Teaser Tuesday

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

It's Tuesday again! Here's my teaser: (I usually don't do just two sentences. Whatever it takes to finish the blurb.)

""Well," Loial said, "perhaps you humans do have short lives, but you do so much with them, always jumping around, always so hasty. And you have the whole world to do it in. We Ogier are bound to our stedding. " "You're Outside." "For a time, Rand. But I must go back, eventually. This world is yours, yours and your kind's. The stedding are mine. There's too much hurly-burly Outside. And so much is changed from what I read about."" 
- page 204 of " To the Blight: The Eye of the World Part 2 " by Robert Jordan

Review: The Iron King

 

Title: The Iron King (Iron Fey, #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher: HarlequinTeen

Release Date:  February 1st 2010

Format: Paperback (Bought)

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

The first thing I said when I closed this book was, "I WANT MOOOORRRE!". And yes, I said it loudly.

This...this is the first book to really grip me and make me love it since My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent. My brain is in overload from this book, but in a very happy way.

Okay, okay, I'm calming down and starting at the beginning.

Breathe.

Okay. When I first opened the book, I read about a little girl and the loss of her father. It's a plot point that I've seen multiple times, but it wasn't that big of a deal, so I looked past it. Then Robbie came in. Inssttannnt looovvve!!! He's cute, he's funny, he's friendly... I want one. Just sayin'.

Anyway, I so didn't get the whole digital creepy fey or the iron fey until the very end. I sorta had a brain fart and forgot the title of the book (Ahem, IRON King... Duh) and totally looked passed them, which made the ending fun and surprising. Machina makes me think of the hot dude from the Matrix when Meghan goes to dethrone him. He just sounds super bad like that.

The two Mega-Hotties of the story -- Puck (Robbie) and Ash -- were so developed, that I felt I could look up from the pages and find them standing in front of me. (Which, for the record, I would have loved to happen, tehe.)I am still Team Puck all the way, and am upset that Meghan would hurt her best friend's heart. She had feelings for him, you know it, but she ignored them. Because every girl has to go for the bad boy. That was the only part I disliked in the story, but I still like Ash.

The plot was fantasmagorical - a word I reserve for the best and most wonderful things. It made me want to start writing a plot of my own, one to rival the mastery that Julie Kagawa made. Which, I think , would be very hard. Except, my plot would include Puck coming out of that tree. I almost cried at the end when he didn't. Almost.

Ahem...I shall, um, stop rambling in my fan-girlness now, though. This book is BY FAR in my top three favourite books. And...wait for it...it has to have a favourite quote! I leave you with, a Puck quote. :D

" "Oh, we're playing nice now?" Puck remained seated, looking anything but compliant. "Shall we have tea first? Brew up a nice pot of kiss-my-ass?" "

P.S. I'm hunting for my own Grimalkin now.

I give it FIVE out of FIVE sporks

Review: Intertwined

 

Title: Intertwined

Author: Gena Showalter

Publisher: HarlequinTEEN

Release Date:  September 1st 2009

Format: Paperback

There's something about the new guy at Crossroads High…

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends.
Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:

One can time travel.

One can raise the dead.

One can possess another human.

One can tell the future.

Everyone thinks he's crazy, which is why he's spent his entire life shuffled between mental institutions and juvie. All of that is about to change, however. For months Aden has been having visions of a beautiful girl—a girl who carries centuries-old secrets. A girl who will either save him or destroy him.
Together they'll enter a dark world of intrigue and danger…but not everyone will come out alive.

This time around, I was looking for a refreshing read but one with a bit of meat to the plot. Intertwined was one such book.

The story revolves around a teenage boy, Aden Stone, who has four souls trapped in his head. That sure caught my attention, so I plunged on. Turns out, each soul has an ability. One can time travel, one can raise the dead, one can tell the future, and one can possess others. By that time, I was all for this book.

As you read, Aden Stone finds a girl (Mary Anne) who knocks the wind out of him - literally. When they meet, they both have this unexplainable urge to hug each other...and run away from each other. Soon after meeting, they're both plunged into a world of vampires, werewolves, fairies, goblins... you name it!

Aden falls in love with Victoria, a vampire who is somehow going to save him. Vampires are always iffy ground for me, since I'm afraid another Twilight will crop up or it'll be something super cheesy. However, Intertwined was pretty neutral. Nothing super creative, but it was all tolerable.

They're all drawn together by the burst of energy Mary Anne and Aden created when they met each other. Which leads to one of the bigger plot devices! Yeah for plot devices! (And the crowd goes wild!)

Of all the characters, I love Riley & Caleb the best. Riley is a werewolf who has the best attitude in the whole book. He's got style and he's cute. Caleb is one of the souls trapped in Aden's head and he's just down right funny.

I gave the book five stars because it was an all around good book. Awesome plot, hilarious scenes, great solemn moments, and just the right amount of romance. I can't wait to read the second book now!

I gave it FIVE out of FIVE sporks

"Waiting on" Wednesday: Shattered Souls

 

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Shattered Souls

by Mary Lindsey

Release Date: December 8th 2011

From Goodreads: 

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.

Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Comments;

I love paranormal books, romance or no, and this definitely falls into that zone. I think the cover is nice; it definitely draws you in. Can't wait to get my hands on this!

What's your "waiting on" Wednesday pick?

Review: The Maze Runner

 

Title:The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner Series, #1)

Author: James Dashner

Publisher:Delacorte

Type: Hardcover (Library copy)

Imagine waking up one day in total darkness, unsure of where you are and unable to remember anything about yourself except your first name. You're in a bizarre place devoid of adults called the Glade. The Glade is an enclosed structure with a jail, a graveyard, a slaughterhouse, living quarters, and gardens. And no way out. Outside the Glade is the Maze, and every day some of the kids -- the Runners -- venture into the labyrinth, trying to map the ever-changing pattern of walls in an attempt to find an exit from this hellish place. So far, no one has figured it out. And not all of the Runners return from their daily exertions, victims of the maniacal Grievers, part animal, part mechanical killing machines.

Thomas is the newest arrival to the Glade in this Truman-meets-Lord of the Flies tale. A motley crew of half a dozen kids is all he has to guide him in this strange world. As soon as he arrives, unusual things begin to happen, and the others grow suspicious of him. Though the Maze seems somehow familiar to Thomas, he's unable to make sense of the place, despite his extraordinary abilities as a Runner. What is this place, and does Thomas hold the key to finding a way out?

I checked this book out at the library because every corner I turned around a book store, The Maze Runner was there. The description sounded interesting, and similar to a book I had just read (Incarceron by Catherine Fisher). So, I checked it out with high hopes since I loved Incarceron.

I didn't love it nearly as much as I thought I would. It was similar to Incarceron in the idea of a teenage boy losing his memory and being trapped in another world similar to a prison. The world he ends up in is full of other teenage boys and it's known as the Glade. Every month, a boy is sent to the Glade in an elevator known as the Box. Each time, the boy only remembers his name.

The Glade is the size of a small town and is surrounded by skyscraper high walls with exits on the North, South, East and West sides. Every night, the walls close and every morning, they open up. Outside of the Glade is The Maze. The Maze is a tangle of stone walls that move every night. Every boy that lives in the Glade, lives to find the escape from their world. They all know they had lives before but they don't know what.

Everything runs fine until the main character comes along (which is the start of the book). His name is Thomas and with him, comes drastic changes the boys of the Glade have ever seen. A week after his arrival, a girl comes, and announces that this is the End. So, it becomes apparent that they must find an escape or die trying.

Sounds interesting, right? Even more so when it's sprinkled with high-technology and creepy monsters that all sum up to a dystopian, futuristic setting. I loved that bit of the story.

The downside to this book? It's shallow. The writing is plain and verges on boring. I felt the whole time that I was just skimming the surface of what could have been a fantastic book.
The other thing that bothered me is that they didn't cast nearly as much focus on the girl that I would have expected.

Overall, it was just okay. Worth the three stars, but not anything more. Perhaps I shall pick up it's sequel though.

I gave it three sporks

Teaser Tuesday (3)

 

 

 
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:


"I take off after them in a dead sprint, but even as my heart thunders in my ears and sweat begins to trickle down my back, I know it's a lost cause. They're fast, so much faster than a human." - pg 114 of Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Review: Ice

 

Title: Ice

Author: Sara Beth Drast

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry

Type: Hardcover  

 When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice

I had this on my most-wanted list/wishlist on Goodreads for the longest time and I was actually gifted it this last Christmas from my family. I was SO happy to read this book, and I don't believe I heard anything bad about it.

It started out sounding really interesting. The prologue was the telling of the fairytale about the Polar Bear King finding a daughter for the North Wind. The North Wind promised the Polar Bear King that if he did this, his daughter would be his wife when she was old enough. We later learn this daughter is of some importance in the story and that the fairy tale is no fairy tale at all - they're factual events.

I was really excited for this story because it was so unique, which probably made my disappointment even more bitter. Cassie, the main character, agreed to wed the Polar Bear King in order to save her mother and then planned on going back to living her life normally. However, she falls in love and then becomes pregnant. And she's only 18. I found such a strong resemblance to Twilight's romance in this, that I nearly chucked the book out the window. I only finished it for a read-a-thon I was participating in.

The plot was so pointless that I was almost bored. (Sorry! It's just how it came across.) There was also no way to connect to Cassie because the book moved SO fast. A chapter into the story and she's already met the Polar Bear King. There needed to be a foundation built so the reader could connect with Cassie and actually care about what happened to her.

There were little moments in the story that I liked and thought cute, but nothing to redeem the book as a whole. I wouldn't recommend this to kids, nor to my older friends. Fantastic idea, but the execution failed.

I gave it two sporks.

"Waiting on" Wednesday: Fury

 

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Fury
by Elizabeth Miles
Release Date: August 30th, 2011

From Goodreads: 

The first book in a paranormal teen trilogy featuring three beautiful, mysterious girls wreaking havoc on a small New England town.

Sometimes sorry isn't enough....

It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...

Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.

On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.

In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.

Em and Chase have been chosen.

Comments;

I absolutely LOVE the cover on this book. The font flow nicely with the model's hair. (Which I am extremely jealous of. I'd love to hair like that.) Plus the fact that the title is bigger than the author's name. I'm always for that.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?