Hi friends! As you may know, I've had quite the dilemma with my blog due to a personal crisis. While I love blogging here, I never felt like I completely gave it my all. For now I am closing my blog and will be a contributor on my good friend Kayla's blog, The Bibliophilic Nerds! She has a wonderful blog and I am honored to be a part of it. I hope you will come visit us! We'd love to see you there because we like hanging out with all book nerds. I will still be on Twitter and Goodreads so I won't be completely gone. Stay bookish my friends, and I hope to see you around!
Sincerely,
Stacie
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Published: January 3, 2012
Publisher: Square Fish
Pages: 387
Genre: Fairytale/Science Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
WHAT I LIKED!
- This book gave me ALL THE FEELS!!! Not just because of Prince Kai, but because the whole story captivated me to my core. Marissa Meyer has such wonderful writing that captures every detail of the book making you want so much more of the story.
- I enjoyed reading about a different version of Cinder. She is not the perfect, beautiful woman that the fairytale portrays her to be. Cinder is part cyborg with missing limbs and is a mechanic for a living. I liked that she was not some delicate flower who could be taken for granted. She was sarcastic, funny, and could hold her own for the most part.
- I absolutely loved Iko, Cinder's sidekick robot friend! She was hilarious for being a cyborg and always tried to make the best out of anything. It was really funny when she fantasized about putting on pretty dresses, plus she had the cutest crush on Prince Kai.
- The romance between Cinder and Kai was perfect. There was no insta-love! The relationship was gradual and the flirting was cute. I also liked the fact that the romance did not overbear the storyline. I really hope that Kai finds out the truth about Cinder and forgives her!!
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- I positively HATE Pearl, Adri, and Queen Lavana!!! They were such hateful and hurtful people. I really hope what's getting to them! LOL. I know it's part of the story to have villains, but I can still hate them.
- There was not much action in this story, but that's okay for me. I still enjoyed the book when at times it got a little slow.
FINAL VERDICT
The bottom line with Cinder was that it was an excellent introduction to a fantastic series! I cannot wait to continue the series. I hear Scarlet and Cress are even better so I'm really excited about that. I would highly recommend this series if you like to read fairytale retellings with some science fiction in the mix. This book has some crazy twists and turns, beautiful world building, and I cannot wait to see what else Marissa has up her sleeve!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
New Year, New Post!
~Stacie
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Stacking the Shelves (3)
Happy Holidays everyone!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. I got lots of books for the month of November! While I am super happy to get all the books I want, sadly I cannot get as many books anymore due to a family crisis. Not sure how long I will be able to do this, but we'll see. So here is my awesome haul I got!
BOOKS I BOUGHT!
BREATHE by Sarah Crossan
THE DEMON KING by Cinda Williams Chima
FIRE by Kristin Cashore
FALSE MEMORY by Dan Krokos
REACHED by Ally Condie
ADAPTATION by Malinda Lo
WHAT'S LEFT OF ME by Kat Zhang
THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater
THE INDIGO SPELL by Richelle Mead
TANDEM by Anna Jarzab
HOW TO LOVE by Katie Catugno
FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes
All these books I haven't read and I'm dying to read them! I have to know the ending to Ally Condie's Matched Series, and I really need to catch up with The Indigo Spell. I love that series!
BOOKS I WON!
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA by April G. Tucholke
I won this from the awesome Kayla DeGroote at The Bibliophilic Nerds
BOOKS I GOT GIFTED!
THE BURNING SKY by Sherry Thomas
Chrys from Oh, Chrys hosted A Bookish Christmas, where bloggers participate in a Secret Santa (but we know who our partner is) so to speak. The super sweet Anya from On Starships and Dragonwings gave me this book! Thank you Anya, I cannot wait to read it!
TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson, plus a Snow White mug hehe
This was a gift from The Hubs because he loves me so much lol!
BOOKS I GOT SIGNED!
THE WOLF GIFT by Anne Rice
When I was in Vegas for the Vegas Valley Book Festival, Anne Rice was going to be in L.A. signing her new book. My sister and cousin are huge fanatics of her, so they went and got a signed copy for me too!
THE BITTER KINGDOM by Rae Carson and THE BURNING SKY by Sherry Thomas
During the time I was in Vegas, I knew that the Pitch Dark Tour was there previously in September. I went to that B&N to see if they had any signed copies left. Low and behold they had these lovely beauties and they look so pretty in person!
E-BOOKS I BOUGHT!
TEARDROP by Lauren Kate
THE EYE OF MINDS by James Dashner
PERFECT RUIN by Lauren DeStefano
ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE by Kate Karyus Quinn
SIEGE AND STORM by Leigh Bardugo
FINDING IT by Cora Carmack
FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK by Melina Marchetta
POISON PRINCESS by Kresley Cole
STEELHEART by Brandon Sanderson
That is the lovely stack I got. What did you get over the month of November?! Link me up if you like!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: November 26, 2013
Pages: 474
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.
