Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

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

Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

(in no particular order)

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility are in my all time favorites classics, I love this books, especially Pride and Prejudice. At one time I was so obsessed with it that I also bought the tv series (Colin Flirt) and the movies to add to my collection. 

J.K. Rowling : I love the Harry Potter series! is one of my all time favorites, but so far I´ve only read this series written by her.

 Kelley Armstrong: She´s one of my auto-buy authors, I just love her books and so far I´ve read Women of the Otherworld series plus novellas and short stories but not all of them (Adult), The Darkest Powers trilogy and short stories (YA), The Darkess Rising trilogy and short stories (YA) and Sea of Shadows from her new-ish YA trilogy. 
I also own Omens from her new-ish adult series but I haven´t read it yet.

Richelle Mead: I love Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series, but I have yet to read her adult series.

Melina Marchetta: I love her contemporary books and Jellicoe Road is on of my all time favorites. I also own the first two ebooks of her fantasy trilogy but I haven´t read it yet.

Rae Carson : I love her Fire and Thorns trilogy and can´t wait to read more of her books.


Stephanie Perkins : I still need to read Isla and HEA, but I LOVE her first two books, it has such memorable characters. 

Julie Kagawa: I love her books! so far I ve read The Iron Fey series and short stories, two books from the Call of the Forgotten trilogy and I LOVE The Immortal Rules trilogy!

Sherrilyn Kenyon: I love her Adult Dark-Hunterverse books, I own almost all of them and the first five books of the Chronicles of Nick series (YA), that are from the same universe.

J.R. Ward: I love her Black Dagger Brotherhood series and can´t wait to read her new series - Black Dagger Legacy, that takes place in the same universe.

What are your ALL TIME Favorite Authors?

Leave me your links!

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

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke is a good sequel and conclusion (I´m not sure if this is the final book but it felt like it) to the Prisoner of Night and Fog series/duology(?). It´s set in 1933 Berlin, in a time when the Nazis are getting power over the government and it´s the most dangerous place for Gretchen, she used to belong to Hitler´s inner circle but now she´s in his hit list and Daniel is a Jew trying to solve a murder.

Currently reading


What I´m going to read next?

What are you reading today? 

Leave me your links!

Review: Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

Title: Zac and Mia
Author: A.J. Betts
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release date: September 2nd 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

"When I was little I believed in Jesus and Santa, spontaneous combustion, and the Loch Ness monster. Now I believe in science, statistics, and antibiotics."

So says seventeen-year-old Zac Meier during a long, grueling leukemia treatment in Perth, Australia. A loud blast of Lady Gaga alerts him to the presence of Mia, the angry, not-at-all-stoic cancer patient in the room next door. Once released, the two near-strangers can't forget each other, even as they desperately try to resume normal lives. The story of their mysterious connection drives this unflinchingly tough, tender novel told in two voices. 

I have mixed feelings about this book, because honestly I don´t know what rating to give it, since one of the main characters is annoying because she spends angry with the world and retaliates with whichever she can, but on the other hand Mia just learned that she has cancer, which could upset to anybody.

The story begins with Zac, a leukemia patient who has just received a bone marrow transplant, which is why he´s confined in a hospital room, isolated for about 40 days and his only visitor are his mother, doctors and nurses, so when he finds out that his neighboring in the next room is a girl of his own age, Zac begins to communicate with her through knocks on the wall between the two rooms, messages sent through nurses, until they finally communicate over social network, but during their stay at the hospital they never know each other face to face, just glances of each other through the window in Zac´s door. But somehow months after leaving the hospital both keep thinking of each other for different reasons, and their lives crossed paths again, but this second meeting Mia is still remains depressed, so Zac does what he can to help her.

The plot is divided into three parts, the first part fully told by Zac, the second part is told from Zac and Mia POVs and the last part is told entirely by Mia. I liked Zac´s chapters, because he´s a very positive guy, despite being aware of the mortality percentages of his illness and is aware of the probability of going into remission, but despite all this almost never looks listless, discouraged or angry. While on her part Mia, a cancer with a high probability of success, she´s angry about the consequences her treatment (understandable), so she´s angry, depressed and cruel to others for the most part.

Lately I've read several books about cancer patients, but few of them were developed in the hospital, which made it a little different from the others.

Zac and Mia is a book about two young teenagers facing cancer that after many setbacks they become friends and support each other. Besides that we also see the presence of the family of both, but my favorite was the interaction of Zac with his mother, she´s portrayed as a strong woman and that is always present in the treatment of her son, we see her positive and supporting in the recovery of Zac. Overall it´s a good contemporary novel about friendship, family and with a message of hope.

Waiting On Wednesday(168): Extraordinary Means

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

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Release date: May 26th 2015

Two teens with a deadly disease fall in love on the brink of a cure.


At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.

There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.

But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down. Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances.

Why I'm Waiting?

I liked The Beginning of Everything and I want to read another written by Robyn Schneider.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links 

Waiting On Wednesday(167): Illuminae

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

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Release date: October 20th 2015

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Why I'm Waiting?

I´ve read books written by both authors and I liked them a lot, that´s why I´m interested in this collaboration.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links 

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

Last week I read The Hit and I enjoyed it, you can read my review - here. 

I also read Zac & Mia and I´ve mixed feelings about it, I liked the male protagonist Zac but I´m not sure how I feel about Mia. Review to come.

What I´m going to read next?

What are you reading today? 

Leave me your links!

Stacking the Shelves (44): March

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga´s Reviews, which showcases the books we've purchased, won, borrowed and received in the mail. 

These are the books I got in March.

FOR REVIEW

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
Witch Hunter (Witch Hunter #1) by Virginia Boecker

Thanks to the publishers, Edelweiss and Netgalley for the eARCs.

BOUGHT

FOR MY KINDLE

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Finn Finnegan (The Adventures of Finn MacCullen #1) by Darby Karchut
The Jewel (The Lone City #1) by Amy Ewing

Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1) by Danielle Paige
Talon (Talon #1) by Julie Kagawa

The Stag Lord (Bannerman Boru #1) by Darby Kaye
Hard to Come By (Hard Ink #3) by Laura Kaye
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark #1) by Kresley Cole
A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark #2) by Kresley Cole
No Rest for the Wicked (Immortals After Dark #3) by Kresley Cole

What books did you get?

Leave me your link in the comments.

Review: The Hit by Allen Zadoff

Title: The Hit (Boy Nobody #1)
Author: Allen Zadoff 
Publisher: Orchard Books
Release date: September 4th 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: BookDepository

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When Boy Nobody was just eleven, he discovered his own parents had died of not-so-natural causes. He soon found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out.

And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission...

This book was previously published in 2013 under the name Boy Nobody in UK and in 2014 it reissued under the name The Hit, this book is touted for fans of Jason Bourne and although I haven´t read the novels, I´ve seen the movies and The Hit do have similarities in action, fighting, persecution and infiltration, but the plot is somewhat different.

Boy Nobody is a young killer that when he was twelve years old was "recruited" by a government company called The Program, which trained him and programed him to carry out missions where he must infiltrate a school, befriend or approach the son/daughter of his mission to thereby achieve to be closer to his mark and remove him/her in a clean way that does not seem as a murder, then the Boy Nobody disappears and is moved to his new mission and start again at a new school. When the book begins he´s sixteen years old and gets a new mission to infiltrate and befriend the daughter of a powerful politician, but there is something different about this mission, since his handlers to whom he calls Dad and Mom (this is to avoid suspicion if someone listen to their phone calls), give him only five days to end his mark and for the first time since he´s been on the Program, he´s questioning the whys of things, which can be very dangerous for him.

The story is told from the point of view of Boy Nobody whom in his latest mission is known as Benjamin (not his real name) and through memories we get to see how he ended up in the program and how his handlers only give him the mission, time limit and new identity; and as in his training he was conditioned to follow orders without question and only knows that he´s a soldier and his job is to eliminate traitors. From the beginning we see him analyzing the surrounding area, looking for potential threats, and thinking how his peers expect him to react to different situations, etc. but we see him as an apathetic boy that just follows orders, until something changes with him and he becomes more human ... which could cause problems with the Program.

I really enjoyed reading The Hit, and throughout the book I was questioning all the characters with which Benjamin interacts because nobody seems innocent and all of them seems to have a double agenda; but nevertheless I end up liking Ben and worrying about his welfare. And the ending! I did´n saw it coming, it has a very good plot twist .... and I hope to read soon the next book in the series.

Book trailer

Waiting On Wednesday(166): Walk on Earth a Stranger

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

Walk on Earth a Stranger (The Gold Seer Trilogy #1) by Rae Carson

Release date:  September 22nd 2015

The first book in a new trilogy from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Rae Carson. A young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold must flee her home, taking her on a sweeping and dangerous journey across Gold Rush–era America.

Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home—until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety? Rae Carson, author of the acclaimed Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, dazzles with this new fantasy that subverts both our own history and familiar fantasy tropes.

Walk on Earth a Stranger, the first book in this new trilogy, introduces—as only Rae Carson can—a strong heroine, a perilous road, a fantastical twist, and a slow-burning romance. Includes a map and author’s note on historical research.

Why I'm Waiting?

I loved the Fire and Thorns trilogy written by this author and can´t wait to read more of her books.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links