Happy Book Bday to Unearthly (Unearthly, #1), Awakened (House of Night, #8), and Shadowspell (Faeriewalker, #2)!

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

I want to read this one soooo bad! But I won't be buying it today - just yet! I'll wait til later this week when Jana Oliver's The Demon Trapper's Daughter comes out, so I can *hopefully* buy both of them at the same time! :) I know, I know! I have this thing where I have to go buy a both the day it comes out, but you know, I don't buy my books, my parents...and occasionally, my sister buys them for me. So, I'll have to wait and be patient. :)

At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey - or her relationship with her super-hot Warrior, Stark - ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet - who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality - and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?

Here's another release today! I'm not caught up with this series! I have the first five of them in paperback and usually, when there is a new release, it comes out in hardback, so I don't want to mix up my - I guess you would call it, my collection, so I don't think I'll be going to buy this one or any of the others still in hardback anytime soon!



On top of spending most of her time in a bunkerlike safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking has long been the nightmare of the Fae realm. A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her – and her rare Faeriewalker powers – dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind?

Another release today! I have Glimmerglass sitting on my shelf - another one on my TBR pile, lol! The cover for the second installment to the Faeriewalker series is gorgeous, may I say! :) Hopefully, I'll be finishing Glimmerglass soon, then I'll be picking this one up shortly after!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A HUGE happy happy happy book bday to these novels and their authors! :) If you haven't picked up a copy yet, I suggest you get to it soon! I'll be getting to them sometime in the very near future! *__*

Teaser Tuesday (2)

This meme is brought to you weekly by MizB over at Should Be Reading :)

Anyone can play along, just do the following:

• 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 and the author, too, so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR List if they like your teaser!

My Teaser

"It wouldn't be my move," Jace agreed. "First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order."

-Page 153, "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare

I orginally had another quote in mind, but when I ran across this one - I just had to share! LOL

I started this book over my Winter break and so far, I'm enjoying it a lot! Jace, Jace, Jace - what to think of him?! :) Either way, I already know I'm going to be shipping him *__*

Daily Dose (2)

"I love that so many people have taken this meme under their wing and are enjoying the theme. It's brilliant to pop over to random blogs and catch some inspiring images. If you'd like to participate in Daily Dose, simply make a post on Monday with a bunch of images you find magical and hope to inspire your readers with then share the link below."

This meme is hosted by Holly over at Good Golly Miss Holly :)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (3)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading, is hosted by Sheila over at One Persons Journey through a world of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

These past two weeks was my Winter break and I had planned to get in a lot of reading but sadly, I only finished two books! Here they are:

*Read my review here!

*Read my review here!

This week I plan on finishing:

Goodreads

Goodreads



So, what did you read this past week and what are you planning to read this week? :)

Movie Trailers!

 I just wanted to share this trailer because it looks really awesome! Plus, it's about witches! :)

 Here's another one about Little Red Riding Hood but with a twist! I'm super excited for this one!

 And this one too! Check them out! What do you guys think? Which one are you most excited for? :)

Happy New Year Book Giveaway!

Have you read this awesome series? The House of Night series? :) Well, you totally should! They're about vampires! *SQUEE* Also, the covers for this series are totally awesome! I could just stare at them for days on end!

So, Erin over at A Little of This & That is hosting another awesome giveaway in honor of the new year! And she is giving away AWAKENED - the eight installment to this awesome series! The book comes out on Tuesday, January 4th!

Contest is open from today, 1.2.11 to next Friday, 1.14.11 - and a winner will be selected on 1.15.11. All entries (aka comments) for this contest need to be to be received before 11:59PM PST on Friday, 1.14.11 to be eligible. The winner will be drawn via Random.org on 1.15.11 and announced on Erin's blog.

*Sorry folks, but this is only open to Erin's U.S. and Canada followers!

Good luck and happy reading!

Book Review: Wither

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren Destefano
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing  (March 22nd 2011)
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian
Series: Chemical Garden, #1
Pages: 356
Source: Won from Books with Bite

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.

My $0.02

I received an ARC copy of Wither right about the same time that I received an ARC copy of Across the Universe. I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted to read first. I started Across the Universe but then one night I picked up Wither and I flipped open the book to the first page and before you knew it, I couldn't stop reading!

Wither is surely one of those books that will stick with you long after you finish reading it. You'll find yourself wandering back to it - thinking what if, what if, what if! I absolutely enjoyed every minute of this debut! If you follow me on twitter, you would have seen my tweets about what came to my mind when I read the first page. I pictured images similar to that of the Holocaust. The images that Destefano conveyed had me pulled into the book.

Our MC, Rhine, is kidnapped and forced into a polygamous marriage along with two other young girls, Cecily and Jenna. Throughout the novel, Rhine has this anger and disgust towards what has happened to her and she wants to escape the life that was thrown upon her. I felt the same exact way, except I didn't think so badly of Linden, the three girls' husband. As you read more and more, he's in the dark about pretty much everything that is going on in reality. He's not the enemy in the novel; he's not the one who you want to direct all your anger towards.

I reserved all that for Housemaster Vaughn, Linden's father. He had such a creepy and scary aura. Even just reading about him gave me gooseflesh! He's basically the mastermind behind everything going on in the mansion. He's basically like the opposite of a sour patch - sweet then sour! Exactly that! The girls have very limited freedom, if they even have freedom at all. They're cooped up in their bedrooms all day and all night and Destefano expresses this very clearly because as I read more and more, I felt as if I was a prisoner in a cell and the walls were closing in on me.

The world in which Destefano creates is one "in the not-too-distant future" where I was still able to picture everything similar to today but still with a hint of advanced technology. You don't get to read too much of what's going on in the outside world because we're cooped up in that big ole' Victorian mansion. But this world came to be because scientists have eradicated diseases such as cancer, STDs, allergies, etc. The effect of that is that males die when they reach the age of 25 and females die when they reach the age of 20 - talk about scary!

Rhine has such a sophisticated personality and voice that had me thinking at times if she was really 16! You see glimpses of where she comes from when she describes her life prior to living in the mansion. You also get to meet her twin brother, Rowan, and how difficult life was for them when their parents died. She seems to be the only one that wants to escape; everyone else is living in this bubble of disbelief - thinking everything will turn out alright – one of those being, Gabriel. We don't see too much of him, so I'm not sure where I stand between him and Linden, LOL, but I'm more than sure that we'll definitely be seeing lots of him in the second book. Throughout the novel, there were times, I won't specifically describe when 'cause then I'll be spoiling it, when I felt disgusted - in a good way - of course - which means that Destefano was hitting all the right points! Certain events that occurred just had me feeling so like, "(shivers) Ewgh!" LOL, it might be a little hard to understand, but then again, maybe it was just me!

If you're into dystopian novels where there's the under-lying theme of our generation taking things for granted and wanting to eradicate all things "bad" then this one is surely for you! A great thriller with just a hint of "maybe everything will be alright!"

Here's my playlist for this one:

• Time Is Running Out by Vitamin String Quartet (Muse)
• Untouchable by Taylor Swift
• Science and Faith by The Script

Descent of the Angels Reading Challenge: January

Today is the first day of the new year, so Anaiz has posted the Mister Linky for those of you who want to share and post your reviews for this month. You will have until January 31st to post your review(s) and you'll receive an entry to the monthly giveaway!

This month's prizes consist of:

• A Touch Mortal boomark SIGNED
• Angelfire bookmark SIGNED
• Halo by Alexandra Adornetto or Any book $10 or under from the Book Depository (Prize for Int'l winner)

Head on over to this POST to link up your review! Remember to leave the direct link to your review and leave the name/alias you signed up with! Good luck and happy reading! :)

In My Mailbox (4)

I haven't made an IMM post in a while, frankly just because I haven't received anything in my mailbox and I wasn't able to post these earlier because I was away for my Winter Break so this is what I received from the weeks of 12/20-12/27 of 2010!

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren with some inspiration from Alea at Pop Culture Junkie where we post about books we have received during the week via mailbox, local library, or store bought.

WON

Wither (ARC) by Lauren Destefano

Across the Universe (ARC) by Beth Revis

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite by P.C. Cast

RECEIVED FOR REVIEW

Return the Heart by T.K. Richardson

RECEIVED FOR X-MAS

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

For Girls Only: Everything Great About Being a Girl by Laura Dower

BORROWED

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

I also received lots of awesome swag!

*I apologize for the bad quality!

I received sign bookmarks of Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, Haven by Kristi Cook, and A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford. I also received a couple of temporary tattoos of Vampire Academy, and a few stickers of Angelfire, A Touch Mortal, and Firelight. I won a necklace of Haven, a keychain of Vampire Academy, and a bracelet of Vampire Academy!

A huge thank you to Erin U., Savannah, Erin S., Courtney, Sophie, Kristi, Leah, and Yorkshire Publishing! Also, thanks to my 9 year old nephew for letting me borrow his Harry Potter series, because if not for him, I might not complete the challenge (it's more convenient!)!



So, what did you receive in your mailbox this week? :)

Happy New Year!

Happy happy happy New Year to you, and you, and you! :) I just have to say that, so far this year, I've met sooo many awesome people! Authors, bloggers, more authors and more bloggers! LOL! And most of all, I've discovered lots and lots of BOOKS! I only started blogging in the tenth month of this last year, which didn't or doesn't feel too whole, so now that it's a new year, I have lots of goals I hope to accomplish, but I don't want to list them because then I feel that I might not go through with them, haha! But, I hope you've all had a great day and I wish you all have a great new year!

*image taken from Once upon a Twilight! Just wanted to share because it's perfect!

Book Review: 13 to Life

Title: 13 to Life

Author: Shannon Delany

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (June 22nd 2010)

Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance

Series: 13 to Life #1

Pages: 308

Source: Purchased

Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid…

My $0.02

First of all, I just have to say that there's something about the cover of this novel that is very creepy and eerie - in a good way, of course, that set this mood for me when I read it. And of course, when you read more into the story and when you finish it, you totally understand the concept of it more. Anyway, onto my review, I have to say this was a quick read; I read most of it in one sitting.

Jessie just lost her mother in a terrible accident and then she has to be a school guide for the new guy in school, Pietr Rusakova - I mean, what could possibly be worse? When I read it, I found it kind of weird that Pietr kept coming back to Jessie - she showed him around the first couple of days, but he kept sticking around. There's nothing wrong with that, but usually when there's a new kid, you try to ditch them as soon as possible and you just hope that you don't get stuck with showing them around, or is that just me? :) And I guess that's what Jess tried to do multiple times, LOL! But, I definitely would not mind a new guy like Pietr coming to my school and start sticking around me and my friends! *__*

I really have to say that 13 to Life is definitely the intro for what's to come for this trilogy, usually the first book is just that, but it means more so for this book! Jess and Pietr's relationship doesn't get far and here's the gist of it: *a little spoilery, I think* Jessie's friend, Sarah was the one who caused Jessie's mom's demise. Jessie takes care of Sarah, Sarah likes Pietr, but Pietr likes Jessie. And for some reason, Jessie felt like she should let Sarah have him! (GASP!) I know, right?!

There's a lot of Russian culture in this novel which was a lot of fun to read! When I ran across the words da and nyet, I read them over and over again - you know, just for the sound of them. Delany does a good job at explaining what they mean in context, but I still felt the need to google them (but, I didn't, so if you know what they mean, please do share in the comments!).

This is another werewolf book, but for our MC, she doesn't discover any of this until the last 3-4 chapters of the book! Jessie and Pietr have their moments together where, as a reader, I cherished and ate every piece of it up, LOL! But, like I mentioned above, I still had the feeling of danger lurking around.

I enjoyed this novel and am definitely looking forward to reading where Jessie and Pietr's werewolf adventure will take them next!

Also, I just have to say - Pietr Rusakova, Pietr Rusakova, Pietr Rusakova! Yum! I adore the way how Delany came up with the spelling for Pietr - so unique! Mmm, speaking of yum, Max Rusakova! I hope we'll be seeing more of him in Secrets and Shadows (13 to Life, #2) which will be out on February 15th 2011! How weird is that?! 2011! Eek! OMG! Lol!

Now, when I read I always have to listen to music so here's my mini playlist - well, I guess I shouldn't say mini because I generally only listen to 3-4 songs when I come up with a playlist of my own, and even when the author has their own playlist, I still only listen to 3-4 on there that I feel most suits the book.

• Don't Hold Your Breath by Athlete
• Keep the Streets Empty for Me by Fever Ray
• Crash and Burn by Lifehouse
• Falling In by Lifehouse