Bout of Books 7.0 Read-a-thon

Hi guys!!
I thought it could be fun to join a read-a-thon. I'm a super-slow reader and I thought that a read-a-thon may motivate me to read more. :)

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 7.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

My Goals:

Time devoted to reading: I will be reading all week!

Bookish goals: I want to read more books than I usually do... That means about 5-7 books in this whole week. I also want to post something book-related every day on my blog.

Books to read:

I'm not sure if I can read all of them... but I will try!!

   

   

You can sign up for this read-a-thon HERE.

Sapir

Book Tour: The Space Between by Victoria H. Smith

 

 

The Space Between

Author: Victoria H. Smith
Series: Space 1#
Publication date: March 2nd 2013
Genre: NA contemporary romance
Tour arranged by AToMR Tours
Tour schedule HERE

 

When Drake started the night at his father’s campaign fundraiser, he never imagined he’d end it being conned into buying drugs on the West Side. Losing high-stakes poker has its consequences, but he’d repeatedly face them just to hear Lacey Douglas sing. Drake sees Lacey light up the stage, and he has to have her. But his intentions for being on her side of town turn out to be the reason he can’t.

 

Chicago native Lacey has dreams of the opera, but life has its obstacles. Lacey has come to know her hardships as part of living in the real world and accepts them fully. When Lacey meets the intense and invigorating Drake, a fire is lit inside her, unleashing those dreams again.

 

Two paths that should have never crossed prove to create the exact pairing the other needs. But when their worlds take time to catch up, everything they have is tested. Finding the space between the two sides that challenge them will be hard, but it’s the only place that will keep them together.

My Thoughts:

 

From the first time I saw it, I knew that I HAVE to read this book. I just love the cover (look at it! Isn't in gorgeous?!)  and I also really like romantic stories that are told from two POVs.

I had high expectations from this book and I wasn't disappointed.

 

When I started this book I had no idea where the plot will go... I tried to guess how Drake and Lacey will fall in love and I was totally wrong. I can't tell you how they meet, because it will spoil the beginning of the book for you, so I'll only say that it was really a big surprise!! I laughed soooo hard when I found out!! LOL

 

Talking about Drake and Lacey - the romance in this book was very intense and mature. I'm sure that many people will enjoy reading about it, but it was kind of inappropriate for my age... I had to skip entire parts because they were way too, well, naughty for me. I guess I'm just not the right audience for this book.

Even though, I still enjoyed reading about how Lacey changed Derek's way of life and how his love for her changed him. In the beginning of the book I just HATED Derek! He was such a jerk. I couldn't understand why Lacey was falling for him... But, as the book progressed, he became much less self-absorbed and started to think about other people around him. Overall, the character development in this book was very good. I could actually SEE the characters changing and growing up.

 

I enjoyed this book a lot!! It was a very quick read, perfect for hot summer days on the beach. I recommend it to NA and romance fans.


Giveaway by the author:
I'm NOT responsible for it.

 

Book Review: The Ward by Jordana Fraknel

The Ward by Jordana Frankel

Genre: YA dystopia
Publication date: April 30th
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: eARC was provided by the publisher. Thank you so much!!

Jordana Frankel’s thrilling and imaginative YA dystopian novel The Ward is set in a near-future New York City. A catastrophic flood has washed out Manhattan, leaving the rivers polluted, and entire neighborhoods underwater. Some areas are quarantined because of an outbreak of a deadly disease.

The illness, known as the Blight, is killing sixteen-year-old Ren’s sister. Desperate to save her sister’s life, Ren agrees to lead a secret mission from the government to search for a cure. But her quest leads to a confounding mystery beneath the water and an unlikely friendship with a passionate scientist.

Readers who love speculative fiction and crave action-packed stories similar to Veronica Roth’s Divergent will find The Ward absolutely unputdownable.

This book was very good and enjoyable but I had some major issues with it that I just can't ignore.

Well... Let's start with the good things. First of all, I think that Ren was a fantastic main character. She was exactly how I like female main characters to be - strong and kick-ass. She didn't need anyone to save her. The opposite - she saved everybody eventually...
Ren didn't have any friends who are girls. She was surrounded by guys all the time who kept underestimating her abilities. I think that she has managed to prove them once and for all that girls are just as strong and brave as guys are! I really adore her for that.

I also liked how she never gave up. Once she had a goal, she didn't let anything stop her from achieving it. In this book, Ren went on a journey against all odds to save the entire population. She faced many troubles but never even thought of giving up.

One more thing I just loved about this book was the extremely fast-paced plot. Things happened all the time - races, fights, hot kisses... I didn't have time to relax before the next thrill came!! There were many plot twists.. Some of them were predictable, but other were totally shocking. Especially right before the end of the book... This kind of books are always pure fun for me. I always like to read about how the MC manages to escape deadly situations... I literally held my breath the whole book.

The romantic part was quite awesome, too. This book wasn't very romantic, there were only short descriptions of feelings here and there, but it was exactly enough. Drake and Ren fell in love with each other very slowly, and with the plot twists, it took me a long time to decide whether they can make a good couple or not. Drake was very sweet and at the end he made a great sacrifice for Ren that totally broke my heart...

 

The biggest issue I had with this book was the lack of world-building. I wish I could know more about Ren's world. All I got to know was that she lives in New York City and that most of the city is flooded. People are sick with a deadly, contagious plague and are dying slowly. I wanted to know how it all started. Why was everything flooded? When? It also felt like the author has forgotten about the rest of the world. What is going on in the world outside New York City? Why doesn't anyone from the outside help them? So many details were missing.. This book would've been ten times better if the author would explain the apocalypse that happened.

Some parts of the book felt very unrealistic. For example, the people suffered from a lack of fresh water. They used acidic rain water and were searching all the time for new water resources. The weird thing is that they were living in a FLOODED world. That means lots of water... There are many ways to make sea water drinkable!! I mean - they live in the FUTURE. They have cars that can fly, but they can't desalinate water? It didn't make sense at all. There were more unrealistic things, but I really can't talk about them without spoiling the book..

During the book, Ren is trying to save Aven, her best friend who is sick with the Blight. At the prologue, Aven is described as an annoying child that Ren has no intention of becoming friends with. But when the plot starts three year later, Aven and Ren are suddenly BFFs, almost like sisters, and Ren is willing to do ANYTHING to help Aven. It really didn't make any sense to me. I felt like I didn't care enough about Aven, probably because the annoying-little-girl image of her from the beginning was stuck in my head. This book would be much more realistic if I could understand how and why they Ren and Aven became se connected and why Ren loved Aven so much.

Overall, I liked this book a lot and I highly recommend it to fans of Divergent and other action-packed dystopians. It isn't very deep or life-changing, but it is a lot of fun! I will definitely read the sequel!!

Stacking The Shelves + Reading Plans

Hi everybody!! This week was another great blogging week.

I wanted to say a big thank you to all of my readers. Every comment you make means a lot to me!! I really love being part of the blogging community! <3

So, to the books. :D

I've got quite a lot of eARCs this week:

   

Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland - I'm sooo excited to read this book! I LOVE summer romance books and I always wait for that time of the year (around May...) when they are being released. (Received for blog tour)

The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston - This book sounds AMAZING. I can't wait to start it.. It's been a long time since I read a thriller. I'm sure I will enjoy it. [: (Received for blog tour)

Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend by Louise Rozett - I've hard many good things about the first book and I am planning to read the two of them very soon (before April ends I hope..) Thanks Harlequin Teen!!

Fifteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton - Another summer read I am really looking forward to start!! I am planning to read it this week. Thanks you Simon Pulse! :)

How to be Almost Famous in Ten Days by Kathleen S Allen - I love the title!! I've received it for a book tour. I'm really looking forward to reading it. :D

eBooks I got for my (beloved) Kindle:

  

Confession of an Angry Girl by Leila Howland - Like I said before, I really want to read this series. (:

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - Recently I've read may great reviews of this one!! I've heard it's a tearjerker, and those are always my favorite.

The Edge of Never by J. A. Redmerski - First, I LOVE the cover. I've heard good things about this one and I also want to read it for the Out of The Box Reading Challenge.

My reading plans for the week: 

1. Finish reading The Ward

2. Read The Eternity Cure

3. Read Beautiful Disaster (what did you think about this one? Is it worth reading?)

What books did you get? What are you reading plans?

Please follow my blog via GFC or Bloglovin'!! Thank you <3<3

Leave your links in the comments and I'll check you out too.

Have a great bookish week!!

Sapir

Book Review: The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael

The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael

Genre: YA paranormal romance - vampires

Publication date: March 15th 2013

*Review copy was provided by the author is exchange for an honest review*

Goodreads || Amazon || B&N

Arianna Grace liked her boring, Midwestern, teenage life where she ignored the many unanswered questions of her childhood. Why were her parents dead? Why did she not have family? Where was she raised until she was five? When someone offers to explain it all, Arianna thinks she’s just getting answers. Instead, she is thrown into a world of night humans who drink blood.

On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she changes into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather. 

There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate.

WHOA. This book was so good and intriguing, but yet so different and bizarre that my mouth is still hanging open.. XD

Arianna, a typical teenager, finds out that she is a vampire, and not a typical vampire either. She is a both a purebred Baku and a purebred Dearg-dul - two different vampire species that don't get along with each other.

Apparently, Arianna is the most powerful night human alive and many people want her hurt. That's why she was surrounded her whole life by her PPU - a group of people that were assigned to protect her. Arianna finds out that everyone in her life, including her friends, knew about her being a vampire and never told her a word about it.

While Arianna is trying to get used to her life as a vampire and to discover her special abilities, she finds herself in the middle of an ancient war between the Dearg-dul and the Baku. Which side will she choose, if any? And how can she stay alive when so many people want her dead?

First of all, I have to say that the author had some really original ideas about vampires. In this book, vampires rarely need to kill for blood. Each vampire has a least one Keeper - a human or a night human who is fully controlled by the vampire and provides him with blood. The weird thing is that so many people wanted to be Arianna's Keepers!! That was more than a little twisted. Who wants to be a walking blood fridge?!?

Arianna was surrounded all the time by guys who were more than happy to let her drink their blood as much as she wanted, so she never had to hunt or anything.

Talking about guys - the romance in this book was my favorite part of the book! I know that many people dislike love triangles and I have to agree that recently there are way too much of them in YA books. But it this book, there wasn't a love triangle. There was something else, something I've never seen before - a love PENTAGON. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but think about it - 4 swoony guys in one book!! And they didn't even hate each other. They worked together to protect and help Arianna. I was so jealous :X
It's hard for me to decide which guy I liked best... I think it would be Turner. Turner understood exactly what bothered Arianna and always found a way to cheer her up and help her. He encouraged her to think for herself and to stop following orders all the time. It was really heartwarming to see how he loved her and  how he would give up anything for her. ♥

Arianna herself wasn't a very good character. She was quite passive and always let the guys around her fight for her. Well, I can't blame her... If I had 4 guys around my who were willing to do anything for me, I would have done the same! Arianna was the type of girl that follows orders. She didn't think enough for herself. There were parts when the guys put her to SLEEP while they were fighting. I was expecting Arianna to be much more kick-ass, but she wasn't... I hope she'll find more courage in the next books. XP

This book was very good and hooked me from the beginning. I will probably pick up the next book because I really want to know how the plot continues!!

Recommended to: people who like unique and different paranormal romance books.

Stacking The Shelves

 

 

Hi everybody!!

I haven't done Stacking The Shelves for about a month, so I have LOTS of new books to share with you!! :D

I just wanted to say that I've had a great blogging week. First, I have more than 10 new followers (!!). Thanks you so much!! Second, I've discovered Bloglovin. It is such a great site that provides a really convenient way to follow other blogs.

 

Ok, let's get to the books!!

(Click on the books for a link to Goodreads)

 

For Review:

 

    

   

 

 

Bought:

 

  

 

I've got many more books.. I just can't remember now! XP

 

What did you get this week?

 

Please follow my blog via GFC or Bloglovin (:

It means a lot to me. And I'm following back everyone, just ask me! :D

Top Ten Tuesday

Hi everybody!! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
Today's topic is:
Top Ten Book I Read Before I was a Blogger

This one is going to be super-easy because I became a blogger only 3 months ago..
I've always been an avid reader and a book lover, so these are my top 10 favorite book I've read before I started blogging.

         


What are YOUR top 10 books you read before you started blogging?
Please follow my blog!! I'm following back, just ask ^_^

Book Review: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Publication Date: March 26th 2013
Genre: YA realistic fiction

Goodreads | Amazon

There are some things you can’t leave behind… 

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

Wow. This book was so amazing. The best book I've read so far in 2013, that's for sure. I don't even know where to start, because everything about this book is just perfect.

14-year-old Carrie and her 6-year-old sister, Jenessa, live in a small camper hidden deep in a forest. Their mother tells them that they live there because she is trying to protect them from their father. She comes and goes, leaving them alone for weeks, so Carrie and Jenesa have to take care of themselves.
The story begins when one day, out-of-the-blue, their father shows up at the camper and takes them to his house, into a world of hot meals, electricity, clothes and school.
Can Carrie trust her father? Is he really the bad guy, like their mother says? Why did she hide them in the forest? Will they keep her when they found out the terrible thing she did in order to save her sister?

The book follows Carrie's struggles to become a normal girl again and to get over her past.
Carrie was such a great character. I wish I could meet her in real life!
Everything about her was very realistic, and since she was exactly my age, she very easy to relate to. It was really heartwarming to see how she cared for Jenessa - she would literally do ANYTHING to keep her safe and happy. She always thought about her sister first.
During the book, Carrie has to choose whether to believe the stories her mother told her since she was a baby that her father is dangerous, or to accept the fact that her father loves her and is trying to help her. It must be really hard to find out that everything you've ever known isn't true! I think Carrie has handled the whole change really well. She never freaked out and was overall very thankful toward her father and his family.
I also really liked reading about her first days ever of school. For the first time in her life, she had to deal with the popular kids and with boys, and when I say boys I mean Ryan - the love interest. I just loved Ryan. I can't tell you much about him because it will spoil the book, so I'll only say that he is my current bookish crush!! :D

At the last 10% of the book, Carrie has finally told about the horrible things that happened to her and Jenessa in the woods. Apparently, over the past 9 years these two girls suffered badly from hunger, loneliness and sexual abuse. It was really terrible to read about it. I think I will never be able to forget it... It really made me cry.

This book is so beautiful, and so unique and different in comparison to other YA books. I recommend it to people who are looking for an unforgettable, moving story about two brave, extraordinary girls.


Rating: