Stacking The Shelves (18)

Hey Chroniclers! I know this is a late post that is supposed to go up on Sunday's but I wasn't home and so I'm putting it up now. Also because I can so yea. Today I woke up really early for the cable guy to fix my DVR and decided to take a small nap and instead it turned into a few hours. I woke up not long ago and that is why the posts are late today as well. Stacking The Shelves is a weekly feature hosted by the wonderful Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews where we share with everyone the books that we'll be adding to our shelves.

The books below are  the books that I received last week.

The first one is Zom-B by Darren Shan that I bought because I had a B&N coupon. I wanted something scary or as scary as I could find for my October Themed Reading. I haven't read a book yet that's about zombies so I'm super excited for this one.

The rest of the books I received from HarperCollins Publishers who I thank oh so much! They were fantastic to send me a couple of books. Some of these I'll be giving away to some readers who would enjoy them more than I would. Those are It's Halloween, I'm Turning Green! by Dan Gutman which I have half a mind of reading actually. Annoying Orange: How To Be Annoying by Brandon Snider, Gravediggers: Terror Cove by Christopher Krovatin which looks pretty cool but my friend actually has the first book and Cinderella Smith: The Super Secret Mystery by Stephanie Barden.

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson is one of the books I'll be keeping. The cover is fantastic and the deckled edges just make it all better and it looks like a fun read.

The last one is Scary School 3: The Northern Frights by Derek The Ghost. I have the first two which I also added to my TBR Pile and they'll all be read during the October Scary Themed Month. I'm excited to read those as well!

But that's all I got this week, what did you guys get? Leave your comments down below!

Don't forget to check out my other places on the web of inter...
Facebook: The Subtle Chronicler
Twitter: @SubtleChronicle
Goodreads: Michael Araujo
Instagram: AntonioMeks

Stacking The Shelves (17)

Hey Chroniclers! Another week has come and gone and we're already at the end of June. Well, almost. Anyway, it's Sunday which means it's time for Stacking The Shelves. For those of you who don't know, Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by the wonderful Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews where we show you guys the books we bought or received during the week.

This week I didn't get many things but I'm still excited for what I got.

The first book I got was Black Heart by Holly Black which I bought using B&N Gift Cards from Viggle. I now own the whole trilogy and can start reading it soon. The thing is, the books don't exactly match. The first and third one are glossy while the second isn't. Plus, the spine of the third one is cut off and I have no idea why they did it like that. But aside from that, I'm still excited.

The second and last book I got is The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani and I'm actually excited to read it as well. I received it from HarperCollins Publishers and the cover looks amazing. It also sounds like a fantastic read and I can't wait to read them both.

That's all I got this week, what did you guys get? Leave your comments down below!

Don't forget to check out my other places on the web of inter...
Facebook: The Subtle Chronicler
Twitter: @SubtleChronicle
Goodreads: Michael Araujo
Instagram: AntonioMeks

 

Stacking The Shelves (8)

Hey Chroniclers! This post is a bit late but I haven't been feeling well and was being a bit too lazy to get the books and take the picture and do all of this but I am doing it for sure! Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews where we show what we got during the week. This week I got a little more than the usual one book so I'm pretty excited for it!

This week has been a bit exciting. First off I bought the last book in The Circle Opens Quartet Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce. I can't wait to finally read the quartet and see how it all turns out. I might read them around April or May though but we'll see.

I received a Hardcover copy of The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis, which is the first book of the Seven Wonders Series, from HarperCollins Publishers. It looks very interesting and so good and reminds me of Rick Riordan's work who actually gave has a blurb on the cover. I also love the cover and the whole book in general. Very well put together. 

Also I saw that Peter Lerangis had a prequel novella of around 50 pages called The Selection for the kindle and nook and it was free. Now I only use the nook for review which actually, I barely use at all. And we all know how I feel about novella.s But this being so short and being free I decided to just get it and check it out before I read the book. It's still available for both Nook and Kindle.

So that's all I got this week and it's pretty exciting. What did you guys get? Leave the link down below!

Also don't forget to check me out on other places around the web of inter...

Twitter: @SubtleChronicle
Facebook: The Subtle Chronicler
Goodreads: Michael Araujo


   

Book Review: The Great Unexpected

Title: The Great Unexpected
Author: Sharon Creech
Pages: 226
Publication: 04 September, 2012
Rating: E for Exceeds Expectations
Copy: Received by HarperCollins Publisher

Review: The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech is one of those books that gets right into things, much like this review, and doesn’t diddle daddle. The novel features two girls, Naomi and Lizzie who meet a young man named Finn who fell from a tree and seems to act very peculiar. To be honest, I felt like there wasn’t a specific plot and that the novel just went on its way, much like life. Whether it is a good thing or a bad I’m not exactly sure. I’ve read a couple of novels where a plot was not exactly set out in plain sight. When I say much like life, I mean that the novel doesn’t have a grand purpose and seems to gear towards great unexpected situations, pun intended.

Finn seems to be unknowingly accompanied by an older man who is asking too many questions in the small town. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean in Ireland, two women seem to talk a bunch of crazy talk that only makes sense towards the end. Aside from the odd vague plot, the book was actually pretty amazing. It kept me guessing what the purpose of the story was and there would be times where characters would say something that would connect to another character saying something previously. I actually spent two hours or so in bed putting little things together and figuring out the big picture.

The characters for a start were superb. Lizzie, the main characters best friend, has a very theatrical aura in her written character. From the way she speaks and by her actions it’s as if she’s an actress overacting her part and its fantastic! Others, such as Witch Wiggins and Crazy Cora, were also interesting and even though half of the time it was false, the rumors we hear about hem are entertaining. Most of the other characters also have interesting dialogue that felt absolutely refreshing and set me in the world of the book.

The writing was actually, like I said before, very refreshing. There would be times where characters would mock a certain type of speaking dialogue as if they were in the English Country during the 17th Century. I found it pretty hilarious because I, at times, do the same thing. As I was reading the book, I kept picturing everything in vivid, pastel colors of green, pink, yellow and blue. It is an odd thing to say but this book made me see colors. I also enjoyed the fact that Ireland played a good part of the novel because I love Ireland and Irish people so I felt this interesting connection.

All in all, the novel was a good one even though it is for children. I loved that it was a fast, light read that’s great for any ages with an amazing ending that makes you feel good. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I had never heard of Sharon Creech before, but now, because of The Great Unexpected I am tempted to check out her other books and see how good they make me feel.

Book Review: Ten

Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Pages: 294
Publication: 18 September, 2012
Rating: A for Acceptable
Copy: Received by HarperCollins Publisher

Review: Who doesn’t love a good murder story? I mean seriously, we go out in big groups and pay close to fifteen bucks just to see a bunch of teens make bad choices and get killed by one person. As pathetic as it sounds, it’s very exciting watching the gruesome ways they get killed and what the motive behind it all was. So when I heard about Ten by Gretchen McNeil I just knew I HAD to read it. Finally, HarperCollins Publishers sent me a copy and I couldn’t wait to dive in.

I knew that I would enjoy the book that was centered around murders and I did enjoy it. There were just some things that were a bit off. I should break this into parts so that no one here gets confused. The story. I enjoyed the story, I immediately tried to predict who the murder would be and hoped that I was wrong. And it was fun seeing who was being killed one by one and knowing that my predictions were possibly coming true. I kind of wished that it didn’t stick to the cliché of who makes it towards the end and who doesn’t because it kind of killed the mood but whatever.

I enjoyed the different ways that the killings were portrayed, as odd and cruel as that sounds. But seeing it connected to the motive was actually pretty cool. There was specific ways each one died and it was because of something they had previously done. Kind of like Saw only less gruesome and less of a chance to survive. But the characters, that’s where things started to get complicated.

I truly did like the characters to a certain extent. I felt like a novel of this type should’ve been a bit longer and possibly not YA because it just doesn’t give me that same factor as movies or adult books. While some of them I cared for, others I couldn’t even begin to worry about that someone was after them. One minute they were there and the next minute they were gone. I could try to explain this by comparing to another book about dying teens but it wouldn’t help. It just didn’t give me enough to care about them.

My main problem was with the main character. Again, I did like her character but there were certain parts where she really pissed me off and not in a good way. Not in a, “this character is so dumb omg!” but more in, “why did this author just do that, she ruined a good thing.” You might not see a difference but there is. When you’ve just seen someone dead from being hanged, you don’t think of certain things. So when the guy you like gives you a tap on your kiss, you would think about it for a few shocked seconds and then move on. At least, a normal person would. But Gretchen McNeil went out to give us some inner dialogue that Meg, our heroine, thought.

When the guy she likes T.J. gives her a tap kiss before doing something dangerous her immediate thoughts were, “He kissed me. What does this mean? I hope my best friend Minnie didn’t see. What if she saw, what will I do or say?” Mind you they’re in the forest, trying to find something and have barely escaped falling from their lives, and all she can think about is if Minnie saw the kiss from where she is. Which is inside of the house. She even looks to see if there’s a view of it. Again I repeat, she almost fell to her death and they’re in the middle of a storm outside. It completely ruined the mood and felt so forced and so crappy that I knew this book went away from five stars.

But aside from the forced romance scenes that were so spaced out it made no sense, the book was alright. It seemed a bit cliché at parts but the end truly surprised me. The writing was also good and flowed great and kept me reading non stop. Although, some parts just seemed a bit too convenient like certain deaths, I still managed to overlook that. My only problem is that I am now still on a quest to read a killer book about a killer. And I’ve learned my lesson to not check YA.