Elegantly Bound Books

My New Blog and the Future of Elegantly Bound Books

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:31:00 +0000

You guys!!! My new is blog is finally done!

Well I guess I should start from the beginning. Last year I was seriously considering making a new blog. I just had that itch that I wanted something new. At first I thought that maybe a new blog design would be nice but I felt like it had to be something more. For a few years I had this blog title Books Unbound floating around in my mind that I really wanted to do something with. But did I really want to go through all the trouble of making a new blog, building up a new base of followers and literally start from scratch with blog posts?

YES! I did!! For the past 6 months or so I have been in the process of setting up my new blog with all it's own accounts and to finally have everything separate from my personal social media is such a relief. Now I can finally narrow down all my email accounts and everything else to just one for personal use and one for blogging! But the thing that's even better is that I wouldn't be starting from scratch! I was able to export all my posts from Elegantly Bound Books to Book Unbound and in just a few weeks Elegantly Bound Books will automatically re-direct to Books Unbound! I get to keep all my content on my beautiful new blog!

So for the next 2 weeks everything that I post on Books Unbound will also be posted here on Elegantly Bound books with a reminder that Elegantly Bound Books will not be around for much longer! So if you're an avid reader and follower of Elegantly Bound Books please please please make the move with me to Books Unbound! You can find all my social media icons on my new blog so it's super easy to follow me now! Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter, or Bloglovin; it's your choice!

Without any further ado, you either click on any of the links above to check out my new blog or click on my new button!

What Does the Bookworm Say? Negative Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 13:00:00 +0000

The topic this week is “Do I write negative reviews?” Don't forget to check out this topic at Nite Lite Reviews, The Reader's Antidote and The Windy Pages.

The simple answer to this question is yes! I don’t think there is anything wrong with a negative review. When an author puts their work out into the world, it’s natural that there are going to be some people who absolutely love it and some people who don’t like it as much and maybe even hate it.

When it comes to writing a negative review, I usually take more care and choose my words more carefully than if I were writing a positive review. I try to be very concise so that my words aren't twisted or taken out of context.

I think negative reviews are really important and I usually want to tell my readers why I didn't like a book. Whether a book had no plot, really annoying characters or a stupid love triangle; these are thing I like to talk about in a negative review even though these likes and dislikes are based purely on opinion.

When it comes to reading reviews, I always read the negative reviews because I really want to know why some readers did not like the book! I always want to weigh the book and the bad before I buy a book. And by writing a negative review I hope that I can help out another reader weigh their pros and cons before purchasing.

The only thing I really have to say about negative reviews is that I'm all for them! I like to write them and I like to read them!

What do you think about negative reviews? Do you like to read/write them?

Have a topic you would like us to talk about? Let me know in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday (112)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Since You've Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Hitting the Shelves: May 06, 2014

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just... disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try... unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait... what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um...

Why I want this: I love Morgan Matson's really fun, summery contemporary reads! I'm currently reading Second Chance Summer right now which is making me even more excited about Since You've Been Gone and the book by her alter ego Katie Finn, Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend. I'm so in the mood for summery contemporary reads right now!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unique Books I've Read

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 16:45:00 +0000

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme of lists hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is the top ten books that we've read that we think are the most unique. The books that I chose are not necessarily unique as in there are no others like them, but I definitely thought they were unique when I first read them. Or they are standouts in their genres.

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: I don't read very many zombies books but The Forest of Hands and Teeth stood out to be because it's all about how people have survived all these years later. Even though, for me, the series went a little downhill, the first book is pretty great!

2. I Know it's Over by CK Kelly Martin: I Know it's Over is a contemporary novel about teenage pregnancy and abortion told from the guy's perspective. Seeing how a guy feels in a situation like this is what really made this novel stand out for me.

3. Unwind by Neal Shusterman: I have certainly never read a book like this before ever! Talk about a completely new twist on abortion and what makes a person's life worthwhile. The unwinding scene is probably one of the creepiest scenes I've ever read!

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I chose The Hunger Games for this list because I really believe it was unique when it was first released. And even though other books try as they might, there is still nothing like The Hunger Games.

5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins: There are a lot of books out there that are written in free verse but Identical was the first one that I've read so, to me, it stands out as being unique.

6. Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman: I really love this series and what makes it unique is the mixed media it uses to tell the story. While you're reading the book you'll get to parts where you have to go online to the website it gives you and put in the password that they also give you and watch the video. And you have to watch the videos because they are so important to the story. The story is pretty creepy and scary.

7. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: These books are so unique and have so many elements that normally would be really weird but somehow they really work! Cyborgs, moon people and fairy tale characters! It's so awesome!

8. Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano: Perfect Ruin takes place in a community that is in the clouds. In. The. Clouds. It is so good! I'm so excited to see what happens next for these cloud people.

9. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: To even try to explain this book would make me sound crazy but I've truly never read any book like it.

10. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: I pretty much cried through every page of this book and even though I read it ten years ago, it still stays with me.

Early Review: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Title: The Taking
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Taking #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Source: eARC
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

My Thoughts:

Kimberly Derting has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. I’m a huge fan of The Body Finder series and even though The Pledge wasn't that great for me, I was super excited when I found out she was releasing a new series! The Taking was literally the first book that I read this year! I was so excited about my ARC that I couldn't wait to dive right in.

The Taking is about a sixteen year old girl named Kyra who, after a softball game, suddenly disappears without a trace. She wakes up behind the dumpster of her local gas station 5 years later but it feels like the next morning to her. She’s still wearing her softball uniform and hasn't aged a day. Soon, a mysterious stranger starts showing up everywhere she goes and Kyra soon discovers that there is a lot more behind her disappearance than she originally thought.

Even though Kyra is a good main character I didn't feel all that emotionally attached to her. Everything that happens, her disappearance and reappearance, all happens so fast in the very beginning that you don’t really get a chance to become attached to the life that she had before. Most of the story is her struggle with accepting that everyone has moved on without her. We, the readers, don’t get the chance to know the Kyra before, we only know the person that Kyra becomes after she resurfaces.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Kyra and Tyler who incidentally is her “before” boyfriend’s younger brother. Since five years has now passed, Tyler is one year older than Kyra. They become really close throughout the book, both trying to figure out what happened to her. Tyler is really super cute! He always admired his older brother's girlfriend and now here she is, she hasn't aged a day and he has the chance to actually get to know her! I really like that he kind of always held a candle for her!

The plotting and the pacing of the book were a little bit slow at times, especially in the middle but it really kicks up towards the end, making me hopeful that book two will be an action-packed adventure. There was also a bit of a cliffhanger at the end which made me really excited! I don’t generally like cliffhangers but this one made me really anticipate the rest of the series! Oh, and since I wasn't super obvious about it, it’s about aliens which we definitely don’t have enough of in YA right now.

The Taking was a really great book to start the year off with and now in just a couple of weeks everyone can enjoy it as well! Not only was it a great start to a really exciting new series, it can really appeal to those readers who are new to sci-fi!

Waiting on Wednesday (111)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:16:00 +0000

Title: Brazen
Author: Katherine Longshore
Hitting the Shelves: June 12, 2014

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she’s married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court’s inner circle. Mary and “Fitz” join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court’s strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed…but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

Why I want this: I loved Gilt and Tarnish! I also love that you don't have to have read the books before to know what is going on in the current book! So great! Lovers of historical fiction should pick these up immediately!

March 2014 Book Haul!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:01:00 +0000

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out the books that have somehow come into my possession this month!

Purchased:

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Half Bad by Sally Green

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messanger

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

For Review:

Wings by Elizabeth Richards

Scan by Sarah Fine

Embers and Ash by T.M. Goeglein

Library:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

A huge thank you to Putnam & Sons for the review books!

What Does the Bookworm Say? Favorite TV Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:33:00 +0000

I'm so excited for this topic because I watch a lot of TV. Let's just be honest! Watching TV is so easy and there is just so much to watch! I don't have cable or anything so maybe I don't watch as much as I think or as much as I could. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Resurrection: This show just started on ABC so if you haven't watched it yet you can probably catch up on all the episodes on Hulu! I really love this new show because it's so mysterious! There is so much going on and so many unanswered questions already! I hope enough people watch it so that it will stay around for a few more seasons.

2. The Mindy Project: One of my favorite comedies right now is The Mindy Project! For some reason I love all things Mindy Kaling and I think she's just incredible! It's only in the second season but I'm so excited for where it's going and I can't wait for it to come back this week!!

3. Downton Abbey: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Downton Abbey! I watch this with my mom and sister and we can't get enough! Even though not a lot is going on, I've become attached to the characters and I pretty much hope the show never ends! And Maggie Smith is brilliant, as always!

4. Criminal Minds: I've watch Criminal Minds since day 1 and have loved it ever since! There's just something about serial killers that fascinates me! I especially love the episodes that are really violent and bloody but I don't know why!

5. Scandal: I LOVE SCANDAL! There's so much DRAMA!! I really hate it when people cheat on each other but for some reason I'm always rooting for Olivia Pope and Fitz! Maybe because the First Lady is so scheming and underhanded. But it's so good and I am wrapped every week!

Honorable Mention: Parks and Recreaction, The Black List and Gray's Anatomy

Don't forget to check out the other bookworms and see what they like to watch: Thuy @ Nite Lite Reviews, Kimberly @ The Windy Pages and Nicole @ The Reader's Antidote.

Waiting on Wednesday (110)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Title: The Girl From the Well
Author: Rin Chupeco
Hitting the Shelves: August 05, 2014

You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.

The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.

Why I want this: Anything that is pitched as "Dexter" meets whatever else, I'm totally on board! This books sounds so awesome and definitely creepy!!

Review: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Title: Black City

Author: Elizabeth Richards

Series: Black City #1

Publisher: Putnam's Sons BYR

Source: Library

Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

My Thoughts:

Since I already own an ARC of Phoenix and just received an ARC of the final book in the trilogy Wings I thought that it’s probably high time that a write a review for Black City. I was a little hesitant going into this book because I had heard it was about vampires and we all know that the whole vampire thing is way overdone in YA lit!

Looking back, I’m glad I've waited so long to write this review. I've read a few vampire novels since Black City and they all fell flat for me and has made me realize how unique this vampire story really is. While checking out my Goodreads account, I noticed that I gave this book 3 start just after I finished reading it. After my year of retrospection of vampire novels, this book definitely deserves 4 stars.

Black City starts off really, really strong! It’s super action-packed right off the bat which reeled me immediately! But then towards the middle it starts to drag a bit and get a little boring. And then at the end it gets really good again! I feel like I’m describing a trilogy all in one book!!

Even though it has a little insta-love, I still really loved the relationship between the two main characters. As far as world building, I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the vampires and/or darklings and how they’re depicted as a separate species. It’s all very interesting and something I want to read more about. Black City is one of the better vampire novels out there in YA literature!

Waiting on Wednesday (109)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Title: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend
Author: Katie Finn
Hitting the Shelves: May 13, 2014

Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma's plan is working (she's finding it hard to resist Josh), but she's finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

Why I want this: When May and June roll around, this is the type of book that I want to read! It helps put me in the summer mood and they're so much fun. Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend sounds like a really great read!

Top Ten Tuesday: Spring 2014 TBR

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme of lists hosted by The Brooke and The Bookish.

Here are the top 10 books on my spring 2014 TBR:

1. Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo: I loved Shadow and Bone so I really don't know why I've waiting so long to read the second one! But the third is coming out soon so I really need to get on it!

2. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: I started reading this book last year but for some reason I just wasn't in the mood. But now I really need to read it to be ready for the third and final book!

3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I've been wanting to get into this series for a really long time. And this spring is when I'm going to do it! I've just heard it's so awesome!

4. Misborn by Brandon Sanderson: This is going to be the epic fantasy series that I get into this spring! Bring on a whole new world!

5. Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian: Loved Burn for Burn and it's about time that I get on Fire with Fire! Can't wait to read more about these girls' revenge.

6. Fracture by Teri Terry: Slated was, surprisingly, a pretty great dystopian and I'm really interested to see what happens next for Kayla!

7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I want to read this book SO. BAD! I've heard the most amazing thing about it and I need to seriously make some time for it! And the book itself is just beautiful!

8-10. The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima: I've read The Demon King and it was really great! I plan on reading the next three books this spring because it's a great YA epic fantasy series that I'm so glad I've finally picked up!

What Does the Bookworm Say? New Adult

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:45:00 +0000

What Does the Bookworm Say is a bi-weekly discussion post hosted here! To see what some other bookworms say on the topic you can read their posts at Nite Lite Book Reviews, The Windy Pages and The Reader's Antidote!

So sorry for the late post guys! I've been sick and since it's spring break work has been pretty busy. This week we're talking about the genre New Adult.

I guess I first heard about New Adult about a year or so ago. I was confused as to whether or not it was considered YA or not because I was reading about it on a lot of YA blogs. So I wasn't really sure what it really was.

So, according to my understanding, it's written like YA but it's for a more mature audience because of the sexual content. These New Adult novels are usually contemporaries following characters that are college aged.

Even though I still haven't read a new adult novel (I planned to read one by now but it didn't happen), I have two that I really want to read and will hopefully do so soon!

I would really like to see a New Adult fantasy novel! Now that would be something that I would definitely read!

Right now, New Adult is usually published by indie publishers. This makes them a little bit harder to find in hard copy but also very cheap in e-book form. Hopefully, sometime soon the big publishing houses will see how well New Adult is doing and start publishing some New Adult novels. I really think New Adult can be something big and exciting in the future!

Do you guys like/read New Adult? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Life by Committee

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:00:00 +0000

Title: Life by Committee
Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Source: ARC
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Some secrets are too good to keep.

Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they've dropped her flat.

Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend.

Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe.

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own.
But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

My Thoughts:

Life by Committee, which will be released in May, takes in interesting look at how influential the internet can be in teenagers’ lives. Not only does it show the inter-working of female friendships but it also shows just how fragile everything seems when you’re in high school.

Life by Committee follows high school student Tabitha after she has had a huge falling out with her best friends. As a hobby, she likes to collect old, used books, especially those that have notes in the margin so that she can go through and read other people’s thoughts. While reading the margin notes in a used copy of The Secret Garden she comes across a website called Life by Committee. It’s a place where teenagers can share their secrets as long as they agree to complete dares set by the moderator. They are also required to complete one dare a week if they want to continue being members of this group. Before Tabitha knows it, she becomes completely obsessed with Life by Committee and is living her life by secrets and dares; almost all of her decisions are made by the group’s moderator. Nothing good can come when you let other people make important life decisions for you. And most of Tabitha’s dares involves another girl’s boyfriend. If you felt like you had no one left who understands you, would you turn to strangers on the internet? It’s interesting because a lot of people do even though it’s not to this extreme.

I thought Life by Committee was a pretty good contemporary and a pretty quick read. I liked it because it’s not the typical love story and the ending was definitely different. I really like contemporaries like this: short, quick read, intriguing main characters and a story that wraps up well at the end. I definitely recommend this book for those who are really into contemporaries.

Waiting on Wednesday (108)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 21:28:00 +0000

Title: To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Author: Jenny Han
Hitting the Shelves: April 15, 2014

To All the Boys I've Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Why I want this: I love Jenny Han's writing! I've read all her books since The Summer I Turned Pretty series and they're so good! This book sounds awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

What Does The Bookworm Say? Booktube

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 13:00:00 +0000

Hi! Welcome to this week's What Does the Bookworm Say? Today we are talking about our thoughts on Booktube, the Booktube community and who are favorite booktubers are. Also stop by Thuy @ Nite Lite Reviews, Kimberly @ The Windy Pages and Nicole @ The Reader's Antidote and check out their thoughts on Booktube.

Booktube is something that I have stumbled on pretty recently; as in within the past year. For those of you unfamiliar with Booktube it is a community of people on Youtube who make videos primarily about books. And it is a thing you guys. It is a BIG thing! I have seen it grow and evolve over the past year exponentially and more and more Youtubers are joining the Booktube community every day.

Through my travels of Youtube, I've noticed two very different types of Booktubers. There are the Booktubers who love read books and love to get book recommendations. They love fangirling over books that they love and the overall tone of their videos is always happy! I love watching people like that. They’re optimistic about sequels to books they love and they understand that book to movie adaptations are just that: adaptations. They have high hopes and the look on the bright side.

Then there are those Booktubers who have not quiet mastered the art of the critical review and sound like they’re complaining all the time. Nothing can be just right for them. They don’t like this cover or that love triangle which is all fine and good but when you’re talking about it in front of a camera you really have to get the tone right or it comes off as whining and complaining. Do you want some cheese with that whine?

