BOOK REVIEW: Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Title: Rebel Belle
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Publication Date: April 8th, 2014
Genre(s): Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 352

Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper's destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts.
Just when life can't get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she's charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper's least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him--and discovers that David's own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.
With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y'all beg for more.

 This book is the book of the month of the Booksplosion Book Club. A lot of people who have read this book rated this book 5 stars, and said 'it's different from what I thought it would be'. Okay, I guess I just going to give it a try since I haven't read any book from Rachel Hawkins.

First, I just want to get things clear. I don't think this will be fair, but before I read this book, I read a quite high fantasy book. Just so you know. :)

This book, told in first person perspective, is about Harper Price, a perfect Southern belle. A head of cheerleaders and 4.0 GPA, and a lot of great things. She has a beautiful life until one day she becomes a Paladin, a guardian with super strength and ability to protect someone. That someone happened to be David Stark, Harper's least favorite person, and things going from amazing to disaster.

It is a light, fun read for me. I just feel this book is more of contemporary rather than paranormal. This book is just more of how Harper doing things with her life now that she is a special guardian. There are parts where we get to the paranormal side, and the Harper kick-ass thingy, but it just didn't work for me. Overall, this book was good. Reading this book felt like watching a movie. I would recommend this book to you if you want a light, fun read.

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

BOOK REVIEW: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Title: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Publication Date: January 28th, 2014
Genre(s): Young Adult, Sciencee Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy
Pages: 382

The war begins...
Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars. Generations of Helldivers have spent their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that one day people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.
Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. Mars is habitable - and indeed has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.
With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.
But the command school is a battlefield. And Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda...

I somehow got to know this book from goodreads, maybe from recommendation section and I found it very interesting. It's about a boy named Darrow who live in caves underneath the surface of Mars. He is a Helldiver who basically a miner of Helium-3 which an element that will allow planet to be terraformed and people will be able to live in the surface of mars. The society was divided into classes, Red is the bottom of the society and Gold is the top of the society. You can recognize what color you are by your hair and eye color. Darrow was born Red with red hair and red eyes, but somehow he managed to be a Gold.

I thought this book was amazing. The world building is so great, the writing is beautiful. I guess everything you could ask for in a YA dystopian book, is here. Told in first person perspective, you'll get confused by the time you read first 50 pages but you just have to push through because it will worth it. I love how Pierce Brown described things around Darrow, the situations, so we got full vision on everything. We also got character development, so many unexpected and shocking plot twists! Oh my God, this book is really that great.

If you want The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, Enders Game or Percy Jackson combined in one book, you will have to get this book! I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars! It was amazing, I thought you dystopian fantasy book lover should read this book soon! I am so excited for the sequel called Golden Son which already have a cover and it is gorgeous!

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

BOOKISH LIST: TOP 5 TEARJERKER BOOKS

Holla, Guys! So I have an idea to list top 5 books that made me cry. I didn't really read much books last year. So, I will just going to list the books that I read lately. So ... here we go!

1. In Time (The Darkest Minds #1.5) by Alexandra Bracken

I think I don't have to explain why this novella is in my list. If you have read The Darkest Minds and Never Fade, but haven't read this novella, YOU HAVE TO DO IT! I promise, you won't regret it ;)













2. Never Fade (The Darkest Minds #2) by Alexandra Bracken

The thing is this book is the second book in the series, if I point out which part made me cry that would be a spoiler and I don't want to spoil anyone who haven't read it yet. If you think The Darkest Minds is not as good as the hype, you should try this.












3. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Third book in The Lunar Chronicles series or quartet, I don't know what you called it. But what I could say, basically this book is a rapunzel retelling story, a girl named Cress who crosspath with Cinder and Scarlet, our two main characters from earlier book. I really loved this book! This would be my most favorite so far in the series. If you haven't read the book, just go get your hand a copy of this book and read it! :D








4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Well, it's The Fault in Our Stars, duh! ;)



















5. The Enchantress Return (The Land  of Stories #2) by Chris Colfer

Again, this is the second book in a series called The Land of Stories. It's about a twin who get into a magical land called The Land of Stories where they come face-to-face with their favorite characters from fairy tales. I love the relationship between Alex and Bailey, especially after reading the second book. I am so excited for the third book which coming up this July! I have a review up for the first book, The Wishing Spell.









So, that is my top 5 tearjerker book so far. If I found another book that made me cry, I would to make another list! By the way,  what is yours so far? :)

-Nikita

Book Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Title: Panic

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 4th, 2014
Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 408

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

To be honest, I haven't read her any other books. So, Panic will be my first Lauren Oliver book.

The first time I heard about this book, I was so excited. A thrilling game called Panic? Hmmmm, interesting. But that changed after I read the book.

This book is about a game called Panic, in a small town during the summer time, where the players would have to compete in 'dangerous' challenges. And the winner will get US$ 50.000 as ticket to get out of that small town. If you are a senior in Carp high school, you can participate in this game, just announce yourself in the 'Jump'. Told in 3rd person perspective, surrounding Heather and Dodge, our two main characters who compete in Panic. I thought this book was okay. Not that amazing, or anything. Maybe because I had high expectation about this book. I was told that this book is thrilling, where the players has to overcome their fears and people died in the competition. Sounds exciting, right?

Well, not for me. I just feel like I'm watching a reality tv show and people compete for cash prize and we know the characters just 'as you know', not really 'know' who they are. If my sentence does make any sense. Well, some characters annoyed me sometimes, especially Natalie. I won't tell, because that will be spoilers. I don't know if it's just me or anyone would be annoyed as much as I did, when the characters wanted to kiss someone who even barely helped them. Such as "When Dodge saw Heather, he relieved even he could kiss her". What!? I found three similar sentences in a book. It was just flat to me. Well, some of the challenges really did "challenging", but I'm a little bit disappointed in some ways.

Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was okay to me. But if you do want something entertaining, you can pick up Panic. Maybe you will like it more than I did.

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

Cover Reveal: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas

After waiting for such a loooooooonnnnnnggggg timeeeee, we finally got the Heir of Fire book cover!!! Yaaaayyyyy!!! I'm so excited for this book to come out. September please come sooner! :D

And I'm going to put all the covers in this series together because they are so beautiful! Yeaaayyy Celaena! :D

Happy waiting, Guys! :)

-Nikita

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Genre(s): Fantasy, Adult
Pages: 181 pages

It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Band.

Well, when I was at the bookstore I kind of confused whether to go with The Graveyard Book or this one. I really wanted to read a Neil Gaiman book (I don't know why) at the time. So, I picked this one up because this one is new released and I remembered that one of my favorite booktuber Ariel Bisset loved this book. So, I gave this one a chance.

When I first picked this book, I don't really know what this book is about, except for the lane (that is obvious, you can tell by the cover). Later, I realized the back cover is a photograph of Neil Gaiman himself at age 7 and it have a deckle edges which is awesome (I never had a deckle edges book before). I read this book for 2 days, because it is a small book with less than 200 pages, and quite confused because I can't tell which one is reality (in the story) which one is not.

This book is about our man (nameless man) who back to his childhood home at somewhere near the lane (I don't really remember where), and he was remembering his childhood at the lane where the fable began. The first thought that came to me was, whoa, this man has a remarkable memory with his experience at age 7. I'm on my early twenties and I already forget what happened when I was 7. So, it supposed we have a man as a narrator who tell us his experience at age 7. But sometimes I forgot about this man and think that the narrator is a boy age 7.

Other than the confusing part that I mentioned, this book was great. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. If you want to get away from dystopian and contemporary YA novels for a while, I recommend this book. I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I did.

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

Book Review:The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1) by Chris Colfer

Title: The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1)
Author: Chris Colfer
Publisher: Little, Brown for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 17th, 2012
Genre(s): Fantasy, Children
Pages: 438 pages 

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.
"The Land of Stories" tells the tale f twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.
But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

First of all, I bought this book like 2 months ago, because my sister insisted me to buy it (she is obsessed with glee) and it was only $8! But, after I bought it, I never had a desire to read this book whatsoever. This month, I read 2 great series back to back (The Darkest Minds and Divergent) which made me couldn't think anything about them. So, Christmas BookTube-A-Thon was happening and I need something to read. So I picked this one for a light read.

There! I said it! It is a light read (obviously, it's a middle-grade book). It's about Alex and Conner (twin brother-sister) who had a little rough life after their father death. The first 3 or 4 chapters (I don't really remember) is a background story about their life, how was their father really meant for them and their loves to fairy tales. On their 12th birthday, their grandma came to their house and gave them a fairy tales book, which was the one they used to read along with their father when they visited their grandma. And something strange happened with the book, the book started glowing and made sounds which happened to be a portal to The Land of Stories.

I am like whoaaa, you know what? I am obsessed with any fairy tales retelling and how am I not having any desire to read this book? I flew through these pages, and I finished this book in just one day. I found it entertaining, even though everything seems to be so easy for them through their adventures. You get to see the fairy tales 'afterlife', I mean what happened to them after the happily ever after was being said in the story. I really really enjoyed it! And now I can't wait to read the sequel (The Land of Stories The Enchantress Return).

Oh, and I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars! :)

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Eleanor & Park

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: February 26th, 2013

Genre(s): Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Format: Hardback

Pages: 325 pages

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits - smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meet Park, you'll remember your own first love - and just how hard it pulled you under.

At first, I just watching bunch of booktubers raving about this book. They loved it, and I searched this book on goodreads, and first comment that popped on my head was, "That was a cute cover!"and the synopsis really grabbed me at "you'll remember your own first love". That words really made me want to read this book and I wanted that cute book cover in my bookshelf. So, I'm at the mall and there's a bookstore which sell some english books, I browsed the shelves and they didn't have that much young adult fiction novels and Eleanor & Park was there all alone with this cute hardback cover and I just grabbed it (even though it cost me about US $23 and I don't really care).

I have a big expectation for this book. I opened the book, and there's an epilogue (I guess) which is sort of the conclusion of the story. This story is not like ordinary young adult contemporary novels where the characters are good looking popular girls in high school or good looking guy and all that jazz, and this story doesn't have a happy ending (SPOILER!). Our main characters are Eleanor, with her red curly hair and fat (quite similar to the author herself, except for the red hair), and Park, asian boy who loves to read comic books. The story told on third person and switched between Eleanor's perspective and Park's perspective. This kind of writing really reminds me of Flipped movie, where we get to know what each of them thinking of a particular scene. It's fascinating because when you were young you thinking much about everything and I bet that girl's thought were quite different with boy's thought.

Another interesting things is the relationship between Eleanor and Park which (indeed) brought you back when you were experiencing love for the first time ever. I felt connected with these characters so I got these happy and sad feelings when I read this book. And this story isn't about the Eleanor and Park relationship but also their relationship with their own family and how their relationship with their family could make things worse. I also love how this book represent the real love where not everything goes right.

The storyline is set in 1986 which is reminds me of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I know that Ready Player One isn't really in 80's, but the book set on 2044 when everything in 80's come back to life and there's a lot of info dump. I feel like this book is timeless, like it doesn't have to be happened in 1986. Sometimes I forgot if the story is set in 1986.

Anyway, this is a great young adult contemporary novel. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. I really recommended this book to everyone. I kept thinking about this book while I'm not reading it, and that's how I loved it so much. I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I did. 

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

Book Review: Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

Title : Fire & Flood (Fire & Flood #1)
Author : Victoria Scott
Publisher : Scholastic Press
Publication Date : January 27th 2015
Genre(s) : Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Format : Paperback
Pages : 320

Time is slipping away.... 
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?
Victoria Scott's breathtaking novel grabs readers by the throat and doesn't let go.

Fire & Flood described as The Hunger Games meets Pokemon. Ummm, I am interested in this book (because of The Hunger Games part, honestly) but there are some bad reviews about this book that this book is sooooo similar to Hunger Games that made some people lost interest and marked it as dnf (do not finish).

So I thought I don't have to explain what this book is about, I will go through my thoughts about the book. First, we don't know if this happened in these days or in the future, so I assumed it happened in the future. I confirmed this book is very much alike with The Hunger Games. The main character who wants to save her brother, even the Contenders wearing Serpent pendant? Ummm, so much reminds me of Mockingjay Pin. As in the race, I thought it was more like The Amazing Race meets Survivor and Pokemon.

As in the characters, I feel it was okay. The main character annoyed me in some situations. Example, when you're in a race, in the jungle, and your motivation is to live through the race and win a cure for your brother, you will not think if your butt is good looking while your crush is walking behind you. I understand that you are a 16 year old girl who live happily with you family, but I feel it was stupid to think like that when you could be dead anytime in the race.

There is some plot twist in this book, but not really exciting. It was kind of predictable (like a lot of dystopians nowadays), but still an enjoyable read.

So, I gave this book 4 out 5 stars and I think I'm still going to continue with the series. :)

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita

Book Review: The Lying Game Series #1 - #6

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there's nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It's enough to kill a girl all over again. But I'm about to get something no one else does -- an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma's desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me--to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she's the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, care-free daughter when she hugs my parents goodnight? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

This series is about a girl named Sutton Mercer who discovered that she had a long-lost twin sister, named Emma Paxton,  right after her death. Somehow, her soul attached to Emma's while Emma not long after that found out about her twin sister. The excited foster kid Emma planning to go all the way from Vegas to Tucson to meet her sister, but then she forced to live Sutton's life by her sister's murderer. Honestly, at first I didn't really interested to read this book at all, seeing the ongoing Pretty Little Liars series which still haven't finish yet, so I decided to watch the TV show and then disappointed about the cancellation after one and half season.

If you watched the TV show, or at least saw the clips, there's a HUGE differences between the TV show and the books. We can saw the alive Sutton Mercer in the TV show while in the book her soul attached to her sister. I figured the differences on the characters names too. In the TV show we got Emma Becker, Ethan Whitehorse, Thayer Rybak while in the books we got Emma Paxton, Ethan Landry and Thayer Vega and a lot more including the plot twists.

When I read the first book, I am really excited. First, it was very easy for me to get into, because I already watched the TV show, and I love how Sara Shepard create the 'all of the characters could be the suspect' kind of mystery. Every single person had something to do with Sutton on the day she died. So, we got Emma and her acting to solve her sister murderer. So, obviously I gave the first book 5 out of 5 stars. But, I was little disappointed about the second (Never Have I Ever) and the third (Two Truths and a Lie) book. I feel we going through the same pace between those two. I know it is six books series, but I couldn't just waste my time reading similar things back to back. If I didn't have the fourth book by the time I finished the third book, I'm pretty sure I won't finish this series ever. So, I gave the second book 4 out of 5 stars, and the third book 3 out of 5 stars.

But then, I read the fourth book (Hide and Seek), I was surprised. I cannot talk about this book anymore without giving any spoilers away. I gave the fourth book 5 out of 5 stars. Interesting things kept happening in the fifth book (Cross My Heart, Hope to Die), but not quite surprising as the fourth book. So, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Aaaaannnddd here we are in the sixth and final book (Seven Minutes in Heaven) in this series, for me, I was satisfied with the ending, even though it was predictable for me. I gave this final book 4 out of 5 stars, because this book made me sobs for the last 50 pages. Hahahaha :D

Overall, I gave this series 4 out of 5 stars. It was pretty good. I recommended this book for you who seeks light murder mystery kind of book. I literally read one book per day. So it was pretty fast read.

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita