Book Blogger Hop (1)

The book blogger hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word. It's an opportunity to network, make new friends, support each other and share in our love of books. This weekly weekend event is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. For more rules and a chance to participate, hop on over and grab her button!

This weekend's question is:

If you had $80 to spend in a bookstore right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?

My answer:

Jellicoe Road by Melinda Marchetta
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Soulless by Gail Carriger

That was a pretty tough question because there are so many books that I want right now. I hope I didn't go over $80. Which books would you choose. Post them at the blog hop so that I can read them too! Happy Friday!!

Review- Blood Promise

***Warning: May contain SPOILERS!!!***

Title: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)

Author: Richelle Mead

Published: 25 August 2009

Pages: 503 (hardcover)

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis provided by Goodreads.com:

How far will Rose go to keep her promise?

The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir's Academy was the deadliest ever in the school's history, claiming the lives of moroi students, teachers and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them...including Dimitri.

He'd rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa-the one she has sworn to protect no matter what-and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves the most?

My thoughts:

This is one of the best vampire series out there: forget the House of Night, Blue Bloods and even Twilight. This is where it's at!!! Richelle Mead has such a way with words and is amazing at just plain story telling. She makes you hate them, then love them, then hate them and love them all over again. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but when I finished the third book, Shadow Kissed, I was so upset I wanted to rip up the book and throw it into traffic and let the cars run over the pages. I was so mad. I love this series so much that I was upset about it for days and I knew I could not start Blood Promise until I calmed myself down. With a little encouragement from my mom (who has read the entire series) I picked up the fourth book and I sure am glad I did.

This book is AMAZING!!!!! It's like I was holding my breath the whole time I was reading it. I stayed up nights reading and reading (it's pretty long) because I just had to know what happened in the end. And the thing is, Mead is such a good writer that you can see Rose's pain and anguish just pouring off the pages. I wanted to cry for her in almost every chapter! She even made me want to punch Dimitri in the face because even I wanted Rose to turn Strogoi so that they could be together forever. But then I came to my senses and when she staked him it practically ripped my heart out. I also really liked the whole spin Mean put on the series with her father.

At least the end of Blood Promise did not leave me so upset as did Shadow Kissed. The little amount of hope that it left had me jumping up and down, running around the house just after I finished the last page haha.

Questions I hoped will be answered by the end of the series:
1. Will Dimitri be healed back to his normal self?
2. Why are there so many spirit users?
3. Can Rose and Lissa figure out a way to keep their madness under control?
4. Is Rose going to have to choose between Dimitri and Adrian?

5. Is Rose ever going to graduate?

My recommendations, reader friends? Read this series. It will not let you down!

Review- Claire de Lune

Title: Claire de Lune

Author: Christine Johnson

Published: 18 May 2010
Pages: 336 (Hardcover)

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis provided by Goodreads.com:

Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the female pack of werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity but also with the rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalties at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever.

My thoughts:

I remember first hearing about this book over a year ago before taking my hiatus from blogging. I was so super excited about this book coming out I'm pretty sure I even dedicated a Waiting on Wednesday to it as well. So I go to the library to see what I can find and viola, there is Claire de Lune, just sitting there in the new release section and no one else seems to be seeing what I'm seeing. My first thought was, "how is it that I can just pick this book up and check it out without signing up for a waiting list or something!!!" Maybe that is a little extreme but it was definitely at the top of my stack of library books.

As much as I love books, I hate giving so-so/bad reviews. This book just did not live up to to my expectations. After reading this book, I felt like a little kid and someone had just popped by balloon. The story could have used more action and I felt myself bored with all her internal dialogue and struggle going on.

It was very easy to read and I had no problem getting through it, I would have just really enjoyed that extra element that would have made it impossible to put it down. Since I would definitely not read it again, I probably won't read the next books in the series.

Waiting on Wednesday (09 March 2011)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.

Synopsis provided by Goodreads.com. Released 29 March 2011!

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her...beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing...it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understand. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it's too late.

