Sleepless by Cyn Balog

"Eron DeMarchelle isn't supposed to feel this connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce his human charges to sleep. Though he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn't encouraged to do so. After all, becoming too involved in one human's life could prevent him from helping others get their needed rest."-goodread synopsis 

This wont be a long review because Sleepless isn't a long book. I believed it was rocking somewhere around the 150-200 pages mark. Sleepless had one of the best concepts I've heard of/read in a long time, but the concept wasn't enough to make up for the few issues I had with it.

The two main characters, through likable, both are lacking in subsistence. Neither ever feel fully fleshed out. Julia is a nice character, but that's it. She just nice. Her thoughts are realistic and funny but there's not really much else going for her. Also though it is possible I didn't fully believe that 3, yes 3, guys could be head over heels freakishly in love with her. That leads me to Eron, our other POV and main character. Eron is a sandman. He sounded super sweet, but again, that's it. He too was highly lacking in depth. Both characters appearance wise sounded nice, but we also only got a tiny description of the two. When it comes to the side characters Julia's boyfriend and best friend, I had no real feeling towards them what so ever.  Neither were anything to write home about.

The plot of Sleepless could have really been something. The start of the book has this nice steady pace that matches most other books in it's genre. The middle of this book is 100% the strongest part. When things actually start happening, and it gets a little more spooky I was hooked. I was really excited to see how things were going to play out and what direction the author would take it. I was starting to get into the characters and started too feel like I was getting to relate to them. Sadly, this was short lived. The ending was a little anti-climatic. We had all this build up, things were setting up, characters were developing, relationships were forming, events were really coming together... then nothing. The ending is all shoved into a handful of papers and ended up being mundane and predictable.

Overall Sleepless is a nice light read it just had all this wasted potential. I wish the concept behind this book would have plated out better than it did. Sleepless wasn't the worst read ever, but wasn't the best. If this book had maybe had 100-200 pages more it could of used the extra space to fill it with more action and really highlighted more.

2/10 Stars 
-Angela 

Angela's Favorite Covers of 2015

The phrase "don't judge a book by it's cover" is one of the best... but it can be so much fun! So, I went through my 2015 reading list and chose my favorite covers. Most of these were published this year, but there are a few that are from other years. I only based this list off what I read during the year not off what year they were published. This is the first year I've done this, but I liked it so much that I'll probably make it a tradition. Also keep an eye out for our complete 2015 choices.

 

  

I have reviews posted on almost all these books on our site. For any title

A-L click here and for titles M-Z click here.

-Angela

Angela's November Wrap-Up

Paper Hearts- Claire Contreras

The Fall Up- Ally Martinez
Going Bovine- Libba Bray

Suicide Squad Vol. 2- Adam Glass

Unravel- Calia Read

November 9- Colleen Hoover

How I Live Now- Meg Rosoff

Revival Vol. 1- Tim Seeley

Day 21 (The Hundred 2)- Kass Morgan

Bared to You (Crossfire 1)-- Sylvia Day

The Deal- Elle Kennedy

Tell Me Three Things- Julia Buxbaum

Preacher Book 1- Garth Ennis

Finding Cinderella (Hopeless 2.5)- Colleen Hoover

Can we please talk about how insanely slack I've been these last two months??! I've seriously been dragging my feet lately. I can't really explain why either. Might just be because I've surpassed my reading goal and figured I'd take it a little slower in October and November. Might be because I fell into a deep Netflix spiral... Who really knows. My November numbers might reflect alright, but trust me the further it got into the month the harder I had too push myself to pick something up. However, a lot of the things I picked up this month weren't so bad.

