Stacking the Shelves (65)

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly theme hosted by Tynga's reviews . Feel free to join in if you want. In this theme I showcase all the books I got this week.

You know how for the last few weeks I bought like no books and only got a few library books a week? Yah, that no longer applies for me. In the past two weeks I got 9 books. 9. That's a lot. First I went to Barnes & Noble and got 3 books, then a few days later I went back and got 2 more books, and then finally I went to a really cheap book store that I only go to once a year, so of course I got 4 books there. Although I think I should have got more at the cheap book store because hardcovers where 8 dollars and paperbacks were 5 dollars. Who can resits a half-off hardcover? I know I couldn't. 

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

I heard a lot of amazing things about this book. It is suppose to be the freakiest and scariest book. So I decided to get it. 

The Wonderful Wizard of Ozby L. Frank Baum

I've been wanting to get a really nice copy of this and when I saw this edition at Barnes and Noble It looked so pretty that I had to get it. I just love this edition!!!

Dreamless by Josphine Angelini 

I read the first one of this series a while back and really enjoyed it. And I actually like this UK edition better then the US ones. So, when I saw this at the cheap book store for 5$s I had to get it. I can't wait to start reading this one!

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

I saw this one for 5$ and I decided to get it, because it looked good. And When I got home I remembered the whole controversy about the writing style so I flipped through pages and I don't think I'm going to like it. There is no quotation marks, at all! I don't like that.

The Friday Society by Aorinne Kress

Tell you the truth I don't really know what this is about, I just know it's steam-punk. And when I saw the pretty cover and the 8$ price tag I got it. 

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

I've wanted to get this since it came out, but it was one of those books that I decided to get when it released in paperback. When I saw it for 8 dollars in the hardcover edition I may have squealed just a little bit. I am just so excited to start reading this one!!!

The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

I got this because I've been wanting to get more classics.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Ditty to Emily Dickinson

Grims Complete Fairy Tales 

In my German class we are studying the grim brothers, so I got this. And it's been really neat seeing the differences with the original stories and the re-told stories, like Disney movies. 

That's what I got, what did you get this week?
Happy reading

Small Break

Hello guys, I just wanted to let you know that for the next four days I won't be posting anything, this includes Stacking the Shelves. It's just that this weekend is the annual girls weekend in my house. Me and my Mom and some other friends are going to be shopping and ect, so I won't have time to blog. But I will be back with next weeks Top Ten Tuesday.

Happy reading.

Review: Of Beast And Beauty by Stacey Jay

Grade: 4.5 Butterflies
Name: Of Beast and Beauty
Author: Stacey Jay
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: Hardcover, 391 pages

Goodreads Summary

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

So, I've had my eye on this book for a long time. And when I started seeing all these reviews praising how amazing it was I knew I had to get it and read it. Holy crap am I glad I did! I was a little afraid that it wouldn't be as good as I originally thought, because I had high expectations for it, but oh my god I was blown away!!!

First off the plot was amazing!!! It was captivating and even though it wasn't fast paced throughout the whole book it still somehow kept you on the edge of your set. It was just amazing!! And the whole system of the world was just so twisted that you can't even believe that people would except that. I also really appreciated how neither side was completely bad. There was bad elements and bad people on each side, but neither was bad to the core. I just really liked how the author did this.

The characters in this book where really great!! I loved some and others I hated because they where so evil and all of them where just really well written. It seemed like every single character had a lot of depth to them, even the side characters. This made them all just feel like real people. So when the deaths of certain people happened it just tore you up. I cried in so many scenes in this book.

I also really liked the character development in Isra throughout the whole book. Not so much Gem, because he was always a little compassionate toward the people he was suppose to hate, but the development in Isra was phenomenal!! She went from being a meek, rebellious girl who had opinions and hated being treated like a child, but never really forcefully spoke up for herself, to being a strong, don't-mess-with-me, look outside of the box Queen. It was amazing to read!! To bad it was wasted on her people, because everybody thought she was crazy.

Next up is the world building. So in somebodies review they said that the author did a great job of describing the world from a blind persons POV. And I didn't realize how right this person was. The author did a outstanding job with the world building from Isra's perspective. Even though she is blind we still get to see and feel the world. However, the author did this perfectly, because it wasn't over done where you didn't believe that she was really blind. We get to see the world, but at the same time still believing she is blind. I also really loved this world!!

The only complaint I have for this book is the fact that the romance felt a little rushed. Well, rushed isn't the right word, it's just I felt that the author skipped over something important to Gem's and Isra's relationship. We know that they spent months together in the garden building a friendship that is the foundation of their romance, but we never really got to read that part. The author just kind of skips that part and we finally see them together when they start realizing they love each other. I was just annoyed with this, because I really liked these two together and I wish that we got the full effect of their relationship.

Lastly I wanted to comment on how it felt like a fairy tale. Some fair tale re-telling don't actual feel like a fairy tale. They never really have this magical aspect sprinkled throughout the book. Which is fine since not having that doesn't take away from the book, but having it makes it seem just so much more....magical for the lack of a better word. This book had that and the perfect amount of it. It didn't have to much of that magical, fairy tale quality where you roll your eyes at the silliness. It had just enough for it to feel like a fairy tale. And I loved that. That is what made me love this book as much as I did.

Overall, I loved this!!! I loved it so much and it was refreshing to read a complete story in one book. I would recommend it to you if you are a romance fan, or a fantasy fan, or a contemporary fan, or a paranormal fan. Basically I would recommend this to you no matter what genre you prefer.

This book got..

4.5 Butterflies

Beautiful, this is a great book. 

Happy reading

October Wrap-Up

October was a good month for me. School was really busy though, so I didn't get a lot of reading done, but I got some at least. And I also loved just about every book I read. So even though I didn't read all that many books, the ones that I did where freaking awesome.

And this month I'm doing NanoWrimo. So, I'm probably going to get even less reading done. You can my NanoWrime profile HERE to get more info about that.

Books read: 6

Guinevere's Gamble by Nancy McKenzie| 4.5 Butterflies

The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson| 3 Butterflies

Midnight Sun  by Stephanie Meyer| 5 Butterflies

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacy Jay| 4.5 Butterflies

Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout|4.5 Butterflies 

Endless Knight by Kresley Cole| 4 Butterflies 

The Book of the month would be a tie between Of Beast and Beauty and Origin. Both where so freaking amazing!!

I also got out of my writing reviews slump, because I reviewed a lot in October. 

Reviews: 9

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa 

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 

Black Butler Volume 4 & 5 by Yana Toboso 

Dark Triumph by Robin LeFevers

Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Deity by Jennifer Armentrout

Elixir by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I'm not going to be doing a TBR for November, because it's a very busy month for me and I don't think I'll get many books finished. The only book I know for sure I'm going to read it Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentorut. This is the last book in the Covenant series and both sad and excited to read it.


That's what happened in October. What did you read in October?
Happy reading

Stacking the Shelves (64)

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly theme hosted by Tynga's reviews . Feel free to join in if you want. In this theme I showcase all the books I got this week.

I only got one book this week, sadly, but it was a good book. So, it evens things out.

Endless Knight by Kresely Cole

I read Poison Princess last year and really enjoyed it. So, I was really excited to get this book from the library. And I already read it and I had a lot of mixed feelings about it, but it was good overall.

That's what I got this week. What did you get?

Happy reading

Apology and Announcement.

Hello guys. I just had a few things to say and one of them is an apology.

 I didn't know I would be this busy with school and life in general. I have barely enough time to write up a few posts and reviews and post them. I have life no time to visit other blogs and comment or anything like that. This last week I posted like four reviews was only because I was in the Senitel book tour and I had yet to review most of that series. And writing those reviews sucked up most of my time and I could barely get school done. So I apologize to all my blogging friends and everybody, that I haven't done anything for the past few weeks than just put up posts. I'm sorry :(. But I think it will get better when this semester ends, because I have this huge project I'm working on for my AP course and that is taking up most of my time. 

Last thing I have to tell you is I', doing NanoWrimo this month!! Yay!! For those of you who don't know what that is, it means National Novel Writing Month and it's were you try and write 50,000 words in the month of November. So, posts will be very, very scarce this month and I'm not putting up a TBR because I don't think I will have enough time for reading. I barely have enough time for reading as it is and to put writing a book on top of all the rest of the stuff I need to do. I think I will barely have enough time to sleep. But it's going to be totally worth it just to write a book. Even if I don't finish it, it's going to be a blast.

And if you are in NanoWrimo add me as a writing buddy. My username is Kim with Notes. Search me and add me as a writing buddy. 

Again. I'm sorry that I've been scarce around the whole blogosphere :(

Happy reading.