New Series: TARDIS TUESDAYS

Hey everyone, this is basically just a little announcement for a plan that I have for a new series both on here, and on my youtube channel. Basically, earlier today I bought the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary edition of Yahtzee, and the container gave me an idea for this new series.

The idea is that the TARDIS container holds the names of all of the books that I have ever read (and can currently remember the plot, and my feelings from when I read them). Which makes sense because it can travel through Time and Space, so it knows all of the books I have ever read. Every Tuesday, I will pull one slip of paper out of the TARDIS which will have the title of a book on it. I will then give a mini review of the book (probably 2-3 minutes of video time) and then give a recommendation based on if you liked the book that I have been talking about, and explain why I recommend that particular book.

I am really excited and I think that this will be a lot of fun, so I hope to see you soon with my first TARDIS Tuesday!

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

First of all, I would like to thank Answerly on youtube for starting a youtube driven book club. I think that it is such a cool idea, and I look forward to being an active part of it in the months to come. The reading for this month was Eleanor and Park, and I started it late, but ended up finishing it very very early.

Eleanor and Park is the story of two highschoolers from the 1980's who meet when they are thrown together on the bus. The two of them don't really talk very often, but when they start to realize that they have similar taste in comic books and music, the two become friends, and eventually even more.

THE STORY:
I don't even know where to begin with my feelings for this story. It was the first addition to my "Unbelievably Cute" Shelf on goodreads of the new year, and I think it greatly deserves its position there. The story flows and changes so easily, and while I had very high expectations going into this book, it fully met them, if not exceeded them. I am completely and utterly in love with this most unlikely love story and how it comes to be. I wish that there could be more to read of Eleanor and Park, but that ending was pretty much set in concrete, and there is nothing that can change it.

THE CHARACTERS:
I love how deep the characters are in this book. They have amazing personalities and ways that they project themselves to the rest of the world, but those projections are not the full extent of their characters. In fact, it is merely scratching the surface. I love that Eleanor is considered by everyone to just be very weird, as if she is grabbing for everyone's attention with the way she dresses and presents herself, but we learn through her that the reason she is always dressed weird is because it is all that her family can afford to give her to wear. The strange patches of colour on her clothing are her just using whatever pieces of fabric she can find to patch up the holes in her clothes. She has such a difficult home life and she is surrounded by so many terrible people, and it is so interesting to see how she deals with it throughout the book.

Park, oh Park. You are probably my first (but definitely not my last) contemporary fictional crush. I adore you so, so much. I love that Park doesn't really notice things about himself, and that he acts so much like a normal person. All of the thoughts that he has are thoughts that have probably gone through everybody's heads thousands of times while they were in high school, and because we have all been there, we couldn't really get mad at him, even when we wanted to. He is just so kind hearted, and I loved getting to see him grow throughout the story.

The thing I truly loved, however, was how even the characters that were cast as the bullies near the beginning of the book aren't actually that bad. We discover later on that they are willing to help Eleanor when she is having troubles with her step dad, even though it does, in fact, put them in some form of risk. Even the background characters in this book are deeper than they initially appear, and I think that is something which sets this novel apart from so many others.

MY THOUGHTS:
Well if you can't tell by now, I am in love with this book. I read an ebook of it, and now I have a mighty need for a physical copy, and will be saving up the cash to buy it. I love the story itself, I love the love story, I love the characters, I love the setting. Everything in this book was perfect, and it came into my life exactly when I needed it to. I look forward to reading any and all Rainbow Rowell books that I can get my hands on in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★

Queen of Hearts Volume One: The Crown by Colleen Oakes

*This book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Coming February 14, 2014)*

Book One in the Queen of Hearts Trilogy

"This is the story of a princess who became a villain.
***
A Father’s Betrayal. A Kingdom with a Black Secret. A Princess Slowly Unraveling. 

As Princess of Wonderland Palace and the future Queen of Hearts, Dinah’s days are an endless monotony of tea, tarts, and a stream of vicious humiliations at the hands of her father, the King of Hearts. The only highlight of her days is visiting Wardley, her childhood best friend, the future Knave of Hearts — and the love of her life.
When an enchanting stranger arrives at the Palace, Dinah watches as everything she’s ever wanted threatens to crumble. As her coronation date approaches, a series of suspicious and bloody events suggests that something sinister stirs in the whimsical halls of Wonderland. It’s up to Dinah to unravel the mysteries that lurk both inside and under the Palace before she loses her own head to a clever and faceless foe." - GoodReads

THE STORY:
I really liked the premise of this story, and it really intrigued me. The story itself did not disappoint. It was both exactly what I expected it to be, and nothing that I could have possibly expected. It is filled with twists and turns, and while some aspects of the plot are predictable, the twists are not. The story was executed well and really fun to read. However, there were some small inconsistencies in the story, and some small things which were not explained very well and sometimes left me very confused.

THE CHARACTERS:
I absolutely adore our main character, Dinah. At the beginning of the novel, she is very whiny, semi-pathetic, and rather petty. However, as the story goes on, she grows. She becomes stronger, braver, stubborn, and while she is still petty, she tries to keep it to herself as much as she can. Her journey to becoming this new person was so interesting, and watching her grow so much was delightful.

What I truly enjoyed, however, was how all of the classic characters from Alice in Wonderland were made into people. The Cheshire Cat is the King's advisor, the White Rabbit is Dinah's instructor, and the Card Soldiers are all people, but their ranks are referred to as "Cards." Over all, it added to the story and helped to make it something even more unique.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!

STAR RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

Sherlock, Lupin, and Me by Irene Adler

The story follows three children: Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lupin, and Irene Adler as they work together to solve their first crime together. It takes place in 1870, as to keep the ages approximately cannon with the Original Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes books.

As a book intended for nine to thirteen year old's, I think this book does exactly what it needs to do. The story and language are straight forward and easy to follow, but still filled with twists and turns which will awe the reader. The story is fun and exciting, and the characters guide the reader  through it perfectly. This was definitely a book that I could imagine reading to a child before they went to bed, and having them beg me to keep reading because they wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I would also like to take a moment to appreciate the artwork in this book. There are little illustrations at the beginning of every chapter which only make sense after actually reading the chapter. They almost act as clues to the reader about what will happen next without giving away any details of the story or making it predictable. If anything, they add another layer of fun to the story that I believe young readers will really enjoy.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman

One of the places that I love to go to for books is a little second hand bookstore which is across from the mall. They sell all kinds of books for decent prices, but don't normally get in a lot of the more well known YA series. What they do get is some amazing collections of middlegrade books.

The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman was one of the many amazing middlegrade books which this store has housed over the last few months. They had it on display in the window, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was something I was going to be interested in.

The story follows Alexa, a young girl from the land of Elyon. She and her father have travelled to what is the equivalent of their capital city in order to go over some business, just like they do every year. However, something different happens this year: Alexa finds a way passed the large stone walls which not only surround all of the cities, but the paths to and from them as well. It is a fantastical tale of her adventures and what she has to do in order to save her city and the people she loves. 

First of all, I would like to say how much I love this cover. It was what drew me to it when I saw it in the window of that store. The style is so unique, and so classic for a Scholastic book. It also ties really well into the story, and the basic feeling that you get from looking at the cover is the same feeling which will follow you throughout the rest of the book.

Now for the book itself. As it is a middlegrade book, the language is simple, easy to follow, and gets straight to the point. I feel as if there wasn't a lot of world building, however if I were a young child reading this, there would be enough information about the world to make me believe that there was at least a sliver of a chance that it was real. 

As it is a fantasy novel, I was expecting there to be a lot more magical elements to it, but there wasn't a whole lot of magic. There was some, of course, but it wasn't part of the main story. It was actually more of a tool for the main character to use in order to help her on her quest as opposed to being the only way that she would have been able to complete her quest at all. However, I feel as if this was a good thing. It gave Alexa the feeling of a very strong little girl, someone very smart and independent, which I think is a great example to be setting for children. 

Over all I really enjoyed this book, and I will continue to read the series in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

The Daughters by Joanna Philbin

I have a very nasty habit of buying books from the bargain section of my local bookstore just because they only cost five or so dollars, and some of them sound really interesting. This was again the case with The Daughters by Joanna Philbin, although the bright orange cover underneath the dust jacket also helped with the decision.

The Daughters follows three characters, Lizzie, Carina, and Hudson. All three girls are the daughters of people who are very famous in their society, all for different reasons. Lizzie's mother is a supermodel, Carina's father is an insanely rich business person, and Hudson's mother is a pop music sensation! The story follows the three of them as they deal with the pressures put upon them by the press and their families. They have established several rules about how to deal with paparazzi and other press figures in their life, but it has been getting difficult for them to abide by these rules, particularly for Lizzie. That is, until a photographer approaches her and tells her that she may just be the fresh face of her generation and offers her a job modelling. 

I did enjoy this book, as it was a very light, mostly fluffy sort of read. The chapters were short, easy to get through, and entertaining. The three main characters all have very distinct personalities and are easy to distinguish from one another, and all of them are dealing with their own problems, even if the story focuses more on Lizzie, we still get glimpses of what the other two girls are dealing with, especially with the ending of this book being the way it is, and leaving it open perfectly for the sequel. 

My only real problem with this book was the character's ages. They are all around the age of fourteen throughout this book, and with the way they were acting, the decisions they were making, and the general things which were going on in their life, it seemed like they should be closer to the seventeen to eighteen range. Of course, a lot of this could be my personal bias because of the way that my life has been, and it may not have been the same for a lot of other people. However, just in general it seemed like some of the problems they were dealing with should have been things for older teens as opposed to fourteen year old's.

Over all I found this book to be entertaining and I look forward to picking up the sequel whenever I can get my hands on it!

STAR RATING: ★★★★

Dark Eyes by William Richter

Dark Eyes by William Richter was one of those books that sits in the bargain section of a book store, and looks at you until you feel guilty for leaving it there, and ultimately buy it. Plus, having a quote in the corner from Patticus Lore calling the main character the Lisbeth Salander of YA novels makes it rather intriguing.

Dark Eyes follows a girl name Wally who was adopted into an American family from Russia. She moved out of her home and lives on the street with some friends, and together they all manage to survive. When one of her old crew members is found murdered with Wally's fake ID, Wally knows that she has to get a new one, so she sets out to get one. 

What she doesn't expect is to find a note from her mother, her biological mother. The note sends her into a frenzy, and soon she is dedicating herself to finding out if her mother is still alive, and if so, where she is. That is about as far into the plot as I can go without giving you far too many spoilers. There are some pretty crazy twists and turns in this book, however I still feel as if nothing really happens throughout it (even though it is pretty action packed.) What I mean by nothing happening is that Wally seems to be basically in the same place that she was at the end of the book as she was in the beginning.

Wally being called the Lisbeth Salander of YA is also very misleading. While Wally is clever and manages to get away with some pretty crazy stuff in the course of the novel, she is no where near as badass as Lisbeth. I found Wally to be rather annoying at times, mostly because of the way she speaks.

The general writing of this novel is difficult to get used to because of a lot of the terms which are used, and the type of language which it is filled with. This gets even more difficult to get used to as the characters speak. Since they all live on the street and presumably don't have more than a grade 9 education, their speech is filled with slang and street terms. Of course my problem with this could stem from the fact that I am an English student, and grammar matters to me.

Over all, I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary about this novel, and nothing about it was. It was entertaining and usually fast paced with a couple of twists to keep you on your toes, but the story itself was lacking a lot of things that I believe could have made it that much better. 

STAR RATING: ★★★

Starters by Lissa Price

My local bookstore has a bargain section for young adult books, and in this section all of the books are either five or six dollars, and it is one of my favorite places to shop because I feel as if I can always find gems hidden among them. One of the books that was there for a VERY long time was Starters by Lissa Price. The cover caught my eye because of how shiny and strange it looked, but when I read the synopsis, it didn't quite seem like something I would be interested in, so I didn't buy it.

This continued on for over a month. Every time I went into the store I would see Starters sitting on the bargain shelf and every week I would pick it up, read the synopsis again, and eventually decide to put it back down. Finally, one week, I looked at it and decided that if it was catching my attention every time I went into the store, maybe there was a reason for it, so I bought it.

The story follows a girl named Callie. Her parents are both dead due to the Spore War, and her little brother is very sick. She needs money to get them an actual house, and to buy him the medicine that he needs, otherwise there is a large chance that he won't survive. In order to get the money, she travels to Prime Destinations, a place in Beverly Hills which allows Enders, or the elderly people of the community, to rent out the bodies of teenagers so that they can feel young again. Callie signs a contract with Prime Destinations, allowing her body to be rented out three times in return for a very large sum of money.

The first two renters go very well, but the third renter requires her body for an entire month, and when, a week in, the chip in her brain which allows the connection  between the Ender and her body to occur malfunctions, she has to make a choice about what to do, and exactly how far she will let the Ender use her body for the deeds that she wishes to accomplish.

I was very surprised by how much I did end up enjoying this book. Once I started reading it during the Read-a-Thons, I just couldn't stop. I had to know what was going to happen, and where the story was going to go. The story was so unique and it took some turns which I didn't expect, even after reading the synopsis a grand total of six times. The story was nothing like what I expected it to be, and that made it so much more enjoyable. The only thing which kept this book from being a total of five stars for me was the main character Callie. I found her to be very whiny throughout the course of the book, and at times she came of as pathetically weak. As a girl who has been living on the street for a year looking after her little brother, she sounded like she should be so tough, so strong. And while she was during a lot of the experiences that she went through, it wasn't the case for the whole book. In fact, most of her strength seemed to come from the Ender who has rented her. 

Over all I liked this book a lot, and I look forward to reading the sequel Enders sometime in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

I remember walking through a book store several years ago and seeing the cover of this book and just thinking that it was so beautiful. I didn't care what the story was about, as long as I could have this pretty book sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to find the opportunity to read it. When I received The Diviners for Christmas, the author's name sounded familiar, so I turned to Goodreads to find out why. That was when I saw the familiar title, and I  knew that it was hidden somewhere in my closet, where all of the books that didn't fit on my shelf were stored, so I went looking for it.

I went into this book with literally no knowledge of the plot, and I think that was the best thing that I could have done with it. not knowing anything left my expectations open, allowing me to read it for myself without anyone else's opinions sitting in the back of my mind, trying to convince me to like it or hate it. It was completely up to me to decide. 

The story follows Gemma Doyle, a young girl who has spent most of her life in India with her family, but has always wanted to go to school in England. One day, she has a vision of her mother committing suicide, and when she discovers that it has actually happened, she begins to question her own reality. However, it results in her getting what she has wanted for so long, and she is sent to a boarding school called Spence. 

She meets three girls and together, the four of them become obsessed with Gemma's power and the places it can take them, even if it leads them through horrors, twists, and turns that they would never have expected.

I did love this book, although it took me a while to get into it. The first fifty or so pages were rather slow, but once Gemma is at Spence, the story really picked up.  I enjoyed the plot more than I thought I would, and I loved the elements of magic that were weaved into an otherwise normal society. The only thing which kept me from rating this book five stars were the characters. I found the majority of the characters to be whiny, annoying, and just generally hard to take during some of the events which were taking place. That being said, each of them had their own distinct voice and personality, which I think is very difficult to do in a book like this, so I think that Libba Bray did a really good job of that.

Over all I found this book to be really enjoyable, and I can't wait to pick up its sequel, Rebel Angels, and continue following the adventure.

STAR RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Seven (Bout of Books 9.0 DONE)

Today was a very good reading day for me. I finally buckled down and finished Dark Eyes by William Richter and managed to make a decent chunk out of my next book! I am so satisfied with today's progress! I even managed to finish the first season of Pushing Daisies! In the life of someone who is insanely lazy, I was very productive in very lazy ways.

I was so happy to finally be done with this book, not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I felt like it was reading it for so long! This book was very interesting, although I felt as if, even though so much did happen throughout the book, that nothing actually happened. I feel as if even though so much happened to the character, I feel as if she didn't change very much.

FULL REVIEW TO COME
STAR RATING: ★★★









 
 I have now started The Daughters by Joanna Philbin! I don't really know how I feel about this story so far, but the chapters are short and entertaining, so I am enjoying it as a whole. So far I have read 104 pages of this book, and plan to finish it by the end of the RYBSAT!

{Sunday} (BOUT OF BOOKS ENDS)

Number of pages I’ve read today: 253

Total number of books I’ve read: 3 (Plus 1 Short Story)

Total number of pages I've read: 1107

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price, The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Richard Stockton, Dark Eyes by William Richter.

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Six

I can officially say that today was a much better reading day than my two previous ones, even if I didn't actually spend as much time reading. I began my day by finishing Princess Jellyfish, which I marathoned deep into the night, and began again as soon as I woke up. I was sad when it ended, as there was so much more the series could have done, but I loved what little of it there was. Then I watched another episode of Pushing Daisies, which I am thoroughly in love with, and finally I played some video games. When I was back home for winter break I bought myself God of War Ascension, as it was the only instalment in the series which I didn't own, and a game called Tales of Xillia. I played both of them for the first time today and loved them. That, of course, took up the majority of my day, however I did get a little bit of reading done.

I continued reading Dark Eyes by William Richter today, and managed to read 124 pages. I am now very used to the writing style, and I am enjoying the story, however it is a little bit repetitive. There has been one fairly good plot twist, so I can't really complain.

{Saturday}

Number of pages I’ve read today: 124

Total number of books I’ve read: 2 (Plus 1 Short Story)

Total number of pages I've read: 860

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price, The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Richard Stockton

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Five

So today went much better than yesterday, although still not as well as I would have liked it to go. There are still three hours left of the day, so I might managed to get a little bit more reading in, however I discovered two new shows today, and it might prove to make reading a little bit difficult for the rest of the night.

For at least one of the two shows I started today to make sense, there is something that you need to understand. I ADORE HBO's Hannibal. If you have watched any of my tag videos on youtube, you probably know that Hannibal Lecter is my favorite villain of all time. The show came out at the perfect time for me, and I loved every minute of it. The show was started by an amazing man named Bryan Fuller, who has worked on several other TV shows, including Star Trek Voyager  and Heroes. However he also had another TV show called Pushing Daisies, staring Lee Pace (who you may know more recently as Thranduil from the Hobbit films). The show is amazing, and I think you all should watch it. It is only two seasons long, with nine episodes per season, but it is potentially the cutest show to ever exist. Thank you Bryan Fuller for all of the awesome shows in my life at the moment!

The other show that I discovered is called Princess Jellyfish. It is an anime which was recently added to American Netflix, and upon reading the synopsis, I had to give it a go. The story follows a girl who is obsessed with Jellyfish, and moved to Tokyo to become an illustrator or a manga artist. She lives in a building which only houses women, all of whom are a little bit eccentric (and a couple of them are rather annoying, but easy enough to look past). One night she meets a lady who is the picture of beauty, and the two sort of become friends. However it turns out that this beautiful woman is actually a man who just likes to cross dress as a hobby. I just don't even know where to begin with how adorable this anime is! I can't wait to continue watching it.

However, as this is meant to be a book blog, and this particular post is supposed to be an update on my reading for these Read-a-Thons, maybe I should get back to the books, yes?

I continued reading Dark Eyes by William Richter today, however have not yet finished it. I have made a rather large dent in it though. The book was difficult to get used to at first, having gotten used to the eloquent first person narratives of the last two books. The narrative in Dark Eyes is third person, and very street, using a lot of profanity and slang. However, the narrative fits the feel of the story, and once the plot came into play, the book became much more interesting. I read 91 pages of this book today, an am currently sitting on page 100. With only 237 pages left of this book, I am hoping that I will be able to finish it tomorrow so that I can move onto the next book on my bookshelf, The Daughters by Joanna Philbin!

{Friday}

Number of pages I’ve read today: 91

Total number of books I’ve read: 2 (And 1 Short Story)

Total number of pages I've read: 730

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price, The Lady, or the Tiger? By Frank Richard Stockton.

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Four

I'm going to be completely honest with you guys: Today was a terrible reading day for me. I didn't read very much AT ALL. I tried picking up my next book for the read-a-thons and just couldn't seem to adjust to the writing style, which was VERY different from Starters. However, the story still sounds interesting, and I am looking forward to attempting it again tomorrow, hopefully with more vigor than I was able to muster today.

In my pathetic attempt to read today, I began this book. I only managed to make it through the prologue, which was approximately nine pages. Hopefully I will be able to continue on with this book tomorrow and make a larger dent in it, if not finish it entirely.

For my English class today, I had to read The Lady or the Tiger? by Frank Richard Stockton, which is a short story. This added approximately 10 pages to my over all page count for the day, making my count officially 19! This was actually a very interesting short story which sparked a lot of discussion in my class, and I enjoyed reading it!

{Thursday}

Number of pages I’ve read today: 19

Total number of books I’ve read: 2 + 1 Short Story

Total number of pages I've read: 679

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price, The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Richard Stockton

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Three

I feel as if today was a very successful day for me and my reading! I not only read the most pages in a single day that I have read throughout the Read-a-Thon(s) so far, but I also managed to finish my second book of the week!
As of 11:44 PM on January 8, 2014 I finished Starters by Lissa Price. I had little to no idea what to expect when I went into this book, and found myself to actually enjoy it quite a lot. All of the characters were far more developed than they initially seemed to be and the story went places that I hadn't thought it would. Over all I really enjoyed this book and want to read the sequel, if I can ever find it.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

The next book that I will be picking up is Dark Eyes by William Richter. Again, I know next to nothing about this book, but I am very excited to power through it!

{Wednesday}

Number of pages I’ve read today: 292

Total number of books I’ve read: 2

Total number of pages I've read: 620

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price

Read-a-Thon(s) Day Two

Today was a fairly successful reading day. I managed to finish my first book of the Read-a-Thon and move onto the second book, which is the first official book of the Read Your Bookshelf-a-thon!

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray was the first book that I read and finished today. I didn't really know what to expect while diving into this book, but I found myself pleasantly surprised! Full review to come.

STAR RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

The second book that I started today was Starters by Lissa Price!

{Tuesday} (BOOKSHELF STARTS)

Number of pages I’ve read today: 178

Total number of books I’ve read: 1 (13% of Starters)

Total number of pages I've read: 328

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Starters by Lissa Price

Read-a-Thon(s) Day One

Today was the first day of my week of Read-a-Thons, starting off with my day of just the Bout of Books 9.0 Read-a-Thon. I had so much fun getting  through some of my book today, and I am excited to continue on with it, as well as start my next book for the Read Your Bookshelf-a-Thon tomorrow.

I was super busy today, with it being my first day of my winter semester classes, but I still managed to get in a little bit of reading time. Basically any spare minute that I didn't already have dedicated to classes or preparation was dedicated to my book.

Today I continued reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

{Monday} (BOUT OF BOOKS ONLY)

Number of pages I’ve read today: 150

Total number of books I’ve read: 67% of One.

Total number of pages I've read: 150

Books: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Bout of Books 9.0 AND Bookshelf Read-a-Thon TBR

Alright, the Read-a-Thons start tomorrow, so I guess I better get my TBR all said and done.

 I am currently reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I am about 70 pages in, and I hope to finish it early on Monday so that I can finish another book before the Bookshelf-a-Thon starts on Tuesday.

The second book which I would like to read and hopefully finish before Tuesday is The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I have heard nothing but amazing things about this book, and my friend Alyssa will be reading it alongside me.

Once the Bookshelf-a-Thon starts, I will be reading Starters by Lissa Price! This will be the first book on my bookshelf, and I will continue on with the books that follow it. The following books will not have anything written next to them, as they are simply the books which follow along my shelf.

Dark Eyes by William Richter

The Daughters by Joanna Philbin.

Modelland by Tyra Banks!
















And that's it! Those are all of the books that I am attempting to finish reading by Tuesday the fourteenth! I will be updating on here every day, and I am going to attempt to make a daily vlog on my youtube channel: The Book Tree.

Top 13 Books of 2013

This list was one of the hardest things for me to comprise, but not for the typical reasons. I only read about 30 books this year, and I loved a lot of them. The difficult part was taking the thirteen books, which were the obvious winners, and put them in numerical order. However, I did it, and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

13.

 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was a classic that I had to read for my English Literature class in March or April. I didn't go into this book with high expectations due to the bad experiences that I have had with classics in school, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story is so dense for how short it is, full of imagery and metaphor and morals. The story was amazing, and we read it just in time for the movie (Which, let's face it, was a bit of a let down,) but it gave me a little bit more incentive to finish the book. Over all, I loved it!

STAR RATING: ★★★★★









12. 

I have wanted to read Struck by Lightning for quite a while, and when I went to visit some family in the city and found the book for cheap, I couldn't help but buy it. I read the entire book on the ride home and absolutely loved it. For some reason, which I have not yet managed to identify, I really connected with Carson. I don't even really know how to explain the plot of this book, but it was so much fun to read. I went from laughing to crying in a matter of minutes. I can still remember sitting in the back of the car reading it, and my mother looked back to me to find out why I was making weird noises, and rolling her eyes to discover it was just my reaction to a book. I recommend this to anyone who was even mildly interested in the movie, as the book was AMAZING!

STAR RATING: ★★★★★







11. 


This was one of the first books that I read in University. It was recommended to me by my friend Ashley, the first friend that I made away from home. She told me that it was the book that sparked her interest in reading, so of course I had to read it. The book is about Tiger Lily, the Indian princess from Peter Pan, and her story from before Wendy shows up in Neverland. The really interesting thing about this book is that it is told from Tinkerbell's point of view. Over all I really enjoyed this book, and I found it to be so much fun to read. It was such an interesting take on the story that we all know and love.

STAR RATING: ★★★★








10.

I know that it is crazy that I didn't start reading the Hunger Games trilogy until this year, but it is true. I read Catching Fire in May, and I absolutely loved it. I haven't read Mockingjay yet, but I think it is safe to say that this will be my favorite book in the trilogy. I won't go into the synopsis of this one as it is the second book, but I highly recommend the trilogy if even just to get to this book, as it was amazing.

STAR RATING: ★★★★













9.

Another recommendation from a friend, this book was ridiculously adorable. Once Upon a Marigold is Jean Ferris' own fairy tale, and I can't get over the amount of cute that she packed into this book. The story follows Christian, a boy who was lost in the forest and taken in by a troll. Every day he watches the princess Marigold with his telescope, and one day he sends her a letter and she responds. They soon become best friends, but when Christian wants to be more than friends, he goes after her. I loved this book so much, and I can't wait to read the rest of the Trilogy!

STAR RATING: ★★★★










8.

This was the first book that I ever read for a book club, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The story follows a girl named June whose uncle has just died. She was always very close to her uncle, and she learns how to deal with all of the new information that she learns about him after his passing. The story is filled with some interesting, although very strange content. I am so glad that my book club made me read this book, because by reading the synopsis I never would have read this book by myself and I ended up loving it!

STAR RATING: ★★★★











7. 

Don't let the cover of this book deter you. This book was absolutely amazing! The story follows a man named Victor who works with Mutation technology. When he and his wife find a surrogate mother to help them have a second child, he decides to experiment on the zygote before it is implanted in the surrogate mother. His idea was that the child would be his dream son, however he turns out to be Victor's ultimate nightmare. This book was, again, recommended to me by a friend and I am so glad that he did. As an adult fiction book, this is something that I never would have picked up for myself (especially with this horrible cover), but I LOVED it.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★








6.

Anna Dressed in Blood was the book that I read for Halloween this year, and I absolutely loved it. This book weaselled its way into my heart, and I am so happy that it did. The story follows a boy named Cas who is a ghost hunter. He moves to Thunder Bay when he gets a call about Anna Dressed in Blood, but when he meets the legendary ghost, he learns that everything isn't quite as it seems, and of course romance and other beautiful things follow. I will admit that this book isn't for someone with a weak stomach, as there are some very graphic gory scenes, but they are used to move the plot ahead, and add to the tone of the story.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★










5.

Chris Colfer manages to make his way onto my list twice, this time with his middle grade novel, The Land of Stories, the Wishing Spell. This story follows a pair of twins who fall into the land of all of their favorite fairy tales and have to find their way back out. As a lover of all things fairy tale, I absolutely adored this book. You get to see all of your favorite fairy tale characters we know and love in new in different ways with new stories and morals galore! This book was so much fun to read!

STAR RATING: ★★★★












4. 

I don't even know where to begin with this book. The story follows Seth, a young boy who drowns and dies quite violently, but instead of moving on to the afterlife like he expects, he wakes up in his childhood home in England. The story is super confusing at first, but as the book unfolds, so do the mysteries within it. More Than This is such a fantastic novel with such great, fascinating characters which were so much fun to read about. This was my first Patrick Ness book, and I can't wait to pick up some of his other work.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★\












3.

I have been in love with John Green's writing for quite some time, and reading this book only solidified that love. The story follows Hazel, a young girl with cancer to meets a boy named Augustus in her support group. Gus helps her learn the importance of life and how to live the life she has to the fullest. This book is filled with humor and tragedy in their most fantastic of forms and I cried so hard while reading it. I can't wait for the movie to come out in June!

STAR RATING: ★★★★★












2.

I can already hear people screaming at me for not only including this book on my list, but for how high it is on my list. Obviously as it is the last book in the Divergent trilogy I can't dive into the synopsis, but I can say that I really enjoyed this book. I felt that the ending was realistic given their situation and I think it was the perfect way for the series to end. Out of the entire trilogy this book was definitely my favorite, and I hope that Veronica Roth writes many more books in the future so that I can enjoy them.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★











1.

And finally taking first place is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I read this book in the summer, almost entirely during my breaks at work. Due to the time frame that I had to read during those breaks, it did take me a long time to finish the book, but I think that was a good thing. As I was reading it I kept hoping that it would take longer and longer to finish so that I would have more story to love. For those of you who don't know, the book follows a young girl who is sent to live with a foster family in Nazi Germany. The girl comes into a habit of stealing books. However, she and her foster family are all put into danger when they start hiding a young Jewish man in their basement. The story is told from the point of view of Death, which makes it even more interesting to read. This book is probably the only book to ever make me cry as much as I did while reading it, and I am so glad that it made me feel as much as it did. I can see myself re-reading this very soon, and loving it for the rest of my life.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★