In My Mailbox (4)

A weakly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

From the Library:

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Looking for Alaska by John Green

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Review: An Abundance of Katherines

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.


(Summary from Goodreads)

Review:  Colin's a childhood prodigy. He's fresh out of high school with yet another failed relationship. A girl named Katherine dumped his sorry butt. Oh yeah, and she's the nineteenth Katherine to have broken his heart. Sucks to be him. (Okay, this is super mean of me and also very stupid, but if Collin's as smart as he seems, then why hasn't he realized that Katherines just don't work for him? You'd think that by the fifth or tenth Katherine, he'd realize that there was something wrong with the equation.)


Hassan, the best friend and proud fat guy, drags Collin Singleton out of his room and decides a road trip is needed to end Collin's moping. The road trip ends at Gutshot, Tennessee where Hassan and Collin get a job compiling the history of the town. Here, Collin begins to write his super special theorem. Oh, and this super special theorem of his? It maps out the outcome of a relationship.


I have very mixed feelings on this book. It was a fun (not so) quick read, but there wasn't anything that made this novel click for me. I think it's because of the main character. Don't get me wrong, his nerdiness was charming and hilarious but there was something about Collin that I couldn't relate to. Maybe it was because he was supposed to be a prodigy. Collin's need to be someone and be loved are the most relatable characteristics that many people have. That's probably where the majority of the readers clicked with him. (that and the whole being dumped thing) But maybe it's not that. Maybe it's because I'm just really bad at reading third person narratives.


Hassan and Collin were an awesome pair. The two of them were geeky and totally funny. Their conversations (what ever language they were in) usually had me giggling in the middle of my Biology class. The characters in this book were likable and quirky. I laughed so many times while reading this. My abs are not happy.


The style this book was written in was absolutely amazing. I adored the footnotes. In fact, I think the footnotes were my favorite part of this book. John Green's helpful explanations kept the story chugging along without leaving the readers in complete confusion. Even with the footnotes, I probably had a permanent expression of something between amusement and confusion stuck on my face. It was SO darn funny to read John Green mock his main character in the footnotes. The translations were also very helpful.  If I could get the pronunciations right, I could have a few more foreign insults up my sleeve.


This book includes a bit of math. Because, you know, Collin's writing a theorem about relationships. It's fairly easy to understand if you've passed Algebra 1 but still isn't something to just pass over. The back of the book includes a more detailed explanation of the theorem and how it works and other math-y things. I admit that I got bored and didn't read it.


Overall, it was a fun(ny) read and very entertaining. In a few months, I probably won't remember the specifics of it, but it was still worth the time. The characters are so gosh darn lovable and the footnotes are just plain awesome. John Green is a spectacular author (Read The Fault in Our Stars) and I'm slowly trying to make my way through all of his published books.


Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

A weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

I'm super psyched for so many books! Narrowing it down to two choices was one of the hardest tasks I've had to undertake this week. (Just kidding. Homework is pretty evil. Speaking of evil...)

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Publication Date: May 1st, 2012


What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil. 

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna. 

A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?


(Summary found from Goodreads)

This sounds amazing. The cover is lovely and angels and part angels are the coolest things ever. I remember reading this on inkpop when it was still titled The Angel Prophecy. I understand that most of it has probably changed, but the general premise stayed intact and I bet Sweet Evil is even better. I just can't wait until this book comes out! 

Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publication Date: November 6th, 2012


No synopsis yet.


Deity is the third book of the Covenant series. Um...hello? That series is made of pure awesome. Jennifer L. Armentrout is a fabulous writer and I adore her characters.


Aiden. Seth. <3 Oh, and let's not forget Alex. She's pretty awesome too.


One thing that bothers me is that I don't understand what the cover is. Sure, I get that there's a flower and what look like flames, but what is with that part of a person? I think it's someone's shoulder but others seem to think it's someone's neck, which I can also see.


Gaaah, so trippy.

In My Mailbox (3)

A weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

From the library:

y

Bought:


Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout


Review here

Review: Pure

Review: Again, no Goodreads summary. It contains spoilers for those who haven't read Half-Blood, the first book of this series.

A lot of people say that Half-Blood was a Greek copy of The Vampire Academy series and I'll admit that they're really similar. Even though the social hierarchy of both books are just about the same thing, Jennifer took her characters and created something totally different.

Pure was just amazing. I'll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, which will be very difficult for me to write and very short for you to read. In the YA genre especially, second books have this reputation for being awful. Let me tell you, Pure was anything but awful. There was action, tension (sexual and plot-wise), and all those delicious things that make a book good. It made me feel so many different things and this entire book was like playing a game of rugby with my emotions.

Give me a moment to be a squealy fluttery girl. Aiden is amazing. His terse personality and rare smiles make me all melty inside. He's a genuinely good character but he's just in so much control of himself that I want to hit him with a bag of teenage hormones and tell him to do what he wants to. Of course, if he went around doing whatever he felt like, he wouldn't be Aiden. Aiden's morals are strict, though, and his ability to put other's before himself and do the right thing endear me to him. Someone needs to give this poor boy a hug. He's just so good. The right thing is painful sometimes and he constantly endures that pain while others are ruled by their emotions. *stops ranting* The tension in the romance was strained at times, but it was so real and never felt forced or rang false.

Oh guys, there's a lot more Seth in this book. *squeals* I won't elaborate or this post could take days to read.

Okay, fangirly rant over. *clears throat* There's nothing to fear. I swear I'm rational again. Really.

I complain a lot about how the surprises in books never surprise me but Pure bested me. The plot and pacing in this book was fantastic as well. There was a richer layer in this book than there was in Half-Blood and it felt like Jennifer took what she set up in the first book and turned it into something even more amazing. That's what all second books should do. Not all of them do, but Jennifer nailed it. If anyone's still trying to say that the Covenant series is a copy of the Vampire Academy series than they've never read Pure. The action scenes were fantastic and the characters shone. She delved deeper into the social structure of the Covenant in this book and really just took everything to whole different level.

As always, Alex was fantastic. (Alex is the main character and a girl. Just sayin'.) She's just so strong. Physically and mentally. I feel like with everything thrown at Alex and with all the tragedy she's had to endure, most people would have been shipped off to the closest insane asylum by then. Alex isn't infallible, but she handles everything much better than the majority of people would. Her vulnerability is an endearing quality and makes her more real, but she doesn't let sorrow ruin her entire life.

The surprises really made me happy/angry/sad. But...I can't tell you guys more about it because it definitely counts as a spoiler. So many things were wrapped up. So many things were left unanswered. I need the next book. Do you hear me? I NEED IT! I CRAVE IT LIKE A DAIMON CRAVES AETHER.

All in all, Pure was a great book. The author managed to pull off another fantastic book flawlessly. I'd suggest you read anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout because she's just that awesome.

Rating: 5/5 stars

P.S. This was a longer post than I thought it'd be.

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

A weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine


Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross
Publication Date: April 10th, 2012


Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.


I know there are a bunch of fairytale retellings circulating the YA market right now, but Kill Me Softly sounds amazing. I also happen to have a thing for fairytales (not to be mistaken for my thing for strong character voice or compelling plot lines) Plus, the pitch is funny. Snow White? Prince Charming? The pitch is kind of making fun of them. :D 

Review: Spell Bound

Review: I'm leaving out the Goodreads summary because it has a pretty big spoiler for those who haven't read the first book. Basically, Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins is the third installment in her Hex Hall trilogy. I don't really know what to say about this book. As always, I loved the characters. Sophie, Archer, Jenna, Cal, and even Elodie because they all rock in their own separate way. Sophie and Archer were all snarky and witty as usual, but sometimes I felt like Sophie was trying too hard. There were a few comments she made in the first two books that I felt like she was trying too hard to be funny, but in Spell Bound, she was like that the entire time. So instead of sarcastic with a few trying too hards, she was trying too hard with a few genuinely funny remarks.

I don't really know what to say. I was so excited about this book that I broke my parent's "No buying books" rule and ordered it from Amazon. I really loved the first two books, Hex Hall and Demonglass and it felt like a miracle when Demonglass didn't feed the whole second book curse. Spell Bound wasn't necessarily a bad book, but it wasn't as good as I thought it'd be.

To be honest, not much happened plot-wise until midway through the book. I know that Rachel Hawkins was assembling the characters and giving a "oh hey, here's what happened in the other two books" but it really felt like she was stalling. When things started happening, it was just awkward. The tension and excitement weren't as well written as they were in the other two books. Sorry for the poop reference, but it was like the book was constipated. Everything seemed a little forced and out there, including the characters.

I don't really want to spoil anything for you guys, but the surprises written into this book weren't very surprising. I'm not sure if it's because I've read so much that I know how to pull out contextual clues like a private detective or if Rachel Hawkins really wanted us to figure it out before Sophie.

There were still some very funny scenes and good quips in there (The one that comes to mind made me cackle and run around the house like a crazy person) so this wasn't a bad book. The one scene that I was anticipating still put me to tears and there were some good emotionally charged events. There were a lot of loose ends that didn't get tied up in this book, but I heard that Rachel Hawkins is writing another Hex Hall series. I'm not sure if it's true or not because I can't find the link where I read it, but if she is writing another series, then the loose threads make sense.

Rating: 3/5 stars