The Death Cure

Title: The Death Cure
Author: James Dashner
Series: The Maze Runner series (#3)
Pages: 325 (paperback)
Published: October 2011
Summary: Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test.

What Wicked doesn't know is that something's happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says.  The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.
Will anyone survive the Death Cure?

My Thoughts: Wow, what an ending to The Maze Runner trilogy! So many twists and turns (in more ways than one). James Dashner once again weaves a wonderful adventure that is easy to read, easy to keep up with, yet will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the book.

However, there were a few parts that did lull a little bit and seemed slightly unnecessary which is why I didn't give it a 5 out of 5 stars. The first two books in this trilogy were a little bit more fast paced, twisty, and less predictable, but this third installment tied up the series very nicely. I did have a few questions at the end but I assume they will probably be answered in the prequel to the series, The Kill Order. It gave me a sense of finality, even though there were quite a few emotionally distressing moments (the deaths! THE DEATHS! My poor heart broke because of all the deaths in this book).

Finishing this series only makes me even more excited for The Maze Runner the movie (premiering in the U.S.A on February 14, 2014). If you haven't read The Maze Runner yet, I highly highly recommend it! It was one of my favorite books I read last year, and it's a quick exciting read that I feel anyone can love. So definitely expect updates and a review about this highly anticipated movie adaptation. It looks like it's going to be a good one!
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Books I Bought in July

(A late update, but nevertheless an update)

Adding on to my book collection and enabling my book-buying addiction, I've been to a few used bookstores and Barnes & Noble a few times this month. I am proud of myself, however, because I didn't buy as many books as I did last month and I think that's progress, right? Anyways, enough about this growing addiction to feeding my bookshelves, here's my book haul from the month of July:

Grave Mercy - by Robin LaFevers
I've seen a number of great reviews on this book, and my best friend even recommended it to me, and I trust her judgment, book-wise. And on top of that, it looks really interesting! A total BA female master assassin who's the daughter of death?! How awesome is that? Downside, though: it's really long and it'll probably take me a while to get to it let alone to get through it.

Agatha Christie short stories
I found this one at the used bookstore and ended up buying it because I don't have any collections of short stories so I thought, "why not start with the queen of mystery?" I'm starting my university classes in a couple of weeks, one of which is creative writing where we write and read a lot of short stories, so you could say I was inspired by that.

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey
This is one of those books that defines a year. Last year I feel like it was The Fault in our Stars, and after seeing only positive, raving reviews about this sci-fi adventure, I'm certain that this will be one of the best books of 2013. If you click on the title above it'll link you to the goodreads page for this novel where you can read the summary (it was a bit long to put in this post). It seems slightly vague, but only in the best of ways. I hate it when a book summary tells the reader exactly what happens. It makes it too predictable, and I love to be kept guessing while reading. It's exciting!

Pretties - by Scott Westerfeld
No I haven't yet read the first book of this series, Uglies, but once again I was recommended to read this series and I've seen many-a-blogger enjoy this book so I bought it. Also, it was on sale and I had a coupon. How could I resist!?

Hallowed - by Cynthia Hand
This book is the second of a trilogy about fallen angels and angels in general, and if you read my book haul post from earlier last month you'll know how much I loved the first of this series, Unearthly. It was lighthearted yet kept your attention the whole time, which is perfect for me when I'm at university during the semester and busy with college-y stuff (is that a real term? my brain is fried from summer classes I apologize). On another note, this series has some of the most beautiful covers. I usually don't like covers with girls in dresses on them because they've been a little overdone, but these are so gorgeous that I can't get enough of them.

Maybe I won't buy as many books this month seeing as how I'm starting back up with my college classes and on top of that I'll be doubling my time with my internship which means less time to buy books or read. But I always seem to find time between classes, so don't expect an official hiatus. It'll be more like a-post-every-other-week kind of hiatus as opposed to where I (attempt to) put up a post every week. Whatever the schedule, I wish you happy reading!

