Waiting on Wednesday: Football and Teenage Angst!

This little gem is hosted over at Breaking the Spine.

One book I can't wait to sink my grubby little claws into is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Goodreads Summary)

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

Why I'm Waiting:  I LOVE Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry series. (And the author is pretty darn cool in person as well) This one sounds fantastic! I love TV shows and movies having to do with football and I LOVE that the main character is a GIRL who plays football! OOOOH yeah. 
Expected Publication: October 1st, 2013

My Thoughts: The Madman's Daughter

(Goodreads Summary)
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

Genre: Gothic Horror, Young Adult
Published: January 29, 2013


My Thoughts:

"In the darkest places, even love is deadly."

I freaking LOVED this book!

The Madman's Daughter is a tragic, haunting, scary, nail-biting Gothic tale of a girl's father's descent into madness and her own struggle against following in his footsteps.

This story is a retelling of sorts of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. It's set in the late 1800's and there is a definite historical feel to the writing. It's about a girl named Juliet Moreau. Her father disappeared when she was 10 due to a scandal involving his experiments. People say he was creating abominations. That he was creating monsters. Juliet's mother has since died, and she has been living as a poor maid, trying to get by, ignore the rumors about her father and escape the unwanted advances of men. She goes in search of her father and ends up on a secluded island where she hopes to discover the truth about the experiments her father has been accused of.

And discover them she does! The thing is...Juliet has a lot of dark feelings herself. Part of her doesn't believe what her father is doing is completely wrong. Which makes her think that she will end up just like him.  Speaking of Juliet's father, he is dark and crazy and scary. He is obsessed with his work to the point of madness. 

AND SO MUCH MORE HAPPENS.

There is a definite mysterious, haunting air throughout this story which made it that much more exciting. There is a bit of a love triangle, which became a little annoying at times with the back and forth, but the story was so engrossing I was able to easily ignore it. There were twists and turns and things happened that I never could have guessed. The writing and pacing was spot-on and THE ENDING!! OH MY GAH! It was a big giant cliff hanger! AND I NEED the next book NOW! All the characters were interesting, even the non-human ones.
I don't want to get into too much detail about the actual story because I'm glad I didn't know much about it before reading it. It just added more excitement to the experience.

Final Thoughts: Basically,  this book is wonderfully mad, I couldn't put it down and was left guessing until the very end. 4.5/5

I originally borrowed this book from the library, but will DEF be buying my own copy!

Graphic Novel Review: Friends With Boys

(Goodreads Summary)
After years of homeschooling, Maggie is starting high school. It's pretty terrifying.

Maggie's big brothers are there to watch her back, but ever since Mom left it just hasn't been the same.

Besides her brothers, Maggie's never had any real friends before. Lucy and Alistair don't have lots of friends either. But they eat lunch with her at school and bring her along on their small-town adventures.

Missing mothers...distant brothers...high school...new friends... It's a lot to deal with. But there's just one more thing.

MAGGIE IS HAUNTED.




Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult
Published: February 28, 2012

My Thoughts:
I don't have a lot of experience with graphic novels. I likes what I likes! And I liked this one!

Friends With Boys is a graphic novel about a teenage girl starting public school for the first time. Her mother left and she is being raised by her father, along with 3 older brothers.  While navigating high school for the first time (and all crap that brings) she manages to become friends with two outcasts who accept her and help her come out of her shell. And there's a ghost.

Firstly, I loved the artwork. It's in black & white, which is my favorite style. The graphics are clean and detailed but not cluttered. The story is easy to follow and there's a good balance between the graphics and the words.

This story is really funny. All the characters have distinct personalities and I especially loved the parts of the family interacting. It was easy to relate to Maggie's feelings about high school. I wish the story had been longer! The only thing I didn't really "get" was the whole ghost element. Maggie is being haunted. It wasn't really explained very well, but it didn't make the story any less enjoyable for me.

For anyone who is new to graphic novels, this would be a good start because it's a short, quick, easy to follow story.

Bottom Line: Great characters, great graphics, great story. 4/5

I originally borrowed this from the library but will be buying my own copy!

Blog Maintenance and such

I've been neglecting my poor little blog for a while now. But today I accomplished a couple things! (Well I guess technically yesterday, because now it's officially tomorrow). I updated my master list of reviews, and also finished transferring my reviews to goodreads and Amazon. And then I made an update tab for my 2013 Challenges.  AND THEN I wrote 2 reviews!!! I've been slacking in that department. Trying to get my blog back into shape.

For the past 4 hours or so I've been watching booktube videos on YouTube. I'm freakin obsessed.  I really want to start a booktube channel..BUT it's a bit scary. You're front and center when it comes to videos. I can hide behind my blog.  But it seems like such a wonderful community and I love watching the videos and I think I would like making them.  I've never filmed any videos and don't know anything about uploading/editing but I'm sure I could figure it out.

I really should go to sleep now, I have to be up for work in less then 7 hours. But the videos!! Can't.Stop.Watching.

My Thoughts: Letters from Skye (Jessica Brockmole)

Goodreads Summary:
A sweeping story told in letters, spanning two continents and two world wars, Jessica Brockmole’s atmospheric debut novel captures the indelible ways that people fall in love, and celebrates the power of the written word to stir the heart.

March 1912: Twenty-four-year-old Elspeth Dunn, a published poet, has never seen the world beyond her home on Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye. So she is astonished when her first fan letter arrives, from a college student, David Graham, in far-away America. As the two strike up a correspondence—sharing their favorite books, wildest hopes, and deepest secrets—their exchanges blossom into friendship, and eventually into love. But as World War I engulfs Europe and David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western front, Elspeth can only wait for him on Skye, hoping he’ll survive.

June 1940: At the start of World War II, Elspeth’s daughter, Margaret, has fallen for a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Her mother warns her against seeking love in wartime, an admonition Margaret doesn’t understand. Then, after a bomb rocks Elspeth’s house, and letters that were hidden in a wall come raining down, Elspeth disappears. Only a single letter remains as a clue to Elspeth’s whereabouts. As Margaret sets out to discover where her mother has gone, she must also face the truth of what happened to her family long ago.


Publication Date: July 9, 2013
Source: ARC won from Goodreads

Rating: 5/5

My Thoughts:

Let me start off by saying I primarily read Young Adult fiction.  I'm not a young adult myself, but I'm drawn towards that genre for one reason or another. I also tend to stay away from historical stuff.  If I had seen this book in a store, I never would have picked it up.  And that would have sucked.

The year is 1912. Elspeth Dunn is a young poet who lives a quiet life in Scotland on the Isle of Skye. One unsuspecting day she receives her very first fan letter from an American student named David.  The rest is history.
Elspeth and David start up a long-distance friendship made up of letters that turns into a love story that is neither perfect nor easy. There is more then just distance that their love for each other has to overcome: war, danger, marriage, family, friends.  Their own self-doubts. It's a love story that spans decades and leaves the reader guessing until the very end.

I LOVED this book. LOVED.  There's no better word to describe Letters from Skye than beautiful.
The story is revealed bit by bit in letters. You get to know Elspeth and David and how their friendship initially starts and then how that friendship evolves to something more.  Throughout the chapters, the story flashes forward to 1940 when we meet Elspeth's daughter Margaret. There's another war going on and this has caused old memories to surface. Margaret is now in a long-distance relationship with a boy who has gone off to war and her mother is warning her against giving her heart away for the breaking. Margaret knows nothing about her father or the first volume of her mother's life. All she knows is that her mother has a suitcase of old letters addressed to a girl named Sue, signed from a boy named David.

I loved the way this book was written. The author did a remarkable job of plotting out the story and it flowed incredibly well. I could have easily devoured this story in hours, but I forced myself to slow down so I could absorb and digest every word.  The characters are well written, fully developed and easy to pull for. All I wanted was for Elspeth and David to have their happy ever after.  But life isn't like that.  Real life is hard. Love is hard. And the author portrayed the story and the characters in a very realistic light. 

Favorite Quotes:
"I should have told you, should've taught you to steel your heart. Taught you that a letter isn't always just a letter. Words on the page can drench the soul. If you only knew."

"You'll never know if you're on the right course for your life until you see the course that has brought you to where you are today."

"You are the reason I frown at the sunrise and smile at the sunset. Frown because I have to face the day alone, without you by my side. Smile because that's one less day we have to spend apart."

"As Christmas Eve turns into Christmas Day, right at the stroke of midnight, step outside and tilt your face up at the moon. Taste the snowflakes on your lips and imagine they are my lips touching yours."


If this book wasn't on your radar before, it should be now.

Bottom Line:
Letters from Skye was romantic and inspiring and beautiful. It was sad and heartbreaking and difficult. It's a love story that transcends. And it never gives up. 5/5!




*I won a free ARC from Goodreads firstreads giveaway. This was my honest review.*

Top Ten Tuesday: Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

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


This week's topic:

 Top Ten(ish) Best Book to Movie Adaptations

I've only included movies that I've read the book of.

(in no particular order)

 

 

1. Harry Potter's (all)

2. The Notebook

3. Bridget Jones' Diary/Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason

4. Where the Heart Is

5. Little Women

 

 

6. Interview With the Vampire

7 Romeo & Juliet (the one with Leo!)

8. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

9. Carrie

10. Charlotte's Web

 

Honorable Mentions

Girl, Interrupted

The Horse Whisperer

Speak

Jaws

 

 

WORST Book to Movie Adaptations

I was disappointed with all of these adaptations!

 

1. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

2. One For the Money

3. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse

4. Fantastic Mr. Fox

 

 



July TBR!

Since my TBR list for June went over so well I've decided to make one for July!


I hope to AT LEAST read these books:

 

This is a nice mixture of books I need to fulfill some of my personal challenges such as re-reads (Paranormalcy & Poison Study), classic (The Great Gatsby), owned prior to 1/1 (Flying Blind & Wither), and series catch-up. And also some books I've been excited to read in general (Etiquette & Espionage, Winger and A Midsummer's Nightmare). I already own all of these except E&E and Winger which I got from the library.  If I can get through all of these I'll be happy and hopefully I can add in some others along the way.

 

I never know which one to start with, so any suggestions would be welcomed!

 

 

Currently reading:

(It's probably going to take me until December to finish Pride & Prejudice, it's off to a DULL start.)

 

 



June Music Obsessions

I've decided that in addition to my normal monthly bookish recap, I'm going to do another post with whatever I'm obsessed with during that month. 

For June, there's 3 songs in particular that I can't get enough of.

AMAZING song and one of the most beautiful and haunting videos. I can't get enough.

This song is just so damn catchy and those boys have got moves! Robin Thicke just oozes sex. Hot!

The perfect summer anthem.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Intimidating Books

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

This week's topic:

Top Ten Most Intimidating Books

(might be intimated by size, content, that everyone else loves it but you are sure you won't etc)

 

1.  This book hasn't gotten a lot of positive feedback. At least that I've been exposed to. I've heard it's boring, especially the beginning, with a lot of characters and it can get confusing. I haven't heard/read about anyone loving this book. It's just too big to be boring.

 

 

2. I actually bought this box set recently. Game of Thrones is my favorite T.V. show. It's incredible! I have to read the books. I'm putting them off mostly because of the size and the amount of time I know I will have to invest in them. They are beasts! Also, this is one of those rare times that I don't want to know what happens before I see it on TV. So I can only read up until a certain point without getting spoiled and then who the hell knows when the author will release the next book. But I plan on reading the first 2 some time this year.

 

3.  So.Much.Hype.  One of the most hyped up books ever. I see it everywhere, hear about it everywhere. I've had it on my shelf for like 2 years. I just can't bring myself to read it. I don't want to be disappointed!

 

4.  This one is so little but it still intimidates the hell out of me. Why? Because I hate classics and I came up with this great idea to make myself read 5 classics this year because I keep thinking that maybe I'm missing something great when in reality I just think I'm too dumb to absorb the old school dialogue and wordiness and boringness that classics represent to me. I have picked this classic in particular up like 10 times to start, and then I put it back down again. I don't like to have to think but so much when I read books.

 

5. I love The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. The books scare me because I just don't think I'm going to like them.  And not because of the content but because of the writing style.  I don't like draggy books. I've heard parts of these books are draggy. But sooooo many people LOVE them.  Maybe I'll start with The Hobbit..

 

6.  I loved the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've heard that the book is different in a lot of ways. And I'm not sure this is one of those times where I will think the book is better than the movie. I do own this series, I just haven't been able to start it yet.

 

As a whole, I'm not intimidated easily by books. These are the only ones I can think of that I keep intentionally straying away from.

Made your own list? I'd love to see it, just leave your link in the comments :)

Thanks for stopping by!
 

June Recap!

June, June, June. Usually I'm NOT a fan of summer months because I can't stand the heat! BUT this month was awesome for one simple reason..... I am NOW officially WORKING FROM HOME! And it is, in a word, magical! It's even more amazing then I dreamed it would be.  The job I have is strictly computer based so it works out well.  I roll out of bed and I'm at work! I can stay in my jammies all day. Maybe I'll take a shower, maybe I won't.  No one has to smell me or look at me so who cares! Then when I clock out, I'm home! WOOT.

ALSO this month, I went to a Neil Gaiman signing in Washington, D.C.!! I'll link my post for that down below.  It ended up being the LONGEST day of my life, but the actual seeing Neil Gaiman part was SUPER cool.  It was crazy crowded! But my book buddy Jessica was there with me so that made it better! 




Lastly, I just got back from spending 5 days at Lake Anna. My dad has a house there and some family and friends of his came down for some of the time.  The weather was perfect. My baby vampire skin got a LITTLE crispy.  Even with several layers of SPF 50.  We saw all sorts of wildlife: beaver, groundhog, deer, squirrels, rabbits, snake, fish, turtles. There's no Internet or cable T.V. so you basically are forced to enjoy the relaxation and the water and I got a LOT of reading done. I read 4 books, and one of those was 600 pages. WOOT.  It's always nice to just GET AWAY from life for a little bit.

Now...ON TO THE BOOKS!

I read a TON this month which is awesome! 

For my TOTAL for June I read 16 BOOKS and 3 Graphic Novels!!
AND I read 9/12 books that were on the TBR list I made at the beginning of the month which is beyond great for me. I NEVER EVER stick to a TBR list, this is the first time. So I'm proud of that!

Books Read:

 

 



1. Love and Other Perishable Items (Laura Buzo) - I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book! Very cute and funny. 4/5
2.Notorious Nineteen (Janet Evanovich) - Nothing special. Same ole same ole. 3/5
3. A Game of Thrones - Graphic Novel, I did not like the artwork for this graphic novel. The people looked too similar.  Wasn't wowed.  3/5
4. That Summer (Sarah Dessen) - My least favorite Sarah Dessen book. 3/5
5. Friends With Boys (Faith Erin Hicks) - Graphic Novel, I really enjoyed this one! Loved the artwork and the story. Will buy a copy for my shelf. 4/5
6. Black City (Elizabeth Richards) - The first half was good and then it all went downhill and I ended up disappointed. I blame the romance.  2.5/5
7. The Madman's Daughter (Megan Shepherd) - Loved this one. Couldn't put it down. The love triangle got a little annoying but I was able to look past that because the story was just so good! 4.5/5
8. Invisibility (Andrea Cremer & David Levithan) - There were moments of beautiful writing, but the story fell flat for me. 3/5
9. The Song of Achilles  (Madeline Miller) - Pretty good, liked the romance and the main characters. But wasn't left satisfied.  3.5/5
10. Blankets (Craig Thompson) - Graphic Novel, Really enjoyed this one. Loved the black and white artwork. Great story. Easy to get through. 4/5
11. Dreamland (Sarah Dessen) - Well written but just not what I wanted. 3.5/5
12. The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern) - One of the most beautifully descriptive books I have EVER read. Incredibly woven storyline. 5/5
13. The Gates (John Connolly)- This one was very disappointing. Didn't like the writing or the story. 2/5
14. Shadow & Bone (Leigh Bardugo) - REREAD, just as amazing the second time around! FANTASTIC read. 5/5
15. Siege & Storm (Leigh Bardugo) - Great sequel! 5/5
16. Forbidden (Tabitha Suzuma) - Conflicted feelings about this one. DEF takes you out of your comfort zone. Liked the male main character. Not a fan of the female main character. HATED the ending. 3.5/5
17. Lover at Last (J.R.Ward) - I have been waiting to read this for SOO long! Blay and Qhuinn FOREVER. However, I feel like the author added too much other crap in that I had to skim through. Because of that it gets a 4/5.  The Blay and Qhuinn parts though...SMOKING HOT!
18. Everneath (Brodi Ashton) - Not a bad read, but I wasn't blown away. I feel no desire to continue the series. 3.5/5
19. Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - I didn't love it AS much as Eleanor & Park but I still loved it. The characters and the story were great! 4.5/5

I had 1 DNF this month:



Favorite Read

Even though I didn't give this book 5 stars, this is my favorite read for June because the story was just fast paced and interesting and creepy and amazing. I couldn't put it down and the ending was OH MY GAH! I CAN'T WAIT for the second book to come out!

Favorite Cover

 

Other Posts:

Book Haul

 

Book/Movie Haul

 

Personal Challenge Update

 

TTT:Favorite Reads of 2013 SO FAR

 

Neil Gaiman Book Signing Recap!

 

 

 

June OUT!