IMM: Week of books that actually arrived IMM

Most of the time when I post an IMM I'm actually talking about books that I just picked up from the library. However, I've won a couple blog contests recently and (thanks to the strike) all the books arrived within two days. So, here's what I got:

This is my very first ARC! I won it through a contest making up the slogan for the official Dashner Army (The Maze Runner, the Scorch Trials, The Death Cure) slogan to go on the merchandise. All in all, it was a pretty cool contest, and while this isn't the sort of book I would normally read, having an ARC is cool.

As you may know, I've already read this book. While I said in my book review that I wouldn't buy it, when I saw a blog contest for it I randomly entered, and I ended up winning. I'm not sure if I'll read it again anytime soon, but I certainly would re-read it, just for Oliver's awesome writing. 

A murder mystery, a girl's boarding school, a kick-ass heroine... While the title was a bit of a turn-off at first (sounded too much like Pretty Little Liars) as soon as I saw the cover and read the synopsis I was hooked. 

Honestly, I don't even remember entering the blog contest that I won this through. When I got this in the mail the other day I went on to Goodreads and found that it was about time travel. Since I love Time Travel, I'm certainly looking forward to this book.

Yes, I've already read this book. And I already have a copy. However, I was lucky enough to win another copy of it through a blog contest, which means that a certain friend of mine will be lucky enough to be getting this for a birthday present.... :)

This was pretty good week for me. I love getting books in the mail, opening the packages and just flipping through the pages or feeling their shiny covers. Maybe that sounds a little weird, but I just love books, the actual, physical books. Yes, I could imagine getting a Kindle, but nothing will ever replace the feeling of new books arriving in the mail. :)

IMM: Week of Dystopia (again!)

Anyone who's been reading this blog for awhile will know that I love dystopia, so I was super excited to have a week of virtually all dystopia, as well as a random contemporary and a paranormal romance thrown in there for some variety. Like last week, I've actually already read most of these books but I'll do the IMM post anyways. :)

I really didn't know what to expect from this book, and even a week after finishing it I'm still not sure what I though about it. It was both disgusting and completely scary... I don't regret reading it, but I won't read it again.

I did a First Impression post on this awhile back, and after some though I've decided not to read it. I was never too keen on the paranormal romance aspect, and I really don't care for the writing. I don't have enough time to waste on a book I don't think I'll like. 

This book is almost like someone decided to write a combination of my favourite genres: dysopia, Sci-fi, mystery... I absolutely loved the plot. A new favourite. 

I read this virtually in one sitting since it's so short. It wasn't as good as I was expecting, but Gayle Foreman is certainly a good writer and I look forward to reading Where She Went.

After enjoying Incarceron I'm looking forward to reading this sequel. I've read the first fifty pages and I think the beginning is even better than the previous book. I just hope the plot twists hold up. 

So, there you  have it. None of these are absolute favourites, but Across the Universe was quite good and I have high hopes for Sapphique. Have you read any of these books? Do you want me to post a review for any of these soon?

IMM: A week behind

This week was rather random, with books ranging from a sort of dystopia to contemporary to time travel. This week is also unique because (since I haven't posted an IMM in a couple weeks) I've actually read all these books. So I'll be able to tell you why I read these books, and a little bit about how I liked them.

I had high hopes for this book. The whole idea of an asteroid hitting the moon and throwing everything off sounded really interesting to me. Unfortunately, this book just felt boring and I had to force myself to finish it. 

This book, the companion novel to Life as We Knew It was slightly more interesting. Same premise, but since it was set in NYC it had a little more action. 

This story, about two girls who used to be friends but now are enemies, singing against each other in a prestigious competition, was much better than I expected. Sara Bennett Wealer is a masterful writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this story, even though I'm normally not a contemporary fan. 

Sadly, I didn't finish this book. I read the first couple chapters and didn't care for it at all. It felt just like what they're doing on Doctor Who with Riversong, only it wasn't near as cool. The writing threw me off, the characters seemed flat... I'm not going to write a review for it, since I only read about fifty pages, but I wasn't enjoying it at all.

