Beauty And The Books: Born At Midnight by C.C. Hunter

I just finished Born At Midnight by C.C. Hunter and I loved it! It's the first book in the Shadow Falls series. I don't know what it is about series' that I love so much, but I just can't get enough. I'm notorious for reading multiple series' at a time too. I always have this big TBR list so there's always other books I'm excited to read, which distracts me from finishing one series at a time. I will read one book in a series, and even if I loved it I usually will go to a different series before picking up the next book in the series that I just finished reading. In my eyes it's like watching TV. You don't want to sit there and watch the same show, episode after episode, over and over again because you'd get bored. That's how I am with books. I don't want to ruin a good thing so I like to "change the channel" after each "episode". Catch my drift? :)

In Born At Midnight, the main character Kylie is having a tough time. Her parents are going through a divorce, her Nana just passed away, her boyfriend broke up with her, and for some reason this guy dressed as a soldier is following her around. Anyone would be weirded out to have some random guy following them around, and popping up at random times and places. What makes this situation even creepier is that only Kylie can see him. Her parents naturally are worried about her, so they have her visit with a psychiatrist to try and figure out what's really going on. Kylie is a good kid, but with everything going on at home she decides to go to a party with a friend of hers to try and unwind. While at the party, the cops show up and take everyone to the police station because of underage drinking, and for drugs that were found at the party. Kylie was not drinking or doing any drugs, but because she lied to her mom about the party she gets in a heck of a lot of trouble.

Naturally her mother is worried about her, but Kylie's mom is not the motherly type. She's cold natured, and doesn't show a lot of affection. When her mom picks her up from the police station, she tells Kylie that her psychiatrist had recommended she attend a summer camp, and after the party fiasco, her mom decides that summer camp is the best way to get to the bottom of Kylie's issues. The camp her psychiatrist recommends is called Shadow Falls. Kylie does not want to go to camp, and she wishes her mom wouldn't make her go. When they arrive to the bus station, Kylie starts to take in the other kids that are also attending Shadow Falls. They all appear to be gothic, and look like the kind of kids that are up to no good. She begs her mom one more time to please let her stay home, but her mom doesn't budge, and sends her off to camp.

Shadow Falls is not a camp for troubled youth like she had thought. When she arrives and the camp leaders are giving their introductions, everyone won't stop staring at Kylie. She's really confused and doesn't understand what's going on. Things get even more uncomfortable when a fellow camper raises her hand, and asks in front of the entire camp "What's she doing here?", pointing right at Kylie. Soon after that, Kylie finds out what kind of camp Shadow Falls really is, and needless to say she's pretty freaked out. Shadow Falls is a camp for supernaturals. Everyone attending the camp is either a vampire, a werewolf, a shape shifter, a witch, or a fairy. Kylie is totally creeped out and doesn't understand why in the world she's. All she knows is that she's just a regular teenage girl. She wonders why her psychiatrist would recommend this camp for her in the first place, and she can't wrap her head around the fact that supernaturals even exist.

After everyone arrives at camp and the initial introductions have been made, Kylie goes in for a meeting with Holiday, one of the camp directors. Holiday explains to Kylie that her psychiatrist recommended Shadow Falls because she believes that Kylie is a supernatural, or at least half of one. What led her to believe this is Kylie's brain pattern, and her ability to see ghosts. Every supernatural has a different brain pattern than regular humans, and they all have the ability to read said patterns. Kylie is beyond confused, she's scared, and she really wishes that this wasn't happening to her. She's not even the slightest bit convinced that she's a supernatural. She is looking for every excuse in the book, and every possible explanation, for why her brain pattern is different and why she could be seeing this ghost.

Throughout the rest of the book, we follow Kylie through her first few weeks at camp as she tries to discover who she is, what she is, and how she came to be that way. We get to watch her come into her own, form new friendship's, and witness a love triangle that is starting to unfold. I really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Supernatural YA Fiction. There are five books in this series, along with a few side stories. Born At Midnight received 4.15 stars out of a possible five on GoodReads, and the rest of the books in the series also have above a four star rating. 

I hope ya'll enjoyed today's Beauty And The Books post! Let me know in the comments below if you've read this series and what your thoughts and opinions are on it.

xoxo,

Casey

Beauty And The Books: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I have been wanting to dive into this book since last year and have finally gotten around to it. The 5th Wave was recommended to me through Barnes and Noble because I liked dystopian adventure type books like Divergent, Hunger Games, and The Maze Runner. I didn't do a lot of research, or read a lot of reviews on this before I read it, and I'm glad I didn't. I like to go into books not knowing a whole lot, I like to be surprised with my reading and I don't want any spoilers, so I'm going to discuss the book without giving everything away so you can enjoy it as much as I did. It was different than I thought it would be, and I think that made me love it even more.

The beginning of the story kind of reminds me of The Walking Dead. The main character Cassie is all alone, living in a tent in the woods of Ohio. She walks during the day searching for food, and hides in her tent at night so "the Others" won't find her. The roads are abandoned, and so are all the stores and shops which have all been looted. She's a lone survivor of The Waves and isn't sure how many other survivors are left, all she knows is she can't trust anyone. The Waves were brought on by aliens. They invaded Earth and have been slowing killing off the human race wave by wave. These aren't the little green martians, or tall skinny aliens with giant eyeballs, they look just like you and me. You can't tell an alien from a regular person, which is why no one can be trusted.

Let's break down the waves. During the 1st Wave, all things electronic stopped working. All cell phones, computers, and electricity stopped at once. Same goes for cars and planes which all just died mid drive and mid flight, causing pile ups and planes crashing down from the sky. During the 2nd Wave, all coastal cities on every continent were wiped out during a giant tsunami. During the 3rd Wave there was a plague that slowly began infecting the human race and killing them off. It didn't effect everyone though, some people didn't get it at all and some people got it and then were able to recover, but only a slight few. The 4th Wave, which the world is currently in, brought along the Silencers. The Silencers are The Others who are out killing off the survivors of the 3rd Wave. They hide on top of buildings, in the woods, and wherever else they can think of and basically are sniping out any wandering survivors.

The 5th Wave was a fun, easy read. It had a lot of different Parts and short chapters which I loved. Another thing I liked about the writing style, was that we got to read from different character's point's of view with each new Part. Sometimes I enjoy reading different point's of view, but depending on how it's written it can be really confusing or it doesn't flow well. Rick Yancey did a fantastic job with each transition. They flowed really well because instead of switching every other chapter, we got whole Parts with multiple chapters for each character and their point of view.  This really hooks the reader in, and makes you understand the waves and the new world much better, but you also get invested with each character. I really enjoyed the characters and their stories and development. Of course there were characters and Parts that I enjoyed more than others, but I loved getting to read through different eyes and experiencing all their different journey's. Yancey literally gave life to each character, and you could tell which character was who just by their attitude and tone with each changing Part.

I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of dystopian, action and adventure, or sci-fi/fantasy books. It's a page turner and flows really well. It didn't go through any ruts where it got slow or boring. The story advanced smoothly, and each part progressed at a perfect pace. The second book in the series is called The Infinite Sea and it comes out on September 16. I cannot wait and definitely will be purchasing it. This series is definitely going to be a competitor with The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. There's already a movie in the works for The 5th Wave, set  to come out in 2016, starring Chloe Moretz as Cassie.

I hope you enjoyed today's review and are enjoying my Beauty and The Books series. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and I look forward to bringing you more book related posts. Let me know in the comments below if you've read The 5th Wave and what your thoughts were on it!


xoxo,
Casey

Beauty and the Books: Half Bad by Sally Green

Hey ya'll!!

Another week, another book read. Like the new name change?! I decided to go ahead and change the name of my book related posts from "Book Work Series" to the new and improved "Beauty and the Books". I think it's a better fit, what about you? Today's Beauty and the Books is a review on Half Bad by Sally Green. I have been really excited to read this book and had high hopes for it. I enjoyed reading it, but it ended up being different than what I thought it would be. Find out more about the synopsis in my TBR here.

