Shrinking the TBR Pile #4

Shrinking the TBR Pile is a weekley meme that Ashley from What's Your Story? hosts. Ashley has created a fabulous way to read books from your TBR Pile. Just number all the books in your pile, then every week draw from a hat (or whatever you prefer) three numbers. The books that correspond to those numbers is what you read this week.


This week I picked 5, 41, and 43.

Those correspond to:

#5

 #43

# 41
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm pretty excited to read all of those books!

In My Mailbox (47)

We have Kristi at The Story Siren to thank for hosting IMM every week.

Library:

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn- “I’ve left some clues for you.

If you want them, turn the page.

If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Private school, rich friends, vacations in France--Kate has it all, except a belief in love.

When Kate's family purchases a hotel in the Pacific Northwest, she enters a world that is wholly unknown to her. She never has any privacy because of the constant flow of guests. And as the hotel owner's daughter, she struggles to make friends.

Then she meets Caleb, a strange combination of working-class, Hawaiian culture, and Christian bad boy. He talks about love in an all new way that she finds so alluring. But the two have nothing in common. He rarely smiles, rides a motorcycle with a rough crowd from town, and worst of all, he totally ignores Kate. But Kate has something that he needs and she resolves to prove to him that what she has doesn't define who she is.


From Traveling ARC Tours:

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Molton- When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.


A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

Bought:

Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts- As the public face of Vows wedding planning company, Parker Brown has an uncanny knack for fulfilling every bride's vision. She just can't see where her own life is headed. Mechanic Malcolm Kavanaugh loves figuring out how things work, and Parker is no exception. Both know that moving from minor flirtation to major hook-up is a serious step. Parker's business risks have always paid off, but now she'll have to take the chance of a lifetime with her heart.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So That's what I got this week. What did you get?

2011 Debut Author Challenge

The ever so lovely Kristi at The Story Siren is hosting the fantastic Debut Author Challenge again for 2011. This is my second year participating in this challenge.

Kristi has already put together a spreadsheet of Debut authors of 2011, and you can find that here.

Here's just a few of the books that I'll be reading next year:

*Italicized means have, but needs to be read
*Bold means read, but have not reviewed
*Underlined means reviewed

• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• Die for My by Amy Plum
• Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton
• Timeless by Alexandra Monir
• Hourgalss by Myra McEntire
• The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney
• XVI by Julia Karr
• Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky
• Hereafter by Tara Hudson
• The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder
• Falling Under by Gwen Hayes
• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
• Entwined by Heather Dixon
• Wither by Lauren DeStefano
• Haven by Kristi Cook
• Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach
• Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
• The False Princess by Ellis O'Neal
• Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
• Warped by Maurissa Guibord
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis
• The Girl in the Steele Corset by Kady Cross
• The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegan
• A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies
• The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
• Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

To sign up for the challenge, go here.



Review: The DUFF

The DUFF
Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Little Brown/Poppy
Release Date: September 7, 2010
Number of Pages: 288, hardcover

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his face.



But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.


Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

I've been hearing amazing things about this one, so I was extremely excited to read it. Let me just say, it does deserve most of the hype it's been getting. By the time I finished reading it, I loved the characters and their story.


I must admit, the first half of the book I did not enjoy. I'm not really sure why. Bianca seemed almost too snotty and negative. I just didn't connect with her at first. But the second half of the book, I LOVED. I started liking Bianca more. I think I just started sympathizing with her and that helped.

Keplinger did a fantastic job with her debut novel. I thought the snarky and sarcastic writing was both hilarious and heart breaking. Bianc'as issues with her family and relationships weaved together perfectly. And Bianca's attitude and decisions-- while I didn't agree with some of them-- were realistic.

The DUFF told a true and real story. It speaks about something that everyone can connect to in some way or another. It's not something you come across every day.
 
 
 
Rating:

Review: Extraordinary

Extraordinary
Nancy Werlin
Publisher: Dial
Release Date: September 7, 2010
Number of Pages: 393

Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school, and the two girls become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory's magnetic older brother, Ryland, shows up during their junior year. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe, but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself. Soon she'll discover the shocking truth about Ryland and Mallory: that these two are visitors from the faerie realm who have come to collect on an age-old debt. Generations ago, the faerie queen promised Pheobe's ancestor five extraordinary sons in exchange for the sacrifice of one ordinary female heir. But in hundreds of years there hasn't been a single ordinary girl in the family, and now the faeries are dying. Could Phoebe be the first ordinary one? Could she save the faeries, or is she special enough to save herself?


Impossible is probably one of my favorite books, so of course I had high expectations for Extraordinary. But it didn't quite meet them. I should have known better. Whenever I have super-high expectations, I'm usually let down. Even though it didn't meet my expectations, I still enjoyed it.


I didn't realy connect to the main character, Phoebe. I found that she was very naive. For instance, she fell in love with Ryland even though he never treated her well. She acted very childish at times.

I felt that the writing was very detached from the story. I loved Werlin's writing in Impossible, but she just didn't do it for me in this one. I also found the story very predictable. Not in a sense where I knew exactly what was going to happen; it was more that I knew the big picture. Between some chapters, there was Conversations with the Faerie Queen; I thought this gave too much away. I would have liked to figure out things with Phoebe instead.

Overall, I did enjoy Extraordinary, but it's definitely not one of my favorites. If you're a big fairy fanatic, then I would check this one out.

rating:

Shrinking the TBR Pile #3

Shrinking the TBR Pile is a weekley meme that Ashley from What's Your Story? hosts. Ashley has created a fabulous way to read books from your TBR Pile. Just number all the books in your pile, then every week draw from a hat (or whatever you prefer) three numbers. The books that corrospond to those numbers is what you read this week.


Last week I chose Arson by Estavan Vega and Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts. I'm finisheing up Savor the Roberts but Arson is going back into the drawing.

I picked some pretty awesome books this week. The numbers are 11 and 38.

And they are cooresponding to...

 38: The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
11: XVI by Julia Karr
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'm prettty excited to read both of them!

In My Mailbox (46)

We have Kristi at The Story Siren to thank for hosting IMM every week.

Library:

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger- Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

Truly, Madly, Undead-ly


This irresistible collection features stories of love amid vampires by five of today's hottest authors—Kristin Cast (Tempted), Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy), Alyson Noël (Evermore), Kelley Armstrong (The Summoning), and Francesca Lia Block (Pretty Dead).

From a fugitive vampire forced to trust a boy who might work for the group bent on destroying her to the legendary romance of two immortals whose love compels them to risk everything, this heart-pounding collection brings new meaning to the words "love you forever." Whether you're into romances that are dark and moody or light and fun, these stories will quench that insatiable thirst for enchanting tales of the beautiful undead.

Forced to drop out of an esteemed East Coast college after the sudden death of her parents, Jane Moore takes a nanny job at Thornfield Park, the estate of Nico Rathburn, an iconic rock star on the brink of a huge comeback. Practical and independent, Jane reluctantly becomes entranced by her magnetic and brooding employer, and finds herself in the midst of a forbidden romance. But there's a mystery at Thornfield, and Jane's much-envied relationship with Nico is tested by a torturous secret from his past.

Part irresistible romance and part darkly engrossing mystery, this contemporary retelling of the beloved classic Jane Eyre promises to enchant a new generation of readers




Via Netgalley:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees. . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what it is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place--and out of place, at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make--between honesty and deciet, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.






My name is Meaghan Chase.

I thought it was over.That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stay by my side. Drag me into the core of a conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.

This time, there will be no turning back