{Review} Oppression by Jessica Therrien

Title: Oppression

Author: Jessica Therrien

Publisher: ZOVA BOOKS
Series: Children of the Gods, #1

Release Date: February 28th, 2012

Pages: 346 (ebook)

Source: Bought

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

{Review} Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: Harper Teen
Series: Delirium, #2

Release Date: February 28th, 2012

Pages: 375 (Hardcover)

Source: Bought

Rating: ★★★★☆

I'm pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,

pushing aside thoughts of Alex,

pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,

push,

push,

push,

like Raven taught me to do.

The old life is dead.

But the old Lena is dead too.

I buried her.

I left her beyond a fence,

behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

{Booktalk} Cover Reveals 4/27/2012

I stumbled upon more cover reveals that I wanted to show you guys. :D

Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz

Expected publication: January 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Blurb (from Goodreads): Hannah Moskowitz's (author of BREAK and INVINCIBLE SUMMER) TEETH features a sixteen-year-old boy whose family, in an effort to cure his ailing brother, relocates to a remote island where legendary magic fish are said to have healing powers, and he discovers the island has terrible secrets, including a half-teenager, half-fish.

The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa


Expected publication: August 28th, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin

Blurb of Winter's Passage: Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey. Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

Blurb of Summer's Crossing: A Midsummer's Nightmare? Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Summer Court prankster, King Oberon's right hand, bane of many a faery queen's existence—and secret friend to Prince Ash of the Winter Court. Until one girl's death came between them, and another girl stole both their hearts. Now Ash has granted one favor too many and someone's come to collect, forcing the prince to a place he cannot go without Puck's help—into the heart of the Summer Court. And Puck faces the ultimate choice—betray Ash and possibly win the girl they both love, or help his former friend turned bitter enemy pull off a deception that no true faery prankster could possibly resist.

Also includes an exclusive excerpt of the next Iron Fey novel, The Lost Prince.

The Culling by Steven Dos Santos

Expected publication: March 8th, 2013

Publisher: Flux

Blurb (from Goodreads): 16 year-old Lucian Spark is the sole caretaker of his young brother, Cole, in a bleak and dangerous world that has arisen from the ashes of a devastating global apocalypse. Betrayed and drafted into the ruthless Establishment’s sadistic military boot camp, Lucian is plunged into the ultimate horror known as The Culling. Now, torn away from Cole, perhaps forever, Lucian must compete in a series of deadly challenges designed to purge the recruits of their humanity and transform them into amoral, cold-blooded killers by forcing them to make the most agonizing, emotionally devastating choices imaginable. During this terrifying ordeal, Lucian finds himself growing closer to Digory Tycho, a mysterious and rebellious young man who challenges him in ways he couldn’t have dreamed of, and awakens in him the courageous fires of rebellion. But in a world where loving someone can be used as the ultimate weapon, how can anyone stand a chance?

I love all these covers, especially The Iron Legends one! <3 I'm so happy to see a cover with all three of the characters. xD What do you guys think of the covers? And do the blurbs entice you as well?

{Review} Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Series: Lunar Chronicles, #1
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
Pages: 387 (ebook)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★★

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

{Booktalk} The Lost Prince Cover Reveal!

I know this is a little late, but when I saw this cover I was literally squealing so hard and I just had to post it. xD

Title: The Lost Prince

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: October 23rd, 2012

Cover Revealed On: Harlequin Teen's Facebook page

Set several years after the events of the first, this trilogy will star an older Ethan Chase, Meghan's brother.

{Review} The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg

Title: The Catastrophic History of You and Me
Author: Jess Rothenberg
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Release Date: February 21st, 2012
Pages: 400 (Hardcover)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★★

BRIE'S LIFE ENDS AT SIXTEEN: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally. But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after. With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces?

{Review} Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins

WARNING: This review will have spoilers, because it's impossible to write a review for this series without them. So for those of you who haven't finished this series, or haven't read it but plan to in the future, I suggest you tread carefully.

{Review} The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

Yes, I know I should have done this ages ago, but I don't know why I decided to do it just now. So without further ado, here it is, the review of my most favorite YA series of all time. :D There will be slight spoilery though, so take caution.

{Booktalk} Cover Reveals 4/15/2012

Hey guys! Here's some of the latest cover reveals of upcoming books I stumbled into that I wanna show you guys. :D 

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Expected publication: January 2013

Publisher: Amulet Books

For sixteen years, Alyssa Gardner has lived with the stigma of being descended from Alice Liddell -- the real life inspiration for Lewis Carroll's famed novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But cruel jokes about dormice and tea parties can’t compare to the fact that Alyssa hears the whispers of bugs and flowers ... the same quirk which sent her mother to a mental institution years before. When her mother takes a turn for the worse and the whispers grow too strong for Alyssa to bear, she seeks the origins of their family curse. A set of heirlooms and a moth tied to an unusual website lead Alyssa and her gorgeous best friend / secret crush, Jeb, down the rabbit hole into the real Wonderland, a place more twisted and eerie than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, creepy counterparts of the original fairytale crew reveal the purpose for Alyssa’s journey, and unless she fixes the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, Wonderland will have her head.

The Blessed by Tonya Hurley


Expected publication: September 25th, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

A "re-imagined redemption remix", following three teenage girls in Brooklyn and drawing on the martyrdom legends of St Lucy, St Cecelia and St Agnes.

Confessions of an Angry Girl  by Louise Rozett

Expected publication: August 28th, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin

Freshman Rose Zarelli has rage issues. First of all, her father lost his job, took work as a contractor in Iraq...and never came home. Second, she likes the wrong guy and his super-intense, scary cheerleader girlfriend is now her nemesis. Third, her fashionista best friend, Tracy, is suddenly infinitely cooler than she is—and talking about losing her virginity. (What?!) Rose is ahead when it comes to studying for the PSAT, but she’s so far behind socially that she might as well be moving backward. She needs Tracy’s help choosing the right clothes, she likes all the wrong extracurricular activities, and she can’t even make a decision about which photo of her father to put on the memorial website she’s making (and hiding from her adolescent-shrink mother). With her brother away at college and her mother always locked in her office with her messed-up teen patients, Rose struggles to get through each day without inflicting bodily harm on anyone.

What do you guys think of those covers? I love them!

{Ramblings} Dear Authors,

So I think 2012 for me will be known as the year authors got hit with whatever gas that made them act so embarrassingly bad. It's only been four months, but the amount of bad author behavior is downright terrifying.

It's been going on since day one. Literally. Since the first five days of January, it's been scandal after scandal. It's as if it's become some sort of monthly thing. It makes you wonder: will it ever end?

I know that this has been discussed many times, but it's something that really annoys me and I wanna get off my chest. It's been said over and over, but I'm going to say it again.

Negative. Reviews. Are. NOT. For. Authors.

It sickens me how much you authors bash on people who gave your books a bad review. They only hate your book. They don't hate you. But you bashing on them and calling them names and such? That's you making them hate you, too. It's a childish thing to do, and you should know that it doesn't help at all. It will make your fans lose respect for you and it will also make people not want to read your books.

Another thing is respect. You need to respect the opinions of readers because they have freedom of speech. You might not like their opinion, but you have to be the bigger person and simply not let whatever they say get to you. And don't fight back. Fighting back does not help.

My advice to you, authors, is simply just stop obsessing over negative reviews and move to the positive ones. Because there will always be people who will love your work, no matter how much hate and negativity it gets. There will always be positive reviews, and you need to focus on those. If you still want to read negative reviews, that's fine, but keep whatever you want to say to yourself. Because acting out and insulting the negative reviewers will not help one bit. It will only help you get more haters.

Now please, please, for the love of god, LEARN from all the mistakes that many authors have made these past few months, and don't do them. I really hope that all this drama and bullying will stop, because, come on! It's been four months and I haven't went through a single month without at least two or more scandals.

So this month isn't exactly clean either, but can all this drama stop from now on? Can May be a clean, scandal-free month? And hopefully every month after that, too? Because honestly, it's getting old.

That's my opinion on all this author drama. I just hope it all stops.

{Booktalk} Recent Buys 4/14/2012

So I just got back from the bookstore, and I gotta say, I was pretty disappointed. ._. Once again, I find that Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter is still nowhere in sight, and there weren't much other new releases, either.

But I guess it wasn't a total disappointment. Here's what I got.

Yes, that is a Spongebob bed cover, by the way!

Left side (Bottom to top):

• Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver
• The Shattering by Karen Healey
• You Are My only by Beth Kephart
• Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

Right side (Bottom to top):

• Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
• Deadly Little Secret (Touch, #1) by Laurie Faria Stolarz
• Airhead (Airhead, #1) by Meg Cabot
• Being Nikki (Airhead, #2) by Meg Cabot
• Runaway (Airhead, #3) by Meg Cabot

{Review} Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Title: Gone, Gone, Gone
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: April 17th, 2012
Pages: 272 (ebook)
Source: Pulse It
Rating: ★★★★★

It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody.Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

{Review} White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: McElderry
Series: Curse Workers, #1
Release Date: May 4th, 2010
Pages: 310 (Paperback)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★☆

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago. Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

{Review} A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

Title: A Beautiful Dark
Author: Jocelyn Davies
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: A Beautiful Dark, #1
Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Pages: 390 (Hardcover)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

On the night of Skye's seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites─like fire and ice─Asher is dark and wild while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye's life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move─only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past. In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can't help falling for, and Devin, who she can't stay away from, the consequences of Skye's choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.

{Review} Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Title: Bewitching
Author: Alex Flinn
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Kendra Chronicles, #1
Release Date: February 14th, 2012
Pages: 336 (Paperback)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★☆

Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That turned out all right. Others didn't. I go to a new school now─one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I'm not still here because I'm stupid; I just don't age. You see, I'm immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years─except for when to take powers and butt out. I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don't even want to think about it. Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn't get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl─and it isn't an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know what will happen when I start . . . bewitching.

{Review} The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: Blood of Eden, #1
Release Date: April 24th, 2012
Pages: 485 (e-galley)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★★

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep human as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked─and given the ultimate choice. Die or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend─a possible cure to the Red Lung virus, the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike. But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what─and who─is worth dying for.

{Booktalk} Birthday Haul!

It's my birthday today, yaaay. :D


Well, it's April 2nd, but it's already April 2nd here where I live. Noon actually. :p The time zone is wrong on this site I guess.

This was a pretty tough haul for me because there weren't really much books that I'd been dying to get. Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter is not out yet here. :c That makes me a sad panda.

Oh well, here's what I got. I took a whole hour at the bookstore before making up my mind. It was a pretty tough decision, but I'm happy with my choices.

Left side (Bottom to top):

• Black Heart (Curse Workers, #3) by Holly Black
• Red Glove (Curse Workers, #2) by Holly Black
• White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) by Holly Black
• Cloaked by Alex Flinn
• The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, #1) by Rick Riordan

Right side (Bottom to top):

• Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook
• Dead to You by Lisa McMann
• Dark Parties by Sara Grant
• Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings, #1) by Jackson Pearce
• Tempest (Tempest, #1) by Julie Cross

Very top:

• Ballad (Books of Faerie, #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

{Review} Night School by C.J. Daugherty

Title: Night School
Author: C.J. Daugherty
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: January 5th, 2012
Pages: 451 (ebook)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Allie Sheridan's world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she's just been arrested. Again. This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem teenagers. But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Its rules are strangely archaic. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there's the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden even to watch. When Allie is attacked one night, the incident sets off a chain of events leading to the violent death of a girl at the summer ball. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who she can trust. And what's really going on in Cimmeria Academy.