September Book Wrap Up!

Okay, viagra approved I totally copied this from my fangirl best friend, Sylvia, from FanGirlFeeels, so I want to show her much credit. Check out her own September Book Wrap Up here!

I think I want to start doing this every month because I read a LOT of books in a month and I want to be able to share at the end of the month, all the books I’ve read and reviewed in one spot. Click on each book title to read my review of it!

So here we go!

Books Pledged to Read in 2013: 200 Books

Read so Far: 150

On Track?: For once, yes!

The Enchanter Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

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The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

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The Transfer by Veronica Roth

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Angelfall by Susan Ee

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Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 

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Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

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The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

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Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

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Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian 

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The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey 

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Half Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

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Saving Raphael Santiago by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

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3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

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Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Elixir by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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What books did you read in September? What were some of your favorites, and which ones fell flat? As always, share in the comments! 

Book of the Week: 3:59

Last week, illness I had the chance to meet the awesome author Gretchen McNeil again. I have had a chance to read her book Possess but her brand new book, 3:59, had just released. She had talked it up at the Ontario Teen Book Fest in May so I was definitely ready to dive into this novel.

The wait was worth it, and I definitely am glad that I picked up this book, and you will be too!

3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository 

Genre:

young adult, science fiction, thriller

Part of a Series?:

Nope

You May Like if You Liked:

Unremembered by Jessica Brody, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Age Recommendation:

This is a new feature on the Book of the Week. As most of the reviews I do are YA, and YA is starting to break apart into YA and NA, and that sort of thing, I will be recommending an appropriate age for the books. Keep in mind this is MY personal recommendation and it varies on the maturity of the reader. 

12+: Mild Violence

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo. 

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

From master of suspense Gretchen McNeil comes a riveting and deliciously eerie story about the lives we wish we had – and how they just might kill you.

The Bad:

I honestly just wish it would have gone on longer. I really wanted to get to know the characters more and really dive into the differences between Jo and Josie, and the different parents and Nick and all of that. I think that I wanted more character exploration in this book. I am so used to books that are multiple books in a series that I was surprised to have a story wrapped up in one book and I had to tweet Gretchen to make sure that this was just one book. So I think maybe if I go back another time around, I may find more to the character development than I saw the first time around because I was prepared for it to happen so fast.

The Good:

Okay, first off, I have to really give Gretchen a round of applause for pulling this off. Currently I’m writing a novel where I bounce back and forth between the past and the present, with the same group of characters, and its been really tough for me. But I can’t imagine having to write two parallel universes with characters that have to be the same, except with small differences. That sounds like a headache to me, and I know that it can’t have been easy to write and I seriously applaud her for that.

And I think that’s what really makes this book so intriguing and addicting at first, because you’re so curious at the small details and at the mystery that it builds. You know that each side is different but its interesting to find out exactly how each one is different. I think that Gretchen really is so subtle with creating each side, that you are caught right off the bat, because you’re just dying to know what is going on. We figure out that there are two different worlds, with these two girls that look exactly alike, and yet we don’t know anything else. I don’t know how many other people were so apprehension and a little scared when Jo and Josie decide to switch so easily. They don’t know anything about each other’s worlds and they jump so easily to switch places. That is insane! But I think that’s what’s great. We aren’t told everything so we’re clutching the pages in excitement as these girls take on the unknown.

I also love how intelligent Gretchen made these characters, especially Josie and her friend Penelope. I think it took a lot of research and some brain power for Gretchen to have this wrapped up in so much physics. My head was reeling at all of the physics talk but she both made it incredibly confusing and mind boggling but made it so it was totally believable that this sort of thing could exist. I really think its great that Gretchen made her characters so intelligent and capable of understanding these kind of phenomenons. A few days ago, it was discussed at a book event that, in YA literature mostly, strength in a female character is literal physical strength and the capabilities of being physically strong. I think that there is something to say when a character is incredibly smart and is able to save the day with the intelligence she wields.

Oh, and I am just going to say this: Gretchen’s ability to create two parallel Nicks, one who is sleazy and awful and you want to punch in the face, and the other who you won’t to throw against the wall and make out with, is awesome. That’s the magic of this book, that she is able to create all these doppelgängers and you are able to feel so differently to each one because of those subtle differences.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the story, especially since it wasn’t at all what I expected. I knew that it was science fiction, but I thought it was mostly going to focus on the idea of those two worlds existing, but what really comes forward from that is so surprising and super fun. Its all thrilling and scary, and I literally was breathing heavily because I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I was terrified. If a movie was made of this book, I would probably hide under the covers, and watch it with it was in the middle of the day, and the sun was shining. The story is exciting, unexpected and addicting. One minute you’re in a romance, the next in a drama and then its action packed. It has everything that a YA sci-fi novel needs, with that little added twist of thrill and it was fun to read.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Recommended or Not?:

Definitely. Gretchen is fun to read, and it was worth the time, even just for the unexpected twists and turns that kept happening in the book. Every time I felt like I had figured it out, I was totally wrong, and the book went veering in another direction. Definitely pick up this book, and head out to meet Gretchen, who is doing a TON of events soon!

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I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Book of the Week. Stay tuned in soon for more book reviews and a special guest interview with Gretchen herself!

Happy Reading everyone!

Gretchen McNeil and Kendare Blake at Mysterious Galaxy!

Today I was able to meet both Kendare Blake and Gretchen McNeil at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach, more about celebrating the release of their two new books.

I was fortunate enough to meet and “discover” Gretchen McNeil a few months back when she was a guest at the Ontario Teen Book Fest (which you can read allll about here). She made me laugh a lot during the panels and I really was impressed at the way she made a point to reflect all of our differences in her characters, i.e. her main character in Possess is half-Asian. I thought that was really interesting and I decided to make a point to read her books.

That was in May, and it is now September and I’m sad to say that I’ve only read one of her books. Its okay though, because now I am about to be on track, as today I bought her second novel, Ten, and her brand new novel, 3:59!

Kendare Blake is an author I had not heard of before, but I picked up her brand new book, AntiGoddess tonight, and am excited to start it.

Gretchen McNeil

As said before, Gretchen McNeil is the author of Possess, Ten and the brand new 3:59, which was just released this past Tuesday. Here is the GoodReads synopsis:

Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.  Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh. By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

Kendare Blake

Kendare Blake is the author of Anna Dressed in Blood and its sequel, Girl of Nightmares. Her brand new novel, AntiGoddess, is the first of a planned trilogy. Here is the synopsis:

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health. Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. 

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. 

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. 
 Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

Okay, please tell me you think those sound as absolutely amazing as I do! I canNOT wait to dive into them. They are now in my pile ‘o books, and I am eagerly anticipating reading them soon!

Mysterous_Galaxy_updated_pic-1Photo Credit: Mysterious Galaxy Website

The event was SO much fun. I had never had a chance to go to Mysterious Galaxy, either locations in San Diego or Redondo Beach, and I definitely will be returning. I’m trying more and more to support bookstores as much as possible, especially the independent ones, and this was a really nice one! They put on a very awesome event, and they had a crazy beautiful store. I can’t wait to come back to this store in a couple weeks for the Cinda Williams Chima event.

Each author talked a little bit about their books, the synopsis of them and how they sort of got the inspiration for each of them. They talked a lot about writing, which was SUPER awesome for an aspiring writer like me. They talked about handling new ideas, especially when you get new ideas while working on something already. They both seemed to agree about writing their ideas down, but remaining focused on the story at hand, even though sometimes that can be very hard, especially if a book is getting hard to write.

They told stories about their book covers; Kendare has had some issues with her girls in blood looking like they’re having some serious menstruation issues, and Gretchen had an issue with her Asian character NOT looking Asian on the cover. T

hey shared some books that they are obsessed with. Gretchen swears by the book The Twenty Nine Steps by John Buchan, and Kendare is a HUGE fan of The Odyssey and the Iliad, just recently getting a quote from the Iliad tattooed on her! As you all know, I applaud book tattoos, definitely!

It was super fun meeting both of them. They had a lot of quality advice, they made me laugh, and I can’t wait to dive into their books. Watch out soon for some book reviews, and maybe a few extras as well ;)

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Signed 359 Signed Ten

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Signed Antigoddess

Okay, can I just say the fact that Kendare signed my book with a Terminator quote was just TOO cool for life? LOVE it.