Blind Date with a Book | Book Reveal & Review

I stopped by my local book store this month and found they had some "Blind Date with a Book" books out for $1! I've been wanting to try a Blind Date with a Book for awhile but I've only seen them on Instagram. My boyfriend ended up picking one up for me as an early Valentine's Day gift and I couldn't wait to get home and see what I got.

I was intrigued by the hints on this book and another one but the other book was the last book in a series and I wanted something I could read without getting other books. The hints for this book was "Friendship, Crime, and Romance" which seemed like something right up my alley. I am addicted to crime shows and I'm a sucker for romance novels.

Now it's time for the big reveal...

Drum roll please...

I got Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz.

Synopsis ;  No one does romantic suspense better than Jayne Ann Krentz. Now, the New York Times bestselling author of Trust No One and River Road delivers a novel that twists and turns into a read that will leave you breathless.

Madeline and Daphne were once as close as sisters—until a secret tore them apart. Now, it might take them to their graves.

Nearly two decades after her childhood—and her friendship with Daphne—were destroyed in one traumatic night, a dying man’s last words convey a warning to Madeline: the secrets she believed buried forever have been discovered.

Unable to trust anyone else, Madeline reaches out to Daphne and to the only man she can count on to help: Jack Rayner, a security expert with a profoundly intimate understanding of warped and dangerous minds. Along with his high-tech genius of a brother, the four of them will form an uneasy alliance against a killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth....

Review for Blind Date with a Book ; I haven't gotten around to reading this book but I'm still eager to read it. My TBR list is so long so I'm not sure when I will get around to reading it but I will. My bookstore is a used bookstore and this was an old library book which I wasn't happy about but it was $1 so it was somewhat expected. I'm happy with the outcome of this book and I will definitely get more in the future if my bookstore continues with this promo. I also noticed my local library is doing the same thing so maybe I'll stop in there and see how their Blind Date with a Book is.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins | Book Review Spoiler Free

Title ; Crank

Author ; Ellen Hopkins

Genre ; Young Adult, Poetry, Fiction

Pages ; 537

Publisher ; Margret K. McElderry Books

Synopsis ; Kristina is an A+ student and she always does the right thing until she visits her dad and meets a boy, then Bree takes over. Kristina's life goes on a downward spiral as Bree makes the decisions. Bree isn't afraid to try new things and ends up getting addicted to the "Monster" and it takes over her life. This book follows Kristina/Bree's life as she deals with the consequences of getting addicted to the Monster.

First Impression ; I don't really have a first impression for this book because I actually read it when I was younger but I love Ellen Hopkins so I wanted to reread this series. I also lost my brother last year to an overdose and I remembered this series being about addiction so I wanted to reread it to maybe get more insight in my brothers life with addiction.

Rating ;

 

Review ; I'm a huge Ellen Hopkins fan, her books are an auto-buy for me. I love that she writes in verse and tells an entire story. She's very talented to be able to say so much with just one verse. Her books are very moving and I could continue writing the many reasons on why she's my favorite author but let's get back to the book review. Crank follows Kristina as she gets addicted to Crank, aka the Monster. We get to see Kristina/Bree's fight with the monster and I think this book is a little more insight to people that are near people with addiction but never dealt with it firsthand. You see how Kristina struggles, how she continues to make bad decisions while under the influence of the Monster, and how her family/friends are also effected. This book was a fast read because of how it's written in verse but by writing it in verse Ellen made this book more real and brutal, she doesn't sugar coat drug addiction and the consequences that can happen while being addicted to a drug. This book is about very real topics, things that happen to people everyday and it's not just about the drug addiction but other real life struggles that people deal with.

The Crank series is an unforgettable trilogy that you will always remember because of the deep serious meanings behind the books. This book is something I think everyone should read. I know that some schools prohibit this book from being in the library which is ridiculous because drug addiction is real and a lot of kids are peer pressured into trying them, I think by reading this book some kids will think twice before trying drugs, seeing the real life consequences of doing them. In this book you also get to see how people don't just do drugs because they have this terrible life or because they are depressed, sometimes they do it to seem cool or because they are bored and think it will be fun.

Cover Rating ;

Judging a Book by it's Cover ; The cover for this book is another simple cover, its solid black with Crank written in powder. It goes with the book perfectly and I love how Ellen Hopkins books all look, they are short, thick, and simple.

Quotes ;

       

Library Sale Book Haul | First Time Going | Huge Haul

Today was a pretty great day, I woke up early and headed to the local library for their annual booksale.  This is the first time I've ever been so I was pretty excited but I didn't know what to expect. I assumed it would be old library books that they had too many of but boy was I wrong, there was very few library books, almost every book looked brand new. Hardcovers were $2 each and paperbacks were $1 each. I got quite a few books and I plan on going back. Saturday will be the last day of the booksale and its $3 for a bag of books.

I got 2 hardcover  Harry Potter books

, Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks which is hardcover, and Legend by Marie Lu which was the last hardcover book I got. For paperbacks I got Fever and Burn by Maya Banks, The Black Hand by Will Thomas, Lucky and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, House of Leave by Mark Z. Danielewski, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Me Talk Pretty by David Sedaris, Matched by Ally Condie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, Love Walked In by Marissa De Los Santos, The Distance Between by Kacie West, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, and The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith. A total of 18 books for $22.

I was pretty excited to find House of Leaves because I've been wanting it for quite awhile but since I've heard it's hard to read/follow I never purchased it. I was also excited to find The Cuckoo's Calling, Lovely Bones, and the Harry Potter books. I think this is a pretty good haul especially considering the prices for these books. Hopefully they will still have a good selection Saturday.

<3/Bella

You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith | Book Review | Spoiler Free

Title ; You Are Here

Author ; Jennifer E. Smith

Genre ; Young Adult, Contemporary, Travel-Road Trip, Romance, Realistic Fiction

Pages ; 251

Publisher ; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers                          

Synopsis ; Have you ever felt like something was missing? Well Emma feels like that all the time, she doesn't fit in with her family and she doesn't make any friends. One day she discovers a birth certificate for a boy, on the same day she was born, a twin brother, but following that she finds a death certificate. Now Emma knows why she's always felt like something was missing and she sets out to find something she lost years ago that she never even knew she had. For Peter, it's always been his dream to escape his small town, his love for maps doesn't help the urge to leave. His father want's him to stay, go to college here, he never could understand why Peter was so obsessed with maps and travel when his mother had loved their small town. Can Peter escape or will he be stuck there forever? Emma and Peter are complete opposites, so they think, but they end up together on a trip of self discovery but they run in to a lot of problems on the way, will they reach their destination or be sent home before their even halfway there?

First Impression ; I'm a sucker for contemporary novels so I was excited to read this book. The blurb seemed interesting and I've never read a Travel-Road Trip book so I figured this book would be great. From the blurb I figured this book would be pretty emotional.

Rating ; 

Review ; This book was emotional but not a book I needed tissues for. I loved that even though this book was classified as romance, there was very little romance and the story focused more on the two teens discovering themselves while also learning more about each other. I liked the details in their traveling. it made me picture their situations better and long for a trip myself.

 This was a pretty fast read, I finished it in around 3 days, it definitely was a sweet and short read. I enjoyed both characters and how different they were yet so much alike, even their lives were different. Emma grew up in a family full of geniuses which she never could relate to so she always felt out of place. Peter grew up with just his father and while Peter always dreamed of traveling his dad just didn't see the point, Peter got along with Emma's family more than his own but both teens still felt alone.

Cover Rating ;

Judging a Book by it's Cover ; The cover is pretty simple and goes with the story. I like that all of my Jennifer E. Smith books look pretty similar minus the fact that this cover is glossy while the others are matte which is why this cover gets a 3 star rating, it's not horrible but it bothers me.

Quotes ;

“But how could she tell him that the reason she always acted so disinterested in everything was because of the worry that she herself wasn't all that interesting?”  

"and there was nothing more to be done except kick herself for always choosing the wrong time to be silent and the wrong times to make a fuss"

The Convenient Escape by Robert Downs | Book Review Suspense Mystery

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway, while this book was free, Goodreads doesn't expect me to leave a book review although authors do offer books in hopes of getting reviews. My opinion is my own.


Judging a Book By It's Cover ;

I like the look of this book, the cover goes with the book but it is lacking in quality, I'm not sure if they done this on purpose or not but it's nothing major.

First Impression ;

To me this book seemed very interesting, I was wanting to read more suspense/mystery books and this one seemed perfect to read. After reading the blurb I was eager to see how Veronica's story went and how Pete tied into the story.

Rating ;

Review ;

This book follows Veronica Baird's story as she escapes from being held captive for 2 days in an underground dungeon. She doesn't know who took her or why but she knows she has to escape but escaping isn't so easy when the person that abducted you is still at large and you have no idea who they are, you can't trust anyone but you have to run. Upon escaping the dungeon Veronica runs into Pete, a former classmate from high school, even though she's not sure she can trust him she doesn't have much of a choice and so their story begins.

This book started off pretty fast paced with a lot of action and I really liked that but soon to follow I ran into some problems.

1. Some parts seemed unbelievable, after Chapter 4 I started to dread reading the book because I just couldn't believe Veronica didn't go to the police after escaping and I also didn't see this woman overpowering/tricking a grown man that also happened to be in the military. Both of these problem for me were explained way later in the book but it was so close to the end that it ruined the book for me.

2. I didn't like a few characters, mainly the bad guys which makes sense but I found Anthony's character was portrayed quite unrealistically. The fact that he could seduce a woman into being with him just for sexual favors and have her almost kill someone seems completely far fetched. I also didn't see him hiring the hitmen that he hired, they were both pretty dumb and not someone I would see someone hiring for the task.

This book gets 3 stars from me because it wasn't as great as I'd hoped it would be but it was still a good book. The author did an amazing job describing each scenario in this book so that you could literally picture it.

Recommended For ;

Adults that like suspense and mysteries. Also Young Adult but there are some rated X moments I the book, very little but still to be noted.

After You by Jojo Moyes | Book Review | Me Before You Book 2

 Judging a Book By It's Cover ; My opinion for this book was pretty much the same as for Me Before You, because they are a set and match pretty well. The difference is the colors were switched. So I loved this cover as well.

First Impression ; I was still a little upset with the ending of the first book when I started this book and I knew this was continuing Lou's story which I was both happy and curious about. The blurb made me more interested in her story because of "Reluctantly she joins a support group and meets Sam Fielding" who is this Sam and will he replace Will!? How could she be over him in such a short time!? And then there's this "Then a figure from Will's past appears and hijacks all of Lou's plans, propelling her into a very different future" who is this person!?

Rating ;

Review ; I loved that Lou's story got to continue. I was eager to see how her life changed and I wasn't disappointed. There was so much action in this book and I got to see into everyone's life a bit more after Will. I loved that Jojo tied in the rest of Will's family in this book so that we got to see how they coped with Will being gone. You saw how things ended and how some things began. You also got to see Lou's family grow as well, her sister in college and her mom stepping out of her comfort zone. This book had it all, action, romance, and a bit of mystery. I want to read more into Lou's life, I saw in the back interview where Jojo Moyes talked about leaving room for another book if the readers wanted and yes, yes we do!

The way the book ended I can definitely see this being turned into a trilogy and I'd love to see Lou growing more.

Huge Decemeber Thrift / Christmas Gift Book Haul

I'll start off this post by saying this haul is insanely huge, for two reasons.

Reason number 1 ; I recently started recollecting books, so I feel the need to get a lot.

Reason number 2 ; these books were all SO cheap. Most of them were 10 cents each and I think the most I spent on any of the books was $2 for a book set and maybe $1 each for a few.

Every book I purchased myself was second hand, from Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, or online. I also got a few books for Christmas as well, so let's get started.

I'll start with Christmas, I got a total of 15 books for Christmas. Including quite a few books by Ellen Hopkins, who I absolutely love, my boyfriend got a bundle of books of hers for $22, which is quite a steal! He also got me an autographed copy of If I Stay by Gayle Forman from Book Outlet which is also where he got the other (minus The Glass Castle) books. 

Next up are the books I got from Habitat for Humanity, I got a lot because they were all 10 cents each with the exception of the Vampire Academy 4 book set, which was $2, still an amazing deal. Most of these are books I just picked up because they sounded familiar or because they seemed interesting, so we'll see how that goes.

Now we're on to the Goodwill books, the most I paid per book was $1, the rest were 50 cents each because of Goodwill's end of the year 50% off sale and I'm definitely not complaining. I was pretty excited to find the Outlanders first 3 books but not so much now because I'm afraid to start such a long series, but in time I will read them. I was also insanely excited to find the Jane Austen books, I want to find the person that donated and thank them.

Books I forgot to mention that I got in December was Me Before You which I purchased online and After You which I got from Goodwill but forgot to post it in the photo because I am currently reading it.

And the last two books that I got this month were an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) and a book from a publisher to read for reviews. I've already posted a review on the ARC of Romeo and What's Her Name and I'll be reading The Convenient Escape.

 Here is a photo of all the new books I got in December, there is a total of 92 books!

My favorite book out of this haul would have to be ;

Thanks for reading, did you receive any books for Christmas? If so which ones? If there's too many to post, just comment which was your favorite?

<3/Bella