Genre: YA

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (93)

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Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

My pick this week:

Waiting on Wednesday (93)Torn Away by Jennifer Brown
Published by Little Brown BfYR on May 6th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Goodreads

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks. When her town is devastated by a twister, Jersey survives -- but loses her mother, her young sister, and her home. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with her only surviving relatives: first her biological father, then her estranged grandparents.

In an unfamiliar place, Jersey faces a reality she's never considered before -- one in which her mother wasn't perfect, and neither were her grandparents, but they all loved her just the same. Together, they create a new definition of family. And that's something no tornado can touch.


Jennifer Brown is a fantastic contemporary author and every time I see a new book of hers coming out I know I just have to have it! I saw this one just recently and just the blurb alone breaks my heart so I think I will need to mentally prepare for it, but I think it will be well worth it!


What are you waiting on?


Review: 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

Posted by on 09/17/2013 • 21 Comments

For an entertaining thriller, 3:59 does a good job. Some of it is overwhelming or far fetched, and specific parts made me cringe, but it’s an action packed read that’s great for a quick thrill.

With a title like 3:59 you already know that this specific time is important to the story. So from the start, the time stamp shown on every page works to keep us on edge as we know that something is coming – and soon. Then 3:59 hits and something bizarre does happen, but we can’t make sense of it quite yet. All we know is it’s ominous, and it’s likely due to her mother’s experiments – meaning science, and alternate universes.

This is when Jo starts coming into the story. First via dreams,…

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Review: A Spark Unseen by Sharon Cameron – Blog Hop, Day 6

Review: A Spark Unseen by Sharon Cameron – Blog Hop, Day 6

Posted by on 09/16/2013 • 12 Comments

With the same atmosphere and wonderfully charismatic characters as the first book, A Spark Unseen is a good sequel to The Dark Unwinding, but I felt somewhat bored while reading it. Even though the pacing in the first book was unhurried, I still found myself entertained by the characters in such a way that I hardly noticed. A Spark Unseen, on the other hand, while it did have the same fun personalities, much of its time is spent expanding the now thicker political layer. Not being a big fan of strong political plots – especially in historical fiction – I had difficulty staying focused during this one.

I can’t say that there is any lack in character atmosphere in this sequel. We have our good old Katharine who…

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Review: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Review: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Posted by on 09/13/2013 • 27 Comments

What an amazing, awe-inspiring book! This Song Will Save Your Life is emotional and beautiful; a story that will bring out your happy-tears by its conclusion!

Once in a while there are books where you get to fully and completely connect to the main character to such a degree that you experience it all as if it was your own story with your own emotions. This was one of those books for me. Elise made it incredibly easy to love her. She’s funny and smart, but she has never fit in with her classmates. She has an artist’s soul, giving all her passion to what she loves; not awarding great importance to frivolous things like fashion or gossip unsurprisingly makes her an outcast at school. The struggles she faces by…

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All Our Yesterdays Tour Stop: Interview + Giveaway

All Our Yesterdays Tour Stop: Interview + Giveaway

Posted by on 09/12/2013 • 15 Comments

I’m excited to have the All Our Yesterdays tour stop by the blog today. I’ve got Cristin over for an interview and then you can enter to win your very own copy! I read this gem a few weeks back and adored it. You can read my review here if you missed it!

Interview with Cristin Terrill Hi Cristin, I’m so happy to have you on the blog today. All Our Yesterdays is awesome and I’m honored to be part of the tour!

Let’s start with telling us a bit about how you got the idea for All Our Yesterdays.

The initial kernel of the idea for All Our Yesterdays came to me when I was watching The Terminator on cable late one night because I couldn’t sleep….

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Thornhill Tour Stop: Review + Guest Post

Thornhill Tour Stop: Review + Guest Post

Posted by on 09/11/2013 • 15 Comments

I’ve got a great guest on the blog today, lovelies! Kathleen Peacock is here today as part of the Thornhill blog tour to talk to us about Werewolves vs Vampires in the most hilarious – and realistic – way! First let’s have a look at what I thought of this gorgeous sequel!

The long anticipated sequel to Hemlock arriving at my door was no doubt the highlight of my week. I greedily tore into it a few days later, bringing me back into the turbulent lives of Mac, Kyle, and Jason. As usual with sequels, I think I would have loved it more had there not been such a large gap of time between reading this book and its predecessor. Things did eventually…

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Review: Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield

Review: Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield

Posted by on 09/09/2013 • 21 Comments

I’m definitely in the minority here, standing out in a swarm of raving reviews. Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy the book, it’s a GOOD book, but I didn’t love it as much as I expected. It’s also a weird review to write because I can see what’s so great about the book, I understand why it could even be a Printz prize winner, but it was just not the right book at the right time for me.

This book has gotten a lot of love from the Australian release under the name “Friday Brown” as it’s an immensely gritty, literary read with layers of meaning and thought provoking themes. Our protagonist has gone to the streets after losing her mother to cancer. A mother who has told her…

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Review: The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

Posted by on 09/06/2013 • 27 Comments

A decent dose of creepy, this was!

The Dark Unwinding started rough for me. For the first quarter of the book at least I had a very difficult time getting into it. My attention kept waning, my mind wandering. I think mostly caused by my own restlessness, though, but surely not helped by the ambiguousness of the plot by that point. It has a strong show rather than tell writing style; while it’s not always easy to initially situate ourselves in a story told as such, it does remain my preferred way of storytelling. I find it works especially well for this type of book, the eerie, gothic style, as it leaves room for our own imagination to creep ourselves out. This is where this novel excels, followed closely by…

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