Comic Book Review Round-Up #1

This year I have been reading a lot of comic books and graphic novels.  I've been wanting to share them with you but sometimes it's difficult to write a whole review on just one issue or one volume so I thought I would start a series where I write mini-reviews of some of the graphic novels I've been reading lately!

1. Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson: This is something new that I just picked up and I absolutely love it! It’s about a bunch of girls who all live in the same cabin at a summer camp and they get into the craziest adventures! There is a whole lot of action, supernatural creatures, a crazy paranoid camp counselor, a BAMF camp director and some sweet awesome girl love! Lumberjanes is just one of my new favorite things right now! The first three issues are now out so if you can find them I highly recommend you snatch them up!

2. Saga by Brian Vaughan: If you have not heard of Saga by now I’m pretty sure you must be living under a rock. I've heard about Saga here and there for the past year or so but I just recently started reading it and I’m kicking myself for waiting so long! I have never loved a graphic novel series as much as I love Saga. Even though forbidden love is a tale as old as time, the sci-fi world that it is set in is so original and very fascinating! There are so many different kinds of creatures living all over this universe and I feel like there is going to be so much more to discover!

3. Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff: I read this earlier this year and it is still one of my favorite graphic novels that I've read. It is such a cute adventure. Delilah Dirk has been arrested in the beginning because she was trying to acquire something valuable and in the process becomes friends with one of the lieutenants of the guards and craziness ensues. Delilah is this totally adventurous girl who will take any risk to find with she is looking for. The lieutenant is very realistic and isn’t into taking a lot of chances but together they make a good team. And I think they might make a cute couple somewhere down the line.

Waiting on Wednesday (121)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: The Dolls
Author: Kiki Sullivan
Hitting the Shelves: September 02, 2014

Eveny Cheval just moved back to Louisiana after spending her childhood in New York with her aunt Bea. Eveny hasn't seen her hometown since her mother’s suicide fourteen years ago, and her memories couldn't have prepared her for what she encounters. Because pristine, perfectly manicured Carrefour has a dark side full of intrigue, betrayal, and lies—and Eveny quickly finds herself at the center of it all.

Enter Peregrine Marceau, Chloe St. Pierre, and their group of rich, sexy friends known as the Dolls. From sipping champagne at lunch to hooking up with the hottest boys, Peregrine and Chloe have everything—including an explanation for what’s going on in Carrefour. And Eveny doesn't trust them one bit.

But after murder strikes and Eveny discovers that everything she believes about herself, her family, and her life is a lie, she must turn to the Dolls for answers. Something’s wrong in paradise, and it’s up to Eveny, Chloe, and Peregrine to save Carrefour and make it right.

Why I want this: I have an e-ARC of this book and I'm so excited to read it! I'm such a sucker for mean girl books and this one definitely looks fun with all the intrigue and murder going on! 

May 2014 Book Haul!

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

Bought:

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Broken Heart, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian Vaughan

Saga, Vol. 3 by Brian Vaughan

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles by Brian Vaughan

Library: 

Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Won:

Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

What Does the Bookworm Say?: Blogger Burnout

Hi! Welcome to this week's What Does the Bookworm Say! This week we'll be discussing blogger burnout and how we deal with it when we're experiencing it. Don't forget to check out this topic of discussion at Nite Lite Book Reviews (and her beautiful new blog design), The Windy Pages and The Reader's Antidote. 

So the questions is whether or not I experience blogger burnout and the answer to that is yes. No wait....that's a BIG YES! 

When I first started my blog I absolutely loved it and I was so into reading and blogging all the time! I went strong with it for about two years! I started experiencing my first bout of blogging burnout after my grandma passed away.  I just felt like I couldn't do any of my normal things, especially reading and blogging! So usually when I feel like I have a bout of blogging burnout coming on I usually just let it come and try not to completely neglect my blog.  But the most important thing that I usually realize that I love blogging and reading so much more than not doing it which is why I keep coming back to it! I just end up missing it so much that I just have to do it!! And even though on day sometime in the far, far future I probably won't be a blogger but I will always be a reader! 

