My First Blog Award!

I am completely thrilled and honored... I received my first blog award from the lovely Elizabeth of Swords for Fighting! To accept the Sunshine Award, you must link to the person who awarded it to you and then pass it on to twelve deserving bloggers. So here goes!

1. Lena of Addicted2Novels

2. Alaine of Queen of Happy Endings

3. Tiger of All-Consuming Books: Reviews by Tiger

4. Book Crazy Jenn of Book Crazy

5. Sarah of Book Reviews from Inside an Igloo

6. Cherry of Cherry Mischievous

7. Amanda Leigh of Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chick

8. Pixie of Page Turners

9. Jennifer of Reading with Tequila

10. Rhiana of Rhiana Reads...

11. Mavie of The Bookologist

12. Taylor of The Library Lurker

All of your blogs bring some sunshine into my day... *XOXO*

In My Mailbox (#6)

In My Mailbox (IMM) is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. Here are books I've either won, been given, or bought this past week:

Won:
The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy from my BFF and brain twin, the lovely LENA!

Bought:
Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
Mistwood by Leah Cypess
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
Hush by Kate White

I went a little crazy in Barnes and Noble this week, hehe. I'm trying to look shameful, but can't seem to manage it. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into some of these! *squee* What did you get this week? Leave me a link and I'll check it out! Happy Reading! *XOXO*

*REVIEW* Burned

Synopsis:

When friends stop trusting each other, Darkness is there to fan the flames….

Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird’s soul has shattered. With everything she’s ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey’s fading fast. It’s seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her. But how? He will have to die to do so, the Vampyre High Council stipulates. And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left…

Enter BFF Stevie Rae. She wants to help Z but she has massive problems of her own. The rogue Red Fledglings are acting up, and this time not even Stevie Rae can protect them from the consequences. Her kinda boyfriend, Dallas, is sweet but too nosy for his own good. The truth is, Stevie Rae’s hiding a secret that might be the key to getting Zoey home but also threatens to explode her whole world.

In the middle of the whole mess is Aphrodite: ex-Fledgling, trust-fund baby, total hag from Hell (and proud of it). She’s always been blessed (if you could call it that) with visions that can reveal the future, but now it seems Nyx has decided to speak through her with the goddess’s own voice, whether she wants it or not. Aphrodite’s loyalty can swing a lot of different ways, but right now Zoey’s fate hangs in the balance.

Three girls… playing with fire… if they don’t watch out, everyone will get Burned.

I absolutely adored this book! I don't think I had realized how much I had been missing the House of Night Series until I started reading it. This latest installment contains the same elements that make the other House of Night books so good: Drama, intrigue, loyalty, friendship, sacrifice, and love. You will definitely find yourself unable to put this book down!

The book picks up where the events of Tempted left us off. Zoey's soul has been shattered and she is trapped in the Otherworld, while Stevie Rae has imprinted with Rephaim, the big baddie of the Raven Mockers. The story switches between several POV's, giving us a broader picture of all that is going on in the House of Night world.

The amazing things about this book: The romance. Stark is swoon-worthy, risking everything to travel to the Otherworld to save Zoey. Heath performs an act of bravery, doing something extremely difficult, but necessary, to save not only Zoey, but the entire world. And then there's Rephaim. Watching him and Stevie Rae figure out their bond and feelings for one another is one of the true gems of this book. You find yourself falling for Rephaim and wanting to see only the good that is inside of him.

More goods: The friendships. They stay true and loyal in this book as we watch Aphrodite, Damien, and the rest spend countless hours researching how to help Zoey, and we see that Stevie Rae has a loyal group of red fledglings. The action. This book has got some SERIOUS action going on. You'll find yourself torn... what's going on across the world? What's going on in Tulsa? Each time the story switches back and forth between locations, you'll want to scream in a good way. The intrigue. Who is good? Who is bad? Who has the potential for both? What will happen when Stevie Rae's secrets are revealed? Soooo many questions, you'll be dying for more at the end of this book.

While I obviously loved this book, rarely is a book perfect. The dialogue still bothers me quite a bit. I found myself CRINGING each time Kramisha was speaking. And some of the things Stevie Rae said? Ick. I get that the authors are really trying to let us see the individual characters' voices and that they're trying to "speak teen"... but I work in a high school, and not all teens speak like that! I actually found myself really missing Zoey because at least I'm used to her "voice". She doesn't feature as prominently in this book and I'm hoping that will change for the next one.

Overall? Highly recommend this book! I think this series is getting better and better and that's impressive once you have reached book seven. I found this to be a super entertaining read that I couldn't stand to put down for a minute. If you're a HoN fan, scoop this one up today! Happy Reading! *XOXO*

Teaser Tuesday: The Iron Daughter

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

-Grab your current read
-Open to a random page
-Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week's Teaser Tuesday comes from Julie Kagawa. The Iron Daughter is the sequel to The Iron King and it releases on August 1st, 2010. I am reading the ARC through Net Galley so the page numbers are likely to be different.

"I don't know how long I stood there, hours or only a few minutes, when a shadowy figure slipped into the room. Though I could still see out, the ice made everything cracked and distorted, so I couldn't tell who it was."

"Even through my air-starved delirium, my heart leaped. Ash's silvery eyes peered through the wall separating us, as bright and soulful as ever. The torment on his face shocked me, as if he were the one trapped and unable to breathe." pg. 69

I am in serious love with this book. I'm well past this point now and let me tell you, this book is as amazing as the first. I can hardly stand to put my nook down! Be looking for my review once I've finished it. I'm trying to savor it but it's a hard thing to do when the book is this good! As always, Happy Reading!! *XOXO*

BOOK ADDICTION GIVEAWAY: WINNER ANNOUNCED!

I want to take a moment to thank all of you who entered and made my first giveaway such a success... you all ROCK!

The winner of the random draw is...

*DRUMROLL*

The Book Vixen!!

Congratulations, dear! *tosses confetti* An email is headed your way, requesting your address. You have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Thanks again to all who entered! And don't forget to enter the Radiant Shadows Giveaway! *XOXO*

In My Mailbox (#5)

In My Mailbox (IMM) is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. Here are books I've either won, been given, or bought this past week:
Bought:
The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine
Burned by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Won:
The Dark Divine Nail Polish from The Story Siren!

I've already devoured Burned, review to come. But let me say... it was AMAZING! Stark is love. I can't wait to read The Carrie Diaries, especially when I keep seeing all these previews for the new SATC movie! *squee* And diving into Kiss of Death is going to be great, I've definitely missed the Morganville Vamps series.

I'm super stoked that I won the Dark Divine Nail Polish. It's such a beautiful color and matches The Dark Divine cover perfectly! I plan on painting my toes before I read the book, hehe.

So what did YOU get this week? Leave me a link so I can check it out! *XOXO*

*REVIEW* The Unwritten Rule

Synopsis:

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

I debated not writing a review for this book, not that I didn't enjoy reading it, but the story itself is very simplistic and predictable and I find that I don't have all that much to say about the book that the synopsis couldn't tell you.

I liked the book, but didn't love it, for a couple main reasons. First off, I think it's definitely geared towards a younger reader. Yes, I'm adult and I read YA but this book felt VERY young to me. I'm not even sure I would have loved it at 17 or 18 years old. That being said, the author wonderfully captures the emotions, feelings, and insecurities so common to adolescents during the teenage years.

Another major problem for me with this book was the characters and my inability to form an attachment to them. I found Sarah to be annoying in her overly insecure willingness to put up with unbelievable rudeness and crap from her so-called BFF. Which brings me to Brianna... I know that she is, unfortunately, a fairly good representation of many insecure, needing to put down other people, teenage girls but I really wanted to smack her for most of the book. Yes, she does not have a great homelife and it's easy to see how this has affected her but I still found it very hard to feel much sympathy for her.

I do think that the majority of my hangups about this book come from the fact that it is geared towards a younger reader. It's an accurate representation of friendship and teenage love, but being so removed from that age, and having grown so far past it, I found a lot of it to be annoying and had to contain my eye rolls. That being said, it's a quick and easy read and you do get to see the main character finally take a stand for herself. In my opinion, it just takes her way too long to get there.

My final complaint is the constant switching between present and past tense in the writing itself. I understand why the author wrote it that way, but found myself thrown off by it some and it did actually distract me from the story a few times.

A lot of this has been negative, and while I doubt I would re-read this book, I wouldn't necessarily discourage others from reading it. I just would caution readers that it is very juvenile and to expect a very predictable story about friendship, love, and intense insecurity. *XOXO*