Review: The Immortal Rules & The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa



Title: The Immortal Rules
Blood of Eden series #1
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publish Date: April 24, 2012

Title: The Eternity Cure
Blood of Eden #2
Publish Date:

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I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down from the very first pages I read. Many people think vampires are over done, even simply done, but this series has placed a whole new spin on the world of vampires.

The main character was fascinating and I wanted her to win, to survive and to become her best self. Then you add in Kanin who is sexy and mysterious, but oddly kind and you have a sure fire winner! I just finished reading the second installment in the series, Eternity Cure and though, it was as much of a page turner, I still really felt involved with the Allison. It was awesome that Zeke made an appearance too! His character in the first book was so heart racing. I really cannot wait to see what happens in the next book and I am so excited my guessing was correct when it comes to a surprise in the following book!! But I won't tell what it is!


Summary -
To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for…again.

Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.



Backpacking Alaska

Every so often, my heart stops and then beats irradically. It is almost a month to the day that I will be backpacking for TWO WEEKS through the Alaskan wilderness. I am so excited I feel like I will be sick when I think about it. Two weeks of completely stripping away all of my comforts and leaving me bare to learn who I am and how I will survive in land unknown.


From what I know, I will spend the first week learning how to live off the land, how to read a map and topography, how to cook on the little stove (gluten-free, of course), how to sleep without a tent (but my sleeping bag seriously rocks) and so many other wonderful new things. I love to learn!! Seriously am really excited to learn how to survive with a backpack. I just love nature and being outside, so this will be a crucial step in my life.

The second week they split us up into small groups of 3 or 4 people, tell us where we will meet them and then off we go for seven days on our own with a different leader each day. So I get to be in charge, nothing new for me - as I am definitely a leader and then I get to follow - pretty darn excited to see how I do helping and pushing at the same time. Though I honestly don't see this will be a challenge.

I have never been to Alaska before and I will be going all by myself. Weird how I am 34 and I still cannot really see myself as an adult. I still wonder who will be accompanying me. I am such a child at heart that it is hard to really picture that I am now in the form of the responsible adult in the group. It isn't just that I shine through as the leader bc I have been doing that since I was little, but I am actually the oldest person (usually) and am turned to regardless of my position.

I will fly to Alaska, stay in a bed and breakfast overnight (doubt I will sleep tho), then go to the packing and meeting station where we will learn how to pack our food, go through our packs to check for extra weight, repack our things, learn basics in classroom setting and then hike away. After seven days, our food gets dropped to us by helicopter and then we start hiking again.

I am so excited to see animals. I am hoping we don't get too close to the bears as has happened once in the past, but I am really not too worried about that. I am the one checking out the bird while driving bc they are so incredibly beautiful. I have a lifetime membership the zoos and yes, I did go to San Diego Zoo all by myself as I was going to be in the area. I love animals and I cannot get over how amazing they are.

A friend and I went hiking and running this morning. I felt really good. My asthma was barely felt at all, but we really took our time getting warmed up. We hiked up the first half of the trail and then ran down the second half. As the shade is better in the afternoon, it was a bit hot with the sun right one us, but it is beautifully 80 degrees here, so hot is really relative. I also brought a small container of water to share. It definitely helped. I wish I was in better shape, but quite frankly I am working out, but still enjoying myself so realistically, it is good.

I keep wondering if I am ready to spend two weeks backpacking out in the middle of nowhere, but I am not sure if I could ever prepare myself for that. It is almost like I will have to go and experience it, just to really know. It is also the first time I have ever taken a trip like this. Two whole weeks with no access to anyone I know; no electronics; no cell service; just me and the wilderness. I am also really excited to meet the group I will be traveling with. New people are incredibly awesome, especially on trips bc these are friends I end up having for life. I wish I could share this experience with my fiance or my dad bc they are people I want to be able to share everything with, but they will just have to find out through my pictures and (hopefully) a book I'll write about the time.

Life is so good.

Review: Revived by Cat Patrick (audio version)


Title: Revived
Author: Cat Patrick
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Publish Date: May 8, 2012
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It took me so long to finish listening to this audio book, not because I didn't like it. I definitely thought this book was the bomb! And this is the second book of Cat Patrick's that I have truly couldn't put down! I would be listening to this book and get distracted because the audio version was so awesome I kept thinking about further inquiries into the story.

To begin with the audio teller's voice was awesome! She had so many characters to do and yet, she was very distinctive in each of them. How is this possible? How does she remember them all?

Second, I fell in love with so many characters. Again, not too normal for me. I usually side with only the main character. But there were so many - her father, Mason who was a genius and seemed to have a wonderful soft side for Daisy; her best friend, Audrey, who was simply full of life; her best friend's brother, Matt who is a pain, but totally crush worthy; her first "mother" who I can't really talk about without giving anything away; Megan, her bus friend who was funny and smart and so good to count on; even Cassie, her "now mom" who has robotic at home, but loving in public.

The plot was really different and totally cool. The idea that there is a drug that can revive people and then "god" who controls the entire secret government operation that no one has ever met or seen. Each scientist spread across the country with their own jobs to contribute to the continued education of the drug. Each family who has a revived child and keeps performing the yearly health evaluations and has to keep secret the entire operation. The fact that the drug doesn't work on unhealthy, diseased or otherwise crucially debilitating bodies.

Daisy, the main character, has so many avenues of personality from her initial death on the bus to an adopted child of scientists, her facade as a student, but her need to feel normal even while her world is pure secret. She has so many life issues she carries with her constantly that drown her in secrets as she has no one who is consistent in her life to allow her to share. She has the impossibilities of a teenager and the complications of a secret government liabilities. So cool and so heart-breaking at the same time. Just when she finally feels at home, with friends, family and releases some of her secrets the bottom drops out and she has to figure out if she will backtrack and keep her secrets or go forward and put in danger the only people she cares about.

 
GET THIS:
Cat Patrick will be coming out with TWO NEW BOOKS
this year 2013:
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Summary -
It started with a bus crash.
Daisy Appleby was a little girl when it happened, and she barely remembers the accident or being brought back to life. At that moment, though, she became one of the first subjects in a covert government program that tests a drug called Revive.


Now fifteen, Daisy has died and been Revived five times. Each death means a new name, a new city, a new identity. The only constant in Daisy's life is constant change.


Then Daisy meets Matt and Audrey McKean, charismatic siblings who quickly become her first real friends. But if she's ever to have a normal life, Daisy must escape from an experiment that's much larger--and more sinister--than she ever imagined.


From its striking first chapter to its emotionally charged ending, Cat Patrick's Revived is a riveting story about what happens when life and death collide.