Book Blogger Confessions-- Blogger Envy

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme hosted on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question: Blogger Envy: Do you have a bad case of blogger envy? Do you covet thy neighbor bloggers book hauls/follower numbers/blog design? How do you tamp down the green eyed monster?

Oh gosh, yes I do have blogger envy. There are a few blogs that I would love to run. They have amazing designs, always get the arcs I'd LOVE to have, and they have great follower numbers (and certain ones get to go to movie sets and interview the actors. Who wouldn't want to do that???). The ones I really envy though are the ones that are still having a lot of fun blogging. You can always tell which ones these are because they are perky and always have lots of comments because they still have the time to visit all the other blogs and make connections with other bloggers. And that more than the arcs and the designs is what I envy. I miss the excitment of blogging.

Whenever I start to feel really jealous of these blogs, I just remember how much work and time they put in it. Then I think about how much time I put into mine and how that time has been lacking a lot lately. I think of the money that I could spent to hire someone to help me fix the design problems I have with my blog. I think of the connections I could make with effort to help my blog, and know that there are things I can do to get my blog running the way I'd like, but know that I'm probably not going to do any of it. I've had other things on my mind lately and the blog is taking the hit.

Hopefully sometime or another, my blog will be what I'd like it to be and I can stop being jealous of other bloggers.

Book I Gave Up On-- Alice In Zombieland

Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$18.99 (US hardback)

404 pages

 

What it's about:

 

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….


I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Why I Gave Up:

So here's why; it was ridiculous. I have this problem, every time I see anything Alice In Wonderland related, be it movie, book, ect. I must have it. Because of this problem, I've read a lot of crap and seen a lot of horrible movies. It's hard to recreate the wacky world of Wonderland and very few can pull it off. Gena Showalter can not pull it off.

So in the beginning of AIZ, you find out that Alice's whole family was killed by the "monsters." You also find out that her dad is a raving lunatic that doesn't allow the family outside at all after dark. He patrols the house with a gun all night long and during the day he sits around drinking and getting drunk. He says there are man eating monsters that come out of the graveyards every night and they eat people. Alice also notes how her dad has tried going to shrinks, taking meds, all of that good stuff to get over his paranoia and it just got worse. Then on Alice's 16th birthday, she convinces her parents to go out at night. In the end, the dad gets so paranoid while being the passenger in the car while driving past the cemetery, he freaks out and ends up killing everyone but Alice.

The face I made the whole time I was reading

Okay, so let me get this straight, zombies come out of their graves every night, go on a rampage, and then tuck themselves back in their coffins at night, cleaning everything up in the process, and NO ONE NOTICES??? What kind of crap is that? How is it that the half eaten corpses are not in the news every day? How is it that a crazy drunk is the only one that has taken notice of this living dead phenomena?
I do not care if this is explained later on in the story (I guess they are like ghost zombies from what I've heard from other reviews), I'm still not buying it at all. Even if there are zombies out there and Alice becomes some kind of zombie hunter, she can't really have a "you killed my father, prepare to die" rage because zombies didn't kill her family, her dad did. This whole thing just makes me sad. A whole family killed because they didn't really do anything to help her father.

To add on top of this, if you think that Alice In Zombieland has ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH ALICE IN WONDERLAND, you are wrong wrong wrong. You think that it would, but it really truly doesn't. Alice does not go to some different land and kill the evil creatures like the title and cover would suggest. So if you are reading it because of the AIW connection, run, run away and never return. It is a blatant ripoff to get people to read the book that they otherwise might not have picked up.

Top Ten Tuesday- Unfinished Series

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks top ten is Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished (because either you didn't like them, you just have procrastinated, etc.

I have these posts I do every once and a while called  "Book Breakup" in which I talk about series I've given up on. The first four on here I've done those posts for.

As for series I haven't finished, there seems to be a ton of them. These were just the first ones to pop into my head but definitely not the only ones I haven't finished. I seem to be giving up on series easier lately. Plus I haven't been wanting to read series because then I have to try and remember everything that happened in the previous books. Too much work.

These are in no order:
1. Evernight by Claudia Grey:
This was one of the first series I got into when I first started reading YA. I thought the first one was fantastic, and it all went downhill from there. I never bothered to read the last one in the series.

2. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz:
Once my favorite character was killed off, I was done with the books. Why bother reading the rest?

3. Sookie Stackhouse Charliene Harris:
Faeries are having a war? And the vampires are joining? No. Just..no.

4. Evermore by Alyson Noel:
Me and my friend like to call Ever "Ever Stupid" (I know, it's such a clever name) because we feel like her stupidity needs to be added onto her name. I couldn't handle how ridiculous she became.

5. Shade/Shift/Shine by Jeri Smith Ready:
This is just because I'm really behind in my books. I own a signed copy of Shine (and I have my name in the acknowledgments!!!) I really really need to read the last book soon.

6. Body Finder by Kimberly Derting:
When I first read BF, I couldn't have loved it anymore. And then I got an arc in the mail for DotD 8 months before the release date and read it immediately. So when the Last Echo finally came out, I didn't remember much of what happened in DotD and just couldn't get into the story. I gave up pretty fast and hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to get into it.

7. Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick:
I was madly in love with this book when I first read it, then I listened to the audiobook some time later and realized that I didn't actually care for it all that much. Soooo I've never finished the rest of the books.

8. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer:
I had the same problem with this book that I did for Hush Hush. Listened to the audiobook and realized that it was only okay and not fantastic like I remembered. Though I'm still curious as to who she ends up with. Maybe I'll just read the last chapter of the last book. Or even better, if someone would tell me in the comments that would be awesome.

9. Shiver/Linger/Forever by Maggie Stiefvater:
I didn't much care for the second book and while I still own Forever, I haven't read it. I've been told the ending was crap so it is getting pushed way back in my tbr pile.

10. Deadly Little Secret/lies/Games/Touch by Laurie Faria Stolarz:
I read the first 3 books and then realized they are all the same. There is only so many times a girl can get kidnapped and touch things to realize what is happening.

Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: YA historical fiction

$17.99 (US hardback)

549 pages

 

What it's about:



Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

My thoughts:
This is a book that I bought on a whim (which isn't something I do that often. Pretty much never actually). I had money left in trade that I had to use that day and Powells didn't have any more of the books I knew I wanted, so I went with Grave Mercy. It sounded pretty good and it had a good rating on Goodreads so I bought it.

For the book being about assassin nuns (seriously! how cool is that?) and is a historical fiction, it started out insanely slow. I found myself constantly drifting away from the story in the first 60 pages at least. I couldn't focus on what was happening because it just didn't catch my attention. I had to reread multiple pages just to actually understand what I had already read. I think this had to do a lot more with the writing style than the story plot itself. It was so dry. Even the action scenes were blan.

Then we got into the religion bit of the story. This was something I was concerned about even before I started the book. I normally try pretty hard to stay away from any sort of religion in the books I read. Yet I decided to give this one a go anyways because the idea of assassin nuns made me giggle. The women in this book are worshiping the God of Death and are assissins for him. That is their mission. They kill the people the God tells them to. I couldn't hop on board with this because of my own personal reasons, but also because there was a lot of man hate involved with it. I do not like when there is a lot of hate towards either sex in my books.

BUT....
Even though I just complained about how boring the beginning is and how I disliked the religion, once I got about 140 pages into it, I started enjoying the story. It started to fade away from the religion and moved onto a little mystery and politics. It focused on who was going to marry duchess Anne and who is betraying her to the French. Then of course it started to have a love story as well. Became much more interesting.
So even though it took me a long time to get into the book, I eventually did and enjoyed it.

My rating: 7/10

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer!

I did not know that they were moving this fast on this movie. I knew they had cast everyone but had no idea they were pretty much done filming and that we are this close to the release date already. I never ever hear updates about it so it was kinda shocking to see that the first trailer has been released!

While I love that Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons will be in it, what in the world is up with the Ethan pick???? Seriously???? Bleh.

Butttttt the trailer still looks pretty awesome.

Here is the link to the trailer. It won't let me post the video on here. Bummer.

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer #1

My Book Boyfriend-- Bones!

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted every Wednesday by Missie at The Unread Reader and cohosted by Lesley over at My Keeper Shelf


I've been reading the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost since right after the 2nd book came out and am madly in love with it. I had fallen behind in the series and lately I've been catching up. All my love for Bones has come rushing back and so I'm finally doing his MBB post!

About Bones:
Don't we all know Bones by now? Maybe you haven't read his books yet, but I'm sure you've seen the countless other MBB posts about him. So all I'm saying about him is he is a 200+ year old English bounty hunter master vampire.


Who I picture him looking like:
I couldn't help myself, Cat describes him as having incredible cheek bones, blond hair that's gelled, and having a British accent, plus he's a vampire, and I immediately pictured Spike. Funny cause I've never been a Buffy fan, but there it is.

 

“Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact I called to give you the good news. I asked you daughter to marry me. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?”

 

“If I die, I will wait for you, do you understand? No matter how long. I will watch from beyond to make sure you live every year you have to its fullest, and then we’ll have so much to talk about when I see you again…

 

“Right, then, mate, terribly sorry for my unspeakable rudeness, and I do beg your pardon. I can only say that it was caused by my natural affront to the notion of her as my sister. Since I'll be shagging her tonight, you can imagine how I'd be distressed at the thought of rogering my sibling"

"You shmuck! The only thing you'll be shagging tonight is yourself!"
"You wanted sincerity, well, luv, I was sincere.”


Jeepers, there are 23 pages of Jeaniene Frost quotes on Goodreads. That was hard to pick only 3, but I like these ones so that's what ya get.

Top Ten Tuesday-- Bookish People I Want To Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet (Authors, Bloggers, etc.)

As always, these are in no particular order.

1. John Green:
I had a chance to meet him back in January but couldn't get the time off work so I didn't get to go.
:( Super upset about that. I have the biggest fan girl crush on John. Not only are his books beyond brilliant and amazing, but his Vlogbrother videos are hilarious, his Crashcourse History videos entertaining and educating, but he also helps create things like Leakycon and Vidcon, and not to mention him and his brother created Nerdfighters!!!

2. Olivia Cunning:
I think it'd be fun to get all girly with her and talk about hott rocker guys and just gush. She commented on my blog once and I freaked. That was an exciting moment for me. I love when I get author comments or emails. To me, authors are like rock stars themselves so it's always fun when you get to talk to them.

3 & 4. David Levithan and Sarah Rees Brennan:
The reason I put these two together is that next month I have the option of meeting one or the other of them. Unfortunately they will both be in Portland on the same day, different places! So now I have to pick, which amazing person am I going to pick? How do you decide something like that??? Which one would you guys pick?

5. Any blogger:
Yup, I love to meet other bloggers. It's always fun to sit around talking about all the different memes, books, designs, and all the drama that is the book blogging world. Lately I've realized how many Pacific Northwest bloggers there are in particular and think it would be fantastic if we all got together somewhere and hung out. If someone wants to put that together, I would help out.

6. Suzanne Collins:
I had the option of meeting her two years ago on her Mockingjay tour and I didn't go! I'm kicking myself for that now. I want to go and ask her "why Finnick???" I know she's probably heard it a million times, but I've never heard the reasoning and I must know. Hopefully it's not as lame as JK Rowlings "Fred just had to die" statement. Because no, JK, no he didn't.

7. Cayla Kluver:
She was so young when she wrote her first book and is still really young and is about to have her 3rd book published. She's in college for freaking sake. I think it'd be fun to meet her. There aren't that many really young authors out there.

8. Jeaniene Frost:
I've been a fan of hers for years now and have been stalking her blog for that long and yet she has never made it over to the west coast in that time. Why Jeaniene why? West coast needs some love as well.

9. Kiersten White:
While the last two books in the Paranormalcy series were kinda a bummer for me, I'd still love to meet Kiersten. Every time I watch one of her vlogs she cracks me up. She seems like a really fun person to be around.

10. CC Hunter:
I adore her Born At Midnight series and would really like to meet the person who wrote them. They are just too much fun and one of the only series in which I didn't guess the answer to the big question. So rare for me so it's exciting when I meet an author who can actually keep me guessing. Not to mention she has created one of the only good love triangles I have read.

11. Marguerite Gavin:
After reading a bunch of other peoples TTT lists, someone posted a bunch of audiobook readers and I decided I must add Marguerite to the list. She does all of Kim Harrison's books and she is WONDERFUL. The best audiobook reader ever. I read all of Kim's books in her voices now. Now if only they would redo book #6 with Marguerite because the lady they had do it was horrible.


Thought I'd post about some awesome bookish people that were on my "to meet" list that I actually got to meet.
1. JK Rowling:
She came and sat next to my sister and me while we were in the Paris airport waiting to go to Edinburgh. She helped us translate what the stewardess was saying because we couldn't even begin to understand her. This is perhaps one of the coolest moments of my life.

2. Cassandra Clare:
This was an amazing signing. The whole audience nerded out and I actually got to talk to Cassie for a few minutes while she was signing my books. She told me about Alex Pettyfer calling her and talking about Jace, and then we talked about Will and Jem and how Oregonians seem to prefer Jem over Will (except for me, I was the first to pick Team Will. Go me! haha)

3. Kendare Blake:
I just met her a few weeks ago and boy is she cool. One of those people that I wish we were friends because she is just that much fun to talk to. We talked about killing animals in books and how much it pisses us off when it happens. If you've read Anna Dressed In Blood, you will find that ironic.

4. Veronica Roth:
Met her right after Divergent came out. I still can't believe she is the same age as me and yet she has a best selling book that is about to be a huge movie. I told her I want Darren Criss to play Four. She looked at me kinda funny when I told her that Darren is adorable. She doesn't want someone adorable playing Four.

5. Stephanie Perkins:
I drove 4 hours to go to her signing. We talked about Nerdfighteria and did the DFTBA sign for our picture together. Yay for nerdfighters!

6. Kim Harrison:
It wouldn't be a ttt post if I didn't talk about Kim on it at least once. I've met Kim loads of times (I never miss her signings when she comes to Portland). I get a picture with her each time and ask her random questions I have about the series. It's always a blast. So many people show up for her signings and we all mingle and debate the books and who Rachel should end up with (my vote is Trent).