Recent Reads: Love You, Hate You, Miss You / Shiver

Book: Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
Book Count: 28

After a horrific car accident leaves Amy's best friend Julia dead, Amy's parents send her to rehab where a therapist there asks her to keep a journal. In it, she writes letters to Julia, counting the days since Julia's death. Through these letters, Amy remembers Julia for who she was, and who she doesn't remember her being.

As always, Elizabeth Scott's writing is compelling and emotional. Another great read.

Book: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Book Count: 29

So I heard a little about this book on Twitter, from agents who found it to be amazing. I saw it at the bookstore. The cover was interesting, but didn't tell me anything. Then I read the inside jacket. OMG. I had to get it.

Grace has watched the wolves who live in the woods around her home since she was a little girl. One wolf in particular, with yellow eyes, seems to always be there, watching her back. Her wolf. He is there every winter, watching, protecting. One day Grace meets Sam. A boy with yellow eyes and she knows he is her wolf. But as the winter approaches, Sam must fight the shiver to keep from losing himself and Grace forever.

So good. If you haven't read this one yet, go get it. Read it. Really.

Recent Reads: Wicked Lovely (Series to date)

Yep, another multi-book update! Mostly because this was yet another series I got into and had to stay up 3 nights in a row to finish all of them.
I love it when I get AWESOME book recommendations from friends! The only issue here: the series isn't finished **sigh** but at least I KNOW there is some good reading coming. Eventually.

Book: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Book Count: 16
Aislinn sees faeries, and these aren't the Disney Tinkerbell sort of faeries. These are the ones that are beautiful, powerful and dangerous. So long as Aislinn followed the Rules she was raised with having the Sight hasn't been a problem really, but when the faeries change the Rules, Aislinn's left trying to figure out how to hold onto everything and everyone she holds close, especially her best friend Seth.

Okay, loved this book. So much, I immediately had to go out and get the others that were out. Just enough darkness in the storytelling to make the light of the story really shine.



Book: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
Book Count: 17
Second in the series, but told from the perspective of one of Aislinn's friends, Leslie. She doesn't have any clue as to the existance of faeries or anything about their parallel worlds, but when she sees a strange and eerie tattoo, she finds herself completely drawn to it and ends up in the midst of the faery world.

I understand the additional darkness in this book, as it revolved around the faery Dark Court, and maybe that was what made me like it just a little less. Still was a great story and a great lead in to the third book.


Book: Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
Book Count: 18
The actual sequel to Wicked Lovely this is a continuation of Aislinn's story and the changes that have transpired in her life and with her relationship with Seth. There are power struggles and loves and loss and a deeper understanding of every word a faery speaks.

Wow, is about all I can say. Melissa Marr continues to pull me further into this alternate universe she has created. I couldn't put this one down and I loved getting even further into Seth's head.

Overall, if you haven't read these books, go get them. Read them. Soon. Even if it is an indefinite wait on the next ones (Ms. Marr's blog/website have stated there will be 5 books in the series) it will be a worthwhile wait.

P.S. Yeah, I'm a total sucker for hot guys in books and I'm totally crushing on Seth Morgan... ;-P

Recent Reads: L & K, I<3U, Glass

Yes, yes, yet another, let's play catch up, post. I read far faster than I can put up RR posts, so I'm just going to keep doing my best to keep up with these and sometimes the posts will be multiples.

I can't help it. There are way too many good books out there that I want to share about!

Book: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Book Count: 13

The story of a girl who finds out what home and love really are.

In Lock and Key Ruby is discovered living in a house where her mother abandoned her. She's still underage, so instead of finding herself in foster care, Ruby is sent to live with her much older estranged sister and her husband.

Once Ruby's moved in, she befriends the cute neighbor guy, works on rebuilding a relationship with her sister and finds out that one of the hardest parts of letting people in, is letting people go.

Great book. Great Read. Go get it! It's Sarah Dessen. You can't really go wrong here.

Book: I Heart You You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

Book Count: 14

Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy dies. Girl can't let go. Neither can boy.

Yep, that's about it. Yanno, with some more detail and stuff. Her dead boyfriend's ghost comes back to be with her because she can't let go of the guilt, blaming herself for his death, so she can't let him go. But how do you have a "real" relationship with a ghost?

I really thought the premise of this was great, but the execution was a bit off for me. It just felt like there wasn't enough. For a book written in free pose, much like Ellen Hopkins's novels, this book felt a thin. The characters were not developed enough for me. For me, I guess the easiest way to put it is: I didn't feel what she was feeling.

If it didn't only take me about 45 minutes to read, I probably wouldn't have finished it. The premise got me. The actual story lost me.

Book: Glass

Book Count: 15

Ahh, yes, another Ellen Hopkins book. Issues galore. This is the sequel to Crank and what a sequel it is. As usual, written lyrically and in free pose, Glass sucks you back into Kristina's world. Now seventeen with a baby, the lure of an even stronger form of meth calls out to her.

In this sequel Ellen Hopkins deals even more with the ramifications of an addicts actions on their families and it is heartwrenching. Especially when there are children involved. She doesn't gloss over the story, which makes it more real and more difficult to read. The difficulty does not lie in the writing, but in the actual story and how harsh reality is.

This is the second part in a based on real life story that Ms. Hopkins's family has faced. As you read this book, you can tell there's more to the words than in some of her other works. There's more behind the story and it breaks your heart just a little bit more.

Maybe not something to read if you're having a downer day, but definitely a good book.

That's it for now. Happy Reading!

Recent Reads: City of Bones

Book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Genre: YA Fantasy

Book Count: 10

Uh, okay, hi. Playing Recent Reads catch up again, so you'll be seeing lots of postings in the next few days.

What's not to like about the cover of this? It was one of those books that I just kept gravitating toward, but was hesitant to pick up. You'll notice my recent swerve into reading lots of YA Fantasy/Paranormal, so when it came down to it, I caved to my inner judge-a-book-by-its-cover self and picked this up. Man, oh man, that was one of the best book buying decisions I EVER made!

City of Bones is Book 1 in The Mortal Instruments trilogy (imagine my excitement that ALL 3 of the books were out and I wouldn't have to sit around anxiously awaiting the next one). Clary Fray is at a nightclub with her best friend and she sees something bad going down. While her friend heads off to get security, she follows the would-be criminals and ends up witnessing a murder by three teenagers covered in tattoos. But when her best friend returns, security in tow, they find her in a back room alone. Except she's not. She just seems to be the only one who can see the teenagers.

When her mother is kidnapped, Clary ends up turning to the teenagers for help. The teenagers are actually Shadowhunters, humans who hunt/kill demons, and the lead Clary into the middle of an invisible world, one she never knew existed before. Faeries, werewolves, vampires and warlocks: they are all real and not just children's stories. It's discovered that the man who took her mother is after The Mortal Cup, a powerful Shadowhunter relic and to save her mother, Clary has to find it.

I'm really not doing the full synopsis of this book justice, but for those who love Fantasy/Paranormal/Urban Steampunk - whatev, and not that I'm an expert on any of those genres, but I thought this was a MUST read. And a MUST even for those who maybe wouldn't normally read those genres as well. You won't be disappointed.