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Tess of the D'UrbervillesThe AwakeningSome Girls BiteGirls Like Funny BoysKissed by an Angel Collector's Edition: Kissed by an Angel; the Power of Love; SoulmatesCity of Glass

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Teaser Tuesday #8


Hello my bloggy readers, I hope you all had a great weekend, I’ve been really busy with uni work and I just got even more today L. I’m going to try my best to get my review for Saltwater Vampires up before the end of this week, I’m hoping I’ll finish it tonight after my German lesson, but if you can’t wait till then I’ll leave you with this,

Saltwater Vampires is a highly addictive vampire novel which will suck you in from the very beginning (pardon the pun).

I’ve just started Fury by Shirley Marr and it’s really engrossing so far, I don’t want to put it down.

So anyway here’s my Teaser, enjoy!

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

1. Grab you current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (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 other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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“I used to think Marianne would make the perfect serial killer. I don’t think that anymore.”
- p. 147, Fury by Shirley Marr
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Monday, August 30, 2010

Review: Hourglass (Evernight #3) by Claudia Gray


Release Date: March 9, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Vampires
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 339
Source: Bought

Blurb (from Goodreads)

Bestselling author Claudia Gray’s Evernight series continues. In Hourglass, Bianca and Lucas have found a way to be together. But it means lying to the people who care about them the most.

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school, Bianca and Lucas seek refuge with Black Cross, the elite group of vampire hunters led by Lucas’s stepfather. When Bianca’s close friend—the vampire Balthazar—is captured by Black Cross, Bianca knows she has to do whatever it takes to save him. But at what cost?

Hourglass, the third book in this gripping vampire series by the author of the New York Times bestseller Stargazer, has all the romance, suspense, and page-turning drama that have made Claudia Gray’s books runaway successes.

The Quickie Review

Another edge of your seat, non stop thrill ride from Claudia Gray with an ending that will leave you begging for more, plus a little frustrated that we have to wait until March next year until Afterlife.

The Full Blown Review

* Note to my bloggy readers who haven’t read Stargazer and/or Evernight yet, in the off chance that your reading this review I wouldn’t suggest reading any further, so *STOP*, *HALT*, *NONE SHALL PASS*, as there are probably some spoilery details which you really don’t want to know just yet, trust me.

Okay so now I have warned you all I can get on with my review. Hourglass picks up soon after Stargazer, with Bianca, Lucas and Raquel hiding out (whilst also training to kick some vampire butt) with Black Cross. Unfortunately Lucas and Bianca’s plans of leaving Black Cross are put on hold as the cell is in lock down so they must wait it out until an opportunity arises for them to leave without being caught. However events conspire that place both Lucas and Bianca in danger and they must leave Black Cross sooner than they bargained for. Though once they finally do get away more problems ensue.

Once again I found the start to be a bit slow going, but then all of a sudden the pace picked up and I couldn’t put it down. I attribute this non-putdownableness (I know it’s not an actual word) to when Balthazar was captured, from that moment I was glued to each page, what can I say I have a bit of a soft spot for Balthazar.

Hourglass definitely gave us more Bianca and Lucas time (it’s basically Bianca and Lucas together throughout most of it) which I appreciated because we didn’t get too much in Stargazer. We really get a sense of how much Lucas is willing to sacrifice to be with Bianca and how much he cares for her, which is very adorable. Lucas also manages put his pride and feelings towards Balthazar aside when he decides to help him escape from Black Cross, something which he didn’t have to do but he did. Hourglass is also steamier than the previous two books.

I felt more for Bianca in this book, she was really struggling with leaving her family and her blood craving which was especially difficult living with a bunch of vampire hunters who would kill her if they discovered her secret. Bianca’s declining health issue was a bit of a mystery for me throughout the book, I kept on wondering what was wrong and what was going to happen because she wasn’t getting any better. Towards the end of the book we are given an answer to this conundrum, once I read this I was like ‘oh this makes sense to me now, clever’.

I also have to mention Raquel who settled in very well at Black Cross. I was not impressed with her actions at all, I don’t want to give it away but I’m just going to say ‘Oh Raquel why oh why, I’m very disappointed in you *wags finger*’, this will make perfect sense once you have read the book. Vic and Ranulf also make an appearance in the book which is always fun, I love them both, they always manage to lighten the mood. As I mentioned before Balthazar is in Hourglass too but it’s really only a minor appearance but it’s still Balthazar so I’ll take anything I can get.

Now I can get onto the ending, words cannot justify how ‘crap me did that just happen’ and frustrating it was. Don’t get me wrong I loved the ending but it’s so cruel we have to wait until 2011 until the next book when we were left hanging like we were. I’ll just say both Bianca and Lucas are in a pretty big pickle and I have no idea how they are going to overcome this pickle.

Random thought: I was thinking about the title of the book before and it dawned on me that it’s really clever, throughout the book Bianca’s time was running out, just like an hourglass, she had to make a choice because if she didn’t the choice would be made for her once the time ran out.

The Good

* The ending, wow!
* Bianca and Lucas’ relationship developing even more, so sweet.
* The second half of the book, it really picked up the pace.

The Not So Good

* Slow start (again)
* The ending, I can’t wait until 2011. Yes I know I’ve placed this in both, I loved the ending but was extremely frustrated with the ending hence it’s been placed in both.

Rating

4 out of 5

There’s Another Book?!?

Yes there is one more book in the series after Hourglass:

Afterlife – released March 8, 2011

Goodies

In My Mailbox #10


In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren once a week which explores the weekly contents of your mailbox and books bought.

Won:



Matched by Ally Condie (Penguin/December 7, 2010 - Australia)

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life.

Except he's not.

In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love.
How many children they have.
Where they work.
When they die.

But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own.

And that's when her whole world begins to unravel . . .

I won this limited edition proof copy from Penguin Australia’s dedicated YA blog ‘Between the Lines’. I literally squealed when I found out I won. Isn't the book pretty? I love it, this is the first book I have ever won and no one in my house is allowed to touch it, well except for me. Thanks Penguin!

So that’s it from me, I hope you guys all had a great week, what books did you receive?

Friday, August 27, 2010

Book Blogger Hop #8 & Follow Friday #2



Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy for Books whilst Follow Friday is hosted by ParaJunkee’s View. ‘The Hop’ and ‘Follow Friday’ are a great way to find other people who love to blog about books just like me! So if you’re interested in participating why not check out both Crazy for Books and ParaJunkee’s View for more information.

Jennifer also asks us hopper’s to answer a new question each week, so today’s question for the Hop is (*drum roll please*):

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

Why yes I do use a rating system. I score the books I read from 1 to 5, with 1 being ‘ugh that was a bad book’ and 5 being ‘amazing, fabulous, you have to go and find yourself a copy’. I’ve been meaning to actually write down my system on my blog so my readers actually know what I mean when I give a book a certain score, this question has reminded me of this so I should really do that soon.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday: Rhymes with Cupid by Anna Humphrey


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

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

Rhymes with Cupid by Anna Humphrey

Release Date: January 1, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult

Rhymes with Cupid and is about a girl named Elyse who, after a terrible heartbreak last Valentine’s day, has sworn off dating as well as celebrating the February 14th holiday. Both things are a bit of a problem, though, since a) she works at a gift & stationery store, surrounded by tacky, sparkly cards and annoying singing Cupid dolls and b) she ends up meeting this guy named Patrick who works in the same mall and is her new neighbour and her driving instructor and is really cute and incredibly charming… which, you know, might be okay except for the whole ‘sworn off dating’ thing and the fact that he seems to be into her best friend.

This sounds like such a cute read, I can’t wait till it’s released!

Well that’s my “waiting on” pick, what's yours this week?

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Teaser Tuesday #7


Hey everyone I hope you all had a great weekend. On Friday I went to the Claudia Gray Q&A plus book signing event which was really great, Claudia was so nice. I’ve put some pictures up in a previous blog post, simply click HERE. I’ve finished Hourglass so my review should be up soon hopefully before Friday. I also received my ARC of Matched by Ally Condie yesterday, I can’t wait to get into it, it’s so pretty! So anyway here's my Teaser, enjoy!

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

1. Grab you current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (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 other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The mutineers drink the blood and start killing people. They start from the back, because the people in front will never notice what’s going on – you now what it’s like, you can only really see the stage when everybody is packed in around you.”

- p. 244, Saltwater Vampires by Kirtsy Eagar
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About Me

Romy @ Lost.in.Stories
Greetings fellow blog readers, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by. Now you may be wondering who is lost.in.stories? Well lost.in.stories is also known as Romy, a 23 year old graduate student from Australia who loves to read. I read (maybe devour would be a more appropriate word) largely young adult novels, with a particular love of fantasy and paranormal novels, however I am also a sucker for a good romance.
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