To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Not so much of a review...

        This is not what you're used to see on this blog. I never review nor rate classic for a simple reason and it's they've been discussed and rated by so many people that my say in all that is irrelevant. But I've made a mistake and put this book into one of my challenges, and I hate leaving things unfinished, so I had to write a review. Make no mistake this is not a review as I won't talk much about this book but I'll talk about my lit classes instead.

         In case that you don't know I'm a student at faculty (something similar to college) of Philology at English language and literature department. Even though after finishing the studies we more or less become English teachers (as hopefully I will one day) or translators that doesn't stop us from enjoying lit classes. At least it doesn't stop me. I love them for a simple reason and it's that they make me read books that I would never pick my myself nor would I even finish them. But then after discussing them I see the real beauty in them. The same happened with To Kill a Mockingbird. Let's face it, this is by far the most mentioned book in history of American lit and I've tried to read it few years ago and to see what's that all fuss about. I've never finished it as I couldn't understand lots of things. Things, of course, changed after I learnt about American history and discovered everything that happened during that period so now I could easily go through the book. Of course non of that would be possible without my teachers who always try to make them more interesting to us and help us to see real picture. And for that I'm really grateful.

         Did I enjoy/love/hate this book would be hard to say, but I do see the reason why this is called a classic and why it's so important and that I know how to appreciate.

Until the next time,

Blog Tour: Identified: The Maya Price Story by Faith A. Rice-Mills

Buy the book at Amazon

Book summary:

Maya Price is a typical eighteen-year-old girl without much going on in her life. Her biggest problems include getting ready to leave her hometown for college, figuring out how to avoid her ever-so-strange stepmother, and trying to muddle through her feelings for her best friend, Pete. Yet, on one of her last nights in her hometown, she and Pete are in a car accident. A stranger pulls Maya from the accident, leaving Pete behind, and takes her out of this world and into another dimension. 

 Maya soon discovers that she has been taken to a dimension called Leets by a group of people that call themselves shifters. Shifters are of mixed human and onyx blood and have various abilities.  These shifters are able to travel between dimensions and control the four elements (fire, earth, wind, water) and the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). Their leader, Victoria, informs Maya that she, too, is a shifter and that she must choose to join them or risk being sought out by their greatest enemy, a shifter named Leonas. 

Maya joins Victoria and her ragtag group of rebel shifters in Leets, where she is teamed up with a group of seven other shifters. Her new "teammates" include a street-smart girl named Luz, who is especially adept at controlling fire, her twin sister Espy, and a nervous boy named Lamar, who can manipulate sound better than any other shifter. Together, Maya’s team trains for the battle that will soon be  inevitable. 

However, Maya soon learns that her purpose is not to just move the earth or send water flying into the air. There are rumors of a hidden prophecy and that the prophecy mentions Maya by name. Supposedly, the prophecy says that Maya will one day have to choose a side and will be essential in bringing her chosen ally to power...

          How did this book manage to surprise me on so many levels reminds a mystery. Yes, I've read the blurb before reading the book (yes, I do that when it comes to the blog tours) but still I guess I wasn't expecting non of this.

         What started as some sort of contemporary story about a girl, named Maya turned into something totally unexpected. I managed to get into new world, or better said another dimension. Like I said we start with Maya Price a normal girl who likes running and she turns into such a great leading character, where we connected right away it was only a matter or hours that will take me to read this story. She is a eighteen-year-old girl that looks forward to the future and hoping to spend as much time as can with her best friend Pete stops at the night of the car accident in which the two of them are involved. Soon enough Maya gets transported to another dimension where the picture of her life collapses and she manages to meet the new world and new self. With the prophecy that states another truth about her, Maya has a lot to learn. Not only is Maya a great character but with the whole spectra of characters you start to turn the pages rapidly just to see what happens next.

        Maybe at the start the writing will be a bit unusual as it's starts with first person narrative and the switches to the third, soon it becomes irrelevant as you connect the dots. The same thing is with the story line. At some points the story gets interrupted with another characters, and in general with something that at first you won't be able to understand, as it goes you catch the answers on all your 'why's and 'how's.

Rating: 5 stars.

About the author

Faith A. Rice-Mills is the author of Identified: The Maya Price Story and a handful of short stories.  She moonlights as a Spanish teacher,  but has wanted to be a writer since she wrote the poem “The Jackowhipp’s Wail” as an eight-year-old.  Her writer’s spirit resides somewhere between Narnia and Mount Doom, but her physical body lives in Texas with her family.  Besides writing, she loves reading (and will take recommendations!), yoga, coloring with her daughter, and watching Parks and Recreation with her husband.  She dislikes snakes, the word “literally,” and teaching double object pronouns in Spanish.  She is currently working on Burdened, the second book in The Maya Price Story series and is writing whatever short story she has to get out of her brain.

Author's 

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

Giveaway

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Until the next time,

Waiting On Wednesday (#52)

You know the story. This is a meme created by Breaking the Spine and every week we pick books we're waiting for. Here are our picks for this week.

Glass' pick

What does it take to rise from life’s depths, swim against the current, and breathe?

Weighted down by the loss of her parents, Blythe McGuire struggles to keep her head above water as she trudges through her last year at Matthews College. Then a chance meeting sends Blythe crashing into something she doesn’t expect—an undeniable attraction to a dark-haired senior named Chris Shepherd, whose past may be even more complicated than her own. As their relationship deepens, Chris pulls Blythe out of the stupor she’s been in since the night a fire took half her family. She begins to heal, and even, haltingly, to love this guy who helps her find new paths to pleasure and self-discovery. But as Blythe moves into calmer waters, she realizes Chris is the one still strangled by his family’s traumatic history. As dark currents threaten to pull him under, Blythe may be the only person who can keep him from drowning.

Expected publication: July 16th, 2013

Tanja's pick

You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.

Expected publication: August 15th, 2013

We'd love to see your picks so feel free to link them up.

Until the next time,

TBR Pile Challenge - Checkpoint #7

I really suck at this. I'm sorry people but I manage to forget about the reading challenges and not to mention checkpoints. So I've missed all SIX for this one up until now. Yeah I'm really bad at this. Anyhow it's time for an update.

As we're 6 and a half months into the challenge I've managed to tackle more than half of my list

#1 Whenever You Go by Heather Davis
#2 Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher 
#3 Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins 
#4 The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta 
#5 The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams 
#6 On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta 
#7 The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
#8 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - review will be up soon

So the books I've left to read are

#1 You Against Me by Jenny Downham
#2 The Unbecoming of Maya Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
#3 The Taker by Alma Katsu
#4 Finnikin the Rock by Melina Marchetta

I'm planing on reading them soon so I believe I'll finish this challenge with a success! Which is good, because I've read more or less all the books that have been on my shelf for too long.

Until the next time,

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Buy the book at 

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

Author's

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Book summary:

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul.

        My dear friends, please let me present you the book that's been on my to-read shelf the longest. I added this book on my list at the times when paranormal was dominant genre and the genre I enjoyed the most. As time passed I changed so did my reading preferences. Now after almost three years it's not a surprise that I didn't enjoy this one as much.

        I strongly believe that if I had read this book earlier I'd have enjoyed it much more. But I can't turn back time. So starting here with the Divine family. As their name says it they're divine. But really. The father is a priest and committed to helping community, the mother is perfect housewife (if I remember correctly, but we'll get to my memory) and two angels. Yes literary, they are teenagers but they listen to their parents, are always helping others and my personal favorite - don't swear, as in never. I get that really, I rarely swear as I don't like to hear other females swearing, but if the things that happened to them happened to me, my vocabulary would get out of my hand. From that point this book was everything but not realistic nor I could connect with the characters.

        Then we get to the supposed bad-boy of this story Daniel. He used to be next-door neighbor with the Divine family but some things changed in his life and he ended up in different homes which changed him. He isn't the sweet and caring young boy he used to be and that made him real, and actually the reason for my 2 stars is he. I could understand him at the beginning, but later not so much.

        With that we get to the main point of this story - wolves. It requires a lot of turning pages until you get to that part but I was waiting for the big beast to show up. And it did, show up, but then everything turned into something that made me roll my eyes. Remember in Twilight when Edward carries Bella on his back and they climb the tree and so on, well I got that here. Needless to say once was enough.

       I know I sound like a hypocrite because I'm the person who rated Twilight with 5 stars, but in my defense I was young and naive. If I had read this one when I was 15 this review would have ended with 5 stars.

Rating: 2 stars.

Until the next time,

Showcase Sunday (#5)

Hello. It's Sunday and time for another Showcase Sunday. It's a meme created by Books, Biscuits and Tea where every week we show what we have got. Here are my pretties.

