Current Events:

I have been doing some thinking and I've come to the conclusion that I need to take a temporary break from book blogging. NOTE: Any tour stops that I've committed to will be honored. I have decided that I want to combine my love of books, blogging, knitting, movies digital photography and life in general into 1 blog so that I don't feel so overwhelmed. Right now I feel like my book blogging is a job, I already have one of those. My plan is to come back in the near future with a new blog and a new plan.

My Weight Loss Progress

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Blog Tour ~ Creed's Honor by Linda Lael Miller

Creed's Honor (Montana Creeds, #6)

Title: Creed's Honor
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

 Conner Creed knows exactly who he is: a hardworking rancher carrying on his uncle's legacy in Lonesome Bend, Colorado. Maybe a small-town cowboy's life isn't his dream, but he owes the man who took him in as a kid. Until the identical twin brother he's been estranged from for years reenters his life.

Conner struggles with identity issues as he gets to know his wilder brother. And then he meets Tricia McCall, a beautiful woman who knows a thing or two about living someone else's dreams. Together, they just might find their own dreams right here in Lonesome Bend….

Review:


Connor Creed has all but given up on his own dreams and has decided that he's going to follow in his uncle's boot prints and become a rancher in his hometown of Lonesome Bend, CO.  I thought that the name of the town was more than appropriate for Connor and the way he happens to be feeling.  Then his wild card twin brother, Brody, shows up which is difficult for Connor to swallow.

Tricia McCall ends up in Lonesome Bend after the death of her father and she decides to take over his trailer park for him.  She doesn't intend to stay long, just long enough to sell the trailer park and move herself up to Seattle.  However, her crafty grandmother is working double time behind the scenes to get Tricia and Connor together.  Slowly but surely things start to progress along, then a stray dog named Valentino and Tricia's goddaughter are added to the picture.

I really enjoyed this book a lot.  I can hardly wait until the next book in the series comes out!  The thing that I really liked about this book was it was a romance with some drama and pent up emotions thrown in to keep things interesting.  The dialogue and the interactions between the characters, major as well as minor, felt so natural and like your actually there witnessing the book play out.

Friday, June 17, 2011

My Friends new blog

Greetings and salutations!

I just wanted to give a little shout out to you all and let you know that my friend "Bumps" (blogger prefers to remain anonyomous) has started up a blog.  She's decided to take the book/knitting/everyday life blog route as well.  You can check her out at Bumps in the Road.  She'll be reviewing Blood Red Road in a day or two.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Tour Stop ~ The Lens and the Looker by Lory S. Kaufman

The Lens and the Looker (The Verona Trilogy, #1)
Title: The Lens and the Looker
Author: Lory S. Kaufman
Series: The Verona Trilogy #1
Genre: YA, Sci Fi

Synopsis:

THERE'S HOPE FOR THE FUTURE,
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PAST?

It’s the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences (A.I.s) have finally created the perfect post-dystopian society. To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan.

In this first of a trilogy, we meet three spoiled teens in the year 2347. Hansum almost 17, is good looking and athletic. Shamira, 15, is sassy, independent and an artistic genius. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck. But you don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to find his insecurities.

These three “hard cases” refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach. But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices; adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die. The dangers are many, their enemies are powerful, and safety is a long way away. It’s hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but that’s exactly what happens. In an attempt to survive, the trio risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history.

Review:

I thought that this book was very interesting.  From the premise right down to the characters.  I'm very glad that I was approached about this book as well as the second book in the trilogy as well.

The story takes place in 2347 where humans have been able to create a utopian type society after a massive disaster nearly wiped out humanity and the world as a whole.  This is where we meet our main characters Hansum, Shamira and Lincoln.  Three privileged teens who have never known any other society besides this "perfect" society.  In their world they are babied by artificial intelligences that were created with the absolute sole purpose of keeping the kids safe and happy.  Which has led to this particular trio to be so spoiled I felt the need to slap them a couple times.  But in the book, this particular problem is solved by their schools and parents agreeing to send them to History Camp.  Which to me sounded like a futuristic version of Boot Camp.

