Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen ~ Imppecable Reviews

Publisher: Ember

Publication Date: May 13th 2003

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Format: Paperback

Page Count: 212

Purchase Now: Amazon | Barnes and Nobles | Book Depository

Flipped is a romance told in two voices. The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time Bryce saw Juli, he ran. That’s pretty much the pattern for these two neighbors until the eighth grade, when, just as Juli is realizing Bryce isn’t as wonderful as she thought, Bryce is starting to see that Juli is pretty amazing. How these two teens manage to see beyond the surface of things and come together makes for a comic and poignant romance.

This book took me by surprise. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. There were so many moments where I would laugh out loud and there were other moments where I would just want to disappear in to the ground for a character out of embarrassment, but I enjoyed every second of it. By the time I had flipped to the last page and saw a blank sheet at the end of the book, I felt sad it was over. I was wishing for at least a 100 more pages. The two main characters, Bryce and Julianna, were both lovely in their own ways and I absolutely loved them both.

The relationship between Bryce and Julianna was very well developed. I enjoyed watching their relationship shift in different directions as each of them grew older and experienced different things. In the book, Bryce and Julianna's perspectives are alternated one after the other starting with Bryce and ending with Julianna. For each event that happen, the reader was able to hear two sides of the story and Van Draanen did a spectacular job at this. It really just shows how things are not always as they appear and that people interpret things differently. Van Draanen knows how character development is supposed to be done the right way. I greatly appreciated the way the main characters changed once they went through middle school. It made the story more realistic because middle school years (as we all know) are the ones where people begin to change the most.

I also appreciated the inclusion of some sensitive topics in the novel and how they were dealt with. In the book we meet Julianna's uncle who is considered "retarded" because he is mentally and physically challenged. It was interesting to be able to read about how someone like Julianne's uncle can affect a family. The book really did well to portray the social impacts of having to care for someone who is mentally ill or even being related to someone who is mentally ill. It was interesting to see how Bryce, Julianne, and the other characters reacted to this subject.

All in all this is now one of my favorites. It is a very quick and easy read, but is not lacking in depth or substance. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys realistic fiction.

My Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Oceanborn by Amalie Howard Release Day Blitz ~ Blog Tours

Check out the blog tour HERE


HAPPY RELEASE DAY OCEANBORN!

Author Amalie Howard has a message for you... 





ABOUT THE BOOK

The coronation is over.

But the battle has just begun.

Nerissa Marin has won her crown. But can she keep it? Already, her ties to the human realm are driving a wedge between Nerissa and her people. When word arrives that her part-human prince consort, Lo, has been poisoned, she makes the difficult choice to leave Waterfell and return landside. As the royal courts debate her decision, even more disturbing rumors surface: a plot is rising against her, led by someone she least expects.

On land, Nerissa learns another shocking truth: Lo does not remember who she is. As her choice to try to save him threatens her hold on her crown, changing loyalties and uncertainty test her courage in ways she could never have imagined. Nerissa will have one last chance to prove herself as a queen …and save the undersea kingdom she loves.

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SEAMONSTER by Amalie Howard (Aquarathi #1.5)
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AMALIE HOWARD grew up on a small Caribbean island where she spent most of her childhood with her nose buried in a book or being a tomboy running around barefoot, shimmying up mango trees and dreaming of adventure. 22 countries, surfing with sharks and several tattoos later, she has traded in bungee jumping in China for writing the adventures she imagines instead. She isn’t entirely convinced which takes more guts.

She is the author of several young adult novels critically acclaimed by Kirkus, PW, and Booklist, including Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Spring 2014 Kid’s INDIE NEXT title. Her debut novel, Bloodspell, was an Amazon bestseller and a Seventeen Magazine Summer Read. As an author of color and a proud supporter of diversity in fiction, her articles on multicultural fiction have appeared in The Portland Book Review and on the popular Diversity in YA blog. She currently resides in New York with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.amaliehoward.com.

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Tainted Energy by Lynn Vroman ~ Cover Reveal

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Title: Tainted Energy
Series: Energy Series # 1
Author: Lynn Vroman
Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Formats: E-book and Paperback
Publisher: Untold Press
Cover by: Sean Hayden
Editor: Jen Wylie
Expected Date of Publishing: Winter 2014
 
 









 

For seventeen-year-old Lena, living in the trailer park with the rest of town’s throwaways isn’t exactly paradise. Dealing with a drunken father who can't keep his fists to himself doesn’t help matters either. The only good thing in her life, other than track, is the mysterious man who visits her dreams, promising to find her.
When a chair burns her arms, Lena chalks it up to stress-induced crazy. Yet as bizarre incidents escalate, even being crazy can’t explain it all away… until one day dream guy does find her.
Tarek lost Lena seventeen years ago after she was accused of treason and marked Tainted. He finally discovers her reborn on Earth into a life of suffering as punishment for her crime. However, someone else has already found her… and wants her dead. Willing to sacrifice everything, he fights to keep her safe so she can live the only life she’s ever known—even if that life doesn’t include him.

Goodreads

Lynn Vroman lives in the Pocono Mountains with her husband, raising the four most incredible human beings on the planet. She writes young adult novels, both fantasy and contemporary.


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Stacking the Shelves #2

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Hosted by: Tynga's Reviews

eBooks For Review

A Song For Ella by David Almond (Netgalley)

Darkness by Erin Eveland (Netgalley)

Mind Blind by Lari Don (Netgalley)

Paradigm by Ceri A. Lowe (Netgalley)

The Olympus Cloud by Stephen Randel 

Orenda by Ruth Silver

Dead Girl Walking by Ruth Silver

Eyes of the Enemy by Kelly Hess

Purchased Books

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Catching Fire by Susanne Collins

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Purchased eBooks

Edgar Allen Poe Complete Tales and Poems

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hopkins

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Starydog by Kodilyn Calhoun

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Diviners by Libba Bray

From Digital Library

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Audiobook)

These are all the titles I have accumulated in the last 2 weeks. I know this is a ridiculous amount! I really need to slow down on my book buying. Comment down below which ones I should read first and a link to your Stacking the Shelves post.

Feature and Follow #1

So I am new to this blog hop so please comment if you follow me and I will definitely follow back.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

• (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
• (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
• Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
• Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
• If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
• Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
• If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
• If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This week's question:

What is your favorite TV series that you can watch over and over again on Netflix?

Answer:

It used to be Avatar: The Last Airbender until they stopped keeping it on Netflix, but no worries I own the whole DVD collection.

Drawn by Cecilia Gray ~ Impeccable Reviews

Publisher: Gray Life, LLC
Publication Date: December 12th 2013
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Format: eARC (Netgalley)
Page Count: 157

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Nobles

Sasha has a secret – that she can make you spill your secret with nothing more than a question. Her strange gift makes her a burden to her foster family and a total freak of nature. Not that Sasha cares. Why should she when no one cares about her?

Then the CIA knocks on her door. They want to give Sasha a new identity and drop her into a foreign country to infiltrate a ring of zealous graffiti terrorists. They want to give Sasha something to care about.

To survive a world where no one is who they seem, Sasha needs to make people trust her. But when that trust blossoms into love, Sasha is forced to decide between duty and friendship, between her mind and her heart, and whether to tell the truth or keep her secrets.

Review

First and foremost, I have to acknowledge that this book probably has one of the most unique premises I have ever seen in a story. Sasha is a girl that has the power to make people around her tell the truth about whatever it is on their minds just by letting them hear the sound of her voice. Yes it sounds like a great gift to have, but actually it is more like a curse. There are countless amounts of time when Sasha is faced with the ugly truth of how people really feel about her and each unspoken truth that is revealed because of her talent is what she identifies as a "goose." Sasha has had a rough life because of her strange gift, but definitely one of the coolest things about her is that her gift has enabled her to work for the CIA. She had been working and living with her foster parent Chelsea in the U.S. until she is unexpectedly relocated to Belgium to put her CIA skills to the test. She is set on a mission to track down a notorious graffiti artist. Sometimes, I did find that I did not understand the real goal or value of the mission she was assigned to, but I believe this is partly because it was not really he main focus of the story.

Sasha's character development was beautifully done. She began as a girl who saw herself as someone who will never have a normal life due to her gift. Her way of coping with all of her life misfortunes was by drawing superhero comics. Her art was her outlet to the world and her inspiration to keep moving forward. She wanted to be a hero. For most of the book Sasha was so set on catering to the greater good until she realized the value of the relationships she had to sacrifice. Sasha had lacked friends in the past and it was very interesting to see how she hesitantly and without meaning to makes real friends for the first time. The characters she befriends are Viviane and Sebastien. Sasha's internal conflict is the question of how she can stay loyal to her friends, her job, and herself. She tries to figure out what is more important to her. Is it her want to make a difference in the world, or the relationships she has built? Sasha is very relatable in this way because she represents many of us who at one time have struggled to find who we were and/or who we wanted to become.

The setting is Belgium for most of the book which is well described and easy to visualize in the mind. I liked how Gray added French into the dialogue of the book because I feel like it added some humor and personality into a character's speech. Unfortunately I do not speak French which made it quite hard for me to really understand the humor or meaningful dialogue without having to search on Google translate every time. Some translation notes would have been great to really enhance the story and its dialogue to its fullest potential. The addition of comic style picture scenes in the beginning of each paragraph is a very nice touch. They allow the readers to see events that have happened in Sasha's past. The ending was one I could never have guessed, but it did leave me feeling satisfied with the book.

