Tag: jellicoe

Books, Road Trip Wednesday

April Amazing Books :D

Elodie

So I´m not really sure if there will be a Road Trip Wednesday today but usually the last Wednesday of the month is all about our April reads…RTW is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

I gushed last week  about JELLICOE ROAD and I was not even done with reading the story. Well I´m now officially done reading it and I know I will read it again sometime in the future, even though nothing will replace that first time. This has proven to me (like I needed any additional proofs) to always listen to Katy 😀 The way the stories are entwined, the way the characters (all of them) left an impression on me, the way I fell for Jonah, the way I wanted to hug Taylor…So yep. Loved it.

I have been lucky this month in terms of reading. On top of JELLICOE which as you can notice I have a crush on, I also devoured the following books and below you will find the reason why I think they deserve a spot in this post as well:

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE & A MILLION SUNS by Beth Revis: Both books are amazing. The first one sets the tone and I felt like Amy, claustrophobic. The different POVs enable us to get the feel for the ship and the life on board. I loved the details put into the book, the subplots and how things tie up together. A MILLION SUNS is as good if not even better than the first one. The way the characters develop, the human interactions, the plot…and yes I am developing yet another crush on characters (including secondary ones :D). Cannot wait for the third one.

I never thought about how important the sky was until I didn’t have one. ~ Amy

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson: This book portrays loss in such a true manner, it´s heart-wrenching and behind the gorgeous writing, there is the beauty of the characters in their rawness, in their feelings, in their grieving. Loved it.

“Dreams change, yes, that makes sense, but I didn’t know dreams could hide inside a person.

SHUT OUT by Kody Koplinger: This was a fun read and I enjoyed the different characters. The book deals with sex, it´s clear from the summary and the different ways people in high school deal with it. I loved the honesty in the dialogue. Plus. there´s Cash and who can resist this:

Because I want to see you with someone better than him. Someone who will see how lucky they are to have you.

What was your favorite book of April?

And which book on your TBR are you most looking forward to in May? (ok on top of INSURGENT :D)

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Book Review, Books, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Three Favorite Secondary Characters In YA Books…

Elodie

This Top Ten Tuesday feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and I first came across it on Jaime´s blog. It´s a lot of fun and they  post the topics way in advance! This week’s topic looks at the Top Ten Favorite Characters of all times…and I am twisting it a little:

Top Three Favorite Secondary Characters In YA Books…

….from the books I read so far in 2012…

1. Raffy from JELLICOE ROAD: Honestly, all secondary characters from that book felt so primary to me. They were fully fledged and my heart beats for every single one of them. Raffy is the girlfriend who is there for you, who may call you on your bullshit but who knows you and loves you for who you are. Like Taylor, I think that those people are the kind you want around you for life.

“Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?” she asks. “We can double up in our rooms and have a barbecue every night like the Cadets.” Silently I vow to keep Raffy around for the rest of my life.”

2.  Harley from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: He is sweet and he took me by the heart with his fish. (I don’t want to spoil it so I’ll leave it at that). Beth Revis said about Harley: But the little details sometimes have the best stories. For example: Harley. Harley was supposed to be a minor character who was only in one scene that I was writing on that took place in the Hospital. One of my students had painted a koi fish, and so I made the extra character an artist. My student’s name is Charly, so I named the character Harley. From that one scene came Harley, Elder’s best friend, complete with a backstory, a dead girlfriend, and a tragic twist. And I am certainly glad that he became more than just very minor.

3. Haymitch from THE HUNGER GAMES: For me Haymitch is such a wonderfully layered character. He lowers the creeping tension when needed, he has MANY issues and he develops so well throughout the books that I have a soft spot for him. (and I think Woody Harrelson did a WONDERFUL job in portraying the Haymitch I had in my mind :D)

Here’s some advice. Stay Alive.

So at least half the victors have instructed their mentors to request you as an ally. I know it can’t be your sunny personality.

I’m with the Mockingjay

Do you have any favorite secondary characters?

Book Review, Books, Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #13 – Jellicoe steals my heart and other stories

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

I would love to know what made YOU smile this week 😀

Friday the thirteeners rock my world: Another of my question has been answered on their website and again, I got to listen to a wonderful reply by Sara Walsh. You should totally check it out here…And I received my copy of COLD KISS which I ordered thanks to the generosity of Erin Bowman (and due to her recommendation). Yep, they rock! and if you haven´t already, you should really add to their truth or dare…

JELLICOE ROAD: I am not done with that book but..I…am…in….love….with…it already. While many warned me that the first 100 pages could be slow, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Maybe cos´ I was prepared for super-slow-what-the-heck-is-going-on? x 100 but nope I got in the story within the first chapter…The plot is layered, the characters are layered. It´s like you read one page and you discover a new string, a new element which you didn´t see coming or which makes you understand the full meaning of what you have read a few pages earlier.

The writing is…beautiful. And Jonah is living up to the high expectations set by the lovely Katy Upperman in this post 😀

Already before reaching page 100, those sentences got me:

“We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors,” she told him once. “I was paper and she was rock so I lived and she died.” (page 30)

“Not just a name but a state of mind I never want to revisit, although I do keep him at the back of my mind for those times I get my hopes raised about something.” (page 54)

“I´m standing between these two intellectuals while the local photographer snaps away, asking us to say words like holidays and pornography” (page 91)

So yep, I´m about half way through and I missed my bedtime yesterday because I couldn´t put it down.  I suspect the same will happen tonight.

Revising: So I´m still working on the revisions for PLAYING WITH FIRE and it´s really getting somewhere which is super duper cool 😀 It´s definitely not in the final stages yet since I know certain areas still need work but it´s moving forward! My goal is to be done with it before going on honeymoon so that I can send it off to my beta readers before we leave. You know so that I can try not to obsess over their opinions or fight the urge to tweet them constantly 😀 What better way to resist than when you´re on holidays outside of the country?

Writing: I need to organize my schedule to continue working on my new WiP on top of revising. UNTITLED (do you like that title? :D) scares me. It really does. It must be what skydiving is like, jumping in the unknown but I am also very excited about it (so excited I already shared an excerpt here and re-read the comments several times while pinching myself, thank YOU!)

Tell me, what made YOU smile this week?