Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday. 10 Fairytale Retellings On My TBR


Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week I'm telling you the 10 retellings of fairytales I most want to read! I was very flexible with what counts as a fairytale, since I included retellings of more recent novels like The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Wizard of Oz. Regardless, this is my list and I will write what I want. I also tried to only put down one retelling for each fairytale so this list didn't turn out to be 7 "Little Red Riding Hood" retellings or something.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Book Review 32. Ignite

Ignite (Ignite, #1)
Book: Ignite
Series: Ignite #1
Author: Erica Crouch
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance
Pages: 346
Published: June 11th, 2013

This ebook was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Synopsis: Penemuel (Pen) fell from grace over a millennium ago, yet there are still times she questions her decision to follow her twin brother, Azael, to Hell. Now that the archangel Michael has returned, threatening Lucifer’s vie for the throne, she begins questioning everything she has always believed.
As Hell prepares for war - spreading a demonic virus and pilfering innocent souls to build an army - the lines separating the worlds blur. Fates erase and the future is left unwritten. Azael is determined that he and his sister will continue to serve as demons together, but for the first time in her life, Pen is not ruled by destiny. She has the freedom of choice.
With choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she’s willing to risk everything fighting for: the light, or the dark.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

"Being good is hard. It takes a conscious effort to do the right thing, especially when doing the wrong thing is so simple."

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Book Review 31. Mary Hades

Mary Hades (Mary Hades #1)
Book: Mary Hades
Series: Mary Hades #1
Author: Sarah Dalton
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Pages: 286
Published: May 4th, 2014

This ebook was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Synopsis: Not many seventeen year old girls have a best friend who’s a ghost, but then Mary Hades isn’t your average teenager.
Scarred physically and mentally from a fire, her parents decide a holiday to an idyllic village in North Yorkshire will help her recover. Nestled in the middle of five moors, Mary expects to have a boring week stuck in a caravan with her parents. Little does she know, evil lurks in the campsite…
Seth Lockwood—a local fairground worker with a dark secret—might be the key to uncovering the murky history that has blighted Nettleby. But Mary is drawn to him in a way that has her questioning her judgement.
Helped by her dead best friend and a quirky gay Goth couple, Mary must stop the unusual deaths occurring in Nettleby. But can she prevent her heart from being broken?
The first in a series of dark YA novels, Mary Hades follows on from the bestselling Kindle Single 'My Daylight Monsters'. A spine-tingling tale with romance, readers will be shocked and entertained in equal measure.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

"Where does the story end? That's what it's all about. It's what we all want to know."

Monday, July 6, 2015

Book Review 30. Every Last Word

Every Last Word
Book: Every Last Word
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Pages: 368
Published: June 16th, 2015

This ebook was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Synopsis: If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"It wasn’t enough. But they heard every last word."

Saturday, July 4, 2015

That's All Folks 1. Hippies and Debate Class


Inspired by the blog The Daily Prophecy, That's All Folks is a new series of posts where I'll give short reviews on books I want to review but don't have enough content to write a full review for.

Tag 1. Disney Book Tag

1. The Little Mermaid (character who is out of their element, a “fish out of water”)
Recently I read I'll Give You the Sun, and I have to pick Jude from it! She goes to an art school where she doesn't have any friends, and she doesn't have a very strong passion for art. She feels like she's literally haunted, and makes no effort to fit in. I could also include her twin brother, Noah, for this one. I didn;t though because he has issues being an outsider during his early teen years since he's a quiet and gay, he fits in once he gets to high school. Plus, I like Jude better.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Book Review 29. Cress

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)
Book: Cress
Series: The Lunar Chronicles (#3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Pages: 550
Published: February 4th, 2014

Synopsis: In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"You can help me pick out a tiara when we’re done saving the world.”

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Book to Movie 1. The Spectacular Now

This is a new little series on this blog, where I read a book and watch the movie based on it, then review, compare, and contrast! First up is The Spectacular Now.

3798703   

Book: The Spectacular Now
Author: Tim Tharp
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Pages: 294
Published: November 1st, 2008

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Book Review 28. Only Ever Yours

Only Ever Yours
Book: Only Ever Yours
Author: Louise O'Neill
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Pages: 400
Published: July 3rd, 2014

This ebook was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Synopsis: In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become “companions”, permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.
For the girls left behind, the future – as a concubine or a teacher – is grim.
Best friends Freida and Isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions – they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.
But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight. ..
And then, into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.
Freida must fight for her future – even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known. . .

WARNING: This book and it's review may contain triggers including bulimia, various other body image issues, bullying, and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

"This is not my fault. I'm just doing what we have been trained to do. This is who we are, frieda. This is who we were designed to be."