Books and Swoons

Review: Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Speechless by Hannah Harrington
Release date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Harlequin Teen through NetGalley
Link: Goodreads / Amazon

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret.
Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast - and nearly got someone killed.
Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence - to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.
But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way - people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself.

***I'll be doing this review a little bit different. I will be doing it as a list but in no particular order.***

1. Chelsea Knot is a brat. When we first meet her, I was immediately put off by her inability of keeping secrets and her way of thinking. What she valued about being best friends with Kristen and how popular Kristen made her, really irked me. I figured she would move on and grow up as the story progressed but by the end, she didn't change that much. She was still the same shallow, snotty girl, but learned how to think before speaking. Honestly, I liked her better when she wasn't speaking than when she started talking again. She did, slowly, matured during her months of silence. Chelsea stood up to Kristen several times; when Chelsea decided to tell the police what had really happened and when Kristen picked on Chelsea's new friend, Asha.

2. The author, Hannah Harrington, did such a wonderful job in portraying high school bullying. It was so well done and realistic that at times it was a little disturbing to read.

3. One of my favorite things about Speechless were the secondary characters, Sam and Asha. Sam was just so sweet and dorky and adorable. He was the guy who went online to research fashion designers so he could use it as a reference during a conversation with Chelsea. *sigh* I love it. Asha is one of the sweetest, kindest soul I have read in a while. She became friends with Chelsea even when her own friends were hesitant about it. I love people like Asha. I wish I could be more like Asha.

4. And my favorite thing about Speechless is the message of it. "Hate is easy but love takes courage." Chelsea is slow in learning to forgive herself for her past mistakes but I loved when she realized this:

"But even though I know my flaws are many (many many many), and there are always ways I could be better, and I should never stop working for that - I also need to give myself a break. I can cut myself some slack sometimes. Because I am a work in progress. Because nobody is perfect. At least I acknowledge the mistakes I've made, and am making. At least I'm trying.
And just because I have room for improvement, doesn't mean I'm worthless, or that I have nothing to offer to, like, the world."

Even though Chelsea didn't become a favorite main character, I found this to be an enjoyable read. It read very realistic and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. I am looking forward to reading more of Ms. Harrington's works.

Waiting on Wednesday (#10)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Morning swooners!

This week pre-publication "can't wait to read" selection is:

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

Expected release date: March 21, 2013

Goodreads / Amazon

(source)

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing common - they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And ... is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

What are you currently "Waiting on?"

Teaser Tuesday (#8)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teasers" sentences from somewhere on that page
Be careful not to include spoiler! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away. You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that the other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teasers.

Morning lovelies,

Here's my teaser for this week,

(source)

"Sure, she's got problems, but what seventeen-year-old kid doesn't? Haven't you ever read Judy Blume?" ~ Pg. 22 of 260, Inbetween by Tara A. Fuller

"Screw you. You're the one haunting a high school student." ~ Pg. 22 of 260, Inbetween by Tara A. Fuller

What are you teasing?

Book Promo and Excerpt - Weaving Magic by Mindy Hardwick

Weaving Magic by Mindy Hardwick

YA Romance

Date Published: April 27, 2012

Synopsis: He loves magic. She loves romance. But the biggest illusion is the one Shantel and Christopher perform together. Sixteen year-old Christopher fights to stay sober, while fifteen year-old Shantel struggles in the aftermath of her mother's death and seeks refuge in a fantasy world. But the unacknowledged roots of their problems refuse to stay buried and soon, the two are headed toward a deadly magic trick. Can Shantel and Christopher move beyond magical allusions to find love?

Author's Bio: Mindy Hardwick enjoys writing tales of romance for teens and adults. Her books for young adults include Weaving Magic and Stained Glass Summer. Mindy gets many of her ideas from the poetry workshop she facilitates at a juvenile detention center. Some of the real life teen poems can be found at www.denneypoetry.com.

Mindy is included on the Washington State Arts Commission Teaching Artist Roster, and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She is a member of SCBWI. Currently, Mindy is hard at work on her next romance for teens, which is a spin-off Holiday story from Stained Glass Summer.

Excerpt:

Everything would be okay, I told myself. Christopher was my boyfriend. I trusted him. I crunched inside the wicker basket and curled my legs underneath me. I wiped my sweating palms onto my black slacks. The audience stopped calling for an encore. They were so silent I wasn’t sure anyone was still out there.

I’d barely gotten my balance before the first sword barreled into the basket with a lot more force than we’d practiced. Startled, I realized Christopher was keyed up from the magic show performance. He was overestimating the force he was putting behind the swords.

I tried to figure out how to tell him to slow down. I couldn’t very well call out to him or the audience would hear.

Before I could it figure out, the second sword zoomed past me and into the basket. The two swords crossed over my head, and I rearranged myself so I could crouch lower. As I shifted, a third sword whizzed by my left arm and peeled off a small layer of my skin. I saw the blood before I felt the searing pain.

Contact Mindy here: Website / Blog / Facebook / Goodreads / Twitter

Purchase Links: Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Currently Reading - Frozen by Mary Casanova

Morning Swooners,

It Wednesday and we're one day closer to the weekend. That's always makes me happy. I wanted to share that I'm currently reading Frozen by Mary Casanova and Inbetween by Tara A. Fuller. I was approved through NetGalley for Frozen and it was released this past Saturday, September 1st. Inbetween was release a week ago and I've been anticipating its release and so I bought my own ebook! I can't wait to read and share my thoughts on both of these books. Have a great day!

What are you currently reading?

About the Blogger

Jenn is a 23 years old, avid reader and who decided to try her luck on blogging. She enjoys reading Young Adults novels with swoony boys and with a twist. When she is not reading, she can be found watching The Big Bang Theory or watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls and Friends. Books and Swoons is her baby.
Follow Jenn on Twitter and Goodreads

Books and Swoons

Waiting on Wednesday (#9)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Morning swooners!

This week pre-publication "can't wait to read" selection is:

Taken (Taken #1) by Erin Bowman
Expected release date: April 16, 2013

(source)

Summary (from Goodreads): There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys - but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteen birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends...and he's gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby's eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he's prepared to meet his fate - until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he's been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot - a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken - or risk everything on the hope of the other side?"

What are you "Waiting on?"

About the Blogger

Books and Swoons

Cover Reveal - The Unnaturals by Jessica Meigs

Today I have the cover for The Unnaturals, the new novel by Jessica Meigs. It's expected to hit shelves on October 1, 2012.

Summary: "Riley Walker is one of the world's best covert operatives, employed by a top-secret sector of the U.S. government known only as the Agency. Highly skilled and lethal in a fight, Riley is fiercely independent and adamant that she work alone after the mysterious death of her partner in an assignment gone wrong.
All that changes when she's thrust onto a new assignment investigating the deaths of twenty-seven Agency operatives. Forced to work with twelve-year Agency veteran Scott Hunter - a stickler for following orders and a loner by nature - Riley doesn't get a chance to protest before she and her new partner are passed to a sector of the Agency that they never knew existed. As they investigate the murders, Riley and Scott learn that there's more to the Agency than they ever suspected.
They discover the existence of monsters right out of their wildest dreams."

Author's Bio: Jessica Meigs is the author of The Becoming, a post-apocalyptic thriller series that follows a group of people trying to survive a massive viral outbreak in the southeastern United States. After gaining notoriety for having written the series on a variety of BlackBerry devices, she self-published two novellas that now make up the first book of the series. In April 2011, she accepted a three-book deal with Permuted Press to publish a trilogy of novels. The first of the trilogy, entitled The Becoming, was released in November 2011 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats. It was also named one of Barnes & Noble's Best Zombie Fiction Releases of 2011 and Best Apocalyptic Fiction Releases of 2011 by reviewer Paul Goat Allen. In March 2012, she release a related novella entitled The Becoming: Brothers in Arms. The second novel in the series, The Becoming: Ground Zero, is coming in July 2012 from Permuted Press, with a third novel, The Becoming: Revelations, to follow. A fourth and fifth book are currently in the process of being written.

Author's links: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Website.

About the Blogger

Books and Swoons

Teaser Tuesday (#7)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teasers" sentences from somewhere on that page
Be careful not to include spoiler! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away. You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that the other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teasers.

Morning lovelies!

Here's my teaser for today:

"But the word floated by, out of grasp, with the dreamy improbability of a fairy tale. Owen Jensen, the son of a creamery operator, could dream of college, but what about the daughter of a red skirt?" ~ pg. 22 of 264, Frozen by Mary Casanova

What are you teasing?

About the Blogger

Books and Swoons

Quotes (#12)

Hello lovelies,

(source)

I have a thing for Chris Hemsworth, you see.

"Bad things happen whether you're scared or not, so you might as well not bother being scared. It's a waste of time." - Louise Rozett, Confessions of an Angry Girl

"Her shoulders never shook. No tears streamed down her face. The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see - the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived. For people like me and Echo, our souls contained more scar tissue than life." - Katie McGarry, Pushing the Limits

"You think I'm gonna feel better eatin' a carrot? Get a grip. There's two idiots out there trying to kill me, and you think I'm gonna waste my last breath on a vegetable?" - Janet Evanovich, Finger Lickin' Fifteen

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well." - Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone

"I'm writing this down, because it is going to be hard for me to say it. Because this is probably our last time just us. See, I can write that down, but I don't think I can say it. I'm not doing this to say goodbye, though I know that has to be part of it. I'm doing it to thank you for all we have had and down and been for one another, to say I love you for making this life of mine what it is. Leaving you is the hardest thing I have to do. But the thing is, the parts of me are in you, all three of you. You are who I am, and what I cherish in myself stays on in you," - Ann Brashares, Sisterhood Everlasting

I totally sobbed while reading Sisterhood Everlasting. Have a good week everyone!

About the Blogger

Books and Swoons

Review: Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

(source)

Confessions of an Angry Girl (Confessions #1) by Louise Rozett
Release date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Harlequin Teen through NetGalley

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary (from author's website): "Freshman Rose Zarelli has rage issues.

First of all, her father lost his job, took work as a contractor in Iraq...and never came home.

Second, she likes the wrong guy and his super-intense, scary cheerleader girlfriend is now her nemesis.

Third, her fashionista best friend, Tracy, is suddenly infinitely cooler than she is - is talking about losing her virginity. (What?!)

Rose is ahead when it comes to studying for the PSAT, but she's so far behind socially that she might as well be moving backward. She needs Tracy's help choosing the right clothes, she likes all the wrong extracurricular activities, and she can't even make a decision about which photo of her father to put on the memorial website she's making (and hiding from her adolescent-shrink mother).

With her brother away at college and her mother always locked in her office with her messed-up teen patients, Rose struggles to get through each day without inflicting bodily harm on anyone."

Love. I just loved this book. It has been a while since I truly enjoyed myself in reading a novel. I experienced so many emotions while reading this book; I laughed, I cried, I giggled, I got mad. I lived and experienced Rose's tumultuous freshman year.

At first, I was a little weirded out when I read that Rose was only 14 year-old since I haven't read a main character that young in a couple of years. However, that was completely forgotten as I continued reading. Rose is dealing with the death of father, her oldest brother is off to college and she is just starting high school. She's dealing with a lot of changes at the same time: at home, in school, and even with her friends. She doesn't know how to react to these changes and I remember being that age and just stumbling around, trying to find my footing in life.

The author, Louise Rozett, created a main character who is sarcastic, smart, loyal to a fault, and naive but you can't help but just be in her corner and cheer her on. There were so many time when I just wanted to hug her, giver her a push to say what needed to be said, to let out some of her anger. There were times when Rose was a whining brat, a party pooper, and melodramatic and I rolled my eyes at her. But she's 14 year-old girl and she's supposed to be acting that way.

With so much pressure to date, get a boyfriend and have sex, I was very proud about how Rose handle everything. She knows that she's not making the "popular" decisions by going against her classmates and instead just stand by her personal beliefs. At a stage where conforming to the norm is typical, it just makes me love Rose's character even more. Ms. Rozett did a wonderful job in realistically portraying the struggles and peer pressure that teenagers have to deal with.

I can't wait to read more of Ms. Rozett's works and I'm looking forward for the next book of the series and finding out how Rose's sophomore year will turn out.

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Books and Swoons

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