Hello all, Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day!!! I also wanted to give a big thanks to our troops out there. Have a great day everyone!!!!

Review: Shiver

Maggie Stiefvater
Hardcover, 400 pages
Scholastic, Incorporated

August 01, 2009

"It is possible to be in love with you just because of who you are."

"As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air."

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf - her wolf - is a haunting presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human -- until the cold makes him shift back again.Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears and the temperature drops, Sam must fight to stay human or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.(Borders.com)

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Shiver was my favorite book I have read this year...hands down. I fell in love with it by the second chapter. Maggie Stiefvater wrote an amazing and unique story about love and the need to hold on to it as long as possible.

The way the book switches between the two main characters was genius. I was able to get an in depth sense of each of them and that was great. I wish more books were written like this.

Grace was a great character. She was an independent girl who lived in her own world with her wolves. After being attacked by the wolves in her back yard she has had an unspoken bond with one yellow-eyes wolf. He visits her and she knows that its because of him she is alive.

Grace and Sam both grew up lacking in the family department, Sam with his horrible past with his parents which led him to Beck, his adoptive father of sorts and Grace with her parents who barley notice her existence. They instantly form a bond and hold on to it. Grace is the stronger of the two and she basically has to take care of Sam in his fragile state which I found very endearing. Sam was a little shy and timid He never really knew what to do and it was Grace who helped him out of his shell or Fur if you will. As there relationship grows they both start depending on each other more and more. The live in there own little world, and they love it there.

Overall Shiver Made me laugh and it made me cry, which was great. I love when a book can make your emotions run away with the story, and mine did. I give Shiver 5+ Hoots

Shiver is one of those books that I will read over and over and over. I loved it.

New 2010 Book Challenge!!!

Hello Everyone, So I have decided to start another book challenge. I know, I know its May but I just couldn't help it. I stumbled across this one and it looked fun so I'm doing it. Its only 20 books so It will be easy. TwentyTen Reading Challenge Hosted by: http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/my-challenges/twentyten-challenge/ The aim is to read a total 20 books, over ten categories, in 2010. (Was this challenge based solely around the name? I’ll let you decide!) Rules:Read 2 books from each category, making a requirement of 20 books total. The categories are intended to be loose guidelines only, if you decide it fits, then it fits. (Apart from those marked **) Categories marked with ** have tighter rules, and these must be followed. Each book can only qualify for one category. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed. Books read from 01/01/2010 to 31/12/2010 are eligible. So, on with the categories

• Young Adult: Any book classified as young adult or featuring a teenage protagonist counts for this category.
• T.B.R: **Intended to help reduce the old T.B.R. pile. Books for this category must be already residents of your bookshelves as of 1/11/09.
• Shiny & New Bought: A book NEW during 2010 from a bookstore, online, or a supermarket? Then it counts for this category. Second-hand books do not count for this one, but, for those on book-buying bans, books bought for you as gifts or won in a giveaway also count!
• Bad Blogger’s: ***Books in this category, should be ones you’ve picked up purely on the recommendation of another blogger count for this category
• Charity: Support your local charity shops with this category, by picking up books from one of their shops. Again, for those on book-buying bans, books bought for you as gifts also count, as long as they were bought from a charity shop.
• New in 2010: This category is for those books newly published in 2010 (whether it be the first time it is has been released, or you had to wait for it to be published in your country, it counts for this one!)
• Older Than You: Read two books that were published before you were born, whether that be the day before or 100 years prior!
• Win! Win: Have a couple of books you need to read for another challenge? Then this is the category to use, as long that is, you don’t break the rules of the other challenge doing so!
• Who Are You Again?: This one isn’t just for authors you’ve never read before, this is for those authors you have never even heard of before!
• Up to You!: The requirements for this category are up to you! Want to challenge yourself to read some graphic novels? A genre outside your comfort zone? Something completely wild and wacky? Then this is the category to you.

Review: A Certain Slant of Light

Laura Whitcomb
Paperback, 288 pages
 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference
September 21, 2005

  "I couldn't take my eyes off him. Like a desert wanderer afraid of mirages, I gazed at my oasis, but he was real."

 Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead. Though I could not feel paper between my fingers, smell ink, or taste the tip of a pencil, I could see and hear the world with all the clarity of the Living. They, on the other hand, did not see me as a shadow or a floating vapor. To the Quick, I was empty air.Or so I thought. In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: For the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen–terrified, but intrigued–is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to
possess. (Borders.com)

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First of all let me say, I love this book!!! A Certain Slant of Light was very different then what I had expected. Laura Whitcomb did a wonderful job with this novel. Her way of writing was very soft. She had a way of making the whole book like a dream. I found myself lost in the story and not pulled back to reality until I was finished.

