WWW Wenesday (4)

This is hosted by Should be Reading.  I will answer these three questions for you.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
What am I currently reading? - The Hollow People by Brian Keaney













What did I recently finish reading? - Envy by Anna Godberson


What do I think I'll read next? - Tantalize by Cythia Leitch Smith

Airhead Review

Airhead by Meg Cabot

Publisher: Scholastic

Pages: 337

Genre: Sci-fi/ chick lit

From: Library

Synopsis:

No one cares what’s inside.EM WATTS IS GONE.

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.
How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One devastating accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.
Now getting her best friend Christopher to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems.
But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….

         Ugh, this book was awful. From the very first sentence I could tell how bad it was going to be.  It's like Meg Cabot had this great idea for a book then was bored for the entire time she was writing it. 
         It's really sad because I could totally see the message she was going for, but Meg must have been preoccupied during the actual writing time.  Yet the book was well planned in theme and half way there in plot.
         The characters were very immature but I believe Meg was trying to give the little immature teens someone to relate to as she tried to get them to see that just because someone follows a crowd dosen't mean they are the stupid, mean people we think they are.  We should just all relax, and not care.  Then, someone's true nature will emerge from out prejudged thoughts.
          But this book was so badly written that the message wasn't really as powerful enough and it didn't call me to action because right when the character devolps a little Meg ends the book!
          Great book, Meg.  But where's the real thing, seriously.
Characters: 2
Plot: 4
Suspence: 3
Theme: 4
Pace: 3
Mood: 2
Cover: 4
Overall rating of nerdiness: 3

Sequel: (I'm not going to read it)
Being Nikki

I Won!!!

                                                    

I signed up for a give away at the blog Truth be Told, and I won the hardcover copy of Blessed, also a book stamp, and a memo board.  I'm not sure what they'll look like but here's the book I won!

I haven't actually read the first two yet, but I'll have read those by the time blessed arrives.  I'll post pictures of my prize when it comes in.

Book Blog Hop (3)

This weeks question is: Why do I read YA fiction? What draws me to this genre?

My answer: I like YA fiction because I get to read about teens.  Children are boring to read about and I can't relate to adults so I go with teens, but I prefer the teen who is more mature than the children I used to read about (believe it happens in a lot of books).  When it comes to YA it could be about a kick-ass paranormal teen or a down-to-earth mature novel, or a abstract dystopia novel; anything could happen.  When it comes to kids they just aren't grown up yet so it always a growning-up novel, and with adults all I see my mom read are the crime novels, and I've heard of the romance novels for adults (which I have no interest in.

Meridian Review

So begins the blogging phenomenon of Meridian...

by Amber Kizer

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 305

Genre: Paranormal Romance

From: Barnes and Noble (bought for friend)

Synopsis:

Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.
Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain.
Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos. From Barnes and Noble.

           This book was amazing, it had it all.  I just picked it up at Barnes and Noble for my friend's Christmas present and started reading it to make sure she'd like it.  I was immediately blown away by Meridian's personality.  Then plunged into a strange world where every religion is explained, wolves are loyal companions, and pastors are evil with a movie star face.  Each new scene holds answers to questions, new questions, and the perfect amount of foreshadowing to keep me turning the pages.  With each new page Meridian and the characters around her grow and become 3-dimensional.
           The background info on the Fenestra world is powerful, and provides a different point of view to the 'how do you explain all religions?' question that I've never thought of before.
           When I read the author's bio and now while she would write with a particular scented candle that goes with the book and a particular mood of music.  I though maybe that's why the book was so focused and perfectly paced.  Including the relationship between Meridian and her protector Tens.  The way they reacted to each other and slowly grew together was amazingly real, that it was refreshing to see an author who wasn't so obsessed with the romance of her novel that she forgot about everything else.
           Did you know that people fear death above all else?  I don't fear death and Amber doesn't want you to either.  Her powerful message that things me misunderstand, we fear when they are really not bad things.
           Watch out for this book it could very well be the next "Twilight" (as if it were good).
          
Characters- 10
Plot- 10
Suspense- 10
Theme- 10
Pace- 10
Mood- 10
Cover- 10
Overall- 10- A perfect book.  I can't wait for the sequel.

Sequel: Wildcat Fireflies


Pics from Barnes and Noble.com

Top Ten Tuesday (11)

This weeks topic is Top Ten Most Inspirational Characters.  This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This list is just in the order I thought of them.

1. Ponyboy from Outsiders-  He goes through so much yet he's still the smartest in his family and he's a really deep kid.  I don't think he's the best role model, but the way he is is enough inspiration.

2. Joy from 68 knots-  She's a very spirtual person.  So much so that her dream was to start a church.  She kept the team on track with a few things on their boat trip, and is just a really nice person.

3. Lucy from Narnia- No explaination needed; she's just amazing.

4. Harry Potter-  He defeated Voldemort.  Nope I don't find that inspirational at all.

5. Aster from Just Another Girl- She takes care of her retarted sister 24/7, and she's very spirtual.  She deserves the best -cuss- life God can give her.

6. Peeta form Hunger Games- He's the most compassionate out of all the characters, and he knows when things get tough you have to deal with it, you can't just die.

7. Aaron from The Enemy- when the zombie apocoalpyse turns everyone above sixteen into zombies he gets a group of kids together and organizes them so that they'll survive.  I could only hope with crossed fingers I would act like that.

So I could only get seven, but anyway I'm sorry I didn't do Top Ten Tuesday last  week.  I couldn't think of anything for the topic.  I'll post a review tomorrow so look for that.

WWW Wednesday (4)

All I have to do is answer these three questions...oh!, and it's hosted by Should be Reading.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?-
Flawless by Sara Shepard and Zombies and Unicorns
                       

What did you recently finish reading?
Just Another Girl by Melody Carson



What do I KNOW I'll read next?
Nightshade by Andrea Cramer

Just Another Girl Review

Just Another Girl by Melody Carson

Publisher: Revell

Pages: 221

Realease Date: January 2009

Genre: Realistic Fiction

From: Library (2010)

Challenge: Read Your Name (2010)

Synopsis:

Aster Flynn is stuck. She has to spend all of her "free" time with her younger sister, Lily, who, though fifteen, is mentally handicapped. At age seventeen, Aster should be hanging out with friends, dating boys, and working at a fun job. But her dad's MIA, her mom is always at work, and her older sister Rose is too self-centered to give her any help. It's not that Aster doesn't love Lily--it's just that for once she'd like to be able to be a normal teenager.
So when a cute popular guy seems to take an interest in her, Aster hatches a plan. Somehow she has to get her workaholic mom and deadbeat dad to be the parents Lily needs so that Aster can have a life of her own. But can she ever get her parents to start acting like adults? Is this new guy worth the trouble? And, most importantly, will Lily get hurt in the process?
With its real-life characters and struggles, Just Another Girl will immediately draw teen girls in. Author Melody Carlson knows how to write to girls just where they are.

              In the back of the book it informs me that Melody Carson has also written a teen version of the bible or something called a "devotionals", it shows.  I'm not saying this a book for only Chirstian girls any religous girl or any girl with questions and hard times in your life would enjoy this book.  But for Chirstian girls the fact Aster is a very mature chirstian girl will help you relate to her in a spirtual (awesome) way.
             What a perfect book for a New Year's this is!  I'm really coming up with some great resoulotions for this year by reading this book.  And it's really beautifully written.  This is why challenges are so great because I would have never read this book without the Read Your Name Challenge. 
              I love Aster!  She's so mature: I can really relate to her.  Actually, I love all the characters!  They're so real.  Owen, for example, is a really deep character even though he's "the bad guy" in some scenes; I've met a lot of people like him.  Lily is hilarious!  George sounded like the most religous/deep person I've ever read about/met.  I wish there was a guy like him that I knew (there's no way I'd let him slip through my fingers).  Even though Owen was nice (sort of ), George was amazing and Aster deserves him.
              How many times have you read a book about treating people nicely, or getting to know people, or don'e let someone control your life? How many times was it cheesey or a failed attempt?  This book is that only it's a WIN!  The message is so deep, powerful, and I can relate to it.
              I wish this book was more well known.  Since I just finished Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers I'm going to do a comparison.  They're both deep books, but Some Girls Are is for the girl that's depressed or hates the world.  Just Another Girl is for the mature girl who wants to become a better person.
           (That was a long review)

Characters: 8
Plot: 9
Suspence: 9
Theme: 10
Pace: 9
Mood: 10
Cover: 8
Overall: 9.5- Deep and Powerful

Support Your Local Library Challenge

         This is a challenge hosted by The Book Junkie, and I simply have to put an icon above every book I read this year that I check-out from the library.  I'm signing up for the Jumbo Challenge of 50 books because I get almost all of my books from the library.  So just look out for this icon.

Top Ten Tuesday (10)

This is a meme where I create a list with a topic chosen by the Brooke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is Top Ten Books I Resolve to Read in 2011.

1. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen- been on my TBR list for two years.

2. Last Olympian by Rick Riodan- When this came out I thought "I'll re-read the series before reading this one because I forget what happens."  I actually remember pretty well now that I've re-read the first two, but I still haven't read this one yet, and now that The Lost Hero is out I really need to read this.

3. Leap Day by Wendy Mass- Been on my shelf for a while.

4. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare- MUST READ.

5. Perfect by Sara Shepard-I bought the first three books, and I'm just reading the second one now.
6. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown- been on my shelf.  This covers cool.

7. Avalon High by Meg Cabot- I was supposed to watch it before I saw the movie...oops.

8. Blackheart by Justin Somper-I love this series this is the fourth one, and the fifth one just came out.

9. Knitwise by Elizabeth Lenhard-Last book in the teen girls knitting trilogy.

10. Noman by William Nicholson- This is such a religous book (for all religions because the author created a new one) that really makes you think.  I love this series.