Stacking The Shelves #33

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From a trade:

Perfect Chemistry

An Offer from a Gentleman

It's in His Kiss

A Night Like This

Just Like Heaven

The Hard Stuff

Man. Look at that cover...

If I Stay

This one has really good reviews, so...

The House of the Scorpion

I am DYING to read this one!!! *-*

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What did you get this week?

Mini-Review: The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Selection (The Selection #1)
by Kiera Cass

Published April 24th 2012 by HarperTeen

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia

Publication Date: April 24th, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: e-book, 327 pages 

Series: yup

Source: My Kindle

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My Review

Oh, man. Will you just look at that cover? I LOVE blue. And it's just so... so... pretty and blue. LOL. And it's a dystopian book! *-* Wow, right? The blurb didn't really catch my attention, but that cover... I just had to read it.

So it took me while to get into the story and warm up to America Singer (Really? That's her name? REALLY?) and her life. Thankfully, things quickly started to fall into palce and settings and situations were better explained and I just started going bananas over her (very unnerving) world and its weird laws.

The plot had this very 'TV Show' vibe to it (which, of course, it sort of was), and America was almost always such an annoying Goody Two-Shoes, which bothered me a lot. However, the love triangle was pure awesome sauce. I gobbled the whole Aspen/America/Maxon thing up and was left wanting MORE.

To me their romance was such an emotional roller-coaster! As soon as Aspen appeared in the book I instantly wished I had him for myself, and then BAM, he goes and breaks my America's heart like that! Literally heart-wrenching, you guys. My chest really sort of hurt. Okay, enough drama.

I got so lost into the story that when it was over I was like 'That's it?'. I forgot to check beforehand if it was part of a series, so it was a bit of a let down to be left hanging like that... but that's the idea, I suppose.

After a lukewarm start, The Selection sucked me in and wouldn't let me go. The story stayed in my mind for hours after I was done, which is kind of rare in my case. But not bad. Not bad at all.

(sort of spoiler ahead)

However, I believe there won't be many difficulties for America to choose. Okay, scratch that, there will be a LOT of drama. What I meant to say was: she just needs to make a decision, because either way all her problems are solved. Aspen, who was from a lowly caste, became part of the Castle's guard. He is now a Caste 2 or 3, if I'm not mistaken. And as America joined the competition, she instantly became a 2. If she chooses him, they'll both be part of the higher castes, which meand their families will also be high castes, and they will never go hungry again. Happy ending. And if she chooses Maxon and becames a freaking princess, she'll be super high Caste and, ditto here, everybody lives happily ever after. That is, Aspen not included. LOL. Oh, and there will be the super plus that she'll be able to make an actual difference when ruling, helping out the lower castes or, who knows, maybe even bringing an end to all that nonsense. But let's slow down here.

The Selection is much better than I expected and I can't wait for the next book. :)

2013 TBR PILE Reading Challenge

Welcome to 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge!!!

6 BLOGGERS, 12 MINI-CHALLENGES, 24 BOOKS TO WIN!!! 

We all have those books. We buy them, win them, they're gifted to us.. Then we put them up on a bookshelf and there they stay, collecting dust, waiting for the time when we'll finally decide to pick them up..Join us on a quest to dust off your TBR Pile and read all the books you've been telling yourself you'll read next time you'll get a chance.. This is your chance! And we've got PRIZES!!! :D

Challenge Guidelines:

This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2013 - Dec 31, 2013.

Anyone can enter! You don't have to be a blogger, as long as you review the book you've read! (On your blog, Amazon or Goodreads/Shelfari!) Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2012 and earlier! NO  2013 ARCs and 2013 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed! You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you. When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2013 PILE Reading Challenge. (If you don't have a blog, post about it on Facebook or Tweet!) You can move up levels, but no moving down. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2013, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year. On the 20th of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. -For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. The giveaway will be open until the next wrap up post goes up! (i.e. the entire month) If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;)  December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up -January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - a box of books.  You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

Levels:

(how many books you're planning to read for this challenge in 2013)

1-10 - A Firm Handshake

11-20 - A Friendly Hug

21-30 - A Sweet Kiss

31-40 - Love At First Sight

41-50 - Married With Children

Schedule:

January 20th: Evie @Bookish (www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com)

February 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)

March 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)

April 20th: Tiffany @Escaping.. One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)

May 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)

June 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)

July 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)

August 20th: Tiffany @Escaping One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)

September 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)

October 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)

November 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)

December 20th: This one will be posted on all the blogs. There will also be a huge BOX OF BOOKS giveawayand this time you can link up ALL YOUR TBR Pile REVIEWS you wrote for the entire year!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Here's what I'm planning to include in my challenge:

❤ Origin by Jessica Khoury - click to read review (Jan)
❤ A Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros - click to read review (Jan)

❤ Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson - click to read review (Jan)
❤ The Ideal Wife by Mary Balogh - click to read review (Jan)

❤ Poison Study - read (Jan)

❤ If I Stay - read (Jan)

❤ Beautiful Disaster - read (Jan)

❤ Article 5 - read (Jan)
                                 January Challenge - Book Spine Poem

❤ The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges - read and review to come (Feb)
❤ The River Knows by Amanda Quick - read and review to come (Feb)
❤ Hunted by Cheryl Rainfield - read and review to come (Feb)

❤ Born Wicked

❤ The Name of the Star

❤ First Grave on the Right

❤ Rebel Heart

❤ Cinder 
❤ Ashes
❤ The Devouring
❤ 

For now I'm aiming at (at least) A FIRM HANDSHAKE! :) But we'll see later on.

Found this "Bi-Curious George" at the local Barnes & Noble

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

They might be giants

Now that's just mean. 

I like the irony of the 'Horror' section being somewhat close to the 'Bibles' and 'Christian Fiction', though. :p

Stacking The Shelves #32

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From an online trade:

My Invisible Boyfriend

This one really isn't all that... >.>

and

As a belated birthday gift, I got a copy of:

Pet Sematary

I've always wanted this one. *-* 
and

Loving this cover!

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What did you get this week?

One sentence can change the whole Harry Potter story

Indeed. That would be disappointing. And incredibly sad.

My thoughts on: Shift (Shade #2) by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shift (Shade #2)
by Jeri Smith-Ready

Published May 3rd 2011 by Simon Pulse

Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend, Logan, died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection with the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to.
Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.

As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Publication Date: May 3rd 2011

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Format: Hardcover, 367 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Won from giveaway

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WARNING!!! There might be spoilers ahead. As a matter of fact, there are SOME.

I won this copy on a giveaway sometime last year. I then purchased a copy if the first book in the series, Shade, which I promptly read and loved. However, I somehow became very busy with college and review books and kept forgetting to read Shift. Last week I finally forced myself to get to it already. LOL. I quickly reread Shade and cracked the spine of this pretty baby... I gulped it all up in one afternoon.

I'm crazy about Logan. Truly am. So the minute his ghostly body became living flesh for a short period of time, I was all "YAAAAAAAY!!! He's BACK! Finally we're gonna have some action." Nah. It was another almost for Aura and Logan. Zach totally won this round. LOL.

I love Zach, too, don't get me wrong. His accent, kilt and green eyes are all very dreamy... but I can't resist a bad boy. Especially a rockstar. :P Oh, and Zach can be very cold sometimes... and not all these times are Aura's fault.

Anyway, Shift starts with Logan still as a runaway Shade. Aura keeps trying to call him back, and, after 3 months, he finally appears. Aura then manages to bring him back to normal ghost state, again. Then the solstice/flesh and blood momentarily thing happens and they almost have at it... but not. Logan becomes very excited about the prospect of being 'alive' again and starts to plan a final final performance (again) the next time he turns human. He can't wait to play his guitar one last time.

Aura is torn between living, breathing, tempting Zach, and sort-of living, but still dead, Logan. Zach is also at his limit, and he makes it very clear to Aura. She needs to choose already.

After a misunderstanding between them, Zach ends up asking Aura's nemesis, Becca Goldman, for the prom. And Aura has the brilliant idea of asking Dylan, Logan's younger brother, who has a serious crush on her.

The love triangles are clearly very strong in this book, and so are Aura's indecisions and screw-ups. She continuously decides to let go of Logan, but every time something reinforces how much he loves her, she's not sure what to do. Zach also keeps sends her some very mixed signals...

All the while, the DMP investigations continue as Aura and Zach get closer and closer to revealing her mother's secrets and unveiling the Last/First mystery, with the help of Eowyn. We finally see what happened on the day of the Shift, we finally understand how they were the only ones to be born in those minutes... and who Aura's father is. Now we just need to know what exactly the Shine was, and why the DMP are working so hard trying to detain them.

Shift was a lovely read, even if sometimes it made my head spin. LOL. But that's love: confusing, indecisive, hot then cold... it's just that the ending was so 'perfect', and filled me with such a sense of 'completion', that I am not sure a third book was really necessary. I mean, all my questions were answered (well, all the important ones) and it's very clear who Aura'll end up with... anyway, I'll still check Shine out, but I'm very satisfied with the way things ended in Shift. :)

If you like complicated YA love stories with paranormal twists to it, then you'll love this series.

Teaser Tuesday #40

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, just do as following:

• Grab your current read

       • Open to a random page
      • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
      • Be careful not to include any spoilers so as not to ruin the book for others.

Make sure to share the title and the author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR piles.

I'm sure we wore the same sick, horrified expression: the situation that had already been as wretched and heartbreaking as it possibly could be had just gotten worse..

Luc was one of them.

Balefire (Balefire #1-4), (A Chalice of Wind, chapter 21, page 243)
by Cate Tiernan

Oh, wow! Turns out I really dig Cate Tiernan! And here I thought I wasn't much of a fan of witch stories... there's always an exception, I guess. ;)
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What is your teaser this week?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #41

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey. 

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I'm Currently Reading:


Finished:


DNF:

I had no idea this was another Twilight fanfic... >.>

Last Reviews posted:
Quickie Review: Losing It by Cora Carmack
Review: Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings #1) by Jackson Pearce
Review: Everything and the Moon by Julia Quinn

Next Reads:

Origin

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What are you reading this week?

Stacking The Shelves #31

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From an online trade:

The River Knows

The Hunger Games

The Fiery Cross

Drums of Autumn

I also finally bought these, but didn't take a pic, so:

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

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What did you get this week?

I want a bookshelf like this at home.

This shall one day be mine.

Quickie Review: Losing It by Cora Carmack

Losing It
by Cora Carmack

Published October 12th 2012

Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Genre: New Adult, Adult, Contemporary

Publication Date: Oct 12th 2012

Publisher: the author

Format: ebook, 204 pages 

Series: no

Source: My Kindle

________________________________

My Review

With a title and cover like these, how could I possibly stay away from this book? Day-am. I got it as quickly as I could and, ignoring my pile of TBR books waiting in line to be read this year, set up to read it. Because I just couldn't wait.

Losing It was a lovely read. *-*

And, strangely enough, I don't know what much else to say about it. Wait, yes I can. It all comes down to this:

Garrick.

Tall, yummy, sexy, youngish, deliciously built, kind-hearted, blue-eyed, British-accented Garrick. 

I loved that guy. And so did the main character, Bliss, aka, the sacrificing Virgin.

My main issue with this book was that, after the first couple of chapters, things just became sort of unbelievable to me.

They met at the bar, had a lovely discussion about Shakespeare (be still my heart), and we could instantly see that they clicked, that the chemistry was there and was more than right, that they had so much in common, that things were starting to fall into place, that here was no love at first sight, but that it was obviously right around the corner, and that if only they gave it a try... but BAM. Bliss puts a stop to things right before she gives up her V-card to the perfect guy, Garrick. Even after promising she would give it up as soon as possible, regardless of the taker. 

I could not get past that. How could she not go through with it? She was comfortable in her skin, with what they were doing, she was comfortable with HIM and he was a perfect gentleman. What else could she want? So, okay, he was, technically, still a stranger. I just feel that a lot of trouble and unnecessary drama could have been avoided... but then again, if she had gone through with it, there would have been no book. :P

Bliss was sweet, but felt very immature and whiny to me, especially for someone just about to graduate from college. I liked her name, though. It wasn't overly common, nor was it too cheesy nor weird. Her friends were all very interesting characters, but the rest of the story could not hold my interest. I found myself flipping the pages on my Kindle to see what would happen after, and did not stop very often on my way to the ending, to be honest.

Well, what else can I say about this book that I read in fastforward mode? The hot scenes were pretty hot, I have nothing to complain about those AT ALL. There were some stereotypes from YA in the book that pissed me off, even if this is what people are now calling new Adult (I guess it's just a sort of grown-up, sexualized YA). The couple spent most of their time avoiding each other, then getting stuck in misunderstandings and hurting each other, then getting together again... that was annoying. Oh, and they didn't talk much, ergo, the misunderstandings. Also, the ending was almost too perfect, I think.

All in all, it was worth it for the steamy parts, but the rest really didn't work for me. But if you're looking for something fresh and light, this might be perfect for you.

Teaser Tuesday #39

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, just do as following:

• Grab your current read

       • Open to a random page
      • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
      • Be careful not to include any spoilers so as not to ruin the book for others.

Make sure to share the title and the author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR piles.

"After seventy-two hours of gathering data, plotting flight trajectories, and analyzing theories, you have only one conclusion to offer me."

The imposing Scotsman was all but squirming in his brogans. "Aye, sir. The wee lass was ridin' a broom."

Breath of Magic (Lennox Family Magic #1)
by Teresa Medeiros, Mass Paperback Edition, page108.

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I am LOVING this book. I'll be sure to add a review soon, so stick around. XD 

What is your teaser this week?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #40

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey. 

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I'm Currently Reading:


Finished:

I LOVED Destroy Me. The book Glass was very intense and sad, but I enjoyed it like crazy, too. Oh, and I reread the first two books in The Mediator series (this time in English), one of my favorites.

DNFs:

I got tired of so many thirty-year-old virgin blondes...

Last Reviews posted:
Review: Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings #1) by Jackson Pearce
Review: Everything and the Moon by Julia Quinn

Next Reads:

I'll have to write a review for this one soon, the poor thing. It has none on Goodreads. LOL.

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What are you reading this week?