Book Review: Scored by Lauren Mclaughlin

AUTHOR: Lauren McLaughlin
PUBLISHER:  Random House Children
PAGES: 234
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Stand Alone
SOURCE: Bought
OUTLINE:
Set in the future when teenagers are monitored via camera and their recorded actions and confessions plugged into a computer program that determines their ability to succeed. All kids given a "score" that determines their future potential. This score has the ability to get kids into colleges, grant scholarships, or destroy all hope for the above.Scored's reluctant heroine is Imani, a girl whose high score is brought down when her best friend's score plummets. Where do you draw the line between doing what feels morally right and what can mean your future? Friendship, romance, loyalty, family, human connection and human value: all are questioned in this fresh and compelling dystopian novel set in the scarily forseeable future.

MY THOUGHTS

 As much as I use to hate Dystopian books when I started reading YA awhile back now I can't get enough of them. It seems like lately that's what interests me. Maybe, I'm just burned out with paranormal right now. You know us readers can be a fickle person. :)

I started reading Scored back when I was more into the paranormal books so I only got 30 pages in and gave up. It honestly didn't seem like it was going anywhere. Now go back a couple of days from today and I picked it up again to see what I thought. I really enjoyed it. 

The concept really doesn't seem to far off from something that's possible. I'm talking way, WAY in the future, but still. Technology has come so far from what is use to be that microchips and the government using technology to keep up with us and watch us isn't so unbelievable.

Characters

Imani is the MC in Scored and like all dystopians MCs she believed in what her government was doing. So when one of her teachers assigns the class a writing project to go against what you believe (so if you were unscored you would say why the score system works and vice versa) she had a hard time with it, but she also found her self working with Diego an unscored later on going against everything she believed. We all know what happens in these kind of situations.

I believe as the story went on, and Imani spent more time with Diego she learned that not everything is always black and white, governments don't always have the people best interests at heart. Sometimes you have to go against what you believe in order to find who you really are. I love characters who learn things and grow.

Diego was absolutely adorable as well, and if I was scored I would have found a way to see him too. He started off as a conceded know it all, but I think he just had strong beliefs that being scored was crap (my words totally).

In the end I really enjoyed the book like I said and kind of hoped that it would have a second one, but I don't think that will happen.

Blog Tour: Desecration: The Wizard Queen at 16 by Hadley Holt

DESECRATION – Excerpt, Fear of Lightning

Finally, a half hour later, and well on my way to a state of zombieness, I practically fell onto my bed. I tucked my teddy bear, Cuddles, into the crook of my arm and rolled onto my side. I didn’t even blink an eye when Cheeva hopped onto the bed and lay down beside me, with his head on the other pillow. I held up my teddy bear to the arctic wolf. “Cheeva, this is Cuddles and he’s not a chew toy. Cuddles, this is Cheeva and I guess he’ll be sleeping with us every night.” I didn’t even comment on the perplexed tilt of Cheeva’s head. I just closed my eyes and fell to sleep, feeling safe for the first time that day because Cheeva was with me.

*****

BOOM!

I sprang up to a sitting position on my bed, my heart racing frantically inside my chest. Cheeva leapt out of the bed, growling as he searched for the threat in my room.

Through my window, I watched as lightning branched out, illuminating the sky.

I counted silently: one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand—

BOOM!

I flinched. Perspiration beaded on my upper lip.

Cheeva stepped over and peered at me, his head tilting to the side.

Embarrassed, I sighed. “I’m afraid of thunderstorms,” I admitted to my familiar. Electricity exploded wildly across the sky once more. “One-thousand, two-thousand—”

BOOM!

I started breathing in and out too fast. I began to see stars hovering in front of my eyes. I was hyperventilating. I tried to breathe slowly in and slowly out, covering my head with a pillow. Although I tried to ignore the storm and think of something else, my mind went to the memory of where my fear of storms began. I’d been five years old, and in my bedroom, this very room, huddled in bed, staring out the same window during a thunderstorm. The lightning had come too close to the keep and finally, a flash of lightning was so bright that it blinded me, and the boom of thunder shook my room like an earthquake. A groaning crack split through the night

and glass shattered as a huge tree branch crashed through my window and

landed on top of me, pressing me down. Rain blew in through the window

and soaked me. I tried to cry out for help, but I couldn’t breathe. The weight

of the branch was suffocating me and the pain—I remembered the painlaced

panic.

Even at five years of age, I knew the keep was a massive structure

and I was terrified that no one would get to me in time to save me. I

struggled to suck in air, but my world began to fade to black. In the haziest

part of the memory, I saw my father burst through the door and use his

magic to pull the branch off of my body.

About the Book:

In a hidden world of wizards where only men hold the power of magic, one girl arises with the power to change everything, if she isn’t killed first…

Adriana Victoriana Evangelista (Addie), daughter to the High Chancellor of the Wizard’s Council, has always been the perfect wizard girl. She never questions why men possess magical powers and women have no power at all, magical or otherwise. Male wizards blend into the modern human world, leading huge corporations while wizard women are sequestered away.

On her sixteenth birthday, Addie discovers she possesses magic. Under wizard law, she is a desecration. An ancient prophecy surrounds the emergence of a girl magic-wielder, the wizard queen, who is destined to bring about the downfall of the wizard-kin.

Addie has long had a forbidden crush on a human boy who lives in the wizard stronghold, Rory Devlin. As she delves deeper into the dangerous mysteries surrounding her own destiny, she suspects Rory might be more than just human.

Addie’s fate sends her straight into the path of a powerful and evil sorcerer, but the worst danger of all may come from right inside her own home.

But Desecration on Amazon

About the Author:

Hadley Holt, author of paranormal, and fantasy YA (Young Adult) has always loved to write. She also nurtures an incurable fascination with all things supernatural and fantastical. From a young age, she imagined stories about dragons, wizards, witches, ghosts, shape-shifters, vampires, and other magical creatures. As life often does, it blessed Hadley with family – a hunky husband and amazing children, and with family came a rewarding career. Hadley spent many years in the not-so-magical world of finance and mortgage banking, but the stories were always there in the back of her mind, demanding to be set free.

Thanks to the housing market crash, Hadley finally realized her dreams. She now breathes life into her magical tales of reluctant young heroes finding their inner power to stand up against terrible creatures and even more terrible odds.

Please visit me at HadleyHolt.com!

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Author Goodreads

Here is the link to the the blog tour in general

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Things On My Bookish Bucket List

Hi everybody! How's everyone's week been going? 

 If you want to see all the other top ten post head on over to The Broke and the Bookish.

I've actually made a lovely little graphic this week. :)
P.s-it's suppose to be a bucket with books in it..lol

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Spring TBR list

Hi everybody! How's everyone's week been going? 

 If you want to see all the other top ten post head on over to The Broke and the Bookish.

I picked books that aren't out yet, but most of them I have on my kindle.

1. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings (June 10)
2. The Taking by Kimberly Derting (April 29)
3. #Scandal by Sarah Ockler (June 17)
4. After The End by Amy Plum (May-6)
5. 17 First kisses by Rachael Allen (June-17)
6. Dorothy must die by Danielle Paige (April 1)
7. Sinner  by Maggie S. (July 1)
8. Hexed by (June 10)
9. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (April 15)
10. Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins (April 8)

Book Review: Deep End of the Sea by Heather Lyons

AUTHOR: Heather Lyons
PUBLISHER: E-book
PAGES: 332
STAND ALONE/SERIES: ?
SOURCE: From publisher
OUTLINE:
What if all the legends you’ve learned were wrong?

Brutally attacked by one god and unfairly cursed by another she faithfully served, Medusa has spent the last two thousand years living out her punishment on an enchanted isle in the Aegean Sea. A far cry from the monster legends depict, she’s spent her time educating herself, gardening, and desperately trying to frighten away adventure seekers who occasionally end up, much to her dismay, as statues when they manage to catch her off guard. As time marches on without her, Medusa wishes for nothing more than to be given a second chance at a life stolen away at far too young an age.

But then comes a day when Hermes, one of the few friends she still has and the only deity she trusts, petitions the rest of the gods and goddesses to reverse the curse. Thus begins a journey toward healing and redemption, of reclaiming a life after tragedy, and of just how powerful friendship and love can be—because sometimes, you have to sink in the deep end of the sea before you can rise back up again.

MY THOUGHTS

I was suppose to do this review awhile ago, and couldn't make myself do it. This lack of reviewing is not because the books are bad. I've loved a lot of them. Sometimes I think I just sound repetitive. #bookbloggerfail and to be honest that's the last thing I want to sound like. So without trying to sound like myself, but being myself here goes...(Yeah that's how I roll)

The more I read books with mythology especially Greek (I think) the more I become interested in it. Maybe though it's just because I finished a book that makes it sound awesome. Ever had those feelings where once you read a really good book that has a theme around it you wanna find out more about it, go do it, go to it. Yes? No? Just me? Anyways, I do (I do this with movies too.) The few books on greek gods/goddesses that I've read in my opinion were good like the goddess test series and others.

The ones I've read and the ones I have sitting on my shelf (where I only read the synopsis) always tend to be about the major ones though. Hades, Persephone, Athena, you see where I'm going with this. I don't think I've come across one that tells the story of Medusa (I take that back I think Sweet Venom is about the ancestors of her or something. Hey I read it awhile back and can't remember) but even so The Deep End of the Sea shows a completely different side to Medusa or Dusa as Hermes calls her. :) A side of her that shows how compassionate she is. How she doesn't like being this "monster". How she cares for the people she turned to stone. 

Being stuck on the island that hardly nobody can find Medusa has only two friends an older blind gentleman and Hermes who believes Medusa was wronged by his ancestors so when he is able to get the gods to overthrow the curse Medusa goes to live with Hades and his wife. Here is another aspect I like about the book things I've read in the past have Persephone as being this prisoner in the under world and having these hateful feeling towards Hades for making her live there. In The Deep End of the Sea the love between these two is sweet and I didn't see any resentment there.

This is definitely a unique and heart-warming story about loving yourself and believing that there is good in people.

 Amazon $3.99

Blog Tour: Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington

Readers

Today I would like to welcome Amy Talkington to the site.

Here are a few questions that I got to ask her.

If you haven't had the pleasure of reading the story I highly recommend it. It's an adorable story.

My review will be up soon.

QUESTIONS

1. I know this is a question always asked by bloggers, but how did you come up with the story to Liv, Forever?

First, I just had this character I wanted to write: Liv, an artist who has a lot of deep emotion but is pretty hardened on the outside. She wears emotional armor. Then, I thought it might be interesting if that girl actually had to die in order to learn how to love (and live). The story kind of evolved from there.

2. Out of all the back stories for the ghosts whose did you enjoy writing the most?

Great question! I call them the “Ghost Death Statements.” For those who haven’t read LIv yet, let me explain. Throughout the book, in between chapters, there’s a series of first-person statements in which each of the ghosts tells the story of her death. I loved writing them all—assuming these different voices, researching the time period, layering in clues to the mystery—but I can pinpoint two favorites. Lydia is the first one I wrote. She died in 1985 and so I got to use some of my own late ‘80s high school references (hello, Echo and the Bunnyman on the Walkman!). And the other statement I loved writing was Dawn. That was the last one I wrote and I just went full tilt with her passionate, environmentalist voice.

3.Seeing as how you wrote a ghost story do you believe in ghosts and the afterlife?

Yes! I don’t necessarily imagine they’re fully formed like Liv but I really do feel that a spirit might sometimes linger if he/she/it feels the need to. Obviously this is not based on any scientific fact.

4. Do you watch ghost shows like Ghost Adventures or Ghosthunters?

No. I don’t want to give spoilers but I can say I’m less into the idea of scary ghosts (and that will make sense once you’ve read the book, I think).  The ghosts that I “believe in” are mostly kind spirits that need some kind of closure. Not haunting so much. My favorite show that had “ghosts” (at least one, sort of) was Six Feet Under.

5. What would you do if you could see and hear ghosts like Gabe?

Well, as much as I’m going on about how I believe in ghosts, I think I’d completely lose it if I heard one or  felt one. Like Gabe, I’d probably feel very isolated and freaked out. Unless, of course, it was someone I loved. I experienced a ghosty moment related to my grandmother and I found it very comforting, actually.

If you want to know all the latest on Liv, Forever

Twitter @amytalkington 

Tumblr http://amytalkington.tumblr.com

SoHo Press: Liv, Forever

When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, it’s her ticket out of the foster system. Liv isn’t sure what to make of the school’s weird traditions and rituals, but she couldn’t be happier. For the first time ever, she has her own studio, her own supply of paints. Everything she could want. 

Then she meets Malcolm Astor, a legacy student, a fellow artist, and the one person who’s ever been able to melt her defenses. Liv’s only friend at Wickham, fellow scholarship kid Gabe Nichols, warns her not to get involved, but life is finally going Liv’s way, and all she wants to do is enjoy the ride. 

But Liv’s bliss is doomed. Weeks after arriving, she is viciously murdered and, in death, she discovers that she’s the latest victim of a dark conspiracy that has claimed many lives. Cursed with the ability to see the many ghosts on Wickham’s campus, Gabe is now Liv’s only link to the world of the living. To Malcolm.

Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcolm fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts the halls of Wickham. But Liv must fight alone to come to grips with the ultimate star-crossed love.

Cover reveal: Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 

It's time for another cover reveal. Todays is Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

I haven't yet read White Hot Kiss, but I do have it on my shelf and I'm pretty eager to read it so it might be my next book.

I will say I definitely love the book covers to these books and they go so well with other.

So are you read to see it...are you?

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STONE COLD TOUCH Synopsis:
 Every touch has its price Layla Shaw is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life—no easy task for a seventeen-year-old who’s pretty sure things can’t get worse. Her impossibly gorgeous best friend, Zayne, is forever off-limits thanks to the mysterious powers of her soul-stealing kiss. The Warden clan that has always protected her is suddenly keeping dangerous secrets. And she can barely think about Roth, the wickedly hot demon prince who understood her in ways no one else could. But sometimes rock bottom is only the beginning. Because suddenly Layla’s powers begin to evolve, and she’s offered a tantalizing taste of what has always been forbidden. Then, when she least expects it, Roth returns, bringing news that could change her world forever. She’s finally getting what she always wanted, but with hell literally breaking loose and the body count adding up, the price may be higher than Layla is willing to pay…

 "Constantly entertaining...the narrative sizzles with as much tension as romance." —Kirkus Reviews on White Hot Kiss


WHITE HOT KISS synopsis: One kiss could be the last. Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses. Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on since forever. Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul. But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne…it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.


 Jennifer L. Armentrout/J.Lynn Bio: # 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.



 STONE COLD TOUCH Pre-Order Links:
 Amazon 
Kobo
 BAM 







 WHITE HOT KISS Buy Links:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
BAM 
iBooks
IndieBound
Kobo 
Walmart 








 Links:
 Series Website
 Website
Twitter
Facebook
Jennifer L. Armentrout Goodreads
STONE COLD TOUCH Goodreads
WHITE HOT KISS Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday: On Wed-Authors I haven't read

Hi everybody! How's everyone's week been going? 

 If you want to see all the other top ten post head on over to The Broke and the Bookish.

I know I'm a day behind. These are going to be authors I haven't read.

1. Lauren Kate (The Fallen books)
   Did you know these are going to be made into movies?
2. The Bronte Sisters
   I haven't read any classics hardly.
3. J.R Ward (BDB Series)
   I have most the books, but I  Haven't started reading them yet.
4. Veronica Rossi (Under the never sky series)
5. Beth Revis (Across the universe series)
6. Lois Lowry (The Giver)
7. Courtney Alison Mouton (Angelfire series)
8. Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch, The Archived)
9. Andrew Smith (Marbury Lenses, In the path of falling objects, Stick)
10. Jodi Meadow (Incarnate, Asunder, Infinite)
    Runners Up:
    Wendy Higgins, Rae Carson, Sarah J. Maas
    Which ones should I move up on my list? 

Kindle Deals (21)

I always see blogs that have a page that show deals for the kindle, and I occasionally find one or two books on there that I would want. I'm more of a YA girl, and seeing as how most my followers are (I'm assuming here) I decided to make a list of the YA books I found that are $3.99 and less for the kindle. There are plenty more Ya books that are on amazon, but these caught my attention because either I have them, I've read them, or I'm dying to read them. :) Just click on the title and it takes you to their amazon page in a new window.

I'm not sure how long these deals will be here so get them while they're available.

(Note: Prices are as shown from the date this was posted. Please be sure to check before hitting buy.)

$3.99

$2.99

$1.99

$0.99

Sharing with the group (3)

 Hey everyone!
I'm back with a new Sharing with the group post.
My version of IMM & StS

Review:
Perdition by Ann Aguirre
Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington

Bought:
Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
Scarlet by marissa Meyer
White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2.99)
Every other day by Jennifer L. Barnes
Seige and Storm by Leigh B.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Unremembered by Jessica Brody (2.99 at time of posting)
Fifty First Timesby Various Authors (1.99)

Mentioned:
The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare