With All My Soul Reading Challenge Participation Post

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rachel Vincent is by far my favourite author and her Soul Screamers series makes me feel every emotion known to man. I can't wait to read the seventh and FINAL book in the series, With All My Soul, due out March 19, 2013. I'll be sad to end this series since Kaylee and her friends follow me around in my dreams, but I am excited to see what Vincent has in store for this thrilling conclusion. She's posted some teasers on her Tumblr and each one just makes me want the book more and more.

Fiktshun, Vincent's biggest ally in this world, is hosting a mini reading challenge for those eager to read and review this book. I'd definitely say I qualify for this, so I'm participating. What this means is that I'll read and review WAMS before April 30th, challenging myself to be on the ball. Even though I know I'll have the book done the minute it's in my hands, I'm happy to participate.

If you want details, or would like to enter the challenge yourself (you can win a pre-order copy of WAMS if you sign up!) follow the link to the Challenge Sign Up Page and join in on the fun!

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the description of the first book in the series (spoilers, sweetie) Trust me, you want to read this series.

She doesn't see dead people. She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next.

Best book idea ever, right? Look back here sometime in March for my review!

Teaser Tuesday: Unravel Me

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 teaser for this week is from the highly anticipated sequel Unravel Me, the second book in the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. Here's a sneak peek:

"I want to say something, something right and steady and reassuring. I want to tell him that I understand, that I want the same thing, that I want him too, but the moment feels so charged and urgent that I'm half convinced I'm dreaming." page 23

"It's like a button in my brain is broken, like I've developed a disease that forces me to apologize for everything, for existing, for wanting more than what I've been given, and I can't stop." page 76

I'm not too far into the book yet, but I'm sure it'll be just as dramatic and crazy as the first. 

Goodreads description:

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Anyone else in love with this series as much as I am?

Review: Prodigy

Prodigy
Author: Marie Lu
Published: January 29, 2013
384 Pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.

It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long. 

But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?

Lu has taken the dystopian craze and made it into a civil war novel as well. Although there is disease killing those living in this world, it's not the main focal point. In fact, you almost forget its there until its mentioned and I like that about this series. It does not force us to look this plague in the eye, just like most of the people involved don't. It's always there, lingering in the background, but it's more important to have a reliable government to take care of it than it is to run from it. 

June used to be the government's prodigy, that is until she helped rescue Day from his public death penelty. Now, on the run with the Republic's most notorious criminal, June needs to figure out where her loyalties lay. Working with the Patriots, a group of rebels set to take down the Republic, June and Day are given the task to assassinate the new Elector Primo, a young man whom June has met before. Before they know it, June and Day are separated and June is getting herself kidnapped in order to talk to the new Elector. 

Lu's pace for these novels keeps the story going fluently. With both June and Day's point of views, we see how each of them is dealing with everything that's been happening and get to see more action when they are apart. They learn a lot about each other and themselves in this second instalment, which I think is important in the long run. For teenagers, especially in YA fiction, the love they feel is usually the first time they've felt that way, so I think it's important to show that just because they like one person, that doesn't mean there isn't the possibility to love others. Even if nothing happens with those other people (no need for love triangles) it's the fact that they're young and they wonder what if? Few authors can tap into this without making it into a love triangle and I think Lu has done it right. It reminds me of Rossi's Through the Ever Night, where there are other people interested in the main characters, and they may flirt with the idea but they don't follow through with it. It's part of growing up and to me, it makes the main relationship stronger in the end.

There is definitely a uniqueness to this series that gives it its own voice. June and Day are both strong, confident characters, and are both a welcome change from the usual teens we see in some series. They are good to each other, good for each other, and deserve a happy ending. No spoilers allowed. Lu certainly knows how to capture our attention and not let it go. Although I found the book slow at times, it would pick up speed in the next chapter and I'd want to keep reading. Every character is so unique that it's hard to pick a favourite. The minor characters are just as important as June and Day, such as Tess and Kaede. Anden, the Elector, was a breath of fresh air for the government and it gives me some good hope for the final book in the series. Matias still plays a large part in this novel even though he is no longer alive. His role as June's older brother is so significant that he is almost a main character. 

