April Showers of Giveaways Sneak Preview: Bonita Bellita's Shop

So here is my first sneak preview of Etsy shops who are donating to my April Showers of Giveaways. Many of you will already recognize this shop! That's right Stephanie of Bonita Bellita is back for another giveaway. The last giveaway was so popular that she was excited to join in on the event.

All of her items are made in a smoke free pet free house. She is always willing to make a custom listing just for you. She has both jewelry and hair accessories. In my opinion her best pieces are her floral ones. So what is Stephanie going to give away? Well you'll just have to come back to find out. But here are some of the wonderful things she carries in her shop....

Review: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

I have been seeing the latest sequel to this book series all over the place. So I decided to pick up the first book in the Mercedes Thompson series and see what the hype was about. Part mystery, part suspense, part romance, part paranormal, and just plain kick ass. Warning there may be some light spoilers in this review

Mercy Thompson is a mechanic who grew up being raised by werewolves. Mercy herself has her own special ability to turn into a coyote. SHe is friends with fae,werewolves and vampires alike. When a young man begins to work at her shop a huge mystery begins to unravel. Someone is trying to develop drugs that harm werewolves. People Mercy is close with are attacked and one kidnapped. With the help of an old friend can she figure out who is responsible and help save her kidnapped friend.

I set out into this book fully expecting myself to be rolling my eyes. I've kind of been put off of werewolves and vampires lately. Mainly it is because of the glut of books and well Twilight just really ruined them. They made them weak and wimpy and just UGH!  I thought I would have to sit through page after page of Alpha male and docile do everything the man says type of woman. Lots of flexed sweaty muscles and heaving breasts. But no this was different. It wasn't quite a romance but there were some hints here and there of it. No long passages about how sexy one person was. If there were sexy it was mentioned in passing and not the focus of an entire page. Mercy was kick ass and knows how to deal with an Alpha male. There were no trashy sex scenes and no bad language. Not that I'm against such things but sometimes it just is over the top and makes me roll my eyes. I really enjoyed this book. It was nice to alpha males who did not border on the obsessive abusive boyfriend line. It also is great to see a female who stands up against them. I really look forward to reading the next book. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.



Challenges fullfilled
Kick Ass Heroine
Hogwarts- Hide and Seek mini challenge
2011- With a Twist

Wednesday Blog Hop

Greetings from a snowy day in New Jersey! Please leave me a comment. I always follow back! Also please check back in the first week in April if you get a chance. I'll be having a huge giveaway event with etsy shops and gift cards to old navy and Sports Authority!

Totally Tuesday Blog Hops

                                                            

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Tuesday. Please leave me a comment and I'll always follow back! Also check back here the first week in april where I'll be having a huge giveaway event!

Look out for April Showers of Giveaways!

Alright I promised that I would have a huge giveaway event happening soon and now I can announce that it will be happening the first week in April. Want to know what I'm giving away? I have two old navy gift cards, 1 sports authority giftcard, coupons for free product, and at least 5 etsy shops are joining in to give away tons of goodies from earrings, to patterns, to eyeshadow,and  to hair accessories. Stay tuned as I'll be giving you sneak previews this week of the wonderful shops who are helping in sponsoring this giveaway event!  If you are an etsy shop owner and would like to join up there is still time. Just leave me a message on here or send me an email (mommywantstoread at gmail dot com).

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

The moment I read the description of this book I just knew I HAD to read it. It jumped ahead of all of my other books on my TBR pile. I saw it had good reviews and it is just the type of book I'm really starting to get in to.

Matched is a book set in a dystopian world. In this world anyone who wants to get married and have children are matched when they are young. Cassia, the main character, is matched with her best friend Xander. But when she plugs in her microchip telling her about her match another boy's face appears. Soon she finds herself questioning everything and how her society is made up. She rebels against it causing a wave of events that effect her entire neighborhood.


Wow this book was GOOD...ok good is not even the word for it. Everything is determined for these people from whom they marry, when they die, what they eat, what they read, and what job they will do. While they have way more freedoms than say the world of 1984 they still have so many restrictions. There is the sweetness of new romance in here without any overt sexual tones. The characters are likable and believable.  Her parents were also a delight as they were strong characters and not just there to cause aggravation to the teen. I love that Cassia risks everything and rebels in such ways (possible spoiler alert) as learning how to write and learning poems that are not among the 100 approved. This book definitely left off with a cliffhanger and I cant wait to read the next book which is due out in November. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars! If you have not read this and you are in to dystopian books run out and buy it now!


Challenges fullfilled
Kickass heroine
Hogwarts reading
2011 challenge-will power what will power
Take a Chance 3- blogger's choice

Fairy Tale Fridays- The Wolf and the 7 Little Kids

Earlier in the week my 3 year old son was having trouble sleeping. I had already loaded up in my Literati a book with Grimm Fairy Tales in it so I picked on at random and read it to him. The one I picked was The Wolf and the 7 Little Kids. Before reading this to my son I had never heard of it before

In this tale a mother goat leaves her 7 kids behind while she ventures into the forest. She warns them not to let anyone in the house. Soon enough the wolf comes by and tries to trick them into letting him in He claims he is their mother. But they were not tricked as their mother has a softer more pleasant voice. The wolf comes back and tries again with a softer voice but they see his paw on the window and know it is not him. He runs off to the baker and the miller to disguise his paw into looking like the mother goats. When he comes back the kids fall for it and let him in. They immediately try to hide but he finds all but one of them. He then goes a distance away and falls asleep. The mother goat returns home to find all of her children gone but she finds her youngest one who survives and the kid tells the story of the wolf tricking them. The mother goat finds the wolf and cuts him open while he sleeps and frees her children. She then fills the wolf full of rocks and sews him up. When the wolf wakes up he goes to get a drink and drowns thanks to the rocks weighing him down.

This tale was similar to the one I read a few weeks ago about the tiger witch who tricks the young girls into letting her only to have her eat the one sister.  And of course it is similar to version of Red Riding Hood I read last week where they fill the one wolf full of stones and drown the second wolf in water. I enjoyed this one especially because I loved that it was so similar to the two other tales I had already read. my son seemed to enjoy the story though at his age how much of it actually understood I'll never know LOL. I give this tale a 3 and half stars out of 5.

Fairy Tale Fridays- The Wolf and the 7 Little Kids

Earlier in the week my 3 year old son was having trouble sleeping. I had already loaded up in my Literati a book with Grimm Fairy Tales in it so I picked on at random and read it to him. The one I picked was The Wolf and the 7 Little Kids. Before reading this to my son I had never heard of it before

In this tale a mother goat leaves her 7 kids behind while she ventures into the forest. She warns them not to let anyone in the house. Soon enough the wolf comes by and tries to trick them into letting him in He claims he is their mother. But they were not tricked as their mother has a softer more pleasant voice. The wolf comes back and tries again with a softer voice but they see his paw on the window and know it is not him. He runs off to the baker and the miller to disguise his paw into looking like the mother goats. When he comes back the kids fall for it and let him in. They immediately try to hide but he finds all but one of them. He then goes a distance away and falls asleep. The mother goat returns home to find all of her children gone but she finds her youngest one who survives and the kid tells the story of the wolf tricking them. The mother goat finds the wolf and cuts him open while he sleeps and frees her children. She then fills the wolf full of rocks and sews him up. When the wolf wakes up he goes to get a drink and drowns thanks to the rocks weighing him down.

This tale was similar to the one I read a few weeks ago about the tiger witch who tricks the young girls into letting her only to have her eat the one sister.  And of course it is similar to version of Red Riding Hood I read last week where they fill the one wolf full of stones and drown the second wolf in water. I enjoyed this one especially because I loved that it was so similar to the two other tales I had already read. my son seemed to enjoy the story though at his age how much of it actually understood I'll never know LOL. I give this tale a 3 and half stars out of 5.

Review: The Candidates by Inara Scott

I've been without a computer for most of this week so haven't been able to get up any of my reviews. I also have a lot of cleaning up to do with my blog but doing it on my stepdaughter's laptop is virtually impossible. So I'm gonna do what I can. Anyway earlier this week I picked up and finished this book. I had not ever heard of it before so that intrigued me. I'm going to try and keep spoilers out but there may be one or two minor ones

The Candidates is the first book in what will hopefully a series. Dancia is an average teenager who does her best to blend in and never make friends. Because whenever she does get close to someone bad things happen. Dancia has a secret power that she cannot control. Whenever she sees someone she cares about threatened she makes things happen and usually it leaves the person causing the trouble seriously injured. She lives in a small town but on the edge of that town is a mysterious and prestigious high school that only the most wealthy and talented people in country can go to it. The school has decided they want to have Dancia there because of an "act of courage" when she saved her grandmother's life earlier in the year. Dancia attends wondering why she is there when the only special thing about her is her power and there is no way they could know about that. She becomes fast friends a couple of the girls in the school and the bad boy rebel Jack. Soon she is no longer doing her best to blend in but she is wants to stand out. She even has a crush on the most popular boy in school and is honored that he considers her his friend.  But bad boy jack has begun to raise dark questions about the school that has her even wondering if there is something more sinister going on.

I really really enjoyed this book. I didn't want to but I did. I didn't want to because the writing did not have the crisp precision that a seasoned writer has. Instead it had the feel of a first time author (which I imagine she is). But she told a good story that had me keep turning pages. Then something happened that hasn't happened in a few years. During one of the romantic scenes in the book I actually stared to get that goofy butterflies in the belly ride on a roller coaster feeling. I haven't had that happen in quite a while. I used to read romance books just for that feeling and here a YA author has given me that feeling again. While yes this is your typical love triangle situation that you see lately it is an interesting dilema. Do you go for the bad boy who is open and completely honest or the good guy who has nothing but secrets and lies. Also I really liked Dancia. I've grown sick of the emo/milktoast girls who are constantly depressed and push away friendships. In this case Dancia grows and learns to let others in. She stops wearing her customary drab clothes and starts wearing brighter colors. She laughs and enjoys being herself. That is something new that you don't see much of in YA books these days.  I give the book 4 and half out of 5 stars and really look forward to the next book. It would have been a 5 star book if it didn't have that herky jerkiness that smacked of new writer.

Challenges Fullfilled:
Kick Ass Herione
Hogwarts Reading Challenge

Fair Tale Fridays: Almondseed and Almondella

This week I happened upon a strange Greek fairy tale called Almondseed and Almondella. In this tale Almondseed sees a black hen a few moments before a woman comes running out of her hut exclaiming she has lost her prized black hen. He then pretends that he is a seer and tells her where it is. He realizes that being a prognosticator may have some financial benefits and from that day forward he claims to have powers. The king even summons him at one point to find out if the pregnant queen is having a boy or a girl. Almondseed just keeps saying "boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl". The queen ends up having a set of twins one boy and one girl. Almondseed's wife is named Almondella. There are a few more trials he is put up against including finding the kings lost coffer and a guessing game of what is in the kings hand.

I really didn't understand the moral behind this one....if you lie long and hard enough good things will come to you. You can pretend to be psychic if you are very very vague....no real moral here though it is a cute story. A bit too heavy on the almond thing though as it is Almondseed's favorite snack, he has a wife named Almondella, and the king tests him by holding an almond in his hand. I give this tale 3 out of 5 stars.

Review- Karen Marie Moning Beyond the Highland Mist

I have been wanting to the highlander series for quite some time as I've heard really good things about it. Not to mention I really enjoyed the first book in the fever series. So I picked this up hoping to have a great romantic read.

The book is about a young modern woman who thrust back in time due to the jealousies of the fae. She finds herself in the lap of a very disgusting man who proclaims she is going to be married tomorrow and she must pretend she is his late daughter. Adrienne, after suffering through a bad relationship with a vain man, as sworn off of beautiful womanizing men. Her new husband is everything she has sworn to avoid.

As I was reading thing book something began to nag at the back of my mind. There was something so familiar to this story. Then it hit me..I've read this book before! About 10 years ago I was obsessed with time travel romances and would grab any and every single one I could off the shelfs or buy online. It has just been so long that I had forgotten about it. Lately romances haven't done much for me. I find myself rolling my eyes at flexing muscles and blushing engorged bosoms. Yet again I found myself rolling my eyes in this book as each highlander she meets she thinks is the most perfect man she has ever seen and is transfixed by them. She even spends minutes staring at the sweat rolling down the blacksmith. Ugh give me a break. I'm so sick of horny heroines who can't get over muscles and sweat. The virginal girl who somehow can manage to take on a man so well endowed he is compared to a stallion. I mean really come on! I vaguely remember enjoying this book years ago but not enough for it become a classic hit for me. This time around the book was only meh for me. I've heard though that this is the worst in the series so I might check out the others. I really do want to read the rest of the fever series and there are some loose tie ins between the two series. All in all I give the book 2 and half out of 5 stars. Not the worst thing I've ever read but certainly not the best


challenges fullfilled
hogwarts mini challenge

Fairy Tale Fridays- Little Red Riding Hood

This week I decided to read the well known tale of Red Riding Hood. Partially because of the movie and the other reason is from a Treasury I did on Etsy with a red riding hood theme (check out my treasury here). I'm just in a red kind of mood LOL

We all know the traditional tale of the little girl in the red hood bringing goodies to her grandmother. The big bad wolf comes along and convinces her to stray from the path while he runs ahead and eats her grandmother and disguises himself as the grandmother. So while most tellings of it tell us how he eats both red and the grandmother and the woodsman saves them often they leave out the part where they fill the wolf full of stones so he can't run away and he slowly dies a painful death. In the version I read at the end Red encounters yet another wolf but this time is too smart for it and runs ahead to her grandmother's house. The wolf follows and waits for her on the roof and plans to devour her when she leaves. The grandmother figures out what the wolf is up to and has Red fill a trough full of water that sausages and been boiled in. The wolf smells it and falls from the roof into the trough and drowns. Pleasant, eh?

I've always enjoyed this tale. Listen to your mother and follow path lest you be led astray. When I was reading this  the Robert Frost poem The Road not Taken popped in my head. If I wasn't so tired perhaps I could philosophize on how the tale and poem connect. But I'll have to save that for another day. I loved reading the new to me ending with a second wolf drowning. It really just amps up the carnage that fairy tales seem to encompass. I give Red 5 out of 5 stars....Oh is anyone going to see the movie? Part of me wants to but is afraid of just how badly hollywood can screw up things like that.