REVIEW: The Fault In Our Stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Published: January 10, 2012 Dutton Books 

Source: Goodreads









Thoughts: I don't really know where to start. I was explaining to a friend of mine that this book is filled with big improbable words for a 16 year old, yet I wasn't thrown off by it. Hazel was clearly smarter than me.

How do I explain how I feel without spoilers? A gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters. Couldn't have said it better myself really.

This is just one of those books that grabs you, holds you and imprints you. Many years from now it will be on your book shelf, worn and well used from the countless times you've thumbed through the pages over and over unable to shake the feeling of loss and strangely wholesomeness.

When you get to the ending, after you've sat there with the book closed on your lap, rethinking everything that just happened you can't help but to see an ending any other way. You knew that it was always going to end this way despite the early signs and statements saying this was not true but you had to keep hope alive. A hope of a happy ending, even if its not the happy ending you imagined it was still happy.

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do get some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers." - The Fault In Our Stars

5 Stars

REVIEW: Me, Cinderella?

One kind deed can change your life forever...

Brynn Tomlin could never afford to follow her heart. But when she sees a stranger shivering in the snow outside of the college library, an inexplicable urge leads her to buy him a hot cup of coffee. It's just a small act of kindness, a few words of conversation. Brynn should be focusing on her finals, after all, not on the man who looked up at her gratefully with piercing blue eyes. 

He could have been anyone - a janitor on break, a graduate student, a bum. But the man standing outside in the cold turns out to be Dr. Eliot Herceg, one of the most brilliant minds in mathematics and heir to a fortune. After years of reclusive isolation, he now finds his heart awakening to the kind girl whose name he does not know. 

Brynn has spent her life trying to forget her desires, and Eliot's deep wounds have taken nearly a decade to heal. After so much hurt, will either of them be able to open their hearts again?

Published: June 24 2014 by CreateSpace
Source: Goodreads

Thoughts:  I enjoyed reading this book, I thought it was going to be more Cinderella-y than it was. Personally it seemed more Beauty and The Beast to me but what do I know, its called Me, Cinderella?  I really enjoy reading books where there is a POV from both parties. I hate not knowing what the other is thinking, especially in a romance. I think it puts too much pressure on the reader, knowing a secret that you don't know if the other party knows or not.

Maybe its been a while since I've read a book with foreshadowing or even noticed, but I noticed in this one. I really liked the math angle. I'm not a big math person myself but the author made Math seem almost interesting. I was still way in over my head just reading it but it was a cool angle. Usually YA/NA books that take place in college center around easy to understand majors, mainly because they aren't vital to the story. In this, there was a difference. To Brynn, Math is orderly, numbers don't lie and they can be controlled. I can see the appeal that subject would give someone who's had a very chaotic life, more so than English or Psychology.

The correlation between real life and Cinderella makes this book ironic and quirky not cheesy and obvious. I.e. Wicked step-mother and sister, treated like a slave. Which is arguably the only Cinderella like quality I thought this book had, I stand by my Beauty and The Beast reference though.

The only thing I had to complain about was the main characters image. You get bits and pieces of what she's been told she looks like by her step-family and how that's affected how she perceives herself, and then there's the Beasts perception of her which is still not clear. I really don't know what she looks like and that is really frustrating, seeing as how I know exactly what Eliot looks like and the dead woman he sees more than the main character.

4 STARS

Meme Ideas

I'm trying to think of some meme ideas. Because of Broke and Bookish I am now participating in Top Ten Tuesday but I'd like to have more, this way I'm not posting all reviews.

Any ideas?

NaNoWriMo

Anyone else prepping for National Novel Writing Month?

For those of you who don't know what it is NaNoWriMo is
a writing event where the challenge is to complete an entire novel in just 30 days (consisting of 50K words). Participants begin writing November 1 and must finish by midnight, November 30. 

It's pretty awesome so check it out! I'll be competing this year so my posts may suffer as a result.
If you are 17 or under and you'd like to participate check out the Young Writers Program and sign up! 

8 Days To Go!!

REVIEW: Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood #10)

Ever since the death of his shellan, Tohrment has been a heartbroken shadow of the vampire leader he once was. Brought back to the Brotherhood by a self-serving fallen angel, he fights again with ruthless vengeance, unprepared for a new tragedy. Seeing his beloved in dreams—trapped in a cold, isolated netherworld—Tohr turns to the angel Lassiter to save his former mate. The only way to rescue her is for Tohr to love another. As war with the lessers rages, and a new clan of vampires vie for the Blind King’s throne, Tohr struggles between an unforgettable past and a hot, passion-filled future. But can his heart let go and set all of them free?

Published: March 27th 2012 by NAL 
Source Goodreads

Thoughts: 
I have high expectations for this book and for Tohrment and I hope J.R. Ward does not disappoint.

And I was not wrong. I felt every emotion there is to feel, I think. I'm still raw from everything Ward put me through. The highs and lows, the funny moments and the somber moments. I don't think I've ever ached for the characters as I did in this book. They became real to me. The pain and longing was my own and the incredibly complex heart-wrenching situations they found themselves in resonated within me. There were so many vital points about life and death, grieving and acceptance that I never took into consideration, never thought about and it took reaching the end of this book to see and accept that. Even though this book was solely about Thor, and I felt for him and No'One the most. Layla, Xhex and Qhuinn each faced their own life demons and their pain was just as moving.
I can't move on from this book, not yet. There is so much to take in and think about before I can read something else totally unrelated to the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I tip my hat to you J.R. Ward.

5 STARS