Waiting On Wednesday [5]

A weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine (thanks Jill ;D)

This book doesn't come out in a LONG time, but I'm so SO excited for it I just can't hold it anymore. And its cover and description were recently revealed. Prepare yourself for this:

Courtney Summers, the Courtney Summers, author of the amazing titles: Some Girls Are, Fall for Anything and Cracked Up to Be,

IS GOING DYSTOPIAN MEETS ZOMBIES MEETS DEPRESSION SYNDROME!

I can't be anymore excited, so without further ado I present you:

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up.

As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, everyone’s motivations to survive begin to change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life–and death–inside.

When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

_________________________________________________

Cover: SOONWORTHY.

I MEAN CAN WE ALL TAKE A MINUTE TO APPRECIATTE THIS GORGEOUS COVER?

*clock ticking*

Ahhh. That was great, that cover is stunning, as soon as I legaly can I will marry it.

Add this book to your goodreads lists

How 'bout you, what are you waiting for this week? :D

[ -In My Mailbox- ]

You all know what this meme is all about right?

No? well, it's about sharing the books you got that week.

I don't usually do this because

a) I'm busy all the time and b) I'm busy all the time, oh wait I already said that...

*awkward silence*

Okaaaaaaaay,

So why did I decided to do it this week?

Oh that's easy, because I got awesome books this week!

3 of them by one of my favorite authors

and 1 of them is one of my 'most anticipated' reads of 2011

and the last is just soooo cute!



First pic (won over at Anna Reads & Joyous Reads via Mike Mullin) [Thank You SO much]:

• Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
• Forget You by Jennifer Echols
• Love Story by Jennifer Echols
• Ashfall by Mike Mullin

And I got one from Netgalley:

• The Juliet Spell by Douglas Reed

I've read all of Ms. Echols Romantic Comedies (LOVE 'em) and I've also read Forget You before (LOVED it too) so I'm so excited to try out the two remaining novels by her that I havent read :D

Ashfall. *swoon* I swear the day I learned I have won a copy of this book was the best day of my life! haha seriously, it sounds sooooo good! I love postapocalyptic books. (It doesn't come out until October 11th but courtesy of Mike you can read the first 2 chapters here)

And finally, The Juliet Spell. As soon as I found out it was about a witch and Shakespeare's younger brother I was sold! Thank God, Netgalley had it, I didn't think I was gonna able to wait until September 27th.

Happy Tuesday!

Review: Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers

Title: Fall for Anything

Author: Courtney Summers <3

Paperback, 230 pages

Published December 21st 2010 by St. Martin's Griffin

Goodreads | Amazon


 

I'm in love with Courtney's writting, seriously in love.

It's so captivating, so raw, beautiful, real and so haunting.

Her third novel is no exception.

Fall for Anything is a novel about a girl looking for answers, the answer to why her loving father commited suicide.

But if you've read Summers before, or if you don't I'll tell you:  This is not your typical grief-post-death-of-a-loved-one book. This is much more.

The story is so interesting, Eddie doesn't know what's going on, her father killed himself and no one knows why, her mom is a zombie that wears her husband's housecoat all the time, Beth (her mom's high school best friend) keeps bugging her about seeing the bright side of life, and her best friend Milo is drifting away from her.

So you can she why she's so overwhelmed, she's falling apart.

That's why when the strange new guy Culler walks into her life saying he was a student of his father, she feels a connection, he misses her father as much as she does. And she sees in him the life saver she needs, an escape of her life. Then Culler finds some clues that might led her to find out why his father off himself, and she accepts Culler's help to follow the clues and try to find out the reasons her father had.

 

Eddie is such a kick-ass girl. She's broken, but she has set her mind to this. And she will find answers. I'm still thinking about everything she did in the book, how she handle everything, I can't blame her for some decitions she made. Even though sometimes they were obviously the wrong ones. My toes still curl at the thought of being in her place, but I would probably have given up in the journey. She didn't. Even though the answers she finds are...
well it's better if I don't spoil.

 

And then there's bestfriend Milo. I loved Milo. I wish I had a best friend like him. He's everything best friends should be. Supportive, loyal and nonjudgemental. He was so brilliantly writen (he's a boy, boys are difficult to write). So perfectly always there, with the perfect amount of loving and care, and concern and scolding. I don't know what would have happened to Eddie without him.

I don't want to spoil anything but I just need to say that Culler... Culler... ARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH.

And as I finished my mind kept wandering to Fritz Perls words, how he said 'the present is all that matters' and I realized never, not in one page, I found myself thinking about what was going to happen in the book, I was so concentrated in the present, my mind was taking it all in, not wandering to what will happen but what is happening. And I've never experienced that before. I'm the kind of girl who speculates and creates theories, and can't help but wonder about the end,  is it gonna be happy?, will x and y be together?, will the answer be given? This time I didn't care, I was engrosed in the present like I've never been. Not even in real life.

This book is fantastic and I don't know what to say to make people read it. You just need to.

Once again Courtney Summers has done it. She wrote a book that's gonna stay with me forever. 

____

And a little random thought:

I just think the song Broken by Lifehouse is perfect for this book.

Well, not totally perfect, but as I read the first few chapters, it popped in my head and I realized it fit very well.

Absolutely loved it!

Favorite!

The week I stopped reading...

For pleasure, that is.

But don't panic, I didn't stop stop,

I'm just taking a break while I slave myself to study pharmacology.

It's my first exam and I really really want to do well, so I'm spending all my waking time reading and memorizing names and therapeutic uses and doses and toxicity and pharmacodinamics and pharmacocinetics and zzzzzzzzzz...

*wakes up*

Urgh fell asleep on the keyboard again, please excuse me while I go refill my coffee mug

Ahhh Thank you.

I'm back, what was I saying? oh yes,

well as soon as I'm done with this I have some books that I will (hopefully) read and review before August is over.

Clean by Amy Reed. I'm soooo excited for this, it's such an original concept, and one of my favorite authors is a fan of this one.

And because I'm working so hard at school ;) , my mom bought me this mini? series.

It's about a mermaid! *happy dance* They really sound like my kinds of books: light, sweet and fun.

 

Well, then.

Enjoy your week! Hope to read you soon!

:)

Follow Friday [6]

Welcome to another Follow Friday on Thursday :D

a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This weeks question is:

Q. If you could write yourself a part in a book, what book would it be and what role would you play in that book?

Well, someone once told me I could make a good book character (and that someone is the incredible author of an incredible book released this year) so I guess I could be one :D,

AND I would like to be in a pirate novel haha

one of those that have a sexy man/woman combo on the cover.

Like this:

never read this before! I swear! haaha

And I will be the rebel girl from a small town that wants to know the world and uses her wit to go by in life. And I'll use my medical knowledge to save someone (hopefully some hot pirate guy), but everyone will oppose to me being a doctor (cause I'm a girl) so I will have to fight the system and find a way to save my little sister from the arena, so I'd raised my hand and volunteer...

wait, are we supposed to write a story here?...

 

Waiting On Wednesday [4] Extra special edition :D

a weekly meme hosted @ Breaking the Spine

This week's "I'M-SO-EXCITED-I-CAN'T-FRIGGIN-WAIT-ANY-LONGER" pick is:

drumroll, please...

Thank you.

The Fine Art of Truth or Dare

By Melissa Jensen.

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that’s just fine by her. She’s got her friends— the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She’s got her art— and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it’s hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they’re dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming
romantic comedy

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that’s just fine by her. She’s got her friends— the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She’s got her art— and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it’s hard being a nobody and havin...morePretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming romantic comedy

________________________________________

Pretty in Pink + Anna and The French Kiss = AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This book is probably the book. The one I'm more anxiously waiting for. I mean just read the description and tell me you don't want to spend the day with it <3.  [Insert cheesy romantic music]... I'm imagining the day we will be together, and we will run along my street, yelling and singing and holding hands until we reach the park where we will roll down the green hills, laughing and celebrating the day we met. (Yes, I realize I'm talking about a book, and no, I haven't been taking any valium).

Yes, yes I hear your pleadings...

Now if you have want to add it to your goodreads list, then do so -----> here.

Review: Ten Things We Did (and probably shouldn't have) by Sarah Mlynowski

Title: Ten things we did (and probably shouldn't have)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by HarperTeen

Goodreads | Amazon

 

This book can be pretty much sumed up in just one word: fun. There was really nothing wrong with it, it was quick and fun and cute.

