Book Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: Body Finder #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: March 16 2010
My Source: Library
My Rating: 4/5

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


This book was a well written original story about a young girl who has a creepy ability to sense dead bodies. This was a suspenseful and sometimes a bit freaky book. I won't lie- there were moments that reading this book alone at night I got a little bit creeped out, but I do love it when a book can do that! The book is told in 3rd person, most of the time we only see Violet's mind, but occasionally, we see from the perspective of a certain serial killer. That is when the book gets creepy (in an awesome, suspenseful way). The reason for his killings is never really explained, but the viciousness and calculated murder plans are scary to read about. It makes me not want to walk outside alone in the dark. If you get scared easily and don't like stories with a darker edge to them, you might not like this book. I thought it was really well done though, wasn't TOO creepy, and it was actually a bit facinating. I like crime shows and stuff like that, and it definitely had an essence of something like that since they were solving murders.

The characters and the love story were really great. Violet was a good main character- she wasn't special or anything, she wouldn't make my list of top 10 characters, but she wasn't awful either. Jay, the best friend/love interest was great too. It was extremely refreshing to read a book that was urban fantasy but none of the characters were paranormal creatures (vampires, werewolves, angels...etc.)! Violet and Jay were just normal teenagers, and their romance was developed really well. I loved the fact that they were best friends all their life and the summer before their junior year started to realize they were in love with each other. Doesn't every girl wishes she had a guy friend like that sometimes? There were moments I thought it was a little rushed, and not realistic, because after being friends for that long I think there would have naturally been more awkward moments, but overall, it was mostly good.

I'm excited to read the next book in the series, but it didn't leave us with a cliffhanger ending, which I did appreciate for once. Cliffhangers can be great, but this story wrapped up really nicely. The next book is called Desires of the Dead and comes out in March of next year! I hope it's as good as this one.

Overall, I liked this book a lot! It wasn't quite special or unique enough for me to love it, but I still enjoyed reading it and I would recommend it to fans of typical YA literature!

*content warning: Characters bring up sexual content a couple of times, and there is some language, but it wasn't a lot.

Author Contest: Unraveled by Gena Showalter

Gena Showalter’s YA series, Intertwined, about sixteen-year-old Aden Stone, a paranormal magnet who has, well had, four souls trapped in his head, continues this fall with the release of UNRAVELED (Harlequin, September 2010). Now, Aden is down to three souls bossing him around, but along the way he’s picked up the title of Vampire King to add to his ever-growing list of worries (which includes a prophecy that says he’ll bite the dust after a knife through the heart). To celebrate UNRAVELED’s release, Gena and her YA buds are hosting a scavenger hunt on their blogs.

The all-star lineup of hunt participants includes authors Rachel Caine, PC Cast, Marley Gibson, Rosemary Clement-Moore and Tina Ferraro, as well as Gena, natch, and The Knight Agency blog. Three grand prize winners will each win a $100 Visa gift card, plus Gena's giving away signed copies of UNRAVELED to five lucky runner-ups. All you have to do is find all eight letters, unscramble them and email the word to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net. To find out where the letters are hiding in the great internet universe, click here for a contest road map and rules.
This contest runs from Monday, August 30th to Thursday, September 2nd. All entries must be received by Monday, September 6th at midnight ET.

This is a sweet author contest where the prize is 3 $100 visa gift cards! Or signed copies of the book! The scavenger hunt is pretty self explanatory, the link to the "official details" is here:
http://www.knightagency.net/unraveledhunt.html

Wondering what Unraveled is about? Here's the Goodreads description:

For once, sixteen-year-old Aden Stone has everything he’s ever wanted:

A home.

Friends.

The girl of his dreams.

Too bad he’s going to die...Since coming to Crossroads, Oklahoma, former outcast Aden Stone has been living the good life. Never mind that one of his best friends is a werewolf, his girlfriend is a vampire princess who hungers for his blood, and he’s supposed to be crowned Vampire King – while still a human! Well, kind of.

With four – oops, three now — human souls living inside his head, Aden has always been “different” himself. These souls can time travel, raise the dead, possess another’s mind, and, his least favorite these days, tell the future.

The forecast for Aden? A knife through the heart.

Because a war is brewing between the creatures of the dark, and Aden is somehow at the center of it all. But he isn’t about to lie down and accept his destiny without a fight. Not when his new friends have his back, not when Victoria has risked her own future to be with him, and not when he has a reason to live for the first time in his life...

Sounds awesome, I know! So what are you waiting for? The scavenger hunt starts today, so head on over to Rachel Caine and Gena Showalter's blogs to get the first letters!

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren (A great blog where my answer to a blogging question was featured in Backstage Blogging last week!).

This week has actually been very, very uninteresting for me. So much, I almost considered not doing an IMM post.

I only got 1 new book this week: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (see my review here).

I've been really cracking down on summer homework and getting ready for school that starts Monday, that I haven't had any free time this week! I haven't read much except Mockingjay, and I haven't had much time to do any blogging either. Hopefully next week, I'll have more time. Actually, all week I've been trying to finish my required reading for school. (Not the most fun thing ever!) I also did ban myself from going to the library, until I finish some of the books I already have checked out. Seriously, I have a stack of about 15 books checked out I haven't had time to get around to.

So, that's how my week has been. Pretty dull...though I am anticipating the release of Clockwork Angel next week! So excited!

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

**Contest Winner!**

My 100+ followers contest is over, and before I announce the winner, I want to let all of my followers know how much appreciate you! What would be the point of writing anything if no one was going to read it? I love checking out your blogs and having you read mine. So, thank you to all my followers! Unfortunately only one person can win the prize though. I had 25 different people enter with a total of 78 entries! Wow! I must say I'm amazed. Being my first contest, I had no clue if anyone would actually enter! Thank you all so much!

After using random.org, the winner of either Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast or Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz is...

Gina (entry 38)

Congratulations! I will be emailing you shortly. If you don't reply within 48 hours, the prize will go to someone else.

Once again, thank you all for entering!

Friday Blog Hop (and 1 more day to enter contest!)

The blog hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books.
Welcome to Book Infinity! I'm Ava, and if it's your first time here, leave a comment!

Just some news...
I'm currently have a 100+ followers giveaway going on. IT ENDS SATURDAY AT MIDNIGHT MST. If you haven't entered yet, go here to enter! You can win either Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz or Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast. You have today and tomorrow left to enter!

Now, about the blog hop. The question of the week:

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

My answer:
Yes, I use a rating system, from 1-5, with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. I actually recently updated my sidebar with a detailed explanation of what each rating means, so head over there and check it out if you're curious. It's not the most original idea (I've seen many other bloggers use the same kind of system) but it works really well for me. It's not perfect, of course, and sometimes I just can't decide what to rate a book, because one rating can't convey everything in the book. But that's why I also write detailed reviews!

Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins:

Series: The Hunger Games #3

Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.

Release Date: August 24 2010

My Source: Bought
My Rating: 5/5

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

I'm not going to say too much this book, because I don't want to give even a little detail away. But all I'll say is that you have to read this. Seriously. It's breathtaking. All the characters are so insane and it's so unpredictable and I don't even know what to make of it.

It varies a lot from the feel of the first two books in the series. After Katniss and the other characters have been through, they change a lot. The death toll is just as high as in the Hunger Games, but the emotions of the characters are so different. I'll say one thing and really, this isn't giving anything away: I think all the arguments we've made about Team Gale vs. Team Peeta, or how the book is going to end in our opinion, nothing makes sense anymore when I look back on it. None of that is relevant by the end of Mockingjay. I'm not giving anything away! I promise!

The ending was fantastic, not how anybody wished, but it made sense and it wrapped up the series.

I couldn't put this book down, because I absolutely had to know how it ended! I was so into it. Seriously, if you haven't read it yet, go do it!

HG Week: Mockingjay is Here!

So, ignore my last post. Sorry, I was being a little whiny and complaining a bit. Anyway, my day has suddenly become amazing! I went to the bookstore and they let me pick up my copy of Mockingjay! In fact, I don't really want to be typing this post, I just want to sit down and start reading.

So, if there's not posts on my blog for the next day or two, I'm busy reading!

I hope we all enjoy Mockingjay as much as we anticipate it!

.

Yes, this is a picture of me with my newest prized possesion. It's an awful picture of me, but I couldn't resist posting it. Too much excitement!

My Current Frustration...And A Question?

I really have to post about this, because it's bugging me. Really badly!
So, I pre-ordered Mockingjay a few months ago. Well, it's not here yet, and the temptation to run out to the store and buy it is almost killing me!
My question is: I've never pre-ordered a book before, how long do they take to come in? Will it ship today and I'll get it in a few days, or has it already been shipped and it will arrive today?
Thank you for your replies! If anyone is actually blogging today...I hope you're not all sitting reading Mockingjay. I'm so jealous! Haha. Does anyone else share my frustration?

HG Week: Team Gale, Peeta, or Katniss?

With all the excitement surrounding Mockingjay, I've seen a lot of posts around the blogosphere that support either Team Peeta, Team Gale, or Team Katniss. I think the idea originally started with Twilight, as people started saying Team Edward or Team Jacob. I was never really into either side of that, because I always felt it was obvious she was and would always be with Edward. With The Hunger Games, it's not quite as obvious, and I think there are valid arguments for each side. In this post I will attempt to examine the 2 (or 3) sides, and give my conclusion.

***WARNING: This post contains spoilers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (but not for Mockingjay, of course). If you haven't read either of the first two books, stop reading, and go to the nearest bookstore and buy them, and read them now!***

Team Peeta: Team Peeta suggests that Katniss should be with Peeta, who has been in love with her since she was 5 years old, and has been with her through The Hunger Games twice, and cares for her a lot and wants to be with her. I am not Team Peeta, I'll explain why later.

Team Gale: Gale has been Katniss's best friend since they were 12 and both of their dads died in a mining explosion. They've survived and fed their families together and become best friends, but neither admited they had feelings for each other until after the Games. Gale rocks...umm, I'll explain that later too.
Team Katniss: I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Katniss is one of the coolest, best heroines ever written. I mean seriously, this girl kicks butt. Team Katniss basically states that you support Katniss in whatever decision she makes, because whoever she chooses, she's cool enough to make it an awesome choice, and she wouldn't choose anyone without a good reason.


My Opinion:
So, I'll just say it. I'm Team Gale, though I fully support Team Katniss also.

In Catching Fire, Katniss is terrified that her future might have to be spent with Peeta. She doesn't want to marry him and live with him the rest of her life. So instead, she makes a plan to run away with Gale. Once Gale hears of the rebellion, he doesn't want to leave, he wants to help fight the Capitol.

So Katniss's decision is this: Choose Peeta, turning into the Capitol's puppet and eventually conforming to the false person she's pretending to be for them, or choose Gale, and be part of the rebellion to overthrow the Capitol. I'm not saying if she chose Peeta she wouldn't be able to be part of the rebellion, but I'm just saying if she chose Peeta, there really wouldn't be need for the rebellion. Imagine in the beginning, if there was no Gale and she was truly in love with Peeta during the whole first Hunger Games. All of the tension in Catching Fire would be gone, she wouldn't have sparked a rebellion. This is why Team Peeta cannot happen! It won't work!

I really hope that argument makes sense to anybody else! It makes sense in my head, but my head is a jumbled up place sometimes. :)

That's not all, though! There is more. One of my favorite things about this book is that Katniss does not spend a lot of time thinking about Gale or Peeta, and which one she should choose, or obsessing over either one of them, as happens a lot in other young adult series. No, she's too busy fighting for her life! If she did suddenly decide she really wants to be with Gale and started obsessing over him, I would probably start hating him (and her). Katniss is just so cool, that I fully support Team Katniss. I know if she did choose Peeta, or she ended up on her own, it would work out fine. I trust her!

Earlier I mentioned that I connect Katniss choosing Gale with choosing the rebellion. You don't agree? I was reading Catching Fire today and I think this part totally proves that. (The first part also proves how strong of feelings Katniss really has for Gale! She doesn't feel this way at all about Peeta!) This is actually probably one of my favorite parts of the whole series, because she decides she truly loves Gale, and that she truly wants to be part of the rebellion, so I have to share it.

For the first time, I reverse our positions in my head. I imagine Gale volunteering to save Rory in the reaping, having him torn from my life, becoming some strange girl's lover to stay alive, and then coming home with her. Living next to her. Promising to marry her.
The hatred I feel for him, for the phantom girl, for everything, is so real and immediate that it chokes me. Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable. Why did it take him being whipped within an inch of his life to see it?
Because I'm selfish. I'm a coward. I'm the kind of girl who, when she might actually be of use, would run to stay alive and leave those who couldn't follow to suffer and die. This is the girl Gale met in the woods today.
No wonder I won the Games. No decent person ever does.
You saved Peeta, I think weakly.
But now I question even that. I knew good and well that my life back in District 12 would be unlivable if I let that boy die.
I rest my head forward on the edge of the table, overcome with loathing for myself. Wishing I had died in the arena. Wishing Seneca Crane had blown me to bits the way President Snow said he should have when I held out the berries.
The berries. I realize the answer to who I am lies in that handful of poisonous fruit. If I held them out to save Peeta because I knew I would be shunned if I came back without him, then I am despicable. If I held them out because I loved him, I am still self-centered, although forgivable. But if I held them out to defy the Capitol, I am someone of worth. The trouble is, I don't know exactly what was going on inside me at that moment.
Could it be the people in the districts are right? That it was an act of rebellion, even if it was an unconscious one? Because, deep down, I must know it isn't enough to keep myself, or my family, or my friends alive by running away. Even if I could. It wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't stop people from being hurt the way Gale was today.
Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it. Well, it's not hard for Gale. He was born a rebel. I'm the one making an escape plan.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper. I lean forward and kiss him.
His eyelashes flutter and he looks at me through a haze of opiates. "Hey, Catnip."
"Hey, Gale," I say.
"Thought you'd be gone by now," he says.
My choices are simple. I can die liek quarry in the woods or I can die here beside Gale. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay right here and cause all kinds of trouble."
"Me, too," Gale says. He just manages a smile before the drugs pull him back under.
Catching Fire, pg. 117-119

Awesome scene. Love it so much!

One more great quote (a lot shorter one, haha):

I have chosen Gale and the rebellion, and a future with Peeta is the Capitol's design, not mine.
Catching Fire, pg. 121

There are a lot more great Team Gale quotes (Danielle at Every Last Page has a great list!) Just reading those would make me want to switch to Team Gale. Unfortunately, the Capitol seems to be foiling all the rebellion/Team Gale plans when they send Katniss and Peeta into the Hunger Games again! But I know in Mockingjay we'll see some great continuing of the story, and my fingers are crossed for Katniss and Gale.

My Personal Mockinjay Prediction: Because of everything I said earlier, my personal guess is that Katniss will end up with Gale, and not choose Peeta, because choosing Peeta would be following what the Capitol wants, not who she really is. I wouldn't be surprised if Peeta ended up sacrificing himself to save her. In spite of everything, I still really like Peeta and hope he does get a happy ending even if not with Katniss, but I don't think everyone in Mockingjay will get a happy ending. Just my personal opinion though. Who knows what twists might happen...

Now I want feedback! What are your opinions on anything I mentioned?

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

The idea behind IMM was not only to put new books on your radar but to also encourage blogger interaction. IMM explores the weekly contents of my mailbox & books bought. And sometimes other fun goodies.
Anyone can participate in IMM and you are not limited to only sharing books that arrive via your mailbox. You can also share books that you've bought or books that you've gotten at the library.

I had a great week this week! I got a book from the first contest I ever won, plus, I got my first ARC! Super excited about this week! :) Plus, as always, I got a few great books from the library. I actually have pictures this week too!

Books I won:
The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong (signed!)
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers (ARC)

Thanks to:
Sarah @ That Bookish Girl
Goodreads

From the library:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

HG Week: Mockingjay Fan-Made Videos

Mockingjay releases in 2 days! Wow! I can't wait! I've been a bit behind on my Hunger Games posts because I'm doing a 100 followers contest! (If you haven't entered yet, click here!)

Today, I wanted to share a view videos I found on YouTube and I thought they were pretty sweet!

The first one is a Mockingjay trailer. I liked the video, then was super excited when I realized the girl who plays Katniss in the video is Kaya Scodelario. (If you didn't see my earlier post, I think she looks like the perfect Katniss! Even though in this video I think she has too much eyeliner.)

This video actually pertains the the first book in the series, but basically, it's a preview for the Hunger Games from the Capitol's point of view, so a lot of the names/ages of the tributes are made up, but it's still a really cool video!

If I find more videos, I'll share them later, but I really liked these two!

100 Followers Vampire Series Giveaway!

In honor of reaching 100 followers (Thank you so much! I love and appreciate all my followers!), I will be holding my first giveaway! It's not the coolest giveaway out there, but I want to do something for my followers to let them know I appreciate them. :)

I will be giving away one of two books. They are both the first book in some pretty awesome vampire series.

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz
Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast

If there is enough interest in the contest I will make both available, but for now, the winner will choose one of the two. Also, if there is a lot of interest, I may add more prizes! But for now, that's all.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. You must be a follower to enter this contest. After all, it is a 100 follower giveaway!
2. You may enter up to 6 times for old followers, 5 times for new followers. Do not fill out the form more than once!
3. This is not a comment contest. Feel free to leave a comment but they will not count as entries.
4. "Extra Entries" means promoting this contest in any way. You can tweet, mention it in a blog post, or anything else. Feel free to do as many as you would like, but you will only get credit for doing it once. (For example, 1 tweet is worth 3 entries, but if you tweet and write a blog post, you still only get 3 entries.)

**Update: I forgot to add, this is not international. I don't have that much money! Sorry!**

This contest ends in one week, Saturday August 28!

Thank you all for participating!

Doing the Blog Hop Again!

The blog hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books. After taking a little break, I've decided to participate in the blogger hop again today. My reason? I have 2 more followers until 100, and when I reach 100 followerers I will announce a contest! My goal was to announce that contest today, and since that hasn't happened, I hope it will by the end of the day. I only need 2 more followers as of right now! I can't wait to announce the contest!

If this is your first time at Book Infinity, welcome! My name is Ava and I read mostly Young Adult fiction. Thanks for stopping by and leave your link so I can check out your blog too!

I also want to mention the other thing that's going on at Book Infinity is The Hunger Games Week. All week I'm posting things about The Hunger Games as a lead up to the release of Mockingjay on August 23rd! You can check out my dream cast here, and today I have a plan of something else I'm going to post a little later, so check back if you're interested!

The question for the blog hop today is:

How many blogs do you follow?

My answer:

Currently, as I write this, I follow 162 blogs! I don't follow all of them as accurately as I would like, but some of them I'm definitely a real "follower" to (I go by regularly, leave meaningful comments, etc.).

Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Title: Fallen
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: Fallen #1
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: December 8 2009
My Source: Library
My Rating: 3/5

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.
Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

I'm not really sure where to start when reviewing this. There's not a whole lot I really liked about this book, but I don't want to give it an extremely negative review because it wasn't that bad either. It kept me mildly entertained, even though it took me forever to get through it and towards the end I did have to force myself to finish it. Fallen follows the typical pattern in young adult paranormal romance books, which is sometimes pulled off very well and sometimes very poorly. It's about angels, which even though it's currently a very popular theme for paranormal books, it seemed new to me since I haven't really been interested in anything involving angels before (expect The Mortal Instruments series, but that was WAY different).
There are really two main things that bugged me when I was reading this book. The first is Luce. (the main character). Luce didn't know anything that was going on...the whole book. She always was so clueless to the plot, and therefore the reader was clueless too. The end of the book didn't wrap it up well, she is still totally in the dark about nearly everything in her life. I was waiting for a big "revelation" from Daniel, but it really never came. Her character was really weak too, it seemed like she accepted the fact that she didn't really know anything about her life way too easily. If it were me, I would've bugged Daniel for way more answers! The romance was shallow, she spent almost the whole book obsessing over Daniel for absolutely no reason that she or the reader knew, even though she hardly talked to him. The obsession got annoying to read about. Daniel was such a shallow character too. By the end of the book we still hardly know anything about him.
The second thing about this book was that it was so predictable. It followed the pattern of so many other young adult books that I felt like I've read this story before. Halfway through the book I had guessed all the plot twists of the end- who was secretly evil, and who was really on Luce's side. There was no suspense for me. And guess what? I was right.
I had to give this a decent rating because the cover is stunning, and it did leave me with enough desire to read the sequel Torment. If I read that book and Luce still hardly finds out anything about her life and the characters are still flat, I will have no desire to continue in this series.
In conclusion, there was a lot I didn't like about this book, but for it's genre, young adult paranormal romance, it fit perfectly, so I didn't dislike it either. It was predictable, but not awful, and I am a little curious to see more.

Waiting on Wednesday: Torment by Lauren Kate

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick for this week is Torment by Lauren Kate. The release date is September 28 2010 (soon!).

How many lives do you need to live before you find someone worth dying for? In the aftermath of what happened at Sword & Cross, Luce has been hidden away by her cursed angelic boyfriend, Daniel, in a new school filled with Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Daniel promises she will be safe here, protected from those who would kill her. At the school Luce discovers what the Shadows that have followed her all her life mean - and how to manipulate them to see into her other lives. Yet the more Luce learns about herself, the more she realizes that the past is her only key to unlocking her future...and that Daniel hasn't told her everything. What if his version of the past isn't actually the way things happened...what if Luce was really meant to be with someone else?

Okay, I'm being honest here. The reason I even am interested in this series is because of the amazing covers. Seriously, that's just gorgeous. Fallen had a wicked awesome cover too. Even though that book was just so-so for me, I'm still looking forward to Torment to see where this series goes next. (I promise I will have the review of Fallen up tomorrow! I've just been procrastinating it!)

What is your Waiting on Wednesday pick?

HG Week: Day 2- The Perfect Hunger Games Movie Cast

This my ideal Hunger Games cast if it were ever to be made into a movie. I know there is a movie in the works, and I am hoping to see it get made even though I know it will never be as good as the books. This is purely my own thoughts and just for fun! I know everyone has different opinions, and I'm happy to hear others.

I prefer unknown to play the main characters, but since we obviously can't make fan-made casts of unknowns, these are all pretty well-known actors. Not my first choice, but this is just for fun.

Please don't leave any rude comments if you don't agree with my choices, but feel free to tell me what you think about them and leave your own suggestions!

Katniss Everdeen: Kaya Scodelario
Films She's In: Moon, Clash of the Titans


She's not my "dream pick" for Katniss, but she's the best I could find. I've never seen her act though.

Gale Hawthorne: Nicholas Hoult
Films He's In: Clash of the Titans, X-Men: First Class




"He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes." (Hunger Games pg8)

Once again, I've never seen him act, but I think he totally looks the part. He could tan a little, but he has the perfect hair and really good looks!

Peeta Mellark: William Moseley
Films He's In: The Chronicles of Narnia series





"Medium height, stocky build, ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead." (Hunger Games pg 25)

I loved him in Chronicles of Narnia, and when I read the Hunger Games I couldn't get him out of my head for Peeta. Another popular suggestion I've heard is Alex Pettyfer, who would be completely awesome too. I'm actually kind of torn between the two.

Haymitch: Robert Downey Jr.
Films He's In: Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes

He's a popular pick for Haymitch, and I have to agree. Haymitch is the one role who I think needs to be humorous, to give relief to the tension in the rest of the story. Robert Downey Jr. could bring a lot of humor to the role and he's also a brilliant actor. He would also be a "big name" that would draw a lot of viewers who aren't familiar with the books.

Primrose Everdeen: Elle Fanning
Films She's In: Astro Boy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


She's perfect for Prim. She's so sweet and innocent looking, and has the blonde hair and delicate looks. I was concerned that she was a little young, but I found out she's 12- the exact age as Prim! How much perfect could it get?

Mrs. Everdeen: Jodie Foster
Films She's In: Flightplan, Nim's Island


I saw her in Flightplan and I thought she would be a perfect Mrs. Everdeen. She's a great actor and can look frazzled and worried, and also convey the depth of emotion from never getting over her lost husband. If this was a real movie, they would probably have someone that's less of a big name play Mrs. Everdeen, but I think Jodie Foster would be great.

Cinna: Hugh Dancy
Films He's In: Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Jane Austen Book Club



"I'm taken aback by how normal he looks...Cinna's close-cropped hair appears to be its natural shade of brown. The only concession to self-alteration seems to be metallic gold eyeliner that has been applied with a light hand...I can't help thinking how attractive it looks." (Hunger Games pg 63)

I love Hugh Dancy, who doesn't? He's got amazing looks, and I can totally see him as a hairstylist who also becomes Katniss's friend.


Effie Trinket: Kristin Chenoweth
Films She's In: Guest spot on Glee, Four Christmases



"fresh from the Capitol with her scary white grin, pinkish hiar, and spring green suit" (Hunger Games pg18)

She has a great funny personality and her voice would be absolutely perfect for Effie!

President Snow: Michael Des Barres
Film's He's In: Catch That Kid



"small, white-haired, snakelike eyes" (Catching Fire, pg 17)

My sister suggested him to me after watching Catch That Kid and I agree, he's creepy and powerful looking. I always imagined President Snow younger looking while reading the books, but when I went back through Catching Fire I realized he is probably older.

Madge: Ellen Page

Films She's In: Inception, Whip It, Juno

Like Mrs. Everdeen, Madge would probably be played by a less popular actress, but if I could pick anyone, I would say Ellen Page. She's a great actress and would be great for Madge, even though I think there are actually a lot of actresses that could play Madge, I just really like Ellen Page.

Rue: Rubina Ali
What She's In: Slumdog Millionaire, Bollywood Hero



I always imagined the district 11 tributes (Rue and Thresh) to look Indian, and this girl immeadietly came to mind. She's adorable and you can easily see why Katniss befriended her.

Portia: Hilary Swank

Films She's In: Amelia, P.S. I Love You

Once again, a role that might be played by a lesser known actress, but I think Hilary Swank and Hugh Dancy would make a great pair of stylists!

These are just a few of the characters and my favorite picks. I might do another post with my picks for the tributes (from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). And, if there's any major characters I forgot about, be sure to comment and let me know and I'll add them! I hope I didn't miss anyone. I would love to hear what you think about my choices!

HG Week: Day 1 and Contest News!

Mockingjay Countdown: 7 DAYS

For the first day of the Hunger Games week, I don't have a whole ton of stuff to say yet, but I just started reading The Hunger Games again, and I must say it's as good as I remember, if not even better!


Also, some other very important newsm is that at the end of this week, if I have 100 followers, I will be holding a 100 follower giveaway contest! It'll be my first contest, and I don't have a ton of money, so don't expect it to be mind-blowing amazing or anything, but it's still a great opportunity to win free stuff! I'm really excited about it, and I hope everyone else is too. More details (including announcement of prizes) coming later this week! That is, if I have 100 followers. If I don't the contest might be put on hold, so tell all your friends to come over to Book Infinity and join my wonderful group of followers! I appreciate you all so much and I love your comments, so I want to do something nice back!

I just finished Fallen, so I'm super behind on all my reading, since last week I was on vacation and had absolutely zero time to read. I'll be posting a review of Fallen soon, and hopefully have more time to catch up on my reading after finishing the Hunger Games books.

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

The idea behind IMM was not only to put new books on your radar but to also encourage blogger interaction. IMM explores the weekly contents of my mailbox & books bought. And sometimes other fun goodies.

Anyone can participate in IMM and you are not limited to only sharing books that arrive via your mailbox. You can also share books that you've bought or books that you've gotten at the library.

This week, I actually got books that arrived via my mailbox! Just two books I ordered really cheap online, but it's always still exciting to get books on your doorstep.

Bought:

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

The Summoning by Kelley Armstong

(I've already read A Great and Terrible Beauty but I bought it because I own the second two and I wanted to complete the set!)

Library:

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

What did everyone else get in their mailboxes this week?

The Hunger Games Week!

Mockingjay comes out in…9 DAYS!!! I know myself, and many other fellow crazy book people aka BLOGGERS can’t wait! I’ve already pre-ordered it, so let’s hope it actually comes on time!
In celebration of the release of Mockingjay, I’m going to have a personal Hunger Games week! Okay, it’s not as exciting as it sounds. Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to re-read both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (I can’t believe I own them both and have only read somewhat related to the HG. (It might be anything, so look out!)

If you absolutely hate The Hunger Games (don't tell me because I might have to hunt you down...haha just kidding:)) you don’t have to avoid my blog, I’ll be posting the usual non-Hunger-Games related stuff too. I just thought I’d give everyone a heads up to what will be going on here at Book Infinity.

Did I mention I'm super excited about Mockingjay? Oh yeah, I probably did. (sarcasm...) I should just shut up about it. But I’ve been waiting for this book for a year now! (Catching Fire came out in late August too and of course I read it right away!) Well, I hope everyone else is just as excited as I am. And come back to here to see what new HG related posts I do this week!

(P.S. I'm not normally this hyper, Mockingjay, though, breaks all my rules.)

Waiting on Wednesday: Matched by Ally Condie

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine! It spotlights a new book release we're anticipating.





This week, I can't wait for Matched by Ally Condie!

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.

Dystopian fiction is probably one of my favorite genres to read about, especially if there's a good romance involved too! This book sounds like it's going to be great and I've read some great reviews. I'm dying to get my hands on this one and see what it's like!

In My Mailbox (2)

I just got back from a 3 day camping trip (and I'm leaving for a week tomorrow), so I haven't got any books in the past three days, but I got a couple before that, so I'll share those (which is still a lot, surprisingly, though not too surprisingly because we know I love to get books!). I also ordered a couple of books online, but they're not in yet so I'll share them when they come in next week!

From the Library:

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker (see my review here)

Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman

Bought from the used book store:

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde

(I've actually already read both of these but they were super cheap and I love them so I had to add them to my collection. :))

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else got in the mailboxes, libraries, bookstores, etc!

Book Review: A Match Made In High School by Kristin Walker

Title: A Match Made In High School

Author: Kristin Walker

Series: none

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: Febuary 4 2010

My Source: Library

My Rating: 3/5

When the principal announces that every senior must participate in a mandatory year-long Marriage Education program, Fiona Sheehan believes that her life can’t get any worse. Then she marries her “husband”: Jerky jock Todd, whose cheerleader girlfriend, Amanda, has had it in for Fiona since day one of second grade. Even worse? Amanda is paired with Fiona’s long-term crush, Gabe. At least Fiona is doing better than her best friend, Marcie, who is paired up with the very quiet, very mysterious Johnny Mercer. Pranks, fights, misunderstandings, and reconciliations ensue in an almost Shakespearean comedy of errors about mistaken first impressions, convoluted coupling, and hidden crushes.

The premise of this book is that the principal decides that all the seniors in East Columbus high school have to participate in marriage education, where they are randomly paired with another student and have to "pretend" they're married. They have to do a job together, and make real world money, then multiple it to be their household income. They choose what kind of house and luxuries they want and try to budget their money. As is obvious from the description, everyone gets paired up with the most unlikely people, and many results follower. I thought the marriage "match up" sounded creative and funny. When I heard of this book, I immeadietly thought about how awful and funny something like that would be at my own high school, and so I really wanted to read this book.

The main character, Fiona, I found to be annoying but at the same time I admired her a bit. She didn't care what anybody thought about her appearance or behavior. She was unpopular, but she got paired with a popular jock, Todd. Their "relationship" and feuding was very interesting and I enjoyed reading about it. Fiona was extremely obnoxious and loud, and some of her actions and thoughts drove me a bit crazy sometimes. I found it hard to relate to her. I didn't like her character too much. All the characters were all typical high school stereotypes. Fiona is the girl who doesn't care what others think, Todd is the popular jock, Amanda is his popular girlfriend, Johnny is this mysterious guy who turns out to be really cool, and Gabe is the hot guy who Fiona is obsessed with then realizes he's not that great in the first place. Not the most original characters, but at the same time they did develop (to some degree).

I did enjoy reading this, it was fun light entertainment, but I could recommend other books that I would describe that way that I liked a lot better. The characters in this book weren't that great, even though I loved the plot idea.

Overall, there were things I liked and things I didn't, but I would still recommend it if you like stories set in high school!

On Vacation!

Hey everyone, just letting you know I'm on vacation from now until August 14th!

I know what you're thinking, another vacation break for her! Fortunately, I know how to time posts now, so you'll still see a few updates, but if I'm not responding to comments or emails, that's why. There also won’t be all of my regular memes, such as It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? (though I will post a Waiting On Wednesday).

I'm going to be camping with NO INTERNET for a week and a half! I leave Thursday morning for one trip, then I get back Saturday night and leave again for another trip Sunday afternoon, through the next Saturday evening. So, if you were following all that, you'll notice I have a gap I'll actually BE HOME (super happy about that :)) for a time gap between Saturday and Sunday. I will be posting an In My Mailbox post Saturday evening! And I'll be checking emails, replying, etc. But after that, it's no more contact with the online world until Saturday August 14th. Sorry if I'm not replying or anything!

Have a great end of summer everyone! Enjoy the vacations while you can!

Waiting on Wednesday: Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm excited for Halo by Alexandra Adornetto.

Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Venus Cove. But everything changes when three angels are sent from heaven to protect the town against the gathering forces of darkness: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. They work hard to conceal their true identity and, most of all, their wings. But the mission is threatened when the youngest angel, Bethany, is sent to high school and falls in love with the handsome school captain, Xavier Woods. Will she defy the laws of Heaven by loving him? Things come to a head when the angels realize they are not the only supernatural power in Venus Cove. There′s a new kid in town and he′s charming, seductive and deadly. Worst of all, he′s after Beth.

Isn't that cover stunning? I love it! And from the summary, it looks intriging. Angels are getting pretty popular in YA books, but I'm excited to read this one!

What's your pick this week?