Theme Thursday (18)

Theme Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Between Pages.

This week's theme is SORRY / FORGIVENESS.

My entry comes from In Between Lies by Shawna Hill.

"Hello, Savannah. It's nice to see you too." Lenora walked into the kitchen and sat beside her sister. "Wait, before you say anything and let me apologize with all my heart about what happened between me and Dre. I know I was wrong and you should hate me to death."

Fall Into Reading 2011 Challenge

Fall Into Reading is a fun, no-pressure challenge hosted by Callapidder Days. Here are the guidelines:

Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this fall. Your list can be as long or as short as you’d like.

Write a blog post containing your list and submit it to this post using the Mr. Linky below.

Get reading! The challenge goes from today, September 23rd, through December 21st.

Check out other participants’ lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile, if you wish!

Write a post about your challenge experience in December, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how Fall Into Reading went for you. But remember: this is a low-pressure challenge that should be fun. As long as you do some reading this fall (and enjoy it!), that’s good enough for me.

Here are the books I plan to read for FIR:

1. In Between Lies-Shawna Hill (read: October 1, 2011)
2. Intimate Betrayals-Shawna Hill
3. I Loved You First-Reena Jacobs
4. Indulgence in Death-JD Robb
5. Message from a Mistress-Niobia Bryant (read:
6. The Million Dollar Divorce-RM Johnson (read: October 20, 2011)
7. She Creeps-Alex Hairston
8. The Heart of a Panther-Latia Howard
9. Fade Away-Harlan Coben
10. Backspin-Harlan Coben
11. If You Walked in my Shoes-Gwynne Forster (read: October 10, 2011)
12. Shakespeare's Champion-Charlaine Harris
13. The Hot Box-Zane
14. Breaking Dawn-Stephenie Meyer
15. Halloween Night-RL Stine
16. Halloween Party-RL Stine

Most of these are library books that I've had out for awhile and haven't had a chance to read yet. Hopefully I'll be able to get through this list, as well as more books, during this time.

Theme Thursday (17)

Theme Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Readig Between Pages

This week's theme is SOUND / MUSIC.

My entry comes from Queen of His Heart by Adrianne Byrd:

The decor of white and silver gave the place a modern chic feel, while the music pouring through the speakers was an odd combination of nature sounds and classical piano.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (30)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by The Book Journey.

Last week: I finished reading Last Night's Kiss by Shirley Hailstock, an African-american contemporary romance that I downloaded for free from B&N. Solid 3 stars, nothing to write home about.

This week: Right now I'm reading Seduced on the Red Carpet by Ann Christopher, another african-american contemporary romance, with the exact same premise as the book I read last week, but with much more interesting characters, and hotter love scenes.

Up next: I need to read another romance so I can finish up the Summer Romance Reading Challenge, which will most likely be the only challenge I complete this year.

In My Mailbox (7)

I have been meaning to do an IMM for awhile, but haven't, so these are books that I've gotten over the past few months.


Intimate Illusions by Shawna Hill





In Between Lies by Shawna Hill





Received from author Shawna Hill, downloaded onto my Nook Color (Strawberry)

I Loved You First by Reena Jacobs





Received from author Reena Jacobs, also downloaded onto Strawberry.

Heart of a Panther by Latia Howard and Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris.

Latia is actually my coworker, we teach 5th grade together this year. We've worked together for years, but this is the first year on the same grade level. This is her memoir, and although I'm not the memoir type, I had to show my support.

As for the Shakespeare book, I received that from one of the posters off Proteacher during our annual back to school PT exchange. My elf put together a really nice package for me and this book was included in it. I've never read any of Charlaine Harris' books although I have wanted to read her Sookie Stackhouse series. I am looking forward to reading this book, if only because it has something to do with Shakespeare and I love Shakespeare!

So that's it for me. Aside from some teacher workbooks and the book from my coworker, I have stuck with my no book buying ban. I have so many books in my TBR that it will be awhile before I'll have to actually buy a book (well, at least until November, which is when I plan to buy Breaking Dawn, so I can read that before the movie comes out.)

Have a great week!

Series Sunday Review (4)-The Wolf Prince

Series Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Literary Marie.

My series Sunday pick for this week is:


The Wolf Prince by Karen Kelley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



In this story, we have a pretty, blonde rich girl named Darcy who lives in a big mansion. She has dreams of becoming a PI, but her adoptive mother thinks it's too dangerous for her. One day while out strolling in the woods, she thinks she sees a wolf, and then thinks someone is trying to attack her, so she hits him over the head with a stick.

Turns out she hits the head of a guy named Surlock, who is completely naked and after being hit, can't remember who he is or what he was doing there. So Darcy decides to take him in and have him pretend to be her boyfriend to impress her parents.

Throughout the story, Darcy and Surlock grow attracted to each other and sleep together several times, much to the disappointment of Darcy's longtime friend Peter who has decided he loves her.

This was my first paranormal romance novel (not counting the Twilight series, which I love) and it was not a favorable introduction to this genre. Darcy and Surlock are nice, but I just couldn't find myself caring anything about them. In fact, at the end of the story when Darcy gets kidnapped, I was hoping her kidnappers would kill her off so the book would end. It was just long, boring, and tedious. I was going to abandon it around 80 pages in, but then it picked up a bit, so I kept reading. That was a mistake, because it just went downhill from there. The only good parts were the love scenes.

The Wolf Prince is the third book in the Princes of Symtaria series, although it can be read as a standalone. I have no desire to read any other book in this series.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, 2011 Summer Romance Challenge

Theme Thursday (16)

Theme Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Between Pages

This week's theme is HEALTH (Health / Wellbeing / Illness / Disease/ etc )

My entry comes from The Wolf Prince by Karen Kelley:

Her laughter only grew louder. It didn't mix well with the humming and Darcy could feel a headache coming on.

Review-So Much Closer

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Brooke is a high school junior who, on the last few days of junior year, decides she needs to profess her love to Scott, a fellow junior whom she believes she is destined to be with. Before she can tell him her feelings, she learns that he and his family are moving from their New Jersey town to New York City.

But not to worry! Brooke then decides that she's going to follow him to New York because she will move in with her father who abandoned her and her mother years ago who just so happens to live in the neighborhood that Scott is moving into. How convenient!

I normally hate stories that have plot contrivances like that so I was a little iffy on this one at first. However, I really liked Brooke and being able to watch her adjust to her new life in New York. She starts her senior year at the same school Scott goes to, and they have a fun class together called Out the Box. We are able to see what happens with Brooke's crush on Scott as well as the relationship with her father, and her new friends Sadie. Sadie finds out what a genius Brooke is and gets her to sign up for tutoring, where Brooke begins tutoring another senior named John, an eccentric boy with a learning disability.

I really enjoyed the characters of Brooke, Sadie, and John. I like how "take charge" Brooke was in regards to her feelings for Scott. I wish I had her determination! I also enjoyed her rants about the public school system. As I said, Brooke is a genius, but gets by on Cs in school, simply because her teachers (before she came to New York and met the Out the Box teacher) never challenged her or forced her to step up. As a public school teacher myself, it's things like this (even though this book is fictional) that let me know that I do need to be here to show that not all teachers are simply here for a paycheck(small as it is anyway.)

I wasn't too much a fan of Scott, and the outcome of he and Brooke's situation could be easily predicted, but it was still interesting to read how it happened. I was very pleased with the ending.

A solid four stars and I definitely recommend this enjoyable young adult read.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Young Adult Challenge