Friday, October 24, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
The Healer by Allison Butler
ARC provided by the publisher
The cover: I am so sick of rippling abs on romance novels, this cover is a welcome stray from the norm. I kinda love it ;)
The book:
One word comes to mind as I power off my Kindle and that is: Refreshing.
The Healer is a historical romance that's sweet and angsty. The pacing is perfect, the characters are well developed, and the setting was a welcome change. Not once did I find myself skimming as I read. The RN in me really enjoyed Lynelle's passion as a healer.
If you're looking for a bit of romance with historical charm, pick this book up.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Reluctant Prince by Dani-Lyn Alexander
ARC received from the publisher.
Let's start with the cover. I Like it. I feel like the cover is a little dark for this book, and something seems a bit off. But I do like it, it's just not my favorite.
The Book:
This was a great read. I was hooked from the start with the action and intrigue. Reluctant Prince reminded me of a very toned down version of Elizabeth Norton's Eternal Guardian's series (which I loved). The romance was sweet but not overbearing.There was plenty of action so boredom was not an issue at all. And, there were dragons! Loved that tidbit in the book.
4/5 stars
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Review of Undertow Book #1 in the UNDERTOW Series by K.R. Conway
Received an ARC from Netgalley
Undertow was a pretty good read. The beginning was slow and it was the typical new girl in a new town dealing with a new high school drama, and I was a bit bored with it. Around 47% the book really picked up and sucked me in. The plot was exciting but the overuse of adverbs and lack of descriptiveness (ex: beautiful bed, delicious food, suddenly, immediately, etc) became a bit annoying.
I was reminded a bit of Twilight mixed with something new and refreshing.
Overall a good read. But this is the first in a series so expect having many unanswered questions.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
What you missed at the Bookies event on facebook last night.
The author Takeover on the Bookies Facebook page last night was pretty awesome. A ton of people showed up, here's a tiny bit of the shenanigans:
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
The Martian by Andy Weir
This is the best book I've read all year. Hands down. It's about a man who gets left behind during a mission to mars and has to survive on his own for over a year. If you can get past the first few sections where the MC is calculating potato calories, endlessly, it's so worth it. I'm wishing I had bough a copy of this instead of borrowed it from the library.
I feel like my BS in Biochem was rejuvenated. This geek girl loved the hard science banter mixed with humor. When I finished this book I wanted to go get my MS and work for NASA. An inspiring read. Just go read it.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Book Review: Unborn by Amber Lynn Natusch
I was
super pumped to receive an ARC of Unborn!
The
cover: LOVE!
The
blurb:
Born into
mystery. Shackled to darkness…
Khara has
spent centuries discovering everything about the Underworld―except her place in
it. But when she’s ripped from her home, solving the riddle of her origins
becomes more important than ever. With evil stalking her through the dark
alleys of Detroit, she finds salvation from an unlikely source: a group of
immortal warriors sworn to protect the city. Khara needs their help to unravel
the tangled secrets of who and what she is—secrets many seem willing to kill
for. But time is running out, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer
necessity binds her to an arrogant fallen angel.
Can their
shaky alliance withstand that which threatens her, or will her soul fall victim
to the unholy forces that hunt her―those that seek the Unborn?
From the
author of the bestselling Caged series comes a pulse-pounding new romantic
urban fantasy series.
--
My thoughts:
I was so
excited for this read. I wanted my pulse to pound, but, sadly, it stayed at its
normal sluggish rate throughout this entire book. And the romance? Where the
hell was it? Oz starts out as an interesting love interest but by the end it’s
all toast. Too much talking, barely any action. The spots that had me hooked
were few and far between.
The mix
of greek mythology and angels did not meld well in this book. The world
building was just not up to par.Great ideas, poor execution.
I marked
my kindle at 46% with the note of, “finally gets interesting.” But by then it
was too late, I was already detached. Khara’s character was hard to connect to;
she lacked emotion.
There was
a lot of awkward dialog, one minute everyone is talking like they are from
another era and then there’s some slang thrown. It would be funny, if Khara’s
dumbfounded reaction to it wasn’t so odd. She states that she’s been around for
hundreds of years, she reads books, and although she detests television, she
had one for a while, also she spends six months out of the year on earth hiding
in the woods somewhere. So tell me, how does this character not understand
simple slang terms and other languages? Khara has had hundreds of years to learn Greek! Does not make sense.
This book
is not for everyone, but it may still be for you. Try it out. Sadly, I don’t
think I’ll be reading the rest of the series. This was the biggest
disappointing read of the year for me :(
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Book Review: The 100
This was a fast read. Typical YA, strong on the romance aspect. I loved the Science Fiction/Dystopian storyline of everyone living in space and waiting for the earth to recover from the apocalypse. Every character has a love interest. I liked the alternating POVs but I feel like it ended very suddenly. The cliffhanger wasn't bad, but it was slightly annoying. I will more than likely read the next book in the series.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Sunday, August 31, 2014
A Review: Of Bone and Thunder
ARC received from NetGalley
3/5 stars
First thing, let’s talk about the
cover. Beautiful, amazing, intriguing. The cover drew me to this book. I love
it. Pure fantasy.
Now let’s talk about the book. I have a hard time connecting with books that
have an epic war at the forefront of the storyline without knowing some
background information. This is where I would have appreciated a LOTR worthy
prologue. The literary world says
prologues are dead, but I think this book deserves one, especially since Of
Bone and thunder is hailed as a LOTR-esque read. From a LOTR reader, what do I
see that this book has in common with LOTR? Dwarves and Dragons and the hint of
an epic battle. Except, I don’t care much for the battle, since, as a reader, I
have not been introduced to the danger of the Slyt’s, as I have been to the
evil of Sauron. I can understand why the soldiers didn’t understand their
mission, because neither did I.
Moving on.
Of Bone and Thunder is told from
multiple points of view. We see through the eyes of the enlisted men at the
forefront of the battlefield, a man on the ground who just might be a secret
weapon in winning this war, and the eye-in-the-sky dragon riders. There is war,
deception, drug use, the mistrust of new technologies, the role of women on the battlefield, and they
are all artfully intertwined.
What did I love? The scenery and the
mixing of magic, dragons, weaponry that deserve a fantasy novel of their own. Our
most captivating characters, Jawn, a trained Thaum (think mind magician with
electricity) and trained military officer in the Kingdom’s army, as well as
Vorly and Breeze with their dragons are the plot points that kept me reading. Not
only were these characters the most captivating, but the scenes were well
written and imaginative. I think I did fly on a dragon while reading this, and
I did that crazy mind-meld thing that Breeze and Vorly did using the crystals. But
what we were given wasn’t enough for me. Deep in my heart, I wanted more
dragons, More magic of the Thaum, More
Jawn, more Vorly and Breeze and Carduus. We are only given hints at the strongest
characters and most interesting storylines, and then they are heavily coated in
jungle sweat and frontline banter and combat. I really wanted to connect with
the front line military men, but since (yes, I know I’m beating a dead horse
here) I have no way to connect with this war, they were simply a lot of static
in the storyline. That being said, Of Bone and Thunder is still a great read.
Does Evans combine the best of
fantasy and military fiction? Yes. Is it for me? Some of it is. I think my
problem is that I just prefer more fantasy and less military fiction
If you’re more into military fiction
than you are into fantasy, this is a good read for you. If you’re fond of
fantasy, but not a fan of military fiction, consider moving on.
#10 books that have stayed with me
I was nominated on Facebook to take the #10 books challenge.
These are the results:
This was a bit of a walk down memory lane. Of course there are plenty of books I would like to add but there just isn't room. Super-boo.
These are the results:
Thursday, August 28, 2014
The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
I guess I have to give any book that keeps me reading until 5am five stars. Not only did it keep me up until 5am, but when I woke up a few hours later, I turned on the coffee and read until I finished the book. This was a great read. I will say, I could sense a bit of a tragedy coming on, and when I started chapter forty, I wanted to kick myself in the teeth and then I got to the fourth paragraph and all was well with the world.
The Edge of Never starts out sweet and while I felt like I easily could have put this book down during the first few chapters, I didn't, and then it was too late because I didn't want to put the book down. The author gave me everything I wanted from a NA romance read, it wasn't over the top, it wasn't raunchy. There was simplicity and fun and just enough "Deepness" to stick in my heart. My only negative idea was that I did get a little annoyed with every male character wanting to bone Camryn.
Great read.
The Edge of Never starts out sweet and while I felt like I easily could have put this book down during the first few chapters, I didn't, and then it was too late because I didn't want to put the book down. The author gave me everything I wanted from a NA romance read, it wasn't over the top, it wasn't raunchy. There was simplicity and fun and just enough "Deepness" to stick in my heart. My only negative idea was that I did get a little annoyed with every male character wanting to bone Camryn.
Great read.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Review of Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
I came across Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee via
email from Amazon. In this email it was promised that I could read this book
for free. A few clicks later the book arrived in my Kindle. I’m not sure what I
owe Amazon for this, maybe a kneecap or my first born? Or can I simply pay them in gratitude?
So, let’s start from the cover. Can I just say, holy hell,
have you seen anything so beautiful as this? Whoever did the cover work has
talent and I would consider doing certain
things to get a cover like that for one of my books.
Before reading Gates of Thread and Stone, I perused a few
reviews and saw some people liken this book to the Clockwork Princess series by
Cassandra Claire. Well folks, you can’t judge this book on its cover, this is
not your mother’s Cassandra Claire. Actually if Cassandra Claire’s books were
an apple and you picked up Gates of Thread and Stone, you’d be holding a carrot
in your hand. Ergo, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
It took me until about 12% before I started really getting
into this book. At first there seemed to be a lot of information that wasn’t
necessary or that I felt should have been reworked to fit into the story
better. And I got a little uncomfortable with all the mackin’ Kai was doing on
her brother. I mean, I have four brothers and not once did I gaze at them as
they slept. Anywho, we find out why later in the book why this is acceptable.
At 37%, the book really picked up, the story got really interesting and things
started to come together a tiny bit, although there was still plenty of
mystery.
I see in my reading progress I noted that at 67%, this book
got really good. And then I couldn’t put it down. Still, while reading I felt
like there was something missing. It seemed to be plagued by vagueness and gloss
and a bit dreamlike. But I kept thinking to myself, this is fantasy, let’s just
go with it. So I’m still on the fence with some aspects of this book. I had a
hard time connecting with Kai, I feel like her character needed more development.
And I guess I’m a selfish reader because I yearned for more uses of Kai’s
ability to dapple with the threads of time. I really enjoyed Avan and Reev’s
characters, and truly, those two are what kept me reading.
Overall, the setup is a Young Adult Dystopia with
magical/fantasy elements. When I step back, I see elements of Hunger Games,
Divergent, and Red Rising, with the cadets and the training, etc. The author
did a great job of mixing the dystopia with the mythology but I wanted more.
There was so much more that could have been said or delved into with
relationships and events instead of glossing over them. So while I enjoyed the
last half of this book very much, I still have that nagging feeling that
something was missing. Also, this is the only book I’ve ever read and kept
asking myself, where is the rest of the world? Are we on a flat plane where
there is only Ninurta, a forest, the void, and Etu Gahl. Humans are mentioned,
a Rebirth, the one week of sun but… where is the rest of the world?
After all is said and done, I find that Amazon knows me a little too
well. It's creepy really.
Bonuses: the ending brought everything together; when I was
done I was satisfied and even consider reading this again.
I recommend this, 3/5 stars.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Review Lux Series by Jennifer Armentrout
My first introduction into the alien/human world created by JLA was by reading Obsession, and I loved it! Over a year later (because I'm cheap and have been stalking this series yet never reading), Obsidian goes on sale for free and I finally swoop down and dig my claws into that mother, and I couldn't put it down.
So here I am, having read the entire series in 7 days (so lucky that the last book was just released), and I loved it all!
This series starts out as YA romance, but I feel by book five all of our favorite characters have definitely become adults, matured & changed, and the romance is very strong, especially in the last 2 books, but it's not overwhelming as in some YA books, there's a whole lotta plot and twists and turns and ups and downs that kept me on my toes and kept me reading. Plenty of humor and awesome one-liners. The ending had me scared for a bit, but it turned out to be perfect.
Now I'm sad that it's over :(
Enter ensuing book hangover...
I'm just going to go ahead and rate all the books in the series 5/5 stars
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Review of HORNS by Joe Hill
Overall, this was a thrilling read! A great mix of love, heartache, godliness, and the supernatural. I enjoyed the ups and downs of the story and many times I felt like I was hanging around my brothers as a kid, the dialog was real.
The only negative I have about this book is the ending, which seemed to drag on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. People were supposed to leave but then showed up again, other characters showed up and the interactions that followed didn't seem to add anything to the story, just drew it out. And how many times to we need to read about Lee beating the crap out of Ig in the bowels of that building? It was a repeated scene that got old.
Overall, a good read. The ending could have been a bit better, and less drawn out. I'm excited for the movie!
4/5 stars
Friday, July 25, 2014
A movie I'm kinda excited about!
I'm reading HORNS by Joe Hill right now (finally)! I was a bit nervous, since Joe
Hill is Stephen King's son, I was afraid of never sleeping again. But
it's good. I'm about 1/2 way through.
Oh, and the trailer = pretty awesome!
Oh, and the trailer = pretty awesome!
Get More:
Movie Trailers, Celebrity News
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Sparrow Man Goodreads Giveaway!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Sparrow Man
by M.R. Pritchard
Giveaway ends September 22, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
July Newsletter includes 26pg sneak preview of SPARROW MAN
Here's the link: http://eepurl.com/WlKgD
This book was a round-two contestant in the Amazon Breakthrough
Novel Awards 2014 and I received some excellent feedback from the VINE
reviewers. So excited!
Meg Clark has turned out to be
everything her father and the people of her little North Country town of
Gouvernour, NY, have been saying her whole life: nothin’ but a piece of white trash. And that’s how she lives; she’s even got the tattoos to prove it. Well that’s how she was
living, until she got knocked up and engaged. In an effort to hide her
past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead
mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then
something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her
fiancĂ©, Jim, wouldn’t have to. And then everyone started waking
up…dead.
Good thing escaping from County
wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running
and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find
weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange
man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only
goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route 37 with a snowy
owl in its rafters.
Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she
and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes,
crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and
safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer
not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow.
He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories
of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one
who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could
be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened
that day she killed those seven men.
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