Half-Price Books Clearance Sale: Is it worth it? You decide.

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to boast about how its good to be back or hit you guys with another sorry excuse. I'm back to reading for the summer so I thought I would bring you some quality content that is informational and fun. I hope you enjoy! 

This Sunday, I attended Half-Price Book's clearance sale in Arlington, Texas. Which is about 30 minutes away from where I live so it wasn't that bad of a drive. I'm not sure if this is a yearly event (if someone knows let me know in the comments) but I was able to attend the last day that it was open.

In the end, I ended up paying about 49 dollars for everything you're about to see.


I'm gonna start with books that were $2 each (in very good condition):

Starting from the left side - starting from the bottom:

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
The Truth About Forever (the new cover!) by Sarah Dessen
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian
Inkheart (Inkworld #1) by Cornelia Funke
Fly on the Wall by e. lockhart

Right side - starting from the bottom:

Something Remains by Inge Barth-Grözinger, Anthea Bell (Translator) HARDCOVER
The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante  HARDCOVER
Take Me There by Carolee Dean
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Such a Pretty Face by Cathy Lamb
Pack Up the Moon by Anna McPartlin
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

I was actually freaking out because Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys was one my favorite books when I was in middle school. It is so good! I recommend it.

These following books were under $1 each: 

From top to bottom:

Major Crush by Jennifer Echols
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai, Ina Rilke (Translator)
All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

For all of you who are curious here are the DVDs I got ($2 a piece):

Top To Bottom:

Daddy Day Care

13 going on 30

The Notebook

A lot like Love

How to Deal

The Price and Me

I was on a chick-flick mood ;)

I had so much fun browsing all of the tables full of books. For those of you who are not readers, there are also video games, DVDs, Anime, and old records. I advise you if you are going to this sale you're going to spend about seven hours there just like I did so clear any other plans you might have!

In my opinion, it was totally worth it attending this sale. I found some really awesome books that I would have never gotten at this price.

If you have ever attended this sale, let me know what cool things you found!

See you guys later!

All reviews from Goodreads.com

A Fresh Start

HAPPY 2014


How I missed this blog, if anyone is reading this please comment or say hi or something! While I was gone for like a year, I only received approximately 2 comments on the blog so it would be nice if I could get some love!

Quick update about me:

I am now 19 years old and am attending my first year of college, living in a typical college dorm with my wonderful roommate. I currently have no major but I will probably be deciding that pretty soon.

I still continue to read, my love for reading has not diminished, even though I am a bit limited in my time to read.

My favorite books of last year were:

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Girl of Fire and Thorns Trilogy by Rae Carson
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini


Why I was gone for so long:

I got tired of feeling pressured into doing so many different features while I just wanted to write reviews.
School also got in the way, and I lost interest in blogging.
I became addicted to Tumblr and Netflix?

Why I am back:
I missed reviewing books and talking to people who love them. I miss you guys. Those  of you that are reading this blog.

NOW FOR SOME HOUSEKEEPING:

Those of you who signed up for the "How do they do it all?" feature:

ARE YOU STILL UP FOR IT?!

Leave a comment, please if you are or if you are not, that is fine too! I will be e-mailing you guys individually anyways but just to cover the bases.

ALSO CONCERNING THE GIVEAWAY OF STOLEN NIGHTS:

THE WINNER WAS KARINA!!!!! I will be emailing you to see if you would still like the book, if not I can send you another one.

All my reviews will be of books read in 2014, so looking forward to it!

I missed you guys, thanks for sticking with me!

Alejandra (Alex)

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Source: Library

Summary: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

My review:

Lured in by the beautiful cover and the promising summary, I have yet again been the victim of THE HYPE.

What we have here is a true case of a reader(with limited resources), desperately searching for a book, contemplating on buying it because it has such amazing ratings on Goodreads.com and making a great decision by telling herself to not be an idiot and check it out in the library first. 

Unfortunately, That was not the case for this reader with other overly-hyped books, but we'll get to that in a later post.

The HYPE forgot to mention some issues that were brought to my attention concerning our main character, Adarlan's Assassin Celaena Sardothien. Described as a skilled assassin from page one; I am not even sure I was reading about the same girl as we got further along in the book. As the story progresses, she never showed hint of her oh-so-powerful skills mentioned from the start. She might written to be strong and capable but she only showed the skills of an amateur criminal with luck. She was more enticed with pretty dresses, jewels, and finding suitors. I don't think a trained assassin, especially someone who has trained since infancy, would be distracted by things like that. Celaena is smart, beautiful, and athletic. And our main character never let us forget it. The reader was constantly reminded of her many attributes by either Celaena or her many admirers.

Chaol, the captain of the guard, was the most likable character but he didn't show true potential until the end of the story.
I do believe he might be one of the few reasons I might continue to read the series. Hopefully his involvement within the story evolves and improves. As well as our dear assassin's, who seemed to be more interested in batting her eyelashes and partying than actually saving anyone.

I did not like Prince Dorian character even the slightest. His vain attempts at teasing and flirting were cringe worthy and I found myself rolling my eyes every time his name was mentioned. Though I admit he was kind, I hope he might develop into a likable character in the future.

The one female character I did not find irritating was Nehemia, who was a princess of a seemingly enemy kingdom. She was smart and resourceful, she was more careful about who to trust than the actual main character was. She cared for her people and focused on doing everything she could to help them. In the end, it seemed to me Nehemia was the hero of the story. Which seemed to be Celaena's job, at least, according to the description. THE WHOLE LAND FEARS HER. ONLY SHE CAN SAVE THEM ALL. Yeah, okay.

Nox was also a likable character who, again, is not given much chance of development in the story. He was a criminal who became allied with Celanea (not a major spoiler, promise). I was excited at this development but was quickly disappointed when he just became an object of jealousy. He had so much character potential and I hope that he comes back in the sequel.

The descriptive writing and beautiful world building made this story worthwhile, but I could not sympathize with the main character at all. I did not relate to her and I found myself frustrated with her bubbly thoughts and her short attention span. Most of the time I found myself thinking, I know you are eighteen years old, but you're a trained assassin for crying out loud, act like it! I did not want her killing left and right, but when it came to matters of the heart I would have thought she would be clever enough to put that aside and focus on the BIG PROBLEM THAT SHE WAS WARNED ABOUT.

All in all, I liked the different POVs offered in each chapter. Though at times confusing, I found it refreshing to be in each of the character's heads. The action in this book was lacking, but to be fair there was a lot of world building on the author's part and it would have been worse if it would have had a lot of action and vague descriptions of Celanea's world.

I hope I can continue reading the rest of the books and maybe our assassin would will do less dancing and more defending in the near future.

GIVEAWAY OF Stolen Nights by Rebecca Maizel

GIVEAWAY TIME!

I know you guys don't want me babbling about, so I won't. This time. I know this book comes out in a couple of days but I wanted to give it to one of my followers (new or old) to show how much I love you guys for putting up with my lack of reviews and stuff.

Up for grabs:

ARC of Stolen Nights ( Vampire Queen #2)

Plus swag (that's a given) and maybe a surprise (already released ARC) that I got at ALA last year. 

Don't know which one for now but I might give the winner a list to chose from. 

Rules are: 

*I will pick a winner using Random.Org.

*You must be 13 years or older to enter.

*You do not have to be a follower but I would really appreciate it.

*You have 48 hours to respond to e-mail if you are the winner.

*Giveaway NOT international (sorry guys).

If you have someone that lives in the US that lives in the US that is okay too

That's it guys, no commenting or tweeting. One entry per person! I mean you can comment but it won't be an entry . FORM HERE. ***EDIT*** NOW I HAVE LINKED THE ACTUAL FORM NOT THE SPREADSHEET LINK OOPS. 

Winner announced February 10th.

Books that have changed my life (in a remarkable way) ever since I last talked to you (Part # 1)

I AM ALIVE! I have no excuse for not posting anymore reviews other than college applications have been driving me nuts. I am a senior in high school now, and people who told Senior year in high school was going to be easy THEY LIED. It is the hardest year yet, but I will get through it.


I missed blogging so much, but I had to stop otherwise I would have never gotten anything done. But I was able to read some amazing books these past few months. I had my fair share of books I didn't even finish, but there were three remarkable books that I will always remember because WOW, they have changed my life.

This book, ladies and gentlemen, if you have not yet read it, (it is only my very humble yet honest opinion that) OH MY GOD YOU GO READ IT RIGHT NOW PLEASE. I will not summarize if for you, because honestly you can read the synopsis on your own. If you must know, there is no way that a summary, even written by John Green himself, will wholly epitomize the awesomeness that is The Fault in Our Stars.
It is probably the book that has brought me right here to this place at this moment, desperate and excited, to tell those people who keep putting it off to just read it now, go to the bookstore or borrow it from a friend and read it.

Or even those who don't read and by some rare chance stumble upon my blog and haven't fallen in love with reading yet, this is the book. This is the book that will allow you to feel every emotion know to human, which might be a very slight exaggeration, but to me, it definitely brought both tears of laughter and pure dismay in a matter of chapters.

I was going through a long time reading funk, I had stopped blogging and became a Netflix addict during my free time. It seemed I had no time for reading anymore, and honestly, it did not bother me a bit. I was sad for my lost interest, scared my love for reading would be forever gone.
Eventually, over a three day weekend, I had this book that I had borrowed from the library. I had read one other John Green books: Looking for Alaska . I loved it, and from then on I went on a John Green craze. By far this was my favorite book of them all, each holds a special place in my heart but this one will forever be in my top favorites.

How did it change my life? I am going trough a medical condition, not life-threatening or as grave as Hazel or Augusts or any of the lovable characters in TFiOS, but it will require hospitalization and surgery. I am so scared and this book is a great reference to the good that can come out of an awful situation. Anytime I feel the least bit nervous or I am in pain, I always pick up my trusty copy (signed! In Purple!) and read my favorite parts!

It will make you laugh it will make you cry, The Fault in Our Stars by the brilliant John Green is going to be one of those books that I will remember and keep with me even in my old age.

BOOK #2 TO BE POSTED SOON!

Thanks for sticking with my followers, after my LONG HIATUS.

I will make up for it PROMISE.