Top Ten Book Covers I'd Hang as Art

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Book Covers I'd Hang as Art.

This one kind of reminds me of a kid’s crayon drawing. But I can totally see it hanging on my fridge one day.

These covers are hauntingly beautiful to me.

I don't know that I can put this cover into words, but it feels like such a statement piece.

I LOVE these covers.

What an impactful image.

I've loved all of Cassandra Clare's book covers, but this is the only one I could see hanging on my wall.

Love all the purples.

This one is definitely different, but I'm digging it.

Another image that I don't know that I can explain, but I just love this. It makes me think.

Again with the purples. Love the stars and the silhouettes.

What are your favorite wall-art worthy book covers? What do you think? Let me know!

Above - Review

Above

By: Isla Morley

Published: March 4th 2014 by Gallery Books

384 pages

Genre: YA, Dystopian

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above link to Amazon, Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--I am a secret no one is able to tell.

Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Deter­mined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give mean­ing to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promising and devastating. As Blythe's dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice between survival and freedom.

Above is a riveting tale of resilience in which "stunning" (Daily Beast) new literary voice Isla Morley compels us to imagine what we would do if everything we had ever known was taken away. Like the bestselling authors of Room and The Lovely Bones before her, Morley explores the unthinkable with haunting detail and tenderly depicts our boundless capacity for hope.

Let me preface this review by stating that I think I’ve been in a reading slump—at least I was when I read Above. Part of the reason why I went ahead and picked up Above was because it’s outside of what I typical read and I thought it might actually help me get OUT of my reading slump, but I think it only ended up contributing. That’s not because Above was a bad book but because this book was taxing emotionally for me and that seems to be the cause of my reading slump. I’ve read several books lately that have taken a lot out of me emotionally, and Above was one of them.

I’m finding that putting words to how I felt while reading Above is a bit difficult. I requested Above initially because of the description and the reference to being similar to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I haven’t actually read The Lovely Bones but the movie was really good. And after having read Above, I can see why the comparison was made. But Above isn’t exactly what the description says. It is, but it’s more. Everything that I expected to take the entire book happened within the first 30-40% which left the longest portion of the book with me having no idea what to expect.

I connected to Blythe early on in Above. I loved Isla Morley’s stream of consciousness writing style with the early parts of Above and the beginning of Blythe’s captivity. I understood all of the thoughts and feelings that Blythe experiences and even the progression of her thought process. My heart broke for her over and over again—which obviously led to me feeling drained emotionally. However, once Adam comes into the picture, I had a harder time connecting to Blythe. Her decisions didn’t always make sense to me after that. Dobbs, well, he was an interesting character. He’s everything you would expect from a person capable of kidnapping a teenage girl and a conspiracy theorist. But yet there’s more than meets the eye there, and I like how Isla Morley played with the concept of his conspiracy theories not being so far-fetched. I also found myself both connecting and struggling with Adam. I’m having a hard time explaining why since I feel to discuss this aspect in much detail would be spoilerish. I’ll just say that since Adam didn’t have a normal childhood experience it was more difficult for me to predict his responses and behaviors as well as understand him in general.

Isla Morley’s writing was both beautiful, thought-provoking and a struggle for me at the same time. As I said earlier, I enjoyed the stream of consciousness type of writing early on, but towards the latter half of the book there’s just too much description for me. I needed more action or dialogue and less scenery description. Some of my favorite quotes:

The minute hand and I go for long walks around the numbers.

His eyes have chase in them. I cannot be the half-dead thing with no run in me.

He can hold a silence as though it were a bag of water. I do to it what a pair of rusty scissors would.

I have to talk, just for the sake of ears.

It is a terrible thing, how hell is already becoming so familiar to him.

I want to tell him it’s in all of us to harm someone else, even those we love. We deceive them or betray them or we throw things at them. How else are we to know they bruise or bleed? How else are we to know the relief of being forgiven?

I am not resurrected; I am merely aboveground.

There is no acclimating to a thing like trust. It presents itself, and there are but seconds to accept or reject it.

It is not for me to pardon. It is for me to hold the hand of [a] sinner, so that mine, too, may be held.

Death for everyone, I now realize, comes right in the middle of things.

Above gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Above? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 95 & Stacking the Shelves - 61

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

This week has had ups and downs for sure. My husband's boss passed away suddenly this week. But then we were able to close this week spending an afternoon fishing and hanging out with our family. It was nice to really spend time with the family after such a heavy week. Also, this coming week will bring with it our 5th anniversary. I can't believe Husband and I have been married for that long already.

THIS PAST WEEK:

I took a much needed blog vacation this past week. The only post I did was my April EOM Wrap Up.

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of Above by Isla Morley
Tuesday: Top Ten Book Covers-ish post
Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday
Thursday: Review of Just for Now (Sea Breeze, # 4) by Abbi Glines
Friday: Review of Emma by Jane Austen

Don't forget to sign up for the 2014 Series Enders Reading Challenge! Each month there will be a giveaway for those participating with a BIG giveaway at the end of the year! Click on the picture below or the link above to find out more!

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

Nash (Marked Men, # 4)

By: Jay Crownover

Published: April 29th 2014 by William Morrow Paperbacks

400 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Will their past determine their future?

Saint Ford has worked hard to achieve her childhood dream of becoming of nurse. Focused on her work and devoted to her patients, there’s no room for love. She doesn’t need a guy making waves in her calm, serene life—especially when he’s the unforgettable hottie who nearly destroyed her in high school. Dark, brooding Nash Donovan might not remember her or the terrible pain he caused. But he turned her world upside down . . . and now he’s trying to do it again.

Saint has no idea that Nash isn’t the cocky player he once was. Uncovering a devastating family secret has rocked his world, and now he’s struggling to figure out his future. He can’t be distracted by the pretty nurse he seems to meet everywhere. Still, he can’t ignore the sparks that fly between them —or how she seems so desperate to get away from him. But the funny, sweet, and drop-dead gorgeous Saint is far too amazing to give up on—especially since she’s the only thing in his life that seems to make sense.

When Nash discovers the truth about their past, he realizes he may have lost her heart before he could even fight for it. Now, Saint has to decide: is Nash worth risking herself for all over again?

Five Ways to Fall (Ten Tiny Breaths, # 4)

By: KA Tucker

Expected Publication: June 24th 2014 by Atria Books

256 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Purple-haired, sharp-tongued Reese MacKay knows all about making the wrong choice; she’s made plenty of them in her twenty-odd-years. So when her impulsive, short-lived marriage ends in heartbreak, she decides it’s time for a change. She moves to Miami with the intention of hitting reset on her irresponsible life, and she does quite well…aside from an epically humiliating one-night stand in Cancun with a hot blond bouncer named Ben. Thank God she can get on a plane and leave that mistake behind her.

Football scholarship and frat parties with hot chicks? Part of charmer Ben Morris’s plan. Blown knee that kills any hope of a professional football career? So not part of the plan. Luckily Ben has brains to go with his knockout looks and magnetism. After three long years of balancing law school with his job as a bouncer at Penny’s Palace, he’s ready to lead a more mature life—until his first day of work, when he finds himself in the office of that crazy, hot chick he met in Cancun. The one he hasn’t stopped thinking about.

If Ben truly were a smart guy, he’d stay clear of Reese. She’s the boss’s stepdaughter and it’s been made very clear that office romances are grounds for dismissal. Plus, rumor has it she’s trouble. The only problem is, he likes trouble, especially when it’s so good-looking…

Even in Paradise

By: Chelsey Philpot

Expected Publication: October 14th 2014 by HarperCollins

368 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about the former senator’s daughter. Most people do... or think they do.

Charlotte certainly never expects she’ll be Julia’s friend. But almost immediately, she is drawn into the larger than-life-new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails. And then Charlotte meets, and begins falling for, Julia’s handsome older brother, Sebastian.

But behind her self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, Charlotte soon realizes that Julia is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden … until now.

Forbidden

By: Kimberley Griffiths Little

Expected Publication: November 4th 2014 by HarperCollins

397 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--In the unforgiving Mesopotamian desert where Jayden’s tribe lives, betrothal celebrations abound, and tonight it is Jayden’s turn to be honored. But while this union with Horeb, the son of her tribe’s leader, will bring a life of riches and restore her family’s position within the tribe, it will come at the price of Jayden’s heart.

Then a shadowy boy from the Southern Lands appears. Handsome and mysterious, Kadesh fills Jayden’s heart with a passion she never knew possible. But with Horeb’s increasingly violent threats haunting Jayden’s every move, she knows she must find a way to escape—or die trying.

With a forbidden romance blossoming in her heart and her family’s survival on the line, Jayden must embark on a deadly journey to save the ones she loves—and find a true love for herself.

Set against the brilliant backdrop of the sprawling desert, the story of Jayden and Kadesh will leave readers absolutely breathless as they defy the odds and risk it all to be together.

Kiss Kill Vanish

By: Jessica Martinez

Expected Publication: October 7th 2014 by Katherine Tegen Books

432 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Valentina Cruz no longer exists.

One moment, she was wrapped in Emilio’s arms, melting into his kiss. The next, she was witnessing the unthinkable: a murder in cold blood, ordered by her father and carried out by her boyfriend. When Emilio pulled the trigger, Valentina disappeared. She made a split-second decision to shed her identity and flee her life of privilege, leaving the glittering parties and sultry nightlife of Miami far behind.

She doesn’t know how to explain to herself what she saw. All she knows now is that nothing she believed about her family, her heart, or Emilio’s love, was real.

She can change her name and deny her past, but Valentina can’t run from the truth. The lines between right and wrong, and trust and betrayal, will be blurred beyond recognition as she untangles the deceptions of the two men she once loved and races to find her own truth.

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

April 2014 EOM Wrap Up

I've read 9 books this month. I seem to be in a reading slump. Some of these books really drained me emotionally, and I'm having a hard time recovering.
Red at Night by Katie McGarry
The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
Push by Claire Wallis
Barely Breathing (Breathing, # 2) by Rebecca Donovan
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, # 3) by Stieg Larsson
Pretty When She Dies (Pretty When She Dies, # 1) by Rhiannon Frater
Above by Isla Morley
Promise Me (Finding Forever, # 1) by Barbie Bohrman (not pictured)
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

I have reviewed 11 books this month. *These books qualify for the 2014 Series Enders Reading Challenge.
Derailed (Clayton Falls, # 1) by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Breathe (Sea Breeze, # 1) by Abbi Glines
Because of Low (Sea Breeze, # 2) by Abbi Glines
*Requiem (Delirium, # 3) by Lauren Oliver
The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
Red at Night by Katie McGarry
Push by Claire Wallis
Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone from Beginning to Pro by Bobbi Brown
While It Lasts (Sea Breeze, # 3) by Abbi Glines
Between the Lines (Between the Lines, # 1) by Tammara Webber
The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium, # 2) by Stieg Larsson

Other Posts:
Sunday Post - 91 & Stacking the Shelves - 58
Sunday Post - 92
Sunday Post - 93 & Stacking the Shelves - 59
Sunday Post - 94 & Stacking the Shelves - 60
Top Ten Gateway Books
Waiting on The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, # 3) by Michelle Hodkin
Waiting on The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave, # 2) by Rick Yancey
Waiting on Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassins, # 3) by Robin LaFevers
Waiting on Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Love Triangles - The Ones That Worked For Me and The Ones That Didn't
2014 Series Enders Reading Challenge - April Wrap Up