Review: Supernaturally, by Kiersten White

#7 And just plain tired.

Finals week is here, and after my first finals all-nighter I completely crashed! But I am back, sending out one more review before I hit the books again!

Anyway, a few months ago I read Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.

I loved it. It was fun, had a quick, interesting plot line, and Evie (the main character) was one of the best heroines that I had read in a while. Aside from a strong penchant for anything pink, she is funny, tough, a force to be reckoned with. Simply put, she is easily one of my favorite leading ladies in literature right now. [Goodreads info]

*Sigh.* Such a beautiful cover. Long story short, it was excellent and I give it a solid 4/5 stars.

I was so excited that I had such a short amount of time to wait for the sequel (think: Divergent, or Enclave--sequels coming out in 2012....devastating). So as soon as I could, I got my hands on a copy of Supernaturally, the equally-stunning subsequent novel in this trilogy. Let's just take a look at that cover.

Supernaturally, by Kiersten White

Supernaturally:

-pages: 336

-rating: 3.5/5

[Goodreads info]

To me, reviewing sequels seems particularly tricky, because I don't want to give anything away to anyone who hasn't yet read it. So let me just try to navigate those waters.

Supernaturally picks up some time after Paranormalcy has ended. We find Evie--now known as Evie Green for legal purposes--living a normal life. Well, it's as normal as life could be for someone with...talents...such as hers. She's finally doing the thing she most desired--attending high school! However compared to the sensationalized view of high school she has eaten up from her favorite tv show, Easton Heights, real life isn't quite living up to her expectations.

Lend is away at college, and she only sees him on weekends. Her PE teacher seems to have it out for her. Someone she shouldn't ever see again has taken to visiting her in her dreams. And then on top of all that, applying to Georgetown, working in the diner, and trying to enjoy life among "normal" people, one of the last people she ever expects to see suddenly pops back into her life. And she brings company.

Suddenly, Evie is back on missions for the IPCA. Strange things keep happening to her on said missions, paranormals are acting strange whenever they see her, and Lend hasn't seen his mom for months. Then there's the ever-present reminder of what, exactly, Evie is hiding from Lend.

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Evie learns a lot about herself in this book. But besides the back story, relationship drama (needs moar Lend), and questioning her own mortality, not much else happens. White introduced a lot of potentially interesting plot twists here and there, but since none of them are resolved, those are obviously meant for Endlessly, the last book in this trilogy, to be released God-knows-when (really, 2012...).

For me, anyway, the main plot line seems like space filler--something introduced to get the readers through the second book and waiting for the third. I couldn't relate to the characters as well as I could in the first book. Perhaps it was the decidedly absent Lend, the lack of kookiness we got to see through Evie's former life with the IPCA, or even the introduction of a new character who just didn't quite evoke feelings from me. I don't know.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but I think Supernaturally just lacked that certain...sparkle... that just emanated from Parnormalcy. Perhaps you'll think otherwise. I hope you'll think otherwise.

All that being said, I will still definitely read Endlessly whenever it is released next year, because as previously mentioned--I'm sure we'll see resolutions for a few of the story lines introduced in this sequel.

Anyway, this study break is finished! I'm going back to hit the books, and then post-final-exam on Tuesday I'll post a review for the book that I just COULDN'T PUT DOWN while trying to study for my first test :)

What sequels are you most anxiously waiting for?

Follow Friday!

This is my first time joining in on the Follow Friday fun! You might be able to tell that I'm pretty new to this, but I look forward to getting to know people--and this is a great way to start!Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Check out their blogs!

Q. Let's step away from books for a second and get personal. What T-Shirt slogan best describes you?

This is actually kind of difficult--creativity is lacking at the moment.

1) All stressed out and no one to CHOKE (I'm getting ready to start finals...explanation enough)

2) Most of the Socially Awkward Penguin memes or Paranoid Parrots would work as well.

Review: Anna and the French Kiss

#6 exhausted, yet excited

Okay, so maaaaaybe it wasn't the best idea to try starting a book blog the week before my final exams begin. But I have loved every minute of it so far!

The last couple of days have been crazy, as I had a huge exam in my worst subject on Tuesday. The thing is, with so much riding on this exam, I pulled an all-nighter. Gross, right? Well, then I crashed. Hard. So it is now two-ish days later, but I am BACK!

So let's get to it.

Now, yes, I had an exam on Tuesday. But while I was sitting through the most insufferable of classes on Monday, I turned to my dear ol' iPod to help me stay awake. My iPod led me to Stanza, the BEST ebook-reading app out there, in my humble opinion. Stanza let me to Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins.

Since I got my nook (the reason why I link all of these books back to Barnes & Noble), my iPod book library is much smaller to save room. But Anna and the French Kiss is one of those books that I will always NEED to have with me.

So I started re-reading AatFK at 1:30pm, and then by 3:30 in the morning, I had completely finished it. It didn't matter that I knew what was going to happen. It didn't matter that I had an exam in 4.5 hours. I was once again completely sucked into this story. If you haven't read it yet, I hope that this review is enough to convince you to finally give it a chance!

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss:

-pages: 375

-rating: 5/5

[Goodreads info]

For this review, I'm just going to give you the Goodreads lowdown, aka summary. I just want to react.

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

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Okay. Almost everything about this book gives me one of those silly grins from ear-to-ear. Stephanie Perkins gives us characters who are not only funny, who are very well-developed, who have great chemistry, but who are most importantly real.

By the time I'm finished with this book (both times, haha), I feel like I am Anna's best friend. I want to share her experiences and chat with her all about them. I want to pick the book up all over again and read it for a third time. I want the book to pick up where it left off and just KEEP GOING.

Anna Oliphant is hysterical, a 17-year-old girl whose rapier wit is utterly enviable. I idolize her, and I'm at least 5 years her senior.

True, some of the decisions Anna makes / the actions Anna takes are questionable--because some of the consequences are cringeworthy--but she exhibits great intelligence when it counts and somehow always knows the right things to say to someone when they need to hear it the most.

Etienne St. Clair is one of the most swoon-worthy boys in YA literature. He might not be the tallest bloke around, but ladies and gentlemen--I'm short and that is the least of my issues. Almost immediately I began to fall in love with St. Clair. He and Anna just click and quickly develop one of the best rapports that I have ever read.

I honestly can't say enough about this book. Everything about it is perfect. Give it a try if you haven't already. Trust me.

And, if you HAVE read this book, and LOVE IT like I do,

are you ready for Stephanie Perkins' next novel?

Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door:

-pages: 338

-rating: TBA

[Goodreads info]

Here's the summary:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

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I honestly CAN'T. WAIT. for this book to be released. I know a few people who were lucky enough to get an ARC of Lola, and I am insanely jealous of them. I have such high expectations, haha.

So who out there is as eager for Lola as I am? What other books are you desperately waiting for?

Have a good night!

Recommendation: Author Richelle Mead

#5 Sunday, why you here so soon?

Today I'm going to be doing a more general recommendation.

A year-or-so ago, when I officially came down from my Twilight high (I'm a self-proclaimed recovering Twilight addict), I started scouring the internet for reviews/recommendations of books that would be sure to catch my interest.

Among those that captivated me were The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins and The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. However, among those YA books, an adult series also captivated my attention.

Georgina Kincaid series, by Richelle Mead

book 1: Succubus Blues

book 2: Succubus on Top

book 3: Succubus Dreams

book 4: Succubus Heat

book 5: Succubus Shadows

I'm not going to list off the entire series, so here's the breakdown for book 1, Succubus Blues

-pages: 343

-series rating: 4/5

[Goodreads info]

And here's the Goodreads summary for Succubus Blues

Succubus. An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men. Pathetic. A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven't stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny...

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This Urban Fantasy series is a great fun, quick read. I blew through all of the available books, and am looking forward to book #6, Succubus Revealed, which will be released in September. Mead's leading lady Georgina Kincaid is a spunky, intelligent paranormal who is conflicted about the consequences of her existence. Add a dash of intrigue and a bit of mystery, and hopefully you'll be blazing through these books as quickly as I was!

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Mead has also received a lot of notice for her Vampire Academy series. I'll admit, I avoided reading these books for a long time because I'd had enough of the whole vampire thing, but I finally caved. I read them ALL last week. Like my life depended on it, I couldn't stop reading.

