In My Mailbox [2]: HPB

If you have a Half Price Books store near you, go NOW! This weekend, through Monday I believe, hpb is having a memorial day weekend sale where everything is an extra 20% off. Check out their website to see if there is one near you: www.hpb.com

Of course I stopped by today and picked up four books, which only cost me about $16 total, which is amazing for books that barely seem used. So here is what I picked up:

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger {got this for only $2.40}

2. Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)

3. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stachouse, #2)

4. Beautiful Creatures by Garcia and Stohl (Caster Chronicles, #1)

I have a huge stack of books in my to read pile so I may not get to these for awhile, but once I finish them a review will definitely be up.

[Next review coming soon: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins]

'Secret Society' by Tom Dolby

First I'd like to say that I love the concept and idea that Dolby decided to create this novel, and the sequel, about. Secret societies have always been something I have found captivating and intriguing.

Although I liked where the premise of this book could go, I overall wasn't a big fan of the execution. It may be the fact that this is the first book, with the sequel recently coming out, something I didn't know until a few days after finishing it.

I felt that the story's main focus was the society, which is completely fine, but left me feeling like the characters that were pulled into it were not very developed. I think I would have been more okay with this if the society had been more understandable and the characters weren't left in the dark until the complete end of this book.

Overall, I will say that I did enjoy the book at times, but as a whole left me unsatisfied with no real connection to the four main characters.

I may at some point pick up the next book, 'The Trust,' and my opinion may change as the story goes on. But for now, it isn't at the top of my favorites list.

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5 stars
Photo credit : http://www.tomdolby.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/secretsociety-hc-c.jpg

'Vampire Academy' by Richelle Mead

Lately I have been falling in love with the Morganville Vampire series and decided to give another vampire series a shot. I ordered the first three books of this series off of walmart.com since it was only $15.

Recently finished reading the first one and already cannot wait to read the next, which I believe is Frostbite.

During probably the first third of this book though, I didn't really care for Rose at all as a main character. But, if you find yourself feeling that too, don't give up on the book, just keep reading. By the end when we start to understand why a dhampir, like Rose, devotes their life to protecting a moroi, and I started to like and understand Rose more and more.

Before I starting reading this I got some advice from a friend of mine and that was to make sure while you read the book to realize that it is part of a six book series. This was very important for me to keep in the back of my head because as a stand along book this would be quite bad, without a huge conflict or resolving action scenes. I think as the series goes on I will start to realize that although this book wasn't the most action packed or suspenseful, that it was really necessary to build up these characters and the vampire world they live in.

With that being said, Richelle Mead did a great job in creating these characters and leaving me attached to them so much that I cannot wait to pick up the next.

Overall rating: 4 / 5 stars
Photo credit: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/vampireacademy/images/books_vampireacademy_big.jpg

'Looking for Alaska' by John Green

To put it as concise and short as possible, I LOVED this book. :]

If that isn't enough reason for you to pick it up, which it probably isn't, hopefully I can still convince you to.

I was a little unsure about this book when I first started reading reviews on, people either loved it or hated it. But, I finally decided to give it a try. And now that I have finished it, I would highly recommend it to anyone in middle school, high school, or even college aged readers.

I loved the characters Green created for this story, all unique and real in their own ways. The story centers around and is told through the eyes of Pudge, but Green still manages to make you feel for the other characters and quickly make you be able to relate them back to someone in your own life. The plot covers real life issues that impact teenagers, making it one of the most honest and true books I've read in awhile.

So if you have been holding off on picking this up, I say just give it a go. There is a great chance you'll be able to pull something out of it that will leave you speechless. Beautifully written and carefully constructed, and one I will continue to recommend to others.

Overall rating: 5 / 5 stars
photo credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99561.Looking_for_Alaska