Books and Sensibility

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Mini Reviews : New Adult Novels

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New Adult or NA novels seem to be taking over! Every week it seems like more and more are being released and this week I take a peek at two NA novels.

The Space Between by Victoria H. Smith

This New Adult novel follows the relationship of a pair of 19-year-olds from two different sides of Chicago; Derek, the privileged adopted son of a Senator and Lacey, a struggling opera prodigy from the wrong side of the tracks with a mother dying of cancer. When these to meet in a blaze of passion, they have to overcome racism, class and their own family to be together. Seeing a romance that focuses on a biracial girl and Korean guy was definitely a first for me and I liked that Victoria wrote about this type of relationship. The plot relies a lot on insta-lust and I was kind of annoyed of how Lacey is constantly described as desert with chocolate eyes and caramel skin. Falling on the steamier side of NA, so there are quite a few scandalous scenes. This is the first in a series, so I’ll be interested to get the other ones if I stumble across them. Also how great is this cover !-  ★★★



If You Stay by Courtney Cole

Pax Tate is a selfish, trust fund baby with an addictive personality and Mila Hill is an orphaned artist living a quiet life with her sister. Their first encounter is anything but romantic when Mila discovers Pax overdosing in his car. This gruesome meeting unravels into a NA story that is the rather standard good girl meets broken bad boy with a fair share of steamy moments. The story packs on the melodrama and angst with everyone having dark secrets. After about the third revelation it started to feel a bit… soap-operatic ? This book also has healthy a bit of slut-shaming, which I think I’m just getting used to in YA/NA fiction at this point. I don’t know if this is done to create foils for the main female characters, but if you are an openly sexually active female, chances are bad things will happen to you. If you want an angsty, steamy romance this may be your kind of book. I think this story had  a lot of potential in the beginning, but if you’ve read any kind of NA before this story will seem generic. Also,a  month after reading it, I barely remember anything about it. –  ★★ + .5

 

Book Review: Marly’s Ghost 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 longlisted novel, Two Boys Kissing

 

  • Pages: 176
  • Genre: Adaptation/ Paranormal
  • Publisher: Dial (Penguin)
  • Publication Date: December 1, 2006

In Marly’s Ghost, David Levithan collaborates with illustrator and author Brian Selznick who is best known for his book The Invention of Hugo Cabaret. Together the authors remix the story and illustrations of  Charles Dickens’ classic novella, A Christmas Carol into a modern day Valentine’s Day tale.

 

This novel is a little different from most Levithan novels because it is essentially a packaged novel.  In the back of the book Levithan discusses how this novel came about because he was approached by two Penguin editors to write a Valentine’s Day spin on A Christmas Carol. Once he had a theme down, he describes how he sat down with the text of the original and worked piece by piece to create Marly’s Ghost. Because this novel sticks so close to the source material and borrows much of the language from it  has a different feel than Levithan’s previous books. …

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Build A Blog On A Budget : Blog Design

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I don’t know what it is but I’m always on the lookout for a deal. I wouldn’t call myself frugal but whenever I can save a few dollars or get a great product for an amazing deal I do a mental happy dance. With that in mind I decided to great a mini blog series on how I Build A Blog On A Budget. Here I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to blog like a pro with little to no budget.

* UPDATED 8/7/15 with more goodies !…

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Stacking The Shelves Vol. 6

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When Shannon over at River City Reading pointed me toBookSaleFinder.com I was so excited to see a library book sale was happening in our area this weekend ! I’d been to a few where I found maybe one or two books, but at this sale I  found all these amazing books for $6.25….

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Audiobook Review: Will Garyson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

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Join Kat as she reads and reviews the works of David Levithanfrom his debut novel to his National Book Award shortlisted novel, Two Boys Kissing

“It’s hard to believe in coincidence, but it’s even harder to believe in anything else.” 

― John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“I think the idea of a ‘mental health day’ is something completely invented by people who have no clue what it’s like to have bad mental health. the idea that your mind can be aired out in twenty-four hours is kind of like saying heart disease can be cured if you eat the right breakfast cereal. mental health days only exist for people who have the luxury of saying ‘i don’t want to deal with things today’ and then can take the whole day off, while the rest of us are stuck fighting the fights we always fight, with no one really caring one way or another, unless we choose to bring a gun to school or ruin the morning announcements with a suicide.

 

― David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

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  • Release Date: April 6th 2010
  • Pages: 304
  • Genre: Realistic Fiction
  • Publisher: Dutton’s Children (Penguin)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is probably David Levithan’s most well-known co-authorship and served as my introduction to David Levithan 2 years ago. I’d liked John Green’s vlogbrothers channel and decided to start reading his books. I got what I expected from Green’s writing, but Levithan’s just blew me away. It reminded me of how unique and diverse the voices in  YA writing can be. For Days of David Levithan, I did a re-read of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but decided to switch it up with the audiobook

Will Grayson,Will Grayson  is told in the alternating perspective of two 16-year-olds named WillGrayson,each leading separate lives unknown to each other. Until faith and a little bit of bad luck has them cross paths. From that moment the story unravels as each Will Grayson is forced to examine everything they thought they knew about love, relationships and coincidence….

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An Interview with Debut YA Author CJ Lyons !

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When Jess and I were at BEA, one of the books we heard about from Sourcebooks was Broken by CJ Lyons and it sounded amazing.When Sourcebooks asked us if we wanted to interview CJ, we jumped at the chance !

Broken tells the story of  15-year-old Scarlet Killian, who lives with a rare heart condition that could cause her to die of a broken heart at any moment. Scarlet decides its time to try something she has never done before; go to high school….

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