I wish I had more of a system to overcome blogging burnout but I really don't.  I usually just let it run it's course and then get back to it when I feel like writing a post. 

What about you guys? Have you ever experienced blogger burnout? Do you have a topic you would like us to discuss? Let me know in the comments!!

Review: Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell

Title: Dear Killer
Author: Katherine Ewell
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: April 01, 2014
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe.

My thoughts: 

Dear Killer is definitely one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It’s so much more than a girl who kills and even though I somewhat predicted the ending, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to the end.

Kit, the main character, is a teenage girl and she kills people. She doesn't do it because she hates people or because she has a fetish or anything, she just kills because people ask her to. There is an anonymous drop box where people leave letters explaining why they want her to kill this specific person and usually a couple thousand dollars or so. If the letter is compelling enough, she decides to kill that person. But after she is done, she leaves the letter on the body for the police to find.

Kit was trained from a very young age to kill by her mother who was also a killer. But the difference is that her mother had a very deep need to kill, much like an addiction. Kit doesn't need to kill but she enjoys it very much. And she’s very good at what she does. She’s known in the media as the Perfect Killer because, obviously, she has not yet been caught.

The thing with Kit is that she literally has no remorse for the people she kills. She sees herself as a hired hand and since she is not the one making the decision that these people have to die, she doesn't feel guilty. She’s just the one doing the killing, just the executioner. Not the judge. I also enjoyed being in the scene when Kit killed someone. It shows how highly trained she is and that she is very intelligent. The fact that she is a teenager and goes to school is just to keep up appearance because deep down she is a killer.

Clearly people love or hate this book. I thought it was very interesting and I enjoyed being inside Kit’s head. It was definitely a memorable read for me.

Waiting on Wednesday (120)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Falls the Shadow
Author: Stefanie Gaither
Hitting the Shelves: September 16, 2014

When Cate Benson was twelve, her sister died.

Two hours after the funeral, they picked up Violet’s replacement, and it was like nothing had ever happened. Because Cate’s parents are among those who decided to grant their children a sort of immortality—by cloning them at birth. So this new Violet has the same smile. The same laugh. That same perfect face. Thanks to advancements in mind-uploading technology, she even has all the same memories as the girl she replaced.

She also might have murdered the most popular girl in school.

Or at least, that’s what the paparazzi and crazy anti-cloning protesters want everyone to think: that clones are violent, unpredictable monsters. Cate is used to hearing all that, though. She’s used to standing up for her sister too, and she’s determined to prove her innocence now—at whatever the cost. But the deeper she digs for the truth, the further Cate's carefully-constructed life begins to unravel, unveiling a world filled with copies and lies, where nothing and no one—not even her sister— is completely what they seem.

In a pulse pounding debut, Stefanie Gaither takes readers on a nail-biting ride through a future that looks frighteningly similar to our own time and asks: how far are you willing to go to keep your family together?

Review: The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

Title: The Museum of Intangible Things
Author: Wendy Wunder
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: April 10, 2014
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).

Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.

As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance,karma, and even happiness.

An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.

My thoughts: 

The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder is one of my favorite books that makes me cry the big crocodile tears. When I heard she was writing another young adult novel, I knew I had to read it and I checked it out from the library as soon as it was released.

It seems to me that there have been a lot of young adult books released recently that is all about a girl who comes out of her shell and her best friend that helped her do it. The Museum of Intangible Things is about two best friends, Hannah and Zoe, who embark on a journey that changes both of their lives. Hannah is the quiet one and Zoe is the wild child.  But Zoe is also dealing with a mental illness.  She's bipolar and Hannah as worked out a system to keep her highs and lows under control and in perspective.  Their the best of friends and Zoe wants to do everything she can to help Hannah come out of her shell.  

Throughout most of the second half of the book I had a inkling of how it was going to end.  And of course, Wendy Wonder writes sad novels so I had a feeling something bad was going to happen.  I still felt a range of emotions because there were good, happy things happening and there were also a lot of sad things.  But definitely a really good book!