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Hey!

I've decided to switch to wordpress.com so my blog and all it's content is gonna be over at a different site. Everything's the same, just a different blogging format.

So, here is my new blog address:

http://www.briannasbookbuzz.wordpress.com/

Thanks and see you over there!

TTT - Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. I love her many young adult series so here are the top ten books I'd give readers who've never read Meg's books. In no particular order,

The Buzz:

If you do happen to pick up a Meg Cabot book, don't expect too much deep stuff. It's all pretty light but fun and cute. Personally, I would definitely start with the Mediator series!

Review: The Immortal Crown by Richelle Mead

Title: The Immortal Crown Author: Richelle Mead Series: Age of X #2 Reading Level: Adult Publisher: Dutton | May 29, 2014 Pages: 432 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository   Synopsis:  The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodline series returns with the second installment in her acclaimed Age of X series. Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion. Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity. Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

The Scene: Same confusing and dizzying world that Richelle Mead built in the first book, Gameboard of the Gods. Except not so confusing because you learned most of everything world building related in said first book. This time, majority of the action takes place in enemy country, Arcadia where women have like no rights and are treated like trash. Add in gods, supernatural shenanigans, sex trafficking, kidnapping, and politics to this book and you've got a pretty good sequel.

The Girl: Mae is basically the same in the sequel; cold, calcualting, and ruthless. The only exception is that she's waaay more open to Justin and the supernatural. I like Mae well enough but I still couldn't quite click with her character. As I've said in my review of Gamboard of the Gods, I blame the third person POV. Don't get me wrong, many authors do this well, great even. I just think it's not Richelle's thing. 

The Boy(s): Justin and Mae's relationship actually got somewhere in The Immortal Crown. Justin has a lot of faults, yes, but he really is sweet and when it comes to Mae, even sweeter. But, because of that ending I'm stuck in between smiling at him and cursing at him. Cliffhangers suck.

The WTF?!: I'm really not a fan of politics in general so reading about a book chock full of it was kind of a downer for me. Also, for some reason, I hated it when it came to Tessa's POV. She grates on me, I've no idea why. I understand how her storyline is going to connect with Justin's but her story just seems so irrelevant.

The Buzz: All in all, The Immortal Crown is a solid sequel to Gameboard. I enjoyed parts of this book more than its predecssor. I liked the action parts especially Mae's journey in Arcadia to get back to the RUNA. Some of the storyline was good but it was still a bit too much for me. Richelle really built up a complicated world that, in my opinion, takes away from the story. I think there needs to be more action involved and the story drags sometimes. The third person perspective also dampens the buzz factor for me. There are some bright spots though so I'm hoping the third book will be better. Plus, I've got to read it because...cliffhangers you know. :)   

Rating

Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty Author: Jenny Han Series: Summer #1 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Simon & Schuster | May 5, 2009 Pages: 276 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon|  Book Depository Synopsis:   Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

The Scene: Basically, a story with a girl, two brothers, girl's brother, girl's mom, and mom's friend. At a beach.

The Girl: Belly is kind of average to me. She has this whole thing of trying to make this summer "great." I don't know, Belly was childish at times but other times she was likable. 

The Boy(s): Conrad and Jeremiah are the brothers that Belly has spent practically every summer with. She has always felt left out of Conrad, Jeremiah, and her brother Steven's "circle." To be honest, I actually didn't like Conrad all that much. I think Jeremiah's waaay nicer and he was just more up front with Belly while Conrad was all moody and irritable.

The WTF?!: I was kinda annoyed at how Belly didn't realize that Susannah was sick while everyone else did. Open your eyes, girl.

The Buzz: The Summer I Turned Pretty doesn't have the buzz factor. In fact, it lulls at times and Belly's voice is grating sometimes. However, I did enjoy it and I found myself smiling at times. This will definitely not be on my favorites shelf but I will still continue the trilogy. After all, there's still some summer left...

Rating

WOW - Waiting On Shaman Rises by C.E. Murphy

This week I'm waiting on

Title: Shaman Rises Author: C.E. Murphy Series: The Walker Papers #9 Reading Level: Adult/UF Publisher: Harlequin Luna | June 24, 2014 Add it: Goodreads Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository Synopsis:  Joanne Walker has two choices:  Defeat the enemy…or lose her soul trying.  For over a year, Joanne has been fighting the Master—the world's most abiding evil. She's sacrificed family, friendships, even watched potential futures fade away…and now the Master is bringing the final battle to Joanne's beloved Seattle. Lives will be lost as the repercussions of all Joanne's growth come to her doorstep. Before the end, she'll mourn, rejoice—and surrender everything for the hope of the world's survival. She'll be a warrior and a healer. Because she is finally a Shaman Rising.

I know this is a late Waiting on Wednesday but I still haven't gotten the book...so that counts right? Anyways, this is one my favorite urban fantasy series so I am so very sad for it to be the last one. If you haven't read them, you should try it. They're awesome! Start with Urban Shaman.

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King Author: Julie Kagawa Series: The Iron Fey #1 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Harlequin Teen | February 1, 2010 Pages: 363 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million Synopsis:   Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

The Scene: Mainly set in the mystical faerie realm of the Nevernever. Also, faeries. Puck. Ash. Quest. Talking cat. ASH.

The Girl: Meghan Chase starts seeing things like shadows and stuff on her sixteenth birthday. You know, not normal things. Then she finds out her brother is kidnapped by the Fey so she has to go on a quest to save said brother with Puck (yes, Midsummer Night's Dream Puck) and a talking cat (Grimalkin). Meghan, for a sixteen year old YA main character is suprisngly likable. Yes, she bothered me at times (girl, learn how to fight!) but overall she's alright. 

The Boy(s): I'll start with Puck and not the overly obvious choice of the stoic faerie prince, Ash. Robbie aka Puck is that Puck, you know from the Shakespeare play. I find Puck to be very entertaining. He's quite funny and you can tell he really cares about Meghan. But I have a feeling he'll be friendzoned majorly (ahem, hot faerie prince anyone?). Ash is like the typical hot, brooding, and fierce young adult bad boy. Except without any humor save one joke. I have to say, I like Ash but I think Meghan was really stupid to melt into a puddle of mush whenever she was around him especially when he says things like,

"War?" Something cold touched my cheek, and I glanced up to see snowflakes swirling in a lightning-riddled sky. It was eerily beautiful, and I shivered. "What will happen then?"

 Ash stepped closer. His fingers came up to brush the hair from my face, sending an electric shock through me from my spine to my toes. His cool breath tickled my ear as he leaned in.

 "I'll kill you," he whispered, and walked away...

Yeah, that doesn't really strike me as warm and fuzzy, you know?

The WTF?!: Talking cat. Don't get me wrong, this WTF is actually good. I actually love Grim. He's all sorts of funny, amusing, and a little frustrating. It's just that he reminds me of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland soo much. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing? 

The Buzz: This book is your typical faerie book but not so typical as any other typical faerie book (say that three times fast!). If that makes sense. It's filled with action and adventure and lots of Fey (duh). I liked this book. So, go and read it. They say this series gets better as it goes on so we shall see.   

Rating

Random Buzz - Why I'm Left Out Of The Twilight Craze

Do you ever feel like your left out of a certain craze or fad? Like, there's this really cool new style of tops that are in but the top doesn't seem to fit right? Or the new fad that bangs are da bomb but they actually look atrocious on you and give you bad acne anyways?

Well, that's what Twilight was for me about 5 years back. And actually it's still that way for me.

To put it bluntly, I dislike the sparkly vampires and the love triangle and all of the books. I just don't like Twilight.

And sometimes this makes me feel left out. Sometimes I don't understand how something so well liked and popular escapes my nod of approval.

 But then I feel like why do people even like these books? I mean, I get the premise. It has vampires, yo! And I love those bloodsuckers. But, I don't like the sparkly kind. I even have it in my Twitter bio, that's the amount of my dislike. I have to make sure people know that indeed yes I do adore vampires but not to be confused with one certain type of vampire that is which from Stephenie Meyer's saga.

I don't want to feel like the black sheep here because surely there are some people out there who don't obsessively love it. Right?

Right?

Am I right?!?

But if you do happen to like Twilight, then great! I'm not gonna rain on your parade. But, it's just not for me. Why? Well, here are some reasons...

1. Bella Swan - Ugh, she kills me. She literally is the worst female young adult character in my opinion. I feel like she doesn't have a mind of her own and is always in slobbery lust/love of Edward Cullen. DUDE, think for yourself sometimes!

  
2. No fangs?!? - What kind of vampire series is this? How can vampires not have fangs? I do not get this. Yes, they're supposed to have some sort of venom to kill their prey and razor sharp teeth but how can we know this without Stephenie Meyer telling us?! It takes all the badassery out of it. Vampires are supposed to look menacing and that includes FANGS.



3. Sparkly Vampires - Do I really have to say any more? Sparkle and vampire just do not go together. How is this a thing? How in any way can sparkling in the sun incite fear in anyone? The reaction your're gonna get is more like this

4. The Love Triangle - Hahaha this love triangle started the whole team thing! I remember the Team Edward and Team Jacob thing. It was laughable seeing as this love triangle is so stupid. You could already tell Bella was gonna always go for Edward. Jacob had no chance.

5. The Premise - Stephenie Meyer took a typical YA trend and spun it into a lousy story and love triangle. Bella is annoying, Edward is annoying, Jacob is annoying. It's all very shallow.

Yupp, those are some of my reasons.

Now, you may be asking why I read all the books if I dislike Twilight so much. Well, you see, I'm OCD when it comes to finishing books and series even if they're bad. But, that's a discussion for another time on Random Buzz.

What about you? How do you feel about Twilight? Is there another popular series that you are not a fan of?

Psssst!

I have to say the movies, in this case, are much better than the books. This is a rare case of book to movies where movies are better. They're actually mildly enjoyable but don't quote me on that.

WOW - Waiting On The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan & Maureen Johnson

This week I'm waiting on

Title: The Bane Chronicles Author: Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Jean (Illustrator) Series: The Bane Chronicles Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | November 11, 2014 Add it: Goodreads Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | Books-A-Million  Synopsis:  Fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices can get to know warlock Magnus Bane like never before in this collection of New York Times bestselling tales, in print for the first time with an exclusive new story and illustrated material. This collection of eleven short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. Originally released one-by-one as e-only short stories by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan, this compilation presents all ten together in print for the first time and includes a never-before-seen eleventh tale, as well as new illustrated material.

Oooo, only one word: Magnus. He's one of my favorite characters in all of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter series. The Bane Chronicles looks soooo good! I can't wait!

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits Author: Katie McGarry Series: Pushing the Limits #1 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Harlequin Teen | July 31, 2012 Pages: 392 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon| Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million  Synopsis:  So wrong for each other …and yet so right. No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again. “A riveting and emotional ride!”—New York Times bestselling author Simone Elkeles “McGarry details the sexy highs, the devastating lows and the real work it takes to build true love.” —Jennifer Echols, author of Such a Rush “An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!”—Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of Alice in Zombieland "Pushing the Limits is an accomplished debut, a perfect choicefor readers who thrive on edgy, riveting storytelling." --Bookpage "Real aches and real love in Katie McGarry's sensitive, complex, always surprising, really excellent first novel." -- School Library Journal

The Scene: Girl with traumatic past. Boy with troubled family life. Lots of teenage angsty drama and a hot romance make up Katie McGarry's debut novel.

The Girl: Echo Emerson is a girl with a past. She can't remember an incident she had with her mom and her only reminder are the scars that run up and down her arms. Echo has her issues but I think that's what really makes her so relatable. Katie McGarry really knows how to write characters that are engaging and stay with you even after you've finished the book. 

The Boy(s): Noah Hutchins. Bad boy (tattoos, check. scars, check. hot bod, triple check). Fiercely protective. Smartass. And also a very sweet and loving guy to both his brothers and the girl he loves, Echo.

The WTF?!: Noah calling Echo his siren or nymph. Like really? Baby sounds waaay better.

The Buzz: Pushing the Limits has all the elements for a great young adult contemporary read. I love the realness of Katie's characters and the issues that are dealt with in the book. Echo and Noah are both characters that have lots of depth that is great to read about. I literally was sad to see this book end. Suffice it to say, Pushing the Limits definitely has the buzz factor going on.   

Rating

WOW - Kalona's Fall by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

This week I'm waiting on

Title: Kalona's Fall Author: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast Series: House of Night Novellas #4 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin | July 29, 2014 Add it: Goodreads Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million  Synopsis:  In KALONA’S FALL, the shadows in Kalona’s past will finally come to light… We will learn about the winged immortal’s secret history and discover how he went from being the Goddess’s Warrior and Guardian to her enemy and betrayer. Did Darkness taint Kalona as it did Neferet, or has the powerful immortal always preferred power over honor, and control over faith? This novella will be crucial to fans’ understanding of Kalona, before his role in the explosive final installment of the House of Night, REDEEMED coming in October 2014.

This is the last novella in the House of Night series before the last full length book comes out in October.
I'm, like, relieved that there's only two more I have to read in this series. Don't get me wrong, it started out pretty good. The first four or five books were awesome! But, then they got hard to just finish. It became a struggle and the only reason I've kept reading them is because I wanna know what happens with stupid Neferet.
Anyways, this novella looks pretty cool. I mean, the cover's gorgeous and we get to learn more about Kalona so there's that.

Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: My Life Next Door Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick Series: My Life Next Door #1 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Dial Books | June 14, 2012 Pages: 394 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon| Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million  Synopsis:  "One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time." The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase's family embraces Samantha - even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha's world. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself? A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.

The Scene: Small town off the coast of Connecticut. Girl lives next door to boy..AND his whole family of seven Garretts, four brothers and three sisters, whom girl's mother disapproves of. Throw in family problems, friendship, romance, summer, and you've got a great YA contemporary read.  

The Girl: Samantha, our MC, is great. She has her stuff together, for the most part. I love that there's no over the top drama about Sam and she's there for her friends and family even when she messes up or lines blur. And of course, I loved her pondering and watching of the Garretts from her roof.

The Boy(s): Holy hell. This is what you call a book boyfriend. Jase is not like the typical stereotype that is so prominent in young adult literature today. He's not a cocky, arrogant ass that hides a heart of gold. What you see is what you get with Jase. He's a good guy; sweet, nice, hardworking, a good brother, athletic, and a helluva boyfriend to Samantha.

The WTF?!: Clay Tucker. Ick. Politics. Double Ick.

The Buzz: Everything about this book is great. From page one, it sucked me in and didn't let me go. Fitzpatrick wrote very relatable characters and a story that was realistic and compelling. I loved getting to know the Garretts and their crazy hectic lovable life. I loved seeing Samantha's relationship with Jase begin and grow. My Life Next Door is one of those books that keeps you reading late at night wanting more even after you finish it.   

Rating