This is another one of those books I read earlier this year and then forgot to write a review for it, even though I greatly loved the book! Ariane, the main character, is a girl with a lot of rules: important rules that are there to save her life. The story is also told by Zane, a fellow high school student.

The best part about these two characters is how real they seemed. I've been in a reading funk lately, not really "falling in love" with the characters in my books, but these two are just amazingly written and are great fun to read. Not only that, but the minor characters are just as much fun, from Jenna, the ditzy best friend you just love to hate, to her classmates who torture Ariane.

The book has a great pace, and then there's a great twist at the end that you probably won't suspect, and it just kills me not to talk more about it but it'll completely spoil the book.

I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley.

Yeah! It's time for a craft book review!

From the authors of the beloved and best-selling Knit Your Own Dog and Knit Your Own Cat comes 25 more cute dogs to knit! The list of included dog breeds are:

1) Chihuahua 2) Bichon Frise 3) Shih Tzu, 4) Wire-haired Dachshund 5) Chinese Crested Dog 6) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 7) Hungarian Puli 8) Shar Pei 9) Lurcher, (10) Greyhound 11) Border Terrier 12) Cairn Terrier 13) Staffordshire Bull Terrier 14) Bedlington Terrier, 15) Yorkshire Terrier, 16) Airedale Terrier 17) Weimaraner 18) Pointer 19) English Springer Spaniel, 20) Golden Retriever 21) Irish Wolfhound 22) Beagle, (23) Bernese Mountain Dog, 24) Boxer 25) Doberman Pinscher

Now, I know what you are thinking - anyone who knows me, knows I don't make stuffed animals! I just have NO talent for it, but it doesn't mean I don't admire people's creativity and talent and doesn't mean I can't love the book all the same!

I mean seriously, how can you not love something like this?

My favorite patterns in the book are the Shih Tzu (a dear high school friend of mine had one of those) and the terriors. The one I liked the least? the golden retriever, which is one of my favorite dog breeds - it just didn't really look like a GR to me.

Again, not having made anything out of this book, take this with a grain of salt, but looking through the instructions, some of them seem a bit unclear to me, and sewing up all the little tiny pieces scares the crap out of me.

I received a review copy through netgalley.

First of all - I am a BIG fan of lace, and when I'm not knitting ribbing or garter stitch, I'm probably knitting lace. And being an avid yard saler who ends up with nothing but odd skeins in my stash, you know I'm all about the one skein projects! So yes, I freely admit, this book was published just for ME! (oh, you mean I'm not the only one?)

The sections are:

hats and caps
mittens, gloves and cuffs
socks (of course!)
knits for kids
it's a wrap - scarves, shawls, and the like
lacey accessories
items for the home
And of course, a variety of weights of yarn in each section and different construction methods.

Now, some people, when they think of lace, think of gossamer, see through, open, airy, and hard... most of the projects aren't that at all, but simply modern designs that happen to have a lot of holes in them, you know, holes you put in your project on purpose. Designs are charted, and though some have a large number of rows / rounds in them, alot of projects are easily memorizable. There's some matching sets in the book, too, which I always like.

There are some incredibly cute baby knits in here - the baby accessories are cute, but what really stands out are the adorable sweaters and cardigans for babies that makes me wish I had a baby to knit for right now. Hana and Haru are my favorites.

And I don't knit baby things! ever! (OK: I do crochet baby blankets)

There's even a cute American Girl Doll set.

I received a review copy from netgalley

I received this book as part of a book tour - a book tour that unfortunately was forgotten about, in the midst of everything going on with Jon. I had started reading the book before he got hurt, but had to start from the beginning again when it came time to finish & write the review. My apologies to the author & to the rest of the book tour - there's a reason why I seldom sign up for tours ;/.

This historical fiction book is about midwife Lizzie Boylston and her friendship with Abigail Adams - yes, that Abigail Adams! As such, this book is a bit unique - it's about the founding mother's of our country, not the founding fathers.

The book is excellently written, beginning with being introduced to Lizzie and her husband, who she very shortly loses. She is distantly related to Abigail through her husband's side of the family and after she loves Jeb, she begins to become closer to the Adams family. The surrounding ladies at first don't take kindly to Lizzie, whose father was a Tory judge, but she proves to everyone she knows her stuff, and they soon accept her as one of them.

I don't want to say more than that, and spoil the book for yourself. It's well written, the characters are great - I was pleased to see that there wasn't a hundred characters to keep track of!, and the story moves at a great pace, though (for me) got a little slow in between the storyline/characters being established, and when the events really starting getting going.

Why 4 stars? As much as I greatly enjoyed reading about Lizzie (and reading about a time & place I don't often read about), I didn't really fall in love with any of the characters, and that's what truly defines a 5 star book for me.

All in all, this book is great and fast read.

I just finished rereading this book, I'm rereading the later books in the series to get ready for #13. I admit I've gotten myself confused between the books & the show True Blood, so I wanted to get my facts straight. Rereading this reminded me how far off the show is from the books - good as they both are!

So this books tells a lot about Sookie's family history, including some truths about her parents, and her brother learns the truth & begins to grow up a bit, too. I don't particular care for Jason, in either the show or the book, so I was happy to see he has a minor part to play in the book.

I remembered almost right away the ending to the book, and I was anxiously not looking forward to it, hoping that if I didn't actually read it, it wouldn't actually happen - and of course, I did read the ending & of course, things happened the same way I had remembered ;/.

So... what did I love and hate about the book?

This one is much darker - and I love the Sookie books because they arent dark, but honestly, it was nice to read all the same. Life isn't perfect, it's messy, and once again Sookie's life gets crazy messy all at once. Some of the scenes are abrupt, but there's a lot happening in this book & you definitely get the feeling that a lot of this book, if not all of this book, is setting you up for the next couple of books. I actually find that a big negative with any book - I don't like books/episodes that seem to serve as a commercial for the next one - but I love Sookie so much and think Harris just does such a wonderful job that I really don't mind at all.

2010 review -- I'm not really sure how to write a review for this book. I greatly loved it, and read it in only a couple of sittings. I enjoyed the fact that we learn a lot about various family relationships throughout the book. I greatly loved the fact that Alexei Romanov is a vampire, and I definitely agree with Harris that he'd be crazier than a loon.

The book is very slow moving, not a lot happens. I feel as if this book is a transition book, setting the scene for what happens next. Harris does a fabulous job of reminding readers what happened in past books, without getting too repetitive like some other vampire series I won't mention.

But... that whole relationship with Eric. It really drove me nuts, how normal Harris was writing their marriage. All the honeys and other terms of endearment, to me were just fake. And Claude being nice just seemed so out of character.

All of those negatives aside, however, it's still a wonderful book, a fast read, and I'm definitely left wanting to read the next book in the series.

2013 review -- Not much to add, really. Still enjoyed it, read pretty fast like the first time. Still love the fact that Alexei Romanov is a vampire, but have more more feelings about him this time around. Surprised I didn't write more about how evil, sick, and twisted he is - and how sad it all it.

I didn't find her relationship with Eric nuts this time - parts still felt a little fake, but it seemed a little more "real" this time around.

Regular readers of my blog - either the crafty side or the book review side - know I don't do toys. I LOVE toys - both handmade or store bought and loved stuffed animals, especially turtles. I just can't make them to look GOOD and I'd rather spend my limited craft time making things that I CAN make look good! That being said, I'm always drawn to books with toys in them and this one is no exception! I mean, there's knitted panda on the cover!

The patterns are laid out straightforward, there are complete assembly directions, and the abbreviations are all listed in the back of the book.

There's fifteen patterns in this book (and more in the first book, Knitted Toy Tales), from kangaroos to reindeers. My absolute favorite is the parrot, makes me really want to try making knitted critters again! There's also accessories or clothes to go with the toys.

As with all toy books, these are not for the faint of heart or the casual knitter. There's a lot of work involved in making these guys, but I think the end results will be worth it. There's also a cute poem to go with each toy, which is a nice addition to a pattern book (though I personally don't care for poetry, it's very nice to see something different!)



I got this book to read for free from my local library's digital collection.

I read this book as part of gearing up for #13, which I am super excited about, and come to find out - I don't think I read this one, or at least, I have no memories of reading it & there was no previous review for the book, though it was rated 4 stars on goodreads, a rating I agree on now.

Not a lot happens in this book to really further the overall series. Sookie has disaster after disaster fall upon her and more people want to kill her - business as usual in the Sookie universe. Most of the book is spent on hating one particular character, which I honestly don't get, even after musing on the subject for several days. Her relationship with Eric is very rocky in this one, and there are some promising moments with Bill, who I like more & more with each book.

So, my thoughts? Overall, I really liked this one, and I liked it more than Dead in the Family. I really like Dermot & continue to hope that we'll see more of him. We don't see a lot of Claude in this one, and he continues to creep me out. There's a smaller Pam thread in this book, we really get to see more of Pam's personal life & it's my favorite part of the book.

Sookie ends up a little more financially stable in this book, which I actually don't like. Being pretty broke myself, I always really identified with her the fact that she had to watch every penny & I used to cheer for her when she got a little extra money her way. Now that she doesn't seem to be worrying about money as much, I don't seem to like her as much.

I read this book a while ago, and honestly don't know why I haven't blogged about it until now.

The book is a medieval sci-fi/fantasy type of book, and from a Christian author no less. I enjoy reading books by Christian authors because the books are always "clean". I was also interested in the book because it is the first in a series called "Merlin's Immortals".

The book is about Thomas, a young man who rescues 3 people from death, and their individual struggles. Thomas makes mistakes, but I think most of this book is about his private struggles with belief in God.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the pace (I felt it was too slow), didn't really particularly care for Thomas (I felt he was very stand-off-ish), and I just couldn't get into the storyline - perhaps why this title sat so long before being reviewed. There was nothing wrong with the book - it was very well written - but some books just aren't for everyone, and unfortunately this title ended up being that for me.

I received this e-book to review for free from http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/'s Blogging for Books program.

I started this book back in January as an audiobook - one of the first ones I listed to on my new nook, as a matter of fact. I borrowed it from the library, and when my loan was up, I hadn't quite finished it & then I forgot all about it until I requested it from the library again - this time as an ebook.

I reread it from the beginning again, and realized I had listened to about 75% of it the first time around.

The book is about a Post Apocalyptic world, where every part of an individual's life is ordered, right down to the food you eat. Personally, it's a nightmare / horror world, because to take away all of our choices, from the clothes you wear, to what you own, to your job to your "match", is what gives our lives meaning. Society has also gotten rid of everything that makes our world special - there's only 100 movies, 100 books, 100 paintings, 100 poems, and so on. Like I said - it's a nightmare world.

So, my thoughts on the book? LOVED the audiobook version which was very well done, and it always reminds me of just how much I enjoy listening to books. Cassia starts off the book very positive about the world she lives in, and by the end of the book, she's grown up a lot, has learned about harsh reality, and is ready to find her true love, despite horrible danger. All in all, however, I didn't really care for Cassia & really didn't get involved with her as a character & I just couldn't get into the whole falling in love storyline which just seemed sudden.

I think my favorite characters in the book were Cassia's grandfather & little brother, at best minor characters in the book.