SERIES REVIEW: The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel

 

The Book of Ivy Duology

by Amy Engel

Published: November 4, 2014

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.

ICY PRETTY LOVE Book Sale!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday! I hope you all have a good weekend. I'm just stopping by to tell you that Icy Pretty Love is on sale on Amazon so head over HERE now to grab your copies.

You can also check out my review HERE to read more of what I thought about the book. It's a great read! I loved both the main characters and have reread Icy Pretty Love a couple of times already because of them. I SHIP THEM :)

Review: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
by Kody Keplinger
Published: September 7, 2010




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Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

Review: Icy Pretty Love by L.A. Rose

Icy Pretty Love
by L.A Rose
Published: November 15, 2014



Glass-doll beauty. A shy, proper smile. Georgette Montgomery is the perfect billionaire’s fiancé.

Or she would be, if she existed.

A dark past. A smile that hides everything. At nineteen, Rae Grove escapes her disaster life by pretending to be other people—specifically, whoever the man paying her that night wants her to be.

Until she’s offered enough money for a one-way ticket to a better life. All she has to do is fly to Paris and pretend to be the fiancé of young business tycoon Cohen Ashworth for one month. Within an hour of meeting Cohen, Rae knows three things about him:

1. He hates everyone and everything.

2. He has abundant wit and a knife-sharp tongue.

3. He uses 2 to make everyone aware of 1.

Before long, Rae’s determined to crack open his unbreakable shell. Cohen’s determined to stay unbroken.

But no one escapes unscathed when two opposite worlds collide.

December 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap + 2014 Wrap-up

I realized I have some unfinished business. And then I realized some more that I needn't have bothered. Last month I was only able to read.. *drum roll* 6 books!! And two of those I already started months before. I think this is my fewest monthly read ever since I was three? Kidding. Not really :( The thought makes me sad.

Books I read this December 2014:

   

Top 10 of 2014

I only read 136 books this 2014. My original goal was 150 but I didn't get to that before the year was over. Technically, I've read way more than 136 books. I've been in a lot of reading slumps this year and I always reread favorite books when I'm not in the mood to start a new one but I don't include them in my reading challenge so there you go.

Just last week, for instance, I reread Shimmer by Paula Weston twice, and then reread Haze after that, then Shimmer again (I love rereading if you haven't noticed that yet). And then agonized over Christmas dinner of the sequel's release.

So out of those 136 I've given 5 stars to - what a coincidence - exactly 10 books.

Top 10 books of 2014:

Review: James Games by L.A. Rose

James Games
by L.A Rose
Published: September 30, 2014



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Every year, the girls of Phi Delta Chi, Fiona Arlett’s dream sorority, hold a competition.

The prize?

James Reid, king size bar of eye candy and famous actor turned haughty undergrad.

The rules?

No girl but the winner can touch him.

The problem?

Fiona miiight have unknowingly banged his brains out last week.

Losing the competition may mean wearing a chicken suit to the sexiest Halloween costume contest, but she’d rather have feathers up her butt than let the truth out.

Unfortunately, she and James have lots in common and more chemistry than the science wing. Soon they’re sneaking around behind the backs of UCSD’s hottest and most vengeful girls.

If they find out?

Fiona’s screwed.

Review: Adrian Lessons by L.A. Rose

Adrian Lessons
by L.A. Rose
Published: August 25, 2014



Buy from Amazon

If there’s one thing Cleo Reynolds knows, it’s that she’s not into Adrian King.

The son of a model with the looks to prove it, the experienced author of her school newspaper’s sex advice column, the cocky playboy with a hint of darkness. That Adrian King.

Nope. Nuh-uh. No way.

The problem is, he’s very into her.

After accidentally flashing him, and slightly-less-accidentally-but-still-totally-unintentionally making out with him in front of the whole class, she expects to be called crazy. Instead, he asks her out.

Cleo’s determined not to end up as another notch on his bedpost. Except she hasn’t done…you know…it in a while. (Read: ever.) And as a girl who pays her tuition by writing all the sex scenes in her roommate’s bestselling romance series, the lack of inspiration has served up a fat slice of writer’s block.

Until her roommate proposes that Cleo and Adrian act out all the steamy scenes in her book.

It’s just research. No feelings involved.

Nope. Nuh-uh.

No way.

November 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap

Oh, gods. I'm not sure if this blogging month is even worth recapping. Long story short, I've been busy. I had high hopes at the start of November especially with my reading pace since I was able to read a few books during my semestral break and I really thought I would be able to catch up to my reading challenge! I was only 3 books behind then before school started but now? I'm 9 freaking books behind. Ugh.

Books I read this month:

TROUBLE TUESDAY

So.. my class schedule today is like this:

                                    10:30am - 12:00nn             Control Systems (Lab)
                                    12:00nn  - 1:30pm              Database Management System (Lab)
                                      1:30pm - 3:00pm              Microprocessor Systems (Lab)
                                      3:00pm - 4:30pm              System Analysis and Design (Lab)

At first I was like:

And then I thought, "You know, I've always wanted to be on a diet but I just can't seem to step away from food like that. Now's the time."

October 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap

Well, this is sad. For one, another month is over, this time with seven blog posts published and I’m no closer to actually making progress for the following days or months (I’m working on it). Two, break is over: first day back to school. Three: this post was already a few days late but when I made it yesterday GR was acting up and I couldn't load some of the links. Four: Just because.

[BLOG TOUR] Review + Giveaway: Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Cinder & Ella Blog Tour. Pretty soon you'll be hearing me rave about it and there's an international giveaway at the end of this post. Check out the other stops HERE.

September 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! Two more weeks and this semester is no more. That also means I only have one week left to finish my projects and then finals but whatever. I am so looking forward to break. And then maybe I'll have more time to read and catch-up to my reading challenges because, holy molly, we only have three months left until 2015 and I am oh so behind. Right now I'm happy with the number of books I've read so far but it would be fantastic if I achieve my goal of reading 150 books this year. Also, I'm just dying to be able to read without interruptions. It's been a long time since I was able to do that. Anyway, this September I read 11 books which was a surprise since it's not often that I find the time to sit and read these days except - occasionally - for an hour or two before I sleep (provided I'm not too exhausted to fall asleep in the middle of it) but I guess I did.

September Reads:

Review: Crushed by Eliza Crewe

Crushed
(Soul Eaters #2)
by Eliza Crewe
Published: August 25, 2014




Meda Melange has officially hung up her monstrous mantle and planted her feet firmly on the holy and righteous path of a Crusader-in-training. Or, at least, she’s willing to give it a shot. It helps that the Crusaders are the only thing standing between her and the demon hordes who want her dead.

The problem is, the only people less convinced than Meda of her new-found role as Good Girl are the very Crusaders she’s trying to join. So when a devilishly handsome half-demon boy offers escape, how’s a girl supposed to say “no?”

After all, everyone knows a good girl’s greatest weakness is a bad boy.

August 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap

August was freaking exhausting especially this last week. I had an epic Friday after-exam-week night out of town with my 5th year class and I’m still tired from it but since midterm exams are OVER then I am going to have time for my blog. My poor blog. Anyway, the weekend was an awesome break from studying. It felt like we did the ice bucket challenge the whole time because we stayed at a mountain resort and it was effin’ cold, especially the pool water, but we still decided to swim at, like, 10 in the evening so there was no one else there but us and the guys thought it would be awesome to bring a dipper, shout “ice bucket challenge!”, and chuck the contents to ANYONE. Like this:

Source: KapusoMoJessicaSoho @KM_Jessica_Soho

LOL. That's not us. But back to the main topic.. this month I only read 8 books and 1 novella. Not so bad considering the busy month I had and some of it took me longer to finish than usual because of the number of pages. I'm really hoping to catch up this September because I am still behind on my reading challenges.

Review: Cracked by Eliza Crewe

Cracked
(Soul Eaters #1)
by Eliza Crewe
Published: November 5, 2013




Meet Meda. She eats people.

