Mind Games by Kiersten White

This is my third review for my monthly TBR in May, and I am reviewing Mind Games.

Title: Mind Games
Author: Kiersten White
Genre: Young Adult Psychological Thriller
Pg. #: 237
Rating: * (one star)

This book was one of my most anticipated 2013 releases, and it just didn't live up to my expectations. When I think back on the book, nothing really happened. I think it was really missing out on the "thriller" part of psychological thriller. I felt like the thoughts and events happening to our narrator's were very repetitive as well. I must say, I was getting tired of hearing Fia endlessly announce how she could do nothing in her situation because she had to protect Annie. I get it, I really do, but you can't have ten chapters of just this thought going around in her head.

Don't even get me started on the characters (yeah... too late). James was such a jerk that I can't even read about him without shouting violently inside my head and slamming the cover of the book down because I am so angry at how Fia is totally okay with his jerk-ness. Fia and Annie felt very underdeveloped to me. I liked Annie better because her emotions and actions I could relate to more, but both of them could've used work. Because Fia is so damaged, we don't even get to see what she's like as a person (normally) because she's always damaged. Also, sometimes at the beginning I forgot who's perspective I was on (until the writing style with Fia came up... which leads me to the next point).

Now the writing style and format. Fia's chapters often had random, unconnected-to-the-real-sentence thoughts in brackets (ow, my arm hurts, my arm hurts), FULL CAPS IN SENTENCES, and lot's of choppy thoughts and frustrating tapping (tap-tap-tap). I think White was trying to go for a unique voice in her character, and a portrayal of how damaged she is, but it didn't work for me. All it did is annoy me and make me want to stop reading the book. Also, the writing format. White alternates very often between past and present-- The past chapters are in no order at all. For example... Fia: Monday Morning, Fia: 7 years ago, Annie: Monday Morning, Annie: 5 years ago, Fia: 4 years ago..... etc. etc. This was very frustrating and extremely disorientating, especially at first. Not only that, but these flashbacks were almost never relevant (I didn't care what happened in them, really) and didn't connect to the chapter before. I think the author was going for a unique approach of slowing feeding in backstory, but personally I would've preferred she just have written it from the past because more than half of the book is past rather than present. So no flashbacks.

I know I ranted a lot, but despite this, the idea was good (if not a little unoriginal). But it sounded so thrilling, intense, and action-packed in the synopsis and that's just not what you get. Maybe some will like this, but I don't recommend picking it up unless you're a fan of slower-paced, quirky writing.

Thanks for reading!

Shards & Ashes by Various Authors

This is my TBR review for Shards & Ashes by Various Authors. Since it is a short story anthology, I will post my Goodreads update reviews and maybe a little more, as well as a rating here for each individual story. Then I will average the ratings for an overall book rating. Enjoy! :)

Hearken by Veronica Roth

**** */* (four and a half stars)

I loved this story! I really wish it was longer, because it was so enjoyable, and also because I wanted much more information about the world and the bombings. That said, I was captivated by the story and the idea. I could sympathize with the main character and the choices she had to make. I really want this story to be expanded into a novel!

Branded by Kelley Armstrong

**** (four stars)

I really enjoyed this story! I found it very entertaining, though found it difficult to see any development in Priscilla's character. The world was more developed than the previous one (Hearken), but I still wanted to know why our world (the "Old World" as they refer to it) was destroyed. Good story though!

Necklace of Raindrops by Margaret Stohl

** (two stars)

The premise and idea was awesome, with the thought that your life could be "spent". That said, the format and writing style was very weird. I didn't like the three random perspectives... It kept switching between third and first person. The writing style was choppy and therefore made it hard to read as a coherent piece. I didn't feel like anything really happened. 

Dogsbody by Rachel Caine

*** (three stars)

I liked it! I actually would've liked to see the concept spanned out over the length of a real book though-- There was just so much more I wanted to know and discover. The ending felt very rushed, as if it was trying to wrap everything up and end on a resolution without leaving anyone hanging-- but couldn't waste pages doing so. Overall I did really like the story itself and characters for the most part though. 

Pale Rider by Nancy Holder

* (one star)

This story was very... odd. To be honest I really couldn't get into or connect to the story at all. I still am very confused at many things and felt like everything happening was just so random. At the end, new information is thrown at you which was very overwhelming as well.

Corpse Eaters by Melissa Marr

**** (four stars)

This story was good too! The idea was really creepy and cool, and I loved the action and backstory. However, there was one thing that I found very shocking in a strange way-- Spoiler! When she stabs her dad. How could she just do that. Wow. Just... no. Spoilers over. I also would've liked more background on how the Nidos took over.

Burn 3 by Kami Garcia

**** */* (four and a half stars)

Burn 3 was awesome! I really liked the idea and I was thoroughly entertained, though I wanted more background on how the Burn happened. I really liked Phoenix, and understood how she felt having to carry so much weight on her shoulders. The most important part of this story was that I could imagine the world and felt enraptured in the story-- I cared. 

Love Is a Choice by Beth Revis

**** (four stars)

I really enjoyed this story, though felt a little confused having not read Across the Universe. It was kind of cheating in a way, since it was set on the spaceship Godspeed, rather than a different world like the eight other authors. That being said, Revis is a very talented author and I could tell that from this story. It was very entertaining. One character was very contradictory though-- It describes her as being innocent, but later the narrator says that she has always had that fire in her eyes, while before he describes her eyes as big and innocent. Overall though, very good. 

Miasma by Carrie Ryan

* */* (one and a half stars)

Mrahhhhh. What do I say about this story. Insta-love? I personally didn't enjoy this story too much. The idea behind it (plague/illness) is very popular right now so I didn't find it extremely original or interesting. The main character annoyed me greatly

Overall, I was disappointed greatly by three of the stories, but enjoyed the others and even loved a few. According to my calculator, it results in about a 3.1 star rating, so averaged out, a 3 on Goodreads. However, I did really enjoy a lot of the stories and feel my thoughts on the book are closer to a 4-star rating.

Hope you enjoyed this review! Thanks for reading. :)

Top Ten Covers of Books I've Read

It's been a while since I did a top ten tuesday, but I've been busy this time of year and I've been posting other things too. This topic however really grabbed me! I will include photos of each cover in this post as well.


This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish in which they will post a topic and then participants will make their top ten according to the topic. It's super easy to link up, so feel free to go to their site and join in the fun!

Top Ten Covers of Books I've Read

May 21, 2013

1. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
2. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
3. Angelfall by Susan Ee
4. Plain Kate by Erin Bow
5. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
6. Splintered by A.G. Howard
7. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
8. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
9. Blood Red Road by Moira Young 
10. The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan
11. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
12. Dreamland by Alyson Noel

Thanks for reading! If you want further explanation on why I chose these twelve (oops, I cheated) covers, leave a comment below. I won't be posting for at least the next five days so I am posting this early, as well as posting a lot today! Hope you liked all the posts. :)

*wow my taste in covers was different then! :O*

Bout of Books Read-a-thon Wrap-Up

So a few unexpected things came up during the week that threw a wrench in my read-a-thon plans, but oh well.

My first goal was to read 3-4 books. I didn't really meet this goal, sadly. I read Cinder, Glitches, and four stories of Shards & Ashes and the first half of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. So I suppose it totals to about 3 books, I just didn't get around to finishing the final story of Shards & Ashes. So close! Hugo Cabret I finished this morning so I nearly finished all four fully. Unfortunately, many unexpected events put me off schedule, and this week will be another busy one with no reading time. That said, I am actually 4 books (5%) ahead, so that's great.

My second goal was to finish the two books I was currently reading, included in the 3-4 books above. These books were Cinder and Shards & Ashes. You can find a review for Cinder here. It was awesome, and I was glad I made it a goal to finish it during bout of books. Shards & Ashes is a dystopia anthology from great authors. Pre-bout of books, I had read 4 stories and I finished all but the last one during the bout of books span. My review will be posted later today. Yay for almost completing goals! :)

Here is my grand total and list of books I read during my first ever read-a-thon!

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (finished May 16)
2. Glitches by Marissa Meyer (started and finished May 16)
3. 4 more stories of Shards & Ashes by Various Authors (read May 19)
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret Part 1 (finished May 19, the rest of the book finished May 20th morning)

I am hoping to participate in Bout of Books this August but I may be busy during the time. I am looking forward to participating in other read-a-thon's and supporting other people's reading goals! 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I tried reading this novel twice before in late 2012 and early 2013, but I couldn't get past 20 pages. I tried it again though, and those same 20 pages were way more interesting. Guess third times a charm is actually true in this case. Anyway, I loved this novel and am so glad I gave it a third chance.

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Dystopia/Fairytale Retelling
Pg. #: 390
Rating: ***** (five stars)

I loved this book. I rarely give out a full five stars but this one earned it. Completely earned it.

The dystopia aspects were awesome. I loved the mix of Eastern and Western cultures to make a interesting society. And Marissa Meyer just has brilliant ideas about everything. Androids? Cyborgs? Lunars? She executed each perfectly. Just... love.

The characters were awesome as well. I really related to Cinder and found myself thinking the same way she did throughout the book. Adri and Pearl were good characters to bring out the Cinderella aspect of the book, and Peony was a nice addition to make it different. I also loved Iko and the fact that she had a glitch in her personality chip-- She was definitely one of my favourite characters. Queen Levana and the other lunars were very mysterious and I can't wait to see what happens in the next books on the moon. So excited! :)

There were a few minor issues I had with the novel. First, some parts were a bit slow. Not boring slow, I just would've liked a bit more to be going on. Second, the "plot twist" was very, very predictable. However, it didn't really take away from the book much. In some books I've read, the author builds up and builds up to that moment, which ends up being very disappointing because it's so easy to guess. In Cinder though, so much is already going on and she has so much on her mind that this "twist" is kind of going on in the background, so I didn't mind it so much.

I loved this book because I became enthralled in the story. I cared about the characters and the outcome of the novel. It locked me in an alternate world, which is my favourite part about reading. It has been a long time since I have connected and felt like a world in a book was so real.

Have you read Cinder? If so, did you love it as much as me? If not, please read it! Comment with your thoughts. :) 

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

I know it took me FOREVER to get through this book (I was super busy and ditched it for a few weeks to read other books), but I did finish it and am reviewing it as part of my monthly TBR (sorry the review is posted so late).

Title: Grave Mercy
Author: Robin LaFevers
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Pg. #: 576
Rating: *** (three stars)

*sigh* I wanted action. I wanted violence. I wanted assassins. I found that the book focused much more on "games of love and intrigue", as the back cover quotes. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book overall. Some parts were very dark and intriguing and I liked that quite a lot.

Let's talk about characters. I like Ismae, though sometimes she annoyed me in the fact that she spent ages simply wandering the castle and eavesdropping. Duval was fine, I neither liked him nor disliked him, he just settled into that gray region. I did however like the Duchess (Anne) and thought Sybella was an intriguing character, which makes me very excited to read Dark Triumph!

One thing I did really enjoy was the feel of the book. LaFevers did an awesome job of portraying the time period and setting of Brittany. I am really enjoying books of this era right now, so I loved the mood and feel of the book. The politics of the book and the Duchess's situation was obviously desperate and I found it interesting to see what their solution might be. That said, the characters in political positions were extremely confusing. I always mixed up the regents and ambassadors and everything.

Overall, yes, I did enjoy the book. I just felt like the book had too little happening for 500+ pages. The progression was too slow for me and I wanted more action for sure. There were only one or two violent action scenes. I would recommend this book for people who like historical romance and less for people who want a historical adventure with a twist.

Update + TBR Changes

So I haven't been reading a whole lot lately... I just don't feel like it, in between my busy months of April and May (things are starting to calm down, and should be normal by mid-May). Unfortunately that has put me in a slump. So I have made changes in my TBR to compensate for this. Also, as a result of my busy-ness, I didn't write a review for Grave Mercy or do a book spotlight or anything I promised I would do. I also didn't read Unspoken as a back-up when Shadow and Bone didn't come in, but I did read A Great and Terrible Beauty in it's place. However, I didn't review that either. I will be posting a review for Grave Mercy, but am skipping out on the other posts for April. Sorry! :(

My original TBR was composed of three (very large) books with movies coming out this year or recently released in 2013. Those books are Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I do not feel like reading these books at all right now. Instead, I will be reading (hopefully) one per month. So, one in May, one in June, one in July.

My new TBR this month is just that- to be read. This month I will be tackling my TBR pile, composed of 5 books that have been sitting there for a while and demand to be read. Check out this video where I show you those books and a few others that I might have time for... But it's already eleven days into the month so probably not.

Thanks for reading! Have you read any of these books? If so, tell me what you think! You can also comment which of the books I have on-hold (which I mentioned in the video) you would most want me to un-suspend. Bye!