Book 46-Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

The blog "Reading Teens"rave review of Beautiful Creatures gave me the push to pick up this book on my Kobo. I had seen the book many times at the bookstore, Wal Mart and the grocery store and always thought "Damn I need to pick that up, it looks good." So after reading the review on Reading Teen, I decided I would venture to Wal Mart to pick the book up. Alas, there we no copies..which really ticked me off, as I had been there 20 times before and had seen it! So I turned to the Kobo store, where they are never out of stock! :)

Beautiful Creatures takes place in the small town of Gatlin, Texas where everything is the same day in and day out. Until, Lena Duchannes, niece of the town recluse, comes to live. Everyone is against her, and finds her weird, with her crazy clothes, and strange jewelry. But Ethan Wate is having dreams about Lena where she is calling to him to save her. He sees her hand pass by him, as they both fall into an abyss. After these dreams Ethan feels a need to "know" Lena and figure out the truth of why he is dreaming about her.

This book has a nice supernatural twist to it, that has broken away from the usual vampire craze. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vampires (c'mon who can resist Damon Salvatore?), but this book brought in witchcraft, incubuses, and other otherworldly delights. The book really didn't appeal to me at the beginning, but as you read you are sucked into the town of Gatlin, and are forced to root for Lena and Ethan in their quest.

The second book in the series (I have always been a sucker for the series) Beautiful Darkness comes out very soon, and I think it will be the next one for my Kobo.

Book 45-Linger By Maggie Stiefvater

Linger is the second book of Maggie Stiefvaters series dealing with teen life and werewolves. This book was an intriguing read with a slow and steady pace in the writing. The writing was enough to keep you interested, but not overwhelm you. I actually found myself wanting to read this book...I just had to know what was happening with Sam and Grace, the two main characters in the story.

I really can't tell you to much about this story as it is a series, and if I say to much it will not only spoil this book, but the first one as well! All I can tell you is Grace is getting sick, and only Sam can help her, but everyone is against the relationship they have created.

I am not a lover of teen urban fantasy, but I do find I am becoming a slight fan (who doesn't love a vampire or a werewolf, when they're portrayed as amazingly hot males??). It's nice to break away from the usual blood and guts I wallow in, to sit back and take it easy with a simple read that can really pull at your heartstrings (almost cried at the end of this one).

I am now reading Beautiful Creatures, which was recommended by the authors of the Reading Teen blog (which I follow as I have teens and young readers in the house. Plus it gives me some good reads for the future).

Till next time!

Book 44-Wicked Lovely Melissa Marr

Wicked Lovely was a suggestion from my BF Dawn who absolutely loved the book. Me, I enjoyed the book, but I am not a faery fanatic so it took quite a while to give me the push to continue to read.

Wicked Lovely introduces you to Aislinn who sees faeries. Not the pretty kind you see in artwork but dark, and sometimes nasty faeries. She lives with the rules provided by her Grams (who also sees faerys) #3 Don't stare at invisible faeries #2 Don't speak to invisible faeries and #1 Don't ever attract their attention. Aislinn follows these rules to the letter, until Keenan shows up.

Keenan is the future Summer King, who is looking for his Queen. Keenan has been searching for centuries for the one girl who will break the Winter Queen, Beira's curse over faerykind and humanity. Beira is also Keenan's mother....who is fighting against Keenan to keep her "throne".

When Keenan finds Aislinn, he is determined to make her his Queen, and take his rightful place as Summer King, but Aislinn is fighting him at every turn. Aislinn fears the faeries, and refuses to have anything to do with them.

Now, I need to reiterate that I am not a faery lover, nor do I enjoy stories of unicorns, and happy fluffy bunnies...I am more of a vampire, zombie and all out gore girl...but honestly I enjoyed this book once it got over Aislinn pissing and moaning about how every faery seemed to be around her and her friend Seth (who I must admit, I grew to love quite a bit).

When Aislinn finally gets a backbone and is able to stand up to the faerys things seem to pick up and run much smoother. Now is when you can actually start to enjoy the book and have that desire to not put it down, because you WANT to know what happens.

All in all, it was a good story, and I most likely will read the second book, (like I said it does eventually grab you). Honestly I do want to know what happens in the story!

The book I am reading now is Linger, the second in the Shiver series.

Books 42 & 43

Well after a weekend of family fun in Calgary Ab I was able to finish off Serial Uncut by J.A Konrath, Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch along with Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I can`t say to much about Serial...it was an interesting ebook, with lots of gore and violence, but it felt like it went nowhere. There were moments of the Holy Crap! feeling, not because of the gore, but of the twists and turns in the novel. Most of the time I had to go back and double check that I was following the story. The story eventually winds up fairly nicely with a sort of cliffhanger.

It wasn`t the best novel by Konrath andor Kilborn, but who wouldn't be impressed with a quote in the foreword like this one:

Warning: This horror novella begins where others end, and leaves nothing to the imagination. You probably can't handle it. Go read Twilight instead...

Book 43 was The Hunger Games. I was a little unsure of reading this book, as it is not my usual reading material. But after being told by my BF that the book was amazing and well written I decided to grab it for my Kobo. I am not disappointed.

Hunger Games is a story about Katniss Everdeen a 16 year old girl living in what is regarded as District 12. And area of her home country Panem, where people fight for survival everyday. Katniss is accustomed to sneaking under "the fence" and hunting to feed her mother and younger sister.

Once a year The Reaping takes place, where one boy and one girl from each district 1-12. No one is safe from The Reaping, anyone between the ages of 12-18, rich or poor are thrown into a large glass ball and one name is picked from the boys and one from the girls. These two are called tributes, and are forced to play The Hunger Games...where only one of the 24 tributes (total from all districts) can survive and win.

Katniss is forced into the games, when her younger sister is picked. She runs to the front of the crowd and volunteers to take her sister Prims place, even though the thought of never coming home scares Katniss to death. Katniss is forced to play The Hunger Gamea, and fight to survive.

This book was amazing! I couldn't put it down. The story pulls you in and takes one hell of a hold on your mind, and heart. You want to see Katniss win, and struggle with her through the book. Go and pick it up if you haven't yet! Yes it's a young adult novel, but it reads just like many adult novels I have read. There is no teen angst or froofy poofy little girls running around who are boy crazy. It's an all out fight to survive.

Still deciding what my next novel will be...I'll keep you posted. :)

Book 41-Disturb by J.A Konrath

Hello everyone! Today I am here to introduce you to a new drug called N-Som! This drug will allow you to stay up for days on end! It will increase your endurance in many ways, and allow you to rarely sleep, while still maintaining your normal life. Sounds like a dream come true doesn't it?!

Um..yeah...no...

So is the setting for Disturb, it's a story about Manny & David, two test subjects for the new drug N-Som. They feel great, look great and are doing better than ever on the tests...until people start dieing. Not just dieing, but being shot, butchered, hung from trees...and so on and so forth. The nice little "non drowsy" world the makers of N-Som are hoping to produce is slowly falling through the cracks.

Seriously, this book didn't really do much for me. It seemed kind of hollow...I guess is the best word...it was shiny and pretty on the outside, but really there was nothing deep down in the middle. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, kind of like a person would enjoy a Robin Cook novel (which I am REALLY not a fan of). You have the medical aspect, with the scientific aspect, and throw in some blood and guts, a chivalrous man hero, and sort of fragile female, and of course the big bad guy.

I love Konraths work, but this one just seemed kind of "un-konrathlike". Maybe I'm just so used to reading his other persona, Jack Kilborn....who is all about the gore and blood...Yup...thats what I like!

So the next book is Serial by J.A. Konrath, Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch. I am about half way through this book and am LOVING it!! If anything please pick up this book ( in e book format only) for the foreword. I have never laughed so hard in my life!

Till next time!

Book 40-Trapped by J.A. Konrath & Jack Kilborn

Wow...what can I say. This book is AMAZING! And no, I'm not being biased, even though Jack Kilborn is one of my favorite authors....I will say it again the book is AMAZING!

So after being told by Joe Konrath on my blog (which I am still totally tickled about) that his books are available on Kobo format, I rushed to smashwords.com and got all of the books available by him. I am not disapointed with my purchases.

Trapped starts with a husband and wife taking 6 of their wards on a camping trip. Martin and Sara, two psychologists, are the owners of a Center for kids that have had run ins with the law. 3 days of camping on an island in the middle of Lake Huron. What a time to bond, grow...and bleed.

They establish camp and Martin tells a scary campfire story about soldiers that were held in a confederate prison during the civil war on an island "such as this one". These prisoners were mistreated, malnourished and eventually went crazy and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

When Martin gets "pulled" into the woods by something, everyone thinks it's a joke, but Martin doesn't return.... Sara decides to set out after him, figuring her husband is just being a jerk. Little does she know the night is going to turn ugly, pretty damn fast.

The novel Trapped is like a roller coaster ride of horror. Joe/Jack brings to life the words when he is describing things such as the gridiron. Some of the scenes in this book actually made MY skin crawl...and believe me that is tough to do.

The only thing I was disappointed with, was that I had the big "DUN_DUN" (wow that was nicely figurative wasn't it???) moment figured out about halfway through the book. But I think that's more my fault, for being the horror junkie I am...I kind of expect things like that.

In the afterword of the book it states there is the original copy of Trapped the way Jack wanted it, is included. There's more gore, more sex...you know all the stuff that makes a good horror story. I'm not sure how much more gore you can put in this book, but hey, look who your talking to...I am all for it!

I tried to start reading the uncut version, but found myself skimming over parts, thinking I've read this before...so I'm going to read something else and then get back to it. With a new "reading palate".

One last thing...I am not a camper...I don't like camping at all...but the thought has crossed my mind to go as of late. After reading this book all I have to say is: No freaking way! I will not be in the woods anywhere for the rest of my life...sure as hell not on an island. So Dawn...no camping EVER for me. You never know what may be in the woods around you...

Till next time!

Book 39-Shiver by Maggie Stievater

It's official! I am an ereader lover! I really didn't think I would enjoy reading on the Kobo, but being able to access a ton of books at the click of my mouse has turned me into a reading addict again! I love it!

So book 39 was Shiver a YA novel that really didn't interest me when I first started it, it seemed kind of empty, and as I said earlier it's like Twilight with fur....but hang on, the story gets so much better then yes, even Twilight.

Grace is a high school student, doing high school things. She is happy, independent, and struggles with the memory of when she was almost killed by a pack of wolves at the age of 11....but the thought of the one wolf in the pack that "saved" her, is stuck in her thoughts. She remembers the eyes, so yellow and beautiful. Then she meets Sam, an 18 year old boy whose yellow eyes seem very familiar...

As I said, Shiver didn't capture me right from the beginning. The book seemed kind of hollow, and unfeeling. You don't really get to "feel" how Grace deals with her feelings, both for and against the wolf pack in her area. She loves them, but yet fears them as well. But as the book progresses, Grace meets Sam, you learn more about Sam's own hardships and how it brings the two of them together it seems to open like a new bud into a beautiful rose (Ugh, where is this coming from?!?! To much love story BS for me!).

I loved the character of Sam, he reminded of a "Damon" with yellow eyes (Vampire Diaries watchers will know who I'm talking about) :) All the more reason to read the book!

Stick with this one...in the end it will please your reading appetite. I so want to go and get Linger...the next book in the series! BUT!!! first is Trapped by J.A Konrath & Jack Kilborn. I need some blood and terror to get me back to myself...no more talking about flowers. GACK!

Thank you so much Joe for telling me about smashwords.com! You've made me happier then my husband ever has! LOL!!! Just kidding...but it's pretty close! ;)

Till next time!