2012 YA Contemporary Challenge

I'm a huge fan of challenges, and now is the time to sign up for all sorts for 2012.

This year Katie at Katie's Book Blog and Reading Angel are hosting the 2012 YA Contemporary Challenge

Rules:
You can read any contemporary YA novel that is published between January 1, 2012 and December 30, 2012 but you must read them in 2012! (All formats accepted: paperback, ARC, e-book

You can get to different levels:

Level 1: 5+ books
Level 2: 10+ books
Level 3: 15+ books

I'm personally going to go for level 3. I think out of everything, I read the most contemporary, so 15 books in a year should be no problem for me.

I'll be listing books as I read them here.

2012 Contemps Read:

1. Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard

2. Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker

3. Rock On by Denise Vega

4. Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

5. The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg 

6. Purity by Jackson Pearce

7. Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

8. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarrey

9. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

10. Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John

11. The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

12. Life is But a Dream by Brain James

13. Wanderlove by Kristin Hubbard

14. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

15.Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

16. The Story of Us by Deb Caletti

17. Someone else's Life by Katie Dale

To sign up or for more information, go here.

In My Mailbox (78)

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

For Review:

New Girl

Paige Harrison

Allegiance

Cayla Kluver

Random Acts of Kindness:

Blood Bound

Rachel Vincent

Timeless 

Alexandra Monir

Lover Eternal

J.R. Ward

Thank you so much to Lori at Romancing the Darkside and Jen at At Random for the amazing random acts of kindness!

Did you have an amazing Thanksgiving for those of you in the U.S. I know I did and I ate a ton. 

What did you get this week?

Happy Turkey Day!

Waiting on Wednesday: Bitterblue

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

May 1st, 2012

Bitterblue is a companion book to both Graceling and Fire and takes place in the seven kingdoms eight years after Graceling. This third book will tie all three books together in some way. Bitterblue is the sixteen-year-old protagonist, and Katsa, Po, Giddon, Helda, and other characters from Graceling will be part of the fabric of the book.

It's about time this book came out. I've only been waiting for it forever!

Oh, well. I guess all the waiting just means it's just going to be even more awesome, right?

I can't wait to see what happens in this one!

Review: The Pledge

The Pledge
Kimberly Derting
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Pages: 323

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed. 

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

I'm a huge fan of Derting's The Body Finder series. I was so excited to read this new one book by her. Unfortunately, I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. 

I think where the book fell flat for me was the characters. This is a place that can either make it or break it with a dystopian novel. And there may be some people who disagree. But I never really connected with any of them, especially the main character, Charlie. It's not that she bothered me or that I didn't like, I just never cared about her specifically enough to keep going. It was the story that kept me captivated enough to move along.

The world was fascinating to read about. I loved the idea of every cast having a different language. Very original and intriguing. And the book was fast-paced and action-packed. 

I think what saved this book for me was the ending. I don't know why, but I loved the ending. It wasn't entirely unpredictable, but I was still happy. I think this is the reason That I'm going to keep reading this series. 

A very original and unique story. I was enticed by the story but put aback by the characters. But it's the captivating ending that has me moved me on to read the next book in the series about a fascinated world.

Review Format

So I've been thinking about playing around with the format of my reviews. 

Right now, in my reviews, I just write them in one long review, not breaking it up. (By this I mean I don't have it split up into more parts.)

 I've been thinking about changing it so that it would look more like this:

Overview:

my opinion

Plot:

My opinion

Characters:

my opinion

Writing:

my opinion

Miscellaneous:

This is where I say anything that I want to add about the book that doesn't fit in the categories above. 

(It won't actually be called miscellaneous)

Rating:

Which is where I post my rating. 

I'm not sure if those will be the actual categories, but you get the idea.

I like this because it may be easier to write the review if I split it up. I can be more specific. 

But I also feel that this has potential to be limiting. 

So, I'm asking you! What kind of review format do you prefer? How I write them now, where it's just random and one thing, or split up into categories. 

I may do a few like this and if I don't like it, just totally trash the idea and go back to the way I had it before. I'll play around with a few different things.  

Also, if you don't like any of these ideas, let me know how you like to read reviews!

Let me know!

Review: Silence

Silence
Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: October 4, 2011
Pages: 438

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

I was very surprised by Silence. I really liked Hush, Hush, but I didn't get as into the sequal, Crescendo, as much. I wasn't sure how I would feel about Silence. But it brought this series back to life for me.

When the book started out, I was just as clueless as Nora. Well, almost. We start out when Nora wakes up in a grave yard with no memory of the past few month. She doesn't remember Patch or the Nephilim or anything. At first, I wasn't sure I would like this. Whey do we need to rediscover everything again. But, it didn't linger on anything too much.

Nora and Patch's on again off again relationship is driving me nuts. Either stay together or don't! (I was hopping for the former.) But, I think that after the second half, that will be permanent. I hope. 

I do think that the first part dragged a little. There were things that happened, but I was just waiting for Nora to either remember or figure everything out. But then about half way through it got a lot more interesting. 

And the ending! I was surprised. But then again I feel like I should have seen it coming.

I'm glad I liked Silence because it got me into this series again. I love angels and this is a great story. Now I'm dying for the next one.