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xoxo, Sierra

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski

Released: June 7th, 2011
Published by: HarperTeen
Series: Stand Alone
Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source: Bought
Edition: Kindle
Page Amount: 368
Age Group: Young Adult

Summary

2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house - parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.
If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.
In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn't-have-done at a time.

Review

I bought this on my Kindle for 99 cents awhile back. To be honest, I kind of forgot about it until I was going through my Kindle recently and found it again. I decided it would be the perfect summer read. I had read really good reviews going into this book, so I thought it would be a good one to pick up.

First of all, the title. I mean, who can’t love that title? I think it’s adorable and perfect for the novel.

Even though this book is totally unrealistic, and something like this would be very unlikely to happen in real life, I could totally imagine myself in April’s shoes. All of the characters in this novel are very realistic. I fell in love with Hudson very fast, and detested Noah almost immediately. Vi and Marissa are people that I would want to be best friends with. April is very much the person I wish I was - independent, wild, strong, carefree, and outgoing.

I love the different settings involved in this book - Westport, Paris, and Cleveland. But really… April, why in the world wouldn’t you move to Paris? I mean… it’s Paris!

I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was the ending. I felt as though it was extremely rushed, as though Sarah Mlynowski wanted to hurry up and finish the novel. I didn’t have enough closure with this book as I would have liked.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was the perfect summer read and exactly what I was in the mood to read. I definitely suggest you pick up Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have)

Cover Comments

I love this cover! I think it’s absolutely adorable, and perfect for this novel (which is absolutely adorable as well). I think it fit’s the story and title perfectly. I think it’s the perfect cover for a fun chick lit book like this one.

Teaser Tuesday: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Be careful to not give any spoilers... you don't want to ruin the book for everyone!

Title: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Author: Ben Sherwood
Page Teasers are From: p.g 35

"Fewer people have circumnavigated the world alone than had climbed Mt. Everest, and Tess's goal was to become one of the first ten women ever to make the journey. So far only eight had succeeded."

That is my Teaser Tuesday... post a link to yours in the comments below :)

Review: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Released: July 17th, 2012
Published by: Little, Brown Young Readers
Series: The Land of Stores, Book One
Star Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Bought
Page Amount: 438
Age Group: Middle Grade

Summary

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales.
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.
But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

Review

First of all: I absolutely love Chris Colfer. He’s seriously the most flawless human being on his earth. I love Kurt (his character in Glee) and he’s my hero. Second of all: no, that is not the only reason I gave this book five stars.

Alex and Conner are perfect protagonists for this novel. I loved how they are two very different mindsets, and loved how that played a role in things that happened to them. Alex is very much like myself in ways, she loves to read and grew up reading the things she’s seeing in the Land of Stories. If that ever happened to me, trust me I would be very much like her, looking around and crying at things I recognized. Conner is very much the opposite of Alex, he wants to get things done and get them done fast.

I was on the edge of my seat almost this entire book. I felt so attached to these characters, and whenever they ran into something I was rooting for them and wondering how in the world they were going to get out of this mess.

I was absolutely in love with the world that was the Land of Stories. I also loved the little fold out map in the book (I’m not sure if that’s going to be in the paperback, but I’m sure they’ll include it somehow) and how whenever they would mention something, I could fold out the map and see where they were and what they were talking about. I think that made me like the book a little more, I love when there are little touches like that in novels.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun read and I can’t wait for the rest of the books in the series to come out.

Cover Comment

At first, I wasn’t a fan of the cover at all. I thought they should have chose something better. But now that I have read the story, I think it’s the most perfect cover they could have chose for the book. At first I wasn’t a fan of the artwork (well, all in all I’m not a fan of artwork covers. I prefer real photographs) of Alex and Conner with the other pieces of artwork (like the frog, wolf and queens) surrounding them. Now, I don’t think they could have represented the book any other way. There’s jut so much going on that I think what they did was perfect.

Updates

Yes, I know I haven't blogging in MONTHS. There's really no excuse for it, but I thought I would make a little bit of an updates post.

I do have A LOT of book reviews that I need to catch up on, and those will be coming your way soon. I haven't been in the reading mood lately but I think my desire to read might be coming back. Let's hope that's the case.

