Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Synopsis: Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

Publisher: Simon and Shuster Children's Publishing

Edition: Hardcover

Page Count: 452 pages

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review:

This book is about a girl named Mara Dyer who experiences a tragedy. Her family leaves their hometown and moves to Florida. Mara starts to experience strange things while in this town. While all this is happening, she meets a boy named Noah Shaw.

I liked this book. It was fast paced, full of mystery, and had a good amount of romance in it.* I liked how Mara at least tried to stand up for herself in this story. She didn't completely fall for Noah Shaw, the love interest, straight away. But I still thought it was too fast to be real. There was a supernatural twist to this book which was okay. I thought too much was happening and I got confused. The beginning and the end were good and I liked it. The middle focused too much on the romance and it turned into a typical paranormal romance.

I also didn't like how we never knew if Mara was telling the truth or not. I'm not saying that she was lying, not at all. Since she has "hallucinations", it's hard to tell when something is real and when it's not real. There would be parts where I would think that there was no way that this could be real, it had to be a hallucination. But then it turned out to be real and I didn't know what to think. There were parts where it was hard to understand what was going on completely. Some readers might get it but others might not.

This plot was very unique. I have never read anything quite like it. I'm curious to see where this might go in the future.

The characters in this book were real to me. But there were times where some of their actions were too unbelievable. Mara was a decent character. She declined toward the end, though. She started to get weird. "The only way I can protect them is if I leave." blah blah blah. Mara did get very selfish in the end. She thought about herself more than her family. She made it seem like she was caring but she wasn't. She put her family and Noah through crap and leaving is not the right decision. (Not a spoiler).

Let's get onto the love interest, Noah. I actually really liked him. There were times where I thought he was too arrogant but then he'd get really sweet. But really, the whole "Shaw's exhausted the whole female population of this school" thing got very annoying. It was so cliche. I loved the banter between Mara and Noah. It was so cute and funny.

If you are looking for a unique plot and a nice romance, go pick this book up if you want to. This is a lot like a typical paranormal romance** and if you don't like that, don't pick this up.

*I might be a bit biased because I love me some romance.
**By paranormal romance, I don't mean that as a spoiler. When you read the book you understand.

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Review: Twisted (Intertwined #3) by Gena Showalter

Warning: Do not read review if you have not read the first two books in this series unless you want to be spoiled for them. You have been warned.

Synopsis: His vampire girlfriend might have brought him back to life, but he's never felt more out of control. There's a darkness within him, something taking over; changing him. Worse, because he was meant to die, death now stalks him at every turn. Any day could be his last.
Once upon a time, the three souls trapped inside his head could have helped him. He could have protected himself. But as the darkness grows stronger, the souls grow weaker - just like his girlfriend. The more vampire Aden becomes, the more human Victoria becomes, until everything they know and love is threatened.
Life couldn't get any worse. Could it?

Publisher: Harlequin

Edition: Kindle e-book ( I got it from my library's site)

Page count: 564 pages

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review: Warning, I might get a little emotional. I just finished this book.

Oh. My Gosh. What the heck just happened?

This book is about four main characters. Aden(the main main character), Mary Ann, Riley, and Victoria. Aden was about to die in the second book and his girlfriend, Victoria, saved him. That's all I can say right now.

This book was like a small snowball going down a cliff. The crap that happened to these characters just got worse and worse and worse. It finally ended with the huge explotion. There was so much death and sadness, that it kind of made this book depressing. The action was there. Oh yes, it was. But I thought it was over kill. I loved it in the other books, but in this one...I don't know. Gena was shoving it into our faces I guess. These characters go through a lot of crap. None of them deserved it. Not even Victoria. *cough*My least favorite character*cough*. It was so horrible. No wonder everyone was mad. I especially hated what Gena Showalter did to Riley. He was my favorite character. But Riley was such a douche near the end that it dwindled my love for him. I hated it. I had to resort to loving Aden. ADEN. He was such a jerk through out the book. Both of them, actually. WHY? The ending and my love for the series in general saved it for me.

I still loved this book. I was just disappointed. God I'm so angry by that ending. I'm so angry.

Okay, you've suffered enough. Adios!

Review: Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1) by Issac Marion

Synopsis: R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Edition: Paper back

Page Count: 239 pages

Rating; 4 or 3.5/5 stars

Review:

Let me just start off by saying, I might have went into this with higher expectations than it deserved. The movie trailer was completely different than the tone of the book. I have yet to see the movie, so I don't know if the trailer stays true to the actual movie. The trailer makes this seem like it's a light, fun comedy on zombies. But, Warm Bodies,  was not.

This book is about a zombie named R. R remembers nothing of his previous life and wanders around an abandoned airport all day. There are others like him and he lives in the airport with them. His "best friend" was M. One day R and M, plus a lot more zombies, go out to get food, AKA humans. R eats the brain of a boy and instantly gets his memories. He becomes enamored with a girl named Julie and saves her from the zombies.

Now if that doesn't sound good to you, I don't know what will. I know some people were put off by the fact that zombies in this book actually get feelings. But I thought it was a nice, fresh take on zombies. Zombies are dead creatures, so it's cool to see that they hunt humans for their emotions. I really this new take on zombies.

The writing style was very poetic and I loved it. I'd try to find some quotes for you, but none of them really stuck with me enough to write it down. But if you do pick this book up, be warned that the writing is magnificent.

Now for the things I didn't like. Like I said, I was expecting way too much from this book. I was expecting an action/adventure/romance. What I got was a book talking about philisophical topics. The question of whether life was worth living took up pages at a time and it was very slow. The author was trying to tell the readers something and I don't think I caught it. Maybe if I re-read this in the future, I might like it more. But I just did not like how philisophical this book was. The movie was very misleading.

Aside from the philisophical side of the book, I also didn't like how the zombies and humans acted. In this one scene near the end, there was this "fight scene". Notice the quotes around fight scene. This alleged fight scene lasted for two to three paragraphs and then was never mentioned again. It felt to rushed. When the Boney's left, it wasn't explained at all. It was like the author was just like "well, I have to make it end some how. I don't know how so let's just make it 'unexplained energy'." I would have appreciated it if he went into more detail. We were just told what happened and it wasn't very actiony. I was disappointed by that.

Also, did anyone else not like how we weren't told what year it was? It could have been the future, present or past for all I knew.

I may sound like I hate this book. I may sound like this book is nothing but disappointment. It's not, I assure you. My expectations were too high. I suggest you go into this with no expectations at all. You will like it better that way, I promise.

Stacking the Shelves #1

Hi everyone! Today I am going to start doing Stacking The Shelves. This is a meme where every Sunday bloggers share what they got that week. I don't get books that often, but I do have some to show you today! This meme was started by Tynga's Reviews. Here is a link to the blog: http://www.tyngasreviews.com/



The e-books: On Saturday the 16th, Amazon was having a deal where you could buy the entire Caster Chronicles series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl for $2.99 each. I already had the third book (I've read the first two) so I got the rest of the series. I'll only show you the first one. You can look up the rest of the series if you want.

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1):


I also got some free books on my Kindle.


FREE E-BOOKS: Gravity (Gravity #1) by Abigail Boyd http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11384302-gravity

UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate fairy tale #1): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13402447-unenchanted

That's it for this week's Stacking The Shelves! Leave links to yours below!

2013 Reading Challenges and Goals

This year on Goodreads, I'm challenging myself to read 70 books. You can view my progress here: http://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/571822 As of now, I have read 14 books.

Another challenge I am doing is the 2013 Sequels challenge. I made this challenge up myself for myself. This challenge is basically to read 20 sequels to books I have read prior to 2013. 20 may seem like a lot, but I think I can manage it. Here the link to my Goodreads shelf: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4850910?shelf=sequel-challenge-2013 I've already read 2 books towards that challenge.

The last challenge I am doing is the Big Book Challenge hosted by DebrasBookCafe. Here's a link to her blog: http://debrasbookcafe.blogspot.com/ and a link to the Goodreads group: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/59600-2013-big-book-challenge I challenged myself to read 20 big books. I have read four already. Here is the link to my challenge: http://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/572668

A goal of mine is to post on my blog more. I want to be a reviewer. I've tried before and I've failed. But this year I am going to try my hardest.

Review: The Lying Game (The Lying Game #1) by Sara Shepard

The Lying Game (The Lying Game #1) by Sara Shepard

Synopsis: I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there's nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It's enough to kill a girl all over again. But I'm about to get something no one else does--an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma's desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me--to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she's the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

Publisher: HarperTeen

Edition: Ebook (I got it from my e-book library site)

Page Count: 307 pages

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review:

                            The Lying Game is about a girl named Sutton who wakes up in a bathtub in a house she doesn't know with no memory. A girl walks into the bathroom and doesn't respond when Sutton talks to her. Sutton soon realizes that she's dead. She follows the girl around and mystery happens.

                             Sorry for the vague synopsis. I feel like I might give away too much if I say anything else. I really enjoyed this book! I love Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series so I thought I'd give her other series a try. I was really surprised I liked it. The action and suspense kept me turning the pages. The whole who-dun-it aspect of it really had me blown away.

                         I loved the writing in this book. The whole story was told from first and (kind of) third person. I thought it would be confusing but I liked it. Sutton is a very interesting character. She can't remember who she is, so it's fun finding out what she's like along with her. All though I will say some of the things that she did in her life really surprised me by how far it went. That's one of the reasons why I didn't give this book five stars. The whole The Lying Game thing really bugged me. Shepard always makes the girls in her story take things too far. That's what makes it unbelievable to me. The only other thing I wasn't a fan of was the slow pacing in the middle. It dragged for a while.

                              This is a fantastic start to a series and I reccomend it to anyone who loves mystery or the Pretty Little Liars series.

Review: Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins

Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins

Synopsis: Your heart misleads you.That's what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah.
And he loves me.

We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms.

It should be

ROSE & NOAH

forever, easy.

But it won't be.

Because he's Amish.

And I'm not.


Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Page Count: 383 (on Goodreads)

Edition: Paperback

Rating: 3/5 stars

Review: 

                                This book is about a girl named Rose who moves to a small town in Ohio. Her new house is next to an Amish community. Being from Cinncinati, Rose doesn't know what to make of the new neighbors. But then her neighbors come over to invite them for dinner at their house. Then she meets Noah and is instantly attracted to him. The story takes off from there.

                                I really did not enjoy this book. I mean, it was okay, so I can't really say it was bad. It just wasn't my cup of tea. The plot sounds very unique and interesting. I've never read an Amish book before. But, sadly, this book was not what I expected. This book would have been better if not for the insta-love and the jerk named Noah. As we all know, insta-love is a common theme in YA. In Temptation, it had the potential for being a great love. If the couple didn't fall in love within a week or two, though. They had barely known each other and Noah was saying Rose was his. Rose was just as bad too. I can't blame her though. She's sixteen and has never had a boyfriend before. She barely knows what love is. I sympathized with her. Rose really did not know anything. Even though I pitied her, she was very naieve and dependent. It was like she couldn't live without Noah and refused to try. Her relationship with her brothers, Sam and Justin, annoyed me too. I think Hopkins tried too hard to make them "normal". Brothers and sisters do not fight that much, trust me. Sam really wanted to help his sister but she acted like a brat around him. Especially when Sam brought up Noah. Speaking of Noah, I don't like him. At all. He was manipulative, rude, and disrespected Rose and her "culture". I really didn't like him.

                         I may sound like I hated this book, but I didn't. It was a fun, unique read and I'm going to pick up the second book in the series when I have time.

****Thanks to HarlequinTeen Panel for sending me this book for review.