Dead Until Dark Review by Parajunkee

Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Series: Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire
Paranormal Element: Vampires
Order Online:  Amazon.com | BookDepository.com
Stalk the Author: Web | Blog

PJVs QUICKIE POV:
The power house that is Charlaine Harris might not need much introduction to most of my readers, but for those of you that have snubbed your nose to the popularity that is the Sookie Stackhouse series...I ask you why? Popularity does not necessarily mean crap. It means that a lot of people like it, and there is a reason. The books are great. Erase the monstrosity that is the HBO series from your mind...the books and the show might have characters with the same names, but frankly they are two totally different beasts. I sometimes I wish I can go back, go back and read these for the first time, because the experience of introducing myself to Sookie, Bill, Eric, well it is just one of those rare book moments..when you know you've found some new playmates.


REVIEW:
Sookie Stackhouse, is a small town cocktail waitress that dreams of a little excitement in her life. Treated like a freak for her odd behavior and her inexplicable ability to read minds, her friends and neighbors know something is off about her and hold her at arms length, thinking she might be a little mentally challenged. Hooking up with Bon Temps only vampire resident doesn't do much for her reputation either. When one of her coworkers shows up on the wrong side of dead, prejudices start to arise and Sookie might just be next on the killers list.

Harris' writing style is quirky, fun and light. Her books have a dark flavor conveyed in a cotton candy voice. The subject matter is murderers, vampires and deep seated prejudice but her tone keeps the story flowing and the reader involved, it is truly a gem to read. Her characters are well formed and you find an instant affinity towards them. Even the most vile of her characters that are introduced you can understand. There is a reason why book after book of this series tops the charts.

Sookie is a powerhouse of her own. She is strong willed, assertive and amusing. She makes a ton of mistakes, but her actions are things you can relate too, instead of leaving you scratching your head. At first you think she's a bit daft, or missing a few slices of cheese from her cracker...but you soon realize that this isn't true at all and the transition is exceptional.

Harris embraces the small-town mentality and brings to life Louisiana life so well that I really believe that I might run into one of her characters on the streets of New Orleans one day.  This is a great series and it is recommended that you start at this book instead of skipping ahead. Have fun and read them up, for there are a few of them!

RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is an adult read, their is a bit of violence, a bit of language and a bit of sexual fun. Fans of the Anita Blake Series and Rachel Morgan Series should enjoy.

4/4 BWB Rating

Matched Book Review@ My 5 Monkeys

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.


Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion. ( Goodreads.com)


I have been hearing alot of buzz about this book , because we all know that Hunger Games ends in Aug.

This book was lyrical and flowed. We meet Cassia at 17 getting ready for her Matched party to find out who she will be marry. She chooses a green dress for her party, and her screen is the only one that is black. She is Matched to Xander , her best friend. But once she gets home, she sees another friend of hers that is considered an aberration -Ky. This society gives you 3 pills ( red, blue, and green). The Officials are always watching , and sorting , and making notes of the choices that you will make.

Cassia starts questioning her life more when she sees that Ky popped up on the screen. She also is asking more questions about her parents Match. Cassia loses some one very dear to her , and finds out that her parents have been keeping secrets. Cassia loves to hike and there she gets to know Ky better, and also having mixed feelings for Xander.

Many items from the past are called artifacts and many people in this world don't write. Cassia is waiting to find out her job, from the officials. She is the best sorter and has been tested many times. Her mom deals with landscaping and her father takes away artifacts from families.


Cassia learns new things with Ky and understands now why stories are told. This is a awesome book and will be waiting til November to read and own this book. I love the cover of this book.

Book Review= B

I borrowed this book from my Karen and then bought my own copy.

HBIC Review: Matched (Emily @ What Book is That?)

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Page Count:  384 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genre: young adult, dystopian, romance
Copy for review was purchased by me

50 words or less:  Sometimes one simple decision or event can change everything.  Cassia's life was calm and simple, with every detailed preplanned by the Society.  When an unexpected twist sends her heart and her mind in a different direction, she learns that calm and simple might not be the way she'd want to live- if she had a choice.

I admit it- I was really, really nervous about reading Matched.  My love of dystopian novels, my love of good romance novels, and my wariness of anything that's had the crap hyped out of it combined into a stew of unease.  After finishing the story, I find myself with a different reaction than the one I thought I would have, in both good and not so good ways.

First of all, I completely agree with Rachel's assessment that comparing this book to one like The Hunger Games isn't really accurate or fair- Matched and The Hunger Games are like apples and oranges.  While both deal with a relatively similar theme, that being asserting individuality and freedom of choice and expression in the face of an oppressive totalitarian society, The Hunger Games is the story of a society that the heroine already knows to be dysfunctional and oppressive, gritty in its violence, while Matched revolves around a heroine who's fully integrated into society realizing that the shiny perfection that surrounds here is nothing more than a facade.  Is either approach bad? Certainly not, but reading one when you're in the mood for the other would not really be all that satisfying.  Ye be warned.

Anyway, the book opens on Cassia's Matching ceremony, where she finds out the name of the young man that she'll be Matched to, which means wooed by, married to, and have children with.  He's her ultimate in compatibility, everything she could possibly want in a mate, and it's a surprise to everyone when her Match turns out to be Xander, her best friend.  She's happy, Xander's happy, their families are happy, and that could have been the end of it, except when Cassia goes to look at the card with all of her Match's information on it, there's another boy's face on it- Ky, another boy in her city, but who never should have been included in the poll of candidates to be Matched.  Cassia is captivated by Ky and finds herself falling in love with him, even though that means questioning everything she's ever known about the Society and how things work.

Regarding the worldbuilding in this story, it wasn't as vivid as I would have liked, and I felt like the realism was...strange, like I was looking at the world of the book through a screen.  In a way it kind of mirrored what Cassia herself was feeling- as she fell deeper in love with Ky she noticed how elements of life she'd always taken at face value were much more restrictive than she thought.  The Society monitors what you throw in the garbage in your own house!  The Society has one hundred poems, one hundred songs, and one hundred paintings, and bully for you if you don't like that!  You don't get to pick your mate, your job, where you live, or even what you wear.  Not even your dreams are private!  The world of the Society had moments where the rules and levels of monitoring just chafed on me, but I didn't really get the sense that Cassia was truly as outraged as she justifiably should have been.

Regarding Cassia herself, I think the shining moments of this story revolved around her blossoming love for and with Ky, and in the depth of loyalty and emotion that she feels for people she cares about.  The scenes where she and Ky have stolen time together- him teaching her to write her name, her learning about his life in the Outer Provinces, them hiking in the woods together, those were the moments when I was engrossed in the story.  As a couple these two really work; it will be interesting to see how things with Xander work out in the next two books.

I think the issues that arose from this book stem from it being the first in a planned trilogy.  Because there are two more books, time and pages could be spent focusing on Cassia fretting over her feelings for Xander and Ky, fretting over work and school, fretting over her family, and so on.  Apparently there's a war going on in this world and we don't really hear anything about it until pretty much the end of the book.  Likewise, a lot of elements are introduced- lifespan, health issues, family roles, job roles, politics, and the true motives of the Society, but they don't get a lot of explanation and presumably that's because there are two more books in the trilogy.  I found myself wanting more details about many things, but not out of anticipation- because they were mentioned and then left alone in favor of discussion about something else.

Was this a bad book? Not at all.  I enjoyed reading it, I finished it, and I'll probably read the next two books as well.  I don't think it lived up to the hype surrounding it, but in a way I'm not sure any book could have.

Overall Grade: B
BWB Rating: 2/4

HBIC Review - Matched by Ally Condie

Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Matched #1
Paranormal: None, Dystopian
Purchase:  Amazon.com | BookDepository.com
Stalk the Author: Web | Twitter





Review by Parajunkee @ Parajunkee's View


PJVs QUICKIE POV:
Another Young Adult dystopian, Matched has some heavy competition and if you don't compare it to some of the greats it is a worthwhile read and entertaining. The problem is I couldn't help but compare it to other books.  Unfortunately I couldn't stop thinking this one was so very similar to Brave New World, but not as good.


REVIEW:
In Cassia's world there are no choices. The Society decides everything, the clothes you wear, the jobs you take, the music you listen to and even the person you marry and how many children you have. There are hardly any decisions you can make that are your own.

On Cassia's Matched day she is excited and surprised when she is matched with her best friend Xander. Things like this rarely happen and Xander is known to her and she loves him as a friend. But for a split second another face flashes on her screen before Xander's and she knows him too and from the moment she see's Ky's face she begins to doubt the trust that she has had in the Society. She also begins to see the wholes in the Society that have always been there, but she's just chosen to ignore.

Cassia is one of the more naive characters of a dystopian that I've read. Most of the protags start out as naive but Cassia's progression was rather slow compared to others. It just seemed that everyone around her knew so much more than she did. Speaking of the characters, they were rather robust and well rounded, Condie did a good job in developing the subtle intricacies of each character. I had a special affinity for Cassia and the side-characters that interacted with her. Condie did a wonderful job of building the emotional connections with Cassia and the side characters. Even Cassia's connection with her Grandfather was exceptional and I felt a special affinity with him.

Where I found the novel lacking was in the world building. Where her characters were robust and developed I found the world Cassia lived in flat and 2D. Almost a cartoon representation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The comparison between the two novels comes to play in with the overbearing society that regulates every day behavior. The introduction of a character from "outside" of that society, Ky being from the Outer Territories and an Aberration. And, finally the references to take a pill and be happy which were so prevalent in Matched. But where Brave New World introduced us to a monstrously complex society, well developed plot lines and immense amount of science fiction and futuristic elements that stimulated creativity and imagination, Matched did not.

One of the reasons I love science fiction are those small elements of futuristic creativity. Like the simulated grass carpeting in Brave New World. The authors imagining of the future gadgets that we might have. Matched had future elements but nothing that couldn't be created today. Incinerators, Ports, Coms, Genetically altered flowers...nothing that had me stretching my science fiction muscles, even though this was supposed to be a completely new Post-Warming generation of people, at least 100 years in the future from what I could garner. One hundred years is a long time and ripe for new gadgets and fun things...I love to read about that stuff.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
For lovers of dystopian fiction, I don't know if this one will be up to par. But if you are looking for an entertaining read with a bit of message, this book is for you. Safe for young teens and mature enough for adult consumption.

HBIC Review: Dead Until Dark (Emily @ What Book is That?)

Title: Dead Until Dark
Author: Charlaine Harris
Page Count: 292 pages
Publisher: Ace
Genre: urban fantasy

50 words or less: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a vampire walks into a bar and a telepathic waitress is there to meet him...

My relationship with Sookie Stackhouse started while I was waiting for the midnight release of Breaking Dawn.  I was at Barnes and Noble, and I got there crazy early because I hadn't preordered a copy.  So while I'm waiting a) for midnight and b) for the preorder folks to get their books and leave, I sat down in the science fiction aisle and started flipping through a book that I freely admit I grabbed because it had a vampire on the cover. That book was Dead Until Dark, and my addiction to paranormal romance and urban fantasy has been in full swing ever since.

The overall story that develops through this series is so twisty and turny at this point that discussing the plot of book one as if it were a stand alone book isn't really productive- Sookie is in such a different place at this point than she was at the beginning it's almost hard to fathom.  Instead, I'll focus on some of my favorite elements of the story that emerged here in the first book.

One of the first things I remember noticing about this story was the conflict that centered around the effort vampires were making to integrate into existing society (well, the effort that most of them were making anyway.)  I was intrigued by how the author created a social conflict by using existing attitudes about change and about people who are different and remixing them to reflect an imaginary segment of society.  Sookie is remarkably tolerant in her viewpoints, which probably stems from her unusual ability.  Being a telepath seems so incidental at first in the story, but as time goes on it's clear just how integral that ability will be, not only to who Sookie is as a character, but to many events that unfold throughout the series.

This is a tough book to review!  The world is complex and detailed, Sookie as a narrator is fresh and funny, and the supporting cast of characters is really, really well done.  The ground work for one of those timeless conflicts, Bill vs. Eric, is also laid here, and that's all I'll say about that.

If by chance you haven't gotten around to starting this series yet, I highly recommend you start.  While I confess that I'm not current and am kind of out of the loop (I'm two books behind I think) I can definitely say that the earlier books in the series are among my favorite urban fantasy stories.  As we get ready to leave 2010 behind and sally forth into a new year, I can recommend this series as one to work on if you're a newcomer.

Overall Grade: A
BWB Rating: 4/4

Matched by Ally Condie Review by Tiger Holland

Review from "Welcome to All-Consuming Books reviews by Tiger" 

Matched
Ally Condie
Dutton Books, November 2010
Source: My friend Karen at For What It's Worth Reviews,

Cassia and her best friend Xander go to their first and only Match Banquet, an event where the Society tells them which person in which far-off City they've been assigned to marry, and to their surprise, they are Matched with each other. It's almost unheard of for perfect matches to live in the same town, let alone be best friends, so they're very out of the ordinary. Then later when Cassia is viewing the information about her Match, another face flashes across the viewscreen—another guy she knows, quiet, withdrawn Ky Markham—before being replaced with Xander. This happenstance starts Cassia wondering whether Ky could actually be her true Match. But Society always picks the perfect mates, and how could Society be wrong?

One of the nicest things about Matched is the worldbuilding, which feels very plausible. It's a scary dystopia because it's masquerading as a utopia, and nobody in the Cities recognizes how awful it is to have their freedoms so limited. Society has streamlined all cultural choices, and they've preserved exactly one hundred pieces of every type of art from the old days to be passed down to future generations—the Hundred Poems, Hundred Songs, Hundred Paintings, Hundred History Lessons, etc, as if no one would ever be able to learn more than that. Each citizen only learns their specific job without any access to outside information like the internet, so they're all interdependent and can't revolt. Marriage is not required and citizens can choose to be a Single, but they can only have children if they're Matched, and some people, like Ky, who are Aberrations, can never be Matched.

The romance between Cassia and Ky is a major focus of the story (Xander really doesn't have an equal amount of page time), but I couldn't quite see why she should pick him over Xander. They're both great guys without any serious personality flaws, though Xander's very book smart and orderly while Ky is poetic and artistic. The odd thing is, Ky only seems to be on Cassia's romantic radar because of the suggestion in her mind that the Society had selected him for her, but had to discount him as an Aberration. I think I'd like it better if he was a guy that she liked on her own, because her interest in him is still ultimately orchestrated by the Society, since Cassia has known Ky for seven years but she never notices his many charms until his image shows up on her screen. Initially, I couldn't see any reasons why Xander, who is brainy and thoughtful and always knows how to handle a situation, should take second place simply because Cassia knows him so well and he's not surprising. (But that's just me. When I watched the Disney movie Pocahontas and listened to her sing-complain about having to settle for “a handsome, sturdy husband who builds handsome, sturdy walls,” I was thinking, “What's so bad about sturdy walls?” Reliability is not a negative trait.)

In time, Ky grew on me—there's a lot of sadness to him, and he's very creative and smart. It's a wonderfully well-written story, with a sad fairytale kind of vibe, and it's worth a read for the worldbuilding alone. Grade: B+

Poetry bonus: Cassia's favorite poem is “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” a gorgeous villanelle by Dylan Thomas, also figures prominently in the story.

Matched by Ally Condie Review Posted by Tina

Matched by Ally Condie

November 2010 by Dutton Juvenile
Hardcover, 384 pages
Review Copy

Book Synopsis

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion..........(Goodreads)

Review posted by Tina at http://www.tinasbookreviews.com/

On Cassias 17th birthday she is excited and thrilled to be attending her matching ceremony. Opting to marry and have a family she will be matched to an unknown boy and begin the slow process of courting until her 21rst year. Cassia though is shocked when her mate appears on the screen and is revealed as her best friend Xander, a boy who she has grown up with. She's shocked but happy of course to have lucked out with someone she already loves, the two are pretty excited but nervous around each other for the first time, due to the fact that now as best friends they will turn towards something deeper. When Cassia views her match screen later in private a surprising twist arises as the face of another boy is shown, a face she knows as well...a boy who lives a quiet life among them...a boy named Ky.

Matched brings a whole new meaning to the term "Big Brother" in this new thrilling YA dystopian. The people are sucked into this society hook, line and sinker- while everything is taken care of right down to a disease free society, dark things are lurking underneath the surface. Reading Matched was like reading about a bunch of robots, we eat at a certain time, we read only this, we listen to only that, we do only this. It was interesting to see all of these people living what looked like the perfect life in the beginning of the novel, quickly though the reader can see the evil and utter domination this society is under. With each convenience the people had you could see the complete stripping of their freedoms. Each meal is delivered and perfectly rationed...your thinking great no cooking, but the government decides what they ate. Exercise was mandatory- you think great never getting fat.....but the government decided what exercises they would do and how fast and how long. They were giving the option to get married or stay single...great, freedom to choose a family.....BUT the government decides their mates for perfect genetics and DNA. This is what they called Matching and this is the society Cassia lives in, completely brainwashed and accepting of the way of life, its the only thing she knows and the only way she has ever lived. When the Ky wrench gets thrown at her, life literally turns upside down. She cant help but be curious about the match with Ky and curiosity leads to encounter and encounter leads to things she never had any intention of. Once the clock starts ticking though, Cassia cant stop events from unfolding and as she struggles to make sense of friendship and true love, the officials have other plans for all of them.

Ohhhhhhhh this was awesome, a very well paced thrilling ride of waiting to see what happens. I loved all the characters and the use of poetry, the simple desire of being able to write, something the society's people couldn't do I thought anchored the relationship between Cassia and Ky. He knew these simple things, something that highly attracted Cassia to him and also scared the officials. Imagine a poem being illegal, or a simple song being outlawed. I think Condie has got herself a winner here, one that will leave you excited at the end to read more and ask the question: How much control should the government have and how far are we willing to go in order for a perfect society?

Rating

Matched is a great dystopian story that can be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. I would suggest this for 8th grade and up. Contains: Violence, very mild sensuality (kissing, holding hands) and brainwashing.

3.5/4- YA- Dystopian

Blog with Bite December Titles: Dead Until Dark and Matched!

The votes are in and the books for December have been selected!  By a pretty clear margin, the books we'll be reading in December are:






BUT! With the holidays coming up, we've made the executive decision to adjust the due dates for reviews a little bit. For the month of December ONLY, reviews for both the adult and the YA selection will be accepted until Friday, December 31st. For ease of linkage, one Mr. Linky will be provided below for reviews of both titles.

Remember, reviews you've previously written for either of these titles are eligible for consideration for Top Reviewer as long as they have a Blog with Bite logo on them. Add a logo to an old review, link it up, and you're ahead of the game!

Happy holidays from everyone here at Blog with Bite, and here's to some great reading this month!

Vote for December's adult title and start a new series!

We're doing something a little different for the adult title for December here at Blog with Bite- instead of focusing on books that were just released or the latest installment in a series, we're going to kick back and give folks a chance to start a new series! To that end, we have SEVEN (yes, SEVEN) choices for this month's adult title, and it will be a short voting period so cast your votes early!  We'll being going back in time to where seven very different series began (we're talking full length novels here, not anthologies or novellas, just to be clear.)  Why not vote for the one you've been meaning to read and haven't gotten to yet? Or, if you'd like, vote for the one that you love love love and take the chance to spread your love of that series to other people! Everybody wins!

As always, pictures link to Amazon for easy purchasing and the descriptions are from Goodreads.  Happy holidays everyone!

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh- Nalini Singh dives into a world torn apart by a powerful race with phenomenal powers of the mind-and none of the heart.

Born a Psy, Sascha Duncan must hide the emotions which mark her as flawed. But a passionate Changeling will tempt her to reveal everything-and risk her very soul. 




A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole- A mythic warrior who'll stop at nothing to possess her . . .

After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy . . .

Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents -- until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae -- and their notorious dark desires -- ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.

An all-consuming desire . . .

Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be? 

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris- Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the kind of guy she's been waiting for all her life.

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire. Worse than that, hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind.

And when one of Sookie's colleagues is killed, she begins to fear she'll be next.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton- Introducing Anita Blake, vampire hunter extraordinaire. Most people don't even bat an eye at vampires since they've been given equal rights by the Supreme Court. But Anita knows better--she's seen their victims. . . . A serial killer is murdering vampires, however, and now the most powerful vampire in town wants Anita to find the killer. 




Moon Called by Patricia Briggs- Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself ... and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison- The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves—creatures of dreams and nightmares—has lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the "Inderlanders" reveal themselves, changing everything.

Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter with the Inderland Runner Services, is one of the best at apprehending supernatural lawbreakers throughout Cincinnati, but when it comes to following the rules, she falls desperately short. Determined to buck the system, she quits and takes off on the run with an I.S. contract on her head and is reluctantly forced to team up with Ivy, Inderland's best runner . . . and a living vampire. But this witch is way out of her league, and to clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful businessman/crime lord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death . . . not to mention her own roommate.

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward- The only purebred vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed - orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate - Wrath must usher the beautiful female into the world of the undead...

Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn't there, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of brotherhood and blood frighten her. But his touch ignites a dawning hunger that threatens to consume them both....

Vote for December's YA Title!

It's the most wonderful time of the year, which means that everyone, including yours truly, is running in about a million different directions at once.  With all the hullabaloo of the holidays upon us, the gang here at Blog with Bite hopes you'll take a second to vote on the young adult book that you personally want to read and review for December.  This will be a short round of voting so make sure to vote early! As always, link up your reviews here to get the word out. Images go to Amazon for easy purchasing, and descriptions are from Goodreads.  Happy holidays everyone!

Matched by Ally Condie- Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer- Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything— including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?


 Night Star by Alyson Noel- After fighting for centuries to be together, Ever and Damen’s future hinges on one final showdown that will leave readers gasping for breath. Don’t miss this explosive new installment of the #1 bestselling series that’s enchanted millions across the world!

Haven still blames Ever for the death of her boyfriend Roman, no matter how hard Ever’s tried to convince her it was an accident. Now she’s determined to take Ever down…and destroy Damen and Jude along the way. Her first step is to tear Ever and Damen apart—and she has just the ammunition to do it.

Hidden in one of Ever’s past lives is a terrible secret about Damen—a secret that illuminates new facts about her relationship with Jude, but that’s so dark and brutal it might be enough to drive her and Damen apart once and for all. As Ever faces her greatest fears about the guy she wants to spend eternity with, she’s thrust into a deadly clash with Haven that could destroy them all.

Now it’ll take everything she’s got—and bring out powers she never knew she had—to face down her most formidable enemy. But in order to win, she must first ask herself: is her own survival worth dooming Haven to an eternity of darkness in the Shadowland? And will learning the truth about Damen’s past hold the key to their future?

Pegasus by Robin McKinley- Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.
But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.
New York Times bestselling Robin McKinley weaves an unforgettable tale of unbreakable friendship, mythical creatures and courtly drama destined to become a classic.

Bitter Frost by Kailin Gow- All her life, Breena had always dreamed about fairies as though she lived among them...beautiful fairies living among mortals and living in Feyland. In her dreams, he was always there the breathtakingly handsome but dangerous Winter Prince, Kian, who is her intended. When Breena turns sixteen, she begins seeing fairies and other creatures mortals don t see. Her best friend Logan, suddenly acts very protective. Then she sees Kian, who seems intent on finding her and carrying her off to Feyland. That's fine and all, but for the fact that humans rarely survive a trip to Feyland, a kiss from a fairy generally means death to the human unless that human has fairy blood in them or is very strong, and although Kian seemed to be her intended, he seems to hate her and wants her dead.