The Last Ten Books I Got For Free

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is a "freebie," and I literally am so overworked that all I could come up with was books I got for "free." Is that unoriginal or what? I've gotten a lot of great books for free lately, though, so I'm excited to show off some of my latest acquisitions. They're only roughly in order, though, because I don't really keep track of exact dates. And by "don't really" I mean "don't at all."

1. Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

I got this as my free book in the Barnes & Noble summer reading program. I know the program says it's for kids through middle school, but you know what? I read the fine print, and there is nothing in there restricting prize-winners to a certain age group. So I am so totally participating in this program every summer until I die! Or until I become embarrassed by how old I am and still turning in the kids' program, whichever comes first. :P Anyway, my review of Counting by 7s will go live on Friday. It was a gorgeous book, but had some serious believability issues.

2. The Marvels by Brian Selznick

Funnily enough, my review of The Marvels went live this past Friday. This was an ARC I got from Scholastic, after I sent a semi-begging e-mail going on about how much I love Selznick's books and I needed to get my hands on this new one now because I just knew I was going to love it.

Well, I didn't. And I feel bad about that. Because the first half of the book, which told a story completely through pictures, is absolutely beautiful. The second half, told in text, is . . . less beautiful. Click here to check out my full review.

3. A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

This is another Scholastic ARC that I requested. Unlike The Marvels, which I liked much less than I'd hoped, A Night Divided actually surpassed my (already very high) expectations. It's a wonderful book, one that I will most definitely be re-reading over and over again in the years to come. I posted my rave review here.

4. Project Inspired by Nicole Weider

I got Project Inspired through the BookLook Bloggers program about a month and a half ago. It wasn't what I'd thought it was when I requested it (for one thing, it had only a fraction of the page-count I expected), but it was still pretty good. I'm keeping my copy for now in case I want to use it as a reference, but I have a feeling it will vanish during my next belongings purge (i.e. when I go off to college).

5. Cheap Chic by Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy

This is a book I got through the Blogging For Books program, which usually has slightly better options than BookLook Bloggers. I'm in the middle of it now, and it's pretty interesting: a fashion advice book from the 70s, written for girls who don't have much money. Half of the advice boils down to "don't buy much, but spend lots on what you do," so I'm not sure how helpful it would have been for the truly destitute. Then again, I'm only halfway through it so we'll see. I haven't made up my mind about it yet.

6. The Looney Experiment by Luke Reynolds

This is another BookLook Bloggers read, and it looks pretty interesting. Between my other books and the start of the school year I haven't gotten to it yet, but it's (almost) at the top of the TBR list.

7. Diary of a Jackwagon by Tim Hawkins

This is, yes, yet another BookLook Bloggers book. I only got it two weeks ago and I haven't (as of writing this post, September 2) started it yet. I'm really excited about it, though, because it's by the Christian comedian Tim Hawkins. He's one of the funniest guys alive, and I have literally been sucked into YouTube vieos of his shows for hours on end. I can't wait to start Diary of a Jackwagon!

8. All Fall Down by Ally Carter

This one is only sort of a book for free, because I bought it with a Half-Priced Books gift card from my grandparents. That still counts as free, right? I wanted to put it on thsi list because I'm so excited about it. Anyone who's read my review knows that I really loved it. So finding a hardcover in brand-new condition for only $8, at a store where I had a giftcard, was exciting enough. Imagine the thrill when I opened the cover and discovered that it was autographed! That's right, my new beauty was signed by Ms. Carter herself. Now I call that $8 of free money well spent!

9. Frosted Kisses by Heather Hepler

This was an unsolicited ARC from Scholastic, which I got a few weeks ago. It's sitting on my TBR pile - my "to be reviewed" one, that is, not "to be read." It's in that in-between stage when I've already read it but I haven't gotten my act together enough to actually write a review of it. So I haven't gathered my thoughts about Frosted Kisses yet, but in a nutshell I thought it was a cute story with maybe a little too much petty schoolgirl drama for my taste. Keep an eye out for a proper review coming out October 23.

10. The Missing #8: Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix

This was a Simon and Schuster ARC, arguably one of my most exciting ARCs ever! I'd been reading and adoring the Missing series for like five years, and I was desperate to read the long-awaited conclusion. I poured that desperation into an e-mail to Simon and Schuster, and was overjoyed to find out that my entreaties had been heard - and that a copy was in the mail! Needless to say, all productivity stopped while I devoured the beautiful sucker (because seriously, the cover was gorgeous). It was one of the hardest reviews I'd ever written, though, because I had so much to say I wound up with an abscenely large review that no one would ever want to read. It's shorter now, though still longer than most of my reviews. If you're a fan of the Missing series (i.e. are ready for the spoilers that come with discussing the eighth book in a series) you can click here to check out my review.

Well, what do you think? I've gotten some pretty good books lately. I can't wait to dive into the ones still waiting on my to-be-read pile!

Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix, 2015

Have you read the first seven books in the Missing series? No? Then go away! There are some really major spoilers in this review - and I mean spoilers from not only book 1, but from book 7 as well. Don't read the synopsis, don't scroll down to check out the last paragraph, don't do anything except hit the back arrow and leave this page until you're ready to get excited for the last book in the Missing series.

Click to view
on Goodreads

Jonah’s new twin must time travel and face off against his siblings’ worst enemy in order to save the future—and his family—in the eighth and final book of the New York Times bestselling The Missing series, which Kirkus Reviews calls “plenty of fun and great for history teachers as well.”
After traveling through history multiple times and finding out his original identity, Jonah thought he’d fixed everything. But some of his actions left unexpected consequences. His parents—and many other adults—are still stuck as teenagers. And now Jonah has a new sibling, an identical twin brother named Jordan.
As odd as all this is for Jonah, it’s beyond confusing for Jordan. How does everyone in his family have memories of Jonah when he doesn’t? How can his annoying kid sister Katherine speak so expertly about time travel—and have people from the future treating her with respect? A few rash moves by Jordan send them all into the future—and into danger. What if he’s also the only one who can get them back to safety, once and for all?
(416 pages; Release date September 8, 2015)

It's over. It's actually over. No more waiting for Missing books, no more begging my parents into driving me to Barnes & Noble on release day, no more bugging my sister/roomie with chants of "Only three more days now! Three more days!" as I count down to a new book. No more adventures with Jonah and Katherine, no more huge identity reveals that I never saw coming. I still have Margaret Peterson Haddix books to look forward to, but no more Missing books. And since I've been reading the Missing series for as long as I've been reading Haddix's books, that is really, really weird to me.

But enough about me, how was the book itself? Well, I'll start with the negatives. And they all boil down to one main factor: Jordan. Not that I have anything against the poor boy (in fact, I had been biting my nails to learn more about him since he showed up at the end of Redeemed!), but he just isn't Jonah. I spent seven books getting attached to Jonah - seven books! That's a lot of pages. Those were a lot of years. The experiences I share with Jonah simply aren't there with Jordan, and so no matter how interested in his story I am I'm still more interested in Jonah's. And sadly, we don't get as much of Jonah as I would have liked. He's there, of course, and there's definitely some tension going on between him and Jordan, but he and Katherine get separated from Jordan about two-thirds of the way into the book and then that's it. No more Jonah and Katherine. Ick.

Also, I would have liked a bit more exploration of the whole twin issue. Jonah and Jordan are practically identical (because nature and nurture were both working to keep them that way), but it did slightly grate on my when people said they were practically "the same person." I mean, Margaret Peterson Haddix of all people should be able to write about genetically identical kids raised in near-identical situations - Jordan isn't just a reboot of Jonah, a "what-if" version that would have happened if Jonah had never discovered time travel. He's a real, unique, individual person. And I couldn't tell if Haddix was ignoring this, or if she simply didn't have time to deal with it when so many things were already going on in the story.

So there's the negative. What about the positive? Again, it mostly boils down to Jordan. You know, Jonah's brother, the one who got time travel (and an identical twin) dropped into his lap. How could Jordan not be awesome?! Jonah-shortage aside, there were a lot of advantages to being inside Jordan's head this time around. He acts like a time-traveling idiot for most of the book, but somehow that never really bothered me. I actually really liked the fact that he was so naive, because it's realistic. If the Jonah from Found had been dropped into Revealed, he would have been just as terrible at time traveling as Jordan is. Speaking of our dear time-traveling pro, I also dearly love the glimpses we get of Jonah throughout Redeemed, as he tries not-very-hard to hide his disgust at having an identical twin brother dropped into his life. That's probably why I got so frustrated about not being inside his head while all of that was going on.

I also loved reading about everything through a newbie's eyes. I learned the ropes of time travel alongside Jonah (actually, inside Jonah!), and I love him to pieces but it's true that my knowledge-base is exactly the same as his. With Jordan, I'm the old hat and he's the clueless newcomer to the table. Being in his head, and watching him try to get a handle on Jonah when I already know him so well, is neat. And through Jordan we get to see how much everyone respects Jonah. Very, very cool! I also love the scene about halfway through, when they go through a re-hash of some of the most dangerous moments in the past seven books. I literally squealed when Jonah said "Richard III" and I realized what was happening! Somehow it was even cooler reliving it through Jordan's eyes, because he spent the whole time freaking out about all the crazy things that happen.

Anyway, this is shaping up to be the longest review I've written in a very long time. I guess I'll stop now, but I could go on and on. I have been waiting for this book for literally five years, and I am so, so thrilled to have finally read it. A few (fairly necessary) disappointments aside, Redeemed was everything I had hoped it would be, and I absolutely loved it.

Though part of me does still wish Jonah had narrated the epilogue.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.