Ok lovelies, it's time to check in – how are you doing on your 2013 TBR Pile Challenge this month. I'm so sorry this post is a few days late – Monday was a holiday here in Canada and my week got mixed up. I'm pleading long weeknd brain!

I also have a confession to make – I didn't read a single book this month of my TBR Pile (I'm not a total failure though, I have read 17 books so far towards this challenge). If you have been out enjoying the sunshine instead of a good book like me you can still enter the giveaway - simply link up your previously unentered TBR Pile reviews (if you reviewed the book in January but did not add the link to a previous wrap up post it still counts. BUT if you have already used the review for a different giveaway it does not count – we will be checking).

~ Mini Challenge & Giveaway ~

So….. I thought that a long weekend themed mini-challenge was in order. It's pretty simple. I want you to describe your perfect bookish long weekend BBQ. All your favourite bookish characters can be there, you food can be themed based on your favourite book – anything goes.

~ The rules ~

To enter the giveaway simply write up your own TBR PIle Challenge wrap up post and include your mini-challenge answer. Leave a link to your post in the comments and add the direct link to your qualifying reviews in the linky below for extra entries. Don't forget to fill out the Rafflecopter below as well (that is where I will be drawing the winner from).

Contest runs from May 23 to June 19 and is open anywhere the Book Depository ships. Winner will receive one (1) book of their choice from The Book Depository valued at $15 CDN or less.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Published: Oct 4, 2012
Source: I purchased this book
Series: The Secret Book 1
Find the author: Goodreads || Website || Twitter: @jessFallenStar 
Buy: Amazon || B&N || The Book Depository

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

Ella and Micha have been best friends since they were kids. But one tragic night shatters their friendship and their lives forever.

Micha is sexy, smart, confident, and can get under Ella’s skin like no one else can. He knows everything about her, including her darkest secrets. And he’s determined to bring his best friend, and the girl he loves back, no matter what it takes.

~ My Thoughts ~

I really enjoyed The Secret of Ella and Micha, it had the perfect mix of drama, delicious characters, and of course romance. This is not your typical bad-boy new adult love story because deep down Ella is just as edgy and volatile as Micha, the only difference is that she spent 8 months running away from who she used to be and pretending to be someone she could never be completely comfortable with. All it took was a few days in her old home with her childhood best friend to start breaking down all those walls that she spent so long trying to build up.

I loved the complexity and strength of the characters in this novel. Even the supporting characters had their own back stories, and traits that made me care about them.

The romance between Ella and Micha was just perfect. It rated somewhere between a slow burn and a firestorm if that is possible. You could see it coming and the foundation for their relationship had been set so long ago. When they finally gave into what had been there between them all along it was nothing short of passionate.

I really enjoyed both Jessica Sorensen’s writing style and the characters she created. The tension that Ella experienced between her old life and the new life that she was desperately trying to create for herself was intriguing and there was a humanness to both Ella and Micha that made me fall in love with them very quickly. I am so looking forward to “The Forever of Ella and Micha” which is set to be published in August 2013 and really want to see how their story continues.

This review was posted at part of the Contemporary Month(s) event hosted by Evie – Bookish, Asheley - Into the Hall of Books and Bonnie – Words at Home. Stay tuned for more contemporary fiction goodness in May and June 2013!

I just love starting my week off with this meme hosted by Sheila at Bookjourney. It is the perfect way to plan my reading for the week and find out what all my favorite blogging friends are reading as well!

I am getting VERY excited for Contemporary Fiction season on Words at Home. Evie, Asheley and I have brought back contemporary month this year with a bit of a twist. This year we are sharing the contemporary love over 2 months! Check out Bookish and Into the Hall of Books for their schedules. Over here May will be a little bit of a taste of what's to come, with most of the fun happening in June. So I've started my reading now and it will be all contemp. fiction all the time until the end of next month!

How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler

There are a few things Grace Anderson knows for sure. One is that nothing will ever come between her and her best friend, Kya Kessler. They have a pact. Buds Before Studs. Sisters Before Misters. But in the summer before senior year, life throws out challenges they never expected. And suddenly the person who's always been there starts to need the favor returned. Grace and Kya are forced to question how much a best friend can forgive. And the answer is not what they expected.

My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it's all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.

And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family?

Now her life is completely different…every moment is a gift. Because now she might not have many moments left

I am typically vehemently opposed to Captcha, however I get hundreds of spam comments a month (even with Akismet installed) and I just can't handle it anymore. I installed SweetCaptcha and I would love to know what you think. Is it easy? Awful? Ok? Can you use it on your tablet or smartphone like them claim. Will you stop visiting me because of it?

Thank you thank you – and I promise as soon as I get this baby sleeping I'll be back with my review of Walking Disaster!

The sun is shining and the buds are coming out on the trees, but what that really means to me is that contemporary fiction season is here! Last June Evie, Asheley, and I had an absolute blast hosting a crazy month long contemporary fiction extravaganza. It was amazing but we decided to share the love a little and extend our celebration of this genre over 2 months with a little more relaxed posting schedule. You can expect the same reviews of mind blowing books, interviews with hot new authors and of course giveaways!

Shout it from the rooftops!

We want to hear from you – use the twitter hashtag #CFMonth13 to talk to us during the event. We want to hear your contemporary fiction recommendations, know why you love the genre, what authors you are loving right now… really anything you can think of. Keep talking to us about contemporary fiction in May and June!

What you will find on Words at Home:

During the 2013 contemporary fiction event I will be reading and reviewing a mix of YA, New Adult and Adult contemporary fiction.  

I'm going to be featuring some of the amazing authors from Sourcebooks Fire and their new novels including Miranda Kenneally, Geoff Herbach, Laura Nowlin, Jessica Verdi and Janet Gurtler.

I will also be reviewing a few of the contemporary fiction books that have been sitting on my bookshelves for far too long. The first one up is Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

There might just be a few more surprises but you will have to stick with us to see!

I hope you are as excited as we are to spend the next two months celebrating contemporary fiction!

Published: August 1, 2010
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Source: I borrowed this book from the library
Find the author: Goodreads || Website 
Buy: Amazon || B&N || The Book Depository

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

"Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

~ My Thoughts ~

Graffiti Moon is an incredible read from start to finish. It is full of emotion, humour and such incredibly well-crafted characters that I fell in love with Cath Crowley’s writing within seconds. The story is told through alternating points of view and I can honestly say without a doubt I have never seen alternating POVs done so well.

Lucy knows Shadow through his art that is sprawled across the city. She knows and understands him on an emotional level that she hasn’t connected on with anyone else, but the only problem is that she doesn’t know who he is. Lucy knows that she could love a boy like Shadow, she could have conversations with him about art and life and she is desperate to meet him. So on the last night of Year 12 when Ed and his friend Leo say they know shadow she is willing to follow them into the night on a search for a boy she knows only through his paintings.

Before I talk about the book I have to take a second and talk about the audio production of Graffiti Moon because it was spectacular. The story is narrated by 3 different actors reading for Lucy, Ed and Leo. Everything from the pacing, to the choice of actors to the way they read the story added so much richness and life to an already incredible book. The storyline of Graffiti Moon lent itself so well to being told as an audio, especially the way it was told, and I can’t imagine it getting any better even if I read the print copy (which I will no doubt be doing). I’m not sure if the Australian accents had anything to do with my love for listening to this book, but they certainly didn’t hurt. Listening to the actors read just felt like I was hearing Lucy, Ed and Leo speak – not for one second did I feel like I was listening to an audio book and that is a superb bookish experience in my mind!

Crowley’s writing is flawless. The dialogues between the characters are full of humour, and an incredible blend of wit and sarcasm that just works so well. There were just so many layers to each of these characters and Crowley revealed their personalities in so many different ways. Through Lucy’s relationship with her parents, to her thoughts about her first date with Ed, Shadow’s paintings and Poet’s writing, even the way that Lucy and Ed speak about Al and Bert (respectively). I love, love, love that the entire story took place in the span of one evening because in following Lucy and Ed around as they toured Shadow’s artwork, Crowley really gave the reader a chance to get inside their heads, and it was a nice place to be.

I loved each of the characters in Graffiti Moon in their own ways. Sometimes it was because of their strength, other times because of their vulnerability, or their fierce need to protect someone else but there was at least one strong and shining quality that each character possessed that made it very difficult for me to walk away from this book.

Graffiti Moon easily takes the prize as my favourite read of the year by a long shot. It was incredible and blew all of my expectations out of the water. The characters were strong and vibrant, the storyline emotional, and the prose beautiful. This is a book that you need to read immediately, I promise you won’t regret it!

Published: November 20, 2011
Source: I purchased this e-book
Find the author: Goodreads
Buy: Amazon

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

Two climbed up. Two fell down.
One woke up.

When things get out of control, Robin wakes up in a hospital bed and Emily doesn't wake up at all. Just getting dressed becomes an ordeal as Robin tries to heal and piece together the details of that terrible night. Racing to remember everything in the hopes of saving Emily, Robin writes a series of notes to herself to discover the truth

~ My Thoughts ~

Notes to Self is a book that I had my eye on for quite some time as I am completely fascinated with brain injuries and the way that memories are affected by traumatic events. After a life threatening fall with her best friend Emily, Robin Saunders is left not only trying to piece together the details of the night she can’t remember, but also piece together the details.

I didn’t love the characters in this novel. Robin felt very immature and aside from a few outward details I didn’t learn much about her. Reno was probably my favorite character and even then I’m not entirely sure why. I suppose he had the good guy thing going for him, and there were a few moments (like the road trip and magnolia tree) where I could see why Robin was falling for him, but I really don’t have a sense of who he was or what made him tick.

The story itself was interesting enough but I expected for more of an emphasis to be placed on the actual brain injury that Robin suffered from. Having finished the book I realize that these sorts of details were simply outside of the scope of the novel and I enjoyed it for what it was – a lighthearted story of friendship and self-discovery.

I just love starting my week off with this meme hosted by Sheila at Bookjourney. It is the perfect way to plan my reading for the week and find out what all my favorite blogging friends are reading as well!

I'm finishing up Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire this week. I'm enjoying it but it is the exact same story as Beautiful Disaster except it is told from Travis' point of view. I definitely appreciate hearing the story from his voice and it is making a few things much more clear to me, but I was just hoping for something a little different. It's just not captivating me the same way because I know how it is going to end.

I started reading Graffiti Moon by Cat Crowley and it is completely blowing me away. I'm actually listening to the audio book and the narration is unbelievable (more on that in the review). I just keep looking for excuses to put in my headphones!

"Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

I also started reading While He Was Away by Karen Schreck and I'm enjoying it, just not making a whole lot of progress since I have a paper copy and haven't had a lot of time with free hands to actually hold a book (same excuse different book!)

One year–he'll be gone for one year and then we'll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be.

I can be an army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn't come home at all?…
 

That's it for me… what are you reading this week?

Published: January 29, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: Hooked #1
Source: eARC via Netgalley (Thank you!)
Find the author: Goodreads || Website || Twitter: @LizFichera 
Buy: Amazon || B&N || The Book Depository

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

GET HOOKED ON A GIRL NAMED FRED.

~ My Thoughts ~

I didn’t expect to enjoy Hooked quite as much as I did, I thought I was in for a simple and sweet high school romance, but I was pleasantly surprised to find so much more than just a boy-meet-girl and falls in love kind of story. Hooked also deals with issues of discrimination, bullying, respect and trust and this added some serious meat to the book. The characters were well developed, and so were their relationships, making this one book that I didn’t want to put down.

Fred was a really interesting character; she was a strong and independent girl who loved to play golf. Not only did she love the sport but she loved the places it could take her. Living on the reservation with her unsupportive and borderline alcoholic mother did nothing to boost her confidence or self-worth and she was told daily that the best she could hope for out of life was a full time waitressing job. Her solace at home was her father, who was her biggest source of strength. Every weekend he took her to the golf course he worked at to practice and when she was offered a spot on her high school’s all boys-varsity golf team he stood behind her decision to join. Unfortunately the boys on the team felt differently not only did they not want a girl on their team but they didn’t want an “Indian” girl on their team.

I loved Fred, I really did. She was strong and confident enough to join an all-boys team knowing that she would most likely not be welcomed with open arms. And when she received the greeting she expected she put her head down and beat them where it counted the most – the golf green.  She was also human; she didn’t have an impenetrable wall built up around her, or a chip on her shoulder. She was hurt by the way her teammates treated her but she didn’t let that hurt define her. That attitude is ultimately made me respect her.  Ryan was one of those characters that I had to grow to love. I could tell from the beginning that he had good in him, but he was too concerned with what his friends thought to actually stand up for his convictions. I kept waiting for him to grow a pair and act on what he knew to be true and right, but it took a lot to force him to see his friends true colors – in all honesty I was surprised by how long he tried to defend them.

The relationship between Fred and Ryan was a believable one that started out very slowly and found its roots in a budding friendship and trust. It wouldn’t have been realistic for them to just jump straight into a relationship and fall head over heels in love given their vastly different backgrounds, so I appreciated all of the hurdles that they had to cross to get there.

 A lot of the story line in Hooked was spent dealing with issues of discrimination and bullying, come to think of it the golf really felt as though it was secondary to the story. Fichera did a wonderful job writing about such difficult topics and she was able to authentically capture the emotions and behaviors of both Fred and her tormentors, whether they were the main bully or those who were passively along for the ride.

Hooked was a refreshing YA love story – it was a fun read full of romantic tension but at its core were extremely serious issues that made it an emotionally stirring novel as well. I think that Liz Fichera has found her niche and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this author in the future!

I received an eARC of this novel via. Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Published: January 3, 2012
Publisher: Harper Collins
Source: I borrowed this book from the library
Find the author: Goodreads || Website || Twitter: @v_rossibooks
Buy: Amazon || B&N || The Book Depository

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

WORLDS KEPT THEM APART.

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

~ My Thoughts ~

Under the Never Sky was a completely unique reading experience and I’m so glad that I finally found the time to pick up this novel. I won’t lie it did take me a little while to get used to the world that Rossi created. From the smarteyes, to the Realms, to the Aether it was just so different from what I have been reading lately. That being said once I found my bearings I completely fell in love with strange new world that Rossi so brilliantly created, and I became completely swept up in Aria, Perry and Roar’s stories.

It didn’t take me very long to fall in love with Perry. I had a few doubts at first but even before he started to let down his guard I knew that there was something special about this character. His hidden gentleness and quiet observances were what really won me over. Aria was also a character who impressed me early on. Her ability to take what was thrown at her and work with it, rather than whine about it was one of my favourite character traits.  Roar and Marron were also really enjoyable characters who added a lot of the story. Roar had a sense of humour that I really appreciated and Marron was a welcome and surprising addition of humanity and caring that seemed to be missing from some of the more questionable “Outsider” tribes and especially from the “Dwellers”.                                 

Under the Never Sky is a book that left me wanting more, in such a wonderful way. I am actually glad that I waited so long to read it because now I don’t have to put up with the agonizingly long wait to read Roar and Liv (book 0.5) and Through The Ever Night (book 2). There are a lot of things that I hope to see happen later in the series and I can’t wait to see if I’m right.