Hunger Games Teaser and Random Blethering

I REALLY need to read these books. How cool does this look?



I admit I have been a little slow with jumping on the Hunger Games band wagon but I have been a little backwards about coming forwards with these books because of the reaction that they have received. I don't  know about you guys but do good reviews intimidate you? I know that they do me. And it seems like everywhere I turn there have been nothing but good review about this series. And...well...it seems to be the kind of book where I like the idea of it in my head because of the teaser/spoilers/whatever you want to call them that I have picked up through various reviews and I don't want to shatter that nice little illusion that I have going in my mind. Does that make sense?

That being said I won't watch the film until I have read the book so I had better get a move on and read the series before the film comes out.

The Hunger Games waiting patiently on my shelf, waiting for me to blow the dust of it and crack open the pages...

Tune In Tuesday (3)

Happy Tuesday everyone! Congratulations on making it through Monday ;)

It's Tune in Tuesday time :) This is a weekly feature over at GReads.

My song this week is a sizzling chemistry filled duet between Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey.




Oh, my goodness!!!! Right. Please tell me I am not the only one who goes all weak at the knees when they listen to and watch that.

I mean DANG! It is so romantic, and the way that they look at each other and EVERYTHING!

Anyway, that is my choice this week :)

Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie R. King

I read this ages ago and I could have sworn that I had posted about it...but obviously not :/

So here we go.  

Sherlock Holmes is fending off a particularly dark mood as he roams the Sussex Downs, in search of wild bees. The Great War may be raging across the Channel, but on the Downs, the great detective nears terminal melancholia—only to be saved by an encounter with headstrong, yellow-haired young Mary Russell, who soon becomes the Master’s apprentice not only in beekeeping but in detection.
Holmes instantly spots her remarkable ability, but his sharp eyes also see troubling problems. Why is this wealthy orphan who lives with her aunt so shabbily dressed? Why is she so prone to illness and accident? Is she herself the center of a mystery? These are questions that the great detective must answer quickly lest his protégée, and his own new lease on life, meet a sudden, tragic end.
The tale of their meeting has been told from Russell’s point of view, but even those who have never met the famed Russell-Holmes pair will read this tale with delight—and, as its climax builds, with breathless excitement.

This is a short story/novella length book that took me hardly any time at all to read.

I loved The Beekeepers Apprentice which is the first in the Mary Russell series and this is a section of that told from Holmes’ point of view. But only it isn’t. We start in first person with Holmes and then we are in third person and then we have a little told from Mary’s point of view and then we hear from Watson and then Mrs Hudson…I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was only Holmes that we were reading through. And the constant view changes made it a little stop-start for me. And to be honest, I don't care what everyone else is thinking. I bought the book to read what Holmes is thinking not Joe Bloggs down the street.  

That being said the story was a good read and something else to add to my Mary Russell collection. 

Jane and the Dragon

An ultimate favourite kids TV show of mine is Jane and the Dragon that I have recently re-discovered through the amazingness of YouTube. (YAY)

It is so funny and I think it hits so many levels that even at 21 I can sit and watch it and thoroughly enjoy it.

And! It has to have one of the BEST theme tunes on the planet.

JESTER -There once was a lady in waitingLet's call her Jane.That girl wasn't ordinary- 

JANE - No way for me a lady stuck in waitingI'd rather battle fire-breathing dragonsI knew I could prove that a girl could be a KnightThough my friends all laughed at mebut...I wouldn't be discouraged and trained in secretThen a dragon pinched the Royal Princeand everyone was freakingSo I went alone to the dragon's hometo slay the dragon 

CHORUS - Hey now, hey now nowJane and the Dragon are best friends now 

JANE - Dragon's sweet, he let me save the young PrinceThen the King made me a Knight apprentice 

CHORUS - Hey now hey now now... 

JANE - With Dragon's help I'll be a Knight someday

PURE amazingness!

And Dragon and Jane's friendship is lovely...

The TV series is based on books written and illustrated by Martin Baynton.

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen

Two hundred years ago, humans drove the dragons from the islands of May. Now, the last of the dragons rises to wreak havoc anew-with only a healer's daughter and a kite-flying would-be hero standing in its way.

The isles ran red and dark with dragon blood till all of them were gone.
Or so the humans believed.

Now with an opening like that you would think this was going to be one dramatic piece of graphic novelisation…

This started of brilliantly and I fell into the story easily but then there were some bits that threw me straight back out again. Like having ‘cool’ thrown into the story. REALLY. Apparently having your baby sibling eaten by a dragon is cool and then the hero choosing to use a kite to slay the dragon over, say a sword or spear is cool too. In what world would any teenage boy think that a kite is cool? Seriously. For a story that had - up until that point - been pretty serious it seems very infantile and out of place.


There are deaths in this - as the dragon is going around gobling up people - but when this happens we aren't given any gooey detailed pictures which is good.

And I really didn’t like the hero, who started off as a liar and a drunk and then ended up owning a tavern at the end and married to our heroin. Anyone else see a problem here?

And since the dragons were there first I was all for the dragon eating them all – seemed fair to me.

The art work was gorgeous, though at times there was something lacking from it.

A quick graphic novel.

*I received this book in e-book form  from NetGalley*  

Sad it is Only a CD Cover...(4)

Next uberfunky CD cover that should be a book cover is by In This Moment from the cover if the album A Star-Crossed Wasteland.

Here it is...

Look at it! It is pure magic. And I think that the bits in the background on the right hand side are a ruined city. I could totally see this as the cover of a book like the Iron Fey or a Melissa Marr book.

What do you think?

Immortal Beloved by Katie M. John

THIS TIME IT'S UP TO THE DAMSEL TO RESCUE HER KNIGHT!
Forced apart by fate, Mina Singer tries to piece together her broken heart. Little does she know that Blake's quest with Morgan Le Faye is placing his in a terrible and mortal danger.
Amongst the demon haunted monuments of Egypt, dark and terrifying rituals are being resurrected, and Sir Blake Beldevier is forced to embark on his most horrifying quest yet - one which no other mortal has survived.
How far would you travel for the one you love? What dangers would you endure?

This is the second book in The Knight Trilogy and picks up exactly where book two ended as we are thrown straight into the story.

So in the first book we have established that there is a secret society of knight, Camelot existed AND Guinevere’s children are alive. And now in this book we have Egyptian gods thrown into the mix because of Morgan’s warped idea of love and trying to turn Blake into an immortal.

One thing that I loved was Mina and her friends travelling to Cairo. I love books that involve character travelling from one country to another.

My favourite character in this series has to be Delta – and I have a feeling she is more involved that she makes out to be. She is great. She doesn’t put up with any nonsense and she loved and cared for Mina when she needed someone there for her.

It missed the mark for me somehow and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first book. It is still a magical, enchanted story but it is also a lot darker than the first book. And the whole ‘girl falling into a depression because the boy leaves her for her own good’ thing was far too Twilight-y for me. And I hated the way that Mina was treated and kept out of the loop until she did something drastic and suddenly everyone is all ‘oops our bad, you are more into it than we thought, come and join the group huddle’ Ok, not quite but you get the idea. And just when it seemed like Mina was going to have a good shout and go at someone it always blew over – I didn’t get much satisfaction from that.

But it is still a fantastic read that grabs you and drags you into the characters’ lives – even if I wanted to deck half of the characters most of the time…but never mind.



*This book was an ARC provided by the author*

Tune In Tuesday (2)

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Tune in Tuesday is a meme that you can find over at GReads.



Hehe, sorry guys. I couldn't resist. Got to love the 90s :)

Fade by Lisa McMann

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.
Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open -- but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.
Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability -- and it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd feared....

This is the second book in the Wake series.

I enjoyed the take on the subject. Most people would probably think that being able to ‘fall’ into other people’s dreams is brilliant. But they would be wrong. What do you do when you fall into a nightmare? Or when you are driving and a bus with a sleeping passenger goes past you…?

I was totally stuck for inspiration the other day and picked this off my shelf pretty much at random. I finished it in one night! And, I am really surprised at this, but I loved it.

Teenage angsty-ness isn’t really my thing (I want to strangle them half of the time) but I like them! I know right! (pick yourself off the floor and dust yourself off).

Don’t get me wrong Janie and Cabe still have all the stuff going on that goes on in other YA books but they had a maturity that didn’t have my teeth on edge.

It was also written in the present tense. That is another pet hate of mine as I usually find that it takes to much brain power for me to focus but I didn’t mind it at all here. I think actually that it made this book all the more enjoyable. It was like I was there as I was reading.

There is some language, some sex mentioned (NO details) and it also deals with the topic of sexual predators in schools…covers pretty much everything really.

This was a really good and quick read. 

In My Mailbox! (9)

It's that day of the week again :)

I have one book this week that I received for review from the publisher.

Love Inc by Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout

Zahra, Kali, and Syd would never have met if their parents' marriages hadn't fallen apart. But when the three girls collide in group counseling, they discover they have something else in common: they've each been triple-timed by the same nefarious charmer, Eric, aka Rico, aka Rick. Talk about eye-opening therapy.
Cheerful, diplomatic Zahra is devastated. Rico had been her rock and sole confidant. How could she have missed the signs? Folksy, flirtatious Kali feels almost as bad. She and Rick had only been on a few dates, but they'd felt so promising. Hardened vintage-vixen Syd is beyond tears. She and Eric had real history... Or so she'd thought. Now all three girls have one mission: to show that cheater the folly of his ways.Project Payback is such a success, the girls soon have clients lining up for their consulting services. Is your boyfriend acting shady? Dying to know if your crush is into you? Need match-making expertise? Look no further than Love, Inc.

Sounds good doesn't it :)

TGIF, Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop

It's the weekend again everyone! Lets get this party STARTED! *crickets* moving on...

TGIF
TGIF is a weekly meme that can be found over at greadsbooks.com. Every week you can find a question that is bound to get you thinking.

Question - Have you ever read a book and not wanted to review it? Are some books too personal that we want to keep our thoughts our own?

I definitely agree that there are some books that can just touch the right (or wrong depending on how you look at it) nerve that it makes it seem like that book has been written for you and only you.  

One book that I have not been able to bring myself to review or even re-read since I first read it when I was about 11 is A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh, it has got to be one of the most heartbreaking books that I have ever read. It centres around a village during the time of the plague and how the disease came to the village in 'a parcel of patterns' that were delivered to the lady of the manor. 

TRULY DEPRESSING STUFF. But I would recommend it! (Yeah, I'm weird that way) But only if you don't mind having a case of wobbly throat syndrome. 

Book Blogger Hop
Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme that can be found at Crazy-for-Books

This weeks Book Blogger Hop post can be found here

This weeks topic - What’s the LONGEST book you’ve ever read?


I would say Les Miserables but I skipped most of that to read the good bit so that my be a bit of a cheat. So I'll say Outlander (or Cross Stich UK) by Diana Gabaldon and it sits at 850 pages.


Follow My Book Blog Friday


Follow Friday is a weekly Blog Hop that can be found over at parajunkee.com.

Question - If you could write yourself a part in a book, what book would it be and what role would you play in that book?

I LOVE fantasy - can't get enough of it. So...if I was written into a book I would want to be something magical...and ELF. Yip, I'll go with that. I warrior elf lady with a bad guy love interest ;). And great choice in leather clothes - obviously (goes without saying really doesn't it). So basically the opposite of what I am in real life lol. 

100 Followers Giveaway - Theatre Illuminata by Lisa Mantchev

I'm having a giveaway *jazz hands*

This is a joint giveaway.

1. I have passed the 100 followers mark (yeah I know I passed it a little while ago but I was trying to think of what to do for it :))
2. Theatre Illuminata Book 3 is out next month woohoo.

Prize is book one and two of the Theatre Illuminata series.

Entering is easy, just fill out the form.

Rules
1. This is an international giveaway so everyone can enter.
2. You must be a follower (follower giveaway and all that jazz ;))
3. The winner will have 48 hours to reply to the email I will send or another winner will be chosen,

Extra Entries
Follow me on twitter - +1
Tweet about giveaway - +2

This will run from now until 13th Septemeber.
If there are loads of entries (here's hoping;)) I'll come up with another prize to add to the giveaway

***All details entered into the form will be deleted as soon as the winner have been chosen, contacted and replied :)***

FORM




GOOD LUCK!

Sad it is Only a CD Cover...(3)

Next in the CD bundle is a band that I do actually listen to.

Does anyone else love Within Temptation?

So here is the cover to there latest CD.

What do ya think?

To me this is doing the urban fantasy happy dance...

It also reminds me of the earlier covers of the wolfy books by Patricia Briggs.

Not exactly the same but I am getting the vibes :)

The Wizards Wife

Marela's travel group has mysteriously vanished in the forest. Alone and afraid, she stumbles upon an isolated cliff top keep, the home of the wizard AErin. Over the snowy, winter months Marela comes to learn that magic makes more sense than she thought, and there's more to AErin than meets the eye.
By the time spring arrives AErin and Marela have wed and she joins him on his yearly jaunt throughout the kingdom, but what happened to her travel group? Even AErin doesn't have the answer. But soon, distractions, like a Roc falling out of the sky, and a dragon that needs slaying, divert them from their search for answers, until Marela is kidnapped.
Who would want to kidnap the wizard's wife? And why does the kidnapping seem to have more to do with Marela herself than with the wizard?
What secret does Marela hold? And what does it have to do with being abandoned in the forest? And why is suddenly everybody involved?

Ok guys who read the knight in shining armour and dragon filled fairy tale and thought that the clinking, clanking knight was all goo and well but screw him! You wanted the wizard!

Anyone?

Well look no further. Your dreams have came true in this book. In this novel you get our heroine falling head over heals in love with the white haired and white bearded (looks older than he is) wizard :).

Does this make anyone else REALLY happy...

I loved it. I mean the fact that the wizard get the girl is just brilliant. And so danged cute.

This book is unashamedly fluffy and romantic. Filled with little kisses and lots of cuddles. But there is more to it than that, There is kidnapping, forced slavery and more couples to go gooey over than just our leading couple.

The characters and friends that Marela makes and meets are all colourful with stories of their own that makes them great fun to read about and gives another layer to the book.

And ever wondered why wizards have white hair? This'll tell you :)

And do you want to know what the best part is (other than the pretty cover)?

Marela doesn't let EArin away with any he-man tendencies. she gets good and mad and actually does stuff about it. BRILLIANT!

A fun, soppy read that does have some adult moments in it. 

Jane Eyre 2011 - Trailer Talk

Yipee, less than a month to go! I have been waiting since January and now it is nearly here!

Thank you YouTube, I will love you forever.





Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa how good does that look! I have pretty points sitting on my Odeon card that are going to be turniing into a cinema ticket last month. And did you see them SNOGGING when he was covered in snow? No? Go watch it again and I'll wait here....

DID YOU SEE THAT!

"You're blushing Miss Eyre,"

And then the wee playful clip when she is with her sketch book and batting his hand away. CUTE. I love stuff like that (it builds a relationship in my mind)

This may just be one of the best adaptations ever - and she even has an accent (absolutely get points for giving her an accent!) And the UK advert is - in my ever so humble opinion - so much more drama-ey and passion filled than the advert for the States - or wherever it was released first.





See what I mean, kinda missing something. And then at the end I am sure the music sounds like the music from the 2006 series. Hmmmm....

Eeeeeek can't wait.

Expect more Jane Eyre stuff over the next few weeks :)

*skips off*

Tune In Tuesday

So, this is my first Tune in Tuesday - at least I think it is :)
This is a weekly meme all about - you got it - music! That you can find at GReads!

So 90s music....

Well, this CD was actually released in 1989 but whose being picky :)

Oye Mi Canto by Gloria Estefan

Jinx by Meg Cabot

It's not easy being Jinx.

Jean Honeychurch hates her boring name (not Jean Marie, or Jeanette, just . . . Jean). What's worse? Her all-too-appropriate nickname, Jinx. Misfortune seems to follow her everywhere she goes even to New York City, where Jinx has moved to get away from the huge mess she caused in her small hometown. Her aunt and uncle welcome her to their Manhattan town house, but her beautiful cousin Tory isn't so thrilled. . . .

In fact, Tory is hiding a dangerous secret one that could put them all in danger. Soon Jinx realizes it isn't just bad luck she's been running from . . . and that the curse she has lived under since the day she was born may be the only thing that can save her life.

I just realised that I read this a wee while ago and never reviewed *tut tut, bad me* so here is a quick post now. Or at least I don’t think I did…anyway I’ll get on with it.

This was an enjoyable enough read but sits at a solid 3 stars for me.

Jean – Jinx – was an OK character but I found her to be a bit of a drip at some points and the whole story happened a little too quickly for me – clocking in at about a month. I know that is how it is in YA but I don’t see what is wrong with a little bit of relationship building before the couple in question are there sucking each other’s face off and pledging there undying love to each other.

And then we have the totally crazy, out of her mind 'come-here-while-I-sacrifice-you' cousin who was a right witch and for some reason Jinx didn't see right through her - the book almost went flying across the room at that point. 

There were the laugh out loud moments in the good old Meg Cabot fashion but it just missed the mark for me. There were bits that just seemed so vague, nothing was concrete…

I don’t know I can’t really nail what I didn’t like. It was good but not brilliant. 

Sad it is Only a CD...(2)

Hi guys.

It's another CD cover for you today. I haven't listened to this band but I stumbled across the cover a few days ago - (and a couple more than will be posted in the next few weeks ;))

DANG! This has King Arthur written all over it!

