Friday Musings #4

So today I am going to talk about some of the book blogs that I love and make a point to visit & comment as much as I can without overtaxing myself.

A Reader of Fictions
The Perpetual Page Turner
Once Upon a Prologue
Xpresso Reads
Ramblings of a Daydreamer
Nose Graze

These are the blogs that I visit & comment on most often. These ladies have been so welcoming to me from the beginning. Christina is my rant & snark buddy. Giselle & Ashley are my sensible book buddies. Jamie could really be my twin as we think so much alike on SO many things. Molli & Marie are where I go when I need to fangirl over stuff. Plus Marie has been a HUGE support to me as I begin to write my first novel.

I worried when I started this book blogging thing that I wouldn't fit in. That it would feel like I was the new girl in school where everyone had their own cliques & friends. I needn't have worried about that. I have been welcomed big time and not just by the ladies I mentioned in this post but by basically everyone. It's like this awesome little community where we can talk our heads off about books and no one CARES because it's a shared interest.

Even if we don't all have the same tastes in books,it's STILL fun.Besides the world would be quite boring if we all had the same tastes in books.So thanks to those awesome ladies that have made me feel so at home in the past 3 months.

Book Tour: Gemini Rising: Ethereal Fury

About the Book:
 Title: Ethereal Fury (bk 1 Gemini Rising) by Jessica O'Gorek
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Genre: Fantasy / Futuristic / Teen

Synopsis: BEWARE! THE PLANET IS WOUNDED... THE GEMINI ARE RISING AND OUR TIME ON EARTH IS LIMITED Mother Earth, wounded by the human race and its disregard for her resources, will recruit human souls to serve Her and turn against humanity. A rising force festers.

 Gemini, a clan of paranormal beings will systematically possess and destroy towns, cities, and states. Amidst the chaos, a forbidden relationship between Onyx, a lead Gemini, and Violette, a human, begins. They will both find themselves in the middle of a revolutionary war that will either save, or destroy our world.

 Book Links: Amazon, Good Reads

Disclaimer: I received this book in e-book format in exchange for my honest review & participation in a Book Tour.


Review:
At first,when I agreed to participate in the book tour I was a little uneasy. This book pushed the boundaries in what I am normally interested in reading.However one of my goals in doing this book blogging thing was to expand my horizons and read books that I wouldn't have ordinarily picked up.

At the beginning the book is sort of slow and usually when it starts off slow I end up having to throw it in my DNF pile.Not with this one. Yes it had started slowly but when the book picked up,it REALLY picked up.I ended up absolutely loving it by the end,despite feeling like I was going to have to put it in my DNF pile when I started.

I love the name Onyx.It seemed to fit him so well.Normally I don't like it when main characters have funky names but in this case,it totally worked.I think he was a very complex character and I liked that. I suspect that in a book like this one,the characters have to be somewhat complex or it would read like a terrible fan fiction.

Oh Slate,dear sweet trusting Slate. How much I adore you.He has that whole knight in shinning armor thing going on.He's definitely crazy about Violette but he is several years older than her. I love that he's starting to question things about his surroundings and about the people he thought he could trust.

Violette has a sad story about how she came to live at the home for orphans but she seems pretty normal. That is until she starts to feel things.Not only for Slate but also for this strange body-less spirit that seems to be around her more and more.Watching her begin to distrust those who took her in was very interesting.At the beginning she appeared shy & quiet and by the end of this book she was more willing to question things.Even to authority members.

This book is NOT just a love story.If it were I wouldn't have loved it as much.It's about good & evil.It's about doing the right thing even if you will stand alone.It's about realizing that what may seem bad isn't bad at all and what some see as good may not be good at all. I give this book 5 stars.It has everything that a great YA \fantasy has to have and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.


 About the Author:
  

 I was born in Chesapeake, Virginia on April 19th, 1979. I was raised within the American Indian religion and was taught great respect for the earth and all its living beings. Powwows, sweat lodges, vision quests, you name it, I’ve done it. I was the weird kid who would confront kids on the playground in elementary school when they squished a bug. I would very sincerely tell them what they were doing was morally wrong and then I would pray for the bug to come back as a butterfly in its next life. I grew up admiring my father, Barry Weinstock, as an author. When I was twelve I started hand writing novels. My first one was two thousand pages. My daughter, who is thirteen, is currently working on her first novel. I hope to continue the legacy.

Author links: 

Website: http://1geminirising.wix.com/geminirising Blog: http://geminirising1.blogspot.com/
 Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-OGorek/e/B00CT8A5TM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeminiRising1
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-OGorek/306913389429972

Review: Baby Talk (Book 1) by Mike Wells

Author: Mike Wells

Published Date: May 19th, 2011

Sold by Amazon Digital Services Inc.

Genre: Horror

Series: Book 1 of a 2 book series

Available at Amazon.com in Kindle version.Available at Barnes & Noble in Nook version.

Synopsis: Neal Becker never wanted this life. He had so many plans for his life and none of these plans involved being a young husband and father working a crappy dead end job. Now he's convinced that his 5 month old can talk in full comprehensible sentences.Neal also believes that Baby Natasha is out to get him as revenge for wanting his wife to have an abortion.

Disclaimer: I bought this e-book off of Amazon.com for free.

Review: After recently being disappointed with a book that had claimed to be of the horror genre,I was a little apprehensive about picking this one up. However,once I did pick it up,I couldn't put it down. It was everything I could ever want in a horror book. It had that creepiness factor that I love. If you are expecting a long book,forget about it. It's very short & leaves us with a cliffhanger.

Annie was one of those overbearing mothers that made me want to slap her every time she used the aggravating baby talk. Yet Neal was completely hands off and totally indifferent to Natasha and that bugged me too.So poor Natasha definitely had not won the parent jackpot.

I can't blame Annie for not believing Neal. Babies just don't talk at age 5 months. I can't blame her for threatening Neal with visiting a "special" hospital because Neal was absolutely behaving extremely strangely. I don't blame her for being worried & even scared for her daughter.

I believe that Neal's obvious dislike of his child was absolutely projection from how he hadn't been happy when he got Annie pregnant.He hated himself for the choices that he made and that was totally on him which he didn't seem to "get"

I absolutely loved this book and am giving it 4 stars mainly because Annie was overly annoying. That said,I will be buying book 2 in this series because I am dying to see how it turned out.

Review: Road to Justice, Path of Revenge by Edward Vogler

Author: Edward Vogler

Published: May 29th,2013

Published by Outskirts Press

Genre: Mystery/Thiller

Standalone

Available at Amazon.com in both paperback & Kindle versions. 

Available at Barnes & Noble in both paperback & Nook versions.

Available at The Book Depository in paperback.

Synopsis: Just days before he is set to retire Ed Jenkins is pulled into a unexpected series of events. First he is shot at, then he learns that his best friend was in a terrible car accident. Once he and his wife Jane arrive begin their Caribbean cruise,things only get weirder.Ed is thrown off the ship and he is picked up by a group of immigrants who keep him on the boat until the Coast Gaurd intercepts.Through a series of unfortunate events, Ed is left alone and barely alive until a brother & sister pick him up.

They focus their attention on nursing him back to health & then reuniting him with Jane.Once safe with Jane,Ed learns that there is more than meets the eye with this case.A federal court convenes in Ohio but no one is prepared for what they learn.

Disclaimer: I got this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: I don't really know what to say about this one. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. Some parts were awesome. Like the parts with Ed,Maria & Lon. However Jane seemed SO one dimensional,I actually preferred Danni to Jane and Danni was Ed's best friend's wife.

However I don't feel like I was a part of the story and I love feeling like that. I HATED that there was hardly any explanation or any sort of world building. This book was short and it actually read much more like a fan fiction and not like a piece of published work. 

As for the editing,it was terrible. Okay when people speak,they need quotation marks.Not having them confused the heck out of me.Not only that but having a character say multiple things at once without allowing anyone to respond is terrible.

