It's a young adult book, about a girl who can hear ghosts. It's extremely well written & edited, & is better then a lot of the books I get to review that you have to pay money for. The plot moves along very well, there are no slow parts, & the story wraps up very nicely in the end. It's well worth the read. I'd love to hear more about Scary Mary, as she's just a fun, scarcastic, great all around character.

This was a kindle book I picked up for free earlier this year. It was a quick read, only took a few hours to read. It starts off real enough, & then rather abrumptly shows its fantasy side, & that's when the story really starts to take off.

As with most first books in a series, there's a certain amount of world & character building, which I did enjoy. There are lots of hints of action, but other than the climax at the end of the story, nothing really happens in the story, & all the hints of future development do not come to pass. Of course, this is so the reader just HAS to buy the next book to see what happens, but I just didn't get invested in the book enough to really need the next part.

I give it 4 stars, however, as it was an enjoyable read up until the end - I just wish things had been settled a bit more. It felt too much like an advertisement for the rest of the series instead of a stand alone book, but that's just my two cents.

I just received this book from the author, who kindly sent me a review copy. It had what I felt to be a bit of a slow beginning, because the themes in this book are not my usual cup of tea.

Overall I enjoyed this book, especially the ending, which I didn't really expect. At times the book is very dark & despairing, but it's well written. I liked the fact that there weren't a lot of main characters, so you could really get to "know" each one of them.

There were a few things I didn't really care for: the main characters all live in the "zone", and until almost the very end, I didn't really understand that the rest of the world still existed (as it does in real life). There is no explanation for how, why, or when the zone was created, & that was a mystery that I thought would be revealed at the end - but wasn't. There's also a few scenes which I felt was really unlikely to happen to the world which Joyce created, which I won't get into further & ruin the book for you.

All in all, it was a quick read & an enjoyable one.

blogged: http://anastaciaknits.net/?p=1841

I love Talented! :)

Here's a bit of the synopsis...
"Talia Lyons is Talented. Born after a nuclear spill, she is part of a new generation that possesses special abilities; Talia can read the minds of others and manipulate their thoughts. Whether Morphers, Light Manipulators or Telekinetics, the Talented are taught to control their abilities under the protective eye of the government- to use their Talents for good. But all Talia wants is revenge."


I don't really read dystopian books, but I find myself enjoying them more & more when I read them, & this one is no exception.

The book is staged in a world much like ours, but where politics are much different (and not explained all that much), & some children grow up with a wealth of different "talents". This book strangely reminds me of a short story I wrote as a kid, where all the kids have magical abilities, including the one Talia Lyons (the main character in Talented) has, the ability to not only read people's thoughts, but manipulate them as well.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about, was there are quite a few storylines in the book that are rather predictable, at least to me, but it didn't make the book any more enjoyable or fun to read. It is a young adult book, after all. I can't wait to read the next book.

There are some minor typos, words missing or written in the wrong order, but nothing major. I usually won't read books if they aren't edited well, but this one only has a few & they don't occur (or at least I didn't see any) until the latter half of the book.

I received a review copy of this book for free.

First, I received a copy of this book from the author to review for free in July of this year.

I loved this book! It's a great, fun, & fast read & was the perfect curl up in the sun & enjoy a good book read.

The first few pages were good - not great, but good - as the book got going, & then the rest of it I greatly enjoyed. There were a few holes in the plot that I wish were developed more, but I greatly suspect that there will be more in future books & left open on purpose.

One thing that did bug me throughout the book is that Cass seems like such a doormat sometimes when it comes to Cain. I get that when you have feelings for someone, love can often be blind, but some of the things she put up with when it comes to him made me cringe.

I was recently asked to review this book by the author, & I said yes because it was a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, something I LOVED as a kid. The premise was zombies, & I don't read zombie fiction, but I couldn't resist reading this.

It's such a fun romp! It's a typical choose your own adventure book: lighthearted, with extreme choices - stay in your home, or run & fight zombies. Things of that nature. The continuity was quite good - I remember reading the choose your own adventure books, & a lot of times the section you read would talk about a house, when the last section you read you were in a barn. I didn't find anything like that in this.

It's a fast read, I think I started over & read through the story about 4 times in an hour.

I'd definitely love to read more, & now I need to read more zombie books!

