top ten books i want to read but don't own yet

It's time for another Top Ten Tuesday! This week, The Broke and the Bookish is asking us to talk about books on our wish lists - which is a very fitting theme, since my birthday is next week. (Hint hint, any friends/family that read this). Basically, this whole post is going to be filled with me lusting over pretty books, so let's just prepare ourselves early on, shall we? 

1. Unravel Me  and Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi - Shatter Me was just amazing, and I read it a few months back. The fact that I haven't picked up these two yet is just unacceptable. NEED. 

2. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira - I've wanted this book for sooooo loooooong. Look at the cover. Look at the description. I just. UGH. The concept is just so intriguing to me, I feel like I won't physically be able to feel happiness until I get my hands on this beautiful specimen. 

3. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - I'm kind of slowly getting into a bit of a post-apocalyptic kick right now. Or maybe it's just my obsession with this book that's making me think about aliens and the end of life as we know it constantly. I feel like I'll be completely terrified after I read this but we're just gonna roll with it. 

4. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler - Do you ever have those books that you just obsessively look at, pick up, and then put down whenever you go to the bookstore? That's this book for me. I discovered it when it first came out a couple of years ago and for some reason, didn't buy it. And I still haven't. And every single time I go to Chapters, I pick it up and decide against it. The ratings aren't even that great. I just want it, okay? 

5. Is Everyone Hanging Out WIthout Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling - This is basically the same thing as Why We Broke Up. I just eternally love Mindy Kaling. I just want her to be my best friend. I just want to read this book and hug it forever. 

6. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith - I read her other two books at the beginning of summer and absolutely loved them. Jennifer E. Smith just does so well with cutesy contemporary YA. Honestly, the only thing holding me back is the fact that it's still in hardcover and I'm too cheap to pay for it. 

7. Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins - First of all, this cover! Perfect blend of girly and badass. To be perfectly honest, I'm not 100% sure what this is all about aside from the Goodreads description, but it just sounds like such a fun read. 

8. Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid - It wouldn't be a books-I-want list without a road trip story. That's all there is to it. 

9. Cress by Marissa Meyer - Just because I have Cinder and Scarlet and I really want to binge read the series. But again, full-price hardcovers are so expensive it hurts. 

10. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson - Everyone has been going nuts about this book lately. And it sounds awesome - runaway princess, mystery, assassins... It's got all the makings of a great story. Plus, I'm trying to expand away from my little contemporary comfort zone, and this seems like a good transition!

I mean, feel free to buy me any of these books. If you want. Just sayin'. ;)

waiting on wednesday - i'll give you the sun

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is all about upcoming releases! This week's pick is... 

I'll Give You the Sun  by Jandy Nelson 

384 pages

Publisher: Dial 

Publication date: September 16, 2014

from Goodreads: 

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell
Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world. 
This radiant, fully alive, sometimes very funny novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Why I'm Waiting: 
First of all, THAT COVER. Have you ever seen such beauty? I think not. It's absolutely stunning. Apart from the outside, I really love the fact that this is a sibling story, and a story with a gay main character - these are both things that we really don't get to see a ton of in the YA world, especially not together. I'm so excited to see what Jandy does with it. Also, I read The Sky is Everywhere a couple years ago and it was absolutely beautiful, so I have high hopes! I'm definitely going to buy a couple boxes of Kleenex in anticipation of this book. 

Let me know what you're looking forward to this fall! 

top ten books people have been telling me i MUST read

Look at me, actually doing Top Ten Tuesday on the right day. Do I get a prize for this? 

Anyway. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted as always by The Broke and the Bookish, is all about books people have been telling me I have to read. Now, seeing as I don't have a ton of book-loving friends, a lot of these are going to be indirect recommendations - from bloggers, BookTubers, all those kinds of things. Books that seem really popular and awesome, but for some reason I haven't picked up yet. A lot of these are series, too, so we're just gonna go ahead with that. 

1. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - I feel like everyone read this in high school or middle school except for me. And I know there's a movie, too, and I haven't seen that. It's just one of those books that everyone needs to read, I guess? 

2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - When my best friend found out I hadn't read this, I swear she wanted to punch me in the face out of pure shock and disgust. I'm only exaggerating a little bit.  

3. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - I'm slowly trying to get more into fantasy and everyone on booktube is obsessed with this series. Might as well jump on the bandwagon. 

4. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - I know. I know. Let's just leave it at that and agree that I suck. Okay? 

5. All of Cassandra Clare's books - Because duh, they're EVERYWHERE. I read City of Bones a few years ago and really liked it but just never started the rest of the series, or the Infernal Devices. Gotta get on that. 

