Book Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (The Grisha Trilogy #1)

Title: Shadow and Bone

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Format/Edition: Signed Hardcover

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Published: June 5, 2012

Pages: 368 pages

Source:  Own purchase

Synopsis:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Review:

Speechless…this book left me speechless. I have never read a book this amazing besides Red Queen. Maybe because Red Queen and Shadow and Bone are quite similar? I don’t know, but this book made it to my favorites. It’s utterly amazing!! Words can’t describe how much I’m praising this book and Leigh. THANK GOD FOR LEIGH! Yeah, I love this book so much.

Book Review: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith (BOOK TOUR + GIVEAWAY)

Title: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between

Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Format/Edition: ARC

Publisher: Poppy

Published: September 1, 2015

Pages: 256 pages

Source: Pinoy Book Tours

Synopsis:

On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they’ll retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night will lead them to friends and family, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

 

This new must-read novel from Jennifer E. Smith, author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, explores the difficult choices that must be made when life and love lead in different directions.

Review:

And again Jennifer E. Smith released a book with a very cutesy cover that every bookworm will be drooling over. Kudos to Jennifer for her never-ending cute doodle like title!!! I don’t know about you but covers like these are one of the reasons why I buy them haha.

Book Review: All We Have Is Now by Lisa Schroeder

Title: All We Have Is Now

Author: Lisa Schroeder

Format/Edition: ARC

Publisher: Point

Published: July 28, 2015

Pages: 272 pages

Source: Pinoy Book Tours

Synopsis:

What do you do with your last day on earth?

 

Just over twenty-four hours are left until an asteroid strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn’t leave, the world will end. But Emerson’s world already ended when she ran away from home. Since then, she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and on her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.

 

The city’s quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them he has been granting people’s wishes — and gives them his wallet full of money.

 

Suddenly, this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in one last day — maybe even their own.

Review:

I’m giving this book a full 5 stars because I know that the story will make you learn some lessons that you could use in real life. It really hit me.

Just like how asteroids hit the surface of Earth.

Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars

Author: E. Lockhart

Format/Edition: Signed Hardback Copy

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Published: May 13, 2014

Pages: 227 pages

Source: Own purchase

Synopsis:

A beautiful and distinguished family.

A private island.

A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.

A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.

A revolution. An accident. A secret.

Lies upon lies.

True love.

The truth.

 

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

 

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Review:

The ending. The ending. I wasn’t expecting that to happen. Oh god I really wasn’t.

Book Review: How to Love by Katie Cotugno *DNF*

Title: How to Love

Author: Katie Cotugno

Format/Edition: Paperback

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Published: October 1, 2013

Pages: 389 pages

Source: Own purchase

Synopsis:

Before:

Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he’s never seemed to notice that Reena even exists until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.

 

After:

Almost three years have passed, and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena’s gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she’s finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn’t want anything to do with him, though she’d be lying if she said Sawyer’s being back wasn’t stirring something in her. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

Review:

*****Warning, rant ahead and some spoilers******

You know the feeling when a new book comes out and the cover seems so appealing that you didn’t even bother to read the reviews anymore whether it was good or not? Well that’s what I felt and now I regret getting this book.

Book Review: Ask the Passengers by A. S. King

Title: Ask the Passengers

Author: A.S. King

Format/Edition: Paperback

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Published: October 23, 2012

Pages: 304 pages

Source: Own purchase

 

Synopsis:

“Astrid Jones copes with her small town’s gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she’s sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they’ll know what to do with it. Maybe it’ll make them happy. Maybe they’ll need it. Her mother doesn’t want it, her father’s always stoned, her perfect sister’s too busy trying to fit in, and the people in her small town would never allow her to love the person she really wants to: another girl named Dee.

There’s no one Astrid feels she can talk to about this deep secret or the profound questions that she’s trying to answer. But little does she know just how much sending her love–and asking the right questions–will affect the passengers’ lives, and her own, for the better.

In this unmistakably original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society’s boxes and definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything–and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking and sharing real love.”

 Review: 

Motion is impossible.

Aside from the fact that I’ve used this statement to intentionally vex a few people I know, this tenet of Stoicism, alongside other philosophical works, recurs (and is also contradicted) in King’s novel in order to convey its central theme: love and freedom hindered by social norms. I have to praise A.S. King for utilizing philosophy and making it parallel to the main character Astrid’s plight. Ask The Passengers does live up to its award winning reputation, by capturing the hearts of many through its story, teeming with intellect, wit and drama.

Book Review: Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff

Title: Playlist for the Dead

Author: Michelle Falkoff

Format/Edition: Hardback copy

Publisher: HarperTeen

Published: January 26, 2015

Pages: 288 pages

Source: Own purchase

Synopsis:

A teenage boy tries to understand his best friend’s suicide by listening to the playlist of songs he left behind in this smart, voice-driven debut novel.

Here’s what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam—listen and you’ll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it’s only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

 

Review:

I didn’t fall in love with this book but it was an okay read and that it satisfied me though I had some questions that were left unanswered and probably a mystery already. First part of this book was really on point since they discussed how Hayden died like they didn’t need to make the story longer. My curiosity started to increase when a user that acted as Hayden started chatting Sam. It was quite creepy since that user knows what’s happening around them.

Book review: Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer *eARC

Title: Proof of Forever

Author: Lexa Hillyer

Format/Edition: eARC

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: June 2, 2015

Pages: 352 pages

Source: Given by the publisher

 

Synopsis:

Before: It was the perfect summer of first kisses, skinny-dipping, and bonfires by the lake. Joy, Tali, Luce, and Zoe knew their final summer at Camp Okahatchee would come to an end, but they swore they’d stay friends.

After: Now, two years later, their bond has faded along with those memories.

Then: That is, until the fateful flash of a photo booth camera transports the four of them back in time, to the summer they were fifteen—the summer everything changed.

Now: The girls must recreate the past in order to return to the present. As they live through their second-chance summer, the mystery behind their lost friendship unravels, and a dark secret threatens to tear the girls apart all over again.

Always: Summers end. But this one will change them forever.

Review: 

This book got me so confused at some parts. I also tend to read slower if the format of what I am reading is a digital format. I wasn’t really that hooked on the story since I lost interest early on but I was determined to know the ending and you know, finish it anyway. This story was told in third person and the switches were quite confusing for me. 

Book Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Title: Looking for Alaska

Author: John Green

Format/Edition: Signed Hardback copy

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young readers

Published: January 1, 2005

Pages: 368 pages

Source: Own purchase

 

Synopsis:

“First drink, first prank, first friend, first girl, last words! A poignant and moving crossover novel about making friends and growing up from American author, John Green. Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words — and tired of his safe, boring and rather lonely life at home. He leaves for boarding school filled with cautious optimism, to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another.”

Review: 

Of all the books written by John Green that I’ve read, Looking for Alaska is probably the most serious and musing one. It’s actually his first book so I wasn’t really expecting it to be this good. It is hands down one of the best. It’s difficult to write this review because this is a book that cannot be spoiled so I have to leave out some parts I wanted to discuss. But let me tell you this, embrace yourself when you get to the half because John Green sure knows how to surprise his readers.

Book Review: The Archived (The Archived #1) by V. E. Schwab

Title: The Archived

Author: Victoria E. Schwab

Format/Edition: Hardback copy

Publisher: Hyperion

Published: January 22, 2013

Pages: 328 pages

Source: Own purchase

 

Synopsis:

The dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead, called ‘Histories’, rest in the Archive.

 

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a tool for staying alive.

 

Being a Keeper is dangerous and a constant reminder of those she lost, Da and her little brother. Mac wonders about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. Yet someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

 

Review:

I finished this book within the day. I just couldn’t put it down. Cold weather, rain drops, coffee and the reason why I couldn’t drop the book down is that I had no distractions because we had no power that time. I read this book last year and I had to go over a few reviews before making this to refresh my mind. So before I forget anything, I’m sorry if I forget some parts. I hardly remember some parts.