Triple Digits!

 YAY! 100 Followers!

Thank you to all my wonderful long-time followers and my new followers for reading my ramblings, giving your feedback and allowing me to share these amazing books with you! And the little girl up there? Yeah, that's pretty much what I look like. My pigtails are much better otherwise the resemblance is uncanny!

I wish I could do a giveaway for you guys to show my appreciation; however I'd still like to share some book news in hopes of keeping everyone on the same page (hehe, get it?) because there is nothing I hate more than the thought of amazing books that I might be missing out on!

The cover for Hades, the sequel to Halo by Alexandra Adornetto has been revealed! It is set to be released August 30, 2011!

Whoa, right? I haven't read Halo yet, but if these covers say anything about the story it encompasses, it HAS to be good!!

This is a book I found thanks to Bella at Cheezyfeet Books. 

DIE FOR ME is the first of three books about Kate, a sixteen-year-old American who moves to Paris after the death of her parents. It introduces a new version of the undead with revenants, beings who are fated to sacrifice themselves over and over again to save others’ lives. Kate finds herself falling for Vincent, who she discovers is not the typical French teenager he appears: he is something else entirely.

DIE FOR ME presents a new supernatural mythology presented in a city where dreams are sometimes the same as reality. 

Not telling your audience what type of supernatural they're in store for is downright torture! Yet great way to pull us in! I really like the sound of this book.

If you would like to have a chance at receiving books for review, go to I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. Kathy there just cannot say yes to all the books she gets asked to review so she is putting together a list of bloggers interested in reviewing. Check her site for more details and to fill out the form to add your name!

Thanks again for supporting my blog! Love you guys!

Double Tuesday Review Day!

Hey everyone! This week I'll be reviewing two books I somehow found time to read in the same week - Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, who has a simple yet inspiring bio you can read here and Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater who has an awesome blog you can find ... here!

Only one of these books are tween friendly, where the other, in my opinion, is for 18 and up! Graphic/sexual content and strong language. That said, let's start with a little something for everyone!

Paranormalcy (Paranomalcy, #1)

Written by: Kiersten White

Publication date: August 31, 2010

Released in Hardcover, Ebook, Kindle, paperback and audiobook

335 pages

5 stars and more!

Synopsis: Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

My Review: Right off the bat, Evie, main character/narrator, quickly became a favorite of mine. Maybe it's because I have a soft spot for characters whose names begin with E, like mine, because they tend to be rare. It's either that or the fact that she's the kind of gal that's always right smack-dab in the middle of things. It is said that she is the only one of her kind - a human that can see through paranormals' glamours - meaning  she can see the rotting corpse beneath the glamour of a handsome vampire, or the glowing yellow eyes of a werewolf behind the color everyone else sees. She's a little nosy and rebellious which works out perfectly for us, because you don't miss a thing! All the action centers around her!

Evie just wants to live as normal a life as possible while working for a company run by paranormals, designed to bag and tag other paranormals in efforts to civilize them, in a way. But when Evie discovers she may not be entirely human, the Center where she works and lives, her sanctuary, may not be as safe as she thought or even what she thought.

The fairies in this story are sneaky, conniving and talk in rhyme. Translation: they make for a lot of excitement and trouble, especially with their own interpretations of a named command. Enter Reth; fairie, master manipulator, Seelie or Unseelie? Hmm, so hard to tell... He stalks Evie wherever she goes, speaking in riddles about trying to help and filling her but he won't say with what but it glows like golden flames beneath her skin! Evie can't decide if what Reth is doing to her is good or bad, which makes the mystery that is Reth, all the more intriguing.

Speaking of mysteries, Lend, prisoner of IPCA, is by far the most interesting character in this book. Maybe save for Alisha, Evie's BFF and mermaid. However, Lend can change form to look like anyone he wants. His true identity, his normal paranormal self, the part only Evie can see no matter what, appears made of water, his skin smooth and soft to the touch.

I am so in love with this book because it easily played out like a movie in my head. Everything about everything grabs your attention. I honestly did not focus on scenery too much while reading this. I don't think it was because the descriptions were weak, rather he story was so interesting I didn't really care where they were, I just wanted to know what was going to happen next! I was excited the whole time, shaking my head like "This book is crazy!"

It was light, fun, and addictive. Yet, there is one small, teeny-tiny thing I could have done without. There was...a lot of vampire bashing. Evie just can't get past the corpse under the glamour so they really gross her out. I try not to think about it that way. Call it shallow, but the vamps in my favorite movies and books are pretty hot and I'd like to keep it that way!

Who Should Read This Book: One size fits all. Fun for all ages. Tell your friends about it.



Begin the slow and painful wait for Supernaturally, Paranormalcy #2!

A lot has changed in the six months since Evie escaped from the International Paranormal Containment Agency with her shape-shifter boyfriend, Lend. She finally has the blissfully normal life she’s always dreamed of, including:
1) A real live high school
2) A perfectly ordinary after-school job
3) Her very own locker (and by the way, rusted metal is every bit as awesome as she imagined)
But Evie’s not-so-normal past keeps creeping up on her...and things get pretty complicated when you factor in:
1) A centuries-old, seriously decaying vampire stalker
2) A crazy faerie ex-boyfriend who is the perpetual bearer of really bad news
3) A major battle brewing between the faerie courts where the prize in question happens to be...Evie herself.
So much for normal.

Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel (ebook)

Written by: Rhiannon Frater

Publication date: February 12, 2009, 278 pages

(first published in paperback, November 24, 2008, 384 pgs)

Released in paperback, ebook and Kindle


5 stars - another great book

(I'm really on a roll, picking one awesome book after another!)


Synopsis: Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry in a new, horrific, unimaginable way. Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas hoping to escape her creator.
 
How I Came To Read This: This book was on my to-read list but I never picked it up at the store. After I got my Nook and started browsing for ebooks, I came across Pretty When She Dies and downloaded it immediately. Once I started the first chapter, I was hooked.

My Review: It begins with a young woman who doesn't where she is, how she got there, what happened or even her name. Waking up underground, buried, to be more specific, she is led by her instincts rather than her memories to not only dig herself out of her grave but back to her college campus, to her room and all the way to her first meal. All along the way you feel as though this is happening to you. This scene (as well as the rest of the book) is so descriptive of her feelings, her actions...everything it's as if Frater was recapping an actual event she personally was a witness to. Or it happened to her friend.

The story was so captivating, so good at holding you in suspense. Poor Amaliya. She can't catch a friggin' break. The guy she has a crush on killed her. If that wasn't bad enough, he turned her into a vampire. That's the kind of thing you have to ask a lady about first! When her maker throws her out into the world without any lessons on how to be a vampire, she hits the road. Badass style. Looking for another one of her kind. Someone who isn't her jerk creator. She learns some hard lessons along the way but each one makes her stronger and stronger. She's no ordinary vamp!

However, she doesn't find another one of her kind - he finds her! Cian. If you're having a hard time pronouncing that name, like I did for many, many pages, it sounds like Key-Inn. Whatever his names is or sounds like, I love him. I think each character had just enough background story to make them significant enough to care about them but not enough outshine Amaliya and Cian.

I enjoyed the dry humor, the real feel of the story - to a certain extent of course, it is a paranormal horror story! Full of edge-of-your-seat action and scenes that draw you in so much that at the end of it, you realize your nose is touching the book..err, screen, in my case. I really like the cover, too. I feel the girl really resembles Amaliya and it provided a great basic visual to get you started and at times, I pictured her looking exactly like that!


I must warn you: reading this book may result in slight heartbreak or major heartbreak, if you're me. I was lucky enough to correspond with the author, Rhiannon Frater, who so kindly informed me that the other two books of this trilogy, Pretty When She Kills and Pretty When She Destroys have been put on hold while she is busy reissuing As the World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy.


Who Should Read This Book: This was a mature vampire story, in my opinion. A change from high school drama and parents getting in the way of all the fun. I think this book might be a little overlooked and I believe it is worth a closer look.

Book Blogger Hop #6

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs they  never knew existed!

Each week, participating blogs are asked questions to post and answer on their websites.

This week's question

 "If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?"

My Answer: I would have to go with the Sookie Stackhouse or True Blood series. Even though it can be dangerous from time to time, the world knows of the existence of vampires and supernaturals and I think it would be cool to live among the creatures we read about so much.

 

I've said it before and I'm happy to say it again, if you haven't read these books and/or you are not watching the show on HBO, what...what are you doing with yourself? Seriously.

By Title? By Genre? By Author?

If you read about my recent trip to Borders, my favorite place in the whole-wide world, I picked up Firelight by Sophie Jordan. This book has sparked something major. I have arranged my books in order of paranormal creature, so to speak. First I have my vampire books, then Shadowhunters, angels, werewolves, fairies/pixies, witches/Casters, then it goes into various other characters like those who hear voices or ones that guide the dead to the afterlife, crazy girl type, superhero type, ghosts and so on. Anyway, the point is that I do not have a section, for dragons. This has revived an issue I sort of put a pin in to save it for later - changing the order of my books.

I'm dying to know how everyone else organizes their bookcases. I used to arrange the books to be more appealing to the eye, aesthetically pleasing, disregarding any order as long as it looked cool on the shelf! Is anyone else as anal about this as I am?? When I sit across from them I ponder the all the different possibilities, all the ways I could shift and play with them!

So again, is it by author, by size, color or genre?

Okay Pretty Little Liars fans (that have read the books), I need your help!! I haven't read them - though I would love to - but I am obsessed with the show! I need to know: Out of eight books, am I right, do you ever find out who A is, or are you trying to figure it out the whole time, suspicious of everyone - like I am?! Okay, I don't want to know who A is, exactly, but you see, my bestie and I are trying to figure out if it will be a mystery the whole time or if they will eventually reveal it and then what from there? How long can A go on like this before someone identifies him or her? 

Just a hint? Pleeeeaaasseee!

In other book news...

If you haven't read it already, the synopsis for Beautiful Chaos has been revealed - read it here! The title for the sequel to the aforementioned Firelight, is Vanish, and the cover is HOT! I love the hint of scales in each cover!

Also, Sirensong is the third book in the Faeriewalker series by Jenna Black.

I don't love this cover like I did the first two. She's blah, the petals are blah. I feel blah about it. I haven't read this series yet but I do buy them for future reading!

Tuesday Review Day!

I feel like I'm on a reading roll and I'm loving it! It helps when each book I pick up is amazing! Speaking of which, here is my review for this week!

Afterlife (Evernight, #4)

Written by: Claudia Gray

Publication date: March 8, 2011 by Harper Teen

Released in hardcover, paperback, ebook and Kindle

368 pages

5 stars

Synopsis: The fourth book in this electrifying vampire series has all the romance, suspense, and page-turning drama that have made Claudia Gray’s Evernight books runaway successes.

Having become what they feared most, Bianca and Lucas face a terrifying new reality. They must return to Evernight Academy, Lucas as a vampire and Bianca as a wraith. But Lucas is haunted by demons, both personal and supernatural. Bianca must help him fight the evil inside him, combat the forces determined to drive them apart—and find the power to claim her destiny at last.

Readers have fallen in love with Bianca and Lucas, and they will be thrilled to read this exciting conclusion to their romantic adventure.

My Review: First, allow me to elaborate on the reason I rated Afterlife five stars is because I never even stopped once to write my review as I read like I usually do. I just didn't want to waste free time writing about what I had already read, I wanted to read more!

Bianca is once again a great narrator and very likable. Lucas is such the sweetie you just wanna put him in your pocket and take him home! I can't even begin to tell you the kinds of trials and tribulations their love has endured: the undead, hunters, more than one psycho vampire chick, wraiths or ghosts, death, the afterlife and resurrection! Okay, so maybe I can begin to tell you but I couldn't possibly explain! Lucas and Bianca are the greatest love story since Romeo and Juliet and dare I say it? Yes, Edward and Bella. Lucas and Bianca undergo such an emotional journey, always coming so close to losing each other forever, the final death, only to be pulled back but just barely.

This series has a great cast of characters throughout and man, when there's an action see - boy, they really go at it! It's serious. So many past secrets are finally revealed, like the whole mystery behind Mrs. Bethany, her past and her plans for the wraiths, for example.

Watching Lucas try to cope with having been turned into the one thing he never wanted to be - a vampire - is so sad. He struggles with the bloodlust, the urge to tear open any human that dares to venture near enough - even his own mother.

The plot was so carefully planned and detailed and executed that I couldn't put it together by myself. Sometimes a book is so easily laid out for you that you can tell exactly where it's going. I was so impressed with how everything came together in the end. It raises a few questions, sure, but just a few. Claudia Gray gave such a satisfying happily-ever-after ending and I will miss this story, these characters and the world they lived in!

Who Should Read This Book: Anyone who loves a little romance with their paranormal or a little paranormal with their romance! Strong characters, fun read, a great series you should not miss!

Speaking of things you should not miss...

B A L T H A Z A R

"In BALTHAZAR, Claudia Gray reveals the story of Evernight Academy's most captivating student. For hundreds of years, the vampire Balthazar has been on his own - without allies, without love, Now, he faces his greatest enemy, but he no longer has to fight alone." (Excerpt from the end of Afterlife)

Expected publication date 2021!

Mini-Post Shout Out!!!

Hey Everyone!

I don't have much to share today but it is my daddy's birthday and he does stop by the ol' blog once in a while so if you're reading this HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!

While visiting my special someone, we took a trip to Borders and I left with the following books in hand: Darkest Mercy (Wicked Lovely #5) by Melissa Marr, Firelight by Sophie Jordan and To Die For by Christopher Pike. After we left Borders and went home, I logged onto Borders.com to order Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright (because I forget to get it at the store) and Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by Lohn Lechner for my daughter (because they did not have it in the store). I can't wait to add them to my overflowing bookcases! All the more reason to open the third one and put it together!

Sorry it's not much but I do have a great review coming in this week's 

Tuesday Review Day!

See you then!

Tuesday Review Day!

I always try to keep my reviews spoiler-free as much as possible. However, I do not think it is possible with this book. You were warned.

Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles, #2)

Written by: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Publication date: October 12, 2010

Released in Hardcover, 503 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown for Young Readers

5 stars

Synopsis: Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. 

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

My Review: First, some honesty. I could not remember anything that happened in Beautiful Creatures (my review here). I always had to ask my friend to remind me of the story because I would always mesh with other books I read. I didn't hate the book, I did enjoy it I just wasn't in love with it. I didn't really care for Lena (or her name and the fact that Ethan likes to call her L) and I didn't really care for Ethan as narrator. I knew when the sequel was released I was going to buy it because, let's be honest, I already have the first one and can't have an incomplete series on my shelf! So when it was released I bought it but I let my bestie read it first because she was way more excited about it than I was at the time and she's been nagging me to read it ever since. It wasn't working. I just wasn't in the mood for it - my expectations were low. However, when the cover and title for the third book of the Caster Chronicles were revealed, I started to get more and more in the mood for BD. As soon as I started flipping pages, I knew I wasn't stopping.

My memories of Beautiful Creatures came rushing back immediately and I was instantly in love with Ethan! I think BC threw me off with a male narrator but he's actually a great one. I find it strange yet intriguing when authors decide not to use the supernatural being in the book as the narrator - we miss out on all the magic that Lena can do and what happens to her when she wields this magic. But I understand that leaving that stuff out only adds to the mystery of the story.

After Lena's Uncle Macon dies in exchange for Ethan's life, she just can't pull her life back together. Lena was a spectacle and all I could do was sit back and watch! She became unpredictable, acting on whims and out of character. Acting out against the people of Gatlin. Poor Ethan was just another spectator and no longer part of the team. Her eyes turning more and more golden by the day. Enter "Caster Boy" John Breed. Mysterious half-Caster, half-Incubus, total dick.  His green Caster eyes say "friendly" but everything else screams "danger"! He comes into the picture literally out of nowhere and is all of a sudden Lena's BFF with Ridley in tow. Whispering into Lena's ear and protecting her like he's the new Boyfriend. I think towards the end of the book we were supposed to start feeling sorry for him or begin to suspect that he might not be as bad as we think. I don't care. I don't want to end up liking him, I don't want him on our side. I want him to rip back to wherever the hell he came from. I think I got a little more jealous for Ethan's sake than he did!

There were so many elements to this book, so many secrets that came to light that they're swirling in my head as I try to decide which to focus on! Okay, I knew all along that Lucille was a Caster Cat from the first vision Ethan had while looking through her eyes! Very cool. Macon and Ethan's mom were in love?!?! Whoa, I did not see that coming and I don't really know how I feel about it. And why didn't anyone think to use the Arclight on John Breed?

For a little while, I was suspicious of Olivia. I thought she might turn out to be someone or something else. Even up until the end when Macon kept giving her these strange looks. And oh yeah, Macon's still alive. I'm really glad they didn't kill him off because I believe he is too important to the story to have died in the first book! Glad to have him back. Back to Olivia. I was worried about her and Ethan, I thought for just a second that he might actually give up on Lena and start dating her. But calling Olivia L (short for Liv)? Oh, hell no! Ridley took it easy on him when she caught him calling her that.

There was definitely too much awesomeness in this book to put into my own words. I thought it was cool that Ethan turned out to be a Wayward even though he doesn't have any powers and it doesn't help with the whole near-death thing when him and Lena touch for too long. This, is what I did not like: Ridley losing her powers. What is she now? Mortal, yes I know, but really, she's nothing. They have to find a way to bring her powers back. I'll miss the lollipops and the chaos they cause! What I really didn't like was what happened to Link. At the end when everyone is fighting for their lives, John Breed grabs Link by the neck and bites him! Didn't I tell you? Total dick. Now Link is part-Caster, part-Incubus, part-Evo. WTF? I blame it on Leah. She joined the party right before the ass-kicking part started and she was all gun-ho, bad-ass. As the only supernatural fighting on our side at the time, I kinda felt like she should have protected them a little more. But it seemed she got her first taste of blood and forgot all about them because the Mortals went in to fight off a pack of Blood Incubi without her. If she was there playing her part, Link would have never gotten bitten. Just saying. I'm sure his cool new powers will be of much help in the rest of the story and I do kinda look forward to that.

This is not one of those books that you can't find a "good place to stop" so you can take a bathroom break or eat or sleep because every page, every paragraph is full of suspense. You can't wait to find out what is going to happen next.

Expected publication date for Beautiful Chaos is October 18, 2011!!! You're gonna have to get in line because I'm getting mine first!

Book Blogger Hop #5

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs they  never knew existed!

Each week, participating blogs are asked questions to post and answer on their websites.

This week's question

 "If I gave you £50 (or $80) and sent you into a bookshop right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?"

My Answer: I have to be honest, I've pretty much caught up on every book that's has already been released that I wanted. So to answer this question, I'll tell you what books I would buy if they were on the shelves!

Crossed (Matched, #2) by Allie Condie
Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
The President's Vampire (President's Vampire, #2) by Christopher Farnsworth
Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles, #3) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies, #2) by Pittacus Lore

What would you get?

Tuesday (Movie) Review Day!

3 stars

Usually I review my latest read on Tuesday Review Day yet, my weekend was so busy I didn't get to finish in time. However, I did get to the movie theater over the weekend with my BFF to see Beastly! In case the rock you live under does not have cable, Beastly is a modern-day adaptation of Beauty and the Beast based on the book written by Alex Flinn (which I did not get to read before watching the movie).

