Monday, April 23, 2012

The STORM blog tour details

Everyone has been hearing and talking about Storm by Brigid Kemmerer, everywhere! Twitter, blogs, facebook! For the next 9 days, 9 awesome blogs are hosting the blog tour! And here is the list!

Schedule:

Monday 23rd April:  Chris/Becca/Hunter Interview - Read Me Love Me Bookmark Me
Tuesday 24th April: This or That with the Boys of Storm - Shiirleyy’s Bookshelf
Wednesday 25th April: Fantasy Casting - saz101
Thursday 26th April: Brigid Q&A: YOU ask the questions! - Eleusinian Mysteries
Friday 27th April: Keeping up with the Merrick Twins + Review Roundup - Badass Bookie
Saturday 28th April: Storm Excerpt - Forget-Me-Not
Sunday 29th April: Video chat - Book Probe
Monday 30 April:  Chris Interview - Reading Wishes
Tuesday 1st May: Guest Post by Brigid: Five Secrets of the Elemental Series - Amaterasu Reads

Storm blurb from goodreads:

Earth, Fire, Air, Water – they have more power than you dream.

Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her, Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys—all the ones she doesn't want. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water—just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They’re powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life’s at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who’s hiding the most dangerous truth of all.

The storm is coming . . .

Australian cover

International cover





















Storm is released TOMORROW! Don't forget to read the novella Elemental (elementals 0.5) by Brigid Kemmerer which is before Storm.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Review Time! #5

Lola and The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.(from goodreads)

About the book:
If you loved Anna and the French Kiss, you'll love Lola and the Boy Next Door, the companion to Anna. Lola Nolan is fashion designer in the making, she has two dads, an older boyfriend, no Bell twins in her life, the loyal best friend and never wears the same look twice. Lola's new years resolution was to never wear the same look twice, crazy? yes but that is what you made you connect to Lola her crazy sense of style and the good old boy next door tale. Everything in Lola's life is fine until she comes home one day to see that the Bell twins have moved back in next door. Lola and Cricket didn't leave off on a good note when they moved away two years previous.

Cricket, I'd loved him from the minute we met him! An inventor, a year older than Lola, and before he moved away Lola loved him. While Lola at the start is confused about Cricket, they soon become friends again, much to her boyfriends dislike. Her boyfriend Max is jealous of Cricket and the amount of time that they spend together, her Dads hate Max, Anna and Etienne (Yes Anna and Etienne are back!) don't like Max and much prefer Cricket and her best friend, well lets just say she hates Max too.

Max is in a band and well he isn't a very likable character. The way he is portayed is snobbish, a terrible person and doesn't make time for Lola's family or friends. Anna and Etienne are back! They work with Lola at the movie threatre (suprised?) Etienne is the same dorm as Cricket and learns about what happened before he moved away. In this book it is much more Etienne than Anna because Etienne helps Lola with her choice about whether or not Max is right for her.


With all this drama going on, Lola and Cricket seemingly pick up right where they left off before back to being friends and hanging out. With all the tension between Lola and Max, she no longer knows if he is 'the one' anymore. And I think I better stop it there before I tell you all what happens!

These books by Stephanie Perkins are why I love contempoary YA more than fantasy or paranormal. So everyone if you haven't read Anna or Lola yet, go out and buy these books! Isla and the Happily Ever After will be out in 2013 the final companion :(

Rate: 4.5/5

Thursday, April 12, 2012

My HSC Reading List

HSC English Reading:

I do Anvanced English for my HSC so I have so many books I need to read for my exams! Some are required and some are related texts.

Area of Study: Belonging
 

A selection of poems by Emily Dickenson. This being our related text we have to read and analyse her poems. We also have to pick our own related texts. I choose 3 Willows by Ann Brashares and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
summer is a time to grow

seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.

roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .

leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time

Module A: Texts in Time
Texts in time is the comparative study. We had Frankenstein and Blade Runner.

Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises rofound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.

Blade Runner is a dystopic movie directed by Ridley Scott. Check out IMDB for reviews.

Module C: History and Memory
Module C has us view different ways real events, real people and real situations may be represented in different modes and media. I am currently studing The Fiftieth Gate and for my related texts, The book thief and The diary of a young girl.

A love story and a detective story, a study of history and of memory, this spellbinding new work explores a son′s confrontation with the terror of his parents′ childhood.

Moving from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, Mark Raphael Baker travels across the silence of fifty years, through the gates of Auschwitz, and into a dark bunker where a little girl hides in fear. As he returns to scenes of his parents′ captivity, he struggles to unveil the mystery of their survival.

The Fiftieth Gate is a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; the story of a son who enters his parents′ memories and, inside the darkness, finds light.


The Diary of a Young Girl remains the single most poignant true-life story to emerge from the Second World War.

In July 1942 Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, hid in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse. Anne was thirteen when the family went into the Secret Annexe and, over the next two years, she vividly describes in her diary the frustrations of living in such confined quarters, the constant threat of discovery, the hunger and fear. Her diary ends abruptly when, in August 1944, she and her family were finally discovered by Nazis.

This book provides a deeply moving and unforgettable portrait of Anne Frank - an ordinary and yet an extraordinary teenage girl.

And finally.
Module B: Critical Study
We haven't done this one yet, it is going to be our last module. We will be reading Hamlet.

I hope this has helped all those students who are about to start their HSC and what Advanced English holds in store for you!

Stay tuned! Keely x

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Review Time! #4

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.(from goodreads)

As soon as I started this book I couldn't put it down (or in my case since I got the e-book turn my laptop off). It had me from the start. You meet Jordan Woods, quarterback and captain for the school's football team, did I mention Woods is a girl? She has one golden rule, don't date teammates. Which I totally get, because if you break up it can affect your whole team.

Bring in Tyler Green, Ty. Chace Crawford hot. Of course Woods is gaga for him, but Ty plays quarterback too. Once she starts dating Ty (whom I didn't like from the start) she finds out why her bestfriend got dumped by his girlfriend Carrie. Finding out your bestfriend is in love with you is tough for Woods, she doesn't know what to do and for once she isn't in control.

Sam Henry, Jordan Woods bestfriend ever since they started playing together, he sleepovers at her place head-to-toe and I think he is so much cuter than Ty! As Woods struggles to get her dads approval of her playing football, balance dating Ty and the football team, Henry not talking to her. She finds unlikely friends with Carrie and Marie, two cheerleaders.

I think that the reason that I connected with this book was that also like Jordan I'm 17(ok, two weeks away!), a senior, have no idea which Uni is right for me, I get the whole not dating a teammate thing (so glad I'm not in the same team as my boyfriend) and finding friends in unlikely people.

So I think everyone should go by the book or e-book and just read it! If you love sports, a romantic/comedy YA, Anna and the French Kiss (seriously this book reminded me so much of Anna and St. Clair!).

Don't forget that Chasing Parker, a companion to Catching Jordan will be out later this year!

Rate: 5/5

Friday, April 6, 2012

April-May releases

April-May releases:

Over the next two months there are some books, that I just cannot wait to read!

  • Until I Die (Revenants #2) by Amy Plum- 08.05.2012
  • The Last Echo (The Body Finder #3) by Kimberly Derting- 17.04.2012
  • Black Heart (Cursed Workers #3) by Holly Black- 03.04.2012 
  • City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #50 by Cassandra Clare- 08.05.2012
  • Destined (Wings #4) by Aprilynne Pike
  • The Story Of Us by Deb Caletti- 24.04.2012
And that's to for now! Pretty excited for the next two months, birthday, get my p's and will only have 5 months until my HSC is over!! WOOO!!!

Stay tunned, Keely x

Review Time! #3

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.(by goodreads)


Ok I'll admit I picked up this book along with pandemonium because of their covers! I got them in a twin pack, and I thought why not read them? And I am glad I did! They are both amazing.

Lena can't wait for her treatment, to be cured from love. To be matched with aLove has been classified as a disease and a cure has been found. Every member of society must take the cure upon turning eighteen. Then they are partnered up with a subtitle match and most of their life is decided for them. A life without love. Her mother was driven crazy from love, her sister got infected and says to her sister that being cured made the pain go away.

Until Lena meets Alex. Alex is a mysterious boy, who Lena knows nothing about. Which makes him so much more desirable. Their secret romance is forbidden, Lena has to try hard to not let her family know she has Deliria and not let the symptoms show.

While I don't normally go for dystopic books/movies after watching balde runner (never again, I hate the HSC for making me watch this and read Frankenstien AND make me compare them -_-) but some far the Fallen series by Lauren Kate and Delirium are making me re-think about Dystopic books.

So I say that everyone should go out to their library, bookstore, e-book store, Big W, whatever and go these books!

Rate: 4.5/5

Keely x


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Contemporary YA reads

Contemporary YA: To Be Read List
The truth is I do prefer contemporary YA reads than paranormal reads. So here is a list on upcoming books I wanna read!

  • The International Kissing Club Ivy Adams
  • Love? Maybe Heather Hepler
  • In Too Deep Amanda Grace
  • The Fine Art Of Truth Or Dare Melissa Jensen
  • The Lifeguard Deborah Blumenthal
  • The Story Of Us Deb Caletti
  • The Summer My Life Began Shannon Greenland
  • 37 Things I Love (in no particular order) Kekla Magoon
  • The Summer Of No Regrets Katherine Bond
  • The Girl I Used To Be Miranda Kenneally
  • Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
  • The unwritten rule by Elizabeth Scott
  • My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Reviews that are coming up:
  • Delirium by Lauren Oliver and
  • Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Stay tunned, Keely x