Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter


Description & cover image from Goodreads.com

It's always been just Kate and her mom--and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld--and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy--until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she suceeds, she'll become Henry's future bride and a goddess.




My Thoughts:


I know I'm really behind on discovering this series.  But you know, some of us go through reading cycles.  For me it seems I read several books with similar themes for a while and then I change it up.  I'm so glad to be currently into Goddesses right now.  
This book is another great novel rejuvenating Greek Mythology.  I like the originality of it as well.  Kate is pragmatic and easy to like.  I can't fathom what it would be like to watch your only parent die slowly in front of you.  She handles her situation with such maturity, and she shows such selflessness throughout the entire book.  I'm not sure how to feel about Henry.  I guess I just felt sad for him.  He's one of those broody guys that frustrates you but you like him non the less.  With out giving anything away; I hope he works through his issues.  The BEST part about this book is the ending.  I didn't know who to suspect as the main villain.  I love when you can't figure it out until just when the author wants you to.  I am starting the next book Goddess Interrupted right away!


Friday, July 27, 2012

Review for Size 12 & Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot

Size 12 and Ready to Rock (Heather Wells, #4)
Just because the students at New York College have flown the coop doesn't mean assistant residence hall director Heather Wells can relax. Fischer Hall is busier than ever, filled with squealing thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls attending the first ever Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp, hosted by pop sensation Tania Trace herself—who just happens to be newly married to Heather's ex-boyfriend, heartthrob Jordan Cartwright. But the real headache begins when the producer of a reality TV show starring Tania winds up dead ... and it's clear that the star was the intended victim.

Grant Cartwright, head of Cartwright Records, wants to keep his daughter-in-law (and his highest-earning performer) alive. So he hires his oldest son, black sheep of the family and private investigator Cooper Cartwright—who just happens to be Heather's new fiancĂ©. Heather should leave the detecting to Cooper. But with a dorm full of hysterical mini-divas-in-training, she can't help but get involved. And after Tania shares a really shocking secret with her, this reality suddenly becomes more dangerously real than anyone ever anticipated.

My Thoughts:


Just like the Heather Wells books before, I loved this one.  Heather has always been one of my favorite characters with her aversion to exercise and her penchant for oreo cookies.  Oh, how I relate to this girl!  Once again she is thrust in to another mystery; this one hitting even closer to home since it involves her ex-boyfriend and his new wife.  Throw in some snarky teenagers, who need a good slap in their smart mouths and you have quite an adventure.  Heather's maternal instincts are in over drive in this novel as she helps everyone from teen to adult deal with their crises.  Cooper is the perfect Superman to Heather's Lois Lane.  He's the kind of guy most women would love to have in their corner.  This book, I think, had just the right combination of mystery, romance and comic relief.  So many laugh out loud moments.  I'm not sure if there's more to come in this series but if so I'm ready for the next.


Review copy provided from William Morrow Paperbacks

Monday, July 23, 2012

You just THOUGHT you knew The Cabin Goddess...


Kriss aka The Cabin Goddess aka The Bacon Walker aka Awesome Incarnate agreed to be my "victim" this week.  She has the most AMAZING recipes on her blog along with some of the most entertaining posts you will ever come across.  She has 5 kids, the oldest two support her blogging by sharing & helping her out.  She's also known for making snow angels at -39F as in NEGATIVE 39 degrees in a...bikini!!  
So after you read all this juicy stuff about her, go check out her blog.  http://cabingoddess.com/

Her many adventures as a mother and Goddess of the Alaskan wilderness have prepared her for the biggest adventure yet to come...

"I reached up slowly trying to focus on the shadow loaming, I could smell freshly cooked bacon, in fact I swear I could hear sizzling in the background, and she spoke again, "We have been searching for you for months. It was prophesied and foretold at a BBQ at the VFW for the 4H club of Lonoke County, Arkansas.......... you are The Bacon Walker....." and so begins a new adventure of Cabin Goddess Kriss Morton.

famous posterI am deathly afraid of sharks, even if I know rationally that there are none, especially in lakes, I have a huge phobia due to watching JAWS in the theater with my dad * running into a HUGE ass dog fish when I was skin diving in the bay where I grew up.  What makes this totally random and also completely irrational is that I am a swimmer.  I have always swum, my dad taught me how from the minute I could crawl I do not even remember learning!  SO when we moved to Wollochet Bay in Gig Harbor, WA I swam CONSTANTLY! Never with fear, until after that fateful viewing of JAWS!  I mean does this place look menacing?  Now when I grew up we had a small wooden deck that the boats were docked out, as you can see as soon as they kicked us kids out they RAMPED things up a bit.. get it .. ramped.. ANYWAY

  
I have a serious addiction to office supplies, especially pens and notebooks.  I literally have to be steered away from the section when we are at the store.  It was REALLY bad when my fiance Geoff worked in charge of Special Orders at Office Max!  I actually had him researching items so I could get REALLY cool notebooks!  At this time I have five working journals and about thirty blank ones.  It used to be more but I have been giving them as gifts.   I also have well over 100 gel pens, plus a complete carrier for the rest that I use for scrapbooking. (YES that is the story I am sticking to!)  OH! PLUS I have OCD when it comes to lined note paper.  I like really thin scientific ruled, which is skinnier then college, and it has to be purple, black or brown lined, NOT aqua.  I hate aqua, it looks CHEAP!
[This is obviously not me, but this is someone I have Circled with who happened to be in the Wicca-pedia site ~ get it.. get it? WIKIpedia --laughing]
I am an Ordained Priestess.  YEP, witchy poo here, have broom will travel and witch parking only, all others will be toad!  Although my belief system has really become so dang personal I can no longer give a definitive answer as to what flavor of pagan I am anymore, I can say I am a recovering Dianic (because I do like men and balance and I no longer view myself as a rabid feminist)  Since moving up to Alaska and becoming engaged to an atheist, my practices are very private and solo.  But I maintain my notary public for those that still ask me perform their marriage/handfasting ceremonies!
Y'all know I love bacon!  But I also love peanut butter & pickle sandwiches!  Oh do NOT knock 'em before you try them.  I have to eat them with Nalley Banquet Dills and crunchy peanut butter.  OH me oh MY!  Sometimes I even say SCREW the bread, grab the jar of pickles and peanut butter, a fork and a spoon and just eat them like that!  WAHOO PICKLES!!  OH and I guess this could be part of this random fact- peanut butter and mustard sandwiches rock also!
 
I am a direct decedent of Alexander Hamilton (as direct as you can get) and as SOME of you may know I am also one of Morgan the Pirate or as we were taught growing up, Sir Henry Morgan a successful man in his time!  Though he started life out as a privater and became a great leader for England and never knew that he was being a pirate when it happened.. He slipped! It was an accident, I SWEAR! (Read the link PEOPLE!!) I get all my glorious feisty Welsh blood from him and my blond moments from the Norwegian side (my mothers).   I was told I was Irish for the LONGEST of times till my father admited we were Welsh, ummm wasn't that obvious with the ties to Morgan?  HECK I was kind of disappointed, every self respecting witch loves to tell folks she is a decendent of Celts.. WAIT I AM, I HAVE VIKING BLOOD, and Celts are a blend of Roman, pure Irish crazy folk, fey and Nordic plunderers!

The Bard's Tale (1985 video game)
I am old...really old. As in I played Bard's Tale on my Apple IIE and mapped out the game on graph paper just so I could find my way around.  It was mono toned in green.  Plus I would hook it up to larger TV's with an RF modulator and hack the game with C++ so I could have a killer character.  Yep, been a nerd for a LOOOONG time!  Original Girl Gamer!  I had a picture of a 280 on my refrigerator in 1989 when I was pregnant with my first child.  I learned to hack on a Trash-80.  YA old!


I learned to swim when I was six months old!  My dad felt that it was a huge ass case of child neglect not to teach kids how to swim, especially since we lived on the water.  One of my favorite pictures they have is of me swimming to my dad as a baby, it is surreal!
The suit says I was on the Peninsula Swim Team so this was 1976ish.  If I am remembering this particular speedo, It was, perhaps a bit later, because I had already seen JAWS.  My Dad took this because I had been afraid to dive into our water off the doc for months.
I used to be a alpine ski racer, Giant Slalom & Downhill.  If I had not gotten hit by a car & been stuck with a titanium rod in my leg I would have been singing the same tune as Picabo Street! (whom I used to race with as a Junior Olympic skier)

I used to beat everyone at the beer chugging contests in college (back in the 80's) without using my hands. Fastest time was 2.9 seconds for 12 ounces!  Ask me how I did that?  HAHA and NO it did not involve a beer bong!  It was out of a glass!  There are no surviving photos I'm aware of,however I can still do this and have been known to on occasion (Cough at the Pub.. cough) HOWEVER this guy ALMOST has my form, but not close enough so you can get the idea.  Plastic glasses are for woosies, I did it with pub glasses.  DO NOT DO THIS if you are not properly trained.  We trained daily with soda at the cafeteria to get our form, our time and our carbonation tolerance high enough to be able to drink a 12 ounce bottle or glass in under 5 seconds.

When I was a wild and crazy teenager I used to sneak out to my boyfriends house, or to another friends to hot tub if their parents were gone.  I knew it was time to get home when the peacocks would start crowing. Yep you read that right, PEACOCKS!  There used to a peacock farm up the road from our house.  When it closed down back in the early 1900's they just let them go wild so now there are all these crazy bird running around the woods in Gig Harbor, WA.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Review for Rapture by Lauren Kate (Spoiler Alert)

Do NOT read this if you haven't read the book!!

Rapture (Fallen, #4)
Synopsis from goodreads.com 

Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again.

Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen.

For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.



I was kind of disappointed in this last book of such a great series.  Through this entire series the main goal, for me at least, was to find out what Luce's role was in the curse.  When I was finally enlightened I was also extremely let down.  ***Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler*** 
Am I to believe that this cosmic altering curse came down to a case of jilted love and a stalker happy Ex who can't get over himself???  I guess I just thought it wouldn't be over something so trivial.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around that the "Throne" would possibly put all creation at risk over a bad break-up.  Ok, I know it was a little more than that, but not much.  
I did like the very end when Luce and Daniel reconnect.




Thursday, July 19, 2012

Review for Spectral

Spectral
Convinced she’s a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe—the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they’ve been lying to her all along. 

As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she’ll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

My thoughts:

This book is filled to the brim with action.  I don't recall a single moment the story lagged.  The way each member of a witch coven has their own special power made the story unique.  The characters were a little bland for my taste.  Jewel was hard for me to get attached to.  I mostly just felt sorry for her up until the last 2 chapters.  Some answers came to her a little too conveniently.  Roman was easy to like, but so was Chase.  That was a bit frustrating, but I was so relieved there wasn't the over done love triangle.  I kept visualizing Boris & Natasha from the Bull Winkle cartoons for Uncle Boris & Aunt Eva.
 Just like Jewel, I never could figure out who she should trust until the end.  I liked that I couldn't predict the outcome precisely.  I'm not sure if this book will be part of series.  There wasn't a cliff hanger ending to indicate that it is.  

I rate it 3.7
Review copy provided by Tribute Books.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Directv vs. Viacom (not a book related post)

     

First let me say, yes, I am a Directv customer.  Normally I don't post non-book related posts, but this one would NOT get of out my head until I gave it the attention it was demanding.  If you have Directv then you know all about the stand off between these two Gazillion dollar companies.  We've lost channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and CMT along with many more.  It's not affecting me as much as it is others.  I do miss watching Friends reruns at night and Teen Wolf on Monday nights.  My kids miss some of their shows on Nickelodeon, but it's not a big deal to them either.  What REALLY irritates me is in the end...I and other hard working families will still end up paying!  Oh, I know what Directv is saying.  They're trying to hold out so there isn't an "unfair" increase in my bill.  Uh..."unfair" does NOT equal "no change".  Yep, I caught on to that real quick.  I know that switching providers isn't the answer.  That's giving Viacom what they want in a round about way.  What I don't understand is why is Viacom targeting Directv?  Did they ask this same price increase from other cable and satellite providers but they just agreed to it without a fight?  If you have the answer please let me know.  I agree with Forbes.  Battles such as this, where the biggest losers are the customers, are just going to make cable TV expendable.  If I can pay for internet and pay small fees to get the shows my family watches on the internet then why would I keep cable with all the channels thrown in that I never watch?  I can choose to pay for what I DO watch.  Another option is I can rent the DVDs of most of the shows when they come out.  Sure I might be a season behind but so what!  I watch everything weeks later on DVR anyway.  What it boils down to is how far are you going to push the customers?  With the cost of living going up and the economy still in the dumps I just don't know much more I can afford.  I mean I do have a Kindle family to support.  So tell me, how do you stop this domino effect?  

Monday, July 16, 2012

Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis

Author Kaitlin Bevis has stopped by today with an excerpt for the Persephone Daughters of Zeus blog tour.  
Make sure you get your copy of Persephone Daughters of Zeus out Friday July 6th!

“I can’t believe I’m even considering this,” I muttered. My hair whipped across my face as a breeze picked up around me. I sat up and placed my hand on the cool, dark earth before me, feeling energy thrumming through the soil. I closed my eyes and concentrated on making something, anything, happen. I felt a tickle against my palm and jerked forward, eyes flying open. I nearly fell face first in the dirt when a bright green stem unwound itself between two of my outstretched fingers. I scarcely breathed as red petals unfurled themselves into a tiny red poppy. I gasped. I had powers! I was a goddess! I wasn’t crazy, Mom wasn’t crazy. Melissa, Orpheus, it was all true. Wasnt it? “I’m not hallucinating, am I?” I touched the flower, feeling the silky petal brush against my hand. The wind pushed me forward forcefully. My bag of pomegranate seeds blew over, spilling around the poppy. My dress flapped against my ankles as chills shot across my skin. I heard crackling and spun around to see the ground freezing around the flower. The frost crept toward me. The branches above me stretched toward my face, ice inching along the branches. I heard a loud snap and a massive branch broke from the tree and hurtled toward my head. I screamed and stumbled backward. The branch crashed in front of me, scraping my legs. I ran for the parking lot as fast as I could. The frost closed in, surrounding me. I’d never been claustrophobic, but as the frost cut off my escape path with a solid white wall, I panicked. Fog rolled in, like cold death, cutting off my view of the park. It curled around me, brushing against my face, arms, and legs. I turned back to the tree and ran faster, my dress tangling between my legs as the fog and icy wind blew against my skin. The parking lot is the other way! my mind screamed. The other way was cut off by a mountain of ice. I felt as if I was being herded. By ice? I slipped on the icy ground, falling face first into the frost. Ice crept up my toes and along my legs. I thrashed and screamed. I felt the fog becoming a solid mass above me, pinning me to the ground. The ice piled around me. Am I going to be buried alive? I dug my nails into the frigid snow in front of me and tried to claw my way out of the frosted death trap. I was so panicked I didn’t feel it when my nails broke against the impenetrable wall of ice, leaving red crescents of blood welling up on sensitive skin. An hysterical sob worked its way out of my throat as I gouged red lines into the ice. The ice was above my knees, snaking its way up my thighs. I shivered. Shiverings good, I reminded myself. It means your body hasnt given upyet. The cold was painful, like a thousand little knives pricking my skin. A violent tremor went up my spine, sending waves of pain through me. “Help me!” I screamed, knowing it was futile. I was going to die here. Except I couldn’t die. Could I? Mom said I was immortal, but was that all-inclusive? Did I have a weakness? Was snow my Kryptonite? If I got hurt, would I heal or would I be trapped in an injured body in pain forever? I suddenly didn’t know if immortality was a good thing or a bad thing. The cold hurt. I was kicking, screaming, and clawing my way out of the frost, but for every inch I gained a mountain piled around me. I thought I heard a man’s laughter on the wind, the sound somehow colder than the ice freezing me into place. The ground before my outstretched hand trembled. The shaking increased. The earth lurched beneath me. The surface cracked and the sound was so loud that for a moment all I could hear was high-pitched ringing in my ears. The ground split into an impossibly deep crevice. My voice went hoarse from screaming as I peered into the endless abyss, trapped and unable to move away from the vertigo-inducing edge. A midnight black chariot, drawn by four crepuscular horses that looked like they’d been created out of the night sky, surged from the crevice. I ducked my head into the snow with a frightened whimper as they passed over my prone body. The fog around me dissipated as the ice melted away from my body. Terrified, I sprang to my feet, stopping when I was eye-to-eye with one of the frightening horses pulling the chariot. For a moment I could do nothing but stare into its huge, emotionless eyes. A strangled whimper tore from my throat and the horse snorted at me. They weren’t black; they weren’t anything. They were an absence of color and of light, a nauseating swirling void. They hurt to look at. My head ached, and my stomach lurched in mutiny. I clenched my fists and turned to the driver. His electric blue eyes met mine, and he seemed to see everything I’d done and everything I’d ever do. I had the strange sensation I’d been judged and found wanting. No way this guy was human. His skin could have been carved from marble; his hair was the same disorienting black as the horses. A terrifying power emanated from his tall, statuesque frame. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. His ebony cape billowed behind him as he marched toward me. At the grasp of his hand I snapped back to life and jerked away from him. “We have to get out of here.” “Let me go!” I yelled, yanking my arm away. He closed in on me, pushing me toward the chariot. I struggled against him, shrieking with rage when he picked me up and slung me over his back like a sack of potatoes. I punched his back, kicking my legs. “Let me go! Someone help me! Help!” I recalled the instructor of some self-defense class long lost in memory reminding me dead weight was harder to carry than a thrashing captive. My body rebelled at the idea of going limp so I pushed aside his cape, pulled his shirt up and raked my torn and ragged nails across his bare skin. His hands jerked in surprise and I slid off his back and onto the hard ground. My breath left my body as I hit the ground with enough force to make me dizzy. With strength I didn’t know I possessed, I scrambled away, clawing at him as he pulled me back. “Enough!” he shouted. “We don’t have time for this! I have to get you out of here!” “No!” I yelled. Did he really just expect me to go Okay, strange creepy man, Ill get in your scary chariot of death. No problem. His furtive gaze took in the empty park, and he swore in a voice as smooth as silk. “I’m sorry.” My eyes widened in surprise as his lips pressed against mine. I went wild, hitting and scratching and pushing for all I was worth. He didn’t budge. He exhaled, and I sank lifelessly into his arms. Author's Links: Website Facebook Twitter Purchase Persephone




Kaitlin Bevis spent her childhood curled up with a book, and a pen. If the ending didn't agree with her, she rewrote it. She's always wanted to be a writer, and spent high school and college learning everything she could so that one day she could achieve that goal. She graduated college with my BFA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and is pursuing my masters at the University of Georgia.

Her young adult fiction novel "Persephone," will be released this summer. She also writes for Athens Parent Magazine, and truuconfessions.com.

Author's Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Purchase Persephone

Now for my thoughts...

I'm not at all surprised I liked this book.  I love that authors are taking old mythology and giving it a fresh start.  From Greek deities to the Nordic & Egyptian gods; they all seem to be awakening from their historic slumbers to ignite the imagination of another generation.  (That rhyme was really not intended) 
Persephone "Kora" is a wonderfully written character.  I liked that her reactions to her circumstances were realistic.  So often I find that the characters act too blase' about the crazy things happening in their lives.  Persephone does the proper amount of "freaking out" in my opinion.  What makes this story so unique is the portrayal of Hades as the good guy.  Hades always gets the short end of the stick as the heartless Lord of the Underworld.  Bevis has shown him in a new light and I loved it.  This book takes the usual heroes and villains and mixes it all up!  Then once you think the culprit has been flushed out...BOOM...a fantastic twist at the end!  I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.  

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Summer Lovin Giveaway Hop


Tell me when you hear the words "Summer Lovin" you aren't singing that Grease song!  
Now that I've stuck that song in your head for the day, you're welcome.  
To make it up to you I will be giving one winner a choice of 3 different ebooks.  
Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, #1) The Faerie Path (Faerie Path, #1) The Iron Knight (Iron Fey, #4)
I know two out of the 3 are Fey stories, but I can't help myself.  I love my faeries!  Oh and there's another giveaway on the post just under this one if you're interested.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Friday, July 6, 2012

Book Trailer Junkie Strikes Again!

Oh My My!  While this isn't the best book trailer I've seen it is still a good one.  It's really good if you've already read the book.  The book is FANTASTIC!  Enjoy!



 
Blog Design by Imagination Designs all images from the Magic Medley and Very Own World kits by Irene Alexeeva