Well, technically, she eats their soul. But she totally promises to only go for people who deserve it. She’s special. It’s not her fault she enjoys it. She can’t help being a bad guy. Besides, what else can she do? Her mother was killed and it’s not like there are any other “soul-eaters” around to show her how to be different. That is, until the three men in suits show up.

They can do what she can do. They’re like her. Meda might finally have a chance to figure out what she is. The problem? They kind of want to kill her. Before they get the chance Meda is rescued by crusaders, members of an elite group dedicated to wiping out Meda’s kind. This is her chance! Play along with the “good guys” and she’ll finally figure out what, exactly, her ‘kind’ is.

Be careful what you wish for. Playing capture the flag with her mortal enemies, babysitting a teenage boy with a hero complex, and trying to keep one step ahead of a too-clever girl are bad enough. But the Hunger is gaining on her.

The more she learns, the worse it gets. And when Meda uncovers a shocking secret about her mother, her past, and her destiny… she may finally give into it.

Review: Caged by Sophie Davis

Caged
(Talented #2)
by Sophie Davis
Published: April 26, 2012



Buy from Amazon

After her brush with death at Ian Crane’s compound, Talia Lyons feels like a prisoner, confined in her childhood home. Plagued with seizures- the result of an unidentified drug injected in her neck by Crane’s men- Talia must put her dream of becoming a Hunter on hold.

When Agency Director McDonough asks Talia to go undercover at the School for the Talented, to find the spy who set the trap for her in Nevada, Talia jumps at the opportunity.

Soon she learns that her newfound freedom comes with a price- working with Donavon on a daily basis. As if that isn’t awkward enough, her former teammate, Erik, also shows up at the School. But at least Talia has the unexpected company of her best friend Penny; to not only assist her in uncovering the spy, but also to deal with the complications that the guys create.

As Talia becomes more entrenched in her assignment, she quickly learns the lengths that the Agency and Mac will go in the name of war. With Crane’s influence spreading, Talia learns that there are few Operatives without ties to the Coalition. Forced to face hard truths and dangerous conclusions, Talia realizes that it is those closest to her who are hiding the biggest secrets. As the task of finding the traitor becomes more problematic, desperation and frustration rule Talia’s world. It becomes clear that Talia can’t do this alone. But who can she trust, when everyone around her is lying?

July 2014 Reads + Monthly Recap

Well, there isn't a lot to put here. A few days ago, I didn't even realize July was about to end. I haven't posted much on my blog! I can't say I'll be able to make up to it now - school has been crazy and even my reading time is getting shorter and shorter. No matter what, though, I am still posting here if I can find enough time. Possibly on Wednesdays and Fridays (or Saturdays) since I have a lot of free time those days. Never mind Tuesdays and Thursdays - they're torture!

July Reads

Review: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

The Queen of the Tearling
(The Queen of the Tearling #1)
by Erika Johansen
Published: July 17, 2014




Buy from Amazon

Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret by foster parents after her mother - Queen Elyssa, as vain as she was stupid - was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea's uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea's 19th birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother's guard - each pledged to defend the queen to the death - arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding...

And so begins her journey back to her kingdom's heart, to claim the throne, earn the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother's legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea's story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance - it's about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive..

Review: In the End by Demitria Lunetta

In the End
(In the After #2)
by Demitria Lunetta
Published: June 24, 2014




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The thrilling conclusion to In the After, the survival story of Amy and Baby, set in a near future where Earth has been overrun by vicious, predatory creatures.

It’s been three months since Amy escaped New Hope, and she’s been surviving on her own, like she did in the After. Until one day, her former fellow Guardian’s voice rings out in her earpiece. And in a desperate tone, Kay utters the four words Amy had hoped she would never hear: Dr. Reynolds has Baby.

Now it’s a race against time, for Baby is in imminent danger, her life threatened by the malevolent doctor who had helped start the end of the world. In order to save Baby, Amy must make her way to Fort Black, a prison-turned-survivor-colony, where she will need to find Ken, Kay’s brother. He alone holds the key to Baby’s survival.

One small slip-up on this quest could spark a downward spiral that would not only cost Baby and Amy their lives, but threaten the very survival of the people in the After.