My New Blog and the Future of Elegantly Bound Books

You guys!!! My new is blog is finally done!

Well I guess I should start from the beginning. Last year I was seriously considering making a new blog. I just had that itch that I wanted something new.  At first I thought that maybe a new blog design would be nice but I felt like it had to be something more.  For a few years I had this blog title Books Unbound floating around in my mind that I really wanted to do something with.  But did I really want to go through all the trouble of making a new blog, building up a new base of followers and literally start from scratch with blog posts?

YES! I did!! For the past 6 months or so I have been in the process of setting up my new blog with all it's own accounts and to finally have everything separate from my personal social media is such a relief.  Now I can finally narrow down all my email accounts and everything else to just one for personal use and one for blogging! But the thing that's even better is that I wouldn't be starting from scratch! I was able to export all my posts from Elegantly Bound Books to Book Unbound and in just a few weeks Elegantly Bound Books will automatically re-direct to Books Unbound! I get to keep all my content on my beautiful new blog!

So for the next 2 weeks everything that I post on Books Unbound will also be posted here on Elegantly Bound books with a reminder that Elegantly Bound Books will not be around for much longer! So if you're an avid reader and follower of Elegantly Bound Books please please please make the move with me to Books Unbound! You can find all my social media icons on my new blog so it's super easy to follow me now! Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter, or Bloglovin; it's your choice!

Without any further ado, you either click on any of the links above to check out my new blog or click on my new button!

What Does the Bookworm Say? Negative Reviews

The topic this week is “Do I write negative reviews?” Don't forget to check out this topic at Nite Lite Reviews, The Reader's Antidote and The Windy Pages.

The simple answer to this question is yes! I don’t think there is anything wrong with a negative review. When an author puts their work out into the world, it’s natural that there are going to be some people who absolutely love it and some people who don’t like it as much and maybe even hate it.

When it comes to writing a negative review, I usually take more care and choose my words more carefully than if I were writing a positive review. I try to be very concise so that my words aren't twisted or taken out of context.

I think negative reviews are really important and I usually want to tell my readers why I didn't like a book. Whether a book had no plot, really annoying characters or a stupid love triangle; these are thing I like to talk about in a negative review even though these likes and dislikes are based purely on opinion.

When it comes to reading reviews, I always read the negative reviews because I really want to know why some readers did not like the book! I always want to weigh the book and the bad before I buy a book. And by writing a negative review I hope that I can help out another reader weigh their pros and cons before purchasing.

The only thing I really have to say about negative reviews is that I'm all for them! I like to write them and I like to read them! 

What do you think about negative reviews? Do you like to read/write them?

Have a topic you would like us to talk about? Let me know in the comments! 

Waiting on Wednesday (112)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Since You've Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Hitting the Shelves: May 06, 2014

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just... disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try... unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait... what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um...

Why I want this: I love Morgan Matson's really fun, summery contemporary reads! I'm currently reading Second Chance Summer right now which is making me even more excited about Since You've Been Gone and the book by her alter ego Katie Finn, Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend. I'm so in the mood for summery contemporary reads right now! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unique Books I've Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme of lists hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is the top ten books that we've read that we think are the most unique. The books that I chose are not necessarily unique as in there are no others like them, but I definitely thought they were unique when I first read them.  Or they are standouts in their genres.  

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: I don't read very many zombies books but The Forest of Hands and Teeth stood out to be because it's all about how people have survived all these years later.  Even though, for me, the series went a little downhill, the first book is pretty great!

2. I Know it's Over by CK Kelly Martin: I Know it's Over is a contemporary novel about teenage pregnancy and abortion told from the guy's perspective.  Seeing how a guy feels in a situation like this is what really made this novel stand out for me. 

3. Unwind by Neal Shusterman: I have certainly never read a book like this before ever! Talk about a completely new twist on abortion and what makes a person's life worthwhile.  The unwinding scene is probably one of the creepiest scenes I've ever read! 

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I chose The Hunger Games for this list because I really believe it was unique when it was first released.  And even though other books try as they might, there is still nothing like The Hunger Games.

5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins: There are a lot of books out there that are written in free verse but Identical was the first one that I've read so, to me, it stands out as being unique. 

6. Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman: I really love this series and what makes it unique is the mixed media it uses to tell the story.  While you're reading the book you'll get to parts where you have to go online to the website it gives you and put in the password that they also give you and watch the video. And you have to watch the videos because they are so important to the story. The story is pretty creepy and scary.

7. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: These books are so unique and have so many elements that normally would be really weird but somehow they really work! Cyborgs, moon people and fairy tale characters! It's so awesome! 

8. Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano: Perfect Ruin takes place in a community that is in the clouds. In. The. Clouds. It is so good! I'm so excited to see what happens next for these cloud people. 

9. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: To even try to explain this book would make me sound crazy but I've truly never read any book like it.  

10. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: I pretty much cried through every page of this book and even though I read it ten years ago, it still stays with me. 

Early Review: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Taking
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Taking #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Source: eARC
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

My Thoughts:

Kimberly Derting has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. I’m a huge fan of The Body Finder series and even though The Pledge wasn't that great for me, I was super excited when I found out she was releasing a new series! The Taking was literally the first book that I read this year! I was so excited about my ARC that I couldn't wait to dive right in.

The Taking is about a sixteen year old girl named Kyra who, after a softball game, suddenly disappears without a trace. She wakes up behind the dumpster of her local gas station 5 years later but it feels like the next morning to her. She’s still wearing her softball uniform and hasn't aged a day. Soon, a mysterious stranger starts showing up everywhere she goes and Kyra soon discovers that there is a lot more behind her disappearance than she originally thought.

Even though Kyra is a good main character I didn't feel all that emotionally attached to her. Everything that happens, her disappearance and reappearance, all happens so fast in the very beginning that you don’t really get a chance to become attached to the life that she had before. Most of the story is her struggle with accepting that everyone has moved on without her. We, the readers, don’t get the chance to know the Kyra before, we only know the person that Kyra becomes after she resurfaces.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Kyra and Tyler who incidentally is her “before” boyfriend’s younger brother. Since five years has now passed, Tyler is one year older than Kyra. They become really close throughout the book, both trying to figure out what happened to her. Tyler is really super cute! He always admired his older brother's girlfriend and now here she is, she hasn't aged a day and he has the chance to actually get to know her! I really like that he kind of always held a candle for her!

The plotting and the pacing of the book were a little bit slow at times, especially in the middle but it really kicks up towards the end, making me hopeful that book two will be an action-packed adventure. There was also a bit of a cliffhanger at the end which made me really excited! I don’t generally like cliffhangers but this one made me really anticipate the rest of the series! Oh, and since I wasn't super obvious about it, it’s about aliens which we definitely don’t have enough of in YA right now.

The Taking was a really great book to start the year off with and now in just a couple of weeks everyone can enjoy it as well! Not only was it a great start to a really exciting new series, it can really appeal to those readers who are new to sci-fi!

Waiting on Wednesday (111)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Brazen
Author: Katherine Longshore
Hitting the Shelves: June 12, 2014

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she’s married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court’s inner circle. Mary and “Fitz” join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court’s strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed…but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

Why I want this: I loved Gilt and Tarnish! I also love that you don't have to have read the books before to know what is going on in the current book! So great! Lovers of historical fiction should pick these up immediately! 

March 2014 Book Haul!

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out the books that have somehow come into my possession this month!

Purchased: 

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Half Bad by Sally Green

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messanger

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

For Review: 

Wings by Elizabeth Richards

Scan by Sarah Fine

Embers and Ash by T.M. Goeglein

Library: 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

A huge thank you to Putnam & Sons for the review books!