Top Ten Tuesday: Beach Reads!

Our beach of choice in Newport via

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is dedicated to Beach Reads. I define beach reads as 1. set in the south 2. have people falling in love and/or 3. at a beach town. I cannot wait to get my tanning on and get involved with more beach reads this summer!

• hello, Sookie! The Southern Vampire Series are total fluff and fit these categories.
• Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. Boat trips and cute ginger-haired boys who mend broken hearts are perfect for the beach.
• Sarah Dessen's books. So far I have inhaled Along for the Ride and Keeping the Moon and love her beach town setting of Colby

    

Crazy Camper says:

"I would say anything without paranormal, just teen romance is a good beach read. Actually, as long as there is romance, it qualifies! NOT BEACH READS = anything that qualifies and a penguin classic (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre) these require too much thought."

• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Southern and romance.
• Not just Sookie, but any Charlaine Harris book (we have read the Harper Connelly series and Sweet and Deadly and liked them both, although Tolliver is smokin' and makes the last Harper Connelly book Grave Secret extra worthy of beach reading).

Goosie Mama says:

"Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green. AWESOME beach book (doesn't the cover just look like a fab beach read? Yes sir, may I have another!), beach town setting, crazy thriller plot - there is even (minor) surfing involved!"

As always a big cheers of our whiskey sours to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting TTT, our fav weekly book blog meme! What makes your list? We want to know so we can stock our e-readers for this coming summer! If you want to know more about these reads, see our reviews of Deadlocked and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen and Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. 

Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

While on vacation, I read Beautiful Creatures, Caster Chronicles #1, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and while I had heard mixed responses, I really enjoyed it.

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 (GoodReads).

Originality:  6. A YA book from a boy's perspective? say what? And a boy who feels quite a few emotions and love?  Maybe this should be in the absurdity section.  But overall, I enjoyed this take on witches, southern stuffyness and history, and a sprinkling of libraries and voodoo.

Absurdity:  8.  Where is this boy who have so many emotions?  in highschool?  it was just hard to BELIEVE that they have feelings like this.  BUT I tired because in my heart I wish they did, for high school girls everywhere, and anyways, there was a lot more absurdity, namely Lenas unrelenting emo-ness.  Girl, I understand you feel doomed, but man, you are way too glass-half-full for me likes.  Though, that Carrie-esq stunt the girls at the dance pulled was rough.

Paranormal Romance: 10+.  Seriously, it is all here: insta/fated love, emotional high schoolers, magic powers emerging, and some flashbacks.  I was very disappointed to how those were resolved, and I would like to go on record saying so.

Harry Potterness: 4.  OK, low score, considering I liked this.. BUT THE ENDING.  You may remember my feeling about books that RESOLVE NOTHING at the end.  huge frustration.  While leaving somethings hanging is a literary technique employed by many authors, here, we read the whole book for the last two pages to basically say, got ya good!  nothing is resolved! read book 2.  siiiiiiiiiiigh.  So, anyone read book two?  If things get resolved and the plot progresses, I am in. But if we circle around Emo-Lena for another year, I dont know if I have the mental fortitude for that...

Stacking the Shelves: Vacation Style

I am pretty excited for this stacking the shelves... because it means that VACATION is ALMOST HERE.

[insert panic attack/ pre vacation eye twitch/ overwhelming excitment/ long to-do list here]

I am about to go on vacation for two weeks and and "stacking" my nook and bag with reading material.  Obviously I need a paperback from when they tell me to turn off electronics.  Over the next two weeks I will be in two counties via 7 plane rides, 3 ferries,  and 1 overnight bus ride (in Turkey no less)... if nothing else I have enough reading material and Jolly Ranchers packed to make it through.

The Battle for Arcanon Major: The Lost Dacom Files #1 by Alexandra May (via NetGalley)
“As daughter of our ruler I grew up in the crossfire of an ongoing war... All I’d ever wanted to be was a great warrior and ultimately lead my people into victorious battles."

With only a small army at her command Halika Dacome, a skilled warrior and daughter of the Elemental King, is ready to lead one final battle to save her planet. A battle against the savage, bloodthirsty Primords who want to extinguish the diminished race of Elementals once and for all.

But before battle commences her father is given an ultimatum from the enemy leader, Arfron Uhnok. If the king agrees, Halika Dacome must marry Arfron Uhnok to prevent further bloodshed. If the king disagrees they, as a race, will all perish.

Horrified by her fathers decision Halika Dacome leads her army onward regardless of the consequences. Because her heart belongs to another. A love that blossomed many years ago. A love that her father has forbidden.

Halika faces her toughest battle yet and learns that not all battles are those fought with a sword...
The Battle for Arcanon Major is an epic love story set against the backdrop of war and is the first Prequel to Elemental: The First --> I reviewed Elemental with some apprehension, but am still giving this prequel the chance to answer the 100 million questions Elemental left the reader with....

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder (via NetGalley)

Hunted, Killed—Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confidant, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet: an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat. War is coming and Avry is alone.Unless she figures out how to do the impossible…again.

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1) by Kami Garcia (via Mom who left a copy on her last visit)

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.

Procrastination and Paranormal YA Movie Trailers

WHOA! Excitement here. The trailer for the movie version of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl  has appeared on the world wide web. I liked this first book, but have lost track of the series. I might seriously get back involved due to the awesomeness of this southern Gothic trailer. Admit it, it is awesome.

The big question is, who is this boy? I mean, we know Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, and Jeremy Irons but who is the smoosh face with the cute southern drawl? Also, bonus points for incorporating the book cover into the trailer, movie-making people.

In case you are thinking "What the what?" here is the deal for Beautiful Creatures: "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." (GoodReads).