Bibliopornography

It was a busy weekend in the lonely bookworm household. The christmas lights are up outside, the christmas decorations and christmas tree are up inside and most importantly one entire year after my wonderful husband started building my bookshelves they are finally complete!!! No more books stacked on the floor or stored away in boxes they are all up on shelves. These are the ones he built for me in our bedroom. They are not completely finished but they are complete enough to hold books.

Then I stole my old bookshelves from my parents house to handle the overflow and lucky me I only filled two of the three so I have an entire shelf of space left.

I also had my husband and my father move my humongous reading chair from downstairs up into our extra room (my reading room) upstairs.

I'm definitely in my happy place this weekend :)

WTF Giants?!?!?!

Wow. What the heck happened to my Giants?

I hate this chick

Okay, so I'm reading Wild Swan by Celeste DeBlasis which has been in my TBR pile for well over two years and was on my TBB list for at least 4 years prior to that. When I finally stumbled upon the whole series in a USB in Michigan I bought them all. Why? Well for one I'd spent four years looking for these books and damned if I was going to spend another four looking for the next book and two it had soooo many things going for it love triangle (my favourite plot type), it was huge and epic (I love big books), plus it had a glowing review on AAR and sounded right up my alley.

Well - as my title suggests (okay who am I kidding - screams) I hate this chick. I can't stand her she is just soooooo perfect and self-sacrificing it makes me want to puke. It seems like everytime I turn the page Alex is doing something else that is going to make her own life miserable but will undoubtedly improve someonelse's. To me this is not a strong heroine this is a martyr needlessly sacrificing herself on the alter of her own happiness. I mean jeez lady when your husband treats you like dirt for 6 months instead of stoically enduring it because of all he's been through step up and tell him he's hurting you instead of waiting for one of his friends to do it for you. Yes, yes, yes this is a common theme throughout romance novels but when the actual hero of the novel is standing there saying I will take you and the children away from this total douchebag who isn't good enough to lick the dirt off you're perfect feet and her response is "I love you more than anything but I can't do that to Sinje (yes please use your pet name for your husband when you are rejecting your lover) even though I don't think he loves me and has been treating me like a common whore I must stay with him for his own sake unless he chooses to leave me". Yes that is paraphrased but that's pretty much what she said.

Okay that was a huge run on sentence and this is turning into a very long rant. I'm obviously irritated but none-the-less I'm enjoying the book so I'm crossing my fingers that she evolves into something I can tolerate and the real hero actually finds someone better. It will never happen but a girl can dream.

Crimson City - Liz Maverick

This is another older review but I still haven't found anything that truly fills the Anita Blake void.


Sigh... I'm still trying to fill the void in my reading life that the current Anita Blake books have left. I had such high hopes for this series. I loved the idea of having different writers for each book in the series but having the same setting and characters. Unfortunately, here is yet another paranormal series that has fallen flat for me.

The story takes place in an alternate reality L.A. nicknamed Crimson City after the last war between species. The species in question are Werewolves, Humans and Vampires. Currently their is a tentative peace between the species but when a human killing machine (a mech) takes out the two head vampires leaving our heroine Fleur (dela something or other) as a defacto leader, Crimson City is teetering on the brink of another species war.

Dain is a member of some kind of night patrol for the military down on the humans level and for reasons I still don't understand (don't leaders of one society generally go talk other leaders when crap hits the fan?) Fleur and Dain form an alliance to try and figure out who sent the mech in the first place and who is responsible for all the random killings of vampires and humans.

My first problem with this book is that the romance between the h/h was really weak. Outside of the fact they were both ridiculously attractive I can't figure out why these two fell in love with one another and I certainly didn't see it. There was plenty of mental lusting going before the declaration of love but it didn't seem like the author put a whole lot of effort into the relationship. I still wasn't discouraged though I like lots of books that don't even have a relationship as long as the plot is interesting and action fast paced I'll still enjoy it.

As far as plot and action go this book was pretty meh. I don't know how to explain it but I couldn't get into the fighting scenes I just didn't care. I ended up skimming the last half of this book because it was just not holding my attention.

I don't know if I will pick up the next book or not even though it's by a different author I really don't care what happens to the characters or Crimson City. If your looking for an exciting paranormal series you may want to look elsewhere.

Rating 5/10

What I've been up to...

Holy crap this minute taking has been kicking my ass. As soon as I look at a computer I start to get a headache. It doesn't help matters that the particular board I've been minute taking for does not get along and their meetings don't start until 7:30 and they are 3+ hours long!! Then I have to wake up in the morning and sort through 11 pages of petty bickering yeesh - I'm getting a head ache again.

Anyways, on to book stuff. I'm so not in the mood to write actual reviews so I'm just going to ramble a bit about what I've been reading.

Gone - Michael Grant

This book was awesome. Not perfect but awesome.

This is the blurb.

In the blink of an eye.

Everyone disappears.

Gone.

Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.

The first in a breathtaking saga about teens battling each other and their darkest selves, gone is a page-turning thriller that will make you look at the world in a whole new way.

I don't normally browse the young adult section of the book store so I generally only pick them up when something on one of the display tables catches my attention. This one caught my attention because I thought the cover was ugly. After reading the back though I had to break one of my cardinal rules and purchase a stupid trade paperback. It was so worth it though. I loved this book. The story flew along and I mean flew. The action was pretty much non-stop through the whole thing and I actually cared about the characters. The bad guys were very bad and although I think the female characters could have been a little better fleshed out the male characters were very well done and multi-dimensional. I am so looking forward to the second book which is only out in hardcover right now and I absolutely refuse to buy. As soon as it comes out in paperback though you better believe I'll be picking it up.

Blood Rites - Dresden Files #6

Summary: HARRY DRESDEN--WIZARD
Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or
Other Entertainment.

For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister entropy curse, but it's the women around, him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.
Harry's doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas's oversexed vampire family. Harry's about to discover that Thomas's family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever...

Ahh what can I say I love Harry Dresden. The fact that it took me an entire week to read this book just goes to show how busy I've been. I think this is my favourite in the series so far but they are all totally awesome.

Twice Loved - LaVyrle Spencer

The thing I love about LaVyrle Spencer is that she writes compelling emotional stories about ordinary people. There are no dukes, tycoons, millionaires, movie stars, golf pro's etc. these are just ordinary people involved in extraordinary love stories.

Laura and Rye Dalton have been in love with one another for as long as they can remember. When Rye's whaling ship goes down with no survivors Laura is left pregnant and alone. Dan Morgan is Rye's best friend and has loved Laura from a far since they were kids. Dan naturally steps in to help Laura and the two find comfort in one another.

When Rye returns five years later he is surprised to find that Laura is not present waiting for him when he gets off the ship. He is certain she must have received his letters about being put off his ship because of small pox and then being hired on to travel on the Omega. Of course Laura never recieved the letters and Rye returns home to find a son he never knew he had and his wife married to his best friend. To make matters even more difficult Josh (Rye's son) believes Dan is his father and has never been told about Rye.

Oh my heavens this book was gut renching. It's been a long time since I had a book take up so much of my time spent not reading. I couldn't put these four people out of my mind and I kept wondering how this could possibly come out happily.

I loved all the characters in this book they were so incredibly realistic. None of them are perfect and they all made mistakes some big, some small, but you still cared about and wanted everything to turn out all right.
Spencer has also done her research for this story and the island of Nantucket came alive in this book. If I didn't know any better I would think she'd lived there her entire life.

If you're like me and enjoy lots of angst in your books I highly recommend you pick this one up.

Rating 10/10

Busy, Busy, Busy

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted. I've started taking minutes at board meetings after work and typing them up on my own time to make a little extra cash and all this extra time on the computer has taken a bit of the fun out of blogging. Here are some mini-reviews anyways until I'm back to a somewhat regular schedule.

The Damsel in this Dress - Marianne Stillings

Blurb

Port Henry Ledger Book Review by Betsy Tremaine: WRONG GUY HAS THE WRITE STUFF IN TORRID LOVE STORY
Let me tell you, dear reader, I've rarely been subjected to such drivel as I have in the novels of bestselling tough-guy cop-turned-author J. Soldier McKennitt. The man himself, however, is considerably more interesting. Having finally met him at a recent writers' conference in Seattle, I am pleased to report that Soldier is a tall, dark, and gorgeous hunk of literary superstar. To my surprise, he became quite the charmer once his self-righteous indignation evaporated ... Could it have been this critic's blonde hair and hourglass figure that brought about such an abrupt turnaround? Or perhaps our Soldier boy was simply vanquished by this reviewer's intelligence and caustic wit. In any case, due to the recent emergence of a crazed stalker, this plot has since thickened uncomfortably, and Detective McKennitt has brashly assumed the role of my knight in shining Brooks Brothers.
Bottom Line: The only thing standing in the way of a beautiful relationship in this love story is the fact that the two protagonists are so deliriously, passionately wrong for each other!

This was a very cute and enjoyable book. It didn't blow me out of the water or anything but it was a fun and quick read. Betsy made for a strong and likable herione. There wasn't a whole lot of suspense but what there was was well done. The mystery was pretty easy to solve but then that could have been intentional. The only quibble I had was with Soldier (my cousins' dog is named Soldier so that was hard to get used to) plus he really did think like a girl trapped in a mans body. I don't have the book with me at the moment but when he first meets Betsy he thinks to himself that she made his heart go "twitterty pat" like the rabbit from Bambi. Really, what super manly hardened detective thinks in terms of Disney characters?? Otherwise, I enjoyed it and it made for a very nice weekend read.

Blurb

Sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Trying to unravel the truth about a family's tragedy, a woman's secret, and a man's lies, Myron is up against the dark side of his business—where image and talent make you rich, but the truth can get you killed.

This is the first book in Harlan Cobens Myron Bolitar series and it was awesome. There was a perfect balance of humour, suspense and character development. This was a really really good mystery too. There were plenty of twists and cliff hangers through out the book and it was seriously difficult to put the book down. I had no idea who the bad guy was. Everytime I thought I had it figured out something new would happen and only leave me with more questions. Really, this book was brilliantly plotted. I loved it and I can not wait to get the next one.

Currently reading

Gone by Michael Grant

In the blink of an eye.
Everyone disappears.
Gone.
Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.
The first in a breathtaking saga about teens battling each other and their darkest selves, gone is a page-turning thriller that will make you look at the world in a whole new way.

I'm not finished it yet but honestly this book is awesome and I just found out it was a part of a series double awesome. I can't believe how invested I am in this book. It's starting to fill in the void the Harry Potter series left. Once it's finished I'll post a more detailed review because really more people need to read this book!!!!!