Non-Review: Falling Under

The lovely people from Penguin, working through the lovely people from Goodreads, were kind enough to send me a review copy of Gwen Hayes' upcoming novel, Falling Under. It has a beautiful cover, which is why I entered to win a copy from Goodreads First Reads, and I only had a sort of vague idea what it was about.

I looked at the back cover and became a lot less interested in reading it. It probably speaks poorly of me that I was willing to skip over a book because the jacket copy was uninteresting, but it just isn't what I'm looking for right now. I don't want something that's another romance based on lust where the guy is totally hot and cold with the girl, which is kind of what the cover makes me think of. Harsh words, perhaps, but they're true. Right now I want something that's going to make me think. I love paranormal romance, but it's not what I want right now. But even so, I was going to give it a chance. I've been wrong before, and I'd love to be wrong about this one.

Then I read the first sentence. That sentence contains the phrase "burning man." A boy at my school lit himself on fire a week ago. I can't read about burning men right now. Even so, I kept going, finishing the first page. It was enough to kind of make me wonder what was going on, but not enough to get me past the ridiculous jacket copy and the fact that a girl who has an iPhone calls her dad "Father."

I'm sure there are people out there who will love this book (and even I think the cover is beautiful), but I don't think I'm going to be one of them. Goodreads and Penguin, thank you for sending me the book, but I won't be reviewing it.

Bloggers: Do you ever get books that you requested like this and then realize that you kind of really don't want to read them? Does it ever make you feel guilty? I got a review copy of this that someone else could have gotten, and I'm not going to read it. On the one hand, that's not good, because it feels like I'm shirking my responsibility. On the other hand, I started this blog so that I could talk about books that I want to talk about, not as something to be a chore. I'll probably pass this one along to someone else who will enjoy it and review it somewhere else. I think life's too short to spend time reading books you don't want to read when there's a pile of books you do want to read just waiting for you. What do you think?

Sorry to get all philosophical on you guys. I try to avoid getting too personal and philosophical on the internet, but it still slips out sometimes. On a lighter note, how many other student/teacher bloggers out there are now starting their winter breaks?!

Review: Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 305
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket:
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life -- dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge -- he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues -- and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

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Ever since I started this book, I have been asking myself one question: WHY did it take me so long to start reading this?! Paper Towns was fantastic. Simply fantastic.

It's written from a guy's perspective, so there is guy humor, which was a little weird for me in places because, well, I'm not a guy. But that aside -- gahh, I don't even know what to say to express my love for Paper Towns. It's funny, it's sweet, it's heartbreaking, it's beautiful. I laughed out loud several times while I was reading it (I love when books can do that), but there were parts too that were just so full of meaning, and it's just awesome. This book is made of awesome.

It is one of the most quotable books I've read in a long time (I'd share a few, but then I wouldn't ever stop and this post would go on forever, which I don't think you want). I got this one from the library, but I'm thinking I may have to go buy a copy, like, right now, because it's one that I already know I'm going to want to read again.

I'm not actually telling you a whole lot about the book, I guess, but that's because I really don't know what to say. The characters are so real, and the story is engaging, and I couldn't put it down. I laughed out loud a lot (yeah, I said that already) and it really made me think (which I love), and also, there are frequent literary references and poetry quotes (that right there is enough to win me over). If you haven't read Paper Towns, I don't know what you're still waiting for. Go get a copy right now.

Links:
John Green's website

Review: Nightshade

Title: Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publisher: Philomel Books (Penguin)
Pages: 454
Series: Nightshade #1
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket:
Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything -- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

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Nightshade is one of those books that you sit down to review and realize that you don't know how to describe the amount of awesome you want to convey, if that makes sense. I started off wanting to enjoy it, but I wasn't expecting to be completely blown away. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. It was simply fantastic.

Calla Tor is an alpha wolf, used to leading the younger members of her pack, the Nightshades. On Samhain, also her eighteenth birthday, she and Bane pack alpha Ren Laroche will go through the union, which is the Guardian wolf version of a wedding, and form a new pack, an offshoot of the Nightshades and Banes. Everything seems to be going according to plan, until Calla saves a human in the woods - and then that same human, Shay Doran, shows up at their school. Calla likes Shay, and he likes her, but Calla has been promised to Ren. That might be something Calla could accept, except for two things: one, her Keeper, Logan, wants her to protect Shay, who seems to be in danger from something she doesn't understand; and two, Shay challenges Calla to think about the world in a way she's never thought about it before - including the fact that her very existence as a Guardian may not be what she has always believed it to be.

Calla is easily one of my favorite protagonists. She's a totally kick-butt heroine, totally able and willing to defend herself, but she's not scared to let other people see her cry. Despite the fact that she's actually a wolf, she struck me as more human than almost any other female protagonist I've encountered. I really don't know how else to describe it - she could step off the page and be a living, breathing person, wolf and all. And I loved the dynamics between all the characters, too. Ansel and Bryn and Mason and Neville and Fey and Dax and Sabine and Cosette...I just love them. And Efron made me shudder. Andrea Cremer does characters incredibly well.

And then of course, there's Ren and Shay. Usually, when I read a book where the lead girl is torn between two boys, I know exactly what "team" I'm on from the start. But Ren and Shay are both so real and such compelling characters that I honestly don't know. At the moment, I'm thinking Shay, but I love Ren, too. They both have their strong points and their flaws - they, like Calla, could easily be real. I am beyond impressed with the characters I met in Nightshade.

And then there's the story. I need the sequel, like, now. I want to know the truth about the Guardians and the Keepers and Shay and the Scion, and I have to know who Bosque is, and and and.... you get the idea. Nightshade has a plot that sucked me in and kept me turning pages and left me wanting more.

Read this book. Just do it. You won't be disappointed.

Links:
Andrea Cremer's website

Waiting on Wednesday: Wolfsbane

Turns out my timing with this post is a little backwards. I'm supposed to rant and rave about my love for Nightshade before I tell you I'm waiting on the sequel, but I wanted to post the City of Fallen Angels cover yesterday, so my review of Nightshade won't be up until tomorrow.

Now that we've got that figured out...if you haven't already figured it out, this week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer. I absolutely adored Nightshade and it's going to be veeery difficult for me to wait until July to get the sequel! Plus, I think the cover for Wolfsbane is maybe even more gorgeous than the cover for Nightshade - I love the green:

The only synopsis available on Goodreads yet is "Betrayal, loss, pain, fear. How many trials can love endure and still survive?" I just want more Calla (and Shay and Ren)! Waiting until July 26 is going to be hard.

What are you waiting on this week? Leave a link in the comments and I'll stop by!

**Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine.**

City of Fallen Angels Cover!!

I know this is all over the blogosphere right now, but in case you haven't seen it somewhere else yet, here is the cover of City of Fallen Angels:

Isn't it gorgeous? It still has very much the same Mortal Instruments vibe, but it's different, too - especially since Clary and Simon are both on the cover. I'm still deciding what I think of having actual eyes on the cover - something about the characters' faces just seems a little off to me. But still - oh my goodness gorgeous cover!

Of course, I wouldn't care if the cover were the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, I'd still want to read it, because I love love love this series and this world and these characters. But it definitely helps to have a cool cover.

What do you guys think?

Review: The Scorch Trials

Title: The Scorch Trials
Author: James Dashner
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 360
Series: Maze Runner #2
Rating: 4.5 stars
**Warning: Possible Spoilers for The Maze Runner**
From the book jacket: 
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety...until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated -- and with it, order -- and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal.

The Gladers are far from done running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder -- does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

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I'm going to try to avoid too many spoilers for The Maze Runner, but the premise of this book is based on the fact that in the end of the first one, they escape from the maze, so that's kind of a big spoiler right there (although maybe not...I dunno, guess it depends how you look at it). Anyway, The Scorch Trials is set in the Scorch, which is basically post-apocalyptic Mexico. Thomas and the other Gladers race against time and the mysterious Group B, apparently composed entirely of girls, to get to the mysterious "safe haven" within two weeks. If they fail, their lives are forfeit.

I felt like The Scorch Trials did an excellent job of maintaining the same sort of feel as the first book but without blatantly repeating itself. I loved the new characters (particularly Brenda), although I'm still making up my mind about Aris. I loved finally seeing what the outside world looks like. James Dashner has created a fascinating post-apocalyptic dystopian universe, and I know I for one am absolutely fascinated by WICKED and I can't wait for the final book in the series so I can find out what's up with WICKED.

My one complaint is that the walking through the desert started to drag in places, but on the whole, it was really well done and it very rarely slowed down. It kept me turning pages, eager to find out what happened. And just to put this out there: Thomas is a kick-butt protagonist. Seriously, he's awesome.

The Scorch Trials is well-crafted and exciting (although if you haven't read The Maze Runner, you should definitely read that one first) and I cannot wait for the final installment, The Death Cure. I absolutely recommend it!

Links: 
James Dashner's website/blog

In My Mailbox (8)

Before I get to the "in my mailbox" part of this post, I want to thank you guys for your support this weekend. It's been an intense few days. I think I am ready to get back to blogging, though.

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren so we can share what we get each week. I have four new ones this week:

Won:

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick. I won the "Big Ol' Crescendo Contest" on her website and the book, audiobook, and poster arrived a couple of days ago. Thank you so much, Becca, I cannot wait to read this book!!








For review: 

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti. I think this one looks really sweet and I love the cover. Thanks, LibraryThing Early Reviewers!









From the library:

Wanted by Sara Shepard. Yep, I've finally reached the conclusion to the series....or, you know, not, since she just announced that there will be four more books. I wonder how the series will continue...if it means that we don't find out who the killer is in book eight, I'm gonna be mad, since that may be the only reason I'm still reading them...

Paper Towns by John Green. I have heard so many great things about this book, I've enjoyed John's other books, and I recently fell in love with his and his brother's Youtube channel....so yeah, I'm pretty (extremely) excited to read Paper Towns.








That's it for me this week...what did you get in your mailbox?