Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'd Recommend to My Cousin

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

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Books I'd Recommend to My Cousin!

This weeks topic is actually perfect and a little funny. I chose to go with my cousin as the person I would recommend books too because that's our thing. He may be a teenage boy, and twelve years younger than me. But we share a love of reading and books. It's what we bond over, right Bradley? :) And the funny thing is I just asked him for his Christmas book wish list, which always turns into me recommending books to him to put on the list. I'd like to think I give him good recommendations and he ends up getting books he loves for Christmas or his birthday. I don't think I've done wrong yet, but you'd have to ask him to make sure. ;) Anyhow, here are the books/series I want him to have a go at(hopefully he hasn't read any of them).



1. Finnikin of The Rock(Lumatere Chronicles #1): I actually gave this one to him a few years ago. But he recently told me he's yet to finish it. Grrrr....Finish it Bradley! :)
2. Throne of Glass(Throne of Glass #1): I believe I have mentioned this one before. But with only two books out so far, I already know it will become one of my top fantasy series. So I think everyone should read it.
3. The Raven Boys(The Raven Cycle #1): He recently read The Scorpio Races and liked it, so I think this series would interest him because of the mythology and mystery elements.
4.The Emerald Atlas(The Books of Beginning #1): What we both enjoy is action. And middle grade books usually don't disappoint there. Since we're both such big fans of HP and PJ I think he would find this right up his ally too.



5.The Darkest Minds(The Darkest Minds #1): We are also both fans of dystopians and I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I love this book. He's a big fan of Divergent and HG too, so this one fits right in.
6.Unwind(Unwind Dystology #1): This one is super creepy and original. Bradley likes creepy. Lol.
7.The Book Thief: Another one he told me he hasn't finished. Everybody needs to read The Book Thief. It should be mandatory!
8.The 5th Wave(The 5th Wave #1): I'll admit to not really enjoying this one. BUT I do think Bradley would. So that's why it's here.



9.Ready Player One: What a unique, fun book! I really don't know why he wouldn't enjoy this one too. It's pretty much a video game that you read. Both things he likes.
10. Graphic novels: We just talked about this the other day, and he hasn't read one before. Which I think is a must for him. He's very artistic, so obviously with the art and words all in one, it should be a given he'd become addicted.

How about you guys? What person in your life do you really want to recommend a bunch of books to?

Happy reading!

Brittany

Review: The Temptation of Lila and Ethan(The Secret #3) by Jessica Sorensen

The Temptation of Lila and Ethan by Jessica Sorensen

Publication Date: October 22nd, 2013
Publisher: Forever
Pages: 336
Series: The Secret
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4/5
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On the surface, Lila Summers is flawless: good looks, expensive clothes and a big, beautiful smile. But a dark past and even darker secrets are threatening to bubble over her perfect facade. She'll do anything to keep the emptiness inside hidden-which leads her into situations that always end badly. Whenever she hits bottom, there's only one person who's there to pull her out: Ethan Gregory.

Ethan set the rules a long time ago: he and Lila are just friends. He doesn't do relationships. Although his tattooed, bad boy exterior is a far cry from Lila's pretty princess image, Ethan can't deny they have a deeper connection than he's used to. If he's not careful, he could be in serious danger of becoming attached-and he's learned the hard way that attachment only leads to heartbreak.

When Lila falls farther than she ever has before, can Ethan continue to help as a friend? Or is he also getting close to falling...for her?

Alright, first off going in I didn't realize this is actually part of a series. But you can definitely read it as a stand alone (which is obviously what I did) as it's from the POV's from two side characters, the best friends of the main characters, from the series. So it is their story this time. The good thing this book made me want to do is pick up the other books from the series because now I need to know everything!
This is also the kind of NA book I'm looking for when picking up this genre. It's more mature than YA and also tends to have a darker story.

This is my second Sorensen book now and I'd say she's easily going to be one of those authors I'll just pick up any book she writes because her name is on it. I feel that's one of the highest compliments you can give an author. I quite enjoy her writing. She knows how to get the story across. Or more specifically the feels across.  Especially because a lot of the story is pretty dark and gritty. These characters for the most part aren't living happy lives. They have dark pasts or are currently into something not so lovely. So you need to feel for these characters and understand what has lead them to where they are now. I definitely get all the feels when reading.

Lila definitely defines the term that appearances aren't everything. On the outside you've got this beautiful, rich girl. Underneath is anything but. Her parents are awful people and never showed Lila any love growing up. Sure they bought her expensive things, but it was all for appearances. Put up the perfect front and that's all that matters. Unfortunately behind closed doors it's far from that. They are nasty to Lila. Telling her she's useless and can't do anything right. And than at 14 when something terrible happens to her, instead of getting her the help she needs. Her mother calls her a worthless slut and gives her a "happy" pill that will make everything better. Thus starts Lila's addiction. So when we are with present day Lila, she's been popping pills for over 6 years. Her parents have cut her off because she's not leading the life they want. She also sleeps around because she feels that's all she's worth. But because the pills numb her she doesn't feel anything. Even though she knows this isn't what she wants, she feels it is what she deserves. There were many times I wanted to slap Lila because she just kept walking into the same situation. But over the coarse of the book Lila does change a lot. She grows and starts to lead a healthy life. The changes weren't sudden and there was some set backs. But that's real life.

Ethan is such a good guy. Sure he's had his rough past but at this point he's cleaned up and the help he gives Lila is probably what saves her life.
Like Lila, Ethan had a not so great childhood. His parents loved him, and the love wasn't hidden. But his dad also had a lot of demons. Pain killer addiction and anger issues which lead to him hitting Ethan's mom. And she would just take it. Ethan watched this, so of course it affected him. He drops out of school at 17 and gets into drugs. Which leads him to meet a girl named London. From what we're told their relationship was based off of drugs and sex. But he loved her(he thought anyhow). And that's why she haunts him because he walked out on her when she lead him into a situation he knew was very wrong. And she pretty much destroyed her life that night. Now Ethan constantly goes back to that night and how he should have stayed and made her leave. It's the coulda, woulda, shoulda and it's something he needs to come to terms with. After that night, he cleaned up his life. Now he's drug free with the occasional drink. Yea he's a bit of a playboy, but he's up front about it. So that doesn't bother me.

As for Lila and Ethan together, well for most of the book they are just friends with a lot of sexual tension. You know pretty much from the get go how much they care for each other, and do want to be together. But they individually have a lot of personal shit to work out before that relationship is really plausible.
They do lean on each other quite a bit. Lila a little more than Ethan but they are there for each other. And Ethan is the one to give Lila her reality check about her pill addiction(and life too). He's the one to pick her up, start her on her sobriety and help wean her off them. As much as you just want them to realize their feelings for each other already. I still really enjoyed seeing their relationship progress and they are being smart about not jumping into with each other. There's things they are scared of(like turning into their parents relationships) and they don't want to lose each other if it doesn't work out. But in the end, as a reader, I was very happy with Lila and Ethan's story.

I can't wait to pick up the rest of the books in the series, especially since it did kind of leave off on a cliff-hanger. And I just really want to read about Ella and Micah.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Showcase Sunday #10

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.

So, slow week over here (sorry). But I'm still sick, so really all I want to do is sleep. On the plus side, I'm going to Vegas this week! It's just for two nights, for work. But it's not here and it will be sunny and warm.
I also started and finished the Legend trilogy this week. Champion may not have destroyed my life like Allegiant but it was still pretty heart breaking. I really don't think I can handle finishing any other series this year if this is the trend. *I'm looking at you Taste of Darkness*
Netgalley November quick update: I read two more NG books this week. So that brings my total to four. I'm pretty happy with that. I'm hoping to finish four more this month and that should bring up my review % on there quite a bit. *fingers crossed*

Purchased

Steelheart(Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson
Champion(Legend #3) by Marie Lu
Gris Grimly's Frankenstein by Gris Grimly and Mary Shelley

E-Book

No Place Like Oz(Dorothy Must Die #0.5) by Danielle Paige

How about you guys? Get anything good this week?

Happy reading!

Brittany

Review: Too Fast by Alexia Haynes

Too Fast by Alexia Haynes
Publication Date: July 18th, 2013
Publisher: Self published
Pages: 145
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 1/5
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Twenty-year-old Savannah enjoys a one-time one-night stand because a real relationship would never fit into her busy schedule. Working two jobs and pursuing her degree takes all of her time. Besides, the guys she has dated haven't been much better than the random barfly. 
It's a good thing Luke's body is honed by the long hours of carpentry and construction because he carries the weight of his family on his shoulders. School hasn't been an option for him since he dropped out to make house payments his mother failed to make. 
Luke finds what he's been longing for in a night with Savannah. She's determined to stop with a one-night stand, but he wants more. Neither can deny the perfection of their passionate interludes, but with such imperfect lives, do they have any chance for a future together? Suddenly she's losing her heart and it's happening much too fast. 

Oh here I go again getting fooled into thinking I'm going to be reading a great NA book. Wrong. So wrong. And it's really starting to piss me off. I don't know who categorizes a book into a certain genre but this relatively new NA genre is really screwing with the system. But in the case with Too Fast I think it's pretty obvious it doesn't belong there. I'd barely call it a romance novel. It's erotica plain and simple. Haynes that what you wrote, so what? There's people out there that like that genre and I'm sure you'd appeal to those readers. Just not my thing. And that's my problem with the whole genre categorizing. I want to request and review books from Netgalley based out of genres I read and like which would hopefully lead to me requesting and reviewing books I'm going to like. So now I'm left with the hard part of reviewing a book I didn't like at all because of that "categorization."

Anyhow, I have nothing positive to say. Too Fast has no story to it. It's sex scenes with a few non sex scenes thrown in there just to get to the sex scenes.
So the two main characters are supposed to have these troubled back stories/current lives but really because the dialogue is so weak(which I'll come to next) I have no feelings for these characters besides how god awful they were. And don't worry, you're sad that your moms clinically crazy, sex will solve that! :/

The characters have no personality. Totally one dimensional. Well besides the labels they are given. One roommate is a slut (slut-shamming, cool beans...), which is pointed out multiple times. And the other roommate is a boring prude because she's studying to become a teacher, wears cardigans and goes to church.
Savannah is another Bella Swan. And actually the only detail you get about either her or Luke is about their rockin' bodies. Apparently we are also supposed to feel sorry for Luke because his mom is crazy so he's had to raise his younger sister and pay all the bills. Well I'd say he's not a very good role model for her (proof near the end of the book when she drinks herself into oblivion). Apparently he use to be quite the drinker. But that doesn't even come close to the fact that he's pretty much screwing Savannah well his little sister sleeps in the same room. Brother of the year award right there!

And the writing, I'd say it's simple, but I've read books with simple writing and still enjoyed them. This writing and dialogue is just weak. It feels like a 13 year old wrote it and asked their 16 year old brother to help them out with all the sex scenes. It's terrible.
And any dialogue between characters is either super cheesy or rude and only about sex. Than they'll laugh and give each other faces about how much Savannah is "enjoying" Luke. Blah.

Oh hey, just thought of something positive. For a self-published book I actually didn't come across any spelling or grammar errors. They may be there, but I didn't catch them and my eyes are usually drawn right to any error. So there's that...

Obviously this book and I didn't see eye to eye. But going in if you know what you're really getting, than it might be an enjoyable read.

Happy reading!

Brittany

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I wish I could redesign

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

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Nine Covers I Wish I Could Redesign!

1. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

Super cheesy. And it's totally why I didn't pick them up for years because I thought they were another Twilight. And that's so not the case.

2. Easy by Tammara Webber

Makes it seem like it's going to be another lust filled NA book. Nope. Sure, it has its moments. But it's also a lot darker, fantastic story and writing.

3. Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver

This was an awful redesign. Another girl on another cover. They could have been so creative with these covers. Love is against the law. So many things come to mind.

4. Shades of Earth(Across the Universe #3) by Beth Revis

This cover isn't bad. It's the fact that they decided to do a redesign on the last book of a trilogy. Grrr... #BookNerdProblems

5. Dust Lands trilogy by Moira Young

Another redesign that was unnecessary. The original hardcover was so much better. Now the background and the kid(s) on the front are so out of whack. It bugs me!

6. Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Another redesign I don't like. I love the first book and the cover makes sense. Now they've added another girl. :/

7. Study Series by Maria V Snyder

I love this trilogy! It's such an epic fantasy. These covers don't do it justice. Just another girl...

8. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

You know what this book is about? Creepy fenced in towns because there's zombies! Not a girl creepin' on the boy she's crushing on.

9. Girls in dresses! Why is that the go to for 90% of YA books? So frustrating.

How about you guys? What are your top covers that need a re-thinking?

Happy reading!

Brittany

Showcase Sunday #9

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.

Not much to say about this week. After last weekend leaving me without a voice till mid-week I then got a sore throat. So now I have even less of a voice and finding it hard to swallow. Oh the joys of the weather turning cold.
I guess I could do a bit of an update on Netgalley November. I read two books this week off my Netgalley TBR. One review has been posted here. I've been trying to write a review on the other book for a few days, but I don't really have anything to say. I liked it and that's about it. But it'll be up sometime soon. So if I can read another two this week I'd be quite happy.
And onto the books. I had a bookoutlet order come in. That site is both amazing and awful.

Purchased

The Possession of Mr.Cave by Matt Haig
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
Carrier of the Mark(Carrier #1) by Leigh Fallon
Rise(Eve #3) by Anna Carey
September Girls by Bennett Madison
Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan
Fly Away(Firefly Lane #2) by Kristin Hannah

Library

That Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard

How about you guys? Get any good books? Have a good week?

Happy reading!

Brittany

Review: Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It by Nick Carter

Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It by Nick Carter

Publication Date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: Bird Street Books
Pages: 254
Source: Netgalley and Purchased
Rating: 4/5
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This book is Nick Carter's autobiography and self-help hybrid in which he chronicles his struggles with a dysfunctional family and the unimaginable rigors of becoming an internationally successful pop-star at the age of 12. From his battle with addiction to serious health complications and the pain of his younger sister's tragic death, Nick leaves nothing to the imagination and offers true and heartfelt advice to help readers overcome obstacles in their own lives.


There was really only one reason I was initially interested in picking up this book. NICK CARTER WROTE A BOOK! How could I not want to read it? BSB were my life growing up and I'm still a huge fan. I'd read or watch anything any of the band were to put out. And I'm sure that's the same for a lot of people that pick up this book. So I really didn't bother to read what it was about. I figured I get a look into Nick's life in one of my favourite bands. Wrong. But pleasantly surprised about what I did find inside.

This book is definitely quite a bit memoir/autobiography. But also has the self-help vibe too. Nick is pretty candid about his life. He's had many demons to battle growing up. And unfortunately being famous, some of that has played out through media outlets. Being a fan (I guess a fangirl would be the appropriate term these days), I read all the magazines and such throughout the 90's and 00's. I remember reading about his tough upbringing and his dating Paris Hilton and some of his partying, etc... But I never knew how bad his drug and alcohol abuse really was. After reading this, to say that I'm surprised he's actually alive today is not an understatement. He delves right into the affect his home life had on him becoming a child star. Hard drugs, alcohol and partying became his getaway. And as we all know, he's not the only Hollywood Star out there that this becomes their lifestyle as well. The fortunate part is Nick was eventually able to seek help and live to see another day.

This book is actually quite enlightening into how far Nick has come. He may not be a professional, but telling his story and providing feelings, thoughts and advice on what has helped him overcome his darkness is never a bad thing. Someone reading this could realize they're heading that way and there is many different kinds of help out there for them. Nick is no doubt a international celebrity and quite a lot time we as "normal" folk take to heart what our favourite celebrities say and do. I think this is a positive outlet for a celebrity who has been to the bottom and is rising back up to let us know that they aren't perfect either but have to figure their shit out too. I think Nick did a very good job of getting his points across. And as a fan, I can definitely say he hasn't looked this great in many years. He seems to be finding the healthy balance for his life.

KTBSPA!

Happy reading!

Brittany