Wither

By Kristen

*CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS**

I love this book. Love the idea and everything about it and all that. There's Jenna and Rhine and Gabriel and Jenna and Vaughn (who is possessed in my opinion) and Cicily (I don't think I spelled her name right) and Rhine and jkghjkaefhgseriotuilhgf this is hard.

I am having difficulty remembering this book.  I read it last summer. Rhine is innocent and she's being held captive in a mansion against her will and along with two others.  And her relationship with Rose *sigh* I liked Rose but she died and then there's Gabriel and Rhine and Gabriel and I'm just taking up space repeating words...To me this is like apocalyptic...? I don't know, everyone dies at 20 or 25 depending on gender and I think it's depressing.  But I love Gabriel's and Rhine's relationship (forbidden relationships are always a good factor in books to me) and they escape; I shouldn't have said that but I wanted to put it out there.




Wither definately made my top ten.  I suggest you read it because nhgjkasngjker it's such a good book.   READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***

World Book Night's coming up soon and I should be halfway done with my book.  Nora and I are two of the student readers :) I'm only on chapter three for what I'm reading and I'm not sure about Nora.

Have a great long weekend! Good Friday tomorrow! Have a great Easter, eat some chocolate, become friemds witht the Easter Bunny, and most of all, have fun with your families!

-Kristen



New York City Teen Author Festival

By Nora

Dear authors from the NYC Teen Author Festival,
Thanks for taking a look at our blog! I really appreciated your interest at the signing. Also, thank you for your patience with my recovering voice, which I had lost on Friday. It was pretty hard to talk. :)

Looking forward to reading your books!

Nora

Last week was the NYC Teen Author Festival, featuring more than 90 authors.
What? 90 authors? That's crazy talk!
Yes. I know.
Unfortunately, I was only able to go on Saturday and Sunday because of school (school's such a buzzkill). That meant that I had to miss Michelle Hodkin, of all people. MICHELLE FREAKIN' HODKIN.

Anyway, Saturday's event was held at the New York Public Library (which is massive, I might add). A line formed outside the door and everything (we were second)! It consisted of four panels and four readings by debut authors.

Panel #1: Defying Description: Tackling the Many Facets of Identity in YA
Featuring: Marissa Calin, Aaron Hartzler, A. S. King, and Jaqueline Woodson
Moderator: David Levithan

This panel was mainly about teenage characters in YA facing difficult decisions about their sexuality and discovering who they truly are. I am extremely excited to read David Levithan's book, Two Boys Kissing (to be released on August 27) and give it to some of my friends.

My Opinion About It: The authors were discussing teens being openly gay, at their age, versus being gay in my time. Apparently, it was very difficult for them. I mean, I understand that it is still quite hard, taking bullying into consideration, however, our school is very relaxed. If you go to our school, you won't see bullying. There are at least two openly gay students in our grade alone (I don't even know the exact number) and they don't get any criticism about it. I'm proud of our school and I feel that everyone is accepted here.

Readings: New Voices Spotlight
Featuring: J. J. Howard, Kimberly Sabatini, Tiffany Schmidt, and Greg Takoudes

New Voices Spotlight was a reading from debut authors. The books included That Time I Joined the Circus, Touching the Surface, Send Me a Sign, and When We Wuz Famous. I am really excited to read Send Me a Sign. It seems like my kind of book.

Panel #3: Under Many Influences: Shaping Identity When You're a Teen Girl
Featuring: Jen Calonita, Deborah Heiligman, Hilary Weisman Graham, Kody Keplinger, Amy Spalding, Katie Sise, and Kathryn Williams
Moderator: Terra Elan McVoy

This panel was about teen girls and shaping their identity through friends, family, music, websites, teachers, and more. They talked about what could change the course of a teen girl's life (including friendship breakups).

My Opinion About It: I really hope I don't go through a friendship breakup! Being a teen girl myself, it was extremely interesting to hear what grown women had to say. Now I know what to look forward to. Sadness. Ha! Probably not, though. Hopefully. Also, you may not remember, but a few weeks ago, I posted that I really want to read Katie Sise's Boyfriend App. When I saw she was one of the panelists, I got really, really excited. You don't even know how excited I was. Unfortunately, she did not give away any ARCs. :(

Panel #4: Born This Way: Nature, Nurture, and Paranormaly
Featuring: Jessica Brody, Gina Damico, Maya Gold, Alexandra Monir, Lindsay Ribar, Jerry Smith-Ready, and Jessica Spotswood
Moderator: Adrienne Maria Vrettos

This panel discussed supernatural fiction and the paranormal. They talked about how teen characters in YA deal with these "powers."

My Opinion About It: I love the paranormal. Honestly, I find it fascinating. Also, I've met a few of these ladies previously. I've met Gina Damico once in Boston, and Jessica Spotswood three times, now. I should probably get to reading her book. XD I met her in Boston (with Gina Damico), on the Breathless Reads tour, and now here.

Panel #5: The Next Big Thing
Featuring: Jocelyn Davies, Leanna Renee Hieber, Barry Lyga, and Mayrose Wood

In which they discussed the Next Big Thing.

Ideas Brought Up: Panda Mermaids, Unicorns, something I forgot (silly me!), and, of course, bondage fiction for kids.

My Opinion About It: *facepalm*
David Levithan's Opinion About It: (I was sitting next to him) *dies of laughter*


Sunday was "Our No-Foolin' Mega-Signing" at Books of Wonder. It was considered "organized chaos" by David Levithan. In fact, it was.
There were so many authors signing, that you had to pick and choose. Sadly, I could not get to everyone. 
Here is the full list of authors present:

Jessica Brody (Unremembered)
Marisa Calin (Between You and Me)
Jen Calonita (The Grass is Always Greener)
Caela Carter (Me, Him, Them, and It)
Crissa Chappell (Narc)
Susane Colasanti (Keep Holding On)
Zoraida Cordova (The Vicious Deep)
Gina Damico (Scorch)
Jocelyn Davies (A Fractured Light)
Sarah Beth Durst (Vessel)
Gayle Forman (Just One Day)
Elizabeth Scott (Miracle)
T. M. Goeglein (Cold Fury)
Hilary Weisman Graham (Reunited) 
Alissa Grosso (Ferocity Summer)
Aaron Hartzler (Rapture Practice)
Deborah Heiligman (Intentions)
Leanna Renee Hieber (The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart)
J. J. Howard (That Time I Joined the Circus)
Alaya Johnson (The Summer Prince)
Beth Kephart (Small Damages)
Kody Keplinger (A Midsummer’s Nightmare)
A.S. King (Ask the Passengers)
Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14)
David Levithan (Every Day) 
Barry Lyga (Yesterday Again)
Brian Meehl (Suck it Up and Die)
Alexandra Monir (Timekeeper)
Michael Northrop (Rotten)
Diana Peterfreund (For Darkness Shows the Stars)
Lindsay Ribar (The Art of Wishing)
Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park)
Kimberly Sabatini (Touching the Surface)
Tiffany Schmidt (Send Me a Sign)
Victoria Schwab (The Archived)
Jeri Smith-Ready (Shine)
Amy Spalding (The Reece Malcolm List)
Stephanie Strohm (Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink)
Nova Ren Suma (17 & Gone)
Greg Takoudes (When We Wuz Famous)
Mary Thompson (Wuftoom)
Jess Verdi (My Life After Now)
K.M. Walton (Empty)
Suzanne Weyn (Dr. Frankenstein’s Daughters)
Kathryn Williams (Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous) 

Here is the full list of authors I met:

Jessica Brody (Unremembered) 

Marisa Calin (Between You and Me) 
Hilary Weisman Graham (Reunited) 
Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14) 
David Levithan (Every Day) 
Lindsay Ribar (The Art of Wishing) 
Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park) 
Tiffany Schmidt (Send Me a Sign)
Victoria Schwab (The Archived) 

Also, Kimberly Sabatini told me she would mug me for my copy of Eleanor & Park (the store had momentairly sold out), and Tiffany Schmidt told me she would mug me for my ARC of Siege and Storm.
Of course, my response was, "You're an author! You can do whatever you want!"


I'm so smart.

-Nora

Jessica Brody

Marissa Calin

Hilary Weisman Graham

Deborah Heiligman

David Levithan

Victoria Schwab

Tiffany Schmidt

Lindsay Ribar

Emily Laybourne

Rainbow Rowell

(Sorry about the formatting. Blogger is a jerk, sometimes.) 

Pandemonium

By Kristen

**CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DELIRIUM**

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT ABOUT ALEX?!?!?!?!?!?!??!???  The end (like all of these) was a stupid cliffhanger.  But the thing is it keeps you guessing the possibilities about what could happen.  But I freaked out and found a corner in my room and cried when I read the last page of Pandemonium and I was just so sad.  I mean this whole book we all thought that Alex was dead but THE ENDING OH MY GOD THE FREAKING ENDING nvjkbgbznswghb I can't even say a word about it at all and I just want to but I can't and I think I was depressed for a week after I read it and I OMG I need to calm down.  Calm calm calm.....deep breaths, I'm okay.

