Sunday, March 30, 2014

In Bed With...3.30.14

hosted by Kate at Midnightbookgirl


Anyone who knows me knows that I am really not much of an outdoorsy person. But yesterday I caught a mad serious case of Spring Fever! I am itching to get out into nature and rustle leaves and step on twigs and do all sorts of outdoorsy...naturey...type stuff that people do outside.

So I am going to spend part of my afternoon today walking the trails at a local part and I am actually very excited about it!

However, prior to my wilderness adventure I have a lot of reading to do. I spent the morning reading part of Always On My Mind by Jill Shalvis. I just bought it yesterday on my Kindle app and I'm already half way through it!

And when I was getting ready to go on a hunt for breakfast this morning I listened to the last hour of So Long And Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams. I still have one last book to read in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series but so far it is looking like that one was my favorite!

Now that I'm back home and fed I'm going to get started on Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday and I've already downloaded my next audio book to be The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, I'll be listening to hit when I'm hitting the trails! 


I hope everyone is able to enjoy the same beautiful spring weather that I am going to get to experience and have an amazing Sunday!


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Abducted by Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers

The Headline: Travel to America with one of our favorite Brits!

Time in Captivity: According to my goodreads page I read book book 5 in this series back in October of 2012! I can't believe that it took me a year and a half to read the next book!!! What was I waiting for!?!

In this book Georgia is obsessed with the Italian Stallion Masimo, but first she must accompany her family on a trip to Memphis in Hamburger-a-gogo-land! I loved seeing the United States through the eyes of Georgia and her family.

Upon returning home Georgia gets right back to reeking havoc at home and school and with all of the boys in town.

The abductor: Why Georgia of course! Who else? I will say that I appreciate that she didn't make nearly as many disrespectful comments about her parents or her friends in this one. I know that all teenagers make comments about their parents but in some of the last books her comments about them made me a little uncomfortable. But in this one it was all light hearted fun.

Point of Abduction: Okay, so there was one scene that was towards the end that was absolutely
hysterical. I don't want to say much because of spoilers but let me just say it involved Georgia having to get stitches. I laughed so hard I practically cried! And this was the scene that abducted me because it felt like a throw back to book one Georgia! Georgia who shaves off half her face when taking a razor to her eyebrows! Georgia who tries to bleach her hair only to have a strand fall off into the hand of the boy she's trying to kiss! We are talking old school Georgia here and I loved it! Immediately following the stitches scene was another scene when her friends tried to train her for a date and that ended with Georgia trying to kiss the back of another girls leg! I mean the absurdity was just pure comedy and I loved it! It may have taken me awhile to be abducted into this book, but I know that abduction will carry over into my desire to finish the last four books asap!

Pick Up Line: I actually love the way Georgia and her friends talk although I would never be clever enough to pick it up in my own life. One of my favorites was when Georgia said about her friend Jass...
She has got the sent of funosity in her nostrils and wants to come to Hamburger-a-gogo land A LOT.

I texted that quote to my friend Andrea when we were discussing the books we were reading and it is still one of my favorites. I like the idea of the sent of funosity!

Abduction rating:

As I said I really loved all the scenes that felt like book one Georgia! Georgia hasn't had moments like that in a while so it was really great!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Abducted by The Chocoholics

Just before Christmas my friend Kim introduced me to a series of romance novels called Lucky Harbor by Jill Shalvis. The first three books in the series is referred to as "the sister" books because each one centered around one of three sisters. The second group of books is called "the chocoholic" books. Each one is focused on one of three friends. This is my review of those three books.

The Headline: Three friends come together to support each other in going after what they really want. In Lucky Harbor, falling in love is just a bonus!

Time in Captivity: The Chocoholic books follows Mallory, Amy, and Grace through their own trials and tribulations. Mallory is struggling to get a health care clinic off the ground and running, Amy is attempting to recreate a trip her grandmother took in her youth that helped her in finding her own hope, peace, and heart. And Grace has just left home and a lucrative job offer because the intended boss was making sexual advances towards her. Now she is just trying to land on her feet in a new town.

I loved all three of the girls and I actually really loved their instant friendship. They meet one night during a snow storm that locks them in at the local diner and they end up stuffing their faces with chocolate cake. From then they decide that they will support each other in going after what they really want. They decide to meet together every few days over chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate chip pancakes, cupcakes, whatever it is as long as it's chocolate!

