Book Blogger Challenge- Week 14

This challenge comes from Good Books & Good Wine.

This week's question is a bit of repeat of one that I answered way back at the beginning of my blogging journey. However, I'll still answer it.

Tell Us Your Deal Breakers

~God/Religion~

This is my number one thing. I am an atheist so it would make no sense for me to read a book about a God that I don't believe in. I am also not religious at all so anything that so much as HINTS at being religious in any capacity does not get a home on my bookshelf.

~Politics~

This one's easy. I find politics to be boring and I will not read a book that so much as HINTS at it.However, if it's a dystopian book, I can overlook the politics. If it's a contemporary, then no.

~Insta-love/lust~

First of all I am not into that cheesy & corny crap. There is no such thing as insta love. There is such a thing as insta-lust and I wish people would call it that rather than calling it love. You cannot love someone you don't know and may have never met.

~Bad Author Behavior~

If I hear a story about an author behaving badly to either another author or a blogger like myself,I will NOT pick up their book.To me it would be like rewarding them for behaving badly. No just no.

~Using Sex As The Only Plot Point~

If I have to hear someone say "Well Sex Sells" one more time, I may put my fist through a wall. Yes sex does amp up the book sales but for me if there is nothing else to the story I am going to throw it as far away from my body as possible.Even erotica has to have SOME sort of plot in order for me to read it. If it doesn't,then I don't read it. Simple as that.

~Steampunk~

If someone could just explain to me WHAT it is,I'd be greatful. As it is,I don't get it and don't understand the appeal.

~Aliens/Zombies/Werewolves & Vampires~

I threw all four of these together because I just don't get the appeal of any of them. I like a good SciFi book as much as the next person but Aliens? No thank you. I think I've seen enough Vampire crap to last me a lifetime. Zombies,um no thank you. There was only one series that I loved a werewolf character and if you are as much of a geek as I am,then you'll know what I'm talking about.

~Abuse~

Sometimes these stories are done beautifully and they tell the tale of a battered woman escaping from a violent man. But I rarely read them and that's because usually we are forced to read about the abuse in graphic detail. I will not be okay with that. It's like abuse is being glorified which makes me sick.

~Cheating~

This is something I don't accept in my real life.Why should my reading choices be any different.It's rude,disrespectful and like abuse,it glorifies the act.

~Historical Books~

I hated history in high school,hated it in college so why would I want to read anything with a historical theme? Answer is,I wouldn't. Historical books of any kind bore the heck outta me and you won't catch me reading them.There's one caveat and that is, I will read fictional historical novels if they are set in the time of the Holocaust. I have a very strange fascination with the Holocaust.

Waiting on Wednesday #2 Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi

Waiting on Wednesday comes from Jill at Breaking The Spine.

The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love"

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

Book Information

Book Title: Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3)

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Release Date: February 4th, 2014

Publisher: Harper Collins

Series: Book 3 in Shatter Me trilogy

Genre: YA/Dystopian

Book Link: Goodreads

Pre-Order Links: Amazon, Book Depository

My Reaction

OMG, I cannot WAIT! Is it February yet? Oh please let February 4th come fast. I am dying to read this book and I don't know how much longer I can wait without losing my marbles. Actually forget that, I've lost my marbles a LONG time ago. But really, there are SO many ways this could end. Juliette could end up with Adam, or Warner or no one. She could end up being killed off just like a certain other female character who was recently killed off in a shocking ending to the trilogy. 

After Unravel Me, I fell in love with Warner which was weird and funny at the same time. In Shatter Me, I thought he was a creepy dude who gave me the serious heebie jeebies. I adored Adam in Shatter Me. But Unravel Me changed that in a big way. I cannot wait to see where Tahereh Mafi takes these characters in the final book of the trilogy.

So what book are you waiting for?

Review: The Sea Of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Book Title: The Sea of Tranquility

Author: Katja Millay

Release Date: November 13th, 2012

Publisher: Atria Books

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

Disclaimer: This was a personal purchase.

Review:

How the hell do I write a review for this book? Writing a review of this book will definitely prove to be difficult as it was amazing. I don't think I'll ever be the same after reading this. It had everything you could ever want in a book and more.

When you read this synopsis, you don't think this book is going to be funny, but it is funny. It;s also sad,so sad in fact that it pretty much destroyed me in the best possible way. Yes, apparently there is a way to be destroyed in a positive way. There has to be, because I was. Holy crap, I am SO mad at myself for not reading this book sooner. I have a thing for books about damaged characters, yes I'm weird like that. 

You wouldn't think that Nastya would be likable,but in her own way, she was and I loved that she wasn't a typical sullen, angry teenager.I also liked that her family was in the book and that specifically her aunt was in the book. Not many YA books involve the extended family so I was excited to see that this one did.

Her family was similar to Drew's family in a lot of ways, but also different in a lot of ways. Drew's family doesn't push her to talk unlike her own family who desperately wants and I think needs to hear her talk.

In contrast, Josh has only one family member left, his grandfather and his grandfather is very sick and he dies in the book. Yet he is very close with Drew and Drew's family. Drew's mother likes to take in "strays" and with Josh, she does.

The beginning of this book is slow as it does a lot of introducing the characters and taking a peek into their daily lives. Yet, it wasn't the kind of slow that was boring. In fact, I devoured every word.

The second half of this book but most especially the last 150 some pages are emotional, gut wrenching and heartbreaking. Like I said before, it destroyed me. I was in bed, sobbing violently into my kleenex until my kleenex was shredded beyond recognition.

I loved that Nastya and Josh's relationship was slow burning. Much better than having them jump into bed two seconds after meeting. They established a friendship first which I loved.

I cannot say enough about the writing. It was absolutely gorgeous and I think I mentioned that a couple times in my Goodreads & Twitter updates. The dual points of view were done amazingly and I would argue that it was one of the best examples of dual POV's that I've ever read.

Gahhh, I just loved this book. It was perfection and I cannot wait to read the next thing that Katja writes.This was amazing and well worth the 5 stars I'm giving it. If I could give it 6 stars, I would. 

Review: Before We Fall (Beautifully Broken #3) by Courtney Cole

Book Title: Before We Fall (Beautifully Broken #3)

Author: Courtney Cole

Release Date: December 3rd, 2013

Publisher: Forever

Genre: NA/Romance/Contemporary

Series: Book 3 in Beautifully Broken series

Book Links: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Sometimes, one dark moment is all it takes to turn your world black...

For 24-year old Dominic Kinkaide, that moment took place on the night of his high school graduation. One dark incident changed him forever. He's a hardened actor now, famous in the eyes of the world, but tortured in his own. He doesn't care about much of anything, except for losing himself in the roles that he plays.

23-year old Jacey Vincent doesn't realize how much her father's indifference has affected her. She is proof that sometimes it isn't one specific moment that wrecks a person, but rather it's an absence of moments. She's like a bird with a broken wing-strong yet fragile, as she tries to float through life, finding acceptance in the arms of random guys, one after the other... to fill the void that her father left in her.

Until she meets Dominic.

After jaded Dominic and strong-willed Jacey are thrown together, his secret and her issues create a dark and damaged energy that will soon turn their attraction to each other into an explosive storm.

Even though when the clouds have cleared and the dust has settled, both of them are almost obliterated... they've learned a priceless lesson.

Sometimes, before we fall... we fly.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

Courtney Cole is a goddess, I have read both If You Stay and If You Leave and I have loved them both. So I was excited to find out that Before We Fall was Jacey's story. Jacey deserved something good to happen to her after the events of If You leave. 

Jacey was a player in both of those books, but more so in If You Leave since it was her brother Gabe and Maddy's story.She always seemed like a good person but one with an edge to her. Maybe it was her crappy childhood, maybe it was her poor choice in romantic partners or maybe it was a combination of both.I always liked her as she reminded me a bit of myself a couple of years ago.I never dealt with the absence of paternal love in the way that she did, but her messed up family definitely reminded me of my own.

To be honest, through about 65% of the book I disliked Dominic intensely.I thought he was an asshole and I was worried that Jacey was falling into her old habits. Except Dominic was a bit more adventurous sexually than even Jacey was. Dominic pushed people away so that they didn't have to deal with him and his damaged self. However a life like he had is very lonely and girls and sex can only fill the void so much. 

Most people will say that the turning point came at the end when Dominic's, Sin's and Cris's secrets all came to light. Yet, I think it was Dominic and Jacey's trip to the Grand Canyon that changed everything.

When we finally learn about the woman Dominic loved previously, I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I broke up with someone who's girlfriend had died 3 years previously. It was all in my head but I was convinced that I wouldn't measure up to how he had felt about her. They had been talking marriage and everything so they were just as, if not more serious than Dominic and Emma had been. I give Jacey a whole lot of credit for not being totally threatened by the memory of Emma. I wish I had had that strength. Jacey was definitely stronger than I was in that respect.

In the first two books, I didn't mind the proposals but I just thought this one was too rushed. I was a little annoyed that they wouldn't take it slower. I mean, no Jacey and Dominic didn't strike me as being  the type to take it slow but proposing a month after all the secrets were out in the open was just a little much for me. However, the epilogue was my favorite part.

Unlike the first two, I didn't cry at all. It brought the feels but in a much more understated way. I'm glad I wasn't sitting on my bed, sobbing violently this time. It wasn't my favorite of the series (that honor still goes to If You Leave) but I ended up understanding Dominic and Jacey more than I expected to. 

This book will be getting 4 stars. Mostly it's because Dominic was an asshole through about 2/3'ds of it.However, I will still read basically anything that Courtney Cole writes because she knows how to write characters that her readers can relate to.

Stacking the Shelves #21

This feature comes from Tynga's Reviews. Drop by and link up your own Stacking the Shelves posts & vlogs.

Hello everyone,hope your first week of December was amazing and filled with all things bookish. Mine started off with a bang as Edelweiss released more titles from HarperTeen, Katherine Tegen, SoHo Teen and Greenwillow Books. Which of course caused me to go on a downloading spree. I ended up downloading 9 e-ARC's. Yup it's pretty obvious that I am crazy.

Probably a good thing that I didn't win anything or was given anything or purchased anything. I'll have plenty to keep me busy.

It was a busy week on the blog too. Here is what happened on the blog this week.

Monday- Review of Pushing The Limits (Pushing The Limits #1) by Katie McGarry

Tuesday- Review of Dare You To (Pushing The Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

Wednesday- Review of Crash Into You (Pushing The Limits (#3) by Katie McGarry

Thursday- Blog Tour Review of Let Me Go (Let Me Go #1) by L.L. Akers

Friday- Discussion Post Describe one Unappreciated Book Everyone Should Read

Saturday- Review of No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

Now onto the fun part, all the new and pretty books.

Bought

-

Received for Review

-Edelweiss-

 Ask Me by Kimberly Pauley

After The End (After The End #1) by Amy Plum

Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley

 Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington

Sleep No More by Aprilynne Pike

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

Wicked Games by Sean Olin

What We Lost In The Dark (What We Saw #2) by Jacquelyn Mitchard

(Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

Won

-

Gifted
-

Be sure to let me know if you recognize any of these titles. Also leave the link to your Stacking the Shelves posts, vlogs or whatever.

Happy reading!

Book Blogger Challenge- Week 13

This feature comes from Good Books & Good Wine. Go link up your posts if you are participating in this feature.

Hi everyone, it is once again time for the weekly feature that I have been participating in for 13 weeks.This query was definitely one of the easiest & hardest that I have ever answered.

Describe One Underappreciated Book Everyone Should Read
Oooh this is a tough one as I have read and loved a lot of books this year. Some of them were book blogger favorites and some of them were gems that I discovered on my own.I am totally going to cheat on this one as I can think of two that I really enjoyed and gave high praise for and both of them went under the radar.

First...

 My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi was an amazing book. It was a contemporary YA book dealing with teenage sex and the ramifications behind it. HIV & AIDS is not often discussed in fictional books which I think is a real shame.

Goodreads
My Review


Second...

OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu was amazing. It was about a girl who is diagnosed as severe OCD. I really related a lot to the female main character as I too have OCD. Thankfully not as severe as the main character in this book.

Goodreads
My Review

So tell me, have you read either of these? Let me know if you have and if you enjoyed them.

Blog Tour: Let Me Go (Let Me Go #1) by L.L. Akers

Book Title: Let Me Go by L.L. Akers (Let Me Go #1)

Publication date: July 5th 2013

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

A scarlet dragonfly tattoo—meant to be a beautiful, family mark of freedom, but instead becomes a prophetic brand for those who wear it, to forever be suffering. Wounded and broken, they find themselves flittering back into the cycle of abuse that relentlessly clings to their family, a reality they can never seem to escape.

