Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 
Sparks are igniting, flames are spreading and the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.

My Thoughts:  I am sure that I am the last person to read this book!  I read the first one and LOVED it and then got swamped with ARC reviews.  With all that is going on with my life I have quit doing ARC reviews for a little bit and I have finally found some time to catch up on some of the books I haven't read yet.  This book was so amazing that I really wish I would have read it right after Hunger Games but hey....better late than never right?

Katniss and Peeta are back home in District 12 after winning the Hunger Games.  They are getting ready to go on the Victory Tour and have to remember that they are madly in love.  For Peeta this is not hard but Katniss finds it difficult, especially with her feelings for Gale.  When President Snow makes a surprise visit to Katniss' house before the tour, Katniss knows that she must put on the show of a lifetime.  

While touring, Katniss and Peeta find out that there are a few districts that are unhappy with the Capitol. In fact, it appears that there are uprisings happening in at least one district, if not more.  Once home from the tour, Peeta and Katniss must decide if they should run or if they should help with the uprisings.  

Then the Quarter Quell happens.  This happens every 25 years of the Games.  The Capitol throws in some surprise to make the Games more interesting.  This year, it is a doozy!  I won't tell you what happens because if there happens to be someone out there who hasn't read this yet, I don't want to spoil it.  

I loved the characters in this book!  Katniss and Peeta are still amazing and I loved Haymitch!  I really enjoyed the new characters that were introduced and how they played into the ending.  The ending was completely unexpected and very surprising for me.  I loved it but at the same time it was a little sad.  

If you haven't read this series, it is a must read for sure!  Like Hunger Games, Catching Fire keeps your interest the entire book and  you will find it extremely hard to put down, even for a minute!

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and it's filled with lots of love and laughter!  I will be back after Christmas with my review of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and maybe even of Mockingjay if I'm lucky :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Books I've Read in 2012

Top 10 Tuesdays

Topic: Top Ten Books I read in 2012

This meme is created by The Broke and the Bookish, anyone can participle telling about their top 10 topic items are.

Here are my Top Ten Books read in 2012 (in no order...title linked to my review):

10.  Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

9.  Diety by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

8.  The Diviners by Libba Bray 

7.  My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick 

6.  Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys 

5.  The Selection by Kiera Cass 

4.  Belles by Jen Calonita 

3.  Something Like Normal by Trish Doller 

2.  The Innocents by Lili Peloquin 

1.  Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

So, what are your top ten books you read this year? 

 

Teaser Tuesday: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser is from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  I read Hunger Games ages ago and loved it and then got busy reading ARCs and never got around to the other two.  So, now I'm finishing the series....better late than never right?

 "This isn't old Cray, though.  This is a tall, muscular man with sharp creases in his pants.  The pieces of the picture do not quite come together until I see his arm raise the whip."  ~pg. 75 on my Nook.

What are you reading? 

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Well friends, it is that time of year again...the time of year where we sign up for challenges!  This year I am signing up for the 2013 TBR pile challenge, hosted by Evie over at Bookish.  I have SO many books I need to read (for example, I read Hunger Games way back when and am just now reading Catching Fire....sad huh?)...so here are the rules:

Challenge Guidelines:

1. This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2013 - Dec 31, 2013.
2. Anyone can enter! You don't have to be a blogger, as long as you review the book you've read! (On your blog, Amazon or Goodreads/Shelfari!)
3. Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2012 and earlier! NO  2013 ARCs and 2013 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
5. When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2013 TBR PILE Reading Challenge. (If you don't have a blog, post about it on Facebook or Tweet!)
6. You can move up levels, but no moving down.
7. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2013, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
8. On the 20th of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. The giveaway will be open until the next wrap up post goes up! (i.e. the entire month)
9. If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;) 
10. December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - a box of books. 
11. You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

Levels:
(how many books you're planning to read for this challenge in 2013)

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children

Schedule:

January 20th: Evie @Bookish (www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com)

February 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)

March 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)

April 20th: Tiffany @Escaping.. One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)

May 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)

June 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)

July 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)

August 20th: Tiffany @Escaping One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)

September 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)

October 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)

November 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)

December 20th: This one will be posted on all the blogs. There will also be a huge BOX OF BOOKS giveaway and this time you can link up ALL YOUR TBR Pile REVIEWS you wrote for the entire year!

I am going to try for A Sweet Kiss (21-30).  Here are some of the books I will finally be able to check off my TBR list:

1. A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young
2.  Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen
3.  Endlessly by Kiersten White
4.  Wither by Lauren DeStefano
5.  Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
6.  Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard 
7.  Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
8.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
9.  Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout
10.  Enchanted by Alethea Kontiss
11.  Angelina's Secret by Lisa Rogers
12.  Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
13.  The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
14.  Hereafter by Tara Hudson
15.  I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
16.  Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
17.   Save Me by Lisa Scottoline
18.  The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
19.  The Lux by Anna Godbersen
20.  The Witness by Nora Roberts
21.  Unearthly by Cynthia Hand


and MANY more!  So go sign up and join us in the fun! 

Book Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.


Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.


Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

My Thoughts:  I loved Anna Dressed in Blood!  I mean, I loved it!  I waited eagerly for the sequel to come out and once I received a copy it was all I could do to wait to read it.  However, life happens and it took a little longer than I had anticipated to get to it.  Lucky for me, it was definitely worth the wait!!

This book did not quite have the "creepy" factor in it like Anna Dressed in Blood did but it was more sinister and evil.  It had some very dark moments in it but was funny too.  Cas has an amazing sense of humor that keeps you laughing throughout the book.  Thomas is loyal and sweet and oh so lovable!  Carmel I had some issues with...mainly her wishy-washy attitude.  She wants to go with Cas and Thomas and then she wants to be normal and then she's back.  It was just a tad bit annoying for me.  I love Jestine.  She was sarcastic and fun and even though she had different motives for the athame, she was still loyal to Cas.

Anna wasn't the main story in this book.  It was more about the history behind the athame and the Order of the Biodag Dubh (yeah, no idea how to pronounce that one).  Anna was still around though and haunting Cas for all she was worth!  

I loved the fact that the group went to England and Scotland!  It was fun to have them out of the States and exploring the history of the athame.  My absolute FAVORITE part was the Suicide Forest!  Talk about completely creepy but so perfect!  Definitely the scariest part of the book, in my opinion.

The ending was bittersweet and completely unexpected.  I loved how it ended but really....it was one of those scenes in a movie where it's so bittersweet you almost want to cry.   
  
I will be reading anything Kendare Blake writes!  She has an amazing talent to write incredibly creepy stories that will keep you up at night!  If you haven't read Anna Dressed in Blood then get yourself a copy and if you have, grab this one right away!  It's worth it!

I'm Baaaaack!

Yay!  I am finally getting back to blogging after a really LOOONG break!  As many of you know, we have had to move temporarily and our house is absolutely ruined!  It started back in September and since the insurance took so long to get us an answer, the roof has, by this time tonight, probably collapsed in since there is at least 8 inches of wet, heavy snow!  There is so much water damage from the rain storms and so the major loss guy came up on Friday and said the insurance did an "epic fail".  Seriously, those were his exact words.  So, the good news is that they will continue to pay our rent while we get a new house!  So, now that the stress is *mostly* gone, I have started reading again and will be posting reviews....lots and lots of them!

So, thanks for hanging around and get ready for reviews and giveaways coming up!  I'm glad to be back to reading and reviewing!