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Paper Towns Book Review

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Paper Towns by John Green

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You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, ask Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

My Review:

When I first started reading John Green a few years ago, this was one of the first ones I had picked up. The first one I had read was An Abundance of Katherines, which still remains my favorite of his. Back then, Paper Towns didn’t impress me as much as his other works so I decided to give it another try.

I still found it kind of lacking. For me, in this particular book, it was really hard to get John Green out of my head. It didn’t feel like it was Quentin’s voice. It always felt like John’s voice and it was kind of frustrating. I watch a lot of Nerdfighters and Vlog Brothers and just John Green videos on YouTube, and I felt like it was John the whole time so it was hard to get into Quentin as a character. I know that authors put themselves into characters-I definitely do that-but it was highly distracting in this book.

I also just didn’t think it was that great of a story. I was kind of like Q’s friends, and sort of frustrated at his obsession with Margo. She seemed sort of…I don’t know. I just didn’t like her. She was so mysterious and she left these clues and everyone was fascinated by the idea of her but not actually her, you know? It was kind of “been there, done that.” I feel mean right now haha because I don’t tend to give less than positive reviews but I just wasn’t that impressed with this book. I felt like Margo was a one-dimensional character and I really wanted her to surprise me. The direction in which her story ended up just didn’t surprise me and I like a good book to surprise me. His other books have done that before, and this one just felt predictable from the beginning.

That being said, there is a lot of good about this book because John Green is a really great writer and he has a way of capturing teen voice in a way that not many authors can do (Andrew Smith!!!!!) and he definitely does that in Paper Towns as well. It always seems to me that John Green never really left his teen years behind, but in a good way. He remembers what its like and it comes across in the page. He gets the emotions and the hormones and the humor and all of it. Its great. And there were parts of the book that I really liked, like the after-prom party and the road trip and that sort of thing. There were parts that had me laughing like crazy. There were almost, like, short stories within the bigger story that I enjoyed more than the story as a whole. Not one of John Green’s strongest, not in my opinion.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Book of the Week: Rebel by Amy Tintera

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Rebel by Amy Tintera 

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy given to me in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my review in the slightest, medical and everything said here is my honest opinion. Thank you Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the ARC. 

Genre:

Young Adult, stomach Science Fiction, find Dystopian

Part of a Series?:

The finale of the Reboot Duology

Please keep in mind that while there will be NO spoilers for Rebel, there WILL be Reboot spoilers. To read the review for Reboot, please click this link. 

You May Like if You Liked:

Divergent by Veronica Roth, Legend by Marie Lu, Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Age Recommendation:

13+

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

The sequel to the action-packed Reboot is a can’t-miss thrill ride, perfect for fans of James Patterson, Veronica Roth, and Marie Lu.

After coming back from death as Reboots and being trained by HARC as soldiers, Wren and Callum have finally escaped north, where they hope to find a life of freedom. But when they arrive at the Reboot Reservation, it isn’t what they expected. Under the rule of a bloodthirsty leader, Micah, the Reboots are about to wage an all-out war on the humans. Although Wren’s instincts are telling her to set off into the wilderness on their own and leave the battle far behind, Callum is unwilling to let his human family be murdered. When Micah commits the ultimate betrayal, the choice is made for them. But Micah has also made a fatal mistake . . . he’s underestimated Wren and Callum.

The explosive finale to the Reboot duology is full of riveting action and steamy love scenes as Wren and Callum become rebels against their own kind.

My Review: 

I was so thrilled when I was able to download this from Edelweiss this week. I just read Reboot this weekend, and I was already dying to read Rebel. I went to check on Edelweiss just to see if they had it and I could possibly get my hands on it, and it was an automatic approval download. I pretty much squealed with excitement.

I am really impressed with this series, for many reasons but I’m hugely impressed with the fact that its a duology. There aren’t a lot of authors writing a two-part series-most do trilogies-and I really applaud Amy for doing so. I’m writing a duo, so it makes me feel really good to see a sci-fi/dystopian duo, and a great one at that, because it gives me the confidence boost to do it myself. Plus I think its incredible for an author to make a world like this, and create a complex story like this and start and finish it in two books. It says a lot about their story telling abilities and I think Amy is a fantastic story teller.

When I finished Reboot, I was definitely wanting to read Rebel but I didn’t feel that automatic pull. There wasn’t a HUGE cliffhanger that made me DIE for the book. What really made me want to read the next book was the characters. I really felt attached to Wren and Callum and I wanted to read more about them, and what would happen to them in the future. So while the story itself wasn’t bringing me back, the characters were. All of Amy’s characters are very rich and genuine. Even though Ever is only in the first book, and only part of it, she is a character that really stays with you and I think that definitely continues in Rebel.

The story, however, does grab you very quickly. Callum and Wren land themselves in this Reboot reservation and they think its an escape, that it’ll be better than being under the crushing boot of the HARC, but it doesn’t quite work that way. We meet Micah very early in this book and I knew right away that there was something very wrong about him, and I think our characters knew it too. This is obviously a problem, and its what keeps you stuck in that book, turning the pages, wanting to know what is going to happen next. I needed to know what Micah was up to, what he was capable of and what Wren and Callum and the other Austin Reboots were going to do about it, if anything at all. Micah is a compelling villain and a believable one, because sometimes you can’t figure out whether he has a point or not. He leaves you with some hefty logic but he seems so inherently evil. Its so confusing and addicting.

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Basically, here is what you need to know: Amy takes the story that she created in the first book and blows it up in the second book…in the best way possible. She wraps up the first one like it could be the end, but then takes the story further in Rebel and opens up the world and the possibilities. She creates a fantastic, creepy, and compelling villain in Micah and she made me fall in love with Wren, and with Callum even more. The character development, the story development, the love story, the action, all of it equals into a really amazing book. This is one that is a MUST pick up when it comes out in early May. Don’t miss out on this, and if you’ve read this and haven’t read Reboot yet, I’m sorry for the spoilers but get off that butt and go buy it. You definitely won’t regret it.

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WWW Wednesday

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, cheapest hosted by Should Be Reading.

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The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

Remember, price clicking the book cover will take you to the review. If it doesn’t take you to a review, that means either A, you clicked on a book under the ‘currently reading’ or ‘reading next’ or B, I haven’t written the review yet! 

What are you currently reading? 

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I got this in the mail a few days ago, and I’m excited to read it. It comes out April 1st so I want to read it before it comes out. I’m about 100 pages in and I’m really enjoying it so far. Its so different from what I’ve read from her before. Its so….historical, but also magical at the same time. I am seriously loving it so far.

What did you recently finishing reading? 

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This book blew my mind. Seriously. Read my review, read the book.

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After seeing the movie in a prescreening, I needed to reread the book. I felt like the movie was really close to the book, and I couldn’t remember if I was close or not. A re-read made me love the movie even more.

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I re-read this book too, to really give Cora Carmack a try again. I have “Finding It” too, so maybe I’ll keep going. Its just not quite what I expected. I really liked it until about 75% of the way through. Sigh.

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I was looking to see when the sequel of Reboot came out, and noticed that you could download a review copy of Rebel on Edelweiss, and got SUPER excited and busted my way through it.

What do you think you’ll be reading next? 

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I’m not super thrilled about this book but Jennifer L. Armentrout tends to surprise me at every turn so I want to give it a chance, even though its not something that I would normally read. I want to have faith in her.

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When I read this book awhile back, it really didn’t jump out at me, not like An Abundance of Katherines or Will Grayson, Will Grayson, etc. But that was awhile ago and with the announcement of John Green’s appearance at the Festival of Books, I really want to re-read it and give it a chance that maybe I didn’t in the past.

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What are YOU reading this week? Share in the comments! 

Show Off Your Divergent and Fangirl Pride!

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Two awesome bloggers, ailment Carmen from Oh The Book Feels and Amber from GrownUp Fangirl, viagra sale came up with a REALLY cool t-shirt design.

It was so cool that I didn’t even get a t-shirt of it, but instead, a hoodie.

There’s only ONE problem.

In order to get it printed, there need to be 50 orders. As of right now, when I’m writing this, they are up to 25 out of the necessary 50. They have a week and a day to get 25 more orders so that we get this awesome design.

Want to see it?

Okay, you broke me down, here it is!

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Its great, right? I love that its a way to show off being a Divergent fan, but also a way to show off your fangirl pride too. I’m a huge fan of this shirt and I hope the girls get enough orders to get it printed.

So, here’s what you guys MUST do!

Go to this LINK and order your shirt. You can get a regular t-shirt, a fitted shirt or a hoodie, and its not too expensive either. AND it won’t charge you until they reach their goal.

So what are you waiting for? Go pre-order your shirt and let’s help Carmen and Amber get this printed :)

Tuesday Top Ten-Authors I Can’t Wait to See at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books!

