Indelible (The Twixt # 1) by Dawn Metcalf Review

Name: Indelible (The Twixt # 1)

Author: Dawn Metcalf

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: July 30th, 2013

Format: Arc copy
Buy the book on Amazon
384 pages

Summary:
Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT

Goodreads

My Review:

What a great read!  I was quickly swept into the magical and unique world that Dawn Metcalf created, eagerly following Joy as she was thrust into this new and exciting, yet highly dangerous world hidden just beyond our sight.

The best part about this book was how utterly uncommon it was.  I was expecting a typical YA paranormal romance, but Indelible surprised me from the first meeting, wherein Ink took a knife to Joy's eye in an attempt to blind her.  Ink, not entirely human, fascinated me almost as much as he was fascinated by Joy.  He and Joy had an immediate connection, even if neither of them recognized it at first.  Ink changed throughout the novel, growing to act more and more human as he spent time with Joy, and immersed himself in her.  Joy, on the other hand, also changed, coming out of her shell both in the real world and in her relationship with Ink, who was completely and utterly inexperienced, and sometimes not even certain as to how to comprehend his feelings.

I really enjoyed how Metcalf was able to balance both the magical with the usual.  In many YA books, the only interaction a protagonist has with the real world after being sucked into a paranormal one is when he or she is trying to hide her new world from her friends and/or family, and at that inevitable moment when the two worlds collide.  While the second did not occur at all (yet, at least; though I must admit that, as predictable as it is, I am still hoping this happens), Joy does not really focus on hiding her new life from her family.  Even though she is the only one of those around her who has the Sight (that she knows of), and so nobody would be able to see Ink or his sister Inq even if they tried, Joy's main interactions with her family and friends are not about trying to hide her new friends or the changes and pivotal moments that she is facing.  Instead, she has real human problems as well, like the aftereffects of her parents' devastating divorce, a secret that her brother has been keeping, her best friend who has a new serious boyfriend, her father dating a new woman, and several other things as well.  Metcalf did a great job at mixing both the normal and the non-normal, which made me love this book even more!

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book at BEA, as well as get it signed by Dawn Metcalf, and even have a quick minute or two chat with her before she moved on to speak with others.  I just wanted to thank her for her time, and for writing this delightful book.  I hope that everyone gets a chance to grab hold of a copy of the wonderful Indelible when it goes on sale late July for another great summer read!

My Rating:

Goddess by Josephine Angelini Review

Name: Goddess (Starcrossed # 3)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: May 28th, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Buy the book on Amazon
421 pages

Summary:

After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count.

To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

In Josephine Angelini’s compelling conclusion to the masterfully woven Starcrossed trilogy, a goddess must rise above it all to change a destiny that’s been written in the stars. With worlds built just as fast as they crumble, love and war collide in an all-out battle that will leave no question unanswered and no heart untouched.

Goodreads

My Review:
Wow...I can't believe this series is actually over! I seriously was blown away by the finale to this epic series...it was well written, had tons of action, and of course romance :)

What I really liked about Goddess is that we really got to see how much Helen has grown over the series. No longer do we see the shy girl who is unsure of herself, but now we see Helen as someone who will do anything to protect her loved ones and is willing to do anything to protect them. I also thought it was interesting to read about the new powers that Helen gains..I don't want to give away any spoilers but Helen becomes very powerful in this book and I liked seeing the new talents she gained. The plot of Goddess definitely was a great pace..not to slow or fast! Josephine Angelini did a fantastic job of explaining the mythology and new characters that she introduced into this novel which I really liked.

Now onto Lucas..oh Lucas. This book just made me love him even more. You can see his dedication to Helen and how he is willing to do anything for her. He really is such a sweet guy and I loved reading scenes with him in it. Again, I don't want to give anything away but if you are a big Helen and Lucas fan then you will love the ending of this book.

In the end, I LOVED Goddess! It was a fantastic ending to a truly wonderful series. The only thing that I am disappointed about is that there are a couple loose ends that the author didn't really tie up..I'm hoping she writes another book in the future with all of our favorite characters. I definitely will be rereading this series again in the future because I loved this amazing journey that this series took me on.

My Rating:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black Review

Name: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 17th, 2013
Format: ARC Copy
Buy the book on Amazon
432 pages

Summary:

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

Goodreads

My Review:

I was fortunate enough to get a copy of Holly Black riveting new book at BEA earlier this month, and all I can say is that I loved every minute that I spent reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.  I need to read some more to say for sure, but I have a feeling that this will remain my favorite book from BEA 2013.

What a great and original spin on vampires!  Just when I thought I was completely and utterly done with vampire stories, Black comes in with this amazingly crafted novel, making me question why I ever told myself to never read another vampire book again.  It took me until I got halfway through the book to realize that I was reading a story about vampires; and throughout the entire book I never once compared it to any other vampire stories that I've read in the past, which I always end up unconsciously doing.

I was captivated by Tara's character right from the beginning, when she woke up in a house surrounded by dead bodies.  Black did an excellent job of creating a perfectly real character that was easy to connect with and exciting to route for.  Tara a (both literally and figuratively) scarred young girl, was not afraid to be afraid; she was also perpetually selfless and brave even while she was frightened, which made her even more likable.  The romance really took a back seat in this book, which instead focused more on ideas such as rage and guilt and horror; but even with the lack of romance, I was still completely enamored with Tara's love interest, the wise and unpredictable vampire, Gavriel.

I absolutely loved the world that Black created in this book.  It was intricate with many rules, regulations, and stipulations, but at the same time it was somber, sinister, creepy, and all around wonderful.  This may make me somewhat weird, but what I loved most about this book was the atmosphere crafted by Black.  Her world was deliciously dark and horror-filled, and I loved every second of it!

My Rating:

Two Year Blogoversary Giveaway!!

Two years ago from today (June 22), I started Catching Books! I can't believe how much time has gone by since then! I graduated high school, completed my freshman year of college and I have reviewed so many awesome books :)

Thank you so much for all of you for sticking with Catching Books and being on this awesome journey with me! I know the past few months I haven't been the best blog poster but hopefully we will be getting some other reviewers to join the team/I will get around to reading lots of books this summer!


So in honor of my blogoversary I am giving away not one..but TWO boxes of mystery books! Yes that's right, two boxes! Now I'm not going to tell you what's going to be in what boxes..that would ruin the surprise!

So here's the rules:

1. You must be from the United States

2. The Giveaway ends on July 24th!

3. Winners must reply within 48 hours otherwise another winner will be chosen!

4. Fill out the rafflecopter below!!

Thanks again everyone and be on the lookout for my EPIC blog post coming this weekend with a highlight of my favorite blog posts!

xoxoxo Sarah and Jaime

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday 95: Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles # 2)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Name: Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles # 2)

Author: Kresley Cole

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 1st, 2013

Add the book on Goodreads

In the second book of the Arcana Chronicles Evie has now fully come into her powers as the tarot Empress. And Jackson was there to see it all. In the aftermath of killing Arthur, the tarot Alchemist, Evie realizes that a war is brewing between the other teens that, following the apocalypse, have been given powers and its kill or be killed. 

Things get even more complicated when Evie meets Death, the mysterious, sexy Endless Knight. Somehow the Empress and Death share a romantic history - one that Evie can't remember, but Death can't forget. She is drawn to the Endless Knight, but is in love with Jack. Determined to discover why she's been granted these powers, Evie struggles to accept her place in a prophecy that will either save the world, or completely destroy it.

Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I was lucky enough to receive an arc of Poison Princess (the first book in this series) at last year's BEA.  I didn't think I would like it at all and started reading it only because I was bored and had run out of other books.  However, I loved loved LOVED it, and it was easily one of my favorite books of BEA and of 2012.  If you haven't yet read the Poison Princess you should absolutely pick up a copy; you will LOVE it, I guarantee.  After my glowing recommendation of the first book, this seems a bit redundant, but I clearly cannot wait for Endless Knight to come out, and am already counting down the days (105!) until October 1st!  Until then, I guess I will just have to settle for rereading the first book, and searching online for any possible teasers of the second!

What are you waiting for this week? Let me know in the comments!

BEA 2013 Recap

For the second year in a row, Catching Books was able to attend New York City's BEA event in early June.  I was only able to go for one day, but I had an amazing time and definitely want to try to go for the entire event next year.  I received some great books, spoke with some wonderful people, and was able to meet as well as get books signed by plenty of amazing authors!  Here are just some of the many awesome books that I was fortunate enough to get a copy of at BEA:

All The Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

Indelible (The Twixt #1) by Dawn Metcalf

Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Ink (Paper Gods #1) by Amanda Sun

Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr, Tim Pratt, Neil Gaiman, Carrie Ryan, Gene Wolfe, Kelley Armstrong, Rick Yancey, Kami Garcia, Charles Vess, Holly Black, Garth Nix, Margaret Stohl, Saladin Ahmed
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. # 1) by Jonathan Stroud
Reality Boy by A.S. King
Independent Study (The Testing # 2) by Joelle Charbonneau

Little Red Lies by Julie Johnston

The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden # 2) by Julie Kagawa

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits # 2) by Katie McGarry

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Parasite (Parasitology # 1) by Mira Grant

Blowback (Vanessa Pierson # 1) by Valerie Plame

The Hit (Will Robie # 2) by David Baldacci

Thanks so much to all of the wonderful publishers and authors that I met at BEA! I want to thank you all so much for giving me copies of these awesome books for review :)

It's hard to pick any favorites out of these books, plus I even have a few other adult novels that I also received but was not able to get pictures of.  However, I waited in a super long line to get a copy of Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (I was number 187 in a line with only 200 books), so I ended up reading that as soon as I got home and loved loved loved it (a review will be coming soon!).  Other than that, Indelible has an amazing cover, Heartbeat looks like a great contemporary read, Rags & Bones has short stories by a few authors that I love, Dare to You has received nothing but outstanding reviews, and The Hit is written by David Baldacci, an author who has never disappointed me!

Needless to say, I am beyond exciting to start digging into my BEA books!!

What do you think of what I got?? What did you get this week??  Leave me a link in the comments and let me know if you went to BEA!!

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen Review

Name: The Moon and More

Author: Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Release Date: June 4th, 2013

Format: E-book
Buy the book on Amazon

435 pages

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.

Goodreads

My Review:

I was so excited when I first read that Sarah Dessen was writing another novel, and The Moon and More definitely lived up to her wonderfully high standards.  I fell immediately in love with the characters for all their faults, the plot for all its normalcy, and the writing for all its wonderful prose and imagery always poignant in Dessen's novels.

One of the best parts of this book was the characters, and how real they all truly were.  In many books that I have read recently, characters are either perfect with one great fault or evil with one sole redeeming quality; there are small amounts of gray in each person, but it is really quite easy to place them in a particular box based on what type of person they are.  However, it is nearly impossible to do that with the characters in The Moon and More.  Luke is described as "the perfect boyfriend," but he is far from perfect: he made mistakes, one key one, and there were several times when I distinctly disliked.  Similarly, the exciting and sophisticated Theo was difficult to like at certain points (I, actually, did not really like him much at all throughout the novel, except for during the Big Club Big Moment), particularly due to his often pretentious attitude.

The romance in this novel really intrigued me, especially because of the way it took the backseat role in a book that was mainly about the growth of the main character, Emaline, as most of Dessen's books are about.  Despite what the book's summary says, there was really not a love triangle in the story: Emaline dated one boy, and then she dated another.  Sure, there were parallels between the two, as Luke and Theo were opposites in many regards, but Emaline was not constantly comparing the two, nor was she fretting over who she should spend the rest of her life with.  Instead, she was just having fun with each boy separately (without dating them at the same time) and focusing on more pressing matters, such as her summer job, dealing with her absentee father and her loving half-brother, and many of the other usual issues that an eighteen-year-old faces before heading off to college.

As weird as this sound, I truly enjoyed how the characters didn't always understand each other.  Emaline had trouble understanding Luke, Theo really did not know what Emaline wanted, and there was a great deal of misunderstanding between Emaline and her father.  It was these misunderstandings that made this novel and the characters in it seem even more real and relatable, and that was one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it so much.  If you're looking for a great, quick book about growing up, you should definitely check out The Moon and More, or really any of Sarah Dessen's other novels.

My Rating:

Waiting on Wednesday 94: Ashes on the Waves

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Name: Ashes on the Waves

Author: Mary Lindsey

Publisher: Philomel/Penguin

Release Date: June 27th, 2013

Add the book on Goodreads

Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him—until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever.

With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied; but, the violent, mythical Otherworlders, who inhabit the island and the sea around it, have other plans. They make awager on the couple’s love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial—and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed.

Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling poem, "Annabel Lee," Mary Lindsey creates a frighteningly beautiful gothic novel that glorifies the power of true love.

Goodreads

My Thoughts:

A book based on Poe's "Annabel Lee"? Enough said! Sign me up!

What are you waiting for this week? Let me know in the comments!

Losing It (Losing It # 1) by Cora Carmack Review

Name: Losing It (Losing It # 1)

Author: Cora Carmack

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Release Date: October 15th, 2012

Format: E-book
Buy the book on Amazon

204 pages

Summary:
Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Goodreads

My Review:

I've recently been trying to get more into New Adult books, and what a great book to get me more into this genre.  Losing It was not only smart and sexy like most NA books, but it was also hilarious, witty, and just downright adorable.

Bliss, the main character, was one of my favorite parts of the book.  Her inner dialogue kept me laughing the whole book, even when the plot began to edge a little bit towards corny.  The other exciting part of this book, was, of course, Garrick, Bliss's British theatre professor and obvious love interest.  Sweet, sexy, and caring as he was, Garrick made the book even more enjoyable to read, especially during the scenes when he was just head over heels (and shirt over head) for Bliss.

One small qualm I held with this book was its predictability.  While this book was certainly a cute, fun read, I would have loved for a curve ball or two to be thrown into the novel, just to make it even more interesting. For instance, I was waiting for someone to walk in on Bliss and Garrick during a moment of weakness, exposing their relationship: after all, should it really be that simple for a professor and a student to hold a relationship without anyone finding out?

However, those small issues aside, I really enjoyed Losing It.  The writing was fresh, the dialogue was witty and entertaining, and the epilogue made my heart melt.  A great quick, fun read for anyone interested in tackling some NA books, like me!

My Rating: