Give Thanks For Good Books: Harry Potter

Beth Revis, the lovely author of Across the Universe, is hosting a contest in which we are to tell her one book we are grateful for.

The book that I'm most grateful for, of course, is Harry Potter. Without it my childhood would have been a mundane one; lacking in magic, cool broom-flying wizards, a certain lightening-scarred boy, a certain genius, a certain red-head, and a lack of much needed release of escaping into the Wizarding World.

So to sum it up:

  

Give Thanks For Good Books: Harry Potter

Daughter of Smoke and Bones REVIEW

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE
by Laini Taylor
Pages: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Add to shelf: [ Goodreads ]

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past…

The Daughter of Smoke and Bones had two major flaws for me. One was the slow-pacing and the other was the prose. The book was slightly dragging in the beginning and towards the middle I had put it down several times and attempted to pick it up again later. I get it that Karou's lonely, and I get it that her ex boyfriend was a psycho, but why spend the whole entire beginning on just that? And then there's the prose. Sometimes I'd read a sentence of description and by the end of the sentence I'd forget what it was describing. I usually have no problem with prose at all. In fact, it's one of those things that makes a story far more enjoyable for me. But it just didn’t work for me in this book.

So what did I love? Where do I start? The setting of Prague was just beautiful. And Karou—I loved her! She's strong, beautiful, has blue hair and an amazing talent when it comes to drawing. And on top of all that she's not portrayed as a perfect person. She has flaws, she has weaknesses, and she craves love. There's something about her loneliness that makes me ache for her for most of the book. When she said she was lonely I truly believed that she was. Karou and Zuzana—a delightful duo that I enjoyed. Akiva—a delicious swoon-worthy angel with a tortured past. I was fascinated by Karou's family of chimaeras, who gave us small insight into the other world called Elsewhere. And of course the world-building. Wow! The world building. I loved it to bits even though it’s one of the things that kind of slowed down the pace of the story.

I felt like all the elements of a story that I love are in this book and yet something is lacking. Maybe it's due to the high expectations I had prior to reading this book. Maybe it's because I wasn't quite connected with some of the characters. Maybe it's because of the prose that had me re-reading whole paragraphs to find out what it was about. Or maybe it's due to the slow pacing of the text. I mean, I literally sat with bated breath waiting for the huge turning points to take place and.....nothing happened for a really long time. The wait was far longer than I had anticipated: thus the reason why I had put if down a couple times.

Overall I really liked The Daughter of Smoke and Bones but didn't love it like I expected I would. Would I recommend it? Definitely! Despite its flaws it was, to say the least, a magical and fascinating read. Not your everyday read from the YA genre.

3.5 Stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bones REVIEW

Teaser Tuesday: Spellbound

Title: Spellbound

Author: Cara Lynn Shultz

I wrote a review last week about how much I loved Spellbound and thought I’d share some non-spoiler teasers with you. To those of you who want to read it the book comes out this July. I’m planning on getting a paperback copy myself because I’d read the ARC as an eBook-file. Although I love reading eBooks there’s something different about the reader experience when you actually have the book in front of you. Plus it’s perfect for me to take out during free time at school.

So without further ado here are your two teasers. Enjoy!

Teaser # 1

I eyed the emergency exit and considered making a break for it.

“Don’t be stupid Emma,” I whispered to myself. “Just two more years of high school. It can’t be worse than living with Henry.”

Teaser # 2

And then he turned those striking green eyes on me.

Ashley was the first to notice. For all her exuberance, she kept her cool pretty impressively. For a minute.

“Oh.My.God.Brendan.Is.Staring.At.You.” She tried her hardest not to move her lips, but failed miserably.

Wow, this girl has absolutely no future as a ventriloquist.


*You can go visit Cara's Website here.

Teaser Tuesday: Spellbound

✩Teaser Tuesday- It’s Not Summer Without You✩

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to:

• Grab your current read

• Share 2 teasers

• Don’t include any spoilers

• Include the title and author

This week I’m reading It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. I’m reading a book set in the summer in the hopes that it’ll distract me from the numbing coldness that is the New England winter. It is the second book in the series; the first one is called The Summer I Turned Pretty. This series is one of my favorite contemporary YA books. So without further ado here are the teasers, enjoy!

Teaser #1

Sometimes I closed my eyes and in my head, I said over and over again, It isn’t true , it isn’t true , this isn’t real . This wasn’t my life. But it was my life; it was my life now.

Teaser # 2

There are moments in life that you wish with all your heart you could take back. Like, just erase from existence. Like, if you could, you’d erase yourself right out of existence too, just to make that moment not exist.
What I said next was one of those moments for me.


**To find out more about the books visit Jenny's website here.

✩Teaser Tuesday- It’s Not Summer Without You✩

What’s in a good book?

deviantArt pic by happybubbles

I wrote down the things that I look for in a riveting, spell-binding, one-sitter book--books that are so captivating that you forget everything you had to do that day just to get to that last page. I made my own personal list of the things I look for in a good book. I also want to know what YOU look for in a good book, so feel free to voice your thoughts.


1. Engaging characters:

I don’t want to read a book about your everyday average person in there everyday average life. I want characters that go through conflict and hardships and show us through their actions what type of person they are. I also want characters that I can be emotionally attached to. If the protagonist gets into a bad car-accident and ends up in a hospital with a broken leg I should be able to feel sorry for her.

2. Action

There’s nothing like a good fighting-scene. Especially of the non-human variety. The details in a fight scene really pull me into a story.

3. Interesting premise:

I want to be able to get excited by a book just by reading the blurb on the back. The premise should captivate me, and I should get a feel for what the book is going to be about.

4. Good writing:

A book could be really interesting, but when there are mistakes everywhere it becomes a distraction and takes away from the story.

5. Characters with a weakness:

Perfect characters with nothing wrong with them are just not believable to me. They should at least have one weakness that humanizes them.

6. Something unique:

What makes this book different/ unique from all the others from its genre? Originality is a very important factor when I read a book; otherwise I feel like I’m just reading the same book over again.

7. Broken stereotypes:

I like things to be mixed up a bit. I don’t want to expect what’s going to happen, I want to be surprised. I like it when one of the bad guys is actually good, and one of the good guys is actually bad. So what do YOU look for in a good book?

**Please vote on the poll on the side of this post.

What’s in a good book?