REVIEW: Losing It by Cora Carmack

LOSING IT (Losing It #1)

Author: Cora Carmack

Pages: 204

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

ISBN: 0062273248

Rating: 3.5

Virginity. Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible—a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half a brain would ever believe...

This book and Faking It, also by Cora Carmack, were my first real dip into the New Adult genre and I must say that it has really grown on me.

Bliss Edwards is a girl who is ready to make new transitions in her life – one of them being to lose her virginity. She’s the only one of her college friends who is still a virgin and she’s determined to lose it before she graduates. One night she almost comes close to accomplishing her mission with an extremely hot guy she met at a bar, but then when her brain tells her she is still not ready she makes a quick excuse to get away. And then she finds out he’s her theater professor in college. And, oh boy do things heat up from there!

This book has many funny and quirky moments! I thought the side characters were a bit predictable and cardboard but the main characters were pretty interesting. And of course British guys in novels forever and always remain my weakness.

Maybe it was because I read Faking It first but I just could not get into Losing It. There was something about it that was too similar to every other contemporary novel I've ever read and the plot toward the end sort of just fell into a puddle. Although I’m all for resolutions I felt like the end kind of dragged out too long. I hope, like with the second book in this series, the novels keep getting better with each new volume.

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REVIEW: Losing It by Cora Carmack

Book Talk: When You're Just Not Getting Into It (DNF)

TOPIC:

When You're Just Not Getting Into It

PHASE 1

> You open a book after giving the back cover a glance through. Semi-awkward protagonist, an interesting premise, a cute love interest to fawn over. Yup, this looks like your kind of read!
>You open the first page. The writing is confusing / not really your style so you keep on having to re-read certain parts of it
> The first and second chapters bore you to tears "when can I get some action????!"
> Some of the characters are so cardboard their names practically spell out the word cliche.
> You chug ahead and wait for something interesting to happen. Nothing does.

PHASE 2

> Absolute last resort: start flipping through the and searching for any of the "good parts"
> You stop to read some reviews online. Try to figure out what people liked about this book.
> Stop and wonder why this one person gave the book 5 stars. Were we even reading the same thing? OKAY. Let's try this thing again.
> Go back to reading the book, make it count. No skipping this time! Just give the thing a chance.
> You see another book that is just screaming for your attention and you "accidentally" put the book down somewhere and never look at  it again. Maybe stash it in the back of your bookshelf or cover it with a towel so you don't feel so bad for not finishing it.
> Add the discarded book to your DNF shelf on goodreads

PHASE 3

> Someone remarks later about how much they love such and such book. You remember it as the one you canned a few months again.

> You sigh and wonder if you should give the book a chance again.

>  Pick it up and get a slap in the face reminder of why you DNFed it in the first place.
> Give it to someone else who you think might actually like it.

How many times have you had a similar experience? It's frustrating to me because I pick up a book wanting to love it to death and display it on my bookshelf and tell everyone I know about it. When I don't like a book I feel awful for a day. 

Book Talk: When You're Just Not Getting Into It (DNF)

Bookish News: All things "Divergent"

I know the cover to Allegiant  (3rd installment of the Divergent series) was released a month ago but I just saw it so of course now I have to gush over how amazing it is and how much I can't wait for it to be released!

US Cover

UK Cover

Is anyone else this excited? AHHH I am so pumped. My sister has read books 1 and 2 of the Divergent series which is amazing because she literally never reads anything more than like 50 pages. This is the one book we can both talk to each other about and that makes me *so* so happy! 

Also this image was released like a month ago. It is a picture from the Divergent Movie. Haha! I had almost forgotten about this turning into a movie. This is so surreal. I wonder who was cast as who.

From the Divergent movie. Tris jumping off a building.

Update: Whoa! Tris is that girl from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I watched all seasons of that show and I can not imagine this actor playing Tris at all. :/

Bookish News: All things "Divergent"

REVIEW: The Elite by Kiera Cass

THE ELITE (The Selection # 2)

Author: Kiera Cass

Pages: 323

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: 23 April 2013

ISBN: 0062059963

Rating: *3 stars*

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea. America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share...

The Selection = Awesome, The Elite…

I absolutely loved reading The Selection. The whole find-the-princess bachelor thing was really interesting, and I liked America and Maxon enough to care what happened to them in the next book. I thought their relationship was adorable. I also liked how America wasn't falling all over Maxon the moment she met him. However, after reading The Elite I no longer care about either America or Maxon. In fact, I can’t stand either of them.  

The romance, the confusion, the indecisiveness…

All I can say is for the love of god make up your mind, America! I can't go through a whole other book of "I love Maxon. No wait, I love Aspen! No wait Maxon! Don’t leave me." It gets really annoying after awhile. I also disliked how she thought it was completely okay for her to cheat all she wanted and had the audacity to blow up when [insert love interest] did it! And I am so tired of Maxon making excuses for what he did. Being a prince doesn't excuse you from being a complete jerk! It is still wrong.

The book as a whole, but mostly the ending…

Throughout the entirety of The Elite barely nothing major happened or if it did it wasn't that much of a big deal. I am still confused about the whole rebel thing and their random appearances to stir up conflict in the novel. The characters and their actions were completely inconsistent. The ending left everything right back to where the characters were in the beginning of the novel. I couldn't help but think to myself after reading the whole book “what was the point of all this?”. If you skipped this The Elite and went straight to book # 3 you would not be missing out on anything. There were some fun moments in this book but the more I read the more I started to dislike the characters. I can’t think of even one character I like enough to continue reading this series.  Sadly, I think my journey into the world of the Selection officially ends here.

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REVIEW: The Elite by Kiera Cass

REVIEW: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Title: The ETERNITY CURE (Blood of Eden # 2)

Author: Julia Kagawa

Pages: 446

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: 30 April 2013

ISBN: 0373210698

Rating: *4 stars*

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally. Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike.

The ETERNITY CURE is not for the light-hearted, that’s for sure. My heart stopped so many times while reading this it is a wonder I never got dizzy. Allie is a kick-butt heroine who does a lot of self-discovery in this book. Despite her being a vampire and attacking humans for blood the way any other legitimate vampire would I always felt like Allie always had her humanity intact. Allie took Kanin’s words to heart about choosing what type of monster she wanted to become.

What I had problems with…

The beginning of The Eternity Cure is slow. Like, brain dead slow. At one point I was even tempted to skip ahead, that’s how frustrated I was. But gosh, I am SO happy, I didn't stop reading there because the second half of the book was so brilliantly woven , fast-paced, and darn amazing that it completely made up for the beginning. So if you’re reading this book and you’re wondering why nothing is going anywhere – keep going! Trust me when I say it gets so much better and you’ll be finishing the rest of it in a sitting like I did.

What I loved…

Allie’s relationship with Zeke warmed my heart. Sometimes I wish certain parts of the book were written in Zeke’s POV instead because I often wonder what’s going on in his head. Jackel lightened the mood of the story and though his comments were often crass and demeaning I found myself agreeing with him when he actually had something sane to say. I love his sister-brother relationship with Allie and am curious to see how that develops in the next book.

AHHHHH the ending…

My mind = blown. That’s all I have to say about it. That and I need to read the next book as soon as humanely possible so I could figure out what the heck is going on. ><

Overall thoughts…

Put together action-packed fighting, psychotic vampires, a crazy virus on the loose, delicious plot twists and you get the heart-pounding sequel. Fans of The Immortal Rules do not want to miss The ETERNITY CURE.

On a side note:

I think the cover model for Allie looks pretty amazing! So glad they changed the cover! 

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The Book Depository [click here]

REVIEW: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa