Happy New Year and Challenges too!

Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Title: Reboot

Author: Amy Tintera

Series: Reboot #1

Publisher: Harper Teen

Publication Date: May 7 2013

Format: borrowed library e-book

Pages: 365

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

DNF Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Title: Dreaming Anastasia

Author: Joy Preble

Series: Dreaming Anastasia

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Publication date: September 1^st 2009

Format: borrowed library e-book

Pages:   321

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

 

Title: Shatter Me

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me #1

Publisher: Harper

Publication date: November 11, 2011

Format: Hardcover purchased

Pages: 338

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior

Top Ten New to Me Authors 2013

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

So this year was a big discovery year for me. I have always read a lot but this year I have been able to read much more and go to bookish events. So I discovered some amazing authors that many of you have probably been following for a while now. I'm just happy to have found them and to enjoy their writings!

Sunday Post #6

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

So sorry you guys didn't hear from me last week. I ran out of my ADD meds and kept forgetting to pick them up from the pharmacy. It has been an interesting week. I have only been on this medication for less than a year and this is the first time I have been off of since then. This was proof that it is working. 

Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title: The Distance Between Us

Author: Kasie West

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: July 2^nd 3013

Format: e-book (borrowed)

Pages: 320

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

Episodes in Non-Fiction: Holiday and Reading

It’s that wonderful time of year, when real life is constantly intruding on reading time! I mean what do all these people want with me?! And why can’t I say no to all these social things, as I have been doing for the rest of year!

National Novel Writing Month Wrap Up

National Novel Writers Month Has come to an end. I know that I did not post anything about it along the way. I was trying to not to get stuck on how much I was or wasn’t writing because, for me, that just makes it harder to just sit down any write.

I didn’t “win” the challenge. I honestly haven’t even typed most of what I wrote; I just found it much easier to write with pen and paper than to try to type and think at the same time.

Top Ten Tuesday : 2014 Releases I'm Dying to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This is a meme where bloggers share their top ten of that weeks topic!

1. The One (Selection Series #3) - Kiera Cass
2. Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky #3) - Veronica Rossi 
3. Independent Study (The Testing #2) - Joelle Chardonneau
4. Panic - Lauren Oliver
5. Ignite Me (Shatter Me #2)-  Taherah Mafi 

6. City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) - Cassandra Clare
7. Ruin & Rising (The Grisha #3) - Leigh Bardugo 
8. Burn (Pure #3) - Julianna Baggot
9. Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin #3) - R.L. LaFevers (n0 cover)
10. Redeemed (House of Night #12) - P.C. Cast

And I could keep going lol! It's gonna be a good year :) 

Clean Out Your E-reader Challenge Wrap Up

The #COYER Challenge is over as of November 30th. I didn't read even close to what I wanted to read AND I missed the Twitter party because I was doing family stuff. It was a rough month with sickness making it's rounds, new puppies, birthdays/anniversaries and a holiday. Next year I will know better than to try to do so much in November (hehe). 

So here are the three whole books I was able to finish:

Divine Beginnings

All is Bright

Anathema (I'm sliding this one in because I finished it over the weekend)

They have already posted the winners of the swags packs and other goodies and we should be hearing about the next challenge round this weekend. I will do much better next time I just know it!! 

CONGRATS! To all those who won!! And to all those who reached their reading goals for the challenge! Woot!!

Review Anathema by K.A. Tucker

Title: Anathema

Series: Casual Enchantment #1

Author: K.A. Tucker

Publisher: Smashwords

Publication date: May 25^th 2011

Pages: 661

Format: e-book (nook)

Evangeline has spent her teenage years in obscurity. Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.
When Evangeline meets Sophie after literally stumbling upon her café, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash. 
With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities... like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination—especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the “dreams.” What she discovers is far more mysterious and terrible than anything she could have imagined. 

Life of a Blogger: Pets

A fellow blogger does a weekly meme called Life of a Blogger, it's pretty much what it sounds like. Each week she has a topic for bloggers to talk about themselves. I just discovered it yesterday so I am late with my post but since the topic is pets I HAD to participate!!! 

Click her button to check out here meme page and, while you are there, check out some of her reviews! 

I'm Alive!

I know what you are thinking… Where has this blogger been for a whole week?!

Waiting On Wednesday: Independent Study

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming books whose releases are being eagerly awaited. Bloggers are encouraged to join in and post about the book they're looking forward to reading.

In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all the colonies . . . a promising leader in the effort to revitalize postwar civilization. In Independent Study, Cia is a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas—and though the government has tried to erase her memory of the brutal horrors of The Testing, Cia remembers. Her attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government’s murderous programs put her—and her loved ones—in a world of danger. But the future of the Commonwealth depends on her.

Release Date January 7th 2014!!

Sunday Post #5

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

I'm afraid last week was not particularly exciting. My hubby has been sick all week and acting like he is dying so I've been hanging with him and playing video games with him to keep him company. It seems like every time I sit down to read, I have to get right back up to make him tea or get his medicine. Seriously what would they do without us?! Big babies! 

Review of Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Author: Melissa Marr

Publisher: HarperTeen

Published: January 2007

Pages: 340

Format: borrowed (library e-book)

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty - especially if they learn of her Sight - and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.
But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King, who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost — regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning twenty-first-century faery tale.

