Kaniesha Reviews: Blood Orange Soda ARC by James Michael Larranaga

Title: Blood Orange Soda
Series: Stand-Alone
Author: James Michael Larranaga
Release date: February 26, 2014
Publisher: JML
Genres: vampires, urban fantasy
Goodreads, buy the book

Darius Hunter lives in a world where vampires live among normal humans. Young vampires like Darius are kept on a government-mandated medication that prevents them from becoming fully undead until they’re 18. He’s smart, sensitive and all-too human—a struggling outsider who’s just trying to fit in, find a girlfriend and escape the attention of football bully Bao Wang. 

It’s his humanity that often keeps him from his hopes and dreams, so Darius’ “cool uncle” Jack, a vampire, introduces him to a substance called Blood Orange Soda. This strange analog of steroids can speed Darius’ maturation into his full vampire state, but it can’t guarantee that he’ll avoid disrupting the lives of his mother and sister, win the love of Angel Martin or successfully face up to Bao. It also doesn’t make him immune to heartbreak and loss. 

The author takes familiar themes of YA fiction—vampires and teen romance—and treats them with a surprising empathy and respect that gives them real weight. 

Booking Through Thursday: October 30, 2014

Booking Through Thursday is a book blog meme presented by BTT2 at Wordpress. They post a question about books every Thursday and you have the whole day to reply back!  Let's look at this week's question:

What’s the scariest book you’ve ever read?

Heather:  Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House comes to mind, if only because one scene in particular freaked me out so bad I wasn't sure if it was something that actually happened or something from the book.  XD  It was great at creating atmosphere and I believe that's essential for a scary story to have, especially if the author wants you to be afraid.

Shout out to the original illustrations in The Scary Story trilogy books though.

Kaniesha: The Light by D.J. MacHale! I got so scared that in order to read it, I had to go out into the living room during the day to read it :( I actually haven't read too many scary books, the next would have to be his Pendragon series in general (there's 10 books in the series) and Libba Bray's The Diviners (very freaky). I'm also reading two "scary" books right now and, honestly, neither of them is very scary. I think I'll have to move up into adult books to get some real fear! Not that that will happen any time soon. Trying to get myself to read these books right now has been a hassle in itself.

Heather's Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Movies / Shows To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is the creation of The Broke and the Bookish, each week they post a list and one of their writers answers.  This week's topic is Top Ten Movies / Shows To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit

Booking Through Thursday: October 23

Booking Through Thursday is a book blog meme presented by BTT2 at Wordpress. They post a question about books every Thursday and you have the whole day to reply back!  Let's look at this week's question:

If someone you know has just published a book—do you feel obliged to buy a copy? Even if it’s not the kind of book you’d normally read?

Heather:  Yes.  I feel like it's always important to support my friends in any endeavors they undertake, even if said thing isn't something I'm normally a fan of.  And who knows, maybe I'll wind up really liking what my friend did with their book.

Kaniesha: If I had money, then yes! A lot of my friends have the same tastes in fictional subjects that I do anyway, so I think it's likely I'd end up liking whatever they wrote. Like Heather said, supporting your friends any way you can is very important. (They're your friends for a reason!)

Heather's Top Ten Tuesday: Ten New Series I Want To Start

Top Ten Tuesday is the creation of The Broke and the Bookish, each week they post a list and one of their writers answers.  This week's topic is Top Ten New Series I Want To Start

Kaniesha's TTT: Top "Ten" New Series I Want To Start

Top Ten Tuesday is a book blog meme created and hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week we're choosing the top ten new series we want to start.

What is new defined as? Can I just knock that word out and just pick the top ten series I want to read? (That's what I'm going to do).

1. Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
2. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
3. Defiance by C.J. Redwine
4. Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
5. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

6. Chantress by Amy Butler Greenfield
7. Katya's World by Jonathan L. Howard
8. Bloodwitch by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
9. Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
10. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Bonus! (I can't pick just ten).
11. Scorched by Mari Mancusi
12. What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang
13. Unremembered by Jessica Brody
14. Rush by Eve Silver
15. Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

Look at all these books! Give them to me so I can rub them on my face and proceed to read their words. So beautiful.

Kaniesha Reviews: Salt & Storm ARC by Kendall Kulper

Title: Salt & Storm
Series: Stand-Alone
Author: Kendall Kulper
Release date: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genres: fantasy, witches, historical fiction
Goodreads, buy the book

You don't know what you must give up to become a witch.

Avery Roe wants only to claim her birthright as the witch of Prince Island and to make the charms that have kept the island's sailors safe at sea for generations, but instead she is held prisoner by her mother in a magic-free life of proper manners and respectability.

Avery thinks escape is just a matter of time, but when she has a harrowing nightmare, she can see what it means: She will be killed. She will be murdered. And she's never been wrong before.

Desperate to change her future, Avery finds a surprising ally in Tane—a tattooed harpoon boy with magic of his own, who moves her in ways she never expected. But as time runs out to unlock her magic and save herself, Avery discovers that becoming a witch requires unimaginable sacrifice.

Avery walks the knife's edge between choice and destiny in Kendall Kulper's sweeping debut: the story of one girl's fight to survive the rising storm of first love and family secrets.

Kaniesha's TTT: Ten Books For Readers Who Like Character Driven Novels

Top Ten Tuesday is a book blog meme created and hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week we're choosing the top ten books we believe are character driven.

1. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
2. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
4. Mind Games by Kiersten White
5. Crash by Lisa McMann

6. The Diviners by Libba Bray
7. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
8. Angelfall by Susan Ee
9. Divergent by Veronica Roth
10. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Bonus: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terril, The Holders by Julianna Scott, Legend by Marie Lu

All of the books mentioned above are in my all time favorites. Each of them would not be anything without the main characters moving the plot forward. If these characters weren't making their every day decisions, the plot would literally go nowhere.

I honestly think the main point about all of these, is that it's less about characters reacting to things happening to and around them, and more of them dealing with their problems and thoughts by taking action and doing the necessary things.

Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices?

Deux Lectrices Talks: Reading Slumps

I'm always proud of this blog for the fact that we're always open to trying new things and new types of posts.  It may not work out sometimes, yeah, but we're always open to finding new ways to talk about books.

Booking Through Thursday: October 2, 2014

Booking Through Thursday is a book blog meme presented by BTT2 at Wordpress. They post a question involving reading every Thursday and you have the whole day to reply back!  Let's look at this week's question:

What do you read when you’re sick and just want something easy and comforting? Or do you watch TV instead?(Assuming you’re not napping, of course.)

Heather says:   I actually play video games (I own a very old PS2 and most of the Final Fantasy series) when I'm sick.  When I was younger and stayed home from school sick, my parents, to be sure I knew that being sick was ~serious business~, made me stay in bed the entire day.  Luckily we had a Sega Genesis in the room my sister and I shared, so I would just play games on that.  Since I've been sick lately, I've been playing Lunar 2:  Eternal Blue Complete and Final Fantasy IV again.

I've also taken to watching Netflix and am re-watching, for the fifth time, Arrested Development.


Kaniesha says:
I don't get sick very often (I don't recall having been sick at all in 2014) but sometimes I get headaches/migraines and when I have those I just nap.

If I were to get sick, I'd probably try to read something with a lot of action or something emotional, anything to really get me immersed into the story and not my sick, achey body.
That or I'd play video games and/or watch cartoons and/or watch videos on YouTube. Probably all three! I have the attention span of a mouse. :D

Monthly Releases: October 2014

As of August 2014, Kaniesha and Heather will be posting their most anticipated to-be-released books of the month instead of individual WoWs every week.

Kaniesha's:


October is a slower month for me, but I'm still very much looking forward to these! I would probably fight someone for a copy of Snow Like Ashes, I've heard nothing but good things about it for most of this year! Plus the last Heroes of Olympus book :( But Marie Lu is staring a new series! I still haven't read Storm (the book before Strike) but I have it checked out from the library so there's that! At the time I'm writing this, I'm reading Never Fade so I'm going to be ready for In the Afterlight! :D

Heather's:


And again, only four!  As promised, there is the Dragons at Crumbling Castle deluxe edition I have my little heart set on!  Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook is a companion novel to Discworld's 40th book, Raising Steam, and will probably be as long as and just like World of Poo and Dodger's Guide to London.  A Long Spoon is a new Johannes Cabal novella, and I'm assuming it'll be set after The Brothers Cabal, so I'm incredibly excited.  I never got posted my review of it here, but I did read (and enjoy!) Cat Winters' In the Shadow of Blackbirds, so of course I'll be on the lookout for The Cure for Dreaming.