Hold on to your hats folks, I'm starting this puppy back up.

ABC Reading Challenge!

Sorry for my lack of posting! College has caught up with me (midterms and such) but now all is well.

I've decided to take up the ABC Reading Challenge! It is hosted by Gripped Into Books.

A - Anew

B - Brightest Kind of Darkness

C - Cryer's Cross

D - Delirium

E - Everneath

F - Finnikin of the Rock

G - Glow

H - Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

I - If I Stay

J - Jinx

K - The Knife of Never Letting Go

L - Lockdown

M - Marked

N - Neverwhere

O - Obsidian

P - Partials

Q - The Queen of Everything

R - Revolution

S - Scarlet

T - Tangled Tides

U - Under the Never Sky

V - Variant

W - The Way We Fall

X - XVI

Y - ??

Z - ??

Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Spring Fever: Top Ten Books I'd Play Hooky With

1. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta - I've heard so much good stuff about this book and I haven't gotten around to reading it! Everytime I see the title I think, why haven't I read that yet?  Playing hooky with this book might just get my butt around to doing it!
2. Fever by Lauren DeStefano - Loved the first, am anxiously trying to get my hands on the second without going broke (aka, waiting for it to come to the library)
3. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta - I GOT MY HANDS ON THIS PRETTY. Searched my library and found it! I will be playing hooky (actually for me just in bed for prolonged periods of time) with this puppy as soon as I finish the next book on my list (found in the library as well.. it was a good haul)
4. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - I'm in the middle of this one and it most certainly is a drop everything you have and read right now kind of book.
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I know, I know. "Zoe, that book is so overdone right now!" And I agree. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't play hooky with the entire series. The are just too awesome to read.
6. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter - I have the entire series on my nook, yet I haven't touched them. Why? I'm waiting for the right moment to just blow through the series  with extreme enjoyment. Like, for example, a day when I play hooky!
7. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand - Another one I hear great things, yet haven't gotten around to finding it.
8. Divergent by Veronica Roth - Let's play hooky to be prepared for Insurgent. There is nothing wrong with being prepared!
9. Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers - The more I read about it, the more I wanna read it!
10. Anything by Tamora Pierce - And I mean ANYTHING. It is almost ridiculous how much I enjoy her writing and I have no issues with rereading them frequently! #iregretnothing

Book Review: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series: Last Survivors #1
Pages: 337
Date Published: October 1, 2006
Source: Library
Rating: .5/5


Summary: 
Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. (from Goodreads)


My Thoughts:
Reading this book made me more frustrated that I've been in a very long time. The first 100 pages I was so excited by the story and the possibilities. What makes me sad that I hated the book so much was that was it pretty realistic. But there was no excitement in the plot. It was all survival. Surviving? Fine. I like that. But the last 1/3 of the book is just utter torture and nothing happens. Nothing happens with her friends. Nothing happens with her boy interest. Nothing happens with her skating. NOTHING. Its a good book but there was possibilities there that just utterly let me down, and that was in favor of realism, I suppose. There also are very, very few answers. Once again: realistic, but SO frustrating! An interesting plot turned into monotonous starvation and "oh my god, things get worse" a billion times. But the "worse" isn't even interesting! ARGH!

In Short, The Good:

• The cover?
• The cat? (ah I'm stretching it here)

In Short, The Bad:

• No development of characters besides the family (and barely there)
• Boring plot
• Starvation
• UGH JUST EVERYTHING

In My Mailbox #1

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren

Book Review: The Death Cure by James Dashner

The Death Cure by James Dashner
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Series: Maze Runner #3
Pages: 325
Date Published: October 11, 2011
Source: Library
Rating: 3/5


Summary: Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test. 

What Wicked doesn't know is that something's happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says. 

The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.
Will anyone survive the Death Cure (from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

I wasn't sure where this book was going to go, and I was pleasantly surprised. This book is exciting and pretty hard to put down. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on. My one problem: I couldn't tell who was reliable and who was not. At one point I was convinced everyone was just making the entire situation up... pretty frustrating!  My other problem: I did not feel any connection with any of the characters. Part of me wants to believe that it is because I have not read the first two books in a while (6 months I think?) and while I loved the first book... the second one didn't find my appreciation quite so much. But I believe it also has to do with the little background we get on the characters (obviously, due to the mind wipe).




In Short, The Good:

• Action! Adventure!
• Answers to Questions (well some of them)
• Zombies
• Minho (I've just always liked him =] )
• Cool Slang

In Short, The Bad:

• Characters = Blah (don't really care for them)
• Unreliability of Everyone
• Occasionally Confusing

Book Review: Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 394
Date Published: June 14, 2011
Source: Library
Rating: 3/5

Summary: One hour to rewrite the past . . .
 
For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut. (from goodreads)


My Thoughts:
I really, really enjoyed this book. I am usually apprehensive about paranormal romances. If it gets too fluffy, I lose interest. Definitely not the case with this book. There were very few moments when I found myself wondering what the point of the book was or where the plot was going. Time Travel! I dig it, I really do. It is different (finally!) and quirky and just works. A bit confusing, but I sometimes like it that way. Emerson is likable. I don't find myself always agreeing with her, but it never made me dislike her as a character. I really think this series will become better following this first book. The details were definitely smoothed out as the story went along. The writing, on the other hand, occasionally reeks of drinking the Twilight/Paranormal Romance Cliche koolaid. 



In Short, The Good:

• Time Travel
• Hot Guys
• The Cover

In Short, The Bad

• Occasional Symptoms of Bad Paranormal Romance
• Not So Smooth a Read
• Everyone is Attractive Syndrome

 And a peek at the next book in the series, Timepiece, coming out in June! Another yummy cover =]