Saturday’s Discussion: Paranormal Obsession: Trends

*Today is a reading marathon day for me. If you would like to join in and need a cheerleader or if you just want to be my cheerleader, tweet me.*


This the beginning of a series called, “Paranormal Obsession”, where I talk about different obsessions within paranormal. It won’t be done on consecutive weeks, but will be 3 weeks now until the end of May when I will host a giveaway for those that commented.

Past Trends:


I’m sure there are many trends before my time, but I’ll start with Harry Potter. After Harry Potter had a hint of success fantasy got boost. Books with dragons, boys, and fantastical times were the trend for a couple of years.

Then Twilight came on the scene and books were all about vampires and a surprising at least to me was that we also saw a huge uptick in the amount of werewolves. *Call me skeptical on the whole furry guy phenomenon.*

Dystopian has been taking off for the last few months and I hear many say that it’s a trend that is around to stay. Personally, I love it. I hope it does, but I don’t think it’s the trend that is coming upon us. I think it’s going to be dying out. Though not dead as the previous haven’t died out and they’ve been around for centuries.

What's next?

Mythology I believe is the next big thing. With such successes as The Goddess Test and Starcrossed, it’s just resurging, but I think it could rival the Harry Potter success. Meaning, it’ll be huge, but it’ll die out quickly.

I’m most excited about the mythology trend as mythology has always interested me and I’d read both The Iliad and the Odyssey before I was out of grade school. The re-imagining of these stories is quite interesting and often can take me on a journey that other paranormal stories just don’t. They have history, intrigue, and overall are just good stories.

Question of the day:

What is your favorite trend of the last two decades? What do you think will be the next big trend? How do you feel about the trends in paranormal fiction?

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Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This week's question:

Keeping with the dystopian and apocalypse theme that seems to be running rampant on parajunkee.com, I have one very hard question for you: If you were stocking your bomb shelter, what books would you HAVE to include if you only had space for ten?

Answer:

1) Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

3) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

4)Castles by Julie Garwood

5) The Secret by Julie Garwood

6) Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

7) Harry Potter 1-7 by J.K. Rowling (see I cheated)

8) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

9) Paranormalcy by Kiersten White'

10) Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh

 

This week's question is

"Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you are most looking forward to?"

Answer:

There are so many that I don't have just one.

Hosted by: Bitten by Paranormal Romance

 This week's question: 

Do you have another hobby besides reading?

Answer:

My hobbies are homemaking things, but I’m SO not domestic. I love needlepoint, scrapbooking, and sewing.

This week’s question:

Stand Alone vs. Series: what's your stance?

Answer:

I freaking love series. If I like the book then I want more of that character. I want more of their story. I'm not as much a fan of spin-off series. Only if I'm seriously addicted to a series will I read the spin-off. 

I will read standalone books, but much more seldom. I want to know I'll have more of the world I've invested 3-4 hours to.

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Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

 

May 24th 2011, Candlewick

403 pgs., E-galley

Netgalley Copy

First in the Angel Trilogy
Young Adult Fiction

From Goodreads:

Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil. In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L..A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip — and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

Opinion:

I knew this was a book for me when it started in Oklahoma. Okay, so not a wholly positive view of Oklahoma, but still any book that has my home state is aces for sure.

The writer is so in touch with Alex. This is one of the fully fleshed out male characters I’ve read in awhile. He is a kick-ass assassin and also a great boyfriend. He’s sweet and capable, a combination that makes for a fully rounded character that I might be a smidgen in love with myself.

Willow’s an awesome chick, that has style and mechanical skills. She is unpopular in high school, but she’s comfortable with that. She has self-confidence that comes with age and though she may only be seventeen she has seen a world of life with her mother’s debilitating issues.

Can get boring at times if you like constant action, but the romance that is the heart of the story is so sweet that if you like romance its perfect. The romance of the story is about healing and acceptance. It’s a romance that is more akin to adult romance. This is a melding of hearts not of lust.

Jonah believes all his strength is with the angels, but finds it’s inside himself instead.

I seriously want the second book right this second, but alas I’ll have to wait a year.

Loved this book!

Rating: 4.5/5

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Waiting on Wednesday and WWW

Button from Bewitched Bookworms

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme by Breaking the Spine that allows us wonderful bloggers a chance to spotlight upcoming books that we are dying to read.

