LIEBSTER AWARD

We got nominated by three very lovely ladies for the Liebster Award, which recognizes new up and coming blogs in the community.  

Rules

1.) Link & Thank the blogger who nominated you
2.) Answer the 11 questions your nominator gives you
3.) Tag 11 other bloggers who have 200 or less followers
4.) Ask the 11 bloggers you nominated 11 questions and let them know you nominated them!

Thanks to Anne from Anne Books, Brittany from Space Between the Spines, and Gloria from Gloria the Violinist, who run some of our favorite blogs.  Be sure to check them out.

Answers to Anne's Questions

1. Did you ever haven't finished a book? Why?

A: Yes, I absolutely have.  I am a strong believer in not forcing myself to read books that I don't want to.  That's just asking for a reading slump in my opinion!

G: Yeah, because it wasn't very interesting, and I had spilt water on it, so the ink on the last pages was smeared and I couldn't even read it.

2. If you must burn one book you own, which would it be and why?

A: I'm going to have to go with Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, because I hated that book, and I hated the messages that it sent, so frankly, I would have no qualms about burning it.

G: I guess I would burn Andrea Cremer's The Inventor's Secret, because the book was horrid, and the characters were really dry, so I think that they would burn well (pun intended).

3. What is your favorite series/trilogy of all time and why?

A: The Infernal Devices all the way on this one.  Best.  Series.  Ever.

G: I'm going to go for The Mortal Instruments on this one, because it's everything that I love in a book wrapped up into one series.

4. If you could kill one author and wouldn't go in jail for it, who would you kill and why?

A: Can I just kill like, a horrible person?

G: I don't even know, what is this question

5. In which language do you mostly read?

A&G: English

6. Have you got a list with books you wanna buy? If so, how many books do you have on it?

A&G: The list is never-ending.

7. Do you take note (while or after reading) or do you just write down your thoughts while writing a review?

A: Sometimes I'll mark passages that I like, but for the most part I just gather all my thoughts after reading it.

G: Not at all.

8. Which year (school or college) are you in?

A&G: We're keeping our age on the DL.

9. What was the most horrible book you had to read at school?

A: House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.  Worst.  Book.  Ever.

G: Watson's Go To Burmingham.  It was about a car ride.  Seriously.

10. If you could just bring three books to your new apartement, which three would you bring and why?

A: Probably the whole TID series, but I don't know.  This is hard.

G: City of Heavenly Fire, Fangirl, and Champion

11. How many books do you have in total?

A: 432

G: 91 

Now for Gloria's questions:

1. If there was one book that you could turn into a movie, which one would it be ?

A&G: Legend.  No question about it.

2. If you could meet one character from a book, who would it be ?

A: Will.  Herondale.  Are you really surprised?

G: Alec Lightwood.  I want to talk to him about Malec.

3. If you had to go live on an abandoned island, and you could take one author with you that would write books for you, who would you take ?

A: I'm going with Stephanie Perkins, because she is the sweetest, most bubbly person I have ever met.  Plus, I could read a Stephanie Perkins book every day.

G: Cassandra Clare, because I love her writing, and since she writes all these violent books, she probably knows a few survival skills.  

4. If you could become one book character, who would it be ?

A: Tessa Gray, because...Will.  

G: June Iparis, because I can kick butt and come home to Day every night

5. What is your favourite fictional world ?

A&G: We're both gonna go with the Shadowhunter world on this one.  It's so beautifully created, and wonderful that it's great.  Plus Will and Jace.

6. Where do you like reading the most ?

A: My bed

G: My beanbag.

7. What language(s) do you read in ?

A&G: English.  That's all we're fluent in.

8. How many hours a week do you spend reading ?

A:7-35 on average.

G:It depends on what my schedule is like.  

9. Do your parents ever tell you that you read to much ?

A: Yes, and I don't go outside enough.

G:Yes, I don't see the problem.

10. ebook, paperback or hardback ?

A&G: Hardback.

 
11. What do you prefer to read on other blogs ? Reviews, challenges, tags,... ?

A&G: Reviews.

Last but not least Brittany!

1.) If you could date one character from a book, who would it be and why?

A: Will Herondale, because he is perfection and we are already married.

G: Day, because he is amazing, brave, pure, strong, ect.

2.) You're stranded on a desert island and you are only given three books for entertainment. What are they?

A: Probably the whole TID series, but I don't know.  This is hard.

G: City of Heavenly Fire, Fangirl, and Champion

3.) What is your favorite movie adaptation of a book?

A: TFIOS. THE FEELS!

G: Divergent, I cried so much because of Allegiant.

4.) What was your favorite children's book?

A: Secrets of my Hollywood Life Series.

G: Anything written by Dr. Seuss. I still love them now. 

5.) What is one genre that you don't usually read but have enjoyed in the past?

A&G:Historical fiction.

6.) What is your favorite classic book?

A: Animal Farm or Jane Erye. They are both amazing.

G: Outsiders.

7.) If you could have one book that releases within the next year early, which would it be?

A: The Retribution of Mara Dyer. It keeps being pushed.

G: I don't know. Talon by Julie Kagawa.  

8.) What was one book series that left you disappointed?

A: Requiem.

G: Inventor's Secret. 

9.) What's you're favorite "lesser known" author?

A: Cassie Mae

G: I have not read any lesser known authors because I read slow and Amber keeps recommending books by well known authors. 
 
10.) What's a book that you love, but no one else really knows about?

A: Third Degree by Julie Cross

G: I don't think I have any

11.) I'm going to do something a little different: instead of one more question, I'll ask those tagged to choose at least three of the blogs I've tagged earlier and follow and leave ONE comment on each. (My blog can be included, but you're not required to choose it.) Spread the blogging love! <3 span="">



Here are our questions.

1. If you were any antagonist in any of your favorite books, who you you be? 
2. If you were stranded on a desert island what character would you want to be with? 
3. What percentage of your bookshelf is hardcover, paperback, and ebook?
4. If you had to eat a character who would you eat?
5. If you had to dress up any male character like Alice in Wonderland, who would it be? (The Disney version)
6. How many book boyfriends do you have? Be honest we don't judge.   
7. If you could have any book character as your slave who would it be?
8. If you could have any significant item from any book what would it be?
9. What is your favorite book related pick up line?
10.Which author do you think is best at world building? J.R Tolkin and J.K. Rowling are not allowed. 
11. What is that one book quote you quote all the time?  

Thanks for reading and thanks to Gloria, Brittany, and Anne for nominating us!  Sorry it took so long to get around to doing it.

Amber and Grace

Apologies

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know how sorry I am for being so absent from the blog this past month or so.  At the end of last year, I was accepted into a highly competitive program, where I must complete extremely rigorous work.  School has just started and I'm finding that I have less time to blog than I ever have before.  I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning, and go to school, and then come home to all of my activities, plus hours of homework.  I barely have time to get in ten pages of reading a day, let alone type out posts and read other blogs.  I'm doing the best that I can, and I hope that you can continue to support me, even though I may not be as much of a presence as I have been in the past.

Thank you,

Amber

Stacking the Shelves Sunday

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves, a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, in which you show which books you have gotten this week in either physical or electronic format.  And if you didn't get any books, then you can either not post or post gloating about how you have about ten times as much control as me.

Purchased Physical:

Control By Lydia Kang

The Diviners By Libba Bray

That's all!

Hope you keep reading!

Grace

Friday 56

Welcome to Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.  You grab the book nearest to you, open it to page 56, and post a quote from that page that catches your eye.  The important thing is to not go for your favorite book, or the most intellectual, go for the closest.

One for me. One for you, One for the two of us.
-Smoke
By Ellen Hopkins

Hope you keep reading 
Grace

That's What he said Thursday

That's What He Said Thursday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Chapter Break. Just take a quote from one of your favorite male characters that they said to the lucky female love interest.

“I miss you."
"That's stupid," she said. "I saw you this morning."
"It's not the time," Levi said, and she could hear that he was smiling." It's the distance.” 

-

-From Levi to Cath

Fangirl

By Rainbow Rowell

Hope you keep reading 

Grace

Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door
By Stephanie Perkins
338 pages
Published on September 29th, 2011
By Dutton Books (My Copy is Speak though)
4 Stars

Warning- After reading this over for the third time I realized that there are spoilers. Proceed with caution. 

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion...she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit--more sparkly, more fun, more wild--the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket--a gifted inventor--steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Opening Thoughts

I did not like this book as much as Anna and the French Kiss.  I also read this book during a reading slump. I think that made me not like it as much as I could have. I didn't put it on my good reads so it didn't track how long it took for me to read it. In an estimation it took me about a month to finish it. I want to re-read it later when I'm not on a reading slump and see if I like it better. It did take me out of my slump though. I read 100 pages or so strait from when I got up to noon. (Which means only about an hour and thirty minutes.) I plan to read it again next summer. I was a nice romance for the summer. 

Characters

Another reason I think I didn't like it that much is that I didn't have that much in common with Lola. I am an artist and I sew but I do't think we would have gotten along very well. I did find her motto interesting though. “I don't believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be same person every day.” It made me think and I admire that she could walk around like that all day. I could never do that. The main part that irritated me though was how attached and dependent she was on Max. Kill me if I ever do that. He was a lying manipulative jerk. I have a feeling he was cheating on her too. A piece of advice, never care what your boyfriend thinks of you. If he doesn't like the way you dress, the way you talk, or your friends he is not for you. Never change for anyone but yourself. NEVER! So yes that threw me off a cliff with Lola. 

Cricket, OK. Who names their child Cricket? It is like Ponyboy and Sodapop. Calliope is weird too but Cricket. Name aside, I like him. He had the classic boy next door, nice guy atmosphere but a engineering twist. I liked how she would always describe him as tall and he wore short pants to show off his socks. That is a good description. I can see that. The rubber bands are a good touch too. I could always picture him picture perfect.  Cricket was sweetest guy ever. It was like 20 tons of milk chocolate sweet. He was so sweet it was almost revolting. Cricket Bell showed the world that the nice guys shouldn't always be last.

Max can go die in a hole. Enough said. 

In the beginning I had a problem with Calliope. When she was jealous of Lola because Cricket liked her my dirty and perverted brain, thanks to my awesome friends, was shouting incest. Then I realized that she was being protective and I  could relate. I love her line, "Break his heart. I break your face." She was a pretty skater but, she knew she had the strength to kick some butt!  It was sweet that she looked after her brother I felt that she did have a little bit of a girly and stuck up aura though. Her name to me though sounds like a dish you would order at my dad's friend's french restaurant. "I would like the Calliope please."  I think I liked her a little more than Lola. 

I found Lola's dads supper funny. They cracked me up half the time with Gay jokes(Not the insulting kind.)and the best awkward parent situations, always walking in on the wrong moment. Lindsey was an awesome BFF. I liked her detective dream and red converse. Norah was a little different then how she was described in the beginning. I though of her as a drunk, smelly, rude, cranky lady but, she turned out to give very good advice to Lola and helped her along her path. 


Plot

Yes, this did remind of the classic boy next door thing. I think that another reason I did not like it as much is that is was very cliche. I was your classic boy next door story and I knew from the beginning what the ending would be. I found it too predictable. I knew they were going to get together in Anna and the French Kiss but I did not know exactly. In this book I knew she was going to the winter formal, I knew she was going to get together with Cricket, I knew she would be heart broken about Max. I predicted everything that was going to happen, but there were some twist that I liked. One thing I never saw coming was that Calliope's costume was going to get ripped. I thought that was clever. The baby was a good touch too. I also didn't see that she would completely drop color because of Max. I know she really thought a lot of him but I did not see that coming. I cracked me up when her parents found Cricket in her bed. That was unpredictable. Another thing I liked was, it was a happy ending but, it was some what more realistic than other happy endings. Speaking of happy endings I stared jumping up and down when I saw Anna and St. Clair. It was just amazing. The bead and the left handed notebook too. It was just to much. 

Well it is not my favorite Stephanie Perkins book but, it was a good one. I can't wait to read Isla and the Happily Ever After. These books make me feel like happy endings are possible. I hope I fine mine and everyone else can find theirs. 

Hope you keep reading
Grace

Teaser Tuesday

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, a weekly feature hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, in which you open the book you're currently reading to a random page and share 2 sentences without spoilers, along with the author and title of the book. 

Today the teaser if from Four

"No Tris," I say. "You look..." I try a Dauntless expression. "Tough as nails." She smiles a little. So do I.

-Four

By Veronica Roth 

Pg 208

Hope you keep reading

Grace

Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders
By S.E. Hinton
Published on November 1st, 1997
Published by Speak
4 Stars

*Slight spoilers*


In Ponyboy's world there are two types of people. There are the Socs, the rich society kids who get away with anything. Then there are the greasers, like Ponyboy, who aren't so lucky. Ponyboy has a few things he can count on: his older brothers, his friends, and trouble with the Socs, whose idea of a good time is beating up greasers. At least he knows what to expect-until the night things go too far.

Opening Thoughts

To be honest I read this book for school. I have a very low opinion on school books. It is either that I can’t relate, the characters are to plain, or they are just stupid. This book though was amazing. We openly discussed it in class and everyone was fangirling. (The guys were not fangirling, but there are only six of them in this class, so.) Everyone would be obsessing and I just stared basking in the glory. It felt wonderful to experience a whole class of people becoming fangirls. I sat there and was like, this is my life! This book brought the life of fandom on to many people.

Characters

The characters are what made this book. I would have not loved this book if it wasn't for the characters. First off I never got how you go from naming your child Darrel to Sodapop and Ponyboy. What kind of drugs are you on? Let’s start off with Ponyboy. He is so cute and sweet and adorable! Even though he is a greaser I want to hug him like a teddy bear! He was smart too. I can see why Darry wanted to keep him on track. Darry is my favorite. If I had to date anyone in this book I would date Darry. I could always see why he did things when Pony didn't. Amber always tells me how over-protective I can get with my little brother and his friends. Sodapop was a lot more sensitive than I thought. He came off to me in the beginning as reckless and a people person.  I think Hinton did a really good job on character depth with him. Lots of girls in my class were swooning over him.  I don’t know how I feel about Dallas. He never really impacted me. I knew he was a big part in the story but, he never impacted me emotionally. I was never attached to Johnny either. I know some people in my class that were head-over-heels for him but, he never stuck with me. Now one problem I had was with Two-Bit and Steve. You really did not get to know much about them. It seemed like they were just there. She gave us a personality but nothing deep really happened between them. It would have been nice to read more about their lives. Then there was Bob. We had to write a paragraph every chapter about something in the story. On one paragraph I wrote it entirely about why Bob should not be named Bob. Bob was just too much of a comical name today that I never took him really seriously. It sounds really stupid but that is the name me and my brother us to descried a random object. I know it is more of a personal argument but, because of his name I never took him seriously. Then there was also Cherry. She never had an ending. She vanished off the face of the earth. She said she could fall in love with Dallas Winston but, that was the last we ever her and Dally. She was there to help Ponyboy know the similarities between Socs and Greasers but, to me she could have been a more important character and would be nice if her story could have an ending. I loved all the characters in the book. I wish they could have been real people.

Plot

To be honest I did not find the plot as interesting as it could have been. I mentioned in the characters paragraph, I would not have loved the book if the characters were different. This is because I found the plot line very bland and dry. Everything seemed to go to fast and was grazed over. It never really stuck with me. Now that I am looking back at it I see and understand everything but, I read it with no interest in the plot. For me, the plot line did not fit the characters. I felt that killing Bob came way too early in the story. I fell that it is a good idea to start off with something big but, I don’t think death is the way to go. Then running away for me came too soon. Also the burning church seemed too random.  The only back story it had was they were smoking. I feel as if she could have come up with a better disaster for them to be caught in. The ending hit me as long and bland. It could have been a little more intense for my taste. The plot came off dry to me but, my classmates found it interesting.

I can guarantee that you will fall in love with the characters in this book. For the plot, results may vary. I would say this changed my opinion on school books but, this was one in a million. This book will stay gold.

Hope you keep reading and stay gold

Grace

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Afterworlds
By Scott Westerfeld
Published: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 608
Format: Hardcover
4 stars

Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings… 

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.

*Novel provided by Simon Pulse via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Opening Thoughts

I am not the biggest Scott Westerfeld fan.  I found his Uglies series, to be just okay.  However, this book very much impressed me.  It's about an 18-year-old girl named Darcy, who wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo her junior year of high school.  She manages to get a publishing contract for a couple hundred thousand dollars, so she decided to put off college, and move to New York City to become a "real writer".  It follows her journey through the publishing process, and everything that comes with it.  I loved this story.  As a writer who would love to one day be published, but has been feeling kind of slumpy recently, it was super inspirational to me.  This was an easy 5 stars for me.  Then, you also get to read Darcy's book, entitled Afterworlds.  This is about a girl named Lizzie who is involved in a terrorist attack in an airport, and manages to think her way dead, or into the "afterworld".  She then becomes a psychopomp, someone who guides souls into the spirit world.  This book fell a little flat for me and I think it was more of a 3 star rating for me.

Characters

I did quite like Darcy.  She's definitely not anywhere close to reaching my favorite protag list, but she was still an enjoyable character for me to read about.  I think that she was maybe a little bit immature for her age.  I mean, she's eighteen, and she thinks that she can live on $17 a day.  Didn't she take money management classes in high school?  Darcy is diverse, she's both Indian, and lesbian, though Darcy's family doesn't actually practice any Hindu cultures, so I kind of felt like Westerfeld was being lazy by having his main character be Indian, but not having to write in anything that would separate them from someone who was white, or Hispanic, or black.

Imogen felt kind of flat to me.  She didn't really have a whole lot of a personality.  I didn't like how secretive she was, and how she put Darcy down a lot, and not in a joking manner.  I realize that she didn't mean to do it, but she did, and it didn't resonate well with me.

I didn't like Lizzie as much as Darcy.  She was fine, I didn't dislike her, I just didn't particularly like her.  She didn't act as if she had been through a terrorist attack.  I felt like it should have affected her a lot more than it did.  Another thing that really irritated with me was that she had this "cold space inside of her", which seems way too similar to all of the new adult books that I've been reading lately, where a tragic accident has happened in their past and now they won't let themselves feel anything, or they "can't" feel anything.  That's not really a fault with the novel itself, but more of a personal issue that I probably wouldn't have had a problem with had I not read a plethora of NA in the past couple of weeks.

I think that it's possible that Scott Westerfeld wasn't writing Lizzie's story as Scott Westerfeld, but rather as Darcy.  A lot of the things that Lizzie did seemed a lot different from Scott Westerfeld's usual style, but would make sense for a first-time author such as Darcy.  I don't know if that's what he was trying to do or not, but if he was, then kudos to him, because I think that that's pretty clever.

""Exactly.  So I figured that the Angelina Jolie Paradox applies."

Darcy glanced at Carla, who looked equally confused.

"The what now?"

Sagan cleared his throat.  "You know when you're watching a movie starring Angelina Jolie?  And the character she's playing looks just like Angelina Jolie, right?  

"Um, yes.  Because that's who she is."

"No, she's a regular person in that world, not a movie star.  But the other characters never mention that she looks exactly like Angelina Jolie.  No one ever walks up to her on the street and says, 'Can I have your autograph?'"

"Because that would mess up the movie," Carla said.

"Exactly.  So when you cast Angelina Jolie in a film, you're creating an alternate universe in which actress Angelina Jolie does not exist.  Because otherwise people would be noticing the resemblance all the time.  This is what I call the Angelina Jolie Paradox.""

"There's no safety in ignorance."

"Only death is forever and even it changes over time."

Plot

The plot of Darcy's story was brilliant.  I was so fascinated by every, single thing that Darcy experienced in the publishing process.  I was a little bit bored by some of the scenes with Darcy and Imogen, and their relationship drama, especially since I felt like their supposed "love", that was totally insta-love, by the way, wasn't really real.  I didn't believe in it, so it was frustrating how wrapped up Darcy seemed in Imogen, even though it seemed that Imogen didn't care half as much for Darcy as Darcy claimed that she felt for Imogen.  I still would have given this story 5 stars on its own, though.

Lizzie's story was less than impressive.  It was bland, and uninteresting a lot of the time, and I found myself skimming over a lot of these sections, which is probably the only reason that I managed to finish this book so quickly.  It's a very unoriginal paranormal romance, that had very few new ideas.  I personally think that this book would have been a lot better if Scott Westerfeld had just cut Lizzie's story altogether, or only added a few excerpts from Darcy's book, a la Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl.


Overall, I did very much enjoy this book.  This review may have seemed as if I was bashing this book, but I can assure you that that wasn't my intention.  This book wasn't the best I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading!  Let me know if your excited for this book!  You've only got three weeks to wait!

Amber