Thursday, October 31, 2013

Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

The main problem I have with this book is that it drags and drags and drags for the first half, before there's any semblance of plot.
Clara goes to school, pines for Christian, mopes, finds out some more about angels. Rinse and repeat.
It's a shame, because the concept is really interesting and original. Though paranormal romances with angels are popular lately, I've never seen anything quite like this.  
I enjoy the fact that there are various ranks of angel-bloods and I like the idea of different shades of gray, that angels aren't either completely good or bad.
The fact that Clara isn't a damsel in distress and that she actually has powers is great and (sadly) original, more novels should do that kind of thing.
Tucker is a likable character and a cute love interest. He's nice to her and he's quite charming. That's another thing that should happen in more YA.   
I hate that I haven't liked this novel all that much. There's so much potential in there, but the execution is poor. Since there was little to no action in a good chunk of he book I wasn't motivated to keep reading. I had to force myself not to put this book down and I ended up only reading it every couple of days, which is why it took me so long to read it in the first place. 
A lot of pages were spent setting up the events for the climax, which is tricky to pull off. The first few Harry Potter novels did the same thing, but there it was actually handled well. Here, it just makes for a boring novel. 
I rated this book two and a half stars on five for its potential. It's a shame that it was so slow, I probably would have loved it otherwise. 

Rating:
★★ 1/2

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesdays



WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading
where you answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently read?
What will you be reading next?

What are you currently reading? Allegiant, finally! I've bought it yesterday and I've only had the time to read a couple of pages, but I'm so excited! I hope it'll be awesome!


What did you recently read? I finally finished Unearthly. I'll write a review in the next couple of days. 

What will you be reading next? I'm going to read "The Eye of Minds" by James Dashner and "Unbreakable" by Kimi Garcia, which are both on my top ten most awaited releases for this fall. I also want to read "The Son of Neptune", by Rick Riordan. 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Quote-Tastic



"Quote-Tastic" is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup . To participate you have to post a favorite quote from a current or past read.
Today's quote is from an old favorite of mine: the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan.
Nico was such a cute, albeit annoying, kid before (spoiler!) his sister was killed and he found out he was a son of Hades. I enjoy his character a lot, because I'm evil and I like characters with a tough history, but this is a reminder of a happier time for him - and it also is quite funny.  
"Hey, can I see that sword you were using?"
I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it.
"Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?"
"Um, well, I don't actually write with it."
"Are you really the son of Poseidon?"
"Well, yeah."
"Can you surf really well, then?"
I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh.
"Jeez, Nico," I said. "I've never really tried."
He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Love Triangles: Paving the Road to Hell since 2008?

Actually, the road to hell is paved with frozen door to door salesmen, but let's gloss over that. 
Obligatory "Good Omens" reference aside, a lot of people think that love triangles are a creation of the devil, going as far as not reading books that have a love triangle in it.
I can't help but wonder why. Love triangles aren't exactly the most original plot device ever, and yeah, the characters they feature tend to be carbon copies of each other: there's the blank slate girl whose poor, poor heart is being torn apart by the terrible pain of loving two guys, the witty, narcissistic guy with a heart of gold and his sweet and supportive rival. 
But the problem with that doesn't lie with the love triangle itself: these characters taken singularly would still be flat and uninteresting, and often they are like that in novels that don't have a love triangle at all. 
Another issue people take with love triangles is that they are a way to create cheap drama instead of focusing on the actual plot. 
And while it's true in some cases, I think that most of the time it's not like that. Novels like Wings, where it was really obnoxious and make me want to toss the book across the room, are pretty rare.
Most of the time, love triangles are done quite subtly, so that they don't distract the reader from the story too much, or they are actually done well. Alright, the only love triangle in YA I actually like is the one in the Infernal Devices, which has a certain arthurian flavor to it. What I liked about it was the affection that bound the two guys, which made it a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise.
At the end of the day love triangles aren't all that bad. Sure, most books don't really benefit from them, but they don't usually make the novel worse either.
What do you guys think about love triangles? Let me know in the comments!


Friday, October 25, 2013

Review: Renegade by J.A. Souders


I could see all of it coming from miles away. The so-called "big reveal" was pretty clear early into the book. 
I don't really see why Souders chose to make her villain into Hitler 2.0: only blond-haired, blue-eyed, pale and beautiful people are allowed in her utopia. I don't really see why she'd coincidentally choose that. Why not make it based upon intelligence? Or upon a good immune system? I can't help but think that it would have been more compelling that way.
That being said, I enjoyed this novel. The main character, Evelyn, was likable and it was great to see a female lead kick some ass, instead of being constantly saved by the hero.
Speaking of the hero, he was kind of bland, but at least he had all the minimum requirements to be a decent human being. Sadly, that's not something I see very often in YA literature.
Their love story developed in a way that felt quite natural and not insta-lovish. Which is always a plus. 
I'm glad I read it, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, which will come out this fall. 

Rating:
★★★

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesday



WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading
where you answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently read?
What will you be reading next?

What are you currently reading? Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. I'm reading it at a snail pace, but I've gotten to the point where there's actual plot, so I'll probably read faster now. 

What did you recently read? The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, which is wonderful,  and Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld, which was pretty cool.

What will you be reading next? Allegiant by Veronica Roth finally came out yesterday, so I'll read it as soon as I'm done with Unearthly. 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters Names I Love




Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by the Brooke and the Bookish.


10. Cather and Wren from "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell. I thought that the idea of their mother splitting the name Catherine between them was really clever and a great way to show her attitude to motherhood. 


9. Artemis Fowl from "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer. It's hard to forget and clever. 


8. Celia Bowell from "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. I really like the name Celia, even though I'm not sure about the way it sounds with her last name.  


7. Annabeth Chase from "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" by Rick Riordan. It's old-fashionated and girly, the kind of name that would be suited to the female lead of a period piece. Like her looks, it's misleading in regard of her personality. 


6. Sirius Black from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling. It's badass, which suits his personality. 


5. Severus Snape from "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling. Another Harry Potter name. Rowling is great with names and I think this is her masterpiece. It has it all: alliteration, there are several "s" and the word "Snape" reminds enough of snake without saying it outright. 


4. Katniss Everdeen from "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Admittedly, it sounds a bit like catnip, but it also sounds freaking awesome, which really suits her character. 


3. Deryn Sharp from "Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld. I like the way it sounds and it really suits her. I especially like the last name "Sharp": it's really cool. 


2. Tris Prior from "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. The combination of first and last name is great, it's a name that's hard to forget. I also like the fact that it's a name she chose for herself. 


1. Magnus Bane from "the Mortal Instruments" by Cassandra Clare. It suits him perfectly. And I just had to chose a warlock last name from Clare's books. I really like the last name rules she created for her characters, especially since it's really hard to come up with four-letter last names that mean something negative and actually sound cool. I tried to and only managed came up with doom, which is unbearably silly. 

Monday, October 21, 2013

Quote-Tastic


"Quote-Tastic" is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup . To participate you have to post a favorite quote from a current or past read.
Today's qutoe is from Unearthly, a current read. 


"Today we ran into a mama grizzly with two cubs up at the ridge off Colter Bay, and Clara sang to it to make it go away." 
Mr. and Mrs. Avery stare at me, aghast. 
"You sang to it?" Mrs. Avery repeats. 
"Her singing is that bad," says Tucker

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Book Blogger Hop




The Book Blogger Hop is hosted on the site Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
Its purpose it to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, 
befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog. 

Each week bloggers answer a different question. This week there were two questions. The first one was: Norman Bates VS Hannibal Lecter: Which one of these famous book murderers is scarier? 
Hannibal Lecter, definitely. He's reminder that monster can hide behind a classy, cultured and charming façade.  

The second question was: who is your favorite book villain?

I'm going to name two: Voldemort from the Harry Potter series and Jeanine Matthews from the Divergent trilogy. 
Voldemort is the Hitler of the Wizarding World: he's charming, charismatic and he's motivated mostly by an unquenchable thirst for power.
Jeanine's motives are a lot more understandable than Voldemort's: she does the horrible things she does for power, but also because she genuinely thinks that they are a necessary evil. She does everything to protect the world she knows from something that could destroy it. 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Review: Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld

Maybe it's the fact that the blurb slaps you in the face with the message, maybe it's that the female protagonist just  has to repeat it every couple of pages just in case you forget it, or that the "intense" things they experience are just plain unrealistic, but I was constantly torn between irritation and disbelief whilst comparing the massage that the perfect world the characters live in leads to a bland life and the actual things that happen in the novella. 
Teenage hormones rarely lead to most of what Maria does, like walking into a storm just to feel the rain on her skin, or going to the South Pole in a wet dress and with wet hair to see a boy.  
And I've never written bad poetry, or any kind of poetry for that matter, from scraps of conversations.  
And I don't think I've ever dreamt every night for a week just because I had a crush. 
Maybe I wasn't a typical sixteen-years-old, and if it's exactly the kind of thing you did at that age let me know, but to me this looks like a grossly inaccurate portrayal of adolescence.
The message and the just story don't fit. I still liked the book, though. 
The characters are interesting. Maria, who apparently takes all her information on how to act like a teenager from ridiculous period romance novels, was particularly fun to read.
Her relationship with Kieran was cute and its development felt natural, which is always nice and sadly scarce, especially in YA literature.
There were also a couple of moments that made me snort, like when Kieran calls Hamlet "psycho prince guy" and Maria is begrudgingly impressed by the fact that he read Hamlet in the first place. 
I needed to relax and read something fun, quick and a bit silly and this was the perfect read for that. It's not deep, or imaginative or exceptional in any way, but I'm glad I read it. 


Rating:  
★★★



Thursday, October 17, 2013

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

When I first read Fallen, when I was young and naive, I enjoyed it. I realized that it was bad, but I found the story to be pretty engrossing and as long as I didn't think about it, I liked it. 
The other day I was tidying up my room and what do I find? My old, battered and vaguely sand-smelling copy of Fallen. 
So I thought: "Let's take a trip down memory lane! It'll be fun!"
Yeah, right
This book isn't just bad. It's terrible, horrible, a catastrophe, a waste of paper. 
Why did I hate it so much, you say?
The writing would be alright, if the author didn't have issuses with descriptions. Sometimes she comes up with pearls like:
The walls here were the color of a dusty blackboard
Please, Kate, I'm begging you. Just say they're black. Or grey. I'm not even sure what color she means with that expression!
The characterization is poor and the story moves with the speed of a lethargic sloth, honoring the paranormal romance tradition of running in circles for hundreds of pages and then cramming what little actual plot there is in the last ten percent of the novel.

And don't even get me started on the love story. When I first read it, I thought that the insta-love wasn't that bad because it was justified. 
I was wrong. I can't think of one single reason why this two people should be together. And if he really loved her, he'd do something to stop the cycle of reincarnation and horrible, painful death at a young age. I mean, seeing your  One True Love TM burn to death time after time may be heartbreaking, but it's nothing compared to what she feels every single time. And what about the people she leaves behind? He seems to have no regard whatsoever for them and their feelings. 
Too sum it up, Fallen sucks and I don't wish it on my worst enemy.


Rating

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesday


WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading
where you answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently read?
What will you be reading next?

What are you currently reading? "Unearthly" by Cynthia Hand. I like it, but the main character said her physical faults were a) being to tall and skinny and b) her eyes are too big, which is kinda off-putting. I feel a Mary Sue coming up.

What did you recently read? "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman, which was awesome, and Oath of Servitude by C.E. Wilson.

What will you be reading next? Where do I start? As soon as I have the time, I'll read "The Eye of Minds" by James Dashner and "Unbreakable" by Kimi Garcia, which are both on my top ten most awaited releases for this fall. I also want to read "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. 





Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Halloween Edition: What scary book would you like turned into a feature film?



The Book Blogger Hop is hosted on the site Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
Its purpose it to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, 
befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog. 

Each week bloggers answer a different question. This week's question was:
Which scary book would you like to see turned into a feature film?

The Face, by E. F. Benson. I'm kind of cheating, since it's a short story and not a book, but I would love to see it on film nonetheless. It probably would look really good. I imagine it filmed in stark colors: the blue of the sea, the black of the stone, the bone-white of the head-stones. 
I'd especially enjoy seeing the main character's recurring dream, the graveyard scene and the ending. Probably because they're all set more or less in the same place. 

Monday, October 14, 2013

Review: the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Now it's official: Neil Gaiman is on my direct-to-buy list. As in, the authors whose books I buy without downloading the sample, without checking the reviews, without reading the summary, if the fancy strikes me.
"The Graveyard Book" is wonderful. I can't believe I haven't read it before. I'm already going into good book withdrawal.
Even though the novel starts with the triple murder of a couple and their eldest child the story has some really sweet aspects, like Bod's relationship with his adoptive parents.
The characters were awesome. Bod is an amazing main character and I have a bit of a crush on his guardian, Silas.
I also liked the rest of the characters, they felt incredibly real.
All this would have been enough to make this a great read, but the best thing about it was the writing. It's beautiful, heart-stoppingly good. I loved it. If everything else about "the Graveyard Book" had been awful, it still would have gotten three stars, just for the writing. That's how good this is. 
Read this book. I mean it, read this book, and make sure your children do too. It's fantastic and you'll love it, I'm sure of it. 
And, as mistress Owens' song goes:
Kiss a lover
Dance a measure,
Find your name
And buried treasure... 
Face your life
Its pain,
Its pleasure,
Leave no path untaken
 
Rating: 
★★★★★ 

Quote-Tastic


"Quote-Tastic" is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup . To participate you have to post a favorite quote from a current or past read.
This week's quote is from "Good Omens", by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I chose it because it makes me snort every time I read it and it's also representative of one of the things I enjoyed the most about this book, namely the dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon that make up an unlikely - and hilarious - pair of friends.

“And gears." Said Anathema "My bike didn't have gears. I'm sure my bike didn't have gears."


Crowley leaned over to the angel. "Oh lord, heal this bike." He whispered sarcastically.


"I'm sorry, I just got carried away." hissed Aziraphale.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Review: Oath of Servitude by C.E. Wilson

*I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

The main focus if this book is the love story. I was not expecting it and I it's not what I usually look for in a fantasy. It didn't bother me, though, since the romance was well-developed and cute. She always kept him on his toes, and he was disgruntled but impressed by her no-nonsense attitude. I enjoyed that about them. 
I also liked the fact that they did not immediately profess to love each other; it's refreshing to see a couple in a YA novel going through the normal stages of "in lust" and "in like" in their relationship, instead of immediately plunging into deep, obsessive love.
The characters were fleshed-out and likable, their motives were plausible. I still don't get the reasons behind the main antagonist's actions, but I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be a mystery and that it will be cleared up in the next books.
The world building was another thing I appreciated. It's not something I have seen before, at least not used like this, and originality is sadly scarce in YA fantasy these days. 
What really bothered me were the constant POV shifts, I think that they were unnecessary and they distracted me from the narrative.
The ending also felt too rushed and anticlimactic. The whole book builds up to one single event, and the final showdown was a bit disappointing, at least compared to what I was expecting. 
Give "Oath of Servitude" a try if you want a quick, cute read with likable characters and an interesting world-building. 


Rating:
★★★

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

W... W... W... Wednesday




WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading
where you answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently read?
What will you be reading next?

What are you currently reading? Oath of Servitude, by C.E. Wilson and Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand. I'm liking them both, tough I'm just on chapter three of Unearthly, so it's a bit early to tell wether it'll be good or not.

What did you recently read? haven't finished anything since Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, tough I've given up on Obisidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout since then.

What will you be reading next? Two books on my Top Ten Can't Wait for Books list, Unbreakable by Kimi Garcia and The Eye of Minds by James Dashner came out, so I'll read them. 

   

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders



Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by the Brooke and the Bookish



Best Series Enders

5. Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke: I loved every page. It wrapped up every loose thread and the characters got to explore their potential to the brink. There were some painful moments and a lot of heart-warming ones. It was a near-perfect ending to a near-perfect series.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: This one could have ranked higher, but while it did an amazing job at wrapping up all loose thread and did justice to the characters and the story it's not as good as some of the older books. I had expected something more from it.


3. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan: I loved this series and this book was great. I loved every single page. I cried, I laughed, I bit my lip until it bled. 


2. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare: A lot of people were disappointed by this book, especially by how it ended, but I actually was quite satisfied by it. It was dramatic and funny and adventurous and romantic and I loved every bit. 


1. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien: Do I even need to explain this one? Magic, suspense, the never-ending battle of good versus evil... This series had it all, and this was a fitting conclusion.  

Worst Series Enders  

5. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong: Altough this ended exactly the way I wanted it to, I don't think it was as good as the rest of the series. It was a bit all over the place and there was too much left unresolved. It didn't feel like an ending at all. 


4. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater: I loved Shiver and Deeper was okay, but Forever fell flat. A lot of things are left unresolved, I didn't feel drawn into the world as much as I had, the only thing I really cared a about were Cole and Isabelle.


3. Rapture by Lauren Kate: The "Fallen" books have all been kind of trashy, but they were a fun read.They were a delicious guilty pleasure. "Rapture" was just idiotic. I didn't go "Oh my gosh, this is so bad, I'm so ashamed I like this". I went: "Oh, my gosh this is so bad, why am I submitting myself to this?"  


2. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini: This series got steadily worse and worse. And this ending hit rock bottom. The only reason I managed to get trough it was that I had waited for years in order to see what happened. 


1. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers: This book was a train-wreck. This whole series was bad, but this was awful. It was so bad it wasn't even funny anymore. The whole novel is based on a plot-hole and the concept is absurd even for its own universe. And Jacob imprinting with a newborn baby was extremely disturbing.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition: What Book Gave You The Creeps?

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted on the site Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
Its purpose it to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, 
befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog. 

Each week bloggers answer a different question. This week's question was:
What Book Gave You The Creeps?
I'm going to name a classic and choose "Carmilla", by Le Fanu. It's a perfect example of slow build done right. There is very little to no plot almost until the end, and the book is narrated in the first person by the main character, so the stakes aren't that high - the reader knows she's going to survive.
I also started reading knowing exactly who, or more precisely what, Carmilla actually is.
Yet all this, which normally would lead me to becoming a frustrated, ranting mess, somehow comes together beautifully.
"Carmilla" was creepy as hell. And it does build-up for 90% of the novella, but the reader gets a final showdown that's worth the wait. 

Quote-Tastic



"Quote-Tastic" is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup . To participate you have to post a favorite quote from a current or past read.
My quote this week is from Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell. I chose it because it's both incredibly heart-warming and inspiring. 
"Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy," Wren said. "It's the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for."
Cath studied Wren's face. It was like looking at a lightly warped mirror. Through a glass, darkly. "Are you in love?"
Wren blushed and looked down at the laptop.
"This isn't about me. It's about Baz and Simon."
"I'm making it about you," Cath said. "Are you in love?"
Wren pulled the computer fully on her lap and started scrolling back up to the top of Cath's outline. "Yes," she said coolly. "There's nothing wrong with that."

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I managed to get roughly one third into the book before finally giving up. I'm writing this post because I need some kind of closure. 
First and foremost, I've already read this book. It had sparkly vampires in it. There are some fundamental differences between this and the-book-which-shall-not-be-named, of course, but all the elements which made it so bad are definitely there.
The main character, Katy, is bland. She does have a sliver of personality, but it's not nearly enough. Her love interest, Daemon, is insufferable. He constantly humiliates her, and yet she never actually tells him off. She even helps him get his car keys back from his sister. 
Dee, Daemon's sister, is the one who befriends Katy first, is far more likable. Her social life suffers from her brother's abusive tendencies*, but she manages to fight back. I wish I'd seen more of her in the book.
In this first third there is little to no plot. Something finally happened a few pages ago, but it was too little, too late. I suppose that the escalating of disturbing happenings could have been great, if it had been well-done and the blurb hadn't given away what they were escalating to. 
On this week's W...W...W... Wednesday I said that I was kind of hating this book, but I don't think that's accurate. I just don't care. I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the story.
And that's one of the worst things, if not the worst thing, that can be said about a story. 
*I'm sure that there is a completely logical explanation for him not wanting her to make human friends, but alienating her from every living being who doesn't meet his approval is controlling and abusive.       

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Booking Trough Thursday

Booking through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted on the site of the same name. 
Every week bloggers answer a different question, which is usually related to books.
This week's question was: which is better, a story with multiple points of view or one that sticks to one or two POVs?
I think it depends from the kind of story. I'd stick with one or two POVs in a romance novel or in a coming of age story. Multiple point of views work in adventure novels best. Anyway, I think there should't be too many POVs, no more than five or six, or I'll start losing track of them.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

W...W...W Wedsnesday




WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading
where you answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently read?
What will you be reading next?
What are you currently reading? I'm reading Obsidian, by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and I'm kind of hating it, which is a huge disappointment, since I was sure I would love it, and Oath of Servitude, by C.E. Wilson, I'm just a couple of chapters in, but it's quite good so far. 
What did you recently finish reading? Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, and I loved it. 
What will you be reading next? Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand, for "Crazy for Young Adult Books"' October Copycat Challenge on Goodreads