Thoughts?

In My Mailbox! (8)

I have a few books this week to wave about, so here goes.

LIBRARY BOOKS

I have been wanting to read The Painted Man and The Gunslinger for some time now and I finally decided I'd give them a try.

SWAPPED

I am not too sure what to expect from this book but it sounds good.

BOUGHT

I was trying to not buy anything for a while but I have been desperate for Pegasus and I finally spotted it in the book shop. A friend recommended Equations of Life and I needed Con and Conjure so that I can be done with that series till the next book comes out next year.

Yes, pathetic reason but what can I say, I'm an addict. :)

What's in your mailbox this week?

Author Interview - Lucy Kevin

*doing the author interview happy dance*

You may remember that a few months ago I reviewed the e-book Gabrielle by Lucy Kevin - a novel based on the story Gigi.

Well, Lucy was kind enough to agree to do an interview for the blog.

Without further ado say hello to Lucy everyone *clap, clap, clap*


Interview

1.       Was writing something that you just fell into doing?
Well, I've always read romance (often at a pace of one book a day, if I can fit it into my schedule!) and I've always been a writer - although I was a songwriter first! But once I started writing romance novels, I was hooked. 

2.        Did you find the leap from being a writer to being a published author daunting?
Some days it feels more daunting then others. :) But the truth is, I absolutely love what I do for a living and I want to continue doing it for a really long time. Of course I'm dealing with deadlines and turnarounds and the production side of publishing, but my education background is as an Economics major at Stanford so I'm okay with that side of the business.

3.       What influenced you the most when writing Gabrielle? Gigi the book or Gigi the movie/musical?
I'm an author so of course I'm going to say the book (but it's true, too...the book!)

4.       Though the idea of courtesans is a fascinating one I would think it would be a difficult subject to present (I loved the way you did this), how did you find writing about it?
I got my start writing sexy romance novels and we're fortunate that little is too taboo nowadays so I wasn't uncomfortable with writing about courtesans. I was mainly concerned with getting Gabrielle's feelings right - what would it be like to know you were descended from a family of courtesans and to feel trapped by that destiny? The history of courtesans is really fascinating and there was a time that being a courtesan meant you were a successful, independent woman of power so I wanted to present that side of it, too.

5.       The very idea of having songs to go along with the story was brilliant, I was wondering though what came first? The songs or the story?
Thanks so much for saying that. I hadn't realized how much I missed songwriting and singing until I started this project. I wrote the songs to be sung by Gabrielle so I had to know where she was emotionally at each point in the story, but I had all the stories written and recorded before the final draft of the manuscript. It was a little chicken and egg that way.

6.       Who would you choose? The bad boy or the good guy?
Depends - what am I choosing him for? :) 

7.       Your favourite literary love triangle?
Can I say Tristan and Isolde? That's the mother of modern love triangles, right? 

8.       What Disney heroine do you most identify with?
Like Ariel in The Little Mermaid - I love to sing! 

9.       If you could live in a novel, what novel would it be?
One of mine, haha! The guys are so hot in them.. 

10.   Biscuits or cake?
Cake. With frosting. Chocolate frosting!

Book Blogger Hop! & Follow Friday

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme that can be found at Crazy-for-Books

This weeks Book Blogger Hop post can be found here



This weeks topic - “Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles! If you can’t find any, feel free to find one on the internet!”

I don't really have any crazy bizarre titles on my shelf, but the best that I could see was this. 

How brilliantly random is that title? :)

I can't wait to get started on this book!


Follow By Book Blog Friday (Saturday ;))

Follow Friday is a weekly Blog Hop that can be found over at parajunkee.com.

Question - How has your reading habits changed since you were a teen? or If you are still a teen what new genres are you in love with currently?

I think I have gone about reading in reverse you know. I wasn’t much into the YA scene when I was a YA, but now I am actually liking it - but the books are still a bit hit ans miss for me.

Two of the first outright not children’s books (because they came from the Adult section of the library) that I can remember reading are By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey and Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie – I remember these because I spend most of the time when I wasn’t reading them trying to figure out where to stash them so my mum wouldn’t see them (that is until I realised that she didn’t give  a toss and wasn’t paying any attention anyway :)) And so at the age of 11 I was introduced to the science fiction/fantasy genre and historical, and there has been no turning back! These 2 genres still are (and I have no doubt that they will remain) firm loves of mine. 

END OF RAMBLING lol. 

So, how have your reading habits changed?