Cover Reveal: This Girl by Colleen Hoover

Synopsis: Slammed from Will's P.O.V. will a mix of insight to Will & Lake's future together.

Release date: April 30, 2013

On Tuesday, March 26th, this cover was revealed by Colleen Hoover on her blog! I would have made this cover reveal post on the day of the announcement, but I've been on vay-k and haven't bothered if the pesky internet ;) hehe.

This Girl is a follow up book to Slammed and Point of Retreat, and while it gives a further insight on Will & Lake's lives together after Point of Retreat, it's mainly Slammed from Will's P.O.V. which is pretty freaking awesome for Slammed fans! It's being released in ebook format on April 30, 2013 (exactly one month away!!)

A plethora of links are provided here if you're interested in pre-ordering This Girl and that's where you can also order the previous ebooks in the Slammed series AS WELL as Colleen Hoover's most recent novel, Hopeless, and pre-order the ebook of Hopeless in Holder's P.O.V. which is called Losing Hope. Paperbacks are not available yet, but here's a link if you'd like to see what creations of Colleen Hoover's are currently available in physical form.

I HIGHLY recommend reading all of Colleen Hoover's books because she's a freaking writing genius and is able to spit out beautiful and roller coaster feeling novels like it's nothing! Seriously, these novels are beautiful. Here's my review for Hopeless to prove it, but I'm warning you, there ARE spoilers! (sorry!)

Back to the cover, I'm not WOWED by it because I've seen some SUPER beautiful book covers in the past (ehem, Hopeless), but I think it would totally look beautiful sitting next to Slammed and Point of Retreat on my shelf, once it's available in paperback. I think incorporating the poetry chair from Slammed, the butterflying butterfly from Point of Retreat, and then the adding Will & Layken to the cover is awesome. I personally think it's ties everything together nicely.

What do you think of the cover for This Girl?

To learn more about the writer, mother, ninja, wife, Avett fanatic, hardcore realist, a.k.a. Colleen Hoover, creep on her on her blog, facebook page, email, and Goodreads.

F.Y.I., when the cover is released for Losing Hope, I will most definitely be posting that on my blog as well! :)

Review: Boundless by Cynthia Hand

The past few years have held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life. 

Since discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California - and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that started her on this journey in the first place. 

As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara knows she must finally fulfill her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal. 

In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.

Genre: YA paranormal/romance

My rating for Boundless (Unearthly, #3):

It's about time I caught up on my blogging, right? I've been meaning to review this book since I read it and only now am I finding the time to really sit down and write this. So here we go!

Boundless was the perfect conclusion to a beautiful trilogy. As simple as that! But I'll elaborate for your sake ;)

The setting: The setting of Wyoming in the first two books of the Unearthly series (Unearthly & Hallowed. Definitely check those two out!) was awesome! It was because of this book that I actually fell in love with the idea of moving to Wyoming some day! (Or at least having an extended vacation there!) The adventure and natural beauty sounds irresistible and I think Cynthia Hand painted the setting beautifully! So it was to no surprise for me that the Stanford setting was just great too! I felt like I was a part of Clara's freshmen year of college experience! Loved that!

I liked how Clara trained with her dad in this book. It was great to see bonding between them since he always pops up and then has to go again. It felt like he was in this book "longer." And all the angel-stuff was awesomeness too :) Of course, it was amazing! Anything to do with angels is bound to be! (I swear, I did not plan that amazing pun!)

I adored the Clara and Mom scene! OMG my adoration for that scene went beyond the heavens! 

One of my status updates on Goodreads while reading this scene (from 1/24/13): "All the secrets (well, I think all of them) Clara's mom kept from her make sense to me now! Awwwwwww! That was such a beautiful seen!!! Awwww! x100"

An infinite number of pieces finally clicked into place with that scene added and I was just like, "Thank you, Cynthia Hand! Thank you for this scene!" I cannot even tell you how many times I was frustrated with Clara's mom's mysterious, sorry-my-lips-are-sealed, you'll-find-out-in-good-time attitude! This scene was worth all of that frustration! It was perfect! 

What else is there to mention? Oh, yeah.

Christian Prescott.

Christian Prescott: I LOVED getting to know Christian more in this! As funny as it sounds, I rooted for Tucker the entire time I read Unearthly and Hallowed. And then during the wait 
between Hallowed and Boundless...I fell in love for Christian. 

I blame it all on Cynthia. She wrote both love interests in this book fabulously. Not even joking, this is the best I've ever seen an author write the love triangle! Typically with love triangles, there's some sweet gentleman (kinda nerdy too) and then there's the witty, charming hotty and it's like a la-duh situation as to which one we're going to root for. That is NOT the case with Tucker and Christian though! Tucker is all cowboy cute, strong, and adventurous while Christian is the "it-boy" of the town who just happens to be a REALLY decent guy too!! They were both so extremely lovable that I fell for them both and my taste ended up swaying a bit over to the Team Christian side a bit. Or a lot. ;)

I know about 95% of the Unearthly fans are Team Tucker all-the-way, but, I mean, COME ON. How can you NOT love a guy who says this to Clara: 

“I love you," he murmurs. "Can you feel that? You. Not some destiny I think I'm called to. You. I'm with you. My strength. My soul. My heart. Feel it.” 

Since I changed to Team Christian, I was hoping, wishing, PRAYING for Clara to GET A CLUE and fall for Christian...

The way the book did end kind of left me heartbroken. I KNOW why Cynthia concluded the series the way she did and it worked out best that way. It was all just kind of bittersweet for me and I didn't feel right for about a week after finishing Boundless. I probably would have rated this book 1 star if I had reviewed it at that point because the ending was so bittersweet. I was just so emotionally attached to Christian and I really wanted him to have a happily ever after, but I still liked Tucker and I knew he was still so in love with Clara...

Besides that little tid-bit I was pleased with the action and the little plot twist with Angela. After reading Unearthly #2.5, Radiant, I expected a little bit more of Phen in this book, and I was surprised when he popped in for a page and was out by the next. 

The love interest and all the original angel-lore kept me reading well into the morning of the night I got it in the mail and it truly was a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy!

“We think of happiness as something we can take. But usually it comes from being content with what we have, and accepting ourselves.”

Show Cynthia Hand some love on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads! Check out the "Books" tabs on her website to find out where you can find her novels.

Vampire Academy Casting Release!

This news isn't exactly "new" -- it's been out for over a month -- but I really wanted to announce it on my blog because it's super FREAKING EXCITING news!

The roles for who is playing Rose, Lissa, & Dimitri from the book to movie adaptation of Vampire Academy have been announced! 

I am pleased to introduce to you:

Zoey Deutch as Rose Hathaway: I think Zoey is super pretty, but I don't think "badass!" when I see her. I haven't seen her act either, but she's supposed to be a really good actress so hopefully her kick-ass training and her acting skills unveil a badass side to her!

Lucy Fry as Vasilisa "Lissa" Dragomir: She is PERFECT! Perfect as Lissa! Pretty and totally has that look of innocence to her that I think of when I read the books. She doesn't look like a fighter. Basically, she's the opposite of what I'd imagine Rose to be like.

Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri Belikov: I've always had a bit of trouble imagining Dimitri while reading VA. I love him beyond reason and I think he's hot but I've never been able to pinpoint what his "hot" face looks like. I've kind of imagined a dark and long-haired Channing Tatum...(maybe a little?) since Tatum is big and can look awfully stoic and like someone you do not want to mess with. But this Danila guy *waggles eyebrows* is definitely good-looking!! And I feel like he could give off that serious Dimitri manner really well! AND he's Russian! I APPROVE!

Click here for more pictures and info on the new cast! (Don't you love the GIF?)

No other characters have been cast yet, to my knowledge, but after seeing this bunch, I have complete faith in the casting directors to find awesome accompanying characters! It'll be exciting to find out who will be playing the roles of Christian, Adrian (is he in the first book?), Mason, etc!

What do YOU think? Like? Love? Not so much? Let me know! :)

The highly anticipated movie, "Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters," is set to release February 14, 2014. It seems to me like an awfully tight schedule to fit casting, filming, and editing in, but as I said, I have faith!

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

Genre: YA contemporary fiction
Subject: teen suicide

My rating for Thirteen Reasons Why:

I wasn't necessarily planning on writing a review to this book because it's a bit older and I wasn't expecting it to be a "WOW" book, but then two reasons presented themselves to me:

1. It was a freaking good book and deserves a review.
2. By finishing this book, it marked my 200th book I've rated on Goodreads and since that's a pretty big milestone, I thought, this is a sign. I must do something in honor of this awesomeness.

So here I am with a review for Thirteen Reasons Why!

I've known of this book for a while and I knew it was about a girl who leaves cassette tapes for someone(s), telling them the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. I've heard that it was good and it's been on my will-read-at-some-point list since it first came out. 

And now that I'm finished with it, finished it in less than a day after ignoring it for five years, I'm telling you it is a read I will not forget. Ever.

Thirteen Reasons Why was a hard-hitting read and it's message was always very clear: Everything you do has an outcome. 

I've always been a strong believer of this. Always have been and always will, especially after this book. I know that the smallest of actions can be that one thing that gives someone hope while they are having a crappy day, can be that one final thing to send someone over the edge. That's how it was in this book. The simplest, thoughtless, and not entirely harmful actions of one person built upon another's and then another's and the end result was more than what each of those contributors ever intended.

I'd like to think I treat people with decency and respect. I've never been a fan of gossip and tisk my friends or classmates when I hear them talking about others negatively. But I can't say I'm perfect or that I have never said something hurtful to another classmate, to another human being. Or even just something not positive. Something that wasn't negative nor positive and the thought of that one action of mine, being the trigger to send someone over the edge, to make them break down in tears, to play horribly in their game, to say something to someone that they would otherwise regret...that's what I've been left thinking about.

Thirteen Reasons Why put a lot of things in perspective for me. It made me think twice about the things I've done and said, how I've treated people, and how I will treat others.

This book's last impression on me was this: If I always strive to keep nice things coming out of my mouth, or good deeds and actions coming from my body, then maybe that small and simple positive thing I did, is that one thing that gives someone their last thought of hope. Or a smile. Or just make them think: everything is going to be okay.

~

I rated this a 3/5 star because it's not the sort of read I typically enjoy reading (who wants to read about suicide?) but it was well-written, especially for a first book, and I thought the message was amazing. You should read this book because no matter how much I talk about its impact on me and no matter how much you say "Yeah, I get it. I understand what you mean," the suicide in this story is more than just a fictional story. It's something that is very real and happens a lot these days and you won't really "get it" unless you read it for yourself.

Books Are Blessings!

I was going to save this blog for random post about what little things in life make me smile, make me remember how truly blessed I am, and put an emphasis on the little things in life that many people these days don't stop to give a second thought.

Books are one of those things I'd consider blessings and although I definitely could discuss books along with other items and moments in life that are full of joy and appreciation, I've decided that books are too much a part of my life to only discuss them every now and then in a blog.
And that brings us to me telling you that I've decided to dedicate this blog entirely to books! Simple Blessings is my username on blogger, the title of this blog, and it is also my username on Goodreads so I thought, how much more perfect could this be! If this blog goes without fail on my part, I'll be making reviews on HERE instead of Goodreads, full-length, worthy of a blog post reviews, instead of my not-so in-depth reviews on Goodreads.

I've considered having a book blog for a while and never fell in love with the idea until now, after reading review after review after review of Colleen Hoover's new book "Hopeless" and seeing so many others with book blogs. I thought, now I could do that! Maybe even throw in some giveaways here and there...yeah I could do that!

Now that this has been decided, on this last day of the year the world was supposed to end in, I'd like to say thank you to anyone who follows my blog from now on! I cannot promise frequent posts because I am in school and a bunch of other extra-curriculars, but I will try my best to post at least once a month and make them GREAT reviews! Also, I still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to blogging and such so I will promise for nicer blog posts as we go along!

~ Holly from Simple Blessings