Oppression by Jessica Therrien and some swag ( won this so thanks you Jessica)

Uninvited by Leah Spiegel and Meg Summers (for the blog tour - thanks to the authors and Xpresso Tours)

also thanks for this lovely bookmark! 

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Serbian translation - from library)

Ebooks 

 

1. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 

2. Monsters of Men by Parick Ness 

(both from the library as PBs were unavailable)

Feel free to link your SS or however you call it in comments so I can check it out.

Until the next time,

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Buy the book at

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Author's

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Book summary: 

A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

      Something that started as the biggest expectation of the year turned out to be the biggest disappointment in just a couple of days. People blame it on me as they thing that I've expected something like Harry Potter but reality is something else. I'm well aware that Harry Potter is unique and I would be the first person to vote to leave that story as it is, just there where it should be and move onto something else. Only that something else wasn't this for sure.

       I shall warn you that I won't say much about the plot here, as it's too complicated to even try to explain it. That leads us to another problem, and yes believe it or not this book is too complicated for me to bother with. It started with so many names and connections that I was lost in spare of just few pages. I had no idea who is connected to whom and what that has to have with that other person whose story I'm reading, but I continued. I continued because many of fantasy novels (and note this is not a fantasy) start like that but soon enough everything gets cleared in my head. It didn't happened here because yes, I was well-aware of the characters, but what they had to do with this story and what was the main point reminded mystery to me, even now after reading it.
       That was my second problem - I really don't understand this book. I got a feeling like this book was written just for the sake of being wrote and that was a big disappointment to me. There was a lot of other problems like calling this book adult novel just because they (unnecessarily) swear all the time and every swear-word cut me like a knife. That wasn't the only reason for you to call this book adult there are many others but still this book didn't leave the impression of 'adultness'.

       I could easily set things differently and say that it was my mistake for picking up this book as it clearly wasn't for me but I won't. This book was written (I hope) to all lovers of J.K. Rowling's magical writing and ability to create a story that will get under your skin. I wasn't looking for another Harry Potter book, and I never will. Therefore I blame it on J.K. Rowling. I'm sorry but for once I tried and really put all my hopes in this, but sadly they were pointless.
       Needless to say, this was one of the hardest reviews to publish.

Rating: 1 star.

Until the next time,

Blog Tour: Addicted to You by Krista and Becca Ritchie

Buy the book

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Book summary: 

No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway’s biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own.

Loren Hale’s best friend is his bottle of bourbon. Lily comes at a close second. For three years, they’ve pretended to be in a real relationship, hiding their addictions from their families. They’ve mastered the art of concealing flasks and random guys that filter in and out of their apartment.

But when they go on a family boat trip, surrounded by open seas and limited male bodies in sight, Lily’s confronted with a big fear. Only one guy onboard can fill her addiction, and she’s sworn off going there with Loren Hale ever again.

Now the only person who can truly help her can barely help himself.

        With NA books jumping from every corner I got tired of reading them. They all started to sound alike and with that the whole concept lost its magic. This one sounded different and luckily for me it was different. It wasn't NA just because you had some drinking and sex here and there. It dealt with bigger issues.

        It'll be hard to talk about this one and not to compare some things with other typical NA stories. Here, as always, you have a boy and a girl, but the difference is they're far from being angels. Not only that their lives are so screwed up but also there is no easy way out. Love is not enough to change things here, because this people dealt with real problems and they had to keep appearance.

        Lily and Loren, the two people how know each other well, where no one else knew the real image just the blurred one they presented, had some serious problems. Lily is a sex-addict while Loren can't go through the day without alcohol. They both knew that they had problems but they had to carry a lot of things on their shoulders. Honestly after starting this book I was afraid of continuing it. I like it when main characters have messed up lives and they need each other as they're a safe harbor for the other person. That can work if the two of them are different. Yes still messed up but in a different way so that one of them has something that other person lacks but at the same time it can support him/her in some other ways and vice versa. They basically complement each other and that makes a book work out and that's when a happy ending is necessary, as they both deserve it. I was scared here, because both of the main characters were messed up on so many levels that I was scared of reading some forced happy and soppy love story as they couldn't work out, because their relationship was destructive. I should know better I guess.

        I'd probably enjoy this book fully if I could connect with main characters but I simply couldn't. They both allowed some things that I'd never allow. Another thing is that I'd go even further with the ending and closing it completely, but it was left for me to decide and I did.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

About the authors

Becca Ritchie is a carnivore of pop culture, television, film and of course YA and NA books. While in college, she worked at The CW television network and put her vampiric knowledge to good use, blogging about hit series and swooning over actors’ abs. When she’s not blogging, she writes novels and has teamed up with her twin sister for their New Adult novel ADDICTED TO YOU. Available July of 2013.

You can follow Becca at Twitter.

Krista Ritchie is the mind behind popular trading website YA Book Exchange and created Nawanda Files, a book blog that also features books into movies news. When not pouring over entertainment news and the newest releases, she spends her time conducting research in a genetics lab. She’s happy to join forces with her sister, harnessing their twin powers to produce the first in a New Adult series. You can follow her at Twitter

Be sure to follow them at their blog.

Giveaway

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Until the next time,

Cover Reveal: No One's Angel by Kelly Walker

Book summary: 

Tess used to spend more hours than she’d care to admit playing her favorite computer game, using the nickname Angel. She could pretend her life was different, and she could pretend Arion was just a friend. But a girl needs more to keep her warm at night than pixels and she traded her virtual heaven for a real life hell. Now she’s on the run from a past she won’t talk about, and the only place she has to go is the doorstep of the friend she’s never actually met.

When Angel disappeared from their nightly games, it nearly destroyed Arion. He threw himself into work and women, but he can’t help knowing the one night stands will never compare to the angel who haunts his dreams. At first, when she shows up soaking wet and scared-shitless on his doorstep, he thinks his prayers have been answered.

But the more Arion tries to keep Angel close, the more her fear drives her away. If they are ever going to have a chance for a future, they’ll first have to deal with the past that hasn’t forgotten her any more than she’s forgotten it, and Arion will have to learn how to let her go.

No One's Angel is a New Adult(NA) Contemporary Romance and is recommended for mature audiences only due to language and sexual content.

About the author

Kelly Walker was born in Trappe, MD but she now calls Fredericksburg Virginia home. She has an unhealthy appreciation for chocolate, and a soft spot for rescued animals. Her best lessons on writing came from a lifetime of reading. She loves the fantastical, and the magical, and believes a captivating romance can be the most realistic magic of all. Kelly, her husband and her two children share their home with three dogs who walk her, and two cats who permit her to occasionally share their couch.

Author' 

Website / Facebook / Twitter

Until the next time, 

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

Buy the book at

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

Author's
Website / Facebook / Twitter

Book summary: 

tick

tick

tick

tick

tick

it's almost

time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

      I'm still trying to find a reason for not writing this review earlier. I left it for later after reading this book as I need to get my thoughts sorted out. It was a while ago and all my thoughts are now at the right place when it comes to this book.

      Shatter Me was on my to-read for long even though other girls and readers told me that it was a must read I somehow always picked another book to read instead of this one. It turned out to be a good decision as after reading it Destroy Me came out and I didn't have to wait for this book as now I have to wait for the next book in this series.

      Destroy Me helped me a lot to understand Warren's character and some of his decisions but Adam was still my little sweetheart. He still is don't get me wrong but with Unravel Me and that famous scene with a puppy helped me and Warren somehow got under my skin while reading this book.

      Unravel Me also helped me to understand the world that Tehereh Mafi created. I was able to see the whole picture and understand the Omega Ponit but by that I also get to see the real picture of The Reestablishment. The author created this book in some order that really fits me. First book helped me understand Juliette and her life which will later help me understand her actions and ideas. It also showed Adam to some points, later with Destroy Me it was Warren's turn to show his character but he mostly opened up here in this novel. But mostly this novel served me to see the whole picture and most of all to show some action, but this time it was a much bigger fight than those in Shatter Me.

      I won't even mention that also well-known chapter 62 that melted so many hearts including mine. But for one thing Shatter Me was a really great read and I haven't enjoyed some dystopian novel that much in a long time, but boy Unravel Me got whole this to the new level. I run away from any sorts of love triangles but her I didn't mind any moment of it 'cause there is another thing I didn't give up on Adam and it would be hard to do so but I believe that with every book it'll get harder and harder to decide which side I'll pick. It only tells you how much I enjoyed this book and honestly I'm dying to read more.

Rating: 5 stars. 

Until the next time,