Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Pivot Point by Kasie West (purchased)
• Split Second by Kasie West (purchased)
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (purchased)
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (purchased)
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (purchased)

My Book Depository order arrived (in five separate packages) this week. I’ve already dived in and finished Anna and the French Kiss in the past couple days. My review will be up Monday! As for the rest, I can’t decide on which to start next. I’ve got a few others I’ve been meaning to start, but Anna arrived and they got pushed back. I am looking forward to starting Pivot Point though, but I’m thinking staying on top of the library books I’ve got out is more pressing.

It’s my mum’s birthday this weekend, so I’m probably not going to get much reading done though. She’s coming to visit and hit the markets with me, so I’m busy doing some baking, baking…and more baking. A cream-cheese iced carrot cake is first on the agenda. It’s kind of a birthday tradition in my family. Anyway, I’d better get back to the kitchen!

Here are some of my latest posts if you want to check them out:
Carter, Ally Heist Society #2, Uncommon Criminals – Joey discovered his first case of Second-Book Syndrome.
Healey, Karen Guardian Of The Dead – I struggled a bit with this.

So, what books have you gotten lately? Which books would you recommend I read first? Let me know in the comments.

Title: Guardian Of The Dead
Author: Karen Healey
Published: August, 2010 by Little, Brown Books
Pages: 333
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school. She hangs out with her best friend Kevin, she obsesses over Mark, a cute and mysterious bad boy, and her biggest worry is her paper deadline.

But then everything changes. The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of serial killings that all share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie’s circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, “You need it. It will save your soul.” Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies, Māori mythology, romance, betrayal, and an epic battle for immortality.

Final Thoughts:
Admittedly, this wasn’t my favourite book. I liked the characters, even found myself letting out sharp bursts of laughter, but the plot dragged. It really felt like a chore getting through it. Being a standalone, I had expected this to be fast-paced, full of action from the get-go. Instead, we spent chapters upon chapters with the characters practicing for a university theatre production which really did nothing for the plot except in showing us how creepy one of the characters was. And with the lengthy, overly-descriptive chapters, it just kept leaving me with the feeling of wanting to put the book down and do something else.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott (purchased)
• The Girl With The Iron Touch by Kady Cross (purchased)
• The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa (purchased)
• Extras by Scott Westerfeld (purchased)
• Shadow Of The Mark by Leigh Fallon (purchased)
• The Temptation by Aubrey Clark (purchased)
• Blood Feud by Alyxandra Harvey (purchased)

I got a lot of J.R Ward books…a lot. I found these on eBay, $30 (incl. postage) for the lot. I had been wanting to get the Aussie covers, because, well, these covers aren’t really for me, but at that price I could forgo them looking pretty on my shelves. Here’s hoping I still enjoy the vampire series. It’s been a few years since I read the first two.

There’s a distinct purple-ness to my book haul this week. I finally decided to give in and get a copy of Heartbeat, adding it to my pile of contemporaries I want to check out this year. I haven’t been able to find a copy of The Girl In The Clockwork Collar in-store, but I’m going to keep trying. I picked up the third in the series in case it disappears in the mean time. Why is it so hard to find previous Harlequin releases in Australia once the next book in a series comes out? It’s exactly why I’ve been collecting Julie Kagawa’s books with each new release even though I haven’t even started this series yet.

The rest are some bargain books I picked up on the cheap in order to finish off or fill out missing places in series I’ve been collecting. I did read Blood Feud back in 2011, but I’m not sure what happened in it anymore. I recall a family of vampires, and…caves, maybe. I’m not sure. You can see it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. I’ve got books three and four on my shelves already, but I don’t think I’ll be getting around to them any time soon. I’m waiting on my TBD order to arrive with some other goodies I want to check out.

Here are some of my latest posts if you want to check them out:
LaFevers, Robin His Fair Assassin #1, Grave Mercy – Joey’s guest review.
Terrill, Cristin All Our Yesterdays #1, All Our Yesterdays – LOVED this!
Westerfeld, Scott Uglies #2, Pretties – Wasn’t for me.

That’s it for this time. So, what books have you gotten lately? Which of these books would you recommend I read first? Let me know in the comments.

Title: All Our Yesterdays (All Our Yesterdays #1)
Author: Cristin Terrill
Published: August, 2013 by Bloomsbury
Pages: 362
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Em is locked in a bare, cold cell with no comforts. Finn is in the cell next door. The Doctor is keeping them there until they tell him what he wants to know. Trouble is, what he wants to know hasn’t happened yet.

Em and Finn have a shared past, but no future unless they can find a way out. The present is torture – being kept apart, overhearing each other’s anguish as the Doctor relentlessly seeks answers. There’s no way back from here, to what they used to be, the world they used to know. Then Em finds a note in her cell which changes everything. It’s from her future self and contains some simple but very clear instructions. Em must travel back in time to avert a tragedy that’s about to unfold. Worse, she has to pursue and kill the boy she loves to change the future.

Final Thoughts:
Un-put-down-able, that’s what this book would have been had I not needed to work, eat or sleep. Every chance I got, I had this book in my hands, frantically trying to see how things would play out. The first page had me hooked, which was certainly a good sign. Some books you just trudge through, but this one had me actually wanting to read, just for the enjoyment of reading. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of time travel YA out there, so I usually jump on them whenever I spot one. And unlike Julie Cross’ Tempest, which was ‘Boy loves girl. Girl dies. Boy goes back to save her’, All Our Yesterdays shook things up with ‘Boy tortures girl. Girl hates boy. Girl goes back to kill him’.

Title: Pretties (Uglies #2)
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Published: November, 2005 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 368
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she’s completely popular. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.

But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something’s wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally’s ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what’s wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.

Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life — because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive.

Final Thoughts:
This started out SO slow. Set in New Pretty Town, I just couldn’t get into the characters. I got that their brains had been messed with, but it didn’t make for enjoyable reading. I mean, how many times can you listen to characters say ‘bubbly’ or ‘bogus’ before you want to hurl the book across the room? The pacing was just off for me. It was one of those books where you felt the need to put it down every 20 or so pages and go find something else to do. Of course, I got around that by forcing my way through it, but you shouldn’t have to do that. Luckily the second half picks up a bit.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (purchased)
• Backward Glass by David Lomax (purchased)
• Dark Heart Surrender by Lee Monroe (purchased)
• Spellcaster by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Steadfast by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Tiger’s Destiny by Colleen Houck (purchased)

I just realised my blog turned three this week. Wow, that time went fast. It’s hard to think back to a time before I was blogging, before I was reading. The two pretty much coincide with each other. I only started reading (things other than uni textbooks) about six months before I started this blog, before then, I was a tv-show-on-dvd addict.

So…onto the book buying. I did a bit of shopping all around the place this time. I picked up The Rook, Backward Glass and Spellcaster from my local bargin-bin shop. I’d been a bit on the fence about starting Claudia Gray’s latest series, but finding it for a couple dollars sealed that decision. Even if I don’t end up loving the books, it was worth it to have these beautiful covers on my shelves.

Dark Heart Surrender was another one of my online purchases. I found it cheap, and needed it to finish off the trilogy, so I thought I’d better snatch it up while the price was low. As for Tiger’s Destiny, I’m not a big fan of the covers, but I heard good things a couple–maybe a few–years back and decided to start collecting them. So now I just pick them up whenever I come across them. It’s another one of those ‘one day’ series for me.

Here are some of my latest posts if you want to check them out:
Asher, Jay & Mackler, Carolyn, The Future of Us – Loved this book!
Carter, Ally Heist Society #1, Heist Society – Joey’s guest review
Westerfeld, Scott Uglies #1, Uglies – Thought I should finally start this series

That’s it for this time. So, what books have you gotten lately? Which of these books would you recommend I read first? Let me know in the comments.

Title: The Future of Us
Author: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Published: November, 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Thanks: Simon & Schuster, AU
Pages: 356
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

It’s 1996 and very few high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented until several years in the future. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD. She and her best friend Josh power it up and log on – and discover themselves on Facebook in 2011. Everybody wonders what they’ll be like fifteen years in the future. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

Final Thoughts:
I wasn’t into contemporaries back in 2011 when I got given a copy of this at a Becca Fitzpatrick event that Simon & Schuster were hosting, so I’m glad I waited before finally jumping into it. Perhaps I’ve grown tired of paranormals, but it’s as if a switch has since flicked and I can’t get enough of these kinds of books. While this one does feature Time Travel by way of a computer, it’s done in a way that I’d still class this as a contemporary read. It’s full of romance, high school angst, hanging with friends, fretting over possible futures. Basically, it was a lot of fun. I didn’t want this one to end. The fact that it was a standalone made saying goodbye to the final page even harder.