So Many Books, So Little Time: January 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Sunday Salon- January 27, 2013

The Sunday Salon

Nothing much going on. Just working at school and at Disney. And running. Which has me so tired that I haven't been reading much!

I finished and reviewed the following book last week:

Sever (The Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano

I fulfilled items in the following challenges last week:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 7
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 5
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 6

I am currently reading Eternal by H.G. Nadel and up next should be a tour book that I'll get soon. If not, not sure what I'll choose.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Book Review- Sever

I finished reading Sever (The Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano last night for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy.

With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

So I left off after reading Fever feeling disappointed. I wasn't sure whether or not I would enjoy Sever. And while it wasn't as good as Wither was, it was definitely better than Fever.

There were all sorts of twists and turns in this book. People who I didn't like before became sympathetic characters (except I still don't get Rhine's attraction to Gabriel). I started to like Linden and Cecily even more. And Rhine brought back hope.

And that was what I liked more about this book than Fever. There was hope again.. Not everything was so dark and horrible. Yes there were horrifying parts and yes there were sad parts. But the end was happy. And I always like that! The trilogy wrapped up well and I liked where the story went. It was a roller coaster of a read but I'm glad I stuck it out.

I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.

Sever will be released on February 12, 2013.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 7
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 5
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 6

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

Monday, January 21, 2013

In My Mailbox- January 21, 2013

In My Mailbox: Here's what I got in my mailbox last week

WEDNESDAY

The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern--Bookmooch

Underworld (Abandon Trilogy #2)- Meg Cabot--PaperbackSwap

FRIDAY

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm #3)- Kristin Cashore--gift from friend

Sever (The Chemical Garden #3)- Lauren DeStefano--review for an Around the World ARC Tour

Sea- Heidi R. Kling--PaperbackSwap

SATURDAY

Eternal- H.G. Nadel--review for a TLC Tour

The Sunday Salon- January 20, 2013

The Sunday Salon
So I smashed my bad knee on a table on Thursday. It hurt so badly that I was almost in tears in front of all of my students. So it's all swollen again and bruised. My friend and I ran the Dick Batchelor Run for the Children 5k at Universal. My knee bothered me the whole time but it wasn't as cold as last year so I enjoyed it much more and actually paid attention to where we were running. It was fun! I don't have another race for 4 weeks..boo!

I finished and reviewed the following books last week:

Shadows in the Silence (Angelfire #3) by Courtney Allsion Moulton

Fever (The Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano

I fulfilled items in the following challenges last week:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 5, 6
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 4
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 4, 5
2013 Mammoth Book Challenge: 1

I am currently reading Sever by Lauren DeStefano and if I don't get another tour book then up next is Eternal by H.G. Nadel.

Book Review- Fever

I just finished Fever (The Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano.

From Goodreads:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, Wither, that I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. Unfortunately, I feel like there was a completely different tone in this book. It was much darker (I know Wither wasn't a "light" book by any means but this one was just so dark). And so many scenes like the carnvial and the basement were creepy and disturbing. There was no hope in the book.

And the characters didn't really do it for me either. Rhine didn't seem as likeable to me as she was in the first book. Maybe it was because of the setting and the plot but I saw her as weaker. And Gabriel still doesn't do it for me. He's no better in this book. I did like Maddie however. I really liked how special she was. I just wish I knew how old she was supposed to be (I don't know if I missed that part or what but it would help the image in my head). I liked the orphanage scene though. So many times, orphanages are portrayed as lacking and neglecting. But in this story it was loving and warm.

There was definitely another cliffhanger at the end and it did leave me wondering what was going to happen. I have the next book, Sever, sitting right here for me to read. But I'm a bit weary of it. If the tone is like the first book, then I think I'll like it. But if its the same tone as Fever then I'm dreading it.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 6
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 5
What's in a Name? 6 Challenge: Fire

*FTC Disclosure: I traded this book with a friend.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Book Review-Shadows in the Silence

I finished reading Shadows in the Silence (Angelfire #3) by Courtney Allsion Moulton on Monday night for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

Your strength in heart and hand will fall. . . .
Ellie knows that the darkest moments are still to come, and she has everything to fight for:

She must fight for Will.
The demonic have resorted to their cruelest weapons to put Will in mortal danger, and Ellie makes an unlikely alliance to save him and to stop Lilith and Sammael, who seek to drown the world in blood and tear a hole into Heaven.

She must fight for humanity.
As the armies of Hell rise and gather for the looming End of Days, Ellie and her band of allies travel to the world’s darkest and most ancient regions in her quest to come into her full glory as the archangel Gabriel.

And Ellie must save herself.
Her humanity withers beneath the weight of her cold archangel power, but Ellie must hold tight to who she is and who she loves as she prepares for the ultimate battle for Heaven and Earth.

In this final installment in the Angelfire trilogy, Courtney Allison Moulton brings her dark world of epic battles and blistering romance to a blazing bright conclusion.

While I enjoyed the first two books in the Angelfire series, this book had a hard time keeping my attention. There was too much religion stuff, names of Angels and Demons and things I couldn't remember or keep straight. And there was lots of action but I couldn't remember why certain things had to happen.

I found a lot of the things Ellie said or thought to be cheesy. And I feel like everything came to Ellie too easy. She needed some hard-to-get item from some scary angel yet the angel gave it up easily. She needed to find a relic--she found it and was given it freely. It just seemed all too neat.

Maybe I'm just in a cranky mood, but I was hoping for more in this final book in the trilogy. Unfortunately, I just couldn't stay interested.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

Shadows in the Silence will be released on January 29, 2013.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 5
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 4
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 4
2013 Mammoth Book Challenge: 1

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

In My Mailbox- January 14, 2013

In My Mailbox: Here's what I got in my mailbox last week

MONDAY

Heartless (The Parasol Protectorate #4)- Gail Carriger--Bookmooch

FRIDAY

Obsidian Mirror- Catherine Fisher--for review from publisher

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Sunday Salon- January 13, 2013

The Sunday Salon

On Saturday, my friend and I ran our second half marathon, the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. We dressed up as the Cheshire Cat. We finished 30 seconds over my goal time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. But my Runkeeper app said we ran 0.16 miles more than we did for the other half marathon, but we were 5 minutes faster. So that's good! My knee started bothering me a Mile 1.5 when we went up the first curved overpass. It bugged me the rest of the race, but not enough to slow me down. After I got home I could barely walk though. I had to walk straight-legged, with a limp. Luckily, I felt much better the next day. We have a 5k at Universal next Saturday so we'll see how it feels then. Oh, and we signed up for the Dumbo Double Dare which is a race at Disneyland over Labor Day Weekend. Its a 10k on Saturday and Half Marathon on Sunday (my birthday!)

I finished and reviewed the following books last week:

Dualed today by Elsie Chapman

I fulfilled items in the following challenges last week:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 4
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 3
2013 Debut Author Challenge: 2
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 3
2013 Quick Fix Challenge: 2

I read Shadows in Silence (Angelfire #3) by Courtney Allison Moulton next and am currently reading Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Book Review- Dualed

I finished reading Dualed today by Elsie Chapman for an Around the World ARC Tour.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

Well, this was one action packed book. Which I don't normally completely enjoy, unless it has a lot of character-ness (is that a word?) about it too. Which this one didn't. I never really got West. She was always distant. And usually that puts me off but for some reason, I enjoyed this book.

Maybe it was the premise was so unique. To have another person out there, a twin in a sense, that you have to kill to survive and become an adult. And once you complete that kill, a whole new world opens up to you. Yup, pretty unique to me.

I liked Chord. I liked how protective of West he was, yet he still let her go through with what she felt she needed to. Like I said earlier, West seemed pretty cold to me. I know that she was portrayed that way because of what she went through in life but it still made it pretty hard to feel sympathetic for her. And I find it kind of odd that she was so heartless in killing as a Striker yet when it came time for her own completion, she took so long to do it.

But I'm definitely interested to see what happens in the next book, Divided. There wasn't a cliffhanger at the end of the book and it could easily be a standalone. I'll be looking forward to reading it though.

I gave this book a rating of 4/5.

Dualed will be released on February 26, 2013.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2013 150+ Reading Challenge: 4
2013 ARC Reading Challenge: 3
2013 Debut Author Challenge: 2
2013 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 3
2013 Quick Fix Challenge: 2

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

Monday, January 7, 2013

In My Mailbox- January 7, 2013

In My Mailbox: Here's what I got in my mailbox last week

MONDAY

Shadows in the Silence (Angelfire #3)- Courtney Allison Moulton--review for an Around the World ARC Tour

Lust for Life (WVMP Radio #4)- Jeri Smith-Ready--PaperbackSwap

The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey: The Call of the Forgotten #1)- Julie Kagawa--PaperbackSwap

Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)- Lauren DeStefano--PaperbackSwap

He’s So Not Worth It (He’s So/She’s So #2)- Kieran Scott--PaperbackSwap

WEDNESDAY

Lovesick (Ghostgirl #3)- Tonya Hurley--PaperbackSwap

Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1)- Kasie West--review for an Around the World ARC Tour

FRIDAY

Dualed- Elsie Chapman--review for an Around the World ARC Tour

This Is So Not Happening (He’s So/She’s So #3)- Kieran Scott--PaperbackSwap

Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Sunday Salon- January 6, 2013

The Sunday Salon

I can't believe it's already 2013! For New Year's Eve, we had a pajama party at a friend's house. It was fun times! The WDW Half Marathon is next weekend. I'm excited but nervous about my knee!

I finished and reviewed the following books last week: