Blood Orange Soda by James Michael Larranaga

Blood Orange Soda
By James Michael Larranaga
Published: March 15, 2014
Publisher: JML
Stand-Alone
Pages: 350

Darius Hunter is a bullied high school freshman. When he drinks Blood Orange Soda to transform into a Vampire and earn respect, he soon learns life as a Vampire has its own challenges.

Set in the future on the rural landscape of St. Cloud, Minnesota where pre-Vampire teens are required by the government to take a daily Red pill to prevent their urge to bite, Blood Orange Soda is a coming of age story of love, life and death.


*Novel provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

My Rating: 2.5 stars

My Thoughts: 
This book was an incredibly interesting take on vampires.  It wasn't like the normal, popular vampire books that are being published now where no one knows that the vampires exist.  Instead, humans or Normals, mingle with the Vampires, they live together in harmony.  It kind of reminded me of Holly Black's The Coldest Girl In Coldtown, just in that aspect of it.  
I thought that the characters were decent.  The main character, Darius, was kind of detached and I had a really hard time connecting to him.  We never really learned a whole lot about him, and his interests and hobbies and such.  All that we really knew was that he liked music and I think that not knowing almost anything about him made it very difficult to connect to him.
Darius's best friend, Weezer, is the comedic relief, and kind of reminded me of Link from the Castor Chronicles.  He had a few funny lines but overall I just found him to be a really unnecessary character.
And then we come to the two sides of the love triangle, Shelby and Angel.  Now, I really liked Angel.  I thought that she was really nice and she kind of reminded me of myself a little bit.  My only problem with her was at the very end where she threw herself in front of Darius, or pushed him out of the way or whatever it was that she did because Darius was a Vampire and he could have dodged it himself and I felt it was really stupid of her to do that.  I also could tell that she was in love with Darius from the beginning so that kind of diminished my enjoyment of the romantic aspect of this book, which leads me into talking about Shelby.  Now I never trusted Shelby.  I just thought her reasoning for transferring schools was very odd and there was just something off about her.  And then as her and Darius's relationship starts progressing, there were just a bunch of little things that she did that made me question her motives.
Overall, I'd recommend this book if this is the kind of book that you normally would enjoy or if this is the age range that you enjoy because I do think that this book was a little young compared to what I normally read. If this isn't something that you would normally go for then I wouldn't bother picking it up

Thanks for reading!
Amber

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Don't Even Think About It
By Sarah Mlynowski
Published: March 11, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Stand-Alone
Pages: 336

Contemporary teen fiction with romance, secrets, scandals, and ESP from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have).

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.
So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

*Novel provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

My Rating: 2 stars

My Thoughts:
This was my first Sarah Mlynowski book and I have heard good things about her better known book, Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have), so I had high hopes for Don't Even Think About It.  Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to those expectations.
The title is actually quite clever because the kids have ESP, so they hear what you're thinking.  I thought it was a pretty stupid title before I started reading it because I didn't know what it was about at all, but once I got into it, it all started coming together.
This is a stand-alone and I felt that it could've been longer.  I liked the ending, but I felt like there were a lot of things that weren't really explained at all.  If you're going into this book expecting it to be super sci-fi-y and figuring out why they have it and things then you are going to be sorely disappointed.  This is really just a contemporary novel, but the kids have ESP.  It's very overly dramatized and every little thing is a huge deal to them, the way it really is when you're in high school.  I would say that this book would definitely be more enjoyable for the 12 to 14 or 15 age range rather than being good for people all the way up through their twenties.
I liked most of the characters.  I found Mackenzie to be very overly bitchy at times, which normally wouldn't have bothered me because every book needs a character like that.  What really irritated me about her was that she kept telling people how sorry she was for being so mean and superficial but she never actually did anything to change it, she just kept apologizing over and over again.
I also had a few issues with Cooper.  I thought that yes he was a nice guy, and he was funny and attractive, but he was so naive and then when he develops ESP and he's hearing everyone's thoughts and he just freaks out and goes crazy, I was just like, really?  Are you really that naive?  So that was pretty annoying.
On to a more positive note.  I really liked BJ and how he was super super perverted and all of his lines were super hilarious, some of them even made me laugh out loud.  He also showed a more sensitive and sweet side towards the end with Tess and Teddy and I really liked that, though I wish  had seen more of their relationship.
Overall,  I thought that Don't Even Think About It was an okay book, but it wasn't really the kind of thing that I enjoy.  I thought the writing was kind of sloppy and the story didn't really explore the points that I wanted it to.  I would recommend this to people who are really into the high school drama side of things but if you're looking for a good sci-fi read, don't waste your time.

Thanks for reading!
Amber

March TBR

Here is a compilation of the books I hope to read within the month of March.

Forgotton - Cat Patrick
Covenant series - Jennifer L. Armentrout
Splintered - A.G. Howard
Under the Never Sky series - Veronica Rossi
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Dreamland - Sarah Dessen

Thanks for reading!
Amber

February Wrap-Up

As you will be able to see below, I've made some changes to the way I do my wrap-ups.  I'm now writing out my star rating instead of using asterisks to accommodate for half stars and the like.  I'm also marking a book if it was a reread which I don't believe I did in January.

All of the books I read in February:

Infinity - Sherrilyn Kenyon - 2 stars
Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi - 4 stars - reread
Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi - 4.5 stars - reread
Ignite Me - Tahereh Mafi - 5 stars
Goddess - Josephine Angelini - 3 stars
Grave Mercy - Robin LaFevers - 3.75 stars
Dark Triumph - Robin LaFevers - 3.75 stars
Attachments - Rainbow Rowell - 3 stars
What Really Happened In Peru - Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennen - 3 stars
The Runaway Queen - Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson - 3 stars
Altered - Jennifer Rush - 3 stars
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz - 3 stars
The Coldest Girl In Coldtown - Holly Black - 4.5 stars
Control - Lydia Kang - 4.25 stars
Cinder - Marissa Meyer - 4.5 stars - reread
Scarlet - Marissa Meyer - 4 stars - reread

I read 14 books this month and 2 novellas.
Thanks for reading!
Amber

January Wrap-Up

Books I Read In January:
Emerald Green - Kerstin Gier  ****
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone - J.K Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix - J.K. Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling  *****
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling  *****
Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen  **
The Evolution of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin  *****
Crash - Nicole Williams  ***
Clash - Nicole Williams  *
Frigid - J. Lynn  ****
Wait For You - J. Lynn  ****
Trust In Me - J. Lynn  ***
The DUFF - Kody Keplinger  ****
Silence - Becca Fitzpatrick  **
Just One Day - Gayle Forman  did not finish
Amy and Roger's Epic Detour - Morgan Matson  ***
The Archived - Victoria Schwabb  ***
Pushing the Limits - Katie McGarry  ****
Dare You To - Katie McGarry  ****
Crash Into You - Katie McGarry  *****
Crush - Nicole Williams  **
Dancing In My Nuddy-Pants - Louise Rennison  ***
The Coincedence of Callie and Kayden - Jessica Sorenson  ***
Finale - Becca Fitzpatrick  ***
My Life Next Door - Huntley Fitzpatrick  ****
Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell  ****
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel - Louise Rennison  ***
That Summer - Sarah Dessen  **
The Disenchantments - Nina LaCour  ***
Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini  ***
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Mass  ****
Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Mass  *****
The Redemption of Callie and Kayden  **
Shelter - Harlan Coben  **
Dreamless - Josephine Angelini  ***

Thanks for reading!
Amber

Top 13 of 2013

These are the best books that I read in 2013. They aren't in any particular order.

1. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare - a brilliant finale to the Infernal Devices it made me laugh and cry and yeah.  You know how I feel about Cassandra Clare.
2. Crash Into You by Katie McGarry - I loved this book so freaking much and it is my favorite Katie McGarry book purely because of Rachel's brothers who I absolutely adored.
3. Prodigy by Marie Lu - This came out way back in January and while the sequel, Champion, came out in November, I didn't love it quite as much.
4. The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead - Adrian Ivashkov.  That's all I need to say.
5. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - Cath was really relatable and funny and I really enjoyed the premise of this.
6. House of Hades by Rick Riordan - I loved this book and I'm pretty sure it was my favorite Heroes of Olympus book. All of Rick Riordan's characters develop in such realistic ways.
7. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - Even though this book started out kind of depressingly it really picked up and I loved it.
8. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi - Chapter 62 guys. I can't even.
9. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken - I read this way back in the beginning of February and LOVED IT.  The sequel, Never Fade came out in October, but overall, I enjoyed the Darkest Minds more because it had more Liam.
10. Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout - Since this is the Lux series I feel like it doesn't even really need an explanation.
11. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Mass - This book had the perfect mix of romance and action and gore and Chaol.  I love Chaol so freaking much.  Why can't he be a real person?
12. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - This book was so much more than what it appears to be and I am so glad that I picked this one up and can't wait to read more Markus Zusak.
13. The Program by Suzanne Young - This book is a pretty controversial one and a lot of people don't really like it but I loved it because I found the topic and the way that it was dealt with fascinating.

Thanks for reading and I'm sorry that this is up so late but I've been really busy and haven't had a whole lot of time to myself.

Thanks for reading!
Amber







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Sorry!

Hey guys! So sorry we totally skipped out on 12 Days of Blogmas and we haven't really updated at all since then.  We were really busy and just haven't had much time for the blog.  Thanks for sticking with us!

Grace and Amber