Review: Sophie and Carter by Chelsea Fine

While other high school seniors are dreaming about their futures, Sophie and Carter are just trying to make it through each day. Carter is overwhelmed by issues at home as he struggles to support his mother. Meanwhile, next door neighbor Sophie is left to care for her three younger siblings in place of their absent and troubled mother. All that holds these two best friends together is each other, and knowing that each night they'll sit together on Sophie's front porch swing and escape from reality, if just for awhile. But as their relationship reaches a turning point and high school graduation nears, will their friendship become something more?

Paperback, 128 pages

Published June 20th 2011 by Acacia Publishing, Inc.

 

 

  This was a beautifully written and at times heart wrenching story!  It was not what I expected when I picked it up at all!!  Seeing the book around I thought I would pick it up and to be honest I didn't even read the description or any reviews, just ratings.  Horrible I know but when I started reading it I don't regret my decision. 

 

  Sophie has been through a lot in her 18 years.  Yet she comes off as the sweet, optimist and you love her guts (you will get that if you read the book).  She cares for her younger siblings and has no normal teenage life but she doesn't resent them for that and it breaks your heart to know what she not only is going through but what she would do for them.   There is no words to describe the inner strength that she has.  It is made very clear the feelings she has for Carter but she doesn't say anything.  She is content just to have him.

 

  Carter has been through hell and back.  He cares for his mother before and after school.  He doesn't get to be a regular teenage boy because he loves his mom more than anything and doesn't want her to get taken away.  I LOVE Carter.  In some ways he may be a little broken but with what has dealt with can you blame him.  His light at the end of the tunnel is Sophie but he wont tell her.  He tries to help her but he has a lot of his own things to deal with.

 

  You will be drawn into this book from the first chapter!  It is a short 128 pages and trust me there is so much emotion and heart ache in those pages you wont even notice that you have read them.  This is overall an amazing read and you will be holding tears back happy or sad at many spots in the book. If you are looking for a quick but emotion packed read this is your book!!!

 

4/5

WoW: A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine,

and spotlights upcomingnovels we can't wait to read.

 

 

This week I am waiting on A Temptation of Angels by

Michelle Zink

Thankfully I don't have much longer to wait for this one!!!

It's releases March 20, 2012



When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.

I can't even express how excited I am that this book will be coming out in 20 days!! There are so many reasons I feel this is a must have but at the top of them is Michelle Zink is amazing :)

Well that's what I am waiting on this week.  What are you waiting on!? Feel free to leave me a link to your WoW.

Interview & Giveaway w/Kate Klimo

Everyone help me welcome author & horse lover Kate Klimo!

Horses obviously are a huge part of your life, when did your love of them start?

I have always loved horses, from the time I played "horses" on the playground in kindergarten and took lessons with saved-up allowance in the Brookville stables near where I grew up in Sea Cliff on Long Island. But it was for my fiftieth birthday that my husband gave me a ten-pack of lessons and, for some reason, that triggered what might be called a mid-life mania, starting with lessons, then leasing a horse, then taking clinics, finally owning horses and taking fabulous riding vacations to all corners of the world. Now my horses are in a barn in my back yard and there's nothing more wonderful than to go out at night in my pajamas and visit or first thing with my morning tea. 

 If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would you be?

If I couldn't be a writer, I would be a horse trainer. No question.

 How often do you write?

When I am working on a book, I write every day. I wake up at four and write until eleven or so and then I get up and do stuff, preferably active stuff, like shopping or riding my horse or hiking. When I'm deeply into a book, I will sometimes write for twelve-hour stretches but that takes a toll.  I work in an office four days a week and have a roughly five-hour round trip by bus and, you guessed it, I write the whole way to and from the office. Makes the long trip seem short! There are usually one-to-two month periods between projects or while my editor has the manuscript at whatever stage it might be, outline, rough draft, etc. Those I call my fallow times, my not-writing times, which are as important to the process as the creative times because, after all, you have to let a field lie fallow for it to flourish on a regular basis. Don't want to strip the soil now, do we? Okay, I think I've beat the agrarian imagery to death, don't you?

Favorite writing snacks?

Because I can't be trusted to get up and get my own sustenance, my husband usually brings me a snack: apple and cheese or sliced oranges or sometimes some squares of dark chocolate. (Isn't he a sweetie?) I'm not a coffee drinker but when I am flagging, he will bring me a single shot of very sweet espresso as a pick-me-up. I drink water constantly because hydrating myself is good and also because it forces me to get up and move around, if only to the bathroom and back. Writing is an intense mental and physical process and it's good for both mind and body when you get up and shake yourself out on a regular basis.

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Here's all of Kate's Stalking Info:

Goodreads

Twitter

Website

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GIVEAWAY! 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feels Like I'm Dying....

These last few days I've been battling something nasty that's been kicking my body's ASS! So today I went to the doctor and after telling me things look ok, "but let's do a nasal swab to rule out Influenza"......what do ya know?! I have Influenza Type A!

Before you all start panicking and planning your speeches for my funeral, it's just a viral strain of the flu that can't be treated with antibiotic. So the doctor is basically telling me to tough this shit out and become Motts' top buyer.

Now the point to this iPhone fueled rant....this shit sucks! Please just try to deal with my Twitter whining and my attempt to stay in top of shit around here. I will BE BACK!

Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers

At the moment we have on display in our library a wonderful travelling exhibition from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. It tells the story of Anne Frank and through her story and other personal narratives talks about human rights, various prejudises of our time and discrimination. The Anne Frank House and the Finnish Peace Education Institute co-operated in educating a group of Finnish youngsters to act as quides for their peers and this month we've had numerous school classes visiting the exhibition. So, I thought it fitting to read something relevant to the exhibition. I read Anne Frank's diary years ago, but did not feel I wanted to reread it at this point. However, Ana's post on a novel partly set in WWII Holland had caught my eye in January and luckily our library system had a copy. The novel was Postcard's from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers.

Postcards from No Man's Land, the winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1999, tells two connected stories, one set during the last months of World War II and the other set in 1990s Amsterdam. In more contemporary story 17-year-old Jacob (Jack) Todd arrives in Amsterdam to learn more about his grandfather, a soldier who died in a nearby town during the war. In 1944 another teenager, a girl named Geertrui, meets a British soldier named Jacob Todd and helps him hide as the Brits retreat from the Germans.

I have read a fair share of novels and nonfiction about WW II, but this was my first book about resistance in Holland. I liked the story of Geertrui and the soldier Jacob, but found Jack's story even more interesting. Jack faces some big questions about who he is, about love, identity, life -and death- during his stay in Amsterdam and in my opinion Chambers manages extremely well in making his story believable and interesting. My only criticism is that the ending was almost too neat! :)

Ana mentions in her review that Postcards from No Man's Land includes a great representation of bisexuality. I wholeheartily agree with her. Actually, it is great to simply find a bisexual character in a novel, they come wide and far apart, but in Postcards from No Man's Land sexuality in all its forms is represented very matter of factly and without angst which I found refreshing.

Postcards from No Man's Land is a wonderful novel and I would hightly recommend you to go and find yourself a copy to read!



IMM (Vlog) - I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack

Review: Shatter Me -By Tahereh Mafi

Author:  Tahereh Mafi
Website
Release Date: 11/15/2011
Purchase Info: Amazon, B&N, Book Depo


Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.


The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.


The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.


Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

First Thought: Mind-Blowing!! Utterly romantic & completely riveting!

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!


This (points up) is the only word that comes to mind when I think of Shatter Me!


Juliette is probably one of the best characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. Though she is broken, that is what makes her simple and pure, at least in my eyes. 

Starting her story in her isolated prison cell was a fabulous idea. It's gritty, dirty and truly displays Juliette as how she sees herself, completely alone.

Suddenly a roommate named Adam is throw at her, well not thrown at her because he most likely would have died, but her isolation is no longer quiet and lonely. There's something about her roommate that causes her heart to pump faster, and her brain to work a little faster. But all Juliette wants is for him to just let her have the space she needs & pretend she's not in the room. Well, not only will her new cellmate NOT leave her alone, he pays an unusual amount of attention to her.
As quickly as he's introduced, Adam is taken away.

Ugh, then I had the pleasure of meeting Warren....seriously....this dude is SO wacked in the head. He even has some of my best blogger friends considering him a book boyfriend!
FYI, this guy would be the first person I'd shoot for fun.
Warren has a sadistic asshole, who thinks that using Juliette for his own gain is a the perfect way to propose a relationship to her. Showing exactly how much power he has only makes Juliette want to run farther away from him, his luxury and every compliment he throws at her.

Writing this review has been very hard for me. Trying to sum up my feelings for this book took me a loooooooooooooooong time. Editing out the verbal vomit and getting to the point of was the hardest part. I want to sit here and tell you guys word for word exactly what happens, how I think this book was one of the best books I've ever *and I mean ev-ah* had the pleasure of reading!
How Adam is the most courageous male lead in the history of male leads. Or how things aren't always as they seem, and love can make you do some pretty powerful stuff.
The one thing I will say is you absolutely must, must, must give this book a try. You will cry, get angry, but in the end your heart will thank you for taking it on the journey of a life time!


5/5 

The Godless Boys by Naomi Wood

Naomi Wood is a London based writer whose debute novel The Godless Boys was published last April. I first learned about the book only some weeks ago and immediately wanted to read it. Luckily my library had a copy.

