Top Ten Tuesday (almost a week late) - Hilarious book titles

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by: The broke and The bookish, and here on Hooked on Books we have also decided to join.

I know exactly what you are thinking, "It is Sunday night and she was meant to upload last Tuesday." This is not me mixing up the days, I know exactly what day it is. I have valid excuse,s 1. My nan got taken to Accident and Emergency last Monday after taking a fall from a rather large horse. 2.I had to go to Accident and Emergency with her. 3.Once I left Accident and Emergency, my Mum and I had to go and stay at her house seeing as she has 2 horses and 2 dogs, 4.HER HOUSE DOESN'T HAVE WIFI! I spent like five hours trying to get it to work... I haven't been home since then, but here I am now...

Last weeks theme was...
HILARIOUS BOOK TITLES
I had no idea what to put so I have googled and picked my favourites

1. She's my Sister - Having a Retarded Sister - I saw this and laughed, it reminds me of something Celine would say, instead her catchphrase was 'Ellie is an idiot' for the whole of last years biology lessons.
2. The Princess Bitchface Syndrome - I really like this title for many reasons, 1. I love how blunt it is 2. I am very certain if my mum saw this book in a shop she would buy it. 
3. Why I killed Pluto and Why it had it coming - This book just confused me, I loved the title and I would love to read a book with such a witty title. 
4. Tequila Mockingbird - Another witty title, such an awesome play on words and a very fitting title. I think this title is pure genius. 
5. If someone lies to you, Murder him and lie about Murdering him. - Haha, this is a child's book and that is so messed up and its just hilarious, I cannot form a legible sentence.    

1.     The big book of Lesbian Horse Stories - I am sure I had a book or a book like this with a super dodgy title? I cant remember..
2. Cooking with Pooh - Yum! It seems that many people are also being as immature as I am and finding this revoltingly funny.
3. My first rave! - I think this is funny because of all of the kids on the cover. I am very curious to see what this book holds. 
4. Killing Koala bears, from another dimension - This is ironic, I mean aren't Koala bears like the cutest animal ever, well on the cover it is holding a human head which is very worrying. 
5. Exorcism - This book is so random, I think if I ever go out with Celine and we are planning our consumption of Alcohol I am going to read this, just in case.

Well I hope you enjoy this Top Ten Tuesday, I have laughed loads:)

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie

Dangerous Boys - Abigail Haas

"You can never really know someone, we are all strangers in the end."





Title: Dangerous boys
Author: Abigail Haas
Format: Paperback
Release Date: August 14th 2014
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Realistic fiction.
Stars out of Ten: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

It all comes down to this. Oliver, Ethan, and I. Three teens venture into an abandoned lake house one night. Hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding. The other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder ...? Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece the story together - a story of jealousy, twisted passion and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful faces ..

I am yet again in awe of Abigail Haas and her ability to write these dark, mysterious spine tingling thrillers, with the complex characters and their dark minds. It would build up momentum, tease me, let go and tease me again. It was addictive and intoxicating, I found myself heaving breathing and squealing the entire way through this book. 

I must admit that I didn't think that Abigail Haas would be able to create another book that would leave me in such a mess, but she did. Like Dangerous Girls, Dangerous Boys delves into a wonderfully uncomfortable story with chilling corners. It is as if Abigail wanted to make you feel as desperate as possible, she literally had my emotions in her hands throughout this book. 

The book starts with the thought provoking sentence of; 

Our lives are made up of choices, you see. Big ones, small ones, strung together by the thin air of good intentions; a line of dominoes, ready to fall.

An amazing start to another thought antagonising book.  

The book is narrated from Chloe's point of view. Chloe is  the type of girl who would do everything that she could do to please everybody. Chloe is scheduled to leave her home town of Haverford, Indiana to go to college but her mother is not mentally stable to be left alone after her divorce. Chloe feels obliged to stay back and postpone her plans to go to college in order to look after her. Then Chloe meets Ethan, he proves to be a distraction from the mundane and rather depressing tasks she has to undertake each day. But when Chloe meets Oliver, he hypnotises her, sees through her charades and provokes her. 

Everything starts innocent - a girl relying on a guy to distract her from her problems, only to meet somebody else who unleashes the side that she never knew she had. I think this is what makes Dangerous Boys so intense, disturbing and unsettling.

You can never really know someone. Maybe you think that sounds trite, or perhaps you already learned it a long time ago. But me, I didn’t really grasp it until now: huddled in the corner of the ambulance, watching the medics try to shock life back into a motionless body.

Yes, there was a lot of suspense. Yes, the narration and writing were absolutely impeccable and second to none in this genre. And as much as I wanted to compare the two books Abigail has written I couldn't help but notice that there is a very clean cut between Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys. While Dangerous Girls is known for its twists and thrills, Dangerous Boys took another route and went for characterization. Twist wise, once you have read Dangerous Girls, Dangerous Boys is rather predictable (well more predictable than Dangerous Girls) however the dark character developments were a twist in themselves. I loved this route that Abigail went down, we kept delving into deeper and darker roads, weaving among the relationships in such a raw, intense manner. 

Some pieces couldn't be glued back together. Some people weren't for fixing. Sometimes, the only thing to do was burn the whole fucking world down and start again.

The eventual reveal of the darkness within makes us question whether or not we have our own kind of darkness.

All I can say is congratulations to Abigail Haas who has yet again created another beautifully written psychological thriller. Dangerous Something, Dangerous Anything. I will take it Abigail Haas. 

"This is a great YA psychological thriller and it cannot go without saying that Abigail Haas is an extremely prominent writer. Her writing is focussed and flawless. Anyone who wants to read an addictive, intoxicating book should pick up both Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys. " - Celine

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie

Top Ten Tuesday - Deserted Island

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Here on Hooked on Books we have decided to join the group and start posting our Top Tens. 





This week's list is...
TOP TEN BOOKS I'D WANT ON A DESERTED ISLAND

I've not included series and I've tried to vary the genres so if ever I am stuck on a deserted island, I won't be stuck with the all the same type of books.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

1. The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales - The Grimm Brothers play an important part in everyone's childhoods and with 200 stories, who'd get bored?

2. The Secret Language of Birthdays - Astrology, zodiac signs, numerology are all hauntingly accurate. I would love find out personality traits based on birthdays.

3.  Dangerous Girls - A very predictable pick for me but no one can deny the pure ingenuity of this book - thriller and mystery, tick ✔

4.We Were Liars - Introduced to this book by a friend, (thank you Ellie) this is a truly evocative and poignant book. Summers and sadness make this book an unforgettable one.

5. On the Jellicoe Road - I haven't read it but it is very high on my to-read list and it has a lot of good reviews so why not?
(And also because
“If you weren't driving, I'd kiss you senseless," I tell him.
He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly.
"Not driving any more.”
is in this book.)

6. The Cell Phone Swap - So technically this is a Wattpad story and I don't know how I'd get it on a deserted island and I don't know if it'll ever finish but we all need a super cliché but annoyingly hooking book and this is it. Coming from a person who gags at cringey/cheesy books, The Cell Phone Swap is like my shameful indulgence.

7. To Kill a Mockingbird - Here is your literature and historical fiction. Atticus Finch has the power to change your perspective on life and for those people who gave up reading this not even halfway through, you don't have an excuse not to read it.

8. Pride and Prejudice - Not that I have ever read this but it's a classic and a very good one apparently, not to forget that it's by Jane Austen so yeah, I'd definitely bring this along.

9. Bared to You - Well, wth I'm on a deserted island and (cringe.com) YOLO.

10. The Dictionary.



Which books would you take to a deserted island?

Next week's list is:
Hilarious Book Titles

Stay tuned :)

-C E L I N E

Frostbite - Richelle Mead (#2 - Vampire Academy)

"There's nothing worse than waiting and not knowing what'll happen to you. Your own imagination can be crueler than any captor."

Title: Frostbite

Author: Richelle Mead

Genres: Young adult, fantasy
Rate: ☆☆☆☆

Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose... 

It’s winter break at St. Vladimir’s, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy’s crawling with Guardians—including Rose’s hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn’t bad enough, Rose’s tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason’s got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa’s head while she’s making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy’s not taking any risks... This year, St. Vlad’s annual holiday ski trip is mandatory. 