Helen is a fantastic character. She is a ghost and she has been stuck on earth for 130 years. She doesn't know why she didn't move on after death, So only believes she did something terrible when she was alive. Helen must stay with her human host or be pulled in to the evil that is waiting for her when she is alone. I really love the fact that Helen is such a sweet character, she is trying to figure out why this boy in her hosts class can see her and has to struggle with the dilemma of going to him or staying with her host Mr. Brown.

As the story continues Helen grows in to her own. she becomes more assertive and really tries to make this new life the best for her. James is one of those characters that you really can't, not like. He is sweet, caring and a gentlemen. He knows what Helen is and knows that he has to be in her life. There love blossoms very quickly and I really like that. They know what they want and are not afraid to show it.

Without ruining the book for you guys....Even though I really want to, I have to say that this was unlike other YA books out there. It is a very good and powerful story of love and lose and the struggle to live. I recommend you read this...very soon. I give A Certain Slant of Light 4+ Hoots.

Review: Beautiful Creatures

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Hardcover, 576 pages
Little Brown & Company

December 01, 2009

"I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I'll never love you any less than I do, right this second."

There were no suprises in Gatlin County We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a curse. There was a girl. And in the end, there was a grave. Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.(Borders.com)

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Beautiful Creatures was something I had been looking forward to for a few months before it came out. On Dec. 1st I rushed out and bought it. I must say it was a very good book. I thought that because it was written by two authors, it may be a little choppy. But it turns out I couldn't tell at all. Garcia and Stohl did a great job with keeping there thoughts as one.

Ethan was the main character and I was glad to see a male as the lead. It was different but I really liked the way he told his story. Ethan lives in Gatlin, which is a little town in the South. The book gave me a little history lesson about the War of Northern Aggression, which I liked. It almost was like two stories molded together to make one great book.

Lena was a very interesting character. She really didn't want anything to do with Ethan. I found that refreshing, It was a nice twist. She also had a very interesting family that made the story real. Macon Ravenwood, Lena uncle was a important character in his own, and learning his past and waiting for it to unravel really drew me into the story.

There were a few slow parts of the book. The Doomed-relationship concept was emphasized a bit to much, but all in all the authors did a good job of giving you that sense of forbidden love feeling.

Overall Beautiful Creatures gets 4+ Hoots. I have to say this was a very good book and I will be looking forward to the next book in the series and how the story evolves.

Review: Dead Until Dark

By Charlaine Harris
Paperback, 304 pages
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
May 01, 2001

"...the creature I loved was lying somewhere in a hole underground, to all intents and purposes dead until dark."

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.(Borders.com)

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The First time I heard about the Sookie Stackhouse series was from the True Blood series on HBO. I fell in love with the shows so I decided to give the books a shot. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. The world that Charlaine Harris has created is fantastic. She took the down south life of Louisiana and put a modern and mythological twist to it.

Sookie is my favorite character, I love the way that she tries to find the good in everyone and her way of being polite with attitude really made me laugh. She tries to be your everyday girl, even with her "disability", even though she can't quite get away from it. Bill is also a great character. He is trying to maintain his human ways while still living as a vampire. I really like the way that he is with Sookie, He stays in his old ways and is very proper with her.

Bill and Sookie are one of my favorite couples because they are real, they have real problems and real solutions and even though they are so very different they are working so hard to make it work. Sookie keeps Bill on his toes and Bill makes sure Sookie is always in good hands when he can't be around.

 I have not  read outside of the YA genre much but I must say that I was glad I tried it. This book has a 18+ rating on it, but it really didn't have the R rated feeling. There were a few F-bombs and some intimate scenes though Harris didn't go into extreme detail . All in all this was a very good book and I can't wait to read the next in the sequel.

Overall Dead After Dark was a funny and entertaining book and I really enjoyed reading it. I give it 4 Hoots. This would definitely be a book I would recommend to readers who are a bit older but still love YA fiction!

Review: The Devouring

By Simon Holt
Paperback, 256 pages
 Little Brown & Company
June 01, 2009

" When dark creeps in and eats the light,

Burry your fears on Sorry night..."

Fifteen-year-old Reggie doesn’t know who penned the mysterious journal about the Vours, wicked creatures that inhabit children’s bodies on Sorry Night, the darkness of the winter solstice. Once inside a human, the Vour assumes the victim’s personality, banishing their soul to a dark netherworld called a fearscape. Frightening, but thought to be only the musings of an anonymous lunatic...until a midnight game awakens an ancient evil. After playing with the journal’s incantations on Sorry Night, Reggie and her best friend Aaron discover the story of the Vours is all too real. When a demonic force consumes Reggie’s little brother, Henry, she must race to save him. Slowly, she uncovers the truth: Vours have existed since the dawn of mankind, feeding on humanity’s fright. Reggie acquires the ability to enter victims’ fearscapes, psychic prisons sculpted from pure terror. Once inside, she must empower victims to conquer their fear and destroy the Vours that have enslaved them. Together with a small band of believers, Reggie wages war against an enemy she cannot touch or reason with, creatures powerful enough to enslave human bodies and steal souls without detection. The Vours gorge themselves on human fear-feeding their guile, their cruelty, and their power. A cataclysm called “The Devouring” approaches, and only Reggie Halloway can stop it. (Borders.com)

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So The Devouring was something I didn't expect. The storyline was somewhat different. Starting off in the past we get a look at the history of the main story. Then we speed through time to present day with Reggie, A teenage girl who is left in charge of her younger brother and most of the daily chores of motherhood after her mother picks up and leaves.

With Reggies dad always working Reggie and Henry, along with best friend Aaron are thrown in to the realm of the Vours...demons who possess the body.

Holt gives a good story that has plenty of twists and turns. There really isn't much romance in this book, which oddly enough works for the story. It was all about her love for her brother and the race to save him.

For me The Devouring was a little slow, at times I lost interest. I could have used a little more detail and maybe something other then the main plot which was to save Henry. I really feel that if the book had branched off into a few more areas it would have been better. Toward the end of the book it did pick back up and there were a few unexpected turns. I think that as a whole this book was good but not one of my top reads. I give The Devouring 2 Hoots. I have the Second book in the series and have yet to pick it up. 

Review: Hush, Hush

Becca Fitzpatrick

Hardcover, 400 pages
Simon & Schuster
October 13, 2009

"The more time I spent with him, the more I knew the feelings weren't going away."

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment. But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life. (Borders.com)

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OK I fell in love with Hush, Hush. This book was everything I wanted and more. The friendship between Nora and Vee reminded me of my best friend and I so much. Fitzpatrick nailed the relationship between teenage girls to a tee. They were incredibly likable and the chemistry between the two of them made me instantly love them both. I can look at my younger sister and see similarities when they are laughing and playing around.

The character of Patch surprised me the most. At first I really didn't like him. His cockiness and not caring attitude through me off a bit, but by the middle of the book he really grew on me and I must admit I had a little thing for him. I really like the fact that he is not afraid to tell it like it is, Which he makes very clear to Nora in the beginning when he makes his feelings know to her. He is arrogant and pushy, he doesn't care about fitting in or making too many friends. The only thing he seems to hide is his past and that's only because he is waiting for Nora to be calm and collected and not because he wants to protect her. I love the way he always seems so mysterious and sexy. Patch is one of those characters that you will really like. Nora is unlike other heroines in YA books these days. She can stand up for her self and doesn't need a man to take care of her...well most of the time.

On her own most of the time, Nora is forced to make it on her own, She is thrown in to things unexpectedly and deals with it rather well. I really like the way that Nora isn't the one with the beginning crush. She is perused by Patch and I really like that the tables are turned.

 Becca Fitzpatrick did a magnificent job on this book and I can not wait for the sequel. This is an action packed, funny, sexy, edge of your seat, cant put it down book that has become one of my favorites. I will be revisiting Nora and Patch many times in the future. An easy 5+ Hoot book, Hush, Hush is one of my top books of 2010!

So Many Books, So Little Time!!!

So I wanted to know if I was the only person who is addicted to owning books...Probably not. I don't go to library's when I want a new book, I visit the book store. There is just something about having a book and knowing its mine. Plus I love rereading books, Especially my favorites. I have a very healthy supply of books and it just keeps growing. I also have an obsession with buying books... I feel like I go to the bookstore every week and spend hours there. I believe at the moment that I have 10 unread books on my shelf. Which I am dying to read. So if you are a book collector like myself then good for you. I'm glad I'm not the only one out there. Stephanie