This month's book box is from LitCube. The theme is "Alice in Wonderland" and I absolutely loved it! I'll list the items below with a picture! Firstly, LitCube is a monthly subscription box, around $34.00 a month.
Litcube.com

The first item I took out of the box was this cute shirt! Each box comes with one that matches along with the monthly theme! This is my favorite quote from Alice in Wonderland! This shirt is exclusively from LitCube!

These are adorable little art prints! I have them hanging on my wall and I love looking at them! These are made by Star In My Pocket, an Etsy shop. Along with them came this cute bookmark! It's also made by Star In My Pocket!

This is a little bag! It can hold makeup, pens and pencils or whatever you want! Its also exclusive through LitCube.

This yummy cookie! I haven't eaten it yet because it's just so pretty! It sparkles and I can't resist setting it on my dresser to see! This is made by Sweets By Stepth. I can't seem to find an actual website for this person, but maybe you can find it and let me know!

A pocket mirror! This item is exclusive through LitCube.

This book! It sounds so good, I'm already reading it and can't wait to review it! David D. Hammons thought up a wonderful idea!

After ten years of being told she can't tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she's going crazy. Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real. But all is not well in Wonderland. The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful. But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl? Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows. Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace. With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.

So here is all the items together! They're so amazing and I loved this box so much! I can't wait to get more from them!

Review: Soul Taken-Katlyn Duncan

General
Soul Taken
Series: Book #1
Pages: 223
Genre: young adult, fantasy, horror
Rating: four and a half stars

Buy it here:

After-life just got a lot more complicated Maggie is a Soul Collector.

It’s her job to transport souls from the Living Realm to the After – but during a mission to New England to find a stolen soul, she ends up stuck in a teen mean girl’s body. Trapped, Maggie’s soul is catapulted into Ally’s life – and the human world she hasn’t experienced for one hundred years.

But, as a descendant of the most powerful beings in the After, Maggie must rescue Ally before the girl’s soul dies... To survive, Maggie must uncover devastating secrets – because with one soul taken by a terrifying enemy, Maggie’s could be next!

Soul Taken was a very interesting book. I've read some stories about the after life, and this one was very original and different, almost better in that aspect. Katlyn Duncan wrote a real world and I loved reading about the types of jobs there was and how governmental it was. 

Maggie is very prickly in the beginning. I was a bit off as to why, and I didn't like her very much in the beginning, but it quickly became clear as to why she was this way. She's no the same person she was before, as a lot was taken from her. When she goes out to do another-yet different-soul collection, something happens and she ends up inside another girls body. She has no idea why or how, but she goes along with it until someone can fix the problem and bring her back to her own body. 

While in this body, Maggie begins to care for people and show emotion more. She's starting to remember how it was like to be a human, and what caring really does to someone. She becomes a more softer version of her earlier self, which I love. It made a lot of character development for her.

Soon, she stumbles into a mystery while inside the body and starts to realize how it surrounds her too. She doesn't know why she's involved, but she is and tries to figure it out. This is where she meets Jackson, and he knows all about her and the past that was taken from her memories. He cares about her and wants her to remember everything they've been through and what happened to her. 

The plot of this story is so interesting. I really loved it and am looking forward to read the next to in the series. This is told from Maggie's POV, and ends with a bit of a cliffhanger! I gave it four and a half stars because it was slow in the beginning. 

Review: Future Shock-Elizabeth Briggs

General
Future Shock
Series: Future Shock #1
Pages: 265
Genre: Teen fiction, science fiction
Rating: four and a half stars!

Buy it here:

Elena Martinez has hidden her eidetic memory all her life--or so she thinks. When powerful tech giant Aether Corporation selects her for a top-secret project, she can't say no. All she has to do is participate in a trip to the future to bring back data, and she'll be set for life. 

Elena joins a team of four other teens with special skills, including Adam, a science prodigy with his own reason for being there. But when the time travelers arrive in the future, something goes wrong and they break the only rule they were given: do not look into their own fates. 

Now they have twenty-four hours to get back to the present and find a way to stop a seemingly inevitable future from unfolding. With time running out and deadly secrets uncovered, Elena must use her eidetic memory, street smarts, and a growing trust in Adam to save her new friends and herself.

I could feel myself falling into yet another book slump when I decided to try this book out. I wasn't entirely sure if I was up for reading about time travel and rebellious teenagers but I decided to try it anyway. And I liked it! I finished it in a day (to be fair, it is rather short) and I'm still thinking about it. 

"Wait, are you saying..." My voice trails off. The words are too big, too impossible to speak out loud. "That we... The future...

"Yes," Lynne says. "You will be traveling to the future."

So first we have Elena, our main character. She's been through the wringer with losing her mom, and her dad going to prison. Going from house to house in foster care leads her to become closed up and unwilling to trust people. She wants to be free from the system and Aether Corporation is there just when she needs it to be. 

The other three, Trent, Chris, and Zoe take more of a backseat to the story. They're involved but I didn't feel like we really got to connect with them properly. That's not a huge deal from me since I was more interested in Elena, Adam, and the secrets that piled up, but I know for some they'll probably find their lack of appearance disappointing. 

Adam is the smart guy. He's the complete opposite of the others. He isn't living on the streets or worrying about where the next meal will come from. He's set and ready to go, but why is he there then? Adam is elusive from the beginning. I had all these questions about him that weren't answered right at that moment. The relationship between him and Elena is barely there. This story is focused more on the time travel and figuring out how they can fix everything before 24 hours is up, which I understand and is the only reason why I'm not upset about the lack of romance. I love how adorable and cute Adam is.

