Waiting on Wednesday (8)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme held by Jill over at Breaking the Spine.

Through Wow, bloggers alike can share what they just can't wait to get there hands on this Wednesday!

I thought I'd do another two books for this week's WoW. So, without further ado... Here is what I'm waiting on this week!

                         Ink by Amanda Sun            A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Ink: First of all, the cover is freaking GORGEOUS, and second of all the summary for the book just sounds amazing, check this out: 

"I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.

Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.

A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.

And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive."

I don't know what you're thinking right now, but all that's going through my head is how much I want to get my hands on this book! Inkheart fascinated me when I was younger. The whole idea of bringing fictional characters to life plastered a huge smile on my face. Hell, it still does. So to see a book being written about a girl who can draw things to life? That is so, so, SO cool!

A Million Suns:
Now, I know that this book has been out for over a year already and that it's sequel Shades of Earth is coming out on the fifteenth, I wanted to point out that I'm waiting on this because I am. So desperately. I read Across the Universe a couple of weeks ago (check out my review here), and I absolutely adored it. So, needless to say, I am eagerly awaiting the day that I open up the cover to it's sequel and devour it page by page.

And for the curious, here's the summary of the book (which may or may not contain spoilers for the first book):

"It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. Everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceshipGodspeed. But there may be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to act on his vision--no more Phydus, no more lies. But when Elder learns shocking news, he and Amy must race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed, all the while dealing with the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart."

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Rating: Starry Eyes (5/5)

Release Date: December 18th, 2012

Publishers: Disney Hyperion

Pages: 496

Source: Bought

Series: The Darkest Minds #1

A quick summary from Goodreads:

"When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living."

Let me start by saying how  absolutely wonderful The Darkest Minds is. Even though I'm sure an idea similar to this has been published before, Bracken's novel seemed so original and fresh and something that can stand completely on it's own. 

When kids started dying on their 10th birthday as a result of IAAN, the kids who survived started to show that they had unbelievable abilities and were forced into Thurmond and camps similar to it as a result in an attempt at "rehabilitation." Immediately upon their arrival, they were marked with a large red, orange, yellow, green, or blue X across the backs of their camp clothes.

The reds are able to set things on fire.

The oranges can simply whisper something into your ear and you have no choice but to follow their words.

The yellows have power over technology.

The greens are incredibly smart.

The blues can send things flying across a room with a flick of their wrists.

Ruby is classified as a green upon her arrival to camp Thurmond, where she's put into a cabin of other green girls. After a couple of months, all of the reds, oranges, and yellows are sent away after the camp finds them too hard to control, even with the effects of the Calming Wave, set to a certain frequency that only the kids can hear. One day while Ruby is working on the grounds, a Calming Wave is released and has more of an impact on Ruby than it usually does, leaving her head pounding, nose bleeding and passed out on the ground. When she wakes up, she's in the camp's hospital, and the doctor that's looking after Ruby leaves her a note of promised escape.

And from there the story takes off. Ruby then meets Chubs, Liam, and Suzumi, two blues and a yellow. Each character has their own wonderful back story and I just couldn't help but fall in love with everyone of them. Chubs is the unyeilding, loyal, cynical friend who would do anything for you once you get on his good side. 

Suzumi is the little girl who was dealt a harsh life and only wishes for a life where she can fill her days with simple things like pink dresses. 

Liam is the leader of the group. The one who trusts easily and leads with an eager heart. 

There is romance in this book, but this is a romance that only adds to the story, and never takes away from it. Without it, the ending would have had a completely different tone and wouldn't have left me in such an emotional wreck. 

The relationship between the four of them is just so well done that you can see the love that the four of them have for each other through every word, every look, every touch. And I absolutely love the fact that friendship plays such a large roll in this book. 'Cause while romance is great, let's face it. It's in just about every single YA book that you pick up off of the shelves and it can never substitute what the element of strong friendship does in a book.

All together, The Darkest Minds pulls together a little bit of everything that you could ever ask for in a book, and I absolutely loved it, and I can easily say that this book will stick within my top 10 - maybe even my top 3 - for this year. 

Best Books of 2012

So it's that time of the year again! When everything's coming to a conclusion and people start spouting out their best books of the year and what they plan to do for the new year and all that jazz. So.. That's what I'm here to do for you today!

Hmmm... Maybe I'll alternate between the books and what I plan on doing for the new year? Sounds like a plan.

So, coming in at number 10 this year is...

Revived by Cat Patrick

(Review)

I read this book back in June or July (I can't remember which), and I absolutely loved it and it's characters! I went into this book knowing it was a si-fi and I absolutely loved it. So yes, Revived is my #10 read of 2012.

Goal #1: Now, the first goal that I'm going to mention to you guys for 2013 in terms of reading is that I've decided to re-read the whole entire PJO series! Starting with Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief and ending with The Mark of Athena (which I finally got in the mail the other day!), or maybe even The House of Hades, depending on how long it takes me to re-read them all. :D 

Now, book #9 on my list of best books on 2012 is...

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

(Review)

I really, really, liked this book. I completely respect Amy for everything she does for the ships citizens and I just love Elder. My mom got me a copy of A Million Suns from my mom, so I can't wait to start reading it! :)

Goal #2: I would like to read 100 books again this year, but it was a bit of a stress for me the last couple weeks and I was cramming in book after book. So, considering I don't really want to do that again in the new year... I'm going to set my goal for 75, but aim for 100. :)

Coming in 8th place of 2012 would have to be...

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry is so full of cliches, it's ridiculous. But... I absolutely devoured this book because it delivers these cliches in a way that doesn't seem that cliched at all. The details are a little foggy, since I did read it back in February, but I do remember how ris-kay I thought this book was for a YA while I was reading, and I absolutely loved every single word. :)

Goal #3: I want to start branching out a little more, because it feels like all I read are teen books. And considering that I'm approaching the age of 20... I'd like to start reading more adult, non-fiction, and maybe even some more middle-grade books. With that being saaaiiddd... I'd like to read 5 adult books, 2 non-fiction books, and 5 middle-grade books. I know it's not a large number, but I don't want to over-whelm myself or force myself into doing something I don't want to. :P

The 7th best book I read in the year of 2012 is...

Well, it's actually two books.

I figured I'd throw both Spirit Bound and Last Sacrifice together since they're in the same series. Again, I read these two in the first half of the year, so I don't remember my exact feelings towards them, but again, I do remember absolutely loving them and devouring each page. This series was nothing but an intense ride the whole way through and I still need to read Bloodlines!

Goal #4: Now, as you all know (or if you don't, just click here to find out), I have a teetering To Be Read tower of books. It would be wonderful if I could stick to my TBR challenge of reading five books before I'm aloud to buy another one. So! Goal #4 is sticking with this plan for the entirety of the year until my TBR pile hopefully drops down to a more reasonable number. :)

Book #6 for the year of 2012 would have to be... 

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

(Review)

I was SO stoked to read this book when I first heard of it. And let me tell you, it did NOT let me down. This book I did read more recently, so the memories of me reading this book are still fresh in my mind. Sophie, the main character of the book, is a very strong protagonist who I loved with all my heart. This is definitely one of the better MGs that has cross over appeal into the YA genre, and I absolutely loved it. I happen to buy this book while the author was promising out swag packs to anyone who bought it that weekend and I was lucky enough that they both fall on the same weekend! :D So that was really cool and nice of her to do. :) Messenger also has a YA book coming out in March of 2013 called Let the Sky Fall and I am SO EXCITED for this book. You don't even know. :P

Goal #5: To finally start up my own YouTube channel! I know I've been going on about starting this thing for a couple of months now, but I really do plan on starting it! Hopefully I'll be able to start it sometime in the new year. :) And I can't wait till I finally get it up and running! :D

The book coming in 5th place for the year of 2012 is....

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

(Review)

I read My Life Next Door back in July and it was probably one of the bestest, cutest contemporary reads I've ever read. This book made my toes curl in happiness as a dopy grin spread across my face whenever the two main characters were together. It's just... If you haven't read this book already, than I really think that you need to go out and get it with some of that Christmas money!

Goal #6: I hope to do the Summer Reading Challenge again for this year, but ACTUALLY COMPLETE IT this time. :P There's about 10 criteria that you have to fill out, some of them being a book that's over 400 pages, a book recommended by a friend, a book that's been sitting on your shelf for over a year, a classic.... And so on. :P Check back again around the end of April for more details on that one!

Book #4 on my top ten countdown of 2012 is....

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

I read this book basically as soon as it came out and oh god did I ever love it. Just, this book is SO GOOD. Dare I say... Even better than the Hunger Games? Just thinking about this makes me smile with happiness at how good it was. :):) Hopefully I can re-read it this year in prep for the third and final book in the series!

Goal #7: To participate in NaNoWriMo in 2013! Last year I saw everyone prepping for it and it just made me really really excited! I always have tons of ideas floating around in my head for stories... Maybe I can start prepping early this year and just do an outline for the story before starting to write it in November! :D

Number 3 !  :D

Divergent by Veronica Roth

This was a re-read for me this year. I read it just before Insurgent came out so that I would remember every single detail of this book before getting into the second one! As much as I absolutely LOVED the second book to this series, the first book will forever have a place in my heart as my favourite. :D

Goal #8: This year I hope to par-take in the A-Z Challenge. :D Every year I see tons of bloggers and BookTubers participating in this challenge and I though that I'd give it a go this year! :D

The 2nd best book of the year for me would have to have been...

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Holy cow, do I ever love Brent Weeks. Along with John Green, he is one of my top favourite authors. Never ever has a book by Brent Weeks let me down. I absolutely love his Night Angel trilogy, it being my favourite trilogy of ALL TIME. But anyways. The Black Prism was an epic tale with plot that was so intricate and amazing that I just couldn't put it down. And it was funny too! God. This book just contains the perfect bit of every genre there is. YOU MUST READ IT!

Goal #9: To complete the debut author challenge! I participated in this challenge last year, and while I did read 12 debut novels this year, I did not review them all like the challenge requires. :( So hopefully, the new year will change that! :D

And the NUMBER ONE BOOK of 2012 iiissss.......

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Of course, after mentioning John Green as one of my favourite authors EVER, how could I not put this book as my number one read of 2012? Hazel is just amazing and I love how what you would think of as the main theme or focus of this book actually ISN'T the main theme/focus of this book, but instead is merely a "side-effect" as Hazel would put it. :)

And there you have it, everyone! My top 10 books of 2012 and my 9 goals for 2013! :D

Stacking the Shelves (7)

Hello fellow book lovers! I'm here today to bring you my Stacking the Shelves! :) 

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews. StS allows bloggers alike to share what books they bought/borrowed/received over the past week.

Here's how you can go about making your own STS:

• Create your own Stacking The Shelves post. You can use my official graphic or your own, but please link back to Tynga’s Reviews so more people can join the fun! 
• You can set your post any way you want, simple book list, covers, pictures, vlog, sky is the limit! 
• I am posting Stacking The Shelves on Saturdays, but feel free to post yours any day that fits you. 
• Visit Tynga’s Reviews on Saturday and add your link so others can visit you!

• Visit other participants link to find out what they added to their shelves!

Here are the books that I have received over the past week:

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Elemental by Antony John

 The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Black City by Elizabeth Richards

False Memory  by Dan Krokos

Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

The only book I legitimately received as a gift this year for Christmas was A Million Suns by Beth Revis, which my mom got for me. :D (Love you, Mom!) All of the other ones were basically a Christmas gift from me to me. :3 I thought I'd deserved it. ;D

I'm just so excited to start reading every single one of these books! Have you guys ever gotten so swept up with the excitement of a book(s) that you just find yourself staring at them all and not actually reading anything? I find I do it all the time...

But anyways! What did you guys receive this week in books? :D Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?! I got an old-school refurbished Macbook! :D So hopefully I'll be able to start up that YouTube channel that I've been mentioning for a while sometime soon... I'll give more details on that later!

Happy Reading!

      Lex.

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

Rating: Wide Eyed - 4/5

Release Date: March 24th, 2009

Publishers: McClelland & Stewart

Pages: 185

Source: Bought

Series: Stand Alone

First, a quick summary from Goodreads: 

“‘Explain to us why you wish to enter The Academy.’” 

Anaximander, a young Academy candidate, is put through a gruelling exam. Her special subject: the life of Adam Forde, her long-dead hero. 

It’s late in the 21st century and the island Republic has emerged from a ruined, plague-ridden world, its citizens safe, but not free, and living in complete isolation from outside contact. Approaching planes are gunned down, refugees shot on sight.

Until a man named Adam Forde rescued a girl from the sea.

“Anaximander, we have asked you to consider why it is you would like to join the Academy. Is your answer ready?”

To answer that question, Anaximander must struggle with everything she has ever known about herself and her beloved Republic’s history, the nature of being human, of being conscious, and even what it means to have a soul.

And when everything has been laid bare, she must confront the Republic’s last great secret, her own surprising link to Adam Forde, and the horrifying truth about her world."

Genesis packs quite a large punch for such a small book. Touching upon issues such as Ethics, Morals and what it means to be human, Genesis proved to be a really amazing and insightful read for me.

Anax is a girl with a particular interest in Adam Forde. Continuously, Anax visits a hill side to watch the sunset so she can feel more connected to her idol of the past.  One day, she meets a man up there who also has an interest in Adam Forde and he begins to tutor her for the Academy.

This is the story of - not only Anax's audition for the Academy - but also a re-telling of the story of Anax's hero, Adam Forde.

During the audition Anax has three breaks when she gets to re-collect her thoughts, and the judges converse with each other to see in which direction the questioning should be done.

DUring the questioning periods is when you get to know Adam's story and a little bit of how Anax thinks, but for the most part we get to know Anax during the breaks. Where she came from, why she has a love for Adam and why she wants to get into the Academy.

I think that's what made the ending for Genesis all the more epic/awesome/surprising for me. How completely and incredibly ironic the ending was for Anax.

Genesis is a book I would easily recommend to anyone who likes those reads that leave a big impression on you for quite a while.

Waiting on Wednesday (7)

WOW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Through WOW, bloggers and vloggers and commenters a like are able to share what books they're most excited to get their hands on in the near future!

This week I decided on sharing two books with you that I'm most excited for! 

Ready?! Drum roll please....

            Splintered                                  Through the Ever Night 

 by A. G. Howard                                  by Veronica Rossi

Splintered is a re-telling of the classic Alice in Wonderland. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

My Thoughts:

Although the sound of this love triangle is slightly making me cringe, I have heard nothing but rave reviews about this book (which is coming out on January 1st, by the way), and I cannot wait for it to come in the mail! (Because of course I pre-ordered it.) I can't wait to see how this compares to the classic Wonderland, but I guess in order to do that I might want to actually read the classic first... Maybe I'll read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland then Splintered, and then Showalter's Alice in Zombieland and see how the three compare. That would be an exciting treat! Try and find common themes and such. This is making me so excited! But anyways...

Through the Ever Night is the second in Rossi's trilogy and although I can't remember why I loved the first one so much, I do remember that I wanted to read the second one as soon as I was finished! 

WARNING:THIS SUMMARY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST BOOK!***

It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

My Thoughts:

Now, if I'm to be completely honest with you guys, that summary up there was more for your benefit than mine. I don't know about you guys, but when I read a sequel I like to go into it knowing as little as possible so I can fully enjoy the journey of the novel without spoiling it in the slightest.

But look at that cover! I absolutely love it! The pretty Aether... The wonderful blend of colours... And Perry looking so... Tame? What?! Perry looks like he just woke up from a night full of partying. Nothing like the wild Peregrine that we all know and love. In preparation for Through the Ever Night I would love to re-read the first book, but with my teetering TBR pile, I don't know if I can spare the time... We shall see! 

What are you guys waiting on this Wednesday? :D

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Rating: Wide Eyed
Release Date: November 29th, 2012
Pages: 398
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Bought
Series: Across the Universe #1

First, a quick summary from Goodreads:

"A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming."

Disclaimer: It may be hard to understand my review if you haven't read the book... But I just have to let my thoughts be known! But I promise that I've kept it spoiler-free. :)

So, you know how the publishers do that annoying thing where they change the cover of the book? To be honest, the fact that they changed the cover is what attracted me to this book. Across the Universe is the second space-ship kind of book that I've ever read. The first one that I read was Glow, and I can tell you that I didn't find it that great.

So, going into this book, I didn't except much to come out of it. But as it turns out... I really, really, really loved this book. At the beginning, how juvenile the writing felt really bothered me. And also the fact that there were many typos in the book when they called Elder Eldest! It really confused and slightly annoyed me. If you're going to pick tovery similar names for two of the main characters, I would suggest that you edit the book very carefully to make sure that the names never get mixed up. 

But. With all that negative out of the way, I can honestly say that I loved this book! When we found out who the murderer was and what his role had been, I just knew my guess had been right! But it wasn't one of those annoying, "Oh, pshh. Who didn't see that one coming?" It was one of those ones where your mouth spreads into a large smile because, dammit, you were right! You solved the mystery and good on ya! But at the very end... Ohboy. I didn't see that twist coming at all. That one through me for a loop.

I absolutely loved Elder and completely respected Amy. I could understand why Elder was hesitant at times when he was facing up to Eldest. It would be easier to just let things on the ship go on as they have been. But the fierce determination that Amy fought back with? Her complete dedication and passion for what she believed in to make the citizens lives better when she didn't even know them and the vast majority of them looked at her as if she was a freak? I can so respect that, because I can't say that I would have stuck up for them so fiercely with the way they were treating her. 

So, if you can't tell, this book was fantastic, and I absolutely loved it. What knocked it down a star for me was the typos between Elder and Eldest because, you can't just mix up two characters like that constantly. You just can't. And also because Amy kept referring to her parents as "Momma" and "Daddy," because I don't care what century your from, but if you're seventeen years old, and you come from Earth, you don't refer to your Dad as "Daddy" all the time.

But yeah. I absolutely loved this book and I literally cannot wait for the next one. As in if someone's not buying me this for Christmas (because it's only a couple weeks away), I'm going to go out and buy it right now.