The Best of 2010 in Books!

Today marks the last day of a great year :(  2010 marks the birth of Booklopedia (that sounded really cheesy hahaha), the first time I've ever actually stuck to writing down all the books I've read, and a lot of other wonderful book-related and not book-related things.  So, to basically sum up this year, in books of course, I have decided to be a part of a survey created by The Perpetual Page Turner!!!

1. Best book of 2010?
Do I really have to choose?  I think that the best book is... The Iron King by Julia Kagawa... It's definitely one of my favorite books this year! 

2. Worst book of 2010?
I wouldn't say that it's the worst book that I read, but I just didn't like it that much.  That book would have to be Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink.  I actually read a lot of reviews that said it was really good, but for some reason, I just didn't like it... I think I'll have to try and re-read it.

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
I was really looking forward to reading Misguided Angel, the 5th book in the Blue Bloods series, and it was okay, but it was just SOO short!  When I compared it to my copy of The Van Alen Legacy, it's like half the size!  And it focused so much and 3 of the characters, that the rest, like Bliss, just sort of seemed to have disappeared. 

4. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010?
This isn't exactly a YA book, but it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  It's called The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and it's really good!  I thought it was going to be boring because I don't normally like reading historical fiction books, but it was a fantastic book!

5. Book you recommended to people most in 2010?
Hmm...  Well, I definitely told some of my friends to read If I Stay by Gayle Forman and The Iron King by Julia Kagawa...  Oh!  There's also The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han which I found to be a really good book, and so did the other people who I recommended it to!

6. Best series you discovered in 2010?
This is a tie between the Gone series by Michael Grant, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and The Iron Fey by Julia Kagawa... All great series!

7. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010?
Definitely Julia Kagawa, Lauren Oliver, Michael Grant, Jenny Han, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, and probably lots more :)

8. Most hilarious read of 2010?
I don't read a lot of hilarious, laugh-out-loud books, but I did have the chance to read Priscilla the Great by Sybil Nelson and I've got to say that Priscilla is one funny character who made her story a really funny read!

9. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010?
Basically all the books that I put under #6!

10. Book you most anticipated in 2010?
I think it was Linger by Maggie Stiefvater... You should've seen me!  I pre-ordered it on Amazon, but then the release date was changed and Amazon didn't know, so I got mine a couple days later... I kept pressing the "track order" button like every hour to see when it would be shipped out hahaha.  I was being pretty ridiculous :D  After Linger, it was just about every other book that was on my list of books I needed.  They were mostly the next book in a series. 

11. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010?
There are SOOO many!  You can see some of them in my Cover Crazy posts which have included all of the books in the Vampire Kisses series by Ellen Schreiber, Beastly by Alex Flinn, Impossible by Nancy Werlin, Fallen & Torment by Lauren Kate, and all the books in the Need series by Carrie Jones.  Other ones that haven't been spotlighted in Cover Crazy would have to be Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Matched by Ally Condie and Nightshade by Andrea Cremer! 

         

12. Most memorable character in 2010? My mind keeps going back and forth between Cassia in Matched and Calla in Nightshade.  They're both really strong characters who both try and change the order of things in their world and I admire them for their strength.  Who wouldn't remember a kick-butt heroine like Calla or a smart character like Cassia?

13. Most beautifully written book in 2010?

It's a tie between Matched and If I Stay.

14. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010?

If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.  They're both basically about the same concept, life and death, but they both really make you think about how precious life is :)

15. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read?

I'd have to say The Hunger Games... I really have no idea why, but I never picked it up when I saw it in the bookstore, even after all the hype about it.  I finally managed to when I was at my school's library, and let's just say that I fell in love :D

Sorry if there were lots of repeats like The Iron King... but those books just really stood out to me this year.  Of course there are other books that haven't been mentioned here that were also really great. 

I hope you guys have a wonderful 2011!

Cleo :) 

Cover Crazy 6!

Okay so I know that Cleo already posted one tonight but I haven't done one yet so I thought... what the heck?


Cover Crazy 6

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme that was created by Tawni over at The Book Worms to show which cover(s) you are absolutely going crazy over!

This week I'm going crazy over the cover for...The Luxe by Anna Godbersen!