Lena and Alex and Julian and Lena and Alex and God this book made me cry.When Nora got the advanced reader's copy of Requiem I yelled at her to give it to me so that I could stop being depressed about the whole trilogy.  THE ENDING OF PANDEMONIUM nhjbvfsdvsdgjkdbf I want to say... I read this last year in seventh grade and finished it during finals and I wanted to scream (but if I did that I would get a zero which would have sucked so bad) and scream...So I cried about it at home instead later on....

I'm done with this rant about the ending, but READ THE TRILOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You MUST and I'm pretty sure they started to film it! Whoo! I'm so excited!

-Kristen

Before I Fall

By Kristen

First I want to say that I didn't feel like doing the Top Ten Tuesday so instead, I'm writing this review of Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall.  The topic today was supposed to be Top Ten Books I HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread.  I for some reason found this difficult...since I don't really go out to buy books...I just borrow them from Nora or get them from the library instead...Anyway...I'm getting off topic so...

My one question when I finished this book was, "Did she see a light?"
...
...
...
...
...

Just kidding!
My question really was "Did she go to heaven or something?" I mean, after all she said that she swore she saw a halo or something.  Honestly, I found it a bit creepy that she kept on waking up when she was supposed to be dead for a whole SEVEN DAYS.  Well, I think it was seven...I did read it two weeks ago and you can't really rely on me to remember things like that...


I really liked this book, it's everything a teen would want to do (except the dying and coming back to life part), partying, shopping, getting a chance to start over or change...I thought the chapters were waayyyy too long though.  It made me feel like I had to finish the whole chapter before I put the book down...but I would say it is one of my favorites :)

So..You know how Divergent is being turned into a movie, yeah?  Well here is a bit more of the casting news:

http://www.hypable.com/2013/03/15/divergent-movie-four-casting-theo-james/

http://www.divergentfans.com/m/blogpost?id=6414657%3ABlogPost%3A112481



I suggest you read Before I Fall and I know you will enjoy it :)

-Kristen

Need

By Kristen

Hey everyone!

I know that this post was supposed to be yesterday...but I forgot that it was Thursday.  And then yesterday, I totally forgot when I got home...Nora and I just finished all our finals yesterday for the end of term two and next week is MCAS also.  Crazy, huh? Anyway, I just remembered this morning ...But to the point: I'm writing what  Thursday's  post was today :)

***



Need

When I first saw the title, I was like "What kind of need...?" I really just liked the cover so I grabbed it from the library's shelf and added it to the pile of those thirteen or so other books I wanted to read.  I know people say not to judge a book by its cover...but that's exactly what I did. Eventually, I did read the description and then later on, I flipped to the first page and started to read.  The first thing I noticed was the phobia listed as the chapter's name and as I read, I figured out why Zara, the main character is nervous, she lists phobias...

Anyway, moving on from that. Basically the whole book is about PIXIES VS. WEREWOLVES and when I finished it, I decided that it was a really good book...Notice that random blank spot there^^

Well, when Zara moves to Maine, she meets two people (who are also enemies kind of) named Nick and Ian.  One's a pixie.  One's a werewolf (and aren't werewolf guys supposed to be hot?!).  She's a pixie.  ^.^ I've said too much! Ignore that I said that she's a...nevermind...

By the time I finished this book, I couldn't wait to read the second book, Captivate.  And now, I can't wait to read the third book...But I haven't been to the library since this summer...

Here are the other books in the series: (The order is: Need, Captivate, Entice, Endure)

-Kristen





Spring 2013: What's to Come

by Nora

New Releases: March 20-June 20!

