Computer broken..

So, yesterday my brother spilled milk on our laptop & it won't even turn on. My moms getting it fixed on Saturday, so no new posts til next week. Sorry guys!

In My Mailbox

 In My Mailbox is a weekly Meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, where you post the books you've recieved for review, bought, borrowed, traded, or got from the library!

Here's what I got this past week:

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?

Thank you to Random Buzzers for sending me an ARC!

Flipped -Review

Title: Flipped
Author: Wendelin Van Draanen
Page Number: 224
Genre: YA
Synopsis: Flipped is a romance told in two voices. The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time Bryce saw Juli, he ran. That’s pretty much the pattern for these two neighbors until the eighth grade, when, just as Juli is realizing Bryce isn’t as wonderful as she thought, Bryce is starting to see that Juli is pretty amazing. How these two teens manage to see beyond the surface of things and come together makes for a comic and poignant romance.

My Review: For starters, when I first heard of this book I always thought it was more for younger teens, around 12 and younger but after I finished reading I definitely thought otherwise. I feel like to understand it and fully get the impact of it you definitely need to be older, I'd say 16 and older.
That being said I absoluely loved Flipped. I saw the movie preview before I read the book and I thought the movie looked so cute and when my friend recently read it and said it was really good I just had to read it myself.

I loved the alternating chapters. I loved reading Bryce's point of view to Juli's. Such a big contrast between the two. I loved both characters and the development was really good. The writing was amazing. And I over all fully enjoyed it. Although my only and minor problem would be the ending. I felt like it was a bit rush and it left a huge open ending when I was expecting a bit of a diferent ending. A side from that I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a cute short and meaningful read!

My Rating: 5/5 -Loved it so much. Must read!

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly Meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, where you post the books you've recieved for review, bought, borrowed, traded, or got from the library!

                        Here's what my lovely mumsi bought for me today:

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
I'm very excited to read this, I love zombies so this should be amazing! Movie version will be in December of 2012, so that should be interesting as well. :)

What's in your mailbox?!

Random Buzzers..

I'm a bit bored with no IMM, and I decided to write about my little problem with Random Buzzers. );

So, this past summer I made a Random Buzzers account, and I really loved the fact that once you accumulated a certain amount of "Buzz Bucks" you could "purchase" a book from their "store."

So, I had finally gotten I think it was around 25,000 Buzz Bucks, which I was going to purchase Eragon by Christopher Paolini, with. And I had my order placed and everything. A couple days later it said my book was shipped and I was jumping for joy!

I was thinking "OMG, it'll be here in like 2 weeks!"

~TWO WEEKS WENT BY

It'll be here in the next two weeks!

~TWO MORE WEEKS HAVE GONE BY

Well, it should be here sometime soon.

~ THREE MONTHS WENT BY

And here we are now.

I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and sent an email to the "Head Buzzer," who then sent me a reply, about 2 or so days ago, telling me that they have sent it and I should get it in the next couple of days.

I've been dying to read this book! So, hopefully it arrives soon, or else the Head Buzzer will hear from me again!

~The end.

(Based on a true story, so it's real.)

Zombies vs Unicorns -Review

Title: Zombies vs Unicorns
Author(s): Garth Nix, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Naomi Novik, Carrie Ryan, Margo Lanagan, Maureen Johnson, Diana Peterfreund, Scott Westerfeld, Meg Cabot, Cassandra Clare, Kathleen Duey, and Libba Bray
Page Number: 415
Genre: Anthology/YA
Synopsis: It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths—for good and evil—of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

My Review: *Contains Some Spoilers!*
I'll be rating each story and then an overall rating for the whole book.
Okay, so let's start with the first story:
The Highest Justice by Garth Nix - I was a bit confused as to what was happening in the beginning but as the story progressed I began to understand it better. I think it was the shortest out of all the stories, and it was mediocre. Nothing too compelling about it, the family drama was a little interesting but it wasn't the best in the bunch. With that being said I give it a 2/5- It was okay.

Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson - It think this was one of the most interesting zombie stories. The zombie in this story is fairly normal aside from the fact that he's gay, and loves to eat human brains. And with those two combinations a great and unique story came out of it. I loved the main character and love story aspect. It was very refreshing after reading the first story. 4/5- I really enjoyed it.

Purity Test by Naomi Novik - This unicorn story was pretty humorous. I don't know if the author was purposely making fun of unicorns but none the less it was silly and cute. And it was fairly good. 3/5

Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan - This was the first of anything that I've read by Carrie Ryan and I'm definitely going to pick up The Forest of Hands and Teeth soon because I loved this story and the writing. The writig was beautiful and creepy. The story is very interesting, has a good little twist at the end and I was wishing it was a whole book because I wanted more! This is one of the, if not my favorite story in the whole book. 5/5 - I couldn't get enough!

A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan - I'm going to start off by saying I seriously had no idea what I was reading about until the very end. I think the story was just everywhere. The writings unique but I just had no idea where the story was heading or what was really going on. Until the last few pages and I was a little weirded out. But it was interesting, just not for me. 1/5 - I didn't like it at all.

The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson - I really enjoyed this story. I thought it was very eerie and interesting and it kept me on the end of my seat. The writing was very good and I think the ending was one of the best endings in the whole book, and flowed the best. I really wanted to read more but I think if it ended any other way I'd probably be going crazy, not that I wasn't already by the end of it. It was just really good and it's one of my favorites. 5/5 -Loved it!

The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund - Let me start off by saying that I've been dying to read Rampant by Diana and this story just made me die with excitement to read it now! This was my favorite unicorn story. It's definitely very unique and I've never read anything like it. It's set in the same world as Rampant, which I loved because, I'm now a little familiar with it.
I'm going to admit this was probably the one I was most excited about reading, and I was definitely happy with the ending, although I wanted so much more. Although this is a short story, this is a MUST READ, don't let the title throw you off a bit because it's  ridiculous, it won't disappoint and if it does, I'll make my Killer Unicorn get to you! 5/5- Absolutey adored it.

Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld -This is the first of anything I've read by Scott and I really enjoyed it. It was kinda weird, but I like weird. I really want to read anything by him now. I'm not going to lie though, I've read a lot of amazing things about Scott so I was expecting AMAZING, I didn't get it, but it was pretty close. 3/5

Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot - I really liked this story. It's the first time I've read anything by Meg, and I really wasn't expecting something this good, seeing as she wrote the Princess Diaries, the movie was good but I could never read someting like that. SO, that being said I praise Meg, and I will be looking into her books now. 4/5- I really liked it!

Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare - Some of you Mortal Instrument lovers are going to hate me for saying this, but I loved this story so so so much more than MI. It was so good and I have to say she's a lot better at writing first person than third and she should stick to that. I loved Cold Hands and I wish it was a whole book, because I wanted more. 5/5- MORE PLEASE!

The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey -Very interesting story. I actually really liked the whole suicidal unicorn thing. The writing was very good. I liked the whole concept and the ending was good. 3/5

Prom Night by Libba Bray- You know, I've heard a lot of great things about Libba and this story, so I was expecting a lot. And I didn't get it. It was probably my least favorite out of all the zombie stories and it was a pretty disappointing ending. Good concept but just not as exciting as I was hoping it was going to be. 3/5


Overall, it shouldn't be hard to figure out which team I'm on......ZOMBIE! I've been team zombie since I read Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel this past summer, my first zombie book. I have yet to read a full unicorn book, but I'm dying to read Rampant by Diana Peterfreund. And I feel like I'll be picking up a lot of books by some of these authors. I really liked the whole book, I wish there were more stories, I wanted more! But, all in all, it was great.

My Overall Rating: 5/5-LOVED LOVED IT.

The Next Shakespeare -Review

Title: The Next Shakespease
Author: Wanda Ernstberger
Page Number: 23
Genre: Short Story/YA
Synopsis: Who thought a poem would trigger World War Three?
Tristan Gunner—skateboard fanatic, junk food junkie, award-winning poet. But you’d think he just got detention instead of the school’s grand prize for poetry. And even though Chris won five Math and Science awards, the next Einstein is crying because he’s not the next Shakespeare. Astra wants them both to cut the drama, and caught between a mortified winner and a crybaby loser, she hopes Chris can get over his attitude before World War Three erupts in her kitchen.

