Review'd: Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

Book Review: 
Title: Born at Midnight
Author: C.C. Hunter
Published March 29th, 2011 by St. Martin Griffin

Goodreads Summary:
One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart. 

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

DeLibrarie Review:
I can't get over how much I love this book. I really thought I would eventually get sick of this love triangle thing but see no end to my love of Love Drama. :) Also, I really like it when I can't tell who they are going to end up with from page one. Bella was OBVIOUSLY going to end up with Edward, Gale had ZERO chance with Katniss... it's sometimes painful how obvious it is who they will end up with. I like that in this series... I have no freaken clue who she'll end up with...Derek...Lucas...currently unmentioned character who might or might not show up in later books in the series? ...I hope it's Lucas... :) When do I not fall for the bad boy?! Oh...Yea... real life. :) Back on track, I really like this book; I like the troubled Supernatural teen camp idea.... and did I mention how much I like Lucas. ;)

Addendum: I was going to create another post reviewing Awake at Dawn, the sequel to Born at Midnight... but I found that to be kind of pointless because I'm pretty much going to say the exact same things... so for the sake of not being redundant... Awake at Dawn... also freaken awesome!!

Review'd: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

Book Review
Title: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
Author: Walter Moers
Published August 29th, 2006 by Overlook TP

Goodreads Summary:
Captain Bluebear tells the story of his first 13-1/2 lives spent on the mysterious continent of Zamonia, where intelligence is an infectious disease, water flows uphill, and dangers lie in wait for him around every corner.

"A bluebear has twenty-seven lives. I shall recount thirteen and a half of them in this book but keep quiet about the rest," says the narrator of Walter Moers’s epic adventure. "What about the Minipirates? What about the Hobgoblins, the Spiderwitch, the Babbling Billows, the Troglotroll, the Mountain Maggot… Mine is a tale of mortal danger and eternal love, of hair’s breadth, last-minute escapes." Welcome to the fantastic world of Zamonia, populated by all manner of extraordinary characters. It’s a land of imaginative lunacy and supreme adventure, wicked satire and epic fantasy, all mixed together, turned on its head, and lavishly illustrated by the author.

DeLibrarie Review:
Holy Hannah this book is amazing. Growing up I really enjoyed authors like Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl. I thought the utter nonsenisalness (that's not a word but I'm going with it) of their storytelling was so fascinating. I was actually wondering through the fiction section in Barnes and Noble waiting for a friend to get off work when I happened across this title. The title itself was the first thing that drew me in...an adult book called The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear...how ridiculous...but also intriguing . So picked it up and saw that it was compared to JK Rowling, Douglas Adams and Shel Silverstein and I was hooked. I started reading a few pages and was sold... I bought it...obviously. After the first 50 pages of nonsense I found it utterly enchanting. I figured that it would probably get old by page 700!!!! but nope...it was still super funny and still made me giggle every second. A lot of YA books can be pretty heavy... dystpic communities, world ending battles, epic love stories... this was just the opposite...everything was light and funny and perfect. :) You just need to read it. Don't be turned off by the size...it's long...but it goes by fast. :)

Waiting on Wednesday

As I'm sure a few of you noticed... we've sucked at posting this semester. You'd think with two of us manning the blog that we'd be able to keep up... well we suck. Not only have we been barely on our blog but I have also been slacking at keeping up with my book news and visiting other blogs that I usually keep up with. BUT... it's finals week and things are starting to wind down. I happened to be perusing the world of goodreads when I saw that RACHEL HAWKINS IS WRITING A SPIN OFF SERIES TO HEX HALL!!!!! I'd like to start off by saying "I totally called it." I am sooooo in love with the Hex Hall series and I really hope Sophie at least makes an appearance here and there so we can keep up to date on her life too because I love that series too much to lose the main characters forever!!

Soo... this week I am Waiting for...

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins
Release date: May 14th, 2013
Goodreads Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt? 

Rachel Hawkins' delightful spin-off brings the same wit and charm as theNew York Times best-selling Hex Hall series. Get ready for more magic, mystery and romance!

SQEAL!!!!!!!!! Can't wait!!!!!!

Review'd: Renegade by J.A. Souders

Book Review: 
Title: Renegade
Author: J.A. Souders
Published by Tor Teen on November 13th 2012

Goodreads Summary:

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. 

