August Book Haul!

Here's my August book haul! Lots of books to be excited about. I'll be posting a review tomorrow, but enjoy this video for now.:)

Have you read or own any of these books? Let me know what you think of them!

If I Stay Movie Review

My life has been pretty hectic at the moment and you won't be seeing me as often. I've been in school for two weeks now (I think). It goes by so fast. Anyway, I haven't even finished the book I've been reading (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) so that's my main priority. I'm going to try and post on the weekends, but sometimes it may not happen. I did get to see If I Stay when it came out Friday. Here are my thoughts:
 

What are your thoughts on the book? The movie? Let me know in the comments!

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

First in the Hopeless duology

4 stars

Sky has never felt anything when it comes to boys. She makes out with them, but never feels anything. She just looks at her ceiling and counts the stars. Then she meets Dean Holder. Dean has a reputation, but he also makes her feel for the first time in her life. As she struggles to keep him at a distance, she also knows that she wants nothing more. Memories are starting to resurface. Memories of events that are strange and make Sky feel even more disconnected from her life. Why is this happening? What does Dean have to do with it? I don’t know what prompted me to finally look through my Kindle library and open up Hopeless, but I’m glad I did. I honestly expected to hate this novel. It seemed like another one of those NA novels weighed down by tropes and a book I would probably regret reading. This isn’t the case. I’m happy I read this novel because it made me really enjoy a new NA author. I plan on reading Hooover’s works and experiencing some better NA.


"You can’t get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. It’s the fake happily ever afters that should piss you off.”

The thing is Hopeless does have a lot of tropes. There’s slut shaming (mildly), the bad boy trope, and the tragic past of the heroine. I also have found a new trope I call the I’m-in-high-school-but-this-is-NA. I don’t understand why this is considered NA because it feels like a YA except there are some explicit scenes. It reminds me of Bully. I’m not sure if it’s NA or mature YA. Genre categorizing problems.


The main female character is Sky. Sky annoys me for a good portion of this novel. Sometimes I loved her character and other times I hated her. She was constantly acting as if her past was horrible. You make out with a lot of guys, so what? That doesn’t define you. Who cares if Dean only likes you because of rumors? If that’s what you think then just don’t obsess over him all the time.
"Not everything is going to go my way and not everyone gets a happily ever after. Life is real and sometimes it’s ugly and you just have to learn how to cope.”
I disliked her a lot for a while, but while she was a character I didn’t like all the time she was also a character I became invested in. I wanted to know what happened next in her life. I cared. That’s why she’s a good character. I hated her but wanted to know where her life took her.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7

The main male character is Dean. Dean is a dickhead. Dean the dickhead. He annoys me to know end. Almost this whole novel I wanted to hit him in the face. He has multiple personalities. At one point he likes Sky and wants her around and the next he hates her and needs some space. I don’t have time for these mood swings and stupidity.

"Because I want your first kiss to be the best first kiss in the history of first kisses.”
I do hate Dean sometimes, but I also like him. I liked him a good bit at certain parts. He was sweet and he cared. Then the ending happened. This is going to be a spoiler, so don’t click on the tag unless you really want to be spoiled. How can he just get away with murder? I don’t get that at all! It really pisses me off and if the novel wouldn’t have ended on that note maybe I would’ve felt differently about him overall.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 6

The Villain- Gosh, I want to talk about this. So the whole villain section is spoilers. Sorry! SPOILERS start now! Basically my favorite part of the whole novel was how I couldn’t decide who the true villain was. Was it Karen or Sky’s father? I figured Karen was Sky’s aunt from the time she was mentioned in a certain flashback. I knew she took Sky and I kind of hated her for it. Then I read about poor Sky. She was so tiny and so little. I was truly sickened and for once in a NA I wanted to truly hug the main character. Sky has every right to be disconnected from her peers and just feel lost. She had it tough and I understand completely why blocking the memories would be her way of coping at such a young age. Sky’s father is a character I hate. Human beings like him sicken me and I felt queasy when the confrontation occurred. I do understand Karen and I’m glad she took Sky because Sky would’ve been more broken and she deserved to be a happy child. Karen gave that to her.
SPOILERS ARE OVER!
"Because those bad things aren’t you. They are just bad things that happen to you.”

