Like this, Try this (1)!

Hey guys! I told you I would be trying to start some new features on my blog and I found this little gem on Krista's blog, the Nawada Files! It's so great!

Here's the deal, it's a meme "designed to introduce YA books that are similar to TV shows, movies and other books!". I love this idea and I put a lot of thought into this one so I hope you enjoy and pass it along!

Let me know what you guys think!!

Happy Reading :)

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Update from a busy blogger

I don't think I've ever done a personal update on the blog, but I've decided now is the time. I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like as of late becuase I've been incredibly busy with work and my personal life. As it turns out, I will be moving accross the country for a brand new job next week! Woop, woop! The past month has been a whorlwind of anxiety, excitement and planning! In a weeks time I will have packed up my whole life and moved to the east coast and I couldn't be more excited!


I have the best inentintions of reading and blogging during this time, but I don't think it's going to happen as often as I'd like. Once I get into the swing of things I will be back on a schedule and hopefully posting even more than before! My life has been in such disaray lately!

I've got an update on the Richelle Mead giveaway as well (it's a long time coming, I know)! And the winners are...

1 signed copy of Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Dana Cuadrado

1 signed copy of The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Montana G.

1 pre-order for The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead from Book Depository

Anne Calayag

2 signed "World of Vampire Academy" posters!

Melissa Snow

and

Mucki

The winners have been emailed and I have sent out the books/posters to those I've heard from! Thanks for being patient! Anyhooo, thanks for sticking around while I'm being a lame blogger guys :)

Happy Reading! 

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Waiting on Wednesday (3) - Hollow by Richard Denney

Waiting on Wednesday post 3 which is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine!

In a dystopian future, sixteen year old Leah Munro has been sold to a rich woman in a crippling manor. Soon Leah discovers that there is something eerie and mysterious going on around the home, and with the help of three other girls, she attempts to uncover what is truly happening... what lies behind all of the plexiglass windows and the hideous screams in the middle of the night? Leah will soon find out.

Now I'm pretty picky about the Dystopian future novels that I read, but this one sounds pretty interesting! A creepy manor house and human trafficking, what's not to be interested in? In all reality, I think this book looks unique and very interesting. It seems like it will be an plain, old fashion mystery with a little dystopia mixed in and I can't wait!

What are you waiting on?

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Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid, #1) by Richelle Mead - Review

I have been in a little slump lately in reading YA books. For some reason, I haven't been able to get into any of my recent reads and so I thought I'd try reading another adult book. I broke from the norm and read an adult science fiction romance novel by one of my favorites, Richelle Mead!


Succubus Blues is the first in the Georgina Kincaid series by Miss Mead. Georgina is just your average woman who has a cat and a cute little flat in Seattle and works in a bookstore, except for the fact that she's an immortal succubus. For those of you who are a little behind on your mythology, a succubus is a shape shifting demon who seduces mortal men. The problem with Georgina is that her succubus lifestyle is wearing on her. She'd much rather live her life of solitude and normalcy, but of course with friends that are arch-demons  vampires, imps and angels, an easy life is out of the question. When someone or something starts attacking her friends in the immortal community, she has to figure out who's behind the attacks and it may be the person she least expects.

Well, this one was branded as more of a romance novel but it turned out to be a mystery with two sex scenes thrown in, which I won't exactly complain about. I'm more into to reading actual romance novels, but this mystery was fun and had me guessing who done it.

The concept of a succubus that is bad at her job AND a huge nerd was one of my favorite parts of the book. She wanted to be a normal, boring, 20 something, much like myself, living in Seattle working at a bookstore (my dream life). I liked Georgina as a character, she was a bit more complex than I've been seeing in recently read novels and her attitude and snarky comments were fun to read. She had many layers and I liked the brief flashbacks into her past life before she was a succubus.

As you can probably tell my by semi boring review, this book wasn't all that exciting. It took me a long time to get through and while I enjoyed reading it (as I do with most all of Richelle Mead's books) I found this one to be a little slow and the action and adventure didn't take place until the last 100 pages of the story, which was very disappointing.

Overall, I wasn't wowed as I had hoped to be and I may go back to the series later on when I'm bored and in need of a break, but I don't think that'll be anytime soon. I'm thinking that the next books in the series will probably be a little bit more interesting as we've been introduced to the world and characters, hopefully. Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that this was Mead's first novel and as we all know, her books after this are some of my favorites. I've also heard great things about her other adult series, so I'm going to have to give those a try I think!

Happy Reading :)

6 out of 10

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Onyx (Lux, #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout - Review

Well it took me a while, but I finally finished Onyx. I have some very mixed feelings on this book and so without further adieu, I'm going to jump right into my review!


Onyx picks up right where Obsidian left off. Not only has Katy's relationship with Daemon changed, but Katy herself has changed, and she's not sure what's happening to her. She feels sick all the time and suddenly, objects begin to move at her will. As if that wasn't enough to deal with, the DOD come into the picture and she and her friends are no longer safe. Secrets begin to unfold around them and Katy and the gang must figure out who they can trust, and who are their enemies.

This is going to be a very difficult review for me to write. First off, the pacing in Onyx was a little off for me. I had trouble reading more than 20 pages at each sitting and while the first book took only a day to read, this one took over a week for me to get through. Once I got to the end of the book, things happened so fast I felt rushed and confused. This made it hard for me to enjoy this book.

I also didn't love the change in characters in this book. I felt like the strong and sassy Katy we saw in Obsidian was gone, replaced with a timid, worrisome girl who cried all the time. I understand that characters change as do their circumstances, but Katy's character was one of my favorite parts of book 1. Daemon's change in attitude was also troubling for me. In book one, Daemon had a very strong and snarky personality with a sort of sweet sensitivity behind the outer rude boy. In this book, I kind of had trouble finding the real Daemon. It seemed like he completely changed and not for the better.

The last and possibly biggest problem I had with this book was that I read it was another copy cat. I've just recently finished Half-Blood and as a huge fan of Vampire Academy, I didn't love the extremely similar plot line and characters, but I tolerated it. I read a recent review of this book by the Book Slayer, indicating that the Lux series followed one of her favorite T.V. shows called Roswell. While I've never seen a single episode of the show, it's pretty disappointing that once again, one of  Armentrout's novels is a play on another show or book. I was right in the middle of a super slow part of Onyx when I read Lauren's review and it just made it that much harder to finish.

The ending was interesting and more intense than the rest of the book, but my enjoyment was tainted with the knowledge that this was just another copied story. I understand taking creative liberties on existing stories, but this seems more like an unoriginal author taking another story and using it as their own. I'm a little disappointed. I've been dishing out a lot of 5's and 6's lately so hopefully I read something the blows my mind soon! I hate being in this slump!

Happy Reading :)

6 out of 10

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Waiting On Wednesday (2) - Ironskin (Ironskin, #1) by Tina Connolly

And I'm back for my second Waiting on Wednesdsay post which as most of you know, is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. 

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. 

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey. 

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

This week, I'm waiting on Ironskin by Tina Connolly that comes out October 2nd, 2012. I've copied the little blurb from good reads above so check it out! What first drew me to this book was the cover and that it was about the fey. I've been in the mood for a good faerie book and fingers crossed that this one does it for me! I recently read a not so stellar review that said this was a play on Jane Eyre and the reviewer didn't like the similarities to one of their favorite classics. While I haven't read Jane Eyre, I hope that I fall in love with this one. It sounds great! What are you waiting on?

Happy Reading :)

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Bared to You (Crossfire, #1) by Sylvia Day - Review

On the heels of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, there were bound to be some look-a-likes floating around. Quite obvioulsy, Bared to You has been marketed to be the next Fifty Shades and so I had to pick this little treasure up and give it a try.


Bared to You features a young woman named Eva who has recently moved to New York city. With her troubled past seeminly behind her, she looks to start fresh in the city with a new job and her best friend Cary. Of course, things never go according to plan as she meets the devistatingly hansome and weathy Gideon Cross. Together, they find that they have a lot in common and much more in the chemistry department.While their sex life may be stellar, they both have deep routed issues that they must face as a couple. These issues will either make or break their relationship and they must find out whether they are strong enough to make things work.

I will start off by saying that I did not enjoy this book as much as I did the 50 Shades series. I've recently re-read these novels and while they are racey and have some graphic content, I still enjoyed the characters and storyline very much, probably even more when I read it the second time.

While reading Bared to You I felt was a poor atempt at catching the E.L. James's audience. I have to admit, the story was a little more unique and the characters, especially the female lead, were different. With this being said, I still felt like I was reading a story where someone was purposefully trying to shock me, and it didn't work. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to ruin the story for anyone, but I often times felt like Day just threw certain extra intense sex scenes into the story just to add some scandal and to be more like Fifty Shades of Grey and I didn't love it.

I think one of the bigger problems I had with this book was the use of the "c" word. I hate that word. While there are other words used in the English Language to describe this particular part of the female anatomy, I think the "c" word is the worst. While in real life (okay, just when I'm not typing to an online audience) I have the mouth of a sailor, but that word never crosses my lips. It's demeaning and disgusting and anytime anyone uses that word around me, I wince. I think it's a horrible word and to hear it used as a sort of sexual endearment, I had to cringe.

The characters also didn't do much for me. While Eva was  a different character than Anna from 50, Gideon was a poor mans version of Christian. I didn't believe his back story and I had a hard time falling for him, especially as the book came to a close. I just didn't find his actions and his relationship with Eva to be believable, which made it very difficult to get into the story.

Lastly, I've heard a lot of bloggers say that they enjoyed this book more because the writing was better. While I agree that Day's writing was better edited and had more of a flow, I thought the plot was repetitive and boring. The constant running away that Eva did and the back and forth between Gideon and Eva (I want to be with you, no I don't... I want to be with you again, no I don't...etc.) grew very tiresome. I was also confused at times of the story. I felt like the pacing was off and I was rushed in some spots and in others, the story drug on too long.

Overall, I was bored by the plot and the characters and while the writing was better, this novel didn't hold a candle to the 50 Shades of Grey books. I felt like I had to compare them because Bared to You because everywhere I went, I saw the two books together. Now, I say that I won't read book two, but I most likely will and when I do, I hope I like it better.

Happy Reading :)

5 out of 10

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