• Light: Michael Grant (April 2). The end in the Gone series is approaching quickly. Are you prepared?
• Taken: Erin Bowman (April 16). In Claysoot, there are only women. There are boys, but they all disappear on the night of their eighteenth birthday. For Gray Wethersbee, it seems his eighteenth birthday is approaching fast. Doesn't the idea for this book just give you the chills?
• The Elite: Kiera Cass (April 23). I wish The Elite comes out sooner. After The Selection, I've just been wanting more. What will happen with Aspen? What about Prince Maxon? April 23 must come faster!
• The Boyfriend App: Katie Sise (April 30). Audrey McCarthy can't wait to go to college. But, sadly, college is expensive. Audrey enters a contest for the best app designed by a high schooler. Audrey creates the Boyfriend App. All of a sudden, she is popular and catching the attention of all the hot guys in school. Does an app really have this much power? I'm really excited to see how Audrey's situation turns out!
• Reboot: Amy Tintera (May 7). Once a person dies, they wake up as a Reboot. The longer they are dead, the less human they are when they awake. Wren Connolly is the least human of all the Reboots in The Republic of Texas. Because of this, she gets to train all the new Reboots to become soldiers. One newcomer is almost completely human. He is weak, unnecessary. When Wren receives orders to get rid of him, she cannot give in. The concept for this book is killing me. KILLING ME. I need to know what happens and I need to know what happens. 
• Transparent: Natalie Whipple (May 21). Fiona McClean (first off, I LOVE that name!) is invisible. Fiona's dad has been taking advantage of her for her whole life. Fiona and her mom escape. They cannot take any more of his awful behavior. Being your usual YA book, he will not give up on just that.
• Of Triton: Anna Banks (May 28). The sequel to Of Poseidon. 
• Monument 14: Sky on Fire: Emmy Laybourne (May 28). The sequel to Monument 14.
• Wild Awake: Hilary T. Smith (May 28). An adventure-romance. Gosh, so many books coming out on May 28! Perhaps a release party should be in order!
• Siege and Storm: Leigh Bardugo (June 4). And the book that we've all been waiting for (and by 'we', I mean me)... SIEGE AND STORM! I can't wait for this book to come out so I can obsess over it with you guys! It's perfection and I can't even handle myself. I just...if I talk anymore, I'm going to implode. I'll fold in on myself and then cease to exist. To be sure that doesn't happen, I'll sign off, now.

-Nora

Breathless Reads Tour

by Nora
February 16, 2013; RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison, Connecticut
Authors: Beth Revis (Across the Universe), Fiona Paul (Venom), Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked), Elizabeth Richards (Black City), and Morgan Rhodes (Falling Kingdoms)
(with surprise audience member Lauren DeStefano!)
2013 Breathless Reads Tour

I just want to start off by saying I love RJ Julia. It's so cozy and comfortable (and the café makes an amazing cupcake ;D) and I could spend hours in there browsing the enormous YA selection.

Anyway, the five fabulous authors started with a question they've all probably answered a hundred times.

Why write YA?

• Jessica Spotswood loved Gone with the Wind. It is one of her greatest inspirations. 
• Elizabeth Richards decided that young adulthood is an "interesting path of life."
• Beth Revis simply decided that adult books are boring.
• Morgan Rhodes declared that being a young adult is a time for self-discovery. It really is. In middle and high school, we're just beginning to realize what kinds of people we are, what kinds of things we truly enjoy doing, and who we would like to be. 

What were the authors currently reading?

• Jessica Spotswood- Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
• Elizabeth Richards- Cruel
• Beth Revis- Wither by Lauren DeStefano
• Fiona Paul- Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Morgan Rhodes- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

How do you deal with Writer's Block?

• Jessica Spotswood uses a program called Write or Die. This program realizes if you don't write anything for a while, it eats away at your words and makes a terrible noise. I should try it. Also, she awards herself with stickers for every 1,000 words she writes. Another awesome strategy. She recognizes two types of Writer's Block:
• If you take a wrong turn in your story.
• If you're scared

• Elizabeth Richards says to write out of order. The only problem with writing out of order for me is the fact that I won't be able to put the pieces together. I won't beable to link the settings, the charcaters, the ordering of the plot, etc. 
• Beth Revis either kills off a character or blows up everything. Sounds like me.
• Fiona Paul and Morgan Rhodes say to PLOT OUT EVERYTHING. Fiona writes two books at one time. I feel like I'd mix up the two books. My brain would melt into mush. Not the kind of mush people eat, but...yucky mush (Sorry. That didn't make any sense.). And, of course, the thing that didn't even cross my mind, Morgan Rhodes says to eat lots and lots of ice cream. Off to the grocery store!

Favorite Books?

• Morgan Rhodes- Anna and the French Kiss (Stephanie Perkins), Vampire Academy, and any Stephen King.
• Fiona Paul- Along for the Ride (Sarah Dessen)
• Beth Revis- Narnia (C. S. Lewis), and Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling)
• Elizabeth Richards- Harry Potter, The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), and Divergent (Veronica Roth). I was falling in more in love with her as the event went on!
• Jessica Spotswood- Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), Graceling (Kristen Cashore), and Guilt.

Writing Tips

• Fiona Paul says to read all you can and don't get discouraged by criticism.
• Beth Revis says not to give up.
• Elizabeth Richards says use a separate e-mail when talking with your editor. You could accidentally send them a party invitation.
• Jessica Spotswood tells the crowd not to be in a hurry or rush your writing.
• Morgan Rhodes advises to trust your gut.

(Left to Right) Morgan Rhodes, Fiona Paul, Nora, Beth Revis, Elizabeth Richards, and Jessica Spotswood. (Sorry for the bad quality!)

-Nora

City of Bones

By Kristen


      I love this book.  LOVELOVELOVELOVE it.  I do realize that reading in third person isn't really my thing (mostly because when reading something in third person, I can't really experience the story as well as I would if it was in first person where you can experience how the character feels).  I read it last summer before school started and then I went to the library to check out some books (and by some I mean 13), City of Bones being one of them.  It was the first book I picked up right when I got home because it had been on my list for a long time.  This is mainly about Shadowhunters and vampires and werewolves and all that fun stuff which really makes this book one that is a MUST-READ so you better drop whatever you're doing and hit your local bookstore and get this book.  Or else.




     I'm just kidding, but if you have not read it yet, you must.  If you have read (sorry for being repetitive; these books appear in almost every post) Fallen, Beautiful Creatures, or Need, then you will absolutely LOVE this book.  I am not lying.  And the movie is coming out soon! Not really.  But there's only 5 months left....unless I miscounted...

Isabelle, Clary, Jace, Alec
By Ice~Ridden

-Kristen

Series I'd Like to Start (But haven't. Yet)

By Kristen

Like Nora said last week, we're going to be switching off each week :)

This week's topic: Top Ten Series I'd Like To Start But Haven't Yet

Honestly, this is just going to be a list.  I looked at my Goodreads To Be Read and schoose the first ten I saw that seemed reasonable...

1. Legend: Marie Lu.  This has been on my list since last year :) and I still haven't read it.
2. Unearthly: Cynthia Hand
3. Everneath: Brodi Ashton.  I really just liked the cover...
4. Starters: Lissa Price This book has been sitting in my locker for about a year now and my friend (that isn't Nora) keeps on telling me "You better read this soon!" And I was all like "Eh, whenever I get to it" and I left it at that.
5. Eve: Ana Carey.  My friend (the same one I'm borowing Starters from) read this last year and told me it was an amazing book and now I want to read the series!
6. Hush Hush: Becca Fitzpatrick
7. Wolves of Mercy Falls: Maggie Stiefvater
8. Halo: Alexandra Adornetto.  Read the description and that basically made me want to read it...but the problem is I don't really get to go to the library and Nora doesn't even have this book so that's out of the question.
9. The Selection: Kiera Kass.  This is being made into a TV show! And I haven't read it yet.
10. Annex (Beta): Rachel Cohn

I know this is short, but what else would you write about something you haven't read yet?  By the way, Requiem came out today!`1

-Kristen

Unravel Me

by Nora

A few weeks ago, I finished Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi. It was an amazing second book and left me wanting more (wow, I'm starting to get boring!). If you're a fan of The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, then you'll really enjoy this series. Anyway, I was looking up my favorite authors on Twitter (if you want to follow me, I'm @NoraReads) one night, and so I followed her and all she was posting about was how excited she was that Unravel Me was coming out in a few days. Now, the first time I read Shatter Me was in July during camp. I would go to the reading tent and sit at a picnic table and try to read while the counselor, Nate (who prefers the title "Nate the Great") , told six and seven year-olds crazy stories about saving his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, from a ginormous evil dragon. As you can tell, it was kind of hard to focus. When I finally finished Shatter Me, I was left wanting more, but I kept on forgetting to look it up when the next book came out when I got home.

Where am I going with this?
Oh, yeah.

Going back to Tahereh Mafi's Twitter feed, I started to get excited again about this series. I quickly skimmed through Shatter Me once more so that I could go out to a bookstore the day it came out and read, read, read. Unfortunately, we have no big bookstores around me. All the bookstores we have are used bookstores.

What?!?

You heard me, as much as I wanted to buy Unravel Me, I couldn't. Then I remembered a handy-dandy thing called iBooks. I bought the e-book version of Unravel Me and finished it in a day or two. It was FABULOUS. All Tahereh Mafi would Tweet about was Chapter 62, and it was calling my name the whole time. When I finally got there...well, I don't want to give too much away. If you have never watched any of Tahereh's YouTube videos, you should they are hilarious. Here's my favorite, where she shows you how to eat a pomegranate:

I am Team Adam, so I do not like the end of this video.

Would I reccomend the Shatter Me series?
Yes. Go buy it now. Drop whatever you're doing and go get it.


What are you waiting for?
GO!

-Nora