Mystery & Suspense Challenge 2011

I'm going to participate in the Mystery & Suspense Challenge 2011 hosted by Book Chick City.

If you want to know more and join go to Book Chick City to sign up!

• Timeline: 01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011

• Rules: To read TWELVE (12) mystery & suspense novels in 2011 (12 is the minimum but you can read more if you wish!)

• You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. Also if you do list them upfront you can change them, nothing is set in stone! The books you choose can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.

• You can join anytime between now and the later part of next year.

• At the beginning of Jan 2011, you will find a link to specific month to add your reviews. There will be a monthly prize too courtesy of the lovely Simon & Schuster - you must be signed up to the challenge and add the link to your review to be entered into the monthly prize draw. 

I don't know which books I'll read for this challenge yet but when I do, I'll update this post.

Read books:

01. The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie

02. Sparkling Cyanide - Agatha Christie
03. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson 
04. Passanger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie
05. Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie
06. The Midnight Palace - Carlos Ruiz Záfon
07. Double Crossing . Meg Mims
08. Tantric Zoo - Robert Loughran 
09. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie 
10. Evil Under The Sun - Agatha Christie 
11. Crooked House - Agatha Christie 
12. Cat Among Pigeons - Agatha Christie

Blog Award

I just received a blog award!

This award was given to me by: Dog-Eared & Bookmarked, Brush Up On Your Reading and The Deranged Book Lovers. Thank you so much!

The conditions of this award are the following:

1. Thank and link back to the person that gave this award
2. Write 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked to let them know about the award.

7 Things about me:

1. I am 21.
2. I'm a graduate student.
3. I try to buy and read at least one book a week.
4. Besides books, I love movies and music.
5. I adore Audrey Hepburn.
6. I play tennis.
7. I can be very stubborn sometimes.

Here are the 15 blogs I will be passing this award to:

1. Sparkling Reviews
2. Blkosiner's Book Blog
3. Forever Young (adult)
4. Addicted 2 Novels 
5. Steph Su Reads
6. Ashley's Bookshelf
7. Candace's Book Blog
8. The Bookologist
9. Book Rat
10. Missy's Reads & Reviews
11. Reading Is Dreamy
12. Reading The Best of The Best
13. Good Golly Miss Holly
14. Bewitched Bookworms
15. Reading Angel

On My Wishlist (04)

 

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

 

 

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

--

Seems interesting, doesn't it?

Blog Hop (06) & Follow Friday (07)

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme sponsored by Jennifer at Crazy For Books.

This week's question is:

"What is your favorite book cover?"

I can't possible choose just one book cover and I have to confess the answer to this questions changes regularly. Right now I think the cover of Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols is very pretty.

HI! Welcome to my blog! I am participating in Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Hop on please leave comment, link your blog, and follow, and I will follow you as well. 

2011 Debut Author Challenge

This year I'm going to participate in the 2011 Debut Author Challenge hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren.

If you want to know more and join go to The Story Siren to sign up!

Here are some books I plan to read in 2011.

01. Across The Universe - Beth Revis (Read)

02. Clarity - Kim Harrington (Read)

03. Falling Under - Gwen Hayes (Read)

04. Remembrance - Michelle Madow (Read)

05. Sophie & Carter - Chelsea Fine (Read)

06. Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini (Read)

07. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin (Read)

08. Other Words For Love - Lorraine Zago Rosenthal (Read)

09. Hunting Lila - Sarah Alderson (Read)

10. Die For Me - Amy Plum (Read)

11. Hereafter - Tara Hudson

12. The Vincent Boys - Abbi Glines (Read)

Blog Hop (05) & Follow Friday (06)

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme sponsored by Jennifer at Crazy For Books.

This week's question is:

"Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"

Well, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving where I live but that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for a lot of things. I'm thankful for my great family and my crazy, funny and supporting friends. I'm also thankful for my pets, who never fail to make me smile and for being able to keep doing what I like and for having the time to enjoy, for instance, a good book.

HI! Welcome to my blog! I am participating in Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Hop on please leave comment, link your blog, and follow, and I will follow you as well. 

"How long have you been blogging?"

For just about two months! I'm still new at this.

Recent and Future Releases

November 2:

       The Mockingbirds                      Afterlight                        Happy Ever After

     Indulgence in Death


 November 9:

               Wish                              The Marbury Lens                    Selling Hope                

    Teenage Waistland                The Sweetness of Salt

November 11:

    Five Flavors of Dumb

November 15:


          Tyger Tyger                            Cross Fire


November 16:


             Night Star

November 23:

   When The Stars Go Blue             Invisible Things

November 30:

           Matched

Review - High Noon by Nora Roberts

Title and Author: High Noon by Nora Roberts

Publisher: Putnam

Publication Date: July 10, 2007

Paperback: 427 Pages

Genre: Romance, Suspense

Summary:

Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she's Savannah's top hostage negotiator, defusing powderkeg situations with a talent for knowing when to give in-andwhen to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work-and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her agoraphobic mother, still traumatized by the break-in after all these years, and her precocious seven-year-old, Carly.
It's exactly that heady combination of steely courage and sensitivity that first attracts Duncan Swift to Phoebe. After observing her coax one of his employees down from a roof ledge, he is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. She's used to working solo, but Phoebe's discovering that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm's length.
And when she's grabbed by a man who throws a hood over her head and brutally assaults her-in her own precinct house-Phoebe can't help but be deeply shaken. Then threatening messages show up on her doorstep, and she's not just alarmed but frustrated. How do you go face-to-face with an opponent who refuses to look you in the eye?
Now, with Duncan backing her up every step of the way, she must establish contact with the faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage to fear . . . before she becomes the final showdown.(goodreads.com)

Review:

I’m a big Nora Robert’s fan and even though I thought this book was pretty good, it’s not her best work.

Phoebe MacNamara is a police negotiator, a mum to a seven year old girl and daughter of and agoraphobic mother. She loves her job and it’s while talking down a man threatening to commit suicide that she meets Duncan, a man determined to seduce her. Phoebe’s already difficult life suddenly complicates when she becomes the victim of a sexual harassment and the target of a stalker who wants to destroy her.

The characters are definitely the best part of this book. Phoebe’s an intelligent, strong and determined woman who knows what she wants and what is expected of her and it’s nice to see her try to balance her sucessful and demanding career and her family.

Duncan is attracted to Phoebe from the first time he saw her and, being a take charge man who knows what he wants, decides to pursue and seduce her. Duncan is an optimist, a laid back but also extremely intelligent and determined man. Phoebe needed a man like Duncan to balance her and her tendency to be a pessimist. Their chemistry was natural and developed nicely throughout the book.

The secondary characters were also great, especially Ma Bee and Phoebe’s daughter, Carly.

I enjoyed the plot of this book as well, even though there were some loose ends. I would have liked to see a little more of some characters and have the change to find out what happened to them.

There are some good twists in the story, even though the climax only happens in the last chapter. I think that was my main issue with the book. All the important dialogue, action and suspense were crammed into the last chapter and when that chapter ended I was left wondering exactly what had happened to most of the characters.

All in all I enjoyed reading this book. Nora Roberts is always able to create a story that keeps me interested. I love the way she makes the characters come together and how the banter between them is so well written.

As all of her other books this one is well written and well researched. The only fault in it for me was the ending that didn’t satisfy me.

Rating: Somewhere between Readable and Well Worth Your time (3 ½  stars)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.


Read this past week:

High Noon by Nora Roberts

Currently Reading:
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

Upcoming:

Looking For Alaska by John Green 

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen 

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

I didn't read a lot this past week since I've been a little busy but that will hopefully change.
What about you guys? What are you reading?

On My Wishlist (03)

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

 

 

Barcelona, 1945—Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes one day to find that he can no longer remember his mother’s face. To console his only child, Daniel’s widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona’s guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.

Daniel’s father coaxes him to choose a book from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the book he selects, a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax’s work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last of Carax’s books in existence.

Before Daniel knows it, his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness, and doomed love, and before long he realizes that if he doesn’t find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

 

--

I've wanted to read this book for a while now. It seems so interesting and captivating. I have to push it up my TBR list.

Blog Hop (04) & Follow Friday (05)

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme sponsored by Jennifer at Crazy For Books.

This week's question is:

"If you find a book that looks interesting but it's part of a series, do you always start with the first title?"

Yes, or at least I try to. I always feel like I'm missing something important if I don't start with the first book in a series.

HI! Welcome to my blog! I am participating in Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Hop on please leave comment, link your blog, and follow, and I will follow you as well. 

"What is your usual monthly book budget?"

It varies but about $50 a month.

Review - The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Title and Author: The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

Paperback: 372 Pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Summary:

Grace Divine—daughter of the local pastor—always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes most: her soul. (goodreads.com)

Review:

This book turned out to be a good surprise, even though I already had a pretty good idea of what it was all about.

Grace’s family members are the good doers in their community. They are respected, well intentioned and hold no secrets. Or at least that was what Grace thought until a childhood friend, Daniel, who had disappeared several years ago, returns.

When Daniel returns everything around Grace seems to change. She had always been close to her brother Jude but suddenly their relationship becomes strained. People in the community start showing up dead and she is warned to stay away from Daniel.

She doesn’t, though. She always had a crush on him and that crush only seems to grow stronger. There’s something about him that pulls her in, even if she doesn’t know exactly what he is up to most of the times.

Grace is a good main character. She was a little too much of a good girl for me sometimes, though, and I would’ve liked to see her interact a little more with other characters besides Daniel.

Daniel is one of those characters you can’t help being drawn to. He’s comes off as a bad boy you’ll want to keep learning more about as the story progresses and you realize what he’s been through. He’s the best character in the book, in my opinion.

There are some religious tones in this book that sometimes almost overpower the story but never actually do.

The book starts with a mystery that is slowly revealed and there are some good twists, which will make you keep reading just so you can find out what will happen next. Grace wants to make everything right in her family and with Daniel but her decisions have a cost and not everyone is exactly who they seem to be.

The characters were well written and so was the plot, even though it got a little unsteady sometimes. I appreciated the fact that Grace’s life didn’t completely stop because she found herself in love. It was a nice change from some books in which all the main character seems to be able to do is think about and swoon over her new boyfriend. Of course Grace did swoon a little but the romance was written in an interesting and captivating way.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this book even though I’m still not completely sure how I feel about the end and how things turned out for Daniel. I can’t wait to read the Lost Saint now and see what happens next.

                After her mother and father's divorce, Zoey is determined to live the perfect life, everything and everyone in it's place. However, when her mother attempts suicide Zoey's world is thrown out of whack. To further complicate matters, Zoey is in an accident and can't remember what happened the night it happened. But she needs to remember and fast, because when she wakes up her love life is upside down.

Things that irked me about the novel: I had a hard time sympathizing with Zoey at ti ...more

Rating: Somewhere between Readable and Well Worth Your time (3 ½  stars)

Book Depository
Good Reads