Miniviews #1:The Hollow, Tiger Lily, Hopeless and The Collector

The Hollow(The Hollow #1) by Jessica Verday

Publication Date: January 1st, 2009

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 509

Series: The Hollow

Source: Purchased

Rating: 2/5

Oh, how the premise had me excited. But this one just ended up lacking in almost everything; plot, dialogue, emotions, character development. It's very reminiscent of the Twilight era and I(embarrassingly) probably would have rated it a lot higher if I had read it back then. Abbey is another Bella Swan. And add in super cheesy dialogue and a "dead" love interest and it's Twilight in another setting. The only reason I gave this one a 2/5 is because of that ending. It was actually pretty realistic in how I would imagine someone acting when finding out about these supernatural beings around them.

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Publication Date: July 3rd, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 292

Source: Purchased

Rating: 4/5

I know the story of Peter Pan, well Disney's version. I've tried to read the original book but I couldn't finish it. Peter Pan is just such an awful person. So I didn't know if I would actually enjoy this one. Turns out I sure as hell did. I really like that the narrative is from Tinks POV. I think that's what ultimately made me love this book. Tiger Lily is quite unlikeable, she does some awful things out of jealousy when Wendy shows up. But she and Peter's relationship before that is pretty stormy. They fight and make-up. A lot. Like with the original, this story is also pretty dark. But it hits you right in the feels. As with Tinker Bell, you feel for Tiger Lily on every page. This book is obviously a sign of great things to come from Anderson in the future.

Hopeless(Hopeless #1) by Colleen Hoover

Publication Date: December 17th, 2012

Publisher: Self Published

Pages: 488

Series: Hopeless

Source: Kindle version purchased

Rating: 5/5

So this was my 4th Hoover book I read last year. And easily my favourite of the 4. She's also made herself onto my auto-read and auto-buy lists. Gold star Colleen! What I've realized is that Hoover knows how to pull you in and captivate her reader from page one. Sky and Holder's first meeting is bizarre and you want to know why. Then you want to know what really went on in Sky's past that she can't remember. And what the hell Holder is keeping from her. And now you are so deeply in love with the characters that when you get punched in the heart you hate Hoover just a little bit. For me, Hoover and Sorensen are queens of the NA world!

The Collector(Dante Walker #1) by Victoria Scott

Publication Date: April 2nd, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Pages: 352

Series: Dante Walker

Source: Purchased

Rating: 4/5

Oh, Dante Walker, you cocky bastard, how I've fallen for your wit and charm. I'll admit, this book is not going to be for everyone based solely on our wonderful narrator, Dante. He's an ass. He's deeply in love with himself and can be quite rude or put on the full charm when needed. But I love him for all those quirks. A number of times I LOL'd, well I don't even know. Seriously just go look up some quotes from this book. DO IT! Scott's writing and dialogue is spot on. You know what kind of person Dante is from the start. And when he meets Charlie, who is just pure nice down to her core, and she starts to point out the good traits within Dante. A little bit of his softer side starts to make an appearance.
Scott has created a different take on the whole Angels/Fallen Angels craze. You've still got people like Dante working for The Boss Man(hell) and people working for The Big Man(Heaven) but in a whole different way. So if you like your fallen Angel books and you want something with a different sort of narration(meaning you want to laugh and roll your eyes(in a good way)) then pick this one up. And you won't have to wait long for the last book to come out in the spring.
I tip my hat to you Scott for bringing Mr. Dante Walker into my life. 

So this is just a series I've decided to start for a few reasons. One being I seem to have a problem getting reviews done this time of year and secondly, I read a lot of books that I don't have enough to say for a full review but I do have a something to say.
I hope some of this mini-reviews can help sway you one way or another.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Top Ten Tuesday: Worlds I'd Never Want to Live In

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme held by The Broke and the Bookish.

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In!

10. The world in Birthmarked is just messed up. The people outside the wall have nothing except what the government gives them. Some of them will also have to give up their babies. And even when you get inside the Enclave where it's supposed to be the elite, people can't conceive because the population is so inbreed that it's causing deformities and other issues.

9. In Wither because of a failed(suprise!) attempt at the government to produce a perfect race, females now live to 20 and males to 25. Which beyond the shorten life spans, created war and ruin. As well as human trafficking of young girls to the high society males. So now there's polygamy as a norm.

8. Divergent's Chicago is definitely something I'd want to stay the hell away from(I don't even think Tobias could convince me otherwise). As much as I'd like to think I'd become Dauntless, I wouldn't. I'd fail and than be factionless. Also, ain't nobody going to tell me that I can only inhibit one main trait!

7. Delirium is another one where the government is controlling you. And this time saying love is a disease. You can't live without love! So that would mean I would have to escape into the wilds. And well me and nature and the whole having to survive in it wouldn't really get along. Here's another world I would die in.

6. I may have not liked The 5th Wave but let's be honest, these aliens be scary as hell. You don't know what's going to happen next. Who you can trust. And when the hell are the aliens actually going to fully invade?!

5. Blood Red Road is a dust lands. Humans are far and few between. And the land itself is just ravaged. Another book that when you come across a stranger there's a very good chance they'll want to kidnap you or just outright kill you. Plus Saba leaves in a desert with constant sandstorms. Yea, no thanks.

4.  So let me just give you the opening description for Unwind: "The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end." WTF?! All it could take is for you and your parents to have a fight over curfew and they could say to hell with you and that's that. You're dead, because it's legal to now abort your life.

3. Of course Panem from The Hunger Games made my list. I don't need to tell anybody why. That shit just be crazy!

2. In The Forest of Hands and Teeth this small society lives in a fenced in area because of the zombies ravaging the land beyond it. There's only a fence protecting you from zombies. A fence! And all it takes is literally a lick from one of these zombies and your infected and thrown in with your new friends. And also this village is full of secrets. Which of course turn out to be life altering.

1. And lastly, since government ruled worlds seem to be my scariest nightmares, I'll give Crewel the top spot. Pretty much because all it takes is one little clip on one of the looms of your lifeline or your houses lifeline or the street your walking down or just the town you live in lifeline to be gone. In this world you literally have no control over anything you do. It's decided when you're born and to you. And hell, if the government decides to up and move you to another family at any point they can. Just by the re-threading of your life on a loom. You forget your past and move on to this new family you think you've known all your life. And then one day they'll just decide it's time for you to die. Ugh! Scary!

Let me know your scariest worlds down below.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Showcase Sunday #20

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme held by Books, Biscuits and Tea. It allows fellow bloggers to show off any books or bookish things they've compiled over the week. 


Oh hey, another SS and another week I failed at posting reviews. I can definitely give my normal excuse of work. But it's true. Super busy there, which makes for long days staring at a computer. Which means I have even less desire to come home and stare at another computer. But I'm going to try and write a few posts today so I can just post them during the week. Stay away distractions!
On to the best part of the week, realizing, again, how big of a problem I have...

Purchased

Control(Control #1) by Lydia Kang
Poison(Tales from the Kingdom #1) by Sarah Pinborough
Evertrue(Everneath #3) by Brodi Ashton

E-Books Purchased

Perfect Ruin(The Internment Chronicles #1) by Lauren DeStefano
Sweet Home(Sweet Home #1) by Tillie Cole
Lucky Number Four by Amanda Jason
Jet(Marked Men #2) by Jay Crownover
Until You(Fall Away #1.5) by Penelope Douglas
Flat-Out Love(Flat-Out Love #1) by Jessica Park
Bliss(The Bliss Bakery #1) by Kathryn Littlewood

Netgalley

Saving Quinton(Nova #2) by Jessica Sorensen

Soooo look for another Sorensen review soon. Lol.
What did you guys get this week? Let me know below or link up your weekly haul.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Review: Crash Into You(Pushing the Limits #3) by Katie McGarry

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Publication Date: November 26th, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 474
Series: Pushing the Limits
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5/5
Add to Goodreads

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker- a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other. 

Oh man, Katie McGarry where did you pull Isaiah out of? What a freakin' surprise this book was! I do love the first two books in this series. But Crash Into You blew those two out of the water. And I know I'm not alone here. I've seen a bunch of reviewers saying how surprising this one was. After reading Pushing the Limits and Dare You to I just didn't expect to love Isaiah this much.
If you've not read this one yet, than get on it! And if you've not started this series yet, than why?!

Crash Into You still keeps with McGarry's formula of rich kid falls for poor kid. Which is definitely not a new concept in books or movies. But I think she does an excellent job getting her story across. You fall in love with the characters. And she definitely knows how to pull your heart strings; especially with the ending of Crash Into You. *sobs*

Isaiah is a foster kid. He's almost 18, so he's just trying to make it through until he's free. Although that's not stopping him from living with Noah(you remember Noah, of course?). Isaiah is great with cars. He's in a special program in school, which he's top of, that just focuses on car mechanics. He's sure to ace the test that will help him guarantee a good job in either a dealership or garage when he graduates.
He doesn't like to owe anyone. And really is trying to stay out trouble so he can reach 18 on a clean record. But things change when Noah mentions they don't have the money for rent and that he's thinking of moving on to the school campus which will be paid for for him. But that means Isaiah would have to move back in with his foster family. And that's out of the question for him. So needing quick money, he goes where he knows he can do some illegal racing(he's always kept it legal). This is where he meets Rachel. Where he helps her out and gets himself into an even worse situation owing a lot more money.
Like I said, Isaiah was never even in my radar after reading the first two books. He didn't seem like anything special. But I guess that's why McGarry gave him the chance of telling his own story. Because good God is he something. Of course he's hot. But he's also loyal and trustworthy. And the way he treats Rachel, just makes any girl need a Isaiah in their life.

Rachel is the replacement child for her family. Her older sister(who she never met) died of cancer. She's supposedly an almost replica of her. And expected to act like her. But she's not her. She doesn't enjoy the lifestyle of being popular and being the life of the party like her sister did.  She's quite and shy. And suffers from extreme panic attacks, especially when doing any kind of public speaking. Which is expected of her as her mom runs a cancer foundation. Her older brothers(one being her twin) are overly protective and are constantly telling her to suck things up and continue to make their mom happy. It seems like her family is just caring for her, but actually they are quite horrible to her. Not letting her be who she is.
Rachel also has a secret; she likes speed. She loves cars and knows her way around them as well. But her family doesn't condone this. They let her get away with a few things. But if they were to know where she sneaks off to at night to drive down deserted roads at top speeds, well I'm sure of one thing, her high end car would be taken away in a second.
This leads Rachel to(by accident) find her way to the same illegal race Isaiah is at. She's not there for money. She just thinks she can race. But of course it doesn't work that way. Isaiah helps her out of a bad situation. And now they're owing a lot of money to this dangerous guy.
Rachel definitely needed to learn to stick up for herself, especially with her family. There were a lot of times I wanted to slap her and tell her to just tell her brothers to shut up! But this did leave a lot of room for her character growth over the coarse of the book.

Their relationship starts off rocky. They just want to figure out a way to make all this money they owe in the six weeks they have to do it. They don't see eye to eye. But they do have the whole being car fanatics in common. And that's where they start to bond. And eventually their relationship does progress from there.
Of course nothing is smooth sailing. Rachel has never had a boyfriend, so she's scared.  Isaiah is still getting over Beth. And he's not really in the frame of mind of ever loving someone again. Well things change and there is a bit of insta-love. But I love them both so much that it didn't really bother me. I was just routing for their relationship to progress.

As much as I loved the first two books in this series, this one was just such a pleasant surprise. I love Isaiah and Rachel, I actually got immersed in the world of cars(I don't care for cars) and that ending was not what I was expecting. But in the end my heart is pretty happy. I'm so looking forward to the next book in this companion series.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Showcase Sunday #19

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme held by Books, Biscuits and Tea. It allows fellow bloggers to show off any books or bookish things they've compiled over the week. 


It's still winter. Work is still extremely busy. So let's just get right into the good stuff. BOOKS!
Got another box set this week. I started the first book and wanted to get the rest of the series. But it turns out it was a lot cheaper to just get the set. So now I have doubles of the first book. I'll probably give it to my cousin or maybe a giveaway? Not sure yet. Also got some new releases in series I've started. Plus some others that caught my eye.
I was awful with requesting on Netgalley this week. Luckily not all my requests have come back yet. And for one of them I just saw the authors name so I clicked request. Turns out it's a third in a series. So that's not going to happen anytime soon. Bad research on my part...

Purchased

The Liberator(Dante Walker #2) by Victoria Scott
The Seven Realms Box Set by Cinda Williams Chima


Unhinged(Splintered #2) by A.G. Howard
Enders(Starters #2) by Lissa Price


Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Charm(Tales from the Kingdom #2) by Sarah Pinborough

E-Books Purchased

Keeping Her(Losing It #1.5) by Cora Carmack
A Tale of Two Centures(My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century #2) by Rachel Harris

Netgalley

The Paper Sword(Spell Crossed #1) by Robert Priest
The SunBird(The Lion Hunters #3) by Elizabeth Wein
The Martian by Andy Weir

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten

On the plus side, I've already read three of the books I purchased and have started another.
And I'm also promising to get a review or two up this week. I'll again make the excuse that it's been pretty hectic this past while, so unfortunately review writing(which takes more time to write than a meme) has taken a back seat. But I'm going to get back on it. Hopefully....

So what did you guys get this week? Let me know or link up your weekly haul down below.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Debuts I'm Excited For

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme held by The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten 2014 Debuts I'm Excited For!


10. Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell


9. Vivian Divine is Dead by Lauren Sabel

8. Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

7. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

6. Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

5. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

4. Alienated(Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers

3. The Murder Complex(The Murder Complex #1) by Lindsay Cummings

2. The Winner's Curse(The Winner's Trilogy #1) by Marie Rutkoski

1. Dorothy Must Die(Dorothy Must Die #1) by Danielle Paige

All beautiful covers too!
2014 is promising some fantastic new titles. So needless to say that I'm excited for a billion releases this year. I seriously need to develop super fast reading powers like NOW!

Let me know your top 2014 debuts down below.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Bout of Books 9.0 Wrap-Up

Hey guys! Just wanted to do a quick wrap-up from the Bout of Books read-a-thon. I sure as hell didn't do that great. Didn't read as much as I wanted to. Didn't do any challenges. And only stuck to one book from my TBR. Sooo...yea....turns out it was a very busy week. So I read about or even less than I usually would in a normal week. But at least I tried.
As for my TBR, I just ended up not being in the mood for most of the books I had picked. I finished one book and than got into a major contemp and NA reading mood. Which I'm actually still in.
Anyways, here are my stats for the week.

Read

The Destiny of Violet and Luke(The Coincidence #3) by Jessica Sorensen = 336 pages
This is What Happy Looks Like Jennifer E. Smith = 416 pages
Losing It(Losing It #1) by Cora Carmack = 288 pages
Keeping Her(Losing It #1.5) by Cora Carmack = 176 pages

Started

Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinis = 58(set aside)

The Collector(Dante Walker #1) by Victoria Scott = 180 pages(still reading)

Total Pages Read = 1454

So The Destiny of Violet and Luke and Not A Drop to Drink were the only ones on my TBR. I did start Not A Drop to Drink second. But it was so boring and I knew what was going to happen by the second page that I just couldn't force it. I'll try again at another time.

Let me know how you guys did down below!
Here's to more success the next time I try one of these. :)

Happy reading!

Brittany

Showcase Sunday #18

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme held by Books, Biscuits and Tea. It allows fellow bloggers to show off any books or bookish things they've compiled over the week.

Been another busy week. Putting in lots of time at work. But I'm not complaining there. My week did not start off great though. My stupid car broke down and I had to put too much money into it to get it fixed. But unfortunately that was the most logical choice. I just need it to make it to spring without any more problems.
So I did get two box sets this week. I'm excited for both, but one of them is going to get a little bit of an extra "showcase" because I know you guys will be just as excited to see more of it like I would be.

Purchased

The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson


Harry Potter:The Complete Series by J.K. Rowling

Eeeeeee!! They are so beautiful! Fantastic quality too. CoS is definitely my favourite cover. How about you guys?

Happy reading!

Brittany