Sophistikatied now has a Facebook page!

This probably should have happened a couple years ago, but I finally decided to give Sophistikatid Reviews a proper Facebook fan page! I've been friending bookish people on my personal account for awhile now - and that will continue! I love my bookish friends - but this page will be dedicated to the blog and the updates and any bookish events I attend!

If you're a fan of this blog, please click here to visit the page and give it a 'like'!

And please let me know if there are any issues with the page! I fear that I may have overcomplicated the process of creating the page so there might be some problems, but I'm crossing my fingers that it's all working properly!

Fan Art Friday (95)

This week's fan art is based on The Savage Grace by Bree Despain. (This is also a matching piece to my Dark Divine & Lost Saint covers) If it looks familiar, it's because this was my entry in the Dark Divine Talentmania fan art contest. And this entry (and all of you magnificent people who voted & got me to the finals!) actually WON ME FIRST PLACE. That will probably be the highlight of my month. Thanks so much to everyone who voted! Anyway, I've yet to read this book (changing that ASAP!) but the second The Lost Saint ended, I had this picture in my head the whole time. It took a lot of photoshopping since that was actually a teddybear that Emma Roberts was cuddling and not a wolf, but I love the finished product. What say you?


Thoughts? Yay/nay, awesomesauce or epic fail? Comment and let me know what you think!

And if you've got YA bookish fan art that you'd like featured on Fan Art Friday, just shoot me an email at skellington28210@yahoo.com!

Happy Weekend!

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers.
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin.
Pages: 214.
Release Date: December 23rd, 2008.
Source: Gift.

Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games…but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn’t something she can say out loud. It isn’t even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody--be totally alone--then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.

I'm not surprised that I loved this book so much. Whenever I think of Courtney Summers, I think of amazing stories. They just go hand in hand. But no matter how much I anticipate her books, they never fail to leave me wide-eyed and gaping at the rawness and darkness and how she doesn't seem to have any boundaries with her characters.

I'm still baffled at how she made me care for such an unlikable character. Parker is rude and nasty and does some despicable things but I didn't have it inside of me to hate her. I could almost feel her cracking as story went on - which was done immensely well - and the events of her downfall were revealed. (Speaking of cracking, did anyone else have their HEART SHATTERED with the Bailey scene? I was a total wreck)

I also really enjoyed how only small fragments of flashbacks were given occasionally, and I appreciated how repetitive the crucial moments were. It made the whole story that much authentic and powerful.

Overall, Cracked Up To Be is another Courtney Summers book that has - once again - turned me into a big ball of mushy emotions. I can't talk too much about why I love her books as much as I do because my words could never do justice. Like I've said before, this author is the Queen of Contemporary and she has proven it to me all over again with this ridiculously fantastic debut.

Other reviews for Cracked Up To Be:
Book Harbinger.
Miss Remmers' Review.
Rather Be Reading.
Y.A. Love.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books For The Imagination

Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke And The Bookish. This week's topic is sort of a pick your own genre, and I know "imaginative" isn't a genre, but I'm going to be a rebel and deviate a bit. These are basically the books that awakened the creativity and passion for storybuilding in me. They're not like anything you've ever read and they can be very odd, but that's what makes them so fantastic.

In no particular order:

1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - Bet you weren't surprised to see this one, huh? I never skip a chance to preach about how incredible this book is. The characters, the creatures, the story, the worlds. Oh my gosh, Laini, you are my literary hero.

2. The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa - Anytime I hear someone say "Oh, those books are about faeries. Pass," I want to throw something at them. Really hard. Preferably The Iron King so that I may prove them wrong. The world of the NeverNever is so, so much more than fae. Trust me.

3. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst - Fantasy! Adventure! Romance! Trolls! A talking polar bear shape-shifter! How much more imagination do you need?

4. Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi - Even the title sounds all imaginative and cool. I know some people have problems getting into this book in the beginning, but PLEASE keep reading. It evolves into a fantastical story in this awesome, new world. And you'll kick yourself for missing it.

5. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - It's like Ransom wiggled his fingers around inside of Tim Burton's brain and fetched this odd, creepy amazingness. (And let's not even get into how giddy and frantic I got when I began hearing rumors that Tim Burton is interested in directing a film adaption. It's a bit embarrassing.)

6. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente - If I were doing this list according to which book evoked my imagination the most, this would probably be at the top. It's reminiscent of an old-fashioned fairy tale which is something you hardly see in books these days.

7. Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst - Yes, another Sarah Beth Durst book. But this is why she's my favorite author, because she writes these amazing books that I can put on awesome lists like this. The gargoyles and statues on the Princeton campus coming to life and disrupting the most epic scavenger hunt ever? Miss Durst, thank you for writing books that are so odd and wonderful.

8. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab - Quite possibly the most prettiest book ever written. I was so inpsired by story and romance and imagination of this novel that I leaped onto my computer and started writing a fantasy of my own. It doesn't come anywhere close to Schwab's brilliance, of course, but I loved the motivation anyway!

9. Nevermore by Kelly Creagh - This book was like Inception with the way it was messing with my mind. You have to use your imagination to get into this story and I absolutely love that.

10. Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken - I saved the best for last! This list wouldn't be complete without the novel that kickstarted my love for all things fantasy. This is another book I rant and rave about whenever given the chance so here is the usual THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC BUY IT NOW mention. ;)