Crochet Clouds Baby Blanket

I have a newborn niece that I haven't met yet that I needed to make a Christmas present for.  I didn't have a whole of time to devote to this blanket since I have 5 Ninja Turtles I have to make for a nephew, an in-progress UGA baby blanket for my baby, plus the other stuff I want to make for my baby before he/she is born.  So, voila .. literally took me an afternoon.  I thought about embellishing it a bit with a scallop edging, but I didn't have any more of the cotton candy poofy yarn, so oh well.

The simple granny square in the middle was made using a random-skein-bought-from-a-garage-sale.  It was called Cotton Candy and it was a bulk weight yarn.  I probably would have made it bigger if I had more yarn, but what you see, is what I had to work with.  That's all I got for ya.  If you are unsure how to make a granny square, a good tutorial is found here: Crochet Simple Granny Square How To

• The white edging was made by attaching the new yarn by chaining 3, then double crochet once in each stitch that you can find (kinda tricky with the poofy fluffy yarn, but it doesn't have to be exact).  In each corner of the first row, I double crocheted two in a single stitch. 
• Once the row was completed, I chained three, then started over again.  This row, in each corner I double crocheted two in a single stitch, twice (4 total stitches in the corner).  I didn't keep count as I went, it just depends on how big you want to make your middle granny square, so I can't tell you how many you need to go before you double up.  I just eyeballed what I thought would be the corner stitch.  Carry on.
• Once the row is completed, chain three, double crochet once in  each stitch.  In the corner (again, eyeball it), I double crocheted in a single stitch, three times (6 total in the corner).  Carry on.
• So, essentially, you should have picked up on what I did there ... in each successive row's corner, add 2 stitches.  So, row 4, you should have 8 double crochets (taking up four stitches) in each corner, row 5 you should have 10, ect. ect.  Carry on for as long as you wish, making the blanket as big as your little crocheting heart desires.

 So, this pattern isn't exact.  Shoot me.  I wasn't necessarily planning on making it into a big project.  As I said earlier, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on this blanket.  

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  Ask!

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Somehow, I stumbled upon this series called A Shade of Vampire.  It begins on the 17th birthday of Sofia Claremont, who is woefully stumbling down a beach in Cancun feeling sorry for herself because her best friend, Ben is rolling around with some girl, and sigh .. she's been in love with him forever, but he has friend-zoned her.

 

Aside from wanting to shoot myself in the face at this so horribly, horribly cliche moment, I kept on trucking.  Thinking ... it could only get better, right?  

Well, she ends up on this perma-night island called The Shade after being kidnapped by a vampire.  This vampire, Lucas, seems like sadistic bastard, who wants to claim Sofia for himself, but alas, Sofia is to be reserved for his younger brother, the reigning vampire prince, Derek.   Of course, you learn that big brother Lucas can't deal with that, so there is one of the conflicts.

For some reason, Derek takes an instant liking LOVE to Sofia and decides that she is going to be his personal slave and that nobody can touch her, and anybody who does faces the wrath of Prince Derek.  (Hence the problem with Lucas arises, especially after he torments her behind closed doors and she's too afraid to mention it to Derek, even after Derek has told her he would protect her and all of that other manly-cliche-ridden-stuff.)   I hate insta-love!! And it's literally what this whole series is based on!  Oh but wait!! In addition to INSTA-LOVE, there is the--but wait, I can't love him, he's a vampire/oh wait, I can't love her, she's a measly human!  Oh, gag me with a shovel!  Are you freaking kidding me?!

I guess by the way this review is going, you can tell I'm not entirely sold on this series.  The book, like this review, is very vague.  It's a quick read, maybe a little over a hundred pages, but it merrily skips along, supposedly lasting months. I kinda felt like I had been time-warped by Castiel by the time I was done with the first book.  I'm leaving major plot-points out of this review, because if I mentioned them, I would have literally re-written this book in fewer words than it took to get it published to begin with. 

So, in answer to the question I asked myself at the beginning of this book:

it can't get better.

But what am I doing?!  I started reading the second book!! And alas, it got better, much much better, it just took ANOTHER hundred pages... I guess it was a good thing the second book is around 300 pages long.  So ultimately, I suppose you could say:

 

I'll give this series another shot, I suppose. 

Christmas Trimmings

I decided this year I am going to go all out for Christmas.  It could be because now that I'm pregnant, I'm nesting, and I want to decorate more, or it could just be because I got a creative bug up my now-enlarging pregnant butt.  The first decorative item I created for Christmas this year is a wreath for my door!  Originally, I found a wreath on Pinterest that I really fell in love with. 

 

(taken from this blog: http://www.southernsunflowersandcoffeebeans.com/2012/11/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like-christmas.html ... don't say I never give props to those who deserve it!)

It didn't take me too long to realize that those wooden-branch-inspired wreaths are expensive as hell, and with only having a $20 budget to make this wreath, I had to stroll around Michaels and figure something else out.  
As I was walking through the glitter explosion aisle full of stem picks, I decided on my design.  It helped that all of the picks were half off, so instead of spending $0.99-1.99 per item, I got them for $0.50-1.00.  I bought a smaller sized fake fir wreath that ended up being $5.99.  The wooden letter C I bought was $1.49.  It was a smaller, cheaper C since I bought a smaller wreath.  I bought 8 total picks, which I said earlier ranged from $0.50 to $1.00.  Two of the picks had a bell on them, so I could hear that Christmas-y jingle every time I open my door.  I bought one spool of ribbon, costing me $4.99.  I needed a hot glue gun and glue sticks, which will come in handy for future products, which was $2.79 for the gun and $3.99 for the glue sticks.  It helped that I had a 25% off your entire purchase coupon, so all in all I spent $17.34, which if you remember, about $8.00 was spent on the glue gun and sticks. 
Once I got home, I arranged the picks artfully on one side of the wreath, just bending the flexible stem around the wreath so they wouldn't fall off.  I wrapped my wooden C in the ribbon and hot glued it so it would stay (thankfully, a C is a pretty easy letter.  Sucks for you S's and F's out there!).  I finagled a bow so I could add in a bit more color.  I'm thinking about buying smaller ornament balls and gluing them onto the wreath, but I haven't decided yet. So this is my creation!! Good luck with yours! 

Island 731 by Jeremy Robinson

So, I just finished this book so I could talk about it in my book club tonight.  Holy cow.  I'm slightly disturbed.  No ... I'm seriously disturbed with this book.  It's on par with Jeremy Robinson's other works, but I'd have to say this book takes the-Most-Effed-Idea-Ever award.  Probably my least favorite out of Jeremy Robinson, not because of the book itself.  It was very well written, the characters were developed awesomely, which is pretty much Jeremy Robinson in a nut shell.  However, just the idea behind this book is freaky as hell.  I'm the type of person who doesn't really enjoy watching movies like Saw or The Human Centipede (which I was duped into watching after being coerced by peer pressure .. don't ever say peer pressure disappears with age) because I just can't wrap my brain around the type of people it takes to even come up with an idea like those for a movie versus a storyline that has a baseline in history.  Part of me wanted to sit in a corner and suck my thumb while rocking back and forth behind a triple-deadbolted door.  It's mindboggling that there are indeed people in this world that are so severely effed up, they may be doing something like this book entails in their basement in the name of science.  I'm a scientist.  I agree to expanding our knowledge of our universe right down to our stem cells, but holy freaking nutballs... there has got to be a line somewhere, and I have a feeling there are tons of people in this world who not only toe it, they kick dirt over it and then skip on gleefully.  (So enough of that tangent .. onto the book...)  This may contain spoilers.


This book contains genetically altered chimeras, ranging from psychotic sea gulls with piranha teeth to crocodiles with squid-like tentacles that shoot from their gullets (which kind of reminded me of the vampires in the third Blade movie).  In other words .. the stuff from your worst nightmares.  And that's not even touching the main plot of this movie, human transfiguration/mutilation/experimentation.  Transplanting arms, sewing people together, giving people extra appendages, not to mention cultivating brand new species by basically implanting a fertilized, effed-up genetically egg into a person and seeing what gets birthed.  It was awful.  Not the book was awful, but the idea was gut-wrenching.  Definitely my least favorite book by Robinson, but that's not saying I hated the book.  Of course, I grew to love the characters, rooting for them when they needed it, boohooing when they got injured or captured, smiling and laughing along with them to ease the tension when the moment was needed.  As always, I caught myself wondering how they are doing currently, as if I was reading their first-hand accounts of the events and they were real human beings.  (To this day, I still fleetingly wonder how the main character from SecondWorld is, until I remember he was a book...)  I definitely grew attached to them, and I'm sure I'll catch myself thinking about them in the future (the same way I'll randomly remember that terrible movie The Human Centipede at the worst times possible).  I'm sure my dreams tonight will be vivid, and I'll probably wake my husband up with my thrashing and he'll wake me up so I can find myself in a cold sweat.  Great.  Can't wait to sleep now.

With all of that being said, I still rated this a 4 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads account, simply because I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't make my Favorites list alongside with his other novels. 

SecondWorld by Jeremy Robinson

Picture this: red flakes fall from the sky that taste like blood on your tongue, looting breaks out in your neighborhood, you get a pounding headache; soon enough, you can't breathe at all.  All of the oxygen is gone.  You die a painful suffocating death.

Lincoln Miller is a lone half-Jewish former SEAL, now NCIS agent working on a pollution case in the middle of the Florida Keys 50 yards below the surface of the ocean.  Finding a plethora of dead fish out of the porthole window, he surfaces and finds red covering everything, then soon realizes that he can't breathe without his SCUBA tank on.  Flash forward to understanding of what's going on.  The red flakes (which you find out rather quickly is oxidized iron aka rust) suck all of the oxygen out of the air.  But why?  A natural cosmic event? Or something more sinister?  Obviously, it's something more sinister (and this isn't a spoiler, you can tell this by the giant swastika on the cover). 

Without giving too much more away, I have to say this was a pretty good book.  It was definitely a change of scene from the series I just read (Crossfire series by Sylvia Day... review to come soon).  Like I've said previously, Jeremy Robinson is one of 2 action adventure authors I have on my list o' favorites, so I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed.  This fast-paced adventure is full of action, without being too over-bearing, has military-esque lingo, without making the most non-military person run for cover, and had a pretty new take (at least to me) on Nazis both from WWII and current-era White Supremacist assholes.  I thought it was poetic justice that the main hero happened to be half-Jewish, while some others might think it's cheesy.  Jeremy Robinson has a knack for making his readers, maybe not identify per se, but at least relate to his characters.  I always end up rooting for his good guys and booing his bad guys when I read his novels.  If you're in the mood for an action thriller, definitely take the couple of days it'll take and read this novel.  I highly doubt you'd be disappointed.  I remember reading one review that was saying this was the most improbable book and how her life was wasted while reading this blah-blah.  I feel like one of the whole points of reading is to leave your reality behind and immerse yourself in a different one.  Who cares if this book is improbable?  I don't know about you, but I sure as hell wouldn't want somebody to get any bright ideas off this kind of apocalyptic stuff.  But when it comes down to it, the only review you need to follow is your own.  

Definitely a 4 out of 5 starts on my Goodreads profile.

Hello my friend, it's been awhile, where should we begin?

Can't say much lately.  Haven't read anything mindblowing.  I may be a smidge burnt out on reading.  Couple of two-stars, one three-star, but I wasn't stunned by it.  It's getting a little tedious.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a third book in a series (that I didn't even know was going to be a series) by Abbi Glines called the Too Far trilogy.  I wasn't blown away, but it was better than some other books I've been reading.  For some reason, I woke up one morning on one of my rare days off, and was thinking about the two main characters.  I have no idea what brought it on, but there they were.  So, on a whim, I re-read the first two novels.  Then, that night, I discovered on the Top 100 list on Amazon, that there was a third book!  Well, after downloading it (because I'm OCD and can't let a series go un-read, even if it takes me the time it takes an elephant to have a baby [that's 22 months, bt-dubs in case you were curious], I WILL read the whole thing), I promptly read it that night.  (Each book was only around 200 pages each, so it wasn't too much.)  I enjoy how Abbi Glines switches from Blair to Rush between chapters.  It's refreshing and nice not to get too bogged down in the way one character is thinking.  Blair, the female character, is of course, super duper nice and sweet and wholesome and of course she has an over-active guilt complex THE ENTIRE SERIES.  It's like a yo-yo that is stuck in the dead-mans-walk trick, where she's constantly berating herself about how guilty she's feeling because she is making Rush choose between his self-involved mother and shocking sadistic/psychotically bitchy sister, then she's up again, reeling in her pregnancy and loving life and Rush.  Rush, on the other hand, it still trying to smooth over his major faux paux from the end of the first/ like half of the second book where she leaves him and is struggling through her first trimester of pregnancy alone.  He's always tripping over himself to make Blair feel loved and make her believe that she's the center of his universe and promising how he's never going to put anything ahead of her again in his life, before he GASP! does something stupid and she gets her feelings hurt and runs away, only to be consoled again by him once he catches up to her.  I swear, I really felt like this book was a yo-yo.  By the end of it, I was ready to thump them both on their foreheads and make them act like the adults that they are and be parents to the baby and to stop wallowing in their own crap (her case guiltiness for his family drama and his guiltiness for making Blair feel like she wasn't numero uno in his life).  I'm glad I read the book, so I can put the characters to rest in my head, but the third book was by far my least favorite.  I probably liked the first one the best.  I was very generous in giving this book three stars on my Goodreads profile.

I took on a new author: Cheryl McIntyre.  On the Top 100, I spotted a book called Before Now.  Reading the synopsis, my interest was piqued.  After a little bit of further research, I discovered that it was the second book in a series, so naturally, I found the first one called Sometimes Never and had to read that one first.  It started out okay.... and remained okay while reading it .... but I found myself skimming some pages, reading dialogue ... then skimming some more inner self-hatred perpetrated by one of the main characters.  Okay, so starting at the beginning: Mason is an 18 year old who is very handsome and panty-dropping, but jaded to the whole girls-throwing-themselves-at-him-constantly lifestyle.  Enter Hope, the sarcastic, bitchy, I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think-about-me girl who instantly catches his eye.  They meet, they flirt, and he is convinced he's in love.  Cut to the girl, who we find out it a cutter with some serious anger/self-esteem issues.  Long story short, the 18 year old (because EVERY 18 year old has his shit together and knows exactly what's he's going to do with his life/knows that he's GOING to marry this girl, no matter what) Mason and Hope fall in love, she overcomes her cutting issue, he overcomes is jaded/anger management problem and they go to college together and end up being engaged before she graduates from college.  Now, I quite obviously find this EXTREMELY far-fetched in that 18 year olds are not that selfless that they cut themselves off from the only family they have left, get an apartment while still in high school, is convinced who they are going to marry and help said person over some SERIOUS issue single-handedly.  The novella called Blackbird is still following these characters and I skimmed through most of that book.  By now, I'm no longer excited to read Before Now because now I know this author's style isn't necessarily something I'm amused by, but alas, I'll read it eventually.  Two stars.  Definitely two stars.

