Review of Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone and INT giveaway!

Vacation was unbelievably amazing, and I got a lot of reading done too! But it's great to be back with you all as well. 

For my loyal blog followers, you get a jump start on this great giveaway as usual! 

Goodreads Book Description: Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

Fresh, exciting, and deeply romantic, Time Between Us is a stunning, spellbinding debut from an extraordinary new voice in YA fiction.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Review:  I don't even know where to start. It's been a while since I was speechless from a book. Tamara Ireland Stone is coming to my town for a signing soon, and so I picked up her book. I had no idea what a treasure I was buying!

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone focuses on Anna, a girl who lives in the year 1995, who meets a strange boy named Bennett. He appears and disappears one day when she is running at a track, but when she meets him again at school the next day, it's as if he never knew her in the first place. This starts a romantic adventure of a love that spans time, space, and every other dimension.

I don't want to say too much more about the plot, because it's incredible to get to experience it all firsthand. The writing is gorgeous, and it took all of my willpower to put it down last night and not stay up all night finishing it. The characters are well drawn, and it's hard not to like Anna. She's a great main character, and Bennett is intriguing. Her parents are briefly mentioned, but in a few deft strokes, you can tell what their personalities are like. Emma, as the best friend, was my other favorite-- and I can hear her Brit accent in my head. The plot races along at a perfect pace, and while I'm not usually one for description, it takes a central role in this novel. I can imagine all the beautiful places in my head so effortlessly with the way Stone describes them. I can feel the sand between my toes, and the chalk as I dust it on my hands before hitching myself up on the first crease of a rock face.

There are certain plot twists that I was doubtful about, but it all comes full circle as all loose ends are tied up in a way that makes sense and is completely believable (in this novel's reality). The ending is spot on-- usually difficult for most authors. Every move that Stone has made is right, and this book has currently stolen my heart as one of my favorite reads this year.

Overall, a gorgeously told novel with terrific characters, scenery, and pacing. Stone is one of the most talented authors that I have discovered this year, and I can't wait to pick up the next gem she writes!

Just so you know what's coming up, guys-- an exciting interview with her as well as a recap of the amazing book event that she participated in here in St. Louis a week ago!

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Birthday and a brief goodbye

Dear all:
Thanks to all of you for wonderful birthday wishes yesterday. It was a whirlwind, but I'll get to celebrate in earnest starting today!

I am going to post a giveaway, but it didn't make sense to start it now when I'll be gone for a bit. I'll miss you all, and I'll start posting again next week. Have a wonderful rest of the week and Mother's day!

Christina @ Ensconced in YA

Clean your Shelf Giveaway Hop, Featuring Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop!

This is your chance to clear out your overflowing bookshelf and pass some of your books on to other booklovers.  Time to pass on those books that just weren’t for you or the review copies that you are never going to get read.

You should be giving away:

Books that you’ve read but will never read again.

Books you’ve started but just couldn’t get through.

Review copies you’ve accepted but have never read.

So guess what, guys? Since in my last giveaway, the winner opted for the $15 amazon GC, I still have a signed hardcover copy of Requiem by Lauren Oliver to give away to one lucky winner (US only!). I am also giving you another YA book from my bookshelves randomly-- I will take into consideration what genre you like.  Just so you know, I got to hang out with Lauren Oliver (and some other really incredible authors) at a pub the other night. I'll have a dedicated post to the book event hopefully soon! :-)

Goodreads Book Description: They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

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Review: Mind Games by Kiersten White

Goodreads Book Description: Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Review:
I've had this book on my to read list for a while, and I know White's Paranormalcy trilogy is hugely popular, so I knew I had to pick this one up. And with any book that induces me to want to chuck it across the room and snuggle it to my chest simultaneously, I gave it the only rating it deserved... a full 5 stars.

Mind Games by Kiersten White has boys in it, but the heart of the story is the relationship between two sisters, Fia and Annie, who are fighting to exist in a terrible situation. In alternating perspectives and timelines, we learn more about these two sisters-- Fia is the younger, but has taken it upon herself to take care of her sister, Annie, who is blind. They are orphans after a terrible accident, and seem to have hit the jackpot when they are wooed to start at a prestigious school to help train their "talents." Annie is immediately won over, but Fia knows that this situation is not all what it seems. As they both get sucked into working for a nefarious organization, these two girls fight tooth and nail to keep a semblance of self as well as save each other.

Like I said above, I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I was angry at both characters for a long time, especially Annie. They are deeply flawed and many times unpleasant characters. But they have a good reason for being that way. Having both two points of view and jumps in time could have been really difficult to read, but White makes the transitions seamless. The prose is pitch perfect and the pacing just right. The book ends the only way it could and sealed its fate to stay on my favorites shelf for all of time. I'm not sure that people who don't have a sister, or even a similar relationship with a sister such as in this book, will understand or love it as much as I do. Some days you hate each other, some days you can only tolerate each other because no one else UNDERSTANDS. But above all, you love and protect each other fiercely no matter what-- and that's what this book is about.

Overall, a heart wrenching and ultimately satisfying depiction of two sisters caught in a web of deception and evil, fighting against impossible odds-- but with pitch perfect prose, White masterfully pulls the story together. I will be watching White's career for a long time-- she is an amazing writer.

What did you think of this book? 

Addendum: I've seen that this book has gotten mixed reviews, and I get that. I feel like you have to have had a similar relationship as these two girls for this book to pack that emotional punch. 

International Giveaway of a Kindle Paperwhite with a Transcender custom case with both Transcender books by Vicky Savage!

Anyone who has been following me knows how much I love both of these books and their wonderful author, Vicky Savage! We are putting together a terrific giveaway for you guys-- one grand prize of a Kindle white with a custom case of Transcender, with both of her books on it! So you know you want to get your hands on this prize!

Goodreads Book Description: Ripped away from her quiet Connecticut life with the force of a lightning bolt and glitched into a weird alternate universe, Jaden Beckett lands smack in the middle of a kidnapping--her own! The powerful Inter-Universal Guidance Agency (IUGA) engineers her escape and is working overtime to return her home.

But now Jaden's not sure where she belongs. In this world, she has her mother back (a miracle she never imagined). She's known as Princess Jaden, a member of the royal family of one of the three surviving nations,and against her better judgment, she's fallen insanely in love with Ryder Blackthorn, the most wanted outlaw in the land.

Can the IUGA force her to go? Or is Jaden what others in the land beleive she is--a Transcender with the ability to travel among alternate worlds at will?

She's not sure what to believe or who she can trust--except herself.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Amazon Review:  Transcender: First Timer

Goodreads Book Description: Eighteen-year-old Jaden Beckett has thirty days to make the ultimate decision about her destiny. Which path will she choose? Her current life with her loving family in Connecticut? An alternate life in an intriguing parallel world with the man she loves? Or the astonishing life of a multi-universe Transcender?

In Streaming Stars, Book 2 of the Transcender Trilogy, Jaden and her mentor, Agent Ralston, return to Domerica, where she reunites with her  mother and her fiancé, Ryder Blackthorn, embarks upon fantastic Transcender adventures in exotic parallel worlds, and narrowly escapes a hit squad of Black Knights.

In the end, Jaden’s decision is anything but simple.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Review: Streaming Stars Review

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