Monday, October 31, 2011

Be Good To Me: November Birthday Month Edition


November is a very special month here at The Book Barbies.
November 4th is Jennifer's birthday!
November 30th is my birthday!

Also, hosted by Basically Amazing Books and Chicks Love Lit is Just Contemporary November. Which is basically a month long tribute to the YA contemporary genre and since I (Racquel) love contemporary and it's my favorite genre, I will be participating!! I will be reading all contemporary books and on my behalf, I will try to post all contemporary related posts (Waiting on Wednesdays and such) but there are a couple of scheduled non-contemporary and since Jennifer won't be participating the blog will still have other genres than contemporary.

Book wise, October hasn't been the greatest month. Neither Jennifer or I read as much as we planned to and all my reads more to good  then expectantly great unfortunately but *shrugs* oh well! Hopefully November will be better!


October at The Book Barbies:


I read:
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

My favorite books for October are Spirit Bound and Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead♥

Jennifer read:
Which she loved both!




Jennifer plans to read:


I plan to read for Just Contemporary:
For sure:

November 1st:


November 2nd:
November 8th



November 14th:

November 15

November 17

 
                                 November 21st             November 22nd
 

November 29



 Have a great



Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: The Iron Fey #1
Published: February 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Rating: 1 star- no heart ):
The Iron King (Iron Fey, #1)
Goodreads summary: 
Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. 
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


Racquel's thoughts:
The Iron King officially proved to me hype and excitement only do bad things to books. They get me super excited and without me even knowing, give me high expectations but that only leads to a bad, bad bad road. First of all, I decided to immediately knock off two stars if the book has stereotypes, yup just like that. If the author has to rely on stereotypes then they probably don’t have the creativity to write a book. So from the first chapter The Iron King lost two stars due it having the worst kind of stereotypes.


Bimbo mean blonde cheerleaders and sexy stupid jocks. At the top of the list of things that I cannot stand is stereotypes so obviously I wasn't happy. I'm not even blonde or a cheerleader but god good who can't take offence at that? At my school we have as many black girls on the cheerleading team as white girls, and most of them aren't even blonde. And wait for it!  Some of them are actually nice and SMART. I do not understand how authors add this in their books. Do they truly believe blonde cheerleaders are dumb and football players are shallow?


I understand this is fiction and fantasy at that but I'm drawing the line at this. What happened to being against bullying? You're basically bullying the people who are cheerleaders and jocks with stereotypes like these. I'm pretty sure they have feelings.


I will not complain more about this because it will get my blood pressure too high.


Second problem I had was Meghan. I was not in her head. Basically her POV was more vague then 3rd person narration, really her narration makes 3rd person just WOW, I might as well be inside the head of every character!
'This happened.'
'He did this'
'she said so-so'
'I felt like this'
'it made me sad'
'I saw this'
'I did that'


But WHHHHY? why are you sad, why are you mad? What bothers you and why does it bother you? I need a little background of her brain because not just because she said she felt that way I would understand it and justify it. I need WHY. I need to be in the narrator’s head but this just felt like I'm on the sideline completely lost.


That leads me to number three: because, to me, the writing recited things without going on to justify or back them up in anyway, I couldn't believe Meghan’s actions. From the beginning every mention of her brother was how he bothered her. How do you expect me to believe that she's going to accept this fantasy world thrown at her face in a nanosecond and jump on a train to save her brother when she never mentions good feelings toward him? Just because he's her brother doesn't mean she has to love him.


I know people who would go to end of the world and back on foot to kill their siblings Blood means nothing. Again, this goes back to I NEED SOME THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND ACTIONS!


Also there was a bit in the book where Ash tells Meghan that she is very loyal which… no. Sure she is loyal to her brother (which I don’t understand why! Once again, just because he’s your brother means you love him. I need thoughts!) When she knew Puck could get in terrible trouble for helping her she insisted that he should, what kind of friend is that? Sure that means she’s loyal to her brother but Puck ends up getting the worst end of it for you? She didn’t even think twice about his punishment! I don’t know about you but when I’m loyal to my friends I want to PROTECT them from harm, not be the cause of it!


My thoughts on the Romance? Insta-love. One page it wasn’t there one page it was. How? I don’t know especially since the only contact Ash and Meghan had before was:
A)He tried to kill her
B)They danced together


Yeah, no it doesn’t work that way.


Now I didn’t completely abhor this book! Maybe 2/3 through I got really into it and was just flipping pages like madwomen because I couldn’t read fast enough. At least true to everybody’s reviews, the book does get really good when Ash is in the equation and I would have given the book 3 stars for that middle part alone but I can’t ignore all the problems I had with it in the beginning and the end.Will I be reading the second book? Yeah, someday. I saw potential in that middle part when I couldn’t get enough of the book and I’m hoping The Iron Daughter is as good as that middle part. Besides I HATE myself for not liking this more! It makes me mad that practically everybody loved it except me//:


My rating, SADLY:


First Line:
"Ten years ago, on my sixth birthday, my father disappeared."
Favorite:
"Shall we have tea first? Brew up a nice pot of kiss-my-ass?"
Teaser:
"How very like you, Puck." Ash's voice came from a great distance, and the room started to spin. "Offer them a taste of faery wine, and act surprised when they're consumed by it."

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Title: Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Series: Nightshade #1
Published: October 19th 2010 by Philomel
Rating: 3 hearts
Nightshade (Nightshade, #1)
Goodreads summary: 
Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

Racquel's thoughts:
Nightshade starts right into action and that how the book continues, Andrea Cremer wastes no time with pointless details and description. It's always bam-bam-bam which works for Nightshade because you don't doubt the world. These people shift into wolves anytime they want? Totally believable! Cremer leaves no room to think otherwise. BUT I was still confused, until maybe 1/3 of the book I didn't really understand who/what the keepers were and I was lost until Calla, the MC spelled it out for Shay, the human boy she saved from getting killed.

The first third of the book to me was so-so. It just showed how bipolar Calla is, one second she wanted Ren (the guy she was in an arranged marriage with) the next she wanted Shay and I was confused out of my mind anyway but after the explanation of who and what the guardians, keepers and searchers are, the book picked up.

I really liked the mystery and suspense of why Shay is important to the keepers, will Shay & Calla get caught doing something they're not supposed to do and of course, down to earth Shay or sexy Ren? Also the romance is HOT-HOT-HOT. I can say I never read anything as sexy as the none graphic HOOOOT scenes in this book, I loved it!

Why didn't I give this 5 stars though?

A lot of the minor characters like the people in Ren and Calla's pack were underdeveloped. I didn't even know who was in what pack and as I read, they were just vague characters in my mind. The other thing that ultimately made the book lose a star is Calla. I don't mind love triangles but Calla was just so bipolar about everything it started getting effy. One second she was cool with Ren, the next she’s slapping him. She ignores Shay for the day then she wants to kiss him. It got on my nerves and could have been handled better.

Other then that, Nightshade is a great paranormal read that I definitely cannot wait to see what happens next in book 2, it ended in a great action-packed way I’m sure everyone loved. Despite minor things, this is a great debut!!And the most famous question ever, am I on team Ren or Shay? Well, how about Calla get’s Shay and I get Ren? Since I’m pretty sure I know who Calla will end up with and I don’t want to support team sexy when he will not win, so I’m team Shay!

By the way, am I the only one who is sad about the new paperback cover? The hardcover ROCKED, they didn't need to change it//:

My rating:




First line:  
"I'd always welcomed war, but in battle my passion rose unbidden."
Favorite: 
"I dont read just philosophy. I went through a rebellious phase when I was pretty young and decided I wanted to be a professional thief. I was reading a lot of Thieves and Kings at the time."
Teaser: 
"I was almost drowning in the heat and mist when I realized he intended to kiss me."




Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, October 28, 2011

[closed] Birthday Celebration Giveaway!!


A week from today (November 4th) is a very special day. It's one of the book barbies birthdays! And since I don't talk  about myself in 3rd person, that means it's Jennifer's birthday!!

As a celebration and a 50 follower appreciation event, we decided to do a giveaway with one of Jennifer' favorite books of 2011.

Here are your choices, one lucky winner will get either one of these books:



Rules & the goods:
-You must be a follower to enter
-International giveaway as long as The Book Depositary ships to you
-Giveaway ends November 4th 12:01 AM central time
-If you're under 13, you must have your parents permission to enter
-The Book Barbies are not responsible for lost prizes
-Winner will be contacted VIA email

  To enter:
leave a comment with your your name you want to be announced by, your GFC name & email address (optional but nice: twitter ID if you have one & blog adress if you have one)

Extra entries:
-be Jennifer's friend/follow Jennifer's reviews on goodreads +1
-add giveaway button with link to your blog +1 
-spread the word where word spreading can be done (ex: Twitter, blog, Facebook) +1
(please note any entry for word spreading the word can be entered once everyday!)

Leave each entry on a separate comment!
Your first entry is a free follower one. For your extra entries leave the correct contact information (your name, email, GFC name) and the link/name to whatever you're doing for that extra entry (ex: twitter ID or a link) ON A SEPARATE COMMENT.
  
Not leaving contact information on each entry and not leaving each entry in a separate comment will result in invalid entry.

So good luck and make sure you wish Jennifer a happy birthday November 4th! 

UPDATE: 
Out of 133 entries, entry number 6 who is Cinnamon @ A Thousand Little Pages won!



Thanks to everyone for participating, spreading the word and wishing Jennifer happy birthday:D You guys are the best♥



Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Friday Fun: TGIF, FF & Book Blogger Hop |3|



Spooktacular Reads: Which books do you consider festive Halloween reads? Which stories have chilled you to the bone?
Mhm, nothing really. To me it's contemporary romance, contemporary romance, contemporary romance so I'm not an expert on anything else. Basically anything paranormal would be a Halloween read.




“What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Even if you don’t celebrate, what kinds of costumes do you like?”
I don't limit myself to liking one thing, scary, cute, ugly, ridiculous if I like a costume I like it. A favorite of mine and what I really want to be though is a Flight Attendant! Obviously a less skimpy costume then this one, but you get the idea!




 Q:  If you could have dinner with your favorite book character, who would you eat with and what would you serve?
Immediately my answer was Alex from Perfect Chemistry because he is my favorite character ever and we would eat enchiladas because those are my favorite Mexican food (and I wouldn't mind if our night ended up the same way when him and Brittany ate in his cousins garage during Halloween;D) but I answer Alex for so many things, I need to change it up!

So I like to eat with Jace from The Mortal Instruments series (he's hilarious and sexy, what more do you females and you males that roll that way need?!) and I would give him a a kolache to eat. hehe (If you understood that metaphor, I'm going to give you a free book or something lol)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Friday & weekend:D


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)