Waiting on Wednesday (13)

Waiting on Wednesday/s are hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine in which you choose a book or books that you're excited and waiting for.

This week's Waiting on Wednesday book is:

Title: The Darkest Minds

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Publication date: December 18th 2012

Pre-order the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

(Summary from Goodreads)

Why I'm excited for this:

The premise is really interesting and it really does make you wonder what's going to happen. It seems pretty exciting as well, I've always been into those books with rebel groups and such. The cover looks awesome as well!

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Pages: 294 pages
Format acquired: Hardcover
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published on: September 18th 2012
Source: Received from publisher for an honest review (Thanks, Christine!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. House party.
White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

(Summary from Goodreads)

Review:

I just finished reading Ten yesterday and it took me about an hour or two to finish this book and I can honestly say that this book is piss-in-your-pants freaky. The really funny thing is that a few of my blogger friends were already warning me of what was going to happen but I can honestly say that I was not prepared for what I went through.

Ten is pretty much your typical mystery/suspense/thriller novel where you basically suspect everyone as the killer (which I did,) but what really sold me about the book is the was everything was executed. The way Gretchen McNeil put everything together and created such a freak-out-worthy book because trust me, I was definitely freaked out. Especially since I watched the book trailer and realized that it did have a role to play in the book. A BIG role to play. (I've attached the trailer so that you can see it for yourself.)

While I thought that there were parts that were predictable, there were also moments where you will get so shocked that you'll literally just feel your heart stop. And I really appreciated those moments since I haven't read a book that has affected me like that in, well, forever. My mind was literally telling me to. just. stop. reading but I just couldn't bring myself to. It was too good yet I knew that if I continued on, I might actually risk a heart-attack.

Ten is definitely filled with a lot of stereotypes (mostly for the horror movie ones,) we have the jock who the is basically the leader of the pack (and acts as the insanely hot guy we can all crush on, I mean every horror novel has to have a bit of romance, right?), the best friend who always demeans the protagonist (her best friend,) we have the insanely huge d-bag who just doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and many more. I think the characters do play a big part in making this book a success because they're what gives the book flavor. Lots and lots of different tones and tastes. They're the ones you have to watch out for after all.

There were times where I was tempted to just flip to the back part of the book and read who the killer was but I was able to stop myself, barely. It was the anticipation that really wracked my nerves, the fact that you really don't know who the killer is and you're just guessing  and guessing. I honestly did figure it out at a point but then I changed my mind because I literally just suspected everyone and I really wasn't sure who it was going to be.

Other than the insanely gruesome deaths of the characters and the fact that there's a killer on the loose, there was still an underlying plot beside all the other chaotic things. I think that Ten really dealt with the issue of insecurity and not measuring up to people's standards and as well as being left behind by your best friend, really well. I could really sympathize with Meg and I honestly felt bad for her. If there's one person in this world who needs a break, it's her. Yet amongst all these problems, she still held fast and stayed strong and awesomely enough, Meg isn't one of those really cliched witty/snarky heroines. Nope! Meg is a lady of a few words and when she did speak, brilliant things came out and I loved her all the more for it. Meg was the voice of reason in this book and she really was the beacon of light.

All in all, I absolutely loved Ten. I'd definitely recommend you to read it while it's dark out and you're alone (it really adds to the effect.) Ten is the perfect Halloween read and if you want something to satisfy your literally cravings, this is the book for you. I can actually really imagine this book as a movie and I'd still really enjoy it. Awesome plot and wonderful execution, I couldn't really get enough.

Rating:

I normally don't include book trailers in my reviews, but this one really deserved to be added (Warning: Not for the faint of heart.) :

The GODDESS of My Heart

I cannot express how much I love the Starcrossed trilogy. It was during the early months of 2011 when I first read about it and of course, I was intrigued with the premise and enthralled by the cover. So thus begun my journey of trying to find out as much as I could about the series. And then I met the lovely Josephine Angelini on Twitter and we hit it off. It was probably my penguin badassery that got us pretty close and now, I can say that Josephine Angelini is one of my closest author friends. It was an absolutely joy being a part of Team Starcrossed and it was great meeting new people through the books. And because of this, my heart almost broke when the cover of Goddess was released. It wasn't because I didn't like it, nope because I bloody love the cover, it most likely because I'll be saying good-bye to one of my most favorite books ever and seeing the cover just made it all the more final. To those who haven't seen the stunning cover, here it is:

Title: Goddess (Starcrossed #3)

Author: Josephine Angelini

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication date: May 28th 2013

Pre-order the book: Amazon /Barnes and Noble

After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count.

