"Waiting On" Wednesday (25)

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Release Date: September 27, 2011

In My Mailbox (25)

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

This book is a classic, and after reading it, I know why. I'll be in Honors English this upcoming year, and we have summer homework. We have to read this book (along with one other) and do a journal project on it, so I thought I'd just buy my own copy. :)











I also just went to an Upward Bound (the college prep program I'm in through Sonoma State) back-to-school kickoff, and in it came a Spanish-English dictionary. It'll be handy because I am taking Spanish.

I know I've barely gotten any books in these past few months, but I'm really trying to get through the ones I already own.

Anyways, have a great Thursday! :D

Book-Blogger Tag

Usually, I see TAGs done in video form, but I figured I’d mix it up a little bit and make up a written TAG. I take EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU. Yes, YOU. Enjoy. :) 

When did you start blogging?

November 11, 2010

How did you come across the Book-Blogging world?

I was in journalism class Freshman year (last year) with a girl named Zoe, and I really liked to read, so I chose to do the “book review” column. She came up to me one day and asked if she could do it instead, because she had a book review blog. I said, “sure!” and then I asked her what her website address was. From there, I had checked out her blog, and discovered this whole online community that loved books as much as I did, and wrote about them.

Which book blogs are your favorite (linked)?

Zoe’s Book Reviews

I Eat Words

What’s Your Story

I check those blogs out practically everyday :)

Do you have a “Book Fairy”? If so, who?

Without a doubt, Zoe is my book fairy. She is always lending me books, giving me books, and telling me about awesome authors.

Do you parents know about your blog?

Yes, and they enjoy telling all of my family to check out my blog on Facebook. They’re all very supportive. :)

Do you receive books for review from Publishers/Authors?

Occasionally I will get a request from a self-published author to review their e-book. Other than that, I get some e-Books from Netgalley and the Simon & Schuster’s Galley Grab program.

How often do you post on your blog?

I used to post every day, but then I started getting busy and in a book slump, so it was more like every other day, to once or twice a week, to a couple times a month. I took a little break and now I’m re-energized and excited to hopefully be posting every day! :)

What memes do you do?

“In My Mailbox”, which is hosted by The Story Siren

“‘Waiting On’ Wednesday” which is hosted by 

“TBR Stack” for the upcoming month

“Monthly Recap”

And I just started a new meme called “Who’s On The Cover?”

What book did you review first?

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

How do you handle a negative review?

I haven’t written that many negative reviews, but when I do I definitely don’t just bash on the book. I try to be respectful to the author who wrote the book, and I like to include something that I did like about the book. I usually include that the book wasn’t right for me, but that maybe someone else would like it.

Do you like to review your books right after you read them?

I used to, but then I started getting behind on them, and was writing the reviews a couple of days after reading the books. I try not to let the time elapsed between reading the book and writing the review get too big so that the book is still fresh in my mind when I write about it.

What other websites do you have associated with your blog (linked)?

Goodreads

Twitter (@laurapratz)

Facebook

What do you like best about blogging?

I love the blogging community. Everyone’s so nice and easy to talk to, and it’s really great to be able to write and rant about books that I like or don’t like, instead of trying to talk to my mom or a friend about it, because most of the time they don’t even know what  I’m talking about. I have some friends that enjoy reading, but most of them haven’t read the same books that I have. It’s nice to post about a book and have people who’ve read the book talk about it with me and be able to have an in depth discussion.

Another great thing about blogging is being able to talk with authors. Before I started blogging, I always thought authors were like celebrities, and that they were too busy to talk to their fans/readers. I quickly realized that most of them are really down to earth, and love talking to bloggers/readers.

Lastly, I love finding out about books through other blogs and bloggers’ recommendations. I think it’s cool that I can discover books similar to what I like, but also that I can expand my horizons with books from genres I don’t normally read.

I'M BACK!

The title pretty much explains it all!

I took about a month off from blogging to get caught up on reading and write some blog posts, and I am very excited to be getting back into the routine of things, and hopefully having a post up everyday. :)

I was going to come back on the fifteenth, but I was just too anxious to start blogging again.

I have lots of new things planned for The Cover, and I can't wait to share them with you.

Thanks for sticking with me.

--Laura

Reading Vacation!

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement Moore

Pages: 416
Publisher: Random House
Age Group: Young Adult
Challenges: 350 Page Challenge
Release Date: July 7, 2011

Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister. Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.

Stars: 3.5/5
Cover: A+

I am absolutely in love with Rosemary Clement Moore. I first fell in love with her Prom Dates From Hell series in, like, seventh grade, so when I borrowed Texas Gothic from Copperfield's (a local indie bookstore) I was SO excited.

It didn't quite meet my expectations, unfortunately. My main problem with it was that it fell really flat in the middle, and kind of dragged on. I think if the book was a hundred pages less, it would have been absolutely perfect.

I liked the whole premise behind the novel, and how it had the whole down-South setting going on. Amy reminded me a lot of Moore's other protagonist in the Prom Dates From Hell series because of how witty and entertaining they both are.

Another thing I liked is how unique and memorable the characters were. Phin, Amy's older sister, was hilarious. She was an experimental scientist, and it was a great comic relief how all of her experiments were either making the house smell like dirty socks, or in some other way not exactly going smoothly.

I thought Amy's love interest, Ben, was really irritating in the beginning of the book because of how arrogant he was, but Ben's one of those guys that grow on you. By the end of the book, I was absolutely in love with the idea of Amy and Ben as a couple.

The cover to this book is absolutely gorgeous. I love the juxtaposition of the model's eyes and her hair (I'm guessing the model is supposed to be Amy, because in Texas Gothic she has red hair).

Lovely Line:

The Final Verdict:
Texas Gothic is the perfect summer read. It combines many different genres of YA, so it will appeal to many different audiences. If the book hadn't gotten a little boring in the middle, it would have been much better!

FTC: Borrowed.

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Pages: 304 
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Age Group: Young Adult
Challenges: Debut Author Challenge
Release Date: July 11, 2011


What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?



Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.


A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks.


Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again?


Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive.

Stars: 3.5/5
Cover: B+


I was super duper excited to read this when I got it from NetGalley on my Nook, and I didn't really know what to expect when I started it. First of all, I thought the whole premise was really unique. I've never read a story where children who've been mistreated and abused become mermaids. I thought the pace in the story was great, and there weren't any dead spots in the story line.


The one thing that kept me from thoroughly enjoying this story is that I just couldn't get into it.


The main character, Luce, was really well-created. When thrown into crazy situations, she wasn't annoyingly whiny, and she was able to logically think her way out of bad situations. The one problem was that I just didn't relate to her.


The queen mermaid, Catarina, was really fierce. I never really knew what she was going to do, and that definitely heightened the suspense of the story.


I think Sarah Porter's found her place in writing fantasy. I think she provided beautiful descriptions of the scenery, and as I said earlier, paced the story very well.


Okay, I'm being honest with you here. I read this book a few months ago, and thinking back on it now, the ending wasn't that memorable to me. I can barely remember what happened, when usually I can recount endings (and books in general) quite well.


I think the cover of the book is really pretty, and it's simple, but captures your attention. It represents what the book is about, and is a little bit mysterious, which I love.


I think it was my fault I wasn't get into it, and I think I could have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't had a lot of different stuff going on in my life at the time that I read it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good summer read.
 
FTC: NetGalley