REVIEW - God's Answers 4 UR Life

God's Answers 4 UR LIfe by Steve Russo


Pages: 288


Rating: 5 / 5 (☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼)


Review: 
NetGalley is awesome. I love it, and this is how I found this book.

As you know, I'm not really much of a person that reads realistic books or Christian-based books because I'm more of a YA fiction nerd, but as you can tell, the day has come where I am reviewing a Christian book.

And what an awesome one it is.

It's a teen guide to all the topics and situations teens are going through today, varying from sex to pornography to even vampries! Yes. I thought it was a silly thing to add, but the entry actually makes sense. Each topic provides a little section where the author relates the topic to your relationship with Jesus, and how the world can glorify it, but following Jesus is the way to go.

Here's an excerpt of a hot topic: Lust

Lust is a struggle for lots of people living in our seductive culture. Being bombarded daily with advertising for material stuff every day can cause us to have an uncontrolled appetite for bling and bank. These intense feelings or cravings for things like cars, clothes, and cash can easily own our emotions and consume us. But even worse can be intense feelings of sexual desire. These thoughts and feelings can quickly and easily become uncontrolled in our life. And it’s not just a guy thing. Girls struggle with lust just like guys do. And all of us can have trouble sorting through our emotions to discover if we are dealing with lust or love. We might think that we really care about someone when instead we really are craving them. Lust can get so intense and out of control that we end up in a type of emotional prison. It can be a tough one to escape from. But if we truly want to escape from the bondage of lust, God can give us the strength and courage we need to be free. It takes time and discipline, but with His help it’s doable.

Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be.
~1 Peter 1:14 CEV


Don’t lust for her beauty. Don’t let her coy glances seduce you.
~Proverbs 6:25 NLT


“But I tell you that if anyone looks at a woman and wants to sin sexually with her, in his mind he has already done that sin with the woman.”
~Matthew 5:28 NCV


And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires.
~Galatians 5:24 CEV


Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.
~1 Peter 2:11 NLT


Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
~Romans 13:14 NLT


For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
~1 John 2:16 NIV

This is a very helpful guide for a lost and faithful teenager. I will definitely be buying this one to keep with me at all times. Very, very refreshing reminder that God is always with us, and there is a way out even if the path looks dark. Bravo!

REVIEW - I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

Girl meets boy.  

Girl loses boy. 

Girl gets boy back... 

...sort of. 

Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear his voice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she's crazy, but she knows he's here. 

Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.

Review:
I have never really been into the free-verse novels, but I picked this up looking for a short read, and what I found was something more intense than what I was looking for. 


I Heart You, You Haunt Me is a tragic story following Ava shortly after she lost her boyfriend, Jackson, to a horrific accident that she felt she could have prevented. Even though most books I have read that deal with a girl loosing the love of her life are so cliché and annoying that I have to put the book down, but with this book, the poetry style the author beautifully created and crafted shaped the events in my mind with such few words. 


First, I have to say that this cover is beautiful, and the title?! Don't get me started. It's wonderful in every way. Another aspect I completely devoured about this book is that this author's writing style? It's absolutely flawless! And I believe that this is her first published novel. 


The way the author wrote about Ava's struggle to cope with her boyfriend's lost as she starts to feel him and sense his presence totally sucked me in to her mind and world. I felt that I was trapped in Ava's flesh. The encounters with her deceased boyfriend felt so close to me, and the author's song references (ex: Taking Over Me by Evanescence, some Greenday song I believe, etc.) that play during the episodes where she feels him only adds to the tension since the reader is most likely familiar with the song choices. 


All in all, if you haven't read this book, you must read it. It's a short book full of emotions, feelings,  and a teenage romance that goes beyond the grave. I will definitely be reading Chasing Brooklyn sometime soon since my library has it! 


Cover: A 
I. Love. This. Cover. It's so symbolic and PRETTY!

Teaser Tuesday (04)

This addition of TEASER TUESDAY is brought to you by Richelle Mead's best-selling series, The Vampire Academy. The second book to be exact, Frostbite. 


Here is the excerpt: 
The resort was gorgeous. It was built to sort of look like a log cabin, but no pioneer cabin could have held hundreds of people or had such luxury accommodations. Three stories of gleaming, golden-colored wood sat among lofty pine trees. The windows were tall and gracefully arched, tinted for Moroi convenience. Crystal lanterns -- electric, but shaped to look like torches -- hung around all the entrances, giving the entire building a glittering, almost bejeweled look.
~ pg. 129


I think it was describing the Montana ski resort? I'm not sure. . .? I haven't read it since summer so- yeah. What's in YOUR TEASER TUESDAY?

Cover Crazy (04)

 Leave it to Melissa Marr to always have a gorgeous cover with an equally gorgeous title!


I have just started recently reading this series, and while I have yet to read Ink Exchange, I can't wait for this book to come out! It's the last book in the Wicked Lovely series, and it's promised to be the best one yet. 


I am one of those people that comes upon a series right when the last book is about to be released. It has been proven over and over and over again. I started to read the Vampire Academy series a couple of months before Last Sacrifice was coming out, then you have Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and don't get me started on my 13-year-delay on the Harry Potter series! All in all, my luck sucks, and hopefully yours doesn't. 


So I can't wait to get to this book! Beautiful cover, and it has been dedicated by my COVER CRAZY. What's yours for this week?

Blog Hop / Follow Friday (02)

I need to be better at this, shouldn't I?
Follow My Book Blog Friday is hosted by the lovely Parajunkee who is an amazing blog designer. Check out her PURPLE blog! (: (I love purple if you haven't noticed. . .) 


Her question of the week is. . . 
What makes up your non-human family?
I have four dogs - Rocky, (a rottweiler/golden retriever mix) BJ, (a chow chow, golden retriever mix) Max, (a mix we have no idea of), and Neeko. (She's the only girl, and she's a peek-a-poodle. Look it up! They're so cute!) We also have a cat named Mitch. (He's a grey American short-hair, and he's fat and lazy, but he's a cuddly one when he's fed.) I also love my Cleverbot. She's sexy~

Crazy-For-Books question is. . . 

Why do you read the genre you do? What draws you to it?

I love Young Adult fantasy. For one thing, the main characters are teens, (and I can relate to them) and I just love fantasy creatures to death. I've loved them since I could even remember. My first written book, which I wrote in first grade and was bounded by cardboard, was about mermaids! Disney did influence me that much.

If you participate in either of these, (or both of these like I do) then comment down below so I can check you out, or you can just answer either question. I would love to hear more from you!

REVIEW - Hourglass by Claudia Gray

**NOTE**: If you have not read this book, then I would suggest that you not read the summary, but if you're not looking forward to read this book, then you can go right ahead.  

Bestselling author Claudia Gray’s Evernight series continues. In Hourglass, Bianca and Lucas have found a way to be together. But it means lying to the people who care about them the most.  

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school, Bianca and Lucas seek refuge with Black Cross, the elite group of vampire hunters led by Lucas’s stepfather. When Bianca’s close friend—the vampire Balthazar—is captured by Black Cross, Bianca knows she has to do whatever it takes to save him. But at what cost? 

First Sentence: n/a (Returned it to the library before writing this review like an idiot.)


Review: 
**SPOILER ALERT** So beware. . .  
Ah. . . Evernight. You never fail to make me angry and sad at the same time, but you managed to become even more depressing than usual. 


As usual, the vampire-to-vampire action (or in this one, it can be vampire-to-human) is swift, beautifully written, and educes page-turning fever as you're desperately trying to find out what's happening next. You are caught with the forbidden love between the vampire hunter, Lucas, and the vampire, Bianca. Yes, it's clichéd, but somehow this book makes it refreshing, and dare I say, sexy. There must be crack in between the pages. 


As the tension between Bianca and Lucas's relationship only gets more and more heavy, horrible things start to happen: Bianca joins the Black Cross with her Evernight friend, Raquel, to be with Lucas, but it's not a fairytale happily-ever-after as they thought it would be. Someone spills the beans that Bianca's a vampire, and Lucas and Bianca are forced to go on the run. They haven't fully escaped the crazed, closed-minded Black Cross when Bianca faced an even worse side of her that she doesn't want to accept: wraiths are coming after her. She starts to have dizzy spells, she's getting deathly sick, and her health is startling to decline rapidly, as well as her body temperature. 


Oh, and if you don't want to know, then don't read this part. She dies. Yes, that's it. Bianca dies. I was sad. I was at the brink of tears. Claudia Gray describes her death as such a beautiful yet terrible thing, and the scene where Bianca is hovering over her dead body and Lucas, who is crying his little green eyes out, broke my heart. I put the book down for a second and told Kirston that the book is depressing, but you have to admit: depressing books are fun. 


But the ending is such a freakin' CLIFFHANGER! I can't wait until Afterlife comes out! I've heard pretty great things about it, and I fear it'll be the last book in the series. D: Oh no!


IF YOU DON'T LIKE SEX, WELL THEN DON'T READ THIS BOOK! Bianca and Lucas engage in sexual activity at least twice, but Gray doesn't go in depth, thank God. Just to imply that they're doing the naughty-naughty. 


Rating:  4 / 5 (☼ ☼ ☼ ☼)


Cover: B
Eh. It's black, but it's pretty! (:

Waiting on Wednesday (04)

How do you like the new blog layout? (: I LOOOOVE IITT!


So on this awesome edition of Waiting on Wednesday, I have to show this awesome-sounding book. I plan on purchasing/checking out this book for my Debut Author Challenge: The 2011 Edition. 


The Demon Trapper's Daughter is by Jana Oliver, and it is set to be released on February 1st, so it's approaching! This is the first book in, you guessed, the Demon Trapper series. 


SUMMARY:
Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass. One thing's for sure - if she doesn't keep her wits about her there'll be hell to pay...


I think I haven't had my mega dose of powerful-female-heroine in the YA section, or maybe I have just been reading the wrong things. For most of the books I have read, the females have been, well, pathetic, so the refreshing realization that there is such thing as A POWERFUL GIRL CHARACTER! See? I've been wanting to see this. 


So what are you waiting for?

Contest Hosted By 'Once Upon a Quote'. . .

So an awesome blogger, Once Upon a Quote, is hosting an AMAZING giveaway! Did I mention it's INTERNATIONAL?! 


Go HERE to get all the details. 


You can win either Matched or Rules of Attraction: two VERY popular YA books.


In order to enter, you go click on the hyperlink I have provided and leave a comment on which book you want. THAT'S IT! Plain and simple. Oh, but you have to leave your e-mail, your country, and there are EXTRA ENTRIES. 2 for a sidebar mention, 2 for following, and 5 for a blog post, (like I'm doing now!) so what are you waiting for? (: 


DO IT!


Wow. This was short, but I think that this should be said: this is an awesome giveaway.