Friday, December 30, 2011

Book Review- Altered by Kimberly Montague

Here it is my final book review for 2011!


I'm always pleasantly surprised when an author asks me to review one of their books. So when I received the inquiry letter asking if I would review this book I was tickled pink. Reading the synopsis of the book I knew right away that I wanted to review the book. I have a huge pile of books to review but something about this book made it hop skip and jump ahead of a few of the other promised review books.

Piper "Evie" Kenley, moves in with her boyfriend Jay's family after losing her parents in a car crash and her brother, Harm, joins special forces (? I can't remember and don't have my ereader on me but it was one of those military things). Moving back to the town she grew up in she reconnects with old friends and makes brand new ones. The most important new friend being the captain of the football team Devlin aka Dev Vaughn.  Evie is instantly drawn to Dev and they share a connection that leaves her feeling guilty. Meanwhile in a town nearby people are being murdered. A dare during a school camping trip involving a cave soon has hers everyone else in town's lives turned into one giant scary nightmare.

Ok so lets start with the bad. Ok so really not bad but left me scratching my head. I kept wondering why she didn't move in with her best friend and why she had to move in with her boyfriend. I also was confused for a while when they were calling her both Piper and Evie. But both questions were answered (if a bit later than I would have liked). The other thing that was a bit of a road block for me was that in the beginning it felt a bit like two separate (but very very good) books. One was a romance and the other was a paranormalish mystery. It wasn't till midway into the book that the two finally melded into one really good book. I loved this book! I really did and once I hit the second half of it I could not put it down. Literally! I was up till 3 am last night reading it. The romance was sweet and hot. Dev was the ultimate alpha male that every girl dreams of. Evie was not a damsel in distress who had to constantly rely on the guy to save her yet she was vulnerable and did need help from time to time. I liked that it was a good balance between her being kick ass (Buffy) and her being weak (Bella Swan). For some reason I was reminded a bit of my favorite YA author when I was a teen- Christopher Pike. This author has promise and honestly I'm ready to beg her to let me review the second book in the series (hint hint Kimberly LOL). She has another book out that I'm going to look in to reading also.  So now for the rating. I'm debating between a perfect 5star and a 4 and 3/4stars. I'm going to go with 5 since the ending really did make up for the tiny problems I had (yes they were very very minor problems).

Book Review- Geek Girl by Cindy Bennet

* Ah guilt washes through me. I had read this book two months ago for a book blog tour but for some reason my original post never posted. I've since twice tried to have blogger post it and for some reason the timer setting just does not want to post it. So my apologies to Cindy on being a whole month late but here is the review of Geek Girl*

I was super excited to get my first chance to participate in a book tour. I walked in to it not know much about the book other than it had a super awesome cover. I know bad reason to agree to sign up. Well imagine my surprise when I began to read the book and actually found myself enjoying it.

Geek Girl is about goth chick Jen. She a bet to turn the goody two shoes geeky Trevor into someone just like her and her friends. Along the way she finds herself enjoying her time with Trevor and her hard exterior begins to melt away as Trevor becomes a good influence on her. Can she embrace her foster parents and let go of the past to finally find true and lasting happiness?

This was and interesting take on the cliche Pygmalion story. Rough and tough Jen tries to be a bad influence on Trevor only to find herself influenced by him. I really liked this book. I liked you learned why Jen cut herself off from people and put up a tough exterior. Even though you learn of the hard life she had in the past for the most part it was a light, amusing read. The progression of the relationship between Jen and Trevor was  great and very believable. I honestly did not expect to like this book as much as I did. But it was refreshing to read a book that didn't have a vampire or werewolf in sight. Just honest believable characters. I will definitely keep an eye out for more books by this author and highly recommend this to anyone who wants a good read that does not involve paranormal/fantasy creatures. I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Women Reading Wednesday

Linking up to RandomMagic for Women Reading Wednesday



Women Reading (weekly)
*Every Wednesday*
Founder: Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Here's what's news!
Edition: December 21-27, 2011

Art and Quotes

This week's art comes from Etsy shop kmberggren. Katie M Berggren specializes in artwork freaturing special moments in motherhood

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested. 
 - Francis Bacon



Book Adaptations 


Being that it is now Christmas time I present one of my all time favorite adaptations from a book is The Snowman. This is also my all time favorite Christmas movie. It never fails to cause many tears to fall from eyes. Once the song we're flying in the air starts the water works start then they come again at the end. Such a bittersweet tale. Published in 1978 The Snowman is by English Author Raymond Briggs. The snowman is a wordless tale about a young boy who builds himself a snowman. That night the snowman comes to life and the two play about in the house before they take flight. I wont give away the ending for anyone who has never seen the movie nor read the book. Lets just say if you do have a tissue ready to mop up the tears. Here is the famous flying scene from the movie. It is the most haunting song.




                                 GOODIES AND GIVEAWAYS


HUGE Book Giveaway hop with over 200 blogs signed up. Check it out and win some books. giftcards, swag and more! Runs 12/21/2011-12/27/2011. Hosted by IAmAReaderNotAWriter and OasisForYA



Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Fill in the Gaps Book Challenge

I have decided to sign on for the Fill in the Gaps Book Challenge. The challenge is all about reading those books that have been sitting on your shelves collecting dust. These are the books that you've always swore you would read but have never gotten around to. They are the classic books and those you bought to better educate yourself.  I have 5 years to complete this challenge.

I thought it would super easy to pick books but it was much harder than I thought. So for now this is my list but I reserve the right to change the books if I decide I made my list on goodreads.




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The Phantom Tollbooth
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On Writing
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The Little Prince
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Nicholas Nickleby
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (updated edition)
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The Friday Night Knitting Club
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The Bell Jar
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The Handmaid's Tale
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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
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I'd Know You Anywhere
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V for Vendetta
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The Virgin Suicides
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Shopgirl
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)
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The Graveyard Book
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Fever 1793
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Catch-22
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Lolita
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Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)
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The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)
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The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)
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The Martian Chronicles
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Cthulhu 2000
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A Christmas Story: The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Film
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Mary Poppins
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Grendel
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Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
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Watership Down
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Slaughterhouse-Five
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The Road
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The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
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The Day of the Triffids
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The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Longstocking, #1-3)
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My Man Jeeves
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Good Omens
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I am America (And So Can You!)
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Assassination Vacation
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The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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The Pillars of the Earth  (The Pillars of the Earth, #1)
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The Alchemist
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The Things They Carried
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Stranger in a Strange Land
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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
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The House on Mango Street
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And Then There Were None
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A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone, #1)
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Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
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Zombies Vs. Unicorns
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
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Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories
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A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
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Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan, #1)
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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (A Flavia de Luce Mystery, #1)
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Fablehaven (Fablehaven, #1)
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The Art of War
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Eragon (Inheritance, #1)
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The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who..., #1)
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The Outsiders
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The Swiss Family Robinson
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
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One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)
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Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
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The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef
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The Borrowers (The Borrowers, #1)
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The Cricket in Times Square
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Five Children and It
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The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1)
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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Bedknob and Broomstick (Puffin Books)
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The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)
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Harriet the Spy
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Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1)
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I am Legend
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Parable of the Sower
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The War of the Worlds
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The Children of Men
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Never Let Me Go
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Life of Pi
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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The Book Thief
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The Tin Drum
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The Lovely Bones
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Reading Lolita in Tehran
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The Once and Future King
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The Death of the Heart
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Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
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Water for Elephants