Perceptions, Nobodies & Wicked Kisses?

Recent Cover Reveals:

Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen

MY KISS CAN KILL. I used to be ordinary Samantha Day, but that's changed. Now, after one dark kiss from a dangerous boy, I can steal someone's soul...or their life. If I give in to the constant hunger inside me, I hurt anyone I kiss. If I don't...I hurt myself. Bishop is the one whose kiss I crave most, but if I kiss him, I'll kill him. Then there's another boy, one I can't hurt. One whose kiss seems to miraculously quell my hunger. They're both part of a team of angels and demons that's joined forces in my city to fight a mysterious rising darkness, an evil that threatens everyone I know and love. I just wonder if I'll be able to help Bishop-or if I'm just another part of the darkness he's sworn to destroy.... NIGHTWATCHERSWhen angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising...

 Perception by Lee Strauss

Seventeen year old Zoe Vanderveen is a GAP—a genetically altered person. She lives in the security of a walled city on prime water-front property along side other equally beautiful people with extended life spans.
Her brother Liam is missing.
Noah Brody is a natural who lives on the outside. He leads protests against the GAPs and detests the widening chasm they’ve created between those who have and those who don’t. He doesn’t like girls like Zoe and he has good reason not to like her specifically.
Zoe’s carefree life takes a traumatic turn. She’s in trouble and it turns out that Noah, the last guy on earth she should trust, is the only one who can help her.

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away. 
The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.
Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them. That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

 What are your thoughts on these covers?

-Guest Post- Louise Rozett: (Fictional) Men I've Loved

Bio: Louise Rozett is an author, a playwright, and a recovering performer. She is making her YA debut with Confessions of an Angry Girl, published by Harlequin Teen, due out on 8/28/12. She lives with her cool boyfriend Alex and awesome dog Lester in one of the world's greatest literary meccas, Brooklyn.

Contact: Website | Goodreads | Twitter

Rose Zarelli, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has someconfessions to make…1. I'm livid all the time. Why? My dad died. My mom barely talks. My brother abandoned us. I think I'm allowed to be irate,don't you?
2. I make people furious regularly. Want an example? I kissed Jamie Forta, a badass guy who might be dating a cheerleader. She is nowenraged and out for blood. Mine.
3. High school might as well be Mars. My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time. (Mars is red and "seeing red" means being angry—get it?)
Here are some other vocab words that describe my life: Inadequate. Insufferable. Intolerable.
(Don't know what they mean? Look them up yourself.)
(Sorry. That was rude.)

(Fictional) Men I've Loved 

by Louise Rozett

The title of this post is “(Fictional) Men I’ve Loved.” If you’re wondering why “fictional” is in parentheses, it’s because these men do not feel fictional to me at all. Not in the slightest. Never have, never will. I guess I’m a romantic at heart, huh? (Or maybe just delusional.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about these men lately, probably because I’m a little bit in love with Jamie Forta, the guy the main character Rose falls for in the book I wrote, Confessions of an Angry Girl. It’s no surprise—I fell for a few complicated, mysterious, unavailable guys in high school and had my heart broken more than once. (That didn’t stop me from doing it again, of course).

Whenever I was nursing that very particular kind of broken heart that comes from (mostly) unrequited love, I found solace in books, movies, and plays, where I could safely love those complicated guys without getting hurt. So here, in honor of Jamie, are five complicated men who captured my heart at times when reality was just too tough to deal with.

• Phineas in A Separate Peace by John Knowles

The first time I can remember falling for a fictional character was when we read A Separate Peace in English class. We were learning how to write and revise a paper, so we had to read the book multiple times. I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to read in my entire life. I was madly in love with the perfectly beautiful and tragic Phineas, who knows way more than he lets on and does what he can to protect his best friend Gene for as long as he can. Every single time I read that book, I hoped against hope that it would end differently. It never did.

• Atticus Finch (or was it Gregory Peck?) in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

We read To Kill a Mockingbird in school, and I remember thinking that Atticus Finch was an amazing man and father. But when we watched the movie in class, I decided that even though I believed marriage wasn’t for me, if the magnificently moral and handsome Atticus Finch (as played by Gregory Peck) stepped out of that movie and proposed, I would say yes without hesitating. (In a funny turn of events, one of the actors on the Pinterest board “Who Should Play Jamie Forta?” is Ethan Peck, Gregory Peck’s grandson. Coincidence? I think not!)

• Septimus Hodge in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

This is possibly the most beautiful, brilliant play I’ve ever seen. It is so tantalizing to watch the charming, extraordinarily smart—and yes, tragic—Septimus Hodge, who is tutor to the young Thomasina, begin to fall for his charge as she grows up. He tries to ignore his feelings, but Thomasina is a force of nature that will not be denied. I saw Billy Crudup play this part on Broadway after he had just graduated from acting school, and I became a fan for life.

• Joe Kavalier in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Kavalier & Clay is probably my favorite book of all time. I fell hard for Joe, which surprised me because I was an adult when I read the book and I hadn’t had the experience of falling in love with a fictional man in a long time. But oh how I loved the heartbroken Joe, who escapes from the Nazis in 1939 and comes to America, forced to leave his family behind. Joe finds big success as an illustrator and innovator in comic books, but his desperate plight to save his family tortures him. I constantly wanted to just step into the book, put my arms around Joe, and tell him that everything was going to be all right. Even if it was a lie.

• John Reddy Heart in Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates

John Reddy Heart is absolutely irresistible to anyone who loves old-school rebels like James Dean and Marlon Brando. He is the ultimate inaccessible bad boy who barely notices that people of all kinds are deeply in thrall to his every move. He’s too busy trying to exist under the weight of a dark secret, which of course is the very thing that gives him an aura of mystery and makes people desperate to have him, to know him, to claim him. How quickly I became one of those people...

And there they are—the five fictional men I shall always love. Thank you, gentlemen, for getting me through heartbreak and inspiring me to bring Jamie Forta to life. We both owe you a debt of gratitude.

Confessions of an Angry Girl comes out on August 28^th, published by Harlequin TEEN, with a blog tour starting on August 27^th. Visit Louiserozett.com for more. 

A huge thanks to Louise for stopping by!

Check back later for my review of "Confessions of an Angry Girl"

-Waiting on Wednesday- 24: Impostor by Jill Hathaway

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Impostor by Jill Hathaway

What if a killer took control of you? Vee Bell’s gift (or curse) of “sliding”—slipping into the mind of another person and experiencing life, briefly, through his or her eyes—has been somewhat under control since she unwillingly witnessed the horrific deaths of her classmates six months ago. But just as things are getting back to normal, Vee has a very bizarre experience: she loses consciousness and finds herself in a deserted area, at the edge of a cliff, with the broken body of the boy who took advantage of her on the rocks below. As Vee finds herself in stranger and stranger situations with no memory of getting there, she begins to suspect that someone she knows has the ability to slide—and that this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.

I loved SLIDE by Jill Hathaway and I cannot wait for IMPOSTOR; the sequel. The first book was so good and Jill's writing is so great that I have high expectations, but I'm sure Jill will exceed them and make IMPOSTOR an amazing book filled with mystery and romance!

What are you Waiting on this Wednesday?

 Leave a link and I'll be sure to check out your posts!

-Top Ten Tuesday- 11

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish. It was created due to their love of lists.

This weeks topic is: "Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World(outside the book)

1. Amber & Cade- their chemistry was very interesting and they were both extremely passionate about music and seemed to connect with each other after spending only a day with one another.

2. Echo & Noah- they were both damaged characters that suited each other well, despite all of their problems.

3. Rhine & Gabriel- they have an extremely strange relationship that is hard to explain, but I believe that they suit each other well and deserve one another.

4. Clara & Tucker- their chemistry was undeniable!

5. Lena & Alex- the future of love on the earth depended on them in the book and I mean, surely that means that the are a perfect match for one another in the real world?

6. Hazel & Augustus- were to quirky characters that were the definition of perfection in terms of a great romance.

7. Alec & Magnus- one of the best couples in book history in my opinion!  That is all.

8. Kaidan & Anna- despite their differences, and subtract the angel and demon thing; I think they would last in real life...maybe...kind of...

9. Noah & Mara- I don't even need to say anything here...It's Mara & Noah!

10. Jem & Tessa- I'm team Jem all the way and I do believe that Tessa and Jem are the perfect match for one another!

Comment below and leave a link to your Top Ten Tuesday posts below and I'll be sure to check them out!

-Review- The Day Before by Lisa Shroeder

The Day Before by Lisa Shroeder
Release Date: 5 June 2012
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 307

Purchase: Book Depository | Amazon

Amber’s life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself. Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell he’s also looking for an escape. Together they decide to share a perfect day: no pasts, no fears, no regrets. The more time that Amber spends with Cade, the more she’s drawn to him. And the more she’s troubled by his darkness. Because Cade’s not just living in the now—he’s living each moment like it’s his last. Told in verse and brimming with raw emotion and pure romance, this is a gracefully woven tale of life-changing secrets and unexpected friendship.

The reason I bought this book was due to the fact that I recently stumbled upon Lisa’s blog and I wanted to read more novels written in verse as they intrigue me and I find them to be some of the most moving and emotionally relatable books.

Shroeder makes clever use of her lyrical writing style in order to draw the reader in as she makes clever use of poetry and letters in order to tell the story—this is what truly set this book apart from any others I have ever read before, for me. The letters sent to and from various characters in the book told the back story while the poetry or rather; the verse told the story that was happening in the present and the story becomes all the more interesting when the two finally merge in a sense(they both become the present). I know what I’m saying may sound strange but if you were to read this book I’m sure you’d understand what I mean.

Shroeder’s writing was lyrical and simple, this was a quick read and I think she did a great job! Along with the great verse, came a relatable story about two teenagers. Although I’m sure people of any age can enjoy The Day Before as we all want that one day in which we can do anything we wish, however this story becomes somewhat tragic towards the end.

The one thing that I did not like about this book was the fact that the poems seemed a little short for me, but they served their purpose in telling the story that the author wanted to convey which is great despite my personal feelings.

I loved the fact that this book had musical references in it as I am a music student myself and could relate to Amber and Cade; music is something that they both feel is very important and I feel that way too! The Day Before is definitely a book you should check out as it is emotional and fun to read all at once.

-Stacking The Shelves- 1

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, that spotlights the books we have recently received.  Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

This post is going to be a bit of a catch up post as I haven't posted anything about the books I have received recently. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to read such awesome books and be able to receive/buy them.

Received Lately:

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins(my review)
Trafficked by Kim Purcell

Rapture by Lauren Kate
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare(my review)
When The Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellison

Fated by Alyson Noel
The Day Before by Lisa Shroeder

A special thanks to HarlequinTEEN for providing me with the following eGalleys:

What did you receive this week?
Comment below with a link to your Stacking The Shelves posts and I'll be sure to check them out!

-Feature & Follow- 5

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to connect book bloggers; in turn allowing them to connect with other readers, gain new followers and most of all to be social in order to make some new friends. This meme is hosted byParajunkee & Alison Can Read.

Q: What would you do over if you were to start your blog again from scratch?

A: I think I would network more and review as many books as possible right off the bat because that's what we're all here for-- spreading the word about some of our favorite books and sharing our thoughts.

Happy Friday!