ARC Review: The Haven by Carol Lynch Williams

TITLE: The Haven
AUTHOR: Carol Lynch Williams
GENRE: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction
RELEASE DATE: 4th March 2014
RATING: 
BUY LINK: Amazon | B&N | TBD
REVIEW COPY: NetGalley
BOOK BLURB:
For the teens at The Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. It is all they know. Everything is strictly monitored: education, exercise, food, and rest. The rules must be followed to keep the children healthy, to help control the Disease that has cast them as Terminals, the Disease that claims limbs and lungs—and memories. 
But Shiloh is different; she remembers everything. Gideon is different, too. He dreams of a cure, of rebellion against the status quo. What if everything they’ve been told is a lie? What if The Haven is not the safe place it claims to be? And what will happen if Shiloh starts asking dangerous questions?
Thank you for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Book Blitz: My Life From Hell by Tellulah Darling


 The conclusion for The Blooming Goddess Trilogy! It's actually out now. ;) Grab your copies NOW!

TITLE: My Life From Hell
SERIES: The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #3
AUTHOR: Tellulah Darling
GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal, Greek Mythology
RELEASE DATE: 20th March, 2014
BUY LINK: Amazon | Kobo
BOOK BLURB:
To say that Sophie Bloom is at the top of her game with one only week until spring equinox and the final showdown with Zeus and Hades would be, well, lying. The Goddess of Spring feels more like the Goddess of Bzz Thanks For Playing than the savior of humanity. And could her relationships be any more messed up?
Good times.
Sophie is convinced that things can’t get any worse than crawling back to her mother Demeter and begging for help. But she’s about to find out how very wrong she is.
It’s a race against time for Sophie to implement the big battle strategy in the YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology finale My Life From Hell. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book three of this teen fantasy romance series. Save herself; save the world. Humanity may be screwed.

AUTHOR BIO
Tellulah Darling
noun
1) YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2) Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3) Sassy minx.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.
Tellulah Darling is a firm believer that some of the best stories happen when love meets comedy. Which is why she has so much fun writing young adult romantic comedy novels. Her tales span contemporary, teen fantasy romance, and YA Greek mythology, and range from stand alone books to series. For Tellulah, teen romance is the most passionate, intense, and awkward there is - a comedy goldmine. Plus smart, mouthy, teen girls rock.
Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?

EXCERPT

I fired again and again, staying rooted to the spot, and forcing extra power from deep within the earth. I wiggled my bare feet into the dirt, digging my toes in deeper.
At least it didn’t stay dark. Between fireballs, lightning strikes, my shockwaves and Kai’s black light, it was quite the dazzling illumination.
My eyes closed. I didn’t need to see the Photokia and Pyrosim to know where they were. I could sense them, millions and millions, swarming me. More than I could count. More than I could process.
It was a plague of minions. The world was so thick with them that I was amazed there was still room for air. Their fireballs burned my skin and sparked my hair. Their lightning arced through my body. 
The air was heat and smoke and burning destruction. Every particle glided over my skin in electric vibrations that shocked the tiny hairs on my arms. Black ash rained down, covering me in a blanket of soot. I took it all in and used it. Turned it around and sent it back with every shockwave I fired.
I felt untouchable. Even with all the hits I was taking, my healing abilities kept up pretty well. I had never been more a goddess, more every-inch powerful, than in this moment. I felt Persephone settle into my skin, connect to me in a way that had never happened before. For this moment, at least, we were in perfect synch. We were the vanquishers and our enemies would go down tasting our wrath.
Until I heard the laughter.

GIVEAWAY

ARC Review: Alpha Goddess [Giveaway]


TITLE: Alpha Goddess
AUTHOR: Amalie Howard
GENRE: Young Adult, Mythology, Paranormal
RELEASE DATE: 4th March 2014
RATING: 
BUY LINK: Amazon | B&N | TBD
REVIEW COPY: NetGalley & JKS Communications (Thanks Sami!)
BOOK BLURB:
In Serjana Caelum’s world, gods exist. So do goddesses. Sera knows this because she is one of them. A secret long concealed by her parents, Sera is Lakshmi reborn, the human avatar of an immortal Indian goddess rumored to control all the planes of existence. Marked by the sigils of both heaven and hell, Sera’s avatar is meant to bring balance to the mortal world, but all she creates is chaos. A chaos that Azrath, the Asura Lord of Death, hopes to use to unleash hell on earth.
Torn between reconciling her past and present, Sera must figure out how to stop Azrath before the Mortal Realm is destroyed. But trust doesn’t come easy in a world fissured by lies and betrayal. Her best friend Kyle is hiding his own dark secrets, and her mysterious new neighbor, Devendra, seems to know a lot more than he’s telling. Struggling between her opposing halves and her attraction to the boys tied to each of them, Sera must become the goddess she was meant to be, or risk failing, which means sacrificing the world she was born to protect.
REVIEW

Thank you for the ARC in exchange of an honest review! 

Hmmm... This is a bit hard to review. Not that it's a bad book or something.

ARC Review: The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

TITLE: The Forever Song
SERIES: Blood of Eden, #3
AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa
GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal, Dystopia
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
RELEASE DATE: 15th April 2014
RATING: 
PRE-ORDER LINK: Amazon | B&N | TBD
REVIEW COPY: NetGalley
BOOK BLURB:
VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS 
Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster? 
With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer. 
MONSTER 
Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie. 
In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
REVIEW
Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for the Advance Reader Copy in exchange of an honest review.

Damn. Julie Kagawa doesn't fail. Ever. She exceeded expectations. So freaking good. Very, very good ending!!! I love it tremendously. Seriously, people, you need this book right now. For those who loved the series as much as I. I will try to make this review a spoiler free one... Well, yes, minimize... Try.. Whatever. :P Be WARNED!

Goodreads Integration with the Old Kindle Paperwhite

Anyone have Kindle Paperwhite here? Well, you read that title right. Goodreads and Amazon finally integrated the Goodreads App with the 2013 Kindle Paperwhite. This is for the first generation of Paperwhite. As we all know, the 2014 version of Kindle Paperwhite or the 2nd Gen PW, already have this integration. I was thinking of buying the new version of it but I thought that my kindle is still working, and it's relatively new (bought it just months ago after the newer version came out). So I don't see why do I need to buy another one when my stuff is pretty good and still look new. Plus, I'd rather buy paperbacks than buy a newer model.

Believe me, as much as I am in love with my Kindle Paperwhite -- I named it Kieran, by the way -- I don't see why I need to buy another and yes, I'd rather buy new paperbacks to keep and smell whenever I want. You wouldn't want to smell the device. I tried. It smell electronics. LOL. Nothing beats smelling the paper of books.

Anyway, as a first generation Paperwhite owner, I am yet to have the Goodreads app integration. So... My friend, Ornella, told us yesterday that, we--first generation owners--finally could have Goodreads on our Kindles. Did I immediately update it once I've learnt of it? The answer is NO. I waited like.... 1 hour or so? LMAO.

I waited for Ella to give me feed backs about it. She was currently updating hers when she told us. I wouldn't want to update and then regret it later when I didn't end up liking it.

So I bugged her, asked her how does it look. What are the things she liked about the update. Then she told me that the new look messed up her Kindle. Like the Collections are mixed with Cloud and On Device. We're OCD freaks. I don't think any reader is NOT ONE. So that said, we want our Kindles and it's books organized thoroughly. And anything that messed it up will receive our curse and a long a$$ed letter. *laughs evilly* 

Did she like the Goodreads integration? Yes. She said she does like it. Shoot me a comment, Ella, if it's the other way around. Lol.

So there you go. I did update mine. Was freaking out before the integration. lol. My bf was like "are you going to update it or not?" And I was like "I want to have the Goodreads thingy but friends says that the collection became messy... I don't know." In the end, yes I did it. I updated it manually, download the manual update here. Just follow the instructions in there. Take a deep breathe. Ask yourselves, "Do I really want it?" lol.

Because in the end of the day, I regretted my decision to update mine. I wish that I hadn't. So many things you can't do. They tell us that after you finished a book, you could post the ratings you gave in Goodreads and Amazon (it will be automatically saved for the both sites) but noooo. If you have the retail copy maybe but if you have the ARC ones, then no. I haven't tried it with retail copies yet. And one more, I can't even share the quotes I wanted to share. >.< Ugh. Again, maybe because I was reading an ARC and not the retail copy of the book.

So yes... Ask yourselves if you really wanted it. If you do, then go ahead. If not, then wait until people says it's good and that all books whether retail or ARC ones, you can share the quotes or ratings after reading them to both Amazon and Goodreads.

ARC Review: Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens

TITLE: Faking Normal
AUTHOR: Courtney C. Stevens
GENRE: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
RELEASE DATE: 25th February 2014
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
RATINGS: 
BUY LINK: Amazon | B&N | TBD
BOOK BLURB:
An edgy, realistic, and utterly captivating novel from an exciting new voice in teen fiction.
Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.
When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in "the Kool-Aid Kid," who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.
A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author-Courtney C. Stevens.
REVIEW:
Thank you Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the ARC!  

Just when I thought it was him, the author just made it twist like that. lol. Good one.

Okay.. So I have read it awhile back... I honestly think it is good. Really. Okay, you got me. I do think it is a bit predictable. I put two and two together. It was easy. But what makes it good was that I know that he is the one BUT then when it was revealed WHO really did it... Wow. I really thought he was the one. Lol.

I didn't like that the girl doesn't know how to say NO. I dunno if she's like a saint or something and you know. She doesn't like to do something BUT she can't speak her mind. One thing girls should know, you are not fragile little beings. Only if you chose to be. I tell you, someone will take advantage of you and you just need to fight back. Don't let them if you know that it is the right thing to do.


Did I end up liking it even though the MC annoyed me? YES. Because in the end, she stand up on her own. Her sister stand up for her. Her sister got her own faults but I am glad in the end she chose family. It was kinda short with how the ending went but all in all it was a good ending. I just wanted to see how she and her sister tell their parents what happened to her.

ARC Review: Searching For Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn

TITLE: Searching for Beautiful
AUTHOR: Nyrae Dawn
GENRE: Young Adult, Contemporary
RELEASE DATE: 4th March 2014
PUBLISHER: Entangled Teen
RATING: 
BUY LINK: Amazon | B&N | TBD
BOOK BLURB:
Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none.
When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of.
But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?
This is a Young Adult title.
REVIEW


Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange of an honest review. Thanks, Cameron of Entangled Publishing! 


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