Waiting on Wednesday (18)

This is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where every Wednesday bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating the release of! 

The Probability of Miracles

By Wendy Wunder

Release Date: December 8th

Summary: Dry, sarcastic, sixteen-year-old Cam Cooper has spent the last seven years in and out hospitals. The last thing she wants to do in the short life she has left is move 1,500 miles away to Promise, Maine - a place known for the miraculous events that occur there. But it's undeniable that strange things happen in Promise: everlasting sunsets; purple dandelions; flamingoes in the frigid Atlantic; an elusive boy named Asher; and finally, a mysterious envelope containing a list of things for Cam to do before she dies. As Cam checks each item off the list, she finally learns to believe - in love, in herself, and even in miracles.

A debut novel from an immensely talented new writer, The Probability of Miracles crackles with wit, romance and humor and will leave readers laughing and crying with each turn of the page.

I saw this book a couple of weeks ago on someone else's WoW and knew I had to feature it for my own. This one sounds SO good. I'm really interested to figure out why Cam has been in the hospital a majority of her life and how long she really has to live. What I'm really interested in too is Asher, first of all because I LOVE that name, and second of all because what's a good book without a little romance? Books about bucket lists are always fun to read, so I hope this one is too! And the cover is so pretty with the pink surrounding the feather shape over her face. It's just so dreamy, which seems to capture this new place Cam is moving to where, hopefully, a miracle will find it's place in her life. Can't wait for this to come out :)

Book Review: The Masquerade by Brenda Joyce

Summary: It is finally time for Elizabeth Fitzgerald to enter society. At her first masquerade, she is shocked by Tyrell de Warenne and his invitation for a midnight rendezvous in the garden. Little does he know that Lizzie has been in love with him ever since she was a little girl, but something comes up and Lizzie can't meet Tyrell that night. Two years later, Lizzie shows up at Tyrell's doorstep claiming to have had his baby. Tyrell immediately remembers Lizzie, but he knows for a fact the baby is not his. He doesn't understand the game Lizzie is trying to play on him, but he's willing to play with the fiery passion Lizzie brings out in him in order to find out. 


Review: This is the first book I've read by Brenda Joyce and I loved it! I loved Lizzie's character and how she wasn't interested in high society things and fashion but instead wanted to stay in and read all day. So many people can connect with her personality and her crush on someone she has barely even talked to. Oh yes, her crush on Tyrell is COMPLETELY understandable. He is so charming, good looking, and an overall prefect guy. He's always there to save Lizzie, even though she won't admit to him her attraction. The story did have it's slow points and I did think it was drawn out a little too much, but the romance and attraction between Lizzie and Tyrell was so enjoyable to read. I hated Anna and how she ruined everyone else's lives in her family except for her own and she still got a perfectly happy life. But that aspect just brought out the best in Lizzie and brought even more love into her life. The Masquerade just fed more into my addiction for historical romances and I know this won't be the last book I'm going to read of Brenda Joyce's.

In My Mailbox (17)

In My Mailbox is a meme that I picked up from The Story Siren's blog. It's where we share the new books that we've gotten for that week with our readers. These books could be from the library, the store, or from the writers/publishers for review. Whatever the reason, I will share my new books every Sunday!

When I came home for Thanksgiving Break, I came home to find these lovely books waiting for me! What I'm most excited for is The Disenchantments. I won it through Librarything's early reviewers, so it doesn't come out until February, but I have it! I had featured this a couple of weeks ago for my Waiting on Wednesday because the cover is so pretty and the synopsis sounds great, and the next day I figured out I won an ARC! So I'm definitely reading that book next. The other ones look great as wait and I can't wait to  get the chance to read them! 

That's it this week! What did you all get in your mailbox? Please share :)

Book Review: Stay WIth Me by Paul Griffin

Summary: An urban romance that will capture your soul, break your heart, and restore your faith in the human spirit

Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn't expect to fall in love. She's a sensitive A student; he's a high school dropout. But soon they're spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they'd planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can't stay.

From award-winning writer Paul Griffin, Stay with Me is both heartbreaking and uplifting, filled with characters (both dog and human) that will forever change the way you look at the world.

Review: When I first saw this book on the sale shelf of my library, I was super excited because it looked really good and it was an ARC (I bought it in August and it didn't come out until September). Based on the summary and reviews I had read, I thought it was going to be like a Simone Elkeles book, where the good girl falls for the bad, latino (or gang-related) boy. The story was about a girl falling for an ex-convict, but it was seriously lacking in the amazingness of Simone's books. 

The first thing that I wasn't a big fan of was the simple, almost stupid language the author used. These are 15-year-olds but the way they talked and thought was as if they were 8. I understand that Mack wasn't that smart, but Cece was studying vocab for a huge test, so you'd think she'd talk with the intelligence of at least like a 15-year-old. 

The other thing that wasn't quite right about this book was that everything moved so fast and some stuff was kind of unbelievable. Cece and Mack meet and then 2 pages later they're all over each other saying they love each other. Unlike Simone Elkeles's books, Mack and Cece really lacked the chemistry and romance a true couple in love should have. 

The part I did really enjoy was the dogs! They were so cute and I loved how much Mack loved the dogs. But that was mainly the only part I really liked about Stay With Me. So overall this book was really not all there for me. I was disappointed in the romance and the story in general.

Shelf Candy (15)

Shelf Candy is a meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews and every Saturday, bloggers choose a book whose cover really catches their eye. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I always do, so I'm choosing books whose cover alone made me pick it up. So I hope you enjoy my shelf candy!

There are tons of things I love about this cover, but the main reason is how the picture and graphics really embrace the title. The paint around the title make it look like paint or graffiti on walls. The colors of the font are also really cool because "Moon" is white, which makes it seems more like a moon against the dark sky. I also love how the silhouettes are shadowed in the tunnel. They seem so mysterious and like they're hiding from the light outside, which is the last thing I love about his cover. The lights in the back are so pretty with the different colors and light spots it seems magical. This cover is just so cool and I love it so much more than the paperback one, where it's just a spray paint can with the title across the bottle. When I read this, I'm definitely going to make sure I read the hardback version just for the cover!

Book Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Review: Before I read this, I knew that it has gotten phenomenal reviews, so I went in with super high expectations. This book blew those expectations out of the water! I only read 40 pages of this book yesterday and finished all 398 of them today. The reason? This story was just so gosh darn good! I normally don't read science fiction, so I wasn't sure how this story was going to go. Instead of a boring, cliche sci-fi I have had the unfortunate luck to read, Across the Universe was a unique, addicting book that I just couldn't stop reading. 

Hmm, what'd I like best about this book? Let's start off with the characters. Amy is so awesome. She's dealing with leaving behind her boyfriend to be with her parents in the future. When she wakes up, she's so strong and outspoken that I found myself liking her from the moment we meet her. And Elder, oh Elder. Let me just say Amy's lucky she's the only person on the ship his age now because he is so perfect. He's sensitive, strong, and caring, which is so appealing in a guy. Crazy things were thrown at him left and right, but he always knew what to do. 

Speaking of crazy things, this book had tons of crazy, unexpected things happen. Maybe I was just ignorant, but there were two, maybe even three times where I was like WHAT!? because I didn't expect what happened to happen at all. That, I think, it really what makes books amazing. My other favorite part was how the author alternates points of view. Simone Elkeles does this in her books (which are some of my favorites) and I love being able to see both of the characters' thoughts on what's going on. So I think this book was really awesome and I seriously can't wait for the sequel! If you haven't already, pick put this book! Now!

Waiting on Wednesday (17)

This is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where every Wednesday bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating the release of! 

Love and Leftovers
By Sarah Tregay
Release Date: December 27th

Summary: My wish 
is to fall 
cranium over Converse 
in dizzy, daydream-worthy 
love. 

When her parents split, Marcie is dragged from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She leaves behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father. 

By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "vacation" has become permanent. She starts at a new school where a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? can you even know it until you've lost it? 

Love and Leftovers is a beautifully written story of one girl’s journey navigating family, friends, and love, and a compelling and sexy read that teens will gobble up whole.

The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the cover. As a converse wearer myself, I think this is adorable how the red and black converse really embody the "love" part of the title. Then, when I read the summary, I knew I HAD to read this book! Every girl dreams of falling head over "converse heels" in love, but this book seems so much more relatable. Not only that, it deals with real life issues, like divorce, which I'm sure many teens nowadays are dealing with. This book just seems so darn cute and I really want to get my hands on a copy now so I can see what happens to Marcie and this mysterious breakfast boy! 

Book Review: The Night Train by Clyde Edgerton

Summary: In 1963 at the age of 17, Dwayne Hallston discovers James Brown and wants to perform just like him. His band, the Amazing Rumblers, studies and rehearses Brown's Live at the Apollo album in the storage room of his father's shop in their small North Carolina town. Meanwhile, Dwayne's forbidden black friend Larry, aspiring to play piano like Thelonius Monk, apprentices to a jazz musician called the Bleeder. His mother hopes music will allow him to escape the South.

A dancing chicken and a mutual passion for music help Dwayne and Larry as they try to achieve their dreams and maintain their friendship, even while their world says both are impossible. In THE NIGHT TRAIN, Edgerton's trademark humor reminds us of our divided national history and the way music has helped bring us together.

Review: From the cover of this book, I thought it was going to be this awesome story of these two guys trying to form a band. Instead, I got some strange book that had no plot whatsoever. The Bleeder and Larry meet in the beginning of the book and the Bleeder wants to teach Larry how to play more music. From there, the book goes on to talk about random things, random scenes, and even more random people. By page 80 I had to stop because there was honestly no point to the story. Online, I read reviews where people say it's such a real book about racism in the south, but I got non of that from the book I was reading. Maybe I'm just not "deep" enough to understand this story, but if it takes deep, critical thought to even get close to the meaning of this book, then it's not the book for me. I didn't care about the characters and the lack of quotation marks when there was a conversation really bugged me. I know this review is a little harsh, but if you're looking for the next great book to read, stay far away from this one.

Book Review: My Soul to Take (Soul Screamers #1) by Rachel Vincent

Summary: She doesn't see dead people. She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally. 

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next.

Review: I freaking LOVED this book! It may be because I haven't read anything remotely good lately, but I picked it up on Wednesday and finished it by Thursday, even with my classes and oh-so-busy college life. When I had the chance to review a Rachel Vincent book, I was so excited because I've heard so many good things about this series that I wanted to try it out myself. And I'm so happy I did! The world Rachel Vincent created with the Soul Screamers was so unique and I really wanted to know more. I didn't know who Kaylee would sing for next, which is the main reason why I fervently read through the pages. 

Kaylee was an awesome protagonist because she was far from perfect (perfect heroines tend to bug me in books). She's been dealing with this ability all her life and finally, she's figuring things out and realizing that she's not really crazy after all. Nash is just amazing and yes, he seemed to be a little too perfect for her, but I'm okay with a perfect guy in the mix :) He was so nice and sweet that I just wanted to take him home for myself. Tod was also very awesome, though he didn't becoming so appealing until near the end of this book. I really can't wait to see if there's a love triangle in the next books because I honestly have no idea who's team I would be rooting for. I guess we'll see in the next book! 

I loved the way Rachel Vincent went about introducing the soul screamer's backstory and letting us adjust to the new world without begin completely confused. I hate it when books just dump you in with no explanation, so she did a great job with that. I'm very intrigued to see what's going to happen next in these books, so I can't wait to get my hands on the next one. If you haven't already, pick up this book if you're in the mood for a great, quick YA paranormal that will keep you reading until the end!

In My Mailbox (16)

In My Mailbox is a meme that I picked up from The Story Siren's blog. It's where we share the new books that we've gotten for that week with our readers. These books could be from the library, the store, or from the writers/publishers for review. Whatever the reason, I will share my new books every Sunday!

From the Library

Since I get to go home this Tuesday for Thanksgiving break, I got a couple of books from the library because I knew I would finally have time to read multiple books in one week. I've been wanting to read this books for a while now, so I chose these two to take home with me! I'm really excited for Across the Universe because I've heard it's amazing. I love the cover of these books and have heard so many good things about them, so hopefully they'll be great reads over my break! Make sure you stop by sometime next week to check out my reviews :)

That's it! What did you all get in your mailboxes this week? 

Shelf Candy (14)

Shelf Candy is a meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews and every Saturday, bloggers choose a book whose cover really catches their eye. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I always do, so I'm choosing books whose cover alone made me pick it up. So I hope you enjoy my shelf candy!

The main reason why I wanted to read this book so much was because of how in love I was with this cover. Pink is my favorite color, and it is absolutely perfect to be used with this dreary, gray background. The girl sitting on a swing in the middle of the rain really gives the cover a sad, lonely feeling and proves to the audience that this girl really is unlovable. I was actually able to review this book for the author (which I was ECSTATIC about) and I loved it! Here's my review if you want to check it out! The story really is as great as the cover looks. 

Movie Review: Breaking Dawn Part I

Summary: In the highly anticipated next chapter of the blockbuster ‘The Twilight Saga’, the newfound married bliss of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) is cut short when a series of betrayals and misfortunes threatens to destroy their world.

After their wedding, Bella and Edward travel to Rio de Janeiro for their honeymoon, where they finally give in to their passions. Bella soon discovers she is pregnant, and during a nearly fatal childbirth, Edward finally fulfills her wish to become immortal.

But the arrival of their remarkable daughter, Renesmee, sets in motion a perilous chain of events that pits the Cullens and their allies against the Volturi, the fearsome council of vampire leaders, setting the stage for an all-out battle.

Review: Oh, where do I start? Yes, I went to the midnight premiere of this movie because I've already come so far as a fan of the series to just quit now. That being said, I am having a very difficult time explaining how I feel about this movie. I loved this movie because it's a part of the Twilight Saga, but as a movie, it just sucked. The main reason why this movie wasn't good is because of two people: Rob and Kristen. No matter how much money they're making off of these movies, these two actors CANNOT act if their life depended on it. I could tolerate them in the first three movies because they were actually semi-decent, but this one just throws in the towel. Kristen looked like she was going to throw up or pass out any second, even when she was walking down the aisle which, in the book, was supposed to be the happiest moment of her life. 


And speaking of awful acting, who the heck hired the girl to play Leah??? When she first talked, I laughed out loud because I just couldn't believe how bad of an actress she was. I know that's harsh, but Leah was such a good character in the book that I hated how fake and robotic she sounded in the movie. 


Now going back to the happy couple, in the book Bella and Edward had such intense passion and love for each other that I couldn't get enough of their relationship. In the movie, Rob and Kristen were just so awkward together and made me want to look away because I wasn't getting any romance out of it whatsoever.  They kissed wayyyy too much in this movie and it was just not normal looking and made me wonder how they could even tolerate being with each other outside of the movie. 


Now don't get me wrong, there were still really good parts in the movie, like the wedding and the toasts everyone gave at the reception, but there were just too many bad parts. The worst part of this movie was probably the birth scene. I know everyone who has read the books was wondering how they were going to do this scene, and let me tell you, it was nasty. I felt like I was watching a horror movie and was literally peaking through my hands because I was so terrified. I don't want to give away too much, but for this scene, it was not at all how I imagined it was in the book. At all. Certain people that were there in the book weren't even present in the movie during Renesmee's birth, which made me really mad. 


Speaking of differences in the movie, it left out A TON of background information on the Cullen's, especially when Rosalie decides to help Bella. All of a sudden they're like best friends and I'm just like, "Whoa, hold on. That's NOT how it's supposed to be." So that part made me mad, and they didn't say anything about Jasper's past, which I'm pretty sure was supposed to happen in this book. I made sure I didn't read the book right before the movie because that's what ruined Harry Potter 6 for me, so I'm a little fuzzy on the exact details, but I know some stuff was left out and changed in the movie. 


I'm sorry for ranting so much about this movie, I'm just so conflicted how I feel that I had to get it all out on the table. I still enjoyed the movie and will probably buy it on DVD, but it was just awful. Because I'm basing my rating on the quality of the film, I'm going to have to give it a 2. This one is definitely the worst of the 4 that have been released, but I still encourage everyone to see it because it's just a movie you can't not see. I hope the last movie can end the series with a big bang and be at least semi-good and not let all of the fans down...again. I don't know if that'd be possible though if Kristen and Rob are still acting...

Follow My Book Blog Friday (16)

This is a meme hosted every Friday by Parajunkee, where book bloggers answer a question each week and check out how others answered it. It's a cool way for bloggers and viewers to connect and learn more about each other!

Question: Letter to Santa: Tell Santa What Books You Want For Christmas!

Answer: Books I've read and want: 

Books I haven't read and want: