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Monday, April 1, 2013

March Wrap-Up

This month I really thought I would be back in the game completely, but it just kind of slipped away again. Oh well; at least the school year's almost over.

Memes

Reviews

Other Things

March's Reading Status
7 books, 911 pages

Reading Challenge Status
Let Me Count the Ways
Book Verison - 5476/10001 pages
Audio Version - 500/9000 minutes
13x7 in 2013 - 20/91 books
A to Z Series - 8/26 books

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Review: Earth Sim by Jade Kerrion

Earth Sim by Jade Kerrion
207 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 30/3/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I was contacted by Ms. Kerrion asking if I would be interested in reviewing her book. I took an interest to the synopsis and things went from there!

Review: I absolutely loved this book! It didn't take me very long to realize where the title came from, and I really enjoyed being carried through the Earth's history. (Noted history nerd here. Now if only textbooks could be written like this.)

Jem and Kir (unique names ♥) will definitely be going on my favorite characters list. Jem's constant sarcasm and overall seriousness were marched very well with Kir's ever-present good mood and humour. One thing that I didn't notice until the end of the story (and is still kind of surprising -- but in a good way) is that there was barely any romance. During the entire novel my brain just assumed that Jam and Kir would end up together. And so when it didn't happen, my mind was momentarily shocked. At the same time, I'm glad the romance was unobtrusive because I feel as if it might have taken away from the main aspect of the story.

The plot was really magnificent. Kir and Jem messed up the progress of the simulation so many times that it was truthfully kind of funny reading about Europe's suffering from the Black Death. (Yes, very inhumane.) I also liked how Kerrion mixed in the plot with Lukas and Jem's true form I suppose you could call it. The situation even had an effect, albeit a small one, on the Earth simulation that made it an even more interesting part of the story.

All in all, Earth-Sim was a great read. It really makes you think about how the Earth actually got here, and while that probably wasn't Kerrion's purpose for writing it, it's quite appealing to the human mind.

Colorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and PhotosShelf-WorthyColorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and Photos

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

What's Your Status? #76 & In My Mailbox #60

This is everything since my last WYS/IMM post!
______________________________

What's Your Status?

Reviews:

Memes:
~In My Mailbox (this is the last one I did)

Finished This Week:

Currently Reading:

Top of the TBR Pile:

In My Mailbox
Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

Received for review

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Review: Outsiders by Bailey Vaughn

Outsiders by Bailey Vaughn
65 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 21/3/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Action
Goodreads page, Amazon page

Motivation to Read It: I was contacted with a request to read the new work, and after reading the synopsis I was interested to indulge in the pages.

Review: Let me start off by saying that this book was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be. However, don't take that as a con to reading it; even though it was shorter than most, it was very well written and captivated me from the beginning.

Bailey Vaughn has a way of writing that made me long for the next part of the story. The plot carried along nicely. Due to the book being short and the author wanting the plot to cover a certain period of time, you sometimes had big time gaps summed up in a paragraph or two. I liked this, however, because I felt as if it fit really well with the story. It wasn't necessary to be updated everyday or even every week with what the main characters went through.

Speaking of characters, I absolutely loved Hannah, Jaise, and Nickolai. All the charries had a lovable asset about them, but the formerly named three were definitely the ones I fancied the most. Hannah and Jaise were favourites for obvious reasons. The main notion, though, was that their love for each other was so constantly solid. It was never "It could be actual feelings" or "I might be in love with him/her"; they knew they were in love and acted as such (as much as they could anyway). In Nickolai's case, I adored the fact that he never gave up trying to get with Hannah, although I'm sure he realized she didn't want him. Takes some dedication to keep pursuing even after rejection, wouldn't you say?

Overall, Outsiders was a great book to read, and I'd gladly recommend it to others that were interested in indulging themselves in Patterson Falls.

Colorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and PhotosShelf-WorthyColorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and Photos

Friday, March 15, 2013

Review: Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Geography Club (Russel Middlebrook, #1) by Brent Hartinger
244 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 6/3/2013
Genres: Gay/Lesbian, Young Adult, Romance, Realistic Fiction
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I was contacted by Brent asking to review the series's latest novel, The Elephant of Surprise. Since I hadn't read any of the series before, I agreed to review the entire series.
(Stay in touch with the blog! I will be posting reviews of the books over the next couple of weeks.)
Review: This was my first novel with a gay main character. I have to say that it was amazing. It's one of the funniest books I've read, but even without the humour it had a great plot and the characters were really enjoyable.

Russel Middlebrook finds himself a hidden outcast in modern-way high school, where homosexuals aren't exactly going to be treated like royalty. That's the reason why no one knows that he's gay. And then the most popular kid in the school finds out. How's that for a horror story?

The characters in Geography Club were really enjoyable and funny. All throughout the novel my highlighting draws about every two paragraphs to the oh-so-many entertaining quotes I found while I indulged myself. I also thought that the characters got along and understood each other very well, which is definitely important in books. They made you want to be cheerful with them, or worried, or whatever emotion was being portrayed.

The plot was unquestionably entertaining  I loved how it kind of skipped over days (and weeks?) sometimes to get to the next point in time that important events take place. At the same time, it actually annoyed me a little a couple of times because I loved the charries so much that I wanted to spend every possible moment with them. (Creep status; I know.) I was glued to the story. I found myself longing to read it even when I knew that there was no way it could happen at that moment.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who was willing to read it. Even if they weren't, I'd find a way to make sure they read it. Very well-written, and worth taking the time to devour.

Colorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and PhotosSatisfying eBookColorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and Photos

Friday, March 1, 2013

February Wrap-Up

This month's reading wasn't as wonderful as last, but I had a lot of posts!

Memes

Reviews

Other Things
WWReadathon Valentine's Edition (Goals, Update One, Two, & Three, Wrap-Up)

February's Reading Status
4 books, 1093 pages

Reading Challenge Status
Let Me Count the Ways
Book Version - 4565/10001 pages
Audio Version - 0/9000 minutes
13x7 in 2013 - 13/91 books
A to Z series - 6/26 books

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

#TUSBlood Book Tour: Initiate by Tara Maya

Although the book tour is for Blood, the sixth book in the series, I have indulged myself in the first due to my not having read any of the series before.

Initiate (The Unfinished Song, #1) by Tara Maya
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 20/2/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance, Fantasy
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I was contacted about the Blood tour and was interested in the series.

Review: I must say that I sometimes judge books by their covers, but only in the sense of "Is this YA or Adult?" That's the very question I asked myself when I saw the Blood cover, but I think I've finally learned my lesson this time. From the content of the first book, this series is nowhere near adult.

It took me a while to remember that Dindi and a few other main characters were actually teenagers. I'm not sure why, but my brain just wanted them to be adults. Once I got past that, however, the story was so captivating and intriguing to me that it became easier and easier for me to get lost in the . . . pages? (I mean, I was on my Kindle, so what do I say? I was lost in the Kindle Locations? Someone please enlighten me on this matter.)

Anyhow, the plot and setting were definitely interesting. I loved how it was about tribes; with all the books I've read, I've only run into that once so I really wanted to keep reading because it was so refreshing to have something different. The plot carried pretty swiftly, I think. At times it felt like we were just getting used to one thing and then they were moving on to another place or the story had moved on to the next big event. However, I don't necessarily think this was a bad thing because I was so into the novel that I wanted to know what Dindi did next quickly (most times quicker than was really possible).

The characters were also really great. One thing I loved was that we got to see several different perspectives. I always want to know some of the other characters' thoughts and reason for doing things because sometimes that actually helps me to clear up the story. Anyway, Initiate's characters were just amazing. The things they went through, the way they talked -- that made it kind of hard to remember that they were younger teenager. They seemed so much older than what the author wanted them to be. But overall, the charries really were fantastic. They had a lot of life to them, especially Dindi and Gwenika, and that was fun to see.

Initiate as a whole was truly a marvelous book, and I'm excited to start the second novel of the series, Taboo. Take my word for it: you'll really like this book if you're into paranormal!

Colorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and PhotosShelf-Worthy/Satisfying eBookColorful Animated Butterfly Pictures, Images and Photos

Monday, February 18, 2013

What's Your Status? #75 & In My Mailbox #59

What's Your Status?

Bookish Happenings:

Memes:

Finished This Week:
~Nothing.

Currently Reading:
~Life of Pi by Yann Martel, page 180
~Initiate by Tara Maya, 28%
~The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane,  page 76
~Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (audio), at 3:36

Top of the TBR Pile:
~Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
~Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

In My Mailbox
Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

Friday, February 15, 2013

#WWReadathon (Valentine's Edition!): Wrap-Up

Overall I didn't really do as wonderful as I was hoping, but I'm glad that I at least kept pushing myself to read throughout the readathon! As long as I'm reading even a page a day, I'm happy. I finished one book and started three others.

Finished
--The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen (10/2)

Continued
--Life of Pi by Yann Martel (14 pages)

Started
--The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (61 pages)
--The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton (10 pages)
--Initiate by Tara Maya (17%)