Teaser Tuesday (1)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should be Reading. If you'd like to participate, just follow these simple rules:

1. Grab your current read.

2. Open to a random page.

3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

6. Comment on host's post, linking your Teaser.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

'I screwed the lid back onto my bottle and pushed it toward the middle of the table. "But does the penalty still apply if we save someone who wasn't supposed to die?"'

It's Monday What are you reading? (3)

What are you reading? is a weekly meme hosted by One person's Journey through the World of Books, where we share our read books, books we are reading and books we are planning to read for the week!

My read books are linked to their reviews and the rest to their Shelfari pages if you're interested :)

Read Last Week:

Across the Universe  by Beth Revis

A Killing Frost by John Marsden

Reading Now:

My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent

Coming up: 

Graceling  by Kristin Cashore 

Darkness be my Friend by John Marsden 

The Killing Frost (aka The Third Day, The Frost) Review

Title: The Killing Frost
Author: John Marsden 
Published: 1995
Pages: 278
My Rating: 5/5

In the third installment of the Tomorrow saga, the anything-to-survive existence of Ellie and her friends has sharpened their senses and emboldened their plans. They aren't merely on the defensive anymore; they're also striking back. Their strategy? Attack the enemy not just on land, but also on water. If they have any hope of sabotaging the formidable container ship at Cobbler's Bay, then stealth is a must, but so, too, is one very big explosion. And if they fail, they may face a whole new kind of terror -- imprisonment.


The Tomorrow Series be John Marsden is easily one of my favorite book series, and I've only just read 3/7 books so far! I cannot begin to explain how incredible and powerful, not just the writing but the story and the 
situation. 


A brief overview is: Ellie and a group of friends from Australia go on a camping trip for a week and come back to find that they town (and country) has been invaded. Everyone is being held in the Showground and Ellie and her friends must go into hiding and do whatever they have to do in order to stay alive agaisnt this brutal enemy.


This is only the third book, and already the events are reaching much more powerful and devastating heights than the last few books. The layout of events in this book were also a lot different to the first two, but I can't say anymore on that without giving anything away. One thing that I really love about these books is that, even though the whole series so far has been about the same group of people in the same general situation; it never gets monotonous, boring or repetitive. There is always something new, something exciting, or some shocking twist just waiting to happen! 


I feel as though I am there with the characters and feel myself growing and warming to them. They are all so believable and real. They also react like real people. It's not like in films, where normal characters can just whip out a machine gun and shoot at the bad guy, be the hero and be totally fine like that. They all have their own individual way to coping with the events that happen. 


In this book in particular, there wasn't quite as much character development as the last two. I think this was mainly because Ellie was on her own throughout quite a portion of this book, so it was more of just Ellie's development and thoughts. There was a shocking twist right at the end, that I don't think I'll truly get over, it was so sudden there wasn't any time to be sad! But that's another part that makes it so realistic! 


I think it's a crime that this series isn't more known! I highly recommend it! Though saying that; it's not for everyone. It's one YA book with no fantasy, (not a huge amount of) romance or Sci Fi, but instead follows this group of realistically real teenagers as they struggle to survive during a war on their country.       

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Bought:

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent 

Had heard of this before and after reading a few interesting reviews, decided to buy it.

Candor  by Pam Bachorz

Bought off Amazon with Graceling. I'm glad to finally start reading some dystopian again, I've missed the genre. 

Graceling  by Kristin Cashore

I've heard a lot of good things about this book, so thought I'd give it a try. I'm not too keen on the UK cover though....

Received: 

Cloud Atlas  by David Mitchell

My lecturer kindly applied for about 30 of these books to give to my class in honor of World Book Night.

And here we have the gorgeous Ali modeling the new books! :D

Review of Across the Universe

Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Published: 2011
Pages: 398
My Rating: 4/5


Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next. Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.


My Review
When I first heard of this book I was really interested in the concept - I've never read anything space-sci fi before. But I was slightly put off by the romance suggested by the cover and the blurb, as I'm not a huge fan of that sort of genre.

The chapters switched between Amy's point of view and Elder's. This I loved, as it gives two totally different perspectives and shows how different the two people from different worlds think and act.

I also loved how well thought out the whole colony of people living on the ship was. It was strange yet believable. As much as I did enjoy the mystery, I did find a few parts a tad predictable. But it wasn't a huge problem.

As for the romance, I was glad to see there wasn't as much as I was expecting due to how it was implied. The story was mostly focused on the mystery and sci fi. There also wasn't any of this love-triangle stuff that you get in a lot of YA novels these days, and instead there were other problems involved. But I still think fans of the romance will enjoy this.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and read most of it in a day in fact! It was a refreshing and interesting read as there isn't much out like this in YA at the moment. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Follow Friday/ Book Blogger Hop (3)

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkie, giving people a chance to make new friends in the book blogging community! 

This week's question is: 

Just like Ashley said (love it) "Ashley the girl..." who are You the Boy/Girl, instead of You the Blogger?

I'm Vicky. I just recently turned 18, and I'm currently on a hopeless course at college studying on Art and Design. I've got one more year, then I'm hoping to go to uni. I would like to be a Concept Artist or Illustrator or something involving film art. Other interests I have are WW2, Astronomy and films. I currently work as a nighttime cover cleaner at some offices nearby my house, and transcribe for an online podcast called MuggleCast. I also have two gorgeous cats named Oliver and Ali (that's Ali in the sidebar).  

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted by Crazy-for-Books, it's a great way to meet new friends in the book blogging world!

This week's question is: 

"If I gave you £50 (or $80) and sent you into a bookshop right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?"

This is tough because the bookstore nearest me is pretty small and there aren't always a huge choice in books, although they are good with their latest releases. 

But here's what I came up with (I've linked them to their Shelfari pages if you're interested):

1. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
2. Matched  by Allyson Condie
3. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting 
4. Numbers: The Chaos  by Rachel Ward
5. Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
6. The Dead by Charlie Higson

Also, if anyone out there is caught in the regions effected by the tsunami, please stay safe, my heart goes out to you! <3

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly even hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we share books that we just can't  wait to read!

Title: Plague 
Author: Michael Grant
Release Date: April 2nd 2011
Pages: 512

Eight months after everyone over the age of fifteen disapeared from the town of Perdidio Beach, California, the stakes are still rising. The kids in Perdido Beach are still starving. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach.

But enemies in the FAYZ don’t just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate as sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they’ll escape—or even survive—life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love?

I can't even begin to describe how EXCITED for this I am! The day that it comes out, I'm going to be pretty much incapacitated with this book.

The Gone series is my second favorite book series, next to Harry Potter. I've loved every book more than the last. It's strange cause when I first read the first book, I was distracted waiting for another book to arrive in the post and didn't really get into it.

Obviously, that's not the case now, and I'm counting down the days that I can get stuck into Plague!