Shelter Me by Alex McAulay

[description from B&N]

Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.

Review:

The only way I can really describe this book is weird. Because it sure is weird. Like, nuns burning their faces weird. It's not a bad weird though. It's the good kind of weird. Well, the good weird until the ending. But more on that later.

I loved the weirdness of this book (How many times do you think I'll use the word weird in this review?) There were cult-like nuns (I always enjoy a book with a cult), explosions, and odd little girls who don't talk but just be creepy. There was also trains, small children, and questionable living arrangements. So much fun. And by fun I mean fun to read about, not fun for Maggie. All these things really made this book interesting and kept me wondering what would happen. Add the facts that Maggie is a strong main character who is determined to get out of the scary nun school and that there is twist after twist, and you've got a great read.

Or it would've been great if I didn't dislike the ending so much. I really liked the twist that involved the girls at the end, but the very very end? No. Too...happy. With all the bad stuff that happened and since it's set during WWII, I think it should have been a little less happy.

But although it wasn't a great read because of the ending, it was a pretty good read. Very nearly great. But the ending! Gah!

8/10

Waiting on Wednesday (7)

Waiting on Wednesday is when people everywhere end up adding 30857203 books to their wishlist. Jill at Breaking the Spine started it.

My pick this week:Brutal by Michael Harmon.

description (from Amazon):
With her martyr-doctor mother gone to save lives in some South American country, Poe Holly suddenly finds herself on the suburban doorstep of the father she never knew, who also happens to be a counselor at her new high school. She misses Los Angeles. She misses the guys in her punk band. Weirdly, she even misses the shouting matches she used to have with her mom.

But Poe manages to find a few friends: Theo, the cute guy in the anarchy Tshirt, and Velveeta, her oddly likeable neighbor—and a born victim who’s the butt of every prank at Benders High. But when the pranks turn deadly at the hands of invincible football star Colby Morris, Poe knows she’s got to fix the system and take down the hero.

With insightfulness, spot-on dialogue, and a swiftly paced plot, Michael Harmon tells the story of a displaced girl grappling with a truly dangerous bully.

---

The only reason I've chosen this book as my WoW pick is because one girl is called Velveeta. Really, that's the only reason. (Well, that and it sounds pretty good. But mostly because the girl is named Velveeta.)

Isn't Kelsey awesome?

Look at that header Kelsey made me! Isn't it cool? I love it.

THANK YOU KELSEY <333

Meh.

Ever read a book you know you should love because it has everything that should make it an awesome book, but you can't bring yourself to like it that much?

Meh. Off to start another book now.

Waiting on Wednesday (6)

Waiting on Wednesday is a day in which bloggers all across the land come to complain that the books they really want aren't out yet. (That's one definition of it, anyway.) Jill at Breaking the Spine started it.

My pick for this week is....

Serendipity Market by Penny Blublaugh

Am I the only one who loves this cover? Because I love this cover. And that's the only reason why this book is today's WoW. Well, that and I find the word "serendipity" pretty awesome. Sometimes I see a cover and immediately fall in love with it and feel a need to read the book. This is one of those covers. I unfortunately cannot find a summary. This is the best I found:

"Serendipity Market by Penny Blubaugh appeared at first to be exactly the kind of book I wouldn't be interested in. For one thing, its title is Serendipity Market. However, a little description and suddenly this YA (d'oh!) title began to flesh out and sound pretty sweet. Set up like The Canterbury Tales (full credit for making that a selling point) the book contains eleven storytellers who tell fables where each tale is a twist on a traditional story of some sort. Extra points for the author who is a YA librarian and deeply involved in YALSA. [Little Black Star of Recommendation]" -From this link.

If anyone knows anything more about this book, you better tell me.

Not released until March! :(

Sigh. Will Grayson...

Alright, people. We all know I love John Green, and we all know I'm obsessed with David Levithan. (If you don't know that, where have you been?) But did you know that these two people whom I love are writing a book together? DID YOU KNOW I KNOW HARDLY ANYTHING ABOUT IT?

Sadly, my frantic phone calls to John Green* and visits to David Levithan's house* have resulted in me learning hardly anything about this book. BUT. I know some things. I thought I would compile all the information I know in this blog post. Right here. So you all can learn about this book that I expect to be amazing because it's by two amazing people.

WHAT I KNOW (information from various blogtv shows done by John Green):

• The book has been called Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green.
  
• The book is being published by Dutton. (I think that's the right imprint anyway. I know John said Penguin!)
  
• It's coming out in 2010. John mentioned Spring 2010. That's too far away.
  
• According to John, it's about two kids named Will Grayson. These people have never met. And then they meet. And then their lives go separate ways. Or something like that.
  

And that's what I know. If anyone has any other information, they better tell me. If anyone has like, minions inside the Penguin publishing house, send them on a journey to find out more information about this book, and then tell said minion to give me the information.



*That was a joke. I swear.

You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay

[description from B&N]

Q: HOW MANY ZOMBIES DOES IT TAKE TO RUIN A SOCIAL LIFE?

A: NOT MANY.

Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a whole bunch of semi-dead people with killer issues. All Megan really wants is to go to homecoming, but when you're trailed by a bunch of slobbering corpses whenever you leave the house, it's kinda hard to score a date. Let's just say Megan's love life could use some major resuscitation.

Megan's convinced her life can't get any worse - until someone in school starts using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into scary, hardcore flesh-eating Zombies. Now it's up to Megan to stop the Zombie apocalypse. Her life - and more importantly, the homecoming dance - depends on it.

Review:

It's no secret that I am on Team Zombie. I find unicorns icky (Except I really do want to read Rampant. Oh, and a note to those who have read/have Rampant: I HATE YOU.) and find zombies much better. Because I find zombies much better, I kind of had high expectations for this book. I want my zombie books to be good and not give zombies a bad name. Because if zombie books give zombies a bad name, those people on Team Unicorn would have something to support their argument that unicorns are better. And I think this book did a pretty good job of not giving zombies a bad name.

I really liked the whole concept of Settlers. Because Settlers aren't explained in the summary, you all get a explanation from me (sorry): Angry zombies with "unfinished business" on Earth climb out of their graves. These zombies go to the nearest Settler. Settler writes down their problems and says they will fix them. Zombie walks back to the grave and goes underground forevermore. As far as I'm concerned, this is a way to prevent the zombie apocalypse. Make the zombies happy, and the zombies don't eat us. Sounds good to me.

I did not, however, really like Megan. She's kind of annoying, but kind of awesome for going all ninja on those zombies. She's always talking about how hot she thinks Ethan is. ("He's like an Abercrombie model!" She said something like that once. I would just like to say that I think that simile should be eliminated from all books.) But after she goes on one of her "Ethan is hot why won't he take me to homecoming?" rants, there was usually a zombie fight scene or something unrelated to homecoming and Ethan. These fight scenes were what made me not want to throw the book at a wall.

But then Megan would say the words "pom squad" instead of cheerleading squad and I would want to throw the book at a wall again. I hatehatehate that term. Almost as much as I hate it when people describe guys as Abercrombie models.

Despite my extreme annoyance with the shallow main character, I will be reading the sequel when it comes out because 1) it will have more zombies and 2) I really liked the twist at the end of the story. I think the twist was kind of easy to figure out earlier on but not so obvious that there wouldn't be a little surprise.

8/10

Released January 22.

I can haz ebook?

Penguin is pretty awesome. Why are they so awesome? Well, one reason is that they have the best name. The second is that they sometimes put books online to read for free. Like they've done with The Ruins of Gorlan, which you can read here.

It sounds good, I think:

They have always scared him in the past—the Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger's apprentice. What he doesn't yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied. . . .

But I haven't read it. I have, however, read a very good book called Coraline, which HarperCollins is offering for free online too. Crazy town. Here's that link.

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

If you've been around the blogosphere the past few months, you may have noticed that everyone has been talking about V.C. Andrews and Flowers in the Attic. And you know what? I'm joining the group and talking about it too.

Flowers in the Attic is the story of the Dollanganger family. Cathy is the narrator. She's beautiful and annoying. She has a brother named Christ [Note: His name is Chris. Not Christ. But as Gabbi pointed out in the comments, it's too good of a typo to fix.] who smart and beautiful and also annoying. She also has twin siblings, Carrie and Cory. The twins are beautiful and annoying. Their mother, Corrine, is beautiful and annoying. And their father is beautiful until he turns into a corpse. These are very pretty people, if you didn't catch on. The children are so pretty that their old neighbors call them the Dresden Dolls:

Oh, wait. Wrong Dresden Dolls.

Anyway. Like I said earlier, their father turns into a corpse pretty early on. And because the mother is too lazy to even attempt to find a job, she packs up the Dresden Dolls and takes them to her parents house. But- gasp!- Corrine's parents hate her! Oh noez! Turns out, Corrine's parents are crazy Christian people and disprove of the children for reasons unknown until later. So when they arrive, Grandma takes all the children and sticks them in the attic.

And so the story really begins. The children are stuck in the attic for years, waiting for their mother to convince their dying grandfather that he loves her enough to write her back into his will. Because once she [kind of steals] all his riches, her and the kids are gone.

But she decides to be mean and annoying and take FOREVER with her goal of getting her kids out of the attic. But the grandmother, who puts the kids in the attic in the first place, brings them food and soap and stuff everyday and lets them amuse themselves by decorating the attic with flowers. This is one of the reasons why I don't really hate the grandma, but good golly I hate the mother. Read it and you may guess some other reasons.

I think I've talked enough about the mom since she really isn't a main character. Time to talk about the children.

Ugh, the children.

These children are so annoying. They have good reason (they are stuck in an attic, after all) but goodness. Cathy is either whining or making demands all the time. Chris is always being smart and all "Our mother will get us out! she will! POSITIVE THINKING, CHILDREN! Positive thinking!" Carrie and Cory were demon four year old children. Especially Carrie. Someone needs to teach her some manners. They had nothing better to do. They can't go outside. Can't make noise. You would think they would at least try a little harder to make the twins a little...nicer while they didn't have anything to do.

This review type thing makes it seem like I didn't like this book. But I loved it! It's so bad but it's so good. It's the good trash, like Taren and Steph say.

This has nothing to do with books, but....

....I have to share! LOOK WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL TODAY!

Nico the Barista!

Isn't it amazing? Here are some other pictures:

This is Nico with my lovely panda.And there's my dog trying to eat Nico.
And there's Nico with some blurry palm trees and a blurry ocean in the background. And a blurry telephone wire.And there's Nico in front of a palm tree. And a very blue sky. (This is where all you living in the tundra become jealous of the fact that there is no snow here.)

And there's Nico making some coffee.
Where has Nico's head gone?!Oh, there they are!

omgz.

Omgz, people. I LOVE HOLLY BLACK AND CECIL CASTElLUCCI.

Do you know why I love them? Because they're editing an anthology called Geektastic.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE PEOPLE CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ANTHOLOGY?

Among those contributing are Garth Nix (!), Sara Zarr (!!), Cassandra Clare (!!!), Libba Bray (!!!!), Scott Westerfeld (!!!!!), John Green (!!!!!!!), and DAVID LEVITHAN (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

And there's a contest to win an ARC! ME WANT ARC.

But me has no icon making skillz. -sad-

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

[description from B&N]

The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools in a spirit of harmony and "the Joy of the Envelope." But when Cassie, Lydia, and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie, and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as a simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identities, and an all-out war between the schools--not to mention some really excellent kissing.

Review:

That's a horrible summary for this book. It doesn't say anything about how this book is written entirely in letters and Notebook and entries and it makes it sound like some cheesy spy book (at least that's how it seems to me). It also doesn't mention how completely awesome this book is.

I really didn't have any expectations going into this one. I heard it was good, but I wasn't expecting to be blown away by its sheer awesome and smartness. As I mentioned earlier, the book is written entirely in letters, diary entries, bulletins and with something called the Notebook. (There should be a trademark symbol after "Notebook," but I dunno how to make one and don't want to find one to copy.) I didn't think this was going to work out very well since the letters and stuff are all from different points of views- a total of 8 characters tell the story at one point or another, I believe. But I was happy that having all the different points of view allowed me to see each character from a bunch of perspectives to see what they are like to everyone else. This really helped make them believable characters since the characters weren't looked at the same way by everyone, including the character being observed. Seeing what others thought of a character made it easier for me to perceive the character in my own way, like I was actually a character in the book watching the person.

In the beginning, the characters' voices were very similar and not very distinguishable. They were all most sarcastic and funny, but as time went on and the characters revealed all their feelings and problems, they gained their own voices and identities.