6. The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I read Obsidian, loved it, then got distracted by other books. This is how it goes for most of the things I read. Also, the copy I have of Obsidian is the old cover so I've been trying to decide how to go about getting the rest of them. I think I'm just gonna splurge on day and buy the whole series in the pretty bind ups. 

7. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken - I feel like this series has been getting enough hype lately that I don't even need to go into detail about it. 

8. Cinder by Marissa Meyer - This is a story about me being cheap as hell. Basically, I found the hardcover on sale for $6 a couple years ago and picked it up because obviously. Then I didn't read it for some reason. And a couple weeks ago, I found Scarlet also on sale. And now I'm waiting for Cress to be cheap, too, before I read them because I kind of want to marathon the whole series. But I definitely intend to read it!

9. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - Again, super hyped up and also ASSASSINS. Need I say more? 

10. The rest of the Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies, because I AM SO INCREDIBLY OUT OF THE LOOP I DISGUST MYSELF. I've read the first books of each but just didn't continue. And also I really want to see the movies but refuse to until I've read the books. 

So, there we have it. Now we all know how behind I am on every single series. I've basically been stuck in contemporary since Twilight stopped being cool so I've been missing out on all these cool books, it's really depressing. 

What should I read first? Make my decision for me please.:) 

review: isla and the happily ever after

From Goodreads:

From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

This book, guys. 

I kid you not, when I finally turned the last page and closed it I had happy little tears in my eyes. And there are not a lot of books I can say that about. I was extremely late to the whole Stephanie Perkins bandwagon - I only read Anna and Lola at the beginning of the summer - but I swear, the wait killed me just as much. And once this book was in my hands, it was squeals all day. I actually was lucky enough to get the book early since I preordered it and it just ended up at my house way before expected, so that was awesome. 

If you're looking for a cutesy romance that will fill your tummy with warm fuzzies and make you smile, look no further. Stephanie Perkins has a way with teenage romance, and I am all for it. She's an expert on capturing the feeling of first loves and everything that goes along with it, good and bad. About 60 pages in I got that excited, falling-in-love feeling that only a really well-written book can give - you know, butterflies, giggly, all that jazz. I was actually reading at work and started smiling to myself so much that I had to stop and just put the book down. It's that captivating. 

A huge part of this book, as well as Anna and Lola, are the descriptions of settings. When I was reading, I could see Paris. I could see Kismet Cafe, a boy drawing in his sketchbook. I could see the streets of Barcelona. Every detail comes to life. This is the secret ingredient of a great book. 

I have to say, even though a lot of people had issues with Isla and her enormous crush on Josh, I found it endearing because girl, I've been there. I've been that girl with an irreversible, inconsolable crush on a boy. I'm dating that boy now. I think the fact that I identified so strongly with Isla is a huge reason why I loved this book so much. I could see so much of myself in her, and I understood her thought process down to a tee. 

And Josh. Oh my goodness, Josh. I just couldn't get enough of the artsy, kinda mysterious, romantic type. The graphic memoir. The fact that he rewrote it. The fact that he makes mistakes and fixes them. I just. Sigh. I won't lie, he's might just be my new book boyfriend. 

One last thing that I absolutely love (and there are way more, but I just can't sit here and list them all day because we'll end up with a novel-length analysis and nobody wants that): the cameos. THE CAMEOS!!!! They made my heart so happy and I just smiled so huge for that entire scene. Even the references to St. Clair and Anna throughout the book made me smile, but that part near the end of the book... 

And the thing.

You know. 

The thing. 

With St. Clair and Anna.

I might have shed a tear or five million.

I think this is a good stopping point now that I've gotten a good deal of my fangirlish squealing out of the way. If you haven't already guessed, I adored this book and I will read it over and over again. This is the most bittersweet thing because I know this series is over and that's so sad, but it is such a good series. And this final book is just the icing on the cake. Utter perfection. If you haven't picked this up yet, please do yourself a favour and sprint to the nearest bookstore. I promise you won't regret it.

top ten books i'm not sure i want to read

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday on Thursday! Because I suck at doing things on time! This weekly feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and this week is all about books I'm not entirely sure I want to read. A vast majority of the books on my list were bargain books - mostly hardcovers for $5. I have a problem with taking advantage of sales, and end up buying a bunch of books I know nothing about. OR, books that have received a lot of hype, both positive and negative, that I'm not completely sure are my style.

1. Elixir by Hilary Duff - I grew up completely worshipping Hilary Duff. Like, 100% loved her. If I read this book and hate it (which, according to reviews, I might), the whole perfect illusion of her is shattered. 

