The Elite by Kiera Cass

Title: The Elite
Author: Kiera Cass
Publisher: HarperCollins
Released: April 23rd 2013
Pages: 323 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Iléa.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

Oh dear.

Oh deary dear dear.

Cass...what's happened? What have you done?!

This review will most likely contain spoilers.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Title: Wonder
Author: R.J.Palacio
Publisher: Corgi
Released: February 14th 2012
Pages: 315 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

Usually when asked to sum up a book in a few words, I can do it easily. But with Wonder, I am completely stumped - there are no words in the human language that could possibly describe has amazing - how wonderful - this novel was! There are no books out there quite like this - it is a unique, just like the main protagonist, August. This is a book that everyone must read at least once in their lifetime.

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Title: Ketchup Clouds
Author: Annabel Pitcher
Publisher: Orion
Released: December 27th 2012
Pages: 296 (Hardcover)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Fifteen-year-old Zoe has a secret—a dark and terrible secret that she can't confess to anyone she knows. But then one day she hears of a criminal, Stuart Harris, locked up on death row in Texas. Like Zoe, Stuart is no stranger to secrets. Or lies. Or murder.

Full of heartache yet humour, Zoe tells her story in the only way she can—in letters to the man in prison in America. Armed with a pen, Zoe takes a deep breath, eats a jam sandwich, and begins her tale of love and betrayal.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Speak
Released: December 2nd 2010
Pages: 386 (Kindle)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend. 

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

SOBBING. That isn't a very elegant way to start a review, but I think it's the only word that can sum up my feels for this book, aside from asdfghjkl. I hate contemporary romance. Anna and the French Kiss is as contemporarily romantic as it gets. And I loved it.

Swans and Klons by Nora Olsen

Title: Swans and Klons
Author: Nora Olsen
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Release: May 14th 2013
Pages: 264 (eBook)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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What does it take to survive in a world built on lies?

Sixteen-year-old Rubric loves her pampered life in the Academy dormitory. She’s dating Salmon Jo, a brilliant and unpredictable girl. In their all-female world, non-human slaves called Klons do all the work. But when Rubric and Salmon Jo break into the laboratory where human and Klon babies are grown in vats, they uncover a terrifying secret that tears their idyllic world apart.

Their friends won’t believe them, and their teachers won’t help them. The Doctors who rule Society want to silence Rubric and Salmon Jo. The two girls must flee for their lives. As they face the unthinkable, the only thing they have left to believe in is their love for each other.

Author Interview: Nikki Rae

I have a massive love for Nikki Rae and the Sunshine series, and I think it is possibly one of the best indie novels I have ever read - if not the best! So how could I pass up an opportunity to pick Nikki's brain?

Nikki Rae is a student and writer who lives in New Jersey. When she is not writing, thinking, or reading, she is most likely hanging out with her gecko, Neil Gaiman, drawing in a quiet corner, or drinking tea by the gallon. Sunshine is her first book. (from Goodreads)

What initially inspired the concept of Sunshine?

Well, it's kind of a funny, painful story. My mom took my sisters and I on a vacation to Aruba when I was in high school. I got sun poisoning the FIRST DAY I was there and was pretty much bed-ridden for the rest of the trip, in too much pain to move. I was only outside for a few hours and I was all blistered and red and god, it hurts just thinking about it. But it got me thinking, what would it be like if this happened every time someone went outside in the sun? And that was the initial seed that Sunshine grew out of.

Stacking the Shelves (#8)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews where bloggers get together and show off what new reads are stacking up on their shelves.

Well, I haven't done this meme in ages! (specifically two and a half months - oops!) I'm not going to write every single book I've received, but I'll write down the ones I've gotten and haven't read yet.

For Review
How To Be Almost Famous in Ten Days by Kathleen S. Allen (from author, blog tour)
Tragic by J.A.Huss (from author, blog tour)
Ink by Amanda Sun (from Netgalley)
Screwed by Laurie Plissner (from Netgalley)
After Eden by Helen Douglas (from Netgalley)
To Be Maria by Deanna Proach (from Netgalley)
The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson (from HarperCollins)

Borrowed
Switched by Amanda Hocking (from the library)

Bought
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle (from Amazon)
Saving Wishes by G.J. Walker-Smith (from Amazon)

Gifted
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (from my mum)
Fever by Lauren DeStefano (from my mum)
What's Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long (from PanMacmillan as thanks for a survey)

So what reads have you received this week? Leave a comment below!

Sunshine by Nikki Rae

Title: Sunshine
Author: Nikki Rae
Released: January 28th 2013
Pages: 330 (eBook)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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18 year old Sophie Jean is pretty good at acting normal. Sure, she’s not exactly happy, but happiness is nothing compared to being like everyone else. She can pretend she’s not allergic to the sun. She can hide what her ex-boyfriend did to her. She can cover up the scars she’s made for herself. Ignore anything. Forget anything. Then Myles enters her life, and he has more than a few secrets of his own. When accident after accident keeps happening to Sophie, she can’t help noticing that he’s everywhere. That he knows too much. That she’s remembering too much.

It’s one thing covering up her own dark past, but does she really need to worry about people finding out just how much Myles likes her? Or that despite how much she doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes, she kind of likes him back? Not to mention the fact that she now has to conceal that Myles drinks blood-that he says he’s about four hundred years old.

She almost forgot about that part.

But Sophie has no plans to ruin the normal life she has created for herself. She can deal with this little glitch, no problem. Even if word has gotten around to the wrong vampire about Sophie and Myles, even if she’s putting the few people she loves at risk. Suddenly, those who were monsters before are just people, and the monsters? They’re real. Now being a normal human being is the least of her problems. Now she has to stay alive.

Follow Friday (#20)

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: If you could hang out with any author (living) who would it be and what would you want to do?


Do you even need to ask?! John Green, for sure. I read my first book by him (Papertowns, if you were wondering) just over two years ago, and I immediately fell in love with his easy style of writing and the way he can create this fantastically quirky characters who you can't help but fall in love with. I'm currently rereading The Fault in Our Stars (again, ssssh) because it is so amazingly amazing and I have a lot of love for Augustus Waters.

If we met, I guess I'd like to go for coffee in a quiet Starbucks somewhere and probe his brain - I want to find out the futures of all my favourite characters, and I'd try to smuggle some information about his new book from him.

So who did you pick, and what would you do? Leave a comment below, as well as a link - I follow everyone back!

Waiting on Wednesday (#27)

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

Icons by Margaret Stohl

Title: Icons
Author: Margaret Stohl
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release: May 7th 2013
Pages: 368 (eBook)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Your heart beats only with their permission.

Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.

Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.

She's different. She survived. Why?

When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.

Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Title: Lord of the Flies

Author: William Golding

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Released: 1954

Pages: 225 (Paperback)

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

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William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible.

You know, after my teacher chose for us to read To Kill A Mockingbird, I trusted his judgement of books. So when he said that Lord of the Flies was fantastic and I would love it, I believed him. How wrong I was - oh how very wrong I was. Get ready for the GIFs, guys.

The Truth About You and Me by Amanda Grace

Title: The Truth About You and Me
Author: Amanda Grace/Mandy Hubbard
Publisher: Flux
Release: September 8th 2013
Pages: 264 (eBook)
Pre-order: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Smart girls aren't supposed to do stupid things.

Madelyn Hawkins is super smart. At sixteen, she's so gifted that she can attend college through a special program at her high school. On her first day, she meets Bennet. He's cute, funny, and kind. He understands Madelyn and what she's endured—and missed out on—in order to excel academically and please her parents. Now, for the first time in her life, she's falling in love.

There's only one problem. Bennet is Madelyn's college professor, and he thinks she's eighteen—because she hasn't told him the truth.

The story of their forbidden romance is told in letters that Madelyn writes to Bennet—both a heart-searing ode to their ill-fated love and an apology.

Cover Reveal (#6)

OH. MY. DAYS. I have to say, I haven't been this excited for a cover reveal in ages - but it's finally here! The cover for Crown of Midnight, the sequel to Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass, has finally been unveiled - and isn't it awesome?

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Title: Annie on My Mind
Author: Nancy Garden
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released: July 1982
Pages: 263 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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 "If you don't put that ring on this minute, I'm going to take it back," Annie whispered in my ear. She leaned back, looking at me, her hands still on my shoulders, her eyes shining softly at me and snow falling, melting, on her nose. "Buon Natale," she whispered, "amore mio."

"Merry Christmas, my love," I answered.

From the moment Liza Winthrop meets Annie Kenyon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she knows there is something special between them. But Liza never knew falling in love could be so wonderful... or so confusing.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Title: Clockwork Princess

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Walker

Released: March 19th 2013

Pages: 568 (Paperback)

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?

Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.

A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

I think that perhaps my heart has been torn in two from happiness and heartbreak and the Angel only knows what else. This review contains spoilers - and a lot of fangirling and tears.

Blog Tour: With A Kiss by Stephanie Fowers

About The Author 
Stephanie Fowers loves bringing stories to life, and depending on her latest madcap ideas will do it through written word, song, and/ or film. She absolutely adores Bollywood and bonnet movies; i.e., BBC (which she supposes includes non-bonnet movies Sherlock and Dr. Who). Presently, she lives in Salt Lake where she's living the life of the starving artist. Stephanie plans to share more of her novels, films, and even a musical in the near future. May the adventures begin.

Book of the Month: March

This month, I read a heck of a lot of request books - and I adored the majority of them! But for the first time ever (I think) nothing sparks a 5-star rating! Three came awfully close; Anna Dressed In Blood, Just One Day, and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, and I'm genuinely finding it difficult to choose! But I think it has got to be...

Just One Day. I was rereading my reviews, and I really was incredibly close to rating this one five stars. Forman has such a great talent for writing, and I think she's one of my favourite contemporary authors. Her characters, both male and female, are so easy to fall in love with, and her tales pick you up and don't let you back down - there is always a cliffhanger, always another question needing to be answered, but never in a bad way. With Forman's stories, I can always imagine the characters having a future and continuing on with their lives - they are never just letters on a page. If you live contemporary, you've really got to pick this up someday soon - I promise that you won't regret it! Here's to waiting for the sequel, Just One Year.