Teaser Tuesday 6

Alright guys it's time for our sixth Teaser Tuesday, I love doing these because you get a sneak peak at the book your reading and others too! If you want to join in just post two teaser sentences of whatever book your reading and post them :) Teaser Tuesday is hosted by the wonderful MizB from Should Be Reading so if you want to blog post link back to her!

My teaser is from Rumors by Anna Godbersen:

"Oh," Diana Holland said. She appeared stricken -- Lina noticed that even as her own breath shortened and she began to realize, with no small amount of agitation that one mistake had piled on another.

Make sure you comment below with links to your teasers as I would love to add more books to my TBR pile.

Until next time,
Shelbie

Review: Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick

Release date: 10/05/10

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 208

Overall:

I met Fred first.

Fred: Hot. Enigmatic. Alex’s first friend in her lonely new town. Maybe her
first…everything.

I met Adina the following Monday.

Adina: Fred’s twin sister. Cold. Troubled. Trouble.

I kissed him.

She pressed her mouth to my mouth.

People warn Alex to steer clear of the twins, but Alex is drawn to them.
She wants to be part of their crazy world…no matter the consequences. (summary
from Amazon.)

Lauren Strasnick definitely had me captivated within the first 40 pages or so. Her and Me and You is definitely a lot different from the predictable, however cute, YA romance novels that I usually read. It was quite refreshing (however ironic it may seem) to dive into a world of extremely complex characters that actually have some depth.

The romance in the novel was nice, as it was totally real and a lot more similar to the average girl's love life than your usual YA romance novel. But while Fred and Alex's romance was cute, it was their relationship with Adina that gave the story depth.

I can't say that I've ever read about a character quite like Adina before. Which is both good and bad. On the one hand, I most definitely hated Adina. But I also sympathized with her at points during the book. While Adina may do sick and manipulating things to try to keep Fred and Alex apart, what was sad was how legitimate her reasons for doing so were. Adina and Fred have this incredible relationship throughout the novel, and it's very interesting seeing how Alex ties into that relationship. What's so scary about the whole thing is Adina's fragility that makes you underestimate her. While Adina clings to Fred and uses him as a crutch, she can also be very powerful and manipulative.

I don't think I can put into words how I feel about this book. It touches on some issues that are very real, although the scale of the issues in the book is much larger. Her and Me and You is a short but gripping read filled with complex characters and great emotional depth. I can't wait to read more from Lauren Strasnick!

Characters:

Plot:

Ending:

Writing:


Love always,

Amanda

Blog Hop 6!

So it's already the weekend. This week went by FAST!! But it's time for another blog hop!

Wanna join? Go to http://www.crazy-for-books.com/ and sign the Mr. Linky there with your answer to the question below. Don't forget to comment here!! I look forward to seeing your posts ;)

Question:

"Where is your favorite place to read? Curled up on the sofa, in bed, in the garden?"

Shelbie's Answer: Hmm... I'm pretty adaptable when it comes to reading areas but I'd usually opt for sofa or bed just because they are both comfy and you don't have to worry about being uncomfortable while you read. I wish I could say the garden one but here in Minnesota you usually get either mosquitoes or too cold to really be comfy, some days though have very nice reading weather :)

Amanda's Answer: Well... I can read pretty much anywhere. But there is one place in my house that I LOVE to read. It's the couch in our living room because it's huge and has tons of pillows, and the back is so high that my family can only see me from a few directions, which means I'm not being nagged to do something that often.


Where do you read? Make sure to let us know in the comments!

xoxo and love always,
Shelbie and Amanda

Pretty Little Devils by Nancy Holder

Release Date: 3/17/2007
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 256
Overall:

Hazel Stone wants nothing more than to be a part of the hottest clique in school, the Pretty Little Devils. She's got the style, she's cool enough, so how did she end up at a lunch table full of high school C-listers?

Hazel has resigned herself to life as a nobody, when suddenly everything changes. Sylvia, queen bee of the PLDs, invites Hazel to one of the group's famous soirees—held at the site of their babysitting jobs.

Before Hazel knows it, she's in with the in crowd—and she couldn't be more thrilled!

But popularity comes with a price. Especially when one of Hazel's classmates becomes jealous of her newfound status—deadly jealous.

And you know how school gossip can just rip a girl to shreds . .

Okay, so I'm guest poster on Looskie Lovitz's (if you don't follow her too you really should, because she's pretty awesome) blog sometime this month, I posted about the top five creepiest books I read, and I really should have finished this one before sending that email because dang this book is scary! I started it yesterday late at night, and that wasn't the smartest idea. I think I finally ended up falling asleep at like 3 am and then finished it today.

