Top Ten Tuesday: Favorites..I can't just choose one

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.

Todays topic is all time favorites from the past 3 (or 5 years)

These are in no particular order...

1. Prisoner of Night and Fog (Prisoner of Night and Fog #1)

   by Anne Blankman

2. Divergent (Divergent #1)

   by Veronica Roth 
3. 
   

   The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1)

   by Alexandra Bracken

4. Nevermore (Nevermore #1)

   by Kelly Creagh

5. Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits #1)

   by Katie McGarry

6. Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1)

   by Kiersten White

7. Never Eighteen

   by Megan Bostic

8. The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1)

   by Lindsay Cummings

9. The Program (The Program #1)

   by Suzanne Young 
10. 
    

    Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy #6)

    by Richelle Mead

Book Review: Mind Games by Kiersten White

AUTHOR: Kiersten White
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
PAGES: 230
SERIES/STAND ALONE: Series

SOURCE: Bought
OUTLINE: 

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future. 

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

MY THOUGHTS:

I wanted, wanted, wanted to love this book so much because it had all the aspects I love in a book the spies, powers, and academies. Somewhere along the line it fell short for me. Maybe, it was that I'd felt like I had experienced this plot before. Push the movie anyone? Seers, readers, companies wanting to use people and their abilities? I understand that it's going to be done over and over again, but if that is the case give it some little thing that's going to make it stand out. Make me want to feel for the characters that are in these horrible circumstances. Where I loved Evie and pretty much every character in the Paranormalcy series, I couldn't bring myself to love these characters. They had this co-dependency on each other. Annie needed Sofia to stay at the school, Sofia needed Annie to keep her from falling deeper into her thoughts, it just kept going. I didn't care much for Eden when she did show up. It felt like James was pretty much using all the girls. There just wasn't a character I cared for until the very, very end.

The flipping back and forth between Fia and Annie and past and present with each chapter hurt my head a little. I mean having to remember what was going on 2 or 3 chapters back to understand the chapter I was reading. It just didn't work well for me. (Now this just sounds confusing) 

The only thing that saved this book from its death with me was the twist at the end. What an end! It'll keep me reading the series to see what happens.

This was definitely not the Paranormalcy Series. Anyone who says other wise is a liar. I'm hoping that maybe it's just a first book thing for this series, and that Perfect Lies, the second book, will recover from the wounds that were Mind games.

QUOTES

"Instead I think about everything in the whole entire world that makes me angry--there is a lot, oh, there is a lot---and I start singing Justin Bieber at the top of my lungs." pg 43

"Then he was dead. Poor cute dead kid." pg 57

Book Review: Supernaturally by Kiersten White

AUTHOR: Kiersten White

PUBLISHED: July 26, 2011

PUBLISHER: HarperTeens

PAGES: 336

SERIES/STAND ALONE: Series-Book 2 (Paranormalcy #1, Endlessly #3)

SOURCE: Bought

CHALLENGES: None

OUTLINE:

Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

MY THOUGHTS:
Going into this I thought I would love it just as much as Paranormalcy, but sadly it fell a little short for me. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed it, it just didn't have that spark. As much as I enjoyed the humor in the first one I didn't see to much of it here. I think it's because this book took a different turn. The first one focused more on Evie and her time at IPCA where as Supernaturally focuses more on what happens when she becomes "normal" or as close to normal as Evie can be. Supernaturally focuses on who/what Evie actually is and we learn more about where she came from, why she is the way she is, and more.

In the second book Evie seems a little more selfish/whiny. I still enjoy her as a character it's just I wish she would have been a little more stronger and not worry so much about what others thought. Focus on what was good in her life her boyfriend, her friend,  her new school life.

Lend I absolutely love his character in both books actually. He seems to genuinely care about Evie, and it kind of irritated me when Evie would act the way she did towars him. I mean you have an awesome boyfriend why waste that with worrying about other retarded things.

Jack is the newest character in the series and he's a little younger then Evie. At times I really liked his character. He was fun, free-spirited, but then you have that mystery to him. Who is he really does he have something to hide?

I have to admit at first I wasn't sure what was going on , and who was causing the problems. A little later on in the book I began to wonder if a certain character was it, and it was.

All in all I would say if you read and enjoyed Paranormalcy then read Supernaturally because it is different from it's other one. I definitely can't wait to read the ending to Evie's story. Endlessly comes out next year.

Book Cover Revealed: Supernaturally

Lookie lookie....it's the second book in the paranormalcy series. Ok well not the book but it's awesomeness of a cover. The book doesn't come out until August 30th. At least we get to stare at the pretty cover until then right?

I'll write a little more later today when I'm fully awake, and its not 2am. I had to share this though. :)

Paranormalcy Review

AUTHOR: Kiersten White
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
PAGES: 335
SERIES/STANDALONE: Series (book 2 supernaturally)

OUTLINE:
Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.
But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.
So much for normal.

STARTED: 11-14-2010
FINISHED: 11-16-2010

MY THOUGHTS: OMG! that's all I'm saying I loved this book. Like really loved it. I can't wait for the 2nd one to come out. I love Keirsten's writing style. To me there's something a little different about it. I don't know. Maybe it's because I also like to read what she writes in her blogs and it's always funny. I love to be able to laugh at stuff. I love the funny moments in books when you actually can laugh out loud at something the character does or says, and I had a ton of those moments in the book. The whole bleeping things.... awesome. There was no need for cussing. :) One thing I like about these kind of books is they don't just stick to one type of paranormal while I don't have a problem with books being just vampires or just werewolves. I like the mix,and this book definitely had the mix from weres, vampires, shapeshifters, mermaids, faeries, a hag (I've never seen hag that I can remember in a recent book), another kind of water paranormal :). Yea for all paranormals! I like all the side notes too. You know the parenthesis thing. I do it to when I'm writing things on here. Oh and the titles for chapters you don't see many books with title chapters anymore. :(  Have a bleep bleep day, and dumbells, boys, and other dense things are a few.

I loved just about every character that was in the book.

The main character Evie did seem a little ditzy to me at times but that's okay. All her other qualities made up for it. She works for the IPCA (International Paranormal Containment agency) as a bag and tag girl, mainly because she can see through all paranormals glamours. She had been doing that for as long as she could remember, and before the agency she just went from foster home to foster home. I loved how she had her weapon Tasey all pink and sparkly. Her fascination with school lockers funny!

Lend oh our darling Lend I love his character too. I want him and Evie to be together. It took me a bit to figure out what he actually was. I know stupid me right. I definitely think I'd rather have him for a boyfriend then a faerie. Sorry Reth.

Reth bad boy faerie in all. I know there's got to be that one bad boy out of the lot and he was that. Popping out of nowhere and frightening poor Evie. I have to admit I do like how he's not as mean as I anticipated him being.

There are others, but like always I found these to be the most mainish (Is this a word?) characters. You also had the director, Raquel of IPCA I like that she didn't have to say much for Evie to know her feelings she could tell by the sighs. "Raquel sighed. She was a professional sigher-the woman conveyed more emotions with a single exhalation than most people do with their entire faces" Believe me there's plenty of sighing from her. :), There was also Lish, a mermaid, and Evie's Best friend. She was cool. Then Jacques the werewolf a bodyguard, and then people that know Lend. Oh and the fire girl. (figure out what that means yeah) So yeah there's quite a bit of characters.

This book always had me wondering what was next.

In case you don't have the book this is the back cover to paranormalcy. I kinda like it.

I cannot wait for supernaturally to come out. :)

MEMOARBLE QUOTES:
- We spent the rest of the morning conjugating. (a word that sounds dirty but is in fact boring)-Evie
-Silver Knives.(Bud)
Tasey! Hot pink and sparkly (Evie)
-I can't believe I made a pink knife. (Bud)
It's so cute I love it. Finally a companion worthy of Tasey (Evie)
-Seriously did I look like some sort of psycho assassin? Maybe it was the pink sneaker or the heart earrings (Evie)
-Don't be flattered--most of your competition is dead (Evie to Lend)
-Oh relax if he wanted to kill me he already would have. I brought him all these sharp pencils, ideal for stabbing and he's been a perfect gentleman (Evie to Raquel)
-It's a glamourless life. My favorite joke hurt tonight. (Evie)
-it was like a bad set up to a joke or something. A doctor, two werewolfs, and vampire walk into a bar. what'll you have the bartender asks. We were thinking him the vampire answers eyeing the doctor. (Evie)
-What a lovely balance. Lend shows whatever he wants the world to see, and you see through whatever the world wants to show you. (Cresseda)
-How would you like to come to school tomorrow with me and see a real live locker? (Lend)
I'm pretty sure I squealed (Evie)
-No, you're officially band from listening to us. Or thinking about this or even thinking about thinking about this. (David to Lend and Evie)

Sorry I know I have more quotes butt I'm not sure where I wrote them down so if I find them. I shall put them up.

Let me know what you think!