Dewey's Read-a-Thon End of the Event Meme

So I stopped reading half an hour before time was up because I just couldn't read anymore and I wanted to watch Hart of Dixie and have all the Wade feels. But after a shower, I feel refreshed and am back to fill in the End of the Event Meme!

Which hour was most daunting for you?
The last one. I just couldn't do it anymore and decided to give myself a break and just watch TV.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
I like to mix in a little light reading, like a cute contemporary, but anything that grabs your attention is fine.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Nope, I love it the way it is!

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Everything.

How many books did you read?
3, started my fourth :)

What were the names of the books you read?
Eon by Alison Goodman
Fall With Me by Julie Particka
The Taking by Kimberly Derting
How To Lose a Duke in 10 Days by Laura Lee Guhrke

Which book did you enjoy most?
Eon!

Which did you enjoy least?
The Taking, it was too filled with the build up for the rest of the series for me.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
VERY likely! I'd be reading again :)

Now excuse me while I get some of the things done around the house that have been put on the back burner because of the Read-a-Thon!

Dewey's Read-a-Thon is HERE!

It's time for the readathon again! I love participating in this event and although I started a bit late due to a birthday party I had to attend, I've been going strong since the 4th hour :) Reading in the car while the boyfriend was driving, which wasn't so much fun for him probably, but he understands.

So here are my answers to the intro-meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I'm reading from our new home in Lent, the Netherlands.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I haven't actually made a stack, but I am very much enjoying Eon by Alison Goodman and hope to finish it in the next couple of hours.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I'm actually a bit done with snacks after the birthday party, so we'll see if I crave something in a couple of hours or not... I do have a stack of chips, cookies, peanuts and M&M's, so I should be good :)

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a 26-year-old GP in training, I've been blogging here and at the Broke and the Bookish for almost 4 years and aside from reading, I spend my free time cooking, watching TV shows like Hart of Dixie, Game of Thrones and ANTM.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I'm just gonna take it easy and read whatever I feel in the mood for and sleep if my body gives me signs it is shutting down, so pretty much how I do it most readathons :)

I hope everyone is enjoying it so far and happy readathoning! I'll update here and on Twitter (@DBetweenpages)

Review of The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik

Title/Author: The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, April 22 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Anna Eliot is tired of worrying about what other people think. After all, that was how she lost the only guy she ever really liked, Finn Westbrook.

Now, three years after she broke his heart, the one who got away is back in her life.

All Anna wants is a chance to relive their last kiss again (and again and again). But Finn obviously hasn’t forgotten how she treated him, and he’s made it clear he has no interest in having anything to do with her.

Anna keeps trying to persuade herself that she doesn’t care about Finn either, but even though they’ve both changed since they first met, deep down she knows he’s the guy for her. Now if only she can get him to believe that, too...

Guys, I like Claire LaZebnik's writing style. I love how she takes the books I love by Jane Austen and turns them into a cute contemporary that makes me smile. And I adore Persuasion, so obviously I needed to read The Last Best Kiss!
Side note: I read this book while I was sick and perhaps still had a fever, but it managed to get my mind of puking and feeling sick, so definite bonus points for that.

I really liked Anna. Obviously she didn't handle things with Finn well (which would have made the whole plot non-existent if she had), but she's been doing some growing up and has learned from her mistakes. I liked that she cares a lot about her friends, even if she cares a bit too much what they think. But let's get real: isn't this SO recognizable? I mean, I remember being a 15-year-old girl and caring about what other people thought of me and maybe doing things not entirely my way because of that. So Anna was pretty easy for me to relate to, I could imagine how things went down even if I cringed while I read the scenes in her and Finn's past. And I really liked the girl she became over the years and how she kept her cool in a crisis. That was awesome.

And obviously Finn triggered all my nerd-crush feelings! I have a thing for smart guys and I loved his passion for all things nature! I even looked up the monkey orchid that was mentioned and it is SO COOL! Seriously, look it up, it is awesome. I didn't know stuff like that existed. I did want to shake him and tell him that there's a difference between not caring what people think and being an obnoxious attention-seeker, because UGH! I just wanted him to snap out of his liking Lily who was hella annoying and irresponsible and just UGH! I really don't like girls like that. They get on my nerves.

And oh man did I love the tension between these two! Chemistry and guilt and anger and SPARKS! YES! It was light and fluffy and just what I needed at a time when my brain was still in sick mode and just wanted a sweet romance to cheer me up. The Last Best Kiss was a great retelling of one my favourite stories and I'm already looking forward to what Claire LaZebnik will do next!

My rating: 4,5 stars

Daisy Update (55)

Hi guys!!

Happy Easter! I hope it's filled with lots of fun and yummy chocolate and all those good things!
I've been recovering from a stupid stomach flu thing that started Sunday night and had me just feeling BLEGH all week, so there hasn't been much enjoying of food, but hopefully that will change over the weekend.

Aside from that I've been having a good time settling in to our new home. We've been living here for about 3 weeks now and it's been AWESOME! We've unpacked most of the stuff, only a couple of boxes remain and those are actually the hardest to unpack because I just don't feel like it anymore and it's stuff that if I haven't used it in a couple of weeks I'm kinda debating donating to second hand store.

I love our dishwasher and the bath and the dryer my mom got us and the new couch and the LIBRARY ROOM!! EEEE! Let me show you my beautiful room:

YES THAT IS A WALL OF BOOKS! Everyone who's seen it has been like WOW that is a lot of books and then back up, eyeing me like I'm crazy. But I don't care. I love my library and sometimes I just go into that room and stare at all my books. BLISS.

Everything is slowly coming together and it's awesome.

All of this moving going on has left me with not so much time to read, and I've been marathon-watching Hart of Dixie, so that took up a lot of time, but it helps me wind down and I just love it.

I hope you're all having a great week!

Review of A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

Title/Author: A World Without Princes (The School For Good and Evil #2) by Soman Chainani
Publisher/Date published: HarperCollins, April 15th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending, she reopens the gates to the School for Good and Evil. But the world she and Sophie once knew has changed.

Witches and princesses, warlocks and princes are no longer enemies. New bonds are forming; old bonds are being shattered. But underneath this uneasy arrangement, a war is brewing and a dangerous enemy rises. As Agatha and Sophie battle to restore peace, an unexpected threat could destroy everything, and everyone, they love — and this time, it comes from within.

***WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES***

Guys, I adored The School For Good and Evil, the first book in this series (why do I keep trying to write The School for FOOD and Evil?), it was so cute and boarding school awesomeness and just YES! So obviously I was excited to get to read the sequel!

So Agatha and Sophie are back in business! They start out at their village but obviously they get back to the School, HOORAY! Everything is in shambles because of Agatha's wish and it's now the School for Girls and Boys instead of Good and Evil, so Evers are thrown with Nevers, all the girls on one side and all the boys on the other, so EPIC battle of the sexes! It was kinda scary how every fairytale got turned upside down and all the princes were cut out of it or thrown to the wolves after they'd served their purpose, but also a whole lot of fun.

I actually liked Sophie better this time around than Agatha. I felt like Sophie was a truer friend, even though there were still moments when I wanted to shake her. But especially towards the end of the novel, there were those moments where I just wanted to hug Sophie and tell her everything would be ok and I'd totally be her friend cause she's awesome.
I still really like Agatha, but I felt that she was less in this friendship and I can get where she's coming from, but it wasn't always nice. Especially towards the end. I really didn't like her towards the end.

And while I really liked the whole spin on everything and the fairytales and just going on adventures with Sophie and Agatha again, this one worked a teensy bit less for me than The School for Good and Evil did. There was a little less excitement and I missed the classes, there was some of it, but I would have liked to have so much more of the actual school in there!

But it was still a really sweet story with some harshness thrown in that I had not seen coming and intrigue and just another wholehearted YES! And OMG THAT ENDING! Give me the next book NOW!

My rating: 4 stars

Review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

Title/Author: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Publisher/Date published: Delacorte Press, April 8th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time — a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

So I read 2 or 3 of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books and I loved them. So obviously I was excited when I heard about this new and completely different book by Ann Brashares! But I'm sad to say that it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

I'm always fascinated by time travel and creepy diseases wiping out most of the population, it's what I read about when I want to freak myself out, because I can imagine this happening in the future. And I thought the part about the mosquito-borne illness was really well done. It's awful and made me chase all the mosquitoes in my home and kill them.
I'm still a bit confused about how the whole time travel thing worked, it wasn't really explained.

At times I liked Prenna. And at other times I was just REALLY annoyed by her. REALLY annoyed. I mean, she catches on REALLY slowly and if her mom hadn't sat her down and gave her a decent talking to, I think she would have risked the fate of the whole planet for her crush. I felt that for someone who's seen the world basically end, she's way too naive. But then there are the moments when she takes charge and sort of threatens the powers that be and how she cared for her little brother when he got sick and those are the moments that I respected her. Those are the moments when she made a change.
But she had a serious case of too-stupid-to-live going on when she walks right into a trap from the powers that be eyes wide open and then Ethan gets her out way too easily. SO ANNOYING.

I wasn't really convinced by the romance either. Though they do share some sweet moments in the beginning and I could see how they could be friends and maybe have that develop into something more. They jumped to the something more awfully fast and there was a love bomb I wasn't prepared for and just UGH. Also, I didn't really like Ethan. I felt like he was pressuring Prenna to have sex and that's just not ok. And while he did so jokingly, it's still not ok.

I felt like the powers that be were making things difficult just because they could. Also, there's one pivotal moment that Prenna and Ethan are trying to prevent from happening and they have to save someone, only they don't actually KNOW who they're supposed to save and one person knew and told them they had to save SOMEONE but now WHO that someone was. WTF?? I mean, seriously, the fate of a lot people is riding on this and you're deciding to keep this a secret? WTF??

So I did like the whole background for the story and them finding out what actually caused the disease in the first place, but I had a lot of problems with other things in the book and it wasn't what I had hoped when I started it.

My rating: 2 stars

Review of The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

Title/Author: The Ring and the Crown (The Ring and the Crown #1) by Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher/Date published: Disney-Hyperion, April 1st 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the Lily Throne, and Aelwyn Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. But who will rule, and who will serve?

Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second, Supreme Ruler of the Franco-British Empire. With the help of her Head Merlin, Emrys, Eleanor has maintained her stranglehold on the world's only source of magic. She rules the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.

But even with the aid of Emrys' magic, Eleanor's extended lifespan is nearing its end. The princess must marry and produce an heir or the Empire will be vulnerable to its greatest enemy, Prussia. The two kingdoms must unite to end the war, and the only solution is a match between Marie and Prince Leopold VII, heir to the Prussian throne. But Marie has always loved Gill, her childhood friend and soldier of the Queen's Guard.

Together, Marie and Aelwyn, a powerful magician in her own right, come up with a plan. Aelwyn will take on Marie's face, allowing the princess to escape with Gill and live the quiet life she's always wanted. And Aelwyn will get what she's always dreamed of - the chance to rule. But the court intrigue and hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor's court: trust no one.

It's not an April Fools joke, I'm really back at blogging! I think.

So I read The Ring and the Crown last week and while I was a bit hesitant to start it at first, because I'd heard less than favourable things about Melissa de la Cruz's other books, the summary sounded to good to be resisted and I'm happy to say that I did very much enjoy The Ring and the Crown!

There are a couple of different storylines overlapping each other and while I had to get used to the different POVs at first, once I got to know each of the characters, I started enjoying it. It added a bit more perspective to the story than if had just been focused on Marie or Aelwyn.
So let's talk about the characters: I actually really liked most of the ones who had their own POV, except for Isabelle, who I thought needed to grow a spine and a brain. My favourites are probably Ronan and Wolf, because LOVE! And sadness. But I don't want to spoil anything so that's all I'm going to say.

While I liked the multiple POV and how it added to the storyline, it made some of the characters a bit better fleshed out than others. I would have loved seeing more of Aelwyn's magic and while her father and the Queen are a presence in the background, we don't really get to see much of them either and they're so intriguing characters! Especially with the big reveal at the end.

Towards the end there was shock and intrigue and I had a few swoons along the way. It was easy to get lost in this alternate history England that Melissa de la Cruz has created and I loved the fantasy elements. But then the ending came and I was abruptly yanked out of my daze because WHAT WAS THAT?? I felt like the ending brought us back to pretty much where the book began with a few adjustments! AND I DON'T LIKE IT. And there was this whole big reveal about a LOT of things that had gone on for a LOOOOONG time and BOOM everyone just accepts this? I mean WTF??? I was just staring at the screen of my ereader and going WAIT WHAT??? But HOW. And WHY. And JUST NO. UGH.

So while I REALLY enjoyed most of the book, I was very disappointed by that less than stellar ending. I am really curious to see what will happen next, so I'll probably be picking up the next one in the series, even though the ending left a bad tast in my mouth.

My rating: 3,5 stars