April 30, 2014

Review: The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi


Title: The Summer I Wasn't Me
Author: Jessica Verdi
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release date: April 1st 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 3/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository
Lexi has a secret.

She never meant for her mom to find out. And now she's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good.

Lexi knows she can fix everything. She can change. She can learn to like boys. New Horizons summer camp has promised to transform her life, and there's nothing she wants more than to start over.

But sometimes love has its own path...

Lexi is a seventeen year old girl that when her mother learns that she´s gay, decides to send her to a religious summer camp, so that she can be "cured" of her disease and Lexi agrees to go, because since the death of her father six months ago her mother has been retracted almost zombie-like and Lexi is afraid of losing her so she decides to put all her effort and hopes that this program really works and she can be "de-gaying" and not loose her mother .

And when she arrives to New Horizons summer camp she gets the surprise of her life, first in the room (that she will share with other girls), that´s fully decorated in pink and the uniforms are pink (for girls, because there are boy campers and they wear blue) and they´ll be supervised all the time and they must dress, wear make up and do her hair in a girly way. In the first day all campers are separated into groups of four, two girls and two boys, because each group will do all the activities together during the summer and do everything as a group, and Lexi´s second surprise arrives in the way of the other girl in her group - Carolyn, a girl that from the first time that she see her, she likes her, so it will be hard to try to stop being gay, when the girl that Lexi is attracts to will be with her all the time during the next two months.

The story is entirely told from the point of view of Lexi, she´s gay, but she hasn´t told anyone because she was afraid to openly admit it, only two people know her secret, Zoe the girl she was in love with and her mother because she discovered it when she found a notebook full of drawings of Zoe. So she isn´t openly gay. In Lexi´s group is Carolyn are a girl of sixteen years old, she´s there by choice and hopes that will overcome this "phase" of her life, and to complement the group are Daniel a fifteen years old boy, he´s very shy and is there by choice and Matthew who is openly gay, has a boyfriend and is there because his parents sent him, but he doesn´t want to be there. Of these characters my favorite was Matthew and in him Lexi finds a great friend.

What I liked was the friendship between Matthew and Lexi, and they do very good team and help each other (or at they least try). And the fact that Lexi is trying to be honest with herself, although she sometimes try to put everything in her power to become straight for the sake of her mother, but she was aware that it may not work for her.

What I didn´t like was: Mr. Martin, the director of the camp and he imparts most of the talks, dynamics and prayers to "cure" the campers . And there were many parts of the story that made me really angry but especially an event that happens in the last part of the book that really shock me and I could not conceive how people who are supposedly very religious allow that to happen.

Overall, there were parts that I liked as Lexi and Matthew; others that made ​​me angry (I almost throw the kindle), so it took me to read it roughly five days, but in the end I didn´t regret reading this book.

Waiting On Wednesday (121): Isla and the Happily Ever After

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3) by Stephanie Perkins
Release date: August 14th 2014
From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Why I'm Waiting?
Anna and the French Kiss is one of my favorite contemporary books EVER, and I had been DYING to read this book since 2011, when I read Lola and the Boy Next Door. The release date of this book has been pushed back several times, so I hope to read it as soon it comes out.

What book are you waiting this week?
Leave your WOW links

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE 

April 29, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday (39): Books to read If you like this TV show or movie

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten 8 Books to read If you like this TV show or movie
(in no particular order)
If you like Sliding Doors you may like
1. Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young
2. Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1) by Kasie West

If you like Roswell you may like
3. Alienated (Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers
4. Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

If you like X-Men you may like
5. Impostor (Variants #1) by Susanne Winnacker

If you like Criminal Minds and The Mentalist you may like
6. The Naturals (The Naturals #1)  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

If you like Firefly you may like
7. Avalon (Avalon #1) by Mindee Arnett

If you like Cast Away and The Blue Lagoon you may like
8. On the Island (On the Island #1) by Tracey Garvis-Graves


Leave me your link in the comments.

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE

April 28, 2014

Cover Reveal: The Witch With No Name by Kim Harrison

The Witch With No Name (The Hollows #13) by Kim Harrison 
Release date: September 9th 2014
The triumphant conclusion to Kim Harrison’s #1 New York Times bestselling Hollows series!

Rachel Morgan’s come a long way from the clutzy runner of Dead Witch Walking. She’s faced vampires and werewolves, banshees, witchs, and soul-eating demons. She’s crossed worlds, channeled gods, and accepted her place as a day-walking demon. She’s lost friends and lovers and family, and an old enemy has become something much more.

But power demands responsibility, and world-changers must always pay a price. That time is now.

To save Ivy’s soul and the rest of the living vampires, to keep the demonic ever after and our own world from destruction, Rachel Morgan will risk everything.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison was born and raised in the upper Midwest. Her bestselling Hollows novels include Dead Witch Walking, The Good, The Bad, and The Undead, Every Which Way But Dead, A Fistful of Charms, For a Few Demons More, The Outlaw Demon Wails, White Witch, Black Curse, Black Magic Sanction, Pale Demon, A Perfect Blood, Ever After, The Undead Pool, plus the short story collection Into the Woods and The Hollows Insider. She also writes the bestselling Madison Avery YA series.

Pre-Order Links: Barnes & Noble | Amazon

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Book Journey.
Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.

Click on the image to look description in Goodreads.

Finished reading 

Currently reading


What I´m going to read next?



What are you reading today? 
Leave me your links!

Have a great week!

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE

April 27, 2014

Review: Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong


Title: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1)
Author: Kelley Armstrong 
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: April 8th 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository
They hear the spirits.
They must obey.

In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire's worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters' journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they've ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a captivating new series that blends elements of fantasy and horror with the pulse-pounding action and romance that have earned her a devoted readership worldwide.

I´ve read Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies and the Women of the Otherworld series written by Kelley Armstrong, including some novellas and short stories in the same universe, therefore Sea of ​​Shadows is my first Kelley´s book that develops outside of that universe and on a different sub-genre, because this book is a fantasy novel while the others are urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

The book is told from Ashyn´s and Moria´s POVs, our main characters are twin sisters and their whole life they had been trained in their gift as Seeker and Keeper respectively and they´ve been taught combat with daggers and other items needed to complete their training.

Moria is the Keeper and responsible for protecting the people against evil spirits, she's strong, tough, really good with the dagger, able to defend herself and she has a wildcat of the Immortals named Daigo as her companion. Ashyn is the Seeker, responsible for going into the forest of the dead and find the bodies of the exiles and give them rest, she´s sweet, compassionate, she ins´t very good at fighting with her dagger and her companion is a giant hound of the Immortals called Tova.

And on Ashyn´s first trip to the forest of the dead something goes wrong and the spirits are not so happy and they attack her and the group that accompanies her. And because of these events Ashyn and Moira are separated and both embark on a journey to seek help at the nearest town and hoping to find one another. Ashyn is accompanied by Ronan a young thief, he´s very friendly, witty and resourceful. Meanwhile Moira is accompanied by Gavril, a guard from her village, he doesn´t talk much, is surly and incredulous when strange things start to happen around them.

Overall, I really liked the story, though the first part of the book was a little slow and I didn´t enjoy much the change between POVs, since they´re several chapters of Ashyn´s POV in a row, and then there´s a mini cliffhanger and then it change to Moira´s POV´s chapters with several in a row; so I'm not used to this type of dual POV, because the books that I´ve read so far had alternated POVs. Sea of ​​Shadows has action scenes and gives the idea that there will be romance in the next book (there wasn´t romance in this book), the plot it felt very introductory and I think that the world building was lacking and something that caught my attention was the mention of Japanese or Oriental elements in the story, but I'm not sure if that´s kind of world that the story is set. But after the ending I´m looking forward to read the next book - Empire of Night.

April 24, 2014

Book Cover Battle #59: Unraveling

This section or meme is call Book Cover Battle, the first time I saw it was at Books Passion for Life as UK vs US  and  Bookaholics book club as UK vs The World but because I don´t live in the UK, I can´t name it that way, so for now is Book Cover Battle .

This week book cover battle is

Unraveling (Unraveling #1) by Elizabeth Norris
Click on the image to go to Goodreads
US                                          UK

Spanish                         Turkish


This one is easy, my favorite of those covers is the US cover.

What do you think? Which is your favorite?

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE 

April 23, 2014

Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira


Title: Love Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Release date: April 1st 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Love Letters to the Dead , it´ss written in the form of letters to different dead celebrities such as Kurt Cobain, Judy Garland, Amelia Earhart, Janis Joplin, River Phoenix and more.

Laurel is a girl in her freshman year of high school and her first assignment in her English class is to write a letter to a dead celebrities, so she decides to write a letter to Kurt Cobain whom was the favorite singer of her sister May, but at the end she doen´t deliver the letter because it was too personal, but she decides to keep writing letters to different dead celebrities because she need to tell someone what she is feeling and what´s going on in her life, such as going to the first year of high school, her new friends, the boy she likes, their parents who are divorced and for that reason she lives a week with her father and another with her maternal aunt,because her mother moved to another state, but she also tells them about her sister May, she died several months before, she was like her hero, her role model and she yearned to one day become as perfect as her sister May. And she also writes them about what happened to her when her sister was supposed to be looking out for her and no one else knows that event ... only May.

The story takes place in a school year and during that time we get to know Laurel a girl that misses her older sister terribly, suffers from not having her around, feel resentment toward her because she feels abandonment and even though she no longer is with her, she wants to follow her footsteps and become like her; Laurel gave me the impression that she´s insecure because she´s always comparing herself with May.

I really enjoy reading Love Letters to the Dead, I read it in 2 days (which is pretty fast for me), although it is not a light read; I really liked the narrative that felt like a diary or letters to someone you know, because sometimes she speaks directly about the lives of these people, like with Kurt, she talks about his suicide and how his life was as a child, and with Amelia Earhart talks about her travels and how she would like to be like her and as the story progresses the story becomes more emotional, sad and intense. I have heard that some compare this book with  to The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a book that I have not read yet).

Favorites quotes
"I know I wrote letters to people with no address on this earth, I know that you are dead. But I hear you. I hear all of you. We were here. Our lives matter."
“I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won’t be as a good as everyone imagines we could be.”
“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don't have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says. It's knowing you could be the author instead.” 
"We are each weird in a different way, but together, that’s actually normal. And even if there’s a lot that I can’t say to them, it feels good to belong somewhere.”

Waiting On Wednesday (120): The Young Elites

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

The Young Elites (The Young Elites #1) by Marie Lu 
Release date: October 7th 2014
I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.
Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

What book are you waiting this week?
Leave your WOW links

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE 

April 22, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday (38): Characters Who Would Be My BFF

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.


Top Ten Characters Who Would Be My BFF
(in no particular order)

Roar - Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Simon Bae - The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
 Daniel Bianchi - The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
Nick Merrick - Secret by Brigid Kemmerer 
 Eddie Castile - Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Toby - The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Thomas Mackee - Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Asha and Sam - Speechless by Hannah Harrington
Belen - Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
Eddie - Slammed by Colleen Hoover


Which characters would you like to be your best friend?
Leave me your link in the comments.

Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
April New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE