Teaser Tuesday[30]: Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1) by Katie McGarry

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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Sometimes, I’m really horrible at this posting thing. Sorry about that.

I’ve mostly been up to school, which is not exciting, and have had a ton of text book reading to do, which sucks a lot. Especially when the text book is on something boring or is just generally droning and makes me tired. I’m not enjoying it very much, but I’m gettin’ through it, I suppose.

Read, like, four books within the last week, so that’s nice. This week’s book really took me way too long to finally pick up, given that I’ve wanted to read it since it first came out, and even almost got it at one point but didn’t. My local bookstore got an ARC of it in, before I’d heard much about it, and I decided not to buy it, which sucked when I heard all the hype right afterward. It’s been on my list for a while, and I finally got it when I saw the price for the hardback was so good (the same price as the paperback!) (also, am I glad I went ahead and got the hardback, instead of waiting for the paperback, because the hardback is so pretty! all shiny, with the paperbacks' picture put on the binding [even if, somehow, it bent and ripped a very tiny bit before it got to me]). (Also, the price hasn’t changed yet, so, you know, if you’re interested…)

I’m already over a hundred pages in and it’s really good, not quite what I expected in several ways, but very good, and all I really want to do is read more of it. The first bit that I read I just zoomed through somehow, it took no time at all and I didn’t even realize I’d gotten so far, and that hasn’t happened in a while, and it’s definitely a nice feeling. I’ve still got almost three hundred pages left, I think, and I’m happy about that. I don’t want it to be over too quickly.

Anyway, here it is:

Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1) by Katie McGarry

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Published Date: July 2012

Goodreads Synopsis:

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Excerpts:

“Noah raised an eyebrow. ‘You play pool?’” (Hardback, pg. 132)

“The Noah Hutchins that refused steady relationships or even dating. The Noah Hutchins that only wanted one-night stands. A stoner. My opposite. And right now, everything I wanted.” (Hardback, pg. 132)

So, what are you reading right now?

Novel Review: Pride Mates (Shifters Unbound, #1) by Jennifer Ashley

Genre: Adult Paranormal/Supernatural Romance (with Smut)

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Dorchester Publishing (Leisure Book)

Spoilers?: No/Very Minor

Goodreads Synopsis:

CALL OF THE WILD

To most, they are animals even when in human form. They are to be collared and kept on the fringes of society, scorned because they are feared, hated for their extraordinary powers. And attorney Kim Fraser has to go right into the heart of their lair.
It is her job to defend those in need. But there is absolutely nothing defenseless about Liam Morrissey. His soft Irish lilt and feline grace can t disguise his sheer strength. Nor can the silver chain at his throat, designed to control the aggression of his kind, completely reassure her that this man has been tamed.
Yet when a feral shifter begins to stalk them both, Liam is the only one she trusts with her life. She'll let him claim her for her protection, for her pride, and for a passion that knows no bounds.

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. This was my first Jennifer Ashley novel, and it’s really just luck that I ended up getting the first book in this series, but I definitely plan on reading more.

In the world of Pride Mates, shifters have been made public, have been given collars to control their violent urges, and are treated as severe outcasts, given little areas where they can live and certain jobs they are allowed to have. Pretty much, it’s ridiculous, and I did not like it. That’s probably my least favorite part of the book, because it just angers me so much. Aside from that, though, I rather enjoyed this book.

It’s about Kim, a lawyer working for a shifter, trying to prove that he didn’t kill his girlfriend. Trying to find some sort of proof, she goes to Liam, the son of the head of the pride, who everyone goes to when they need help. And then, you know, things get messy and romantic from there.

I didn’t feel too strongly about Kim, in general, but I did like some of the things she did. She tried standing up for herself to Liam and his family (his brother, nephew, and dad, all of whom live together), but overall tended to let him win. Liam didn’t really let her push him around, let her take charge, but he did let her go out on her own, make her think that she was on her own when he was really right behind her. In a way, that’s not very good, but in another way, it’s kind of sweet. My biggest problem with their relationship, I guess, is how she didn’t push hard enough for what she wanted, for what she thought was right.

