Daily Dose (7)

Daily Dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly where we share inspirational photos we've found around the Internet. I guess I was feeling romantic today....

<3 Paige

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (7)

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey where we share what books we're read, what we're reading, and what we're hoping to read. I'm very indecisive about what books I want to read, but I think I've narrowed it down.

Read:

Wolves, Boys, & Other Things that might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Reading:

Virals by Kathy Reichs

To Read:

Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Genre: teen fantasy
Age Group: Young Adult
Series and Book #: Paranormalcy Trilogy, book 1
Pages: 352
Synopsis: Evie's always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only one who can see through paranormals' glamours. But Evie's about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures. So much for normal.

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I read this book I believe last summer and I was thinking about how wonderful it was a week ago and how surprised I was that I hadn't yet reviewed it. So here we go into a total realm of awesome.

Paranormalcy was one of those books I kept seeing everywhere. Everyone was talking about it, blogs were raving, and when one of my friends bought it, I immediately asked if I could borrow it. A few hearty laughs later and I was beaming at Evie and the excellent teenage writing of White. This book was so awesome.

Evie is such an adorable character, and I love her Taser (that's pink...and BeDazzled). I just fall in love with her on the very first page. What she's going through and how she thinks about it really is part of the main focus of the book; she's worked for the IPCA her entire life and when she meets Lend it all changes. She goes with him and sees what life's like outside of the IPCA; something she's never really gotten a chance to do. She's witty, funny, and also very serious, especially when something happens to her best friend.

The side characters were wonderful too. White really knew how to weave Evie with the side characters so you could see how Evie really depended on the people around her. Reth was one of my favorite characters, also; I love cocky, clever, and evil characters for some strange, strange reason.

Overall, Paranormalcy is just one of those rare, out-of-this-world awesome books. It's unique and special. It even features mermaids, which aren't exactly popular in YA but I still love them. White has done an amazing job with this first novel and I can't wait for the second, Supernormalcy, coming sometime (I hope) in the near future.

The Cover: It's dark, but light. The model looks a lot like how I pictured Evie. Even the dress and hair style is featured in the book! So pretty, and so appropriate.

New and Noteworthy for Lesley Livingston

Lesley Livingston, the amazing author of the Wondrous Strange series, has another book coming out soon called Once Every Never. The cover has yet to be revealed, but there is a trusty banner that gives us a hint to what the cover will look like:

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*Thank you to the wonderful Liz over at Midnight Bloom Reads for this extraordiary banner

This is what it's about:

Clarinet Reid is a pretty typical teenager. On the surface. She's smart, but a bit of a slacker; outgoing, but just a little insecure; not exactly a mischief-maker...but trouble tends to find her wherever she goes. Also? She unwittingly carries a centuries-old Druid Blood Curse running through her veins.

Now, with a single thoughtless act, what started off as the Summer Vacation in Dullsville suddenly spirals intoa  deadly race to find a stolen artifact, avert an explosive catastrophe, save a Celtic warrior princess, right a dreadful wrong that happened centuries before Clare was even born, and if there's still time--literally--maybe even get a date.

This is the kind of adventure that happens to a girl once every...never.

Hmm, let me see...adventure, love, and time travel? Count me in! I'll be waiting for the cover reveal this week, so be sure to check back in.

<3 Paige

Blog Changes

Hello, everyone! If you were just tuning into my crazy blog changes, I'd like to tell you that it's currently done. I'm sorry if you were enjoying a post and then it changed; I wanted to do it quickly for your sake. It's a dramatic change and I hope you like it. Please comment if you do or don't, and if you have problems with links or pictures or something of the sort. Thanks much!

<3 Paige

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Genre: teen fantasy and adventure
Age Group: Young Adult
Book # and Series: no series
Pages: 480
Synopsis: Deadly Grace. Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight--she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace--or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away....

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Eep! I loved, adored, and will-never-stop-thinking-about Graceling! This was a exhilarating, breathtaking, heartbreaking, extremely wonderful novel with an extraordinary cast of characters. Cashore wrote a beautiful world that I just loved!

Graceling is set in a sci-fi medieval ages world. There are seven kingdoms, each with a very interesting king that Katsa explains throughout the book. The world is so different, but similar, to a medieval England. Lady's are required to wear skirts, they aren't supposed to know combat skills, and they are supposed to marry. Katsa doesn't wear skirts, she knows combat skills, and she has vowed to never marry. She's very isolated from the women of her world, but has very close friendships with many of the men.

Katsa is such a wonderful MC. She's very scared of what she can do, but also proud of it. She doesn't like to kill others or torture others for her uncle and you finally see what happens when her uncle pushes her to do something out of her comfort zone. Katsa is strong but she also cares about others more than she really knows and you see that when she's with Princess Bitterblue, Princess of Monsea.

Overall, Graceling was one of those awesome, amazing, wonderful novels. The characters made me laugh and cry, especially Po, who was beyond amazing. There are so many twists to this book, both good and bad, and they had me flipping pages like a maniac. Graceling is definitely one of my all-time favorite books!

The Cover: The sword is so appropriate for Katsa and her ability to kill. The background like a tapestry is so pretty and great for the medieval setting. And they eye in the sword really emphasizes the importance of eye color in this book.

Wolves, Boys, & Other Things that might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Genre: literature and fiction, social issues
Age Group: Young Adult
Series and Book #: no series
Pages: 371
Synopsis: KJ Carson lives and outdoor lover's dream. The only daughter of a fishing and wildlife guide, KJ can hold her own on the water or in the mountains near her hometown outside Yellowstone National Park. But when she meets the shaggy-haired, intensely appealing Virgil, KJ loses all self-possession. And she's not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that they're assigned to work together on a school newspaper article about the famous wolves of Yellowstone. As KJ spends time with Virgil, she also spends more time getting to know a part of her world that she always took for granted...and she begins to see herself and her town in a whole new life.

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Just to clear things up, this book is not about werewolves. It seems that most of the people I talked to about this book thought it was about werewolves, even I thought it was about werewolves before I bought it. No, it's about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

This was a informational book that I thought was very interesting. KJ was a strong character when it came to what she believed in, which were the wolves, but wasn't strong when it came to herself. She let Kenner, Mandy, and Joss (the bullies of school) to push her around and even let her dad kind of control her. That's what bugged me about her most. She also messed up everything she did with the wolves which added problems, but got annoying after awhile.

This book is about a very sensitive subject: wolves. Some love them dearly, and some hate them mercilessly and you see both sides in this book. It was informational and was a detailed read. She explains everything about where she lives and the things that happen involving the wolves.

Overall, this book is not for ones who don't like informational and definitely-not-paranormal reads. It was great to read, hearing both sides of the wolf subject. Still not sure where I stand, but this was a very nice informational novel. I thought the book picked up immensely in the end when KJ finally stands up for herself and does what's right and is strong and passionate.

The Cover: This cover is so appropriate and I think I fell in love with the bright background and the dark wolf and model. The model was my image of KJ throughout the entire novel. Very cute.