Stacking the Shelves - January 11th, 2014

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  I'm doing this today because I have to work tomorrow at my part time job, plus, maybe, just maybe, if I get a bunch of reading done today and tomorrow, I can actually do a review of the book I'm reading.  I hope.  This week I got a physical ARC in the mail, one that made me squeal with excitement!!

ARC:

When the author of the Ashfall series, Mike Mullin, posted on Facebook about emailing his agent at Tanglewood Press for an ARC of the finale in the Ashfall series, Sunrise, I immediately did just that.  Then the book came in the mail on Wednesday, and when I opened the manila envelope in my car, I squealed out loud with excitement!!  Can't wait to read it.

Free e-book:

This was an e-novella that went along with an e-galley I read earlier this week.  Now, it was only like 20 pages, so it was something I thought should be free.  You can read my review of it HERE.  

E-book/novella purchased:

Downloaded this short story that goes with the last Dean Koontz book I read, Innocence.  I think this is a prequel to that book.  Which I'm interested to read more about the main character and his past.

So really, not a ton of things this week, but I did request several e-galleys from Edelweiss that I'm waiting on, so that will come later.  And this was an awesome week with this awesome ARC I got!!  So what have you added to your bookshelf this week?

Feature and Follow Friday - January 10th, 2014

Wow!  I just realized I haven't participated in this meme since last August!  So time to start it off for the year.  Feature and Follow Friday is sponsored by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.  The purpose of this event is to learn about the two featured bloggers each week, as well as to increase your own blog following by joining in on the fun! This week's question/activity is:

Resolutions: Put together your blogger resolution list for all of us to see!

Well, I actually kind of did this already HERE.  But I'll go ahead and list them again below:

1.  Have a giveaway every time I reach another milestone in followers, like for my 1800 followers I had an $18 gift card giveaway.

2.  Change my post titles.  For example, if it is a review, put that first in the title, as well as mentioning if it is to complete a challenge.

3.  Possible redesign of background/images.

4.  Continue my September is for Sequels Challenge and November is for Novellas Challenge.

So really the 2nd one is my main thing to work on.  That and I really want to have at least two reviews a week if not more.

What about you?  What are your resolutions for the year?

Review: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

First I must say thank you to Harper Teen as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I was surprised that this was the first book I've actually read by Sophie Jordan, as I knew her name well, and was excited to meet her last May at the Romantic Times Convention.  My guess is that I must just have seen all the books by her at the bookstore where I worked.  But I must say I was not disappointed at all, and am very glad that this is the first book of hers I've read, I really liked it!

This is a bit of a science fiction thriller, with a kind of dystopian slant to it.  In this future, scientists have identified a gene that causes people to be violent.  And they have also figured out a way to test for it.  The begin testing all people for it, and those who test positive for the gene, whether they've done anything or shown any tendencies whatsoever are now registered with the government, and have new rules they must follow.  The main character is Davinia, or Davy as she prefers to go by.  She comes from a nice family, in a pretty nice neighborhood, she is even able to go to a private school.  She has been accepted to Juilliard, because as long as anyone can remember she has been a musical prodigy.  She can pick an instrument up and just know or quickly learn how to play with no help.  Her boyfriend is "the man on campus" and she has a wonderful best friend named Tori.  As I mentioned she has a nice family, including an older brother, one who seems to get into trouble a lot.

One day at school she gets a call from her mom, telling her she needs to come home right away.  She is afraid something has happened to her brother, but her mother won't say anything over the phone.  She arrives home to find her principal and a government official who tell her that she has tested positive for the HTS (Homicidal Tendency Syndrome).  Because of this she has been "uninvited" from her school.  She must now attend the public school nearby.  And she is given all sorts of rules and told she must report to the official's office.  When she gets there she sees others and wonders if they are there for the same reason.  As she is getting ready to leave, a tall, very attractive, yet extremely scary boy around her age walks in.  Scary because he has the H tattoo on his neck, which she has learned comes from just one infraction of the rules.

When she gets to her new school, she finds out she is now attending with 5 other HTS positive students.  Their classroom is a cage down by the gyms and locker rooms.  There is a teacher, who is just there for supervision basically, because all their assignments are sent to them from the office and they are to work on them by themselves.  Life is a total change for Davy now.  The supervisor teacher is kind of creepy, two of the other students are also creepy and definitely violent.  There is only one other girl, and Davy soon learns about what she does to survive.  Because as an HTS positive, it is like there are no rules, people can do anything to you, but if you do anything back, then you're the one who is in trouble, not them.  And when there is a school shooting, the outside world begins to get scared, and even attack HTS positive people for no reason.  So all the HTS will be rounded up.

Davy doesn't know what will happen to her.  How will her friends and boyfriend deal with this?  And who is this scary new guy she's met, and is he really as scary as he seems?  And will she begin to exhibit violent characteristics?  Even her own family treats her differently.

A really great story, and I do love the way it is promoted as The Scarlett Letter meets The Minority Report.  Just a great, riveting, edge of your seat story.  Oh yeah, and here I am with the author from last May.

Review: Insomnia by J.R. Johansson

This was a book I'd been intrigued by for awhile, and then I was lucky enough to win a copy of it during the 2013 Debut Authors Bash from the Sleeps on Tables blog.  And it came personally autographed from the author along with some bookmarks, and a cool little "prescription" bottle of pills to help with the "insomnia".  The pills were my favorite candy, Skittles, so that was pretty cool.

The book started out with some really fascinating information about dreaming.  How there are different layers, and how much time you have to sleep to really dream, and about how you do need to have dream sleep in order for your mind to get the rest it needs.  I'm not saying it exactly right, but it was good.  The reason we learn about this is the main character, Parker, has this strange problem.  Whoever's eyes he looks into last for the day he will then see their dreams.  Instead of having his own dreams, he is in their dreams.  And it isn't just like he's dreaming with them, no, he's wide awake and watching their dream whether he wants to or not.  He's tried in the past to interact with them, especially when it first started when he was younger and he would be in his mom's dream and he would try to get her attention, but couldn't.  But it's getting really bad for Parker, he's exhausted.  He's even tried as a last resort to go look at someone who is working all night's eyes, so that he won't worry about them dreaming, and the best he gets from that is a void nothingness.  But it is still not real sleep.  His mom thinks he is on drugs and takes him to the doctor, who also at first thinks that could be the problem.  He even asks the doctor what happens to someone who doesn't get sleep or even dreams.  And his suspicions are confirmed.  He would soon develop hallucinations, psychosis, and then he would die.

But then there is a new girl at school, and somehow he ends up seeing her eyes last for the day.  And suddenly, here is a dream that is completely different than any he's been in before.  He knows it is different because of instead of the many layers usually there, it is just one layer.  And he is able to go and sit by a tree, and sleep.  And Parker knows he must find a way to see this girl, Mia's eyes last every day.  But this turns into a scary thing for her.  Because it seems like he's almost stalking her.  And unknown to Parker at first, Mia is getting threatening emails from someone, and so what his obsession seems like is that he is the one stalking her.  But after a week of her dreams, he is finally feeling rested.  And when he has to go without her dreams even one day, it's like all that rest he got was negated and he is right back where he was.  He finally breaks down and tells his friend Finn about it, trying to get help.  Finn ends up believing him, after hearing about some of his own dreams.

However with all the blackouts and loss of sleep Parker is having, he begins to wonder if he is the one causing the problems for Mia.  And the email address seems to be Parker's even though he doesn't remember ever sending them.  So now, he must figure out if he is innocent or if he is doing things in his sleep, and with the help of his best friend Finn, and his sister Addie, who Parker has a bit of a crush on, maybe he can do it, before he must make a dramatic decision about what to do.

A great book, I was unsure who would be the actual bad guy until the part where it is revealed, and then there is even another twist.  One that I kind of began to think about when we learned that Parker's father, who left when he was younger, also had the "headaches" and some of the issues Parker seemed to be having.

Review: Playing With Matches by Lee Strauss and A Piece of Blue String by Lee Strauss

First, thanks to Netgalley and All Night Reads for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  When I also saw that there was a very short novella that went with Playing With Matches, which was called A Piece of Blue String, I had to go download it, especially once I understood what the blue string in the title referred to.  And it was fortunate that someone finally understood that a 20 page story should be free to download, so I immediately got it downloaded.  As I've mentioned before, like many people I have always been fascinated with reading about World War II and the Holocaust.  Of course it was The Diary of Anne Frank that probably first got me into reading about it, and if you go back through my blog, you can find many other books I've read on this topic.  This book comes from a different side though.  One thing I mentioned in my review of The Book Thief is how it was interesting to read about the time from a German family's point of view, as opposed to what is usually written about, the Jewish point of view.  And this book does the same.

The main character is Emil Radle.  He is German through and through, he is in the Nazi group for kids before they get into Hitler's Youth, and is often ashamed of his parents when they say anything that is doubting what Hitler is trying to do, things that truly he could turn them in for.  Even when another kid in his school does turn in their parents, though, Emil doesn't think about doing that.  Well, let's say he thinks about how he could, but never thinks about wanting to.  And you do have to commend him a bit on his loyalty to his country.  And you can see how he wants so badly to grow up like his Uncle who is a pilot of the Luftwaffe.  His uncle visits, and you can even see the strain between his uncle and his parents.  His parents are worried about what these things will do to their country.  Afraid that it won't all be as good as promised.  At first Emil has a girl that he grew up with who is Jewish.  When he tries to talk to her, by going into her family's bakery and buying something, an SS officer steps in, and makes them give Emil his money back, but lets Emil keep the pastry.  Emil is a witness to all the glass being broken on Kristallnacht from the windows of all the Jewish owned stores.  He watches his friend and her mother as they later have to shovel the snow off the sidewalks.  And even risks himself by giving them his gloves.  And of course, he sees when they are shipped to Poland, as they are told by the press, in order to be out of their country, and sent to camps to work.

Emil really does want to be a good Nazi, but every once in awhile he does have his doubts.  His best friends are Johann and Moritz.  And one day he finds them doing something extremely dangerous.  They are listening to a radio that broadcasts British news.  And the reports here aren't quite as positive and wonderful for Germany as the German news announces.  But what really strikes Emil and his friends is that even though they are reporting the victories for the Allies, they also report their own losses.  There is no word of any losses for the Germans, when hearing the German news, or reading the German papers.  And soon, it becomes something that Emil and his friends want to share with the rest of the German people.  And so they begin hand writing flyers to leave around for people to find. Again, something so dangerous.  It is here that Emil gets to know Johann's sister Katarina better, even falling in love, as much as can be done in this time.

As we read about in The Book Thief the German people are struggling.  What food is being produced in the towns is being sent to the soldiers fighting.  Soon Emil's mom must go to work, and Emil's father is sent to the war.  And as it seems there are more and more losses, and food is getting even scarcer, younger boys are being sent, including Emil, I think at the age of 15 if not younger at first.  Emil and his friends keep hoping with all that they heard happening to defeat the Germans, the war will be over soon.  But it is not over in time to save many of them.  But of course, as we all know about that time, that is the truth, sad though it may be.

Once again, I haven't read many books from the German point of view, and even though Emil does come around for awhile after listening to the British news, there are also times at the end where he does begin to feel a bit of the same, loyalty to his own country, especially as he sees his country being destroyed the Americans and British, and the horrible ways the Russians are fighting back.  I think it is easy to see how these feelings could have existed.  I know it is harder to look back, knowing what was really going on, and feel any sympathy for the Germans, but this can help to make it easier to see why they may have sat back.

Now a quick review of the short story A Piece of Blue String.  It is the diary of Katarina.  We get to see her side of the story, how she deals with all of this as a female during the time period.  How she wants to fall in love, but after losing people she's loved, isn't sure if it is worth it until the war is over.  It wasn't the best novella I've read lately, and definitely it was a good thing that it was free.  But it still had some great things to read and a few bits that really did contribute to the story, and make the crush/love between Emil and Katarina seem pretty sweet.

One final note, I loved that a character was named "Moritz", as that is my mother's maiden name!

Stacking the Shelves - January 4th, 2014

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  My first STS of the year isn't too bad.  Although there are a couple books at the library I'm waiting on, that I hate that I'm having to wait so long for!  But anyway, let's discuss what I did get this week.

E-galleys from Netgalley:


So, the first one sounds like a good read, the second one is a bunch of fairy tales retold by some awesome teen authors, like Julie Kagawa, Amanda Hocking, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Tessa Gratton to name just a few of my favorites!!  And then the final one is by an author that I'm very excited to see get a publishing deal.  While it may not be my normal type of book, I know that I liked her writing, and I want to give it a chance, and definitely review and promote it on my blog.

ARC:

I received this in the mail.  I think I entered or asked for it from a link in a Shelf Awareness email newsletter.  Love the cover, and can't wait to read it!

So how about you?  What did you add to your shelves this first week of 2014?

And while you're here, make sure to go enter my Clear Your Shelves Giveaway.

Review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep is actually the first book I've read in 2014.  I may have posted a review on January 2nd, but it was a book I'd finished in 2013.  At over 500 pages, Doctor Sleep was a heavy duty book, both in time it took to read, as well as trying to hold it!  I was definitely not disappointed in this one.  It was really one of the types of books that got me into Stephen King.  Although you can tell a bit of difference, because the alcoholic goes to AA and gets cleaned up, and it is kind of what helps in the end I think.  Whereas in the book that this is the sequel to, The Shining, the dad was an alcoholic, which definitely was a part of the problem.

Little Danny Torrance is all grown up in this book.  Well, we do start out with him much younger, when his old friend, Dick Halloran, the chef at the Overlook hotel where the tragedy in The Shining took place, comes to him, and helps him to deal with his "shining" as Dick calls it.  He helps Danny to create what they call lock boxes in his head, and shows him how to trap these ghosts from the Overlook that have followed him in the boxes.  While this helps, as Danny, now calling himself just Dan, gets older, he still has some issues.  He can get feelings about other people from touching them.  He can tell when people are close to death, because he will see their faces covered with flies.  And since alcoholism is considered to be genetic, he soon sinks into the same kind of pattern as his father.  Oh he'll try really hard to stay sober, usually after something bad happens, like a fight that gets him thrown in jail, or the one event that stays with him throughout the story.  After a night of too much alcohol, he takes a girl home.  But he doesn't remember all that happened at first, when he wakes up next to her in bed.  He soon realizes that all his money is gone.  Not because she stole it, but because she convinced him to buy cocaine.  As he wanders through the house to find his clothes, he sees the remains, including quite a bit of cocaine left.  Then he hears a little boy's voice.  This is right as Dan's thinking of taking money from the woman's wallet.  He does stop the boy from going to eat or play with the cocaine, but he can see on the boy bruises, meaning someone has been abusing the boy.  But Dan leaves, with her money, anyway.  He saw food stamps in her wallet, and figured that was enough.

And so he continues to wander around the country.  Finding jobs, then losing them when he gives in to the drinking again.  At the same time this is going on, we learn of another group called The True Knot.  This is a group of people who take this "shining" or as they call it "steam" from kids to keep themselves alive, an almost immortality.  We see them as they pick up a young woman with the gift, but then decide to pull her into their group instead of stealing her steam.  Later on we are even subject to seeing them take a boy with the steam, and how they torture him in order to make the steam taste better.  It's a horrible scene in the book, pure Stephen King.

