Waiting on Wednesday #13

waiting on wednesday is a weekly event
hosted by breaking the spine







This week's book  I can't wait for is:

Carrier of the Mark
Author:Leigh Fallon
publication date: October 4



Summary:
A move to Ireland is about to introduce Megan to her destiny, her real destiny, can she embrace it and will she survive it?

A tragedy in Megan’s past set her on a predetermined course. A chain of events has been set in motion that brings Megan to Kinsale, a small town in the south of Ireland where her destiny awaits her. Her life starts to fall into place as she makes new friends and settles into her new school. However, the reclusive and distant Adam DeRís calls to her body and soul.

She finds herself increasingly drawn to Adam and his strange family. Adam knows a secret from her past and he and his family hold the key to her future. A future that binds her to Adam and his world, a world of power, mystery and ancient orders. A world that unbeknownst to her, she very much belongs in.


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Double Take

Double Take
Author: Melody Carlson
Pages: 271
publication date: June 1 2011





Summary:
It's spring break of her senior year and Madison Van Buren is fed up. Stressed over Ivy League pressure, her parents' marital problems, and her boyfriend's neglect, Madison gets in her car and drives west. Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Anna Fisher wants to escape the so-called simple life--which for her consists of caring for younger siblings, sewing, cooking, and gardening--and she's well aware that her future will simply be more of the same with a man she doesn't love. Suddenly, worlds collide when Madison and Anna meet in a small town, realize they look uncannily similar, and decide the grass is definitely greener on the other side.
Readers will love this funny and provocative tale of switching places from bestselling author Melody Carlson. As they get a glimpse into two very different worlds, they may find themselves happy to be just who they are, where they are.





Review:
Madison is a spoiled rich girl who lives in a penthouse in New York City. She is fed up with all the stress and just wants to get away. Her mother wants her to go to Tuscany for spring break, while her dad wants to go check out Harvard, her best friend wants her to come along with her to vacation and her boyfriend wants her to stay home so they can be together for spring break, so many stressful moments for Maddie.

Anna lives the Amish lifestyle, she works all day with her parents and he parents are forcing her into a marriage that she doesn’t want. She is in love with Jacob but he left Amish life and moved to New York, leaving her behind. Her Aunt is almost ready to have a baby and she is requested to live there for however long it will take and help with all the chores and the four kids. She just wants to escape Amish life.

Once day while at a coffee shop they bump into each other and see the resemblance. Maddie has the crazy idea of switching lives for a week, Maddie will learn to see what it’s like to be Amish and Anna moves to the city for a week, to experience what it’s like to live in the big apple. While she is there she hopes to find Jacob.

Both live in each other’s lifestyles and learn the difference in each other live. They didn’t realize how much different it was going to be and they were changed forever afterwards.

What I loved about the book was it wasn’t just the two characters in the book who got to experience what it was like living the rich/ Amish lifestyle, I learned a whole bunch and I felt like I was experiencing it with the both of them. I loved reading about the Amish, it was always interesting to read and I got a great outlook on how they live.

Reading this made me take a look around and see all the luxuries that we have and others won’t ever experience. I see life a whole lot differently after reading this novel. I appreciate things more now than I ever did. The only thing I didn’t like was how at the end she never wrote what happened after they went back to their old lives. I was a little disappointed in that.

I recommend this book to everyone, it a great way to learn about the difference between both worlds.


4/5 stars

Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange
Author: Lesley livingston
pages: 336
publication date: September 22 2009





Summary:
17 year-old Kelley Winslow doesn’t believe in Faeries. Not unless they’re the kind that you find in a theatre, spouting Shakespeare—the kind that Kelley so desperately wishes she could be: onstage, under lights, with a pair of sparkly wings strapped to her shoulders. But as the understudy in a two-bit, hopelessly off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, wishing is probably the closest she’s going to get to becoming a Faerie Queen. At least, that’s what she thinks... In this fun, urban fantasy, Kelley's off-stage life suddenly becomes as complicated as one of Shakespeare’s plot twists when a nighttime trip to Central Park holds more than meets the mortal eyery:




Review:
Kelley is an actress, more like an understudy/ stagehand, but the leading actress breaks her ankle and suddenly Kelley is the star of the play. The first few rehearsals go not so good, she then goes into the park to practice more and that’s when everything starts.

First she meets a mysteriously handsome guy giving her a rose, days later she sees him showing up wherever she is. As she goes to rehearsals she finds out the play is more real than she thought. There aren’t just people playing fairies in the play, there are actually real life fairies in the Shakespeare play.

As the connection between sonny and Kelley deepen they find themselves both in more danger than they ever thought possible.

Kelley then learns what she really is and then all hell breaks loose, literally Queen Tatiana releases a bunch of her fairies to attack New York.

As I was reading this book I couldn’t help but compare it to the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. I know that they are both VERY different plots and all but some of the fairies’ names were the same, which makes sense because those are real characters from a Shakespeare play. I think.

But I did love this series and couldn’t stop reading it; I held this book off so long. I kept checking it out of the library and then returning it without reading and now I look back and think about how stupid that was. I loved the first book. I immediately ordered the next two books in the series.



5/5 stars

Bitter End

Bitter End
Author:Jennifer Brown
pages:356
publication date: May 10 2011





Summary:
When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole, a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her, she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate-someone who truly understands her and loves her for who she really is.

At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her best friends, Zack and Bethany, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all of her time with another boy? But as the months pass, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose - between her "true love" and herself.




Review:
Bitter End is a truly remarkable story that was so emotional and raw. Abusive relationships happen all the time and I’m glad that some authors incorporate that to the YA genre.

Bitter End starts off with Alex and her two best friends, Zack and Beth. All three of them has been inseparable ever since they could remember, Ever since Alex’s mom died Alex has wanted to go to Colorado, ever since then her best friends and her have been planning the trip, every week they would come together, hang out, and talk about the trip.

Then she meets a new boy at school. Cole is everything and more, he’s cute, athletic, and sweet. Alex falls for him instantly, after a little bit Cole asks her out on a date and she has the best time of her life. After that the warning signs start coming.

Cole doesn’t like Zack or Beth, he becomes jealous and doesn’t like when Alex hangs out with them, he becomes possessive, of course at the beginning of the relationship everything is fine and she’s completely in love with him, a couple of months after he starts hurting her here and there. Soon there is physical damage to her body and she has to hide it from her friends and family.

I read a couple of books about abusive relationships and I noticed that all the abuser’s father usually abuses them. The apple never falls far from the tree. And while Alex finds more and more about Cole’s family she starts seeing the reason he acts the way he is.

I’m so glad that Alex finally told someone about Cole. I hate reading a book where the girl just stands there and gets hurt over and over again but keeps it all to herself. I realize that telling someone could danger them even more but it never hurts to tell someone.

Jennifer did an amazing job creating a story that can help multiple teens out there. She showed us how a relationship can get dangerous quick, Alex just wanted attention from someone, her mom is dead and her dad acts like an emotionless zombie.

I loved Zack’s character, he was fun, witty, crazy and totally dedicated to his two best friends. I really loved his humor in the story, although it made me mad when Alex pushed her friends away, they have been nothing but there for her.

Bitter End shows how bad abusive relationships and shows the warning signs to an abusive relationship, It’s a nice wakeup call to all teens and adults. This topic happens all over, even if you don’t notice it!

5/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday #12

waiting on wednesday is a weekly event
hosted by breaking the spine







This week's book I can't wait for is:

The future of Us
Author: Jay Asher
publication date: November 21 2011



Summary:
It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.

Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.



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Sharks & Boys

Sharks&Boys
Author: Kristen Tracy
publication date:June 28 2011






Summary:
When 15-year-old Enid Calhoun follows her boyfriend Wick to Maryland for a party, fearful that he might be intending to cheat on her, she finds herself sneaking on board a houseboat where Wick and his friends plan to have a wild night. But before the boys discover their stowaway, a hurricane strikes, and the teenagers are carried miles from the shore and shipwrecked. What follows is a harrowing, yet heartwarming, story of survival, as the teens battle hypothermia, dehydration, man-eating sharks--and along the way, confront their own deepest secrets, including their catalytic roles in the disaster.




Review:
After I finished reading this book, it really made me thankful for fresh water and a warm safe bed.

