Waiting on Wednesday (47)

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick this week is:

Title: The Fall
Author: Bethany Griffin
Pages: 400
Expected Publication: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Publishing.

Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down?The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

I remember reading The Fall of The House of Usher in school and it was a very interesting read, I'm curious on how the author is going to do with this retelling.

Top Ten Tuesday (41)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week a new top ten list is posted, and to participate all you have to do is fill in YOUR top ten for the list.

This week is Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read.

1) The Hobbit by  J.R.R. Tolkien: I have been trying to read this book for over two years, I don't Know what it is but this book hasn't been able to capture my attention.

2) A Gate of Night by Fella Forrest: This was the sixth book in the Shade of Vampire Series, I loved the first three books but the next three books could have been just one since they were filled with chapter devoted on reminding the reader how perfect the main character was and how much the hero loved and needed her.

3) The Rules for Breaking by Ashley Elston: The first book in the series was amazing and I honestly believed a second book was not necessary. In this book Anna, a main character that I loved turned into a one of those teenagers that dice ides to "rebel" in a very stupid way, I mean a teenage girl certainly knows how to handle drug cartels better than anyone.

4) Frost by Marianna Baer: This was supposed to be a ghost story but it's more like a psychological thriller that dragged a lot.

5) Blood Rites by Quinn Loftis: Who doesn't like a character that is sarcastic and funny? I know I do but in this book it was overdone there was a character that was sarcastic and "funny" even when she had been in a major car accident and one of her best friends was incredibly injured.

6) The Devil Wears Prada: This was one of those extremely rare cases where I liked the movie better than the book.

7)The Treatment by Suzanne Young: This series had an excellent concept and the first book was amazing but the second book turned the heroine into Bella Swan, also mayor plotholes made it hard to read.

8)Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini : I had problems with the main character here, I loved Lily at first because she was a fighter but when she got to the other Salem she turned into one of those people that ere stubborn in stupid situations, there was a point where she is told that she has to change her appearance for safety reasons but noooo how dare anyone suggest she color her hair and when she is on the run she can't believe that her vegan sensibilities weren't considered.

9)The Daughters by Joanna Philbin: I know that we all have had insecurities about our looks but here the main character complains about her mother being so beautiful that it ruins her life.

10)Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly: There was a mermaid language introduced here that seemed to be based on bad puns and that was kind of annoying.

Monday Book Recommendations (13)

Monday is the day I choose what new books I’m going to start reading but I have so many books in my To Read Pile that sometimes it’s hard to choose so I have decided that on Monday mornings I’ll recommend my some of favorite books.

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 

How do you defy destiny?

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

   

     

Can true love be forgotten?

As the only scion who can descend into the Underworld, Helen Hamilton has been given a nearly impossible task. By night she wanders through Hades, trying to stop the endless cycle of revenge that has cursed her family. By day she struggles to overcome the fatigue that is rapidly eroding her sanity. Without Lucas by her side, Helen is not sure she has the strength to go on.

Just as Helen is pushed to her breaking point, a mysterious new Scion comes to her rescue. Funny and brave, Orion shields her from the dangers of the Underworld. But time is running out. A ruthless foe plots against them, and the Furies' cry for blood is growing louder.

As the ancient Greek world collides with the mortal one, Helen's sheltered life on Nantucket descends into chaos. But the hardest task of all will be forgetting Lucas Delos.

Josephine Angelini's compelling saga becomes ever more intricate and spellbinding as an unforgettable love triangle emerges and the eternal cycle of revenge intensifies. Eagerly awaited, this sequel to the internationally bestselling Starcrossed delivers a gritty, action-packed love story that exceeds all expectations.  

   

     

After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count.

To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

In Josephine Angelini’s compelling conclusion to the masterfully woven Starcrossed trilogy, a goddess must rise above it all to change a destiny that’s been written in the stars. With worlds built just as fast as they crumble, love and war collide in an all-out battle that will leave no question unanswered and no heart untouched.  

   

     

  

Stacking The Shelves (40)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It is all about sharing 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 e books!

