Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

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. 

Hello there!

So this week's Top Ten topic is about books the you liked more or less than you thought you would. Here's mine:

Books I liked LESS than I thought I would

FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes
- That cover seemed to promise an experience of blood and gore, sadly it's not as action packed as I thought it would be...

DUALED by Elsie Chapman
- Probably the most disappointing book I've read so far this year. I had a lot of complaints about it on my review, and to think I really thought the premise was an ideally creative one. *sigh*

REQUIEM by Lauren Oliver
- This was supposed to be the finale of the series... didn't feel like it.

SPLINTERED by A.G. Howard
- Another debut novel this year that I thought was going to be epic... not so much. :(

MONUMENT 14 by Emmy Laybourne
- I'm probably in minority on this one. I just didn't like the idea that the whole book revolved around a bunch of teenagers playing house in a superstore. I thought there was more to it than that.

Dualed by Elsie Chapman [REVIEW]

TITLE: Dualed (Dualed #1)
AUTHOR: Elsie Chapman
PUBLISHER: Random House
PUB DATE: Feb 26 2013

Summary from Goodreads:

"You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better."

Rating:

It sure is hard to find a good dystopian story these days... Dualed was one of my most anticipated debut novels to read for this year. Sadly, I just couldn’t find it in me to appreciate anything about it.

When I first read the summary of Dualed on Goodreads, I was ecstatic. A world where having a twin is mandatory, an Alternate as they call it. Citizens must prove themselves worthy to live on Kersh by eliminating their Alts within a month of being “activated”. If not, both Alts would self destruct. Kersh may be a safe haven from the war outside its borders but here, only the strong survive and the weak must be purged...

I don’t get the logic behind killing your Alt. West says: “All for peace... fighting ourselves in here, so we don’t have to fight the world out there...” I feel that it wasn’t a good enough reason, but I let that go. Eliminating ones Alt gives the victor the chance to live a life of luxury and privilege. Okay, I guess that’s a good bout. Then I came upon the purpose behind eliminating the weak. I forgot the exact words but this is pretty much the idea: when in case the war does break through they have soldiers prepared to send out. WTF? (Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s a part in this book that talked about this and this is how I understood it). It would have been a viable, albeit wrong and unjust, explanation but with how vague it was described and how messy it was laid out just didn’t suffice.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? [1]

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a meme by Sheila @ Book Journey. And I quote her: "This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!"

Hello there! And I am back from my long weekend and Internet abstinence (my little piece of sacrifice for the Holy Week). How have you all been? Well, since I'm wanting to get organized about my reading schedule (I have been trying to do so for a year now but I can't quite stick to it all the time), I decided to take part in this meme. It might just help me get to all the books I vowed myself to read. So here goes...

RECENT READ

Like I just said, it's been a long holiday (from Thursday, March 28th to Sunday, March 31st), so I managed to finish up several books [although some where just short stories], so Yay me! LOL.

TITLES:

TABLE FOR TWO by Marla Miniano (Filipino Author, Short Story)

FAN GIRL by Marla Miniano (Filipino Author, Short Story)

THE ETERNITY CURE by Julie Kagawa (eARC from NetGalley)

REQUIEM by Lauren Oliver

I enjoyed the two short reads from Marla Miniano they're very simple and very easy to relate to. As for Julie's second book from the Blood of Eden series, I think it was a little too long for me, but still I really liked this one. Lastly, I read Lauren Oliver's Requiem (buddy read this with Maria @ Bookchilla), which was by far the fastest paced book among the three in the Delirium Trilogy. But I'm hoping there would be a spin off or something, because that seriously cannot be the ending... Please! *sob*

Book Haul [24]

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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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Hello lovelies! How are you this wonderful Saturday morning? Ah, the day has come for me to get some rest and relaxation after a horribly stressful week of work. But all is well and the week's assignments have been done and closed. Thank goodness!

And now let's move on to today's book haul post. Here are the gorgeous books that I got:

TITLES:
GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by Kendare Blake (arrived from the Book Depository)
FRAGMENTS by Dan Wells (purchased at National Bookstore)
DELIRIUM STORIES: HANA, ANNABEL, & RAVEN by Lauren Oliver (purchased at National Bookstore)
SPLINTERED by A.G. Howard (arrived from the Book Depository)
DUALED by Elsie Chapman (purchased at National Bookstore)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2013 Debuts I'm Looking Forward To

Top Ten 2013 Debuts I'm Looking Forward To

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. 

Hello! How are you this lovely Tuesday morning? As for me, I am swamped with work. So I'll be making this quick.

My top ten list of books debuting this 2013 are the following:

CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS by Miriam Forster

DUALED by Elsie Chapman

LEVEL 2 by Lenore Appelhans

INK by Amanda Suns

THE CADET OF TILDOR by Alex Lidell

SPLINTERED by A.G. Howard

CHANTRESS by Amy Butler Greenfield

REVOLUTION 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

PANTOMIME by Laura Lam

PROPHECY by Ellen Oh

I still have a lot more in mind but those 10 are my top priorities, I already preordered Splintered and Level 2 on the Book Depository and I cannot wait to see them arrive on my doorstep.

How about you? Looking forward to any 2013 Debuts?

Happy reading!