Monday Update #3

So I think today is going to be a pretty boring, average day. When I woke up, I felt terrible. Not like sick or anything, but that feeling you get when you either didn't get enough sleep at all or you slept way too long. I think I had a bit of both, though, because I woke up several times last night and looked at the clock and I had only slept for about 30 minutes each time. Also, I didn't really wake up until around 12:30...which is pretty late so I just feel pretty groggy today.

The past week wasn't anything special. It was just an average week of doing basically the same stuff everyday. This week will probably be pretty routine as well. I never have any plans for the week because, well, I can't drive yet so I can't go anywhere. I actually drove twice the other day on some roads that I've never driven on before and I think I might be driving some later today if I can convince someone to go with me. I love driving. Especially in my car because it's small so it's a lot easier to drive. I tried to drive my mom's minivan home one day and it was extremely hard to get used to. Anyways, I can't wait to get my license and be able to go places all the time!

Remember how I said last week that I was in a bit of a reading slump? Yeah, that's still going on. I just can't get myself in the mood to sit down and read! It's really bothering me because I'm reading a book that I've really been enjoying, but every time I go to read it, I convince myself to do something else. I really don't know what to do to get back into reading.

So there's this little like reality TV show that I found on YouTube the other day and I've been obsessing over it. It's called Summer Break and it's so horrible that it's good! It's one of those things where you hate yourself for liking it. It basically just follows these teens around during their summer break. It's pretty much a show that you would find on MTV, which is weird that I like it because I don't even watch MTV. I'll admit that it's super addicting, though.

Oh my gosh I just realized that one week from tomorrow I'll be at the Parachute concert! I'm so excited! You would think by my level of excitement that this is my first concert, but it's not. My very first concert was in 5th grade and I went with my friend to see The Cheetah Girls. Hahaha, funny right? Also, a couple years ago I went to a concert that had a band called Oh No Fiasco, Shontelle, Owl City, We The Kings, and Train! I only went for WTK and Train, though.

I've also been on the hunt for a job. This will be my very first job, so I'm really nervous. I haven't applied anywhere yet, but I've found a few places I plan on applying. I don't want to work in fast food at all. I really want a retail job. If you're reading this and you've worked in retail or currently work in retail, what's it like?

Anyways, that's all for today's Monday Update! I apologize if it was boring...I seem to have a pretty boring life right now. Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful day and an even more wonderful week! :)

WWW Wednesdays! (August 14th)

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

To play along, simply answer the following 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 just started reading Near and Far by Nicole Williams. I'm not far into it at all, but I can already tell it's going to be good! I'm also still reading Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann. I don't know why it's taking me so long to get through a shorter book, but I had to put it down for a few days because it just wasn't really grabbing my attention.






What did you recently finish reading?

I finally finished The Promise by C.E. Wilson. I posted a review of it- you can see that here. 










What do you think you'll read next?

I'm thinking maybe Eve by Anna Carey. Or perhaps I'll read Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.

The Promise by C.E. Wilson

• Title: The Promise
• Author: C.E. Wilson
• My Rating: 3/5 Stars
• Format: Ebook

 

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

 I had never heard of this book until the author contacted me about it. After reading the synopsis, I wasn't too sure how I felt about it. It definitely seemed like something different from what I normally read, but I thought I'd give it a chance.

 The Promise is about a woman, Lily, who is diagnosed with an extremely rare disease. Lily is shrinking and no one seems to know why. Every single day Lily seems to shrink even more and her husband feels helpless because he doesn't know what to do to help her. When they visit their doctor, he doesn't know what to do to stop it. It seems as though no one has heard of a person shrinking before. Lily feels like she is losing everything and that she'll eventually shrink into nothing. All Lily and her husband can do is hope for the best at this point.

I enjoyed reading about Lily and the struggles that she faced even when trying to do normal, everyday things. I loved that Lily's husband's love for her was unconditional. He was there for her through everything, no matter what. He didn't care how small she was; he still loved her through it all.

I have to admit that Lily did get on my nerves sometimes. I understand that she wanted to be independent, but you have to let people help you sometimes. I didn't like how stubborn she was to admit that she needed help, even when her husband was extremely willing to help. Overall though, I did like Lily. She was a strong character and pretty likeable. I wish there would've been more depth to the characters, though.

The ending kind of shocked me, to be honest. I didn't expect things to end like that, but I can't say that I'm not happy about it. I liked the way it ended, but I think I would've liked it better if things went a different way. I'm a sucker for happily ever afters.

 I gave this book 3/5 stars because I enjoyed it, but there were some things that I felt were missing. I thought some parts of the story were repetitive and I wished the characters were more developed.

Favorite quote: "'That's my heart,' Erik replied. 'I want you to remember it. My heart beats for you, Lily, and no matter what happens...it always will.'"

Do I recommend this book? Sure! If it sounds interesting to you, go ahead and give it a chance! It's a fairly short read and I think you might enjoy it.

The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen (The Coincidence #2)

• Title: The Redemption of Callie & Kayden
• Author: Jessica Sorensen
• My Rating: 5/5 Stars
• Format: Ebook

I heard of The Redemption of Callie & Kayden through the first book in the series- The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (click here for my review). I have been patiently waiting for this book since I finished the first one. The first book ends in such a huge cliffhanger that I basically didn't know what to do with myself when I finished. There might be spoilers from the first book in this review, so beware.

The Redemption of Callie & Kayden picks up right were The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden left off. Kayden is in the hospital recovering from the tragic event that occurs at the end of the first book. Kayden is sent to a mental hospital because the doctors think that Kayden wounds were self-inflicted. He isn't allowed any visitors, besides family. Kayden has had huge problems with his father in the past, and his mother overlooks them. He feels like he has nothing left. He thinks that because of what happened, no one, including Callie, is going to talk to him ever again. That's where he's wrong.

Callie, her best friend Seth, and Kayden's best friend Luke all want to get Kayden out of that hospital and take him somewhere to get away from his problems for a while. When the three of them find out that Kayden is being released, they rush down to the hospital to surprise him with a road trip. Shockingly, Kayden basically ignores them and refuses to go on the trip with them.

Later in the book, they finally convince Kayden to go with them. They decide to head to the beach to have some fun. While they're there, they do have fun, but Callie and Kayden also open up to each other about their problems that they've been facing for years. They both help each other to deal with their issues and get better. Callie and Kayden decide that it's time to head back home to open up to others about the things that they've kept bottled up inside for a long time.

This book is filled with raw emotion, pain, friendship, love, and hope. It's one of those books that you can't stop thinking about, especially when you finish it. This is definitely a darker book because it deals with things that everyday people don't typically have to deal with, and that's one of the things that make this book so wonderful.

From start to finish this book had me sucked in. I absolutely love Callie and Kayden's relationship. They're always there for one another and they never give up on each other. The characters in The Redemption of Callie & Kayden were magnificent. They're still the same characters from the first book, but they're still just as awesome. Callie's best friend, Seth, always had me laughing. He's so funny that you wish for him to appear in almost every scene. Kayden's best friend, Luke, is awesome too. Even though he doesn't really say much, he's supportive of everyone and doesn't judge anyone. Luke has his own problems that he's trying to deal with, and I can't wait to read the book that's about him.

I think that The Redemption of Callie & Kayden deserves way more that 5 stars, to be honest. It's just a wonderful book and I can't stop gushing about it! I'm glad that Jessica Sorensen is writing The Resolution of Callie & Kayden, because I wasn't exactly happy with how this book ended. There has to be more to the story, and I'm glad that there is. I literally cannot praise this series enough. It might possibly be my favorite.

It was really hard to pick just one favorite quote from this book because there were so many, so I'll give you two!

Favorite quote (1): "Maybe if I try hard enough, we'll fall into each other and become one single person and we can share our pain instead of carrying it by ourselves."

Favorite quote (2): "'...Just tell me what you need to make you happy.' She looks me in the eye with tears streaming down her cheeks. 'You.'"

Do I recommend this book? 100%. It's an amazing book and the series is incredible. Definitely give it a chance. Even if you don't like romance books, still give it a chance because it is so much more than that.

Monday Update #2

To be completely honest, I haven't been up to much since last week and I don't really think there's much going on this week either. I've literally been doing nothing except school, reading, watching TV/movies, and playing video games.

I started school back up last Monday because I had taken a week off for vacation with my parents. It wasn't too hard to get back in the groove of things since it was only a week of not doing it. I have been slacking, though. I'm so bored with my economics class that I've been doing as little as possible every day, just to say that I did some school for the day. :P

I believe I'm in a reading slump again. I don't know why they're happening so often. Usually when I read a good book, it pulls me out of it but I guess that didn't happen this time. When I finished The Redemption of Callie & Kayden, I thought that I was for sure going to be wanting to read all the time because that was such a great book. However, I picked up a new book and only got to page 16 before I put it down and started doing something else. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to figure out some new methods of getting out of my reading slump.

I haven't been watching too much TV, but I have been watching some. My dad and I always record Burn Notice and Graceland and watch those shows on Fridays. They're such good shows and if you haven't watched them, you definitely should. My mom and I also watch Pretty Little Liars on Tuesdays- another good show! I actually haven't seen the very first season, but whatever...I know what going on. :P

 

My family usually watches at least one movie every Sunday. So, yesterday, we watched a movie called Firewall. It came out in 2006, but it was still a cool movie. And oh my gosh, you may think I'm weird for being overly excited about this, but I found The Breakfast Club on Netflix instant the other day! I've been keeping my eye out for when they finally decided to put it on there, and I was so excited when they did! I also found Titanic on Netflix instant. I feel super late to the party because I have never seen Titanic, but I'm going to watch it soon!

As for playing video games, there's only one that I've been playing and I'm obsessed with it. It's called Mafia II. I've already beat it once, probably about a year ago, but it's honestly such a good game that I could just play it over and over. It does have a lot of swearing, but what can you expect for a game about the mafia, right?

Oh, and where I live, school started back today. It feels so weird not to be going back, but it feels so great too. I feel like I have so much more freedom doing online school than I have in public school. I guess it's kind of bittersweet.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great weekend and here's too an ever greater week! :)

WWW Wednesdays! (August 7th)

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

To play along, simply answer the following 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 just started reading Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann, but I'm only a few pages into it. I'm also still reading The Promise by C.E. Wilson. Hopefully I'll have it finished by the end of the week.








What did you recently finish reading?

 I finished The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen last night. I'm so sad that it's over! :( I also finally finished Bloodlines by Richelle Mead a few days ago. You can see my review here. 








What do you think you'll read next?

I'll probably read Near and Far by Nicole Williams. Either that, or Never Too Far by Abbi Glines.

 

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #1)

• Title: Bloodlines
• Author: Richelle Mead
• My Rating: 5/5 Stars
• Format: Hardcover

 

I honestly don't even remember where or how I first heard about Bloodlines. I'm sure it was probably somewhere on GoodReads, since that seems to be where I find out about most books. I do remember wanting it so badly when I found out about it, though. I can't believe I kept putting off reading this because it was incredible. If you haven't read the Vampire Academy series, I don't think you should continue reading this review because I'm afraid I might spoil some things from that series.

Bloodlines is the first book in the Vampire Academy spin off series. If you've read the Vampire Academy books, then you've met the main character in this series. Her name is Sydney Sage and she's an Alchemist. Alchemists are the people who protect humans from the knowledge of vampires.

In Bloodlines, Sydney is woken up and told to get dressed for a meeting. The meeting is about being assigned a very important mission- to protect Jill Dragomir, the sister of the Moroi Queen. Sydney knows that this is her one chance to prove to the other Alchemists that she really is loyal to them, despite her past behaviors. Sydney is finally assigned to the mission and heads to Palm Springs, California to meet up with Jill and everyone else who decided to go with Jill.

While in Palm Springs, Jill, Sydney, and Eddie (Jill's guardian), pretend to be students at a private school to further protect Jill's identity. Tons of drama happens in and outside of the school. There are some mysterious things happening with the students that attend the school whenever they get these crazy tattoos, and Sydney is going to get to the bottom of it. Also, some other weird things are going on with Sydney's partner, Keith, and she intends to get to the bottom of that, too.

I loved this book from beginning to end. Although I really, really missed Rose's POV, I eventually got used to reading through Sydney's POV. I thought Sydney was pretty cool in the Vampire Academy series, but I loved her so much more in this. I loved that we got to see into her head and really understand her fear of vampires.

The characters in this book were great. Adrian Ivashkov is in Bloodlines, which just makes it even better. You definitely grow to love some of the new characters in this book, but watch out because some of them may not be who they say they are!

I actually think my favorite character might've been Micah, though. At first I was extremely skeptical of his intentions, but really he's just a genuinely nice guy.

I gave Bloodlines 5/5 stars because as I said before, I loved it from beginning to end. I would've finished it much sooner than I did if I hadn't been so busy with other things. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the ending of this book! I wouldn't really consider it a huge cliffhanger or anything, but the person who shows up in the end definitely has me excited for the next book! ;)

Favorite quote: "I decided the Alchemists needed an entire department devoted to handling Adrian Ivashkov."

Do I recommend this book? Definitely! But be sure to read the VA series first because you'll probably end up a little confused while reading this one if you don't.

Monday Update #1

I've been wanting to do an update post for the last few days, but wasn't really sure if anyone would be interested or not. Oh well, though. I'm gonna do it because I like to share exciting things that are happening in my life. I'm going to try my best to do these every Monday just to kind of update you guys on what I've been up to for the past week or so!

So, this past week I was on vacation with my parents. We didn't do anything extravagant; we just hung out around the house and went shopping, really. I got a few books, which I hauled yesterday. You can see that post here.

Also, my birthday was last Tuesday! I turned 17! Oh, and a few weeks ago, I got a car! I don't have my license yet, but I'm hoping to get it in October. I have been driving quite a bit lately. It's so much fun and I can't wait to be able to drive on my own. I have to get a job before I can get my license, though, because I have to pay for insurance. So basically, I have to get a job within the next two months. I'm not too thrilled about that, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Getting a car is a pretty exciting thing, but would it be crazy if I said I'm more excited to go to a concert this month? Well, call me crazy because I am so pumped to go to that concert. The band playing is called Parachute. You should definitely check them out because they're actually really good and I was shocked to find out they were coming to my city! There are two other bands playing as well, but I'm not too familiar with them. Anyways, I'm super excited and I can't wait! :)

 Here's a picture of them, if you were curious:

 For many people, school is starting back soon. I would be going back to school in like the next week or so (I think), but I started online school back before summer started. So technically, I was never out on summer break. I've been doing school (almost) every day of this summer, and I'm so close to graduating. I believe I've only got a few classes left to take, then I'm finished! For those of you who are starting school soon, good luck and make this year the best!

I'm sorry if this seems a bit rambly (is that even a word?), but keep in mind that this is just an update post and I was just typing as my thoughts came. Please give feedback on whether or not I should keep these posts up because if I feel like no one wants to see them, then I might as well not post them, right? If you want, you can tell me some stuff that has been going on in your life in the comments! I'm super nosy, so I like to hear about other people. Anyways, I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it! :)

Book Haul #2!

This is my second book haul! Yay!

 Over the past week, I've bought these books:

 

 

 

• The 1st book is Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann. I'm super excited to read this book because it sounds really interesting. Plus, I got it on sale for only $3.00 at Books A Million!
• The 2nd book is Eve by Anna Carey. I've heard great things about this book so I decided to get it. It was also on sale at Books A Million for only $3.97!
• The 3rd book is Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. I've been wanting this one for a while, and I finally got it for $4.97 at Books A Million!
• The 4th book is The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. I saw this one in someone's bookshelf tour on YouTube, but I didn't really think anything of it. Then, I saw it on the bargain shelf at Books A Million for only $3.97 so I decided to get it! I'm actually really excited to read it.
• Now we have the last book, The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen. I got it as an ebook from Barnes & Noble. I'm currently reading this one now, and I love it so much already. I have to admit that it's already made me tear up and I'm not even half way done with it. You can check out my review of the first book, The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden, here.

Let me know if you've read any of these and what you think of them! Also, if you know of any books you think I might like, tell me! :)