Book of the Month: July

This month I have read so many great books, I honestly can't decide. I like to think of myself as a fair critic, and to give books a review and rating they deserve. So I'm pretty surprised that I've read a lot of books I've rated 5 stars - Vampire Academy, Starters, The Night Circus, All These Things I've Done, and Wither. Each of the books are completely different, ranging from vampires to criminals to magicians to dystopian futures. But even though I rated them all the same, the two that really stuck out for me were Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. However, after consideration, I think I'm going to choose Vampire Academy - The Night Circus was amazing, but it did have it's slightly slow moments.

Although Vampire Academy has been out for years, I have only just recently come around to reading it, and I can't believe that it has taken me so long. The plot is imaginative and addictive, and the background story is so well thought through that it seems pretty realistic. I mean, after reading it, I could imagine that vampire's actually exist in the present world - we're just all too oblivious to notice it - and that is a pretty awesome skill for a writer to have. Whether you do or don't like vampires, I really recommend that you give this a series a try - if only this installment. I'm pretty certain that you will not regret it.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Released: March 22nd 2011
Pages: 358 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Waiting on Wednesday (#19)

Waiting on Wednesday' is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine

Title: The Dead Girl's Dance
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Released: April 3rd 2007
Pages: 380 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favours beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Book Haul (#9)

The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine (from the library)
Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine (from the library)
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (from the library)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (from my dad)
Pure by Julianna Baggot (from my dad)
The Glimpse by Claire Merle (from my dad)
Uglies by Scott Westerfield (bought by me)
Passion by Lauren Kate (bought by me)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Released: September 15th 2011
Pages: 387 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazement. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. 


The challenge must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Follow Friday (#11)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where you meet and follow different bloggers.

Question of the Week: Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever the cost). What two books will you buy?

Oh my gosh! Okay, first I would get The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, because I adore that man, and although the book isn't exactly what I usually read, I reckon I'd still enjoy it. The second would be Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter. Okay, so it isn't exactly out yet - but it will be soon, so I would just save the gift card for then.

So what would you choose?

The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

Title: The Vampire's Assistant
Author: Darren Shan
Publisher: Collins
Released: May 30th 2000
Pages: 176 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy - until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now, as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him, the one thing that can keep him alive. But destiny is calling... the Wolf Man is waiting.

Waiting on Wednesday (#18)

Waiting on Wednesday' is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter

Title: Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy
Author: All Carter
Publisher: Orchard Books
Released: October 2nd 2007
Pages: 264 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


Cammie Morgan may have a genius IQ and attend the best school in the country, but as she starts the spring semester of her sophomore year there are a lot of things she doesn't know. Like will her ex-boyfriend even remember she exists? And how much trouble did she really get in last semester? And, most of all, exactly why is her mother acting so strangely?
All Cammie wants is a nice, normal semester, but she's about to learn her greatest lesson yet—that when you go to a school for spies, nothing is ever as it seems.

Starters by Lissa Price

Title: Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Released: April 5th 2012
Pages: 336 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.
He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. 

Nina's Week At Waterstones: Day 5

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!