Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Synopsis:  No one knows why Juliette's touch is  fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her.  Plans to use her as a weapon.
But Juliette has plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time--and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.


My 2 cents:  I loved, absolutely LOVED this book!  The writing style was very different, but it worked so well for the story.  The first half of it Juliette is in a mental institution/prison, and she thinks she is going insane. So her thoughts are very disjointed, and there are a lot of flashbacks, although she doesn't go into much detail in her head.  But I absolutely loved it!  It really captured her emotions, her fear, guilt, and just how worthless she felt as a human being.

Then Adam comes into the picture...and things in her life change rapidly after that.  My feelings for Adam as a character jumped around quite a bit, mostly because Juliette's did as well, as she doubted whether she could trust him or not.  Whether she can ever trust anyone, as no one in her life (except for one person) has ever showed her any kindness at all.

This novel is a dystopian novel, as becomes apparent in the last half of the book.  Our world is slowly being destroyed by environmental factors--food is scarce, animals are dying, and their are freak weather storms all the time.  Which really explains why people are acting the way they are--completely selfish.  I think its interesting that the one person in the story who is really evil (so they think) because she can kill by just touching someone, has the purest, good heart.  I'm sure that's the author's moral in this.  Its not what you ARE, but what your CHOOSE to be.  Very powerful!

Overall, this is a great story, with a very surprising ending.  I can't think of anything I did not like about the book!  5 stars!

In My Mailbox #8

In My Mailbox is put on by The Story Siren.  We highlight what books we have received this week!  It was a great book haul for me this week!

Books I bought:

I also checked out from the library:

What did you get this week?

Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Synopsis:  When Jessica Packwood found out she was a Romanian Vampire Princess, she had the shock of her teenage life.  Turns out that was the easy part.
Now, married to Prince Lucius Vladescu, she has to claim her throne and convince a vampire nation she's fit to be their queen.  But Jess can't even order a decent meal from her castle's Romanian staff, let alone deal with devious undead subjects who would love to see her fail.
And when Lucious is accused of murdering a vampire elder and imprisoned without the blood he needs, Jessica finds herself alone, fighting for both their survivals.
Desperate to clear her husband's name and win his release, Jess enlists the help of her best friend Mindy, and Lucius's mysterious Italian cousin, Raniero Lovatu.  But both of them are keeping some dark secrets.  Can Jess figure out who to trust--and how to rise to power--before she loses everything, including the vampire she loves?

My 2 cents:  I loved Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, so I couldn't wait for this sequel!  And I was more than pleased!  This time, the setting is way different--in the first book, we experienced everything in Jessica's American teenage world.  Now we get to experience all of Lucius's Romanian heritage.

The world was perfect. Beth Fantaskey did a great job on building us a believable Romanian empire with its lavish castle and servants.  The whole thing was as dark as Jessica's world was light.  And as you can imagine, Jessica has a hard time dealing with her new life.

Things just seem to go from bad to worse for her...she doesn't get along with anyone at all in the castle, other than Lucius (of course!), her uncle, Dorin, and a mousy little cousin of hers, Ylena.  Not exactly a lot of confidence to becoming ruler there!

She is smart in getting Mindy over there to help, though.  Mindy points out the obvious--when you move to foreign country, you might want to learn to speak the language--and the not so obvious.  Meanwhile, she has a little forbidden love story she's dealing with as well!

The best part of this book, though, is the mystery element behind who killed the vampire elder?  The book is very well written, with a fabulous plot and great setting and characters! I'd have to give it 5 stars!

Shelf Candy Saturday #6

Shelf Candy Saturdays is put on by Five Alarm Book Reviews, where we feature a book cover and why we like it!

Today's Pick is Asunder by Jodi Meadows, the 2nd book in the NewSoul Series, due to release sometime in 2013

I just saw this cover today!  I've been so out of the loop lately!  I love how this cover shows Ana going through a transformation.  She was a bright new butterfly, and now she's learning how to be different.  I love that the flower petals falling look like her tears.  The colors are exquisite! Makes me really want to read this book NOW!  

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Synopsis:  After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana.  But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger...and the Strigoi are always close by.
Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love,and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever...

My 2 cents:  I have had this series of books sitting on my bookshelfs forever, and I'm finally getting around to reading it!  I've heard so many good things about these books, so I was very excited to read them!

In the beginning of the story I was completely confused.  The story is told in first person narrative from Rose's point of view.  She keeps alluding to a situation that made Rose and Lissa leave the school, but it never really explains it.  I just didn't get a lot of what was going on with the school, not until about 2/3 of the way through the story.  Then it started explaining the event, and much more!  It was a huge twist that I didn't see coming!

I loved Rose.  I don't think her name fit her at all.  She was a totally kick-butt character, one of the better ones I've read.  I also really like Lissa.  Their relationship was something else.  Best friends doesn't even begin to describe it!  The other characters in the story were all relatively minor. We didn't really get to know any of them in detail, other than Christian (swoon!) and Dmitri (SWOON!!)

I really became absorbed with this story, and can't wait to read the rest of the series!  A great promising start to a series!  4 stars!

Friday Finds #4

Friday Finds is put on by Should Be Reading.  We share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week. These can be books you were told about, books you discovered while browsing blogs/bookstores online, or books that you actually purchased. MOST of the books MizB shares in her Friday Finds are titles that she discovered somewhere online —not actually books she’s purchased.

Did you discover any new books this week?

50/100 Follower Giveaway Prize Packs revealed!

I've finally received word that all the prize packs were delivered!  So I thought I would reveal their awesomeness!

Prize Pack #1

US Hunger Games magazine with 3 posters
Crusade by Nancy Holder
The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting (shipped separately)
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Enthralled by Melissa Marr
Life As We Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Guide to Night World
Signed Masquerade book swag
polka dot journal
Hunger Games notecard
Hunger Games button
Peace coin purse
Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies

Prize Pack #2
Partials by Dan Wells
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
The fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti
Wurthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Matchless by Gregory Maguire
Hearts at Stake Alyxandra Harvey
Paris Stationary set
book swag
Hunger Games notecard
Hunger Games button
polka dot journal
thin mints Girl Scout cookies

Prize Pack #3

Boxen by CS Lewis

Love is Hell anthology

Matched by Ally Condie

Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Schultz

Stargazer by Claudia Gray

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

book swag

journal with pencil

polka dot journal

hunger games notecard

hunger games button

thin mints Girl Scout cookies

I hope the winners enjoy their spoils!

I will be participating in a book hop giveaway at the end of May, and another in June!  Keep a lookout!

April RAK wrap up

This was an awesome month for RAK!!  I send out 3 books this month.

Marked and Betrayed went to RJ Does Books

Spell Bound went to Bookaholics Anonmous.

I received:

The Scorpio Races from RJ Does Books

Bloodlines from Keri

The Nanny Diaries from Lois@Quill & Ink

The Secrets of Tudor Court from Beth@Living A Goddess Life

Thank you so much everyone!  I'm definitely doing RAK for May, as my Bday is May 5th!

Top Ten Tuesday #4

Top Ten Tuesday is put on by Broke and Bookish.  This feature was created because she loves making lists!

Today's Top Ten is Books I Want Made Into Movies!  Here we go!

10.  Graceling by Kristin Cashore

9.  Something Blue by Emily Giffin

8.  Divergent by Veronica Roth

7. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare--this is already being made into a movie!  Yay!

6.  The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

5.  Cinder by Marissa Meyer

4.  Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

3.  Partials by Dan Wells

2.  The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

1.  The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

What books would you like made into movies?