Feature and Follow Friday (3)

        Feature and Follow is a weekly Meme hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read designed to increase followers and make new friends!

Today's topic:

What living author(s) would you like to have dinner with? 

Cora Carmack. I love her books. Anyone who can bring those quirky, awkward characters of her to life is my type of person and she just seems like this really awesome, fun type of person herself.

 Books written by Cora Carmack: (covers linked to GoodReads)

   

What author(s) would you like to have dinner with? 

Second Star Book Review

Second Star
by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Expected Release: May 2014
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Free copy received from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

Summary from GoodReads:

A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward his nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of J. M. Barrie's classic tale, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up—and the troubled beauty trapped between them.

A short and sweet review:

Its the kind of kind of book that pulls you in like a siren's song. It begins with curiosity and wonder that leads to adoration and then drowns you in realization, but is nice a enough to bring you back to shore with a glimmer of hope.
I wouldn't go so far as to call this a modern Peter Pan retelling, but there's enough of the story there for any Peter Pan lover to appreciate. I had fun picking out all the cross overs.
I am definitely interested in knowing if there is going to be a book two.

A Week in Review (STS#2)

     Stacking the shelves is a weekly Meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga Reviews that's all about sharing the books that are new to your shelves of the physical and digital variety. I also take the opportunity to re-cap happenings of the past week. So, let's get started!

New to my shelves:

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han 

And while it's not a book, it is new and does reside on my book shelves...

Bobble head Agent Phil Coulson!! Because who doesn't love Coulson. He's awesome. =D

Reviewed this Week:

The Here and Now by Anne Brashares 

(My Review)

And What's New:

This week I finished Rapunzel and Flynn Rider Faceless Fancy couple for a friend of mine.

 You can see more pictures posted to the Faceless Fancy Facebook in the Rapunzel album.

We made an art trade and in exchange for the dolls I was given this AMAZING Rapunzel pillow she made! 

I'm having such a hard time choosing between keeping it nice and safe on a shelf in the library where it can be admired because the work is just stunning, or cuddling it hardcore because its so darn SQUISHY!!

   You can check out more of her work on her Facebook page Silliness of Sewing or see what she has listed in her Etsy Shop! Which you totally should! Right now! But before you go, let me know what's new to your shelves this week in the comments below.

The Here and Now Book Review

The Here and Now
by Anna Brashares
Release: April 2014
Delacorte Press
I recieved a free cop of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary from GoodReads:

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves. 

My Review:

 I've been trying to think of a way to describe this book for a while now, but I can't. Not really. I went in believing I was going to really enjoy it and I did to an extent, but really I think i was just more disappointed. It felt like the story had such great promise. You're dealing with time travel and the big question of do you change the present to save the future?
While reading it held my attention. It made me wonder who's life was the one to alter the future. But once I put the book down it was a "wait, why did I enjoy that so much" moment.
Prenna seems like a nice enough character. She has the makings of greatness and is the kind of girl you see changing the future, but she felt to wishy washy. I had a secret hope a certain sweatshirt would have made a bigger appearance too.

Feature and Follow Follow Friday!

        Feature and Follow is a weekly Meme hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read designed to increase followers and make new friends!

Today's topic:

Share! Tell us about one of your hobbies that is NOT reading.

I love dabbling in crafts and DIY projects around the house, but I have to say a major hobby of mine that isn't reading is making art dolls I call Faceless Fancies.

Here are a few of my favorites:

(from Left to Right)
 - A doll modeled of of the cover of the YA novel Possess by Gretchen McNeil (hardback edition)
- A simply elegant design of my own making,
- Rapunzel and Flynn Rider
- Harry Potter and Dobby based off the book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
- DC's Nightwing and Oracle complete with wheelchair.

Pretty neat huh? You can see more of them on the Faceless Fancy page here on my blog or on my Faceless Fancy Facebook page. (try saying that three times fast lol.)

The Hubbins and I also longboard in our free time. Mostly cruising local trails and streets. Its pretty relaxing.

So how about you? What are your non-reading hobbies?

In Review: Asylum by Madeliene Roux

Asylum (Asylum #1)
Madeleine Roux
Released June 2013
Harper Teen
Own/ Purchased

Synopsis from GoodReads:

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane.

As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Featuring found photos of unsettling history and real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux's teen debut, Asylum, is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.

   I'm so conflicted!! I really wanted to love this book especially for the creep factor. Hello, creeptastic pictures and the fact that it takes place in an old asylum what was converted into a dorm, by the why who would do that? It's just wrong. And it is creepy, but I think it was mainly because of the pictures and the fact that I was reading it at 2am with a small book light. In daylight hours I think it would come off as interesting at best.
   The story itself left something to be desired. Don't get me wrong, in general I liked the story. I liked learning about the history of the asylum and trying to figure out who was behind notes and murder (attempts), but I think the plot develops a little slowly. Instead of increasing the intensity of the story as you read it just repeats the same type of occurrences until the end when it's like BAM! Dan's next on the murder's list. Dan keeps receiving creepy notes and losing bits of time and his friends get angry a few different times without a real explanation. It left me with questions and not in the OMG I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NAOW! good way. What was real and what was staged by the murderer? Are these people really just crazy or are we dealing with something a little more paranormal...?
I say if you like creepy pictures and a little bit of mystery give it a shot.
  Sanctum  (book 2) comes out later this year. I will most likely pick it up to see where the story goes, but I don't think it will be one I race out to grab on release day. 

Other Books You May like:
 

 

Day 5 of the 35 Day Book Blogging Challenge

It's day 5 of the Book Blogging Challenge! You find out more about the challenge I made for myself by checking out the Book Blogging Challenge page.

Today's topic:

A Book That Made You Sad/Cry

   Ok, so I already answered this one on Friday with the Feature and Follow post which was about the last book that made you cry. You can see that post HERE. Like I said on Friday, I don't cry often during books. Movies however, my tear ducts have a freaking race to see who can land a tear on my chin first. However, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak did manage to claim a few tears. The feels at the end of the book! Oh, the feels!
   So, since I mention The Book Thief on Friday its only fair to bring up another book that while it didn't make me cry it came VERY close; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by JK Rowling. You all know what I'm talking about. All the death, all the good byes! So sad! But the part that got me the worst was when you see Severus' memory that he gives to Harry and when you see what his Patronus animal is. Omg! I came so close to losing it. Surprisingly, though I didn't cry during the movies, which I was so sure I would.

So, how about you? What was the last book that made you sad or cry?