One mother and her daughters, bound by blood—torn apart by abuse. They begin their lives intertwined but are forced to fight for their survivals separately, struggling to hide their fear and undeserved shame from each other and the world. One of these women finds herself trapped—alone—and she battles to survive the terrifying darkness. With long hours of nothing to do but wait in fear, she grapples through her obscure dreams and memories of the past, sorting which memory belongs to whom: physically harmed, mentally damaged, raped, sexually abused, an unwanted pregnancy… and even the vivid memory of a dangerous dance with death in a last attempt to escape the shambles and horrors of a seemingly unchangeable situation.

Twin sisters, Gabriella and Olivia, dive blindly—and much too early—into adulthood. They are soon followed by their younger sister, Emma, all running from a not-so-idyllic past; chasing the happiness they believe they will find, by abandoning their childhoods to be “grown-up” and start their own lives.

Deeply evocative, Let Me Go is a coming-of-age story: the struggles of one mother and her daughters trying to survive life—marred by abuse and misplaced blame—and their need to reach peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Review:

Normally this book isn't something that I would read. In fact stories of abuse have been one of my bookish no-no's from the very beginning. However I got the invitation to be part of this blog tour and after a bit of consideration, I decided to participate. Now while this book was a quick read for me, it was in no way, an easy read. This book took me on a roller coaster of emotions.

From a purely academic standpoint I understood the cycle of abuse as I have studied it intently. However, nothing prepared me for what I was about to read. Olivia and Gabby have all these plans not to be like their mother. Yet they don't know how not to be like her. They accept abusive men into their lives because they don't know any better. They'd rather be in these abusive situations than deal with the emotional problems that would come of realizing that this is wrong.

Olivia has an abusive husband who is much like her father. Her family begs and pleads for her to escape. Yet when she does, her abuser finds her and lures her back into his clutches.This is the perfect example of the true cycle of violence. The Honeymoon stage, the buildup and then the violence.It goes around and around again and no one is sure if Olivia will be strong enough to end it once and for all.

Gabby had to take care of her younger sister Emma while her mother reinvented herself.During that time she got pregnant unexpectedly she also met a truly wonderful man who took her in when she had no place in the world to go. It wasn't until she had gotten a better job than the one she had before that she ran into problems. The problem was her superior who forced himself on her multiple times. Fearing that her husband would blame this on her, Gabby kicks the husband out and shortly afterward attempts suicide.

Emma was a bubbly child until her mother's boyfriend Mark began touching her.No one ever knows the full story until much later.However the signs are all there and the part that really makes my blood boil is when Gabby finds out and tells their mother, their mother takes Mark's side. Although as it's later discovered, she never truly believed Mark's story.

This story is an emotional one despite the predictability of some of it.I loved all three sisters equally. They all were strong women who dealt with their upbringing in very different ways. Olivia used Billy to get out of it,Gabby used Jake and his wonderful family and Emma used alcohol.

This book had all of those feels that are so important in a book. I really had only one issue with this one. Their mom. I thought she was a selfish woman who I never really liked. That was a pretty big issue. I didn't like how she talked to her kids or how she failed to protect them. Especially Emma. What Emma went through at the hands of her mother's boyfriend was sickening. So this book will be getting 4 stars.I just couldn't connect with their mom.The rest of this book was perfect though. 

Author Bio:

L.L. Akers is originally from the Midwest where she grew up climbing trees, haystacks, and haylofts—escaping into other worlds with a good book. She enjoyed playing cow-pattie hopscotch and outrun-the-bull with her siblings.

She now lives in the South, the silly wife of a serious man, and mother of: one very gifted and fetching male-tween, a chubby beagle that looks astonishingly like a mini-cow, a deranged terrier as well as five Koi fish, a herd of tiny but boastful lizards, and dozens of obnoxiously loud serenading frogs.

After a career in human resources, she now pursues life as a recluse writer; hanging out at home in her PJ’s with her iPad, Burt’s Bees lip balm and her posse of creatures. Regardless of her self-isolation, she can still be lured outside for brief moments by the scent of freshly mowed grass and a bowl full of cherries.

Let Me Go is her first novel, and book 1 of the Let Me Go Series – each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhangers.

Connect with the Author:

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

Blog Tour Schedule is here.