As you can probably guess from the title, it is about the 10 things April and her friends did while living without parent's
supervision for a whole semester. The part about that "explains" why they're left home alone is actually quite ridiculous (yet funny) but all the things they did are totally believable, (they're teenagers I'm surprised they didn't do worse things).

 

 

The story is told in flashbacks, it wasn't confusing, but sometimes it was annoying. It could go from last night to last year to the last decade :/ The good thing about it though, is that you learned a lot about the main character April and why was she the way she was and why she did the things she did. April was an interesting girl. Sometimes I hated her, sometimes I loved her.  She got me fooled quite a few times, when I thought she was gonna chose a certain jerk over the sweet, smart and cute guy.  It's the first time ever something like that happens to me, I usually can tell from page 1 with whom the girl will end up with, but I was not 100% sure this time.

 

 

What I really loved is that the teenagers in this story were very believable, I love them all, and understand them all. They were the real 'light' of the story. Because even though this book had some new, original concepts; it is still a story that's been told quite a few times (movies, books, tv shows, they've all at some point have had teenagers being home alone).

 

 

A thing I reaaaaally, really liked about this book was that it talked about STDs.

[Minor SPOILER ahead]----> Not only the normal stuff like "Use protection or you'll get an STD" but someone actually gets an STD, chlamydia to be exact. And she was not a promiscous girl, she only did it unprotected a few times, and it was enough.
Because I am a med student, you don't even know how much it bothers me when people are oblivious to things as important as this! Especially when they are sexually active, if you decide to have sex, you should first learn all about STDs and protection, not only birth control. Birth control is important but being pregnant won't kill you: HIV, gonorrhea, hpv, or syphilis WOULD. So get educated.

 

And just to be clear (because I don't feel the point is clear enough in the book) You cannot get chlamydia from the toilet seat, or from a hot tub, they NEED cells to grow in.

This review is short because I need to study (surprise). But even if this is short, it does not mean I didn't like it, it was pretty entretaining, and the brothers in this story were swoon worthy. And what the guy did to be save that cat was totally heroic, and because of that I'm in love with him <3

LIKED IT MORE THAN ENOUGH

Follow Friday [5]

Q. How has your reading habits changed since you were a teen? or If you are still a teen what new genres are you in love with currently?

I've always loved reading, basically ever since I learned how to, I've been reading whatever I find.

I'm still technically a teen (I'll be nineteen next tuesday) BUT I can say my reading habits have been multiplied times 203404 ever since I got into Med School,

I read A LOT school stuff + I read A LOT of books for pleasure = I am really busy ALL the time.

As of my favorite genre, I don't know, I love everything Young Adult :)

Waiting On Wednesday [3]

weekly meme hosted @ Breaking the Spine

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

AWWWWWWWWW! <3

Summer. Vacation homes. Family. Old friends. Reconnecting. Loooooove.

I need!

Taylor's family might not be the closest-knit – everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled – but for the most part, they get along fine. Then they get news that changes everything: Her father has pancreatic cancer, and it's stage four – meaning that there is basically nothing to be done. Her parents decide that the family will spend his last months together at their old summerhouse in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven't actually gone anywhere. Her former summer best friend is suddenly around, as is her first boyfriend. . . and he's much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses, the Edwards become more of a family, and closer than they've ever been before. But all of them very aware that they're battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance – with family, with friends, and with love.

Review: Ripple by Mandy Hubbard

Title: Ripple

Author: Mandy Hubbard

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published July 21st 2011 by Razorbill/Penguin

Goodreads | Amazon

I am really surprised and really shocked by the fact that I totally TOTALLY loooved this book. I've tried another of Mandy's titles before, Prada and Prejudice, and I have to confess I gave up on it after the first 50 or 60 pages. So I didn't know about Ripple, I wasn't sure of what to expect either because I haven't read the description in a long time, and when I picked up the book I didn't know what I was getting into.

The first page, no wait, the first paragraph and I was hooked. It started off amazing! one of the strongest first couple of chapters I've read this year.

You can't help but be enganged in Lexi's story and it's sad beginning. Lexi's voice was suprisingly charming, I've liked her from the first word that came out of her mind (so to speak), she came across as vulnerable yet strong, because she was having a very tough internal battle that was keeping her from her friends and her past life but she managed to stay sane and likable.

