March Wrap Up

Another wrap up post! Would you believe that I read even more this month than I did last month? It's crazy, and yet brilliant! I think it's probably due to my crazy Vampire Academy read-a-thon, but I hope to carry this on through April. Although my reading will probably slow down now that I have exams to revise for and coursework to wrap up.


Books Read and Reviewed:
1. VA: Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead (Blog | Youtube)
2. VA: Blood Promise by Richelle Mead (Blog | Youtube)
3. VA: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (Blog | Youtube)
4. VA: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead (Blog | Youtube)
5. Haven by Kristi Cook (Blog | Youtube)
6. You Against Me by Jenny Downham (Blog | Youtube)
7. My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey (Blog | Youtube)
8. Wood Angel by Erin Bow (Blog | Youtube)
9. Divergent by Veronica Roth (Blog | Youtube)
10. Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles (Blog | Youtube)
11. Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins (Blog | Youtube)
12. Wither by Lauren Destefano (Blog | Youtube) 
13. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton (Blog | Youtube)
14. City of Ashes (Reread) (Blog | Youtube)
15. One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen (Blog | Youtube)


Total: 15


Books Bought:
IMM#17 IMM#18 IMM#19


Posts You Shouldn't Have Missed!:
- Sign up for the YA Series Challenge, which is hosted by Shannon, Farrah and Britney.

- Please fill in my blog survey, if you haven't already. It's completely anonymous!

- Cover reveal for Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

- Ian Somerhalder Foundation: 100 Sled Dogs Shot and Killed in Canada

- Misha Collins' The Random Act in Haiti

Book Review: Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Release Date: March 1st, 2011
Publisher: Hyperion Books CH
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Recommended? Definitely, yes!
Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch. 

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.
But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she? - Goodreads Page

 Warning: This review contains spoilers from Hex Hall. I do not suggest reading this review until you've read the first book. Unless, of course, you love spoilers!

Demonglass takes place a few weeks after Hex Hall ended, with Sophie still dreading what her powers can do and as a result, wanting to go through the Removal – the process that strips her of her powers, and that could potentially kill her. Of course, Sophie’s father isn’t about to let that happen. Padre – sorry! Ehem,  Sophie’s dad – persuades Sophie to take a trip to his home in England for the summer, to give her a chance to reconsider her options. Sophie agrees, and sets off for London, along with her good vampire friend Jenna and the handsome groundskeeper, Cal. Oh, and did I mention that she happens to be betrothed to the latter? ;)

The plot takes off quickly, with several major events happening throughout the novel. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that certain events lead Sophie right – quite literally – into the arms of a certain super-sexy Archer Cross. Remember him from the first book? Oh, I bet you do! More on him later.

As a reader, you can instantly see that Sophie has matured a lot after her run-in with her demonic great grandmother in Hex Hall. She has grown more confident with herself, and instead of just thinking snarky remarks towards her superiors, she actually goes ahead and says them. I love it!

Sophie also discovers that she’s betrothed to the brooding groundskeeper, Cal. Understandably, she’s rather annoyed about not being in on this. That said, she does seem to get over this rather quickly. I know if it was me then I’d be going on some sort of demonic rampage across the English countryside. Still, I’m not Sophie, am I?

Which brings me nicely onto Archer, the third point on this newly blossomed love triangle. Oh, how I’ve missed him! In this book Archer remains just as much of a mystery to us as he was in the first. However, we do learn some more on his back story. Which is lovely, but what I really wanted to see was some incredible Archer/Sophie romance scenes. Did we get them? I’ll neither confirm nor deny the rumours. You’ll have to see for yourself!

There’s a lot of mystery going on in this book. Everyone is trying to find out who these new demons (mentioned in the summary) are, and why they are actually demons to begin with. I had a lot of fun putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and I’m happy to announce that my Sherlock-ing record remains unscathed. Then again, I was suspicious of everyone, from Jenna to Cal to Archer and even Padre.

Demonglass was, for me, so much better than Hex Hall! It seems that Rachel Hawkins has really gotten used to writing her characters, as the dialogue is a million times better. The teenagers actually speak like real teens, not like something from The Tweenies. (UK Children’s TV reference, do ignore!)

I loved this book so so much, even the cliff-hanger ending! Bah, Humbug. Now I have to wait a long time for the final instalment in the trilogy! And wait I shall.

For those who have read Demonglass already, what did you think of it? Did you prefer it to Hex Hall? Are you guys worried about the people in the house at the end? I'm trying to stay spoiler-free here, but it's so hard with this ending! Let me know in the comments!

Book of the Month: Jan - Mar '11

This is going to be a new 'feature' for my blog. I just thought it would be nice to look back every three months and choose my favourite book of the month, and to tell you guys a little bit about it. I was going to make it a monthly thing, but I decided to do it every three months so then I have a bit more time to ponder over it and I won't just pick the last book I read!

January's Book of the Month:

Choker by Elizabeth Woods

This is a YA debut for 2011. It's realistic fiction, and based around a girl named Cara who misses her best friend Zoe. Zoe then shows up again, and asks to stay with Cara for a while. All of a sudden, there's a murder. To make matters worse - the victim is Cara's next door neighbour. It's a really thrilling read, and definitely rather creepy! 

You can read my review of Choker here.

February's Book of the Month:

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I should stop going on about this book before I frighten you all away, but I can't! I love this book - and the rest of the series - so much. Too much to stop thinking about it! This is the first book in the VA series, and it's about a girl named Rose who is training to be a Guardian. She overcomes lots of obstacles in this series, one of those being her more-than-a-crush on her mentor - the hot and sexy Dimitri Belikov *swoon*. I know this book is a vampire book, and this seems to put a lot of people off, but they're not your traditional vampires! I won't go into detail about what exactly they are, but I can tell you that the Moroi and Strigoi are much more interesting than your Bella and Edward - and even Dracula!

You can read my review of Vampire Academy here.

March's Book of the Month: 

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

I can't say too much about this book, as it is the second in the Hex Hall series and I don't want to spoil the first book for those who haven't read it. I will say, however, that Sophie has matured, and has also become a lot more snarky! And also more intelligent. Archer is hot, as always, and Cal is adorable. I loved this book much more than Hex Hall, and highly recommend it!

Review to come!

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors That Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. For people who love making lists as much as myself, it’s a great weekly meme!

This week’s theme is: Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition

This question was quite a difficult one for me. I can pick out lots of authors who aren’t well recognised, but ones that should* be? I had a long and hard think about it, and came up with this short list:

1. Maria V. Snyder. I know she’s a fairly popular author already, but I recently Maria posted on her blog that the sales for Inside Out – her dystopian series – had been extremely low. I honestly don’t know why this is, because the series is fantastic, and Maria is an excellent author! Maybe it’s to do with publicity? Hmm.

2. Mara Purnhagen. Mara wrote the Past Midnight series, which is currently a three book trilogy about ghosts. Ghosts, I say! I, for one, have not read many YA books on this subject, and I find Mara’s books fascinating. And very creepy!

3. Darren Shan. I know, I know. Darren is already a very popular author, but I have made a pact with myself. I shall not rest until every single one of you has read at least The Saga of Darren Shan. If you read the Demonata series, then that’s a bonus.

4. Elizabeth Woods. Elizabeth Woods wrote ‘Choker’, a 2011 YA debut. When I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately had the book shipped over from the US. I fell in love. And yet, I don’t see many bloggers reading this book. Why, may I ask? Perhaps it’s because nowadays we’re a bunch of paranormal obsessed crazies. Yup, that’s my theory. ;)

5. Every other YA author out there who isn’t Stephenie Meyer, J.K Rowling or Suzanne Collins. Before you all go crazy at me, I have absolutely nothing against these authors! I love them. Mostly. But what I mean is that here in the UK, you hardly ever hear about anyone else unless you’re a blogger, friends with a blogger, or like to search Amazon manically. I want YA authors to be more well-known in the UK, please!  

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Release Date: May 3^rd, 2011

Publisher: HarperCollins

Recommended? Heck yes!

Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. – Goodreads Page

The society in which this book’s set is split into five different factions. Beatrice was born into Abnegation – the selfless. The book kicks off by introducing the reader to Beatrice and her life as one of the selfless. We learn that Beatrice doesn’t like living without mirrors. She doesn’t like always putting others before herself. And so, when the day of the big Test comes, she decides that she may want to choose a different faction at the Choosing ceremony. I won’t say which one she does choose (although it’s pretty obvious), however I will tell you that I think she is crazy for doing so. But I’d have done the same thing.

We follow Beatrice as she renames herself Tris, and goes through her training as part of her initiation. She has to do some pretty awful things. At first, she’s just a weak little girl who really can’t do much compared to others in her class. But as the novel progresses the reader sees an incredible change in Tris. She becomes a strong, courageous woman – at just sixteen.

Another of the recurring characters is Four, Tris’ mentor. He is honestly one of the most complicated characters I have ever come across. His character development was outstanding – and we weren’t even reading from his point of view! Plus, he is hot stuff. That always helps us to fall in love with characters, doesn’t it?

There were so many extra characters in this book, and normally it would have been easy to get confused. But Roth pulls it off fantastically. Each character has their own traits and personality, it’s so easy to tell them apart and learn their names. There were some characters I loved, some I hated, and a lot that I felt sorry for by the end of the book!

The ending is everything I could have ever wanted. Packed full of action - people dying, people fighting – and a couple of heartbreaking scenes. A few of those scenes, actually. The ending also leads nicely onto the sequel which, believe me, you will be highly anticipating and longing for after you’ve read this book!

As for the writing style, I cannot believe that this is a debut! Veronica Roth writes as if she’s been doing this forever, and she’s only 22 years old! The woman has some serious talent, and I can’t wait to see how she uses it in the next two books in the trilogy.

Veronica Roth also recently announced that the film rights for Divergent have been sold to Summit. Yes, the studio that is responsible for The Hurt Locker. And Twilight, but I’d rather forget about that. Let’s hope that all goes well so we can see this story on the big screen!

In My Mailbox - (19) & Weekly Roundup

Hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Again, I forgot to include the e-books. I've recorded a separate video for those, so I shall post it some time in the week!

Books Won:
Tomorrow's Guardian by Richard Denning - thank you Karen! (Goodreads)
The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford (Goodreads)
The Way of the Sword by Chris Bradford (Goodreads)
The Way of the Dragon by Chris Bradford (Goodreads)
The Ring of Earth by Chris Bradford (Goodreads)
The Ring of Water by Chris Bradford (Goodreads)

Books Bought:
Pegasus by Robin McKinley (Goodreads)

Weekly Roundup

Books Read:
Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

On the Blog - Reviews:
Wither by Lauren Destefano - 3 out of 5.
Frostbite by Richelle Mead - 10 out of 10.
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel - 4 out of 5.

On the Blog - Misha Collins' (Supernatural) Random Act Charity.


Bookish News:
Aimee Carter has announced a three book deal. Aimee said that her new book THE GODDESS TEST is going to be the first book in a trilogy, with the third being released in late 2012. Also, she announced that she'll be releasing a dystopian trilogy some time in 2013. Is anyone else excited? DYSTOPIA! GREEK MYTHOLOGY! WOO!


And - the biggest news of all - I reached 250 followers! Oh my GOSH, this is amazing. Thank you all so, so much. It really makes my day when you all take the time to comment on my posts. I love you all <3 I'm thinking about doing a Q&A on my Youtube channel to celebrate, so if I do then I'll post a link here and y'all can ask me some questions :) *GROUP HUG*

Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday

Question

Inspired by the inane twitter trend of #100FACTSABOUTME, GIVE US FIVE BOOK RELATED SILLY FACTS ABOUT YOU.

Silly facts, eh? Okay.

1. I'm slightly OCD. I bet that a lot of you are, really. All the books in a series have to be matching sizes and covers on my shelf. If I have to get covers shipped over from the US then so be it! Also, if I have one book in a series, I have to buy the rest. Even if I haven't read the first book. 

2. I have a never ending TBR pile and wishlist. Seriously. I want every book.

3. I don't have a bookcase! Can you believe it? I really need to get round to buying one, but at the moment my books are sorted into various piles around my bedroom. Which is the smallest bedroom in the house!

4. I often worry that hard copies of books are going to run out. As in, people are going to stop printing them altogether and just sell e-books. Because of this, I refuse to buy e-books and stock up on hard copies.

5. In the past, I have gone through a lot of phases with my reading criteria. Last year, I read mostly adult books with a few YA thrown in. But at the end of 2010, I rediscovered my immense love of YA. I am so happy that I did. I can't see myself ever leaving this genre now!

Question

 If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?

Just one? *thinks, and keeps thinking for ten minutes* It depends if I could choose the terms, really. For example, if I was to put myself into the Vampire Academy series, I'd have to be friends with Rose and Dimitri's girlfriend. If I was to be in The Mortal Instruments, I'd want to be a Shadowhunter. So.. my answer is that there are too many to choose from, but the top five would be:

1. Vampire Academy
2. The Mortal Instruments
3. Harry Potter (of course!)
4. Soul Screamers
5. The Saga of Darren Shan

Book Review: Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Frostbite by Richelle Mead
Release Date: April 10, 2008
Publisher: Razorbill
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
Recommended? Yes.
Buy the Book: Amazon US| Amazon UK

Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose…

It's winter break at St. Vladimir's, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy's crawling with Guardians—including Rose's hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn't bad enough, Rose's tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason's got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa's head while she's making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy's not taking any risks… This year, St. Vlad's annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price… - Goodreads Page

Warning: This review contains spoilers from Vampire Academy, so if you haven’t read it then I don’t suggest reading this review. However, feel free to check out my spoiler free Vampire Academy review and choose to read the book! ;)

Okay, so, if you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ve probably all read my gushing review of Vampire Academy, book one in the series. This review probably isn’t going to be any different, so I’m just going to say now that I thought this book was amazing, brilliant, flawless… so pick it up if you loved Vampire Academy and want to read the rest of Rose’s story!


Those of you that are still with me, let’s begin. The book picks up a few weeks after Vampire Academy has ended, with Victor now locked up for his kidnapping of the Dragomir princess. Of course, that does not mean that Rose and her friends can now live in peace! There’s a Strigoi attack on one branch of the royal families, leaving no one alive, and so St. Vlad’s Academy decides it would be nice to ship its students off to a fancy ski resort for the winter break. 


The action kicks off right from the beginning, with the family I mentioned earlier being attacked by Strigoi and murdered, leaving their bodies to be discovered by Dimitri and Rose. Of course, who else would walk right into a murder scene? Rose is just full of luck. It is discovered that the Strigoi are getting clever, and are now recruiting humans to do their dirty work. Scary, huh? Now the Moroi and dhampirs can be reached in the day as well. 


So, off to the ski resort they go, and that is when Adrian is introduced. Adrian. He’s snarky, he smokes, he’s dark and gloomy.. He’s rather hilarious, actually. A brilliant addition to the Vampire Academy cast *wink wink*.


Rose still hasn’t gotten over her feelings for Dimitri, and so she spends a lot of her time pondering over those. I love reading about their scenes together. *swoonsqueeomgsigh* Rose also thinks that Dimitri may be in love with a Moroi royal, and that spawns a whole load of jealous and juicy scenes. 


The ending is just incredible. It’s action packed, and we get a chance to really see what the Strigoi can do. It’s pretty scary and creepy. Rose and her friends are badass. It also makes you really sad, for reasons I won’t go into. 


Overall, this book is made of win, just as the rest of the series is. The series does honestly keep getting better and better, so if you - for whatever reason - didn’t enjoy book one, then I highly suggest continuing to book two. And book three, four, five and six.

Misha Collins: The Random Act

Hey people. I apologise for not posting yesterday as I was meant to. I'm kind of bogged down with work right now! But I'll still be blogging, so no need to fret. (I know, you were holding back tears, weren't you?)


The reason for this post today is to let you all know about Misha Collins' charity - Random Acts. If you don't know who Misha Collins is from his role on Supernatural as the angel Castiel, you may recognise him from the movie Girl, Interrupted or from the TV shows Charmed, 24 or CSI. 

In late 2009, Misha asked his minions aka Twitter followers to come up with some project ideas for a privately organised charity group. Through various funds and methods, Random Acts was born, and in 2010 Misha ran 52 miles (83 km) to raise almost $85,000 for Random Acts, along with three Haiti orphanages and flood relief support in Pakistan. Amazing, huh? That's not all. He's also taken part in various other random acts of kindness, which you can view on the Random Acts website.


Okay, so why am I choosing now to let you all know about Misha's amazing escapades? It's because earlier this month, Misha posted a video on Youtube to inform people that despite the story of Haiti not making headlines any more - and thus a lot of the support drying up - he hasn't forgotten. So Random Acts are going back.


They're going to build a community centre, which houses orphans and is going to serve as a school, and a self-preserved fish farm. Misha is also inviting people to join him in Haiti to help to rebuild the community. That's right, he's giving people a chance to actually go and help the people of Haiti to rebuild. For more details, please visit the page on the Random Acts website. It really is a once in a lifetime chance - for most people - to really help. 


(I just wanted to add that if you haven't yet filled in my feedback form, please do so! All comments are completely anonymous. No, I don't have a secret IP Address tracker built into my Google form. I'm not going to hunt you down if you don't tell me you love me ;))

Blog Survey and Feedback!

I've been blogging for a good six months now - time flies, doesn't it? - and I felt it was about time I asked for your feedback. I do this in the shape of a Google form. 


You can find the form here.


It's completely anonymous, so you're completely free to be as honest as you like. I don't welcome hateful comments, but if it's how you feel then please write them. I'll be reading the survey over the coming days, and get back to you soon to talk about our feelings and sunshine and rainbow cookies. 


And with that, I leave you with this gif of adorable awesome.

Book Review: Wither by Lauren Destefano

Wither by Lauren Destefano
Release Date: March 22, 2011 (US) | August 4, 2011 (UK)
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
Recommended? Yes, and no.
Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK

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. - Goodreads page

Wither begins with our main character, Rhine, being picked up by a grey van and sold to a rich businessman, along with two other girls. The story picks up straight away, and the reader learns that in this futuristic world, women die at twenty and men die at twenty-five. Therefore, the logical thing to do, is to buy a load of women to make them your wives, and turn them into baby machines, right? Wrong, but that’s what happens all the time.


So Rhine and the two other wives, Jenna and Cecily, are married to Linden and confined to a floor of a huge mansion. And that is where 99% of the novel takes place, aside from the occasional outing or flashback. I love the fact that this novel is dystopian, but it just didn’t have the generic dystopian feel to it. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing until I finished reading. It wasn’t that good. 


I didn’t like that we were confined with the mansion. Sure, it suited the purpose and made me feel claustrophobic, but I would have liked to have seen more of this futuristic world. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be that different to 2011, but the only really differences I could see were the holographic video games and sharks in the pool. And the advances in medicine, of course. 


I liked the three wives. Rhine, whose point of view the story is told from, doesn’t want to be a wife. She will do almost anything to escape, yet she goes about it in a cunning, smart way. I loved that. I was definitely rooting for her to get out. 


Then there’s Jenna, who figures that as she’s going to die in two years anyway, she doesn’t really care about what happens to her. Jenna was a brilliant character, and she was very loyal toward Rhine. A great friend! Cecily is the youngest, and she’s the wife that gets pregnant first. At thirteen, she is already set to become a baby making machine.


I also loved Rhine’s love interest. He wasn’t introduced straight away, nor was it love at first sight, which was incredibly refreshing! It was obvious what was going to happen between the two of them, but I was kept hooked when reading about their friendship - and then later on, their relationship.


Lauren Destefano’s writing was good, but I felt that many scenes were too rushed through. I got confused at some points, and a bit more description and explanation would have been nice. This was the main reason why I didn’t love the book as much as I wish I could have.


In short, I was hoping to love this book a lot more than I did. Some things just didn’t work for me, and others did but they were either rushed or left undeveloped. I recommend reading this if you’re a fan of dystopian fiction, as a lot of people have loved this book, but I can’t say it’s a favourite, unfortunately. That said, I will definitely be picking up the sequel, as the ending to this book is left very open, and I can’t wait to see what happens to Rhine!

In My Mailbox - (18) and Weekly Roundup

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren. The idea is to share what books you received each week. Again, this week I forgot to include my e-books *headdesk* I'll remember one of these days!





Books:
Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting (Amazon | Goodreads)
Magic Study by Maria V Snyder (Amazon | Goodreads)
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles (Amazon | Goodreads)
Finding Sky by Joss Stirling (Amazon | Goodreads)
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain (Amazon | Goodreads)
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins (Amazon | Goodreads)
Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulten (Amazon | Goodreads)
Vesper by Jeff Sampson (Amazon | Goodreads)
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - Thank you, Bex! (Amazon | Goodreads)

Weekly Roundup

Books Read:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Wither by Lauren Destefano


On the Blog - Reviews:

Wood Angel by Erin Bow - 4 out of 5 stars

Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen - 4 out of 5 stars

You Against Me by Jenny Downham - 4 out of 5 stars

Book Related News:
- Sony closed their casting call for Jace Wayland (The Mortal Instruments). Does this mean they have their Jace? If so - I MUST KNOW WHO IT IS!!
- Jennifer Lawrence of Winter's Bone fame has been cast as Katniss for the upcoming movie adaptation of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. A lot of people are complaining about her blonde hair and pale skin, but come on people - they can dye her hair! And it's not that hard to get a tan, especially with the movie magic they can do! As long as Miss Lawrence can act, and act extremely well, there's no reason to fret over her looks.
- The move rights for Divergent, a debut YA novel by Veronica Roth, have been sold to Summit! *CHEER* *HYPERVENTILATE* *FAINTS* Can you tell I'm excited?
- Penguin are discussing the changes to the covers of Nightshade and Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer. Let's hope they're reconsidering scrapping the stunning green cover after hearing lots of feedback from fans of the novel!
- Maria V Snyder reported that sales for Inside Out, and consequently Outside In, are low and if they stay low it is unlikely that we'll get a third book in the series. Come on, people, what are you waiting for? Go buy the books!