There was a scene near the end where she was being kind of dumb, goading him to see if he really wanted to run off (you'll understand if you read it), and then near the end when he pushed her away, right when she’d gotten used to being with him and had accepted it, she just let him and left. At the end she came back, but I don’t really like that she let him push her away, that she just took it when he pushed her around. There’s also the fact that she let the whole binding together thing happen, which overall was a good thing, but she did it without really knowing or questioning what it meant.

Now, saying that, I did like the romance. I liked the two of them together, and the smut was very nice. I liked their relationship, and am happy with the ending. And I did really like Liam, despite what I mentioned above. He was sweet and charming.

I also really liked his family. His dad was alright, and I found his relationship with Glory to be very interesting, and kind of wanted to know more about it. I know that Sean, Liam’s brother, has his own book (the next one in the series), and I plan on reading that soon, and am looking forward to finding out more about him. Then there’s Connor, the nephew, who I totally love. He’s adorable and sweet and funny and I want more of him. I want Ashley to write him his own book, but I don’t think there is one. There needs to be.

This book was a bit of a surprise, in the world created and the characters and even some of the plot, really easy to read, and I generally just really liked it, even with its faults. I’m looking forward to reading more.

Manga Review: Natsume's Book of Friends, Volume 12, by Yuki Midorikawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 15+

Spoilers?:  Minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences rated teen. Takashi Natsume can see the spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he's a troubled high school student who has come to live in the small town where his grandmother grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the Sight from the mysterious Reiko.

Natsume meets a kindhearted yokai who has found a ruined letter he desperately needs to read. There is another yokai who has power over paper who might be able to help him. But this yokai’s name is sealed in the Book of Friends… Will it be willing to help the grandson of the woman who bound it?!

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I love Natsume, as I’ve said before. He’s just so sweet and I love watching him grow. This series is so… understated, but in such a sweet, calm, almost serene way. It’s so good, and yet after every volume, I usually don’t have very much to say.

A couple volumes ago (the last one? the one before that?), Natsume took a trip and there was a lot of information and growing up from his past experiences, and I loved it. One of the reasons that this series seems to go by so slow, seems to move forward slowly, is that there are so many one shot chapters, which are not usually my favorite. I guess because I want more about Natsume, and I want to see him getting closer to his friends and the people around him, not learn about new yokai all the time. That doesn’t mean that the one shot chapters are bad, or slow (in fact, I know that it’s some people’s favorite part), it’s just not one of my favorites.

The first two chapters were one shots, where we met two new yokai who Natsume helps. They were both sad and sweet, one about a yokai who falls in love with a human, and another where an older yokai threatens Natsume but really just wants some affection, but I don’t want to ruin too much of it.

The other three chapters were a storyline in which Natsume gets trapped in a bottle, and then taken to some God welcoming ceremony that’s really just a trap for everyone, yokai included. There’s also a scene where Nyanko-Sensei transforms to look like Nastume, which is just funny because he’s so much more harsh and blunt and rude, and it’s just hilarious seeing him act like that with Natsume’s face. We also get to see Tanuma, who is just kind of a delight in how sweet he is and how much he wants to be there for Natsume if he’d let him, as well as Natori (the professional exorcist), who gets to meet Tanuma for the first time.

This series tends to go rather slowly, but it’s easy to grow attached to the characters, and then it always turns out to be a surprising little delight, whether you know you’re going to like the volume or not.

I already have the next volume, and am now very ready to read it.

Novel Review: My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr

Genre: YA Contemporary (Light Romance)

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Penguin (Speak)

Spoilers?: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ellen loves Link and James. Her older brother and his best friend are the only company she ever wants. She knows they fight, but she makes it a policy never to take sides. She loves her brother, the math genius and track star. And she is totally, madly in love with James, with his long eyelashes and hidden smiles. "When you grow out of it," James teases her, "you will break my heart." Then someone at school asks if Link and James might be in love with each other. A simple question. But the answer is far from simple, and its repercussions affect their entire lives. This extraordinary, multiple award-winning novel is funny, heartbreaking, and messy--just like its characters, just like life.

Available on Amazon (Or this edition).

Review:

This book kind of surprised me. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

My Heartbeat is about Ellen and her brother Link and Link’s best friend James. Only, maybe James isn’t only his best friend. Link and James have been friends forever, really close, and spend practically all their time together. Which makes some people wonder if, maybe, they aren’t only friends. When someone mentions this to her, she starts wondering, and can’t stop, and then things get messy when she asks them about it.

I don’t want to spoil things too much, but things didn’t get messy in the way that I expected them to. It was interesting to me how things got messy, and while it didn’t quite feel right, as in it gave me uneasy feelings, things kind of worked themselves out.

I liked Ellen, and found her relationship with James to be interesting. I also liked Link. At first, I was unsure of him, and felt a little sorry for him, and while I still kind of do, he surprised me a little. He didn’t do quite what I expected, even if he did do something that wasn’t too big a surprise. I was hoping he would go a step further, and I really wanted to see if he was going to accept what he was feeling, if it really was what he was feeling. I think, overall, I just wanted to know more about Link. I wouldn’t have minded getting in his head for a bit.

There are some gay messages in here, but not really in the way I was expecting. I liked Ellen’s mother’s take on it, but not her father’s, at all. I didn't much like her brother reaction about it, either. And I really enjoyed, and respected, what Ellen did about it. She didn’t shy away from any of it, she was honest to herself about what she thought about her father and her brother, and I really liked that she went out and did some research on the subject when she realized she knew very little about it.

She did comment on how it’s not really that big a deal anymore, and she didn’t understand why her brother and father were afraid of it. And, while I really liked those thoughts, I didn’t really agree. I mean, this was published back in 2002, and things still haven’t really cleared up on whether it’s a big deal or not. A lot of people still think it is.

I rather enjoyed this book. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t what I expected, and I wanted more from it, but I enjoyed it.

Manga Review: Baku by Hakase Mizuki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Tokyopop

Spoilers?: Minor-ish?

Volumes: 1

Goodreads Synopsis:

Takeshi Uesugi knows he's not an ordinary sixteen year old boy. His mother thinks he's not human and it's driving her crazy. She can't be trusted not to abuse him, and lives in a mental institution. When Takeshi agrees to model for his father's friend, his face on billboards brings a lot of attention. Suddenly there are many people taking an interest in him, some with very unusual powers, just like Takeshi.

Available on Amazon.

Review:

This was a really interesting, unique manga. I’m not even too sure what to say about it. It wasn’t amazing in my eyes, but it was definitely not bad, and I generally enjoyed it.

While reading this, I couldn’t help thinking, several times, that there wasn’t going to be a very good ending, what with so much happening and so little pages, but it actually turned out rather well. It wasn’t rushed.

The artwork is really neat. At first, I didn’t like it very much, but it grew on me. At times, there are a lot of blank spaces, and the faces are too long, but at others, it’s really done well and is just really pretty.

The first three chapters were the Baku storyline, about a boy that was reincarnated, and his previous self was a, um, powerful demon-type person who took in two orphans, and he made them promise to look for his new self and remind him of who he was, were he to die. And the boy reincarnate isn’t having a very happy life, what with causing strange things to happen without meaning to, his mother being rather crazy, but it takes him a bit to get used to what he now is, plus having to fight an old enemy.

Then, the last two chapters are a different storyline, called Mephisto, about a guy who gets rid of demons or ghosts or whatever. He lives with two twin girls, his sisters, and a friend, a guy, who is currently, maybe temporarily, staying with them. Plus, a little rodent lives on his hat, and a little creature lives in his suitcase. The whole dynamic between this group was my favorite part; they were all just such neat, different characters, and I would have liked to get to know more about them.

The plot line in that story, was him saving this one woman, and then finding this doll who was buried and just wants to go back to the little girl who loved her, only for the girl to not care about the doll in the least. That was a rather sad, bittersweet story.

This whole book, from the characters to the plot to the artwork, was all very different, very unique. It didn’t take me very long to get into it, and I rather enjoyed it. This is the artist of The Demon Ororon series, which I didn’t know when I first picked it up, but now I might actually pick up that short series, if given the chance.