Blood Magic-Tessa Gratton

It starts off simply.

Draw a circle … place a dead leaf in the center … sprinkle some salt … recite a little Latin … add a drop of blood …

Maybe that last part isn’t exactly simple. Yet somehow it feels right to Silla Kennicott. And nothing in her life has felt remotely right since her parents’ horrific deaths. She’s willing to do anything to uncover the truth about her family—even try a few spells from the mysterious book that arrived on her doorstep … and spill some blood.

The book isn’t the only recent arrival in Silla’s life. There’s Nick Pardee, the new guy next door who may have seen Silla casting a spell. She’s not sure what he saw and is afraid to find out. But as they spend more time together, Silla realizes this may not be Nick’s first encounter with Blood Magic. Brought together by a combination of fate and chemistry, Silla and Nick can’t deny their attraction. And they can’t ignore the dark presence lurking nearby—waiting to reclaim the book and all its power. – goodreads

 

Goodreads has a nice description of Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton…but I think mine would be more like:

So, you like haunted towns and cemeteries, right? Of course you do.

You love hot, fictional characters who actually have some character to them, right? Yeah, you do.

And you love magic and blood (without vampires).

Since you love all of the above, you’ll be IN love with Blood Magic.

 

Blood Magic is a book worth reading. It has a dark atmosphere throughout the book, and the characters are people I really wish I knew, especially Nick.

 

He’s not Prince Charming, he’s a realistic boy. A witty one.

Plus Silla is a girl who’s gone through a lot of crap, and while she obviously is trying to cope, she’s not falling apart to a point where she’s a heap of emotional goo.

 

Silla + Nick = ♡♥❤ <—smexy romance

 

The villains in this book are fleshed out through diary entries, and, through that, I went through loving, sympathizing, and fearing said villain. There’s history behind everything, and that get’s sorted through. Nothing was left unknown, but nothing was answered too soon.

 

Not necessarily a beach read, but definitely something worth reading a night! Grab it next time you’re at a bookstore.

 

 

I give Tessa many stars! (★★★★★★★★★★★★★)

 

 

P.S.

Some references in this book will please either

A.) Those who adore Linger by Steifvater

or

B.) Those who support Razorbacks. 😉

 

The Factionless

So, Kim and I have put our heads together again and used our love of the Divergent Trilogy to create an actual fansite: thefactionless.com

This fansite has it all.

We’ll have shirts, buttons, wallpaper, latest news, fan art, videos, interviews, playlist, everything relating to Divergent/Veronica Roth!

We’ve been working on it for a month now, and will keep adding and adding.

Check it out!

What Say You? (Hunger Games Casting)

So, how many of you got to snag a copy of EW’s Hunger Games issue?

And how many of you click refresh every 30min. on the Hunger Games’ FB, Twitter, etc page to see new casting?

Well, if you’ve done one or the other, what are your thoughts on the HG Casting?

I’m in love with them all…Yeah, Jennifer Lawrence looks a little too old, but I think it’ll work out.

I’m just so excited to see this being made epically. This isn’t indie, and this isn’t some half shot attempt…they’re really going all out with well known actors/actresses.

Leave your say in the comments! 🙂

Donate= Books

I am apart of Destination Imagination, a creative problem solving event.

My school has multiple teams, and this year 6 teams won 1st place in state to go to Globals in Tennessee.

 

So, yay for that, but it does cost around $900 per student…I’ve been in fundraisers for the past 4 weeks now, but I finally have one where it does not require the person to be there. I’ll be honest, I’m desperate to get right amount of ticket sold. If I don’t, team has to cover it as a whole ($ coming out of wallets to pay for fee).

Basically, you pay for a $25 ticket, and you have 1/400 (if all tickets are sold, which, in reality, not all 400 tickets will be sold) to win $2,500 and two more tickets will be drawn for consolation prizes for $250.

PLUS…this is a book blog, so if you decide to donate, I will send you a book. I really don’t expect a many if any peeps to donate (I understand, I still love every one of you!), but I’ve chosen five books (first come, first serve).

 

Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles…SIGNED.

 

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon, never been read.

Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe (perfect condition) and Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell (ARC version, a little worn).

If there happens by some miracle to be more donatees, there will be more books!

Email me at readergirl321@aol.com with

*Name

*Addy

*Phone #

*Email

*Book you want

 

I will reply with a PayPal request form and ticket #.

Sorta going by honor system here…I trust paypal. I won’t use your information for anything other than for this donation. I will send you the book ASAP along with ticket stub.

If you win, I will notify you, and you will receive the money through mail or paypal.

You don’t have to have a PayPal account in order to donate.

I know this asking a lot, but I really would appreciate it.

And like I said, I love every one of you regardless!

Also, I do plan to continue blogging. I need to get over finals within the next two weeks, and summer will be here.

There’s also a Sekrit Project of Awesome, but that’s all I’m allowed to say.

