 

My answer: 

I really have no idea. I'm sure I've read tons of books with strong mother/child bonds and relationships, but I really can't think of any examples. However, I recently read Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. In it there is a different type of mother/child relationship then this question is probably asking for though. That story included a brokenhearted mother who had lost her small daughter which really isn't something anybody should have to go through. 

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

Crossed Off Challenge List: Bloodlines

Rating: * * * * *

This post is purely to announce that I have read and crossed Bloodlines (Bloodlines, book 1) by Richelle Mead off of the following challenge lists:

2012 OTS

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

Waiting on Wednesday (6)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we can not wait to read! This meme is the perfect way to add books to your TBR list. Along with upcoming releases, I sometimes include books that I have not had the chance to read or buy even if they have already come out. 

_________________________________________________________

The book I am anxiously awaiting is...

Title: Gilt

Author: Katherine Longshore

Release Date: May 15, 2012

In the court of King Henry VIII, nothing is free--and love comes at the highest price of all.

When Kitty Tylney's best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII's heart and brings Kitty to court, she's thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat's shadow, Kitty's now caught between two men--the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat's meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.

I discovered this book last week and am really excited about it. I adore historical fiction novels and definitely can not wait to read this. It sounds like it will be very intense and full of suspense (oh look, that rhymed). Plus, how gorgeous is that cover?

Feature & Follow Friday (19)

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: 

"What is one thing you wish you could tell your favorite author?"

My answer: 

I don't really have a favorite author because I love so many, but if I could tell them all something it would be to stop making me wait so long for their next books! I hate starting a new book if I know it is only the first or second in a big series because that means once I'm done I'll have to wait at least a year for the next one. It drives me insane, but I guess the waiting just makes you love the book a little bit more. I know it isn't even the authors fault, but still LOL

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

Best of YA has a new look!

And blog title.
Check it out and tell me what you think!

Also, I made myself a fancy blog button:

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get a button code and I should be set! If you know an easy, free way for me to do this, please please PLEASE let me know.
I really appreciate it.

Joana

Book of the Month (1)

Book of the Month is a monthly event, hosted by Book Whales. This is done to highlight one of the books we have read in the previous month. This meme is great because it lets us recommend that one amazing book we have read that we just can't stop talking about! (I usually choose one that I have not reviewed).

_______________________________________________________________________

My book of the month for April is... 

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

I read this book for a school project earlier this month and loved it. It pretty much had everything you could want in a book, plus a lot more. If you have seen the movie and not read the book, you should definitely think about it because the movie does not do it justice.

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

Waiting On Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we can not wait to read! This meme is the perfect way to add books to your TBR list. Along with upcoming releases, I sometimes include books that I have not had the chance to read or buy even if they have already come out. 

_________________________________________________________

The book I am anxiously awaiting is...

Title: City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, 5)

Author: Cassandra Clare

Release Date: May 8, 2012

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.   

No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?   

Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.   

And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?

I have pre-ordered my copy and AM SO EXCITED AHH!