Summer Reading

It's now more or less summertime! At the moment, I've been reading City of Heavenly Fire. I'll try getting it finished by the end of this week, so expect a review soon! 

Hiatus

In case you didn't know, I've put this blog on hiatus for now. Once the sun starts shining and my school's closed up until August, I won't have any time to read, much less review whatever I've read.

Thanks for your support and see you in summer!

[Hopefully I'll have another giveaway!]

Relic(ARC) by Renee Collins

"After a raging fire consumes her town and kills her parents, Maggie Davis is on her own to protect her younger sister and survive best she can in the Colorado town of Burning Mesa. In Maggie’s world, the bones of long-extinct magical creatures such as dragons and sirens are mined and traded for their residual magical elements, and harnessing these relics’ powers allows the user to wield fire, turn invisible, or heal even the worst of injuries.

Working in a local saloon, Maggie befriends the spirited showgirl Adelaide and falls for the roguish cowboy Landon. But when she proves to have a particular skill at harnessing the relics’ powers, Maggie is whisked away to the glamorous hacienda of Álvar Castilla, the wealthy young relic baron who runs Burning Mesa. Though his intentions aren’t always clear, Álvar trains Maggie in the world of relic magic. But when the mysterious fires reappear in their neighboring towns, Maggie must discover who is channeling relic magic for evil before it’s too late.
Relic is a thrilling adventure set in a wholly unique world, and a spell-binding story of love, trust, and the power of good."

Relic(ARC) by Renee Collins
400 pages

Renee Collins has created an amazing, interesting world based on our mundane history of the old west. The old west revamped into a magical world filled with extinct mythical creatures we could only dream of meeting in reality.

Relics are the remains of magical creatures that used to inhabit the earth(much similar to the long extinct dinosaurs of the real world) that still possess some of the powers of said magical creatures. Humans have been mining for them and using them for years. The powers are mainly the 5 main elements of the world(water, fire, earth, wind, and spirit).

Maggie Davis is actually one of the more regular characters in this novel. Her family is the most important thing in her life and she just wants to basically give her little sister the world after their parents and brother die because of a mysterious group of people. Moving into Burning Mesa, Maggie tries to get their lives back on track by working at the town's local saloon. Of course, her little sister can't exactly stay with her there. Her sister is forced to stay somewhere else while Maggie is busy making money by cleaning tables.

Álvar is the rich, young, charming hacienda that owns most of Burning Mesa. By fate(or coincidence), Maggie meets him and begins to work at his saloon. Is Álvar just being kind and generous or does he have his own hidden agenda?

Throughout this whole novel, Maggie is forced to make decisions that affect the well-being of her sister and herself. She gets entangled in things of her past and things that she's just discovering about herself. Between making new friends and trying to solidify her life, she can't possibly be crushing on some cowboy, right?

This is actually one of those books where I am pretty set on buying a copy of. I will admit, at first, I thought this would not be the kind of book for me. I shudder just at the thought of the old west. Renee Collins has transformed my opinion on this. She's sucked me into this world and I am very, very, much looking forward to a sequel to this. Definitely a 5 of 5 stars book!

Since You Asked(ARC) by Maurene Goo

"A humorous, debut novel about a Korean-American teenager who accidentally lands her own column in her high school newspaper, and proceeds to rant her way through the school year while struggling to reconcile the traditional Korean values of her parents with contemporary American culture."

Since You Asked(ARC) by Maurene Goo
262 pages

If the summary up there doesn't interest you, then I don't know what will.

Holly Kim is a realistic, albeit very dramatic at times, sophomore in high school. Like any other student with strict parents, Holly has been forced to maintain straight A's and to stay off the radar of the school's cliche pyramid of popularity. She's also part of The Weasel Times, her school's newspaper. One very boring day, Holly basically rewrites a whole entire article and chaos ensues.

Not without the help of her three best friends, of course.

From writing her column to hanging out with her friends, Holly has a lot to work with. What happens when she can't make everyone happy with her snarky articles?

Hey, let's not forget that Holly has to deal with secret admirers, Thanksgiving dinner, and big misunderstandings. Holly deals with all of these events and more while living out her everyday life of a student.

I could barely put this book down, let alone not give it 5 of 5 stars!

Maureen Goo has created a humorous, realistic story with quirky characters and moment-ruining guys that you'll absolutely love! I mean, there are mother to daughter arguments every so often that get a bit over-the-top, but there are also those moments where you just have to close the book and sort of making a dying whale sound. In a good way, of course.

I love how Holly eventually uses her column and changes the way everyone starts thinking about things in their everyday school life. Holly battles unjust systems within her school, is forced to do things she'd never do otherwise, and is basically experiences life. She slowly becomes more of herself and she starts taking a bit more risks, regardless of the problems ahead. A bit dauntless, but what's life without some risks?

Now I just have to go to the nearest book store and buy this whenever I get the chance!

Promise Me Something(ARC) by Sara Kocek

"As if starting high school weren't bad enough, Reyna Fey has to do so at a new school without her best friends. Reyna's plan is to keep her head down, help her father recover from the car accident that almost took his life, and maybe even make some friends. And then Olive Barton notices her. Olive is not exactly the kind of new friend Reyna has in mind. The boys make fun of her, the girls want to fight her, and Olive seems to welcome the challenge. There's something about Olive that Reyna can't help but like. But when Reyna learns Olive's secret, she must decide whether it's better to be good friends with an outcast or fake friends with the popular kids. . . .before she loses Olive forever."

Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek
320 pages
To be released on September 1st, 2013

To be honest, I was pretty sure I was going to end up disliking this book. I'm happy to say that that isn't the case at all!

At first, I absolutely could not stand most of the characters. Take Reyna, for example. She is stuck in the past, for lack of a better way to put it. Her mother passed away when she was a kid and now her father was almost killed. By a car accident that his girlfriend, Lucy, caused by going past a stop sign. Needless to say, Reyna isn't a very big fan of her. Reyna's trying to make friends, but Olive isn't exactly what she's looking for... Sadly for Reyna, she'll just have to take what she can get.

Olive is the outcast of the school. She's a very big complainer and she's very bitter about everything. Even with Reyna's reluctance to be her friend, Olive is determined to stay.

Throughout the whole book, Reyna is wishing that she was with her best friends, at the high school that she was originally supposed to go to. What happens when Olive isn't as bad as she thought she was? And then there's that secret Olive's been keeping...

Reyna isn't really used to not having any friends. She has a group of best friends she's known since she was a kid. They've been together through good times and bad. What happens when Reyna's feeling left out, not a part of the group anymore?

The plot is probably my most favorite part of the whole book. I mean, some things were a bit obvious, but the main thing totally blew me away. Sara Kocek has written a very truthful and realistic story that you can't stop reading. The humor will have you grinning, you'll be feeling for the characters, and you'll read about something that's happening out in the real world. I love the topics discussed in this book and although I wanted more from the ending, I can't help but to give this 5/5 stars!

Clockwise by Elle Strauss

"Casey Donovan has issues: hair, height and uncontrollable trips to the 19th century! And now this --she's accidentally taken Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Awkward. Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just "brotherly" protectiveness? When they return to the present, things go back to the way they were before: Casey parked on the bottom of the rung of the social ladder and Nate perched high on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her younger brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again. Which of course, she does."

Clockwise by Elle Strauss(Book One of the Clockwise series)
290 pages

Let me start by telling you that this book is full of cliches. Full. Of. It. Obviously I won't spoil it for you, but the cliches are likely to make you roll yours eyes or start banging your head against a table. Okay, probably not the latter, but you get what I mean.

Let's not forget the lack of descriptions of things. I mean, it just really irked me sometimes when something wasn't detailed and just written there without anything else continuing it. I WANT to know all of the details.

It's not to say that this book isn't worth your time, because it is/isn't. Depends on how you look at this review and the other reviews you'll most likely read of it.

Casey is everything I dislike in a female main character. Very insecure, compares herself to our people look wise, and crushes on the popular guy. I mean, most of us have probably been there, but Casey just stays like that until basically near the end of the book. BUT I have to admit that she was an okay character. Why? Because she was an independent type of person. She faces all of these obstacles in her life(most of it due to the whole time travelling thing) and she just has that "let's do this" and "I can't stop the inevitable" type of thinking that I just can't help but to admire.

Nate is the oh-so-amazing and oh-so-likable popular guy. With the mean and jealous girlfriend, of course. I can't really say much because his character pretty much only really comes out when spoilery things happen.

I would have to give this a 4/5 stars. It really is a good read. It wasn't very long so you can just read it at your leisure. The plot is pretty good too, but the cliches ruined its hope of a 5/5 from me. Sometimes, though, the cliches just gave you a smile.

I am, of course, looking forward to reading the next book of this series...

Investigating the Hottie by Juli Alexander

"Peterson. Amanda Peterson. When my life suddenly turns into the Princess Diaries meets Mission Impossible, can I do in a week what I haven’t managed to do in all my fifteen years—reel in a hottie?

Investigating the Hottie is a completed young adult romance. When Amanda spends a week with her aunt, Christie, she learns that her aunt is a spy. Christie admits that Amanda has security clearance and has already started her training. When her aunt asks her to investigate a teenage hacker, Amanda thinks that spending time with a nerd should be doable despite her social ineptitude. Unfortunately for Amanda, the hacker is a hottie."

Investigating the Hottie by Juli Alexander
200 pages

First of all, let me just say this book was actually pretty good. The characters were very realistic, and I mean very realistic. This book targets what every teenage girl feels and reacts to each situation brought to her.

Amanda Peterson is anything but normal. Her aunt is a spy and now, she's one too. Her first assignment is to investigate a teenage hacker--who is not what she expected--but what happens when she starts falling for him? Let's not forget that Amanda has basically never talked to a boy because of her shyness! In this crazy ride of firsts and odd situations, Amanda is a hilarious character that you will love reading about!

The teenage hacker, Will, is everything you wouldn't expect. He's popular, plays soccer, he does everything you wouldn't expect a hacker to do! A perfect cover, right? Maybe not so much...

Christie, Amanda's aunt, has her own case to solve with her partner, Nic. Both of these characters are always bickering, over every single little thing. Opposites attract, huh?

In this very short, at least for me, novel, Juli Alexander gives us a good plot and very good characters to go with it!

Anyways, I would rate this 3 out of 5 stars. I loved the characters, but I quickly grew disappointed 3/4 of the way in. The little twist at the end just really doesn't appeal to me. There was a bit of obvious foreshadowing as well... And I think I may have been happier if the ending wasn't so vague.