Monthly Archives: December 2014
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,700 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
~Monthly Recap: December ’14~
Wow. It’s almost the end of 2014. Needless to say, I can’t believe it. I’ve been blogging for five months now, since July and time’s just flown by. I’m going to go over this month’s stats and some of my overall blogging stats. 🙂
~YA Indulgences Stats~
–December–
# of Views/Visitors: 2,228/1,672
# of Blog Posts: 24 (Now 25)
# of Reviews: 4
–Year–
WordPress Followers: 83
BlogLovin’ Followers: 61
# of Views/Visitors this year: 6,001/ 4,108
# of Blog Posts: 151 (Now 152)
# of Reviews: 28
# of Likes 145
# of Comments 463
~Book Stats~
The book stats will only be done for this month because I have no idea about totals for this year.
# of Books Read: 3 😦
# of Books Bought: Er….53 E-Books and 10 physical
# of Books Borrowed: Roughly around 20
# of Books For Review: Seven
# of Books Won: 0
# of Books Given: 1
~What I Posted~
(Minus Memes)
Musical Monday – Five Songs
Featured Fairytale Friday
~Favorite Posts~
~Things i’ve Been Obsessed With~
BookSliced, Twitter, my Kindle, and buying books.
~Blogging Participation~
I still haven’t participated in the A-Series-A-Month challenge yet, hopefully I’ll do much better in the coming year.
~Of YA Indulgences~
Overall I think it’s been an okay year, I haven’t had many life changes. Christmas went well as I already talked about. Well, besides this blog there haven’t been many life changes. I rediscovered my love for reading. I hope next year goes wonderfully as I grow in the blogging community and offline as well. 🙂 Thanks to all my friends, readers and other bloggers that have made this a great experience.
1 Comment | tags: Monthly Recap | posted in Monthly Recap
It’s Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Bloggers are invited to share in with their own “top ten” picks for the week. You can join here. This week’s list is:
~Top Ten Blogging Resolutions/Goals~
And of course mine’s a little longer than ten items long. 🙂
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Reach 200 followers on BlogLovin’, Twitter and my own blog.
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I’ve had a pretty steady stream of followers for blogging for five months. I’d like to have 200 by next December. If I don’t have that many, I’ll live though. 🙂
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Write a guest post for another blog
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I’ve seen guest posts done on other blogs and I always love reading other people’s opinions. I’d love to write a guest post myself on some topic.
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Have a guest post written for my blog.
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Vice versa, I’d love for someone to guest post for my own blog.
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Interview an author
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I’ve “tried out” for a blog tour and if I get it, I’ll hopefully be able to interview the author for my “stop” which would be so cool. This would be great for the writer side of me as well as the blogger side.
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Interview a blogger
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This goes along with number 4 basically. I’ve seen others interview bloggers and I would like to interview one myself. Without asking the “same old” questions and it would hopefully be interesting.
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Stop worrying about stats and “popularity” and just have fun.
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I’m mostly over this one, thank God. I used to check my stats constantly, see if each day they got higher, each week, each month, but I’ve realized while it matters, it isn’t ALL that matters. I blog for me and sure, a million people could read my blog and I’d be happy, but I think I’d be satisfied with only a few dedicated followers. 🙂 But as you can tell from the first resolution on the list, I wouldn’t mind more.
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I want to do more “fun” posts which is what my Saturdays were supposed to be for, but they haven’t been exactly. I want to mix up my reviewing style so I have a few different “templates” to go off of, so I’m not stuck. I’m excited to use these in the future.
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Have more discussions!
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Originally I created Amber’s Rambles as my discussion forum and my goals was to write/post one every Thursday. That has not happened because, well, life. To help out with this, I joined the Book Blog Discussion Challenge 2015 hosted by Shannon at It Starts At Midnight and Nicole at Feed Your Fiction. Hopefully this will be some good motivation. I’ll be able to read all the other discussions that happen too. Plus I have two sort of new features I want to start that will cause me to discuss a bit more. More on those later though after I figure them out.
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Save up enough money for BEA 2016
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I would love to go to BEA this year, but I don’t think I’d be able to save up enough money in time, Plus….I wouldn’t want to go alone and I don’t know too many people who would just go to New York with me to a book conference. Haha. So my goal is to go in 2016 when BEA moves to Chicago which is a lot closer. But not much cheaper I imagine. 😉
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Get my Netgalley and Edelweiss rates up
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My Netgalley ratio is non-existant because of the first 1-2 months when I requested books only to discover due to my outdated software, I had no way of downloading Adobe Digital Editions. Fortunately, I’m reading one of the books now and have plans to read another one not too far away from now.
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I have a lot of books from EW that i need to read that I will be devoting about 90% of my reading time to. To help with this, I have joined the Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge hosted by Emily @ Falling For YA.
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Become Auto-Approved for HarperCollins and receive an E-ARC from Hachette on EW
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Yes, these are actual goals for me. So far, I’ve been approved for almost every Harper Collins book I’ve requested except one. I’m hoping if I get all of them read and reviewed, I’ll have a good chance of getting auto-approved from them. This could be good or bad.
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I requested two books from Hachette in the past, particularly from their Poppy imprint, which I was declined for, I really like a couple of the books under that imprint, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to receive one later in the year.
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Keep Pages Up To Date
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I really suck at this, which is weird because I would think I’d be the over-organized person that has to have everything just right. Apparently I’m not. I’m hoping to get better at this in the new year. I want to get my blog roll, review page, feature pages, and challenge page all up to date. I mostly slack on this when it comes to adding the reviews and features. Besides keeping my blog up to date, I would love to keep my Facebook page up to date and start adding semi-reviews to GoodReads since I’m really bad at that and always forget.
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Don’t Procrastinate So Much
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I procrastinate a lot, it’s ridiculous. I’m a big “wait until the very last minute” to do something. Even if i have the something halfway finished already, it generally doesn’t get posted for whatever reason until close to midnight. I want to get my reviews posted on time, keep up with my features and actually comment on blogs instead of “saving” them and telling myself I’ll go back later and comment which I almost never do because I always forget.
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Find my Blogging Voice
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I always tell myself if I talked the way I typed, I’d be a bit more easy to talk to in real life. As it is…I am still trying to figure out my blogging/reviewing voice. I’m a bit more outgoing on here than I ever am in real life, but I don’t want to seem “fake” or like I’m “trying too hard”. I want to get more comfortable with blogging and reviewing.
I narrowed my list down to solely blogging goals, if you’re interested in my reading goals for the year, you can check that out on Thursday or in other words, THE FIRST OF THE YEAR! 🙂
7 Comments | tags: Blogging, Resolutions | posted in Top Ten Tuesday
It’s time for the weekly recap where I recap my week book, blogging and life wise. I’ll be linking up to Stacking The Shelves, a weekly meme at Tynga’s Reviews where bloggers can share what books they’ve received this week.
~Life~
Christmas went well! I received lots of practical things like shower stuff, a nightgown, and a Starbucks Tumbler. 🙂 I also received $50 and a gift card for Amazon. I then proceeded to spend $25 and the entire gift card on books. I’m excited to talk about them later. It was low key at my house, the holidays typically are, My family and I don’t go out of town or anything so we just exchanged presents and had dinner.
Other than that, things have been fine at home. It was a bit stressful those days leading up to Christmas trying to get everyone bought for and such.
I finally got to play with my Kindle! My mom had wrapped it up a few days before Christmas so I hadn’t even gotten to play with it before then. Now I love it so much. I already have all my E-ARCS on there from EW plus all the….books I’ve purchased. 🙂
~Last Week on YA Indulgences~
~This Week on YA Indulgences~
I’m not really sure how this week’s going to go on here. I have a few posts I want to write up before the new year comes and it’s already the 28th. Hopefully though I’ll definitely have up Amber’s Rambles and a review.
~Blogging Changes~
This past week I created a new “Page” on my blog that will include my challenges and readathons. I still need to finish updating it, but so far I added the Book Blog Discussion Challenge and the E-ARC Challenge. The Book Blog Discussion Challenge is hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight. If you want to sign up for it, there’s still time. You can go here to check it out. The goal is to write more discussions and this will help with motivation. 🙂
The E-ARC challenge is officially called the Netgalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2015 and it’s hosted by Emily @ Falling For YA. You can view the link up and join in at the link above.
~Reading Wise~
One day, I’ll have actually completed a book and you will all be so surprised. Until then, I’ll just be giving you my reading progress. I had to return Even In Paradise to the library (ugh), so I started Lord of the Rings on my Kindle and I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson which I borrowed from the library.
~Stacking The Shelves~
I’m so excited! It’s Stacking The Shelves time! Yay! Okay, so I already mentioned this meme is hosted @ Tynga’s Reviews and bloggers can share the books they’ve bought, won, been gifted, or received for review. If you would like to participate (and of course you do), you can go here!
It’s been a busy book week for me. As you’ll see in a minute…
Purchased:
Red Rising (The Red Rising Trilogy Book 1)
The Selection (The Selection #1) by Kiera Cass
The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass
The One (The Selection #3) by Kiera Cass
Graceling (Graceling Realm) by Kristin Cashore
The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner
The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner
The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle Book 1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas
For Review:
Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
Look at how gorgeous those covers are! Especially Tiny Pretty Things, Emmy & Oliver and Paperweight. I love how the drawing’s come back more into “style” with covers.
Thank you so much Edelweiss and HarperCollins! I couldn’t resist requesting these once I knew they were available on EW. I’m so happy about all of them. Especially The Night We Said Yes, Paperweight and Tiny Pretty Things.
Okay, tell me how your week was, your Christmas, what books you’ve bought or won or obtained by other means in the comments. 🙂 Also, if you’ve read any of the books above, let me know how they are.
3 Comments | tags: E-ARCS, Edelweiss | posted in Stacking The Shelves, Weekly Recap
Wow, I’ve been blogging for five months. I can’t believe how the time’s just flown by. I thought I would do this survey and talk about the past year. This survey was made by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page-Turner! (Graphics are from her post as well.. Warning: There may be a lot of repeats. 🙂
2014 Reading Stats
Number Of Books You Read: 33…But I’ve started at least six books I never finished….
Number of Re-Reads: 0
Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary
Best in Books
1. Best book you read in 2014?
Free To Fall by Lauren Miller, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira, Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, and To All The Boys I Loved Before (#1) by Jenny Han.
Love Letters To The Dead came across was Perks 2.0.
Anna and The French Kiss was going so well….until it wasn’t.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was just disappointing. It wasn’t what I expected, the premise was misleading, and there was a really annoying character in the novel that I wanted to smack a million times.
Will I be reading the sequel? Yes.
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?
Good:
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. Originally I was turned off by all the cursing, but by the middle I was in love with the themes in it.
Free To Fall: This book was great, it was surprising in the conclusion and everything going on throughout it.
Bad:
Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins as I mentioned above. I thought I was really going to like this book and I did…in the beginning, but then the latter half happened and I just couldn’t like it too much.
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?
N/A 😦 No one read any of my suggestions, which I believe was only one, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?
Series I started: The Hunger Games (I know, I know, I know)
Best Sequel: Catching Fire (I know)
Best Series Ender: N/A
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?
Amy Zhang and Lauren Miller
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart was sort of a mystery which I don’t really read, but I ended up loving it so I’ll definitely read more.
Free To Fall by Lauren Miller is a sci-fi/futuristic novel and I generally read straight contemporary, but once again, I ended up loving it.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
I couldn’t flip through Free To Fall by Lauren Miller fast enough. That book kept me questioning everything with it’s twists and turns, I couldn’t wait to see how everything ended.
9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart had such a great creative effect on me, emotionally speaking. I would love to re-read it and put everything together now that I know.
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?
You’re kidding, right? Let me see. 🙂
11. Most memorable character of 2014?
Whitley from A Midsummer’s Nightmare
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart had such pretty prose in it.
Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe was very poetic, thought provoking, but was also told in a simple writing style that I really liked.
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?
Well, let’s see… Free To Fall by Lauren Miller, Every Day by David Levithan and of course, Aristotle and Dante.
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?
If I Stay by Gayle Forman and The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight. I remember looking at the books every once in a while in BArnes and Noble, but I never pushed myself to buy them. If I Stay didn’t actually appeal to me at all. It’s only until the movie trailer came out that my interest was sparked and I thought I was missing something.
As for The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight, I eyed this book from the time it came out. It was always on my “Need to read” list, but I never got around to it until this past summer when I fell in love with it.
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?
“When someone’s been gone a long time, at first you save up all the things you want to tell them. You try to keep track of everything in your head. But it’s like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you’re just clutching air and grit. That’s why you can’t save it all up like that.
Because by the time you finally see each other, you’re catching up only on the big things, because it’s too much bother to tell about the little things. But the little things are what make up life.” (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han)
16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?
Longest: Free To Fall
Shortest: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
17. Book That Shocked You The Most
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)
I don’t like the pressure of choosing! I don’t know! I haven’t been “huge” on any of the couples really….
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
Rory and Hershey from Free To Fall
Whitley and Harrison from A Midsummer’s Nightmare.
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
I haven’t read anything from previous authors really since I only got back into reading. I’m going to go with this answer though, Looking For Alaska by John Green. 🙂
21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:
Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, the blogging world in general1
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?
North from Free To Fall
He works at a coffee shop, he’s in a band (sort of), he hacks computers for a living, he’s free-thinking AND he reads? Yes please!
23. Best 2014 debut you read?
Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
Panem in The Hunger Games. It had such a dark vibe to the area, especially in Catching Fire.
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Just Like The Movies by Kelly Fiore
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?
Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
I honestly have no idea.
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?
Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
The non-linear format of it was really interesting along with the unknown narrator and snippets of events. Then there’s the whole subject matter which was great.
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley, just ugh. People suck.
Your Blogging/Bookish life
1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2014?
But they’re all new to me! I love The Perpetual Page Turner, Bookmark Lit, and YA Midnight Reads. And Oh The Books. And Nose Graze.
2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2014?
I really really like/love my review on Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
I liked my discussion series on book buying bans, binges and budgets.
4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
The #IslaIsComing read-along, though I didn’t participate for the last book. Haha. It was fun though because it was my first real “participation” event with the community. 🙂
5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2014?
Making new friends and receiving E-ARCS.
7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
My review for Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle Forman has always received the most views.
8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
Hmm, my few discussion posts. 🙂 Specifically my series on Book Buying Bans, Binges and Budgets.
9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Book Outlet, Thriftbooks, and Sliced Books. Sliced Books was an amazing discovery since you can set “alerts” for certain books or authors and you’ll get an email when your “price match” has been made.
10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
Not really. 🙂 I started my blog in July so I wasn’t here in the beginning of the year. I did participate in the Suicide and Mental Health Illness Theme Read Rachel hosted @ Resistance is Futile and the #IslaIsComing read-along.
Looking Ahead
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?
Hmm…Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Belzhar by Meg Woltizer, Glory O’Brien’s History of The Future by A.S. King, Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke, and Something Real by Heather.
And for some backlist titles: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut)?
The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
3. 2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
Love and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga
4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han and Get Dirty by Gretchen McNeil
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2015?
I want to read at least 100 books this year and have 100 followers on BlogLovin’ and WordPress.
6. A 2015 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:
I haven’t read one yet. 😦 But I have an ARC for Love and Other Black Holes that I can’t wait to read!
If you’ve done the survey, feel free to link the post down below so I can check out your answers. 🙂
2 Comments | tags: Survey | posted in Uncategorized
Title: Get Even (Don’t Get Mad #1)
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Published: September 16th, 2014 (Balzer & Bray)
Pages: 320
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Romance
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
Rating: Three Stars
Goodreads Summary:
The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil’s witty and suspenseful novel about four disparate girls who join forces to take revenge on high school bullies and create dangerous enemies for themselves in the process.
Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot have nothing in common—at least that’s what they’d like the students and administrators of their elite private school to think. The girls have different goals, different friends, and different lives, but they share one very big secret: They’re all members of Don’t Get Mad, a secret society that anonymously takes revenge on the school’s bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers.
When their latest target ends up dead with a blood-soaked “DGM” card in his hands, the girls realize that they’re not as anonymous as they thought—and that someone now wants revenge on them. Soon the clues are piling up, the police are closing in . . . and everyone has something to lose.
Cover Thoughts: This cover was featured in a past WCW. I really love the silhouette vibe in the background though it gives off a Pretty Little Liars vibe.
First Line: Bree sat back against the chain-link fence, bouncing her tennis racket lightly against the toe of her black converse.
~Review~
The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars
Let’s see, I understand the Pretty Little Liars comparison but The Breakfast Club comparison I don’t understand at all. Don’t Get Mad reminds me of Pretty Little Liars with the lack of real connection the members of DGM have. In Get Even, there are four girls, Margot, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot who have joined together to form the anonymous group Don’t Get Mad, also known as DGM.
I liked how one of the characters actually had a brush with bullying, it helped to understand why they would step up and be in DGM. EAch of the girls have a specific reason for agreeing to be in DGM and I thought all of their reasons were valid. It was nice to see they weren’t just creating DGM to get back at people.
Margot is girl who is nice, intelligent and overweight. In the past she was bullied and attempted. Margot’s parents now keep her really busy all the time on a strict schedule so she won’t have time to think about committing suicide. She’s very smart and is in all advanced placement classes with plans of going to an Ivy League school.
Olivia is a popular, gorgeous, social butterfly as well as an aspiring actress. She is “best friends” with Amber, she has a somewhat broken home with her mother living through her. Olivia and Amber’s relationship didn’t really work for me, they were more “frenemies” (Friends/Enemies” and I kept wondering why Olivia dealt with her. I’ll also say it bothered me that Amber, who was a mean girl, shared the same name as me. 🙂
Kitty is the student vice president. She ends up being interested in Donte, Olivia’s ex boyfriend. Kitty is also captain of the volleyball team.
Bree is the girl with the politician for a father though by her clothing and behavior, you wouldn’t know for sure. Bree seemed a little cliche just by that personality. Bree’s best friend is John who ends up being the top contender for DGM. I liked seeing their friendship shift and change, at times they were okay with each other and other times they were on the rocks. It was nice to see their friendship wasn’t perfect and I like how it developed. Although each of the characters annoyed me at certain times, I liked Bree and John.