This is a full view of the wrap around cover and my gosh what a view it is I mean JUST LOOK AT THIS DRESS! This is a very elegant and classy cover that features a beautiful woman in a to die for dress...but it also captures the darkness of this story by using the dark brown damask wall paper, the dark black vanity in the corner, and the areas that are hidden by shadows. Not to mention the look on the woman's face, which automatically starts the duh duh duh duhhhhhh music playing in my head with the thunder and lightning effects. This cover is a beautiful example of the well known contrast between dark and light, and I love it! The book isn't half-bad either! (;

2-in-1 Review! Vampire Academy

Basic Information
Title: Vampire Academy Series
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher/Publish Date: The Penguin Group (razOr bill)/ August 2007 (date of first novel)
Pages: Books 1-3 about 400, books 4-6 about 500-550
Sales Rank(B=Book + the book number): B1-123/B2-244/B3-462/B4-467/B5-284/B6-33
Rating for the series: 5/5
Rating for Last Sacrifice: 4 and 1/2 out of 5


Synopsis
Vampire Academy (Book 1)

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.

Last Sacrifice (Book 6)

The astonishing final novel in Richelle Mead's epic series!

Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice. Now, with Rose on trial for her life and Lissa first in line for the Royal Throne, nothing will ever be the same between them.

Review

Okay so this is a 2-in-1 review because I'm going to review the Vampire Academy series as a whole, but I'm also going to do a mini review on the book Last Sacrifice which is the last book in the series. I'm focusing a bit more on that one because it is the ending to my favorite book series of all time, and because it's the most recent of the books (so I'll be careful of spoilers!).

 So first off, this series as a whole is just, amazing. Series like the Hunger Games and Harry Potter were amazing as well, but for me those books had up and down moments. While I know this won't be the case for everyone, I was always constantly happy with the outcome of the book, as well as the writing of Richelle Mead. I feel strongly that this series will leave a deep impression on you in a positive way whether it be the plot, the characters, or the romance. The storyline is very original and for the first time in a while, I found myself analyzing the actual writing of the author instead of just the plot. The reason why I was able to pay so much attention to her writing is because Richelle Mead made it that way. Her writing not only drew me into the plot, but it made me stop and realize how much thought she was putting into these novels. When you are able to gather from an author's writing how much time and effort she put into this novel, you will be able to:

• Know that the book will be amazing just because of the amount of work and dedication she is putting into it.
• You'll know that when she was writing this, she had her fans in mind and wrote this amazing book because she truly cares about them.

and lastly

• The author's writing becomes more realistic and that creates an opportunity for readers to really connect to the characters and their situations.

That's how I felt when reading this book. For a book about supernatural beings, Mead really made their situations relatable by keeping the journey of Rose and Lissa the dominant part of the story. I mean, Rose kicks Strigoi butt and trains 24-7 at a school specifically made for half vampires like her, but she still deals with guy trouble and the fact that she's running out of her favorite lipgloss. These little tidbits really make the characters real, because when I think of Lissa, I don't think of her as vampire royalty. I think of her as Rose's best friend who is elegant, smart, independent, and the one who will always be there for Rose, even if Rose is the one who is supposed to be protecting her. When I think of Rose, I think of this beautiful yet fierce girl who is in love with someone she shouldn't be, and even though she is amazingly strong she needs someone to save her every once in a while too. The strong characters make this series an exciting read, and the love triangles make it all the more interesting. 

For those of you have read Last Sacrifice....


OHMYGOD.


How many of you agree with me that it was just AHMAYZING? My gosh Richelle Mead never disappoints. Each book came with twists and moments that just made my mouth drop. Like this ------> :O I think Richelle did a pretty good job at keeping the ending with the love triangle kind of hush hush, I mean it's hard to keep it a secret but still I think she did a good job of giving page time to both Adrian and Dimitri. But what I really like is that the book didn't stray from its original purpose and focus on the romance. This book showed plenty Rose/Strigoi action and had A LOT of character development. Lissa finally sticks up for herself and Rose starts to accept her vulnerability. The reason why i gave this a 4 1/2 was because it was a little open ended. I know that there are a lot of....constraints when it comes to writing, including the amount of pages and such, and I was actually very pleased with the ending. But I still felt that a few important characters didn't get their last chance to shine in the end and it was a "everything will work itself out even if you don't read about it" type of ending you know? But otherwise I loved loved loved the ending and for those of you who still haven't started the series, I suggest you do, even if its only to read this last book!

                                                               

Cover Crazy (5)

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme that was created by Tawni over at The Book Worms to show which cover(s) you are absolutely going crazy over!

This week I'm going crazy over the cover for... Need, Captivate, and Entice, all by Carrie Jones!