The Vampire Academy series, by Richelle Mead

book 1: Vampire Academy

book 2: Frostbite

book 3: Shadow Kiss

book 4: Blood Promise

book 5: Spirit Bound

book 6: Last Sacrifice

Vampire Academy

-pages: 332

-series rating: 4.5/5

[Goodreads info]

Summary for Vampire Academy, from Goodreads:

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

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Please just trust me when I say "Read this." This as a fast-paced, high-action plot line and isn't your stereotypical Vampire romance novel. Rose is a kick-ass young woman, funny and all kinds of awesome. Besides her amazing dynamic with her best friend Lissa, there's heaps of UST with a not-yet-mentioned-in-the-summary Dhampir named Dimitri.

I LOVE Dimitri. Beyond reason. Almost right off the bat, Dimitri and Rose gave me shivers. I heard whispers of a movie suggested, and almost fell over from the excitement.

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One more thing before I wrap up this insanely long post.

A SPIN-OFF SERIES

Richelle Mead is working on another YA series, spun off of the Vampire Academy books. Bloodlines follows Sydney, one of the ~minor characters from the VA series. I'm not going to include the summary for this book because it contains some major spoilers for the Vampire Academy books. But when this book is fresh off the presses next month (August 23!), I guarantee you I will do whatever possible to get my hands on it! Here's the [Goodreads info].

So to wrap up, you can rest assured that Richelle Mead is one of those authors that I will be following for quite some time. I have high hopes for the books she will be releasing soon, and feel confident that they will be great additions to her already quite impressive bibliography.

Which authors seem to resonate with you? Whose career will you be watching closely?

Have a great week, everyone :)

Review: Cum Laude, by Cecily von Ziegesar

#4 Reviewin' right along

Very rarely I have the misfortune of reading a book that I dislike just enough to regret ever picking it up.

I'm not sure what review etiquette is for something along these lines, as I'm still fairly new to this side of the book world, but I'm going to just plod along while trying to be brutally honest. The following review is based on my opinion only, and I don't claim to be an expert book analyst...so take from this review what you will.

Cum Laude, by Cecily von Ziegesar

Cum Laude:

-pages: 272

-rating: 2/5

[Goodreads info]

Cum Laude is an almost-satire of college life, following five incoming Freshman at a Dexter, a small, Liberal Arts college located just outside the town of Home, Maine. This college is apparently among the premiere colleges in the nation, just behind the Ivy Leagues, as several of the characters claim to have turned down various Ivies to attend Dexter. Throughout 23 chapters the reader is passed from character to character, seeing all of the action mainly from 5 pairs of eyes (well, more than 5, but I'll get into that later).

Let's introduce the characters.

Shipley is your not-so-stereotypical blonde undergrad beauty. Beneath her bombshell exterior is an actually quite innocent individual--it is this innocence/naivete that she is most eager to shed during her time at Dexter. One of the reasons that Shipley has decided to attend Dexter is because her troubled older brother, Patrick, dropped out of his program during his time at Dexter and disappeared from her family's life almost altogether.

Shipley's roommate is Eliza, an edgy, brash young woman who hates Shipley on principle (because boys drool over her, she hangs her jeans, irons her underwear, etc. etc. etc.). Eliza is determined to get noticed at Dexter.

Tom and Nick are roommates in another dorm on campus. Tom is your stereotypical rich, preppy young man, all Lacoste polos and deck shoes. He couldn't be more different from Nick, a stoner wannabe (allergic to the world) whose main desire is to build a yurt in the middle of campus for ~spiritual purposes.

Enter Adam Gatz, the local commuter student. Adam and his adoptive sister Tragedy have grown up on a local sheep farm, with parents (Dexter drop-outs due to a predilection for dropping acid) who push the all-organic lifestyle to the extreme. Adam is shy and quiet--the polar opposite of fifteen-year old Tragedy, who lives life with a reckless abandon.

The final character to introduce is Patrick, Shipley's long-lost brother who actually hasn't really left the Dexter vicinity. Self-hailed as "Pink Patrick," Shipley's brother lives off of discarded food in dumpsters, clothing from Dexter's lost and found, and handouts from good Samaritans like Tragedy Gatz.

In Cum Laude, Shipley, Eliza, Tom, and Nick--students who besides being roommates probably would never have had anything to do with each other--are thrown together in an orientation group. Dexter's form of orientation is apparently to drop 4 college students off in the middle of the woods for camping. [side note: lemme tell you--if this were me, heads would have rolled.]

Nick supplies the pot, and this motley crew ends up finding/stealing the campus van to go on a joy ride, ending up at the Gatz family farm. So by the end of the first day, all three young gentleman (not including a couple of beer-swilling upperclassmen) have fallen head-over-heels for Shipley, leaving Eliza to intensify her indignation/jealousy for all things Shipley.

So this is how our main characters are interconnected. The reader follows each person through his or her first semester of college--times that are filled with drugs, failing grades, personal dilemmas, and sex(ish).

I feel like this story had a lot of potential, and goodness knows that von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series has gotten a lot of notice, but there were issues in this book that I couldn't ignore.

First, the use of third-person omniscient made this a very complex story line, jumping back and forth among 6-7 different characters to relate everything. I couldn't bring myself to really care for each of the characters, and this made following the ~plot a little more difficult.

Second, Patrick's interaction with his sister while at Dexter mainly takes the form of stealing her car because she is idiotic enough to leave the keys on the front tire. It happens like this: Patrick recognizes the car he used when learning to drive, and hallelujah there are keys on the tire! He steals her car, drives it until it's almost out of gas, and then returns it. And throughout all of this, even though Shipley has no idea that it's her brother taking her car out for joy rides, she continues re-filling the gas tank and leaving the frakkin' keys on the stinkin' tire. Idiocy. I can't talk about this any more--I'm making myself angry.

Finally there is the issue that apparently at Dexter you're either a pot-smoking, acid-dropping, ether-sucking druggie, a jaded preppy or a cheerleader. It makes one wonder how this college could have any sort of decent reputation to maintain its place among the Ivies. In satirical form it makes sense to make use of stereotypes, but in my honest opinion this book didn't pull off the satirical voice successfully.

In short, Cum Laude was entirely unbelievable. And boring. Not one of the characters, besides perhaaaaaps Adam Gatz, was likable, which makes reading alternate points of view almost excruciating.

So if you love Cecily von Ziegesar and her Gossip Girl books, I recommend that you stay far, far away from this stand-alone adult novel. It can only cause disillusion and disappointment.

What was the last stinker you read?

Maybe if I'm lucky, I can avoid it. :)

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Review: Divergent, by Veronica Roth

#3 It's Friday, I'm in love

The book I'm reviewing right now is one of my favorite books of the year all time.

Last month my twitter was abuzz with mentions of some book that was apparently "like The Hunger Games, but better!"

Now, I'm a huge fan of The Hunger Games books (and I will likely review them after I have read them again), so I had to track it down. This book was Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Divergent:

- pages: 487

- rating: 5/5

[Goodreads info]

Set in dystopian Chicago, this book reveals little of the Chicago as I currently know it. The city is no longer a playground, home to millions of the most interesting of people, places, and events. Instead it is a strict system of factions, each separate and contributing to society in different ways. There are five such factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite.

I'm sure you can guess which characteristics each faction values above all others. Abnegation are a selfless people. Amity are kind, Candor value truth in all things, Erudite are scholars. Dauntless are the fearless, the guardians of this society.

During the year following each member of society's 16th birthday, each young male and female takes an exam of sorts which identifies for which Chicago faction his or her personality is most suited. Each individual mulls over what his or her exam revealed, and then at a special ceremony he or she must choose in which faction he or she will belong. It all boils down to this: will you remain with everything you've ever known or will you follow your destiny?

Such is the choice for Beatrice Prior. She knows that as a member of Abnegation, she should put all others' needs and well-being above her own. Yet there are parts of her that struggle with this way of life. Her entire family is in Abnegation, and to choose an alternate faction is to leave everything she knows and loves behind. If she abandons the way of the Abnegates then she abandons her family.