The Godless Boys is set in the 1980s in a world where England is ruled by the Church and non-believers have been expelled to a remote island somewhere in the north. The book is subtitled "a story of love and violence" and yes, there is violence there. The island folks are being bothered by Malades, a gang of local boys, who are determined to find everyone who as much as thinks of religion. The Malades are lead by Nathaniel, whose world is turned upside down when a stowaway from England arrives on the weekly boat delivering provisions to the Islanders.

The stowaway is Sarah, who for the past ten years had been told her mother had run away with another man. By chance Sarah has learned that, in fact, her mother had been a member of the Secular Movement and had been involved in a church burning. Sarah has reason to believe her mother was expelled to the Island and she is determined to find her.

I love alternate histories. I love the aspect of what if. In her novel Wood has created an interesting world that for someone like me, who grew up in the 80s, feels intriguingly familiar and at the same time -luckily- totally alien. Wood has said in an interview that she chose to set the story in the 1980s, because "that decade felt like the high point of post-war secularisation". It was, at least in Finland and I guess in most of the western world, a decade of immense optimism, anything and everything was possible, things could only get better. Money was the new religion. The England of Wood's novel has been ruled by the Church since 1950. You believe or at least you act like you do, if you don't want to get in trouble.

However, not the English nor the Islander society is portrayed as totally either or. What is good or evil? Is the English society really as bad as the Malades think it is? Are the Islanders really as oneminded in their thinking as it seems at first? Actually Wood leaves a lot untold. I loved the book. My only criticism, or not really a criticism, more like a wish, is that I kept hoping to learn more about the Church ruled England. On the other hand I do admire writers who know what not to tell and leave some things to the imagination of the reader. In that aspect the ending of The Godless Boys was pretty much perfect! And one more thing  about that bit about love and violence. There is much more love, and so beautifully told, or the love shines through more brightly, than violence in the book. Though, violence in different forms also plays an integral part in the story.

As I already said, I loved this book, so much so that I might reread it at some point. I will definitely look forward to any other books by Naomi Wood. I'll leave you with a few thoughts by my favorite characher in the book. She is Eliza Michalca, a baker turned whore and undertaker, who is hopelessly in love with Arthur the fish monger and has a habit of writing words on her forehead, under her fringe.

"She wondered - would a girl of English origin - brought up by the Church and fostered in its teachings - look different to the Island girls here? Would God somehow strenghten the whites of her eyes so that they were brighter than her own? Make her hair more flaxen, her nails less soft, her skin more luminious? Eliza had not seen the girl up close: only the red length of hair and the freckled skin. Eliza tought it wonderful: to be brought up in believing in some kind and gently steering presence; to have a much stronger stake in some infinitely wiser thing than youself. Nothing could be wasted, not in God's eyes; no. Eliza imagined that the girl would be boundlessly positive, since isn't that what the Church made you believe in, in the irresistible rightness of every act? Eliza had never believed in God - how could she, she had never been taught - but she had always thought that - given a different life in England - she would have been a natural in it. But it was too late for it now." [p. 42]

Shift Blog Tour + Giveaway: Q & A with Chase & Rayna

The Shift Tour has ARRIVED!!

And all I can say is.......FINALLY!!

I have been waiting extremely, semi patiently for a while to get my hands on this book.

After reading the Exiled (my review here), I instantly knew this would be a new series favorite!

So for this stop on M.R. Merrick's blog tour, I really wanted to be able to ask his main characters some questions instead of him....wait that sounded slightly mean....anyways you guys know what I mean :)

Now here they are!

Rayna:

If your fight scene's had a playlist what would the top 3 songs be?

Brick By Boring Brick - Paramore

Savior - Rise Against

Thunderstruck - AC/DC

What's your favorite thing to do on a day when you're not hunting down evil?

I am a huge fan of horror movies, so in the event I get a moment's peace, I like to snuggle up on the couch with one of my favorites. That, or shopping, although Marcus says I have a tendency to overspend...

If you and Chase were a super hero team what would your team name be, and who would be the sidekick?

I don't now about a team name...but you and I both know Chase would be my sidekick.

Chase:

Ideal post fight meal?

Pepperoni and Bacon Pizza Pops. Nothing beats them.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully alive.

If you and Rayna were a super hero team what would your team name be, and who would be the sidekick?

I don't think I could come up with a name that wasn't lame, so if we ever become superheros, I'll let our adoring fans decide, but I think it's pretty obvious who the sidekick would be.

Thanks to the both of you for actually sitting down with me and answering some questions! I am beyond excited to see what happens to the both of you in Shift!

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Now for the GIVEAWAY!

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