Teaser Tuesday (11)

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! 

 This week's teaser is from.....

All Just Glass (Den of Shadows)

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

 "What did he-- She couldn't complete the thought. He grabbed her, and then his fangs were in her throat."

- Page 115

It's Monday! What are you reading? (11)

Hosted by Book Journey

Last week I read....

 xxxHolic, Volume 1

by CLAMP

The Wolf Next Door (West Field Wolves #3)

by Lydia Dare

I'm currently reading....

All Just Glass (Den of Shadows)

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

xxxHolic, Volume 2

by CLAMP

Next I plan to read....

Abandon (Abandon Trilogy #1)

by Meg Cabot

What about you? What are you reading this week?

 

In My Mailbox (11)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren where I get to show what new books I've gotten this week. They can be books I've bought, checked out from the library, or actually received in the mail.

From the Library (these are all audiobooks)

 And these two are books I was lucky enough to win (both are e-books)

 (won from Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me)

(won from Release Notes)

Teaser Tuesday (10)

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! 

 This week's teaser is from.....

The Wolf Next Door (West Field Wolves #3)

by Lydia Dare

"His finger tipped her chin up. "When you're with him, he doesn't make you feel like this, does he?" His lips touched hers, a quick and profound kiss."

-Page 93

It's Monday! What are you reading? (10)

Hosted by Book Journey

Last week I read....

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1)

by Ilona Andrews

 

Heat Wave (Nikki Heat #1)

by Richard Castle
 

Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2)

by Tera Lynn Childs

 I'm currently reading.....

 xxxHolic Volume 1

by CLAMP

The Wolf Next Door (West Field Wolves #3)

by Lydia Dare

Next I plan to read....

 The Taming of the Wolf (Westfield Wolves #4)

by Lydia Dare

What about you? What are you reading this week?

 

In My Mailbox (10)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren where I get to show what new books I've gotten this week. They can be books I've bought, checked out from the library, or actually received in the mail.

Bought

 Won (from a giveaway by Heather @ Bewitched Bookworms)

From the library (forgot these)

FINISH LINE! Spring into Summer Read-a-thon Report 2

Click the image to learn more!

The read-a-thon is officially over! Feel free to keep reading, but from now on your reading no longer qualifies you for the "most read" prize. You have until MIDNIGHT MST to post this update, which gives you 4 hours. But remember ONLY READING DONE PRIOR TO RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE (8:00pm MST) counts. I don't really have any way of making sure you do this, but I like to think people are honest.

Here's the questions for Report #2. These reports are for my benefit. This is the first read-a-thon I have ever participated in (so it's obviously the first one I've hosted). I'm still learning! Your answers will make the next read-a-thon even better! SO BE HONEST. You won't hurt my feelings. I promise.

1. First of all, give us an end-of-read-a-thon status update. Books read, pages read, you know the drill!
2. What is your favorite book you read during the read-a-thon?
3. Did you participate in any mini-challenges? Which ones?
4. Which mini-challenge was your favorite?
5. What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon?
6. Are you satisfied with how much reading you got done? Did you do more than you expected? Less?
7. What did you think of the updates? Too close together? Didn't like the time limit?
8. If you could change one thing about the read-a-thon, what would it be?
9. Would you participate in another read-a-thon hosted by Squeaky Books? Why or why not? (Again, I won't cry if you say "no")
10. Any last comments on the read-a-thon?

1. Update time

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites) and 70% of Goddess Boot Camp
• Total Pages Read: 237
• Books Read Since Last Update: Reading Goddess Boot Camp.
• Pages Read since last update: 57
• Total time read: 5 hours 30 mins
•  How I'm currently feeling: It was almost a whole book if you put it together..... Lol. I think I read more than the last read-a-thon I did, though. So, I'm improving. I feel good. I read more than I normally do, I think. It was fun.

2. I like both of my books, Magic Bites and Goddess Boot Camp.

3. I did all of the challenges. Although, I did miss posting my linky for #8, cuz I slept through the whole challenge. Whoops.

4. I liked all the challenges. The wordle was fun, although it took me a while to get the darn thing to work. I think I liked writing my little 100 word story the most. I didn't really think I could it.

5. I don't really have a favorite thing about the whole read-a-thon. It was all fun. The challenges were cool, and they gave me a break from the reading for a bit. (Although, I probably spent more time on my computer and doing the challenges than actually reading. Lol.) I liked seeing the other participants challenge answers, and just looking at their blogs. (Added a bunch of them to follow.)

6. I had hoped I would do more reading, but I am really glad that I actually read as much as I did. I really wanted to finish Goddess Boot Camp, but I really needed that nap. Oh well.

7. I thought the updates were fine. Maybe 3 hours between would've worked better for me, cuz I probably spent at least 30 minutes on the computer each time I was doing an update. (That's not just cuz of the update though. I would check my e-mail and twitter and whatnot.)

