In Flight (Up In The Air, #1) by R.K. Lilley - Review

I have been tearing through the romance novels lately. I can't seem to buy them fast enough and so I picked In Flight because it was high up on the New Adult list on Amazon.


In Flight tells the story of Bianca, a first class flight attendant who has an extreme rags to riches story. Growing up with an abusive father and later becoming homeless, Bianca now treasures everything she has. She's got a great house, a great friend and a job that allows her to travel all over the country. One day on a routine flight, she meets James Cavendish. This gorgeous and enigmatic billionaire won't take no for an answer when he pursues Bianca. While it seems like a fun and romantic ride, their troubled pasts may just ruin their futures.

Now, this was not one of my favorite romance novels. It's another one of those stories on the heels of Fifty Shades of Grey and it just didn't do the theme justice. I'm all for stories that follow the similar structure of Fifty Shades... if they're done well. There are not to many out there. I ended up enjoying Bared to You as I got further in the series, but most of the books following the Christian and Ana route are just poor attempts.

I did really like Bianca's character. She had a bad past which lead her to be very protective of her future. She valued that which she had and she guarded her heart. I loved her independence and her defiance in the face of a very domineering and controlling man.

As I said earlier, the writing wasn't stellar and the story was fairly predictable. The one thing that caught really caught my interest was Bianca as a character and finding out about her past. I will be gong on to read book two because I feel like I owe this one the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it gets be excited about the series!

5 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Easy by Tammara Webber - Review

Wow. Easy has completely blown me away. I had seen this book around a lot in the blog-o-sphere and everyone seemed to be raving about just how great it was. Many of you may know that recently, I've really been getting into the New Adult genre reading books like Dublin Street, Beautiful Disaster and The Edge of Never. I decided that I absolutely had to read Easy and the only thing that I'm disappointed in is that I didn't start it sooner.
Easy tells the story of Jacqueline. Her boyfriend, whom she followed to college, calls her the Jackie to his Kennedy. At a party at Kennedy's frat house one night, Jacqueline is attacked by someone she considers a friend. On the verge of being raped, she is saved by a dark stranger whom she never expects to see again.

This book was simply amazing and I loved every minute of the  time I spent reading it. I felt bad for my boyfriend... he would want to go out to dinner or watch a movie and for two days when I got home from work, all I could do was read this book!

The best part of Easy was the characters. All of them! I absolutely LOVED Jacqueline. Her growth in this story was not only interesting to read, but she taught the readers how to become strong and independent women, but more on that later. Lucas...  I don't know where to start. His story is not only tragic, but heartwarming. This dark and dreamy tattooed guy will melt your heart and make you fall in love all in one breath. Lucas.

The theme in Easy also sets it apart from other books in this genre. Rape. That's a hard topic to tackle when we're talking about young women readers. With popular books like Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You, it seems like the common theme in romance is BDSM. Relationships where people with abuse in their backgrounds pursue relationships in which they abuse and dominate their sexual partners. Now reading books like Fifty Shades and keeping them in the fictional part of your brain while still remaining a strong and smart young woman was something that I was able to do. While I liked reading those books, I still understood that I would never been in a relationship where I was "punished" or touched in any way that was not affectionate and loving. But for some younger readers, it may seem like the norm to pursue these relationships filled with sexual violence.

Webber took a different approach and took the subject of rape in a college atmosphere and fleshed it out. When Jacqueline was attacked, it wasn't by a random stranger in the park, it was someone that she knew and was comfortable with at a party where drinking was involved. After she was attacked and finally told her best friend, her friend signed them up for self defense courses and she learned how to try and defend herself. When someone else was raped on campus, not many people believed her and a lot of people tried to guilt her into not reporting her attack. These are all very real, very hard things that happen in reality and Webber did a great job in bringing this story out to teach her readers that rape is never okay nor is it something that you keep a secret. That you always need to keep your guard up because the bad guy, is not just a scary man in a mask but it may be the boy who hands you a drink at a party or your boyfriend's best friend.

Hot topic aside, Webber did a great job in creating a story and characters that were easy to fall in love with and hard to forget. If you read one contemporary romance this year, it better be Easy.

10 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Giveaway!

It is definitely that time of year again folks! Work is crazy, travel plans seem to become more and more complicated and it's hard to keep things straight! And so, first and foremost, I want to announce the winners of my last giveaway! And they are..

Sarah

Lauren Rice

Angela Braun

Congratulations and thank you to all of those who participated! I've emailed you all and you'll have 72 hours to respond with a good address for me to get the books to you!

Secondly, I am announcing another giveaway! Woop Woop! Becuase of the year end chaos, I forgot that it was my Blogiversary! It was exactly a year ago, driving home from Minnesota at Christmas, I decided and got to work on what is now Abibliophobic. It's been such a fun and great year blogging and I'm so happy that I started! I'm now at 132 GFC followers, I have read almost 60 books and I've made some really great friends.

I hope next year is even more fun and exciting and so, I've decided to host a giveaway as a little celebration! Get excited! You can pick any book you want... and I mean any book you want that's under 15 dollars either on Book Depository.com or Amazon. Was there a book you wished you had read from the past year? Is there an eBook you've been dying to get your hands on? Can you nto wait for a sequel next year!? I'm here to grant your wish! Check out the details below and enter the giveaway!

• This contest open Internationally the only rule is that Book Depository ships to you! Not sure?   Check here.
• The book must be $15 or under
• Abibliophobic will not be held responsible for lost or damaged packages.
• Participants must be 13 years or older.
• Giveaway will run 12/21/12 to 1/31/13!
• I will announce the winners on my blog and via email. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to the giveaway or a new winner will be chosen!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thak you again for being the best viewers/followers/friends/critics a girl could ask for and good luck in the new year!

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Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1) by Josephine Angelini - Review

I am a huge fan of Greek Mythology retellings in the YA genre. I'll read almost anything from Percy Jackson to the Goddess Test and I've had Starcrossed for a while now. For some reason, I had read some really bad reviews for this book so I wanted to make sure I was in the right mood to read it. And I was! I waited until I was unbelievably sick, home from work and it was raining. For me, that is the perfect combination for reading and I devoured this book... in one day.

Starcrossed tells the tale of a young and beautiful, Helen who lives on the island of Nantucket. Living alone with her father, she's always known that she was different and her best friend, spunky and outrageously outgoing, never ceases to miss a chance to remind her. Helens life of living in the shadows changes when a new family moves to town. Everyone gossips about how attractive the Delos family is and when she finally sees Lucas, the youngest of the family... she definitely has strong feelings. Helen feels the unrelenting urge to kill Lucas. From the moment when Helen tries to strangle Lucas in the crowded hallway at school, her life spirals out of control in this tale of action, adventure and star-crossed lovers.

Like I said before, I was super nervous about this book. I had heard some very bad things and so I was very hesitant and as a result, I didn't have very high expectations going in. My low/nonexistent expectations I think were very good things for my enjoyment of the book. I liked it! It was a sort of Percy Jackson for hopeless romantic girls, if you will. Was it the best book I've ever read? No. Will I be reading the other books in the series? Definitely.

Angelini took Demigod myth, Greek history and mythology and brought it out in a new way. I loved reading the Iliad and the Odyssey and all of those other wonderful Greek tragedies and stories of Gods gone awry. This story really took those old stories and made them modern.

Demigods hale from different houses and because of what happened during the Trojan War, they are bred to loathe (and try to kill) one another. I think my favorite aspect of Angelini’s mythology is that history repeats itself throughout history with different generations. I love it. I'm a publically acknowledged hopeless romantic and so reading a sort of do-over of the Helen of Troy myth was so wonderful and extremely inventive on Angelini's part.

If you're a Greek mythology fan or if you love reading about star-crossed lovers, then this book is for you!

7 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Waiting on Wednesday (10): The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter

And it's time for Waiting on Wednesday again! This weekly meme is a way to feature the books that you just cannot wait for. For more information, head over to Breaking the Spine!

This week, my pick is The Goddess Inheritance (Goddess Test, #3) by Aimee Carter.

Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or the end of the world.
Kate must choose.

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her--until Cronus offers a deal.
In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.
Even if it costs her eternity

I have been waiting for this book for so long. I have loved every, single book in the series that has come out so far. I even loved the short novella and the collection of short stories. (Check out my other reviews below!)

As a huge fan of Greek Mythology retelling, I can tell you that Carter is such a master and you can't help but fall in love with her stories. If you haven't read them yet, they are a must!

The Goddess Test (Goddess Test, #1)

The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test, #1.5)

Goddess Interrupted (Goddess Test, #2)

The Goddess Legacy (Goddess Test, #2.5)

What are you waiting on!? Link me up below!

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Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1) by Marissa Meyer - Review

As the year is beginning to come to a close, I've realized that there are a lot of books I missed out on this year. There were so many great debuts that have come out that I simply didn't read and I don't know why. And so, as 2013 is looming, I'm trying to get in some last minute reads before their sequels come out in the spring. Cinder by Marissa Meyer is one such book. 

In Cinder, Marissa Meyer weaves a tale of a young woman living in the futuristic city of New Beijing which lies in the Eastern Commonwealth. Across the world, a plague is slowly creeping its way accross nations, killing all of it's victims and no one can seem to find a cure.

Now Cinder has some problems. She lives with her horrible step mother and step sister, she's forced to give all of her hard earned money to her step mother and worst of all, Cinder is a Cyborg. Because of a near fatal accident when she was young, scientists implanted robot parts where her human ones were damaged. She's forced to live the life of a lower class citizen, trying to be invisible. That all changes when the prince of the Eastern Commonwealth comes to her shop for a repair. Cinder's world is turned upside down after Prince Kai leaves her shop as Cinder learns more not only about the world she lives in, but aslo about who she really is.

This book blew me out of the water. I believe it may be my favorite book that I read all year. There were so many things that I loved about this book, the characters, the setting the plot... EVERYTHING and I'll explain why.

The characters: Not only did I fall in love with the human chacracters, but Meyer's non-human charaters cracked me up as well. Cinder is such a great YA heroine. She's got the whole package and more. I loved finiding out more and more about her past and although I picked up on a lot of the plot twists at the begining, Meyer wrote in such a way that had me excited to simply see how the characters lives  played out.

Prince Kai was such a dreamboat and I would have fallen for him too had I been in Miss Cinder's shoes. Other minor character's like Cinder's step mom and step sister were interesting as well. It was hard not to dispise her step mother and evil step sister and you couldn't help shed a tear as her younger sister fought for her life. Meyer gets an A++ in the character department.

The plot: As I talked about before, Meyer had such an exquisit way of presenting her story, I just couldn't put it down. While some points were slightly predictible to the frequent reader, it was hard to keep from skimming through the pages just to see what would happen next.

The setting: I've saved the best for last. As someone who reads primarily YA fiction, I can tell you that it's not often that you read a book with an Asian theme, much less Asian characters. This subject is near and dear to my heart. I lived in China with my family for a while as a kid and I majored in East Asian Languages in college. I even had the opprotunity to study in China for a semester. I was so excited to see that the Asian culture was featured in a YA story and I think that this aspect really brought the story home for me. I've been to Bejing many times and so to think of the city in the future, was so awesome.

As you can see from my crazy gush of a review, this book is a jem  and if you haven't read it yet, do it now!

10 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Waiting on Wednesday (9): Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

As most of you know, it's Wednesday again! That means it's time for Waiting on Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!

This week my pick is...

Walking Disaster is Travis' POV.

How much is too much to love?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. Just when he thought he was invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Jamie McGuire's New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster Abby had her say. Now it's time to see the story through Travis's eyes.

I literally cannot wait for this book to come out. Lately, I've really been getting into contemporary romances. There's a lot of talk of the New Adult genre and I have to say, I'm diggin' it! I love that the age of the main characters is around mine and I feel like I can truely relate to the characteres in a way that I can't when reading a traditional romance novel.

If you haven't read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire yet, definitely pick it up. It's a fun and fast read that will keep you drooling for weeks. I loved Travis's character and while I'm a little weary about reading from a male's point of view in a romance novel, I'm willing to take a chance on this one.

What are you waiting on? Link me up below!

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Like This, Try This (6): Revenge, Rebellion and Young Love

It's that time again for my favorite meme, "Like This, Try This" from Krista over at Nawanda Files! This meme is "designed to introduce YA books that are similar to TV shows, movies and other books!" Make sure to hope over to Nawanda Files for more info on how to add this weekly meme to your blog!

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The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski - Review

After reading On Dublin Street in October, I've been searching for a romance read to equal it. I really fell in love with that story and even after two months, I still can't get that story out of my head. After going on an eBook shopping spree, I came across The Edge of Never. I recognized some of J.A. Redmerski's other books from blogger friends and I thought I'd give this one a try.


The Edge of Never follows two troubled souls, Andrew and Cam as the wonder across the country, both with different destinations. Cam is suffering from great loss. She lost her first love, her best friend and her parent's marriage fell apart. It seems the only way that Cam can deal with her loneliness is to travel and see the country. With no real destination in mind, Cam boards a bust from North Carolina to Idaho. Fate steps in when Andrew, the ruggedly sexy boy sits behind her on the bus and both of their lives change forever.

This book falls into the sort of new genre in town, New Adult. It rides the line between young adult fiction and straight up adult fiction. The main character is a 20 year old girl, a little older than your average YA story's leading lady and there is sex intermixed throughout the novel. Now I'm not talking 50 Shades of Grey sex, but there is definitely sexy time and it is this addition to the story that brings The Edge of Never into the New Adult genre. I'm becoming a fan!

I read this book in one day and I couldn't put it down. I would probably compare this book to a Nicholas Sparks book with more edge. It's a darker coming of age tale of redemption, forgiveness and growth.

I loved Andrew and Cam together. They made me laugh out loud at points in the story and also made me cry. Their passionate love story was one that will stick with me for a while. I liked how unpredictable this story ended up being. There are some big twists and turns that you won't see coming. Now keep in mind, this was not the most well written book in the world, but it was a fast and enjoyable read.

The Edge of Never has made me a believer and I'm definitely going to be picking up some of J.A. Redmerski's other stories. If you're looking for a quick romance read that leaves a lasting impression, The Edge of Never is for you.

8 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Stacking The Shelves (1)

Well here is my first stab at Stacking The Shelves, a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews featuring books added to my shelves and sharing my excitement for them! Click on the pictures for a link to oGodreads!


This week, I went on a bit of a book buying spree. Lot's of eBooks this week! Here's my haul:

I was also able to do some trading this week at the YA Book Exchange (woop woop!). I traded for the whole Hush, Hush series in eBook format. Super stoked to coninue the series!

And lastly, I received one ARC this week!

What books are you adding to your shelves? Link me up below!

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Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy, #1) by Kiersten White - Review

I want to start this review off to explain a little bit more about where I got this book. If you're a blogger (and even if you're not) and you haven’t heard about the YA Book Exchange yet, you're sorely missing out. This new site is a trading post for YA books. Essentially, you add books to the site and communicate with other traders to trade for books you want! I traded Wake by Amanda Hocking for this little gem and I've done a lot of other trades on the site as well. It's a great place to get to know others in the blogging community and trade your books for ones you've been dying to get your hands on! 

Paranormalcy follows the saucy Evie. She's just your average teenager who loves watching sappy high school dramas and of course has boy trouble, except for the fact that she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Along with her trusty pink and rhinestoned taser, Evie helps to keep paranormal creatures out of human’s way. She longs to be a normal teenage girl who goes to high school and has a locker... but things start to change as her faerie ex-boyfriend begins popping up in her life and a new shape shifter in town warns of paranormals being murdered all across the world. It seems the fate of the world may just be weighing on Evie's little sassy shoulders.

This book got me from page one. It was a quick and fun read that had me literally laughing out loud. There are some pretty serious parts in Paranormalcy, but Evie's cute personality shines through the hard parts.

I think Evie really made the story for me. Not only is she obsessed with trashy TV, shopping for outlandish clothes and boys, but she finds things like having a locker at school to be fantastically awesome, because she's never had one. She's also got a mouth on her and I know that after reading this story, Evie and I would be best friends in real life.

I always like reading new ideas in the paranormal genre. I feel like we're constantly seeing sparkly, sweet vampires and werewolves who learn to control their turning. In this story, Evie can see through the vampire's glamour’s and sees their old, wizened bodies through their sparkly exterior. It was fun to see a new take on paranormals!

Overall, the story had great pacing, maybe a few slow spots in the middle where the story was building, but I really enjoyed reading Paranormalcy. I'll probably pick up book two on a lazy Sunday when I'm looking for something to brighten my day. In a genre where dark and deep seem to be the norm, it was refreshing to read a paranormal romance that stayed with the themes, but had a lighthearted flare.

8 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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Defiance (Defiance, #1) by C.J. Redwine - Review

Defiance has been staring me down since I bought it in August. The swoon worthy cover and the exciting synopsis had me at hello and I could not wait to get started with this book. 

Defiance is a complex story that takes place in Baalboden, a stone encompassed city ruled by a cruel and malicious Commander. The story centers on Rachel and Logan. Rachel is the daughter of the Commander's most skilled tracker. While other girls in the city gossip about their future husbands and dresses, Rachel practices sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat with her father in their backyard. Logan is the apprentice of Rachel's father, a skilled tech worker and an orphan. When Rachel's father doesn't return from a mission and is declared dead, Rachel and Logan know that her father isn't dead and they will stop at nothing to try and save him.

Now lets start off with our author's name: C.J. Redwine. I highly doubt that that is her real name but I love it. As a frequent drinker of red wine, especially while reading, I had quite a few chuckles while curling up with Redwine's book with a glass of red wine. I know it's lame, but I LOVE her name. Okay, back to the review...

I'm actually extremely surprised I liked this story because of the interchanging points of view. I normally steer clear of alternating POVs. They annoy me rather than give me a broader view of the book. Redwine's story made me enjoy reading from both Logan and Rachel's perspectives for two reasons: First off, the majority of the book, Rachel and Logan are separated. Having the two different points of view served its purpose in letting the reader know what was happening on the journey and also back in Baalboden. Secondly, the story never overlapped when hearing from different perspectives.  What I mean by this is that even when the characters were together, you didn't feel like you were reading about the same situation from two different perspectives, which can be boring. You were hearing about a sequence of events from Rachel and then what happened next from Logan. I ended up really liking the alternating viewpoints.

While the characters were lovable and the plot was interesting, what really set this story apart was the mood of the story and the creativity that Redwine had in weaving her tale.

I really enjoyed reading about Baalboden and the inhabitants of this land. It's a place that's sort of in it's own time and place. While the city seems as though it's in the dark ages with people living inside of a stone walled city where there are merchant markets and archaic laws about women being alone in public, and advanced technology. Logan is a craftsman and puts together tracking devices and cloaking devices and everyone has an identification chip inside their arms to help point them out in the streets. You're left wondering if the story is a post-apocalyptic tale set eons in the future, or if it's in a sort of made up past where technology reigns. The setting was sort of a character in and of itself in Defiance.

I also wanted to talk about the mood of the story. Redwine spun a very cold tale. In most YA novels coming out now, the main character goes from a naive young girl and after a series of trials and tribulations comes out happier and wiser. In this story, Rachel is a strong willed girl when we meet her. As the story progresses, she sees everyone she loves killed, she's forced on a mission that may quite literally kill her and her only hope, the man she loves, has been captured. Rachel goes from a young but strong young girl to being forced into adult hood by the tragedy that surrounds her. We leave her in the story as an almost empty shell of hopelessness and despair with the only light in her life being Logan.

Now I think I made is seem like the story is all sadness and depression, but don't let that sway you away from this story. This unique, spellbinding and action packed story will leave you laughing, crying and cheering for your the characters to succeed. This was a fantastic read and it's definitely in my top five favorite reads this year.

10 out of 10

Happy Reading :)

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