Premise: Kyle, played by Alex Pettyfer, is not your average stuck-up, good-looking rich kid that knows he's hot and has it all. No, he's much worse. And because of his narcissism, Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen) the school witch, curses him to be as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside. Long story short, Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) ends up living with Kyle and falling in love yadda yadda.

My Review: I thought the movie was corny. Cheesy. As in, trying to be romantic but failing -horribly. Since I Am Number Four, I am now a huge fan of Alex Pettyfer and therefore can do no wrong in my eyes, so I blame it on bad dialogue. The script called for him to say lines that took away from how good an actor he can be and from how hot he is! It was a little hard to watch. The other downfall of this film? Vanessa Hudgens. I was never a fan of her to begin with but this movie just confirmed it. She never seemed passionate about anything she said, her facial expression never seemed to match the mood she was supposed to be in or even the words she was speaking.

You might be wondering if there was anything about the movie I did like. I actually really enjoyed Mary-Kate Olsen's character even though she wasn't in it as much as I would have hoped. She looked the part wonderfully and came off as a really creepy witch-girl that I would not want to mess with! And of course, Neil Patrick Harris is hilarious. He is the perfect comic relief in this otherwise bland movie. Maybe it would have been better if these two characters were more prominent.

The only other thing I liked was the little bits of wit with the names (this I assume comes from the book and therefore not really accredited to the movie version). Once Kyle is cursed by the witch, he changes his name to Hunter so Lindy won't recognize him from school. Now, I'm guessing "Hunter" was as close as the author could get to a beast of a name, which isn't too bad. I also think Lindy is another play on words: Linda in Spanish means pretty or beautiful, so he named her Lindy - Belle means beauty - get it?

Overall: I'm hoping the book was better than the movie because I would not tell my friends to rush out and see this movie. I would tell them to wait until it came on TV for free!

Oh, and this pic of Alex Pettyfer half-naked? It's not really for any purpose other than another chance to drool over him! He is delicious!

Blogoversary Giveaway Winner!

And the winner is.....

Maegan @ A Modern Bard

She has won the book of her choice! Congratulations Maegan! I have contacted Maegan and she has 48 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.


And in case you've missed it, the title of book three in the Caster Chronicles was released - Beautiful Chaos - and now, so has the cover!

I love it! I love that all the covers have the same dark background and the title is the only thing that changes color. I'm reading Beautiful Darkness right now so I'm wondering if the gold lettering is any indication of what's to come!

Expected release date: October 18, 2011

I'm also including my IMM from this week. This week I received the following:

These books were not sent to me for review but purchased by my special someone and sent to me! =]

Book Blogger Hop #4

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs they  never knew existed!

Each week, participating blogs are asked questions to post and answer on their websites.

This week's question

 "Who's your all-time favorite book villain?"

My Answer: I have two favorite villains: Valentine from The Mortal Instruments series and Sarafine from the Caster Chronicles series. Valentine is full of secrets and Sarafine is just bad-ass! Two great series!

Thanks for hopping by! Follow and/or leave a comment so I can hop by you next!

Caster Chronicles Book Three Title Reveal!!!!!!

Yesterday, Margaret Stohl revealed on the Beautiful Creatures website, the title of the third book in the Caster Chronicles series!

Beautiful Chaos 

Isn't it just...amazing, intriguing and full of promise?? I LOVE it. I have to be honest, I haven't read Beautiful Darkness yet, although I do need to choose my next read...

Ready for more? The cover will be revealed Thursday, March 3rd @ 3pm EST on MTV Hollywood Crush! Click here or the link above to go to the Beautiful Creatures website for more details.

Also on the website, there is talk about "the Beautiful Creatures & series movie adaptation"! I don't know where I was when this information was released because I had no idea? Exclusive news on that will be released with the cover.

Any fans of the Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey? If you're answer was no and you're about to skip this part, I implore you, to please read these books! They are so addictive! I just came across the title of the fourth book in the Drake Chronicles, it's...wait. I should present it like the title above right? I mean, it's only fair. Okay, ready...

Bleeding Hearts

It's set to release November, 2011! I can't wait!

So maybe you're not all Drake fans but I know, I KNOW you guys are Mortal Instruments fans! That being said, remember the end of City of Glass, Jace leaves a letter for Clary before he goes out on a dangerous mission? Have you been wondering what he wrote in that letter? Well one way to find out is to purchase your copy of City of Fallen Angels from Barnes & Noble. They, and only they, will be selling copies of COFA with the Jace's letter inside! Click here fore more info.

See the sticker below?

Pretty cool huh? Even though promoting B&N makes me feel like a total trader to Borders. 

Can a girl love both? Time will tell.

Tuesday Review Day!

Over the past few months, I've been in a bit of a reading rut. I either can't get into the book I pick up or it takes me forever to finish one that finally, manages to hold me. This past week, I've figured out the reason: my attention is always itching to do something else and now I know what it is - blogging! However, therein lies the problem, I can't blog if I don't read. My reviews are too far between because I spend all my free time blogging! And it's not because I feel like I have to blog but because I enjoy researching books to share with you guys so much! Yet, the reality is that I need to spend more time reading. So, that's what I plan to do. So on that note - a review!

 


Slice of Cherry (Portero, #2)
Written by: Dia Reeves
Publication date: January 4, 2011 by Simon Pulse
Released in Hardcover, ebook and Kindle
512 pages

4 stars

Synopsis: (Goodreads) Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.

It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities…

My Review:  Dia Reeves is so twisted in a very awesome way. Writing in the mind frame of two young sisters that are very much like their serial killer father, had my mouth open the whole time I read this book. All I could think was, "Wow."

I'm not sure why, but the sisters were hard to picture. For my own sake, I had to visualize them in my own image and adjust when necessary. And I have to be honest, I hate their names. All of them. Madda? What? What's a Madda? Kit, Fancy, Guthrie, Ilan. I'm telling you, if this wasn't the sequel to a favorite book, I would never read this just based on the names. It's a little weird how Dia Reeves writes. There is no narrator yet you follow only one person. In this book we follow Fancy Cordelle, youngest daughter of the infamous Bonesaw Killer. She and her sister Kit are nuts that didn't fall far from the crazy tree! Fancy however seems to be content living a life of killing without being caught while Kit wants to pull away from her overbearing sister. The sisters love each other immensely, they are inseparable but when Kit falls for a boy, Fancy turns into the Red Queen - off with his head! Literally. Fancy has a twisted view of the world and people - neither of them are real to her. She refers to people as being plastic, as if they were just toys for her to play with as she pleases.

Fancy, Kit, Gabriel and Ilan are all so strange in the way they love each other. Gabriel and Ilan are brothers and they start dating the Cordelle sisters (Kit with Gabriel and Fancy with Ilan). They all see the ugly within each other yet love each other anyway. I don't know if that is a testament to their love or to how crazy they all are.

I thought the events in the book would lead up to some big thing but it didn't really. Just one crazy thing happening after another. The book was very laid back, and easy read in my opinion. There were plenty of twists and turns and secrets to be discovered!

All the talk about the doors in Portero brought me right back to Bleeding Violet and when Wyatt and Hanna made their cameo I was so happy to see they are still in love and Hanna is still wearing purple! I was afraid she would adjust and start wearing black like every other Porterene.

Overall: If you are in love with the world of Portero that Reeves has created, then you will love this book. The characters take you on wild adventures without ever really going anywhere. It was extremely entertaining - a real page turner because there was just no telling where the story was going to go. As much as I enjoyed this book, as I write this review, I cannot recall anything fantastic about it in general.

Who Should Read This: You definitely have to read Bleeding Violet before this book; you just wouldn't understand it or appreciate the craziness of Slice of Cherry if you don't.