In My Mailbox: 21

I know, I know, I have been really bad lately with posting blog posts. School has started back up and I have had no time to do anything other than school work.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at the Story Siren. I love in My Mailbox, because I get to drool over the new books I got and books other people got!

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I got a few books the past couple weeks that I haven't done IMM.

Bought:

78 Reasons Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why it Just Might by Pat Walsh (Kindle)
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (Kindle)
Winter's Passage by Julie Kagawa.

That's all for me this week... what did you get in your mailbox?

Author Interview with Jackson Pearce!

I am here today with Jackson Pearce, author of AS YOU WISH and SISTERS RED. Here is a mini interview! Warning: This interview may contain spoilers from AS YOU WISH, so please do not read on until you have read AS YOU WISH.

1. What’s you favourite colour?

Pink!

2. Where did you first come across the name Viola?

Viola is the name of a character in Shakespeare's THE TWELFTH NIGHT. All of the
names in As You Wish are taken from Shakesperean plays!

3. Where did the idea for Caliban come from?

I knew I wanted Jinn to be from another world, but didn't want it to be a
fantasy land where people lived in cottages and whatnot. I wanted a fantasy
city, like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.

4. If you could change the cover for either AS YOU WISH or SISTERS RED, which would you choose?

I LOVE SISTERS RED's cover. I like As You Wish's, but if forced to choose one or
the other, I'd have to change that one!

5. Did you always want to write for young adults.

I always wanted to write, and the stories that came out of me were just marketed
for young adults. I never really consciously think about the fact that I'm
writing for teens-- I just try to write good books!

6. Thanks for the wonderful interview, last question, what is you biggest advice for young aspiring authors?

Write-- don't talk about writing or think about writing or plan to start
writing. Just WRITE, and ignore the rest.

In My Mailbox: 20 (The No Book Edition)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at the Story Siren. It not only allows blogger interaction, it is fun to drool and brag about the books we got each week!

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Sadly, no books for me!

Review: Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

* This is the third book in a series, so this review may contain spoilers for the first books. Do not continue reading unless you have read Crank and Glass by Ellen Hopkins. *

Released: September 14th, 2010
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Series: Crank, Third Book (Final Instalment)
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Christmas Present
Page Amount: 663
Age Group Recommend: Young Adult

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

FALLOUT is the final book in the CRANK series, which was the first books that I have ever read by Ellen Hopkins. The only other Ellen Hopkins book that I have read was IMPULSE.

Of course I was going into this book with high expecations. I loved CRANK, and I linked GLASS, so I was excited to see what FALLOUT would bring, since it wasn’t told directly in Kristina’s point of view.

One thing that I didn’t like about this book was that I don’t think that it showed enough of Kristina. I did, however, like how it showed how Kristina’s addiction effected her children.

I have always been intrigued by the plot of Ellen’s novels, since I read a lot of light, fluffy, chick-lit kinds of novels, these are different kinds of book for me. In a good way.

Kristina is definitely not a likeable character, but I liked all Hunter, Autumn, and Summer.

Another thing I wasn’t a big fan of in this novel was nothing really happened that was super important until the very end of the novel. So the solution wasn’t the greatest either.

I have always been a fan of Ellen’s writing style, since it is so poetic and beautiful. Her writing style is unlike any other author’s writing style, and I think the verse writing is the best for her style.

I love all the covers of Ellen’s novels. The are simple, but yet they still catch your eye on the book shelves. They are perfect for the novels.

I liked how Hunter, Autumn and Summer all lived in different places, it made it seem so realistic.

Overall, these novels are a must read.

Plot 10/10
Like able Characters 8/10
Problem Development 6/10
Solution Effectiveness 8/10
Writing Style 10/10
Character Development 7/10
Cover 10/10
Setting 10/10
Ending 10/10
Beginning 8/10
=
87%

Love,
Sierra

Review: Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

Released: June 1st, 2010
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Series: Summer, First Book
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Amazon Kindle Store
Page Amount: 324
Age Group Recommend: 12 and up

Sometimes I still wake up shivering in the early hours of the morning, drowning in dreams of being out there in the ocean that summer, of looking up at the moon and feeling as invisible and free as a fish. But I'm jumping ahead, and to tell the story right I have to go back to the very beginning. To a place called Indigo Beach. To a boy with pale skin that glowed against the dark waves. To the start of something neither of us could have predicted, and which would mark us forever, making everything that came after and before seem like it belonged to another life.

My name is Mia Gordon: I was sixteen years old, and I remember everything.

This is one of my favourite books, if not is. When I went into this book, I was expecting a fluffy, girly summer-y read. This was not the case of this novel, but I am definitely not disappointed. Not one bit. I am also so excited for the sequel, Summer of Sneaking Out.

If any of you guys follow me around Twitter or even on the blog, you guys will know I am a big romantic. This book is filled with the kind of romance I want to have someday. Minus the big dramatic ending.

I loved Mia and Simon to death. They are two of the most likable characters I have probably ever read. Corienne was some what likable, same with Beth, and I thought Eva was the cutest little thing in the world.

I loved how the problem didn’t come to the very end of the book. In most novels, I hate this, but in this novel it suited it most.

This novel is not a light fluffy read, just to be warned. I cried at the end of this book, to be honest.

I loved Amanda’s writing style in this novel. It is her first YA original novel, and this is not the worst I have read. I LOVED this book. (: Can I say this enough?

By the end of this novel, Mia was a totally different person. I think she turned for the better, in my opinion.

The cover is gorgous, it simple, elegant, and it suites this novel perfectly. I love the colours, and they all go together so well.

I love books that are set at the beach, since I love the beach so much, and they is no beach close to me. I have fallen in love with beaches on my vacations.

I loved this novel, and I definitely recommend EVERYONE to read this book.

Plot 10/10
Like able Characters 10/10
Problem Development 10/10
Solution Effectiveness 10/10
Writing Style 10/10
Character Development 10/10
Cover 10/10
Setting 10/10
Ending 10/10
Beginning 10/10
=
100%

Love,
Sierra

In My Mailbox: 19- The 2011 Edition

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, and it allows bloggers and readers to have new books on their radar.

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I got four books this week, and I am so excited about all of them!

For Review:

• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (Netgalley)
• The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (Netgalley)

Bought:

• The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells (Kindle)
• Wish by Alexandra Bullen (Kindle)

What did you get in your mailbox?

Follow Friday

I did Follow Friday once, but I never did it again, so you could say I am new to this. Here are the rules for Follow Friday:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - not this week.
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Here is this weeks question:

What is your 2011 blogging resolutions?

Well, I would like to become a more active blogger. I can go a whole week without posting a single post. I would also like to be a more well known blogger, but I know this only comes with time.

Thanks!

Sierra