Showing posts with label Lauren DeStefano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lauren DeStefano. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2016

April Monthly Wrap Up 2016


   Hello everyone! April is over, and it is finally time for May flowers! I couldn't be more excited for
May! A few sort weeks ago I very last minutely signed up to attend BEA 2016 and BookCon, and oh my gosh that's coming up so fast. I guess that's what happens when you plan a trip last minute right?
   Along with attending BEA and BookCon, I will also be at the Maggie Stiefvater signing on the 10th, as well as the Sarah J Maas signing on the 14th! If you see me at all, feel free to come and say hi!I promise that I'm super friendly and would love to meet you! And if you're a blogger then, hopefully I'll be seeing you at the Blogger Dinner?
   When it's come to packing I am honestly so stumped on what to pack book wise! Because I'm flying in I'll have a few restrictions, including a weight one. So bringing books from home to get signed, as well as picking up new books at BEA will be a struggle. So far all I know is that I need my ARC of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas to be signed.
  here. Next months book club book is The Crowns Game by Evelyn Skye! I'm been dying to read this one for a while now, and I couldn't be happier to finally get the chance!
   Besides planning for BEA, April was a more relaxing month. The only other things that happened was a Be First Book Club meeting and a signing for Colleen Nelson, that you can read about
   That's all for this month! Expect TONS for next month, I'm sure that I'm going to be rambling on about BEA for a long time!
   Now for the stats!



Books Read:




Book Haul:

 A huge thank you for McNally Robinson and Raincoast Publishing for two of the lovely pictures posted above! 

Books Reviewed:




May Books That I'm Excited For:



   That's it for this month! What new books did you pick up this month? What were some great books that you read? Let me know in the comments! I'm always in need of a new book to add to my TBR pile!


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Saturday, April 2, 2016

Book Review: Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: March 22nd, 2016
Read: March 14th-15th, 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Series: The Internment Chronicles, #3
Format: ARC, 272 pages
Source: McNally Robinson/Two Thumbs Up Program



Description from GoodReads:


   The city is falling out of the sky…

   Morgan always thought it was just a saying. A metaphor. The words of the dying. But as they look up at the floating island that was their home, Pen and Morgan make a horrible discovery—Internment is sinking.

   And it’s all Morgan’s fault.

   Corrupted from the inside by one terrible king and assailed from the outside for precious resources by another, Internment could be destroyed because Morgan couldn’t keep a secret. As two wars become one, Morgan must find a way to bring her two worlds together to stop the kings that wage them…

   Or face the furthest fall yet. 


Review:


   How can you tell which are good and which are bad?
   Lauren DeStefano doesn't write books the same way that other authors do, it doesn't matter if she writes Science Fiction or Fantasy, they always have a realness to them. I learnt this when reading her first series, The Chemical Garden series, and saw the same with the first two novels in The Internment Chronicles, Perfect Ruin and Burning Kingdom. It was no different when reading Broken Crowns.
   The biggest thing that stood out about DeStefano's writing is how she's able to put a new view on everything, especially when it came to Internment. She was able to make things that are usually boring or not usually viewed as interesting, intriguing. Like the sun disease, you couldn't help but be intrigued over it, but in reality it was actually cancer. Because the people of Internment were completely new to earth, the new vocabulary was expected, but you couldn't help but feel the same amazement and emotions as the newcomers when it came to the world, drawing you into the story all that more.
   The Internment Chronicles has a new way of viewing happy endings, not everyone has to be with their true love, with no complications with life. DeStefano shows you that you can live a happy life, even if it's not like the usual fairy tale ending.
   Broken Crowns was not what I expected, and in the end, it was everything that I didn't know I needed. With solving all the characters problems in a relatively realistic way, it made the story feel as if it could one day, perhaps actually be real.
  Leaving me content and satisfied, Broken Crowns is the perfect conclusion to an unique series.

Rating:


Favourite Quotes:


"A girl should never stop thinking. Otherwise we'll become what our world thinks of us."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Dystopian, Steampunk, Advenerture, New Worlds



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Thursday, March 31, 2016

March Wrap Up 2016

   This month was practically a lead up to Spring Break, and the weekend before hand. Spring Break where my sister, friends and I went to San Fransisco and Monterey for a school trip, like I've
mentioned a few times before. With all the lead up, stress, and hype, I actually didn't get much
reading done. Not to mention, the no reading done at all on my trip.... So I'm a bit behind on everything... again.
   To be honest with you guys, I was behind on all things blog related because I just wasn't feeling it this month. I would feel it here and there, but never enough to keep up with everything. Already as April approaches I'm starting to feel it again, but I don't know how long that will last for. I guess we'll see as we go.
   Let's talk about my trip! We started off by heading to the airport for 4am,  then spending our first 2 hour flight well but eventually learning that everything was being delayed in Toronto. So the first thing that happened was that we were stuck in an airplane for an hour, IN Ottawa then we were stuck in the Toronto Airport for roughly 5 hours because our original San Francisco flight was canceled. You could say that that day was a bust. 
   The next day was great though, we visited the Intel Museum in Silicon Valley. That turned out to be
a blast. The trip went on to visiting Alcatraz, walking across the Gold Gate Bridge, "seeing" the Full House house, Monterey Bay Aquarium ( A day after Margaret Stohl visited according to her Instagram, that didn't stop me from looking for her every turn I made aha), seeing the curviest road in the world, etc. Having my friends and sister there only made the trip better.
   Fun fact, if you're visiting San Francisco with your family or friends then you will get bruises. There were so many Beetles, when I say many, I mean MANY. You would spot one and two seconds later another would pop up in your field of vision. We saw just as many Mini Coopers, and PT Cruisers. 
   Unfortunately our tour group (EF Tours) did NOT know how to pick restaurants to eat at, when we were visiting Fisherman's Wharf we went to Applebees, when we could literally see so many different unique food stalls with so many different forms of sea food. Our tour group was not happy, this struggle went on to face us throughout the whole trip. 
   If you could look past the poor points in the trip, then I would definitely say it was an success and that I would visit again. Just not with that tour group! 
   If you'd like to see more pictures from my trip, then check out my Instagram here. Otherwise that's it for this month! What were you guys up too? Let me know!
   Now for the bookish stats!
   

Books Read:




Book Haul:

   A big thank you McNally Robinson, Dunburn Publishing, and Harper Collins Canada for some of the lovely books listed above. And a big thank you to my sister for finally replacing the copy of Cinder that she lost!

Books Reviewed:




April Books I'm Excited For:



   That's this month, I'll be heading to a few bookish events in April so expect a few posts from those!



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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday: (54)

Broken Crowns

Lauren DeStefano
The Internment Chronicles, #3
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Expected: March 22nd, 2016


Description from GoodReads:


   The city is falling out of the sky…

    Morgan always thought it was just a saying. A metaphor. The words of the dying. But as they look up at the floating island that was their home, Pen and Morgan make a horrible discovery—Internment is sinking.

    And it’s all Morgan’s fault.

    Corrupted from the inside by one terrible king and assailed from the outside for precious resources by another, Internment could be destroyed because Morgan couldn’t keep a secret. As two wars become one, Morgan must find a way to bring her two worlds together to stop the kings that wage them…
   Or face the furthest fall yet.

Why I Want It:


    I first received Perfect Ruin as a christmas present after I'd fallen in love with DeStefano's first trilogy, The Chemical Garden series. Then after falling in love with it, I requested it's sequel, Burning Kingdoms from the publisher and was lucky enough to receive a copy. And finally here we are, needing the final book in the trilogy. The idea of this series is just phenomenal, I would recommend this series to everyone and anyone who is interested in a unique read.


That's my Waiting on Wednesday this week! Will you be picking up Broken Crowns? What are you waiting on this week?



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Friday, December 18, 2015

Ohana Talks: Naked Hardcovers



   I love hardcovers, at times they can be my book weakness. When are they my weakness? When their covers are gorgeous. The picture above is just a few examples of the ones I own. Aren't they gorgeous?

   Today I wanted to show you some of my favourite naked hardcovers. I know that people don't normally know what the undercover looks like unless you own them, so these are just a few of my favourites that I have seen so far!


Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano 
(Original Hardcover)
The Internment Chronicles, #1

Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter
White Rabbit Chronicles, #2

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
Bloodlines, #1

Compulsion by Martina Boone
The Heirs of Watson Island, #1

Reawakened by Colleen Houck
Reawakened, #1




The Diviners by Libba Bray
(Original Hardcover)
The Diviners, #1

Talon by Julie Kagawa
Talon, #1

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
The Lorien Legacies, #2

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
The Raven Cycle, #1

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3


   There is one other that I adore but have no picture of and do not own, and that's All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. If you ever stumble upon a copy of it in a bookstore, make sure to check it out.


   I think my favourite thing about hardcovers is that you only get them for the first year of publication, then the paperback releases and the hardcovers become impossible to find. I guess it just makes them unique to me because the people who find the series after don't get to experience the beauty. Don't get me wrong, I do hate that the hardcovers are impossible to find after the first year. I just enjoy it too.

   What are some of your favourite naked hardcovers? What do you like most about them? The covers? Or their spines?



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Monday, March 30, 2015

March Wrap Up!

   March was a once again a slow month, nothing really exciting happened in the bookish world for me. March was mostly about hanging out with my really close group of friends, which is always a blast by the way. My family took a weekend off from everything to go skiing, I finally had my birthday party, and oh, I forgot! I actually designed the Never Always Sometimes bookmarks for Adi Alsaid, so I'm actually so excited to see how they turn out! The last thing that stood out otherwise was that the last few days of March for
We're a bunch of nerds
Spring Break my family and I head down for Minnesota to pick a a new camper trailer but y'all hear all about that in a post I have coming up!
Now for the bookish stats of the month!



Books Read:

Book Haul:


Books Reviewed:

April Releases I'm Excited For:

Rogue by Julie Kagawa (28th)
Rook by Sharon Cameron (28th)


   That's it for this month! I feel like April is going to be another slow one, but we'll see!




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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Book Review: Burning Kingdoms by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: March 10th, 2015
Read: December 28th, 2014 - January 5th, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Series: The Internment Chronicles #2
Format: ARC Paperback, 320 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for a review



Description from GoodReads:


   After escaping through the bottom of Internment, Morgan and her fellow fugitives aboard the great mechanical bird land on the ground to finally learn what has lived beneath their floating island home all these eons.

   The ground is a strange place where water falls from the sky as snow, and customers watch moving pictures and visit speakeasies. A place where families can have as many children as they want, their dead are buried in vast gardens of bodies, and Internment is the feature of an amusement park. 

   It is also a land at war. 

   Everyone who fled Internment had their own reasons to escape their corrupt haven. But caught under the watchful eye of another king that wants to dominate his world, they wonder if coming to the ground will drag Internment down with them.


Review:


   This story is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard
   I first read Wither, DeStefanos first book back in 2014 right before Sever released. The series had one of the most intriguing styles I've ever read. Those styles were transferred into The Internment Chronicles. The styles were perhaps my favourite parts of Burning Kingdoms. With our beloved characters finally reaching the ground it was fun to see their reaction to everything new. The way everything was new to them was even better, or how they wondered how their gods created such things. It was all truly heart warming to read about.
   DeStephano's characters also show their weaknesses and faults, while some other dystopian or fantasy books show their characters weaknesses as loving other or such. The Internment characters actually have faults, blindness, alcoholism, parental issues. DeStefano shows us these characters and embraces them rather then hide them. She showed us how each of them go on with their lives, how they all truly would live their lives among us instead of making them like these breakable people that everyone has to protect at all costs.
   Through out the book I felt like DeStephano was showing us secrets about what we completely miss in our world. How the king 'protects' his kingdom, but rather he's ignorant to everything around him. How the truce was fully embraced when something was offered that helped the king. It all portrayed our world today, even if it is supposed to be a work of fiction.
   Besides the somewhat slow pacing of the book, Burning Kingdoms was a deep emotional book that everyone should give a chance. The Internment Chronicles started with Perfect Ruin and will end on October 5th, 2015 with the final book in the series. I will definitely be picking up myself a copy of the next book when it releases.


   At first I was a little disappointed with the cover change for Burning Kingdoms, but now I think I'm enjoying it more. The only thing I'm disappointed in now is the fact that my editions don't match each other.


Rating:



Favourite Quotes:


"Our little clouds have been holding out on us. Who knew?" - Pen


Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance, Imperfection




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Friday, February 20, 2015

Ohana Talks: Cover Changes


   There is one major thing book collectors tend to hate above others, when book covers change. There are many reasons why publishers end up making the decision to change them. A few being that the series is over and they want a new change, the cover isn't getting as much attention as they like and perhaps a movie is coming out based on the book so they decided to change it to have viewers connect both the movie and the book. But either way it frustrates readers.

   I as a reader, have a love & hate relationship with cover changes. Sometimes I believe the swap is for the best, the original cover is just not just enough to catch my eye but then there are times where the cover is utterly fabulous and they swap it out to mush or what relates to mush. I understand that they change for marketing purposes, but I think Publishings should get an opinion from readers before they swap them. The decisions the publishing makes is not always the best one.

An example:
                              
 

 

   The first two books in the Across the Universe series by Beth Revis were stunning, but when the third and finale book in the series was released all the books got a make over. Thus leaving the first two stunning book covers with out a matching third. ( Just FYI, I believe the UK cover of Shades of Earth matches the first two books if you're a collector or maybe desperate.)

   Another reason besides eye catchiness that frustrates readers, is if a series is not completed and a publishing change the covers then the reader is in a pickle. If they already owned the original set then they will never have a complete set of matching covers now because of the change, unless of course they go out and re-buy them all again. I've had this happen to me a few times already, with Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano and Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott. Sometimes I think that it's a con to buy the books again, but I'm not made of money so that won't be happening for a second time.


 
 


   From what I said above you can see why I think it's a love & hate relationship, everyone has their own opinions over the matter.
   I have collected a list of books and covers that have changed for you all, so I'll let you decide what you think about cover changes.

Note: Not all books in each series are shown, and that the cover go in order from when they were released, left to right. Right being the current cover you can purchase in stores.


The Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole

   



Lux Chronicles by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  

  



Study Series by Maria V. Snyder

   
   
 



The Blood of Eden by Julie Kagawa

   




Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

   


   How do you guys feel about cover changes? Do you love them or hate them? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter! 



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