Favorites Giveaway Hop

Favorites Giveaway Hop! 

We have read and enjoyed so many books lately!  The winner has their choice of book from the picture below!

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GIVEAWAY RULES:
- US residents only (sorry International friends :()
- Ends February 19th, 2016
- Fill out the Rafflecopter to enter
- Winners will have 48 hours to respond before someone else is selected
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit Some of the other Blogs on the Hop!

Rebel Bully Geek Pariah by Erin Jade Lange

Title: Rebel Bully, Geek Pariah
Author: Erin Jade Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: February 16th 2016
Source: Copy provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review (Thanks Bloomsbury!)

Summary from Goodreads:

"The Breakfast Club" gets a modern, high-stakes reboot in this story of four very different teens and a night that changes them forever.

The Rebel: Once popular, Andi is now a dreadlocked, tattooed wild child.
The Bully: York torments everyone who crosses his path, especially his younger brother.
The Geek: Tired of being bullied, Boston is obsessed with getting into an Ivy League college.
The Pariah: Choosing to be invisible has always worked for Sam . . . until tonight.

When Andi, York, Boston, and Sam find themselves hiding in the woods after a party gets busted by the cops, they hop into the nearest car they see and take off—the first decision of many in a night that will change their lives forever. By the light of day, these four would never be caught dead together, but when their getaway takes a dangerously unpredictable turn, sticking together could be the only way to survive.

With cinematic storytelling and compelling emotional depth, critically acclaimed author Erin Jade Lange takes readers on literary thrill ride.

Review

I love 80s movies!  Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles and of course The Breakfast Club. So to hear that Rebel Bully Geek Pariah was a modern high-stakes Breakfast Club, I was all in!

The book is told from the Pariah's point of view (no multiple POVs here) which was a interesting and nice change considering the story focuses on four main characters.  The reader is immediately introduced to the Pariah's mom through a flash forward.  The hints of mystery and high stakes events start off right away.  The following three main characters are introduced quite quickly.  This is where the book gets the comparison to the Breakfast Club.  The four very different characters are presented with a crazy intense situation and must band together to get through the next 24 hours.  This is a primarily a plot driven book with a secondary focus on the friendship building and new bonds.

Rebel Bully Geek Pariah was darker than I was expecting and at times it had some heavier themes. The book has dangerous adventures, bad guys, drug deals, and police chases.  Without giving away too much of the mystery, I definitely enjoyed the (sometimes a bit unrealistic) suspense filled plot with a unpredictable ending.  

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Glass Sword
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #2
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 9, 2016
Source: ALA MW

Summary from Goodreads:
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Review

I am almost too sad to write this review. Last year, Red Queen was one of my favorite reads. I loved it so much and couldn’t wait to read Glass Sword. I even had it pre-ordered which is kind of a rarity for me, reserved for only a few of my most anticipated releases. I fully expected to love it. So what happened?

I was bored, mostly. Glass Sword is 400+ pages of middle book syndrome. There was too little action and too many words. Like, ya know when stuff is going on but it feels like it’s happening at a snail’s pace because you have to read 50 pages of dialogue in between each somewhat significant moment? Or it feels as if too much is happening in the background? That’s kind of what was going on in this book, or at least my best attempt at explaining how it felt to read it. The writing started to feel repetitive and meaningless and I found myself impatient to finish the book so I could move on to something I enjoyed more. And although the ending was good, I didn’t feel like it deserved the 400+ pages it took to get there.

I was also annoyed by Mare. She reminded me a little bit of Juliette from the Shatter Me series and for those who don’t know, I HATE Juliette. She was WAY too self-obsessed and a little too arrogant and I honestly didn’t recognize her at times. In Red Queen she was someone I admired and could easily root for. In Glass Sword, I found myself wanting to wring her neck one too many times just to shut her up. This is obviously not a good feeling to have about your heroine.

But I was more or less OK with everything else to happen. I didn’t mind Mare’s interest in Cal at all. I liked quite a few of the secondary characters. And there were even a couple developments that took me completely by surprise. And again, the ending was strong albeit a little sudden.

I wouldn’t say I disliked this book, but I was disappointed enough by it that I canceled my pre-order. It was not the sequel I had hoped for and I didn’t really enjoy reading it which saddens me like you wouldn’t believe. But I’ve seen some positive reviews on Goodreads so I could turn out to be the black sheep on this one. And I do think the last book has potential, I’ve just lost most of my confidence in this series.

