I am so sorry – long time no proper update. I feel really guilty about it too, but I am experiencing as really severe and prolonged reading slump at the moment, and I am struggling to make my way back from it.
Book Nerd Reviews is still up and running, and I will still be posting here and there, but I think a little bit of time away will reignite my passion. I am also considering doing more graphic novel/comic reviews WITH YA reviews also. So if that’s something I go ahead with, I might be looking at a new look for the site that is more appropriate. But I just wanted you guys to know what was going on at least.
So I am still here! Still on twitter and facebook. The giveaways are still happening too, so nothing for you guys to worry about. I am sure I’ll be back, and perhaps when I am back there’ll be a new look and new features and more excitement!
Evening readers! So sorry I’ve been quiet on the blogging front, trust me, I feel like a bad blogger right now! But I’m on annual leave starting tomorrow so I am hoping having more free hours in my day will enable me to commit a bit better to updating.
Stacking the Shelves is bought to you by Tynga from Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
Thanks so much to Harper Collins for this ARC copy! Once we were is the sequel to What’s Left Of Me, which I really enjoyed. This book is scheduled for release around September 17th, and I am looking forward to finding out what happens in this one!
Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.
Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.
Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.
I bought this one! Just happened to see it when I was Mother’s Day shopping… haha Yes, I do that a lot. I’ve heard some really great things about this book and so I grabbed a copy. :)
Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.
Until now, that is…
For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life – a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.
With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted… But just what – and who – is she really risking?
I knew I’d heard of this one, but the Australian cover (left) looks different to the US one, so it wasn’t until I bought this and looked it up on Goodreads that I pieced it together. The thing I like about Cat Patrick’s books are that she has a great imagination, and her books are always unlike everything else I’ve read. Looking forward to this.
Ella, Betsey and I look like sisters: triplets, you might think.
But that’s not what we are at all.
We are clones in hiding. We split out lives and exist as one person in the outside world. And we’ve always been happy.
But now I’ve fallen in love … and that changes everything.
Because to let love in, I need to be allowed to be Me.
That is all from me this week, what did you receive in your mailboxes? Let me know – leave your links in the comments section below!
It’s Wednesday which means it’s time to tell you what I have been up to for the past week! W..W..W.. Wednesdays is a weekly meme bought to you by MizB from Should Be Reading.
What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading Belonging by Karen Ann Hopkins at the moment. This is the sequel to Temptation and I am eager to find out what happens in this one! It’s a different type of contemporary romance based on Amish culture!
What did you recently finish reading?
In the last week I have finished reading The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa. Really enjoyed this sequel and after that major cliffhanger, I now await the third book!! Review was posted on Monday. :D
What do you think you’ll read next?
Probably The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher as that’s coming out shortly also and I have a few other good titles to read this month also! I am hoping I can get around to them as I am still experiencing a terrible reading slump right now… doesn’t help with work and my course expectations, I am under a fair amount of stress. But I do start annual leave on Monday so the goal is to get through some books in this time!
What is everyone out there reading at the moment? Share your links below!
Release Date: April 30th 2013 Published By: Harlequin Teen Pages: 446 Goodreads: Add it to your reading list
Rating: 4 out of 5
Synopsis: In Allison Sekemoto’s world, there is one one rule left: Blood Calls to blood.
Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire, Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie’s birthplace in New Covington, what she finds there will the change the world forever – and possibly end human and vampire existence.
There’s a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago – deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries. If Allie can get to him in time…
Review: Julie Kagawa is one of my favourite authors with good reason. She knows how to tell a story in a way that is distinctly hers, and she knows how to leave you hanging at the end of a book.
The Eternity Cure is the sequel to The Immortal Rules and the second book in the Blood of Eden series. We are reunited with Allie Sekemoto who is now a vampire. She has been seperated from Zeke where she left him in Eden, and is now on the hunt for her master Kanin who has been taken and is being tortured by Sarren. She needs to find him before it’s too late.
My only complaint with this book was that similarly to The Immortal Rules, both books have a lot of pages. The Eternity Cure was 428 pages long, and I felt at times in the middle that this book dragged, which took me ages to get through because unfortunately it coincided (or perhaps was the cause) with a reading slump and I was going through. I know as a fan of Julie Kagawa’s work that her books tend to be on the longer side, but I felt like she could have maybe some parts could have been more to the point.
THAT being said, it was my only complaint, because the rest of this book was rather special. We had the return of some loved AND hated characters… I won’t be giving away spoilers, but I am talking about the return of some characters, so look away if you don’t want to know!
Firstly, Jackal is back. Jackal was such a good villain in the first book, and when he comes into this one initially, I was fearful for Allie – but turns out they both have the same goal in mind and they’re willing to put aside their differences to work together to find Kanin. We saw a different side to Jackal in this book, and in many ways, he reminded me of Puck from Kagawa’s Iron Fey series with his quick wit and sarcasm.
ZEKE is back!! OMG WTH… last we saw of him was in Eden. Turns out, he left Eden in search for Allie because he couldn’t handle being without her. There’s some hostility at first because he sees Allie with Jackal who killed Zeke’s father in the first book… understandably so! But we move past that, and I really enjoyed the progression between Allie and Zeke. There’s a real tenderness between them, but Allie is also trying to fight against her emotions for a great part of it.
Stick you dirty traitor!! All I have to say about him as that I really really dislike his character. He lacked integrity and I really wanted him to die. Harsh? haha
The story itself was really intense in the second half, and it became really fast paced after a slow start and middle. I really got into it, and the battle scenes were awesome! The last few pages had me absolutely shocked… and in true Julie Kagawa style, I am left with the cliffhanger! That is so unfair!!
Highly recommend this series. If you hate vampire books (I traditionally don’t love them), please give this one a try. It’s unconvenional in a really great way!
Quotes: “I don’t believe in fate,” he said carefully, “but… I do believe everything happens for a reason. That there is some plan, some meaning to this darkness we live in.”
“When I was Allie the Fringer, I used to collect books like this, from anywhere I could find them. Of Course, in the Fringe, owning them was highly illegal. The vampire lords didn’t want their cattle to be able to read—it might put ideas in our heads if they knew what life was like before. But one of my greatest secrets was that I could read. My mom had taught me when she was still alive, and I’d clung to that accomplishment fiercely. It was the one thing the vampires couldn’t take from me.”
“There are no good choices, Allison,” Kanin offered in a quiet voice. “There are only those you can live with, and those you can work to change.”
Afternoon readers, have you all had a good day so far? I’ve actually had a GREAT day. Today is Free Comic Book Day, and so I went to my local comic store, Gifts For The Geek and bought a bit of a haul! I will share that in image form as I’m aware that not a lot of you are comic readers like myself! But I do have some great YA reads to show off this week also.
Stacking the Shelves is bought to you by Tynga from Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
One of the most amazing covers (The Selection was also incredibly gorgeous). I am looking forward to finding out what happens to America in this one.
Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.
America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.
Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.
Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster for approving me for this ARC copy of Fire With Fire! I have been dying to know what was going to happen since I finished Burn for Burn. This is not out until September 3rd so keep your eyes peeled for a review closer to that date!
Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn’t exactly go the way they’d hoped at the Homecoming Dance.
Not even close.
For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it’s not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie’s meaner than she ever was before.
And then there’s sweet little Mary…she knows there’s something seriously wrong with her. If she can’t control her anger, she’s sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it’s not just that Reeve bullied her—it’s that he made her love him.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They’ll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It’s the only way he’ll learn.
It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn…
And quickly, a pic of my comic haul…
That is all from me this week, what did you receive in your mailboxes? Let me know – leave your links in the comments section below!
Good evening! Sorry for the delay in posts guys, I have had a bit of personal stuff happening in the background, however life is back to normal now and so it’s business as usual! I am here with my May giveaway! Yaaaaaay!
I’ve scoured Goodreads for some awesome new release YA titles this month and I am happy to say that I have some great books for giveaway this month. :) In May, two lucky winners will win one of the books of their choice below. You can choose from the following May releases:
You can enter via the Rafflecopter widget below! You have all month, until May 31st so enter now and come back later to get even more entries for tweeting!
Good evening!! I cannot even believe April is over… WTH! I am bringing some good news for 5 lucky winners tonight!
Firstly, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered! I had over 3,300 entries this month which is a new record, and makes my heart feel warm and fuzzies knowing that you guys love my giveaways!!
To recap on what the giveaway this month WAS… in April, five…… (FIVE!!!) winners will each get to select one of the below books of their choice. All of these books are brand spanking new April releases and there are some amazing titles to choose from! I am pumped! Anyone can enter, as long as The Book Depository delivers to you!
The winners are……..
Kat Vela
Lauren Terry Mackesy
Heather Cranmer
Satchmo
Cordelia Fitzgerald
Congratulations! I will send each of you an email within the next 48 hours to see what book you would like to choose!
If you didn’t win, that’s okay… there will be another giveaway starting tomorrow evening (Aussie time). So come back and be sure to enter my May giveaway then, and you might be a winner at the end of May!
Good evening everyone, I hope you’ve had a good Monday (for a Monday… lol). April is almost behind us now and I didn’t have AS big a month as I had originally planned reading wise. Safe to say at the end part of this month I have experienced my first reading slump! Noo! I was determined to not let it slow me down too much though, and so I am pressing on and just trying to get through it! I did however get the opportunity to read some very cool books this month, and so in case you missed it, here’s a recap of the book reviews I posted in April:
7 books read in April… I am happy to say that I am still very much on track to reach my goal of having read 100 books this year! My favourite read this month was hard for me, because I enjoyed a few of them quite a lot but for different reasons. I loved If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. I also really adored Looking For Alaska by John Green. And up there was Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and Pivot Point by Kasie West. Bring on May! I am hoping to pick up some of the April slack in this month. Wish me luck!
Good afternoon! I am a bit late with my post this week, I’ve been battling sickness and also a bit of a reading slump (boo!) which always makes things that little bit more difficult, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am making my way to the other side of the slump finally! Not a huge week for me, but still a couple of books to share this week!
Stacking the Shelves is bought to you by Tynga from Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan Australia for a copy of this book, scheduled for release on June 1st! This is an Aussie YA/Adult crossover book, and I predict big things for it as the US rights were sold to Little, Brown in a 3 book deal recently so you folks overseas will be hearing things about Wildlife soon! I’ve been hearing comparisons to John Green which is a HUGE call to make guys! But apparently this book can back it up. I am SUPER keen to read this and see for myself what I think, but so far, great reviews.
Boarding for a term in the wilderness, sixteen-year-old Sibylla expects the gruesome outdoor education program – but friendship complications, and love that goes wrong? They’re extra-curricula.
Enter Lou from Six Impossible Things – the reluctant new girl for this term in the great outdoors. Fragile behind an implacable mask, she is grieving a death that occurred almost a year ago. Despite herself, Lou becomes intrigued by the unfolding drama between her housemates Sibylla and Holly, and has to decide whether to end her self-imposed detachment and join the fray.
And as Sibylla confronts a tangle of betrayal, she needs to renegotiate everything she thought she knew about surviving in the wild.
A story about first love, friendship and NOT fitting in.
This is a library borrowed book, and it looks beautiful!
Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life: helping him rebuild his identity after a career-ending football injury, picking up the pieces when his home life shattered, and healing his pain long after the meds wore off. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv.
The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. Cam can’t believe his wildest dreams have come true. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day. As Cam comes to terms with who this Viv has become and the part Nina played in his parallel story, he’s forced to choose—stay with Viv or let her go—before the window closes between them once and for all.
