It's that time of the week where I post at least two book covers that caught my eye.
(Featured book covers will vary from new and old books and whether I've read it or not.)

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

Interested? Check it out on Goodreads!

Endless by Amanda Gray

Interested? Check it out on Goodreads!

Review: Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare for Everyone Else #1) by C.E. Wilson

Drama, Romance

Get the book here: Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

Blurb:

Shakespeare’s work features some of the most memorable stories and characters ever created, yet for too many curious readers the combination of ultra-dense dialogue and unfamiliar historical settings make tackling the Bard’s work something between a tedious chore and a confusing mess of bird-bolts and quondam carpet-mongers.

While it’s nearly impossible to replicate or improve on these works, it is (thanks to their timeless nature) possible to make them more accessible to a wider audience.
In this Young Adult retelling of one of William Shakespeare’s most iconic plays, join C.E. Wilson as she breathes new life into Much Ado About Nothing, the first in her series 
Shakespeare for Everyone Else.

Two couples.
Clark and Heaven.
Beatriz and Bennett.

After years of friendship Clark decides that his senior year is the time to finally profess his love to his long-time crush Heaven; a sweet and simple girl who her father knows to be loyal, trustworthy and caring. She returns Clark’s love because, like him, she has also seen her feelings blossom over time. Theirs is a cute love that differs a bit from the other couple in the play.

Beatriz and Bennett at first glance seem to want nothing to do with the other. Every conversation, every remark is a withering attack which reveals their lost history and similarities. It’s not long before their friends hatch a plan to set them up because everyone is convinced they still love and care for one another. Will either of them be able to resist the strong attraction between them?
As these two couples try to make it through their senior year, their friend Donnie does what he can to keep the group happy. The problem lies in Donnie’s half-brother Jason who wants nothing more than to spoil the fun – even at the cost of Heaven’s reputation.

When both couples are pushed to the limits, whose love will endure?
Find out in this modern retelling of Shakespeare’s memorable play Much Ado About Nothing.

My thoughts (spoiler-free):

This book was given to me by the author for a "Read-to-Review".
This hasn't affected my review in any way. 

Much Ado About Nothing is the first book of the Shakespeare for Everyone Else series.

I'm not a Shakespeare fan, or any classics, really. I prefer to read modern retellings or watch the movie/TV series/web series. 

So, this is a perfect book for me.

I won't be comparing this version to the original story, because I've never read Shakespeare's original one. Instead, I will be reviewing this book solely on what I've read.

Two words to describe this book?

High school.

High school at it's finest.

All the gossips and schemes are spot on. Everything about this book is relatable to the teens in this generation.

It was fast paced and direct to the point, which I loved.

Although, it was too short for my liking, I found myself wanting more. There were characters with full of personality (Bennett and Beatriz) while others lacked. I had to differentiate Sola between Meagan, at times.

I had fun reading this version. Looking forward to the second book of the series, Othello.

Rating: 4/5 hearts

About the Author

C.E. Wilson is currently living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and her two dogs and two cats. They are all the loves of her life. When she’s not writing young adult fantasy novels, she enjoys writing short stories on her Deviant Art page. She loves to write stories involving giants and little people (also known as GT) and she can't decide what she loves more: horror movies or shoujo manga. On a side note, nothing helps her to write more than drinking some tea and watching The Twilight Zone.

You can find out more about C.E. Wilson here:

Blogspot       Goodreads        Deviant Art

Twitter        Smashwords      Facebook

New Blog Feature: Cover Appreciation Tuesday

Have you ever tried walking into a bookstore, then immediately grabbing the book with the gorgeous cover, not even thinking about the price or the author?
Don't even lie, I know you have. We're all suckers for a pretty cover.

Here is where I post at least two book covers that caught my eyes.
Featured book covers will vary from new and old books and whether I've read it or not.

This new feature will be posted every Tuesday, from now on.

Now, to start this off.

Sunset Rising by S.M. McEachern

Interested? Check it out on Goodreads!

A Shard of Ice by Alivia Anders

Interested? Check it out on Goodreads!

See, aren't they pretty? xx

Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Romance

Get the book here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Blurb:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

My thoughts (spoiler-free):

The Song girls reminded me of these girls: 

Yep, Margo, Edith and Agnes from the movie Despicable Me. HAHA :)

They do have quite a lot similarities, if you think about it.

Especially Margo and Margot, since they're both the eldest, they act like the mother for their siblings, they may be overprotective at times, but you can clearly see the love between them.

If Lara Jean is a real person, she would most likely be my twin. 

If I were to write a letter to every boy I loved (well not loved, more like a hardcore crush), it would take a looooooong time to finish.

Actually, me and my best friend Andrea is considering to write these kind of letters. We'll see how this turns out. :)

My Theme Song: Why don't you love me? by Hot Chelle Rae feat. Demi Lovato

Rating: 5/5 hearts

YA Book Challenge Day 8

13. WTF did just happened book ending:

> The Maze Runner by James Dashner

> The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

> All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

> The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

> Opal by Jennifer Armentrout

> Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer

> Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

YA Book Challenge Day 7

**WARNING: There WILL be spoilers!**

12. Best scene ever:

> When Leo met Calypso in Ogygia from 

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus, #4) by Rick Riordan

 > This scene:

from The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) by Rick Riordan

> When Tris was under Amity's Peace serum from Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

> When Layken 'slammed' and didn't know Will heard her poem from Slammed by Colleen Hoover

> When Raffe found out that Penryn named his sword 'Pooky Bear' from World After (Penryn & the end of days #2) by Susan Ee

YA Book Challenge Day 6

11. Six books from your to-read list:

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare for everyone else, #1) by C.E. Wilson

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Me before You by Jojo Moyes

YA Book Challenge Day 5

9. Your top five male characters:

> Adrian Ivashkov from the Vampire Academy series

> Leo Valdez from the Heroes of Olympus series

> Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars

> Jules Marchenoir from the Revenants series

> Fred and George Weasley from The Harry Potter series

Yes, both.

10. Your top five female characters:

> Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series

> Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy series

> Allison Sekemono from the Blood of Eden series

> Hazel Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars

> Katy Swartz from the Lux series

YA Book Challenge Day 4

7. Characters from series you'd want to meet:

> Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series

> Adrian Ivashkov from the Vampire Academy series

> Leo Valdez from the Heroes of Olympus series

> Isabelle Lightwood from the Mortal Instruments series

8. Best Prologues:

> Reclaiming the Sand by Meridith Walters

> Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

> Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

> The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

> Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

YA Book Challenge Day 3

**WARNING: There WILL be spoilers!**

5. Favorite Fantasy  books  series:

> Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

> Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

> Blood of Eden by Julie Kagawa

> Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

6. Favorite Dystopian  books  series:

> Divergent by Veronica Roth

> The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

> The Host by Stephenie Meyer

> Pivot Point by Kasie West

YA Book Challenge Day 2

**WARNING: There WILL be spoilers!**

3. Saddest character death:

> Fred Weasley

> Augustus Waters

> Tris Prior

4. Favorite platonic friendship:

> Isaac and Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars

> Harry and Hermione from The Harry Potter series

> Adrian and Lissa from The Vampire Academy series

YA Book Challenge

WARNING: There WILL be spoilers!

DAY 1

1. A genre you read the most:

> Paranormal romance

2. Most satisfying character death:

> Victor Dashkov from the Vampire Academy series

Rose got to kill him. :)

> President Snow from the Hunger Games series

He freaking choked on his own blood. HAH! That was definitely satisfying >:)

Review: Fire by Heather James

Fantasy

Get the book here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

Blurb:

Is control over the elements a gift, or a curse?

Roxy thinks that she is in control of everything: with flames flaring at her fingertips and an equally fiery attitude, what more could she need? But then she meets Brae, a prince from a rival Realm, who turns her assumptions of superiority upside down.

Jasmine has none of Roxy’s confidence or intensity. But she does have a secret - and Brae - and she’s not going to give either up willingly.

My thoughts (spoiler-free):

This book was given to me by the author for a "Read-to-Review".
This hasn't affected my review in any way.

Fire was an entertaining and enjoyable read. 
Fans of Avatar: The last Air bender (holla at you!) will quickly get the concept of the book.

There are four Realms that have their specific elements. The Helian Realm had fire, Arcan Realm had Air, Brizan Realm had Water and the Sephan Realm had Earth. Not everyone has the power to control an element, so each realm had people called Protectors , they serve as soldiers for their respective realms.

There were two alternating perspectives, Roxy and Jasmine's. These two are complete opposites, Roxy from the Helian Realm is snarky and bad-ass, while Jasmine from the Arcan Realm is shy and meek.I usually root for heroines like Roxy, but this is the only book I've read that made me root for a heroine like Jasmine.
The story itself was short, but it took me a while to finish, I had to slowly take all the details of their world.
I would totally read the sequel, Water.

Rating: 4/5 hearts

About the Author

Heather James is a young-adult author who writes about heroines with amazing powers, heroes who will break your heart and fantasy realms that you will want to move to. 

She works as a librarian in a school and spends her school holidays writing, reading, playing flag-American football and baking.

You can find out more about Heather here:

Blogspot       Goodreads       Facebook
Twitter        Pinterest         Smashwords

Review: Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Horror & Romance

Get the book here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Blurb:

Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. 
Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in.

Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening--to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore? 

My thoughts (spoiler-free):

Horror-Romance. I didn't think it was possible for me to like this combination. You see, I cower easily. I may not have nightmares from scary books and movies, but I do get really paranoid. I am absolutely terrified of dolls. (I only owned 2 dolls in my lifetime) So I was reluctant to read this, but my curiosity of why the book had high ratings and good feedbacks won over my fear of dolls, so I finally decided to read it.

I don't really consider this book a horror story, but it was definitely creepy. I just felt like it was watered down for young readers. The horror factor was like R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. 

The romantic part was cute, the way Katie Alender mixed romance and horror was impressive.

Rating: 4/5 hearts

The Waiting Game

"I NEED THIS BOOK NOW!"
Familiar, isn't it? It may be a sequel to a book, another novel from your favorite author or when it has an interesting blurb. All readers experience the same yearning feeling. But it's a lot worse if the book hasn't even been released yet, you're forced to wait a long time before you can read it. Yep, it sucks!


Here are the books I'm dying to read.

The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3)

Author: Julie Kagawa
Release Date: April 15, 2014

The One (The Selection #3)

Author: Kiera Cass
Release Date: May 6, 2014

City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6)

Author: Cassandra Clare
Release Date: May 27, 2014

On the Fence

Author: Kasie West
Release Date: July 1, 2014

Opposition (Lux #6)

Author: Jennifer Armentrout
Release Date: August 5, 2014

(All our Yesterdays #2)

Author: Cristin Terrill
Release Date: August 14, 2014

Rival (Fall Away #2)

Author: Penelope Douglas
Release Date: August 26, 2014

Unmade (Lynburn Legacy #3)

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Release Date: September 23, 2013

The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5)

Author: Rick Riordan
Release Date: October 14, 2014

Reborn (Altered #3)

Author: Jennifer Rush
Release Date: January 6, 2015

Penryn & the End of Days #3

Author: Susan Ee
Release Date: May 14, 2015