2015 Challenges February Wrap Up

Hi and welcome to the wrap up of the books I read in February 2015 that count for the reading challenges I'm doing this year:

 A-Z Challenge

For this Challenge I have to choose either the first word in the title of the books or the author’s name (first or last) should correspond with a letter in the alphabet. You should omit “a” and “the” in the titles; letters Q, X and Z can be positioned anywhere in the titles or author names.

I'm actually pretty proud of myself since I'm almost done with this one, although I only one book the I read in February counted for this challenge.

Completes 22/26

A- Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

B- The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel

C- City 1 by Gregg Rosenblum

D- Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas-------Read on February 

E- Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forester 

F- The Fugitive by Pittacus Lore

G- The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

H- Fire with Fire by Jenny Han

I- Infected by Sophie Littlefield 

J- Reborn by Jennifer Rush 

K-The Flame in the Mists by Kit Grindstaff 

L- The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

M- The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

N- Never Have I Ever by Sara Shepard

O-

P-Please Remain Calm by Courtney Summers 

Q-The Queen by Kiera Cass

R-Revolution by Jenna Black

S-Stolen by Melissa de la Cruz

T- A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray 

U

V-The Vault by Emily McKay

W-The Witch Mus Burn by Danielle Paige

X- Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix 

Y

Z-Zodiac by Romina Russell

 2015 TBR Challenge

This challenge is hosted by the lovely ladies over at Bookish and it is designed to help reduce the massive To Be Read piles we all have at home, the rules only ask you read books that have been published before 2015

Stacking The Shelves (54)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course e books!

 

A Cold Legacy l Cross My Heart, Hope to Die l A Darker Shade of Magic

Dearest l Kiss and Tell l The Lucky Ones

 

Queen of Someday l Sun-Kissed l Unleashed

Wool 4 l Wayward

Feature and Follow (36)

The Feature and and and Follow is hosted by TWO hosts,  of Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This week's Feature: 

Your house is burning down and you have time to select three books you own to take with you. What three books? 

I'm going to cheat and choose saving my Kindle, that way I only have to choose one thing and I get to keep all my books!

But if I really really had to choose only three books to save I would definitely pick The Count of Monte Cristo, 1984 and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Title: Dangerous Girls

Series: Stand alone

Author:Abigail Haas

Date Published:July 16th 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations.

As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine... 

First of all you have to drop whatever you are doing and read this book, it's been about one week since if finished it and I still can't stop thinking about it. I honestly resisted reading this book because of the cover but this is seriously on of the most mind blowing books ever, it was even better the "Dangerous Boys".The thing is that I feel that I can't write a full review without spoiling this book all I can tell you is that this book definitely deserves being bought. 

Waiting on Wednesday (63)

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick this week is:

Title:  Death Marked

Series: Death Sworn

Author: Leah Cypess

Release Date : March 3rd 2015

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

A young sorceress’s entire life has been shaped to destroy the empire controlling her world. But if everything she knows is a lie, will she even want to fulfill her destiny? The sequel to Death Sworn is just as full of magic and surprising revelations, and will thrill fans of Leigh Bardugo and Robin LaFevers.

At seventeen, Ileni lost her magical power and was exiled to the hidden caves of the assassins. She never thought she would survive long. But she discovered she was always meant to end up, powerless, in the caves as part of an elder sorcerer’s plan to destroy the evil Empire they'd battled so long. Except that Ileni is not an assassin, and she doesn't want to be a weapon. And, after everything, she’s not even sure she knows the truth. Now, at the very heart of the Empire—its academy for sorcerers—the truth is what she seeks. What she finds challenges every belief she holds dear—and it threatens her fledgling romance with the young master of assassins.

Leah Cypess spins an intricate and beautiful conclusion to Ileni's story. In the end, it may not be the epic decisions that bring down an empire, but the small ones that pierce the heart.

This series really surprised me, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, I'm trying to keep my expectation in check since apparently this is the last book in the series.

Top Ten Tuesday (55)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week a new top ten list is posted, and to participate all you have to do is fill in YOUR top ten for the list.

This week's topic is Top Ten Heroines

There really is no particular order of preference here

1)Deuce from Razorland: What I like the most about her is her willingness to learn from other people, wether it's learning to fight, read or about how to understand her feelings. It's not easy to accept change and Deuce always makes the best of her situation.

2)Hermione Granger from Harry Potter: She was my first girl crush ever, what I love most about her is that she never pretended to be stupid so more people would like her.

3)Katniss Everdeen form The Hunger Games: Although I know a lot of people have problems with her apathy during the Hunger Games book I understand why she acts this way but what made me love her so much is that she is no special snowflake, she had no special magic trait that made her different, she had worked hard for all her skills and people loved her for her actions and not because she was not like other girls.

4)Sydny Sage from Bloodlines and VA: I like that she ca be badass both fiscally and mentally, she prefers to understand the situation and then decide how to attack instead of going headfirst into danger.

