Mindful Musings

Limited Time Only: The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton is FREE on Amazon

2012-01-27T15:08:00.000-06:00

Cameron Winters is a freak. Fortunately, no one but her family knows the truth... that Cameron can read minds. For years Cameron has hidden behind a facade of normalcy, warned that there are those who would do her harm. When gorgeous and mysterious Lewis Douglas arrives he destroys everything Cameron has ever believed and tempts her with possibilities of freedom. Determined to embrace her hidden talents, Cameron heads to a secret haven with Lewis; a place where she meets others like her, Mind Readers.

But as Cameron soon finds out some things are too good to be true. When the Mind Readers realize the extent of Cameron’s abilities, they want to use her powers for their own needs. Cameron suddenly finds herself involved in a war in which her idea of what is right and wrong is greatly tested. In the end she’ll be forced to make a choice that will not only threaten her relationship with Lewis, but her very life.

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I received an e-mail this morning from author Lori Brighton letting me know that her YA novel, The Minders, would be free in e-book form on Amazon starting today. Since I reviewed this book last spring and thought it was a decent read, I decided to share this news with you guys! To give you an idea of what I thought of the book, here's a tiny snippet from my review:

In a Sentence

The Mind Readers started out as a mediocre YA mystery but steadily improved to a page-turning thriller culminating in one heck of an ending.

If you'd like to read my entire review of The Mind Readers, click HERE. You can also go to The Mind Readers Goodreads page to read other people's reviews of the book.

The Mind Readers will be available for FREE today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday), so snag your copy while this promotion lasts!

Get The Mind Readers for free.

Review of Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

2012-01-25T00:00:00.004-06:00

Title: Wicked Appetite

Author: Janet Evanovich

Pages: 333 (Paperback)

Publication Date: Sept. 14th, 2010

Source: Borrowed from my roommate

Back Cover

Life in Marblehead has had a pleasant predictability, until Diesel arrives. Rumor has it that a collection of priceless ancient relics representing the Seven Deadly Sins have made their way to Boston’s North Shore. Partnered with pastry chef Lizzie Tucker, Diesel bullies and charms his way through historic Salem to track them down—and his criminal mastermind cousin Gerewulf Grimorie. The black-haired, black-hearted Wulf is on the hunt for the relic representing gluttony. Caught in a race against time, Diesel and Lizzie soon find out that more isn’t always better, as they battle Wulf and the first of the deadly sins.

With delectable characters and non-stop thrills that have made Janet Evanovich a household name, Wicked Appetite will leave you hungry for more.

First Lines

"My name is Elizabeth Tucker. I'm Elizabeth to my mother, but for as long as I can remember, I've been Lizzy to everyone else."

In a Sentence

Wicked Appetite was a fast and fun read, but I found it to be lacking in depth.

My Thoughts

My roommate works at a hotel and sometimes runs across things that guests have left behind. When they haven't been claimed for awhile, those things tend to get tossed in the corner and forgotten about. According to her, the hotel has their own little stack of books that people have left, and they tend to get passed around amongst the workers who are interested in reading them. This is how I came across Wicked Appetite. My roomie brought the book home, read it in a day or two, and told me I should give it a shot. Since the book was scheduled to go back to the hotel on Monday, I decided to make it my weekend read, though in all honesty, it really only took me a few hours collectively to finish.

Wicked Appetite was my first encounter with Janet Evanovich. I've heard lots of good things about her Stephanie Plum series, but I haven't actually gotten around to reading them yet (surprise, surprise). Wicked Appetite itself was an extremely quick read. The book is only 300 or so pages in mass market paperback size, the chapters are short, and the writing style is easy to follow. Furthermore, lots of dialogue and a fair amount of action drives the book along at a steady pace.

Humor is one thing that I've heard Evanovich is known for, and I can definitely see why. There were quite a few parts in Wicked Appetite that had me literally laughing out loud, and I can say that the humor was probably the most enjoyable aspect of this book for me. The interactions between Diesel and Lizzy were often sprinkled with witty banter and innuendos that made for an amusing reading experience. In addition, I especially enjoyed the little incidents that occurred as a result of one of the characters, Glo, trying to (unsuccessfully) use a spell book.

Speaking of Glo, she was probably my favorite human character in Wicked Appetite. She was just so quirky and fun that I couldn't help but to like her. I also really enjoyed the introduction of two nonhuman characters, Cat 7143, an extremely protective one-eyed kitty with only half a tail, and Carl, a cereal-loving monkey that has a tendency to flip people the bird. Cat, Carl, and Glo turn Lizzy and Diesel's partnership into a quaint little entourage that became rather endearing by the end of the book.

However, in spite of the good things mentioned above, I did have some issues with this book. My biggest problem was the lack of character development. While I didn't necessarily dislike the main characters, I didn't feel at all attached to them either. In all honesty, I felt like they were simply a vehicle to tell a story, and were of very little importance as individuals. While that might work for some people, those of you who know me well know that I like my characters with some depth (okay, usually quite a bit of depth) to them. In Wicked Appetite, I ended up liking the minor characters better than the protagonists, and I'm not really sure that that's a good thing.

Nevertheless, because of the amusing nature of the book and the fact that it was such a quick read, I'm willing to give the rest of the series a chance. Book number two, Wicked Business, is scheduled to come out some time in June, and while it's not on the top of my to-read list and I probably won't be buying it, I'm planning on borrowing it or checking it out at the library. I also plan on giving Evanovich's other popular series (Stephanie Plum) a try, especially since I know my roommate has a copy of it lying around somewhere.

Links

Add Wicked Appetite to your to-read list on Goodreads

Find author Janet Evanovich online

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

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Rating

Have Your Say: Blogger's New Comment System

2012-01-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

Have Your Say is a feature on Mindful Musings that encourages the discussion of topics that are currently relevant to readers, book bloggers, and the Internet community as a whole. Stop by to share your opinion and check out what everyone else has to say!

Wow. It's been awhile since I've had one of these posts. Guess this is a good sign, right? I'm hoping this means that my blogging schedule will be more regular this semester, even with school and everything. Anyways, now onto what I'm really here for.

Blogger's New Commenting System

As most of you guys have already noticed, Blogger has initiated a new commenting system that FINALLY allows threaded comments and the option to "reply" to other comments. Here's an example of what I mean, taken as a screenshot from one of my review posts. Click on the image to enlarge it, if you need to!

