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Monday, October 31, 2016
Sunday, October 30, 2016
The Sunday Post Meme (59)
Hey everybody! I am
participating
in a book
meme called the Sunday Post which is being hosted
by Kimba the
Caffeinated Book Reviewer! The goal of this meme is to share news you have
on various books and things you’ve read or received and also talk about what is
coming up for your
blog! Book
hauls can include library books
, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books and you can share
these finds with other book
bloggers!
Hello everyone! Halloween is just around the corner, but unfortunately, I have to work on Halloween. But on the other hand, that just gives me a chance to watch my favorite Halloween movies like "Hocus Pocus," "Scooby Doo on Zombie Island" and the "Nightmare Before Christmas" for most of that day, so it's not a total loss for me! Also, this month's been going very well for me in terms of reading since I was able to get in a few good books for October, so I'm really excited to see how many books I can read in November!
★Book Reviews☆
★Miscellaneous☆
Top Ten Tuesday #37: Top 10 Horror Themed Books to get you in the Halloween Spirit
Book Photo Sundays #2: October 23, 2016
Ho-Ho-Ho Read-A-Thon (November 9th - November 15th) Sign Up!
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Dekkir by Lara Larue
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Concealed by Christina Bauer
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Stage Left by Ali Parker
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: The Decision by L.K. Kuhl
Book Photo Sundays Meme!
Looking for New Guest Posts!
★ Sign up for Caffeinated Book Reviewer's Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon!
☆ Check out Happy Indulgence's September Wrap Up Video!
★ Check out Rabid Reads' Fresh Meat for the week of October 23rd!
Well,
that's the Sunday News for today and I will have more news for the various
books I've read in the near future!
Posted on Sunday, October 30, 2016.
Book Photo Sundays #3: October 30, 2016
Hello everyone! Welcome to "Book Photo Sundays" where you get the chance to showcase photos of your books, bookshelves and book conventions you have gone to! The goal of this book meme is to basically just post up a photo of the various books you have read or your book hauls on your blog and link back here so that way everyone can check out your wonderful book photos! You can get your book photos through your Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Iphone or any other account where you can get your photos!
So let's get started!
Here's a photo of me and my books!
Time to Link Up! Show us your book photos of the week!
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: The Decision by L.K. Kuhl
The Decision
L.K. Kuhl
(Everlasting Trilogy, #2)
Publication date: October 20th 2016
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
The guests are invited. The cake is all set. In just a few short hours Sophia Bandell will be saying “I do” to a guy she isn’t sure she loves. But where does she go from here? She feels her life is headed in a downhill spiral. Her first and real true love, Tate Forester, is a ghost. But he’s the man she wants to be with…the one she can’t live without. Sophia is faced with the toughest decision of her life. Does she forget about Tate and marry the egotistical lawyer, Aaron Stuart? Or does she take the plunge and join Tate to be with him for eternity?
—
Just then, all of my bridesmaids, my best friends—Claudia Bunker, Jenny Staid, and Laura Anderson—came out of the house to join them on the deck. All three of them, along with Kristy, were dressed in their lacy purple bridesmaid dresses, long diamond earrings, and flattering braided up-dos.
“Sophia, you’d better go break the news to them now. Don’t put them through this any longer.” Tate gave me a gentle nudge, urging me to put an end to this.
My chin trembling, I answered him with a small nod. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t answer, my mind tossing a stormy chaos of what to do next. Did I go break the news to everyone that the wedding is called off? Everyone go home. It’s over. There will be no Mrs. Aaron Stuart today. My eyes slanted back to the yard again. This time Aaron sobbed into his hands. I blinked, then blinked again, my vision blurry.
My chest ached, and I shivered as though the wind had shifted, wind that carried in cooler air— air consumed with an acidic premonition and a feverish guilt. My hands fell limp and I sagged against the tree, sliding down the length of the trunk to deposit my butt on the ground, too weak to stand.
I rubbed my face, trying to come up with the right words, words that wouldn’t disintegrate me— kill us. There were none. This was going to be the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life, but I’d been weighing the consequences since early this morning. Ever since Tate told me there was no possible way there could ever be a future for us, not in this life anyway. Carrying out this agonizing feat would mean shredding my existence, tearing every piece of livable being out of me and turning me into a hollow shell. But I saw no other way.
My breathing picked up pace, amped, making the dizziness spin my world out of control. I was losing it. It got so bad I could no longer breathe. I gasped and wrenched my body, reaching for the sun— grasping, grabbing, trying to save my life. But the air was gone. Nothing to sustain me.
Tate knelt beside me and clutched my shoulders to keep me sitting upright. “You going to be okay, Ladybug? I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t think it would be this difficult for you.”
Finally, my voice spewed the bitter, vile words out like a hot rush of lava. The knife had already sliced its way through and gutted me, my heart pierced to the end of the blade, long before they spilled forth. I was too debilitated to even clear my throat. I gurgled out. “I’m letting you go, Tate.”
The repugnant, volcanic ashes floated to the ground in a hushed whisper, singeing the ground as they lit.
Tate tipped his head, his mouth falling open. His eyes wouldn’t move, they drilled into me. “What are you saying?”
The tears… I couldn’t stop them. They surged forth like a rapid river, spilling down my face. “I’m so in love with you and… and I know that this time… this time I’ll never be able to forget you. And I know what that means. It means that in six weeks you’ll be going away. But I can’t fight it anymore. My love for you is too strong, and I’m too tired.” Now that I said the words I knew there was no going back for Tate. He would be gone.
Tate lowered his head, his lips pressed into a thin line. He swallowed twice, a small sound escaping from the back of his throat like something wanted to burst forth but couldn’t quite get the job done, caught somewhere between hurt and anger. He sat back on his heels, looking at his hands that trembled on his thighs, then finally whispered. “Do what you have to do. For as much as it hurts both of us, I think it’s for the best. You’ll find someone besides Aaron and move on, and we’ll be together in eternity.”
L.K. Kuhl lives in Nebraska with her husband Gene of twenty-nine years, young son, Nathan, and Greg, their Black Lab dog. She has two older daughters, Morgan and Brittani and son-in-law, Trevor. L.K. has been writing for over twenty years. She first began writing children’s books and poetry, moved on to writing music, and is now writing Young Adult and Adult novels. She loves spending time with her family, vacationing, writing, reading, and taking long walks. It’s the characters who write their own stories in her novels, and she is just their messenger, sharing it with the world.
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Stage Left by Ali Parker
Stage Left
Ali Parker
(Bright Lights Billionaire #1)
Publication date: March 20th 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance
From Best Selling Author, Ali Parker comes a new Billionaire Series filled with sexiness, humor and intense attraction…
Ethan Lewis has been in the bright lights for as long as he can remember. He’s just turned the cusp of celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday, and yet he feels more like eighty. Living the life of a celebrity isn’t all it is chalked up to be, and dealing with the unruly number of women who are more interested in his billions than who he is as a person is getting old. He has resigned himself to giving up on love and focusing on the only thing that truly gives back – his career.
Riley Phillips has always dreamed of being on a big stage with the warmth of the spotlight baring down on her, but she just couldn’t seem to catch the right agent’s attention. After giving a quick commencement speech as Valedictorian of her graduating class at Billmore High, she’s offered something she can’t refuse… The chance to work in Hollywood. It’s not all it’s chalked up to be, but she works hard and finally gets her big break four years down the line. There is a new movie that her agent wants her to audition for, and her co-star? The dreamy Ethan Lewis.
She scores the part, but soon regrets it due to his callous, overbearing persona. He’s nothing like the public touts, and she for one isn’t impressed.
Funny enough, he is – immensely.
Grab yours today for FREE!
Ali Parker talks about being an indie author and loving it!
I’m not a superstar, but a story teller – which is all I ever wanted to be. I set my schedule, write what I want, love on you guys by giving away whatever the hell I want to and life FEELS right/good.
Let me tell you why else I love being Indie.
1. No one will ever love my book as much as me. It’s my creation and having the freedom to choose what it looks like and where the plot goes is all mine to decide. I don’t have someone standing over my shoulder making it “better” by their definition of “better.”
2. I can spend as little or as much time, energy and money as I want. Obviously the more I put into it, the more I’m going to get out of it, but that’s with anything in life. The cool part is that if I’m a good editor or if I can design my own cover, then those are costs to be saved and skills to be used.
3. I belong. In a world of independent authors I find myself fitting in just perfectly. We all work hard and dream big and the encouragement is beyond belief. I don’t have to write a certain genre or stick to a certain structure in the plot. I simply write, promote and support and honestly feel great about myself at the end of the day.
Being an Indie author, to me, doesn’t really have anything to do with being Independent though. It’s a statement that says I’m capable of making every step along this book writing/producing platform to take a dream from start to finish. The truth of what Indie authors are doing is showing the world that there still exists hope. Hope to dream big and work hard to make that dream a reality.
That’s why I love being Indie!
Ali Parker is a full-time contemporary romance writer who left a life in Corporate America to try out living a dream. She loves coffee, watching a great movie and hanging out with her hubs. By hanging out, she means making out. Hanging out is for those little creepy elves at Christmas. No tight green stockings for her.
Thanks for picking up a book!!
Ali also writes Sci-Fi Romance under Liza Probz - http://amzn.to/1KvnczE, and Western Romance under Jessica Mills - http://amzn.to/1P37NDz
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Street Team / Twitter / Google+ / Instagram / Pinterest / Newsletter
Friday, October 28, 2016
[BOOK REVIEW] Nimona by N.D. Stevenson
Title: Nimona
Author: N.D. Stevenson
Genre: Fantasy / Friendship / LGBT / Drama
Year Published: 2015
Year Read: 10/27/2016
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 13+ (Some Language and Gory Violence)
Introduction:
Now, when I heard the rage that was going on with N.D. Stevenson’s graphic novel, “Nimona,” I just knew that I had to check this baby out as soon as possible and oh man, I was not disappointed by the awesome results!
What is this story about?
The story starts off with a young girl named Nimona who wanted to become a supervillain and a sidekick to Lord Blackheart, a former knight who started his road to villainy several years ago. So, after Blackheart decided to take in Nimona as his sidekick, the two friends started causing mayhem in the kingdom, but the reason why they are causing all of this mayhem is because Lord Blackheart wanted to prove to everyone that the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics is hiding a terrible secret that could harm the kingdom. Meanwhile, it turns out that Lord Blackheart has a nemesis in Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his rivalry with Sir Goldenloin is personal due to Blackheart and Ambrosius being “very” close friends a long time ago and their friendship had ended bitterly due to Ambrosius cutting off Blackheart’s arm during a jousting tournament and now Sir Goldenloin has it out for Blackheart!
Will Nimona be a good sidekick and will Blackheart repair his relationship with Sir Goldenloin?
Read this book to find out!
What I loved about this story:
N.D. Stevenson's writing: Wow! I was seriously amazed at N.D. Stevenson's brilliant writing as the characters are well written and the action sequences beautifully balance out the dramatic scenes! I loved the way that N.D. Stevenson balanced out the dramatic scenes with the action scenes as we get to see tons of fight scenes between Nimona and Lord Blackheart and the guards of the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics and we also get to see some dramatic tensions between Nimona, Lord Blackheart and Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin. I also loved the way that N.D. Stevenson wrote the mystery segment of this story as the reader has to figure out what Nimona’s true nature is all about and why she is so hesitant about telling Lord Blackheart about it, despite the fact her relationship with Blackheart keeps improving throughout the story. I loved the way that N.D. Stevenson developed the relationships between the characters, especially between Nimona and Blackheart as they have a father / daughter relationship with each other as Blackheart tries to protect Nimona the best way he can, while Nimona confides in Blackheart with her desires to become a villain. I was also interested in the relationship between Lord Blackheart and Sir Goldenloin as I was trying to figure out why they seem to care for each other throughout the story and once you realized that they were once friends who ended their friendship rather bitterly, their relationship becomes extremely tragic and I was hoping throughout the story that they would find a way to make up to each other. For me, Nimona was one of the best characters in the story because I loved her cheerful personality as she constantly tries to get Blackheart to take her out on their schemes, but I also loved her dark and mysterious side as I was trying to figure out what Nimona is really hiding and what is the real truth behind her shapeshifting powers. N.D. Stevenson has done a brilliant job at creating this unique world where medieval culture combines with modern day technology as you see the characters wear medieval style clothing and have events such as jousting tournaments, but you also see the characters use various technology that are quite modern such as super computers that help the characters contact each other.
N.D. Stevenson's artwork: N.D. Stevenson's artwork is truly cute and dramatic to look at as it is reminiscent of the designs of “Adventure Time” and I loved the images of Nimona transforming into various creatures such as a dragon, a fox and a rhinoceros as it shows how versatile Nimona is with her shapeshifting powers. I also enjoyed the images of Blackheart having a mechanical arm as it makes him look so awesome, especially when he is fighting his foes and once you learn the tragic backstory regarding his arm, it just makes you feel so much for his character.
What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:
For anyone who does not like violence and language, this graphic novel does have some language, which involves the characters using the “d” word quite a bit; although the word is not used a lot. The violence can also get quite bloody at times, especially with various characters being stabbed and blood being shown on the wounds.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Nimona” is a truly unique tale that discusses about true friendship, betrayals, secrets and lies that anyone who is a huge fan of high octane fantasy and action will seriously get a kick out of!
* 2015 National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature
* 2015 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Graphic Novels & Comics
* 2015 - 2016 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for Best Graphic Album-Reprint AND Nominated for Best Digital / Web Comic
* 2016 Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee
* 2017 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee
* 2017 The Magnolia Award Nominee for 9-12
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Concealed by Christina Bauer
Concealed
Christina Bauer
(Beholder #2)
Publication date: October 25th 2016
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
As a Grand Mistress Necromancer, Elea’s a witch who commands the ultimate power over spirit and bone. It’s magic that she’ll need in order to stop the Vicomte Gaspard from killing her Sisters by draining their magic along with their life force.
To find and free her fellow witches, Elea must venture into some of the most dangerous places in the realm. What starts off as a rescue quest could easily turn into a suicide mission. And with the handsome warlock Rowan along to help, Elea may be risking more than her life. Her growing feelings for Rowan might put her heart on the line, too.
—
Rowan stepped into my path, forcing me to stop. “We can’t worry about the Tsar just now.”
“No one is getting anywhere near you, Elea.” Rowan’s voice was a rough rasp. “You have my word. I know what you care about, and it’s your Sisters. That’s all you need to think about. At least, for the next two days. Promise me?”
Rowan’s words helped to center my thoughts. “You’re right. Little time remains to save Ada and the others. I need to stay the course. Thank you, Rowan.”
“I’ll always be here for you.” Rowan stared at me for a long moment. I thought he might have more to say. Instead, he shook his head, stepped across the cave floor, and picked up the loops of rope.
“Any ideas on where your Sisters are imprisoned?”
“Amelia wants to check the Havilland mansion first.”
“I can send in someone from my team. They’re experts at subterfuge.”
“No. These are my people. I have to go.”
Once again, Rowan moved to stand so close our bodies were only inches apart. “Trust me on this. My people can handle the Royals.” He brushed the backs of his fingertips up my cheek and I melted into the touch. “I want you safe, Elea.” He leaned in until his mouth was only a breath away from mine.
This wasn’t the time for emotion. I couldn’t seem to stop my zuchtlos feelings, though. My heart thumped with such force I thought it might burst from my chest. Rowan’s voice became low and gentle. “Return to Braddock Farm. Stay safe. I will end this. Once it’s done, I’ll find you there. I swear it.”
My legs felt wobbly beneath me. In my mind’s eye, it all appeared so easy and clear. Rowan could handle this. I’d return to my farm and help the faithful servants who’d kept it thriving. Then one day, Rowan would arrive and we’d be together. How wonderful would that be?
I closed my eyes and stepped away from his touch. This was impossible. My people were my responsibility. No one else’s. And the idea that Rowan and I could be together? That was an illusion.
“It’s a sweet dream. We both know it isn’t the truth. You’re part of the Caster Imperial family. Your uncle is none other than Genesis Rex. You can’t have a life with me as a farmer, can you?”
Rowan’s gaze intensified. “No.” He stepped closer once again. “I’ll still find you, though.”
“And when you do, what will I be?” I wanted to touch him and to be with him. I knew that now. But not at any cost. “Your mistress? Your absentee wife?”
“You’ll be mine.” He pulled me into his arms. Every ridge of his hard body pressed against my soft curves. I’d never craved anything more in my life than I wanted to kiss Rowan right now. He leaned in closer than ever before. His warm breath cascaded over my lips. “Don’t fight this. Please.”
My control snapped, and I pressed my mouth to his. Yes. Our first few tastes were tentative. Gentle.
Rowan was as delicious as I’d imagined, a flavor that was somewhere between musk and desire.
Every touch of his lips sent spasms of want through my core.
Our kiss quickly turned rough. Rowan nipped my bottom lip, and I let out a rough groan. This kiss could go on forever. Still, some small part of my brain shouted for me to stop.
I didn’t know how I found the strength, but I pushed Rowan away. “I want you too. That’s not enough for me. We’re from different worlds. Your place is with your people. I need to save mine. Once this is over, we’ll never see each other again. I can’t afford to feel more for you than I already do.”
Rowan’s eyes took on that intense look I knew so well. A muscle worked in his jaw for a long moment. “I understand. We both have work to do.”
I exhaled. “I’m glad you can accept the truth.”
“I didn’t say that.” He scooped up the ropes and offered them to me. “This isn’t over.”
I stared at the green cords coiled around his palm. I wanted real ties between us as well. Yet wanting a thing wasn’t the same as having it. I pulled the rope from his hand and looped it around my shoulders. “We better get back.”
Christina graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School with BA's in English as well as Television, Radio, and Film Production. Her day job is in marketing for companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and Zerto. Back in the go-go 90′s, she founded her own software start-up, Mindful Technologies. Christina believes that, upon close examination of Tolkien's text, it's entirely possible that the Balrog was wearing fuzzy bunny slippers.
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