Twelve Books for 12/12/12

Hello, lovely readers. I'm sorry that I haven't blogged for such a long time. It's 12/12/12, the last repetitive date for our lives (unless you're immortal) so I compiled a list of twelve great books that you all should read, in no particular order. If you think you should spend today doing something more special than reading, you're crazy! (Or it's finals week. Ugh) Without further rambling, here's the list.

12. Legend by Marie Lu

11. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stievater

10. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

9. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

7. Code Name Verity by

6. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

4. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

3. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

2. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

What are your twelve suggestions for today?

Weirdest Reader

So…I’m probably the worst person to be around if I’m reading. Normally, I’m either really bitchy sarcastic or just silent. But when I’m reading…when I’m reading I seem to forgot that I’m an actual human being. You want me to act civilized? You’re lucky if I’ll set down the book for a minute to listen to what your saying. 

What? A fire? A cute guy? Food? I’M SORRY, BUT CAN’T YOU SEE I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF IMPORTANT SOMETHING!?

The characters are running away from a bad guy/having a serious conversation/acting adorable/kissing. That’s what’s really important. Obviously.

While reading a book, I also have a habit to forget how to form actual words. I will make half laughing/screeching noises, whale noises, squees, extensive cusses, and many “I knew it”s. For the sake of this post, cusses and “I knew it” don’t count as actual words, even though they do. 

Thankfully, my sister’s learned to ignore me by now or else I’d be in a lot of trouble. If something awkward or awesome happens, I’ll jump, dance, run up and down the stairs, cackle like a maniac, or all of the above. My family probably thinks I’m insane, but whatever.

Because I’m talking about books, guys. BOOKS.

Yeah, so I probably shouldn’t read in a library. Ever.

Cover Reveal: Clockwork Princess

For those of you who don't have a twitter or who were absent from today's exciting hashtag fest, here's the cover of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Princess, the last book of The Infernal Devices. To "fight the mist" that covered this image, we had to tweet #ClockworkPrincess. It was a lot of fun and we wound up making #ClockworkPrincess trend worldwide. Now that's dedication for you!

Isn't it beautiful? It's probably my favorite cover from this series. I mean, just look at Tessa. She's so pretty. And her book is glowing. The book is glowing. I wish my books glowed because then I'd always have a light with me.

YA Crush Tourney: Team Tod

Guess whose match begins at 12:00 pm Eastern time tonight. Magnus? Well, yes, but I wasn't really talking about him. I'm talking about Tod, you silly person. Tod, the lovely reaper from Soul Screamers. 

His first match is tonight and will be on for the next 24 hours. Keep watch of Ina's blog and twitter for updates because she's Tod's advocate.

Check out my twitter and my tumblr today and tomorrow for some of my favorite Tod Hudson quotes! 

Get the word out via twitter, blog, facebook, tumblr, a sign taped to your cat, ect. #TeamTod

Waiting on Wednesday (10)

A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that showcases future releases we're looking forward to.

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
Expected Publication Date: February 5th 2013

No blurb available.


Frankly, I want to see more of Warner. It must make me some kind of sick, twisted person, but I really enjoy his character. There's something so fundamentally wrong with him that just draws my attention to him every time he appears on the page. So yeah, maybe by loving his character, there's something wrong with me too.

Oh yeah, I want to see more of Juliet too. And Adam. And Kenji. Basically, I want to see everyone again!







Sorry for disappearing for a week with just another meme to show for it. I've been extremely sick recently and being on the computer for extended periods of time gives me a really bad headache. I'm such a bad book blogger.

Waiting on Wednesday (9)

A weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that showcases books we're looking forward to.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Publication Date: August 7th, 2012


After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.


OHMYGOD! Just read the blurb. Then you'll understand. Words cannot describe how excited I am for this book. I read all three of the e-novellas within a few hours and I WANT TO GET MY HANDS ON THAT BOOK SO SO SO MUCH. August, why are you a little more than a month away?

Review: This is Not a Test

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.

To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. 

When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?


Review: I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It's best for me to wait a while after reading so my thoughts and feelings settle, but after three days my mind's still a mess when it comes to this book.


Zombie books are fast-paced, action packed, however-many-pages of fun, right? Not in this case. While this book takes place in a zombie apocalypse, there's a startling lack of actual zombies present. It's not page after page of fighting for your life, gory massacres. It's a story about six teenagers trying to stay alive in the apocalypse--one of which that doesn't want to live at all. 


The main character Sloane doesn't want to be alive. Her father was abusive and her sister, the one person she loved most in the word, left her. She got swept up with five of her peers who fight so hard to live when all she wants to do is just die. The zombies are right there, just outside of her reach. Death is so close to her but she still can't get there. Sloane was an amazing character. She was just so broken and hopeless, but her misery was so real and justified that as a reader, I couldn't mock her for being melodramatic. I loved her so much and throughout the entire book I kept cheering for her to find a reason to live. 


Every single one of the teenagers in the school is a well-developed individual. No two people are alike and Courtney Summers created such multidimensional, different people that the conflicts that arose from their differences in thoughts and the stress of living in a constant life or death situation were so realistic and horrible. It's heartbreaking because they have to cooperate with each other to survive but their personalities constantly clash with each other. While the other characters thought they'd make it, the constant sense of doom from the zombies and from Sloane's own mind gave the entire book a note of hopelessness. 


As I've said, the there aren't a lot of actual zombies present in this book. This doesn't make this book any less terrifying. We don't read about the characters taking down horde after horde of zombies with matches and kitchen knives. While we didn't actually see the zombies, their prescience was undeniable. The zombies were just looming over the characters throughout the entire book. Every single scene was filled with so much fear and tension because a breech could happen any second. 


I love Courtney Summers' writing. She has this prose that somehow manages to be beautiful but natural at the same time. So while I'm admiring her pretty paragraphs, I'm not scoffing at the fluffiness of it all. The setting is very contained. After all, they are confined in a school. But even in the school, the characters tend to stick together and stay in a few select rooms rather than wander around.


The ending seemed to sneak up on me. I wasn't sure what happened at first and had to reread it a second time to confirm that it was in fact the end of the book. Even now, I'm not sure if I want to cry or smile or just drop it. This is Not a Test is still fresh in my mind and I've read two other books since then. (And not just in the form of nightmares)


Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic read. It's different from your average zombie book, but it's so so so good that even die hard zombie slayer fans should read this. Courtney Summers really seems to be able to understand how people think and how to tackle depression realistically in a non-realistic environment.


Rating: 4/5 stars