Beatrice's decision will not be easy. The results of her exam are "inconclusive," for reasons which I will not divulge. ;) This makes everything all the more difficult for her as she struggles to figure out what type of person she is, and where in society she is destined to be.

The ceremony arrives, and Beatrice, having thought over the strange information resulting from her exam, makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. She is whisked away to deal with the consequences and we follow her through every single trial and tribulation that comes as a result of her decision. The going is rough, with more challenges than most people can deal with.

As I followed Beatrice Prior on this journey, I fell in love. With everything. Beatrice, later known as Tris, is one of the most well-developed, likable female teens that I have ever had the good fortune of encountering in fiction. She wasn't annoying, I never wanted to yell at her. Tris's personality and voice resonated in me--she is such a strong, intelligently developed character that it was only with reluctance that I moved onto another book; to a new set of characters.

Tris wasn't the only great thing about this book. Roth created a plethora of multi-dimensional characters that each contributed in varying, yet integral ways to the relation of this story. From Tris's family to the friends she makes in her "Faction class" (for lack of a better descriptor), each person contributes to the type of person Tris is turning out to be.

I can't say too much more without giving too much away. So I will only elaborate on a few more things.

1) Roth gives us Four. You have to read to figure out what I mean by that, but let me just say this. Four is another reason why I never wanted to stop reading. *sigh* Four.

2) Chicago. As a resident of this great city, it was fascinating for me to see the future state of this area. Dilapidated buildings, rusted over monuments and landmarks--my imagination went wild the entire time. If you've ever been to Chicago, you'll know exactly what I mean.

3) It's a trilogy. Book number 2, Insurgent is currently being written by Roth. It is the sweetest form of torture, knowing that there is going to be two more books in this series, but also having to stand idly by while Roth tweets notices like "2.5k words today" and similar notices like that. I want it nowww.

4) I has me inspired. I mess around with the GIMP and photoshop CS5 a LOT, but during school I don't really create anything huge/notice-worthy because I'm too busy and don't have the hours to allot to experimentation. For Divergent, however, I was willing to throw away a bit of my "free" time.

For Veronica Roth,

I'm wrapping this up. It's long and babbling.

#2 A test of sorts

I'm posting this from my iPod! Testing out a new blogging app! If it works I'll post the name of it later.

No review tonight, even though I've certainly read enough books lately to write one.

But really, this post is a test. [insert ear-splitting siren here]

Bet you're glad this is the Internet. :)

Recommendation: The Mistborn Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson

#1 A Series NO ONE should miss out on

This past Christmas, I opened a present from my twin brother and got quite a shock. A boxed set of books by some unheard of (by me) author named Brandon Sanderson. I glanced at the set skeptically, probably thinking something along the lines of "Final Empire, whaaaa?" and listened to my brother enthuse on and on about how wonderful they were.

Growing up, I was always the one saying "ooh, read this--you're going to love it," and here I was in completely the opposite situation. I'm going to finish this little segue by saying that if my brother can dole out recommendations of this caliber on a regular basis, I might just start to like him. ;)
I give you: The Mistborn Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson

Book 1: Mistborn: The Final Empire

Book 2: The Well of Ascension

Book 3: The Hero of Ages

Series rating: 4.5/5

Now, being busy with school, an obvious thought crossed my mind. These books are long. Long as in 650-800 pages, long. I had just over a week and a half to get through the series before being bogged down by schoolwork again.

But here's the thing--I made it. I couldn't put these books down. Christmas break was supposed to be this expanse of time for me to sleep and. . . well, sleep. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I fell in love.

I will let you all in on this little bit of advice--don't knock this trilogy. Give it a chance. Sanderson is an evil genius of sorts, creating a new world for his readers with a fascinating, dazzling brand of magic and intricate detail-infused action sequences. He created a dystopian society of epic proportions along with a set of heroes that you will quickly learn to love as well as a heroine to beat all others.

I want to start this series over from the beginning so that I can experience what it is like to encounter this world for the first time all over again.

So please, what's stopping you? Earlier I posted a link to the Mistborn Trilogy's Barnes & Noble page. Pick it up and give it a chance.

Summary for Mistborn (from Goodreads):

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.