Top Ten Tuesday #98: beach reads for beach read haters

Today's Topic:  Ten (Kind Of) "Beach Reads"  For People Who Hate Beach Reads Here's the thing: I don't even know what a "beach read" is. I don't read a lot of what people might consider beach reads, actually. Instead, for my fellow beach read haters, I've picked ten of my favorite books that are either light and fluffy enough to read in one sitting, or creepy, thrilling books about the ocean.           The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin Beast by Peter Benchley Damaged by H.M. Ward Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews          Island...

Audiobook Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Title: Ready Player One Author: Ernest Cline Narrator: Wil Wheaton Publication Date: November 16, 2011 Publisher: Broadway Books Add to Goodreads It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this...

Weekly Recap: 5/22 - 5/28

My Super Exciting Life  THIS HAS BEEN THE WEEK OF INCREDIBLE BOOK MAIL! Seriously, a friend gave me a copy of Gemina, another friend let me borrow her copy of A Torch Against the Night, I got The Crown's Game via a super awesome promotion on Audible, and then the library delivered books to my door! Now I just have to find the time to actually read all of them! I have also been working. A lot. Because it's Memorial Day weekend and pretty much everyone is away from home this weekend. This means that lots of adorable puppies need to be taken care of! Hurray! This weekend I've hung out with two tiny Yorkies, a tiny weenie dog, and a...

Book Review & Giveaway: This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

Title: This Dark Endeavor (The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein #1) Author: Kenneth Oppel Publication Date: August 23, 2011 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Pages: 298 Add to Goodreads Bravery, danger, and intense passion. How does obsession begin? Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures...until the day their adventures turn all too real. They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad...

Waiting on Wednesday #100: Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is: Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West Publication Date: September 15, 2016 Bristal, an orphaned kitchen maid, lands in a gritty fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she is an elicromancer with a knack for shape-shifting. An ancient breed of immortal magic beings, elicromancers have been winnowed down to merely two - now three - after centuries of bloody conflict in the realm. Their gifts are fraught with responsibility, and sixteen-year-old Bristal is torn between two paths. Should she vow to seek the good of the world, to protect and serve mortals?...

Top Ten Tuesday #97: Books I'm not sure I'd love now

Today's Topic:   Ten Books I'm Not Sure I'd  Love After Time Has Passed I read A LOT of not-so-popular books way back when before I was a blogger. Back then I loved almost everything I read! Now I've read so many incredible books that I'm not positive I'd feel the same way if I went back and re-read all of them! These are ten of the books I've enjoyed over the last several years that I'm not sure I'd enjoy as much now.          The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin Children in the Night by Harold Myra Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London Enclave by Ann Aguirre English...

DNF Review: The Crown by Kiera Cass

Title: The Crown (The Selection #5) Author: Kiera Cass Publication Date: May 3, 2016Publisher: HarperTeen Pages: 279 Add to Goodreads Reviews for book 1, book 2, book 3, & book 4 When Eadlyn became the first princess of Illéa to hold her own Selection, she didn’t think she would fall in love with any of her thirty-five suitors. She spent the first few weeks of the competition counting down the days until she could send them all home. But as events at the palace force Eadlyn even further into the spotlight, she realizes that she might not be content remaining alone. Eadlyn still isn’t sure she’ll find the fairytale ending her parents...

Weekly Recap: 5/15 - 5/21

My Super Exciting Life  I have not had a book hangover like this for probably a year. I read A Court of Mist and Fury last week and this week I was totally unable to finish reading anything. I've started three different books and put them all back down. On Friday I made a trip to the library and picked up some books I'm excited about, so hopefully things will change this coming week! Thankfully, this week was much slower than last! We did make a trip to Universal Studios to do a few rides and get dinner one night, but other than that not much happened. In fact, my husband and I spent all day yesterday (and I do mean all day) watching...

How accurate do you like your fiction?

Recently Dan Brown announced that he would be re-releasing his 2003 bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, but this time it would be adapted for a young adult audience. This unleashed a maelstrom of nasty comments on Twitter and elsewhere, not only bashing Brown for insinuating that his book needed to be dumbed down for YA readers, but also for his writing in general. This got me thinking... Why exactly do people hate Dan Brown so much anyway? I took to the Internet to find out. What I found was a mixture of things. Some people didn't like his formulaic writing style and found that it was too simplistic. Some felt that Brown was writing his ideal...