WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesdays are hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:
Zombies vs. Unicorns & Before I Fall

Recently Finished:
The Goddess Test & Doppelgangers

Next Reads:
Forest of Hands and Teeth & Envy

So apparently I read things in twos. .

Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

The Goddess Test
Author: Aimee Carter
Published: April 19, 2011
Rating: 4 STARS

It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.
Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.
Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

--Goodreads.com description

First off, I highly doubt anyone who is a Greek Mythology buff will like this book. None of the mythology in here is correct. What's great about Greek Gods is that they aren't morally perfect like most other Gods. The stories taught by the mistakes they made because they made a lot of mistakes. In The Goddess Test, they were shown as, well, basically human, except slightly more "perfect" from what I got. Which isn't accurate at all! They were extreme sinners, did whatever they wanted without having to defer to a "council." They most certainly would not care anything about the seven deadly sins. So this book got all of that way wrong!

Also, a big dilemma for Kate throughout this book is one of the Gods is trying to kill her. Well, I don't know any story where the Gods simply kill humans they don't like. They took revenge ten-fold. If you don't believe me, read the stories of Arachne or Echo. Both pissed off a Goddess, neither was lucky enough to simply die. Therefore in Goddess Test, if one of the Gods were didn't like Kate, they would try to do much worse than just kill the girl.

But if I look beyond the terrible depiction of the Gods, it was a pretty good book. In the beginning, Kate really drove me nuts. She was a whinny little brat and yeah it sucks that her mom is dying, but she was just rude to everyone and her personality just didn't make me want to root for her. The romance didn't do it for me either. Henry might be someone else's cup of tea, but not mine. I much proffered James actually.

It did keep me entertained though and it's not one that I regret reading at all. I would recommend this one to people who love  Disney's Hercules and aren't trying to read it hoping for some accurate mythology.

Theme Song:
 So of course the music I was playing while reading this was from Disney's Hercules. So here are my favorites!
Hercules - I Won't Say (I'm In Love) & I Can Go The Distance

Review: Doppelgangers by Weslie Jensen

Doppelgangers
Author: Weslie Jensen
Published: May 9, 2011
Rating: 5 STARS!

In a nightmarish world lies an enrapturing tale of Princess Scarlet, whose kingdom, Aereath, is in the midst of a war with legendary monsters known as Doppelgangers--beings that take form of a living person. On the day of coronation, Aereath is ambushed and Scarlet disappears.

Five years later, Scarlet lives in Chicago with no memory of her dark past. But when a mysterious figure appears she must decide whether to remain where she is and put everyone she cares for in danger, or leave and embark on a perilous adventure as a Doppelgangers Hunter that can never be forgotten or escaped.

Cover by Magy Curiel

 --Goodreads.com description

This book is definitely an interesting one. The writing is often very . . . fairy tale-ish. Which is appropriate because it's about a princess. Something else that's different than usual books that I read is that the characters in this book are extremely cartoonish and I kept thinking that this needs to be a manga. The characters are very exaggerated and fun which, surprisingly didn't annoy me. The main character, Scarlet, is a very determined character that I couldn't help but love even though some of the things she did I didn't agree with. And Shiloh gives me butterflies every time he appears. Weslie Jensen did a great job at creating all of these very unique characters and making me feel something when they each appeared. I am dying to read the next book in the series and find out what happens!

This book is still very raw, by that I mean there are a lot of typos and missing words and added words. I'm not going to sugar coat that. If you're an extremely fast reader you might miss some things; nothing important, I think. I would recommend this to any YA, fantasy readers willing to try something a bit different.

There are three parts to this book and each part was like a brand new story for me, so it was hard to choose just one song to represent this one. Thankfully, I have an amazing friend, Magy Curiel--the artist of the beautiful cover for this book--who has known this book since this book was in its diaper days and had a great idea for a song.

Theme Song: Your Man - Down With Webster

Review: The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger

The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)
Author: Kody Keplinger
Published: September 7, 2010
Rating: Five Stars!

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.
Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

—Goodreads.com description

So this is my first review off of Goodreads, so I'm still trying to figure out how to use this so cut me a little slack, please! First off I have to say that I LOVE this book. And I don't read many non-fantasy books, but I couldn't put this one down.
 
My romance loving side has to say that Bianca & Wesley's relationship is the cutest thing ever! Wesley is a "womanizing man whore," I believe Bianca calls him, (she even uses Britney Spears' song "Womanizer" as Wesley's ringtone) and yet Keplinger still makes him lovable. 

I'm someone who reads--and writes--for the characters. If the characters aren't right, odds are, I won't like it, and Keplinger's characters are so real I feel like I'm going to bump into Bianca or Wesley at school on Monday. And feeling like I know Bianca like Keplinger let me, I got to go through all the emotions Bianca went through. And even though I'm not anything like Bianca--I'm not very cynical, or pessimistic (I think. .)--but it was incredibly easy to put myself into Bianca's shoes and empathize with her. Maybe that does mean I'm like the character, but I think it's Keplinger's amazing writing to blame. 

With all this said, I would recommend this to all teenage girls (or girls who are still teenage at heart) that are mature enough for some sexual content.

Now, because I love music so much and at least one song sticks with every book I read, here's the theme songs that I couldn't stop listening to as I read this book.  

Theme Songs: 
(First Half) "Need You Now" -- Lady Antebellum (the booty call song!)
(Second Half) "That's The Way I Loved You" -- Taylor Swift