Minis: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins & Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: May 1st, 2012

Source: Public library

Embrace the Forbidden.

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels. Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

 

Mini Review: The first few pages had me iffy but after two or three chapters, I was SO hooked.  I loved Anna's character, and I thought it was really cool that the author explored the world of deadly sins and had them personified into Duke who then spawned children to cause worldwide mayhem. What was also surprising and rather touching was the emphasis on Anna's origins and how her parents--a fallen angel and a guardian angel--continue to affect her everyday life. Her adoptive mother was also a sweet, constant presence that always grounded Anna to reality. I also have to mention the development of Anna's character: as she becomes more and more tangled with the darker side of her heritage, the lines get blurry but she still manages to hold on to the goodness that was instilled in her since birth. Anna's an awesome character, and I'm excited to see where her journey leads. Also, there are hot boys in this book. Yes, boys. PLURAL. Ayyyy. *fans self*  

 

 

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: May 14th, 2009

Source: Public library

 

In Strange Angels, Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.) Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

 

Mini Review: That bit about the "two guys hungry for her affections" is a little misleading, but otherwise I really enjoyed St. Crow's Strange Angels. It has a Supernatural-feel to it that immediately appealed to me. Dru was about as cuddly as a blanket of nails :P BUT girl had her own brand of charm that I warmed up to--after being raised by a hunter and exposed to all the things that go bump in the night, it's rather unrealistic to be upbeat and cheerful. Anyway, I really liked Dru's blunt narration and even though she's extremely rough around the edges, she has a good heart buried underneath that gruffness. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so be warned: once you start, you can't stop! PS--one of the guys mentioned in the summary is SO ADORBZ. I love Graves. He's the sweet to Dru's sour and YAY I can't wait to read about where these two go. They start out as friends but there is a spark there I CAN SEE IT.

Sunday Five

1.) Just wanted to say another quick thank you to everyone that responded to my last post. You guys made me feel much better ♥

2.) Amazingly, I'm almost halfway done with both of my summer classes for the first part of summer. (I have a third one but it doesn't start until July.) One of my classes is a film class where we watch Latin American films and learn about the historical contexts of certain countries. We've just finished a unit on Argentina, and we watched this great crime drama called Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens) starring Ricardo Darin. I highly recommend it because the acting is great, and the plot twists are so mind-bending! You don't know what's going to happen and that ending. Uf! I'd link a trailer but the ones on YouTube--even with English subtitles--don't do the movie justice.

3.) I recently read Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave and holyyyyy crap man. I'm going to try to write up a review for it soon but take my word for it IT'S AWESOME AND YOU NEED TO READ IT. And if you don't believe me, read Angie's review for it.

4.) I bought some books this past week, something I haven't done in a long time. Maybe I'll do an IMM-type post later this week.

5.) I've always been intrigued by crafts-type stuff and origami has always been a keen interest of mine. On my flight to Florida a few weeks ago, I read in a magazine about dollar origami and after finding a website with how-to instructions, I've been doing some basic dollar origami! here's the link if you're interested. Ignore the spammy ads and you should be good :)

That's all! How was your weekend? Anything good or exciting happen?

The post I've been avoiding to write

I've been discontent for a long time now with reading and blogging. I haven't wanted to admit it, but I think that my sporadic blogging has made it apparent that something was up. When I first started blogging, I was much more consistent and passionate about what I was reading and being more involved in the blogosphere. The endless stream of books that came my way (whether it was through word of mouth or through my mailbox) was an exciting adventure and I never grew tired of it.

But then at some point I started not to seek out more books to read, and because of my diminishing interest in reading, I had less to say or blog about. I tried memes, but I grew tired of those and stopped doing them. Rather than fill up my blog posts with empty memes, I opted to not post as often because I would rather post quality than quantity. But that lack of passion for blogging still lingered, and I couldn't shake it off. I tried to by reading more but the more I forced myself to pick up more books, the less books I read and ultimately I was fed up with myself for turning into the kind of reader I never thought I'd be: an inconsistent one. I gave up on books, or put them down even though I was interested in them. I couldn't figure out what was happening with me, and I still don't have an answer for why this is happening.

I haven't wanted to mention this, but after reading Chelle's post (which is much more eloquent than mine, btw) I felt relieved to know that I wasn't alone in this and that it was time to admit it to myself and to my readers. So...I feel like I've disappointed those of you that still come to my site--I've let this long-term burn-out or whatever it is take a hold of me and I haven't been updating as I used to. I'm sorry if I have let any of my readers down--I never meant to do that, but I didn't want to let my discontented feelings take over the blog (hence the prolonged silence on my end). I've toyed with the idea of closing down the site but I don't think I'm quite ready to let go yet; I still want to stick around but I'm still trying to cope with this weird funk I've fallen into. So I won't be making any promises of updating weekly or posting interviews or the like...I don't want to make promises and not keep them. I'm just going to let the blog--and myself--breathe and not force anything for now.

I wonder, has anyone had this happen to them before? Have you experienced long-term burn-out or anything of the sort? How did you pull yourself out of it?

So I saw Once the musical

And it was so unbelievably good. Before the musical there was the movie and here is one of the songs from the soundtrack. Omg. Please listen to it--it's so beautiful and haunting. *SIGH*