Review: Pushing the Limits

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Published: July 31, 2012
Source: eGalley

Synopsis:

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series."
So wrong for each other...and yet so right.
No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Review:
An amazing story, one you couldn’t put down for the life of you and needed to just continue reading. I loved Pushing the Limits so much. I stayed up super late to read about Noah and Echo’s stories and how they learned to be themselves throughout the book. They grew up and changed into such beautiful characters that you couldn’t help but love them and root for them.


Cover:
Gorgeous! It was what drew me to the story in the first place! When I first saw it I thought, “ooo! Steamy romance, I am so in!” Then I actually read the synopsis and became even more interested! I love the cover!

Plot/Writing:

Never a dull moment. The story is always continuing and moving forward at a pace that made you feel that it was real. I never once felt like it was the story where the author rushed toward the ending. The only rushing was me trying to finish quicker so I could find out what was happening! It was beautifully written and I felt like Katie actually paid attention to teenagers to see how they talked an acted!

Characters:

Echo is under her father’s strict thumb after her brother has died in the war and has a restraining order against her bi-polar mother. She is left with scars all over her body that she has no idea where they came from, and throughout the book she is just trying to figure out where these scars have come from. Once she meets Noah, a plan is set in motion for her to figure out what truly happened, but when she remembers snippets she goes into shock and, well, she doesn’t really want to remember after that.

Noah is described as the typical bad boy. Yet, he isn’t. His only goal in life is to get his brothers back and he can’t do that if he’s smoking and getting drunk every day. He gets thrown into Echo’s life in this process because he needs the tutoring to get his grades up.  I loved Noah’s love for inappropriate words, his dedication to the people he loves (mostly his brothers), and his bad boy exterior! I would date him in a heartbeat! J

All in All:

I LOVE PUSHING THE LIMITS! It was one amazing ride and I recommended it to anyone! You will fall in love with the characters, the writing, and the journey that is Noah and Echo’s! 

Cover Love!

What if you knew exactly when you would die? In the not-too-distant future, genetic engineering has turned every newborn into a ticking time bomb — males only live to age 25 and females only live to age 20.
In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When 16-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by "the Gatherers" to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Rhine has only one purpose after she has been married to her new husband, Linden: to escape and find her twin brother.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant to whom she is dangerously attracted, Rhine is desperate to learn the truth and protect those closest to her. But, as her sister wife Cecily keeps insisting, her role may be much bigger than that.
In the first two books of the Chemical Garden trilogy, Wither and Fever, Rhine struggles to escape the mansion and then to navigate the brutal world outside. Now in Sever, the third and final book, Rhine uncovers some shattering truths about the past that her parents never had the chance to tell her and the alarming implications regarding her own genes. She may be the one who can save the human race.

Violet Eden is Grigori - part angel, part human. Her destiny is to protect humans from the vengence of exiled angels.
Knowing who to trust is key but, when Grigori reinforcements arrive, it becomes clear everyone is hiding something. Even Lincoln. The only thing Violet does know: Phoenix's hold over her is more dangerous than ever.
The race to find the one thing that could tilt the balance of power brings them all to the sacred mountains of Jordan, where Violet's power will be pushed to the extreme. And the ultimate betrayal exposed.

Enticed is the second compelling book in The Violet Eden Chapters.

Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.
In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .
Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.
Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.
Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe—only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . . .

A cruise ship. A beautiful island. Two sexy guys. What could possibly go wrong?

In the Bermuda Triangle—a lot.
Hoping to leave behind the reminders of her crappy life--her father's death years ago, her mother's medical problems, and the loser who’s practically stalking her--seventeen-year-old Autumn Taylor hops on a ship with her sister for a little distraction. When she wakes up in the Bermuda Triangle, she fears she's gone nuts for more than one reason: that loser’s suddenly claiming they're a happy couple... a hot guy is wrapping his arms around her and saying "Happy Anniversary"... and suddenly, she’s full of bruises, losing her hair, and getting IV medication. Autumn visits the ship's doctor, hoping for a pill or a shot to make the craziness go away. Instead, she's warned that these "alternate realities" could become permanent.
She just has to ask herself one question—how the hell is she going to get out of this mess?

What do you think of all these beautiful covers?! I can't wait for these books!

Friday 56: 6/29/12

This weekly meme is hosted by Freda's Voice!!!

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Turn to page 56

• Find any sentence that grabs you

• Post it

• Add your URL to her Linky!

"Piper froze, a french fry halfway to her mouth, feeling a little like she'd been slapped."
Pg 56 of the International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams
 

Guest Post: Sherry Soule #MMBlogTour

“Why I LOVE the Young Adult Genre”

Hi everybody, I’m author, Sherry Soule—waving from the SF Bay Area, where it can get pretty foggy. And I can’t believe that summer’s finally here, and even with the fog burning off by afternoon, I’m cranking the air conditioner and chatting on Twitter about my love of reading.

Thanks for letting me visit today as part of my epic Moonlight Mayhem Blog Tour. It’s an honor to be a guest and meet all these awesome booklovers.

Thus far, my tour has been so much fun for me and all the followers that participated. It is nice seeing the familiar names in the comments at each stop. For those of you who haven’t heard of my super fun blog tour it's not too late to join the fun!

Twitter Hashtag: #MMBlogTour

Since I was a child, I recognized that books were a way to travel to other worlds and have remarkable adventures, and I’ve been in love with both reading and writing ever since. Even though, I am older (don’t ask me “how” old), I’ve always loved reading YA literature. I am on a constant literary diet that mostly consists of the young adult fiction genre, but I’ve been known to occasionally stray into paranormal/romance or horror adult categories.

I love reading YA because I like to relive and experience, the excitement, romance, and angst of being a teenager again. I think most novels in the YA genre are fast-paced and thrilling, and they are often written in a style that is both engrossing and easy-to-read, with story-driven or character-driven plotlines. I also love that there are so many books created into a series nowadays, so that you can keep having more adventures with your favorite characters.

Could my love of YA be simply because I’m still stuck at age sixteen, just a teenager-at-heart in disguise?

Yup. And like many of you, I’ve read hundreds of YA books (you’re NEVER too old to read young adult novels, IMHO) and I can’t actually say I didn’t enjoy them all. Some I loved and I mean “LOVED”. Other novels became good friends that I didn’t want to ever part with, so they adorn my bookshelves and wait patiently to be reread again one day. Others were simply read and then disregarded with a contented smile. I am never embarrassed to buy YA books (although I buy most of my books online @ Amazon) in bookstores or carry them around with me. I love the genre and always have. Always will.

I realize that we all have different tastes in literature. Most of you will have varied genres that you read, and probably some of my favorite books are simply your forgotten reads. That is what makes the world of YA and reading as a whole so dang fascinating. Each one of us will enjoy different types of characters, plots, and of course, a writer’s voice, the way ONLY they can tell a story.

Personally, I like to read and write darker, edgier YA novels, and it must have romance. I write to connect with readers that love paranormal/romance themes, too.

Below I’ve listed a few of my favorite YA authors and major influences, in no particular order:

Jennifer L. Armintrout

Kate Evangelista
Angeline Kace
Carolyn MacCullough
Lauren Kate
Stephenie Meyer
Christopher Pike
Lili St. Crow
Lois Duncan
L. J. Smith
Ellen Schreiber
Joan Lowery Nixon
Kiersten White
Alyson Noel
Amanda Hocking

I mainly read the paranormal genre (obviously), add that with a dash of romance, a healthy dose of horror, but rarely contemporary genres.

I am a firm believer that reading has the power to change the world.

As you can probably tell if you’d read my books, I tend to write dark, tormented heroines. I love the angst of a female protagonist trying to come to terms with some dark secret or horrific event in her past, and usually, she ends up facing this fear, vulnerability, or threat, with a strong, sexy hero by her side. Oh!—and I love to create an evil villain that is unquestionably devious, but complex. My antiheroes always possess some redeeming features. Because of these factors, I think it makes them much more interesting villains. And my heroines are typically intelligent, snarky, and full of fight. Like my girl, Shiloh Ravenwolf in the Spellbound series—she’s feisty, witty, and kickbutt. You gotta admire Shiloh’s spunk and determination. When I grow up, I wanna just like her. Or a vampire, or even a ninja. Not sure which…

I love hearing from other avid YA readers at my blog. You can even send me an email with any questions you have about the Spellbound series and or if you just want to drop me a line and tell me how much you enjoyed one of my stories via email—that would be great. Or you can join me on Twitter, @WriterSherry for a fun chat!  Hope you enjoyed this post. Now go feed your mind and read a book! Preferably mine. J

MOONLIGHT MAYHEM Blurb:

Otherworldly Creatures. Dazzling Magic. Fiery Romance.

Shiloh Ravenwolf thought she was getting used to the strange events in Whispering Pines, until the full moon brings another surge of supernatural threats to her coastal town. Ferocious wolves, deadly necromancers, and shambling zombies have descended upon the neighborhood, so Shiloh needs to gain control of her magical abilities—fast!

It sucks that she has a crippling fear of the dark, which for a demon hunter can be an epic problem.

When her classmates are attacked by a mysterious creature and her father is murdered, Shiloh vows vengeance. Forcing her phobias aside, she forms an unlikely coven of supernaturally gifted teens to help her eradicate this menace. Except that's not all Shiloh has to worry about. She’s battling a different monster within herself and struggling not to become the very thing she fights: evil.

But with demon blood inside her—anything can happen…

Moonlight Mayhem is the second novel in the unforgettably epic Spellbound series

Places you can cyberstalk Sherry Soule:

Official Website: http://sherrysoule.com

Official Blog: http://www.sherrysoule.blogspot.com

Official Spellbound Series Universe: http://thespellboundseries.blogspot.com

Twitter @WriterSherry: http://twitter.com/writersherry

Watch these Awesome Book Trailers/YouTube: http://youtu.be/5uqVXKygvUs

  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o44sW-gFtvA

goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11634793-beautifully-broken

WOW: 6/27/12

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine! It showcases books that we can't wait on to come out!

This week I'm waiting on Evergreen by Brenda Pandos.

A kingdom on the brink of war.
A king on the fringes of insanity.
A family running for their lives.
Ash and Fin’s only desire is to be together and dive into their happily ever after, though their conflicting worlds work to pull them apart. Neither is ready to convert to the other’s life: become a human or a mer. Little do they know that somewhere in Natatoria a secret holds the fine fabric of everyone’s lives together. If the truth is discovered, Ash and Fin will no longer have the luxury of waiting. They’ll be forced to choose. But will it be for loyalty or love? Or will someone else make the choice for them if they can’t decide?
Enter the watery world of treachery, greed, and the binding mer kiss as the story continues with Evergreen, book two of Mer Tales.

Evergreen is released on June 29, 2012.

Teaser Tuesday: 6/26/12

This lovely weekly feature is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!

Rules:

• Grab your current read!

• Open to a random page

• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page!

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS

• Share the title and author!

"She couldn't believe she was doing this.
Seriously. Couldn't. Believe. She. Was. Doing. This."
Pg 1 of the International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams

 

Review: Shadow and Bone

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Published: June 5, 2012
Source: BookPeople  

Synopsis:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

Review:

I don’t even know how to put my feelings into words for this book, so this will probably be a horrible review. I was in a reading slump, and nothing was looking interesting to me, and then I picked up Shadow and Bone and all that changed! I was swept into the story of Alina and her journey through the Fold and the Grisha community and I never wanted to be put down. It was an amazing tale and the world that Leigh Bardugo created was a new and eventful one.

Cover:

The cover creeps me out, a lot. It’s all dark and ominous, which matches the book perfectly, but will also scare off readers who like the more light and fluffy covers.

Plot/Writing:

The story just kept chugging along. Shadow and Bone had a great flow to it and I loved how it moved along. Leigh created an amazing new world that is full of hard to pronounce names and weird creatures that only could be conjured from her imagination. The story was well written and had a diverse vocabulary that gave me the idea that she spent a good amount of time on this book.

Characters:

Alina was a spitfire. She stood up for herself, and said a good portion of the time what was on her mind. She has to deal with many changes in her life and deals with them in a respectable way. Sure, she argues and says that they’ve made some kind of mistake, but she still carries on and makes the best of it. Alina stays strong and keeps her wits about her, even when she feels like giving up.

There were two leading guys here, Mal and the Darkling. Personally I loved Mal better; the Darkling freaked me out and seemed sort of like a pedophile. You don’t get to know either of the guys that well because of the way the story was written. She was very elusive about both men, but the facts she does give off make you fall in love with them, or hate them, whichever way you go.

All in All:

I really loved Shadow and Bone! I cannot wait until the sequel comes out! If you enjoy the world crated by J.K Rowling in the Harry Potter series you might enjoy Shadow and Bone!

Review: Burn Mark

Title: Burn Mark
Author: Laura Powell
Published: June 19, 2012
Source: eGalley

Synopsis:

Cleo is from a family of witches. She is desperate to develop the ‘Fae’ and become a witch herself.

Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition and his privileged life is very different to the world of witches that he lives alongside.

And then on the same day, Cleo and Lucas both develop the Fae. In one fell stroke, Cleo and Lucas’s lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not . . .

Review:
I just couldn't find myself getting into this book. I could barely get past 90 pages without wanting to hit something. It didn't have to do anything with the bad writing or errors, it was just boring to me. Nothing was happening and I didn't like not having any action.

Cover:
I really like the cover. It has this powerful meaning to it. Or it just looks pretty, one of the two. It reminds me a lot of the cover of Divergent by Veronica Roth because of the flame behind the fireball.  I mean look at it! It looks similar!

