What's Your Status? #83 & In My Mailbox #66

What's Your Status?

Reviews:

~None.

Memes:

~In My Mailbox

Finished This Week:

~Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin, 11/5/2013

~The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket, 17/5/2013

~Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins, 20/5/2013

Currently Reading:

~Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike, page 324

~What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, 63%

~Day Soldiers by Brandon Hale, 24%

Top of the TBR Pile:

~Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

~HDU by India Lee

~Wings by Aprilynne Pike

In My Mailbox

Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

~At First Touch by Mattie Dunman

~HDU by India Lee

~Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Received for Review

~The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram

Library (via Kindle)

~The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise

~Defiance by CJ Redwine

~Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

What's Your Status? #82 & In My Mailbox #65

What's Your Status?

Bookish Happenings:

~LGBT Readathon Goals
~April Wrap-Up Post

Reviews:

~Carnnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Memes:

~In My Mailbox

Finished This Week:

~Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, 30/4

~Schoolgirl Cinderella by Priya Narendran, 4/5

Currently Reading:

~Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike, page 239

~Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin, 20%
~What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, 59%

Top of the TBR Pile:

~The Elephant of Surprise by Brent Hartinger
~Last Off by Laughton Chandler

In My Mailbox

Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

~The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise
~My Boyfriend Merlin by Priya Ardis
~Heartbreak, Tennessee by Ruby Laska
~Ember X by Jessica Sorensen
~Day Soldiers by Brandon Hale
~Disconnect by Imran Siddiq
~Damaged by Melody Carlson
~Valor by Taylor Longford

Received for review
~Last Off by Laughton Chandler
~Schoolgirl Cinderella by Priya Narendran

Library (via Kindle)

~Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

LGBT Readathon Goals (#LGBTRead)

Hello darlings!!

So as you might've seen on the blog last week, Faye @ A Daydreamer's Thoughts is hosting the LGBT Readathon starting today and ending May 6th! I have, of course, signed up for it and am excited to be participating! Here are my goals for this weekend:

The Elephant of Surprise by Brent Hartinger
Brownie Points by Jennifer Coburn

If I find more books to read, I'll definitely let you know about them! Look for an update on Friday and Saturday sometime on Sunday afternoon. Don't forget to let everyone know whar you're reading using the #LGBTRead hashtag on Twitter! For more info, go to this page.

Review: Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Carnival of Souls (Carnival of Souls, #1) by Melissa Marr
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 14/4/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Action
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I've been wanting to read Marr's work for a while and after I couldn't finish Graveminder, I wanted to give this one a try.

Review: This was definitely a good book of Melissa Marr's to start with. After a lot of the introductory stuff with each of the characters, I couldn't keep my hands off of my Kindle from wanting to read it.

I'm honestly not sure who I would call the main character of the book. While I'm pretty sure the author meant for it to be Mallory, my brain tells me that it should be Kaleb. I think my brain just got more out of Kaleb than Mallory.

The characters were all fantastic for sure. Kaleb was without a doubt my favorite although Aya followed behind him in a close second. He was emotional without necessarily showing it all the time .Of course, he has a very masculine side, too -- the side that got him to the last rounds of the competition (is there even a name for this "game"?) He could be ruthless and brutal, but if he really cared about you, he was loving till the end.

The City was just a completely different world, and that helped to pull me in and made me want to read Carnival of Souls at all the wrong times. I was fascinated with the way the daimons there lived. Sure, they had human tendencies, but they were quite different compared to the human world. Everything was paced wonderfully. The story seemed to get slower closer to the end, though. When I actually finished reading it, I was both excited and devestated. Excited because there's obviously going to be a sequel, but thoroughly devestated because that means I have to wait before I can buy the sequel. (Oh, the horror!)

This book was unquestionably enough to make me want to read more of Melissa Marr's work. Like most authors I read, she's very talented and writes a story that you can feel.

Satisfying eBook

April Wrap-Up

Another month, another wrap-up post. Enjoy, lovelies!

Memes

WYS 78 & IMM 61

WYS 79 & IMM 62

WYS 80 & IMM 63

WYS 81 & IMM 64

Reviews

Book Tour: Forbidden Angel by Megan D. Martin

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger

Double Feature by Brent Hartinger

Other Things

Earth-Sim Excerpt & Guest Post from Jade Kerrion

Readathons (Spring into Horror Goals)

Have You Heard of Karen Duvall?

March Wrap-Up

April's Reading Status

6 books, 1146 pages

Reading Challenge Status

Let Me Count the Ways

Book Version - 6922/10001 pages

Audio Version - 500/9000 minutes

13x7 in 2013 - 26/91 books

A to Z series - 8/26 books

Announcements

So I realize that I didn't do anything last year for the blog's anniversary, but I'm determined to do one this year.

All you lovely bloggers and readers out there, I would really appreciate if you would email, tweet, or post on the blog's Facebook page -- whatever you have to do to get in touch with me. I need some book suggestions to discuss/promote/etc. for the week of the blog's bday! These can be books are coming out sometime soon after July 7th, but I would prefer they be out no later than early June so that I can actually read them. Likewise, if you authors/publishers have books you would like me to spotlight during the celebration or want to do an interview/guest post, hit me up! Same ways -- Twitter, Facebook, email, or leave a comment. (Bloggers/readers can feel free to do this last option as well.)

To get in touch with me: leave a comment, post on FB, Tweet me, or email me via massiekurhatesu(at)gmail(dot)com.

What's Your Status? #81 & In My Mailbox #64

What's Your Status?

Bookish Happenings:

~Have You Heard of Karen Duvall?

~Spring into Horror Readathon Goals

Reviews:

~Double Feature by Brent Hartinger

Memes:

~In My Mailbox

Finished This Week:

~Nothing.

Currently Reading:

~What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, 32%

~Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike, page 243

~Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, page 67/102

Top of the TBR Pile:

~The Elephant of Surprise by Brent Hartinger

~Witch World by Christopher Pike

Upcoming Events:

Click HERE to get more info!

In My Mailbox

Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

~Prisoner of the Mountain Watch by Kay Berrisford

~Downtime by Tamara Allen

~The Wedding Gift by Lucy Kevin

Library (via Kindle)

~What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Have You Heard of @KarenDuvall?

Today I'd like for you all to help me give a warm welcome to Ms. Karen Duvall!!!! Karen is here today to for an interview, so enjoy getting to know her!!
_________________________________________

About Karen Duvall:

Where to start… Bios are always difficult for me. I don't want to say too much and bore people, or not enough, which is almost as boring.

I was born in Hollywood, California. Sound glamorous? Maybe it might have turned out that way if my mother hadn't given me up for adoption. Or that's what I used to fantasize about when I was a child. Nevertheless, I was very fortunate to have had the best adoptive parents in the world. If you're curious to read more about this part of my life story, I wrote about it for my blog. http://karenduvall.blogspot.com/2012/01/lets-get-personal.html and http://karenduvall.blogspot.com/2012/01/secrets-revealed-and-secrets-kept.html

I've always been a writer, even before I knew how to make my letters. At the age of three, I used to tell stories to my mom so she could write them down and I could draw the pictures. I still draw pictures, however I've replaced the crayons in favor of computer graphics. I've been a professional graphic artist for over thirty years after graduating from the Art Institute of Colorado in 1978.

I started out writing short stories because the thought of writing a book was too intimidating. Then I read an amazing series by Armistead Maupin and was so intrigued by his excellent characters that I knew I had to give it a try. After that, I was hooked. Writing books became my thing.

I joined Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers http://www.rmfw.org about 20 years ago, and that's how I learned how to write. I owe this amazing organization so much! Such a fabulous group of warm, helpful and supportive writers. I feel blessed to have discovered them and highly recommend their annual conference to any writer serious about becoming a published author. It's an amazing event attended by some of the best agents and editors in the industry. Even though I don't live in Colorado anymore, I return for the conference every year.

Now I live in Bend, Oregon, with my husband Jim, an over-zealous border-bully dog named Kinsey, and three spoiled cats that run our household. When I'm not writing, I freelance as a graphic designer. If you'd like to see some of my work, please visit my design website. http://www.duvalldesign.wordpress.com

Check out some of the books she's written!

Knight's Curse -- Barnes & Noble, Amazon
Darkest Knight -- Barnes & Noble, Amazon
'Til the World Ends -- Barnes & Noble, Amazon

Here's a few ways to keep up with Ms. Duvall and her books: Website; Blog; Facebook; Twitter.

Review: Double Feature by Brent Hartinger

Double Feature (Russel Middlebrook, #3) by Brent Hartinger
276 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 8/4/2013
Genres: Young Adult, GLBT, Romance, Realistic Fiction
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I've really liked the first two books in the series, so I continued!

Review: Let me say that once I read the "Second Feature," the names of the two different stories actually made sense haha. While having to read through some of the same exact conversations again wass a little annoying, everuthing that was said and done was clarified through the change of perspective. I will most definitely be reading the fourth book, The Elephant of Surprise.

In this Middlebrook installment, the gang signs up to play as zombie extras in a horror movie. You would think that everything would be simply wonderful and problem-free, but these three will always be going through something.

The plot was great! Along with the interesting-ness of being a zombie extra, we get to see Otto again, and Kevin is back to make us want to punch him. Compared to Geography Club and Poison Oak, I think this novel of the series would come last (so far) for favorite plots. It wasn't terrible, and it pulled me in still -- but just not as much as the others. At the same time, it might be because the second feature was similar to the first. Not completely sure.

The characters were fantastic all over again! My favorite from this one was definitely Leah. She added new flavor to the story, and I liked that she was dark and mysterious. Those charries are always the most interesting for me. Also with Double Feature, I fee like Min and I finally have a connection with each other. Before she was just "Russel's best friend," but now more things fall into place I guess you could say.

All in all, Brent Hartinger continued the series well! I'm excited to read The Elephant of Surprise (and to find out why it's entitled as such). Check back within the next week or so my review of it!

Satisfying eBook

Spring into Horror Readathon: Goals!

Hello lovelies!! Another readathon to post about for you all. You won't believe how excited I am that it's started! :)

The Spring Into Horror Readathon is being hosted by The True Book Addict via her RAT blog, Seasons of Reading. It will last from today until April 28, 2013. Make sure you keep up with everyone who's reading through the #SpringHorrorRAT hastag on Twitter! And now, here are my goals for the following week:

Finish:
~Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
~Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz
~The Elephant of Surprise by Brent Hartinger


Hope to see you all partiipating as well!!! :D

What's your Status? #80 & In My Mailbox #63

What's Your Status?

Bookish Happenings:

~Upcoming Readathons!

Memes:
~In My Mailbox

Finished This Week:

~The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer, 14/4

Currently Reading:

~Thirst No.1 by Christopher Pike, page 201
~Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, page 35/102
~Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz, 10%

Top of the TBR Pile:

~Stained by Ella James
~Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (reread)

In My Mailbox

Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

~Something Witchy by AJ Myers
~Dollhouse by Anya Allyn
~A Chance for Charity by SL Baum
~What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare
~Deep Blue Secret by Christie Anderson
~Verity by Claire Farrell