Discussion: The Art of Jumping Fences

So what exactly do I mean, the art of jumping fences? Well, clearly, this being a book blog, that actually isn't what I'm going to discuss today. Today, we're discussing misleading titles and blurbs.

The Search for the Panacea [1]

So what is this SEARCH FOR THE PANACEA, you say? Well basically, it's our own version of a book haul. What makes this different from a Stacking the Shelves post, you say? IT'S A FLIPPING VLOG. And this is the first one. So yeah, sorry for the crappy editing- the jump cuts are really abrupt. And I'm lazy, so I didn't want to invest the time to make them less abrupt, because I'm an editing noob and it took me long enough as it is to edit the video. Also, I say "um" WAY too many times. Anyway, without further ado, here is our first vlog, mostly featuring me (Nara).

ARC Review: Skulk by Rosie Best

Title: Skulk
Author: Rosie Best
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Release Date: 1st October, 2013
Source: Strange Chemistry. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

When Meg witnesses the dying moments of a shapeshifting fox and is given a beautiful and powerful stone, her life changes forever. She is plunged into the dark world of the Skulk, a group of shapeshifting foxes.

As she learns about the other groups of shapeshifters that lurk around London – the Rabble, the Horde, the Cluster and the Conspiracy – she becomes aware of a deadly threat against all the shapeshifters. They must put aside all their enmity and hostility and fight together to defeat it.

Review by Nara

ARC Review: Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

Title: Where the Stars Still Shine
Author: Trish Doller
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: 24 September, 2013
Source: Bloomsbury (UK&ANZ). Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

Trish Doller writes incredibly real teens, and this searing story of love, betrayal, and how not to lose your mind will resonate with readers who want their stories gritty and utterly true.

Review by Nara

Review: Vain by Fisher Amelie

Title: Vain
Author: Fisher Amelie
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Goodreads | The Book Depository | Amazon

If you're looking for a story about a good, humble girl, who's been hurt by someone she thought she could trust, only to find out she's not as vulnerable as she thought she was and discovers an empowering side of herself that falls in love with the guy who helps her find that self, blah, blah, blah...then you're gonna' hate my story,

Because mine is not the story you read every time you bend back the cover of the latest trend novel. It's not the "I can do anything, now that I've found you/I'm misunderstood but one day you'll find me irresistible because of it" tale. Why? Because, if I was being honest with you, I'm a complete witch. There's nothing redeeming about me. I'm a friend using, drug abusing, sex addict from Los Angeles. I'm every girlfriend's worst nightmare and every boy's fantasy.

I'm Sophie Price...And this is the story about how I went from the world's most envied girl to the girl no one wanted around and why I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Review by Nara

Bookish Superlatives

So, yeah, I realise this is really late. But whatever. Better late than never I suppose. Without further ado, let's get started! I'm only going to be doing the Books section of the survey. I'll probably do the characters section at some later date.
(Oh, this survey was another fun survey made by Jaime at The Perpetual Page-Turner)

Review: Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

Title: Zac and Mia
Author: A.J. Betts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Text Publishing (Thank you!)
Goodreads | The Reading Room

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

Review by Nara

Highlight Reel: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: My Life Next Door
Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Goodreads

"One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time."

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.

As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase's family embraces Samantha - even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha's world. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.

Discussion by Nara and Chantelle

Discussion: Remembering the finer details

So it seems like everyone enjoyed doing the quiz last week about remembering characters' last names, so I'm going to make it slightly more difficult: this week we're tacking hair and eye colour!

Review: When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) by Ingrid Jonach

Title: When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)
Author: Ingrid Jonach
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

Review by Nara

Review: Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew

Title: Winter Damage
Author: Natasha Carthew
Genre: Young Adult, Adventure
Release Date: September, 2013 (Australia)
Source: Bloomsbury Sydney. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

On a frozen Cornish moor, a fifteen-year-old girl lives in a trailer with her dad and little brother. Ennor's mother left years ago, when things started to go wrong - and gradually their world has fallen apart. Now her father's gravely ill, school has closed, and Ennor knows they're going to take her brother away if things don't pick up soon. So three days before Christmas, when the wind is cold and her dad's health takes a turn for the worse, Ennor packs a blanket, a map, a saucepan and a gun into her rucksack, and sets off to find her mum and bring her home. Ennor thinks she knows where she's going. But this journey will change her life for ever - it becomes a battle for survival, a heartbreaking story of love and friendship, and a fable about not finding what you were looking for, but finding something more important instead . . .

Review by Nara

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Title: Me Before You
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Adult, Contemporary Romance

Goodreads rating: 4.36 out of 5.00 (38, 970+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Book Depository |


Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.




Review by Chantelle

Discussion: Remembering...wait what was it again?

The other day, on the bus on the way home from uni, I asked Chantelle a very serious question. What was that question? It was:
Do you remember the last names of book characters?

OSR: The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Title: The School for Good and Evil
Author: Soman Chainani
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Goodreads | The Reading Room

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

Review by Nara

Review: Chasing the Valley by Skye Melki-Wegner

Title: Chasing the Valley
Author: Skye Melki-Wegner
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: Random House Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Escape is impossible. Escape is their only hope.

Danika is used to struggling for survival. But when the tyrannous king launches an attack to punish her city – echoing the alchemy bombs that killed Danika’s family – she risks her life in a daring escape over the city’s walls.

Danika joins a crew of desperate refugees who seek Magnetic Valley, a legendary safe haven. But when she accidentally destroys a palace biplane, suddenly Danika Glynn becomes the most wanted fugitive in Taladia.

Pursued by the king’s vicious hunters and betrayed by false allies, Danika also grapples with her burgeoning magical abilities. And when she meets the mysterious Lukas, she must balance her feelings against her crew’s safety.

Chasing the Valley is the first book in an epic trilogy of magic, treachery and survival.

Review by Nara

[Tag] Seven Deadly Sins of Reading

So, for the Seven Deadly Sins of Reading tag, we were tagged by Cayce at Fighting Dreamer. Okay, technically not specifically tagged, because she tagged everyone, but still :P

Discussion: The awkward moment when...

Today, we're going to talk about the awkward moment when...hmm, actually, let me begin by telling you a little story. (Yay! Story time!)