Wow did this month pass by fast!
This was the first month I've participated in Random Acts of Kindness and it definitely won't be the last. It's such a great programme to take part in.
So this month I only managed to send a single book to Emilie of Emilie's Book World which was:
I received the first five books of the Mercedes Thompson series from Michelle of Much Loved Books :
Thanks very much Michelle!!!
Hi guys!
I just wanted to do a quick post to say that the blog recently got 200 followers! Thank you!
And like I promised, there will be two winners to the blogoversary giveaway to win a book of choice from the book depository. Go and check it out if you haven't!
Thanks again!
Maryam
Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 3rd February 2011
Hardback: 393 pages
Genre: Science Fiction
Young Adult
Source: Bought
My Rating: 7/10
Summary:
There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it.
Then, at last, they found the cure.
Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she'll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But then, with only twenty-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable...
My Review:
This is going to be one of those reviews where I know what I want to say but it's hard to put into words and get across so bear with me.
The idea or the premise of this novel would appeal to anyone. A world where love is seen as a disease that can be cured as soon as we turn eighteen. A world with no pain, no sadness and freedom. Who wouldn't at least want to pick it up.
But! But, it was hard to read. Here's where it gets hard for me to write...
The writing was excellent. It was packed with emotion where there should be emotion, it was nicely paced and it had fabulous description. However, as far as the emotional touches went, they put me off. Normally, a book like this should be emotional right? That's obvious. But if compared to other similar books, the emotional side normally makes me, as a reader, feel emotional. I mean, that's the whole point. Delirium didn't. It actually pained me to read at times.
Aside from that it took a while to get going but as soon as Lena meets Alex things start happening and certain aspects of the lie Lena has been living start to unravel. There are quite a few surprises throughout the book which I liked because they were completely unexpected and fit in well with the story.
Overall, I did like the novel and I'll definitely be reading the sequel.
Great quotes:
"And now I know why they invented words for love, why they had to: It's the only thing that can come close to describing what I feel in that moment, the baffling mixture of pain and pleasure and fear and joy, all running sharply through me at once."
"I run for I don't know how long. Hours, maybe, or days. Alex told me to run. So I run. You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. People who refuse to stop believing. People who refuse to come to earth. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope,and without fear. I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."
Lauren Oliver:
Goodreads|Website|Blog|Facebook|Twitter
I got quite a few books this week...
I received the first five books of the Mercedes Thompson series from Michelle of Much Loved Books.
Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself--she's a shape-shifter.
Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places - and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.
But this new vampire is hardly ordinary - and neither is the demon inside of him...
When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to shapeshifting car mechanic Mercy Thompson to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not. And she'll have to choose between the two werewolves in her life-whether she wants to or not.
By day, Mercy is a car mechanic in the sprawling Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shapeshifter with some unique talents, Mercy has often found herself having to maintain a tenuous harmony between the human and the not so human. This time she may get more than she bargained for.
Marsilia, the local Vampire Queen, has learned that Mercy crossed her by slaying a member of her clan—and she's out for blood. But since Mercy is protected from direct reprisal by the werewolf pack (and her close relationship with its sexy Alpha), it won't be Mercy's blood Marsilia is after.
It'll be her friends
Being a mechanic is hard work. Mercy Thompson, for instance, just spent the last couple of months trying to evade the murderous queen of the local vampire seethe, and now the leader of the werewolf pack - who's maybe-more-than-just-a-friend - has asked for her help. A book of fae secrets has come to light and they're all about to find out how implacable - and dangerous - the fae can be. OK, so maybe her troubles have nothing to do with the job. But she sure could use a holiday ...
I also swapped one of my old books for Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine:
Morganville. Texas. Just south of normal. In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, a master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn't the only threat. Violent black clouds promise a storm of devastating proportions. As student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against the elements - both natural and unnatural - the unexpected happens: Morganville's vampires begin to vanish one by one. Discovering why leads Claire to one last choice: swear allegiance to Bishop...or die.
And I bought both You Against Me by Jenny Downham and Forever by Maggie Stiefvater:
If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's been accused of a terrible crime and you're the main witness, then you banish all doubt and defend him. Isn't that what families do? When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her at a party, his world of work and girls begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the crime, but says he didn't do it, her world of revision, exams and fitting in at a new school begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. Brave and unflinching, this is a novel of extraordinary skillfulness and almost unbearable tension. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love - for one's family and for another.
In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.
So that's what I got this week and I'm excited to read all of them. Don't forget to check out the reviews posted this week and my blogoversary giveaway - it's international!
On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I want but haven't haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. It's also an event that you can join in with too - Mr Linky is always at the ready to link your own 'On My Wishlist' post. If you want to know more click here.
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.
Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.
Lisa Tawn Bergren's new YA series, River of Time, is romantic, historical fiction in which the plucky heroine doesn't have to fear a vampire's bite but must still fight for her life.
In Waterfall, American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in Fourteenth-Century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties. Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archaeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds... until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves catapulted into the Fourteenth Century and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another.
My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.
But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .
Well that's what's on my wishlist this week! Visit the blog to see what books I received and bought this week - there are definitely a few good ones and I'm super excited to read them. And make sure to check out the giveaway!
Title: The Iron Witch
Author: Karen Mahoney
Publisher:Corgi Children's
Publication date: 20/01/2011
Paperback: 304 pages
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Young Adult
Source: UK Book Tours
My Rating: 8/10
Summary:
Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.
When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.
My Review:
Before reading this book I hadn't come across a book based around faeries that I particularly enjoyed. I wasn't a fan of Wicked Lovely so I was a little apprehensive when it came to reading this.
It definitely didn't disappoint me though, when it came down to it, it was a great read with really great characters and the story line was more than interesting.
I would have liked a little more complexity throughout the story because it became a little bit predictable but no less enjoyable.
Overall though I do recommend this read and I have a feeling it will get even better with book 2 in the series!
Great quotes:
"I thought you were going to CALL me? I call this texting ;-)
The reply came back within seconds:
I find it easier to take rejection in writing..."
"I don't think I believe in angels, that's all. And if you were one, that would mean I'd have to re-evaluate my beliefs. I'm not quite ready to do that."
Karen Mahoney:
Website|Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Twitter
Title: Immortal Beloved
Author: Cate Tiernan
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Publication date: 6th January 2011
Hardback: 400 pages
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Young Adult
Read an extract
Source: UK Book Tours
My Rating: 10/10
Summary:
New name, new town, new life. Nastasya has done it too often to count. And there's no end in sight. Nothing ever really ends ...when you're immortal. But now, after centuries of feeding from the lives of the innocents around her, of living with little care for others, Nastasya is ready to turn towards the light. 'After some of the events I've witnessed I felt like I was a shell with nothing alive left in me. I hadn't been going around killing people, but people were hurt -- the memories just kept trickling in like rivulets of fresh acid dripping into my brain until I wanted to scream. It was in my blood, I knew. A darkness. The darkness. I had inherited it, along with my immortality and my black eyes.' Captivating, intense and with an incredible and original voice, EVERLASTING LIFE is a haunting story of friendship, love and secrets, tragedy and loss. Sometimes life is eternal...
My Review:
I fell in love with this book from reading just the first few pages.
It was so different straight from the start both in the writing style and the story. It was obvious from the start that the protagonist had an amazing backstory and a lot of emotional baggage as it were. It was made clear in bits and pieces through the book which gave it a really nice pace and didn't reveal too much to make me lose interest.
I loved how it was written in a sort of 'what you see is what you get' kind of tone if that makes sense. It was truthful and to the point and above all it was written in Nastasya's point of view and boy did her personality shine through! I really loved how her character developed throughout the story, moreso than any book that I've read before I think. It was very refreshing and it was great to read about a character who is really strong and yet really vulnerable at the same time. Plus, it didn't hurt that she made the story hilarious at times!
I don't really have anything else to say to be honest. The pace was a little slow at times but it felt necessary and it definitely picked up quickly!
I definitely recommend this read. It's one that cannot be put down if you can help it. I'm definitely looking forward to more from this author.
Great quotes:
"Yes. Reyn is our resident horse master. He has an excellent seat."I grinned. "I've noticed."Reyn's face tightened and Nell flushed, looking embarrassed. "It's an equestrian term.""Really? I thought you were talking about his ass."
*I'm sorry I had to throw that in there...it really made me crack up when I read it!*
"It was all I could do to not knock him down right there in front of Asher and climb on him. If I stunned him with a frying pan first, he might not struggle too much.…"
*See what I mean about her personality shining through haha*
Cate Tiernan:
Website|Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Twitter
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can take part! All you have to do is:
You can find out more here!
My current read: Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Radom page: #257
Teaser:
It looks so strange standing there in the middle of all that emptiness, surrounded by the shrapnel of disintegrated neighbours. It looks tiny all on its own, like a single lamb that has gotten lost in the wrong pasture.
Happy reading! And make sure to check out my first blogoversary giveaway here!
Can you believe it has been a full year since I started blogging? I certainly can’t.
Since it’s my blogoversary today, what better way to celebrate how far the blog has come than with a giveaway!
So here’s how it’s going to work:
You can fill in the form here. Good luck!
That’s right I have officially finished another book. I have just finished:
This was quite good. Not as good as the other books I have read so far in the read-a-thon but I definitely want to carry on with the series so…
Next I’ll be reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this one though seeing as the read-a-thon is almost over…
Happy reading!
So as some of you might have guessed I finished another book!
I have just finished:
I have seriously fallen in love with this book…it was fabulous!
Next I’ll be reading Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready.
So the read-a-thon started today –which I happen to be taking part- so I though I would do an update post every time I finished a book and then an overall post after the read-a-thon is over.
As you might have guessed I finished my first book over the three days!
I read Panic by Jeff Abbott which I really enjoyed. I got this one from Atomics to review so I’ll post a decent review up on the blog at a later date to tell you how I felt about it.
Next I’ll be reading Possessions by Nancy Holder which looks like a good read…who knows!
Happy reading everyone!
Title: The Survivors
Author: Amanda Havard
Series: The Survivors #1
Links: Goodreads|Amazon|Website
My rating: 8/10
Summary:
In 1692, when witch trials gripped the community of Salem, Massachusetts, twenty-six children were accused as witches, exiled, and left for dead. Fourteen of them survived.
The Survivors is the first instalment of the tantalizing tales of the fourteen ill-fated Survivors and their descendants, who have been content in hiding for over three centuries. Isolated on a Montana mountainside, only Sadie, the rogue daughter, dares to abandon the family's sacred hiding place. But no matter how far Sadie runs, something always pulls her back.
On a muggy summer night in Tennessee, she witnesses a shocking scene that will change her life forever. It is the first in a sequence of events that will drag her from the human world she's sought to belong to for over a century and send her back to her Puritanical family and into an uncertain future filled with cunning witches, mysterious nosferatu shape-shifters, dangerous eretica and vieczy vampires, millennia-old mythology, and the search for her own mortality. After all...
HOW DO YOU KILL A SURVIVOR?
The Survivors will steal your heart and invade your mind. Fall into the pages of Sadie's life, a world so frighteningly similar to your own, you'll find yourself wanting to go to the Montana mountains to find the Survivors for yourself.
And it is only the beginning.
My thoughts:
This was definitely not what I was expecting.
Finishing this made it seem like it was just the beginning to the rest of the series just to get readers used to the world it’s set in. I normally don’t like that but in this case it was brilliant. I felt that the introduction into the settings of the story didn’t distract any attention from the actual plot.
I loved the protagonist Sadie, she developed well as a character and she was very likable and above all relatable because she still made mistakes.
I did find it hard to read to start off with for some reason which I can’t really identify. I think it just didn’t catch my attention at first but it started to get better and better very quickly and the end was just brilliant. Just enough was revealed but not too much that I wouldn’t want to carry on the series. I still have so many questions I want answered!
There’s not really much more for me to say. I am sincerely looking forward to more from this author’s future works and I can’t wait to find out what happens throughout the rest of the series!
I really do recommend this read…it’s a gem!
About the author:
Amanda Havard has been telling stories since before she could write. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, where her first book was published in her elementary school library at age 7. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Vanderbilt University. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with her baby grand piano and more story ideas than she could tell in one lifetime.
This week I swapped a book for Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready on readitswapit.
Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a critical gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.
Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.
Well, sort of.
Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan's violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.
It doesn't help that Aura's new friend Zachary is so understanding--and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.
As Aura's relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart...and clues to the secret of the Shift.
Happy reading everyone!
On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I want but haven't haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. It's also an event that you can join in with too - Mr Linky is always at the ready to link your own 'On My Wishlist' post. If you want to know more click here.
Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighbourhood.
When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.
In this lyrical, absorbing, award-winning novel, nothing is as it seems, and every clue leads to more questions.
At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future.
Happy reading!
Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication date: December 2nd 2010
My rating: 10/10
Summary:
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
My thoughts:
I really don’t have anything bad to say about this book….seriously.
I loved this read. It made my heart melt at times and it had a great pace to it. I loved the settings, the characters, the story…everything.
Anna starts off at a new school in a different country at the start of the story. She’s completely thrown into the deep end as it were and has to find new friends and learn a new language. It seems like the new environment allows Anna to reflect and to develop as her own person.
I’m really fussy about how relationships develop in books. I hate it when you immediately know that two people are going to get together and everything’s going to be fine between them. This didn’t happen in this book. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I loved it.
That’s all I really have to say. It’s definitely a recommended read to everyone. The rating says it all really.
Great quotes:
"Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?"
"The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you."
"I wish friends held hands more often, like the children I see on the streets sometimes. I'm not sure why we have to grow up and get embarrassed about it."
About the author:
Hi there! I'm Steph, and I wrote ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. It has funny bits and kissing, so you should totally read it. If you're into that sort of thing. There will be two companions: LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR (2011) and ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER (2012).
On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I want but haven't haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. It's also an event that you can join in with too - Mr Linky is always at the ready to link your own 'On My Wishlist' post. If you want to know more click here.
We all want to be remembered. Charlotte's destiny is to be Forgotten...
Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.
But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiralling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become--her mark on this earth, her very existence--is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.
Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny--no matter how dark the consequences.
Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—Sasha is Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.
A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.
With the threat of Eryx looming, Jax has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?
"On my fourteenth birthday when the sakura was in full bloom, the men came to kill us. We saw them come, Aimi and me. We were excited, because we did not know how to be frightened. We had never seen soldiers before."
Suzume is a shadow-weaver. She can create mantles of darkness and light, walk unseen in the middle of the day, change her face. She can be anyone she wants to be. Except herself.
Suzume died officially the day the Prince's men accused her father of treason. Now even she is no longer sure of her true identity.
Is she the girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother’s new husband, Lord Terayama? A lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama’s kitchens? Or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands?
Everyone knows Yue is destined to capture the heart of a prince. Only she knows that she is determined to use his power to destroy Terayama.
And nothing will stop her. Not even love
Despite her fascination with Jack the Ripper, Detective Constable Lacey Flint has never worked a big case or seen a dead body up close. Until now...As she leaves a south London estate one night, she is horrified to find a woman has been viciously stabbed, right next to Lacey's car. Thrown headlong into her first murder hunt, Lacey's quiet life changes overnight. Then Lacey receives a familiar hand-delivered letter, written in red blood, and it is clear the police have a Ripper copycat on their hands. Lacey must be the bait if they are to prevent a second, brutal murder. But can this inexperienced DC outwit a killer whose infamous role model has never been found?...
I’ve just discovered this great programme called ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ whereby you donate a book to someone off of their wishlist and don’t expect anything back.