Then these three kids are kidnapped by a rogue time traveler who transports and drops them in the middle of "real time" medieval Italy.

Which is where things get interesting...Really interesting.  Overall, I thought that the world and the characters that Mr. Kaufman created were very original and very realistic.  Personally, I was extremely fascinated by the A.Is. They too were written in a very realistic and believeable manner.  I was very impressed by all the descriptions of 12th century Italy.  It had to be a blast to research all that history?! (I'm a little bit of a history buff)  Though I did think that the futuristic world that was created was a little bit bland. Because of the blandness of the beginning I did have a little trouble getting into the book but once I go into it I was really happy with the results.

RATING:

3.75/5


If you are interested in this book, Mr. Kaufman’s website is here: http://www.history-camp.com/.

Taking a TEMPORARY break

Good morning.

I have been doing some thinking recently and I've come to the conclusion that I need to take a little break from book blogging. NOTE:  Any tour stops that I have committed to will be honored.  I have decided that I want to combine my love of books, blogging, knitting, movies, digital photography and life in general into 1 blog so that I don't feel so overwhelmed.  Right now I feel like my book blogging is a job, I already have one of those.  My plan is to come back in the near future with a new blog and a new plan.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Blog Tour ~ Hunter's Fall by Shiloh Walker (Attempt #1)

Hunter's Fall (The Hunters #13)

Title: Hunter's Fall
Author: Shiloh Walker
Release Date: 6/7/2011
Source: ARC received as part of The Book Vixen's tour

Synopsis:

Nessa lost her memory following a near-death experience. Dominic is a Hunter dealing with his own problems with memory and sanity. When the two are put together to battle the forces of darkness-while trying to restore what they've lost-their all-consuming passion becomes an even greater unknown.

Review:

This review is actually pretty difficult for me to write.  So far I'm seeing a fair amount of 3, 4 and 5 star reviews for Hunter's Fall and I wish I felt the same.  I was all excited about being a part of the tour for this book and up until this point I hadn't found a Shiloh Walker book that I couldn't put down.  I'm not sure what happened or didn't happen but I just could NOT get into Hunter's Fall.

I'm hoping that part of the problem is that I hadn't read any of the other books leading up to this one.  I've already decided that I am going to see if the Hunter books are available in my library system.  I don't want to completely give up on Hunter's Fall.  From the other reviews that I've been seeing about this book, it sounds very promising.  Maybe I just had too much paranormal all at once.

So here's the breakdown...I'll start with my list of positives first.

I was really excited about the opportunity to read another one of Shiloh Walker's new books.  She's had me hooked since I read Broken.  I was also very excited about the premise for the book.  I really hadn't ever read a book about witches that also dealt with the "issue" of re-incarnation.  Also, I hope that the cover that is available on Goodreads is the final cover...I REALLY like it a LOT, very much a less is more cover. 

Now for my list of negatives....

I wasn't able to get through the whole book so I don't know at this time if this particular issue cleared itself up or not as the book progressed, but I had a really hard time connecting with the main characters. From the portion of the book that I did get read I felt disconnected from the characters.  I also had moments where the story confused me. There were points where I was confused as to what tense the story was in.

Overall, I really wanted to get into Hunter's Fall but at the time I just was not able to.  I'm also hoping to make a second attempt to read Hunter's Fall cover to cover after it is released.  I do want to thank The Book Vixen for letting me be a part of this tour...I just wish I was able to get into the story.

RATING:

DNF

The Tour Schedule:

Tour Schedule:
5/30 - The Book Vixen
5/31 - Alice White Blogs
6/1 - My Overstuffed Bookshelf
6/3 - Jamie's Bookshelf
6/6 - Lush Book Reviews
6/7 - Seduced by Books
6/9 - Tori @ Smexy Books