The story starts off with a shoking confesion: Lexi killed someone, someone very close to her heart, and now she's in pain, she's confused and lost and worse of all she has no one right now, not even a shoulder to cry on. The person she killed was her boyfriend, Steven, her first love and also best friend to Cole, a guy she never really got to know but now is suddenly everywhere she looks, even in her secret lake.

Why does she need a secret lake you ask? well she happens to be a siren. The kind of mermaid that is dangerous because when she sings, death crosses the path of every men that listens. So the only thing Lexi can do to protect everyone she cares about is shutting herself from the world. But Cole seems changed since Steven's death, he has matured, he seems more caring, more interested in Lexi. He's set his mind in finding out what made Lexi change, and while they get to know eachother, they also slowly start to fall in love.

But then just when Lexi and Cole are starting to give themselves a chance, another boy appears, his name is Erik and he has some news for Lexi, he's a nix, the counterpart of a siren, and he says there's a way to break Lexi's and his curse, they just need to fall in love.

Yeah you read it right, they need to fall in love! and in less than a month that is, because when he turns eigthteen, the game is over. And the curses will never break.

So Erik manages to convince Lexi to start a relationship, she breaks up with Cole because she knew she needed to break the curse if she ever wanted to live a normal life, and Erik seemed so nice, he just wanted to have a normal life too. And they tried it out, it seems to be working for a while, they have a good time but her heart belongs to Cole. She is still in love with Cole.

Another great thing about this book was that it had closure! you really can't imagine how much I appreciate when a book has an ending, a real one. 'Cause lately all the books I read have open endings. But not good open endings, just open endings that leave the story inconclusive, as if to they intentionally leave it that way so they can turn it into a series in the future.

But at the end shoking truths are revealed and nothing was what she thought it was, and some things were simpler than she never thought they could be. And I was blown away!
I'm might be biased because I reaally love mermaids haha no, I swear is not only that but because the story is sweet and charming and not perfect but still amazing enough to be one of my favorites.

Cover love. UFFFFF. I love this cover so much! its authenticity is breath taking, the dress she wears, the outfit he has on, the meaning behing the tree they're leaning into. And the lake behind them. It's just amazing in its rightness.

All through the book I was glued to the pages, even when Lexi was with Erik and my heart was aching because I missed Cole, I could not stop liking Lexi and her captivating story. It was incredible! I never thought I'd like it this much!

The story:

But to me, it's a FAVORITE!

Follow Friday [3]

 It's that time of the week we all love... Follow Friday!a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison at Alison Can Read (:  This week's question: Q. Talk about the book that most changed or influenced your life (was it a book that turned you from an average to avid reader, did it help you deal with a particularly difficult situation, does it bring you comfort every time you read it?).   A book that changed my life (and still does it) is of course The Bible.  And a book that influenced me, well that would be The Mediator series by Meg Cabot.Before I read that series, I read a lot of books BUT when I read the Mediator, I fell in love with books. It opened my eyes to this world called Young Adult literature. I didn't know teenagers could be so cool, and that someone might go through the same stuff as me. I was a goner, those books changed my perception of life. I re-read them all the time.  I particularly remember when the swine flu chaos started... I was in Mexico at the time (where it was supposed to had originated) so the goverment made everyone stay at home for a week, trying to stop the virus from spreading, I remember staying in my room all the time, reading those books and thinking "well, if I'm gonna die, at least I'll go happy" (: 

I even had some dreams where I was kissing Jesse



(Major Character aka HOTTEST MAN NOT ALIVE) and in my dreams we were wearing surgical masks, kinda like this:

Review: The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski

Title: The Sweetest Thing

Author: Christina Mandelski

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published May 10th 2011 by EgmontUSA

Goodreads | Amazon

I don't know what I expected when I first read this book's synopsis. No, wait, I do know. I thought it was gonna be just about food. So I wasn't so sure about it, but since I won it in a giveaway, I thought well let's give it a try.

Dude! I was so wrong!

Turns out I didn't have to worry, this book is indeed about food but it is SO not the focus of it. It goes way deeper. I loved it from page 1 to page 330!

This is the story about a girl who LOOOVES to decorate cakes, her name's Sheridan and she's kinda like a teenage Buddy from Cake Boss (I love that show!) very talented but also completely absorbed by it. The cake decorating, I mean. It's just that she feels closer to her mom while doing so, her mom was a great decorator herself, back when she still lived with Sheridan and her dad, before she abandoned them for another guy.

Only Sheridan doesn't think she really abandoned them, she feels like her mom didn't want to leave her, that if Sheridan finds her (she went traveling the world with the other man) she will come back. So with the help of her lifelong best friend Jack, she starts to track her mom down. There's a problem though, her dad, who is a chef, has been offered to have his own cooking show but the catch is they will have to move to New York to shoot it, and Sheridan doesn't want that, especially not now that she has found a huge clue to her mom's whereabouts and the most popular, most handsome boy in school wants her. Clock is ticking, she must do something. Lots of stuff comes up and Sheridan grows up while learning there's always another side of the story, one she might not want to hear.

Sheridan was stubborn. That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think back. She was stubborn and naive but somehow I liked her pretty much all the time.
Although it was pretty annoying that she couldn't decide who she loved, Mr. Popularity or Best Friend Jack, but I get it, being invisible all your life and then suddenly a
gorgeous boy gives you his full attention, I can definitely understand she would be starstruck.

There was also the issue of her mom, Sheridan looooooved her mom, even though she hadn't seen her in eight years and the only memory of her she has is of her decorating cakes, that's why she does it all the time, literally, she was so caught up in her own baking world that she stopped seeing reality as everyone else see it,

• her dad looooves her to death,
• her best friend is in love with her,
• her mom doesn't want to go back,
• the citizens of her town don't hate her,
• her past friends didn't abandon her,
• she was the one NOT paying attention to the world outside the bakery.

I ended up loving this book, really I can't wait to Winter break (yeah, I'm back in school, so not much time for pleasure reading) to re-read it. This is story is literally delicious. It warms your heart and fill you on the inside. And even though there's a bittersweet ending, I know in my heart everything works out for best. Allow yourself to take a bite of this yummy (yet fat-free) read. Won't dissapoint! It takes it name seriously, you know!

Perfect for Sarah Dessen & Cake Boss fans!

4 hearts <3

Review: No use for a name by Penny Wright

Title: No Use For a Name

Author: Penny Wright

Kindle Edition

Published June 5th 2011 by Penny Wright

Goodreads | Amazon

No Use For A Name is one of those books where you're taken from point to point in the story without actually getting much information so you just jump to conclusions and start rooting for someone only to be left out at the end with so many twists that you don't even know what's going on?

That's exactly what happened to me.

This book is the story of Baby Girl Anderson, a girl who is really poor and has a horrible,, abusive family. And she, being the youngest one, tends to keep a low profile so she doesn't get in much trouble with them. But then one day when she goes to get her driver's license, she finds out that Baby is actually her name, not a nickname, because her parents never got around to name her (she has 4 siblings, Joey, Phoebe, Rachel and Monica *the parents ran out of girl characters from Friends*).

So Baby enters a indentity crisis, she must choose a name for herself, but she's only 15 years old, she says stuff without thinking it through, so when she meets bad boy Derek, she tells him her name is Barbie, the slut; and for Good Boy Grady she's Mary, a nice christian girl.

You can probably guess this lying game gets her in a lot of trouble and very uncomfortable situations, especially because she has no idea with who she should be with.

I didn't hate Baby, even though she made A LOT of decisions I didn't agree with. But she was still very annoying at times. And I also didn't like how "the boys" Derek and Grady were portrayed. I mean Grady was sooooo nice and cute and sweet and Derek seemed like such a JERK, that when the time came for his true confesion I had a hard time believing, actually I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes at it. I rolled my eyes a lot now that I think about it, must have been because there was so much going on, everybody had like 99 problems, they just kept poping out. Although giving the setting and the character's background I guess I must have seen it sooner.

I also must admit, that all the religious and sex talk bothered me a lot, it has a lot to do with why this book didn't quite satisfy me, but maybe it is just what someone out there is looking for, what do I know? It is quick and easy going and has an original plot. (:

But beware: there's a lot of sex talk and religious issues all through the book. It deals with Chistianity, atheism and gay people.