Vampire Academy

Let's kick off the summer with a fabulous series that you're sure to love. Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy! This series is so intense it's borderline impossible to put down. The series begins with Vampire Academy and works its way through the amazing storyline throughout Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, and, most recently, Spirit Bound. The release date for the sixth novel, Last Sacrifice, has yet to be announced and fans are already crazy-at-work making fantasies about the possible finale though the fifth novel has only been released in Mid-May. This series is a newly-polished diamond in comparison to Twilight's dull charcoal. It covers it all, forbidden romance, the best friend, vampires, a boarding school, and lots of action; perfect for everyone.

Meet Rose Hathaway, a strong, intelligent, and sexy young dhampir. On the run from her prestigious boarding school, St. Vladmir's Academy, with her royal best friend, Lissa, alongside her, for months, Rose is sure that nothing can happen to them now, until something does. Meet Dimitri, a gorgeous, sexy guardian; one sent to retrieve Rose and Lissa, and the first to succeed. Dragged back to the very place that the girls left, Rose and Lissa must adapt back into their vampire lives but things might not be so easy. Rose has missed too much training and must receive personal extra-curricular training from who else than Dimitri himself. But a little extra training couldn't hurt, not with the Strigoi--a group of vampires not unlike from the ones in your nightmares--on the verge of Lissa's capture. Rose will have to put anything and everything she has into her work from now on, but for what cost...

Vampire fans will love the new ideas given by Richelle Mead, Romance lovers will no doubt find themselves at a loss for words with these new characters, and Action lovers will have their cake and eat it too with every punch, kick, and jab that Rose throws. This series is one that most definitely will disappoint no one. You can be sure that these books will become an instant favorite.

Rating: 10/10

I Apologize... :)

I am so sorry for the wait. I have been very busy lately, reading of course, and I was having some issues with my Blogger Account. But all problems have been resolved and I'm back! I have a great Summer Reading List coming up for you guys, and a new feature, a Movie and Television List. Yes, I have succumbed to the overly-powerful advertising of the media. Actually, I have found some very interesting new material for you all and I am just bubbling with excitement to tell you all! So, here's to say I'm sorry I was gone but get ready for some summer fun!

-Justine Braunté

Fang

The newest installment in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, Fang is fantastic! Perfect for boys and girls of all ages, Maximum Ride will have you on every level of the emotional scale. Anger, smiles, and tears are all expected as you speed your way through this fantastic series. You will be staying up into all hours of the night just saying "just one more chapter" with the witty banter keeping you entertained.

Fang follows Maximum Ride in her sixth novel of butt-kicking and high-flying adventures with her flock, Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, and Fang. Now that she and Fang have become a couple, Max finds herself worrying less about the flock than she ever would have ever imagined and more about alone time with lover-boy. Angel is again trying to become the leader, yet another evil scientist is after her, and now she has a new problem. Angel's predictions are never wrong and now she's saying that Fang will be the first to die. Max's heart is at wits end as she battles with this new information but will it last? The flock meets up with another "Avian American" named Dylan, the perfect guy, the ideal boyfriend, and he was engineered to be Max's perfect other half. Yet another new challenge for Max and the flock, but it's not the only one in this brand new installment to the flock's adventures.

James Patterson has outdone himself, yet again, with the perfect new novel that will pull your heartstrings and make you feel euphoric with every single step that Max takes. Any novel that can trigger an emotional response is a perfect one and this novel will trigger responses like a machine gun.

Rating: 10/10

Glass Houses

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine is an interesting and original novel that really makes you think. You look at all levels of society, such as bullying, first loves, following the rules, and maybe even breaking them. Though the vampire sub-genre is completely overrated at the moment, this novel is nothing like the others. Bringing her expertise in teen issues, Caine opens a truly fantastic series with an amazing novel.

Claire Danvers is a social zero. Having always been smarter than everyone her age, Claire was bumped up. Now, she's sixteen and in college. For whatever reason, Claire's got under the popular girls' skin and her simple hazing has now become life-threatening. Now afraid to even sleep in her own dorm, Claire finds herself looking for somewhere else to live and ends up in Morganville. She is convinced she has found the right home and its other tenants take her under their wings. Unfortunately, finding the ultimate living conditions also requires its own issues. Morganville is run by vampires and Claire just might find out how dangerous her new life can be.

