Crossed by Ally Condie

 Matched Trilogy Book 2
3.5 Stars
In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.
Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Description from Amazon.com

My Thoughts; I can't really decide if I love this series. It is a really good read and I have enjoyed both books so far, but, this genre is really not my cup of tea. In the intrest of being unbias I will say, if you enjoyed the Hunger Games Trilogy then I think you will enjoy this series as well.

   Like Hunger Games, this series is based in a future where we are all governed by a "society rule" we are told what to wear, what to eat, how much to eat, where to live and what our job will be. There is no income, however, your job is your contribution to the society. Everyone lives in indentical homes, and wear identical clothes. And as you learn in Matched, you are even told who you will marry, how many kids you will have and when. You even know the exact date you will die.

  Cassia had decided she doesn't like the way things are and has went out not only in search of Ky but also in search of a rebellion that IMO she has become obsessed with. I don't feel that there is much depth to the characters but they are all "likeable". This series may not be on my, Most highly recommended list but I do think it is a pretty good read and for those that enjoy this genre it is probably awesome. ;)


Happy Reading!! :-)

Lover Reborn Teaser Week 2...

Just as they were leaving, each one of the women looked back at Xcor, and their expressions suggested he was like a disease they were soon to be exposed to. He wondered who was going to get the short end of the stick when they all reconvened—because sure as the day was long and the nights always too short, he was going to have one of them. It simply cost extra in these kinds of situations.
                                                                                                                                           -Lover Reborn

Don't forget release date is March 27, 2012!!!





Happy Reading!! :-)

*** All teaser were posted by JR Ward on her facebook page. They are the sole property of the author.

Last Breath (A Morganville Vampire Novel) by Rachel Caine

4 Stars

With her boss preoccupied researching the Founder Houses in Morganville, student Claire Danvers is left to her own devices when she learns that three vampires have vanished without a trace. She soon discovers that the last person seen with one of the missing vampires is someone new to town-a mysterious individual named Magnus. After an uneasy encounter with Morganville's latest resident, Claire is certain Magnus isn't merely human. But is he a vampire-or something else entirely?

Description from Amazon.com

My thoughts; Ok, first and foremost I have to say; AHHHHHHH!!!! Why, Rachel??? Why??? Why must you always leave me hanging like that?

  Now that I got that out of my system... I am very VERY pleased. After reading the last book in this series, Bite Club, I just felt let down. The whole thing was predictable and just all around disappointing.(IMO) But this book has reaffirmed my love for Morganville! I am once again on the edge of my seat for the next book. I would never be able to express the love I feel for these characters, and TBH they are the only reason I picked this one up. I put it off for a really long time. But I am officially over my Bite Club depression and I am right back in a Morganville state of mind.

Lover Reborn Teaser Week 1.....

  "The lesser was a new recruit, his hair and eyes and skin having yet to pale out. Lanky and twitchy, he was likely a drug user who’d suffered brain-fry—which was no doubt why he’d fallen for the pitch to join the Society. “I’ll jump! I’ll f**king jump!” Tohr palmed the handle of one of his two daggers and withdrew the black blade from his chest holster. “So quit yakking and start flying.” The slayer looked over the edge. “I’ll do it! I swear I’ll do it!” A gust gave them a blast from a different direction, sweeping Tohr’s long leather coat out over the free fall. “Don’t matter to me. I’ll kill you up here or down there.”  -LOVER REBORN

Don't forget release date is March 27, 2012!!!








Happy Reading!! :-)

*** All teaser were posted by JR Ward on her facebook page.

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

4.5 Stars

The situation at the London Institute has never been more precarious. With Mortmain and his clockwork army still threatening, the Council wants to strip Charlotte of her power and hand the running of the Enclave over to the unscrupulous and power-hungry Benedict Lightwood.

In the hope of saving Charlotte and the Institute, Will, Jem, and Tessa set out to unravel the secrets of Mortmain’s past—and discover unsettling Shadowhunter connections that hold the key not only to the enemy’s motivations, but also to the secret of Tessa’s identity. Tessa, already caught between the affections of Will and Jem, finds herself with another choice to make when she learns how the Shadowhunters helped make her a “monster.” Will she turn from them to her brother, Nate, who has been begging her to join him at Mortmain’s side? Where will her loyalties—and love—lie? Tessa alone can choose to save the Shadowhunters of London…or end them forever.

Description from Amazon.com

My thoughts; This series has really captured my heart. I fell in love with the Shadowhunter world from the moment I first picked up book one of the Mortal Instruments, City of Bones. I love that even though this series takes place sometime in the 1800's I still have one of my absolute favorite characters there. Magnus Bane. You are once again presented with a love triangle. I find myself really getting bored with the "who do I choose routine", but with this series I am drawn to it. I love both of the boys equally and no matter which one I feel myself leaning toward I can't help but feel hurt at the heartbreak the other will endure when she chooses the other. Jem draws me to him, he is a genuine person, never fake, always sincere. Will is the tortured soul, the one you want to hold and make it all better. Even when he is being a complete arse. Tessa has a tendency to be a little wishy-washy, but I completely understand how she feels so I don't hold it against her. She is a strong woman who holds her friends close, and would do anything it takes to keep them from hurting.
   Now that you know what I love about the Infernal Devices, here is what I dislike. I can't help but feel like Will is just a copy of Jace's character from the MI series. Don't get me wrong, I am madly in love with Jace. I just wish that Will's character could be himself. I will say however, that I did feel Will start to come away from the "Jace-like" qualities and start to develop into his own personality. I can't wait to see where the next book takes us in this story. If you haven't started this series yet, I highly recommend it!!