All in all this book was a very unique one. It is not long at all and can easily be gotten through in snap while still being a very enjoyable read.

My Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Masque of the Red Death Series: Masque of the Red Death & Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin | Impeccable Reviews

  

Masque of the Red Death

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: April 24th 2012
Genre: Young Adult Steam-punk/Dystopia
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 319

A plague has hit the city leaving all of its inhabitants fearing an inevitable death until Araby's Father invents a mask to prevent the extinction of their city and a rebellion stirs up all around.

Now let's just start by clearing something up. If you look at the cover of this book and think it is going to be some creepy, Edgar Allen Poe like version of crime, death, and tragedy that will bring chills up your spine while reading it then well..... this is the book for you.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King | Impeccable Reviews

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 3rd 2011

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Format: Hardcover

Page Count: 279

Buy it now: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King is a fiction novel that tells the story of a boy named Lucky who has for years lived as a victim of bullying due to one of his abusive classmates Nader.

This book actually took quite a while for me to finish. One reason is that the character who bullies Lucky, Nader, is so aggravating. The way he treats Lucky really throughout the whole book saddened and angered me. This happened so much in the beginning to the point where I would read the book for less than 20 minutes and then put it down out of annoyance. And Nader was not even the only annoying character and I could literally feel Lucky's frustration while dealing with all of them.

This book brought me a roller coaster of emotions. One minute I was sad, then enraged, then annoyed, grateful, frustrated, etc. The main character goes through so many experiences in his life. Sometimes I really just wished I could reach in and give him a hug. But going through all these emotions was worth it because by the end of the book I was very satisfied and so proud of and inspired by our main character Lucky.

I just love how A.S. King was able to speak about so many topics that were quite heavy. Many are topics that Young Adult Novels avoid. Still as these topics came up they were spoken of rather truthfully and plainly in such a strategic way which I really appreciated. King is such a talented writer in the way she is able to really immerse herself into whatever character she is portraying as the POV. I may not know what goes on in a boy's mind but I believe she was able pinpoint exactly what would go on in a boy like Lucky's mind. I cannot wait to read what else she has written.

It honestly pains me to think that anybody should experience anywhere near to the abuse our main character gets or even some of the emotions the other supporting characters go through. This is a book I believe will stay with me for a long time in my memory and will always be one of my favorites. I recommend this book to everyone!

My Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Now my questions for you to think about are:

How do you feel about bully? Is it really that serious or just a way of life? Have you ever experienced or witnessed bullying?

Also I would love to hear your own thoughts on this book in the comments!

Booktube Updates: Day 1, 2, 3, 4 (2014)

These are What I Have Finished So Far:

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Glitter & Doom by Bethany Griffin

Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

What I am Currently Reading:

Beast of no Nation by Uzodinma Iweala

I actually think I have done fairly well so far in this read-a-thon. It is definitely the best I have done in any read-a-thon so far. Please feel free to comment down below your own progress in the Booktube-A-Thon and expect reviews in the next upcoming weeks of all these books I have read.

Booktube-A-Thon: Book Blogger Edition

The time has come once again for this year's Booktube-A-Thon! This year's event is going to be even bigger and better with an abundance of challenges, giveaways, reading sprints, and even exclusive Booktube-A-Thon discounts courtesy of The Book Depository. The read-a-thon will start July 14th and end on July 21st. I am so excited to actually fully participate this year and hopefully I can read as much as I have planned. For more details visit the Official Booktube-A-Thon YouTube .

The Challenges

There are seven reading challenges for participants to try and complete, so I am going to try my best to finish them all (But we all know this very well may not happen). Here is my TBR list (to be read list) based on those challenges.

1. Read a book with pictures

2. Start and finish a series

(and of course I picked a duology)

3. Read a book with red on the cover

And for this one I will double up on challenges

4. Read a book someone else picks out for you

Picked out by my sister:

5. Read a book from the genre you've read the least this year

Now this one was quite difficult to choose but I ended up picking:

6. Read a book to movie adaptation and then watch the movie for it

Again I am doubling up challenges for this one

7. Read a total of 7 books or 300 pages a day

And this part of the challenge is still TBA.....

Hopefully once I finish these 5 books I have choosen, I will be able to choose what other 2 books I will read to equal seven and include them in an update post.

I will definitely be making update posts on Thursday and Monday just so you guys can see my progress. Find me on goodreads if you want to be able to see the progress regularly. I hope you guys will participate also, and if you are participating tell me your TBR list in the comments or comment a link to your Booktube-A-Thon TBR list video or post. Also let me know what those two extra books I need to read should be. See you soon ;)