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

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list  that bloggers are welcome to join in and answer. 

This is going to be quite a short list. And you have no idea how much that bothers me. My OC-self is nagging me to finish it but I just couldn't see any other books to fit in. So instead, I'll give honorable mentions at the end. That'll ease her up (I think).

Here are the Top Ten...err, Top Six Books I've Read So Far This Year:

CRESS by Marissa Meyer

I truly have nothing but praises for this book. Possibly the best book sequel I’ve read this year! A bit presumptuous when I said that around February of this year, but we are in June now and I don’t think there’s any sequel I’ve read that tops Cress. This book was a blast to read!

STOLEN SONGBIRD by Danielle L. Jensen

Normally I don’t buy the whole love-hate relationship, but this works. Such a gorgeously done romance. I just adore Cecile and Tristan!

SWEET RECKONING by Wendy Higgins

Ah… such a sweet, sweet conclusion (or so I thought) for our protagonists. Just when you think you can’t love Kaidan Rowe any more, there he goes, making him way yummier than he already was.

Book Haul [34]

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My "Weekly Book Haul" is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

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Woah! It's been 4 months since my last Book Haul post? Boy, have I been neglectful. Sheesh! Sorry about that.
It's been kind of hard to find time to blog during the past few months and I'm only recently trying to catch up on all my book review backlogs, I didn't have enough time to post book hauls.

So, I'm making up for lost time. I'll be posting all the books I got since my last post by batch. Without further ado, here is the first batch:

BOOK HAUL BATCH 1

NETGALLEY TITLES

DIGITAL ARCs [TO READ]:

DEEP BLUE by Jennifer Donnelly

THE KISS OF DECEPTION by Mary E. Pearson

THE WIZARD'S PROMISE by Cassandra Rose Clarke

THE BREAK-UP ARTIST by Philip Siegel

THE GIRL WITH THE WINDUP HEART by Kady Cross

GRIMM FAIRY TALES: OZ by Joe Brusha

NIL by Lynne Matson

ALPHA GODDESS by Amalie Howard

GRIM edited by Christine Johnson

THE HUNT by Stacey Kade

The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: The Shadow Prince
(Into the Dark #1)
AUTHOR: Bree Despain
PUBLISHER: Egmont
PUB DATE: Mar 11 2014

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

- Source: Goodreads

Rating:

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“I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know how or if we’ll get through this. But for the first time in my life, my destiny is in my own hands.”

When I read the synopsis, I was drawn to the reimagining of the mythological story of Hades and Persephone, and yet I was sceptical about reading The Shadow Prince. I’ve read Bree Despain’s The Dark Divine, I knew it was a part of a series and reading that first book, I knew I wouldn’t be reading the next ones. I just didn’t like it. It wasn’t my kind of story – but The Shadow Prince is! Mythology and retellings? That’s hard to say no to. Well, color me surprised. This turned out pretty good!

I can’t say that Daphne upheld stunning characteristics other than her advanced musical talent. She didn’t strike me to be an epic protagonist, but well enough to keep me interested. Haden, on the other hand, was awesome! Never mind that he turned out a bit stoic and emo (sometimes), I realized his ignorance over women and all things human once I got to the part where he revealed that there were no females being born in the Underrealm. Well, no wonder you were clueless boy. What I was awed most about Haden was his abilities. Wouldn’t it be cool to learn anything and everything just by watching how they are done once and get to do it like you’ve been working on the skill for years?

In My Mailbox [8]

In My Mailbox [8]

hosted by The Story Siren

Here's this week's haul:

Eve by Anna Carey

Forsaken by Jana Oliver

Forbidden by Jana Oliver

Forgiven by Jana Oliver

The Girl Who Was On Fire edited by Leah Wilson

The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

So how 'bout you guys? ^_^

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

        

The Dark Divine
(The Dark Divine #1)
by Bree Despain

Summary from Goodreads:

"A Prodigal Son 

A Dangerous Love

A Deadly Secret 

Grace Divine—daughter of the local pastor—always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood. 

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother. 

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes
most: her soul."

Rating:

Finally! I got to finish the Dark Divine. Yehey! I can move on to my next to-read book. But wait! I need to write my review while the story is still fresh on my brain.

I turn on my computer and open Microsoft Word. I rested my hands on my keyboard and looked at the blinking cursor and then… nothing.
I had a staring contest with my iMac for several minutes before I got my fingers moving. I couldn’t come up with anything to say about it. I could only think of three things about it:
- There were werewolves.
- It’s a paranormal romance.
- It was okay…
… and then I go blank.
Why is my brain dried out all of a sudden?

So, as you can see, I ended up typing in what I started with. 

I see that Despain had put a lot of thought in creating the mythology of her tale. I like that she gave religion and faith a part in an idea that uncommonly included such. However, I got anxious with all the suspense and repetitive narrations of what Grace wanted to know, what she felt, where did Daniel go, why he disappeared, why’d he come back. The same thoughts she had in one chapter came back up in another. I got a bit annoyed. 

The characters were okay. Grace being a pastor’s daughter and all the righteousness she was bounded to was interesting though, Jude was confusing for me before I got to the climax but I can fathom the necessity of his personality. Daniel could’ve been a good character but there was a part of him that reminded me of Sam from Shiver, emo and whinny. 

I was surprised with the ending though, I didn’t expect the twist in it. It was nice to have some action inserted even if it was at right about the end already. The book shows a lot of potential but I guess the whole waiting of how it would end was much too long a waiting so that messed up my mind with how I’d picture the book’s totality and ended up with being blank and thinking it indistinctive.