Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

This would be one of the books I bought on the Fierce Reads Tour in New York at Books of Wonder.  It truly was a lovely affair where I got to meet so many amazing and talented writers, one of them being Jennifer Bosworth.

The Synopsis:
Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.
Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.
Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

My Thoughts:
I was really excited to read this book once I read that lovely synopsis and looked at the eye-capturing cover.  You can see the Lichtenberg marks covering her arms and you can see all the destruction around Mia, our main girl in this book.  It's one heck of a cover, if you ask me.
Mia Price is not exactly a natural introvert, but she's learned that people don't accept a person whose been struck by lightning numerous amount of times.  They think she's weird.  A freak.  So, to avoid the hurt, she's used to keeping quiet and covering up who she really is.  In all actuality, her character was very strong and courageous.  She'd do anything to keep her already loose family together, even if that means risking her health or making her brother or mother unhappy.  And after the devastating quake, she's been working harder than ever to scrape by.
I thought that the idea for the book was very original.  I mean, who's a lightning addict?  It's not something you don't normally see on the shelves nowadays.  There wasn't exactly a lot of action--what I normally enjoy in books--but there was plenty of action and danger that kept me hooked right from the very start.  Like, who really is Jeremy?  Where did he come from?  Why does he totally rock?  What's up with this supposed storm that's coming?  Is it really going to happen?  Questions like those.
Alright, here's the toughie I'm going to tackle here.
Jennifer Bosworth and I chatted a little bit before I read the book.  She told me that there was a religious controversy involving this book, and I made it my own mission to decide that for myself.  If you've read my review for Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman, you'd know that I also tackled the religion topic.  In BoBS, it's got a lot of history in it that ties into present situations.  I said that you cannot have an accurate talk about history, especially the Medieval Times without at least briefly discussing religion.  It's impossible.  But for Struck, it's a little different.
So, here's the deal.  A ginormous earthquake has practically eaten up all of LA.  People are dying, people are sick, people are dead.  There's no money, no food, no water, no homes.  There's no way things are going to be going back to normal for a very long time.  And in a time like this, people are desperate.  People have heard of this one man, Prophet, who predicted the major earthquake and also accurately predicted other events.  People originally didn't believe--I mean, who would?  He's a crack job, right?  But, when people are desperate, and Prophet has been right about many things, offers God's forgiveness, and you haven't been to Church ever since your parents stopped driving you there for Sunday School, don't you think you'd want to believe?  Believe that there is some type of larger force out there pulling the strings?
I'm not saying that this is what I'd do; I'm just making a point here.  But a lot of people, especially once they're desperate and think that they will be breathing their last breaths in the next few days would.  It's human behavior to act rash and come up with answers to things we can't explain, to solve the unknown, even if it the answer is outlandish and doesn't make complete sense.
In all, I do not believe that this book in any sense is religious.  If anything, you'd get more of a religious feel from books if they were about angels.  I'm not saying that they are all like that, but it is more likely for angel books to incorporate more religion.
I thought that Struck was a very beautifully written and thought out book.  Constantly, I was noting how knowledgeable Jennifer was on the topic of lightning and storm--other things, too.  She definitely did her homework on this one.  Plot-wise, I thought it was genius.  I didn't doubt for one second what might happen because I trusted Mia and the writing.  Especially towards the end, I was either puling out my hair or sitting at the edge of my seat.  It was great.  I absolutely loved it.  It was fierce.
See what I did there??
Overall, I gave Struck four out of five stars.  No, actually 4.5 stars would be more accurate.  I think the reason only being that I'm not one for end-of-the-world kind of books.  It was a bit out of my comfort zone, this book, but I don't mind, especially since I really enjoyed it.  So I suggest you all go hunt down this book and read it.
Happy reading, everyone!

What's Next?

This is a weekly meme hosted by Hafsah over at IceyBooks, and this will be my first ever What's Next post!

Alrighty, so I've got two more library book to read and that's it for my library book haul, and I honestly have no idea what book to start next.  So, this is the point here all of you reading this help me choose what's next for me

First up:

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, Janelle knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.
But her reincarnation, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI-agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.
From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl’s fight to save herself, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

I've had Unraveling on my bookshelf for a while now, but I've kept on putting it on the back-burner.  I've heard many good things about this book, and I'm excited to read it, but as you will see, I have other good choises to choose from.

Second:

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.
Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.
Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

Just recently, as in Monday, I bought this book at the Fierce Reads Book Tour in New York at Books of Wonder (love that bookstore!).  I met all of the awesome and fierce authors there and bought Struck along with a bunch of other books.  And, as you could probably imagine, I am super pumped to read all four of the books I got there.  And isn't the idea pretty cool for this book?

And Lastly:

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

And here is the last book on my What's Next? list.  This is yet again another super awesome-looking read.  The idea seems pretty cool, so I'm excited to read this one, too.  And same as Struck, I bought this book and had it signed at the Fierce Reads Book Tour.

So, people, what book should I read next