Feature and Follow Friday [28] - English Lit Class

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by  and Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:
1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - This week's feature is:  Wonderland's Readers and Girl in the Woods
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This weeks Question:

Back to school. Create a reading list for the imaginary English Lit class you’ll be teaching this semester.

I think it's pretty important to have some classics in English Lit, and it's probably the only reason I ever read and enjoyed some of them. I also really like the idea of having some nice fresh new books added to the mix so my list will be a bit of both.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

What would your list be?

Harry Potter Moment of the Week [6] - Quidditch Player

This is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts.The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! She is picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All she asks is to link back to her blog :). There is now a full list of the topics to come here.

I want to be a SEEKER in Quidditch. I would love flying around minding my own business looking for that golden ball while everyone else was worried about the main action of the game. I think Harry's job on the team looks like the most fun. He does have the most pressure, so this position would bring a lot of stress, but being able to turn the tide of the whole game by winning that many points when catching the snitch would be a ton of fun and completely worth it.

Snitch picture created by Jaclyn

What about you?

ARC Review: Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1) by Jus Accardo

Published: August 19, 2013 Entangled Publishing
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy
Format: Kindle

Source: Sent by publisher for honest review

Goodreads Summary 

Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course...

When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.

Seven deadly ones, in fact.

They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they're recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing...

There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.

Sinfully Fun and In-Your-Face Action

I read the first chapter and had to know more right away! What I thought was going to be a cute supernatural-filled read turned into a high-powered, tilt-a-whirl sundae with OH MY toppings.

The Good

It was even better than the first chapter had me so excited for. I met a girl that's strong and stubborn working for an investigation agency with her mom. One fabulous thing about this story that I don't see often is that her mom is a large part of her life. She tries to set Jessie on the bench during the hard cases to keep her safe, but Jessie's too stubborn for that. I love seeing this caring mother though. Jessie's father plays the role of absent parent, and his story, even how it's revealed in bits, is incredibly interesting.

Lukas is by far my favorite character besides Jessie. He is the storm that rolls in and blows their town to smithereens. Handsome, charming, a bit naive, and great back-up, he brings the problem to their doorstep, but stays through thick and thin to get the mess cleared up.

The story and the writing are absolutely spectacular! I didn't want to put this one down for a minute. The whole concept of the Seven Deadly Sins being personified and snatching bodies was unique and exhilarating, then Jessie and her mom having such a small deadline to be up against to save the innocents kept the pace action-packed. There are epic twists, turns, and reveals within the pages of Darker Days.

The Bad

None - yep that's right. I don't remember one negative thing with this book. Even the cover is pretty!

The Romance

The romance is very YA and cute to read. Jessie and Lukas make an adorable pair. Lukas is amazingly good, handsome, and old-fashioned. Jessie needs an old-fashioned guy. She's a little rough around the edges and he helps smooth them out. I like seeing the two of them together.

There is an attempted rape to watch out for.

Conclusion

Wow! Talk about an ending! How could you do that to me Accardo? Smack me with the feels and make me get all invested and emotional? What a roller-coaster ride and cliff jump at the same time, but in a good way! This story should thrill any paranormal and urban fantasy fan. Jessie may be a YA character, but there is not a lot of the YA annoyances that may turn adult readers off. Darker Days has some great supernaturals, action galore, topsy-turvy twists, and a story-line that I must see continued in a second installment! Absolutely recommended.

Excerpts from uncorrected proof

"Seven Sins, Six Innocent People, Five Days, Piece of Cake"

"The woman could sleep through an alien invasion complete with marching band to announce their presence. Me? A fly farted downtown and I was up."

"Child Welfare would not be happy to hear you tried to feed your only child to a walking corpse."

Review: Cross My Heart, Hope To Die (The Lying Game #5) by Sara Shepard

Published: February 5, 2013 HarperTeen
Genre: Mystery YA
Format: Hardback
Source: Purchased

This is the 5th book in this series.  I try very hard not to put any major plot spoilers in any of my reviews.  However, this review may have a few minor spoilers for previous books.

Goodreads Summary

When I died two months ago, my killer told my twin sister to become me—or else. Now Emma has it down to a T. She tosses her hair with the signature Sutton Mercer flip and can lead a Lying Game prank with the best of them. She’s even repairing my relationship with my adoptive family. The only thing she hasn’t done is solve my murder.

Then our birth mother, the woman who abandoned us, showed up in Tucson. Emma hasn’t seen Becky in twelve years, but Becky recognizes Emma immediately—as Emma. Is it a mother’s intuition . . . or does Becky know I’m already gone?

“At least she had a clear picture of what the Lying Game was now: Girl Scouts for psychopaths.” 

Ok, so everyone knows I am in love with Pretty Little Liars.  When Sara Shepard started a new series called The Lying Game it made my heart dance. This series is about a young foster girl named Emma.  She has been moved from foster home to foster home the majority of her life.  She often wondered what it would be like to have a real family.  Well lo and behold, she comes across this strange video online of a girl who looks exactly like her.  She gets all Nev from Catfish and figures out this girl is actually her twin sister, Sutton.  Long story short, she goes to meet this twin sister and finds out she has been murdered.  She now pretends to be Sutton to try to figure out who killed her.  The twist is the story is told from Sutton's ghost's point of view.   

“Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies.” 

The first book was simply amazing start to end.  The second book was a slow start but quickly gained momentum.  The third was good but not great.  The fourth book did not impress me at all.   Now skip ahead to book 5 Cross my Heart, Hope to Die.  In this book, the twin's birth mother comes back.  She is very mentally disturbed, but her reappearance leads to more questions than answers.  Even in all her hysteria, she calls Emma by name.  Could it be even after over a decade of not seeing her daughter, her bond is so strong she knows which daughter is which?  Or could she be the one responsible for Sutton's death?  There is also a new girl in town, who seems to see things that others can't.  She noticed right off the bat that Emma and Sutton's aura were totally different.  With her snooping around, could she blow Emma's cover as Sutton?

