Bleeding Violet

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Simon Pulse, 2010
454 pages
YA; Fantasy
4/5 stars

Source: Library

I wanted to read this after seeing several glowing reviews of it around the blogosphere. Then I started reading it and was confused because some weird things happen in this book. Overall the mythology underpinning the story is never fully explained although it did not detract from my enjoyment of the story once I got into it.

Hanna admits that she has mental problems, currently diagnosed as maniac-depressive. Additionally she is able to talk to her father's ghost despite his death a year ago.  But she is not the weirdest part of the town of Portero, Texas which has its own very unique life.  She arrives searching for the mother she's never known and whose love she deeply desires.  She meets a cute boy, her mother is possessed by a hundreds year old spirit, she makes a wish, she almost dies multiple times, basically a whole slew of adventures that entranced me.

Other: The use of "gone" instead of "gonna" or "going to" was SO annoying.

Warning: Some instances of language and sexual situations. Meant for the more mature reader.

Overall: I would recommend doing plenty of research before buying this novel or else checking it out from the library because it seems to been rather polarizing in the book buying community.  I really liked it but would not recommend it without knowing your preferences intimately.

Cover: Gorgeous-purple is Hanna's favorite color.

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop

TBA?

Who's your all-time favorite book villain?

None are immediately springing to mind so I'm going to go with Lord Voldemort-he was especially terrifying to me in Goblet of Fire and I use to have nightmares that he had already killed my entire family and was attempting to kill me.

Disney Princess Profile: Ariel

Hosted by Irena at This Miss Loves to Read.

Name: Ariel

Film: The Little Mermaid

Princess: Born and bred

Voice: Jodi Benson

Hair: Long red with big bangs

Outfit: Purple bra and green fins

Home: The Ocean
Longs for: Legs

Best Friend: Flounder

Species: Surgeonfish
Voice: Jason Marin
Friend: Scuttle
Species: Seagull
Voice: Buddy Hackett

Parents: King Triton
Voice: Kenneth Mars
Court Conductor: Sebastian
Species: Crab
Voice: Samuel E. Wright

Love Interest: Eric

Prince: Yes

Voice: Christopher Daniel Barnes
Friend: Max
Species: Dog

Villain: Ursula

Voice: Pat Carroll
Species: Squid
Sidekicks: Flotsam and Jetsam
Species: Eels
Voice: Paddi Edwards

Songs: "Fathoms Below"
"Daughters of Triton"
"Part of Your World"
"Under the Sea"
"Poor Unfortunate Souls"
"Les Poissons"
"Kiss the Girl"

Opinion: I'm actually not a big fan of Ariel.  I want her to listen to her father because I believe King Triton only wants what is best for her and obviously going to Ursula was a very bad decision.  I am glad that she gets her happy ending though.  And I do love the film, especially because it brought on a Renaissance of classic Disney animated films.  I adore the songs (aren't they fantastic?) and find a lot at which to laugh, which leaves me very happy!

What Can't Wait

What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Pérez
Carolrhoda Lab, 2011
232 pages
YA; Contemporary
4/5 stars

Source: Received a free galley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Marisa is a senior in high school with conflicting pressures on her.  Her parents (especially her father) expect her to contribute financially and emotionally to the family, to get married young, and give them grandchildren.  However her own inclination and her favorite teacher encourage her dreams of leaving their town to attend an engineering program.

Marisa really has a lot on her plate.  Her sister's loser husband hurts himself, sending her sister to work and putting Marisa in charge of watching her niece which conflicts with her own job at the supermarket, her friendships, a budding romance, and her own schoolwork.  Additionally her father expects Marisa to put her salary toward the family budget (including his drinking).  And that's not even touching on everything that occurs in this book!  However it wasn't some nonstop fast-moving novel because there was space for the quieter, sweeter moments of life additionally.

I mostly liked the romance of Marisa and Alan.  She's very unsure of herself at first but they were already friendly and it moves apace.  He's probably the person who has the most faith in her (besides perhaps her teacher) and he always encourages her to shoot high, even if it means that she'll end up leaving him (I do doubt the feasibility of their long-distance relationship but that's not really part of the book).

I mostly liked Marisa except for one incident where she's dumb with Alan that leads to a bad situation for her (I liked how she handled that bad situation but I so wanted to stop her from her fight with Alan) and her indecisiveness.  She spends a lot of time complaining to the reader about the different pressures she feels instead of trying to do something about them.  When she did pull herself together to go after her dreams, I was rooting for her one hundred percent!

Overall: A good contemporary read, touching on many of the difficulties of the teenage years...and then some.

Read for YA Debut and Ebook challenges.

5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth

by Matthew Inman
Andrew McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011
152 pages
Humor
4/5 stars

Source: Received a free review copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hilarious collection of comics touching on a wide range of subjects.  My personal favorites are those teaching grammar points (such as when to use an apostrophe or a semi-colon) and those with cats.  Lately I have really been wanting a cat which is a huge no-no in my dorm but as I'm graduating this year, perhaps I will get a cat later.  I just miss our family's cat so much and some of the points made ring so true!

The only problem was that in digital format, it was hard to read many of the asides as the writing could not be made bigger.  I'm not entirely sure why but I think it makes sense.  Luckily I was already familiar with some of the comics so I could figure out what most of the words were.

Check out theoatmeal.com for more and to order your own copy!

February Stats

Info:
I had another pretty good month (not quite as good as January but still...) reading 27 books!  I didn't do as well on some of my challenges as I would have liked but I'm progressing nicely on the Contemps and I will work harder on the others in the future because I definitely want to complete all of them.  I did have a slump between February 14-18 but I recovered.

As I worked on my review archives this weekend, I noticed that they seemed somewhat unwieldy because I have now reviewed quite a lot of books.  If you have a chance, I'd love to know what you think of them and how you prefer to search for reviews on someone's site.  Do you like author or title? Would a series page be helpful? Since I review many different genres, would a page for each genre be helpful? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

In March, I will continue reviewing books including some South Asian literature that I'm reading for a class and lots of YA.  Plus after having so much fun with Oliver Twist, I'm also participating in Allie at A Literary Odyssey's The Three Musketeers Readalong-I think there's still time to sign up if you want to join us!

Monthly Stats:

Books Read This Month: 27
Pages Read This Month: 8,435
Average Length of Book: 312
Average Rating of Book: 3.87

Favorite Book: Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

Least Favorite Book: Look to the East by Maureen Lang

Longest Book: A tie between Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult at 466

Shortest Book: 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth by The Oatmeal, 152

Year Stats:

Total Books Read: 68

Total Pages Read: 19,044

Average Length of Book: 280

Average Rating of Book: 3.86

By Genre:
Mystery-1
YA/MG-14
Romance-2

Classics-2

Science Fiction/Fantasy-0

Non-Fiction-3
Historical Fiction-2
Short Stories-1
Other-2

Challenge Updates:

Contemps: 4 read, 7 total

Cozy: 0 read, 1 total

British Books: 3 read, 15 total

YA Debut: 3 read, 6 total

Ebook: 9 read, 22 total

Source:

Home Library-0

School Library-14

Own/Borrowed-4

Booksneeze-0

Netgalley-8

Other ebook source-1

Audiobook-0

Read for school: 2

Read for pleasure: 25

Stats for Previous Months: January

Books read (If they've been reviewed, link)
42. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
43. Deadly Vows by Brenda Joyce
44. Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston
45. Freefall by Mindi Scott
46. 5 Very Good Reasons... by The Oatmeal
47. Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
48. Kate by Claudia Joseph
49. What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez
50. Selected Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore
51. Girl, Stolen by April Henry
52. Ransome's Honor by Kaye Dacus
53. XVI by Julia Karr
54. Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl
55. The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell
56. Why Jesus? by William H. Willimon
57. Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund
58. A Passage to India by EM Forster
59. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
60. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
61. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
62. Look to the East by Maureen Lang
63. The Atomic Weight of Secrets by Eden Unger Bowditch
64. Rugged and Relentless by Kelly Eileen Hake
65. The Heroine's Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore
66. The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry
67. Outside In by Maria V. Snyder
68. Trapped by Michael Northrop

Book of the Month: March

Wither by Lauren DeStefano, out March 22

I have been wanting to read this book ever since I saw the drop-dead gorgeous cover! Somehow I received an ARC although I haven't read it quite yet as I was waiting for closer to the release date.  I've seen mostly positive reviews but also some negative. I hope the story can live up to the cover!  What do you think about the cover?