Monthly Archives: October 2013

Is it Friday Yet? (Oct 10)

 

photo by thatcutesite.com

I think this little guy has worked hard enough this week.  Lets call it Friday and be done with it!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Is it Friday Yet? post, or just a comment (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! :D

Wordless Wednesday (Oct 9)

photo by wallpoints.ru

WWW Wednesdays (Oct 9)

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

My Answers:

 The Truth About You and Me Recently Finished: The Truth about You and Me by Amanda Grace. I hadn’t heard anything about the book before I read it and really enjoyed it.  Review posted.

The Truth about you and me by Amanda Grace

The Program (The Program, #1)Currently Reading: I have just barely started this on a recommendation from my 15 year old daughter.  She said I HAD to read it.  

Next for me?

It seems like my next up stays the same.  No reason for not reading them yet other than I don’t own them…lol  So I still have these in my desperate to read.  Hopefully I will get to them next.

Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2) Origin (Lux, #4)

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh mafi

Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L Armentrout

 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own WWW Wednesdays post, or share your answers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! :D

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Check out their blog!

Teaser Tuesday (Oct 8)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

He always knows what to say to me.  How to make me feel normal.  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have survived Brady’s death without him.  In fact, I know I wouldn’t have.

After all, suicide is contagious.

Page 14

The Program (The Program, #1)  The  Program (program #1) by Suzanne young

I haven’t started this yet, but my daughter told me I absolutely had to read it.  She said it was awesome and very emotional.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! :D

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Check out their blog!

The Truth about you and me by Amanda Grace

The Truth About You and Me The Truth About You and Me by Amanda Grace.  Published Sept 1, 2013 by Flux.  CDN $9.94 paperback.

Madelyn Hawkins is super smart. At sixteen, she’s so gifted that she can attend college through a special program at her high school. On her first day, she meets Bennett. He’s cute, funny, and kind. He understands Madelyn and what she’s endured – and missed out on – in order to excel academically and please her parents. Now, for the first time in her life, she’s falling in love.

There’s only one problem. Bennett is Madelyn’s college professor, and he thinks she’s eighteen – because she hasn’t told him the truth.

The story of their forbidden romance is told in letters that Madelyn writes to Bennett – both a heart-searing ode to their ill-fated love and an apology. (Goodreads Excerpt)

I have to say that I was drawn into the book with the way it is told. The letter to Bennett was unexpected but a really good way to make you totally feel for Madelyn. It kept me engaged and reading page after page. I think it made me feel more empathy for her and her feelings. I was totally swept away by her feelings of passion and love and it was real. It is an unusual way to tell a story but it works extremely well with the story.

As for Bennett, I like how Madelyn explains his part in their story and I felt really sorry for him. Through her description of the events unfolding I got a real sense that he loved her and you could tell that the truth was going to be devastating for him.

I am still a little torn whether or not I like the ending. This is going to be hard to explain, but I think if the author left the story before she added the ‘two years later’ part I would have been fine with the ending. When she added it, I felt like there was hope…and then it was gone. I hope that makes sense. I am after all a hopeless romantic.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was compelling and well written. I am giving it 4.5 stars because I am still undecided if I like the ending.

 

Superstition – Real or Not?

cat7cat.wordpress.com

Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any natural process linking the two events, such as astrology, religion, omens, witchcraft, etc., that contradicts natural science. (wikipedia)

I am the type of person that likes to defy the natural order and go against what others believe t be bad luck.  When I was a kid, I stepped on every crack I could find,  and my mother’s back is just fine.  (And no I wasn’t trying to hurt her!).

This doesn’t mean I don’t believe in magic or other things that science can’t prove, because I absolutely do believe in things I can’t see or explain. (Ghosts, Witches, Magic, reincarnation, and the creatures that I swear live in the wall sockets.)   I think I just like to live on the edge a little.  I’m the kind of person who wants to jump out of a perfectly good airplane!  reinventingsandib.com

Seriously it’s on my bucket list!

But back to superstition.  I have no issues going under a ladder, crossing a black cat (cause they are too cute!),or  opening an umbrella in the house just because it drives people nuts!  I don’t understand how people can come to the conclusion that these will cause bad luck.  How did this come to be?  And how does the superstition remain in this day and age?  I swear I must have broken at least a dozen mirrors in my lifetime and I really don’t have any more bad luck than the next guy.  Of course that is totally subjective.  Maybe if I had been more careful I would be a millionaire by now!  Or a world famous Author!

I came across this site with many common superstitions and I shook my head when I read them.

 http://www.csicop.org/superstition/library/common_superstitions/

I mean seriously “A cat will try to take the breath from a baby”.  The cat just likes the smell of the milk the baby drank, they are not evil creatures.  How dare they insult the  kitty!  Kitty’s are sacred in some cultures.

http://www.wonderpurr.com

The Egyptians new how to treat a cat! (Of course they also buried them with the dead to protect them in the next life – poor kitty)

Maybe I love black cats because of the Witch in me?  They are just adorable.  How can anyone ever think this guy is bad luck?

scary-pictures.feedio.net

So my question to you is …Do you believe in any superstitions? What are they?  How did you come to believe in this?  I love hearing from you, so please leave a comment.

Amber Sky Forbes- New Young Adult Paranormal Romance Author

I am very excited to be a part of the debut for Amber as her first book is about to be released.  When Stars Die is a Young Adult Paranormal Romance set to be released by ACE publishing on OCT 22, 2013.   
 

WHEN STARS DIE  is an insightful examination of human suffering and the first installment of The Stars Trilogy.

When Stars Die When Stars die by Amber Skye Forbes.  Release date Oct 22. Price $12.79

Shadowy figures haunt Amelia’s days in Cathedral Reims, and they are waiting for her to join them. Redemption isn’t possible for a witch, but she’s committed her life to trying, as long as she can still protect her younger brother, Nathaniel. What she doesn’t realize is that Nathaniel’s been seeing the figures too, and that both of them are about to be submerged into a much different – and more dangerous – world than they ever knew existed. They unite with the dangerously attractive priest, Oliver Cromwell, in hop

HERE IS A UTUBE TRAILER IF YOU WANT TO CATCH A PEEK!

Meet the author

Amber Forbes

Amber Skye Forbes’s first publication was a short story titled “Dead Poet’s Pendulum” published in The Oddville Press when she was nineteen. Since then she has had a few editorial stints: slush pile reader for The Oddville Press, Executive Editor for Sorean: A Gothic Magazine, where she had two installation fiction pieces published, a few articles, and some photography, Editorial and Communications Intern for YALITCHAT, and Founder and Managing Editor of The Corner Club Press. Outside of her writerly life, Amber loves painting, doing photography, playing video games, and mothering her cat. She lives in Grovetown, Georgia where she attends Augusta State University with a track in English middle education.

If you want to reach out to Amber here is where you will find her:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmberSkyeForbes?ref=br_tf

Website: http://amberskyeforbes.com

WordPress Blog: http://amberskyeforbes.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmberSkyeF

Tumblr: http://thedancingwriter.tumblr.com/

Here is what others are saying about this book!

SORIN SUCIU, author of the contemporary fantasy, The Scriptlings:

“Amber’s writing is dark, marked by suffering and a deep understanding of what makes us tick, not to mention tock. Her devastating first-person narrative and present tense combo makes it hard not to be drawn into the story. While “When Stars Die” is categorized under Romance, there is so much more to it than that. Indeed, I would even argue that romance is not even the main dish, but rather the subtle spice that takes the whole plate up a notch.”

CL MANNARINO, avid reader of Young Adult Romance:

“This is a fascinating and thoughtfully plotted debut, and well-written in the technical sense. As my first Christian book, or any book with heavy overtones of spirituality or religiousness, When Stars Die has certainly been an entertaining read.”

Shine (Shade #3) by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shine (Shade, #3) Shine (Shade #3) by Jeri Smith Ready.  Published May 2012 by Simon Pulse.  CDN $9.99 Kindle edition.

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.

As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves…even if that means betraying her own heart.  (Goodreads excerpt)

I have to say that the conclusion to the trilogy was everything you could hope for.  Everything was explained with nothing left out.  I finished the book feeling complete.  It was very emotional and heart wrenching, but well worth it in the end. The ending actually surprised me a little.  I don’t want to give it away, but you felt it was going one way and at the last minute the writer finishes it in an unexpected but equally satisfying way.

The biggest thing about this book is that Logan isn’t in it.  He was such an integral part of the first two books and to not have him in it made me think it was not going to be very good.  I was wrong.  The book focuses on the relationship between Zachary and Aura.  They have a once in a lifetime love (cliché I know..but true!) The story is very emotional and very powerful and draws you in so that you feel that these two have to be together no matter what.  They are the kind of couple that everybody dreams of being a part of.

There was still a lot of drama and suspense and the book was very exciting to read.  It wasn’t all romance and mushy stuff…lol, there is plenty of ass kicking and action to keep the reader entertained.

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  5 stars for me.

Is it Friday Yet? (Oct 3)

kitty sleeps on a computerfunniest-pets.blogspot.com

Wordless Wednesday (Oct 2)

http://www.glogster.com

WWW Wednesdays (Oct 2)

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

My Answers:

Shine (Shade, #3)Recently Finished: Shine (Shade #3) by Jeri Smith-Ready.  Really good conclusion to the series.  Reviews to be posted soon.

The Truth About You and MeCurrently Reading: The Truth about You and Me by Amanda Grace. I ordered this book a while back and it finally came in so I thought I would check it out. 

Next for me?

These are still in my sites and I am desperate to read…other things keep getting in the way.  So I am not really sure.

Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2) Origin (Lux, #4)

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh mafi

Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L Armentrout

and my daughter is begging me to read  The Program (The Program, #1) The Program (program #1) by Suzanne Young.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own WWW Wednesdays post, or share your answers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! :D

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Check out their blog!

Asking “What If?” & Exploring the Unknown–A Final Word on Writing Horror

Awesome post by Horror writer Kevin Lucia, guesting on Kristen Lamb’s blog.

Author Kristen Lamb's avatarKristen Lamb's Blog

Fear is the most important tool in any writer’s toolbox. Fear is the beating heart of conflict, no matter the genre. Fear of death. Fear of losing love, not finding love, not recognizing love. Fear of change. Fear of remaining the same. In Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novella The Road, the story was less about a fear of death and more about the fear of survival at the expense of one’s humanity. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan explores the fear of continuing generational curses.

In Winter’s Bone, Woodrell examines fear of family, what it takes to possibly betray family and risk death by turning on kin. In Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf probes the fear of being meaningless. Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World explores the fear of government, the tendency of the masses to devolve to mediocrity, and the dangers of society…

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Teaser Tuesday (Oct 1)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

Dear Bennett,

    You might not read this, but maybe they will, and maybe somehow that will help you.  This letter can’t help us, because there is no us, not anymore.

Just saying that makes it hard to breathe.

(opening lines page 1)

The Truth About You and Me The Truth about you and me by Amanda Grace

 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks! :D

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Check out their blog!