Book Blogger Hop (30) & Follow Friday (22)

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:

TELL US ABOUT ONE OF YOUR POSTS FROM THIS WEEK AND GIVE US A LINK SO WE CAN READ IT (REVIEW OR OTHERWISE)!

This week has been a bit of a slow week but I'm in the middle of midterms so I had to focus on school more. But if you want to check out my review of Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman, feel free to do so. This is a British title and I don't know that it's out in North America. Malorie Blackman is a fantastic author and I definitely recommend you check her out.

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:

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ROMANCE HERO-TYPE? STEREOTYPE WISE. DO YOU LIKE THE STRONG SILENT TYPE OR THE BRUTE MACHO MAN?

I tend to fall really easily for the bad guy types in most of what I read...either that or the silent brooding type. I really don't know why. However those aren't really the types of guys I go for in real life.

UPDATE:

I only have one more week of classes and then I'm off for a week for reading week. And after that I really only have a month of classes left before exams. So this year went by fast. I plan on catching up on my reading during that week off, it is called READING week after all (granted I'm supposed to do school work too). Since January I haven't really read all that much which makes me kind of sad but I fully plan to rectify that come reading week.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy your weekends!

Waiting on Wednesday (16)

I haven't done a Waiting on Wednesday post in a while so I decided that this week I would do one. 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:

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

There has yet to be a summary released for the book. What we know so far is that the story will follow Sydney, an alchemist Rose met during her travels in Russia, and that it will take place in a Californian high school as opposed to the school from Vampire Academy. The girl on the cover is Sydney and as for her male companion, Richelle Mead has said on Twitter that he is the one guy who was left hanging at the end of Last Sacrifice...so I'm thinking Adrian. If it is him, I will be very happy.

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead is published by Razorbill and is hitting shelves August 23rd, 2011.

Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman

Title: Boys Don't Cry

Author: Malorie Blackman

Publisher: Doubleday Books

Release Date: October 1, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository 

You’re waiting for the postman--he’s bringing your exam results. University, a career as a journalist...a glittering future lies ahead. But when the doorbell rings, it’s your old girlfriend; and she’s carrying a baby...your baby.

She’s had enough and now it’s your turn.

What would you do?

I had first discovered author Malorie Blackman some years ago with her Noughts and Crosses series. I had loved those books so when I saw Boys Don’t Cry at the bookstore, I couldn’t resist picking it up. Plus the premise sounded great. A single teenage father, I don’t read about those too often. I wasn’t disappointed by this book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dante had his whole life planned out. He would get his exam results, go to university to study journalism and then have a career as a reporter. But while waiting for the mail and his exams results, Dante’s ex-girlfriend shows up with baby Emma, claiming that she is Dante’s daughter. And then she leaves, letting Dante deal with everything baby related. Now that his life has been turned completely upside down, Dante has to figure out what to do with his life, and most importantly how to be a good father to Emma.

Like I’ve said, you rarely get to read about teenage fathers so it was really interesting to read about Dante and see him change and evolve. He basically went from a state of denial to loving Emma unconditionally. Even though at first I would get annoyed with his attitude towards being a father, I also found that my heart was breaking for him at the same time. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done had I found myself in Dante’s position at the end of high school. I can be pretty selfish sometimes so I don’t know that I would have been able to give it all up like Dante did. All that to say that I loved seeing Dante change, grow and come to accept his new role as a father. By the end of the book I was pretty much in love with Dante.

Rarely do I read books where all the main characters are guys. Dante’s father and his brother Adam were really great. You sort of expect most parents to freak out and get angry when they find out their teenager had a baby, but it’s not what happened here. Sure Dante’s father freaked out a little but then he took control of the situation and made sure everything would be all right. I particularly liked seeing him when he was acting like a stereotypical grandfather completely spoiling his granddaughter. My heart goes out to Adam though. He really didn’t have things easy and his family wasn’t the first to be supportive about him being gay. I just wanted him to be happy and get what he wanted and I totally felt his pain.

Malorie Blackman writes books that deal with rather controversial subjects. The Noughts and Crosses series took place in a world where the blacks rule and the whites are inferior. Boys Don’t Cry deals with teen pregnancy which isn’t something I’ve read about in a lot of books, much less cases that focus on a teen father as opposed to a teen mother. Despite the subject being controversial, you can read the book without really realizing that it’s all that controversial. Boys Don’t Cry is a book like many others that you can read and enjoy but it will also get you thinking about all the teenagers that actually go through all this every day. And even then, that’s only one of the many issues that are addressed in this book.

Overall, Boys Don’t Cry was a wonderful novel and allowed me to fall in love with Malorie Blackman’s writing all over again. If you haven’t read anything by this author, I strongly recommend that you go and pick up one of her books. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed. 

Book Blogger Hop (29) & Follow Friday (21)

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 YOU READING RIGHT NOW AND WHY ARE YOU READING IT?

Right now I'm currently reading The Vyne by Daniel Walls. I'm part of the blog tour for this book and have already interviewed the author on the blog and I have a review coming up for it in a week. I've also just started reading The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes. This one isn't a YA title but I needed something different to read and so far it's pretty good.

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:

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU CURRENTLY "PUSHING"?

I don't know that I'm pushing a particular book. A lot of people around me aren't all that into reading or are to busy with school to read anything other than textbooks. So I guess you could say I'm pushing reading in general and particularly YA books just because they are so much better than people tend to think.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy your weekends!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: Harper
Release Date: October 25, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

They say to live every as if it’s your last--but you never actually think it’s going to be. You always think you have more time.

That’s what I thought. But I was wrong.

The thing is, you don’t get to know when it happens. you don’t remember to tell your family that you love them or--in my case--remember to say goodbye to them at all.

What if, like me, you could live your last day over again? Could you make it perfect? If you whole life flashed before your eyes, would you have any regrets? Are there things you’d want to change?

I had heard so many good things about Lauren Oliver and her debut novel Before I Fall but didn’t pick it up until quite recently. Let me just say that I was completely blown away by the story. I just couldn’t get enough and kept wanting more even after I was finished with it. Not only that, but the story had me feeling a whole range of emotions, going from wanting to laugh one minute to wanting to cry the next.

When Sam wakes up on Cupid Day, everything is looking up. She’s going to be with her friends, getting plenty of roses, and most important she’s finally going to be doing IT with her boyfriend. As the day goes on, everything seems to be normal until the very end. Driving home from a party with her three best friends Ally, Elody and Lindsay, Sam gets into a car accident and as far as she knows she’s dead...until she wakes up the next morning and finds out she’s living the same day over again. Maybe this time she’ll be able to save herself.

At first I really didn’t think I was going to be able to like Sam. She was pretty much the girl I would have hated had we gone to the same high school. She just came across as really superficial and liked she only cared about herself and her own little world. But that quickly changed. As she found herself reliving the same day over and over again, Same changes and evolves. I found myself liking her more and more and by the end of the book, I really loved her. Her friends I really didn’t take to on the other hand. They had their moments but for the most part they just annoyed me. Same goes for Rob. I’m not exactly sure what Sam saw in him. Kent I was rooting for all along, he was just genuinely a good guy. Too bad it took so long for Sam to realize it.

The story itself wasn’t entirely what I had expected it to be. I knew going in that I would be reading the same day over again but it still surprised me. Even though I was always reading about the same day, it was never actually the same as there was a different storyline going on each time. Throughout the whole book I never really had any idea as to how it would all turn out at the end of that last day. I was constantly surprised by what was happening and my heart broke at the end of every single one of those days.

To be honest, this book took me entirely by surprise. Despite everything I had heard about it, I still had my doubts just because it would be very difficult for the book to live up to my expectations. Lauren Oliver is a phenomenal writer and I never would have guessed this was her first novel had I not been told. I very much look forward to getting Delirium and being able to read more of her wonderful stories.