Stacking the Shelves (160) - Jan 30th

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

What I'm Reading

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A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly
When We Collided by Emery Lord

What books are stacking your shelves? 

Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk

Title: Arrows
Author: Melissa Gorzelanczyk
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: January 26th 2016

Summary from Goodreads:

A modern cupid story set in present-day Wisconsin combining the fantastical elements of Greek mythology with the contemporary drama of MTV's Teen Mom.

People don’t understand love. If they did, they’d get why dance prodigy Karma Clark just can’t say goodbye to her boyfriend, Danny. No matter what he says or does or how he hurts her, she can’t stay angry with him . . . and can’t stop loving him. But there’s a reason why Karma is helpless to break things off: she’s been shot with a love arrow.
Aaryn, son of Cupid, was supposed to shoot both Karma and Danny but found out too late that the other arrow in his pack was useless. And with that, Karma’s life changed forever. One pregnancy confirmed. One ballet scholarship lost. And dream after dream tossed to the wind.

A clueless Karma doesn’t know that her toxic relationship is Aaryn’s fault . . . but he’s going to get a chance to make things right. He’s here to convince Danny to man up and be there for Karma. But what if this god from Mount Olympus finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dancer from Wisconsin who can never love him in return?

Review

Arrows was one of those books where I just loved the cover but never actually read the blurb.  When I went to set up this review I finally read the blurb and I am glad that I did not read it sooner.  I do have friends that love MTV's Teen Mom but it is just not a show I watch, so the summary might have made my shy away from this book.  Now if you like Teen Mom I can see the appeal for you but if you do not then just ignore the blurb and be pleasantly surprised like I was.  

I was very surprised at first and a little hesitant in the first couple chapters, I was not expecting the interplay between Greek mythology and present day to be so sudden.  Once I grasped the setting and understood the overall role of Aaryn (the son of cupid) I was sucked into the story. I enjoyed the unique plot, I was crushing pages just wanting to know more.  Gorzelanczyk did a fantastic job building anticipation throughout the story. 

The ending felt rushed, after so much anticipation and build up I would have loved an extra 20 pages.  That would be my only complaint.  Other than that I loved to cute story and use of Greek mythology was fun and different.  I definitely recommend if you are looking for an easy and entertaining read!

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Title: A Night Divided
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: August 25th 2015

Summary from Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a stunning thriller about a girl who must escape to freedom after the Berlin Wall divides her family between east and west.

With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.

But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

Review

A Night Divided was a vivid and heart-warming story about a determined girl's mission to bring her family together.  The book can be enjoyed by all ages as it provides a unique perspective on the construction of the Berlin Wall.  That being said, the main character is 12 and the young voice was a bit much for me at times. Even though the narrator is younger, she is true to her age; Gerta is a bit stubborn, sometimes moody, and at times naive but it all fit her personality very well.

The struggles Gerta and her family face and try to overcome really is the central focus of the book. Gerta gives the reader a view of what life would have been like during the West and East Berlin struggles.  This is not a time frame I am quite familiar with so I found the story to be a refreshingly different historical fiction.

The family dynamics between Gerta and her brother Fritz evolve over the course of the story into something wonderful.  The book is mixture of family bonding moments and high stake actions. A Night Divided is a family-oriented, well written, historical fiction that glimpses into the life of a 12 year old girl digging for her freedom.  I recommend this book especially to a younger reader!

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

Title: Happiness for Beginners
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: March 24th 2015

Summary from Goodreads:

A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Review

Happiness for Beginners balances heavy topics with light-hearted humor in a beautiful, adventure story.  Helen has been facing quite a tough year and decides she needs to leave her comfort zone and explore nature.  While I personally haven't faced some of her struggles I found Helen incredibly relate-able.  I immediately felt for her and was cheering her on.

Jake is hands down a favorite of mine.  Jake is a good guy, he is funny, quick witted, smart, and extremely like-able.  The interesting and unique relationship between Jake and Helen are all over the place. Even though Jake wants to help Helen, she is determined to find herself on her own.  She learns a lot about her strengths and weaknesses and what happiness means to her.  While Helen and nature do not always get along she preservers through her journey.

Helen befriends a range of other hikers, one suggests reflecting on three good/happy things and to train yourself to see the good in your day.  I loved the concept and I know its nothing new but it fit the story so well and made me pause to reflect on my own outlook on happiness.  The self growth, secondary characters, and humor made this story one of my favorite feel good books!