Wednesday Wishlist (#5)

Title: The Secret History
Author: Donna Tartt
Published: 1992
559 pages

Goodreads blurb:
Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning....

Well how intriguing does that sound? I heard about this book from Mercedes at MercysBookishMusings on YouTube. This was in her list of her favorite books and the way she described it made it sound really good. I also saw that LukeLaneReads, also on YouTube, gave this a 5/5 star review and I usually trust his judgment. I have this one on hold at the library right now and I don't know if I can wait that much longer. I am tempted to go out and buy it so I can start it right now! 

Book Review (#3) - The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author: Megan Shepherd
Published: January 29th 2013 by Balzer + Bray
First in The Madman's Daughter series
432 pages 

Sixteen year old Juliet is frowned upon in the town of London, and it is all because of her father. She is making a living for herself by working as a maid and keeping low. Her mom passed away soon after her father left so she's all alone in the town. But when she finds out her father is alive, and continuing the work he was kicked out of London for, everything changes. She travels to the island where he has been hiding. When she arrives she finds that her dad has created an island full of animals that he has performed on to turn them almost human-like. This is the work that got him banned from London. Now the question is, can she make her father cease this horrible and disturbing work?

This book is based off of the book The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. I have never read that book before and I don't think it is necessary to do so before reading this one. In my opinion it was probably better because then you don't know the outcome. There were tons of twists and the ending was a complete shock to me, even though I feel like I should have seen it coming. I really loved the writing style that Shepherd gave in this book. It really reminded me of Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavor (which I really enjoyed even though it was very creepy, disturbing and eerie). The way settings and characters are described and portrayed, it feels like you are just thrown onto a creepy island with strange vivisected animal/human creatures. As a debut novel, I think Shepherd did a beautiful job and I feel like this is the beginning to a great series.

I'm really hoping in the next book we will learn more about Montgomery, who was my favorite character. He was definitely the most interesting of the bunch, along with Jaguar. Juliet's father really makes the perfect villain; he is insane and heartless, and as the title suggests, he is quite the madman.

I cannot wait to see where she takes this series. The sequel Her Dark Curiosity is coming out in 2014 and it is inspired from the Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Book Haul (#2) - 37 Books (Part 2)

Book Haul (#2) - 37 Books (Part 1)

Wednesday Wishlist (#4)

Title: Touch
Author: Alexi Zentner
Publication: April 4th 2011 by W. W. Norton & Company
Pages: 264

Goodreads blurb:
In Sawgamet, a north woods boomtown gone bust, the cold of winter breaks the glass of the schoolhouse thermometer, and the dangers of working in the cuts are overshadowed by the mysteries and magic lurking in the woods. Stephen, a pastor, is at home on the eve of his mother's funeral, thirty years after the mythic summer his grandfather returned to the town in search of his beloved but long-dead wife. And like his grandfather, Stephen is forced to confront the losses of his past.

Touch introduces you to a world where monsters and witches oppose singing dogs and golden caribou, where the living and the dead part and meet again in the crippling beauty of winter and the surreal haze of summer.


I first heard about this book through Jason from theheavyblanks. He is constantly raving about how amazing this book is and his enthusiasm for it really makes me want to check it out. Every time I go to my local book store I search for this book, and they never have it. So I might have to cave and finally order it online. Also, this book is by a Canadian author and I would really like to read more Canadian works. 

Bout of Books 8.0 Day 1 & 2 Updates

Day 1
The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - read 7%
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - read 72 pages
Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander - read 20 pages

Day 2
The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - read 3%
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - read 6 pages
Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander - read 25 pages

I didn't get anywhere near as far as I wanted to on day 2, but I ended up getting so busy. Today has been better and hopefully tomorrow will be even better!

How are you doing with your goals?

Book Review (#2) - The Prelude by KaSonndra Leigh

Title: The Prelude
Author: KaSonndra Leigh
Published: 2003 by KaSonndra Leigh Books
First in A Musical Interlude series
328 pages

"Love, I have this to say to you: "You tore open my heart. You made me feel pain when all I wanted to feel was joy. So now, I will remove your power over me. I'll never kiss anyone or trust in any dream that you can take away from me. I will never believe in you again.""

Erin has had a really hard life. Everything that she cares about has been taken away from her so she vows to never trust or love again, or kiss anyone on the lips(...who doesn't like kissing?!).  So to put the past behind her, she moves to Italy to pursue a career as a designer. Her company is hired on to design outfits for a show being put together by a famous Russian maestro. This is how Erin meets Aleksandr Dostovsky, (a.k.a Alek Dostov, although I prefer his full name better), the world renowned maestro from Russia. Both avoid emotional attachments, yet there is something there that can't keep the two of them away from each other.

Plot:
Okay so let's talk about the plot. When I first started reading this I kept thinking to myself "what on earth am I getting myself into, this is not my kind of story". But this book REALLY surprised me! This is so much more than a love story. There was so much back story, a Russian gang and family issues. It really covered a lot. So even though most of it was about the romance there were other things to distract. Most of the twists were surprises and a few you could see coming from a mile away, but all in all I was quite happy with how the story progressed.

Characters:
Can we just talk about Alek? I was hooked from the moment I found out he was Russian (I have some kind of weird obsession with Russia). He's got the dark hair and the sultry dark eyes with hints of blue and he is 6'2". Come on, I know you are interested already. He was probably my favorite character, even though I did mostly enjoy all of them. Although I didn't connect with Erin she was a strong character as well, even though she was a tiny bit whiny and cursed a little too much. Even all the smaller role characters were great. I loved learning about every one of them and I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book to learn even more.

Writing Style:
The authors writing style was quite simple (not that this is a bad thing), which made this book easy to fly through. I ended up reading it in just over a day. I also really like that she wrote in alternating points of views. Not often with romances do you get to see inside the mans head. I can't wait to read more by Leigh and see what she is all about.

Enjoyability:
Like I said in the beginning, I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book one bit, but I was pleasantly surprised. I already can't wait for the second installment in the series (The Crescendo, 2014, pictured below).

Overall I enjoyed this book and gave it a 4/5 rating.

And a warning, if you are under the age of 18, you should wait until you are of age to read this because of all the mature content.

A big thanks to the author for sending me this book for review!

Bout of Books 8.0 read-a-thon goals!

Here are a few of my goals for the read-a-thon this week!
I am about 6% through The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, so I would like to finish that first.
Then I would also like to read Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.
If I make it through both of those then I will be starting The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.
I'll be tracking my process each day!

Bout of Books 8.0 read-a-thon

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I participated in the Bout of Books 7.0 read-a-thon and I'm so excited to be doing it again! I will have my goals up tomorrow morning. If you guys are participating good luck! 

Wishlist Wednesday (#3)

This week on my wishlist Wednesday, I couldn't choose only one so I picked two books this week.

Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson
Published:1972
Put out again by HarperCollins in 2005
128 pages

The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale -- the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating -- has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

Title: The Best Halloween Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson
Published: 2004 by HarperCollins
144 pages

The Herdmans plus Halloween have always spelled disaster
Every Halloween, the six Herdman kids steal candy, spray-paint other kids, and take everything that isn't nailed down. And this year promises to be the same, until the Mayor decides to up and cancel Halloween. True, that means there'd be no Herdman trouble to contend with, but that also means no candy, no costumes, and no trick-or-treating! Is it possible that the Herdmans themselves could make what looks like a horrible Halloween into the best one ever?





I remember when I was younger, my mom used to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to me and Marissa. It really brings back old memories for me. I recently found out there were a few more in the series. I would really like to find these and read them this year.

Book Purchase (#3)

I went in to Chapters after I finished work today and picked up a little something for myself. 

Volume 2 of the Sailor Moon manga by Naoko Takeuchi. 

Angelfall by Susan Ee. 

I have heard nothing but good things about Angelfall so I really cannot wait to get to this one! An angel apocalypse sounds so badass. 

Tag (#1) - This Or That

Finally, a video with all three bibliophilesisters! We got together and decided to do a tag. We are not sure who first created this or what the real name was, but we had fun doing it anyway. Hope you enjoy!

July Wrap Up + August TBR 2013