Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Musing Mondays #6: It Just Happens Sometimes (February 26th)


Musing Monday #4


Musing Monday is a weekly conversation thing hosted by Should Be Reading where you talk about one of three prompts. I also decided that I would do a cool vlog thing!! It was really fun to film (I usually prefer scripts though). 
Enjoy!

"Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren't) enjoying it."

It Just Happens Sometimes (February 26th)



In which I admit that I don't like the book I'm reading...the one that was given to me......

-M

Check out the Musing Monday playlist here!





Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Review: Brightest Kind of Darkness (Brightest Kind of Darkness #1) by PT Michelle

Brightest Kind of Darkness (#1) by PT Michelle


"Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift 
to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to 
see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being 
injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another 
disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to 
understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible 
connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his 
dark past."


Thoughts:


I just couldn't figure it out.....finally!....

I got this book through Amazon with a Christmas gift card, but you didn't see it in my Christmas video because I didn't get the books until later. I got this book because Reader's Live a Thousand Lives loved it (and we tend to have similar tastes), and the book's synopsis looked pretty interesting and original. I was impressed with the overall plot and the "darkness" of the events and characters.

Nara was a really great character to read. Usually authors have a hard time balancing the vulnerability of characters and stubbornness or strong will of them. It was really awesome to read a character who was feisty but not irrational or too weak. Nara was easily relatable and was just a "normal" teenager and not whiny or annoyingly popular. She was compelling and the way Michelle wrote her dreams and interactions with others were beautiful. The side-characters also felt like they were important to the story (with the whole fate coming after them), but didn't replace the part of the main character. The author was able to balance the importance of Nara and Ethan with the other characters so it didn't feel like there was too much stuff going on at once.

This book wasn't filled with action per say, but there was definitely a lot of suspense and had a lot of curve balls. I'm usually able to predict what the whole plot for the story is with the amount of  foreshadowing and "cryptic" stuff people say, but this book had me guessing at every chapter.  It wasn't that I didn't know what was going on, but PT Michelle did a great job keeping everything equally mysterious. The book was very addictive and I enjoyed the originality of the Fate and changing it, idea. It was very fascinating to me and makes me want to pick up the next one right now

The overall writing was smooth and easy to follow. The book could have been smaller or larger, but I think that any other size would have been either not explored the ideas enough or been too much. The romance was a great addition to the book, and was very lovely, but very emotional. The whole book was a roller coaster of awesomeness. So excited to read the next one!!!

4 out of 5 stars

-M

P.S. I really liked "Midnight City" by M83 for this book. Don't know why...

View the book's Goodreads here.


Monday, February 18, 2013

Musing Mondays #5: Rage Face (February 18th)



Musing Monday #5

(Due to technical difficulties, the usual vlog format is postponed until next week.)

Musing Monday is a weekly conversation thing hosted by Should Be Reading where you talk about one of three prompts. I also decided that I would do a cool vlog thing!! It was really fun to film (I usually prefer scripts though). 
Enjoy!

"Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren't) enjoying it."


Rage Face (February 18th)


I have a habit of getting really emotional when bad things happen in books, characters mess up, etc. I'm sure fangirls (me alike) are familiar with this phenomena. When a book is written well I get very attached to characters and get, well, just really emotional. Usually I want to (if a bad situation) throw the book across the room, only to realize that I'm reading on a Nook or computer. I am usually able to keep it on the down-low so that people's ears won't bleed (I don't really want them to think I'm crazy). That's in public though....

Anyways that's one of my reading habits, hope you enjoyed!


(Luckily I had this footage saved on YouTube editor!)

-M

Check out the Musing Monday playlist here!


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Review: HOAX by Lila Felix

HOAX by Lila Felix

(this book was given to me by the author for an honest review)

"She's spent a long time in a bubble. In an odd turn of events, Corinne is taken out of boarding school and plunged into high school where bullies reign and nice guys come in last. 

But this is after she's already fallen in love with Abel over the summer.

Abel is trapped, with friends he secretly hates, but has chosen to stay with the status quo. It's just high school, right? 

What do you do when the person you love sees the very worst part of you? And how do you help them when they discover their life is a hoax?"

Thoughts:


Short book equals short review……

HOAX is the fourth (well, fifth) book by Lila Felix I've read. Her beautiful characters and addictive stories have enraptured me from the first page of every book I've read by her, and HOAX was no exception. The emotional roller coasters she is able to create is awesome, and the characters glue you to your seat with their raw emotion and their brilliant love. HOAX was a quick, but fulfilling read that is perfect for Valentine’s Day.

As short as the novel is I didn't feel like I was lacking anything from the story or that it wasn't complete. Corrine is a great lead female character. She was independent, strong, and also caring. Throughout the book she has to get over many obstacles that turn her life upside down, but she is able to overcome them and grow as a person. Along with Corrine, Abel was a very interesting character to read because of the ongoing inner conflict. He was incredibly caring and protective of Corinne, but also is conflicted about his friends being jerk faces, but still “friends”. I loved how (especially in the end) the two main characters clashed a lot when it came to the bullying and how stubborn they both were. They had to work it out in the end and I really loved that about this book.

The story was fast paced and overall a really great, quick, Valentine’s Day read. I tried to guess the ending, but Lila Felix somehow always finds a way to surprise me in the sequence, emotions, and eventually outcomes of her books. That’s what I really love about Felix’s books. No matter how I thought they would turn out there’s always that curve ball that throws everything on its axis! Lila Felix is truly a great author and should continue to write breathtaking and wonderfully romantic novels.

5 out of 5 stars

-M

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! <3

Find HOAX here.






Monday, February 11, 2013

Musing Monday #4: Fare Thee Well, Felix (February 11th)


Musing Monday #4


Musing Monday is a weekly conversation thing hosted by Should Be Reading where you talk about one of three prompts. I also decided that I would do a cool vlog thing!! It was really fun to film (I usually prefer scripts though). 
Enjoy!

"Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren't) enjoying it."

Fare Thee Well, Felix (February 11th)



In which I talk about Lila Felix's "last" book, HOAX....

-M

P.S. HOW IT ROLLS IS LIVE!!!! Get it here or add it to your TBR list on Goodreads!

Check out the Musing Monday playlist here!



Sunday, February 10, 2013

Review: Defiance (Defiance #1) by C.J. Redwine

Defiance (Defiance #1) by C.J. Redwine


"Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city's brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father's apprentice, Logan--the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same one who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but a fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city's top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor's impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can't be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making."


Thoughts:


I started off liking it.....

When I saw Defiance on Goodreads I knew I had to get it. I mean, this genre is my cup of tea. The overview looked really awesome with a kick-ass main character and post-apocalyptic vibe. I started off reading it and I thought it was pretty interesting. But by the end of this dry, long, and confusing book, I couldn't wait to put it down. I'm really sad to say that it didn't come to par with my expectations that I forged when I read the overview and the first chapter of the book.

One of the three main problems I had with this book was the time period and setting. At the beginning I was like "this must be medieval-post-apocalyptic type book with the clothing and architecture", but as the book went on it became less clear what it was because of all the technology they had. The author does explain some sort of disaster from the Cursed One, but there's no indication that their society was any different. Just the whole setting and time period descriptions were weird and not well put together. 

The second problem I had with this book was the WHOLE plot. In the beginning, the whole adventure is started off when Rachel tries to escape after she has a meltdown when she doesn't get her way. She gets caught, and she makes a deal with the Commander that she will retrieve what her father (who was announced dead) had left behind, and she was convinced that he was alive. Now, I would understand if the whole plot was her finding her father and then rising above the Commander to give justice, but no. Magically she realizes "OH. WAIT. There was a package!!!". She admitted to the reader that it was a lie, and then the whole rest of the book, she decided the package was real! What the heck?

As Rachel and Logan wait and prepare to escape and find her father before the Commander does, they are faced with challenges. The Commander kills people, Rachel gets upset again, and the Claiming Ceremony ends in disaster. All of these events had no meaning other than to prolong the book. After the 3rd chapter it was becoming a total drag to read. None of the events felt like they had a purpose, even when Logan gets separated from Rachel and she has to leave by herself.

While Rachel and Melkin (hired by the Commander to kill her) head towards her father's safe house where the package is supposedly hidden, they encounter many problems that I won't go into detail about because of how incredibly boring and meaningless they were. Logan; who is in prison, makes some revelations and eventually escapes. As he is looking for Rachel he encounters the other province's army and kills the spy that's following Rachel. That side plot about the other province? Yeah, goes abso-freakin-lutely nowhere. Wow. Anyways, Logan and Rachel admit that they love each other on the way back to their province, and by this point I really don't care about any of the characters, so I didn't feel like it was a turning point for either of the characters.

The third and last thing I don't like about this book are the characters. Rachel was okay for the first couple of chapters. She seemed confident, stubborn in a good way, strong, and independent.  I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a heroine than in Defiance. She started getting to be a pompous ass and way to stuck in her self-importance to get past her grief and help others like she was supposedly trying to do. She got so caught up in mourning people's deaths that it made her irrational and her crude attitude pissed me off. I kind of liked Logan through out the book, but there was nothing that made him stand out over anyone else. The pair was bland and I felt it lacked the passion or like, any emotion. Rachel was so caught up in her own grief that it made me question if she was actually strong. She thought of suicide for Christ's sake! What's less of a noble, heroic act?! The dual POVs were impossible to distinguish between except for the pronouns, and either of them seemed to have any voice. I actually got confused in the second chapter as to who was speaking!

There were only two redeeming qualities to this book. One: the writing. The writing wasn't actually too bad. Other than the book flaw, it had nice flow and wasn't clogged with useless details  Two: the 1st chapter. The first chapter was intriguing and made me want to know more about the culture.... we all know how that worked out. Overall, I was really disappointed in the book and I wish it were different. 

2.5 out of 5 stars

-M

P.S. First on-blog rant! Pretty happy with it.

*sigh* Ughhh here.








Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Review: Love & Skate by Lila Felix

Love & Skate by Lila Felix

(This book was given to me by the author for an honest review.)


"On the rink she’s tough, she’s a leader, she’s fast and she’s the epitome of a rebellious girl. But Nellie’s been hurt, only once, but it was enough to make her look at life through different eyes and off the rink she’s a timid girl who loves with no pretenses.A long time ago Owen Black was betrayed by the girl he thought he loved and the guy he called his best friend. The anguish set off a domino effect of negativity in his life and he never has fully recovered. He meets Nellie Forrester and thinks he can let it go for her. But how can you love someone when the wounds from your past are still wide open?"


Thoughts:


Lila Felix's books are like cotton candy for a 5 year old....

Asdfjkl, Lila Felix they just keep getting better and better! Even after reading some of her books basically in a row, all three of them have still got me hooked on her addictive writing. Her ability to snatch the reader's attention makes it the perfect "read the book with a nice cup of tea and a rainy day". I would say she has written some of the best quick reads, but thought provoking books I've ever read. She intelligently and expertly weaves humor, romance, deep, and emotional roller coasters that are darn near genius. I love how the main characters always have to get over some personal hurtle, and I don't think it is as prominent in Love & Skate than any other book (Past wise. I think all her books are unique in their own way.)

Nellie is the main-main character in Love & Skate. She has a lot more spunk than any of the other characters in Felix's books, and I loved it. She was so cool with her hair and the fact that she played Roller Derby. She; surprisingly, was mostly above the ridicule of her mother and past (I mean, there are exceptions, but mostly).  In my opinion, she was not so much as sweet as Owen saw her, but more caring and charismatic. She was dedicated and like a stone wall when it came to her relationships with the Black family, link a...fluffy concrete wall (in a great way of course).

I must address something that I need to tell all of you about Owen Black. He grows on you. Literally. I don't think the character got to the actual size as described in the book until like the last chapter. Anyway, as well as Nellie, Owen has a hurt past. I liked Owen's mental war that made him almost paranoid to the point where he had a breakdown. I loved the protectiveness he had for Nellie, and how much he respected her. I am going to say something really absurd, and fans of this book everywhere will eternally hate me. I. DON'T. BLAME. OWEN. For some reason I just wasn't mad at him for what he said. I don't know why, I was just calm and collected through the whole ordeal. I actually got mad at Nellie for seeming to overreact. Overall, I really loved Owen. 

The pace of the novel felt a little slow at some times, and in hindsight I've noticed that with Perchance as well. The plot felt a little bit too similar to Perchance too. The double POVs were definitely similar, but it was more how they met and how the sequence of the plot played out. I honestly liked Love & Skate a bit better because of the characters, for some reason. With school really getting in the way of them interacting on a daily basis it seemed a bit more real. I was frankly disappointed there wasn't a epilogue though... 

Great work Lila Felix. I solute your craft and point everyone your way whenever they suggest an awesome, meaningful, quick read that takes you on a wonderful emotional roller coaster!

5 out of 5 stars

-M

P.S. Finishing Defiance then on to Hoax.....very excited for some more Lila Felix!

Ahhh, good ole' Goodreads. View Love & Skate here.





Monday, February 4, 2013

Assorted Insanity

Assorted Insanity: Cool Stuff


I was hanging out on Goodreads and one of my friends liked a review for a book. It was a review for something I had previously thought about reading so I started scrolling down and found a vlog review for the book. Oceana Fern just so happened to hate the book, but I think that's what immediately intrigued me about her. She mentioned she started a blog with a friend. Like a bad stalker that I am, I ignored the link to the blog. Though, I did decided to subscribe to Oceana on Youtube and added her as a friend on Goodreads. 

Her blog is currently holding a giveaway for a signed copy of If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I entered and decided to check out some of their reviews because I'm not that selfish. WOW, you need to go read them and subscribe like, now. Their reviews are descriptive, honest, and just over all entertaining!

Check out the blog here.

Visit Oceana Fern's Youtube here

Follow Oceana and Assorted Insanity on Twitter

-M

P.S. Seriously though, go watch and visit!

The video I watched:




Musing Monday #3: Things, O' So Many Things

Musing Monday #3


Musing Monday is a weekly conversation thing hosted by Should Be Reading where you talk about one of three prompts. I also decided that I would do a cool vlog thing!! It was really fun to film (I usually prefer scripts though). 
Enjoy!


"Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren't) enjoying it."

Things, O' So Many Things (February 4th)



In which I explain, and what I'll be reading.......

-M

P.S. It may be kinda sucky, it'll be better next week!!

Check out the Musing Monday playlist here!