2012 Challenge Roundup

Here's how I did on my 2012 challenges:

Goodreads ChallengeFAIL
I wanted to read 65 books, but only managed 59.

The Book Vixen's Outdo Yourself Challenge FAIL
I read 61 books last year, so I wasn't able to surpass that this year.

Why Buy the Cow Reading Challenge FAIL
I wanted to read at least 12 free e-books this year. I read NONE, zip, zero, nada.

Support Your Local Library Challenge SUCCESS!
Midway through the year I upped my level to Level 4 (37+) books and I ended up reading 53 library books.

2012 E-Book Challenge FAIL
I wanted to read 10 e-books. I ended up reading only 4 e-books (One for the Money and the 50 Shades Trilogy)

2012 Mystery and Suspense Challenge FAIL
I wanted to read 12 mystery/suspense novels, I ended up only reading 9.

Fall Into Reading Challenge SUCCESS and FAIL
It was a success because I read more than the original 10 books that I posted (I read 12 books in that timeframe.) It was a fail because I only read 1 of the books from my original list.

Now, some of the questions from The Perpetual Page Turner's End of Year Survey:

1. Best Book I read in 2012? - White Lines by Tracy Brown
2. Most Disappointing Book- The Fifty Shades Trilogy. I did enjoy it, I just thought it would be better than it was.
3. Most surprising book? - The Bum Magnet. Seriously didn't think it would be good, but it was awesome.
4. Book I recommended to people the most? - White Lines
5. Best series? - The White Lines series. can't wait for part 3!
6. Favorite New Authors - Carla Pennington, Miasha, K.L. Brady
7. Book that was out of my comfort zone/ different genre- A Stolen Life, the Jaycee Dugard story
8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book- Diary of a Mistress
9. Most memorable character- I'm gonna cheat and do the most memorable couple. Definitely Jada and Born from White Lines.

My top 10 favorite books of 2012:
1. White Lines-Tracy Brown
2. White Lines 2: Sunny- Tracy Brown
3. The Bum Magnet-K.L. Brady
4. Got a Right to be Wrong- K.L. Brady
5. The Available Wife Part 2- Carla Pennington
6. Diary of a Mistress- Miasha
7. Another Man Will- Daaimiah S. Poole
8. Fly on the Wall- Trista Russell
9. Celebrity in Death- JD Robb
10. Treachery in Death- JD Robb

Favorites of 2011 and End of Year Book Survey

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2011: (in no particular order, except for #1 which was my favorite)

1. Right Package, Wrong Baggage-Wanda B. Campbell
2. Promises in Death-JD Robb
3. The Twilight Series-Stephenie Meyer
4. Be Careful What You Pray For-Kimberla Lawson Roby
5. Torn Between Two Lovers-Carl Weber
6. Summer at Willow Lake-Susan Wiggs
7. The Hot Box-Zane
8. Drop Shot-Harlan Coben
9. So Much Closer-Susane Colasanti
10. The Liar's Club-Layla Jordan

Here are my responses to The Perpetual Page Turner's End of Year Survey.

1. Best Book You Read In 2011?
Right Package, Wrong Baggage. Loved the characters and the story line, I definitely recommend it.

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?
It's a toss up between Sweet Valley Confidential and Sizzling Sixteen. I probably shouldn't have expected too much from the Sweet Valley book, but it could've been much better than it was. And I really wish the Stephanie Plum series wasn't going downhill, I miss the witty writing from the first few books.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?
Twilight. Seriously, I thought I would hate it and not even be able to finish it, but I'm glad I actually enjoyed the series.

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?
Right Package, Wrong Baggage

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?
Twilight Series followed by the Myron Bolitar series

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?
Layla Jordan (although technically I read the book in 2010, but oh well.)
Harlan Coben
Wanda B. Campbell

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?
Twilight again

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?
Torn Between Two Lovers

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?
n/a

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?
Looking through all of the covers, none of them are really a favorite.

11. Most memorable character in 2011?
Jacob Black!

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2011?
All We Know of Heaven-Jacquelyn Mitchard

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011?
n/a

14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read?
Twilight

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2011?
I don't know if this is my favorite, but it's the main one I remember right now:
"You were very deeply asleep; I didn't miss anything." His eyes gleamed. "The talking came earlier."
I groaned. "What did you hear?"
His gold eyes grew very soft. "You said you loved me."
"You knew that already," I reminded him, ducking my head.
"It was nice to hear, just the same."
I hid my face against his shoulder.
"I love you," I whispered.
"You are my life now," he answered simply.

I think it's really sweet once I look past the creepy/stalkerishness of Edward.

16. Book That You Read In 2011 That Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2012?
Breaking Dawn, only so I could reread it before the second movie comes out.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!
Right Package, Wrong Baggage (Micah's secret finally being revealed) and Torn Between Two Lovers when we find out who Big Poppa is.

And as a bonus, my favorite songs of 2011, in no particular order, except for #1: (and these are all songs that were released as singles, otherwise the list would just be the tracklisting from Beyonce's 4 album):

2. Run the World (Girls)-Beyonce
3. Best Thing I Never Had-Beyonce
4. Someone Like You-Adele
5. Look At Me Now-Chris Brown
6. Ni**as in Paris-Jay-Z and Kanye West

And my favorite song of 2011:

Beyonce "Countdown"

Have a happy new year! See you next year!

Review-Remember Me

Remember Me by Christopher Pike

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Shari Cooper was a typical teen with boyfriend trouble and cravings for chocolate cake. Now she's a ghost trying to solve her own murder.

This has always been one of my favorite Christopher Pike books. Excellent story with interesting characters, especially the main character, Shari. Through Shari we get an in depth look at death as she sets out to prove that she did not jump off a balcony to her death at a friend's birthday party, and that she was in fact, murdered. The suspects are the other kids at the party: Jo, Shari's best friend; Dan, Shari's boyfriend who has been cheating on her; Beth, the birthday girl whom Dan is cheating with; Amanda, a shy, quiet girl who is the daughter of Shari's housekeeper and the girlfriend of her brother; and Jeff, the guy Jo has a crush on. As Shari travels in the afterlife trying to make some sense of her death, she is joined by a former classmate, Peter, who was killed in a motorcycle accident and Jeff's brother.

This story is full of twists and turns and is an enjoyable, creepy read. Shari Cooper definitely gets her one wish when the reader is finished this story: people will remember her.



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Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Mystery and Suspense Challenge, Young Adult Books of the '80s and '90s, Read Me Baby One More Time

Review-Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Finally finished Eclipse aka The One in Which Edward Remains Dull, Bella Remains Pitiful, and Jacob Remains Awesome.

So it took me almost a month to read this book, not because it wasn't good, but because I haven't had a lot of time to read lately. I usually try to read at least a chapter in a book before I go to bed, but these books have like 25+ pages in a chapter and that's just not gonna happen without me falling asleep. So it was slow going, but I'm finally done!

So, this is now my favorite in the Twilight series. Bella is still a pathetic shell of a girl. I hate how she's always so angry at Charlie and Jacob for stuff, but when Edward does something (like taking parts out of her truck so she wouldn't be able to visit Jacob and bribing Alice to baby-sit her) she's quick to forgive him. She has no backbone whatsoever when it comes to him.

Jacob, as I said, remains awesome in every way, except his one tragic flaw, that he's in love with Bella. I really cannot understand this at all, since she's as dull as dishwater, he needs someone as feisty and vivacious as he is.

We find out Rosalie's backstory in this book, which was very interesting. I already liked Rosalie (since she can't stand Bella) and her backstory made me want to learn more about her. We also find out Jasper's backstory, which I didn't enjoy as much, and it kinda dragged the story a bit. It does set up the whole conflict with the newborns and all, but I found that whole part of the story kind of meh.

I also really liked the fight scene between Victoria and Riley, and Edward and Seth. I typically don't like these scenes (see: fight with James in Twilight and then the Volturi nonsense in New Moon) but it was actually quite interesting in this one. We also meet the character of Bree Tanner, one of the newborns. She was intriguing enough to make me want to pick up and read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (not any time soon, though.)

My favorite scene though, was the part where Bella, Edward, and Jacob are in the tent during their "camping" trip or whatever it was, and Jacob has to keep Bella warm throughout the night. I loved the whole part. Jacob is so cool, he even made those two Dull Dorises semi-interesting.

The ending of the story came as no surprise, since I am semi-spoiled for Breaking Dawn. I get that Bella is so in love because Edward is OMG, just the most beautifulest vampire evah!!!! but I just don't get why she's so willing to give up her human life to become a vampire. Well, I guess I can understand. She treats all the people in her life (Charlie, Renee, her friends at school) like dog doo that got smeared on the bottom of her shoe, so I guess it's no wonder that she'd rather spend all of eternity with her beloved Cullen clan. Me, personally, I couldn't give up Cokes and chocolate to live off blood for the rest of my life, no matter how fine that man is.

Anywhoo, so I loved this one and can't wait to watch the movie this weekend!



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Source: borrowed from a friend
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Young Adult Reading Challenge

Review-New Moon

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars






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Okay, so I was all prepared to dislike New Moon. I was told that this is the book where Edward goes away and I was not looking forward to pages upon pages upon pages of Bella's incessant whining and pining. I was also told that this is the book where she starts spending more time with Jacob and we find out more about him. I was all like "No! I don't care about Jacob! I don't want to read about Jacob and learn about his back story." So yeah, I thought New Moon would be a slow read for me.

That was not the case. I actually like this one even better than Twilight. First of all, I loved the way it began with Bella's birthday and the dream with her "grandma", realizing that she would be growing older while Edward remains the same. I loved the birthday party with Bella getting cut and the vampires reacting. I also didn't mind the part where Edward leaves, and I appreciated what SM did to cut out the whining and pining.

So then the best part happens. Bella decides she wants to be reckless so she gets some old, beat up motorcycles and asks Jacob to fix them up for her. They start spending more time together and Jacob becomes her best friend, even though he has a huge crush on her.

I barely paid any attention to Jacob in Twilight. I absolutely LOVED him in this book and he is now my favorite character. He just seems so cute and sweet! I was really hoping for a while that Bella would forget all about sparkle-boy and make Jacob happy by getting with him.

But then sadly, Jacob undergoes his transformation and becomes a werewolf, a werewolf that hunts "bloodsuckers." Even though he is bigger and meaner here, I still liked him. I hate what he does to Bella right at the end (with the motorcycles and Charlie) and I HOPE that he doesn't become a total a$$ in Eclipse. I know that Bella and Edward end up together, and I'm completely fine with that because I agree with Bella: Jacob is too good for her. She and Sparkle can have each other, Jacob needs to be with a more understanding, non-crazy girl (like me.)

Anyways, so the best parts of the book were all the Jacob parts. Eventually something happens where Edward thinks that Bella has died, so he decides to go to the Volturi and have himself killed. So Alice gets Bella and they go save him. This part was so boring. I don't care about the Volturi.

Edward and the Cullens come back home and Bella once again wants to become a vampire and has the Cullens vote on whether or not she will become one. Thankfully we get to see more Jacob before the book ends, although this is when he's being a meany again.

All in all, the book was great, all except for about 60 or so pages at the end with all that Volturi stuff. I hope to see more of Jacob in Eclipse. I don't mind werewolf Jacob, I just don't want total meanie Jacob. Even though I don't want them to date, I do like the friendship between he and Bella. He makes her somewhat tolerable.

Review-Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars





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Ok, so Twilight. As I said before, I wanted nothing to do with the Twilight series. I've never been into vampires and werewolves and things like that. But then I saw the movie Twilight and I really liked it. So of course, I needed to read the book.

Since I saw the movie, I was spoiled for what would happen in the book. And since I also read up on the movie on Wikipedia (I always do that for movies, just to get more background info on the movie), I spoiled myself for parts of the rest of the series also, although not too much. I've also learned that, while it had seemed that the entire world was in love with Twilight, that's actually not the case. There seem to be a lot of Twilight snark blogs (such as the tumblr, reasoningwithvampires which picks apart the grammar in the books) and the majority of my favorite celebrity gossip blog, OhNoTheyDidnt, is anti-Twilight (although that's not surprising, since they are anti-anything that's not Britney Spears or Lady Gaga.)

Anywho, I was prepared to be thoroughly bored with the book and disgusted by the bad grammar. However, that was not the case. While I suppose there are some grammatical errors, they weren't so bad to jump out at me, so I didn't mind. True, the book is not a literary masterpiece that should be dissected and analyzed in college classrooms, but it held my interest, and that's all that matters to me.

The book tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan who moves to the town of Forks, Washington to live with her father. During her time there, Bella meets and falls in love with the mysterious Edward Cullen, who turns out to be a vampire.

I liked the character of Bella for the majority of the book. I did have to roll my eyes at the beginning in which all the boys are falling over themselves to date Bella, who's supposed to be a plain Jane I guess (I picture Bella as Kristen Stewart from the movie, who isn't gorgeous, but I thought she was really pretty as Bella.) I thought Bella was kinda rude towards her father and to her new friends Jessica and that other girl, almost as if she were too good/smart for them, but I could overlook that. Bella started to bug a little bit towards the end of the book, where almost every other word or thought from her was about how much she loved Edward. I found their relationship very sweet and cute, and I get that this is Bella's first real love and that Edward is so beautiful and sparkly, but it just seemed a little much that she was just so in love with him already, so much so that she's already willing to become a vampire for him. I just thought that happened a little too fast.

As for Edward, I had no real beef with him. He seemed really sweet and like a good guy. I'm trying to figure out what he likes so much about Bella except for the fact that her blood smells good. I would've liked to know what exactly they loved about each other, but maybe that's mentioned in one of the other books.

The book did tend to drag at some points and what turns out to be a 500 page novel, easily could've been around 350-400 pages if some of the drivel was taken out. But all in all, I really liked the story and I enjoyed the characters. I'm dying to know more about what happens next in their relationship (I know bits and pieces, but not everything.) I"m a definite Twi-hard or whatever they call themselves now, lol.

Source: borrowed from a friend, but will be purchasing
Challenges Used For: 100 Books in a Year, YA Reading Challenge

Mini-Review: Promises in Death

Promises in Death by J.D. Robb

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved it! Definitely one of my favorite Eve Dallas books.



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Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in 2011, Mystery and Suspense Challenge