J.C. Reed's Surrender Your Love.
Great synopsis on Amazon.  Probably one of the top 3 most disjointedly-written books ever.  I get it.  She's probably breaking into writing, didn't have this book fully edited/professionally read.  Kudos.  Seriously.  I know how hard it is to write a book for the first time.  I just feel like .. the book wasn't finished.  Sure, there was a plot line, climax, ect, but I just feel like it wasn't a smooth journey while reading.  Maybe the author had notes stuck in the margins of the book of scenes/ideas that she wanted to add, but never got around to them for some reason?  More than a few times, there were references to something that never actually happened.  And I kind of feel like .. this is bordering on Insta-Love, but it definitely wasn't the intention of the author, just some scenes forgot to be added that would help pad this attraction between the two main characters.  Disjointed is really the only word I had in my head when I finished this book.  Maybe there weren't any glaring plot holes, but there was certainly some roads that weren't fully paved and were very rocky.  I do have to say, the author is HUGE in the internal monologue of what the character (this book follows ONLY the main female character Brooke.  I feel like the author would have done much better with this book and keeping the attention span of the reader in tact if she alternated between Brooke and Jett.) is thinking and feeling and describing her surroundings, but holy jeebus, I was bored of it pretty quick.  I find myself reading the conversations but skimming a lot of the dense paragraphs that cover what she thinks.  I get it, you are falling in love with this hot guy.  I get it, his clothes barely cover how masculine and built his body is.  I get it, his eyes are sinful and his smile is sinful and his voice makes your tummy do funny things, but gimme a break here!  It was alright.  It has a sequel.  More of the same.  Literally, just under a different title, Conquer Your Love.  I'm 55% through the book, and decided to stop so I can surf the web, update my blog, look at Pinterest, ect.  Ya get what I'm saying?

I've taked it upon myself to read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I'll let you know when I finish it 8 years from now...

I'm also re-reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  I've read it once, so I'm not committing some type of sacrilege or blasphemy by not reading it in one fell swoop.  I'm reading here and there.

I discovered, thanks to Goodreads, a pretty popular fan fiction series called James Potter and the ....  I'm entertained so far.  The first one is called and the Hall of the Elder's Crossing.  It follows James Potter, Harry and Ginny's eldest son and I'm assuming the author G. Norman Lippert will write seven novels that follow him through all of his schooling.  All of the books he's written is available on his site www.jamespotterseries.com .  I'll keep you updated with that one once I've delved into it fully.  I think I only read the first few chapters (up to the night James gets Sorted.)

That is all.  

When you are with me, I'm free :)

M.I.A. For Awhile ... The Hunt For Atlantis by Andy McDermott Review

I know, I've been missing for a little while (to the numerous many of you who are completely AVID readers of this blog ((see, it's funny 'cause I'm pretty sure I don't have any of those 'you's)), but I've been backtracking a little bit and re-reading some books that made it onto my list o' favorites.  I did just finish reading a book for the first time though.

The Hunt For Atlantis is my first novel I've read by McDermott, and I'm impressed.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves though.  The only two action/adventure author slots I've allotted for my Favorite Authors list have already been taken by Matthew Reilly and Jeremy Robinson, however, McDermott would be a ... I would say distant third favorite.  Back to the review: this novel introduces Nina Wilde (archeologist/all around braniac) and Eddie Chase (ex-SAS/bodyguard/not even remotely attractive sounding).  I'm kind of happy that McDermott didn't make Eddie Chase some sort of swoon-worthy gorgeous specimen of an ex-SAS dude, because then I think the novel would be more about the him-her (Mulder/Scully-esque) storyline than the actual adventure storyline that it ends up following.  Without giving away any major plot points, Wilde is contracted by a guy to find the original Atlantis.  For people that don't know much about Atlantis, it might be a good idea to just kind of skim a wikipedia article about it, just so you're aren't like, "So, what's Atlantis and why are they looking for it in the middle of the ocean?" and such during the book.  (This did make me want to read The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne though.)  Granted, you can read the book and gather a kind of rough history of Atlantis and it isn't vital you know every bit of history associated with it.  The book is less of a history lesson that some books can be (kinda The da Vinci Code?? even though I really enjoyed reading it) and more of a what's-going-to-happen-when-they-get-there type of book. 
The plot thickens when you find out that there is a group of people out there who are directly trying to sabotage any and all attempts at somebody finding Atlantis (they even murder to accomplish this.)  I'd say this novel had a pretty good plot twist in it, but I still found myself counting down the pages until I was done reading it.

Some cons: as far as the action goes, it was alright.  It took me about a week to read this book, and that was mostly because I'd read some, then put it down and read a few chapters of Harry Potter or this really awful book I tried reading called The Devil Has Dimples. (Gah!  Nightmare!)  I feel like one of the main differences between one of my two favorite action/adventure authors (Reilly or Robinson) is that with their books, I'm constantly flipping pages, excited to see where the book is going to go, only to be disappointed that I've reached the end of the novel.  They seem more cover-to-cover action, whereas this book... was more like ... chapter-of-action-to-few-chapters-of-blahness-to-chapter-of-action.  I wasn't as on the edge of my seat with this novel that I would say I usually am with an action/adventure novel.  But this all goes saying I still enjoyed the book and I will definitely read the rest of the series, it just may take me awhile.  I'll probably read 4-5 books in between each one rather than read them back to back. 
Another thing: with the way the book ended, it seemed a wee bit too convenient for the main characters.  That's all I've gotta say 'bout that.


Goodreads Rating: Three out of Five stars (liked it)

And here's a little blurb for those of you whose interest was piqued by my comment about The Devil Has Dimples.  A woman finds out she's adopted, goes to some backwoods town to find out who her father is after her mother passes away, meets and falls in love with the town lawyer.  Now, sounds like an okay concept.  The actual format/writing of this book reads like an ADD kid. "Hi. Do you like cake? I have a frog.  I love riding my bike.  Oh, look, a rock. Hi, again.  I want a pretzel."  I got about halfway through it before I decided to cut my losses and go back to McDermott.

Wait For You by J. Lynn Review

Well, let's start this off by saying I had to read this book on my iPhone's Kindle App.  Sadly, my Kindle has bit the dust (post-warranty).  However, after some fancy footwork & some fast talking (er ... typing.) I've convinced the Kindle Support team to send me a new one for free.  Now, I just have to wait until March 6th for the new one.  Ha cha cha!  Take that!!!

Now, on to the point on this post.  Wait For You written by J. Lynn (aka Jennifer L. Armentrout), is about a girl from Texas who moves to West Virginia to go to college away from her past.  Throughout the entire story, her sordid history is alluded to, but then there are little things she says that make you doubt what you think happened.  Of course, she meets the hunk-tastic Cameron, who lives across the hall from her and is almost immediately smitten with her because she doesn't melt into a pile of goo at the first glimpse of his lopsided-grin-with-a-dimple.  Cam has made it onto my list of Book Boyfriends.  He's hot, he's tattooed, he's sarcastic and witty, and he loves to bake.  This book was written in the New Adult genre I think, therefore there are SEX SCENES!! IN DETAIL!! Glorious!! There are some books out there that are slap full of sex scenes and are full of the nitty gritty details that make you think you're significant other is seriously lacking, however in this book, there were just enough scenes and just enough details that made it perfect.  And from what I read, Cam is pretty awesome in bed.  Patient, attentive, non-selfish. Sigh... Anywho.  Obviously, the main character, Avery, fights her attraction to Cam for awhile, declining his invitation to go on dates for two months, before she FINALLY sees the light and caves.  Enter the next 200 pages of more hotness and kisses and mmmm's.  All in all, I enjoyed reading about Avery and Cam.  I'm looking forward to reading some of the scenes from Cam's point on view, which JLA is so very good at doing. 
Any cons I have about this book is probably just about the editing.  It seems like this book might've been rushed through the editing process and some things were missed.  I can normally look past misspelled words, but there were literally a couple of occasions where the sentence wasn't fully formed or finished out, so I kinda made it up in my head and kept right on trucking.  It wasn't every other page like some other books I've read, so I was able to look beyond it still and thoroughly enjoy reading. It's nice to read a stand-alone novel that enables me to add to my Book Boyfriend list. 

Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I've definitely become fan of Armentrout's writing
Cursed is about a girl names Ember who dies in a car accident and is brought back to life by her little sister.  Upon her revival, she discovers that her touch kills.  Literally.  So, essentially, this book is about a girl in high school who withdraws socially due to her disability and has to be the sole caregiver of her little 5 year old sister since her mother has been basically catatonic since the car accident that took the life of her dad.  At one point, she's assaulted by a fellow student who dies, and she freaks out.  Then, a family of people with their own gifts swoops in to whisk her and her sister and mother away from this little town in West Virginia so they can both be trained how to control their abilities.  Enter: Hayden.  Despite her touch, Hayden is fascinated with her and works with her to reign in her ability.