2. You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis - This sounds so intriguing - a girl trying to figure out the mystery behind her mother's death. Unfortunately, I've heard a ton of complaints about the MC in this book, and I'm not sure how much obnoxious teenager I can handle right now. 

3. Hold Still by Nina Lacour - I actually really want to read this but it sounds depressing as all hell, so we're gonna put it on the backburner right now. 

4. Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan - Picked it up because I really like the books I've read by David Levithan, from what I've heard this is an instalove story, which I'm really not a huge fan of. 

5. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - Ugh. This is probably the book I'm most torn about. On one hand, it's J.K. Rowling and she is queen. But on the other hand, what if? What if it's not on the same level as Harry Potter? What if I hate it? We're back to the Hilary Duff thing again - this could potentially ruin my love for an author.  

6. Between The Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer - At first I thought this sounded good, and I really like what I've read from Jodi Picoult. But in all honesty, I don't remember what this story is about. It just doesn't stick out to me as something that I need to pick up. 

7. The Here and Now by Ann Brashares - Such a pretty cover! But such terrible reviews! 

8. Gone by Michael Grant - I feel like there was a ton of hype about this series a while back, but I don't know. I picked it up and it's been sitting on my shelf forever. I don't have a reason other than the MCs are too young for my taste. 

9. Catching Fire/Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - I KNOW, I know. I read The Hunger Games and loved it, and got about 20 pages into Catching Fire before putting it down. I want to finish the series because I'd like to see the movies and be part of the big following, but I'm just not sure. 

10. Insurgent/Allegiant by Veronica Roth - Basically the exact same reason as above. Also, I've heard a TON of complaints about these books, the last one in particular, and I'm just not sure I want to subject myself to those kinds of feels. 

What do you guys think? Any books on this list I need to pick up? Let me know!

top ten books i'd recommend to people who haven't read contemporary

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a feature hosted at The Broke and the Bookish! This week's topic is books we'd recommend to people who are new to a certain genre. Obviously, since I'm a total contemporary junkie, I had to go with these ones. So, without further adieu, here we go! 

1. All of Morgan Matson's books. I really tried to narrow it down to just one. I really did. But, the fact is: she is queen and I worship every word she writes, and I love them all equally and unconditionally. As far as I'm concerned, she's the perfect contemporary YA author. 

2. Audrey, Wait! by Lauren Benway. If you love a hilarious, spunky MC, you're going to adore Audrey. She's one of my favourite characters in all the books I've read just because of her no-bullshit attitude. Be warned, if you're heavily opposed to swearing you might want to stay away from this one. 

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. For all the slightly antisocial bookworms, Cath is your girl. She's such a relatable character and it was incredibly easy for me to put myself in her shoes. Not to mention the family dynamics in this book are awesome. Everything in it is just extremely realistic.

4. The whole Anna and the French Kiss series by Stephanie Perkins. Honestly, I'm sure anyone who has the slightest interest in YA contemporary will have heard of these fantastic, wonderful books. I'm currently in post-Isla-reading bliss after finishing it a couple hours ago, and I couldn't be happier. Such a fun, romantic, funny, and sweet series. 

5. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This is such a heartbreaking, sobering story of mental illness and suicide. It's definitely not a lighthearted read, but I recommend it as something that does a great job of tackling a really hard subject. 

6. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. Sticking with the theme of heavier books, this one focuses on  a girl who struggles with an eating disorder. It's really chilling to see the thought process involved with these kinds of illnesses. Not necessarily a fun book, but definitely worth the read. 

7. Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher. Just. FEELS. I really liked how complex the characters were, without giving anything away. It's just good. It'll make you hurt. 

8. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. Ohmygod. I can't even describe my love for this book. It sounds really cheesy from the title, and that kind of made me hesitate to read it but it's really an amazing story that isn't nearly as shallow as it looks. 

9. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. Obviously Sarah Dessen is very well known in the world of contemporary, so it wouldn't feel right not mentioning her! Someone Like You is one of my favourites by her, if not just for the amazing friendship between Halley and Scarlett, and how they stick together to deal with a really tough situation. 

10. Paper Towns by John Green. I mean, of course he had to be on this list, too. I didn't really want to mention TFIOS because everyone's heard of it by now, so recommending it would kind of be useless. This is a really amazing book as well, and if you haven't read it now you definitely should before the movie comes out! 

So, there we have it. I'm sorry for being so late on this (again)! Please forgive me. :) 

Recommend some books for me, any genre! What do you think I need to read?