1. Look at that gorgeous cover.

2. I love that the word dashing is used in the synopsis.

3. It comes out this month!!!!

Review- Hourglass by Claudia Gray

***Warning: May contain SPOILERS***

Title: Hourglass

Author: Claudia Gray

Pages: 339 (Hardcover)

Published: 09 March 2010

My Rating: 3/5

Synopsis provided by Goodreads.com

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school, Bianca and Lucas seek refuge with Black Cross, the elite group of vampire hunters led by Lucas's stepfather. When Bianca's close friend-the vampire Balthazar-is capture by Black Cross, Bianca knows she has to do whatever it takes to save him. But at what cost?

Hourglass, the third book in this gripping vampire series by the author of the New York Times bestseller Stargazer, has all the romance, suspense and page-turning drama that has made Claudia Gray's books runaway successes.

Ever since reading Stargazer, this series has left me with a bitter sweet taste. Although the plot thickens throughout each book, they all start off pretty slow and Hourglass is no exception.

Let me start off with the things I don't like about the book. Now that the series is in the third installment, I am still having a hard time feeling any kind of connection to the characters. They are all well rounded and I've got to know them but it wouldn't really bother me if any of them lived or died. I don't normally have this problem with books but this is part of the reason why this book was a little bit tough to get through. I also feel like the story line has been dragged out. Well, that is until the end. The plot moved slowly until Gray caught me at the end, again anticipating the next book. I also did not like that Bianca's character is not that smart. I caught on that if she did not become a full vampire then she would get sick, die and become wraith. I kind of figured that out in the second book, but Bianca did not until she already died.

Then there are the good parts of the book that kept me reading until the end and will probably keep me reading until the series ends. I like the open, honest and almost child like relationship between Bianca and Lucas. They love each other so much they're willing to look past what they've been taught to hate. There is also an innocence to them unlike the characters in most YA novels. Neither of them have any ulterior motives.

Overall, this book kept my attention (mostly) til the end. It was not the best Evernight book I've read but I liked it.

It's Monday! What are you reading? (07 March 2011)

Before I get to this Monday meme, I just have to mention the Amazon.com Student Program. It. Is. Awesome! The thing is, is that I can't even remember whose blog I saw it mentioned on. I had no idea what it was so I thought I would check it out. As luck would have it, the Amazon.com Student Program pretty much rocks my face off. I pulled some old text books off my shelf that were just sitting there and I was able to trade them in and Amazon gave me a $70 gift card! They also offer 2 day free shipping on all orders and I'm pretty sure that if you buy the first 3 books in a series they will give you the 4th book for free! This special offer is available for the Parasol Protectorate Series by Gail Carriger which I will definitely be taking advantage of. A working student email address ending in .edu is required to qualify for the student program.

It's Monday! What are you reading is hosted by Book Journey!

Last week I read:

Hourglass by Claudia Gray
Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson
Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4) by Richelle Mead
Almost to Die For by Tate Hallaway
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Currently Reading:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Also reading this week:

Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparuo
Gone (Dream Catcher #3) by Lisa McMann
Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Random Acts of Kindness!

I came across this event while I was watching an In My Mailbox vlog over at Pure Imagination and I thought this idea was genius and just a wonderful way to show our support for each other in the YA blogging community! If you wish to sign up and I encourage you do to so, hop on over to BookSoulmates and check it out!

The March Sign up is finally here!! Yayy!!!

Isalys and I are THRILLED at the spectacular turn out we had for our February launch of the Random Act of Kindness feature. We are proud to be a part of the amazing literary blogging community and feel overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and generosity towards each other. It's incredible to see how happy people are to start making wishes happen! You all ROCK!!

Reminder: The sign up posts will be up the first Thursday of each month and are open throughout the entire month so it's never too late to sign up!

Rules:
• Sign up each month you'd like to participate in.

• Show off your participation! Grab one of the buttons available :)

• Create a wishlist and post it in the Google Doc located in each R.A.K post for the month.
{Post on your blog, Amazon, where ever as long as there's a link to it.}

• If you choose to do a R.A.K for someone, check out their wishlist and contact that blogger for their address.

• At the end of the month, SHOW US YOUR R.A.K!
Make a post saying 'Thank You' to whoever granted one of your wishes and share it with us :)

OPEN TO EVERYONE!
Lets's keep our International bloggers in mind and in our hearts.
Remember, there's always the Book Depository and they offer FREE shipping!

Easy peasy!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Vanessa at
Twerd413 [at] gmail DOT com
or through twitter: @booksoulmates