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Tomorrow will mark exactly one month until one of the biggest events for a book lover like me, sickness living in California: the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

I’ve been going since I was kid, order but really didn’t realize I could meet authors at the festival until I met Meg Cabot back in…2009? 2008? Something like that. Then I got even more addicted to the festival, story and have added more authors to my “Must Meet” list when I attend.

Last year, I had an absolute blast, meeting Cassandra Clare again, and meeting authors I had never met and was so excited to meet like Morgan Matson, Sarah Dessen and Veronica Roth.

But I also met some of the amazing friends that I have now. My best fangirl best friend Sylvia? Met her there. I met Jasmine and Paulina and so many others of my friends there.

So I’m really excited about this year. They just announced the list last week, and I’m so excited. Its hard to narrow it down to just ten authors because this year is going to be so totally epic, but here it is:

Honorable Mention: Andrew Smith

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I’ve met Andrew Smith SO many times already and I do want people to know that he is going to be there. I hope I will be stopping by to say hi to him during the Fest but I’ll be seeing him at Pasadena Teen Book Festival so I won’t be having him sign books and such. There’s a lot of authors I want to see so I have to make time for the ones who I will only see at FoB. But Andrew Smith is an awesome author and fun to meet, and fun to talk to so I hope I can at least say hi to him during the Fest.

10. Melissa de la Cruz 

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I’ve already met Melissa de la Cruz a couple times. But never as an author. I’ve met her at other author events and have taken pictures with her and talked to her, but I don’t have any books signed by her! That’s crazy face. I just received an ARC of her new book, The Ring and the Crown in the mail and it sounds absolutely amazing so I hope to finish it before the fest (I should) and get it signed by her. I have a feeling I’m really going to love this book.

9. Tamara Ireland Stone

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So I have her two books already signed because I won a giveaway over at The Adventures of a Book Junkie and I got a copy of Time Between Us and Time after Time (UK Editions..wooo) signed. But I do want to meet her. She has a fun little duo going on. I thought it was contemporary, which is why I read it, because I was trying to avoid science fiction and stuff like that, but it has a little twist to it and the books are so good. I love that they take place in 1995 and 2012. Its super fun, and suddenly reminds me of True Detective, even though the book came out first. But I want to get my copy of Time Between Us signed and I’d like to get the UK editions personalized. She’s really cool and she read my review of Time Between Us and I’d like to meet her.

8. Huntley Fitzpatrick

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I LOVE Huntley. I picked up her book My Life Next Door on a whim, because it was next to Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and it just caught my eye, and again, was a contemporary novel, which is what I was looking for. I loved the story, but I loved Jase and his ginormous family the best because it felt so familiar to my large family. I really want to meet her and tell her she wrote a big family so perfectly, both the bad and the good. I felt like I was Jase, definitely. So I hope I can meet her. I wish that her next book came out before the Fest but it comes out the day AFTER. Of course.

7. Ann Brashares

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I actually got way excited when I learned Ann Brashares was going to be there. I know that she has a new book coming out in early April before the Festival that I’m probably going to pick up BUT she was HUGE to me in high school. I can’t have been the only girl who was absolutely obsessed with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I seriously LOVED those books so much and I remember having a serious book crush on Kostos. Hot, sensitive, passionate Greek boy? I’m down. So I’m really excited to meet her to tell her how much her books meant and influenced me when I was in high school.

6. Stephen Chbosky 

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I’ve already met this man, and he is absolutely amazing and I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to. Seriously. He gave me wonderful writing advice and I was able to talk to him about a part in his book that most people look over, but was incredibly important and emotional for me. He is fantastic. At the time I met him (Ontario TBF, god that event was amazing), I didn’t have the money to buy his book so while I have his writing advice on my poster, I don’t have a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower signed by him. So I hope to track him down and get that signed because that would be absolutely awesome. He is a seriously fantastic writer and a funny and inspiring person.

5. Deb Caletti 

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I am so excited to meet her, I can barely contain it. I feel like I’m constantly checking her website to see if she’s coming near me and she never is. I definitely definitely want to meet her. I love her books, she’s a brilliant contemporary YA writer and I definitely think she’s had an influence in the way I write my contemporary YA. My friend Jade was like “WHAT? You haven’t met her, she was at the fest a couple years ago”….and I’m like, I know! The one year that I didn’t go! So figures. So yes, very excited to meet her. Its silly, but her book, The Nature of Jade, is the reason that I got obsessed with the penguin webcam at the Long Beach Aquarium. Jade watches the elephant webcam from the local zoo, and I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if there’s a penguin cam…” and totally found it. And I am so in love with it.

4. Marissa Meyer

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I really, really, really want to meet her. I just recently read her series but I became addicted right away. Thanks Erin. Her stories are so great, a mix of dystopian, science fiction and fairy tale. I love her books. She was in California for the release of Cress, but she was down in San Diego, the day after the Vampire Academy premiere and I was just too pooped to do anything about it. I just didn’t want to go. So now that she’s going to be here for Festival of Books, I’m just so excited. I need to get actual physical copies of Scarlet and Cress, and I need to be like “You’re brilliant! AGH!” Or something like that.

3. John Green 

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I am so excited that he is going to be there. I remember seeing his name, and almost shaking with excitement. John Green is one of those authors that I thought…there’s no way. I’ll probably never meet him. My friend/contributor Christina Marie met him recently and got me a signed copy of Looking for Alaska, signed to me, and I was pretty excited about that. And John Green sent me a personalized message on Facebook when I asked for writing advice and that was beautiful. So seeing his name on the list made my heart stop. I know his line is going to be insanity but I’m determined to meet him and have him sign my copy of An Abundance of Katherines…oh, and The Fault in Our Stars, of course.

2. Veronica Roth

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Okay, I’ve totally already met Veronica Roth but I absolutely love her and her books. I wouldn’t get a Divergent tattoo if I didn’t feel that way. I met her last year at the Festival of Books and got Divergent and Insurgent signed. Now that Allegiant was released in November, I need to have that signed so I have a complete collection. Plus, I want to tell Veronica how much I loved the ending of Allegiant because she’s gotten so much hate and I want to tell her that I loved it and thought it was incredibly fitting. Oh and I want to show her my Divergent tattoo too. I’ve gotten to show Cassandra Clare my TMI tattoo and I showed Billie Piper my DW tattoo so this would be excellent. Can’t wait.

1. Rainbow Rowell

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I nearly peed my pants and cried when I found out that Rainbow was going to be here in April…and then I found out she was going to be at the Festival and got even happier. She has easily become one of my absolute favorite authors. I loved Eleanor and Park and Attachments but Fangirl literally blew my mind because of how close it was to my life. I know a lot of people think this, and its true, but Cath was so me. I felt tears in my eyes for so much of the book and its NOT a sad book. It just felt so good to relate SO much to a character, to know exactly what she means when she is talking. It was incredible. That book is now one of my favorite books and my friend Cassandra got it signed for me at YALL Fest. But now I get to meet her, and tell her, and possibly give her a letter to tell her what that book meant to me. And that’s incredibly exciting to me!

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Are you attending the Festival of Books? What are some authors that you are excited to see?

And if you aren’t going (because you live somewhere else), are there any authors coming near you soon that you’re excited to meet?

Share in the comments!

A Divergent Review…Is Coming!

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I know, more about that’s a super weird title.

Forgive me for that.

On Saturday, check I was able to do something that I’ve been looking forward to for a few weeks now, treatment something that made me so extremely happy, something that literally has had a hold on my emotions all weekend long.

I got to see a pre-screening of Divergent.

AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Me, before the screening.

My dear friend, Maggie, works for Lionsgate and asked me a few weeks ago if I’d like to go to a press junket screening and I immediately said yes. You guys know that I love Divergent. I don’t have tattoos on my collarbone for no reason ;)

Divergent Tattoo

I was able to bring a friend along with me and I immediately thought of my fangirl BFF, Sylvia from FangirlFeeels.

Now, if you’re looking for a review of the movie, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m going to be reviewing it but not quite yet. I’m writing it up but I don’t want to post it too early. The movie is still two weeks away and I want to post it closer to that. Look for it around the Los Angeles Premiere day (the 18th).

But I will say a few things:

One, Sylvia and I had an awesome time, and we probably were some of the most enthusiastic people in the audience.

Two, the casting of this movie is absolutely phenomenal.

Three, Theo James. Seriously. I can’t…I can’t even handle him as Four. The level of attractiveness of that man is just off the charts. I seriously, I can’t even handle it right now.

Four, you’re seriously missing out if you do not go see this movie on the 21st.

I had a great time, I seriously enjoyed the movie, and I can’t wait to see it again. I’m waiting just as anxiously as those who haven’t seen it for release day because it was just that good. I’m so proud of the team behind this movie. Its going to be so great, and I’m going to see this in the theater so many times.

Thanks to Maggie for being such a doll and getting me into this amazing early screening. I appreciate it more than you know!

Stay tuned for the full review coming soon :)

For now, enjoy the trailer!

http://youtu.be/Aw7Eln_xuWc