5) Ismae, Sybella and Annith from His Fair Assassin: I love how these girl banded together, the way the tackled their demons and did all this while saving their country.

6)Arya from Under the Never Sky: She went from pampered dweller and she did her best to survive after being exiled.

Monday Book Recommendations (29)

Monday is the day I choose what new books I’m going to start reading but I have so many books in my To Read Pile that sometimes it’s hard to choose so I have decided that on Monday mornings I’ll recommend some  of  my favorite books.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

If your wan to start reading mystery/thriller YA books this title is a great place to start, this actually started my love for Gretchen McNeil.

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine? 

The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

Title: The Ruby Circle

Series: Bloodline #6

Author: Richelle Mead

Date Published: February 10th 2015

Publisher: Razorbill

The epic conclusion to Richelle Mead's New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series is finally here...

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world. 

First of all let me tell you that I didn't hate this book I just expected some much more from it, about two years ago I started reading the Vampire Academy books and I liked them a lot so when I finished that series I continued with Bloodlines, it took me about two books to really get into this series and books #4 and #5 definitely are one of my favorites and I think that after having some great plots and character growth this book just felt lacking.

*This Review contains spoilers if you haven't read the book I recommend you skip this review*

Things I did Like:

-I definitely liked seeing how much Sydney and Adrian have changed. Adrian has always been my favorite and to see him go from irresponsible party boy to a person who is working to be better not for a girl but for himself. I love how much Sydney grew to embrace her magic and to trust Moroi and Dhampir's. The fact that we've seen both characters since the original VA books it has allowed the author to develop these characters in a very interesting way.

-I have to admit that I was really loving the first half of the book, the pace was going great, and they went to Pittsburgh!!

Things I didn't like:

-My main problem I think is that most of the book revolved around getting Jill back, I've never been a huge fan of her not in this series nor in VA, the fact that she put herself and all the other Palm Springs gang and risk just because she wanted to model was the point of no return for me, I mean poor Jill she wants to model but they won't let her, it's not like people have tried to kill her before and had to go into hiding. Instead of everyone being worried about Jill it would have been more interesting to read more about the conflicts between Moroi and Alchemist.

-Rose and Dimitri'd appearances intros book felt a little bit forced for me. I get that fans like seeing new character, I certainly enjoyed seeing Dimitri and Sonia appear in book 2 and try but in book 2  it made sense for them to appear. When Lissa was competing to become Queen the law stated that she had to have a living relative, so if your only living relative is missing and may be dead it totally makes sense to send away your two most trusted protectors, it's not like people haven't been trying to dethrone you. Also Rose seemed me a little bit cartoonish. Spoiler!!!! I don't buy Dimitri not knowing he was Adrian's cousin, in VA he was always informed on who was who, to just don't seem like him not knowing who his father is

-No Angeline, I get she was in school but it would have been nice to see her.

-The epilogue (Spoilers ahead!) 

The epilogue seemed incredibly rushed to me and used to tie the remaining loose ends, Adrian and Sydney got everything they wanted and they lived happily ever after.

Final Rating:   

Stacking The Shelves (53)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course e books!

This week I'm trying to branch out of YA so I bought an adult book and a new adult one, we'll se how it goes.

The Return l To Die For l Pines

The Dress Shop of Dreams l Hide and Seek l  Beautiful Days

Feature and Follow (35)

The Feature and and and Follow is hosted by TWO hosts,  of Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This week's Feature:

Do you like fantasy or realistic books? - Suggested by The Realm of Books.  

I really prefer fantasy over realistic books, with fantasy books I have all time favorites, books that I really liked, the ones that were ok, and the ones I definitely didn't like. With realistic book I either love the book or or I hate it there is no in-between, I think it's because in fantasy you can explore many worlds and in realistic fiction you can only explore the one I already live in.

Collide by Melissa West Book Tour

 Collide (The Taking #3)

by Melissa West

Release Date: 02/09/15

Entangled Teen

320 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. But when the new leader of Earth uses Jackson—the only boy she's ever let herself care about—to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender.

To free Jackson, she agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens—half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, together, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. But if she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever.

Once again, everything Ari’s come to believe is thrown into question. In a world of uncertainty, loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open.

Add to Goodreads

Pre-Order Links:

Amazon│B&N│Kobo

Links to Gravity (Book One):

Goodreads│Amazon│B&N│Kobo Books

Links for Hover (Book Two):

Goodreads│Amazon│B&N│Kobo Books

About the Author

Melissa West writes young adult and new adult novels for Entangled Teen and Embrace and Penguin/InterMix. She lives outside of Atlanta, GA with her husband and two daughters and spends most of her time writing, reading, or fueling her coffee addiction.

She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and a M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University. Yeah, her blood runs orange.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

Book Tour Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours