Review: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Published: September 5th 2012
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Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.

All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. The more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

Please Note: This book contains mature content including profanity, drug/alcohol use, and sexual situations/language.

That’s it! I’m done with all of these issue books for a while. They’ve torn me into pieces and I just need to read something light, fun – contemporary, paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, dystopia – whatever, as long as it’s not that emotional. Gosh *shuddering*, I’m still thinking about it. How messed up was that book? It’s a story about two broken people who are trying to cope with their pain, memories, existence, but don’t even think about fixing things, because when you’re that broken, is there anything left to fix at all?

Thankfully it’s a short ride, because loud sounds make me edgy. It’s not the sound itself that bothers me; it’s just the fact that it’s loud. The loud sounds make it impossible to hear the soft ones and the soft sounds are the ones you have to be afraid of. I can handle it now because we’re in a car, and I usually feel safe in cars. Outside is a different story. I never feel safe outside.

Nastya has a thing for names and their meanings. Hers defines not just her, but her life now. (I found the name thing to be one my favorite attributes of her.) As much as I wanted to find irritable things about her, I couldn’t. She’s just so broken and vulnerable underneath that barricade she’s built to keep people out, because she doesn’t want to disappoint people who love her. Maybe that’s the reason she doesn’t believe in love. Love doesn’t equal the word heal, because you may love and love and love, but it still won’t fix anything. Not when the girl everyone loves is dead.

Josh’s name means something beautiful and powerful. Even if he doesn’t agree, I still think it fits him perfectly – the name and the meaning. He has a wall built up against the world, just as Nastya. Somewhere, in the middle of all of this heartache, silence and solitude, they become friends and maybe, just maybe there’s room for something more. It’s beautiful. It’s disastrous. I felt like I was there: living, breathing, aching with them.

The best part of this novel was that we got to follow Nastya and Josh on their journey of healing, but that wasn't the only thing Millay also achieved in. We saw a family fallen to pieces and trying to sew itself back together. Moreover, a boy who has somehow gotten in the middle of all that sorrow and pain, but doesn’t know how to heal the people he loves like family; who are his family. Which brings me to Drew. Drew. Drew. Drew. I love that boy to pieces! I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a side character as much as I enjoyed him – his jokes, his problems, his sorrow, his growth.

Drew pulls into my driveway just after midnight and I know immediately that no good can come of this. I put down the pencil I’ve been using to mark down measurements with and watch him get out of the car and walk towards the garage. 

“Dude, I need a favor.” 

“Of course you do.” 

“I need you to take Nastya.” Take Nastya? At first I wonder where he wants me to take her, until I glance down the driveway and see what he means. 

“What? No way.”

I don’t even know how to explain how freaking amazing this book was, because no matter what I say, it won’t ever do the justice this novel deserves. What I do know is that there’s no way in hell I’m not going to get a paperback copy of this book in addition to my already existing e-copy. I will lend it to all my non-reader friends; make them read it; make them fall in love with literature as a piece of art it is. This is truly a work of art. Ms. Katja Millay is a born artist who paints a picture so real and excruciating in front of you that you cannot help but feel like experiencing it all yourself. 100 times recommend!

PS. I'm in no way religious, but if there is someone powerful out there to make our wishes come true, then please, please let it be true that the story Katja is working on (a related story to TSoT) is a companion novel of Drew. *Does a hysterical cry and if that doesn't work than tries to flash her non-existant dimples* PLEASE!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1)
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Published: September 27th 2011
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Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

“How awesome is that cover? How great sounds that description? How many great reviews are there in total? O_O” – these were the thoughts that went through my head when I first heard about this book. I knew I wanted to read it, but somehow I didn’t pick it up. I’ve been reading these extremely emotional books lately and I needed something dark, thrilling and mysterious. This is not a story you should read in silence, alone and in a dark room with only a reading light on. I did and it was pretty spooky at times. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it!

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.” 

The first few chapters were okay – intriguing, completely compelling and mysterious. Then.. I just couldn’t get into it. The chemistry between Noah and Mara felt random and off, the things happening were like out of a low-budget horror movie (which I loathe, by the way.. Okay, I don’t watch that many horror movies. More like none since I have a very livid imagination and hate having nightmares or jumping up every time I see a creepy shadow somewhere. But I used to.. And these things were what you call a classic horror movie layout.). Suddenly, out of nowhere, it got interesting and I grew extremely anxious to know what happens next. After devouring page after page I found myself reading the very last one and thinking "what the effing eff just happened???"

If you’ve read any of my reviews, then you know that I tend to dislike it when books are predictable. I guess it’s kind of a curse of reading so much: you tend to know things beforehand. What I loved about this particular book is that that I couldn’t figure out most of the plot twists until right before they took place if even that. Also, I doubted if they were really true, because Mara isn't that reliable source of information. Some of the scenes were pretty gruesome, but then there were parts where my heart rate picked up (all credit goes to Noah). Umm.. Maybe that romance part took over a bit too much. At some point I almost forgot that there was that asylum mystery to solve and these freakish accidents and deaths etc, but in the end it all worked out great (in the sense that it got pretty creepy again).

As for the characters, I’m intrigued by Jude. I may be weird for it, but I want to know more about him and why he did what he did in that asylum. Moreover, I’m a fan of Daniel. He makes me want to have a big brother! Oh, and Joseph – gosh, that boy is so freaking adorable! Noah and Mara were also great and I enjoyed that Mara didn’t give into him that soon. She stood on her ground and I give her props for that! Oh, and that twist with Noah? Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Moreover, how could I not mention Jamie – the perfect friend to spice up this dark story of Mara's.

“Asscrown," I muttered under my breath as I headed to my next class. I wasn't proud of swearing at a complete stranger, no. but he started it.
Noah matched my pace. "Don't you mean 'assclown'?" He looked amused.
"No," I said, louder this time. "I mean asscrown. The crown on top of the asshat that covers the asshole of the assclown. The very zenith in the hierarchy of asses," I said, as though I was reading from a dictionary of modern profanity.
"I guess you nailed me then.”

In the end, it was a decent piece of work and I’m excited to explore what Ms. Hodkin has created for the sequel. I’m kind of mad at myself for not having read this book any sooner. Yeah, I can easily see why some people hate some of the cheesy horror movie elements, some can’t stand the romance part etc, but I found that everything that took place in this novel neutralized the whole outcome and I’d recommend to at least check this series out. You may end up surprisingly liking it. I did.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Happy New Year! A Big Thank You and Challenges of 2013.

Thank you!

Happy. Freaking. New. Year. To. Everyone! Yes, I actually did a Morse code and I have no idea why, heh. Anyway, I wanted to give thanks to everyone who made the year 2012 so fun in this community and thank you to every single one of you who has bothered to make my day with commenting and talking to me on twitter! I hope we'll continue to talk books and everything fun during this year as well and just know that you are made of awesomeness!

On Changes and Challenges

Now I don't think much will change this year on my blog, it'll continue to envolve and grow just as it has since I published my first post, but I see no big changes in the near future. As for making blogging more fun, this year I'm taking part in some of the many challenges (there are so many, that I've probably not even seen most of them). And berfore I make a list of the ones I'm participating in, I'll just say that if you have some cool challenges you plan on taking part in or you're even a host of one, let me know and I'll check them out:) Okay, here're the ones I'm doing this year:

2013 Standalone Reading Challenge

This caught my eye last year (it's so weird saying this about 2012) and when it was announced that it'll be hosted again this year, I knew I had to participate. Basically we read YA/MG books that aren't part of a series and that are published in US in 2013. In total one tries to read at least 15 books. The more the merrier, of course. There's a giveaway pile as always and I can't wait to see what everyone's reading. I'm really anxious to start all of these new releases that don't (hopefully) develop into a series, because it seems like most of the successful books turn into a series, but sometimes they're better off as a standalone. Also, we get to discover more authors that way rather than read our favorite series and sit in a cocoon or a bubble and not know about these talented people and their artworks. For more info visit either The IceyBooks or I Like These Books, sign yourself up and let's make reading more fun and discover great books together:)

2013 New Adult Reading Challenge

 

So how could I not be a part of this? New Adult is the best freaking genre ever! I love my YA books and pretty much devour the adult books I read, but this, this, is a mix of the best of both worlds. I discovered so many amazing NA writers and novels last year (and it isn't getting any easier refering to 2012 as "last year") such as Easy by Tammara Webber, Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, Charare by Nyrae Dawn, Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover etc, etc, etc. I cannot wait to read some more and the great part is that it doesn't have to be released only in 2013 nor does it have to be contemporary, it can be historical, sci-fi, paranormal, dystopiand and even a part of a series. This one is hosted by four blogs: A Tapestry of Words, Tater's Tall Tails, Basia's Bookshelf & The 20 Something Fiction Writer. So, jump along and let's have some fun discovering this fantastic genre!


These are the main two I'm on right now, but there may be more. If you have any recommendations on what I should read or stuff like that, then by all means, comment on this post or tweet me or recommend on GR. Whichever you like. Just, take a look at my reviewed titles on the blog or my read titles on GR (here), because there's not really much point in listing books that I've already read. Anyway, thank you for following me, talking to me, recommending and commenting! I hope this'll be an amazing year with lots of great books to read and just.. Have fun, everyone!

Hugs,
~ Siiri

Appreciation post and Giveaway: Thank You, Jillian Dodd!

Hi, everyone! So you know that author who wrote That Boy? What about Stalk Me? Yeah.. I know, I am one of those bad, bad people who hasn't read either of these series. But from what I've heard, the lovely Ms. Jillian Dodd is a fantastic writer and has done so much good for the writing community so her friends wanted to thank her via this event and it seemed like such a sweet thing to do in honor of an author who everyone admires that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to jump along. SO SURPRISE, JILLIAN! You're appreciated and I promise, I promise, I will read a book by you in 2013! So, if you've read any of her books, let me know which one is your favorite. If you haven't, we can discover them together:) Now, on to the REAL message.

THANK YOU Jillian for all that you do!

Friends of Jillian Dodd are showing their appreciation! In appreciation for the hard work and effort indie author Jillian Dodd does behind the scenes for authors, her writing friends are offering YOU the chance to win one of her books! You can choose from one of the Keatyn Chronicles:  STALK ME or KISS ME. Or maybe you prefer one of the titles in the That Boy series: THAT BOY or THAT WEDDING. All books are New Adult contemporary romance. Good luck!

Giveaway: (1) eBook copy of STALK ME (Keatyn Chronicles, #1), KISS ME (Keatyn Chronicles, #2), THAT BOY (Volume 1), or THAT WEDDING (That Boy, #2). Open International. Books will be gifted from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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·     *If a winner does not have an e-reader one can download the Kindle app for free to their computers on Amazon.

      Jillian Dodd grew up on a farm in Nebraska, where she developed a love for Midwestern boys and Nebraska football. She has drank from a keg in a cornfield, attended the University of Nebraska, got to pass her candle, and did have a boy ask her to marry him in a bar. She met her own prince in college, and they have two amazing children, a Maltese named Sugar Bear, and two Labrador puppies named Camber Lacy and Cali Lucy.

       She is the author of the That Boy Trilogy and The Keatyn Chronicles Series.

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