While I'm really excited about this addition, I also have some things I wish they would have included with the platform. Like, for instance, an e-mail notification option that would allow people commenting to opt to receive an e-mail if his or her comment was replied to. I'm not talking about comment subscriptions, where you get a notification for every time anyone comments on that particular post. While that's an option, some blogs that I follow get upwards of 40 comments a post, and I really don't want all of those sitting in my e-mail inbox every time I open it. What I mean is more like Intense Debate's feature that allows you to get an e-mail if anyone responds to JUST your comment (or a reply to one of your comments). I've tried Intense Debate before, but I ended up uninstalling it because I had a lot of trouble with bugs, which takes me back to the Blogger commenting system, which (in my experience) has less bugs but also less features.

Why do I want this so badly? Because I, personally, have a little bit of trouble remembering which post I commented on and where. Sure, I have a list of my absolute favorite blogs that I check back on occasionally to see if they've replied to one of my comments, but what about those blogs that I like, but I don't necessarily check every day? What about new blog finds?

Before Blogger initiated the new reply feature on its commenting system, I used to reply to comments via e-mail personally (by clicking "reply" whenever a comment popped up in my inbox). This was good on one part, because it ensured that the person commenting knew that I responded to their thoughts, but it also had its downsides. First and foremost, my response was only shared between that person and myself, and any interesting thoughts that we might have had then and afterwards were strictly confined to our e-mails, where no one else could read and comment on our discussion.

I've tried to think of multiple ways to solve this problem, but haven't come up with anything that sounds like it would work the way I want to. The closest thing I've thought of is doing something close to what Small Review does on her blog. That is, she replies to your comment on her blog, and then sends you an e-mail that says your comment has a reply. While I know that this is time-consuming, it DOES sound like the option I like best so far.

What do you think? Do you check back with blogs you follow to see if you have replies? How do you handle this issue?
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Have a suggestion for a future Have Your Say post? Click HERE to visit my suggestion dropbox!

Movie Monday: MUST SEE Edition

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-06:00

Movie Monday (formerly Movie Cast Monday) is where I (or one of my guest bloggers) connect two of my favorite things: books...and movies! We've got everything from ideal castings for your favorite book to movie recommendations based on the books you've read and liked. I've also started reviewing movies and TV shows as well. Stop by my Movie Monday page to see what we've featured in the past, and tune in on Mondays for more!

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There are a lot of awesome movies coming up in early 2012, and I decided that I would take today to share a few of the trailers for the ones I'm excited about!

The Woman in Black
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
In Theatres: Feb. 3rd, 2012

Why I Want to See It:

Okay, one, Daniel Radcliffe is in it. Two, Daniel Radcliffe is in it...wait, I was supposed to come up with something different here, wasn't I? Well, I'm a fan of the horror and thriller movie genre, especially when the movie has a decent plot and characters instead of focusing on only scaring the crap out of people for the sake of scaring the crap out of them (though I have to admit, some of those movies have made it on my guilty pleasures list). From the trailer, The Woman in Black looks like something that will be right up my alley. Creepy and thrilling!

The Raven

Starring: John Cusack, Luke Evans

In Theatres: March 9th, 2012

Why I Want to See It:

I ADORE Edgar Allan Poe, and while this isn't exactly a biographical sketch of his life, the idea of a serial killer finding his inspiration in Poe's writing definitely intrigues me!

Mirror, Mirror

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins

In Theatres: March 16th, 2012

Why I Want to See It:

I'm a Julia Roberts fan, so that's enough of an excuse for me to see just about any movie that she's in. Also, I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, and I'm interested to see how this one is going to turn out.

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth & a bunch of other people

In Theatres: March 23rd, 2012

Why I Want to See It:

Guys, do I really have to tell you why I want to see The Hunger Games? I almost didn't even post the trailer because, by now, just about EVERYONE has seen it. But just in case you've been living under a rock, here it is.

So those are my early 2012 must-see movie picks. What are yours? If you like, link to the trailer(s) in the comments below!

Weekly Wrap-Up and In My Mailbox (1-21-12)

2012-01-21T17:06:00.000-06:00

Books Reviewed

Click on the image to see my review!

My Comments on the Week

Well. This week was the first week of school, and I still managed to post two book reviews! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I've been making use of post scheduling, so I can write my reviews and posts in my (not all that frequently occurring) downtime, and so far, so good! Also, I've officially turned in my application for graduate school (though I've been taking Masters classes as a senior undergrad with senior permission for the last six months or so). So that was exciting! I still have to apply for a graduate assistantship and departmental scholarships and stuff, but step one is finished!

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As always, thanks to Kristi of The Story Siren for hosting!

For Review

Won

from Cait at Escape Through the Pages. Thanks! :) I'm really excited to read Shatter Me, especially since I've heard great things from nearly EVERYONE about this book.

Review of Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

2012-01-19T00:00:00.024-06:00

Title: Touch of Frost

Author: Jennifer Estep

Pages: 359

Publication Date: July 26th, 2011

Source: Purchased myself

Back Cover

My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .

First Lines

"'I know your secret."

In a Sentence

Though repetition and a mostly run-of-the-mill love interest put me off a little bit, Touch of Frost was an overall enjoyable read with an interesting premise.

My Thoughts

Touch of Frost had been on my to-read list for awhile, and when I won a copy of the sequel, Kiss of Frost, from Small Review, I immediately hopped over to Barnes and Noble's website and ordered myself the first book. I'd heard a lot of great things about this series from several bloggers, and because I had mostly enjoyed the first novel in Estep's adult Elemental Assassins series, Spider's Bite, I was more than willing to give her new YA series a try.

One of the things that really intrigued me about Touch of Frost was all of the mythology. This book is kind of like one giant mythology mash-up. Seriously, just about every major mythology is alluded to. The students at Mythos Academy are descended from Spartans, Valkyries, Amazons, and more. Furthermore, all kinds of gods from the Greek Nike to the Norse Loki get a mention. As a literature major, I'm a mythology NUT, so I was happy to see a new twist on some very old tales.

I also found Gwen Frost to be an interesting main character. She wasn't the best young adult protagonist I've ever encountered, but I found it rather easy to connect to her story. Gwen's got a lot to deal with, including the recent death of her mother, which is enough as it is. But in addition to that, she's uprooted from everything she's known and thrown into a new school with a new system where the students are trained to be warriors. Think Riordan's Half Blood Camp in a more academic, urban setting, and you've got Mythos Academy. It's obvious that Gwen feels like a fish out of water in her new school, and she spends a large part of the book feeling guilty about indirectly causing her mother's accident and feeling lost among all the new ideas and people. I felt that Estep used these feelings to drawn a connection between Gwen and the reader, which is one of the reasons that kept me reading. For example, there's this passage:

"The old, familiar pain pricked my heart, but I pushed away my sad thoughts and dove into the story, losing myself in the adventure until I almost forgot about how much my own life sucked--almost" (p. 35).

Yeah, that was a little angsty, but who HASN'T felt that way at some point? Me being the avid reader that I am, I could definitely empathize with Gwen's desire to bury herself in other stories in order to find relief from the stress from her daily life.

Another character that I liked in Touch of Frost was Daphne. Daphne starts out as your typical Mean Girl who wouldn't give Gwen the time of day (until Gwen blackmails her, that is). But over the course of the book, I could see that there was a lot more beneath Daphne's cold, spoiled rich girl exterior. I also respected her for being able to realize how shallow and cruel her group of "friends" were, and for having enough strength to break away from the group she'd grown comfortable with.

I did find the romance aspect of Touch of Frost to be a little too typical of the YA paranormal romance genre. Logan Quinn is tall, dark, a bit mysterious, crazy strong, and described as one of the hottest guys at the Academy. But even though I wasn't overly fond of Logan, I didn't find anything significant that bothered me about him either. I guess you could say my overall impression with him after reading Touch of Frost was on the positive side of mediocre.

The one thing that really bothered me about this book was the repetition. There were several phrases (including "my violet eyes" and "yucko") that were used over and over again, and they definitely started getting on my nerves after awhile. My annoyance wasn't enough to make me stop reading or to keep me from continuing the series, but it was definitely noticeable, and I think it decreased my overall enjoyment of the book. In spite of this, I plan to continue the series with Kiss of Frost, which is sitting on my shelf!

Links

Add Touch of Frost to your to-read list on Goodreads

Find author Jennifer Estep online

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

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Rating

Review of Inheritance (Inheritance Cycle #4) by Christopher Paolini

2012-01-16T00:00:00.001-06:00

Title: Inheritance (Inheritance Cycle #4)

Author: Christopher Paolini

Pages: 860

Publication Date: Nov. 8th, 2011

Source: Christmas Gift

Back Cover

Not so very long ago, Eragon—Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider—was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders.

Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances.

The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alagaësia? And if so, at what cost?

This is the much-anticipated, astonishing conclusion to the worldwide bestselling Inheritance cycle.

First Lines

"The dragon Saphira roared, and the soldiers before her quailed."

In a Sentence

Though most of Inheritance was enjoyable, there were several plot elements near the end that I felt were wrapped up too neatly and conveniently, leaving me with a slightly skeptical aftertaste.

My Thoughts

I knew from the start that this was going to be a difficult book for me to review. First of all, it's been a long time since I've read the first three books in the series (I finished the third book, Brisingr, in late 2008). Another thing to consider was my somewhat mixed feelings about the series as a whole. There were parts of it (like the first book, Eragon) that I loved, and other parts (like the second book, Eldest) that I wasn't all that fond of. However, one thing I can say about the Inheritance cycle is that I've always been interested in the story. Though there have been ups and downs with the series, Alagaesia is a world that I've often wanted to return to, despite some of my issues with the books themselves. Finally, the LENGTH of this book makes it hard to review. Inheritance is over 800 pages long and there is a TON of things that happen...most of which contain spoilers to some extent, which makes some things hard to mention in my review, because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone.

First of all, for those of you who, like me, were worried that you would have to reread the first three books in the series in order to read Inheritance, you'll be glad to hear that the beginning of the book contains a fairly detailed recap of what happened in the earlier books. Without this synopsis, I probably would have had to wait to read Inheritance, because I honestly didn't remember a lot of what happened in Brisingr. For me, the summary was enough to refresh my memory before diving into Inheritance.

The fact that Paolini has been able to handle such an extensive cast of characters has always impressed me. In Inheritance specifically, I found myself growing more fond of a few minor characters (like Carn and Baldor) who I had previously overlooked. I also got to see more of other characters who I had long been interested in, like the herbalist Angela (whose quirky mysteriousness had grabbed my attention since the first time I met her in Eragon) and the child Elva. However, my favorite character in the entire Inheritance cycle would have to be Murtagh. This might seem weird, but I find his character to be even more interesting than Eragon's. While I like Eragon, I've also always been intrigued by Murtagh's tragic circumstances and how he deals with them.

Like a lot of authors writing in the genre of high fantasy, Paolini tends to have a little more of an elevated style of prose. For the most part, I found his writing style to be sufficiently clear and smooth, but every once in awhile, the wording felt a little awkward, almost like he was trying too hard to specifically make the prose fit with the medieval-ish world of Alagaesia. There was also one phrase ("waking dreams") that was repeated so often throughout Inheritance that I got a little annoyed with it by the time I reached the midpoint of the book. Keep in mind, though, that these are mainly minor concerns.

I enjoyed the majority of Inheritance, with the exception of the last 150 pages or so of the book. While I didn't exactly hate this part, it was difficult for me to get through for several reasons. First of all, I felt like I was reading a 150 paged epilogue. Most of the main action was already wrapped up by this point, and the rest was just resolution. While resolution was definitely needed, I felt like it could have been shortened to a less ridiculous length. Furthermore, some of the ways the story was wrapped up (like how Galbatorix was defeated and the introduction of a new Dragon Rider from the green egg after the fall of the Empire), seemed entirely too convenient to be realistic. I found myself rolling my eyes through some of this and thinking really? But hey. It's Paolini's book, not mine. I just felt like some loose ends got the fairy tale treatment, which didn't really fit the overall tone and feel of the series.

The actual ending of the book, (like, this-is-where-the-fat-lady-sings end, and not all of the drug out portion before that) was actually pretty well done, in my opinion. I can't say much about it because it would spoil the book, but I liked it. In the afterword, Paolini mentions that, while he's ready to say goodbye to Eragon, Saphira, and the rest of the gang from the Inheritance cycle, he isn't read to leave Alagaesia, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a spin-off or companion series in the works in the future. Overall, I can say this: if Paolini comes out with another book, I'll probably end up buying it because I think he has talent as an author and I tend to (mostly) enjoy his ability to tell stories.

Links

Add Inheritance to your to-read list on Goodreads.

Find author Christopher Paolini online

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

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Rating

Weekly Wrap-Up and In My Mailbox (1-15-12)

2012-01-15T00:00:00.003-06:00

Books Reviewed

Click on the image to see my review!

My Posts

Tune-in and Teaser Tuesday (Clare Maguire and Inheritance by Christopher Paolini)
Feature and Follow Friday

My Comments on the Week

I'm officially back in Springfield, MO! After spending the holidays in the St. Louis area with my family, I'm finally back to my apartment. I spent the last couple of days unpacking, cleaning, and cooking because I know I won't have nearly as much time when school begins. I also put together my new bookshelf that I got for Christmas, so I'll be rearranging my shelves soon (is it sad that that excites me)?

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As always, thanks to Kristi of The Story Siren for hosting!

For Review

Gifted

from Amanda at MannaB on Books for January's Random Acts of Kindness, hosted by Book Soulmates! Thanks so much! I was so excited when I unwrapped the package and found that ANNA was waiting for me! I've heard so many great things about it!

from Monica at The Bibliophilic Book Blog. She was a TOTAL sweetheart. I was on Twitter asking people if I should get Anna Dressed in Blood or The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer with my Barnes and Noble gift card, and Monica messaged me saying she had a copy she'd be willing to send me. THANK YOU!!! This is another book that I'm super excited to read!

Won

from Small Review. I just finished the first book a few days ago, so I'll probably be starting on this one in the not-too-distant future.

Have a great week, guys!

Feature and Follow Friday (1-12-12).

2012-01-12T22:05:00.003-06:00

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. Feature & Follow Friday is now hosted by TWO hosts: Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This week's question:

Q: Many reader/bloggers are also big music fans. Tell us about a few of your favorite bands/singers that we should listen to in 2012.

Can I just say I LOVE this question? As much as I love books, I love music almost as much. Some of my absolute favorite artists include Florence + the Machine, Sarah Bareilles, Adele, Mumford & Sons, The Pretty Reckless, and Snow Patrol. While several of these bands have produced songs that have landed on the Top 40 list, most of my favorites songs from these artists get very little radio play. For the sake of length and time, I'm going to limit myself to one song for each artist...but here's a few of my favorites!

Florence + the Machine "Blinding"

Sarah Bareilles "Let the Rain"

Adele "Take it All"

Mumford and Sons "White Blank Page"

The Pretty Reckless "Makes Me Wanna Die"

Snow Patrol "Open Your Eyes"

Review of Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday

2012-01-11T00:00:00.005-06:00

Title: Deadly Cool

Author: Gemma Halliday

Pages: 320

Publication Date: Oct. 11th, 2011

Source: Purchased myself

Back Cover

Hartley Grace Featherstone is having a very bad day. First she finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the president of the Herbert Hoover High School Chastity Club. Then he's pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And if that weren't enough, now he's depending on Hartley to clear his name. Seriously? Not cool.

But as much as Hartley wouldn't mind seeing him squirm, she knows he's innocent, and she's the only one who can help him. Along with her best friend, Sam, and the school's resident Bad Boy, Chase, Hartley starts investigating on her own. But as the dead bodies begin to pile up, the mystery deepens, the suspects multiply, and Hartley begins to fear that she may be the killer's next victim.

First Lines

"'There are three things you never want to find in your boyfriend's locker: a sweaty jockstrap, a D minus on last week's history test, and an empty condom wrapper. Lucky me, I'd hit the trifecta."

In a Sentence

Though I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, Deadly Cool was a quick and fun read with a wonderfully loveable main character who will definitely have me reading the sequel.

My Thoughts

There are some days when I wish I had half-heart ratings because once again, I found myself debating over whether to give a book a three or a four. I finally settled on a three (mainly because of an issue I'll mention later), though it's a very high three. I was lucky enough to get Deadly Cool for less than $5 thanks to a coupon Barnes and Noble had out last week, so I snatched it right up. I had heard lots of great things about it around the book blogosphere and thankfully, the book mostly lived up to my expectations.

Picking up Deadly Cool was a relief for me because I had been in a somewhat fickle reading mood for the last few days. I kept going through my pile of books, trying a few pages here and there in order to find something that would keep my attention, but nothing really caught my interest until I fell in love with the first couple of lines of this book (which you can see above). I immediately dived into Deadly Cool and quickly developed a girl crush on the main character, Hartley. Seriously, if she was a real person, I'd be knocking down her door to introduce myself as her new best friend. Hartley is an intelligent, sarcastic, and all-around awesome character. Her witty comebacks had me laughing out loud off and on throughout the book, which I finished in two sittings. Gemma Halliday did a fabulous job of creating Hartley's character and utilized a certain cynical creativity to craft some very entertaining dialogue. For example:

"I rolled my eyes. 'Teenagers have sex, Caitlyn. Get over it.'

'Well, they shouldn't,' Caitlyn countered. 'It's wrong. They should be saving themselves. Our bodies are our temples. They should have a little more respect for themselves than that.'

'You know, I could have sworn I saw you shoveling Cheetos into your temple last week.'

'Oh, but I'm pretty sure those were nonfat,' Kaylee piped up.

Oh brother." (pp. 108-109).

This next one has to be my favorite:

"I'll go," he said.

"And that's safer because?"

"I'm a guy."

"Right, and having a pair of dingle balls makes you invincible how?" (p. 139).

Aside from being downright hilarious, at heart, Hartley is a really good person. After all, how many of you would waste nearly all your free time trying to clear your cheating scumbag of a boyfriend of murder charges when he just got done sleeping with the president of the Chastity Club when you wouldn't put out? Not to mention the cramp it puts on Hartley's social life. The cops are stalking her house in hopes of catching her sleezeball-but-not-the-murdering-type ex-boyfriend and she's the topic of all the good gossip as the girl whose guy got caught boinking another chick in the band room.

I also really liked the minor characters in Deadly Cool, especially Hartley's best friend, Sam, whose constant attempt to try to clean up her swear-like-a-sailor act kept me giggling. I also liked the quirkiness of Hartley's paranoid, tofu and Yogalates-obsessed Mom commonly referred to as the SMother. The minor characters (while minor, as the name suggests), played fairly strong parts in the story, which is nice to see in a category of literature where the development of secondary characters frequently falls by the wayside.

The one problem I had with Deadly Cool and the reason I decided to give it a three instead of a four was the ending. For those of you who know me well, you know I'm fairly good at seeing twists coming. However, I can honestly say that this wasn't the case with Deadly Cool. But this time, it wasn't a good thing. I don't want to ruin the ending, so I won't say too much, but let's just say that I thought the character who turned out to be the murderer was a liiiittle far-fetched. His/her motives for killing just didn't really seem enough to me, and as a result, I found the conclusion of Deadly Cool to be a bit 0ff-putting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book as a whole and will definitely be picking up the sequel, Social Suicide, when it comes out in April.

Links

Add Deadly Cool to your to-read list on Goodreads

Find author Gemma Halliday online

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

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Rating

Tune in and Teaser Tuesday (1-10-12)

2012-01-10T02:25:00.000-06:00

Tune in Tuesday is hosted every Tuesday by Ginger at GReads. The idea is to share a song that you love, new or old, in order to spread some music around the blogosphere. Here's my pick this week:

"Bullet" by Clare Maguire

Clare Maguire is one of those artists that I think EVERYONE should know about...and it seems like almost no one does. She has a deep, almost sultry voice that's kind of reminiscent of Cher at times. I love her music, and this is one of my favorite songs by her!
Favorite Lines

I was told that loneliness was like

spaces between the stars.

Well it’s empty between these starry eyes.

I was told a dead man was heavier than a broken heart.

Am I dead now?

My heart sure feels heavy.

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Like last week, my teaser this week comes from Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. What can I say? It's a LONG book!
"Her heart sank as the man walked past her carrying a large copper brazier full of charcoal, which he set upon its legs a few feet away from the slab. Resting in the charcoal were three long irons.
The time she had dreaded had finally arrived" (417).
O_O That wasn't a very nice teaser to leave you guys with, was it? But that's the part of the book I'm at now, so I'm sure you'll excuse me if I run back to reading! Have to see what happens next!

Review of Angelfall by Susan Ee

2012-01-09T00:00:00.002-06:00

Title: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Pages: 255

Publication Date: May 21st, 2011

Source: Purchased myself

Back Cover

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again

First Lines

"Ironically, since the attacks, the sunsets have been glorious."

In a Sentence

Angelfall was well-worth the $0.99 I paid for it.

My Thoughts

Okay. I'm going to start this review by encouraging you guys to check out the "links" section at the end of this post. In addition to links to Goodreads and the author's website, I've also included links to where you can purchase an e-book of Angelfall for $0.99! You can also try the book out first by reading the first five chapters (which there's also a link for below). No, I don't get anything if you use my links. They're there for your convenience, and because I think 99 cents is well-worth it for what you get with Angelfall--an engaging, fast-paced read with a creative basis and a clever writing style. The book is also available in paperback, but it's not as cheap (I think the average price is somewhere around $9.99).

I promised myself before I started writing this review that I wasn't going to turn this into a discussion about self-publishing. But I can't help at least mentioning it. Like many book bloggers, I've been burned by quite a few self-published books that I took a chance on. I hate that there's such a stigma against self-publishing, but I have to admit: it's there for a reason. Though I've read one or two good books that were self-published, the large majority have been poorly written, poorly edited, and had plots or characters that were poorly executed. But guys, I also want you to know this. If every self-published author wrote like Susan Ee, the self-publishing market would skyrocket. I can easily say that Angelfall is the best self-published book I've ever read. In fact, it's better than quite a few books I've read by traditionally published authors. So if the fact that Angelfall is self-published is what's keeping you from reading it, ignore it. This book is more than capable of competing with many of its traditionally published counterparts. Need more proof? Angelfall was chosen as one of seven finalists for the 2011 Fantasy and Science Fiction Cybils, among favorites like Anna Dressed in Blood and Blood Red Road.

The world of Angelfall is a very creative one. The idea that the creatures many people view as harbingers of a kind, benevolent God are the ones who are destroying civilization is terrifying (though if you do your research, you'll realize that that popularly assumed belief about sweet and cuddly angels isn't really all that accurate). In fact, there's a beautiful scene near the beginning of the book that describes a graffitied drawing of an angel with the tag line Who will guard us from the guardians? I thought this was a beautiful example of what Ee is capable of doing with her writing, as well as a representation of the completely debilitated society that is now forced to live in constant fear. And rightly so, because these angels are terrifying. As the main character describes them:

"The thought of superhuman beings with human temptations and flaws sent a chill through me."

Umm..yeah, it would scare the crap out of me too. After all, we all remember what happened with the stories of the Greek gods. They weren't exactly sound in moral character and impervious to petty human emotions like jealousy and rage. When they got pissed, things went BOOM, and a similar sort of thing is happening with the angels in Angelfall. They have no regard for human lives. In fact, they like to prance around posh hotels making fun of the "monkeys" that they use for servants (and yes, monkeys is their not so endearing term for humans).

When I first picked up this book, I was afraid that it would be chock full of the stereotypes frequently associated with the paranormal romance genre. And I do have to say that the main male character, Raffe, was pretty much the tall, mysterious, broody supernatural type. But this didn't seriously affect my enjoyment of the book because of the main character. A character like Penryn isn't so typical. She's trained in martial arts and all kinds of other buttkicking moves. She doesn't fall into the overcompensating-with my-physical-prowess-because-I'm-a-girl-and-have-to-prove-myself category, but you definitely do not want to get on her bad side. She's a feisty little thing with a strong sense of loyalty, and I enjoyed reading about the story from her point of view.

Even though Raffe wasn't my favorite character ever, I didn't have too many problems reading about him, mainly because I enjoyed Ee's style of writing and way of handling things. For example, there was a lot of witty banter between Raffe and Penryn, and a few comical moments that made me warm up to Raffe a little. For example:

"He's downed four drinks in the short time it took for me to get myself together and find him. Either he's shaken by something or he's falling off the wagon hard and fast. Great. Just my luck to be partnered with an alcoholic angel."

Angelfall was a book that I debated back and forth between giving a three or a four, but I finally settled on four because, despite my somewhat indifferent attitude to Raffe, I whipped through the book extremely quickly and would consider it to be a fairly absorbing read. It was DEFINITELY worth the buck I paid for it, and I'd recommend it to readers looking for an engaging book!

Links

Add this book to your TBR list on Goodreads

Check out Susan Ee's website
Read the first five chapters for free.
Buy the e-book for $0.99. [Nook] [Kindle]

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

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Rating

Weekly Wrap-Up and In My Mailbox (1-8-12)

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

Books Reviewed

Click on the image to see my review!

My Posts

Teaser and Tune-in Tuesday
Busting the Newbie Blues

Feature and Follow Friday
Giveaway of Pharmacology by Christopher Herz

My Comments on the Week

After a semester of being behind on all things blogging related, I'm FINALLY starting to feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things! Hopefully this will continue, but the new semester starts for me on Jan. 17th, so I guess will see!

Happenings in the Blogosphere This Week

The Ghost of GFC at Emily's Reading Room

-A fantastic post on how to deal with some of the more annoying elements of this little monster.

Busting Newbie Blues at Small Review
-An annual event that's an awesome way to interact with other book bloggers, both new and old!

The First Five Days on Goodreads at CuddleBuggery
-There's been a LOT of drama in the book blogosphere this week. While I do my best to stay out of it, I also like to know what's going on. This post highlights most of the "incidents" this week for those of you who are curious, like me.

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As always, thanks to Kristi of The Story Siren for hosting!

Bought

So...Barnes and Noble had a pretty awesome coupon out this week that gave you 50% off the list price of any teen read. Naturally, I couldn't pass that up (despite the ever-dwindling funds in my bank account). Here's what I got! (Click on the images to go to that book's Goodreads page).

I paid less than $15 for all three of these and got free shipping (yay membership!), so I was pretty stoked. I just started Deadly Cool and I'm only 50 or so pages in so far, but I'm liking the writing style and the protagonist.

Have a great week, guys!

Blog in Transition

2012-01-07T20:12:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone!

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I've been hounding all my book bloggy friends for advice about how to get a custom domain and which one to use. While I would like to eventually move Mindful Musings to Wordpress, that requires a lot of time, effort, and money (compared to $10 a year for a Blogger custom domain). I'm not satisfied with Blogger, but I also (personally) haven't had problems so far so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Maybe once life slows down a little more I'll make the move, but for now, I'm staying with Blogger. However, I DID purchase a custom domain, mainly because my original URL is a pain in the butt to type every time you link something. It was just too long for my liking and I wanted something simpler that my readers could remember.

My old URL was themindfulmusingsbookblog.blogspot.com

My new URL is mindful-musings.com

See how much easier that is? According to my blogging buddies and Google, you guys should be automatically redirected to my new URL within a few days. Supposedly, everything should be transferred without a hitch, but I guess we'll see!

UPDATE! Thanks to Giselle at Xpresso Reads, I now know that everything does transfer eventually, so there should be no need to update your feeds!

~~Also, I'm not yet sure on how the RSS feed/Google Reader transfer will go. To make sure you don't lose your subscription to Mindful Musings, please update your Google Reader with the new address!~~

Giveaway of Pharmacology by Christopher Herz

2012-01-07T09:04:00.000-06:00

Synopsis

1993. San Francisco. The digital and pharmaceutical industries are booming. They're looking for the young, the hip, and those on the counterculture fringe to be both the face and consumer of their new world order. Recruited by an advertising agency focused on targeting a new drug to her own age demographic, Sarah Striker is grateful for the steady income, but begins to question the side effects of the products she's pushing.

Sarah begins publishing an underground 'zine to expose the secrets behind the pharmaceutical industry's aims. Fulfilled by her quest to spread the truth, her new life seems to be working out perfectly—until she realizes that she herself is perilously close to becoming a victim of this new corporate world.

A kinetic, hyper-stylized jolt of pure energy, Herz delivers a strong follow up to his debut novel, The Last Block in Harlem. Full of vibrant characters and razor-sharp dialogue, Pharmacology captures the voice of the Internet generation with style, heart, and soul.

Want to know more? Check out Pharmacology on Goodreads or check out author Christopher Herz at his website.

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Hey guys!

Thanks to the folks at Wunderkind PR, I have a copy of this book to give away! Here are the giveaway details.

-US only

-Ends Saturday, January 14 at 11:59 PM CST

-Fill out the form below to win. Only a name and valid e-mail is required.

-Only one entry per person, please.

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Feature and Follow Friday!

2012-01-05T21:35:00.001-06:00

Feature & Follow is a blog hop that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. Feature & Follow Friday is now hosted by TWO hosts: Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This week's question:

Q: Go count the number of unread books sitting on your shelf. How many?

?!?!?!?

First of all, let me give you a breakdown of my reaction to this post. Cue theme music:

Followed by an approximate idea of what my face looked like

You guys, my to-read pile is a MONSTER. Seriously, it has gotten ridiculous in the two and a half years I've been blogging. And because I'm at my parents' house visiting for the holidays, I can't actually go and count what I'm up to now. But I can tell you the number I was at in November, and that I've definitely increased that since then. Are you ready? Brace yourselves...

326

Yep. You read right. That wasn't a typo. I apparently have the awful tendency to buy/win/accept books for review WAAAAAY faster than I can actually read them. This number isn't even counting the God only knows how many e-books I have sitting on my Nook.

What about you guys? Are any of yours as bad (or, God forbid, WORSE) than mine?

Have a great weekend!

Busting the Newbie Blues!

2012-01-05T00:00:00.004-06:00

I think Small describes the event best, so here's what she has to say!

"Starting out as a new YA book blogger is a ton of fun. You meet a bunch of new people who all share in your passion for YA books, you become a part of a friendly community, and you're continually exposed to wonderful new books.

But sometimes things can be a little discouraging when you're just starting out. You look at your blog and then look at some of the awesome established bloggers out there and wonder if you'll ever make the grade.

So here's to Busting the Newbie Blues! Don't be discouraged. Instead, take action! Participate in my Busting the Newbie Blues event, which will run through the entire month of January!

Last year's Busting the Newbie Blues was a big success! Almost all of my "daily read" blogs are run by people I met through this event. I thoroughly busted my newbie blues last year, and now I can't wait to pay it forward to a new year of newbies."

This year, I'm going to be participating as an Established Blogger. Also, I apologize for the length of this. I got a little long-winded, but I think (and hope) that most of the information is useful advice!

1. When did you start your blog?

I started Mindful Musings back in the summer of 2009, after I had completed my first year in college. Wow. I cannot BELIEVE it's been that long already! I decided to start my blog to keep track of all the books I'd been reading and my thoughts on them. When I first started out, I had no idea how much time and effort (and fun!) would be involved with my blog. It's grown from just a way to keep track of my reading habits to a huge part of my life. The books, the authors, the book blogging community...it's hard to imagine life without them now!

2. Do you ever still feel like a newbie?

Occasionally. The thing about blogging is, you can take a few days off and all of a sudden you feel COMPLETELY and UTTERLY behind. I know if I go more than two or three days without checking my Google Reader, all of a sudden I've missed out on some big announcement or happening that's going on.

3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?

I think my biggest blogging challenge has been trying to nail a schedule down that allows me to post regularly on my blog and not feel behind on it or my real life. I've been a full time college student since I started my blog, and in the last two and a half years, I've also become involved with our university's English Society as an officer, and I've also had to work a part time job (which sometimes gave me full time hours). This fall, I started taking classes towards my Masters degree with senior permission, and that just added to the difficulty of my course load. You throw in family and friend drama and the need to sleep more than three hours a night, and things get really complicated. This past year has been really difficult on me blogging wise. I was so busy with real life that I really had no time for the book blogosphere, and I was really unhappy with that. There was a solid four or five months where I hated everything I put up because I hadn't been able to put the amount of time and effort into my reviews and posts that I was accustomed to. There were a few times when I seriously considered giving it up. But I slogged on through it and did my best, and things eventually got easier. If anything, missing the book blogosphere the way I did helped me to take a step back and reevaluate the decisions I was making in my life. In a way, it helped me to learn to set aside time for things that were really important to me and learn to say NO to things that weren't overly important. I also had to teach my perfectionist self that you can't always achieve perfection in everything (unless you want to buy yourself a one-way ticket to the loony bin).

4. What did you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this?

I know this one has been said already, but the lack of comments and interaction. It's so discouraging to spend so much time reading a book, taking notes, and writing a review, and then only get a comment or two. The best way to deal with this is to put yourself out there. If you comment on other people's blogs, they are much more likely to comment on yours. And don't just say things like "Great review" or "I want to read this." That's too easy. We put a lot of work into our posts, and it's nice to see that someone not only took the time to read what you wrote, but also to respond thoughtfully to it. I'm not saying you have to sit around for ten minutes and write a well-crafted essay, but take thirty seconds to a minute to think about what stood out to you about the post. When you follow as many blogs as I do (it used to be over 700 but now it's around 150), it's so easy to write a cookie cutter response or ignore commenting altogether. But I guarantee you, if you spend some quality time on someone else's blog, chances are, that blogger is going to like you. A LOT. And making friends in the blogosphere is such a great part of book blogging.

5. What do you find most encouraging?

Lucky for me, this question is a direct continuation of the last one. The most encouraging part about book blogging is the community. Seriously, book bloggers tend to be really awesome people. You'd be amazed to see how supportive and fun they are. I'll never forget how we all rallied together against book banning to support the Speak Loudly campaign, or how book bloggers and authors raised over $1200 in monetary donations alone for Kristi (The Story Siren)'s little cousin Kaylea, who had been diagnosed with leukemia. This is people at their best, and I loved (and still love) being a part of it!

6. If you could go back in time and speak with your newbie self, what five bits of wisdom would you tell yourself?

Don't try to be such a perfectionist. Accept that the time will come when you will look back at posts you made a year (or heck, even six months) ago, and CRINGE. It happens to the best of us. But you can't improve your writing or blogging skills without getting your feet wet. You're going to make mistakes. Every blog post you write is not going to be Pulitzer Prize-worthy. But by jumping in and giving it a shot, you'll learn, and eventually, you'll be proud of the work you do.

7. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

The blogs I like best are the ones that produce quality content and have a touch of personality. These are the bloggers that you can tell really think about what they're reading and care about what they're writing. Memes are great, (I participate in a few myself), but you have to be careful, because there are a LOT of other people doing them as well. The question you have to ask yourself is: what is making MY meme post different than all the other ones out there? If you don't have an answer, then maybe you should think about dropping that particular meme. My advice when it comes to meme is to pick one or two (or three at the most), and know that you don't have to participate in them every week. Only participate if you truly feel passionate about what you're sharing. Find an awesome song this week? Hit up Ginger's Tune in Tuesday. Want to share a taste of the awesome book you're reading with your readers? Join in Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Should Be Reading. There are many more to choose from (those these two are my favorites). Memes are a fantastic way to interact with the blogosphere, but make sure to choose yours with care, or you might end up overloading your readers with content that doesn't seem all that new or interesting.

8. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve seen? Do you try to avoid this?

Like I mentioned above, blogs that participate in an excessive amount of memes, unless they're extremely well thought out, tend to turn me off. (I'd probably define my personal "excessive" amount as more than three a week). Also, I tend to steer away from blogs that are consistently posting reviews shorter than the description of the book (this doesn't include mini reviews. We all need those at times). There's probably someone out there who can, but I have a hard time really getting a feeling for WHY you felt the way you did about a book if your review is only four or five sentences long. There ARE exceptions, but I find them to be few and far in between. Also, I find it hard to read blogs that have a crazy font or background color. Your blog should be easily readable, or people are probably going to take a pass. And it's never nice to be sitting in a library with your laptop and all of a sudden get a crazy loud blast of music from a blog with a playlist on auto play. Feel free to share your music tastes...it's part of what makes up your blog's personality. But please set the controls so it can be easily located and turned on and off by your readers.

9. How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?

I was incredibly lucky with this. When I started my blog back in 2009, there was a crop of us book bloggers that were just beginning. Most of us had a LOT of interest in young adult literature, along with the sub-genres of fantasy. (Believe it or not, these bloggers included Rachel from Parajunkee's View and the Kirks from Teens Read and Write). I have to say, we were quite the solid little group. Everyone went out of their way to comment on each other's posts, and we were pretty awesome with cross-promotions. Now I'm aware, this might sound a wee bit clique-ish, but that wasn't how it was. In fact, I have a hard time remembering all the bloggers I started out with because there have so many other ones that I've become close book buddies with in the last two and a half years. But I have to say, having people who were in the same boat as me right at the beginning was a huge relief. That's why Small was such a genius to create this event. It's a fantastic way for book bloggers, new and old, to find and interact with one another. If there were only two things I could tell you, it would be this. Just because you're new doesn't mean you can't be awesome. And book bloggers are some of the nicest, selfless, awesometastic people to work with. I know it's easy to be nervous to e-mail and tweet with bloggers who have no idea who you are, but I can tell you this: even the biggest bloggers out there are approachable. I've yet to meet one who wasn't completely friendly and helpful. Most bloggers remember how it is starting out, and are more than willing...we're flattered that you ask us for help and advice.

10. When and how did you get your first ARC (or first few ARCs)?

My first ARC was Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, from Scholastic Inc. I received it probably about a month or two after I started blogging. While I didn't start my blog to get free books, I eventually found out about review requests from other book bloggers and decided to give it a shot. I never dreamed I would be accepted, but somehow, I was. I will say this: ARCs STILL excite me. I think they excite any book lover, no matter how long he or she has been blogging. The idea that you get a shiny new book for free before it's even been released to the public is just awesome. However, ARCs involve a lot of responsibility. While I know of several publishers that don't expect you to write a review for every book they send you, you probably should be posting reviews of at least 70% of the ARCs you receive. Personally, I make a big effort to post a review for every review copy I agree to accept. That means, if the person asked me via e-mail to review the book and I said yes, I plan on reviewing that book. Books that randomly show up in my mailbox unsolicited (and yes, this does happen) aren't my first priority, but I try to review them as well if they're within the parameters of my blog and I have the time. I will admit that I have not followed through on every single review request I agreed to (though I've probably stuck to my plans for about 95% of them). Sometimes, things come up, whether it be school, work, family, or you start reading the book and find out it's just not for you. Most authors and publicists are okay with this, as long as you're not doing it all the time. The best advice I can give new bloggers about ARCs is to be extremely selective. It can be easy to accept every review request thrown at you because, hey, it's a free book, right? But you WILL get burdened down and you WILL get frustrated and eventually you will grow to FEAR that little monster of review books in the corner. Personally, I haven't actually sent in a review request in over a year (and I don't plan on doing it in the near future). Furthermore, I restrict myself to accepting no more than one review book per month, and that STILL can be a lot. Don't accept everything you're offered, unless you want to end up with your reading schedule planned out for you for the next six months. It's not as easy to stay ahead as you think.

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A big thanks to Small Review for hosting this awesome event!

Review of Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala

2012-01-04T00:44:00.000-06:00

Title: Don't Breathe a Word

Author: Holly Cupala

Pages: 299

Publication Date: Jan. 3rd, 2012

Source: From HarperTeen for Review

Back Cover

Joy Delamere is suffocating...

From asthma, which has nearly claimed her life. From her parents, who will do anything to keep that from happening. From delectably dangerous Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out.

Joy can take his words - tender words, cruel words - until the night they go too far.

Now, Joy will leave everything behind to find the one who has offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. She will become someone else. She will learn to survive. She will breathe... if only she can get to Creed before it’s too late.

Set against the gritty backdrop of Seattle’s streets and a cast of characters with secrets of their own, Holly Cupala’s powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the meaning of love, and how far a girl will go to discover her own strength.

First Lines

"Slyt. Slyt. Sliding metal cut through the still night, spiraling ribbons of hair into the sink."

In a Sentence

Don't Breathe a Word is a compelling contemporary that brings the world of a homeless kid to life.

My Thoughts

Though this book was just released yesterday, for weeks now I've been reading scores of reviews from bloggers who received advanced copies of Don't Breathe a Word. When I found my own review copy in my mailbox, I was excited to get started. I'm not sure if I've even seen a negative review of this book yet. Most of the ratings have been fours and fives with the occasional three (though I'm sure there are reviews that I've missed). Taking the amount of so much positive feedback into account, I knew there was a chance that the book would fall victim to "over-hyped" syndrome, as I like to call it. Lucky for me, Don't Breathe a Word ended up being one of the most enjoyable contemporary YA novels that I've read in awhile.

By the third page, I knew that Holly Cupala's writing style was going to be to my liking. Her first person point of view in Don't Breathe a Word is smooth and lyrical. Furthermore, Cupala has the tendency to drop these little gems of existential contemplation into a scene that really made me take a step back and think about what I was reading. For example:

"You can know someone your whole life, and a year later they know nothing about you at all" (p. 3).

Personally, I could really connect with this line because I had a similar experience a few years ago when I moved away to go to college and left my high school friends behind. It's so eerie how one day people can be like two peas in a pod and the next, they've fallen into the mere "acquaintance" zone, talking about nothing more significant than work and the weather.

I also liked how Cupala created the character of Asher, Joy's boyfriend. Now, let's get this straight right off the bat: I loathed Asher. He was an absolutely despicable human being who deserved to suffer in a more creatively agonizing way than I can think of at the moment. But the way his character was crafted was very well-done. He was smooth, suave, attractive, and completely and utterly abusive. Want to get an idea? Try this on for size:

"Let me explain. If you can learn to manipulate the social hierarchies of animals, the natural next step is people. They aren't all that hard to control" (p. 50).

Think that's bad? Check this out:

"If he'd hit me, that would have been something. Something I could point to. Words, words were nothing. But every word he spoke taught me to fear him and his threats, his touch, his constant reminder that he'd rescued me and my family. Like a fairy-tale girl sacrificed to save her father, only in this story the prince turned out to be the beast, who would tear her with his claws from the inside out. He even made the girl wound herself. Were words enough to count as hurting?" (p. 280).

See what I mean? However, even though Asher is the epitome of the dregs of humanity, he wielded so much power over Joy. The sad and horrifying truth is, there are people like Asher in the real world. I've seen them...at varying levels of cruelty, sure, but they're out there, and so many teenagers are caught up in the attention and the semblance of love they receive from these people that they can't break out of the vicious cycle they're stuck in. This is why I thought Cupala's characterization of Asher was so masterful: it struck a tone of reality that made the book seem all the more raw and heartfelt.

The way life as a homeless kid was portrayed in Don't Breathe a Word didn't pull any punches. It's rough. It's beyond rough. It's impossible. Sure, you can manage to survive for awhile, and you might enjoy the occasional good time, but, as the character May says, "There's no hope for me...No matter where I go, no matter what I do, death is always gonna be there, waiting" (274). I can't even imagine the weight of what carrying that feeling around all the time would be like, but I think I came close while reading Don't Breathe a Word. The most miserable part about being homeless isn't the homelessness, or the starvation, or the cold, or the heat. It's when you reach the point of the sheer absence of hope.

This leads me into my final talking point about this book. I don't want to give away anything, but I'll tell you that when I first finished Don't Breathe a Word, I wasn't satisfied. I thought that, after all the hardships and horrors that the characters had went through, things got wrapped up a little too nice and neat to be realistic. But before writing my review, I thought about the ending for a little while and realized something. If the book didn't end in the way it did, it wouldn't have created the same atmosphere of hope, and I think that hope is necessary, in a way. Let's face it, we humans don't tend to do very well in the absence of hope, and if all the characters ended up coming to tragic, terrifying ends, I think a lot of us readers might have pushed the book away in despair. Instead, the ending to Don't Breathe a Word allows the reader to take a journey through a dark tunnel, but there IS a light at the end (and yes, I'm aware that that's one of the most overused metaphors ever. It's 1AM. So sue me).

Anyways, Don't Breathe a Word was my first encounter with Holly Cupala as an author but, from what I've seen, it definitely won't be my last. She has a lot of talent and I look forward to checking out her other book, Tell Me a Secret (2010). Also, for those of you looking for an excuse to run out and buy Don't Breathe a Word right away, know that Cupala donates ten percent of her author proceeds to Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls, so you can get a new book and get your Good Samaritan on at the same time!

Links

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Read the first two chapters of Don't Breathe a Word

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Rating

Tune in and Teaser Tuesday (1-3-12)

2012-01-03T00:09:00.005-06:00

Tune in Tuesday is hosted every Tuesday by Ginger at GReads. The idea is to share a song that you love, new or old, in order to spread some music around the blogosphere. I haven't participated in Tune in Tuesday for a long time, but since I love music as much as I love books, I decided to jump in again! Here's my pick this week:

"Never Let Me Go" by Florence + the Machine

Have I told you guys just how much I love Florence + the Machine's new album, Ceremonials? NO?!?!? Well, I LOVE it. Florence is a genius, and writes and sings some of the most soulful, meaning-filled songs I've ever heard. "Never Let Me Go" is one I've had on repeat this week!
Also, make sure to stop by Ginger's this week! She's giving away an album by SafetySuit!
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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, I'm reading Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. Here's my teaser:
"The obvious pain in his voice and in the strained lines of his face puzzled Nasuada. She examined him with greater intensity, trying to determine the reason for his vehemence. After a few moments, an explanation presented itself that, upon reflection, seemed self-evident.
'Whom did you lose?' she asked."
I'm only about 45 pages into this one, but I'm curious to see how the series will end. I really enjoyed the first book, but I wasn't all that impressed by the second book, Eldest. However, I thought Brisingr showed a lot of improvement in Paolini's writing style and maturity. Hopefully, I'll enjoy Inheritance as well.