This week I’m waiting on:

 

Goodreads:

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

Why I'm waiting:

I’m super into mythology retelling right now, so this looks so good! Plus that hair braids that have a hint of danger.

• What are you currently reading?

 I'm reading The Iron King by Julie Kawaga. 

• What did you recently finish reading?

I finished reading The Queen Bee of Bridgeton this morning. I found it surprisingly good. Review and character interview coming soon!

• What do you think you’ll read next?

I'll read Antara next. I have to get questions off for the upcoming tour.

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Top Ten Females I’d like to Bitch Slap

Broke and Bookish hosts this meme where we list ten of the days featured list.

I probably won’t be able to come up with 10. Books in which a girl is a total be-yatch, I usually put down before I start getting steaming mad.

3) I cannot think of her name! Ugh. The girl who “drowned” in the Goddess Test. She’s kinda an annoying promiscuous girl, but I felt bad for her. If anyone can think of her name please comment

2)Rosalie from Twilight. I do feel bad for her as she is swamped with the feeling of loss of not being able to have her own children and a perfectly healthy girl wants to give it up freely, but still.

1)Queen Bee from The Queen Bee of Bridgeton. Seriously, betraying someone so close should have a special place in hell.

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Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Release info: This book releases tomorrow, so look for it in your local bookstore.

 

  April 26th 2011, HarperTeen

336 pgs, E-galley

Review copy from Netgalley

First in the Bumped series

Young Adult Fiction

From Goodreads:

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her that “pregging” for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

Opinion:

As an avid watcher of both Teen Mom and 16 and pregnant, I thought the premise of Bumped was great, but the promise of that premise failed to deliver until about half way in.  I was annoyed the entire first half.

Why was I annoyed? Neither of the characters is fleshed out well. Both of the males seem more interesting to me than the females and that’s a rarity.

Harmony was going around trying to shove Jesus down everyone's throat. I get it, you could say I was raised on Goodside myself, but seriously she was the evangelist everyone detests.

Melody is the typical teenager. Too controlled by her parents, wanting to fulfill her potential, but her parents are kinda insane. Like I hate them insane. I would say more but it would be spoiler.

And then, half way into the book they get what they should have had from the beginning, spines. It should've started 120 pages into the book.

Slight Spoiler:

Jondoe could be a good match for Harmony as he should be more accepting and perhaps take some of the brainwashing away. The way she was raised in Goodside is much like that of a Mormon travesty we hear about so often. 11 year old brides, married way before they should have been.

Zen finally tells Lem, such a cute nickname that he loves her.

Btw...Zen is adorable. 

Some of the positives are that it showed how devastating it could be to give up your own child; luckily they did have a drug to reduce these effects.

It also addressed the issue of giving up your virginity long before you are ready to do so with what seems to be prescription turned street drug Tocin and dissociation.

The book ended in the middle of a scene, it didn't wrap up fully. I do get that this is a series, but cliff-hangers in books simply to get you to read the next book in the series is just a cheap technique.

But I'll still be reading the next one to find out what happened.

Rating: 3/5

.

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In My Mailbox and On my Wishlist

In my Mailbox is a meme, created by The Story Siren, where we give a shout out to all the books we've received this week. As always the pics link to goodreads.

Won from: Seeing Night Reviews

For Teen Book Scene Tours:

On my Wishlist is a meme, created by Book Chick City, where we list some of those books that are on our TBR list it can already be published or an upcoming release.

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Saturday’s Discussion: Romance in fiction vs. real life

This article is in response to the posts about how romance doesn’t reflect true life.

Movies like “The Notebook” and books like Twilight however they may be mocked add a beneficial romantic fantasy that may not fully reflect life, but should they?

No matter how much I love my husband, he will always annoy me. It’s just one layer of what makes us a couple. I annoy him. He annoys me and often this annoyance turns into humor in which we die laughing at one another. But at the end of the day it’s a choice one has to make to continue loving the guy we are committed to.

In books this form of commitment would not be exciting or dramatic. They would be boring.

Plus, romance usually goes to the point where this level of commitment is established, but doesn’t go further.

So can these idealistic relationships where everything is new and adventurous be harmful? Yes, of course. Media, through television and books, often portrays societies misguided sense of what life should be. "Women should want and need men and this love should go smoothly at all times."

If though, this is read with a level of maturity it can be beneficial to fall for the guy alongside the main character. Not to mention entertaining.

So no, romance doesn’t reflect real life most of the time, but I think it’s beneficial to most readers, not harmful.

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Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This week's question:

What is on your current playlist right now?

Answer:

I don’t listen to the music on my iTunes like ever. I’m a Pandora junkie. Why find my own music when Pandora can do it for me? Which is all country by the way. Well, that and a channel based off American Pie, "Drove my Chevy to the levy..."

 

This week's question is:

"If you find a book you love, do you hunt down other books by the same author?"

Answer:

Umm…of course. Who doesn’t. Plus, I basically only read series so there’s several of the same author to get the whole story.

Hosted by: Bitten by Paranormal Romance

 This week's question: 

What attracts you most to a book? Is it the cover, blurb or something else?

Answer:

Author, cover, blurb in that order.

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Haven by Kristi Cook

 

  February 22nd 2011, Simon Pulse
416 pages, Hardcover

Library Copy

First in the Winterhaven series
Young Adult

From Goodreads:

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first.

Opinion:

This is hard one for me to review, because I truly enjoyed this book, but there is one major problem. It’s two books and one show combined into one truly entertaining book.

It’s Harry Potter, met Buffy, met Twilight.

Violet is all “I would never leave you no matter your secrets.” Then disappears for him letting her know the secret she so desperately wants to know. But Violet has personality and is so incredibly friendly and goodhearted that’s impossible to not love.

So in general I had a love/hate relationship with this book. Mainly because while I shouldn’t like it. I do, a lot. It was highly entertaining. It’s not literary genius, it’s simply a good book for a long night.

Rating: 4/5

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Waiting on Wednesday: Wisdom’s Kiss

Button from Bewitched Bookworms

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme by Breaking the Spine that allows us wonderful bloggers a chance to spotlight upcoming books that we are dying to read.

This week I’m waiting on:

 

Goodreads:

Princess Wisdom, known as Dizzy, longs for a life of adventure far beyond the staid old kingdom of Montagne.

Tips, a soldier, longs to keep his true life secret from his family.

Fortitude, an orphaned maid, longs only for Tips.

These three passionate souls might just attain their dreams while preserving Montagne from certain destruction – if only they can tolerate each other long enough to come up with a plan. Tough to save the world when you can’t even be in the same room together.

Magic, cunning and one very special cat join forces in this hilarious, extraordinary tale by the author of Dairy Queen and Princess Ben. An incredibly creative tale told with diaries, memoirs, encyclopedia entries, letters, biographies, even a stage play, all woven together into a grand adventure.

Why I'm waiting:

Beautiful cover, interesting storyline.

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Vlog it! : Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

Vlog it is hosted by parajunkee!

They say practice makes perfect. I'll get vlogging down one of these days

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Author Interview: Aimee Carter

Author of The Goddess Test; which releases today! April 19th

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Buy | Rie’s Review

Interview:

Q: Can you tell me about your book in 20 words or less?

A: A sequel to the myth of Hades and Persephone. Hades must replace Persephone, and someone keeps killing the candidates. (Whew, 20 words, right under the wire!)

Q: How/Who first taught you about mythology? Your love of it is so apparent within your writing.

A:  Thank you! I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I used to spend weekend afternoons at the bookstore with my father, where I sat in the aisles and read through hundreds of books. One of those was D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and I reread it so many times that it stuck with me. And I just kept reading everything related to mythology that I could find.

Q: Are you in love with ketchup or did you model this after someone? I'm constantly being made fun of for my obsession with it and found James' love of it refreshingly relate-able.

A: Ha! I love ketchup. I put it on practically everything, although I'm not quite at the point where I carry a bottle around with me. Though I will bring ketchup packets into a restaurant if they don't have a brand I like. I also love mixing ketchup and mayo too - I'm a bit of a weirdo, but try it! It's great, especially with fries. As for James, that quirk was unplanned - it just happened to show up on the page while I was writing. And I loved that about him. He's always prepared, even though it makes him look a bit odd. And he really doesn't care what other people think of him, which is so admirable, especially in a high school setting.

Q: The story of Hades, Demeter, and Persephone is not one simply of changing seasons, but of the struggle for one to adapt from going to one's mothers house to a husbands house. We see this struggle clearly within Kate. Was it difficult to get a good grasp on this connection between Henry and Kate?

A: Henry and Kate clicked in a lot of unexpected ways during the writing process. At first Henry was darker and, believe it or not, even more reserved than he is now, but they share an understanding in the sense that they've both gone through tragedy. Kate understands him in a way he didn't expect, and Henry understands her as well. And once I'd discovered that connection between the two characters, launching into the rest of their emotional arc was surprisingly easy.

Q: What is your current WIP (Work in Progress)? Can you tell me a little about it?

A: I'm working on the third Goddess Test novel, which is currently untitled. The writing process is a lot different from when I wrote the first book - I write in public places now, as opposed to writing at home, for instance. But the biggest difference is how people are reading the first book now, and I'm much more aware of the audience for this book. I can't say what it's about at all, since that would spoil the first two books in the trilogy, but I will say that this manuscript has surprised me in countless ways already, and I'm only sixteen or seventeen thousand words in.

Q: I've heard that you sold a dystopian trilogy, how has dystopian been different than writing mythology? More research, less?

A: I did! And I am really, really excited about it. The first book is called Masked, and it will also be released through Harlequin TEEN. I wrote it after I finished The Goddess Test, and it was a very different process. I actually wrote the entire first draft, edited it, then pitched it and rewrote the story from scratch, which I've never done before. There was probably less research going into it - a lot of what makes the world dystopian is political in nature, and I've always had a strong interest in politics, so much of that was already in my head. It also all had to make sense in a way that will hopefully make the reader believe that this world could really exist, and the history in Masked was much more of a character in the book than it is in The Goddess Test. But it's an intense story, and I'm very proud of how it turned out.

Q: Do you have a favorite place to sit and write? Where is your favorite place to read?

A: I sit in bookstores and write. I like being in a public place, but I also like the ticking clock - as in, the store's going to close in X number of hours, so if I want to reach my goal, I need to get off the internet and really write. I like to read when I eat, especially in restaurants. I'm the kind of person who gets a table for one and sits with my nose stuck in a book the entire time, and I love every minute of it.

Q: As a reader do you write in the same genre as you write? What is your current paranormal obsession?

A: I'll read quite literally anything that looks interesting, though I tend to prefer commercial fiction. I hang out a lot in the YA section, but I'll also venture into the general fiction section and browse as well. My favorites are split pretty evenly between adult and YA.

As for my current paranormal obsession, I'm in the middle of reading Josephine Angelini's STARCROSSED, and I adore it to pieces. She has a major hit on her hands, and best of all, it's about the Greek myths as well!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

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Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 

  March 22nd 2011, Simon and Schuster
356 pgs., Hardback

Library Copy
First in the Chemical Garden Series

Young Adult Fiction

From Goodreads:

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

Opinion:

This book is dark and emotional, but oh so good. It starts out in what can be best described as the holocaust way of transportation. Moving in a vehicle and when they reach their destination if they are chosen they are shot.

Rhine who has not been sparred a great amount of pain and grief throughout her life holds onto one hope. To be reunited with her brother, but she is trapped within the land of illusions. Holograms make up much of their existence from swimming with sharks to houses complete with a family inside.

She grows to love all of her sister wives and when one is endangered she puts her own freedom on hold to protect them. While she has fallen for her sisters she’s equally in danger of not only falling for Gabriel, but her husband as well.

During a hurricane she attempts her first escape and is badly injured for it. Will she ever get her freedom?

Wither is a hauntingly good book and I’m looking forward to the next. It can be slow at times, but the emotional toll this book will take from you is worth it all the way.

Rating: 4/5

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In My Mailbox and On My Wishlist

 

In my Mailbox is a meme, created by The Story Siren, where we give a shout out to all the books we've received this week.

R.A.K

Bought:

Netgalley:

On my Wishlist is a meme, created by Book Chick City, where we list some of those books that are on our TBR list it can already be published or an upcoming release.

This is actually sitting at my library waiting for me to go pick it up.

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Saturday’s Discussion:Pics to tell the story

Since typing S-U-C-K-S. Here’s this for today. Funny book related items found throughout the net.

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