Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

"The history of our family and our people affects who we are in the present." --Mallory, pg.42
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Mallory Tolliver is NOT really Mrs. Tolliver's daughter, she's not even human. She has been sent by the Faerie Queen to break Phoebe Rothschild down until she has no self-esteem and believes she is nothing but ordinary, even though she comes from a very EXTRAordinary family.

Phoebe Rothschild is the daughter of Catherine Rothschild and Drew Vale. Catherine is the descendent of Mayer Rothschild who's 5 sons became big names in the European financial markets in the 19th century. According to Faerie legend, Mayer made a bargin with the Faerie Queen, if she would make his 5 sons extraordinary, in turn the family would give the Faerie Queen an ORDINARY daughter. Unfortunately for Phoebe, before she came along, there had never been an ORDINARY Rothschild daughter. It's up to Phoebe to figure out if she's ordinary or Extraordinary to prevent the Faerie Queens will to destroy her. . .
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I don't know how Nancy Werlin does it, but she finds a way to captivate me and writes little "one-liners" that I have to jot down so I can remember them for always. Another thing Nancy Werlin does it she takes a fantastical story and mixes it with history. She did this before with Impossible: a Novel and she does it now with Extraordinary. Each time I have picked up a Nancy Werlin novel I have been transported to whatever world she has desired I go. While it took me a little longer to get into this particular book than it did with Impossible, I still really enjoyed it and would pick up any other book Werlin writes.
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"I've heard it said, that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn.And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them, and we help them in return. . . But because I knew you, I have been changed FOR GOOD " Wicked: A New Musical song For Good

Out with a Bang Read-a-Thon

You know, I always think about participating in challenges, but I have yet to be able to actually complete one. It's kind of sad, however, I am hoping to change that behavior by participating in and COMPLETING the Out with a Bang Read-a-Thon hosted by Casey at The Bookish Type and Heather at Book-Savvy.

I know that I have several book sitting in my To Be Read pile that I keep neglecting, including a couple from brand new authors. This challenge is simple-- pick a book off of my pile, read it and  I'm done.







The books on my list are:
Girl Parts by John M. Cusick
Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala
Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin
Deathday Letters by Shaun David Hutchinson
The Hollow by Jessica Veraday
Bystander by James Preller
Matched by Ally Condie
Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
and a few more that I can't remember right now.

I am optimistic that this is a challenge I can handle.  So for Decembe 29-31, I'm going to try to tackle as many of these as I can. Wish me luck.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Going Bovine by Libba Bray is about a teenage boy who contracts Mad Cow Disease.  Cameron's family consists of his mom, work-a-holic father (who's more than likely having an affair with his TA) and his popular twin sister, Jenna. The family basically lives seperate lives until Cameron gets the diagnosis that he is going to die.
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Cameron begins the book talking about how he almost Died on the It's a Small World ride at Disney World. He talks about how he and his twin sister Jenna were 5 and how he really wanted to live in the ride. Then he talks about the ambulance with mouse ears that took him to the hospital and how the family then had free tickets and front places in lines the next day. For the first chapter, I thought Cameron was adorable. Then his mouth starts in chapter 2 and he became a little harder to like.
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I will admit I have been hesitant to read Going Bovine. I know it came out in 2009, but I just couldn't get in to the premis of the book. So, after buying a paperback copy of the book (mostly because I was tired of waiting for my local library's copy to come back) I borrowed the audiobook from the library and started to read/listen to the book. I actually enjoyed the first part of the book, but when Cameron started possibly hallucinating about Dulcie and hanging out with a video-gaming dwarf with Mommy issues, I got bored and quiet frankly, couldn't continue reading. I found the first part to be well written and fun, but the second part just bored me. . .

