October 2014 Recap

Nicole Read

Ashley Read

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Nicole's Pick

Ashley's Pick

October Reviews

Other October Posts

• Ashley shares a video and photos of her wedding! (If you haven't seen this video I recommend it because it is AWESOME)
• We recommend ten awesome character-driven books for people who like that sort of thing. ;)
• We participate in the TBR Tag thanks to Pam @ [YA] Escape from Reality!
• Ten places books have made us want to visit.
• Nicole is reading High Fantasy again and made a list! Any recommendations?
• Ten new series we want to start. 
• Ashley talks about her thought-process for changing her last name. 
• Ten characters we would totally be for Halloween. 

What's New With Us

• Nicole went on a mini vaca to Boston, MA and Salem, MA last weekend and walked The Freedom Trail and learned about the Salem Witch Trials and all sorts of other fun historical-related things. 
• Ashley has started house hunting and has been visiting lots and lots of houses! 
• Nicole's glorious break from school is over and work has ramped up so don't expect to see her much until Christmas. :( 
• Ashley leaves for her Honeymoon in Costa Rica soon!!

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Title: A Little Something Different
Author: Sandy Hall
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release Date: August 26, 2014

Summary from Goodreads:
The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.

Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together....

Review

I found A Little Something Different to be all kinds of adorable, just like the masses promised. I found Gabe and Lea’s inability to form a relationship, when they so obviously liked each other, to be somewhat endearing, albeit a little exasperating. I loved how invested everyone was in them getting together even if I don’t believe there are that many people who actually behave like that; like match-makers all up in other people’s business. And I ended up loving the way it was written – using everyone’s perspective but Gabe and Lea’s. When I heard it was written this way, I wasn’t sure how I would take to it and I was skeptical over its execution, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Although, I could have probably done without the perspectives of the bench and squirrel, which were a little odd.

Since this book has many prominent secondary (or are they primary?) characters, I feel as if they are worth mentioning. As a whole, they were a pretty diversified bunch. I enjoyed the array of personalities displayed and found most of them to be pretty interesting and just as likable as Gabe and Lea. I liked the little glimpses into their lives and the bit of growth some of them had in the end. Inga was definitely my favorite and left me wishing that I had a teacher as cool as that.

Overall, this was a quick and wonderful read that has definitely left an impression on me. It made me smile, it made me laugh, it made me reminisce over all those awkward girl-boy encounters that everyone goes through (that I still go through), and it made me hope. I loved it.

Top Ten Characters Who We Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's Top Ten list is
"Top Ten Characters Who We Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween"

Nicole's Top Five

1. Buruu - The Lotus War by Jay Kristoff

2.Karou - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

3. Alina - The Grisha by Leigh Bardugo

4. Anna - Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

5.Cinder - The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Ashley's Top Five

1. Jacinda- Firelight by Sophie Jordan
2. Kestrel - The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
3. America Singer - The One by Kiera Cass
4. Lady Aileana - The Falconer by Elizabeth May
5. Karou - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

What are your top ten?

Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley

Title: Rites of Passage
Author: Joy N. Hensley
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: September 9, 2014

Summary from Goodreads:
Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.

So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him.

As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.
At any cost.

Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust...and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.

Review

Sam is one of only a handful of girls to be the first to attend a previously all boys military academy. No one expects the girls to last long, but many are willing to go to great lengths to make sure that they don't. The plot thickens when it is discovered that those who want them gone the most are part of some very well-connected and powerful secret society on campus, meaning the rules don’t really apply to them. Sam is quickly singled out as the hardest to break and is pushed way harder than the other members of her company. Determined not to fail, Sam overcomes every challenge they throw her way but once her enemies realize that extra physical and emotional torment won't deter her, things start to escalate quickly. Fortunately, Sam has some people on her side, but the odds are always so stacked against her that it almost never feels like enough.

Let me just say that this book was INTENSE. Because this is military school and her enemies outrank her, there is very little Sam could do but take the abuse with a “Sir, yes, Sir”. As I read, my muscles were clenched and my stomach was in knots as I feared for what Sam would have to endure next. And I was SO ANGRY at SO MANY PEOPLE. Not only was I angry at every sexist, self-important jackass that tried to tear her down but I was also angry at all of the people that should have been on her side but let her down. I think this book set a new record for characters I wanted to punch. But that just means that I was 110% emotionally invested and 200% with Sam every step of the way. Speaking of Sam, she was amazing – a dedicated, strong-willed, good person through and through.

There were two aspects of the ending that didn’t go quite the way I had hoped they would. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers and I think they are pretty obvious when you read the book. And despite that, I really really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it.

Stacking the Shelves (95) - Oct 25th

Stacking the Shelves - hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews - features books that you bought, borrowed, rented from the library, received for review, etc.

Upcoming Reads

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The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass 0.1-0.5) by Sarah J. Maas
Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley
A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
The Young Elites (The Young Elites #1) by Marie Lu

What books are stacking your shelves?