Young Adult


Ready or Not? by Tina Radziszewicz

A girl’s guide to making her own decisions about dating, love, and sex.
Book cover Ready or Not? by Tina Radziszewicz

Ready or Not? by Tina Radziszewicz

Summary

“So many questions…so hard to actually ask them! Finding the right moment – not to mention the right person – to ask can be a nightmare.

Well, look no further!

This essential guide tells you everything you need to know about your body, his body, what boys say (and what they actually mean), virginity, dating, contraception, STDs, pregnancy – and more.

Taking a relationship further is a huge step, and it’s essential to know all the facts before making any decisions. Packed with friendly advice, quizzes, and practical information, this book is your ultimate guide to making the best choice for you!”

-From the back cover

Review

Every teenage girl has questions about her body, about sexuality, and everything that goes with it. And it’s not like they have 16 years to grow up to get there and have many years of parental experience and advice to guide them. With 10 year olds, or younger, being in relationships and/or having sex, parents don’t really have the conversations with their kids. I mean what parent wants to talk with their 10 year old about sex? What parent really wants to talk to their kid about sex at all? Sex is a conversation, and topic, which is prevalent in society. Everything in society is sexualized, whether it be clothing, music, or movies. Yet when someone tries to have a conversation about sex, everything dies and people try and change the topic as fast as they can, or they dance around it with words like “when you do it” or “you know…”.

No one wants to spit it out, get to the point and get it done with. But, this book really does do that. The author doesn’t mince her words and she doesn’t dance around the topic. She breaks it up into organized sections and then sub sections after that and covers the topic with the information needed, and moves on. Tina talks about everything which makes us uncomfortable from the mysterious self-gratification to self-pleasure (not using the crude terms incase there are young ones) and beyond. She covers literally everything that no parent really wants to cover with their child. And this book tells you the risks of everything as well.

Honestly, if you are a parent and slightly uncomfortable starting the conversation off with your kid, this is a great place to start. While I do recommend it for 16 and older, as there are things in here that a younger child probably doesn’t know or shouldn’t know, it’s still useful as a starting place.

Overall I do really suggest checking this out. It’s a great self-help book for teens and a great place for parents to start off as well.

Enjoy reading.


“Love Is In The Air”

It’s Valentines week and to put you in the mood, here is a list of 11 Teen Romance Books.

Haven’t read any of them but they look quite intriguing.

Run, don’t walk, to the nearest library to check them out.


To Read ASAP For Me!

It turns out one of my good friends has recently written a novel and to say I was shocked was an understatement. I know many people who love to write, but to actually get to the level where you can publish is a definite achievement and I am honestly so proud of her.

I haven’t read the book yet but I just found it on Amazon.com and I will be reading it really soon as it looks like exactly what I like to read.

The book is titled The Unknown by G.A. Viva! (Click to link to go to Amazon.)

I will definitely be reading it ASAP and getting a review out there. She has absolutely inspired me to try to get some of my writings published when I can finish them off, and I definitely will be trying to now.

So go check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll be reading it as soon as possible so look out for the review!


Looks Good!

Mostly YA Book Obsessed did a review of an ARC which was received called Dangerous Territory (Alpha Ops #0.5) by Emmy Curtis.

Read the review here and you can definitely expect one from me soon as I’m gonna find this book. xD


My “To Read” List

Well this is what I just picked up from the library, including NEW books. So feel free to read along with me and expect reviews of these books popping up here and there.

Must Love Dukes by Elizabeth Michels (got to love a good romance novel)

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (for school)

Dangerous by Shannon Hale (New!…and I LOVE the cover.)

The Watch That Ends The Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf (Love the Titanic..so it was a must!)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (My reach book…I CAN DO THIS!)


Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

“Her mission was to kill him. Her destiny was to love him.”

Summary

“Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom – all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she had been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything sh’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. the strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle – a shifting maze of magical rooms – enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change out destiny.”

– From the inside flap

Summary

This was quite an interesting book. The title was what caught me to start with because it was kind of an oxymoron ~ Cruel Beauty. Also it was a nice red color and red always catches my attention. The other part was that it was on the New YA shelf and I love reading new books ~ Fresh material is always fabulous.

The story looked amazing and it was quite good but I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. I don’t know what it was about it…but I didn’t really like the writing style. It was in first person and for some reason, I seem to have gone off stories that go for first person.

Also I felt the writing in the story was very choppy. The sentences were extremely short and there wasn’t much descriptive language. Ever since I started to write on my own, my perception of books and writing has changed. I am not saying that I am an amazing writing by any means, but I have become more observant to different writing styles and descriptive language.

Maybe it was just me, maybe it was because I’m reading more adult books and getting out of the YA section, or maybe it was just this book, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought because of the reasons stated above.

The story was quite interesting; kind of having this Matrix/Inception feel to it and it was really creative and a very creative ending.

A lot of people, I feel, would really love this book as it brings in the demon aspect and there are a lot of angel, demon, vampire and other supernatural creature types of books out there and coming out right now; that was one of the reasons I picked it up in the first place.

This was a quick and easy read and I do suggest that you check it out because it was a good book, just not MY kind of book.

If you read it, tell me what you think. And enjoy!

 


Looking For Something To Read?

 

 

Rolling Stone Magazine has made a list of the best 40 YA reads.

HERE.

Wow. Aren’t they like really the uber cool music dudes?

Who knew?

 


Stuck For Something To Read?

So, you’ve read all the books on your bedside cabinet. You’re stuck in the house with the winter that just does. not. end.

So, what to read next?

Here are some suggestions that sound like really good reads.

Check it out HERE. and they are YA!!

Happy reading!


A History of Weapons by John O’Bryan (Author) and Barry Orkin (Illustrator)

“Crossbows, Caltrops, Catapults & Lots of Other Things that Can Seriously Mess You Up”

One of the coolest covers ever! 😀

Summary

“BEHOLD more than 150 of the freakiest weapons in history.

UNLOCK the secrets of Genghis Khan, the “peaceful” Shaolin monks, and the ass-whooping Rajputs of India.

DISCOVER the truths about strange and ancient weapons like the atlatl, the sarissa, the urumi, and the Maka Pahoa Ko’oko’o

BECOME ONE with the often eccentric and always fascinating history of weapons”

-From the back of the book

Review

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!! This book is freaking AWESOME! I haven’t read the entire thing as it isn’t supposed to be read like a regular novel. It is a factual book but its fun to read. The book is broken up into different sections, classifying weapons under what time period they are from or who used them. An example would be that there is a section just on the cavemen’s weapons and then there is a section of Ninjas and Samurai and shows the difference between the two groups and the weapons that they used. The chapters start with an explanation of the group of people in history that are being mentioned and then there is one page per weapon. There is a picture of the weapon itself and then a paragraph or so on what the weapon actually is and what it was used for and its historical importance. Sometimes it will say how easy it is to use the weapon (usually for better known weapons as in the katana and such), it will sometimes say how it became famous (a historical event, movie, or even video game), and some uses that it was used for. It also may talk about what other weapon was used with it.

The setup was incredibly easy to understand and made the book more enjoyable. I also LOVED the illustrations!

You may think that this book would be boring and all historical and stuff but it most definitely is not. There was one weapon which was talked about which made me laugh because what was said in the description. The weapon was the Mancatcher which is a glorified pair of tweazers, massive style. It has spikes inside of it and was used to keep an enemy down while they were being bound or blindfolded. And John O’Bryan, in one of the sentences said,

“After a victim was subdued by the mancatcher, the knight would typically bind the person’s hands for the ride home. Or if he was feeling like a dick, he might leave the person inside the jaws of the mancatcher for the entire horse ride. Ouch.”

The writing in this book is not like a regular history book where big words are used and such. It is written in a common dialect and it makes it more fun and engaging. The pictures also really add to the book as well because otherwise I would have ABSOLUTELY no idea what the weapons are that are being talked about.

I had always been fascinated with weapons and such and this just does the trick for me (also some of the stories I’m writing has historical contexts and Wikipedia searches just aren’t cutting it for the weapons.) This book puts all of the weapons that you are ever going to need to know in one fun, friendly, and easy to use book.

I also loved the cover. It caught my eye and I loved the tagline of the book. It made me laugh and intrigued me to as what the book was about. What can I say…I sometimes judge a book by its cover and boy am I glad that I did.

I personally love this book and will be reading it from beginning to end. It it set up amazingly well and I am so glad that I made this purchase. You should definitely go and try to find this book. It is worth the price, (not that expensive, about $19). If you are interested in weapons then this is a great thing to buy, but would be an amazing gift for someone who is interested in weapons as well. But even if you aren’t interested in weapons, it’s still a fun read and you may learn something.

So go and check it out and let me know what you think of it.


Archangel’s Blade (Guild Hunter) by Nalini Singh

Summary

“Trying to discover the identity of a murder victim brings together the vampire Dmitri and a hunter for the Guild, Honor. And as the gruesome murders continue, a lethal sensuality explodes between them.”

– From Amazon.com

Review

This is not the type of book that I would usually read but I am glad that I read this one. Yes, it is part of a series and this is not the first book, as I wasn’t aware that it was a series when I started it, but you didn’t need to read the other ones to understand it. I am waiting for the first book to arrive at my library so you can be expecting a review of the ENTIRE series sometime soon.

This book was incredible. It was romance, but that wasn’t the entire premises of the story. Most romance novels don’t have a story except the exploding relationship between a man and a woman. This had SO much more. There was a story behind it, lots of characters,  LOTS of character development, and just so much happening overall.

This story kept me turning pages and wanting to read more because of what was happening. Dimitri was such an incredible character. He was charming, sexy, but deadly underneath. Kinda like an immortal bad-boy XD . I did sometimes want to smack him because he was hard-headed but he was also quite persistent. He was also quite arrogant. But that is kinda understandable considering he was a 1,000 year old vampire. Then there was the main girl character, Honor.

She was such a strong character and I loved that about her. Often these types of novels write the main character as wimpy and weak and submits to the man, but Honor did not do that at all. She stood up to Dimitri and wouldn’t fall to his special ‘powers’. She constantly tried to kick his ass and used words to keep him in check. She did a pretty good job at it and that intrigued him because no one had ever said no to him before.

But besides there being just vampires there were angels and they were pretty cool as well. This book didn’t focus on them even though the first book does, so I can’t comment on them too much, but I will talk about them later in the other reviews

But the vampires in this novel were quite interesting. As most of the times that vampires are portrayed (except in Twilight), they had a thirst for blood and sex. But then there was Dimitri. He had been like that until he met Honor and everything changed. She reminded him of his wife who had died when he was still a human (I believe), about 1,000 years ago or so.

So the entire story was about their relationship and them dancing around each other, testing the waters and such. And then the ending was like a brick wall to the face. I WASN’T EXPECTING IT! I was shocked to a whole new level.

But wow! It was incredible. This book is definitely mature YA, about 17/18 or older because of some of the sexual themes and some of the violence which got pretty graphic a few times.

I recommend that you read it but probably start with the first one of the series Angel’s Blood. But if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world. I do recommend that you read this but it is for MATURE READERS ONLY!