Looking for Alaska by John Green

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Pages: 221

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same. 


Speechless because wow.

My Rating:
✰✰✰✰✰

I actually didn't know anything about this book before reading it which made it more exciting.

This book was just spectacular. The story, the characters, the writing; everything was amazing. Reading this book made me want to go do something. I want to seek my own Great Perhaps. This writing style, I thought, was pretty different to the way John wrote in The Fault in Our Stars, but I actually think that was a good thing. In a lot of ways, I think Looking for Alaska was better.

Miles was a great protagonist. I thought he was very smart and nice and I loved how he had a thing for knowing peoples' last words which was very cool. His character development was great and even throughout a pretty short book, he changed from being a pretty lonely boy to someone who had this amazing fun group of friends. I loved seeing all of the friends hang out, get drunk, and do whatever they wanted. The pranks were very fun to read about.

Without a doubt, Alaska Young was my favorite character. She might be my all time favorite character now too. I just loved her character along with Miles and Chip (Pudge and the Colonel), who were also great. Alaska just had these traits that I love reading about. She was outgoing and spoke up for what she believed in. I loved what the story circled which is friendship and overcoming hardships.

Although this book was fairly short, it did not feel rushed and I felt like I really knew the characters. I loved every single one of them, and I loved every second of this book. I also really liked how it was written with Before and After. 

This whole book felt so quotable and was very thought provoking. This book was so fun yet very intense.

Sometimes a book is so good, it's hard to explain why. This book was one of those. These characters were so great and the story was amazing. Just *sigh* spectacular. Looking for Alaska is very high on my favorites.


My overall thought: A pure coming of age story about self revelation. 

Bout of Books 10.0 Read-A-Thon

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Hello everyone! This will be a quick blog post announcing that I will participating in the Bout of Books Read-A-Thon! For more information, click on the link in the blurb above to visit the Bout of Books blog so you can sign up as well!

I don't have a strict TBR for this read-a-thon, but I hope to read a lot! Good luck to everyone participating and happy reading!

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pages: 336


"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

This being my first adult book, I was a little weary on how I would feel about this book. But I absolutely loved it.


My Rating:
✰✰✰✰✰

This book was brilliant. I can't think of one flaw it has. This is my 2nd Rainbow Rowell book, Fangirl being my current favorite book of the year, and I was blown away again. Rainbow was able to create such real, breathing, living normal characters. This was also my first adult book which, specifically this book, didn't seem too different.

The idea of this story was very unique and different; it sounded like it was going to be good and it was. At no parts did I find it boring or slow. The plot was great and moved along nicely. The book takes place in 1999 which I actually liked. 

In the book, some chapters are about Lincoln, the main character with the job of monitoring emails, and others are the email messages between the two good friends Beth and Jennifer.

In the beginning of this book, I worried that I wasn't going to be able to tell the difference between the two friends, which wasn't the case at all. Right from the beginning of the story, you get to know the characters. It was crazy how much I knew them and understood them. Beth was very different from Jennifer, and in their emails you can see how.
I loved reading the long emails and stories they shared. It really allowed you see the inside of their lives and all of the drama that was going on. 

Lincoln's life was surprisingly fun to read. I partially thought that I was going to find this part boring, but it wasn't. He was such a great character and seeing his troubled life just made me want to hug him and talk to him. He seemed so real to me and his life just seemed so typical; I loved it. 
His relationship with his co-workers (Doris), D&D friends, Eve, his mom, were all great. He was just an overall sweet person.

As the story continued, we start to see Lincoln's feelings for Beth. I found myself smiling and grinning many times as I read this. It was just so adorable. I loved how Lincoln fell in love with Beth's words and her soul. 

I felt like I was there with Lincoln the whole time as he experienced this. It was like I was right besides him, patting his shoulder and saying, "It's alright buddy."

My overall thought: A heartwarming story that helps you discover what love really is.

My Camp NaNoWriMo Experience: Winning and Hardships

So Camp NanNoWrimo is officially over, and I am happy to say, I won.

If you are unaware of what Camp NaNoWriMo is, I have a post that talks briefly about it here

My goal was 50,000 words and I reached that goal on April 29th.

Camp NaNoWriMo was a very interesting event and is something I would recommend new writers to do. Before doing this event, I was a very picky writer. I always wrote something and went back and changed it immediately because I did not like how it sounded. That, would be called your inner editor.

NaNoWriMo does not let you do that. It pushes you to keep writing and to keep letting those words flow out. At first, it felt odd to not reread my words for 100 times and change every single one. For Camp, I had to keep writing and writing. Before I knew it, I had written more words in a week than I had in two months!

I wasn't particularly clean with my writing, something I'll leave for editing. As I continued, my sentences become more choppy, short, and 3rd grade-like. But for me, it didn't matter, because I was getting my words out and on the page.

Like expected, my story had some crazy turns. I did have somewhat of  general idea for my story, but not much of a strict outline. Random things happened, and I allowed them to happen because that's what the story wanted to do. In the end, I got a hot mess of a novel. But, it's still a novel!

I had a strong start to Camp, but I started to fall behind in the 2nd week. It did not feel great, but luckily, I had spring break, in which I wrote around 10,000 words to catch up. After that week, things were good again. I was maintaining my goals, and on some days, passed them! After day 16, I had a good flow going.

I could tell that the NaNoSprints via Twitter and the Virtual Write-Ins via Youtube were helpful for some. I did some sprints but I never used the prompts since I didn't want my story to be messier than it already was. I did think the sprints did help though. In a way, it was a strict demand. Write for a certain amount of time without stopping. I couldn't do any of the Virtual Write-Ins, but I thought the idea was cool.

Getting to the 50,000 words was great. It felt great and made me extremely happy and proud. It was like a realization state like, "wow, did I really just do that?"

This was my first time participating in anything Nanowrimo, and I was very happy i did it. It was enjoyable, yet stressful, and really showed me what i was capable of doing. Although my cabin members become pretty idle, I was able to encourage myself and do it.

I will not be touching or looking at my novel for the next to weeks. It will be best to let it sit there and will allow me time to read a little and rest my brain.

There is still a lot of more work to be done with my novel. But at least I have something to work with now.

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Pages: 288

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. 

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. 

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

My Rating:
✰✰✰1/2

I received a copy of this book from Random House Children's and NetGalley


The synopsis of this book really stood out to me. I remember seeing  someone explaining it and talking about a group of immigrants moving to America, but not from a different country, but time.  It really sounded good and I was able to receive a copy of this book from Random House Children's and NetGalley awhile ago. I planned on reading it before it got published but unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that. I picked up this book weeks ago and couldn't really get into it.  It wasn't the book, it was just that I wasn't in the mood to read a different book where there would be many new things to learn and understand. 

I was only about 30% into the story when I decided to do Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon. I saw it as a perfect opportunity to submerge myself into this book and finish it. And I really ended up enjoying it.

The concept was very unique and the writing was very good. The plot was easy to follow as I continued and eventually I found myself not wanting to put it down! The main protagonist, Prenna, is apart of a group of time travelers who went back in time in an attempt to stop a deadly blood plague.  The story didn't really focus itself around the plague that much in the beginning which I found strange. There was a lot of world building and back stories in the beginning of the book which wasn't too thrilling.

Since I really did like the writing, it was easy to continue, and thankfully, the story did start to pick up.
Prenna's character was very  believable; her emotions and fears were realistic. I also enjoyed Ethan's character; he was sweet,charming and caring. Their relationship was great and didn't over power anything else. I did not think that their relationship was insta-lovey since they have know each for years and Ethan witnessed Prenna's arrival. 

 I do wish that we were able to see more of the side characters such as Katherine, Prenna's friend, who we don't really get to know. In the story, Prenna doesn't really have anyone by her side other than Katherine and Ethan. 

I did think that at some points there was too much going on in the plot and somethings over powered others. I think this book was pretty similar to The Giver in some ways. For instance, all of the rules they have and how there's a lack of privacy made me compare the two. Both of which I thought were great. 

I think Ann did a great job of writing this story especially since there are less than 300 pages in it. I really emerged myself into this story and really enjoyed it. In my perspective, it didn't seem like anyone was doing anything to prevent the plague. It was only when an old homeless man speaks to Prenna that makes her question her community which then leads to more events that ultimately lead to many big things. 

There seems to be a lot of mixed reviews and thoughts over this book but I would recommend it.


Now talking about some spoilers:

There were some nice plot twists in the story that I really enjoyed. I do have to admit that it was strange how Prenna only recognized the old homeless man as her father when he was dying. The story of him did really make sense and I really liked how the time travel made him age much more than the others. The whole thing with Mona was a bit too much. Some things in the plot really did make things more confusing and too complicated. But I did think that everything about Andrew Baltos was interesting. 
His suicide actually made me sad, even though he was a murderer. I did think that it would've been better if we found out about the start of the plague from someone who is really known in the book, not a character that has only been here for not that long.

I  really liked all of the character development that Prenna went through. In that long discussion she has in the end with Mr. Roberts really showed that and it made me want to clap for her. Speaking of Mr. Roberts, I think he was a good antagonist but it seemed as if he gave up in the end. The ending did seem a bit too forced and fast; it wasn't a bad conclusion though.

I really love the moments that Prenna and Ethan shared, especially when they were at the beach and shopping. Their love relationship was great and did make me sad how in the end they can never get what they really wanted. I loved how together they went searching for clues and discovered her dad's belongings that he brought back. I think the time traveling trait of this book  was extremely cool. 


My overall thought: A suspenseful book with amazing writing and real teen angst. 

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon 4-26-14

Hello everyone! I am going to participate in my very first 24 hour read-a-thon! I wanted to do this because I haven't been reading much recently. I also think that it will be very fun since I've actually had no time to read this month because of Camp NaNoWriMo. I will not be able to only read in one spot during the whole day, unfortunately. I will be going places but I still hope to be able to read. Majority of things I want to read are Ebooks.


Books I plan to read/finish:

Wild by Alex Mallory
The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks
Red at Night by Katie Mcgarry
Searching for Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn

I will most likely not be able to finish all of the books, but I hope to get a lot done!

Sign up for the read-a-thon: http://24hourreadathon.com/

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: These Broken Stars
Author: Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner
Pages: 375


It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. 

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. 

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.
                                                                                                   ~                                                                                                                   


Wow. This book was amazing. (along with it's beautiful  cover!) It was an awesome sci-fi and had great elements of survival to the story.  It was very fun and easy to read and felt like an adventure! The plot of this story was very interesting and had some really crazy twist to it.  There were many different aspects to the story I was not expecting, but was thrilled to read about.

I loved Lilac and Tarver as characters and their relationship. They both went through an immense amount of character development which really showed especially since in the beginning it was shown that they did not really get along well. The romance was probably one of my favorite things in this story. It wasn't rushed and forceful; it felt very real and genuine. You didn't really get to see any other characters that much, but just reading about Lilac and Tarver kept me going. 

I also loved the breaks between each chapter of dialogue between Tarver and the interrogator. It was very simplistic and quite enjoyable. The dual perspective and writing in general was great!
"Titanic in space." is a pretty good description of this story. The story itself was great and totally worth reading. I can't wait for the next two companion books for this series :)  I really do hope Lilac and Tarver make an appearance!

Now for some spoiler stuff! Skip to the bottom to find my rating and overall thought! :

One of the craziest things in this story was what happened to Lilac! It did take me by surprise and when she reappeared, like, woah woah woah. I found myself reading that part over again and question what's going on. I really shared Tarver's mixed emotions of this and felt bad for him. Seeing him confused and hopeless made me want to just hug him.

The ending of the book was great. I did wish there was an epilogue to see how Lilac and Tarver would go on. A part of me still believes that the new Lilac isn't his Lilac, yet she seems the same. It really made me think harder about life and what makes a person who there are, as if there was something else that made them them other than their soul.


My Rating:
✰✰✰✰✰

My overall thought: An adventurous story with twists following an amazing duo of characters.