My favorites were: Paper Hearts, The Fall Up, November 9, The Deal, Tell Me Three Things, and Finding Cinderella. Huh... Maybe my reading month wasn't as rough as I thought. Can't remember the last time I had a list with this many favorites on it. Paper Hearts first few chapters were released early on, and when I read it I knew right away this would end up on a favorites list. A sweet cute read that had the perfect little news clippings in it. The Fall Up was a book I was really worried about reading. When I saw it's stunning cover I was instantly drawn to it, but worried that the inside wouldn't be as good as the outside. Completely wrong, really enjoyed it. November 9, is the first Colleen Hoover book I'm going to talk about. It was her new release with massive hype surrounding it. Other books that have tried to pull off this same idea haven't done what this did. I wasn't at all let down. The Deal and Tell Me Three Things were my biggest surprise reads of the month. First The Deal has one of the worst covers I've ever seen, but oh my God was it hilarious. Tell Me Three Things was an ARC I received and is one of the only contemporary books I've ever enjoyed. Lastly is Finding Cinderella. Yes, the second Colleen Hoover book on this list. Even though I still haven't read Losing Hope (which I'm dying to read now) I still loved this novella. Picked it up because I was in a slump and because it is currently free on kindle.

My least favorites were: Going Bovine, Unravel, and Preacher. Going Bovine might have one of the funniest male protagonist I've read in the longest, and a concept like no other, but still somehow ended up being too much. I will say that I didn't hate it, I just wasn't in love, and something ultimately didn't stick with me. I was hoping for a book that would forever stick out in my mind, and this just didn't happen. Unravel was a book I ended up DNFing. It seemed like it was going to be a mind blowing read, and it is something I plan on picking up at a later date, but at this time it just wasn't doing it for me. Lastly Preacher. You have probably seen this popping up a lot lately because it is AMC's new comic book TV show. The show looks like it will be bitchin, but the comic was just something I couldn't get into. I think that if I give it more time and volumes that I might end up liking it but I'm not in any kind of rush to get to it.

14 books down in November and so many left to cram in before the end of the year. So goodbye November and hello December. I'm doing December way different than I have in the past. First off I'm going "offline". Logging off my social media accounts (kind of). I'll be logging off all my personal accounts and just focusing on reading and blogging. I'm logging into out bookstagram and am going to be doing a daily or every other day update of what I'm reading. I usually log into our book account once a week, update, comment back, and then log back out. In December it'll be something I focus on more and I'll be staying on it the entire month. I already have my entire Tbr planned for December. I'll be posting my list the first week of December so keep an eye out. I'm going to try and knock out some series I've been putting off, getting a good pipeline of reviews written, and then the last week of December I'm going to be doing nothing but re-reading my favorite books so I end my year on the best notes possible.
See y'all then.

-Angela

Angela's September Wrap-Up

Amber to Ashes- Gail McHugh
Queen of Shadows- Sarah J. Maas
Darken the Stars- Amy A. Bartol
Thicker Than Blood- Madeline Sheehan
The Devil's Dreamcatcher- Donna Hoise
Saga Volume 5- Brian Vaughn
Everything Everything- Nicola Yoon
The Paper Swan- Leylah Attar
Until Friday Night- Abbi Glines
Dark Wild Night- Christina Lauren
Illuminae- Amie Kaufman
Sleepless- Cyn Balog
East of West Volume 1- Jonathan Hickman
East of West Volume 2- Jonathan Hickman
Suicide Squad Volume 1- Adam Glass
The White Rose- Amy Ewing 

September has come and gone and all I have to say is... THANK GOD!!!!! I was super busy life wise and it did take away a lot from my reading. I might have done alright number wise, but I definitely feel a slump coming.

I'm just going to jump right into things...
My top picks this month are:  
Queen of Shadows, Darken the Stars, and Dark Wild Night. Queen of Shadows... Just OMG. It was crazy... Crazy amazing!!! Being the 4th book in the series I feared it was going to be a bit of a filler book, but Maas didn't disappoint. Darken the Stars was another book I feared wouldn't live up to the hype I had built in my head, again was so happy when it surpassed my expectations. Then we have Dark Wild Nights which I think of everything I read this month would be my number one.Writing duo Christina Lauren have never let me down, and in DWN they blew my mind again. They gave me a smutty, funny, sweet read, with guy who doesn't suffer from "dick turn nice guy syndrome", who happens to own a comic book store as a lead! So yeah, basically everything you've ever wanted ina man they gave me in this book. Insanely good. LOVED LOVED LOVED it... I actually can safely say that about all three of these novels.  

My fails are:
Thicker Than Blood, The Devil's Dreamcatcher, and The White Rose. Thicker Than Blood was a case of mistaken identity. Thought it was going to be about a love triangle, but turned out to be about zombies. So yeah that happened. Then The Devil's Dreamcatcher was a book I was so excited about. I loved The Devil's Intern so freaking much! It even made my top five summer reads... For some reason though I just couldn't get into this one as much as I did the first. Lastly The White Rose. I really didn't love The first one (The Jewel) that much, but when Damaris from Good Choice Reading sent me an Arc of this I figured I'd give it a try... Mistake. This book was BORING!!! I ended up Dnf-ing it. When I think about it it might be what put me in such a funky mood...

I plan on knocking out some heavy reading the first weeks of October because Leah and I will be doing some events and traveling! Praying to the book Gods that my reading will be even better then. Doesn't hurt that I have a HUGE book hail coming in. So much for my book buying ban!

Well were off to see an early screening of The Martian so see yall soon!

Angela

Angela's July Wrap up

Darkfever- Karen Moning
Bloodfever- Karen Moning
Faefever- Karen Moning
Dreamfever- Karen Moning
Shadowfever-Karen Moning
Clipped Wings- Helena Hunting
Inked Amor- Helene Hunting
White Bird in a Blizzard- Laura Kasischke
The Cage- Megan Shepherd
Dirty Rowdy Thing- Christina Lauren
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Foer
More Happy Than Not- Adam Silvera
The Devil's Intern- Donna Hoise
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist- Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
Untethered- Jax Spenser 
Singularity- Jax Spenser 
Freefall- Jax Spenser  
Coherence- Jax Spenser 
Redshift- Jax Spenser
Maud's Line- Margret Verble   
Fractured Suns- Theresa Kay
World War Z- Max Brooks
IM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm no longer sick! If you couldn't tell by the ridiculous spike in my reading from June to July. So happy to be back in the game!  If you can't tell from just eyeballing, there might have been a tiny common variable between the books I chose mainly to read this month. I read a lot of Book to Films. I decided to pick up books that I knew were movies and hadn't read yet so I could read them then watch them. I'll probably follow this trend into next month as well since I still have a few I'd like to knock out. The books to films I choose were: White Bird in a Blizzard, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and World War Z. I had already seen WWZ and Nick and Norah as movies so picking up the books were really fun. With the other two I got to read them then see the movie and it made it even better. Both White Bird and Extremely Loud were amazing books and the movies were the same. Both surprised me by how well they played out.

I also managed to knock out a few TBRs I had planned and a pretty hefty series. So that leads me into my July favorites. I had the best kind of problem when it comes to my favorites this month, I have so many! The entire Fever Series- (especially ShadowFever), Dirty Rowdy Thing, The Devil's Intern, and Fractured Suns top my list this month. When I started the Fever Series I had no idea how much I was going to love it. The first two books were good but the last three were phenomenal! It had everything I ever wanted in one series.  Dirty Rowdy Thing kept true to the Christina Lauren ways and had me swooning all over the place. They are so creative with their books and never let me down. The Devil's Intern was hands down my biggest surprise read in July. I had no true idea what this book was about. Tying time travel with a boy who is living in Hell seems like it would end up a cluster F, but this book was amazing. Lastly Fractured Suns. No clue why I was so nervous to start this book. Think I feared it would suffer from second book syndrome, but NOPE! This book blew me out of the water! The cover reveal is in August and that's when I'll have my review up for it. Each of these books knocked my socks off. I want do too mention the duology I read this month, Clipped Wings, it might not have made my favorites list but this series was still great, and it did end up having one of my new favorite leading males in it.


When it comes to my least favorites this month I only have two. Maud's Line and The Cage. Maud's Line was just not my cup of tea. If you like a little bit more of realistic-historical-fiction this book might be something you're into. I however ended up not liking it and barely making it through the whole thing. I will eventually put a review up for this I'm just struggling a little with getting all my thoughts together on it. As for The Cage, well it was the definition of let-down. When I started writing the review for it I ended up stopping and deleting it because it just got a little nasty and out of hand. When I heard that it was a book about Aliens taking humans and throwing them into a Zoo like cage it had me so interested. However the idea, though great, wasn't executed well on paper. It was another book I had to struggle to get through, and ended up annoyed  that I even ended up reading it.

Till august
-Angela

End of Days by Susan Ee

The time has come. The End of Days Trilogy has finally come to an end. I for one am still so thankful that I waited to read this whole series until all the books were all released. I don’t think I could have waited as long as most did to get my hands on the last book. I know there’s a lot of buzz and mix feelings surrounding how this series ended. Some people think they didn’t get nearly enough out of the ending and some people are completely stratified. I fall somewhere in between but closer to happy.

End of Days picks up right where World After left off. Penryn is still off being a total Bamf angel killer, who is still coming  to terms with her family situation, along with the whole “angels have invade earth” issue. Penryn also has to really decide where her alliances will lie when everything clashes together. She is  constantly throwing all her support into saving what’s left of this world, but the true question behind this whole book is will she continue to do the same once she is told what the Angels have in store? If you think Penryn has a lot on her plate don’t even take a gander at Raffe’s. Being one of the highest ranking angels put him in the pickle of all pickles. –Does he want to stand behind Penryn and take what comes with that –become the new messenger –make his first real appearance from being “mia” –entering into a contest; these are only some of the things he is juggling. The relationship and tension between these two characters continues to grow throughout this novel as well… This is/was my only real problem with this book. I get the push and pull they have for each other and the constant need to keep their distance from one another, but honestly I was hoping for more gushy love stuff. We get a few sprinkles of scandy but nothing that really blew me out of the water. It is more then what we received in the previous two but still nothing to write home about. Though I will say the few stolen moments are so sickly sweet and I loved them… Then again, I know this is going to kind of contradict what I just said, but at the same time I can really respect this book for making it a focus on having such a strong leading female character that isn’t heavily watered down by romantic smut. Don’t fear though the banter between the two is still as strong as ever. My favorite part of their relationship is that they are will to hold onto that last strand of loyalty to each other until they won’t be able to anymore.

"This is Penryn Young, Daughter of Man, Killer of Angels"

Penryn has moved up onto the list of my favorite female heroines. She is so strong willed, determined, smart, and a girl who can really kick it and hold her own with the boys. Just love her. As for the sub characters we have her sister, Paige, who really stands out in these books and took me by surprise. Her mother who holy hot cakes is crazy-amazing, and has to be one of the most unique characters I’ve read in the longest time. My favorite sub characters however are the twins, Dee and Dum. They remind me so much of Kenji from Shatter Me and I just loved them. And when they threw up metal horns during one scene I about fell of my sofa I was laughing so hard. They bring the much needed comic relief to this dark themed book.

As for the story itself… Well I was floored by how intense and action packed it was! I wasn’t let down at all by how the story went. Everything leading up to the big bang ending was so thoroughly written. The way she has Penryn take a step back, assets the situation, then attack really made this ending a complete page turner. A girl who uses her brain instead of just rushing into situations is a girl who knows the way to my heart. There are so many new places and layers added to this story that when first presented I was worried about how they were played out, but ended up happy with their outcome. We get a new added world which I liked, along with the shattered California we have come to know. The action in this book is turned up to 11. There isn’t a time when something isn’t happening. That all being said the only other tiny tiny tiny issue I had was at the end there is this one really cheesy thing that happens, and then the last few pages seemed a little rushed. With Angelfall and World After we got a lot more raw emotion and with End of Days we get a lot more “put your heart aside and do what needs to be done”. End of Days is a book about loyalty and making the tough decisions even when you have nothing left of yourself to give.

"Any minute now, we might have to choose our loyalties. When that happens, I'd be an idiot to think we'll be on the same side."

I do fall into the same category as a lot of other people, where I wish that Susan would have done what she was thinking and written this to be a five book series. I think with even one more book, or a novella just for an epilogue would have really set this book over the top. Sadly I don’t think we’ll get either of those. I feel that with a fourth book we could get the gaga romance we are all dying for and can get back to the emotional side of things. Overall I was very happy with how this book planned out and it is hands down my favorite fallen angel series.

9/10 Stars 
-Angela  

Angela's March Reads

Ahhhh March, you came and went so fast. March was.... well it was a climb reading wise for me. Saying I was in a slump would be an understatement. I couldn't seem too truly get into anything. As usual I had some high highs and low lows. This month I read a total of 20 books. Not my best numbers, but still ahead in my reading. I wasn't as active as I usually am on here or any bookmedia. I had some vacation time this month and just caught up with friends, family, and my home life. It was also my birthday this month so I was rather busy. (Planning on posting my birthday book-haul soon.) Leah and I have been planning some up-coming events so that ate up a lot of time as well. Hopefully I can catch up on some reviews in April. As far as my March reads go, here you have them:

Transparent- Natalie Whipple
Conviction- Kelly Lou Gilbert
My Heart and Other Black Holes- Jasmine Warga
Confess- Colleen Hoover
Hopeless- Colleen Hoover
Maybe Not- Colleen Hoover (Re-Read/Audio Book)
Obsidian- Jennifer L. Armentrout (Re-Read)
Onyx- Jennifer L. Armentrout (Re-Read)
Opal- Jennifer L. Armentrout (Re-Read)
Origin- Jennifer L. Armentrout (Re-Read)
Opposition- Jennifer L. Armentrout (Re-Read)
Beautiful Disaster- Jamie McGuire
To All the Boys I Loved Before- Jenny Han
The Last Time We Say Goodbye- Cynthia Hand
Keep Me Safe- Maya Banks (DNF)
Lovely Vicious- Sara Wolf
Savage Delight- Sara Wolf
Brutal Precious- Sara Wolf   
Sisters of Shiloh-Kathy Hepinstall, Becky Hepinstall Hilliker
We All Looked Up- Tommy Wallach 

My top picks this month are: Confess, Lovely Vicious, and my two re-reads, The Lux Series and Maybe Not. I usually wouldn't pick re-reads in my top picks for wrap-ups but since I was so sluggish with my reading and nothing else really stuck I'm going to go ahead and toss them in. Lovely Vicious was the book to break my reading slump, and I'm sad I read it so late in the month. This book had me laughing hard with it's strong leading lady and catchy one liners. Maybe Not is a book you've recently heard me talking about... I saw recent because I read it last month, and yes again this month. Well listened to it this month. The audio book for Maybe Not is amazing, even the second time around it still had my sides splitting. One of my all time favorites. The Lux Series, yes all five, are making in my top picks because even as a re-read I still loved everything about it. Daemon Black. That's all I need to say. My very top spot goes to Confess. Confess easily made it's way to number one this month, and on to my list of all time favorites. A new March release from Colleen Hoover had me balling in the first ten pages, with an unforgettable ending. Colleen Hoover write life altering books and a favorites list wouldn't be complete without on of her books on it.


My book fails were easy to pick as well. The biggest letdowns were: Transparent, To All the Boys I Loved Before, and Beautiful Disaster. Transparent was a book I was really looking forward to. With it's pitch comparing it to X-men I found myself letdown with its lackluster story and predictability. To
All the Boys I Loved Before was a contemporary read that has a lot of hype following it... I however found the story boring. When I heard a girl writes love letters to her ex loves and then the letters get out I figured the story would be filed with a lot of poetic thoughts and drama. Sadly there was nothing specials about it. And for my biggest disappointment, well I know you all saw this one coming, Beautiful Disaster. Saying it sucked would be going easy on this gross little number. It's not only one of the worst things I've read all month, it's one of the worst things I've read all year. Ugh thinking about it again puts me in a rage.

I'll just stop right there... See y'all in April.

-Angela

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, she nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where things start making a lot more sense to her.

At the end of January I asked my friends on goodreads to recommend me their favorite books/the books that brought them to tears. I got A TON of responses... messages, comments, direct recommendations. So I decided to pick the ones that were most recommended and do a massive haul just off books recommended to me. I got around 15 books. One of the books that was suggested several times to me was This Song Will Save Your Life.

I was really skeptical at first about reading this because the first one of these recommended books I read I was let down by... This isn't the case with this book. Even though This Song Will Save Your Life was a suggested book, recently I've decided to go into books blind. So within the first few chapters I was really shocked about what this story turned into. When the "issue" happens and then is carried throughout the story I never originally saw it coming. It hit me hard too... Pretty sure I said "someone call a barista because this roast just got dark"... And I was worried that this heavy cloud was going to rain all over this book for me. It didn't

If my bookshelf at home wasn't arranged in alphabetical order than I put place this book right beside The Truth About Alice. I would more than likely say they were sister reads as well. This book hit my heart the same way that story did. Because Elise is someone I could easily relate to. Her struggles were some of the same I had to face when I was in high school. Elise's character development doesn't truly start toward close to the end of this story and I that would normally be a turn off for me, but it wasn't. The fact that it started so late into her story reminded me so much of my own life tale... because my character development didn't start till later either. I was also very lucky for two reasons in high-school one) that I had my very own Vicky and two) I was wise enough at the time to know that high school wasn't going to determine the rest of my life. I only had one real friend in high-school (who is still my best friend), who didn't judge me, didn't care that I wasn't the popular girl, didn't care that I wasn't interested in designer jeans, and was completely fine with my head always being in clouds because I'm a special breed of weird.

Books like This Song Will Save Your Life and The Truth About Alice are books that I wish were written and read when I was in school. They are coming of ages stories that just SHOULDN'T be missed. I'm writing this short and vague review just to rant in general about the amazing-ness that is this book. In hopes that you will just go out and buy it yourself. People will relate in some way to this book. There’s at least one character in this book that you know in real life. Or that you might even have been at some point... Good or bad. On top of all the wonderful things this book has to offer it also managed to flawlessly intertwine music into it. Being a big music person, going to a school of the arts, and taking so many theory classes I was relieved to find myself not having any complaints about it. 

I'm so thankful I was recommended this story. A story with a strong lead, a strong plot, and a stronger message.

“You think it's so easy to change yourself. You think it's so easy, but it's not. True, things don't stay the same forever: couches are replaced, boys leave, you discover a song, your body becomes forever scarred. And with each of these moments you change and change again, your true self spinning, shifting positions-- but always at last it returns to you, like a dancer on the floor. Because throughout it all, you are still, always, you: beautiful and bruised, known and unknowable. And isn't that - just you - enough?"

This Song Will Save Your Life isn't the perfect book, but it has the perfect message. This was a book that I thought was going to be slammed with mess, mix messages, and tons of cliches'. It wasn't.

8/10 Stars 
-Angela 

(This Song BookDepo) 

Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A Tucker

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind. Kacey just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and they no longer have to keep a low profile.
 
How to start... How to start... Ok so Ten Tiny Breaths follows the story of Kacey Cleary, a girl who is trying to get her life back on track after a traumatic accident. Shortly after which, her and her sister move to live with her aunt and uncle. After that fails they decided to run away and move to Florida. I was drawn too this story for two reasons... The cover and the ratings. Almost everyone I'm friends with on GRs gave it 4 stars or higher... Which I'm kind of confused about. 

The characters in this book are just above okay. That's it though, just okay. Kacey is our leading lady. From the start I didn't like her. I get she has this hard outer shell because of what happened to her, but her attitude was 90% of the time just too much. If anyone said hi to her she wanted to fight them. She automatically assumed every guy wanted to sleep with her. We get that you're a fiery red head and all but calm your tits. Just because a guy says good morning doesn't mean he wants to jump your bones. Seriously, she spends pages and pages talking about punching people in the face... WE GET IT YOU TOOK A FEW KICK BOXING CLASSES!!! Towards the middle of the story I started to like her a lot more, but by the end I was hating her again. The whole "don't hold my hand" thing was so pointless. It seemed like it was going to be important, but was dropped so early on. 

Livie, Kacey's sister, just barely formed as a sub character. At first when the story started from the way Kacey talked to her, to the way the author portrayed her, I assumed both girls were a lot younger. I thought Livie was idk 8, and Kacey 17. Turns out ones 15 and ones 20. (So that was awkward to discover.) Livie was BEYOND annoyingly naive. Then there's Storm and her daughter Mia. This is going to sound harsh since Mia's all little and cute but still could careless for her character. Storm was the only lady in this book I actually liked. She was the perfect blend of sassy and sarcastic. 

As far as males go there's only one you really need to know about, and that's Trent. Oh Trent where to start with you... Should I start with your sexy dimples? Should I start with your six pack abs? No, I think I'll start with the fact that your character was SO, SO predictable! That and the fact that all he has to do is smile at Kacey and her Vagina bust out her pants. I'm all for girls getting weak in the knees over a guy but this chick took it to the next level. She can barley walk the whole novel. Something serious happens between the two characters toward mid-end and all ya boy has to do is say "whoops my B" and Kacey is back in love with him. I wont say what it is, but trust me it would take more than a couple of lopsided dimple smiles to make me forgive him. I just didn't like his character. I wont lie I like guys that are moody bad boys. Trent tries to wear a wolf mask but turns out he was just a sheep. I don't want my guys just showing up thinking looking hot is enough... I want some kind of emotion from them, even if it's just because they have some crazy in their eyes. I JUST WANT SOMETHING!!! Trent is the character that makes Kacey start "returning to her old self" but I have no idea what was it about Trent which made her decide to let her guard down? He does nothing but stalk. (yeah I've found stalking hot in other tales, but not this one.) On top of all that this boy turned out to be some kind of super natural human... He can literately make a girl climax by just looking at them. Yeah couldn't make that part up if I tried.

As far as the plot went, it went slow. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen that would make my jaw drop, and it sadly never came. I figured out pretty early on what the "big reveal" was going to be. I was hoping there was going to be more to it and there wasn't. If someone didn't see it coming than I would naturally assume they had never read another ya/na novel before. The plot basically rinse, lather, repeats itself over and over again. The plot builds about as much as the story does... So yeah not at all. THE ONLY, ONLY thing I liked about this book was the meaning, and the way the phrase "Ten tiny breaths" was revealed. 

“Just breathe. Ten tiny breaths. Seize them. Feel them. Love them...”

 

The meaning behind it was BEAUTIFUL! And I applaud Tucker for giving us such a wonderful quote with a powerful meaning to back it up. But even that sweet little nugget couldn't save this story for me. Everything down to the ending of this book just didn't reach me. I found myself having to do the tiny breath routine just to get to the ending. I wish this book would have lived up it all the hype and constant recommendations I was getting on it. Sadly, to me, it was just boring. 

3.5/10 Stars
-Angela 

(Ten Tiny Breaths BookDepo) 

Angela's January Read-Cap

Holy doughnut holes where did the month go?!! Is January seriously over??? And did I seriously read 25 books? Rhetorical question or not, the answers are both yes. I can't really put a finger on if this month was a good month for reading or not. The highs were high and the lows were low. I did get a lot of simple reading done... aka I read more novellas than normal. Managed to finish some series I didn't get to last year, and started some new ones I was really excited about. Below are all the books managed to slam into this wickedly quick month. (Click the titles to go to the reviews)

Inexcusable- Chris Lynch
Hooked on the Game- C.M Owens
The Conspiracy of Us- Maggie Hall
Elixir- Jennifer L. Armentrout 
Apollyon- Jennifer L. Armentrout
Sentinel- Jennifer L. Armentrout
Stay With Me- Jennifer L. Armentrout
Bound by Duty- Stormy Smith
The Invitation- Roxy Sloane
Broken Skies- Theresa Kay
Hardwired- Meredith Wild
Red Rising- Pierce Brown
Golden Son- Pierce Brown
Losing It- Cora Carmack
Blackbird- Anna Carey (broke up with)
Reborn- Jennifer Rush
Flawed- Kate Avelynn
Never Never- Collen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
Slammed- Colleen Hoover 
Ignite- Lily Paradis
Dark Places- Gillian Flynn
The Duff- Kody Keplinger
An Abundance of Katherine's- John Green
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children- Ransom Riggs
Collide- Ella Adams

Guess now that I'm looking over my list, January was a really good reading month. As far as my top picks go, I have quite a few. Broken Skies, Red Rising, Golden Son, Never Never, and Slammed  are without a doubt my favorites. Broken Skies is the start to a new series about my favorite subject... YES ALIENS!!!! Then there's the Red Rising Series which includes Golden Son, which if you follow me on any social media you know I'm obsessed with. And finally to wrap up my favorites is Slammed and Never Never. Fisher is a new author to me but this book wont be the last of hers I'll read, and I'm pretty sure you can't say the name Colleen Hoover and NOT have someone say "omg I love her". All five of these books were books I ranked five stars on goodreads and ten stars on our blog.

My favorite surprise scandy read was definitely Hooked on the Game. Yup the name is awful, the book was cheese, but dang it if I didn't love it anyways. So good bad!

But on too the books that let me down... because sadly there were more than I would like in this month. The Invitation is the book that I believe I rated the lowest, giving it a one star on goodreads. It was just so pointless! It was a novella that also served at a prequel... hated it. Next was BlackBird which I failed to finish. I just couldn't get behind the leading lady, or the story. Stay With Me was just a WTF in itself. I think my biggest let down was The Conspiracy of Us. I was SO excited when I saw and heard about this book. It seemed to have everything I was looking for in a YA novel, but ended up having nothing I wanted. It had such hype and didn't live up to the high reviews on goodreads.

Well there you have it... Another month, another list.
See ya in February!
-Angela


Don't forget if you'd like to purchase any of these books use out BookDepo list on our home page.

Slammed by Colleen Hoover

After the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Will Cooper is the attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction they go on a heart-stopping first date, only to be slammed  with a shocking revelation that puts their new relationship to a sudden halt.
 

“Push your boundaries, that's what they're there for.” 

It's currently 2:10 in the morning... I finished Slammed over 30 minutes ago... And I just stopped crying. I went into Slammed ONLY knowing that this book involved slam poetry. I've never even read the synopsis too this story (after reading Ugly Love I knew that when it comes to Hoover books you have to go into it blind). The odd thing is of all of Colleen's books, I own this one I've had the longest and I'm just now reading it. I HATE MYSELF FOR THAT!!!!

I would never believe that this was Hoover's debut novel. It's so strong that I assumed it was a 4th or 5th book. Nope. She never fails too incorporate something new and unique into her writing, if it's paintings, music, or even poetry she really has a style all her own. There are only three writers I will drop everything I'm  reading to pick up their work... That's John Green, Jennifer Armentrout, and Colleen Hoover.

Slammed follows the story of new Michigan transplant, Lake, as she is forced to start a new life her senior year of high school. After her fathers untimely death her mother can't afford to keep them living in Texas. First day in the new place Lake's brother befriends the boy next door... Introducing Lake to Will. The charming, handsome, and sweet poet.

The characters in this book feel so real! Lake and Will are written too perfection. Lake, though mature for her age has the same immature moments as the rest of us. Will is just so sweet, speaking in a way that will have you swooning all over the place. Both their love towards there family captured my heart 200%. Both characters physical appearance is described just enough to give you and idea then left you to make your own decision. As the characters develop in the story the story itself grows into something so hard to capture in words. I thought that the insta-lust that happen right away was going to ruin this book for me. But at the end I realized that this story might have involved love but it's not the love you except. I wish I could explain that more but it's the only way I can say it. It about a deeper kind of love than just being with someone. The sub characters like Eddie and the baby brothers are PHENOMENAL. Colleen has it so they are sub characters that manage to shine so much light without ever over powering.

The plot has this pace between fast and medium, and it was at a rate I'd never experienced before. Then of course there's the whole poetry and music aspect that was put into this story. It's what takes Slammed to the next level. The poetry is introduced in the first handful of pages. I didn't know how I was going to feel about it... BUT WOW. Seriously the first poem had me in tears and they only got better from there. The quotes from The Avett Brothers are perfect placed and were just a nice little treat at the start of every chapter. Like I said, this is a story you need to go into blind, therefore I can't, even though I want to, go into more detail. This book started strong and then had me a blubbering mess by the end. I don't know if I should be mad or thankful that Colleen is constantly finding new ways to tear my heart out of my chest. I don't think I've ever not been a mess at the end of one of her books.

This story made me laugh a hundred times, and cry at least five. Slammed is one beautiful, quotable, and poetic line one after another. Slammed touched me on such a personal level and I probably cried harder than most. This book is a must read, and definitely made it's way into my all time favorites.

10/10 Stars 
-Angela 

(Slammed Book Depository)