A Girl Named Digit

Title: A Girl Named Digit
Author: Annabel Managhan
Genre: YA, action, Adventure, Realistic Fiction
Recommended for 14 and up
Series: Digit #1
Rating: Owl


So this book has been on my TBR list for a while, but I'd never gotten to buying it.. So I finally bought it and OMG, this book was good. No, I'm lying. This book was so fanfreakingtastic, that I wanted to jump up and down and scream. So now that my total and complete love for this book has been established, let me break it down for you.
THE PREMISE
Farrah "Digit" Higgins may be going to MIT in the fall, but this L.A. high school genius has left her geek self behind in another school district so she can blend in with the popular crowd at Santa Monica High and actually enjoy her senior year. But when Farrah, the daughter of a UCLA math professor, unknowingly cracks a terrorist group's number sequence, her laid-back senior year gets a lot more interesting. Soon she is personally investigating the case, on the run from terrorists, and faking her own kidnapping-- all while trying to convince a young, hot FBI agent to take her seriously. So much for blending in...
(Summary from Goodreads)
THE PROS
1. Awesome characters. I loved Digit and John and also Digits friends, even though you didn't hear much about them.
2. Digit's evolution. Since I don't want to give to much away, I think that a lot of times in a book you don't see the evolution of a character until it's over. In this book you see Digit gradually changing and becoming her own person instead of a mirror to others.
3. Digit's parents. Gotta love those supportive parents!!
4. The bad guys. So yeah I kinda did see that one coming, but still he had a good reason.
5. The danger. I love the whole pressure thing. Like everyone's gonna die if you can't do this. I thought it was unrealistic they would put it on Digit's shoulders to crack all those codes, I mean the FBI and CIA do have code breakers, but I totally get why the author would have Digit do the heavy lifting.
6. The Math. Who doesn't love math, Seriously!!
7. The ending. Who doesn't love the sweet ending!!
So yeah I do have more pros, but since listing them all would take forever I won't.
THE CONS
1. I normally feel like I have to list at least one con, but I am making an exception for this book.I guess the biggest thing would be is how they were always talking about how she wasn't 18 yet. That didn't really detract from how much I love the book, but it kinda... I don't know threw me off in some of the situations.
THE OVERALL
This book was epic! I loved it, as you can see above.This book was full of so much epicness I was shocked. So in all I loved the character interactions, the action, and the epic awesomeness!Thank You Annabel Monaghan and please keep writing!!
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE IT IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!
WOULD I BUY THIS BOOK: ALREADY DID AND I SURE WON'T BE RETURNING IT!!
AM I TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK: DUH
WOULD I READ THE NEXT BOOK: YES
WOULD I READ MORE BY THIS AUTHOR: EVEN IF IT WASN'T MY THING I WOULD STILL GIVE IT A GO!!
Fav quote: "For years I've gone to bed gazing up at the eternal question: WHAT IF THE HOCKEY POKEY IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT?"
Okay that is the end of my gushing, and I think YOU should read this book!!

OWL=FIVE STARS

Racing Savannah: A definite surprise (in a good way!)

Title: Racing Savannah
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Genre: Contemporary, YA, Romance, Sports
Series: Hundred Oaks #4 (Can be read as stand-alone as I did)
Rating: Owl

THE PREMISE
They’re from two different worlds.

He lives in the estate house, and she spends most of her time in the stables helping her father train horses. In fact, Savannah has always been much more comfortable around horses than boys. Especially boys like Jack Goodwin—cocky, popular and completely out of her league. She knows the rules: no mixing between the staff and the Goodwin family. But Jack has no such boundaries.

With her dream of becoming a horse jockey, Savannah isn’t exactly one to follow the rules either. She’s not going to let someone tell her a girl isn’t tough enough to race. Sure, it’s dangerous. Then again, so is dating Jack…
(Summary from Goodreads)

MY THOUGHTS
To tell you the truth I disliked Kenneally's first in this series, Catching Jordan and I realize I'm one of the odd ones out about this. Most people loved it. So to say I had fears about this book is a bit of an understatement, yet I still picked up because it sounded fantastic.

And fantastic it was. 

Kenneally has crafted a beautiful story about a girl struggling to find her place in the world. She doesn't really have any goals for herself (except to get a job that pays ABOVE minimum wage.) 

Savannah is a character that I can relate to so well. She's not quite sure about how the rest of her life will play out and she doesn't really fit into the world she's in with the gap between the rich and the poor. 

This difference between the rich and the poor was one of the main things I wanted to talk about. People say that that gap is exaggerated that people don't really care about whether your rich or poor. People say that it doesn't matter, but I beg to differ. I think that most of the time people can grow to overlook that gap, but there are times that there are difference in wealth and they effect people's perceptions.  

On a personal note I read this book right at a time when I've been dealing with some.... Let's say way more upper class people from upper class schools who just think they're better than everyone else because... Well... They're upper class. So reading this book I was far more sympathetic to Savannah's dilemma than others might be. (Literally though, I dealt with nasty people all day who wanted to have insanely high prices for this really stupid event that my family has to go to.... No... Just NO!) 

Also... HORSES! I loved the hot wracking aspect of this book! I'm not in any way and avid horse race watcher, but I always like to watch the Triple Crown and I love Secretariat! (Have you seen that movie? It's AMAZING!) Personally I loved reading about Savannah and her story. 

On that note: LOVE THAT COVER! I actually got a physical copy of the book and the cover is gorgeous. It's so simple and yet it fits the book precisely! The colors are phenomenal and it's so eye catching!  

On to the romance. I personally loved it! Jack was super sweet and I loved how he and Savannah were friends first. I also loved how he really pushed her to take control of her life and was always there to support her no matter what was happening between them. He had faith that she could make something of herself and that she could become a jockey. This book definitely had some of the best aspects of YA romance right now. 

The characters in this book were amazing. Vanessa and Rory were both great and added so much extra humor to the books! I absolutely loved Star and his influence on Savannah. (FYI Star is the horse) 

Kenneally managed to paint Savannah's character evolution in the best possible way. She started off extremely close minded but slowly began to accept different ideas. This was one of my favorite parts to see!

One more negative comment about the book was how I found Savannah's dad and his girlfriend so annoying. They just didn't seem to understand her and it made me really mad. Maybe this is just me but more and more recently I've been having major problems with parents in books and this book was just the most recent I've read so I wanted to vent. I don't think this really took away from the book but it sure was annoying! 

In all I am so happy that I gave this book a chance. After my bad experience with Catching Jordan I felt so unsure about whether these books were really for me. I'm so glad this book was able to make me fall in love with Kenneally's writing style and characters and I think I'll be giving more of her books the chance. (In Catching Jordan I think it was the love triangle thing that really annoyed the heck out of me.) Anyhow I would definitely recommend you reading this book!

WOULD I READ THIS BOOK: YESSS!!!!!
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: YEP!
WOULD I BUY THIS BOOK: OF COURSE! (Especially the paperback! Love the colors!)
WILL I READ MORE BY THIS AUTHOR: I'll leave it at maybe. It depends on what other topics her books are on! (I believe the next in this series is about a marathon runner! I am so THERE!)

OWL=FIVE STARS

Waiting on Wednesday: Enders

Waiting by Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!
This post highlights a book that I am dying to be released!!

THIS WEEK I'M WAITING ON:
ENDERS 
By LISSA PRICE






THE PREMISE
With the Prime Destinations body bank destroyed, Callie no longer has to rent herself out to creepy Enders. But Enders can still get inside her mind and make her do things she doesn't want to do. Like hurt someone she loves. Having the chip removed could save Callie's life - but it could also silence the voice in her head that might belong to her father. Callie has flashes of her ex-renter Helena's memories, too ...and the Old Man is back, filling her with fear. Who is real and who is masquerading in a teen body? This is the thrilling sequel to "Starters".

RELEASE DATE:
January 7th, 2014

Ahhhh! This book looks FANTASIC!! I LOVED Starters and the covers are just AMAZING!
Definitely can't wait for this one!!

Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors read in 2013

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC IS:

Top Ten New to me authors read in 2013

So I actually read A LOT of books by authors I've never read before! This is just a small list. But here they are!

Basically these are just a few of the amazing books I've read this year all by authors I've never read before!

What are some books new to you authors?

Finding the Time

So the wonderful Emz @ Icy Cold Reads has recently started an interactive discussion on her blog. And the question she asked was how do you find the time to blog?

My answer is just sometimes I don't. I'm pretty sure if you even look at my blog you'll see that often I do have some pretty sporadic posting and half the time it's entirely my fault. There is so much I have to do each day. Normally I wake up at 6:30 and get ready for school. I go to school until about two and get home at 2:30. Lots of time left right? WRONG!

Normally I participate in a sport throughout the school year (not this year because our school so kindly decided to cut our indoor track team. Thanks a lot school) but during the fall (Cross country) and hopefully the spring (track which I normally don't run, but plan to this year!) that's practice until about 5. Then I have to get home and eat and shower so there goes another hour. It's now SIX! Then add on those hours of homework. Figure a couple of chapters of English or an essay, some math, a history essay/reading, chem labs, chem homework, french homework, studying for a quiz/test, ect... There we go! It's now 9! My bed time is 10 and trust me when I say if I don't get enough sleep, I get a bit overemotional ABOUT EVERYTHING! So that leaves an hour of free time.
Then on the weekends I have anything from volunteering, to these really terrible leadership training things that last the whole freaking day, plus just the general other stuff I have to do and there goes that free time.

In short, I have normally have no time. (Right now though because of no track I have a couple extra hours) Could I use some of that extra time to blog? SURE! Do I want to use that time to blog? NOPE!

Here come the pivotal question: Where does reading fall in the importance scale?

For me it comes second only to school work. And blogging takes a distant fourth (third is family stuff).

I read to escape the world. To have an adventure in another character's shoes. To alleviate stress. To have fun. To relax. There are so many reasons why I read and all of those reasons directly relate to my general well-being. If I don't read before bed, I just can't sleep. If I don't read, I get a bit stir crazy. Reading is part of who I am.

And so is blogging. In no way do I mean that blogging has any less importance to me. It's just that other things will always come first for me.

Moving on though, when I do manage to find the time, I use a couple of tricks to use the time productively.
Because I am a big time waster I normally put my phone in a place that's not readily accessible. Like the other room, so I'm not tempted to look at it just to look.

I also use a website that blocks specific websites (i.e. Twitter) and keeps me a task.

Also recently because of the leadership training thing I mentioned above, I've been starting to make a to-do list every night before bed so that I can keep track of things that need to be done. (I guess that leadership thing has it's uses after all....)

I guess what I really need is just MORE TIME? But then again who doesn't?


So.... Any advice to finding the time to blog?
Or any thoughts on how to increase productivity? 

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Title: Scarlet
Author: A.C. Gaughen
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, Action, Adventure, Romance
Series: Scarlet #1 (No idea when the next book is coming out)
Rating: Owl
Other books you might enjoy: Robin: Lady of Legend, The Agency Series, Cross my Heart, Venom

Let me start out with this. Robin Hood is my absolute favorite myth/legend/fable/whatever else it may be called. I’ve read one other Robin Hood book (Robin: Lady of Legend) which was really good. So going into this book I was worried the author might butcher the story. Well the good news is that she didn’t. There were things that I didn’t like so much, but there was so much that I ADORED!! So here’s my breakdown:
THE PREMISE
Scarlet is one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men. (In the original tale she is known as Will Scarlet) The thing is she is neither a man nor is she merry. She has a very mysterious background and is pretty awesome with knives. She and the others are working to undermine the Sheriff. (Obviously) She is also a thief and a good one at that. When the Thief Taker, Guy of Gisbourne, comes to town in search of Robin Hood, she must face her past.
THE PROS
1. Ummmm, it’s a retelling of Robin Hood. Need I say more?
2. Scarlet=awesomeness. I loved her because any character that can fend for herself, steal, and throw knives is A-okay in my book! On top of that I love that she was so complex. She had a good reason for all of her actions.
3. The twist!! Okay I saw it coming, but my mom didn’t. But, I still loved it. I thought it was fantastic and the author built up a great suspense for it and then BAM. Really, Really, Really good.
4. The language. At first I was worried I was going to be distracted by the way the author chose to write the book, but in the end I LOVED IT. The only other book I think the writing compares to is Blood Red Road. (Which I really want to read)
5. Robin Hood. I loved Robin. He really is just fantastic. He cares about all of the townspeople and his men, too.
6. Little John. He was great and I just really liked him. The portrayal of him really fit who I always thought he would be.
7. I absolutely loved Much and how the author wrote him. I just thought he was great!!
THE CONS
1. Scarlet kind of played both John and Robin. I get that she didn’t really know her own feelings, but I still felt bad for John, although he was kind of a player.
2. Robin annoyed me at points, when he got all mad a Scarlet, I just couldn’t figure out why he didn’t let her at least explain herself.
3. The end. Not the end, end, but the close to the end part. It made me a bit angry, though it makes sense why the author chose to write it that way so she could continue the series.
4. I never understood what was mysterious about Scarlet’s eyes. Were they a funny color, shape, or like what? I just don’t get it.
OVERALL
Scarlet was really good. The kind of good that makes you want to smile all day. The kind of good that makes you not be able to fall asleep until you have read and soaked in. (A problem which seems hereditary in my family because both my mom and I stayed up until two or three in the morning to finish it.) Well, you probably get my point, about how good this book is. Let’s face it, Robin Hood is a really good story and deserves to be read about. This book lived up to my hopes (and dreams) and was simply INCREDIBLE!!
WOULD I READ THIS BOOK: YES!!!
WOULD I BUY THIS BOOK:YEP!!!
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: NO DOUBT ABOUT IT
WILL I READ THE NEXT BOOK: YES!!!(No, idea when it will come out though.) WILL I READ MORE BY THIS AUTHOR: YES

OWL=FIVE STARS