The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.

Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.

The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

OMG! I COULDN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN! and it cracked me up. Well a lot of it did, there are some serious stuff and some love stuff which was all done soooooooooooo very nicely!



**SOME SPOILERS**

The book is about three best friends, Trixie, Meg and Harper. They go to Messina Academy for the Gifted - Mess for short :-) It's a school for nerds and geeks and I want to be one and hang with them! But I'm not smart like they are and I love that they love comics and graphic novels and all the cool tv shows and stuffffffff. Omg!


They are regulars at the comic book store and they get Marvel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and stufffff! Trix is saving up to get the whole collection of Doctor Who figurine's they have in the store. OMG!

They watch Sherlock and Doctor Who and all kinds of other cool stuff. There was even a reference to Hulk smashing something! I'm in love. I love my hulk smash.


I'm going to add random excerpts here and there. Oh and this is an UNCORRECTED PROOF copy of the book so quotes etc could be changed in the finished copy

When I first started the book, I thought they were in middle grade because they are sort of goofy acting but they are seventeen and can't wait to graduate. I fell in love with all of these characters! Trixie just wants to get through the school year and out and she is stumped that Harper and Meg suddenly want love. Harper finds it but I won't talk about that. Trixie has an ongoing fight since childhood with Ben West. All they do is fight and call each other names. <---- You know where that will eventually lead toward the end of the book.

•••••••

Ben West spent summer vacation growing a handlebar mustache. Seriously.

•••••••

My hand shot out and two fingers wrapped around the edge of his mustache. I yanked, just once. He yowled like a jungle cat and staggered away from me.
"Hmm," Meg said. "It is real."
I nodded. "Who knew, right?"
"Of course it's real," West snarled, stretching his face as he rubbed the injured portion. "God, you miserable harpy. I haven't reached out and grabbed you---"
"If you make one more comment about my chest," I said, brandishing a threatening finger, "so help me, West, I will end you."

•••••••

I reached over and flicked a piece of chicken nugget shrapnel from her specs. "I've had time to plan with all of the good TV being on hiatus. Without Game of Thrones, I get weird."
"That's why I took classes over the break," Harper said. "And rewatched Supernatural."
"God, I love the Winchester brothers," Meg said. She nibbled on the end of a chicken nugget. "You know, considering it's our senior year, normal people might be thinking about things like the harvest festival."

•••••••

I love this book so much. They are just some of the coolest kids. You just have to read the book if your interested in any of these things I have mentioned. I'm not sure it's a guy book, but still.

There are no major love scenes just a couple of couples kissing from time to time. It's pretty much about all of the friends sticking together and some finding things out about each other.

Some major stuff happens at the school and they have to rally together and prove their innocence and the innocence of others. But they are gifted and smart and they defeat the man!!!! You can't keep an awesome nerd down! :-)

I also love how Ben and Trixie finally realize they are good together. Well, there is a reason that happened, it wasn't like they just found out.. Ugg, I can't tell you how it all went down, it's really cool and I can't tell you that. One last little sweet excerpt.

"You're perfect," he stammered. His eyes flickered up to mine and held. "Don't ever stop being you."
"I'm just school and comics, too," I breathed. "I don't know how to be anything else."
"Don't be anything else. Be Trixie."

Awwww, oh and he turned her on to the Saga graphic novels. How cool is that!!!!!!! I love it!

Okay I'm done rambling on. Read it if you think it sounds like something you like. I loved it! I know, I said that, but I said it again! 


**I would like to thank St. Martin's Griffin for a print copy of this book through The Reading Room in exchange for my honest review. I would also like to thank Netgalley for a kindle copy as well, but I read the print book instead.** 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1586616209

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250079098/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=200PK5IIT8BDX&coliid=I18SQVYGQ9MLM3

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable--something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

I just read the craziest book and it was so good. I was going along wanting to find out what in the world has happened to Jason! Why has he lost his identity. Who are these people after him! I mean one minute, you have a wife and kid and then you don't. Your in another world .. ish.
AND. THEN. IT. WAS. DOWN. THE. RABBIT. HOLE. Just trying to enjoy this book and they lured me right on down that hole!



So now. What am I going to say in this review that won't give anything away. I mean this is a book that you need to talk about with people. It is full of science and alternate this and alternate that. Holy crow, the things Jason has to go through just to try to find his wife Daniela and his son Charlie is CRAZY!!!



The book is good though, it will definitely keep you on your toes and have a lot of those what the.. moments. And when you find out who is behind a lot of this stuff when he goes to different realities, it will throw you for a loop! I was like, no way!!!! I would not want to be this man!

Anyway, all of you science peeps out there should read it and some others too. I want to see what some of my friends think about it.

**I would like to thank Penguin Random House for a print copy of this book through The Reading Room in exchange for my honest review.**

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1623180579

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp/1101904224?ie=UTF8&keywords=dark%20matter%20in%20books&qid=1461942773&ref_=sr_1_2&s=books&sr=1-2

Exit, Pursued By A Bear by E. K. Johnston

“I love you,” Polly says suddenly when I’m almost to the door.

“I know,” I say.

Hermione Winters has been a flyer. She’s been captain of her cheerleading team. The envied girlfriend and the undisputed queen of her school. Now it’s her last year and those days and those labels are fading fast. In a few months she’ll be a different person. She thinks she’s ready for whatever comes next.

