Saturday, May 31, 2014

Sunday Cover Scramble [69]



Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.


I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.










Friday, May 30, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [78] - True Blue


Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

May is Mom Month!

I have a few topic ideas for June (Thanks Robyn!):
The month of June is LGBT Pride Month so we can celebrate those characters that we love. Also we have Father's day so we can celebrate dads or characters we think would make good fathers. There are a lot of summer trips taken in June as well so we can pay tribute to those characters we would hate to travel with or just characters that remind us of summer trips for one reason or another.

My choice is Sally Jackson
The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordin

Sally Jackson picture created by Jaclyn Canada

This mother for sure is in a competition for best literature moms. She is a mortal mom to Greek demi-god Percy Jackson. She married Gabe Ugliano who not only smells horrible, but is also just a foul guy in general. He takes advantage of her and is THAT MAN, you know the one that expects their wifie to cook and clean and run errands so when they are not done according to his schedule, he gets mouthy and handsy. He's the type of guy that I hate. Plus, he can't stand her kid. The reason though that she married him is FOR Percy which he finds out in the story. 

She also really loves the color blue. Because of an argument that she got into with Gabe about food not able to be blue, she does everything she can to create blue foods for her and Percy to eat. This is one of those weird little quirks characters can have that I find adorable. 

The real kicker, she died for her son. Read the story! She loves her boy more than anything. 

Quotes:


“I hoped I wasn't blushing. It was bad enough I had to depend on my mom to drive me to my battles.”




“[My mom's] funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that.”




“She whirled when the monster was almost on top of her. I thought the thing in her hands was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet backwards, right into Nico's sword.
"Nice one," Paul said.
"When did you learn to fire a shotgun?" I demanded.
My mom blew the hair out of her face. "About two seconds ago. Percy, we'll be fine. Go!” 



"The moral?" Hermes asked. "Goodness, you act like it's a fable. It's a true story. Does truth have a moral?"
"Um ..."
"How about this: stealing is not always bad?"
"I don't think my mom would like that moral."
Rats are delicious, suggested George.
What does that have to do with the story? Martha demanded.
Nothing, George said. But I'm hungry.
"I've got it," Hermes said. "Young people don't always do what they're told, but if they can pull it off and do something wonderful, sometimes they escape punishment. How's that?”



“Ever come home and found your room messed up? Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to “clean” it, and suddenly you can’t find anything? And even if nothing is missing, you get that creepy feeling like somebody’s been looking through your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture polish?” 


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Sunday Cover Scramble [68]



Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.


I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.









Saturday, May 24, 2014

Clean Sweep ARC Mini-Challenge and Giveaway - 6 Degrees of Separation


Welcome to my Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Giveaway!  Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Angie from Angela’s Anxious Life are hosting the reading challenge. If you would like to enter my challenge, you must be entered in the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge, which runs for the entire month of May! Join in on the fun and clean sweep your ARC stack. You can sign up here.

My Challenge is a game of 6 Degrees of Separation

We will link actors/actresses from movies based on books (comic book movies count!).

Even if you can't enter the giveaway, it should be a fun time!

Here's how this game works:
  • I will post a sample for you to see
  • After the sample, I will put two names - the first commenter should link those two names by listing a movie the first can be found in with another actor/actress and a movie they can be found in, until within 6 steps the two names are linked. It can take less than 6 steps!
  • After the commenter links the names, they include two more names in their comment
  • The next commenter links those
  • After they've linked those, they include two more names
  • And so on!
Here is a sample:

I'm linking James Franco to Oprah Winfrey


In the comments it would look like this:
James Franco to Oprah Winfrey
James Franco + Rachel Weitz = Oz the Great and Powerful
Rachel Weitz + Garrett Hedlund = Eragon
Garrett Hedlund + Kristen Stewart = On the Road
Kristen Stewart + Dakota Fanning = Twilight
Dakota Fanning + Oprah Winfrey = Charlotte's Web

To start off the first commenter, I'm choosing:
 Jennifer Lawrence to Gwyneth Paltrow

I know of at least 3 ways that these two can be linked
 so Good Luck!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, May 23, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [77] - A bit overprotective


Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

For May let's honor thy Mother. We'll choose some awesome moms and also those characters that are mom-like or mentor-like that are females for Mother's Day May :D

My choice is Jocelyn Fray
The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Claire

Jocelyn Fray picture created by Jaclyn Canada
Jocelyn isn't seen much early in the series, just talked about often by Clary. She whisked her daughter away to New York to keep her safe. There she raised her as a single parent with help from her friend Luke Garroway. Clary harbors a lot of resentment about secrets that Jocelyn kept from her, but as the reader I knew she wanted to protect her because she loved her daughter very much. Thankfully, she realizes that she made a mistake by withholding so much about her past from Clary, and opens up a lot more.