Everything that happened in the first book comes crashing in on our main characters and they set out on new journeys, meet new people, and discover more things about the government they really know nothing about. Everything leads up to what will surely be an action packed finale. This book will break your heart, mend it, and then break it again. You've been warned, but it'll still be one of the best adventures you will read.

“He pauses when he finishes undoing the last button, then closes his eyes. I can see the pain slashed across his face, and the sight tears at me. The Republic's most wanted criminal is just a boy, sitting before me, suddenly vulnerable, laying all his weaknesses out for me to see.” 

Review: Red Glove

Red Glove
Author: Holly Black
Published: April 5, 2011
325 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth — he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything — or anyone — into something else.

That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him, a little gift from his emotion-worker mom. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

When Cassel’s oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit Cassel to help make sense of the only clue — crime-scene images of a woman in red gloves. But the mob is after Cassel too — they know how valuable he could be to them. Cassel is going to have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. But where can he turn when he can’t trust anyone — least of all, himself?

Love is a curse and the con is the only answer in a game too dangerous to lose.

I couldn't resist falling into Cassel's world again just as soon as I left. With Red Glove on hand already, I dove in as soon as I put down White Cat, and boy was I not disappointed! I hardly ever like a male protagonist as much as I love Cassel. I find it hard to relate to them most of the time, but I found myself rooting for him every page and hoping everything would work out.

The story starts with a bang and there is no escaping it the rest of the way. When Cassel is recruited to find his brother's murderer, he can't help but suspect everyone he knows. When you live in a world full of criminal and mobs, it's hard to trust anyone. And the one person Cassel really wants to trust, his somewhat girlfriend Lila, has been worked over to love him and it's all he can do not to all into the trap. While he tries to let her feelings diminish on their own, he forces himself to try and solve the murder. The problem is, he's got too many suspects, him being one of them.

Cassel is a transformation worker, the most powerful worker out there, but he's only just discovered this and trying to keep it hidden because he knows what people will do to him if they find out. While struggling to keep his hands off Lila and stay one step ahead of those following him, Cassel finds out more and more secrets about his family and more reasons not to trust anyone. This is certainly not a romance story, but Cassel feels the same pain anyone would who's in love. In a world where love can be handed to you on a platter, Cassel must decide if he wants to take that chance or resist it. 

The film noir feel is still here and still strong. With every turn of the page, there's more to the mystery and there's no telling who is responsible for what. This series is such a nice change from everything else out there and the classic feel to it makes me think it will live on for quite awhile. Black has a way of digging us into a hole and making us love it down there. We know things probably won't end well for Cassel. We know his family is up to no good. We know what he's capable of but we love him all the same. There's no telling where the story will go from here, but I know it won't be pretty. But I can't wait.

“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.” 

“The moment she was cursed, I lost her. Once it wears off- soon- she will be embarrassed to remember things that she said, things she did, things like this. No matter how solid she feels in my arms, she is made of smoke.” 

Review: White Cat

White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Published: May 4, 2010
320 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Cassel comes from a family of Curse Workers - people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn't got magic, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail - he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Cassel has carefully built up a facade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his facade starts to crumble when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

The Curse Workers series is unlike any young adult series I've read so far. Black creates a film noir world that's just as modern as it is vintage. Everyone wears gloves to protect themselves from workers and to protect the workers from detection. Gloves are as common as pants, but workers find ways around them. Cassel comes from a family of workers, him being the only one with a power. To make up for his lack of abilities, he has become a very good con man. I think my favourite part of reading was just to see how he'd get in and out of situations without getting caught. He's good, like really good. 

Cassel has taken to conning those at his fancy private school. He's doing pretty good at pretending to be normal when he suddenly starts to sleepwalk. Then he dreams of a white cat that he can't help reminding him of his old friend Lila, someone he killed three years before. When stranger things happen and he starts to forget important parts of his life, Cassel starts to feel his life unraveling and he won't sleep until he figures out exactly what's going on. 

I thought the curse workers idea was brilliant. Many people are born as workers, but it has become illegal, meaning that if you know you're a worker, you're automatically a criminal. It's hard enough being a teenager, let alone not knowing what you're capable of doing. The underground world of workers is dark and sketchy, and people can buy charms to protect themselves from workers. The talents that come with working are clever and believeable. Emotion workers can change how you feel towards people. Luck workers can guarantee you good luck or bad. Death workers can kill you with a touch, and memory workers can erase any part of your memory they please and replace it with a new one easily. No one it's illegal and there are people out there trying to get rid of all of them and make it mandatory to get tested. Workers have become mobsters, controlling the underbelly of the world while people try not to touch bare hands to bare skin. I love the subtleness of the gloves and how easily it is for the workers to do their business anyway. 