Maybe one day I will pick Going Bovine back up and try reading it again, but as for right now, It's a no.
However, Libba Bray has an amazing website. http://www.libbabray.com/

Book Blogger Hop

Okay, I finally joined a meme. I've been blogging for a while now and found one that looks fun. I don't know if I will be participating every week, but I' like the idea.

is being hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and encourages book bloggers to visit each other and spread the word about the amazing book blogs out in the blogosphere.  A really cool thing about Book Blogger Hop is that we have a question to answer each week. This weeks question is: "What is the thing you like most about reading book blogs? Is it the reviews, author guest posts, articles, giveaways, or something else entirely?"

What I like most about reading book blogs is I find really cool books to ad to my shelf or to borrow from my local library. A lot of the books I've been reading lately I found out about from another blog and the way the bloggers have talked about them have really made me want to pick some of the books up.

Well, I hope some of you will join Book Blogger Hop. Even if you don't blog, but just follow, you will be able to find some cool blogs you might not have known about before. Happy blogging!

I CAN'T WAIT: THe Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

    Okay, I can not wait for this one to be released in April 2011!!! The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson is the much anticipated sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelope which I will review at a later date. I loved the first book, so I can't wait to read the next one.

2011 Debut Author's Challenge

I finally found a challenge that I'm really excited about. I am going to attempt the 2011 Debut Author's Challenge and try to read 12 books by new authors. Some of the Books I am looking foward to next years are:

 1. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

2. Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

3. Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

4. I am J by Cris Beam

5. Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

6.Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever by Caissie St. Onge

7. Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard

8. Never Sit Down in a Hoop Skirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell by Crickett Rumley

9.Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

10. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

11.Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald
12. The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson (January 2011)
13. But I Love Him by Amanda Grace (May 2011)


I am hoping more titles will jump out at me and I'm really excited about giving these new author's a chance to prove themselves. This should be fun!
You can read more about this challenge here and I hope you think about joining it too.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

The Mockingbirds are a not-so secret society at Themis Academy. When the administration won’t step in because Nothing bad could ever happen at Themis, the Mockingbirds will. They are a group that believes wrong doing should be punished. Alex’s sister Casey started the Mockingbirds after a Themis student committed suicide her senior year. Casey wanted to prevent something like that from ever happening again. The Mockingbirds, named after Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, hears cases brought before them and decides whether or not to try people in a mock court with lasting punishments.

Now a junior at Themis, Alex knows about the Mockingbirds, every student at Themis does, but she doesn’t know how they work or really what they can do. She like others knows the Mockingbirds have had a hand at campus judgment, but that’s all. She never expects to need the Mockingbirds services, even though her sister warned and encouraged her to seek out the Mockingbirds if anything were to happen, before she started Themis.

That all changes one day when Alex wakes up naked to a boy she doesn’t know, with no memories of what happened the night before. As she starts to get dressed to leave before he can wake up, she remembers his name—Carter, but nothing else. She remembers going to a concert with her Friday night privileges, but not how she got to Carter’s room. As she leans over, she glances into the trashcan and sees the evidence of what occurred the night before—2 condom wrappers split down the middle. Alex realizes she had sex the night before, but doesn’t remember saying yes.

Leaving Carter’s room she walks the long way back to her dorm, hoping to not be detected, hoping she can get back to her room before anyone notices her “walk of shame”. Once in her room, she is confronted by her roommate, T.S. who realizes there is more to what Alex remembers. T.S. calls Casey and from there they encourage Alex to seek out the Mockingbirds. It’s Casey who puts a name to what happened to Alex the night before with a simple sentence. . . “All that matters is that you said yes. Did you say yes?” When Alex can’t answer her sister, Casey simply says, “It sounds like you were raped.”

Piecing information together, Alex enlists the help of the Mockingbirds to help her bring Carter to some sort of justice. Even though she refuses to go to the police, she wants to reclaim her life and the Mockingbirds will help her. The question is, will Alex be able to let them help her and will she be able to accept the results of what happens next??
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This novel is the book that is bringing me out of my hiatus as a blogger. It has been a very long time since I have found a book so gripping that I couldn’t put it down. Not since Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. For Daisy Whitney’s first book, she did an AMAZING job.

I found myself curled up in my chair itching to know what was going to happen next for Alex, would Carter be brought to justice, would she ever be able to piece together all the information to find out what happened to her and WHY ON EARTH were the adults so clueless as to what was going on at Themis Academy. I really like how the Mockingbirds work in the school. I love the whole sort-of secret society aspect and I was pleased to find at least one adult finally coming forward to help the students of the school.

I must say I am eagerly awaiting another novel by Daisy Whitney.

Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

In honor of Twilight Saga: Eclipse's release in  less than 15 hours (not that I'm counting or anything) I am going tell you my opinions on each of the books. :O)

In Twilight, we meet Bella Swan as she is making the move from Phoenix, Arizona to dank, rainy Forks, Washington. From this first act, we learn that Bella tends to put others before herself-- she moved for her mother. She moves in with her semi-emotionally distant father, but it works because she's not the best at expressing her emotions either. She is instantly the most exciting thing to hit Forks High simply because she's new (evidently, they don't get new kids often).
Bella notices the Cullen kids and instantly seems to aggravate Edward Cullen to the point he can't stand to be in the same Biology class with her. Eventually, Bella learns Edwards big secret after he saves her from 4 attempted rapist in the neighboring Port Angeles, Washington. Instead of being freaked out that Edward and his family are vampires, Bella is drawn to the family and starts a dating relationship with Edward. Of course being good friends with a family of vampires leads to its own set of troubles when a group of nomads interrupt a baseball game. These red-eyed nomads don't partake in the same "vegetarian" diet the Cullen approve of and the protective stances the family take around Bella causes a serious complication.

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I absolutely love the Twilight saga! I think one of the reasons I like the series so much (even though I usually hate all things Vampire) is because the vampire/supernatural part of the books is not really the central focus. The books are more about family, friendship, first love and lasting love. The Vampire thing is more of a secondary story plot and not the main thing.

Exposed by Susan Vaught

Exposed by Susan Vaught is a haunting Cautionary tale about the dangers of the internet. At first glance, Chan Shealy seems like a typical high school girl. She's a member of her school's twirling team,  she's a straight A student and she's got a great friend in Devin. However, Chan also got an STD from her ex-boyfriend, Adam P.

Once news about her Herpes spreads around school, boys won't come near her. Chan starts to feel that her life is falling apart and she'll never have another boyfriend. That all changes when she meets Paul online. To Chan, things start falling back into place. She gets into shape for Regionals with a set of weights that Paul sends her, and even poses for topless photos for him. Chan gives Paul details that end up putting her and her little sister in serious jeopardy.

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Ok, I love Susan Vaught and her novels. This one included. I think Susan Vaught did a decent job delving into the mind of a girl being lured into an online trap. While Chan isn't always believable, I did have some gut wrenching emotions flowing through me as Chan started piecing information together and realizing what her baby sister was getting into.

Also, I learned a few things about the net I didn't know about (things which I will NOT be discussing here.) While I did enjoy this novel, it wasn't as good as Susan Vaught's Big Fat Manifesto. I will however, eagerly await her next novel.

When Jeff Comes Home by Cathrine Atkins

Jeff Hart was always his father's pride and joy. When his brother or sister wanted something from their dad, they knew if Jeff asked it would happen. Then one day, the unthinkable happened, while at a rest stop with his family, Jeff is forced into a waiting van at knife-point. From that terrifying moment on, Jeff's life is forever changed.

Two-and-a-half years later, Jeff's abductor, Ray, drops him off at his childhood home. Once inside the door, Jeff and his family begin the difficult journey of recovering from such traumatic years. Jeff has to get used to no longer being used as a sexual outlet for an older man, not being hit or his mind messed with and readjust to being a part of a family and society in general.

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This book is definantly a difficult one to read. Jeff's story is a hard one to hear and one can only be greatful that they have never had to endure the torment and torture Jeff had to endure-- to never have to go through the things Jeff did to survive.