Waiting on Wednesday Wk 16

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by the awesome Jill over at Breaking the Spine!:)

Blurb:

Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush. Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.
 
This beautifully written debut is an exciting adventure and heart-wrenching survival tale. But above all else, it’s a story about perseverance and trust that will restore your faith in the power of friendship.

The cover is so pretty!! And the plot sounds awesome. ;)  I can't wait for it to come out! :D 

Will be released on March 17th, 2015

So what are you guys waiting on this week? :)

Six Strings Book Tour! Review+Playlist+Giveaway

Hi everyone! I am super excited to be a part of the Six Strings tour! I really enjoyed this book, and I can't wait for the second one! :) 

There's more information about the book below, as well as my playlist and review. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Release date: June 18th 2014
Publisher: Booktrope
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Riley Witt is running out of time.

Battling Alzheimer’s disease, Riley’s grandmother Mary suffers from memory loss, mood swings, and a tendency to wander off.

As senior year approaches, Riley has to face the reality that the one person she depends on most is slowly fading. Making matters worse, when Mary does remember the past, she tells tales of time travel and visions. As Mary’s version of the past gets more confused, Riley knows they are running out of time together.

But when Riley discovers a guitar belonging to a famous rock star at Mary’s house, the truth behind the crazy tales finally comes out.

SIX STRINGS tells the story of Riley’s journey back to 1973 where she enters a world of music, long-lost family, and first love. Her adventure is all about discovering her past, understanding her present, and figuring out how to step into her future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jen Sanya Williamson is a graduate of the University of Arizona where she received a BA in creative writing. She spends most of her time with her junior high students, teaching and talking books. When not in a classroom, Jen is writing, watching TV shows from the ‘90s, or cheering on the Wildcats with her husband and children in her adopted hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

twitter.com/jen_sanya | facebook.com/jensanya


Review :

This book surprised me- in a really good way.  Based on the blurb, I didn’t think this was a time-traveling novel, and I still didn’t believe it until she, well, actually time-traveled. LOL. I really liked how that time traveling aspect was played out. Time-traveling in this book wasn't for some mission to save human-kind, but rather time-traveling is very personal for the traveler.  I’m still not sure as to why she leaps back (there are a few hints), but I’m assuming that will be cleared up in future books (which I am ANXIOUSLY waiting for!!). The book started off kind of slow, but it picked up its pace as it went on, and in fact, towards the end, I began nervously counting down the pages I had left.  This book ended too soon!! 

>.< 

I was a bit indifferent towards the main characters in the beginning because there was a lot of telling, rather than showing, but as the book progressed, they all grew on me.  Riley was an interesting character because she does grow throughout the novel, but I feel her real growth is still to come in the future books.  This is just the beginning- and I'm so excited for that future awesome character development!! :) (In fact, I felt this book in general was really just to set up the series and to help set up the future books and the characters. Not a bad thing- except for the fact that I need more D':) 

I sort of sense a love triangle between Nathan and Lucas- and I have really complicated feelings about this (LOL). For one thing, Lucas is in the past, so I don’t know how that’s going to work?? But they actually had a great chemistry, and it wasn't insta-love (YAY!).  I liked their relationship, and while they’ve only known each for a few days, there was like this connection between them.  This couple had this feeling of those first few days when you first fall in love. :) With Nathan, he and Riley had been friends since they were young, and I felt his development was a little lacking.  I think this had to do with the fact that there was a lot of telling and not so much showing in the beginning of the novel; also, because they were childhood friends, we were supposed to just assume that they were close. I REALLY hope we do get to see more of Nathan’s and Riley’s relationship in future books.  As for the love triangle in general, I am not a big fan of them because they are tricky. BUT I have seen some great love triangles (even though I thought that that was NEVER possible), and I’m just assuming that there might be one here; I won’t know for sure until I get my hands on that second book… D:   

Final thoughts: This book has a warm feeling to it. I didn't really address this in the review because this warm feeling was more towards the end (even though it did sort of permeate throughout the book I guess?).  It's kind of hard to explain, but I think this warm feeling comes from the fact that this book is a lot about relationships and possibilities- and there’s always something about those two things that gives me a sense of hope. ;)

Thanks for reading! :)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Playlist:
One of the things I loved about this book is that it introduced me to so many new (well old new LOL) music. I liked a lot of them, but I only picked two from the book because I felt these were the ones that really fit with the mood of the novel.   

I’ve never done a playlist for a book before, so I’m not exactly sure if there was a certain way to do this or something LOL.  I picked the first two songs from the book, and the rest I sort of picked to suit the mood of the book I guess? :D. Click on the title to go to the Youtube video. :)

Desperado by the Eagles (I imagined this song was what Cordelia sounded like.)

A Whiter Shade of Pale  by Procol Harum (That scene where they’re just holding each other and talking... not heavily making out or anything... just enjoying each others' presence... I wish there were more scenes like this in books... )

Miracles in December by Exo (So I'm not really a fan of Exo, but I actually liked this song.  That title doesn't fit the book LOL, but I felt this song, along with Cordelia, would be something that Lucas would have sang for Riley-ya know, if he could speak Korean LOL :D And also this song is kind of dramatic, but the lyrics fit perfectly. ;) )

Yuugure no Yakusoku- Toradora Ost (Pretty piano song that I can imagine Riley playing.)

Yasashisa no Asioto- Toradora Ost (Nice guitar song I can imagine Lucas playing.)



 GIVEAWAY!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much to IFB Tours and the author for letting me participate in this book tour!! :)

Summer of Yesterday

Author: Gaby Triana

Release Date:  June 17th, 2014

Publisher:  Simon Pulse

Genre(s): YA Contemporary Science Fiction

Pages:  256 pages

*Standalone*

~Spoiler Free~

Summary:

Back to the Future meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High when Haley’s summer vacation takes a turn for the retro in this totally rad romantic fantasy.

Summer officially sucks. Thanks to a stupid seizure she had a few months earlier, Haley’s stuck going on vacation with her dad and his new family to Disney’s Fort Wilderness instead of enjoying the last session of summer camp back home with her friends. Fort Wilderness holds lots of childhood memories for her father, but surely nothing for Haley. But then a new seizure triggers something she’s never before experienced—time travel—and she ends up in River Country, the campground’s long-abandoned water park, during its heyday.

The year? 1982.

And there—with its amusing fashion, “oldies” music, and primitive technology—she runs into familiar faces: teenage Dad and Mom before they’d even met. Somehow, Haley must find her way back to the twenty-first century before her present-day parents anguish over her disappearance, a difficult feat now that she’s met Jason, one of the park’s summer residents and employees, who takes the strangely dressed stowaway under his wing.

Seizures aside, Haley’s used to controlling her life, and she has no idea how to deal with this dilemma. How can she be falling for a boy whose future she can’t share?

Review:

Fluffy, but unexpectedly sweet at the end. ;)

I have mixed feelings about this one.  It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t bad. Plus, I did want to read a light and fluffy book like this one just because it was summer, and I didn't want anything too heavy (HA. HA. HA. Ruin and Rising completely ruined that... >.<).   Also, it was set in Disneyworld!  xD

The biggest issue with this book was that it was too fluffy. Ironic, since I wanted fluffy, and this gave me the fluff- but it drowned me in the fluff. Now by fluff, I don’t mean like sweet fluff, but a mixture of cotton and the shedding of little chickies’ fur: soft, but not particularly delightful like cotton candy. (Sorry that's a weird analogy  >.<, but I can't think of any other way to describe it; the first week of school has short-circuited my brain a bit ;))   Because it was so fluffy (I’ll try to stop using that word xD), there were a lot of inconsistencies and leaps and irrational behavior.  I get the feeling that we were suppose to just go with it (after all, she time travels), but some of her behavior, as well as parts of the plot, just didn’t make sense.   

The beginning of the book sort of led me to believe that the plot  was going to focus on her attempting to bring her parents back together in the past (and on the side trying to find her way back home). I thought this was going to go down one of two ways: her parents get reunited/happily ever after in the future after OR her parents don’t get reunited/she learns an important lesson that affects her in the future.  Now, even though those two plots are cliché, I honestly wouldn’t have minded if the book centered on one or the other; some cliche plots can have a certain charm to them if the author puts the right spin. In fact, I was kinda looking forward to it and was gleefully thinking of all the hi-jinks and misunderstandings that were going to happen.  BUT this book majorly failed to deliver on that and instead focused a lot on her and the boy. ( The boy, who started off promising, had no personality, and therefore shall remain “the boy.”)  The boy this, the boy that, running away with the boy, staying with the boy, etc. It was the usual spiel that comes with insta-love, and the whole book kind of went downhill for a while after that point.  I say kind of because the whole book wasn't that bad.  It did have its moments scattered throughout, particularly the ending (more on that later), and I did like the "summer" feeling I got from the book.

The ending, I thought, partially made up for the book and pulled it up that extra .5.  This is honestly strange for me because the boy and Haley had NO chemistry throughout the entire book; but the ending, which had to do with the boy and Haley, was actually a bit sweet and a little sentimental.  To be honest, I think it had more to do with how the passage was written more than the actual characters themselves.  It was also an ending that I thought was satisfying, despite the rest of the book being eh.

As for the scenery… while the book was pretty detailed in the descriptions of Disneyworld (and summer), it was confusing for me  to see all this lingo thrown out there describing the place. I’ve never been to Disneyworld (and def. not River Country LOL), but I have been to Disneyland and water parks, so I kind meshed together an image of those two things.  I thought I did okay- until I actually googled the place and found it was totally different than what I thought. Oops. (But reading is for the imagination anyways right? ;D ) I did like the descriptions of the styles and slang of the 80s, though.  It kept me in the 80s, if that makes sense. ;)

So, I did say I wanted a fluffy read, but I guess this was just too fluffy for me. LOL

Thanks for reading! :)

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 

Sidekick Showcase Wk 8

This meme is hosted by the fabulous Jaclyn over at JC's Book Haven!
:)

The topic this month is: Artistic, Musical, Twins, Humanitarians, have or should have a motorcycle, Adventurer

My sidekick:  

Jeb from the Splintered series!!

He's artistic, and I'm like 95 percent sure he has a motorcycle.  ;D

Before I say anything else, I think I should make it clear that I am HEAVILY biased towards Morpheus. Jeb doesn't hold a candle to him, I'm not sorry to say.  And the second book just solidified that. ;D

BUT I can't deny that he was an awesome character in the first book (the second book... meh). He was complex and deep, and Alyssa had great chemistry with him. I'm kinda excited to see his role in the third book (I have a few suspicions...), but at the same time... Idk. I didn't hate him, but he was disappointing in the second book... and I REALLY don't want Alyssa to end up with him.  Also, I've been hearing about how the two main guy characters are similar to the Grisha series, like the Darkling to Morpheus, Mal to Jeb, and how AG Howard would pull a "Bardugo."  I was super conflicted over that "Bardugo twist." I loved it because of countless reasons that mainly have to do with emotions, but I hated it because... of obv. reasons if you've read the book. ;)  However, to me, Morpheus pulls different heart strings than the Darkling simply because I've honestly never met a character as deep, complex, brilliant, and awesome as the Darkling (maybe Luke from Percy Jackson comes close, but even he can't compare to the majestic character development of the Darkling... and I totally just betrayed my number one favorite book series of all time >.<), and though Morpheus is brilliant and complex in his own way, it's on a different level.

 (I guess this post digressed into a discussion on Morpheus and not so much Jeb... oops. Oh well. xD)

:)

Waiting on Wednesday Wk 15

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by the awesome Jill over at Breaking the Spine!:)

What I'm waiting on this week:

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Blurb:

The lives of four teens intersect and overlap several weeks before a meteor is set to pass through Earth’s orbit – with a 66.6% chance of striking and destroying all life on the planet.

This book is still far from being published (next year), but just off that cover, it looks really interesting.  I don't think this is the final cover (no

title), but something about it gives off a feeling of the sublime. I'm not really into apocalyptic books, but this one just feels different than the usual fare- more contemplative and reflective maybe? I hope so.

Comes out March 31st, 2015 

:)

So what are you guys all waiting on this week? :)

Soul Walker

Author: Robyn Jones

Release Date:  Soul Walker

Publisher: Indie/Self-published 

Genre(s): YA Paranormal  

*1st book of a series*

Summary:
When five-year-old Anna Pierce is offered a chance to have nightmare-free nights for the small price of her voice, she jumps at it. Silence has to be better than all-consuming dreams about blood and death and fangy monsters. The bargain she strikes comes with a secondary benefit, visions of a person's future potential. The combination of visions and silence changes her very nature and soon she's diagnosed with autism. Twelve years of living in her head comes to a screeching halt the moment Peter Davis pulls her out of an icy river. 

Her new life has her twirling, tiptoeing, and crashing through unfamiliar territory, one filled with a cranky grandma, a knocked up cousin, an unpleasant cousin, a bunch of mostly good vampires, and the boy who rescued her. 

To top it all off, the deal she made at five is no more. Anna is expected to talk, to figure out her resurfacing nightmares, and to control her ever-growing powers. And she'd better get it done soon because if the good vamps want a piece of a living, breathing Touched girl, the evil ones simply want. They'll take Anna for their very own.


Review
**Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book! :D**

The best thing about this book is its narrator- Anna! :)

I loved Anna! She was so quirky and endearing!! Her little habits were  so cute, and her happiness-her sweet little twirls!- was very contagious.  And the details! I loved how Anna notices the little things about life, and she relayed those details to us in a such pretty way. I also liked her boldness. It was a different kind of boldness, but it was really refreshing; many characters in YA have a strength to them that’s similar to Katniss (Hunger Games) or Tris (Divergent series), so a lot of them tend to just blur together.  But Anna’s strength/boldness was a different kind that was very unique and refreshing. :)

Ella, her grandmother, was another favorite character of mine; she was one of those tough on the outside, but caring on the inside characters- one of my favorite types of characters. ;)I also really liked Sara, who was a big sweetie, and I loved the relationship she and Anna had. 

As for Peter, I didn't really like him at first.  It was just that he came out of nowhere (literally), and there wasn't much development on him until the flashbacks, but after that meeting scene (very cute btw ;) ) and I got to know him a little better, he started to grow on me.  :) 

I’ll be honest in saying that I was a little wary before reading this book.  I love vampire stories, but a lot of the vampire stories coming out in YA these days (along with all those angel stories…) have put me on guard (lol).  But this book had a unique plot that I’d never read before, and I had to keep on reading to see what happened! :)

My only iffy about this book was that there were several parts where the transition was a bit rough, so I got a little lost. But otherwise, I liked this book! 

Thanks for reading! :)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I'm back! :)

Hi everyone!!:)
Hope you all had a wonderful week! :)

My hiatus is over! Yay! :D Missed you all and stalking checking all my blogs. ;)

*hugs*