My Hero Academia Vol #1 by Kohei Horikoshi

Release Date:  August 4, 2015
Publisher:  Viz Media LLC
Source:  Library
Format:  Finished Copy
Pages:  192
Amazon  |  Goodreads


What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called “Quirks” at age four? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him. With no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes, his life is looking more and more like a dead end. Then an encounter with All Might, the greatest hero of them all, gives him a chance to change his destiny…

I was perusing Amazon looking for another good Manga series to try out and I am so glad I happened upon My Hero Academia. The story is just way too cute and fun! It's set in a dystopian world where 80% of the population have super powers called Quirks. They go to specialized schools to learn how to use their powers and control them. But our Main Character Izuku is one of the 20% who are born without Quirks.

Poor Izuku is teased about it his whole life, but he's so determined that he doesn't let that get him down. He's inspired by his favorite superhero All Might, and is determined to get into the famous U.A. high school.

I loved his spunk, determination and drive which made him so endearing. This story was fantastic and really fun! The concept of living in a world where NOT having a super power makes you a minority was absolutely genius to me! I really, really loved this one and I think you would too!

 

#TGTRAT No.2 Wrap-Up

Hey Lovelies!

So over the weekend the lovely Sierra at Yearning to Read hosted the Great Twitter Readathon, aka #TGTRAT for the second time. I've participated both times and it's been such a blast!!!

While I definitely wasn't as successful with my reading as I had been in the previous TGTRAT, only reading 1 book (Blood Will Tell by April Henry)  this time around, I feel like I accomplished so much!

One of my goals this year is to re-connect with the reading world. I want to make lasting friendships, discover new bloggers, bookstagrammers, and booktubers. I also want to be a more active presence, which means much more to me than just having regular content to share. I want to interact and engage with those in the community, which for me means commenting instead of just trolling blogs, replying instead of just liking or retweeting someone's tweets.

I met some really amazing people during The Great Twitter Readathon, and I feel like I made some friendships that will last for years to come!

I definitely am still working on having a more active presence in the reading community. But hey, baby steps for this shy girl from Texas!

The Great Twitter Readathon is a 3 day readathon done monthly and it's been such a blast! I'll post the info for the next one for you below and make sure you follow Sierra on Twitter @yearningtoread so you can join in when signups are open!



See you soon and as always

Happy Reading!

XOXO

June 2016 Wrap Up

Hi Lovelies!

Summer is officially in full swing and we are halfway through the year! Can you believe it? I still feel as if 2016 just started! Where does the time go?

Over the past few months I re-fell in love with books and blogging again. I am back with vigor and an excitement that I haven't had in far too long! I definitely upped my reading game in June, which is incredible for me! I'm such a slow reader and I am amazed at how much I accomplished in June.

I fell and really messed up my knee halfway through May. I was still in some pretty severe pain for most of the month of June. So I was kind of a captive audience. And I shockingly was getting tired of watching tv. So tons of reading for me! I was also able to relaunch my blog and get that going full time, which I have REALLY missed doing.

Now that I've moved I have only 1 room and virtually no space for books. They are over flowing! So I've really made it a priority to shop my own shelves and whittle down my physical TBR pile this month. So here's what I got up to

The Books

• Secrets in the Snow by Michaela MacColl
• The Assassin Game by Kristy McKay
• My Hero Academia #1 by Kohei Horikoshi
• Frayed by Kara Terzis
• Life After Juliet by Shannon Lee Alexander (this was incredible!!!)
• Shackled by Tom Leveen
• None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
• Young Widows Club by Alexandrea Coutts
• The Cabin by Natasha Preston
• Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young
• We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean

The Challenges

• I read 11 books towards my 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge
• I read 5 books from my physical TBR shelf

June was a really great month for me! I read 11 books, which is fantastic! I also had 13 blog posts, 8 of which were reviews.

My goals for next month are to focus on reading from my TBR shelf, which will mean review books will have to wait.

