FireStarBooks

A (Sponsored) Fashion Giveaway: Firmoo Sunglasses

2013-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

Firmoo is the World's Most Popular Online Eyeglasses Store with 580K+ fans on Facebook. Their mission is to offer varieties of unbelievable cheap yet fashionable prescription & Plano eyewear to the consuming public. All of their eyewear is directly from affiliate factory, so the price is 85%~90% lower than that in the traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Follow Firmoo on Twitter and Facebook.

Note: I didn't receive anything from Firmoo except for emails ^^''. The sunglasses below are what I thought I would look best based on the pictures, style, and Firmoo handy-dandy online sunglasses tester. <---Haha, I got obsessed with it.

Interview (Vlog Style)♥Giveaway: The Savage Blue by Zoraida Cordova

2013-05-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

A storm is coming...

The ocean is a vicious place. Deeper and darker than Tristan could have imagined. Beneath its calm blue surface, an ancient battle is churning —and no one is safe.

In the quest for the Sea Throne, Tristan has already watched one good friend die. Now he must lead the rest on a dangerous voyage in search of the trident that will make him king. But while Tristan chases his destiny, the dark forces racing against him are getting stronger, and the sea witch of his nightmares is getting closer.

Battling sea dragons and savage creatures of the deep, Tristan needs his friends' support. But they each have their secrets, and a betrayal will force Tristan to choose between his crown and his best friend Layla — the only girl he's ever loved.

Hiiii! Today I am sooooo honoured to have Zoraida stopping by for a Q&A session, what's cooler is that she did it in a vlog form!! Awesome! If you didn't know, I loooovee The Vicious Deep (the first book in the series), I myself did a horrible vlog review of it....aha...go check it out if you want here. Anywhooo~ Let's get started with Zoraida :D

Interview

Giveaway

Now time for the epic giveaway! At the bottom of the post you will see the prize packs, super awesome right? So why wait, enter now! :D

ARC REVIEW: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

2013-05-06T00:12:00.003-04:00

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

First, I would like to thank RazorbillCa/PenguinCa for sending this ARC to me. I know I am SUPER lucky and am REALLY sorry at how long it took for me to finish. >/////////< Second, all the quotes are from the ARC and not the finished copy so they are subject to change. Now on to my review.

REVIEW
Note that this review is in bullet form, and each bullet doesn't connect to the previous nor later one...haha my mind is too jumbled for connectivity right now. :P

What is the most amazing thing about Rick Yancey? It is ability to connect to the readers. You know those memes or posts on the internet that describes something that just makes you "YESSS! I DO THAT!!!" or "YESSS! I TOTALLY GET YOU!!!", well that's what Rick Yancey does in his book. There are sentences that just makes you go "YES!" and you completely agrees with him. He just seems to help readers get their words out. I mean a lot of the times I wouldn't ever realize that's how I feel until he mentions something and I am sitting on the couch shouting "OMG YES! THAT'S SO ME! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!". Rick has the ability to let readers see what links them all, reminding us that we share a lot of the same feelings and thoughts. It just amazes me how he can literally take words out of my mouth.

Short Chapters...me gusta. I like breaks between a lot of things and I reaaallllyyy enjoys short chapters. I can put a book down and go do some other stuff and come back. I don't really have an obligation of 20 page chapter. BUT that meant it became easier for me to stop reading. GOSH! IT TOOK WAAYYYY TOO LONG FOR ME TO READ THIS BOOK!!! I am soooo ashamed. I'll just stab myself in the corner now.

What's different about this book compared to other apocalyptic YA novels? This book actually had build-ups, background information instead of super fast pace, "let's dive right in" kind of plot. A good half of this book was background, which Rick wrote it in a way that I didn't mind. Some books, like The Archived, also took a while to developed, but for me The Archived was not building but rather dragging on the plot. I felt like for The 5th Wave, it was a necessity to write the first part, the development. That's why I found this book pretty amazing. It is hard to write a book with a build up and still keep readers' attention. There was this part before the 20% mark of the book that literally torn my heart open. I just bawled. It was such a shock to me, I DIDN'T expected it AT ALL. It felt like I was shoot and just couldn't breath. And at other parts I felt like I was in a swat team, super intense and just EPIC! I was like "damn, I am so cool". Power of Rick Yancey, brilliant!

Excerpt♥Giveaway: Touch by Melissa Haag

2013-05-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

Synopsis

A touch. That’s all it takes for Tessa to know her future with a boy. Her mom tells her she needs to choose her best option before she turns seventeen. Problem is, she sees all her ‘options’ dying before they turn thirty. That may have worked for the last fourteen generations of women in her family tree, but she can’t choose and condemn someone to an early grave.

An unfortunate incident at school starts a chain of events that reveals a centuries old chaos demon and a chance to remove her ‘gift’ forever.

Excerpt

“Tessa,” a deep rumbling voice quietly drifted to me, “its Morik. Open your eyes.”

My heart gave a little flutter at the sudden sound of his voice. I took a calming breath and pushed any fear I had aside. He told me to open my eyes as if I’d purposely closed them, as if they actually listened to me. I tried opening them anyway and to my surprise, it worked.

It took a moment for them to adjust to the darkened room, the only light coming from under the bedroom door. I heard the TV on in the living room. I’d always thought they went to bed after I did.

“Can you turn on the reading light?” I whispered not wanting to turn on the bedroom light.

A quiet click later, the dim yellow glow from the light blinded me. Usually kept in a kitchen drawer for emergencies, I’d snagged it when I’d gone for a glass of water before brushing out my hair. I’d thought I’d need it to stumble around outside in the dark.

I sat up in bed, mentally bracing myself. No fear, I reminded myself as I swung my legs over the edge of the mattress and turned toward the light.

He wasn’t as I remembered him.

Bookies Got Style (1): Katniss Everdeen + Puffy 3 Tone Grey Review

2013-05-01T00:05:00.000-04:00

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EDITION OF BOOKIES GOT STYLE!!!

If you didn't know already from the title, I'll be doing Katniss Everdeen inspired looks. Haha, I am not a pro at this so please excuse my photos and looks. I just want to have fun. It is actually extremely embarrassing for me to do this. xD

So let's dive in shall we?

Remember how at the Reaping Katniss was wearing blue? Well this was my take at it. It came off a bit shiny then I hoped but I paired a light blue pokadotted top and a plain grey pair of jeans and some blue flats. The pokadots kind of made me think of cute olden days like "the-good-old-days-before-Katniss-was-dragged-into-the-Game". Wow...I hope you get that. And nothing is more plain than grey pants. Notice the dark eye circles, the pale lips, the stiff awkward pose? District 12 man! I also French braided my bangs on one side and tied everything into a loose side bun. It kind of gives it a peasant look.

The girl on fire needs to still look professional for the Capitol right? Nothing is more sleek then a blazer and of course we can't forget the red/orange hot colour that defines our Katniss. I even added a little extra something with the tank top underneath, a little shiny rimstones to add to the "wow" factor of the Capitol. You want to not scare everyone off on the streets but still look Capitol ready. And now to the shoes, these killers are super comfortable even with the height (and they were only $5 yes gasp Capitol, us commoners can get good looking shoes at a fraction of the price! Beat it!) Also with the hair, it is a side French braid with a high bun. This keeps the hair from the face, giving it a polished look.

Book♥Audiobook Review: All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

2013-04-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again… When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?

An e-version of audiobook was provided by Simon and Schuster Audio for review.

Review

I have to say that the books was a DNF for me. It took me months, yes months, of re-starting and retrying but this just didn't work. I would've probably liked it more if I had the book but I just couldn't finish the audiobook. Maybe in the future I might borrow the book and like it but for now, it is a no go.

As for the part of the book I listened up to I found it too descriptive but not effective enough to "see" what Hiroshi is talking about. I tried hard to picture many of the technologies but it was something that you rather see than tried to piece all the description together. Also with an audiobook it was hard to for to go back and re-listen unlike a book where you can just glance back and re-read the sentence. I mean you can but it is a pain.

Anyone who likes classic war novels with sci-fi elements, this book is for you.

I think it is hard to write sci-fi war books (to be honest, I never read a lot of them), it is so hard to picture what the writers are "seeing". So I am so glad there is going to be a film featuring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. :) It comes out 2014.

You can see more photo on set from Just Jared right here. :)

Cover Reveal: Playing Tyler by T L Costa

2013-04-24T11:01:00.003-04:00

Keep telling yourself – it’s just a game… it’s just a game.

Tyler MacCandless can’t focus, even when he takes his medication. He can’t focus on much of anything except caring for his older brother, Brandon, who’s in rehab. Just when it seems like his future is on a collision course with a life sentence at McDonald’s, his mentor Rick asks him to test an incredible new video game. If his score’s high enough, it could earn him a place in flight school. But then Brandon goes MIA and Tyler discovers that the game is far more than it seems…

Cover Reveal: King's Crusade by AD Starrling

2013-04-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

King’s Crusade

Seventeeen Series Book 2

AD Starrling

Genre: Supernatural thriller

The perfect immortal warrior.

A set of stolen, priceless artifacts.

An ancient sect determined to bring about the downfall of human civilization.

The exciting, action-packed follow-up to Soul Meaning and the second installment in the supernatural thriller series, Seventeen.

When a team of scientists unearth scriptures older than the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in the Eastern Desert mountains in Egypt, a mystery lost to the tides of time is uncovered. Heading the expedition is Dimitri Reznak, the Head of the Crovir Immortal Culture & History Section. But the monumental discovery is spoiled by evidence of looting and half the priceless artifacts Reznak has been seeking for centuries have disappeared.

Alexa King is a covert agent for the Crovir First Council. When she is approached by her godfather for a mission that could help elucidate the enigma of her lost past, she finds herself delving into the dangerous and shadowy world of secret religious societies. Assigned by Reznak to assist her is Zachary Jackson, a gifted human and Harvard archaeology professor.

In their search for the missing artifacts, King and Jackson stumble upon the existence of a deadly sect whose origins are as mystifying as the relics they are searching for. From North Africa to the doors of Vatican City itself, they unveil a centuries-old plan that aims to shatter the very structure of civilized society.

With the help of Reznak and a group of unexpected allies, King and Jackson must stop the enemy and uncover the astonishing truth behind the missing artifacts and King’s own unearthly origins before all is lost.

What do I think?

I LOVE IT! It is dark, dangerous, fierce!! It reminds me of a Resident Evil poster! I just can't! The effects and details look professional. Just fabulous!

Review♥Giveaway: Soul Meaning by AD Starrling

2013-04-18T01:18:00.000-04:00

Soul Meaning
Seventeen Series Book One
AD Starrling
Genre: Supernatural thriller
ISBN: 978-0957282605
ASIN: B008L8IU8C
Number of pages: 420
Word Count: 108,187
Cover Artist: Streetlight Graphics
Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA
Smashwords iTunes BN Sony ebooks
Blackwell Waterstones Book Depository Foyles Big Hay

Book Description

A half breed immortal. An international manhunt. A race against time to stop a terrifying plot that threatens to kill millions. The gripping, action-packed debut novel by AD Starrling and the first in the supernatural thriller series Seventeen.

‘My name is Lucas Soul.
Today, I died again.
This is my fifteenth death in the last four hundred and fifty years.’

The Crovirs and the Bastians. Two races of immortals who have lived side by side with humans for millennia and been engaged in a bloody war since the very dawn of their existence. With the capacity to survive up to sixteen deaths, it was not until the late fourteenth century that they reached an uneasy truce, following a deadly plague that wiped out more than half of their numbers and made the majority of survivors infertile.

Soul is an outcast of both immortal societies. Born of a Bastian mother and a Crovir father, a half breed whose very existence is abhorred by the two races, he spends the first three hundred and fifty years of his life being chased and killed by the Hunters.

One fall night in Boston, the Hunt starts again, resulting in Soul’s fifteenth death and triggering a chain of events that sends him on the run with Reid Hasley, a former US Marine and his human business partner of ten years. When a lead takes them to Washington DC and a biotechnology company with affiliations to the Crovirs, they cross the Atlantic to Europe, on the trail of a French scientist whose research seems intrinsically linked to the reason why the Hunters are after Soul again.

From Paris to Prague, their search for answers will lead them deep into the immortal societies and bring them face to face with someone from Soul’s past. Shocking secrets are uncovered and fresh allies come to the fore as they attempt to put a stop to a new and terrifying threat to both immortals and humans.

Time is running out for Soul. Can he get to the truth before his seventeenth death, protect the ones he loves and prevent another immortal war?

Review

I received this book last year from AD and read it in a heart beat. I re-visited it for this blog tour. <3 I love AD to death, and she is one of best friends, but in no way did that affect my review. Hope you guys enjoy~

If you love Supernatural, or Grimm, Person of Interest, Nikita or anything of the sort, you will LOVE this book.

The book started like no other; it completely captivated me. Imagine sneaky little arms coming out of the book and pulling you into the book...yup. I felt I was thrown into a live action film with bullets flying right past me. My sympathetic nervous system was going crazy. This book will:
Organ Effect
Eye Dilates pupil
Heart Increases rate and force of contraction
Lungs Dilates bronchioles
Blood Vessels Constricts
Sweat Glands Activates sweat secretion
Digestive tract Inhibits peristalsis
Kidney Increases renin secretion
Penis Promotes ejaculation

Organ	Effect
Eye	Dilates pupil
Heart	Increases rate and force of contraction
Lungs	Dilates bronchioles
Blood Vessels	Constricts
Sweat Glands	Activates sweat secretion
Digestive tract	Inhibits peristalsis
Kidney	Increases renin secretion
Penis	Promotes ejaculation

Above was copied straight off of Wiki...haha, I was too lazy to type it up. Gosh my profs and  teachers should be ashamed of me for going into science.

But really, I haven't felt this attached to a book from the very beginning since I read Hunted by Cheryl Rainfield. I literally had trouble breathing. It was almost like a very vivid dream, you know the ones that sends shivers down your body long after you wake up? The story wasn't scary but it felt so real!

New Project: Bookies Got Style! Join me!

2013-04-10T20:14:00.005-04:00

Bookies Got Style!

Hi hi! I know I have been very busy lately but....(!!!) I have an idea and I need YOUR help!
(And you don't have to be "fashionista" to write the post! This project is just a showcase of your style and your interest in fashion/beauty. So don't panic!)

Some of you might know I started Fashion Friday (but I haven't been updating it for a while...eeks!) And now I have something else!

I know many of you here are not only into books and reading and more books (even if you are, that's great!). But I know a lot of you guys love fashion and beauty!

What I am looking for:

Authors or Bloggers or ANYONE!!!
Guest Posts (on fashion/beauty - book related or not, doesn't matter!)

I am basically hoping for you guys to guest post on anything fashion/beauty related. It can be a post about:
- Your style
- How you shop
- Where you shop
- Whose style you like the best
- Your Favourite Youtube Beauty Guru
- Favourite makeup
- Favourite designers or brand or stores etc.

Or if you want to go with the book route:
- Write about a character' style,
- Maybe a red carpet fashion show for your favourite character?
- Which character will win in a fashion battle?
- Mermaid style versus Fairies?
- Achieving flawless vampire skin? Etc

And for authors you can write about your characters as well! What will he or she wear on a casual date, or an evening gala, fighting badass monsters? Sky is the limit here! And of course, authors, you don't have to write about your characters if you don't want to (it was just a suggestion, really!). Write about cosplay! I don't know! A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G! (Heehee see how I sneaked in cosplay? omg I'm so bad).

Can you write about other geeky stuff?...................Hell to the yes!
- Love Sherlock? Firefly? Merlin?
- 30's, 40's, 50's...? Medieval?
- Comic is your thing?
- Iron Man makes you go gaga? (Maybe what you will wear to a party hosted by him? Or something even....*wiggles eyebrow* eh?)
- Love cartoons? Anime? Manga?

And you said you like art? AWESOME!
Why not show off your art?! Got any fanart of amazing book characters? How about just random masterpieces ready to be discover! I would love to see!

Love something, and want to relate it to fashion/beauty? WRITE ABOUT IT!

You can email me your posts, or post it on your own blog (but please leave me a link either via comments, twitter, or facebook - I want to see them!) Now...

Let's show the world that us, BOOKIES, GOT STYLE!

And if you don't mind, can you share this little project of mine? :3 I mean I will be a little disappointed if no one joins me but....I guess that's okay? *cries*

I will hopefully post my first one next mouth as I need some items to come in first... ^^

First Post: Katniss Everdeen

GMTA's Books Giveaway

2013-04-08T19:49:00.001-04:00

Julia @ As You Wish Reviews is hosting multiple giveaways of Great Mind Think Alike books. Since not a lot of people entered, GMTA asked for bloggers to share the giveaway with the readers so I am doing so now. So if any of the books interest you, go ahead and enter! :)

C. Michael Powers Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway Ellen Mae Franklin Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway Debbie Brown Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Promo Post: Settle and Reveal by Brina Courtney

2013-04-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

Settle Summary:

Betrayal leaves nasty scars. A soul departs. Love must conquer all, or be lost forever.

Shay's life has once again fallen into mystery as she discovers her father's whereabouts. On a mission to locate him and bring him home she learns more about who to trust than she thought possible. Her group of cryptids will be forced to rise again and defeat their common enemy, but they will also discover another hidden threat. As their queen, Shay's discoveries in Settle, the final installment of the Cryptid Tales series, will shake the cryptid world forever.

Reveal Summary:

You think seeing ghosts is weird? Tell me something I don't know.
My childhood best friend Jeremy happens to be a ghost.
My life is a puzzle, and the biggest piece missing has been my dad. Since his disappearance when I was six it's been tough, but Jeremy has been by my side through it all.
But now Jeremy has gone missing too and I feel like I'm never going to get all the answers I've been looking for.
Fate intervenes when Hugh, a real live college beefcake, starts taking an interest in me. He divulges that he also shares my little "gift" of seeing the dead and I know I'm finally getting closer to finding all the pieces.
However, the more the puzzle is completed, the more questions I have.
Senior year is hard enough as it is, but clearly I like a challenge.

Interview♥Giveaway: Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland

2013-03-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

Title: Vengeance Bound

Author: Justina Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers

Release date: April 2, 2013

Amazon |Barnes and Noble | Indiebound

The Goddess Test meets Dexter in an edgy, compelling debut about one teen’s quest for revenge… no matter how far it takes her.

Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies—the hawk and the serpent—lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.

Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.

Interview with Justina Ireland

Please share with us a little bit about Cory and what readers can expect from the main character.

J.I: Cory is pretty much a hot mess. Her real name is Amelie, but since she’s on the run she has to use an alias, and she’s kind of lost herself. She’s lonely but also not good at making genuine connections with people, mostly because she has to hide such a large part of her life. So she lives a very fractured existence: normal life by day, the Furies’ vengeance by night.

Vengeance Bound is really about Amelie reconciling those two parts of herself, and deciding who she wants to be: an agent of the Furies or a normal girl with normal interests? And really, can she even be normal?

Book Blast♥Giveaway: Blood Awakening by Jamie Manning

2013-03-25T00:00:00.001-04:00

Stella Reviews: Wonder by R. J. Palacio

2013-03-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

Review

If there was one book I wish I had with me when I was in grade 5, this book would be it. Usually, I am not a big fan of coming-of-age stories. I always figured I read a book to get away from real life, why would I read about all of life's ups and downs just to throw me back down to reality? I was forced for read Alice, I Think back in grade 9 and I still get shivers down my spine when I think about it. I could never connect with Alice and that was the book's ultimate downfall.

August Pullman, however, was so relatable. Surely most of us don't have it as bad as August but we've all had our own insecurities. Every glance a person directs your way can seem like an x-ray, seeing deep within to where your insecurities are hiding. We've all had days where we want to stay in bed forever and ever so we never had to face the world ever again. R. J. Palacio was able to put words to emotions we've all felt into words simple enough for middle graders. And it wasn't just August's story that resonated with me. From Via and Miranda's struggles to fit into high school to Jack and Summer's friendship with August, I have all felt those emotions and magically, their stories all built on to August's. And often times, I felt blindsided by some of these kids' stories because rarely do you get to see the perspectives of supporting characters. By only seeing one perspective, you can often jump to conclusion and develop a dislike for a certain character or two Jack and Miranda. But then, hearing from their side changes everything. I love it when multiple perspectives intertwine so well together; it's rare for it to be done so well, let alone in the simplistic, easy-to-read manner of Wonder.
Read more »

Hiatus?

2013-03-17T23:44:00.000-04:00

FireStarBooks will be on a short term hiatus (until the end of April).

Don't worry, blog tour posts will still be up but I will be lucky to post two posts per week. :) Also, I will still be active on Twitter and Facebook. Talk to you guys later! :D

Manga Mondays (2): Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan by Gong Ji-Young

2013-03-11T00:29:00.000-04:00

Manga Mondays is hosted by Alison Can Read

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan

by Gong Ji-young, Sahara Mizu (Illustrator), Sumomo Yumeka

"I have something I don't want to lose"

"So much so that these terrible feelings have grown."

A pianist who attempted suicide 3 times, Juri, is taken to help her aunt at a prison where murderers who killed indiscriminately are sentenced to death. There, she meets a man named Yuu who took the lives of 3 people. A mother's antagonism--a brother's death... Together they embrace the violent rebellion in their hearts caused by the large, deep scars they carry. However, before long, they both embrace an earnest hope in their hearts. "I want to live"...

An adaptation of novel by South Korea's most popular female novelist, Gong Ji-Young.

Review

Recommended to me by: Lynn

Recommended for: John Green Lovers

READY YOUR TISSUE BOX. IT IS GOING TO BE A CRYING FEST! I think this was like The Fault in Our Stars for many others. Maybe if I felt that book, I would cry like this.

Juri's life is dark, lonely and painful. With a mother who wishes Juri was never born, while things can't get any better, right?

Juri has attempted to commit suicide 3 times. And every day was a burden. #3987, Yuu, has a lot of similarities as Juri. Both painted with a past, a darkness, a death.

Giveaway: Moonset by Scott Tracey

2013-03-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Moonset Legacy of Moonset #1 Author: Scott Tracey
Release Date: April 8th 2013
Publisher: Flux

Justin Daggett, his trouble-making sister, and their three orphan-witch friends have gotten themselves kicked out of high school. Again. Now they’ve ended up in Carrow Mills, New York, the town where their parents—members of the terrorist witch organization known as Moonset—began their evil experiments with the dark arts one generation ago.
When the siblings are accused of unleashing black magic on the town, Justin fights to prove their innocence. But tracking down the true culprit leads him to a terrifying discovery about Moonset’s past . . . and its deadly future.

Cover Reveal♥Giveaway: A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris

2013-03-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Alessandra D’Angeli is in need of an adventure. Tired of her sixteenth-century life in Italy and homesick for her time-traveling cousin, Cat, who visited her for a magical week and dazzled her with tales of the future, Alessandra is lost. Until the stars hear her plea.
One mystical spell later, Alessandra appears on Cat’s Beverly Hills doorstep five hundred years in the future. Surrounded by confusing gadgets, scary transportation, and scandalous clothing, Less is hesitant to live the life of a twenty-first century teen…until she meets the infuriating—and infuriatingly handsome—surfer Austin Michaels. Austin challenges everything she believes in…and introduces her to a world filled with possibility.
With the clock ticking, Less knows she must live every moment of her modern life while she still can. But how will she return to the drab life of her past when the future is what holds everything she’s come to love?

Read more »

Manga Mondays (1): Super Lovers Vol 1 by Miyuki Abe

2013-03-04T00:55:00.001-05:00

Manga Mondays is hosted by Alison Can Read

Haru visits Canada to spend the summer holidays in the woodland house of his strict, strong-willed mother, Haruko. There, she burdens him with the responsibility of caring for his younger adoptive brother - a wild and unruly little boy named Ren who trusts no-one and prefers to wander in the woods with Haruko's dogs rather than associate other people. Haruko orders Haru to 'civilize' Ren.
As the young man strives to teach Ren how to live in human society, their relationship gradually improves - so much so that Haru plans on taking his 'little brother' to Japan with him once he finds a job.

Unfortunately, fate has a cruel habit of interfering with one's plans...
18+ MATURE MANGA! :O

I am soooo glad I found this meme! OMG ALISON I LOVE YOUUUU~ Okay so for my first Manga Monday I am doing an yaoi*...and it is kind of dedicated to Gianne (ily guurrlliiee), who totally got me into reading yaoi. We were just talking about this manga on twitter and totally going cray cray so yeah...my review. PS: It might just include tons of fangirling jibberish instead of coherend words.

*Yaoi, also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male androphilic sexual relationships, usually created by female authors.

Review

SWEET BABY JESUS!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE??!!!!
This was just sweet! UGHHHHHHh! Gosh is it good or what?! Okay, first I would like to say Haru, oh my gorgeous Haru. <3 doki doki <3 And omg, Haru is like the sweetest teenage boy I every known!!! (And don't say he is fictional! It will break my heart. He is real!)
And Ren for a little kid is adorable/gorgeous!!!<---I swear I am not a pedo. He kind of reminds me of Natsume from Gakuen Alice. Aki and Shima are cute too (especially Aki)! So I give a HUGE thumbs up to Miyuki Abe's art! GOORRRR-GEEOOUUUSSSS!!!