So, that's what I got in my mailbox this (or rather, last) week. Have you read any of these books? Do you have them on your To-read list? Also, do you like it when I do IMM for books I've already read, or would you rather have me do it before I read them?

IMM: Week of Dystopia

I didn't specifically plan to get so much dystopia from the library this week, but I guess since that's my favourite genre, it just kind of happened. I also got a couple books that are slight twists on normal dystopia, such as The Dead Tossed Waves which is more of a post-apocalyptic, and Leviathan which seems to be an alternate past story... but we'll see. Still, lots of great action novels which I can't wait to read.

I FINALLY got to read this wonderful book last week. It moved a little slower than I would have hoped, but the characterization was wonderful. Review coming soon.

I'm half way through this right now and it's better than the first one but I'm still don't really like the characters that much. I'll see how it goes. Probably three stars. 

I'm not exactly sure why I ordered this one because I thought it was a MG fantasy, but I just learned that it's actually a YA dystopia, so I'm really excited to read it now. 

I've been eager to read this book ever since I heard it was a book about abortion in a dystopian world. I'm interested to see how he handles such a tough subject.

I just realized how weird it is to be reading this right after Unwind, but it will be interested to get two very different treatments of the subject of organ donors. 

I have read the Pretties series yet, but I've heard that they were pretty good, so I'm looking forward to this other series. It looks like alternate history, sort of steampunk, so it should be good.

And that's what I got in my mailbox this week! I'm pretty excited about all these reads, so it's too bad that I have a really busy weekend with my final exam on Monday, so I won't have much time to read. 

Over to you... what did you get in your mailbox this week? Have you read any of these books, or are they on your TBR pile? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

IMM: Week of Paranormal Romance

This wasn't done on purpose by any means, since Paranormal Romance is certainly not my favourite genre out there, but I ended up with three out of the four books this week being paranormal. They aren't stories I normally would have read, but when I won them, I decided to give them a try.

Inkpop had a writing challenge a couple weeks ago based on this book, and (thank you Tara Hudson!) I won it. My other three books arrived last week, but I just finally got this one, and I feel kinda cool because it's release date isn't until June 8th. :)

This is the only book here that's really my sort of style. A post-apocalypse world where they live in the middle of the forest and try to stay away from Zombies... And the title! I love it.

I had heard a lot of mixed opinions about this book, anything from 'This is as stupid as Twilight!' to 'I can't stand Twilight, but this is good' so I put it on my to-read list.

I won this 'accidentally' in a giveaway (as in, I entered because it was easy and I didn't think I'd win) and then it turns out I did win, and then I read it and didn't like it that much, so... Giveaway coming up!

Over to you... have you read any of these books? Are you jealous that I get a copy of Hereafter early? Are you a fan of The Forest of Hands and Teeth? Do you think Hush, Hush/Crescendo are just Twilight repeats? Any suggestions for books I absolutely must read over the summer? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

IMM

This week's IMM features a number of books I've been absolutely dying to read for a long time. Many thanks to HarperCollins for running weekly writing challenges over on inkpop.com, and thanks to Tara Hudson, author of Hereafter, for choosing my except from The Web as one of the winning entries. Thanks to that, I got to choose three books from HarperTeen. Time for a bunch of dystopias:

Delirium! I'm not a huge fan of romance, but I've heard so many good things about this book that I just had to give it a try. Plus, I love a good dystopia.

DIVERGENT! I've you've been reading my blog you'll know how much I wanted this book. As soon as it arrived in the mail I sat down and read it in just over a day. I'll probably post my full review on Thursday, but let's just say I really loved it. 

This is a book I hadn't really considered getting; I was planning on ordering Bumped by Megan McKafferty instead. Then I read some not-so-good reviews for that book and some amazing reviews for this, so I decided to give it a try. Who doesn't like fairy tale re-tellings? 

I didn't get this one in the inkpop contest; it's Random House, not HarperTeen. I picked it up from the library because I heard a lot about it and (you guessed it) it's a dystopia. I'm nearly done it now and it's good, but not quite what I had hoped.

That's it for my mailbox this week. Have you read any of these books, or are they on your to-read list? What did you get in your mailbox this week?

IMM

This week's IMM is going to be pretty short, despite the fact that it's spanning two weeks. Basically, I've been reading a lot of Shakespeare recently since my course starts today. I have a test on Wednesday already (on Macbeth) so I'm working on my second read-through. I've got to say, Shakespeare makes a lot more sense the second time around, after reading a synopsis...

Anyways... on to the books.

I caught a friend reading this one day and she said it was fairly good, so I promptly arranged to steal borrow it from her. She loved it at first, but after a second reading said it wasn't as good, so I'll see what I think.

I still haven't read Pretty Little Liars, but the premise of this story (girl finds out that she has a twin sister who was just murdered because of a secret) sounds a lot more interesting. 

Normally any book with a title like that would NOT interest me. I'm not counting on this to become a favourite of mine, but I've heard that Sarah Ockler writes really good characters and emotions, so I'm looking forward to it. 

So, that's it for me. What did you get in your mailbox this week? Have you read any of these books? Do you have anything you'd like me to read/review? I'm always looking for more great books! And just so you know, feel free to add me on Goodreads. I'll accept any request, as long as you tell me you read my blog. 

New Posting Schedule and IMM

Since it's summer for me, and my posting has been so much more frequent already, I decided I might as well start a new schedule. Here it is: 


Sun- ------
Mon- IMM
Tues- Random writing tip
Wed- Spotlight on a Classic
Thurs- Book Review
Fri- -----
Sat- How to get published


And since today is a Monday, that means it's time for IMM. Nothing physically arrived in my mailbox this week, but I visited the library, and I have a friend who's lending me a book.

I actually just finished it last night. Let's just say that I have really mixed feeling about this book, and a really long review is coming soon. 

I'm currently reading this. It's a book on teen pregnancy, which is normally not the sort of thing I'd read, but it's based on the song Scarborough Fair, which I've always loved, so it intrigued me.

This is a sequel to a companion novel of Ender's Game, which, if you haven't read it already, you really should. Orson Scott Card writes extremely good Sci-Fi.

This is a mystery set in a remote part of Canada, both of which make me really hope it's good. I love mysteries, and stories set in Canada are more relateable to me. I've read some not so positive reviews for it, though, so I'm not sure if I'll care for it. 

Over to you... is there anything you'd like to see more of on my blog? Any books you'd like me to review, or writing issues I should address? Have you read any of the books IMM? And what's on your reading list this week?

IMM

I don't know if this will actually be a weekly thing, but I just wanted to share with you some of the books that actually arrived in my mailbox today. Well, the courier brought them. Whatever. About a month ago I won a contest on inkpop involving books turned into movies/TV shows, and for a prize I got these four books:

I'm really looking forward to this read. My friends have told me the movie was good (I haven't seen it yet) and the whole idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling with modern day highschoolers sounds pretty cool. I'll let you know what I think of it within the next couple weeks. 

 This series seems to be wildly popular, so I'm willing to give it a go. Highschool drama really isn't my thing, though, especially when it involves girls crushing on their teachers, or their female friends, so I don't know...

Same with Pretty Little Liars... If I really don't like the first one, I won't even read this.

In case I don't like them, who's up for a giveaway? :)

Some of you will know that I've already read this book and didn't really care for it that much. Since I already own it, I'll probably be giving this away to my friend. She's lucky that it turned out to be a really nice hardcover with dustjacket and everything. It even has a sneak peak of The Power of Six... Maybe I'll keep this version for myself and give her the other one? 

No... this didn't come in my mailbox. I wish! I read the first hundred pages on HarperTeen and I absolutely can't wait 'till the May 3rd release date. I've read an awful lot of positive reviews, so it seems like this is going to be a big release. 

That's enough of me. What did you get in your mailbox this week? Any big releases you can't wait to get your hands on? I'd love to hear what you guys are reading!