Books and Sensibility

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Audiobook Review : Fire With Fire by Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han

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  • Genre :Contemporary/Paranormal
  • Length : 11 hours 15 minutes
  • Release Date : 8-13-13
  • Publisher : Simon Audio

Fire With Fire picks up just a few weeks after the events of Burn for Burn. The main characters have seemingly moved on, however, it’s not long before the girls find themselves working together to once again take down Reeve Tabatsky. Some people never change. . . or do they?

While the first book introduced the world of Jar Island, this book shifts focus on the community and culture of Jar Island. We get a feel for the traditions, events and celebrations of this small town. This level of world-building within a contemporary setting is admirable….

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Book Review: Are We There Yet ? by David Levithan

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Join Kat as she reads and reviews the works of David Levithan
from his debut novel to his National Book Award shortlisted novel, Two Boys Kissing. See more here !

“Do you wander why we wander ?”

– David Levithan, Are We There Yet ?

 

  • Release Date: July 12th 2005
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Genre: Contemporary
  • Pages: 215

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Elijah is completely mellow and his 23-year-old brother Danny is completely not, so it’s no wonder they can barely tolerate one another. So what better way to repair their broken relationship than to trick them into taking a trip to Italy together? 

 

 

For now I am skipping David Levithan’s sophomore novel, The Realm of Possibility, and jumping to his third novel Are We There Yet ? his second novel to be written in traditional prose.…

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Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell

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  • Release Date: October 1, 2013
  • Publisher: Abrams
  • Pages: 320
  • Genre: Contemporary 

Rebecca “Rebel”  Blue is exactly what she sounds like; a rebel. Raised and home schooled by a free willing photographer, Rebel just doesn’t get most things; like wearing shoes or math. Which is why she battles daily with her aunt and cousin after her mother’s death. She’s accepted she doesn’t fit in and she’s fine with it.

…

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Audiobook Review : Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

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  • Release Date : August 16th 2007
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Audiobook Length : 8 hours 55 minutes

Synopsis : St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger…

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever

Two years ago Rose Hathaway,  a half-human vampire, and her best friend Lissa Dragomir, a vampire princess, ran away from the vampire filled St. Vladimir’s Academy. We don’t know what they’ve been running from, but these girls have their reasons. Only now, they’ve been dragged back to St. Vladmir’s and the darkness has followed them….

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Audiobook Review : The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzman

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  • Release Date: August 6th 2013
  • Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
  • Genre: Realistic Fiction
  • Audiobook Hours: 12 hours 46 minutes

Synopsis: Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close, until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong, manipulative—and beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds. During their family’s summer holiday at the lake, Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter, Thomas Bayber, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie, however, remains strangely unmoved, sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered.In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again

I chose this audiobook for two reasons; 1.) I think the narrator, Cassandra Campbell, is amazing and 2.) I wanted to read more adult “literary-ish” novels….

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ARC Review : Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Kate Aleander

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  •  Release Date : September 24th 2013
  •  Publisher : Scholastic Point
  •  Genre : Paranormal Mystery/History
  •  Pages : 304

Synopsis: Paris, France: a city of fashion, chocolate croissants, and cute boys. Colette Iselin is thrilled be there for the first time, on her spring break class trip.

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place around the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours the sights, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they discover that the murder victims are all descendants of people who ultimately brought about Marie Antoinette’s beheading. The queen’s ghost has been awakened, and now she’s wreaking her bloodthirsty revenge.

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