Review: Into The Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

Title: Into The Wild Nerd Yonder
Author: Julie Halpern
Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars)
Hardcover, 245 pages
Published September 2009

I'm going to be completely honest here--when I first picked up this book, I thought it was going to be quirky and funny, but nothing that was specifically special. Nothing that could capture my complete attention and keep me glued to the pages nonstop for a full 24 hours, spending every waking second reading until I made sure I finished the book.

Boy, was I wrong.

For anyone who doesn't know what Into The Wild Nerd Yonder is, here's the book's description: 

It’s Jessie’s sophomore year of high school. A self-professed “mathelete,” she isn’t sure where she belongs. Her two best friends have transformed themselves into punks and one of them is going after her longtime crush. Her beloved older brother will soon leave for college (and in the meantime has shaved his mohawk and started dating . . . the prom princess!) . . .

Things are changing fast. Jessie needs new friends. And her quest is a hilarious tour through high-school clique-dom, with a surprising stop along the way—the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, who out-nerd everyone. Will hanging out with them make her a nerd, too? And could she really be crushing on a guy with too-short pants and too-white gym shoes?      

If you go into the wild nerd yonder, can you ever come back?

Like I said, I didn't think that I was going to be as invested in this book as I ended up being. I thought it was going to be a nice, light read--nothing special, something I would read to spend some of my free time, since I've been reading some pretty heavy stuff lately. But of course, also like I said, I was completely and utterly wrong. It took me less than a full day to finish Into The Wild Nerd Yonder--which isn't that amazing of a feat if it was the summertime, since I spend all of my nonexistent social life time reading...but no, this is my busiest time of the year with school and finals and state testing and BookCon and just everything being piled up at once...so yes, I did actually carve out time in my schedule to make sure that I finished this book.

So what did I like, and what didn't I like?

Let's start with what I liked. I expected Jessie to be a boring character. Which is a pretty terrible thing to say, since we share the same name, read the same books...awkward. I guess if I expected her to be anything like me, it wouldn't be a book about anyone special. But Halpern made Jessie's voice and the story from her point of view capture my attention, and wow, I was hooked. I especially liked how Jessie was supposed to be the quiet "kid sister," the shy and innocent girl. But her inner thoughts (and sometimes even the things she said to Bizza or her brother, Barrett) made my eyes pop open wide and got a "Wow, pretty brave move" laugh from me. 

Now, for the other side. There wasn't anything about this book that I outright disliked, so I can't really say I have any true dislikes. The only thing I wasn't satisfied with was the ending (and yes, I know--I am so incredibly picky with endings, and I whine about this a lot, but lately I've found it hard to find a book with a captivating ending). I mean, nothing about the specific ending (which I won't spoil for you guys) that I disagreed with. It's just that I was left with so many questions! 

Seriously...what happens with Bizza and Char and Jessie? Do they patch things up? Does Bizza's mom ever find out about what happened between her daughter and Van? What does happen with Van? Does he ever call those girls and tell them the truth? Does Barrett do that for him? Does Barrett get into NYU? Are Jessie and Henry an item? How do her parents react to that? Her brother? Her new, nerdy friends AND her old, "cool" friends?

Agh. So many questions and a million more racing in my head.

The only other thing that I had an issue with was the whole Fudwhalla thing. Jessie and her group spent a majority of the book planning and preparing for it, and then it takes all of 6-7 pages for the whole thing to go down. Obviously the whole scene was supposed to be the focus of where Jessie finally gets the guts to make a move on Henry, but there wasn't much coverage of the place itself and the events that took place there at all. Which was a bummer because I found that whole idea really interesting and thought I was going to read a little bit more about it.

All in all, Into The Wild Nerd Yonder was a delightfully refreshing read that I was very pleased with, and I really did like it. Props to Halpern for another great book, as always!

Well, that's all I have to say today! Check back soon for more awesome reviews from Amber, Emily (our newest Book Brat), and myself! And I hope to catch a lot of you at BookCon, too! #13Days!

Showcase Sunday (#1)

Showcase Sunday is a weekly event held by Books, Biscuits, and Tea were bloggers can show off their haul from the week. Whether you borrowed books from your local library or they were gifted to you. Here is my haul for my first week!

Look at all these books! What ever I read of them will be reviewed so be on the look out! 

What are you currently reading?

Review: Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer Armentrout

Title: Opal (Lux #3)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Romance, Supernatural, Science Fiction
Number of Pages: 382
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Year Published: 2012

Summary: 

No one is like Daemon Black.

When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well... There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on.

But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love.

After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Together we’re stronger... and they know it.

~~~~

Thirteen hours later and I still can't wrap my head around that ending. I am an emotional reader, and that ending. Whoa. I just want to cry. Jennifer Armentrout did in amazing job with her third book in the Lux series. 

Kat and Daemon are official! Ahh! (I think we all knew this though, right?) Their relationship is my favorite part of this series. They aren't a typical couple. They aren't even of the same species but that is beside the point. They are all lovey and mushy with each other, but they still argue and bicker. Deamon still has major ego issues, that Katy has fed into this book. 

The development of Deamon and Katy since Obsidian is amazing. Daemon isn't as infuriating anymore. Don't get me wrong, he is, just not as much. Example: 

“A slow, wry smile teased Daemon’s lips. "Simmer down, Kitten, before I have to get you a ball of yarn to play with." 

Annoyance flared deep inside me. "Don’t start with me, jerk-face.” 

"There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on..." You can say that again. I love books with lots of kissing in it. I am not embarrassed to admit it. This book did not fail to deliver at all. Especially in the romance department. Especially on Prom night what Daemon sets up for Katy. Talk about swoon worthy. 

 I will never like Blake. I don't care if there is money on the line. There is no way I will ever like that boy. After what he pulled last book and now he has black mailed Katy and Daemon into helping him or he will turn them into the DOD. Freaking weasel! 

Just when I thought Katy learned not to trust the boy. My blood is boiling over the end still. They should have never helped him and took their chances. Nothing good comes from helping Blake. I did enjoy the amount of time Daemon threatened to kill, maim, hurt, or destroy Blake, it was pretty entertain and earned a few laughs. 


I am keeping this review painfully short because I am afraid if I write anymore I would give away important things that will happen. Both good and bad of course! 

Rating: ★★★★★

HERE ARE A FEW QUOTES AND SAYING FROM THE BOOK I ENJOYED: 

“Oh, dear God and baby Jesus in the manger, my eyes!” Dee shrieked. “My eyes!”
My own eyes snapped open. Daemon lifted his head, eyes luminous. Then I realized my hands were still up his shirt. I yanked them out.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, mortified.
Daemon said something that burned my ears. “Dee, you didn’t see anything.” And then he added much lower, “Because you have impeccable timing.”
“You were on…her and your mouths were doing this.” I could just imagine her hand signals at that point. She went on. “And that’s more than I want to see. Like, ever.” 

- Dee to Katy and Daemon 

“I have the feeling we just made a deal with the devil, and he's going to come back and want our first-born child or something."

Daemon waggled his brows. "You want kids? Because you know, practice makes--"

"Shut up." I shook my head and started walking.”

- Katy and Daemon

 “A few seconds after he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him, there was a fleshly smack and then Andrew yelling, “Ouch. What in the hell was that for?” “Your timing sucks on an epic level,” Daemon shot back.”

- Daemon to Andrew (What could he have been interrupting? *wiggles eyebrows*)

 “He was such an asshole, and I loved him.” 

 - Katy about Daemon

“Daemon snatched the yellow packages from my hands. “Oh! Books! You have books!”
I laughed as several people waiting in line looked over their shoulders. “Hand them over.”
He clutched them to his chest, making moony eyes. “My life is now complete.”
“My life would be complete if I could actually post a review on something other than the school library computers.”
I did that about twice a week since my latest laptop went to the big computer heaven in the sky.” 

- Daemon to Katy  

*My parting message to Daemon*

-Amber xoxo

Review: The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: The Impossible Knife of Memory

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 Stars)

Hardcover, 391 Pages

Published January 2014

I'm going to start off by saying that when I picked up this book, I was expecting it to be an interesting and compelling one. I did not except literal, salty drops of water to drip down my face at the near-ending. (Yes, I will admit without shame that I cried.) This book caught me and dragged me in right away, and I followed it all of the way through 'till the end and I was satisfied with the ending, which is pretty significant since I haven't been satisfied with most of the books that I've been reading lately.

For those of you who don't already know, here's a description of The Impossible Knife of Memory:

For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own. Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over?

Let me start off by saying that I have a couple of members of my family who are in the military, so I instantly clicked with this book and wanted to read about how Hayley and her father dealt with his PTSD. Luckily, none of my family members have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but I've still heard stories and learned a thing or two about it.

And to be entirely honest, reading about Hayley's dad and his suffering was incredibly difficult. There were times that I had to put the book down and take a break for awhile because the sadness and the despair was just becoming too much to handle. Even though it was hard, I feel that Anderson pulled it off perfectly. She truly tapped into the mind of a soldier and wrote the entire story from the point of view of a family member who had to sit by and watch it all happen helplessly.

And the near-ending. Oh gosh, the near-ending. ***THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS, so if you don't want the book spoiled for you, feel free to skip this paragraph and move along to the next one.*** For all of you that have already read the book, the part where Hayley comes home from school and notices the door is locked made my heart begin to race, and somehow I just knew. Actually, no--I got suspicious and felt that something was up earlier than that, when Andy insisted that he had letters to write and that's what he spent all of his time doing. I mean, come on, that's a MAJOR red flag! (Army pun? Anyone? No? Okay.) And then she goes on to find the letters and the photo album after school that one day, when she came home and the door was locked when it never was, and especially letters that are dated for future Christmases, and my heart just broke right then and there. I thought her father was already dead. Which meant I began to bawl like a baby. 

I can't even explain why this book made me cry, because I've read suicide books and cancer books and books with dying and already dead parents and stuff like that never causes me to cry. Maybe it's Anderson's amazing writing style. Or maybe it's the fact that the book is based on a topic like the military, which is something that hits me close to home. But something tells me that isn't it, and that it's definitely Laurie Halse Anderson's ability to tug on your heartstrings and snap them clean off, because there are plenty of other people without military ties that said they cried exactly the same way.

Bottom line, I want to give Laurie Halse Anderson an enormous pat on the back for such a great book, one with the ability to shatter my heart and put it back together again all at once. She took a sensitive topic and wrote about it flawlessly, and I'm definitely going to be recommending this book to many, many people in the future.

Well that's all that I have to say for this review, besides the fact that wow, it feels so good to be able to write reviews again and start up this blog again! Hope you guys enjoyed my first review since I've been back, and there will be plenty more where this came from!

YA Book to Movie Adaption: The Fault In Our Stars

    June 6th is only 20 days away now and the TFIOS fandom is in a frenzy. I don't blame them though because I am as well! 
  
     Now I will admit I wasn't in the fandom from day one. It actually took a lot of begging on Jessica and Emily's part for me to actually pick up the book and read it. Weeks of begging finally paid off. I finished off the book in a little over five hours and me feels! My chest was hurting so bad. It was like one of those book wounds that would never heal (It hasn't yet)

      We all know the gist of The Fault in Our Stars. Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love. Denies her love. But describing it as "One sick love story was correct." I am the type of person who needs a science fiction or paranormal aspect for me to actually take interest in a book, I guess I am just not a fan of reality, but this book was something different and I loved every page of it. 

     Okay, I am worried about the movie though. I don't want it to end up like Beautiful Creatures, like the director didn't even read the book, added things that never happened and made no sense to the plot at all. The Metaphor quote is already screwed up a bit. Nothing big but it was enough that when me and Emily watched it for the first time we were a bit ticked off. Also Augustus tells Hazel that he loves her on the plane to Amsterdam, not in the restaurant. I liked how it is at the restaurant but it still makes me upset. 



   My thoughts on who they chose to play Gus and Hazel? They perfected it. In my opinion at least. The first time I saw a picture of Ansel I immediately thought of Gus. Especially being a new actor and already playing a major role in Divergent as well as the male lead in The Fault in Our Stars? Amazing! I may have a bit of an obsession with him too. Shai, I don't even know how to describe my feelings when I finally saw her in the trailer. She brought Hazel to life, her voice, actions the way she moves. Just everything. She also landed the role of Tris Prior in Divergent. 

    I didn't expect Nat Wolff to play Isaac I have no worries at all that he won't  nail it. It makes me even more excited. (I loved him when I was younger. He will always be the leader of the Naked Brothers Band) 


One of the things I am most looking forward for BookCon is the John Green panel! That was my main reason for writing this post. I know I have a million other things I want to talk about but I don't want to make this post seem to long. So I am going to end it off with the trailer and a few pictures! 

~ Amber xoxo