Her memories have been altered. 

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. 

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all

DeLibrarie Review:
I was a little disappointed when I finished this one and realized that it wasn't a stand alone. However, I have no one to blame but myself considering it would only have taken about 30 seconds of research before hand to figure that out. Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I thought it was a really interesting premise: underwater community meets dystopic society. It's like little mermaid meets the hunger games. :) The only reason that I didn't rate this book higher is because it was really predictable and just played by all the rules. You can see what is coming before it comes and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing... I just prefer to be completely surprised. I like when I don't know what's coming, or I like to guess and then be waaaay wrong. Overall, I liked the charactes, I liked the writing, I liked the premise. Great book just a little too predictable. :)

Time Will Come

This has been one hectic Monday for me. Ten page paper due, two time consuming assignments due which I had forgotten about until midnight last night, major fog which stopped me from being able to drive to my classes... hectic man, hectic. BUT all of my assignments are done and taken care of and so now I am home free! Free to think about books once again... until another hour or so when I have to start tomrorow's homework. But moving past that! :) On my mind today is Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick. I LOVE this series but alas, I havn't even started the third book yet because I don't have as much time as I wish I had. But I already know that I will be just as in love with the final two installments as I was with the first two. Hopefully the time will come, fairly quickly, for me to be able to pick up and read Finale finally :)

Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
Goodreads Summary:
Will love conquer all?

Nora and Patch thought their troubles were behind them. Hank is gone and they should be able to put his ugly vendetta to rest. But in Hank's absence, Nora has become the unwitting head of the Nephilim and must finish what Hank began. Which ultimately means destroying the fallen angels - destroying Patch.

Nora will never let that happen, so she and Patch make a plan: lead everyone to believe they have broken up, and work the system from the inside. Nora will convince the Nephilim that they are making a mistake in fighting the fallen angels, and Patch will find out everything he can from the opposing side. They will end this war before it can even begin.

But the best-laid plans often go awry. Nora is put through the paces in her new role and finds herself drawn to an addictive power she never anticipated.

As the battle lines are drawn, Nora and Patch must confront the differences that have always been between them and either choose to ignore them or let them destroy the love they have always fought for.

What can you not wait to read???

In My Mailbox

I know that technically this is a Sunday meme, and it is in fact Monday but considering how sucky we've been in posting things anyway I feel that posting something on time would just be considered overachieving at this point. :) Also... just to cheat a little more... a few of these titles I didn't get this week. Just a few though.

Side Note: Every time I try to copy from goodreads it turns my background white and then won't let me fix it. So if you are interested in the book and want to know more about it you can just CLICK on the book cover and it'll pop you on over to its goodreads page. (does anyone know how to fix the stupid white background problem??)

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

While wondering around BN waiting for my friend Dave to be done working and come hang out with me I was meandering through the adult fiction section when I happened upon a book entitled The Labryinth of Book City... or something of that nature. I read the first couple sentences of the synopsis and quickly discovered that it was a book in a series. I noted the authors name and went to the "M" section looking for the previous titles. I found this one... the first book and began to read the first couple of pages. It's hilarious! Let me explain: it is not a book that one should take seriously at all. I'm about 160 pages into it right now and it's episodic so their really is no plot or point really. It's a lot of European dry humor which if that is your thing (like it very much is mine) then you will love it. However, I'm starting to wonder if authors should be tested for drugs because it also seems to enhance their performance with story telling and creative avenues. Not saying Moers does drugs but his ability to create unique characters rivals Lewis Carrolls. More on that later when the review comes out. I wasn't going to do a review on it at first BUT considering it is more or less a childrens book with big words... I feel that you all would enjoy it.

A Fractured Light by Jocelyn Davies

I ordered this one a while ago but it's been sitting behind the counter at work waiting for Employee Appreciation week... which started today... As a BN employee a few times a year we get an extra 10% off of our already reduced price. I ordered Reached by Ally Condie and this one. Reached hasn't come in yet, but I made sure to pop in today and buy this one. I really liked the first one in the series but it's the second book that always makes me love a series. I'm excited to start this one as soon as I finish BlueBear. I've already read a few pages during some downtime at work so I'm excited to see what happens.




Saving June by Hannah Harrington

This finished copy was sent to me from Harlequin Teen and I haven't quite gotten around to reading it yet. I've started it and it looks good but I haven't really been in the mood for a downer, my sister is dead story quite yet... but I'm sure I'll read it sooner rather than later.







Renegade by J.A. Souders

This title had been on my "watching" list but honestly I don't think I even knew what it was really about. When I saw it at BN and read the summary it sounded like The Little Mermaid meets Delirium. I was intrigued to say the least. It sounded really different. It was! I flew through it... or swam through it ...hehe in less then a day. Be on the lookout for a review up in the next day or so.

A Little Harry Potter Fan Girling

Don't yell at me... but before this Thanksgiving break I had never read Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone...

To answer your question... Yes I have read all of the other books... and seen all of the movies.

Stop looking at me like that!!! Let me explain:

Harry Potter came out when I was what nine?! (pause while I look up the actual year) 1998... ok So I was 8. I've never been one to read the "hip trendy book" that everyone is currently raving about. I didn't read Twilight until Nic practically tied me down and told me that If I didn't read it she'd never untie me. I didn't read Hunger Games until just before the movie came out... and I didn't read Harry Potter either.

UNTIL....
I saw the first movie. I loved to read as a kid, I did, I read all of the time... And I tried reading the first HP about 3-4 times but I never could get passed the Hagrid coming and getting Harry out of the shack part. When I saw the movie... I fell in love. I loved the characters, I loved how fast paced it was, I loved Hogwarts but the reason I wanted to read the series was because of the end scene (spoiler) when Quirrel is explaining everything. How he was the one trying to make Harry fall off his broom, how HE let the troll into the castle on Halloween. I loved how J.K. Rowling tricked me into thinking Snape was the bad guy. I would also like to add that from that moment on I always trusted Professor Snape, never doubted him once. After I saw the first movie in theatres, I rushed home and momentarily questioned if I should read the first one or go right into the second... I decided that I'm sure the movie was very much like the book and I can just skip it. I'm pretty sure Harry Potter three is the first book that I read cover to cover without stopping.

Now... bounce up about 15 years and you come to present time. My boyfriend Jared is THE biggest Harry Potter fan I know... which is SAYING something because I myself am obsessed. He found out that I had never read the first book and basically flipped out. He told me that he was going to buy me the first Harry Potter for every Christmas, Birthday, Valentines and Anniversary present until I finished it. So when we went home for Thanksgiving, I grabbed it off my shelf and read it. I had always planned on going back to finish it, I didn't feel like I could really say that I'd read Harry Potter without having to add "except the first one." But Thanksgiving break was as good a time as any. Not gonna lie inner child Del was totally proud of me when I got passed the Hagrid part. :)

I read the Chronicles of Narnia years and years and years ago. It's another one of my favorites. A few years back they decided to reorganize the series in chronological order... I won't really go into how disappointed this made me, but what I will say is that it ruins the excitement of The Magician's Nephew. The reason that book is so interesting when it was book 6, instead of 1, is because you already know about the lamp post, you already know about the wardrobe so it's exciting learning how that all came to be. You find out how the white witch became the White Witch... with that being the first book... it ruins so much of the "oh wow... thaaaat's how it happened" moments. It completely ruins that book... which is why i'm glad they are doing the movies in the correct order. How is this relevant at all you might ask??? After finishing the 2nd through the 7th books I know all the characters and plot conclusions, I know who Sirius Black is. I know why Hagrid get's expelled. BUT... it was really cool to pick up on little foreshadowing moments in the first book that I never would have picked up if I'd had read that book first. I'm not saying skip all the first books in series... that would be silly. I'm just saying it was a nice little treat now and then when I'd see Sirius Black's name two books before anyone knows who he is.

I felt like OFFICIALLY completing the series from sort of beginning... to end... to beginning again deserved some sort of celebration. In this case, a rather lengthy blog post. Kudos by the way if you've made it this far. I am just soooo glad that I'm part of the Harry Potter generation. :)

Side note: Sorry to all of our followers about how few blog posts we have been able to publish lately. It's a really hard time of year for both of us. With Winter break coming in only a few short weeks Nic and I will be together again and produce lots of new posts. Thanks again for being such good followers!!