uneventful

My week of reading has been sadly uneventful.

Lately, I have been inching my way through Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman. I'm liking it, and it's actually kind of reminding me of another book I've read: Graceling by Kristen Cashore. The two books have the same kind of aura about them, I suppose, and similar main characters in a way.

Either way, I hope I can get through this soon so that way I can actually have an interesting Teen Tuesday post. =D I have so many books that I have to read, and the pile keeps building up.

Anyways, this is my little update... hopefully more fun stuff to come next week =D

<3 Chelsie

My First Teen Tuesday!

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to be posting here for the 1st time!
I had been thinking about what to post over here today, and the idea of Sequels came to mind.

I recently read Marked by PC and Kristin Cast, and I really liked it. (click here to read my review).
Once that one was finished, I started listening to the audiobook for the 2nd part of the series, Betrayed.
Let me tell you that I was really disappointed. I listened up to the 12th chapter, and just put it aside because it wasn't appealing to me at all.
The main character, Zoey, was constsntly reminding us of what had happened in the first book, and that could go on for several minutes.
It's ok to refresh our minds, maybe we've forgotten something, but I felt like half of the book were explanations of why this was happening, and how it was connected to a previous event.

I mean, if we're reading the 2nd book in a series that usually means we've read the 1st. Right? We don't need to be reminded every second of what happened before, or how something came to be.

Another thing I didn't like, was the AB narration. It felt completely drained of emotion, and it was really hard to listen to the female narrator without falling asleep.

This was the only sequel I've ever had problems with. I thought I was going to love it, as I love the 1st book, but then I got my bubble burst.

I'm going to give it one more chance, but if the situation doesn't speed up, I'm going to have to give up on it completely.


Thanks for reading,
leave a thought,
and you can visit my book blog too!

xo,

Hello, Teen Tuesday!

Why, hello there. I'm a new recruit at Teen Tuesday, and I'm thrilled to be here. For my little introductory post, I thought I'd give a run down on my recent reads, just 'cause...

Fade by Robert Cormier, about a boy who learns he can vanish from sight, with horrifying consequences...

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent--it's about BANSHEES. I mean, come on. When was the last time anyone wrote ANYTHING about banshees?

I also got Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel, Ballads of Suburbia, and Deathwish by Rob Thurman.


Hopefully Cruel Summer will be better then Alyson Noel's paranormal effort, Evermore (which I reviewed here--it was AWFUL):

I also read this great ARC of a "blog novel" called EyeLeash (reviewed here).


Jade Ashton is a sassy virgin. In her private blog, she vents about “fitting in” a world where superficiality reigns supreme.

Suddenly all logic flies out the window when she meets Novan: the former geek, who’s morphed into a delicious songwriter-musician.

They decide to be “friends-with-benefits”. But it’s Novan, with his poems and riddling passages on his own blog — which *isn’t private* — that backs out.

EyeLeash captures self-discovery in the 2000s, and showcases the colorful, intricate drama in two youths’ relentless search for themselves — and what’s really in their hearts.

Here are some books I'm DYING to read:









Anywho, I hope this was a decent enough first post. Til next Tuesday!

A Newbie to Teen Tuesday

Hi everyone -
This is my first time posting to Teen Tuesday...thanks for inviting me to join! I've been reading a lot lately, but here are a few I've finished recently...

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot - AWESOME! This is the sequel to Airhead - if you haven't read the series, I highly recommend it. I mean, it's Meg Cabot!

Wings (The Mysterious Mr. Spines) by Jason Lethcoe - fantasy and really good! If you like fantasy, good vs. evil, ties to mythology - I recommend this and can't wait for the next one in the series.

In my "To Read" pile -

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen - a few of my students read it and really liked it.

My Most Excellent Year (A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, & Fenway Park) by Steve Kluger - saw this on someone else's blog and as a die-hard Red Sox fan, I have to read it. I also want to see if it's something my students would like.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Have any of you read any of those? Please log on and check out my blog - the contributors are my 7th grade students and myself and we are constantly reading and blogging about YA literature!

http://blogs.ellingtonschools.org/larkin/

Jen

I Suck. Majorly.

So, basically, I always forget to post these things on Tuesday. But I now REMEMBER! That's right, pigs must be flying, I remembered to post Teen Tuesday... and *huge gasp!* it's actually being posted ON TUESDAY! I'm so proud of myself. :]

Before break, I read Moonstone by Marilee Brothers, which I had gotten to review a few months back, but hadn't read. So, I read it. I was completely hooked from the second or third chapter. The sequel is coming out sometime later this year (I think, haha) and I was soooo happy when I found out that I would be getting that one to review, also. Like, you have no idea how happy I was, lol.

Then, over break, I read a bunch of books, too. I have finally gotten back into my reading kick! Whoopee!

Over break, I read:

Playing With the Boys - Liz Tigelaar
Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year - Amy Belasen
Amor and Summer Secrets - Diana Rodriguez Wallach
Cormac - Sonny Brewer

Two of them were fabulous.
One of them was okay.
One was horrible.



You thought I wasn't gonna tell you which ones, didn't you? lol.

The two fabulous ones were Amor and Summer Secrets and Playing With the Boys. I got so engrossed in the stories that I was about to kill my family if they interupted me while I was reading, haha. I could relate to all the characters, and both of them had plots that I had never heard of before.

The one that was okay was Cormac by Sonny Brewer. I got this book from BookDivas to review. It had a good story - once it got interesting. However, it didn't get interesting until around page 100-ish. Then, towards the end, it got really slow again. Otherwise, the story was wonderful and I loved it.

That leaves the horrible one. Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year. I just... didn't like it at all. It started off okay, besides the fact that the main character is a girl who is spoiled, gets whatever she wants, and says the word 'like' way too often for my taste. But as you kept going, it just got worse and worse... and worse. And the ending was waccckkkedddd ouuutttt. Seriously. If you're going to end a horrible book, at least end it in a good way, right? haha. So... I wouldn't recommend going out to buy that one... if you really want it, get it from the library.

Right now, I'm reading Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel. I'm about halfway finished and I'm hoping to finish it tonight (though that probably won't happen). It took me a while to get interested in it, but once I got hooked into the story, I was just that -- hooked. I didn't want to put the book down.

Well.. that's about it for me. My reading will become slower in the next few weeks because our midterms are the week after next (whoopee for me!). So, I'll be studying my butt off for those. I'll be reading as much as I possibly can though! I also have Solo and Ensamble, a singing competition (where I go as a soloist) a week from Saturday (!!!!), so I will be memorizing my Italian this week, lol. :D

hope.

I finished it!

Pride and Prejudice is now finished! I am wayyy proud of myself! I am not going to do an official review of it, because I think I'd be too prejudiced (haha pardon the pun) but if you'd like to chat about the book or hear my opinions, email me at bookluverreviews@hotmail.com.

After Pride and Prejudice, I started Bloom by Elizabeth Scott. I bought it last June, and didn't get around to reading it until now, after my friend read it and loved it. It took me a day to finish it, I was absolutely hooked. It was fantastic... and I hear that her other books are even better.

Which makes me glad that I bought Perfect You last summer as well. Because now I plan on reading that asap.

However, I also got around to another book that I have had to read for awhile: How to be Bad by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and E. Lockhart. To be honest, I've had this book to review since last May (I suck, I know) and I am just now getting to it. And I am three chapters in, and I am crossing my fingers that it goes in a decent direction... there are such fantastic possibilites with this, I am almost nervous that I have such high expectations.

Either way, I have awhile to go, but I am looking forward to finishing it and seeing what happens!

And that's it for this week...

ttyl,
Chelsie

In the Past 2 Weeks...

Website: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

In the past two weeks I tried to finish The Mrs Marridge Project by Pauline Fisk with no success. I ditched it because it sucked and picked up Girl vs. Bear: Stories from the 80s by Lisa Kerr (click title to read review). I also read Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman which was scary. Then I read In Your Room by Jordanna Fraiberg which wasn't as good as I expected. Now I'm reading Shelter Me by Alex McAulay. I like it so far. Also, I reviewed Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart. I interviewed Susane Colasanti (When It Happens, Take Me There), click here to see the interview.

My past week has been especially productive.

Lastly, I wrote about an idea to a book blogger chat. Here's what the post said:

I got the following idea because of The Page Flipper’s Author Chats (which are awesome and you should check out). I have been thinking about holding a book blogger chat. It would involve basically any book blogger (or author, if they’d like to join us) in the YA world who would like to chat about whatever they’d like: books, music, TV, movies. It could be a cool way for us to ditch the robotized reviews to have a real-time talk and make friends with each other (or rather, make better friends).

It would be held on a chat site like chatzy or chatmaker at 8 pm eastern time one day between Jan. 5 and 11.

What I would like is if you could give me feedback on this, commenting which day from January 5 to the 11 is the best day for you to chat. 

I really hope you guys like this idea. Leave all your thoughts in the comments!

To comment the entry, saying if you'd like to be a part of this and which day is best click here.

Hope you guys are reading as much as me!

Dear Teen Tuesday,

I am a terrible person.

Not only did I not post anything last week... but I also haven't read anything in the past two weeks.

Except for Pride and Prejudice.

Which I'm not even halfway through with.

My only excuse: Christmas. Which is a sucky excuse, because vacation should be making me read more.

Either way, that is my only update. This is probably even more pitiful than last week's lack of posting. =(

<3 Chelsie

Roll the Credits

Hi Teen Tuesday-ers. 

Site: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

I feel as though I've come back into my book blogging. I wasn't very active for about three weeks and now I have a bunch of posts scheduled for this week including reviews, memes, and a very special contest (read the end of this entry!). Stay tuned on my blog for all of this! 

Basically all I have this week is Harry. I finished Harry Potter on Friday and liked it very much. I wonder how my review is going to go. I want the rest of the series now!

I'm currently reading and will soon finish Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom which is very good. I feel like I'm learning a lot. The story is so great and yet so sad at the same time. [Edit: I finished Tuesdays with Morrie and wow.... I bawled like a baby. How can I possibly write a review for this?] 

Next up on the line will be The Mrs Marriage Project by Pauline Fisk or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (it all depends on my friend giving me Harry Potter books or not).

I recently put up two new reviews: An Abundance of Katherines and That Was Then, This Is Now. 

Also, click here to read about Lisa Schroeder's release party contest for her new book Far From You which she asked me to take part in. I think that basically explains everything.

Yay. That's it. 

See you next Tuesday,

Vanessa

whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

whatvanessareads (at) gmail.com

Consistency [Chelsie]

So, this week I finished Jars of Glass. I also read and finished Ever by Gail Carson Levine, and started Pride and Prejudice for my school's book club.

Jars of Glass was good. I had a problem with one of the characters (ugh, following the trend again). But then again, this character was someone that the readers is supposed to have a problem with.

Ever was just... okay. I love Gail Carson Levine, but this book just didn't do it for me. And this is why: usually, Levine writes books that are fantasy, but have some sort of realistic element to them. Ever didn't feel that way to me. It just seemed like a book made of coincidences and people/things/events that were there just to be there. It didn't have a purpose... except a possible religious purpose, which was the book's main redeeming quality. Overall it wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend this book over Fairest or The Two Princesses of Bamarre.

And Pride and Prejudice... I am only 27 pages into it. But so far, it's not bad. At all. I was thinking there'd be a huge language barrier, but there really isn't... it's not something that I am having too hard of a time trying to understand. I actually like it. =D (By the way, that cover is the actual cover of the copy I bought last week... and it's pink and green and I love it... it's so cute!)

So that's my update. Anyone else have a good reading week?

Also, an interesting tidbit: I did some calculations, and I read one book every 2.7 days. Which is actually not as bad as I thought it would be.