Top Ten Tuesday (5)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.

Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

Sarah's Picks:

1. Young Adult
2. Russia
3. Richelle Mead
4. Contemporary
5. Fairytale retelling
6. Written in verse
7. Vampires
8. Curses
9. Wonderland
10. Zombies

Angela's Picks:

1. Young Adult
2. Contemporary
3. Lisa Schroeder
5. Kasie West
6. Hannah Moskowitz
7. Tear-jerker
8. Retelling
9. Revenge
10. Road trips

Megan's Picks:

1. Young Adult
2. Contemporary
3. Re-telling
4. Love
5. Dystopian
6. "like the Hunger Games!" (never really works out. ;))
7. Revenge
8. Kody Keplinger
9. Sarah Dessen
10. Meg Cabot

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Top Ten Tuesday (4)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.

Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

Sarah's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did.
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
2. Every Day by David Levithan.
3. A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young.
4. The Bridge by Jane Higgins.
5. Emilie & the Hollow World by Martha Wells.

Books I thought I'd like less than I did.
1. Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey.
2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer.
3. Under the Bridge by Michael Harmon.
4. Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
5. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.

Megan's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did:
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (didn't see that one coming, did you?)
2. You, Maybe by Rachel Vail
3. Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
4. Dare You To by Katie McGarry
5. Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Books I thought I'd like less than I did:
1. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
2. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
4. Dust by Devon Ashley
5. Partials by Dan Wells

Stephanie's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did:
1. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (I liked it, but I thought I'd love it. I still gave it 4 stars, because it was good)
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
4. Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic (Just like TSPoLaFS)
5. Atonement by Ian McEwan

Books I thought I'd like less than I did:
1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (I didn't think I'd like it but I ended up LOVING it!)
2. The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
3. Florence by Ciye Cho
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Beyond the Eyes by Rebekkah Ford

Diana's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did:
1. Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Losing it by Cora Carmack
3. The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa
4. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
5. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Men I've Dated by Shane Bolks

Books I thought I'd like less than I did:
1. Sunshine by Nikki Rae
2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
3. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen
4. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
5. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Annie's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did:
1. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by: Jennifer E. Smith
2. The Hunger Games series by: Susanne Collins 

3. Unearthly series by: Cynthia Hand 

4. For Darkness Shows the Stars by: Diana Peterfreund 

5. Angelfire by: Courtney Allison Moulton 

Books I thought I'd like less than I did:
1. Shatter Me series by: Tahereh Mafi
2. Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend by: Becca Ann

3. Perfect Chemistry series by: Simone Elkles 

4. Darkest Powers series by: Kelley Armstrong

5. Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by: Ransom Riggs 

Angela's Picks:

Books I thought I'd like more than I did:
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
3. Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols
4. Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
5. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Books I thought I'd like less than I did:
1. Teeth by Hannah Moscowitz
2. Angelfall by Susan Ee
3. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
4. [all her books] by Lisa Schroeder
5. How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Review: Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

 Title: Grave Mercy                                                                                    Author: R.L. LaFevers                                                                              Series: His Fair Assassins #1                                                              Source: Bought                                                                            Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt                                    Publication Date: April 3, 2012                                                           Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?                                                   Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.                                                                                    Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

When I heard this book was about nun assassins, I took a double take. Nun ASSASSINS? Say what? I was very pleasantly surprised with this book, and I was engaged the whole time. Combined with a tender, slow building romance, the coolest historical setting ever, and gorgeous writing, this quickly became a favorite!

Ismae is an assassin for St. Mortain, the god of Death. After the covenant saved her years ago, she has trained every day how to kill people quickly and quietly. When she is tasked to delve into the high political circles to see, she uses her exceptional skills to see who is in the midst of betraying the Duchess, Anne.

Ismae is a total kick-ass. That basically describes her the best. After a horrible early life, she doesn’t let anyone get close to her, and it takes her forever to trust. I definitely don’t blame her. She is very strong, clearly, and really knows how to read people. She uses her many skills to her advantage to take out the baddies and she sticks to her guns and her morals and duties. Despite her tough exterior, she’s very sweet and caring inside.

Gavriel Duval is so very adorably cute. He is just about the most loyal and protective person ever. Everything he has had to go through to protect his sister and Ismae is just inspiring. At first, he is a bit cold and hard to read, but once I really got to know him, I fell for him just as fast as Ismae did. He’s beyond caring…just ahhhh. I am such a sucker for Duval. :)

Anne, the Duchess and Duval’s sister, was one of the best characters ever. Although she is very powerful, she is young and kind. I couldn’t imagine having my whole life planned out at such a young age, and she has no say in it! Poor child. I love Beast, Duval’s friend, too. He’s so gruff on the outside, but he’s so lovable on the inside. I basically had a hard time trusting everyone else in the book; it felt like they all had some ulterior motive for their actions. Makes me nervous!

The plot was definitely exciting, and LaFevers didn’t waste anytime diving right into the story. The mystery aspect was so great. It kept me hooked right up until the end. I also adored the historical setting. It felt so dang real. It’s definitely one of the best historical books I’ve ever read. The writing is beautiful and captivating. Their relationship is very slow-building, but it worked amazingly. They clearly did not get along at the beginning, since they both thought the other person was a betrayer. They were thrust together by circumstance, but slowly began to trust, respect, and eventually love each other. Sigh…I really wouldn’t mind my own Duval.

I am sad to see Gavriel and Ismae leave, but I am hoping to see them in Dark Triumph, Sybella, another handmaiden of Death, and Beast’s book, which just released. I’m so stoked! All I can say is more nun assassins!

Favorite Swoon-worthy Quote: Slowly, he leans toward me. His lips are soft and warm as they touch mine. His mouth moves urgently, as if he is trying to experience every nuance and curve of my lips. The utter rightness of this fills me, for it feels I have waited all my life for just this moment. His mouth opens slightly, and he shifts the angle of his kiss, nudging my mouth to do the same, and I am lost in a whole new world of sensation. His mouth is soft compared to the strong, callused hands that grip my waist.

Rating: 5/5 Ravens!

Review: Alice in Zombieland

Title: Alice in Zombieland
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: White Rabbit Chronicles, #1
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: September 25, 2012

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever. 

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

I absolutely love Alice in Wonderland retellings. I'm also becoming a huge fan of zombie books and by combining those two things you'd think I would be absolutely in love right? Well only kind of. I did love the second half of the book, I just found the beginning pretty boring.

There is only so much you can take when the main character doesn't really do anything. Yes, I know, her family just died, but still the book could have had a lot of the moping, doing nothing part cut out. Once she starts school it gets a little better and then when she finally joins up with Cole's group things get interesting.

The idea of teenagers going out and hunting zombies is pretty cool. The thing that really makes this story is what the zombies actually are. They aren't your typical zombies that go around eating human flesh, they're more of a spirit form. I really have never seen zombies done in this way and that really makes this book stand out.

I really wasn't a huge fan of Alice in the beginning. I got pretty bored while she moped and did nothing. As the story went on however, she turned out to be a pretty tough character who knew how to kick zombie butt. Then there's Cole, the love interest. He's tall, dark and brooding. Oh and he's major trouble. What isn't to love? He's actually pretty sweet and kind once you break through that bad boy shell of his too. One of my favorite character's was Kat. She was funny and outgoing. Spunky and outspoken. She was just an all around enjoyable character, I found myself looking forward to the parts where she made an appearance.

This is definitely a unique twist on the zombie story which I really liked. I am definitely going to be picking up the sequel when it comes out and I can't wait until the next trip into Zombieland.

Final Rating:

.5