Showing posts with label Megan Miranda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Megan Miranda. Show all posts

Sunday, 11 November 2012

New Distractions #17



The books I got this week:


Gifted:

For review:

Huge thanks to the lovely Donna from Book Passion for Life for Fated, and to Macmillan and Bloomsbury UK.


I'm super excited for these awesome books I got this week. Fated is a birthday present from Donna and I absolutely can't wait to read it as I looooved Sarah's Lila series. But I'm also incredibly excited for Renegade and Hysteria, which both sound super amazing. Definitely have some great reading ahead of me. And since I have 4+ weeks time until my next exam I might get some reading done next week.

Which books did you get this week?
Carina

P.s.: Today's the last day to enter my INTL giveaway. Click here.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Fracture by Megan Miranda
Publisher: Walker Books (Bloomsbury)
Expected Publication: January 17th, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Format: eARC
Pages: 272
Goodreads Summary:
Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

My Rating: 4.5 / 5

First thoughts:
I had heard good things about this before starting it and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It was creepy and heart-breaking but conveyed hope at the same time - a mixture I really enjoyed. The only thing I didn't like was the somewhat open ending. But besides that Fracture was a great novel that you should read!

More detailed:
Fracture is a thought-provoking and emotional read which I devoured as quickly as possible. Delaney's experiences after her accident kept me intrigued and I was hoping for her to be happy again until the very last page.

This novel is told from Delaney's point of view by a first person narrator. She has a very relatable voice which is easy to follow and makes it possible to understand her and her motivations quite fast. She is in a situation not many people have (luckily) ever been in after having survived an accident even though everyone expected her to die.

After this accident her life is turned upside down by her new ability to sense death. It takes a while for her to figure out what is happening to her, but even before her realization she asks many thought-provoking questions. Throughout the novel she is wondering about life and death and about what makes someone human. People who love thinking about philosophical questions will love Fracture.

Not only does Fracture concentrate on Delaney's feelings, but highlights her family and friends' reactions to her accident and to the obvious changes in her. It's interesting to follow how her parents start treating her differently and how her friends change their attitudes toward her. Megan Miranda managed to capture these things perfectly, making me feel exactly like Delaney in certain scenes - happy, sad, exasperated.

It also has a perfect mixture of different characters who are realistic: some you'll fall in love with immediately, some you'll want to shout at, but you can't really hate any of them. The reason why I didn't rate this 5/5 is the open ending that left me a little bit disappointed; I was expecting some more closure because I always need to see whether a character will be truly happy or not.

But all in all, Fracture is an amazing read which you need to put onto your 2012-to-read-lists. It is so suspenseful that I wanted to read faster than possible, but at the same time I wanted to savour the beautiful writing. Since I read an eGalley of this, I'm sure I'll get a finished copy of it to add it to my collection of books I love.


Have you read Fracture? What did you think about it?
Do you plan to read it?
Carina

Sunday, 11 December 2011

Fictional Distractions of the Week #7


Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.


The books I plan to read this week:
 
At first I'm planning to finish Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. Almost everyone who has read this one so far has loved it and so far I can only agree - it's awesome! When I read Clockwork Angel (my review), I didn't fell in love with the series immediately, but when I read the first three books of the TMI series, I couldn't wait for the second book of the The Infernal Devices series. I think I need to re-read CA sometime next year to really appreciate it.
Goodreads Summary:
The situation at the London Institute has never been more precarious. With Mortmain and his clockwork army still threatening, the Council wants to strip Charlotte of her power and hand the running of the Enclave over to the unscrupulous and power-hungry Benedict Lightwood.

In the hope of saving Charlotte and the Institute, Will, Jem, and Tessa set out to unravel the secrets of Mortmain’s past—and discover unsettling Shadowhunter connections that hold the key not only to the enemy’s motivations, but also to the secret of Tessa’s identity. Tessa, already caught between the affections of Will and Jem, finds herself with another choice to make when she learns how the Shadowhunters helped make her a “monster.” Will she turn from them to her brother, Nate, who has been begging her to join him at Mortmain’s side? Where will her loyalties—and love—lie? Tessa alone can choose to save the Shadowhunters of London…or end them forever.

Then I'm planning to read my eGalley of Fracture by Megan Miranda. This sounds like such an intriguing story and I can't wait to start it. Have you read it already? If yes, did you enjoy it?
Goodreads Summary:
Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

And to complete this absolutely awesome week of reading, I'm hoping to be able to start The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. I have high expectations for this, but I'm sure they'll be met!
Goodreads Summary:
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.


What are your Fictional Distractions of the Week

Sunday, 16 October 2011

In My Mailbox #25


In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It gives bloggers the chance to appreciate the books they got last week and to meet new people.






The books I was gifted this week:


If I Stay* by Gayle Forman
Touch of Frost* by Jennifer Estep
Angel Fire** by L. A. Weatherly

* Huge thanks to Lesley from My Keeper Shelf for sending me If I Stay and Touch of Frost. I'm soooo excited to read both of these.
** And huge thanks to Donna from Book Passion For Life for sending me Angel Fire. This was such a lovely surprise and I can't wait to read this series.


The books I got for review this week:


Unveiled*** by Trisha Wolfe (read my review here)
Cicada*** by Belle Whittington
The Lens and the Looker*** by Lory S. Kaufmann

*** from author


Fracture**** by Megan Miranda
Dearly, Departed**** by Lia Habel

**** thanks to NetGalley and Walker Children's Books & Random House






I'm very excited for all of these books that I got last week. My special thanks go out to Lesley and Donna. Thanks for sending me these absolutely awesome books!
What did you get in your mailbox this week?
Carina

Last week's reviews:
Swoon by Nina Malkin
Unveiled by Trisha Wolfe
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

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