The Versatile Blogger Award

                Ok so this is so great.  I’ve gotten my 2^nd blog award!  So I’m all excited and doing my happy dance.  It was awarded to be by Lora Palmer, thank you so so much. 

So the rules as they were posted:

1.       Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award. Check

2.       In the same post, thank the blogger who gave you the award and put a link back to their blog. Check

3.       Nominate 15 other people for this award and let them know.  Okay so here’s the deal, I’m pretty sure everyone I follow has received this award already (cheers to you).  So…if by chance you haven’t and I overlooked please forgive me and take this as yours.

4.       Post 7 random things about yourself.  Check

5.       Include these rules in your post.  Check

7 Random things about me (Some of these may have been repeated in previous posts):

1.       I write fan fiction.

2.       Bella’s got nothing on me when it comes to being a klutz.

3.       I don’t like vegetables.

4.       My favorite color is blue and happily enough so is my birthstone.

5.       I ramble on and on and on until I forget the original point I was trying to make.

6.       If I know something but can’t place it right then and there it will drive me nuts until I figure it out.

7.       To this day I still do not know how to pick my own numbers for a lotto ticket.

Okay so there you have it.  Some more random facts about me, oh joy haha.  Thank you again Lora for giving this award to me.

The White Oak by Kim White

So I would like to thank Netgalley and Story Machine Studio for letting me read this ARC.  This is the blurb on Netgalley provided with a  beautiful cover:

In The White Oak, the first book in the Imperfect Darkness series, Cora Alexander falls through a sinkhole and enters the underworld still alive.  Her living presence threatens the tyrannical rule of Minos and the infernal judges who have hijacked the afterlife and rebuild it, trapping human souls in a mechanical computer-controlled city that lies at the core of the earth.  To survive, Cora must rely on her untrustworthy guide, Minotaur, an artificial intelligence built by Minos.  She is helped by a mysterious voice, and by Sybil, underworld librarian and author of each person’s book of life.  Sybil’s collection holds the key to humankind’s intertwined life stories.  When Cora’s own book is destroyed, Sybil gives her a magical golden pen and sends her to the underworld city to write her own destiny.  Along the way, Cora finds the ghost of her dead brother, Lucas, a genius programmer who alone is capable of finding the chink in Minos’s armor.  But will he be able to get Cora out alive, or will they both fall victim to the underworld trap?

Sounds super interesting and different right?  That’s what I thought.  Now this is hard for me because I haven’t given very many reviews on books I didn’t care for.  That doesn’t even seem right really, it felt, unfinished I guess.

Let me try to explain.  The blurb leaves you wanting more and let me tell you it starts off with a bang.  Straight into the action and story.  I was excited and the book did move along very quickly however when I finished reading I was left thinking, ‘What?’ I felt like the whole book was really only the beginning of a book.  With everything the blurb promised I was expecting more story. 

The world described is very vivid and imaginable.  The scenery was great and I could picture it however the characters, the main character Cora in particular, I didn’t feel a connection with her.  I pretty much get that she is angry but that’s it.  I don’t have any invested emotion in her, and as a main character I have a hard time with that.  I felt there was slightly more character development with Lucas and even Minotaur.

This book is supposed to be part of a series so considering that I might say that the blurb should be revised to encompass only book 1.  And as a reader I would have felt better if this was part 1 of a longer book to me I just can’t get over that finishing it I felt like I was only about ¼ of the way through a story. 

So this is hard.  I have mixed emotions about this and what to rate it.  I did enjoy parts of it.  So I’m going to give it 2.5 Stars.  *Note on goodreads.com it gets 3 stars because it doesn’t let you half a star and I rounded up.  So there you have my review.  This book comes out April 9, 2012. 

RTW: Favorite Book of March

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

What was the best book you read in March?

This will be short.  This month I haven’t read very much sadly.  So my favorite book this month (so far anyways still have a couple days left) is The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks.  I just recently reviewed it here so I won’t go into that again but it was a great little mystery who done it book.  I enjoyed reading it.  Sadly I didn’t have any real competition this month, the others I read were mostly novellas or short stories and thus I don’t classify them as a book.    So what was your favorite book in March?  My TBR list will never stop growing so help add to it.