My Review: I was a little hestitant about the story itself because I wasn't too sure what it really was about. But, once the story got going it became fairly clear.
Astra's good friend Tristan has won an award for poetry. An award that Chris wanted to win. Chris is the next Einstein and eagerly devoures the awards he recieves. And he's a bit shocked when Tristan, a fellow student who can't afford unversity and isn't as talented as Chris believes he is, wins the award he really wanted to win. And that is were the story picks up.

I think the writing was very good. The characters had a good development and it was a fairly easy read. I really like the humor in it. It was cute.

I think my only problem would be the fact that the ending seemed a little rushed, but for a short story I really enjoyed it.
And it's clear that Wanda has talent and I can't wait to read more by her.

(Thank you Wanda for letting me read and review your story!)

My Rating: 4/5 - I really enjoyed it!

The Pact - Review

Title: The Pact: A Love Story
Author: Jodi Picoult
Page Number: 389
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

My Review: This was the first book by Picoult that I was dying to read. I think the plot was so interesting and it caught my attention so fast, that I just had to get my hands on it. I didn't until this summer. The first book I read by her though was My Sister's Keeper, and that was the book the pretty much changed my career outlook. And I also knew that Picoult was an amazing writing so nothing else by her could be disappointing. And I was right.

I loved The Pact. At first I was a little hestitant only because the pacing was a bit slow and I was a tad confused but then it got better and gradually I couldn't put it down.

I liked everything about it. The drama, the history, the family, the love. It was beautiful. It really was.

I loved the love Chris had for Emily. It was so poetic and full of every emotion possible. It was love.

That being said my problem was with Emily. I feel like she was very selfish. She knew Chris would do anything for her and she took advantage of that and some.

I'll have to say though the ending did it justice and I loved it.

My Rating: 5/5 -loved it ♥

Hate List -Review

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Page Number: 405
Genre: YA
Synopsis:
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

My Review:  I really enjoyed reading Hate List. I think Brown has an amazing writing ability. And there was not one moment were I was bored.
I always think the most controversal and unique books are the best. And this is one of them. I love reading this kind of stuff. I think it's so interesting.
Hate List was very well written. The pacing was good. As well as the characters. I liked the alternative chapters. From past to present. And I liked reading about the progress Val made.
Overall, I think it was a really good book. I really want to read another by Brown.
My minor problems were though, the fact I didn't learn a lot about Nick, and why he did what he did. Like the exact reason, what really triggered it all. I kinda have a clue but it's always nice to know for sure what it is. And also, the ending. I wish it wasn't as much of an open ending. I wanted to know what exactly Val did afterward, but I didn't, so I didn't like that part.
Other than that I liked it a lot!

My Rating: 4/5 - Really liked it!

Review - Chain Reaction

Title: Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemisty #3)
Author: Simone Elkeles
Page Number: 308
Genre: YA
Synopsis: Luis Fuentes has always been sheltered from the gang violence that nearly destroyed his brothers’ lives. But that didn’t stop him from taking risks—whether he’s scaling a mountain in the Rockies or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis can’t stop looking for the next thrill.

Nikki Cruz lives her life by three rules—boys lie to get their way, don’t trust a boy who says “I love you,” and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Her parents may be from Mexico, but as a doctor’s daughter, she has more in common with her north-side neighbors than the Latino Blood at her school. Then she meets Luis at Alex’s wedding, and suddenly, she’s tempted to break all her rules.

Getting Nikki to take a chance on a southsider is Luis’s biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by Chuy Soto, the new head of the Latino Blood. When Chuy reveals a disturbing secret about Luis’s family, the youngest Fuentes finds himself questioning everything he’s ever believed to be true. Will his feelings for Nikki be enough to stop Luis from entering a dark and violent world and permanently living on the edge?

My Review: Being a huge fan of the first two I had high expectations for this book. Sadly, they were not met.
I didn't really enjoy Luis as much as I did Alex and Carlos. And I didn't like Nikki. I thought out of all three romances this one was the most unrealistic. It happened too fast. For me. I didn't think it was as cute as the first two. And I kinda felt like Simone ran out of stuff to write. Although that little father twist towards the end was a little shocking and kept me reading. I just didn't quite enjoy it as much as the previous two. And it was short, which at first I was upset about but while reading, I was definitely hoping it would end soon. For me it was a dissapointing end to a great series.

My Rating: 2/5 - It was OK. Wish it was better.