Live Chat with Lauren DeStefano on GR, Tue 19th

Join us on Tuesday, February 19th for a special discussion with author Lauren DeStefano! Lauren will be discussing her work, including her most recent book  Sever (The Chemical Garden #3)! 

[via Goodreads]

If you're a Fever fan and you'd like to chat with Lauren about her books, join the Chat Group on GR and prepare some questions for her! 

DNF: What We Saw At Night, by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Release Date: January 8th, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Soho Teen
Source: NetGalley

Overall: Did Not Finish

Categories: Contemporary, Thriller, Suspense

Goodreads 

Read in February 2013

Summary:

Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.” On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most.

My Opinion:

I've been dancing on this book for way too long, and have finally decided to put it to rest. 

After reading the blurb and one very promising review, I requested it from NG, but sadly, I found out that this book isn't right up my alley. 

The pacing was way too slow for my taste, I didn't get emotionally attached to any of its characters, and I felt like Jacquelyn took too much time setting the suspense in the story. Half way into it is not the right moment to start introducing the wow-ing factors. 

The romance fell flat to me too, I didn't feel that "Oh, they want to be together, awww" sense I like to get when I read romances. Juliet was annoying, and I didn't like that Allie didn't do anything to change that. I mean, here's a girl you call your best friend, acting like an idiot to you... I might not be as forgiving Allie was. 

The bad man, Blondie, appeared a couple of times in the first half of the book, and I was not even spooked by him.

All I got from this book is a little bit more knowledge about the illness XP, the allergy to the sun. 

It's too bad too, because the premise sounded so appealling, but the writing didn't do it for me. But hey, it might do it for you. Read some more reviews first. 

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1), by Rick Riordan

Release Date: April 1st, 2006
Age Group: Middle Grade
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Bought

Overall: 5 Monkeys

Interest: Series, Greek Mythology
Categories: Fantasy, Greek Mythology

Goodreads - Amazon- Rick Riordan's Website

Read in February 2013

Summary:

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

My Opinion:

Ever since watching the film, I've wanted to read this book. Now I have more bookish friends who love anything Riordan, so I thought it was time for me to read this. I started it yesterday morning and finished it just a little while ago. I haven't read a book that fast in a long while! 

A lot of people compare this book to Harry Potter and I guess now I see why. Percy is a 12-year-old boy who keeps experiencing weird things in his life, and is forced to go to a summer camp for demigods to learn  (among other things) how to stay alive. Another comparison I made was the fact that this book also featured a trio of MC's: Percy, Annabeth and Grover (much like Harry, Hermione and Ron). 

But apart from those little things, TLT is a book that stands on its own, and is packed with excitement, magic and Greek mythology, something a geek like me loves! (I'm placing this book under the MG category, but a YA fan can be just as enthralled by it.)

The first chapter alone is a mind-boggling one, that traps you right into the story. I think that is just what books today are lacking, the ability to grab your attention in just the first chapter; instead, they make you wait until the third, fourth chapter to let you know what's really going on. 

Percy's voice is so rich, and his way of talking to the reader flows beautifully off the pages. I know this is a book I'll be giving to my little brothers in their future birthdays. Every character is as tridimensional as Percy, they all have their quirks, and there are so many of them! I was fascinated by the way Riordan crafted so many people and never once lost me along the way. I knew just who everyone was, and I started feeling different emotions toward each of them.

I especially enjoyed the descriptions in this book, going from the Half-Blood Hill and its Camp for Half-Bloods, to the layout of NYC and Las Vegas, and finally, the Underworld and the Olympus. Everything was beautifully detailed; the film didn't do this book any justice. 

The Lightning Thief is going to my favourites shelf right away! 

What do you do when you have to hop between books because none grabs your attention?

Because that's where I'm at these days, people. I've got like 6 books laying open, and I just can't concentrate enough to actually sit down and finish them. 

One of my problems is that I want to read everything, and I want to read it NOW. I'm impatient like that. So  right now I'm reading -or trying to finish- Vanish by Sophie Jordan, What We Saw at Night by Jaquelyn Mitchard, Fate by Amanda Hocking, The Dead of Night by John Marsden, and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. (And I seriously want to start reading Beautiful Chaos by Margie Stohl and Kami Garcia.) 

Fate's Spanish cover

1. Vanish is the second novel in the Firelight series, and I liked Firelight enough to want to read this. But, reading it in Spanish is not helping me move on with it. I can't get emotionally attached to the characters, for some reason unknown to me. Like I said, I think the Spanish translation kills a lot of those emotions, but what can you do? An eighth -and no more- of the books I read come to my country in English, so I read what I can. (I have my Kindle now, so I can read more in English, but still, I'll take a printed book any day.)
2. What We Saw at Night had good reviews, so I requested it on NetGalley, but honestly, I'm not feeling it. I think it's taking too long to get into the thick of the action (I'm ten chapters in and I read just one wowing event.) The MC, Allie, falls too flat for me. I'll try and finish this, perhaps I'll change my mind.
3. Fate is the second book in the My Blood Approves series. I OK'd the first one, and this one seemed better, but it's going slow too. It's all about Alice and Jack; and Peter seems better than him even though he's not present in the book (yet). I'm having a hard time accepting all that goes on as fast as Alice. She's a lot like Twilight's Bella, always whining about not being a vampire yet. I mean, I thought she'd be different, this is supposed to be a great best-selling story!
4. The Dead of Night is one of the books I'm liking best, but I forgot it back in La Plata. So I have to wait a few more days to finish it. It's the second book in the Tomorrow series, and the first book is now a film, and a great one too! Highly recommendable books. 
5. The Lightning Thief I started today, and it's going great. I'm reading it faster than normal, and I have high hopes for this one. I've been told that the Percy Jackson series is like Harry Potter, so we'll see. 

OK, enough of my ranting, I'm off to try and read one of these.