In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. It's a post where we write about the books received during the week either for review, from the bookstore or contests and swaps.

Since I've been kind of gone the last couple of weeks, this In My Mailbox includes everything that I've gotten since Christmas.

Christmas presents:

- Nightshade by Andrea Cremer (I finished it yesterday and it was simply amazing)

- Virals by Kathy Reichs

Won:

- Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (thanks to Katie of Call Me Crazy)

Review:

- Choker by Elizabeth Woods (finished copy thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada)

Bought:

- Morganville Vampires Omnibus by Rachel Caine(Books 1-3 UK edition...and no I haven't read these yet)

- Awakened by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

- Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman (British author - signed copy)

- Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (signed copy)

Essentially my TBR pile is still growing and I look forward to reading all of these books.

Book Blogger Hop (25) & Follow Friday (17)

It's Friday so it means it's time for the first Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday of 2011!

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 BOOK INFLUENCED OR CHANGED YOUR LIFE? HOW DID IT INFLUENCE/CHANGE YOU?

I don't think I can really say a book changed or influenced my life but some books have changed my outlook on certain things. Maybe they haven't influenced and changed my life but they have taught me a lot. I've learned so much from books that I probably would have taken a lot longer to learn otherwise. The one way I can say that books have changed my life is that I tend to spend a lot more time in fictional worlds than in real lives...but I'm probably not the only one.

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(S) HAVE YOU DISCOVERED LATELY FROM SOMEONE'S BOOK BLOG?

I might be going back a while but I discovered the Vampire Academy series by reading different reviews on a number of book blogs. Granted I discovered them a while back but those are the only books I can really think of at the moment.

UPDATE:

You may have noticed that past couple of weeks I was a little MIA what with exams and then going home for the holidays but now I'm back. There may or may not be changes to the blog in the new year, mostly it will come down to my mood and how much money I have in my bank account. Last semester I realized I actually have a lot more time to read (or at least I make more time) than I originally thought so I will probably be posting reviews more often. As for the rest, like I said, it will mostly depend on my mood.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy your weekends!

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Title: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: May 18, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Siberia, Dimitri’s birthblace, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s--and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It’s graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives outside of the academy’s cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri. He’s out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won’t join him, he won’t rest until he has silenced her...forever.

But Rose can’t forget what she learned on her journey--whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend. A magic inextricably tied to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose’s prayers, but not without devastating consequences. Now Rose will have to decide what--and who--matters most to her. And in the end, is trues love really worth the price.

So most of you have heard me gush over the Vampire Academy series and I will continue to do so in this review. Consider yourself forewarned. I absolutely love these books and as many of you know I am totally Team Dimitri and this has yet to change though I am liking Adrian more and more. But besides my swooning over Dimitri, once again the story was amazing and a lot of what happened it did not necessarily see coming which only made the story that much better. Spirit Bound was simply awesome, much like the other books in the series, so prepare for some gushing on my part.

During her time in Siberia, Rose discovered there may be away to bring Dimitri back, to turn him back to a dhampir. And Rose being who she is, she is prepared to do just about anything to get him back. Only this time she doesn’t do it on her own. She has graduated high school and is following Lissa and their friends to Court to get her official assignment. While waiting for that assignment, Rose sneaks out of Court with Lissa and Eddie and jets off to Alaska to do nothing less than break someone out of jail. Of course with that comes all the usual trouble. But Rose and Lissa do succeed in turning Dimitri back. But of course, like with all of Rose’s plans, even more trouble comes out of this than she thought possible.

You’ve heard me say it before but I absolutely love Rose. She is just such a great character. She has a mind of her own and all things considered she pretty much has her own moral compass too...and it doesn’t really always point north. The lengths she will to go to help her friends are just incredible. Once again she manages to surprise me with every single one of her actions. I mean who in their right mind would break one of their worst enemies out of prison on a hunch that they can help bring someone back to life. Even though Rose technically now only has one guy in her life, she still manages to find herself in the middle of some whacked out love triangles. Adrian is honestly good for her and you can tell that she really cares about him but it’s still not the same as the way it was with Dimitri...heck the way it still is with Dimitri.

Speaking of Dimitri. He essentially drives me crazy. When he’s Strigoi I just want to kill him because he is a major jerk. But at the same time I can’t help but still love him because, well, he’s Dimitri so what else can I do? And when he’s back to being a dhampir he is almost more infuriating. I don’t want to give anything away but he just needs to get over himself and get on with his life. Kind of harsh but if you read the book and are rooting for Rose and Dimitri to be together you will totally get what I mean. And opposite from Dimitri there is Adrian. I have to admit that I am liking him more and more. You can easily tell how much he cares for Rose and that his feelings are genuine. Maybe the reason I’m rooting for Dimitri and Rose so much is because I want Adrian all to myself. Sure he has some flaws, and by some I mean many, but beneath it all there is a really great guy just waiting to be discovered.

The story itself was once again amazing. There is more action than I could wish for and twists and turns every step of the way. Some of it I saw coming, some of it not so much but regardless of all that the story was awesome. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it without giving too much of it away but it is a story you most definitely want to read. And let’s just say the ending will make you want to have Last Sacrifice on hand. It was that good.

To put it in simple terms, Spirit Bound was incredibly awesome. I finished reading it and I immediately sent my brother an e-mail to tell him to forget about getting me Last Sacrifice for Christmas. There was no way I was waiting three weeks to find out what happened next. I’ve read Last Sacrifice and you’ll here me gush about it all in another review soon.

End of 2010 - Beginning of 2011

Today is the last day of 2010 and I honestly say that the year went by quite fast for me. So many things happened in 2010 and should I list them all I would be here for quite a while. 2010 was also the year I started blogging, and I am now getting close to my 6th month blogoversary. When I started this blog I didn't think it would become something that would end up being so important to me. I've discovered a new love for blogging and, if it is at all possible, I have discovered I love reading so much more than I originally thought.

I've read many great books in 2010 and it is honestly really hard to pick out which ones I loved or enjoyed more than others. Some were debuts, some were books that had already been out there a while, others were books published in 2010 or simply combinations of all of these.

So here are my top ten books of 2010 (in no particular order):

- Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead: Really it could have been any of the books in the Vampire Academy series since I read them all this year but Last Sacrifice was my favorite one out of all the six books in the series.

- Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: I only just read this book in the past couple of weeks and I can't believe I waited so long to do so. This book was simply amazing and I am so glad I finally decided to read this book.

- Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl: I absolutely loved this book. While reading it I went through a whole range of emotions. One page I would be laughing and then two or three pages later I would find myself tearing up.

- Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare: To be honest, I was a little hesitant about reading this one. I had absolutely loved the Mortal Instruments series when I read them and I was a little afraid of what this book would do to that. But as it turned out, I absolutely loved Clockwork Angel and it only made me love Cassandra Clare that much more.

- The Iron King by Julie Kagawa: I love fairies and The Iron Fey series just makes me love them that much more. Julie Kagawa just has a way to telling the story that also just draws you in and I couldn't help but love everything about this book.

- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: I am most probably not the only one to include Mockingjay in a list like this. It was a great conclusion to an even greater series.

- The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney: This one I also just read recently but it was simply amazing. The story deals with date rape and it's a subject that needs to be talked about more so people can understand how big a problem it is. The story is powerful but it's also written in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader. It was an amazing read.

- Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston: This is another one that deals with fairies. I loved it and its sequel and now I can't wait to read the conclusion to the trilogy. Plus the fact that Lesley is Canadian only makes me love her that much more.

- Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles: I just discovered Simone Elkeles this year and boy am I glad that I did. I have officially fallen for the Fuentes brothers and I seriously wish for those boys to actually be live people.

- Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols: It was really a toss up between this one and Forget You. Both were great but I just have a little something for Officer After. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

With 2011 starting tomorrow there a whole number of other things also starting. There will more than likely be some changes on the blog and new things happening too. I look forward to reading a whole list of books coming out in the new year but here are a few that I am especially excited for:

- Abandon by Meg Cabot

- What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

- Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

- City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

- Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

- Delirium by Lauren Oliver

- The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

- Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

- Where She Went by Gayle Forman

- Wither by Lauren DeStefano

- Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Hopefully 2011 will be good year in all possible ways but I'll just have to wait and see what happens!

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Leviathan (Leviathan #1)

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: October 6, 2009

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Alek is a prince without a throne. On the run from his own people, he has only a fighting machine and a small band of men.

Deryn is a girl disguised as a guy in the British Air Service. She must fight for her cause--and protect her secret--at all costs.

Alek and Deryn are thrown together aboard the mighty airship Leviathan. Though fighting side by side, their worlds are far apart. British fabricated versus German steam-powered war machines. They are enemies with everything to lose, yet somehow destined to be together.

I had heard about Scott Westerfeld before picking up Leviathan but most of what I had heard had been about his Uglies series. The premise for the book sounded interesting and I just love stories that take place during the World Wars so I figured why not give this book a chance. I can honestly say that it did not disappoint. It was a great story and it was interesting to see the events of the First World War from this perspective.

In the middle of the night, Alek is woken up and told that he must leave immediately because he is in danger. With his fencing master and mechanics teacher, Alek leaves Vienna in a mechanized walker. Alek is told that they must get as far away from Austria-Hungary as possible but no one is telling him why they are leaving or why he is in danger. Deryn wants nothing more than to be able to fly again. To do so she must pass herself off as a boy to enter the British Air Service. She soon finds herself aboard the Leviathan. Soon enough, Deryn and Alek meet and, though their countries are at war with each other, they find themselves becoming friends. But in a continent-wide war, how will this all end?

All the characters in the book are really interesting and the fact that the book is told from a third person point of view makes them all that much more mysterious. Alek was quite intriguing for me. At first I honestly thought he was a spoiled royal kid but the more the story moved forward the more my opinion of him changed. At first he really did seem like he had lived a sheltered life but I liked seeing him change as the book moved forward. He really became an interesting person that wasn’t afraid to do what he wanted. I also really felt for him what with everything that happened to his parents and everything he was going through. It can hardly be easy to leave everything you’ve ever known behind, especially when you’ve be living like a prince.

Deryn amused me. To start with it takes a lot of guts to pass yourself of as a boy, especially in a time when having women part of the military was almost entirely unheard of. She had me giggling so many times with all her expressions and just the things she did. What made her particularly interesting was that the more she got to know Alek the more she had these feelings developing and couldn’t make sense of them. Of course I knew what they were but her confusion just really amused me. She was always so confident and she knew what she wanted regardless of what people would think.

I’m a bit of a history nut and I have to admit that as far as the World Wars are concerned I know a lot more than I should. Even with all the destruction, they are some of my favorite periods of history to study. So reading a book that takes place at that time was more or less perfect for me. I absolutely loved the story and the alternate perspective in the book just made it that much more interesting. I know the story behind the start of World War One backwards and forwards but seeing it this way was interesting and fun. I just know that part of history so well that it never occurred to me to look at it any other way.

Leviathan was a great read. I enjoyed it from start to finish. It was packed with action and plenty of history for those who like that. I can’t wait to start reading Behemoth, the second book in the trilogy, which is currently waiting in my TBR pile.