Monthly Wrap-Up | February 2015

My Life
Busy...
This is the time of the year when all of the professors secretly conspire and make all of the long-term projects due at once. Honestly, I may or may not have started all of them. Even though I have been playing catch-up on schoolwork, I have surprisingly been up to date with blog stuff. As promised there have been at least three post a week. I also got a couple of ARCs that I will be reviewing in the beginning of March, so look out for those.
Also, I finally decided to make a Twitter for the blog. You can find us @Crazyfor_YA. So far, I have been having a ton of fun connecting with other bloggers and readers. I hope you can join in on the conversation!
I also got a new puppy this month! Her name is Holly (because she was born on Christmas Eve) and she is the cutest Pekingese puppy ever!

Holly's first bath! pic.twitter.com/yMjhYowll3
— Tessa (@Crazyfor_YA) February 28, 2015

Books I Read

I read a total of seven books this month (one more than last month!), which brings my yearly total to thirteen.

Blog Tour and Review | Gathering Frost by Kaitlyn Davis

Gathering Frost
(Once Upon A Curse #1) 
By: Kaitlyn Davis 
Release Date: 02/17/15

Summary from Goodreads: 

Will his kiss be enough to revive her frozen heart? 

Once Upon A Time meets La Femme Nikita in GATHERING FROST, a dystopian romance from bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis that reimagines the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Jade was only a little girl when the earthquake struck. Before her eyes, half of New York City disappeared, replaced by a village that seemed torn out of a storybook. Horses and carriages. Cobblestone streets. A towering castle. And, above all, a queen with the magical ability to strip emotions away.

Ten years later and Jade has forgotten what it is to feel, to care...even to love. Working as a member of the queen's guard, she spends most of her time on the city wall staring at the crumbling skyscrapers of old New York. But everything changes when the queen's runaway son, Prince Asher, returns. Jade is tasked with an unusual mission--to let the Prince capture her, to make him trust her, and then to betray his secrets to the crown. In return, she'll earn her freedom. But life outside the queen's realm is more than Jade bargained for. Under Asher's relentless taunts, her blood begins to boil. Under his piercing gaze, her heart begins to flutter. And the more her icy soul begins to thaw, the more Jade comes to question everything she's ever known--and, more importantly, whose side she's really on.

Top Ten Tuesday | Favorite Book Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by wonderful bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Today's list is a compilation of our favorite book heroines (not the drug).

Over the last couple of years, the YA genre has really stepped up its game and gotten some seriously kick-butt female characters. Obviously, there are too many to include in this list, but we will try.

The characters on this list are extremely brave, intelligent, sarcastic, and just overwhelmingly kick-butt. Some of them might show it in different ways, but they all faced intense danger and loss, but they rose above it to become the characters that we love.

Tessa

Celaena Sardothien 

from the Throne of Glass series

Karou 

from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series

Mackenzie Bishop

from The Archived series

Rose Hathaway

from the Vampire Academy series

Hazel Grace Lancaster

from The Fault in Our Stars

Katniss Everdeen (duh)

from the Hunger Games

Tris Prior
from the Divergent triology

Hermione Granger
from the Harry Potter series

Penryn
from the Angelfall series

Mara Dyer
from the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer series

Who are your favorite heroines? What are your favorite qualities to see in a lead female character? Do you agree/disagree with any of my picks?

Love A Thon 2015 | High Five

Welcome to my last challenge of 2015 Love A Thon. It has been great talking with everyone and finding amazing new bloggers to stalk follow. I hope that we can keep up this blogging love for the rest of the year!

Thanks to Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books for coordinating this whole shebang! I loved every single second of it. Even though I joined a little late, I felt like I experienced the love of the entire blogging community. I am following double the bloggers I had before on Bloglovin and Twitter.

Also, this was my first week on Twitter, so trying to keep up with everyone's awesomeness was quite a big task. But, I ended up loving it and I will (try) to continue to keep up.

Here is my "high five" for this year's Love A Thon.

Love A Thon 2015 | One Can Only Quote

Welcome to my second challenge of the 2015 Love A Thon! So far, I am enjoying everyone's posts, comments, and all of the other love that is circulating the book blogging community right now. I cannot wait for tomorrow's festivities!

This challenge is called One Can Only Quote and the quest is pretty simple. All you have to do is include some of your favorite quotes about love and friendship.

I am trying to get the hang of designing my own graphics, so I made some pretty (or at least I hope so) pictures to go with my quotes. I hope you enjoy!