A spine-chilling novel that will leave you questioning everything you know about so-called "vampires" and the bullying tactics of today's schooling. But don't be fooled into thinking that life is that unsafe because I do believe that the bulling in this novel is a little over-dramatic. Caine may have excellent story-telling skills, but, she also dramatizes a little too much for my liking. However, all in all, this is an excellent novel that shouldn't be neglected by the bookworm.

Rating: 7/10

Need

Need, by Carrie Jones, is a very odd novel about discovering family histories and finding yourself in the midst of all the action. Jones brings a troubled teen into a dark, new world where everything is upside-down and all around. A fast-paced read for all who enjoy suspense and the use of words that you don't hear everyday!

Zara White just lost her father. Since his death, she hasn't been the same. All her bubbly, exciting. happy, and wonderful energy, now gone and replaced with a cold, sad, silent depression. Her mother just doesn't know what to do so she sends Zara off for a change of atmosphere, to Maine. Everything is so cold and white, depressing even, but Zara finds herself with new friends, two surprisingly cute boy toys, and...a stalker. Zara must deal with the impossible as she and her friends dig deeper into finding who is following her and why there has been a strange string of young male disappearances around town. Can a girl who spouts phobias when she's scared, bring herself to let go of rationality and face the irrational?

This brilliant new novel covers everything from lost to love, all in under three-hundred pages, an amazing feat for an amazing novel. You will find yourself laughing at witty banters and sitting on the edge of your seat with suspense with this action-packed new series from an amazing author.

Rating: 9.5/10

Crashed

Crashed by Robin Wasserman is a strange, yet bang-on science fiction novel that looks at the human race and its need to survive in a perfectly delectable new trilogy. Beginning with it's predecessor, Skinned, the trilogy looks at the advancement of science into a new era, where people become one with machine. An odd concept is made into a brilliant reality by acclaimed author, Robin Wasserman (Chasing Yesterday, Hacking Harvard, and The Seven Deadly Sins).

Lia Kahn was the perfect teenager. With beauty, brains, money, popularity, and the ideal boyfriend, she was the princess of her high school. Until the day of the accident. Being killed instantly in a massive accident should have ended Lia's perfect life but her parents just couldn't let go. All her memories downloaded into a new body, Lia tries to re-enter her life and fails. A machine just isn't the same as a human and Lia learns that after her boyfriend betrays her, her newest friend almost dies "saving her", her sister rejects her, and her father wishes that he could have had the strength to let her go. Lia leaves that life behind her and starts a new chapter with others just like her, Mechs, but her new life comes up short and she finds herself back to square one. Everyone hates her. And the person to start it all? Her "best friend". Lia must find a way to stop all of this madness and keep herself from going insane as she tries to keep in mind, she is no longer Lia Kahn. Just a machine, stealing her identity.

As Lia struggles to find herself, through life, love, and loss, it helps the reader to find his/herself, leaving them breathless for more. It is epic and brilliant to see the struggles that all of humanity goes through brought into a new and enlightening series all about discovering who you are inside. A definite must read that will leave you looking at your life in a new light.

Rating: 9/10

How to Ditch Your Fairy

How to Ditch Your Fairy, by Justine Larbalestier, is crazy and eccentric. It is a very odd look at the future by mixing Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Wife of acclaimed author, Scott Westerfeld, Larbalestier has a very different futuristic world from her husband that make her novel quite...odd. It took a while for anything really to set in with this novel and I've finally come to the conclusion that it was very nicely written, but a little hard to place in the age categories.

Charlie has an interesting life in a world where everyone who's anyone has a "fairy". Each fairy enables you to be excellent in one particular area in your life (e.g. boy fairy, clothing fairy, trouble avoidance fairy, etc...). Everyone generally loves their fairy but Charlie does not. You see, Charlie has a parking fairy. Wherever she goes in a vehicle, there always seems to be the perfect parking spot. Sound great? Not for Charlie because, fact is, Charlie hates cars, is fourteen--therefore can't drive--and just wants to get get rid of her "burden". You follow Charlie as she goes to great lengths just to rid herself of her fairy, including teaming up with her worst enemy, all while trying to get the attention of her exciting neighbour, Steffie.

Larbalestier uses her own vocabulary that is, indeed, quite "doos" however, the words feel quite childish. Her style of writing is odd and makes the novel not quite mature but not quite child-worthy. All in all, her work is not for the older youth audience but it is a perfectly delightful story for the early teen years!

Rating: 7.5/10

Strange Angels

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow is an intense new series, perfect for teenagers! An eclectic mixture of different genres that will tingle every bone in your body with every page. All Chapters had to offer me was the sequel to this fantastic book, Betrayals, that I so desperately wanted to read and so I went to great lengths to acquire a copy and read it in a matter of hours!

The story of Dru Anderson, a young girl who lives with her father, traveling from new city to new city as they hunt things "that go bump in the night". But one night, her father goes out and doesn't come home. Strange as it is, Dru becomes very worried about him until, finally, he comes home. Dru's father is a zombie. Having nothing left to do but to kill her father (once and for all) Dru takes to extreme measures and rids the world of one less zombie, and leaves herself with no one. Now, Dru is all alone and in danger. Creatures of the "Real World" are hunting her and Dru needs to know why, and she's pretty sure the answer to that will give her the same answer to her father's strange "reanimation" problem. Taking up her new friend Graves, also without family, Dru sets out to find the answers before it is too late.

Dru's character is very easy to relate to and her emotions and thoughts are so human, it's almost refreshing! Dru is smart, sexy, witty, and strong and I am sure that she will be loved by each and every person to pick up her epic story, Strange Angels. Needless to say, Strange Angels, by Lili St. Crow, will leave you grasping straws to get the second!

Rating: 8.5/10

Just read Betrayals, the sequel, and I am DESPERATE for the third!!!!!

The Hollow

Jessica Verday brings a rejuvenation of the classic novel "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in this start to her new series, "The Hollow". I was recommended this novel by Simon&Schuster's PulseIt and I have to say that the summary of the novel had me wanting this book as soon as they mentioned the new fantasy boy, Caspian. However, I have to admit that I was disappointed. The saying "Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover" really applies here.

Abbey is devastated as she learns the news of her best friend, Kristen's death. She is just finding it too hard to believe that she'd go down to the river without her and, of all things, fall in but as Kristen's body is discovered, Abbey is starting to feel completely alone , that is, until she meets the gorgeous Caspian. He is every girl's dream and he makes Abbey feel special in ways that she never knew she could feel but as Abbey begins discovering things about Kristen that she never knew, her feelings for Caspian are challenged more than ever, when she begins to come closer to what Caspian is too.

This book had twisting turns that no one really expects but they are sometimes just too sharp of turns. Verday manipulates Abbey from being a good girl, to a bad girl, to a psychotic emotionally challenged girl with every chapter and it's enough to give you whiplash strong enough to make you dizzy. You cannot really grab onto the emotions of Abbey and it doesn't really give you the romantic edge that was predicted, all-in-all, not one of my favourites and definitely not recommended to everyone. However, if you are suffering from the loss of someone close to you, this book can be recommended to you because it might help you understand and collect your thoughts.

Rating: 1.5/10

GONE

Lisa McMann had a fabulous start to her breathtaking and chilling series with WAKE and I was hooked from the first time that Cabel ever spoke to Janie but I have to say, I didn't feel that the sequels have kept that tradition. I had really hoped that GONE would be as good as WAKE but I felt completely let down after I finished the final installment in the series. I had absolutely adored WAKE and I had engulfed it within hours, craving the sequel and waiting for four months before I went on an amazon.ca shopping spree and purchased it for myself. It had shown up in the mail and I remember feeling really excited to read it, finding that it was a signed copy (which I did not order by the way, but I am NOT complaining) and I felt a little bit let down that all my cravings were really pretty useless as I finished, craving the next one but feeling let down that it really did just too much for Janie and Cabel's relationship than I wanted. The third, was by far, the worst by my standards and I don't really recommend it to anyone.

As Janie is thinking about what she's learned in Miss Stubin's green notebook, her life is getting more complicated. Her father has shown up out of the blue, dying, her mother is beginning to talk to her again (not that it's pleasant), Carrie is getting MARRIED, and Cabel is beginning to love her more and more just as she's trying to make the decision of whether or not to LEAVE HIM. Janie doesn't know what to do and the decision to either keep her job with Captain or lock herself up in complete solitay confinement, is just getting harder as things just keep popping up out of the blue.

As the love become Janie and Cabel becomes more and more complicated and edgy, I find that the books go downward with every single step up the relationship ladder. McMann has really disappointed with this third installment of the Wake Trilogy and I have to admit that I am actually glad that they are done.

Rating: 2/10