Showing posts with label Melissa Jensen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melissa Jensen. Show all posts

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Write on Review-a-Thon Update 116

Write On Review-a-Thon
So I wrote my next review, Falling in Love With English Boys, and I'll be reviewing Dash & Lily's Book of Dares.

Reviews: Pretty Little Liars, Perfect Cover and Killer Spirit, Flutter, Enshadowed, Seizure, How to Save a Life, Balthazar, The Locket, The Fox Inheritance, For Darkness Shows the Stars, Heaven, A Fractured Light, Passing Strange, Break My Heart 1,000 Times, Aubrey's Guide to Witchcraft, The Traitor's Smile, Enthralled, Infraction, Breaking Dawn, Undeadly, Beautiful Redemption, Making Pretty, The Dark Light, Shadowland, Ninth Key, Reunion, Darkest Hour, Haunted, Twilight, Bitter End, Project 17, She Loves You, She Loves You Not, Past Perfect, Dark Souls, A Kiss For Emily, You Suck, Hand of Fate, Playing Hurt, The Opposite of Hallelujah, Hidden, The Treachery of Beautiful Things, Ice, We Were Liars, Dark Companion, The Last Princess, The Sixth Percept, Breathe, Betrayal, Envy, The Friday Society, Moonstone, Insight, Speechless, Such a Rush, If I Lie, Sapphire Blue, The Liars Society, So Close to You, Zero, Renegade, Ladies in Waiting, House at the End of the Street, Valkyrie Rising, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, Breaking Beautiful, Beautiful Redemption, BZRK, A Shimmer of Angels, Uses for Boys, The Water Witch, Daughter of the Spellcaster and Blood of the Sorceress, Mark of the Witch, Finale, The Unspoken, The Unholy, Cold Fury, Vixen, Vessel, How to Wed a Baron, How to Beguile a Beauty, How to Tame a Lady, How to Tempt a Duke, Beautiful Beings and Heaven and Hell, Life on the Edge and Edge of the Past, The Impossible Engineers, Bloodfever and Faefever, Dreamfever and Shadowfever, The Unnaturalists, Temptation, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, Damaged, The Goddess Inheritance, Flip, The Rise of Nine, Survive, What's Left of Me, Blind Spot, The Demon's Lexicon, The Demon's Covenant and The Demon's Surrender, Shooting Stars, A Breath of Eyre, The Secret of the Keepers, The Great Escape, Second Chance Summer, Beguiled, The Betrayal, Brave New Love, Warm Bodies, Rules of Attraction, Chain Reaction, Enchanted Ivy, His Black Wings, Kiss Me Deadly, Haven, Chime, Falling in Love With English Boys.

Goals: 30
Reviews: 116

Write on Review-a-Thon Update 115

Write On Review-a-Thon
So I wrote my next review, Chime, and I'll be reviewing Falling in Love With English Boys.

Reviews: Pretty Little Liars, Perfect Cover and Killer Spirit, Flutter, Enshadowed, Seizure, How to Save a Life, Balthazar, The Locket, The Fox Inheritance, For Darkness Shows the Stars, Heaven, A Fractured Light, Passing Strange, Break My Heart 1,000 Times, Aubrey's Guide to Witchcraft, The Traitor's Smile, Enthralled, Infraction, Breaking Dawn, Undeadly, Beautiful Redemption, Making Pretty, The Dark Light, Shadowland, Ninth Key, Reunion, Darkest Hour, Haunted, Twilight, Bitter End, Project 17, She Loves You, She Loves You Not, Past Perfect, Dark Souls, A Kiss For Emily, You Suck, Hand of Fate, Playing Hurt, The Opposite of Hallelujah, Hidden, The Treachery of Beautiful Things, Ice, We Were Liars, Dark Companion, The Last Princess, The Sixth Percept, Breathe, Betrayal, Envy, The Friday Society, Moonstone, Insight, Speechless, Such a Rush, If I Lie, Sapphire Blue, The Liars Society, So Close to You, Zero, Renegade, Ladies in Waiting, House at the End of the Street, Valkyrie Rising, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, Breaking Beautiful, Beautiful Redemption, BZRK, A Shimmer of Angels, Uses for Boys, The Water Witch, Daughter of the Spellcaster and Blood of the Sorceress, Mark of the Witch, Finale, The Unspoken, The Unholy, Cold Fury, Vixen, Vessel, How to Wed a Baron, How to Beguile a Beauty, How to Tame a Lady, How to Tempt a Duke, Beautiful Beings and Heaven and Hell, Life on the Edge and Edge of the Past, The Impossible Engineers, Bloodfever and Faefever, Dreamfever and Shadowfever, The Unnaturalists, Temptation, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, Damaged, The Goddess Inheritance, Flip, The Rise of Nine, Survive, What's Left of Me, Blind Spot, The Demon's Lexicon, The Demon's Covenant and The Demon's Surrender, Shooting Stars, A Breath of Eyre, The Secret of the Keepers, The Great Escape, Second Chance Summer, Beguiled, The Betrayal, Brave New Love, Warm Bodies, Rules of Attraction, Chain Reaction, Enchanted Ivy, His Black Wings, Kiss Me Deadly, Haven, Chime.
Goals: 30
Reviews: 115

Monday, March 2, 2015

Melissa Jensen Author Page

The Story: The Fine Art of Truth of Dare, I found it at the library, and it was just so freaking good! I enjoyed it so much! And I've enjoyed Falling Love With English Boys, too! Such great books! I'd love more!

Website

Stand Alone's: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare and her site, my review, Falling In Love With English Boys and her site, my review.

Monday, December 24, 2012

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #81, December 24th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes: 

Week 51 Reviews:


OK, so I got 26 posts in 7 days, got to read some really good books, though it did get a bit busy, this was exam week (3, 1 a day, all at 8 am, Monday to Wednesday. Not fun.) Anyway, great week coming up!! What about you guys? Happy reading! 


Currently Listening To: Just Dance by Lady GaGa 
Currently Reading: Once Ever Never by Lesley Livingstone 
Currently Watching: My Weekly Shows!!!!!

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence her for good.
Violet Eden is Grigori - part angel, part human. Her destiny is to protect humans from the vengeance of exiled angels.

Knowing who to trust is key but, when Grigori reinforcements arrive, it becomes clear everyone is hiding something. Even Lincoln. The only thing Violet does know: Phoenix's hold over her is more dangerous than ever. 

The race to find the one thing that could tilt the balance of power brings them all to the sacred mountains of Jordan, where Violet's power will be pushed to the extreme. And the ultimate betrayal exposed. 
Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life. 

Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now. 

Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?

Told in alternating chapters that chronicle the year that broke Clem’s heart and the summer that healed it, Unbreak My Heart is a wonderful dual love story that fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Susane Colasanti will flock to.
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question. 

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.
A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.
She is beautiful, she is a princess, and Aphrodite is her favorite goddess, but something in Helen of Sparta just itches for more out of life. Not one to count on the gods—or her looks—to take care of her, Helen sets out to get what she wants with steely determination and a sassy attitude. That same attitude makes Helen a few enemies—such as the self-proclaimed "son of Zeus" Theseus—but it also intrigues, charms, and amuses those who become her friends, from the famed huntress Atalanta to the young priestess who is the Oracle of Delphi.

In Nobody's Princess, author Esther Friesner deftly weaves together history and myth as she takes a new look at the girl who will become Helen of Troy. The resulting story offers up adventure, humor, and a fresh and engaging heroine you cannot help but root for.

Lady Nicole Daughtry has vowed never to be vulnerable to any man. Despite the many suitors vying for the dazzling beauty's hand, she has seen the damage love can inflict and wants no part of it. Until she meets Lucas Paine, Marquess of Basingstoke, whose aura of danger and mystery draws her like no other....Lucas is a man with a mission--and a powerful thirst for revenge. The last thing he can afford is the distraction of a pretty face. But a scandalous affair with Nicole could be just the cover he needs to outwit his enemies. With treachery everywhere, and Nicole's very life in his hands, Lucas will face his greatest challenge yet--to keep the lady safe from harm... and his heart safe from her.
Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn’s celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her. 

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn’s last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn . . . and ruggedly good-looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn--but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?
Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.

But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?

Morris Award–finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives.
More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom's drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone's been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he's offered the incredible--a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom's instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he'll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he'll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom's always wanted--friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters--but what will it cost him?
In a desperate future, a dark queen rises from the ashes of oblivion to unify a broken world.

Aiela has spent her entire life sheltered from the world. Her only dream has been to escape the quiet island life she’s know and find adventure in the world outside. After the death of her mother, Aeila escapes to the University, a world filled with technological wonders and exotic people. But her own history is dark and the secrets behind her birth may destroy everything that hold Aiela together.
Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.
Sara Jane Rispoli is a normal sixteen-year-old coping with school and a budding romance--until her parents and brother are kidnapped and she discovers her family is deeply embedded in the Chicago Outfit (aka the mob).

Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives.
Lydia Bentley has heard stories about the Montauk Project all her life: stories about the strange things that took place at the abandoned military base near her home and the people who've disappeared over the years. Stories about people like her own great-grandfather.

When Lydia stumbles into a portal that transports her to a dangerous and strange new reality, she discovers that all the stories she's ever heard about the Montauk Project are true, and that she's in the middle of one of the most dangerous experiments in history.

Alongside a darkly mysterious boy she is wary to trust, Lydia begins to unravel the secrets surrounding the Project. But the truths behind these secrets force her to question all her choices--and if Lydia chooses wrong, she might not save her family but destroy them . . . and herself.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Week 51 Review: Falling in Love With English Boys

From Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer-no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something-anything-to do in London while her (s)mother's off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her-and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat's only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival-the uber-hot descendant of Katherine-and things start looking up . . .

My Review:
This was a really fun book to read! Of the coincidence of being given a diary from 1815, and then meeting a modern descendent of the one that wrote it! And the situations that they got themselves into, it was just really great to read!

I loved the nickname that she came up for her mom, (s)mother, mother, and smother, because she was both, it was really quite clever, and I enjoyed that. Sure, her mom has her reasons, but no kid wants it, even if there is reason for it!

I really enjoyed the relationships from both sides, Cat and William, and then Katherine and her special someone! They corresponded and connected so well, and it was just so well written and so cute! I enjoyed it so much!

Watching Cat go through this, going to a strange country with things all different then what she's used to, from food to words, and getting used to that, all while falling in love, well, it was a really great and fun journey to go on!

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was nice and fun and light!

Author: Melissa Jensen
Read: December 18th, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: I enjoyed The Fine Art of Truth or Dare, and yeah, sounded really good!
Publisher: Speak
Published: October 28th 2010
5/5 Hearts
3/5 Books
4/5 Stars

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Teaser Tuesday #89, December 18th

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today's teaser comes from Falling in Love With English Boys by Melissa Jensen, page 3.

"Their 'ground floor' is out 'first floor.' Hence, when they say 'third floor' it's actually the forth. As in: 'Charming third-floor flat a stone's throw from Regent's Park. No lift."

Oh. And that must suck, when moving into said flat for the summer! Really enjoyed this book, can't wait for more! What about you guys? Happy reading!

Monday, July 9, 2012

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #57, July 9th


It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #56
Teaser Tuesday #65
WWW Wednesday #65
WOW #61
Will the Time Come #57
Third Sentence Thursday #48
Random Reads #32
First Lines Friday #53
Follow that Blurb Reading Challenge Update 54
A-Z Book Challenge Update 27
The Reward Challenge Round 48
Follow Friday #35
Last Letter First Letter Reading Challenge Update 15
Wrote that Review Update 8
2012 Dystopian Reading Challenge Update 25
YA Historical Fiction Reading Challenge Update 17
In My Mailbox #56
I Have An Update #55

Week 27 Reviews:
Wicked Nights
Consumed
Defiance
Here Lies Bridget
Once
The Fine Art of Truth or Dare
A Dark Champion
The Iron Witch
Blood Trinity
Red Handed
Dumping Princes

Tours:
Dead Radiance: Reveiw and Excerpt
MindScreens: Interview and Giveaway
Witches: Review
Dead Tropics: Review and Giveaway
Dreaming Montana: Review

Random:
Cover Reveal: Witch Born
We Have the Cover of Bloodlines #3!!!
Cover Reveal: Uncontrollable 

OK, so I got 37 posts in 7 days, and I have some really great books lined up to read! Yeah! Happy reading!

So this week I want to read UnboundBlessed, DiabolicalBlacklisted, ScarletProject Moses, Reckoning, Sweet EvilShades of Murder, Alterant, Return of the Warrior, The Star of Kazan, I'm Not HerUnraveling, Article 5The Gathering Storm, and Spirit's Princess.

Currently Listening To: I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
Currently Reading: Reckoning by Lili St. Crow
Currently Watching: True Blood/Teen Wolf weekly episodes!

Toni went from being a doctor, to the lover of a god in an instant. Remembering who she was, she's now torn between her past self and her current love. Ben is stunned when Toni leaves and at the arrival of his long lost love, Catherine, but her arrival doesn't eradicate Toni from his mind. Unlikely allies will team up to get Toni back from the Lord of the Underworld, Hades, but it's not Hades they need to worry about.
Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateuse and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life -- or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature -- and a flaming sword -- and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before it’s too late. Even if they save the world, will there be time left to salvage Quincie’s soul?
When "slipped" angel Zachary and his werewolf pal, Kieren, arrive under suspicious circumstances to a mysterious New England boarding school, they quickly find themselves in a hellish lockdown with an intriguing assortment of secretive, hand-picked students. Plagued by demon dogs, hallucinatory wall décor, a sadistic instructor, and a legendary fire-breathing monster, will they somehow manage to escape? Or will the devil have his due? Best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith unites heroes from the previous three novels in the Tantalize Series - including Zachary's girl, Miranda, and Kieren's love, Quincie - along with a fascinating cast of all-new characters for a suspenseful, action-packed clash between the forces of heaven and hell.
Alien hunting can get a girl killed. It can also get her a date.

High school senior Camille Robins and her best friend are determined to snag the attention of their crushes before graduation next month. Armed with red-hot outfits and killer hair, they sneak into the hottest nightclub in town -- which caters to the rich and famous, both human and alien. They end up following Erik (who is human) and Silver (who isn't) through a guarded door and are soon separated and under attack...and not the good kind. Bad boy Erik spares Camille's life, but the two are soon being chased by gun-toting Alien Investigation and Removal agents. Camille's more confused than ever because Erik's finally showing real interest in her, but the agents are accusing him of dealing Onadyn -- a drug that ruins human lives. Suddenly, with the heat of his kiss lingering on her lips, Camille has to decide whose side she's on...and whether she's willing to put her life on the line to save Erik's.
Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.
Enzo Lee, 37, a burned out reporter, has forsaken investigative reporting on the East Coast to churn out feature fluff in San Francisco. He likes his North Beach apartment, steps away from his Chinatown roots. Running, tai chi, great food, women who are attracted to his exotic looks. Life is good. Then, Lee is ordered to cover the unexplained deaths of a local judge and prosecutor. Intrigued by the connection, and the judge’s attractive niece, Sarah Armstrong, Lee begins to uncover a bioterrorism scandal whose perpetrators - including government officials and Silicon Valley titans - will kill to conceal. When Lee and Sarah become targets, the question becomes whether the pair can evade their hunters and piece together the story before their time runs out.
Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She's battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a full-fledged svetocha - rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires - the worst is yet to come.

Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she's ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?
Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?
Question: What do you get the man with everything?
Answer: When that man is the heir of the late mystery writer Robin Spencer, retired homicide detective Mac Faraday, you get him cold case to solve.

In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn’t just any stolen work-of-art—it’s a masterpiece with a murder attached to it.

Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece—she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found. Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday’s hands and he can’t resist the urge to delve into the case.

A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor—a convicted serial killer.
The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him.

Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way.

Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who’s got a talent for murder!
The way Evalle Kincaid sees it, saving mankind from total destruction should have cleared her name. But when words uttered in the heat of combat are twisted against her, she’s blamed for the prison break of three dangerous Alterants. She has one chance to clear the cloud of suspicion hanging over her . . . for good. All she has to do is recapture the escapees. But deals with gods and goddesses are tricky at best, and now the lives of all Beladors, and the safety of innocent humans, rides on Evalle’s success. The only person she can ask for help wants to see her dead.
In order to save her crown and country, the proud and beautiful Queen Adara is willing to use her powers of seduction to lure home the bold warrior she married in childhood.
Annika has never had a birthday. Instead she celebrates her Found Day, the day a housemaid and a cook to three eccentric Viennese professors found her and took her home. There, Annika has made a happy life in the servants' quarters, surrounded with friends, including the elderly woman next door who regales Annika with stories of her performing days and her countless admirers - especially the Russian count who gave her the legendary emerald, the Star of Kazan. And yet, Annika still dreams of finding her true mother. But when a glamorous stranger arrives claiming to be Annika's mother, and whisks her away to a crumbling, spooky castle, Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in her newfound home...
“For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel envy…”

Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. Yet the smiles of her picture-perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will?
Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, Janelle knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her reincarnation, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI-agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.
New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Week 27 Review: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare

From Goodreads:
Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming romantic comedy.

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that's just fine by her. She's got her friends - the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She's got her art - and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it's hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they're dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

My Review:
I enjoyed this book a ton! I loved these characters, from Ella, Frankie, Sadie, and Alex! They were really great to read about, and the situations that they got into, well, yeah, again, so great to read about! Just really enjoyed this book!

Ella, to read about, was really great! She was easy to identify with, especially for me, since in school, I was invisible, too, though I didn't have friends like Frankie or Sadie. But like Ella had art, I had books, so it all worked out well!

Her obsession with the painter, was really cute! Reading the letters between him and his wife, and just how deeply she was going into her life, compared with the romance that she has with Alex, how laid back it was, was really great!

The one thing that I wanted, but I know isn't in character with Ella, was for Ella to stand up to Amanda. Amanda wasn't nice to Ella, and it would've been really great if Ella'd stood up to her! But like I said, I know that isn't Ella's character!

What a great book, really enjoyable and entertaining, nice and light!

Author: Melissa Jensen
Read: July 3rd, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: Sounded like a great, great book, and it's a LLFL book!
Publisher: Speak
Published: February 16th 2012
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars