Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Teaser Tuesady (8)

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly 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!
  • Share the title and author, too, so others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they want
Here's My Teaser:

"He drew a lock away from her neck and kissed the skin just beneath her earlobe, against the throb of her quickening pulse. Like the blackness outside the dome of lamplight, there seemed to be nothing more in the world than his lips, his touch, and the flood of heat consuming her."

~"Everlasting" by Angie Frazier, Page 257

I'd love to know what happens next!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkles

Publication Date: April 27, 2010
ARC Source: Traveling ARC Tours
POC Challenge (2)
Summary Taken from Goodreads:


When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.

My Two Cents:

A little slow in the beginning but I ended up liking this one. I'd heard so many good things about Perfect Chemistry so I was excited to pick this one up. When is everyone going to learn that the person who gets under your skin is most likely the love of your life? Yes, weird.

Kiara wears whatever she can grab first, no makeup, and can hardly be considered a "girly girl". She's the only girl who doesn't show that she's smitten by Carlos' charm and wit. In the beginning he definitely rubbed her the wrong way with his cursing and bad attitude.Though, it was hard for her to figure out why she couldn't stop thinking about him.

Carlos, is the misunderstood bad boy. He's not used to people helping him out of the kindness of their hearts and not wanting anything in return. He's distrustful of adults. At first I couldn't stand him, but as the book went on I began to see that he did certain things because he felt he had to protect the people around him.

It certainly takes a while for this unlikely pair to both come to their senses, but when they do, it's hard to stop it. I love that the cover is an actual scene in the book. It's exactly how I imagined it. Great romance, and pretty steamy at times. I would recommend this one for older teens since there's some pretty racy topics in this one. I was expected a bit more from it plot-wise. It sounded like a story I'd read plenty of times, but it was still delivered well.

Rating:

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Teaser Tuesday (7)



Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly 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!
  • Share the title and author, too, so others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they want
 Here's My Teaser:

"Death was sexy (and God, did she need therapy even for thinking something like that;she wasn't even Goth, for goodness' sake) and sort of nice when he wasn't being scary. But this woman, doing it with Death? That was just nasty.

~"Hunger" by Jackie Morse Kessler, Page 68

Umm yea so it's safe to say that this one is for older teens and us 20 somethings :-D

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Eternal Ones by Kristin Miller


Publication Date: August 24, 2010
ARC Source: Around the World Tours
Summary from Goodreads:

What if love refused to die?


Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.
In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.
 
My Two Cents:

Can you imagine what it would be like to love someone that you haven't met yet??

Ever since she was a little girl visions and fainting spells have plagued Haven. They stopped for a bit and came back as soon as she saw Iain on tv. She faints instantly and wonders if he could be the Ethan she's dreamed about from a little girl. Reincarnation is one of those things where if you don't believe in it, you think those that do believe in it are nuts. In Snope City, the idea of reincarnation was preposterous. The fainting spells and visions were seen as signs of the devil.

My favorite character was Beau, Haven's best friend. He was blunt, straight to the point and he cared for her so much. Everyone else's character was a bit wishy washy. One day they seemed helpful and trustworthy and then the next we find out they had an ulterior motive. This was definitely a thriller. My only complaint is that it could have been a bit shorter.

This was probably one of the strangest novels I've ever read. Sometimes I would forget that the voices were teens. It felt like a very adult book. I suppose that is because these were actually old fogies lol. What I do recommend before reading this book is to clear your mind of all expectations because most likely you'll be wrong. I couldn't have predicted the ending of this novel if I tried. This was such an unexpected good read. There are not many books on reincarnation but what really makes this book stand out is the way it's written. There's always a piece of the puzzle on every page. I didn't know who Haven should trust. There's so much flips and turns that if I were Haven I probably would've given up and taken my butt back to Snope City without answers lol.

Rating:

In My Mailbox (10)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren
 
 Trades/PBS:
~Geek High by Piper Banks
~Perfect Shot by Debbie Rigaud
~Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie
~Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
~Drama High: Culture Clash by L. Divine
~Deception by Lee Nichols
~Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev
~The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
~Gringolandia by Lynn Miller-Lachmann
~Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold
~Abundance of Katherines by John Green
~Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala
~Three Rivers Rising By Jame Richards
                                            For Review from Publishers:
 ~Dark Sons by Nikki Grimes
~The Agency:The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Yee
~Stork by Wendy Delsol
~Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
~A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes
~Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald
 
                                   Bought from Strand:
 ~The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez
~No and Me by Delphine De Vigan
~Addicted to Her by Jennifer Nichols
~Silver Sea by Julia Golding


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Teaser Tuesday (6)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly 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!
  • Share the title and author, too, so others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they want
Here's my Teaser:

"They were ready to kill, and she smelled their heightened state of anticipation. I won't die today, she thought, but I can't say the same for you.

~"The Pack" by LM Preston, Page ??


Side Note: Don't you hate when you accidentally take the marker out of the page where you found the quote?? Ugh... sorry!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Book Blogger Hop (6)

Book Blogger Hop is a new meme hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy For Books. This is a pretty fun way to discover new blogs and connect with more people. If you'd like to participate, visit Crazy For Books where she explains how it works.

If you found my blog through Book Blogger Hop, please leave a comment and let me know!Off to discover some new blogs..

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

Publication Date: August 26, 2010
ARC Source: Around the World Tours
Summary From Goodreads:

New girl Raye Archer is desperate for a way into the In crowd, so when ice-queen Ella Parker chooses her to get back at her ex, the gorgeous Julian Kilgarry, Raye is more than game. Even if it means creating a fake Facebook identity as “Elizabeth” so that she can learn enough about Julian to sabotage him. While a fun and dangerous thrill at first, what Raye hadn’t counted on was falling for Julian herself—and igniting Ella’s rage.

As Raye works to reconcile the temptress Elizabeth with her real-life self, Ella serves up her own revenge. Now it’s Raye who falls victim, as Ella creates an online smear campaign of nasty rumors and trashy photographs. Suddenly notorious, Raye has to find a way out of the web of deceit that she’s helped to build, and back to the relationships that matter.


Adele Griffin’s riveting novel explores the issues of generation Facebook: the desire to be someone else, real versus online friends, and the pitfalls and fallouts of posting your personal life online for all the world to judge.


My Two Cents:

What I did like: The cover. The wig, the gloves, everything about this cover is mysterious and pulls you in making you want to immediately crack open this book to find out why this wig was such a huge impact on Julian.

The beginning was just okay for me. The main character, Raye, was smart, always made straight A's and on scholarship at a prestigious all girls school. She had one best friend who was my favorite character of all. She was a nerd, and a little weird to most people. BUT she knew who she was, and was very comfortable with it. It was Raye who wanted more. She certainly got more than she bargained for when she let slip to the very popular Ella that she can be very vengeful. Just so happens...Ella was looking for revenge on her ex-boyfriend Julian. I felt sorry for Julian at first but then I realized that he was a complete jerk. The romance factor in this book fell pretty flat for me. It didn't make me believe it was real because it moved too quickly. There was no build up to the heavy kissing and groping. It just appeared on the next page. We all know I'm all for the sexy stuff but it should be eased into a bit to be believable.

The dialogue in this book really bugged me. I like to think of myself as pretty hip, but the slang the author used seemed a bit made up.  Words like "Looze", which I thought meant loser but apparently had a different definition. That made the characters seem a bit unreal.I just couldn't imagine real teenagers speaking like that.

Now about the huge revenge on Julian, it was not huge at all. In fact, it was a huge disappointment. I was expecting a lot more from this book based on the blurb on the back and the promising cover. When I got to the last page, I thought this ARC was possibly missing pages but it was not. I felt that it still had some unresolved issues. I really wanted to like this one, but between the characters, the dialogue, and the plot it just didn't work out for me.

Rating:

Sunday, June 6, 2010

In My Mailbox (9)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren
~The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter
~The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
~The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place:The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

~Betrayal by Gillian Shields (woohoo!!)
~Early to Death Early to Rise by Kim Harrison
~Girls Parts by John Cusick
~Prophecy of the Gate by Michele Zink
~The Pack by LM Preston
~Hotlanta: If You Only Knew by Denene Miller
~Hotlanta by Denene Miller

What Did You Get??

Friday, June 4, 2010

Win my ARC of Matched by Ally Condie!

So I was able to score an extra ARC of Matched by Ally Condie even though I already got one at BEA. So why not share?? Click Here to Enter. This contest ends July 1, 2010. It is open Internationally!!


Publication Date: November 30, 2010
Summary from Goodreads:

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic. 


Good Luck!! 

Book Blogger Hop (5)

Book Blogger Hop is a new meme hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy For Books. This is a pretty fun way to discover new blogs and connect with more people. If you'd like to participate, visit Crazy For Books where she explains how it works.

If you found my blog through Book Blogger Hop, please leave a comment and let me know!I'm off to do some hopping myself :)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

Publication Date: July 13, 2010
ARC Source: Around the World Tours
Summary from Goodreads:

His love captivated her... his secrets might kill her.
Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry.
After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all.
But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life.

My Two Cents:

Well let me just say that I love a small town with LOTS of secrets! That always provides a great plot. Then you mix in some very weird characters, some romance, a good amount of mystery, and Wahlaaa! We have a very good story on our hands. From the beginning we're pulled in to this diary Phe's sister has left with her dreams that Phe is now beginning to see. In the end, it all makes sense. The more Phe uncovers, the more danger she's in. Then again, who likes a main character that plays it safe?? There were alot of characters but they were all needed to bring different elements to the story.

Unfortunately for me, I figured out the "who" in the mystery pretty early, but this happens to me all the time.  Even in the midst of the weird townies the author still found time to squeeze in all that wonderful high school stuff we love. We love the crushes, the tension, the bonfires, the classic mean girl and the school dances. Crazy towns have these things too! This book was pretty thick, but every single page was filled with a piece of the puzzle. I wanted to know so bad at first what the heck was going on in this town but the author weaved a fantastic plot while the readers hangs on to every clue. Definitely pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.

Rating:

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday (12)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Rosebush by Michelle Jaffe

Publication Date: December 14, 2010

Why I'm So Antsy:

See Jane run. See Jane die.

Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit and run.

Everyone thinks it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface--not just from the party, but from deeper in her past...including the night her best friend Bonnie died.

With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she is forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.

Love the cover for this and lately I've been so into these thriller/mystery books. What are YOU waiting on?