Audiobook Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
Author: Susan EE
Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Publisher: Feral Dream & Brilliance Audio
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: May 21, 2011
It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My Review

Angelfall by Susan Ee has been on my radar for a few years now, but I avoided it because I haven't had a lot of luck with self-published novels. Honestly, I probably would have taken my time in getting around to reading it, despite the fact that I owned it on Kindle and Audible, if not for many reviewers that I trust raving about it in anticipation of its sequel, World After.

I'm so glad that I got off of my ass and read it.

Leap into Books Giveaway Hop #2 (INT)

Welcome to my stop on the Leap into Books Giveaway Hop. This hop is co-hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Jinky at Jinky is Reading.

What You Can Win

Angelfall and World After are two of the best books that I've read this year (maybe even last year, too!), and they gave me major book hangovers. While the situations in them are not anything that I would necessarily like to "leap into", they are most certainly books that I got lost in. I'll probably leap into rereading them before book #3 comes out, which is not anywhere near soon enough.


Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
World After (Penryn & the End of Days #2)
Penryn is trying to survive. Because after the angels came to destroy the modern world there are no rules. Streets are ruled by gangs and angels are hunting for humans. When her sister is kidnapped Penryn will do everything she can to find her even if it means working with the enemy. Everything could happen in this new dangerous world.


Giveaway

Blog Tour (Review & Guest Post): The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

Title: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (Alex Wayfare #1)
Author: M.G. Buehrlen
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: March 4, 2014
One girl. Fifty-seven lives. Endless ways to die.

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

Guest Post


*Click on the letter to make it larger.
My Review

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare is M.G. Buehrlen's debut novel that is a blend of time travel and romance. The driving force of the novel is teenage outcast, Alex Wayfare, as she comes to terms with ability to drop into her past lives. While the book is technically science fiction (by my reckoning), there is definitely a contemporary feel to the book, as Alex has to deal with things that many teens are faced with.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): The Line by J.D. Horn

Title: The Line (Witching Savannah #1)
Author: J.D. Horn
Publisher: 47North
Release Date: February 1, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Savannah is considered a Southern treasure, a city of beauty with a rich, colorful past. Some might even call it magical…

To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South.

Despite being powerless herself, of course.

Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content. But when a series of mishaps—culminating in the death of the Taylor matriarch—leaves a vacuum in the mystical underpinnings of Savannah, she finds herself thrust into a mystery that could shake her family apart…and unleash a darkness the line of Taylor witches has been keeping at bay for generations.

In The Line, the first book of the Witching Savannah series, J.D. Horn weaves magic, romance, and betrayal into a captivating Southern Gothic fantasy with a contemporary flare.

My Review

I must have paid some sort of sacrifice to the god of bestowing wonderful books because I've come across many lately, with J.D. Horn's debut, The Line, being the latest of the bunch. I was worried that I wouldn't like the book, despite it being a paranormal fantasy set in the South. However, the main character, Mercy Taylor, and Horn's excellent writing won me over within the first handful of pages.

Waiting on Wednesday (43): The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3)
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking Adult
Release Date: July 15, 2014
The highly anticipated finale to the #1 New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Discovery of Witches.

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

With more than one million copies sold in the United States and appearing in thirty-eight foreign editions, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night have landed on all of the major bestseller lists and garnered rave reviews from countless publications. Eagerly awaited by Harkness’s legion of fans, The Book of Life brings this superbly written series to a deeply satisfying close.


This is one of the best researched and best written mismash of paranormal, time traveling and historical fiction. I really liked the first two, and I tend to not enjoy time traveling books. I might need to re-read/re-listen to the second one because I don't remember that much of the details, and this is a detail driven series. All of these amazing trilogy endings this year are both great and bittersweet. But, yet again, I know where my Audible credits will be going. :)

What are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can't Believe I Have Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Books That I Can't Believe I Have Never Read

This week is a rewind where we pick from past topics. I'm choosing books I have never read because I thought it would be fun, and it might make me actually read then sooner rather than later.



1. 1984 by George Orwell
This book is one of the reasons that I started to read classics last year. I just have never gotten around to it. I'm kind of intimidated. I even own it on audiobook and physical copy. It is definitely on my to-do list this year. If I could just actually start to read it...





2. Little Women (Little Women #1) by Louisa May Alcott
I have no excuses, but I do plan on reading it this year.

Review: Forget Me Not by Stacey Nash

Title: Forget Me Not (The Collective #1)
Author: Stacey Nash
Publisher: Entranced Publishing
Acquired Via: Author
Release Date: February 17, 2014
Since her mother vanished nine years ago, Anamae and her father have shared a quiet life. But when Anamae discovers a brooch identical to her mother's favorite pendant, she unknowingly invites a slew of trouble into their world. When the brooch and the pendant are worn together they're no longer pretty pieces of jewelry -- they're part of a highly developed technology capable of cloaking the human form. Triggering the jewelry's power attracts the attention of a secret society determined to confiscate the device -- and silence everyone who is aware of its existence. Anamae knows too much, and now she's Enemy Number One.

She's forced to leave her father behind when she's taken in by a group determined to keep her safe. Here Anamae searches for answers about this hidden world. With her father kidnapped and her own life on the line, Anamae must decide if saving her dad is worth risking her new friends’ lives. No matter what she does, somebody is going to get hurt.

Fiction is Fact. Know the Truth.

My Review

It took me some time to actually get into the story of Forget Me Not. The writing was decent, but there were a lot of problems. There were inconsistencies and a lot of unasked and unanswered questions. Also, while there weren’t pacing issues as far as the plot goes, there was a sort of pacing issue in the writing. It kept jumping around all over the place, with Mae asking questions that seemingly had already been answered or Mae discussing things that I, as a reader, had no idea what she was talking about. The writing was erratic and just didn’t flow.

Review: Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas

Title: Ask Again Later
Author: Liz Czukas
Publisher: HarperTeen
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: March 11, 2014
Despite what her name might suggest, Heart has zero interest in complicated romance. So when her brilliant plan to go to prom with a group of friends is disrupted by two surprise invites, Heart knows there's only one drama-free solution: flip a coin.

Heads: The jock. He might spend all night staring at his ex or throw up in the limo, but how bad can her brother's best friend really be?

Tails: The theater geek...with a secret. What could be better than a guy who shares all Heart's interests--even if he wants to share all his feelings?

Heart's simple coin flip has somehow given her the chance to live out both dates. But where her prom night ends up might be the most surprising thing of all...

My Review

I have no idea why I decided to read Ask Again Later later, but I surprised myself by enjoying it quite a bit. It was completely different from what I expected, full of fun characters, and made me reminisce about my own high school days.

Cover Reveal (Excerpt & Giveaway): Honor Among Orcs by Amalia Dillin

Today I'm participating in the cover reveal of Amalia Dillin's latest book, Honor Among Orcs. I can remember when Amalia was working on the book and would post about it on Twitter fairly often, and I'm very excited to share the cover with you. I'll also be posting my review for Honor Among Orcs close to its release date.



Title: Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga, #1)
Author: Amalia Dillin
Cover Designer: Melissa Stevens
Cover Reveal Organizer: Masquerade Book Tours
Release Date: April 1, 2014
After nearly a decade as the king’s whipping-girl, Princess Arianna has no intention of going quietly into marriage to some treasonous noble, or serving obediently as the king’s spy until her death is more convenient. When she discovers a handsome orc, chained and trapped inside a magic mirror, Arianna cannot help but see a lasting freedom from her father's abuse.

Left to rot inside a mirror by the king, Bolthorn never imagined his prayers would be answered by a princess. Nor did he ever expect to meet so worthy a woman after knowing her father’s cruelty. He needs her help to escape the mirror before the king marches against the orcs, but all he can offer Arianna is ice and darkness in exchange for her aid.

If Arianna can free the monster behind the glass, perhaps she might free herself, as well. But once they cross the mountain, there will be no return, and the deadly winter is the least of what threatens them on the other side. Romance blossoms in this gripping fantasy adventure.

Excerpt

He knew these woods, sparse as they had become, and when they broke, he knew the tundra of the foothills too. Just before dawn, he found the outcrop beneath which he had made a shelter his first night beyond the mountains, and though he did not dare to light a fire, the sedge made a soft bed.

After a meal of apples and cheese, the last of their food, Arianna curled against his side, sharing the fur, and rested her head on his shoulder. He tested her forehead for fever and breathed his relief when she did not burn against his palm.

Blog Tour (Review): Ripper by Isabel Allende

Title: Ripper
Author: Isabel Allende
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
The Jackson women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Yet, while their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda's father, she's reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her-Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco's elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL.

While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature, like her father, the SFPD's Deputy Chief of Homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

When a string of strange murders occurs across the city, Amanda plunges into her own investigation, discovering, before the police do, that the deaths may be connected. But the case becomes all too personal when Indiana suddenly vanishes. Could her mother's disappearance be linked to the serial killer? Now, with her mother's life on the line, the young detective must solve the most complex mystery she's ever faced before it's too late.

My Review

I have never read anything by Isabel Allende, but I've heard wonderful things about her, and I was very interested in the premise of Ripper. Quite a few of my library patrons read mysteries and thrillers, so thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to read more of the genre and check out a new author.

Waiting on Wednesday (42): What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: What I Thought Was True
Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin)
Release Date: April 15, 2014
From the author of My Life Next Door comes a swoony summertime romance full of expectation and regret, humor and hard questions.

Gwen Castle's Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, is slumming it as a yard boy on her Nantucket-esque island this summer. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.

A magnetic, push-me-pull-me romance with depth, this is for fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Deb Caletti.

I read My Life Next Door last year and it was one of my favorite books of last year. The characters felt so real and true. I completely connected with Sam and fell in love with Jase and his family. I'm so excited that Fitzpatrick is writing a sequel to that book and that she is writing another standalone coming out this year!

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: March 4, 2014
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

My Review

The Hype Monster is a terrible beast, yet The Winner's Curse escaped its clutch mostly unscathed, despite the glowing reviews from All The Blogs and the yearning of which nearly everyone is feeling the pull. (I usually don't enjoy hyped up books.) Marie Rutkoski executes the promises of the premise in a way that I didn't quite expect, but it was fulfilling nonetheless.

Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons We Love Being a Blogger/Reader

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Reasons We Love Being a Blogger/Reader
Amber's Picks:

Reading:

1. I Get to Visit Different Worlds
Or, I get to live different lives and experience things I would otherwise not have a chance to do. One of my favorite quotes from George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons :

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one.”

2. I Get to Lose Myself in Books
I am always thinking or worrying about something. Reading is the only time that I truly let go and immerse myself in something that stops my constant whirring of thoughts.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc. by P.K. Hrezo

Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc. Tour Schedule



Title: Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc.
Author: P.K. Hrezo
Genre: NA Time Travel Adventure Romance
Release Date: November 2013
It’s the year 2069 and even though eighteen-year-old Bianca Butterman is heir to the family biz, she may never see the day her time-craft license becomes official. When a government agent starts nosing around the operation, Butterman Travel, Inc. gets stuck with a full audit—part of a government take-over scheme to shut down all private time travel agencies. Enter former boy band superstar, Tristan Helms, desperate to retrieve a lost item from his past and willing to pay triple fare for a time-trip to get there, and Bianca has to find a way to complete the job and return home before the government gets wind and shuts down the family biz for good.

Welcome to Butterman Travel, Incorporated; a full service agency designed to meet all your exclusive time travel needs. We’re a family owned and operated business with one hundred years of experience. A place where you can rest assured, safety and reliability always come first.

Anxious to attend some special event from the past? Or for a glimpse of what the future holds?

You’ve come to the right place. We’re a fully accredited operation, offering an array of services; including, but not limited to: customized travel plans, professionally piloted operations, and personal trip guides. *Terms and conditions do apply

Use our Web conferencing to contact our frontline reservation specialist, Bianca Butterman, who will handle all your inquiries in a professional and efficient manner, offering a tentative itinerary and free fare quote, so you can make the most of your time trip.

