Book Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: January 1st 2010
My Rating: 5 cups
Source:Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “Duffy,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out a way to adequately express how much I enjoyed reading this book. I loved it, actually. The DUFF is one of those books that surprised me, because I did not expect to like it this much.

The first thing that stood out while I was reading this book was how real the entire thing seemed. I felt like I myself was back in high school (thank God I wasn't!). The dynamics were all there, the relationships were there, everything that I remember high school to be was in this book. It might have to do with Keplinger's age while she was writing the book, but still, she had an amazing ability to capture all of that and put it on paper and make it seem genuine.

I adored Bianca and Wesley. Bianca is the type of girl that has a mildly bad time in high school. She's not the popular one or the pretty one. She doesn't fall for every line guys her age through at her, which I personally thought was awesome. She seems like the girl you'd deem "the crazy one", until you actually get to know her and understand her. I was so sad because of her family situation.

Wesley is a difficult guy to like at first. I didn't quite understand him in the beginning, but then certain scenes made me realize he is so not the guy I thought he was.Yes, he was always chasing girls, but what teenage boy doesn't? I liked how he respected Bianca's wishes and how he didn't try to push her to open up about what was bothering her. And eventually, like Bianca, I ended up liking him a lot.

There are so many good themes in this book: sex, alcohol abuse, bullying. And they are presented not in a preachy way, but in a natural, "shit happens sometimes" kind of way. However, the most important thing in my opinion, is when Bianca is shown that everybody has self esteem issues and that everyone has that something they don't like about themselves. That I think was the best lesson Bianca got in this book and that is why I loved The Duff so much.

Obsessed With Covers #18: A Thousand Pieces Of You, Wicked Luck & Endless

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

I've seen so many gorgeous covers this week, I don't even know where to start or which ones to pick!

The watercolor background effect is gorgeous. And I love the night vs day, dark vs sunny contrast. Not only that, but there's a sort of irony in the cover, too. There's the dark, rainy half, that somehow gives me a sense of life, crowds, of stuff happening, while the sunny, shiny part gives me the impression of solitude and of still life. I absolutely adore this cover and the artist really did a great job.

A Thousand Skies Above You - Claudia Gray

Where to start? The skull covered in flowers is pretty awesome, but I also love the flower "frame" too (I'm going to assume they're roses, though I have no clue *hangs head in shame*). I recently developed a think for dark purple, so that is also another reason why I adore this cover. And the eye sockets are "staring" straight at you, sort of daring you to pick the book up. Interesting choice of cover art, given the title.

Wicked Luck - Shannon L. Maynard

This is such a simple, yet pretty cover. The thing that caught my attention is that the girl is hiding her face. And the way she's sitting makes me think that she's either really sad or she's trying to hide something. I wonder what. Then there's the awesome swirly design around the title. It's just so pretty to look at.

Endless - Amanda Grey

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn #8

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn is a weekly feature here at Ruby's Books, in which I share some of the posts written by other fellow book bloggers over the last week, posts that I loved so much I have to share. 

• Jon @ Bookish Antics talks about why book blogging is stressful. I could not agree more with this post! 
• Erika @ The Red Bookmark talks about the pros and cons of using GIFs.
• Nikki @ There Were Books Involved has a post about audiobooks. 
• Ashley @ Nosegraze shares some of her reasons for not commenting back. 
• Christina @ Christina Reads YA has some ideas on how to respond when someone disdains YA lit as well as some awesome book recommendations. This is a very good post, especially for someone rude like me, who'd just show that mean person the middle finger and season that with some inventive words (I hear swearing is impolite??? Who made that rule?)

I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did. Did you read any good posts that you think everyone else should?

#Shelflove: Share Your Sources for Free Books

This month we're talking about free books. Who doesn't love freebies, right? Here are my sources for free books:

• Charity shops - There's a charity shop near my house that has a box right at the entrance, full of free books. The only obligation you have is that you pick up just one and that if you have a book you want to donate, you put it there. Also, most charity shops have really cheap books, some of them in very good conditions, so I check out their shelves too (not free, but almost free).
• Library - Same as before. A lot of them have books that they give away for free. Actually, a few of the books on my #Shelflove list came from a library that was giving away free books.
• BookBub - A very cool website where you can find a ton of freebies from many genres. All you have to do is sign up (it's free) and it will send you daily emails with freebies. Also bargains.
• The Fussy Librarian - Same as the previous website, you just sign up for free and you'll receive tons of free books and bargains on your mail. 
• eBookSoda - Another website with free subscription.
• Pixel of Ink - A website full of Kindle freebies and bargains. They update their site daily. You can either subscribe with your email address or you can follow them on Facebook.
• eReader Love - Same as before, you can either subscribe or follow on Facebook, where they post daily about the freebies/bargains they discover on Kindle.
• eReader News Today - Yet another website that has Kindle freebies. 
• Pulseit - A website owned by Simon & Schuster. They feature two free books each week. You can't download them, but you can read them online. Oh, the cool part? In December they have the 31 Days of Reading, when they have a free book EACH DAY! So that's awesome. 
• FeedYourReader - Awesome website full of Kindle freebies and bargains. 

Phew. I think that's it. Yeah. I hope this helps you feed your bookish addiction and help you save some money. 

Book Review: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: The Dark Elements #1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: February 1st 2014
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

One kiss could be the last

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses.

Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on since forever.

Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul.

But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne…it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world>

You know what I love? When an author shows me again and again why I love their work and why I can trust them. Armentrout is pretty much on my "forever buy" list. I remember when the news about this new, exciting series came out and I was so happy. I mean, GARGOYLES. I've never read anything with gargoyles and the only time I saw gargoyles and liked them was in the animated series Gargoyles. I'm ignoring the funny companions in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I wanted hot gargoyles.

I loved White Hot Kiss. It definitely wasn't what I expected, at least not based on the prequel, Bitter Sweet Love. I can always trust Armentrout to write sassy, funny characters. Just as I can trust her to write creepy bad guys. The other thing that I can trust about her is that she'll write about "good" guys that are rotten to the core and "bad" guys who can make the right thing. I love that. I hate it when the guys on Team Evil are always bad and same goes for Team Good. 

Layla was an interesting character. She was sheltered growing up, but what really made me love her was her struggle with her self image. She was brought up to hate the "bad" half of her, as if somehow she was responsible for who her parents were. I really wanted to punch some of the people in her family (if I dare call some of them that). I don't know if she's more reckless at times or more brave than anyone around her thinks, but I do like that she stands up for herself when she needs to. And I like that by the end of the book she's starting to accept that part of her that everyone fears. Not completely, but a little each day is all that matters, right? 

Zayne is the boy our heroine grew up with. She's kind of in love with and he really doesn't notice her. At all. And that part kind of pissed me off. Let's be honest here, how blind do you have to be to not notice that this girl has a crush on you? It wasn't as if she was that great at hiding it.

Which brings me to Roth. Oh man. I am obsessed with him. The one thing that I absolutely love him for is that, unlike Zayne, he accepted her other half (in this case, her Warden half). He didn't make her feel like she was at fault for her parents' relationship, just like he didn't make her seem like a freak for being able to suck someones soul out. Of course, I will be honest and say that I was kind of weary of him at first. Yes, he was hot, really dangerous, flirty and a smart-ass, but at the beginning I was expecting for him to show his colors so to speak. He was a demon, so he had to be one of the bad guys. But then he does something for her, something that completely blew my mind and made me realize he really wasn't the enemy here. Which is probably why the ending crushed me so much. Oh, and let's not forget about the tattoos, shall we? He has awesome tattoos. And great names for both of them.. *swoon*

The ending blew me away and made me want to curl up in bed and cry. I did not see that one coming. I am sad that this is only a trilogy. Of course, you might wonder how many times can the world be in danger in this series, but I am so not ready for "The End". Anyway, this book was amazing and I really am keeping my fingers crossed for my boy Roth to win the girl.

Obsessed With Covers #17: Six of Crows, Listen, Slowly & The Eterna Files

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

There are so many amazing things about this cover. There's the cloudy sky, the buildings that are separated by the feathers, the feathers that are so full of detail, and the gorgeous font. I just love this cover so much, that I have to see what the book is about.











Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

This cover is hauntingly beautiful. I love that the background is so colorful and so... happy, I'd say, while the two characters are just silhouettes. It makes me wonder if this book ends on a happy note or not.

Listen, Slowly - Thanhha Lai

Okay, I have a confession. I have a thing for crows. I love them. No, really. They are so gorgeous. And black. And...yeah, you get the point *clears throat* Anyway. This cover is quite simple. Scary, but simple. And the crow...man, I really want to know if there's a crow in the story. Sometimes simple covers are so beautiful, like this one.










The Eterna Files - Leanna Renee Hieber