Book Haul + Weekly Recap

I WENT TO TEEN BOOK CON YESTERDAY AND IT WAS BEYOND AMAZING. AND OMG SO MANY AMAZING AUTHORS YOU SHOULD ALL BE JEALOUS BECAUSE I'M JEALOUS OF MYSELF AND OMG AND OMG AND OMG.
But more on that tomorrow. I have a ranty recap and pics. Many, many pics.

Publisher
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
Last Academy by Katherine Applegate
Burn Bright by Bethany Frenette
Alienated by Melissa Sanders

Gifted
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Bought
Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger
Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger








READ ALIENATED! SO GOOD. SO SO SO GOOD! Starting Burn Bright and super excited! In the Shadow of Blackbirds got awesome reviews so I can't wait to dig into that one! and the Last Academy sounds sinister. LOVE the cover too!
Some awesome person bought me Meant to Be. I have no idea who it is. Showed up on me doorstep.
YES. I LOVE KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES so I can't wait for Let the Sky Fall! (Although Krista didn't like it...hmmm.)


Weekly Recap
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
If I Lie by Corrine Jackson
Waiting on Wednesday
The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike

Life After Theft by Apprilynne Pike

Goodreads Blurb

Moving to a new high school sucks. Especially a rich-kid private school. With uniforms. But nothing is worse than finding out the first girl you meet is dead. And a klepto. 
No one can see or hear Kimberlee except Jeff, so--in hopes of bringing an end to the snarkiest haunting in history--he agrees to help her complete her "unfinished business." But when the enmity between Kimberlee and Jeff's new crush, Sera, manages to continue posthumously, Jeff wonders if he's made the right choice.
Clash meets sass in this uproarious modern-day retelling of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

(THIS ACCIDENTALLY POSTED IN MARCH. ACK.)
I absolutely loved the Wings series, so when I heard Apprilynne Pike was writing another book? OF COURSE I had to read it! I was a bit wary of it at first, because this honestly didn't sound like my kind of book. I'm not one who usually enjoys the haunting-but-not-creepy kind of stories, but it was Apprylinne Pike! I shouldn't have doubted--she told this story almost flawlessly! 

Life After Theft is one of those stories that has such flawed characters that we can easily relate to or recognize in our friends or society. Jeff may have been the main character, but the supporting characters definitely had an important spot in the plot, and I loved how deeply woven in the plot they were!

Speaking of the plot, I just loved it! I kept biting my nails, scared that they would get caught, or something. I didn't expect the slight mystery that was involved. There were a ton of secrets that revolved around these prep schoolers and I was just dying to figure it out! And I didn't expect any of it. 

Romance...eh. In the beginning I sort of wanted to slam Jeff's face in the wall for being attracted to Sera immediately and really only because of her good looks. After a while though, I absolutely adored the interactions between the two because they were just so perfect for each other! (Also, guys really do seem have a one track mind.) I sort of thought he'd be attracted to Kimberlee from the synopsis but I definitely couldn't have been more wrong! The banter brings a sort of comic relief, but also holds a tone of suspense. 

Reading from a guy's POV was definitely different and made things a lot more hilarious! apprylinne Pike has done it again--and with a completely different genre! It's not guaranteed that you'll love it if you're a fan of the Wings series, but I definitely think it's 90% possible! I absolutely love her writing and this definitely wasn't an exception!

Pages: 352

Genre: Paranormal/Contemporary

Series: Stand alone

Publisher: Harper Teen

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Rating: 4.5-->4 stars

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Goodreads Blurb

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.
In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Well, before I got into the book, I was a bit unsure. SURE, there were tons of great reviews, but I'm usually the black sheep. And maybe (possibly?) it was because I was expecting such great things from it at first, that I started worrying that it wouldn't meet any of my expectations.

But it did. It so did.

I can not tell you how lush the worldbuilding was! The Archive, The Narrows, Histories, Librarians, Keepers, and Crew, oh my! Everything that Victoria wrote was so vivid and fascinating that I immediately wanted to learn more about it! Which is another thing that I found unique about this book. Instead of info-dumping you (new reviewing word for me lol), you learn things slowly and gradually--enough to keep you intrigued and eager for one more nugget of information, but not so slowly that the happenings confuse you. 

The writing was also one of the highlights of The Archived. We change tenses every so often, from present to past, and it was fascinating to see how Mackenzie was trained and what she learned from Da. Not only that, but there was something about it that made you feel everything so clearly and in sync with Mac. Being transported to another world? That saying's never been more true!

This book was definitely filled with action and mystery. With a place like The Narrows and zombies like Histories, it's really not that surprising! But what happens definitely is. There's a panicked feeling when we find out what's happening in The Archive and a thrill of excitement when we're fighting Histories alongside Mac. And of course, a suspicious glance towards Owen. Who just appears like that?

Speaking of, characters. I absolutely loved Mackenzie! She had all the qualities of those heroines we love--headstrong, a bit stubborn, strong, and maybe a bit cold and alone. We all know those kind of characters make for a great story! But I'll admit, I really wanted Mac to warm up a bit to Wesley--in a more romantic sense I guess. Then again, that may have ruined the plot a little...so go you Victoria Schwab for making something I usually wouldn't like (lack of romance. What? I'm one of those sappy people) into something that enhanced the plot's greatness. ;)

By the way, Wesley. I lovelovelove Wesley. Seriously. If I ever have a boyfriend, I want him like that. Except, no guyliner. Wesley was hilarious and added a comic relief to this otherwise dark story and I loved his scenes! He made me laugh every time he was present and always managed to irk Mackenzie in an adorable fashion! Throughout the book I really did want to shove them together and chant kiss!

I never trusted Owen in the first place. NEVER.

The last thing: This is possibly the first time I teared up in a paranormal novel! It was heartbreaking, how much Mac loved her little brother and how much she was willing to risk. And then, near the end...well, I can't spoil that, now can I?

Pages: 321

Genre: Supernatural/Fantasy

Series: The Archived #1

Publisher: Hyperion

Release Date: Jan 22, 2013

Rating: 5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn

A reckless wish taken from the darkest desires of the heart…

A bloody razor engraved with the names of the girls who turned to dust…

An endless cycle that feeds of loneliness and craves destruction…

Together, these pieces form a twisted puzzle that Annaliese Rose Gordon has to solve. Trapped in a body that isn’t hers—with no memory of how she got there—she must unlock the secrets of her past in order to escape the horrors of her future.

Oooh, how devious does this sound? ABSOLUTELY! Plus, that GORGEOUS cover immediately grabbed my attention! And the trapped-in-another-body definitely got me interested! I can already tell I'm going to love this book!

If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

Goodreads Blurb

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.
Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.
Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Oh my my my. Oh my. If I Lie was such an amazing book that, by the end of it, I had an emotional breakdown. Or, as close as you can get with a book! This book was absolutely, positively, completely heart wrenching. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was a quality to this novel that just ripped your heart out and made you sob a waterfall. 
I'm not kidding. 

"Just leave Quinn. Nobody wants you here."

The way this story was told surprised me--we start after the big scandal and see what happened through memories. It's a great way to tell this story and somehow made an already emotional tale even more so. Part of it may be that we learn the secret early on in the book, so it wasn't really something that book had to rely on to be amazing. Oh, I don't make sense anymore do I? 

I'm bruised from the inside out.

These characters were so fleshed out and so real that it hurt sometimes. They're easy to connect to and they're wonderful characters in general. Quinn was in so much pain, but she held her head high--God, even her father seemed to hate her! I, honestly, would've blurted out the truth almost immediately, but that Quinn was strong enough to brace herself for all this...it was amazing. 
George was, by far, my favorite character. Even more so than Quinn herself! He was the only one who believed her and stuck by her and he brought a lot of dry humor when it was needed. He was definitely the father figure in this book and I adored him. He was sweet in a cranky kind of way and he just made me smile through my tears a lot of times.
"One day, people will see that about you, and you are going to knock them on their asses with how stunning you are." 

So many things happen in a book that's not really even 300 pages, so I was surprised by how...perfect it was. So many things happen, one right after another, but all of these things just kind of flow into one another and smooth each other out. I had no idea what I was crying for after a while--was it because of this? Was it because of that? Maybe both? Or this thing? They all became just...a story someone had to tell.

Sometimes a moment defines you, defines how people see you for the rest of your life.

If I Lie is a beautifully written story that will stun you. It plays on the fact that there are always two sides to every story and that sometimes you don't always know the whole story. It's a bittersweet kind of book that'll leave you in tears--joyful and mournful ones. It's just that kind of story. Whether you're a contemporary fan or not, this is definitely one you don't want to miss out on.  

Some words hit you like a tree branch slapping you in the face. And some words rip into your flesh, leaving scars so deep, they never completely fade.


Pages: 276
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Stand alone
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: Aug. 28, 2012
Rating: 7/5

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

Goodreads Blurb

There are some things you can’t leave behind…A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.
Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

This was a different kind of book for me, so maybe that's why I'm a bit hesitant to review this. It was...weird. The writing was beautiful, yes, and the story was captivating! But there was something slightly off about it. Sometimes we were info dumped with backstory, and sometimes we were told very little. And instead of loving the suspense, it sort of frustrated me because...well, it was obvious. But Carey was just oblivious to what was sitting in front of her, and she doesn't really realize it till the end. 

The romance also bothered me a bit because of the fact that she was technically 14 and the guy was 17. I'm not sure why that's a problem, since some of my favorite couples have larger age differences, but 14's always been that in-between number. It could be MG or YA, so it just felt weird. But what she'd been through was absolutely horrifying and made me want to cry or gasp in horror.

I adored some of these characters and I definitely could acknowledge Murdoch's capability of writing the perfect school antagonist! Oh she was one giant...bee. And the perfect mean girl to push Carey along! I couldn't really connect to Carey though because I have a issue with dropping g's in narration. I don't know. It added to the story, but it made me a bit uncomfortable. I loved Nessa, and Ryan seemed to be pretty sweet! I wish we saw some more of her school friends, though. They seemed like they could have some amazing characterization, but their brief scenes ended up making them a but flat in my opinion.

The pacing felt perfect for this novel and I adored the plot, though not many things really came as a surprise. There were many subplots, mainly including the relationships between each character, and I was a bit disappointed that most all of them ended with a Happy Ever After.

If You Find Me is a heartbreaking story that made you realize that the world isn't as perfect as we hope. It's a gritty, beautifully told story that can make you see the world in a different way. And, using a cliche, it'll make us thankful for what we have. And what we don't.

Pages: 256

Genre: Contemporary

Series: Stand alone

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: March 26, 2013

Rating: 3 stars