Love? Maybe. by Heather Helper

Synopsis from Goodreads : Just because Piper's birthday is on Valentine's Day does not mean she's a romantic. In fact, after watching her father and then her stepfather leave, she's pretty sure she doesn't believe in love at all. Then her friends concoct a plan to find them all Valentine's dates, and somehow Piper finds herself with the most popular guy in school. But true love never follows a plan, and a string of heartfelt gifts from a secret admirer has Piper wondering if she might be with the wrong guy.

In this heartwarming romance, true love is more than a maybe - and it might be closer than you think.

Number of pages: 288
My review: This book was so cute! Piper, our main character, is a no nonsense hardworking young girl who, although sometimes a little ditzy and clueless, was an awesome character to read about. She works in a chocolate shop (cue me getting hungry and having insane cravings for chocolate every few pages) and is a girl who hates Valentine's Day. Since I also hate Valentine's Day I absolutely loved this fact about her.
Her friends, Claire and Jillian, were sort too wishy-washy for me. One minute I liked them and they were being cool and supporting her, but then the next they would get all mysterious and I had no idea why. And nothing was really explained in the end.
The whole story line was a little blah and a little predictable for me so that's really why I gave it a four. I just couldn't feel the connection with Piper and her love interest and it just seemed a little far fetched that I was kinda doubting the end of the book.
However, the story was adorable and it was a quick read with very simplistic writing that boosted the score up for me and this book reminded me of stuff I would read when I was in my Freshman year of high school. All that hope, but slight cynicism, and of course a romance! Not to mention boys fighting over girls, lot's of homework, texting, and general teenage girl behaivor. It was very innocent but very not too, since the book touched on other subjects such as Piper's mother going through two divorces. Yikes. But Piper, being the outspoken girl she is, does not shy away from expressing her feelings about anything from candy to crushes. I loved that!
Plus I just love that name, Piper. So cute!
See you soon!

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End of Summer Read-A-Thon Hosted by Turning Pages and YA Bookmark

Hey everyone! Just a heads up I will be participating in the End of Summer Read-A-Thon hosted by Turning Pages and YA Bookmark! And you should too!

Here is a link to the sign up page and use these buttons on your blog to promote the challenge too! There will be giveaways and prizes and it all starts August 9 and runs until August 12!
Here's the complete info:
What is The End of Summer Read-A-Thon?

The End of Summer Read-A-Thon is hosted by me (Lisa) from Turning Pages and Audris from YA Bookmark; running from August 9th through August 12th. The End of Summer Read-A-Thon is a long weekend filled with books, challenges, giveaways and other special posts.
What do you do?

All you have to do is gather up a big stack of books, either summer themed, or books you planned on finally reading this summer, and start reading and don’t stop until Monday August 12th!! I plan on reading books that have been sitting on my shelf for months now, unread. Also tons of giveaways, challenges, and special posts are planned out on both Turning Pages and YA Bookmark, so it’s easy to be able to join in on the fun!

How to take part?

All you have to do is fill out the form below, with all the information required, and you’ll be in! The information to take part in giveaways and challenges will be listed in each post.

What can you get?

Besides finally finishing those unread TBR books, each day Audris and I will host giveaways on our blogs! That means eight giveaways in four days!! Yes eight! Besides that, each day will hold a new challenge on both Turning Pages and YA Bookmark, completing each challenge will add another entry in our final HUGE giveaway! So yes, actually nine giveaways in four days! The more challenges you complete, the greater your chance is to win our final giveaway!

And what will I be reading? Well....

I'll definitely be listening to an audiobook (not sure which yet still trying to decide. Check back for more updates on that)

But I'll be reading Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, Sweet Valley High Super Edition: Perfect Summer, and finishing up with Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae.

Hopefully I can get through all of those! We'll see and I may change the books later on who knows!

Happy reading! What will you be reading? Leave a comment below!

See you soon!

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Cum Laude by Cecily von Ziegesar

Synopsis from Goodreads: They're here for a higher education . . . and you won't believe how far they'll go.

Dexter College is a small liberal arts college in the quiet town of Home, Maine. But it won't stay quiet for long with this group of freshmen. There's Shipley--blonde and beautiful, the object of envy and more than a little lust. Determined to assert herself and to shed her good-girl image, she buys cigarettes and condoms, because that's what every self-respecting college girl does. Her edgy roommate, Eliza, came to Dexter to get noticed, and she has the attitude and the mouth to prove it. Then there's Tom. Handsome, privileged, used to getting his own way, he's a jock-turned-artist who thinks his paintings will change the world. Sensitive Nick, Tom's wake-and-bake pot-smoking roommate, wants to follow in the footsteps of his boarding-school hero. And then there are brother and sister Adam and Tragedy Gatz. The freckle-faced farm boy lives at home with his parents and his little sister, who does all she can to stop him from being a wuss.

As Shipley, Eliza, Tom, Nick, and Adam find out, that first year of college is more than credits and cramming. Between the lust and the love, the secrecy and the scandal, they'll all receive an unexpected education. It's a time of shifting alliances, unrequited crushes, and coming of age. Find Yourself is Dexter's motto. And they are determined to do just that.

Number of pages: 259
My review: I love the Gossip Girl novels but I seriously hated this book.
I'm supposed to write about what was going on? Well I have no idea what was going on because it was just a bunch of word vomit throughout the book.
I hated the switching character viewpoints and how there was so many characters that I just didn't care about. They had no backstory, weren't interesting, and overall just annoyed me and seemed so fake.
I thought I'd like this because it's set in a small liberal arts college (which is the type of school I'll be attending in the fall) but come on. I didn't get why it was set in the 90's so I didn't understand half the references. Plus, it was all about sex and drugs which not only make me uncomfortable, but it's just set such a bad example for teens.
Let me show you a couple of lines from the book I just thought were laughable.
Page 103: "Drugs were his last and only hope."
Literally when I read this I said "What the hell!?" So I skipped ahead a few pages and landed here...
Page 174: "Meanwhile, Tom was getting ready for the play in the only way he knew how: drugs."
What the serious *%@$!
Half the time I was reading this I was having a succession of thoughts that sort of sounded like this:
"When is this going to be over?"
"Is this going to get interesting anytime soon?"
"How many pages do I have left?"
"Can I skip ahead 50 pages and still understand what's going on?"
"Screw it I'll just read the last couple chapters."
"Well, no idea what happened inbetween but now I have a little closure."
"What's for breakfast?"
I just didn't care! There was no point to the whole story! Give me something to latch onto and care about. Don't just spew random paragraphs! There was literally whole, big, chunks of paragraphs where there was a list of all the financial aid job options there were, or how the weather was for the whole month of November. I literally do not give a crap at all about the damn weather.
Also, what the hell kind of name is "Shipley"?? No.
Just skip this it's not worth your time or money. Unfortunately I wasted my time and $7.95 on it.
See you soon,

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Stacking the Shelves #18

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews. Stacking the Shelves is a way to show off what books you have received throughout the week (whether they be for review, from the library, etc.)

This week: July 21-July 28, 2013

Bought at local used bookstore in Vegas:

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Cum Laude by Cecily von Ziegesar

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Bought at local used bookstore in California:

Love, Maybe? by Heather Helper

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Received as a gift from my (awesome) boyfriend:

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Received for review from the author:

The Vampire's Daughter by Shayne Leighton

The Vampire's Reflection by Shayne Leighton

        

           

What did you get this week? Link it up below!

See you soon,

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Bookshelf Tour

So last night was my first day at home in 5 weeks (since I've been working) and of course the first thing I did was reorganize my shelves. I was up until 1 in the morning doing this *hides in shame* but I think the look pretty nice.

Here's the overview:

So they are all arranged alphabetically by author's last name. Except for that shelf on the right hand side and third down. That one is only classics. Oh and the top two shelves are my big series' like Gossip Girl and The Clique. Also, all the little dots on the spine mean I haven't read those books. I know what you're saying: "But Paige there's so many dots!" 

Trust me. I know.

Anyways here's the individual shelves:

This shelf has books by Jen Calonita, Zoey Dean, and Cecily von Ziegesar

This shelf has books by Lauren Conrad, Joanna Philbin, Zoey Dean, and Lisi Harrison

Applegate-Christopher

Clare-Elkeles

Elkeles-Hawthorne

Hawthorne-Lasky

Leighton-Patterson

Patterson-Smith

Snadowsky-Westerfeld

Westerfeld-Zusak and my Sweet Valley High books (also my yearbooks and that random feather duster...)

Classics

I also have another shelf in my room which has:

More classics

Mostly Agatha Christie mysteries

Romances, Cornelia Funke books, and George R. R. Martin books.

So yeah that's my crazy shelves! Sorry about the bad quality of the pictures but I just snapped these with my phone real quick. Maybe I'll do another video tour soon..

Hope you enjoyed!