Thank you to Harlequin Teen for a copy of this book. How stunning is this cover? I’ve heard the actual release has some beautiful Japanese inspired artwork scattered throughout also! Another reason to pick up a copy when it’s released on June 25th!
I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.
Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.
A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.
And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.
On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.
That is all from me this week, what did you receive in your mailboxes? Let me know – leave your links in the comments section below!
Thoughts: WOW!!! Seriously, how amazing is this cover? I got over half way through Splintered and haven’t finished it yet. I hit a slow patch in the book and never quite turned back to it. That being said, I actually did like what I had read of it up until that point. It definitely had some good ideas behind it, and Alice in Wonderland.. hello?! Brilliant!
I love the inspiration behind this cover, with the mad hatter and the moth on the collar there. It’s actually inspiring me to want to finish the first book just so I’ll be able to read Unhinged when it comes out!
The bad news, is that unfortunately we’re not going to be seeing this one on our shelves until like… January 2014. Sad face. It feels so far away! But at least it gives me plenty of time to be organised and up to date with Splintered by this time!
Synopsis: None… yet! Rest assured when I know more, you will also know more!
The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!
This weeks Question:
Q: Is there a song that reminds you of a book? Or vice versa? What is the song & the book?
Yes!! So many. I am the kind of person who will often zone out to a book with music playing in the background, so I have a lot of songs that remind me of books and visa versa.
One of my favourite songs of right now, Let Her Go by Passenger reminds me so much of Looking For Alaska by John Green. There are some lyrics in it that struck me as to what Miles has to go through losing Alaska:
You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day you’ll understand why
Everything you touch surely dies
Staring at the ceiling in the dark
Same old empty feeling in your heart
Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast
I really love this question!! Perhaps this could become a semi-regular feature on BNR.. I’m often reminded of songs through books I read! I’d love to see what you answered to this question also – leave your links in the comments section for me to check out!
It’s Wednesday which means it’s time to tell you what I have been up to for the past week! W..W..W.. Wednesdays is a weekly meme bought to you by MizB from Should Be Reading.
What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa at the moment. I am in love with her writing, it’s so good!!
What did you recently finish reading?
In the last week I have finished reading Pivot Point by Cassie West. It was so original and clever in structure, it was a fantastic book! I posted the review of this book on Monday!
What do you think you’ll read next?
I have a few Advanced Readers Copies (ARCs) to read at the moment Belonging by Karen Ann Hopkins, The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher to name a few!! So I will be busy getting through those.
What is everyone out there reading at the moment? Share your links below!
Today marks 2 years since Book Nerd Reviews started! When I first started this blog, I had absolutely no expectations or concept about how big this blog would eventually become. Usually I lose interest in projects pretty quickly, but not only am I still doing it 2 years later, but I am still really enjoying this, and can’t imagine myself NOT doing this. I am lucky enough to be able to continue doing this blog, and sharing my bookish thoughts with you all along the way.
So this is ultimately a thank you. To each person who has visited my sites, and especially to those of you who come back again. Thank you for your comments, your tweets, for supporting my giveaways and for the friendships I have formed with some amazing people in this time.
The book blogging community is a great one for the most part, and I’ve only got amazing experiences up until now. My friends know who they are (Yes you bloggers on Twitter!). Your support has been fantastic.
Here’s to my 2nd year blogoversary! Make sure if you haven’t done so, that you enter my blogoversary giveaway happening right now!
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by Tahleen at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because due to a love of lists and what better way to celebrate lists than with book related ones?
This week…. Top Ten Nine Books I Thought I’d Like MORE/LESS Than I Did:
I’ve split mine up this week, so firstly the books I thought I would like more than I did:
Nameless by Lili St Crow
I wanted this to be so good – the description on Goodreads sounded so intriguing and full of promise. And then I started reading it, and only got part way through before it became a “did not finish” read. I was so disappointed with this book, because it really could have been great. But the Snow White “retelling” was lost on me, as there was no likeness to the fairytale at all, and there was just SO many new things Lili was trying to throw at the reader at once, without stopping to explain any of it unfortunately.
It just lost me. :(
Eve & Adam by Michael Grant
The first book I read of Michael Grant’s, and I’d heard so many good things about his writing. I’m hoping this was not the best of his work, because I was hoping for more from this book. Eve & Adam was one of those books that had so much hype attached to it. I did like Eve & Adam (I rated it 3/5), however, I just had hoped it was going to be more of a 5 star read based on what I’d heard about it.
I’m still prepared to give Michael Grant’s books a try, it hasn’t deterred me. :)
Between The Lines – Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
Jodi Picoult is one of my absolute favourite authors of all time. And so when I heard she was writing a YA book with her daughter Samantha, I rushed out to buy this. And it wasn’t bad. Really… I did like it. Again, it was rated 3/5 by myself. But there was just something lacking from this book that took it from good to amazing. Co-authored books IMO tend to never be truly incredible in my experience (I hope to be proven wrong someday) and this was a good example of that.
Fathomless – Jackson Pearce
Noooooooooooooo!! Jackson, why?! I have such a soft spot for Jackson’s work – Sisters Red was one of the very first book I read and reviewed for Book Nerd Reviews two years ago, and as such, she’s an author that is on my “auto buy list”. Anytime she releases a book, I buy it without question.
I likedFathomless. I just didn’t love it. And compared to Sisters Red and Sweetly, Fathomless just was a little weak in it’s structure for my liking. It needed to have been tightened up and then it would have been better… but the end half of this was just okay. So disappointed! I await Jackson’s next book nonetheless!!!
And now.. books that I didn’t know much about, or did know about, but for whatever reason I liked it more than I thought I would:
Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley
I know Graffiti Moon was hailed as one of the best YA Aussie books, however, there was something about it initially that didn’t really appeal to me in the same way other reads do. But after reading a bit about it, and seeing great review after great review, I thought I would give it a shot. Turns out, it was probably one of the best reads I’ve experienced so far in 2013, and definitely ranks high as one of the best Aussie YA reads I’ve ever read. It was real, it didn’t try and pretend to be something it wasn’t, and it made you really feel some emotions. I loved this!
if You Find Me – Emily Murdoch
I feel like it was the cover of this one that made me impartial to it. I was committed to reading it, since I’d received this as an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC), but I wasn’t overly excited about reading it – that is until I actually started to understand exactly what it was the story was about. Combined with the amazing reviews this book had already received at this point on Goodreads, this book had me in tears towards the end. It was unflinchingly honest and raw, it didn’t leave out any of the details, good or bad. It was one of those reads that kept me at a cafe for quite some time, because I was determined that I wasn’t going to leave until I had finished the book. I loved this way more than I thought I was going to! Out Of The Easy – Ruta Sepertys
This was an unusual type of book for me to pick to read in the first place, since when I do read historical YA fiction I tend to have a ‘type’ and Out Of The Easy fell slightly out of my comfort zone. However, I had to eat my words a little bit with this one, because I wasn’t expecting this to be great and yet, it really was.
This story was unexpected, it took me into a different direction to what I thought it was going to, and there was a lot more drama and excitement within these pages to what I gave it credit for before I read it!
Hooked – Liz Fichera
I admit, I was a little judgmental with Hooked before I read it. I really just thought this was going to be a bit of a lighthearted contemporary romance, but I was pleasantly surprised with this book – I got way more than I bargained for! Not only was it a contemporary romance, it ended up being quite a deep drama as well, and there was some really serious themes to this book, including a heavy theme of racism as well as bullying and a highlight of teens living in a home that have a parent who is affected by alcoholism. I was really pulled towards this book, and related very strongly to some of these themes. Hooked resonated with me much longer than I thought it would. It was a great book.
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
This was a tough one. Because I knew I’d like it. I am pretty nerdy at the best of times, and I love gaming and popculture, so no question I was going to be into this. But I wasn’t prepared to love Ready Player One just as much as I did! This is up there with my top 3 books that I’ve read so far in 2013.
It offered everything I look for in a book – plenty of popculture references, geekery, a game/challenge of sorts to keep you glued, nasty villains, adventure and a budding romance. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
Readers – care to share your lists this week? Or just tell me – what books did you love (or not love) more than you thought you would? Leave me a comment! If you have a blog, use my Comment Luv feature. Put your link in, and it will tell me what post you last put on your blog.
Synopsis: Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier . . .
Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not.
In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through . . . and who she can’t live without.
Review: I knew only very little about this book before going into it, but based on the hype, I knew I was in for something special, and I was definitely not disappointed. Pivot Point is special… it’s unlike other books I have read and it’s complex. It’s fun, but it’s also quite deep at times.
Pivot Poiint tells the story of Addie who lives in a community of people who all have different mental abilities of sorts. Addie’s is the ability to see her futures based on decisions she makes. She can see two outcomes to each decision and can let this guide her into not making mistakes with her life. Her best friend Laila has the ability to erase memories. Her mother has the power of persuasion and her father can detect lies amongst truth. This community is kept completely secret from the outside world, but when Addie’s parents announce they are getting divorced, Addie needs to make a life altering decision. Does she stay with her mum in the para community or does she follow her father outside the community where the ‘normals’ live.
In order to help Addie make this decision, she searches 6 months into her possible two futures based on each decision. Both futures involve two different boys and two completely different lives. The decision isn’t made easy though because potentially, lives are at risk based on what she decides.
I can’t express in words just how much I really adored the structure of this book! Each chapter alternated between Addie’s future in the para community and in the world of the normals. And whilst this had the potential to get messy and confusing switching chapter to chapter, Kasie West did a stellar job of making sure that the pace and flow of the book was at a similar place at each point in time, even referencing some cross overs between both worlds at certain points. It’s very clear that the structure itself was well thought through, and in my opinion, it’s a major part of what makes this book as great as it was.
Another reason I loved this story so much was because we think at the start that the book is going to go in one direction and then it completely changes. If I may quote the book itself, “Sometimes perfection reveals the lie, …, not the truth”. And this was so true with the love triangle. To start with, I wasn’t too skeptical of Duke’s actions. Complete jock perhaps, but I thought he was harmless and charming albeit a little corny at times. And Thomas, I wasn’t sure exactly where he was coming from. And then half way though, and I am completely in love with Thomas and everything he stands for, and I am completely cynical of all of Duke’s actions… someone can be too perfect, it’s true. It was a nice turn of events and well played out.
I actually didn’t realise this book was the first of a series, and personally I felt it could have been wrapped up in the first book. But I do like where it has finished because there’s potential to really expand on the current story as it stands right now. I just hope the next book is as good as this one was!
Quotes: “When I read, I feel emotion all on my own. Emotion no living person is making me feel.”
“Just promise me something. If this is a Search and you don’t pick me, don’t pick this path, for whatever reason, promise me you won’t Erase me.”
“Our relationship feels different. Like someone has taken my favorite sweater and thrown it in the dryer and it doesn’t fit right anymore. I want to pull and tug on it until it feels comfortable again.”
Thoughts: WOW!!! Seriously, how amazing is this cover? I got over half way through Splintered and haven’t finished it yet. I hit a slow patch in the book and never quite turned back to it. That being said, I actually did like what I had read of it up until that point. It definitely had some good ideas behind it, and Alice in Wonderland.. hello?! Brilliant!
The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of 
Nameless by Lili St Crow
Eve & Adam by Michael Grant
Between The Lines – Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
Fathomless – Jackson Pearce
Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley
if You Find Me – Emily Murdoch
Out Of The Easy – Ruta Sepertys
Hooked – Liz Fichera
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
