Bout of Books: Day 1

So far today I have completed the mini-challenge hosted by Escape Through the Pages.

Books I am currently reading: School Spirits
Pages/Percentage finished: School Spirits: 11% or 33 pages
Books finished: 0
Mini-challenges: 1
Comments on others' pages:2
New blogs to follow: 1 When Books Attack

Book Spine Poem hosted by Escape Through the Pages

Today's mini-challenge is

Book Spine Poetry hosted by Escape Through the Pages

Here is my poem:

Girl Stolen
Splintered and Spoiled
I Will Save You
I Am the Messenger
or
Just Another Hero
Out of My Mind
Perception is Magic or Madness

I used 9 books and three extra words. This was a really fun challenge!

Clean Sweep ARC challenge update 2

I reviewed Towering by Alex Flinn, which was a 5 cups of cocoa book for me!
I am 34% through Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike. I didn't realize it was part ghost story. It is an interesting contemporary read so far.
I am also reading School Spirits and I just reached the 14% mark. It has the same humor as the Hex Hall trilogy and I like Izzie and her spunk.

I also completed Thuy's @ Nite Lite mini-challenge and Kristen's @ My ParaHangover mini- challenge.

Hopefully I can finish at least one of these this week and participating in Bout of Books should definitely help!

Towering by Alex Flinn and Rapunzel by Brothers Grimm

HarperTeen

I received this as an e-ARC from Edelweiss and  HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. Note: Kendra is not in this book and not part of the story, but this is a fairy tale retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Rapunzel. I read this for the ARC Cleanup Challenge. I am also using this for the Classic Double Challenge. The cover is beautiful!

Wyatt is sent by his mother to live in the middle of nowhere with the Mrs. Greenwood, mother of his mother's friend. Slatskill, NY does not even have its own movie theater and Wyatt is going to go to school online for the year, but Wyatt does not mind. He is trying to escape bad memories from his past and he is unable to move on from a tragedy that took away his best friend. He enjoys his time with Mrs. Greenwood, who mourns her daughter who ran away years ago. Rachel lives in an old tower kept away from the world, because "Mama" is afraid that the people who killed Rachel's real mother will try to kill Rachel too. Rachel learns about the world from books like Wuthering Heights and Little Women and remembers little of the outside world. However she begins dreaming of a boy and when her abnormally long hair begins to grow even quicker than usually she cuts it and makes a rope. Wyatt keeps hearing this beautiful voice that no one else seems to notice. When their two worlds collide, both Wyatt and Rachel must have the strength to fight for each other and fight the real villains in the town who are targeting teens. With magical tears mixed with the tears of grief, the two may overcome the losses of the past, to have a real future.

I love Alex Flinn's retellings. She stuck with the traditional element of Rapunzel with healing tears and long hair, but she gives Rachel the power to cut her hair and become the heroine instead of the damsel in distress. On their first meeting, Rachel using her cut braided hair as a rope swings down and rescues Wyatt from drowning. Awesome! Rachel is naïve based on her many years locked away, but she is brave. I also liked that the villain is not the person you would think. In the traditional Rapunzel, Gothel steals Rapunzel away, based on her parents' greed for the plant, but in Flinn's story the "Gothel" character is actually one who is trying to save Rachel from the true villains. I don't want to give too much away, but the use of the plant as a hallucinogenic drug was really clever, since in the original tale, it was the mother's desire for rampion that cost her the child. Both Rachel and Wyatt and Rapunzel and her prince find a way to be together despite all the odds.

Favorite Character: Wyatt. Wyatt is strong, a typical teen boy, and dealing with guilt he should not have. He is a good guy, who made a bad choice, but a completely understandable one. He lost a friend based on this. He does typical guy things too, like leading one of the girls on, but then Rachel turns him around. He learns from his mistakes and learns to forgive himself.

Favorite Quote: "If the world was gone wrong, would you be one of the people fighting against the problem or one of the people ignoring it?" "If you're not a hero, does that make you a villain?" "I don't think so. That would make just about everyone a villain then. The real villains are the one who are actually commanding the evil robots to destroy the hero." Actually this is probably more a conversation than a quote, but it was a wonderful way to look at guilt. Inaction does not make us a villain, even if we are not the hero and things don't end well.

With magic and grief rolled into one, this retelling shows the beauty of the original tale with a modern twist. 5 cups of cocoa!

Fictional Dinner Party: Thuy at Nite Lite

This is a mini-challenge hosted by Thuy at Nite Lite. You have to decide who you would invite to a fictional dinner party.

First up I would invite Hermione from the Harry Potter series and Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series. They would clash at first, deciding who knows the most, but they would end up bonding over their sometimes clueless boyfriends.

I would also invite Clary from the Mortal Instruments series and Meghan from the Iron Fey series so that they could dish about how evil Faery Queens are.

Finally sticking with the girls only theme I would invite Rachel from Towering and Rapunzel from Rapunzel Untangled and get them hooked on bad reality TV shows, because they've been locked up in a tower and would not know any better.

Thanks to Thuy for hosting!

Bout of Books 7.0 Goals post

My reading goals are to try to finish two books. I would also like to comment on at least 10 blogs, do at least two mini-challenges, and find at least 5 new blogs to follow. Since this will be a busy work week, I won't set my goals too high.

My reading list will include the following:

Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike
Onyx by Jennifer Armentrout
School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins
Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa
The Girl With the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Prodigy by Marie Lu

All of these are books I am reading for various challenges. A few of these I have started and a couple I hope to start soon. Good luck everyone!

Clean Sweep ARC challenge update week 1

I have finished Towering and hopefully will review it sometime this weekend. I am reading Wild Song by Jane Eagland and Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike. I am going to try to do one of the mini-challenges soon. Towering was a great retelling of Rapunzel. I loved the twists and surprises throughout the story. Now I want to read the actual Rapunzel fairy tale, so that I can compare it to the two retellings I read.