The Search for Sam (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files #4) by Pittacus Lore

Maid of Deception (Maids of Honor #2) by Jennifer McGowan

Execution (Escape From Furnace #5) by Alexander Gordon Smith

Get Even (Don't Get Mad #1) by Gretchen McNeil

The Vampires of Manhattan (The New Blue Bloods Coven #1) by Melissa De La Cruz

Echoes of Us (The Hybrid of Chronicles #3) by Kat Zhang

Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman

The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

Day 21 (The Hundred #2) by Kass Morgan

The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave #2) by Rick Yancey

Blackbird (Blackbird #1) by Anna Carey

The Vault of Dreamers (Untitled #1) by Caragh M. O'Brien

Falls The Shadow by Stefanie Gaither

So many lovely books  this week, I had terrible luck last week since I didn't like any of the books I bought, my fingers are crossed that this week is better.

Feature and Follow (27)

The Feature and and and Follow is hosted by TWO hosts,  of Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

This weeks Feature:

Book character(s) you'd like to see with their own Twitter page?

I would love to see Puck from the Iron Fey, his tweets would probably be hilarious; another character I would like to see with a Twitter account would be Jackal from The Immortal Rules.

Thursday Thoughts (7)

Thursday Thoughts is an original, weekly meme created by Ok, Let's Read. The idea for this feature was brought about by several conversations I've had with bookish friends in my daily life. I noticed that not everyone has the same mindset about certain aspects of reading, books, and everything bookish and wanted to not only share my own opinions on things, but hear other people's feelings on topics that we might not feel the same way about.

This Thursday I'm Sharing My Thoughts on Novellas

I think Novellas can either be a hit or miss, I think my main concern with Novellas is that sometimes they can be a bit pricy, I once paid $3 for about 20 pages of content and half of those pages were promoting other works by the author, so I can say I felt a bit scammed especially when authors like Marisa Meyer and Ann Aguirre write beautiful novellas and let people read them for free. But in general I do like them I love Pittacus Lore's Lost Files Novellas and Gilded Ashes by Rosamund Hodge is one of my favorite reads of the Year.

Blog Tour: The Burden of Souls by Andy Monk

The Burden of Souls

by Andy Monk

Genre: Sci-Fi / Dark Fantasy

Date Published: September 2014

Book Summary:

Small Town, Dark Heart…

A long way from anywhere, on a road going nowhere, lays a small, unremarkable town. It seems a peaceable, prosperous little place, on the surface at least.

Away from prying eyes however, in the shadows and the forgotten corners, there is a web being weaved through the lives of its inhabitants by the town’s urbane and mysterious Mayor. A man prepared to make a deal for your heart's desire and, maybe, for your very soul…

Welcome to Hawker’s Drift, a town where nothing is quite as it seems…

Buy Link

Amazon

Excerpt

The funeral of Molly McCrea’s husband was as brief and sparsely attended as their wedding had been six years earlier. It had rained then too, bitter winter rain, spat into their faces by a furious north wind as soon as they’d stepped out of the church, accompanied by only the preacher who had married them and two witnesses, whom they’d persuaded to leave a nearby bar in return for free beer.

The rain was warmer for his funeral, it was summer after all, and the view was better she supposed, out here surrounded by long swaying grass and vast turbulent skies, rather than the abattoir that had faced the church in that dirty little cattle town, whose name she had quite forgotten, where she’d married Tom McCrea.

She no more listened to Preacher Stone’s words over Tom’s grave than she had to those of the man who’d married them. At least she had the excuse that she’d been drunk then. She could recall he’d had a kind face and a soft voice, whereas Preacher Stone had neither and looked mighty inconvenienced that Tom McCrea required a burial at all.

She wished she was drunk now. 

Perhaps she would march into Jack’s Saloon in her sodden, mud-splattered mourning dress, throw away her veil and drink whiskey at the bar till she cared about nothing at all anymore. Maybe after that, it wouldn’t hurt so much when they got round to killing her too.

At least it might give her the courage to tell the inhabitants of this creepy godforsaken town what she thought of them all. 

She shut her eyes as the town’s gravedigger and his apprentice lowered Tom’s coffin into its muddy socket. They were showing as much care and respect as a couple of labourers dropping a sack of rotten potatoes off the back of a wagon.

Preacher Stone was muttering something about dust and ashes, but she wasn’t really listening. Perhaps they wouldn’t kill her, who was she anyway? She didn’t know anything; she wasn’t going to make a fuss. All she wanted to do was sell everything she and Tom had owned that wouldn’t fit into a suitcase and get out of town. 