The Hunger Games The Movie

                Okay so as you all know I went to see the midnight showing of The Hunger Games movie last night with friends.  I was so excited for this.  I re-read the book the night before, couldn’t sleep and all.  I couldn’t wait to see how they brought the book I loved to life.  And let me tell you I was not disappointed.

                So first off I loved the cast.  They did an amazing job with their roles.  Katniss is strong but also has some vulnerability just like in the book.  Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was brilliant.  He was everything I expected from the book, as did Lenny Kravitz as Cinna.  Effie was the great bit of comic relief here and there, she’s such an air head you can’t help but laugh.  I could spend so much time listing each person and how well they did but well I want to make this review semi short and to the point so let’s just say they did an amazing job. 

                Now the set, scenes, everything was so amazing.  I could totally see it, almost like how I pictured it.  Well…maybe not the make-up.  Because let me tell you, in the books they describe some of it and they talk about how outrageous…well yeah WOW the Capitol was just crazy.  I would look and think, I bet that hurts.  Or, how do they open their eyes with those huge eyelashes haha.  Great stuff.  District 12 was gritty and dirty, the woods a perfect little escape.  The entrance on the chariots, the fire was awesome and I was really curious how they were going to pull that off like in the book.  And her red dress was just as gorgeous.

                Now onto the most important part.  How it stands up to the book.  The book was better of course, they almost always are.  They have more time and can be way more detailed.  That being said I loved it.  Sure I noticed the little changes here and there and they sped things along in some areas but they stayed surprisingly close to the book.  I was not expecting things to be that close really and was pleasantly surprised.  Sure did I miss a couple of lines I really wanted to see?  Sure.  They didn’t give as much Haymitch as I’d have liked and they cut a lot of the cave scene but that makes sense when you think it’s already a two and a half hour movie.  They got the important parts in. 

                Along with that they also added other bits.  The books only focused on Katniss but we got to see things going on in the Capitol.  Things going on behind the scenes, and in the districts.  Things that if you read all the books you know happened but we get to see it and I think on their part was brilliant because it leaves it perfectly poised for them to do Catching Fire.  They also changed something at the end which I’m not going to lie I was perfectly happy with, since the book part made me sad so hehe selfish me liked that change.

                Emotionally it had me.  I knew going in I would probably cry like a baby in some parts.  I did.  Most of the theatre did too.  I won’t give out spoilers in case some of you have lived under a rock and haven’t read this yet.  Those who have you know what scene I’m talking about the most.  Yep lots of sniffling to be had.  I really felt for the characters, well the non evil ones anyways and those I just couldn’t wait until they got what was coming (then I giggled).  Oh and a side note that gets this movie extra points it made me jump.  Something happened and I for once wasn’t expecting it and I jumped slightly, not out of my seat or scream like some of the others but jerk back in my seat yes. 

                Well that’s all you get.  I don’t want to give too much away.  Just go see it!  You know you want to.  Even if by some chance you haven’t read the books you can totally enjoy it as an individual movie.  I can’t wait to see it again.  If you’ve seen it already tell me what you think.  If you have tickets tell me what you’re most looking forward to.  Share your thoughts on my review.  Oh and if it’s not clear…

Rating:  5 Arrows (fitting I think)

                

The Lucky 7 Meme

I have to say huge thank you to Amy at Limey YALit Girl for tagging me in this.

So I’m still working on my first draft of my WIP which at the moment doesn’t have a good title.  To me nailing down a title is way too hard until I have my story finished.  I could give a generic one but I don’t think it would suit it as well.  So thus far it is ‘new story’ haha.

So these are the rules as I understand them from Amy:

1) Go to page 77 of your current WIP

2) Got to line 7

3) Copy down the next 7 lines as they’re written—no cheating **okay so I just checked my line starts in the middle of a sentence so I’ll be starting with the first sentence start middle line 7**

4) Tag 7 other writers

5) Let them know

So keep in mind first draft.  Also as context this is a bit of conversation between my main character and her handler (witness protection).  Not really very riveting but it makes way more sense in the story.  So without further ado here are my 7 lines:

I tried them once and the guy I was seeing at the time said he’d spend ten minutes trying to wake me up.  Call me crazy I want to be able to wake up if something is happening around me.”

                Lexi laughed.  She’d never liked the idea of them either and not being able to wake up.  Then knowing her mother had given them too her when she was sick didn’t help.

                “How about I fall asleep for you and you stay asleep for me,” she joked.

                “If only it were that easy.”

So there you have it.  Now is where I’m supposed to tag 7 other people but that is a bit of a problem.  See I’ve seen this post in almost all of the blogs I follow already.  I don’t remember who has and who hasn’t done it.  I remember good bits of story but sadly my ability to place them with a name is not working for me.  That being said I’m going to say to all of you who read this and haven’t done it, consider yourself tagged! 

Okay so I cheated and took the easy way out but in my defense I blame my excitement for tonight (The Hunger Games midnight showing).  Most of my brain is focused on that hehe. So that means tomorrow you should get another post, a movie review of course. 

Have a great day!

RTW: Favorite Literary Moment

               Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

A long-awaited kiss, a surprising ending, a character’s sudden decision…these are the moments that make us smile, gasp, and LOVE a book for the rest of our lives.  What is your favorite literary moment?

                As per usual another hard if not impossible question to answer this week.  So like most everyone else I’ll state the obvious it’s so hard to pick one, it’s like picking between kids (I don’t have any but I hear it’s hard).  So my simple answer is going to be in Shadow Kiss, book 3 in the Vampire Academy series when Rose and Dimitri get together and then what happens next.  I knew the first part had to happen at some point, the tension was just…yeah it had to happen or I would have screamed.  But what happened next…I may have thrown my book across the room.  I was just that upset and shocked. 

                So now you know mine.  And I say again, it was the first on that popped into my head when I checked out my book shelves but if I look again I see another book or series and think of those moments so…yes we’ll stick with what I have.  What is your favorite moment?

The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks

                Before I start the review let me apologize and explain.  The last week or so I’ve been feeling very blah.  I’m sure everyone has these times and it’s not just me.  I haven’t been working on my WIP and I’ve been only semi keeping up with blogs I follow and if I do I just can’t find the energy to comment.  For that I am sorry but I’m feeling more like my usual self.  So thanks for sticking with me.  Now onto business.  This was another ARC from Netgalley.com which I just finished last night.  The Girl in the Park, comes out April 24^th, published by Random House Children’s Books.

                The Girl in the Park, is a mystery.  Wendy is dead.  Body found in the park after a party.  She wasn’t the most popular girl in school and had a reputation for being a wild party girl who would do anything.  The press makes her look horrible, victim or not.  Rain though, former good friend, has a hard time accepting this.  She knew Wendy was flawed, they hadn’t been friends in a while but she still remembered the girl who made her feel special and knows she wasn’t all bad.  Either if she was she didn’t deserve what happened to her.   Almost by mistake she sets out to find out who killed her friend.  No one will speak up for Wendy then it’s up for her to try.

                Now I will warn you that I did figure out who did it pretty early on in the book.  I know some of my friends have a problem with things like that.  For me it depends on the story.  In this book I didn’t mind at all.  I knew I was right but reading along finding new evidence that either helped or hurt my suspect was enjoyable.  Because it’s not just a story of finding out who murdered Wendy, but a story about Rain and her coming to terms with herself and the things that have happened in her life.

                I have to say I really like the main characters Rain and Wendy.  Yes, Wendy dies in the beginning.  So how can she be a main character?  Easy, we learn about her life, all the different aspects of her, what she did who she was before she was killed.  I felt like with each passing page I got to know both characters even better.  Now Rain.  I have to say at first this name caught my attention, and I liked it.  Different and cute.  It also played in well with the difficult teasing.  She isn’t perfect, speech problems, cleft pallet…anyone who has been in high school and wasn’t top tier popular will totally feel for her. 

                Rain doesn’t speak much.  Never speaks up for herself given the teasing she’s endured through most of her life, a habit that is hard to break.  A fear.  Still she is drawn to figure this out even if it causes more problems because after all she is really good at listening to people.  Sometimes they just might say something they don’t want anyone to really know.

                Overall I would give this book a solid 4 Stars.  I liked it.  It intrigued me.  I knew who did it but that didn’t take away, for me anyways, from the story.  Again the book comes out April 24^th and if you like a good mystery and self journey check it out.