In My Mailbox (19)

I had an awesome round-up this time! I'm very excited to start these. Now, if only I had more time, seeing as it IS Hell Week, which is actually 2 weeks long. For those of you who haven't been in school for a while, those are the weeks preceding the end of a trimester/semester/marking period/what have you where teachers cram in as many tests, quizzes, homeworks, projects, etc. as they can.

Review:



Outside In by Maria V. Snyder. I recently finished Inside Out, so I was excited to get a chance at the sequel so soon! Usually I end reading sequels ages after I read the first book, so this is a bit of a neat experience.

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell. For whatever reason, I didn't really want to read this when I first saw it on someone's blog. It's had so much publicity and so many good reviews, though, that I just had to give it a try! I don't read enough historical fiction anyway.


Populazzi by Elise Allen. I haven't heard much about this one, but the cover makes it look like a fun read. I like the word play in the title, a mix between "popular" and "paparazzi".

Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. I was pleasantly surprised to find this in the mail. When I got it, I hadn't read the previous books, but by now, I finished the first one and I'm working my way through the second. This cover is gorgeous!

Library:



Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn. I'm not a fan of the cover (it's not really something I want to be seen in public with), but I like the idea of time travel. This is a book I have somewhat low expectations for, but maybe it'll surprise me.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Just finished this one! A review will be up soon. I thought this was contemporary for some reason, but to my surprise, it was science fiction. I really liked it, though.


The Girl who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow. I love this cover so much, which you should know since I did a Cover Love on it not too long ago. This is actually up next in my TBR pile.

Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney. This one didn't get the greatest reviews, but the concept sounded so funny I just had to try it. I hope I don't fit the mold and instead end up enjoying it.


Flirt Club by Cathleen Daly. I got this one for the Debut Author Challenge. Doesn't it seem like such a cute, fun read? I'll need it for the depressing book we have to read for school!

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. I absolutely adored the Forest of Hands and Teeth, so I'm hoping for more of the gorgeous prose in this one! I love the title and cover so much.


Alice 19th Volume 2 by Yu Watase. I liked the first volume and I've heard it only gets better. This one's towards the bottom of my TBR pile, but I hope to get to it soon enough.

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg. Not a fan of the cover, but the summary sounds so interesting. I heard this read is a big tug on the heart strings, which is how I like them.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver. How could I not? I'm pumped to read this.

That's my two weeks! How's your load?

Prom and Prejudice: Review

Title: Prom and Prejudice
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Release Date: January 2011
Published By: Point
Genre: Contemporary/Classic Retelling
Pages: 231 pages
Goodreads Rating: 3.94 stars


Review: Based loosely on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, PROM AND PREJUDICE tells the story of Lizzie Bennet, a scholarship student at the esteemed Longbourn Academy. A school almost exclusively for the best of high society, any scholarship student is tormented mercilessly until she drops out. Lizzie wasn't able to escape the torture, but she was lucky enough to find a good friend in her roommate, Jane. However, even Jane is swept up in the prom craze, and that's only the least of Lizzie's problems. There's also the mysterious Darcy, with his snobby ways of disliking scholarship students, and Lizzie wouldn't deign herself to be nice to him. Except she finds herself unable to stay away. Will her pride and Darcy's prejudice keep them apart?

I read Pride and Prejudice about two years ago, and while many of the details escaped me, I was able to recognize quite a few references in the book. It was fun to see how the author connected the classic story to modern day life, but it must be noted that while the influence is clear, this is still very much its own story. And it was, in fact, a fun story. I loved reading about the pretentious rich girls who were utterly obsessed with prom, which was practically the most important part of their lives. They had to get everything right, from the scarily expensive dresses to the perfect dates.

The romance between Darcy and Lizzie wasn't quite as good as the one between the original two, but I still enjoyed watching them slowly adjust to each other and cheered them on at every twist and turn. In general, the characters were a bit flat, but I feel like this book was intended more to be a fun read rather than something with a lot of character development and deep themes.

PROM AND PREJUDICE was a super-cute book that's sure to appeal to Pride and Prejudice fans. There are many references, and while I didn't pick them all up, I'm sure a lot of you will. This isn't a book that will provide a lot to think about or deal with anything deep, but it was fun to read and I had a good time. I'll definitely be picking up the author's other book to give that a try as well.

Book Blogger Hop (17) and Follow Friday (6)

This week's Book Blogger Hop question is...

If I gave you $80 and sent you into a book store right now, what would be in  your basket when you finally staggered to the till?

Ooh, I love this question! This is difficult to choose, but I would have to go with Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, Looking for Alaska by John Green (already read it, but I would love a copy), The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Miles from Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams (can we pretend it releases today?), and Sweethearts by Sara Zarr.

This week's Follow Friday question is...

Who are you the girl, instead of you the blogger?

I guess I'm a bit of a quirky girl (my friends would be rather skeptical if they heard "a bit", and would probably put me in the quirkiest of the quirky category). I love to laugh and pretty much any joke can send me into giggles. Even though I'm a fairly cheerful person, I write dark fiction and poetry, almost like releasing any negative emotions inside me. I'm an overachiever who goes to a school for overachievers, which, you can imagine, makes me even more neurotic about grades. I do like school and learning, though, and I love all my extracurriculars (debate, nanotechnology research, math team, all that fun nerdy stuff).

If you're new to my blog, welcome! Please leave your blog link in the comments so I can go check yours out as well. I'm happy to follow anyone whose blog piques my interest or has similar reading tastes to me. (I read primarily young adult fiction, generally contemporary although I often branch out in other genres.)

Dirty Little Secrets: Review

Title: Dirty Little Secrets
Author: C. J. Omololu
Release Date: August 2010
Published By: Walker Books
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 224 pages
Goodreads Rating: 3.74 stars


Review: Everyone has secrets, but Lucy's are dirty - literally. Her mom is a hoarder, which means her entire house is filled with so much garbage that there are only tiny paths to squeeze through when moving across rooms. Lucy is so ashamed of the state of her house and her crazed mom that she refuses to let anyone get near where she lives. Except one day her mom dies from a heart attack, and Lucy knows that if she calls an ambulance, the reporters will get wind of her secrets and turn it into a news story. This book is an hour by hour account of one teenage girl attempting to fix everything in just a few days, and the final decision she makes.

Before reading DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, I had only a vague concept of what hoarders are. The descriptions of Lucy's junk-filled house were horrifying. There were literally walls of garbage towering over their heads, and not only was it disgusting, it was dangerous. Her older siblings had already moved out, and once they were gone, they refused to acknowledge the problem. Lucy was left alone to deal with her problems and shame, but despite this, she remained a strong character. Like anyone would be, she was often afraid and worried, but she continued to take control of her life and do what she had to do.

What I did find concerning was Lucy's apparent disregard for her mother's death. I understand that she hated her mother to a certain point, but it still disturbed me when almost as soon as she found the corpse, she was already worrying about what people would think. I saw the mother as someone who was severely mentally unbalanced, but not inherently a bad person, so I was hoping Lucy would either show at least some emotion or there would be more anecdotal evidence of her mom being hateful.

I found DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS to be a suspenseful read, and I was mostly able to sympathize with Lucy. Her lack of remorse for her mom's death threw me for a loop, but I was able to get over that and enjoy the book. It opens your eyes to what exactly hoarders are and how children of them have to deal with the shame and difficulties involved. This stands out when compared to other issues books cover, so I would recommend this to anyone who's tired of reading depression/eating disorder/death books.