Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent #1
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: April 25th 2011
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: borrowed
Blurb (from Goodreads):

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

You know how hard it is sometimes to express how much you loved a book? If I were in a movie, you'd hear crickets making their weird sounds and I'd stare at you like a zombie, because I have no clue how to say how much I loved Divergent.

I remember when this book first came out, EVERYONE was talking about it. Twitter was on fire, almost all bloggers I stalk follow read it and loved it. That craze, like all book crazes before, scared the crap out of me. So I didn't read it. Then the news about a movie came and I heard everyone groaning about the actors and I still resisted. And then last week magic happened. As you know, the full official movie trailer was released. I watched it and after I finished drooling over that amazing tattoo (you know the one!) I decided I needed to read the book. So I borrowed it from a friend of mine.

Tris. Man, I loved her. She's one of those heroines that stick in your head long after you've finished reading the book. She's just simply amazing. I loved how strong she was. And I liked that even though she chose to leave her faction and join another one, she didn't completely forget where she came from, she didn't ignore that part of herself. My heart ached for her a couple of times during this book, but I think the bad things that happened to her made her even stronger. I really can't think of a negative thing or something that I didn't like about her.

Four was... He was dreamy and amazingly sexy and just... WOW! I liked how mysterious he was. And I liked that he didn't try to protect Tris and he didn't treat her like she was made of glass or like she couldn't take care of herself. He had an incredibly bad past, but it didn't make him look weak or broken. He was stronger because of his past.

There were many other characters that I loved, especially Christina and Uriah. Tori was an interesting character and I'm really curious to see what will happen to her in the rest of the series. As for the characters I hated, I seriously wish Peter and Marcus would go away and never come back. I also hope Eric gets a very slow and painful death.

I really loved Divergent and I cannot wait to read the other two books in the series. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some very painful moments for Marcus, Eric and Peter :D

Release Day Blast: Severed Colours by Dawna Raver

The epic continues…

Quinn Sinclair trusted Arik Morgaine until he betrayed her. Scared and alone, she finds herself delivered into the hands of the evil Morgana le Fay. When Quinn discovers Morgana's plans are beyond demented and seriously depraved—making life with the Changeling seem like a day at the beach—she wonders if death is a better option?

Arik Morgaine vowed he'd save Quinn no matter the price. When his well thought out plans go terribly awry, a desperate and heartbroken Arik is forced to beg the cruel Triarchia for help. Unwilling to go on without his Älskling, he answers a question that irrevocably alters their lives.

Can Arik and Quinn find a way back to each other, or will the price of saving her rip them apart forever?

Teaser

Large, purpose-driven hands caressed Quinn’s side, pulling her into him. His front to her back, their bodies fit together perfectly. Two separate individuals with jagged edges, that when put together, became a smooth, complete whole.

“Älskling.” His voice in her ear came as smooth as melted chocolate. Warm, soft lips lavished kisses down her neck. She responded to his touch, pushing back into his hard body, closing the small gaps that kept them from being together.

She started to turn over to face him, his name hovering on her lips. “Arik.”

Quinn opened her eyes and hugged herself. She was alone. The dream or the vision, and its all too real images, wrenched at her broken heart.

“Why Arik? Why did you do this to me? To us?”

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Wednesday Chatter #4: On series and why I love them

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

 

Hey guys! A few days ago I saw this post that Ellie wrote about the series she's reading and the ones she's read. She also linked to Gaby's post and I saw that it was a very fun thing to do and I decided to do it myself. I thought "Hey, my list isn't going to be that big, right? I might as well share it". Man, was I wrong. I actually started writing the post, but when I realized how huge my list was getting, I got scared my blog would crash and decided not to post it. Don't believe me? Here's the simplified list:

Series I'm reading and I'm up to date with: 23

Series I'm reading but I'm not up to date with: 37

Series I've read but I'm not sure about finishing at the moment: 11

Series I've read that I have no clue if they have finished or not: 5 (either the author hasn't posted anything about continuing the series in question or some have put their series on hold for the moment)

Series I've finished: 14

I am still working on the "TBR Series" list, but for now I decided not to continue writing it. But from what I've counted so far there are at least another 15 series on my TBR list.

As you can probably tell by those insane numbers above, I really, really love series. I know a lot of readers are tired of long series, but I say keep them coming. Seriously, I doubt there will ever be a time when I'll get tired of them.

There are a lot of reasons why I love series. The first one is that when I love one or two characters from a book, I really can't get enough of them. I also believe that if they're done right, series can help discover the multitude of layers a character has. Those of you who've read Sherrilyn Kenyon's Styxx, how many of you can honestly say you were expecting THAT in his story? Don't lie!

Usually I feel like stand-alone books only give me a side or two of a character and, while sometimes that's fine with me, I find myself wondering what's going to happen next. Of course, this seriously depends on the original story of the character. If I'm reading a contemporary where one of the characters dies, I won't be expecting another book with that particular character. I'm not that crazy. I'm talking about those books that sometimes leave me wanting for so much more.

Another reason why I'd rather read series is that sometimes the world in a book is just too amazing to have just that one story. Can you imagine what it would've been like had Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone been the only book in the Harry Potter universe? I would've felt robbed in some way. Or think of any other series you've ever read and put all books aside, except for the first one. To me, that feels lonely and slightly sad. And this isn't just true for fantasy books, it's true for contemporaries also. I can't think of a YA contemporary series, so I'm giving you the adult version here. Any reader over 18 that's read and loved the Rough Riders series by Lorelei James could probably imagine how bad they'd feel if there had been just that first story, especially knowing there were so many McKay brothers and cousins and a sister out there to populate a small country. They needed stories too.

As for why I love big series (over 5-10 books), this is quite simple, actually. I think this is true for most readers, too. When you read a series that has you hurting for the characters, loving them, crying with them, wishing you could step inside the book and either punish the bad guy or smack some sense into some characters, the ending of that series feels awful. You know that there will be no more new adventures, no more daily life situations, little details, pranks, no more jokes, no more tears, nothing. While I don't read a series because I want to see my favorite characters get hurt, getting to the end of a series makes me want to spend a day in bed, under the blankets and wish that it's all just a bad dream and the series isn't over. It's like you have your life divided: Before Series and After Series. Last week I told you that I love to re-read. I do, but re-reading a series that's ended will always be bittersweet to me.

So while I may be one of the few weirdos out there who have so many series they've read (90, in case you decided not to make the math), I am not regretting anything.

What about you? Why do you love to read series. And in case you don't like series, why not?

Book Review: The Edge Of Always by J.A. Redmerski

Author: J.A. Redmerski
Series: The Edge of Never #2
Publisher: Forever Romance
Release Date: November 5th
My Rating:3.5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

He was taking the long road. She was taking the road to nowhere. It just so happened that they led to the same place…

When everything falls apart, love remains . . .

THE EDGE OF ALWAYS

Camryn Bennett has never been happier. Five months after meeting on a Greyhound bus, she and her soul mate Andrew Parrish are engaged—and a wedding isn’t the only special event in their future. Nervous but excited, Camryn can’t wait to begin the rest of her life with Andrew – a man she knows in her heart will love her always. They have so much to look forward to—until tragedy blindsides them.

Andrew doesn’t understand how this could happen to them. He’s trying to move on, and thought Camryn was doing the same. But when Andrew discovers Camryn is secretly harboring a mountain of pain and attempting to numb it in damaging ways, there is nothing he won’t do to bring her back to life. Determined to prove that their love can survive anything, Andrew decides to take Camryn on a new journey filled with hope and passion. If only he can convince her to come along for the ride…

You know, I was so happy when I heard there was going to be another book with Andrew and Camryn. I really loved them in The Edge Of Never and I was a bit sad when it ended. So when the new book was released I did a little happy dance and purchased the book right away.

I loved seeing them getting stronger as individuals and as a couple, growing up and doing the things they were dreaming about. I also liked that Camryn gets to come to terms to some events from her past and become a stronger person.

I'll be honest and tell you that when I finished the first book and read the blurb for this one, I kind of went "Oh, I know what will happen!". I kept hoping I was wrong. I really wished they didn't have to go through what they did, but I guess that's what helped them do the things I talked about earlier. My heart broke for them, even though I was expecting it.

There were some incidents that gave me the chills, especially since they can and do happen in real life. They're not done in a preachy way, they are just shown as things that happened to the characters and that can happen in real life if you're either in a bad place (mentally) or you aren't paying attention around you. I remember one of my teachers in college saying "Don't be afraid of what you do when you think things through, be afraid of those moments when your brain just isn't working". And that's what I felt happened in The Edge Of Always.

I really wanted to love this book as much as I loved The Edge Of Never. There were a few issues, however. Besides the slightly rushed ending, there were some scenes that made me go "Huh?". They were parts that didn't exactly fit with the image I had of Andrew and of Camryn.

The constant change of POV between Andrew and Camryn was one of the things I liked in both books. I feel like books told in 1st person aren't exactly complete, because I am a curious person and I want to see what every character feels and goes through. But J.A. Redmerski makes it pretty easy to figure that out because we get the two sides of the story.

The ending, even though it felt rushed, fit the story of Andrew and Camryn. And I did believe in their story and in their love. I do think that it was a sweet, sweet story of a love that heals and sneaks up on you. I heard that there's going to be a book about two characters we meet in this story and I'm very, very happy about that. I will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Confession Of A Weird Reader #2: Why I Love Re-reads

I've been preparing for an exam these last few days (as shown by the lack of posts). I didn't have time for reading new books and, though it's extremely frustrating because it seems like all the new, shiny books are rushing to come out DURING those times, this gave me a great idea for today's confession post.

Whenever I'm studying for an exam, unless it's a book I've been dying to read that gets published during that time frame (like it happened with Lover Mine, when it was published a week before my finals), I generally stay away from new books. The reason is quite easy to understand, actually: I want to take my time reading it without feeling guilty about procrastinating. Plus, I generally don't have much free time on my hands and because I'm weird about my studying (I generally do my best studying at night) I'd rather sleep a few precious hours.

And a second reason that is a little weird: if I end up loving the book, I'll have an incredibly hard time going back to nonfiction and boring, stuffy text books. Which is why I re-read.

Now on to the weird part of this confession, shall we?

Re-reading a book that I loved, to me, is liberating in a way. For one, I know for a fact that I'll love the book. There hasn't been a book that I loved the first time I read it that I didn't love at a second or third read. So when you think about it, I don't have to worry about not liking a book. Or felling bad that a book has disappointed me (especially if a book was written by one of my favorite authors).

 

Secondly, while I still focus on the main characters, I can now pay attention to all the little details in the background, the subplots, the hints for future books (if it's in a series), the secondary characters. I can't begin to tell you the amount of stuff I missed when I first read Harry Potter or any other book for that matter. But because I already know what happens, I can sort of stand back and really focus on other details and I'll usually have an "AH-HA!" moment every two, three pages.

 

There's a third reason for why I love re-reads. While I love discovering new books, new adventures and characters, new worlds and the authors that created them, re-reading a book is really like visiting an old, very dear friend. I know, it sounds strange, but I get this sense of peace that I've never felt while reading a book for the first time. Of course, some of the excitement of finally reading a book that I've been waiting for isn't there at a second read. And there isn't that sense of dread when something somewhat worrisome happens to a character. Unless I'm reading one of Sherrilyn Kenyon's books. Then I always cry like a baby. But I get this "Oh hey, I've been here before" feeling that is amazing for me. Don't get me wrong, this feeling can turn out to be very bad when it's with a book I'm reading for the very first time and I'm anticipating EVERYTHING (don't you just hate that? The fact that a book doesn't surprise you?)

Also, the nerd inside me is adult enough to admit that re-reading is like a time machine. I can't do it in real life, but I can damn well do it with my books.

So this is why I re-read and why I love it. One last thing. Re-reading helps me get out of a reading funk or if I'm having book hangovers. Gets me out of those blue moods every time :D

Oh, and in case you where wondering, I did pass my exam this week *bouncing*

Sunday Book Soundtrack #13: Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin

Sunday Book Soundtrack is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books, where I share some of my bookish soundtracks. Since I discovered my passion for reading years ago, I've discovered that more and more of the songs I loved remind me of certain books. So I thought I'd share my playlists with you. If you want to listen to the songs, I'll post a link to a Youtube videos for each and every title. No copyright infringement intended! I'll try to find the official videos for each song. There's no set number for each playlist, sometimes I might have 10, sometimes 5, sometimes if I'm one of my moods I'll have 15. If you want to read more about this feature, click the "show more" button below. 

I read with music. If there's no music, I can't read. And not just read, but almost anything, like studying of cooking or doing chores around the house. The only time I don't have music is when I sleep. And during exams, but that's a different story.

Sometimes it happens that a certain song and a book or a scene from the book I'm reading sort of... click. It's like they were made for each other. At least for me. And so I will almost always think of that particular book when hearing that song. I thought I'd share my book soundtracks with you.

Keep in mind that I have a very... weird taste in music. You'll find mostly rock music, country or the 80s-early 90s music in these lists. I might use some "contemporary" songs from now and then, but don't bet on it being something other than those particular genres. Also, not always the songs will be in English. If I have a link to a translation for the lyrics, I'll post it. If you like a song I'm using, that's fine. If not, that's fine too, just don't say I didn't warn you.

The songs aren't always on a book's playlist for their lyrics. Sometimes they're there for an instrument or for a feeling I get when hearing them. Also, I won't always mention what scene I used them for. If it's not a spoiler, I'll share the scene, if it is a spoiler, I'll let you guess.

Anyway, I hope you like my playlists :)

This week's book soundtrack is Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin. (If you want to read my review, click here)

1. Meredith Brooks - Bitch
2. Shania Twain - Man, I feel like a woman
3. Pink - So What -Before you ask, there's no husband in this book. But if you read the book, you'll know (or I hope you'll do) why this song :)
4. Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime
5. Lily Allen - Fuck You