Villain Scale: 9

My favorite character of the whole novel is Six. She’s a great friend. She sends texts that make her friend smile and keep her going. She cares about her friend and protects her when push comes to shove. The sad thing is she is only present for 23% of the novel and it sucks. Sky also makes friends with a gay kid at school. His name is Breckin. I liked him well enough, but I do get tired of the gay best friend trope. It is overused, but Breckin is funny. So I’ll forgive him. I also liked Dean’s sister. It made the title a lot sweeter. (view spoiler) I really wish Leslie wouldn’t have turned out to have a different life the way she did because I think her being reunited with Sky would’ve changed a lot.

Character Scale: 8

"I’ll probably get knocked down a few more times before this life is through with me, but I can guarantee you I’ll never stay on the ground.”
This novel is good. It has problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it mostly for fans of NA or a new reader into the genre. I feel like if I read this at any other time I may not have enjoyed it as much, but I did like it a lot. So, four stars do seem just.


Cover Thoughts: I love the cover. I love the sky and how it doesn’t just represent Sky but an important scene later in the book. It’s definitely one of the better NA covers I’ve seen.

Lux Reviews: Opal and Origin

In celebration of my copy of Opposition coming in tomorrow I finally got to reviewing these two amazing books that I read months ago.



Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Third book in the Lux series

5 bajillion stars
Katy and Daemon’s relationship is stronger, but Katy is still reeling from the death she caused. Dee can’t forgive and their relationship is on the rocks. Not only that, but Dawson is alive. He will do anything to get Bethany back. Katy and Daemon will help him no matter what the costs.


That fricking ending wasn’t fair, JLA. I read Origin already (but I still had to wait to get my hands on that book so the pain was real). This was one of my last books of 2013. Hooray for the old year! I told you my reviews were behind. Anyway, I love the Lux series. It’s one of my favorite series. I think it has a great storyline, characters, and the cliffhangers are killer. My favorite thing about this series is the comedy. It’s seems odd because this series can really kill my soul, but it can always make me laugh. (Much like my relationship with Supernatural.)

The main female character is Katy. I love Katy. She’s such a kick-ass character. She’s a book blogger. Hello, this is my life. I understand the blogging life and I fangirl over books so hard. She did kind of annoy me in this one, though. Her constant push-pull relationship with Daemon irritated me. She’s a fighter though. A strong one and I really commend her for it.



Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 10

The main male character is Daemon Black.
“Can we just take a moment to appreciate how hot Daemon Black is? I swear I melt whenever he pulls his charms.”- My first Opal status update (12/20/13)

Daemon Black is perfection. I know a lot of people hate him, but I don’t hate him. I’m obsessed with Daemon Black.

Swoon Worthy Scale: can’t compute request


The Villain- FUCK YOU, BLAKE. Will, the Daedalus , and so many things.


Villain Scale: 9

I missed the old Dee so badly. It really saddened me. She was one of my favorite characters and it was so sad seeing her new character development. I do like Andrew. I think he’s a good guy and he’s cool. Ash is slightly more bearable, but not really.


Character Scale: 9

There were a lot of shocks in this book, especially the ending, which killed me. Highly recommend this series if you’re not already obsessed.


Cover Thoughts: I do like this cover. It’s not an amazing cover, but it is a good cover for this series.

