New Year, New Leaf

I want to start off by saying I'm sorry. I feel like I had more posts last year about my absence than I did have actual posts about books. It was a big year for me last year, starting with getting my first big kid job that involved a commute, a salary, outings and so many other things that are involved in a non-retail job. And then my uncle passed away while I was at BEA, and we road-tripped down to North Carolina and then up to New Hampshire for my boyfriends graduation. And then I moved! I went out and got my own place with my boyfriend and another couple. I think my biggest accomplishment of the year was when I won NaNoWriMo and got started on my novel. In December, I let my two year blogoversary pass by.

And now here I am, back at the start of the year with 40 reviews that I need to write because I read faster than I write and after having spent all day at working picking words to use, the last thing that I wanted to do was come home and pick more words to use.

This year promises to be just as exciting. In a few weeks, I'm heading to Philadelphia with my sister, Amy, Lexie and Tegan and Hannah to do ALAMW. February Hannah is going to visit again and we're going to do things in the city. In March I have tickets to a Jennifer Lynn Armentrout signing for White Hot Kiss. April is quiet for now but I'm sure it won't stay that way. May I have a signing for Samantha Shannon and BEA. Then I'm going to Vegas for ALA in June and I'm praying that the summer will be slow.

There are so many things that are happening that I am so excited about this year. In that excitement, I'm getting a new blog design and I can't wait to get it. Once I get it, I'm hoping that this will re-invigorate the blog and things will get back on track. My life will stop being an adjustment and it will start just being my life.

As a thank you, my loyal followers or even new followers. I have a giveaway that I have been dying to do for some time. I'm going to give away a signed ARC of Cress by Marissa Meyer. There are a few ways to enter and I hope you will enter and spread the love! We've had a big year and next year is going to be even bigger!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2)

Author: Laini Taylor
Goodreads Rating: 4.29
Length: 15 Hours, 17 Minutes
Format: Audio book from the Library

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Beautiful Creatures

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Goodreads Rating: 3.78
Pages: 563
Format: Nook Book

There were no surprises in Gatlin County. We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.At least, that's what I thought.Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.There was a curse.There was a girl.And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Mila 2.0

Author: Debra Driza
Goodreads Rating: 3.70
Pages: 470
Format: ARC from Swap

Mila 2.0 is the first book in an electrifying sci-fi thriller series about a teenage girl who discovers that she is an experiment in artificial intelligence.
Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past—that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.
Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.
Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza’s bold debut and the first book in a Bourne Identity-style trilogy that combines heart-pounding action with a riveting exploration of what it really means to be human. Fans of I Am Number Four will love Mila for who she is and what she longs to be—and a cliffhanger ending will leave them breathlessly awaiting the sequel.

Ink

Author: Amanda Sun
Goodreads Rating: 3.64
Pages: 3.26
Format: ARC from BEA13

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.