Book Review- The Mystery of the Third Lucretia

I finally got around to reading The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt.

From Goodreads:

If it hadn't been for Lucas's photographic memory, they might not have remembered the man. It had been almost a year since she and Kari had noticed him copying the famous Rembrandt painting in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. But now in the National Gallery in London, they're sure it's the same guy, copying another Rembrandt. What is going on?

The International Herald Tribune gives them their answer. A never-before seen Rembrandt painting has been discovered in Amsterdam. The mysterious man must've been working on a forgery! Convinced that no one will believe them without more evidence, the teenage sleuths embark on a madcap adventure to find the forger. But is bringing the criminal to justice worth the price of their lives?

This was a cute middle grade story.  It was a nice mystery with well-rounded action.  The two main characters were strong female leads.  I found it pretty predictable but I think the tween girls who want something other than a book with love in it will really enjoy it.  The dialouge was well suited to teenagers.  It was also kind of educational with little facts about the world thrown in.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 118
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 87

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free from the publisher for an honest review.

Teaser Tuesday- August 31, 2010

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

My two teasers:

"My eyes felt like they'd pop out of my face.  'What did you say?' I almost shouted."
~pg 99, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt

Mailbox Monday- August 30, 2010

Mailbox Monday: Here's what came in my mailbox this week

TUESDAY

Almost to Die For (A Vampire Princess of St. Paul #1)- Tate Hallaway--review for TeensReadToo









WEDNESDAY

Paranormalcy- Kiersten White--review for an Around the World Tour










THURSDAY

Werewolf Smackdown- Mario Acevedo--PaperbackSwap

Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins--contest win from Tales & Treats










SATURDAY

Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)- Richelle Mead--PaperbackSwap

Evernight (Evernight #1)- Claudia Gray--PaperbackSwap

The Sunday Salon- August 29, 2010

The Sunday Salon

So I survived the first week of school but boy am I exhausted!  The kids are wild and they tire me out!  This is a big week coming up.  I turn 30 on Wednesday (blah!  so not looking forward to that!  I always said that I wanted to be married with 2 kids by the time I turned 30 and I'm not even engaged yet.  So far behind) and the first Gator game of the season is on Saturday. My best friend, who has been living in Europe for the past 5 months, is coming home for my birthday and we're going to a bar to watch the game. Go Gators!

I finished and reviewed the following books this week:

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White











I fulfilled items in the following challenges this week:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 115, 116, 117
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 84, 85, 86
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 81, 82, 83
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 33, 34
 
I am currently reading The Mystery of the Third Lucretia and up next is Rescuing Seneca Crane, both by Susan Runholt.

Book Review- Paranormalcy

I just finished reading Paranormalcy by Kiersten White for an Around the World Tour.

From Goodreads:

Wierd as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

Ever since I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver a couple of weeks ago, I felt like I was in a reading slump. But Paranormalcy completely brought me it out of it.  It was awesome!  The first chapter title had me hooked (I read an ARC so the chapter could always change, but I hope not).  The first chapter was titled "Oh, Bite Me."  Perfect!

I love characters who are sarcastic.  And I love kick-butt girl characters who are also girly (If I ever need a weapon for something I definitely want my own pink taser with rhinestones).  And Evie is both.  I just love, love, loved her!  In fact, I kind of want to be her!  She is just a strong character who also seems so real.  I think she is one of my most favorite characters ever. 

And Lend is awesome too.  What a paranormal power to have --to be able to change the way you look (although if you can't really show your real self, I guess it could get old).  And he was such a nice guy and so loving and supporting of Evie.  I loved their relationship. It seemed to progress right and nothing was too fast.

And I even really liked the secondary characters.  Lish, Evie's mermaid best friend was so sweet (and the whole bleeping out curse words was bleeping great!)  I even liked Vivian, who everyone was scared of.  I felt sorry for her and wanted her to not feel alone and have a family.

And the plot had me guessing too.  I was never sure who the good guys were and who the bad guys were.  Even up until the very end I was going back and forth.

And the cover is stunning--so beautiful (can I look like her?)  I absolutely CANNOT wait for the sequel, Supernaturally, to be released next September!  This is my favorite book of the year!

I gave this book a rating of 5/5.

Paranormalcy will be released on August 31, 2010.

This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 117
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 86
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 34
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 83

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

Book Review- Nevermore

I just finished reading Nevermore by Kelly Creagh for a Star Book Tour.

From Goodreads:

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.
 
This book was both good and not so good for me.
 
Good:  I liked the whole Isobel-Varen relationship.  I liked how at the beginning they were so far apart and wanted nothing to do with each other.  But at the end, their lives were completely intertwined and they cared deeply for each other.
 
Not so good:  I'm not sure if its just because I am so exhausted this week or what, but the ending kind of lost me.  The whole going inbetween worlds confused me.  I didn't really get all of it with the Nocs and the Shadows.  I didn't really get who Varen was in relation to Poe and to Reynolds.  (If anyone gets it, please break it down for me).  And the book seemed more fantasy than paranormal which isn't something I normally liked.
 
This is the first book in a trilogy, but I'm not sure I'm going to continue reading it unless I can really understand what this first book was about.
 
I gave this book a rating of 3/5.
 
Nevermore will be released on August 31, 2010.
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 116
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 85
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 33
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 82
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Star Book Tours.

Friday Fill-In- August 27, 2010

Friday Fill-In

1. You do your thing; I do mine and sometimes we'll do them together.
2. Being exhausted is what's been on my mind on and off all day.
3. Remember when slap braclets were in (like silly bands are now)?
4. The Florida Gators, popcorn, and books are three of my favorite obsessions :-)
5. During the last year I have read more books than I ever have before.
6. The fact that I get to sleep in tomorrow puts a smile on my face.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to using one of my birthday dinner coupons early at Landrys, tomorrow my plans include a fantasy football draft and Sunday, I want to leave work early!

Friday Finds- August 27, 2010

Here are my finds for the week:

A Touch Mortal- Leah Clifford

Death isn't what Eden expected. Where the hell is her release? Her quiet ending? Not that Eden remembers the details of her final hours, but one thing is for sure--becoming a sider, trapped between life and death, was definitely not part of the plan...

For Eden, nothing seems to be coming easy. There's no way of telling what will happen when her fingertips graze human skin. The power that builds inside her, Touch, strips away morals and logic.

Some people only feel a high; others are overcome by their darkest thoughts.

But honestly there's not much time for her to worry about her effect on mere mortals. She's got her own drama. Somehow, word's gotten around that her Touch can kill her own kind. With desperate siders already camping out on her doorstep, the last thing Eden needs is the rumor to spread. Especially since it's true...

A TOUCH MORTAL is the first of a planned trilogy. (From Leah Clifford's website)

The Atlas of Love- Laurie Frankel

When Jill becomes both pregnant and single at the end of one spring semester, she and her two closest friends plunge into an experiment in tri-parenting, tri-schooling, and trihabitating as grad students in Seattle. Naturally, everything goes wrong, but in ways no one sees coming. Janey Duncan narrates the adventure of this modern family with hilarity and wisdom and shows how three lives are forever changed by (un)cooperative parenting, literature, and a tiny baby named Atlas who upends and uplifts their entire world. In this sparkling and wise debut novel, Frankel’s unforgettable heroines prove that home is simply where the love is. (From Goodreads)

Wednesday Wordle- August 25, 2010

Here is a screen shot of my Wordle for the week (Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from words that is seen on my blog)

Waiting on Wednesday- August 25, 2010

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Viola in the Spotlight
by Adriana Trigiani
Publication Release Date: April 5, 2011

From Goodreads:

Viola is finally where she belongs—back home in Brooklyn, where there are no khakis or sherbet-colored sweaters and people actually think her yellow flats are cool.

But her BFFAA, Andrew, has started acting weird around her, and a new boyfriend has her friend Caitlin ditching her every chance she gets. When Viola’s roommates from Prefect Academy show up for a visit, she starts to wonder—is Brooklyn where she wants to stay? When a tragic event shakes everyone’s world, Viola realizes it’s not where she belongs that matters—it’s who she’s with that really counts.

Readers and critics alike embraced Viola in bestselling author Adriana Trigiani’s teen debut, Viola in Reel Life. This new series is perfect for fans of The Carrie Diaries and other fun, flirty reads, and it has loads of terrific mother-daughter appeal.

Book Review- Extraordinary

I just finished reading Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin for an Around the World Tour.

From Goodreads:

Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school, and the two girls become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory's magnetic older brother, Ryland, shows up during their junior year. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe, but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself. Soon she'll discover the shocking truth about Ryland and Mallory: that these two are visitors from the faerie realm who have come to collect on an age-old debt. Generations ago, the faerie queen promised Pheobe's ancestor five extraordinary sons in exchange for the sacrifice of one ordinary female heir. But in hundreds of years there hasn't been a single ordinary girl in the family, and now the faeries are dying. Could Phoebe be the first ordinary one? Could she save the faeries, or is she special enough to save herself?

From the summary of the book, the plot seemed interesting.  And while it did hold my attention a little, I couldn't fully get into it.  The writing just didn't connect with me.  It made me feel distant which made me not really in touch with any of the characters.

And I didn't like the way that Mallory and Ryland treated Phoebe.  It was just awful.  And how she didn't stick up for herself!  I want to say that would be so untrue, but unfortunately I think there are so many young girls out there that get wrapped up in first love and are ignorant of how they're really being treated.

And I guess I kept waiting for some big action thing to happen, which it didn't really.  The ending was okay, and made sense and did correctly show that Phoebe really was extraordinary.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

Extraordinary will be released on September 7, 2010.

This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 115
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 84
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 81

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

Teaser Tuesday- August 24, 2010

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

My two teasers:

"It was better than being alone and worrying.  And in a strange way, it could be comforting to sit by her mother's bed and hold her hand and speak to her the way she'd been told she out to, conversationally, talking about her day, pretending everything was more or less okay and that they were just waiting confidently for Catherine to wake up and rejoin them."
~pg 237, Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin (ARC) 

Mailbox Monday- August 23, 2010

Mailbox Monday: Here's what came in my mailbox this week


MONDAY

The Demon In Me (Living in Eden #1)- Michelle Rowen--PaperbackSwap








TUESDAY

Personal Demons- Lisa Desrochers--review for an Around the World Tour

Monster High- Lisi Harrison--review for a Book It Forward ARC Tour








WEDNESDAY

Dating Mr. December- Phillipa Ashley--review for Sourcebooks

Extraordinary- Nancy Werlin--review for an Around the World Tour








THURSDAY

Nevermore- Kelly Creagh--review for Star Book Tours








SATURDAY

My Soul to Steal- Rachel Vincent--surprise book for review from publisher

The Sunday Salon- August 22, 2010

The Sunday Salon

We had Meet the Teacher on Friday.  A bunch of my kids from my past years came to visit--I love seeing them grow up.  My first ever class is in 5th grade this year.  So big!  And I miss my kids from last year!

This year I will have 17 kiddos in my class to start the year off and all of them came on Friday.  I think that's a record!  Hopefully that will be a sign of a good year!  They are definitely cute.  But I always forget how they come in so untrained (for a lack of a better word).  It takes awhile for them to get the hang of routine, especially for those kids that didn't go to pre-k.  I am always so stressed out the day before the first day of school.  Last night I had a dream that we were late for lunch and that I got the way the kids went home all mixed up.  Yikes!  Who knows what tonights dreams will be like!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly tomorrow!  I can't wait to see them!

I finished and reviewed the following books this week:

I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous and Obscure edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith of Smith Magazine

With Friends Like These by Sally Koslow

Violet Wings by Victoria Hanley

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Across the Pond by Storyheart

Monster High by Lisi Harrison









I fulfilled items in the following challenges this week:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 79, 80, 81, 82, 83
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 32
What's In A Name? 3 Challenge: Body of Water
 
I am currently reading Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin and up next is Nevermore by Kelly Creagh.

Book Review- Monster High

I finished reading Monster High by Lisi Harrison last night for a Book It Forward Tour.

From Goodreads:

They prefer to call themselves RADs, but some call them monsters. So far, the "monster" community has kept a low profile in Salem, Oregon, but this year two new girls enroll at Merston High School, and the town will never be the same.

Created just fifteen days ago, Frankie Stein is psyched to trade her father's lonely formaldehyde-smelling basement lab for parties and friends. But with a student body totally freaked out by rumors of monsters stalking the halls, Frankie finds that life in the "normi" world can be rough for a chic freak like her.

She thinks she finds a friend in fellow new student Melody Carver--but can a normi be trusted with her big secret?
 
This book was too cheesy and corny for me.  But maybe the younger YA crowd will like it more. 
 
I thought the plot was original.  Monsters hiding in plain sight of the "normies".  And while I don't think we were supposed to figure out just who was a monster and who wasn't, I had the monsters pegged from the very beginning.
 
I did like the two main characters--Melody and Frankie.  They were definitely true to themselves and wanted to be liked for who they were and not what they looked like.  Which would be a good moral for tweens to read about.
 
But I wasn't a fan of the ending.  I read an ARC, so maybe the ending will change, and I certainly hope it does.  I think it was meant to be a cliffhanger, but to me it didn't feel that way.  It felt like the book just stopped.  In fact, there were a couple of blank pages at the end and I flipped through them thinking that maybe the writing would continue.  Nothing was wrapped up, but still left me wanting more.  It just cut off.  Not my favorite way to end a story. 
 
I gave this book a rating of 2.5/5.
 
Monster High will be released on September 1, 2010
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 114
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 83
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 80
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tours.

Book Review- Across the Pond

I got Across the Pond by Storyheart last year to review and I just now got around to reading it.

From Amazon:

When almost fifteen-year-old, English born Fred Squire’s parents win a trip to Australia, Fred finds himself packed off to visit family friends in the United States. Even worse, he’s given a boring language project to complete.

But then he meets Brittany.

Fred soon finds himself struggling, not only with his growing feelings for Brit, but also with the language differences. A state confusion, that increases when he meets Brit’s flirtatious friend, Angel.

Escaping from a confrontation with Steve Harris, the neighborhood bully, Brit tells Fred her dark secret about Harris, and Fred´s world is turned upside down.

Life continues to throw Fred a curveball when he catches a ball worth thousands of dollars at a baseball game. Further angry run-ins with Harris, a crazy family BBQ, and being chased through a Boston mall all add to the thrill of Fred´s American adventure.

A final fight between Fred and Harris, leads Brit to at last reveal her painful secret to her parents.

Brit and her "Brit", know that their young love will be followed by heartache when Fred has to return back "Across the Pond" to England.

However, not before some final twists in the tale.
 
Yeah, this book just didn't do it for me.  It was way too shallow.  I don't feel that the characters, nor the story was really developed.  And the book was only 118 pages so there was plenty of room to add depth.
 
Fred and Brit fell in love way too quickly and without really knowing each other.  It was just too weird.  There needed to be more growth.  I didn't care about any of the characters or what was happening.  I don't know.  Without sounding too harsh, it just seemed too amateurish compared to other books out there.
 
I gave this book a rating of 1.5/5.
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge:113
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 82
What's In A Name? 3 Challenge: Body of Water
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 79

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free by the author for an honest review.

Book Review- Personal Demons

I just finished reading Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers for an Around the World Tour.

From Goodreads:

Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.
 
So I can't really decide how I feel about this book.  Sometimes I liked it, sometimes I found it annoying.  And it kept going back and forth like that throughout the whole book.
 
The part I didn't like was the whole love triangle thing.  Normally I seem to enjoy them.  But for some reason, this one got on my nerves.  Frannie said several times that she didn't believe in love.  But then suddenly she was in love with Luc.  And then Gabe.  And then Luc again.  But what about Gabe?  It just seemed to get a little old to me.
 
But I loved the characters, especially Luc.  Such a bad boy with a good side--who doesn't want one of those?  And I liked that Frannie seemed to stay true to herself.  She was fiesty!
 
I really liked the ending.  There was a nice little surprise there.  Well, I guess there was two, but I figured out the one that had to do with Luc.  But the other one took me by surprise and I really liked it. 
 
I didn't realize until just know when I was writing up this review that the book is the first in a trilogy and I look forward to reading the next one, Original Sin.
 
I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.

Personal Demons will be released on September 14, 2010
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 112
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 81
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 32
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 78
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

Friday Firsts- August 20, 2010

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.
~Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
~Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
~Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
 

"If there's a Hell on Earth, it's high school."
~Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers (ARC) (ISBN 978-0-7653-2808-3)

Friday Fill-In- August 20, 2010

Friday Fill-In

1. Laughter is the best medicine.
2. To Do List are the three words that started off the last email I sent.
3. What I'm most looking forward to today is going to sleep.
4. Children laughing puts a smile on my face.
5. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
6. A Barnes & Noble gift certificate is just what I needed!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include relaxing and Sunday, I want to make sure I'm prepared for the first of school!

Friday Finds- August 20, 2010

Here are my finds for the week:

Tempestuous- Lesley Livingston

"I don’t love Sonny Flannery.”

With a single lie, seventeen-year-old Kelley manages to protect the boy she loves and send him retreating into a haven for Lost Fae hidden below New York City. If she can figure out who’s after Sonny’s magick and uncover the reason why Janus Guards are being recruited to hunt innocent Faerie, Kelley might stand a chance at getting him back…but not before she must finally confront her own Faerie powers and master them.

The much-anticipated finale of Lesley Livingston’s ravishing trilogy that began with Wondrous Strange and gathered force in Darklight comes to a stormy head. Fans new and old will revel in the lush romance—and be swept away by the chaotic tempest that’s swirled Kelley and Sonny together. (From Goodreads)

 

Wither- Lauren DeStefano

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

WITHER, the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, is due to be out in 2011 by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. (From Lauren DeStefano's website)