 

Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fourth book in the Origin series

5 kittens stars
There is no way to avoid spoilers in this review for previous books ESPECIALLY Opal!
Daemon is going to do whatever it takes to get Katy back. His brother understands his need, but his family is worried about Daemon’s train of thought and how he will risk anything including his life. For Daemon, life without Katy is no life at all and he will get her back. Or he will die trying. There are secrets the Luxen are keeping. Who’s the bad guys and who will ultimately destroy the world? Luxen? Daedalus? Mankind? Arum? Or something entirely new? JLA Is one of the best writers in paranormal fiction. Her Lux novels are fun, fast-paced, action packed, and they always have the worst cliffhangers. While the cliffhangers are torturous, her writing totally makes waiting a year or a few months till the next book worth it. I personally have been waiting since January and I have already preorder Opposition and I’m finally ready to finish this series. This is a great series. It only gets better with each book. The romance is stronger, the writing is stronger. There’s more action, suspense, as well as twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. This is my favorite Lux novel! It’s the strongest and it was just so good. After the ending of Opal, I was broken, but this book while ending on a cliffhanger wasn’t nearly as devastating.


Not only is there Katy’s awesome POV, but Daemon gets his POV too! I’m noticing a trend in YA now. Richelle Mead doing her fourth book with multiple POV, JLA with this one, and Allegiant was alternating as well. I think it’s a new trend. I’m not opposed to it at all, because Origin did a great job with the alternating POV between Daemon and Katy. I never felt like the POVs clashed or were hard to tell apart. They flowed and it flowed perfectly. The suspense was captivating and I think that’s what made Origin so suspenseful. The alternating POVs left me feeling like I needed to keep reading. I couldn’t put this down because I had to find out where this story would go.


The main female character is Katy. It’s no surprise that Katy is one of my favorite YA heroines. She’s strong, confident, well-spoken, and a lover of books. Katy in Origin is very different from Katy in the earlier novels. She’s a lot more broken and she has every right to be. My heart really ached for her. She missed her mom. She didn’t know what would happen in a strange place like Daedalus. But she’s not broken the whole entire novel. Katy is no Bella. She may be without Daemon, but she doesn’t mope about. She does what she has to survive in this environment. I really enjoyed her characterization in Origin. It was fantastically done and can I just say that Katy definitely knows how to fight. There’s no doubt about it.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 10

The main male character is Daemon. I love Daemon. I love him in these books, but Origin really made me love him more. Daemon has come such a long way since Obsidian. Not only do we see his strengths play out, but he truly loves Katy and it was adorable. I felt all the feels when they were together and it was just so good. So good! THE MARRIAGE! *pterodactyl screech*





Swoon Worthy Scale: *ovaries explode*

The Villain- AHHHHH! I so didn’t see that one coming. This one was just good. Great plot twist! JLA knows how to hook-line-and-sink-us. Never can trust anyone in this series.


Villain Scale: 9

Dee and Andrew and Ash and so many other cool characters are back. Dawson and Beth are just so adorable. Archer, Luc, and Paris are also pretty awesome. We’ve met Luc before and it’s awesome to see him again. I love the addition of Archer. I see Dee+Archer in future. I hope. Archer’s character is that something new mentioned at the beginning in my plot summary. Pretty interesting concept. Similar to Twilight, but alien mutants are way better.


Character Scale: 10

Also people die. A lot of people die. Prepare to cry because I totally did. There’s also a pretty epic battle scene. I’m so excited for Opposition! (P.S. It hasn’t come out yet, but since I don’t know when this review will go up, it may have already come out.)

I met JLA. She’s awesome. Just saying.

Cover Thoughts: I’m kind of sad it wasn’t a Katy-Daemon cover like the first three, but I do get the whole Daemon by his self thing. Also, hey look, Nevada. I wonder if that plays a part in a battle or something.;)

Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

My review for Burn for Burn can be read with the link if you are intrigued, but don't want minor spoilers.

Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

Second in the Burn for Burn trilogy

4.5 stars

Fire with Fire picks up exactly where Burn for Burn left off. Lillia, Kat, and Mary are back. They have a new plan. This time Lillia will have Reeve fall in love with her. He’s been chasing her for years so what better way to finally screw him and Reenie up. Reenie is worse than before and she’s ready to rule to the school and take Lillia down. Mary has it worse than everyone because something just isn’t quite right. Homecoming showed her that something inside of her wasn’t quite right. Some things just have to be fought back with fire. I’ve created a monster. I read Burn for Burn free on PulseIt and then bought the book for my sister as a Christmas present. She then bought the sequel and told me I had to read it. This was my second read book of the year and one of the most torturous endings. I HATE cliffhangers! My sister was so proud of herself for making me scream at her in rage. I read this in January and the final book has still yet to come out. Do you feel my pain? If not, at least my sister is with me to feel it. We can wallow together.


The main female characters are Lillia, Kat, and Mary. This book is told in alternate POV. Unlike the last book where Lillia was my least favorite, all these girls became my favorite. I liked them all. I mean Lillia’s whole romance with Reeve made this story for me. It was deception at its finest and when it turned to something more I loved it. Kat was a pretty strong character in this one and I loved her conflict with college as well as her feelings for Alex. Mary is still the character I sympathize the most. Her life is just heartbreaking.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: Lillia-9 Kat-9 Mary-9

The main male characters include Reeve and Alex. Reeve is the biggest jerk in the world, but I still like him. I actually really started to like him in this one. Alex isn’t as bad, but I’m not the biggest fan of him. He chases after Lillia too much when it’s obvious she doesn’t want him. He’s borderline stalker at times.


Swoon Worthy Scale: Reeve- 8 Alex- 7

The Villain- OMG! You will not believe who dies in this one. Just thought I’d drop that by. You looked, didn’t you? Feel intrigued?


Villain Scale: 8

That’s basically all the characters in this trilogy. Besides Mary’s aunt, who seems crazy but I’m not really sure about. I suspect she’ll talk a lot more about this discovery in the final book.


Character Scale: 9


The wait is just so hard. It is worth it though. Deception and revenge are just so fun to read about it.


Cover Thoughts: I love the old covers. The coloring was gorgeous and so pretty. The new ones not so much.

Cover Reveal: Night Sky

I actually don't participate in cover reveals, but since the publicist was kind enough to send me a copy of the novel as well as information for the cover reveal I've decided to post this. Even though it's a lot later than intended.

Title: Night Sky

Authors: Suzanne and Melanie Brockmann

Release Date: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal)

Book Cover: Attached

Author Photo: Attached

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Skylar Reid is thrown into a strange world when she discovers that she has unique telekinetic and telepathic powers.  After Sasha, the child she babysits, is kidnapped and believed to be murdered, Sky and her best friend Calvin are approached by Dana, a mysterious girl who has super-abilities similar to Sky’s.  With the help of Dana and her sidekick Milo, the four teens embark on a quest to discover who killed Sasha, and to bring the killers to justice.

With Dana as Skylar’s surly and life-toughened mentor, Sky attempts to harness her powers to aid them in their quest. Complicating an already complex relationship with the older girl, Sky starts to fall for the dangerously handsome and enigmatic Milo – and begins to suspect that the attraction is mutual. But then Sky realizes that Sasha might still be alive, and the unlikely foursome’s mission becomes one of search and rescue, pitting the heroic teens against a very deadly enemy.

Biography:

Suzanne Brockman, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author, has won 2 RITA awards, numerous RT Reviewers’ Choice, and RWA’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year three years running. She has written over 50 books, and is widely recognized as a “superstar of romantic suspense” (USA Today). Suzanne and her daughter, Melanie Brockmann, have been creative partners, on and off, for many years. Their first project was an impromptu musical duet, when then-six-month-old Melanie surprised and delighted Suz by matching her pitch and singing back to her. Suzanne splits her time between Florida and Massachusetts while Mel lives in Sarasota, Florida. NIGHT SKY is Mel’s debut and Suzanne’s 55th book. Visit Suzanne at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com.