Book Buddies Review: Shadow and Bone

---

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 
First impression: Let’s see if it lives up to hype
Last impression: Eeeeek can’t wait for the next
Format: Library hardcover / 358 pages
Publishing Info: June 5th 2012 / Goodreads
Other books read by author: None

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Review: One Past Midnight

One Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington

Rating: 
First impression: Parallel life – sign me up
Last impression: EEEEEKK
Format: Library hardcover / 352 pages
Publishing Info: July 22nd 2014 / Goodreads
Other books read by author: None

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life – a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.
With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted… But just what – and who – is she really risking?

Book Nerds Unite: Sharing Is Caring Giveaway!

Tis the season — for a big ol’ giveaway!

The holidays are all about giving. We appreciate your support throughout the year and want to thank you; without our blogging audience we would just be talking to ourselves, after all 😉  Just in time for the holidays, we’re giving away some major gift cards. Twenty of us bloggers are coming together to bring you: Book Nerds Unite, a Sharing is Caring giveaway!

To enter, click on the Rafflecopter link below and start following some great bloggers. We’re offering a first place prize of a $150 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The second place winner gets $50 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Regardless, you’re a winner, because you get to add some great blogs to your feeds! Good luck!

Giveaway is US Only, running from 11/24/14 to 12/11/14. Winners selected at random. Please don’t mark a blog as followed if you haven’t in fact followed. All entries will be checked. Graphic created by Rachel at Hello, Chelly!

Sunday Post #1

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, where you share news about your blog on a weekly basis. It can include what you’ve been reading, what you’ve posted, what’s coming up next, and any books you added to your shelves!

Top ten sequels I’m dying to get my hands on
My last WWW Wednesdays post before switching to the Sunday Post
Part II of the Getting to Know You Blog Hop – my other hobbies and why I blog
Five on Friday, featuring some holiday swap lovin’
20 things you might not know about me!
Yolo (Internet Girls #4) by Lauren Myracle 
White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1) by Jennifer Armentrout 
The Maze Runner (#1) by James Dashner 

Book Nerds Unite Giveaway!
Top ten books on my winter TBR
Part III of the Getting To Know You Blog Hop – my favorite movies and music
Five on FridayOne Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington
Book Buddies Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols

20 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I’ve seen some of these circulating around the blogosphere so I thought I’d share my answers with you! 🙂

---

 Question 1: How tall are you?

I’m about 5’2″ – I like being short. My 13 year old sister is a good 3-4 inches taller than me and makes fun of me for it. Sorry gurl I’d rather be my height than yours!

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?

LOL yeah right. Eating way too much pizza?

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?

Messy layouts, themes, fonts, etc. – I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like that. I need it to be cohesive and clear.

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?

Just one? Lol. I think my top pet peeve would be excessive noise that I can’t control. If I can hear my neighbor doing anything I tend to get unnecessarily annoyed. Noise is a fact of life but it gives me major anxiety

Question 5: What’s your favorite song?

EEK. Ummmm it’s impossible to pick one favorite obviously sooooo lets just say Led Zeppelin. And Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sorry.

200 Word Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Rating: 
First impression: Last person on earth to read this
Last impression: Shock, sadness, gimme book two
Format: Audiobook / 10 hr 50 min
Publishing Info: October 6th 2009 / Goodreads
Other books read by author: None

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.

Why I Blog & Other Hobbies (Getting to Know You Blog Hop + Giveaway)

The ladies at Cuddlebuggery started up the Getting to Know You Blog Hop so that bloggers can learn a bit more about you and your blog. I decided to join up and made my post on the first day. I shared a special book series to me and offered a giveaway for one of my favorite books that I read since starting my blog. I decided to post three times about different topics so you can get to know me better! The giveaway is posted again at the bottom so you can enter if you haven’t already. 🙂

• 11/15 – Getting to Know You: Introduction and Special Book Series (here)
• 11/20 – Getting to Know You: Why I Blog and Other Hobbies
• 11/27 – Getting to Know You: Favorite Movies and Music

---

Why I Blog

I have tried and failed with starting a lot of different blogs. I’ve always loved writing and the idea of having a blog, but I just never had anything that I knew enough about to blog about. I tried to start a beauty blog when I got into makeup, but I barely know anything about it. I tried to start a fashion blog to show basic outfits you can make, since I’m obsessive about what I wear and when, but that wasn’t for me either. Bookmark Lit was originally created as a “book review and lifestyle blog,” but I couldn’t even think about what kind of lifestyle posts to include. I decided to stick to what I know – reading! I’ve always loved reading (and wished I had time to read during my “dark ages”) and thought it would be cool to make a review blog. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of amazing book blogs are out there! This is such a great community and I know I made the right blogging choice.

Other Hobbies

Aside from reading, I really don’t do much. Seriously. My boyfriend and I collect and put together Lego sets, but he does that more than I do. He tracks everything, determines what to buy, and makes a mess of our apartment. I really enjoy the hobby, but it’s more HIS that I share with him. Football is pretty much my only other hobby, if you consider sitting in front of your TV for hours a hobby. I don’t want to talk about how awful my team (Carolina Panthers) is this year, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be watching them each week. My dad has Sunday Ticket so we’re able to watch all of our teams’ games… it’s kind of a necessary purchase when your family likes the Broncos, Raiders, and Panthers, respectively, while living in New England! I went to see my first real live Panthers game last year and it was amazingly life-changing. I’m so glad I was able to go see them and wish I could see them each season. I really want to live in Charlotte, but that seems more like a dream than reality at this stage in my life. We’ll see though.

---

Review: White Hot Kiss

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rating: 
First impression: First JLA!
Last impression: That got better.
Format: Kindle e-book / 400 pages
Publishing Info: February 25th 2014 / Goodreads
Other books read by author: None yet

One kiss could be the last.
Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she’s anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses.
Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she’s crushed on since forever.
Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she’s not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn’t an issue, considering Roth has no soul.
But when Layla discovers she’s the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne… it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.

WWW Wednesdays #18

WWW Wednesdays are hosted by Should Be Reading, where we answer three questions each week: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What are you planning to read next?

I’m still plugging along through The Scorch Trials. I’m not as enthused about it compared to The Maze Runner, but it’s still interesting enough. I feel like by the end of this series it’ll be more about the journey than the destination, but I still REALLY want to know what the fuck is going on. My goal is to finish the series by the end of the month; sometimes I think it would be better for me to just read the books instead of listen to them. Oh well. For my current read, I just started Biggest Flirts, in The Superlatives series. I’ve had the ARC for the second book, Perfect Couple, on my Kindle for months. I obviously wanted to read book one first. I’m enjoying it so far. I don’t like the trope of “I don’t need a boyfriend and will remain emotionally detached from boys until this one boy changes my mind,” but I’m hoping there will be a more unique take on the book based on the plot summary. We’ll see!

Eeep I finally finished One Past Midnight and really liked it! It was definitely a unique take on the parallel life concept that I love so much. I feel like the book got started very quickly, which was nice, but I wished there was a little more intro to learn more about her lives before she got started with her experiments. I loved the love interest and thought the twist at the ending was really great. I’d love to see what happens next, but I feel like the book would lose some of that magic if there was a sequel. Regardless, A+ from me! I also just finished Shadow and Bone for this month’s Book Buddies review. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! It really was unlike anything I’ve ever read, as the quote on the cover says. I like that it wrapped up somewhat nicely, so I’m not on the very edge of my seat for the next book (since I won’t be reading it until January for the next Book Buddies review). I’m definitely interested to see what happens next. Amazing world-building but not as much character development as I’d like. I suspect that will change as the main character grows into her powers.

Of course, The Death Cure is up next. I think that I’ll be finishing The Scorch Trials tomorrow so hopefully I can start it asap! My boyfriend hated it, so I’m definitely curious to see what happens. I like that this series makes me question everyone – who the hell can Thomas actually trust?! Anyways, I got Tumble and Fall out from the library a while ago and think I’ll finally read it. It actually got a lot of bad DNF and 1-2 star Goodreads reviews from people I trust, so I’m anxious to see how I feel about it. I’ve had a month FULL of four star reviews; I forgot what it’s like to write a bad review! We’ll see if my feelings are right that a negative review is in my future. The concept seems interesting enough but many reviewers seem to think it falls short in a lot of ways. I have some holiday reads coming up after I finish, so I’m excited for that too!

Top Ten Tuesdays #16: Sequels

Top Ten Sequels I Can’t Wait to Get

Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we give our top ten books to answer each prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here.

This is a great one for me. I’m going to include the sequels that haven’t been released yet as well as the second books in series I just haven’t gotten yet. I love series and don’t leave them open-ended that often, unless the next book hasn’t been released yet. I joined the All About YA group on Goodreads, which has a place for you to track your series – it’s been really helpful! Most of my unreleased sequels don’t even have covers yet 😦 I need a time machine.