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.

Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Cover:

Synopsis: When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Page Count: 318

Edition: Paperback

Rating: 3/5 stars

Review: This book was okay. It wasn't great, and it wasn't bad.
I'll start off with the things I liked in this book;

I really liked the unique plot. I haven't read a changeling book or a book about trolls before. Amanda Hocking did a great job building the world of the Trylle. I found myself understanding the world and the details really quickly. Mostly you don't get that in YA. In this book, it was really easy to understand. There was just enough back story and explaining in this book for me.

The writing in this book was really great. I loved the pacing and the way she described things. It wasn't heavily detailed. I really appreciated that because I do not like over detailing. It makes the story slow for me. But Amanda Hocking always gave just enough detail so you knew what it looked like. Sometimes I got a clear visual of what Hocking was describing.

Now to the things I didn't like;

The first half of this book was really good. Wendy was an okay character and seemed to be kind of strong. But the second half really bugged me.

The characters in this book really annoyed me. I hated Finn. He was such a jerk to Wendy. But of course she didn't mind because she "loves him and can't live without him." Just like all the other books in paranormal YA these days. Even though the plot was unique, I really thought the love was over-rated. I've seen it before and I hoped Amanda Hocking wouldn't take that route. I really hoped she would let the love build. But you could tell from the beginning when Wendy introduced Finn and immidiatly said he was attractive that it wouldn't. Oh well.

This book was easily forgettable. I put the book down and couldn't remember what happened. I could remember some things, and then I couldn't remember other things.
I also hated how Hocking made Wendy sleep every few pages just to pass time. I didn't think that was necessary. There are other ways for an author to pass time other than sleep. For some reason it just really annoyed me.

Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Cover:


Synopsis: Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.


Publisher: Del Ray

Page count: 470

Edition: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review: This book was good, but slow. I loved the plot. Seriously, dystopian world with Victorian zombies? Who wasn't drawn in by that? But the first 300 pages was just back story. There was little to no action at all. It was just the characters describing how the world got to where it was. It's not that I don't mind, I love seeing how a world can turn into one like in Dearly, Departed, but at times it was really slow. It took me a while to read it. It could be that the font was small and the book was huge. Dearly, Departed was slow in the beginning. But the last hundred some pages totally made up for the slowness in the beginning and middle. There was so much action. I was like, "Yes! Finally!".

Another thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the alternating perspectives. Some chapters were completely unnecessary. One chapter could end with someone asking a question and the next chapter starts with another character with a different story. Then the chapter after that the question gets answered. If it were just Bram and Nora I would understand.

Another thing I wasn't huge on was Nora's character. I understand that you are surrounded by zombies. I understand that ,basically, your whole life was a lie. But seriously, Nora threw a hissy fit whenever she didn't get her own way. She screamed and threw stuff every where. I did not agree with most of the things she did in this book. I liked her for the first one hundred pages then she kind of went downhill for me.


But, Bram and Nora's relationship was really sweet and awesome. I loved it. Bram was my favorite character. :)

 

Army of Ten

I recently joined #TheArmyOfTen. Here is the link to Gretchen McNeil's video because she can explain it much more than I can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Sbuzg0G64&feature=plcp Be sure to sign up for totally cool prizes!

Review: Article 5 By Kristen Simmons

I'm baaaack!

Summary: New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Link to cover: http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/10677277-article-5

Review:

Okay. So, to start off, I got this book from the library. It was given to me in a "Blind Date". I chose two wrapped books and then went home to see what I got. One of them was this book.

This book had so much potential. Since the Dystopian genre has gotten so much hype in 2012-due to the Hunger Games, of course-you kind of expect a strong female protagonist, a very corrupt government, and a strong male lead. This book, however, lacked two of the three. Can you guess which two?

Yes, this book had a horrible protagonist. Ember Miller is very, very stupid. You can see that she tries to be brave all through out the book. But she fails epically. There is a very fine line between stupidity and bravery. Ember Miller crossed that line frequently. At first Ember seemed just like your normal Dystopian main character. Naive about her government and poverty stricken. But then, around page 19, you learn about Chase Jennings. The boy she does not shut up about through the whole book. "Chase, I love you!" "Chase, I hate you!" and so on. Ember could not make up her mind about him until fifty pages until the end. Ember was whiny and immature. She ruined every thing that came her way. She ruined others lives, just because she was trying to be brave. Running away because your old boyfriend was trying to protect you is not brave. It's immature. She really had potential. I just think the author was so focused on not making the romance the typical insta-love that has plagued most YA fiction now a days, that she forgot that her character needed character. I tried so hard to see why Ember did the things she did. But the only back story you got about her was her previous love life with Chase and her life with her reckless mother.

Another thing. Back story.

So, you know when you're reading a Dystopian novel and the world has gone to hell and the government is crazy? You know that amazing back story you get? You don't get that with ARTICLE 5. Ember keeps mentioning a President Scarboro-who is only mentioned twice!-and a War. What is this War that she keeps talking about? I have no freaking idea. Because Simmons never gave a back story. Again, she was so focused on the romance in this book, that she forgot to put important details in the story! I would have loved this book a lot more if I knew why the FBR did what they did. If I knew what the War was that ruined America as we know it. If I know why every one loves their morals now. But I never got that.

Aside from all the bad things in this book, the action in the first half was excellent. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved how the action tied together with the new Moral America.

One more thing. Did anyone else find Chase extremely abusive? He had the tendencies of an abusive man! I could understand Ember freaking out about him most of the time. I have a feeling Simmons was trying to make Chase be like Four in Divergent. But Four had character. Unlike all the characters in ARTICLE 5.

The only reason I may pick up BREAKING POINT (ARTICLE 5 #2) is if I have no other books to read or I am just curious.

If you are looking for yet another Dystopian book and don't mind the lack of all the above, ARTICLE 5 by Kristen Simmons is your book

Overall rating: 2/5 stars.