March Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2014: 150 Books

Am I On Track: Nope, site I’m still behind. 5 books. I’m seriously so slump-y this year, store guys :(

Books Read So Far: 32

Total Books For March: 14

Remember, as always, to click the book title in order to read the review!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 

2213661

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

17402605

Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

16069167

Reboot by Amy Tintera

13517455

Divergent by Veronica Roth (re-read)

13335037

Finding It by Cora Carmack

16172638

Rebel by Amy Tintera

15769788

100 Sideways Miles (ARC) by Andrew Smith

20493997

Paper Towns by John Green (re-read)

6442769

The Transfer by Veronica Roth (re-read)

18080920

Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

15757486

The Ring and the Crown (ARC) by Melissa de la Cruz

18296016

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend (ARC) by Katie Finn

18525657

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen 

13479780

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

How was your month? What was your favorite book of the month? What was your least favorite? How are you doing on your challenge? Share in the comments!

WWW Wednesday

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

www_wednesdays4

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, 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?

16049275

Sasha and Katie keep recommending it like crazy and J.D. Netto sent me a copy so I gotta buckle down and read this!

13479780

I just bought this at the bookstore this week so I also need to buckle down and read this.

What did you recently just finish reading?

Its been two weeks since I did one so I’ve read a bit.

20493997

Pretty much died when I got this as an e-ARC off Edelweiss. Died of happiness.

6442769

Re-read because I remember not quite enjoying the book the first time I read it but then when I re-read it, I still didn’t quite enjoy it. Its just not one of my favorites by him. They just announced a movie, using the same team as TFiOS and Nat Wolff as Quentin, and John Green as a producer but meh. I’d rather read An Abundance of Katherines.

18080920

After watching the Divergent movie, I just felt like I wanted more and more Four.

15757486

I got this as an ARC on Edelweiss too and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

18296016

This book was beautiful. The history and the fantasy of it, the tension. I truly enjoyed it. It’s the Book of the Week tomorrow!

18525657

As part of the Fierce Reads Street Team, I was assigned Katie Finn’s novel. I quickly learned that Katie Finn is none other than one of my favorite authors, Morgan Matson, and I zipped through this book. I canNOT wait to share this with you all!

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

68428

I absolutely fell in love with Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart this year so its time to get on board with his fantasy writing. And its time to get back on actual fantasy. I feel like I haven’t read some in awhile.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

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

Zac and Mia Book Review

Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

15757486

   

This review is based an advanced reader’s copy given to me by the site, ask Edelweiss, page in exchange for an honest review. This had no influence on the integrity of my review. Thanks to Edelweiss and HMH Kids for this book. 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

This book is already available in bookstores in Australia and New Zealand. It will be hitting bookstores in the United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, Italy, Brazil and Turkey throughout this year.

My Review:

It took me awhile to get into this book, and I think that was my one only problem with it. It took awhile for me to really care. I loved the voice of Zac, definitely, but I think I loved the voice of Mia more and so when we reached the point of view of Mia, I was more drawn into the story. I felt like it took awhile for me to care about both of them. When you reach the part where you switch from Zac’s point of view to Mia’s, when you’ve gotten to know both of the characters, that is when I really grew attached to them and the rest of the book flew fast under my fingers.

I must admit that I was a bit reluctant when I received this book to read. Not because I knew A.J. Betts or the synopsis sounded bad, because that wasn’t it at all. It was more like, I really love The Fault in Our Stars but I’m getting kind of tired of it and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dive into another contemporary romance book about kids with cancer. I wasn’t sure if it would be different or whether I would be impressed or whether this book would just fall into the list of books that I’ve read that haven’t quite made an impression on me.

I was proven definitely wrong. While it took me awhile to become attached the book and the characters, I admired the story that A.J. was building. It wasn’t a romance, not really, and both of the characters felt so real and raw to me, that I couldn’t help but want to know which direction they were going in. There was nothing romantic about the lives either of them were living. They were raw and honest and up front about the lot in life that was handed to them, and I think that’s why Mia stood out to me the most. Mia’s struggle with her cancer and not just the way it attacks her body, but the way it changes her social life, and her standing with her mom, her friends and her boyfriend, just felt so real. In Zac’s point of view, she felt shallow, loud, annoying, I suppose, but in her point of view, she felt vulnerable and emotional and relatable.

What could have been a shallow, been-there-done-that, story of two kids with cancer turned into something much more to me. The characters both change as the story goes in, in ways that you didn’t expect. Both of them have such different ways of approaching what is going in their lives and as their friendship, and yes romantic relationship, deepens, you can see the effect that it has on the other. The book is about hope and hopelessness and fighting and struggling and losing your confidence and will and getting lost on the way to finding yourself. Its a beautiful story of two friends, trying to define themselves outside of what cancer has done to them, and it definitely impressed me. I would definitely recommend picking this book up when it hits your country!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars