So I’m kind of cheating for this TTT. The prompt is books that were recently added to your TBR, but I’ll be doing Top Ten recently added to my TBR- by my owning them. I’ve been buying and borrowing a ton of books lately, so this’ll be a good checklist of everything to come in the near future, as they’re going to be my next reads.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Winter by Marissa Meyer

I can’t believe I haven’t even started this one yet! The Lunar Chronicles is an absolute favorite of mine so it’s completely ludicrous that I haven’t even begun the last book in the series; I got it for my birthday in December! This’ll probably be the first one I read when I get a moment.

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

I bought this one solely because Cait at Paper Fury loved it. Horrah for blogger trust!

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

I bought this one because Steph at SDCB said she thought I’d love it. Also because the cover is holographic. Because.. impulse buying.

The Heir by Kiera Cass

I own all of The Selection books and was planning to end it there… until I noticed my library had this one. Which is good- if I bought all of the books in The Selection series, it’d take up 1/3 of my bookcase.

A White Room by Stephanie Carroll

To be fair, I don’t actually own this one. But it’s on the very top(ish) of my list of priorities!!

Future Winds by Kevin Laymon

I’m actually in the middle of my second readthrough of this one, because it’s the type of book you really need to read twice to get all of the details. You can read my review HERE.

Willow by Julia Hoban

I actually have next to no interest in this book, but I own it so… eh. I don’t like the idea of owning a book that I haven’t read.

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James

I got this one at the RT Booklover’s convention! Which is pretty great, as I’ll be getting married soon(ish)!

So those are the books that are soon to be on my review list. I think this is a really great prompt (even though I cheated) and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has on their TBR!

Emotive is a tale of life, love, compassion, and the pursuit of happiness as told through the eyes of the story’s narrator, Linus. Linus is a puppy living in a small city located in the rolling hillsides of upstate New York. When the abnormalities of his owner Sam are all he knows since birth, he gains a perspective of unyielding acceptance and love towards the man who feeds him, takes him to the park, and murders women in his basement.

Thanks to Ikigai Publishing for the ARC of Emotive!

My Thoughts:

I absolutely love that synopsis- particularly the last line. It was what convinced me to give this book a try, when my last attempt at reading a dog’s viewpoint turned into a DNF before even the second chapter. Luckily, Emotive paid off. Emotive is a unique and interesting story about a dog’s struggle for survival and a life worth living.

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This will by my very first time participating in Beautiful People, but it’s a good time to start! This year I plan to do far more writing a get a few accomplishments under my belt, so let’s see how this goes!

Beautiful people is a meme posted by Paper Fury that asks writers questions about their characters. It’s definitely good for development and it’s a good way to connect with other writers!

What were your writing achievements last year?

I wanted to finish my first novel, which has a working name of Fade. Definitely not going to stick with that name, though.. do you know how many books on Goodreads are called Fade? Sometimes good titles are hard to come up with.

Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?

I’m writing a middlegrade with the working title of “Don’t You See It?” But I doubt that’ll be the final title, as it’s too close to “Do You Believe Me?,” another Middlegrade I’m working on, and they’re unconnected. DYSI is about a young girl, Anya, who discovers a monster has been living in her room and influencing her throughout her entire life. As she realizes it’s there, it begins to give her more solid instructions for curing her loneliness, which leads to chaos for her. I’ve barely started, but I’m looking forward to writing more!

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I did some fantastic collaborating with SDCB Steph and she not only helped me add the “Popular Reviews” sidebar that you now see gracing my blog with its presence, but she taught me how to use GIFS!!

SO THAT MAKES ME….

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFS!! (Can this be copyrighted if I add a link to the goodreads page?)

But see what I did there?

Yeah, so I have GIFs now. It’s pretty fantastic. And I promise, promise, promise that I will not be overusing them! (Except on this post.)

Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.

Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.

When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.

My Thoughts:

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc!

Okay, first of all (pun intended), this book is not YA! If you’re thinking about buying a good book for your teenager, this is not it! There is so much sex in this book that it practically borders erotica. Yes, I know how things are nowadays with sex being a common part of High School life, but that doesn’t mean we all need to give into the idea that teenagers are meant to be whores.

Firsts took a few serious topics- underage sex, negligent parenting, miscarriage, bullying, rape– and displayed them in the light of a cute and fluffy read. For some, this might make it easier to relate to such problems, but for me, it makes them seriously annoying. Most of these problems weren’t even addressed! The rape wasn’t addressed. The parenting issues weren’t addressed. The bullying was addressed in such an asinine manner that it would have been better off if the ‘victim’ was bullied to death, in my opinion. Then at least this book would have a lesson.

And Mercedes herself wasn’t a peach, either. Although I liked her for a good half of the book- even found her relatable- her character changes halfway throughout the story. It goes from “I’m a grown woman being independent and taking shiz from no one” to “OMG he/she smiled at me what if he liiiikeeeess meee? Do I like her? I don’t know what my feelings are!!” It goes from giving High Schoolers too much credit, to no credit at all.

Honestly, I can’t really imagine who would seriously love this book. Enjoying it is fine enough, because it did flow nicely and was interesting at a lot of points, but the main conflict? Either you’re a teenager feeling awkward at all the description, or you’re an adult feeling awkward reading about children getting it on. Or maybe I’m just old-fashioned.

Either way, this one wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t for me.

It wasn’t all bad, though. One good thing about it was the way it portrayed friendship. Although at first the friendship was something like “I don’t know you but I like you and let’s be friends and now you’re my favorite person in the world and I’d die for you!!” later on down the line you get to understand those feelings. The way Mercedes was treated by her friends actually inspired me to be a better friend, making me willing to go through fire and brimstone to protect those I love. Which made it all the more annoying when Mercedes’s response to this kill-for-you attitude was, “woe is meeee… I’m so bad for everyone around me… I should just betray their trust and leave because their lives would be better without me… I’ll bet they’re trying to figure a way out of our friendship anyway… I’m so sad and no one likes me.”

Ugh. …UGH.

Two Stars

Edit: I wrote this post on New Years, and then I realized it was the prompt for TTT! How convenient, right?

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme posted by The Broke and the Bookish that asks book bloggers a different prompt every Tuesday.

Happy New Year, everyone! 2015 was a pretty amazing year for me and I have high hopes for 2016. One of my favorite things to do during the new year, unorginally, is to make a list of resolutions. Generally they’re pretty long, but this year I find myself so fulfilled that I have very little to strive for. So, this year, my bookish resolutions are going to be my ONLY resolutions! Isn’t that great? Here they are!

I want announce my intentions of becoming a full-time Editor to the internet!

I’ve been an editor for quite some time now, editing and reviewing several books and finding work by word of mouth, but I’ve been avoiding advertising my intentions to do so due to the idea that I wouldn’t have enough time between everything else. But when I looked into it, I found that editors can take months to finish a book, and they often do! I love the work, and I feel like I do a very good job at it, so I’ve decided to start advertising my services online! I do proofreading and copy editing, which means I can either just check for grammar issues, or I can check for grammar issues and give advice on structural composition and general plot.

I probably won’t charge any more for copy editing like some editors do because, hey, I’m a book blogger. The whole reason I’m here at all is to review books, so unless someone specifically doesn’t want my opinion, they’ll be getting it!

I plan to read fewer hype books!

Between you and me, internet (because I’m sure you can keep a secret), I love hype books. Most of my TBR is made of hype books, and I have almost never been disappointed with what I’ve read. This resolution is credited to my hype-hating mother-in-law-to-be, whom makes the point that light and fluffy hyped reads hardly stick with the memory or leave a reader anything that could change them. Personally, I’ve never been really changed by a book, and I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s possible. So my resolution to read fewer hype books stems from both an interest in finding a truly amazing read, and from how tired I am of arguing hype with my mother-in-law. (Love you, though!)

I plan to spend more time blogging and writing posts!

I love the blogging community and the fact that I can have book discussions on everything I’ve read. I love finding new hype meaningful books and sharing my opinions. Sadly, in 2015 I didn’t have too much time for blogging. Considering how little free time I had, I wanted to use it for reading. But for Christmas I got an Amazon Fire from my mother-in-law, and I’m wondering if it’s a bribe to read less hype excited to say I can use it to write posts during my lunch break at work, which happens to be the time I’m most in the mood to do so! In fact, I’m at work right now as I write this, drinking hot chocolate and stalling buying food, which I should really stop. But gah, my back hurts and I don’t want to get up. Why do they work me so haaaaaarrrd?

But yeah. I bought a keyboard so I can type regularly with this Fire and it’s basically the coolest thing ever.

So there you have it! My resolutions for this year are fewer than I’ve ever had, but happily and like always, they’re fully accomplishable! Looking forward to a year of blogging, writing and reading, as well as spending time with family and getting married!

So what are everyone else’s resolutions? Are they bookish or lifeish? Do you think you’ll accomplish them? I’m interested in your opinion!

Notice how I made the title rhyme? This was done purposely.

So Mini Reviews are something I’ve never done before, mostly because I read waaaay too slowly for me to update this blog with all reviews in one post, but I’ve been really lagging on writing my reviews, so I think it’s about time.

This one has a theme: Hype Books!

(Which is pretty much the theme of every review on my blog, but – eh- who’s paying that much attention, anyway?)

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people’s lives.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

My Thoughts:

I’m not so sure my thinking was “forever changed” by this one. It was an interesting story, for sure, but I don’t know where all the hype is based. It is fluidly written with a concrete plot and excellent character development, though. One of my favorite things about The Girl on the Train was the formatting. It was written in a “Morning, Evening” way, so there are major time skips in every chapter, which works very well with the main character’s alcoholic personality, because often she doesn’t remember what happens between the two, anyways. This also means the narration skips from present to past and back again constantly without being confusing, which does well for the pace. Overall, though, I was expecting something more unusual, and this one was pretty realistic- as far as murders go, I guess. This isn’t a bad thing, but it means the story itself is nothing uber special.

Three Stars

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Ooooh.. this one’s a hard one for me. Have I even read ten books in 2015? It sounds pathetic, but the year went by so quickly, I hardly got any reading done! But I’m sure I can find a few.

Top  Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that gives a weekly prompt for bookish bloggers to converse over.

You can click on any of the books to get my review! (Except Cress, which I haven’t reviewed.) How cool is that? Picture links are another first on this blog.

Also, I can’t figure out my blog right now, which is the most annoying thing in the world, and if I kept trying I’d end up throwing my computer out the window. So, for the sake of my next paycheck, I’m going to have to just let this post be weirdly-formed.

Anyways, happy Tuesday!

Set in a science fiction setting with elements of twisted horror, Future Winds is a strange yet wondrous tale of species self-preservation and the all-out moral cost of survival. Forced to leave earth, humanity discovers a planet capable of supporting life and hatches an audacious plan that will warp them across the universe to settle and begin anew. There is a darkness that resides below the planet’s surface, but with no option to turn back, humanity must find a way forward.

Buy it on Amazon

Add it on Goodreads

Read the Author’s Interview (Which you should. It’s pretty cool stuff.)

Normally, I’ll start writing a review immediately after I finish a book. I’ll brainstorm the points I want to make, and my overall thoughts. But with Future Winds.. after finishing I felt nothing but shock. Let me tell you, this book has one hell of an ending. Like Girl with all the Gifts style, but better. I wasn’t at all expecting what was going to happen, and it was like a cherry on a piece of sci-fi-pie. (Is that cheesy? It’s totally cheesy. I’m leaving it in there anyway.)

As for the rest of the book, I was enamored. The characters alone had me hooked. Not only are they all incredibly diverse- from personality to ethnicity- they are all so unique. This was a multi-viewpoint book, and normally with those you have your “main character” and everything else is just flavor text. Not with Future Winds. Each character was so well written with their dynamics and their separate conflicts that Laymon could have written a story about any one of their perspectives, and it would still be interesting. My favorite character was Aries, an artificial intelligence drone. I loved the line between human and robot presented by this book, especially during one particular part that I’m not going to spoil, but that scene alone made me want a sequel. But to piece all of the viewpoints together gave so many perfect views of a world that is corrupt to the core, and seeing this from all these different eyes and angles creates a world that is completely three-dimensional.

And that’s another thing! The world! It was so well written that I feel like I could easily draw every aspect of it. Everything was meticulously described, so it’s easy to imagine the kind of strange world the characters are entering, but it’s not detailed to the point of tediousness *cough* Ayn Rand *cough*. Nothing important was left to the imagination, and I think that maybe that’s why, days after reading it, I’m still constantly picturing this world and the characters in it. (Not that it’s at all a pleasant picture.)

It is dark. There are a lot of gorey, nasty moments, but what’s really dark about the book is the overall tone. Laymon, through his novel, makes a commentary on government power, big corporations, and the darkness of the human nature. Reading it, I felt constantly trapped and anxious, and there were parts that made me gasp out loud even though no one else was in the room with me. (If anyone else has read this, message me. I need to talk about what happened to Lucas with somebody.)

But it wasn’t all perfect! Things I didn’t like:

• Good God it’s not for children! Which isn’t really a flaw.. I just wasn’t prepared for the amount of gore I was getting myself into.
• I’m wishing the Overlords were elaborated on. Maybe there will be a sequel? *Crossing fingers*
• Everybody swears! Even, like, the stone-cold officials, which seemed out of place. But I think this was supposed to be a way of showing the unraveling of society.

Future Winds just leaves so much to think about, particularly with the symbolism presented by the Overlords in the book, I definitely want a sequel! I feel like there was one chapter in the book that could have been an entire novel in and of itself, and I’d love to see the author elaborating on the world he’s created. This is a book for people that like to delve into the deeper meaning of things, that want to have an intellectual conversation about symbolism and secrets. If it didn’t have so much blood and cussing I’d recommend it for an English class. But if you’re not into that, it’s good at surface value, too.

Overall, I loved Future Winds. It was brilliant in its realistic characters, inventive scenery, and underlying message. This debut shows an author with so much potential, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

Five Stars