Review - My Life Next Door

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Dial Books

Publication date: June 14th, 2012
Cover Source: Goodreads.

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself? 

A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over.

Guess what? This is Ms. Fitzpatrick's debut novel! Oh, I love debut's like this, can't wait to see more work from her! Oh and that cover of Jase and Sam in front of the fence between the families. Love it!

Everyday since the Garretts moved in, Samantha watches the Garretts from her perch on the balcony wishing to be a part of their messy, loving family. But since Samantha is forbidden from associating with the family, she just watches from afar, until one fine evening a handsome Garrett climbs up her terrace and changes everything.

First-loves, family, friendship and NO teen angst. Woot woot! Perfect is what I tell you! It was so refreshing reading through the lives of Sam and Jase, no unnecessary annoying drama while going back and forth about do's and don'ts. These two were reasonable, mature 17 year olds. And I enjoyed very single bit!

Let's talk about the lovely characters.

Oh the characters!!! The character development and the all the characters themselves were beautiful. Beautiful I tell you! Here were a few of my favorites.

Grace Reed, Sam's mum was annoying.It was needed for her character and I liked that fact but yes she annoyed me with her set prejudice about the numerous chaotic Garretts. Grace is opinionated and headstrong, and she despises the them for basically having a big family and having a chaotic happy life and the fact that Mrs.Garrett breast-feeds on the porch. OH MY! ;) As a Senator with a trust fund they live a lavish life but she never really spends much time with her children. Oh and she get worse with the entrance of her creepy southern boyfriend.

But I liked her. Ok not her, but the way she was written really.


The Garretts, deserve to be on here. The entire family right from the oldest to the youngest were adorable. They happily include Sam as part of their family and the love and bickering between them is just lovely to read. Mr. and Mrs. Garrett reminded me of the Weasley's for a bit.


Jase Garrett, trying not to squeal right now. Jase is more than just a boy on the wrong side of the tracks. He isn't even one really. Jason Garrett is a boy any parent would gladly love to see their daughter with (only Grace couldn't get past her obnoxious prejudice). I also appreciated the way he judged Sam when she revealed the secret.

Let's create a checklist shall we?

Polite

Understanding

Babysits his siblings

Trusting

    Helps around the house

Loves each and every member of his large adorable family

    Potential book boyfriend


Need I go on? He sure checks all the boxes in my list.


George!! You deserve a special place here honey. The four-year-old with a penchant for an over-active disastrous imagination and a walking encyclopedia. I loved this kid! Here is an excerpt I had posted in a Teaser Tuesday post that will just have to be posted here to.


“Did you know that in space it's very, very cold? And there's no oxygen? And if an astronaut fell out of a shuttle without his suit he'd die right away?"

I'm a fast learner. "But that would never happen. Because astronauts are really, really careful."

George gives me a smile, the same dazzling sweet smile as his big brother, although at this point, with green teeth. "I might marry you," he allows. "Do you want a big family?” 

Oh and another one.

“Is Jase already gonna marry you?”

I start coughing again. “Uh, No. No, George. I’m only seventeen.” As if that’s the only reason we’re not engaged.

“I’m this many.” George holds up four, slightly grubby fingers. “But Jase is seventeen and a half. You could. Then you could live in here with him. And have a big family.”

Jase strides back into the room, of course, midway through this proposition. “George. Beat it. Discovery Channel is on.”

George backs out of the room but not before saying, “His bed’s really comfortable. And he never pees in it.” 

Tim,  here's another guy I loved. Tim is Sam's bestfriend's brother. He falls into drinking and drugs and basically goes downhill from there. Tim is given a job by Mr.Garret on a deal that he will attend AA. Soon after Nan (Sam's bestie) and Sam start to get distant, Tim is right there, helping out . I liked him at his dysfunctional beginning and loved him as the story moved forward. I especially  liked the Tim and Alice Garrett angle.

This Book certainly has lots of lovable characters. I loved all of them really, maybe with the exception of Nan. I liked her, just didn't love her.

Ok this review is getting long. So I'll end it quick.

Now why did I strip half a quill from this gorgeous book!?

1. Conflict between Sam and Nan.
   Yeah I didn't like how that was resolved. That's saying it was not resolved at all. What happened with them? Did they just never talk again?
2. Jase's reaction
   Didn't I like the way he saw that Sam was not to blame, when anyone else would have shunned her, wouldn't talk to her or maybe shoved her into a river in extreme cases.
   Well, even though I liked his reaction, it was too quick. He needed a breather. That just didn't seem realistic to me.

These among a few other reasons resulted in minus half a quill.

But don't you dare go by that! Grab this summer-y read and get to know the Garretts. Because I certainly loved them.

Rating: 4.5 Quills

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Read as part of the

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quill design: QioDen

Teaser Tuesday #7

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This Week's Teaser:

“You think fairy tales are only for girls? Here's a hint - ask yourself who wrote them. I assure you, it wasn't just the women. It's the great male fantasy - all it takes is one dance to know that she's the one. All it takes is the sound of her song from the tower, or a look at her sleeping face. And right away you know - this is the girl in your head, sleeping or dancing or singing in front of you. Yes, girls want their princes, but boys want their princesses just as much. And they don't want a very long courtships. They want to know immediately.” 

-Davis Levithan. Dash's chapter (chapter 9, p.96)

“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's no getting over that.”

-Rachel Cohn. Lily's Chapter (chapter 18, p.167)


-Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares ( e-galley ) 

You know the thing about this book is Rachel Cohn wrote the chapters for Lily and David Levithan wrote those for Dash. Umhm. And so far......? I'm liking Dash's chapters way more. But I'm not even through the whole book yet, so let's see how it goes! =D

Please leave a comment with a link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your teasers in a comment!

Young Adult Blogger Book Club !! Oh yeah!

Look what I discovered on Readers In Wonderland! Young Adult Blogger Book Club! 

This book club hosted by Readers in Wonderland will be focused on discussions and communicating with fellow book bloggers! Using a forum that can be built into posts, discussions will be easy to follow and reply to like never before with a large variety of topics and questions. Using various forms of social media, you can keep track of each other's progress, share favorite quotes, and participate in challenges.

The nice thing about this is you don't have to participate more than you want to. You can sign up and read the book all by your lonesome and not leave a single comment. BUT you DO have to review the book at the end of the month. That is the only requirement if you sign up. I'm trying to think of an incentive for those who do participate frequently though. 

Anyone can join up, but you have to have a blog. The books read, however, are young adult. 

The book for March has been voted for, and the winner is Under the Never Sky.

So head over to Readers in Wonderland and sign yourselves up here.

Feature and Follow #4

Increase Blog Followers, gain Book Blog Followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This Friday's question :

We always talk about books WE want. Let's turn it on its head. What books have you given other people lately?

Hmm....

First off, loving the new Feature & Follow button!

Books I've given people. Well, I don't have many avid readers in my family, close relatives or current friends. Oh they read, yes, just not as crazy about it as I am.

This here, is me.

Ok, not, it's a girl I found on tumblr but hey it's the basic idea of me.

So to the people who were interested in checking out a few books, I gave them some popular ones.
There's The Host, HP Deathly Hallows (to a friend who never read harry potter before) , I recently lent my sister Thirteen Reasons Why (does it count if I give the book to someone who lives with me?? ). Do check out my review for Thirteen Reasons Why if you like, coz I loved it!  :)

So that's it, which book did you give someone recently?

Leave a link to your Follow Friday post or let me know your answers in the comments below!

Review - Tiger's Curse ( The Tiger Saga #1 )

Author: Colleen Houck

Publisher: Sterling

Publication date: January 11th, 2011
Format: E-book
Cover Source: Goodreads.

Passion. Fate. Loyalty.
Would you risk it all to change your destiny?
The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

"It was hard to relate to other people my age anyway. Their heads were always full of such trivial things, and it was really hard work to find something in common to talk about. "

-Kelsey

I do feel like this sometimes, especially at my current place of residence. But really she would've had atleast one best friend. Not even one?

So that there is Kelsey, the main female lead before joining the circus for the summer. Kelsey is an 18 year old from Oregon, who befriends a tiger named Ren, while at her summer job at the circus. When Ren is bought by a rich man in India, Kelsey is asked to accompany them to help transport Ren, due to her close relationship and easy way with him. En-route to the sanctuary Ren and Kelsey are left stranded and move to the jungle.

And then.....

" When he was finally close enough, I slipped the rope through his collar and tied the other end to a tree.

He was not happy.

"I'm sorry, Ren, but we can't have you loose. It would scare the family. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can." I turned and began walking over to the small house, but then froze in my tracks when I heard a quiet male voice behind me say, "Is this really necessary?" "

Oh yeah, that's right! It is then revealed that Dhiren or Ren for short is actually an Indian prince battling a 400-year-old curse. The curse that made him a tiger.

This is where Kelsey's role comes to play. She is the chosen one and must help Ren break the curse that has entrapped Ren and his equally handsome hunk of a brother Kishan *wink wink* in a totally Indiana Jones-esque fashion.

It's all there, hot guys, crazy creatures and tasks, acts of dare-devilry, chivalry, oh so cute moments, steaming moments, this one's got 'em all.

Now coming to why I reduced a whole Quill for this book , since it does supposedly have it all.

What I didn't like :

• Kelsey
  
  Oh Kells, Kells, Kells........ You were absolutely relatable at the beginning, humble girl, not distractingly annoying, oh you were good. Then why oh why did you let all your confusion get in the middle of all of it towards the end??
  
  I liked you. I still manage to do so. But you let me down by going on and on and on and on..... about how you could not be with Ren and how gorgeous he is. I totally sympathise with you, ofcourse it is hard with Ren being all dreamy, steamy and chivalrous and well-mannered to add to it all. But it really wasn't necessary to let us know about his looks every other second.
  
  Lucky you didn't scratch the Bella surface.. *phew, disaster averted*
• It takes a while to get into the book. But definitely worth going through it, because it definitely does get better.
• Kishan
  (Just a personal rant, not a reason for reducing a quill)
  
  Seriously man? Yeah you're hot, dark and handsome but that isn't the way you treat someone! Sadly my first opinion of Kishan was that I didn't like him. He just put me off with his entrance, but yes I did gradually warm up to him.

What I liked ?

• Ren !
  
  Ren was just 'bhavya' (that's hindi for divine or according to google, gorgeous) . He wasn't perfect, he was stubborn, courteous, good 'ol fashioned chap.
• Representation of India
  
  I laughed when I read about Kelsey describing the horrible driving and lack of lane rules. It was always something I noticed when I visited India, and now that I moved here, yeah I do sometimes worry about my life when out with friends.
  
  But the descriptions were not degrading or unnecessarily exalting in any way which is something I liked. :)
• Kelsey
  
  Umhm. We have a love/hate relationship going on. Though I didn't like her because of her constantly mentioning who she could not have and his looks, she is nice. She may have fallen for Ren, but it was not insta-love, a fact that I really appreciated. She was hesitant and trusting at just the right amount. Though I do wish she would have just ended up with him already!
  
  Yes she did trust him way too easily at the beginning I felt, but she showed some sense later on. I mean who trusts someone when they say that they are your friend, your friend the tiger..... Yeah..
• Character Development and Conversations
  
  I really did like the character development of all the characters, be it Kelsey, Ren, endearing Mr.Kadam or Kishan. They helped keep the story moving and me turning the pages. Now isn't that what matters the most ?
  
  And the banter between the characters is equally good, not letting down.

So overall yes, a good read with a good amount of laughs, excitement, adventure and resentment towards the bad guy. And I'm going to pick up the next one to see what happens next.

Rating: 4 Quills

quill design: QioDen

Teaser Tuesday #6

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This Week's Teaser:

“Did you know that in space it's very, very cold? And there's no oxygen? And if an astronaut fell out of a shuttle without his suit he'd die right away?"

I'm a fast learner. "But that would never happen. Because astronauts are really, really careul."

George gives me a smile, the same dazzling sweet smile as his big brother, although at this point, with green teeth. "I might marry you," he allows. "Do you want a big family?” 

― Huntley Fitzpatrick, My Life Next Door.

Loving this book so far! I just might have a new book boyfriend ;) . Oh and thought you'd like to know the speaker in this excerpt, George, is a four-year-old.

Please leave a comment with a link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your teasers in a comment!

LifeScouts : Sharing Adventure, Every Day

I was on YouTube the other day watching the videos of some of my favorite youtuber's when I came upon a video by Alex Day ( How many of you have seen his  'Alex Reads Twilight' videos? Hilarious!), and there I saw again his video about LifeScouts.

How many of you YouTuber's or tumblr people have heard of the initiative Life Scouts ?? If you have heard of it, how awesome is that idea eh? And if you haven't here's where I tell you.

Lifescouts is a badge-collecting community of people who share real-world experiences online. Reblog the badges you have and share your stories with your followers, look for new badges to prompt new stories and things to do with friends, and buy the physical badges to collect from our badge store!

When I first heard about LifeScouts on Alex's youtube channel back in January, I thought "hey that's a great idea.."  and just left it at that.
When I came upon the video AGAIN I thought, "Hey now, it's time to get involved!". So here I am doing just that!!

Ever visited a haunted house, gone bungee-jumping, or learnt CPR ? They've got badges for it!

Here is an Introduction video to LifeScouts!

Here is another video if you may wish to see hyper-excited Alex Day sharing his idea with the world.

Check out the LifeScouts Tumblr to see the notes of a gazillion other people : http://lifescouts.com/

So yes, I will be posting about any badges that I claim every other week or so. So keep a lookout!

Have any experiences you'd like to share? Or are you are part of the LifeScouts movement? Leave me a comment or a link to your tumblr if you do!

Teaser Tuesday #5

Ok so I'm done with my chores, wished my far off  bestie a happy birthday, discussed the pro's and con's of forfeiting cake and called a wrong number and didn't understand a word the person on the other side said. Guess I'm done with things to do for the day, so let's get to today's Teaser Tuesday !!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This Week's Teaser:

" Though I could remember every story, every name, 

and every death, Jonathan’s story was when I went 

from looking forward to seeing the Collector to 

running from the Collector. He never gave me any 

inclination that Jonathan’s story would be different 

from the others. He simply came in every night, sat 

down at the end of my bed just as he’d done thousands 

of times before, and took forty-eight days to tell me 

Jonathan’s story. I thought that he was next, that it was 

Jonathan’s turn to be collected. "

-K.B.Lever. Manipulating the List (chapter 1. p.9 ebook) 

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K.B. Lever is currently hosting a blog tour for her book. If you are interested to join then click on this link and check out the dates remaining! Let her know on her blog if you are interested!

Click the tour button to check the dates on her blog.

Please leave a comment with a link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your teasers in a comment!

Feature & Follow Friday #3

Increase Blog Followers, gain Book Blog Followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This Friday's question :

Happy Mardi Gras! If they were throwing the HOTTEST books off of a Mardi Gras float — what would you do to have them throw to you…?

What would  I do?

I certainly wouldn't do the flashing thing. So what could I do besides jumping in front of the float and getting myself killed in the process?

Let's bust out our moves! Oh Yeah..

Leave a link to your Follow Friday post or let me know your answers in the comments below!

Review - Five Flavors of Dumb

Author: Antony John

Publisher: Not Avail

Publication date: November 11th, 2010
Format: E-book
Cover Source: Goodreads.

 The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.
The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.
The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?
Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.

Piper has got one month to get her high school band, Dumb, a paying gig and if she succeeds she gets to become the band's manager. Piece of cake  right? The only problem , is how do you manage a crumbling band into rising stardom when you don't even know if they're any good? 
And the catch? Piper's deaf.


On the whole not a bad read.

Ok so what here's I really liked ,

• Piper's Familial relationships
       Piper's parents as good as ignore her when her younger sister Grace is born and the fact that they use Piper's College Fund to get Grace a cochlear transplant and how she deals with her anger and jealousy at Grace's ability to hear. How her dad considers Piper's deafness as a disability, as well as the gradual progress in their relationships all counted to the realism and helped root for Piper.
  
      Her relationship with her brother Finn was also something I really liked.
  
• Characters :
      Ed!! - The nerd love interest and bad-ass drummer. The way they friendship begins and how they open up to each other.
      Finn - The lovable brother who's always in trouble. There was just something deep about him.
  
     The evolution of Tash was likable too.
• The ending. Oh yeah.
  

What I did not,

• Kallie's potrayal
      Yes I liked the fact that there was a change and she not the high-school queen bee types. She was quite, sensitive. And I adored the ending really. But there was just something missing. I just did not feel like connecting to her though I really wanted to.
  
• Yes I did not like Josh the lead singer from the start. Which was supposed to happen but I just wish they had showcased a bit more of the brothers Will and Josh.
  

Overall a good read. A feel good book that let's you know it is important it is to stand up for yourself, make the best of whatever situation and let people know they are worth it.

Thereby I end with a quote from the book.

“Don’t worry about wanting to change; start worrying when you don’t feel like changing anymore. And in the meantime, enjoy every version of yourself you ever meet, because not everybody who discovers their true identity likes what they find.”  

Rating: 3 Quills

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Read as part of the

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quill design: QioDen

The Wonders of Sign

For the past few months I've begun showing a special interest in Sign-Language, and am eagerly absorbing anything I can find on the subject. Maybe watching the show Switched at Birth, where one of the swapped children is deaf, looking up the internet for facts or videos on basic signs. I'm finding this really interesting! And now that I've been thinking, I haven't read a book with a deaf/dumb protagonist who uses sign-language to communicate... So here I am about to change that :)

But before I mention which book it is that I plan on reading, let me first share with you a few facts about sign-language.

Facts! :

• There are perhaps around two hundred sign languages in use around the world today. 
• A sign language is often the first language of many deaf people in their countries. (e.g. ASL is the first language of many deaf people in the U.S. and some regions of Canada)
•  The majorities of Deaf people (90%) are born to hearing parents and therefore do not acquire Sign Language as a mother tongue. They acquire Sign Language at school from peers. Sign Language is the first language of the majority of deaf children.
• Minorities (10%) of Deaf children are born to Deaf parents and these children acquire Sign Language as a mother tongue.
• Sign languages are just one of several communication methods available to deaf people.
• A sign language used in one region may not be the same in another region, even if the two regions share the same official language. For example, ASL in the USA is not used in the UK (BSL is), even though both regions share the same official language - English.

So the book I initially planned on reading was Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. Since I couldn't get my hands on that, I picked up Five Flavors of Dumb upon recommendation from a friend. I'm going to do my best to put up the review within two days!

I intend to keep trying to dig up more information about any more books I might find on the subject. Do you know of any? Do comment and let me know!

Till then, see you later...

Read the book or have anything interesting to share yourself? Share the link or comment about it below! :)

Feature & Follow Friday #2

Increase Blog Followers, gain Book Blog Followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This Friday's question :

What is the first thing you would do if you woke up to find yourself in your favorite book?

Oh Gee, really? Only one? Do I even have any favorites?

Harry Potter I'll say! Should I have outgrown this one by now? Absolutely not! Since I'm already 18 I'm just going to go ahead and pass that Apparition test!!

Other than that well, I absolutely LOVED Daughter of Smoke and Bone but I do have reservations about waking up as a chimaera with the head of an ostrich or something.

 Yeah, I'd really freak out then. :/

Leave a link to your Follow Friday post or let me know your answers in the comments below!

Photo courtesy: National Geographic