Review: All Our Yesterdays by: Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays by: Cristin Terrill (2013)

360 pages

Genre: YA/Sci-Fi/Time Travel

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

My Review

So because I’ve waited so long to write this review after I read the book I’m having a hard time coming up with things to say even with my notes. Therefore, because of that little problem and since I don’t want to give away any spoilers I’m just going to break it down into a little list of what I did and didn’t like.

What I Liked

• It starts off strong. I got pulled into the story early on and I couldn’t climb back out, nor did I want to.
• I love the time travel. It’s done exceptionally in All Our Yesterdays!
• The author does an amazing job with the descriptions of pretty much everything and everyone. 
• Yes, yes, yes to all the action!
• The characters are rather unique and pretty memorable. The friendships, the crushes, and  the awkwardness is above par. All the characters are guaranteed to make you feel something toward them, but Finn is my favorite.

What I Didn't Like

• All Our Yesterdays was a tad bit confusing at times, but the ending was the most confusing. I may love time travel, but sometimes it can be frustrating.
• It was a little too predictable for the most part and pretty easy to guess what was coming, but given that I was fully shocked near the end made up for this.

I recommend this to anyone looking for a unique young adult novel, especially those of you who love time travel.

Review: Ketchup Clouds by: Annabel Pitcher

Ketchup Clouds by: Annabel Pitcher Dec. 2013)

251 pages

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Publisher: Orion

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: Secrets, romance, murder and lies: Zoe shares a terrible secret in a letter to a
stranger on death row in this second novel from the author of the bestselling debut, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece.

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.

My Review

This is not a cute story about a teen romance. This is a story about a girl who didn’t always make good choices and is living a lie, it is actually a pretty dark story. On the other hand, Ketchup Clouds does a good job at getting you to think about how you forgive yourself and others, and the importance of living life the best that you can, so it's also a darn good story.

I loved that Zoe’s story, past and present, is told through the letters she is writing to a person in prison who is on death row, someone who she feels a connection with. Zoe is matter of fact in her letters, harsh on the world and herself, but each letter is usually also filled with some much needed humor. The mystery in Ketchup Clouds of who has died and how Zoe is involved may have been a tiny bit obvious, but there were still some good twists that were shocking. I also loved that there are so many secrets going on between so many different people throughout the novel. I'm a huge fan of there being a lot of secrets in my books. One other aspect of Ketchup Clouds that I really found a liking to is Zoe's family, how her little sister is adorable, and how family is just as prominent in this story as Zoe’s love interests. Now I know I just said interests, plural, there is a love triangle of sorts, which is one of the reasons Zoe can come off as naive and kind of dumb at times, but I promise that it didn't keep me from really enjoying this book.

Wow, sorry for that jumbled mess of the above paragraph, I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts on this one. Get in the mood to read a darker young adult novel and emerge yourself in Ketchup Clouds, a unique novel that may not be perfect, but overall is a keeper. 

Library Loot #16

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

This week my library loot may be small, but I think it's pretty great!

My Library Loot

I've heard so many good things about this book! We shall see.

This may not be my favorite series, but I can't wait to read this.

Another adult book! Now I just need to read it.

The Bookish Report & A Quick Apology

Here are all of the top bookish stories, blog posts, pictures, and videos I found this past week. I put this post up every Sunday so come back again next week for more bookish awesomeness. 

** Sorry my posts have been few and far between these last two weeks. I picked up extra shifts at work and I got a really bad cold, which made it so I was either working, sleeping, or being lazy. I also apologize for taking forever to visit all of my lovely blogger friends' blogs and to respond to comments. Hopefully I'll be back doing all things blogging at full swing this week!

Click away and enjoy your Sunday!

News

I know Valentine's Day has come and gone but I thought you all deserve a very true post describing why books are better valentines than people.

Whether it is a first amendment right or not, why would people want to view pornography in a public library? Ummmm no.

source: thereadables.tumblr.com

If you are looking for something bookish that is aesthetically pleasing then see this list of 15 cool typography designs of your favorite literary quotes.

I have never heard of Booktrack and to be perfectly honest I'm not all that glad that I did. You can actually make sound affects to go along with a novel. Ummm... I would pass on this, I prefer reading my book in the quiet and immersing myself completely in the story. Booktrack claims that reading needs to be reinvented and this is the way to do it, having books that have a soundtrack and sound effects that go along with it. I don't know but this seems weird to me, and I like reading now as it is just fine. I guess this would be cool for kids, but other than that I just don't know.

Blog Posts

I think all/any books count toward your reading goals, but I don't think everyone does. Take a second to read Buckling Bookshelve's post on the topic, its a great read.

Simply because the infographics rock, okay so does the content, you need to check out Seriously Social! Survey, Infographic, and Giveaway over at The Book Addict's Guide. Hurry the giveaway ends today.

Did you know that a book series could be canceled? I guess that is a thing now. :(

If you have every wondered what are some different ways increase your blog readership then it can't hurt to read Parajunkee's Ten Quick Tips to Increase Your Blog Readership.

Instead of flooding this section with all the different interesting Valentine's Day posts on the blogosphere this year I decided to choose just one, which was very hard to do. I went with Read My Breath Away's post that has young adult authors writing funny poems and cute little vanlentines messages from their main characters' point of view from their books. Sorry about the word jumble description of the post, just read the post already. 

Picture

A Valentine's Tribute to My Husband (How He Understands & Supports My Love of Books)

So it's Valentine's Day and I wanted to do some kind of love themed post, and then I realized that there are already plenty of posts out there this week that are full of Valentine's Day reading suggestions and I don't think I even read enough romance novels to make a well done and thorough list on my own anyway, so I'm skipping that. Therefore, If you are looking for some check out Epic Reads' list of contemporary young adult romantic reads.

Instead I have decided to share with you a little bit about my husband. It's kind of a Valentine's Day Surprise for him. :D My husband and I don't overly celebrate Valentine's Day, but we do recognize it and I had the sudden urge to share with you the bookish ways my husband manages to rock my world. Now, my husband isn't perfect, (he sometimes leaves the toilet seat up, he can be really messy, among other small things) but in the end I love him, he is my everything and he is really good to me. I very rarely get personal on my blog and besides random mentions I never really talk about my husband. Just to spice things up for one day I decided to do something just a little different. So here it goes...(This is not a full list. I'm sure there are more things he does but I can't think of them right now, I blame it on my cold.)

A Valentine's Tribute to My Husband (How He Understands & Supports My Love of Books)

1. He buys me bookish gifts all the time for everything. Even when he gets me mainly other gifts for a special occasion that cater to my other needs, such as children movies, he always manages to give me a small bookish gift as well, such as a reader gift card, or a bookmark, something to make this bookish girl smile.

2. He lets me talk to him about books...ones he hasn't even read and never plans to and are in no way close to what he likes to read. Whether I need to gush or rant he is always a willing listener.

3. He holds me when I cry after reading a very emotional book. He doesn't judge or question (although he does occasionally, okay usually, chuckle at me) he just lets me sit on his lap and he strokes my hair while I blubber away.

4. If I need someone to go see a book to movie adaptation with me at midnight... he is always there, even if he works the next day. (Seriously he even did this for me for a Twilight movie when my girlfriends couldn't make it, that is real love people!)

5. When we are out running errands, which are normally no fun, he occasional surprises me with a visit to...you guessed it...a book store! I don't even have to ask or request it. He is the best.

6. He never (unless it is an emergency) bothers me while I am reading. Now at first he did, but once he learned I would bite his head off he stopped and now respects my need to read uninterrupted.

7. He took me to Harry Potter World at Universal for our honeymoon. Yup, I guess I'll keep him.

Thanks for hanging in there with me while I talked your ear off about my husband. Whether you are curling up with your husband, best friend, fiance, boyfriend, family member, dog, book boyfriend, or are single and proud, I am wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!

If you haven't found a guy/girl like this yet I hope you do. I don't believe he/she has to love books as much as you do (like that's possible, ha) but they need to support or at least respect your bookishness. Keeping my fingers crossed for all my friends out there to find their special someone. (Not that you need one, but if you want one.)

Review: Two Boys Kissing by: David Levithan

Two Boys Kissing by: David Levithan (2013)

208 pages

Genre:            

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: New York Times bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

My Review

I will tell you right now, this review of Two Boys Kissing isn’t so much a review as it is me gushing about its awesomeness and sharing why it hit so close to home for me, and obviously me trying to get you to read it. 

Every teen should read Two Boys Kissing. Sure it may be little graphic and have some coarse language, but I’m sure teens have heard/seen worse in movies or from their peers. Two Boys Kissing broke my heart and put it back together, multiple times. I was moved in a way that I didn’t think possible. Sure I have been moved by books before, but this was different. I looked back over the notes I wrote while reading Two Boys Kissing and this was all it said, “love the narration, heart breaking, heartwarming, very emotional, SO MANY FEELS.”

Oh and in case you overlooked this in the synopsis, I will give you a heads up that this is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS, and it was amazing. This unique narration really made the book that much more amazing and powerful. Every single character in Two Boys Kissing will leave a lasting impression on you.  Every single moment in this book holds significance, even if you think it doesn’t. I cheered on those two boys kissing, sending them good thoughts in their battle to beat the world record even though they are fictional (although they are based off of real people). I was that invested in this book.

Now in case you haven't noticed yet, I am obviously pro-gay rights equality, because gay people are the same as everyone else, and no, being gay isn't a choice. Is being straight a choice? Nope. I also want you to know that I have a family member who is gay, which may be why this book affected me so much, but even if I didn't know someone who was gay I would still be their ally.  Anyway, I felt like you should know a little bit about my views so you can better understand why I loved this book so much. I can hope that if people who aren't pro - gay marriage equality or anything like that do for some reason read this book, that it will at least get them to really think about the topic. In the end, all I really want to say is this... read Two Boys Kissing. If you are a teen, read it. If you are an adult, read it. If you are a human, read it. Not to mention that Two Boys Kissing would also be a great book to read and discuss for a book club. Did I mention that if you haven’t read this book yet you should?

Library Loot #15

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

Another good book haul if I do say so myself. Now if only I had more time to read all of the books!

My Library Loot

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Cress as soon as the library got some in.

I've heard these are good and they are adult books, which I want to read more of.

The reviews for this book are all over the place, but I have decided to try it out for myself. 

Not only have I heard good things about this book, but I enjoyed this author's other book, Pivot Point.

Review: Defiance by: C.J. Redwine

Defiance (#1) by: C.J. Redwine (2012)

403 pages

Genre: YA/Dystopian/Fantasy?

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city's brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses, host dinner parties, and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father's apprentice, Logan--the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city's top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor's impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can't be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

My Review

Defiance is… well I’m not sure. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t all that good either, at least not to me. If you noticed under my genre listing at the top I added a question mark, because frankly I have no idea what genre this book is. I didn’t get a sense of the time period, I think it takes place in the future from little things that are mentioned, but I’m not sure because there is like a dragon type creature in it and there aren't any cars or cell phones. I think it is in the future though because of a bad war or whatever, therefore they had to revert to the old ways of doing things, I believe they mentioned something about running out of natural resources, but I can’t be too sure. Obviously I don’t know and you should probably just ignore this paragraph of my review all together.

I loved that this book had dual point of views between Rachel and Logan. I'm all about getting inside both the female and male minds of a romance. I really liked Logan and how good he was at technology things. I didn’t like Rachel all that much, she rubbed me the wrong way, and was sometimes just idiotic. Oh and although this doesn’t have to do with the characters that much, I want to point out that they tree-jump, like monkeys, it is weird, and I don’t know how or why they started doing this. Okay, maybe I just need more history on this world Redwine created and I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. The Commander is the evil villain in Defiance, and although he is down right evil and creepy, he wasn’t very complex, at least not that we know of as of the first book.

There were some good action scenes, but nothing epic until the end of the novel where it was just a flurry of activity, which I did enjoy.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like Defiance but there wasn’t anything too outstanding about it. I would have liked it better if it had some strong world building. I guess that was my main issue with the book. I notice a lot of people really like this series though, so don’t let my review stop you from reading it. 

The Bookish Report

Here are all of the top bookish stories, blog posts, pictures, and videos I found this past week. I put this post up every Sunday so come back again next week for more bookish awesomeness. 

Click away and enjoy your Sunday!

News

This article on reading books to shelter dogs will make you smile and make you want to read to your pet. To put it simply, it is just really cool. 

I was a huge Berenstain Bears fan when I was younger and I learned so many good lesson from those books. Therefore If All Adults Reread 'The Berenstain Bears,' The World Would Be A Much Better Place is an article you don't want to miss. It makes me want to reread the books, and keep in mind that whenever I have children these books will be on their shelves. 

Source: Terry Border

Out of the 14 paperbacks that are reenacting their own plots Dracula, The Hobbit, and The War of the Worlds were my favorites. What are your favorites?

At only 13 years old this girl has collected over a million books to give to those in need. Wow, she is awesome.

After thinking about it for a long time J.K. Rowling says that she thinks Harry and Hermione should have ended up together. What?!?! It's all in the past so why bring this up now and make the fans go just a little crazy?

Blog Post

Inspiring Insomnia wrote a very fun and interesting post about her new desk calendar. Okay, I just realized that doesn't sound very fun, but it is because it is a calendar for book lovers and she created a great system to find new books to add to her TBR pile by using the calendar. I want one of these calendars now. No joke.

Photos

Hilarious. True.

What do you think of the first 50 Shades of Grey poster? I think it's actually pretty good, I like the approach they ended up taking. (one where people have clothes on)

Video

I know you have probably already watched it, but I had to share the first trailer for The Fault In Our Stars. What do you think? I may or may not have gotten teary eyed.