New Books

My latest Purchases Include

The Tudor Rose

By Margaret Campbell Barnes

AND

The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

(it's all Jane's books in ONE HUGE BOOK)

I am super super excited to start my new reads!!

Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

A House of Night Series

Book #1

(technically I have already read this series. However I wasn't doing book reviews then, and it's a really good series, so I decided to start reading it again. I did post a little bit about it before HERE on my main blog.)

Vampires spelled Vampyre. Much fancier you know! This is my second time through this series and I am glad I bought the books. I still don't have the last one, but I shall soon fix that!

Zoey is just an ordinary girl, when one day her life changes dramatically. She is a fabulous character. I have to say that my favorite things about this series is the names. Such fabulous names are used.

Damien

Nala

Neferet

Aphrodite

are among my favorite names. One of my favorite characters is Nala and her "me-eeg-uf-owed"

The story moves fast and is exciting. You don't get lost in lots of characters and things are explained to you because you are learning about this whole new world along with Zoey.

It's a super good tale/story and I read it in 2 lunches and one bath :)

Warriors of Ethandun by N.M. Browne

The Warriors Trilogy

The Third Book in the Series was most definitely my Favorite!! Ursula and Dan go home! To their day and age. But then they realize, that they have changed! They have changed so much from their classmates, that they can't seem to fit in. Things feel to strange for them. Especially for Ursula as she craves the magic. Exciting things happen at the school, and Ursula and Dan have to run. So back in time they go again. Where this time they find enemies are now friends, and the magic is very different from before. It's a thrilling book, and hard for me to read only on my lunch hours!

I decided for this book to do the same thing I did for Bewitching Season.

The Book Recommendation Rules:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

'He has bewitched the war dog, Sire,' the monk said shortly in heavily accented Aenglisc.

'Might he not have the gifts of a saint, Asser? Are you not perhaps a little too quick to judge a man whose behavior has been exemplary?'

Fortunately for Dan, ...

and I quit there must avoid spoilers!! :)

Awesome Series... now time to find a new book!!

Warriors of Camlann by N.M. Browne

The Warriors Trilogy.
The Second Book of the Series wasn't as good as the first. The main characters Dan and Ursula's powers change when they time travel. I did not like Dan's powers at all. They were strange and he was very useful. I didn't really like any of the characters in this book most of them annoyed me except for Bryn and Braveheart. It was still a good story and the last five chapters were my favorite when they time traveled again. The author is really good at battle scenes and those are allways fun to read.
Can't wait to see if Dan and Ursula finally get home in book number 3.

Warriors of Alavna by N.M. Browne

The Warriors Trilogy
First book of the series and so far I am enjoying it. It's a bit of a simple read as it's written for young young adult. But I need something quick simple and with a good story. These books definitely have a good story. I really enjoyed the characters. Ursula has strange unique powers and what she does with them, is almost unexpected and very neat. Though I am not a fan of her name (apparently I am really picky about names), Ursula as a character is fun, intriguing and I liked reading about her. Dan unique powers were rather alarming, he learns to control it better, but it's still kinda scary what he can do. I enjoyed the other characters as well. I would have liked to seen more of Macsen and Kai. Braveheart, Bryn, and Bright Killer were all unexpected characters, who though at first I didn't really like them, they play major parts in the story and ... I am never sure how to put it, but they were fabulous characters.
All in all the first book was a great start to the series and I hope the next two will be just as good.
Later... :)

New Books

The Warriors Trilogy
Warriors of Alavna
Warriors of Camlann
Warriors of Ethandun
all by N. M. Browne
I bought all three... :)

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

The Third Book of the series. Well, SPOILER

First they are try to be lovers... then they find out they are brother and sister all in the first book. And so that continues until half way through the third book. When suddenly there was a swap and Jace is someone else's son, some NOBODY named Stephen who used to run in Valentine's circle. Then everybody dies...

Well not quite. Only one actual Character dies and I really liked him. Just the little boy Max, I liked him cause he saw things and everyone took him for granted.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. The whole relationship between Clary and Jace really really annoyed me. But Simon as a character I LOVED!! He was definitely my favorite in this book. I also loved that Alex became a leader and he finally came out with his grand secret. The description of Luke is not my favorite but I am just not into farm boys. (I like the drawings I found of there characters, be sure to check them out, Magnus Bane would be my favorite picture, that and Alec's)

All in all a good end to the story... or so I thought. Apparently there's a 4 book coming out March 11. AND a prequel series called The Infernal Devices. Cassandra Clare has alot on her plate. The story felt conclusive to me, so I am surprised to find that there's a fourth book. I hope that it sticks to the same story line. Not sure what to expect now :)

CITY OF GLASS

Alison Croggon - Pellinor Series

I began this series about a week and a half again. I usually like to do Book Review after each book, except that in this case, I had all the books and it was just so good I just kept reading and reading and reading until I finished the series and then I remember I was suppose to write reviews! So now I am doing the last three books as one big review and I will try and separate it, if possible.
I LOVED this story. It kept me on my toes (especially the second book), I was always guessing and things happened you didn't except. I enjoyed the culture and setting of the book, and would like to learn more about the history on the culture (if that's possible).

The Second book was definitely my favorite. Had tons of suspense and unexpected things. I love Maerad changes as a character and how she grows. Her relationship with Cadvan annoys me a ton, but in the end it all makes sense. I also enjoyed seeing more of the Elemental's and the Wolfs. Reading things from a Wolf's perceptive is very different. I did not like that her cousin died. Except that I knew it would happen way before it actually did. It was nice that she was able to met some of her family. Sorry this paragraph is all over the place.

The Third book was a nice change because it follows Maerad's brother story (his name is Hem) and it's nice to see how things are going on his end. I love that he is a healer and the crow is a neat comic relief. I really enjoyed Saliman as a character he was strong, but showed emotion. Zelika was my favorite character, I LOVE how her and Hem met. How Hem introduces Zelika to Saliman is hilarious. Zelika strength is unique, I wasn't quite happy with the way things ended up, but it makes for lots of dramatic 'ending'...

The Fourth Book. I wasn't a huge fan of, just because Maerad wasn't her usual self until the end. She was really worn down and tired. Though the battle's she participates in is fabulous and if ever made into a movie I don't think anyone could do it justice. When Hem and Maerad met up, it's so wonderful!! It's nice. Everything, all their troubles before that just disappear. I enjoy some of the new characters that was introduced and Saliman's friend is ... not sure what the right word is. She's interesting.

All in all these were really good books. A series I eventually must buy.

NEW BOOKS!!

kinda... One I have been reading for a while and will be on the New Book list for a while. You can read about my progress on my Jane Austin Blog. THE OTHER books are much more intriguing. I have now borrowed the second and third book of Pellinor Series. I wrote about the first book "The Naming" here.

So I have
The Riddle
The Crow

can't wait to start reading. Though I want to take longer than a couple hours to read these two!

Once Upon A Time

Today I found a blog called Crazy Book Slut. It's kinda a crazy name for a blog, but at the same time perfect. Anyways she is having a Once Upon A Time 2010 Reading Challenge.

Her Words
''This challenge is quite simple..... read the fairy tales you grew up reading but from another view than Disney's version. There are so many great fairy tale books out there, that might take the same story we know but with an added twist.
These books can be Young Adult, Romance, Erotic, e-books, audio books.... your only limited by your own imagination.
I am going to make this an easy challenge to finish, and say the goal is to read at least 5 books, again if you want to go big or go home... read more!
The time frame for this challenge will be January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. Plenty of time. Please do not start this challenge before the time, and don't use books you have already read.'' I have to say I have just enough time to find 5 books on fairytales. I am really looking forward to participating and think it will be fun to do something a little bit different with my reading and book reviews.

I want to read something Cinderella related and maybe even Sleeping Beauty. On the Crazy Book Slut webpage she had some links. And I am thinking of looking into the books under the

Once Upon a Time Series from Amazon. Looks girly enough for me. I am hoping it will be easy to find something in the Young Adult Section.

So far I can't order from Amazon because it's a ridiculous site. Chapters has it online, and hopefully that will allow me to order the books to an actual store, cause that would be so much easier and then hopefully no shipping charges. I might check out the library, but it's really hard to get to right now and with winter coming, it's just gonna get harder.

The Naming by Alison Croggon

I borrowed The Naming from a co-worker. I have to say its been ao nice to find someone to talk books with. And have that someone like the same type of books, fantasy stuff with not much horror or murder and no sex, but maybe a little love. She also shops in the young adult section of the book story and generally avoids the adult section. So we have lots of books to share with each other and its great!
This series, well book one anyways is FABULOUS! I have really enjoyed it and read it straight through took my about 6 or 7 hours to finish and it was a great read. The characters are intriguing and changing. There's lots of developments and un-expected twists and turns. I can not wait to read the next book.
This book was based in a culture and era that I had never read about before. Is it was nice to learn about the culture there. It was also nice because the author generally explained everything to you, but it was actually one character explaining it to another. I can not decide who my favorite character is.its a toss up between the two main ones Maerad and Cadvan. I also really like Silvia, but she only makes a couple appearances.
I am glad its Monday tomorrow, hopefully I can get the second book!

From the back of the book
Australian poet Alison Croggon brings an eye for sensual detail to this heroic fantasy that follows the genre's familiar formula: A humble person is caught up in extraordinary events and led (or sent) on a journey by a wise figure, only to discover eventually that he/she is destined to save the world in an ultimate confrontation between the powers of good and evil. In this case the young person is sixteen-year-old Maedra, who is rescued from slavery by the Bard Cadvan. They share an exhausting journey toward Innail, one of the Bard schools and strongholds that govern the land, and Maedra grows to trust Cadvan as he reluctantly reveals his magical powers in several ambushes from evil creatures. But under duress she, too, begins to discover that she has a Gift--and more. After she has learned to read, ride a horse, and handle a sword at Innail, they set out on another dangerous trek to the prestigious city of Norloch, where Cadvan hopes to consult with his mentor Nelac to confirm his conviction that Maerad is the One who was Foretold. Many other characters and creatures come into this tale, as well as mystical intimations and dreams, and lavish descriptions of landscape, food, clothes, and room furnishings. In the tradition of Tolkien, a whole history of an ancient language and culture undergirds the story, and Croggon has even provided appendices of that history, a pronunciation guide, and an invented bibliography of her sources. Die-hard fantasy fans who can forgive its slow pace will enjoy this richly imagined story and look forward to its sequel, The Riddel

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

This book series is very well written. It's a good story, with well developed characters. Plus the story has twist and turns that you don't expect, which makes it an interesting read.

I was all that thrilled when I found out that Clary and Jace had special abilities. Jace abilities I haven't fully figured out. But if they are going to have abilities Clary's are an interesting twist.

Simon intrigues me, especially after what happens. I had to read that chapter twice because I totally missed it the first time. I am interested in how he developes, in his abilities and as a character.

Maryse and Max are... well not main characters but they both intrigue me. I just am kinda annoyed how Max randomly shows up, its like he's the comic relief in the book, instead of Simon. Maryse, I'd like to know more about. I would really like to know her history with Clary's mother and father.

Actually the parents of the book have an interesting story line and I would love to read a whole separate book on their lives and how things happened.

All in all I am looking forward to book 3. The issue with book three is that it was released about a month ago in hard cover ONLY. Generally I don't care if my books are hard cover or soft. But when I have the first two books in the series as soft covers, I want to keep all the books looking the same. The third book will not be released in soft cover for another year. So I am not sure how or when I will get to read it, because I am not buying it hard cover. I may just end up sitting in chapters on my lunch hours reading the book!

Anyways Happy Friday!!

The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott

To read and enjoy a story you have to be able to related to the character. And I just wasn't able to do that with the Pale Assassin. Eugenie just felt like a spoiled child, who was given everything. Even though further into the story she starts to see how 'spoiled' she was and becomes better, I just didn't like her because of the first impression.

The story was well written, but not my favorite. It felt incomplete, the bad guy wasn't really a bad guy, because she knew nothing about him. And the book didn't really get interesting until the second half of the book.

I read the book in one night, mostly because I just wanted to get it done and over with, and I usually like to enjoy my books. I don't know yet if I will be buying the second one (which isn't out yet), just because of how incomplete the first one felt.

I definitely didn't like the ending. I don't like it when a character hates another character throughout the whole book and the last two pages changes her mind.

I did enjoy the history part of the book. But I in general love learning about King Louis and Marie Antoinette. I probably would have enjoyed the story more if it had focused on Eugenie's brother and the secret things he was doing in regards to King Louis.

I suppose you can't enjoy every book you read.

Dark Visions By L.J. Smith

Technically this is three books in one. It's a small series consisting of "The Strange Power", "The Possessed", and "The Passion". (couldn't find the possessed on amazon for some reason)

I must say I LOVED these books!! It was totally different and I fell in love the characters! I enjoy L.J Smith's writing. I have to say the last book was my favorite!

In the first two books Kaitlyn the main character as much as I liked her, she did kinda annoy me. I won't give reasons because then I will give the plot away! The last book though I LOVE it, it was like Kaitlyn finally figured out who she was and became that person in full!!

Gabriel was definitely my favorite character!! So much mystery to unlock!! I feel a little like Anne and Lewis's characters were undeveloped. Mostly Lewis, I would have liked to have seen more of them in the beginning.

I thoroughly enjoyed these books and will continue to look for books by L.J Smith.

Happy Halloween!

Bewitching Sewason by Marissa Boyle

My Brave Attempt at a Second Book Review...

first The Magical Chip Bag did a Book Recommendation thing. From her blog I found My Fluttering Heart and Ali in Wonderland, they too did a Book Recommendation.

The Book Recommendation Rules:
Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

(mine wouldn't actually fall open so i flipped through with my eyes closed and stopped at a random page)

"These side-ringlets are so silly. I feel like a chandelier, with prisms bobbing around my ears," Pen complained to the room in general. The maid ignored her and muttered under her breath, counting.
"But they look so delicate and pretty on you." Persy had sat on the end of the bed, holding her own ringleted head as still as possible while trying to chafe some feeling back into her cold hands.


THIS BOOK was exactly what I was looking for. Old-fashion story, with a tiny bit of romance with unexpected turns. You could generally figure out how the book was going to end, but you never expected some of the things that happened to happen!! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It reminded me of Lori Wicks books (like the proposal), but without and Christianity in it (really, it is about WITCHES!!)
I can not wait to read other books by Marissa Boyle and hope that they are all this good. The Characters were fun and witty. My favorite Character was Lochinvar and if you can pronounce his name, please let me know how...

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AS PER AMAZON
In 1837 London, young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. And certainly not careers in magic. At least, most of them didn't. Shy, studious Persephone Leland would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable husband. But right as the inevitable season for " coming out" is about to begin, Persy and her twin sister discover that their governess in magic has been kidnapped as part of a plot to gain control of the soon-to-be Queen Victoria. Racing through Mayfair ballrooms and royal palaces, the sisters overcome bad millinery, shady royal spinsters, and a mysterious Irish wizard. And along the way, Persy learns that husband hunting isn't such an odious task after all, if you can find the right quarry.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

My first attempt at a book review. I may fail miserable at this so please be patient.

City of Bones first intrigued me because of the cover... It was SHINY, the story seemed good, and I was looking for something vampire related, but not heavy vampire related.

Shadowhunters are an interesting idea. I liked that the tattoos would come and go and not be one HUGE mark like the House of Night Series.

It was a really good story, and I read the book as much as I could (as in Mr had to pull the book from my fingers before I would go to sleep!!) I am looking forward to buying the next two in the series and will be doing so on payday!!

The main character was interesting and I am curious how the story will work between the main character and her best friend. The bad guy... well is very unique.

And so... that concludes my first book review

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AS PER AMAZON
In City of Bones, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is introduced to the world of the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world. And she's introduced with a vengeance, when Clary's mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque monster sent by the evil and powerful Shadowhunter, Valentine. How could a mere human survive such an attack.

NEW BOOKS!!

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (own)

The Pale Assassin (Book 1 Pimpernelles) by Patricia Elliott (own)

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle (own)

My Main Blog has posts about most of the Books I have read. Check it out here

Books I Own and/or Wish to Buy