She is kind, loves her daughter more than anything, stubborn, brave, and revered by others.

Quotes:


“If you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change.”




“I don't think she doesn't believe she can die. I think, just like you always did, she believes there are things worth dying for.”





“But Jocelyn...was not the kind of woman who wept, not the kind of woman who broke, or Valentine would have broken her long since.” 



Follow my blog with Bloglovin

ARC Review: Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by Patricia Briggs


Published: March 11, 2014 Ace Hardcover
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Format: Hardcover
Source: Gifted. Thank you Jessica @ AGreatRead!
Goodreads Summary

An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from her new boyfriend. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right.

Soon, her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.

Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s ex is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10429045-shatter-me?from_search=true

Wherefore art thou, Coyote?


One of my all-time favorites series. For me, the Mercy Thompson series is one that hasn't gotten boring even with the large number of books.

The Good


One thing this series has going for it is memorable characters. Ones I love, and those that I love to hate. Mercy is one of those tough leading-ladies that hasn't changed even with all the things she has been through, good and bad. She has shown growth, which is always necessary in a character, but she has remained Mercy through and through. She is a character that is not as intimidating as those that surround her, but with a quiet sleeper strength that cannot be underestimated. She always puts other's needs before her own so I can't help but root for this 'underdog' to come through. I say underdog lightly because she has a fierce inner-strength even while being vulnerable and weaker than her foes. Really, she manages to beat her adversaries with wit and her ability to make good friends.

The ex-wife coming to the scene won't be loved by all, but I found that I enjoyed it. As the readers of this series will know, not all of the pack has accepted Mercy as a part of it. As a matter of fact, there are those that resent her and would love nothing more than to push her out. With Christy there, those that dislike Mercy had a 'side' to rally on. Since most of them knew Christy, there were some like Mary-Jo and Aurielle that were good friends with her. They have never liked Mercy so this was an interesting dynamic. My favorite part of Christy being there though is that the book never once slows down. If it's not the bigger problems that Mercy has to deal with, it's Christy trying to make a move on Adam and turning some in the pack against her. Mercy doesn't get a break through the entirety of Night Broken.

I loved how Honey came closer to Mercy in this one. Honey has always done what her Alpha wanted so she's helped Mercy and stood beside her before, but I don't think she ever respected Mercy. It feels like she grew to respect and even admire her in this one.

The big bad was fantastic. Juan Flores is nothing like Mercy has faced before. I love that Briggs is still able to pull out the crazy messes for Mercy to face because sometimes it feels like she has seen it all before. The way it is written, it is always believable that Mercy could find herself up against these complex foes because she is constantly surrounded by so many people that she cares about. She would never back down from helping someone out.

The Bad

It's so short. It feels like the whole thing is over before you know it.

That was the ending? Everything is resolved by the end so there's no huge cliff-hanger (although there is a statement that makes it questionable what's coming), but there is so much build-up through the whole thing, and it felt like it was over in 2.5 seconds. I was so amazed at how quickly everything happened at the end that I took off a whole star for what was otherwise a 5-star read.

The Romance

*SIGH* Adam and Mercy. This is one of my favorite pairings. I think one reason that Christy being there didn't bother me is because nothing is going to separate these two unless it's death or some magic that makes them go crazy. Christy is not nearly strong enough for all that. They are amazingly communicative with each other, deeply in love, and support each other to the ends of the Earth. Really, it's a great relationship. I love that them being together hasn't made the story boring at all, but actually more fun for me to read.

Conclusion

I couldn't put it down. Night Broken has action from start to finish, wonderful characters, a great baddie, and a romance that's extraordinary. Absolutely recommended.

ARC Excerpts

Adam snorted as he pulled on a faded green t-shirt that said “I Heart Coyotes.” Yet another sign that folding my clean clothes wasn’t too big a price to pay to make him happy. He didn’t have any “I Heart Christy ” shirts–or I would have burned them already.

“No, really," I said. "Now that we know that Flores is really this nasty, fiery, superpowerful nothing-can-kill-me demon from hell, maybe we should consider just giving Christy to him?


Love means leaving yourself vulnerable, knowing that there is someone to catch you when you fall.


Death isn't a tragedy to God, only to those left behind.


“I know that, too,” he said, his voice tender. “You should know that you can’t hide things from me.”

“Good,” I said, my voice fierce. “Good. Then you know, you know I love you.”

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Harry Potter Moment of the Week [24] - Favorite Hogwarts Ghost


This is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts.The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! She is picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All she asks is to link back to her blog :). There is now a full list of the topics to come here.

Favorite Hogwarts Ghost


My choice has to be Moaning Myrtle. While she is admittedly annoying with all the easily hurt feelings and wailing, it's really hard not to feel sorry for her. She died as a young girl in the bathroom at Hogwarts where she can still be found haunting her stall. She had no friends and was often teased. First of all, I hate teasing and everyone deserves a friend, no matter if they wear *gasp* glasses. Glasses are seen so much nowadays that it's not as big of a faux paus. 

Myrtle was instrumental in helping Harry and is one of the few ghosts that ever did so. Not only did she help Harry with finding the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was also able to riddle out the clue of the Golden Egg with Myrtle's hints.

Quotes: 

Myrtle: "Come to throw something else at me?"
Harry: "Why would I throw something at you?"
Myrtle: "Don't ask me, here I am minding my own business and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me."

"Oh, hello Harry, long time - no - see, hmm, I was circling a blocked drain the other day and I swear I saw some polyjuice potion. Not being a bad boy again, are you Harry? ...I'd put it in the water if I were you."

"Harry, if you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."





What's your favorite Hogwarts Ghost??

Monday, May 19, 2014

Teaser Tuesday [25] - Coaxing Death From Lungs



Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

Salted by Aaron Galvin


Teaser from ARC (quotes could change):

She did not kneel gracefully, but neither did she fall. She ran her hand over his brow, leaned her ear to his chest. She came away nodding. Arching his head back, she placed one hand over the other and pumped life back into him. After a few thrusts, she coaxed the death sentence from his lungs.

Goodreads Summary:

Life isn’t better under the sea.

Lenny Dolan is all too familiar with this reality. A Selkie slave in the realm beneath the waves, he has no choice when charged with leading a crew ashore to capture an elusive runaway. If unsuccessful, the loved ones kept behind will pay for his failure with their lives.

But when their target leads Lenny and his crew to deeper, darker secrets, the Selkies are faced with a moral dilemma. Secure their own freedom at the expense of others, or return empty-handed to face the grisly consequences?

How Lenny and his crew answer the question will teach them the harshest truth of all. Only through the loss of innocence does one become Salted.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Sunday Cover Scramble [67]



Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.


I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.








Friday, May 16, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [76] - Matriarch


Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

For May let's honor thy Mother. We'll choose some awesome moms and also those characters that are mom-like or mentor-like that are females for Mother's Day May :D

My choice is Esme Cullen
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

Esme Cullen picture created by Jaclyn Canada

Esme is one of the gentlest, nurturing characters I've seen especially in a book about vampires. Not able to have children of her own, she is the adoptive mother of Alice, Jasper, Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett. She has a fierce love for her family and those that they bring into it. She consistently does all she can to see that they are happy as well as safe. She also tries her best to feed and clothe the werewolves while knowing that they don't like her. 

Quotes:


“Edward can do everything, right?" I explained.
Jasper snickered and Esme gave Edward a reproving look.
"I hope you haven't been showing off-it's rude," she scolded.
"Just a bit," he laughed freely.
"He's been too modest actually," I corrected.
"Well, play for her," Esme encouraged.
"You just said showing off was rude," he objected.
"There are exceptions to every rule," she replied.




“Love doesn't always come in convenient packages.”





"You're what he wants. It will work out, somehow."





"I already consider you a part of the family."





"I'd like to thank Renée and Charlie for bringing such a wonderful person into the world, and into our lives. We will cherish and protect her forever."




"If Carlisle was the soul of our family, then Esme was the heart."




Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Book Review: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi


Published: November 15, 2011 Harper
Genre: YA, Paranormal Fantasy, Dystopia
Format: e-book
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10429045-shatter-me?from_search=true

I spent my life folded between the pages of books.


This felt like more than just reading a book or enjoying a story. It was totally delving into the mind of a character that embodies a phoenix.

The Good


The story starts out in the mind of Juliette, a girl left devastated. A girl that's mentally imbalanced, left in solitary for years, and is just waiting for the end. Her erratic thoughts are so precisely conveyed in the writing, that I clearly saw her pain and her vulnerability.

I truly love books that have you imagining in such a crystallized way what life would be like in their shoes. Each of Juliette's revelations had me picturing what I would be like in the same situations. I have to say that I would be much more broken and much less likely to ever trust someone. I can see her inner strength so well just knowing that fact. Juliette is automatically a character that I wanted to root for.

Then there is how everything is revealed. It's a nice build-up to each little piece so that by the end I genuinely felt as if I'd learned a lot about the people and the world they live in. I felt a balanced amount of a story about a girl, romance, and action. The writing was so well done. In the beginning, it was all chaotic inner dialogue and by the end Juliette's thoughts had straightened out so much that by each chapter she was seemingly growing stronger and saner just through the writing.

The side characters are all great as well. Adam Kent that shows up on the scene and sparks the meat in the story, was fleshed out well. I got to see moments from his childhood through to now. His brother James is exactly what you think a ten year old growing up on his own would act like with bravado and "but I wanna". He was truly looking for some parental nurturing, which he found with his big brother. Kenji was the funny sidekick supplying bite and quips.

The Bad

It was actually hard for me to imagine Juliette being scared of Warner simply because of who she is. She has nothing to lose, she has a power that should be able to keep her safe, so why this intense fear? The hatred I could get, but not what I almost considered to be an irrational fear.

Also, I thought that I had received an unedited copy of this book when I first started reading. I wanted to break about my red pen and add oxford commas so badly. Then, I got it, and it all made sense so suddenly becoming beautiful.

The Romance

There is a great romance in this one between Adam and Juliette. It happens a little too 'easily' for me, but I get it because there is a past and an understanding between the two. She already deeply loves him and I don't remember him saying it back even though he sure acts like he loves her as well. Though the fact that he hasn't said it back (at least that I remember) sure gives me pause.


Conclusion

An incredibly well-written book that draws you into the subconscious of a delicate yet strong girl, Shatter Me delivers a good mixture of intrigue, love, and sense of self. Very recommended.




Excerpts

In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.

All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.


The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.


I always wonder about raindrops.
I wonder about how they're always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors.
I am a raindrop.
My parents emptied their pockets of me and left me to evaporate on a concrete slab.


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Harry Potter Moment of the Week [23] - Favorite Harry Moment


This is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts.The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! She is picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All she asks is to link back to her blog :). There is now a full list of the topics to come here.

Favorite Harry Moment


The first wonderful Harry moment that pops up for me is in a choice that he made. 

Horace Slughorn came out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts. He was well known to hand-pick students that he saw particular talent in and brought them all together to be a part of the Slug Club. He boasts about former Slug Club members being exceptionally well-off and leaders in their fields. Naturally, he does all he can to recruit "the boy who lived". 

When Slughorn threw a Christmas party that Harry couldn't get out of, he has to invite someone quickly because Romilda Vane is heading a group of girls all set on slipping Harry a love potion. He can't take his first choice, so he invites Luna Lovegood.

Harry: "We’re supposed to bring guests, so I thought you might like…I mean…just as friends, you know. But if you don’t want to…"
Luna: "Oh no, I’d love to go with you as friends! Nobody’s ever asked me to a party before, as a friend! Is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? Should I dye mine too?"
Harry: "No. That was a mistake. I’ll get Hermione to put it right for me. So I’ll meet you in the entrance hall at eight o’clock."

I was grinning so much during this scene. Particularly because the eye-brow bit is hilarious, but also because friendship is treasured by Luna. She is the one person he could've invited that would truly appreciate the gesture of friendship that it held.


What's your favorite "Harry" moment??

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Sunday Cover Scramble [66]



Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.

First and foremost, I would love to wish everyone a 
lovely Mother's Day!!



I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.







Friday, May 9, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [75] - Mommy Dearest or...


Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

For May let's honor thy Mother. We'll choose some awesome moms and also those characters that are mom-like or mentor-like that are females for Mother's Day May :D

My choice is Justina Crawfield
The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost


I know in the beginning of this series, I couldn't stand Justina. Everything about her rubbed me the wrong way. Cat pretty much felt like her mother didn't really care for her until she first brought home a vampire tooth and her mom found out that she was hunting the monsters. As a reader, I noticed how much Justina actually cared about Cat, especially when she was horribly attacked with Justina there and her mom wanted to sacrifice herself for her daughter. I started enjoying her more though when she got a supernatural boyfriend and calmed her tits some. What was best though, was Bones' comments and reactions to her. Too funny!

Quotes:


“I was thrown into a state of sheer, mindless panic. “It’s my mother!” I whispered fiercely, as if Bones hadn’t figured that out. “Holy shit, you have to hide!”
I literally shoved him toward the bedroom, yelling, “I—I’ll be right there, I’m not dressed!”
He went, but with none of my hysteria. “Kitten, you still haven’t told her? Blimey, what are you waiting for?”
The Second Coming of Christ!” I snapped. “And not a moment sooner! Here, in the closet!”




“Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact I called to give you the good news. I asked you daughter to marry me. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?”





“I missed you every minute this week and I don't want to spend another day without you. If my mom disowns me for being with a vampire, then that's her decision, but I've made mine, and I won't apologize of back down from it.”





“Your mom can't hate a whole country because of one person!”





“You know what your problem is, Justina? You're in desperate need of a good shag. "Not that I'm offering you one myself, mind. My days as a whore ended back in the seventeen hundreds."

The gin was abruptly sucked back into my lungs as I gasped. He did not just tell my mother about his former profession; sweet Jesus, let me have heard incorrectly!

I hadn't, and Bones went right on. "... But I have a friend who owes me a favor and he could be persuaded to... Kitten, are you all right?"

I'd stopped breathing as soon as he casually admitted to his prior occupation. Add that to the liquid stuck in my lungs, and no, I wasn't all right.”





“Rodney the ghoul?...Oh, I liked him. He didn't get angry no matter how many times my mother insulted him.”




Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Harry Potter Moment of the Week [22] - Favorite Editions / Covers


This is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts.The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! She is picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All she asks is to link back to her blog :). There is now a full list of the topics to come here.

Favorite Edition / Covers of the Harry Potter Books


All the covers on my shelf are the American hardcover editions. 

What I love about them: 

  • They clearly convey that they are books that children can enjoy.
  • Harry "grows" through the covers.
  • The Sorcerer's Stone has Fluffy in the background as well as the Forbidden Forest and a galloping unicorn with Dumbledore on the back.
  • The Chamber of Secrets showcases snakes on the column, Fawkes, and has the trio together (Ron and Hermione on the back) with Mrs. Norris.
  • The Prisoner of Azkaban cover not only has Buckbeak with Harry and Hermoine, but Sirius in the shadows, a stag patronus (Padfoot), a rat (Wormtail), and the werewolf running across the grounds (Moony). There is also a dementor lurking behind Harry.
  • The Goblet of Fire has a maze, the champions, an acromantula, and my favorite the Beauxbaton's carriage
  • The Order of the Phoenix shows the circular room and has Lupin, Tonks, and Mad-eye on the back
  • The Prisoner of Azkaban has Dumbledore and Harry at the pensieve, the Dark Mark and the trio
  • The Deathly Hallows has the battle with Harry on the front and Voldy on the back
What I don't like about them:

  • The first four feel like they are done by a different artist even though I don't believe they were
  • There's not a lot of uniformity other than the title font face



Now, when the 15th Anniversary Editions came out, I swooned a bit. I would love to own both sets of editions.

Here's what I love about these:

  • The title fonts all look the same
  • The main focus of the images show in the same place on every cover
  • The scenes depicted are fantastically chosen
  • The Sorcerer's Stone cover showcases Harry and Hagrid in Diagon Alley
  • The Chamber of Secrets has The Burrow with the Ford Anglia and Hedwig
  • The Prisoner of Azkaban has a beautiful picture of the stag patronus and a dementor
  • The Goblet of Fire has Harry riding on his broom with the golden egg and the Horntail
  • The Order of the Phoenix has thestrals! with the castle in the background
  • The Half-Blood Prince has the scene on the rock with Dumbledore and Harry
  • The Deathly Hallows has the trio riding on the dragon


What are your favorite editions? Even if you haven't read the series, do you have a favorite cover?


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Warrior by Victoria Scott Release Day Blitz

Entangled Teen is excited to be announcing the release of Victoria Scott’s, The Warrior, the third and final book in the Dante Walker series, which readers are already raving about!


About The Warrior


War between heaven and hell is coming, but Dante Walker makes it look damn
good.

Dante’s girlfriend, Charlie, is fated to save the world. And Aspen, the
girl who feels like a sister, is an ordained soldier. In order to help
both fulfill their destiny and win the war, Dante must complete liberator
training at the Hive, rescue Aspen from hell, and uncover a message hidden
on an ancient scroll.

Dante is built for battle, but even he can’t handle the nightmares where
spiders crawl from Aspen’s eyes, or the look on Charlie’s face that
foretells of devastation. To make matters worse, the enemy seizes every
opportunity to break inside the Hive and cripple the liberators. But the
day of reckoning is fast approaching, and to stand victorious, Dante will
have to embrace something inside himself he never has before—faith.

Find Online:



About Victoria Scott


Victoria Scott is a teen fiction writer represented by Sara Crowe of the Harvey-Klinger Literary Agency. She’s the author of the FIRE & FLOOD series published by Scholastic, and the DANTE WALKER trilogy published by Entangled Teen. Her books have been bought and translated in eleven foreign markets including the UK, Turkey, China, Poland, Israel, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

Victoria lives in Dallas with her husband and hearts cotton candy something fierce.

Find Victoria Scott Online:

Monday, May 5, 2014

When life's kicking your butt, how about a theme song? [5]

My friend Robyn from robgirlbooks tasked us with coming up with a theme song each month, and I love it! Music is a VERY big part of my life. This month Robyn has asked that we come up with a song from a Movie Soundtrack.

This one was SOOOO hard for me. There are a ton of good soundtrack songs. I'm thinking Dirty Dancing, Bodyguard, Titanic, Breakfast Club...oh so many. Since this is supposed to be a song for when life's getting you a little down though, Zane and I both chose to go with some fun songs.

My choice for the month of May is:





Zane's choice for May:


What are your choices this month??

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Sunday Cover Scramble [65]



Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.

I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.






Friday, May 2, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [74] - Mom of the nation


Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

For May let's honor thy Mother. We'll choose some awesome moms and also those characters that are mom-like or mentor-like that are females for Mother's Day May :D

My choice is Molly Weasley
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Molly Weasley picture created by Jaclyn Canada

So, I have a lot of mom's that I can highlight this month, but I had to start with the one that won the nation's favorite mother in the U.K. Over fantastic picks like Princess Diana! There is a reason she was honored with this. Let's put things in context. This woman has seven children. Six of those are boys. Two of them cannot stay out of trouble. One of them is battling dragons and another is breaking curses for a living. One was brainwashed by ambition and became a complete douche. One of them is at the scene of every bad thing that happens along with his best pal "the boy who lived". Then on top of that, her husband tinkers with muggle artifacts when he's not working. The kicker to all of that stress on her plate is the fact that all of those children are inherently GOOD people. She not only raised (and put up with) these misfits, she raised them well. Who can say that one of their favorites isn't among the Weasleys?

Added to her brood was Harry. She took him in and mothered him to the best of her ability and he loves her. He has a few father-like mentors over his years, but only one mother-like mentor. McGonagall might be considered for the mentor role, but I see Mrs. Weasley as the mother-like mentor. The Weasley's Burrow became his home away from Hogwarts.

She is also fiercely protective of her family. Every decision that she makes, she truly feels is what is best for those that she loves. Plus, she sure can kick some butt.

Quotes:


"You - will - never - touch - our - children - again!"




"Beds empty! No note! Car gone--could have crashed--out of my mind with worry--did you care?--never, as long as I've lived--you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy--"




"Your sons flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey and back last night."
"Did you really? How did it go? . . . I mean, that was very wrong of you boys."





"Ronald Weasley! How dare you steal that car! I am absolutely disgusted! Your father's now facing an inquiry at work and it's entirely your fault! If you put another toe out of line, we will send you straight home! Oh, and Ginny dear, congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud."




"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU B*TCH!"

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Harry Potter Moment of the Week [21] - Most Anger Inducing Scene


This is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts.The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! She is picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All she asks is to link back to her blog :). There is now a full list of the topics to come here.

Most Anger Inducing Scene


The first one that comes to mind is Harry sitting there in detention for absolutely no reason at all but speaking the truth, and finding himself scribbling into his skin with an evil quill that sketched the words "I must not tell lies" in blood in the back of his hand. Steam out of the ears I'm telling you!