Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Broke and Bookish.  Each week a new list topic is posted and book bloggers fill in their choices.  This week's topic is "Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me."

My Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me:

1. Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini.  This book sounds amazing.  It's been on my TBR list since May!  I really, really want to get my hands on it.

2. Timepiece by Myra McEntire.  I just finished Hourglass, the first book in this series, and enjoyed it.  I'm dying to read the second book now!

3. Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer.  Gah.  I want this book so bad.  It sounds like a sweet, funny story, exactly the type of book I'd enjoy.

4. Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George.  This book is coming out next week, and I'm absolutely dying to read it.  I love Jessica Day George's fairytale retellings and I know this one will be amazing!

5. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes.  I seriously need this book.  I adore fantasy books and there's been so much hype about this one. 

6. Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton.  I read the first book in this series, Angelfire, and loved it.  I still haven't read the sequel, even though it came out almost a year ago.  I really need to read it soon!

7. Black City by Elizabeth Richards.  Yes please!  There's been an enormous amount of hype for this book.  I mean enormous.  Seems like everywhere I look, people are posting about it and reviewing it.  I want to read it so badly now.  And who doesn't love that gorgeous cover?

8. Feedback by Robison Wells.  I loooved his book Variant, the first in this series.  I read it one day and it ended in a huge cliffhanger!  It was one of the worst cliffhangers I've read all year, and I'm dying to know what happens next!

9. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan.  I've read quite a few glowing reviews for this book and everyone keeps telling me I should read it.  It sounds like a very fun read!

10. Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate.  Michael Grant is one of my favorite authors ever, and I really want to read this book!  It sounds like an interesting read, and I love the cool cover!

What books are you dying to get this Christmas?  Comment and/or leave a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post! :)

~ The Bookworm

Book Review: Through the Ever Night

Goodreads summary:

It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

My review:

I love this book.  Love, love, love it.  I was lucky enough to win an ARC of it through a contest on the author's blog, and oh my word, it's so good!  Fans of the first book will not be disappointed.

First of all, there's tons of character growth in this sequel.  The poor characters go through so much.  (And I sobbed my eyes out at a certain scene towards the end.)  Anyway, Perry is Blood Lord of the Tides now, and you can't help feeling for him as he's forced to grow up and take responsibility.  He faces tough decisions - for example, like whether he should do the right thing or do what will please his people. 

And Aria deals with a lot, as the people of the Tides don't accept her right away.  But instead of whining or sobbing endlessly about it, she does her best to earn their trust and support Perry.  I really love Aria.  She's matured  and changed so much from the girl she was in the beginning of Under the Never Sky. 

And the plot?  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing.  With each chapter, the stakes kept rising.  I read this book in one day, staying up late into the night to finish it.  The story ends with a huge action scene and lots of fighting, and I'm so excited for Into the Still Blue, the third book, to come out!

As always, Veronica Rossi's writing is lovely.  She has such a beautiful writing style, full of detail and description, that makes the characters' emotions so vivid and real.  Speaking of characters, I really loved all the characters, even the minor ones, which is saying something for me.  Usually I forget minor characters easily if they don't stick out, but it was easy to remember all the characters in this book; they all played an important role and added to the story.

I want to end by saying how talented Veronica Rossi is at torturing her readers.  I constantly felt bad for the different characters and what they suffered in this book.  They are all so endearing in their own way.  The relationship between Perry and his nephew Talon particularly stuck out to me; it's so heartrending!  And of course Roar and his devotion to Liv is adorable.  I can't spoil the story, but I'm just warning everyone: you will cry at a certain point in this book.  It was so sad and heartbreaking.

I can't wait to see what Into the Still Blue will be like.  Veronica Rossi is a marvelous writer.  I don't care if you like dystopian or not, go read this series!  You won't regret it.

My rating:  10 out of 10 (5 stars)

~ The Bookworm

My Top 5 Books of November 2012

Each month I post a list of the books I read and what my top five favorite books of the month were.  Here's all the books I read in November:

- The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
- For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
- Easy by Tammara Webber
- Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
- Every Day by David Levithan
- A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont
- Storm by Brigid Kemmerer
- Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick
- Burning Blue by Paul Griffin
- In Honor by Jessi Kirby
- Partials by Dan Wells
- Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
- False Memory by Dan Krokos
- The Hunters by John Flanagan
- Pulse by Patrick Carman
- Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
- Hourglass by Myra McEntire
- Everlasting by Elizabeth Chandler

I didn't get around to as many books as I would've liked this month, mainly because I was so busy with NaNoWriMo, but I read a lot of enjoyable books this month!  Here's my top five:

1. Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone.  I'm a sucker for anything related to time travel, and Time Between Us was just amazing.  It was sweet, beautiful, and heartbreaking.  I felt so much for the characters and the journey they were going through!

2. Storm by Brigid Kemmerer.  This has been on my TBR list for ages, and I absolutely loved it!  Such a fun read. :D Tons of action and unforgettable characters, and I laughed out loud over and over.  Pure awesomeness!

3. Easy by Tammara Webber.  I have heard so much about this book, and it was just as wonderful as all the reviews said.  I started it one evening after dinner and literally did not stop until I had finished it a few hours later!

4. Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.  I adore Shannon Hale.  Her books were some of the first YA books I ever read, and I've read them countless times.  (I even got to meet her at a book festival a couple months ago!  She's so sweet!) Anyway, this is the sequel to Princess Academy and I think I love it even better than the first.  Simply beautiful.

5. False Memory by Dan Krokos.  I was thrilled when my library got this book - I've been wanting to read it for months.  It was fantastic!  Kind of like a superhero story with lots of sci-fi elements and nonstop action.  Very well-written!

Any great reads that you've read this past month?  Have you read any of the books on my list?  Leave a comment and let me know!

~ The Bookworm

Book Review: Finale

Goodreads summary:

Will love conquer all?

Nora and Patch thought their troubles were behind them. Hank is gone and they should be able to put his ugly vendetta to rest. But in Hank's absence, Nora has become the unwitting head of the Nephilim and must finish what Hank began. Which ultimately means destroying the fallen angels - destroying Patch.

Nora will never let that happen, so she and Patch make a plan: lead everyone to believe they have broken up, and work the system from the inside. Nora will convince the Nephilim that they are making a mistake in fighting the fallen angels, and Patch will find out everything he can from the opposing side. They will end this war before it can even begin.

But the best-laid plans often go awry. Nora is put through the paces in her new role and finds herself drawn to an addictive power she never anticipated.

As the battle lines are drawn, Nora and Patch must confront the differences that have always been between them and either choose to ignore them or let them destroy the love they have always fought for.

My review:

Honestly, I'm just glad this series is over with.  I disliked the first book, but I thought the second and third were a little better, so I was hoping maybe I'd end up liking the final one.  I just didn't care much for it at all.

The Hush, Hush series has improved, I admit.  But Nora's character is still annoying.  In Finale, she's a lot tougher and goes through lots of training.  She's definitely not as whiny as she was in the first book, which is good.  However, she's still really naive and clueless, and she made, in my opinion, some stupid decisions, so overall I don't like her.

I still don't like Patch.  I know, you can go ahead and yell at me.  Everyone else seems to love him.  I just find nothing attractive about him.  At least in Finale, he's not as aggressive and mean as he was in the first book.  He's nice and protective of Nora in this one, but nonetheless, I found him to be a bland character.

Fortunately, there was not much romance in this book.  I was majorly relieved by this - I felt like in the earlier books, there was too much of Nora whining about Patch not paying attention to her, and not enough action.  Well, in Finale, there's more action and plot development, which I appreciated.

However, Patch and Nora's relationship just makes me mad.  On page 59, Nora says, "I'd lost Patch once before, and not to be melodramatic, but death was preferable."  That's just...I can't even.  That's an unhealthy relationship. 

Okay, so onto the actual plot.  I liked it except that the book was so long.  I mean, it was 450 pages, and I definitely think it could've been shortened.  Some parts were kind of boring.  But mostly, the plot was entertaining.  I thought that the betrayal of a certain character was a good twist; I didn't see it coming.  And the ending is very satisfying - although, poor Vee!  I've never liked Vee that much, but I was so sad for what she goes through.

My feelings about the Hush, Hush series are very mixed.  I'm not a fan of this series - I simply can't stand the characters - but I think Becca Fitzpatrick is a decent writer, so I will probably give her future books a try.  And while I personally don't like this series, I think that the diehard fans of Hush, Hush will find Finale to be a great conclusion to the series.

My rating:  5 out of 10 (2.5 stars)

~ The Bookworm

I'm baaack!

This is the last day of NaNoWriMo, and I managed to complete the 50,000 word goal this morning!  My novel is now finished and it's 133 pages and 50,517 words long. :) So excited!  Writing a novel in a month was a crazy but super fun experience!

Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone an idea of the posts and book reviews I'll be adding soon.  I'm going to start doing In My Mailbox, Top Ten Tuesday, and Waiting on Wednesday posts again weekly, and tomorrow, I'll be posting my monthly Top 5 Books post.

Also, you can expect reviews for these books in the next week or two: Through the Ever Night, Time Between Us, Storm, Finale, Stormdancer, and False Memory.  Those are a handful of the books I've read this month that I really want to review. :)

~ The Bookworm

NaNoWriMo Update

So it's halfway through NaNoWriMo now.  Only two more weeks of me staying up late in the night, writing madly to reach each day's word goal.  Then I can read and blog to my heart's content. *happy sigh*

Seriously, NaNoWriMo is crazily fun, and I'm enjoying writing a novel in a month even though it's super stressful.  I have almost 25,000 words so far, so I should hopefully be able to reach 50,000 by the end of the month.  Of course, this probably means no more blog updates till December.  I have a bunch of book reviews I'm dying to write, but I'm so busy with my novel - so they'll have to wait a couple more weeks.

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!  I look forward to posting regularly once again once November is over. :-)

~ The Bookworm

My Top 5 Books of October 2012

Each month, I post a list of the books I've read and what my top five favorite books of the month were.  Here's the books I read in October!

- Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross
- Secret Letters by Leah Scheier
- Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi
- Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst
- Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep
- Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep
- Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti
- The List by Siobhan Vivian
- Breathe by Sarah Crossan
- Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
- Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
- Auracle by Gina Rosati
- The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
- Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
- Switched by Amanda Hocking
- Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
- Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson
- Taken at Dusk by C. C. Hunter
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Hidden by Sophie Jordan
- Dangerous Boy by Mandy Hubbard
- Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi
- Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (I was actually rereading this one!)
- Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

I read a lot of books during October that I like to refer to as "meh."  They were neither good nor bad, just okay-ish.  Fortunately, there were a few books that I really loved, so here's my top five!

1. Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  If you spend enough time on my blog, you'll discover that I adore JLA's books.  Half-Blood is pure awesomeness!  It was a thrill ride of a novel and I thought the Greek mythology aspect was utter genius.  And Alex and Aiden?  If there was an award for two characters who need to be a couple, they would totally win it!  Can't wait to read more about them in the rest of the series!

2. Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson.  Another mythology book.  This story is guaranteed to put a smile on your face with the hilarious Tucker Halloway and the sweet yet feisty heroine, Ellie.  (And Loki is in it!  Yes, THE Loki, god of mischief.)  Just read this book, okay?!  It's epic!

3. Auracle by Gina Rosati.  What a fun read!  The premise is so unique and refreshing and I couldn't wait to turn the page and find out what would happen next.  This was an exhilarating, exciting, and unputdownable book!  Not to mention the great cast of characters.

4. Enchanted by Alethea Kontis.  Aww, I just love fairytale retellings.  And this book is just as enchanting as the title suggests. :) Sweet and magical, this is one spellbinding story that fantasy lovers won't want to miss out on!

5. Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi.  I was lucky enough to win an ARC of this through a contest on the author's blog, and I absolutely adored it.  Fans of the first book will not be disappointed!  This sequel is heartbreaking, action-packed, and flat-out amazing.  I'll be writing a review eventually!

Honorable mention goes to Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi.  I admit that I didn't find Warner that attractive in Shatter Me, but I kind of sort of fell for him in Destroy Me.  Reading this novella from his POV and finding out so much more about his character and background is just heartbreaking.  I can't wait for Unravel Me to come out!

So those are my latest reads/recommendations.  What new books have you discovered recently?  Please leave a comment and mention some books you've just read and loved, or tell me if you've read any of the books on my list!

*Just wanted to remind my followers that I probably won't be posting till next week!  NaNoWriMo is going great so far but it's keeping me busy!

~ The Bookworm