Dusty Reads: Incarceron (Incarceron #1) by Catherine Fisher

Dusty Reads is a weekly post featuring a book that has been sitting unread on my home shelf for some time. 

Title: Incarceron (Incarceron #1)
Author: Catherine Fisher
Pages: 442
Publication: March 3, 2007
Publisher: Dial
Summary taken from goodreads:

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible. 

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside - she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye, and escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know. Because Incarceron is alive.

I've heard that this is going to be made into a movie with Emma Watson as the main lead, so I'd really like to try to read the book before the movie comes out, whenever that is, lol.

Mini Reviews: Unearthly (Unearthly #1), Rockin' Heaven vol. 6, Two Moon Princess (Two Moon Princess #1), Paradise

Title: Unearthly (Unearthly #1)
Author: Cynthia Hand
Pages: 435
Publication: January 1, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary taken from goodreads:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . . 

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy. 

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side. 

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny? 

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT A LOT

MY REVIEW:

This book certainly lived up to all of its hype. And for once, the love triangle didn't make me want to do a facepalm. I'm actually interested in who (and how) she's going to end up with, even though I'm pretty sure I know who it'll be anyway.

Did I mention that I love Tucker? He's awesome. :D

Title: Rockin' Heaven vol. 6
Author: Mayu Sakai
Pages: 196
Publication: February 15, 2008
Publisher: Shueisha
Summary taken from Mangaupdates:

Sawa applies to Heaven’s Wing Academy, thinking she would look cute in the uniform. But she never expected the academy to be a previously all-boys’ school! And the head honcho of the school, the class president himself—Ran—doesn’t seem to like her one bit and takes no pains to hide it. At first, adjusting to life at the academy is tough. Sawa is bullied and teased, and the boys in the class even throw her new shoes in the water. While attempting to retrieve her shoes, she falls into the water and is unexpectedly saved by Ran, who up until this point has made her life hell. The newfound gentleness in Ran intrigues her—and she finds herself falling for him. What will her days be like for the rest of her school life?

3.5 STARS - I LIKE IT

MY REVIEW:

I was wrong. This series isn't your typical shojo manga. The plot manages to diverge from the usual cliches and by now, the side characters are fleshing out, which adds to the plot and gives the manga the potential to become full of gasp-worthy drama-induced tension that would definitely make the series a lot more enjoyable. There was already one twist that had a moment like that, so I can't wait to see how the rest of the series is going to be like.

Title: Two Moon Princess (Two Moon Princess #1)
Author: Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban
Pages: 324
Publication: April 1, 2007
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Summary taken from goodreads:

In this coming-of-age story set in a medieval kingdom, Andrea is a headstrong princess longing to be a knight who finds her way to modern-day California. But her accidental return to her family's kingdom and a disastrous romance brings war, along with her discovery of some dark family secrets. Readers will love this mix of traditional fantasy elements with unique twists and will identify with Andrea and her difficult choices between duty and desire.

2 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW:

Skimmed through the majority of the book. Most of the characters irritated me because they were all so self-absorbed.

Title: Paradise
Author: Jill S. Alexander
Pages: 256
Publication: July 5, 2011
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Summary taken from goodreads:

Paisley Tillery is the drummer for a country rock band. If they can make it to the stage at the Texapalooza music fest, then Paisley will be closer to her dream of a career in music and a ticket out of her small Texas town. 

Drumming and music are what Paisley has always wanted. Until the band gets a new lead singer, the boy from Paradise, Texas. With Paradise in her life, what Paisley wants, and what she needs, complicate her dreams coming true.

3 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW:

The author's writing style was kind of annoying at times since she liked to punctuate sentences with periods rather than commas the majority of the time, which made all of the dependent clauses into sentence fragments.

I liked her multiple use of alliteration though.

Cover Lover 15

Oh, such a tiring day~ :P

Hung out with Krista today. We went to the mall to return some clothes and ended up wandering around, looking for hoodies and clothing in general, lol. Then we went to La Berry since we were both craving it. It was kind of cold. -__-"

Now I'm going to listen to my Wither audiobook.

Enjoy! :)

In My Mailbox (48)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. 

Bought:

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

The Dealer by Robert Muchamore

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey

Underdogs by Markus Zusak

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (signed! :D)

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

As you can tell, this was an awesome week of books. I can't wait to read all of them!

Book Review: Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer

Title: Nightshade (Nightshade #1)
Author: Andrea Cremer
Pages: 452
Publication: October 19, 2010
Publisher: Philomel
Summary taken from goodreads:

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

2.5 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW:

This is not one of those books where the author has a huge info-dump in the beginning of the book, and for that, I am grateful. The book starts off action-packed and you slowly start piecing together Calla's world as the story progresses, which is great, or else I would have been completely bored for the majority of the book.

Because, as you can tell from the summary, Calla is in this epic love-triangle and spends the majority of the book torn between the two guys and the outcome that would occur depending on who she chooses. There's more to the plot than just the love-triangle, but the book pretty much focuses on it until the last one hundred pages where the plot finally picked up and became more intriguing. But honestly, I think that the author could have cut out one hundred pages of love-triangle lust/angst/indecisiveness from the middle of the book; it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the ending.

I'm still not sure if I even really like Calla. On one hand, her sense of responsibility and loyalty to her family and pack is admirable, and I really like her sibling bond with her brother. On the other hand, she's the alpha of her group and yet she spends the majority of the book constantly afraid. I understand that she has reason to be scared since she's breaking the rules and whatnot, but doesn't she have any courage?

Courage is being afraid of something and still manning up and doing it anyway. Calla only forces herself to do half of the stuff she's afraid of the consequences of because Shay is there to convince her to do it or because she basically has no choice. I mean, I found it hard to believe that she was the leader of her group through any of her actions.

Throughout the whole book, everyone is always saying that Ren and Calla are the alphas. Calla's group listens to her because she's the alpha. They look to her for leadership and follow her orders. But what does she do to warrant her position? For the majority of the book, she's a mess of teenage hormones or denial. One of her friends kept a secret from her for a while (although he has reason to, I guess) and another friend is bordering on disobeying/not listening to her by the end of the book. As alpha, her friends should trust her more and she shouldn't have had any of her pack disrespecting her.

If I hadn't already bought the sequel a while ago, I don't think that I would have continued this series, but I'm going to give it a second chance since Wolfsbane is a little shorter than Nightshade, which means that it has less to force myself through.

EDIT: I changed my mind. I'm not going to read the sequel. My TBR pile is ginormous enough as it is; I'm not going to waste my time forcing myself to read a book that I probably won't like. Unless someone can persuade me that Wolfsbane is a bazillion times better than Nightshade, I'm not going to touch that book.

That new kid at school...

We had a new kid in our grade today, and apparently, he's really cute. (I have yet to see him myself, so I can't exactly say :P)

You know what that immediately reminded me of? Twilight. New kid comes to school that everyone likes/wants to go out with. 

Lol, I was looking for a picture that would go with my point... then I found this. It's so much better! XD

But, you know, when I voiced my opinion about the similarities, Emily laughed and made a few good points. She admitted that part of the reason why everyone thinks that he's so cute (or hot depending on who you ask) is because he's new, which is a welcome change to the familiar faces you've seen around school for the past four or more years. In addition, because he's new, that also means that he doesn't have strings of past relationships with anyone else at school to hold the rest of the female population back to from wanting to go out with him. Not only that, but he's nice and he's taking AP classes, which means that he's got a brain. :P

It sucks that I don't have any classes with him, though, because I really do want to at least see him since Emily, who has an odd taste in guys half of the time, called him cute and because Shanice, who herself admits that she's pretty shallow when it comes to guys, called him a hottie. 

So, I want to see this guy for myself since the last time most of the female population at school said that the new lit teacher was hot and I had never had gotten a chance to see him until a prep rally last semester, I was woefully disappointed. He was pretty average looking in my opinion. Maybe it was because he was on the other side of the gym so I couldn't see his facial features that great...

Or maybe it's because my standards are really high ever since I fell in love with Kpop... :c Lol, although I haven't been really into it for the past year or so...

But yeah, this is an interesting development. :D 

Now I need to stop procrastinating and study for my Calc test tomorrow. I can't afford to make below an 85 this semester if I want to keep my GPA high enough to be eligible for full HOPE. 

Cya!

pointy.star

Quick [Random] Question #5

Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?

School is so monotonous that I feel like I've lived it millions of times half of the time I'm there. :P Even though I learn new material everyday, it still feels the same. My AP classes are soul-crushing (lol, Justin really has a way with words XD), my normal academic classes are boring, and my electives are confusingly busy but fun, and I spend the majority of my time after school on my laptop catching up on blogs and whatnot when I'm not doing my Calc homework and babysitting. 

Same old, same old. :P

Anyway, I have to go study Calc. D:

Later...

pointy.star

Mini Reviews: When You Reach Me, Reborn! vol. 4, Ashfall (Ashfall, #1), Sophie & Carter

Title: When You Reach Me
Author: Rebecca Stead
Pages: 208
Publication: July 14, 2009
Publisher: Yearling
Summary taken from goodreads:

This remarkable novel holds a fantastic puzzle at its heart.

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, and they know who to avoid. Like the crazy guy on the corner. 

But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a kid on the street for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then a mysterious note arrives, scrawled on a tiny slip of paper. The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows things no one should know. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.

4.5 STARS - I REALLY REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

Just, wow. I'm still in awe at Miranda's revelations at the end.

This is one of those books that you'll be re-reading just to catch all of the clues you missed the first time you read it.

Title: Reborn! Volume 4
Author: Akira Amano
Pages: 184
Publication: July 3, 2007
Publisher: Viz Media
Summary taken from goodreads:

It's a reunion—mafia style! Dino, the 10th-generation of the Chiavorone family, and Reborn's former student, brings his squad of goons to pay Tsuna a visit. The explosive little Lambo decides to liven things up a bit by tossing several grenades at the goons. Things quickly escalate as Dino springs into action in a battle of whips versus grenades!

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

Lambo is an idiot. His stupidity is hilarious.

Title: Ashfall (Ashfall, #1)
Author: Mike Mullin
Pages: 466
Publication: October 11, 2011
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Summary taken from goodreads:

Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet. 

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

Being able to witness the slow degeneration of humanity is what makes this book -- and hopefully series -- so great.

It also makes you wonder how you would react in a situation like that. Would you willingly give away food and supplies to strangers when you've barely enough to survive yourself? Are you that kind? And how far are you willing to go in order to eat? In order to survive?

Can't wait for Ashen Winter!

Title: Sophie & Carter
Author: Chelsea Fine
Pages: 117
Publication: January 13, 2011
Publisher: Acacia Publishing, Inc.
Summary taken from goodreads:

While other high school seniors are dreaming about their futures, Sophie and Carter are just trying to make it through each day. Carter is overwhelmed by issues at home as he struggles to support his mother. Meanwhile, next door neighbor Sophie is left to care for her three younger siblings in place of their absent and troubled mother. All that holds these two best friends together is each other, and knowing that each night they'll sit together on Sophie's front porch swing and escape from their troubles, if just for awhile. But as their relationship reaches a turning point and high school graduation nears, what lies ahead for Sophie and Carter?

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

A sweet, short read.