#WWReadathon Valentine's Update #3

The last three days have been kind of if-y with me. I haven't had very much time to read, and we've started our next book in English so it probably won't be getting any better for a while. However, I have still been reading, if only a few pages/percent each day.

I started Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane for English and have been reading Initiate a little more!

Pages Read: 6%, 27 pgs
Total Pages: 86%, 51 pgs

Book Tour: Blood by Tara Maya (#TUSBlood)

Today is the release date of the newest addition to Tara Maya's Unfinished Song series -- Blood. To participate in the tour, I will be posting info about Blood and an excerpt from the novel below!

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Blood (The Unfinished Song, #6) by Tara Maya
Published by Misque Press
Buy Now! Available @ Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Dindi and Umbral have an uneasy truce, forced to work together to defeat a greater enemy: the Bone Whistler. The Bone Whistler's scheme to sacrifice humanity and resurrect the Aelfae will culminate during an eclipse on the spring equinox...in three days.

Their fragile alliance may not withstand the terrors they face. Dindi hides as a clown, but even disguised, her dancing draws the eye of the Bone Whistler himself. She will have to defy him alone, for Umbral has his own troubles.

Life and death, spring and autumn, human and faery, are all reeling out of balance, and these three days will determine the fate of all Faearth.

Welcome to Faearth...where humans are trapped between the immortal fae and the minions of Death. But one woman and the warrior who loves her will defy every taboo to protect their people.


Haven't read the other books yet? Come taste the world of Faearth.... The first book is available for FREE on Kindle devices!

Book 1: Initiate (Amazon)
Book 2: Taboo (Amazon)
Book 3: Sacrifice (Amazon)
Book 4: Root (Amazon)
Book 5: Wing (Amazon)

About the Author:

Tara Maya has lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia. She's pounded sorghum with mortar and pestle in a little clay village where the jungle meets the desert, meditated in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, and sailed the Volga River to a secret city that was once the heart of the Soviet space program. This first-hand experience, as well as research into the strange and piquant histories of lost civilizations, inspires her writing. Her terrible housekeeping, however, is entirely the fault of pixies.

Keep Up with Tara on the Web! Facebook, Twitter, and her Blog
*Tweet about Blood using the hashtag #TUSBlood !


And now...an excerpt from Blood!!!

Dindi landed hard, though a cushion of dry pine needles saved her from broken bones. Through a ring of lofty sequoia, she could see a glimpse of bright blue. She bit through the honeycomb Kavio had given her to protect her teeth. For a moment, she sucked the sweet wax, but its shape had been ruined by Kavio’s last blow, and she had to spit it out. She rubbed her jaw as she rebounded to her feet. Her shins were scraped bloody, and her left elbow throbbed. Ever since Kavio had started training her in Red, war dancing, she had been collecting bruises at an alarming rate.

The two of them were alone in the woods—unless one counted the sylphins perched in tree branches or the pixies cuddled in crocus buds, who watched and giggled—since their practices must be secret.

“Pathetic, Dindi,” Kavio scoffed. “You’re fighting like a girl.”

“What does that even mean?” she demanded. “Or is it just something boys say to feel superior to girls?”

“It means you don’t take yourself or your opponent seriously.”

“I take myself seriously...”

“No you don’t. You think of yourself the way a girl is reared to think of herself. Like a pretty pony in a field of flowers, a cuddly bunny rabbit, a doe frolicking in the woods. Like you need to play nice, nuzzle up to the rest of the herd. You need to think like a carnivore. Don’t nibble at me. Eat meat. You have to win your Shining Name. You have to think like a hero. Stop trying to be nice.”

“Heroes are nice…”

“Heroes are good; they aren’t nice. Why are you standing there? Strike again!”

She waved her staff in his direction, not connecting with anything but air.

“Muck it all, Dindi, you did it again.” He smacked her hard with the stave, knocking her to the ground. “Stop treating me with disrespect! That’s your second problem. You don’t respect your enemy!”

“I do!”

“Who is your enemy?”

“Right now, I’m fighting you, but...”

“Who is your enemy?”

“The person I’m fighting!”

“Wrong!” Kavio cut down with his staff.

“You can’t talk things out.”

Slash.

“You can’t make nice.”

Slash.

“You can’t compromise.”

Slash.

“You never fight a person.”

Slash.

“You fight a monster.”

Slash.

“And if you’re going to win, you better be the bigger monster.”

He was beating her back relentlessly. She kept ducking and backing away, but it was getting harder to dodge.

“Stop.” Slash. “Holding.” Slash. “Your blows!”

She smacked her staff forward, and the end of the pole slammed into Kavio’s solar plexus. He flew across the dirt clearing and landed on his back.

He didn’t move.

“Kavio!” she screamed, running to him.

He sat up, wincing. “That,” he said, “Showed respect. Do it again. And again. Until it’s instinct: always kill the monster.”


Was that not a funny little scene there? To find out what Dindi is getting into next, make sure you get yourself a copy of Blood! Stick around next Tuesday for my review of the first book in the Unfinished Song series, Initiate.

#WWReadathon Valentine's Update #2

The 9th and 10th were both pretty good on reading! I was able to finish The Fallen Star. This week could go to the sky or down the drain over the last few days. We shall see!

Pages Read: 7 pages, 53%
Total Pages: 24 pages, 80%

#WWReadathon Valentine's Update #1

So since this is a day late, I will only put up what it would've originally had -- info about the first two days' reading.

I read a good bit in The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen, and got a few pages in Life of Pi. I got bored at one point Friday and started rereading Lori Brighton's The Mind Readers. I've had a great start to the readathon that's for sure. I can hardly believe it's already almost halfway over!

Pages Read: 17 pages, 28%

What's Your Status? #74 & In My Mailbox #58

What's Your Status?

Reviews:

~Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

~Mash Up (The Coincidence of C&K, Until the End, Tall Cool One)

Memes:

~In My Mailbox (from Jan. 6th)

~Manga Corner

~January Wrap-Up

Finished This Week:

~The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen, 10/2/2013

Currently Reading:

~Life of Pi by Yann Martel, page 173
~Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (audio), at 3:36
~The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton, at page 11

Top of the TBR Pile:

~Initiate by Tara Maya
~Earth Sim by Jade Kerrion

Current Events:

About this event

In My Mailbox

Hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

Kindle

~The Mind Games by Lori Brighton

~Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber

~The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen

~The Underworld by Jessica Sorensen

~The Vision by Jessica Sorensen

~The Promise by Jessica Sorensen

~The Lost Soul by Jessica Sorensen

~Jane by April Lindner

~Crash by Nicole Williams

Audible

~Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Borrowed from friends

~Bound to You by Christopher Pike

~Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike

Library

~Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

~Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Received from author

~Earth Sim by Jade Kerrion
~Initiate by Tara Maya

January Wrap-Up

Sorry this is so late...!!!!

This is just something that I was thinking about doing --  letting you know what has happened in the last month pertaining to the blog and my reading. So, I hope it summarizes things for you!

Memes

In My Mailbox #57

Manga Corner #2

Reviews

Being Jamie Baker

January's Reading Status

9 books, 3472 pages

Reading Challenge Status

Let Me Count the Ways

Book Version - 3472/10001 pages

Audio Version - 0/9000 minutes

13x7 in 2013 - 9/91 books

A to Z series - 5/26 books

Announcements

A while ago, I got the idea to create an "alter ego," if you will, for Butterfly Feet: Decayed Fish Devours Words. It quickly fell out of use because I didn't have time to blog on either site. I would really love to use it, however, because I love the formatting and differences it has compared to this one. BUT I am going to need your help.

I have decided that, due to the "decayed" theme, I would like to keep Decayed Fish geared towards the older books of my collection, while Butterfly will (hopefully) see more up-to-date paranormal. I'm also hoping to give more time to contemporary novels and going to the library. Of course, some of the newbies will be posted on Decayed Fish instead, but I will provide links whenever that happens.

The posts for Decayed Fish will be highly-concentrated (I'm hoping/wanting) with collaborative book reviews with other book bloggers on the old reads. I will also be asking around about hosting other bloggers' reviews of some of the old reads on the blog. These reviews could be freshly written or already posted on their blog.

This is where you all come in. The Internet has given us with Facebook, Twitter, etc. as well as our blogs. I would really appreciate it if you could post about this via a social network and help get other book bloggers interested. Likewise, if you would like to be on the blog, email me at decayed(dot)fish(at)gmail(dot)com. If you have any questions you would like to ask me, feel free to email me at the previous address.

Book Reviews: Mash-Up #1

So this is basically just going to be a combination of all the books I read in January that never got reviews. I'll leave the last one or two so I can write actual reviews for them. Below won't be a complete review, just kind of a paragraph of feelings, really.

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The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence, #1) by Jessica Sorensen
296 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 6/1/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I saw this one somewhere, Goodreads I believe, and the cover intrigued me. I searched it in the Kindle Store, and it was only a dollar. People were also giving great reviews about it, so there was no way I couldn't buy it.

Review: I can't remember how I came about this book, but I'm glad it happened. It was truly captivating; I only wanted to read this book. It was as if reading another novel while in the middle of Coincidence would've been disrespectful or something. But either way, I couldn't put the book down.

Callie and Kayden have had a hard time growing up for sure, and the way they, especially Callie, were introverted was so interesting to read. The characters - all of them - found a way to entertain me. The main ones throughout the novel were developed really well; Seth had a great sense of humour that made me love him even more.

This is a really great book, and the sequel is seriously taking too long to get here. :)

Shelf-Worthy

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Until the End (Final Friends, #1-3) by Christopher Pike
846 pages, paperback
Finished on 13/1/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Action, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: All I have to say is: Christopher Pike.

Review: I mean, really though: what IS their to say? Besides "Christopher Pike has done it again," of course. The book was truly amazing.

The Final Friends series follows Jessica  Mark, Polly, Sara, and some of the other kids at their school through a "suicide," a disastrously-ending prom, and a sinking ship. What do all those things have to do with each other, you ask? Why darling, I can't tell you that....! Sorry (not really; buy the book lol).

Everything about this series was just really awesome. The characters were so funny (esp. Jessica & Sara) and realistic that you could totally imagine the scenes happening. The plot was set at both a good pace and a stressful one. The former due to the fact that it was well-balanced -- not too fast, not too dragging; the latter because you constantly want to know the next major thing that happens. However, much to our unliking, Pike builds the suspense by keeping us waiting. Not that I'm complaining. There's always a surprise with Pike.

Anyway, just get this book. Or any of Pike's books really. They're just so "perfectly" written. He is a definitely my favourite male author. For now, at least, anyway.

Shelf-Worthy

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Tall Cool One (The A-List, #4) by Zoey Dean
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 19/1/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Chick-Lit
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I've been wanting to get around to reading this book for quite a while. Finally plugged it into a challenge and put it (literally) at the top of the list to read.

Review: It's been a while since I've read one of Zoey Dean's books, but I don't think I'll ever stop liking them. They are always light reads and, for the most part, cheerful (which is a good little break from the constant Paranormal stuff). Tall Cool One didn't disappoint.

Anna ends up going on a trip to Mexico that was really the main contributor to the book's "fun" element. Sam is still having a hard time with Poppy (her new stepmother if you don't remember); you  kind of felt bad for the situation, but at the same time Same was just a little too harsh sometimes.

The characters overall really were great. I won't dwell into that much more because I'm sure I've expressed my love for them before. The plot was awesome, too. Like I said: light, funny, and a quick read. It's definitely a book to read if you want a break from the serious.

Satisfying eBook

#WWReadathon (Valentine's Edition!): Goals

The readathon has started!!!! I seriously need this one, but I know at the same time that I'll have tons of fun!

Things to Remember:
~~The Readathon lasts from today until Thursday, February 14th.
~~You can jump in at anytime to read with us!
~~HAVE FUN :)

For more info (that will give you much more help), go to My Shelf Confessions!

And now....the reason for this post.....my goals!!! This week I'm hoping to read:

(--finish)  

What are you aiming to finish this week?

