5/31/15

May wrap up!


Spring and summer are usually the periods where I read the most. And I'm already so motivated to get my tbr even lower than I planned. This month I read a crazy amount of books and I'm so proud of myself. Here's what I read in May:



2. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead: ★★★★★ (**)
3. Legend, the graphic novel by Marie Lu: ★★★★
4. The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead: ★★★★★ (**)
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowing: ★★★★ (**)
6. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: ★★★★ (**)
9. The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead: ★★★★★ (**)
10. The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver: ★★★+0.5 (**)

As you can see, I read a lot by Richelle Mead and I cannot wait to continue with the Bloodlines series! Argh, Adrian & Sydney are my OTP and after that freaking heartbreaking ending in book 4, I just NEED to continue ASAP!

What have you read this month? What was your favorite one? Mine was The Fiery Heart! :)

(**) Reviews to come.

5/30/15

Review: Ugly People, Beautiful Hearts by Marlen Komar

Series: standalone
Genre: poetry, romance
Release date: March 11, 2015


Ugly People Beautiful Hearts is a poetry book with over 70 poems and verses moving between the feelings of loving someone, feeling loss, trusting the night sky, losing your light, resolving that hurt is beautiful, and finding compassion in a stranger's smile.

We hurt and are hurt. We love and are loved. We’re selfish, and cruel, and like to watch something beautiful turn ugly. We don’t care about others. Not really. We use them until there’s no more to be used.

But we also want to find each other. Want to draw closer. Feel, and take care. We want to look at someone and know, that what they see looking back at them is light.

We’re all ugly people. Ugly people with beautiful hearts.

My review: ★★★ +.05
 
*ARC received from author in exchange for an honest review*

This is first poetry book I read, ever. I just never have been interested in poetry and didn't think it would be my kind of thing.
But when Marlen sent me the request, I couldn't help being in awe while reading the sample. So I just had to try it. Especially since I try to read different kind of genres lately.

And I liked it... kind of? I don't know really know for sure, since it's my first poetry I don't have a lot to compare it with. There were some poems I liked and some I disliked. I assume that's normal.
The only thing that really bothered me through the whole book was the repetition of phrases and how the poems started.
The amount of poems that started with "And..." (which makes is start out of the blue and weird) and "You know that moment when?.." was just irritating in the end. Again, it's my fist poetry book, so I don't know if it's supposed to be like this... I'm just sharing my own honest thoughts.

But despite this little negative thing, the writing of Marlen is still beautiful and honest. It felt true and I'm sure every single poem came straight from her heart. I mean, even me, someone who's never read poetry before, could feel it. So if you like poems about love and life, then you should definitely give this one a chance!

Here are some favorite lines:

- And as I bring my hands to my face, try to catch my breath, inhale the promises of the song you took away from me, I say it again. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. I'll be okay.

- And I've had my heart broken in so many interesting ways, but this way, oh by far, has been my favorite.

- Funny, how strangers were once part of your life.

- You're not put through anything. You're just experiencing what it means to be alive.

Friday Finds #10: OH SO MANY BOOKS!

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your TBR list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). This is hosted by ShouldBeReading!

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I received a few ARC's (Chasing River & The Shape of My Heart) and I also have a new obsession: The Throne of Glass series! I actually added all the next books in the series, because I just know already I will devour the whole series! Dorian and Chaol are definitely my new boyfriends :D


 

5/27/15

Recent Release #32: The Death Code by Lindsay Cummings

Every Wednesday I share a recent release I’m excited to read. If you want to check out the previous ones, click here. These are all books I'm adding to my growing pile of tbr-books ;) PS: The cover is linked to Goodreads!

The Death Code by Lindsay Cummings

Series: The Murder Complex #2
Genre: YA, dystopia, sci-fy, romance
Release date: May 26th 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Length: 400 pages

With short, fast-paced, alternating point-of-view chapters, The Death Code starts several weeks after The Murder Complex ended.

Zephyr keeps the secret about Meadow close—that if she dies, The Murder Complex will be destroyed, too. Meadow, desperate to find her brother, father, and little sister, is determined to fearlessly fight to the end, even if it means sacrificing herself and her friends, new and old.

The Death Code introduces a memorable cast of secondary characters and delivers a vivid and scary thrill ride read.

5/25/15

The Law of Moses & The Song of David by Amy Harmon

The Law of Moses is on sale for 99 cents for a limited time!

Series: standalone
Genre: NA, romance, mystery, contemporary
Pages: 298 pages
Release date: November 27th, 2014

If I tell you right up front, right in the beginning that I lost him, it will be easier for you to bear. You will know it’s coming, and it will hurt. But you’ll be able to prepare.

Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news – the little baby left in a basket at a dingy Laundromat, born to a crack addict and expected to have all sorts of problems. I imagined the crack baby, Moses, having a giant crack that ran down his body, like he’d been broken at birth. I knew that wasn’t what the term meant, but the image stuck in my mind. Maybe the fact that he was broken drew me to him from the start.
It all happened before I was born, and by the time I met Moses and my mom told me all about him, the story was old news and nobody wanted anything to do with him. People love babies, even sick babies. Even crack babies. But babies grow up to be kids, and kids grow up to be teenagers. Nobody wants a messed up teenager.
And Moses was messed up. Moses was a law unto himself. But he was also strange and exotic and beautiful. To be with him would change my life in ways I could never have imagined. Maybe I should have stayed away. Maybe I should have listened. My mother warned me. Even Moses warned me. But I didn’t stay away.

And so begins a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all . . . a love story.

BUY IT FOR $0.99 HERE:
 
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1IU1q7D
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1GwXqbn
B&N: http://bit.ly/1Hu7Vut
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1AfB3Gp
iTunes: http://bit.ly/1tjhoMm

To discover: The Song Of David, a spinoff standalone novel
 
Series: spin-off standalone of The Law Of Moses
Genre: NA, romance, mystery, contemporary
Pages: 261 pages
Release date: June 15th, 2015

** This book is a STANDALONE novel featuring characters that were introduced in The Law of Moses. It is not a sequel, but it is a spin-off. **

I won my first fight when I was eleven years old, and I’ve been throwing punches ever since. Fighting is the purest, truest, most elemental thing there is. Some people describe heaven as a sea of unending white. Where choirs sing and loved ones await. But for me, heaven was something else. It sounded like the bell at the beginning of a round, it tasted like adrenaline, it burned like sweat in my eyes and fire in my belly. It looked like the blur of screaming crowds and an opponent who wanted my blood. For me, heaven was the octagon.

Until I met Millie, and heaven became something different. I became something different. I knew I loved her when I watched her stand perfectly still in the middle of a crowded room, people swarming, buzzing, slipping around her, her straight dancer’s posture unyielding, her chin high, her hands loose at her sides. No one seemed to see her at all, except for the few who squeezed past her, tossing exasperated looks at her unsmiling face. When they realized she wasn’t normal, they hurried away. Why was it that no one saw her, yet she was the first thing I saw?

If heaven was the octagon, then she was my angel at the center of it all, the girl with the power to take me down and lift me up again. The girl I wanted to fight for, the girl I wanted to claim. The girl who taught me that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.

PRE-ORDER HERE:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1Kg3uUG
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Aggc5t
B&N: http://bit.ly/1dp4qfk
iTunes: http://apple.co/1Q1ESk1
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1Q1NRln

5/23/15

Review: Never Never, Part Two by Colleen Hoover & Tarryn Fisher

Series: Never Never #2
Genre: YA/NA, romance, suspense
Release date: May 17th, 2015
 

“Never forget that I was your first real kiss. Never forget that you’ll be my last.
And never stop loving me between all of them.
Never stop, Charlie.
Never forget.”


Silas races against time as more truths unravel, while others twist tighter together. And now, the stakes are higher as Silas’ control slips and others begin to point fingers. Charlie is in trouble and he must be the one to bridge the chasm between their past and their present. Because somewhere between I love yous and Never Nevers and Never Agains, a truth they can't imagine, beckons to be found. 




My review: ★★★★+0.5

"So what's the deal with us?" she asks. "Are we like... in love and shit?"
I laugh out loud for the first time since yesterday morning? "Yeah," I say, still laughing. "Apparently I've been in love and shit with you for eighteen years now."


This second part picks right were we left after the thrilling cliffhanger in P1. And I was very pleased about the many Silas chapters in this part! But I was surprised about Charlie's chapters. This book is even MORE mysterious as P1, even though we found out a good amount of things about Charlie & Siles through one of the characters.
Like in Part One I loved both writing styles mixed into one book, although Charlie was a lot more different. Still as fierce, but just... different... I can't point out how exactly though. But it made me like her even more anyway.
I cannot wait for P3, because I have SO many questions left. The cliffhanger (yes, again) was amazingly torturous !! 


"If it were possible to hear a smile, hers would be a love song."


5/20/15

Recent Release #31: Never Never, Part Two & Illusionarium



Every Wednesday I share a recent release I’m excited to read. If you want to check out the previous ones, click here. These are all books I'm adding to my growing pile of tbr-books ;)

Never Never, Part Two by C. Hoover & T. Fisher

Series: Never Never #2
Genre: YA/NA, contemporary, mystery, romance
Release date: May 17th 2015
Publisher:  HooverInk
Length: 145 pages

This book doesn’t have a blurb, but in case you read Part One, you don’t need it. You just know you’ll read this part without hesitation!
If you haven’t read Part One, read the blurb here:

“How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you've never met."

Charlize Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They've been in love since the age of fourteen.
But as of this morning...they are complete strangers.
Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love...every memory has vanished.

"I don't care what our real first kiss was," he says. "That's the one I want to remember."

Charlize and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be...the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.

"I want to remember what it feels like to love someone like that. And not just anyone. I want to know what it feels like to love Charlie."

Illusionarium by Heather Dixon

Series: standalone
Genre: YA, fantasy
Release date: May 19th 2015
Publisher:  Greenwillow
Length: 368 pages

What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? From Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations.

Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly developed parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own.