Title: Misfit
Author: Jon Skovron
Published: August, 2011 by Amulet Books
Thanks: Abrams via NetGalley
Pages: 384
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Jael has always felt like a freak. She’s never kissed a boy, she never knew her mom, and her dad’s always been superstrict—but that’s probably because her mom was a demon, which makes Jael half demon and most definitely not a normal sophomore girl. On her sixteenth birthday, a mysterious present unlocks her family’s dangerous history and Jael’s untapped potential.

What was merely an embarrassing secret before becomes a terrifying reality. Jael must learn to master her demon side in order to take on a vindictive Duke of Hell while also dealing with a twisted priest, best-friend drama, and a spacey blond skater boy who may have hidden depths.

Final Thoughts:
From the minute I found out this was a young adult book about demons, I knew I had to read it. Usually they’re portrayed in a negative light as the big evil that often needs to be destroyed. I don’t have a problem with those kinds either, in fact I love Sam and Dean’s demon hunting antics on Supernatural. But here we’re met with Jael, the daughter of a demonic succubus and a mortal priest-in-training. Great combination, right? I thought so. Religion plays a part throughout this story, but it’s not done in a way as to shove it down your throat.

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, which allows bloggers to share what books they’ve received in the past week. They can be from stores, contests, tours or publishers!

• Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready (won)
• Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles (won)
• Darkhouse by Karina Halle (thanks to Author)
• Red Fox by Karina Halle (thanks to Author)
• Playing With Fire by Katie MacAlister (purchased)
• Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev (purchased)
• Flip by Martyn Bedford (purchased)
• The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn (thanks to Publishers)
• All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin (thanks to Publishers)

The only one I actually bought this week was Flip, which I picked up while at the Maria V. Snyder signing in Brisbane. It has an interesting cover, if you flip it upside down, it has the cover model with his eyes open on the back and the barcode is actually on the spine. I ordered Eyes Like Stars a couple weeks ago from Book Depository and Playing With Fire is one my mother brought home from the grocery store because she thought I might like it – Thanks Mum. Thanks to Nina from Death Books and Tea for Shade and Perfect Chemistry, I can’t wait to get into those two. Also thanks to Karina Halle for sending me her first two books, I’ll start Darkhouse soon. Plus, another thanks to the people at Pan Macmillan for sending me the last two books in the photo. I plan on reading All These Things I’ve Done this week. I actually prefer the Australian cover over the white one with the chocolate heart.

Here are my reviews from the past week:
Kate, Lauren Fallen #3, Passion

Link up to your mailbox and I’ll be sure to check it out!

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, where people spread the book love by following around the blogosphere! The featured blogs this week are Teen Fiction Centre and Steph Likes Books, and this week’s question is:
How has your reading habits changed since you were a teen? or If you are still a teen what new genres are you in love with currently?

As a teen, the only things I read were the books we got assigned at high school and even then, I’d try and read as little as possible and just get the essay over and done with. School really doesn’t make reading fun. I think around age 11 or 12 (the tween years) I was reading the occasional TV tie-in book because I loved Charmed and wanted more of it in between episodes. The only other books I read as a teen were the Twilight series, and I thought they were amazing at the time, but really I had nothing to compare them to.

It wasn’t until around January this year that I got back into reading and realised what I’d been missing. So now I’m verging on 22, and I’m addicted to books. I’ve bought about 120 of them since January. I love the vampire genre, whether they be good, evil or confused. Urban fantasy always seems to attract me too, especially Sarah Rees Brennan’s Demon’s Lexicon trilogy. If I had to survive with only one book for the rest of my life, it would be that one. I love me some Nick Ryves, best character ever.

Title: Passion (Fallen #3)
Author: Lauren Kate
Published: June, 2011 by Delacorte Press
Pages: 420
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Luce would die for Daniel.

And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Final Thoughts:
This is the book that ups the stakes, changing the series from one filled with high school angst to a time-traveling, epic love story. Okay, so that might sound a bit cheesy, but really, the route Passion takes was a lot more enjoyable for me than the first two books. I enjoyed the prison-like boarding school in Fallen, but when Torment virtually retconned itself, starting Luce all alone at another new school, that’s when I got annoyed. Thankfully, this time around, there are no schools or the politics that go along with them in sight.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read and share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

I’m almost half way through this and I’m finding it really repetitive. I like the plot that this one’s going with, but something new really needs to happen soon.

Luce waited for his wings to unfurl. She waited for the soft thunder of their grand unfolding, opening wide and catching the air in awesome glory. She’d seen him take flight like this in the past, and every time, it struck her to her core: How desperately she loved him. But Daniel’s wings never shot out from his back.

– Passion by Lauren Kate, page 188.
Published in June, 2011 by Delacorte Press.

We had to travel three hours to Brisbane today for the Maria V. Snyder signing, yet I stayed up until 3am for the IMM posts, not a great combination. Luckily Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books) came over and picked me up for the trip. The signing was at 5:30pm so we had plenty of time to waste. We set about finding the discount book store we went to after the Rachel Caine signing in May. Unfortunately, it must be invisible or something. We practically walked from Queen St to the Valley looking for it, but it was just gone. We couldn’t even find the building it was in in case it had moved. Needless to say, our feet, legs, ankles, lungs… everything was sore. We obviously don’t exercise enough. Giving up, we just went to the book sections at Big W and Target before heading over to Dymocks for the signing.

While we were waiting for the 5:30pm start, Maria lounged around in the store near the registers. Some authors are cool like that. We decided to take our seats early, and lucky we did, heaps of people ended up standing down the back during her talk. Maria had a chat for about half an hour, giving us a lot of anecdotes on all of her escapades she went through when researching for her books. She really gets involved with everything she does, making sure she gets the details right.

I have to say, Maria is one hilarious public speaker. She kept us in stitches with all of her sarcastic quips, it definitely made the talk fun. If you can, try and make it to one of her signings. You won’t regret it.

At the end, Maria took the time to sign our books. We were lucky to be near the front of the line, some people had brought huge stacks with them. I only had the two Insider books myself. I also picked up a couple bookmarks while I was there too.

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, which allows bloggers to share what books they’ve received in the past week. They can be from stores, contests, tours or publishers!

• Supernaturally by Kiersten White (purchased)
• Elixir by Hilary Duff (purchased)
• Stargazer by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Hourglass by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Afterlife by Claudia Gray (purchased)
• Need by Carrie Jones (purchased)
• Captivate by Carrie Jones (purchased)
• Dark Heart Forever by Lee Monroe (purchased)
• Dark Heart Rising by Lee Monroe (purchased)
• Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (purchased)
• Claire De Lune by Christine Johnson (purchased)
• Heist Society by Ally Carter (purchased)
• Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (purchased)
• Outside In by Maria V. Snyder (purchased)
• Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck (purchased)
• Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck (purchased)
• Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (purchased)
• Passion by Lauren Kate (purchased)
• Pride by Rachel Vincent (purchased)
• Alpha by Rachel Vincent (purchased)
• Days Like This by Alison Stewart (purchased)
• The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (purchased)

My favourite purchase this week is my Charmed Book Of Shadows, plus the lectern, I had to get that as well, otherwise the book would just sit in my cupboard. The Book was released back in ’07, but was discontinued before I got around to buying one, so when it randomly popped up in the Big W catalogue after so many years, and for half the original RRP, I had to get one. It has some of the original artwork from the book used in the tv show, plus the dvds from all eight seasons, stuck to holders on the pages. Now onto the fiction books. Looking at them all spread out like this, it makes me realise how bad my spending got this week. Some were cheap though. Heist Society was only $1.20, so I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve already read five of these books, but that still leaves heaps to read. I’ve been trying to track down Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series. While I was in Brisbane for the Lauren Kate signing on Saturday, I tried thirteen stores and only managed to come across a lone copy of Pride in one of them. Alpha, only just released here in Australia, was a lot easier to find. I’ll keep my eye out for the rest of them. I can’t wait to start Trial By Fire, I really loved the first book. I want to start Maggie Stiefvater books soon too, but Amazon shipped Linger to me before Shiver. There’s so many there, that I’m not going discuss the rest. If there’s one there you think I should get to sooner rather than later, let me know.

Here are my reviews from the past two weeks:
Davies, Jocelyn A Beautiful Dark #1, A Beautiful Dark
Kate, Lauren Fallen #1, Fallen
Kate, Lauren Fallen #2, Torment
Vincent, Rachel Soul Screamers #3, My Soul To Keep
Vincent, Rachel Soul Screamers #4, My Soul To Steal

Link up to your mailbox and I’ll be sure to check it out!