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.