I just turned 13! I am finally a teenager, which means that I will no longer be a pre-teen blogger. Now I'm a teen blogger! I'm so excited for this year coming up and hope I get to share it with you.

My two year blogging anniversary is coming up on June 27th, and I wanted to ask you guys if you had any fun ideas to help me celebrate. If you do please leave them in the comments or email me.

That's pretty much all, I just wanted to say that I love you guys and hope that your reading some very good books!

Love,
Sierra

Review: Twilight The Graphic Novel by Stephanie Meyer and Young Kim

Released: March 16, 2010
Published by: Yen Press
Series: Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Book One
Star Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Borrowed ?
Page Amount: 224
Age Group: Young Adult

Summary

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret...

Review

Yes. I am a Twilight fan. Why does that surprise you? Well, it might not. But trust me, I’m not a screaming, annoying Twi-hard. I liked it before it was all hyped up. I’m not the hugest fan of it any more, but I still wanted to read the graphic novels. And god I was not disappointed.

I read this in… half an hour? While I was on my cruise back in December they had a bunch of books, so I chose to read this one because I knew I would be able to finish the book before the week was done. I probably would have waited until this came out in paperback to read this, because I don’t think it would have been worth it to pay 20 bucks on a book that would take me half an hour to read.

First off: the art was my favourite thing through this whole novel. Oh. My. God. It is one of the most GORGEOUS things I have ever seen in my entire life. I mean, look at Edward. *swoon*. I liked that the character’s didn’t look exactly like their actors in the movies, because I probably wouldn’t have liked it as much.

The story is the exact same as the regular Twilight books, just shortened. I wish it would have been longer, like I wish they would have just made the first book the whole Twilight novel, rather than breaking it up into parts.

Overall, this was a very great read and I can’t wait to pick up the second one!

Cover Comments

Like the art all throughout the novel, the cover is gorgeous. I like that they didn’t base Bella’s looks off of Kristen Stewart, but how Stephanie Meyer envisioned her with her imagination.

Review: Bright Young Things by Anna Godberson

Released: October 12, 2010 Published by: HarperCollins
Series: Bright Young Things, Book One
Star Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Amazon Kindle Store
Page Amount: 389
Age Group: Young Adult

Summary

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star...

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined—and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for...and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.

Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age.

Review

I’ve always been a big fan of historical fiction, and I knew I needed to read more of it. When I was informed that this book was temporarily free for the Kindle, I took advantage of it. I’ve never read anything by Anna Godberson before this, but her books have been on my to-be-read list for a long time now. I was not disappointed!

The beginning of this novel didn’t captivate me right away. I wasn’t totally in love with the whole concept of escaping to New York City to live out big dreams of becoming a Broadway star/actress and being rich and famous (that’s a little Rachel Berry, don’t you think?) but by the middle of the novel I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those stereotypical breakout-star novels.

I loved the setting of this novel. New York City is somewhere that (before reading this novel, shortly after I went there for a couple days) I’ve always wanted to go, so I love reading books that are set there because it gives me a good image of what “the city that never sleeps” looks like.

Anna’s writing was beautiful. It was a lot more complex than some of the novels I’ve been reading recently, and I think it fit the story very well. I think she wrote it perfectly in that era. Even though I’m totally not an expert in history, I could totally see someone from that era speaking like Anna wrote it. At some points though, I could see a bit of modern talk slipping through, but it didn’t happen very often.

I loved Letty and Cordelia’s friendship in the beginning. Although, once you got around the middle it got very stereotypical and I couldn’t stand it. I although I loved Cordelia’s relationship with her father, I found it a bit unrealistic in some areas. It felt a bit rushed, as if it didn’t have time to fully develop like a real relationship should.

I recommend this novel to anybody who likes historical ficition which takes place during the flapper period. I would also recommend this novel to anybody who likes drama-type novels, as this novel was full of it! I really enjoyed reading this novel, and I look forward to picking up the next book in the series and reading Anna Godberson’s other works of fiction!

Cover Comments

This cover is gorgeous. I love it, I love the flapper era so this cover is definitely up my alley! I also LOVE the girl’s dress, I would totally wear it! I also love the font the title is written in, it’s simple yet not boring.