2013 Quarterly Challenge Update Post #2

We're half way through the year! Is it just me, or did that go really fast? Before we know it, it'll be 2014 :O

This year I'm partipating in five reading challenges. So far I've managed the following...

                             20/30 read for the OTS Challenge
                             23/30 read for the ODY Challenge
                                     7/10 read for the EBC
                              9/12 read for the GVR Challenge
                            17/20+ read for the BSR Challenge

Just like the first three months of the year, I think my progress these past three months has been good. I've no doubt that I'll finish my challenges by the end of the year - and it won't be a mad rush like it was last year! 

Here's a list of the books I've read over the past three months, and which challenges they count for: 

15. The Host by Stephenie Meyer OTS, ODY, EBC, BSR
16. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks OTS, ODY, EBC
17. Insurgent by Veronica Roth OTS, ODY, BSR
18. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart  OTS, ODY, EBC, BSR
19. The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes ODY, GVR
20. Splintered by A.G. Howard ODY, BSR
21. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl OTS, ODY, BSR
22. Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs OTS, ODY, EBC, BSR
23. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake OTS, ODY, BSR

Wishlist Wednesday (8)

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly Meme hosted at Pen to Paper

This week I'm wishing for...

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Summary from Amazon:
"They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie." 

Why I'm Wishing for It:
I've heard amazing things about this series for agessss now, and finally I decided to order the book online. Now I'm just patiently waiting for its arrival. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as everyone else has!

What about you? What are you wishing for this week?

Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake
Release Date: 30th August 201

Publisher: Tor Teen Books
Format: Paperback 
Pages: 316
Rating: 4.0/5.0

This book was read as part of the 2013 OTS, 2013 ODY and 2013 BSR

Summary from Amazon:

"Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life."

Review:
It has been quite some time now since I read this book - a couple of weeks in fact. But I still remember what happens, and what I liked...and didn't like so much. So our story centres on Cas, at 16-ish (I can't remember what his actual age is) boy who happens to hunt down murderous ghosts. One day he is told about Anna, who will prove to be the most challenge - not just because she is insanely powerful, but because Cas and Anna develop a connection.

Ok, so going into this book, I was excited to read about the murderous ghosts. This is what first piqued my interest in the novel - everything I had heard and read about the novel told me that this was a YA horror book, and the opening scene had me convinced that I was in for some good killings. And don't get me wrong, there were killings in there. And the story of how Anna became such a murderous monster in the first place was quite intriguing. I wanted to know how Anna died, and storyline was so tragic and interesting. These parts I enjoyed.

And then comes the love aspect. I guess I should have seen it coming. Anna does spare his life, even though she's compelled to kill every person who enters her home. And my novel does say this is a 'boy-meets-girl' story, but I was still surprised when it came up. It just seems so damn ridiculous to me. She's a ghost Cas - she's dead. You can't be with her, she's dead. Did I mention that she's dead. Plus, have you not made it your mission in life to hunt and kill these ghosts because of what happened to your father? You have a pretty good reason to hate all ghosts. You shouldn't have been having nice little conversations with Anna, you should have been fighting her!

I guess I was just expecting more killing and gore. There was enough to keep me satisfied, but I just felt that a romance got in the way and really wasn't needed. Regardless, this was a book I enjoyed - it had interesting (and funny) characters, some solid plot points, and everything went down in an interesting way.

Blogging Hiatus

So you may have noticed that I haven't really been posting lately. The uni semester is drawing to a close, which means that over the past few weeks I've had a crazy amount of uni work to do - assignments, tests, lab reports - all the things I need to get done before semester ends. And now that that's all done, exams are starting next week. Which means there's going to be a lot less activity on the blog, since I'll now be spending my time reading text books as opposed to novel. Isn't studying for exams such fun?

Suffice to say that posts will come every now and then, but I won't be sticking to a schedule, and there really won't be that many. I still have my review to write for Anna Dressed in Blood, which I finished a week ago but still haven't reviewed yet. And I'm sure that there will be points where study just isn't happening, so maybe I'll do some posting then. I won't be reading over the next couple of weeks or so, but after my last exam on the 25th June, I'll be jumping right back into reading and blogging.