Plot/Writing:
As I said above, nothing was happening. It was just the boring mundane lives of a confused rich kid and a lower east side girl. Which how I set that up reminds me of a different story. I don't like stories that go nowhere in the first 50 or so pages. If you don't have a good hook, then I will give up on your story. I'm a teenager I get bored easily.
There wasn't anything wrong per say with the writing. It didn't express many details that I would like to know about and my copy of the book doesn't have a Cleo, it has a Glory. Instead of quotation marks above dialogue, she used apostrophes.. Which I don't know why, it really bothered me.

Characters:
Glory? Or Cleo? I don't know which.. The summary says one thing and the book says another. I'm gonna go with Glory because that is what she is called up until I stopped reading. She was very strong willed and brave. She just wanted to get her power and become an amazing witch. She didn't let anyone push her around and stood on her own.

Then there's Lucas. He is one of those privileged kids. Going to the right school and being the rich and popular kid. Yet, Lucas still has really good morals in place. He stands up for what he thinks is right, and doesn't let other people intimidate him into doing the things that he wouldn't normally do. He's also confused and scared, but that is because he got a power that no one ever thought he was going to get.

All in All:
I don't exactly request this book. If you like magic and wizards, then go ahead and read this one. 2 out of 5 tacos.

Friday 56: 6/22/12

This weekly meme is hosted by Freda's Voice!!!

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Turn to page 56

• Find any sentence that grabs you

• Post it

• Add your URL to her Linky!

"I had a horrible feeling death was about to get worse before it got better." Pg 56 of ARC copy of The Dead Girls Detective Agency by Suzy Cox
 

Cover Love!

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends...and he’s gone.
They call it the Heist.
Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

In a world where psychics and mind-readers are the ultimate tools in corporate espionage, two teen girls try to save themselves and their future.

Two months ago, the Tunnels of the underworld came for Nikki Beckett. That night, Nikki's boyfriend, Jack, made the ultimate sacrifice. All Nikki wants is to save Jack before it's too late. All Cole wants is to find his queen - and he thinks Nikki is the one. Both determined, both desperate, Nikki and Cole form a tense alliance, leading them on a dangerous journey to The Heart of The Everneath.

WOW: 6/20/12

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine! It showcases books that we can't wait on to come out!

This week I'm waiting on Lonely Souls by Karice Bolton.

It's two weeks before Triss turns 18, and her world is about to change into the most magical one imaginable as she readies herself to enter The Witch Avenue Order... that is until her mother's disappearance. Determined to find out what happened to her mother, Triss uncovers cryptic messages that lead her to the dark side of magic that she never wanted to believe existed. Forced on a journey that may not give her the answers she was hoping for, it's up to Triss not to fall victim to the realm of Lonely Souls.

Lonely Souls is released in June 2012.

Teaser Tuesday: 6/19/12

This lovely weekly feature is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!

Rules:

• Grab your current read!

• Open to a random page

• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page!

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS

• Share the title and author!

For a few seconds, it worked. She began to breathe a little easier in the silence.
But that was before the room outside exploded into riotous noise.
Page 9 of A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

Review: Flirting in Italian

 Title: Flirting in Italian
Author: Lauren Henderson
Published: June 12, 2012
Source: eGalley

Synopsis:

Four girls. One magical, and possibly dangerous Italian summer. Family mysteries, ancient castles, long hot nights of dancing under the stars . . . and, of course, plenty of gorgeous Italian boys!

Review:

Flirting in Italian was a very interesting story! It was a foreign romance with a lot of terms I didn't know, but everything was eventually explained. Which is nice.

Cover:
I really like the cover. I think it is really cute and simple. Though I don't picture Luca's moped as purple. Also those girls shoes... What the poo...? Do they make shoes like that?

Plot/Writing:
The writing in Flirting in Italian was descriptive, but had a lot of typos. There were just simple little mistakes that need to be fixed with the grammar and spelling, which really bothered me. Even though it was an ARC, those mistakes needed to be fixed. The story was a confusing romance. It didn't seem to have a proper plot line, or theme for the matter. It ended on a complete random point that made little sense to end there.

Characters:
Violet is a ambient character who wants to escape for a little while. Smothered by her mother all her life, all she wants to do is find out the mystery behind a doppelganger painting. She stays true to herself even when she is doubting herself and is confused. She was a sweet girl who cared about everything, and was a little too trusting.

Then there is the ever confusing Luca. Luca is very hot and cold, you never know what he's feeling. One day he's making out with Violet, and the next he's ignoring her completely. Talk about whiplash. You could never gauge his feelings, but when you did get an insight to what he was feeling, he was sweet and caring and was really worried about Violet at times.

All in All:
Flirting in Italian was okay, it wasn't my favorite book of the year, but it wasn't my least favorite in any way. Other than the mistakes with grammar and spelling, which could be fixed with some more editing, the book was good. I want to read more about Luca and Violet. 3 out of 5 tacos!