We look forward to serving you at Butterman Travel, Inc., where time is always in your hands.

Guest Post

Following the Signs
P.K. Hrezo
You know what I mean? When life seems to be pointing you in a certain direction. Maybe it's coincidence, or maybe goes deeper. But certain instances occur like tiny blips on life's radar--almost unnoticeable.

Then finally you start tracking the blips and think, "This seems like more than coincidence. These feel like signs. Everything's lining up perfectly."

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

Title: Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Author: Nancy Horan
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House)
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
From Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank, comes her much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny.

At the age of thirty-five, Fanny van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.”

Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writing—and who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevenson’s charms, and the two begin a fierce love affair—marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness—that spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevenson’s own unforgettable tales.

My Review

Nothing makes me swoon more than a historical romance novel, and the historical fiction of Nancy Horan's Under the Wide and Starry Sky had no problems making my heart go pitter-patter. (I don't really consider it historical romance, but don't ask me why.) Fanny van de Grift Osbourne was a character whom I immediately adored because of the determination that she showed early in the novel. Once her relationship with Robert Louis Stevenson began in the novel, I was hopelessly captivated by their story.

Review: Fates by Lanie Bross

Title: Fates (Fates #1)
Author: Lanie Bross
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Perfect for fans of Jennifer Armentrout, Julie Kagawa, Rachel Vincent, and Sarah J. Maas, and for girls who love all things pretty, romantic and inspirational.

One moment. One foolish desire. One mistake. And Corinthe lost everything.

She fell from her tranquil life in Pyralis Terra and found herself exiled to the human world. Her punishment? To make sure people's fates unfold according to plan. Now, years later, Corinthe has one last assignment: kill Lucas Kaller. His death will be her ticket home.

But for the first time, Corinthe feels a tingle of doubt. It begins as a lump in her throat, then grows toward her heart, and suddenly she feels like she is falling all over again--this time for a boy she knows she can never have. Because it is written: one of them must live, and one of them must die. In a universe where every moment, every second, every fate has already been decided, where does love fit in?

My Review

Fates by Lanie Bross is a young adult paranormal romance novel spun with a smidge of Greek mythology. It is also incredibly tiresome. I know, I know, I seldom write reviews like this, but Fates did have some promise in the beginning, but ultimately left me underwhelmed.

Cover Reveal (Giveaway): The Queen of Zombie Hearts by Gena Showalter

Today I'm participating in the cover reveal of Gena Showalter's final installment of the White Rabbit Chronicles, The Queen of Zombie Hearts. In case you've forgotten, here are the covers of the first two books in the series:


And here is the cover you've been waiting for:



Title: The Queen of Zombie Hearts (White Rabbit Chronicles #3)
Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Cover Reveal Organizer: Rockstar Book Tours
Release Date: September 30, 2014
I have a plan.

We'll either destroy them for good, or they'll destroy us.

Either way, only one of us is walking away.

In the stunning conclusion to the wildly popular White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice "Ali" Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers…until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters…and the worst has only begun.

As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies…and she isn't the girl she thought she was. She's connected to the woman responsible for killing—and turning—Cole's mother. How can their relationship endure? As secrets come to light, and more slayers are taken or killed, Ali will fight harder than ever to bring down Anima—even sacrificing her own life for those she loves.


About the Author

Review: The Immortal Crown by Richelle Mead

Title: The Immortal Crown (Age of X #2)
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Acquired Via: Edelweiss
Release Date: May 29, 2014
Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion.

Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity.

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

My Review

I requested Immortal Crown because I really liked Gameboard of the Gods and I love Mead’s Vampire Academy series and its spinoff series Bloodlines. It’s kind of hard to set out my feeling for The Immortal Crown. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. It was very slow in the beginning and there were a lot of issues throughout the story.

Waiting on Wednesday (41): The One by Kiera Cass

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: The One (The Selection #3)
Author: Kiera Cass
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: May 6, 2014
The Selection changed the lives of thirty-five girls forever. And now, the time has come for one winner to be chosen.

America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the competition approaches its end and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.