FOREVER Trailer

Yes, I know, I haven’t blogged in forever. I’m not sure what’s for the future, but I’m not ready to give up blogging just yet. With school out of the way in a month, I hope to set up a more stable environment!

Everyone knows I’m a huge Maggie Stiefvater fan so this is a must see:

Awesome, right? The song is Maggie’s (Sam’s?) ‘Summer Girl’. There’s also another version using Jonas and Pluckett’s version of ‘Summer Girl’. Both are nice.

You saw the hesitating wolf, right? 😛

So, since I know you want to pre-order FOREVER, here’s a cool link to do so:

http://tinyurl.com/3n8rq7s

They’re AUTOGRAPHED~

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

I posted this a few months ago, but since the release is coming up for Delirium, I thought I’d post it again along with my trailer I made last summer.

 

*A little spoilerish*

The idea that love is a disease is mind boggling from the start. How can you live without love?!

But in Delirium they do. It’s rather depressing at times, the way parents have no love for their children, only the responsibility of taking care of them.

The way married couples are looked down on when showing affection in public. But they’re not in love.

It’s a responsibility to work together, not love.

Lena understands that love, more commonly known as the deliria, is a disease. Without love, there is no hate. No war, fights, and life is measured and safe.

She cannot wait to turn 18 so she can finally be out of love’s way. She’ll be evaluated, her husband will be chosen, as will her job and the amount of kids that seem fit for her. Hopefully, they’ll let her go to college.

So when her best friend, Hana, starts breaking the rules, breaking curfew, listening to non-government-approved music, and even going out to parties where boys and girls are integrated, she fears Hana will soon catch the disease and be forced to have the cure early, a dangerous thing that can cause deadly side affects.

But then there’s Alex. Alex who makes her heart jump, a clear side affect of deliria, makes her mind go fuzzy, another side effect.

She knows she should ignore him, just wait the few more months until the surgery will be given to her and she doesn’t have to worry about the disease. So it’s pretty bad when she says yes to meeting him…and even worse when he admits to being an Invalid, someone who disagrees with the cure and live in the Wild, pass the gates surrounding her city.

But then she realizes that maybe the government’s wrong, maybe they’re lying about love being bad. When she runs off to another party to warn Hana about a raid coming to take people who disobey any rules, she’s too late.

She sees the violence coming from the people who are supposed to ‘protect’ the citizens during the raid.

Alex saves her from the raid and from that night she’s soon plummeting further and further from her old life, the safe one. She might have deliria, but she’s doesn’t care.

She just wants to be with Alex.

But when the whole world is out to destroy something you love, how can you escape?

I truly loved this book.

It was magnificent and the ending was stunning and heart wrenching. Alex and Lena were marvelous, brave, characters who I enjoyed reading about. I loved reading each secret peeling off from Lena’s safe life even if some were hard to learn.

Lauren was able to show how love can never be erased and how far people will go to keep it with them.

The romance was sweet and true to heart.

I did cry, I laughed, and I screamed (In my head, at least!). Okay, I cried a lot in real life.

 

I was inspired!

So what do I do when I’m inspired? Make things. So I made a trailer.

I think this trailer is my best yet, and I hope you enjoy it.

The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She was infected with he werewolf curse while trying to save him, and lost her beloved brother in the process.

Desperate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot, a newcomer to town. But as the two grow closer, Grace’s relationship with Daniel is put in danger — in more ways than one.

Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace begins to give into the wolf inside of her — not realizing that an enemy has returned and a deadly trap is about to be sprung.

– taken from goodreads.

 

I was worried I would have NO clue what was going since it’s been well over a year since I read The Dark Divine, but Bree was able to keep you intact with previous actions without throwing it all out there at once.

Honestly, I was hoping this would be better.

I loved TDD, so I had high hopes for this.

No, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as I had hoped.

First off, Grace is very, very naive. I can handle that characteristic to a degree, but it got kind of silly.

Fortunately, Grace’s character grows magnificently well throughout the book, I think she gets over that innocent stage.

I love how determined she is. Most characters in YA are very strong and good will, but something about Gracie just stands out. She knows her beliefs, and they won’t be moved.

Unlike The Dark Divine, this book actually did not have as much of a dark theme as I remembered TDD having, but it still kept of a mysterious plot of who did what.

Daniel is…not really present in this book, so hopefully he’ll play more of a character in the third book. Grace and Daniel’s relationship didn’t spark, it was kind of like: Yup, we love each other. The end.

But it was sweet at times, and I can see it growing stronger after this book.

The lore and myths are very interesting, I enjoyed hearing them.

I really wished all the good stuff hadn’t been saved for the last two chapters. We finally get answers, and then the book ended.

There’s a bit of a cliffhanger, but with how the story was set up, it wasn’t as climatic as it could’ve been.

 

Not horrible, just very average. I plan on buying the third book!