Library Loot (5)

***Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages readers to share the goodies that they picked up at their libraries each week!***

This is going to be a quick post. I'm reading The Knife of Never Letting Go and it is soooo good and I want to get back to it NOW :)

Here's what I got at the library this week:

1. Kisses and Lies - Lauren Henderson: Sequel to Kiss Me, Kill Me which I had picked up last week
2. Taken By Storm - Angela Morrison: This looks amazing and I have ready many many good reviews
3. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone - Stephanie Kuehnert: I read a review about this one on one of the blogs I follow (I can't remember which one) and thought it looked good.
4. Kissed By An Angel - Elizabeth Chandler: Has anyone read this one? I got it for the pretty cover :)

And that's it for me. What did you pick up at the library this week?

Review: Secret Society

Title: Secret Society
Author: Tom Dolby
Pages:343
Rating: 3.5/5


An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York’s wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about.

They didn’t ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything. Even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown, and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they’re forced to get on the nape of their necks.

Once they’re part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It’s all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo (Author Website).

I didn't love this book like I thought I was going to. Instead, I found it to be just ok. While the writing itself was strong, I found the plot to be weak. I didn't feel like the story really got started until the last fifty or so pages. I'm not saying I felt like I wasted my time reading this - I just wish it had moved at a little faster pace. I'm hoping that Dolby can keep up the momentum he created at the end of Secret Society in the sequel. If he does, it could really be an amazing read.

Also, this book is not for those readers you want everything to be answered and wrapped up in a neat little bow, because let me tell you, after finishing this, I have more questions than I did when I started. There are just so many inner workings of the secret society that we have yet to find out about.

I did enjoy the characters, especially the main couple Phoebe and Nick and I'm interested to see where Dolby takes that relationship in coming books. I'm not sure when the next book in the series is coming out, but I heard rumor on his website around the winter of 2011. That's an awfully long time to go in between books, and I'm wondering if I will even remember what happened in this one when the time comes!

Tuesday Teaser (3)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

**Grab your current read
**Open to a random page
**Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
**BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
**Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers:

We hadn't met in the park since that first afternoon. One night I'd asked him whether he was trying to avoid seeing me there (pg 150).

~Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols

The car pulled to a stop on Central Park West, near Tavern on the Green. They unlocked the door, and Patch scrambled out, still shocked (pg 204).

~Secret Society - Tom Dolby

What are you reading? (2)

What are you reading on Mondays? is a fun meme created and hosted by J Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog.

Last week was a horrible reading week for me. I was only able to finish two books, and those were both yesterday. However, this coming week should be a lot better. We had a lot of birthday celebration stuff for DH and lots of Drs appointments that kept me rather distracted last week. Every night I looked at my books with longing, and then fell into bed!!

Last week I finished:

• Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler
• Glass - Ellen Hopkins

Currently I'm reading:

• Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols
• Secret Society - Tom Dolby

I know neither of these books were on my list to read last week but Secret Society is due back to the library and someone else has it on hold so it cannot be renewed, and I bought Going Too Far and it was just kinda calling my name (it is soooo good!!)

This week I'd like to finish:

• Generation Dead - Daniel Waters (repeat from last week)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness (repeat from last week that I really want to read)
• Strange Angels - Lili St. Crow (repeat from last week --- I have heard awesome awesome things about this book and am absolutely determined to finish this book this week!)
• Wonderous Strange - Leslie Livingston
• Fallen - Lauren Kate
• Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Hopefully this will be a great week and I'll be able to make some headway on my goal of reading 100 books this year!

Review: Glass

Title: Glass
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Pages: 681
Rating: 4.5/5

Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina's life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves — her baby.

The sequel to Crank, this is the continuing story of Kristina and her descent back to hell. Told in verse, it's a harrowing and disturbing look at addiction and the damage that it inflicts (Cover Blurb).

This book took me a while to get through. It's not that I didn't like it. I did. Hopkins writing is mind blowing. But the subject of the book was super heavy and I often had to take a breather, and read something a little lighter.

Glass takes off where Crank ended. Kristina is still hiding from the "monster" and trying to raise her baby with the help of her mother and her step father Scott. However, the call becomes too much and sooner, rather than later, Kristina is back in the arms of crystal meth. Along the way, she meets Trey, a dealer who she ends up falling in love with. In Glass, we see how crystal meth continues to destroy Kristina and her life more and more. The ending of this novel was so powerful, I'm really interested to see where Hopkins takes it in the third and final book in the trilogy.

One thing that I really had to deal with in this novel, was my constant irritation with Kristina. I just wanted to reach into the pages and shake her. I was so disappointed in the choices she made, and how she put her habit before everything, including her infant son and her family. I found the whole thing to be a struggle to get through at times, but it doesn't mean I didn't like to book. On the contrary, I found Glass to be even more amazing written than Crank and cannot wait to read Hopkins other novels.

Review: Twenty Boy Summer

Title: Twenty Boy Summer
Author: Sarah Ockler
Pages: 290
Rating: 4.5/5

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."
"Okay."
"Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?"
"Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?"

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie---she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer (Cover Blurb).

When I first saw the cover of this book, I was expecting a quick, light, flowery romance. However, what Ockler offers is a hard hitting, emotional, coming of age tale that I could not put down. I had a really slow reading week, and I was determined to read some today. This morning, I picked up Twenty Boy Summer. I had only read about fifty pages this week but I had no trouble getting caught up in the story and finishing it today. I adored this read. It was so heartfelt and touching, and I could not put it down!

The writing in this novel was very true to life, and I could feel every bit of Anna's grief due to the loss of Matt. Her feelings of confusion and sorrow stayed with you the entire time you read the story. I'm really looking forward to reading more fo Sarah Ockler, and seeing what other wonderful ideas she comes up with!

The one part of this book that really bothered me was the focus on sex. Both of the main characters were fifteen, and their main goal for the summer was to meet twenty boys and for Anna to lose her virginity. Maybe I'm turning into an old woman, but I was shocked by the implication that it was ok for fifteen year old girls to chase after guys and put so much focus on losing their virginity. I'm pretty sure I wasn't thinking about that kind of stuff when I was fifteen. Also, this book is recommended for ages 12 and up. I'm pretty sure if I had a twelve year old daughter, I would NOT want her reading this book! End of rant.

So all in all, I really enjoyed Twenty Boy Summer and would love to hear what others who have read it thought about it!

Library Loot (4)

Another big library week for me. There's just so many good books out there and I can't help wanting to read them all! Here's the list:

• Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side - Beth Fantasky - I am SOOOO excited for this one. I have heard really really great things about this!
• Tricks - Ellen Hopkins - This is the newest release by Hopkins. Her writing style is so unique!
• The Faerie Path - Frewin Jones - This is something different for me, but I'm trying new things this year so I thought this might be a good place to start
• Moonlight - Rachel Hawthorne - I think this is the first book in a series --- Can someone confirm this??
• Ruined - Paula Morris - I love the cover for this one, and I'm looking forward to a spooky read!
• Skinned - Robin Wasserman - Another one that is completely different for me. Love the cover!
• After - Amy Efaw - I haven't heard much about this book but the premise sounds awesome
• Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - This has gotten rave reviews and many people stated it was their favorite read of 2009
• Fallen - Lauren Kate - This one has gotten mixed reviews so I'm interested to see where I'll fall.

Well, that's it for me. I've had a busy week so not a ton of reading time but I'm hoping to be able to dive into these this weekend!