Review: The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

15 January, 2016 9:08 am , 6 Comments ,

9833184The Fiery Heart
(Bloodlines, #4)
By: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: Nov. 19, 2013
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the wolds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets – and human lives.

In The Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the Alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her…

But the struggle isn’t over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there’s still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure — and re-education — looms larger than ever.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Fantasy , Tagged: ,

Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

13 January, 2016 8:16 am , 4 Comments ,

The Man in the High Castle
By: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Putnam
Published: Jan. 1, 1962
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan. This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

 

Read More →

Posted in: Sci-fi

Review: Bully by Penelope Douglas

11 January, 2016 3:28 am , 6 Comments ,

bullyBully
(Fall Away, #1)
By: Penelope Douglas
Publisher: Penguin Intermix
Published: Feb. 18, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

My name is Tate. He doesn’t call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he’ll barely even speak to me.

But he still won’t leave me alone.

We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I’ve been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.

But I’m done hiding from him now, and there’s no way in hell I’ll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It’s time to fight back.

I’m not going to let him bully me anymore.

 

Read More →

Posted in: NA Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: The Rock by Monica McCarty

8 January, 2016 11:24 am , 3 Comments ,

rockThe Rock
(Highland Guard, #11)
By: Monica McCarty
Publisher: Ballatine Books
Published: Dec. 29, 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

The first time he caught sight of Elizabeth Douglas, Thomas MacGowan thought she was a princess. To the son of the castle blacksmith, the daughter of the powerful Lord of Douglas might as well be. When it becomes clear that his childhood companion will never see him as a man she could love, Thom joins Edward Bruce’s army as a man-at-arms to try to change his lot. If he’s harbored a secret hope that he could close the gap between them, he faces the cold, hard truth when Elizabeth comes to him for help. She might need the boy who used to climb cliffs to rescue her brother from the hands of the English, but she would never see the son of a smith as a man worthy of her hand.

 

Read More →

Posted in: historical romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

6 January, 2016 3:17 am , 3 Comments ,

23480844Firsts
By: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Published: Jan. 5, 2016
Genre: YA
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.

Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.

When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Review: This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

4 January, 2016 3:15 am , 5 Comments ,

EndsThis is Where it Ends
By: Marieke Nijkamp
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: Jan. 5, 2016
Genre: YA
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won’t open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Sunday Wrap-Up #45

3 January, 2016 10:00 am , 7 Comments ,

Sunday Wrap-Up is all about sharing the books and book related items that I’ve picked up recently. I also recap what went on last week and let you in on what’s coming up. I link up my post to Sunday Post, and Stacking the Shelves.

 

This week on BSA:
This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (Review)
Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Review)
The Rock by Monica McCarty (Review)

 

 

My bad on not doing a 2015 wrap-up post. I told you I wouldn’t be on much because of the holidays. However, what I didn’t expect was my father being admitted into the hospital the day after Christmas. Unfortunately, he’s still there and they aren’t sure what’s wrong. Every time they think they have it figured out, something happens and he ends up back in the ICU again. Needless to say, this past week has been stressful and reading has been the last thing on my mind.

Onto bookish related things. I didn’t reach my Goodreads goal for the year. Waah Waaaaah. I did get really close though. I set out to read 175 books and made it to 169 by the new year. I think what brought me down was all the holiday things I was doing, and probably the disappointing books I was reading. There were times where I was ready to throw in the towel and take a break from reading because I just wasn’t liking anything I read. I have yet to set a goal for next year. I’m thinking I will do a smaller number considering I was trying to crash read the last couple of weeks of the challenge. I just don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself.

This year I’m still going to stick to reading more of my neglected books than ARCs. Obviously that doesn’t mean that I won’t be reading the latest upcoming books, but they just won’t be my main focus. I will also be hosting a lot of giveaways soon to help clear out my shelves of books that I’ve collected over the years. A lot of them are signed and brand new. I’ll be giving away books both on the blog,  Twitter, and Facebook. So, if you have accounts on those network sites keep an eye out for the giveaways. I figured I’d make it a little more interesting for those who follow me on the other channels. 😉

 

Read More →

Posted in: meme

Happy Holidays

24 December, 2015 8:43 am , 9 Comments ,

ramblings12

 

Oooweee. I don’t know about you guys but the holidays this year were insane for me and they aren’t even over. I feel like once I came home from my uncle’s wedding at the beginning of November, I hit the ground running at an insane pace and I haven’t stopped since. I mean, there was Thanksgiving where I had to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for two different days (one for the Mister’s work and one for us), and then bake pies for a Friendsgiving we were going to. Right after Thanksgiving was over I had to get my head on straight for gift-giving for Christmas because I had the fun idea to make homemade gifts for everyone this year.

P1050432

At least my fingerprints look like frost, right?

Yeah… let’s just say that it was a lot easier looking at the photos on Pinterest than it was actually making them. There may or may not have been a moment where I superglued my hand to a wine glass while trying to turn it into a snow globe. >.<

However, given my hair-pulling tenancies over the last few weeks, I still stand behind giving homemade gifts. I think they are just cooler and mean more to the people involved. Which means I will probably be doing this again next year. 😛

 

Anyways, my bad for not being on much this week. I had a friend visiting from out of town for a couple of days and there was a lot of catching up going on and not a whole heck of a lot of reading/blogging happening. I promise to be back up and running at full force once the holidays are over.  I will still be around but I just may not be posting as often as I normally do.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a happy and safe new year!

kRISTIN

Posted in: Ramblings

Review: Blood Kiss by J.R. Ward

22 December, 2015 11:57 am , 4 Comments ,

bloodkissBlood Kiss
(Black Dagger Legacy, #1)
By: J.R. Ward
Publisher: Signet
Published: Dec. 1, 2015
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.

And that’s before she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field, and off.

 

Read More →

Posted in: Paranormal Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

18 December, 2015 3:41 am , 10 Comments ,

neverNever Never
(Never Never, #1)
By: Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Jan. 7, 2015
Genre: YA Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen.

Complete strangers since this morning.

He’ll do anything to remember. She’ll do anything to forget.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Romance , Tagged: ,