Book Review: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Title: Nevermore

Author: Kelly Creagh

Series: Nevermore, book 1

Publisher: Atheneum

Release Date: 2010

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 543

Source: Bought it

My Rating: 5 stars

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look. Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares. His life depends on it. Taken from Goodreads.com

I bought Nevermore when it first came out but it took me months before I finally picked it up to read it. Most reviews that I had read at the time made me postpone reading this and I wasn't sure if I should but I'm glad I did. I LOVED it!

First of all if you're worried that you won't be able to enjoy or understand it because you haven't read Poe before reading Nevermore, don't worry you don't have to. I haven't read anything from Poe but I still managed to enjoy this because as Isobel tries to understand the dream world we get a glimpse of some of his work. I must say that after Nevermore I'm willing to read Poe. Something I wouldn't have done before.

Nevermore was nothing as I expected it to be. From the synopsis you get an idea of what the story will be. A cheerleader and a goth that fall in love but it's so more than that. Isobel was nothing like the typical mean, one-centered, cheerleader you see and expect from many YA books. She was nice and very down to earth. She loved cheerleading for what it was not what it represented. I loved her instantly when she stood up for Varen even if that meant loosing her friends. In this book we get to see Varen being bullied by Isobel's ex and Isobel did everything she could to stand up for him. Whenever I think of Varen and what he went through I just want to hug him! 

I adored Kelly Creagh's writing. I'm usually one of those people that want more action than description. I love my dialogues. Nevermore however had more descriptions of scenery than dialogue and it was perfectly fine by me because somehow it was just perfect for this kind of book and the writing was excellent. I don't mind it when the writing is good and in this case it was superb.

The story is complicated and you have to pay attention to it. I found myself wondering what the hell  was happening and when I thought I might know what was happening or who did what, I was mistaken and taken aback by something new. The story was unpredictable until the very last minute. 

Overall, I loved it. It has made my list of favourite books and I'm waiting anxiously for the next book in the series. 

Frosy

Teaser Tuesday (14)

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!

My Teasers

They laugh at each other, all superior. One says, "You're the one who needs to get a clue. I mean, hello, Red Light? Are you that stupid you don't even know when someone's calling you a whore?"A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

When I'm asked to give my favorite color, for just the briefest, tiniest of seconds my mind flashes on a sky te color of polished silver, and I think I hear a word-gray-whispered into my ear.Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Elder doesn't watch the couple on the bench, he's watching me. The rain in pouring harder now, and I think about going in, but in a strange way I like how the rain makes me feel as if I am grounded, connected to this place. Even though I know the rain is fake, it feels the same as real rain, and I desperately need that.Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Frosy

Book Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Title: Paranormalcy 

Author: Kiersten White

Series: Paranormalcy, Book 1

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: August 2010

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

My Rating: 5 stars

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal 
Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures. 
So much for normal. Taken from Goodreads.com

Paranormalcy was something I didn't expect. It was fun, cute and refreshing. Evie is very girly and we see it all the time. From her pink clothing to her obsession with her favourite soap opera. But those are the few things that make her feel normal until she realizes again that she lives underground and her main job is to capture and take paranormals in to IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency).

Evie has a special ability, an ability that makes her see through all glamours and she is vital to IPCA. When someone breaks in IPCA Evie is the only one who can see him and she is afraid she is already crushing on him. 

I liked that Evie was a kick-ass character but also at the same time very girly as a teenager her age would be. I knew I would like her when I learned about her taser which was pink and she had also named it tasey! How cool is that! Instand like. Evie is also sheltered from the outside world making her obsesion with normal things like school and lockers hilarious. Kiersten White managed to create such a fun world that I can not wait for the release of Supernaturally! 

Overall I loved it and I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun but still kick-ass book with a lot of pinky things involved in it! Also to those who love audiobooks do listen to this book. It was my first audiobook and I loved it! The narrator's voice was just perfect for it. 

Cover Crazy Thursday (6)

Cover Crazy is created and hosted by Tawnil at The Book Worms. Find more information here. 

A modern retelling of the German fairytales "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie, is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school.

I love this cover! It's so beautiful and it was the first thing that drew me in and made me read this. You can find my review here.

