Saturday, May 31, 2014

May Wrap Up!


Heyyoo:)


   So spring has finally hit my always winter town, and I can't be happier. With school being almost over, that means I'll finally have time to catch up on my reading and of course it'll be bonfire season!
   School has been taking a lot of my time lately so I haven't been as actively blogging and reading the past couple of months. I have a little under 3 more weeks left, until then I'll be doing my best to keep up with life online and in person. Once school is officially over I'm going to get organized finally and start doing weekly/monthly blog posts. For example, stuff like Waiting on Wednesdays, Blog Tours, Book Blast and Vlogs. The last one I'm really excited for:) So I hope you guys stay patient with me, I promise you won't regret it.

   This month was also RT and BEA, I wasn't at either but I hope for you guys who did go that you guys had an awesome time! My time will shine in November at YALLFest:)


Here are the details for this month!

   

Books Read in May:


Goal: 150 books, 40 out of 150 read. 27% done goal.


June Releases I'm Excited For:

Drowned by Nichola Reilly June 24th, 2014
Rain by Amanda Sun June 24th, 2014

There aren't many YA releases this month, but I can't tell you how excited I am for Rain! I just adored Ink. I've had grabby hands for this one ever since I first heard Rain ARCs were out:)


Book Haul for the Month:

(Top to bottom)

Reborn by C.C Hunter
Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Desert Tales by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Fairy Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Graveminder by Melissa Marr (ARC Signed)
Conversion by Katherine Howe (ARC)
This Side of Salvation by Jeri Smith-Ready (ARC)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Randsom Riggs
Made for You by Melissa Marr (ARC)
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (ARC Signed)
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
The One by Kiera Cass
The Selection Stories: The Prince and The Guard by Kiera Cass
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

In the last two months I've gotten more books in each of those months then I've ever gotten in a single past year. I'm utterly blown away from how amazing the blogging community is, and how giving they are. Same goes with authors:)


Library Book Haul:


I wasn't able to use my Public Library this month because I had to renew my card, but otherwise I've already read half of my pile;)


Books Reviewed:


As I said, it's been a slow month. Besides the fact that I only wrote 3 reviews this month, they were some of the longest reviews I've written so far and I'm proud of that:)


That's it for this month people, I hope you guys have a good month ahead and happy readings!






Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Book Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Release Date: April 1st, 2014
Read: May 12-14th, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Dorothy Must Die #1
Format: Hardcover, 452 pages
Source: Bought

Description from GoodReads:


I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling.

What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!



Review:


Be brave. Be angry. Don't trust anyone.
   Wither it's about Oz, Neverland, or Narnia I will always love a twist for the original story. Dorothy Must Die wasn't that way for me. The idea for the book had me hooked from the first time I'd heard about it, but I just couldn't get into the book itself. The book started at a good pace, I really loved Amy in her school. Especially with her high school bully being pregnant, it showed to me that even though the 'popular' girls or boys always seem to have it all they do make mistakes the same as everyone else does.
  Eventually when Amy got to Oz the story lost it's pace and started to drag for a bit. Danielle had written the book trying to show us her version of Oz, but with the storyline she was going for, there was too much access description. As in, some of the villages and meetings on the yellow brick road were not needed. It all took away from what Amy was really supposed to be in Oz for. Don't get me wrong though, I loved Danielle's Oz. It's horrifyingly terrific. 
   When we were finally introduced to the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked the book was half done already. I felt like more should have been done with the Order of the Wicked, the parts that we experienced with them were not satisfying enough for me. The group would do the same thing over and over each day, then they were gone again. Overall I don't think the Order of the Wicked was a main focus like the books summery said it to be. 
   Dorothy Must Die was not my favourite read, but I am still excited for The Wicked Will Rise. I will definitely be getting my hands on a copy and give Dorothy and Amy another chance.



Rating:


Favourite Quote:


“You don’t need wheels on your house to get somewhere better. All you need is something to give you that extra push.” 


Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Fairy Tales





Monday, May 12, 2014

Harlequin and Harper Collins



Recently,


   HarperCollins publishing had purchased Harlequin publishing, I know many people have their own opinions about the matter but this one kind of hit home a bit so I wanted to state my own.


  Last year Safeway Canada was bought by the company Sobeys. Safeway and Sobey's are both major grocery stores in Canada. They are like the Target and Walmart of the US, even though we have both of those here they are just not as popular. Anyhow in the purchase Safeway lost a lot customer wise. Like most business, companies want to safe as much money as possible. So they usually do this by shortening the employees work shifts, lesser pay, firing people, not hiring enough people, you know how that works. With not enough people on the floor, customers would complain and everything would become stressful for the employees that still remained. Till finally they sold the company. 
  
   What does this mean? Well for one, my mother has worked at Safeway for 30 years, give or take a few. My family knew right away that lots of things were going to change. Which they did.

   What does this have to do with Harper Collins and Harlequin? Well with Safeway selling, Sobey's had said they weren't going to change anything (Sound familiar? 'Harper Collins') But soon enough things started changing. More people then before lost jobs, more people were loosing shifts, etc. Along came with the fear that what if they decided to fire all the Safeway employees and just hire new Sobeys ones instead? My moms biggest fear was that for the pay she was receiving the company could hire two other people instead, even if they weren't as experienced. 
   Things started to change so much that now they are officially changing over all the Safeways to Sobeys. Along with this a lot of new rules, every employee was going to have to be trained again so that they knew how Sobey's wanted the place run.

   My worries for Harlequin is that what if Harper changes everything? They are currently saying that Harper Collins will continue to be run from New York and Harlequin from Toronto. But Sobey's said the same thing in the beginning, Harper could change their minds at anytime. The number one thing I am worried about with this selling is Harlequin Teen. 

   As you all know I am a Teen Book Blogger, and that Harlequin Teen Publishing is my favourite Teen publishing company. They do things differently then HarperTeen does, one of the biggest differences being that Harlequin mostly does paperback and Harper always doing Hardcover first. But no matter the differences between the two, Harper has the biggest area dedicated to young adult novels, with Harper Teen publishing and a whole social media inter prize dedicated to spreading the word about their books (Epic Reads) they've practically have the Teen market covered. What if they decide they don't need to have Harlequin Teen anymore? What if they think it's not worth the money anymore? 

  Even if they don't get rid of Harlequin Teen there is so much more they could get rid of or change. No matter what they say, they have the power now if one little thing bothers them it could all change.



  Thanks for listening to my rant guys,











Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: September 10th, 2013
Read: May 4-12th, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Series: N/A
Format: Hardcover, 438 pages
Source: Bought



Description from GoodReads:


Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan.... But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she's really good at it. She and her twin, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind



Review:


What the fuck is 'the fandom'?
   When I first picked up Fangirl and read the summery I had thought "Will this be me when I'm older?" I'm a teen blogger, I live in the now and can't possibly know what the future holds for me. But you can't help but wonder where you'll be in the future. While reading I constantly kept comparing myself to Cather. She's a girl who tends to prefer the company of herself, her fans and her fictional characters, and every once and a while her sister. Cather doesn't like to leave her comfort zone, I find myself in the same situations a lot. Unless I'm put in a position, I prefer to like being alone with my laptop or books as well. My mother's the same, Cather's father was also the same. It made me think on occasion that we've gained these traits from our parents, wither for good or for worse I'm not sure. Either way I could see myself ending up in a similar school wise and writing position when I'm older. 
   I had a soft spot for Cather's Fan Fiction, she was doing what she enjoyed and in the meantime slowly gaining skills for her career when she becomes older. She would practice her grammar, punctuation, spelling with her writing, and even better she was practicing her writing. Not many people know how to build characters and plots like she could. I still haven't developed these skills yet, never less I can never push myself to actually write stories or even to set myself up a schedule for writing a post or two on Ohana Reads. Cather writes writes thousands of words a day, to become a major in the English language that is really important. 
   Besides Cather's writing and Cather herself there were many intriguing characters and scenes in this book. I love myself some Levi, he was one of the sweetest characters in the book, he made me gush and everything. The way he was converted into a book nerd for his girlfriend was just adorable, I think everyone should have a Levi that's for sure. Reagan was another favourite of mine, underneath her 'I don't care about anything' persona was a girl who would do anything for her friends, even when it evolved 'nerdy' things.
   Fangirl made me want to get out of the slumps and actually get to writing stories, maybe fan fiction or maybe even my own stories. It's an adorable read, and I think many people will be able to relate to Cather and maybe even Wren the other twin. It is a definite read for 'Fangirls' and fanboys ever.
   I've also heard many good things about Rainbows other novel, Eleanor and Park, I'll just have to read it now as well! 

Rating:




Favourite Quote:

"She climbed between his knees, and he put his arms around her, pulling her close. She felt  his chin on the back of her head."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, New Adult, Woman's Fiction, Academic 





Friday, May 9, 2014

Dante Walker Trilogy Readathon!



Heyy-oo 


Welcome to the Dante Walker Trilogy Readathon!
This Readathon is hosted by Jessica at Just a Booklover and me, Stephanie from Ohana Reads.
   First off, I would like to thank you all for participating in Jessica's and I's Readathon, it means a lot to us that you guys want to spend your week hanging out with us:)



   Just in case some of you guys don't know here's how the Readathon works:

  ~ The Readathon will run from the 9-16th of May.

   ~ We will be reading all three books in the series within those dates. The book order goes as following (Right to left):


   


 ~ While reading the books, tweet your process using the hashtag #ReadDanteWalker on Twitter, or if you want you can even tweet your favourite non-spoilery quotes!

   ~ Jess and I  have two different sites running for discussion! A Facebook group and a GoodReads group. ( We will both be running a different site each, with some help from one other. I run the GoodReads group and Jess runs Facebook one.)
The discussion part is already happening as we speak, so if you'd like to participate go ahead and click the links below.


          Facebook                                    GoodReads


   These two groups we have allowed spoilers, just make sure you are in the right section to do so. Ex. Posting a chapter 7 spoiler in a chapter 2 zone is BAD.

   ~ At the end of the Readathon we have a Twitter Party planned! We will have prizes awarded to a couple of the people who come to the Party as well as a bunch of fun activities planned for you guys. (Hint: Victoria, the author might be stopping by;)  The party will start at 8:00pm and end at 9:00pm CST. So make sure to set an alarm so you don't miss it!

   ~ We also have an AMAZING couple of giveaways planned! There will be a winner for each of the sites we are using for discussion. So a winner for the Facebook group, the GoodReads group and the Twitter hashtag. Then we're are also going to have another 2 more giveaways at the Twitter party:) (Hint: Have you seen my book pendants tab yet?)

That's it my lovelies! I hope you enjoy yourselves this week, and I'll see you on the GoodReads group page and at the Twitter Party!



If you have any questions or concerns feel free to ask Jess or I:) 

We can be reached at:

Stephanie: Twitter: @OhanaReads   Email: ohanareads@gmail.com

Jessica: Twitter: @jessbooklover  Email: makesmeworse12@gmail.com





Monday, May 5, 2014

Book Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Release Date: June 25th, 2013
Read: April 29th- May 4th, 2014
Publishing: Harlequin Teen
Series: The Paper Gods
Format: Paperback, 369 pages
Source: Bought


Description from GoodReads:



On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.



Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.



Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.



Review:


It's worth my life, but it isn't worth yours.
   Three things stood out for me when I first heard of Ink, it was published from Harlequin Teen, the FABULOUS cover and finally the book was set in Japan. As you guys know I tend to love all things Harlequin Teen, they are practically my favourite publishing. The books they published always and I mean always spark a interest for me and I can never put there books down, that wasn't any different with Ink.
   My goodness the cover! Inks' has a totally different look than any of the other covers I've ever seen, it's so unique with it's water-colour picture. I don't think I've seen anything involving watercolour in forever, it was a nice change especially with the beautiful cover design by Petra Dufkova, and to make the water-colour more life like the covers texture actually feels like water-colour paper. The blossoms on the cover were my favourite<3
   Over the years I've read many and I mean MANY different books with different places that the book was set in, most of the time they would occur somewhere in the United States but everyone in a while I would get to experience a new place I'd never heard of before or been to in real life. Some like India, England, Prague, and Canada. But this was my first time reading/being in Japan! I was totally like Katie was when she first came to Japan. A gaijin. The language and the culture were new to me. When Amanda first put a Japanese word in a paragraph I kind of panicked, how would I understand what the characters were saying? Thankfully every time a new word was introduced Amanda would then have Katie translate it for us in her head, but she would only translate it for us maybe once or twice then it would be up to us to remember what it meant. I am not the best when it comes to remembering what words are in different languages so the fact that the back of the book had a glossary of the Japanese words and phrases saved my life. I can't wait to see what other new words and new things I'll learn in Rain Japanese wise. Canada was also mentioned as couple times through out the book, Katie's grandparents lived there. I know it was only mentioned a few times, but it made me few better knowing it was mentioned more then New York was.( Katie's old home) Most of the time Canada doesn't get a into a lot of YA book related things, so it being mentioned in the book and where the author lives made me like the book just a little bit more. ( Sorry I am a little biased that way.)
   The dark mysterious dangerous boy, Yuu Tomohiro was all of it. Even in Japan those types of boys attract the girls, it's like they just can't help it. Well I know I wouldn't if Tomo was the case aha. With teenagers now a days creativity comes in different forms, normally they only with electronics forms now. Calligraphy is sort of rare now, not many people find it interesting. Well I can only speak for North America. Either way it touched my heart to see a boy that loved art, most of the time boys will only focus on sports. Tomo had a healthy balance of both. The only thing that bothered me about Tomo was the way he would try to protect people. Pushing people away while being as rude as you possibly can is not the way to go.
   I see Katie as one of the strongest people in Ink, to loose your mother and have to a completely different continent in a sort span of time takes courage which not everyone has. And to have yourself not a wreak after a few months is even more of a big deal. If something were to happen to my mother and I was put in the same situation as Katie I don't think I'd ever be able to put myself back together.
   The art was phenomenal. The way Amanda would just describe the artwork created the most beautiful images in my head, and to have it come to life? It was magical. Sketches are my favourite, so in the case of the pictures in the book, the pictures Tomo would draw were black and white which made the pictures much more lifelike to me. Then to make the book more realistic artist Ross Siu would recreate the drawings that Tomo would "draw" in the book, so we got to really see what the pictures looked like.
   The Kami intrigue me, I've always been fascinated by mythology. Mythology is one of my favourite things to learn and read about. Greek, Egyptian and Hindi being some of my favourites. So I hope to be able to learn more about the Kami in Amanda's next novel because at this point we don't know a whole lot about them yet.
   I honestly can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Rain, the sequel to Ink which releases June 24th, 2014. But before you do, don't forget to check out the e-novella Shadow that takes place before the events in Ink and learn more about Tomo and Katie.


Rating:




Favourite Quote:


"He wasn't going to... I mean, he wouldn't try to kiss me, would he?
I didn't want him to.
I wanted him to." ~ Katie 


Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Cultural, Japan






Saturday, May 3, 2014

Readathon Time!


Hello All!


   I have some exciting news for you,  I will be hosting my first ever Readathon! I will be Co-Hosting with the lovely Jessica from Just a Booklover. (Btw she's my favourite)

   Which books are we reading? Well I'm glad you asked! 

   May 6th is next week, the 6th has so many amazing releases coming out. THE WARRIOR by Victoria Scott is one of them. THE WARRIOR is the last book in the Dante Walker trilogy, so to celebrate we are going to read the trilogy!




   The Details:

   ~ The Readathon will be from the 9-16th of May, The Warrior releases on the 6th so you guys will have plenty of time to go out and buy your copy!

   ~ We will be reading all three books within those dates. The book order goes as following (Right to left):


GoodReads Link

   ~ While reading the books, tweet your process using the hashtag #ReadDanteWalker on Twitter, or even your favourite non-spoilery quotes! 

   ~ Jess and I will have two different sites running for discussion! A Facebook group and a GoodReads group. ( We will both be running a different site each, with some help from one other. I run the GoodReads group and Jess runs Facebook one.)

   **Here are the links, but please note the discussions will not start until the 9th.

          Facebook                 GoodReads


   ~ On the 16th we are going to have a Twitter party! The details are not completely final yet, more info is to come.

   ~ We are also going to have an AMAZING couple of giveaways! There will be a winner for each of the sites we are using for discussion. So there will be a winner for Facebook, GoodReads and Twitter. Then we're are going to have another 2 more giveaways at the Twitter party:)


   That's it my lovelies! Go off and get your copies of the Dante Walker Trilogy and have your discussion questions ready! I hope you guys will be able to join us! 

If you have any questions feel free to ask Jess or I:)


Just note! There will be a second post with only the details posted on the 9th, the day the readathon starts!:) 





Thursday, May 1, 2014

April Wrap Up!


  Hey everyone! 


   So this is my first ever Monthly Wrap up! Starting now each month I will tell you how my month went blog wise, and tell you what reviews I did, what books I read, my book haul for the month and a couple other things:P 

   This month I didn't get a lot of books read, but it certainly was a big book haul month and a good reviewing month! 



Books Read in April:


   My goal for the year was to read 150 books, I've currently read 33 books. I'm 22% done with my goal this year:)



April Releases I'm Excited For:

Reborn by C.C Hunter (20th)
Dangerous Creatures by Margaret Stohl & Kami Garcia (20th)
The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes (20th)
The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz (27th)
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (27th)

   I think I'm most excited for The One, The Warrior and City of Heavenly Fire:)


Book Haul for the Month:





   This is probably my biggest book haul ever :O


Books Reviewed:


   What I tell you? It was a good reviewing month!


   That's all for this month my people! Until next month, and happy readings!


   ALSO: There will be a big announcement sometime this weekend! Ohana Reads and Just a Booklover have something planned for you:)