Feature & Follow Friday (#9)

Hey guys, I am getting a late start to FFF today, I didn't think about it last night until it was already too late! So without further ado, here is my Feature & Follow Friday!

Today is Friday which means Feature & Follow Friday! FFF is hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read.  It is an opportunity to gain followers and find new blogs in the book blogging community! You can find more information about it here. This week's featured blogs are The Book Stop & Phantasmic Reads.

If you use bloglovin please follow me with that since GFC will not be available soon! Otherwise, I have made subscribing by email and RSS available also :) Just pick your favorite way of following!

This weeks question is: AN ACTIVITY! Spine Poetry. Create a line of poetry with your book spines (take a picture). Not feeling creative? Tell us about your favorite poem.

So, I am really not very good with poetry or creativity unfortunately, so in my head this makes perfect sense, but if not to you...just go with it for me :)

Also, my book collection is not nearly as big as some of you other awesome bloggers and most of my recent books have been ebooks so I have not been adding to my collection. So I am adding in a few little words to make my poetry make a little more sense.

The Night Circus

A beautiful darkness,

When it happens, just listen.

In the shadowland, a new moon is chosen.

Hush, hush... 

Sweet dreams.

Because I feel this makes no sense to anyone other than me... here was my thought process. It is titled by the book The Night Circus. In this poem the night circus, is your dreams. So line by line:

The Night Circus - dreaming

A beautiful darkness - nighttime, right before you finally (at least in my case) fall asleep

When it happens, just listen. - dont fight it, observe, accept your dreams, welcome them 

In the shadowland, a new moon is chosen. - something new in your dreams, a new beginning, exciting, refreshing

Hush, hush... - don't over think it, quiet your thoughts 

Sweet dreams. - sweet dreams! this is technically Swede Dreams but sweet went better.

So, don't judge me if you think this is terrible! I read, not write. All writers are readers, but unfortunately not all readers make good writers. I promise not to judge your poem if you are shy about it as well :) 

PS- I'VE GOT A GIVEAWAY GOING RIGHT NOW HERE. GO CHECK IT OUT :)

Review: Point of Retreat

Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover

Book: Point of Retreat (Slammed, #2) by Colleen Hoover

Published: February 25th 2012 by Colleen Hoover

My rating: 5 (big bright shiny stars)/5 Stars

Genre: New Adult 

Goodreads Summary:

"Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart. 

Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.’"

My Thoughts:
I love Colleen Hoover! As of now, I have finished the whole series, and it is so good! I could not imagined a better story, so thank you Colleen Hoover for this awesome series :) This book is a continuation of Will and Layken's story but told through Will's point of view. Now, they can finally be together.. YAYYYY! But, since this is a book and there would be no story without some drama... prepare yourself.

Things I liked about this book:
-It was from Will's POV. I always loved Will, and now we get to see their relationship from his perspective. This book we get more of their personal life, since it is not them hiding their relationship at school. We get to see them act as a family, that was one of my favorite parts!

-I loved the secondary characters! Although most of them we already know, like Eddie & Gavin, Kel & Caulder, Kierston (the crazy neighbor kid)! You get to see them all grow together. Also, they are never forgotten about and they have their own story lines too!

-Butterfly yourself, carving pumpkins, & the point of retreat. You guys should already know what carving pumpkins means, assuming you have read Slammed. Butterfly yourself and point of retreat are things you learn about in this book. I love how they have their own language (kind of) and these phrases mean so much to them. It is hard to explain but it just gives you that extra sense of love all the characters have for each other.

Things I didn't like about this book:
-Nothing. Sorry guys, that is a lame answer, I know. But I really did love this series and I do not have any complaints! So go read it now :)

Have you read Point of Retreat? What did you think??

PS- I've got a giveaway going right now for a great summer book! Check it out HERE.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Beach Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten list is posted for us bloggers to share the books we love and discuss anything book related! To see more details about Top Ten Tuesday click HERE. 

It's Tuesday :) TOP TEN TUESDAY! This week is top ten beach reads! I am excited to see what everyone puts as their beach reads. For me a beach read is something light and funny, although the occasional book with a little less lightness and a little more emotion is also appreciated! I feel like a lot of these books are in all of my lists so I am trying to change it up but I am sorry if you keep seeing the same 10 books in my top ten lists! In no particular order, here is my top ten list!

1) The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter: Mythology, a hot god of the Underworld, and a mystery! To me this is a great combo for a beach book. Check out my review HERE.

2) Wallbanger by Alice Clayton: If you have read my review, you know I feel that this unfortunatley fizzled out toward the end. The book as a whole was great and the first half had me crying I was laughing so hard. Check out my review HERE.

3) True by Erin McCarthy: I didn't know about this until NetGalley, and I am so happy I found it! I just finished it yesterday (Sunday) and really enjoyed it. This is a NA novel about a girl whose friends pay someone to take Rory's, the main character, virginity. I think you can figure out how this all works out... Review is on it's way :)

4) The Selection by Kiera Cass: This is a dystopian, which I would not normally categorize as summery or beachy, but this one is as fluffy as a dystopian can get! I like it for summer because it is not the stereotypical contemporary (which are awesome) but it still is light and fun :) Check out my review HERE.

5) Burning by Elana K Arnold: This is a contemporary but it is not as light and fluffy as some others. It is a book about a summer love between a gypsy girl and a small town boy going off to college. The narration switches and tells the story of each of the two main characters. It is a fascinating story and I really recommend it to everyone for a beach read! Check out my review & giveaway!

6) Slammed by Colleen Hoover: This book has it all. I was crying, laughing, and everthing in between. This book easliy became on of my top all time favorites! If you have not read this yet, please do! Check out my review HERE.

7) Fallen Too Far Series by Abbi Glines: I cannot just say the first or just the second book because I did not like the first one on its own, but the entire (well, the first two) series together is a favorite! I really loved this story and can't wait to see how it ends! If you plan to read the first, prepare to read the second immediately after!! Check out my review HERE.

8) Sarah Dessen... Yes I realize I only put an author. I have not read all of her books yet but the ones I have read are awesome, the perfect summer read! I really love Sarah Dessen, I am thinking I need to reread one of them.. probably The Truth About Forever! That is my favorite of hers :)

9) Spies & Prejudice by Talia Vance: I loved this book, it was fun, there was romance, and it was basically Veronica Mars in book form! I got this as a eARC from NetGalley. Everyone should definitely put this on their TBR list. Check out my review HERE.

10) Divergent by Veronica Roth: This book is not much of a beach read but it is the book that got me reading again so it makes the list :) This would be one of those few random books that are not light or fluffy but they are so intense and gripping that you read it all in one sitting, then go buy the second book, Insurgent, and repeat. The slowly die waiting for Allegiant. Everyone go read this now!

Giveaway!!

Hey guys! So I tried to do a giveaway a few weeks ago and ultimately, I failed. So I am going to be redo-ing this since my last giveaway did not have a winner!! And I am giving you until the end of the month to enter :)

What is it?? I am (actually the publisher is giving me a copy to giveaway) giving away a copy of Burning by Elana K Arnold! This is one of those books that I had not heard of until I found it on NetGalley. I was immediately drawn to it because of its B-E-A-UTIFUL (Bruce Almighty, anyone??) cover.. I mean seriously guys, look at it. Who wouldn't want this on their shelf??

And then, to top it off, its a really great book! I didn't know what to expect going into it because I had not heard anything about the book or author until I got this book. It ended up being a really great read. I got through it pretty quickly and really enjoyed it! It is the perfect book to read by the beach or in the park, so enter a lot guys!! If you are interested in my review you can check it out HERE. Otherwise go enter now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feature & Follow Friday (#8)

Hey guys, I am getting a late start to FFF today, I didn't think about it last night until it was already too late! So without further ado, here is my Feature & Follow Friday!

Today is Friday which means Feature & Follow Friday! FFF is hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read.  It is an opportunity to gain followers and find new blogs in the book blogging community! You can find more information about it here. This week's featured blogs are Rainy Day Reads & Read. Sleep. Repeat.

If you use bloglovin please follow me with that since GFC will not be available soon! Otherwise, I have made subscribing by email and RSS available also :) Just pick your favorite way of following!

This week's question is: Have you ever broken up with a series? If so, which one and why?

Yes, unfortunately. A few series I have a on-again-off-again relationship with. One of those would be the House of Night books by P.C. Cast. I really loved the first few books and then I got tired of the main character. I really want to figure out how these books play out so after they are all complete I will probably buy the rest of them and read them. Another is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I love these books, so I didn't stop reading them because I was not enjoying them, but as of right now there are 19 books out! That's a lot of books. I plan on reading them all eventually but after reading 11 1/2 in a row, I needed to take a break and see other people.

Once upon a time, I was in a very committed relationship with the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I read all the books and as I finished each book, I got a little more depressed. This relationship did not end well. Me and Breaking Dawn are not on speaking terms. This book was terrible, and because of it I had to give up my love for this series and explore all the other fish in the sea, there has to be better out there! 

What series have you had to break up with?

(This is totally random... but I have a giveaway for an awesome book that ends Friday night! Go check it out HERE!)

Feature & Follow Friday (#7)

Hey guys, I am getting a late start to FFF today, I didn't think about it last night until it was already too late! So without further ado, here is my Feature & Follow Friday!

Today is Friday which means Feature & Follow Friday! FFF is hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read.  It is an opportunity to gain followers and find new blogs in the book blogging community! You can find more information about it here. This week's featured blogs are Mad Hatter Reads & The Fiction Conniption.

If you use bloglovin please follow me with that since GFC will not be available soon! Otherwise, I have made subscribing by email and RSS available also :) Just pick your favorite way of following!

This week's question is: What blogger would you most like to meet in real life? Tell us about him or her.

Ohhh, I like this quesiton :) Lets see... I would love to meet anyone from The Broke and the Bookish. I had found a few book blogs and had started reading around them, but this is the one I kept coming back to! I would say they are the reason I started book blogging. If I had to pick one I suppose I would pick Jamie, who also has her own blog at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I enjoy reading her personal blog a lot as well as TBATB.

One more that I will add is actually a vlog, rather than a blog, but I love it just the same. Her name is Hannah and her youtube channel is Bookworms Talk. One day I was online looking up the Divergent series. This was the first book I have read ALL year, so you could say Divergent and Insurgent are the two books that really got me going on reading again. Anyway, I got the bright idea to check out youtube to see if anyone had posted a review to discover that there is an entire booktube community! It is from this community that I discovered book blogging so I own this bunch a big thank you! Hanna's channel is the first one I found and still my favorite to watch :) Go check her out if you get the chance!

If I had the chance to meet any of these wonderful people, I would probably fangirl like crazy. To me these people are right up there with the authors on the cool scale! Hope you guys have a great Friday :)

Burning by Elana K. Arnold - Review

Burning by Elana K. Arnold 

Book: Burning by Elana K. Arnold
Expected Publication Date: June 11th 2013 by Random House/Delacorte
My rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genre: YA
Source: Netgalley

*This ebook was provided to me by the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Summary:

"Ben: Having just graduated from high school, Ben is set to leave Gypsum, Nevada. It's good timing since the gypsum mine that is the lifeblood of the area is closing, shutting the whole town down with it. Ben is lucky: he's headed to San Diego, where he's got a track scholarship at the University of California. But his best friends, Pete and Hog Boy, don't have college to look forward to, so to make them happy, Ben goes with them to check out the hot chick parked on the side of Highway 447.  

Lala: She and her Gypsy family earn money by telling fortunes. Some customers choose Tarot cards; others have their palms read. The thousands of people attending the nearby Burning Man festival spend lots of cash--especially as Lala gives uncanny readings. But lately Lala's been questioning whether there might be more to life than her upcoming arranged marriage. And the day she reads Ben's cards is the day that everything changes for her. . . and for him."

My Thoughts:

This book was definitely not what I expected, but it was a great surprise! When I first finished the book I just kind of sat there for a few minuets taking it all in. The longer I look back on the book, the more I love it! I thought it was going to be some frilly summer romance (which I love) but this was so much more. 

Things I loved about this book:

-Thought provoking. This I really didn't expect. I went into reading Burning and thought it would be an easy, breezy summer read. All fluff and nothing else. I was so wrong! At first I was not sure what to think because I was not prepared for a book that would make me think, but it was such a perfect summer book! Although it was not just a light, fluffy read (which is my usual summer pick) I am so happy I picked it up! It has the perfect mix of summer love and growing up!

-Two stories in one. This book is told in alternating points of view. This does not work for some books, but I really enjoyed it in this one. I can't decide which story I enjoyed more, Lala's or Ben's. They were both so great. Lala's story was telling the reader about a life I've never even though of, the life of a Gypsy. The culture differences and family dynamics are so different than what I am used to, it was a whole new world (cue Aladdin music). Ben's story was interesting as well. We really got to know about his friendships and his relationship with his brother. Normally I do not enjoy reading from a guy's point of view, but I really liked Ben as a character and loved reading about his story! Both of these stories come together and tell Ben and Lala's love story. 

-The cover is BEAUTIFUL! Need I say more??

Things I didn't love about this book:

-Lala. You've got Ben, who is obviously the main guy in the book. And then you've got Lala, the girl. Lala. I tend to get stuck on names (if you have read my Spies & Prejudice review you know). So when I saw that the girl's name is Lala, I had a bit of a hard time. At first I though it was because she was a Gypsy. Maybe they all had different names? Nope, just her. The other Gypsies had some unusual ones, but they were mostly names I have seen before with cool spelling. I just couldn't get the name Lala. 

Overall: The only bad thing I really have to say about the book is that the girl's name is Lala. Other than that I really enjoyed reading Burning. It was a great book full of romance and lessons on growing up! I would recommend this to all readers looking for a good summer read :)