Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Five Stars

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina

contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?

Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Terrorscape

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that showcases upcoming titles we're highly anticipating.

Waiting for: Terrorscape

Series: Horrorscape #3

Author: Nenia Campbell

Expected publication:  September 30th 2013

Published By: Independent

He lost to her twice and it nearly consumed him. Now, it's time for another game. And this time, he won't let her go so easily. Val's not just fighting for her friends' lives this time: She's fighting for her own, too

That is an awesome cover. You have to admit it. I need this book. Screwed up serial killers are awesome. And obsessive screwed up serial killers? Those are the best.
And I just realized something. Fear turns into Horror, which turns into Terror. By the way, the first two books are Fearscape and Horrorscape, in case you were wondering.

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{Mini Review} Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

Two Stars

They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. 

And I've always believed them.

Until now.

Now everything has changed.

Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

Okay, seriously. Did I read the wrong book? Because most people talk about how amazing Delirim is and how they can just picture everything perfectly. But when I read it, I was just annoyed. It's like the exct same story as other dystopians. People, whatever you do, do not read Matched and Delirium back to back. I couldn't finish Matched because the beginnings were so similar.

The characters just seemed flat. There's basically no character development in the main character, let alone any others

And the insta-love. This had so much insta-love. It was so annoying, and one of my key issues with it.

Maybe I didn't like Delirium because I was expecting a novel where the character fights back against the government. The key word being there is "fight". Yes, there were a couple scenes where there was action, but it just wasn't enough for me.

I'm sure many people will enjoy Delirium, but personally, it wasn't worth the hype.

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Monday Musings: Burned

Yes. I know it's Monday Musings. But I slept through Monday, so I posted this on Tuesday.

Monday Musings are something I've decided to do that is new on my blog. At first, I only wanted to do one or two posts, but then I realized how many sequels I haven't read. Basically,  Monday Musings are when I've though t about what happens in sequels. Said sequel may or may not be out yet, but I haven't read it.

Warning: Spoilers for the Fever series are in this review. Seriously. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FEVER SERIES YET! K? Good.

Click the cover to get to its Goodreads page.

No Summary

Release date: January 14, 2014

Karen Moning's bestselling books, the Fever series, isn't over yet. Book number 6-8 will be centered around Dani "Mega" O'Mallery, instead of Mac Lane. Annoyingly, though, Iced had a cliffhanger. What is it with these cliffhangers? Do authors think that I won't read the next book if something drastic doesn't happen at the end of the previous one?

Basically what happened in Iced was that there was this bad thing called the Hoar Frost King that was freezing parts of Dublin. Dani, Christian, Ryodan, and Dancer finally beat it, and everyone is happy. Including me And then, on the last page, Mac comes up behind Dani and threatens to stab her.

In order to figure out what the feck will happen next, we have to lay out the facts. First, Dani isn't human. Okay fine. We don't know that for a 100% fact, but I'm 95% sure. Then again, I was 98% sure V'lane was a good guy, and look at what happened. So Dani isn't the typical human. Happy now?

We will like Christian again. I actually like him screwed up the way he is, but that's neither here nor there. We know we'll like Christian again because Moning says so in one of her Q&As.

Ryodan, Barrons, and the rest of those people can be killed (for good). There are two ways we know of (for now): K'Vruck and the Book.

Dancer has some deep, dark secrets. Kat mentions this.

Mac is extremely hard to kill. We found this out in ShadowFever.

Apparently, we're done with the Unseelie King and his Concubine in books 6-8. So no facts there.

Dani killed Mac's sister and feels guily over it.

And I think that's it. The rest either doesn't seem important or it is just what we think happened. Now for the guesses. I'd like to mention again: I have not read Burned, yet. So these guesses will probably be wrong.

Christian is either going to become good, or he will die.

At the end of Iced, he was kidnapped by the Crimson Hag. I think Dani will rescue him.

The fact that the nine can die is going to be important. I think that one of them will be killed. Christian once talked about speaking with K'Vruck. Actually, I think he already has. Why? Because of all those times Dani was speaking with him and- poof- he couldn't remember some parts of the conversation.

Cruce will get out of the ice. There's a reason that he was trapped, not killed. Maybe the way he's going to get out is he'll burn his way out.

Dancer isn't human. Yeah, it's pretty obvious, but remember V'lane? Yes? Good. 

Also about Dancer: he's either going to die or is immortal. There's some heavy foreshadowing there.

Another Goodreads reviewer mentioned his, but the cover looks like a place-holder. Is that what Burned is? A place holder?

And, apparently, Burned picks up right after the ending of Iced. Is Mac still pissed. At the end of Shadowfever, it seemed like she was about to forgive Dani. Why, then, is she holding a spear at Dani's bak?

I don't think Dani's mother is dead. It seems lie everyone thinks that in the book, but there was this one time Dani was talking about her.

I also believe Dani won't be one of those heroines that fall in love and become pathetic.

Jo is probably going to die. Well, I want her to die. She's annoying.

Some things I can't guess: 

What are the nine?

Why does Dani lose her powers?

What is Dancer?

Why can't this book come out faster?

And this is who my friend and I want Dani to end up with:

First Dancer, because he's her age.

Then, once Dani grows up a little, with Christian because he's immortal.

Lastly, after Dani is around twenty-three ish, Ryodan.

And Burned? I'm going to be waiting a long time for you. Do not annoy me.

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Darker Days by Jus Accardo Cover Reveal

Today there's a cover reveal and a excerpt from Jus Accardo's new book, Darker Days.

Synopsis

Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation 

business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit 

darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a 

magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course...

When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, 

it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.

Seven deadly ones, in fact.

They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they're recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human 

bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing...

There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient 

threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—

or lose everything.                                                                                

Here's an excerpt:

 “So not your biggest fan at the moment,” I said, closing the office door behind me. The runofffrom my jeans had soaked my sneakers pretty good. With each step, I gave a slight squishing noise accompanied by an annoying squeak against the old tile floor.

From across the room, Mom stared. “What happened to you?”

            “It attacked me.” Tossing my bag on the couch, I sank into her chair and made sure to grind my butt into the cushion. Got it nice and wet. I was all about sharing the love—and right now, the love was soggy.

            She laughed, waving a folder in my direction. “Surely you’re overreacting. It was one little zombie. They don’t attack people.”

            “I’m serious, Ma. It tried to drown me. And the client assaulted me with ugly footwear. As far as punishments go, I’d say we’re probably square. I’ve learned my lesson.”

            “You’re serious?” Amused expression now replaced by concern, she crossed the room and leaned over her desk to get a better look at me.

            “As a coronary.” Once I was sure the chair had sponged up all it could, I stood and huffed past her. Pulling at my favorite T-shirt—the word Fate inside a blood red heart, is a four letter word on the back—I said, “Child welfare would not be happy to hear you tried to feed your only child to a walking corpse…”

“But why would it attack? Did you provoke it?” Folding her arms, she frowned. “Insult it, perhaps?”

            I winked at her. “Provoke it? Sure. I went and wiggled my ass in front of it yelling lunch just to see what’d happen.” I’d called it Stinky, but that didn’t count as an insult. Something couldn’t be considered an insult if it was true, right?

            Right eyebrow twitching, she fought against a smile. “But you’re okay, right? No bites, broken bones, head injuries, possessions…?”

I smiled and did a little twirl. “All in one piece and still me.”

Mom had a checklist she went through at the end of each job. I was known for taking almost as much damage as I inflicted.

“Oh, and you’re probably going to get a call from the client. I sorta smashed her fence in the process.”

            Mom groaned. “I told you to be more careful.”

            “It’s not like I tried to break anything.”

            “Something tells me you didn’t try hard enough not to break anything, either.”

            “In my defense, it wasn’t a simple trap and slap…”

            “We can’t afford this.” She reached down and pulled a white envelope out from under a stack of papers. “This is the bill for that Mercedes you smashed.”

            “Oh! So not my fault. How was I supposed to know that Spring Heel was gonna land on the car? If it makes you feel any better, I think he was aiming for my head…”

            “If you keep this up, we won’t even be able to afford the rent.”

            She was right, of course, and it made me feel horrible. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a wrecking ball wrapped in blue jeans. Take my cut of this job and put it toward the repairs. Keep my paycheck for the next month, too.” A good start, but it didn’t feel like enough. Sure, it would cover the damages—I hoped—but I felt guilty about upsetting her. The bills that were piling up kept her awake at night. This was only going to make things worse. We got a fair amount of business, but the overhead in our line of work was sky high.

As much as I hated the idea, I knew what would cheer her up. “I’ll even throw in pet possessions for the next month.” 

Sound awesome? Ready for the cover?

About Jus Accardo:

JUS ACCARDO spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. At the 

last minute, she realized her path lay with fiction, not food, and passed on the spot to pursue writing. Jus 

is the bestselling author the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing and is currently working 

on the first book in a new adult series due out summer 2013. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle 

of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.

Find Jus Accardo:

Website: http://www.jusaccardo.com

Blog: http://www.jusaccardo.com/category/blog/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JusAccardo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJusAccardo

And, school's out for the summer, so there will be more posts.

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Blog Tour + Giveaway: The Chemistry of Fate

I'm here today with Meradeth Houston, author of  The Chemistry of Fate.

The Reading Obsession: I'm so glad you're here!

Meradeth: Thanks so much for hosting me today!

The Reading Obsession: I think it’s pretty safe to say that most writers love reading. What are some of the books that influenced you the most? Anything you’d like to recommend? 

Meradeth: There are so many books that have influenced me over the years! I’d have to say A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle is one of my all-time favorites, and her books in general were a big influence on getting me writing. There are so many others I’m having a hard time choosing!

The Reading Obsession: Good choice! It's one of my favorite classic books.

The Reading Obsession: If you could meet any writer, living or dead, and pick their brain over coffee/ tea/hot-chocolate, who would it be? What would be your first question?

Meradeth: Madeline L’Engle would be my first pick—I’d love to have tea with her and ask her what her favorite thing about Wrinkle was. Shakespeare would also be pretty interesting, though I’d probably be too tongue-tied to say much!

The Reading Obsession: Are your characters inspired by anything?

Meradeth: Tom in particular is a major study-aholic. I won’t say where that comes from *looks around, trying to appear innocent.* His boss, however, has all kinds of inspiration from a really crazy flat-mate I had a while ago (he was nuts, but quite an interesting character!). Ari, well, she kind of came to me fully formed. Whatever her inspiration was, I’m not exactly sure!

The Reading Obsession: Study-aholics are so awesome. Not that I am one...

The Reading Obsession: What made you decide to write The Chemistry of Fate? 

Meradeth: Chemistry started off originally as a novella that I wrote because I couldn’t get the Sary world out of my head J. The drive to change it and create the finished product was mainly because I loved Tom and Ari so much that I was having too much fun writing about them!

 The Reading Obsession:  How and when did you come up with TCoF?

Meradeth: I came up with the idea for Chemistry when thinking about the Sary world that I wrote about in Colors Like Memories (the first book) and about what would happen if some accidentally found out about the Sary. What kinds of safeguards would there be? The first draft was a couple of years ago—I honestly don’t know for sure when!

The Reading Obsession: Was the plot line planned from the start?

Meradeth: Not at all! I’m a major panster—generally nothing is planned out ahead of time 


The Reading Obsession: What is your favorite part of the writing process? What about it makes you love it?

Meradeth: I love a shiny new idea or character that I just can’t stop thinking about. Writing a first draft is probably my absolute favorite thing—I love getting lost in the world I’m creating and letting reality fall away.

The Reading Obsession: What’s your biggest pet-peeve when it comes to the writing world? Does anything get under your skin and itch?

Meradeth: I’ll admit, editing is not my favorite thing. While it can be fun at times, I wish I wrote perfect first drafts (lol!). Other than that, the luck that is involved with getting a deal with the Big 5 does kind of irk me at times, as there are so many books that don’t get the attention I wish they did!

The Reading Obsession: Yes! Someone agrees with me! Getting a deal with the Big 5 would be awesome, but then the other good books wouldn't be found.

The Reading Obsession: What is the most difficult thing in writing a book?

Meradeth: Revising! I love first drafts, but making sure it all works together is never easy!

The Reading Obsession: What lessons do you believe readers should take out of The Chemistry of Fate?

Meradeth: That sometimes living your life is the most important thing you can do. By that I mean, right now—not just planning for the future. And taking a chance on someone is often the most important thing you can ever do.

Meradeth: She should be here anytime now...

The Reading Obsession: Who? 

Meradeth: Wait...

Ari comes into view.

Meradeth: Oh, good, Ari! You made it!

Ari: Hey Meradeth. *Nods hello at The Reading Obsession

The Reading Obsession: *pinches arm and yelps* So this is real... This is real, right? Not some sort of amazing dream? Right? Right? Yay! *Does happy dance*

Ari: Uh... Meradeth, when you told me that I was getting interview, I thought she was going to be sane.

