Dusty Reads (5)

Dusty Reads is a weekly meme, hosted here, featuring a book that has been sitting unread on our home shelf for some time. To participate, add your link at the bottom. 
If you wish, you can grab the button and find more information here.

My pick this week:

The Truth About Forever

Sarah Dessen

Released May 1st, 2004

Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away. She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic, insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in a whole new way, and really start living it.

I received this for my birthday back in February and haven't gotten into it yet. I haven't actually read any books by Sarah Dessen. I have heard she was amazing and all her books have fantastic reviews - which is why I had this one and a few others on my wishlist. I should really pick it up I actually need a good pick-me-up book and this one could do the trick.

What do you think of Sarah Dessen?

Interview & Giveaway with Belle Whittington

Belle Whittington, author of Cicada, is stopping by Xpresso Reads today to answer a few questions about her debut novel, the first in a planned trilogy. She has also generously offered an ecopy of her book for giveaway.

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & The Diary of A Bookworm are hosting a huge giveaway hop. Over 400 blogs are participating which gives you an extremely good chance of winning some books! Xpresso Reads is excited to be a part it. Thanks for hopping on by!

In My Mailbox (6)

"In My Mailbox" is a meme, created by Kristi at The Story Siren, that features books I've 

received/ purchased/ borrowed during the current week. 

How are you all doing this week? I had a pretty uneventful one, really. It's getting cold and steady rain is kind of boring, but great for reading (glass half full, right?). So this week I suddenly got a bunch of ARCs that I had requested as well as a few author review requests, so the list is a little crazy. I'm glad the release dates are scattered or I'd never be able to get them all posted in time. 

What I got for review (click on cover for Goodreads synopsis):

          

           

   

I want to thank Random House, Harlequin, Walker Chilren's Book, Entangled Publishing, Taryn Browning, Jodi Lamm and Ali Cross for the review copies.

I have won: 

    

 Thanks to Mari of Escape In A Book & Avery of Avery's Book Nook.

I have bought:

 1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

2. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

3. Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

4. Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

So I think I'm all set for a little while (or until next week at least). I'm currently reading Liesl & Po and so far it's incredible I love it. I'm also really excited about Hunting Lila and Witch Song I have been looking forward to them for months and I only got them now. 

What have you all gotten? Make sure to leave me a link so I can drop by.

Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy
(Vampire Academy, #1)
Richelle Mead
Released August 16th, 2007
by Penguin Group

St. Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school it's a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St. Vladimir's the very place where they're most in danger. . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy's ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi the world's fiercest and most dangerous vampires make Lissa one of them forever.

This was actually better than I expected. When I read vampire or other paranormal books, I feel like a lot of them lack originality and I just end up being frustrated with it. Vampire Academy was not so.

The vampire lore is different than any other. There are undead and living vampires, half vampires, guardians, etc. It's certainly unusual, but really interesting and very creative. The lore is not all explained right away, though, so at first I was a bit confused with the titles and politics. Basically, Lissa is a Vampire and Rose (narrator) is her guardian. I did like the way it was presented; you aren't told everything right away so you want to keep reading to find out what the deal is. The plot itself was not really unpredictable, but it was never boring and some of the minor twists were not expected.

The characters were easily likeable. Rose is a very strong protagonist. She's feisty and she doesn't hold back. It makes it fun to see her reactions and you're not left wishing she had taken a stand or retorted. It's also a good change from the often too whiny "damsel in distress" heroines you see in a lot of YA novels. As for Lissa, I didn't really click with her much. I found she was more of a secondary character and I didn't get her at first, nor Rose's over-protectiveness of her. She did grow on me towards the end where I realized she's not just a wuss. She does have a bit of steel in her after all. The side characters were enjoyable and I sure loved to hate Mia!

So overall, it's not an "out of this world" awesome book, but in my opinion it deserves the 4 Espressos that I rated it. I will definitely read the rest of the series and would recommend it to anyone who likes YA paranormal.

*note: review originally written in February, 2011*

4 Hot Espressos

 View on Goodreads