YALLFEST 2013!

DUDES!! Yallfest 2013 has an official author list and It.IS. EPIC!! OMG.

For those of you who don't know, Yallfest is a Young Adult book festival held in Charleston, South Carolina one day in the fall. They have author signings and panels and it's great fun!  I went last year and got books signed by Stephanie Perkins, Jenny Han, Carrie Ryan, David Levithan and Simone Elkeles just to name a few! This year YALLFEST will be on Saturday, November 9th and I. CAN'T WAIT!!   It's so worth going!  It was actually my very first bookish event ever and it was perfect.  You can read my recap post from last year HERE if you want :) It's a 6ish hour drive from me, but I plan on going at least the day before and then staying until the following Monday to enjoy GORGEOUS Charleston!  It's such a sweet city! ANYWAYS, The AUTHORS!!

Here's the current list, which may change a bit. More authors may be added. The TOP THREE authors I'm MOST STOKED about are Leigh Bardugo, Veronica Roth, and VERONICA ROSSI!!   Veronica Roth is one of the keynote speakers this year.
Shew. So much awesomeness in one place.

Leigh Bardugo – The Grisha Trilogy
Pseudonymous Bosch – The Secret Series
Alexandra Bracken – The Darkest Minds
Libba Bray – The Diviners
Heather Brewer – The Slayer Chronicles
Rae Carson – Fire and Thorns Trilogy
Cinda Chima – The Heir Chronicles
Matthew Cody – Super
Rachel Cohn – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Ally Condie – Matched Trilogy
Jocelyn Davies - A Beautiful Dark
Melissa De La Cruz – Blue Bloods Series
Daniel Ehrenhaft – The Last Dog on Earth
Tim Federle – Better Nate Than Never
Gayle Forman – If I Stay
Kami Garcia – The Beautiful Creatures Series
Adam Gidwitz – A Tale Dark and Grim
David Macinnis Gill – Sun Series
Lev Grossman – The Magicians
Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
Lisi Harrison – The Clique Series
Aaron Hartzler – Rapture Practice
Nancy Holder – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Ellen Hopkins – Crank Series
Mike Johnston – Frozen
Bill Konigsberg – Out of the Pocket
David Levithan – The Lover’s Dictionary
C.Alexander London – Semper Fido
Tahereh Mafi - Shatter Me
Myra McEntire – Hourglass Series
Lisa McMann -Wake Series
Lauren Oliver – Delirium Series
Alyson Noel - The Immortal Series
Stephanie Perkins – Anna and the French Kiss
Aprilynne Pike – Wings Series
Kathy Reichs – The Virals Series
Brendan Reichs -The Virals Series
Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Veronica Rossi – Under the Never Sky
Veronica Roth – Divergent Series
Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Victoria Schwab - The Near Witch
Natalie Standiford - How to Say Goodbye in Robot
Margaret Stohl – The Beautiful Creatures Series
John Thompson – Salem Witch Trilogy

If you want to read more about this awesome bookfest here are some links:
Author List
YALLFEST

Anybody out there planning on going this year? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Covers!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Who doesn't love a gorgeous book cover? NOBODY that's who. Sometimes I want to buy books solely because of the covers...but that would be crazy....yeah...crazy..

This week's topic is:

 

Top Ten(ish) Favorite Book Covers Of Books I've Read

(I'm going to keep my list to 10(ish)......but this is only a fraction of my favorites and they're in no particular order! ALSO,  just because I love the cover doesn't necessarily mean I love the book)

 

 

 

 

 

blahbedeeblahblahblah

If you actually read my blog you will have noticed my lack of posting. Life's getting to me. I haven't felt like doing much of anything, including blogging.   I have been reading though!   I hope to be back with more regular posting next week. I'm taking this week off.

On a bookish note, I read Dark Triumph earlier in the week and IT.WAS.AMAZING. It's the second book in His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers. I enjoyed the first book, Grave Mercy, but I freaking LOVED Dark Triumph! Def recommended!

I'm currently reading an adult book, One Day by David Nicholls. It took me a couple chapters to get in to it, probably because I've been reading so much YA I've forgotten how to think like an adult. It's really good so far!

On a TV note..I have been watching Season 3 of Game of Thrones and IT.IS.FRIGGIN.INSANE!!!!!  If you're watching it, you KNOW what I'm talking about. SO GOOD. It's DEF my favorite TV show at the moment. It's epic. It makes me really want to tackle the beasts that are the books.

Well. Until next week!

Top Ten Tuesday: Light and Fun!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic:

Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light & Fun
My definition of light & fun is that the book doesn't require a lot of deep thought or deducement (yes I made that word up). Even though it may be emotional and have some heavy themes in it, overall it's cute, funny, has lovable characters and is easy to get through. All the books I've listed I love.
 

1. The Princess Diaries series (Meg Cabot)

 

2. Anna and the French Kiss (Stephanie Perkins)

 

3. Lola and the Boy Next Door (Stephanie Perkins)

 

4. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour (Morgan Matson)


5. Stephanie Plum series (Janet Evanovich)



6. The Truth About Forever (Sarah Dessen)


7. The Book of Awesome (Neil Pasricha)


8. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series (#1-3) (Ann Brashares) - The 4th and final book in the series is NOT fun. It crosses into crush your heart into a billion smithereens territory.


9. Summer series (Jenny Han)


10. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Rick Riordan)


I can't wait to see what books other people chose!
Leave your link and I'll check it out :)

My Thoughts: Firelight Trilogy (Sophie Jordan)





My Thoughts:
OMG.   So the very first time I read Firelight, which was SEVERAL years ago, I gave it 5 stars. I apparently loved it. I re-read it last week so I could complete the series, and I gave it 3.5 stars. Obviously I'm in a different place now.. haha.

I was SOO disappointed with the rest of the series.  The main character, Jacinda, got on my freaking nerves! She became super annoying! Her sister Tamra was way more interesting, as was Cassian. This was a case of a love triangle gone totally WRONG. The romance severely detracted from the story and I couldn't wait for the series to end. The only reason I finished it was because, silly me, I bought the last 2 books. 

This series had the potential to be amazing. I loved the Draki lore,. Those few parts I found to be very interesting, but unfortunately this wasn't enough to sustain the story.   I found the main character Jacinda to be a very weak character and that's something I just am not down with. I found the supporting characters to be much more interesting.

I don't know what else to say besides I was very much disappointed with this series. Every dragon book I've read so far has disappointed me in some way which sucks.

I would say if this series at all interests you, borrow it from the library. If only I had done that.

Bottom Line: Disappointing. I give the series a very nice 3/5 rating...only because I didn't HATE the first book.

April Recap!!

APRIL RECAP!
This month I read the MOST books I have EVER read in  a month!! I just can't believe it. I don't know what got into me! But I likes it!!
I read some awesome books and I read some duds.  I've been really slacking with posting reviews the last couple months and hope to improve on that.

Without further adoooo..

In April I read.....  17 books and 4 novellas!! WHAT?!?!  I also had one DNF. WOOT.
Here's all the books I read in April:

 

DNF:

 

1. Second Chance Summer (Morgan Matson) -I didn't love this one AS much as Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, but it was still really good. 4/5

2. Rootless (Chris Howard) - I HATED this book. BIG TIME letdown. 1/5

3. Poison (Bridget Zinn) - This was pretty good, actually pretty funny. 3.5/5

4. Silver Linings Playbook (Matthew Quick) - Really enjoyable, so SYKED to see the movie! 4/5

5. Bunheads (Sophie Flack) - This one was disappointing. Boringly predictable. 3/5

6. Beta (Rachel Cohn) - The world that this author created was fantastically vivid. I really enjoyed it, but didn't completely fall for the characters. Still interested for future books. 3.75/5

7. Butter (Erin Jade Lange) - I shared a lot of the main character's pain. It wasn't completely believable, but it was a quick read. 3.5/5

8. Sweet Evil (Wendy Higgins) - Awesomely surprised with how much I ended up loving this book. 5/5

9. Darkness Becomes Her (Kelly Keaton) - Another book I wasn't expecting to love as much as I did. 4.5/5

10. Firelight (Sophie Jordan) - The first time I read this book it got a 5/5, upon my re-read several years later it gets a 3.5/5.

11. Vanish (Sophie Jordan) - The series takes a serious nosedive with the annoying main characters. 3/5

12. Hidden (Sophie Jordan) - Disappointing series.  2.5/5

13. Easy (Tammara Webber) - Okay, I was not expecting to completely FALL for this book. 5/5

14. My Life Next Door (Huntley Fitzpatrick) - Another great read. 4/5

15. Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets (Evan Roskos) - LOVED. I marked like the whole book as my favorite. I identified very much with the main character's feelings. 5/5

16. The Boyfriend List (e.Lockhart) - Would have liked this more if I was about 15 years younger. 3/5

17. The Maze Runner (James Dashner) - A slow start but once it took off I couldn't put it down! Action-packed! 4/5

 

The 4 Novellas I read are set before the book Throne of Glass. They gave some great background on Celaena and some of the other characters and I developed a deeper connection with Celaena. Definitely worth reading for anyone who enjoyed Throne of Glass. Overall, 3.5/5

 

Favorite Cover of the Month:

(This was a hard choice, there are several covers I love)

 

 

Favorite Read(s) of the Month:

 



 

 

Top Ten Tuesday:

Still Sitting on My Shelf

Disappointments

Words/Topics to Make me Pick up A book

 

Other Posts:

E-Book Woes

Book Haul! Woot!

Know Me Better

Green Valley Book Fair HAUL!

My Thoughts: Sweet Evil (Wendy Higgins)

Dewey's Read-a-thon

 

That's it for April. Overall, a VERY productive reading month! I'm making some progress on my personal challenges. I'll post a mini-update later this week regarding those. 

I've been getting a little stressed out and feeling guilty about all the un-read books I own . I wish that I had been more careful with my buying. Mostly because I want my library to contain all books that I really like/love. Which means I should have visited the library more or been more selective about the books i bought because I def have a bunch that I will NEVER read again and don't even want anymore. I want to get to the point where I only have a very small amount that I haven't read. So I'm doing my best to scale back on the book buying (not a complete ban, just scale back) so I have to read the books I already own. We'll see how well that works out.  I'm starting to make a dent in them though!

 

APRIL OUT!

 

Currently reading: