Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Re-Design

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Re-Design.

So I'm no design guru or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I think I stink at most things visual. But I know what I like and what I don't like. These are the ones I'd change...

1) Frigid by J Lynn - Who has their shirt off in a snow storm? (review coming soon)

2) Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry - I'm all sentimental when it comes to this book, but the cover is not my favorite.

3) The Power of a Praying Kid by Stormie Omartian - I get that this is probably designed and marketed to kids, but the mustard yellow is not an attractive color.

4) The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen - In a way I like the simplicity and the cleanness of these new covers, but this one doesn't reflect what's on the inside of this book at all IMO. Plus I was a fan of the red of the original covers.

5) The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa - I liked the first cover for The Immortal Rules, but when they released The Eternity Cure they did a new version of the cover for The Immortal Rules...well not my favorites.

6) Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout - It's not a bad cover, but it just doesn't fit with the rest of the series. Books 0.5 - 3 are very dark. Origin is very bright. There are some things that tie them together--like the cover model who thankfully is the same on each book--but I would have gone darker is all. (review coming soon)

7) The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay - I LOVE this book. But I don't really like silhouettes too much, and while the cover KIND OF makes sense for the book, I just don't really love it.

8) The entire Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - BORING!

9) What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor - This was a cute read. The cover is just a little too "homemade" looking to me. Plus the cover models are cheesing it up.

10) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - Kind of boring.

Top Ten Books in X Setting

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books in X Setting.

I've always said I wasn't very good at posts like these. I know this is more of a genre than a setting, but I'm going with Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic. (In order of date read reverse order.)

1) Partials (Fragments) by Dan Wells

2) This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

3) The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

4) The Immortal Rules (The Eternity Cure) by Julie Kagawa

5) Under the Never Sky (Through the Ever Night) by Veronica Rossi

6) The Maze Runner by James Dashner

7) Deadlocked (Deadlocked 2) by AR Wise

8) Divergent (Insurgent) by Veronica Roth

9) The Hunger Games (Catching Fire, Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins

10) The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Dead-Tossed Waves, The Dark and Hollow Places) by Carrie Ryan

What are you favorite books in any particular setting? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 39 & Stacking the Shelves - 12

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.

Well, this past week I've been on vacation with my in-laws. We left March 30th to travel to Florida--Port Canaveral to be exact. The next morning we borded a cruise ship--yes it was Carnival and we had NO problems with our ship--and set sail (so to speak, considering there are no sails on a boat that big) for Freeport and Nassau. It was a good trip overall, but I have to say that I'm glad to be home. It's nice to go, but it's nice to come back. We went to celebrate my mother-in-law's retirement.

I have to say that I enjoyed my week off, but I missed blogging. I did get one entire book read on this trip and about 20% of another. Not as much as I would have liked but still good.

THIS PAST PAST WEEK:

Monday: Review of The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead (4.5 Stars)

Tuesday: Top 10 Tuesday: Books I'd Recommend (couldn't stop at 10)

Wednesday: Waiting on Crossing the Line

Thursday: Review of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (4 Stars)

Friday: My going on vacation announcement and Review of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (3.5 Stars)

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Tuesday: Top 10 Tuesday: Top 10 Books I Read Before Blogging

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday

Thursday: Review of Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

I managed to keep the past two weeks down to only 1 new book since half of that was still the March Take Control of Your TBR Pile challenge and the other half I didn't really have internet access or come upon a book store. And I've also managed to already read the one book I got. Here it is:

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, # 2)

By: Katie McGarry

Expected Publication: May 28th 2013 by Harlequin Teen

462 pages

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon)

Goodreads description--Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....

Also since the challenge I mentioned above ended while I was gone, here's my recap of that...

I've read 8 books from my TBR pile since the beginning of March. They are:

1. Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, # 1) - Robin LaFevers

2. The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, # 1) - Julie Kagawa

3. The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, # 1) - James Dashner

4. The Secret of Ella and Micha (The Secret, # 1) - Jessica Sorensen

5. Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, # 1) - JL Bryan

6. Rule (Marked Men, # 1) - Jay Crownover

7. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden (The Coincidence, # 1) - Jessica Sorensen

8. Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid, # 1) - Richelle Mead

I finished Walking Disaster (Beautiful, # 2) by Jamie McGuire, Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, # 3) by Cassandra Clare and Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, # 2) by Katie McGarry also this month, but since these do not have a publication date before March they don't count toward this challenge.

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!

The Immortal Rules - Review

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, # 1)

By: Julie Kagawa

Published: April 24th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

485 pages

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you, Harlequin!)

( Goodreads | Amazon )

 

Goodreads description--To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for…again.

Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.
 

The Immortal Rules is about a world that's dominated by vampires and creatures called rabids, that didn't quite make it into vampires. But don't get confused, this isn't a book about sparkly, animal-blood-drinking vampires. No sir (not that I mind that kind personally). There are no short cuts for these vampires. Sure they can physically down animal blood to the point of having a right sloshy belly, but animal blood in no way satisfies the Hunger.

Kanin, Allison's maker, tries to tell her this when she awakens after being turned. He tries to teach her all sorts of lessons ranging from vampire history to sword fighting to hunting and feeding. However, some lessons (most apparently) have to be learned the hard way. After Kanin and Allison get separated, Allison has to learn to make it on her own as a newly turned vampire. But what she finds is a reason to live--to keep pressing on. 

Allison was really the only character I truly connected with while reading The Immortal Rules. I wanted to like the others, even Zeke, but something just kept standing in the way for me. I pretty much hated Stick, and while I can applaud Allison for her compassion and I think it was necessary to show her humanity--that she wasn't a completely jaded human being--before her change, I would have thrown Stick to the wolves a long time ago. Kanin, I wanted to connect with more, and maybe that's going to be possible with book 2, The Eternity Cure, but I just didn't. And the same goes for Zeke. I can't really explain why, but I just didn't quite understand them. I can appreciate the reasons why Allison likes Zeke, but the emotions just didn't filter through the book and into me like they normally do. I don't think the reader was really supposed to connect too much to any of the other characters, except perhaps Caleb.

I definitely enjoyed the step away from the sexy vampire bad-boy who falls for the human girl. The Immortal Rules was certainly different from any other YA vampire book I've read, but it was very similar to the movie Daybreakers. So The Immortal Rules wasn't a completely new concept for me. 

Overall, I'd give The Immortal Rules 3.5 Stars. And I am interested in seeing what happens in book 2, The Eternity Cure. Have you read The Immortal Rules? If so, what did you think? Let me know!