Win a stack of books!

I saw this and wanted to share!  You can win a stack of books by the author Maggie Stiefvater!  She is doing some spring cleaning in her office and has 3 stacks of books to win.  Check it out at her blog.  

Good Luck!!

In My Mailbox Feb 21-Feb 27

This fun weekly meme is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren.  We post our books that we have received through the mail, bought, checked out from the library or bought during the week.

Bought: 

Won: 

From Bailey @ The Window Seat Reader. Thank you sooo much!

From the author, publisher or book tour:









So what did YOU get this week?????

Review: Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Imagine living in a world where loving someone is illegal, where you are paired with the person you will spend the rest of your life with based on the answers to an evaluation you go through, and where when you turn 18 you are given the "cure".



In Oliver's Delirium, the people are regulated by the government. If you are found having physical contact or speaking to members of the opposite gender before you are cured, you are considered infected and sent off to a prison called The Crypts. You are forbidden to read certain books, listen to certain music etc because they are all considered to be part of the infection.


Lena is in her senior year of high school and looking forward to her evaluation, her procedure of cure and being considered "safe". She has always been concerned that she wasn't normal, because her mother never was "cured" and committed suicide over the love she had for her husband.


Lena has always been the good girl, has always conformed to the rules and believed in the cure. That is until she meets Alex. Alex is "cured" so he doesn't pose a threat to her. The more she gets to know Alex and his past, the more she discovers that things aren't as they seem.


I enjoyed this book immensely. It of course has the high school things that you miss after being out of school for years.... the best friend, the sleep overs, getting ready for graduation, anticipating college and teen love. I appreciated how this book was different than so many other young adult books in that Alex and Lena weren't in love with each other after only 2 days. The book also brought in some poems from Poe and Barrett-Browning and plays from Shakespeare... which is always a plus. The ending left off in the perfect place for the second book in this trilogy to pick up and move forward. I can't wait for the next in the series.


This is the second book by Oliver that I have read, and I must say that I am impressed. Her writing is absolutely wonderful. She knows how to write a dystopian story. In both of her books, while I was reading them and after, I have continued to think about the characters in the books and their lives. Rarely does an author do that for me. Oliver is truly one of a kind.

Teaser Tuesday Feb 15

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

My Teaser:  " .......stories of those who died because of love lost or never found, which is what terrifies me the most.  The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't."

Review: Before I Fall

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

4.5 stars

What would you do if you died today...then woke up for the next 7 days to live the day all over again? Would you change some of the things that you have done in the past, would you make amends, would you tell someone that you loved them, would you change??

That's exactly what Samantha Kingston has to decide. Sam is a senior in high school who goes to a party one night only to die. The next day she wakes up again and realizes that she is living the day all over again. She never knows what day will truly be her last.

Sam and her friends are popular, pretty, and have a tendency to pick on other kids. She hates that her little sister is always following her around, she is planning on having sex with her boyfriend the night she dies, she also doesn't like being around her "boring" parents.... typical teenager, right?

I really liked the story itself. In the first part of the book, I didn't care for Sam or her friends. They seemed to be self-absorbed spoiled brats. They would make fun of kids who didn't have money, who didn't dress or act a certain way, they spread rumors about other kids even if they weren't true..... they were just plain mean.

The first two "replays" of the day were kind of slow.... but on the third day, when Sam wakes up, she decides to change some things. The story gets much better after that. By the end of the story, I was "luke warm" toward Sam. She changed in some ways and in others she was still the same. I also liked how Lauren Oliver brought to light the things that teens actually go through.... drinking, peer pressure, depression, etc...

The end of the story leaves some things to the imagination and I thought that it was really well done. I look forward to reading Delirium and hope that I enjoy it as much as I did this one.

Review: Strings Attached

 
****Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

This was the first book by Judy Blundell that I have read. It won't be the last.

Strings Attached is a story of deceit, love, betrayal, murder, New York and gangsters. The story of Kit, a girl from Rhode Island who moves to New York to make it on Broadway, winds from past to present in a way that the story slowly unwraps in front of you. It is truly a page turner. I finished it in about 4 hours.

Kit is trying to make it in New York after leaving her family and boyfriend Billy behind. She has small jobs in a play but is wanting to hit the "big time". She runs into Billy's father one night and life becomes one of tangled secrets. He makes a deal with Kit to help her with some contacts, she only has to do favors for him every now and then.

The story brings to light family secrets, hidden lovers, and the truth that everything comes with a price. 

 

**Thank you to Star Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.  I have received no compensation for this review. It is completely my opinion.

Review: Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand




In reading the prologue to this book, I was hooked.

"Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting."

This is the true story of Louie Zamperini an Italian man from Torrence, California. His life as a rebel child stealing what he could just because he could, the life of a favorite in the Olympic games of 1936, and the amazing life of an army bombardier lost at sea in the Pacific ocean and was declared dead by our government but who spent 2 years as a POW of the Japanese.


I have a fascination with any story that revolves around WWII. As I was reading this book, I remembered stories that my dad used to tell me as I was growing up of his time spent in that war. I also remembered the many times that he was quiet when certain subjects were brought up about the war. This book shed light on why men who served in the American military kept that part of their lives in the past.


The images the story brought to mind are at times so unbelievable that they almost seem fictitious. From the beatings, starvation and degradation that these men faced, this book brings to light many things that were never told or that have been forgotten.


Even though I will probably never get to meet this man, I felt that I have. Between this book and some things that I have found online while reading it, I feel as if I know him to an extent. He is truly a shining light that even one of the most sadistic men couldn't break.


Thank you to both Louis Zamperini for sharing his story and to Laura Hillenbrand for the wonderful story that she has put together about him.


Louis Zamperini is still alive today and at the age of 93, he has done so many things in his life that has helped him heal from the physical and emotional wounds he has endured. The story is one of true resilience, survival and one of a true American hero.



Check out www.louiezamperini.com for some video clips of the man behind this wonderful book. He was featured in the 1998 Olympic Winter games and currently does speaking engagements.

Follow Friday (5)

This week's question:

What is your favorite romance hero-type? Stereotype wise. Do you like the strong silent type or the brute macho man?

This question is a little hard for me to answer since I really don't read that many romance books.  If a romance happens in the book I am reading, that's fine... but for a book that is marketed as "romance" I tend to stay away from it. I'm working on that though :)

Now... for my favorite hero-type...... I think it would be a combination of the two.  Strong and silent when he needs to be and macho when he needs to be........as long as he realizes that I'm tougher than I look and am not really a "damsel in distress" that needs to be rescued :)

Teaser Tuesday Feb 8

It's that time of the week to tease your senses.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser comes from an amazing book that I am reading: 

Teaser: "Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward...........Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons.  Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting."

In My Mailbox (4)

This fun weekly meme is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren. We get to share books that have come into our possession either by mail, purchase, or other. :)

This week I got:

From NetGalley:

Purchased:

So what did YOU get this week????  

Happy Reading!

Blogger Hop (3)

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

"What are you reading now and why are you reading it?"

 I am actually reading several books right now :)  I'm a multi-tasker like that.....

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

I'm reading this as a group read for one of my groups on Goodreads.  It is a true story. 

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight — she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme, and in her case horrifying, skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace — or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

I've heard so many good things about this book.  I figured that it was time to read it for myself. 

Follow Friday (4)

It's that time again!!  Hosted every week by Rachel @ Parajunkee's View.  We all hop around the blogosphere and follow new people or visit old friends while answering a question of the week.

This week's question is: 

What is the book you are currently 'pushing'? (Pushing mean trying to get people to read it)

Hmmmm, let's see.......... the last book that I recommended was

A really cute book that brought in a new take on the young adult world. You can see my review here.

So what book are YOU pushing this week????

Teaser Tuesday (3)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"And again he slept, and woke  up to discover that the windows in the snowy net of frost were suffused with a rosy, burning glow, which shone in them like red wine poured in crystal glasses."

 

Review: Firespell (Dark Elite #1)

Firespell by Chloe Neill





This was the first book that I have read by Chloe Neill, but I have heard good things about her Chicagoland Vampires. This is also her first book in the YA world. I must say that she did a pretty good job.



Lily Parker is your typical teenage girl looking forward to her junior and senior year of high school in NY state with her best friend. Her parents drop the news that they will be placing her in a boarding school in Chicago while they venture to Germany for their work on philosophy.



St. Sophia's School for Girls will be Lily's new home for the next two years. Neill did a really good job with resonating the typical issues that teens face. New school, new friends, mean girls, boys, missing the old friends and finally being accepted.



The story took a little bit of time to take off for me, but about half way through it really took off. Lily has a new friend in Scout, a girl in her suite. Lily and Scout have a really cute relationship and their banter back and forth had me laughing quite a bit. Reminded me of my time with one of my friends in high school. I loved the fact that there wasn't a love triangle, which seems to be the norm right now in YA books. I also loved the fact that the story was something that I haven't seen in YA books lately.



Neill did a great job in setting up each character, but also leaving us with a little mystery. The ending of the story set it up nicely to move into book two Hexbound, which I had to immediately buy after I finished this book.