YA Love Triangle Week: Team Damon

It's YA Love Triangle Week over at Down The Rabbit Hole and I'm guest posting and representing Team Damon. I absolutely LOVE the Vampire Diaries and the Salvatore brothers. So here goes:

Okay, so here’s the deal: Team Damon is the team to be on. I had my doubts about it too at first, I’ll admit it. But I came to my senses soon enough and now don’t even think about trying to get me to change back over to Team Stefan. It’s just not going to happen, so deal with it.

There is just so much more to Damon than there is to Stefan. Other than the fact that he loves Elena, is more or less a good guy a

ll around and his good looks, what else is there really to Stefan? That’s what I thought, not that much. Damon on the other hand has a lot more to offer: he’s mysterious, dangerous, has his moments with humor and of course he’s pretty damn hot as well. And that’s only on the surface.

When he finally gets the guts to open up and show more of himself, Damon can be an absolutely great guy. Sometimes you can just tell that he wants to be better he just hasn’t figured quite how to do it yet. But when he finally does, he will be just as if not more lovable than Stefan, believe me when I say this. He has his moments when he can be so amazing, both in the original series and the new one. In the new series, particularly the latest book, you can see more and more of his good side start to appear and that just makes me love him that much more.

And let’s not forget about the TV show. How can you not love Ian Somerhalder playing Damon. I mean just the eyes is enough to get most girls to fall right in love with him. And more and more on the TV show, you start to see his good side come through. Stefan’s not the only one who loves and wants to save Elena at all costs. Damon wants just the same thing, he just has a different way of showing it.

Basically it all comes down to this, Damon can be just as soft, sensitive and sweet as Stefan but he can also be a total badass which just makes him that much more awesome. Maybe I’m biased and the fact that I have a major tendency to fall for bad boys probably doesn’t help either, but Team Damon is the way to go. You can believe whatever you want but Damon will always be better than Stefan for me.

In case it isn’t clear yet. If you aren’t on TEAM DAMON, you are most definitely on the wrong team.

So go on over to Down The Rabbit Hole and vote for Team Damon!

Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Title: Return to Paradise

Author: Simone Elkeles

Publisher: Flux

Release Date: September 1, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Caleb Becker left Paradise eight months ago, taking with him the secret he promised to take to his grave. If the truth got out, it would ruin everything.

Maggie Armstrong tried to be strong after Caleb broke her heart and disappeared. Somehow, she managed to move on. She was determined to make a new life for herself.

But now Caleb and Maggie are forced together on a summer trip. They try ignoring their passion for each other, but buried feelings resurface. Caleb must face the truth about the night of Maggie’s accident, or the secret that destroyed their relationship will forever stand between them.

I missed Maggie and Caleb. They are just such great characters and I missed reading about them. Once again Simone Elkeles has written a wonderful story with amazing characters that you can’t help but love. I’ve loved absolutely everything I’ve read by Elkeles and it was the same thing with Return to Paradise. When I finished Leaving to Paradise, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending but now I am truly happy with how things turned out.

It’s been eight months since Caleb left Paradise and Maggie behind but once again he finds himself in trouble. And the only way to get out of that trouble is to go on a four week trip with a group of teenagers’ whose lives have been affected by reckless driving. And who else should be part of that group than Maggie Armstrong. Maggie thought she had managed to get over Caleb, or at least she had convinced herself she was over him. The next four weeks are going to prove to be longer than they should and Caleb and Maggie will have to come to terms with different parts of their past and maybe salvage their relationship.

I have said this about every single one of Simone Elkeles’s male characters that I have read about but I LOVE CALEB. As big a jerk and idiot he can be at times I still love him and would pretty much love him no matter what. There’s something about Caleb that you can’t help but love. It’s easy to see that he’s trying to become a better person and though he may not always be going about that the right way I couldn’t help but root for him. For Maggie’s sake I wanted Caleb to become a better person because she deserved to have someone like Caleb cared for her and Caleb deserved to have someone care about him regardless of his past.

Now that I’ve gotten to know her better, I pretty much love Maggie too. She’s changed a lot since the first book and the change is a good one. She was able to accept that she would always be stuck with a limp but that it didn’t necessarily have to define her. And even though he didn’t always bring out the best in her, I loved how Maggie got when she was with Caleb. For the most part, she always stood her ground and I just loved seeing her play with his mind. It was just great. I was happy Maggie became who she became and my love for her just grew as she became stronger.

I absolutely love how the alternating points of view that are always a part of Simone Elkeles’s books. The way the story is written makes it so you just have to keep on reading in order to get the full story. When I started the book I didn’t plan to sit and read it all in one night but that’s what ended up happening. The story was engrossing and I honestly wanted it to be longer...if I had it my way it would be never ending but I know that isn’t going to happen. Despite that, I was really satisfied with the ending this time and it made me really happy.

Return to Paradise was a great read but I’m sad it’s over because now there won’t be anymore Maggie and Caleb to read about. Regardless I look forward to reading all of Simone Elkeles’s books. And so far they’ve all become favorites of mine.

Book Blogger Hop (18) & Follow Friday (10)

It's Friday so it means it's time for the Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday!

First off, the Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Jennifer of Crazy-for-Books. It is a way for all the book bloggers out there to get together and find out about each other's blogs. I've found a lot of great blogs and bloggers through this hop and it's always fun to take part in each week.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON LOSING FOLLOWERS? HAVE YOU EVER STOPPED FOLLOWING A BLOG?

I honestly have nothing against people stopping to follow me. I don't take it personally, if they don't want to follow me anymore than it's their choice. And it's not like I can hunt down every single person who stops following me, and even if I could I would be wasting some precious reading time. As far as stopping to follow a blog, I don't think I've ever done that but I'm sure that at some point down the line it will happen.

The Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View each week. It works a lot like the Book Blogger Hop except that it's only on Fridays. I haven't been taking part in this hop as long but I've found a lot of great new blogs through this one too.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS?

This could turn into a really long answer but I'll try to keep it short. I would have to say that my all time favorite authors are Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot and J.K. Rowling. I have read all the books ever written by these three authors and have pretty much loved them all. Other than these three ladies, there are other authors out there that I really like such as Cassandra Clare, Richelle Mead, Simone Elkeles, Julie Kagawa, Alyson Noël and the list could go on and on. I have a tendency to have way too many favorites for just about everything and I guess that seems to be happening with authors as well.

UPDATES:

It is now November and that means I only have a month to go until exams and the end of the semester. It also means I will be really busy writing essays and doing assignments for my classes so my reading and blogging time may get cut down. I was able to get more reading done than I expected the first two months of the school year so I have some reviews scheduled more or less through November and I will try to do other posts as often as possible. This week is Amber of Down the Rabbit Hole's YA Love Triangle Week. You should definitely go check out her blog on Sunday and vote for Team Damon.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy your weekends!

Waiting On Wednesday (13)

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 devote a post to an upcoming book release they are particularly looking forward to reading.

THIS WEEK'S PICK:

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Summary (from author's website):

She knows what it's like to die. Now Death wants her back.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce knows what happens to us when we die.

That's how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who's made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible.

Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her.

What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows... just like she knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven. But she can't stay away from him, either, especially since he's always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears the most.

And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her:

The Underworld.

If you didn't already know, I am a HUGE Meg Cabot fan. I have read all of her YA titles and a good number of her adult ones as well. So you can imagine how happy and excited I was when I went to her website and saw that she had a new book coming out next year. What makes it even better is that this is the first book in a trilogy so I know there will be more coming.

Abandon by Meg Cabot will be released in April 2011 by Point.

150 Follower Giveaway Winners

So this was my first real, big giveaway and it went way beyond what I expected. When I first posted it a month ago, I was definitely not expecting to have that many people enter. Including extra entries, I had almost 900 entries to go through (though I was smart and started adding them all up as they came). And not to mention that I almost doubled the number of blog followers I had, and I'm pretty sure that the same thing could be said about Twitter followers. All in all, I can say that it was real success so thank you everyone for entering!

Now for the part that you all actually want to hear about:

First Winner (choice of any one book I have reviewed):

#151 Elena Salvatore of Elena's Book Cafe (Claimed)

Second Winner (choice of any one book released during the month of October):

#367 Jennifer L. (Claimed)

Congratulations to both winners. You have both been e-mailed and have 48 hours to reply with your book choices. Should I not hear back from a winner during that time, I will randomly draw another winner.