Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Bout of Books update
So I should never say the week will not be busy, as busy, etc. I ended up having three late nights this week in a row, but tomorrow is the last one. I did however finish the novella for the read-a-thon. I also did the book word search at The Musings of ALMYBNENR. I enjoyed it and it took longer than I originally thought. I love word searches though. Hopefully I can review The Strange Case of Finley Jayne tomorrow. I have made progress in Persuasion, but not much. However, now it is time to go to sleep!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Bout of Books 5.0
This is a read-a-thon hosted by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal and can be found at this blog. Technically I am supposed to be reading books for my other challenges, but this looked like fun. So the challenge is to read more books than you usually would in a week, but to go at your own pace. I am going to use at least one of my other challenge books in this one. I usually do not even finish a book a week, so I think I will make my goal two books for this week. I want to read Persuasion by Jane Austen as the first book. I am having a hard time getting into it, so I think using it for the read-a-thon will help. The other one I am choosing is a novella and that is the Strange Case of Finley Jayne by Kady Cross. I really enjoyed The Girl in the Steel Corset, so I would love to learn more about Finley. Hopefully I can finish these, since this week is not as busy as last week.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Reading Stack #19
I finished my Summer Reading Wrap-up books and one of those was also my Dusty Bookshelf Challenge book. I also read Holding on to Zoe and I will review this soon. I am trying to figure out my thoughts on this book, because I am not for sure what I thought about it. I like to take a few days to think about the difficult to review books to try to decide if what I thought was bad is really bad, or if I didn't get it at first. This one is difficult, because the main character had so many problems and at times I felt like there were too many to try to tie up at the end. For now though, I am going to keep reading Tiger Lily, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, and Persuasion, which I have neglected. I have so many others I would love to add, like some series books and new e-galleys, but I am just lucky to have finished what I had started. I will be choosing another book for the Dusty Bookshelf Challenge very soon, so I will add that on when I have decided.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
This is my final review for Summer Reading Wrap-up. I can't believe I was able to finish both books. This is also my first review for the Dusty Bookshelf Challenge.
The cover first attracted me to this book. I love how the font looks alive, like it is part of a tree. Since the book was described as a gothic romance, I thought I would give it a try.
Ethan Wate's one goal in life is to leave Gatlin and go anywhere else. His mother has recently died, his father has become a recluse, and Amma, their housekeeper, is the closest thing to a parent he has. Amma practices her form of magic, using bones to talk to her ancestors, and leaving protective charms around the Wate's house. Ethan eagerly awaits graduation, although he is only a sophomore, so that he can escape his life. However, Ethan begans being haunted by a dream and a girl he cannot save. When a new girl, Lena, comes to town, Ethan sees her as the girl from his dreams, but she is the daughter of the town's "Boo Radley," Macon Ravenwood. Despite Lena being shunned by the town, Ethan is drawn to her and she is drawn to him. If their only problem was town prejudice, the relationship might last, but Lena has a bigger problem. Lena is a Caster, a family that uses either Dark magic or Light magic, and she is almost sixteen. For Casters, sixteen is the year they choose their paths, or in Lena's branch's case their destiny is chosen for them. Lena and Ethan must find a way to break her sixteen year curse or risk losing each other.
I loved the setting and the way Garcia and Stohl described Gatlin and its residents. Ethan is also a great narrator and it was nice to read from a male point of view, since lately many of the series I have read are from the girls'. The romance was sweet and innocent and although it was a little love at first sight, the authors gave the characters time to grow together by starting the story over 170 days before Lena's birthday.
Favorite Character: Ethan was my favorite. He really wants to get out of his small town, which is what most of us from a small town dream about doing. He is also very loving and loyal to his family, his best friend, and Lena. His best friend Link was also a great character and very funny.
Favorite Quote: "'Just because you live in the middle of nowhere, doesn't mean you can't know where you live.'" This was said by Marian the librarian of Gatlin and another really neat character.
I loved the characters of this book and its setting and I can't wait to visit it again with the next book! This was another 5 bars of chocolate book for me!
The cover first attracted me to this book. I love how the font looks alive, like it is part of a tree. Since the book was described as a gothic romance, I thought I would give it a try.
Ethan Wate's one goal in life is to leave Gatlin and go anywhere else. His mother has recently died, his father has become a recluse, and Amma, their housekeeper, is the closest thing to a parent he has. Amma practices her form of magic, using bones to talk to her ancestors, and leaving protective charms around the Wate's house. Ethan eagerly awaits graduation, although he is only a sophomore, so that he can escape his life. However, Ethan begans being haunted by a dream and a girl he cannot save. When a new girl, Lena, comes to town, Ethan sees her as the girl from his dreams, but she is the daughter of the town's "Boo Radley," Macon Ravenwood. Despite Lena being shunned by the town, Ethan is drawn to her and she is drawn to him. If their only problem was town prejudice, the relationship might last, but Lena has a bigger problem. Lena is a Caster, a family that uses either Dark magic or Light magic, and she is almost sixteen. For Casters, sixteen is the year they choose their paths, or in Lena's branch's case their destiny is chosen for them. Lena and Ethan must find a way to break her sixteen year curse or risk losing each other.
I loved the setting and the way Garcia and Stohl described Gatlin and its residents. Ethan is also a great narrator and it was nice to read from a male point of view, since lately many of the series I have read are from the girls'. The romance was sweet and innocent and although it was a little love at first sight, the authors gave the characters time to grow together by starting the story over 170 days before Lena's birthday.
Favorite Character: Ethan was my favorite. He really wants to get out of his small town, which is what most of us from a small town dream about doing. He is also very loving and loyal to his family, his best friend, and Lena. His best friend Link was also a great character and very funny.
Favorite Quote: "'Just because you live in the middle of nowhere, doesn't mean you can't know where you live.'" This was said by Marian the librarian of Gatlin and another really neat character.
I loved the characters of this book and its setting and I can't wait to visit it again with the next book! This was another 5 bars of chocolate book for me!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Endlessly by Kiersten White
Since I finished Endlessly before Beautiful Creatures, I will start my reviews for Summer Reading Wrap-Up with that one.
Endlessly is the last book in the Paranomalcy series, so this review could have a few spoilers for the other two books.
Evie barely survived Jack's attempt to leave her on the Faerie Path, but she did find her way back to Lend. She wants nothing to ever separate them again, but that decision may be taken out of her hands. Evie wants so badly to live a normal life and help plan the Winter Formal. She is a little bummed that they will not go with pink as the color for the dance, but she can deal with that. Unfortunately that is not the worse news in her world. IPCA is under new command, Anne-Laurie LeFevre or Anne Whatever Whatever, as Evie calls her, is now in charge and she wants to use Evie to destroy other paranormals. Raquel disappears and Evie cannot get in touch with her. The elementals, including Cresseda, Lend's mom, finally reappear, wanting a favor from Evie. They along with the Seelie Court fae, including Reth, Evie's ex, want her to open another gate. Opening the last gate almost killed her, so Evie really does not want to do this. While trying to make a decision, Lend is kidnapped by the Unseelie Court and their evil queen, and unfortunately, Evie is kidnapped by IPCA and freed by Jack and Reth. Evie will do anything to free Lend, including work with Jack and Reth. When unforeseen circumstances occur, Evie will have to make some difficult choices in order to save her love, herself, and possibly paranormals everywhere. This is a great and action-packed ending to the series.
I love the humor in White's work and her insight into what makes paranormals/people really human. She touches on deep ideas without preaching which is difficult to do and she makes the story hilarious and fun at the same time.
Favorite Character: I love Evie! She reminds me of myself as a teen, sarcastic, but kind and not fully comfortable in her own skin. She is very loving and at times obsessed, which is her biggest flaw.
Favorite Quote: I could quote off almost every page. I love the sarcasm and White's insights both. Here is one of my favs. "Great, glorious unicorn, beloved of oblivious girls everywhere, please heal me." To fully understand this, you have to read what unicorns really look like, according to Evie. :)
I thought the ending was just right for the series, not completely happy, but just enough. I also liked that the main characters did not all have to die at the end, which lately seems to be too much of a trend in fantasy books. I won't say any more, because I don't want to have too many spoilers. This was definitely a 5 bar of chocolate book for me. I will miss Evie and her world, but I am looking forward to Mind Games. It is supposed to be edgier than this series, but hopefully it will have some of the same humor as Evie's story.
Endlessly is the last book in the Paranomalcy series, so this review could have a few spoilers for the other two books.
Evie barely survived Jack's attempt to leave her on the Faerie Path, but she did find her way back to Lend. She wants nothing to ever separate them again, but that decision may be taken out of her hands. Evie wants so badly to live a normal life and help plan the Winter Formal. She is a little bummed that they will not go with pink as the color for the dance, but she can deal with that. Unfortunately that is not the worse news in her world. IPCA is under new command, Anne-Laurie LeFevre or Anne Whatever Whatever, as Evie calls her, is now in charge and she wants to use Evie to destroy other paranormals. Raquel disappears and Evie cannot get in touch with her. The elementals, including Cresseda, Lend's mom, finally reappear, wanting a favor from Evie. They along with the Seelie Court fae, including Reth, Evie's ex, want her to open another gate. Opening the last gate almost killed her, so Evie really does not want to do this. While trying to make a decision, Lend is kidnapped by the Unseelie Court and their evil queen, and unfortunately, Evie is kidnapped by IPCA and freed by Jack and Reth. Evie will do anything to free Lend, including work with Jack and Reth. When unforeseen circumstances occur, Evie will have to make some difficult choices in order to save her love, herself, and possibly paranormals everywhere. This is a great and action-packed ending to the series.
I love the humor in White's work and her insight into what makes paranormals/people really human. She touches on deep ideas without preaching which is difficult to do and she makes the story hilarious and fun at the same time.
Favorite Character: I love Evie! She reminds me of myself as a teen, sarcastic, but kind and not fully comfortable in her own skin. She is very loving and at times obsessed, which is her biggest flaw.
Favorite Quote: I could quote off almost every page. I love the sarcasm and White's insights both. Here is one of my favs. "Great, glorious unicorn, beloved of oblivious girls everywhere, please heal me." To fully understand this, you have to read what unicorns really look like, according to Evie. :)
I thought the ending was just right for the series, not completely happy, but just enough. I also liked that the main characters did not all have to die at the end, which lately seems to be too much of a trend in fantasy books. I won't say any more, because I don't want to have too many spoilers. This was definitely a 5 bar of chocolate book for me. I will miss Evie and her world, but I am looking forward to Mind Games. It is supposed to be edgier than this series, but hopefully it will have some of the same humor as Evie's story.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Reading, hopefully reviewing soon
I finished both Beautiful Creatures and Endlessly! I just need to find time to sit and review them. I am also almost halfway through Holding on to Zoe, which I was supposed to start after Princess Academy 2. Something about the book just drew me in. I have also started Tiger Lily, which I am enjoying; Tink is a great narrator. I participated in the SummerTeen webinar today, so I have several new e-galleys to read as well, but they will have to wait for a bit. The publishers have some great new titles coming out this fall, like Venom and Origin, which I was able to get e-galleys for both of those. For now I am sticking with Tiger Lily and Holding on to Zoe.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Review Copy Cleanup
I am going to be really ambitious this month and sign up for another challenge. This one is the Review Copy Cleanup hosted by Nyx Book Reviews and Books, Biscuits, and Tea. The goal is to read as many review books in e-book or print form as you can. I know I have requested several books and have only finished a handful this year. Since this is an extremely busy month for me, I won't be able to read several books, but I will make a list of the ones I would like to finish. First up will be Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. I loved Princess Academy, so I really want to read the sequel. For my second read, if I am able to finish the first, I am going to try Holding on to Zoe by George Ella Lyon. I was able to listen to her speak at the McConnell Conference a few years ago and I enjoy her picture books. The idea sounds interesting, like maybe the protagonist is imagining having a baby. If I finish these two, I will update later with more books.
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