Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Challenge 6, Waiting on Wednesday, & Update

Hey guys! It's day 3 of Once Upon a Read-a-Thon, and I needed to do a post for the last challenge! So I figured I'd attempt to cram my non-book review posts for the day into one!

For the last challenge, The Reader Bee asked us to tell her our most anticipated book of 2012. So, I thought this could also count as today's Waiting on Wedesday!(?)

(Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we book bloggers talk about upcoming releases we are excited for.)

Alright, without further ado, I chose:

The Evolution of Mara Dyer

By: Michelle Hodkin

Publication date: October 23, 2012

The truth about Mara Dyer's dangerous and mysterious abilities continues to unravel in this gripping sequel to the thrilling "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer." One week after Mara walked into a police station in Miami at the close of "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer," she has been committed to psychiatric treatment for what her parents believe was a mental breakdown. But what seems like a hallucination to everyone else is a chilling reality for Mara. Someone from her past has discovered her strange, deeply disturbing secret and that someone wants her to pay. But when no one believes the truth, Mara is totally helpless. The only person on her side is Noah Shaw, as sexy and handsome as he is loyal and cunning. Noah is the only person who can help Mara--as long as he doesn't get himself killed in the process.

I'm so incredibly excited for this book, it's painful. I mean, the ending of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was just plain cruel, and I need to know what happens next for Mara and Noah!!! And the cover is ridiculously gorgeous. This is definitely one of those books I'll buy the second it's available on my Nook and skip whatever AP homework I'll have to do that night. I mean, seriously, I need this book.

Ok (excited) book rant over. Time for a progress update! Since I last updated you guys, I have

• Finished Almost to Die For, but I'm not gonna review it, because I just didn't really like it...
• Finished Shatter Me, which I am about to review because it is amazing.
• Finished 2 challenges. (Today's 1st challenge can be found here:  http://magnet4books.blogspot.com/

So... yeah. That puts me at four books down, one more to go! If you guys'll hang tight, I'll have a review out for Shatter Me in a few. 

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Partials

Hey guys! I finished Partials just a second ago, so I've got two books down and three left. Next I think I'm going to read either Almost to Die For or Babe in Boyland. I have yet to decide! (I wouldn't mind a suggestion or two on which I should read first) Now, it's review time!

Partials (Partials #1)

Dan Wells

Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.

Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.

Uhm.. yeah... that was... intense. Geez. There was a lot of law-breaking and science and then some crazy plot twists that left me speechless (not that I was talking, 'cause you know I was reading, but come on it's a figure of speech).

So, here's the low-down: There's another species of human called the partials. They currently outnumber the normal people by a lot. The normal(ish) people live together in one community, where they are failing to reproduce and enacting a lot of laws to try and fix it. So, Kira (our heroine) has a severe hero-complex and feels that she can do something. And thus we have our plot- a lot of Kira trying to do something to save the human race. Most of what she does is illegal, but she has friends to help out and make it all ok. She did usually have very good instincts, I must say. There was a lot of action and fighting and arguing with the government, and it was exciting! I loved the way Kira tried to do the right thing constantly, and never let anyone deter her. It was fantastic. And then there are some very shocking plot twists that nobody sees coming that make everything so very interesting. Loved it.

And then there were the characters. I genuinely liked Kira, but I gotta say, Marcus was definitely my favorite. I read a lot of the things he said out loud to my mom, like:

"Anyone can see that he's bad," said Marcus, speaking calmly, "but we've splinted it, we've wrapped it, and I can drug him so hard he'll think he's flying home on a magical gumdrop rainbow. You could get high off his farts."

That may be a sign of exactly how mature I am, but I just found that particular quote hilarious. That may be lack of sleep though.... Anyways, I liked Marcus because he was hilarious when the situation called for it, and serious when he needed to be. He was just a really good guy. He and Kira were dating, and I can understand her reasoning, if you know what I mean. And back to Kira. I liked her a lot. She made an awesome heroine, because she just wanted to save everybody. She couldn't handle that the babies were dying, especially since she worked in Maternity at the hospital. I loved that she constantly had a plan to do something. It was great. She had three girlfriends, Madison, Xochi, and Isolde, but Xochi was my favorite. She was kind of a whirlwind of sarcastic quips, music, and awesome. I dunno. She was just awesome. Madison has a brother, Jayden, and I really liked him, too. Overall, the characters were really cool.

The cover is gorgeous, and I love how well it fits with the story. I just... yeah. I can't think of any better reason for why I love it.

My only problem with the book, though, was that some of the really sciencey parts were difficult for us lesser beings (meaning me) to follow. And there wasn't enough dialogue. I don't like constantly reading about descriptions of viruses (virusi?), but they were interesting, just not fun.

I'll give it 4 stars, since there were very few things that I didn't like.

How's everybody doing with their progress on the read-a-thon??

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