Of all of the books I've read by Armentrout, I'd have to say this is probably my least favorite, but at the same time, I'm not saying I did not like this book.  Ember seemed a little whiney, Hayden a bit unbelievable at times, her mother was just pathetic, and if I had that bratty little sister, I'd've slapped her.  Armentrout has the ability to make me add her male characters to my list of book boyfriends, but I didn't really get that feeling from Hayden.  Since this was a stand-alone novel, I feel like I didn't have the normal three books to become infatuated with him like I have with her other novels/series.  This book probably could've been stretched into a series, but it did well as a stand-alone.  The idea may not be wholly original, but I did really enjoy it.  It isn't as played out as some other themes. 

Overall, I rated it 3 out of 5 stars.

Hex Hall Series by Rachel Hawkins, Tidal by Emily Snow, Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Over the past two weeks, I have read several books, a series here and there and stand alones when needed.  I started reading the Fifty Shades Trilogy but I haven't finished it.  I read the first two and then decided I needed a break. 

I read a really great book called Wallbanger by Alice Clayton.  It was definitely a knee-slapping funny book.  It follows a woman named Caroline who moves into a new apartment, and on her first night sleeping there, is woken up at a god-awful hour late in the evening/early in the morning to her next door neighbor banging on the wall. But, he's not knocking, or hanging up a picture, no sirree... he's banging a woman, and his bed is hitting the wall, which is in turn, banging on her wall.  Caroline and Mr. Wallbanger eventually become friends, and are exchanging witty quips the whole time, while simultaneously falling in love with each other.  Now, I wouldn't call this a spoiler, because this is how ALL BOOKS END.  However, I would totally encourage people to read this book, but it was indeed funny.  In fact, I told my boss to download it because I knew she'd like it.  I'm pretty sure I rated it 4 out of 5 stars on my Good Reads profile.  (It takes a super good book for me to give it 5 stars.)

I also read Tidal by Emily Snow.  It follows an almost-washed up actress named Willow who just gets out of a six month stint at a court ordered rehab.  (Whatever roxies are...)  She's immediately thrown into training for a movie, that'll hopefully be her saving grace.  In her movie, she has to be able to surf, so she takes surfing lessons from a local hottie that has an Australian accent.  ('Nuff said...)  I enjoyed this book, and can picture it becoming a movie that somebody like Miley Cyrus stars in, which may or may not be a bad thing.  If you're in the mood for some sexy humor, flirting, damaged people, and some self-esteem issues, this book is for you.

The Hex Hall series.  Instead of doing individual reviews for each book in the trilogy, I'll just sum them all up in one.  This trilogy was a quick, easy read.  Literally.  Each book is less than 250 pages and I was able to read them all in one day.  Granted, I had the day off and literally just laid in bed and read in front of my space heater cuddled up with my dogs, but still.  Some books take more brain effort to read, but not these.  The story was easy to follow and amusing.  Witches, fairies, shapeshifters, werewolves, and demons make up this trilogy.  It follows Sophie, her friends, and her love interest, Archer.  Sophie gets sentenced to finish her schooling at Hecate Hall, (aka Hex Hall) which is basically boarding school for magical screw ups.  Obviously, Sophie gets entangled in all sorts of conspiracies and bad news bears.  I enjoyed this trilogy.
(I know, you're thinking, this chick "enjoys" almost all books she reads, but trust me, there are some books that are torture for me to get through.  More on an example later.)

I started reading the Existence Trilogy by Abbi Glines.  GOD-FREAKING-AWFUL.  Those three words sum up the first two books.  I didn't even read the novella and the third and final book because I wanted to gouge my eyeballs out with a rusty spoon after reading just the first two.  It literally read like a 13 year old's diary, where she's retelling her love life.  Oh my god.  Just thinking about it makes me shudder.  If you're looking into some ways to torture yourself, pick up this trilogy.  And this makes me sad!  I really enjoy reading Abbi Glines' books.  But, I feel like maybe this trilogy was her first attempt at writing ... and she wrote them in junior high school ... while she had a learning disability.  The concept of the trilogy is great: a girl can see souls, ends up seeing Death, falls in love with Death who in turn falls in love with her, all the while dealing with a Voodoo Prince who has some weird claim on her.  Great concept, horribly poor execution.

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout review

Well, I finished book 2 in the Lux series.  I must say, I am fully appreciating one of the first book series that is about aliens that I have ever read.  There was one of other series I started that had to do with aliens, and to be honest, I can't even remember the name of the book, if that's any indication on how I felt about it.

Anyways, back to the book: This book introduces Blake, the inevitable third side to the love triangle.  Katy and Daemon have become linked due to a life altering event, but she's denying any sort of attraction between the two, attempting to chalk it up to their link.  The whole time I found myself screaming, "oh shut up you twit and kiss the man!" Katy was able to show a lot of restraint in preventing herself from throwing herself at this guy, but I found myself annoyed, because why can't she get over it?!  Yeah, he was pretty douchey at the beginning of their friendship, but now he's obviously trying to win you over.  I can understand the author did not want to fall into the "insta-love" category with these two, which is very commendable, but hot damn, I was getting antsy waiting on those sparks to fly. 
Katy begins to discover that she has somehow changed after the life-altering event, and is now able to move things without touching them, ect.  A big light bulb would have gone off the first time my locker opened without me touching it, but she tries to explain it off as drafts and whatnot.  The relationship between Katy and Daemon is doused a little when Blake enters the picture, but smolders on the sidelines.  I kinda wish I could read a book series that did not involve a love triangle, but I feel like it's part of what keeps people interested.  And, a new theme has been added into the story: the DOD is kidnapping people that have been exposed to the Luxem and is using their abilities.  Dawson (Daemon's twin brother) and Bethany are believed the be two of the people that have been held by the DOD.  But wait!! The DOD has been corrupted by a sub-group called Daeddelus that is trying to harness the abilities of the Luxem for their own ill-gain (greedy SOB's).  Again, the author has a great idea in providing a few chapters in Daemon's POV, which is just fun to read. 
Overall, I'm still very happy with this book series.  Sometimes I find myself less than stoked about a series when I get a few books into it.  It's kinda like with TV shows.  The first season is fantastical.  Then, about three seasons in, the storyline is twisted and so convoluted, it gets buried under a mountain of unnecessary drama.  I don't see this happening with this story line, but I'm going to wait about a week before I jump into reading the third book, Opal.  I don't want to burn myself out (like when I was reading the House of Night series.  I probably read 6 and a half of them before I was like, gah!  I gotta do something else for awhile!  And yes ... I did say a half.  I got halfway through the 7th book and had to stop because I was becoming very cynical towards the main character).  I'll read a couple of unrelated books, then come back to this series. 
Two very big thumbs up, 5 out of 5 stars, however you want to rate this book on the scale, it falls at the top for me.

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This is the first book in a series called Lux by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  It's centered around a 17 year old girl in the middle of West Virginia and aliens.  I have to say that I haven't devoted a lot of my reading time to aliens.  That being said, I think this is a pretty freaking original book.  Especially when this is only the second series I've read written by her, and the first series (Covenant) was a great series, but it seemed almost identical (at first) to the Vampire Academy series written by Richelle Mead.  (See the previous blog posting for more information on that series.)
Seventeen year old Katy (which to be honest, I'm flipping back and forth between pronouncing it like Katie and Catty... If only books could speak :) ) gets uprooted from her life in Florida after her dad dies from cancer.  Her mother is a nurse, so she's hardly ever around.  She, of course, moves next door to a sibling duo, which consists of the beautiful Dee and her stunningly hott brother Daemon.  Daemon is such an asshat for the majority of this book.  There are scenes where we learn a bit about the vulnerable Daemon, but mostly, he's being snarky or perverted or just downright mean.  One thing Armentrout does VERY well is provide her readers with chapters from the other character's POV, which is pretty freaking cool.  Granted, these chapters are considered bonus material, so unless you stop reading the book and find the right bonus scene to read, you'll read it when you're finished with the book.  The bonus scenes in Daemon's POV reveal so much more about his character. 
Being slowly introduced into this storyline was a bit of fresh air compared to some other urban fantasy books.  Recently, it seems like I'm thrown into a story in the middle and I spend the rest of the series catching up to exactly what the eff is going on.  I do enjoy learning about a new world as the main character does.  It's nice to dip a big toe in before jumping the rest of the way, and let me tell you, I'm totally jumping into this book series.
There is a prequel, that I didn't read first.  I'll probably go back and read that once I've read the remaining two books that have been published while I'm waiting until July for the fourth book to come out.
I'm excited to start reading Onyx!  More to come! 

Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Let me start off by saying I'm a fan, and I can't wait until the final two books are released!  If you've read the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Meade then you'll like this series.  They are remarkably similar, but as the series progresses, the differences become more pronounced.

Book 1: Daimon (A Prequel)
This book was short and sweet, but I feel like it was definitely worth the read.  There are a lot of prequel type books out there now that don't seem to mean much to the series, but I feel like this one helped lay a lot of groundwork.  Granted, I double, then triple-checked to make sure it was indeed the first of the series because it literally jumps right into the Hematoi/Covenant world.  It seems to pick up mid-story, but it wasn't a big deal.  I was able to ride along and I wasn't too confused. 
I have to say I did like Alexandria aka Alex's character.  She was independent and not too whiney.  You are almost immediately made aware of the fact that there was a boy she swooned after back when she was at the Covenant before her and her mother left.  So, obviously, you're aware there is going to be a love aspect.  I may be 26 years old, but I do enjoy reading these Young Adult novels that have chaste love triangles or what have you. 
I felt like this prequel was a great way to introduce things, and it definitely reads like a cliffhanger.  Lots of questions and themes are presented with no real resolution, so you have to continue the series to get any answers. 

Book 2: Half-Blood
This novel follows Alex back to the Covenant where she has to go through rigorous training under the watchful eye of Adrian (who just so happens to be the swoon-worthy crush mentioned in Daimon).  Now, obviously, this plot line is kind of played out.  I'm the type of person who can sit through books like this even though I basically already know the storyline because I just enjoy reading as a whole.  A friend of mine that I recommended this series to asked if it was like Vampire Academy and I told her at first yes, and she almost didn't read it due to the fact that she could not get over the whole class structure.  I know, I know.. the half-bloods are trained for the sole purpose of protecting the pure-bloods, and yeah, I know, they get treated like crap, so why not just rise up and revolt against the pure-bloods since they treat you like crap.  I mean, you are trained to kick ass, right?  This is something that I can overlook.  Some people may not.  I am able to turn off that half of my brain that says, "hello?! you're complaining about it but you're not doing anything about it?!"  I just sit back and enjoy, mostly because I know in the end, everything will be resolved.  I have YET to read a book that begins like that and does not end where everybody is equal and happy, ect. 
That all being said, this book follows the cliche plot line that so many people enjoy, but at the same time, so many people complain about being played out.  The thing is, this plot line obviously sells books, (just like how the whole BDSM book scene EXPLODED after the Fifty Shades trilogy became a hit).  People just need to get over it and either sit down and shut up and read or pick a different genre.

Book 3: Pure
This book introduces Seth, the Apollyon, (basically a half-blood that is gifted by the gods the power of all of the elements and the fifth, akasha) as more of a prominent character.  Of course, by now, due to the not-so-subtle foreshadowing, you've figured out that Alex is going to become a major part of the Apollyon phenomena.  This book is basically an outlet for Seth and Alex's relationship to grow, while Adrian and Alex's relationship takes a backseat.  Adrian is trying to push Alex away since a relationship between a pure and a half is forbidden, but of course, he's uber-jealous of the growing fondness between Seth & Alex.  Enter: another cliche plot line. 
There is a lot of time spent preparing Alex for her testimony at the NY Covenant, which is basically where the head honchos get together and toot their own horns about being pure bloods, ect.  There is a scene from one of the meetings where a pure and a half are on trial for their secret relationship, well, more like the half is on trial while the pure is shouting, "but I love you!" from the crowd.  This is supposed to discourage Alex from continuously trying to pursue her and Adrian's frowned-upon relationship.  It, of course, adds gasoline to the fire in the long run. 

Book 4: Deity
"I'm afraid of becoming the second Apollyon!" <--- the theme of this book.  Then of course there's Adrian saying, "No, don't worry, I won't let you turn evil."  and then there's Seth saying, "Oh come on, it'd be fun and we'd be unstoppable." 
I really did enjoy this book though, since it's back on the Adrian/Alex side of the love triangle.  I'm not saying I did not enjoy learning more about Seth, but he kind of gives me the heebies jeebies some, what with basically attempting to force Alex to Awaken early or taking advantage of her to get a power-up from her Apollyon-ness. 

Book 5: Elixir
This little smidge of a book is written from Adrian's perspective, and I'll be honest, my heart broke for the kid.  Alex has Awakened and turned to the dark side!  Her threats directed at Adrian are just downright mean.  I have to give Adrian credit for not taking the things she says to heart and for making the hard decisions that he made in this one.  If I try to put myself in his shoes, I find myself struggling just like he did. 

Books to Come: Apollyon & Sentinel

Overall, I'm super happy I started reading this book, but I can NOT STAND waiting for books!! There's a reason I waited until this past summer to finally read the Harry Potter series!!

Kudos to Jennifer L. Armentrout for pouring her heart and soul into this series.  Not-so-kudos to her for kind of ripping off of Vampire Academy.  Like I said, as the series advances, it differentiates itself from the Vampire Academy series, almost wholly, but the first book is pretty much Vampire Academy but with a few splashes of Greek Gods and a sprinkle of Apollyon-ness.  But overall, I did enjoy the series, and I have recommended it to others that like this genre.  Now all I have to do is wait until March for the next book and FREAKING JANUARY 2014 for Sentinel!

Newest and Brightest

So I've decided to add book reviews to my blog.  I know I haven't posted anything in awhile and I think it's because I wasn't getting hits other than from Ravelry due to a few patterns I posted. But anyways, I'm addicted to reading, which I've already blogged about.  I have recently read several books that I'm going to review and hopefully they aren't a gigantic waste of time.  But even if nobody really reads them, at least I can go back and re-read something I've written about a book. 

Also, I have a made a few more things recently, including a cupcake purse and a cupcake hat.

The cupcake purse picture will have to wait until I get her to send me a good picture of it. 
Here's the cupcake hat:

It has "sprinkles" on it.  The pattern called for a cherry on top, but I thought that would make it look more like an ice cream than a cupcake.

Book reviews to come!