Books from Before (6)

Books from Before is my own meme in which I talk about books that I read and loved before I started blogging. Feel free to use my meme, but please credit me!

Today I want to talk about Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. I read this book around a year ago now and I fell in love. Of course, I love just about everything I've read by MJ, but this one is possibly my favorite. It's funny, it's unique, and the characters are just fantastic. (Personally, my favorite is Spencer. I would love to meet him, I really would.) The idea is so cool, too. Trying to pull of a secret play in a hotel (that just happens to be your home)? Awesome. I laughed out loud while reading this, and I also connected to it in a lot of ways. And the sequel, Scarlett Fever, is just as great. Go read!!!

Goodreads Description:
Scarlett Martin has grown up in a most unusual way. Her family owns the Hopewell, a small Art Deco hotel in the heart of New York City.
When each of the Martins turns fifteen, they are expected to take over the care of a suite. For Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday, she gets both a room called the Empire Suite and a permanent guest named Mrs. Amberson. Scarlett doesn’t quite know what to make of this C-list starlet and world traveler.
And when she meets Eric, an astonishingly gorgeous actor who has just moved to the city, her summer takes a second unexpected turn.
Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery and romantic missteps. But in the city where anything can happen, she just might be able to pull it off.


I love this book so much.

Books from Before (5)

*Books from Before is my own meme, in which I talk about a book or series that I read and enjoyed before I started blogging. You're welcome to use my meme, but credit me please!*

This week I want to share with you is one of my favorite dark-and-creepy novels. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender is basically a ghost story. It's incredibly creepy, and it's also incredibly well done. There is so much to love about this book. If you get scared easily, don't read it after dark! But definitely make time to read it, because it's awesome.

Description from Goodreads:

When Alexis's little sister Kasey becomes obsessed with an antique doll, Alexis thinks nothing of it. Kasey is a weird kid. Period. Alexis is considered weird, too, by the kids in her high school, by her parents, even by her own Goth friends. Things get weirder, though, when the old house they live in starts changing. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in. Kasey is changing, too. Her blue eyes go green and she speaks in old-fashioned language, then forgets chunks of time.

Most disturbing of all is the dangerous new chip on Kasey's shoulder. The formerly gentle, doll-loving child is gone, and the new Kasey is angry. Alexis is the only one who can stop her sister -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

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See, it even sounds awesome. Absolutely read it. And the sequel, From Bad to Cursed, is due out before too long, too. You won't even have to wait for the sequel.

Books from Before (4)

Books from Before is my own weekly Saturday meme, in which I talk about books that I read and loved before I started blogging. You're welcome to participate, but please credit me and leave your link in the comments!

This week I want to talk a little bit about Percy Jackson. If you haven't read The Lightning Thief, turn off your computer right now and go read it. Seriously. Go. It is that awesome.

Percy, Grover, and Annabeth (the protagonist and his two best friends) find themselves caught up in a prophecy -- and the mystery of who stole Zeus's lightning bolt. Our heroes are campers at Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods. Every camper there has one parent who is an Olympian, a Greek god. Book one is about the lightning bolt mystery, but the prophecy carries them through five books of danger, mystery, mythology, and hilarity.

These books make me laugh so much, and I learned a lot of Greek mythology from them, too. Plus, engaging, action-packed stories with incredible characters. I love them. And you should read them.

Oh, but I haven't seen the movie. Has anyone else? Was it any good? I'm a little skeptical...

Books from Before (3)

Books from Before is my own meme, which I started... a month or so ago maybe? and failed to keep up with because of trying to do a ton of other things. It was and still is an idea that I like, though, so I'm going to start it up again. In Books from Before, I spotlight a book (or series) that I read and loved before I started blogging. You're welcome to participate, just please credit me (and if you wanted to leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see your Books from Before).

This week I want to talk about the Series of Unfortunate Events. I read all thirteen of these books - twice. And I kind of want to reread them.

They are so chock-full of literary references and clever codes and anagrams, and they're hilarious, and they're just overall wonderful. The series follows Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents are killed and their home destroyed in a terrible fire. The three children, now orphans, are shuffled from one terrible guardian to the next, all the while pursued by their evil relative Count Olaf - who wants the fortune their parents left behind.

It's been a few years since I read them, but I absolutely adore this series. I'm sure if I were to go back and reread them now, I'd notice even more references and codes and well-hidden jokes than I did the first two times around. This is one of those series that I think simply everyone should read.

So what say you, readers? Any other SoUE fans out there?

Books from Before (2)

I liked the "Books from Before" idea, so I have decided to continue with it. In the previous post, I talked about Magic Under Glass and reposted something from a very short-lived "forerunner" of Bookworm Boulevard. In the same post on the old blog, I talked about The Light by D.J. MacHale, so I'm going to share that one with you today. (Don't worry, these won't all be repostings of old stuff.)

What I Said: 
THE LIGHT was written by D. J. MacHale, who also wrote the wonderful sci-fi/fantasy/adventure Pendragon series. THE LIGHT was a really strange book that took me a little bit to get into, but in the end, I really enjoyed it and I'll definitely read the second one when it comes out.

The book is about Marshall ("Marsh") Seaver, a quiet boy with one real friend who lives alone with his father because his mom died. He's planning a wonderful summer vacation, but then two strange things happen: Marsh's best friend Cooper disappears, and the scary comic-book super-villain that Marsh has been doodling everywhere starts appearing in real life. When it starts becoming clear that the two occurrences are related, Marsh has to team up with Cooper's sister Sydney to find out what happened to his best friend and put a stop to Gravedigger (the super-villain)'s dangerous behaviors.

I can't count the number of times I said "This book is so weird" while I was reading it, but in the end, I did think it was a good book and it definitely kept me reading. THE LIGHT was full of mystery and creepiness and adventure, and Marsh is a pretty well-developed character. It plays with your mind and makes you want to find out what happens. There are definitely a few plot holes that need to be addressed and hopefully will be later in the series, but it's definitely worth reading. You can find out more about stuff at D. J. MacHale's website. 


The Light was a fun read and I will be looking for the sequel, The Black, in April. Apparently the sequel will be told from Cooper's POV, so that should be interesting. D. J. MacHale has some fun stuff - if you haven't read anything by him, definitely fix that. :)

Books from Before

...before the blog, that is.

My reading time has been somewhat limited lately (oh my goodness, college applications and calculus are working together to eat my soul. Seriously), but there are so many wonderful books that I read before I started Bookworm Boulevard that I haven't been able to post about! So today (and this may possibly become a regular feature), I'm going to tell you about one of these lovely Books from Before.

Today I shall be telling you about the wonderfulness that is Jaclyn Dolamore's Magic Under Glass. I actually posted a little about this on a short-lived, private blog over the summer about a month before I realized that a full-on book blog was an option, so I'm just going to share with you the Goodreads description of the book and my writing about it from before:

From Goodreads:
Nimira is a music-hall performer forced to dance for pennies to an audience of leering drunks. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to do a special act - singing accompaniment to an exquisite piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets stir. 

Unsettling below-stairs rumours abound about ghosts, a mad woman roaming the halls, and of Parry's involvement in a gang of ruthless sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. When Nimira discovers the spirit of a dashing young fairy gentleman is trapped inside the automaton's stiff limbs, waiting for someone to break the curse and set him free, the two fall in love. But it is a love set against a dreadful race against time to save the entire fairy realm, which is in mortal peril.

From Becky:
[MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore] was such a good book. Beautifully written, like Jane Austen infused with sorcery, and it's so poetic and magical and it's a wonderful love story and it's so great.

Nimira is a dancing girl in a poor city, seeking her fortunes after her father's fall from grace. She gets the opportunity to go live with and work for a sorcerer, Mr. Hollin Parry, and sing with his automaton. But the automaton is more alive than anyone realizes, and Nimira may be the only one who can save him. MAGIC UNDER GLASS is a beautiful love story about a girl torn between "a man she does not love and a man she cannot have" (from the jacket cover) and it was so good and so sweet and oh my goodness everyone should read it because it was fantastic.

You can find out more about the author and the book at Jaclyn Dolamore's website. There is a sequel in the works, MAGIC UNDER STONE, but there isn't a release date available yet. Definitely read this book, you guys, it was awesome.


And I can now edit this to say that she also has another book coming out before Magic Under Stone, entitled Between the Sea and Sky, which I posted about for WoW a while ago.


If you haven't read Magic Under Glass, definitely give it a try. It is beautiful and excellent and made of awesome.