Know Me Better (#2)

I have decided to join Inspired Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, in this fun weekly post. Here we take 5 questions from our Author Interview list and answer them in a post. I highly encourage you, my readers, to answer theses long with me. Not only do I want you guys to get to know me better, but it would be great if I got to know my readers better, as well!

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Umm, well, I really like it where I'm living now....right in the smack middle of Washington state. I'd like to travel and explore the world one day, but I think this little town will always be my home.

Favorite Literary Characters?

Oh gosh, I've got too many to count. There's Lex from Croak by Gina Damico; Juliette, Adam, and Kenji from Shatter Me; Gwen, Daphne, and Logan from Mythos Academy; Eve Hollows from the Nightmare series by Robert Gray; Jace and Ethan from the Shifter series by Rachel Vincent; Jace from TMI...and a whole bunch of others!

In your wildest dreams, which author would you love to co-author a book with?

Me? Co-author a book? I don't see that happening any time soon. But if I had to choose one author I'd probably go with Rick Riordan. Love him! And I love mythology :) And his writing is just SO much fun!

Things that bring a smile to your face?

The weirdos that are my brothers. I don't have any kids myself, but I can always count on my 3 younger brothers to make me laugh.

Do you have a favorite saying?

Not really...but I'll go with "Honesty is the best policy."

Now it's your turn! Share an answer to one or more of these questions as a comment or post your answers on your blog and leave me a link here!

Review: Unbroken (Ruined #2) by Paula Morris

Title: Unbroken

Series: Ruined #2

Previous book in this series: Ruined

Author: Paula Morris

Genre: YA, paranormal

Publication date: Feb. 1st 2013

Published by: Scholastic - Point

Source: the publishers via Netgalley (thanks!)

Add it to your Goodreads shelf

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis:

Welcome back to New Orleans.
Where the streets swirl with jazz and beauty.
Where the houses breathe with ghosts.

A year ago, Rebecca Brown escaped death in a New Orleans cemetery. Now she has returned to this haunting city. She is looking forward to seeing Anton Grey, the boy who may or may not have her heart.

But she also meets a ghost: a troubled boy who insists only she can help him. Soon Rebecca finds herself embroiled in another murder mystery from more than a century ago. But as she tries to right wrongs, she finds more questions than answers: Is she putting her friends, and herself, in danger? Can she trust this new ghost? And has she stumbled into something much bigger and more serious than she understands?

My rating: ★★★★★
Gosh, this book...it was awesome! I literally finished reading it in ONE sitting. Now, this doesn't happen too often, but when it does it means that the book was just too good to put down!

Review: Ruined by Paula Morris

Title: Ruined

Series: Ruined #1

Author: Paula Morris

Genre: YA, paranormal

Publication date: August 2009

Published by: Scholastic - Point

Source: Won in a giveaway

Add it to your Goodreads shelf

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis:

Rebecca couldn't feel more out of place in New Orleans, where she comes to spend the year while her dad is traveling. She's staying in a creepy old house with her Aunt Claudia, who reads Tarot cards for a living. And at the snooty prep school, a pack of filthy-rich girls treat Rebecca like she's invisible. Only gorgeous, unavailable Anton Grey seems to give Rebecca the time of day, but she wonders if he's got a hidden agenda. Then one night, in Lafayette Cemetery, Rebecca makes a friend. Sweet, mysterious Lisette is eager to talk to Rebecca, and to show her the nooks and crannies of the city.

My rating: ★★★★☆
This book had been on my to-read list for a while now. I am a HUGE fan of mysteries and especially ghost stories! And I thought Ruined was a great combination of both!

Showcase Sunday (#34)

Welcome to Showcase Sunday, hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea. The aim of this event is to showcase our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed form the libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week. For more information about how this feature works and to join in, click here.

Oh my gods, you guys. School has been super stressful lately, and I thought it was only going to be the one week! Now, I just cant wait for this quarter to be over! Only 1 more month! I swear, nursing school is going to be the death of me!

So, anyway, here is my 3 weeks worth of bookish things....

For review:

Spellbinding: thanks to Netgalley and Scholastic

Day After: thanks to J. Taylor Publishing

Godsmacked: thanks to Netgalley and Carpenter's Son Publishing

Unbroken: thanks to Netgalley and Scholastic

The Nightmare Affair: thanks to Netgalley and Tor/Forge

Insomnia: thanks to Netgalley and Flux Books

Bought:

I already own Ghost Hand as a paperback, but it was free for the last few days so I thought, "What the heck, why not? It was an awesome book!" (And by the way, I am having a giveaway of this awesome book right now! Just sayin' ;))

And Incarnate, I already have it also as an e-ARC, but seriously, these covers are SO freakin' gorgeous and the book is just AMAZING that I just had to buy it plus the sequel!

Gifted:

Thank you SO much to Emily @ Sharing Links and Wisdom for this RAK! It's Greek mythology related! SO exciting!! Thank you, thank you!

Won in a giveaway:

Fearless and ReVamped I won in a giveaway held by one of my favorite authors: Nikki Jefford! So thank you Nikki!

Ruined I won in a giveaway held by Mandee @ Compelled by Words...thanks a bunch!

Okay, I think that's all I got in the last 3 weeks. So, what bookish things did you get this week!

Giveaway: Ghost Hand by Ripley Patton

Hey guys, I have an awesome giveaway for you today!

This giveaways is now OVER. Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and the winners will be contacted shortly. If you are looking for giveaways, you can always check out the right sidebar of my blog, where you will always find something!

Olivia Black just discovered that her ghost hand, a rare birth defect, can do more than light up a room. It can reach into people and pull things out. Things from the darkest depths of the human psyche never meant to exist in this world.

Olivia can pickpocket the soul.

But she can’t control her ability, or the strange items it extracts, and the only thing between Olivia and the men bent on taking the power of her hand is a boy she barely knows and doesn't trust.

Hear me rave about this awesome book in my review! (spoiler free)

To enter just fill out the Google Doc down at the bottom. Ripley came up with a really fun way to enter the giveaway: Head on over to the book's Amazon page, click on the image (it says "Click to look inside"), and read the excerpt of the first few pages of the book! Once you have read the excerpt come back and answer these 5, fun questions. Easy, peasy.

And the author was awesome enough to offer up all these awesome prizes:

~3 e-book copies of Ghost Hand (international)

~One signed paperback (US only)

~Plus, the first three entries to get all the quiz questions right will get one of these little sticky Ghost Hands! (US only)

Cute, right? Disclaimer: ability to pickpocket the soul not guaranteed.

The Rules and Other-Important-Stuff-You-Should-Probably-Read:

• This giveaway has some INTERNATIONAL prizes on some US ONLY prizes.
• This giveaway ends Feb. 24th. The winner(s) will be notified by e-mail and will have 48 hours to claim the prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. (So please, when you sign in to the Rafflecopter form, use an e-mail you check often and double check that it is correct.)
• Must be 16 or older to enter or have parent's permission
• 1 entry per person. Duplicate entries will be deleted and participant will be disqualified
• Void where prohibited by law

After you read the excerpt come back here and let me know what you thought of it!
Thanks to everyone who enters, and good luck!

Know Me Better (#1)

I have decided to join Inspired Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, in this fun weekly post. Here we take 5 questions from our Author Interview list and answer them in a post. I highly encourage you, my readers, to answer theses long with me. Not only do I want you guys to get to know me better, but it would be great if I got to know my readers better, as well!

Tell us 5 random things about yourself.

1. I may have a slight obsession with the color purple ;)
2. I am in love with The Avengers! I cannot even tell you how many times I have seen the movies this year alone...lost count after 5. (Also, am watching Captain America as I write this.)
3. I love writing. At the moment I have a few stories in progress that I am writing just for myself. If I am happy with the outcome, in the future I might decide to share them with the world.
4. I love nail polish! I love doing my nails and making them look all pretty and stuff. But since I am a nursing student and they don't allow us to have nail polish while at clinicals, I haven't been able to do them more often *sad face*
5. And I LOVE mythology! Especially Greek mythology! But your probably knew that already ;)

Favorite TV show when you were younger?



Ah, the nostalgia.

Horror or Romance?

I'm all for a little romance, but to be honest with you and myself, I have to go with horror! It's one of my favorite genres!

Book Store or Library?

Um, both? If I've got $ to spend I'll definitely go to the book store, but if I am broke (like now...nursing school does that to ya) the library is my best friend!

What type of movies do you like to watch?

Again, HORROR! I went to watch "Mama" the weekend it came out and OhMyGods was it freaky! Awesome movie, if you're into that kind of thing! I don't know what it is about these kinds of movies, but I just love getting frightened! I think it was in a show where I heard that people like that feeling and all the adrenaline rush, yet you know nothing bad will happen to you because you are in a controlled environment...yep, that sounds like me!

Now it's your turn! Share an answer to one or more of these questions as a comment or post your answers on your blog and leave me a link here!

Review: The Athena Effect by Derrolyn Anderson

Title: The Athena Effect

Series: The Athena Effect #1

Author: Derrolyn Anderson

Genre: YA, sci-fi, paranormal

Publication date: August 2012

Published by: Derrolyn Anderson

Source: From the author for review

Add it to your Goodreads shelf

Buy it: Amazon | Smashwords

Synopsis:

Country girl Cali has been kept a secret her entire life, raised in isolation by two very troubled people. Despite her parent’s disturbing fits, Cal is perfectly content, living at one with the nature that surrounds her, and finding adventure inside the pages of her beloved books. When an awful tragedy tears her away from her remote cabin in the woods, nothing she’s ever read has prepared her for a world that she knows very little about.

Girls and motorcycles are what bad-boy Cal’s life is all about. Brought up in a raucous party house by his biker brother, he’s free to do as he pleases, going through the motions on his final days of high school. Aimless, Cal stopped thinking about his future a long time ago.

Attacked by a gang of thugs while running an errand for his brother, Cal is in serious trouble until a fierce girl appears out of nowhere to intervene. She chases off three grown men, sparing Cal a brutal beating before disappearing into the night like a spirit. He can’t stop thinking about his mysterious rescuer, and when she turns out to be the weird new girl at school who goes out of her way to avoid him, he can’t contain his curiosity.

He’s never met anyone like her before, and the more he learns about the unusual girl who shares his nickname, the more he wants to know. Cal can’t help falling for Cal, but can he keep her from falling victim to a dangerous enemy from her parent’s tragic past?

My rating: ★★★★☆
I really liked this book! I thought Cali's power was just super cool and really interesting.

Review: Phoenix Angel (Shardwell Series #1) by A. Gerry & C. Hall

Title: Phoenix Angel

Series: Shardwell Series #1

Author: A. Gerry & C. Hall

Genre: YA, paranormal

Publication date: January 2012

Published by: Scribes of Shardwell, LLC

Source: received for review

Add it to your Goodreads shelf

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis:

What is happening to us? I’ve asked this question a thousand times, but there is no answer.

I was a normal teenager, trudging my way through senior year with my best friend. Then a boy named Kyle Spencer came to Idaho Falls, and since then everything has fallen apart. Something mysterious has passed among the three of us. We’ve developed terrifying abilities—strange powers that separate us from normal people.

Even worse, someone—or something—has taken a deadly interest in us. We never know when they are going to strike, or how to protect ourselves. We don’t even know who they are.
All we know is that they want one of us alive, and we don’t know who. The others they want dead.

Which will I be?

My rating: ★★★☆☆
When best friends Maggie and Lily meet the new guy Kyle, weird things start to happen. All 3 of them start developing these (pretty cool) supernatural abilities and they have no idea why. Little did they know that soon their lives would be in danger. Someone/something out there is bent on killing them. But the million dollar question is: why??