DNF Pile: "The Immortal Rules" Killed Me

DNF Pile


It is with a heavy heart and very red and tired eyes,
(tired from reading...not crying)
that I have finally thrown in the towel
and declared that though I have
tried...and tried...and tried
(I really DID TRY!  FOR DAYS)
There is NO WAY that I could EVER FINISH 
THIS
BOOK!


Title:  The Immortal Rules
Author:  Julie Kagawa
Format:  E-Galley
Length:  485 pages
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen
Time of Surrender:  Somewhere Around 80% Complete


This book has a wonderful premise which loses a lot in execution, leaving the reader with an amalgamation of the plots of Blade 2, 30 Days of Night, and Mad Max Under Thunder Dome. This is of course, accompanied by a seeming never ending stream of "happy coincidences" that work "oooh so perfectly" to assist our "little vampire lost" in whatever she is or is not trying to do.

Case in point.
Vampires can't travel during the day so she just happens to find a band of HUMANS to hang with WHO ONLY TRAVEL AT NIGHT!

PROBLEM SOLVED

This happens over and over and over!

Please do NOT take this to mean that I did not like anything about this book.  I liked closing it a whole lot.

I love you Julie.  Better luck next book! 

P.S.  The main character of this book is ASIAN not CAUCASIAN.  Get the pretty white girl off the cover!!
Allison Sekemoto in the book does not equal Allison Smith on the cover.

I refuse to rate this review on the grounds that it does enough to incriminate itself.






WTF's In My Mailbox #1



This is my version of the meme started by  The Story Siren
I hope that you enjoy!
Got quite the book haul this week and I just had to share my bookish happy dance!


Print Books
ARC's 


Title:  Ready Player One
Author:  Ernest Cline
Source:  Wunderkind PR 

Title:  Bloodman
Author:  Robert Pobi
Source:  Wunderkind PR

Title:  The Reckoning
Author:  Alma Katsu
Source:  Wunderkind PR

Title:  The Innocents
Author:  Francesca Segal
Source:  Hyperion Publishing


E-books
ARC's


Title:  Glitch
Author:  Heather Anastasiu
Source:  NetGalley

Title:  Unspoken
(The Lynburn Legacy #1)
Author:  Sarah Rees Brennan
Source:  NetGalley

Title:  Velveteen
Author:  Daniel Marks
Source:  NetGalley

Title:  Codename Verity
Author:  Elizabeth Wein
Source:  NetGalley


Library Finds
Kindle


Title:  Fire
(Seven Kingdoms Trilogy #2)
Author:  Kristin Cashore
Source:  Orange County Library Digital Collection

Title:  The Restorer
Author:  Amanda Stevens
Source:  Orange County Library Digital Collection

*Support Your Libraries
and 
They will support You* 

Reading "Purity" Is A Promise You'll Want To Keep

 Title:  Purity
Author:  Jackson Pearce
Format:  E-Galley
Length:  218 pages
Publisher:  Little Brown and Co.
Rating:  5 stars

Before her mother died, Shelby promised three things: to listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby's father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives -- in other words, no "bad behavior," no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex.

Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision -- to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.  -Goodreads


My Thoughts
This is a book that, while it does deliver on its promise of contemporary YA goodness, also leaves the reader with some pretty savory food for thought.
Purity is the story of a father and daughter set adrift on a sea of loss, miscommunication, and misunderstanding of themselves and each other, after the loss of the wife and mother that anchored them.

Let me be the first to say that though this book spends a great deal of its time on the topic of Shelby's "deflowering", and her aversion to the "purity ball";  I am fully confident that it was not the author's intention to glorify teen sex or disparage the message of the abstinence movement in any way.  These happenings within this read have more to do with being points of  "discovery" for Shelby; about her power to plot her own course to happiness and love rather than having those things dictated to her by the predefined parameters of a promise or expectation.

Thank you Jackson for writing a story full of truly "good guys".  It is so nice to see an exception to the "one prince per story rule."  The princes in this book: Shelby's dad, Jeffrey, and Jonas.  This book really explores the male/female relationship in three of its most important aspects.  The relationship that girls have with the men in their lives as: fathers (Shelby's dad), sexual partners (Jeffery), and friends/love interests (Jonas).  What this book does in true "girl power" fashion, is to show young women that they have the power to actively choose their role in these relationships and not simply let the male take the lead.

As the mother of three daughters, I will be the first to make this book required reading in my home.
It is my hope that this book will serve as a bridge between parents and the teens that we are trying so hard to love, guide, and UNDERSTAND.


Adult Memoir Review: You'll Definately Want to Share Your "Klonopin Lunch"

 Title:  Klonopin Lunch
Author:  Jessica Dorfman Jones
Format:  Kindle E-Galley
Length:  336 page
Publisher:  Crown Publishing Group
Expected Release Date:  July 17th, 2012
Rating:  4 stars
 
Gritty. Dirty. Hard-core. Transformative. Funny. This is the real Sex and the City.

By her late twenties, Jessica Dorfman Jones had dutifully achieved everything she thought she was supposed to: marriage, law degree, high-paying job, nice apartment in Greenwich Village. But she was miserable and felt like she was living a life that wasn't hers. Desperate to change her status quo and figure out who she really was, Jessica went about the business of making a change  by demolishing the life she knew. She threw her good-girl image aside and set out to unleash the very bad girl she had never before tried to be.

Embracing the deliciously debauched world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Jessica leaves behind her sweet and well-behaved husband for the ultimate bad-boy guitar player, starts her own band, and parties harder than she had ever thought possible. She starts a band, puts her job in jeopardy, and causes her friends and family no end of worry with her illicit behavior. And then, in the midst of her self-created chaos, the wildest thing of all happens. She figures out who she is, who she most definitely is not, and what might, if she's lucky, come next.

Klonopin Lunch is Jessica's wickedly funny and uncensored journey down the rabbit hole and back out again, into a life that, at last, makes her truly happy.
  -Goodreads


My Thoughts
This book is proof that you can't judge a book by its cover.  Even the glossiest jackets may have a few pages missing.   
Though the Sex, Drugs, and Rock N Roll chronicled within this drama will never reach the infamy needed to warrant VH1's probative attentions; this tale of one woman's search for herself in life's darker places is more than enough to hold any reader's attention for the 336 pages that it takes to tell her story.

The most intriguing thing about the book is not the story however.  The story in and of itself is one that has been told and retold through the ages.  Good girl + boredom + bad boy + issues + epiphany = Home was inside you all along Dorthy!  So click your heels already bitch, I'm missing "The Bad Girls Club"!

The thing that makes those pages keep turning is the author's ability to be side-splittingly hilarious at what most would consider to be very inappropriate moments.  Reading this book is like hanging out with your drunk aunt at the family reunion.  You want to leave, but you have to stay because you don't want to miss one Jerry Springeresque moment of a night that you know won't end well. 
This is a book that speaks to all of the elephants in the rooms of so many relationships.  Among these being:  the relationships that we have with a spouse or lover, the relationships that we have with family and friends, the relationships that we have with the world at large, and the relationships that we ultimately have with ourselves.
Whether you love her or hate her, you have to agree that the author's no holds barred honesty is a thing of unadorned beauty in a story about the ugly face of lies.

You'll Want Extra..."ExtraNormal"

 Title:   ExtraNormal
(ExtraNormal #1)
Author:  Suze Reese
Format:  Kindle Edition
Length:  253 pages
Publisher:  Valarian Press
Rating:  5 stars

Mira Johns is pretty much like any other teenage girl. Except that she knows how to harness electro-magnetic energy to communicate without words. And she’s really, really far from home. Her assignment as an emissary to Earth sounds fairly simple: blend in, observe, and stay away from the planet’s primitive males. But after she finds one mysterious boy too irresistible for stupid rules, she realizes the real reason she’s supposed to keep her distance: mates from her world can die if separated. But a series of serious accidents make it clear that someone wants to force her return. Mira decides her only hope is to uncover the truth to why she, the most mediocre of candidates, was actually chosen for this assignment—before the agency discovers her secret and sends her back home.

It is with great pleasure that this blog brings you a review of Suze Reese's "ExtraNormal".  
This is a book that is like no other that this reviewer has experienced.  
If you are looking for the usually YA fair of weres, vamps, zombies, and the like; you should probably stop reading here.  This is not the book for you.  Though the characters of this book are decidedly out of the ordinary, they are very much alive and definitely not "extra-furry".

The New Girl
As if being the "new girl" at school is not bad enough, try being the new girl on the planet.  This is the predicament in which our reluctant heroine Mira Johns finds herself.  Though she comes equipt with some very cool powers; she still has to deal with the very human issues of love, an assault, the responsibilities of 
her job as an operative for her home world, her loyalty to her parents, and the hierarchy of the high school social strata.
At the start of the story, Mira is very detached from her surroundings.  She is overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and most interestingly the smells of the people around her.  Her speech is very clinical and matter of fact as she refers to boys as "males" and people as "humans".  This is such a welcome change from the books in which the special beings come to our meager planet already fully ready to assimilate our speech patterns and culture as easily as they would slide into a pair of new jeans.  A major part of Mira's likeability comes form the fact that she, along with her long-distance gal pal Geary, have to "grow into" Neoearth and all of its primitive quaintness. 

Jesse
He is the "perfect" guy.  At least he's perfect for Mira.  He's so perfect that she begins to fall for him on the first page of the book.  In the interest of time and blog space; all mention of his swoon worthy actions will be summed up thusly.        
He saves the princess too many times to count, is a completely gentleman, and is willing to do anything for the love of his lady!
Oh yeah, he's cover model gorgeous and has a rep for being mental institution CRAZY!
OK so perfect is a relative term!

The Baddies
There are quite a few.  This is where the story really starts to get interesting and where this blogger clams up. Let's just say that there is a certain sleazeball that is a little more than meets the eye and that his apple didn't fall too far from the sleazeball tree. (Cue mysterious music here.)

Parents In YA...WTF???
Yes, people Mira has parents!  In fact, she and everyone in the book have them.  It comes as a pleasant surprise that the mates of her world can not stand to be parted for long periods of time because their pair bond is so strong.  Mira's parents although busy, make an effort to put her first and be there for her whenever possible.  This is not to say that they get things right all the time, but they do try.  Oh, and try not to get on the bad side of Mira's mom.  She has guns!  LOL!

In Short
If you want a read that will touch your heart mind and funny bone all at the same time; this is the read for you
It is so well written that and the story so fleshed out that it can stand alone as a singular story.  Thanks be to Suze Reese and all of her muses that this is just the first book in a fabulous journey to worlds unknown.

Watch What You Read #2


Welcome to 
"Watch What You Read"

This is a way for all of you visual people out there
to find out what's going on here
at

Bewitching Book Tours Presents: Vaempires Revolution


 Title:  Vaempires Revolution
Author:  Thomas Winship
Format:  E-Book
Length:  214 pages
Publisher:  Create Space
Rating:  4 stars
 
It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. Everyone’s attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the nation’s capital to celebrate the momentous event.

Cassandra’s boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He’s still outside the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Væmpires—former vampires who mutated into warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold blood—have launched coordinated attacks across the globe, with three goals: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and the ascension of væmpires as the dominant species on the planet.

The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, væmpires unleash their secret weapons—væmpires with special powers.

What can four teens do against an enemy that can shape-shift, fly, or walk through walls?



My Review
This new and exciting take on "vampiric fiction" is a breath of fresh air for those of us who like a little bite in our read.
It appears that the "living dead" get to be the good guys in this book.  
That's right!
There are bigger, badder, faster, stronger Vaempire, and they are sooo bad.

The action in this book starts from the opening pages and because of that, it takes a moment to fully understand who is who.  When you do get it,and you will.  It's off to the blood baths. LOL!!
You don't want to cheer for the baddies, but they are just so cool.  
As if the takeover plot, fight scenes, and kick-ass vamp mutants are not enough; there is also the romance between Cassandra and Daniel.  Readers will be happy to see that the romantic aspect of this story is neither center stage, nor overshadowed by all of the other action taking place.  If anything, the tenderness of their moments help to buffer the beat-downs.
Just when you think that things can't get any better...there is a cliffhanger ending that you will have to read to believe.

This review is to you in cooperation with

Just Sittin' Here...Waitin' On Wednesday #15

This wonderful meme is based on the one started by Breaking the Spine
Today's post is really special to me because I get to post the third book in a series
that I LOVE!
Look out Audible!!
I'm coming for this on the audio BABY!

 Title:  Flora's Fury
Author: Ysabeau S. Wilce
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 
Expected Publication Date:  May 8th, 2012

Flora's Fury: How a Girl of Spirit and a Red Dog Confounded Their Friends, Astounded Their Enemies, and Learned the Importance of Packing Light

Despite her troublesome attraction to magick, Flora Fyrdraaca has — more or less — spent her life doing what's been expected of her. Yet now, at sixteen, she knows that this path has been strewn with secrets. Secrets have kept her from following her passion of becoming a ranger, of perfecting her use of magick, of proclaiming her hidden identity. But Flora has had enough of living with lies.
Convinced that her true mother, Tiny Doom — long believed to have been killed by the evil Birdies — is alive, Flora becomes determined to find her. Doing so will allow Flora to leave behind the lies her false mother, Buck Fyrdraaca, has told her about who she is. She can shake off the slavish drudgery of being a lowly lieutenant in the Army of Califa. And she need never again speak to her former best friend (and recent love) Udo — he's become a total snapperhead. Instead, Flora and her red dog, Flynn, are thrown into a journey that takes them to the high seas, onto lawless islands, and into the deadly desert. It's an adventure filled with pirate battles, magickal encounters, and an unexpected romance with a brooding stranger who reveals himself to be a kindred spirit. And it all becomes far more dangerous when Flora realizes how desperately the Birdies want Tiny Doom — and Flora herself — dead.  
-Goodreads


Teaser Tuesday #6...You Know You Want It!!


Welcome to my version of 
Teaser Tuesday
a
weekly
Meme
hosted 
by
Miz. B
@
Should Be Reading
 My Teaser
"No, seriously.  You think you're going to change into a cougar?  
Maybe in thirty years you'll start thinking college boys are kinda hot,
but that's the only sort of cougar you can turn into, Maya."

38% Kindle Ed. The Calling
Kelley Armstrong

   

"Above World" Is A Book Like No Other

Title:  Above World
(Above World #1) 
Author:  Jenn Reese
Format:  E-Galley
Length:  368 pages
Publisher:  Candlewick Press
Rating:  5 Stars
Thirteen-year-old Aluna has lived her entire life under the ocean with the Coral Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides. But after centuries spent hidden from the Above World, her colony’s survival is in doubt. The Kampii’s breathing necklaces are failing, but the elders are unwilling to venture above water to seek answers. Only headstrong Aluna and her friend Hoku are stubborn and bold enough to face the terrors of land to search for way to save their people.

But can Aluna’s warrior spirit and Hoku’s tech-savvy keep them safe? Set in a world where overcrowding has led humans to adapt—growing tails to live under the ocean or wings to live on mountains—here is a ride through a future where greed and cruelty have gone unchecked, but the loyalty of friends remains true.  -Goodreads
My Review
This is an wonderful mid-grade book that will appeal to all ages across the board.  The worlds that are built both under the sea, and above are detailed and unique, and the diversity of fabled characters: mers, harpies, and centaurs will enchant and enthrall. 
Aluna makes the perfect champion with her quick wit and tenacious spirit.  With the mechanically inclined Hoku at her side and the goal of saving her home and its people; she is a force to be reckoned with.
The book gets better and better as the story progresses.  There are fights, kidnappings, friendships, and mysteries.
Though this book is bursting at the seams with wondrous landscapes and fantastic creatures, the most interesting by far have to be the mechanically enhanced.  They are sure to capture the attention and imagination of girls and boys alike.
The "good triumphs over evil" and  "there is no I in team"messages of this book shine through without taking on the preachy tone that is common to books written for younger readers.
This book is one that I highly recommend that parents and children read together.  It is truly an experience meant to be shared.


What's Your Status...Can You Tell Me? #6

Zakiya from Butterfly Feet Walking on Life has a fantastic meme. In this meme you post your status of the books your reading this week, books you finished this week, books you're going to read next, and books you plan on buying this week. You can also post what reviews and memes you participated in for the week.

Finished Titles

 Title:  The Selection
(The Selection #1)
Author:  Kiera Cass

Title:  Tomorrow Land
Author:  Mari Mancusi
Best of 2012 List Pick

Title:  The Gathering
Author:  Kelley Armstrong
Currently Reading
Title:  The Calling
Author:  Kelley Armstrong
8% Complete
Title:  The Immortal Rules
Author:  Julie Kagawa
80% Complete


In My Mailbox #6

In My Mailbox is a lovely MEME
from the coolest blog on the planet!
Here we go...

ARC's


Title:  The Selection
(The Selection #1)
Author Kiera Cass
Source: E-Galley

Title:  Arise
(Hereafter #2)
Author:  Tara Hudson
Source E-Galley

Title:  Klonopin Lunch: A Memior
Author:  Jessica Dorfman Jones
Source:  E-Galley

Mechanique:  A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti
Author:  Genevieve
Source:  NetGalley

Title:  Shadow of a Dead Star
Author:  Michael Shean
Source:  NetGalley
 

Title:  Tomorrow Land
Author:  Mari Mancusi
Source:  NetGalley

*This is not the end of the list,
my fingers got tired!*
This is an ARC ONLY POST.


My Heart Will Always Pick "The Selection"


Title:  The Selection
(The Selection #1)
Author:  Keira Cass
Format:  E-Galley
Length:  381 pages
Publisher:  Harper Teen
Rating: 4 stars

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
-Goodreads

Just Let Me Look At You
At it's heart The Selection is contemporary YA with distopian elements.  Although it is easy to see why, given  similarities to a certain wildly popular series that shall not be named here, snap judgements and misplaced labels abound in relation to this utterly enchanting read.

Ms. Cass does a superb job of spotlighting the LOVE story that is America and Aspen.  The more that readers come to know about the two ill-fated hearts; the clearer it becomes that this story is one dependent on its distopian back-drop for success.  If anything...the caste system, reorganization of society, and seeming insurmountably of their circumstance is a universal premise that transcends the bonds of genre.
   
America The Beautiful
America is a girl that you can't help loving.  She is honest, knows what she wants, strong willed, loyal, and intelligent.  She is literally "the girl next door".  The thing that makes America the one to watch in this story however, is her unpredictability.  You are never quite sure what she is going to do or say from one moment to the next: you're just sure that you want to be front and center when it happens.

 I Didn't Fall I Was Pushed!
America has a knack it seems, for ending up in precarious positions.  First, through her relationship with Aspen; and then with her "do it for the family" guilt induced entry into the lottery to 'win' Prince Maxon.
Let the games begin!
It seems that our "don't call me dear" America has walked...or been pushed out of the of the fire and on to "The Bachelor".  Despite the fact that she is shipped off to the castle under protest, this is truly where America's true nature shines to its fullest extent  and readers are allowed the treat of seeing her really come into her own.

The Prince Or The Pauper?
Though that appears to have an easy answer in theory, in America's life, the answer is anything but.
You see though Maxon has the castle, Aspen rules her heart.  Or does he??
Is it possible that Cinderella (um I mean America) could get the prince?
Does he even want her?
Does she want him?
Where the hell is Aspen?

WANT ANSWERS???
READ THE BOOK!
I DID!

Happy Endings
I must admit that I literally BEGGED the publisher for the ARC that I received, and I am so glad that I did.  I devoured this book within hours and couldn't put it down.
I feel that I would be remiss in my duties as a reviewer if I did not make my views on certain comparisons between this book and afore mentioned one clear.
Though there are admitted points at which the two parallel...NO ONE IS FIGHTING HUNGRY IN THIS BOOK...and the only thing our heroine is shooting off in this story is HER MOUTH. 
Ms Cass has managed to  put a refreshing spin on the "love or duty" dynamic and has taken the LOVE STORY to a new and wonderful place.  Can't wait to beg for book 2.