Music Monday ~ With Lions

Because I'm so in love with the CW's show Nikita, I've fallen in love with the music featured on that show. One of those songs is With Lion's Our Great Rise and you can listen to it below.

AWAKENED Review

WARNING: This review is for a book in the House of Night Series and will contain spoilers for the House of Night series if you haven't read them yet though won't contain spoilers for this book specifically.

At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey—or her relationship with her super- hot Warrior, Stark—ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet—who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality—and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?
From Goodreads.com

To be completely honest, this review is going to be short and to the point. House of Night books have never been completely mind blowing when it came to the writing style or shocking when it came to the plot. They've been my guilty pleasure, though, because of the soap opera style they invoke upon reading. For a couple years now, I've read each book after it's come out only to wait for the next one. I shouldn't have waited for Awakened.

The book Burned was probably the best in the entire series, and to have it followed by Awakened, what I believe to be the worst in the series, is hard. I know I'll read the next book, and the one after that, because I'm addicted to the characters and the plot, but the last book annoyed me. None of the characters seemed real. There were several jumping the shark incidents. The plot was one layer and that one layer was boring. Unfortunately, there was nothing in this book that can justify me reading it.

Rather than rant on about the book and how it wasn't anything worth reading, I will simply leave my review here with a rating of disapproval.

Rating: D

Teaser Tuesday ~ FULL TILT

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Filt Tilt by Neal Shusterman
From page 56

Here, it seemed muscle wasn't made of flesh and blood; it was made of will and anger. And at that moment I had enough strength to hurl him into the eclipsed sun.

Music Monday ~ The Chemical Brothers

Thanks to my newest TV show obsession, Misfits, I've discovered the band The Chemical Brothers and their song Swoon which I can't stop listening to. You're welcome to take a listen to it below.

THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES Review

Not your everyday coming-of-age novel.

This story was supposed to be about Evie how she hasn't made a friend in years, how she tends to stretch the truth (especially about her so-called relationship with college drop-out Jonah Luks), and how she finally comes into her own once she learns to just be herself but it isn't. Because when her classmate Elizabeth "Zabet" McCabe's murdered body is found in the woods, everything changes and Evie's life is never the same again.
From Goodreads.com

I apologize for this review not being complete but I never finished the book and can only only give you my review of what I've read, but I'll get to my reasons as to why I stopped reading in a bit.

To begin, I liked Evie. She's awkward and a bit off the rails which is what makes her enjoyable to me. In all honesty, I love a character who it a bit crazy and that's what I caught from Evie. No, she's not insane, but she's not the brightest nor the most steady character I've ever met and I enjoyed that.

Another thing I enjoyed was the cover. The picture doesn't do it justice. The actual cover is just the black outline on the picture which is literally carved out from the cover, revealing the purple sheet beneath it. Very pretty.

But, to be honest, that was where my enjoyment stopped. The plot, teen girl dies in the woods and no one knows her killer, didn't interest me. I only made it halfway because I wanted to know who the killer was but I found myself losing interest. The plot doesn't move quickly and when it does, it moves in psychological passageways rather than through action. Though this may be something other people enjoy, it wasn't something I had fun reading.

And then there's the character of Zabet's dad. Yes, he caused me to grieve the loss of his daughter with him, but I couldn't connect with him. He seemed an odd single father with misguided intentions after his daughter died of wanting to resurrect her in her friends. Just weird. I simply couldn't get past the weird with this book.

Overall, I may pick The Space Between Trees back up in the future in order to solve the mystery, but that's about it. The character held little interest to me and I didn't feel a strong enough connection to Zabet before she died in order to mourn her. I can't give this book a fair rating because I didn't finish.

Currently Reading

So, if you read my blog often you know I love Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville (outside of Chicago). Right now, they're running a Pre Publication event with author Veronica Roth who's book Divergent comes out in May. The actual author event is in February but I have the ARC now and am reading it. Of course I'll post a full review when I'm finished, but, if you want to hear my thoughts as I think them, head over to my twitter account where I'll be tweeting after each chapter with minimal spoilers but many things that won't make sense if you haven't read the book.

Lovely Loves ~ Misfits

Recently, I've been hooked on the British show Misfits and thought I would share my love for it with you. The show follows a group of five young offenders serving community service, only on their first day a storm rolls through town and leaves things different from what they were before. The five slowly learn they have powers they can't control, and they aren't the only ones.

A brilliant plot line, though it does slow down a bit during the second season, Misfits is a show I can't wait for the third season of. Yes, because the show is British, there is swearing and sex which I can get past in the name of a good series. All episodes are available via youtube for those of us who don't live overseas.

Teaser Tuesday ~ SAPPHIQUE

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
From page 195

Did she have no idea how to act in an ambush? Her horse was panicking; he took a deep breath and ran from cover, grabbing it by the bridle. "Get down!"

DARKEST MERCY Book Trailer

As the days grow closer and closer to the conclusion of the Wicked Lovely series, the only fairy series I have ever enjoyed, mind you, I thought I would share the trailer for the final book, Darkest Mercy.

Music Monday ~ The Notwist

This Music Monday is featuring a new group I recently found that I've fallen in love with because of their simple sound and the way the music just flows together. You can take a listen to The Notwist's Off the Rails below.

Cover Reveal ~ THE POWER OF SIX

Here you go, I Am Number Four fans. The cover for the sequel, The Power of Six! I love that it coordinates with the first cover. Very pretty and eye catching, perhaps more than the first. Let me know your comments!

Teaser Tuesday ~ INFINITE DAYS

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
From page 20

"When Vicken digs up the grave and discovers an empty casket he will search the earth for you. As you've said yourself, the magic that binds the coven has made it so."