Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Now at this point, I’m sick of reading New Adult books that follow the track of Fifty Shades of Grey and the like. It’s depressing reading romances about college age students who are falling in love, all the while battling their pasts full of sexual abuse. That seems to be a theme in romantic fiction as of late and I’m starting to need something a little bit more upbeat and less depressing. That’s when I read Up In Flames by Nicole Williams. It was my saving grace for the NA genre because I was about ready to throw in the towel for a while! Elle is your typical small town girl. She’s practically engaged to the town’s sports hero, she’s working at her dad’s restaurant and after graduating high school her life’s been laid out for her. She doesn’t need to worry about a thing... and she’s sick of it. She’s tired of never letting loose. She’s frustrated at dating a guy who barely touches her and most of all, she’s had enough of being told what to do and how her life will be. That’s when sh...

It's Waiting on Wednesday time again! For more information on this weekly meme that helps to showcase those books we can't wait to get our hands on, check out Breaking the Spine! This week, I decided to feature Dominion (Guardian Angels #1) by Melody Manful. I'm really in the mood for a book like this. Mystical creatrues, forbidden love and high school... why is that the magical combination for me this week? I have no idea, but I do know that I can't wait to get my hands on this book!   I Dare You. Look Over Your Shoulders. Do You See Them? They are behind you... They are always behind you. Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really? Should Abby allow h...

I am so excited to have gotten an advanced copy of The Goddess Inheritance . I’ve been waiting for this finale for a long time and I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I’ll try and make this review as spoiler free as possible for those who haven’t taken a dive into The Goddess series. This epic finale is just that... epic. Never have a read a finale to a series that was this action packed. Normally it’s a little bit of action thrown in with a whole lot of loose ends being tied up. In TGI, the characters are constantly at battle, getting captured and plotting to get their loved ones home safe. I could barely keep up with the fast pacing of this book and I read it in one sitting. When I began reading TGI, I had forgotten how much I like how Carter begins her books. She starts out in the middle of a conversation that has you a tad bit confused and works her way backwards. In that way, you get more information and you begin to click the pieces of her intricate puzzle into place. We start...

I started reading Clash soon after I read the first in the series, Crash . While it wasn’t my favorite New Adult book, it was entertaining, I liked the characters and the writing style and so I decided to continue on in the series. Clash picks up after a few months have past and Jude and Lucy are headed to their respective colleges in New York state. They’re just a few short hours away from one another and they promise to visit each weekend. While the relationship issues that they had in highschool like coming from different worlds and grand theft auto are over, they’re discovering that while distance may make the heart grow fonder, it may also grow jealous. I can’t decide if I liked this book better than Crash . I really liked how the two main characters were now in college and trying to be successful in a new environment, but the plot as a whole had me slightly annoyed. It was a lot of immature jealousy and going back and forth between silent treatments and acting out to get attent...

I read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series quite a while ago, but with the upcoming film release of the second book (and my ecstatic enthusiasm for the series) I thought I’d review them here on the blog. Hopefully, I can encourage a few to pick up these wonderful books. Book one, The Lightning Thief , introduces readers to the world of Percy Jackson just as his life is turned upside down. Percy is just your average kid. He’s got severe ADD and some misinterpreted behavioral problems that have him bouncing from boarding school to boarding school in NYC. Labeled as a bad seed, many of his teachers treat him as an outcast and so do his peers…except for Grover, his loyal best friend who needs crutches to walk. Chaos quickly ensues as Percy finds out that his deadbeat father who never came around is actually the Greek God, Poseidon and Percy himself is a demigod! Cue a whirlwind adventure as Percy and his gang of misfits set out to discover who stole Zeus’s lightning bolt... a...

It's time for Waiting on Wednesday... a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to showcase those books you can't wait to get your hands on! I've been craving a good historical fiction. I am a huge, huge fan of medival times and books centering around that era and so this week I'm featuring Dark Triumph (his Fair Assassin, #2) by R.L. LaFevers. Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons. But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected all...

Hopeless ... where do I start with my review of Hopeless. This was a very deep and dark read with twists and turns that had you gasping aaaaand then  crying. Yeah guys, this one was pretty upsetting in a number of ways. I read it and I’m still processing how I feel. I’m going to give you the tagline from the book as the synopsis. Of course you can go on Goodreads and read what it’s about, but I don’t think that’s an accurate or fair depiction of what you’ll read. Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than the lies... Sounds ominous, right? Yeah you’re nervous about what the big mystery is. And I guess that’s the biggest strength of Hopeless . You go into the story thinking it’s your typical NA romance where an innocent, home schooled girl meets the bad boy in town and they fall in love. But it is so much more than that. Readers begin knowing very little about the characters and plot and come out with an explosion of information, intrigue and a hefty dose of re...

Oh, Richelle Mead how I've missed you! Where should I start with my reivew of Bloodlines ? I think I'll start with why it took me so long to begin the spin-off series. Short answer - I wanted to be in the perfect mood, at the absolute best time to make sure that I would like the book. The long answer - Richelle Mead rocked my world with the VA series and not only did I need time to digest and savor the flavor of the series, but I needed time to get over the fact that these new books would center around new characters. I am both happy and sad that I waited. Happy that I took the time and fell in love with  Bloodlines and sad that I didn't start them sooner! Bloodlines follows Sydney Sage, an alchemist,  as she accepts a new mission in Florida. Sage once again finds herself wrapped up in the world of the Dhampir and Moroi as she follows Jill into hiding along with Eddie and party boy Adrian. Of course for this gang, nothing is ever easy and they must battle corruption, stri...

Well ya'll, it's Wednesday again and so that means it's time for Waiting on Wednesday! A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to showcase those books you just can't wait to get your hands on! This week, I'm super excited for Of Triton (Of Poseidon, #2) by Anna Banks! In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death. As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known? Now I don't know if it's because...

Crash was the first book Nicole Williams book that I've read though I've seen her name all over the blogosphere. Again, diving further into the realm of the New Adult genre, this book seems to have gained some popularity over the past few months and so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Lucy lives for dance and the dream of next year attending Julliard. And so her dancing and her dream are the only things that are going to get her through her senior year attending a new school as her family moves to their summer home, permanently. Lucy knows that all she has to do is keep her nose clean and work hard and she'll be away from her problems and her past but all that changes when she meets Jude Ryder. The local vigilantly and school bad boy, Jude is bad news and he has his sights set on Lucy. Will Jude be the one to destroy her future or her saving grace? This wasn't my favorite New Adult book, but I really enjoyed reading it. Crash got away from the typical sexua...

I said I wouldn't read another J.L.A. book... and then I did. I couldn't help it! I was nervous on a plane trip home to see my parents and I had forgotten I pre-ordered Opal on my Kindle. During a particularly turbulent point in the flight, I dove in to keep myself busy. Now, I could say I kept reading out of principle. I had started the book so I needed to finish it, right? I would be lying.   Opal sucked me in and while it did take me a while to finish the book, I actually really enjoyed it. Opal brings us back to the world of Katy and the Luxen. With her feelings for Daemon as strong as ever, it seems that nothing can stop the gang as the dive further into investigating the secretive and elusive government group set out to understand, destroy and surpass the Luxen. But not all is as it seems as Katy and Daemon learn the hard way that you can't trust anyone. I don't want to give too much away for the readers who haven't started the Lux series yet ...

And it's time for Waiting on Wednesday again! This weekly meme is a way to feature the books that you just cannot wait for. For more information, head over to Breaking the Spine! This week, I'm waiting on... Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, #1) by Gail Carriger It's one thing to lean to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and thow a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school. Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea -- and god forbit anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But little do Sophronia and her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right -- but it's a different kind of finishing. Mad...

Happy Tuesday! I'm so happy that I've finally made time for another round of  "Like This, Try This" from Krista over at  Nawanda Files ! This meme is "designed to introduce YA books that are similar to TV shows, movies and other books!" Make sure to hope over to  Nawanda Files  for more info on how to add this weekly meme to your blog! Let me know what you think!

Over the holidays, I went a little overboard. I read about 6 books... in 7 days and they were all New Adult and romance books I got on my Kindle. I think I just needed some mindless reading to relax and those six romances really did the trick. The first book I bought was The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. Whew, what a title! What first drew me to this New Adult book was the cover. I mean come on. How could this romance enthusiast resist that cover? The Coincidence tells the story of shy and troubled Callie. Callie strives to be invisible her entire high school career because of an incident of abuse that happened when she was 12. Enter Kayden. He's attractive, popular and has the queen bee as a girlfriend, but all of his confidence is a show to cover the fact that he fights for his life on a daily basis. With Callie's past and Kayden's alcoholic father, college is the perfect escape for these two from different worlds. When their paths cross on campus, no on...

Well guys, With the start of the New Year, I decided that it was time for a change in my blog design. I wanted something a little more unique, a little more sophisticated and I happened upon Icey Designs . I took a look at both her testimonials and her portfolio and I knew that I had to have her do a design for me. After making initial contact, Hafsah asked what I was looking for... after a very vague, confusing and I'm sure annoying response from me about how I wanted something "purple" "different" "simple" Hafsah came up with a beautiful, updated color scheme and went to work. I couldn't be more satisfied with my design. It's different, unique, simple and of course purple... but updated. Hafsah dealt with my crazy and seemed to know exactly what I was looking for and executed it perfectly. She even took my subtle changes after the initial template and completely read my mind. If you are looking for an update or this is your first time looki...

Happy New Year Everyone! I wanted to write a quick post to wrap up the great year that was 2012 and let you know what I'm looking forward to in 2013! This past year I... Started Abibliophobic Gained 133 followers Read 65 books Made new blogger friends I had such a fun year, as I said in my 1st Blogaversary post (don't forget to enter the giveaway!) and so I had to think about what I want to do differently or rather, what I'd like to do more of in 2013! I've of course, come up with a list... I'm a list-er if you had't noticed. I wanted to branch out in my reading and blogging and try some new things! And so, in 2013 I would like to... Read at lease 70 books Read more Romance and New Adult books! Read and review at least 2 Classics Participate in some YA Reading Challenges! Hopefully I'm not asking to much of myself but I'd like to do more in the blogging and reading department in 2013 and so hopefully I meet my goals! Below are the reading challenges that...