April Page Count Contest

Have you ever been in a reading rut and needed some motivation to get back into reading the way you were before? I am currently going through a lot in my life, major changes are to be made, and I needed the motivation to keep on with the reading that I was at before this change of events occurred (wow way too much info huh? Well I'm honest so you get it all). I'm use to reading like 3-4 books a week and for the last 2 weeks I think I've finished two! Yep, that's right only two! This cannot continue LOL. My friend Angela over at Reading Angel had a fantastic idea that I wanted to share with all of you because everyone needs motivation at some point right?! So here's what we have.

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (24)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -   

Q: Do you read one book at a time or do you switch back and forth between two or more?

Blog Tour - Pure by Jennifer Armentrout

Well, hello there! Welcome to the Pure Tour here at Creative Reads. Today you're in for some really awesome treats! You guys know that Jennifer is one of my favorite authors so I was super stoked to be on this tour. There are some great giveaways that will be going on throughout this, click here for the full schedule. If you guys aren't already stalking following Jennifer here is where you can find her - Jennifer's Blog, Official website, and Twitter. Today I have not only my review, but, some great giveaways on the blog. So without further ado, here is my review of Pure (and don't forget about all the goodies at the end).

Waiting on Wednesday (23)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -  

Review - Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala

Author - Holly Cupala
Publisher - HarperTeen
Release Date - January 3rd, 2012, 299 Pages

Joy Delamere is suffocating... 

From asthma, which has nearly claimed her life. From her parents, who will do anything to keep that from happening. From delectably dangerous Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. 

Joy can take his words—tender words, cruel words—until the night they go too far. 

Now, Joy will leave everything behind to find the one who has offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. She will become someone else. She will learn to survive. She will breathe... if only she can get to Creed before it’s too late. 

Set against the gritty backdrop of Seattle’s streets and a cast of characters with secrets of their own, Holly Cupala’s powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the meaning of love, and how far a girl will go to discover her own strength. 

Don’t Breathe a Word is a painful yet beautiful story of a girl, Joy, who is trying to just forget who she is and to start a new life, even if it’s a life of nothing. She wants to be free of everything that is tying her down, especially her boyfriend Asher. She makes the heartbreaking decision to leave home to go live on the streets. We get to see the struggles that she has to go through from the start by making this decision to following through with it. We get to see her find courage within herself, find strengths that she never knew she had, and face her deepest fears.

Review - The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

Author - Jeff Hirsch
Publisher - Scholastic Books
Release Date - September 1st, 2011, 288 Pages

The wars that followed The Collapse nearly destroyed civilization. Now, twenty years later, the world is faced with a choice—rebuild what was or make something new. 

Stephen Quinn, a quiet and dutiful fifteen-year-old scavenger, travels Post-Collapse America with his Dad and stern ex-Marine Grandfather. They travel light. They keep to themselves. Nothing ever changes. But when his Grandfather passes suddenly and Stephen and his Dad decide to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. With his father terribly injured, Stephen is left alone to make his own choices for the first time. 

Stephen’s choices lead him to Settler's Landing, a lost slice of the Pre-Collapse world where he encounters a seemingly benign world of barbecues, baseball games and days spent in a one-room schoolhouse. Distrustful of such tranquility, Stephen quickly falls in with Jenny Tan, the beautiful town outcast. As his relationship with Jenny grows it brings him into violent conflict with the leaders of Settler's Landing who are determined to remake the world they grew up in, no matter what the cost.

The Eleventh Plague is a post-apocalyptic world told from a male’s perspective which is a great change up from being told from a female’s (don’t get me wrong I love my female characters but nice to see a change every now and then). Stephen, our main character, has never known what the real world was like because he was born 5 years after the virus the Chinese dropped on the US during war, P11, that took out majority of the population. He has always been a scavenger trying to find anything worth enough to trade on the trail for the survival of not only himself but his father and grandfather as well.

In My Mailbox (23)

This is a weekly event held by The Story Siren where we show what we have received in the mail, borrowed, got from the library, or to review. This week I got a couple things in the mail this week and am super stoked to get into these. And don't forget to stop by this week, the 29th to be exact, for my post for the Pure Blog Tour with giveaways and more!

