Oh my, Oh My… This is a very HARD question. I can choose from so many characters that I don’t even know where to begin. I sat here for a minute and it hit me. The character I would like to spend New Year’s Everwith would be ADRIAN IVASHKOV.
He is sweet, sensitive, funny, the life of the party, and unbelievable sexy. I would be crazy if I wouldn’t want to spend NYE with this beautiful boy.
Now, who would you spend NYE with?
I only really had one goal this year and that was to read 55 books in the entire year… Did I succeed? Well… I FREAKING DID! I’ve read 120 books in this year and I’m currently halfway through 5 different books. So we’ll see if that number will go up by tomorrow.
2013 was the year I actually put a reading goal on myself. I stressed out until I hit that 55 and after that, I read at my own pace. I might do another reading challenge for 2014… maybe I won’t. We’ll see.
Did you guys set any goals for yourself for 2013 and did you succeed?
2013 was the year I’ve read the most books ever. So far I’ve read 120 and there are still three days in the year so I might just bump up that number by 2 or 3 more books. Out of the three topics we could talk about today, I decided to focus on my favorite reads of 2013. Here are some of the books I thought surpassed my expectations and blew them out of the water!
Today y’all gotta guess which book each object represents. Finally a post where I’m going to make you guys work. Let’s do this! *first pump*
What are your guesses? Come on guys, I’m sure you call all guess at least one of the books! 🙂
I thought long and hard about this. There are so many family friendships that I love and cherish, but the one I’m going to have to pick is the family in The Books of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler. This book has the best of both worlds, a beautiful family and a beautiful friendship that turns into something more… (Can I have a Vargas boy too?)
The runner up for my favorite book family would be Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. Even though this story is so sad and heartbreaking, it goes through every face of what a family is, the trials a family can come upon, and how even strained friendships can be salvaged bringing healing to everyone.
Today’s topic I find difficult because I have way too many favorite quotes. Let’s see if I can narrow it down to a few.
“I mean, it’s not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It’s, like, part of you for good.”
“But in the real world, you couldnt really just split a family down the middle, mom on one side, dad the other, with the child equally divided between. It was like when you ripped a piece of paper into two: no matter how you tried, the seams never fit exactly right again. It was what you couldn’t see, those tiniest of pieces, that were lost in the severing, and their absence kept everything from being complete.”
-What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
“You forgot another lesson: Never turn your back until you know your enemy is dead. Looks like we‚Äôll have to go over the lesson again the next time I see you–which will be soon. Love, D.”
-Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
“Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”
-CS Lewis
“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time. -Day”
-Legend by Marie Lu
“The things that are most precious to us are sometimes the most secret.”
-Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter
Here a few of the many. What are some of your favorite quotes?
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.
What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides— especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own.
Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.
Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.
I’d read one of Ms. Barnes books before and I liked it….a lot! It wasn’t a murder mystery like this one, but it had to deal with spies and government operatives. I’m a sucker for those stories.
Now, let’s talk about The Naturals. I really like this book. The main character, Cassie, is very observant, or what the FBI would call a profiler only she doesn’t know it until she gets the attention of the FBI one day. She knew she was different because she never fit in wherever she was. Cassie gets recruited into the The Naturals program, where other teenagers also have a natural ability whether it is to tell if someone is lying, what their emotions are, or how to profile people.
When Cassie gets to the program, she meets what I call the “Fantastic Four”, soon to become the “Fantastic Five”. Each teenager has one specific talent: Lia can lie like nobody’s business and also detect lies, Michael can read emotions off a person and has a very good poker face, Sloane sees the world through a mathematical point of view and can hack any government program or database, and Dean is a profiler, just like her.
The “romance” in the story takes the back burner throughout the whole book, and sometimes its hard to pick up the subtle hints here and there. Some of you may be Team Dean or Team Michael, but what I loved the most was the case and how all five of them even though they are messed up, can do good in the world one case at a time. It’s like a teenage Bones/CSI crossover. I love it!
Ms. Barnes has a PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science, and her knowledge is sprinkled throughout the book. I absolutely love it when authors add their area of expertise to their novels. It takes the books up another notch!
A book that I’ve read during the holidays that always makes me feel better is Let It Snow. I haven’t read it this year yet, but for three years in a row I remember re-reading that book. Each time I read it, I found something new, I saw things I didn’t see before, and it was the perfect book to read while I was wrapped up in a blanket drinking my coffee in the morning.
There are many out there that don’t like this book and I’m sure it’s because each story has a different feel to it even though they all take place in the same town and have some of the same characters. I see it for what it is, a bind of three different stories, three different POV’s of the same town and people.
I personally love each story and I say you give this book a chance and read it. If you don’t want to buy it, check it out from your local library. I’m sure they’ll have at least one copy. 🙂
Thank you The Broke and the Bookish for this wonderful Tuesday Meme
Happy Holidays bookworms! 
I love this season and I love this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great, relaxing, and book-filled winter. Let’s get to it!
1. The Star Wars Trilogy by George Lucas: I just recently saw Episodes I – V and I loved them. Now I just have to read the books!
2. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken: I’ve heard so many great things about this book, especially from Veronica.
3. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi: I read Shatter Me almost a year ago and I still haven’t been able to buy this book.
4. Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger: This was another suggestion from Veronica so I definitely must read it!
5. House of Hades by Rick Riordan: I already bought and read this book (It was amazing!). However, I ended up giving it to my cousin for her birthday and I miss having a copy.
6. The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks: I have to get the most recent published novel from one of my favorite authors. I need it.
7. Rise by Anna Carey: I read the first two books and I just need to know the conclusion in this trilogy!
8. Defiance by C. J. Redwine: I have been wanting to get my hands on this book for months now. The female character sounds like an amazing, kick-butt hero!
9. Legend by Marie Lu: Another book recommendation by yours truly haha
10. The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: How amazing would it be to find this under my tree, seven months before its release date! I need to know about Noah!!
That is the question for today. After some hard thinking (okay, not really) I decided to give myself a B+. Maybe I’m just being hard on myself, maybe I’m being generous, but overall I think I did a good job as a blogger this year, just not my best.
I still say I’m on the nice list and the Top 5 books I want are:
The Talking Bookworm 