Title: Meeting the Parents
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Rating: G
Summary: Draco comes to take Hermione out. But not before meeting her parents.
Author's Notes: None.
Warning: None.
Word Count: 100

( Meeting the Parents )

Title: Red Wine
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Severus and Hermione make out.
Author's Notes: Written for grangersnape100.
Warning: None.
Word Count: 100

( Red Wine )

Title: Ball
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Rating: PG
Summary: Hermione attends the Hogwarts ball in her older years.
Author's Notes: Written for grangersnape100. And for the record, I wanted him to say "bleeding hell" but it wouldn't fit.
Warning: None.
Word Count: 100

( Ball )

Title: Dedication
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Rating: G
Summary: Severus tries to relax after a long day of teaching.
Author's Notes: Written for grangersnape100
Warning: None.
Word Count: 100

( Dedication )

Instructions:

Put an “X” next to the books you’ve read
Put a “+” next to the books you LOVE
Put a “#” next to the books you plan on reading

1. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams X
2. Kit’s Wilderness / David Almond
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie X
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson X
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson #
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher #
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway X +
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block X
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor
12. Forever / Judy Blume X
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell #
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares X
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray X
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot X
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus
19. Ender’s Game / Orson Scott Card
20. Postcards from No Man’s Land / Aidan Chambers X +++
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky #
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie X
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn X
24. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan X
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins
27. The Midwife’s Apprentice / Karen Cushman
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen X
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman X
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going X ++++
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green X +++
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins
45. The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause X +
47. Arrow’s Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee X
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan X
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry X
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar X
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler X
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta #
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr X
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer X
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen X
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer X
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. How I Live Now / Meg Rosoff
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling X ++++++++++++++
80. Holes / Louis Sachar X ++++
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger X +
82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman X
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli
87. Chanda’s Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld X +++
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia X +++
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak X +++++
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak
101. Wintergirls/ L. H. Anderson #
102. The Graveyard Book/ N Gaiman
103. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing/ MT Anderson
104. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone/ S Kuehnert
105. Valiant H Black X +
106. Reposessed/ AM Jenkins
107. Keeping You a Secret/ Julie Ann Peters
108. War for the Oaks/Emma Bull X +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
109. Story of a Girl/ Sara Zarr
110. Rules of Survival Nancy Werlin #
111. The adoration of Jenna Fox/ Mary Pearson
112. Graceling/ Kristin Cashore

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Year of Publication: 2008
Genre: YA, mystery
Pages: 352
First Line: "The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.”

Summary: One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.

(Source: Ebsco)



Review: Like all of John Green's books, this one was brilliant. This is the fourth book of his that I have read and I really enjoyed it. It's not my favorite of his, but still wonderful and definitely worth the time. Dialogue was amusing, characters were interesting. Furthermore, John Green uses his quirky sense of humor to insert totally random and hilarious situations such as beer swords and a car game which involves describing the life of the person in the car adjacent. Books usually can't make me laugh out loud, but John Green never fails.

Worst part: I was disappointed on the lack of Margo. I loved her character in the first part of the book and would have loved to see more of it.

Best part: John Green is a master at character and plot manipulation. Q makes something out of, apparently, nothing and Green just does a wonderful job with it.

Grade: B

Other Books by This Author: An Abundance of Katharines, Looking for Alaska a short story in a book about Christmas.

Title: Feathered
Author: Laura Kasischke
Year of Publication: 2008
Genre: YA
Pages: 261
First Line: "Oh, he is not a human."

Summary: It was supposed to be the perfect vacation: hot guys, impeccable tans, and no parents. But for two high school seniors, an innocent car ride will drive them into the heart of their worst nightmare.

(Source: Back of book)



Review: This book had pace issues. It started out and took forever to get to the central plot. Then, after it got to that point (after much teasing--you'd understand my phrasing if you read it), it was rushrushrush. I thought that was super annoying. The characters had, like, nothing to them. They were very "present moment" characters, with little history (except a few key things) to base their character on. I did like Ander, though. He was pretty nifty. The plot itself would have been better if there was more to it. It was sort of simple which made it kind of boring. All in all, I'm glad I just borrowed it.

Worst part: There wasn't a whole lot of direction with the book.

Best part: Stuff Ander said was entertaining.

Grade: C

Other Books by This Author: Boy Heaven

So I just got my SAT scores.

Got a 660 in Critical Reading
Got a 640 in Math
Got a 640 in Writing

That's a 1940/2400.

I'm disappointed.

Title: Lipstick
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: RPF
Characters/Pairings: Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Keanu has an obsession.
Author's Notes: None.
Warning: Dark!Keanu. Weird stuff, guys. Not for the faint of heart.
Word Count: 563

( Lipstick )

Title: Afternoons at the Shay's
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: iCarly
Characters/Pairings: Spencer/Sam
Rating: PG
Summary: Sam does some homework at the Shay's.
Author's Notes: Written for flareonfury's Drabble-A-Thon.
Warning: None.

( Afternoons at the Shay's )

Title: Tabloids
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: RPF
Characters/Pairings: Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock
Rating: G
Summary: Keanu and Sandra have moved in together--and the public wants details!
Author's Notes: None.
Warning: None.

( Tabloids )

Title: Prada & Prejudice
Author: Mandy Hubbard
Year of Publication: 2009
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Pages: 238
First Line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a teen girl on a class trip to England should be having the time of her life."

Summary: Callie is tired of being a clumsy geek-girl. So during a school trip to London she buys her ticket to popularity: a pair of real Prada pumps. But then she wobbles on the cobblestones, trips in her too-high heels, and conks her head. When she comes to, it's the year 1815!

Luckily she meets kindhearted Emily, who mistakes Callie for a long-lost friend. Sparks soon ignite--of the nice and not-so-nice variety--between Callie and Alex, the handsome but totally arrogant Duke of Harksbury. Too bad Alex seems to have something sinister up his ruffled sleeve...

Can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, win a kiss from Alex, and prove to herself that she's more than just a loud-mouth klutz before her time in the past is up?



(Source: Back of book)



Review: This wasn't too bad. It was very similar to other Austen spin-offs I've read, though there are few spin-offs that are about teens (well, teens who act like teens and aren't in the 1800's and...well, you get it). Still, it was a quick, cute read that was one of those enjoyable Chick-Lit books. I will say the character was a pretty big snob (and not in an acceptable Elizabeth Bennett way--no, no), especially for someone who was in all these AP classes and stuff--she was incredibly immature. Still, there were some unexpected plot turns and the characters, while not well-rounded, were cute. I might recommend it for a day at the beach, but don't go crazy looking for a copy. The ending wasn't super, but it was okay--kind of predictable.

Worst part: Callie was a conniving snob. And I hated that she called him "Alex" because it seemed too improper, even if she is from the modern day--it didn't work.

Best part: I liked the party descriptions. I wish there had been more.

Grade: C+

Other Books by This Author: No others at the moment.

Title: The Night My Sister Went Missing
Author: Carol Plum-Ucci
Year of Publication: 2006
Genre: YA, Mystery
Pages: 216
First Line: "The night my sister went missing, I sat in a back corridor of the police station staring at a tinted glass window to an inner room."

Summary: A tiny pistol, passed from friend to friend at a party on an abandoned pier, suddenly fires, and Casey Carmody falls into the water below. Kurt, Casey's older brother, endures a seemingly endless night at the police station while the coast guard searches for his sister and his friends are questioned, one by one.

Who was foolish enough to pull the trigger? Was the gunfire accidental or deliberate? Or was the whole drama one of Casey's practical jokes? And where is Casey--or her body--now?

Dark secrets are revealed and petty jealousies rear their ugly heads as each eyewitness comes to the questioning room with his or her own version of "the truth."



(Source: here)



Review: I usually don't read mysteries, but I was looking for some books on romantic brother/sister relationships and this one came up when I was searching "incest". It was not a brother/sister relationship that was the story, however. It was much more interesting than that, and definitely surprised me with a few twists. The story is well-written and well-put-together. Plum-Ucci obviously put a lot of work into planning the plot and it shows. Some characters could have used a little more depth, but all-in-all, they were pretty well done with enough depth to be believable.

Worst part: I felt there were a few loose ends.

Best part: The obvious effort put into the plot--it surprised me more than once.

Grade: B+

Other Books by This Author: Streams of Babel and The She

Title: Fragile Eternity
Author: Melissa Marr
Year of Publication: 2009
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Pages: 389
First Line: "Seth knew the moment Aislinn slipped into the house; the slight rise in temperature would've told him even if he hadn't seen the glimmer of sunlight in the middle of the night."

Summary: Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone—but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her—but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.

In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.

(Source: Back of book)



Review: Throughout half of this book, I wanted to rip my hair out and stop reading it. It was so darn political! I don't mind a little bit of politics--espceially in Faerie, but this was just too much. The book was lacking something the other two had, though I'm not quite sure what. It seems that ever since Wicked Lovely, the "series" has gone downhill. Ink Exchange, wasn't awful, but wasn't as good as WL, and FE just isn't as good as IE. Hopefully Marr can do better with the next one. I'm expecting some serious Keenan hotness to make up for it, Miss Marr! ;) I will say that the analogies and similes are well done still. There was lots of dragging on for awhile, too, where nothing happened (ie almost the whole book).

Worst part: So darn political.

Best part: Keenan. *drools*

Grade: C-

Other Books by This Author: Wicked Lovelyand Ink Exchange.

Title: Frenzy
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: RPF
Characters/Pairings: Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock
Rating: PG-13, could be R
Summary: Um. No plot.
Author's Notes: Uhm...Keandra is win aaaaand...this is my first RPF not involving a band.
Warning: Hotness.

( Frenzy )

Title: Brüno
Author: elaborationlove
Fandom: Hannah Montana
Characters/Pairings: Jake Ryan/Miley
Rating: G
Summary: Jake and Miley go to the mall.
Author's Notes: Written for flareonfury's Drabble-A-Thon. Prompt used: "umlaut".
Warning: None.
Disclaimer: I do not own the above mentioned awesomeness.
Word Count: 372

( Brüno )

Title: A Walk to Remember
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Year of Publication: 1999
Genre: Romance
Pages: 240
First Line: "When I was seventeen, my life changed forever."

Summary: Every April, when the wind blows in from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High.

It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly, the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister.

A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out.

Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate mae Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood....
(Source: Back of book)



Review: Mmm. So sweet. I definitely enjoyed this book more than The Notebook (both books I saw the movies first, having been unaware they were based off of books). The writing style was interesting. The pace wasn't great--it seemed to take forever and then went really fast and then slowed a little bit, but that might have been intentional, an aid to help describe how the time seemed to go fast--times flies when you're in love with a dying girl. I'll be the first to admit it--I cried towards the end, just a little. I usually don't cry for books or movies. Even though I knew what was coming in this one, I still cried. Um...I hate saying this, but in many aspects, I prefer the movie (the time setting, Landon's attitude, how he got involved with her in the first place, the play "choice"...) but there were things I liked about the book better (there was a really nice Christmas scene and stuff). So it was definitely a great read, but I think the movie is even better (don't throw things at me! Haha. I don't say this sort of thing often. Besides. Shane West? MMMM!) But I'd definitely recommend the book. I read it in one sitting.

Worst part: Nothing was particularly BAD, just not GOOD, you know? I guess the worst part was (again, don't hurt me) I liked the list in the movie--Jamie wants to be in two places at once, wants X, Y, Z, and then the star thing--and those were absent in the book. I was a little disappointed with that.

Best part: It got me to CRY. Which is tough to do. I was impressed. I want a Landon.

Grade: A

Other Books by This Author: The Notebook, others.

Title: Madapple
Author: Christina Meldrum
Year of Publication: 2008
Genre: YA, Myster
Pages: 404
First Line: "The women resemble schoolgirls with gangly limbs, ruddy cheeks, plaited flaxen hair; they walk holding hands."

Summary: Aslaug can only dream of leaving her isolated life--until her mother dies a mysterious death. Is Aslaug desperately sad or desperate to flee? When Aslaug disappears shortly after he mother's death, is sh elike the windlower, blown by circumstances beyond her control? Or does she escape? When Aslaug finds herself isolated again--in a world of religious deovtion, controversial ideas, and shocking revelations--will she be able to escape the demons of her own past...and her mother's? Or are the demons of Aslaug's own making? Now Aslaug is on trial for double murder. Will the truth condemn her, or will she finally be free?

(Source: Back of book)



Review: THIS. This is a must read. I started into this book, expecting something ENTIRELY different, but I got something so much better. At the beginning, I wasn't too sure about it--I commented in an earlier post about books you started hating and then ended it liking it. I can't say enough about this book. It is a brilliant idea and Rune is just fantastic. I don't want to say too much because it...it's not a book that can be spoiled. You have to discover it on your own. Just take my word for it and READ IT. (Don't let the religion thing scare you away, either--really, it's so perfect.)

Worst part: Jeez. There was very little about this book I didn't like. I guess, the ending was a little um...not final? I think. I guess that's how I'd put it. There were a few loose ends (one in particular that I was disappointed about.) And I wasn't sure how to pronounce Aslaug's name (I looked it up and got "ASH-laug", but I don't really know for sure....)

Best part: The idea and obvious effort put into this book was phenomenal.

Grade: A+

Other Books by This Author: No others, yet.