August Wrap Up + September TBR

Samstag, 30. August 2014

   August ended up being more of a reading month then I expected it. Surprisingly enough I didn't buy any books this month but I ended up reading 6 books and 1 novella.

    Books read:
  • These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner [4 Stars]
  • Anna and French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins [5 Stars]
  • Die for Me by Amy Plum [3 Stars]
  • Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins [1 Star]
  • Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens  [5 Stars]
  • My soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent [3.5 Stars]
  • Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins [3.5 Stars]



    Books acquired:
  • None
    ~ In Progress ~
  • My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
  • Isola by Isabel Albedi
  • The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
  • The Merciless by Danielle Vega
  • Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout
  • Killing Sarai by J.A. Redmerski
   Next month two books will finally come out that I've been dying to read, so that is pretty awesome. And also I've actually decided to film a September TBR video, which you can see here:



   And that's it for this post. Sorry that it's not as long as my usual Wrap Up's.

   Cheerio!

    Questions for a Reader

    Samstag, 23. August 2014

       Hey guys!
       So I saw this little survey/question thing over at Bookables blog and thought it looks like fun so I want to do it too. Hope you'll find it interesting!
       Let's go!

    1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

       I would say this has to be my German copy of Happy Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling which I've had for the past 10 years, I think.

    2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

       A few days ago I finished My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent. Currently I'm reading My Soul to Take by the same author and depending on if I'll enjoy it, I might continue the series and read My Soul to Save. If I end up not enjoying it I might read finally read Cinder by Marissa Mayer which has been waiting to be read on my shelve for way too long.

    3. What book did everyone like and you hated?

       I think there are two potential answers to this question. For one there would be Uglies by Scott Westerfeld which I totally couldn't get into. I read a trilogy written by him before and enjoyed it a lot but somehow Uglies just really didn't do it for me. Somehow it was too predictable, at least the first 30% which made me put the book down. And another book that everyone seems to like yet I totally can't get into or enjoy is The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patric Ness. I've heard a ton of good things about that one and I tried to read it but I just couldn't. Maybe I'll try again one day.

    4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?

       The Space Between by Kristie Cook. When I first bought it I was really pumped to read it but by now I'm not really sure if I'm still interested in it. 

    5. Which book are you saving for "retirement"?

     The Game of Thrones books by George R. R. Martin. I absolutely love the TV series and I promised myself that one day I'll read all of the books but they are just so huge and intimidating.

    6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end? 

       I always wait until the end to read the last page. Not without a reason it's the last page. I just don't like knowing how the book will end.

    7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside? 

       Depending on the author I actually sometimes read the acknowledgements, maybe just because I would like people to read mine. Not that they are interesting or anything, but if an author bothered to write them, why not read them. Mostly it's just a page or two so it won't even take long.

    8. Which book character would you switch places with?

       Hermione Granger, because she's awesome and smart. Or Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead because Dimitri Belicov, that's enough explaining.

    9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

    How about Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky which introduced me to the world of dystopian novels and made me fall in love with it like nothing before.

    10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

        I acquire most of my book via Amazon, which ain't really interesting but a few years ago I was visiting a antiques store in Poland which also sold used books. There I happened to find a really nice copy of Happy Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Despite it being a used copy it still looks really nice and I just love it.

    11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

        Sure!
     

    12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

        Midnighters: Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld. I took that book with me to Budapest two years ago and before that also to Poland. Now it looks extremely beaten, has a completely broken spine and it's just really sad to look at but I still love it.

    13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?

        I just finished school so I have to wait another 10 years to answer that question. But if I'd have to give a better answer I'd say A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I read this book for English about 3 years ago. While reading it at school I really didn't like it, but now I actually think it's a decent book.

    14. What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?

        Not sure. 

    15. Used or brand new?

        I prefer brand new but I don't mind used books. I own about 12 used books. 

    16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

       A genius through and through. Love his books. 

    17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

        Warm Bodies. The movie was better than the book, though maybe I only think that way because I've seen the movie before reading the book. I don't know. 

    18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

        No clue. 

    19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

        About any book that features cupcakes, Mexican food or cake. 

    20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

       That's a hard one. Most of my friends don't read or if they do, they have a completely different taste in books then I do. 

       And that was it. Hope you liked it and feel free to take those questions onto your blog and answer them. Leave me a link to it in the comments if you do because I'm curious.

    Cheerio! 

    Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

    Freitag, 15. August 2014


    Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
    Published: May 1st 2012 by HarperTeen 
    Number of pages: 447 (Paperback)
    Series:Yes, #1  

       Embrace the Forbidden.
       What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?
       This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.
       Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.
       Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns? (goodreads.com) 

       I disliked this book. Yes, that's right. I didn't like a book, which happens rarely. So prepare for a review that's a little different then usually, because I just cannot write this review in my normal style. It's my first review with such a rating so bare with me on this one.

        Let's start from the beginning.

       Meet Anna - the ultimate good girl. So sweet, innocent and naive that it actually makes her seem as unrealistic as a talking chair. But, Anna is not only overly perfectly good, no, she also happens to have super powers. Anna can see people’s emotions, which more or less works like those mood rings that I'm sure each and every one of us had at some point when we were kids. Only that it's not in ring form but rather like an aura. But that's not all. Anna can also hear everything in the radius of one mile, see and smell amazingly. Saint Anna also happens to never every lie - except once, on purpose, and let's be real, that was the lamest lie ever.
       Besides Anna, there's also Kaiden about whom Anna said the following: “He was smoking hot. As in H-O-T-T, hott. I’d never understood until that moment why girls insisted on adding an extra t. This guy was extra-t-worthy.” I'm not kidding. And she also said: "Kai, like Thai, only yummier!". Kaiden also happens to be the drummer in a rock band and also has one of those English accents. Now why doesn't that surprise me at all. By the way, Kaiden also has that mood aura superpower going, more or less like Anna.

       But I didn't tell you the 'best' part about them yet ... they are related to angels. Yes, angels. Kaiden's dad happens to be the Duke of Lust and Anna's the Duke of Substance Abuse, which totally explains why Anna feels a pull toward both alcohol and drugs. So, them being the kids of these Dukes means that they are supposed to do their daddies dirty work. In Kaiden's case this means he is supposed to have sex with random girls and ruin their lives which he treats and calls his 'work', which is just straight out wrong if you ask me. Each time he excused himself to go and 'work' I felt like throwing my copy of the book across the room. 

    “Good gracious, he was sexy—a word that had not existed in my personal vocabulary until that moment. This guy was sexy like it was his job or something.”  

        Unfortunately that isn't all, Anna's adoptive mother, Patti, also happens to be the most irresponsible parent out there. Patti wouldn't allow Anna to go to a Party without calling the parents of whoever throws the party to make sure adults will be there, but she lets her daughter go on a road-trip with a seventeen year old boy, who I repeat is the son of lust, across the country. Sure, sounds like something that every logically thinking parent would do, right? No. Especially because the first time Anna told Patti about Kaiden, Patti told Anna to stay the hell away from him.

        Also, Sweet Evil put's an extreme emphasis upon the fact that Anna is a virgin and should in every case possible stay that way, which makes sense because she just turned sixteen, but the way this topic is discussed is just mildly disturbing.

       The LOVE part of Sweet Evil - I saw it coming. I knew it would happen at some point but it still make me want to stop reading. Of course Anna and Kaiden have to fall for each other. Big time. And it's all put out there in the most cheesy and predictable way possible. Okay, this entire book is predictable but oh well. And the author also introduces another male who will join in so they can form the thing we all love most - a love triangle.

       The 'plot' of Sweet Evil caused me to dislike the book even more then the exaggerated main characters. Higgins unfortunately didn't succeed in creating a angel/demon story which would captivate me. The plot just went from one pointless thing to another and the narrative was horrible. Sometimes I just couldn't stop myself from face palming at the ridiculous things Anna thinks or does. A lot of the interactions between the characters seemed awkward and made me as reader feel uncomfortable. The way the story moved from point A to point B seemed to lack any logic, which makes me wonder if Higgins even really considered putting more thought into it or if she just went along with it. Here are two examples:
       Anna's dad is in jail, but he is needed out of it right about now, how handy that he happens to have a parole hearing coming up! 
       Or, there's also the thing that neither Anna nor Kaiden are adults, so they cannot rant a room in a motel on their way to California. The solution? Let's just make Kaiden a emancipated minor.  
       See my point? 

       The last two chapters also just put the dot above the ‘i’ for me. They were straight out horrible and made the cringe all the way through both of them. The ending was awful and kind of obvious.
       One thing I almost forgot which made me laugh was that in the second to last chapter Higgins makes one of the characters say a sentence in German. As German speaker I felt more than confused by what she was trying to say because the sentence was neither a real sentence nor grammatically correct in any sort of way, which makes me wonder if she just used google translate. If you want your characters to speak in foreign languages, at least put in enough effort so the sentence is correct and doesn't just look fancy to everybody who doesn't speak that language.

        Anyway, all in all, I guess it's obvious that I really didn't enjoy this read. For me the whole package - characters, plot, and mythology - just did not work. Who knows, maybe it's because I don't dig the whole angel/demon genre. I don't know. Maybe if you like that, this book may be for you, but it most definitely was not my cup of tea. 
      I give Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins 1 out of 5 Stars.

    Review: Die for Me by Amy Plum

    Donnerstag, 7. August 2014


    Die for Me by Amy Plum
    Published:
    April 3rd 2012 - HarperTeen (first published May 5th 2011) 

    Number of pages:  354 Pages (Paperback)
    Series:
    Yes, #1 


       My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything. 
       Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were moving to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my life would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.
        Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, he put me in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen ... until I realized that Vincent Delacroix is no normal human—that he has a terrifying destiny and enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind. 
       Can I risk everything for love? (goodreads.com)



     "Yeah, right, like Catherin Deneuve has her own hot-guy SWAT team trolling the neighborhood for celebrity stalkers with swords." (Kate)

       I've been eying this book for weeks and two days ago I finally found time to pick it up and read it. I didn't hear much about it before I started to read it but i definitely feel in love with the gorgeous cover when I first saw it. Unfortunately what's inside isn't as gorgeous as the cover.
       On the back of the book I found a few comments from reviews of this book where one of them mentions Twilight, which made me think that maybe this will be just another Vampire story. It ain't, though I can see why one would compare the two. There are a few similar features, like the Vincent's 'family' constellation.


       But, let's start with the things I did enjoy about this book.
       I love that it plays in Paris, because I didn't read much yet that played outside of the US or Germany, so Paris was a very welcome diversion. Throughout the book one can really get a good look at the city and its charm, which caused me to really want to go there myself and visit all these wonderful places which the book described.

       Furthermore, I liked the whole idea and history behind the "Revenants". It was something new and different from the typical creatures, like Vampires or Werewolves. I like how their history was nicely woven into out actual history, mentioning World War One and Two, while mostly focusing on the events that took place in France, which was refreshing.

       The characters were fairly likable and I did really enjoy the sister dynamics between Kate and Georgia. I also liked their grandparents who, as for being grandparents, planed a very subtle and open-minded role in the story. They gave Kate, who is only 16 soon turning 17, a lot of freedom, more then I think normal grandparents would give their granddaughter. But hey, that's fine; it's YA and nothing unusual for that genre.
       Kate is a likable character who suffered a great loss, being the death of both her parents. Throughout Die for Me she struggles to deal with it but as the story progresses she manages to find a possibility to come to terms with it, as far as one can with something like that. Fortunately, she wasn't one of those typical heroines who is naive and passive, she was strong and able to make her own decisions no matter what. 

    “My mom said I was an escapist at heart.... that I preferred imaginary worlds to the real one.” 

        Vincent was the hotty of the story. The mysterious boy with the dangerous aura, which pulled Kate to him like magic, despite her better judgment. I liked him; he was a good main male character with a unpronounceable French last name.

       And now to the things that I liked a little less.
       The plot was sometimes a little too predictable for me, which took the fun out of it at certain parts. Also the evil villains was quite easy to spot, especially because of his name which was like a glowing sign that just made noticing it inevitable. I would have wished that the author would have giving him a less obvious name, which would have made the revealing a little more exciting. Also spotting Kate's sisters role in the whole thing was easy to guess, but that was all right.

       Besides that I had a good time reading Die for Me and despite the rating I give it, I might pick up the sequel in the future and give it a chance. Maybe it'll get better?

    All in all, if you are interested in a supernatural read, which for once isn't about Vampires, Angels or Werewolves, Die for Me might be something for you.



    I give Die for Me by Amy Plum 3 out of 5 Stars.