The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Evolution of Mara Dyer is the sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer which I read earlier this summer. It is definitely a novel for older teen readers. It's a well-written book that I read in six hours, but the main character (Mara) is a tad too whinny for my taste. She doesn't have enough confidence in herself.

Mara can literally kill things with a thought, if she's under enough pressure. She's had a rough past that's explained in the first book. I feel for her, but she's always looking over her shoulder or whining. Plus, she's somewhat unreliable. Not completely, but sometimes. Though, everyone keeps telling her she's insane and eventually that would drive anyone mad. The guy character, Noah, is nice and everything, but way to full of himself. Take Jace from The Mortal Instruments, make him less hot and multiply his ego by ten and you get the picture.

Something that bothers me is that there was obviously some little history thing that I won't get into for spoiler reasons, but it's never explained. It comes up every few chapters, but nothing is thought of it. After Mara sees it, she forgets about it like it didn't exist. It's a decent book and an easy read (in my opinion). The plot is okay, but kinda weak. The book could have been better, but I still loved it. I give it four stars.

Goddess and The Mortal Instruments

Okay, two big announcements today! First off is TMI. You might have noticed a few posts back how I posted about two books by Cassandra Clare. The two books were in The Mortal Instruments (TMI) series. The first book, City of Bones, is being made in to a movie and comes out on August 23, 2013. The teaser trailer for the movie premiered last night on MTV.  Go to this link to see the trailer http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/856885/the-mortal-instruments-city-of-bones.jhtml. From what I can tell, the movie will totally do the book justice. Go to Cassandra Clare's website www.cassandraclare.com or her blog cassandraclare.tumblr.com for more.

Secondly, a few days ago, Josephine Angelini (an author I absolutely adore) released the cover of the last book in her Starcrossed trilogy, Goddess. It is amazing, spectacular, and she's killing me slowly. Check out her website www.josephineangelini.com for more.

I absolutely cannot wait! Check out her blog for a chance to win the first ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of Goddess.

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez and Jenna Glatzer

The Pregnancy Project is a memoir by Gaby Rodriguez. Her entire family had been teen parents. She was the youngest of the group, and had been told growing up that she would be the one in the family to amount to something. That she wouldn't be a teen parent. For her senior project in high school, she fakes a pregnancy to see how her community would react. From there on, she's told she wouldn't amount to anything. That she'd ruined her life. That her boyfriend (Jorge) was going to bail on her. All this negativity, no support. Even knowing that it was fake, it would have been a horrible experience to go through. She's definitely a strong young woman.

In the beginning of the memoir, I read about Gaby's family. Her mother dropped out of school in 8th grade to have a child. It almost broke my heart to see every one of her family members struggle with the same thing over and over again. She's decided that she's not going to be another statistic early on and that very much sets the tone of the book. From page one, I can tell that she's a very brave and strong girl. At the end of the book she states 'I am just one eighteen-year-old Latina girl from an economically disadvantaged town, raised by a single mom... By society's standards, people don't expect much of me. But I'm going to prove society wrong, and I hope you'll join me. Our time has come.' It is an amazing way to end the book and really shows how much one person can make a big difference.

The book was very well written. She cowrote it with another woman, which probably improved the writing even more. I picked it up from the library one evening and would have finished it in one evening if I'd had one more hour to read. I flipped through the pages like a whirlwind. I give this book a big fat FIVE stars.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I officially love Cinder. The only problem was that it was predictable, though that may be just me. The main character had one off to the side thought and I immediately knew the whole plot. Seriously, I knew something by chapter 8 that the main character found out on the absolute last page. Though I loved the build-up. If I hadn't figured out what was going on, I would have been even more pulled in.

The main character is named Cinder. She is a very strong heroine (and a cyborg-awesomesauce!) She's been pushed out of society and she would like to be accepted, but it's not her mission in life, which I like. Though she does swoon over this guy...oh well, I would too. I'm pretty sure almost any teen/tween reader would, though some of it does get a little too weird (seriously, emperors?) Cinder is also very loyal. She continually takes great risks to make sure her stepsister, not even blood related, is all right. Is that dedication or what?

Cinder takes place in another country, which I like. Most books I read take place in America or made up magical countries where some evil king is killing everybody and hates magic (happens every time, what are we going to do with all these evil kings I ask you). Some books take place in England or the lead guy has an English accent, but that's just about it. This takes place in a future China, and though it's not a super accurate look at their society, it really makes me feel as though I've traveled farther than my bedroom door. All in all, it's an amazing book. I give it 4.5 stars (sorry foreshadowing).

Shadow of the Mark Cover Reveal

Okay, I know I'm a few days behind on this one. But whatever. I just saw it and immediately fell in love. Shadow of the Mark is the sequel to Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon. I'm super excited for the book, which comes out on July 9th. As far as I know, there's been no description released, yet. Oh, and if you took place in the Winter (I think it was winter) YA Scavenger Hunt, you would have gotten a one page sneak peek at the book. Let me tell you, that one page had me jumping out of my seat. Now, here's the cover.

Let's hear what you think about the cover. The author says the darker colors reflect the darker tone of the book, so I bet it's going to be good!