All is Bright By Sarah Pekkanen

Title: All is Bright

Author: Sarah Pekkanen

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Published: December 2010

Pages: 37 pages

Format: e-book novella 

Thirty-year-old Elise Andrews couldn't bring herself to marry Griffin, her childhood friend turned sweetheart, so she let him walk away. Eight months after their breakup, she arrives in her hometown of Chicago on Christmas Eve and hears a voice from the past calling her name in the grocery store. It’s Griffin’s mother, Janice, who invites Elise over for a neighborhood gathering of eggnog and carols. 

Walking into Janice’s house sends Elise tumbling headlong into memories of her relationship with Griffin—and with Janice, who exudes the kind of warmth Elise ached for after her own mom passed away when she was six. But Griffin has moved on, and suddenly Elise doubts her decision to give him up and lose her chance at being folded into his wonderful family. Confused and reeling, she goes in search of an answer to a universal question: How do we say good-bye to people we've loved without losing everything they've meant to us? 

Heartwarming and witty, All is Bright is a charming story about coming home for the holidays and finding gifts in unexpected places

The Christmas Note by Donna Van Liere

Title: The Christmas Note

Author: Donna VanLiere

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Published: October 2011

Pages: 224pgs

Format: Hardback

Gretchen Daniels has recently moved into a condo with her two children to be closer to her mother, Miriam. As they build a life together in their new community, they notice a mysterious young woman, Melissa McCreary, who lives next door. She has few possessions, little personality, and keeps to herself. One day a local landlord who is looking for Melissa knocks on Gretchen’s door for assistance. Melissa’s mother has died and in the coming weeks the landlord needs Melissa to empty her mother’s apartment. Gretchen reaches out and offers to help Melissa, but the apartment is a gut-wrenching shamble of a home. There is little worth saving except for a few photos and a note that is discovered on the crate beside the bed. It is unfinished, but in the two scribbled lines, Melissa discovers secrets about her family that she never could have imagined. Can two very different women embark on a journey that explores a long-buried need for forgiveness, hope, and redemption?

Ho-Ho-Ho Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

The Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Read-a-thon is over! I'm sad because I didn't get to participate as much as I had planned to. YALL Fest took up all of my brain power last week because I was soooo excited about it! I had three books on my list to read but only ended up being about to finish one. I'm going to read the other's next month to keep the holiday spirit going and because I enjoyed reading a Christmas book a lot more than I thought I would! 

I LOVE doing the read-a-thons, hopefully I will have more free time during the next one! 

Divine Beginnings by P.C.Cast

Title: DivineBeginnings (Partholon 0.5)

Author:  P.C.Cast

Published: October 1st 2009

Publisher: Luna

Pages: 65 pages

Format: ebook

Go back in time, fifty years before the events of New York Times bestselling author P.C. Cast's Partholon books...Something isn't right at Guardian Castle, and Aine can't figure out what. As Healer, she's supposed to be making things better, but there's a darkness that can't be brightened. And then Aine finds an injured Fomorian--winged, dark, blood-thirsty and inherently evil. Or is he? Because there's something about Tegan that Aine can't resist...and once they've shared blood, Aine realizes that everything she's always believed is going to be cast aside....

YALL Fest 2013 Recap

I had soo much fun at YALL Fest! This was my first ever book fest and it will NOT be my last!
It was so wonderful to be with a huge group of people of all ages and flavors (hehe) who enjoy the same type of books that you do.

Ho- Ho- Ho Holiday Read-a-thon

Jennifer @Bawdy Book Blog and Kimba @Caffinated Book Reviewer adore holiday themed books. Whether it’s the covers, or the tales of good tidings they put us in the holiday spirit. We wanted to share that with you. So grab your pile of holiday themed books and sign-up to join us November 7th to 11th for a holiday themed read-a-thon, filled with challenges, good cheer and maybe some Figgy pudding! The challenges will be festive and give you a chance to win some holiday cheer for yourself!  Join for one day, just the weekend or the entire event. Read as many holiday related books from your YA, NA and Adult collections as you can.  Participating in challenges, spreading the news, following hosts and reading will all earn you entries for the grand prize- a twenty dollar gift-card from B&N or Amazon to fill your stocking with!

I have never read any Christmas book before but now is a great as time as any. So here are my books and I got my cider! I am ready to get into the Christmas mood, these books are going to help me get there :) 

Waiting on Wednesday : Lost Lake

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This is where we share what upcoming releases we are waitin' on(that's how we say it in the south!). 

YALL Fest 2013

The South's premier Young Adult book festival, YALLFest brings 50 of the country's top YA writers to Charleston for a day of interactive panels, book signings, pie eating and more, all on historic Upper King Street, Sat. Nov. 9, 2013.

Review of Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland

Author: Gena Showalter

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: September 2012

Format: barrowed e-book

Page: 304pages

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone. 

Her father was right. The monsters are real….  

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies…. 

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently. 

I'd tell my sister no. 

I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad. 

I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words. 

Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time. 

I'd tell them I love them.I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Sunday Post #4

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Can you believe it is already November?! Ho how the time is flying!!! It will be Christmas before we know it!!!