To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

In Josephine Angelini’s compelling conclusion to the masterfully woven Starcrossed trilogy, a goddess must rise above it all to change a destiny that’s been written in the stars. With worlds built just as fast as they crumble, love and war collide in an all-out battle that will leave no question unanswered and no heart untouched.

(Summary from Goodreads)

I know that I'm probably going to cry throughout the whole book or maybe even rock back-and-forth depressingly. I'm going to be so sad seeing this series end but I'm also going to be so excited to read any of Josephine Angelini's future works. I honestly cannot wait to read Goddess and I know that Josephine Angelini will end this series not with a flutter but with a gigantic and shocking BOOM. To those of you who have not read her books, I suggest you go and pick them up now because you are missing A LOT. Well, see you on the flipside, everyone!

Check out our interview with Josephine Angelini (HERE)!

Geraldine's review of Starcrossed (HERE).

My review of Starcrossed (HERE) and Dreamless (HERE).

If this doesn't show I'm devoted, I dunno what will. But why do I feel like something's missing...?

Ah. Much better. ;)

Always a fan.

Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
Author: Gena Showalter
Pages: 404 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published on: September 25th 2012
Source: Bought from Fully Booked
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

(Summary from Goodreads)

Review:

Alice in Zombieland was my first-ever Gena Showalter book, and trust me when I say that I was not disappointed. Alice in Zombieland is pretty much the perfect blend of insanely badass and scorching hot. It's the type of read that's perfect for not only Halloween but every season of the year (preferably winter since a lot of the scenes in the book can get hot.)

I really enjoyed Gena Showalter's version of the zombie mythology, the freshness and gruesomeness of the zombies really did add to the "holy-crap-I'm-being-chased-by-flesh-eating-monsters-help-me!" factor. There were literally times where I just wanted to cover my eyes and hide under my blankets chanting "lalalalala" and then I would remember that I was reading a book and not watching a movie. No matter how freaked out (and grossed out) I was at some parts, I just couldn't bring myself to stop reading the book. My mind was telling me to be sensible and keep my lunch in, but my heart was telling me to not listen to my brain and reeeeeeeeeeead! I guess the heart wants what the heart wants.

But honestly? It wasn't even the complete grossness and goryness of this book that sold me. No, siree. It was the characters themselves that made me fall so in love with this book. Alice exuded not only a kickass aura but also a vulnerability, and that's something I love in a heroine. I mean seriously, being in a tragic car accident that killed your parents and then, watched them get eaten by zombie is sure to mess anyone up, but the thing with Alice is that even in the face of these tragic events and obstacles, she did show weakness yet she still managed to tell everyone else to go screw themselves and kicked zombie (and human) ass while doing it! Whoot!

If it was the characters and their personalities that made me love the book to bits, it was the blush-worthy scenes that made me worship it. Who wouldn't love an extremely hot bad boy with piercing eyes and helluva lot of sexy tats? Sad people, that's who. Cole Holland managed to not only make my retinas burn but also induced a lot of incoherent proclamations of love. Yes, Cole Holland and his extreme sexiness made me want to cry out in happiness because I was so thankful that authors are creative enough to this of the perfect guy. (And um, hellooooo there nipple ring. *wink*) And while I was insanely affected by this character, what I was feeling wasn't even half of what Alice was feeling and going through. Imagine having visions of making out with possibly the hottest man alive. Yes. That did happen. Is it getting hot in here or what? Because trust me, you'll be needing a fan, some ice cream and a whole looooot of extra clothes. (Thank you, Gena Showalter for bestowing upon us this very, veeeeery fine specimen.)

Now, why don't you go and pick this book up and use Alice, Cole and their band of kickass zombie hunters to keep you company during this fine Halloween because you never know when you might get an unexpected visitor. Alice in Zombieland has not only managed to make me want to crap my pants several times a day but also made me want to hop on some bad boy's motorcycle and never look back. So if you don't pick this book up ASAP, I might have to sic my crazy chihuahuas at you. And always remember, watch out for the white rabbit.

Rating:

(As usual, thanks so much to Nancy from Tales of the Ravenous Reader for recommending this to me! :D)

Stacking the Shelves (7)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews! It's where bloggers can share what they got for review, bought, borrowed, won or gifted (both physical and eBooks may be included! :D)

Here's what I got this week:

Bought:

Blood Rights (House of Comarre #1) by Kristen Painter (Goodreads)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Goodreads)

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Goodreads)

Bared to you (Crossfire #1) by Sylvia Day (Goodreads)

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling (Goodreads)

Finale (Hush, Hush #4) by Becca Fitzpatrick (Goodreads)

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1) by Jamie McGuire {Second copy} (Goodreads)

Velveteen (Velveteen #1) by Daniel Marks (Goodreads)

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1) by Kresley Cole {Second copy} (Goodreads)

The Diviners (The Diviners #1) by Libba Bray (Goodreads)
Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1) by Gena Showalter (Goodreads)

Won:

*signed* Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr (My REVIEW) (Goodreads)

Review:

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (Goodreads)

Thank you so much Christine from HarperCollins, Fully Booked and, of course, my parents! <3

Giveaway: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

I'm sure you ALL know how much I loved Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (if you don't here's my REVIEW) and lucky for you, my mom loved it too! So being the kind and generous mother she is, she's decided to give away a copy of Unspoken to a very lucky person!

Isn't it purrrty?

DETAILS:

~ You don't need to be a follower to enter.

~ Must be 13 years old or older.

~ Open INTERNATIONALLY.

~ Winners have 48 hours to respond to our e-mail else we'll be forced to pick a new one.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks, mom for sponsoring our give away!!

Good luck everyone! :)

HARC! INK by Amanda Sun ARCS Have Arrived!

I'm sure everyone knows how insanely excited I am to read Ink by Amanda Sun and if you don't know, check out my gif-filled Waiting on Wednesday post for Ink HERE. So I'm pretty sure you guys know how I reacted when Amanda Sun posted this on her Twitter...

And guess what were inside these packages...

Are they gorgeous or what?!

OH. MY. GLOB. YESSS.

Here were my reactions:

There was a lot of...

Screaming.

Jumping.

Funky (and vertical seizure-like) dancing.

Crazy flailing.

Kermit flailing.

And swooning.

Again, I know that I will have to use my super ninja skillz to get one of those bad boys (or girls?)!

*disappears* *appears*

And look how fabulous Amanda is with an ARC of Ink! She's rockin' the ARC-hair.

I've said this before and I'll say it again, Go forth and add Ink to your Goodreads!

I am so freaking excited for this book, I can't even.

*Super Ninja Penguin hyperventilates*

(Some of these pictures were taken from Amanda Sun's Twitter. Thank you, Amanda!)

Feature and Follow Friday (12)

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read! :)

This week's question:

Q: What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.

A: It kind of annoys me when an author uses a third person POV but it gets really confusing since she doesn’t really construct it that well. I usually end up getting lost and not enjoying the book.

Leave us a comment, we'd love to hear/see your thoughts!

And while you're here, why don't you join our 300 Follower Giveaway! :D You can win signed books! Click HERE.

300 Follower Giveaway!!

Heeey, guys! We've finally reached 300 followers on this blog after so, so long. Geraldine and I are insanely grateful for your support and readership, so we've decided to do something super special for you (as I have continuously mentioned on Twitter.) We are honestly so happy that we're blogging again and we really can't believe that other bloggers and our Twitter have been so supportive and welcoming. We hope that you continue to give us your support and your friendship. Thank you for everything. :) So without further ado, a...

Yes, even Geraldine and I are super excited for this giveaway! It's suuuuuuper exciting and more special than any of our other giveaways. Be ready to freak out because you can win:

WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!

Yes, you're looking at exactly want I'm looking at!!

THREE SIGNED COPIES OF THE FAULT IN OUR STARS!!

So what we did is that we divided the giveaway into TWO.

Two of the books are for International peeps.

One of the books is for local (Philippines or PH) peeps. But local peeps can enter BOTH giveaways. I repeat, Filipinos can enter BOTH giveaways.

DETAILS:

~ REQUIRED: You MUST be a follower for you to enter the giveaways.

~ Must be 13 years old or older.

~ Winners have 48 hours to respond to our e-mail else we'll be forced to pick new ones.

First form: (INTL and PH)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Second form: (PH only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it! Good luck and thank you so much for everything, guys! :D

Stacking the Shelves (6)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews! It's where bloggers can share what they got for review, bought, borrowed, won or gifted (both physical and eBooks may be included! :D)

Here's what I got this week:

Bought:

The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater (Goodreads)

Pure (Covenant #2) by Jennifer Armentrout (Goodreads)

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1) by Kresley Cole (Goodreads)

Borrowed:

an ARC of Black City (Black City #1) by Elizabeth Richards (Goodreads)

SWAG:

Until I Die bookmarks!! So pretty~

Thanks so much Amy Plum, Dannielle from Book Whales, Fully Booked and my parents! <3

Winner!!

The winner of a signed copy of The Taker by Alma Katsu is...

Dannielle B.!!

Yaaaaaay!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feature and Follow Friday (11)

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read! :)

This week's question:

Q: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

 

A: I usually go for Contemporary books or Chick Lit when I want to try something new. A few of my faves for these genres are:  Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott, The DUFF by Kody Keplinger (actually, anything by Kody Keplinger) and The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.

 

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Leave us a comment, we'd love to hear/see your thoughts!