Here's why I looove them:

• The gold glitter!!!  It's really cool!  And it's also what the pixies leave behind in this book, so it makes sense as to why it's on the cover.
• They all have a similar theme of: some part of the head, a black background, and gold glitter.  You can totally tell that they're part of a (very awesome) series.
• If I had to choose a favorite, I think that I really like Entice because I love how the model is blowing glitter into the air.  I think that orginally, she was blowing glitter into a guy, but they changed it. 

Cleo :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We hope you guys have a wonderful day full of fun, yummy food, and of course, good books :)  Hope you all you have a wonderful day!!!

Follow Friday (19)

YES! FRIDAY! CHRISTMAS EVE! ONE MORE DAY TILL CHRISTMAS!

This week's question:

What are your plans for this fabulous day?

Christmas day... hmmm... my siblings will probably wake me up at like 5 or 6 in the morning and then we'll have to wait until my parents wake up then we'll open up the presents.  That's basically been the routine since I was younger haha.  Then my sister will makes a pretty awesome breakfast.  I think I have to go to a Christmas party, too.  Yep, that's pretty much what's going on Christmas day :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Cleo :)

The Dark Days of Supernatural Digital Essentials... Oh Yeah!

I was just going through my daily routine of looking at all the posts of the blogs that I follow on the dashboard and I clicked on one post that led me to... HERE!  And then my jaw sort of dropped because there were so many cool things and widgets and I was like :OOO <--- That could literally be my expression. 

Basically, I was looking for all those countdown widgets to put on the sidebar of Booklopedia because I like countdown widgets and they look really cool.  That's probably the lamest reason ever, but hey!  At least you'll know how many days you have to wait until the book will come out :D

The Dark Days of Supernatural Tour from HarperTeen sounds really cool, too!  I've been seeing it here and there and on this tour, the tour consists of basically all the books that I'm looking forward to, which are Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber, Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton, Afterlife by Claudia Gray, and Desires of the Dead by Kimberley Derting (but I have to read the first book first).

Here's a pretty cool trailer that they made:


Now, I am off to add some of the widgets to the sidebar ;) 

Cleo :)

Waiting on Wednesday (9)

I haven't done this in a while (basically in a month), but anways, it's Waiting on Wednesday today! This is a weekly meme, which is brought to you by Jill at Breaking the Spine!This meme is where you can post a post about what you're really look forward to. And I'm always looking forward to new releases :)

This week I'm waiting for...

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Releasing on: March 22nd, 2011

Description:

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

I think that basically everyone's waiting for this book since I've been seeing it in so many Waiting on Wednesday's over the past few weeks, but it sounds really good.  The cover is also absolutely beautiful!  I'm definitely reading this one for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge :D

What are you guys waiting for this week?

Cleo :)

Review: Priscilla the Great

Title: Priscilla the Great
Author: Sybil Nelson
Date Released: December 15th, 2010
Pages: 276
Rating: 5 out of 5

Description:
Meet Priscilla Sumner, an ordinary seventh grader with extraordinary gifts. As if middle school isn’t hard enough, not only does Priscilla have to fight pimples and bullies, but genetically enhanced assassins trying to kill her and her family. Armed with wit, strength, and a genius best friend, Priscilla must defeat the Selliwood Institute, an organization dead set on turning children into killing machines.

Add an older brother annoyingly obsessed with Christina Aguilera, mischievous baby twin brothers who could scare the sin off of Satan, and parents more puzzling than a Rubik’s cube in the Bermuda triangle and expect a smoking page-turner!

Review:
I totally agree with the description, Priscilla the Great was definitely a page-turner!  At first I was a little hesitant because it didn't seem like a lot was happening.  The beginning was more of just about Priscilla and her normal life and how she's adjusting to these powers that just randomly show up one day.  BUT!  When the action starts happening, things started picking up.

Another thing that was great about Priscilla the Great was that it was really funny!  Priscilla is such a hilarious character that she would totally make you laugh out loud while you read.  She definitely made me laugh.  Her whole family was actually pretty funny too, from her overprotective dad to her mischievous little twin brothers who shoot their snot at things, and sometimes even people. 

Even though Priscilla developed superpowers, she's still a pretty normal girl and I think that anyone can relate to her.  Even though she's not totally normal, she still has crushes on boys, has to go to school, gets made fun of, and has a best friend.  Speaking of Priscilla's best friend, Tai, she's like supersmart and I think the greatest friend that anyone could ever wish for.  She's always there for Priscilla when Priscilla has a problem, whether it's about boys or her family. 

I also wanted to add that I thought the superpowers were definitely cool in this book because in most stories you read, the person has like one power, but in this one they can have multiple superpowers!  For example, Priscilla has fire power, can hear other people's thoughts, and I think that she also has superstrength.

I really liked this book and would recommend it to other people who are looking for a book to knock their socks off.  I'm not sure if it's exactly young adult, but it's really funny and has some good action scenes, which I really enjoyed.  It's also a pretty light read and if you're looking for a change from depressing love stories or vampires, I think that you'll like it and probably end up laugh your head off :D

Cover Review:
The cover is really cool!  I like how it has the chalk board because Priscilla is still in school.  It's also totally awesome how there fire coming out of the finger because it totally represents Priscilla since it is one of her powers :)

Cleo :)

*Description from Goodreads.com
**Review copy sent by author (PDF file version).  Thank you Sybil Nelson for the copy!

Cover Crazy (4)

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme that was created by Tawni over at The Book Worms to show which cover(s) you are absolutely going crazy over!

This week I'm going crazy over the cover for Beastly by Alex Flinn!

Here's why:

• I looooove how it's so simple, but there are some details that make it so pretty at the same time.
• The white rose is really symbolic in the book and on the cover it seems to be made out of fabric... I really don't know why, but it certainly does stand out with the black background
• The font is definitely cool!  There are thorns coming out of it and on the Y, the rose is sticking out!

Which cover(s) are you guys going crazy over this week?

Cleo :)

Follow Friday (18)

Hip Hip Hurray!!  It's Friday!  Which means it's Follow Friday :)  But it also means that I officially start my winter break!!  I'm sooo happy and I hope that I'll get to spend every single day for the next two weeks posting on this blog :D :D



This weeks question is:

What did you study in college, or are currently studying and did it lead to your current 9 to 5 or are you doing something totally different?

This is a tough question considering the fact that I'm still in high school.  But when I grow up... I either want to be a veterinarian or a marine biologist.  I love animals, especially animals that live in the ocean (because the ocean is totally awesome), so why not just follow my passion for animals?

Yep, so since I'm on a break, look forward to a lot more reviews and in January we'll be doing a sort of New Years giveaway.  Also, there's a sort of poll going on here where you get to choose which series/books by a certain author I'm going to read next year.  So, stop by and vote :D

Hope you guys have a great weekend!! And break if you're still in school!

Cleo :)

Review: Hunger

Title: Hunger
Author: Michael Grant
Date Published: May 26th, 2010
Pages: 590
Rating: 5 out of 5

Description:
IT'S BEEN THERE MONTHS SINCE EVERYONE UNDER THE AGE OF FIFTEEN BECAME TRAPPED IN THE BUBBLE KNOWN AS THE FAYZ.
THREE MONTHS SINCE ALL THE ADULTS DISAPPEARED.
GONE.

Food ran out weeks. Everyone is starving, but no one wants to figure out a solution. And each day, more and more kids are evolving, developing supernatural abilities that set them apart from the kids without powers.

Tension rises and chaos is descending upon the town. It's the normal kids against the mutants. Each kid is out for himself, and even the good ones turn murderous.

But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.

The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

Review:
Hunger is the awesome sequel to Gone.  And it is epic.  Probably more epic than Gone, or maybe just about the same.  But let me tell you: There's still a lot of action and violence and mystery going on in this book.  Even though I'm not a violent person and haven't actually really picked up a book with so much violence in it, I really love this series so far. 

There's probably not much to say about this book because I thought that Gone and Hunger were both equal... I probably should've done a review of them together now that I think about it.  The only difference is that now, everyone's going hungry, hence the title.  All the kids are facing challenges and the food problem is one of them.  Food has run out and they're only kids so hunting is hard, and did I mention that all the animals are becoming mutated?  Yeah, there are like these killer earthworms and creepy talking coyotes.  The earthworms make it especially hard to grow food which is ironic since they're really supposed to help grow the food.  Also, in the description it mentions the Darkness.  The Darkness just adds a whole new level of creepiness to this book.  It still makes me shudder when I think about all the creepy things that the Darkness has done and tried to do. 

The characters are as awesome as ever.  There are some new characters.  I think that they might've appeared at the end of Gone, but they appear much more and play a pretty big part in each of those really intense scenes because they have really awesome powers.  Like there's this one girl named Brianna and she had super speed which was really useful to the good kids of the FAYZ because during the fights, she would travel back and forth between the fighting grounds and wherever Sam was.  I still really don't like the Coates Academy kids since they are evil and I always side with the good guys (who wouldn't?).  I really felt bad for Sam, though, because he's trying so hard to maintain a whole city of kids.  Yes, just kids!  And he's only a kid himself and probably more than half of the kids won't even listen to him, because you know how kids are ;)

The plot is also really good.  The plot of the book is really important to me, and if it really captivates me, then it's already a really great book.  The plot is so fast paced that it makes you read non-stop, and then you wonder where all the time went because the book just sucks you in.

I would really, really recommend this book to anyone who likes tons of action and is okay with some violence.  Just so you know, a reviewer said that if Stephen King wrote The Lord of the Flies, this would be the product.  I've never read a book by Stephen King or read The Lord of the Flies, so I'm guessing that they're both pretty scary.  There is some killing and it can be a little gruesome sometimes, but this is just so good and if you read it, it'll keep you on your toes.  I can't even express my feelings through just words... I think if I did a video, I'd just be a ball of excitement :D

Cover Review:
The cover is really cool!  It also totally conveys everything that's going on in the book  through their expressions and has two of the characters on it.  I think it's Lana and Caine, since his blazer is fancy and probably means that he's from Coates Academy, and I don't think that it could be Drake (who's really crazy...). 

Cleo :)

All I Want for Christmas Is... (7)

This is a weekly meme that's hosted by Danya @ A Tapestry of Words, where every week up until Christmas, you choose a book that you would like to see under your tree! You also have to say why, which shouldn't be too hard :)

This week, I want: Entice by Carrie Jones!!
*Skip the description if you haven't read the first two books in the series*

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out.


For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned. She's Astley's queen.

Have you read the first book Need or the second book Captivate?  Did you say no?  Well, then, you must read those books first!  I love them!  So, of course I Need to read Entice and that's why it's on my Christmas list because I'm pretty sure that it'll Captivate me.  Hahaha, I hope you understood that.  That was just me trying to be funny :D

Only 9 more days till Christmas!!!

Cleo :)

Help Me Decide!

Hi everyone!!


So, ever since I've started this blog back in August, I've come to realize that I haven't read SOOO many of the popular series/books like Harry Potter, or even any of Sarah Dessen's books. I have decided that next year, 2011, I'm going read (or attempt to read) the whole entire series/books that you guys choose :D Sound like a good idea?


Here's the list:

• Harry Potter by JK Rowling (I know, you guys must think I'm crazy...)
• All the books by Sarah Dessen
• Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
• The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I know, you guys are probably shocked, right?  Well, basically I haven't touched any of these books.  Except for the first Harry Potter book which I never finished, BUT! I'm ready to try the series again if that has the most votes :D  I've also read the first two books of the Vampire Academy series, but stopped.  I'm also willing to restart that series again too :)

So, to vote, just comment on this post by December 31st!  Also, just choose ONE!

Cleo :)

City of Fallen Angels Cover!!!

NO WAY!  The City of Fallen Angels cover was released today!! 

Doesn't it look so awesome??  It still repeats the image of characters on it, but instead of one, there's two!  If you want to see the bigger image, you can click here.  It'll direct you to Cassandra Clare's blog :) 

It's funny because just the other day I was thinking about when they were going to release the cover while I was reading Clockwork Angel.

Just in case you don't know, this is the fourth book in the series and I think that there are two more planning to come out after this one. 

Cleo :)

Cover Crazy (3): Impossible

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme that was created by Tawni over at The Book Worms to show which cover(s) you are absolutely going crazy over!

This week I'm crazy about the cover for Impossible by Nancy Werlin!

So, there are two different covers, but I like this one more.  Here's why:

• The scenery is just so peaceful and beautiful with the snow-capped mountains in the background being reflected by the large lake. 
• I love how the model's hair is being blown by the wind, and the dress is to die for! 
• I just realized that the title font is slanting kind of like it's being blown in the wind along with Lucy's hair.

Cleo :)

MarMar's Mini-Review: Beautiful Creatures

Cleo's already written a review for Beautiful Creatures, which you can read for the full review, but I loved this novel a lot and feel the need to put in a few cents :)

Credit to Cleo again for suggesting this book for me. I'd seen it quite a few times at bookstores and stuff, but kind of misjudged it to be a typical YA novel, which I was rather sick of at the moment. Well I decided to try reading it finally because Cleo was GUSHING so much about it (not really. but still :) and wow. I an so glad I did. Proves you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover.
This books flows from event to event, and the writing makes it really realistic. I felt like i could really relate to the character even thought it was through a guy's perspective, and it was like i was seeing his life through his eyes. The writing really is amazing and so is the plot - i literally could NOT put this book down! I think the characters in the novel really prove you shouldn't be afraid to be an individual, and its a rollarcoaster ride of events balancing the supernatural and just plain high school drama :D
Beautiful Darkness is great too, which I've also written a review for, and Cleo is reading ATM too! check it out!

keep reading folks!

signing off
MarMar<3

Cleo's Mini Review: Shiver & Linger

As some of you may or may not know, there are three of us that write on this blog and sometimes we really want to write about a book that we've read, but has already been written about!  So we do mini reviews :)

Baylee has already written a review on both Shiver & Linger which you can see if you want the full reviews!


What can I say about Shiver and Linger... They're both amazingly good!  I loved Shiver A LOT and couldn't wait until Linger came out.  I got so angry over the fact that Baylee got her hands on Linger first because Barnes & Nobles released it early and I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and it didn't come till after the release date because they weren't "notified" or something about the changed released date.  Enough of me rambling, now let's move on. 

Shiver definitely caught my attention and really captivated me!  I loved the voice that Stiefvater used in each of the books because it just seemed so calm, but not boring.  Although, at one point, I think that I started to loose a little bit of interest while reading Linger and it took me a little longer than usual to finish... I really don't know why but I think the reason was because I personally don't think that a lot really happened, and you know how they switch off between points of views, right?  Well, I found myself way more interested in Cole's part of the story, probably since he's a new wolf and he had this really interesting background story.  Sam and Grace actually kind of lost my attention... Until the end, which leaves you on a pretty BIG (and I mean HUGE!) and shocking cliffhanger!!!  It definitely left me wanting more and now, I'm sitting here waiting for Forever, the final book, to come out. 

Cleo :)

MOVIE NEWS FOR THE CITY OF BONES!

It has been revealed that..... dah da da dahhhhh...


Lily Collins! Will play our heroine Clary Fray in, The Mortal Instruments movies!


I personally didn't know that they were already casting so this was news to me, but I agree with the choice and think she will make a great Clary. Jace, though, has yet to make an appearance so lets keep our fingers crossed ladies!


Here is a link so you can get more information, i hope you guys agree with the choice as well!

Follow Friday (17)

This week's question:

Do you have an under-noticed author that you think we should all know about?

Hmm... That's a prettty good question.  Most of the authors of the books that I read are all pretty well known.  There probably is one, but I can't think of anyone off the top of my head...  I think that I shall get back to you guys on that one :)

Hope you guys have a GREAT weekend!  I know I will with all the Christmas parties going on :D  Oooo, I'm also hoping to go to Barnes & Noble to pick up a few books with gift cards I got a long time ago... Any suggestions? 

Be on the look out for some reviews this weekend!

Cleo :)

Teaser Tuesday! (8)

It's Tuesday today, so obviously it means it's Teaser Tuesday! This is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  

And here are the guidelines (if you want to join in):

•Grab your current read 
•Open to a random page 
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


"I turned around anxiously, looking for him so I could give him a giant hug. Yet, as my eyes searched the room, it wasn't Adrian's face I suddenly found myself looking into. It was Robert Doru's. And Victor Dashkov was with him."
-Rose Hathaway from Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead!

This is me with the book, which I got today, thank goodness for pre-ordering! 

Idea! Video Reviews?

Okay so I have been thinking about something for the past few weeks.

I found this blog the other day and the blogger does all her reviews by video. You know, Youtube videos and posts it to her blog. I was thinking that might be something interesting for me to do. I've always felt that I can explain myself better when I'm actually speaking, and I think this will help me get reviews out faster. Would you guys like to see how it works out? Or do you guys prefer to read the blogs? Maybe I could do both? Let me know what you think!

XoXo~Baylee~

Cover Crazy (2): Fallen & Torment

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme that was created by Tawni over at The Book Worms to show which cover(s) you are absolutely going crazy over!

This week I'm crazy about the Fallen and Torment (by Lauren Kate) covers!!!

Here are the reasons why:

• The dresses the model is wearing are just to die for!! They're absolutely GORGEOUS!
• I love how it gives off this gothic, sort of creepy vibe, but it's just sooo beautiful at the same time.
• The model portrays the emotions that are in this book really well, too!

Cleo :)