Books, Boys, and New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year, viewers!!!! Don't know about you but we're ecstatic to get to experience another year of life and YA books. There are so many juicy books that are set to come out this year and we CANNOT wait! How about you? Tell us your thoughts on the YA books set to be released this year. Also, we'd love to know of your New Year's Resolutions. Take a second to comment before starting the countdown. 

As always <3, GLBBB

Books, Boys, and Christmas To-Read Lists

Finally! Christmas Break has arrived and the world hasn't ended. Don't know about you guys but we're ecstatic to be over with Finals and Midterms. Christmas is the best time of year to get to to your To-Read list. Why, you ask? because the calm feeling you get when you lay by the chimney with a blanket and hot cocoa only comes once a year. We want to know what you plan on reading over the break. Find some time between family gatherings and opening presents and start posting, your Lists must be long.

As always <3, GLBBB

Books, Boys, and YA's Best of 2012

This past year has been one of our favorite. We cannot count on two hands the amount of YA goodreads we've read this year. We speak for all book lovers when we wish that next year's releases will be as good as the past year's. It's time to take a walk down Memory Lane. We would love to know which 2012 YA books, in your opinion, were the Best. If it is a series, name the series and which one was your favorite.

As always <3, GLBBB

Books, Boys, and Suggestions

If you have any suggestions on books we should do reviews on let us know and we'll do. If we haven't read the books, we'll get started doing so. It's getting harder and harder to find good reads and help from you guys would be booktastic. 

 As always <3, GLBBB

Boys Upcoming Updates

Viewers, there isn't a soul out there who's read the Mortal Instruments and the Lux Series that didn't fall in love with Jace Wayland and Daemon Black. A profile on both boys will be up in a few. Please tell us what you think.

As always <3, GLBBB

Book Review #3: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

Review from Goodreads

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

 In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

Natalie Buchanan and Ash Fisher live in Black City where humans and Darklings are separated by a great wall. Darklings are vampire like beings who are a little stronger than humans, pale with dark hair and eyes, drink human blood, and have a venomous substance in their fangs, Haze, that is addictive to humans. Natalie is the Emissary’s daughter and she is forced to attend school with children of a lower class. Ash is half human; therefore, when the Darklings were moved on the other side of the wall, he was allowed to stay with his human parent. When Natalie and Ash first meet it is loathe at first sight. Ash, being half-human and half-darkling, doesn’t have a heart beat but whenever Natalie is around his heart flutters. Natalie on the other hand, feels sparks whenever she and Ash accidentally touch. Due to the gruesome way a Wrath, Darklings invested with a disease that makes them blood crazed and deadly, killed her father, Natalie hates Darklings and Ash even more because of his uncompassionate personality. Ash hates Natalie simply because she is the Emissary’s daughter and the Emissary was responsible for separating him and his family. It is only when Natalie and Ash are forced into dangerous situations that she is able to see pass the fact he is half-darkling and is really caring. They both slowly fall for each other but their feelings are a danger to both of them for it is law that humans and Darklings cannot be intimately involved; the breaking of this rule is punishable by death. Ash and Natalie must break this law because they are Blood Mates which is why Ash suddenly has a heartbeat. Together both of them uncover the Government’s dark secrets while staying under the radar.

Natalie was really entertaining. She had a logical way of thinking that I admired. Unlike most heroines, she is filled with grief over her father’s death and pain for her sister’s current state of mind. I liked the way she put aside her dislikes of Darklings and stood up for them in their time of need. In a way, Natalie was a bit naïve. She lived with the same people just about her entire life and never once expected that they were more than they seemed and she was told almost every big secret and discovery. I like my heroines intuitive and perceptive.

Ash is supposed to be incredibly beautiful but I couldn’t picture him as anything north of beautiful but a thin guy with pretty features. His dad wasn’t working and the money he got from dealing Haze was barely enough to buy blood; that being said, there’s no way he could have been muscular and smexy. I enjoyed reading from Ash’s perspective better than Natalie’s, although, there were moments when I wanted to juice his head. I thought he was a little bit of a coward; his friend Beet was fighting to get the wall down so Darklings could be integrated with the humans but Ash never tried to join the cause when his Darkling family was on the other side and he wanted to see them more than anything – I don’t know about you guys but that’s a sign of cowardice. It wasn’t until the end when he finally stood up for what he believed in.

Of course there has to be something that sets the hero and heroine back in almost every YA book. In this one it is the fact that Natalie has the heart of a twin-blod (half darkling and half human), named Evangeline, which explains why she and Ash are Blood Mates. Natalie was born with a heart problem and had to get a heart transplant; her mother kidnapped a twin-blood child and took the girl’s heart; therefore, if Natalie hadn’t gotten her heart, Evangeline and Ash would have been Blood Mates. Ash gets really confused when Evangeline asks him to choose between she and Natalie; how do you choose between someone who makes your heart beat, even though that heart belongs to another, and the person you’re meant to be with? You’ll have to read and find out.

There were many other characters that I liked: Beet and Day – though Day got on my nerves a couple of times. Some characters like Sebastian and Evangeline I absolutely could not stand. When Natalie found out the kind of person Sebastian really was, I was not surprised. No one character bugged me as much as Evangeline. Her introduction was just a BIG surprise. When Ash started to have feelings for her my head almost blew off. The girl was sneakier than Valentine Morgenstern.

Black City was just Ah-Mazing overall and I will definitely keep my eye out for the second one. The government structure was a lot like Hunger Games. The President’s name in Black City was Purian Rose, he and President Coriolanus Snow were very similar (that just made me like the book even better). So anyone looking for a Good Read should definitely look into Black City. I’m looking forward to reading more from Ash and Natalie.

Here are the ratings on a scale from one to five:

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                                                   As always <3, GLBBB

Book Review # 2: The Selection by Kiera Cass

Buy the book: Amazon Barnes & Noble

Check out other reviews on Goodreads

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon. 
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare, It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.
Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself and realizes that the life she's aays dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

America Singer lives in a country by the name of Illéa. In Illéa, every family is categorized by numbers from one to eight: one being the Royal Family and eight being people with little on their back. The Princesses are married off and the Princes must marry through The Selection. Every time a Prince is of the marriage age, thirty girls are picked from cities in Illéa to compete against each other in winning the Prince’s, Maxon, heart. Whoever Prince Maxon chooses becomes the Princess and future Queen. America is already in love with Aspen and doesn’t want to enter The Selection when she gets an invitation in the mail, but she does after much persuasion from her mother and Aspen. Girls with numbers lower than Fours have never been entered into The Selection before and America, being a Five, is absolutely flabbergasted when the unexpected happens: she is chosen. When she and the other contestants move into the Castle to compete, the last thing on America’s mind is winning. She plans to do everything possible to get back home to Aspen but starts to doubt what she really wants when Prince Maxon is introduced to her. Through attacks on the Castle by Northerners and Southerners America nurses a broken heart and befriends Prince Maxon. Will she fall for him or go back to Aspen when the time comes?

Aspen is America’s boyfriend of two years and her reason for joining The Selection. America and Aspen are in love and plan to get married but that fact he is a Six and she a Five is a MAJOR problem. America doesn’t think her mother will ever let her marry someone below her caste. Aspen, on the other hand, is reluctant to marry America because he believes that a man should be able to provide for a family and being a Six, he is very poor. His pride is very big and it is the reason behind both him and America’s heartbreak.

I really didn’t like Aspen’s character. He loved America but his pride was bigger than his love for her or he wouldn’t have broken up with her. I hated that he was constantly reminding her of how much he hated that she was giving him food. If he truly loved her, he would have only seen her love for him in her actions. Whenever America mentioned him, I just about screamed my frustration. I kept hoping she’d GET OVER HIM!!!!

Prince Maxon, on the other hand, saw America for who she truly was. He understood her heartbreak and didn’t judge her for her actions. Maxon liked her even though he knew she was in love with another. From the moment he was introduced I hoped he and America would instantly click but that was only one-sided. America was so focused on her heartbreak that she didn’t realize that she had an even better guy practically wrapped around her finger. In a way, I felt sorry for Maxon. He might be in love with this girl who he thinks is just amazing and she’s wrapped up in thoughts of another guy who didn’t deserve her.

The Selection was overall a good read, but I wouldn’t put it on my Amazing bookshelf. The characters were very entertaining; however, some of them – Celeste – got on my nerves. The book definitely needed more romance and action. In my opinion, had Kiera Cass given King Clarkson and Queen Amber more dialogue and some alone time with America, her feelings for him would have evolved. Would I recommend this book? Definitely. In fact, I plan on reading the sequel, The Elite.

Here are the ratings, on a scale from 1 to 10, this book got:

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Leave us a comment telling us what you thought of the book!                                                                                                                                     
 As always,

<3 GLBBB