Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Pages: 338
"YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME,"
I whisper.
I'M LYING,
is what I don't tell him.
HE CAN TOUCH ME,
is what I'll never tell him.
PLEASE TOUCH ME,
is what I want to tell him.
But things happen when people touch me.
Strange things.
Bad things.
DEAD THINGS.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. 
But Juliette has plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time--and to find a future with the one boy she thought she had lost forever.

Ramblings: 8O <-- My expression for about two days after finishing this book! I swear, the best book I've read this year! Bravo to you Tahereh! First off, this teaser? I almost died. I can't believe it's been out since November, I've read tons of reviews about how AMAZING this book is, and yet... I didn't read it until now. What is wrong with me??

Characters: Oh my, oh my. I love Juliette: from the counting to how caring she is to everyone! (well... almost everyone.) And then Adam. Oh Adam. The romance between Juliette and Adam is so beautiful and crazy! I love how forbidden it is at the Reestablishment and how Adam gets past the videos and microphones. Smart boy! Spoiler: The fact that he can touch her? Blew me away and I'm so excited to find out why in the next book! Spoiler Over.


Plot: This is certainly unique. I'm bad (ha. not even close to describing it.) at describing books in general, but this book? I just had to tell people to read it. Read it right now! I love the concept of the fact that when Juliette touches people, they can die although I still can't comprehend what exactly happens. I don't feel that that was explained too well in the book, but from the few times she touched people I know that I'd never want to be touched by her!

Overall: A gripping, page-turning, heart-exploding read that had me captivated from the first word to the last word. I never wanted to put this book down. Don't pass this one up!

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

IMM January 29

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren. I haven't done an IMM in a few weeks so I have quite a few books to show you!

I received for review:

   Misfits & Heroes by Kathleen Flanagan Rollins

The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin

On the Bright Side by S.R. Johannes

The Preist and the Peaches by Larry Peterson

I bought:

          

The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

Legend by Marie Lu

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Switched by Amanda Hocking

The Hollow by Jessica Verday

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Heist Society by ALly Carter

Frozen by Robin Wasserman

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

What did you get in your mailbox this week? Happy Reading!

P.S. Don't forget to stop by my One Year Bloggiversary Giveaway! :)

Across the Universe

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Pages: 398

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends, and planet, behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Cenauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside a tiny world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold, metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

Ramblings: oh my oh my! Why have I not picked this up sooner? It has been sitting on my shelf for a month! I really love this story, even though it was a little tough to stay focused on.

Characters: my favorite character was Harley by far! I loved 1. That he is an artist and 2. Just his personality and how caring he is for Amy. He really brought the book together! As for the two main characters, I did love Amy and Elder. There wasn't anything about them that I didn't particularly dislike. Spoiler: after the whole almost rape session, and Elder finally finds out about it, I was and am mad that he didn't do anything about it! Like really? She almost got freaking raped. C'mon boy. I hope that gets taken care of in the next book! Spoiler over.

Plot: this plot is so interesting, I was fascinated with it from the first time I looked at the back cover. I really can't believe it took me so long to read it. I found that it was great adventure and I loved the story but for some reason I couldn't stay focused on it. It took me quite a while to read, but once I was down to the last 150 pages, I flew through it. I was soooooo shocked by the ending! Eldest had so many secrets, I almost died right then and there.

Overall: I seriously love this book and you will too! A great adventure with twists and turns at every turn of the page and deep stories behind every person combined with Revis's great writing creates for an a,aging book you don't want to pass up! And the second one is out now so you don't have to wait tto continue the adventure!

Overall Rating: 4 Stars

BTT: Writing or Riveting?

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is:

Which is more important: Good writing? Or a Good story?

My Answer: I would definitely say that good writing is most important to me. The way a character speaks and interacts with others, the overall tone and feel of the novel has to be good otherwise I won't get hookednontonthe novel. I wish it weren't true and that any book with an interesting story could blow my mind, but the writing has to grab me too.

What ais more important to you? Comment & follow, I follow back! :)
Happy Reading!

The Ocean and the Hourglass

The Ocean and the Hourglass by Dan O'Brien


Pages: 251
Dreams are not for the faint of heart, they are for the brave to follow. A book, an hourglass. Mocholas has always dreamt of faraway places, distant lands beyond imagination. Wandering into the library on a cold day, he finds an adventure that he had not been looking for. Transported to a distant world, Nicholas finds himself involved in sweeping adventures of a broken and lost kingdom. Filled with sea giants and ancient cities, the young man soon finds that the adventure was greater than he could have ever imagined.

Ramblings: this book definitely sounded interesting with a fun, new idea for a story, and the fact that Nicholas got put INTO the story was great! I have always wondered about that and I'm excited to have gotten a book where the main character enters a book.

Characters: the characters in this book were pretty fun and very interesting! I couldn't pronounce many of their names though. I really felt that these characters who were teens had a very adultish tone and feel to them, not so much by their actions, but the way the spoke. It isn't how any teenager I know speaks. Besides that I feel like Nicholas is a really smart guy and he taught me quite a few life lessons.

Plot: The plot was so fun! I really liked is whirl-wind of a story though. Combined with all of the action and suspense, there was also a lot of messages running throughout the story which I found really inspiring.

Overall: I enjoyed the book although at first it didn't hook me. It wasn't one of my favorites, but I wouldn't pass it up. I'm not sure if it belongs in the YA category because there was such an adultish feel to it, but a great overall read!

Overall Rating: 3 Stars

Musing Monday January 24

This week's Musing asks,
Why do you think that the YA Genre is sp popular, even with the adults?

My Answer: personally I think it is because of the crazy, adventurous plots that so many people are attracted to YA fiction. I love the adventure and how much all if the different genres vary from one another. The YA genre is just amazing and I love being a teen. Excuse I can relate to a lot of the characters, but I know that even as I grow up that I will always love this genre :)

Happy Reading!