Rebeckann's Random Thoughts: June 2015

Maybe I should change my icon to "Semi-Monthly Book Review with Rebeckann..."! Either way, here I am! I'm on summer break, and I finished a great book last night. Even though, June is not over yet, I figured that I'd go ahead and write about all of my May & June books just to cover my bases.
So as a reminder, it is my goal to read 30 books in 2015. According to my reading challenge on Goodreads.com, I have read 16 books, so I am past 50% of my goal!

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Cress by Marissa Meyer
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Cress is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. I read the first book, Cinder, in January, and the second book, Scarlett, in February. Truthfully, the only reason I didn't finish this one until May was simply lack of time! The character Cress is a Rapunzel character who has been imprisoned in a satellite since childhood. She has become an excellent hacker thanks to her time alone in space. She ends up joining with Cinder and Scarlett on their journey to save the world from the Lunar Queen, Levana.
I did enjoy this book, and I may have given it 5 stars if I hadn't had so much time in between readings, but I am excited to get my hands on a copy of the fourth book, Winter.

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The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
I listened to this book on Audible in about 10 days! I really got sucked in by this story. The books begins with this opening: My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins. After this, the book goes between the present-day and the past to tell Elizabeth's story. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspects of this book, from the 1600s to 1800s and 1900s, we find that Elizabeth has found ways to live in each time period. Yet each time things become good for her, she has to flee.
I really don't want to give too much of this away, so let's just suffice it to say that I loved it, and it's certainly worth a read (or listen)!

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The River by Gary Paulsen
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
I will confess this first: this book is a reread. One of my reading classes was reading The River, and it had been awhile since I had read the book. I decided to read it while they were working on it. The River is the first sequel to Hatchet. In this book, Brian Robeson returns to the wild with a psychologist named Derek to show him how to survive in the wild. The idea is that Derek will share this information to help teach survival courses. Things start out well...too good, Brian thinks. Shortly after telling Derek that the situation lacks tension, Derek is struck by lightning, and Brian must figure out a way to help him survive.
This is a pretty good sequel to Hatchet. While, neither of these books are my first-choice in personal literature, my students really love them, and they're good books. This one is also relatively short, and so are the chapters, which my students really love!

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Flipped by Doug Pagitt
My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
This was a book I received from Blogging for Books. I did already wrote an entire post for this review, which you can read here. (Or you can click on my rating link to see my review on Goodreads.com.)

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City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Saying I finished this is a lie, but I didn't want to just delete it completely. I wanted to like this, I really did, but I just couldn't get into this book at all. With numerous other books to read and reread on my list, I decided to make better use of my time. I'm pretty sure that this is the first book I have ever quit reading. I promptly listed this and the three following books I have on Amazon. I think it is safe to say that the best thing about this book will be the money I make from selling it!

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Riffs of Regret by Micah K. Chaplin

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Back in October, I was paired with Micah from Unabashedly Me for The Great Pumpkin Swap that Kristin and I hosted. As it turns out, Micah is also an author! After reading one of her blog posts, she had copies of her book to be given out to review, and I jumped at the chance! I finally had time to sit down and read her book, Riffs of Regret, and I really loved it. In fact, I was up until almost 3 AM last night finishing it! While I don't know Micah very well, from what I do know about her, I saw a lot of her in the main character, Cori. The four main characters, Cori, Whitney, Sam, and Luke begin their adventure by attending a music festival together in Texas. Whitney and Sam had been dating and decided to try to set up their two best friends. The book has ups and downs, twists and turns, and you really find yourself falling in love with these characters and rooting for the best for them. I loved the evolution of the characters from the beginning to end of the story. It was so interesting to watch them change and grow, even though the story only takes place over the span of a year. To be technical, there were a few typos in the story, an omitted word here and there, but I totally knew what Micah was trying to convey. I really enjoyed this, and as you may be able to tell from the fact that I was up very late reading it, I couldn't wait to find out what happened to the characters in the end. I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book! :)

And a special thank you to Micah for giving me a copy to read and review! I will say, I was nervous after I agreed to do it. What happened if I didn't like it!? But I'm so glad that I did!