Divergent by Veronica Roth

Who are you? Are you honest? Are you intelligent? Are you courageous? Are you selfless? Are you peaceful? Or do you find you fit into multiple of these? Then you are DIVERGENT.

Divergent is set in a futuristic Chicago setting. We meet Beatrice Prior, whom is a member of the Abnegation (the selfless). She and her brother are 16 and getting ready to choose whether to continue on living their lives as an Abnegate or transfer to a new faction. They feel this heavy weight upon them as they are forced to choose between being who they really are, leaving their family behind or to stay,continuing on living their lives, unfulfilled.

Veronica Roth creates a believable futuristic society that has divided into factions of their beliefs. Beatrice "Tris", is a underdog to cheer for and Ms. Roth gets her readers rallying behind "Tris" for better or for worse. Through the trials "Tris" must face, the readers want to keep her safe, but at the same time we want her to grow stronger and push through this and prove to everyone how strong she is. As games of intrigue (Kristen Britain reference ;p) are being played in the background, we are unaware of them until it is nearly too late. Ms. Roth keeps her readers on the edge of their eyes. She gives her readers everything we could hope for; strong family bonds, surprises, intrigue, action, and romance. I put this book and the books of hers to follow, in category with Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, Ally Condie's Matched, and Lois Lowry's The Giver. This is definitely a book to pick up and read. I could not put this one down. At 487 pages long, it only took me 9 hours to read. AMAZING! 5/5 Stars!!!

To Fan Fiction or Not to Fan Fiction? : a book worm's guilty pleasure

Have you ever gotten to the end of a book or even watched a movie, that ended and you still wanted more? You just have this feeling or curiosity as to what happens next, especially if there's sequels coming? Well, recently I decided to look up some fan fiction. To my delight, I found out that it's quite a big thing actually. Many people are online publishing free fan fiction for people to read all over the world.
I found two websites in particular that were very good as far as the types of stories I was interested in reading. The first, I have to admit, was harrypotterfanfiction.com. I found this website when I suddenly got a craving for more Harry Potter but having read all the books several times and owning all the released movies(that I'd seen many times), I wanted to see what else was out there. In popped the embarrassing words, FAN FICTION. Duh, duh, dun... LOL. Most people believe that all fan fiction is just fluffy non-sense that is an insult to the original author's work. I had this same thought in mind when I went searching. I was embarrassed that I was looking for more "fakes". Yet, I was under a false impression. Fan fiction is not ALL horrible. Yes, some of it isn't great and some is down right awful. But when you go to these websites, they give you the opportunity to tell the author of the fan fics what you think. So I didn't hesitate to give bad and good reviews. As I kept reading, and reading, and reading... I realized that the majority of the stories I picked to read were not too bad and that I was addicted to reading them. My world was changed. Suddenly, harrypotterfanfiction.com wasn't enough. What other fan fiction was out there? For what other books that I love? That's when I found fanfiction.net. Ya, it's a .net! .Nets are always better than .coms in my opinion. They just seem more trust worthy. (idk why, so don't ask.) At fanfiction.net, they have not only fan fiction for books, but also for movies, tv shows, animated shows, comic books, video games, etc... *GASP* OH YEAH!!! JACK POT!!! =D haha. Anyways, first I checked into the "books". There are sooo many books and I was happy to find not only more Harry Potter fan fiction, but fan fiction for several other books I have read and loved. (Matched by Ally Condie, The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, I am Number Four by Patticus Lore...just to name a few). Then I had to check out fan fiction for some of my favorite tv shows that are no longer aired. (Dark Angel, Roswell, Little Men,Legacy...) Then onto the movies where there was some great fan fics too. (Alien/Predator, 10 Things I Hate About You, American Outlaws, etc...) It is an amazing website.
So after going crazy in love with all these fan fictions, I just wasn't feeling completely satisfied. I thought to myself, I just haven't found any stories that tell it like I imagined it could have happened differently. Well, duh, of course not. Which leads me to my biggest question. To Fan Fiction or Not to Fan Fiction? That is what I'm deciding between. Though as a writer, it excites me to think about doing, I'm worried about it demeaning my writing skills. Not to say that I think fan fiction authors don't have writing skills... It's just... IDK. I'm torn between putting my fan fiction works out there for everyone to read or not. I AM writing them, that's not what I'm stuck on. They have to come out now, now that I've entertained them. Tell me what you think of fan fiction. What do you think about writing them? Do you write some yourselves? What kind of fan fiction would interest you the most in reading? Let me know. :)
~T

Websites mentioned: www.harrypotterfanfiction.com , www.fanfiction.net

I'll be adding these links to my favorites links on my blog soon as well.

P.S. Sorry for not posting any new book reviews. I have been burned out on new books and plus as you can tell from this post, that I have been reading fan fiction and writing my own lately too. I'll try to get into a new book here soon. I promise.

In Store or Online Book Shopping- What's Your Preference?

Do you enjoy purchasing books in the store or online?
I have found myself recently in a position where I have been buying several books online instead of in the store. Why is that? Well, recently my favorite book store, Borders, was closed. Well, not all the Borders have closed, but the one closest to me has. It was the closest, best, book store around. There are a few used book stores and one store that sells some new and used books but that's not the store's specialty. But realizing that I've had to do more book shopping online, I thought about what I miss about buying in store.
In store shopping allows me to browse in any section and let the titles and cover/spine art catch my attention. To me, browsing books is faster in store than online. I also enjoy being able to pull out books that I've already read, and love, and feigning interest and putting them back on the shelf, but so that they are now facing out so others will notice them easier. LOL. I see books I have thoroughly enjoyed and I want others to spot them easier. hehe. Anyone else guilty of this? Anyways, I also miss being able to just grab the book, purchase it, and take it home to immediately start reading. When buying online I have to wait for the book to ship to me. Which can be very annoying. Like recently when I pre-ordered Eona, the sequel to Eon, by Alison Goodman. I had been waiting forever for this sequel to be released and was so excited. Well, it came out and didn't ship until a few days after it was released. I had to wait over a week after it's release to receive. I was so ticked. Why didn't I just go buy it in store somewhere? Well, I was worried that they wouldn't have it available in store anywhere nearby. I also didn't anticipate the length of time it would take to be shipped. I definitely won't be ordering through the same company again (Barnes&Noble).

So tell me what your preference is. I want to know what makes people choose between in store book shopping and online book shopping. Do you own a Kindle and that's why you buy online, for the digital book? Let me know. :)

The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland

The Mage's Daughter is the sequel to Star of the Morning, and I am currently now reading the 3rd book following this one, Princess of the Sword. At 378 pages long, this is a little long winded considering it's actual length. I found it enjoyable, but it was a bit slower paced throughout than Star of the Morning. Interesting enough though, to keep you reading on.

Neroche is under assault by a mysterious magic that has stripped its king of his powers and unleashed nightmarish creatures as weapons in a war of evil.

Duty bound to aid his king, Miach of Neroche is torn between what his responsibilities dmand and what his heart desires.

I love to give teases of the excerpt. Sometimes they just tell us more than we should know going into the novel. Anyways, I love how we move into more of the romance in this novel. It's hard not to be excited to see Miach go after his heart and leave his duties on the back burner. There are surprises and mysteries that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Characters will be killed. Others will be captured. It's all in a months work in Neroche. lol. This is the exciting, fun, romantic part of this story. It's definitely a must read for those who have read Star of the Morning. If you haven't read Star of the Morning, go read it first, then read this one. :) 5/5 Stars!!