Tempest Winner

And the winner is….

Congratulations!  Thanks to Random.org for providing the means to let me randomly pick a winner and thanks to everyone who participated.  Keep an eye out for my next giveaway!

*Review* Split – Swati Avasthi

 Split

 Swati Avasthi

280 pages

ISBN: 9780375863400

Read 3-29-12

Source: Library

Format: Audiobook

Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.
     He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.
At least so far.
     Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again?

     This book was surprisingly a lot more than I expected it to be and not what I expected it to be as well.  I guess I have been reading so much fantasy, science fiction stuff lately that I didn’t expect something so very realistic and tough.  This book is so well-written and the author can say so much with a sentence of so few words.  The words are strong and stir up so much, whether you read it or listen to it.  The author captures the ugliness of domestic violence in the pages and then pours empathy throughout your body with the words.  It hurts you, too, not just the characters, and you are there for every bit of Jace’s struggle.  The title has so many meanings, it’s hard to keep count.
I am not going to lie, this book deals with a very difficult subject, and as I was listening to it, there were parts where it was hard to keep listening because I wanted to just turn it off and try to wipe the ugly picture from my head.  It makes you mad, and breaks your heart, and gives you hope.  I wanted to hit Jace, I wanted to tell him everything was going to be ok, and I wanted to hug him.  His brother Christian doesn’t make things much easier for him at first, but luckily he opens up about things slowly.  I really liked Miriam because she is the character who wants to be there for you no matter what and keeps believing that everything will be ok, even if it may take a lot of time and she never gives up.
There is so much substance to this novel.  It’s so thickly wrapped with so much, it is almost a tangible thing.  The author did a superb job showing the characters’ emotions and the reactions they had were incredibly realistic.  Everyone in the book felt like a real person.  If I were to go to Albequrque right now, I would expect to see them there.  And speaking of Albequrque, the way the story read, I think the author may have been there before.  I went there in about 2008, and I recognized some things in the book that was familiar with this area of New Mexico, like the weather.  It was funny when they rode the tram because I could say “Hey! I’ve done that, too!”  I recommend this book for people who can read about tough topics and like powerful and moving novels.  This is my first “issue” book I’ve read, and I really have no negatives for this book.

A dynamic story, awakening to the subject, realistic, strong writing, intense, I can’t find anything negative from my point.

Top Ten Tuesday (11)

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week a new top ten list is posted, and to participate all you have to do is fill in YOUR top ten for the list.

This week the topic is:

Top Ten Books I Would Play Hooky With

1.  The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins : If I could, I would totally call out sick from work just to read this book, as well as the other two.  I just saw the movie and absolutely loved it!  Now I have to read the books.

2.  Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins : Because I have heard nothing but good things about it, and it will probably be one I won’t want to stop reading!

3.  Fever – Lauren Destefano : Read the first one, just bought the second one and am going crazy to read it.

4.  The Wicked Lovely series: I’ve only read the first two, and I think it’s sad I haven’t finished them yet 😦

5.  Cinder – Marissa Meyer : This book is way awesome and definitely worth spending a hooky day to read, or reread!

6.  Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling : Because Harry Potter is awesome. Period.

7.  Pandemonium – Lauren Oliver : I must know what happens. NOW!

8.  Any Sarah Addison Allen book : because her writing style is worth the hooky day.

9.  Forgive My Fins – Tera Lynn Childs : This series is so fun, that it yells at you to take a hooky day with it.

10.  The Iron King – Julie Kagawa : I’ve heard how very awesome this series is, and am pretty disappointed I haven’t started it yet.

So what books would you like to skip a day of work or school for?

In My Mailbox (8)

 In my mailbox is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren that lets us share our bookish finds!

I have noticed a trend that I have been buying books in pairs lately, so I have two more today!  This week I purchased:

Fever – Lauren Destefano

Gardens of Kyoto – Kate Walbert

I am very excited to read Fever.  This one has a wonderful cover as well.  I’m glad they kept the cover artist that did the Wither cover and I can’t wait to see the cover of the final book from the Chemical Garden series.  Gardens of Kyoto was another I lost from the flooding, and I think I have only one more to buy to have all my books replaced from that mess!

*Review* Tempest – Julie Cross and Giveaway

 Tempest

Julie Cross

352 pages

ISBN: 9780312568894

Read 3-22-12

Source: LibraryThing

Format: ARC Paperback

 The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

Time traveling books aren’t ones I normally read, but this one sounded pretty interesting, so when I saw it on LibraryThing‘s Early Reviewers list, I just had to request it, and luckily I won it!  Time traveling in this book is different than the time traveling in a lot of things you see; it actually talks about separate timelines and such.  The cover grabbed me when I saw it also.  The storm in the background with the lightening fit really well with the title, and it ties into the book, too.

At first, it kind of took me a little while to get into the book.  I’m not really sure why, but it could have been because I wasn’t used to reading this type of book. But as I read it, it became more and more intense, and I flew threw it once I was really hooked.  The book is a constant struggle for Jackson, and his character becomes so different after everything he goes through, so there is a lot of character development.  I really liked his computer nerd friend, Adam, for some reason.  He’s a good friend to Jackson and is fascinated by science stuff.  Holly I wasn’t too crazy about at first because she just didn’t click for me, but that changed as well.  There was also a really good emotional scene, but I was surprised by the lack of emotion in some spots.

**SMALL SPOILER ALERT**  I don’t know how CIA stuff is usually done in books, but my only real complain is that the CIA stuff in this novel just didn’t seem as believable as it could have been.  It may be just me on that one, but somethings just seemed to simple.  Like agents giving up secrets way too easy. **END OF ALERT**

All in all though, I enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to find out what happens next, especially after the ending.  I like the way it ended and am anxious to see what’s next.

Intense once it gets going,  good emotions, enjoyable characters, could have been a bit more believable with certain areas.

Now for the giveaway!!  If you would like to win Tempest you can fill out the giveaway form here.  The giveaway is international and ends next Friday (March 30th) at Midnight.  The winner will be chosen via Random.org and as always, being a follower is not required, but you do earn extra entries if you follow me!  Good luck to everybody who enters!

Top Ten Tuesday (10)

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week a new top ten list is posted, and to participate all you have to do is fill in YOUR top ten for the list.

This week the topic is:

Top Ten Books on Your Spring To-Be-Read List:

1.  Incarnate – Jodi Meadows

2.  Pandemonium – Lauren Oliver

3.  Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

4.  A Temptation of Angels – Michelle Zink

5.  When Copper Suns Fall – KaSonndra Leigh

6.  The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

7.  Crossed – Ally Condie

8.  Destined – Jessie Harrell

9.  The Darkening Dream – Andy Gavin

10.  Fever – Lauren DeStefano

Hopefully I’ll be able to get them all read quickly, I have so many books I am wanting to read!  So what is on your Spring reading list?

Musing Mondays (4)

 Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  Each week we will get a fun reading related question to answer.  This week Musing asks:

Would you choose to review a book if its description sounded interesting but the cover was terrible?

Yes, I still would even if I didn’t like the cover.  I usually read books that catch my eye, but you just never know what you might miss if you choose to neglect a book based on the terrible cover.  The outside may not be pretty to look at, but the inside might be one of the best works ever!  Kind of like the cookies that your loved one makes which aren’t pretty but taste wonderful.  I have been very drawn to a cover before, but was not impressed by the story unfortunately, so I am willing to try them even if they aren’t great covers.

In My Mailbox (7)

 In My Mailbox is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren that lets us share our bookish finds!

This week I bought four additions to my library!

Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

Torn – Amanda Hocking

Broken – Travis Thrasher

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

I’ve heard so many very good things about Anna and the French Kiss that I had to go and get this book.  I am very excited about reading this one!  Two of these books, The Color Purple and Broken, I had to buy again because of flooding at my house.  I lost a bunch of books and writing magazines to the flooding, and to top it off, the renovation company took them and destroyed them after they were going to try to “salvage” them without telling me they were destroyed!!  I was so mad.  Thank you to the insurance company for sending me a check to replace my ruined books even though they never got the book list from the slack renovation team.  I can’t wait to get the rest of my ruined books replaced!

*Review* Delirium – Lauren Oliver

 Delirium

Lauren Oliver

441 pages

ISBN: 9780061726828

Read 3-13-12

Source: Library

Format: Audiobook

 Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

      This is a wonderfully fresh kind of book to read.  This is an idea I have never seen before and couldn’t wait to read.  Love a disease? Immensely original!  The world in this book is so ugly; people who are cured make it seem so great, and for a long time Lena thought it was great, too, until she learned the truth and saw how ugly the world she lived in was.

The author does such a great job with her words.  The descriptions are fantastic and the reader for the audiobook version I listened to did an absolutely wonderful job bringing the book to life as she performed it.  I loved how Lena changed so much from the beginning to the end.  She was so much different by the end of the book; love certainly does change you.  I would have liked to have seen a bit more from Alex, though.  For some reason I didn’t connect with him as well.  He just wasn’t the dreamy book boyfriend I was hoping he would turn out to be.

I’m not crazy about people on the covers of my books, but this one was a great cover and I loved the colors, which make me think of spring.  I like the cover for Pandemonium even more and it reminds me of the fall.  There was a couple of twists in the story, and I can’t wait to see the outcome of them!  The writing of this novel swallows you up and keep you glued to the same place for a while and you feel so much emotion right alongside Lena.  My heart hurt at so many points in this book and others made me angry and others made me smile.  It was up, down, up, down.

Rollercoaster of feelings, wonderful description, unique plot, didn’t connect to the main male character.

In My Mailbox (6)

 In My Mailbox is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren that lets us share our bookish finds!

Only two for this week again!

 

 

Bought:

Pandemonium – Lauren Oliver

Just finished Delirium and can’t wait to read Pandemonium.

Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

I love the Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Classics!  They are absolutely beautiful!

I try my best to do this meme on Sundays, but I swear, it just never happens!