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Showing posts from 2012

Review: Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig (Miriam Black #2)

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Thought I wouldn't get time to get in a review before the year ends but then I realized I'd written this two months back and forgot to post it! TITLE: MOCKINGBIRD (Miriam Black #2) AUTHOR: CHUCK WENDIG PUBLISHER: ANGRY ROBOT GOODREADS SUMMARY: Miriam is trying. Really, she is. But this whole "settling down thing" that Louis has going for her just isn't working out. She lives on Long Beach Island all year around. Her home is a run-down double-wide trailer. She works at a grocery store as a check-out girl. And her relationship with Louis--who's on the road half the time in his truck--is subject to the piss and vinegar Miriam brings to everything she does. It just isn't going well. Still, she's keeping her psychic ability--to see when and how someone is going to die just by touching them--in check. But even that feels wrong somehow. Like she's keeping a tornado stoppered up in a tiny bottle. Then comes one bad day that turns it all

Guest Post: Prophecy Girl

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I'm taking a minute to breathe here, and announce before we go into the guest post that I'm so very very sorry for all the erratic posting that's been happening on the blog. There's just too much going on in my life! Add to that finals-related stress, and I'm like a zombie with a polka-dotted headband, shuffling around the house in pajamas the whole day. (Plus Jeremy Carver is killing me with Supernatural Season 8, dammit) This is the last post for the year, guys and girls. I'll be back new year with a new design and other stuff. But wait! Today we have Faith McKay, author of Prophecy Girl, doing a guest post for us! Welcome, Faith! On to the guest post! Ten Facts You Didn't Know About Prophecy Girl + Every character in this novel has at least one nickname, though only some of them are mentioned in Prophecy Girl. + The working title for many years was NEXT SERVICES, because of a sign in the valley that reads Next Services: 74 Miles. The scene in

Review: Black City by Elizabeth Richards (and an SPN tangent)

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Publisher: Penguin My Copy: e-book purchased for iBooks Goodreads Synopsis A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war. In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong. When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths. RATING: 2.5 STARS To say I had high hopes for this book

Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

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Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war. This is not that world . Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is--and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it. In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life. While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope. But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream? Oh, Laini Taylor, you wonderful wom

Trifecta Writing Challenge: Cut Out Ones Will Suffice

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For Trifecta Writing Challenge: Prompt is Year (as in usually represented by a number) NOTE: How this one came to be, I have absolutely no idea. At first it was about sisters. Then it was about basements. Then I watched too much Supernatural.  Suffice to say, this one is the most scary 333 words I've ever written. Hear me? Morbid! Very! Apologies in advance for any nightmares. source:  http://vvola.deviantart.com I'm calling this....CUT OUT ONES WILL SUFFICE. Here we go! “Rose.” Three times, like a charm. Whispered so soft that I can pretend not to have heard it; pretend that the sound of my name has gotten lost in the space between us; has become entangled in the clouds of hair that spans a golden bridge between us. “It’s time, Rose. It’s almost here, the new year.” “I wish it weren’t.” “I’m sorry, Rose.” I open my eyes. Marie’s eyes are open and violently blue. Ships are wrecked in the maelstrom of those irises. Cornflower fields bloom in mine.

Trifextra: Halloween, Zombies and 33 Words

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Hullo, Halloween. You mean nothing to me except pumpkins and scary movies on English TV channels, and I find that a little sad, since you seem kind of fun.  I first heard about you from R.L Stine's Goosebumps books when I was a kid. I thought of you as a mega costume-party. My favorite version of you is, of course, from Harry Potter- that isn't going to change- at least until I see you for real if I ever visit a Western country on Oct 31st. That said, you inspire a lot of creativity, especially among writers, and there's nothing wrong with a good dose of creepy on a sleepy Saturday. So here's the Trifextra Writing Challenge, this week in the spirit of Halloween:  In 1937, a naked woman was found limping through the streets of Haiti. Upon interrogation, she was unable to give any details as to her identity. The woman was eventually identified in hospital as Felicia Felix-Mentor. The only issue is that Felicia Felix-Mentor had been dead for nearly twent

(Review) Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan leaves me...very VOCAL!

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Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan Goodreads Summary: Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return.  The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find an

Waiting on Wednesday- Waves and Devils!

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Here we are, post-hiatus! And what better way to be back in the blogosphere than with two awesome pre-publication can't-wait titles! Happy WoW guys! (There will be more on the hiatus, and pictures, later. For now----here we go!) This week both my picks have something in common: beaches. I'm in that phase where I'm finding books set by the seaside and devouring them. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke (Goodreads Author) You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand… Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could

Sunday Scribblings: Existing and Living

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For Sunday Scribblings, and the prompt is "Revolution".  Sunday Scribblings  I took the earth-goes-around-sun definition of "revolution", and here's a little fantasy nugget: image by 2753productions on deviantart The other world revolved around the sun in exactly 12 hours, and we looked at the people there and pitied them. There were six hours for sleep and six hours for work, and no time for leisure. There were no dogs on leashes being walked by its owners and no galleries full of art connoisseurs blabbering about symmetry and surrealism. There were no parties that went on till the morning and no time to learn the names of the constellations. Once they had beautiful names and shone with the majesty of their mythology, but now they were just stars in an unordered cosmos. There were no beautiful ponds of koi fish as there was no time to admire them, and birthday cakes were simple things with no butter-cream or chocolate. Wedding

Trifextra Writing Challenge: 66 word story

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The Trifextra Writing Challenge is a writing challenge that happens every weekend- and it's a lightning fast one at that! This week, the challenge is to add 33 words to this 33-word story: The last strains of sunlight lingered in the corners, grasping every available point of refraction.  She slid her fingertips along the glass wondering if this was all there ever was. Or could be. Here's my take on the challenge: thanks to wb-skinner on DeviantArt for this image The last strains of sunlight lingered in the corners, grasping every available point of refraction.  She slid her fingertips along the glass wondering if this was all there ever was. Or could be. She had spent hundred years collecting as much as possible, and there was never enough happiness in the world to fill a bottle. But sorrow was black as tar and filled entire rooms. (I just couldn't help but go all fantasy on this as well) Happy Weekend! Be back tomorrow with Sunday Scribb

Sunday Scribblings: Gypsies or Dragons?

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Note: I want to tell you so many stories. They're just bouncing around in my head, and I don't know which to write. I don't know how to start because the images and characters are so strong in my mind I'm afraid they won't translate as well to paper. I could cry, but instead I'll write till I get it right, or until a particular little story sits up and says "Just publish me on the blog, already!" This one is kind of weird. It got stuck in my head and spun round and round and wouldn't let go, although I kept telling it that it was too fantastical for such a tiny, insignificant, dreamy little thing. The unedited version had a paragraph about 700 sheep and another one about The Sound of Music, but somehow I couldn't put that in the final version. This one is for Sunday Scribblings , and the prompt is Soothe. Her soul was restless- twisting and turning, trying to break out of its shell, fluttering wildly as a butterfly caught in che