Top 10 Tuesday #6

Top Ten Tuesday is that weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, where bloggers are given a topic and make a list of 10 (or more) items belonging to the topic.

 

 

Top Ten Authors I Really Want To Meet! 

So who do I really want to meet!? I have 10 talented and beautiful queens of writing that I would love to meet! So without further ado lets meet those that I hope to one day have the pleasure of meeting!

        The Hogwarts Queen: J.K. Rowling      

 The Friendship Queen: Emery Lord

 

                       The Ardalan Queen: Sarah J. Maas                       

The Witchland Zombie Queen: Susan Dennard 
 

 

                      The Queen of Fate: Chelsea Fine                        
The Queen of Rusk: Cora Carmack
 

 

                        The Queen of Wonderland: A.G. Howard                          
The Raven Queen: Maggie Stiefvater 
 

                    The Queen of Lunar: Marissa Meyer                    

The Queen of Oreos: Becky Albertalli

I'm interested as to who YOU would really like to meet! Let me know below in the comments! Also let me know what you have to think about the titles I bestowed on these wonderful ladies.

ARC Review - Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein

Title: Becoming Jinn (Becoming Jinn #1)
Author: Lori Goldstein
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Release Date: April 21, 2015
Format: ARC  
Rating: 4/5 Stars

Forget everything you thought you knew about genies!

Azra has just turned sixteen, and overnight her body lengthens, her olive skin deepens, and her eyes glisten gold thanks to the brand-new silver bangle that locks around her wrist. As she always knew it would, her Jinn ancestry brings not just magical powers but the reality of a life of servitude, as her wish granting is controlled by a remote ruling class of Jinn known as the Afrit.

To the humans she lives among, she’s just the girl working at the snack bar at the beach, navigating the fryer and her first crush. But behind closed doors, she’s learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny.

Mentored by her mother and her Zar “sisters”, Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn . . . and that her powers could endanger them all. As Azra uncovers the darker world of becoming Jinn, she realizes when genies and wishes are involved, there’s always a trick.

Now I wasn't sure how well I was going to like Becoming Jinn, because out in the blogging world Becoming Jinn is one of the books, I pretty much discovered was one that was loved or not. So when I got the ARC (after release date BTW), I decided to give it a shot and see what would happen. What did happen was that I was one of those in the blogging community who enjoyed it. So without to much more rambling from me, I'll get into it.

Azra being the main character and the girl who is becoming a full fledged genie, she wasn't what I was expecting her to be like. She didn't want any of this and she still doesn't want anything to do with her heritage. Now normally something like this would be a turn off for me but it worked for her. Now I know what your thinking, a girl who's a genie and doesn't want to grant wishes, what's up with that. As Mr. Gold says in OUAT "All magic comes at a price" and it's the truth within this story. The other characters were all charming in their own ways and even those who got under my skin, I found myself loving because of the role they played. Even stubborn, angsty, does things her own way Yasmin became a favorite of mine.

The romance on the other hand drove me a bit insane, because Nate and Henry and Azra. I just wish that on this end Azra would have made up her mind. It kind of seemed to me that she was starting to make up her mind and then it changed. More than once. Even with the ending, I'm still not sure how I feel because I still have no idea who. Can you say I'm one confused guy with this right here. 

Lori Goldstein really knew what she was doing because she threw me a plot twist that I would have NEVER seen coming no matter how I looked at it. Understanding that male and female Jinn aren't allowed to live with their families and the female Jinn population lives on Earth and don't know who their fathers are, did make for an interesting case. Being ruled under the Afrit made things more complicated and a much more thrilling read. I read the entire book in a day because it was a story that drew me in.

Are there things that I wished had been done differently? Sure but no matter what book it is, I'll always have that wish. Still for a book about genies, it was one that broke the stereotypes about 3 wishes, magic lamps and all that jazz and gave it a little twist, that had me loving most of it. The parts I didn't like were few and far between. Overall I have to say I can't wait for the second installment.

Sunday Recap

Weekly Recap: 5/3-5/9

 So just in case you may have missed what went down this week on The Guy's Side here is my very first weekly recap!

Monday: A Magic Dark and Bright Review

Tuesday: Engage Release Day Blitz and Giveaway

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday #5

Friday: Beauty and a Book #1

Saturday: Stacking the Shelves #5 

So not the most productive week in the way of reviews, it is actually my first productive week I've had since I started blogging. I'm really hoping that I can keep this up and start posting stuff daily, or almost daily like it was this past week.What all did you guys enjoy about the blog this week? 

I did give the blog a bit of a makeover this week as well! I have to say I'm loving it much more than my original all green background.

Stay tuned for the upcoming week when I have even more stuff planned to write about, including a couple of reviews that are a bit overdue. Ah well better late than never am I right?

Have You Seen This (part 2)

Have You Seen This?

As the book nut that I am there are some ARCs that I'm in search of and thanks to Andi at Andi ABCs and Brittany at Book Addicts Guide for creating have you seen this to help collectors find those hard to get books to finish their collections.

So what I'm looking for are ARCs of:

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Unhinged by A.G. Howard

Ensnared by A.G. Howard

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard

Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas

The Boyfriend Project by Rachel Hawthorne

The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson 

If you have any of these or know anybody who does tell them to look me up and I'll see what I can do in return! Thank you!!

Stacking the Shelves #5 aka the J. Lynn Edition and mega ARC haul

Graphic does not belong to me and belongs to Tynga's Reviews

Stacking the Shelves is a way for bloggers to showcase what new books they have gotten from the library, purchased, received, anyway possible actually and this meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
Now I call this the J. Lynn Edition for a reason just because of my physical books, which y'all will understand soon enough.  

For Review:

Thank You Patchwork Press and NetGalley for approving my requests!

 Physical Books:

Wait For You - Wait For You Series # 1
Be With Me - Wait For You Series # 2
Stay With Me - Wait For You Series #3
Fall With Me - Wait For You Series #4
Trust In Me - Wait For You Series #1.5

Also I have an amazing bookstore who very generously let me go through their ARCs while I was in and well because there was so many amazing ARCs and (most are April/early May ARCs) I managed to come away with these beauties!

 

So tell me what did you get this week? Leave a comment below!

Beauty and A Book

Beauty and a Book was created by Heather over at The Turning Pages and its all about a character from a book and what makes them beautiful. Well since I missed the first week, I'm doubling up with two characters (of course they happen to be in the same book).

So without further ado I want to focus on Sarah "Pixie" Marshall from Best Kind of Broken by Chelsea Fine!

Pixie Marshall is a girl who is both beautiful in looks and on the inside and I'm hoping that I can do her justice with how beautiful she actually is. I'm going to get this out of the way and say that Pixie with her green eyes, blonde hair, and just overall general good looks  makes her a beauty in that regard alone.

The other factors that makes Pixie so down right beautiful as a character is after everything she has been through, she might be "broken" but she gets through it all with her determination, strength, her ability to love herself. Even when she blames herself for stuff that happened in the past, Pixie is still trying to make her way through and not just give up; when things get rough.

Her being an artist is just another one of the things that makes her beautiful, because she puts herself into her work and depending on her mood; her paintings reflect that. 

Now my second beautiful character is Levi Andrews, also from Best Kind of Broken and is a guy. Yes I know a guy that I wanted to touch on about him being beautiful as a character and isn't the most typical choice. 

A lot like Pixie in the regards that he is good looking with his dark hair, chiseled body, and bright blue eyes that are flecked with silver doesn't mean that he doesn't have other qualities going for him. Levi is also broken but he wants to be able to move on again; even if life throws him some curve balls. Wanting to protect Pixie and make everything right again makes him beautiful; given their history. 

Poor Levi also has a lot of his own issues that makes him stronger because while he lets them run his life for a while, he is attempting to put everything back in to order. So what traits make him a beautiful character? His looks for one, followed by his wanting to make things right; protectiveness which he's had since a young age. He's just an all around broken kind of guy but being broken is part of who he is. 

Both Levi and Pixie are broken and by being broken they are both insanely more beautiful than just what their looks convey! So thank you Chelsea Fine for the characters and Heather from the Turning Pages for starting this. I loved writing this post!

Waiting on Wednesday #5

With a certain book coming out in less than a week from this post I knew that this was going to be my WoW this week. So which book am I dying to get a hold of!? None other than Cora Carmack's ALL PLAYED OUT!

Amazon   Barnes and Noble

In the third book in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack’s Rusk University series, a good girl is about to find out what happens when she creates the ultimate college bucket list and she sets her sights on a jock.

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.
Straight A’s? CHECK.
On track to graduate early? CHECK.
Social life? …..yeah, about that….

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca’s beginning to worry that maybe she hasn’t had the full college experience. (Okay... Scratch that. She knows she hasn't had the full college experience). 

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a "to do" list of normal college activities.

 Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he’s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it's impossible to get hurt... again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she's never known.  But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he's willing to take the chance when it's more than just a game. 

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

So why am I excited for Rusk University #3? Following the wonderful reads that are All Lined Up and All Broke Down and meeting Dallas, Carson, Dylan and Silas; I'm dying to meet Nell and Torres. Cora has a way with words and a way of making football and college years and turning them into something that I love to keep reading. The romance, the characters, the FOOTBALL; all of this goes into making one of the greatest series ever. Besides I really want to know if I can add Nell to my list of dream girls along with Dallas and Dylan. Knowing Cora's writing style Nell is going to be on my list ;). Anyway ALL PLAYED OUT is due out next Tuesday! The date being May 12th, 2015! I added links for you to pre-order if you so wish ;).