I literally could not stop reading this book because I wanted to know what would happen next. This book was so suspenseful and I almost wished I could reach into the pages and hand them each a glass of water and some food.

This book starts out with Enid and wick, making decorations for a cake and getting into a fight, they decided to take a break after dating for a year. Wick then decided to go to a party that his friends were having. Sort of a celebration before going off to college, the party consisted of wick and three sets of twin brothers and then Enid’s twin brother. All of them twins, all of them best friends, except for Enid, she was the only girl.

Enid didn’t trust Wick; she thought he was going to cheat on her while he was away. So she left her mom and drove to the party, she then followed the all the boys to “Gretchen”. Gretchen was a boat that skate and burr’s uncle owned. Enid snuck on the ship and hid in the bathroom down below the deck.

Suddenly she woke up to the boat rocking back and forth. There was a major storm and water was coming down the stairs and water was slowly coming up to her ankles. Next the window opened and water started streaming in. Soon enough the ship was sinking with everyone in it. All eight of them jumped overboard and got onto a raft.

They thought the Coast Guard was coming. But three days out at sea with no water, no food, the sun shining down on them, leaving welts on all there exposed skin, and sharks swarming around them they were all doomed. Everyone thought they were going to die.

What I liked about this book was that there were some emotional and gruesome parts. The book wasn’t all happy, with rainbows and puppies. There were deaths, emotional breakdowns. Some parts I almost didn’t want to keep reading because I almost felt the pain they were in. But I voyaged on, and soon enough I was at the end. I really did enjoy this book though.

*spoiler alert*

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. It didn’t end with a cliffhanger, but it didn’t say what happened after they got into the plane. I’m assuming everyone made it up to safety alive. I would have loved to read what happened when their parents saw them or what happened when they made it home. I was going hoping for that ending. Maybe the author is working on an alternate ending. I hope so!

Anyways, this was a great book so if you haven’t read it, and you want to take a break from paranormal books then dive into Sharks & Boys.


4/5 stars

Hereafter

Hereafter
Author:Tara Hudson
Pages:403
publication date: June 7 2011





Summary:
Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.






review:
I wasn’t really sure what to make of this book. I read some reviews, mostly good and I saw the beautiful cover but I had my doubts. I didn’t want to read it solely because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I saw the plot, the cover and I thought this looks great.

And I was right! I powered through this book in no time. I don’t usually like reading books about ghosts, purely because I don’t like watching, or reading creepy things. But this was different. I was surprised at how the book turned out.

I loved the relationship between Amelia and Joshua. Joshua is so sweet and charming; if it weren’t for him I don’t think I would enjoy the book as much. He was a great character. And his family really made the book interesting. What were the odds that Amelia being a ghost, falling in love with a human boy whose family deals with ghosts. When Amelia first explained to Joshua that she was a ghost, I thought he would have at least tried to push her away after that. I mean he invited her to go to school with him. I would be nervous that I would get caught embracing a ghost, which would be invisible to everyone else but him. It made me nervous every time they were together in public because I thought he was going to get caught kissing the air every time.

But I felt like Amelia was kind of whiny and needy at parts. She kind of annoyed me the way that having Joshua in her life was the only reason she started making a change in herself and actually trying to remember her past. What would have happened if she wouldn’t have met him? Would she still be struggling, lost forever?

I liked Eli’s character, dark and brooding, also a ghost, trying to convince Amelia to be with him forever. The only thing was I kept picturing him as an older man. Obviously he wasn’t, he was only 19 when he died but I couldn’t correctly picture him. I felt like Eli should have showed up a little more. Even though he was the bad guy I was secretly rooting for him at the same time. He sounded so lonely and sad.

I definitely created a little crush on Joshua, along with a bunch of other teenage girls who fell in love with this story, the storyline was perfect, and the romance was perfect. Everything about this book was perfect. I’m excited to see what happens in the second book!


4/5 stars

Once upon a Read-a-Thon

goal:

Monday:
Hereafter-done
outside in-done

Tuesday:
The Near Witch
Ash's Ash's

Wednesday:
Bitter End
68 knots


I accomplished my goal yesterday, here's to completing it again today!