Sunday, June 21, 2009

Friday Finds (19 June)


What great books did you hear about / discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

Not much this week :)

1. The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel
( Won this from Tami @ Tree Swing Reading , she has great giveaways by the way ;))

A liberal Supreme Court justice has died and the president, a right wing pro-life politician, nominates Dunbar Shelton to replace her in an explosive pro-life vs. pro-choice conflict.

In Tennessee, lawyers Eli Faulkner and Jill Baker represent a physician in the murder case of a young lawyer. Jill flies to Washington to get a part of the story from investigative journalist Holland Fletcher.

Together, the players in this drama will uncover answers that may cost them their lives. Is it worth it to risk everything when you're fighting for what you believe in?

2. Worst Nightmares by Shane Briant
Found @ Reading Extravaganza

Dermot Nolan is an award-winning bestselling author who seems to have it all—a successful career, fame, fortune, and a beautiful wife. Between the royalties coming in from his most recent book and the revenue he has received from the film company that bought the rights, Dermot seems every bit the literary darling.
And yet, for the last year, he has suffered from a bout of writer’s block, and in the process has grossly overspent his income. So when Dermot comes across an unsolicited manuscript stuffed into his mailbox, he cannot help but feel intrigued. It tells the story of the homicidal “Dream Healer,” who snares his victims via his website, worstnightmares.net, seduces them into revealing their innermost fears, and then kills them by revisiting their very own nightmares
upon them.
Dermot, with the help of his wife, begins to rework the novel, while simultaneously researching the individual dream stories. In his search, he very slowly begins to realize that the novel may not be entirely fictional, that these poor characters may have perished at the hands of a twisted torturer. Could the Dreamhealer be real? Could these innocent cyber-surfers have fallen victim to a raving maniac? Just how far is fact from fiction? And could Dermot be writing his own ticket to death...his very own worst nightmare?

3. Prism by Faye Kellerman & Aliza Kellerman

Prism takes us to a slightly alternate universe in which medicine and health care do not exist, and in which sick people are allowed to die without any care. Set in New Mexico and California, the novel features three teens who fall through a cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico while on a field trip. They are plunged into a frightening parallel universe—seven weeks in the past, in which their "normal" worlds of family and high school remain the same…except for the fact that no medicine exists and when people die in the street they are picked up and disposed of.

4. The King's Rose by Alisa Libby
Found @ Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff


Life in the court of King Henry VIII is a complex game. When fif teen-year-old Catherine Howard catches the king’s eye, she quickly transforms from pawn to queen. But even luxury beyond imagination loses its luster as young Catherine finds her life—and her heart—threatened by the needs of an aging king and a family hungry for power. Will their agendas deliver Catherine to the same fate as her infamous cousin, Anne Boleyn—sacrificed at the altar of family ambition?
Engaging historical fiction with a throbbing YA heartbeat, this thrilling novel will draw readers into the intrigues and dangers of the Tudor court.

5. Dark Places: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
Found @
Whimpulsive



I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

6. Bound By Blood: The Awakening by C.H. Scarlett
(Given to my for review by Debra @ Review Your Book


Isn't the cover just GORGEOUS ?

The truth of the Ancients has been kept from you. For life did not begin here on Earth but in a universe known as TEŔAH.
Can you lay claim to one of their bloodlines?
Samanthŕa Lampiŕ can and this is her story…
And possibly, it is the beginning of yours.
*****
Samanthŕa Lampiŕ is the High Priestess of twelve very powerful and ancient bloodlines. She is on the verge of her Awakening which is something every Vii before her has welcomed with absolute ease. Not Samanthŕa though, for her Awakening is prophesied to bring about the doom of her and those she loves the most, her six sisters. In secret, she undergoes dangerous rituals that’s could literally destroy her but she is more than willing to take that chance for she is no stranger to sacrifice. Despite the fatal threats of TEŔAH and the rising strengths of its enemies, she is succeeding until the night a great storm of unknowable power releases a prophecy, a revelation that will change her world, her peoples’ world, forever.
Daŕēus Dracuŕa, Father of the Blood and keeper of the 13th forgotten bloodline, is released from an age long prison that he was wrongly condemned to by traitors of his own blood and that of Evil. In a venomous rage, he learns that TEŔAH is in greater apparel than anyone in it has come to realize and he is the only one that can stop it. But in order to do so, he needs the High Priestess and he needs her at her full strength and power. He needs her Awakened whether she is willing or not and despite what harm it may bring to others.
***

Enter a world unlike any other. Discover a past which has been kept secret until now. Find your place among a forgotten bloodline and in the end, know your true purpose.
But be forewarned now, the truth is not always what it seems and lifting the veil is not always easy.

Once you begin this journey, know that it can not end until it is finished.
Ask yourself now, before you invoke the spell of this tale, what those in TEŔAH had to decide….
Are you ready to be awakened?
Because once you do, there is no turning back.


Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Musing Mondays (June 15)


Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about award winning books…

Do you feel compelled to read prize-winning (Giller/Booker/Pulitzer etc) books? Why, or why not? Is there, perhaps, one particular award that you favour? (question courtesy of MizB)

No I don't feel compelled at all to read a prize-winning book, I might be curious once in a while if it's a genre I usually enjoy that's why I failed miserably in the Book Awards Reading Challenge.. I just couldn't make myself finish it.. it felt like a frustrating homework that I just had to do and will not enjoy so I just stopped trying.. I finished 7 books .. I enjoyed 4 of them :
but I read them mostly because I wanted to read the book and not mainly because they are award books :) so some of those books I read I didn't even know they won any awards until after I finished it ;)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Friday Finds (June 12)

What great books did you hear about / discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS! :D

For this week I found..

1. Serial by Jack Kilborn, Blake Crouch
Found @ Bella is reading

Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? # 1: Don-t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. # 2: Don-t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2? When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an -After School Special,- SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides. Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other-s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win.

To get Serial legally free..
For your Sony Reader
For your Kindle
From the author's website


2. The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax
Found

Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at their very first writers’ conference. Ten years later they’re still friends, survivors of the ultra-competitive New York publishing world. Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose bestsellers support a lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason is a single mother juggling two jobs, two kids, and too many deadlines. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of inspirational romances: no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aim s’s once-promising career is on the skids—and so is her marriage. Her sales are dismal, her new editor detests her work—and her husband is cheating. Barely able to think, let alone meet her final deadline, Kendall holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. But her friends won’t let her face this trial alone. Together they collaborate on a novel using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will ever discover the truth behind their words.

No one is more surprised than they are when the book becomes a runaway bestseller. But with success comes scrutiny and scandal…as these four best friends suddenly realize how little they’ve truly known each other.

3. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Found @ The Eclectic Reader

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

4. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
Found @ Vixen's Daily Reads

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle--but there's a risk: Sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him. While trying to back out of this ill-conceived career, Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London--just to pay the bills, you understand. But what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize. That's OK: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It's the living who piss him off...

5. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments Series #1) by Cassandra Clare
Found @ The Book Resort Reviews

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Vampire Nights by G.A. Hauser

Vampire Nights by G.A. Hauser

Year Published: 2009

My Rating: 3 stars

355 pages (on my Sony Reader)

Vivienne Starr is an editor of a glamour magazine, when she goes to her 20 year high school reunion to meet with her girlfriends, she is shocked to find her high school sweetheart RJ who left her with 20 years ago without a word and a broken heart.
He tries to rekindle what they had but she meets a guy who comes to work for her magazine Daniel Dillon and they hit it off from day one!
Then RJ seems to be everywhere she is, stalking her and creeping her out.. Every time she meets with him she loses chunks of time and wakes up drained and disoriented.. what exactly is he doing to her and will her relationship with Danny stand the strain?!

I enjoyed the story of the book and thought it was very good, but the telling of the story in my opinion was a bit weak.. the storyline was great and would have turned out to be a 5 star but the dialogue and the telling was not that great.. I would read another book by this author just because I enjoyed the story! I kept reading it wanting to know what happens in the end :) Although his explanation of his disappearance was not that convincing :)

Quotes I enjoyed from the book:
It would be so easy. Just allow this to happen. Bring back the memories like a tsunami and let it drown me.

When he kissed her lips again, she felt herself go into that meltdown phase. Liquid, spineless, she floated over the wood floor as he held her up effortlessly. And in a waltz-like dance, they moved across the room, spinning and hovering in the air.

"When I'm good, I'm very good, when I'm bad, I'm even better,” she purred.

"Check this out. The gourmet market had these elephant garlic cloves. The grocer said they roast up really sweet."
"Holy shit.” He inspected the giant head of garlic. “That'll keep the vampires away!"
"Christ! It'll keep everyone away!” She laughed as he tossed it to her and she stuck it on the counter.

Unimportant Meme


Jenny Girl @Jenny loves to read was kind to tag me with this fun meme.. thank you Jenny :)

The rules for this meme are:
1. Mention who tagged you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six more blogs, then go and comment on their blogs. Let them know that they have been challenged, and invite them to play along.

First of all I was tagged this meme before here by Bella Foxx :) but I will state another 6 unimportant things here :)

1. Writing a satisfying (for me) book review
2. Visiting my best friend
3. Watching a really good movie
4. Reading a good book
5. Having a good night's sleep
6. Relaxing on the beach with a good book

Ok I answered these questions without looking at the previous answers then I peeked :) got 2 of them the same !!

Now to tag some people !!

1. Insert Book Title @ {Insert Book Title Here}
2. Tami @ Middle Rageously
3. Jess @ Barney's Book Blog
4. Whimpulsive
5. Dar @ Peeking Between the Pages
6. Mandi @ Smexy Books

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Kreativ Blogger Award


My friend Virginie @ Virginie Says… has honored me with this so beautiful award. I thank her very much for thinking of me, it was so sweet of her :)

Rules:
Post 7 things you love.
Give award to 7 other bloggers who are creative.

7 things I love

My hubby and kids
My Mom and Dad
My 2 brothers
My cat Dexter
My Sony Reader
My IPhone
My New Mini 10 Dell Netbook :)

This time I'll pass this award to ..

1. Erotic Horizon @ Erotic Horizon
2. TexasRed @ TexasRed Books
3. Diane @ The Book Resort
4. Sandy @ You've GOTTA read this!
5. Rebecca @ Lost in Books
6. Blodeuedd @ Book girl of Mur-y-Castell
7. Bella is reading . . .

Musing Mondays (June 8)


Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading time…

Do you have a set reading time (before bed, perhaps)? Do you read more at night or during the day? Is there a day of the week, perhaps, that you set aside to catch up on reading?

Actually the only set time for reading is when I'm in the car since I don't drive :) other than that any free time I have that is not on my computer or in front of the TV would go to reading.. I sometimes read before I sleep but only if I went to bed not really sleepy or if it's early.

And since I always have a book with me, actually my reader, any free time I have waiting in line, going up the elevator or sitting in a boring party.. I just whisk my reader out and start reading :)

I know it's not Monday but I got caught up this week, so I'm trying to catch up on my posting :)

My Blogging Awards

Labels

Books Read In 2007

  • PS, I Love You by Cecilia Ahern
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
  • Where There is Evil by Sandra Brown
  • Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
  • New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
  • The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block
  • Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block
  • Drop Dead Sexy by Elisa Adams