Wow, Katie McGarry has managed to do it again with this tremendous story! She really knows how to connect with broken characters and make them so genuinely authentic. I loved Isaiah's story, I'm so glad he got his own story because he was awesome in Pushing the Limits. I did read the books out of order, but it in no way causes confusion. Unless you don't want spoilers, then don't read them out of its order.
Isaiah's story begins with him being heart broken over a certain girl. He thinks he's done with girls for now, but low and behold he comes to the rescue of a girl named Rachel. Rachel is the awkward, rich girl that everyone makes fun of for puking years ago. You see, she has a phobia of speaking in public, so she gets panic attacks and throws up. The only thing that makes her feel comfortable and in self control is when she drives. One night, she decides to make an idiotic move to drag race. Isaiah urges her to leave knowing she is getting into the wrong kind of trouble, but she doesn't listen. Now she and Isaiah are stuck owing debts to a gangster. This leaves a insta-love kind of story, but I believe it works well for them. They are two lost souls who believe that they can help each other and that is when they fall in love. There was definite chemistry between the two. They also had their steamy moments where you couldn't help but fan yourself hehe.
I loved reading Isaiah's point of view. He was confident, cocky, HOT, yet he had the warmest heart and he just wanted to belong to someone. Growing up in foster care has left Isaiah isolated with no real family except for his friends, Noah and Echo. Now that he is almost eighteen, his mother from prison has been out, and has wanted to get in contact with him. He has conflicting emotions running through him because he does not want to see a mother who has left him over ten years ago, yet deep down he is curious about his past. I felt so horrible for him because Isaiah wants to have a good future and not be one of those kids who went bad in the system. The only thing he excels at is cars. Cars are his passion and he devotes himself in his Auto mechanics class in hopes that he can get a good job when he graduates high school. He also has a real compassionate side. Yes, he's had all the girls he can get, but when he loses Beth he is done being a one night stand kind of guy. When he develops feeling for Rachel, a brand new side comes out of him that he didn't realize existed. He becomes happy and hopeful when Isaiah is around Rachel, and that gets him to see that he can have a bright future.
Rachel on the other hand was a bit of a struggle. I liked her, but I didn't love her. She had a good heart and she would blossom when she was around Isaiah, though every time she left him, she was such an insecure person. Rachel always doubted everything, and she didn't have a back bone to boot! There were times I wanted to yell at her to stand up to her family, especially her brothers who always babied her or put her down. Her brothers were jerks! I did not like them in the least bit. Also, her mother was a pain in the ass too. Rachel's mother always compared her to her first daughter, Colleen who died of Leukemia. Colleen was the perfect daughter, making never ending comments on how Rachel should be just like her. I did feel bad for Rachel on that part, but I wanted to strangle her for not saying anything. After many battles with herself, she FINALLY sticks up for all that she's been hiding with her family. That is when I started to really like Rachel.
The side characters were great. Some I really enjoyed such as Logan and Abby, but then there were the bad ones like Rachel's brothers. Ethan, the twin brother of Rachel, was okay. He at least put Rachel's feelings into consideration so he wasn't a complete (pardon my language) asshole. Abby on the other hand was awesome! I loved her abrupt straight forward personality. She some how became Rachel's impromptu best friend. They clicked in a weird way because they both didn't really have friends before and they had awkward conversations. Abby was a bad ass friend too who stuck up for Rachel when there was danger, and she flirted with boys like it was nobody's business. I really hope she gets a story of her own in the future. The next book in the series is Take Me On with West's point of view. I'm not sure how I feel about that since I didn't care for him in this book, but I'm also curious to see why he has such anger issues. We will see when the time comes.
This was a spectacular companion novel to Pushing the Limits. Katie's writing is wonderful and she really knows how to send me to the core of my emotions. She just gut wrenches me lol. This novel made me cry especially towards the end, and you will know when that part comes. I'm so happy that Isaiah got his happily ever after. I really recommend this book if you want some steamy, angsty romance. Or if you have started this series, I believe it's a fantastic sequel.
Favorite Quote:
"It's only then that I realize that we're both angled across the table. We're mirrors of each other and we are shockingly close. So close our foreheads almost touch and I can feel the heat radiating from his body. Our heads tilt in the same direction and, in the center of the table, our hands are a breath's distance from a caress.
The energy and the warmth surrounding us...butterflies swarm in my stomach and take flight. This isn't me. None of it. I'm not the girl who hangs in a bar. I'm not the girl who is comfortable talking to guys. And I'm sure not the girl who leans over the table to be close to anyone. Yet I'm doing all those things and I'm loving every freaking second."
Pg. 73 Rachel thinking about Isaiah.
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