8. I thought the whole thing was great. This was only the second one I've participated in too. Maybe do 3 hours between updates instead of 2, but I would do that, cuz it would work better for me.

9. I most definitely WOULD particpate again. It was a lot of fun. I'm determined to do more next time!

10. Thanks sooo much for hosting the read-a-thon. I had a really good time. I thought it was well organized, and the challenges were fun and interesting.  

Thanks, Enna Isilee!!  :-D

 Wow, that was a bunch of fun. I sooo need some more sleep now.

Spring into Summer Read-a-thon Saturday Challenges and Updates

Click the image to learn more!

Mini-Challenge (and update) #6

Update

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 104
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 30 (read before I went to bed)
• Total time read: 3 hours
• How I'm currently feeling: Haven't read anything since the last update. Posted that one later and doing this one early.

Mini-challenge: Put two characters from different series together (romantically or otherwise) and describe why they would be good together.


I have decided to pair up Merit from the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill and Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series. They're both super snarky and can kick some major butt. Not only that, but they're both very powerful, magical women. They handle themselves very well, and they are also very good at dealing with the bossy, hot men in their lives.

That was a fun one!

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Mini-Challenge (and update) #7

Update

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 140
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 36
• Total time read: 3 hours 40 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: I'm really enjoying Goddess Boot Camp, but I'm super tired from not getting much sleep and working early. So, I think I'm going to schedule myself a nap now so that I can participate in the rest of the read-a-thon later.

Mini-Challenge: Name one book you think should be taught in school, grade of your choice.

I think that they should teach Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson to high schoolers. (I actually think there might be some places that already do. Not sure on that though. I would have to do some research.) It deals with issues that actually students might deal with in real life. I think that maybe it could give students who are afraid to actually speak out, the confidence that they need. {Gah.... I don't know if I'm making sense. Plus, it's been forever since I read this book. Double plus, I'm super tired, so I really might not be making sense.}

Mini-Challenge (and update) #8 & #9

Update

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 140
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 36
• Total time read: 3 hours 40 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: Better after my nap. Ready to finish this book. Hope I can do it now. Fingers crossed.

Mini-Challenge 8: If you had bookshelves FULL of all of your favorite books, how would you organize them? (I know it's over, but I want to answer it anyways.) :-D

It would definitely be alphabetically by author's last name first. Then, if there's more than one book for an author, they would go alphabetically by title. If we're talking a super amazing large amount, I might do a step before the author's last name. Like divide the YA from the adult, and then maybe divide by genre (contemporary, historical fiction, fantasy, etc) or divide by what's in it (vampires, shifters, angels, etc.). I think I'm betting they'll be all books I bought. Lol.

Mini-Challenge #9: Create an anagram of your name/pseudonym.

I did two. I was curious.

Mini-Challenge (and update) #10

Update

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 140
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 36
• Total time read: 3 hours 40 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: Must read faster....

Mini-Challenge #10: Tell me, what is the funniest/most inspiring thing you have read so far in the read-a-thon?

- Not really too much inspiring stuff going on. Kate (Magic Bites) is a tough chick, and doesn't give up till the end. Phoebe is learning to control her out-of-control powers, and she hasn't given up yet, even though she doesn't have the nicest people helping her.

- Magic Bites was funny in parts because of Kate's snarky comments.

- Goddess Boot Camp is funny, because poor Phoebe can't control her powers. Sometimes she'll just be in her head daydreaming, and then whatever she's thinking about will happen. Pretty funny.

Mini-Challenge (and update) #11

Update

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 180
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 40
• Total time read: 4 hours 30 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: I'm not doing a very good job....

Mini-Challenge: If you could live in the world of one book, which would it be and why?

I'm gonna pick a few different ones.

1. Harry Potter's world: Do I really need to describe why? It would be amazing to be a witch and go to Hogwarts.

2. The Hunger Games world: I choose this world even though it would be scary as heck to have to go through the whole drawing to see who would compete in the Games. I'd like to think that I'd be one tough cookie if I lived in one of Districts. Fingers crossed, I would never have to go in the games.

3. The world in Tera Lynn Childs' Oh. My. Gods. books: Serfopoula sounds like such a beautiful place to live. Plus, it would be freakin' awesome to be a descendant of a Greek god or goddess. The powers I would have are sooo awesome.

4. Camp Half-Blood in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series: Again, being descended from a Greek god or goddess would be way cool. The camp would be sooo much fun. I think learning to sword fight and playing capture the flag would be a great way to spend my time.

Spring into Summer Read-a-thon Report #1

Click the image to learn more!
It's the end of Day #1 and it's report time! Remember, you MUST do this if you want to be considered for the "most read" prize at the end. Answer the following seven questions and then put your links below! You have 12 hours to do this, until day 2 starts. My answers are below the questions.

1. First of all, give us an end-of-day status update. Books read, pages read, you know the drill!
2. What is the favorite thing you have read today?
3. Which mini-challenge was your favorite?
4. What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon?
5. What has been your LEAST favorite thing about the read-a-thon?
6. Are you on track to meet your goals?
7. Will you be participating tomorrow? Do you have any new goals? 

1. Update time

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 104
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 30 (read before I went to bed)
• Total time read: 3 hours
• How I'm currently feeling: Haven't read anything since the last update. Posted that one later and doing this one early.

2. Favorite thing I read today would have to be the end of Magic Bites. If my library would have had the next one, Magic Burns, I would probably be reading that right now instead of Goddess Boot Camp.

3. Surprisingly, I think my favorite Mini-Challenge was the 100 words or less story. I was amazed I came up with anything at all, let alone more than 100 words.

4. My favorite thing about the read-a-thon has been participating in the mini-challenges and seeing what others come up with when they participate in the mini-challenges.

5. My LEAST favorite thing about the read-a-thon is my attention span. I get distracted easily. I can't read in silence, but if I have music with words on then I want to sing along, and the singing makes me read slower. Sometimes, I'll have the tv on for background noise, but then I end up watching a bit of that. Plus, soon I'm going to have to distract myself with sleep and work. So, no reading will be accomplished then either. It also takes me forever to do the posts for the challenges. I'm soo slow, and then I need to make sure it's perfect. Oh well....

6. I finished Magic Bites, which was overdue to the library (Don't worry! I paid my fine!), so I'm happy about that. I didn't really want to hold myself down to a set goal, because work and sleep will have to interrupt my reading. But, if I finish Goddess Boot Camp by the end of the read-a-thon, then I'll be super happy.

7. I will be participating tomorrow as much as I can. Might have to throw a nap in after work though. No new goals. I would like to finish Goddess Boot Camp and hopefully start something else.

Spring into Summer Read-a-thon (Has started!) This is going to be my mini-challenge/UPDATES post

Click the image to learn more!

Mini Challenge #1 (and update)

Favorite and least favorite movie adaptation of a book.

Mini Challenge Answers:

• Favorite book-movie adaptation: The Harry Potter movies would have to be my favorite book-movie adaptations. (Can't wait for HP7 Part 2 to come out! I'm gonna cry soo bad at the end!) I also thought that The Lightning Thief book-movie adaptation was good. (Could've been better, but I still liked it.)
• Least favorite book-movie adaptation: I can't really think of one that's a least favorite. I wasn't completely happy with Beastly. I still liked it, but I thought they could've done things closer to how the book went. (Gosh, this question just made me super nervous about how The Hunger Games movie and The City of Bones movie are going to turn out.....)

Update:

• Currently Reading: I'm going to finish up reading Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews. Right now I'm on page 206.
• Total Books Read: 0
• Total Pages Read: 0
• Books Read Since Last Update: 0
• Pages Read since last update: 0
• Total time read: 0
• How I'm currently feeling: I slept in, so I'm just getting started.

Fun Thing #2 (and update)

Create a wordle for your blog.

Here's mine!

Well, obviously I say book/books a lot. Haha. I like how the darn thing created it's own little phrases that I know I did not actually say. For example, AndrewsEcstasy. Lol. I spent more time getting the darn thing to work than reading though. Whoops....

Update:

• Currently Reading: I'm going to finish up reading Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews. Starting at page 206.
• Total Books Read: 3
• Total Pages Read: 0
• Books Read Since Last Update: 0
• Pages Read since last update: 3
• Total time read: 5 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: Darn wordle distracted me....

Mini Challenge #3 (and update)

Write a story 100 words or less that contains ALL of the following words:

• Shaman
• Lime
• Laser
• Goat

I'm gonna give this a try. Definitely not a writer, so we'll see what comes out.

Here's my 100 word or less submission.... I actually ended up with more than that. I know! Surprised me too.

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Upon opening his front door, the shaman's senses were overloaded with all the activity in the neighborhood. He could smell the limes that the neighbors across the street were cutting up to use in margaritas. Two houses down, the shaman saw a bunch of kids playing laser tag in big yard with lots of trees to hide behind. From somewhere unknown, he could hear the sounds of goats bah-ing. Perhaps someone was hosting a petting zoo.

The shaman stepped out onto his porch, shut the front door, and went off to see why everyone was having such a good time. 

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Here's the whole thing I came up with in case anyone was wondering.......

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The shaman was sitting in his recliner reading a book, when noises outside his window caught his attention. He looked out and saw a huge neighborhood block party going on. 

The shaman didn't know any of his neighbors, because he didn't really like socializing with anyone. Now that he could hear all of the fun that everyone out there was having, he came to a realization. He thought, What am I doing? If I don't ever talk to anyone, who will know that I ever existed? Who will even care when I'm gone? Those thoughts solidified the decision in the shaman's mind. He was going out to that party.

Upon opening his front door, the shaman's senses were overloaded with all the activity in the neighborhood.  He felt the luxurious warmth of the sun on his face. He could smell the limes that the neighbors across the street were cutting up to use in margaritas. Two houses down on the right, the shaman saw a bunch of kids playing laser tag in big yard with lots of trees to hide behind. From somewhere unknown, he could hear the sounds of goats bah-ing. Perhaps someone was hosting a petting zoo.

Finally, the shaman stepped out onto his porch, shut the front door, and went off to see why everyone was having such a good time.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Now on to my update.....

Update:

• Currently Reading: I'm going to finish up reading Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews. Starting at page 206. I finished Magic Bites!
• Total Books Read: 54
• Total Pages Read: 0.2 books
• Books Read Since Last Update: 0.2 books
• Pages Read since last update: 51
• Total time read: 1 hour 30 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: I am super hungry. I'm going to the library and to get something to eat.

Mini Challenge (and update) #4

For this mini-challenge you need to create a puzzle that consists of about three images which describes a book.

Here's my puzzle in 3 pictures (3 images = 3 word title):

 

Good luck!

Update:

• Currently Reading: I'm going to finish up reading Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews. Starting at page 206. I finished Magic Bites!
• Total Books Read: 54
• Total Pages Read: 0.2 books
• Books Read Since Last Update: 0.2 books
• Pages Read since last update: 51
• Total time read: 1 hour 30 mins
• How I'm currently feeling: I am eating dinner. So, I'm happy. Haha. Might pop in No Strings Attached while I'm eating. Should definitely be starting reading again at the next Challenge/Update post.

Ok. First off, the answer to the mystery picture book title challenge is.....

Which I am currently reading.

Mini Challenge (and update) #4

You need to create a complete sentence using ONLY book titles (no cheating!), and you need AT LEAST three.

My sentence.....

Personal Demons Hunted Beautiful Creatures.

(The books and I even took a little field trip outside to take the picture. Haha)

Update:

• Currently Reading: I am currently reading Goddess Boot Camp (Oh. My. Gods. #2) by Tera Lynn Childs. 
•  Total Books Read: 0.2 books (finished reading Magic Bites)
• Total Pages Read: 74
• Books Read Since Last Update: End of Magic Bites and started Goddess Boot Camp
• Pages Read since last update: 51
• Total time read: 2 hours
• How I'm currently feeling: Haven't been reading much. Had dinner and watched No Strings Attached. Hoping to get a bit done before I need to catch some Zzzzzs for work.

Spring into Summer Read-a-thon (starts today! So, I'm reposting and updating my possible reads....)

This post is to announce to the world that I'm participating in the Spring into Summer read-a-thon hosted by Enna Isilee of Squeaky Books!

This read-a-thon is going to be so great! It's two days where you try do NOTHING but read. It's a great chance to get rid of some of those books that have been sitting on your TBR pile forever.

But that's not all! There will also be awesome mini-challenges and a TON of giveaways! In fact, just for signing up you are entered to win a $25 gift card to Amazon! SO GO SIGN UP! And if you say that Alyssa @ Mostly Books.... Occasional Rants.... sent you, you'll get 5 extra entries to win that gift card! CLICK HERE to enter to win, and know all there is to know about the read-a-thon.

Here's my goal:

I plan to participate on: For a while on BOTH DAYS, unfortunately I will need to sleep and go to work for a bit.  :-(
I plan to read: At least 1 book. Would love to do more.
I hope to read: 1st: I'm going to finish Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews if I haven't already. 
2nd: I'll read Goddess Boot Camp (Unless I can get Magic Burns from the library). 
3rd: The plan is to start reading The Wolf Next Door by Lydia Dare. (Don't know if I'll get this far.)
Also, I might break up my book reading with some manga reading. I have mangas 1-5 of xxxHolic.
Another also, I might re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, since I want to before the final movie comes out.
Who knows..... The whole thing could start, and I could just end up chucking this pretty little plan out the window..... Hope not.... Gah.... I have just a few too many books vying for my attention....

Well, have you signed up yet? DO IT NOW!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Heat Wave (Nikki Heat #1) by Richard Castle

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For my first real mystery, I really enjoyed it. I already love the show Castle, and since the book is 'written' by Castle, I though I might like it. It had my giggling at times like I do when I watch the show. So, that's good.



Totally didn't know who-dun-it until a little before they were revealed. Guess that's why Nikki Heat is the detective and I'm not.



So, I will be reading other mystery books in the future. I have had on my TBR since like the beginning of my TBR. I love the show Bones which is based off of Kathy Reichs' books. (Notice a theme going here? Lol.)



View all my reviews