The premise behind this book is my perfect mix - a nice blend of magic, mystery, drama, and all in a YA book.

The book starts off with a bit of world and character building, but a lot of stuff is thrown around - details - that aren't really explained. I like knowing the back story behind things, I kept feeling like I was missing a lot of information as the story unfolded slowly.

Unfortunately, the story continued to unfold slowly. Page after page after page of examining every thought that came Lorelei's way, before a few - all too brief pages - of action.

There's a lot of angst and will she or won't she when it comes to the romance story line- all too typical in a YA book - with some lies thrown in for good reason. I kept hoping the pace would pick up and that the story would start to progress, but the pacing just seemed too slow for my liking.

Why am I rating 4 stars? I really liked Lorelei and I really liked her healing abilities and the herbal remedies, and I really felt for her throughout the book. The book was well written, and there's a lot of nice description in the pages, so you can really see what's going on. I also really liked the fact that she was a healer who passed out at the sight - and smell - of blood - a little fact in a novel that just made Lorelei seem a little more real.

--

I received an e-book as part of the blog tour, in exchange for participating in the tour & for my honest review. I was not paid for my review.

I was asked to read & review this book quite some time ago & sadly, it took me quite some time to actually do so, I really fell off the review bandwagon with this one. I say this very, very often on my blog, but I really don't like jumping into the middle of shows, books, series, etc., and I won't review a book) or read on my own a book that's in the middle of a series if I haven't read ALL the previous ones (I'm like that with everything: books, movies, miniseries, tv shows, and chocolate chip cookies!). I didn't realize this book was part of a series until I had read the first few chapters & knew I had gaps in the storyline, went online, & sure enough, this is book three.

Trish Milburn, the author, does a great job in trying to give the backstory of what happened in the previous books, without boring the audience who had read the first two, but I did find myself lost more than once in the story, or wishing I knew more & wondering if I had read the others, I would know the whole story - or perhaps "get" more out of a particular scene if I had.

All of these things being said, I did enjoy the book. I enjoyed reading about the relationships between all of the main characters, and I also enjoyed the fact that the two main teenagers, Jax and Keller, have a very age appropriate relationship - they kiss, but no hanky panky. I give the book 4 stars because though I didn't really love the book, I did enjoy reading it & I know I would have loved this title & series fifteen years ago.

One day the orphan Catalina is taken home by her lone surviving relative, Aunt Griselda. Unfortunately for Catalina, all does not quite go as expected. Her aunt hates her and makes her life miserable. She learns she is to be sold to Stefano the Knife-thrower and used as a human target. To escape a certain death, Catalina leaps through a mysterious crossover point and ends up in a new land called Arboroth. There, she is encounters a wolf-boy and a talking rat. She is beset by a cruel and inhospitable landscape, and all the while hunted by a pack of relentless hounds. Then Catalina discovers her aunt is also in Arboroth. And Griselda isn’t happy.

Catalina reminds me a of fairy tale, good verses evil, complete with an evil aunt who also happens to be a witch. Catalina is a very strong female lead and I think makes a great role model, which is one of the reasons why I did like the book.

The story is well written & grabs you from the first page, but unfortunately, the tale (for me) slows down a lot for most of the middle. I didn't really feel like the story was anything original - and yes, I know, everything's been done before & nothing is truly original anymore! But you just knew everything was going to work out in the end, and worse yet, I felt like I knew what was going to happen in every scene before it happened. I liked the story, I liked the characters, I liked the writing - I just didn't love any part of it. I do, however, strongly think that the intended audience (young adult) would like the book a lot more than me. This comes up occasionally - I love young adult books, but sometimes they are just a little too young for me, and that's to me actually a sign of a very well written book.

I was terribly excited to see my library had an e-copy of this book that just came out a month ago - not bad for small town USA!

The geek in me loves Part One: Mason Miscellany, which includes a history of the humble mason jar and explains the difference between a canning jar and a mason jar.

The projects use mostly common household objects and the projects are presented with very straightfoward directions. There's various categories and each category starts out with a basic project - like a base for making your own salad dressing using a mason jar as your holder.

Projects include:
vintage ceiling light
Reed diffuser
Sprouting jars
Homespun soap dispenser
pincushion
cloud jars

The best part about this book is Melissa's witty charm which is evident throughout the book.