Archives for December 2013

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY | Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

December 11, 2013 Comments : 4

wowfestivo

Waiting On is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
April 1, 2014
HarperTeen
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I’ve read the books. I’ve seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can’t be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There’s still the yellow brick road, though—but even that’s crumbling.

What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I’m the other girl from Kansas.
I’ve been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I’ve been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman’s heart.
Steal the Scarecrow’s brain.
Take the Lion’s courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!

Why I’m waiting?

Doesn’t this book scream awesomeness?

I’ve been seeing a lot of reimaginings of fairytales so I hoped for one about The Wizard of Oz and here it is! I always assumed it’ll be a modern day version of the story à la (which I wouldn’t be opposed to), but this synopsis, woowww. It sounds kickass. The Wicked Witches actually being good? Hells yeeahhh. (I was always suspicious of Glinda and all those Good Witches. ;D) I’m always a sucker for YA books with assassins/mercenaries in it. C’mon, don’t you get a chill reading “The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked”? I just love it a lot. ;D

And the title of this book makes me think of Kill Bill and Romeo Must Die. HAHAHA. I think that’s a good thing? Maybe.

What books are you waiting for?

Reviews

REVIEW | All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

December 9, 2013 Comments : 3

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
September 3, 2013
Disney Hyperion
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

“You have to kill him.” Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

myreview

First sentence: “I stare at the drain in the center of the concrete floor.”

Wow.

It is hard for me to put into words or gifs how much I adore this book. This book pulled me from the depths of my reading funk, and that is makes it more frickin’ awesome.

Reviews

REVIEW | The Witch of Duva (The Grisha #0.5) by Leigh Bardugo

December 6, 2013 Comments : 4

The Witch of Duva (The Grisha #0.5) by Leigh Bardugo
June 5, 2012
Tor
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls…or so the story goes. But it’s just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home.

This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel, Shadow and Bone.

myreview

First sentence: “There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls.”

The Witch of Duva is a beautifully written story that reimagines Hansel & Gretel very loosely. It’s not the greatest folklore I ever read, but it’s adequate on showing a bit the culture in the Grisha series. I will say that it’s disturbing (especially the end).

The story follows Nadya, a girl who lives in Duva where girls have mysteriously disappeared from which creates fear and concern among the people for their children. When a famine occurs, more girls start to disappear at an alarming rate, and Nadya begins to encounter many problems as she journey away from home. And what happens by the end is an unexpected and very grisly turn of events that will make you flinch and see that nothing is what it seems.

I thought it was okay. I like the message that the story is telling readers – looks can be deceiving. You don’t know who the real monsters are. You can’t take everybody by face value or judge them by your initial impression. People have hidden motives – good or bad.

Overall, I just felt disconnected to the story. I had expected it to have some world-building to further cement this world. The entire story was nothing that really stimulated my interest, but it made me curious of whether this folklore plays a part in the Grisha series. gradeB-

Discussion

THE THREE C’S: CANDID CONVERSATIONS WITH CEE | A Really Bad Reading System (featuring the Harry Potter series!)

December 5, 2013 Comments : 13

three c's Well, guys, did you ever have an intricate system for reading series (especially for series that has more than five books)? Like say you’ve been waiting for the fourth book and the publishing date is approaching, you decide to reread the previous three books to refresh your memory of what happened?

The only time I had an actual reading system was when the last three Harry Potter books came out. (You’ll understand why this was a one-time deal.)

The Harry Potter series was a big part of childhood. I remember trying to read the first book to my little sister. I wanted to prove the awesomeness of Harry Potter to her, but she was having none of that. Ha. She’d interrupt, talking about mundane things because it was apparently far more interesting than wizards and magic. I remember when I was ten, a staff member at my summer camp read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I was completely enthralled by the story. I have very fond memories of reading it.

But this reading system…it was a fucking failure. Plain and simple.

(I was at first like the guy with the thumbs up, but soon I became the girl facepalming.)

It was face-palming worthy.

It started with the fifth book – Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. I generally do not buy books on the day it hits the shelves, but for Harry Potter, I made an exception, and thus began a tradition of buying the remaining books on the day it was released and a semi-complicated plan of how I read the books.

The steps were:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book 5) releases on a weekend in 2003. I get up a little earlier than I usually do on a weekend and force my mom to take me (and my sisters) to buy the book at Barnes & Noble.
Once I bought the book, I return home and don’t read it. (Yes, you read that right. I do not read it.)
I read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book 4) instead because I wanted to refresh my mind on what happened in this book.
After I finish, I go to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book 5), but I stop myself. A light bulb goes off in my head. I decide to wait until the next book is out to read it.
A couple of years have passed. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (book 6) is finally released. I go to the bookstore and buy it.
I put away the newly bought book on my shelf and read the previous book Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (book 5). (I would’ve read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book 4), but I remember what happens in that book so it’s unnecessary.)
Once I’m finished, I wait until the next book comes out.
I wait a couple of years and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book 7) is finally released. I go out and buy it.
At this point, I would read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (book 6), BUT I run into a problem. It was something I did not factor in – my laziness and my forgetfulness. FACEPALM!
- For the life of me, I could not remember what happened in the previous book – Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (book 5). This problem could’ve been solved if I reread it so I could read the sixth book. But you know what I did instead? I said fuck it. I gave up. The reason: I am goddamn lazy. I realized I had to read three thick books and I was not feeling up to the daunting task. Even though Harry Potter is one of my favorite series, lazy teenage-Cee was shutting down and saying “nope.”
I put the three books away on my bookshelf, its pages still pristine. I have not attempted to finish the series since then, which was six years ago. It’s disappointing I never finished the series. I know I should read them, but mehhh.
I will allow you to side-eye and judge me. You can even laugh at me. (I do it all the times. ;D)

THIS WAS NOT A GOOD READING SYSTEM. What was my teenage self thinking? (She was obviously crazy.) I really don’t understand why I thought this was a good plan. This reading system did not make any sense! I could read the books at any time, but I chose not to. WHY? I DON’T KNOW. It was doomed to fail. My friends told me it wouldn’t work, and it didn’t, but I was being stubborn and refused to see the neon lights. *sigh* It’s somewhat embarrassing, but I find it an amusing story.

Since then, I pretty much avoid putting too much thought in the way I read series. I don’t want another failed reading system. ;D

Did you have a reading system that you use for series? Something that either worked or didn’t? What did you think of my Harry Potter one? Pretty useless system, right?

Waiting on Wednesday

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY | Avalon by Mindee Arnett

December 4, 2013 Comments : 2

wowfestivo

Waiting On is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Avalon (Avalon #1) by Mindee Arnett
January 21, 2014
Balzer &Bray
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they’re damn good at it. Jeth doesn’t care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents’ ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he’ll go to get the freedom he’s wanted for so long.

Avalon is the perfect fit for teens new to sci-fi as well as seasoned sci-fi readers looking for more books in the YA space-and a great match for fans of Joss Whedon’s cult hit show Firefly.

Why I’m waiting?

THIS BOOK NEEDS TO BE IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOOOOWWWW.

I loooooveee Firefly. I asked for a YA Firefly story on Twitter, and bless my friends for telling me about Avalon, because this is everything I ever want in a book! It has teenage mercenaries, star systems, crime-bosses, and siblings? Let me just add this to my shopping cart. (If you say the right words, I am so easy to pleased.) The synopsis is everything I want for my own sci-fi YA novel!

I hope it is as good as the synopsis sounds, and if the friendships are not Firefly-esque, I will be very disappointed.

What books are you waiting for?

Discussion

NANOWRIMO | I WON!

December 1, 2013 Comments : 8

YES, THAT IS CORRECT. I WON NANOWRIMO!

Yeeeeee. *dances around my room and throws imaginary confetti*

I actually reached 50k on Friday. AND I SCREAMED WHEN I DID. 50K IS A LOT TO ME.

Here are my stats –

I didn’t think I would be able to reach 50k because I slacked off the first two days. Those were crucial days to NaNoWriMo, but I was being lazy and didn’t write anything, which set me back a lot. From then on, I had lots of catch-up to do. I usually write whatever I can (and that means I rarely keep track of my word count), but I found myself obsessively checking to see that I write at least 2K each day. It may not be a lot to some people, but it is to me.

I had a good motivating system. Let’s say I wrote 1600 words today, I’d go “hey, if I write 400 more, I’ll reach 2,000!” and then I proceed to write 400 words. And then afterwards, I see that my total words becomes 9,400 as a result of the amount I wrote, I’d go “Oh my god, if I write 600 words, I’ll reach 10k! DOING IT.” And the cycle continues because I’m weird about numbers and it has to be visually equal (if that makes any sense). It worked (as you can see in the stats), so yay!

What I found during this process:

Change is good.

When I wrote, I realized I had to change some stuff. My characters live in the future, and my BFF and I had initially decided not to have them traversing through the universe, but we realized that was exactly what we needed. We were in a bit of a writing funk, not having a clue of what to write, but when we opened it up to include the universe/space, we were suddenly overflowing with ideas. The change of scenery for the story was a great idea because we were no longer stuck on the Earth. The world opened up more and that’s awesome.

Need to do a lot of world-building.

World-building is totally not a strong suit of mine. (Not for my BFF/writing partner either.) It’s an absolute pain, but necessary. I admit that I can be a pretty lazy author. I’m more of a character-builder instead of a world-builder. Writing is a learning process and I’m actually excited to see how fair in this weakness of mine. Let’s hope I do well, yeah?

Research, research, research.

There is so many things I do not know about – how to write fight scenes, planets, spaceships, futuristic guns + outfits, world-building in sci-fi – which means I need to do a lot of major research sessions. I need to find more resources about sci-fi stuff and space/galaxy. It’s vast and I don’t know where to start. I’m actually looking forward to it. The things that I have read fascinated me. I had never done a lot of research for the other stories I’ve written, and I rather enjoyed it.

Lots of great writing resources on Tumblr.

I reblogged a lot of resources on my writing tumblr blog. The Writing Cafè, The Writer’s Helper, and References for Writers are really amazing. Tons of good references there. It’s good to use these resources when you’re stuck or when you’re looking for inspiration. If you don’t hear from me, I’m either reading or drowning in research.

Scrivener is a magical program!

IT REALLY IS. I’ve been using the free trial version and it’s AMAZING. I can’t wait to buy it. Everything is all in one place. You don’t have to open new Word documents. The split screen is perfect for editing. (I shrieked in delight when I found it. Albeit, the day nanowrimo ended, but whatever) I love it! It is a writer’s best friend!

Need to do major edits and rewrites.

A LOT OF MAJOR ONES. So many things need to be done (like apply all the change in setting to space). I’m dreading it, but excited too!

So, I am off to relax for a bit. Then, I will be off to write again and go through the editing process. Wish me luck. ;D

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