10..9..8......Happy New Year!!!!!!

To all my lovely followers and faithful readers.....Happy New Years!!! 

I can't believe its time to go forth into a new year. I am sure we all have some new years resolutions I know I do. Though I don't know why I make them because I usually never keep them but its traditional so I keep doing it. LOL  This year I want to try and make my blog better, post more interviews with authors, etc. This means putting in a little more effort on my part. I also want to keep better record of what I read and agree to review. Get rid of some of the TBR pile!  Lose some weight is a big one for me that I hope to hold too just because I need to be a healthier person. =)

Since I am not much for parties I normally just hang out at the house and watch movies for New Years. Sometimes I watch Dick Clarks Rockin' New Years..lol.

So what about you? Do you have any new years resolutions? Do you plan to celebrate with friends and family tonight or just hang out at home?

100 Books in a Year Challenge

Book Chick City is hosting the 100 Books in a Year Challenge and though I said I wouldn't sign up for many challenge I figured it wouldn't hurt to do this since all the challenges that I am in now can crossover to this challenge. =)


Here are a few details but for more details and to fill out the form please go to Book Chick City.



Challenge Details

•Timeline: 01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011

•Rules - Read 100 or more books in 2011

•All books can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.

•Only print books and ebooks count (no audiobooks).

•You can join anytime between now and the later part of next year.

So come on and join the fun!

Waiting on Wednesday!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.

But that's exactly what happened.

Face-to-face with dark forces, spell-binding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Tiger's Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more. (from Goodreads)

I found this one on Good Reads and it sounds very interesting.

Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass. One thing's for sure - if she doesn't keep her wits about her there'll be hell to pay. (Good Reads)

Don't normally go for these kinds of books but in 2011 I am going to break out and try something new and thought this sounded like a good one to go for. :)

What are you waiting for?
 

Merry Christmas to all!!

Just wanting to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. I got a video  camera, a shark steamer  vacuum, and a Sims game..I am set..LOL.  What was your favorite Christmas gift this year? Mine was  the video camera I have always wanted one of those and its so small and neat I can't wait to use it!

Merry Christmas!!

Review of Red Moon Rising

Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore
Pages: 336
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Release Date: 2/8/2011

Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to the genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing.

Ever since the development of synthetic blood - SynHeme - vamps have become society’s elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it’s best to pretend his wulf half doesn’t even exist. But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms — fantastic night vision; a keener-than-usual sense of smell; and headaches, right around the full moon.

Even though it's tempting to live in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next full moon, and Danny's time is running out.


Red Moon Rising started out as a interesting book but then towards the end it just seemed to drag on a  bit and just didn't have the drive that the beginning had, in my opinion.

It has a different sort of concept about werewolf's and vampires that I thought was interesting. It sort of mirrored the way things were back in the 1950's and 60's with the Civil Rights movement. If you are a vampire then you are sort of like the elite society, but if you Wulf then you are considered to be lower class citizens, they get the worst jobs, they live in the bad parts of town. So if your part vamp and part wulf then your not really considered to be a person of interest.

When Danny was young he had genetic treatments to help him look more like a vampire to fit in with the others at the school he attends, but he got sick during his treatments and they were never finished. His friends all know that he his part wulf and they don't mind but he doesn't like to just spread the word around about who he is, but then he starts changing.

One of the things you have to do if your a wulf is get yourself registered and go to the compound during the full moon. Its a very dangerous place and Danny's father doesn't want to see him half to do this, so he gives him some other alternatives. He could tell his mother and see if his stepfather would spend a huge amount of money to have him put in a facility where they pretty much put you to sleep during the whole full moon experience or he could be a moon runner and avoid the law and be free during the full moon.

If your looking for a serious werewolf book then this is not a book for you. It definitely has a lot of humor and sometimes to me it was a bit much. One thing I really hated was the fact that they would make up names that were so close to the actual product name or person that it just sounded really cheesy. There is a little bit of romance but its not what the book is really about. I like that it has a male point of view though I think it will appeal to both boys and girls.

If you want a interesting werewolf story with a bit of humor then I would recommend you picking it up and giving it a try. Though I can't say it will be going on my favorites list I still liked it.

Reviewed as a part of Just Another Book Blog's ARC Tour.

Review of The Lying Game

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard
Pages: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen

I had a life anyone would kill for.



Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?
Let the lying game begin.

Since I have never read The Pretty Little Liars series this is my first Sara Shepard book. I wasn't really sure if I was going to like it at first, but then I got hooked into the nasty little lying game.

Sutton was a rich girl, the girl who had it all, but some one killed her. Emma is a poor foster kid who finds out about Sutton and thinks she is going to go and meet her long lost twin sister, but gets herself thrown into the lying game.

When Emma arrives in Tuscan she was expecting to meet her sister, but instead she was kidnapped by 'Suttons' friends and taken to a party. Emma has no clue what is going on but later she gets a note telling her Sutton is dead and that she needs to keep playing the role of Sutton or she will be the next one to die. Emma tries to be Sutton, but she finds out really quick that she is nothing like Sutton. While pretending to be Sutton Emma tries to find out what has happened to Sutton.

What Emma finds out is that she is part of a evil bunch of friends. They play pranks on others as well as their only little circle of friends. There is Charlotte (who is not over the guy that is/was going out with Sutton), Madeline (whose brother is missing, what is it that Sutton did to him?), Laurel (Sutton's sister, she has a crush on Thayer, the missing boy), Lillianna and Gabriella (The Twitter Twins, they are sort of in the circle of friends but not allowed membership into The Lying Game). 

Emma is thinking she has got herself into a bit more than she can handle when it comes to this group of friends and she also thinks they all have a motive for murder. Emma also doesn't have the same taste in boys because she is not really that fond of Garrett, Suttons boyfriend. She likes Ethan, he is more of a loner like herself and she gets him more than she does anybody else.

The Lying Game really had me wrapped up into the whole deception and drama of everything that happens in the book. The more Emma learns about Sutton, the more she wonders what Sutton has really gotten herself into. Its sort of like who are these people really?? Why would anyone want to be a part of this group of people and who really killed Sutton? I couldn't wait to get to the end but then I should have known it was going to be part of a series. :(  I don't mind series, but I hate waiting to find out what happens.

I am sure if your a fan of Pretty Little Liars then you will probably like  The Lying Game. I would recommend it to those who like books like this. I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would and can't wait for the next book to come out.

HarperCollins ebook promotions. Happy Holidays!

Available for a limited only, this special Meg Cabot Bundle with Bonus Material features all three of the novels in her funny and heartwarming Queen of Babble series (Queen of Babble, Queen of Babble in the Big City, and Queen of Babble Gets Hitched) as well as an extended excerpt from the New York Times bestselling Insatiable, the first book in Meg's newest series.


Buy this special e-book with bonus material for just $9.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Queen-of-Babble-Bundle-with-Bonus-Material/Meg-Cabot/e/9780062076373/?itm=1&USRI=queen+of+babble+bundle+with+bonus+material

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004EBT7IW



For a limited time, discover Stephanie Laurens’ bestselling Black Cobra Quartet for a special price. Read the first three full novels, The Untamed Bride, The Elusive Bride, and The Brazen Bride, and then preview the fourth book in the series, The Reckless Bride.


Get this e-book with bonus material for just $14.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Untamed-Bride-Plus-Two-Full-Novels-and-Bonus-Material/Stephanie-Laurens/e/9780062076854/?itm=1&USRI=the+untamed+bride+plus+two+full+novels+and+bonus+material

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004EBT7H8


For a short time, experience the first two novels in Lynsay Sands' Argeneau vampire series, The Accidental Vampire and Vampires Are Forever. Plus, take a sneak peek into her latest in the series, Hungry For You.


Get this e-book with bonus material for just $9.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://www.blogger.com/goog_1166142156

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004EBT7GE


An exclusive eBook original novella with bonus excerpts from A Kiss At Midnight and the forthcoming When Beauty Tamed the Beast [on sale 1/25/2011] from New York Times bestselling author, Eloisa James. Featuring the handsome and mysterious Wick from A Kiss At Midnight.


What Miss Phillipa Damson needs is a good, old fashioned knight in shining armor. What she has is a fiance she never wanted and a compelling urge to run away. But if she manages to escape, will she find her happily ever after?
Get this e-book with bonus material for just $1.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Storming-the-Castle-with-Bonus-Content/Eloisa-James/e/9780062074058/?itm=1&USRI=storming+the+castle+with+bonus+content

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00486UF6G


Happy Holidays!

Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
 

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Page: 38
 
"Have you found out anything else about Bill?" I asked, when they all had a swallow of their drinks.
Eric said. "A little."
I folded my hands in my lap and waited.
"I know Bills been kidnapped." he said, and the room swam around my head for a second. I took a deep breath to make it stop.
 
What teasers do you have?

Attention anyone wanting to go to BEA or is going! I need help

I so desperately want to go to BEA, but I have been looking up to see how much the hotels cost around were it is in NY and they are expensive. So I am wondering if there is anyone else out there like me who wants to go but my be looking for a roommate to help pay for a room? Does anyone know where the cheap places are to and get a room? I am from Missouri and I have a horrible car so I have to fly if I go (which I don't really want to), so that will be expensive enough so I have to try and find cheap hotel or something. ( I so wish I had friends who lived in NY..lol) If anyone has good information for me could you please either leave a comment or email me. I have never gone before and I really want to go. I would love going to the Book Blogger Conference to so if anyone has info on it too I would appreciate it. THANKS!!!!

P.S. If anyone is driving and might be going through Missouri email me if you don't mind a extra passenger I will help pay for gas, etc. booklady2007@gmail.com.  

Desperate to get to BEA and BBC! =0)

Its a Blog Hop!

Its Friday so its blog hop time. I love discovering new blogs or just visiting blogs I already follow. If you want to participate in the blog hop then go to Crazy-for-books.

Today's question:

"What do you consider the most important in a story: the plot or the characters?"

This is a tough question because I think they are both important. I do know that when I read the blurb on the back of a book its the plot that reels me in and has nothing to do with the characters.  Then you start reading the book and the characters get involved and if you don't have good characters, they fall flat and don't really capture you interest its hard to get into the book. It could be a great storyline but can be just awful to read because you have no care whatsoever to what is happening to the characters. So to me they are both important.



So lets go blog hopping!!!

HarperCollins Sci-Fi Holiday promotion

Hi everyone Katrina from HarperCollins sent me some information to send to all my lovely followers out there!

HarperCollins is doing a ebook promotion for two of its very popular sci-fi authors.


From now until December 18th, you can discover New York Times bestselling author Patrick Lee's The Breach, including a special note from the Lee himself and an exclusive excerpt from the hotly anticipated sequel, Ghost Country [on sale 12/28].


Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door. It is the world's best-kept secret—and its most terrifying.

Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled with the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact.

Allied with a beautiful covert operative whose life he saved, Chase must now play the role he's been destined for—a pawn of incomprehensible forces or humankind's final hope—as the race toward Apocalypse begins in earnest.

Because something is loose in the world. And doomsday is not only possible . . . it is inevitable.

Buy this special e-book with bonus material for just $1.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Breach-with-Bonus-Material/Patrick-Lee/e/9780062076861/?itm=1&USRI=%22the+breach%22+bonus

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004EBT7HS



For a limited time, discover Kim Harrison's The Good, the Bad, and the Undead including an early excerpt from her new novel, Pale Demon [on sale 2/22/2011].


It's a tough life for witch Rachel Morgan, sexy, independent bounty hunter, prowling the darkest shadows of downtown Cincinnati for criminal creatures of the night. She can handle the leather-clad vamps and even tangle with a cunning demon or two. But a serial killer who feeds on the experts in the most dangerous kind of black magic is definitely pressing the limits.

Confronting an ancient, implacable evil is more than just child's play -- and this time, Rachel will be lucky to escape with her very soul.
Get this e-book with bonus material for just $1.99 at these locations:

B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Undead-with-Bonus-Material/Kim-Harrison/e/9780062076137/?itm=1&USRI=%22the+good,+the+bad,+and+the+undead%22+%2b+bonus

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004EBT7G4

 Merry Christmas

Christmas music from the 1960's

I have been going through the decades starting with the 1920's and I will end with music from present day. I have been a little on the puny side for a couple of days but I figured there is nothing like some great Christmas music to cheer me up so I decided to go ahead and do a post on some things that came out for Christmas during the 1960's.

All of the great Christmas cartoons that we watch today came out in the 1960's:

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer(1964)

Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) (This is my all time favorite!)
The Little Drummer Boy (1968)

and there is probably more but I just can't think of them. UGH.

Well on to some music:


The Supremes Children's Christmas Song (from 1965 album)


The Beach Boys-Little Saint Nick 1963

Aretha Franklin- Kissing Under the Mistletoe (not sure when it was recorded but she is a singer from the 60's =) )


It won't be right with out The Grinch Song!


Alvin and the Chipmunks made their first appearance on TV in 1960's.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!!!!!

Review of Fledgling: Jason Steed

Fledgling: Jason Steed by Mark A. Cooper
Pages: 382
Publisher: Soucebook Jabberwocky
Middle Grade Fiction

Tormented by his mother’s death...Taken for granted by his father...Trained in deadly martial arts...Jason Steed is looking for a place to call home. He finds what he’s looking for in the Sea Cadets—an elite group of British youngsters being groomed for lifelong service in the military. But when a routine training exercise goes awry, Jason finds himself in the middle of a secret mission. The future of the world hangs in the balance…and Jason might be the only one who can save it.

It starts out with part of the ending in the beginning and then goes on with the story of how Jason Steed becomes who he is now. At the beginning its very difficult for Raymond Steed (Jason's father) to have anything to do with him because his wife died in childbirth. So Jason grows up in Hong Kong with a nanny to look after him and Wong Tong his karate instructor as a friend. He is a very determined little kid and when he sees a different style of martial arts he wants to learn it. So he his very heavily trained and disciplined kid. His father is in the Royal Navy and gone most of the time, so he spends most of his time learning martial arts. He also sneaks into the training grounds of the military and runs the obstacle course (in the dark), and plays on the flight simulator, teaching himself how to fly.


All these things that he has learned is going to prepare him for the adventure of a lifetime. As a Sea Cadet he and his fellow Cadets get to go on a ship, but its near a war zone. When the Cadets are attacked he becomes involved in a deadly secret mission.

Jason Steed is a very interesting character and I can't wait for the next book to come out to see what type of adventure he gets into next. I also like his friend Scott and I am sure he will be used some how in any assignment that Jason gets. Catherine is the Queen's daughter and friend of Jason's and even though they are young they have a little budding relationship going on, though his father has told him to be careful because she is the Queens daughter.

Its a great adventure book young boys but I think that young girls might also like to read it. I really enjoyed it.

Christmas during the 1950's

As I have traveled through the decades it has been very interesting to see how the styles of music has changed from the 1920 to the decade I am on now which is the 1950's. 1950's brought a new type of music called Rock & Roll. It had a very different beat to it than the years before it which is probably why a lot of parents thought it to be so sinful..lol. (That and the fact that Elvis was swinging his hips..lol) Though Rock & Roll had actually started during the 1940's it didn't start becoming popular till the 1950's and 1960's.

Here are some popular Christmas movies of the 50's.

White Christmas (1954) Staring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen (Its a great movie!)
Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952)
Frosty the Snowman (1954)
Scrooge (1951) Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johnson

Children's Christmas stories:

Davey and the First Christmas by Beth Vardon
Santa's Workshop (not sure who wrote it)
The Shiniest Star by Beth Vardon
Santa Claus in Toyland

Now for some great Christmas Music.


First recorded by Ernest Tubb in 1947, but was made famous by Elvis in 1957. This is my favorite Elvis Christmas song.


First recorded by Chuck Berry in 1957


Fats Domino (not sure if it was recorded in the 1950, but I know he was popular back then)


Brenda Lee recorded this in 1957

Well I hope you have enjoyed your trip through Christmas in the 1950's. =0)