Book Deals: November 24, 2014

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)
Author: Kendare Blake
Price: $2.99
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

This book has an average of 3.99 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I rated this 3 out of 5 stars.

Please remember to check prices before buying. These prices are subject to change without notice.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Wish Would Get Their Own Books

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

Top Ten Characters I Wish Would Get Their Own Books


1. Samwise Gamgee ("Sam")
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
To me, Sam was the true hero of The Lord of the Rings. Frodo would never have gotten anywhere without Sam.



2. Hermione Granger
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
I could have filled this list with only Harry Potter characters because they're all so interesting. I'm limiting myself to only two. Hermione is my favorite character out of all of Harry Potter, and I would love to see her get her own book.

Waiting on Wednesday (37): Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

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: Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: February 4, 2014
One day I might break
One day I might break free

Nothing will ever be the same.

The fate of Omega Point is unknown. Everyone Juliette has ever cared about could be dead. The war could be over before it ever really began.

Juliette is the only one standing in The Reestablishment's way. She knows that if she's going to survive, The Reestablishment cannot.

But to take down The Reestablishment and the man who very nearly killed her, Juliette will need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together to bring down their enemy, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew—about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam—was wrong.


I am in equal parts eagerly awaiting and dreading this release. I love Mafi's writing and really want to get back into this unique world, but I'm scared of another terrible dystopian trilogy ending. I don't really have an opinion on whether Juliette should end up with Warner or Adam, but I do want everyone I care about to live through the end and for all of my questions to be answered.

What are you waiting on this week?

Audiobook Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Narrator: Kate Simses
Publisher: Harper Audio
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Acquired Via: Overdrive (Library)
Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

My Review

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is probably one of the most beautifully written books that I have ever read. I also almost gave up on it completely after about 10% of it. Kate Simses, the narrator, was definitely Shatter Me's saving grace.

Since I listened to the audiobook, I think it changed the reading experience. (I cannot tell you if it was for better or worse.) For one, I missed out on the scratching out of phrases except for the brief ripping sounds in the audiobook. Honestly, I thought it was skipping at first. It was more annoying than effective. As for the flowery descriptiveness, I would have probably skimmed through most of that. Mafi used strings of similes and metaphors to say the simplest things. It was the most lovely overkill that I've ever experienced. It was torturous to sit through, being as it was used mostly to illustrate the hormonal explosions happening with Juliette. I have read borderline erotica that did not have heroines so needy and starved for human touch as that girl. Granted, she had spent nearly a year in solitary confinement at an insane asylum. That lusty desperation overshadowed the majority of the novel. Juliette was either pining over Adam, the boy thrown in the cell with her at the start of the novel, or waxing poetic about Warner, the twisted leader of the sector. I know that she hated Warner, but she infused much of that hatred with flowery descriptions of his hotness. Say what you will about me, but I will forever refer to this novel as The Passionate, Desperate Ramblings of a Lonely, Horny Teenager from this day forth.