"What, no TARDIS?" Adam asks. "I was hoping for a DeLorean, personally."

A few parts were obvious from the beginning and not much that was revealed was a surprise, but other parts I didn't see coming, which I always love from a sort of mystery book. The villain is portrayed differently in this story. It's not a shout in your face kind of villain but the reasons why for it all make sense and also add a bit of melancholy to the story line. 

Though the story ends perfectly well, in my opinion, I am curious as to how this will be a series. I think it ended well and doesn't need any more books but who knows? Maybe something was left open. I'm excited to check it out when it comes out.

Review: Cinder-Marissa Meyer

General
Cinder
Series: Book 1 in the Lunar Chronicles
Pages: 390
Genre: young adult, fantasy, science fiction
Rating: three and a half stars!

Buy it here:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future.

Marissa Meyer on Cinder, writing, and leading men

“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.” 

I started Cinder back in October, but only now have I finished it. Things got in the way, and to be honest, I wasn't feeling this book. Or at least the beginning, middle, and almost end of it.

Cinder is our main character, a cyborg-meaning she is a human/machine. She's obviously like Cinderella in this story. Cinder is curious, and has human thoughts and feelings, but can't completely express them. Her love for Peony, her little step-sister, was lovely to read about and I felt with Cinder at certain parts. She's talented as a mechanic, and I loved how everything resembled Star Wars. It added a cool element to the futuristic environment.

Iko is a robot that works for Cinder's family. She's adorable and always spouting off things that made me laugh. I'm glad she was there for Cinder through everything.

“Prince Kai! Check my fan, I think I'm overheating.” -Iko

Prince Kai is going through a lot! We got to read from his POV a few times, which was interesting and refreshing from Cinder's mind. Kai has to take care of his kingdom and put the people before him by doing something he doesn't want to do. He's brave, taking care of his people first and putting his feelings on the backburner.


I do wish we saw them more together. They were hardly together in this story, and I was a bit upset about that. The first half of the book dragged and I felt a lot of it didn't need to be in the story. The step-mother was horrid, as she should be. The Cinderella tale was there without overdoing it.The ball took forever to arrive, and it was certainly handled differently.

“She was a cyborg, and she would never go to a ball.” 

Queen Levana was an interesting character, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her. I hope her true colors shine more in the next few books, I would love more villainous acts from her.

This has three and a half stars because it really-personally-dragged from the beginning to a little over halfway and then it seemed to pick up the pace more.

“Believe me, Cinder. You are a sacrifice I will never regret.” 

Almost-Anne Eliot

General
Almost
Series: Standalone
Pages: 367
Genre: young adult, fiction, romance
Rating: four and a half stars

Buy it here:

At a freshman party she doesn't remember...Jess Jordan was almost raped.
...Almost. Very nearly. Not quite. Three years later, Jess has managed to make everyone believe she's better. Over it. Because she is....Almost. Very nearly. Not quite.

Unfortunately, until Jess proves she's back to normal activities, her parents won't discuss college. So, she lands a summer internship and strikes a deal with hockey jock, Gray Porter: He gets $8,000. She gets a fake boyfriend and a social life. 

Jess has no idea Gray signed on for reasons other than money. She also never expects to fall in love. But Gray’s amazingly hot, holds her hand all the time, and makes her forget that he’s simply doing his job. It’s like having a real boyfriend
...Almost. Very nearly. Not quite.

Gray Porter is hiding secrets of his own. About Jess Jordan. About why he’s driven to protect her, why he won't cash her checks, or deny her anything she asks.

I first read Almost years back, and it was, at the time, the only book out by Anne Eliot. I wanted to read more from this author!

This story is gripping but light. Anne writes tough situations very nicely and delicately, which was a relief from such harder, more descript situations from other books. From the beginning, we get the feeling that something has happened to our main character, Jess. She'd rather be alone, and nothing can help her. She makes everyone believe that she's alright, when in reality, she's being crushed under the weight of her almost rape. 

I adore Jess. She's such a brave yet broken character. She tries to be "normal" but it doesn't quite work out. She went through a terrible ordeal and hasn't dealt with it yet. She's witty and a bit sarcastic, which I love! Her inner thoughts and dialogue sometimes had me laughing!

“Ignoring Gray Porter is like ignoring an elephant in a tutu. A really hot elephant in a tutu... a very manly tutu." 

Gray was such a great male character. He was hesitant to be around Jess in the beginning and acted a bit arrogant to keep her away. They clashed immediately, but in that cute way, you know? Gray is so complex and I couldn't really figure out what was going on with him and some of the reasons why he did what he did until it was all revealed. Like Jess, Gray was humorous and I loved reading what he had to say a lot!

“With a lightning quick glance at me first, he reads one bumper sticker: “Member: BBB. Boys in Books are Better?” 

These two together are cute. This story isn't full of steamy scenes, it's innocent but loving and I love it because those types of stories are almost nil now. You can tell these two belong together from the moment Gray bumped into her-her car- and I was rooting from the beginning. Both are geeks and plan to get a job at the same place-only one position is open. 

What's interesting is how they came to fall in love. She pays him $8,000 and she gets a social life to really show everyone that she's alright now and isn't having problems anymore. I enjoyed watching them go from bickering to falling in love, to falling apart. One of my favorite couples I've read.

“Person Slaughtered: Me.
Method used: Dimple.”