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Losing It by Cora Carmack

Synopsis from Goodreads: Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Number of pages: 288
My review: (Side note: totally wish I had the cover pictured here. I like it so much better than the one I have which is here:

This being the second New Adult (ugh I hate that phrase) book I've ever read I didn't have much to compare it to, but I digress. I still liked it! It just wasn't very though provoking or a very deep novel.
Don't get me wrong I loved this book I just had a couple...issues with it. I just felt the ending was sort of meh, and the whole thing felt so fake. Like it could never happen.
Of course it was very steamy and I liked the romance between the two, the passion. It just seemed like the way things worked out, it never would that way in the real world.
It was interesting to read a book from the point of a view of a girl who was graduating college. I'm not used to that (but then again I haven't read very many New Adult books). I liked the interaction between all the friends and how close everyone felt. Even though at times, it just seemed that Bliss was a little impossible to be friends with. Always blushing or moping and thinking "I'm not beautiful!"
So, I guess what made me like this so much despite the little things I just mentioned was the overall premise of the book. The overall plot and storyline.
There were just little blips along the way that caused me to have some issues with the characters. Irregardless it's one of those guilty pleasures and I can't wait to get my hands on Faking It.
Definitely think you should be a little older if you're going to be reading this one though (there's quite a bit of naughtiness and cursing in it!)
See you soon!

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The Shining by Stephen King

Synopsis from Goodreads: What of the penetrating cold terror of an old hotel, a haunted place of seductive evil with a malevolent will of its own - and a five-year-old boy of innocent beauty whose mind mirrors the nightmarish secrets of its past?

Behind every door of the Overlook's 110 empty rooms there is a chamber o horror. Little Danny knows of these things because he has the terrible power - The Shining.

Number of pages: 447
My review: REDRUM. REDRUM. This book not only thrilled me, but terrified me. I swear to you I had nightmares because I was reading it before bed.
So I (mistakenly) watched the movie before reading the book and it's so different! Which you all probably know because I think I'm like the only person who has never read/watched The Shining. Either way I loved both equally!
The Shining (book) was just soo...creepy! Never in my life have I read a book that has creeped me out so much. Stephen King's descriptions are so in depth and full of beautiful and deadly imagery.
I love how the book really builds up to the very end. We really see how the different characters descend into the madness of the Overlook Hotel and why each person is the way they are.
It really struck me how the dumbest things could suddenly seem terrifying. (The scene that scared me the most is when that dog is following Danny and is actually human. Oh gosh) It wasn't the blood and gore that scares you it's the mental stuff. The fact that a building could have its own thoughts and feelings or that past occupants could come back and take over your mind. Like our own bodies and minds turn against us and we become a separate human being.
I really like how The Shining delves into poor Danny's confusion about his power and ability to read other's thoughts and see past events. It put a whole other twist on the story and sort of showed how it wasn't the characters fault that they went crazy, it was more the spirits and past people of the hotel.
Overall, I think Stephen King is a friggin genius and I cannot wait to read The Stand (the next on my list!)
Sometimes it got a little slow or repetitive but I always felt in the end that it was necessary to really enunciate a point throughout the whole book so the whole thing worked really awesomely and fantastically and other words for cool and great!
See you soon!

P.S. My review does not do this book justice. Just go read it. Seriously

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Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky

Synopsis from Goodreads: With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel toAnatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love--romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl.

After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one. 

The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.

But I couldn’t avoid my future forever. 

In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.

Number of pages: 227
My review: Daria Snadowsky does it again folks! Her writing is so deeply personal, almost as if she were giving me advice instead of writing a novel.
So, basically I loved the sequel as much as the first book Anatomy of a Boyfriend. Dom, our main character, is going through the motions again of heartbreak, confusion, and most importantly, love. Even after her senior year/first year in college she still feels inexperienced and confused as ever over what boys are thinking and how they feel about her. I love how Dom sort of struggles with her own inner feelings because let's face it, what woman doesn't do that?
Anyway, Dom was hilarious as ever in this novel, and I loved how she maintained her relationship with her friend Amy because I think too often in YA fiction we see friendships overlooked and pushed to the side. Through all of Dom's inner emotional confusion she always had her friend by her side. Super cool.
There was seriously never a dull moment in this book! I was flipping through the pages as fast as I could and I wanted to know what would happen next. It was sort of that guilty pleasure you get when you're reading someone else's diary (psh, no I have not done that. Insert guilty look here). You just couldn't believe what your eyes were reading!
I like how Daria Snadowsky never held back in both her novels. She definitely told things like they were and wasn't afraid to write "sex" or "orgasm" on every other page. Although, for that reason I think girls who are a little older should be reading this. Don't go handing this off to some innocent middle school kid.
Also, maybe it was just me because I'm going off to college in a little under 6 weeks (eep!) but I loved the setting of college and also coming home for break. It's just such a huge exciting part of anyone's life and Daria Snadowsky did a really good job of portraying the excitement of college but also the dread of going to school (I mean come on, school is school. Yuck).
Overall, loved both Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Anatomy of a Single Girl. I think they both portrayed really well what girls are feeling a lot of the time, and helped me understand more about myself actually and what I want to look for in a future spouse, and in life in general. If you love romance and contemporary then you'll love these books!
See you soon,

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