Below you will see what I mean. FEAST YOUR EYES ON EYE CANDIEESS~~ <3
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I was Nominated! Thank you!

2013-03-01T13:36:00.000-05:00

OMG! I love you all! I was sooooo surprised to get an email today saying that I was nominated as Twitter Queen in the BBTC Awards! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!! POFJDJFOADIGFJAFOJEIFJWFIGJFJJGGERGJJVNVVAIOFJ! I know there is no way I can win, but seriously, just being nominated =

ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.ILOVEYOUALL.我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。我爱你们。

You can vote for all the categories here.

Stella Reviews: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

2013-02-26T00:04:00.000-05:00

A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.

With irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan has crafted a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century, evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or a young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that’s rare to the world of literary fiction. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave, a modern-day cabinet of wonders ready to give a jolt of energy to every curious reader, no matter the time of day.

Review

Let me tell you something: writing your Twitter profile in 140 characters or less. I don't know about you, but I am a lot of things but here is what I've concluded:

Traveller of book realms and fangirl of too many things: tennis, comics and cartoons to name a few. I plan to grow up one day.

This is the best I can do and it doesn't begin to tell people that I:
- love to watch cooking shows (perhaps because I, myself, cannot cook.
- love to listen to jazz and classical music because the bookstore I use to visit often played those type of music.
- have an obsession with the GONE, Chaos Walking series, Graceling and the Seven Realms series because their words string together to encase me in feels.
- like to occasionally watch football (soccer) and can often be seen cheering for teams with good looking guys on them.

And most importantly, I love too many things to figure out what I want to do with my life. I am a science student. But I also enjoy art, history, computers and books. Shoot me right?

This book was a lot of things. An artsy-farty book at times and other times, it's completely icky-geeky (I'm lying. It's not icky at all. I'm just trying to make it rhyme). The book covers topics from typography to a secret cult, from a herd of Googlers to book pirates, and from hackers to boob simulators. Just to name a few.
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ARC Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

2013-02-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Review

Pros
Victoria created this visual experience for us readers. It was powerful, enticing, and free. The character seemed to speak to you with this air of grace and power, soft and hard. And I can say that my mind went on a magical journey throughout the whole novel.

The only other book that made me experienced this "visualization" was The Night Circus. While reading the book, it felt like I was thrown into a world that was like ours but twisted, ancient, silly, and teasing. But just like The Night Circus, the plot barely develops. But, (and yes, a second but), this makes the book different. It wasn't like normal YA, it was more, something deeper. Victoria was able to capture a middle grade feel from the start and transition to YA as the character grew. It really had the best of all worlds. I mean, I am a huge fan of MG plots, but YA/Adult level of sophisticated writings, so when Victoria merged the boundaries, I died in heaven. It was as if you plot me in my fantasy world of Lemony Snicket and brought back memories of adventure.
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Marissa Meyer is coming to TORONTO!

2013-02-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Manga Review: Blue Exorcist, Vol. 1 by Kazue Kato

2013-02-19T00:30:00.002-05:00

Raised by Father Fujimoto, a famous exorcist, Rin Okumura never knew his real father. One day a fateful argument with Father Fujimoto forces Rin to face a terrible truth – the blood of the demon lord Satan runs in Rin’s veins! Rin swears to defeat Satan, but doing that means entering the mysterious True Cross Academy and becoming an exorcist himself. Can Rin fight demons and keep his infernal bloodline a secret? It won't be easy, especially when drawing his father’s sword releases the demonic power within him!

Review

Can I give this a 100000 stars out of 5? I haven't read anything that started out THIS good before!

Okay so you might think that the synopsis of this manga sounds sooooo cliche and boring, well it is not (reason why I always go into each manga without reading the description).

Where shall I start? Well Rin is hot. Wow, I am so shallow. Okay, okay, let's get real. He does have a typical bad boy life. He gets into fights all the time and sucks at studying and will always protect the ones around him. Yes he found out he is the son of Satan, and sure this took up about 1/4 of the volume, but trust me it is not boring! Right from the beginning there was an establishment of bonds. You could tell there was this parental love between Father Fujimoto and Rin. And when things went wrong, there was this guilt and regret that struck me in the heart. I don't care if you never regretted anything in your life, you will feel this, and you will sympathize for Rin.
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