I think my favourtie part of the book was the plot. I love books where you don't know what the hell is happening. I usually am pretty good at guessing who the bad guy is. I totally didn't this time! It's quite a shocker!

Overall, very good to read around Halloween... but beware it's always the quiet ones!

Cover:
Characters:
Plot:
Writing:
Ending:

xoxo,

Shelbie

Waiting on Wednesday 5

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So make sure to visit her blog and link your waiting on wednesday!


Once again, cant remember = number 5...

Waiting on Wednesday is another meme (I know another one!!) that I love doing, I love posting all the ones that have the possibility to add new books to the ever growing To Read List...

This seems extremely early to be excited about this, but the cover was just released so I thought why not! :)

I am waiting very impatiently for What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen who is one of my favorite authors EVER!! (I unfortunately couldn't find a good description so the below is the best I could find)

What Happened to Goodbye is about a high school senior who, after her parents’ divorce, has taken up the practice of assuming a new identity in each of the four towns she’s lived in.

Descriptive no? But it does not come out 'til May so you can't really blame anybody...

That's it for me!

Shelbie

Teaser Tuesday 5

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!


Hey guys, we've got two teasers this week because both Shelbie and I are posting teasers! Anyways... we can't remember how many of these we've done... so we're just going to say this is number five.
Shelbie's Teaser: This teaser is from Radiance by Alyson Noel,

"She's back," I whispered, knowing it to be true. "They're all back together again."

Sounds interesting, I have no idea what happens to be going on... but apperently everyone is back together.

Amanda's Teaser: Okay, this teaser is from The Scorch Trials by James Dashner.

"Why didn't you just whack me out in the alley?" Thomas asked.

Hmmm sounds very interesting. Now I can't wait to get to that page!
*edit* I apparently didn't post the full quote. I'll get to that, but not right now, because I have to go through the book and find it. Oops, sorry!

Anyways, be sure to comment and post your own teaser!


xoxo and love always,
Shelbie and Amanda

What I'm craving...

Hey guys... so I was going to post a review, but Blogger is lame and something went wrong while I was writing it. So I gave up for now. Anyhoo... I just wanted to write a quick little post about my current literary obsession. I am very much in the mood for Dystopian novels right now. I read The Maze Runner by James Dashner the other day and am currently in the middle of the sequel, The Scorch Trials. So the point of this post is to a) Tell you how amazing James Dashner is and b) ask for suggestions of some very good dystopian novels. If you don't know what dystopian novels are... they're books that are set in a time period sometime after the "end of the world." Think Hunger Games. The world is trying to pick itself back up after some crazy disaster. Anyways... tell me what dystopian novels you've read recently and what you thought of them. And then, if you haven't already, go read The Maze Runner by James Dashner!!! It is amazing!

Anyhoo... please tell me your suggestions!

Love always,

Amanda

The Obsession is Back...

Some of you may remember a while ago I had this fan cover obsession...

Well, that came back today. This time I did not one, but a whole series of books. These are inspired by Sarah Rees Brennan's books, The Demon's Lexicon, The Demon's Covenant, and finally, The Demon's Surrender, which is due out next year.

So I thought I would share them with you, because I'm sort of extremely proud of them :)

Soo... what do you think? Commentary?

Anybody have suggestions for the next books to obsess over?

Well, I'm going to get some sleep now :)

tootles!

Shelbie

In My Mailbox 5

I'm having fun getting back on the schedule of doing our weekly posts, and I think this is the last of it :)

Stuff that was Mailed to Me:

Nothing, although I wouldn't be surprised if our mailman was playing a joke on me because I practically stalk him. lol

Library Books!

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Pretty Little Devils by Nancy Holder
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Books I Bought:

Radiance by Alyson Noel
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

That's all for me. What's in your mailbox?

xoxo,

Shelbie

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Release Date: 10/12/2010
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 553
Overall:

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

And I never thought anything could live up to Percy Jackson. Well guess what, I think this is my new favourite. Rick Riordan is just so good at making this whole world of half-bloods so real! It's fantastic! There isn't enough time in the world to tell you all how much I loved this book! It was SO EPIC!! I'm going to try and keep my cool, but right now all I feel like is gushing about how "totally awesome" the story is... Well, lets get started. Shall we?

In The Lost Hero there are a whole new group of half-bloods, a whole new prophecy, and a whole new adventure. When I first picked this up I was afraid that it was going to be Percy Jackson 2.0, but it's definitely a whole different story, one I arguably like better.

Why you ask? Well, if you have read Percy Jackson then you know your basic knowledge of Greek gods and goddesses... (especially if you are a dork like me and have the Percy Jackson Greek mythology flashcards) but, in The Lost Hero you learn not only about Greek mythology but also Roman mythology. I would love to gush about the cool plot, but I don't want to give anything away! But it's cool, trust me.

Finally, the writing. Rick Riordan's writing blows me away, the way that he can make this world seem so real. I've always wanted to be a half-blood... I haven't been attacked by monsters yet, so sadly I'm thinking of switching that dream to something else... *sigh*

Overall, this book was fantabulous! If you haven't go pick it up!

Cover:
Characters:
Plot:
Writing:
Ending:

What did you think of The Lost Hero? Let me know in that cool comment box thing!

xoxo,
Shelbie

Quicky Random Post Explaining Stuff

I'm so creative when it comes to naming titles. It's insane. lol

This is just a random post talking about a few things that are gonna be a little bit different.... I don't think it'll be terribly noticable but I wanted to formally annouce some stuff :)

1.) If for some reason you haven't noticed, Amanda and I don't update the blog a whole lot anymore and that is simply because there isn't enough time in the day to do all the things that I want to get done, like reading, and when I haven't read anything I feel awkward posting random stuff... so if anyone has any suggestions to what to do when I don't have time I would absolutely love it (and you!) if you posted them in the nifty comments section at the bottom of this post. :)

2.) That transitions wonderfully to my next point. I am discontinuing the personal blog thing. The thing is that u feel extremely awkward when I'm only posting about myself and I would feel less awkward if it was sort of a blogger thing where someone posts with their version of the post, but seeing as no one did that I just sort of felt like I just kept talking about myself. If you liked them post it in the wonderful comments section mentioned above and if a lot of people like those posts then I guess I'll keep doing them, but it just seemed weird that all the posts were about me... you know?

I think that's it! Look forward to more posts this week!

xoxo,
Shelbie

Blog Hop 5

I lost count of the Blog Hops we've done so I'm gonna call this number five :)

Be super sure to post links to your post below so I don't accidentally miss them because I love reading these!! And if you want to do it, just go to THIS website and join in on the action!

Question:

"When you read a book that you just can't get into, do you stick it out and keep reading or move to your next title?"

Shelbie's Answer: Um... it sort of depends on how much I can't get into it and how bad I want it to be good. I know that sounds weird to say, but if I really want a book to be good, I can kind of fake it and be like 'oh this really isn't so bad' and then by the time I finish the book I'll realize, oh that kind of sucked... But majority of the time I skip over it... I think...

Amanda's Answer: Well... usually I will finish the book. But it definitely depends on a lot of things. 1) If it was super duper hyped up and I was really looking forward to it, I'll probably finish. Because I obviously had high hopes and want to give the book a chance. 2) It also depends on if I have a long (and exciting) TBR list. If I really want to start a different book, I'll stop the lame book I'm reading and start the new and exciting book. 3) It also depends on my... blogger obligations I guess you could call them. If it's a book tour book, I'll try to finish it so I can post the review. Anyways... most of the time I'll finish the book even if it is lame. Because a) every book deserves a chance and b) someone has to write that review telling you not to read the book!

Be super sure you commented linking to your post and keep checking back because we're trying to hop (get it?) back on the blogging bandwagon this week!

Thanks for sticking through our slum!

xoxo and love always,

Shelbie and Amanda

Quotes 10.15.2010

Wow! I realised that I haven't done quotes since dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I think it's about time I started them again, actually, I think its time I started posting again. But I won't bore you with the details in this post because right after I am doing an explaining post :) So... here we go!

These quotes are all from The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, who is practically my hero when it comes to writing, and naturally I was the first in line for his new book ;) review coming soon!!

5. "Reinforcements, Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."
"Extraction squad? That sounds painful."

4. "That's the symbol of Vulcan isn't it?"
"Vulcan? What are you talking about? I don't even LIKE Star Trek."

3. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive."
"Oh. I mean... Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this."

2. "You named him Festus? You know in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"

1. "You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. The skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."

Well, That's all for now!

tootles!
Shelbie

Movies and Books...

Okay, I feel super duper bad about only doing these posts but I was in drivers ed last week and am this week too, so I have no time to do anything! So I try to stay on schedule for at least these posts. :) But, please do a random blog post and put it in the linky below, because I do these posts to see whats up in everyone's lives. So PLEASE PLEASE do one and link it! :)

I saw Orphan yesterday... it was SO creepy!! So sososososososo creepy! I like can't even describe it. But yea, if your looking to get creeped out, there is your place! lol. I also think me and my momma are going to see Easy A today. I saw it with friends on opening night
and it was fantastic! So I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing it again.

I think maybe I'll get a new book today or soon because I haven't got one in a while. For school books I have to read Persepolis 2, so that will be fun. But yeah, maybe new book which means new review! Yay!

Well, I think thats about it for this post. I can't say this enough PLEASE link to your random post :)

xoxo,
Shelbie