August 2014 - Monthly Outline (+Hiatus!)

Sunday, August 31, 2014


Monthly Outline is {hopefully} going to be a monthly wrap-up feature on the blog. I can't believe the year is going by so fast, we've come to September! Aaaand also, happy one month to The Literary Oracle!  (It has been a few weeks over a month, because I might have forgotten all about it).  

Anyway, let's get on with the recaps!

Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Thursday, August 28, 2014


Series: Gemma Doyle #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Published: December 9th 2003 by Simon and Schuster
Book: +GoodReads  |  +Amazon  | +Barnes & Noble
Author: GoodReads  | Twitter |  Website 


A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.

Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. (See more)


10 Books I Want to Read But Don't Own

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is Top Ten Books I Want to Read But Don't Own. There are countless books I wish to own, but I have somehow selected a limited number of books!

Letters To Characters (Part 1)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

This is a post where I'll compose letters to random characters from different books, and talk about what's currently on my mind regarding them. Oh, and in case you're curious, the title of the post was originally a play on "Love Letters to the Dead" but I failed. As evident. 

Oh well.

Review: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Wednesday, August 20, 2014


Genres: YA | Thriller | Contemporary
Published: July 16th 2013 by Simon Pulse

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations.

As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...

ARC Review: Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

Monday, August 18, 2014

Series: Heart of Dread #1
Genres: YA | Fantasy | Dystopia | Sci-fi | Romance
Published: October 2nd 2014 by Orchard Books
ARC provided via Netgalley

From New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston comes this remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.

5 Books That Broke My Heart

Saturday, August 16, 2014


Gather the tissue boxes because today, I have compiled a list of five tear-jerkers that will (hopefully) leave you a useless mush of feels! (At least they left me a useless mush of feels. I really don't know about you. Sadly.)

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Thursday, August 14, 2014


Series: If I Stay #1
Author: Gayle Forman
Genres: YA | Contemporary
Published: April 6th 2010 by Speak

The critically acclaimed, bestselling novel from Gayle Forman, author of Where She Went, Just One Day, and the forthcoming Just One Year. 

On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.



Discussion: Love Triangles

Tuesday, August 12, 2014


Love triangles - or circles, rectangles, squares, whatever you'd call them - would probably make it to the list of  things that are icky enough to scare off even the bravest of book lovers. Let's discuss!

Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Author: Stacey Jay
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Published: July 23rd 2013 by Delacorte Press

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret... 
In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds. 
Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe. 
As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Genres: YA | Contemporary | Romance,
Published: May 6th 2014 by Simon & Schuster



It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting.
But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just...disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a stranger? Um...

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she'll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?