Top 10 Week! My Favorite Book Covers of 2017

Book covers are like crack to me! I love looking a them! So, picking my favorite covers each year is tough, but fun. The following covers are from books released in 2017. I've read them all. You can click on the images to read my reviews. All these covers pretty much speak for themselves. They are in no particular order.

Top Ten Week!!!

My Favorite Books of 2017

My Favorite Quotes of 2017

My Favorite Book Covers of 2017

My Favorite Book Boyfriends of 2017

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2018

Release Day Review! Requiem by Lauren E. Rico

Requiem (Reverie #3) by Lauren E. Rico
Genre: New Adult (Dark Contemporary Romance/Psychological Thriller)
Date Published: February 13, 2017
Publisher: Harmony House Productions

Matthew and Julia Ayers are happy at last, settled in their new home with their son and flourishing musical careers. And with Jeremy Corrigan playing in an orchestra halfway across the country, they finally feel a sense of peace and security. 

That is exactly what Jeremy is counting on. 

Enraged when he is caught in a compromising situation, he refocuses his energies on the people he holds responsible for his languishing career. Believing that "There is an art to destroying a life," he sets out with cool determination to destroy those who have betrayed him. 

No one is safe from his wrath 

The eternal struggle between good and evil play out with horrifying consequences in REQUIEM. 

Requiem is the third and final book in the Reverie trilogy by Lauren E. Rico. If you haven't read the other books in this trilogy, please don't read this review. Go read those books instead! *wink* That was a crazy roller coaster of emotions, let me tell you. We knew life wouldn't just go on in peace. Not with Jeremy blaming the world for his problems as he further ruins his only job opportunity. Julia and Matthew must pay, and with a baby in the picture that's just all the more torture Jeremy can inflict on everyone.

That cover! I saw that image used in a teaser for one the previous books in this trilogy, and the second I saw it... it was Jeremy. The model captured him entirely. It's eerie and great.

We get perspectives from Maggie and Brett along with Jeremy, Matthew, and Julia, plus, we get a few peeks from a supportive character as well. Normally, I'm not a fan of so many perspectives, but this story pulls you in so much that you not only need those perspectives to get a full feel of the feelings and mindsets of the characters(even Jeremy), but you want them. You want to know what's going on in their heads. I was hoping the story wouldn't go a certain direction. It went there, but thankfully, we didn't get details. In every other aspect of the story, we're given the dark, tragic, and thoroughly horrifying details. Of course, most, but not all, of those happen because of or within the mind of Jeremy. The psych major in me is equally fascinated and repulsed by Jeremy's mind.

Like the previous books, the music helps tell the story, and it still amazes me how the author can make you feel the music, and all you're doing is reading about a sound. That's as much of a gift as her ability to effortlessly transport you into the minds and lives of her characters. This series is definitely not light reading. It's deep, and dark, and I'm sad to see it end, but I'm thrilled with how it all came together.

The ARC of Requiem by Lauren E. Rico was kindly provided to me by the author for review. The opinions are my own.

Check out my reviews of the previous two books!

Lauren Rico was going to be principal French horn of the New York Philharmonic. That was HER plan, anyway. The New York Philharmonic had no idea of her intentions, and that's probably a good thing, since she wasn't an especially good French horn player!

Lauren was, however, an exceptionally good classical music radio host. Calling herself a “Classical Music Reanimator,” she has made a career of bringing back long-dead composers from The Great Beyond and plopping them down smack in the middle of the 21st century. In other words, she does her best to demystify classical music for her audiences by taking it off a dusty old pedestal and putting it into a modern context.

It's only been over the last couple of years that Lauren has discovered a passion for writing, which she's managed to combine with her love and knowledge of the classical music world. That's when she had the realization that she had something special with this story of love and obsession and music.

These days, you can hear Lauren Rico on SiriusXM's Symphony Hall Channel 76, on WSHU-FM in the New York metro region, WSMR in Tampa/Sarasota, FL, WDAV in Charlotte, NC and KMFA in Austin, TX.

To learn more about Lauren E. Rico and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Book Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Requiem (Delirium #3) by Lauren Oliver

Genre: Young Adult (Dystopian Romance)
Date Published: March 5, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view.

Requiem is the third and final book in the Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver. We are given the point of views of Lena and Hana through this book. When I first found that out, I thought "Okay, who dies?" I'm not going to tell you if anyone dies or not. After the way book two ended, I had such high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I was left with a lot of holes and unresolved issues. The main issue for me being the love triangle. The odd man out, kind of gets the shaft, in my opinion. Or at least, we don't get to see how Lena handles the situation with him. All the progress I thought Lena made with her character growth in Pandemonium regressed. Hana's point of view was odd. I enjoyed it enough, but I'm not sure why it was necessary. Especially with all the unresolved issues we needed from Lena's point of view. This lead to a disappointing ending for me. I don't feel like we got a real ending. There is so much left unfinished. I enjoyed reading this book, and I was entertained through most of Requiem, but I was ultimately left disappointed.

“For a minute he stands there, looking at me, and I can tell that he knows why I'm crying, and he understands, and it's going to be all right. He opens his arms to me.

"Come here," he says quietly.

I can't move to him fast enough. I practically fall into him. He catches me and pulls me in tightly to his chest, and I let myself go again, let sobs run through me. He stands there with me and murmurs into my hair and kisses the top of my head and lets me cry over losing another boy, a boy I loved better.”

Be sure to check out more books by Lauren Oliver!

Lauren Oliver comes from a family of writers and so has always (mistakenly) believed that spending hours in front of the computer every day, mulling over the difference between “chortling” and “chuckling,” is normal. She has always been an avid reader.

She attended the University of Chicago, where she continued to be as impractical as possible by majoring in philosophy and literature. After college, she attended the MFA program at NYU and worked briefly as the world’s worst editorial assistant, and only marginally better assistant editor, at a major publishing house in New York. Her major career contributions during this time were flouting the corporate dress code at every possible turn and repeatedly breaking the printer. Before I Fall is her first published novel.

She is deeply grateful for the chance to continue writing, as she has never been particularly good at anything else.

To learn more about Lauren Oliver and her books, visit her website. You can also find her on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.