But then someone puts something in her drink at a party, and in an instant she finds herself wearing new labels, ones she never imagined:

Victim. Survivor. That raped girl.

Even though this was never the future she imagined, one essential thing remains unchanged: Hermione can still call herself Polly Olivier’s best friend, and that may be the truest label of all.

Heartbreaking and empowering, Exit, Pursued by a Bear is the story of transcendent friendship in the face of trauma. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

I wasn't sure I was going to read this book because it is about rape and I tend to be careful reading those kinds of books for personal reasons. I mean I can skim over them if they are too explicit. BUT this book is so freaking awesome! I know that sounds weird about a book where the girl gets raped but there is so much more to this book than meets the eye.

I'm guess I'm going to add some SPOILERS if you want to call them that because I'm not going to tell you who did it or anything like that. I just want to add some excerpts and talk a little bit about the people in the book so it might be considered "MILD SPOILERS"

Hermione is a sweet girl who is a co-captain of a cheerleading team. Polly, her best friend, is the other captain. They all go to camp where they practice with other schools they will eventually go up against. Hermione and Polly have a couple of new guys on the team they have to teach and Hermione's boyfriend is on the team as well. He's sort of... okay, he's a douche!

They are having grueling days of training and are allowed a couple of days here and there for fun. They have a little dance one night before they all start heading home from camp. This dance was supposed to be fun and it is until the jerk that slipped the drug into Hermione's drink.

--->EXCERPT<---

"Polly," I say. And then I can't stop saying it, "Polly PollyPollyPollyPolly," I'm near hysteria, I can feel it. I'm going to scream and scream and scream, to make up for the screaming I didn't do last night. I am going to pull my skin off and grind it into the floor and then I'm going to cry until I've got nothing left.
I don't do any of those things, though, because Polly climbs right into bed with me. She can move so fast. The nurse doesn't even have time to protest. She's on top of the blanket, and her legs are on top of mine, but her arms are around me, keeping me from flying apart, and suddenly I want to die slightly less than I did the moment before.

↑ Polly is a remarkable friend in this book. I wish I had a friend like her. She keeps Hermione grounded throughout the whole book. But Hermione isn't just a girl that gets raped and doesn't remember it. She's a girl that stands up to anyone who tries to make her that girl. She's strong and she has strong people on her side. This is what I loved about this book because if only more people had that in their life, maybe they could stand up to anything. Maybe they could find themselves. Maybe they wouldn't feel so alone and shunned. There is a powerful message from these two young ladies in this book.

I told you Hermione's boyfriend Leo is a douche in the book. He tries to play it off that she was flirting with guys and not paying attention to him enough. Like she deserved what happened to her. Little f*cker! But Hermione can handle it and she has plenty of people to back her up. 


"If you think I'm going to apologize for being drugged and raped, you have another thing coming," I say. I am surprised and impressed at how level I manage to keep my voice.

There are so many excerpts I could give in this review. I love so many. This book is just so good damn it. I recommend it to everyone. Okay, I have to do one more because I just... I just have to. 


"So let me get this straight," says Polly, her voice deceptively calm. "You're okay with asking a girl who was wearing a pretty dress and had nice hair, who went to the dance with her cabin mates, who drank from the same punch bowl as everyone else--you're okay with asking that girl what mistake she made, and you wouldn't think to ask the boy how he would avoid raping someone?"

That's the million dollar question right?

Hermione gets through this. She does have to make some hard decisions. She has to see a therapist. She starts to remember bits and pieces, nothing major. She makes plans with her friends on which colleges they are picking, she finds herself and just maybe she finds a little bit of true love in the mix, nothing major.

Freaking awesome book people!

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1623180127

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

 http://www.amazon.com/Exit-Pursued-Bear-K-Johnston/dp/1101994584?ie=UTF8&keywords=exit%20pursued%20by%20a%20bear&qid=1461873206&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

**NO SPOILERS**

I wasn't sure I could make it through this book. I worried what was going on constantly. And now...it's all over



I went through a lot of emotions in this book. The bad things that happened in the last book made me sad and I didn't know what was going to happen here. Yes, there are some sad things happen in this book. But I'm not going to give it away.



I will always love the Raven Boys and Blue and the women at 300 Fox Way. I think of them as the Raven Women. I'm so sad to see it's all over though.



--->EXCERPT<---

Blue didn't quite know how to say it; she didn't know quite what it was. "It. . . just feels like such a waste. Falling in love with all of them." All of them really meant all of them: 300 Fox Way, the boys, Jesse Dittley. For a sensible person, Blue thought that maybe she had a problem with love. In a dangerous voice, she added, "Don't say, 'it's good life experience.' Do not."

Something is not right in the world they have created. There is something evil going on, more so than they thought. Things are not what they seem...were they ever? There is death, there is life, there is nothing.

But something is trying to take down Cabeswater. And Cabeswater is not what it seems either.


--->EXCERPT<---

Cabeswater had taken so long to come to his aid. Only a few weeks before, a heap of roofing tiles had fallen on top of him, and Cabeswater had swept instantaneously to save him. If that had happened today, he would have been dead.
The forest whispered at him in its language that was equal part pictures and words, and it made him understand why it had been so slow to come to him.
Something had been attacking them both.

These books have been a wonderful journey for me. I loved them so much and yet at times I didn't understand what was going on but I still loved them. Bizarre... I know. I am that way I guess.

I think that anyone that hasn't read these books to give them a try. You may not love them but that's okay, at least you tried. I'm so glad one of my goodreads friends bought me the first book for Christmas or who knows how long it would have taken me to get to meet these wonderful characters.
 

 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1552481280

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Raven-King-Cycle-Book/dp/0545424984?ie=UTF8&keywords=the%20raven%20king&qid=1461848003&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Lust & Wonder by Augusten Burroughs

In chronicling the development and demise of the different relationships he's had while living in New York, Augusten Burroughs examines what it means to be in love, what it means to be in lust, and what it means to be figuring it all out. With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust and Wonder is an intimate and honest memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS

I remember way back when I worked at the post office and I was listening to "Running With Scissors" on my headphones and cracking up and being appalled at the same time. I could not help myself falling in love with the craziness that is Augusten Burroughs. He's funny and he doesn't care to share any and everything with people. If only we could all be that way.

This book is about his life when he finally started writing his books and getting them published. This is also about all of the crap he went through with numerous boyfriends. It seems he never could find the right one until the end of this book. I could feel his pain in a way because I have been with numerous jerk dudes through out my life but I gave up.

I don't know what it is about Augusten that is so funny and so out there. I guess it's just him being him and not really caring what the world thinks, at least in a sense. I mean it's pretty hard to put all of your intimate stuff in a book and hope to God people will love it.

Let me tell you, in this book, he had to deal with some real nutzy cuckoo's in his life and he also was a bit nutzy cuckoo himself but his younger life was a mad house. I felt for him in "Running With Scissors." Poor little boy. 


My childhood had been hijacked by drunks, pedophiles, lunatics, and surrealists, so I grew up in a world unrelated to the actual planetary body beneath my feet. I was at the mercy of the off-the-rails adults around me. The upside was, I became determined as an adult to do what I wanted: become an author, get published, become sober, get love.

Security and love, these were the two things I did not feel as a child, so I chased after them now, sometimes bumping into things and knocking them down in the process. I was an emotional Great Dane, hugely needy and clumsy.

Augusten also talks about getting sober and falling off the wagon for some time while he was with a man named Dennis. But he got back on the wagon again and on to another relationship. It's such a shame he had to waste so many years with these people that were nothing really.

This book is raw and open just like Augusten always is in his books. I loved it. He is really cool and I got to find out more things about him that I didn't learn in other books. I think anyone that has enjoyed his books before would like this one just as much.

*I would like to thank St. Martin's Press for a print copy of this book through The Reading Room in exchange for my honest review.*

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1550201892

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Lust-Wonder-Memoir-Augusten-Burroughs/dp/0312342039/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461286595&sr=1-1&keywords=lust+and+wonder+in+books

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS

This book is on my favorites list. There also may be some spoilers, hell I don't know.




And this book made me cry. The author brought all of these tragic things together into one powerful book. There are plenty out there that will think this book is not that great and some that will love it to death, but none of that matters. It's what makes you happy and this book made me so happy. It is a world I wanted to be in just to meet these people. People that I hated, people that I loved. I wanted to be there. I wanted to be best friends with Skylar, Dylan and Chris. I wanted to know Marge and work at the damn Paradise Motel where she is the owner and where Skylar worked. One of Skylar's jobs I should say. I wanted to be in that small town with them all. I'm not afraid of small towns, my family grew up in one and I love the thought of everyone knowing everyone else.

I tilted my head back and looked at the dusty green leaves dangling above me. I felt like I was in another world, a planet of trees. I drew closer to her as we walked and laid my head on her thick shoulder. Marge rested a hand against my hair for a moment. We kept walking to the sound of her labored breath and hundreds of trees shaking in the wind--all of them whispering, pleading, crying.
"Josh said he told you about my son."
"Yeah". I looked up at her, frowning. "I hope that was okay."
She smiled her sad smile. "Of course, sweet pea. I could only tell the story once, and Josh was the one who needed to hear it. But I'm glad you know."

Marge is a wonderful person to everyone and she did have something tragic happen in her life a long time ago.

Skylar and Josh have known each other all of their life just like everyone one else pretty much. They both even worked at the Paradise Motel together until he went and joined the Marines. But he came home, missing a leg and a best friend who he feels responsible for. Skylar sort of had a crush on him before he left even though him and his family are the trouble maker boys. On his return he is different and why wouldn't he be after what he went through. He has many sides, the same asshole, a calmer guy, and a guy with so many problems. Either way, Skylar wants to get to know him again and she still has a little crush on him.

Not everything is simple for everyone in the book. Skylar is still dealing with her dads death from a few years back. Her mom has lost her job and doesn't want to go back and Skylar has to figure out how to pay on their bills with their trailer and everything else. Then her mother starts drinking again and brings someone that isn't all that great into their lives. Bless Marge because she takes Skylar in and Skylar has to decide if she's still going to university on her scholarship or take care of her mother.

Skylar's best friend Dylan has a child but the father is around and loves her so maybe that will work out. Skylar's other best friend Chris is going off to college as well and while this is all great.. Skylar is starting to think that maybe she doesn't want to leave her little town. She's falling in love with Josh and her mother needs her.

Josh and Skylar have a very hard relationship. Skylar wants to be with him and has this love hate thing going and Josh is having so many problems feeling like a failure and half a man. They have a lot of nice talks and arguments at the motel pool, the train tracks and the creek.







Josh took me to the Paradise pool (or, rather, I took him, since he wasn't totally sober yet), which was perfectly clean after his afternoon with it. It shone like a new toy, and I grinned.
"Look at you, "he said, shaking his head. "You really got a thing for pools."
"They're my first love." Pools didn't get you pregnant, and they didn't die on you. who needed anything more?

Josh really wants to go back to Afghanistan and who knows.. maybe he will. There is something else stirring in his heart though.

Hanging out with Josh was like learning how to drive a stick. It was hard enough just to start and then it was one stall after another. But somehow I always managed to crawl forward, just a little bit.

This isn't a huge romance story. It is about two young people who find each other slowly. Who fall in love slowly. Who fight and cry and hurt each other because neither one knows what to do, but they will make it. They just will. And they do have some goofy times together. 


"Yeah, well.."There was the sound of some shuffling, then, "Oh, hey, you know what I ran across last night?"
"Do you mean ran literally or figuratively?"
"Ha-ha," he said.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Guess you're keeping me on my toes," he said.
"All five of them."
Josh laughed. "I walked right into that one---er, limped."

"A one-legged Marine and a virgin walk into a bar," Josh whispered.

I just love them! Although there is one part I hated Josh for doing to Skylar but they worked it all out and things do get better.

This book took me by surprise. I fell in love with the people, the town, the atmosphere, everything. I felt for each thing the people went through. It's a heart wrenching book and watching everyone fall into a place of peace, most of them, was something I most enjoyed. Thank you little book for making me happy but not making me cry. I love the cover as well.

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1611477420

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Meet-There-Heather-Demetrios/dp/0805097953?ie=UTF8&keywords=I%27ll%20meet%20you%20there%20in%20books&qid=1461260421&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Company Town by Madeline Ashby

Meet Hwa. One of the few in her community to forego bio-engineered enhancements, she’s the last truly organic person left on the rig. But she’s an expert in the arts of self-defence, and she’s been charged with training the Family’s youngest, who has been receiving death threats – seemingly from another timeline.

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city’s stability – serial killer? Or something much, much worse...? @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

I absolutely loved this book! It was not what I thought it was going to be, it was even better! The first line of the book got me right off the bat! 


Hwa wondered if today was the day should would finally get to finish that sorry son of a bitch once and for all.

In the beginning we meet Hwa, she is a bodyguard to the prostitutes on the rig. She makes sure nothing happens to them. Okay, I might have to put in some mild spoilers

Hwa, along with many other people, live on an off shore oil rig. There are a lot of them around and they have been bought out by the Lynch Company after the last rig blew up. Yay, not! At one point she is contacted by Daniel Siofra after a little run in they have. His boss, the big man, Zachariah Lynch, wants her to come and work for the company guarding Zachariah's son Joel.

Hwa decides to take on the job and she has to go to school/class with him. Basically everywhere she goes. Although, they do get in trouble at times talking during class :-) 


"Our company," he said. "Well, the self-assemblers our company owns. They're building another experimental thermonuclear reactor, right here. Underwater."
"Underwater." Hwa pointed at the floor. "Under this water?"
Joel nodded. "Under the city."
Hwa drew breath. "What the hell kind of James Bond villain bullshit-"

Hwa, Joel and Daniel form a bond and I love all three of them. Hwa starts teaching Joel how to fight and they all try to look after each other. But it seems there is someone coming after Hwa this time, she is always getting shot, blown up, in fights, you name it. But she's a real trooper. :-) 


"Hwa? He waved a hand in front of her face.
"Are you in shock?"
"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."

Things are much worse than any of them thought. There are some really bad things going on and a lot of Hwa's friends are starting to get killed in VERY gruesome ways!

Also, this is a world where people can have perfect health and augmentations, all kinds of scientific stuff but Hwa never went for any of that, she is a totally organic human. It's funny reading that in the book but that is what she's called.

I thought this book was awesome and it doesn't show this is book one so I'm not sure if there are going to be more, but the end left it open in case and I REALLY hope the author writes more books in this world. 
 

*I would like to thank Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.*

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1573595331

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Company-Town-Madeline-Ashby/dp/0765382903/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1461162612&sr=1-1

The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer

Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away.

When the portraits catch the attention of the public, threatening to reveal not only her identity, but all that lies beyond the edges of the canvases, Kat comes face to face with the true price of their beauty and with all that she now could lose.

Moving between the glamour of the London art world and the sensuous days of a love affair in a dusty Paris studio, life and art bleed together as Daniel and Kat's lives spin out of control, leading to a conclusion that is anything but inevitable. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

3 STARS 

I have to say when I first saw the cover of this book I wanted to read it. I read the blurb and thought it sounded good. Unfortunately, this was a 2 star rating through most of the book until I got closer to the end.

The story is about Kat, Jonathan and to a certain extent, their little son Will. They are living in a house they are fixing up. But Jonathan has to go to Hong Kong for work and Will goes off with other family members visiting.

I got confused because all of the sudden the book is talking about their family and then it's talking about Kat and her roommate. I thought wait, they don't have a roommate and I realized it jumped to the past. There was no, back in the day... etc.

The past is talking about how she met her former lover and artist, Daniel. Apparently they were so in love back in the day until some things happened and they ended it. Now, Daniel has shown up in her present and he's still painting pictures and they are still of her from when they were together. He's a very popular artist or up and coming. They start hanging out and other stuff.

The thing is, I wasn't invested in any of these characters. I didn't feel one thing for them until the end when some more tragic stuff occurred. I mean I feel for people when something really bad happens.

I was hoping to love this book but I just didn't feel it. Even though it wasn't totally for me doesn't mean other people won't love it to death. I just happen to think it was okay and that's good enough for me. :-)

*I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1614702411

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Bath-Novel-Mary-Waters-Sayer/dp/1250088216/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1461061807&sr=1-1

The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore

Akar Kessel, weak-willed apprentice mage, starts events that find a magical device, the crystal shard. Dwarf Bruenor rescues barbarian Wulfgar from the ruins of Ten-Towns, for 5 years of service - and friendship. With help from renegade dark elf Drizzt, Wulfgar becomes a warrior with brawn and brains. Can the trio stave off the crystal shard forces? @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

It doesn't matter. I will always ♥ love ♥ Drizzt & his trusted companion, Guenhwyvar



Drizzt Do'Urden trotted along silently, his soft, low-cut boots barely stirring the dust. He kept the cowl of his brown cloak pulled low over the flowing waves of his stark white hair and moved with such effortless grace that an onlooker might have thought him to be no more than an illusion, an optical trick of the brown sea of tundra.

In the first part of the book we find Drizzt helping out a few of the towns against a barbarian raid. He has help from his dear friend, Bruenor Battlehammer who is a dwarf. I love the banter and camaraderie between the two.

During this battle one of the barbarians that was in a fight with Bruenor was hurt by Bruenor himself. But the dwarf felt a soft spot in his heart for this young barbarian and took him in without killing him. He told the barbarian named Wulfgar, that he had to work for him for a number of years and then he was free to go. Wulfgar and Bruenor started feeling like family and when the time was up, Bruenor sent Wulfgar to learn fighting skills from Drizzt.

Meanwhile.... in another part of the tundra, this jerk of a wizard (Akar Kessell) gets lucky and finds a powerful magical piece called the crystal shard. He uses this for bad things of course. Controlling all of the giants, orcs and bringing demons through portholes.. stuff like that. Of course Kessell is going to attack the villages (like will everyone just leave them alone) with his huge army. He has the barbarians on his side too.

Drizzt and Wulfgar become good friends while Wulfgar is learning to fight and then truly fighting the evil peeps with Drizzt and Bruenor. Then Wulfgar wanted to go back to his people, which worried the others a little bit. They shouldn't have worried, he brought them to their senses. I love Wulfgar too ♥

This, that and the other happens and it ends all happy ever after with some funny stuff thrown in here and there. Now they are on the next quest to somewhere that I'm not telling you :-D 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1607375906

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Shard-Legend-Drizzt-Book-ebook/dp/B000SEIJNI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1461008008&sr=1-1

Jackaby by William Ritter

“Miss Rook, I am not an occultist,” Jackaby said. “I have a gift that allows me to see truth where others see the illusion--and there are many illusions. All the world’s a stage, as they say, and I seem to have the only seat in the house with a view behind the curtain.”

Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary--including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain it’s a nonhuman creature, whose existence the police--with the exception of a handsome young detective named Charlie Cane--deny.

Doctor Who meets Sherlock in William Ritter’s debut novel, which features a detective of the paranormal as seen through the eyes of his adventurous and intelligent assistant in a tale brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

BLOODY BRILLIANT



I love Jackaby and I think Sherlock would approve of him too and find him rather funny, which he is I might add.

Okay, like I said, I love Jackaby and I love Miss Abigail Rook! They are a perfect match as you get to read about them in the book, but the first meeting was what I found rather comical or disturbing - depending on how you look at it :-)

It was the eyes, I think, that startled me the most, opened wide and staring with intense inquisition. It was the eyes-and the fact that he stood not half a pace from my stool, leaning ever so slightly in, so that our noses nearly bumped when I turned to face him.

there is some stuff in between all of that and then:

"Hello?" I managed to say, when I had regained balance atop my stool. "Can I help-?"
"You're recently from the Ukraine." It was not a question. His voice was calm and even, but something more...amused? He continued, his gray eyes dancing as though exploring each thought several seconds before his mouth could voice it. "You've traveled by way of Germany, and then a great distance in a sizable ship...made largely of iron, I'd wager."

This was Miss Rook's first encounter with Jackaby when she came ashore. She had been traveling around trying to get in on any archaeological digs that she could. She wanted to be like her father but her parents wanted her off at university and to find a good husband. Um, no. So, she ran away. Now she is in America looking for any kind of work that she could get until she decided what to do next.

Miss Rook goes all around town trying to find a job, but to no avail. One person told her to go over to the post office because they need help a lot of the time. Nothing there either... but wait... there are some bulletins put up on a board and there is one she is interested in. <--- We all know where this is headed right? The man himself, Jackaby, needs an assistant.

Not long after Miss Rook is trying to talk Jackaby into giving her a chance they are rushed out to check out a murder scene. One they shouldn't be on of course. You know, the cops hate having him around unless they ask for him.

Jackaby finds something fishy at the crime scene.. he detects something supernatural is the culprit! How totally awesome to have this type of supernatural mixed in with a Sherlock background. Once again, Brilliant I say!

There are a lot of comical parts in the book that I just loved. There is a part where they are at the crime scene investigating in another part of the building and Jackaby makes the mistake of telling a woman she is not special......... let that thought linger......

Jackaby turned at last. "Madam, I assure you, I meant only that you are not special."
I cupped a palm over my face.
The woman reddened several shades. Jackaby smiled at her in what I'm certain he felt was a reassuring and pleasant manner following a reasonable explanation. He seemed prepared to let the whole thing wash away as a friendly misunderstanding. What he was not prepared for, apparently, was to be socked in the face.
It was not a ladylike swat or symbolic gesture. The force of it actually spun the detective halfway around, and his trip to the ground was interrupted only briefly by the wall catching him on the ear on the way down.

So Jackaby and Miss Rook are on the case to find out what this being is that has started killing in a most horrific way. We get to meet some really cool creatures in the book... well not the evil one, but I digress.

Jackaby lives in a big ole place and he has some other things that live there with him. This would be two of my other favorite characters in the book, Jenny (the ghost) and Douglas ( the duck) <--- there is as story there but I will leave it to you to figure out.


Jenny the ghost, decides since it's her house/or was, that she wants Miss Rook to move in and Jackaby actually feels the same way. But before all of this was mentioned to Jackaby, Jenny took it upon herself to start moving things around in the attic so Miss Rook would have somewhere to sleep. And you know with all of those noises, Jackaby and Miss Rook thought someone had broke in which made for another little comic bit.

And with that it was settled. Jenny clapped her hands together and smiled brightly, and Jackaby turned to look at me. "What in heaven's name are you doing with my copy of Historia Lycanthropis?"
"I-what?" I answered eloquently.
"That book. What on earth are you doing with it?"
"Well, you had a stick."
His eyebrows furrowed. "This is a shillelagh. It was cut from Irish blackthorn by a leprechaun craftsman, cured in the furnace of Gofannon, and imbued with supernatural powers of protection. That"-he gestured to the book-"is a book."
"It's heavy, though. A leprechaun? Like, the tiny fellows who keep pots of gold at the ends of rainbows?"
"Don't be asinine. I mean a real leprechaun. That volume is a sixteenth-century original printing. I hope very much that you didn't intend to use it as a projectile."

I totally fell in love with this book. The characters. The monsters they met, which were some very nice ones by the way. The banter and wit. I just loved the book okay! It has an awesome cover too :-)

I think anyone that loves Sherlock, mysteries, the supernatural and snark, will love this book!

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1435225604

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Jackaby-William-Ritter/dp/1616203536/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1460919357&sr=8-1

Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder

When her heart is stolen by a seductive stranger, a young woman is swept away to a house atop a mountain of blood-red clay: a place filled with secrets that will haunt her forever.

Between desire and darkness, between mystery and madness, lies the truth behind Crimson Peak. From acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

  5 STARS 

 


Love.
Death.
Ghosts.
The world was drenched in blood.
A scarlet fog veiled the killing ground, then dripped down through the greedy, starved mineshafts into the tortured vats of claret clay that bubbled and gasped on the filthy, bone-white tile. Crimson earth seeped back up through the walls of mud. Allerdale Hall was ringed with brilliant red---a stain that clawed toward Edith's bare feet.
But that was the least of her troubles.
Hell's own child was coming for her. Implacable, unstoppable, a creature fueled by madness and rage, that had maimed and murdered and would kill again, unless Edith struck first. But she was weak, coughing up blood and stumbling and this monster had already claimed other lives--other souls--stronger and heartier than hers.
Snowflakes blinded Edith's swollen cornflower-blue eyes; red droplets specked her golden hair. Her right cheek had been sliced open; the hem of her gauzy nightgown had soaked up the blood, rot, and the gore.



I saw this movie a few days ago and had to buy the book and I am going to buy the movie when the price goes down. I loved them both, I don't care what anyone else thinks, they made me happy because they were so good and creepy. Plus, I wanted to smack some sense into people!

All Edith Cushing wanted to do was to become a writer, but she was turned down because she is a woman. And it was her understanding the man that turned her down believed that women should only write about love which infuriated Edith as she wants to write what she wants. She is a woman without means as her father, Carter Cushing, was very wealthy as he was a builder of beautiful buildings. Unfortunately, this caught the attention of one Sir Thomas Sharpe and he began to woo her. YES WOO!


This was frowned upon by Edith's father and her long time family friend since she was a child, Dr. Alan McMichael. Alan was secretly in love with Edith, but he was too close of a friend for her to be interested. Edith's father and Alan didn't think something was quite right with Mr. Sharpe and they were right!



Edith can also see ghosts which would be cool in a way. When Edith was child and her mother died her mother visited her one night (scaring her to death of course) to warn her....

But seconds later, as she turned on her side, she went absolutely rigid with shock. She felt the decaying hand wrap around her shoulder, smelled the damp earth of the grave, and heard the desiccated lips, a hoarse distortion of the voice she had known better than her own as it whispered in her ear:
"My child, when the time comes, beware of Crimson Peak."



If Edith only knew what that meant at the time! :-(

Edith's father paid off Mr. Sharpe and his sister Lucille so they would go away and leave Edith be....but.... that didn't really work. They made a show of leaving and Lucille did head back to Allerdale Hall at one point, but Thomas didn't leave without Edith. AND, Edith's father was brutally murdered. They didn't call it murder at the time but Alan had his reservations about the final report. None of it mattered for Thomas got what he wanted.

Sir Thomas's arm was around her, which would have been a breach of propriety had they not been affianced. It was all too soon, under circumstances too horrible to comprehend, and perhaps he was looking through the prism of his jealousy, but when he regarded the way Sir Thomas held Edith, it seemed that the man was determined to keep her in his grasp rather than to ease her suffering. She looked trapped, not protected.
Then Sir Thomas noticed his gaze and held it, steadily. It was an unspoken duel. Edith saw none of it. Alan knew that he had already lost, and so he tipped his hat, as one would do under such a circumstance to salute a grieving relative of the deceased. Encumbered by umbrella and fiance, Sir Thomas as unable to return the gesture, and so, inclined his head.



So now it's welcome to your nightmare my darling bride!



and nightmares Edith did have at her new home..living nightmares. She had a few different ghosts peeping in on her and checking out the new bride.



and a nice little tip, if you hear things in the hall or other places, don't go looking!

"You silly dog," she chided, but there was a quaver in her voice. She was fighting to stay brave. "How did you get locked out?"
She reached her hand around the knob and pulled--
--as, behind her, the little dog barked. She startled, then turned to see it--
--and behind the door, a linen closet, not a room; and crowded in, something, something, something crimson--
--whimpered; it whimpered and scratched incessantly.
Of course it saw; of course it knew what it was:
Rolling eyes, a clacking jaw, scarlet fear, a ruby-red woman shape, scratching with fingers of bone. A trail of brilliant, fresh blood floated up toward the top of the closet, defying space just as the monstrous apparition defied time.
But it wanted, need to be seen; it was wild for her to turn her head back from the dog. However, she did not turn. She did not see. But the door slammed shut.



All the while another ghost was watching the whole thing and thinking things in its head. Creepy! Edith pulls the door back open and finds a closet with nothing in it but containers that had recordings on them, these come out later in the book and the movie.

And then... when you think your over the closet thing....
From the floor, pulling itself out, a specter of purest scarlet, a grotesque revenant, emerged painfully, struggling, sucking its essence through the floor: the spine first, like taffy, then the back of the head while an arm withdrew as from a viscous, sticky sludge. Bright red bones stretched in unnatural shapes, weirdly, wrongly jointed; the hand slapped down as if for leverage, purchase. Every part of it red; the second arm raising upward, digging itself out. And as the bride stared, paralyzed in horror, it began to crawl toward her. Faceless, scuttling. Implacable, coming to her, at her, for her.



The dog had the right idea and cut a rug out of there!


.
At some point, Edith starts to realize that things are just not right in the place. Her husband acts weird, her sister-in-law acts weird and she finds out that there were three other brides and they were all killed and she is being poisoned as well. She starts trying to make her escape.

Meanwhile, Alan can't get the idea out of his head that things are wrong. He talks to Edith's lawyer and they both agree, also a hired man brings him some old papers showing where the Sharpe's mother was brutally killed. He then decides he's going to get Edith. She has already had papers sent over to sign all of her money into helping Thomas with his home and business, we see what's going on now


When Alan gets there he finds Edith with a broken leg from trying to escape the horrible Sharpe's. But... Thomas has started to have feelings for Edith and tries to help, his sister was the killer all along. She stabs Alan and then Thomas pretends to stab him again while whispering some things to him. Edith makes a mad dash away, Alan gets hidden, and crazy ass Lucille kills Thomas. Yeah, she's a nut job. But she gets hers when she goes to kill Edith and Thomas ghost shows up to help her in a sense.



Edith takes Lucille down and her ghost is trapped inside the home forever or until it is torn down I guess. Oh and the creepy ghosts, they were just trying to help Edith figure things out. She finally figured that out but damn, it's hard to think something looking like those ghosts are trying to help you. I would have died on the spot. There is a lot more things to the story but read it and watch it for yourself. Oh and they called the place Crimson Peak because the clay would come up through the ground in the snow and make it blood red.

I do believe that Alan lived and they all lived happily ever after, but they just show them getting help from the town, I just added the happy ever after :-)



And the ghost of Lucille Sharpe, alone, all alone forever, seated at the piano in the unforgiving cold. Playing the first note of the lullaby. 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1611676524

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Peak-Official-Movie-Novelization/dp/1783296291?ie=UTF8&keywords=crimson%20peak&qid=1460814130&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

Summerlost by Ally Condie

It's the first real summer since the devastating accident that killed Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben. But now Cedar and what’s left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They’re just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery. The mystery of the tragic, too-short life of the Hollywood actress who haunts the halls of Summerlost. And the mystery of the strange gifts that keep appearing for Cedar.

Infused with emotion and rich with understanding, Summerlost is the touching middle grade debut from Ally Condie, the international bestselling author of the Matched series, that highlights the strength of family and personal resilience in the face of tragedy. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

I really enjoyed this book. I loved Cedar and Leo, I actually loved all the characters in the book accept the couple of mean kids.

some spoilers

Cedar's little brother Ben and her father were killed in an automobile accident, it was a drunk driver. So, Cedar's mom decided to take her and her other brother Mile's to her hometown of Iron Creek. Here she bought a little house for them to do up and they could rent it out in the off months because they couldn't afford two houses. They are just down for the summer. Needless to say they are all devastated by their families passing. All of them have nightmares etc, but who wouldn't.

One day Cedar is looking out the window and sees a boy dressed up in some kind of costume riding his bike. She immediately thought of him as, Nerd-on-a-bike. But one day she decides to follow him and they end up meeting. He works at the Summerlost Festival which is a festival done up as Shakespeare. The boy's name is Leo and he helps get Cedar a job there too. Since they are not of age all they need is a written slip from their parents and they can earn some cash selling things like brochures etc. Cedar also ends up volunteering to help out in the costume department.

Leo is obsessed with one of the actresses that used to be in the plays there years ago. Her name was Lisette Chamberlain. She was also in some movies as well. Leo starts up his own little side business of taking people on little tours where Lisette was born etc. and he asks Cedar to be a part of it. They do a really good and professional job of it. Leo wants to save money to go to England to see a play.

I love the friendship that Leo and Cedar have, they are the best of friends. It was so sweet. Sob..

"I mean, I thought you were going to tell me that you wanted me to be your girlfriend or something."
"Oh man," Leo said. He looked embarrassed again.
"A minute ago you told me that you thought I was cute."
"Yeah," Leo said. "I mean, I do think that. But you're not my girlfriend. You're my person."
I knew right away what he meant.
I thought he was cute and he thought I was cute but it was different than it was when people have crushes.
With Leo I'd fallen into another kind of like. I couldn't wait to tell him stuff and I loved hearing him laugh at my jokes and I loved laughing at his jokes. He made me feel like I had a spot in the world.
It felt as if Leo and I could like each other all our lives.
So I hugged him.
He was my person too.

Sob again...

There was a part in the book where Cedar and her brother Miles start watching this soap opera, but they can't let their mom know.... I mean soap opera stuff. Then they end up getting Leo to liking it, then Leo's older - football playing - brothers start to like it. They are all sucked into this crazy day time tv soap opera. I loved it.

But really the book is about a family healing, about lifelong friendships forming and a wonderful summer. Bittersweet. 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1561733726

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Summerlost-Ally-Condie/dp/0399187197?ie=UTF8&keywords=summerlost&qid=1460734893&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

 5 STARS

 OH. MY. GOD!





This is NOT a sweet little Christmas story boys and girls. This is a book about the evil Charlie Manx who takes boys and girls to Christmasland to live forever and ever and ever.......



and Christmasland is not a place you want to be with your soul sucked dry.

Charles Manx cruises around in his 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith stealing children and feeding off them, not in the sense your thinking, but in another way.



He has a tag on the front of the car that says NOS4A2 and I always wondered what that meant, then I read the book, and find out.. imagine that!
"Does your license plate mean something?" Bing asked. "en=o-ess-four-a-two?"
"Nosferatu," the man Charlie Manx said.
"Nosfer-what-who?"
Manx said, "It is one of my little jokes. My first wife once accused me of being a Nosferatu. She did not use that exact word, but close enough. Have you ever had poison ivy, Bing?"

↑ That was Bing, one of Manx henchmen he uses over the years to take care of the kids parents.


↑ I couldn't resist! :-)

There is a little girl in the book named Victoria (Vic) McQueen and she is the only one that ever managed to not be killed as a child by Manx. She has a special ability of riding her bicycle over a covered bridge and come up in another place. She finds things and brings them back, but she can only do this on her bicycle. She also met another person on her travels that has an ability as well and they are sort of friends in that world and her name is Maggie. I really liked Vic and Maggie.

The book moves through different times in Vic's life, when she's a child, a teen and an adult. She barely escapes from Manx when she is a teen and decided to go looking for him. That wasn't a good idea at the time. But in the process she met Lou, a boy at the time himself. And Manx gets put away and in a coma for years. Until.......

Lou and Vic end up having a kid together and named him Wayne. Vic is far from normal though. I mean who would be right? She even has to do some time in the mental institution when she starts hearing the kids singing Christmas songs again and calling her on the phone. The Christmasland kids. Creepy!



As you can figure, Manx comes back with old stupid Bing to get Wayne and Vic. There is a major throw down with Vic and Manx and even Lou and Vic's father get involved to a certain extent. I really loved ole Lou, he was a good ole boy.

I'm not going to tell you the end game because those that haven't read it need to read it and I don't want to spoil it. I just know now... at Christmas.. I'm going to keep an eye out for any suspicious looking cars and creepy singing outside!



Merry Christmas! 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1319126751

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/NOS4A2-Novel-Joe-Hill/dp/0062200577/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1460668199&sr=8-1