I really enjoyed this book.  After the disappointing last book, I was skeptical on this one.  However the author did a much better job on keeping the story moving to me on this one.  The mystery of who is behind it and everyone looking so suspicious is such a delight for me to read.   The 6th book comes out next week and I am excited to know what will happen next!!!

Brings Joy to my Life:

I love the story telling from Sutton's point of view.   The neat thing is since becoming a ghost, she somehow is attached and follows her twin around.  But she can only see what Emma sees.  So if Emma closes her eyes, Sutton sees darkness.  In life, Sutton was the head mean girl.  Emma is the nice, smart, goal oriented one.  So to see this contrast by Emma trying to step into Sutton's life unnoticed makes for good entertainment.  Even in death, Sutton is jealous and still holds some of her old mean ways of thinking.  However, seeing things thru Emma also makes Sutton rethink some things she did in life.  I LOVE the air of mystery. There are so many clues as to who it could be.  So many that it really could be anyone.  They have ruled out a few in previous books before.   But there is still no clear answer as to is behind the murder.  And who would even know enough to know they were twins.   Much like the Pretty Little Liars series, you read the whole book and you learn stuff, but in the end you still know nothing.  It is what makes the books great and hurts my feelings all at the same time.  I am sure when the killer is revealed I will be surprised just like I was in the PLL series.

Small sadness no tears:

Two months have passed since Emma has taken over Sutton's life.   She struggled a lot at first trying to figure stuff out, but she is getting a better grasp of who Sutton was and how she handled things.  However, she still does a lot of stuff in true Emma fashion.  That in itself is not my problem.  My issue is why no one really questions why in the world there is such a big change in Sutton's personality.  Not really a major issue, I guess if people questioned it too much, the book/story wouldn't work.  But she used to struggle for c's, and now she is a straight a student.  Things like that for some reason bother me - why people wouldn't question more than they do.  Don't get me wrong, people have noticed, but they just breeze past it.  There are small things of that nature in the story that kind of make me be like, "really"?

Conclusion:  Guilty Pleasures die hard

"But you can't make someone be something they're not."

Along with PLL, this is my 2nd guilty pleasure.  This series is a fun, easy series to read.   It has tons of mystery, lovable characters, family drama (who does't love family drama and deep buried family secrets), high school drama (awww the good ol' days), a little bit of love (but not too much thank goodness), a few nerve wracking moments, and a little comedy thrown in.  I am glad Sara brought back the goods in book 5.   I pre-ordered book 6: Seven Minutes in Heaven a while back.  Can't wait to see what happens next!!!!!

“Sometimes you have to admit that a relationship can't be fixed. That no matter how much you want to, you can't trust some people.” 

Sunday Cover Scramble [28]

Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until the next day to let you know if you are right, allowing other to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. If you need hints, I will only post covers of series talked about on my blog previously. Also, let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more throughout the day if no one guesses it correctly. Here we go:

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Sidekick Showcase [34] - Leather-Clad

Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

August Themes:
August 10th - One-third of a love triangle
August 17th - Not who they say they are
August 24th- Law Enforcement
August 31st - Living Dead

This week is Leather-Clad

My choice is Bones
The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost

I didn't have time to make up a picture so I grabbed some of the foreign covers that show Bones all leather-clad and hot for you to feast your eyes on. Man, I love Bones. It's hard to even describe what I love about him, he's just flat out awesome. He doesn't take any crap at all from anyone, doesn't matter who they are. He is who he is and he has no qualms about it. He's very upfront about all the good and the bad in his person. He's someone you definitely don't want to cross and very yummy.

Quotes:

This Side of the Grave -
“Ask me if I sparkle and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

---

Halfway to the Grave-
“There is only one way to fight, and that's dirty. Clean gentlemanly fighting will get you nowhere but dead, and fast. Take every cheap shot, every low blow, absolutely kick people when they're down, and maybe you'll be the one who walks away."

---

Halfway to the Grave-
“Is that a stake, Bones, or are you just happy with my new dress?”

“In this case, it’s a stake. You could always feel around for something more, though. See what comes up.”

---

One Foot in the Grave-

“Wrong way, Bones. The men's showers are in the opposite direction."

"I'll file that away with all the other information that doesn't pertain to me," was Bones' mocking reply.

---

This Side of the Grave-
“You’re not going to let her do this, are you?”
Bones snorted. “'Let her'? Mate, if you think you can control a woman, you must be single—"

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Feature and Follow Friday [27] - DNF'ing books

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by  and Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:
1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - This week's feature is:  Hardcore Heroine and The Mile Long Bookshelf
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This week's question is: How do you handle a book you don’t like? Do you DNF or do you power through?

First I would like to say that I am extremely picky on the books that I read to begin with. I check out the blurbs, and I look at the reviews that are up for it. I also read a lot of books that I see reviews for on fellow blogger's sites that I know I share a similar liking with. If it's an author's request sent by email I even look closely at how the email is worded and whether I like the way that is written. That is why you won't see a lot of low rated books on my blog.

If I start reading a book, and I don't like it though, it really depends on how deep the dislike goes. If it is offensive or hurts my emotional well-being in some way then I will go ahead and stop. I really don't like reading books that make me too sad on purpose so if it just turns me into an emotional wreck, I usually won't like it. If I know that I won't even give a star, I may go ahead and stop reading early so as not to waste my time. If, however, I'm at about a 2 star feeling with a book, I will keep going because the ending really could get it over that 3 star point. I've only DNF'd about 5 books total out of all that I've read. What about you??