Month: March 2015

Review: Complete Nothing

Posted March 18, 2015 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
Review: Complete Nothing

 Mild spoilers ahead if you haven’t read book one! I liked that Orion showed up on earth and that he didn’t know who True was. It definitely added a little something to the plot and finally gave a bit of chemistry. It was hard to ship True and Orion when he wasn’t around! (Especially when the whole point of the book is for her to save him because she loves him) The second installment in the trilogy featured a couple (Claudia and Peter) breaking up and True trying to get them back together. I liked that it was a different situation than the couple in the first book. They were cute together and I shipped them even though they didn’t have a lot of time together. It was cool seeing True get some of her powers back, learn more about Heath, and learn even more about Mount Olympus and its intricacies. I wish I remembered more Greek mythology (so I could see if some of the stories are accurate!) – but it’s fun either way. The set-up for the next book was, as usual, perfect! It made me anxious to keep going and finish off the trilogy. I have a feeling that True and Orion will finally get some airtime (based on the fact that True, Darla, and Orion are the next POV’s) which will definitely be a great way to end things. Because of True’s sublplot gaining some interesting stuff, there was even more going on in this book than […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #32: Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesdays #32: Spring TBR

Top 10 Books on my Spring TBR Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. This week’s topic is simple: what books we plan on reading this spring! I’ve broken mine down into a few categories. I’m hoping to get to all of the library books and the ARCs within the next month or so. I really want to read some of the others on my TBR because they’ve been on it forever. {Links take you to Goodreads!}   The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour | I love the neon colors in this cover and randomly decided to grab it from the library the last time I went. It seems cute! The Falconer by Elizabeth May | Morgan recommended this one to me when I mentioned how much I love fae books. I had no idea that this was one until she told me! I’m so excited to read this; I basically ran to the library that day and checked it out after her rec. I’m hoping to get to this one next, actually! Reunion by Hannah Pittard | I haven’t heard the best reviews for this one, but I’m still really drawn to the synopsis. I think after reading the reunion and homecoming story Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer, this one is […]

Review: Only Everything

Posted March 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Review: Only Everything

I really love the whole set-up of and idea behind this series. Eros, who chooses the human name of True, is Cupid up on Mount Olympus. She falls in love with Orion, who is a god-turned-mortal. Zeus finds out and gets pretty pissed, so he sends her down to earth without her powers and with a mission: she’s supposed to pair up three couples before she can come back home and hopefully save Orion. This is a trilogy, so she pairs up one couple per book. I was initially annoyed that the book had three points of view, but I think it ends up working. Because True has to pair up a couple, it does hear what’s going on in all three people’s heads. All three characters were equally important to moving the plot forward and had their own sets of issues. The three characters had distinct voices and experiences, so it was definitely easy to keep them straight. Katrina’s father died in an accident (which she hasn’t fully come to terms with yet), she has a horrible boyfriend, and her mother doesn’t pay her any attention. Charlie is trying to make friends at school because he’s moved around so much and does everything to try to please his father. True obviously has her own issues because of Orion, getting used to life on earth, and not having her powers to help her make matches. It was funny to see True getting used to life on earth; she didn’t understand basic common […]

Book to Movie Review: If I Stay

Posted March 14, 2015 / Book to Movie Reviews / 5 Comments
Book to Movie Review: If I Stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman Read my review of the book here. True to Book:  Casting:  Enjoyability:  Overall Score:  Goodreads Book Plot Summary: Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind? Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it’s the only one that matters. If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make. This was such a great adaptation! I’m super impressed overall. I think there were a few areas where it could have been better, but definitely nothing major. I totally cried on numerous occasions. True to the Book I can’t give this aspect a full five stars for some reason, but this was really spot-on to the book. (As far as I can remember!)  I actually didn’t like the book as much as I had hoped, but knew it had the potential to be a great movie. I’m trying to think of actual places where the book and the movie diverged, but there aren’t too many. The only thing that bugged me a bit was that the movie was focused mostly on Adam. It showed why she should stay a little more than why she should go. I feel like one thing the book did […]

Five on Fridays #14

Posted March 13, 2015 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments
Five on Fridays #14

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. Pretty soon I’ll just have to write a post like “True Life: I’m Addicted to Football.”  I’ve talked about it quite often around the blog, but it’s really frightening how obsessive I get about this damn sport. I strongly urge you to skip over this section if you don’t care about football at all! How can you still obsess over football when they’re not even playing right now? Even in the offseason, there’s so much to focus on! After the end of regular season, you have Black Monday, where coaches get the slip and/or move on to other teams if they did a shitty job. You have the Combine, which involves college players trying to work hard enough to inevitably get drafted. Then you have Free Agency, which started this week. Why does free agency happen? When you’re a football player and sign a contract with a team, they have stipulations on the length of the contract. It could sound something like they signed a “four year, $40 million contract.” Essentially, like all contracts, that means the player is going to get lots of bucks and play there for a certain amount of time. When that time comes to an end, the team can either re-sign them before the free agency period, put on a franchise tag, OR let them […]

Review: Just One Year

Posted March 12, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Review: Just One Year

This book was simultaneously exactly what was expected but not necessarily what I wanted. In Allyson’s story, we see her grow and develop into this person who actually has bits and pieces of Lulu in her. She takes more chances and tries to live her life by what she wants to do instead of what her parents want her to do. She becomes a better person and more true to the self she wanted to be. I was hoping that Willem’s story was also transformative (as the synopsis suggests) like Allyson’s. I really don’t think it was. The main point of Just One Year is to show what Willem was doing in the time that Allyson was searching for him throughout that following year. It was exactly what I expected – he travels around like a nomad, hooks up with girls (more on that later), and looks for her in a very half-ass way. I loved learning more about his family, which remained a mystery in the first book, and seeing what made him the way he is – a traveler seemingly without a home. It was awesome to read about the missed connections they had throughout that year. I didn’t like the fact that the two ways Allyson and Willem dealt with their heartbreak was completely different. He couldn’t stop thinking about her but still went out and reacted by sleeping with other girls. In her story, she falls into a depression and it takes quite a lot to get […]

Review: Tease

Posted March 11, 2015 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments
Review: Tease

I was really hoping to get to the end of this book and say “this is really an important book to read, even if it’s difficult at times “… I feel like this is partially true, because it offers a really different perspective – from the bullies point of view – but I wish there was a little bit more, you know? Throughout the vast majority of the book, Sarah is selfish and does not feel bad about anything that happened. I get that she was also hurt by things that Emma did, but her and her friends are the ones who took things way too far. It would’ve been nice to see her actually regret things especially early in the book. She spends 80% of the boat mostly just feeling sorry for herself. She wasn’t sorry about anything that she did to Emma: she only felt sorry about the impact it had on her life. I really don’t understand how somebody can be that stupid and selfish but apparently that’s what goes on in a bully’s head. At the beginning of the book I was actually thinking that the story was going to make me kind of feel sorry for her, but it really just made me hate just about every character. Including Emma. Like what was she even doing? What was everyone doing?? On top of that, this was not the kind of book that needed a romantic subplot. I like that there was someone to be there for Sarah, in […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #31: Family

Posted March 10, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 8 Comments
Top Ten Tuesdays #31: Family

Books for Readers who Like… Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. This week’s topic, the top ten books we’d recommend for readers who _____ is kind of a freebie! I decided to go with family themes/relationships. I think I speak for a lot of YA readers when I say that parents are too often missing from books in the genre. I don’t know about you, but my parents were pretty darn there during high school. I love when I read a YA book where the parents are not only around a lot, but an integral part of the story. Whether it’s becoming closer to them, loving them, or losing them, these ten books are sure to give you family feels in one way or another!     On the Fence by Kasie West |“I LOVED the family dynamics in this book. Between her brothers and her father, I wanted to jump inside the book and join their family. So cute. So protective. So heartwarming. Her dad trying to not be awkward about girly things was so adorable. Learning more about her mother and getting some heavier topics in the book really helped to make it well-rounded too.” | Review Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer | “Seeing Queenie come […]

Inside & Out #2: V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews

Posted March 9, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 9 Comments
Inside & Out #2: V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews Twitter: @VWalkerViews | Instagram: @VWalkerViews | Facebook Tell me a little about yourself: I just started blogging a few months ago and am still learning all the ins and outs of it.  I’m also writing my very own novel, which is a contemporary romance (and have ideas for a fantasy series also).  I’m usually found reading, writing, or marathoning something on Netflix (usually while sitting next to my husband). Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): My blog is a mix between book reviews (YA, fantasy, paranormal, and romance genres), some of my own writing (little bits and pieces), and my writing journey.  I started a new feature called Adventures of a Writing Blogger, which is a monthly post about adventures that I have outside of book reviews & writing. Favorite genre: I absolutely adore the fantasy genre.  I’m a huge fan of witches, and an even bigger fan of alternate worlds (see: Middle Earth).  I’m also a pretty big fan of contemporary romances & paranormal/urban fantasy romances (like the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon). Three books you recommend most often and why: I just read Some Boys by Patty Blount […]

Review: On the Fence

Posted March 6, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments
Review: On the Fence

Kasie West = auto-buy. I said that after I read just one book by her (The Distance Between Us). When I read Pivot Point, that was further proven to me. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to this one, I can definitely confirm it again. She’s one of my favorites. Her writing style and character development is the best out there (in both her contemporary and paranormal books). I loved the characters in this one from the minute I met them. Charlie, the “tomboy” main character, was poised to learn a lot about “being a girl” when she had to get a job at a boutique to pay back a speeding ticket. NOW, the sentence I just wrote is usually enough to turn me off from a book. I don’t like the tomboy trope, or the one that does anything to support gender norms in such a way. I don’t like using labels like that and/or assuming that because a girl like sports, she can’t wear makeup – and vice versa. This book does start out operating under those assumptions, but completely changes by the end. I wanted to shake Charlie a few times and get her to realize she was being closed-minded, but she was able to do it on her own. It was something I was able to look past and appreciate the character development by the end. Now that the only real “negative” is out of the way, this book was the cuuuutest. Charlie starts out being very anti-girl, […]