Half Bad is the first book in a new  trilogy, Book Two comes out at the end of 2015. It's about a boy named Nathan, who is half White Witch and half Black Witch. White Witches are good, Black Witches are bad. Nathan's mother was a White Witch, and had a husband and a family of her own. Nathan's father, Marcus, is the most evil of all Black Witches. He killed Nathan's mother's husband, and left her to raise Nathan and the rest of her children on her own. Nathan's mother couldn't deal with it all, so she committed suicide when Nathan was just a baby. Nathan and his siblings were then raised by their Gran. He has never met his father but knows of him. Nathan has to go into town to meet with the Council every year on his birthday. Starting as a young child, he is submitted to tons of questioning about himself and his father, a man he has never met.

I was surprised at how much the book dealt with discrimination, even though it didn't outright say anything about it. I don't know if that was Green's intention in writing it, but that's how it came off to me. You really feel for Nathan as he grows up with everyone hating and judging him, and assuming he's bad news just because of who his father is. No one will be his friend, his teacher's don't take the time to educate him like they do the other students, his oldest sister is very hateful towards him, and even the Council members discriminate against Nathan. The Council sends many notifications to Nathan's house, always changing and giving new rules and regulations pertaining to Half Codes (anyone who is a mixed witch), making his and his Gran's life that much more stressful and miserable. He does have people on his side though. His Gran, his brother Arran, and his sister Deborah treat him well, along with his schoolmate Annalise.

Annalise comes from a Pure White family, all who play major roles in the Council. She and Nathan form a friendship that quickly turns into something more. When her brother's find out about this, they confront Nathan and begin torturing him, hurting him terribly. His family is really upset by this, but know there's nothing they can do about it because Annalise's family is such a huge part of the Council. Soon, Nathan and his Gran are notified by the Council that he is to come in for more questioning. When he arrives and goes through his normal questioning, he is taken into custody, is given a new guardian, and is whisked away immediately, all while his poor Gran watches the whole thing.

Nathan's guardian is a tough, military type woman. She has him on a strict schedule and he is kept chained in a cage at night to sleep. Even though she hits him, and works him to the bone, they grow a sort of fondness towards each other. Just when they grow this newfound fondness, Nathan is taken away again. This time he is taken into the custody of the Council, where Annalise's brother is now working.

While in custody, Nathan ends up escaping. When he was still living with his Gran, he met with this old woman named Mary. Mary told him of people who could help him receive his Three Gifts. Every witch must receive Three Gifts on their Seventeenth Birthday in order to become a witch and find out their power. Nathan already knows that the first person he is supposed to find, lives in the area where the Council building is. Nathan begins his traveling adventures, making stop after stop, and meeting different people who are all steps to finding Mercury, the witch who hopefully will help him with his Three Gifts. I don't want to spoil the entire story, especially since this is the first book in a trilogy, so I'm going to stop the spoilers here.

Nathan is tested in many different ways in his short life, and even though the whole world seemed to be against him, he didn't let that stop him from achieving his goal in getting his Three Gifts. I think this is a great book about facing diversity, and being strong even when you don't have anyone cheering you on. It's a great book for kids in school to read as well. It does a great job of showing how we shouldn't discriminate against others for who their parents are, or where they come from. That everyone is their own person, and despite where they originate from, it doesn't always mean they are going to turn out that same way. We shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Sometimes the best people are the ones who have all odds against them, sometimes that person just needs someone to give them a chance.

If you enjoy fantasy and paranormal books, I recommend giving this one a try. I enjoyed it even though it was different than what I expected. There wasn't as much magic in it as I thought there would be. If there's anything negative for me to say, it would be that I wished the book would have been  more "magical". I'm really excited for Book Two.  Half Bad ended on a cliff hanger, so I think there will be a lot more magic and action in the second book!

I'm close to being done with my TBR List, and will be on the hunt for more reads pretty soon. Let me know what books you recommend, or what books you'd like to see reviews on in the comments below!


xoxo,
Casey

Book Worm Series: Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira

Hey ya'll!!

In today's Book Worm Series I'm reviewing the debut novel by Ava Dellaira, Love Letters To The Dead. I have been anxious to read this for a while now because I've heard great things about. This review is going to be short and sweet, mainly because I didn't finish it..... Here's why.

I did not like this book..... at all. I'm so disappointed! I was really looking forward to it. I really tried to like it, I wanted to like it so bad, it just didn't happen. It was very slow, pulling teeth slow. I had looked at different reviews periodically while reading and so many reviewers said things like "It starts out slow, just give it a chance!", "It's like there's two halves to the book, the first half is slow and the second part you can't put it down!", "Once you get past the first half, you'll love it!". Well guess what, I got well into the so called "second half" and I still wasn't feeling it. I wanted to stop reading it well before the "second half" but I decided to listen to the other reviewers and stick it out. I really hate to not finish books. It literally is hard for me to not finish them and I actually feel guilty when I don't. Thankfully it rarely happens that I don't finish one. But if I'm not enjoying myself, then why should I continue wasting my time reading something that I'm not interested in?

I can see why people have liked it and raved about it. The book is not terrible, it really does mean well, it just wasn't doing it for me. I didn't relate to any of the characters, any of the "letter recipients", or to any of the situations the characters were going through. I think the main reason is because Laurel seems so young. She doesn't have any sort of personality, she's very mopey, and just annoying. If I can't relate to a character, if a character is not interesting to me, or if the character fails to have any sort of personality then I simply won't enjoy the book.

Love Letters To The Dead is about a girl named Laurel. She recently started going to a new high school after her sister May died, and her mom left town. She goes back and forth after a week long stay between her Dad's house, and her Aunt Amy's house (her mom's sister). At this new school Laurel meets new friends and tries to move on with her life. She is given an assignment on her first day of school, to write a letter to a dead person. Since her sister recently passed away, she couldn't bring herself to turn in her assignment. Her teacher was understanding, giving her two extensions, but she still didn't turn in the assignment (she may have ended up turning one in towards the end, but I didn't get that far). In her letters she tells stories about her past, and talks about the present with her new life and new friends. Mostly her letters are about missing her sister, and how her sister used to be, but she would never talk about how she died. The so called "second half" that many reviewers referred to was when Laurel reveals how May died. When I got to that part in the book I thought to myself "Ok, I've made it. This is going to get good now". Wrong, I was so wrong. I stuck it out for a few more letters, but it still never ended up interesting me, so I just gave up.

I wish I was walking away from this review telling you to go out and pick this up, but I can't bring myself to do it. I feel like such a Debbie Downer right now for writing a negative review, but it happens sometimes! Let me know in the comments below if you've read this book and what you thought about it!


xoxo,
Casey

Book Worm Series: Eleanor & Park *No Spoilers*

Hey ya'll!!

Today I'm going to give you my thoughts, and an overview, of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. The reason why I'm not doing a full on review with spoilers is because it is so good that I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. The first Rainbow Rowell book I read was FanGirl which I absolutely loved. For more information on FanGirl click here. I adored Eleanor and Park! It was funny, relatable, and tugged on my heart strings. Throughout the book, the points of view are constantly shifting between Eleanor and Park. Normally I don 't like books like that, but Rowell wrote it so well that the transitions between characters is smooth and easy to follow.

For those of you that don't know, Eleanor and Park is about two high schoolers who start out not liking each other, but overtime they grow on each other and have their "first love" experience. The way Rainbow Rowell wrote about first love was on point and totally relatable and realistic. You really feel like you're a high schooler again while reading it, and relive those feelings of having crushes, being embarrassed, and having to be around people that you just can't stand.

Eleanor is new to school, and is very much an individual and stands out from all the other students. Her choices in clothes are questionable, and she has unruly red, curly hair. She quickly becomes the target for name calling and bullying by her peers. Even though it hurts her, she doesn't try and argue back, or stand up for herself.

Not only does she have a hard time at school, but her home life isn't any better. Her family is poor, and they don't have much of anything. She lives in a rundown little house with her mom and younger siblings, along with her step-dad. Her step-dad is an absolute terrible person. The whole time I was reading I was so disgusted by him. He's very mean, a drunk, and his life goal seems to make everyone in that house miserable with him. Eleanor's mom isn't any better. She's the kind of woman who allows that kind of behavior, and is very submissive to the abusive behavior.