Maybe she’d go back east if there was anything left there, or move on west. Any point of the compass would do, so long as it took her away from Hawker’s Drift – a town that seemed to have been dumped slap bang in the middle of this endless plain, as far away from anybody else as it was possible to be, for no obvious purpose. 

The land here was good as evidenced by the lush grass that would be waist high by autumn, but it was so far away from anywhere else it cost a fortune to transport grain or cattle back to civilization. Maybe if they ever got the railway going things might change, but by the time that ever happened she would be either a long way away or dead. Or maybe both.

She realised with a start that Preacher Stone had finished, and the only sound was the rain falling on the hollow wood of Tom’s coffin. They were all looking at her; Preacher Stone, Mr Furnedge, the gravedigger and his apprentice, the horse tethered to the coffin wagon. They expected her to do something.

She bent down and scooped a handful of mud from the pile next to the open grave; rivulets of rainwater were washing down the sides of the mound as if nature objected to the little manmade hill out here where everything was supposed to be flat. She should have taken her gloves off she supposed, they were soft black leather and expensive, but as they were going to burn along with everything else she didn’t care. 

She should say something really. Goodbye. I love you. Rest in Peace, but nothing would come. Her mouth was as dry as her eyes.  Tom McCrea had never been a bad man; feckless maybe, a dreamer for sure, too fond of his drink probably and a foul temper certainly. But he’d been good to her, in his own way. Even when he got so angry with her that his eyes bulged and the veins in his neck stood out so much she feared his head might explode, he’d never laid a finger on her. Not the once. Plenty of other people he’d laid out for no good reason, which had meant they’d had to stuff their bags and get out of a town real quick, but no, he’d never laid a finger on her.

But was that enough? Enough to follow a man for mile after thankless mile, following wherever his latest dream had led him?

It had been more than that, of course. He’d made her laugh, now and then; they’d sat and drank whiskey till neither of them could stand. He’d never let anyone bad mouth her, he’d always carried her bag and opened the door for her. He’d been a real gent like that. He made her feel safe. Made her feel like she wasn’t alone. He made her feel, for the only time in her life, that someone gave a damn about her.

But no, it hadn’t been enough, nowhere near enough, to bring her our here to a place as wrong as Hawker’s Drift.

As the handful of wet earth thumped on the coffin lid, she turned her back and walked away without a second glance.

About the Author

Andy Monk lives in London with his partner and their goldfish.

After a high-flying academic career and glittering success in professional sport, followed by a jet-set lifestyle of wild parties, exotic holidays and beautiful women, he settled down to write internationally acclaimed best-selling novels.

Andy Monk has a tendency to exaggerate and has an occasionally tenuous grip on reality.

He does, however, have a goldfish.

Author Links

Website I Facebook

Holly Hearts Hollywood by Kenley Conrad Release Day Blitz

Holly Hearts Hollywood

by Kenley Conrad

Release Date: 09/23/14

Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.

But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract, Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.

Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with Lacey.

When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes that he won’t recognize or torment her.

Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey's voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?

January 31^st, 8:15am—Homeroom

I’m one of the unluckiest people I know. I’m the girl who gets a pimple on picture day or starts her period at a pool party with cute boys. Nothing goes my way, and I’ve always been okay with that. So when I posted videos of me singing Carrie Underwood cover songs on YouTube, I didn’t think my luck would suddenly change.

I’m just so embarrassed! They emailed me for two weeks, but I kept ignoring them. The emails sounded so suspicious—was I really supposed to believe I was being offered a recording contract through email? I wasn’t going to fall for another email con artist. My sister still makes fun of me for believing that the Prince of Aruba was having financial problems. Finally, they asked to talk to my mom and proved they were actually the head honchos of Shell Shocked Studios through a video chat session. Before I knew it, Mom bought two plane tickets to Los Angeles. I’ve never left Iowa before, and now she’s talking about moving to LA. I could just die. I really could. 

The worst part is the fact that I can’t really tell anyone about this. I mean, I could, but I know the kids at school will make fun of me, instead of congratulating me. None of them would believe that Holly Hart, that girl who always gets in trouble for writing in her journal during class, would get a record deal. I’m not even in choir. Whoops, Mrs. Holland is looking my way.

Later, 10:00am—American History

Amanda says my fear of drawing attention to myself is a misguided attempt to appear humble. She says there’s a Holly, deep down inside, who’s proud of her singing voice waiting to get out. Then again, Amanda has Psychology for her first semester elective, and she’s kind of gotten carried away.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to sing. I just don’t love to sing in front of other people. But the moment I’m alone in my room or in the shower, you can’t stop me from singing. I only feel confident when I’m singing. I’m just afraid that if I sing for other people, I’ll find out I’ve been wrong about my skills, like those people on American Idol whose parents told them they were great. 

On the other hand, Meredith says it’s smart to not tell the whole school about my potential record deal. If it doesn’t work out, then it’ll give everyone more reasons to make fun of me.

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4^th, 1776. The thirteen original colonies declared independence from Great Britain.

Oh, what’s the point? This is why I don’t actually take notes in class. Didn’t we learn this stuff in fifth grade? Isn’t this supposed to be my senior year of high school? I can’t wait to go to college and learn something useful. 

Then again, I might not even get into any of the colleges I applied to.

Ugh, thinking about it makes me feel sick.

Excerpt:

Later, 1:45pm—Study Hall

Just when I thought people couldn’t find any more reasons to tease me, my best friends became a lesbian couple. My new nickname in school is “third wheel.” The other day in Chemistry, Rachel Pritchard flipped her bottle-blond hair at me and asked if I get “freaky” with my “lesbo” friends. I wanted to slap her in the face, but my spinelessness responded, “Actually, the term ‘lesbo’ is really offensive,” instead. 

Amanda and Meredith have been dating since the beginning of the school year! You think the shock of it would’ve worn off and people would’ve started to take it easy by now, but it’s getting even worse with the Valentine’s Day dance around the corner. 

Meredith is on the school’s newspaper staff and hopes to be editor-in-chief next year, but she feels like her chances are slipping away because of our narrow-minded classmates. The current editor assigned Meredith to the lunch menu. The LUNCH MENU! As in she copies-and-pastes the menu the lunch ladies email her into the paper.

“If they don’t give you the editor’s position next year,” Amanda said, furiously shoving Greek yogurt into her mouth, “your parents should sue. It’s obviously discrimination; you’re the most qualified person.” 

Meredith was looking down at her mashed potatoes sadly. Or, as she put it in this morning’s edition of the CJHS Crier, “creamy mashed potatoes with your choice of brown gravy or a pad of butter!” She’s obviously talented.

“I don’t know,” Meredith said glumly. “I don’t want to get in a fight with anyone about it.” 

“I’d be more than happy to punch someone in the face for you,” Amanda said firmly. 

“Hey look,” Rachel Pritchard shouted as she and her other cheerleader cohorts slunk by, “it’s the lesbos and friend. When are you going to make Holly your sister-wife?” The cheerleaders cackled in delight at Rachel’s joke before prancing off to eat their lunches.

Amanda may be petite—she’s only a couple inches over five feet—but I’m pretty sure she could knock Rachel’s teeth out if she wanted to. “I’m still praying for the day she physically touches me, so I can punch her and say it was self-defense,” she said through gritted teeth. 

Meredith smiled at Amanda and kissed her quickly on the cheek. “So, Holly,” she said and pushed her dark, curly hair out of her face. “Are you excited to go to Los Angeles tomorrow?”

“No,” I moaned. “I’m so nervous. How am I supposed to think about meeting some Hollywood hotshot tomorrow when college acceptance letters are around the corner? How do teachers expect us to get anything done? Senior year feels seriously useless.”

Amanda smiled at me knowingly as she munched on a potato chip. “You must be nervous about your meeting if you’re talking about college. You wouldn’t think about college acceptance letters if your life depended on it.”

“And it does,” Meredith added jokingly. 

“Don’t remind me,” I grumbled. I tried to change the subject to Meredith’s first detention of the school year, but I could tell they were going to want to talk about it later. 

I don’t even want to write about this trip in my journal. I’m that uninterested in thinking about it. I’d rather think about my freshman year of college, and that gives me heartburn. 

homework

Calc: Finish questions 1-10 at the end of page 34.

American History: Finish timeline of American Revolution.

Chemistry: Ask Amanda.

Buy Links:

Amazon│Kobo Books

About the Author

I'm the author of the upcoming YA series Holly Hearts Hollywood, coming September 2014 by Swoon Romance. I'm a twenty-something cat lady who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. When I'm not working my office day job or writing books, you can find me either singing and dancing or binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.

Author Links:

   

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