Guest Review from Yiota!

I am so excited to have Yiota from Splash of Our Worlds guest blogging today!  So, without further ado....




Hi! I'm Yiota, one of the authors at Splash Of Our Worlds! Firstly, I would love to thank Brandi for letting me have a guest post at her blog!  This is really great. I will review Shiver, exclusively for her. She picked the book from our Library, and I am more than happy to review it. If you have time, go and check our blog as well:) 

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Official Summary by goodreads.com: 

the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.
the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.
the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

brief summary by me

Grace, is in love with the wolves. Even when they attacked her, she still loves them. Then she meets Sam. Who is a wolf. After years, they met and now everything is going wrong. From the wolf pack to their normal friends,problems appear. And they have to struggle to stay together as well. The book follows the start of their story from the POV of both, Grace and Sam. Action,love,friendship,fear are all part of it.
Pro's: What i liked with Shiver most, was the story itself. I find it pretty interesting and unique. It gives at the wolfs a different side and different transformation "ability" than we are used to.Wolf transformation really is a curse in this one. Plus, it has some really good intense scenes. Characters play between life,death,love,hate and you really don't know what will happen next which makes you to read and read...And talk about a cliffhanger! Probably one of the best cliffhangers i have ever read! I was like "what? you kiddin me! it ends?"
Con's: One big negative thing. The second characters are not will described. Grace and Sam were explained perfectly,you understand them. The rest characters not so well. The book is circling literally around Sam and Grace. Even when there problems with other characters, still you see the problems of Sam and Grace in them. Is just i would like to know more on the rest wolves and Grace's friends so i can have a better of their world at my head.
Recommend to: Everyone who likes fantasy romance would enjoy it.And then to everyone who wants a break from the vampires and angels world, it's a really good escape!
Stars: Hmmm...since there is no 3.5..i would go with 4 ;)

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I really hope you enjoyed this guest review from Yiota.  Please make sure to check out her blog, Splash of Our Worlds, and leave her some love too!

If you are interested in guest blogging on my blog, please let me know!

Happy Reading,

By Request (Part 2)

Alright, I will just jump right into this and continue where we left off in By Request (Part 1).

Happiness Sold Separately - Lolly Winston

Finished - 5/18/10

I really enjoyed this book.  It was romantic, but also had it's tear-jerker moments.  I would recommend this book to anyone that's ever been in love, lost a love, or had their heart broken.

3 Stars

Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot

Finished - 5/21/10

So, Meg Cabot is a YA author, and I love her! I can completely relate to the main character, Lizzie, in that I never know when to keep my mouth shut!!  As soon as I started reading this, I was hooked.  I would recommend this to anyone that love chick-lit, or YA books.

4 stars

Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot

Finished 5/25/10

See previous review.  Same recommendation, same stars.

Duma Key -  Stephen King

Finished 6/2/10

Um, hmmm...Where to start with this.  This was my first Stephen King book, and I was extremely disappointed.  I thought that Stephen King was the best at suspense novels.  After all, the movies that are made about his books are FREAKY!  Well, Duma Key is not scary, thrilling or in anyway suspenseful.  I thought it was long, boring, and at times completely irrational.  It isn't very often that I find a book that I just can't stand, but this was one of them.  I did make myself finish the book (partly out of my OCD, but also because I kept hoping that it would get better).  It is unfortunate, because I know there are a lot of die hard Stephen King fans out there, and I might have just picked up the wrong book to be the first one to read, but I don't see myself running out to get any other books by him anytime soon.

1 star

Sam's Letters to Jennifer - James Patterson

Finished 6/3/10

TEAR JERKER.  I don't think I stopped crying at all during this book, and afterwards I ran to my boyfriend and held him crying about how much he means to me.  I know he thought I was crazy, but wow -- this book is FANTASTIC.  Again, it is surprising, because Patterson is known for his murder mysteries, but WOW!  If you don't love sappy sappy sappy books, don't even pick it up.

5 stars

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer

Finished 6/9/10

I hopped onto the Twilight bandwagon a little late, but I did enjoy reading all of them.  When I found out that there was a novella coming out, I got real excited and ran to the store to get it.  

I was totally caught off guard with this though.  Honestly, when I first picked it up I was like "who the heck is Bree Tanner"?  I couldn't for the life of me remember, and looking back (now that I've realized who she was) she didn't play a huge role in the Twilight series...

I was not impressed with this at all...not nearly as much as I was with Twilight.  I feel like this was an afterthought and just a shot at making a little extra money -- Come on Steph, didn't you make enough from the Twilight series...let it go...

2 stars

Smitten - Janet Evanovich

Finished - 6/11/10

I'm sure you are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.  If you liked any of the reviews from previous Janet Evanovich books I've read, then read this one too -- it's cute, funny and an easy read.

4 stars

City of Bones - Michael Connelly

Finished - 6/16/10

Great read!  I highly recommend this to all of my murder mystery lovers out there. I was so creeped out by this book - no kidding - the suspense, everything!

I've read just a handful of Michael Connelly's books, and I haven't had a bad thing to say about any of them. The main character, Harry, is super likeable, and I think that is what keeps me coming back for more!

4 stars






*****

Today has been kind of hectic, and this is all I can get through right now -- bear with me, I will update again tomorrow and hopefully be done with the reviews so you can be caught up to where I am.

Happy Reading,

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Mizb at Should Be Reading.  The rules are simple:

-Grab your current read

-Open to a random page

-Share 2 “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!(make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

-Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I would also like to give credit to The Crazy Bookworm, because I would otherwise not have heard of this!

My Teaser

"Okay folks, the fire department will handle the rest.  When your coffee's finished, please head down to the street.  Good night now!"

This teaser is from Watchmen by Alan Moore.

  

Happy Reading!

Bargain Books!

I've mentioned in previous posts that I am quite the bargain shopper.  I love my Kindle to death, however, it just isn't economical for me to buy books on the Kindle at the rate that I read.  Well, my good friend told me about an AMAZING thing...and I thought I would share with you all, and let you know what books I got!

A couple of months ago, we went through her bookshelf and got rid of all the books that she no longer wanted.  I took some of them, and the rest were to be donated to the library.  She's a busy girl, so it's been a while, but she finally took the books to the library this past weekend.  When she carried her box of books in, she noticed that there was a book sale going on.  Now the libraries around here do that a lot (I guess as a fundraiser --although at the prices, I'm not sure that they are making a whole lot of money -- but who knows).  I had been to the one at the Sandy Springs library a few years back, and had a ball.  At the Sandy Springs library there was an entire room just filled with paper backs, hardbacks and books on tape.  It was incredible.  I walked into a mecca of books!

Well my friends, at the Dunwoody library this weekend, you could go and fill up a bag of books (one of the paper bags from the grocery store) and pay $6 for the whole bag.  Don't act surprised---I filled up two bags!  I spent a total of $12 on 34 books! A few of the books were for my friend...but here are the ones I kept.

  

I mean -- SERIOUSLY!?  I will be set for at least 6 months?  That's not including all the books on my TBR shelf...which in case you were wondering there are 90.  Just sayin.

While I was at the book sale, one of the ladies I spoke with told me about a website that is dedicated to letting people know when and where there were book sales.  Check this out -- Book Sale Finder.  You go in and type in the state you are looking for a book sale for and they will list ones that are at libraries, non-profit organizations -- anywhere! 

Obviously, I won't be needing to go to another book sale for quite a while, and honestly I should probably consider having one of my own...

Another thing that I heard that upset me was about the budget cuts that are going on.  In DeKalb County (not my county, so I'm not sure how Fulton's budget cuts went), they cut the budget from almost 2 million dollars down to 200k.  Are you kidding me?  How are these libraries supposed to fill their shelves?  Are they going to have to start making people pay to check out books.  Honestly, I am appalled.  Last year they cut a lot of things out of the budget in the school systems (like physical education and music programs), and now this?  What is going to happen to our children?  I know there probably isn't a whole lot that I can do about this, but it sickens me that children are going to be growing up in a world without books. 

Where do you find that you buy books most often?  Do you go to bookstores?  Do you just check books out from the library?  If the library decided to charge a membership fee for renting out books, would you still go?

Happy Reading!