The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn.
Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions.
White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups.
This is Manhattan, 1899.


Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone — from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud — threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future.

This is now a 4 part series, I am re-reading this series, I had stopped after book 2. The 3rd book wasn't out yet and the ending of the 2nd devastated me. It took me a little bit to get into the book, but, once you get hooked, you cannot put it down. The storyline is riveting, the characters pull you in, and when they are happy so are you, when their heart is broken so is yours. Godbersen delivers in this entire series.

The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

Abby's senior year of high school is going according to plan: good friends, cute boyfriend, and college applications in the mail. But when Dante Alexander, foreign-exchange student from Italy, steps into her life, he turns it upside down. He's mysterious, and interesting, and unlike anyone she's ever met before. Abby can't deny the growing attraction she feels for him. Nor can she deny the unusual things that seem to happen when Dante is around. Soon Abby finds herself drawn into a mystery whose roots reach into sixteenth-century Florence, and she uncovers a dangerous truth that threatens not only her future but the lives of those she loves.

From start to finish, I loved this book, can't wait for the sequel in 2010. This book is definitely a cliff-hanger, but well worth it. I love the mystery of Dante, the uncertainty of Abby, their characters mesh so well and they are believeable. The only hang-up I had was the Truth conversation they had. You'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.

Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins

Sixteen-year-old Katniss is smart, athletic, and fast. She can take down a rabbit with a bow and arrow, hitting it straight through the eye. Will these skills be enough to survive the Hunger Games?

A book filled with love, betrayal, desperation, and an extreme cliffhanger, it definitely left me hungering for the next book (pun intended). This is the story of a young girl, trying to save her sister, herself, having love, finding a new love, and most of all losing everything she ever had, all in the name of a Game. The Hunger Games.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

This is the sequel (prequel) to Graceling.

This is the story of Fire. She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

This book is romantic to the core. A spellbinding tale, definitely a must-read. I can't wait for the next installment "Bitterblue", no word of when that will be released...... soon, I hope!

Devil's Kiss

Perfect Good vs. Evil story line about a girl named Biliquis a.k.a. Billi who is the first and only girl in the Knight's Templar. The Knight's Templar was a group -normally of 9 knights- Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. In this book, they continue the tradition of watching over the Temple of Solomon and also, they help rid the world of evil. Fighting the never-ending battle against the Unholy. Billi is a Templar, a fighter. Kay, the boy she grew up with, and her friend, is the Oracle, who sees visions, reads minds, and can predict the future. This follows their struggle, the characters are well written, Billi is believable - she is fearless, sad, rebellious, everything a main character should be. I had no idea where the story was taking me. My inital suspicions were wrong, and as the plot built it was definitely a page-turner, keeping me on the edge of my seat. I look forward to reading the next one, The Dark Goddess which comes out fall 2010.

Ash

This started off as a book about fairy tales and elves and was set in an earlier time period with kings, horse drawn carriages, and farming communities.

It skipped around quite a bit, jumping from early years to older, giving a story and then saying "then the year she turned 16" and then "when she turned 18", so it was really hard to get into her character. It was a spinoff of Cinderella, so not super imaginitive.

And to top it all off, the author is a lesbian and during the whole story the main character is having a romance with a handsome male fairy, the last three pages she jumps ship and ends up becoming a lesbian.... What the .... ?!?!
I will be returning this book to Barnes and Noble TODAY. Such a disappointment

The Lightening Thief

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series with 7 books so far. I've made it to book 5 and am still going strong. This is a many-layered story with Gods, Goddesses, and much more. Percy finds out, at age 12, that he is a demi-god- half-human and half-immortal. As the son of Poseidon (ruler of the sea) he is an extremely powerful half-blood, just as soon as he can get a handle on his powers. This is definitely a young adult read, but an excellent and fun take on Greek Mythology. Join Percy as he defends himself against a Minotaur, Ares, and many other mythological creatures in his quest to prove his innocence in the theft of Zeus' lightening bolt.

Rampant

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns . . .
Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.
Or not.
This is about a girl, Astrid, who comes from a seemingly normal life, and ends up being sent to Rome during her junior year in high school to train as a unicorn huntress. Similar to the goddess Diana. Extremely intriguing, completely new spin on what I considered a white, precious, animal-- the Unicorn.
The characters are engaging and each one is integral to the story, very imaginitive.
I was hooked from the beginning, definitely a well-written story with plenty of adventure to keep you hooked from start to finish.

Vampire Kisses, The Beginning

Hands-down the most witty book I have read in a while. I love it, just read this excerpt and you will see why...

Halfway through kindergarten I tried to become a vampire. TrevorMitchell, a perfectly combed blond with weak amber eyes, was my nemesis from the moment I stared him down when he tried to cut in front of me on the slide.
He hated me because I was the only kid that wasn’t afraid of him. The kids and teachers kissed up to him because his father owned most of the land their houses sat on. Trevor was in a biting phase, not because he wanted to be a vampire like me, but just because he was mean. He had taken pieces of flesh out of everyone but me. And I was starting to get ticked off!
We were on the playground, standing by the basketball hoops, when I pinched the skin of his puny little arm so hard I thought blood would squirt out. His face turned beet red. I stood motionless and waited. Trevor’s body trembled with anger, and his eyes swelled with vengeance as I mischievously smiled back. Then he left his dental impressions in my expectant hand. Mrs. Peevish was forced to sit him against the school wall, and I happily danced around the playground, waiting to transform into a vampire bat.
“That Raven is an odd one,” I overhead Mrs. Peevish saying to another teacher as I skipped past the crying Trevor, who was now throwing a fit against the hard blacktop. I blew him a grateful kiss with my bitten hand.
I wore mywound proudly as I got on the school swing. I could fly now, right?

Need

Here is the synopsis: Zara White suspects there's a freaky guy semi-stalking her. She's also obsessed with phobias. And it's true, she hasn't exactly been herself since her stepfather died. But exiling her to shivery Maine to live with her grandmother? That seems a bit extreme.
First of all, I love the phobias, she has a new phobia for each chapter (with plenty more in between), even though the synopsis doesn't mention it, this book is full of magic and fae.... my sister is reading it now and keeps calling me about it, first because it was really good, second, because she was "freaked out" for the character (I know, my sister's funny like that), and now finally because she has less than 30 pages in the book and is mad she's going to finish it soon. Yes people, it's that good.

The Alchemist (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

He holds the secret that can end the world.The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.The records show that he died in 1418.But his tomb is empty.The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Cody and I are reading this together right now, first time we've ever tried this and we are on chapter 2, which I like to think of as the chapter where it gets really good. Definitely a good read.

Evermore

The story of a girl named Ever. A tragic accident claims her family and she is left behind. She faces the obvious pain, guilt and lonliness I'm sure many survivors face. But, for Ever, it's not just the guilt that she faces.
Since the accident, Ever has begun to experience many things, reading thoughts, seeing Aura's, and meeting Damen..... someone else who doesn't portray everything that he really is.
This is the beginning of a series, I enjoyed this first book immensely, but haven't been able to get into the 2nd book, maybe because it's named Blue Moon?..... it's a little to close to the sequel of another, more popular series......New Moon anyone? But, I don't want that to diminish this book, it was quite, quite good.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Okay, so while the cover of the book is not the best... I loved this book. It really could have been a sequel. It was witty and kept you reading until the very end. And while NO BOOK could ever top the vampire story in Twilight, this book can definitely hold it's own. There is no instant attraction and blooming of love between 2 teenagers. No, quite the opposite in fact, which is what makes this book all the more interesting. Here is an excerpt from the cover:

The undead can really screw up your senior year . . .
Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up and everything changes.

Although this might give away the first few chapters... I love her almost-hatred toward Lucius, that even though she does think he is attractive she still thinks he is impossible and overbearing, no sappy chapters in here....

Graceling

I read this about a month ago, and LOVED the story line. Katsa is a girl who grew up long, long ago, in a world where certain people are born with a Grace.
Some people have a Grace of counting, swimming, knowing when someone is lying, Katsa's Grace is different though.

Her Grace is killing...

Meridian

This is about a girl who is a Fenestra, half-angel, half-human. Since she was a young girl, animals, insects, everything dies around her. Comes to her in their death. She's been an outcast for the longest time, reviled by her peers, knowing that she is different, having no idea why.

This was a different book, it has a lot of intrigue and I felt nervous for her almost the entire time because you don't know who she should trust or if she's making a mistake that will hurt her in the future. Extremely interesting read.

Shiver

Awesome, in the real sense of the word. It gave me that wistful, elusive feeling of happiness. It was amazing and heartbreaking and everything, I can't say how excited I am for the sequel (Fall 2010).

BUT I just have to say, bn.com and Maggie Steifvater's site actually are spoilers and ruin the book, so you'll have to go to the store and read the cover unless you want to ruin it! This is the back cover...

"And then I opened my eyes and it was just Grace and me - nothing anywhere but Grace and me - she pressing her lips together as though she were keeping my kiss inside her, and me, holding this moment that was as fragile as a bird in my hands."

The Beginning

I always want to post about books I read or have read on my blog. I always refrain from doing so because I want people to actually read my blog. So, this is my solution, an off-to-the-side blog that is optional to read, but one I will enjoy writing immensely. I will try not to ever give spoilers, I just mostly want to share titles because I would love for everyone to read them!

So, I just finished a book called Wings, by Aprilynne Pike. Amazing story. And I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out. It's about a young girl, living in a small town, living an ordinary life. When her family moves to a larger city, she realizes there is nothing small town about her and that her life is far from ordinary. Below I put the synopsis from www.bn.com :

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.
Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.
In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.