Follow Friday (1)

 This is my first tme participating in Follow Friday and I'm very excited! Because this is my first time I'm going to go through the rules:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - none today.
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button from her post and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow friday hop, comment and let her know, so she can stop by and check out your blog!

The last question of 2010:  What are you plans for this fabulous day? My plans are simple: watch my little 2-year old sister while my mom does some last minute Christmas shopping. Then my grandmother, aunt, and her 2 kids are sleeping over so I have to help my mom clean. Like everything, Except my room of course! ;-) Thanks to any new followers I may get and my old ones! Merry Early Christmas!!

2011 100+ Reading Challenge

This year's 100+ challenge is hosted by Amy J at My Overstuffed Bookshelf! Hopefully I'll do better this year because I only started the 2010 one in May. Good luck and you can enter here. I don't think I have to explain all the details because it's pretty straight forward but you can still enter if you don't have a blog.

Question Thursday

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I created this meme because sometimes I'm curious as to what other bloggers think of blogging and how their personalty reflects their blog by their personal life. I love blogging about book but sometimes you need a little advice or a break. So every Thursday I'll ask a question and you can answer in the comments. Hopefully, if it catches on, I'll add a Mister Linky so you can do your own posts.

This week's question: How do you get the majority of the books you read?

I always wonder if the blogs with more followers are swimming in books from publishers because they're always having giveaways and posting reviews of brand-new books. Are they rich or something? Cuz I get most of my books from the library. I do own a lot of books but I've read most of them. Every once in a while I'll win a book or get a book for review in the mail, though!

Discussion Wednesday

I created this weekly meme because although I love reviewing books, when I write my reviews I can't write all that I want because it would be spoilery. So the point of this meme is to be able to talk about the books I've reviewed during the week in the comments. I'm really excited for this! I hope this catches on, so if you can help me advertise this, that'd be great. Thanks in advance!

This week's books: Torn by Amanda Hocking, Nightshade by Andrea Cremer, Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

First, I want to talk about Torn by Amanda Hocking.

Finn: How many of you were sad at the end of Switched? Were you thinking, why did Finn have to leave? Why can't they just be together???!? Well, I know I was thinking that. So I was so excited when Finn came back into the story almost immediately in Torn! And when they had that moment in her bedroom...sigh. It was great. When Finn was positioned back into the palace after the arrival of Loki, I thought he would be all over Wendy, but alas, he wasn't. I undertood why but a girl reading the book can hope. Then things changed when Wendy becomes engaged. Like Wendy, I was so frustrated that he was all hunky dory about her being with Tove and didn't even act jealous.Then the emotions and hormones were running on high speed and they both just broke. I though it was a great, hot, very well-written scene. And his stupid father had to interupt! Stupid stupid stupid! How can he say anything about making out with a royal!?

Rhys and Matt: The brothers. It was weird how Matt's kind of focused on Wendy and ignoring Rhys but then, when Wendy really does need his help, he's trancing around with Rhys and Willa. It just seemed to me that relationship was falling a little flat. But I did love that they met, and were getting along. And even though it's weird, I'm glad Matt's with Willa.

Wendy: I've always liked Wendy and this book made me like her more. She's the first female character in a YA novel that I actually believe could be real because her actions are real and not just written into the book to further the story.

The King and Queen: They didn't seem like the normal royalty but I think that's part of their charm. I only had one kind of problem with the King--he was so relaxed. It was hard for me to believe anythign anyone was telling Wendy. I feel like they got away too easily and that there was this big thing in the beginning of the book and then nothing happening at the end. The author could be doing that on purpose though.

***

Now Nightshade by Andrea Cremer.

Calla: I think Calla is a great character! She's sassy but sensitive and I think she's really smart. She's a cross between Rose from VA Series and Bella from Twilight. I loved the whole story and a lot of the scenes in the book were pretty steamy, i.e. the club scene and the scene in the bathroom. Was anyone else disappointed when the nurse interrupted and that Calla and Shay didn't have enough time to finish that bedroom scene...?

Ren and Shay: Both sexy and smart. But I always, for some weird reason, love the underdog. This time that means I'm Team Ren just like I'm Team Jacob.

Ending: I can't believe all that shtuff happened! I can't believe she left Ren and he let her leave! I can't believe we all have to wait for another book!

***

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder.

So so sad. I was happy the book started after most of the grieving was going on. I think it would've been too much to read if we had to read through all those emotions. I know I was so emotional and thinking about what I'd do if that happened to me and I can't even imagine it. I knew from reading the description that Brooklyn and Gabe would end up together but I didn't think about the process they would have to go through to get there. I thought the ending was happy and very hopeful and I can't wait to read more of Lisa!

***

Lastly, my mini-reviews!

The Sky is Everywhere: A French guy named Joe? That's all I have to say...

Tell Me A Secet: Like I said in my review, it's not what I was expecting. I think the buzz and the blurb on the book is a little misleading but it's still a great book.

How To Ruin Series by Simone Elkeles Review

I just saw a review at Cem's Book Hideout and remembered how much I loved this series: My favorite of Simone Elkeles' books. These books are so amusing and fun. I'm gonna skip the Goodreads description and just do it myself this time.

Amy Nelson is an American teenager with an Israeli father and a blond mother. She hasn't seen her father in years but now that her grandmother in Israel, that she didn't know existed, is sick, he wants to drag her all he way to Israel for the summer! As if she wants to go to the war country! But she's forced to go and doesn't expect to mature and find out more about herself and her cultural background.

Amy kinda reminds me of Cher in Clueless. She's a spoiled, brand-obsessed American teen who doesn't like getting down and dirty to do work. Nonetheless, I love her. She's hilarous--so funny that she sometimes is so naive I cringe while I'm reading. Not only is this story about love, family, and adventure, it's also about culture. I loved learning about Israel and the Jewish culture. I recommend this series to everyone!!!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. All you do is:


1) Grab your current read and open to a random page.
2) Select a few sentences from anywhere on the page- try not to include any SPOILERS!
3) Make to tell the name of book and the author so others can add the book to our TBR pile!

I turned on him. "And you--you say you want to keep our existence a secret, yet you practically set this whole hotel on fire?" (Page 78)

Mini Reviews: The Body Finder, The Sky Is Everywhere, and Tell Me A Secret

So I was voting on a list on Goodreads and saw that it was Kristi from the Story Siren's list for the 2010 Debut YA and Middle Grade Authors. So here are some mini-reviews for some book I've read and loved butt for some reason I don't remember, didn't review.

Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Ending: 5/5

This book is so original and well-written you can't help but love it. I remember reading this in class for days because I couldn't put it down! Violet is just the everygirl teenager and I felt like I related to her--you know, besides being able to smell murderers and track dead things. And then, like any YA novel, the romance. Jay is a great guy and I wish he was real! He and Violet definetly belong together and I loved the tension and the scenes with them. One of the reasons this book is different is because there's an adult's perspective, in this case the murderer. I think it was great that we got to see his side of things and experience his life--it made the story more rich and real in my opinion.

Rating: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Characters: 5/5
Ending: 5/5

Such a sad topic but a fun, intense read. After Lennie's sister suddenly dies, she and her grandmother don't know how to move on. Lennie's situation becomes even more confusing when she starts having little trysts with her late sister's boyfriend, Toby. But wait, there's more. She's also falling for the new French boy, Joe. They both fufill her but for different reasons. Lennie needs help to accept her sister's death, fgure out who she really loves, and get back to her life of music

 

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot: 5/5

Characters: 4.5/5

Ending: 4.5/5

Like many of the debut novels of 2010, there was a lot of buzz surrounding this novel. I think I was expecting something a little different going into this book. I thought Miranda was really in love with her boyfriend and that the story would be a little darker but nonetheless, the book was great and emotional and I loved it! I cried and was so tense while I was reading this book. I felt so bad for Miranda and wanted to slap all the people who hurt her! My mom was a teen mother so I was wondering the whole time what her experience was like. But I recommend this book to everyone it just might not be what you expected.

Movievision Monday (2)

This is my new, second meme that was originally about all the lovely movies I watch. But then I wanted to also add tv shows too because it seems too repetitive to have movies one day and tv the other. So I might as well put it all together in one post!

Skins: I heard about this show on BBC when they had a promo for it. I had no idea what it was about but, hey, it has British teens so I may as well. After I watched the first episode on YouTube, I watched the rest of the season on Netflix-it's free! Now I'm on to the 2nd season and I couldn't be any more fufilled. I love this show! It's exactly the kind of show we need in the US but I'm sure it wouldn't be alooud because it is kind of graphic and a little inappropriate.

Deadly Women: I'm addicted to this show and it's host station, ID, in general. Iit's so great but you kind of go a little crazy if you watch it all day-like I can't help but do some days. It's basically a crime show that showcases women who've murdered or raped or done something criminal. And the part I like best is they reenact the person's life but don't show the crime. And they also don't show the real person's or the victim's face. Which is great because then you feel a little less like it's real.

Edge Of Darkness: I honestly didn't want to watch this movie because it seemed like a rip-off of Taken with the wonderful Liam Neeson. But I realized it was very different from it but that doesn't mean I liked it. I though Mel did an alright acting job but I didn't believe what he was putting off. The story was pretty good- a father finding out about his daughter's life after she's killed while she's visiting him. Just something about this movie turned me off. Could it be his real life? Maybe.