Waiting On Wednesday (9)

It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for another Waiting on Wednesday post. For those of you that don't know, Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine where book bloggers share what upcoming releases they are excited to read.

And now, for this week's pick:

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Summary (from The Contemps' website):

Some schools have honor codes. Others have handbooks. Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds. Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way-the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds-a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers. In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone-especially yourself-you fight for it.

As you may have guessed, The Mockingbirds is another one of the books for the Contemps Challenge. The story looks really good and, especially with all the controversy of the past week over books with a similar theme, the story deserves to be out there and read. It might be a subject people are uncomfortable with but it won't go away just because of that.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney will be published by Little, Brown November 2, 2010.

Top Ten Tuesday

I have been thinking about doing Top Ten Tuesday for a while, but the topics each week never really appealed to me...until this week. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's Top Ten has to do with our favorite fictional couples in books. So here is my list, in no particular order.

Clary and Jace from the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I absolutely love Clary and Jace. They have already gone through so much and they just deserve to actually be together and be happy. But knowing how the books tend to go, Cassandra Clare probably has something in store for them that will make me want to throw my book against the wall...and then continue reading to see if it all gets solved.

Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So I was Team Peeta the whole way so how Mockingjay ended made me really happy (even if I wasn't completely satisfied with how they got to where they ended up). They just went through so much and to finally see them be happy together just made me really happy.

Rose and Dimitri from the Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I am pretty much in love with Dimitri myself but I'll let Rose have him. I absolutely love this couple. They finally decide to be together and something goes wrong and now I'm just hoping that they will find a way to be together that will bring them back to how they were.

Kelley and Sonny from Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Kelley and Sonny are just amazing. I love how their relationship and really hope everything works out for them, despite some of the things Kelley said to Sonny at the end of Darklight. I just have to wait until December to see if what I want to happen to them ends up happening.

Sam and Grace from Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I haven't read Linger yet (it's next in my TBR pile) so this is just based on Shiver but I love Sam and Grace. I don't know what happens to them after Shiver but I just hope they are able to stay together.

Harry and Ginny from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Do I even need to explain? It's Harry and Ginny as far as I'm concerned that's explanation enough.

Hermione and Ron from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

I waited for the longest time for this to finally happen and when it did I was the happiest reader on the planet. Beyond that just see the explanation for Harry and Ginny and apply it here too.

Lena and Ethan from Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

I love Ethan and Lena. I don't really know why, I just do. I can't wait to see what happens next to them.

Brittany and Alex from Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

This could honestly have been any couple from Simone Elkeles's books. I chose Brittany and Alex because they're the ones that got to me first. I'll be honest I sometimes wished I was Brittany.

Macy and Wes from The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

This could also have been any of Sarah Dessen's couples but Macy and Wes are just special to me and I absolutely love them.

The list could obviously have been a lot longer but these are my Top Ten. I'm sure in about 30 minutes I'll have thought of a bunch of others that could have made the list but these are it for now.

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

Title: Losing Faith

Author: Denise Jaden

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: September 7, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

When Brie’s sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie’s world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral further off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t  know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don’t line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.

I’ll be honest, the main reason I originally picked up Losing Faith by Denise Jaden was because it was part of the Contemps Challenge. That’s not to say that the book didn’t sound interesting from the description, because it totally did and as it turns out the book was actually really good. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the book because I hadn’t looked that much into it and it had only just come out when I began reading it. I’ll admit I was uncertain about the book at first, but as I kept reading I just liked it more and more and by the end I just loved it.

Brie has always been the “bad” sister, what with Faith being all perfect and super involved in church and youth group. Basically, Faith is the perfect daughters all parents dream about having. That is until she dies suddenly Brie finds herself in the position long held by her sister. Brie’s life turns upside down: her parents are a mess, the guy she thought loved her may not be all that into her, and her friends just don’t know how to approach her anymore. Brie finds herself becoming friends with the last people she ever expected to be friends with and the more she looks into it, the more there seems to be something off about the night her sister died.

Brie sort of creeped up on me. I wasn’t sure about her at first but as I was reading, I found myself liking her more and more. It’s really great to see her evolution throughout the book. She went from being a a teenage girl trying to find out where she fit in and ended up being strong and knowing exactly who she was. Even if she wasn’t physically there, it was also great to see Brie’s relationship with Faith changed. Despite Faith being dead, by the end of the book Brie was closer to her sister than ever. Brie was truly great once I got to know her and wished I could have spent more time with her.

Brie’s friends amused me more than anything else. From the start I could pretty much tell that things weren’t going to work out with Dustin and that Amy wouldn’t turn out to be as good a friend as Brie made her sound. But when Tessa and Alis came in, I liked them from the start. Tessa had me laughing many times and shaking my head the rest of the time. The things the girl thought of, just had me completely wondering how she even came up with those ideas. Alis was different, I liked him pretty much right away and that might have had something to do with him being all mysterious at first. But as I found out more about him, I could tell that he was just a good guy trying to do the right thing...and for once I wasn’t totally going for the bad guy.

At first, I wasn’t completely sure about the whole religious aspect of the book but it turned out it didn’t really bother me by the end. It wasn’t really what was important about the story. The focus was on Brie trying to figure out what had happened to Faith and getting to know her better through her death. The way the story was set up, I could see some of the things coming but a lot of it took me by surprise which is what I like books to do.

Losing Faith was a great read and, I’ll be honest, I enjoyed it a lot more than I originally thought I would. It was a great story about love and loss but didn’t fall into all the clichés that are normally associated with those two subjects. Now I can say that I can’t wait for whatever comes next from Denise Jaden.

Book Blogger Hop (12) & Follow Friday (4)

It's Friday which means it's once again time for the Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday. First things first, the Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Jennifer of Crazy-for-Books as a way for book bloggers to get together and visit each other's blogs. I've found a lot of great blogs through the hop and had many new people come see my blog as well.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHEN YOU WRITE REVIEWS, DO YOU WRITE THEM AS YOU ARE READING OR DO YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE ENTIRE BOOK?

I don't think I've ever written a review when I wasn't done reading the book the review was for. I always right my reviews once I'm finished reading a book because that way I've seen the whole picture and I have my mind made up. If I were to write a review while still reading, I might not have the same opinion on the book as when I'm finished reading it, just because there is always some plot twist that changes everything. At least that's how it works for me.

Like I said, Friday also means it's time for the Follow Friday. Like the hop, Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's view. I haven't been participating in this meme as long as I have the Book Blogger Hop but I've met lots of wonderful people through this weekly hop as well.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHAT IS YOUR HIGH FASHION BOOK? - TRANSLATION - BEST BOOK COVER EVER!

This is honestly kind of difficult to answer. I have to admit I often judge books by their covers but I don't think I've ever picked a favorite or best ever. There are plenty out there that I really like but I just don't know which to choose! If I really have to, I would say that my absolute favorite covers are for Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments books and Clockwork Angel. I don't really know why, there is just something about them that I love.

UPDATES

So far school isn't kicking my butt, but then again I've only had two full weeks of classes. I actually was able to do quite a bit of reading this week so I have reviews coming up but I'll still only post one per week that way they will last longer. So you can expect a review of Losing Faith by Denise Jaden and The DUFF by Kody Keplinger coming soon. Both were really great books and everyone should really go and read them.

Enjoy your weekends!

Waiting On Wednesday (8)

It's Wednesday again and that means another Waiting on Wednesday post. For those who don't know, Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Jill of Breaking theSpine where we all share what upcoming book releases we are excited to get out hands on.

My pick for this week is:

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

There has yet to be a summary released for this book but I am still very excited about it. I read The Iron King a couple weeks back and absolutely loved it. The next book, The Iron Daughter, is next up on my pile of books to read and I'm really looking forward to diving back into the world Julie Kagawa has created.

Even though no summary has been released you can go to Julie Kagawa's blog and every Tuesday she posts a new teaser from the book. She has posted three so far and they only make me that much more excited to read the book.

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa will be published by Harlequin Teen in February 2011.