Book 4-Hold me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride

Well...it's been a long time since I posted my last blog...now it is time for the catch up. After having my computer taken away for repair by my local apple store for 3 bloody weeks (I was originally told it would be 5 to 7 days..yeah ok), and going through multitudes of emails, catching up on my guilty pleasure of Frontierville-come on even the Zombiemom has to have some vices-I am ready to blog!

The fourth book in the 100 book challenge was Hold my Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride. I have had this book in the tomb library for some time, borrowed from the Banshee of Busby Dawn. I stood in amongst my library and debated what to read (trust me I have a TON to chose from!), finally deciding on this one...I was not disappointed.

Hold me Closer is the story of Sam, a normal everyday teen, working at a local fast food joint, hanging with friends, and playing potato hockey until he meets Douglas.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer with a nasty temper. He runs into Sam after a bad round of potato hockey, and demands the Sam tell him why he is in "his" area, and does "the council" know. Sam is confused, and yes, a quite a bit scared, when he discovers he is also a necromancer. Douglas has given Sam one week to decide wether or not he will join forces with Douglas, and he better chose correctly or Sams whole world will fall apart.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. It was written smoothly, allowing the reader to get engrossed in Sams plight. I found myself laughing at the funny parts, and feeling for Sam in the intense moments.

Each chapter in the book (and the title) is a reworked line from an 80's song. I couldn't help but sing "Hold me closer tiny dancer" every time I saw the title..Hell I'm still doing it!. It made me smile every time I'd start a new chapter and the song would go through my head (even though some of those songs I would rather forget).

This book was fun to read, and had quite a few plot twists that keep you guessing. I would seriously recommend picking it up

One down...two more to go. See you all in a little bit with the next blog. I hate catching up...

Book #3 Haunted by Heather Graham

Looking for a ghost story type of book that will give you the chills, and make you think about leaving the lights on in your crypt??? Ummm...this is not one of those books, but it was a good story all the same. :)

The story centres around Melody House, a colonial house in Virginia. There have been rumours and whispers of the hauntings going on at Melody House...but the owner Matt Stone doesn't believe in ghosts. Finally he is forced to bring in help in the form of an old family friend, Adam Harrison, who owns a paranormal investigation agency.

Enter Darcy Tremayne, a strong young woman who works for the paranormal agency called into investigate Melody House. Darcy has an ability to sense things about a location, she dreams about the past and can normally figure our what has happened at a location through her visions. Darcy warns Matt that he may not like what she finds regarding Melody House. Matt the non believer scoffs at her, and figures she is just nuts...but something about her draws him to her...

I have collected quite a few of Heather Grahams novels though the years. They have sat in the library in my crypt for quite some time, gathering gravedust. Her books have always made me raise an eyebrow when I read the synopsis, ghosts, hauntings, and the like are TOTALLY up my alley so to say. Unfortunately I haven't picked up one of her books until now (been pulled away by such authors as Jack Kilborn, J.A Konrath and Blake Crouch. If you haven't read anything by these authors go now!! Pick something up!!). I am very happy with Heather's writing style and how the story progresses. It is smooth, and engrossing.

My only complaint is the spirits in this book are guiding and mean no harm to the living. They want to communicate and tell their story, wether good or bad. Personally if your going to make a story centred around a haunting at least make them a little unnerving??? Who doesn't love a story with a crazed ghost wanting everyone to violently pay for what happened to them or at least scare the heck out of someone....oh? Just me?!?! Hmmm...

Other then that I enjoyed the book, it was a good story with a bunch of spooky moments, some romance, and a bit of a mystery in there to. I would recommend the book to those that don't like something to scary to read. (stay away from aforementioned authors if your one of these people)

Closing the doors of the crypt for now, till next time!

Book 2-The Moonlit Mind by Dean Koontz

Well what can I say about book #2?? Only that I had huge hopes for it...sadly I was let down.

The Moonlit Mind is a prelude novella to Mr. Koontz's newest novel 77 Shadow Street, which I have been dying (no pun intended) to read since I received the email about it's release. When I discovered The Moonlit Mind I jumped on it. It is only available as an ebook, which suited me just fine.

The book is a story of a young boy named Crispin who has to flee his stepfathers home, Telford Hall, to save his life. He is alone at the age of 9, and has to struggle on the streets to survive. He meets a dog who he names Harley (after his younger brother), who is not your average dog.

I really don't know what more to tell you...I was very disappointed in this story...I hope everything that happened in the book comes together in 77 Shadow Street. I found this book to be scattered and unorganized. It didn't catch my interest in the beginning, and thus I had a hard time bouncing between the current story and the multitude of flashbacks.

Sorry for not much "heart" in this blog post...I just didn't feel a lot of desire to read this book, but I finished it, and I am again hoping 77 Shadow Street is so much better. With all the hype surrounding it, it better be.

You can check out the trailer for it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kKCo7jVO4w

I am crossing my fingers and toes!

Here we go again! Book 1 of 100

Wow...it's been quite a while since I have written a "confession". 2011 was a busy, busy year with not much time to think, nevermind read. I have agreed to another 100 book challenge with the "Banshee of Busby", my BFF Dawn, hoping to dig myself out of the ground and read again.

Hopefully 2012 will be much less hectic, and give me the much needed time to open the doors of my crypt and dig out the books that have built up a layer of grave dust.

The first book I have opened is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Although this one has no gravedust as it was just released, it still had it's fair share of haunting my brain. My best fiend (no typo there) Dawn actually opened my eyes to this book about 6 months ago, and we have both been chomping (Brrraaaaiiiiinnnssss!) to get our hands on this book.

Shatter Me is the story of Juliette, a 17 year old girl who has been placed in "an asylum" by her parents, who are unable to cope with her "special ability". Juliette can kill people by touching them.

Honestly, I almost put this book in the "will never finish" pile quite a few times. The beginning of the book reads like a Simple Plan song...a lot of "pity me, pity me, my life is awful, woe is me blah blah blah" It totally had be wanting to gouge my rotting eyes out more then once. But...I didn't...and I can't say I am happy about pushing through to the end of the book, but I am satisfied.

The book carries on this way until about page 100 (which is a long damn time for a book to actually get moving), once the character of Adam comes into the plot, things seem to turn around.

I can't explain to much without spoiling the book, but lets just say Adam makes even this Zombiemom's heart flutter a bit more, and on occasion my dry eyes get a little moist. He is an amazing addition to this story, allowing Juliette to really open up like a flower. Her character and true personality comes forth and you can't help but feel for her, and those that she cares for.

So yes, I would recommend getting your decomposing hands on this book, if you would only like to escape for a little bit.

This post has been a long time coming...

Wow...it's already halfway through March. I honestly don't feel that I will make 75 books this year. I have been struggling to find a book that will both keep my attention as well as entertain me.

I find myself picking up a book, reading the first 50-100 pages, and losing interest, completely. I think I need something new to re-energize my love of reading. I have been searching both the bookstores and the ebook stores for something fresh and have come up with nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I have read a few books!

I've read The Well by A.J. Whitten. This book was good, but did not have the energy or pull their other book The Cellar had.

I have also read Under my Skin by Judith Graves. This is the story of Eryn a high school student whose parents have gone missing, and she is forced to move to the town of Redgrave where she is forced between keeping a very important secret or the lives of her friends. Now this may sound a little empty, but when you throw in a bit of teen angst, some romance, and a whole wack of paranormal goodness (vampires, werewolves and fairies Oh my!) This book turns into a great read! I can't wait for the second one in the trilogy!

The most recent book I read this year was The 13th by John Everson. This is the story of Castle House, an old hotel that was witness to an occult rituals many years ago. The hotel was shut down, and is now the brunt of ghost stories, and scary campfire tales. But lights are on in the Castle House once again, it seems someone has taken the building under their wing, so to say and has reopened it again. The new owners are there for The 13th....

I'm not totally sure how I feel about The 13th...it was a good gore fest, with some scenes that made even I, raise an eyebrow. The premise was interesting, but the book got very repetitive, and I found myself wanting to put it down and find something else to read.

I am now onto a book called Marked by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast. It's a YA novel, based on the life of Zoey a young girl whose life has been changed completely, and not by her choice.

Hopefully this one can keep me entertained. :)

End of the Year, and a couple more books I finished before the end!

Wow, I am so behind in these blog posts. It's been such a busy time, with Christmas and New Years (and 4 kids, let's not forget that!). Things are finally starting to wind down, and get somewhat settled in the zombie crypt that I call my home.

Now I need to let you know about the last two books I finished before the end of the year! The first was Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore­.

I have walked by Christophers books many, many times and thought, " those look interesting" as I am always drawn to vampire fiction, movies anything at all (heck I still get all excited when the movie "Fright Night" comes on), but I passed them over and over for something else. Man..was I a dumbass.

The story centres around Jody, a young woman who one day after being "mugged" wakes up under a dumpster to find her world has changed. Her hand (the one that was sticking out from the bottom of the dumpster) has been charged by something, and strangely it doesn't really hurt and also seems to be healing?! Jody comes to realize she is a vampire, and knows she has to find someone-a human-to help her with daily tasks that need to be done during the day.

Enter C. Thomas Flood (Tommy to his friends) a night manager at the local Safeway, who enjoys frozen turkey bowling from time to time with his co-workers. Tommy is swept away by Jody when she walks into his life one night. The two team up for a hilarious romp of sex, a murder mystery, and them trying to keep Jody's "true self" a secret.

I loved this book, it was a different take on the whole genre that is "the vampire" It was refreshing to read a vampire story with out the whole dark, moody type of setting to it. I found myself laughing out loud and smiling with some of the situations Jody and Tommy were in. This was a great book and I recommend no do what I did and pass these by over and over again. Like I said, I`m a dumbass.

The other book I finished was "The Spark" by Chris Downie. This book is the basis of the sparkpeople.com program for losing weight. For any of you out there looking to lose 10, 20 or 100 pounds I would definitely recommend picking up this book. Chris has an amazing way of explaining weight loss and the mistakes people make when trying to lose weight. This book enlightened me, made me open my eyes to what was really happening with my weight and how to conquer it!

So here is the end of mine and Dawns yearly challenge. The goal was 100 books, which I didn't quite get to, but damnit, I am totally proud of myself for what I did read. It has been a LONG time since I was able to really enjoy books, and concentrate of my love of reading (again, I have 4 kids, two of which are teenagers..run and hide now!) So yes I may not have made it to the 100 books, but I have no regrets at all.

Dawn has posed another challenge! Read 75 books, and watch 26 movies. I'm up to the challenge yet again!

Oh and by the way! Dawn and I are blogging about our weight loss journey at fitnessquest2011.blogspot.com (as soon as I get caught up with everything I WILL be blogging). Our goal is to lose 50 pounds this year (each of us, not together). We are hoping to share and inspire some of you!

Come and join us!

Till next time everyone! Hope you all have a great New Year!

Book 56-Lover Mine by J. R. Ward

Ever have the issue where you want all the books in a series strictly in paperback or hardcover? One of my pet peeves is having a mismatched series of books. Anyone share my dilema? Anyone? Hmmm....

Lover Mine was a book that came out last year...but in hardcover. As all my J.R Ward novels are paperback I had to wait...and wait...and wait...for the paperback. I would check every month religiously for the release date. On November 30, I was at Indigo books with money in my hand and a smile on my face.

Love Mine is the 8th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Dawn told me about the first book Dark Lover around the time we started our 100 book challenge for 2010. I think she has created a monster. I love the stories and characters (oh Vishous I STILL heart you!). Each book is about one of the members of the Blackdagger Brotherhood, and their journey to find thei one true shellan (word for wife in the books).

Lover Mine is the story of John Matthew, one of the newest members of the BDB (Black Dagger Brotherhood) who after a sorted past came to be with the Brotherhood after being picked up by the brother Tohrment.

John Matthew has always loved Xhex, the tough, ass kicking "sympath" assassin working at a local club as head of security. Xhex is not interested in love, she is all business, but John turns her feelings upside down, even though she won't admit it.

After Xhex is kidnapped by the Lessers (enemies of the BDB and vampires in general), John fights to find her alive, or dead, and kill those that took her from him.

This is a story of love, revenge and retribution. I completely love Ward's novels. As I said Dawn has so created a monster with these books...I even love the language and slang they use ( I can see Dawn cringing here, she hates the BDB lingo). Yes, the lingo is a little tiresome...I mean you can only read the word "shitkickers" so many times, but hey, it gives the story a kind of life of it's own.

I am eagerly awaiting the next Ward novel in this series Lover Unchained...but that will probably be in hardcover...and then I'll have to wait another year...sigh...

Gonna put on my shitkickers and go Christmas shopping. Ya feel me? (sorry Dawn I HAD to, you know I LOVER these books!)

Hee hee... :)