Pulseit.com's 31 Days of Reading

For my first non-review post I wanted to showcase an awesome opportunity happening right now until the end of the month.

Pulseit.com, which is an online community geared towards teen book readers, is a site that has a new book available to read every week. Some past titles include, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, and The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls. I highly suggest that you sign up for this site, it is a great way to discover old and new titles alike.

The best thing that is happening on it right now is that instead of doing one book a week, they are doing a 31 Days of Reading extravaganza. This means one book a day for the whole month of December. While, that is a lot of books that are readily available, there is a drawback to this, you only get that day to read the assigned book. So, for fast readers, or people, like me, who have some time on their hands, this is a great opportunity. The most frustrating part of it is that if you do not finish the book within the 24 hours available, then you are unfortunately out of luck.

But, I think that this is still a great opportunity for people to discover new reads that they might not have thought of or known about. If you know that you will not be able to read whole book in the time allotted, I suggests still checking it out. Maybe read the first few chapters to see if it is something you are interested in, if it is there are other ways for you to find the books. I know that when I saw the list I checked to see if my library system had any of the books available. I was in luck! I was able to find 27 out of the 31 books in the system. If that is not an option for you, by reading the first chapter, or five, you can get an idea of whether or not the book is worth purchasing.

To have access to the 31 Days of Reading extravaganza you will need to sign up here, it is very easy and totally worth it!

Pulseit.com's #31daysofreading schedule:

• December 1: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
• December 2: Precious Blood by Tonya Hurley
• December 3: Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger
• December 4: The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse
• December 5: Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• December 6: Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• December 7: Fault Line by C. Desir
• December 8: Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan
• December 9: Linked by Imogen Howson
• December 10: Crash by Lisa McMann
• December 11: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
• December 12: Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
• December 13: Winger by Andrew Smith
• December 14: Wither by Lauren DeStefano
• December 15: Golden by Jessi Kirby
• December 16: Letting Ana Go by Anonymous
• December 17: Haven by Kristi Cook
• December 18: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti
• December 19: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
• December 20: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian
• December 21: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
• December 22: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• December 23: Changeling by Philippa Gregory
• December 24: Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
• December 25: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• December 26: The Program by Suzanne Young
• December 27: Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
• December 28: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
• December 29: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
• December 30: Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young
• December 31: Read The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan & enter to win The Shadowhunter's Codex by Cassandra Clare & Joshua Lewis

So, there you have it. Leave some comments if you partake in any pulseit reading, I know I will, and let me know what you think of everything.

Happy Reading!

-AN

Apologies

So, I have been a terrible reviewer for the past year. I have been doing plenty of reading, but very little posting of the reviews that I have written for the books. For that I apologize. From now on, I am going to try and get back to my original objective of spreading my thoughts on the books that I have been reading and ones that I am looking forward to!

I will be trying to add a few other features to the site, wishlists and the like, as well as sharing ways to find new books to read. So, please stick with me and I promise it will all get better from here on out.

The Wager by Rachel Van Dyken

Title: The Wager

Author: Rachel Van Dyken

Published: October 1, 2013

Series?: The Bet #2

Format Read/Pages: ebook/256

How/When I Acquired It: NetGalley / September, 2013

Date Finished: November 18, 2013

Lose a bet, lose your heart...

What is it about a junior-high crush that can send an otherwise intelligent woman into a tailspin? TV reporter Char Lynn wishes she knew. Jake Titus is too rich, too handsome, too arrogant: a trifecta that once lured Char into the best night-and worst morning-after-of her life. Now they've been thrown together in a wedding party. It's awkward, but survivable . . . until Jake stops acting like a jerk, and starts acting like the man she'd always hoped he could be.

If watching your brother marry your best friend is weird, being attracted to your best friend's other best friend is downright bizarre. Unfortunately for Jake, Char hasn't forgotten how he once tossed her aside. Worse still, Jake's already-nutty grandma is even crazier about Char. Cue meet-cute shenanigans and all manner of meddling, and somehow, Jake's falling. For Char. Now all he has to do is make her believe it . .

~

When starting The Wager, I was mildly afraid that I would not follow the complete story, not having read The Bet. I should not have had any fears, there are a few references that were unclear, but overall the author, Rachel Van Dyken, made the plot very easy to follow. Possibly too easy.

The characters are likable in their own ways. Jake Titus, constantly referred to as a “ruined” man, is trying to make amends and redeem himself of past deeds. Char Lynn, the TV personality trying to bring herself back from the brink of unemployment after a stunt that left her too hung-over to stay seated during a newscast (thanks, in part, to Jake). Comic relief comes in the form of Grandma Nadine, the over manipulative and meddling woman that is the Titus matriarch. While I do hope my own Grandmother is as spry and energetic at 86 years as Grandma Nadine is, there would definitely be some problems if she was as invested in my life as Nadine was.

The story follows the formulaic model that many romances have come to resemble in the past few years, wealthy character (usually male), is trying to reform their life, wants character (usually female) that seems to be holding a grudge  (not uncommon for the reason to be unknown to the reformed party). While this model can be entertaining, it often gets old and predictable after so many versions.

Speaking of predictability, I almost put the book down and gave up on it after Jake and Char procured an unsigned marriage license. Please can we at least have characters that use their college educated brains? Obviously that would not happen in the real world, not only is it illegal (I am pretty sure that is mentioned in the story) but it is also very implausible that the marriage license would not be ready, especially given the high profile wedding that is taking place. After seeing the gullibility of the characters I knew what was coming for them, essentially an arranged marriage, without the dowry and binding contracts. And then for the characters to just sign a paper without reading it? Nope. I just wanted to shake them and knock some sense into them, especially Jake, who is supposed to be a big shot in the family company, even though Grandma recently fired him… but he should know better than signing a document without reading it!

For all its misgivings The Wager was a fun, light read centered around a man and woman attending the wedding of those they are closest with and being thrown together in a manipulative matchmaking ploy. It is the type of story that any romance junky will likely enjoy.

3 Stars

Reality Ends Here by Alison Gaylin

Title: Reality Ends Here 

Author: Alison Gaylin

Published: June 10, 2013

Format Read/Pages: ebook/250

How/When I Acquired It: NetGalley/May, 2013

Date Finished: June 20, 2013

With a major crush on an adorable pop star, annoying younger siblings, and a mom and stepdad who are too strict, Estella Blanchard is a typical teenage girl-except that her daily struggles are plotlines on the reality show Seven Is Heaven, which relentlessly documents her life as the older half-sister of sextuplets. Estella's an Oscar-worthy actress at hiding her true feelings from the camera.

However, she can't outrun the spotlight when she receives a Christmas present from her biological father...who died ten years ago under mysterious circumstances. Blamed for this "sick prank," Estella is placed in an unorthodox support group for troubled child stars-including a twenty-three-year-old has-been, a backstabbing drama queen, and a super-cute (but very off-limits) boy bander. And, as weird as the group is, when a creepy paparazzo starts stalking her, claiming that her dad is actually alive, Estella's going to need their help to uncover the truth and stay alive. 

~

When I read the blurb for this I thought that it had a lot of promise and it did, but Alison Gaylin took it so far out of reality that it became very unbelievable at a fast pace.

Now, I know a lot of reality television is in fact, fiction, but if I was to see this ridiculousness on my screen or read about it in the papers, I would have officially lost all faith in humanity. We have a family with a number of children that are dealing with problems and parents that are always making light of the situation, seemingly  because they are the ones that cause most of the problems in the first place. I mean, if I was given a leotard that was a few sizes too small as a Christmas gift and expected to smile about it, while my mother informed the world that I will be going on a diet (because she cannot have a slightly overweight child on camera), all at six years old, I would have bawled my eyes out. Actually, no. I would have no idea what was really going on, or what a diet was, and would have moved on the the next present and never looked at the leotard again. Gayling portrayed the sextuplets in a way that made them all seem a lot older than their supposed six years, with Estella often stepping in to be the mother figure that they clearly needed. 

If the plot had centered around Estella's emotional journey to find out more about her father and coping with her reluctant fame as a reality TV start, I think the story would have been a lot more believable. The whole mystery aspect would have been in there, but in a way that did not make it seem as far fetched. As it stands, the second half of the story is laughable in the unbelievably of it all. A young heartthrob getting shot and no one caring? I highly doubt it. 

It all culminates in a rushed explanation of actions and a HEA that we all knew was going to happen. There are so many thing that I think could have made this story better, more interactions between the kids in the therapy group, for one.I really would have liked to see how the participants dealt with their everyday lives and how things would have played out if it were a real therapy group and not something that someone was profiting off of. The list is endless, but as it is Reality Ends Here was just a really unsatisfactory adventure into the lives of people we would watch and not really care  about.

2 Stars

Music of the Heart by Katie Ashley

Title: Music of the Heart

Author: Katie Ashley

Published: March 24, 2013  

Series?: Runaway Train #1 

Format Read/Pages: ebook/259

How/When I Acquired It: Bought it/April 2013 

Date Finished: April 15, 2013

For Abby Renard, the plan was supposed to be simple—join her brothers’ band on the last leg of their summer tour and decide if she’s finally ready for the limelight by becoming its fourth member. Of course, she never imagined stumbling onto the wrong tour bus at Rock Nation would accidentally land her in the bed of Jake Slater, the notorious womanizing lead singer of Runaway Train. When he mistakes her for one of his groupie’s, Abby quickly lets him know she sure as hell isn't in his bed on purpose.

Jake Slater never imagined the angel who fell into his bed would resist his charms by promptly kneeing him in the balls. Of course, the fact she seems like a prissy choir girl makes her anything but his type. So he is more than surprised when after betting Abby she wouldn’t last a week on their tour bus, she is more than willing to prove him wrong. But as Jake’s personal life begins to implode around him, he finds an unlikely ally in Abby. He’s never met a woman he can talk to, joke with, or most importantly make music with.

As the week starts comes to a close, neither Abby nor Jake is ready to let go. Can a sweetheart Country songstress and a bad boy of Rock N Roll actually have a future together?

~

When I first read the description for Music of the Heart, I found my self laughing at the absurdity. Why would anyone agree to living on a bus with four men just to win a bet with someone that you hardly know and already can't stand? But then I had to reevaluate my stand as I personally have taken bets that to others may seem very illogical. After I was able to get over the ridiculousness of the situation, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the story that was being told. While at times it was utterly cliched, it was able to hole my interest enough and I am willing to admit, brought me to tears on occasion. 

The characters were extremely likable, I tend to find the females leads in books like this to be highly annoying at times, but I found myself actually liking and rooting for Abby. Jake is of course a heartthrob, tattoos (I'm a sucker for tattoos.) I found that it was the secondary characters that would often make the scene, with the jokes and the insightful background on our two leads. 

My biggest concern, and it is something that is found in just about any new adult fiction with a "badboy" is the scene in which Jake verbally demolishes Abby's character and her love for him, and then she just forgives him. I get that he was going through a rough time, but come one girl, stand up for yourself!! This is definitely a minor thing that I can look over, but I really shouldn't, the fact that it has become the norm these days is a bit sad and telling of the future. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Music of the Heart, I really liked the writing style Katie Ashley bring to the table. I will definitely be looking into her other works.  

4 Stars

Concealed by Sang Kromah

Title: Concealed 

Author: Sang Kromah

Published: October 15, 2011

Series?: Concealed #1 

Format Read/Pages:  eBook, 382

How/When I Acquired It: NetGally / March, 2013

Date Finished: April 12, 2013

Some believe that at birth, we’re each born with some sort of guardian angel attached to us, watching from afar, but never seen by the human eye. But they’re wrong. Truth is it’s not that simple. There are certain people, special people, born of this world and of the other, who need that extra protection…that extra guidance. They go their entire lives, unaware of the other world, and unaware of the existence of their own personal watcher that watches from afar. But what happens when fate takes a turn for the worse, and The One who needs the aid of a watcher more than anyone before her can’t be found to be protected?

Bijou Fitzroy is strange. With the chaotic and unwanted gift of being an empath, she has spent her entire life as a sheltered recluse, being homeschooled by her secretive overprotective grandmother, who never stays long enough in one location for Bijou to ever settle and make friends. Not only does she lack social skills, but her physical appearance is so ethereal that it beckons onlookers to look away before she has the chance to make eye contact. Oh, and things get even weirder. Besides the occasional tendency to see strange things that no one else seems to notice, sixteen-year-old Bijou has been plagued by semi-prophetic nightmares of strange creatures her entire life; yet she yearns for sleep, because it’s the only place she gets to see him…well sort of. No matter what Bijou dreams of, the faceless boy is always there like some sort of harbinger of danger, always watching, always waiting. And even though his coming always pre-empts chaos, she’s fallen in love with this boy without a face.

When Bijou and her grandmother move to Eldersburg and she starts to attend the local high school, she meets Sebastian Sinjin, a strange boy, who forces Bijou to question the world around her, and the grandmother she thought she knew. Bijou’s world begins to crumble as the creatures from her nightmares begin to take shape in her reality, the faceless boy becomes real, and town locals begin to disappear as she finds herself at the center of a war she never knew was being fought. Bijou has to stand alone and be the savior everyone expects her to be.

~

I have been struggling to write this review and it will probably be a short one because of it. I really, really want to like Bijou and Sebastian, but I just cant commit myself to them. I really don't know what it is about them, but they just don't pop for me in the way they probably should. The relationship between them and Bijou and Niko just seems forced, which makes it hard to care about what is happening between them all.

One real criticism I have is the fact that all the action happens in the last fifty pages, but it makes the other 300+ pages seem like unending filler. The book was just too long, for the amount of story we actually got. The concept was great, I think that with a little more flesh it could have been a really fun read, but on more than one occasion I had to push myself to keep reading.

There does not seem to be any mention of the second book or when it will be available, but with an ending like Concealed had, there has to be something in the works, I just probably won't explore it.

2.5 Stars

Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Title: Surrender

Author: Rhiannon Paille

Published: October 6, 2011

Also Known As: Flame of Surrender

Series?: The Ferryman & The Flame #1

Format Read/Pages:  eBook, 392

How/When I Acquired It: NetGally, March 2013

Date Finished: April 5, 2013

Kaliel and Krishani weren't meant to meet or fall in love but they did. Krishani’s dreams of death led him to a fate he’s terrified of--becoming the next Ferryman. His only refuge is Kaliel, the peculiar girl that swims with merfolk and talks to trees. Kaliel has a secret of her own--she’s the Amethyst Flame, one of nine apocalyptic weapons. The Valtanyana will destroy everything on Avristar to get to her. Kaliel has to choose: face them, hide or unleash the Flame.

How far would you go to save everything you ever loved?

~

I had high hopes for this book, it seemed like it could have been a pretty great read. But, I must say, I was a disappointed when I finally got to the end (and I was pushing myself to get through it). One of my major misgivings is that at times it seemed like things were being too rushed, both in the the love story and the explanation of who our main characters are supposedly becoming. This is the first book in what I assume will be a three part (or more) series, and I hate to even think what the pace of the rest of the story will be.  

The two main characters  Kaliel and Krishani, have a love like no other. Literally. They are elves and apparently these elves have no love for anything other than the land. They marry the land at some point, which I can only assume means they follow the path that has been set for them, kind of like a destiny. Of course they do not comply as all others have before them and fall in love after meeting accidentally at the forbidden waterfall. Their love, like everything else in the book, is set into hyper-drive when, after their first meeting, they are forced apart and must pine for each other for more than a year before coming back together by chance. It is all just really unbelievable and at times trite. 

Something that I really wish would have been explored in more depth, and could possibly be in the future books, is what it actually means for them to be The Flame and The Ferryman. We get very brief explanations, but nothing that really gives the reader an idea of what is to come for our two characters. It would have been great if the two stories had not intertwined from the very beginning. Perhaps each, Kaliel and Krishani, could have had their own separate stories, before it all comes full circle and their love affair begins. It just seems they were not done enough justice by forcing them together right in the beginning and not having been established as an individual being.

The best thing about this story is the writing of Avristar, the world where this story takes place. Paille did a wonderful job providing us with details which allowed for a full view of the world. I could picture the forests and the cave were their love bloomed. It was one of the few ways that I connected with the story. 

2 Stars