Stacking the Shelves (1)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews to let bloggers share books they've added to their shelves weekly. 

Week1: October 1 to 6, 2012

Yay! This is my first Stacking the Shelves post! Actually I've had 15 In My Mailbox posts on my blog and then got too lazy to continue for like 5 months. All the books acquired during that time are sad now because they aren't featured on the blog. Aw, it's okay, books. I'll make sure you get the spotlights weekly from now on, okay? Here we go.

This week I welcome three new members to the family shelves! 

• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository)

The last of my John Green collection! I planned to have a John Green readathon sometime this month. :-) I have never read any of his books yet, and I really can't wait to read them all! 

• The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository)

I really like Sarah Dessen. I've read Dreamland and Just Listen and was impressed by both of them. So why not try her highest rated work? ;) Plus, I love the title! 

• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository)

I marked this book as to read since October last year, and I couldn't be a worse procrastinator. I adore David Mitchell's writing in number9dream and can't wait to get started on this! And the movie's coming out at the end of the month! With Tom Hanks in it! Big deal! I love Tom Hanks so unconditionally and endlessly. 

So, this is it. My first post, yay! Thank you for stopping by and leave the links to your posts in the comments. I'll check them out. 

See you soon! 

Best

Review: And All The Stars by Andrea K. Höst

Title: And All The Stars
Author: Andrea K. Höst
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: Andrea K. Höst
Pages: 279
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Read from October 1 to 2, 2012
My rating:

Summary: Come for the apocalypse. Stay for cupcakes. Die for love. Madeleine Cost is working to become the youngest person ever to win the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Her elusive cousin Tyler is the perfect subject: androgynous, beautiful, and famous. All she needs to do is pin him down for the sittings. None of her plans factored in the Spires: featureless, impossible, spearing into the hearts of cities across the world – and spraying clouds of sparkling dust into the wind. Is it an alien invasion? Germ warfare? They are questions everyone on Earth would like answered, but Madeleine has a more immediate problem. At Ground Zero of the Sydney Spire, beneath the collapsed ruin of St James Station, she must make it to the surface before she can hope to find out if the world is ending.

Everyone here wants to do something in the abstract, but to get anywhere, to find a way to fight them, we're going to have to gamble everything.

A pretty refreshing read! And All the Stars, thankfully, isn't one of those YA dystopian books that are pervading the market. It's not post-apocalyptic; it's takes place during an apocalypse! Yay!

Interesting as it is, I'm not sure if I understood everything this book threw at me, because honestly, I skipped a dozen of pages. I must say that the writing is very good. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the words made up the story. The story itself started out nicely, and I was like wow wow wow wow. But after a while the excitement died down and I was bored. Again. I should mention that I'm bored by a lot of books recently. I don't know anymore if my boredom results directly from the books being boring or from my newly-developed inability to enjoy anything. If I'm being completely honest with myself, I'd say the latter. But seriously, it's got to be because of the books too, right? Maybe it's just that I have been reading boring books, so I don't enjoy it, so I'm bored.

Anyway. Good writing, nice ideas. Is it alien invasion? Not sure, but it's the most likely. I like the skin color change idea. Midnight blue with stars? I'd love that. However, the book felt too long to me. Like way too long for its own good. There are parts where nothing really happens at all and everyone's just sitting there and watching their skins go blue or green, or walking out of the hiding place and walking back and whatever. It felt boring at times because of the tedious long-winded narration of nothings after nothings. And when something really does happen, it's awesome. Like fighting aliens and science talk and something like that. The drawback is that there are too few of these. I wish the book were more action-packed.

The romance in the book is quite unexpected, but it's pretty nice. I loved that Fisher isn't the real Fisher since we get to know him. And I understood what Madeleine feels like when she knows it's not him, when she becomes unsure who she's really in love with. I like the way the characters are all mature, even the younger ones are mature. Each of the characters is outstanding in their own ways and I like that. There's a character named Noi. I almost flipped when I saw the name 'cause I just knew that she must be Thai. I mean, no one writes about Thai people, only Thai food. So it's a little surprising to find her among the heroe, the Blue Musketeers. And I loved the alien-turned-hero Theoden, or whatever he is.

Fight. Always fight. No matter how impossible the odds, no matter who you've lost, how you've been hurt. If there doesn't seem to be a way out, look for one. If you seem to have come to an end, start afresh. Never, ever give up. 

In the end, I have to admit and remind you that I didn't understand everything. There might be some things I missed that could have changed the way I felt about this book. But the point is that this is the way I feel now. And while I don't love it like the others seem to (out of 17 ratings so far: 13 five-stars and 4 four-stars), I did enjoy it to certain levels and found this to be a very refreshing read. A good choice if you want to escape mainstream fictions!


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the author for review. 

Review: Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Title: Crewel 
Author: Gennifer Albin 
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: October 4, 2012
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Pages: 372
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from October 2 to 5, 2012
My rating:  

Summary: Incapable. Awkward. Artless. That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail. Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested. Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape. Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

No one knows why some girls have the gift. There are theories, of course. That it's passed down genetically. Or that girls with an open mind can see the weave of life around them at all times. Even that it's a gift only given to the pure-hearted. But I know better. It's a curse. 


When I finished Crewel last night, I was caught in such a whirlwind of excitement that I spent the next two hours thinking about it. It was a fun read!

Crewel is about 16-year-old Adelic Lewys--extraodinary teenager trying to do everything she can to appear  the opposite. The story is set in the world of Arras, which is a new world on top of Earth after its end. In Arras, girls who have the ability to weave invisible threads of time and matter are retrieved as Spinsters. Adelice is qualified as one. When she's taken in, Adelice learns more about what the threads can do (create lakes and mountains and people, for example), and what Spinsters can do to them (rip the threads to kill people and destroy buildings, etc.). What Adelice doesn't discover until later is that her exceptional ability to see the invisible threads with her bare eyes also sets her apart as a Creweler. 

I don't think there's much to say about Crewel considering that I had a lot of problems with the world-building of Arras. I mean, I liked the idea of another world built on top of war-torn Earth, but honestly, I don't think it was built strongly enough. I could see holes in it everywhere and my questions multiplied as I went on reading. And I couldn't wrap my brain around the government and social ranks in Arras to understand it. Most of the time, really, I just didn't know who's bigger than who and who does what. This is to say that the world-building is not flawless, and I'm not sure if it was believable enough for me either. 

As for the story, I have mixed feelings. While it was exciting in some places, it bored me in others. I liked the mystery the author creates when "Creweler" is first mentioned. The pacing was okay. But the glamorous parts about glamorous clothes and glamorous cosmetics of the glamorous Spinsters couldn't bore me more. The romance was good . The girl-hate annoyed me sometimes. It was just silly. The characters are okay. I didn't like any of them especially. I felt like the book started out good, and then everything went statically okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, and then things picked up really fast and suddenly in the last pages. That's why I said I was still excited when I finished it. That's the only parts in the whole book that could excite me. 

All in all, Crewel is a fun read. Despite the problems I had with it, I found the writing very good. The ending left me wanting to know more. Perhaps I will like the story more if the next book answers my questions. Looking forward to it!


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher for review. 

Review: Ever by Jessa Russo

Title: Ever 
Series: Ever, #1
Author: Jessa Russo 
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Release Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Pages: 295
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from September 28 to October 1, 2012
My rating:

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Ever’s love life has been on hold for the past two years. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Frankie, and he’s completely oblivious. Of course, it doesn't help that he’s dead, and waking up to his ghost every day has made moving on nearly impossible. Frustrated and desperate for something real, Ever finds herself falling for her hot new neighbor Toby. His relaxed confidence is irresistible, and not just Ever knows it. But falling for Toby comes with a price that throws Ever’s life into a whirlwind of chaos and drama. More than hearts are on the line, and more than Ever will suffer.
Some girls lose their hearts to love.
Some girls lose their minds.
Ever Van Ruysdael could lose her soul.

Seven-hundred and thirty days since the only guy I've ever loved died in my arms, followed me home from the hospital, and never left my house again.

Prior to the beginning of the book, Ever and her best friend and crush Frankie has got into a car accident that ended up killing Frankie but not her. Ever came home that night with Frankie's ghost, and his ghost has been around in her house ever since. Frankie's ghost is not only visible to Ever, but also to her father, mother, and best friend Jessie--they all can interact with him. Ever is still pretty much in love with Frankie until a new family moves into Frankie's old house. When she meets Toby, things start to change. 

Now, the book blurb sounds really appealing, don't you think? I read the blurb and was interested, because it sounds dark and dramatic. But the book itself doesn't quite measure up. It's not that I'm disappointed, because disappointment would suggest that I have an expectation that isn't met. I didn't have any expectation. I finished this book annoyed and irritated. I didn't like this at all and couldn't see anything good in it, to say the least. 

I hated that the pages are filled with nothing going on. Dates, make-out sessions, lying, blushing, sneaking, etc. All these don't quite contribute to anything! Not even the plot! I didn't even like any of the characters. Ever seems to me a very annoying person. The fact that her father's death doesn't bother her enough to talk about it or be sad about it bothers me to no end. After his death, she cries a bit and goes right back to being obsessed with boys. Are you kidding me? The best friend Jessie is a flat character whose only function is as Ever's personal cheerleader. And Toby, oh Toby, can you be any more cheesy? Sent on a job and falls in love with that job. Jeez. 

In the end, I don't even know what this book is really about. Ghosts? No, not really, since the only ghost we see in the story is Frankie, and not that much attention is paid to him. Which leads to another disturbing question: why is he there at all? I mean, what's the significance? What's the point? You know, the whole ghost thing never fits seamlessly into the story. It always made me feel like it's out-of-nowhere and awkward. The whole book reads like a contemporary book, but then the ghost shows up and goes all "What's wrong, Doll?" or "dollface" or whatever, and then it's just weird. The ghost thing is displaced and everything else is very poorly done. 

The most frustrating part of this book is when, near the end, something else ENTIRELY is introduced into the story that changed the book's direction. There has been no foreshadowing or anything, so this thing coming into play is just very forced and contrived. Like the idea just occurred to the author and she thought it would be fun to put it in the book, and then she did, and never went back to edit the whole book to make room or drop hints for this thing. You know what I mean? It's just bad. So throughout the course of  book, the story kept changing genre directions, and it's more than annoying. Contemporary? Paranormal? Fantasy? WHAT? And then before I could answer, it abruptly ended, which totally caught me off guard. Excuse me? Is this supposed to make me feel like I'm hanging off a cliff and dying to read the next book or something? If so, I'm sorry to say that it unfortunately backfires. 

Although this book sounded like something I might enjoy, it was the opposite. There's nothing about it that I enjoyed. The writing is mediocre; the plot is... wait, what is the plot?; the characters are weak and flat. I'm not glad I read it. If anything, I'm glad I got it over with and wish to have nothing to do with it ever ever ever again. Take that, Ever.


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Author Interview: J. Andersen of At What Cost

Hello! Today I'm honored to have J. Andersen for an author interview on B's Book Blog as a part of At What Cost book tour. Besides our interview, you can find more information about At What Cost and a giveaway of 3 eBook copies in this post! 

Interview:

1. When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

I guess that depends on what you consider “starting”. I used to write all the time when I was a kid, short stories and such, but I really got serious about writing in 2006. I started At What Cost then. I wrote about 3 chapters and got stuck. So I set it aside and wrote another book before I came back to it. Now, in 2012, it’s been published.

2. How did you choose the genre you write in?

I taught middle school for a number of years. During this time, I read everything the kids were reading. I fell in love with YA. The rest is history.

3. Do you ever experience writer’s block?

A little, mostly when I’ve taken a few days off from writing. It’s hard to get back in to the habit. 

4. Do you work with an outline, or just write?

I use a flexible outline. I draw up those good old triangular plot diagrams that your English teachers used to torture you with. You know the rising action, climax, falling action, resolution ones. I try to plot out my story that way, but in the end I always end up with more than what’s on my outline.

5. Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

I don’t know as if there’s one in particular. I certainly respect anything by Laurie Halse Anderson, and I can only hope that one day my books will have the magnitude of influence that hers do.

6. Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

HA! How much time do you have? First, I wrote about three chapters and got stuck. (Those chapters have since been chopped, along with seven others.) So, I wrote another book. (It will never be seen or published.) Then I finished At What Cost and started sending it to agents. I had some favorable inquiries, but nothing materialized. After over a year of that, I was told by one agent to rework it a bit. So, I did the ‘ol, chop chop, cutting ten chapters and reworking the rest of the book. Then I sent it out again, another year later, I finally landed my agent. I went through a LOT of queries and a TON of rejection. Someday I’ll reveal how many agents I queried, but let’s just say for now it’s an embarrassing amount. Then, of course there are the rejections from publishing houses. It’s a good thing I have thick skin.

7. If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change?

We can always wonder, can’t we? I think I’d focus my agent search more. Those tons of rejections hurt. JAs for the novel, every time I had to edit it with a different editor, I kept thinking I’d go back and rework this or that, but when I got to that section, I liked what I’d written. I do think I’d rework that first sentence. Doesn’t seem to be as catchy as I’d like it to be.

8. Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?

The one I just finished is called The Unviables. It’s not published yet, but my agent is working on finding it a home. It’s a dystopian, which is my favorite genre, but I’ve never had an idea to write one until recently.

Thank you J. Andersen for joining us today! :-)

At What Cost by J. Andersen:

Title: At What Cost
Author: J. Andersen
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Release Date: June 13, 2012
Pages: 225
Format: eBook
Links: Goodreads

Summary: During her junior year, sixteen-year-old Maggie Reynolds expected to shop for prom dresses not maternity clothes. Now, instead of studying for the SATs, she’s reading, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Maggie’s ‘Mother Dearest’ lives in fear that Maggie will somehow taint the family name, so Maggie can’t turn to her for help. Meanwhile, her father is oblivious to anything but his 9-9 job. And her boyfriend, Justin? She’s pretty sure he’ll stay by her side.
While Maggie wrestles with her options, Justin offers a solution: abortion. It would solve all her problems quickly, easily, and effectively. And her parents would never know, which means they won’t throw her out and cut her off like they’d always threatened if she got herself knocked up. Now Maggie must decide which choice she can live with: abortion or teenage motherhood. Either way, it’ll be a tough road to travel.

 About the author:

Jessie Andersen lives in a small town in Western New York with her husband and three kids. A former English teacher, she now spends her time writing while the kids are at school and the baby is sleeping. She volunteers at the local library and sings in the church band. You can find information about her books at jandersenbooks.com, and you can follow her personal blog and book blog. You can also follow her on Twitter and on Facebook and Goodreads.

The giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

B Babbles: HOOKED Book Swag! (Thank you Liz!)

I've thought about writing posts that aren't necessarily book reviews or promo posts but are still book-related. Like my shelf makeover ceremonies that take place every two weeks or so. If I had started right away when the idea came to me, I would've published 20 posts. But I've been too lazy to snap photos, and the mess during the tidying and re-arranging is always too much fun to excuse myself from.

Anyway, now I have a perfect opportunity to start book babbling. Today I came home and found that a mail was delivered to me! And I found that it's from Liz Fichera! I was so excited! Because this would mean...

HOOKED BOOK SWAG!

Woo! These are so cute! And so very bright! Look at the hot pink! Even my mom loves them. Hahaha. 

Now, the photo above doesn't let you see the wristband in its full glory. I hope this one is better. 

Yay! Hot pink ftw! My Kindle cover is the same color. ;) Thank you so much, Liz! Your card is lovely, and so is everything else in the mail. It took 8 days to reach me. :) I cannot wait to read HOOKED!

Title: Hooked
Author: Liz Fichera
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Release Date: January 31, 2013 

Publisher: Harlequin Teen 

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository

Blurb: Get hooked on a girl named Fred... 
HE said: Fred Oday is a girl? Why is a girl taking my best friends spot on the boy's varsity golf team?
SHE said: Can I seriously do this? Can I join the boys' team? Everyone will hate me - especially Ryan Berenger.
HE said: Coach expects me to partner with Fred on the green? That is crazy bad. Fred's got to go - especially now that I can't get her out of my head. So not happening.
SHE said: Ryan can be nice, when he's not being a jerk. Like the time he carried my golf bag. But the girl from the rez and the spoiled rich boy from the suburbs? So not happening.
But there's no denying that things are happening as the girl with the killer swing takes on the boy with the killer smile...

AND NOW FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT:

In addition to not having been regularly updating the blog since the beginning of September, I'm going to take a hiatus until the end of the month. Two words: FINAL EXAMS. 

See you soon! 

Cover Reveal: Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe

Title: Fireblood 
Author: Trisha Wolfe 
Series: Fireblood, #1
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: 2013
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Links: Goodreads | Secret Cover Reveal Page

Summary: To save a kingdom, Zara must choose between a prince who could be the answer and a rising rebellion that threatens to take control. When Zara Dane is chosen to marry Prince Sebastian Hart, son of the man who ordered her father’s capture, Zara knows she must fight to save everything she loves from ruin. Being betrothed to the prince means a life trapped behind the towering stone walls of the Camelot-forged realm. Under the watchful eye of the prince's first knight, Sir Devlan Capra, changing her future becomes difficult. When an unlikely rebel reveals the truth about the deadly secrets that fuel King Hart’s twisted world, Zara’s path to rescue her father becomes clouded by deception. The Rebels clear her path by forcing Zara’s hand with an ultimatum: sway Prince Sebastian to join the Rebels, convincing him of his father’s evil nature, or they will take him out. But Zara is uncertain about a future under the Rebels’ command and where the prince’s heart truly lies. She must decide who to trust, what to believe, and what she’s truly fighting for before the king destroys all of Karm, including her heart.

About the AuthorI’m the author of the YA Steampunk/Paranormal Romance DESTINY'S FIRE (Omnific Publishing) and the upcoming YA Sci-Fi Utopian FIREBLOOD from Spencer Hill Press, November 2013. My published short stories have appeared in YA literary journals, Fantasy magazines, and anthologies. I’ve written four books in the past two years, and I’m currently working on a new YA Sci-Fi project.
I’m the creator of YA Bound, a promotional blog for the Young Adult genre. Also a proud member of YALITCHAT.ORG, SCWW, and The Apocalypsies.
And I’m also a business owner, partnered with my partner, my husband. When I’m not busy doing all of the above, I’m a wife and the mother of a gorgeous teen boy who's the sounding board for my male characters.
Check out my website TrishaWolfe.com for more on my books and short stories. Follow me on Twitter @TrishWolfe

Review: Reflection by Jessica Roberts

Hi guys! Today B's Book Blog is honored to host a tour stop for the Reflection book tour! In this post you'll find my review, the author's bio and also a giveaway! Enjoy! :)

Title: Reflection
Author: Jessica Roberts
Genre: New Adult, Young Adult Contemporary
Release Date: February 17, 2012
Format: eBook
Pages: 289
Source: YA Bound
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Read from August 30 to September 2, 2012
My rating:

Summary: Bright, spunky Heather Robbins has escaped her small hometown and is anxiously beginning her freshman year of college. Rising above her rocky childhood, she’s found a place where good things are finally starting to happen: her own private apartment, refreshing college classes, and an intense attachment to a mysterious and rugged classmate, Nick Richards. But when her dreamy college life turns out to be nothing more than a wonderful dream while resting in a coma, questions threaten. Now, Heather must press forward to unlock the real past, and find the answers buried deep in her mind. What she unlocks instead is a roller coaster ride through flashbacks, embellished memories, and a whirlwind romance. And when it’s all over and she comes face to face with the truth, will she lose everything she’s fallen in love with?

"On occasion patients have dreams while in their coma. And you seem to be one of those special situations. These dreams can mix fantasy with reality, and memories of people and places sometimes jumble within these dreams."

In my opinon, Reflection is, in one word, different. It was a totally different reading experience for me. A good different too, I might add. I haven't had that many chances to read books involving coma--in fact I remember having read only one, If I Stay. So reading Reflection was kind of like trying something new. 

I was unsure about it at first. I'm not a fan of confusing shifting perspectives, and this book has a lot of those. Most of the time I didn't know if I was reading it as it happens the first time, or reading it as Heather recounts her memories to the doctor. I didn't know this until like past halfway through the book, when I decided that it must still be the recounting. But confusing as it was for me, I coudn't stop. 

It didn't take me long to finish this book, mostly because it was so addictive. I wanted to know more, needed to find out what's happened before and what will happen after. It was all very interesting and exciting to hear Heather talk about what she remembers about her first 6 months at college. Shitty friends, good friends, her crush, etc. There were some elements that seemed supernatural, but they turn out to be her coma messing with her memories. 

In a PRS [Persistent Reflective State] coma the brain responds very differently than when it's in a typical coma. The first distinction has to do with memory.Unlike a common coma where the brain is stagnant, in PRS the brain works overtime, distinguished by overzealous brain activity [...] As it does so and the memories are called back to the surface, the mind begins to then live out those experiences, as if for the first time. To the mind, these prolonged dreams, 'reflections' as we call them, are current and real, as if living a life through the mind, but with experiences that have already occured in a person's life. As the mind sorts through memories and lives them out, sometimes it mixes people, places, and even adds imaginative experiences as it would in a typical dream, filling in parts that it cannot remember.

Not knowing what is real and what isn't kills Heather, and it killed me too. I was eager to see Heather out of the hospital and find out whether the romance with Nick was real. But there are shocks along the way. For Heather, the memories of those 6 months seem like just yesterday; but for everyone else, it has been 2 years and 7 months. Everyone has moved on without her. Everything has changed. 

Reflection leaves me wanting more. Its ending is a good one, preparing us for the next book. I can't wait to read Reaction and see Heather fight to win back what she has lost. This is a very good read! 

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About the Author

JESSICA ROBERTS grew up in the San Francisco, California Bay Area where she spent most of her time playing sports alongside her six siblings. She was crowned Miss Teen California her senior year of high school, and went on to Brigham Young University where she graduated in Human Development. Her love of family, church, writing, athletics, and singing and dancing keeps her life busy and fulfilled. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and three children.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook


The giveaway is for (1) $25 Amazon gift card plus an e-copy of Reflections plus (9) additional Reflection e-books.  Open Internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Review: The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Scheinmel

Title: The Stone Girl
Author: Alyssa B. Scheinmel
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from August 18 to 21, 2012
My rating:

Summary: Sethie Weiss is hungry, a mean, angry kind of hunger that feels like a piece of glass in her belly. She’s managed to get down to 111 pounds and knows that with a little more hard work—a few more meals skipped, a few more snacks vomited away—she can force the number on the scale even lower. She will work on her body the same way she worked to get her perfect grades, to finish her college applications early, to get her first kiss from Shaw, the boy she loves, the boy who isn’t quite her boyfriend. Sethie will not allow herself one slip, not one bad day, not one break in concentration. Her body is there for her to work on when everything and everyone else—her best friend, her schoolwork, and Shaw—are gone.

She feels like a creature out of a fairy tale: a girl who discovers that her bones are really made out of stone, that her skin is really as thin as glass, that her hair is brittle as straw, that her tears have dried up so that she cries only salt. Maybe that's why it doesn't hurt when she presses hard enough to begin bleeding: it doesn't hurt, because she's not real anymore.

This is one of those novels I think I might like but end up not liking. I've never read any books that involve eating disorders of any kind before, so I thought this could be a new experience. But it is an understatement to say that I am disappointed.

I didn't like this book. Because of the 3rd person point of view, I couldn't get into the story to begin with.  I found it hard to read and it didn't help that it really kind of bored me. But there are other things that endlessly disturb me, like the narrator's thoughts.

The narrator, Sethie Weiss, starts out an anorexic and then becomes a bulimic as the story goes on. Being extremely thin is her idea of beautiful. What really makes me uncomfortable is the fact that she glorifies her eating disorder like she really believes it. Realistic? I don't know. But definitely uncomfortable. She says she loves lying down on the floor and feeling her hipbones pressed against the hard floor, because it's telling her that there's no fat there. This girl is seriously obsessed. There are a lot of scenes where I had to turn my eyes away and scrunch up my face because I was really terrified. Especially the scene where she wants to "cut the fat right out" and "scrape out the fat" with her nails.  So what does she do? She scratches her right knee, the place where she makes her scab flick off, and then she leans closer and sucks. Yes, DIY liposuction! Only she doesn't suck out the fat. What comes out is blood, which according to her, is "disappointing." If you want to her if she swallows the blood, no, she doesn't, because "for all she knows, blood might have calories."

This book makes me want to cry big time.

It might be because I couldn't relate to the main character, not having had an eating disorder and all. However I, like most girls, have felt ugly because of my fat. Sure, I used to hate myself and be depressed because of it, but I got over it. The thing is, I don't ever remember having ideas as ridiculous as Sethie's. I don't sleep with a knife under my pillow or mattress. And I sure don't play with it, let alone using it to trace my skin and thinking about cutting it to let out the fat. Which is precisely what Sethie does, among other things like throwing up and starving herself. Like I said, it disturbs me a lot.

Except for disgust, I hardly felt anything reading this book. I didn't find Sethie sympathetic, and I definitely didn't like her. There's no character development whatsoever. It's kind of ironic that, being a realistic young adult novel, there are a few unrealistic aspects. Sethie is supposedly very smart, but she also uses drugs, and lets herself be used for sex. And in the end, she miraculously wakes up. No, it doesn't work for me. If someone has been so stubborn about her behaviors, she doesn't just get up and change herself like that.

After everything I've said, as you might have guessed, I have to give it just one star. The subject matters may sound interesting, but trust me, that's really all there is to it. Unless you want to spend your time reading the wrong book and experience disturbing issues, there are other books for you. I'm definitely not going to recommend this book for anyone.


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Review: Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Title: Confessions of an Angry Girl
Author: Louise Rozett
Series: Confessions #1
Genre: Teen, Young Adult Contemporary
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Pages: 272
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from August 14 to 17, 2012
My Rating:

Summary: Freshman Rose Zarelli has rage issues. First of all, her father lost his job, took work as a contractor in Iraq...and never came home. Second, she likes the wrong guy and his super-intense, scary cheerleader girlfriend is now her nemesis. Third, her fashionista best friend, Tracy, is suddenly infinitely cooler than she is—and talking about losing her virginity. (What?!) Rose is ahead when it comes to studying for the PSAT, but she’s so far behind socially that she might as well be moving backward. She needs Tracy’s help choosing the right clothes, she likes all the wrong extracurricular activities, and she can’t even make a decision about which photo of her father to put on the memorial website she’s making (and hiding from her adolescent-shrink mother). With her brother away at college and her mother always locked in her office with her messed-up teen patients, Rose struggles to get through each day without inflicting bodily harm on anyone.

This is a story about a girl with a stellar vocabulary who is four years away from college and a year and a half away from a driver's license. About a girl trapped in a hostile universe where the virginity clock is ticking down--relentlessly--with zero consideration for her extenuating traumatic, lifealtering circumstances.

Let me start off by saying that this book is not for me. From the start, I knew that I wasn't going to like it much. Throughout the book, the story failed again and again to interest me. It's just incredibly boring This is one of those books that I won't want to pick up again once I lay it down. 

Which is, to be honest, quite unexpected. I know Rose has lost her father in the war in Iraq. And I tend to love books whose main character's father is dead, which I can totally relate to. But most of the time I was annoyed by Rose. Her character isn't all that believable to me. She is supposed to be angry as described in the blurb. But no, she feels pretty normal to me. Just any other normal teenager who's pessimistic and sarcastic and annoying. Rage issues? Please, what an overstatement. It's just a way to make Rose sound more interesting, I guess, but it's so deceiving. She does have angry outbursts but only no more than 3 times, and they are nowhere near rage issues. She claims to be very smart, but I really couldn't see how. 

The other characters in the book are also just as, if not more, annoying. There are your typical mean girl  named Regina (but is nowhere near epic as Mean Girls' Regina George), the best friend who can only talk about "doing it" without protection with her boyfriend, and the crush--oh, the unattainable crush who's with someone else but plays with Rose's heart anyway and then quits by saying he's not for her. Hmm. I'm not sure which one of them I want to punch first. 

Frankly, I feel like this book is maybe for the teen age group. It really didn't do it for me. There are a lot of things that I really don't like in the book that feel immature and childish. Girl drama, crush drama, best friend drama. None of that really interests me. And in the end, I could say that the plot really goes nowhere. No character development, that's for sure. I couldn't feel the climax, if there is one. The story just goes on and on, and then abruptly stops. Seriously. I emphasize, abruptly. And then? Oh, there'll be book two! Haha, well, too bad I'm not impressed enough to want to stick around when it comes out. This is a very forgettable read for me. 

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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.