Fracture by Megan Miranda
Release Date: January 17,2012
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Age Group:  YA
Pages: 272
Format: Hardback
Source: Own
Interest: Debut Author
Challenge: 2012 Debut Author Challenge. 2012 Reading Challenge
Buy The Book: Amazon

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

Fellow book blogger, Mindy highly recommended this one to me. It was definitely on my to read list, when Mindy sent me a signed copy it was the final push I needed to finally give it a shot. 

Just as Mindy predicted, I loved it! Fracture is such an amazing debut novel! 

I LOVED that this book was a stand-alone! It seems like every time I read a YA book, they are quickly turned into trilogies, series, etc. Then before you know it, prequels, and in-between-quels pop up. It gets frustrating at times, keeping up with the story and the release dates of everything. So I thoroughly enjoyed reading a stand-alone novel for a change!

The story hooked me right from the beginning. Right away from the first 5 pages they get right into the heart of it, which I loved! I hate stories that drag on endlessly and take forever to get to the part of the story that we all read about on the jacket sleeve. Does anyone else hate that too?

Anyways, I totally got sucked into the story and the emotions of the character's. I felt so bad for Delaney and how over protective her family is of her after the accident. At times it was totally ridiculous and I don't think I could've handled it as well as she did. If my mother told me I wasn't allowed to turn on the oven, I think I would've had a fit the size of Texas! I felt so sorry for Decker, and couldn't imagine the guilt and mental anguish he went through. Knowing if he hadn't made Delaney cross the ice with him, that never would've happened! And then there was the whole love story issue. *sighs* Three love interests at ONE time??? That poor, poor girl! It's shocking that she didn't go right back into a coma from the emotional overload! 

Okay, I'll stop myself there, because I love this book and I could literally go on and on talking about the amazing plot. But, I won't bore you! But I WILL encourage you go out and read it for yourself!

Fracture was such a refreshing break and an incredible debut novel! It was unpredictable, emotional, suspenseful, and raw. I can't recommend this one enough!

Waiting On Wednesday (10)

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill atBreaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

In the Tudor age, ambition, power and charismatic allure are essential and Catherine Howard has plenty of all three. Not to mention her loyal best friend, Kitty Tylney, to help cover her tracks. Kitty, the abandoned youngest daughter of minor aristocracy, owes everything to Cat – where she is, what she is, even who she is. Friend, flirt, and self-proclaimed Queen of Misrule, Cat reigns supreme in a loyal court of girls under the none-too-watchful eye of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. 

When Cat worms her way into the heart of Henry VIII and becomes Queen of England, Kitty is thrown into the intoxicating Tudor Court. It’s a world of glittering jewels and elegant costumes, of gossip and deception. As the Queen’s right-hand-woman, Kitty goes from the girl nobody noticed to being caught between two men – the object of her affection and the object of her desire. 

But the atmosphere of the court turns from dazzling to deadly, and Kitty is forced to learn the difference between trust and loyalty, love and lust, secrets and treason. And to accept the consequences when some lessons are learned too late.

I am DYING to read this book! You have no idea! I can barely stand the wait. The cover is enticing and the story *sighs* don't even get me started! Look for this one to hit stores on May 15th!

What books are you waiting for? 

In My Mailbox (16)

In My Mailbox is a weekly Meme hosted by Kristi the Story Siren. This is where us bloggers get a chance to show you what we got this week! Bookish related of course!

Hello my Lovelies! I hope you all had a fantastic week/weekend! Your all most likely watching the superbowl, cheering on your teams and chowing down on awesome superbowl snacks! 

For some reason my video is dragging this week. Literally! Apologies for that, but at least the sound came out!

Gifted

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Thank you to Mindy at Magical Urban Fantasy Reads!!! I LOVED it!!!! Eeeek!

Bought

Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

Leave me a comment and let me know what you go in your mailbox this week. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and I will see you back here next week.

XOXO

Fever

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: Own
Interest : Dystopian
Challenge: 2012 Reading Challenge
Buy The Book: Amazon

The second book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy reveals a world as captivating—and as dangerous—as the one Rhine left behind in Wither. Rhine and Gabriel may have escaped the beautiful prison of Wither’s mansion, but they are far from escaping danger. First they’re chased for stealing a getaway boat, and then the fleeing pair ends up in the eerie den of Madame, an old woman who collects girls and sells them to the highest bidders. Worst of all, Vaughn, Rhine’s sinister father-in-law, seems to be on her trail every step of the way. Rhine remains determined to get to her brother in Manhattan—but the road they are on is long and perilous.

Now that Rhine has finally regained her freedom, what lengths will she need to go to in order to keep it?

I was so nervous about reading this book. It has been highly anticipated by many people for quite a while, and I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the expectations or hype. I had also heard quite a few negative things, and was really anxious about it.

The beginning of this book took off and I couldn't put it down. I loved the setting, and found myself intrigued by the whole circus theme. I was able to get more into the story and enjoy it than I had with the previous book. For one, the whole, 13 year old girls getting pregnant by 20 year old men, wasn't quite so in your face. Thank goodness, because at times I wanted to vomit! Even though I fully understood why this was taking place, I am the kind of person who visualizes everything as I read a story, so there were times when Wither was really hard for me to stomach.

In Wither a lot of time was spent on the character development, and getting to know each character. Who they were, where they came from, why they felt and acted the way they did. With the ground work already laid, Fever was able to focus more on the story itself and not so much on the backgrounds of each individual character.

For some reason, during the last 100 pages the story kinda fizzled out for me. I also found myself disappointed with the love story, or lack of ( at least to me!) . I've heard many complaint's about the ending, and talk of a huge cliff hanger that left people more frustrated than excited. That honestly kept me leery of reading this book, but I am so glad that I decided to find out for myself! While there is a cliff hanger ( let's face it, what trilogy , or series, doesn't have one? ) I felt like it wasn't a big deal. Basically, something happens that we've known for about 500 pages now, would happen at some point! When it finally did happen, I was actually excited, ( in  a good way) to read the next book and find out how Lauren will play this all out in the final book.

DeStefano yet again delivered another fantasy rich world that I couldn't tear myself away from! I loved the circus theme, with it's rich and colorful descriptions that made me feel like I was living inside of the book! All in all I really enjoyed the development of the story, and the intriguing setting. I would've liked to have seen more romance, but despite that, I found myself enjoying this even more than I did Wither!

Steals and Deals: Barnes and Nobel 50% off Teen Book Sale!

 Hello Lovelies!

It is time for another one of my favorite features, Steals and Deals! Squeee!!! So right now I should be posting my review for Fever, but I was so excited about this amazing sale, that I HAD to share it with all of my amazing readers!

Some of you may recall, that last month, Barnes and Noble had a killer 50% off sale on all YA books! My inner fan girl nearly passed out from all the excitement! Be still my beating heart!  I, like many other book nerds took advantage of the sale.

I am on a fairly, okay let's be honest, seriously limited budget! I rarely ever get to buy new books, muchless ones I REALLY want. I typically wind up buying whatever the bargain book is that month, or whatever my local used book store has. I squealed with delight when I checked my pay stub today and found some extra money! Wooo!! How often does that happen? So I decided to reward myself for all of my hard work, and what better way for my inner book nerd to do it, then to buy new books!

After carefully selecting two books that I could afford on my budget, I scoured the internet for coupon's. Hey, every little bit helps! After quite some time scouring, I was shocked to find a coupon code for 50% off ALL teen books. I had to actively send signals to my brain to NOT scream out loud and frighten everyone. 

YA book lover's rejoice! Barnes and Nobel's 50% off teen books is back baby! But  not for long! So here are the details... 

If you use coupon code R4R9M8F at checkout you will receive 50% all all TEEN books. This includes hardbacks, and paperbacks alike, and also applies to pre-order's as well! Keep in mind, before you go crazy loading up your cart, this is 50% off of the list price, NOT the sale price! For instance, if a hardback originally $17.99 is on sale for $10 you will not get it for $5 ( I wish! ) you will get it for $8.99. 

This does work on pre-order's, I already tried it out. Don't forget this coupon code only works once, and as of right now I only know of the one, so make sure you have everything you want in your cart before you check out. The sale started on January 31st, and will end on Febuary 7th, or is it the 6th? Anyways...act fast!!!

There are some great books coming out this month, so make sure you take advantage of this sale while it lasts! As I mentioned, it DOES work on pre orders so you will definitely want to take advantage of that! For instance, you can order copies of 

for $8.99 a piece! You know you are dying to read them, so what are you waiting for? 

Are you dying to know what I ordered? I was able to snag 7  books for $33.41! And here is what I got..

What books are you going to be buying during this incredible sale? I'd love to know, so let me know in the comments!

Happy Reading!

XOXO

January 2012 Wrap-Up

Hello Lovelies~

2012 came in with a big bang in the YA world, with the release of so many amazing novels! I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did! I can't believe we are already into February, my how time flies!

My goals for 2012 were to find the time to read/blog more, hit the 200 follower mark (hopefully) and spend more visiting other blogger's sites and  comment back!!!

I am quite happy with the amount of books I was able to read this month, and quite shocked at the same time! I had 26 total blog posts, WOW! That's almost one per day! Eeek! Granted not all are reviews, some are meme's such as WoW, IMM, and some I do on my own such as Steals and Deals, Around Town and some discussion posts thrown in as well. Not a bad way to start of 2012 if I do say so myself! ;)

The Books 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith ( AMAZING!!! Go read it NOW!!!)

Pretty Little Liars #2 Flawless by Sara Shephard

Irises by Francisco X . Stork

New Girl by Paige Harbison

Dead To You by Lisa McMann

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Fever by Lauren DeStefano ( have about 60 pages left!!!)

The Challenges

• I read 8 books towards my goal of 100 for the Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge

• I also read 2 books towards my 2012 Ya Contemporary Challenge as well as met my personal goal of 2 YA contemps a month!

• I read 3 books towards my 2012 TBR Pile Challenge. YAY!!! This is a HUGE feat for me, and I credit it all to being sick and catching up on books I've always wanted to read!

• And last but not least, I read 4 books towards the 2012 Debut Author Challenge

Random Act's of Kindness

The lovely Loretta from Between the Pages sent me an ebook of The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan which I've been dying to read! We are reading it together this week so look for our shared blog posts on this coming up in February!

My awesome friend, and also my tv buddy, Amy from Book Loving Mom sent me an audio book of Legend by Marie Lu. Amy know how much I LOVE my dystopians and she highly recommended this one and thought I would love it! Eeek! 

Mindy from Magical Urban Fantasy Reads sent me signed copies of Cinder by Marisa Meyer and Fracture by Megan Miranda. I literally squealed when they came in the mail! Thank you soooo much!!! Mindy also bought me some other books for a few signings I'm going to in February (super sweet of her!) but I will include those in my February wrap-up after I get them autographed! I can't wait!!!

All in all January was a great month for me! I recieved some amazing gifts from friends, bloggers, and authors. I attended my first ever Mid-Winter ALA conference and had a total blast! 

I hope you all had a fantastic month as well as a great start to a brand new year! I'd love to hear about what books you were able to read this month and what goals you accomplished, so let me know it the comments! Until next month...

Happy Reading!

XOXO

Waiting On Wednesday (9)

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill atBreaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school’s staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.

Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she’d like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he’s a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen’s really from. He wants Miranda use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lost its greatest playwright.

Miranda isn’t convinced she’s the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it’s her only chance of getting back to the present and her “real” life. What Miranda doesn’t bargain for is finding true love…with no acting required.

 I am absolutely DYING to read this book! The story sounds AMAZING and the cover is utterly gorgeous! Look for it to hit shelves on August 14, 2012

So what books are you waiting for?