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Category Archives: Meme

Deja Vu Review (1)

The Deja Vu Review is a weekly meme hosted by Brittany at The Book Addicts Guide. Its an opportunity to revisit old books you might have read before you launched your blog, but that you think should maybe still be highlighted.

A Book You Didn’t Enjoy as Much as You Thought You Would

For a while last year, everyone was raving about the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones. The first book in the series being First Grave on the Right. So I decided that I would reserve it at the library – since I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay the price for either the hardcover or the kindle versions. Ultimately, I liked it, but didn’t love it, which for me is a 3 star review. It means that I would be curious to see where the series goes in the future, but that I would likely stick to borrowing the books from the library rather than using my limited book budget to buy them. However, it is a series that has grown on me overtime. The third one was by far my favorite so far, and it’ll be interesting to see where she goes with book 4.

First Grave on the Right
Author: Darynda Jones
Series: #1 in the Charley Davidson series
My Rating: 3/5 stars
Read: November 2011

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2012 in Deja Vu Review

 

Feature & Follow (3)

Q: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you’ve read and loved?

When you first start reading in any new genre or sub-genre, you often ask others who already read in that genre for recommendations (or at least I do…). So when I first dipped my toes into reading m/m romance, almost 3 years ago, I did just that. There were several authors names that routinely started to come up in recommendations, as well as book titles. One of these was Crossing Borders by Z.A. Maxfield

Now theoretically, I guess, the cover could be a lot worse – I’ve seen them. But at the same time, this cover really put me off reading the book for the longest time. The individuals on the cover made me think that there was a huge age gap between the main characters, when really there was only like 8 years, and it was kind of skeevy in a way. It wasn’t until this book showed up as a group read that I actually picked it up and read it. I don’t ever remember laughing as hard as I did in a few scenes in this book and Z.A. Maxfield has become a favorite author of mine (in fact, I just finished reading one of her books last night before I went to sleep).

Runner-up: It Had To Be You – Susan Elizabeth Phillips and the boob cover…which they have thankfully since replaced…

 
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Posted by on August 24, 2012 in Blog Hop, Feature & Follow

 

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Recommend A…Book By A Debut Author

Kiss the Morning Star – Elissa Janine Hoole
Amazon Children’s Publishing – May 15, 2012
Harcover – 240 pages

Purchase from Amazon Kiss the Morning Star (Hardcover) or Kiss the Morning Star (Kindle – or you can borrow for free as part of their Kindle Lending Library)

The summer after high-school graduation, a year after her mother’s tragic death, Anna has no plans – beyond her need to put a lot of miles between herself and the past. With forever friend Kat, a battered copy of Kerouac’s DHARMA BUMS, and a car with a dodgy oil filter, the girls set out on an epic road trip across the USA. Maybe somewhere along the way they’ll prove or disprove the existence of God. Maybe they’ll even get laid . . .


All I can say after finishing this book was, oh gawd, was I that awkward and idiotic as a teenager…well, actually, they weren’t that bad – but looking at them through the eyes of someone over a decade older than they were, I felt like if they were my kids, I never would have trusted them on a cross-country trip. But that being said, their idiocy and naivity in parts, is what made it a fun and cute read. Plus I just love the cover. Although it isn’t disclosed on the book jacket, it should be pointed out that there is some same gender relationships that develop – this didn’t bother me, but it did take me a bit by surprise, so you are warned

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2012 in Recommend A...

 

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Recommend A Book…With A Blue Cover

If I Stay – Gayle Forman

Dutton Juvenile, April 2, 2009
Hardcover, 208 pages

Purchase from Amazon here: If I Stay (Paperback) or If I Stay (Kindle)

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck…


While the cover of this book has been re-issued and is no longer the bright blue of the posted cover, I did read the bright blue one, so it fits 😉 A lot of questions arose for me while I was reading this book – when faced with death and if you could make the decision to die or to live, what would you do? What if you were the only member of your family to survive – would that change your perception? I was pretty much in a blubbering mess as I was reading this. It wasn’t an overly difficult read, but a thought-provoking one.

 
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Posted by on August 13, 2012 in Recommend A...

 

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Recommend A….Book Someone Else Recommended To You

Perfect Chemistry – Simone Elkeles
Walker Childrens – December 23, 2008
Hardcover, 368 pages

Purchase from Amazon here – Perfect Chemistry (Hardcover) or Perfect Chemistry (Kindle)

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created ‘perfect’ life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect.

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.


I have to be upfront and say that I honestly don’t know who recommended Perfect Chemistry to me originally, but I am so glad that they did. I believe that someone mentioned it on a “What Are You Currently Reading?” thread, and then another friend of mine mentioned how much she enjoyed the audiobook narration – so I decided to listen to it. Wow. If you are like me and enjoyed reading Romeo and Juliet, in either high school or college, then Perfect Chemistry is a great read because it is more of a modern day re-telling of R&J. It would be a great book to use in the classroom, and paired with R&J, as well as something like West Side Story as a teaching tool.

 
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Posted by on August 6, 2012 in Recommend A...

 

Feature and Follow (2)

Q: Do your reading habits change based on your mood? Do you read a certain genre if you are feeling depressed or happy?

Probably about a year or so ago, I would have said that my reading habits changed based on my moods – after a long day at work, all I wanted to do was settle down with a romance that I knew would end up with an HEA. But this year, I have realized that reading all those romances weren’t what I wanted – it was like eating candy, you crave them like crazy, but when you are done eating, you realize that isn’t what you really wanted. So now I routinely have several books of different genres (a romance, a mystery/thriller, a fiction set in a non-US country, a YA and a non-fiction of some shape and size) on my nightstand and whatever one I pick up is that one that I read for the night. I tend to do a pretty good job with rotating them, if anything, after a long day at work, about the only one I won’t voluntarily choose to read is the NF – so I make myself a bargain, one chapter of that before I move on to something more entertaining. I rarely re-read books (because I figure there are so many books in the world and I only have limited time to try and read them) – I honestly don’t remember the last time I re-read a book (probably when I did my re-read of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series in 2010 right before I listened to the last one that is currently available)

 
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Posted by on August 3, 2012 in Feature & Follow, Meme

 

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Recommend A….First Book in a Series

The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson
September 29, 2011 from Putnam Juvenile
Hardcover – 372 pages
Available from Amazon here: The Name of the Star (Shades of London)

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.


I love books that use Jack the Ripper as a plot because even now over a century later, the mystery behind him hasn’t been solved – although there are many hypotheses. So for me reading a YA book with a Jack the Ripper twist was interesting and I was immediately drawn into Rory’s story. Unfortunately, the second book in the series isn’t scheduled to be released until 2013 (although it is supposed to be early in the year). But I am tracking on its release and can’t wait to see what the author does next.

 
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Posted by on July 30, 2012 in Blog Hop, Recommend A...

 

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Feature & Follow (1)

Q: Summer Reading. What was your favorite book that you were REQUIRED to read when you were in school?

I did my best to boycott many of the assigned reading books in high school – I hated them with a passion…in fact, I remember being placed in a remedial group at one stage because I hadn’t read the assigned book – even though I could discuss it…to this day, I haven’t read that book and don’t know if I ever will. (FWIW the book was I am David by Anne Holm). That being said, I had a hard time deciding on which was my favorite, so I’m putting two (heck, I’ve always been a rule-bender…)

The Diary of Anne Frank is what kicked off my interest in the Holocaust and studying different aspects of it – after completing it, I wrote 2 major high school assignments (English and History) on the Holocaust as well as taking an elective history college in college on it. It is a time period in history that I continue to be interested in to this day

Mr Atticus…need I say more 😉 But seriously, TKAM was just one of those books – I can’t describe why I enjoyed it as much as I did, but I did.

 
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Posted by on July 27, 2012 in Blog Hop, Feature & Follow

 

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The Book Reviewer is in

Accepted Books / eBooks for Review:

The Gingerbread House – Carin Gerhardsen – Review Copy from Netgalley

In a short space of time, several bestial murders occur in central Stockholm. When criminal investigator Conny Sjöberg and the Hammarby police begin to suspect that there’s a link between the murders, Sjöberg goes completely cold. There is a killer out there whose motives are very personal, and who will not be deterred.The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen is the first in the Hammarby series, thrillers with taut, suspenseful plots and unexpected twists and turns.
 
 
 
Dead Ringer – Allen Wyler – Review Copy from Publisher

While speaking at a Hong Kong medical conference, neurosurgeon Dr. Lucas McCrae slips the cloth off a cadaver’s head during a routine medical demonstration, and is overwhelmed with the shock by what’s staring back at him: His best friend, Andy Baer.
Stunned, McCrae races back to Seattle to discover that Andy is in fact missing and may have been murdered by a gang of body snatchers who operate a legit funeral business and make a fortune by selling recovered body parts to medical researchers.
McCrae teams up with an unlikely pair—a beautiful but hardnosed female cop and a gang member whose family was victimized by the body parts ring—to try and expose a macabre web of corruption that involves law enforcement, politicians, funeral home curators and murdered prostitutes.
 
 
Timeless Desire – Gwyn Cready – Review Copy from Publisher

Two years after losing her husband, overworked librarian Panna Kennedy battles to distract herself from crushing Grief, even as she battles to deal with yet another library budget cut. During a routine search within the library’s lower levels, Panna opens an obscure, pad-locked door and finds herself transported to the magnificent, book-filled quarters of a handsome, eighteenth-century Englishman.
 
 
 
 
Cold Comfort – Quentin Bates – Review Copy from Audiobook Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer Program

Officer Gunnhildur, recently promoted from her post in rural Iceland to Reykjavík’s Serious Crime Unit, is tasked with hunting down escaped convict Long Ommi, who has embarked on a spree of violent score-settling in and around the city. Meanwhile, she’s also investigating the murder of a fitness guru in her own city-center apartment. As Gunna delves into the cases, she unearths some unwelcome secrets and influential friends shared by both guru and convict. Set in an Iceland plagued by an ongoing financial crisis, Gunna has to take stock of the whirlwind changes that have swept through the country—and the fact that at the highest levels of power, the system’s endemic corruption still leads, inevitably, to murder.

 
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Posted by on July 26, 2012 in The Book Reviewer Is In

 

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Recommend A… Book You Read This Year

Forbidden – Tabitha Suzuma
November 27, 2006 from Simon Pulse
Hardcover,
ISBN: 978-1442419957
Available from Amazon here: Forbidden

She is pretty and talented – sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But… they are brother and sister.


I likely never would have picked up this book if it hadn’t been a voted on group read in YA-MA rated group on Goodreads – although it finally came into the library almost 3 months after the group had read it, so I was a bit behind. I’ve lost track now of how many times I have recommended this book to different people for different reasons. As of right now, I haven’t read any other books by Ms Suzuma, but when I can reduce Mt. TBR to a less significant pile, I am going to seek out some more.

 
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Posted by on July 23, 2012 in Blog Hop, Recommend A...

 

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