Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the other blog I participate in: The Broke and the Bookish. We LOVE lists, head on over and join in on the fun! :)

This week is all about books you wish you could read again for the first time. You know, when you had that bright-eyed amazement that just doesn't happen when you re-read something (unless you have a really bad memory ;) but let's assume you don't).

1. ALL the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling: I think this will be on pretty much all the lists. These books were so wonderful and I remember just being sucked in and loving them and loving reading again. It was amazing and I wish I could go back and discover this world and the characters in it all over again.

2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I remember I couldn't rip myself away from the story and felt disoriented when someone mentioned trivial things like eating, getting out of bed and bathroom breaks...

3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I LOVED this book. There was such a sense of doom and the ending left me going OMG! And crying. And when you know what's coming, well, I don't think my reaction will be as strong the second time around.

4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: so much love for this book! All twisty-turny, I would love to experience it for the first time again. I love the feeling of falling in love with a book.

5. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: I think I'll love these books just as much if I reread them, but there's just something about discovering world that is so amazing...

6. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss: the first book I read and loved in 2010, guys you should all read it! This is another world-discovering thing.

7. Graceling by Kristing Cashore: I actually gave this one to a friend for her birthday a while ago and I'm hoping she'll love it as much as I did.

8. Juniper and Wise Child by Monica Furlong: these books were among my absolute favourites as a kid and I would give anything to go back and read them for the first time and discover that yes, women can be tough and feminine and WITCHES!! So much love for these books.

9. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: I don't think it'll be the same reading them while I know how it all ends...

10. Die For Me by Amy Plum: I'll love it the same the second time around, but you know, there's something about that first read...

My favourite book of all time, Pride and Prejudice, isn't on this list. I love it more every time I read it, so I don't want to go back to the first time (mainly because I was 13 and didn't really get all the layers and all the humor), I want to keep rereading it!

So, that's my list. What's on yours?

Elizabeth, The Enchantress by Lavinia Kent

Title/Author: Elizabeth, The Enchantress (The Real Duchesses of London #4) by Lavinia Kent
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, September 1st 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Regency England just got real(ity)
Episode 4: How to Succeed in Marriage without Really Trying
Elizabeth, the Countess of Westhampton, has found her husband. Unfortunately, she’d have preferred it if he’d stayed lost! How is she supposed to react when the man who married her and then abandoned her without a wedding night suddenly reappears? Obviously, she’ll have to plan her revenge very carefully..."

You may have heard me mention before that while I like the novellas I've read lately, I always have this feeling that if it was a full-length novel, it would be better. Well, maybe I was just not reading the right novella! This one didn't feel like it lacked depth at all!

There were some real problems between Elizabeth and William and I loved that! I mean, CONFLICT! YAY! I teared up a couple of times and it was wonderful!

The thing is with novellas, you HAVE to get sucked into the story right away, else it will be over before you know it, leaving you disconnected. I immediately felt pulled into this one and I loved that.

I do think I could have benefitted from reading the previous novellas in the series in regards to the relationship of the duchesses, but well, I managed.

I loved this one and I think I should be reading more of Lavinia Kent's books :)

My rating: 5 stars

Some Personal Stuff

I was going to record an IMM today, but all the drama going on with my friends has got me feeling pretty low and I'm not up to being happy and excited about books.
I don't normally talk a lot about personal stuff on the blog, but I felt the need to share this.

For the last two weeks there has been some drama going on in the group of friends I have had since high school. Even though we graduated over 6 years ago, we try to keep in touch and do stuff together, which isn't easy as everyone went off to college and we're spread out across the country.
There was a disagreement and it sort of escalated last Friday and it made one of my friends decide to not be a part of our group anymore. And it hurts. Because we had fun just two weeks ago at my birthday party and well, I think the group will be really falling apart after this. I don't think we'll ever really go back to the way things were before all this happened.

It feels like the end of an era. I know we've been growing apart for some time now and something like this happening was probably inevitable, but it still really sucks, you know? These are the friends I saw every day in high school and we've been through so much together. Some I've even known since kindergarten.

Sorry to bother you guys with my drama, but I needed to get it out. I think I'm just gonna hide beneath my blanket all day and read and watch some TV. Hopefully next week will be better, because I do have some great books to show you all.

Fake Me A Match by Lauren Barnholdt

Title/Author: Fake Me A Match by Lauren Barnholdt
Publisher/Date published: Aladdin, October 4th 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: "Avery LaDuke is in the market for a new best friend. Her former BFF, Sophie Burns, dumped her to hang out with the popular crowd at school. But the good news Avery's getting a new sister who's bound to be her new BFF too! Blake is her age and she's from New York. How cool is that? But things don't go quite as smoothly as Avery hoped. And what's with Blake becoming BFFs with Sophie? Huh?? That wasn’t supposed to happen!
When Avery gets put in charge of the eighth grade charity project, an on-line matchmaking service, she thinks she can use this project to get Blake back on her side. She decides to fix the matches so that Blake gets matched with Sam, the most popular boy in school, but when the matches come out something has gone seriously wrong! Not only is Avery matched with Sam, but the class advisor knows that someone tampered with the program. On top of that, Avery discovers that she actually kind of, sort of, likes Sam... and he likes her back. Torn between the guy she likes and her sister/best friend, Avery is left wondering: is there any possible way she can keep them both?"

I SO loved Avery! Avery is such a wonderful girl! She's nice and selfless and she so wants to be liked! She truly believes that because Blake is going to be her stepsister, they will be insta-best friends and I was so rooting for her that everything was gonna work out! She manages to land herself in some funny situations and well, this girl is just awesome.

Avery was so scared of loosing Blake as a friend that she denies herself the opportunity to be with the boy she likes. I don't think my 13-year-old self would have done that.

One other thing I loved about this book: Avery and Blake were both (mostly) ok with the fact their parents were getting married. There was no evil step-whatever going on. Things that went wrong weren't caused by spite, HOORAY for this!

Sam was adorable, really. He sounds like a boy 13-year-old me would have fallen head over heels for and I loved the boyness of him. He turns out to be such a sweetie!

Anyway, this was such a CUTE read! I really enjoyed the other novel I read by Lauren Barnholdt: Sometimes It Happens, and this one convinced me it's not a one-hit-wonder. I think I've found me a new author for my favourites list :)

My rating: 4,5 stars

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Title/Author: Dead Beautiful (Dead Beautiful #1) by Yvonne Woon
Publisher/Date published: Hyperion Books, September 21st 2010
How I got this book: own it

Goodreads summary: "On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.
After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”
It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.
Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life."

Okay, so you guys know how I complain about insta-love, right? This is probably one of the only books that has a GOOD and acceptable explanation for it. I'm not going to delve into the details, cause it's major spoilery, but seriously. And I kind of guessed it, but still.

I really liked Renée. She lost her parents and obviously she's mourning them, but she doesn't go around whining about it, she just grieves. One thing I didn't like was that she had a falling out with her best friend from back home. I get that their lives are going separate ways, but well, it almost felt like their friendship wasn't all that good to begin with.

And yeah, I could see the plot twist coming from a mile away. I mean, a blind monkey could have seen it coming. But I did like it and it leaves me wondering what will happen next. Because YES, this is another series, and I'm not sure if it's just two books or if there'll be more. But I think this story isn't finished yet and I'm dying to know how it ends. I didn't fall in love with Dante, but who knows, maybe in the sequel?

SPOILER ALERT!! Light up to read!
So seriously, what annoyed me: HOW did Renée NOT figure out sooner Dante was dead?? Seriously?!

I thought the whole lore behind this was really interesting. And creepy. You know what creeps me out in horror movies? When it's the kid that's evil and is doing the EVIL!
The classes Renée takes are interesting as well, I'd LOVE those classes!

My rating: 3,5 stars

Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman

Title/Author: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country (Zan-Gah #2) by Allan Richard Shickman
Publisher/Date published: Earthshaker Books, September 26th 2009
How I got this book: received it from the publisher

Goodreads summary: "The prehistoric saga continues in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, the sequel to the award winning Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure. In this story, Zan s troubled twin brother, Dael, having suffered greatly during his earlier captivity, receives a ruinous new shock when his wife suddenly dies. Disturbed and traumatized, all of his manic energies explode into acts of hostility and bloodshed. His obsession is the destruction of the wasp men, his first captors, who dwell in the Beautiful Country. When he, Zan-Gah, and a band of adventurers trek to their bountiful home, they find that all of the wasp people have died in war or of disease. The Beautiful Country is empty for the taking, and Zan s people, the Ba-Coro, decide to migrate and resettle there. But the Noi, Dael s cruelest enemies and former tormentors, make the same migration from their desert home, and the possibility develops of contention and war over this rich and lovely new land."

Ok, so I enjoyed the first book in this series and while I didn't LOVE it, it was enjoyable and I liked it.
And I was wondering what new adventures Zan and his brother would go on in the next book.

Well, let's say that while I did not enjoy this book as much as the first one, I did still like it. One problem I had was that I could not sympathize with Dael. I get that he has suffered a great loss and has been emotionally scarred due to what happened to him in the first book. BUT. He is kind of evil. And totally out of control. He is scary!

I did like the romance thing between Zan-Gah and she-who-shall-not-be-named. He is such a boy and doesn't really seem to understand her or why he's hurting her. So typical ;)

If any of you have read it: I thought the time it took for the whole tribe to travel to the beautiful country was off, since Dael and Zan traveled there in the book and it seemed to only take days, not months. But I could be wrong.

There were scenes who were really brutal! Except for the violent parts, I would classify this as Middle Grade, but the violence is very graphic! I don't remember if there were things like this in the books I read way back when, but I think this could probably have given me nightmares.

Anyway, I did like this book and I really liked Zan-Gah. While he is sort of naive when it comes to his brother and his love-interest, he is a GOOD guy. And I like good guys.

My rating: 2,5 stars

IMM VLOG!! (1)

As always a big thank you to the wonderful Kristi from the Story Siren for hosting!

My first ever vlog, which is somewhat (or actually majorly) scary. I SWEAR I'm more articulate usually, but this was so exciting I forgot how to.
And I'm sorry to the people whose names I pronounced and massacred. Names and I don't go so well together apparantly.
Oh, and tell me, does my accent suck really bad?

WON:
Die for Me by Amy Plum, THANK YOU AMY!!
A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young, THANK YOU LENA @ Addicted 2 Novels

Physical review copy:
Road from the West by Rosanne E. Lortz, thank you Rosanne for sending it to me!

BOUGHT:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier
The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
Sepulchre (which is apparantly unpronouncable by little me..) by Kate Mosse
Van Rijn by Sarah Emily Miano
Being Elizabeth by Barbara Taylor Bradford

NETGALLEY BOOKS:
To Pleasure a Duke by Sarah Bennett
Ditched by Robin Mellom
The Gray Wolfe Throne by Cinda Williams Chima
Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon
All About Seduction by Katy Madison
The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Centauriad by K.K. Ross
Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey
Ladies in Waiting by Laura L. Sullivan
Croak by Gina Damico
Jane Austen Made Me Do It by various authors
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Shattered Dreams by Ellie James
Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Crave by Melissa Darnell
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
Desired by Nicola Cornick
A Midsummer Night's Sin by Kasey Michaels
Elizabeth, The Enchantress by Lavinia Kent
The Queen's Lady by Eve Edwards
A Scottish Love by Karen Ranney
Prized by Caragh O'Brien
Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm

So, that's my epic list, two months worth of books! Next week I'll show you guys some more wins made of awesome and BIRTHDAY BOOKS!

What should be my next read? Let me know and leave a link to your IMM in the comments so I can be sure to check it out!