Book Birthdays! -- July 7, 2015

Whew! It's been a while since I celebrated Book Birthdays! Honestly, June was definitely a slow month on the release side, and July looks that way, too. BUT, there are a few to celebrate today, so let's get to it!

*Note: when celebrating birthdays for books in a series other than Book 1, I will not list the summary, in the interest of avoiding spoilers. If you've read the first book(s) in the series, or are just insanely curious, follow the book title link to the Goodreads page to read the summary there! 

Standalones

Title: A Million Miles Away
Author: Lara Avery

Summary: When high school senior Kelsey's identical twin, Michelle, dies in a car crash, Kelsey is left without her other half. The only person who doesn't know about the tragedy is Michelle's boyfriend, Peter, recently deployed to Afghanistan. But when Kelsey finally connects with Peter online, she can't bear to tell him the truth. Active duty has taken its toll, and Peter, thinking that Kelsey is Michelle, says that seeing her is the one thing keeping him alive. Caught up in the moment, Kelsey has no choice: She lets Peter believe that she is her sister. 

As Kelsey keeps up the acts, she crosses the line from pretend to real. Soon, Kelsey can't deny that she's falling, hard, for the one boy she shouldn't want. 

Series Starters

Title: The Fixer

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Fixer #1

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens' problems the way her sister fixes their parents' problems. 

And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess's classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting--and complicated--for Tess. 

Title: Silver in the Blood
Author: Jessica Day George
Series: Silver in the Blood #1

Summary: Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and--most terrifyingly--learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate...or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might. 

Series Continuers

Title: The Heart of Betrayal

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Series: The Remnant Chronicles #2

Tell me: what new releases are YOU excited for this week? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments below! 

Film Fridays! -- July 3, 2015

Welcome to a new weekly feature here on my blog! I have long been considering starting up a second blog for all of the other stuff I love, like movies and music and concerts and stage shows. But honestly, I couldn't find the time or the energy to do a whole second blog AND continue being caught up on this blog. So instead, I just decided to bring my love of movies to my bookish blog, and use Fridays as a brief break from all the bookish talk! (That was a lot of B words in one sentence. Whew!)

So begins Film Fridays! Here's what you can expect from me in a Film Fridays post: 

• Reviews -- I'll let you know what (if any) movies I've watched in the past week, and I'll write mini-reviews for each one to let you know what I thought. If I watch a book-to-movie adaptation, I will still write a full review for it, and it will be linked in this post, as well!
• Releases -- I'll let you know what movies came out on DVD each week (DVDs are released on Tuesdays), and what movies are being in released in theaters (movies are released to theaters on Wednesdays or, usually, Fridays.) 
• What I'll Be Watching -- I'll let you know what movies I plan on watching in the next week, either on DVD or at the theaters. I'll also use this space to share any trailers that have recently dropped for upcoming movies, and give you opinions on the trailer. 

If any of that sounds like something you'd be interested in, please be sure to stop by every Friday for a new Film Fridays post! But enough explaining now; let's get right into the first edition! 

Reviews

I hate to disappoint on this, my first Film Friday, but I haven't actually watched any movies in the past week. I know, I know! I've just been very wrapped up in TV recently. Between both Big Brother and So You Think You Can Dance starting, and The Bachelorette getting super dramatic, I've been very invested in reality television lately, so that usually only leaves me and my mom the weekends to watch movies. But last weekend, we started watching Empire, and by watching two episodes a day, we finished the first season in less than a week. (Sidenote: if you're skeptical about Empire, try it out. If you're not hooked after the second episode, then it might not be for you. But it is SO good, and the music is fantastic.) 

BUT, I will be writing my film reviews for the big screen adaptations of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Austenland this week, so look for those links here next week for sure! 

Releases

This was a relatively slow week for DVD releases. On Tuesday, June 30th, the following movies came out on DVD and Blu-ray:

Title: Get Hard

Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart

Title: While We're Young

Starring: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried

However, two huge movies released to theaters this week, and both released on Wednesday, July 1st: 

Title: Magic Mike XXL

Starring: Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer

Title: Terminator Genisys

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney

What am I most excited for out of all this week's releases? MAGIC MIKE XXL. I saw the first movie with my mom in theaters when it came out, so we're both extremely excited for the sequel. Especially because we both adore every guy in it. 

What I'll Be Watching

To be perfectly honest, I might not get to watch any movies in the next week, either. Unless we're just feeling super gung-ho about a certain movie in particular. Sometimes we get like that. But my main priority will be the 3rd season of Orange is the New Black. It's been out for almost a month, and because of our vacation in Florida, I didn't get to start it yet. Then we had to catch up on PLL when we came back, and then we jumped into Empire because the whole season was On Demand, and we wanted to catch it before it left. 

So it's OITNB time! If I watch any movies this week, it'll probably be Teen Beach 2. Because yeah, I loved the first one. My favorite recent Disney Channel Original Movie. 

However! The first trailer for Creed just dropped this week. Creed is the return of Rocky Balboa as he agrees to coach Apollo Creed's son, being played by Michael B. Jordan. (Yay!) What I love about this trailer is that it looks like a movie about Creed's son first and foremost, instead of a movie about Rocky coaching him. Rocky is there, but Creed is the main character. This trailer got me way more excited than I was before!

Tell me: what movies have YOU seen lately? What are you planning on seeing very soon? And what trailers are you the most excited about? Let me know in the comments below!

Review: THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND by Kasie West

Title: The Fill-In Boyfriend
Author: Kasie West

Summary: When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend--two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley. 

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party--three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. 

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship. 

Why I read it: It just looked so freaking adorable! So into my vacation bag it went. I read the first 50 pages on Day 2, and the rest on Day 3!

Thoughts: I enjoyed this book, though not nearly as much as I had hoped I would.

This was my first Kasie West book, and what I did love about it was the writing. There's an easy flow to the writing, but it's not overly simplified. Her prose is pretty, while refraining from being too flowery or pretentious.

I thoroughly enjoyed the main plot. It was pretty much exactly what I was looking for; a romantic comedy premise wrapped up in a young adult contemporary novel. Perfect. The way Gia's relationship developed with her fill-in boyfriend--whose name is Hayden--is so lovely and adorable, and I wanted even more of that.

But this brings me to the parts of the book that bothered me.

When we first meet Gia, she is a self-obsessed clique leader who is so oblivious to things around her that she doesn't even realize she's leading a clique. She lives in a world of tweets and retweets and hiding her true feelings to appear invincible from the outside. While it's easy to dislike a girl like that, it's also easy to understand her once you're in her head. Gia is somewhat petty and shallow, but she no one around her has ever pointed it out.

I never hated Gia, but I didn't sympathize with her at first. For the first 75-100 pages or so, I was enjoying the story from far away. I couldn't connect with Gia because she was so disconnected from real emotion, and I thought that the whole book was going to be like that. At first, Gia felt like a caricature of what older people envision teen girls to be like: selfish, obsessed with technology, and spoiled.

However, all of my concerns manifested into a subplot about how many teenagers today need Twitter followers and Instagram likes to feel validated. How teens carefully craft an online persona to keep people from seeing the real them and how they feel. And Gia definitely grew from all of these experiences, which I so appreciated. Gia ends the book almost a completely different person than the one she started as, and I loved that aspect.

I really did love the romance, as well. Hayden is so swoon-worthy, and pretty much exactly my type. He's slender, not overly muscled; he has hair that likes to stick straight up; and he wears nerdy T-shirts. A couple of my favorite moments in the book consisted of Gia describing Hayden's tees and not understanding them, because I definitely did. She comments on his "telephone box" shirt, to which he replies, "It's not a telephone box." TARDIS, anyone? Later, his shirt reads, "You can't take the sky from me." Anyone who weaves a Firefly reference into their book is a winner in mine.

As I said above, I love how their relationship progresses, with help (willing or not) from Hayden's sister, Bec. There were a ton of moments that left me with butterflies in my stomach, waiting to see how it would turn out.

On the other hand, they were about the only three characters I did like. I couldn't stand Gia's parents. They were exactly the kind of detached, "everything is fine, nothing to see here" parents that drive me nuts in real life, as well. Gia's friends are obnoxious. They are the selfish, spoiled clique of girls that I was afraid Gia was in the beginning, but they never get better. Hayden's friend (whose name I can't remember for the life of me) was also awful, in a realistic way. I've definitely known those jerks in my life.

I did end up really enjoying this book. It just took me quite a while to really get into it and connect with the characters. For the most part, this is a very fluffy, fun contemporary that I would still recommend if the plot interests you at all.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Tell me: have YOU read this book yet? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

Waiting on Wednesday (25): NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!

Title: Never Always Sometimes

Author: Adi Alsaid

Release date: August 4, 2015

Summary: Never date your best friend

Always be original

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliche high school kids--the ones who sit a the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school. 

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never dye your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember. 

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the cliches, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love. 

Thoughts: This just sounds so adorable. I absolutely love the cover, and the summary sounds so perfect. I haven't read Adi's other book yet, but this one sounds even more up my alley than that one did. I've been super into contemporary YA lately, so this is a perfect choice for today's WoW!

Tell me: what are YOU waiting on this week? Does my choice interest you as well? Let me know in the comments below!

Top Ten Tuesday (19): Books I've Read This Year So Far

TTT is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Hey guys! I haven't done a TTT in a while. But this is the perfect week for me to join in! My goal for the year was to read 40 books, and I've already surpassed that goal! So I have plenty of books to choose from. I'll be interested to see which of these books end up making my end-of-year list, as well! Instead of telling you why they're on my list, I'll link you to both the Goodreads page for the book, as well as my review! 

10. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven 

Goodreads | Review

9. Forged by Erin Bowman

Goodreads | Review

8. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Goodreads | Review

7. I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Goodreads | Review

6. The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1 -- The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Goodreads | Review

5. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Goodreads | Review

4. All the Rage by Courtney Summers

Goodreads | Review

3. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Goodreads | Review

2. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Goodreads | Review

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 

Goodreads | Review

Tell me: what are some of YOUR favorite books thus far in 2015? Let me know in the comments below!

Review: AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Author: Morgan Matson

Summary: Amy Curry is not looking forward to her summer. Her mother decided to move across the country and now it's Amy's responsibility to get their car from California to Connecticut. The only problem is, since her father died in a car accident, she isn't read to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger. An old family friend, he also has to make the cross-country trip--and has plenty of baggage of his own. The road home may be unfamiliar--especially with their friendship venturing into uncharted territory--but together, Amy and Roger will figure out how to map their way. 

Why I read it: It was the beginning of my vacation. I was stuck in a car for 8 hours a day, and I needed a book to read. So where better to begin my road trip than with a road trip book! Plus, I'd just read Since You've Been Gone in May and loved it, so I needed more Morgan Matson in my life. (And technically, I just participated in #monthofMatson, which is a readathon Maureen Keavy from Youtube is hosting in June!)

Thoughts: Ohmygoodness. I am so glad I decided to start reading Morgan Matson's books. Because as much as I loved Since You've Been Gone (and I did, just check the review!), I loved Amy & Roger even more.

First of all, both Amy and Roger are truly fantastic characters. They are both well-developed and so realistic, and I love the way they play off of each other's strengths and weaknesses. There's nothing like shoving two characters into a car together for a week to make them get to know one another. They both have pasts that they have to contend with; Amy by trying to run away, and Roger by trying to relive it. And that's what makes them so compelling.

I love the road trip aspect to the story. They go to places I've never been, like Yosemite, but they also go to places close to home, like Wichita. This aspect of the book is so wonderful because Morgan Matson actually took that road trip, so she really knows what she's talking about. I especially enjoyed seeing all the places that Amy and Roger stopped to have lunch or dinner. It was fun seeing which fast food joints they'd never heard of, like Sonic and Krystal.

Which leads me to my other favorite part of this book. At the beginning of the trip, Amy receives a travel journal from her mother that she ends up using while they're on their road trip across the country. So we get to see pages of that throughout the book as well. Amy adds receipts from their meals, and pictures she takes of the scenery. And she makes a note of all the states they travel through. As a habitual list-maker, it was fun to see that side of her as well.

The book also includes some emails, and--my absolute favorite part--PLAYLISTS! Having read Since You've Been Gone, which also features playlists, it didn't come as a surprise to me, but I still love them. Especially since the playlists in A&R are all handwritten and doodled upon by either Amy or Roger. Three reasons I love playlists in books:

1) It's a huge insight into the characters. You can tell a lot about a person by the kind of music they do/don't like; it plays directly into their personality.

2) It's fun seeing music you love in a book, especially if it's a band you didn't think many people had heard of. I loved seeing We Are Scientists on one of Roger's playlists, because I don't know anyone else who likes that band! Which leads me to...

3) It's a great way to discover NEW music! If a character's playlists include a lot of music you already know and love, it's a good indicator that your taste is similar to theirs. So when you see songs or artists you don't know, it might be a good idea to check them out!

The writing is superb. I laughed out loud in several places, and I was definitely in tears at points, too. That's the mark of a good author to me; someone who can make me run the entire gamut of emotions within one book. I want a book that I come away from feeling something, and that's one thing Morgan Matson does flawlessly.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I cannot wait to get my hands on Morgan Matson's other book, Second Chance Summer, and then my collection will be complete! (For now.) Morgan is now on my auto-buy authors list, for sure!

Rating: 5/5 stars

Tell me: have YOU read this book yet? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

Recap: Vacation 2015

My summer vacation is finally over, much to my disappointment. I got back last Thursday, but it has definitely taken some time to fully relax and decompress, and settle back into the swing of things. So I'm finally back here on the blog, ready to roll! But first, I thought I would share a few memories from vacation! 

One thing you should know is that when my family goes on vacation, we always drive to our destination. Florida is about a 19-hour drive from the Kansas City area, so it's a long drive. We used to be able to drive pretty much straight through, stopping for a few hours to sleep in our car, but now that we're all older, we can't really take it anymore. So we stop overnight for two or three nights on the way there and back. But driving gives us some awesome views. 

The "Batman" Building in downtown Nashville, TN!

All pictures of the Appalachian mountains from the drive home!

Once we got to Florida, we spent a few days in Daytona Beach playing in the pool, wading in the waves, and soaking up the sun!

Then we moved inland and spent the rest of our time in Florida at my aunt's house, spending time with my cousin and her son, and having a ton of fun with the whole family. I don't really have any of these pictures, because I was way too busy talking and joking around to be taking pictures. My parents have a few more for posterity, though. 

My parents and I went to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on Saturday. We hadn't been in almost ten years, and with the recent expansion of Fantasyland we just KNEW we had to go. And it was an absolute BLAST. 

The entrance to Magic Kingdom. 

Cinderella's castle! (With some random people in front!)

Prince Eric's castle, and the front for the new
Ariel's Under the Sea dark ride! (Which is so
adorable.)

The Beast's castle up in the mountain! 

Gaston's Tavern in Belle's little town!

Big Thunder Mountain!

And let me just say this: if you haven't been to Disney World in while, GO. Seriously, you're never too old for Disney. And the new Fantasyland stuff is SO cool. I loved the additions of the Beast's and Prince Eric's castles. There's a very cute walk-through show in Belle's cottage that features Belle herself! And most of all, the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train is one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. It's half rollercoaster, and half dark ride, which completely works. The wait time is killer, but do like my mom and I did: wait until dark, when the parades and fireworks are about to start. Most people, especially those with little kids, are going to be near the castle and Main Street to watch the fanfare, and the wait time will be dramatically decreased. Most of the day while we were there, the wait time was anywhere between 70 and 135 minutes, which is insane. But when we went on the ride a little after 9? We were only in line for about 25 minutes. And it was so worth it. 

We got to Disney around 10:30 AM, and we got in our car to leave at about 1 AM. For those of you who don't like math, that's 14 1/2 hours spent at Disney, walking around the entire park and riding almost every ride. It was completely exhausting, but still one of my favorite places on the planet. 

We even got to see Jurassic World on Sunday with my aunt, which was awesome. If you're a fan of the original Jurassic Park, please go see the new movie. It's funny and touching and has you on the edge of your seat the whole time. AND it has so many references to the original that were so much fun for a megafan whose seen the movie a million times like I have. 

We left Florida on Monday and started the long drive home. We decided to stop at my uncle's house in Tennessee on the way, and our route took us right through Asheville, North Carolina. And because my parents are the absolute best and pretty much down for anything, they agreed to make a pit stop in Asheville for a short visit to Malaprop's Bookstore! Malaprop's is the home bookstore for great YA authors like Beth Revis, Meagan Spooner and Stephanie Perkins. I've ordered a signed copy from them online before, and it was such a lovely experience, and I just had to go. 

I ended up buying three books, and my mom bought one book for us and three for my aforementioned little cousin, whose 4th birthday is next month. And because we bought so much, we were allowed to choose some books from the "free" shelf, which is amazing. I ended up finding six ARCs on that shelf, several of which seem fresh from BEA! I'll be filming a June book haul later this week so look for that! Then I'll post some pics of the books I got on Instagram, in case you don't watch videos. 

That same day, we got to my uncle's house, where he has this amazing garden, and a huge yard where they have a ton of adorable chipmunks to call neighbors. We even saw a deer behind his land, and my dad got a picture of several wild turkeys! My aunt made a ridiculously delicious dinner for us all, and in the morning, we were off again. By Thursday, we were back home, but vacation wasn't quite over! 

That night we got to go see the national tour of the Broadway musical Once, based on the movie. It was SO amazing and beautiful. And a perfect way to end our official vacation. 

Now that I've done absolutely nothing for a few days, I think I'm ready to get back to things. I've already started back onto Instagram with my Owl Crate unboxing, and my Twitter has not been forgotten. On Friday, I'll film a book haul, so this weekend my Youtube channel will be back in action, as well! 

I hope you all get the chance to go on vacation this summer, even if it's just for a long weekend. It's always so wonderful to unwind and relax, and do things you don't normally get to do, and spend some much needed time with family that you miss all year round. I know this vacation will be one I treasure for years to come. 

Tell me: did/do YOU have plans for a vacation this summer? Where will you go? Let me know in the comments below!