It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #5

Weekly meme hosted by Book Journey

If you haven't noticed I finally figured out how to do that box colored thing... What do you feel about the color? Also, I updated the challenges section of the blog. What I was doing before wasn't working so I just did everything regularly. Let me know what you think! I'm doing a new meme this week. I've been admiring Icey Books blog for ages waiting until this week where I could finally participate in their meme: What's Next? Where I ask you what book I should read next out of a list I prepare. This week I start a new semester so wish me luck! My first class is at noon so I am in heaven. Only one of the days out of the week will I be waking up at an unreasonable time for a three hour class that is just one credit. The injustice! This week is still going to be a great week for books. I hope to read at least four books.

Past Week Reads

I also read Triple Your Reading Speed. It was a good book although it wasn't as necessary for me as others because I recently completed a program to increase my reading speed. It's all about the eye movements. Try not blinking too much and there were other things. I read The Mockingbirds in around three hours or my haphazard counting says. I'm not really sure. So all of my books were really fantastic. I can't wait to review them in February for you. Unfortunately I wasn't able to read Life is But a Dream like I wanted because I have to be a "new media" member and I'm too lazy to go to the North side of our county to sign up. Oh well... maybe more Life is But a Dream books will be added and not just the one "new media" book. One last thing - I have a new favorite out of this list. Can you guess which one? Don't cheat and go to Goodreads!

Past Week Reviews

The Happiness Project: A year long journey of one woman trying to become happier by being less nagging, being less snappy at her children, being a better friend, starting new goals, and overall doing things to make her a better person. It's the perfect book to start when you are thinking of resolutions.

The Truth About Faking: Girl falls in love with the most popular boy in school. Her plan to get him to take her to the dance is almost complete but then comes a new boy crashing into her life. She fake dates him but starts to have feelings toward him. A sweet romance.

Remembrance: Lizzie feels an instant connection to Drew who feels so familiar to her but with her having a boyfriend and Drew dating her best friend it seems that it was not meant to be. Can love that expands centuries endure when given a second chance even after it's revealed who they were and what they've done?

Two and Twenty Dark Tales: Twenty authors take the seemingly childish Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and tells their own dark short story retellings.

Hera, Queen of the Gods: Hera gets all the responsibility. She must help find the Fates along with other gods and goddesses so the world can be safe. That's kind of hard to do when you don't know who you are fighting against and when you you are fighting it's with huge monsters that can end your life forever. There's also the problem of the boy she's falling for...

Possible Reads

   

        

Looking for Alaska I might not be able to do. It'll be my first audio book if I can figure out how to work it. I don't have as many books I truly want to read because the library is taking forever to ship things. I mean 9 days for one book? That's ridiculous. At least I will start on my long list of indie books I need to review already. I finally was able to get Article 5 after four or five months so I'm pretty excited about that one. It would be nice if I can read all these books but only time will tell.

Upcoming Reviews

      

I'm reviewing some intense books but most of them are just children's books. I hope you enjoy my reviews!

Book Discoveries

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

"It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny."

Fault Line by C. Desir

"Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl — sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.

But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone.

Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?

Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves."

Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy

"Nikki’s life is far from perfect, but at least she has Dee. Her friends tell her that Dee is no good, but Nikki can’t imagine herself without him. He’s hot, he’s dangerous, he has her initials tattooed over his heart, and she loves him more than anything. There’s nothing Nikki wouldn’t do for Dee. Absolutely nothing.

So when Dee pulls Nikki into a crime – a crime that ends in murder – Nikki tells herself that it’s all for true love. Nothing can break them apart. Not the police. Not the arrest that lands Nikki in jail. Not even the investigators who want her to testify against him.

But what if Dee had motives that Nikki knew nothing about?

Nikki’s love for Dee is supposed to be unconditional . . . but even true love has a limit. And Nikki just might have reached hers."

Period 8 by Chris Crutcher

"In this full-length novel from Chris Crutcher, his first since the best-selling Deadline, the ultimate bully and the ultimate good guy tangle during Period 8.

Paul "the Bomb" Baum tells the truth. No matter what. It was something he learned at Sunday School. But telling the truth can cause problems, and not minor ones. And as Paulie discovers, finding the truth can be even more problematic. Period 8 is supposed to be that one period in high school where the truth can shine, a safe haven. Only what Paulie and Hannah (his ex-girlfriend, unfortunately) and his other classmates don't know is that the ultimate bully, the ultimate liar, is in their midst. 

Terrifying, thought-provoking, and original, this novel combines all the qualities of a great thriller with the controversy, ethics, and raw emotion of a classic Crutcher story."

Elfin by Quinn Loftis

"Before tonight Cassie Tate’s biggest concerns were whether she could pass Algebra and how she was going to keep Elora, her best friend, from dressing her in a skimpy fairy costume for Halloween. Her feet were firmly planted in suburban reality and she had no reason to believe her life would be anything but that of a typical teenager. That is until tonight, when Cassie saw something that no human was ever supposed to see; in the blink of an eye she was thrown into the world of the Light and Dark Elves.

He comes from a realm where light and dark have fought for millennia. He is of a race known to humans only in myths and legends. The darkness that lives inside him is a part of both who and what he is and it makes him the most gifted spy and assassin in the history of his time. His life is not his own; he lives in the service of the Dark Elf King. He slays who he must, has mercy on no one, is relentless in his hunt, and never tires of seeing his prey fall. He is Triktapic, assassin, spy, most feared of the Dark Elves.

Now, in the midst of his King’s complicated plans to expand the Dark Elves’ holdings into the mortal realm, for the first time, Trik finds his loyalties divided. For no Elf, Dark or Light, can turn away from their Chosen.

Unbeknownst to the mortal realm, the battle between Light and Dark is being brought to their doorstep. The only one who can keep it at bay holds darkness in his heart like a lover, and the one who can sway that heart must decide if she can look beyond his black past, beyond his evil nature and see the man he is destined to be.

The question must be asked, does love really cover a multitude of sins? Can true love actually conquer all or will his darkness consume those around him until all that stands is an assassin with the blood of the mortal realm on his hands?"

What are you reading this week?