Feature & Follow Blog Hop (30)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -  

Q: Birthday Wishes -- Blow out the candles and imagine what character could pop out of your cake...who is it and what book are they from?

Waiting on Wednesday (34)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -

Review - Never Enough by Denise Jaden

Author - Denise Jaden
Publisher - Simon Pulse
Release Date - July 10th, 2012, 400 Pages

Loann’s always wanted to be popular and pretty like her sister, Claire. So when Claire’s ex-boyfriend starts flirting with her, Loann is willing to do whatever it takes to feel special… even if that means betraying her sister.

But as Loann slips inside Claire’s world, she discovers that everything is not as it seems. Claire’s quest for perfection is all-consuming, and comes at a dangerous price. As Claire increasingly withdraws from friends and family, Loann struggles to understand her and make amends. Can she heal their relationship —and her sister—before it’s too late?

                                           
                                                                                                                                          *A review copy was provided by Simon Pulse for review purposes*

Never Enough delves into the lives of sisters that are both facing their own personal demons. We are introduced to Loann and her sister, Claire. Loann is use to being basically the shadow of Claire, even her parents make the remarks of “Why don’t you be more like Claire?” or “Look at what Claire has done, or is doing in her life” this of course is bound to make anyone start to doubt themselves and that is exactly what Loann is doing. She doesn’t see herself as pretty, she thinks that Claire is absolutely beautiful and something that she’ll never be. She’s never been the popular one and dies to get the smallest chance to hang out with Claire and her group of friends. And it doesn’t help that Claire’s boyfriend is the one and only Josh that Loann has crushed on since the sixth grade so any chance to be near him is just a bittersweet bonus for her.

Review - Until I Die by Amy Plum

Author - Amy Plum
Publisher - HarperCollins
Release Date - May 8th, 2012, 357 Pages

Kate and Vincent have overcome the odds and at last they are together in Paris, the city of lights and love.

As their romance deepens there’s one question they can’t ignore: How are they supposed to be together if Vincent can’t resist sacrificing himself to save others? Although Vincent promises that he’ll do whatever it takes to lead a normal life with Kate, will that mean letting innocent people die? When a new and surprising enemy reveals itself, Kate realizes that even more may be at stake—and that Vincent’s immortality is in jeopardy.

Amy has done it again with Until I Die. It picks right back up where Die For Me ended and we are thrown right back into the lives of Kate and Vincent in our lovely Paris setting. We learned a bit of what being a Revenant was like in Die For Me but Amy delves more into their background in Until I Die. All the questions that I had when Die For Me ended was answered in this sequel and I loved every bit of it.

Stacking The Shelves (3 & 4)

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga @ Tynga's Reviews and is a weekly recap of all the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! So, this is everything that I've gotten for the last 2 weeks. I got a lot of ebooks last week and apparently was slacking in the posting department so I'm just going to add them all here. 

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (29)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -  

Waiting on Wednesday (33)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -

Review - Elemental by Emily White

Author - Emily White

Publisher - Spencer Hill Press

Release Date - June 5th, 2012, 260 Pages

Just because Ella can burn someone to the ground with her mind doesn't mean she should. 

But she wants to. 

For ten years—ever since she was a small child—Ella has been held prisoner on an interstellar starship. Now that she has escaped, she needs answers.

Who is she? Why was she taken? And who is the boy with the beautiful green eyes who haunts her memories?

Is Ella the prophesied Destructor… or will she be the one who's destroyed?

                 *A review copy was provided by Spencer Hill Press for an honest review*

Elemental had a great synopsis and one that I thought would have be gripped from the first page to the last but, sadly, this is not the case. I did like the promise of what the story was about but it, for me was very hard to get into. Ella has been locked in a prison like starship for majority of her life and finally gets the chance to escape, and that she does but things seem to go downhill from there.

Review - The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Author - Julie Kagawa
Publisher - HarlequinTeen
Release Date - April 24th, 2012, 485 Pages

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity. 

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

           *A review copy was provided by Netgalley & Harlequin for review purposes*

This was the first time of reading any of Ms. Kagawa’s work and I loved every bit of it. Now, I’ll stop you before you come after me with pitchforks…I do have the Fey series in my possession, I just need to find time to read them. With that said back to The Immortal Rules. I really enjoyed this even though I was able to see some things coming.

Waiting on Wednesday (32)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
- Be careful NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!!! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the Title and Author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my Teaser for this Tuesday -  

Author Interview - Ednah Walters

Hey everyone! Today I have the honor of having Ednah Walters on the blog for an author interview. For those that don't know who she is, she's the author of Betrayed which was just re-released on June 5th, 2012 by Spencer Hill Press. (Check back later this week for a review of Betrayed) So, on to the interview!

1) What would you say is the pro's and/or con's of being a full time mother while writing your series?

The pros? I have homegrown cheerleaders, who celebrate my successes and understand my failures. My kids inspire me. I see them push themselves at school and their after-school activities and they make what I go through as writer seem mild by comparison. However, they have seen me stay up late night after night, push myself to the point of exhaustion trying to beat a deadline and get frustrated by rejections and still keep chugging along. When the experts say children learn by watching you, I totally agree. I don't hear, "Mom, you don't understand." They know I understand what they go through.

The con? I love my children, but like most children, they are very self-centered, lol. And they know they come first, which translates to Mom-your-writing-comes-second.That can suck when you have to finish something. I've had to slip downtown at a local hotel for two nights to work on a WIP undisturbed.

Stacking The Shelves (2)

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga @ Tynga's Reviews and is a weekly recap of all the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! This week I got some awesome books, the books my boyfriend ordered me finally arrived and I quite possibly squee'd a bit...well okay a lot. So here's what I got this week!

Review - Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Author - Emmy Laybourne
Publisher - Feiwel & Friends
Release Date - June 5th, 2012, 294 Pages

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. 

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

                             *A review copy was provided by the publisher for honest review*

Monument 14 starts out action packed and gets your heart racing with what is happening to the characters. It is told from a males perspective which I really enjoyed seeing most of everything I’ve read lately has been from a females point of view. Dean, our main character, starts his day off like any other and then it all goes downhill from there, and quickly! Hail storms, earthquakes, bus crashes, death and driving through a store, is what we are met with. I really enjoyed the first couple chapters but after that, it’s as if they settled into the superstore and goofed off pretty much until the ending.

Blog Tour - 30 Days of Daemon

Hey everyone. I hope you're all having a good week so far. Today I have the honor of being part of the 30 Days of Daemon Tour. Jennifer is one of my favorite authors so when this opportunity came up I was jumping with joy. Today I'll be giving you a character profile of our oh-so-lovely Daemon Black. If you've missed any posts or want to go back and check some older ones you can go here to see a list of everyone and who is doing what. Now, on to the topic of the day - Daemon, Daemon, Daemon!

Waiting on Wednesday (31)

This is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. 
This week I am waiting for -

Review - Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Author - Wendy Higgins
Publisher - HarperTeen
Release Date - May 1st, 2012, 454 Pages

Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

                      *A copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes*
Sweet Evil is not just another Nephilim book out there, it’s different and unique. Wendy found a way to make the story we’ve heard -  it seems a million times before - into something completely different. I loved that. I was grabbed by the first chapters and it was hard to put down. I loved the world building and learning about the Dukes of Sin and their children. The Dukes represent one of the seven deadly sins – lust, adultery, pride, envy, greed, ect. – and through their children is how they get people to sin.

Feature & Follow Blog Hop (28)

This is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read to help us bloggers venture out & find other blogs that we might not have come across. Each week there are 2 feature bloggers, you can find their information on either of the sites listed above. There is a new question up each week and this weeks question is -