Manga Corner #2

Time for another manga update!

I have been stuck in the same two series, so nothing too new. I will probably read much farther into these before I think about starting a third.

Although, now that I think about it, I DID start another one.....huh. Well, let's start with that one then.

Alice in the Country of Hearts by QuinRose

These novels automatically pulled me into them! Even though there's not some serious action or adventure going on extensively, they're oh so very interesting. If you hadn't guessed already, the series is basically a twist on Alice in Wonderland. It's a break away from the cliche of superheroes.

Now back to the two series you already know about....

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi

This series has gotten a little bit better within the above books! I have the sixth one already, but haven't read it yet. The characters have some crazy stuff to deal with, but all in all it's still really captivating.

D.Gray-man by Katsura Hoshino

I haven't read one of these in a LONG time. So it seems, anyhow. I will work on maybe getting seven and eight so I have something new to report about. But, from what I can remember, five and six were amazing. There was this little twist at the end of six I remember. I seriously need to go to the store....!

Review: Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

Mild spoilers are present! They don't give away much that you probably could have already guessed, but they are still there.

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Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram
353 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 2/1/2013
Genres: Young Adult, Some Action,  Fantasy, Romance
Synopsis via GoodReads:

"Most superhero stories start with a meteor shower or a nasty insect bite, but mine actually starts with a kiss..."

An accident that should end in tragedy instead gives seventeen-year-old Jamie Baker a slew of uncontrollable superhuman abilities.

To keep her secret safe Jamie socially exiles herself, earning the title of Rocklin High’s resident ice queen. But during a supercharged encounter with star quarterback Ryan Miller she literally kisses anonymity goodbye. Now the annoyingly irresistible Ryan will stop at nothing to melt the heart of the ice queen and find out what makes her so special.

Unfortunately, Ryan is not the only person on to her secret. Will Jamie learn to contain her unstable powers before being discovered by the media or turned into a government lab rat?

More importantly, can she throw Ryan Miller off her trail before falling in love with him?

Motivation to Read It: I was asked to read Oram's second and third books and absolutely fell in love with her work. I bought Baker a couple weeks ago.

Review: Another favorite for me. Oram has officially won me on her side for the rest of eternity. I didn't realize there were people with this amount of talent. Oram never fails to captivate me within the first few chapters. At this point, I'm sure Oram's work will be an obsession for me haha.

Jamie Baker's super hero story begins with a kiss. It isn't really your regular superhero story with a definite villain. There was the handsome, egotistic ball player (quarterback to be specific). The equally egotistic popular girls (and cheerleaders, of course). The super annoying reporter. And the team of evil scientists. I mean, really. No one has this many "evils." But yet Kelly Oram has written the story to perfection.

But let me stop my rambling. Jamie Baker was just trying to make it through the rest of her high school career. She wasn't asking for trouble at all, but over the months after that superhero-story-starting kiss, she has been through more emotions than she bargained for. You couldn't help but be wrenched into the pain with her, or the happiness, or whatever emotion it happened to be.

Overall, the characters were so lovable and adorable and frustrating. Everything you have to have in a character to make them seem like regular people. Even during the moments I felt for Jamie, for example, she would make (in my opinion) bad decisions, and I would want to slap the living poop out of her. But that was what made it so interesting for me to keep reading. The characters were people to me. They were just trying to make it through to the beginning of the rest of their lives, simply doing what they thought was the best for them.

I have to admit that after a while, I started falling for Ryan. He is just so lovable, and he tried so hard to get Jamie to let him in. You have to give the boy some credit: he was trying so hard. Then when he actually got the chance. Man, you wanna talk about a happy kid. He was so joyous, and it was so obvious that he really wanted to get to Jamie for who she really was and not the mannequin she hid herself behind at school with her peers.

The plot traveled fast yet smoothly at the same time. It kept pulling you in, and you would have ten percent of the book done before you really even noticed.

I can't wait until the sequel to this comes out. It's going to be absolutely amazing. Although, I look forward to all of Oram's work, so I think this will be a good wait for me.

Shelf-Worthy

(Rating System)