Finally Dan hits a town where he runs into some people who help him get sober.  The first guy he meets is named Billy, an older gentleman running a model train for the town.  Billy sends him to his boss, Casey, who is not tolerant of alcoholics, partly because he once was one.  And he soon becomes Dan's sponsor, and gets him into AA.  And eventually Dan gets a job at the local hospice.  Which is in a building he first saw when he got to town, and that he soon moves into the attic of.

Our other main character is Abra. We learn about her basically at her birth, she is born with a caul on her face.  Which freaks out her parents a bit, but her great-grandmother, who they call Momo, knows that it means she'll have special abilities.  And she does, there is one night when her parents both have really scary dreams, and in them, they see their daughter with numbers on her forehead. Although, mom and dad each see a different number.  They are woken from the dream by Abra's crying.  And she won't stop.  She keeps crying, and so the next day they take her to the doctor, which brings in our other main character, John, or Doctor John.  While they are at the doctor's office, we learn the date is September 11, 2001.  And the numbers that the parents saw on her forehead in the dreams were the numbers of the flights.

Soon all these characters will come together in ways that will lead to the big finale, the big show off.  And the show off isn't all easy and perfect, no, that wouldn't be Stephen King.  I really loved the story.  It was worth all the arm aches I got from trying to hold it while I was eating, or even sitting on the couch.  There are a few of King's recent books I haven't read.  I'm not caught up on the Dark Tower series, don't know if I ever will be, as it was never my favorite.  I didn't read the one about the JFK assassination, not sure if I want to.  And I haven't read the one, Joyland, either.  I never read The Colorado Kid, although I do love the tv show Haven, so I should probably read it since it is sitting on my TBR shelf.

Giveaway Hop: Clear Your Shelf

This Hop features books that need a new home, and is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.  This year I'm giving you the choice of one of the following books.  Because I'm poor, I can only ship US.  Sorry.  Some of the books are ARCs, some are finished copies.


Just fill out the Rafflecopter below, then hop along to the other stops on the Linky below the Rafflecopter.  Thanks for stopping by!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Independent Study (The Testing #2) by Joelle Charbonneau

First, thanks to HMH Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss for allowing me to read this e-galley.  Especially if they read my not so stellar review of the first book HERE.  Now the first book was good, it was just so similar to The Hunger Games that I had trouble reading it.  But I knew it was a pretty good story idea, and did have some unique bits, and so I did want to read on and see if the 2nd book could salvage the story for me.  And I have to say that it did.
In the first book, students from the colonies surrounding the main city of the new civilization were selected to come in and be tested.  The different tests checked their intelligence, problem solving skills, etc.  And a final test for those that made it that far included a type of Hunger Games type of situation.  Only those competing weren't told to kill, but some did in order to increase their chances of passing the test first.  And at the end of the testing, those left, all had their memories erased.  The main character Cia did have her memories erased, but she had left herself a recording of things that she needed to remember and people not to trust.  Her boyfriend, Tomas, seems to maybe remember more, and when Cia has a memory of him taking a pill that will help him keep his memories, she realizes that he does remember.  This book starts off with one more test, one where they decide which career path the students will be proceeding on.  Cia really wants to work with mechanical things, what has always been her strength. But somehow she gets selected for the government/leadership path.  Tomas gets his first choice, biomechanical engineering, where Cia thought she would be as well.  But Cia learns from one of the people who helped her in the first book that she must do whatever is necessary to succeed.  And she realizes just how true this is when she sees one of the students get redirected, and decides to follow him to see what that really means. She learns that it means he dies.  He isn't sent out to the colonies or back home as originally thought or intimated by those in charge.  And soon Cia learns she is being kept under watch, because many of the things she has done to pass the tests have put a red flag up to those in charge.  They assume she has help, even though the things that have caught their attention are only things that anyone who stopped and thought before acting would figure out.  And she wants to help end the Testing the way it is, so that people die.  She finds out from Michal that if she can get an internship in a good place, she might be able to get important information to pass on to the rebels to help with the cause.  But for all of this she must look like she is doing as she should.  She gets the highest number of classes, 9, and the highest internship, working with the president of the Commonwealth. She ends up with allies in other unlikely places.  Her government mentor, Ian, seems to want to help for some reason.  And one or two of the students that are from the city, that didn't go through the Testing in the last book turn out to be helpful as well.
We're left with a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, and I am definitely ready to read on and see what happens next.  Because while she ends up with some new allies, she also finds people that were thought to be on her side, may not really be.
Once again, I will be able to recommend to fans of The Hunger Games, only now I can do it without the trepidation of such an identical story, really it is getting much more original as it goes.

2013 Wrap-Up and Goals for 2014

I only participated in one Challenge this year, the TBR Pile Challenge, and you can see how I did HERE.  I participated in quite a few Giveaway Hops.  I sponsored my September is for Sequels Challenge for the 2nd year, and started a November is for Novellas Challenge.  I passed 1800 followers on GFC.  I got to meet a ton of cool authors, as well as some cool ones I'd met before.  I finally got a school library job this year as well.  My Goodreads goal was 120, and I surpassed it quite a bit!  I won quite a few giveaways this year, only adding to my already huge TBR pile.  All in all, 2013 was a pretty good year.  I'm hoping 2014 will be even better!

For one thing, I plan to attend BEA again this summer!  Yay!!!  Along with that, I'm really going to do some work on trying to get invited to at least one publisher party, like Harlequin Teen or similar.  Just don't know how to go about doing that.  I'll look into it, and start asking around.  Hope there will be a lot of my fellow bloggers there to meet again this year!  I was really wanting to go to ALA this summer now that I'm officially a librarian, but as of now, the plane tickets are way too expensive, so that will probably not happen.  But I did see that the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) will be having their big convention in October in St. Louis, so I will plan to try to go to that.  I will also be setting my Goodreads goal to 125 this year.  

Other blog/reading goals, hmm.  Well, I didn't get around to re-designing my blog this past year, but I'm still hoping to do that this year.  Maybe I can finally get my youngest sister to help me finally.  I plan to have a giveaway every time I reach another milestone of followers.  In fact I need to go pick my 1800 follower winner tonight.  When I reach 1900, I'd like to do a giveaway.  However, I know a lot of people are more into Bloglovin' than GFC these days, so maybe I need to do a giveaway for that as well.  One other thing I want to do is a bit of a change in how I title my blog posts.  I want to start them out with "Review" if it is a review.  That way I can see better how many reviews I'm getting done.  So that's one idea.  And when I'm reading something for my 2014 Prequel and Sequel Challenge, I need to make sure I put something about that in the title so I can keep track as I go along.  

Personal goals, I didn't really reach any of them last year I don't think, not with the walking/exercising/losing weight that is.  But I will try to work on it again!  One thing though, I have an issue that I will need to have surgery for, and it is something that I think has contributed to my weight issue.  So I'm hoping to take care of that in March during my spring break.  Afterwards, I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to my walking, etc.  Well, after I recover, which I'm told could be 3-4 weeks.  And I'm going to set this reward, once I lose 15 pounds, I plan to get my next tattoo, a dachshund of some sort!!  Still coming up with ideas for what I want to do.  And the final goal is to work on training my dogs better.  The older one will be 3, and she's gotten pretty good.  The puppy, now a little over a year, well, he is hiking his little leg on everything, and so I'm going to have to learn to be more strict with him.  If I can't keep my eye on him because I'm on the computer or something, he'll have to be in a cage.  When he's out, on a leash so he can't sneak away from me.  And I think the hardest will be putting him in a cage at night so he won't get down and pee on something while I'm sleeping.  Someone told me to try the leash at night, but I'm afraid somehow he'd strangle himself if I didn't wake up, so I don't know about that. 

So you've probably heard enough about my plans for the year.  Hoping to stay on top of all of them this year.  Also hoping I've remembered everything I want to do this year!  Thanks to all of my followers for being here, and I hope to hear more from you this year!

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge Wrap Up

Well, once again this year, I didn't do a good job at making sure to comment in my reviews if they were for this challenge or not.  So, it took me awhile to figure out if I met my goal of 11-20 books or not.  Here are the books that count for this challenge, and a link to their reviews:

1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Undead by Kirsty McKay
3. Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett
4. Whatever You Make of It by Michelle Sodaro
5. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
6. Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth
7. All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1) by Gabrielle Zevin
8. Because it is My Blood (Birthright #2) by Gabrielle Zevin
9. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
10. My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith
11. The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi
12. Ashen Winter (Ashfall #2) by Mike Mullin
13. Tales from the Scales by Erin J. Shea
14. The Selection by Kiera Cass
15. After:  Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
16. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
17. Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber
18. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
19. Quarantine:  The Loners by Lex Thomas
20. From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don't Die #2) by Katie Alender
21. The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix
22. Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton
23. Scorch (Croak #2) by Gina Damico
24. Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed
25. Origin by Jessica Khoury

So as you can see, I beat my goal by 5 books!  Yay!  

Origin by Jessica Khoury

I've had this book sitting on my TBR pile for quite awhile now.  I picked it up off the table where my bookstore puts ARCs for us to look at and read.  I haven't received as many ARCs from the bookstore anymore due to one of the Children's leads now reading them and taking them.  :-(  Oh well.  I finally got around to this when I saw a sequel available as an e-galley on Edelweiss.
I'd seen many reviews of this, one even talking about a kitten being killed, and that almost made me not want to read it.  I'm not a huge cat fan, allergies, so I'm more of a dog fan.  But I can't stand to see animals get hurt.  But I went ahead and read the book, knowing that would be happening.
If you haven't read this yet, it was a quick read.  Definitely one that caught my attention and kept the pages turning.  The main character of the book is Pia.  She is immortal, and "perfect" according to all the people at the lab where she lives in the middle of a rainforest.  Pia has been educated about just about everything.  She can walk past plants and animals and tell you everything about them, clear from Kingdom all the way to genus and species.  One thing she knows nothing about though is the rest of the world.  She's never been outside of what they call Little Cam.  She has been taught only what she needs to know to join the scientists and the Immortis team.  And now she is being tested to see if she can be one of them.  The tests are some horrible things at times, like the test with the kitten.  Her mother does live there, but has never really been motherly to her.  Her father is there, but because of how things work there, she calls him Uncle.  She calls everyone there either Aunt or Uncle.  She was made through 5 generations of the Immoris serum being given in small amounts.  Any more than was given and it would be deadly.  What she wants more than anything is to have more people like herself.  And so Pia's goal is to get on the team and discover a quicker way to create more immortals, so that she doesn't have to wait 5 generations for a mate or others like herself.  All of this comes from a very rare flower that is impossible to move and replant anywhere other than where it grows.  Which is nearby and why the lab is where it is.  Pia begins to get a bit more curious about the outside world, especially as her birthday approaches.  The whole compound has chosen to celebrate with a party like she has begged for.  And right about this same time, a new female scientist shows up.  She gives Pia a map of the world, and talks about things that she's not supposed to, which also leads to Pia becoming more interested about the outside world and all that she doesn't know.  When a storm goes through, and leaves a hole in the fence, Pia takes the chance and sneaks out.  She finds a boy named Eio, and through him, a small tribe, and learns more about both herself, and the studies going on at her lab.
A lot of interesting twists in the story, and with the way it ended, I'm not quite sure how there will be a sequel, other than how we were told about the main corporation that sponsored the lab having secret labs like this all over the world.  I can't wait to read on, and the kitten killing part is sad, but not anything that I think was done in a way that made it more than an important point in the story.

Last Stacking the Shelves of 2013!!

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  This turned out to be a pretty good week, and I actually only got 1 book as a Christmas gift.  I didn't used to do this meme because I didn't feel like I got many books to share, this year it seems like I keep getting more and more.  Maybe that is how come my TBR pile keeps getting so big.  Anyway, so here we go, my last STS post of the year.

Checked out from the library:

Since I won the ARC of the sequel from Epic Reads, I had to of course check the first in the series out so that I could get going.

ARC received in the mail:

I think I requested this from a contest in the Shelf Awareness newsletter.  I looked through it, and unfortunately as I'm not really much of a cook, and many of the recipes included types of ingredients that I don't eat, I passed this on to a fellow employee at the bookstore where I work who does enjoy cooking.  The interesting thing about that?  She is actually a former student of mine at the middle school where I used to teach.

Christmas present:

I got this from my sister's boyfriend.  I've seen it at the bookstore where I work, but haven't ever had a chance to read it.  It will be on my TBR list for 2014!

E-galleys from Edelweiss:

You may recognize the first book above as one that I had for my Waiting on Wednesday post a week or so ago.  The second book is another I requested that I thought sounded pretty good!  The third book is the sequel to one I read earlier this year called Proxy.  

E-books purchased:

It was a great deal, and now I can finally finish the series!!

And a non-book, but still for reading, a magazine that I got this week:

As I said before, this has been one of the best years it seems.  Although mostly with e-galleys, not as many ARCs as years past.  But hey, getting to read a book is good in whatever form, right?  I guess I just need to make some contacts at some publishers maybe to get some actual ARCs.  I'd also like to get invited to some of the parties that I only heard about at BEA 2 years ago.  Will have to figure those things out as well!

Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky #3)

Once again a trilogy that ends on a great note!  There were definitely some deaths that sucked.  But it wasn't anything that ruined how the story went or ended.  Of course, I first need to say thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  It was so hard to finish the book, knowing that this was a trilogy, and now it was over.  I want so much to read on in this story and find out what happens next.  As I've seen others post on Goodreads, I would also be happy with a story on Roar.  Maybe we could go on with the story, but from his point of view.  Or whatever girl he might be able to find love with after losing Liv?  I don't know.  I just know I'm not ready to leave this world.  Okay, I will try not to spoil the story, but if you haven't read the first two, you should probably stop reading now.
We start where the 2nd book left off.  The Tides, as well as whatever of Aria's people from the pods that left with her are now living in the cave.  Hess and Sable have their own people, as well as Cinder.  Roar and Perry are still having issues, but Aria needs them to talk and get their friendship back on track.  Aria and Perry are not going to hide their relationship anymore.  And the big goal now is to get Cinder back.  And maybe, just maybe, get the people in the cave to the Still Blue.  This is something that needs to be done, so they don't end up having to live permanently in the cave.  The aether storms are getting worse.  The people from Aria's home are scared of the Tides and other people in the cave.  Aria must figure a way to get them to all work together so that they can figure a way to go rescue Cinder and save themselves.  They have a plan, but of course there will be obstacles.  Sable is quite the evil man, and soon Hess even figures out he is being double crossed, but when he tries to work a deal with Perry and Aria, it doesn't go so well.  There is also someone from Aria's past that we meet in this book, and it even leads to a new way of life or at least of thinking for her.
This final installment has tons of emotional bits, lots of adventure and action.  Even moments when you just know that the good guys have to be defeated, that you just know someone important must be dead, although you hope not since there was never a definitive scene showing that.  And in the end, well, it pretty much ends on a great note.  I don't believe you'll be disappointed with how it ends, just as I wasn't.

Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed

This is an ARC I got back when I attended BEA in 2012.  It had been just sitting on my TBR pile until I saw that there was a sequel available on Netgalley.  Then I decided I'd better go ahead and read it so that I could request the sequel.  I got this ARC by requesting it at a booth because it sounded good.  I'm not quite as bold as a lot of other people were at BEA.  I didn't just go up and grab things.  I always felt like I needed to make sure it was okay. Especially after one booth I went to and started to take something, only to be informed the stuff in that booth was only for display.  As many awesome authors that I got to meet, and cool books that I got, I did have a few negative experiences at BEA like that.  So I was kind of a bit timid about just taking things like lots of other people did.  This coming summer I'll be more prepared, and hopefully know better what to do.
Anyway, this was a ghost story, and it was definitely a very interesting one.  In a way it wasn't necessarily ghosts, but almost time travel.  The main character was Sarah Parsons.  She has come to Amber House because her grandmother has passed away, and so there is the funeral, and then getting the house ready to be sold.  Only this is a special house.  It has been in the family for years, and it has quite the history.  A history that Sarah seems to be seeing whenever she touches certain objects within the home.  Turns out that her ability may be something that has been shared with others in her family line.  And often the "ghosts" she sees are even seeing her.  She meets a boy named Jackson, whose grandmother had taken care of her grandmother and the house for a long time.  Sarah's relationship with her mother is kind of strained, not to mention the relationship between her mother and father.  This is made even more clear when an old "friend" of her mother's, a Senator, seems to be even more friendly.  The Senator has a son Sarah's age named Richard.  And her mother is encouraging a flirtation between them, even putting them in situations that Sarah feels really awkward in, until it seems maybe Richard is really interested.  But there is something about Jackson as well, they do have a distant relative in common, and maybe more as the book goes on.  Sarah's younger brother Sammy is autistic, but Sarah doesn't mind.  She is very happy to take care of him and be the sister he needs.
There is a mystery around the house, is it haunted?  Or as Jackson tells Sarah, is there a treasure there from a past inhabitant?  And all of this leads up to a big birthday party for Sarah, that her mother decides to throw in order to kind of show off the house and attract buyers.  But the longer they are there, the more connection Sarah feels to the house and her ancestors.  And so it gets harder and harder to think about losing the house.  Something happens at the end, I won't say what, but it is a bit confusing, and I'm not quite sure if it is what I think happened.  So now I'm glad for the sequel, to see what really happened, and what will happen next.
I have to say this was a very original story, to me anyway.  A very detailed ghost story, with a background that leads up to, and only enriches the whole plot.  I definitely recommend this for an interesting read if you like ghost stories with a bit of a mystery aspect to them.

The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

First I will thank Netgalley, FSG, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  As anyone who follows my blog probably knows, I am a huge fan of dystopian stories.  So this sounded like one of those, although, really more of a post-apocalyptic, but similar.  And it was.  However, it was a bit slow for me.
The main character is Adam Daley, and strangely enough his elderly neighbor Herb.  Things seem to be just a normal day at school.  Adam and his best friend are sitting in computer class, when all the electricity and computers go out.  Now, it's not just those things connected to electricity, even laptops go out.  Something has happened that has caused anything that works with computers to no longer work.  Which means any car without computers in it, older cars, will still work.  And that included Adam's '79 Omega.  Up until this point, his friend Todd had made fun of it.  But now, when it is about the only car in the high school parking lot that will actually start, he's not so amused by it.  Once Adam gets home, after picking up his younger brother and sister from their school, dropping his crush Lori off at her family farm, and also dropping Todd off, he is met by their neighbor Herb.  Herb has a favor to ask.  He wants Adam to drive him to the Pool store.  The drive there is a bit scary as there are people who stare at them as they drive by, some looking as if they'd like to steal the car.  At the pool store Herb has a lot of cash that he give the guy for a ton of chlorine tablets.  It seems Herb may have an inkling about the whole situation not just being a temporary one.  As they're loading the car up with buckets full of the chlorine tablets, they even have a group of men who once again try to take the car.  But Herb moves his jacket to show a gun and the situation is defused.  They get back home and now Herb begins to talk about what may be going on.  He begins planning what they should do, how to be safe, and keep themselves safe.  Many of the plans seem to be quite pessimistic in Adam's point of view.  But as things that Herb has somewhat hinted at begin to occur, it seems maybe he knows what to do.  They must figure out how to secure their neighborhood, as well as what to do in order to keep themselves fed in case things don't get back to normal soon.  This includes talking to Lori's family about farming, and making some improvements in the walls/fences around their neighborhood, as well as planting some fields in yards and school lands.  Also, Adam has a very light plane, called an Ultralight.  And he gets it ready to be flown, and they are able to use it to do scouting to try to help their situation as well.  And while mostly it is just groups of people from neighborhoods that they see walking outside their area, there seems to be a larger group that may not be as innocent, may be out for only themselves.
This is a book that really just goes into the setting up of a community for this type of situation.  Yes there are times when we have conflicts with other people and neighborhoods. But a lot of it is about how they figure out what to do and how to help themselves to survive.  In a way, it feels like what maybe following how the Governor set up his town in The Walking Dead.  Or on the show Revolution, just the beginning of how they got to handling the disaster.  All the stuff that is usually skipped in books or movies or tv shows.  Because it is kind of boring.  Maybe it is important for us to know if such an event does occur.  But honestly, I found it a bit boring.  While it was interesting to hear Herb's strategies, and the reasoning behind what they did, the story did kind of just stall out in my opinion.  And the end was really just kind of a sudden ending, and you're left before probably any of the stuff that would normally be in this type of book starts to occur.  That's just my opinion.  I still gave it a 3, because it may be something that others want to read.  Another issue I had is that I want to know why the things with the computers went out.  And what has happened to Adam's father who is a pilot and would have been in Chicago at the time.  Is the author planning a sequel?  Can't tell.  But I don't know if I'd read on or not.  My need to know those things may not be strong enough to read through another slow story.  400 pages of slowness.  So not one of my top books.  But like I said, on Goodreads I gave it a 3, because it wasn't bad, just wasn't my cup of tea.

Merry Christmas to All My Followers and Friends!

I hope everyone gets to spend time with their family or friends for Christmas, or whatever holiday you might celebrate.  I got to spend last night with my mom, step-dad, brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  Tonight I will be celebrating with my dad, step-mom, 2 sisters, and one sister's boyfriend.

Thanks to all my followers, I'm so glad there are so many of you now, I feel like I get to know a lot of great fellow readers this way!

2014 Prequel and Sequel Challenge

So, I think I'm going to try this Challenge this year, as a lot of the books on my TBR pile, or maybe just my TBR list are sequels to series that I started because the first book was an e-galley, but then I just never got the 2nd book as an e-galley, or bought it, or whatever.  This challenge is co-hosted by Novel Heartbeat (formerly Auntie Spinelli Reads) and Writer Grrl Reads.  

The goal: To read as many prequels and sequels as you can. You set your goal at whatever number works for you.

So, let's see, here are my hopes for this challenge:

1. Rogue (Croak #3) by Gina Damico
2. Requiem (Delirium #3) by Lauren Oliver
3. Prodigy (Legend #2) and Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu
4. Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris:  Deadlocked, Dead Ever After, and After Dead
5. Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2) and A Beautiful Wedding (Beautiful #2.5) by Jamie McGuire
6. Shatter Me series by Tehereh Mafi:  Unravel Me, Fracture Me, and Ignite Me
7. Boundless (Unearthly #3) by Cynthia Hand
8. Sever (The Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano
9. As They Slip Away (Across the Universe #0.5) and Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3)  by Beth Revis
10. I'm hoping to finish The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  I've got #5 on the shelf, #6 is supposed to come out this year.
11. Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor:  Days of Blood and Starlight, Night of Cake and Puppets,  and Dreams of Gods and Monsters
12. The whole Revenants series by Amy Plum
13. Light (Gone #6)  by Michael Grant
14. The Selection series by Kiera Cass:  The Guard (2.5) and The One (#3)
15. The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3) by Julie Kagawa

Those are my hopes for this, and maybe there will be even more!  Mike Mullin is supposed to finish his Ashfall series this year I think.  So I may add on to this.  I just hope I can keep up and make sure to mention in the reviews when they match up to this challenge.

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

So, well, this is going to be a hard book to review.  I only picked it up because I saw the book Red Hill by this author, and it sounded really good, but I was told I needed to read this first.  So I checked it out from the library, thinking if I liked it, it would be one I'd recommend to my sister Sarah who is my fellow chick lit reader.  But, she and I have had many conversations about someone we know who was in a very co-dependent, dysfunctional, unhealthy relationship, and as I read this book, that was what I kept coming back to.  I read this over 400 page book in two days, it was definitely a page turner, and definitely hard to put down.  But I felt guilty rooting for them because of how the relationship was.  If people say that Twilight is a horrible example of an abusive relationship, then there is no way they could possibly like this book.  I never once felt that way as I read Twilight, but this book, I just felt it from the morning they really started getting involved.  I don't know if it is okay to go ahead and read about this, knowing this isn't a good type of relationship.  Is it condoning this?  I don't want to do that.  But the characters were at least interesting.  I can't decide whether to read on, as the next book is supposed to be the same story, but from Travis's viewpoint.
Abby has gone to college with her best friend America.  She is glad to be able to get away from her small town and all the looks she got for who she was, and who she was had to do with who her father was.  But here at school she gets to reinvent herself as a good girl.  And then she meets Travis.  Travis is America's boyfriend Shepley's roommate/cousin.  And he is exactly what she doesn't need.  He is a bad boy.  Tattooed, a fighter, a ladies man.  So they end up becoming friends.  And she seems to be good for Travis.  But she knows that he isn't good for her, so she keeps him at arm's length.  But he does seem to fall for her.  And really, of course, she does seem to fall for him.  It is a best friend type of romance.  But when they do get together, he becomes very jealous, and definitely what would be considered unhealthy jealous.  So she tries to break it off, but that doesn't go well either.  It's a very wild ride.  And maybe, very realistic as there are many people in this type of relationship.
I'm so torn on my review.  It was a good read, but I just feel like I shouldn't read about this.  But I have to stick to what I tell people, just because I read something, doesn't mean I'm going to go out and look for a relationship like that.  So, it's okay, right?
If you've read this, do you get what I'm saying?  Did you feel this way at all?  I'd love to hear some other points of view.