If you start watching Booktubers for any consistent amount of time you will notice that they all talk about the same few books, always. For instance, right now I can’t watch a booktube video without hearing something about these four books/series: Vicious by V.E. Schwab, Under the Never Sky Series by Veronica Rossi, the Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu or The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Braken. Every. Single. Video. Granted these are all really great books and series but switch it up a little bit seriously! Booktubers need to get some new favorite books!

Another aspect I don’t really like about booktube is review videos. I have found that I would much rather read a book review. That way, if I haven’t read the book, I can skip parts of the review that I think might give something away. I can’t do that with a video review. If I skip to three minutes in, I might find myself lost.

The best types of videos to watch are book hauls, monthly wrap-up videos and for some reason I really like Q&A. Here are five of my favorite Booktubers and a great way to become introduced to the booktube community.

1. Little Book Owl
2. booksandquills
3. The Readables
4. Ermahgerd Berks
5. PeruseProject

Thanks for reading our discussion this week! Do you keep up with the booktube community? Are you a big fan? Let me know in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday (107)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:00:00 +0000

Title: The Vanishing Season
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Hitting the Shelves: July 01, 2014

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig. I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

Why I want this: I've never read Jodi Lynn Anderson but I've heard some pretty amazing things about Tiger Lily! This book definitely sounds interesting. I can't tell if the point of view is from an actual person (living or dead) or something more mysterious! I think it's definitely worth checking out!

Waiting on Wednesday (106)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Title: Fiendish
Author: Breanna Yovanoff
Hitting the Shelves: August 14, 2014

Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.

Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.

When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.

Why I want this: I liked Paper Valentine, Yovanoff's previous novel, although I think it could have been more mysterious. I'm hoping this book is as creepy as it looks and sounds! Here's to hoping!

Top Ten Tuesday: Why I love Being a Blogger/Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 13:00:00 +0000

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a meme of lists.

This is such a great topic because I love talking about blogging! And I love talking about reading! When I first started this blog I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was already a reader and I was looking for some sort of outlet that I couldn't find in my real life. And then I discovered book blogs. I soon realized that I had only skimmed the surface of what it means to be a book blogger. There are so many great aspects of being a blogger/reader and here are a few of my favorites!

Blogging

1. Books: I love being a blogger because I love books! I wouldn't be here if I didn't! There are so many great books out there and even though I've been at this reading/blogging thing for 4 years now, I've only discovered the tip of the iceberg of the awesome books out there!

2. Community: I love this community! I have met some really great friends (people I can actually hang out with in real life) who have the same interests as me (not just books) and we get along famously! They literally keep me sane and help me realize I’m not the only crazy book lover, knitter, cat lady, BBC watcher and all-around introvert out there.

3. Reviewing: Even though I often complain that I have to write a review about this book or that, I really do love posting reviews and hearing my reader’s feedback! I especially love it when I recommend a book that I love to people and they come back to me saying how much they loved it and read it because of my review! I feel like I’m making a little bit of a difference in the book world (even if it’s just a tiny, tiny bit)!

4. Recommendations: I love getting recommendation from other book bloggers. They can see the books that I've read or am currently reading and say, “Hey, I see you've read and LOVED The Girl of Fire and Thorns; you’ll probably really like Throne of Glass!” Hey guess what?! I DID!!! I wouldn't know even half the books I've read if it wasn't for other bloggers giving me recommendations.

5. Creativity: I love trolling blogs, checking out their titles and blog designs and seeing if they made it themselves or had someone else make it. There is so much creativity out there among book bloggers, its mind blowing! Some bloggers are absolutely fabulous at writing code and making the cutest designs. Then there’s me and I have no patience whatsoever when it comes to the tech and the intricacies of blog design. And that’s okay too!

Reading:

6. Books: I love being a reader because I love books! I love building my TBR, seeing what books are coming out this summer, finally buying that coveted next book in a series I love and just looking at them on my shelves! I love holding them in my hands and skimming my fingers across the beautiful covers! I LOVE books!

7. Escape: I’m not saying that I have some horrible life where I need books to escape from it (not that escape is a bad thing). I just think being human is boring and I would much rather spend my afternoon in the magic of a fantasy novel with dragons and wizards and a world that is completely different from my own.

8. Creativity: Authors are so creative! Sometimes I’m just in awe of how they craft these completely new worlds full of details out of their imaginations! It’s crazy!! I love discovering new and old fantasy novels and just losing myself in the magical storytelling.

9. Book to movie adaptations: I love a good book to movie adaptation! Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? I even like bad one too. Beautiful Creatures? City of Bones? I love seeing books come to life. I also love that someone has taken the time and the interest to put something I love so much (not Beautiful Creatures; that book was terrible) and put it on the big screen. I love being a fangirl!

10. Book Club: Being a part of a book club is a great way to mingle with other readers without having a blog! I love being a part of the book club that I go to and I have read some books that I would never have picked up on my own! It’s definitely one of the highlights of my month!

Blog Tour: Vengeance by Megan Miranda

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Title: Vengeance
Author: Megan Miranda
Series: Fracture #2
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Release Date: February 04, 2014
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Nobody really believes in a curse. Until you know the people who disappear. Too much coincidence, you look for reason. Too much death, you grasp for something to blame. Carson pulled Delaney out and he died on the side of the road with her mouth pressed to his. Her air in his body. Troy. She told the cops it was suicide. Didn't matter. The lake released her and grabbed another. But when Decker's father dies in a pool of spilled water on their kitchen floor, all Decker can feel is a slow burning rage. Because he knows that Delaney knew that his dad was going to die. She knew and backed out of his house and never said a word. Falcon Lake still has a hold on them both, and Decker can't forgive Delaney until he knows why.

Community Reviews:

Reading Teen

The Starry-Eyed Revue

Book'd Out

What Does The Bookworm Say? Cover Changes and Vampire Academy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:46:00 +0000

Cover changes are usually hit or miss for me. Some of my absolute favorite covers are changed halfway through a series and I get really mad about it! So now I have three hardcover books in the old cover and now your changing the covers for the last 3 books but your going to release the first 3 books in paperback with the new covers so at least some of your books match the rest of them in the series. So frustrating!! Then there are other time when I just think that a cover is so ugly that I hope and pray that they will change it eventually because I feel like that ugly cover is keeping people from reading this AWESOME book!

The latter is literally what happened with me and Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I can't tell you how many times and over the course of how many years I picked up Vampire Academy in the store and put it back on the shelf because that cover is SO ugly! When I finally did buy it, I was embarrassed to read it in public because of that hideous cover!

The first one is the copy that I had originally. Who is that one the cover! Is is supposed to be Rose? Why does she look like Angelina Jolie? Why is it such a close shot of her face? At this point I even welcome the movie cover as a much better alternative to the first one. I don't even usually like movie covers but I would take it over this! The second cover is okay and in person, the face is really fogged in the background and the VA really stands out. So the new covers are a little bit better and that's all I can ask for at this point.

What do you think of the Vampire Academy cover changes? Let me know in the comments!! And don't forget to stop by Thuy @ Nite Lite Book Reviews, Kimberly @ The Windy Pages and Nicole @ The Reader's Antidote and see what they think about Vampire Academy cover changes!

Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Title: Vicious
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

My thoughts:

Before all the hype started to grow for Vicious I knew I wanted to read it. I read Schwab’s The Archived and immediately fell in love with her writing style, knowing that I would read pretty much anything else that she wrote. So when I heard about Vicious I was all aboard and got it from the library as soon as it became available to me.

Here’s a basic run down of the story. Eli and Victor are college roommates and best friends. Both are fairly smart and have bright futures ahead of them. Eli discovers that one can attain “extra ordinary powers” or become an EO through a near death experience. So Eli and Victor force themselves into near death experiences to become EOs. Without giving away any spoilers, 10 pass and the two are mortal enemies and Victor has made it his mission to take Eli out!

Almost every single character in this book is a terrible person. They almost have no redeeming qualities. Eli is out trying to fulfill what he believes to be his “God-given mission” and is just doing absolutely horrible things. Victor wants to do horrible things to Eli in the name of vengeance. Never a good reason. I think my favorite character is Sydney because she really struggles with right and wrong throughout the book. She has this innocence about her that, even though it doesn’t make Victor change his mind about anything, it really makes him take a good hard look at what he’s doing. And with everyone doing absolutely terrible things the whole time, it was refreshing to read from her perspective at times.

No spoilers, but the ending is definitely what made Vicious so good for me. It was very satisfying! If you’re a fan of Schwab’s other book I would definitely recommend reading Vicious!

Waiting on Wednesday (105)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Title: The Museum of Intangible Things
Author: Wendy Wunder
Hitting the Shelves: April 10, 2014

Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).

Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.

As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance,karma, and even happiness.

An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.

Why I want this: I absolutely loved The Probability of Miracles! Wendy Wunder is one my favorite new contemporary authors and I'm so excited for her second book! I have a few go-to contemporary authors and she's quickly climbing to the top of that list!

Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 03, 2013
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

My thoughts:

There has been a whole lot of hype surrounding this book and people have been giving it rave reviews almost across the board. People have said that it’s a unique take on the overdone vampire story and that they found it very refreshing. I’m definitely going to be in the minority when it comes to The Coldest Girl in Coldtown because I don’t think that it’s all that great! So for this review I’m going to make a list of the problems and why it’s not all that unique.

1. Clocking in at over 400 pages, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is just way too long especially since not much happens for most of the book. The first 30 pages start off really strong with a super gruesome scene of an entire party that has just been slaughtered. So I thought, “Yes! This is going to be great!!” But no. It was very slow and at times I questioned whether or not I was going to finish it.

2. Tana, the main character, is very unlikable and just makes horrible decisions. “Hey, let me save this vampire who could possibly drain me dry once we are out of danger. That’s an awesome idea!” “Instead of just dropping my newly turned vampire ex-boyfriend off at the nearest coldtown I’m actually going to go in and hang out for a little bit! That also sounds awesome!” Everything that happened to her is her own damn fault. She is just a flat character and was exactly the same person at the end as she was at the beginning.

3. If I thought Tana was unlikable and annoying, her little sister was even worse! What a naive little brat. The only purpose she served was as a plot device for the ending of the story. That’s it!!

4. In my humble opinion this certainly did not seem like a “unique” vampire story. In The Coldest Girl in Coldtown there are vampires who have been around for a very long time who worked tirelessly to keep their existence a secret. When a person gets bit by a vampire they then turn into a full-fledged vampire after consuming human blood. The older the vampire is the stronger the vampire is. The vampires get burned to ash if they are in direct sunlight. How is this in any way unique? The only part that I thought was remotely interesting was the coldtowns. But unfortunately there is not a lot of information there.

So overall the book was a bit of a letdown. It’s way too hyped for what it is. If someone wants to read a unique take on vampires, go read the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. Now that’s what I call a good vampire story!

What Does the Bookworm Say? Favorite Romances

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:00:00 +0000

We're back this week with another discussion post of What Does the Bookworm Say?! Go check out my fellow book bloggers, Nite Lite Book Reviews, The Reader's Antidote and The Windy Pages, as we discuss this week's topic. In honor of Valentine's Day we are discussing our favorite romances. It is literally so windy right now I feel like I should be talking about my favorite horror novels!

I usually don't read books that are strictly romance and I've certainly never read the typical "romance" novel. I usually go for adventure, fantasy or paranormal books before I pick up contemporary or romance. Those are my go-to. I like a plot that is enhanced by the romance, not driven by it. But there have been a few books that I've read and loved that I would consider romancey.

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: I loved this book so much. It is such a beautiful story of love and the course of two people's lives and how they come together and meet. It's so unique and all the characters are just amazing. It's not only one of my favorite romance novels but it's just one of my all time favorite books.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: This is not only a great story about love but also about friendships and the relationships between people in general. I love the emphasis on making every moment count and living life to the fullest.

3. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: The great thing about Eleanor & Park is that is doesn't have a satisfying happy ending. It is very realistic in the fact that most high school romances are not going to last forever.

4. Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols: I loved Going Too Far and the two main characters because they have that type of healthy relationship that not only helps fix a lot of the past hurt in their lives but also challenges each other to be better people. John After is also one of my favorite males characters ever!

5. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins: I loved this book because it just shows how much we can miss out on if we let other people influence us. Cricket let his sister's opinion get in the way of his feelings for Lola and it really created a barrier in their relationship. But it's such a great story with a quirky main character that I just loved from start to finish.

Even though these aren't the typical "romance" novel, romance is still the most prominent feature in these books so I'm going to call them love stories. So what are some of your favorite love stories? Let me know in the comments!