Daughter Of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

This blog for this book might be the hardest one I've had to write about a book that I've read.  It is going to be so hard to put everything into words, but I'll try!  So if things start sounding a little confusing....SORRY!!!  There were times while reading this book that I had to say, "what the hell?" and just keep reading.  Laini's writing is a bit complex and confusing at times, because it tends to go from past to present and also have flashbacks.  It was a long one at almost 400 pages.  You are thrown into the story head first when you begin and it's a bit confusing at first and takes a little while to get your bearings on the story.  But once you do it's such a good story.  I can't help but wonder what kind of dreams Laini Taylor has to write such a fantastical tale.  In short it's about a Chimaera and an angel who fall in love and "hope" to change their world.  But angel isn't the usual "angel" you normally think of in regards to heaven.  There is actually another realm which is call Eretz where they are from.  Things are very complicated and in their world they are raised to be mortal enemies and warriors who are to go into battle to face each other and strike each other down on sight.  The battle against the Chimaera and Angels goes so far back that no one even really knows what they are fighting for.  Add onto that basic story a bunch of complications of personality, past and upbringing and it is a very intriguing story.  Laini was genius in how she steadily builds upon her story in her writing and even though it had all the twists and turns, it was definitely worth it come the end.  And she drops a BIG one on you at the end!!!! And as always I won't be giving anything away! But she does leave it WAY open in the end so you can expect another one in this series to come, but I wouldn't expect it anytime soon since this one just recently came out.  Don't expect this one to be just a leisurely read, you'll have to pay attention to what you're reading and it will definitely be worth your time.  If you're not a usual reader of the supernatural or fantasy genre you might have trouble with this one.  I would think you'd have to have an open mind to this book as its pretty eccentric and "different".  Very happy reading with this one!

PERFECT CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!!!!!!

BIG THANK YOU TO MY HUBBY! He bought me a NOOK COLOR for Christmas and I absolutely love it.  My first generation had nothing wrong with it, but I guess it was time for an update since I read so much.  I think he bought it so I could turn off the light while I read so he can go to sleep!!! The first generation is black and white.  The NOOK color is color of course, but the best part is that it's backlit so I can read without turning a light on!  YAY!  Love you hubby=)

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

I needed a quick pick during the holidays while I was out of town.  I underestimated my reading time on The Future Of Us and I didn't bring my nook with me.  So I had to make a run to a Hastings.  This one grabbed my attention because it was about the fey and I absolutely loved the Fragile Eternity series by Melissa Marr so I figured I'd give another faerie book a try.  Plus it was only $3.99=)  But anyways, I finished it in two days, it was REALLY good.  AND it is part of a series!  We all know I inadvertently love series=)  But this is about a normal girl who loves acting, so she finished high school early and moved to New York to pursue it.  Kelley soon finds out she is the offspring of Faerie Royalty and her adventure begins right of the bat.  It was a great story.  Adventure, fantasy, a little bit of fighting, and an underlying romance story throughout the entire story.  I don't want to give too much away...surprise right? It does end fairly well for a series though, it's not a complete happy ending, but the loves story is what leaves you wanting more at the end.  So I'm off to download the next book, Darklight!  Be back soon!

The Future Of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

The summary or "attention getter" for this book is what drew me in.  It is a story I've never heard of anyone writing, not like your typical book you might pick up.  It's set in 1996 when AOL just came out along with cell phones and the internet.  Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives.  Josh gets a CD in the mail for 100 free AOL hours (sounds familiar right?) and decides to give it to Emma since he doesn't own a computer yet and his mom doesn't approve of internet surfing.  Once Emma downloaded AOL, she's automatically logged on to Facebook.  Facebook hasn't been invented yet!  But yet Emma & Josh are watching 15 years into the future as their future selves post things as they happen.  Emma doesn't quite like her future and figures out that the smallest change in decisions alters A LOT.  Josh likes his future at first but then he really starts to think about it....does he really want that kind of perfect future?  This book was an awesome story of two kids next door being the best of friends and experiencing love throughout high school along with fitting in and trying to painfully figure out what the most important things in life should really be.  It was really good, but I would say it should be at a high school level and older.  It has a lot of language in it and it talks about sex a lot, although no one actually has it.  It's your typical teenagers in high school though so the things they say are what is really said.  It's a flashback though!  I had to laugh at all the things that were referenced in this book, it made me feel so old!  Happy Reading!!!

Divergent by Veronica Roth

This book was recommended by my Library sidekick. She absolutely loved it and said I had to read it.  I absolutely LOVED it. If you loved The Hunger Games, you'll love this book. It's in a post apocalyptic environment where the government and society has completely changed.  You can't help but fall in love with Tris and Tobias and hope they end up on top.  There's A LOT of action with brutal fighting and continuous running and overcoming obstacles.  It's also a book that makes you think and it makes you wonder if you or anyone you know would even survive in the type of environment they are faced with.  The love story was great and blended well with all the brutal fighting and mystery of the story. I really hope there's a sequel to this one and a movie! Even at the end I was wanting more and to not have the story end.  I will definitely be looking into reading other books by Veronica!

Ascend by Amanda Hocking

Ok, you probably all think I'm a crazy book nerd!  Remember me telling you in my last blog how good this series was? HA! I'm so sad that the series is over.  Everything culminates in this book, probably because it was a trilogy and it was suppose to....BUT, still so sad.  Storyline TOTALLY surprised me.  Took another twist and turn and had me talking out loud to myself and the book.  The end felt a little rushed at times, but the epilogue closed all the loose ends.  It was such a great fairy tale story that had suspense, adventure, mystery and of course romance.  The epilogue did leave me wondering what more could happen because it explained what happened a little after everything settled but still left it a little open to start another series maybe.  But Amanda Hocking is one of my new favorite authors and I will definitely be looking into what else she has written!  A few books on my "to read" list right now are Divergent(since it's my friends Kathy's new favorite book), Avalon High, and Clockwork Prince (sequel to Clockwork Angel).  Happy Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Cover For Torn

Torn by Amanda Hocking

AWWWWW!!!! My new favorite series.  Torn picks off EXACTLY where switched left you hanging.  It's actually like Amanda Hocking had written a big story and her publicist told her she should make it into a trilogy.  But back to the good stuff...The romance and suspense builds in this next one.  Wendy finds out her lineage and the real reason she was actual born.  She meets her father and a new interesting character comes in to play a MAJOR part in the drama of her love life.  I'm totally not going to give you any details cause you'd kill me!  But there's a wedding, some fighting and a whole lot of drama having to do with the kingdom of Trylle.  SO good.  These books would make such a great movie.  I would think they'd need to make all 3 books into one movie though.  Sorry, getting excited and sidetracked.  In Torn you find a lot of background info is explained and the reasons Queen Elora, Wendy's mother, is the way she is towards her.  But just like switched this is an AMAZING book.  A new version of a fairy tale that I've never come across.  So it's something exciting and new.  I've already started to read Ascend, the third and final book in the trilogy and it is even better.  I think from the time I've started Switched to the time I'll finish Ascend has been about a week.  I have two kids and it was the last week of working in a school before Christmas break.  For me staying up and reading all of these books and finding any spare time to read them says a lot! You'll want to make sure you have all three before you start the first one cause you won't want to wait to read the next one!  LOVED IT!  I'll let you all know how Ascend turns out....without giving anything away of course;)

DUH!!!!

Ok~

So I'm a tard.  The Trylle Trilogy that I just ready, well just the first book Switched is what I just read.  You know how I said that it was new?  I LIED!!!!!  I just looked on my nook and I already download all three books from seeing it online somewhere.  They're just doing a huge marketing campaign because they've changed the covers.  Just wanted you guys to know, but you should DEFINITELY read these.  They're really good, I'm on the second one and I'll let you know how that was when I'm fnito!

Switched: Book One In The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

This book doesn't come out until January and I got it in the mail early since I'm a book nerd and was on a publishers list.  So I got to read it before it comes out!  IT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!  I absolutely loved it.  For her first book being published, her writing is amazing.  It's fluid and moves really easy and keeps you wanting to read until you're done.  She's introduced a topic no supernatural writer has done that I know of.  You normally think of trolls as huge ugly smelly unfriendly people.  But they're not!  They prefer to be called Trylle.  In the Trylle lifestyle, when babies are born they are switched with newborns that are from "rich & powerful" human families.  Once the Trylle kids reach a certain age, they are brought back to Trylle society.  The human child is raised by a nanny in the Trylle community and are pretty much the bottom of the societies heirarchy.  But Wendy is the main character in this story and she turns out to be the Princess of Trylle.  So she has SO much to learn and all the while she's thrown into a love triangle between her tracker, Finn & the guy she was switched with, Rhys.  The only bad thing is that Amanda totally cuts this book off and leaves you hanging!!!!!  I would almost recommend waiting until all 3 books come out so you can read them all at the same time.  But it is a MUST read!  Super interesting and something totally new. STRONGLY RECOMMEND!!!!!!  Happy Reading!!!

Virals by Kathy Reichs

Fast paced, thrilling, non-stop action, twists & turns!  This was such an awesome thriller/adventure book.  It was different, I haven't read a book quite like this one.  There's an island up north that a University owns & is used for scientific research.  The scientists & their families are the only ones who live on the islands.  The kids are pretty close and have to ride a ferry everyday to the mainland to go to a prep school where none of them fit in.  But the kids dig up some dog tags and start doing research to find out who they belong to.  It leads them to dig up buried remains of a person.  All of a sudden they're being chased by armed men who are shooting at them and they inadvertently rescue a dog who was being experimented on.  The dog contained a new strain of Parvovirus that soon "infects" the kids.  I'm not going to tell you what starts to happen to them, but it gets interesting!  This book would be great for all ages and I would suggest it to read.  It wasn't my absolute favorite genre, but I would definitely recommend it.

Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

I absolutely cannot wait for the movie for this one.  It picked up right where "I Am Number Four" left off.  It will make an even better movie than I Am Number Four.  It was non-stop action, fast paced, surprises along the way.  Pittacus brings in more romance once Sam, John, and six are on the run.  More of Loriens history is explained along with some of its mysteries.  As you read, you'll learn a lot more about six and still have questions.  She's a very mysterious chik, but badass! The actress that played her in the first movie is absolutely perfect for the role.  Things with the garde will start to change and they will all have to adapt to these changes.  The only bad thing is that it TOTALLY leaves you hanging and wanting the next book!  It's a great book for a guy or a girl. I like how the author makes guys and girls to be awesome fighters and equally smart.  Usually in adventure books such as these it's usually a guy that is always powerful and all that stuff.  But this is a great book for guys and girls and I would say intermediate ages and up. I searched for any news of a movie and couldn't find anything but I did find the title of the next book.  Keep your eyes and ears open for THE RISE OF NINE!!  Can't wait!!!!