July Wrap-Up and YALLFest News

Well to say that I didn't get much done in the month of July is kind of putting it lightly. But I have an excuse! I had two finals for my summer classes within a couple of weeks of each other and in the end, I only ended up finishing one book (The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen) and starting one other book (The Death Cure by James Dashner) this month. And on top of my summer classes ending, I had to help plan my family vacation to Disney World (which will be this weekend!) and finish my paperwork for my internship and yeah July just was not a good reading month for me. I may or may not have found myself in another reading slump, which will hopefully be broken by my 12 hour drive to and from Florida this coming week.

However I do have some good news! I'm planning on going to YALLFest, which is Charleston, South Carolina's, young adult book festival. It'll be held on November 9, 2013, and it's a one day shindig in one of my favorite cities and admission is absolutely free. There are going to be 50 young adult authors there (among the list are Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia of Beautiful Creatures fame and Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss) along with a keynote speaker, who will be Veronica Roth this year. Yes. THE Veronica Roth! As in the author of the Divergent series (the last book of the trilogy, Allegiant, is set to release October 22 of this year). Her book signing is going to be a huge even in and of itself especially with the first book of the series, Divergent, getting it's own movie next year. On top of that, this is one of my favorite series at the moment, so I will definitely be bringing my own copies for her to sign at the event and yes I am fangirling over the thought of just meeting her (but only a little).

A more complete and detailed description of when, where, and who will be attending YALLFest can be found here if you're interested in learning more about the event.

I've never been to a convention or book festival of any kind before, so this should be a wonderful and exciting new experience for me and I absolutely cannot wait!

The Moon and More Book Review/Sarah Dessen Book Signing

Title: The Moon and More
Author: Sarah Dessen
Pages: 435 (hardcover)
Publication: June 2013
Summary: Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby. Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby? Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

The Signing: This is the second book signing I've gone to for Sarah Dessen (which took place a couple weeks ago), and it was even better than the last. I was near the front of the signing line, I won a bit of swag (a necklace with a key on it), and everyone was no where near as pushy as they were at the last signing, therefore making it an all around better experience, not to mention my sister and I got to talk to her more than last time.  She was funny, nice, down to earth, and very relatable, and she seemed genuinely happy to be there doing this signing for her fans and readers.

She gave us some inside perspective as to her writing process, where the fictional town of Colby, which is the setting of this book and appears in many of her other novels, is based (Emerald Isle, NC), and revealed that she's working on her twelfth novel right now. I was having an awful day the day of the signing, and when I walked into that bookstore and felt the energy of my fellow fans around me, I instantly felt better. I loved it. Everyone was so nice and excited, and there was even free cake (I'm all about the free food), so in other words, yes I definitely plan on attending more of her book signings and I'll probably always treasure her books. I started reading them in high school and they're now as much a part of my learning and growing up experience as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book series.

My Review: Okay so this wasn't my all-time favorite Dessen novel (that would be Along for the Ride), but it definitely wasn't my least favorite. I felt like it dragged in some areas, yet didn't fully explain what was happening in others. Like for example Clyde's back story or more of Theo's back story.  But I never felt like I didn't know who Emaline was as a person or where her development was headed. My favorite part about this book, however, was that it was less about a love triangle and more about Emaline figuring out what she wanted out of life and how change can come in all kinds of packages whether they be good or bad.

It took me forever to read this one (because of summer class finals and life in general) but I found this novel to be very much a beach read. In other words this book included a lot of what I like to call "fluff;" it didn't make you think too much and was very light (no dystopian gore or murder victims) while also packing a pretty deep moral to the story. What did I derive this moral to be? For the most part, I felt like this story conveyed how a girl when moving on in life doesn't need to stray too far from the familiar in order to experience personal growth. If you stray away from who you are and what you know completely, then you lose yourself completely.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Booktube-A-Thon

Although I'm not really a contributor to the booktube community, I do watch a lot of booktube related videos.  It's my way of seeing how much people love or hate a book and what they loved/hated about that book. If you're looking for alternatives to book blogging and reading reviews, I suggest looking into following a booktuber or two.

With all of that said, this week (from July 15th to July 21st), there will be a read-a-thon called Booktube-A-Thon held just for those who vlog about books or book reviews. Made by a couple of my favorite booktubers, Raeleen and Ariel, this read-a-thon made especially for booktubers (but anyone can participate). A read-a-thon is pretty much a reading marathon where you try to read as much as you can in the allotted amount of time. And this read-a-thon consists of seven challenges, just to spice things up. The challenge list is as follows:

1. Read an average of 300 pages a day
2. Read a book with over 500 pages
3. Reread one book
4. Finish a series/trilogy
5. Read a book that's been on your shelf forever (that you haven't read yet)
6. Listen to an audiobook
7. Read a classic

Here's the link to one of the Booktube-A-Thon announcement videos by Raeleen (a similar video can be found here on Ariel's youtube channel) if you want a better idea of this event.

You don't have to complete all of the challenges because, like I said, it's just for fun. You can even knock out two birds with one stone by reading, for instance, Emma by Jane Austen, which is over 500 pages long and is also considered a classic.

If you want to follow some other booktubers' progress while they try their hand at this read-a-thon challenge, then here's a list of some fellow avid readers/booktubers that I'm subscribed to who are participating along with their links:

Raeleen at PadfootandProngs07
Ariel at ArielBissett
Jesse at JessetheReader
Catriona at TheLittleBookOwl
Jacob at TheEighthPotter
Elizabeth at ElizzieBooks

Sadly, I will be jumping in late in the game due to a final exam in one of my summer classes being this week, but it will still be fun to try and accomplish at least a few of these challenges by July 21st (I've been busy studying for my final for the past couple of days which is why I'm almost a day late in making a post about it). But you know what they say, better late than never! And maybe with this class out of the way, I'll have more time to read and write reviews since I've been slacking so much lately.

I hope y'all will be joining in on the reading extravaganza with me this week and happy reading!

July Beach-Ready Book Haul

The time is drawing near for me when my family takes their big yearly vacation, and this year we're going to Florida for a week. Therefore, I must stock up on reading material for the 12 hour long drive and for possible pool-side reading, right? At least that's my excuse for buying even more books in the past month, even though I was kind of on a self-imposed book buying ban. Oops! But hey, at least I tried right? Anyway, here are the books I bought in the past month to read on vacation (click on the titles to see full summaries on Goodreads):


The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World - by Nancy Jo Sales
I now consider my obsession with this story in general to be my current guilty pleasure. What I mean is, I can't get enough of it! I'm completely intrigued by how these fame-obsessed teenagers became the first ever successful burglary ring in Hollywood. And after seeing the Sofia Coppola movie, The Bling Ring, based on a Vanity Fair article by Sales, I had to buy the book and learn more about the story. I'm not one for non-fiction books usually, but I've already started this book and the amount of research and detail that went into Sales' account of the "Bling Ring" is mind boggling. Like I said, I can't seem to get enough of it! You can definitely expect a review on the movie and book sometime this month.

Unearthly - by Cynthia Hand
I read this novel about fallen angels (more or less) about a year ago after renting it from the library pretty much because it had a pretty cover. Yes, I admit to picking up books based on their covers (although this photo of it doesn't to the real thing justice). But I'm so glad I did because I ended up loving it. It become one of my favorite novels I read last year (among The Fault in Our Stars, The Book Thief, Divergent, The Maze Runner, and a few others). However, this is the only book of the series I've had the chance to read. I hope to pick up the next installment, Hallowed, soon, because I definitely consider this to be a great beach read.

Shadow and Bone - by Leigh Bardugo
I've heard mostly good things about this book in the book blogosphere, and I've been eyeing it for a while now. But recently they released it in paperback, thus making it more affordable for me, and I couldn't refuse (I'm somewhat of an impulse book buyer, can you tell?). Also, the only books I've read that were based in Russia, like this one, are Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky and they were all for school, thus boring the living daylights out of me. This novel is different because a.) it was written in this century, b.) it's a dystopian thriller, and c.) it's not a required reading for any of my classes next semester, so I'm bound to enjoy it a lot more than Crime and Punishment (here's hoping).

Emma - by Jane Austen
I wanted to pick up this Austen classic after watching one of my favorite movies, Clueless (based on this novel), and I already own all of her novels in one giant bind up. However, I didn't want to be toting a huge leatherbound bind up just to read one book from it to the beach. So I went to a used bookstore and found a slightly battered edition to call my own. I think this might be one of Austen's longest novels she'd written, so it will be very interesting to see how far I get and how long it takes me to finish it.


The Summer I Turned Pretty - by Jenny Han
I bought this book for my younger sister as part of her graduation gift earlier this month, but I've heard mixed reviews on it. Some say it's the perfect fluffy beach read, and others say it jumps around too much and it's boring. My sister leaned towards the more negative side saying she didn't like the flashbacks and that she probably wasn't going to read the rest of the trilogy. Seeing as how we now own it, though, I thought I'd at least give it a try. It can't hurt to give it go, you know? The premise seems tame enough, too. It doesn't seem to require a lot of comprehensive reading, it's set at the beach, involves a coming of age story as well a teen love triangle. What else could you want in a beachy read?

That pretty much does it on my recent beach book purchases. Hope y'all have a great summer and relaxing vacations, whether they're poolside, porchside, or beach side.
Happy Reading!

July TBR Pile

June wasn't a good reading month for me, in terms of how much reading I actually got done. With summer classes, I've been swamped with homework and assignments lately, but that will all be over at the end of July! However, I may be spending quite a bit of time studying for my finals, but after this month, I will hopefully have a lot more time to do some summer reading. So without further ado, here's my July to-be-read list! (Maybe I'll actually get to all of them this time haha!)

The Selection - by Keira Cass
I'm playing catch-up here! My younger sister graduated earlier in June and I gave her the sequel to this book, The Elite, as part of her graduation gift (along with a few other books). She loves the first book and couldn't wait to dive into the second, so I thought hey why not give it a go. Also, I don't think I've heard any bad reviews about this book in the book-vlogosphere, and that's always a good thing to look for in a novel.

A Jane Austen novel
Any one will do. I just want some regency-era romance in my life. I think I'm going to go for either Northanger Abbey, as stated in my previous TBR, or maybe Persuasion, since that one takes place at the beach at one point. I mean, perfect for a summer beach read TBR, am I right?

The Death Cure - by James Dashner
I have to confess to something... I have a problem finishing book series'. I KNOW! FOR SHAME! But that's one of my reading resolutions recently: to finish some of the book series I've already started. That includes the Maze Runner series (among many more. I think this might have something to do with some sort of deep-seeded commitment issues I have or something). That's not the only motivation I have for finishing this series though. The first book, The Maze Runner, is being made into a film (starring the crazy cute Dylan O'Brien and the beautiful Kaya Scodelario) and I'm extremely excited since this was one of my favorite books I read last year.

I've pretty much shortened my TBR list significantly from how many books were on the list last month mostly because I don't want to set too high of expectations for myself since I'll be having finals later this month (booooo) and my family and I don't have any vacation trips planned until August, so no beach reading either. It'll be more like I'm-bored-and-waiting-for-class-to-start reading or everyone-is-on-vacation-and-I'm-stuck-at-home reading. In other words, the amoung of reading I get done will be dependent on how much of a social life I end up having between studying and my increasingly frequent naps. On another note, summer classes take a lot out of you.

If I read three or more books this month, that will be an accomplishment. I'm that swamped. By the way, I apologize if I sound overly sassy. My levels of stress usually match my levels of sarcasm and I've been quite stressed lately, what with the swamping. Well, I hope y'all have better reading month than me (that's not saying much but you get what I mean). Happy Reading!