Half Year Check In

We are already half way done with 2012! Time to check in and see what books have made my top 10 list so far and other bookish goodies.

In no particular order, my top ten reads of 2012 at the half year point are.....

1 Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin (goodreads/ my review)
2 This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel (goodreads/ my review)
3 Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siohban Vivian (goodreads)
4 Gilt by Katherine Longshore (goodreads/ my review)
5 Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood (goodreads/ my review)
6 Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson (goodreads)
7 Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock (goodreads\ my review)
8 I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (goodreads/ my review)
9 Cinder by Marissa Meyer (goodreads/ my review)
10 Insurgent by Veronica Roth (goodreads/ my review)

Some of you may recall my Bucket List post. I am going to post it again and scratch off the ones I have completed. I figured this would be a good time to do a check in on that as well.

My Bucket List

1. Annotate and scribble and highlight a book I really loved and send it to the author. I’d mark my favourite quotes. Parts that made me cry and laugh and smile and ache. *this was such an awesome idea I had to borrow it*

2. Send a little thank you gift to a fellow blogger who has helped me (or otherwise made an impact).

3. Leave a note in a book at a bookstore detailing how much I loved the book for the person who purchases it to find. *again, awesome idea Audrey*

4. Browse bookstores, have dinner, drink wine and talk books with a fellow blogger.

5. Obtain some sort of bookcase that will fit all my books and protect them from my cat (she likes to eat books). One I could decorate would be a bonus.

6. Send a book on a “book tour” with some papers inside so that the people who receive it can write something before they pass it along. Eventually I will get the book back with all these notes.

7. Take a tour of a Publishing office

8. Send a thank you basket to a publisher contact for all the awesomeness they do for us bloggers.

9. Have a meet up for Ottawa book bloggers, so we can meet each other *if there are enough of us*

10. Take a book that is set in a real life location and photograph some of the places mentioned in the book (with the book in it of course).

11. Have a birthday cake themed after a book that I love  My awesome Masque of the Red Death cake

So I have managed to cross two items off this list. Looking forward to scratching off more.

My other check in is going to be with my 2012 Debut Author list

1. Gilt by Katherine Longshore (Penguin, May 15)  review
2. Immortal City by Scott Speer (Penguin, April 3)  review
3. Everneath by Brodi Ashton (Harper Collins, Jan 24)  review
4. Under The Never Sky by Veronica Ross (Harper Collins, Jan 3)  review
5. The Selection by Kiera Cass (Harper Collins, April 24)  review
6. What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang (Harper Collins, TBA 2012)
7. Fracture by Megan Miranda (Walker Books for Young Readers, Jan 17)  review
8. Storm by Brigid Kemmerer (Kensington Books, April 24) review
9. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood (Penguin, Feb 7) review
10. Slide by Jill Hathaway (Harper Collins, March 27)
11. Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock (Harper Collins, May 8) review
12. Velveteen by Daniel Marks (Random House, TBA 2012)
13. The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett (Tor Teen, TBA 2012)
14. Blind Spot by Laura Ellen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, TBA 2012)
15. Mystique by Shari Arnold (Chronicle, TBA 2012)
16. Pivot Point by Kasie West (Harper Collins, TBA 2012)
17. Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown (Random House, June 12) review
18. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins (Harper Collins, May 1) review
19. When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle (Simon and Schuster, May 1) review
20. Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf (Walker Books, Apr 24)
21. The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams (Simon & Schuster, Jan 3)
22 Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London (Harper Collins, May 29)
23 Cinder by Marissa Meyer review
24 Of Poseidon by Anna Banks review
25 Scarlet by AC Gaughen review
26 Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
27 Crewl by Gennifer Albin
28 Splintered by A.G. Howard
29 Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1) by R.L. LaFevers review
30 Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
31 Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill
31 Black City by Elizabeth Richards
31 Venom by Fiona Paul
32 The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer
33 Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore review
34 The Catastrophic History of You & Me by Jess Rothenberg
(Penguin, Feb 21) review

I have read 18 of my 34 that I wanted to read. I am sure that I have other debut author books not on my list and may be changing my list as I go along but I feel pretty good at having read 17 already.

Has the time flown by for you as well? This year has gone by super quickly. I can't wait to see what is to come and what wonderful books I will get to read in the second half of 2012!

New To My Book Closet

It's that time of the week again. Time to show you what bookish goodies made their way into my home and book closet (to be saved from the evil book eating cat monster named Aria). This is inspired by the various "mailbox" posts out there (eg. In My Mailbox by The Story Siren, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews).

This week I received a book that I won in a Twitter contest that the author was having. After hearing some great review for it I am looking forward to reading it.

The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March (goodreads)

It sounds really good! A huge thank you for Mia March for the contest and for signing the book!

Happy Sunday and Happy Reading!

Weekly Obsessions

The awesome Kelly at KellyVision started posting a weekly post highlighting whatever she happened to be obsessed with that week. I LOVE this idea, so much in fact that I will be doing it myself every Saturday.

Here are my obsessions this week:

BOOKS

cover for Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Did you all see the fact that her wedding ring is off?! I refuse to accept that she does not end up with Linden. REFUSE. Also the bird is out of it's cage. Hmm......

Either way I am super excited to read this and honestly, I am more of a fan of the hints on the cover than anything else. Add it to Goodreads.

Cover for 17 and Gone by Nova Ren Suma

OMG! I love this cover. The faded missing girl poster and the soft, out of focus look matches the Goodreads synopsis perfectly. I am really excited for this one.

Cover for Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Perry!!! YAY! I thought the first novels cover was pretty but this is just as eye catching. Very excited to find out what happens next. Add it to Goodreads.

The Harper Collins Winter 2013 catalog

There are seriously so many amazing sounding titles coming up.

High on my WISH LIST are

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
Pivot Point by Kasie West
Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Just to name a few. I did notice that Dance of the Red Death (sequel to Masque of the Red Death) was not listed. This must mean it's a summer release! Crazy excited for the cover to be released.

MOVIES

Magic Mike

YES! I am finally seeing it this weekend (tonight actually) and I can not wait. I am so beyond looking forward to it.

So what you are obsessed with this week?

Friday Hops

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet new blogger friends. This weeks question is:

Q: Birthday Wishes -- Blow out the candles and imagine what character could pop out of your cake...who is it and what book are they from?

Can I have two? If so Noah Shaw from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and Will from Masque of the Red Death.



TGIF at GReads! is a weekly blog hop hosted by Ginger from GReads

This weeks question is

Friday, June 29th - Best I've Read So Far: We're half way through the year (crazy how time flies!), which top 3 books are the best you've read so far this year?

This was REALLY hard. I've read some amazing books this year so far.

1. Masque Of The Red Death by Bethany Griffin
2. Gilt by Katherine Longshore
3. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

I could list so many more. Seriously...so hard.

Happy Weekend!

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta
Release Date –  July 3, 2012
Publisher Website –  Tor/Macmillan/Raincoast Books
Publisher Social Media -  Twitter
Pages - 368 pages
My Rating- 3/5
**obtained from the publisher for an honest review**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She's even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper's cottage in the center of the birch grove. 

Something's not quite right about the school -- or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She's also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother.

The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a missing faculty member.

Jane discovers one secret about Birch Grove, which only leads to more mysteries. What is she willing to sacrifice in order to stay at this school...and be bound to Birch Grove forever?

This atmospheric, Gothic inspired tale had a lot of promise. The setting intrigued me, the plot was a little different and there were a few likeable characters.

The beginning of the novel started out a little slow for me. I found I was more interested when the mystery started to come together and we started to found out more about Lucien, and Birch Grove. This happens in the middle portion and I found myself reading that section much more quickly. The ending tapered off and did not hold my interest as well as the middle section.

Jane's personality seems to be almost made up of two different characters. The street smart, savvy survivor that her character is first presented as and the naive, easily manipulated girl that gets taken advantage of. I did like that she was trying to be more than where she was from, and worked hard to get there. It was admirable and showed that people have choice, and can choose to work hard and strive for more.

Lucien (or Lucky as he is usually called) intrigued me at first. I quickly got over that and realized he is selfish and needed to have someone finally tell him NO. He is quite used to getting his own way and has led a privileged life.

Mary Violet is hilarious. She’s confident, outgoing, outrageous and an instant friend to Jane. Her habit of making up new words was cute. The fact that she wanted to “funnify” Jane was adorable. She is the type of friend that drags you into crazy situations, but they end up being some of the best memories.

Jack is the typical sarcastic guy with the heart of gold underneath. His pet names for Jane were endearing. His belief in pixies and other fairytales was something I kept expecting it to play a larger part in the story than it did. He was charming and I easily wanted Jane to ditch her infatuation with Lucien and focus on Jack.

Those hoping for a unique or surprising paranormal twist will be disappointed. The explanation that is given is quite unique but not paranormal in the slightest. It was actually my favourite part of the novel. Without giving anything away the “paranormal” element is given a rational, scientific explanation. I have never read a novel that has taken this approach and it was what saved the novel for me.

The mystery of the missing girl, and the missing faculty member unravels and is plotted to keep your interest. The motivations of the characters were also well developed. Jealousy can be a powerful and dangerous emotion in the hands of the right individual.

A promising premise that was different than I was expecting and some engaging characters saved this novel for me. I think that some may love this, but for me it ended up being just an average read.

Waiting on Wednesday....Such Wicked Intent

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

My pick this week is Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

When does obsession become madness? Tragedy has forced sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein to swear off alchemy forever. He burns the Dark Library. He vows he will never dabble in the dark sciences again ? just as he vows he will no longer covet Elizabeth, his brother's betrothed. If only these things were not so tempting. When he and Elizabeth discover a portal into the spirit world, they cannot resist. Together with Victor's twin, Konrad, and their friend Henry, the four venture into a place of infinite possibilities where power and passion reign. But as they search for the knowledge to raise the dead, they unknowingly unlock a darkness from which they may never return

I loved the first book in this series immensely. I am very excited to get my hands on this sequel. The action, well done love triangle, and captivating characters make this a must read series.

Expected release date - August 21, 2012

Characters - Do They Have To Be Likeable?

I find that as a reviewer I spend a lot of time discussing the characters in the novel I just read. I discuss what I thought of them and how it impacted my enjoyment of the story. Characters have the ability to resonate with us, and stay with us long after the novel's last page as been turned. There are some characters destined to become legend and whose name, and story, will be remembered long after the novel has been published.

For some people it all comes down to likability. Is the character likeable? Are they someone I can relate to? For me these questions are not the ones I ask myself. My questions will always be was this character realistic? Did this character impact me? And was the character flawed? It's these characters, the flawed, layered, conflicted, and sometimes unlikeable that stay with me. My favourite books and characters exist in a shade of grey where right and wrong are often blurred.

Dexter Morgan from the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay is certainly not someone you would "like". He is, however, compelling, complex and fascinating. The same could be said for Jazz from Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers. Both these characters are chilling, yet charming. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho will leave you analyzing him long after you finished Brett Easton Ellis's shocking read.

A young woman haunted by an accident, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and potentially a little unstable. Of course I am referring to Mara Dyer from Michelle Hodkin's amazing The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. She's imperfect, and you may not always like her actions but I was drawn to her. As a selfish, oblivion seeking, guilt ridden socialite Araby Worth from Bethany Griffin's Masque of the Red Death may not be liked by everyone. I found her vulnerable and realistic for the society she lived in. Her guilt, while making her act out, also endeared her to me.

Cassel Sharpe, the main character from Holly Black's Curse Worker's series is another great example. He's capable of becoming a member of the "mafia" type organization that many of his family belong to. His skills lend themselves to criminal activity. Cassel spends a lot of time resisting this side of himself and tries to do right; his version of right is just a skewed. His school betting ring, his walking the fine line between lawful and unlawful, and all while being so charming make him fascinating.

Lastly, Lisbeth Salander from Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy shows a gritty, tough exterior to the outside world. Underneath this is a vulnerability that makes her captivating. Her unlawful computer hacking is matched with her desire to dish out her own brand of justice on men she deems deserving. Her brilliance and intelligence coupled with the tragic events in her life offers a fascinating character study.

I don't need a character to act the hero to enjoy the plot. Give me the misfits, outcasts and deliciously flawed characters. They make the fiction I read much more intriguing and entertaining.

What about you? Does a characters likability matter to you? Are you more interested in an honest, yet story driven, character with flaws? Or do you need there to be something redeemable in your characters? Let me know in the comments.