Best of the Bunch ~ May 2014

Best of the Bunch is a monthly meme hosted by Always Lost in Stories on the last day of every month. The aim of this meme is to share the best book that we have read in that month and give it our Best of the Bunch award.

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Books read in May:

Verity Hart Vs The Vampyres: Part Three by Jennifer Harlow ~ 3 stars ~ My Review

Sweet Phantom by Elizabeth McCoy ~ 3 stars

The Boy Who Sneaks in my Bedroom Window by Kirsty Mosely ~ 1 star ~ My Review

Eternal Flame by Alyson Noel ~ 3 stars

Verity Hart Vs The Vampyres: Part Four by Jennifer Harlow ~ 3 stars ~ My Review

Last Second Chance by Caisey Quinn ~ 3 stars ~ My Review

Unhinged by A.G. Howard ~ 5 stars ~ My Review

Verity Hart Vs The Vampyres: Part Five by Jennifer Harlow ~ 5 stars ~ My Review

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones ~ 5 stars ~ My Review

Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky by Marissa Meyer ~ 4 stars 

The Little Android by Marissa Meyer ~ 5 stars 

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole ~ 3 stars ~ My Review

The One by Kiera Cass ~ 3 stars ~ My Review
Destruction by Sharon Bayliss ~ 2 stars
Storm Warning by E. Lee & C. Quinn ~ 5 stars ~ Review to come

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch ~ 2 stars ~ Review to come!

Winterspell by Claire Legrand ~ 4 stars ~ Review to come!
The Jewel by Amy Ewing ~ 3 stars ~ Review to come!

The Other Side of Anne by Kelly Stuart ~ 3 stars
The Dutchman's Pipe by David Saunders ~ 1 star

And the Best of the Bunch winner of May 2014 is...

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle #2

Published August 7th 2001 by Greenwillow Books (first published 1990)

In which a humble young carpet merchant wins, then loses, the princess of his dreams.

Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, there lived in the city of Zanzib a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer named Abdullah who loved to spend his time daydreaming. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet.

That very night, the carpet flew him to an enchanted garden. There, he met and fell in love with the beauteous princess Flower-in-the-Night, only to have her snatched away, right under his very nose, by a wicked djinn. With only his magic carpet and his wits to help him, Abdullah sets off to rescue his princess....

As you can see I read a lot of books. I must say this month wasn't the best ever but I read at least some really great books! Also, I'm a bit behind on reviews as you can see but I will try to post them as soon as I can!
Castle in the Air was the best! I loved every part of it. I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I didn't think I'd find it as good as Howl's Moving Castle but I did! Yay!

Honorable mentions go to:

Unhinged by A.G. Howard
This sequel to Splintered was fantastic. I love love love loved it!

Storm Warning by E. Lee & C. Quinn
This book kind of left be broken (in a good way!). It's cute and funny and really great!

Winterspell by Claire Legrand
Yes, it's just as amazing as it sounds!

What was the best book you read this month?

Let me know!

Stacking The Shelves #67

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted @ Tynga's Reviews, to showcase the books we received.

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I got a lot of new books. A LOT. I bought all the print books at the book festival in Antwerp for a really cheap price last week! <3
Also, I went slightly crazy on review books this week...

Bought:

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud

Sounds like such a fun read!

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

I've had my eye on it for a while so when I found this I simply HAD to buy it.

The Pharaoh's Secret by Marissa Moss

Egypt! Egypt! Egypt! Yes, I'm kind of obsessed...

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Go Greek Mythology! <3

Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer

I love anything about the Salem witch trials so when I found this at the book festival I grabbed it quickly!

Straw Into Gold by Gary D. Schmidt

Fairy tale retelling, yay!

Charles Darwin and the Mystery of Mysteries by Susan Pearson

I can't wait to read this. It's going to be really interesting, I think! 

Bought:
Shadow Fire by Kimber Leigh Wheaton
Only .99! Woop!

For Review:
Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Already read it and I can tell you; it's fantastic!
*Thanks to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

For Review:

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Also already read but wasn't liking it very much...
*Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios
This one sounds fecking amazing! Can't wait to read it!

*Thanks to Edelweiss and Balzer + Bray

For Review:

The Jewel by Amy Ewing
One of the books I've been looking forward to. I'm currently reading it and it's a pretty nice book. Not the best but I liked it.
*Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis
Another awesome book I've been looking forward to. Can't wait to find out if it's as great as it sounds!
Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion

For Review:

Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant
I've heard so many great things about this author but I haven't read anything by him yet. So I'm pretty excited to read something by him finally!
*Thanks to Edelweiss and Katherine Tegen Books

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Can't believe this was on Edelweiss already. So excited to read it!
*Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen

What books did you all receive?

Leave me links to your hauls so I can stop by!

Feature & Follow #61

Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted on friday by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to gain new followers and make new friends!

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This week's question:

How important is good writing to you? In an ideal world, a book would be beautifully written AND have great character development, plot, etc. But in the real world, which do you prefer: (1) Great characters and plot with lousy writing or (2) Middling character development and plot but gorgeous writing

I thought this question would be pretty tough for me to answer but it actually really isn't. Of course I want great characters and plot AND great writing but if I had to choose between these two I'd pick: middling character development and plot but gorgeous writing.
I'm a huge fan of beautiful writing. If a book is written in a way that's like that I'd love it for sure even if the characters and plot would be mediocre. I just can't stand a book that isn't written well. 

Leave me links to your FF post!

Review: The One by Kiera Cass

Title: The One
Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #3
Publication: May 6th 2014 by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult ~ Dystopia
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo
Cover Rating: 5/5 (Gorgeous!)
Overall Rating: 3/5

The highly anticipated conclusion to Kiera Cass's #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series, The One will captivate readers who love dystopian YA fiction and fairy tales. The One is the perfect finale for fans who have followed America's whirlwind romance since it began--and a swoon-worthy read for teens who have devoured Veronica Roth's Divergent, Ally Condie's Matched, or Lauren Oliver's Delirium.

The Selection changed America Singer's life in ways she never could have imagined. Since she entered the competition to become the next princess of Illéa, America has struggled with her feelings for her first love, Aspen--and her growing attraction to Prince Maxon. Now she's made her choice . . . and she's prepared to fight for the future she wants.

Find out who America will choose in The One, the enchanting, beautifully romantic third book in the Selection series!

This series has been very up and down for me. From absolutely loving The Selection to having The Elite be one of the worst books I read. The One was somewhere in between. I didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. It was much better than The Elite and I liked it. I liked what happened in the book and I really liked the ending.

I must admit I didn't have high expectations for this book, thinking it would be just as bad or even worse than The Elite. So you can understand my surprise that I actually liked The One. It had a lot to do with the fact that in this book America wasn't running back and forth between Aspen and Maxon. It made things a whole lot better, much to my relief. I've always liked America as a character and heroin in this series. Of course my love for her went down a notch in the previous book but now I'm back to liking her. I love her spunk and how she always tried to do the right thing even when people tell her to not do it. 
I also didn't think Maxon wasn't as much of an ass in this book. I'm not saying I love him (like I did in the first book) but he wasn't as bad I thought. Also the other girls didn't annoy me nearly as much as they did before. Well, maybe Kriss did a little bit but I even came to like Celeste, believe it or not. 

There was also more action in this book than was in the previous or even the first one. I'm a girl who needs action in her books to stop it from being completely boring so I was really content in that area. We got more insight into the rebels, both north and south and I loved the little twists with America's father and Kriss also. 

I have to say that some of the drama earlier on in this book between America and Maxon annoyed me a bit. I feel like it could've been avoided if only they'd been honest about their feelings. Especially America to Maxon, concerning her earlier relationship with Aspen. Speaking of Aspen... *spoiler alert* I'm so glad he's not left off to be alone and that he found someone. He deserves it!

So I'm pretty happy about the way this book ended. It was a pretty unexpectedly emotional read for me. I even cried a little bit. It was also a fast read. I read it in about a day because I just couldn't stop myself from reading. There were quite few unexpected twists and a few deaths I hadn't seen coming which shocked me but overall The One was a pretty nice book and a perfect ending.

About The Author:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Kiera Cass graduated from Radford University with a degree in History. She grew up in South Carolina and currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia with her family. In her spare time, Kiera enjoys reading, dancing, making videos, and eating unhealthy amounts of cake. You can learn more about Kiera at kieracass.com, follow her on twitter via @kieracass, and see her silly videos at YouTube.com/user/kieracass.

Other reviews in the series:

Book #1: The Selection
Book #2: The Elite

Throwback Thursday #27: The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

Throwback Thursday is a bookish meme hosted every two weeks by me and Christina @ Booksane where we feature books that we've read in the past but are still crazy about. It could be a book you read as a child and still remember and love or maybe just a book that you haven't read in a long time and want to show your love for.

Each week we'll be featuring a new random question to answer!

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The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
Darkest Powers #3
Young Adult ~ Paranormal
Read from February 10 to 12, 2011

Chloe Saunders is fifteen and would love to be normal. Unfortunately, Chloe happens to be a genetically engineered necromancer who can raise the dead without even trying. She and her equally gifted (or should that be 'cursed'?) friends are now running for their lives from the evil corporation that created them.

As if that's not enough, Chloe is struggling with her feelings for Simon, a sweet-tempered sorcerer, and his brother Derek, a not so sweet-tempered werewolf. And she has a horrible feeling she's leaning towards the werewolf...

Definitely not normal.

Ahhhh, how I love this series. If there's one series I would re-read gladly it's this one. I loved all of it, the story, the characters (especially Derek), the writing,...
Yeah, a very good series. Definitely recommended by me!

Quote:

“You were just worried about me."
An exhale, relieved that I had understood. "Yeah."
I turned. "Because you think I'm worth it."
He put his fingers under my chin. "I absolutely think your worth it."
"But you don't think you are."
His mouth opened. Shut.
"That's what this is about, Derek. You won't let us worry about you because you don't think you're worth it. But I do. I absolutely do.”

Derek and Chloe... I love them sooooo damn much. They're just so adorable! 

Question of this week:

Which author have you read the most books from?

Well... *grins* I'm pretty sure that the author I have read the most books from is Eoin Colfer. Who else, right?
Close seconds, I think, are Jeaniene Frost and Jennifer L. Armentrout

Next question (June 12): 

Picture time! Take a picture the book you're reading right now anywhere you want.

If you'd like to participate in Throwback Thursday you can add your post to the linky below.