Happy Reading!! :-)

TGIF13

Countdown to Lover Reborn by JR Ward....

  Starting next Thursday January 19, 2012, I will be posting teasers for Lover Reborn. These teasers were saved from JR Ward's Facebook page. She owns all copy writes to them I am merely sharing with you as she did with everyone. They have been taken down due to some (*cough*lessers*cough*) issues, but they were saved in a file and I want to share one per week until the Release. I picked Thursday because all BDB fans know that we lovingly refer to it as Tohrsday and since this is Tohrments book it is only fitting. I hope you all enjoy the snippets. And if the heavens open up and we get anymore tasty morsels from the Warden there may be more that one on any given Tohrsday!! Fingers crossed....

Happy Reading!! :-)

Pilfering of the Blog Variety!!

Ok so I also stole the following from.....Jo-Anna Walker who stole it from C.A. Szarek who stole it from.... ???

Jo-Anna stated---So I stole this from my friend who stole it from her friend. Lol! To quote her friend, she said, "Apparently the BBC feels that most people will only have read six of the hundred books listed here."Wonder if I can beat the six...

I shamelessly copied and pasted this whole post but the following applies to me only. To see what they have read click on their names (link to their blog) and then feel free to carry on the thievery!!!

Bold those books you've read in their entirety.

Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter Series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Ok well I think I did pretty well, although i am totally pointing out that Harry Potter is 7 SEPARATE books so I am so counting them a such lol... So therefore I have read 16 books from this list!! And I am not ashamed to say i will most likely NOT be reading any more, Unless I decide to finish reading Wuthering Heights. But I have seen the movie so I say don't and say we did! K? *winkies*

Happy Reading!! :-)

Envy: A Fallen Angels Novel by JR Ward

 4.5 Stars

As the son of a serial killer, homicide detective Thomas "Veck" DelVecchio, Jr., grew up in the shadow of evil. Now, on the knife-edge between civic duty and blind retribution, he atones for the sins of his father- while fighting his inner demons. Assigned to monitor Veck is Internal Affairs officer Sophia Reilly, whose interest in him is both professional and arousingly personal. And Veck and Sophia have another link: Jim Heron, a mysterious stranger with too many answers... to questions that are deadly. When Veck and Sophia are drawn into the ultimate battle between good and evil, their fallen angel savior is the only thing that stands between them and eternal damnation.

Description from Amazon.com

My Thoughts; I was pleasantly surprised with this installment of the Fallen Angels series. I started the series after reading the BDB series (which I am abso obsessed with) I was mildly disappointed but I soldiered on. I waited a while before reading Envy, or anything new for that matter, got through the holidays and then gave it a shot....
   Thomas DelVecchio, JR is so swoon-worthy that I believe I may have actually fainted at one point. I had moments where I could have choked Reilly, I mean literally "skadoo'd" (Blue's Clues reference for all the Mommy's out there) right into the book and gone totally Boston Strangler on her. But, in the end she pulled her shiz together. Ok enough rambling, I definitely recommend this series, the first two are a little slow for my taste but maybe it is just the feet wetting portion before you can dive right in. And believe me I dove into Envy.


Happy Reading!! :-)

Catching up...

   I wanted to stop in and say hello. I have been away awhile and unable to sit and take the time to write anything. We had a holiday filled with mixed emotions. Daddy was able to spend Christmas with the family, although he was weak. We had time with him and he got to see the kids get there gifts from him. On December 27, 2011 at 9:10am, Daddy took his last breath. I had been preparing myself for that moment for months and especially the final few weeks.

   He and I had so many conversations. I knew he was ready and the last days he kept telling me he wished for it to be over. But standing by his bed watching as he took his final breath was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I promised him I would be strong, that I would take care of things so that it wasn't all left to my Uncle. I know some probably feel like I was trying to take over and for that I apologize but I was keeping a promise to Daddy and that is all I care about.

  Trying to keep everyone happy is an impossible task. Sometimes you just have to do what you know is right. There are a select few that know the things Daddy and I talked about. Just as there are things that were said between the two of us that will stay just between us. Taking care of him during his final days was the greatest gift I will ever be given. I miss him everyday and I know it will get easier but right now I just can't cope. I haven't been able to go to the cemetery since the funeral. It's to hard!! I can't accept his death yet. I know it is reality, but to see his grave is something I can't handle yet. I am going forward into this year trying to only have happy thoughts. I will not remember the bad, I will picture him as he once was, able to walk and breath without struggling. These are the images that will keep me strong.


I wish you all good health and happiness in the new year and as always Happy Reading!!