New Blogger on the Block

Hi guys! We'd like to welcome a new addition to The Teen Readers' team!

Patrick is just a fifteen year old Junior, so his bio will be short. Patrick is an extreme procrastinator. He is an academic achiever who seldom studies. He really loves to eat, and has a soft spot for chocolates. He loves to listen to Taylor Swift and 1D, and mind you, he's a hardcore fan of Taylor Swift. He was enchanted by books when he first read the Nancy Drew series when he was just on fifth grade. Up until now, he just read over 60 books because he's always busy hanging out with his friends, or just tweeting about books. Now, he sits by the window and busies himself on reading YA novel to make up for the lost time. His favorite authors include J.K. Rowling, Carolyn Keene, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Cassandra Clare, and Suzanne Collins.

Links:

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/loveko08

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/PattMarvin

Tumblr- http://epicsecrets.tumblr.com/

Welcome to the blog Patrick!!

Review: My Beginning by Melissa Kline

My Beginning by Melissa Kline

Paperback: 208 pages

Release date: July 1st, 2011

Publisher: Lucky Space, LLC

Source: Author

Amazon ││The Book Depository ││ Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Summary: My Beginning is told through the eyes of Ivory, a 16-year-old girl who has lived her entire life within the walls of an institution. The institution is one of many supposedly set up to protect those within from a worldwide plague. She and all of the other surviving children live a strict, mundane life full of tasks and responsibilities--forbidden to go outside, congregate or even look at the opposite sex. Despite the uncompromising atmosphere, Ivory manages to pique the interest of the only boy who did not grow up in the institution, creating a love affair neither of them expected. Multiple secret meetings take a turn for the worse when they are caught and severely punished, but through unexpected circumstances they find themselves on the outside. There is a lot more to the world than they could have ever imagined when they learn of a war and lifelike machines that threaten humankind. Ivory faces many unexpected challenges, and, ultimately, it is up to her to save Aidan and the world she has grown to love. (YA Fiction: science fiction, for ages 15 and up)

"My Beginning offers up familiar subject matter yet refreshingly showcases it from a seldom seen perspective. By setting the angst and torture of a teenage coming of age story against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic plague-ravaged society the reader gets to experience a world they've become accustomed to through the astonished eyes of Ivory, the story's protagonist. When you take Ivory's strong yet vulnerable character, throw in a shadowy corporatist boogey-man and his army of 'the machines' you end up with Cinderella meets Blade Runner. Kline's descriptive and lush writing style, reminiscent of Richard Matheson and early Stephen King paints a visually rich world with vibrant characters that keeps you turning pages till there's no more left to turn." - Sean Bishop, Dreamworks feature Animation

Children are sealed in an institution after a devastating plague. Ivory, dreams of the outside world and will risk everything for it. When she found her love interest, Aidan, they fought together to leave behind the institution and find the real truth about their world. 

My Beginning is a story full of twists and revelation. I never thought that a book with only 201 pages will leave me pine for another one. Ivory was a swayable, serene and self-effacing person. She dreams of the outside world inside the cold, hard walls of the institution and just kept it as it is, because she knows that no one will get out in the life of being locked in the institutions. But when Aidan, a boy who did not grow up on the same institution, comes to their institution a love affair begins. The two of them decided to get out from the institution after their affair was found out. Their escape is quick and uncomplicated; it was smooth all the way until they faced the real world. I love how Aidan and Ivory keep their meetings secret from the Mother Nurse. After the two of them come across other people who survived in the plague, they found asylum in a little community and soon found friends. Living on their new life was not that easy, as they discover the truth of what happened after the plague. I’ve read this book just a couple of hours and don’t want to leave it anymore. Its twist was shocking, because I’ve been carried away by the adventures of Aidan and Ivory I never thought that that “twist” would happen. The second characters were endearing too-Hydra, Rowen, Akela and the others. 

All in all it was an easy and fast-paced story; I love how readers could easily get the main notion of the story without having any difficulties. I just hoped that the love story of Aidan and Ivory would be more detailed. With the dystopian being a mainstream, Kline never gets me bore with her book. Love, understanding, struggles and genuineness are the things you will bump into the story. I’m looking forward for the next book I’ll definitely be one of the first readers if there is a sequel.;) 

Review and Giveaway (CLOSED): Flat-Out Love by Jessica Parker

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Paperback: 400 pages

Release date: April 11th, 2011

Publisher: Createspace

Source: Author

Amazon ││The Book Depository ││ Smashwords

Goodreads Summary: Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance. 

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.


When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.


And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.


To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer. 

This book deserves a whopping 5 stars. It has everything I want in a contemporary book and I am so glad I had the chance to read it. After discovering so many great indie books, Flat-Out Love especially caught my attention with its stunning cover and intriguing premise. I almost begged my mom to send it off to me in Baguio when the book arrived and picked it up as soon as I could. Well, I enjoyed and loved it so much it exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t put it down and when I had to, it was all I think about and I was so itchy to get back reading. I finished this two weeks ago and I admit that I had a hard time composing my thoughts, for the same reason that I still haven’t written a real review of On the Jellicoe Road. It has completely changed my view about self-published books. And I’m also starting to like YA stories with older characters. 

For one, Flat-Out Love was exactly what I needed the time I was reading it; light, fun, witty, moving, and very relaxing. It was a warmly compelling story that brought out the geek in me and made me forget about my real-life problems. Brace yourselves for laugh out loud moments that could shift into a serious and emotional one. It is not the usual kind of story that is serious, but it sure has a mystery I was very anxious to unfold. Largely part of the story deals with family issues and dysfunction mixed with romance, and Jessica Park’s absolute brilliance made it work. And speaking of romance, the one in this book is astounding. It was slowly built and pretty much involved the use of Facebook and email. The chats and statuses were absolutely fun to read. It would be so cool and exciting to at least have Julia, Matt, Finn and Celeste as a Facebook friend. 

Speaking of those four, I loved every single character in this book. They were so well thought out I couldn’t help but feel like they’re real people. They all have their peculiarity and quirks, which had me wanting them to become an actual living and breathing people. 

For me, this book is almost without a flaw. It’s one of those rare stories that I highly recommend everyone to read and enjoy. So I’m urging you to read this book and prepare to be flat-out inlove with it. 

Thank you so much to Jessica Park for providing me a copy of her book in exchange for an honest review. :)) 

Completely smitten!!

Because I loved it so much (and I’m sure you will too) I’m giving away an electronic copy of Flat-Out Love! Just leave a comment telling me your favorite Contemp book with your GFC name and email address. You can have +2 extra entries by sharing about the giveaway on Twitter/Facebook. :) Open internationally and ends two weeks from now.

The winner of an ecopy of Flat-Out Love is:

Melannie!!


Congrats! I will email you shortly and you'll have 72 hours to reply.

Clockwork Prince Trailer!!

If you haven't seen it, here it is; the official book trailer of the much anticipated Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare!

I love it and It's narrated by Ed Westwick <3!! I'm happy with the choice of actors, maybe except for Jem since he's supposed to be half-asian. Will is sooo handsome and the actor's pretty good. This made me even more excited than before. 7 days to go!


What do you think about the trailer?

In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme, hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. This feature allows bloggers to post about the books they bought, gotten from the library, and received for review.

For Review:

    

Parallel by Claudia Lefeve [Riz (Click link for the 5-heart review. :D)]

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park [Dea (finished this one and loved it! Review to be posted soon)]

Netgalley:

The Girl In the Park by Mariah Fredericks

Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore

The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mendelski

The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison
New Girl by Paige Harbison

Won:

The Guardian Legacy T-Shirt and bookmarks courtesy of Edna Walters [Riz]

Song of the Red Cloak by Chantel Acevedo [Riz]

Bought:

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry [Mary Ann (Been wanting these books for ages!! I'm so excited to read them.)]

Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry [Mary Ann]

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima [Mary Ann (]

Blood Red Road by Moira Young [Dea (loved this one too. Click link for review)]

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi [Dea]

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness [Dea (*stops self from fangirling* One of the best books I've read this year.. And the illustrations are AMAZING.)]

BIG thanks to Claudia Lefeve, Jessica Park, Chantel Avacedo and NetGalley!

What did you guys get in the mailbox this week?