This book is definitely not worth me giving it a second thought. Giving it 2.5 stars because of all the problems with the editing and the lack of explanations and the crappy character development.

Review: Stillwell: A Haunting on Long Island by Michael Phillip Cash

Author:Michael Phillip Cash

Publish Date: June 21st,2013

Published by: Red Feather Publishing

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Stand alone

Available at Amazon.com in both Paperback & Kindle versions. Also available at Barnes & Noble.com and in stores in Paperback version.

Synopsis: Paul Russo's wife, Allison just died after a brutal & thankfully quick battle with brain cancer. She leaves behind,not only her husband,but the couple's 3 children Veronica,Jesse & Stella Luna.While Paul is trying to get their life back in order,he is being tormented by a demon who appears to be holding his wife's spirit hostage. Throw in attempts to sell an old mansion which leaves behind it's own dark demons.Paul must reach back many years of family history in order to set his wife's spirit free.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Normally I really like these types of books. They are creepy and they make me huddle deep into my blankets or whatever else I have around me. Unfortunately this one was not like that.It was boring & predictable.I was really hoping for a scary read,but this was not scary.

If I had to hear about how much he loved his late wife one more time I was going to lose my CRAP! It was supposed to be a scary read but every time it was mentioned how much he loved his wife,I wanted to throw the book out the window.

The kids were cute but I didn't think that they developed the kids personalities enough.I know that grief manifests itself in strange ways but I really didn't feel a connection between Paul and his two older children. I sensed that Stella Luna was Paul's favorite and that drove me batty. 

Molly was bubbly and I think she along with Georgia were the best part of the book.The reading that Paul had done by Georgia reminded me too much of an episode of Long Island Medium. I love that show but having something so similar in the book really bugged me.

Melissa and Craig added nothing to the story. They added a link to the house but that's all.I think the author could have managed to do that with two more likeable characters.

I think another issue is the fact that it was so short and it felt like the whole thing was rushed. Supernatural stuff like this need to be explained better and it didn't feel like the author totally committed to the subject matter.

The editing,gah most of it was great. However there were a few passages were it was clear that someone was speaking but yet there were no quotation marks. That in itself drove me CRAZY!

I didn't hate the book but I didn't love it either. Some parts were great but some parts were just downright terrible. That's why I have to give it 3 stars.It didn't have the creepy factor that I was looking for.

Maybe this one will appeal to one of my  readers. 

Stacking the Shelves #2

I was hoping that this week would be a little busier at the mailbox.Well guess who was wrong again? Very quiet week at the mailbox but I did manage to score some great Kindle freebies. What's better than free books? Not much!

Bought

Baby Talk by Mike Wells (Kindle version)

Mortal Ghost by L.Lee Lowe (Kindle version)

Stained: YA Paranormal Romance by Ella James (Kindle version)

314 by A.R. Wise (Kindle version)

Received for Review 

Road to Justice,Path of Revenge by Edward Vogler

Gifts

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Won
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Friday Musings #3

First of all,I hope all of my US readers had a safe & happy 4th of July.For the first time in 27 years I had no plans.

Let's move on to today's topic or musing if you will.

Now the story I am about to tell you has been retold to me by my grandmother who has always been a presence in my life. I spent a lot of time going to doctors & hospitals when I was little because I have some very serious and potentially life threatening health issues.My grandmother tells me that one afternoon we were on our way home from a doctor's visit in San Francisco and all of a sudden,out of no where I started reading those little green billboard direction signs that hang over the freeway.It wasn't a memorization thing,I was full on reading them.

I was 3 & 1/2 years old.

So I guess you could say that I was a very early reader. From that day on I read anything and everything I could get my hands on,Newspapers,magazines,TV Guide and everything else.Obviously as a little girl growing up in the 90's my favorites were:The Boxcar Children,The Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew and those were just the books that were bought for me. That doesn't even include the books I brought home from the library.

So when did you begin to read and what were your childhood favorites?