This is the first series I've read by Black, but I was blown away by her writing and descriptions. I completely felt for Cassel, which I've found a hard thing to do with male narrators. I was eager to figure out what was happening to him and who the white cat really was. I wanted the bad guys to get what was coming to them and I wanted Cassel to get the girl. The twists and turns left me gasping and ripping through the chapters and the ending came too quickly. It's a good thing I already had Red Glove on hand to start reading immediately after.

Mobsters, magic, and cons left right and centre separate this series from every other series out there. It played out like a old mystery and I could picture everything happening in black and white. It has the dame, the guns, and the mystery to leave you wanting more. Black has hit this genre on the head.

“Once someone's hurt you, it's harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn't stop you from wanting them.” 

“Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.” 

Review: Beautiful Disaster

Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Published: May 26, 2011
437 pages
3 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Sometimes it's important to break from your norm and read a book that doesn't necessary seem like something you would normally read. Beautiful Disaster caught my eye and the description made me pick up the bok. I fell into it right away, suddenly sucked into Abby's world and wanting to know what happened in her past to be scared a guy like Travis. Mind you, Travis is the type that every girl should stay away from no matter what, but that wasn't exactly the main focus of this book.

Abby tries everything she can to resist Travis. He has slept with most every girl at their college and she is warned, but she somehow ends up falling in the same hole as all the other girls. This would be fine with me if Travis was actually a good guy. Let's face it, some guys who sleep around are actually just looking for the right girl, but Travis is not one of these guys. When he finds the right girl, in this case, Abby, he decides that he needs to possess every aspect of her instead of loving her. Abby is's smart enough to see this and she just keeps going back to him even when she can't stand being around him.

If this book were about toxic relationships and trying to get out of them, then I would have loved it. If it ended with Abby finally escaping the abusive relationship Travis has involved her in, the entire plot would have impacted me drastically. Instead, McGuire glorifies their relationship. telling us that this is what love is supposed to be like. If Abby leaves without telling Travis where she's going, he freaks out. One night he stays outside her dorm room all night and she is scared to leave. He tattoos her ridiculous nickname that he's given her on him when they've only been dating a month. And, well I won't spoil the ending, but it takes it just a little too over the top. This book could be the perfect book for a girl trying to leave a relationship like this if the author actually used their abusive relationship in the way it is. But it's covered up by stupidity on both characters parts and is shown as a healthy relationship. Nothing about their relationship made me swoon. At no point in the novel did I want to date Travis. I was just scared that he would eventually hit Abby and she'd allow it. I wanted her to leave him. At one point in the novel, she dates a good guy who plans to have a great future, someone she should be with, and she throws him out like trash. 


Here's where it got tricky for me. Part of me loved this book. I craved more as soon as I stopped reading. I would have read it from cover to cover if I'd had the time. The writing flowed well and the characters were funny and alive. It's hard for me to describe the feeling, because the entire time I wanted to yell at everyone in the book, yet I still wanted to know what would happen next. If the next book in the series were a real sequel (Walking Disaster is just a retelling rom Travis's point of view) I'd probably pick it up because for some reason I liked it. It's just really hard for me to pinpoint where the love and hate separate.  I've never felt this way about a book and now, after having read two more books after it, I'm still thinking about it. It's cheesy, but the best way to actually describe this book is by calling it a beautiful disaster.

“I knew the second I met you that there was something about you I needed. Turns out it wasn’t something about you at all. It was just you.” 

The Way We Fall Paperback Release

February is an exciting month for us Fallen World fans. Tomorrow marks the release of The Way We Fall in paperback. Now's the time for anyone who's been thinking about reading it but didn't want to pay the hardcover price (I mean who does?) And next week the sequel, The Lives We Lost will be released. I for one can't wait to get my hands on it!

It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you're dead.

When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn't?

So what are you  waiting for, go pick up this beautiful paperback! And wait impatiently for the sequel with the rest of us!