Love Affair with Your Favorite Book

This Thursday is Valentine's Day, love is in the air as they say. I however am and have been single since the little time I have been on this Earth. If you are like me, and find Valentine's Day seriously boring and stupid, and would rather read a book. Here are some books that will hopefully make you feel better on Valentine's Day.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This book is quite the heart breaker, and if you aren't afraid to laugh and cry over a fictional guy, then read it


Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.



from goodreads



Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
A kind of cheesy love story wrapped up in this crazy fantasy world somehow works, and is one of my favorite novels of 2012.


Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

from goodreads

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater 
Another crier, but it's one of few books that I can cuddle up on my bed and read the entire night.

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

from goodreads

Cursed by Bethany R. Myers
This author was someone I found online, and have been reading her short stories a lot. It's a short read, but a good one in my opinion.

Murderous witches. Cannibalistic dwarfs. Bloodthirsty dragons. Sixteen year old, skullery maid   Tess will have to battle them all because she has been cursed by true love's kiss. Read it for free.

from BR Myers Blog

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545123267
• ISBN-13: 978-0545123266
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches

Summary

To break it down to the simplest form there is a girl named Grace and she has this "wolf" she interacts with since she was a kid. All her life she sees this wolf, but only in the winter. This particular wolf has yellow eyes and when she meets a boy with yellow eyes she finds herself meeting her "wolf" in person. 
Haha I know that that summary really sucks but, that is what it really is about. Maggie Stiefvater is probably one of my favorite authors because she sets this mood of coziness and the relationship between Grace and Sam is just amazingly sweet. 


Shiver has been compared to the werewolf version of Twilight and I can see that to an extent because there is paranormal creatures and there is romance, but that's it. Shiver's characters are extremely different from Twilight and the story has nothing that compares with each other. In Shiver, Sam the "wolf" is trying to not become a wolf every time the weather gets cold, while in Twilight Bella's convinced that she must become a vampire to live her life the way it should be. Also there is no love triangle in Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, so I thank her for not accepting this popular trend? of a love triangle will sell to any young adult reader. 


Something that I thought was neat, but I'm not sure that it is in all of the book's editions, but my blue book was printed in blue ink, which was pretty cool detail that I like. Also I think that the cover is beautiful in every way possible. 


So Grace is not one of my favorite characters, but she's bearable, unlike Isabel. Isabel was throughout the novel an iffy character for me. I always felt like she would back stab Grace or do something drastic, but she kept to her place as a side character and will be a bigger stronger character in the second installment. Though, Isabel is the incredibly popular girl in Grace's school, she has some problems that does come with popularity and especially when her brother dies. Isabel is not one of my favorites, but she is defiantly needed in the novel, or else everything else would fall apart. 


In the end, Shiver was a great book for me, but not the best. It's the kind of book that I'd like to reread if it was snowing outside and I had a hot cup of tea next to me, while a bath and body works candle is burning. Shiver is the kind of book that I would not recommend because one) a lot of people already  know about this book and would have read it by now and two) it's not that great of a story that I'd want to follow a whole three books through, but my mistake I already bought the whole series. Maggie Stiefvater is still one of my favorite authors and I'd like to read her other series about homicidal faeries. :)  

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater Review

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (July 13, 2010)
Second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series
This review will contain spoilers for anyone that has not read the first book Shiver.

Summary

Linger begins where Shiver leaves off. Sam is still human after having blood go through his wolf form from patients with meningitis. Grace and Sam still have a strong bond together if not even stronger. Cole, a new bad boy wolf that Beck created is immediately seen as Isabel's love interest. He comes from a stranger background than Sam, that causes an unease when reading his point of view. Sam becomes very worrying when he loses Beck and when he is not able to see Grace. With Beck's new wolves and Grace's past sneeking back up to her, Linger draws an even more vived experience with the wolves of Mercy Falls.

Maggie Steivfvater has craeated another amazing book to follow up her bestseller Shiver. Her writing is still impeccable and her flow of wrtiting point of views from different characters blows my mind at times. Personally I don't connect with Grace much , but her headstrong and brave character brings what you want to be through Grace's adventure.

Cole and Isabel have a weird love/hate realtionship - which I don't really mind - but Cole's hard to like until you find out more about him. Isabel's shallowness blows away a bit, but is still there when Cole is intruduced  and I can kind of see how the two are good for each other. The two of them together sets a double love story, while drama rises with Grace.

All in all, I would read Linger again, and I would recommened it to any hopeless romantics out there. While I prefere Shiver and believe it should have been a stand alone book Linger does answer some of the questions I had while reading Shiver that did not get answered.