I also want to get better about using Twitter. In my long absence from blogging I also disappeared from Twitter and I feel so lost. I virtually have no blogging friends anymore so part of my goals for July is to have a more active presence on Twitter. Visit more blogs, connect with more bloggers and readers, and comment as I peruse the web instead of just trolling.

I also signed up for the The Great Twitter Readathon for the month of July. This will be my second time participating and I hope to be more balanced with socializing and not just having my nose stuck in a book. I have also signed up for Camp NanoWrimo in July and I am hoping to finish a project I've had in the works for 2 years now. 

As of late I seem to have no problem reading, but I seem to have an issue with reviewing. haha I am officially backed up and have 7 books read and just waiting to be reviewed. So I am really hoping that in July I can get that under control.

That's it for me, all in all I had a really successful month! How about you? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave the link to your wrap up post below so I can stop by and say hi!

Happy Reading!

XOXO

Review: Frayed

Frayed by Kara Terzis

Release Date:  June 7, 2016
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Fire
Source:  Publisher
Format:  eARC
Pages:  304
Amazon  |  Goodreads



Dear Kesley,

My therapist tells me I should write you a letter. Like flushing all my thoughts and feelings out of my system and onto paper. I tell her it's a stupid idea.

But here I am, writing a letter to a dead girl. Where do I start? Where did our story begin? From the moment you were born...or died?

I'll start with the moment I found out the truth about you. Your lies and my pain. Because it always begins and ends with you.

And that end began when Rafe Lawrence came back to town...

Ava Hale will do anything to find her sister's killer...although she'll wish she hadn't. Because the harder Ava looks, the more secrets she uncovers about Kesley, and the more she begins to think that the girl she called sister was a liar. A sneak. A stranger.

And Kesley's murderer could be much closer than she thought...

A debut novel from Wattpad award-winner Kara Terzis, Frayed is a psychological whodunit that will keep you guessing!

This book was crazy explosive for me from beginning to end! In a totally amazing way of course ;) hehe The main character Ava's life is affected in every way the day her older sister Kesley goes missing. There was never a body found, or a Kesley sighting...so the family has so many what if's and fears running through their minds.

Frayed is a book I would categorize as a Mystery which as you know is totally my thing! The story is told all through Ava's eyes, partly in first person, and partly as a letter she's writing to her sister Kesley that is weaved throughout the story. I really enjoyed the letter portions of the story, I felt like it made the story different and gave it a bit of a psychological aspect as we got more into Ava's head and her personal world.

I really enjoyed this book, the pacing was well done in my opinion, and as I got to the last 50 pages or so I was flying through the book to find out what happened. I read it in one sitting, staying up until 4 am when my eyes were hurting and begging me to put the book away and turn the lights off.

The ending was so explosive for me and to this day I am still reeling from it. Even after that last page I still couldn't sleep..I was DYING to talk to someone about the ending, I was so stunned! When you've been an avid reader for years, storylines, character's, plots, etc can be pretty predictable and you can usually tell where the story is going. I loved that Kara Terzis completely stunned me with Frayed. This book held my attention from the beginning to the explosive ending and I highly recommend it!

Review: Library Wars: Love & War #1

Library Wars: Love & War #1 by Kiiro Yumi

Release Date: June 1, 2010
Publisher: Viz Media
Source: Library
Format: Finished Copy
Pages: 186
Amazon  |  Goodreads


In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves--the Library Forces!

Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Defense Force ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore when she was younger. But now that she's finally a recruit, she's finding her dream job to be a bit of a nightmare. Especially since her hard-hearted drill instructor seems to have it in for her!

                                                                                                   
                                                              

I've really been enjoying Manga lately, so I went to my local library to pick up a few new ones. I stumbled on the series Library Wars and I was instantly intrigued. I grew up going to the library every week, it was our family outing every Friday when my Dad got home from work. And afterwards we'd all pile in the car with our picks for the week and we'd head to our favorite burger joint for burgers and ice cream. I have such fond memories of those nights. 

Library Wars is set in the future (think dystopian!) in Japan where the government has created a committee to basically censor all media. They swoop in and confiscate anything they feel is inappropriate or threatening. They can drop in anywhere, at any time, and snatch up someone's beloved book. Seriously, I'd go crazy! 

The Libraries form a group to protect themselves, a military group called the Library Defense Force.  Our main character Iku has always dreamed of becoming a LDF and this book gives you the background on why this is so important to her. We also learn who the LDF is and follow the new recruits as they go through their military training.

I really enjoyed this Manga, to me the story was original and entertaining. I could just imagine myself feeling exactly like Iku and protecting my beloved libraries collection! The art was great, although I did find myself a little lost from time to time. However, I am really looking forward to continuing this story very very soon. 

Waiting on Wednesday (36)

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

Lily Bennett is less than thrilled to be the new kid as she starts her junior year in high school.

But soon after classes begin, she meets a classmate, Cole Drepeau, with whom she forms an immediate and intimate bond. As Cole and Lily grow closer, Lily learns about the murder that divided the town more than thirty years before. In 1985, graduating senior Amber Greeley snapped, killing her boyfriend Ben—Cole’s uncle—and taking her own life.

Lily feels inexplicably linked to Amber, and she can’t help but think that there’s more to the girl’s story. Determined to investigate the truth about Cole’s uncle’s death, Lily and Cole are pulled into a dark mystery—one that shakes the constraints of the world they’ve always believed in.

Masterfully told by best-selling author Victoria Laurie, this novel alternates voices between Lily and Amber, a generation apart, as decades of dark family secrets and treacherous betrayals are woven into the most epic of love stories.

Ahhh!!! The gorgeousness that is this cover! I am so psyched about this book. Gorgeous cover, mystery, suspense.... you guys, I need this one. NEED iiiiiiit! 

I absolutely can't wait to read Forever, Again by Victoria Laurie. This gorgeous book hits stores on December 13th with Disney Hyperion and I literally can't even!!!

What are you eagerly anticipating? I'd love to know so don't forget to share in the comments. If you participate in WoW make sure you leave your link below so I can stop by and check it out!

Happy Reading!

XOXO

Review: Shipwreck Island

Shipwreck Island by S.A. Bodeen

Release Date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC
Pages: 192
Amazon  |  Goodreads


Sarah Robinson is deeply troubled in the wake of her dad's second marriage. She now has to deal with a new stepmom and two stepbrothers, Marco, who is her age, and Nacho, who's younger. Even though they've all moved from Texas to California to start life as a new, blended family, none of the kids seem remotely happy about it.

Sarah's dad and stepmom then decide to take the whole family on a special vacation in order to break the ice and have everyone get to know one another. They'll fly to Tahiti, charter a boat, and go sailing for a few days. It'll be an adventure, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.
                                                          

After many, many years of avoiding Middle Grade like the plague, I have come to LOVE it! Looking back I wish I hadn't turned down all those review requests for it. So now that I'm a huge fan I'm always on the lookout for a new Middle Grade read.  I pulled Shipwreck Island off my shelf and enthusiastically dug in. I voraciously read through S.A. Bodeen's the Raft in previous years and was so looking forward to this one.

While it wasn't quite the home run for me that her YA novel, The Raft, had been, I enjoyed this quick MG read. The main character Sarah is having a horrible time adjusting to her father remarrying and having 2 new brothers in her life. To try to help the family adjust, their parents decide to trade in their first class tickets into economy tickets for the whole family. What once had been a honeymoon cruise turns into a reluctant family vacation for FIVE!

Right off the bat things start to go awry, and the family is really tested as they struggle to deal with everything. As I mentioned before, this wasn't quite the big hit that the Raft had been for me, but I still enjoyed this. Mixed families are extremely common and I thought it was both realistic and relatable for teens reading it. As I popped onto Goodreads to gather info for my review, I was really happy to see that this is a series with book 2 and 3 already out. I am looking forward to picking those up and continuing the story of Shipwreck Island.

Have you read this book, or the Raft? What did you think? I'd love to know your thoughts, so let me know in the comments!