It was also interesting to only hear about the events going on instead of seeing them as they happened. The events were recollected by all the narrators and they commented on the events, which really helped make things more amusing than they already were, since almost all the characters were funny.

So yeah, I really loved this one. It starts out really light, but soon grows a little more dramatic (but still light and smart) with a Big Reveal that occurs. The drama definitely made me want to keep reading the book, even though I kind of predicted what happened.

9/10

Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag

[description from B&N]

Secrets-

PJ's deep blue eyes and angelic long blond hair conceal a truth that's anything but. Will her dark past stay where it belongs in the backwoods of Vermont, or haunt her in the city of light?

Passion-
Always the good girl, Olivia plans to twirl her way to the top of the Parisian ballet scene. But that's not supposed to include dancing on a table all night . . . or stumbling into the arms of the wrong boy.

Lies-
With his emo-trendy bedhead, hilarious comebacks and Southern drawl, Zack could win over anyone. Too bad he's after the only one who's forbidden . . .

Scandal-
All Alex wants from Paris is to nab that berry-red Dior coat and seduce the perfect penny-loafer-wearing boy - and Alex always gets what she wants. But will her scheming pay off? Or is she risking more than she knows . . . ?

Alex, Olivia, Zack and PJ are spending a year at the prestigious Lycée de Monceau in the sparkling city of Paris. This is their chance to sip cafe au lait in Le Marais, throw secret parties in their host families' Versailles-size apartments, and have the time of their lives. But when the secrets they thought they left behind come out, everything could be ruined . . .

Review:

Going into this, I really didn't know what to expect. I never heard of it until an awesome publicist (Thanks, Jillian!) offered it. I accepted, of course, because it has a pretty cover. And then when I read the summary, I thought it sounded pretty good. I mean, copious amounts of drama in another country? Sign me up. And then when I finished it, I quite enjoyed it. Yay.

What I thought I'd do for this review is make it kind of like the above summary: talk about it character by character. So here we go:

PJ: I think she's more of a mystery than a character. Not much of her background is given and she narrates the least, so I didn't get to know her as well as the other. I just know that she's desperate to stay an enigma. And so far, I think she's succeeding.

Olivia: Her story was my favorite. She had one that kept me guessing and I really appreciated that her family story was included. She had a lot going on, but it wasn't very confusing.

Zack: I think he's an idiot for ever befriending Alex. I enjoyed his story the second most though. He was funny because of his worry of being outed, and I loved reading about his quest for a boyfriend. (Not a spoiler. Other summaries reveal that he's gay, and it's told in the beginning of the book.)

Alex: DIE DIE DIE. She annoyed me to no end. She's spoiled and rotten and her quest for a boyfriend was irritating, unlike Zack's. That's all she did: want a boyfriend. No, that's a lie. She shopped and talked about how she practically is a French person too. Her ending made me very happy though.

Other stuff: The alternating narration got a little confusing at times. I wasn't sure if some things were happening simultaneously or at different times. The final ending was a definite cliffhanger. WANT SEQUEL. Loved the writing style: very descriptive, but not too descriptive to where it slowed things down, and it flowed well.

That is all! And this book's release date is today, so be sure to pick it up. It's worth it, I think.

8/10

Butterfly Award

Many thanks to Shalonda who nominated me for the Butterfly Award!

Rules for passing on:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded the blog to you.
3. Award up to ten other blogs.
4. Add links to the blogs you award onto your blog.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.

I don't like awarding these things, since I love you all oh so much and cannot possibly choose just 10 of you. So if I read your blog (I most likely do) and you are reading this, consider yourself a recipient of this award. :D

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

WOW it's been a long time since I've done a Waiting on Wednesday. (started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.)

My pick this week...

Winnie's War by Jenny Moss

description (from B&N)

Life in Winnie’s sleepy town of Coward Creek, Texas, is just fine for her. Although her troubled mother’s distant behavior has always worried Winnie, she’s plenty busy caring for her younger sisters, going to school, playing chess with Mr. Levy, and avoiding her testy grandmother. Plus, her sweetheart Nolan is always there to make her smile when she’s feeling low. But when the Spanish Influenza claims its first victim, lives are suddenly at stake, and Winnie has never felt so helpless. She must find a way to save the people she loves most, even if doing so means putting her own life at risk.

Winnie’s take-charge attitude will empower and inspire readers, as Jenny Moss’s lyrical writing beautifully captures the big-time worries of a small-town girl.

---

Yay historical fiction!

Faketastic by Alexa Young

Second in a series, so if you haven't read the first book, Frenemies, spoiler alert. =O

Here's the thing: I don't like the "official" summary very much. I think it's misleading. So I'm stealing Alexa's summary from this blog post (Hope you don't mind, Alexa.):

"Yes, it’s official: Halley and Avalon (and the Style Snarks—complete with blog posts beginning on page one) are reunited, and it feels so good. Or does it? As they struggle to merge their new lives, they’re more eager than ever to prove their loyalty and love to each other. That’s when the I-got-your-back opportunities knock, in the form of some potentially problematic (even SCANDALOUS) situations with their new friends. Faster than you can say Three’s Company, Halley and Avalon make the ultimate BFF pact and vow to support each other, cover for each other, and even pretend to be people they’re not—all with the oh-so-benevolent goal of achieving their dreams while protecting and preserving their friendships, new and old alike. AH! But can the best frenemies' farces play out as planned? Will they really be able to weave a tangled web of deception without any snags? Does betrayal ever NOT backfire, even when borne with the best intentions?"

Review:

Having very much enjoyed Frenemies, I was looking forward to reading the next installment in the series. Like its predecessor, Faketastic was a super light read that is very good to read when you're on winter break and you're trying to forget the fact that you have finals that you still haven't really studied for the week after you go back to school. But, um, let's not talk about that particular subject anymore.

The best part about the book is that it's fun to read. Ms. Alexa has a way of making even the most ridiculous things (People wearing Team Avalon shirts, for example. And people yelling "Team Halley!" in the halls.) seem funny and almost normal. Well, almost normal considering the setting. The Style Snarks posts definitely added to the whole fun to read thing, since those posts were amusing to read. Actually, the comments were more amusing to read than the blog posts. However, I am a little concerned that as soon as those blog posts were posted there were 10 comments within 10 minutes. Do the people just sit at their computers refreshing the page until a new post shows up? Let's hope not.

I was hoping for some more background and development of Halley and Avalon's friendship, but because of all drama in the book I didn't get much of development. I feel like I still haven't been shown just how good of friends they are. I've been told, but not shown. Maybe some flashbacks or something would help? I don't know.

And I really liked the ending. For a while it felt like all the drama was kind of leading nowhere, but the ending made it all the drama worth it.

I definitely cannot wait for the third in the series, Glamnesia (am I the only one who finds that title unusually fun to say?) to be released.

8/10

Released tomorrow!

Challenges

Sooooo. Last year I didn't do anything of these challenge things. But this year I thought I would. So here is a list of all the ones I will do. I'll update the lists as I go.



1.

Please note that I find the girl on this banner extremely creepy.

Challenge details and such.
The books I think I will read for this challenge are:

The Dollanganger Series (because everyone loves FITA, supposedly)
Flowers in the Attic (Finished! Review here.)
Petals on the Wind
If There Be Thorns
Seeds of Yesterday
Garden of Shadows
The Landry Series (because All that Glitters is also the title of a book David Levithan cowrote)
Ruby
Pearl in the Mist
All That Glitters
Hidden Jewel
Tarnished Gold
And My Sweet Audrina because I like standalones.

2.

Challenge details and such.

I think for this one I'll make a goal of reading 25. That sounds good. I can always increase it later. (And I've already read an ARC or two of debut authors, but I read them last year, so I'm not counting them.)

1. The Season by Sarah Maclean
2. Take the Reins by Jessica Burkhart (review)
   
3. Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
4. The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King
5. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
6. Hottie by Jonathan Bernstein (review)
   
7. TMI by Sarah Quigley (review)
   
8. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon (review)
   
9. The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor
10. Pure by Terra Elan McVoy (review)
11. Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard
12. Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman (review)
    
13. Dull Boy by Sarah Cross
14. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
15. Hate List by Jennifer Brown
16. Ash by Malinda Lo
17. Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
18. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
19. Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph (review)
    
20. Wings by Aprilynne Pike (review)
    
21. Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne
22. The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance
23. This is What I Want to Tell You by Heather Duffy Stone
24. Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter