Wishlist Thursday[46]: Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, and Attack on Titan: Junior High

Two for this week!:

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 1 by Hajime Isayama, Ryo Suzukaze, and Satoshi Shiki

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: March 11^th, 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A prequel series to the number one bestseller in Japan. Humanity has learned to live in complacency behind its high walls, protected from the giant Titans. But when a Titan-worshipping cult opens one of the gates, a Titan wreaks havoc, consuming the cultists. After the rampage is over, two young Survey Corps members are shocked to discover a pregnant woman's partially digested corpse - with her baby still alive inside it! What will the fate of this "child of the Titans" be? And how will humanity learn to cope with the Titan threat?

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Attack on Titan: Junior High 1 by Hajime Isayama and Saki Nakagawa

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: March 11^th, 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A spin-off series to the number one bestseller in Japan. Eren and Mikasa enter a new school-- Titan Junior High! However, Eren's hated Titans for years-- can he get along with his new (harmless?) classmates? Featuring all of the characters from the main series as you've never seen them before, this series is sure to delight fans of Attack on Titan with a human vs. Titan volleyball match, a Titan rock band, and much more!

Why?:

I am a huge fan of the original Attack on Titan series. I have some catching up to do, but I’m loving it. There are three (that I know of) spin offs, of which these are two (the third one coming out later this year), plus the guidebook coming out later this year. And I don’t usually go for spin offs, especially while still reading the original series, but I can’t help myself with these. I’m just so interested in the world, and the plot, and the characters. I’m super excited for these, and seeing how they turn out. I’ve barely even read the synopsis for them, wanting it to be a surprise.
I'm a little unsure of the other creators coming in, but I'm being optimistic about it. Before the Fall looks like it's going to be really good, serious, with some good back story, as does No Regrets. Junior High looks like it's going to be really funny, and when I first saw the cover, and the kids all tiny and adorable, I laughed. I'm really looking forward to reading them.

Teaser Tuesday[87]: Perfect Lies (Mind Games, #2) by Kiersten White

Teaser Tuesday 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!

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Perfect Lies (Mind Games, #2) by Kiersten White

Genre: YA Paranormal Thriller Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

Release Date: February 18^th, 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.

Excerpt:

“I tap tap tap tap my foot on the floor. Calm. I am calm. I am calm and bored. I am the ocean. I am the yacht in the middle of the ocean. I am nothing.

I am flames.

Not yet. Not yet.” (Hardback, pg. 120)

What are you reading right now?

Manga Review: Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Volume 1, by Yaya Sakuragi

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: SuBLime (VIZ Media)

Release Date: August, 2012

Volumes: 4

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

High school student Ao has been dreaming about his longtime neighbor Ryomei, a priest at the local Shinto shrine. A little freaked out--and a lot excited--at the prospect of having a relationship with Ryomei, Ao gathers up his courage, confesses his feelings...and gets turned down flat. Luckily, Ao's not the kind to give up easily. Thanks to some creative persistence (and Ryomei's weakening resolve), he finally gets a kiss. But one single kiss won't satisfy him for long!

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for Mature audiences.

Review:

This series has been on my eye for quite a while now, mainly because the covers are so adorable. So when the price dropped for the series, I took the chance given. And now I’m a little surprised by this first book, as it’s rather not what I was expecting.

Firstly, I was worried about the art. Because while it does look nice on the covers, it also seemed like it could be a lot rougher inside. I’m happy to say that it’s not, and that it is still rather nice. Long, sharp chins, a little rougher at times, but definitely not bad to look at.

Second, there isn’t much sex. There was really only one scene near the beginning, and a smaller one in the middle that didn’t go past kissing. I was very surprised by this, and I can’t deny that I was hoping for a little more. I have no doubt that more is coming, though.

I rather liked, and was very surprised by, how open the characters are with each other about sex. Like, Ao has a wet dream and he’s not very embarrassed by it, and talks about it with his friends. There’s talk of masturbating and gay sex rather openly, with no shame, between the characters, and that was refreshing.

Saying that, though—the main couple has not really decided what to do about their attraction, mainly because Ryo is in denial about having any feelings for Ao and gets a little freaked out by it. This was another thing I was surprised by: Ao is very open about his feelings. He decides how he feels and goes right out with it, directly to Ryo, to do something about it.

Which I think is my main surprise. Most of the yaoi I read feature a very similar formula, and this one is not really following it. It’s a little refreshing, and it’s a little odd. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet, but am definitely looking forward to finding out.

I’m overall not too sure how I feel about Ao. He’s entertaining and I like his straightforwardness, and he was an adorable little kid, but he’s not quite as cute as I was expecting. Ryo is a little rough and defensive, but is also sweet and has an obvious soft spot for Ao.

We meet quite a few other characters, too. There’s Ryo's family, who all seem very sweet. There’s his friend Shu, who enjoys being entertained, and who seems like he’ll be fun to get to know. Then Ao has two best friends, one a little oblivious and the other smart and with a possible interest in Ao. And his Grandma, who owns a pub, and seems sweet. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how the story progresses, given how the romantic couple hasn’t even gotten together yet, and the cliffhanger ending.

Novel Review: Sweet as Sugar, Hot as Spice (Farrel Sisters, #3) by Kimberly Raye

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Warner Forever (Warner Books)

Release Date: 2005

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

SWEET AS SUGAR

As owner and operator of Sugar & Spice Sinema, Eve Farrel creates red-hot how-to videos that help couples go from mild to wild. But Eve herself is single-and her famous feminist mother is determined to keep her that way. The only way Eve can get her mom off her back is to do the unthinkable-like get married.


HOT AS SPICE

Linc Adams is a bad-boy NASCAR driver whose love life is even faster than his car. The last thing he wants is to follow in his father's footsteps and run for mayor of his North Carolina town. Hoping to blow his electoral chances, he agrees to marry Eve. Surely, her knockout looks and steamy career will shock conservative voters! But Linc's in for a shock himself on his wedding night. This fast-track ladies' man is about to learn a trick or two about lovemaking...while Eve is about to learn something new about love.

The Cover:

I actually rather like this cover. I think it's cute, eye-catching, and I like that it doesn't have a half-naked, faceless man on the front. I don't think that the cover has anything to do with the contents of the book, and that's kind of a major fault, but oh well.

Quotes:

• "Lasting relationships weren’t built on a flimsy piece of paper but a solid foundation of shared interests, mutual respect, and great sex.” (Mass Market Paperback, pg. 3)
• "'Luck doesn’t just happen. It’s made. You decide what you want and you go after it.’” (Pg. 102)

Review:

This was a pretty average, but good book.

I liked the characters, and really enjoyed getting to know them. I liked Eve and her outrageous self, and how Linc was trying to appear worse than he actually was. I liked their getting together, and how their relationship developed. At times I would have liked them to get together faster, but that’s okay. I particularly liked that they had problems in the sex department, that things didn’t go perfectly right from the start, and that they worked at it to make it better. I don’t think I’ve ever read that in a book before, and I really liked that. After they got better, though, they didn’t have any problems ever again with the sex, but that’s okay. I did like the ending, aside from how cheesy and showy it was, but that’s okay, too.

I liked Eve’s family, and might pick up another of Raye’s books to get to know them better. Although I didn’t really like how anti-man/marriage Eve’s mother was. That just went a little too far for me, but, you know, that’s okay.

This was a fun book, I enjoyed it. It had a couple problems, but overall it was pretty good.