From the very first page of The Selection, this #1 New York Times bestselling series has captured readers' hearts and swept them away on a captivating journey... Now, in The One, Kiera Cass delivers a satisfying and unforgettable conclusion that will keep readers sighing over this electrifying fairy-tale long after the final page is turned.


This series is one of my guilty pleasures. It has all the things I hate about young adult series (love triangle, angst, drama, annoying heroine), but I still can't put the books down once I pick them up. It really is The Bachelor set it a future dystopian society. Also, I'm completely Team Maxon.

What are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Made Me Swoon

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Books That Made Me Swoon



1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My all-time favorite book. Besides, who wouldn't swoon over Mr. Darcy?





2. Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore
I love the relationship between Katsa and Po. Katsa is wounded, prickly and headstrong. Po is stubborn, compassionate and understanding. I don't want to give any spoilers, but their coming into their relationship is a wonderful story. Plus, this is one of my favorite YA fantasies.

Blog Tour (Guest Post, Excerpt, & Giveaway): Beasts of Burdin by Alexander Nader

Title: Beasts of Burdin (Beasts of Burdin #1)
Author: Alexander Nader
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
Release Date: February 10, 2014
Demon hunter Ty Burdin hung up his guns, knife, trench coat and fedora a year ago. Bags packed, hands washed of all demon politics, he’s done. Forever.

In fact, to get far far away, he dragged Nora, his rockabilly secretary, from Miami to the Tennessee mountains where he’s lived a life of peace—if peace can be defined as drowning in scotch and taking private eye jobs to keep the lights on. Jobs for real people. Not demons.

No demons.

He’s retired from that. Remember?

Demon hunters aren’t a dime a dozen, though, and when Ty’s brother asks him for a favor—just one—what’s a brother to do? Agreeing to take down one hillbilly demon shouldn’t take that long. In. Decapitate. Out. Favor complete. Back to the office where Nora and his bottle of whiskey are waiting.

Unfortunately for Ty, staying retired doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and an avalanche of bad luck draws him right back to an agency he despises and the career that nearly cost him his sanity.

This time, Ty has no way out and will have to face his own demons just to survive.

Guest Post

Hi, everybody. I’m Alexander Nader and my new book Beasts of Burdin has just hit the shelves/e-reader-of-your-choosing. Thinking of private eye/demon hunter main character, Ty Burdin, this seems like a good time to talk about my favorite novel PI.

There are a ton of choices, both modern and classic, and I struggled not to say Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade. I like Marlowe a lot, but that just seemed like too easy of an answer. Others at the top of the list were Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man, Driver from Drive, and Bucky Bleichert from The Black Dahlia. I know those aren’t all PIs per say, but I’m stretching the meaning to noir main characters.

Joint Review: Night by Elie Wiesel

Back to the Classics Challenge



Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Acquired Via: Library (Kayla) & Personal Collection (Amber)
Release Date: 1960
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

Our Review

Night by Elie Wiesel is the first book that we have chosen to read for our Back to the Classics Challenge.

Kayla: I'm glad that we read Night first because it was the book I was most likely to put off reading. (I swear I didn't - January was a busy month.) The Holocaust always makes me extremely emotional, but I was surprised by my lack of reaction to Night. Don't get me wrong, I was horrified by the situations Elie Wiesel faced, but I never cried. How did the book make you feel?

Amber: Mostly I felt sad and angry while reading it. Obviously sad about everything that Wiesel went through, but also just that it happened and it happened to so many people. But also sad for the things that Wiesel lost besides his family and his possessions. He lost his faith in himself and in his God. He also lost a little of his humanity. I'm also angry that there are still people in the world that believe that the Holocaust never happened. Then, I just thought it was so crazy that at the beginning of Night, Wiesel talks about how the people he knew were saying that they didn't believe that Hitler was really going to kill the Jewish people. Then they let the Nazis into their homes, then they let the Nazis kick them out of their homes, etc. I wonder if it was because they wanted to believe that human beings couldn't be that awful. Or if they, like most people, think that something bad will never happen to them.

Do you think that your lack of reaction was due to how Night was written? To me, it seemed very matter-of-fact and almost clinical.