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (23)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -   

Q: What is the longest book you've read? What are your favorite 600+ page reads?

Review - Divergent by Veronica Roth

Author - Veronica Roth
Publisher - HarperCollins
Release Date - May 3rd, 2011, 487 Pages

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her. 

Divergent is a whole other world of awesome. In this world that Veronica Roth has created there are 5 factions that you could live and work in after the Choosing Ceremony. Candor are the honest, Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Amity the peaceful and the Erudite’s are the intelligent. Beatrice has to make a life changing choice during the Choosing Ceremony, she could choose what her family  are and what she has been raised – Abnegation – but what she chose shocks not only her family but herself as well. After her choice has been made she is no longer Beatrice, she is Tris.

Waiting on Wednesday (22)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for - 

Review - The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

Author - Brenna Yovanoff
Publisher - Razorbill
Release Date - November 14th, 2012, 363 Pages

Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

This second novel by rising star Brenna Yovanoff is a story of identity, discovery, and a troubled love between two people struggling to find their place both in our world and theirs.

First off, let’s have a look at that cover…I love it! From the synopsis we gather that Daphne is the child of Lucifer and Lilith but we learn throughout the pages is the love that she finds and embraces. She doesn’t want to leave her home of Pandemonium, a city in Hell, she doesn’t want to be soulless like her sisters living off of the pain and suffering of men but when her brother leaves Pandemonium for good all that changes. Obie, her brother, left everything behind for love.

Review - The Weeping by O'Dell Hutchison

Author - O'Dell Hutchison
Publisher - H, C & B Publishing
Release Date - March 6th, 2012, 282 Pages

Twenty years ago, Catherine Whitley was the victim of a horrible crime. Betrayed by her friends, including the boy she loved, she was left to die when the Rock Harbor Opera House caught fire, taking a disturbing secret with her to her grave. 

Seventeen-year-old Heath Ingram was driving the night his Jeep careened off the road, killing three of his closest friends. Once a popular, outgoing athlete, Heath now suffers from severe depression and crippling anxiety. His parents decide to send him to stay with his uncle in Rock Harbor, Oregon for the summer, praying that by getting away he will be able to put this awful tragedy behind him. 

When Heath starts working at the newly renovated Rock Harbor Opera House, he meets Molly, a young dancer who awakens in him a desire to start over and move on. But, when he begins having visions of a half-burned girl in a white dress, he starts to think he may be slipping even further over the edge. 

As the apparent hauntings become more intense, Heath begins to fear for his safety. With the help of his friend Josie, Heath discovers an unsettling secret that ties the mysterious girl to both their families. When two of their friends die unexpectedly, Josie and Heath realize that something, or someone, is after the children of those who wronged Catherine, and they are next. 

                               *A copy was provided by H, C & B for review purposes*

This, my friends, is one of the best ghost stories I have read! The Weeping starts out with a girl, known as Catherine, being trapped in a fire at the Opera house thinking that the one that she loved so much wouldn’t leave her behind and is left to die. Fast forward twenty years and we meet Heath who is overcoming his own tragedy of the deaths of his three closest friends. His parents are trying to get him away from his old life so they sent him to his uncle’s for the summer.

In My Mailbox (21 & 22)

This is a weekly event held by The Story Siren where we show what we have received in the mail, borrowed, got from the library, or to review. This week is two weeks worth of books. Last weekend and majority of this week I have spent with a childhood friend who was moving away so little reading and tweeting have been going on. So without further ado here is what I have received in the last two weeks.

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (22)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -   

Q: What is the best book you've read in the last month? What is the worst book you've read in the last month?

Blog Tour - Whispering Hills - Review, Interview & Giveaway

Hi guys! Today I have Taryn, the author of Whispering Hills, on the blog to talk about this and that. Of course with this you guys will get a chance to win a copy of this and my review as well. So here's on to the goodies for today.

Taryn Browning writes young adult paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. Her debut novel, DARK SEEKER, isavailable on Amazon and B&N. The sequel, DARK RETURN, comes out in late, 2012.

Taryn graduated with a BS in Education from Towson University and went on to earn a MS in Reading from Hood College. She lives in Virginia with her husband, two young sons and their dog. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, music, movies, and the beach. Visit her at www.tarynbrowning.com, on twitter and facebook.

Waiting on Wednesday (21)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -  

Review - Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

Author - Aimee Carter
Publisher - HarlequinTeen
Release Date - March 27th, 2012, 304 Pages

Kate Winters has won immortality. 

But if she wants a life in the Underworld with Henry, she’ll have to fight for it. 

Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans. 

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future. 

Henry’s first wife, Persephone.

             *A review copy was provided by Harlequin through Netgalley for review purposes*

Kate went through a lot during The Goddess Test and Goddess Interrupted picks right back up as she is coming home to rejoin Henry and be crowned Queen of the Underworld. During the time that she wasn’t with Henry she was with James exploring and counting down the days until she could come home to her new life. I was quickly brought back into this beautiful world that Aimee has created.

Review - Slide by Jill Hathaway

Author - Jill Hathaway
Publisher - Balzer + Bray
Release Date - March 27th, 2012, 256 Pages

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. 

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. 

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane. 

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

       *A review copy was provided by HarperCollins through Netgalley for review purposes*

Slide is definitely something different than the other stuff that I’ve read which was refreshing. Sylvia or Vee for short has the ability to slide into someone else by touching something that they have an emotional imprint on. It’s something that she hasn’t shared with anyone since after her mother died and her father sent her to a shrink. She hasn’t even told her best friend Rollins for that matter. Although she hates sliding and tries her best to stay awake she ends up sliding into the murderer of her little sisters best friend Sophie. She knows what truly happened but if she was to tell anyone she’d end up right back at the shrink’s office with everyone thinking that she is the crazy one.

Cover Reveal - My Super Sweet 16th Century by Rachel Harris

On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze. 

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore. 

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

Now normally I am not the one for books like this, but this one, I want to read and cannot wait for it to be released later this year (September 11, 2012). Here's a little sneak peak into what is in My Super Sweet 16th Century.

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (21)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -  

Q: Have you ever looked at book's cover and thought, This is going to horrible? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

Review - Starters by Lissa Price

Author - Lissa Price
Publisher - Delacourte Books
Release Date - March 13th, 2012, 368 Pages

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER 

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. 

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

                               *A copy was provided by Delacourte for review purposes*

In this world that Lissa has created it’s not uncommon for people to be well over 100 years old in fact it’s because of their age that this story line even takes place. Callie is just 16 living on the streets with her 7 year old brother Tyler and best friend/romance-in-the-making Michael, also 16. The world that is described is one that the Enders are not only the old ones but also the rich ones and the Starters are the ones that are poor, living on the streets, cannot get jobs and basically having to rent out their bodies to make any money to live off of. After a raid in the building that they were staying at Callie has made up her mind even though she doesn’t want to “rent” her body out, she has to protect her little brother.

Waiting on Wednesday (20)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This week I am waiting for -

Review - Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser

Author - Margie Gelbwasser
Publisher - Flux
Release Date - March 8th, 2012, 336 Pages

Two families. Four teens. 
A summer full of secrets. 

Every summer, hidden away in a lakeside community in upstate New York, four teens leave behind their old identities…and escape from their everyday lives. 

Yet back in Philadelphia during the school year, Alex cannot suppress his anger at his father (who killed himself), his mother (whom he blames for it), and the girls who give it up too easily. His younger brother, Kyle, is angry too—at his abusive brother, and at their mother who doesn’t seem to care. Meanwhile, in suburban New Jersey, Katie plays the role of Miss Perfect while trying to forget the nightmare that changed her life. But Julie, her younger sister, sees Katie only as everything she’s not. And their mother will never let Julie forget it. 

Up at the lake, they can be anything, anyone. Free. But then Katie’s secret gets out, forcing each of them to face reality—before it tears them to pieces.

                 *A review copy was provided by Flux through Netgalley for review purposes*

Let me just start this with what you will find it Pieces of Us and some aren’t very pretty scenes either. We have two families that are on their own levels of dysfunctional. One has a father who has committed suicide, a mother who is a prostitute, one son is the biggest player with a very fowl mouth, and the other son is just trying to find his way through this messed up thing called life. The other family we have the mother is all for the looks, nothing else matters, the father just lets her run all over him, one of the daughters is all spotlight and gets what she wants regardless while the other daughter is left in the shadows just begging for her mother’s attention…any attention.

Review - Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Author - Jessica Shirvington
Publisher - Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date - March 6th, 2012, 367 Pages

It starts with a whisper: “It’s time for you to know who you are…” 

Violet Eden dreads her seventeenth birthday. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. As if that wasn’t enough, disturbing dreams haunt her sleep and leave her with very real injuries. There’s a dark tattoo weaving its way up her arms that wasn’t there before. 

Violet is determined to get some answers, but nothing could have prepared her for the truth. The guy she thought she could fall in love with has been keeping his identity a secret: he’s only half-human—oh, and same goes for her. 

A centuries-old battle between fallen angels and the protectors of humanity has chosen its new warrior. It’s a fight Violet doesn’t want, but she lives her life by two rules: don’t run and don’t quit. When angels seek vengeance and humans are the warriors, you could do a lot worse than betting on Violet Eden…  

                              *A review copy was sent from SourceFire for review purposes*

Welcome to a new world of angels! I have read my fair share of angel novels and I can say that this one is different from all others that I’ve read. It is one that you will not want to put down and will have you turning the pages faster and faster until there is nothing left. Embrace starts out at Violet’s 17^th birthday approaches. Her birthday is bitter sweet because that was also the day that her mother died. While she is doing her thing with her best friend, Steph, and crush for many years, Lincoln, her father is busying himself at the office. This seems to be a good setting for him because everything in Violet’s life will forever change.

Happy Birthday...Apollyon Edition

Hi guys. So bet you're wondering what in the world this post is about huh? Well this is for Alexandria Andros from Jennifer Armentrout's Covenant series. Today is her 18th birthday and for those who have read Half-Blood and/or Pure you know what this day means. If you haven't read Jennifer's work...well my dearies you are missing out on some awesomeness and I recommend you go pick up those little pretties...well Half-Blood and pre-order Pure. Anywho back to this post.

In My Mailbox (20)

This is a weekly event held by The Story Siren where we show what we have received in the mail, borrowed, got from the library, or to review. Ever wonder what happens when two bloggers start talking about what books they have or haven't read and which ones they have or do not have and the outcome of said conversation? Well I will show you what happens when said conversation happens. LOL Huge Thank you to Angela @ Reading Angel for lending me these books. So this is what I got in the mail this week - 

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (20)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is - 


Q: What book would you love to see made into a movie or television show and do you have actors/actresses in mind to play the main characters?

Review - Rae of Hope by W.J. May

Author - W.J. May
Publisher - Mitchell Morris
Release Date - September 5th, 2011, 237 Pages

How hard do you have to shake a family tree to find out the truth about the past? Fifteen-year-old Rae Kerrigan never questioned her family’s history. That is until she accepted a scholarship to Guilder Boarding School in England. Guilder is an exclusive, gifted school. Rae has no idea what she is getting herself into or that her family’s past is going to come back and taunt her. She learns she is part of an unparalleled group of individuals who become inked with a unique tattoo (tatu) on their sixteenth birthday. The tatu enables them to have supernatural powers particular to the shape of their ink-art. Both of her parents were inked, though Rae never knew, as they passed away when she was young. Learning about her family's past, her evil father and sacrificial mother, Rae needs to decide if there is a ray of hope in her own life.

                              *A copy was provided by the Author for Review purposes*

Rae is about to be sixteen and is shipped off to Guilder Boarding School in England. Her parents died in a tragic fire when she was just six and she has been living with her Uncle since. Her life is about to take some turns pretty quickly. Rae is informed that Guilder is a school for the gifted and when she turns sixteen she will be getting her own tatu (tattoo) that will give her some special gifts of her own. I haven’t been one to read many ‘magic’ type books but this was definitely enjoyable. Rae finds that everyone has their own unique tatu (tattoo), it’s something that they are born with that shows on their sixteenth birthday, but everyone has their eyes on her.