Mallory is a nurse and she meets Ty after he suffers a head injury during the said snow storm. He has a lot of his own demons that he is struggling with and Mallory is known as the town sweetheart. I really felt bad for Mallory because she felt like everyone in the whole town was counting on her and she felt like she had to hold everyone together. But I loved that she had so much faith in Ty even when he didn't have it in himself.

Amy is a waitress at the local diner so we have actually seen her in a few of the other books already. She is strong and doesn't take crap from anyone! She has never really felt at home anywhere and when she finds her grandmothers journals that dictate a trip she had taken in Lucky Harbor that brought her peace. Amy tries to recreate this same trip and ends up stumbling across local forest ranger Matt Bowers. I loved that we already knew how bad ass Amy was and then we got to see all of her walls come down as she started to open up to Matt. In the end she was just as tough a chick as in the beginning but now she is in love!

Grace was by far my favorite of the three stories! Her book literally had me laughing out loud at how crazy she was. She was just floundering all over the place! I don't want to paint the picture that she was some kind of scatter brained flake because she is the furthest thing from it. But while being highly capable and intelligent she is also realizing that everything she was working for was to please others. Now she has to decide for herself what path she wants to follow. Hopefully a path that leads straight to the arms of one Dr. Josh Scott.

Now Dr. Scott comes with his own baggage however. A sister who has never fully healed after a car accident that left her parents dead and her in a wheelchair, at least not emotionally healed. And Dr. Scott has a young son that he has full custody over. More often then not I find young kids in books annoy the crap out of me! But this kid was adorable! He barked at everything and he was obsessed with Star Wars!

The Abductor: The overall abductor in this series is definitely Jill Shalvis and her lovable town of Lucky Harbor. In these books all of our favorite local townies are back and better then ever! How could you not fall in love in that place!?!

Point of Abduction: To be completely honest I read each of these books so fast I can't remember what was the one scene that really hooked me in each. But I do remember which one it was for Grace's story in Forever and a Day. It was when Grace was on the phone with her mom on one line and Dr. Scott on the other and she kept trying to click over and tell her mom something personal but would accidentally tell Dr. Scott instead! That is a gimmick that has been done before in movies and what not but it was still freaking hilarious!

Pick up lines: This was my favorite quote from Amy's story in At Last:
As for peace, she hadn't been quite sure. When she thought about her life, she knew she'd always lived it to survive. But she was beginning to see that there was more to life than mere survival, so much more. And maybe that was peace right there, just learning that.
Abduction ratings:

Lucky In Love, At Last, and Forever And A Day all got...

For the humor factor alone Forever And A Day is up there as one of my new favorites but I really loved each of the books! 

Sunday, March 16, 2014

In Bed With A Book...3.16.2014

hosted by Kate @ Midnightbookgirl!

Today I spent my morning in bed with...

Misery by Stephen King.

This is yet another book that has been on my tbr shelf for far too long and that I have picked up only to put back down several times. But this time I am determined to finish.

I'm also trying to fit in a few episodes of Alias as I go.

I hope everyone else has a fantastic Sunday! 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Abducted by Inkheart

HEADLINE: What if the power of reading aloud could bring our favorite characters to life?

TIME IN CAPTIVITY: I always find it easy to be abducted into books that are filled with characters who love books. And this story is no exception. The father Mo is a book binder and he has raised his daughter to love and cherish books. However, he has never read to her himself because when he reads out loud, strange things begin to occur. The characters and objects begin to appear before him, brought to life in our world. And although this gift may sound wonderful it also comes at a heavy price. Whenever an object from a book is brought to our world, an object from our world is sent to replace it. Unfortunately this goes for humans
too. When a character is read out of a book, a person from our world enters there story never to be heard from again.
I haven't seen the movie yet but I love Brendan Fraser so I hope to very soon
One night while Mo is reading aloud to his wife, three men escaped from a story called Inkheart and Mo's wife vanishes.
Now, nine years later, the men who originally escaped Inkheart are back looking for Mo. They capture him, but Maggie, his daughter, refuses to be left behind and she sets out on a jury with her aunt Elinor to find him.
Maggie, Mo, and Elinor meet some truly heart warming people along the way (those of the human variety as well as the characters from books). The story is a wonderful adventure that takes you on many twists and turns. There may have been a few scenes when I started to feel like maybe the story was starting to slow down a bit and I couldn't believe how much I still had left to get through, but right when I was starting to feel that way another twist would come along and we would be off on another adventure.
I listened to the audio version which was read by Lynn Redgrave who truly did an amazing job with all of the different voices and accents. I mean we are talking about on the level of Jim Dale here!

THE ABDUCTOR: Maggie was the perfect perspective to be brought into this story. She has all the innocence of a child but she is also very strong and brave. She has an amazing relationship with her father where you can tell that he raised her to be self sufficient but also to feel quite loved. As the story moves on you do start to follow many of the other characters, but Maggie starts it all.

POINT OF ABDUCTION: I was pretty much abducted by the writing from the beginning but one scene that completely hooked me was when Mo and Maggie went to meet the author of Inkheart, Fenoglio. He lives in this little village and his grandchildren come to play at his house every day and he is so great with them. Those scenes were adorable! I'm a sucker for sweet old grandfather types in books, so to have one who was also playful with his grandchildren totally got me.
It was also around this time that the story started to calm and then a twist came that stirred everything back up again! I loved it.

PICK UP LINE: 
If you take a book with you on a journey...an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it...yes, book are like flypaper - memories cling to the printed page better than anything else.
ABDUCTION RATING: 
A very magical story with tons of action and adventure and truly wonderful characters!

In Bed With a Book...Day 3

hosted by the delightfully mysterious Kate!
Well, I have to type this one fast as to try to make it to bed soon since tomorrow I actually have to get up and get back to the grind of going to work....boo!

But here are the books I was in bed with today:

I FINISHED Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb and loved it!

I read 100 pages of The Dinner by Herman Koch, which is my book club pick so I'm excited to have made more progress with that.

And I listened to more of Matched by Ally Condie.

I also wrote several reviews that will go up every Wednesday for the rest of the month, and watched a few episodes of Alias and got fully caught up with Emma Approved.


All in all...Good Vacation!

Monday, March 10, 2014

In Bed With A Book...Day 2

hosted by the fascinatingly gifted Kate! 
Today is Day 2 of my 3 Day vacation from work where I have absolutely nothing planned but reading books!

Yesterday I was able to finish It Had To Be You by Jill Shalvis. I read 50 pages of Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb. And I made progress on listening to the audio file for The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

This is what my reading plans looked like for today...

I started reading The Dinner by Herman Koch (my pick for book club on Saturday). I read about 25 more pages of Girl, 15. And I started the audio file for Matched.

Now, as far as The Help goes. Well, I became completely and utterly abducted by it today and literally did spend the entire day in bed with that book! I could not put it down because I HAD to know how certain story lines were going to end.

I also watched a few episodes of Alias and wrote a review over Inkheart that will go up on Wednesday.

Phew! Busy busy!

Tomorrow my plans are for more Alias and review writing. I also really really really want to finish Girl 15 and read at least 100 pages of The Dinner. We'll see how I do!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

In Bed With A Book...Day 1

In Bed With A Book is hosted by the amazingly wonderful Kate! 

I am one lucky duck who has three days off work with nothing to do but read a bunch of books!

I will also be filling my time with cleaning and blogging. But mostly I'll be read read reading!

Today is Day 1 and this is what is on my schedule for today...

First of all would everyone please take a second to admire my new bed set.

Thank you, thank you very much.

The last bed set I had I hated from the second I put it on my bed. Four years later I finally broke down and bought myself something new!

I'm not really a floral person but this design is really simple so I can handle it. The best part is that I have a queen size bed but I bought a king size comforter.

Why, you might ask. Because my dog Riley is a blanket hog! By the time he gets on the bed I can't move him in order to get more blankets so by having an extra long comforter I'm all set!

I know that all may be very boring to you, but trust me, I am miu miu emocionado!!!

Anyway, here is another image to give you a better look at the books I'll be reading today.

It is The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Girl, 15, Charming But Insane by Sue Limb.

Both books have been on my tbr shelf for far too long. I am hoping that I'll be able to finish Girl 15 today and make considerable progress with The Help.

I'm also hoping to finish It Had To Be You by Jill Shalvis today. However, that one is via my kindle app so I wasn't able to include it in my pick. It is book 7 of the Lucky Harbor series and is slightly different from the rest. Which means I'm being a tad bit of a bratty-cranky-pants when it comes to reading it because I don't like change. I mean it's not bad or anything but it is different and I don't handle different very well. But with less then a hundred pages left I'm sure I'll be able to find it within myself to finish it.

So, anyway that is my plan for today! I hope everyone else has a great Sunday!



 
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