Monday Book Recommendations: The Institute by Kayla Howarth

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.

Title: The Institute 

Series: The Institute #1

Author: Kayla Howarth

Date Published: January 9th 2015

Publisher: Smashwords

Living in constant fear. Always looking over your shoulder. The source of your fear? The Institute.

Allira Daniels will do anything to keep her Defective brother safe from the Institute. They claim to protect Defectives, but it’s human nature to fear the unknown. Defectives are dangerous, they possess abilities that no human should be able to. To Allira and the rest of her family, the Institute seems more like a prison than the safe-haven they promote themselves to be. Protecting Shilah from that fate is their number one priority.

When Allira stumbles across a car crash involving two of her school classmates, she ignores all of her father’s warnings of laying low and not drawing attention to herself. By doing so, she may have just caught the eye of the Institute. She’s not Defective, but what seventeen-year-old girl has the ability to pull two teenage boys away from a fiery rubble and walk away without a scratch? It would definitely be seen as suspicious.

Allira and her family need to make decisions. Do they stay, or do they flee again? Will they be coming for her? Will her whole family come under investigation? Will they discover Shilah and his ability to predict the future?

Are you Defective? The Institute is coming for you. 

The Institute  by Kayla Howarth

I know  that most dystopias are always compared to Divergent and the Hunger Games but this has nothing in common with those two books, The Institute is a pretty cool novel that ends with a cliffhanger that will make you buy  the sequel. I'm pretty excited to see where this series goes.

Weekly Recap: February 1st-7th 2016

Monday Book Recommendations:

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Top Ten Tuesday:

Historical Settings I Love

Waiting on Wednesday:

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Reviews:

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

On the Blog:

Reading challenges January Update

Stacking The Shelves

Stacking The Shelves (75)

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.

 

 

 

Reading challenges January Update

I can't believe how fast 2016 is going! I still feel like I should be celebrating Christmas or something.

 

Because I'm still on break from school and have plenty of free time I was able to make a pretty good dent in my challenges for this year, this is great because once College starts up next week I'll probably have less time for reading.

The Goodreads Reading Challenge 

After the progress I made this month I think I'll bump my goal up to 100 books for 2016

Young Adult Book Club's A-Z Reading Challenge 2016 

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've Read 20/26

A.

B. Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

C. Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel

D. Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

E. Endure by Sara B. Larson

F. Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa

G.

H.The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright 

I. The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

J.I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

K.The Institute by Kayla Howarth

L.Lies I Told by Michelle Zink

M.I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore

N.This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

O.Between Two Kings: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Olivia Longueville

P.The Prey by Tom Isbell

Q. 

R.

S. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

T.The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly

U.

V. Vanished E.E. Cooper

W.The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne

X.

Y.

Z. Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore Stultz

TBR Pile Reading Challenge

For this challenge I have to read books that I own that were published before 2016 .

I've Read 17/50

Between Two Kings by Olivia Longueville (November 10th 2015)
The Institute by Kayla Howarth (January 9th 2015)
Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel (September 8th 201)
Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa (September 8th 2015)
I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore (April 7th 2015)
The Doll Collection by Ellen Datlow (March 10th 2015)
Endure by Sara B. Larson (December 29th 2015)
The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly (September 1st 2015 )
The Prey by Tom Isbell (January 20th 2015)
Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole (February 2nd 2015)
Lies I Told by Michelle Zink (April 7th 2015)
The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne (March 17th 2015)
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake (January 6th 2015)
Vowed by Liz de Jager ( November 6th 2014)
Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman (March 31st 2015)
Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout (April 19th 2011)
Promises I Made by Michelle Zink (November 24th 2015)
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (September 16th 2014)
Beyond Complicated by Mercy Celeste (November 30th 2012)
Don't Look Inside by Spike Black (March 20th 2015)
Maid of Wonder by Jennifer McGowan (August 25th 2015)
Spelled by Betsy Schow (June 2nd 2015)

Young Adult Book Club's Quarterly Challenge #20 (Dec 1, 2015-Feb 28, 2016)

This one started in December but thanks to midterms I wasn't able to read anything for it, luckily it's only ten books


I've Read 8/10

1. Read a book that is a new release published in December of 2015, January or February of 2016: Thicker Than Water by Kelly (Fiore) Stultz
2. Many book awards are announced in the winter (Printz, Newbery, Cybils, etc). Read a past or present award winner. You can also read a book from the GoodReads Choice Awards winner lists: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

3. Read a book that takes place during winter or a winter holiday (Christmas, Valentines Day etc):

4. Read a book whose title starts with a letter from the word WINTER: This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
5. December 21 is Short Story Day. Read a short story, novella or short story collection: Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout
6. January 1 is Euro Day. Read a book set in or published in any European country: Vowed by Liz de Jager

7. January 2 is Science Fiction Day. Read a science fiction book. Dystopian counts of course: The Institute by Kayla Howarth

8. February is Library Lovers month. Read a book from the library or from a friends library: 

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

9. February 26 is Tell a Fairy Tale Day. Read a fairy tale re-telling or a book inspired by a fairy tale: Spelled by Betsy Schow

10. February 28 is Floral Design Day. Read a book with flowers on the cover or a character with a flower name.

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley Review

Title: Magonia 

Series:Magonia #1

Author: Maria Dahvana Headley 

Date Published: April 28th 2015 by HarperCollins

Publisher: April 28th 2015 by HarperCollins

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. 

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. 

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. 

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

I'll be the first to admit that I only read this book because of it's cover, the blurb didn't seem like it was something I would enjoy reading but  many of my favorite bloggers were pretty excited about ti so I decided to give it  a chance

Thins I have mixed feelings about:

-The whole bird people thing. The concept is interesting but a bit strange for me the picture I have in my head varies from bird/human  lookalikes of the movie Rio and sometimes the image I have is quite Tim Burtonish creatures. So I'm undecided.

Things I didn't like:

-Asa. I overall didn't like her being the special snowflake heroine.

Now it's time for a little rant.

Ok so the main characters attitude hit me a little bit close to home because just like her my little brother has a chronic disease that took a while to get diagnosed, I mean it was 4 years. The strain a chronic disease puts on a family is awful and to see the way Asa acted like she was entitled to treat everyone like crap just because she was sick made me want to punch her in the face, especially for the way she spoke to her parents. Sadly all of this happened at the beginning of the book so it basically ruined the entire book for me, I couldn't connect with Asa after the way she behaved, sadly it is true that first impression matter.

Final Rating

Waiting on Wednesday: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

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

Title: Glass Sword 

Series: The Red Queen #2

Author: Victoria Aveyard 

Date Published: February 9th 2016 

Publisher: HarperTeen

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. 

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. 

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. 

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Why I'm Waiting:

The first book in the series was one of my top ten books of 2015 and the author was my favorite debut author of 2015. As usual the only worry I have is that this will suffer from second book syndrome.

Top Ten Historical Settings I Love

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 weeks topic:

Top Ten Historical Settings I Love

1. England!!! My all time favorite place no matter what time period, although I prefer the Regency period above all other.

2. Hawaii A beautiful setting with a lot of history and yet I hardly see books that take place there unless the character is on vacation

3.The Scottish Highlands, I've been curious about William Wallace (and no that Braveheart movie has nothing to do with it.

4. Japan, I lie reading about Samurais and Ninjas

5. Mexico My home!! We have  quite a history amazing cultures, we were invaded got our independence, invaded again, a revolution, even in modern days there are still many things going on.

6. France. This country enters in my list thanks to my obsession with monarchies.

7. New York My 2nd favorite city in the world, I recently traveled there and the energy of the city simply blew me away.

8. Pittsburgh it would be pretty cool to see a book centered Andrew Carnegie's empire.

9. Argentina: If the story happens int the Patagonia

10. New Zealand/ Australia but before it was invaded by the Brits.