Waiting on Wednesday 86: Light (Gone # 6)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Name: Light (Gone # 6)

Author: Michael Grant
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: April 2nd, 2013

576 pages

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It’s been more than a year since every person over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California. In that time, countless battles have been fought: Battles against hunger and lies and plagues and worse, battles of good against evil, and kid against kid. Allegiances have been won, lost, betrayed, and won again; ideologies have been shattered and created anew, and the kids of the FAYZ have begun to believe that their new society is the only life they’ll ever know. But now that the Darkness has found a way to be reborn, the tenuous existence they‘ve established is likely to be shattered for good. Will the kids of Perdido Beach even survive?

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series (which has spanned more than 3,000 pages!) asks as many profound and provocative questions as it answers, while bestselling mastermind and author Michael Grant creates an unforgettable, arresting conclusion that readers won’t able to stop talking about.

Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I can't believe that it has already been almost 5 years since the first book in this series came out!  I was hooked from the very first word and these books have quickly become some of my favorites.  I cannot wait for this final book, and I hope that the ending is as good as the beginning!  If you haven't read any of the Gone series you should definitely check these books out (don't let the 6 books spanning "more than 3,000 pages" total scare you - the font is quite big, the pages are small, and the reading is very quick).

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

Catching Books Needs YOUR help!

Hi everyone! Last summer Jaime and I sent out a survey asking for people asking to help out at Catching Books because things were getting really hectic. This time we are looking for someone to help us out again!

We would love to add two more reviewers to the Catching Books team to help us with different posts and reviews. Being a freshman in college is crazy and while Jaime and I both LOVE to post some weeks are just so crazy that is hard to find the time! So we need your help!


So....are you interested??

Fill out this form here!

Thanks so much everyone..I can't wait to read your responses and if you have any questions don't hesitate to email me or send me a tweet :)

-Sarah

Shadows in the Silence (Angelfire # 3) by Courtney Allison Moulton Review

Name: Shadows in the Silence (Angelfire # 3)
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: E-book copy
Buy the book on Amazon
469 pages

Summary:

Your strength in heart and hand will fall. . . .
Ellie knows that the darkest moments are still to come, and she has everything to fight for:

She must fight for Will.
The demonic have resorted to their cruelest weapons to put Will in mortal danger, and Ellie makes an unlikely alliance to save him and to stop Lilith and Sammael, who seek to drown the world in blood and tear a hole into Heaven.

She must fight for humanity.
As the armies of Hell rise and gather for the looming End of Days, Ellie and her band of allies travel to the world’s darkest and most ancient regions in her quest to come into her full glory as the archangel Gabriel.

And Ellie must save herself.
Her humanity withers beneath the weight of her cold archangel power, but Ellie must hold tight to who she is and who she loves as she prepares for the ultimate battle for Heaven and Earth.

In this final installment in the Angelfire trilogy, Courtney Allison Moulton brings her dark world of epic battles and blistering romance to a blazing bright conclusion.

Goodreads

My Review:

What a fantastic end to a great series!  This is one series that I think gets better with each book: I liked the first book, loved the second, and the third blew me away.  With a constant stream of action, romance, suspense, and even more action, there was literally never a dull moment in this book!


I loved the way that Ellie's character progressed throughout all three books.  At the beginning of the series she was really hesitant to fully leave her human life behind in order to become the archangel Gabriel and save the world.  However, by the end of the series she has accepted and even embraced her destiny.  She no longer finds herself interested in getting drunk and going to parties, and instead is more focused on saving the world; in other words, she really grows up.  Ellie certainly has a lot of sides to her character, and I love how Moulton is able to make her seems so relatable - so human - even though she is something more than just a human girl.  I did wish, however, that we had seen a little bit more of Cadan's development as a character.  He switched sides to fight for good rather than evil, but I think it would have been nice if Moulton had expanded more upon his change, which I can tell was not an easy decision for him to make nor an easy promise for him to uphold.


Ellie and Will's relationship is also another reason why I loved this book.  Not only were the two sweet and adorable throughout the book, but they also had to make some tough decisions and I loved watching them work things out.  This book picked up right where the last one ended, and after finishing the end of the cliffhanger, there was just so much more plot constantly taking place.  The battle at the end was a little predictable, but of course it was hard not to guess the way that it would end.  However, Ellie and Will had to travel so far - both physically and mentally - throughout the book, and while some parts were definitely sad to read, in the end I was so happy to see how far the two of them made it, both as individual characters and as a couple.

That being said, the epilogue was just an amazing way to end the series, and I don't think that Moulton could have done a better job!  I really enjoyed watching this series unfold, transforming from just one book that I thought was interesting into a wonderful series that I will never forget, and will definitely be rereading in the future.  If you haven't already read this trilogy you should definitely pick it up, especially this fantastic conclusion!

My Rating:

Waiting on Wednesday 85: This Is What Happy Looks Like

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Name: This Is What Happy Looks Like

Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: April 2nd, 2013

416 pages

Add the book on Goodreads

If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. 

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs? 

Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Doesn't this book sound adorably interesting?  Not to mention that I loved Smith's other book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.  I have high hopes for this endearing book, and I would be thrilled if it was as cute of a read as her other novel.  I can't wait to pick this one up in April!

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

Madly & Wolfhardt (Madly # 1 & # 2) by M. Leighton Review

Name: Madly & Wolfhardt (Madly # 1 & # 2)
Author: M. Leighton
Publisher: M. Leighton Books
Release Date: July 22nd, 2011
Format: E-Book
Buy the book on Amazon
323 pages

Summary:
Madly James is thoroughly enjoying her internship in the small town of Slumber when the unthinkable happens—there’s a prison break in Atlas, the magically-protected home of Madly’s race. A traitor has set free eight Lore, the spirits of what humans know as fairy tales, and they are making their way to Slumber to awaken their descendants. 

The first spirit to arrive is that of Ulrich Wolfhardt, a man that was once obsessed with wolves and a young maiden he would follow through the woods. After a bite from a wolf, Wolfhardt’s obsession with the girl became an unnatural hunger and the young maiden’s grandmother cursed him with a fate worse than death. And now he’s back…with a vengeance and a bite that can infect others as well.

Madly must learn the identity of Wolfhardt’s descendant and stop him before he kills again and spreads his curse across the earth. But the only person strong enough to help Madly is Jackson, the Sentinel who vowed to protect her and the one person capable of breaking her heart. Can Madly resist forbidden love long enough to save the world from Wolfhardt? Or will she have to sacrifice her heart and her destiny to save the ones she loves?

Goodreads

My Review:

I won a kindle copy of the first two books in this series and had no idea what the series was about (I'm glad that I did not know, though, for I don't think I would have picked up a book with such a description that sounded more like a little kid's book than a YA one).  I was quite disappointed with the first book, which was only 57 pages long.  There did not seem to be much of a plot and I found myself completely lost in a magical world of humans and mermaids that was hardly explained.  However, as the series continued on I found myself enjoying it a little more.

There is definitely a strong plot in this novel, what with Madly's home and the majority of her race being trapped due to a prison break.  Yet for some reason I find myself oddly detached from this plot line.  Everything just seemed predictable.  Even the characters (including Madly and Jackson) make obvious choices consistent with their personalities and never choose to do anything crazy once in a while; sometimes I just wished that something super exciting would occur to remind me why I was continuing to read the book.  Don't get me wrong, the characters and plot were not entirely unlikable; I just did not find them to be anything special.

The core of this novel, thankfully, is not the plot, but the love story between Madly, a princess betrothed to another man, and Jackson, the best Sentinel in the world who was assigned to protect her.  Fortunately this did not turn into a predictable love triangle; Madly's fiance, who also happened to be her best friend, quickly fell in love with another girl, leaving Madly free to be with whomever she wanted.  I loved the relationship between the headstrong Madly and the protective Jackson.  While their relationship certainly has its highs and lows, the couple has been able to keep a steady partnership because all the rulers have been trapped underwater due to the prison break.  However, I am quite interested to see what might happen if/when Madly's parents are freed; I am sure that they will cause trouble because of Madly's relationship with a man whom her parents have not chosen to be her fiance.

This series definitely takes some getting used to, and if you want to see Madly and Jackson's relationship progress, you really have to stick out this book and continue grinding through it, even when it seems uninteresting.  While these first two books were definitely not any of my favorites, I think that I will continue to read this series (though I may not dwell on it for very long) just to see what happens next!

My Rating:

Short Break!

Hi everyone! The next two weeks are going to be crazy for both Jaime and I with midterms and such coming up for school, so we are taking a SHORT break and will be back in the beginning of March! Don't worry guys..Catching Books isn't going anywhere :)

xxoxoxox

Sarah and Jaime