TGIF - Feature and Follow Friday #113

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY is a blog hop that is designed to provide as much exposure towards other bloggers as well as yourself, and to expand following. It's hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each whom feature a chosen blog for a week, it's also an interesting way to get to know one another bloggers.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: 
What book(s) are you reading right now? What do you think of it? 

Right now, I'm reading 'The Rise of Nine' by Pittacus Lore. Well, I love the Lorien Legacies as well as the other following books before this one. The book is unusual and bounces back between John Smith, Number Six and sometimes other people. I love the old characters and the new ones. It's going quite good so far!

It's still GOOD!

Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: 28th February 2012
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: I'm pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Detailed Review: I totally loved this book, it was better than Delirium! Lauren Oliver wrote the chapters as 'then' and 'now'. So it shows how much that Lena has gone through since she escaped to the Wilds. This part was my favourite.

   Then: When she was in the Wilds, weak and lost, she stumbled onto a group of people and was brought back to their homestead. She becomes a part of their family but there is a price. She has to work for the homestead and can't possibly live there for free. Hardships are revealed in these chapters.

   Now: She is a spy for a group of uncureds in the wilds, along with her friends Raven and Hunter. She goes to DFA (Deliria-free America) meetings and spy on what happens there. She attends high school. And she forgets about everything that's happened before she escaped into the Wilds: Hana, Grace, the procedure and ,,, Alex. A part of her still longs for him. Until she meets Julian Fineman, son of the founder of DFA, Thomas Fineman. When Lena's caught in a mission  involving Julian, she ends up travelling with him. 

   And falling in love with him.

   But... Alex is back. 

   And he's not the sweet and nice boy that Lena used to know.

Brief Review: Oh my god! This book totally got me tensed, especially on the last page. I really wanted to read Requiem, but it's not even out yet! Arrgh! I can't wait till next year! But seriously, Lauren Oliver's love of cliffhangers makes my desire to read the next book ten times worth it. Good job to the author. All credits belong to her.

Final rating: 5/5 'Totally Amazing' (Wish I could give a six!)










Your reviewer:


   

  

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 1st 2011
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Detailed Review: Ironically I fell in love with this book, when it's about a world where love is a virus.

   It's Lena's evaluation day. She's practiced it many times with her aunt already but she's still nervous.

   BUT when she makes a mistake and probably screwed her whole life up by making that mistake, everything changed.

   Enter Alex: a security guard thought to be cured, when he's actually a spy for a group in the Wilds. 
   
   Add in another group of crazy cows and then voila!

    The worst day of her life: not only was her evaluation a mistake, it was a day to remember thanks to the boy with sugary brown eyes and a fake three-pronged scar on hes neck, plus a herd of cows.

   After that, things start to go overboard. Her best friend Hana is changing, and Lena is left alone to deal with her problems, including Alex. She is falling in love with him. After an accident at a party where the uncureds find their freedom there, Lena realizes what love actually is. 

   And just this one act leads to this: her procedure being brought up earlier than expected.

   But she escapes into the Wilds.

   Without Alex.

   A world without love.  A world where love is viewed as a disease: amor deliria nervosa. Could you imagine it?

   Love. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

* I know most of you know this book but seriously, SOME people just don't know that this awesome book actually EXISTS.

Brief Review: This book has a good sense of originality. It shows you a world where love is impossible. Never have I seen an author do such good work with this dystopian world, where love is a violation against it. Praise for Lauren Oliver and hopes for more from her. The ending left me gasping and crying. I just had to read the sequel.

Final Rating: 5/5 'Totally Amazing'

   










Your reviewer:

Review: Fade by A.K. Morgen

Title: Fade
Author: A.K. Morgen
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Release Date: September 7th 2012
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: What do you do when you realize nothing in your life is what you’ve believed it to be?

When Arionna Jacobs loses her mother in a tragic accident, her world is turned upside down. She’s forced to leave her old life behind and move in with her father. Dace Matthews, a teaching assistant at her new college, is torn in two, unable to communicate with the feral wolf caged inside him.

When they meet, everything they thought they knew about life unravels. Dace has intimate access to Arionna’s mind, and something deep within her fights to rise to the surface. They don't understand what's happening to them or why, and they're running out of time to sort out the strange occurrences around them.

Their meeting sets an ancient Norse prophesy of destruction in motion, and what destiny has in store for them is bigger than either could have ever imagined. Unless they learn to trust themselves and one another, they may never resolve the mystery surrounding who they are to one another, and what that means for the world.

Detailed Review: In the start, it follows up on Arionna's mother who has died. A wolf emerges, complete with a howl with burning yellow eyes. It's already interesting from the very beginning. I was very much fixated on the story and Arionna Jacobs who is yet a girl we're going to find out about. 

'A lone wolf hunkered beneath the trees. 

A wolf? 

I blinked, certain I hadn't seen an animal at all, but I had. A wolf, or the domestic relation anyway, sat in the shadows of the trees, staring in our direction. Even from a distance, he looked as sad as I felt, and I wondered if he'd lost a loved one too. 

Do animals feel loss like us? Do they grieve, too? 

I hoped not.'

ARIONNA; A girl who is strong enough and not afraid, she's a girl who has tons of confidence (yet not so much) and takes risks. I love her for her well-being and her strong will for being who she can be and who she can't be. 

DACE; mysterious, wild and totally out of control (well...sometimes). I love Dace (too). He was completely mysterious and wild as he controls his inner wolf, the feral wolf caged inside of him. He feels like he's completely torn to two as he meets Arionna at a college as a teaching assistant.

Soon the story starts to spin apart as the two meet yet both of them don't know why even though they don't understand what's happening. I felt completely so compelled to this story line and completely mystified as the plot starts to emerge from it's starting point. 

'I didn't know, but I felt now, and feeling hurt. 

The guy tensed as though he felt my eyes on him, and turned in my direction. He stood no less than a hundred feet from me, too far away to see clearly, but every feature of his face swam into focus as if I'd called his appearance up from the depths of my memory. He was gorgeous, with messy golden hair, strong cheekbones, and a sharp, defined jawline. Even his vivid, emerald eyes and the small scar above his right eyebrow were crystal clear to me. 

I told myself to stop staring and look away. That grief had scrambled my brains, and I only imagined things that weren't there. 

I didn't listen to that little voice of reason. 

The boy lifted his head. 

Time seemed to slow, stretching before me in ways I couldn't comprehend. 

Our eyes met across the distance. 

I stopped breathing, heat weaving through me in coils, burning away the hole I'd just discovered, and leaving me wrapped in a soft blanket of warmth. A thousand different sensations whispered through me like a summer's breeze, freezing me in place. Joy, fear, loss, hope, sorrow . . . I couldn't separate one emotion from the other. Before I even had the chance to try, a current of energy washed through me, pulling a gasp from my lips. Strength and familiarity rippled through the air between us. The powerful sensation swarmed over me like a thousand little teeth nibbling on my skin, and shook me to the core. 

I knew him.' 

With this snippet above, I guarantee you'll be rereading this (completely) as I fell in love with this book and couldn't stop putting it down, you should buy this book! 

After reading this review... YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK! MUST!

Brief Review: 'Amazing, wild and creative, Fade was incredible, just simply incredible and heart-pumping, all you have to do is love it.'

My Rating: 5/5  'Totally Amazing.'

Your Reviewer: 

Special Thanks to: 

Review: Streamline by Jennifer Lane

Title: Streamline
Author: Jennifer Lane
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Release Date: March 27th 2012
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: Seems like Leo Scott has it all: looks, brains, and athletic talent. He's captain of his high school swim team with a bright future in college and beyond. But Leo has secrets. His mother's crippling car accident has devastated his family and left Leo to deal with his father's abuse, battered and alone. 

Leo's girlfriend Audrey Rose is poised for her own share of success. As one of Florida's top high school swimmers, Audrey dreams of college swimming stardom. But there's an obstacle to her glorious rise to the top. Her number-one supporter-her father-is in prison for murder. 

Part murder mystery, part tale of young love in a military family, this gripping story takes readers on a journey from Pensacola to Annapolis. Leo and Audrey must band together to rise above the adversity they encounter and find their true selves in the process. When everything's on the line . . . streamline.

Detailed Review: When I just started this book, I couldn't help but notice this entourage between being perfect and being abused... Whoops! That just slipt. But anyway the story is about a boy called Leo Scott, like the blurb, Leo is perfect and has it all, he's a kid who is a complete perfectionist. As well as having the perfect girlfriend, Leo does have it all. As long as you don't do a background check... Between the perfectness of his outside life, his inside life is totally rotten. Adding to the equation, Leo's father, Commander James Scott -man of the household- has been abusing Leo since he was eleven. Wow, right? You can't imagine what it was like! 

Leo's father is part of the Navy -lost his parents, the usual- James has been teetering off the edge for the longest time. The world revolves around a few people plus his girlfriend, Audrey who loves Leo completely, she doesn't know about the bruises and cuts. During this dilemma, Leo is constantly fighting a drug abuse which he stole from his mother and next thing you knew, he's battling it, close to suiciding himself. This teen's got issues! Big ones! I particularly loved Audrey from the start. She was my favourite character in the book as well as Leo. Both of them were entirely compelling and richly compromised, these two were the ones with the burdens. Audrey...for her heart and Leo...for his ferocity, I loved these two. 

Well, at first you'll be thinking typical popular, good-looking, smart kid but instead he's got a trouble double life. He's got the worst. It was very sad but Audrey definitely kept him together and himself from falling apart. I didn't cry at this but I guarantee, it might make you! After his perfect life fell apart and almost suiciding himself, he goes to Audrey. The two of them slept with each other, not knowing abou anything but their love. In the next few days, you'll be screaming, alright? 

AUDREY BECAME PREGNANT. 

Yup, that sums it up. I was entirely shocked yet not. Well, we find out James, Leo's father finds out and beats him to-close to death- until he went unconscious. But during this James's gets arrested. He sprained his wrist and ankle and broke his spleen because they had to REMOVE it. Then Audrey lost the baby! It was so horrible! 

As the story moves on, Leo's frustrated because of the pain and the loss of not being able to swim. It soon falls when Leo suddenly decides to join the Navy after it all happens. He finds his father, complete with a beard and trashed house, Leo asks James to help him. Everything changes and soon the date's getting closer and closer. Yet I have to stop my rambling and just finish up, I loved this book so much!

'"We'll be the cleanest college freshmen around,"Audrey said. 

"Except I'm not a college freshman anymore." Leo sighed. "I have to figure out my life."

Audrey wove her fingers into his. 

"It's simple. You're getting an ROTC scholarship to Florida State. To swim with me." 

"I am?" 

"Of course, Mr Scott." 

A look of marvel bled into his wondrous smile as he squeezed her hand. "Yes, ma'am."' 

Well, I definitely recommend this book! It's absolutely great and I think it helps you understand what life really is about. How you can help someone in abuse-ment, how they actually feel. 

And most importantly: Who they really are. 

Brief Review: 'Loved it to the max, I was definitely pulled into Streamline and it's plot. Streamline was more than a book, it was a learning experience of what real life actually is and being who you are, it was an inspiring story.'

My Rating: 5/5  'Totally amazing!'

Your Reviewer: 

Waiting on Wednesday: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by US, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Title: Clockwork Princess

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Release Date: March 19th 2013

Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Danger intensifies for the Shadowhunters as the New York Times bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy comes to a close.

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it?

The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose.

Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment.

Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the final installment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.

Face it, that description is enough to get all of us jumpy waiting for this particular book. And that cover. It makes your heart cry. The dress, the clockwork angel. Who else could it be other than Tessa? She looks beautiful in that cover. In the final book of the Infernal Devices trilogy, anything could happen in there. So sit tight when you read this book to stop yourself from flying away in this ride.

Review: Rebel Heart by Moira Young

Title: Rebel Heart
Author: Moira Young
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Release Date: 30th October 2012 (first published 2nd August)
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: "Nothing is certain and no one is safe in the second book in the highly praised Dust Lands trilogy, which MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog called “better than The Hunger Games.”

It seemed so simple: Defeat the Tonton, rescue her kidnapped brother, Lugh, and then order would be restored to Saba’s world. Simplicity, however, has proved to be elusive. Now, Saba and her family travel west, headed for a better life and a longed-for reunion with Jack. But the fight for Lugh’s freedom has unleashed a new power in the dust lands, and a formidable new enemy is on the rise.

What is the truth about Jack? And how far will Saba go to get what she wants? In this much-anticipated follow-up to the riveting Blood Red Road, a fierce heroine finds herself at the crossroads of danger and destiny, betrayal and passion.

Detailed Review: Honestly, why must Moira Young spoil everything? But I must admit, she really did a good job. 

   The story starts from Jack's point of view. From the first book Blood Red Road, we know that he's headed to Molly Pratt to inform her about Ike's death. There, he meets two Tonton and the story gets cut off like that. 

   Then, the story goes back to Saba, showing where she left off in her journey to the Big Water. 

   I hated this part the most: JACK BECAME A TONTON.

   And even worse: DeMalo did it with Saba. Um...you know what I mean. I hope. I'm not going to write it out for you in capital letters.

    Lastly, also this: Saba's heartstone got warmer when she got nearer to DeMalo. And it did the same with Jack.

   And I'm sure you'll be wondering, just like me, who really is the person that Saba desires?

   You get to choose: DeMalo or Jack?

   But it all adds up to one big thing, Moira Young just made her best hit in this book. I'm sure that after you've read Blood Red Road you think that's the best she can do, but surprise! Here she comes with this sequel that will blow off everything you thought you knew about Saba and Jack. 

Brief Review:'An astounding sequel to Blood Red Road. Moira Young did her best here. It shook me until I was weak in the knees and had to lie down to read this book. This particular book is worth reviewing. And reading.'

My rating: 5/5  'Totally Amazing'

Your Reviewer: