Thursday, July 31, 2014

Cover vs. Cover: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

This week's pick is...


The Name of the Star (Shades of London, #1)VS.  The Name of the Star (Shades of London, #1)
Hardcover                             Paperback
This shouldn't even be a contest. Paperback wins by a landslide. The Hardcover version is just so...ugly. We have a girl sleeping,a ghost dude (who I at first thought was Abraham Lincoln) who looks like he's watching her sleep, and is she sleeping on the ground?  I don't know what the cover designers were thinking when they put that mess together. Yeah, I can see how it relates to the book, kind of, but it is a mess! The Paperback version is so much better. It has a cool font and the blue color scheme is beautiful. There is the downside that you might not be able to tell that it's about ghosts, but it is still much better than the Hardcover.
Final Verdict: Paperback

Do you agree? Give me your thoughts on which cover is the best!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

REVIEW: Feather Bound by Sarah Raughley



Feather Bound
When Deanna's missing friend Hyde turns up at his father's funeral to claim his corporate empire and inheritance, she is swept into his glittering world of paparazzi and wealth.

But re-kindling her friendship and the dizzying new emotions along for the ride are the least of her concerns. Because Deanna has a secret – and somebody knows. Someone who is out to get Hyde. And if she doesn't play along, and help the enemy destroy him…she will be sold to the highest bidder in the black market for human swans.

Now Deanna is struggling to break free from the gilded cage that would trap her forever…

Feather Bound is a dark debut reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez's A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, and the twisted truth behind the fairy tale of Cinderella.







MY THOUGHTS
I'm really conflicted about this book.
There are aspects that I actually kind of liked about this book, but there are also aspects that I really didn't like about this book and I just can't ignore.

First of all, I oddly liked the idea behind this book. I've never read about human swans and I think that it's a pretty unique idea. It's weird, but I like weird. I also thought it was pretty interesting that this was a perfectly normal thing is this world. This world is exactly like our world except that some people go through some kind of puberty thing where feathers pop out of their back! Although, it's oddly similar to someone coming out as gay as far as how people react, because human swans are often bullied and there's even cute little pamphlets telling you that it's okay to be a swan. Except sex-trafficking gays is not a thing that you see often (I'm not going to say that it doesn't happen at all). And if you steal a gay person's hair, they won't become your slave (like what happens when you take a swan's feather).
Anyway! I actually kind of thought that the idea of human swans was interesting! But, of course, the book hardly ever focuses on the swans.
THIS BOOK IS ABOUT BLACKMAIL.
Seriously, the entire book is about people blackmailing other people and I just can't stand books like that.
Books about blackmail just make me angry at everybody and how am I supposed to enjoy a book if I'm so angry?
There was also way too much sexual content in this book for my liking and most of it the book would have been perfectly fine without <highlight to view spoiler>Did we really need that thing with Anton and his stepmom? *shudders*<end of spoiler>

IN CONCLUSION
I was fully expecting a fairytale like read. It's mentioned in the synopsis. There's even a praise on the back of the book that says "This how fairytales should be written in the 21st century." But this book is not a fairytale read, it's a book about blackmail. If this book had more focus on the swans and more of a fairytale quality, then I would have enjoyed it so much more. But no, it's about blackmail and unnecessary content, which makes me very sad.

I hereby give this book
2 Wheels
Meaning: It was okay

Waiting on Wednesday: Ensnared by A.G. Howard

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, where you talk about whatever book you are IMPATIENTLY WAITING for!

This week I am waiting for...



Ensnared (Splintered, #3)
After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles... and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world—a parallel dimension filled with mutated and sadistic netherling outcasts.


In the final installment of the Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But even if everyone succeeds and comes out alive, can they all truly have their happily ever after?
Release Date: January 6th 2015    Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble





Why am I waiting?
I am really surprised that I haven't featured this book yet! I am OBSESSED with this series! And after the cliffhanger at the end of Unhinged, I really need this book. (in fact, that cliffhanger inspired the Goodreads shelf called I Need This More Than Air)

What book are you waiting for this week?

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

REVIEW: Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon



Take Back the Skies (Take Back the Skies, #1)
Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya. She’s one of the privileged – she has luxurious clothes, plenty to eat, and is protected from the Collections which have ravaged families throughout the land. But Catherine longs to escape the confines of her life, before her dad can marry her off to a government brat and trap her forever.


So Catherine becomes Cat, pretends to be a kid escaping the Collections, and stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. As they leave Anglya behind and brave the storms that fill the skies around the islands of Tellus, Cat’s world becomes more turbulent than she could ever have imagined, and dangerous secrets unravel her old life once and for all . . .






MY THOUGHTS
I feel so awkward.
The average rating for this book on Goodreads is 3.27.
Almost every review I see for this book is a negative review.
But I absolutely loved this book.
When I was reading this book, I was very confused by this. I kept seeing this amazing and imaginative book, while a majority of people would see the opposite. Sometimes, when this happens, a seed of doubt plants in my brain and I begin thinking that the book wasn't as great as I thought. But this time, I'm sticking to my original thoughts and feelings on the book. I remember how much I enjoyed reading this and seeing bad reviews shouldn't change that.
Anyway, just wanted to get that out of the way.

I originally wanted to read this book due to multiple reasons.

  • The awesome cover
  • Gender-bending
  • The fact that the author is young
  • The awesome sci-fi premise
This book was actually better than I expected (mostly because I had very low expectations due to the ratings). I thought this book was very imaginative! This book was not only a sci-fi, but a fantasy as well. The author had to come up with the fantasy world as well as the sci-fi elements and the imagination involved in that is astounding!
And I was incredibly engrossed in this book. There was so much happening and I was really interested in what was going on. Sure, some parts were slow, but that oddly didn't bother me.
And, of course, I also loved the gender-bending (although I wished it lasted longer!)

The only issue I had was the ending. I hated the ending. 
I hated the last chapter because of a certain thing that happened <highlight to view spoiler>Did Fox really have to die?!?!<end of spoiler> But my main issue is the Epilogue. I felt that it was pointless, unnecessary, and honestly didn't fit in with the rest of the book. I also pretty much already knew that what happened in the epilogue would eventually happen, so I didn't really see the point in spelling it out for everyone. I was also under the impression that this would be a series and the epilogue hurt any chance of that (unless there's a companion book).
But, to be honest, I generally hate epilogues.


IN CONCLUSION
I'm in the minority here, but I really did enjoy this book. The idea was interesting, imagination, and a little bit strange. I basically liked everything about this book except the ending. I just can't stand the ending.

I hereby give this book
4 Wheels!
Meaning: It was amazing!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I Own The Most Books From

Hosted each week by The Broke and the Bookish, it's a meme for listing the top ten for everything bookish.

It's been awhile since I've done a top ten post (June), but, to be honest, this is the first top ten that I actually have ideas for all month!
Anyway, a bit of a disclaimer for this post. I READ YA BOOKS (mostly). I ALSO READ NEW BOOKS.
Did you get that? Okay. 
My point is, most YA book series are not extraordinarily long and most YA authors do not have a long list of books written.
Especially since I'm reading new releases!
So, even though I own over 500 books (not including ebooks), this won't be a very impressive list.
It's also going to be painfully obvious that I have some series with holes in them.

P.S. Click the cover for the Goodreads page!

1. Erin Hunter
(28 books)
I was introduced to this series when I was in the 6th grade and while I was definitely a reader before then, this is the series that made me a much more passionate reader. I was OBSESSED with this series! My friends and I would even pretend to be in the Warrior world (I was Goldenfur, the Thunderclan medicine cat by the way. And I still use that name out of habit on practically every website). I stopped reading the series around 3 or 4 years ago, because it was beginning to be repetitive and never-ending, but I still love this series and it was such a big part of my life that I have kept all of the books.

2. Margaret Peterson Haddix
(10 books)
I know, big gap, right? From 28 to 10! Anyway, Haddix is kind of another throwback. I discovered The Missing series when I was a freshman in highschool (maybe earlier. I didn't keep track of when I read what until Goodreads) and I loved it! I love time travel, I even loved it back then, and it was an amazing time travel series! I also loved the fact that there was no romance, which I avoided like the plague at the time. In 2012 I gave The Shadow Children a try and I enjoyed it, not as much, but I enjoyed it (I'm actually STILL working on that series! Only one more left!). And I went to a cheap used book-sale a few months ago, where I got to fill a bag full of as many books as I could and only pay $10, and I got the other two Haddix books. So, a bit of a throwback, but I still read her books so...


3. Julie Kagawa
(10 books-kind of)
I say "kind of" because, as you can see, I have two copies of The Immortal Rules. I bought the original one before they changed the cover and then I later bought the new version to match The Forever Song (And I know I don't have The Eternity Cure! I'm working on it!). But since I really like the original cover, I haven't gotten rid of it.


4. Rick Riordan
(10 books)
Not really a surprise!
Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors!

5. Jennifer L. Armentrout
(9 books)

Jennifer writes so many books, I'm actually surprised that I don't own more from her!


6. Cassandra Clare
(8 books)

Again, not a surprise!


7. J.K. Rowling
(7 books)

Is it really that surprising that J.K. made the list? I just did the 8's, THE SEVEN was bound to appear!

8. Michael Grant
(7 books)

Yes, I know, Michael Grant wasn't the only author that wrote Eve & Adam, but I'm still counting it!

9. Ally Carter
(7 books)

I know that Double Crossed is a novella, but I own it, so I'm counting it!

10.  C.C. Hunter
(7 books)

Just ignore the novella...


What authors do you own a lot of books from?