I feel like the characters weren’t as real as they could have been. It seemed like McNeil sort of just chose personalities and names that were so different from the others to create the characters. Then again, this seems to be a common theme in “group friendship” books and as they say, opposites attract. I did like each of the girls’ backstories and hopefully they’re elaborated on more throughout the Get Even Series.
The girls aren’t exactly friends and only formed DGM after being assigned in the same group for an assignment. An interesting aspect Don’t Get Mad shares with Pretty Little Liars is the lack of any common ground among the girls. Each of the characters is different from the others besides one thing, their need of revenge for those who can’t get it for themselves.
These girls take it upon themselves to get revenge on bullies, teachers and other students who harass others. I thought the idea of this was really interesting. Unfortunately Don’t Get Mad definitely wasn’t executed as well as I would have liked. The premise was interesting but I’m not quite sure what I was expecting. Something a little different though. Don’t Get Mad jumps straight into action and afterwards their target is murdered. When Ronny is found dead with a DGM card in his hand, the girls are prime suspects for the murder. The girls then suspect that one of them had actually killed Ronny. I think it would have been interesting to hear more about the girls’ past Don’t Get Mad experiences.
If that’s not enough, the school and specifically Coach Creed goes into super protective mode and tries to figure out who DGM is. The coach creates a group of students called the Maine Men who’s job it is to find out who DGM is. Coach Creed was an awful character who humiliated his students without care. He takes a particular interest in discovering DGM after he becomes a victim of one of their public humiliation stunts. He eventually heads into a downward spiral which is one of the parts of Don’t Get Mad that I actually really enjoyed. It was interesting to see him losing his mind more and more.
As the mysterious, unknown villain of sorts (or murderer really) begins sending the girls pictures and notes, the girls decide that they shouldn’t contact the police. Now what does this remind me of again? Pretty Little Liars. I will never understand why these teenagers take it upon themselves to solve a mystery or just deal with harassment and stalking. I wouldn’t be able to do it. Well, I guess if I were Veronica Mars, I would.
There were quite a bit of characteristics, coincidences and relationship drama that came a bit close to Pretty Little Liars that I didn’t like. There are aspects of each of the girls that I liked. I could definitely relate to Margot’s feelings regarding herself and I loved how she grew throughout Get Even. It also didn’t hurt that she was in the drama scene helping out with memorization. I like how Kitty felt responsible for the group and took over the leader position for DGM. I envied Olivia’s acting abilities and loved that she was involved in theater and didn’t necessarily go after “big” acting jobs such as tv shows or movies and focused on school plays. I liked Bree’s attitude and how she didn’t conform to who she should be as the politician’s daughter, but was just herself. Although I felt this was pushed a little too hard in Get Even.
There were a lot of coincidences in Get Even where the characters would almost find each other, but then at the very last second wouldn’t. There was a twist that I like, which may not exactly be a ‘twist” per say and I suppose it’s fairly predictable, but I still enjoyed it and it kept me on my toes. I did predict quite a few things in Get Even which I didn’t care for, but didn’t mind too much.
~Final Thoughts~
There are a number of suspects and characters I still want to find out a lot more about. The ending definitely drew my attention back to the book and I will be reading the next book. Overall am interested in finding out who the murderer is, why they’re after DGM, and a few other “mysteries” involving other characters.
I wasn’t impressed with how the girls attempted to solve the problem. I couldn’t help but comparing the characters to those in Pretty Little Liars, while I found the characters in the latter to be a bit more interesting and I was disconnected to the characters in Don’t Get Mad. Although I couldn’t get a connection to the girls yet in this book, I found the characters in Don’t Get Mad to be more relatable. I’m interested in seeing where Don’t Get Mad goes. I rate it three stars.
2 Comments | tags: Balzer & Bray, Contemporary, Get Even, Gretchen McNeil, Mystery, Romance, Three Stars, Young Adult | posted in Book Reviews
Every Wednesday I share my feature Wondrous Covers Wednesday. Wondrous Covers Wednesday was created to share my love of gorgeous book covers, you can view past WCWs here.. 🙂
For this week’s Wondrous Covers Wednesday, I chose to feature Science-Fiction book covers with female faces.
~One~
Mind Games (#1) by Kiersten White
I love how eye catching this cover is, it’s really bright and has a sort of digitalization effect on it. I love the font for the title and the placement.
~Two~
Parallel by Lauren Miller
Parallel’s cover really gets across the parallel aspect with the title and the two halves of the girl. I really love how the title is done to parallel it.
~Three~
Beta (#1) by Rachel Cohn
I like the shades of this cover, the purple is nice. I like how the fonts and feel they’re uniquely done.
Overall I love how each of these covers use different aspects to emphasize what the book is about and the science fiction genre of it all, Mind Games with the background, Parallel with the mirroring and Beta with the font style. I think it’s interesting how both the girls on Mind Games and Beta have unusually colored eyes.
5 Comments | tags: Beta, Kiersten White, Lauren Miller, Mind Games, Parallel, Rachel Cohn | posted in Wondrous Covers Wednesday
Hey everyone. It’s Top Ten Tuesday again where the ladies @ The Broke and Bookish come up with a new top ten list for everyone. 🙂 Bloggers are invited to join in, link up and visit others’ blogs, which you can do here. This week’s list is:
~Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing This Year~
I think this will be right around ten books too. 🙂
This is a book I started right before December but had never got around to finishing it before it was due back at the library. I really enjoyed it though and would love to receive it for Christmas.
This is a book I started this month but haven’t quite finished it. I would love it for my book collection despite that though. The feels are so real right now.
When I read Rites of Passage, I really liked the main character, Sam. She was so strong willed and capable and I found the military school aspect interesting.
This was one of my favorite books of the year. I would love to get Falling Into Place because I could relate to so many of the feelings.
The final book of the Burn For Burn trilogy, which I have not read, would complete the aforementioned trilogy. For that fact alone, I want it. 🙂
6. Rumble by Ellen Hopkins
This is a book I’ve been excited about since I heard it was coming out, I unfortunately haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet though.
I was hooked on the idea of this book with The Breakfast Club comparison it has made.
8. Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
This is yet another book I am crazy about getting. I like how it’s sort of related or inspired by The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I love a nice therapeutic, ensemble cast story, so receiving this would be fantastic.
Glory O’Brien’s History of The Future sounds so unique, I’m mostly interested in the political aspect and this tyrannical leader.
If you have forgotten, I made quite the WoW post about this fairytale retelling with emphasis on the waiting, which felt like forever. I have still not read this book! I really really want to though. I want to own it as well, which is why it’s made this list.
This book has definitely caused a buzz in the book blogosphere. It seems to be emotionally packed from what I’ve heard and includes a sibling relationship with two different perspectives, so it’s right up my alley.
Unfortunately, I never receive books as presents. Haha, my parents always say I have enough and then I don’t even read those ones for a (long, long) while, so I don’t get books unless I buy them myself. 🙂 Feel free to share what books you wouldn’t mind getting from Christmas.
5 Comments | tags: December, Top Ten Tuesday | posted in Top Ten Tuesday
Welcome to my weekly recap where I recap my life, my blog, my reading, my book buying sprees and anything else I think of. 🙂
~Life~
Let’s see, it’s four days until Christmas and I still have to buy presents! I need to buy for my mom, dad and grandma, I pretty much know what I’m getting all of them, just need to buy it. 🙂 I’m pretty excited. Sort of. Holidays are always a little hectic at home.
I bought my friend a present too! Tasha, the one I went to visit for like two weeks. I got her something for letting me stay there so long, plus when I saw it I thought of her. Haha. I’m also sending her two books. One book is for a movie she liked but hadn’t read the book of and the other is a very similar book. Hint: It was one of my first book reviews.
Anyway, I’m excited to send her those, I’m going to do it tomorrow and hopefully she’ll get it by Christmas, though it’s cutting it close.
In the meantime, I have either received my Kindle or the warranty papers for my Kindle. I’m not sure which it is yet, but my mom wants to wrap it up and put it under the tree. So after thinking about it for a few minutes, I told her to go ahead. 🙂 I have library books I need to finish anyway.
~Last Week on YA Indulgences~
~This Week on YA Indulgences~
Monday: Musical Monday – Musical
Tuesday: Review: Get Even by Gretchen McNeil and Top Ten Tuesday
Wednesday: Wondrous Covers Wednesday
Friday: Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
Saturday: Discussion Post Sign Up
~Reading Wise~
I finished Just Like The Movies by Kelly Fiore! I’ve started Even In Paradise by Chelsey Philpot. I’m on page 136 so far and it’s pretty good. Afterwards I’m going to try to read Far From You by Tess Sharpe, I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke, and then either Tease by Amanda Maciel or Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, since I already started that one a couple months ago.
~Stacking The Shelves~
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme created and hosted at Tynga’s Reviews. Every week bloggers can link up and share the books they’ve acquired over the week. Used or new, borrowed or bought, won or gifted, electronic or physical. 🙂 You can join in here.
~Bought~
I’ve been very bad this week. I have bought the following for the Kindle:
On the bright side, I didn’t spend more than $2.99 on any of those. 🙂 Amazon is having some really great Kindle sales this month. I also attempted buying Open Road Summer by Emery Lord but for whatever reason my debit card didn’t want to go through which is really annoying, so I don’t have Open Road Summer. I want to get it while it’s on sale too.
I hadn’t ever heard of Ready Player One or the Ender’s Game series but the futuristic, sci-fi, dystopian settings sounds really interesting! I’ve heard good things about them too so that’s great.
~Borrowed~
~Favorite Quotes~
“I just think that when guys put themselves out there like that, it’s totally romantic. When a girl does it, she just looks like a stalker.” (Just Like the Movies)
They say you can fall in love at first sight. What about falling into friendship? Can you become BFFs over the course of ten short weeks? (Just Like The Movies)
I was friendly to many, close to few. (Even In Paradise)
“I just mean that you noticed things that no one else would have. You’re wicked observant.” (Even In Paradise)
6 Comments | tags: Stacking The Shelves, Weekly Recap | posted in Stacking The Shelves, Weekly Recap
Hey everyone. I ‘discovered’ this Bout of Books read-a-thon which you can read about below!
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team
I figured what better way to kick off the new year than to go on a quick reading spree, especially since I have a ridiculous amount of E-ARCS from EW that I need to read and review. This read-a-thon will hopefully give me a head start on them all. Plus I get to participate with fellow bloggers. 🙂 If you haven’t already, I encourage you to sign up! It sounds like fun, which I’m sure it will be.
I want to read at least six books, most of these are less than 300 pages so it should definitely be do-able.
My goal is to read at least these six books:
Then maybe these ones:
Wish me luck. 🙂
9 Comments | tags: Bout of Books, Reading Challenges | posted in Reading Challenges
Title: Flawless (Pretty Little Liars 2)
Author: Sara Shepard
Published: April 1st, 2007 (HarperCollins Publishers) (First published March 26th, 2006)
Pages: 330
Genres/Themes: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Murder
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
Rating: Three Stars
In the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, where the sweetest smiles hide the darkest secrets, four pretty little liars–Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna–have been very bad girls. . . .
Spencer stole her sister’s boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya . . . as much more than a friend. And Hanna’s obsession with looking flawless is literally making her sick. But the most horrible secret of all is something so scandalous it could destroy their perfect little lives.
And someone named “A” is threatening to do just that.
At first they thought A was Alison, their friend who vanished three years ago . . . but then Alison turned up dead. So could A be Melissa, Spencer’s ultracompetitive sister? Or Maya, who wants Emily all to herself? What about Toby, the mysterious guy who left town right after Alison went missing?
One thing’s for certain: A’s got the dirt to bury them all alive, and with every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message A sends, the girls get a little closer to losing it all.
Cover Thoughts: I like how the series matches each of it’s covers with a doll and a different background color.
First Line: You know that boy who lives a few doors down from you who’s just the creepiest person alive?
~First Thoughts~
I love books that talk directly to me, it gives me a movie feel. I love flashbacks.
~Review~
In the second book in the Pretty Little Liars series, we meet the girls again after they have received messages from the anonymous texter known as A. As a watcher of the television series, it was really interesting to see how certain plots changed or remained the same in Flawless. For the majority of the part, I loved Flawless a bit more than the tv series which had changed things I think could have been better on the show.
One of the few things that bothered me in Flawless were the secrets that the girls were keeping from each other and how they wouldn’t just come clean about A. I just wanted to shake them and tell them that they should tell each other what was going on. I liked and disliked how the girls really had their own lives from each other. In Flawless, we barely even see them interact with each other after the first meeting. I loved this because it showed the girls differing personalities and life situations. I thought it was interesting to see how they did apart from each other.
Each of the girls had their own problems going in their lives which I thought was really good and realistically done. Aria struggles with the effects of her father’s cheating and her secret relationship with her english teacher, Ezra Fitz. Spencer deals with the repercussions of having a crush on her sister’s boyfriend. Hanna is now single, has been caught stealing and has a DUI. If that’s not enough, she tries to obtain a better relationship with her father. The girls also have one giant problem that all four of them are dealing with that none of them can come clean about.
This is where A comes into the picture. In the midst of the girl’s “regular” lives, they’re all receiving messages from A and dealing with their best friend’s death. A blackmails each of the girls to tell their secrets or offers to do it themselves. The girls wonder who A is, why they are doing this and how they’ll make A stop.
I just want to say, “wow”. I’m amazed these girls can sleep tonight, I’m amazed they’ll actually go places by themselves, and I’m amazed they don’t just hide away in their house 24/7. If I had someone like A watching my every move, ready to spill all my secrets, who may have played a part in my best friend’s death and harassed me, I’m not sure I would ever go anywhere. I don’t think I would even sleep for fear A would come into my house and kill me.
Okay, maybe I’m getting a little extreme. . . Wait, no I’m not. I would totally lock myself in my house, get the best security system I can buy and cry. So the fact that these girls continue to live their lives with A around, I am very impressed and give them kudos.
It was interesting to see the girls interact with Allison in flashbacks. One can definitely see the hold Allison had on the girls and with A on their trail, maybe she still does. Rosewood police questions the girls about what they know about the night Allison disappeared. Allison is not a nice person, I can’t say I’m upset she’s dead. She treated the girls badly, she was mean to Mona, she was some little princess who could talk anyone out of anything and it just drives me insane. I can see why the girls would want to be her friend, she’s pretty, popular and makes them feel special, I can definitely see why, but still…
- Seriously.
Flawless is definitely easy reading but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for me. I was wrapped up into each of the girl’s life feeling sorry about their best friend’s death, even if she wasn’t the greatest girl in the world (an understatement) and for their own problems they dealt with. Spencer by far is my favorite with Hanna coming in second followed by Aria, then Emily. I loved Spencer’s intelligence, crumbling relationship with her parents and her newfound relationship with Wren. My heart completely broke for Spencer as she dealt with her parents ostracizing her. Of course, she has Wren, her sister’s boyfriend to make things a little better. This is one aspect I wish the show had expanded on. On one hand, I felt what Spencer was doing was really wrong, on the other hand, Spencer and Wren definitely had chemistry that I enjoyed reading.
I loved reading about Hanna’s plots in Flawless. My favorite plot of hers was seeing her relationship with her father who’s engaged. I felt bad for Hanna because since her father left years ago, she never really felt “right” and it was sad to see. Hanna is best friends with Mona, a girl Allison and the girls used to make fun on. I liked Hanna’s relationship with Mona and wish there had been a bit more of it.
Aria’s forbidden relationship with Ezra Fitz was definitely one the “iffy” parts of Flawless for me. I couldn’t get over the age difference, the fact that Ezra’s her teacher or the fact that Aria’s his student. I’m pretty strict by the book when it comes to Teacher/Student relationships with the very small exception of Paige/Mr. O from Degrassi: The Next Generation. Other than that…eh. I wasn’t really feeling it. Still though, I loved seeing Aria deal with her parents marriage falling apart, her brother’s struggle with coming to terms of it and A’s role in all of it. While I was extremely sad for her, I found it one of the most relatable parts of Flawless.
Emily’s sexuality plot is one I loved reading about in Flawless. I liked seeing her deal with the peer pressure to act like she’s straight and coming to terms with being gay. Her feelings and actions were realistic. As a star swimmer, I could really understand why she didn’t want to be “out” as gay. People may make fun of her and unlike other characters, she’s never had to deal with that before.
Besides the main girls, there are other characters such as Mona, Jenna and Toby. Mona was an interesting character and it was nice to see her and Hanna’s friendship. Jenna and Toby are in Flawless a fair bit of it. Toby really surprised me in Flawless with his behavior towards the girls and Jenna. I felt sorry for Jenna given her circumstances.
Despite the mystery of Flawless, it’s a very light, easy read. While the writing was simple, I felt engaged throughout the entire book. I also loved the titles each chapter had since I don’t really see that in any novels. I like Flawless a bit more than it’s predecessor as I learn more about the characters. The mystery is still a highlight despite knowing who A is already, due to spoilers. I am still excited to see how everything plays out exactly. I rate Flawless three out of five stars, mostly because I hated the girls not interacting with one another, the secrets, and the simple writing style.
~Final Thoughts~
Wow. Even though I knew this was going to happen I’m just so surprised! I can’t wait to read the next one.
~Recommended For~
Teenagers (14-17+)
Fans of mystery
~Memorable Quotes~
Ali had a talent for finding a girl’s weakness, and even if she was right about Imogen, the girls all sometimes wondered if Ali was ever ripping on them when they weren’t around.
Don’t get too comfortable. It’s not over until I say it is. -A
6 Comments | tags: Contemporary, Flawless, HarperCollins, Murder, Mystery, Pretty Little Liars, Romance, Sara Shepard, Series, Three Stars, Young Adult | posted in Book Reviews
It’s Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Bloggers are invited to share in with their own “top ten” picks for the week. You can join here. This week’s list is:
Title: Get Even (Don’t Get Mad #1)
I love how eye catching this cover is, it’s really bright and has a sort of digitalization effect on it. I love the font for the title and the placement. 
I like the shades of this cover, the purple is nice. I like how the fonts and feel they’re uniquely done.
Hey everyone. I ‘discovered’ this Bout of Books read-a-thon which you can read about below!
Title: Flawless (Pretty Little Liars 2)
yaindulgences.wordpress.com 