If I Stay by: Gayle Forman

If I Stay (book 1)

Edition: E-book

Pages: 201

Published: April 2nd, 2009

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Purchase: Amazon | Bookdepository

Goodreads Synopsis: 
Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.

I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.

Stay, he says.

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

My Thoughts:
I have been meaning to read this book for quite sometime now, and finally found the time to read it. Also after hearing so much hype for the movie that is coming out I decided that I want to be in the loop as well. Before reading this, I had no clue what this book was about. The only thing that I had heard was that this was such a heartbreaking story!
I have to say that I am not as in love with this book like most people are. The story is very unique, especially with the events that took place early on in the book, but after that hardly anything happened. With that type of beginning I excepted way more jaw dropping events to happen (which they did...Kind of) but I wasn't really impressed. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this book enough to want to go on and read the second book, Where She Went, but this just isn't a favorite of mine since I feel that the majority of this book was filler.

Cons:
I literally only had one con while reading this book and that was the flipping back and forth from the present and the past. I found it to be confusing at times and boring. When the storyline picked up I found myself not caring to read the past events (I did read them though) because I just wanted to get on with the story.

Overall, I think this is an interesting read that everyone should at least try. Plus it's such a quick read that it will hardly take much of your time. As far as the movie is concerned, I will see it because I am curious as to how they are going to portray Mia since the majority of the book was a lot of "internal reflecting" on her life.

Favorite Quote: "Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you. Does that make any sense?"

Final Verdict: 3 Stars

Bout of Books 11

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I am so excited to be participating in another Bout of Books read-a-thon!! The last one that I participated in I set pretty strict goals and accomplished quite a lot, but this time around I will be taking a more relaxed approach. So, below are my goals that I wish to achieve for Bout of Books 11.

Goals:

• Read at least 100 pages a day (last read-a-thon I went for over 200 pgs a day)
• Document progress throughout the week
• Finish 2 books from my tbr list

My Tbr:

• If I stay by: Gayle Foreman (201 pages)
• Beautiful Darkness by: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (503 pages)
• Across the Universe by: Beth Revis  (398 pages)
• Spirit Bound by: Richelle Mead (489 pages)

So I have a few different choices to choose from during this read-a-thon so hopefully I can read at least 2. Keep an eye out for my daily updates!!!

Updates:

Stacking The Shelves #2

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews.  It is all about sharing the books that you have recently acquired, whether they are books you bought, borrowed, or got for review!

There was a huge sale going on at a used book shop that I frequently go to so I couldn't help but to pick up a few books.  These are the books I got:

The Notebook by: Nicholas Sparks
Feed by: Mira Grant
Flowers in the Attic by: V. C. Andrew
Petals on the Wind by: V.C. Andrew
The Waste Lands by: Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three by: Stephen King
Brave New World by: Aldous Huxley
Betrayed by: P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Chosen by; P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

*Mass Market paperbacks were $0.50 and the last 3 books were $1 each

My mom also surprised me with a Nook so of course I had to get some books!! :)

E-book:

Losing It by: Cora Cormick
Beautiful Disaster by: Jamie McGuire
Awakened by Jaime Guerard
To All The Boys I loved Before by: Jenny Han

Library Books:

Rebel Belle by: Rachel Hawkin
Sweet Evil by: Wendy Higgins  (e-book)
If I Stay by: Gayle Forman (e-book)
We Were Liars by: E. Lockhart (e-book)

Once again this is a pretty big book haul, but I had been forgetting to make a post about the books that I had gotten over the last few weeks. Have you read any of these?