Showcase Sunday #5

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea! This is where each Sunday, we can "showcase" what we've gotten in the way of books; in the mail, at the bookstore, the library, or as a gift! 

As I've been doing a lot of Christmas shopping, I've only allowed myself to buy 1 physical book this past month, as she's one of my favorite Romance authors and I've been waiting for this book for more than a year. As for e-books, I guess you could say they are my weakness lately...

Still on my Mind #3

This weekly meme is hosted by Haley at YA-Aholic! It gives us a chance to reflect on a book/novel we had read in the past that still effects us today!

The last one I did was about 7 months ago (ahh!) and I wanted to do another one because it really is STILL ON MY MIND, pretty much all the time. Especially when I read a new romance novel, I compare it to this one every time.

Mini Reviews: e-books

I've been reading a lot of e-books lately, and while they are just as great as physical books in their own way, I tend to read them really fast and usually in one sitting. So if I find that I finish an e-book in under 3 hours, I'm going to do a mini review for them. Here's what I've read in the past couple weeks that qualify (links to Goodreads):

Showcase Sunday #4

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea! This is where each Sunday, we can "showcase" what we've gotten in the way of books; in the mail, at the bookstore, the library, or as a gift! 

I haven't done a Showcase Sunday in months and I think it just comes down to the fact that planning these out takes more time and finesse than I'm usually able to come up with, but I think I finally found an easier system to execute this each week, or every other week. :)

WARNING: VERY LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PRETTY PHOTOS OF BOOKS!

ENTER AT YOUR OWN WALLETS RISK!

Friday Free for All

Keeping up with the daily meme's/posts most book bloggers do each week (Teaser Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, etc.) has not been something I can keep up with. Maybe it's because my blog isn't as established and I don't feel the need to bring attention to it as some bloggers do to spread the word about the great books out there, but mostly, I think it's because it's really time consuming. I'm more of a random blogger, I can't commit to doing set posts about a book I'm excited about because it doesn't come as second nature. But what I am going to try to do is post something every Friday, whether it be a post similar to that of a weekly meme, a "weekly roundup" as some other bloggers call it, or maybe just a random topic I want to discuss. I'm calling it "Friday Free for All," because it seems I usually have the most time to blog at nights, and Fridays are the day right before the weekend. I'm more likely to blog on the weekend than during the week, even while I'm not working, because I don't feel as guilty when I could be doing something more productive.

(GIF found here)

This week, I'm going to talk about the future. The future for my book collection, that is.

Read on!

What I've Been Reading Lately...

Yes, I caved.

This is a cool cave image I found on this forum. It seriously reminds me of the Covenant series and also the Luxen series...I mean, look how fabulous this artwork is, all the colors and the lights and the shading. :)

I bought Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout on my kindle. And yes, I loved it. I read it in one sitting, er... laying. And then I bought Pure (Covenant #2) right after I finished Half-Blood, and I finished that in the same sitting/laying. And then I proceeded to buy Deity (Covenant #3) (which just came out a few days ago, thank my lucky stars). Just as I was about to begin, I looked at the time and saw that it was 5:30am and that it was starting to get light outside. I felt a little reckless and knew I'd be miserable if I didn't stop, so I plugged my kindle into its charger and went to sleep.

Jennifer L. Armentrout - YOU WRITE SO GOOD I DON'T SPEAK SO GOOD ENGLISH. Holy cow, your stories are fabulous. I thought this series was going to be really similar to her Luxen series, but it was on a whole other level. Very rarely did I think about the Luxen series as I read the first two books in her Covenant series, and it's clear that she is a very talented author. Her characters stand out on their own, they don't blend in to each other over different series. I just figured it would be another version of Katy/Daemon, but I was pleasantly surprised when it turns out that Alex&Aiden&Seth and everyone else are just as original and refreshing as the setting we find ourselves in. I love the Greek mythology theme in this series, and it's not over played to the fact that it feels fake. I could totally believe this was happening, just as Hogwarts & the world of Harry Potter could exist. Why weren't one of my parents a Pure-blood who got it on with a mortal? Being a half-blood seems to rock (except for all the messed up rules and how pure-bloods are just like pure-bloods in HP, they look down on the half-bloods/mudbloods (but they still need them!!!).

Review for this series to come... I'm about to take a break and have a movie marathon because all this reading in such a short amount of time has made my eyesight a little weak... guess I should make the text size bigger on my kindle. Makes me feel old just saying that!

Happy reading!
(links to Goodreads)

Review: Obsidian & Onyx - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux series, #1) (Link to Goodreads)

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux series, #2) (Link to Goodreads) 

Released: May 8th, 2012 / August 14th, 2012

Purchased the E-books on my Kindle

Description on Goodreads for Obsidian: (Onyx under cut as to hide any spoilers)

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don't kill him first, that is.

Review: The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (Link to Goodreads)
Released: June 26th, 2012
Pined over for months, finally bought it!

Description from Goodreads:

“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.


At the beginning of the summer, I saw a blurb for this book in a magazine. I saved that magazine page in the back of my copy of Pure, and after months of thinking about it and wondering if I should spend the money to buy it, I went for it. I also shocked myself in reading this in 3 sittings over the past 3 days. This book helped me break out of my reading slump and I am forever grateful. Not only because this book helped me get back on the wagon, but because this story was fantastically written. I am heartbroken over this story at the same time as I am afraid.

Onto the review!