Monthly Wrap Up -- September 2011

These are all the books I’ve read this month. I’ve decided to start doing a monthly wrap up since I don’t review every book I read. You can join in if you want! :D

*Meant to Be by Tiffany King – 5 stars

 

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr – 5 stars

Love Bites by Ellen Schreiber – 4 stars

*Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – 5 stars

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr – 4 stars

*Books with links to my reviews

W.W.W. Wednesdays (5)

To play along just answer the following three (3) questions and leave your link at Should Be Reading:

1. What are you currently reading?

(Again.)

2. What did you recently finish reading?

3. What do you think you'll read next?

What's on *your* reading list for this week?

How I will rate from now on:

I’ve decided on a new way to rate books. For a possible total of 5 stars, each book is rated by:

Originality

Characters

Plot

Setting

Enjoyment

If one of these is missing in a book, a star will be lost.

Example: Let’s say a book was original, had a good plot line, a well-developed setting, and I enjoyed it, yet the characters were underdeveloped, the book would only get a 4-star rating. See where I’m going here?



W.W.W. Wednesday (4)

To play along just answer the following three (3) questions and leave your link at Should Be Reading:

1. What are you currently reading?

2. What did you recently finish reading?

3. What do you think you'll read next?

Yep. I'm going to read Willow. Again.

What's on *your* reading list?

IMM (3)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren where bloggers can talk about which books they have received over the week.

This week I received: Summer on Fire by Kevin Craig

Goodreads description: Zach Carson is a loyal friend. But is loyalty enough to keep best friends together when one of them sets fire to the rural barn they use as the local hangout? Zach, Jeff Barsell and Arnie Wilson struggle to pick up the pieces when news spreads that a body was discovered in the burnt out shell of the neighbouring home. When the word murder is used by the local police, the stakes grow even higher. When the police start searching for their most likely suspect-none other than Jeff's older brother, and nemesis, Marty Barsell-the boys decide to join forces and come up with a way to prove his innocence. But just how innocent is Marty Barsell? When Marty admits to being at the scene of the crime, the three friends enlist the help of Zach's annoying sister, Sherry, as well as the sympathetic town eccentric, Ms. Halverton. But can they keep it together long enough to save Marty, and themselves, from imminent catastrophe? Summer on Fire is the story of friendships, and the lines we are asked to cross in order to keep them.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Goodreads description: Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.




My review: Since page one of this book, I wanted to get to the end. Why? Because it sucked? No. Absolutely not. I wanted to reach the end because I was curious. I had a need to know what happens. Jay Asher has a way of keeping the reader hooked. Whenever I put the book down, I was still thinking about it. Its definitely one of those stories when you can’t decide if you should read fast, to get to the end, or take your time and make it last.

Jay gives a unique perspective. Both of the main characters are from the first person point of view, switching off by having Hannah’s POV in italics. I really liked that, the italics part. It made it easy to follow along. Instead of where there are multiple main characters told from 3rd person POV, where sometimes it takes a while to understand whose turn it is, I automatically knew: Clay=regular print, Hannah=italics. Simple.

What I really like is what Jay says his inspiration for this story was. In the author bio on the inside of the back cover, (Am I the only one who reads those? I care about who is writing what I read.) Jay says the idea for Thirteen Reasons Why came while taking an audio tour in a museum. The eerie voice describing what he was seeing intrigued him.

Most books I read have no meaning, only written for entertainment. However, I picked up on the theme of this story: Anything you do could change someone’s life.

Like I said, I loved this book from page one. Correction: I liked it since reading the summary on the back. Did it have the ending I hoped for? Not exactly. But I’m happy with how Clay’s story turned out.

W. W. W. Wednesday!! (3)

To play along just answer the following three (3) questions and leave your link at Should Be Reading:

1. What are you currently reading?

2. What did you recently finish reading?

3. What do you think you'll read next?

What's on *your* reading list?

Review: Meant to Be by Tiffany King

Goodreads description: Krista Miller feels like she has lived her entire life in a glass box with her every emotion on display. She can’t help feeling like a defect as her sensitivities have made her socially inept and without any real friends; the one exception being the boy that visits her each night in her dreams.

Krista’s emotions are put to the test when a move to California triggers a devastating change to her fantasy world. The nightly comfort that the boy provides has now become a recurring nightmare as he is taken from her by an unseen force.

Struggling to appear normal, Krista enrolls in a new school and finds it to be nothing like she thought. Her new life is sent spiraling out of control from a strange connection with a boy, Mark, who claims to know all her secrets.

 As Krista begins to explore the emotions that Mark evokes in her, secrets about their mysterious past and their predestined purpose threatens to separate them just when they have found each other.

My review: Krista has met the guy of her dreams. Literally.

In most books characters just assume they’ve found their soul mate. Krista really has. Ever since she was little Mark has been in her dreams, and when she moves to California, she finally gets to meet him.

Now that they’re together, they can’t live without each other. Seriously. When they’re apart, strange things happen.

A fun, light read that will keep you wanting more, I would recommend Meant to Be to anyone. I'm left wondering why this isn't a New Yorks Times Bestseller yet!!

In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren where bloggers can talk about which books they have received over the week.

Last week I was super excited to get:

I got Bloodlines by Richelle Mead from a contest run by Sammie Spencer, the author of Amaretto Flame(which is a great book by the way..) and I won a signed copy of Meant to Be from Tiffany King herself. I just finished Boodlines and wow. It was amazing!! I'm starting Meant to Be and its really good so far :)

What was in *your* mailbox?