Frosy

Follow Friday(10) & Book Blogger Hop(10)

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-for-Book

This week's question is:

Q. How/Where do you get your books? Do you buy them or go to the library? Is there a certain website you use like paperbackswap?
I like to buy my books so mostly I buy them either from Book Depository or Amazon (if I want them in the next three days). But sometimes I need to get to the bookstore and get the full experience even though the books are more expensive than those you can get online. I use Chapters since in my town it's the only bookstore. I don't really use the library and if I do it's going to be for books that I'm not sure if I'll like so instead of buying I borrow them. I recently started using the library for audiobooks. I'm waiting for my first one to come in the mail any day now. So excited!





Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.
This week's question is:
Q. What do I do when I'm not reading?
I'm a university student aiming for Pharmacy which means..... almost ZERO free time! Sad but that's how it is. So I spent the little time I have in... more books and blogging. Now in the summer I do more stuff like trying to play the piano or anything else that will strike me that summer. I like to try new things!

This week:

200 Follower GIVEAWAY!!!
In My Mailbox

My Bookshelf!

Book Review: Tris and Izzie

Frosy

Book Review: Tris and Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

Title: Tris and Izzie
Author: Matte Ivie Harrison
Publisher: EgmontUS
Expected Release Date: October 11th 2011
Format: e-book, arc
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 2 stars

A modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school.

My Review
I'm not familiar with the fairytale Tristan and Isolde although I may have seen the movie when I was little. Still can't remember what it was about it except from the fact that it's a love story between two star-crossed lovers... I think. So I jumped in to read this one since I always love me a good love story.

I'm not familiar with the author, haven't read anything else from her, but I liked her writing. It was simple and the story had a nice pace, without any boring moments. I wouldn't say the same for the plot though. Although I liked Izzie a little I found the story lacking a proper structure. The author doesn't give us time to know the characters and I ended up not caring about them. The scenes and dialogues between them seemed unrealistic. I mean how breaks up with his girlfriend and then after two minutes starts kissing his ex-girlfriend's best friend? Not really...

Tristan's and Izzie's love wasn't believable either. It was like they were forced to love each other or better Izzie was forced to love him... after leaving Mark. I was expecting swoon worthy moments from them but I was disappointed. Tristan was plain, one dimensional and I couldn't have cared less for him.

Sometimes Izzie would sound and act like a child. In a few scenes she sounded like those spoiled brads and I wanted to smack her head but then she would do something and change my opinion. Her attitude made me not care about her. I don't really have a problem with characters even when they are bad written as long as the plot is good. The plot or the idea behind it is good and could have been better if it was better developed.

Overall, I would say pass on this book. I didn't hate it but I didn't like it either. The cover though is amazing!

My Bookshelf!

So I was going through my bookshelf realizing that I have so many books that I have but haven't read!
I'm on the verge of getting my books in boxes since in less than a month I'm moving so I decided to take a few pics of how my books are sorted on my bookshelf before I move them into a different setting.

This is a picture of how I organize my books.

I always go alphabetically by author's last name and then genre.

The first shelfs are all YA paranormal/fantasy books.

The fourth one in mainly contaimporary books, a mix of YA and Adult book since I don't have that many to put them in different shelfs. And at the end of that same shelf I have my Adult paranormal/fantasy books. Again I don't have that many to put them in a different shelfs.

The last shelf has my old science textbooks from high school and some university textbooks that I had in the past semesters but still need.

How about your bookshelves? How do you organize them?

Frosy

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren!

These are the books I got the last two weeks.

• Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, I have the 1st 3rd and 4th book so I needed the 2nd book in order to continue reading the series. 
• My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent, I have the 1st and 3rd book in the series and needed the second one.
• Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
• Betrayals by Lili St. Crow
• Pewter Angels by Henry K. Ripplinger, I wanted to read this one someday and since it happened that day that the author was at the bookstore, I grabbed the chance to get a signed copy and a bookmark!

And now to e-books!

These are the books I got from Netgalley

• Tris and Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison, I have already read this and review is coming up soon.
• Blood by K. J. Wignall
• A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies, I'm already reading this and I must say it's really good. For once I found a book about angels that I actually like!
• Misfit by Jon Skovron
• The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle
• Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Frosy

200 Follower Giveaway!!!!

Giveaway Time!
I'll pick a winner when I reach 200 followers!
So go ahead fill out the form bellow and spread the word!
UPDATE
*** I reached 200 followers!!! So excited! The Giveaway-contest will end on 31 of July. ***

Rules:
You must be a follower.
You must be at least 13 years old.
Extra entries:
Follow me on Twitter. +1
Tweet about it. +1
Make a blog post about it. +4

The winner will get the chance to pick one of the following books. This is open internationally as long as Book Depository can ship to your country.

These are my 2011 favourite books so far and you can get a chance to win one of them!


A Dark Beautiful by Jocelyn Davies
Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz
Savannah Grey by McNish Cliff
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
Nevermore by Kelly Creagh
Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld (or any other book in the series)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Frosy


****** Giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced soon!*******

Book Review: Blue Noon

Title: Blue Noon
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Midnighters, book 3
Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
Release Date: 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 378
Source: Bought
My Rating: 5 stars

The darklings will hunt once again. 
The secret hour when time freezes arrives every night at midnight in Bixby, Oklahoma. It's a dangerous time, when five teenagers are the only humans awake and dark creatures crawl out of the shadows, but at least the midnight hour is regular and predictable. 
Until suddenly, the blue time comes . . . in the middle of the day. 
The noise of school stops. Cheerleaders are frozen in midair, teachers brought to a standstill. Everything is the haunted blue color of the midnight hour. 
The Midnighters can't understand what's happening, but as they scramble for answers, they discover that the walls between the secret hour and real time are crumbling. Soon the dark creatures will have a chance to feed after centuries of waiting, unless these five teenagers can find a way to stop them. 
A desperate race against time, a mind-blowing mystery of paranormal logic, a tale of ancient evil and spine-chilling sacrifice: blue noon is the exhilarating third volume in the Midnighters series by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld. Taken by GoodReads.com. 

Blue Noon picks up right after the events in Touching Darkness. Our midnighters are faced with the bigest threat of all. Blue time is on the verge of swallowing all of Bixby and even the world. This book has an "end of the world feel" and Scott Westerfeld managed to deliver. 

When I picked up the book I thought that whatever character development there was, was done during the first two books. I wasn't expecting much to change but I was wrong. I was surprised by Rex. In Touching Darkness he got that close to becoming one of the darklings. Now in Blue Noon we see the effects of such a close encounter with them and I was amazed by how strangely addicted I became to Rex. He became multidimensional and nothing like his old self, the boring and safe Rex he used to be. 

Through this book we got also the chance to learn more about the lore and the mechanics behind the secret time. All of our midnighters get to test their powers to their maximum and see that even though they thought they learned everything they could to fight the darklings they still didn't see it coming... the ending.

When I finished this book I was so mad that I couldn't think anything else for this book expect of how Scott Westerfeld ended this story. As I got invested into the characters and read their stories, I wanted for them to have good endings, happy endings. Scott Westerfeld managed to do that but with a sting to it. His ending was bittersweet leaving you with the impression that there might be more to this story. 

Overall I loved it even though I was shocked by the ending of the story. Hopefully there is more to the Midnighters and I will definitely be picking up more books from this author.

Frosy

TGIF(3)

TGIF is hosted byGReads.

This week's question is:

Q. Mr. & Mrs: Who are your favourite books couples?

In no particular order.

• Varen and Isobel from Nevermore by Kelly Creagh. I just love how different they are from each other yet they function so well together.
• Jonathan and Jessica from the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld. I still can't believe how Blue Noon ended. I'm still in shock about them.
• Adam and Mia from If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I do not need to say that the reason Mia chose to stay was because of him. Heartbreaking. I haven't read Where She Went and I can't believe that the book starts with them broken up. They are so good to each other!
• Ryder and Lily from A Witch And Angel Tale by Ramona Wray. Sigh... What a love story. I love drama and this couple has it all.
• Nick and Zara from the Need series by Carrie Jones. I just love them together!
• Alex and Brittany from Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. They changed each other so much. 
• Nick and Pheobe from Secret Society by Tom Dolby. It's mostly because of Nick... oh well!
• Edward and Bella from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. My first ever book couple that I loved.
• Lucius and Jessica from Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey. They are frustrated lovely!
• Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. From the first moment I didn't believe they were siblings and was glad that I was true in the end, and so much drama in between! Love them!
• Magnus and Alec from The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. I couldn't leave these two out of this list.
• Rafe and Lindsey from Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne. Another couple who deals with drama.
• Brendan and Emma from Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz. I recently finished this book and I can't stop thinking about them. I wish there's another book about them.
• Seth and Aislinn from Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. I'm almost done with this one  and I love the connection those two have. So honest and truthful. 

Frosy