Main Characters: Marisa, Nash and Derek

Summary:

Derek is clearly the love Marisa’s been waiting for, but there’s just one problem: he has a girlfriend. Nash is clearly wrong for Marisa, but he’s crushing on her. And, as if life wasn’t complicated enough, Marisa’s also contending with a best friend who won’t stop falling for older guys, a family that’s acting totally bizarre, and a secret crush on a guy whose identity is a mystery – even to her.

Sophomore year is going to be intense.

Jenny’s Thoughts:

To be honest I bought this book because I said “Omg, this totally looks like something Sarah Dessen would come up with.” I just could not wait until she came out with ANOTHER book, so I went for what I thought was a rip off. While I was right about this, I was also totally wrong. If this book was a play in a football game, when Dessen passed it, Colasanti fumbled. You’re totally right, Dessen has nothing to do with this book, but I can’t help but wonder about all the unused potential that just went down the drain. There’s got to be a reason I gave it two and a half stars though, right? Right. I do enjoy the characters Colasanti came up with. It’s a book that most people can relate to, from the girls who always like the popular boys, to the nerdy boys who always like the girls who like the popular boys. I personally identify with Marisa’s anxiety disorder. The plot, however, is nothing original at all. I gave it two and a half stars purely for the sake of the characters, who even though their story could be better told, deserve a round of applause for their effort.

Main Characters: Sophia, Anna, Vasily, Mikhail

Summary:

Davinsky Labor Camp, Siberia, 1933: Only two things in this wretched place keep Sofia from giving up hope: the prospect of freedom, and the stories told by her friend and fellow prisoner Anna, of a charmed childhood in Petrograd, and her fervent girlhood love for a passionate revolutionary named Vasily.

After a perilous escape, Sofia endures months of desolation and hardship. But, clinging to a promise she made to Anna, she subsists on the belief that someday she will track down Vasily. In a remote village, she’s nursed back to health by a Gypsy family, and there she finds more than refuge, she also finds Mikhail Pashin, who, her heart tells her, is Vasily in disguise. He’s everything she has ever wanted but he belongs to Anna.

After coming this far, Sofia is tantalizingly close to freedom, family, even a future. All that stands in her way is the secret past that could endanger everything she has come to hold dear?

Anna’s Thoughts

I am going to be completely honest, I bought this book because it was on sale. Although, I had seen it a few times and it looked interesting, I don’t read non-fantasy books very often, so I wasn’t sure it would be worth it to spend $15 on something there was a good chance I wouldn’t like. I am SO glad that I did get it though!

The Red Scarf is one of those books that are so full of emotion, you end up feeling everything that it’s characters do. Sofia is a character that is easy to like, and one you’d think you’d get along with had she been real. She’s also easy to feel sorry for, even if she’s the one that isn’t exactly doing the right thing. Sofia’s story is heart-wrenching, but even more than hers, is Anna. Throughout the book once Sofia escapes, however, we don’t just learn about her, we also start learning a lot more about Anna. Every other chapter describes what Anna is going through in the labor camp, her faith in Sofia as well as her doubt in Sofia, and if she even made it out of the camp alive.

However, this is where the only flaw comes in The Red Scarf, Anna is boring. Granted there’s not much that she can be doing in a labor camp, but while we learn about Sofia’s personality, and about her mission and adventure, Anna ends up – for the most part – wasting away at the camp. Which teaches a lot about the horror that people faced in the labor camps, but in this kind of setting, and book, doesn’t do much for the story. The only other thing that was a little bit odd was the magic, or.. wishful thinking? I’m not sure exactly what it was to be honest, but it doesn’t hinder or ruin the story.

It’s an absolutely beautiful story, with a great lineup of characters, and a great plot. Anna was a tad bit boring, but that is honestly the ONLY downfall of this book, and really you can’t blame her.

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren – who in turn was inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie.

Yay! First In My Mailbox! Okay, for a minute, we’re all going to jump around and flail our arms, ready? GO! … You didn’t do it did you? PFT! This In My Mailbox was sponsored by my clients and the lovely Borders. Muhaha. So really, it should be called In My Shopping Bag, not In My Mailbox… but why be so technical?

Anyway, I present to you: In My Mailbox (Shopping Bag) 1!

Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants…

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy–one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

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Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

All the creatures of the night gather in “the Hollows” of Cincinnati, to hide, to prowl, to party… and to feed.

Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world ride with dangers beyound imagining – and it’s Rachel Morgan’s job to keep that world civilized.

A bounty hunter and witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she’ll bring ‘em back alive, dead… or undead.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So beings Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scene of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton – and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers – and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, sword-fights, cannibalism and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

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Deadly Desire by Keri Arthur

Guardian Riley Jenson always seems to face the worst villains. And this time’s no different. For it’s no ordinary sorceress who can raise the dead to do her killing. But that’s exactly what Riley expects to find at the end of a trail of female corpses used—and discarded—in a bizarre ritual of evil. With pressure mounting to catch one fiend, another series of brutal slayings shocks the vampire world of her lover, Quinn. So the last thing Riley needs is the heat of the upcoming full moon bringing her werewolf hormones to a boil—or the reappearance of a sexy bounty hunter, the rogue wolf Kye Murphy.

Riley has threatened Murphy with arrest if he doesn’t back off the investigation, but it’s Riley who feels handcuffed by Kye’s lupine charm. Torn between her vamp and wolf natures, between her love for Quinn and her hots for Kye, Riley knows she’s courting danger and indulging the deadliest desires. For her hunt through the supernatural underworld will bring her face-to-face with what lurks in a darkness where even monsters fear to tread.

Little did we know this is actually book seven in a series *sigh*

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The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Meredith and Mallory Brynn, are mirror twins born on either side of midnight one New Year’s Eve. They have always been inseparable. But after they are nearly killed in a mysterious fire on their thirteenth birthday, the bond that has always joined them unravels. They begin to have visions and dreams that reveal the deep secrets kept by the people around them. Meredith and Mallory realize they have each been given a gift: Mallory can see deep into the past, Meredith can see the future. But when they discover that one boy is not what they imagined, their lives will be changed forever. If they can survive?.

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The New Kid by Temple Mathews

In most small towns, the New Kid is big news.

In Harrisburg, Washington, there’s something going on that’s even bigger.

Will Hunter is used to being the New Kid; Harrisburg High School is his fifth new school in less than three years. By now, he knows not to be fooled by the bright pep rallies, the wholesome jocks, the innocent cheerleaders. He knows the evil lurking underneath. It’s the same evil that took his dad eight years ago; the same evil he battles every day.

Natalie Holand’s life fell apart the night her sister Emily disappeared. No one believes her when she tells them what she saw: yellow eyes, glowing beneath the surface of the water in which Emily supposedly drowned. And Emily isn’t the only person to go missing in Harrisburg lately. The town is changing, not for the better, and Natalie doesn’t know why. What she does know is that, whatever’s happening, it’s bad, and the New Kid is right in the middle of it.

Because Will’s got a secret even bigger than Harrisburg’s . . . and there’s more to it than even he knows.

The New Kid: Ridding the world of evil, one high school at a time.

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And that’s it! I’m currently reading Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison! Hopefully I’ll get through this stack of books before heading back to Borders! Bad habits die hard, ya know!

Contest CLOSED! Winners announced HERE!

Here we go, Book Nerds first contest!

In honor of Richelle Mead’s fourth book in the Vampire Academy’s series, Blood Promise, (and my undying love for the series), we will be giving away FIVE copies of Blood Promise! (You can read an excerpt of Blood Promise here!)

HERE’S HOW TO ENTER:

We are going to do this contest by entries, you can do each of these ones, adding up to 16 entries in the contest!

+5 Tell me what you think Rose should do about Dimitri in Blood Promise
+5 Blog about this contest (must be an entry).
+2 Become a follower/Be a follower (Google – right sidebar, @booknerdsnet)
+1 Leave a comment on this entry.
+1 Post link to contest in sidebar.
+1 Tweet about the contest.
+1 Tell me where you heard about this contest at in your comment!

(If you tweet, blog/link/become a follower make sure you leave a comment to tell me!)

That’s all you have to do! When you leave a comment, please either include your site or your email (and your name of course!), so I will be able to contact you if you win!

Deadlines & Rules

This contest will run from Saturday, August 15th through Tuesday, September 15th @ 11:59 pm EST. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 16th.

Sorry but the contest is only open to residents of the USA & Canada! I will try to have another one soon open to everyone!

Have fun & good luck!

Please Note: This contest is sponsored by me, completely out of pocket. These aren’t ARCS, they’re copies of the book I will be picking up at Borders once the contest is over!

Main Characters: Zoey, Aphrodite, Erin, Shaunee, Stevie Rae, Erik, Damien, Jack, James Stark

Summary:

What if the hottest guy in the world was hiding a nameless evil, and all he wanted was you? At the start of this heart-pounding new installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey’s friends have her back again and Stevie Rae and the red fledglings aren’t Neferet’s secrets any longer. But an unexpected danger has emerged. Neferet guards her powerful new consort, Kalona, and no one at the House of Night seems to understand the threat he poses. Kalona looks gorgeous, and he has the House of Night under his spell. A past life holds the key to breaking his rapidly spreading influence, but what if this past life shows Zoey secrets she doesn’t want to hear and truths she can’t face?

Anna’s Thoughts:

This is the FIFTH book in the House of Night series, it will contain spoilers from the fourth book, so don’t read if you haven’t read Untamed or the other HoN books, and plan on doing so!

Continue Reading…

Main Characters: Madison, Barnabas, Kairos, Josh, Grace

Summary:

Madison’s prom was killer – literally. For some reason she’s been targeted by a dark reaper – yeah, that kind of reaper – intent on getting rid of her, body and soul But before the reaper could finish the job, Madison was able to snag his strange, glowing amulet and get away.

Now she’s stuck on Earth – dead but not gone. Somehow the amulet gives her the illusion of a body, allowing her to toe the line between life and death. She still doesn’t know why the dark reaper is after her, but she’s not about to just sit around and let fate take it’s course.

With a little ingenuity, some light-bending, and the help of a light reaper (one of the good guys! Maybe…), her cute crush and oh yeah, her guardian angel, Madison’s ready to take control of her own destiny once and for all, before it takes control of her.

Well, if she believed in that stuff.

Anna’s Thoughts:

Once Dead, Twice Shy, started out really slow, and really confusing. It took awhile until I completely grasped the concept of what was going on, which seems to be the general feel of most reviews I’ve read as well. (It would have been really helpful to know beforehand that there was a preceding short story called “Madison Avery and the Dim Reaper” in the Prom Nights From Hell anthology. That however, wasn’t mentioned on her site, or on the book anywhere at all.)

Overall the story was nice, it had a good plot as well as decent characters, but my absolutely favourite thing about this book was Madison’s guardian angel. About halfway through the book we meet Grace, who is assigned to Madison for reasons I can’t tell you (dun dun dun!), but she’s basically a beautiful limerick singing guardian angel. Here is two small examples of Grace’s quirky mini-songs:

“There once was a girl with blond hair, whose tresses were short like a mare, she brushed and she preened, like she was a queen, till I laced her shampoo with some Nair.”
Excerpt pg. 50, Once Dead, Twice Shy

“There once was a girl from Lake Powell, whose mouth was something quite foul. The crap she did spew, like an overfull loo, til I smacked her right into a wall.”
Excerpt pg. 111, Once Dead, Twice Shy

Other than my insane love for Grace, I really like the way that Madison and Josh’s relationship ends up. You learn a good amount about both characters, and they fit into the world that Kim made just perfectly. The scenes are well described, so much that you don’t have to question anything, I could easily see everything that Kim described as if I had been there. So, other than the slow and slightly confusing start, the book was good, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series!