So my librarian recommended this book to me, and I am so glad she did. 

This book was AMAZING. You have a young girl named Tella who moved and left her city life behind. Yes how devastating. Her brother has a sickness and is dying what can she do? Well when she gets an invitation to become a Contender to receive a Cure to help her brother she does it. Though to be a contender in the Brimstone Bleed is something she has never seen or heard of before. You are in this race for three months THREE MONTHS that is a long time to be away from your family. So what happens in this race? Well you are thrown into certain environments and you have to be the first across the finish line you also get a Pandora of some sorts which have certain powers to help you. This race isn't just a simple run through and get to the finish line oh no, there is plenty of obstacles in the way.You have to find your own food, water and shelter, you have to adapt to the environments. That is what makes this book amazing in my eyes.  I thought that was wicked awesome, I loved how the author used the Pandora's to help the one that received them. As we read on we see Tella make the decision to join in a group of those also in the race will it help her or not? 

We proceed in the book and we learn via another player named Guy in the game who Tella is getting close to how all this came to be and why people are getting sick. It seems all those that are contenders are there for a reason and that being to help someone they care about.

I know this book is compared to the Hunger Games but I didn't get that while reading. The characters are rememberable even the side characters. Tella you can tell is finally coming into her skin of being strong and not following the pack mentality which is good. 

Fire and Flood is action packed, a bit of romance coming to life, and a good plot. I totally want to write more but I feel as though I will be giving so much away. You have to read this book and I believe it will be in my top ten books for the year. 

I am really ready to read book two to find out what can happen next. 

This is just what I needed tonight, a little bit of action! : ) The story reminds me of the show the Amazing Race. Contenders are selected to take part in a four month race, the Brimstone Bleed, in order to win a cure for someone in their family that is dying. There are so many more layers to the story then that though. I was really pleasantly surprised by how good it was because some of the reviews aren't very good. I liked it a lot though and I think I held my breath through half of it. It's one of those stories where once you start reading, you won't want to put it down until you finish. I got both the first and second book, Salt & Stone, at the same time and I'm really glad I did. Without saying too much, the story is split up so you'll definitely want to read them together.

I have no idea why I never did a May one. I guess I'm just lazy. I read quite a bit these past two months-at least a lot for me, Though I know I'm behind because I want to read 75 books this year. Graphic novels and manga count right? I read three these past two months.

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

It was a good sequel, but I definitely enjoyed the first book more.

I really liked the politics in this one, but I felt the build up was dragged for the ending sequence that was only like five pages. Also, not enough interaction between Arin and Kestrel. Though I really did like their heart breaking romance though. Rip my heart out it's okay. That cliff hanger though. UGH.

 Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

I loved this book so much. I loved it so much I actually made a post about it. i still want a story from Daniel's perspective. Just saying. 

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Everyone seems to love this and I am not part of that group. I wasn't impressed by this. Nothing meshed well and it was all over the place. I can't explain it but it was also very open...(?) It kind of just jumped right into the story and went from one thing to the next. I liked it enough to buy the sequel though. Interesting plot but meh writing. (Though I do love her Hex Hall series.)

Scandal by Sarah Ockler

The message of this book is very important. Cyber bullying is horrible and should never be done. I hated the bullying. I hated the fact that no one helped the main character. This poor girl would walk through the hallways of her school and get spat on. Why did no one stop this? Bullying is a messed up thing and I hate hearing about it. 

The one thing I didn't like was the main character's romance thing with the guy. There were things that were written about them that happened that were so vague they made no sense. 

Important message but everything else was meh. 

Lux Beginnings and Consequences by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I read Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal (technically I read Obsidian in May in finished in June and the same thing happened with Opal and finished July first oh well.) I like the story. It's enjoyable and has it's moments. I like Katy, I don't like Daemon. He was fine throughout the first book but half way in Onyx and a majority of Opal he was so annoying. He's so inconsistent. Up and down up and down. One minute he hates her the next he's in love. I was also so done with the romance in Opal. I want plot development I don't care about you two kissing. 

Angelfall and World After by Susan Ee

Literally the best angel books I've read so far. Granted I was annoyed that it just jumped to six weeks later. I want to know what happened but that's the whole point of the story. The angels have invaded and no one knows why. I love the relationship between Penryn and her sister and her relationship with Raffe. And of course the actual story and the crap that happens to her. But mostly Penryn. One of the best female leads I have ever read. (I heard the third book is a disappointment and I really hope when I read it I won't think it is.)