The Reading Obsession: I get to interview you? This rocks! *Smooths shirt and tries to regain professional demeanor

The Reading Obsession: I know you’re probably a little nervous about what we’re going to ask you. Secrecy is a big part of your life, isn’t it?

Ari: You could say that. [Looks around nervously] How much do you know?

The Reading Obsession: Let’s just say we’re all pretty well informed around here. Don’t worry, you can be honest. It won’t get back to the Sary leaders.

Ari: [Clears throat.] I guess. That’s pretty weird. You know that right?

The Reading Obsession: Weird, or not, let’s get started. We’ll begin with something easy. Just what do you do, Ari?

Ari: I’m a student at the local university. I just transferred here from California.

The Reading Obsession: Oh. That's it?

Ari: What? Were you expecting a huge conspiracy?

The Reading Obsession: Maybe. Thanks for taking the time to come here. I hope your studies go gre-

Meradeth: I forgot to mention, Alisa is really gullible. But I'm not. So, How about what you’re really doing here?

Ari:

[Sighs] I’m here investigating a guy who might know about some stuff he shouldn’t. 

The Sary. I need to make sure he doesn’t know anything, and isn’t talking to people 

about it.

The Reading Obsession: *tries again to be professional* Sounds like a pretty difficult job. What’s so important about him not knowing about these Sary?

Ari: Um, we don’t exactly go around broadcasting what we do. Our secrecy is a huge 

deal. People who know about us tend to have accidents. So I have to find out if Tom 

has any ideas, or he’s in some serious sh—trouble.

The Reading Obsession: Sounds serious! What exactly are the Sary?

Ari: I can’t believe I’m doing this. The Sary, we’re cosmic suicide-prevention. Usually I go around trying to make sure mortals don’t kill themselves. Tom’s an exception to 

what I normally do. Not that it’s all happy fun and games.

Meradeth: That’s quite a hefty job for someone who barely looks eighteen.

Ari: *Quirks an eyebrow at Meradeth for pretending she doesn't know things* Appearances can be deceiving. Especially with the Sary.

The Reading Obsession: So, tell us a little more about this Tom guy. Is he hot? I mean, is he a bad person? No- I change my mind. How hot is he?

Ari: 

It doesn’t matter if he’s hot or not…but he is. Even if he spends all his time studying. The best part? Oh, I don’t know why I’m saying this, but he’s one of those guys who 

doesn’t know he’s hot. Totally doesn’t try to be a dick. Or show off. Or flirt….ever.

The Reading Obsession: Am I sensing some frustration there? You know, if you ever want to talk  about it and let out all those feelings, I'm a compassionate person.

Ari: 

No! He’s a mortal. Sheesh. I’m not even supposed to notice if he’s totally hot. And funny. And sweet.

The Reading Obsession: You’ve got it bad.

Meradeth: *mutters about that being an understatement*

The Reading Obsession: What?

Meradeth: Nothing...

Ari: *Groans and hides her face in her hands* Are we done here?

The Reading Obsession: Sure, sure. Thanks for joining us today, Ari! Best of luck with your assignment. And Tom.

“They are everywhere, can be anyone, and are always the last person you’d expect.” When Tom stumbles across his grandfather’s journal, he’s convinced the old man was crazier than he thought. The book contains references to beings called the Sary, immortals who are assigned to save humans on the verge of suicide. They certainly aren’t allowed to fall in love with mortals. Which the journal claims Tom’s grandfather did, resulting in his expulsion from the Sary. As strange as the journal seems, Tom can’t get the stories out of his head; especially when he finds the photo of his grandfather’s wings. 

Tom’s only distraction is Ari, the girl he studies with for their chemistry class.

 Ari has one goal when she arrives in town: see how much Tom knows about the Sary and neutralize the situation. This isn’t a normal job, but protecting the secrecy of the Sary is vital. If Tom is a threat to exposing the Sary to the public, fate has a way of taking care of the situation, usually ending with the mortal’s death. While Ari spends time with Tom, he becomes more than just an assignment, but how far can a relationship go when she can’t tell him who she really is? When she finds out just how much Tom actually knows about the Sary, Ari is forced to choose between her wings, and her heart.

THE CHEMISTRY OF FATE is a companion to COLORS LIKE MEMORIES and is set before the latter takes place. It is geared toward an upper YA, or New Adult audience.

Buy Links:

MuseItUp Publishing: 

Amazon:

iBooks:

Barnes and Noble:
And, extra tidbit: Meradeth's publisher is dropping the price to $2.99 on all sites.

About Meradeth Houston:

Meradeth’s never been a big fan of talking about herself, but if you really want to know, here are 

some random tidbits about her:

Today, The Reading Obsession is one of the tour stops for author Maradeth Houston's new novel, The Chemistry of Fate.

-She’s a Northern California girl, but now lives and teaches anthropology in Montana.

-When she’s not writing, she’s sequencing dead people’s DNA. For fun!

-She’s been writing since she was 11 years old. It's her hobby, her passion, and she’s so happy to 

get to share her work!

-If she could have a super-power, it would totally be flying. Which is a little strange, because 

she’s terrified of heights.

Find her at these places                       

http://www.meradethhouston.com/

http://meradethhouston.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17452243-the-chemistry-of-fate

https://twitter.com/MeradethHouston

https://www.facebook.com/MeradethHouston

http://pinterest.com/merbear95695/

And now for a giveaway! Meradeth will be giving out a ten dollar amazon gift card and an awesome leather journal, which fits in with the story.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Hiatus

I haven't been updating reviews for a while because I've been so busy. It's that time of the year when all the concerts come around and the final exams are freaking me out. This will be me for the next few weeks.

Except it probably won't be a fiction book. There's no time for reading for fun, now! That means no fiction books. Horrifying.

So for a while, I'll be studying and hoping for an A. For now,

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{Random} YA Dresses

For the people that only read the reviews: This isn't a review. In case you didn't understand from the title.

Alright. This is my first thing that's not a review/Waiting on Wednesday/ attempt at Teaser Tuesday. So it's probably going to suck. Majorly. And it will probably make no sense whatsoever. This is a warning to you people who expect awesomeness.

So I was looking through Good Reads when I saw this:

(Clicking on a cover will take you to its Goodreads Page.)

Then the next thing I clicked on looked like this:

And then this:

After that, it was this:

Right now, I'm not saying if the books were bad or good. Just that the covers all feature a girl in a dress that you really, really want. As in, break into the person's house and steal it off their closet hanger. I mean, just look at them. The bad part is that most of YA covers have a girl in a pretty dress. Don't believe me?

I really want Grave Mercy's crossbow. And dress. But mostly the crossbow.

So what is it with those dresses? They seem like what most cover artist go to when they want people to buy their book.

There are a lot of reasons. The book usually doesn't have a scene where the main character is actually in the dress, but I just hope for it. I want to know how the author's going to try and write it. Will it be an annoying and long description of how everything fits just right? Will it be a brief mention? Is it going to be the most amazing writing ever when the author describes the dress? That's what I think when I see a book with a pretty dress. Then again, I threaten people's eyelids when they annoy me. But you're not supposed to know that, random reader of my blog.

Normal people's thought process when they look at a pretty book cover are probably like this: Cover = pretty. Therefore, book = good. And I getting normal people mixed up with Neanderthals?

But seriously, I think that's why most YA books have dresses like that. It's what publishers think people will buy. And it's true. So freaking true that it's weird how some people know our though processes better than we do ourselves.

Now, when I see a typical YA book cover, I expect a typical YA book, so I usually don't pick it up. Want to know why I picked up Hush, Hush? Because the cover was different than the ones I usually read. Same with Half-Blood. Fearscape? Same reason.

And why is it that ever since Twilight, there's a high number of scenes where the love interest is captivated by a girl in the dress? The weird part? Most of these books don't have a dress on the cover or the dress doesn't look the same.

The reason of these scenes? All girls want someone to stare at them being pretty. It's as simple as that. Vanity. It's so cool feeling like you're pretty and eyes are on you. 

Until you think about how creepy it is that people are watching you. By the way, 3.4 million people get stalked in the US alone. And, random fact, there are around three to twelve million sociopaths in the United States. And some estimate that up to 95% of serial killers are sociopaths. Have fun not freaking out the next time someone looks at you.

So what's your opinion of the dresses on the covers of YA books? Do they call you in like hot chocolate does to me? Do you steer away from them because most aren't very good? 

What about the dress scenes? Hot or creepy?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Sentinel

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that showcases upcoming titles we're highly anticipating.

Waiting for: Sentinel

Series: Covenant 

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Expected publication: November 2nd 2013

Published By:   Spencer Hill Press

It's a beautiful day for a war. Alex must face a terrible choice between destruction of everything she loves and her own destruction. The final book in the COVENANT series.

There are going to be no ARCs for this book. I'm sad. I cannot wait for this book!

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