Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer

Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: fiction
Pages: 368
Challenges: Buy 1 book and read it
Author's Website
My rating: 3.5/5

Simple Description: 
Julie Mueller has always been in love with Michael Slayton.  The problem was that Julie's mother, while she loved Michael, didn't want her daughter to date him.  Julie made a pass at Michael when she was 17, he didn't return the favor.  She moved on to get pregnant, get married, get divorced.   He married and divorced as well.  While her older brother remained in contact with Michael, Julie and Michael stopped talking 6 years ago.

Julie is a reporter and she published a piece that ruined the politician that Michael was working for.  They didn't see eye to eye on it and, well, stopped talking.

Now Julie and Michael have been forced back together.  They were both tricked in to taking a dessert baking class and started talking again. This comes at a time when Julie's world seems to start falling apart.  Will she be able to lean on Michael or will she push him away or will he not have the same feelings for her that he once did?

My Thoughts:
I thought this book was really good. It was pretty faced paced, I'm surprised I read it as fast as I did.  I can't say I loved the book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Sometimes I felt Julie was too whiny, but at the same time I had a feeling there's a good chance I could react the same way she did if I had been in her position.  She hasn't had things extremely easy.   I also think that the way Jill and Michael interacted is pretty true. I could totally see myself doing the same thing. haha!

All in all - likable characters, a good story, and a fast read. What more could you ask for?

The Betrayal of the Blood Lilly by Lauren Willig

#6 Pink Carnation
Copyright: 2010 (audio)
Publisher: Penguin (audio)
Genre: Fiction
Pages: audio
Challenges: Strong Heroine, Audio book
Author's Website
My rating: 2/5  

Simple Description:
Penelope is hastily married to Lord Frederick Stains once it is found out that the two were in a room together..with no one else.  It doesn't matter that nothing happened, Penelope was compromised and Freddy did the "right" thing by marrying her.  It is definitely not a match made out of love, the two don't really like each other.   The end up going to India for Freddy's job right after the wedding.  The hope is that with them out of society in London, their fast marriage will quickly be passed over for other gossip.

Penelope knows there is another spy on the loose and she knows they are after it.   She suspects almost everyone, including Captain Alex Reid.  Unfortunately, Pen also finds herself attracted to Captain Reid.  There's just something about him.

My Thoughts:
I thought this book was good, but not great.  It's actually my least favorite in the series so far. I was disappointed at first because I didn't really like the beginning. I didn't really start to enjoy the story until about half-way through the book.  Then it seemed to get interesting and I warmed up a bit to the characters.   This is book 6, I've read 7 so far, so it's bound to happen that there is one in a series I won't really like.

I will definitely be continuing with the series at this point. I've thoroughly enjoyed the other books I've read and have high hopes I'll enjoy the rest (so far there are 9 books).   I will still recommend this series to others as well.


Audio Review: 
Hmm..oddly enough on Amazon the narrator for the Audio CD is not listed, it usually is.  I believe Kate Reading might be the narrator.  Regardless...the narrator did a great job.  There was no problem telling which character was talking or was telling the story.

Friday Smile - Zoo run

Once again my family and I participated in the Make Tracks for the Zoo 5k run/walk.  This year my Mom was able to make it but one sister wasn't due to giving birth to her 2nd child not too long before that.  My Aunt also came and brought her grandchild.    Even though my one sister couldn't make it, my Mom and I still brought her oldest child so he could do the 5k and then hang out at the zoo with everyone.

As usual, I ran while everyone else walked.  This year I did meet a new friend at the zoo so we could run it together, so that was a lot of fun.  Once I finished I turned around and ran back through the course to find my family.  Once I met up with them the oldest nephew decided to run a bit.  Oh man!  That kid is fast!  There were times I was running really fast and still wasn't gaining on him.  I hope to convert him to be a runner, but shhhh...don't tell anybody yet.  haha

After the 5k was over my family and I hung out at the zoo.  We walked a bit, then road the train, which is the best part according to the boys.

So, without further ado...here are some pictures.

Myself with the one nephew that my Mom and I brought with us since his Mom couldn't make it.

3 of the nephews excited for the 5k and waiting on the adults to get ready

Nephews, myself, and my oldest sister

The whole group! From the left..my Sister and her three boys, myself, my Aunt and her Grandson, my Mom and my other sister's oldest boy.

The nephew in the orange shirt and the coolest laugh..and when the little one reached out and touched his face he just giggled and giggled.  It makes me smile just looking at this picture and remember that.

What's not to love about this hug?

How could I possibly resist them when they want to be held?

Finally, I leave you with an animal shot.  The big cat is just sitting so pretty, definitely king of the "jungle".

Hexes and Hemlines by Juliet Blackwell

#3 Witchcraft
Copyright: 2011
Publisher: Signet
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 336
Challenges: Cozy Mystery Challenge
Author's Website
My rating: 3.5


Simple Description: 
Lily's friend at the police station asks her to visit a crime scene with him because he wants her opinion.  When she gets there she see's the dead body on the table, under a ladder.  The superstitions don't stop there, add in a black cat, a horse shoe over the door, a sparrow and others and Lily knows something out of the ordinary is going on.

Lily isn't officially part of the investigation but when her friend's daughter is connected to the murdered man and her husband is mixed up in it, she feels it's a threat against her and her friends that she can't ignore.  Things get worse when she realizes other witches, very powerful witches, are involved.

My Thoughts: 
I thought this was a great follow-up to the other two, a great continuation of the series.  I really like Lily, how can you not love her?  She's always felt like an outcast and she's finally trying to stay put in one place and have friends and be normal, but it seems the world has other things planned out for her.

In this one you see more of Aidan and Sailor, another witch and a physic.  You also learn more about Lily's past.  All this just makes the book better, in my opinion.

You all know me, I like the paranormal and this book is right up my alley.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and encourage you to check out the series if you haven't already.

Thanks to the Publisher for providing this book for review.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Copyright: 2007

Publisher: Listening Library

Genre: young adult
Pages: audio (5 disks)
Challenges: New author challenge, Young Adult, audio
Author's Website 
My rating: 5/5


Simple Description: 
Mixing it up a bit, instead of giving my own description I'm just going to paste the synopsis from the book's website:
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.




 My Thoughts: 
I absolutely loved this book.  From the very beginning you are sucked into the story of Hannah and why she committed suicide.  You are sucked in wanting to know how Clay fits in, because you can tell that he seems to be a decent guy.  This is a very different take on suicide and I think it's a very interesting one.


While at times it was hard to listen to this one because, hey, it might have been awhile ago but I was once a teenager in highschool and I did suffer from depression. I would be lying if I said I never thought about suicide.  I also had a friend commit suicide the year after I graduated highschool.  So listening to a story like this sometimes hits a little close to home. Sure, the reasons were different, but the topic itself is just a bit hard.


I think it was interesting to see how all the actions combined led up to Hannah taking the route she did.  One incident by itself wasn't enough and most would just pass off, but all of them, yeah, it gets to a person.  So the story being told like it is and showing all that makes it more powerful.

I personally would love to see this book read in English classes because I think teenagers could benefit from it. I think it would be an eye-opener for them and show them that actions have consequences  It might seem like what you do/did/plan to do is harmless but chances are it's not.  In my opinion, this is a very powerful book.


Audio Review: 
The audio version of this book was narrated by Debra Wiseman and Joel Johnstone.  They did a fantastic job.  This is, by far, one of the best audio books I've listened to.  Since the book deals with tapes, Debra narrates the tapes since she's speaking Hannah's part.  Joel does the rest of the book since it's told from Clay's point of view.  Everything flows smoothly and I think having the two readers was a very smart move.  I don't think it would have worked as well had there been just one narrator.   This was one audio book that I didn't want to stop listening to. 

Friday Smile - Keystone, CO

Husband and I took a week of vacation in mid May and headed to Keystone, CO.  His company has a vacation home and employees can "rent" it for a week at a time.  Since he is low man on the seniority scale all the summer weeks were gone. It was either May or September and I'll be in training in September so May it was.  We went from being in the sunshine and 80's in STL to being caught in snow storms in CO.    Do I need to remind you that neither Husband or myself like cold weather? lol!

Husband has never hiked before, ok, maybe once or twice.   I grew up vacationing in CO for 2 weeks every summer.  We camped the entire time, hiked, and backpacked.  So when Husband said he wanted to hike, I was nervous. I knew I could do it, I wasn't sure about him.  He was a real trooper though.  The trails were really hard due to how freaking deep the snow was and it was hard to follow the trails.  We might have stopped often to catch our breath but we did it and we saw some beautiful views while we did.

We arrived on a Saturday and hiked that afternoon, then we hiked Sunday -  Tuesday.  Wednesday we woke up to it snowing and it continued to snow through Friday.  We did head out Friday for a morning hike while it wasn't snowing, but even then it started snowing while we were out.   It was ok with me, if you noticed I had a week or so where I finished a lot of books.  This was due to sprawling on a bed or couch while it snowed quietly outside.

Instead of posting a lot of pictures, I'm just going to share my album with you.   Enjoy!
(If you click on the image it will take you to the album and you can view bigger images of the photo's)

Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

Copyright: 2011
Publisher: Putnam
Genre: fiction
Pages: 269
Challenges: I want more, Pub challenge
Author's Website
My rating: 5/5

"Adults need to have fun so children will want to grow up." p. 99

Simple Description: 
The story starts off with 6 women getting together to celebrate Kate's recovery from breast cancer.  When they learn that Kate's daughter wants her to do a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon and encourage her to do so, Kate agrees but only if each one does something they are also afraid of doing.  The catch: Kate gets to pick what the must do.

The story is then told from each women's point of view.  We learn more about each woman, what she must accomplish, and what this is hard for her.  Of course, it's not just told to us.  You have to read each story to get all the information and see why it's so hard for her to do what it is she needs to accomplish.

The book ends with Kate's adventure, where we also learn more about her.

"Irreversible decisions are good for the soul..." p. 172

My Thoughts:  
I loved this book!  I'm so happy I did too because I adored The School of Essential Ingredients by this author when I read it in 2009.  I was extremely excited to be offered a review copy of this book but also a bit worried since I didn't know if it would live up to my expectations.   I had nothing to be worried about.

While I have to admit the book got off to a slow start for me, it quickly picked up and had my full interest. There were some stories I liked better than others, just because I connected to the characters more or the thing they faced interested me more.  For example, one woman is to get a tattoo.  This is something she has wanted for a long time but never done and can't commit. I happen to love tattoos so for me this story was more interesting because the subject matter was already something I liked.   I personally love this quote from that story too: "She collected tattoos like personal journal entries, a constantly updating record of her life." p. 166

I feel this is an excellent follow to the author's first fiction book and I can't wait to see what else we get from her.   I definitely recommend this book to others. In fact, I think many of you would enjoy it.


Thanks to the author, Erica Bauermeister, for providing this book for review.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

#3 Catching Fire
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic
Genre: young adult
Pages: 398
Challenges: off the shelf, Strong Heroine, Young Adult
Author's Website
My rating: 2/5


I'm actually not going to do a description of this book.  If you have not read the book yet then you don't need a spoiler in case you plan to.  I thought this book started out great but I ended up not being too fond of it at the end.   I'm actually a bit disappointed with the ending which means I'm not happy with how the trilogy ended.   I have to say that I'm still very glad I read this trilogy. I loved book one, it's my favorite of the trilogy.  Book two was very good.  This one..a disappointment.   Would I still recommend this trilogy to someone who hasn't started it yet? Yes..I do think it's worth it.  Just don't keep your hopes up for the final book.

Hunted by P.C. and Kristin cast

#5 House of Night
Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Macmillian Young Listeners
Genre: young adult
Pages: audio
Challenges: Strong Heroine, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Author's Website
My rating: 2.5

Simple Description: 
Book #5 starts where book #4 stopped.  Zoey and group are now hiding out in the tunnels trying to figure out where to go from here.

Ok, so that description sucks.  Here's the thing, I don't want to give anything away. I don't want to include any spoilers.  You really can't start the series with this one, you would be confused.  So just know this is #5 and you need to start this series at the beginning with #1.

My Thoughts:
This is actually my least favorite of the series so far.  It just kinda felt like nothing was really happening..even though I know it was.  Perhaps it was just taking too long to get to the point of it all.  Plus there were several times when I wanted to shake Zoey.

Don't let this review keep you from trying out the series. I've been really happy with it up to this point.  I think ever series has a book that is a "least favorite" and my guess is that this is the one for me.  At least, I sure hope it is. I have high hopes that #6 will be as good as the others have been.  I still liked the story, think it was important to the series, just not a favorite.  I'll definitely be continuing with this series too.


Audio Review:
Jenna Lamia is the narrator for this one, she's been the narrator for several of these.  She does an excellent job and I'm still planning to continue with this series via audio.

Driven to Ink by Karen E. Olson

#3 Tattoo Shop Mystery
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 299
Challenges: off the Shelf, Cruisin' through the cozies
Author's Website
My rating: 3.5/5


Simple Description: 
Brett's day was off to a great start, until she found a dead body in her car's trunk.  Something like that will put a damper on anybody's day.  The worst part of it is that she had lent her car to Sylvia Colman for her drive-thru wedding.  Did Sylvia and her new husband have something to do with this?  Why is a tattoo cord around the dead man's neck?  And why is a cord missing from her tattoo shop?

While Brett doesn't really want to get into trouble with the cops she also can't help asking questions and looking for answers.  She knows Sylvia couldn't have killed the man but it does look like she's involved somehow.   In searching for answers Brett spends a lot of time with Jeff, Sylvia's son and rival tattoo artist. Is it possible Jeff isn't as bad as Brett thinks he is?

My Thoughts: 
This is book #3 in the series and I'm really looking forward to book #4 (which has already found a place in my library).   This series quickly became one of my favorites, starting as early as book 1.  I enjoy Brett's character.  She realizes she shouldn't be digging for info and investigating things on her own but at the same time she knows she wants to know what's going on.  I do like that she involves her brother, a cop, and let's him know what she finds.  He's never happy with her, but he doesn't ignore what she has found.

I like there there was more interaction between her and Jeff and that we learned more about Jeff.  I think he's a great secondary character.

I personally love tattoo's, so the fact that tattoo's are a part of this story is something else that keeps my interest.  I think those who don't have tattoo's and don't necessary like them could enjoy this series.  But I think those who are intrigued will find the tattoo part an extra, fun, perk to the stories.

Friday Smile - teaser

I've been so busy at work and home that I haven't had a chance to do some Friday Smile posts for you or review the 3 books I've finished.

Here's a teaser of another Friday Smile post I plan to do.   This is what I was looking at 3 weeks ago. (click on picture for bigger image)

May 2011 Reads

May 2011 Reads

Total books read: 10

Pages: 2141
New Authors: 3
Mystery: 5
Non-Fiction: 0
Fiction: 2
Young Adult: 3
Audio:  4
Own: 1
Bought: 3
Review:  2
Borrowed:  4
DNF: 0


Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon 

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran 

Eon by Alison Goodman 

The Sixth Man by David Baldacci

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr 

Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James 

A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava 

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris

Gone by Lisa McMann 

A Glimpse of Evil by Victoria Laurie


Challenges
I'm super excited that I've actually finished one challenge already! Woohoo!  I finished the 2011 Pub Challenge, my goal was 11 books and I've already read 13.

Off the Shelf: 13/30
New Author: 12/50
Hometown Challenge: 0/4
Gothic Reading Challenge: 0/1
Strong Heroine Challenge: 6/12
Urban Fantasy Challenge: 7/15
I want More Book Challenge: 2/4
What’s in a Name?4: 3/6
Paranormal/Fantasy reading challenge: 6/12
Series Challenge season 5: 1/2 series, 2/7 books
1st in a Series challenge: 11/12
War Through the Generations: 2.5/10
Young Adult challenge: 9/20 
Mystery and Suspense: 8/12
Cruisin’ Through the Cozies: 12/13

Cozy Mystery Challenge: 1/6Buy 1 book and read it: 5/12
Audio Books: 18/20
2011 Pub Challenge: 13/11