Showcase Sunday is a bookish meme started by Book, Biscuits, and Tea, where you list the new books or fandom merchandise you've received (from a bookstore, a library, as a gift, etc.) throughout the week. Since there will be a SS post every week, the amount of books and merch shown on each, will vary.

Jasper:

Sea of Shadows  by Kelley Armstrong

Manali:

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Arise by Tara Hudson

Elegy by Tara Hudson

YanLin:

Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith

The One by Kiera Cass

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Books We Received From Authors to Review:

Running Secrets by Arleen Williams

Super Saver Saturdays Book Edition (Canada)

So I've been wanting to start this meme for a while now but I haven't had anything to write about. So here it is.... The first edition of SUPER SAVER SATURDAYS: BOOK EDITION!

So, this weeks deal is...

*DRUMROLL*

OF POSEIDON by ANNA BANKS

I've recently read the book Of Poseidon, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although Anna's loose interpretation of the Greek mythos kind of annoyed me, overall the book was quite good. But what this post is about is it being available on chapters.indigo.ca for only $5.69!





$5.69 for a HARDCOVER!!
BUY THE BOOK NOW! Click HERE or on the picture. 

Anyways, so I hope I have shown you a great steal and that y'all go buy it if you haven't already. If you're still reading, you should know that I plan to post a review of the book in a couple days, so if you're unsure, read that first. I hope y'all had a great Saturday and happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Reached by Ally Condie (Manali's Review)

Reached by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last book in the series. Thank the gods it's over.

Cassia’s journey began with an error, a momentary glitch in the otherwise perfect façade of the Society. After crossing canyons to break free, she waits, silk and paper smuggled against her skin, ready for the final chapter.

The wait is over.

One young woman has raged against those who threaten to keep away what matters most—family, love, choice. Her quiet revolution is about to explode into full-scale rebellion. With exquisite prose, the emotionally gripping conclusion to the international–bestselling Matched trilogy returns Cassia, Ky, and Xander to the Society to save the one thing they have been denied for so long, the power to choose.

Okay. This book bored me to death, and I celebrated when it was over. I had actually started this book in February, gotten about 5 chapters in, and then literally fallen asleep. I tried again in April, and thankfully I finished. I have shamed myself. I gave up in February, and it took my 6 days to finish it this time.

Plot: Huge problem here. It's boring as hell at the beginning,and then in the last hundred or so pages, it starts getting interesting. So the Plague. It seems under control, and then suddenly it mutates. It reminded me of Ebola - the description of the mutation. Bleeding, and more gross stuff. And then of course, everybody's looking for a cure. Cassia's been sent to Central, Ky and Indie are pilots (the best) and Xander and his friend Lei are medics. And the Pilot has revealed himself as the leader of the Rising. All this seems okay, but it's really boring. Cassia's just occupying her time with Archivists, and thinking about Ky, Ky and Indie...they're flying in first-gen Plague cures...which Indie expresses her love towards Ky, and Xander's just being a medic and thinking about Cassia. It only starts to get interesting after Ky goes still, when the Pilot is flying them to Endstone. The other farmers, especially Anna and Oker, make the story much more interesting. And how Hunter is sort of a traitor.

I love how Cassia's is such a rebel. It's nice how Cassia's mom indirectly helped Cassia and Oker to find the cure for the mutation. Actually she discovered it. Annnnnd, it was surprising to find that Nea Lei was Laney (Vick's wife). And I like her with Xander. I was only upset with the ending 0 mostly that neither Cassia or Ky died.

So some good parts (mostly the end), some really bad. Overall, 3 stars. Yay, 3 stars for the whole series!

-Mannytee

View all my reviews

Crossed by Ally Condie (Manali's Review)

Crossed by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

So Matched was the first book in this series, and it wasn't that great, so I wasn't overly enthusiastic about reading this book. But then my OCD kicked in, and kind of forced me to read this, because I had read the first, so I had to finish the series. So I read it.

The Society chooses everything.

The books you read.
The music you listen to.
The person you love.

Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him.

And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope.

But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...

A rebellion is rising.

And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

I was really glad that Ky got taken away. I was sick with Ky and Cassia's slow-going relationship. But then Cassia gets moved to Keya. Obviously she's gonna go and try to find him. I actually preferred that it was told in both Ky and Cassia's perspectives. You can see what's happening in both of their situations - Cassia, in the camp, and hunting for Ky in the Carving with Indie (who is my new favorite character), and Ky, who is...acting as a decoy/wandering the carving. Even though I don't like the plot, I have to say it was better than that of Matched.

So the characters. Indie, as I already said, is my favourite. She's tough, smart, and most of all, independent. She's not someone that let's herself get told what to do, and she's not someone who really relies on someone. I'm just gonna say something sorta deep here: she was in need of a friend. Next, Vick. I didn't like him much, but I liked him better than Ky and Cassia, so I was sad-ish when he died. Next, Eli: I love how Eli reminded Ky of Bram, which was really sweet. And I like Eli's attitude; he's really stubborn. Next: Hunter. Hunter is...interesting. He's like a tough, sensitive guy. He's a farmer, one of the guys who loved outside the Society, so obviously, he hunts. But when he was burying his daughter, and carving the poetry...it was really sweet. Ky and Cassia...I just hated them more than I did in the first book.

I liked that the setting was mostly outside the Society. Actually, it was really against the Society. Like Cassia's goal was to find Ky, and bring him to the Rising, the anti-Society rebellion group. This book, I guess, really kicked off the revolution; the main character going against her 'government' of sorts, means something drastic is going to happen.

So this book was better in some parts...but worse in others. I don't really know what to do, so I'm just going to give it the same rating. 3 stars.

-Mannytee

View all my reviews

Matched by Ally Condie (Manali's Review)

Matched by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

Having another OCD moment. I'm gonna post a review of Reached but I haven't posted Matched or Crossed. So now I am. Alright, so here's the synopsis:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Okay. This book was very ishy. It had a legit plot, but it got ridiculously boring at times. I suppose I shouldn't judge based on what bores me...but that's what ruined it for me. I was actually really disappointed by the writing. Like, it's incredible writing, but it st became too much, and it bore me to death. Also, it had way too much of a similarity to The Giver.

So now, I wanna focus on characters. I like how the main character, Cassia, has this fascination with poems. I think it's kinda cool, with her being a rebel and stuff, sneaking all these things in the tight Society. And then there's Ky. He seemed okay at first, but I started gradually hating him. My favourite character in all of this was Xander, only because he seemed so much more...right. I don't know. But the good thing was that there was a lot of room for character development.

I got really mad when Cassia and Ky didn't like, get on with it. They were taking it so slow, and made it so boring. Like, the author had one book to set up a proper love story, so you can't wait until the last 100 pages or so to get it going. It kind of felt like she wasted too much time on Cassia contemplating over her grandfather's death, and that's okay and all, but it seemed to take priority over something that will obviously be important in the next books.

So this book...it wasn't the greatest, wasn't the worst. 3 stars.

-Mannytee



View all my reviews

Endure by Carrie Jones (Manali's Review)

Endure by Carrie Jones


*WARNING: SPOILERS*

I completely, totally forgot to write a review for this book. I finished this last month...so a bit late. It's the last book in the Need series, and I reviewed the first three, and now once again, I'm feeling OCD, so I have to review this.

Here's the synopsis for the book:
"Zara is at the center of an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Evil pixies are ravaging Bedford, and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn't sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends; she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king . . ."




Okay. Let me just start out with: YEEEEESSSSS!!! GO TEAM ASTLEY!!!! Zara got together with Astley, thank god. I I really hated Nick after how he treated Zara when he found out she was pixie. Even if I don't like Zara, it still bothered me. So Astley FTW!!

Despite Zara and Astley getting together, the book was probably the best one in the series. I had a lot of problems with the writing's maturity in the past three books, and I have to say, I didn't have much of a problem in this one. It was much smarter, much less lame and Astley being there most of the time just made it better.

I know I've said this before, but I really love Astley. Nick is so blech. Nick is really prejudiced, which is only one of the reasons I don't like him. Astley on the other hand, is a lot more mature, and isn't judge-y. And I like Cassidy. She's cool. Elves are cool.

Aside from characters, even the plot was overall better than those of the other three. It was a lot cooler, I guess, especially with the 'hell' concept thing.

So this book was pretty good, a lot better than the rest of the series. my rating is 4.5

-Mannytee

View all my reviews

Besides Naturalization by Isabel Chloe (Jasper's Review)

Besides Naturalization by Isabel Chloe
My rating: 2.5/5

   Oi. Where do I start with this book? I mean to say, that this book was pretty good in some parts and downright terrible in others. And by terrible I mean that 6 year old me probably could've done better. Sorry if that sounded a bit harsh but this is an honest review. I understand that this is one of the first books that she's written but... you know, sometimes you just don't feel the book. More than once when I read this book did I wonder "Huh? Did I skip something?" because, this book just throws characters, plots, concepts, dialogue and plethoras of excess details that just kind of act like filler.




 A big part of what confused me was that they live in another world, a more advanced one, where the children have little pet things that tell them what to do. For the longest time, I thought they lived on Earth. Like for more than half of the book. Then I read something about the girl's Grandmother having to fly back to Earth. That was a humongous "Huh?" moment for me. Maybe they really do live on Earth... This book is confusing alright. And weird. And messed up.
 
   But I have to admit that sometimes the book was actually pretty good. Some of the characters are relatable. Emphasis on the some. Like the older brother and the mother were ok, they were just like normal people, nothing overtly strange about them. But when you get to the main character's BFF Andrea, you have a lot of facepalm moments. She's just a little diva in the making, a spoiled brat that gets everything she wants. But don't get me started on Lily or her Grandmother. Those two are just out there. Lily is Andrea's cousin, she doesn't seem very aware of anything outside of her "pet rent" and maybe that bluebell plant that her Grandmother destroyed. That's why I don't like the Granny. She destroyed a plant that was given to her granddaughter on her birthday just because she was angry at the girl's father. See the logic? I don't.

   That's really all I have to say about this book. The verdict? This book should've been written as a picture book for Grade 3s. Maybe take out the swearing though...