Reader's Choice Review #3: All Our Yesterdays

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what we read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances.

All Our Yesterdays
Cristin Terrill
Series: None
Release Date: August 1st, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Excuse me as I adsjkl;
Reviewed by: Melanie
Recommended by: Aneeqah of My Not So Real Life

"You have to kill him." Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside. 

Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was. 

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

But it's the last line that makes me scramble for the toilet in the corner of my cell. "You have to kill him."

Reader's Choice Review #2: Two Boys Kissing

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what I read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances.

Two Boys Kissing
David Levithan
Series: None
Released: August 27th, 2013
Publisher: Knopf BFYR
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: Important
Reviewed by: Blythe
Recommended by: Scott of Scott Reads It and Gillian of Writer of Wrongs

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. 

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other. 

This follow-up to the bestselling Every Day showcases David's trademark sharp-witted, warm-hearted tales of teenage love, and serves as a perfect thematic bookend to David's YA debut and breakthrough, Boy Meets Boy, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2013.

We gather the things we learned, and they don't nearly add up to fill the space of a life. You will miss the taste of Froot Loops. You will miss the sound of traffic. You will miss your back against his. You will miss him stealing the sheets.

Do not ignore these things.

Reader's Choice Review #1: Vampire Academy

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what I read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances. 

Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy, #1
Release Date: August 16th, 2007
Publisher: Razorbill 
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: *sigh* 
Reviewed by: Blythe
Recommended by: Hayden and Steph of Cuddlebuggery

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Introducing Reader's Choice!

I've been intending to do something like this ever since I saw Christina's awesome Sadie Hawkins Sunday feature take flight, and now I'm finally getting around to introducing a spinoff of Christina's SHS, Reader's Choice (name shamelessly stolen from Gillian--thanks, Gillian!), to Finding Bliss in Books! I've wanted to introduce this feature to Finding Bliss in Books because I am undeniably awful at reading books I have unless I am given a prompt, and the amount of unread ARCs and even more scary, the amount of unread bought books I have, is seriously a problem. So now I have a prompt--you guys! With Reader's Choice, you can have me read anything you'd like--a book you love and think I'll love, a book you hate and think I'll hate, an ARC you're looking forward to reading that I have--anything! Just fill out the form below and I'll choose entries randomly and read the book that is chosen! Note: I am clearly not the fastest reader (I'm not even a fast reader period), so while I would like to have this be a weekly feature (on Mondays, most likely), it may at some times have to end up being bi-weekly. (But not permanently, of course, there just may be one skipped week because I couldn't read the book in time.) Anyway, this is a long introduction, so lo and behold! The form! If you have anything you'd like me to read, fill it out and I'll choose an entry soon and read the book.