Lament - Maggie Stiefvater

I won a copy of Maggie Stiefvater's Lament from Jessica's a few months back (ok, this post was originally started in September) and I had started this blog entry when I had finished, but I got a bit behind on posting so you'll be seeing a few "older" reads pop up on here.


Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

Lament is a dark faerie fantasy that features authentic Celtic faerie lore, plus cover art and interior illustrations by acclaimed faerie artist Julia Jeffrey.

I'm going to preface this by telling you that faeries aren't really my thing. The most I've read about faeries would be the small portion dealing with them in the Sookie Stackhouse books and that was too much for me. They just like to play with people way too much and that trait tends to irk me.

I think my biggest issue with the book was how some things just seemed to be known without talking about them. For instance, Dee and Luke were talking and all of a sudden she knows the person he's talking about is the faerie queen. Up until that point, there was absolutely no mention of a queen. There were other things like that that I just couldn't get over.

I also thought it was highly weird and slightly creepy that while Dee is getting sick in the bathroom, a boy just walks in and starts holding her hair and she never questions it.

The book itself wasn't bad though. I really enjoyed the relationship between James and Deirdre and really wish that was more prominent than hers and Luke's relationship, and that is the reason why I will read Ballad. Plus, I liked it enough to want to see where the story goes and I have to absolutely hate a series to quit it.

What's your least favorite creature?

Fall for Anything - Courtney Summers

From the author of Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are comes a gripping story about one girl’s search for clues into the mysterious death of her father.

When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world?

When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Cullen seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on...but are some questions better left unanswered?

When I heard that Courtney Summers was going to be releasing another book in 2010, I knew I had to read it. I have so much cover love for Fall for Anything, especially because it's relevant to the book. It's a cover that would make me pick it up off the shelf and is one of my favorites.

Eddie's life is pretty broken and her mom has just checked out, leaving Eddie to deal with her grief alone. I felt terrible for Eddie throughout the book because it is so hard losing a parent and there were parts that brought back my personal loss. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a parent to suicide but Summers did a fantastic job of showing Eddie's grief. The quest she takes you on to find out why her dad did what he did is heartbreaking and realistic. If you don't feel anything when you read this book then your name might be Chandler Bing.

Courtney Summers is consistent. Consistently good. Her characters just leap off the page and make you care about them whether they're the mean girl or a girl drowning in sorrow. Fall for Anything is a definite win and Courtney Summers has knocked it out of the park once again.

Have you read any of Courtney's books? Will you read this one?

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

I'm sure you all have fallen prey to book hype. You know, where there is so much talk about how great a book is, but when you finally get around to reading it you feel let down because it was built up so much? I have had this happen to me numerous times over the past year, and it makes me sad. I really wanted to like Stephanie Perkins' debut novel Anna and the French Kiss. I will admit that I was a bit worried that the hype would get in the way of an otherwise awesome book. You guys, that was not the case.

AT ALL.

I not only fell in love with this book, but I literally hugged it when I was finished reading it and went straight to my computer to pre-order it. I even made space for her on my bookshelf (her new neighbors are Evie and Sophie..I think they'll get along great). You want to know a little more about it, don't you? Well you're in luck...

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible.

The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

Anna and the French Kiss is a great story full of fantastic and witty writing, well developed characters, romance, tension, and kissing. There was only one thing bad about this book and that was that it should have been longer because I wanted more. The fact that I wanted more has nothing to do with the story itself, it's just because I'm greedy and didn't want it to end. If that's not enough for you to want to read this book I'll give you the main reason.

Etienne St. Clair.

Etienne is beyond swoon-worthy and quickly became one of my book crushes. I totally got the book crush butterflies when reading and he was also the only one this year to do that. Oh, Etienne how I love thee. OH! Plus, he has an accent. If that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what will. 

To my other book crushes: Marcus Flutie, Jamie Fraser, and Ron Weasley you boys have SERIOUS competition. Also, did anyone else notice that those three are all gingers? I just realized that today.

This is my favorite book of the year, so far, and I can't wait til later this afternoon for my brand new, shiny copy to appear on my doorstep. I will definitely be reading it again before the year is up.  

Thank you Stephanie for writing such a wonderful book and thank you Jessica for sharing your ARC with me. 

If you want to experience the awesome for yourself, you can purchase Anna and the French Kiss here.

This was also book #11 in the 2010 Debut Author's Challenge

Across the Universe - Beth Revis

One of the books that has gotten a LOT of buzz in the last few months is Across the Universe by Beth Revis. To be honest with you, I'm not much into sci-fi and wasn't sure whether or not I was going to dig it (even though I knew I'd read it eventually). Let this be a lesson to those who don't like to venture out of their comfort reading zone. I loved it.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming. 

First off, let me start by saying that this book has one of the best opening chapters. Not only that but the first SENTENCE is a real grabber and so began my wanting to read more. The writing is fantastic and Beth did a great job of not making it to sci-fi to where it would turn people who don't like it, off.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that just when I was starting to think one thing, something else was introduced that totally threw me. The characters were well done and I liked Amy. There were quite a few times where all I wanted to do was hug her because of everything that was going on.

I'm not really going to say anything more because the book doesn't come out til next month. I WILL tell you that I hope you read this book when you get the chance and come back and tell me what you thought of it.

Leaving Gee's Bend - Irene Latham

First of all, I want to say that I have NO idea how I haven't put Leaving Gee's Bend on here yet! *scolds self*

Leaving Gee's Bend is a Middle Grade debut from the fabulous Irene Latham. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of meeting Irene at the Alabama Book Festival and to be honest, it was one of the most memorable events of 2010. I originally purchased the book in anticipation of the festival and getting it signed, but after hearing Irene speak about what inspired her to write this book, I knew it was going to be a gem in my collection.

Leaving Gee's Bend is a story about fear, heart, love, family, and courage. Ludelphia Bennett is a young girl who lives in the small Alabama town of Gee's Bend in the 1930s. Times are rough and when her mama falls ill, Ludelphia resolves to find the doctor in the neighboring town and bring her the medicine that will help her mom live. In order to do this, Ludelphia must find the strength to do things she's never done, including leaving her town for the first time. Through all this, Ludelphia collects pieces of fabric from her journey to create a quilt that will tell her story.

It's a relatively quiet book but it's powerful. The writing is beautiful and brilliant and it tells a beautiful story based on a real town and its quilters. When the time comes and I have children, this will be one of the books that I look forward to sharing with them. Irene is truly inspiring, not just through the pages of this book, but in real life.

Thank you Irene for such a beautiful book.

The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan

If you were with me on my blog earlier this year, you'll know that I spent some time reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and fell in love with it. I know Riordan came out with The Red Pyramid a few months ago but I just couldn't bring myself to read it because it was a new series and didn't take me back to Percy's world.

When I found out that he was starting a new series based around Camp Half-Blood and Percy, Annabeth, and company were going to make appearances, I think I literally squealed out loud.

So when the husband was ordering stuff off of Amazon, I asked him to add the book that was on my wishlist to the cart (it was scheduled to come out the next day). Two days later I had The Lost Hero in my hands and I probably just stared at the cover. Yeah, I know. It's a middle grade book and I'll be 26 in two weeks but WHO CARES? There's just something about this series and these characters that I absolutely adore.

I've now read the book and loved it just as much as I hoped I would. We're introduced to three new characters: Jason, Piper, and Leo. These three are now the main characters but the rest of the campers are still around and they're all faced with new problems.

I was intrigued right from the get-go. Jason has no memory of anything and before he knows it, he and his friends are up against Venti while on their field trip at the Grand Canyon. Next thing we know Annabeth is whisking them away to Camp Half-Blood and they're finding out all these new, crazy things and are sent out on their first quest. I really enjoyed Jason, Piper, and Leo and it's hard who to pick as my favorite (good thing I don't have to).

I started reading The Lost Hero and Freefall at the same time but as usual, Rick Riordan sucked me in and I had to stop reading (and playing Angry Birds) until I finished his book.

I know this post is kind off all over the place but I'm just so dang excited about having read it! I'm so bummed that I have to wait a year for book two to come out so I guess I'll just have to practice patience.

Paranormalcy - Kiersten White

Last month I read Kiersten White's debut novel, Paranormalcy and I absolutely adored it!

I'm going to make this pretty short and I'm not going to give a summary of what it's about but I DO want to say that I cannot wait for the next book. Kiersten, you totally had a grand-slam with this one.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like it because of the fairies. Fairies are the single most annoying supernatural creature, in my opinion, but she made it work. It did help that they weren't the primary focus of the book.

This book reminded me a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv show) and I couldn't help but hope that someday Mr. Pointy would meet Tasey and they would go off on adventures of their own. How awesome would that be?!

For the record, I'm still not sure if I trust Lend. I got this feeling about him when he was introduced and although he hasn't really done anything shady, I'm really expecting him to do something nefarious.

Go pick it up if you haven't read it. It's totally worth it and if you don't like it? Well, you'll have a beautiful cover on your shelf. Seriously though, you'll like it.

Banned Book Week

Just an FYI, but I've been posting about Banned Book Week over on my new blog and I'd love to hear your thoughts on my most recent post where I ask for your opinions on banning. Click here to participate!