The Bursting Bookshelf

Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Warner Books
Release: October 30, 2006
Pages: 335
Series: None
Synopsis:
"Dear John", the letter read. And with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives changed forever.
When Savannah Lynn Curtis comes into his life, John Tyree knows he is ready to turn over a new leaf. An angry rebel, he had enlisted in the army after high school, not knowing what else to do. Then, during a furlough, he meets Savannah, the girl of his dreams. The attraction is mutual and quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah vowing to wait for John while he finishes his tour of duty. John must choose between love and country. Now, when he finally returns to North Carolina, John will discover how love can transform us in ways we never could have imagined.

Review:
Dear John was a true tear-jerker romance novel. I got it for Christmas this year and I'm only just now getting around to reading it. But once I started, I had a very hard time putting it down. My favorite part of every Nicholas Sparks novel is how emotional they make you, they connect on such an emotional level that gives them the ability to yank your heartstrings at will. The writing was so smooth and flowing, and even though it's a stand alone book, it didn't leave out much in the way of details and information. The characters in Dear John are also very well developed and mature in a way that I didn't believe possible for such a short novel, but it happened. The overall reason that I loved Dear John would have to be how well the whole thing came together and how the ending was sad and I wish there was more, but there was a nice note of closure that brought the whole book together. For the next while I will be sitting and wondering what happened in Savanah and John's respective lives, wondering if they ever met again or if John found happiness elsewhere. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance story with the only flaw being that there's no sequel to find out about what happens later in life to the characters.

So Follow my Blog Friday is a meme held by Parajunkee and it's where you answer the weekly question and then link yourself and you go and check out other blogs of your interest.

Q. Share your current fav television show! Tell us a bit about it...

Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Release: May 4, 2010
Pages: 310
Series: Curse Workers
Synopsis:
Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
 
Review:
I ordered White Cat several days ago for the simple reason that I had seen so many great reviews and I wanted to check it out for myself. Once I did, I was hooked. Beware, there are some spoilers below.


White Cat was a great con story that took me on a roller coaster ride of a time. Overall, I would give White Cat a 5/5 for being so darn awesome and making me want to run out to the store to get all of Holly Black's other books.

Hey guys, I just had to tell you guys about a band that I happen to adore and listen to quite often while writing reviews. Who is it?

Marianas Trench!

Here are some of their different songs from their most recent album, Masterpiece Theatre. Please let me know what you guys think or if you have suggestions for music that I should listen to.











There you go. What do you guys think?

So Follow my Blog Friday is a meme held by Parajunkee and it's where you answer the weekly question and then link yourself and you go and check out other blogs of your interest.

If you are a fan of Science Fiction what is your favorite book? If you haven't read Science Fiction before...any inkling to? Anything catch your eye?

Hey guys! As you can see above the cover for the final book in the Immortals Series just came out. I don't know about you guys, but I love it! They are closing the series with a fully blossomed flower to perhaps show how their love has grown over the last five books. I also love the colour scheme. I mean, pink-y purple? YES! So what do you guys think?

Hey guys! In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. This week I got two books that I'm very excited about:



White Cat by Holly Black
The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

What did you get?

So Follow my Blog Friday is a meme held by Parajunkee and it's where you answer the weekly question and then link yourself and you go and check out other blogs of your interest.

What is your favorite romance hero-type? Stereotype wise. Do you like the strong silent type or the brute macho man?

I love a quiet but strong and will stand up for a lady kind of hero. If they are polite and strong, I tend to fall for them.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event held by Jill over at Breaking The Spine! It's all about those books you just can't wait for and are counting down the days till they come out.
This week for WoW I have chosen (and I know I'm a day late)...

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead.

While there is nothing released about the book on Goodreads, I am still very excited for Bloodlines because I am loving Vampire Academy right now. And the cover is awesome!!! I love how they took a step away from the Vampire Academy covers and didn't try and do the same cover for this book.

So Follow my Blog Friday is a meme held by Parajunkee and it's where you answer the weekly question and then link yourself and you go and check out other blogs of your interest.

What is the book you are currently 'pushing'? (Pushing mean trying to get people to read it)

Title: Crescendo
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release: October 19, 2010
Pages: 427
Series: Hush, Hush #2
Synopsis:
Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it: a mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But, despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever and even worse, he's started spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Path hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feeling that he's hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly in dangerous situations as she desperately searches for answers. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

Review:
I just got Crescendo about half a week ago, though I unfortunately couldn't jump into it right away because of how busy I was at the time. But when I finally could get started, I wasted no time getting into it. And then it took me all of two days to finish it. I'm still thinking about what happened now. WARNING: SOME MINOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!

Okay, did anyone else see the other picture that was shot that was just like the cover of Crescendo? It was a promotional picture or something and it was really awesome. If you didn't here it is and look at PATCH! He may be one of my favorite YA cover models out there! Anyways, the cover on Crescendo is one I really adore for many reasons. Firstly, it matches Hush, Hush fairly well with the color scheme and the cloudy weather theme, though this time its raining and there's lightning, also the title text is the same as the first. Secondly I love the little hint of color in the feather and the author's name. Thirdly, the pose of the cover model is very intriguing as it makes you wonder what she's looking at. It's eye catching and intriguing.

The characters in this book were great, though I didn't agree with some of their actions. The one part of the book I didn't like had to do with the characters actions in the fact that Nora and Vee would break into people's houses for their own gain. Other than that we have the same great cast of characters as in Hush, Hush apart from one new character: Scott. Scott was a character that I didn't care for in the beginning, though as the book went on, he slowly grew on me. He seemed like a bit of a jerk at the beginning, then you realize he can't help it and you feel bad for him and you look past his hard exterior. There were some other characters as well that I found myself not liking as much until towards the end when you find out that it was all only set up to seem that way, that they didn't mean to treat one another that way. I found the characters to be addicting in this novel as Nora was always interesting to read about with her troubles slowly threatening to ruin her life. Vee was fun as a best friend character because I just love her faithfulness to Nora, she will never let Nora down. And then there's Patch. He was just as dark and edgy as in Hush, Hush which was pleasing that he wasn't turning all goody two shoes. Oh yeah, he's still amazing-ly hot in this book!

The story in Crescendo was one that kept me guessing until the end. I really loved it. All the twists and turns that popped up that you didn't see coming until they hit were amazing! It was so unpredictable in the best way possible! And if you couple that with the great writing skills of Becca Fitzpatrick, you get this amazing book that is hard to put down and when you do, you're still thinking about it. One thing that I found in Crescendo that I didn't expect to find, and was pleasantly surprised by, was the bits of humor that got thrown in from time to time. Altogether, the writing was great and so was the plot.

I would have to say, in this case, the sequel was just as good as the first book. I don't say that often, but I really liked Crescendo a lot. When you pile together it's speedy plot, it's addictive characters and it's great writing you most definately get a 4.5/5 in my books.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event held by Jill over at Breaking The Spine! It's all about those books you just can't wait for and are counting down the days till they come out.
This week for WoW I have chosen...

There it is! Isn't it intriguing? I love the little swirly of water drops and the fact that they kept some of the last book on it with the red and orange title, though this time instead of fire theme, its clearly water themed. Maybe that's a hint as to what the new character's (Number Seven) legacies are? I really love how they kept the tag line as well, though this time it's different. Overall, I really like it and I think it will look good next to I Am Number Four on my shelf as well. The Power of Six comes out on August 23rd, 2011. A while to wait, but I'm very excited for this one because I enjoyed the first one so much.

PS: I really like the rough edge they're keeping on the cover!

Are you guys excited?

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme held by The Story Siren.

OMG. It may be easy to tell from the title of my post, but I just received my first Advance Readers Copy in the mail yesterday!!!!! I would just like to thank Simon & Schuster Canada so much for the book!

Now what book did I receive???