The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Goodreads Page

Summary (via the author's website): "Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself."

Review: So, I pegged the profession of the killer from early on. And to be honest, I don't know how I felt about the romance. On the one hand, I love it. I'm all about the lovey-dovey stuff -- just as much as the "and then he looked at me twice" stuff, which, come to think of it, might be what was lacking for me.

In summary, it was a good book; well-written, interesting, fairly clever. And, THANK GOODNESS, she showed instead of telling, which, as aforementioned, has been driving me nuts lately.

Goodreads Shelves: fluffy, is-this-a-kissing-book

Rating:

48 Hour Book Challenge Finish Line

In summary:

Time spent reading: 15 hours (my goal, that I never actually wrote down, was 12)
Books finished: 2 - The Squad and the audiobook of The Maze Runner
Books read in entirety: 3 - The Body Finder, Whisper, and The Off Season
Books started: 1 - Dramarama, which I'm going to finish approximately half an hour from now.

Concluding thoughts: I hope I'm not entering the final weeks of a show next year, because that really cut into my reading time.

The Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Goodreads Summary:  "Bayport High’s Varsity cheer squad is made up of the hottest of the hot. But this A-list is dangerous in more ways than one. The Squad is actually a cover for the most highly trained group of underage government operatives the United States has ever assembled. They have the perfect cover, because, beyond herkeys and highlights, no one expects anything from a cheerleader."

Review: So. Remember how I have a problem with telling? Yeah... I got really annoyed with Toby telling me how sarcastic she was, instead of just being sarcastic. In fact, I wanted to create a drinking game, wherein I did a shot every time she refrained from making a sarcastic comment. (Of course, she never said what the sarcastic thing she didn't say was.) Alas, I don't drink.

My other hangup was pretty basic: I didn't believe it. I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Seriously? A bunch of cheerleaders are supergeniuses in disguise and go around saving the free world all the time?? And they make this anti-social hacker girl seduce men, despite receiving no training? And they don't even know the identity of their bosses, who they've never met in person (which smells like Alias to me; I'm just sayin')? Anyway, suffice it to say, I wasn't terribly impressed.

I did like the boy, though. The dialogue he and Toby had was pretty good, and he actually made me laugh a couple times, so good job, The Boy.

Goodreads Shelves: fluffy, is-this-a-kissing-book

Rating:

#48hbc check-in number 1

Time spent reading so far: 2 hours
Book progress: finished The Squad, started The Body Finder

48 Hour Book Challenge Starting Line

Finally! Home from everything, ready to read into the wee hours of the night. It'll be great. I'm starting roughly now, at about 11pm, and I'll go until the same time on Sunday. If all goes well, I should be able to read at least 12 hours. That's my goal. I'm starting with finishing my (what has become a) disinterested skim of The Squad. I plan to start The Body Finder tonight.

Hey, it's an award!

Look! Jennifer over at Reading With Tequila gave me The Versatile Blogger award! Thanks!


The Rules for the award are:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (in no particular order…)
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.


Here goes! 


7 Things About Me:
1. It is one of my ambitions to own a dog some day.
2. Because of a cornea scar, I'm legally blind in one eye.
3. I am addicted to buying DVDs.
4. I'm working on becoming a Joss Whedon fangirl (by which I mean I'm almost done with season 2 of Buffy, and I own Serenity, Dr. Horrible, Season 1 of Dollhouse, and 2 copies of Firefly).
5. I'm afraid of Mountain Dew. Because it's yellow.
6. I have never seen Bambi, The Fox and the Hound, or Lady and the Tramp.
7. I can play the tuba (hence the first half of my screen name).


And here are the bloggers I'm passing the award on to (in no particular order):
Whitney at She Is Too Fond Of Books
Kirthi at Pages
Chelsey at Fake Librarian Girl
John at Dreaming in Books
Katelyn at The Bookshelf Sophisticate
Heather at Books and Quilts
Sara at Along For the Ride

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Here's what I'm waiting for:


Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Summary (via publisher's website): "Miles Vorkosigan is back!

Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp—an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out.

On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money and resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of generation past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don’t mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping—something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn’t due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle—of trouble!"

So... this isn't a YA book. You might have picked up on that. It isn't my intention to only read YA/children's books on this blog (it's new; give me a little time, eh?), and hopefully soon I'll get around to reading some "older books," as it were. If nothing else, I'll definitely be reading this one when it comes out in November. (I'll be reading my pre-ordered hardback copy, in fact.)

Fun fact: If you have a huge burning desire to figure out what the heck I'm talking about in my poll over on the right side, this happens to be a clue to that.

48 Hour Book Challenge

Have you guys heard of this? I heard about it last year, a couple weeks after it went down. I'm so excited to do it this year! If you have some free time this weekend, go check this out!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Summary (via the publisher): "In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?"

Review: Ok, here's my thing. Telling bugs me. In writing, they tell you to show, don't tell. So when I come across someone telling me something, instead of showing it to me, I tend to have a problem with it.* Like in this book. Mary, why the heck are you so in love with Travis? Travis is the Paris in this story; his only apparent purpose is to be pretty** and be in love with you. And be a total pansy, which is another requirement, if you're going to be a Paris***. I see absolutely no reason for you to be in love with him, besides the fact that you told me you're in love with him. That's it. That's all. Mary, what are we going to do with you?

Other than that, it was actually a pretty good book.

Goodreads Shelves: fluffy, is-this-a-kissing-book, pretentious

Rating:

*This, as it so happens, is the reason why I'm on Team Jacob. On days I admit to having read that particular series, that is.
**I assume he's pretty; I'm not sure why, but I think it might be because he acts pretty.
*That would be Paris of Troy. You know the one who started the Trojan War? Yeah, him.

Man, oh man!

I'm so excited! I won a giveaway over at The Bookshelf Sophisticate!!

 I won a signed copy of Angel Star, plus a whole bunch of swag!

Read Katelyn's review of Angel Star here, and her interview with the author, Jennifer Murgia, here!