TGIF (4)

 TGIF at GReads is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger at GReadsand it re-caps her posts during the week and asks a bookish question.

This weeks question is:

Choose Your Next Read: How do you go about choosing what you read next? Do you have a schedule you follow, or do you read whatever makes you happy at the moment?

I have thought about trying to make a schedule for the books I will be reading, but honestly, I know I wouldn’t follow it, so it would be pointless.  Sometimes I chose my next book based on my mood.  If I have had a rough week, maybe I want something light and funny; if I am in a romantic mood, perhaps a contemporary; maybe I just need to escape from reality all together and go for a fantasy.  It mainly depends on how I feel at that point in time.

Pushing the Limits Read Along – Week 5

 This fabulous event is hosted by ME Candace Book Blog, Natalia @ Dazzling Reads, The Page Turners, Mary @ The Book Swarm and The Bewitched Bookworms.

For 6 weeks, we will discuss the amazing emotional roller coaster that is Pushing the Limits. We will tear up with Echo, swoon over Noah and thoroughly enjoy this unbelievably fantastic book!  Every week will have awesometastic giveaways sponsored by HarlequinTEEN  and we have an epic, unique and absolutely adorable Grand Prize  sponsored by Bewitched Bookworms and Katie McGarry herself!

Ready for some fun?!

Along with the fun questions and reader discussions, there are also giveaways going on!

Visit the different hosts of the week to find out what the next giveaway is and below is the information about the awesome grand prize!

Grand Prize Package

The winner will be drawn from all participants during the course of the  Read-Along. Of course, if you participate every week, you’ll have 6  chances to win! This Prize Package is sponsored by Katie McGarry (we love her so much!!) and the Bewitched Bookworms and is special, unique and totally inspired by our loves: Echo & Noah!

• 1 personalized, signed, finished copy of Pushing The Limits!(Katie will sign it to the winner!)
• Fudge brownie mix since that’s Lila’s favorite and she always buys them when she is with Echo
• Pushing the Limits Bookmark
• A small Hot Wheels Corvette – VROOM!
• CD from Angela McGarry. Katie’s sister-in-law wrote and recorded a song called Can You. The song is inspired by Pushing the Limits and is from Echo’s POV. Part of the chorus is: I’m broken, I’m shattered, I’m scarred. Can you really save me? It’s an amazing song.
• Cinnamon Lip Gloss (Bath& Body works) Noah loves that Echo smells like Cinnamon …
• Cinnamon Room Spray (Bath & Body Works)
• Pair of Fingerless long Gloves

Now, for this week’s questions:

1. By finally returning to her art, Echo is working through her issues and taking control of her life. While she’s not ever going to return to her previous “normal”, she uses her art as a way to work her way to a place where she’s more comfortable with herself. How do you deal with the issues and stresses of your life?

I love to read and write deal with stress.  I especially love to read in the tub; it is sooo relaxing.  One of the best things about books is that they are excellent escapes from reality.  They are able to take you somewhere else and into someone else’s story.  When I am engrossed in a book, all I think about it what is going on right then with that story.  As for writing, poetry is a great emotional release for me and I love creating new stories and places.  Don’t forget about talking to those closest to me 🙂

2. Once Noah gives his brothers and their soon-to-be adoptive parents a happy ending, he decides to get his own by winning Echo back. Why does he think stealing her file is the best way to do it? Any other (better) suggestions for the poor boy?

To him, I am sure he sees it as the best option to show how much he cares for her; to get what she has wanted for so long – the truth behind the night she couldn’t remember.  He seems like such a giver, and this is his way of giving to Echo.

3. Echo finally uncovers the terrible truth of what her mother did to her. Now that we know the truth, do you think Echo’s father did the right thing by covering up the incident and keeping it from her? How do you think he should have handled it?

I do not agree with the way he handled the situation.  He tried to keep everything from her, but it was something very serious that happened to her and she has every right to know.  If he had handled it differently and told her what had happened and let her cope with the trauma sooner, then she may have been able to deal with it better than having the memory hitting her with such force and hurting her all over again.

4. Mrs. Collins plays an integral role in helping Echo and Noah find a new normal and happiness in their lives. Tell us about someone in your life who helped you, someone who changed your life, was there for you, or offered help/comfort when you most needed it (or when you didn’t know you needed it).

One of the people who has been there for me the most is my best friend.  I can talk to her about anything and she has helped me through many tough times.  We were roommates and met only once before moving in together, and she has been my best friend ever since.

5. Another major truth is revealed when Echo’s father finally opens up to his daughter and tells her about her mother and how his relationship with Ashley evolved. Knowing this, how do you feel about Ashley now? And what did you think when you learned the name of the baby?

I think it was great to honor Echo’s brother like they did with the name.  I always felt kind of bad for Ashley.  She really isn’t the evil stepmother that Echo wants to think she is and she really did try hard for Echo to like her, but Echo felt like Ashley was nothing but a wedge that tore her family apart.  I never thought of Ashley as a horrible person because I know marriages fall apart and you can’t always blame the step-parents for it when it isn’t there fault.

6. Echo and Noah ride off into the sunset together. *happy sigh* If you had the chance, who would you ride off with and where would you go?

I love who I am with, so of course I would chose him to ride off into the sunset with.  Hopefully that sunset will be to a nice beachy island for our honeymoon by next year.  It’s been a long and bumpy 10 yr road that we have known each other and we deserve our happily ever after also!

Waiting on Wednesday (12)

 Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spinethat spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

This week I am waiting on:

 

 

 

 

 

Wordy Wednesday (9)

 Wordy Wednesday is a meme I host here at On The Shelf.  I love to learn new words and being the avid reader I am, I am bound to come across words I don’t know, so this meme is to spread word knowledge! If you’d like to participate, just post the word and the definition and any other fun facts you may want to list as well.  I also like to include the sentence it came from in the book I was reading as long as it doesn’t include spoilers.

For this Wordy Wednesday I have:

Cudgel:  1. (n) a stick used as a weapon. 2. (v) to strike with or beat with a cudgel. 3. to come to the defense (take up cudgels, like take up arms). 4. to remember something or think hard about something (cudgel on’es brain).

From the Old English word “cycgel” for “stick with round head,” and was first used as a verb around 1596.

 “Excellent stroke with the cudgel,” Stephen said. “But only a superficial wound.”

Top Ten Tuesday (20)

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week a new top ten list is posted, and to participate all you have to do is fill in YOUR top ten for the list.

This week the topic is:

Top Ten Bookish Confessions 

1.  I keep every book I have ever owned, even books I don’t like.  I just don’t have the ability to get rid of them, lol.  I also have all my goosebump books from when I was younger.

2. I HATE when stores put stickers on book covers.  Really, it drives me bonkers, and I will work for a long, long time to get the sticky off.

3. When I buy hardcover books, I look under the jacket to see what the cover looks like underneath.  If I don’t like that cover, it is irrelevant, I just do that to check it out.  Every time.

4.  I refuse to buy any e-books, unless it is to support self-publishing authors or they are free ones.  I own two Nooks, classic and color, and I didn’t buy either of those, they were both gifted.  I am not a supported of electronic books stuff.  Can’t help it, I just can’t handle not having the actual book!

5. There are a bunch of classics I haven’t read yet, like To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, etc.  Someday I will eventually read them, but there are too many books I want to read right now.

6. I would love to have a part time job at B&N, even if it is only 1 day a week, so that I have a job and paycheck specifically for book discounts and book buying money!

7. I love and live at my B&N store so much, the staff have become good friends, expect to see me at least a few tmies a week and know my regular drink order.

8. I order so many books online, the lady at the post office has my 6 digit p.o. box number memorized.

9. Most people will read a book, then see the movie.  I can’t do this.  As much as I can help it, I will watch the movie then read the book.  It just sets me up for disappointment if I read the book first and it makes me mad when I see some of the changes that are made.  But as long as I get the very first movie & book out of the way, it doesn’t matter what order I read/watch the sequels in.

10. I am incredibly stingy with my books.  I don’t like for people to borrow them because I am afraid that I will get them back with broken or creased spines, dog eared pages, dirty or messed up covers, etc.  I am very OCD when it comes to the condition I keep my books in.

Those are my confessions!  So what kind of things do you have to tell on yourself when it comes to books?

Teaser Tuesday (24)

 Tuesday is a weekly meme anyone can take part in, hosted my MizB at Should Be Reading.  To participate all you have to do is get the book you are currently reading, open to a random page, and post a two sentence teaser that doesn’t contain spoilers.  Make sure you don’t forget to let us know the title and author of the book so people can add it to their To Be Read list if they liked the teasing!

Here’s my teaser:

 I realized the light was from the Milky Way, spilled out before me like fairy dust, and it was dazzling.  I started to laugh, and then I felt myself slip into oblivion.

Kissing Shakespeare
pg 10
Pamela Mingle

*Review* Just for Fins – Tera Lynn Childs

 Just for Fins (Fins #3)

Tera Lynn Childs

256 pages

ISBN: 9780062192158

Read 8-24-12

Format: Hardcover

Source: Borrowed

Add it on Goodreads!

When Lily Sanderson decided to remain Crown Princess Waterlily of the mermaid kingdom Thalassinia, she knew she couldn’t just coast along in the current. But since she’s spent the last couple of years on land—with gorgeous human Quince by her side—Lily’s not sure she has the fins to lead a kingdom. Even her maddeningly pretentious cousin Dosinia seems to know more about ruling than she does.

But Lily has to dive in deep to keep her promise to Tellin, her mer bond in name only, whose kingdom is suffering in the changing ocean climate. Lily knows this is a seven seas–sized problem: from sea animals dying to oil spills and threats to humans. They’ll need to create some serious waves to make the mer community aware and get it to join together to make things right. Even if that means facing one of the iciest queens in the mer kingdoms.

Just when Lily thinks her double life on land and sea can’t get any more complicated, an ancient mer law might separate Lily and Quince after all. It feels as if the pair is up against a solid tsunami wave!

In this third installment in the series that began with Forgive My Fins and Fins Are Forever, Lily will have to find a way to balance safety and justice for the mer people as well as for the humans she loves.

I love, love, love this series!  The world the author builds is amazing and bright and vibrant.  The fins series is just so much fun to read; I can’t get enough of Lily and her gang.  The characters have grown a lot sicne the first book and I really like the way they have developed.

In My Mailbox (19)

 In my mailbox is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren that lets us share our bookish finds!

Bought

Girl of Nightmares – Kendare Blake

Pushing the Limits – Katie McGarry
I loved it so much when I read it from NetGalley I had to have my own copy!

Library

Starters – Lissa Price

Wake – Amanda Hocking

Review

Origin – Jessica Khoury
I squealed when this one was given to me!

Falling Kingdoms – Morgan Rhodes

Borrowed

Just for Fins – Tera Lynn Childs
Already finished this one and the post will come a little later today.

Kissing Shakespeare – Pamela Mingle

This is a really nice sized Mailbox for me!  I finished Just for Fins already and loved it. Origin was quite a surprise, and when I am done with it, a giveaway will follow shortly after! Kissing Shakespeare is one I have been looking forward to for a while, but I have been hearing mixed reviews on it, so we will see!  So what was in your mailbox?

50 Follower Giveaway Winner!

Well it is after midnight so it is time to reveal the lucky winner of my 50 Follower Giveaway!  Thankfully, now I have Rafflecopter and it is so much easier than using Google documents and inputting all the names into Random.org.  Thank you so much to all my followers new and old  🙂

And the winner is…..

Congratulations Angie!  Please email me within 48 hours to claim you prize.

*Review* Ascend – Amanda Hocking

 Ascend (Trylle Trilogy #3)

Amanda Hocking

336 pages

ISBN: 9781250006332

Read 8-23-12

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

Add it on Goodreads!

Amanda Hocking is an indie publishing sensation whose self-published novels have sold millions of copies all over the world.  Ascend is the final chapter in her bestselling Trylle trilogy—and you’ll never guess how it ends!

Wendy Everly is facing an impossible choice. The only way to save the Trylle from their deadliest enemy is by sacrificing herself.  If she doesn’t surrender to the Vittra, her people will be thrust into a brutal war against an unbeatable foe.  But how can Wendy leave all her friends behind…even if it’s the only way to save them?

The stakes have never been higher, because her kingdom isn’t the only thing she stands to lose. After falling for both Finn and Loki, she’s about to make the ultimate choice…who to love forever. One guy has finally proven to be the love of her life—and now all their lives might be coming to an end.

Everything has been leading to this moment.  The future of her entire world rests in her hands—if she’s ready to fight for it.

I am definitely glad that I was able to listen to all three of these audiobooks in a row.  I didn’t have to wait a year in between and forget some things here and there because of it.  I was able to enjoy the whole story and I loved it.  I think this last book was my favorite because of all of the build up and emotional investment.