Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Review of Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title/Author: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: September 11, 2012
Buy It: Amazon / Book Depository

     Kami Glass loves someone she's never met...a boy she's talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn't silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-on-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn't suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

     But that all changes when the Lynburns return.

     The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown-in fact, she's determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

     Oh man, you guys. This book is INTENSE. Every time I start a Sarah Rees Brennan book I know I'm in for characters who are so real they slip into your affections easily and refuse to leave once you shut the book, and Unspoken was not an exception. Kami Glass is an intelligent, sarcastic, and intrepid girl report who manages to be all of those things without coming off as false at all. She is an incredibly genuine girl who I would totally want to be best friends with if she was, you know, not fictional.

     Kami stands up for herself and her friends, who are also very realistically drawn. These are not people thrown in simply to advance the plot; Kami is close with her friends, trusts them and, in a twist on the usual (read: annoying) friendships in recent YA actually confides in her friends when things start getting weird. Or, weirder, really.

     The relationship between Kami and her not-so-imaginary friend Jared is a complex and beautiful thing. They have shared their lives with one another from the time that they were born, neither truly believing the other exists outside the bonds of their own mind. Their reactions to finding out their imaginary friends are real, and all of the stumbling and feeling out of boundaries that ensues afterward was at times hilarious and heartbreaking (damn you, Sarah Rees Brennan!) but always genuine.

  Throw in a centuries old mystery surrounding this quiet little English town, a ritual sacrifice, incredibly funny dialogue between characters you will fall hard for, a murder, and sleuthing that would make Veronica Mars proud and you've got one hell of a book. You wont be able to put it down, and the sequel is shooting to the top of my TBR list. Seriously. SO MUCH LOVE.

     If for some crazy reason you haven't read anything else by Sarah Rees Brennan I would suggest that you get your fix of wonderfully flawed characters and supernatural creepiness by picking up her series The Demons Lexicon.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I'm baaaack (&Teaser Tuesday!)

Hey y'all! Holy mackerel has it been a crazy few weeks! Things should return to normal now (or at least as normal as they've ever been, ha ha) so I'm going to jump right in with my Teaser Tuesday post.

What's Teaser Tuesday, you ask? Great question! Teaser Tuesday is a way for bloggers and readers to share a quick little snippet from the book(s) they're currently engrossed in. It's a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. Want to participate? (Yeah you do!)

*Grab your current read
*Flip to a random page
*Share 2 'teaser' sentences from that page (please be careful to avoid spoilers. You don't want to be that person who ruins the book for someone else!)
*Share the title and author so that other bloggers/readers can check out the book!

See? As easy as the automatic car wash!

This week you guys get 3 teasers. Yup. THREE. Cause that's how many books I'm reading. : )

"It wasn't bad, Jared being real. He was holding on to her tight. She was certain he would not let her drown."
                            Pg. 57 Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan














"As I hold the phone against my ear, I actually feel sad. In the future, Jordan and I were supposed to meet at college and get married. Now, we'll probably never even know each other." 
       Pg. 129 The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler












"He' shrugs. 'Sometimes you just know when you like someone.' He's looking right at me again, and that same shiver of excitement rushes through my body."
                Pg. 73 The Thing About the Truth by Lauren Barnholdt

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Slow week!

Between a few ridiculous snow storms, car shopping, and school vacation I've had no time to blog but never fear, I shall return next week!

Hope you all had a good week!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Book Birthdays!

Hey all! These books are releasing today! Yay! Check them out, add them to your TBR lists or link me reviews if you've already read them (lucky ducks!). Happy Tuesday!



The final installment of Lauren DeStefano's Chemical Garden trilogy!


1950's New Orleans, mysterious deaths, and clandestine underworlds? Yes please!


Lots of buzz in the blogosphere for this one, and no wonder. What would you do if you could see the future?


Mysterious island, girl on a search for answers, young hot lobsterman? Sign me up!


Dangerous visions and boys who know your secrets? Yup, I'm on board.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday

     Hey-oh, it's Wednesday! Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, in which bloggers get the chance to share the books we're all twitterpated over. Yes, that's right. Twitterpated. This week my WoW is:

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
by April Genevieve Tucholke
Publication Date: August 20, 2013

     You stop fearing the devil when you're holding his hand...

     Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White's sleepy, seaside town....until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet's crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet's grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet's already so knee-deep in love, she can' see straight. And that's just how River likes it.

     Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of a gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeous told as it is terrifying. A debut to watch.

     Gothic romance? Mystery boy? Sign me up! Plus, look at that cover? It's seriously gorgeous, and perfectly matches the tone set by the blurb. Can't wait!

What's your WoW? Leave me a link in the comments!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Review of Mind Games by Kiersten White

Title/Author: Mind Games by Kiersten White
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: February 19, 2013
Age Group: Teen/Young Adult
Buy It:  Amazon / Book Depository

     Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her-except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

     Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways...or risking each other's lives by refusing to obey.


     In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other-no matter the cost.


     This book is, indeed, a stunning departure from Kiersten White's previous writing. We are introduced to sisters Sofia (Fia) and Annabelle (Annie) when they are young, at the funeral of their parents. We get to know them, and the strong and tumultuous bond that they share, through chapters that alternate between not only each of their points-of-view but time as well.

     Each of the girls has a very distinctive voice and each of the them is carrying their own burdens and guilt relating to their bittersweet history with one another and the school they attend, The Keane school, run by the elusive and enigmatic Mr. Keane. Neither of them wants to be there but until they can both escape together, safely, they are trapped, pawns in a game neither of them can understand fully.

     We get to see the intricately woven threads of the bond holding the girls together in their flashbacks, along with the ever-shifting dynamics of their relationship. In the present, Fia grapples with the person she has had become in order to keep her sister safe and tries to keep her feelings for her 'manager', Mr. Keane's son James, in check because she knows that he has motives of his own.

     James was one of my favorite characters. He is a very well-developed character with a painful past and an ambiguous agenda and I couldn't help but root for him even as he was breaking Fia's heart (and his own). I loved James because he felt so very three dimensional, struggling to break free of his own personal demons and hindered by his (in my opinion) very real feelings for Fia (who can be a bit of hellion, it must be said).

     Annie, Fia, and James are all intrinsically tied together, and I loved the story, the writing, and the beautifully drawn and fully fleshed out characters. I can't wait for the second installment of this series. I would definitely recommend that you pick this book up! Familial obligations, heartache, romance, dancing, psychics, and plenty of action. Win!

Want a quote? Sure you do!!

"I lost her the minute I brought her here with me. And if he can salvage something of who she used to be, no matter what his game is, I have to let him. I wont waste this time. I'm going to figure out what, exactly, is going on here. Because if I understand the what, I can understand the why, and if I understand those I can figure out the way to get us both free to a better future."

Teaser Tuesday!


Happy Tuesday! It's time for another Teaser Tuesday, hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Want to participate? 

*Grab your current read
*Open to a random page
*Share two 'teaser' sentences from somewhere on that page (avoid spoilers or too much info so as not to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title and author so that other readers can check out the book!

"If they had that information, if they could access medical records and find women without depending on sketchy news reports or rumors or the muddled visions of their Seers, they could find all of them. No one would be safe." 
                       Pg. 40 Mind Games by Kiersten White

     Just started this one today, so a review will be popping up here soon. So far so good! Leave me links to your teasers in the comments section so I can come check them out!