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price...

(Vampire Academy the movie kinda sucked, but as a fan of the book, I liked it.)

After a Strigoi attack on a royal family, everyone is on their toes. People like Tasha Ozera want to use magic as an offensive weapon and want to fight side by side with Dhampirs against the Strigoi. But, the other royals, the ones that think they are ultimately more superior want to hold on to their traditional rules... How long will that last?

Rose is growing up! I was kind of upset as I thought there'd be no more of the wild and impulsive Rose, but that is not the case! She is still an indomitable spirit, still reckless, still unpredictable, but still loyal and passionately protectively over the ones she cares about. Her fierceness would put Tyra Banks' to shame. 

Lissa and Christian are as strong as ever, and then some. I love that Lissa doesn't care that most people dislike Christian even though she is one of the most popular royal. Lissa is now also using her spirit magic when she finds another person who has spirit magic as well. This other person is a guy, and Christian becomes crazily jealous of how much time they are spending together.

And then...

We are introduced to infamous Adrian Ivashkov...mmm...

This is actually one of the love triangles that I am all in for! Even though I know she'll probably end up with Dimitri, I realllylylylylyly ship Rose and Adrian. Despite Adrian's trouble making, hard partying reputation, Rose is drawn to him; he has a magnetic pull. He is charismatic and a fun, really fun character to read about! 

Dimitri will always have a place in Rose's heart, but he's so responsible and rational up to a point where I just want to strangle him and tell him to do whatever the hell he wants, ie. Roza. The tension between them is surreal, but undoubtedly the hottest tension ever.

Then...there is Mason. As joking, as flirty and as reckless as Rose, Mason is exactly like Rose, and he has feelings for her. When she hurts him, he does something stupid that could put Rose's and his friends' lives in danger.

I know that was really long^ but I am utterly in love with this book series and I am still slapping myself for not picking this up earlier. I only gave this a 4/5 because of how much Rose holds back from Lissa because after all, she knows everything and more about Lissa but not the other way round and as a best friend, I thought she should've opened up to Lissa more.

-C E L I N E

Shatter Me (#1 - Shatter Me) - Tahereh Mafi

“Raindrops are my only reminder that clouds have a heartbeat. That I have one, too.” 

Title: Shatter me
Author: Tahereh Mafi 
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 2nd 2012
Genre: YA, Sc-fi, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy.
Stars out of ten: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Re establishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly any more, and the clouds are the wrong colour.

The Re establishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Re establishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. 

Oh my god, this book blew me away. The narrative was amazingly thoughtful and strangely gripping, I found myself wanting to re write every single sentence into a book of quotes just to imprint it into my mind. Do you know when a group of words are put together so perfectly that you just want to cry, scream and die all at the same time? Yeah, that's literally what I did throughout this book. 

The book started with the gripping and intriguing sentence of: 

"I've been locked up for 264 days"

I automatically knew I had picked a very good book and it did not disappoint with the exhilarating plot and perfectly structured characters it seems to me that there are no flaws within this book.

Juilette  has a curse her, touch is lethal.  She is in imprisonment because of what she can do, she has been for 264 days, she hasn't spoken to anybody for those days, she hasn't been touched for longer. When the guards announce that she has a new cell mate room mate she is shocked to find out that is a boy called Adam. Adam, who we later find out knew Juilette when they were both younger and longed to speak to her before she got taken away. A couple of days after Adam joins Juilette in her cell, the guards come in and take her away. She had been waiting for this moment for little under a year, but it did not happen how she imagined, she got taken to the unimaginable. A young man named Warner has freed her but in her eyes being in The Re-establishment is worse than being tapped in the Cell. Warner wants Juilette in order to use her lethal touch as a weapon, Juilette doesn't want to be a monster she wants to rebel against Warner but she cannot. She gets told by Warner that by putting Adam in her cell he was testing out whether she is still capable with human connection, she was. Adam is a guard and has been assigned to Juilette, but as Juilette tries to resist Adam she realises she cannot and they arrange an escape plan to get away from Warner in order to be free from the re-establishment. 

You may be questioning the random Strikethroughs , that is how this book is written. I don't think I have ever read a book with Strikethroughs being consistently used throughout the book, perhaps this is what made it more original and interesting to read. 

The romance was incredible, Adam was the most sincere and wonderful character ever and I really found myself falling in love with his character and his relationship with Juilette. 

The responses to this book are rather mixed, with the comments ranging from; "This book is just awful" to "This book is my muse." This controversy still earned Shatter me 

There was one comment that I could totally relate to, that puts the words that Mafi has put together into justice: 

Books like this—writing like this—reinforce how excited and how happy and how fortunate I am to be a writer myself, to be a part of this branch of the human race. Because, people? The words we use in our everyday speech, to order a pizza or yell at our boyfriends or interview a nanny—those words are not all there is. We can magnify those words, and make them sing, light them on fire. That’s what the words in books should do. That’s what the words in this book did for me.

I think along with all books that you enjoy there will always be people who hate the books and I find it so difficult to not argue with them and try to persuade them to like the book you love (you have no idea how difficult it is for me. Or maybe you do, who knows?) 

So I will leave you with that statement above, and hopefully you will be able to make the right decision (the decision to read this book, I mean if you don't want to don't but in my opinion it's amazing). 

So to conclude; 

                                                        My thoughts on the cover:

My thoughts on the romance: 

 My thoughts on the writing style: 

My thoughts on the plot:

This book is a one day read, resulting to the fact that you have to abandon your life whilst reading. It’s the reason you ditched that date, didn't go to work, didn't feed your kids, left your homework, who needs to shower? You need to read this book, you can forget about showering. 

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie

Top Ten Tuesday - Childhood favourites.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Here on Hooked on books we have decided to join the group and start posting our Top Tens, so where better to start than the beginning, with my top ten childhood favourites (in no particular order).

1. The Faraway Tree Collection - I absolutely loved these books once I had read them. The stories were so magical and I loved the enchanted wood and all of the hilarious characters, I think I read the entire collection in a matter of days. They were my favourite books for quite a while.  
2. Malory Towers - I only read a few of these books, but I remember my Mum telling me to read them because she used to really enjoy them. I also really enjoyed them, 
3. Black Beauty - I remember when I read this book, I was seven and had just started a new school and my Mum and my teacher were talking in the playground one day about how I was reading this book. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book seeing as I was mad about horses at this time.
4.  The Dream Dealer - I still have this book on my bookshelves and I still love this cover. I read this book when I was slightly older and I remember finishing it and adding it to my favourite books ever, even though the only thing I can really remember is that it is about an ice cream van. 
5. The Switch  - This book was literally my life, I loved it. It sparked my Anthony Horowitz obsession. It was addictive, had a great storyline and such vivid and realistic characters

              .

1.  The London Eye Mystery - I remember reading this and thinking the ending was complete genius, I loved it. 
2. Frozen in Time - This book had had amazing storyline,totally gripping and exciting.I really enjoyed reading it. 
3. Clarice Bean  - The Clarice Bean books were like my guilty pleasure as a child I used to find the writing and the illustrations so exciting and interesting, I also loved the fact that Clarice Bean was reading another book within a book, it completely messed with my head in such an exciting way.
4. Ms Wiz - Ms Wiz was a teacher who was awesome, I remember one sentence which was like don't use words unless you know how to spell them and I remember checking everything I said just to make sure I could spell it. She was the coolest teacher imaginable, I loved her. 
5. I know what you did last Wednesday - I loved the Diamond brother series by Anthony Hororwitz but I think this book had to be my favourite. I think if I re read this book I would still enjoy it, the plot was absolute genius.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the beginning of this feature. I really enjoyed reading about what I had read when I was younger. 

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (#1 - Mara Dyer) - Michelle Hodkin

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.” 

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer 
Author: Michelle Hodkin 
Format: Paperback 
Release Date: September 27th 201
Genre: YA, Fantasy Paranormal, Romance, Mystery  

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. 
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was an addictive read, impossible to put down. The characters and plot were so well structured, on the physiological side of the book it was gripping. Mara’s hallucinations were captivating and I absolutely loved to read about the blossoming bond between Noah and Mara. It was cliché, but not. I know that doesn't really make any sense. If you haven’t read the book, picture this:

     

Mara Dyer, the new girl in school. Noah Shaw, the ‘player’. He automatically turns his attention to Mara, which isn't very strange seeing as he is attracted to anybody as long as they are female however when he asks Mara on a ‘date’ everybody is shocked including Mara.

However Mara has a huge problem; when she wishes people dead, they die and later in the book we find out why Noah took an unexpected curiosity to Mara at first.

“Have you kissed many boys before?” he asked quietly.I raised an eyebrow. “Boys? That’s an assumption.”Noah laughed, the sound low and husky. “Girls, then?”“No.”“Not many girls? Or not many boys?”“Neither,” I said. Let him make of that what he would.“How many?”“Why—““I am taking away that word. You are no longer allowed to use it. How many?”My cheeks flushed, but my voice was steady as I answered. “One.”
At this, Noah leaned impossible closer, the slender muscles in his forearm flexing as he bent his elbow to bring himself nearer to me, almost touching. I was heady with the proximity of him an grew legitimately concerned that my heart might explode. Maybe Noah wasn’t asking. Maybe I didn’t’ mind. I closed my eyes and felt Noah’s five o’clock graze my jaw, and the faintest whisper of his lips at my ear.
“He was doing it wrong.” 

This book is like Marmite, I only realised this once I was scrolling through the reviews on goodreads and found some people giving very few stars. I personally loved this book considering I am constantly in huge disgust of people who can actually manage to smell Marmite, let alone digest it. Many people bought this book due to the captivating cover and after reading the book saying that their expectations of the book did not match up to the storyline, they did not like the fact that once Noah came into the picture she lost 'all common sense' as to finding out whether people were dying around her due to what she was thinking. In my opinion the timeline within this comment has been digested incorrectly, here's what happened: 

1. The incident: Mara cannot remember what happened that night and why her friends died and she didn't. 
2. Moving: Mara and her family moved, hoping for a fresh start
3. School: Mara goes to school only to meet Noah Shaw on the first day 
4. The Death: Mara first accidentally kills somebody.

As you can see, Mara met Noah and about a week afterwards is the first death. She was already crazy about Noah before the death she was just trying to hide her feelings towards him. She was obviously surprised by the sudden death of this man who she earlier wished death, and didn't want to associate the two. 

The comments go from 'I hated it' to 'This is the best book I have read' as I said before, Marmite. 

Mara Dyer the heroine of this book seemed to be the main issue with many people. After the incident which she has no recollection of, she moves to a new state hoping to for a fresh start where she can grieve in loss of her friends and hope to move on. This all backfires when she starts having hallucinations of Claire and Jude and the memories of what happened before start to come back as if to haunt her. She has to deal with this alongside many appointments with doctors and having to act normal at school. Mara starts to realise that something is wrong with her when she sees a neglected dog sitting outside of a house, she goes to pet it when the owner comes out and starts beating the dog out of spite to make Mara feel uncomfortable. She wishes the owner dead. He dies. 

So she has many things to focus on; school, medication and doctors, hallucinations, memories, the fact that she can kill people and then comes along Noah Shaw who is very hot and has a past. She needed a little distraction, who can blame her?

Noah Shaw, the 'player'. When he showed an interest in Mara I felt like screaming, he is gorgeous, funny, egotistical, smart, caring (I could go on) he is literally every single thing you want the main love interest in the book to be. 

“Fix me,” I commanded him. “This thing what I’ve done—there’s something wrong with me, Noah. Fix it.”

Noah’s expression broke my heart as he brushed my hair from my face, and skimmed the line of my neck.

“I can’t.” 

He was the only one who listened to Mara when she claimed she was crazy, that she could kill people with the gun of her mind just by the trigger of her imagination, but he was the solution. 

If you are going to read this do not go on goodreads before and read the comments, (I mean who does that anyway before reading a book?) but anyway I say go into it knowing you want to read it and just see where that takes you. In my opinion its a must read, gripping storyline, swoon worthy romance ending with a spine tingling cliffhanger. so yes, read it!

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie 

(yes, I am back and I missed you guys loads)