So, last week’s video was made of some rather unpopular opinions, as I discussed the Top 10 series I would never finish. On the heels of that, I boomeranged back the other way this week with a MUCH more positive (but no less expressive) video about the top 10 series I could have finished … but haven’t. Ergo, I need to get on finishing these series RIGHT THE HELL NOW. Ahem. Anyways, enjoy!
Mind Games
Top Ten Characters I’d NEVER Want To Trade Places With
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!
So, even though I do read a lot of stuff with different worlds, I found that most of my answers for the top 10 worlds I’d never want to live in depended a lot on who I would be in that world. Given that, I decided to go with the second topic to make things a little easier on myself. So. Here we go!
Top Ten Books I Read in 2013
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!
You know, I went into this list expecting it to be a lot harder to pick. As it turns out, I got REALLY skimpy with my 5 star ratings this year! Wow. That’s just crazy. Here are almost ALL of the books I have 5 stars to this year!
ARC Review: “The Chaos of Stars” by Kiersten White
The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.
Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.
Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.
3 1/2 stars
Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for this eARC! This title will be released September 10th, 2013.
When I saw that Kiersten was writing a book with an Egyptian theme, I nearly died of happiness. I am a HUGE fan of her Paranormalcy series (see here), as well as her Mind Games series (see here), so this … this just hit the spot in every right way. Well, at least the news she was writing it did. After all that, it’s not surprising that the book itself couldn’t live up to my anticipation…
Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far In 2013
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!
This is a fairly tough list for me, but I think I managed to cull it down to 10 books I’m happy with. These books are in no particular order, except that the last 3 or so didn’t get a full 5 star rating on Goodreads.
ARC Review: “Mind Games” by Kiersten White
Mind Games (Mind Games #1) by Kiersten White
Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.
Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways… or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.
In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.
5 stars
Thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for this eARC! This title will be available February 19th, 2013.
This should not have worked. This should not have been good. Everything about this book was begging for me to hate it.
So why did I love it so much?
Here’s why I shouldn’t have loved Mind Games:
- It’s written by Kiersten White and it’s NOT about Evie and Lend, to which nothing was supposed to compare.
- The point of view is constantly switching between two sisters.
- The point of view not only switches between characters, but switches between the past and the present.
- There is a love triangle beginning for one of the sisters.
- I hate false advertising. This book isn’t really a “slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller” as descriped in the blurb. I wasn’t ever particularly scared or anything.
AND YET I LOVED IT.
All of my feels about this book are hard to explain. But hold on, let me back up a little. This book is about two sisters with psychic powers who have been orphaned and “taken in” by this school for girls with psychic powers. The problem is that this school is not a nice place, and they’re using these girls for evil purposes. The first sister’s name is Annie, and she’s blind—but a Seer. So her sight is really more useful in the long run. Her sister Fia is like nothing anyone has ever seen before, because she has these great instincts that tell her everything from the right stocks to pick to how to perfectly fight someone—and also keep her from being able to be seen by Seers. The school that’s taken them in is training Fia to be their killer while holding Annie for collateral. The book opens with Fia out on her first hit, which she is unable to carry out. And then it all goes downhill from there.
I was not amused with the book started going back and forth between Fia and Annie, and even less so when the book kept going into chapters of flashbacks. Usually, this DOES NOT WORK. But with this one … it did. It ACTUALLY WORKED and I don’t know how. The flashbacks actually did their job of making the story and the characters even deeper while never taking away from the flow and process of the present storyline. WITH FLASHBACKS, I felt like the plot never stopped moving forward, and fast. I’m still going gaga about that.
The characters of Fia and Annie were very different, and their voices really came through. Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with Annie, but Fia entirely makes up for it. She is broken, she is battered, she is stubborn and she is a fighter. Living in Fia’s head is painful and terrible and breathtaking.
Usually I wouldn’t be a fan of the love triangle that was set up either, but here it totally made sense. The characters aren’t throwing themselves at each other, and they aren’t eternally in love with each other from the start either. There’s a mutual attraction that pulls one of the sisters in two ways that make utter and total sense.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but here it goes: I think that Mind Games is better than the Paranormalcy books. I mean, the two books are REALLY DIFFERENT, but I think as a crafted object Mind Games is actually better. There’s a less of White’s humor in here, but her story writing seems to have reached a new level with this one.
Stacking the Shelves #12
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews!
Okay guys, not going to lie. This is a Stacking the Shelves a MONTH in the making. So it’s going to look like an avalanche of books. …it still kinda is.
FROM EDELWEISS
Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza ~ Taken by Erin Bowman
Mind Games by Kiersten White ~ Prophecy by Ellen Oh
Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
FROM NETGALLEY
Model Spy by Shannon Greenland ~ Gravity by Melissa West
Shadowhunters and Downworlders by Cassandra Clare and others
PHYSICAL ARC
The Rogue’s Princess by Eve Edwards
BOUGHT
Venom by Fiona Paul ~ Black City by Elizabeth Richards
Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant ~ Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
GIFTED
Nemesis by Lindsey Davis
My Life is a Notebook 