WWW Wednesday (Feb. 26)

WWW Wednesday is a book blogging meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.Hop over to her site to check it out :)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I'm currently reading Everlasting Bond by Christine Besze, a book I received free in exchange for an honest review. I haven't gotten that far into the story yet but I'm enjoying it so far!

KATRINA DAVENPORT’S Junior year at Morgan Springs High starts off like any other—boring and routine. Little does she know, fate has other plans. COLE ALDRICH—a mysteriously attractive new addition has arrived and will change everything. Katrina's world is turned upside down, as secrets are revealed and the past comes back to find her. Will she succumb to her destiny or live to fight it?

 • What did you recently finish reading?
I just recently finished Darkness Watching by Emma L. Adams. The review's coming up soon! All I can say
is that it was definitely more engaging and enjoyable than I initially expected. I didn't think I would be reeled in with something with so little romance (i'm a sucker for romance!) but it really did work well with the entire story.

Eighteen-year-old Ashlyn is one interview away from her future when she first sees the demons. She thinks she's losing her mind, but the truth is far more frightening: she can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits– and the darkness is staring back. Desperate to escape the demons, Ash accepts a place at a university in the small town of Blackstone, in the middle of nowhere - little knowing that it isn't coincidence that led her there but the pull of the Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world. All-night parties, new friendships and a life without rules or limits are all part of the package of student life - but demons never give up, and their focus on Ash has attracted the attention of every sorcerer in the area. Ash is soon caught between her new life and a group of other students with a connection to the Darkworld, who could offer the answers she's looking for. The demons want something from her, and someone is determined to kill her before she can find out what it is. In a world where darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be...

• What do you think you’ll read next?

 I'm gonna finish the week off with Breathless by Cerys du Lys, something that I've been looking forward to
all week. The cover really reeled me in! I don't really read anything that involved zombies and i'm glad to start with this one!

Sadie and Evan live in entirely different worlds. Brought together by fate, and held there by hope, can they bridge the gap dividing humanity, or will long held fears and prejudice force them apart forever?

Top Ten Tuesday: Baby Names! (Feb. 25)

Top Ten Tuesday is a book blog meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Please click here to read more about it and join in :)

February 25: Top Ten Tuesday REWIND! (Pick from previous topics that you want to do again or may have missed)

Characters (and Literary Figures) That I'd Name My Children After

This seems like a fun topic so i picked it :) It may be possible that my future baby will have an "old person" name but I just can't help it.  I didn't base these names on their characters, I just really like the sound of them, if anything.

Girl Names

1. Alice - Because I absolutely adore Alice in Wonderland
2. Aurora - Sophisticated and comes from my favourite fairytales.
3. Daisy - I'm a sucker for names based on flowers and Daisy Buchanan was a pretty charming lady. 
4. Luna - Luna Lovegood from HP has always been a favourite character of mine!
5. Daenerys - Not to bandwagon with the rising number of baby "Khaleesi's". It's also such a beautiful and unique name. 

Boy Names

1. Beckett - From Samuel Beckett. It's unique and sophisticated. 
2. Erik - I've always had a "name crush" with this name for so long and it's a very common character name. 
3. Charles - From Charles Dickens (or any other Charles, really) It's a headstrong name for me. 
4. William - Elegant and classic name. So many literary greats are named William!
5. Marcellus - Probably the oldest sounding name on my list, but I love the uniqueness and the reference to a modern name in it "Marcel". 

(Review) Taking The Reins (The Rosewoods, #1) - Katrina Abbott

Title: Taking The Reins (The Rosewoods, #1)
Author: Katrina Abbott

Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary, Romance)

Format: ebook
Publisher: Over The Cliff Publishing
Date Published: January 28, 2014

Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads)

Brooklyn Prescott (if that’s even her real name) is the new girl at The Rosewood Academy for Academic Excellence, now that she’s moved back to the States after two years living in London. Rosewood, a boarding school for children of the rich and famous and known for its celebutantes, is missing just one element important to any junior’s education: boys. But luckily for Brooklyn, and the rest of the Rosewood girls, there’s a boys’ boarding school, The Westwood Academy, just a few miles away.
On her very first day, Brooklyn meets Will, a gorgeous and flirty boy on campus to help with move in. But is he who she thinks he is? And what about Brady, the cute stable boy? Or Jared, the former child actor with his grown-up good looks who can always make her laugh? As Brooklyn settles in at Rosewood, she’s faced with new friends, new challenges and new opportunities to make herself into the girl she always wanted to be. Whoever that might be.
Taking The Reins is the first installment of The Rosewoods, an exciting new Young Adult series for readers who love fun, flirty love stories.

Review:

I received an ebook copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Taking The Reins tells the story of a recently-moved Brooklyn Prescott to an all-girls school. I actually really like the light-hearted way the story was told. Nothing too provocative or complex, just a really good, world-building, introductory book that would serve really well as a springboard for more complex issues. The story itself has some really good points but at times I felt it lacked some depth, but it really just fitted well with the simplistic feel of the story. 

Brooklyn's journey into the well-cushioned world of celebrities and wealthy teens started off pretty mild - room mixups, troublesome schedules, mean deans and liking the wrong boy? Yeah, I didn't really see the last one coming but I'm glad the story didn't go off too complicated with that plot because that would've ruined it for me. She and Emmie has such a good friendship and it would've been sad if they had boy issues so early in the story. 

The abundance of characters introduced so quickly into the story threw me off a little bit but it was understandable, we'd want to hear about them early to get to know them one by one. I'm really glad the author has given each character their appropriate screen time and that each one was given a distinct personality. The girls were pretty decent ladies themselves, i'm really glad no one was being snobby and creating unneccesarry drama. As for the boys, the whole thing seemed a little too "dating game" at the dance part but there couldn't have been a better way to introduce them all. I'm really rooting for Brady right now although he maintains to be an enigmatic character still. 

I enjoyed the story for what it was, nothing too complicated and intense for an introductory book. I recommend it for anyone wanting a relaxing, light right. 

Rating: ♚♚♚♚

Making Up For Monday (Feb. 24)

Making Up For Monday is hosted by An Avid Reader, A Wannabe Writer. Click on the link to learn more!

What classic shouldn't be a classic in your opinion?

I can't really think of any reason why a classic shouldn't be considered a "classic", maybe because I think each piece has it's own unique contribution to a specific niche. If i am to go out of a limb here, it'd probably be one of those classics that endorse or romanticize socially outdated/unhealthy norms. It's okay, I guess, for them to be points of study in history but as a compass for living, not so much.

(Review) Perfect Opposite - Zoya Tessi

Title: Perfect Opposite
Author: Zoya Tessi
Format: finished copy, epub
Genre: New Adult (Contemporary, Romance)
Pages: 263 pages
Date Published: January 1, 2014
Amazon 

Summary (from Goodreads)

Their wishes were simple and modest. Fate had other things in store though, and she can be a real bitch sometimes.

All he wanted was to get the job done and somehow to endure those long months playing nanny to a spoiled little rich girl. Without strangling her with his bare hands in the process. Well, it is going to be much easier said than done.

- All she wanted was to escape the past and live like any other nineteen-year-old girl. Her plan definitely didn’t include the arrogant, tattooed savage, with his awful mohawk hair and lack of social graces, whose only mission was to stick real close and mess up her life.

But, people aren't always what they seem to be, are they?

Review: 

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The moment I read through the first chapter I had my doubts whether I would like the story or not. Sasha came off as a little brat to me at first, but that was before I really understood the gravity of her situation. At a young age, Sasha has been exposed to the dark underbelly of the arms and weapons world all thanks to his father who happens to be a big arms dealer. Let's not even go to the reason why she gets panic attacks during thunderstorms. After learning of this, I really started to get attached to her. I can only imagine how difficult it was to just desperately get away from it all and still try to keep as much sanity and normality as possible. 

Then in comes Alex, an enigmatic personality who was tasked to be Sasha's bodyguard/nanny after some complications with her father's job happened. At this point, i thought "Wow this would be incredibly cliche if they started to hate each other to the bone" and then I realized, so what if it was cliche? If I was enjoying what was left of my freedom one day and then all of a sudden my absentee father tells me I have to walk around with a stranger, i'd be fuming mad too. 

Overall, the story had it's ups and downs but I thoroughly enjoyed the story so much I overlooked and forgot so many things that I wanted to nitpick. It had everything a good chick lit had. I loved the humor, especially the match of wits between Sasha and Alex. Some of their matches had me in fits! It had the appropriate amount of drama and romance to really reel you in to the story.

One thing I cannot overlook though is the somewhat broken moral compass that Sasha seems to have when it came to dating. For some reason, it was easier for her to forgive what Alex has done but cannot even give Tyler a break? Cheating of course is completely unforgivable and perhaps it's more on the line of Tyler's approach towards the issue but I figured lying about your identity and hiding out for months and making people think you are dead is also up on the scale of "unforgivable" things. I guess in the end, Sasha really did love Alex. Love makes you do things you never expected of yourself. I really love the anecdotes the characters express in the story. It gave them more depth and personality, another dimension to them rather than just two dimensional characters. 

Another thing is that as much as I loved the world-building, I couldn't tell where the story is set. Other than that, I really loved the story. It's a fun, romantic read to dip your feet into and I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from Zoya Tessi. 

Rating: ♚♚♚♚♚