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

I guess it was a cute contemporary? I don't really like contemporary nor did I like the instalove.

Salt and Stone by Victoria Scott

This sequel was so good! The character development was great with Tella, That cliffhanger though. When's the last book coming out?

I also read Deadly Class vol.1 and the manga Blackbird vol.1 and I liked the story to both of them but to me they were all over the place. Literally jumped from one thing to the next. 

Right now I'm in a reading slump. I have so many books on my tbr that need to be read but I don't wanna read any of them. 

At least now tella's realizing how useless she is. She's not as useless as she was but now she's like "omg did I really rely on him the whole time? Omgg I wonder what he must think of me Omgg"

Time is slipping away....

Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.

Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.

The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

When I first bought the book, I was so confused by the size. The paperback version is so tiny I had to google it to make sure there was nothing wrong with it. In doing so, I ended up seeing quite a few people who didn't like this book. I didn't actually read any of those reviews because I don't like to have someone else's opinion in my head when I go into a new book. Going into this book, I knew quite a few people had mixed feelings on this, but I still wanted to read this because I personally really liked Victoria Scott's other series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would. There were some minor issues I had, but they weren't even that bad. I could see where other people would have even more issues, but I'm not super nitpicky with things. I mean I am with certain things, but not to the point as professional reviewers because I'm obviously not one.

A lot of people were comparing this to The Hunger Games, which there are similar things in this book that are in THG (the actual reason for the race being a thing, the contestants are dropped in the middle of nowhere and have to survive, it's a race to the finish and only one can live, and they have to wear a pin throughout the whole race). There was probably more similarities but I don't actually like THG so I didn't care to "compare" them and I'm not going to.

First off, it's not as brutal as THG. The competitors aren't killing each other off (for the most part anyway) and it's not a total dystopian setting. THG is about people being forced into an arena to kill each other because of the effed up government and crap that happened in the past. That's not really the case with this book because Tella (the main character) is technically given a choice to do this to save her brother.

They're two different book series that are in categories of their own. I wouldn't compare the two at all. People need to get it out of their heads that they're going to be reading a HG rip off because it's not like that at all. At least, to me it wasn't.

When I first started the book, I thought it was a bit too fast paced. The book gets started within the first 20 pages. Everything happened really fast. Tella gets the invite, obsesses over it, then leaves in the middle of night to god know's where because of the thought that she could cure her brother if she wins the race. But then I know that if I (in some twisted universe) were stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and my brother was sick, I'd jump at the chance of him being cured.

After the beginning, the pacing was much better. It didn't slow down, but the first two quarters of the race were dragged out (in a good way) where plot development happens and Tella's character development.

I did have a minor issue with Tella however. I liked her as a main character. She was funny with her self-deprecating kind of humor and the things she thought. However, for a majority of the book, she was utterly useless. It's expected of someone who grew up in a big city. My survivor skills? Negative ten. But she literally had to rely on everyone else for a majority of the book. In a way it was almost admirable how even though she knew absolutely nothing of what she was doing, she did it anyway. She was able to survive the jungle despite knowing squat of how to do it. (Also, I've noticed a trend with books lately. Despite the female being the main character, she has to rely on her male partner for everything because she's useless and can't do s***.) The one thing that bothered me about her was how vain she was. She kept thinking about how she looked and how badly she needed makeup to make herself pretty. After a while she stopped because hellllooo you're in the middle of the jungle and the way you look should be the last thing on your mind.

One thing people said that this was an instalove romance, which I cannot deal with it. Anything with instalove I stay far away from. That made me a bit wary also to read this but surprisingly, I didn't think this was like that at all, however, I wasn't a fan of the romance. It didn't really play a major part in the story, but even so it could have been developed more. We get to see what Tella thinks of Guy (yep, that's the love interest's name) but since it's a first person narrative, we don't get to see what Guy's thinking. I think he could have been developed (how many times am I going to say that word?) more but there isn't much room for other characters to do so when a story is told in first person. The romance didn't really fit, but it wasn't even that big of a deal to me. It was just okay, that's happening, nothing to go crazy about.

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced, easy to follow, and I just kept wanting more.