Park's life is very different from Eleanor's. He has a great family, and his life is everything Eleanor wishes her would be, normal. His parents are still together and they adore each other. He has a younger brother who towers over him, and his grandparents live right next door. He also has it pretty easy at school. He isn't super popular, but he isn't a nerd either. You could say Park is in the "happy medium" section on the social scale.

I don't want to give anything else about the book away. All I want to say is stop what you're doing, and go read this book. It's so good, so worth it, and I promise you won't be disappointed. I absolutely adored it, and will recommend it to all book lovers out there.

I hope you enjoyed today's Book Worm Review. Until next time!


xoxo,
Casey

Book Worm Series: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare *SPOILERS*

Waaaahh I can't believe The Mortal Instruments series is over! But good news, there's a new series coming out in 2015 called The Dark Artifices and we are going to see our beloved characters again! Yay!!

City of Heavenly Fire was one of my favorite books from The Mortal Instruments series. All of the characters really shined. The story was exciting from the get go. In some of the books there would be a few chapters where things would get kind of boring and slow, kind of stop and go. But in this last book, things were go, go, go the whole time. It stayed interesting and fun, and I really liked how the chapters seemed to go back and forth to all the different story lines going on. 

My absolute favorite thing about this book was the tie-in to The Infernal Devices. If you have read the first five books in The Mortal Instruments series, but have not read The Infernal Devices or City of Heavenly Fire, then absolutely do not read City of Heavenly Fire first! You have to read The Infernal Devices series before you read City of Heavenly Fire to fully understand what is going on.

We lost a lot of people in this book, but that was expected. Jordan died early on in the book, Maia became a complete badass and killed Maureen, grumpy Raphael was killed because *gasp* he actually showed some feelings and refused to kill Magnus, and Sebastian, along with all the Endarkened and fellow Shadowhunters, died at the very end. I was not expecting Jonathan Morgenstern to surface once Clary stabbed Sebastian. I was really glad that happened though because it allowed Clary and Jocelyn to have at least some kind of closure. 

Not only did a lot of characters die, but Simon had quite the journey.... He was kidnapped right after the Shadowhunters went to Alicante and crazy vampire Maureen locked him in a cage and dressed him up in leather pants and a billowy shirt. Simon is freaking out thinking about how he's going to get out of there when, out of all people, Rafael shows up and helps him escape. He takes him to Alicante to help him represent the Vampires. I started to think that maybe Rafael was starting to be nicer to Simon, until he gave him drugged blood and Simon embarrassed himself to no end. Simon eventually goes to Edom with his crew to help stop Sebastian and he practically is starving the entire time. 

Poor Simon, he was really put through the ringer. You think Simon's bad luck is over until Magnus summons his demon father to help them out of Edom. Magnus's dad wants Magnus's immortality as a price for getting them safely out of Edom. By giving his dad his immortality, Magnus would die immediately because he is over 400 years old and his body would just wither away to nothing. Simon steps up and offers his immortality instead not thinking it through that he too would die immediately because he's undead. The demon says that Simon can live without his immortality, but he has to give up his memories. He would have no memories of his friends, of magic, or of the Shadowhunter world. Once I read that I was like "Noooo!". It was so sad! I've always liked Simon's character, so when they were all going to have to live without him it was just terrible. In the Epilogue, when Clary, Isabelle, and Magnus are waiting for Simon at his school and Clary ends up having a conversation with Simon, he ends it with giving her a flier for his bands concert. When it showed what was on the flier, I did a double take! I got really excited because I just knew they all couldn't just move on

without Simon. I'm really excited  to see how all of their stories progress in The Dark Artifices!

We can't forget about the Faeries. Those dang, evil Faeries. I was pretty shocked at the scene where Sebastian was in bed with the Seelie Queen, because I didn't see it coming! I've been reading, and watching, City of Heavenly Fire book reviews, and the best theory for The Dark Artifices I have heard thus far is that the Seelie Queen is going to wind up pregnant with Sebastian's baby, and that's who is going to be the new villain in The Dark Artifices. Holy moly! Let that one sink it for just a minute.

We were introduced to new characters, which are going to be the main characters in The Dark Artifices series. Emma Carstairs is going to be the new heroin in the upcoming series, along with the Blackthorn children. I really like how Cassandra Clare not only introduced them in this final book, but she gave them a pretty good sized role, making it nearly impossible to not want to read the new series. Talk about hook, line, and sinker! Not only do we know that Emma and the Blackthorns are going to be in the new series, but Jem and Tessa are going to be in it too! Emma thinks she is the only Carstairs left, so I'm really excited to see how Jem is going to tell her that she is not alone, and that he too is a Carstairs. Not only are the Carstairs going to be making a comeback in The Dark Artifices, but Jace has decided to take on the Herondale name! Get it? Will, Tessa, Jem... Jem Carstairs and Will Herondale... So not only will Emma find out she's not the only Carstairs left, but it looks like Jace is finally going to get some good news and learn more about his family through Tessa, since she married Will in The Infernal Devices and they had a family of their own. CAN'T - FREAKIN' - WAIT!

I really enjoyed City of Heavenly Fire. Cassandra Clare did such a wonderful job with both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, that I know The Dark Artifices will not disappoint. 

I would love to know all of your thoughts on these series and all of the books. What was your favorite series and what are your theories for the next series?

xoxo,

Casey

Book Worm Series: Review - The Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass

Hey ya'll!

I absolutely LOVE to read! It's one of my absolute favorite things to do. I have my Grandma to thank for that. She taught me to read when I was three and took me to Barnes and Noble regularly. We would read and drink endless amounts of hot chocolate on many occasions. Those are definitely some of my favorite memories as a child. I enjoyed reading through Elementary, but kind of fell out of it in Middle School and High School. I didn't get back into it until I was about 19-20 years old. My favorite books to read are Young Adult Fiction, but I do venture out and read books outside of YA from time to time. If you are a certified "Book Worm" like I am, then I hope you enjoy!

Today I am doing a series review on The Selection trilogy by Kiera Cass. I had a lot of fun with this series. All three books were entertaining, fast reads. I purchased The Selection on my Nook a few months ago and didn't get around to reading it until recently. I finished it in three days and immediately purchased The Elite (Book 2) and The One (Book 3). I marathoned the entire series in a week. If you are a fan of YA 'Distopian' Fiction, and the show The Bachelor, you will enjoy these fun reads.

In The Selection we are introduced to the main character, America Singer who lives in the country of Illéa. Illéa, formerly the USA, is set up similar to The Districts in The Hunger Games. The citizens of Illéa live in numbered classes depending on how well off their families were at the time the nation was born. The citizens are numbered as One through Eight, One's are the royal family and Eight's are similar to The Factionless in The Divergent trilogy. America Singer is a Five, and lives at home with her mother, father, and little sister and brother. When the Prince of Illéa, Prince Maxon, comes of age, The Selection begins. The Selection is a nationwide search for the next Princess of Illéa. America is in no way interested in applying because she is carrying on a secret relationship with Aspen. But because of her pestering mother, and the encouragement of Aspen, she decides to go ahead and apply, knowing that the chances of her being selected are quite slim. Low and behold, America is one of the lucky thirty-five girls picked to win over Prince Maxon's heart. She is thrust into a new world, meets new faces, and has new experiences she never even dreamed of. America is a smart girl with a good heart, but she can be down right annoying at times because she is so dang indecisive! If you have read this series, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't want to give too much away in case any of you haven't read the series yet, so I'm going to leave it at that.

I give The Selection trilogy a 4 out 5 stars. It's not my favorite series, but it was fun and kept me interested and entertained.

I hope you enjoyed today's post! If you have read this series, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Also, be sure to let me know what books you're loving at the moment!


xoxo,
Casey


For more information on Kiera Cass, and her books, be sure to check out her website.
http://www.kieracass.com