Sunday, September 16, 2012

In My Mailbox #18

Hi guys! I'm here with a new In My Mailbox post! (Finally)

Borrowed:
- "Something Strange and Deadly" by Susan Dennard
- " Pandemonium" by Lauren Oliver

Bought:
- "The Replacement" by Brenna Yovanoff
- "Possess" by Gretchen McNeil
-" The Book of Even More Awesome" by Neil Pasricha

Happy Reading!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Book Review - "The Near Witch" by Victoria Schwab

Publisher - Disney Hyperion
Release Date - August 2, 2011
Number of Pages - 282
Series - none

Summary:
 The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen.
The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.
And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.



This book was absolutely wonderful! It was creepy, haunting...and beautiful.

Victoria Schwab spins the words together in a fashion that makes the story (or the Near Witch) appear at your mind (or your house). The writing was absolutely was amazing and it made the book spooky. It was definitely a high point of the book.

The main character was great and well developed, but she was very different from me, so it was hard for me to relate to her. Lexi was rebellious and I am usually not.

I also really loved the setting of the story. I absolutely love novels set in small towns, probably because I grew up in a small town. The author described it in a way that was very easy to visualize in my head and that made it a lot more real for me. I also loved this aspect of the story.

This book was very good and I definitely recommend this for everyone!

A-
Happy Reading!

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Book Review - "The Dark Divine" by Bree Despain

Publisher - Egmont USA
Release Date - Dec. 22, 2009
Number of Pages- 372
Series - The Dark Divine #1





Synopsis:
 Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul.




I did not know what to expect from this book when I picked it up, but I am glad to say that I enjoyed it quite a lot.

It is hard for me to pinpoint what I liked about the book, and what exactly made it enjoyable for me.

For one, I enjoyed the religious aspect of the novel. I have never read a book about a "preacher's kid" before, therefore that aspect of the novel was very interesting to me.

I also really liked Daniel and Grace's dad. They were very likeable and I enjoyed reading about them.

What I thought was very cool, were the headings at the beginnings of all the scenes. They made the book a lot more organized and easier to read. This was very good for me, because I hate being confused when reading. When I'm confused, I'm frustrated and I take out my frustrations on the book and because of that I don't like the book.

This book was a very enjoyable read, but not a mind blowing one.

B+

Happy Reading!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday (1)

 "Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


Currently, I am most anticipating "Velveteen" by Daniel Marks, which is coming out Oct.9 this year. Below is the cover and the synopsis.

 Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Teaser Tuesday (Sep 4, 2012)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My Teaser:

"Apparently I didn't have to wait until getting to the palace to worry about potential rebel attacks. Wonderful"

-Taken from "The Selection" by Kiera Cass (pg. 57)

Monday, September 3, 2012

Book Review - "Shatter Me" by Tahereh Mafi

Publisher- Harper Collins
Release Date - Nov 15, 2011
Page Number - 338
Series - Shatter Me #1





Synopsis:
 Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.





What I liked the most about this book was the writing style. It was filled with beautiful prose, it was very fluid and beautiful to read. I really liked the strike-troughs that were used frequently in this novel, I htought that they were a very interesting part of the reading experience.

Also, I thought the characters in this novel were very well developed. Especially Warner. Despite being a villain, he was my favourite character, and I felt that there was a lot of depth to him and I hope that there will be more development to his character in the next books.

Juliette was also a great main character, she was very intelligent and brave. She was a strong, but a broken person, because of the events in her past, and I really enjoyed reading about her.

I loved the originality of Juliette's power. That aspect of the book was one I wanted to read in the first place.

I thought that the world building was pretty good, but I feel that there should have been more details about how it became so different from today's world.

I did not like the last scene (the one with the purple suit). It just felt so shallow, after an entire book about danger and destruction.

Shatter Me is definitely a book that I really enjoyed. I loved the characters, the unique writing style and the original premise, there were just a couple of things i did not like.

B+

Happy Reading!
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Sunday, September 2, 2012

September TBR

Before I start with this post, I would like to apologize for my absence from this blog. Things like traveling to Europe, homework, laziness and procrastination unfortunately got in the way. But I have been still reading and I am planning to post things on this blog more frequently.

Anyway, today I will tell you which books I will be reading in September.

Let's start the list:
(all links lead to Goodreads)

1. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald











2. "The Selection" by Kiera Cass











3. "The Fine Art of Truth or Dare" by Melissa Jensen











4. "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini











5. "Once a Witch" by Carolyn MacCullough











6. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett











7. " Possession" by Elana Johnson











I am very excited to read all of these books and I hope that I will have enough time to read them all (maybe even more than that).

If you like my blog, please follow it and comment. I really appreciate it!

Happy Reading :-)