Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books You Recently Added To Your To-Be-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books You Recently Added To Your To-Be-Read List

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White

Legacy of the Clockwork Key (The Secret Order #1) by Kristin Bailey

Persuasion (The Heirs of Watson Island #2) by Martina Boone

Made For You by Melissa Marr

Prudence (The Custard Protocol #1) by Gail Carriger

Shadow Study (Soulfinders #1) by Maria V. Snyder

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

The Sin Eater’s Daughter (The Sin Eater’s Daughter #1) by Melinda Salisbury

The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy #2) by Marie Rutkoski

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

What books have recently been added to your TBR list?

Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1) by Jen Calonita

Book Summery (Via Goodreads): Would you send a villain to do a hero's job? An exciting new twisted fairy tale series from award-winning author Jen Calonita.
Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.
Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school-for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villain really change?

Book Review:
This sounded like a light-hearted read with a whimsical twist, and that is exactly what I got. Gilly's situation is easy to understand. Her parents just don't make enough money to provide for their children. So naturally Gilly tries to make-up for what her parents lack by stealing from the rich, which eventually lands her in Fairy Tale Reform School (FTRS). FTRS offers its students a chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of society. This is where Gilly finds herself in the midst of a battle between good and evil. I enjoyed the transformation of the fairy tale villains we all know into professors at FTRS. I also enjoyed Calonita's modern twist on the fairy tales themselves. Overall, this was a fanciful tale that kept me up reading late into the night. I'll definitely be on the look-out for Calonita's sequel!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Jabberwocky for this copy.
Published March 3rd 2015
This is my honest review.

Cover Art Commentary:
I think this cover is just adorable! I love all the books and fairy tale regalia. The colors blend together nicely. It's a cover that is fitting for the contents it contains.

Rating:

Southern Fried Wiccan by S.P. Sipal

Book Summery (Via Goodreads): Cilla Swaney is thrilled to return stateside, where she can hang up her military-brat boots for good. Finally, she’ll be free to explore her own interests—magick and Wicca. But when she arrives at her grandma’s farm, Cilla discovers that life in the South isn’t quite what she expected. At least while country hopping, she never had to drink G-ma’s crazy fermented concoctions, attend church youth group, make co-op deliveries...or share her locker with a snake-loving, fire-lighting, grimoire-stealing Goth girl…
…Who later invites her to a coven that Cilla’s not sure she has the guts to attend. But then Emilio, the dark-haired hottie from her charter school, shows up and awakens her inner goddess. Finally, Cilla starts believing in her ability to conjure magick. Until…
…All Hades breaks loose. A prank goes wrong during their high school production of Macbeth, and although it seems Emilio is to blame, Cilla and Goth pay the price. Will Cilla be able to keep the boy, her coven, and the trust of her family? Or will this Southern Wiccan get battered and fried?

Book Review:
I was a little unsure of what to expect when I started Sipal's Southern Fried Wiccan. The premise sounded cute and I thought the title was clever. What I got was a coming-of-age tale of a military brat who is trying to find her place in the world. The addition of religion was not over-bearing or meant to sway the reader one way or another. This is simply about a girl who is on the path to self-discovery and she uses wicca to find herself. I loved the incorporation of MacBeth, it really added a lot of depth and flair to the story. I also adored Cilla. She was easy to relate to. If I were still in high school, I could easily see myself becoming friends with her. I also cherished Cilla's family, particarly her grandmother. I would love to have a "G-ma" like Cilla, who is into making her own tea, and grows and sells organic vegetables. Overall, this is a sweet southern tale. I will definitely make a note to read more from Sipal in the future!

Thanks to BookFish Books for this copy.
Published March 24th 2015
This is my honest review.

Cover Art Commentary:
To be honest, this is not my favorite cover. It looks way too dark and serious for the contents, which are more light and whimsical.

Rating:

Life of A Blogger: Dreams

This week's topic on Life of a Blogger is dreams.

Hosted by Jessi from Novel Heartbeat

I'm not really sure what to say. Sometimes I remember my dreams when I wake up, and sometimes I don't. If I do, they seem to fade as the day goes on. I've always wanted to keep a dream journal, but I never have. I know your dreams are supposed to be your subconscious telling you somethings, which is why I believe it's important to pay attention to them. 

How about you, dear blogger? What are your thoughts on dreams? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

The Baby Sitter's Club by Ann M. Martin

The Goosebumps' series by R. L. Stine

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

What are some of your favorite childhood books?

Alienated (Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers

Book Summery (Via Goodreads): Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.
Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.
Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.
But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.
Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Book Review:
This book has a very interesting premise. Overall, I believe Landers pulled it off. The world building of L'eihr was rather convincing. Aelyx offers an interesting point of view. His distrust of humans it well founded, especially with their bigotry behavior. I related to Cara the most. She is a modest host, who does her best to offer Aelyx comfort and familiarity. I felt that Cara took the brunt of the bad behavior from her fellow humans. Unfortunately, I felt that the bulk of the book was based on said bad behavior. Landers does a good job of pushing forward with Cara and Aelyx's journey, but so much time was spent on how hypocritical and evil human beings can be. It was a bit overkill, and detracted from the story. Overall, I enjoyed Alienated and look forward to the sequel that was recently released.

Cover Art Commentary: 
Hello gorgeous! What is there to say about this cover other that it's beautiful!!! I love how you can flip the cover either way, each offering its unique perspective.

Rating:

Life of A Blogger: Nature

This week's topic on Life of a Blogger is nature.

Hosted by Jessi from Novel Heartbeat

Ok, so let's be honest. I'm not much of a nature person. Growing up, I lived in the country for a while and nature meant CHORES. Particularly taking care of the chickens. I now hate chickens. Ahem. 

Moving on, when I met John we was really into gardening. And, well...he kinda got me into it too! Last summer neither one of us had a yard, so we did a lot of planting in pots. Here are some of our plants:

Here is our little fairy garden. We had so much fun making it! Unfortunately, the cold got to the moss before I took it in for the winter and it died. Tragic, no?

This was our mini herb garden. In the middle was lemon basil which made the most delicious pesto! However, it had a mind of its own and we had to re-pot it several times because it kept growing at a ridiculous rate!

This is a little pot of mini pansies. I'm saying mini a lot, aren't I? These little beauties got out of control and had to be re-potted several times. What is with our plants growing like crazy?!

Finally, this was referred to as the "sassy plant." It grew like a weed! This was the final pot it ended up in. The annoying thing about this plant, is that the petals would constantly fall off, so I had to sweep around it a lot.

So there is my story of nature. Leave me some of yours in the comments below! :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Eleven-ish Books On My Spring TBR List

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Half Bad and Half Wild by Sally Green

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Invaded by Melissa Landers

Made for You by Melissa Marr

Southern Fried Wiccan by S. P. Sipal

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy #2) by Marie Rutkoski

What books are on your spring TBR list?