Apologies

Hello.

Some of you may have noticed, but I haven't blogged a lot this month and I am sorry. Towards the end of June I became very busy with family members on my side and my husbands visiting and then having to travel to Northern California for a friends Grad. party. I became behind on my reading, then add an unexpected busy July.. going back up North for 4th of July, running a 5k, getting busier at work, a friend from school passing away (at a WAY too young age) and again, family members visiting on both sides and ending the month with another trip up North for my Grandpa's 85th birthday. I just haven't been able to maintain my blog this month. However, I have so far been able to catch up pretty well and hopefully August will be filled with tons of posts. Thank you for your understanding and I hope you all are everything a great summer.. or winter.. for some.

Seraphina

Summary:

"Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page"

Plot: The plot is excellently written, with tons of layers and writing a plot that has a complete story and ending, while still leaving a lot for a series to be based off of.

Characters: I think that each character is written so well, with enough background that it just adds to the story. Seraphina is a great heroine, because for the most part she is just normal and brave.

Final Thoughts: I love love love this story, involving dragons. It has a fantasy feel while almost being historical fiction-esque. The whole story is amazingly written and is perfect for a general audience to read. The story had the right amount of  love, mystery and suspense, something that I think books, do not always balance well.

Princess Diaries Books 2 & 3

I read Princess Diaries about a month ago, and was not really impressed. However, since this is a beloved and talked about series and I adore Meg Cabot.. I wanted to still read the rest of the series. As of right now, I am not upset with this decision. 

Princess in the Spotlight deals mainly with Mia finding out her Mom is pregnant, Grandmere wanting to plan a huge wedding and Mia having a secret admirer. As well as, getting used to being in the spotlight. Although, I knew the book and the movies were different from reading book 1. Princess in the Spotlight definitely proved that minus taking certain things from the books and making a movie plot line out of them. They really are completely different and should not be compared. Which for me is hard to do! Overall, Princess in the Spotlight was ok. You begin to see Mia somewhat mature, but not too much yet, at times I found her political whining annoying but I could get over it. Lily, however pisses me off and is a HORRIBLE friend in this book, and in general.. I really don't know why Mia is friends with her at all. If I hadn't already checked out Princess In Love, I may have considered ending my attempt at reading the series though. Since The plot in this book wasn't really much.. (although though most likely crucially to the building up of the series story) I just felt let down, since I was hoping for a rebound from the first book.

Which brings us to Princess in Love and I LOVED it. It was great to see Mia blossom into her royal duties and start to embrace herself more. She was still dorky, but making progress. I think I loved this book so much though because of Michael Moschivitz though. He is just the perfect geeky,charming love interest for Mia and the way the book ended was perfect. Lily was mildy less annoying in the book, but I think that is because she played less of a roll. Who I really began to adore as a character was Tina. I really want to see Tina become Mia's best friend. Since she can really understand what Mia is going through and not be self- absorbed like Lily is. 

So Far, the series has redeemed it self with me, but I personally do not think it is Cabot best work. 

Bewitching

Summary:

"Bewitching can be a beast. . . .
Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn’t.
I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age.
You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out.
I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don’t even want to think about it.
Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn’t an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know what will happen when I start . . . bewitching."

Plot: I like the concept of the plot being one married story with, little stories in between. And of course the use of history and retellings of fairy tales was interesting. Classic Alex Flinn.

Characters: Kendra, for being someone from 1666, sounded a lot like a modern teenager and that kind of bugged me a little. The other main characters were Lisette and Emma and I think the were written nicely and worked out each other perfectly as opposites.

Pros: Cute fun retelling.

Cons: would have liked a little more of Kendra's stories and Kendra to sounded too modern.

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed Bewitching and found the stories to be fun and entertaining. A great light read in a true Alex Flinn fashion.

Diva (Book 3, The Flappers Series)

Summary:

"Parties, bad boys, speakeasies—life in Manhattan has become a woozy blur for Clara Knowles. If Marcus Eastman truly loved her, how could he have fallen for another girl so quickly? Their romance mustn't have been as magical as Clara thought. And if she has to be unhappy, she's going to drag everyone else down to the depths of despair right along with her.
Being a Barnard girl is the stuff of Lorraine Dyer's dreams. Finding out that Marcus is marrying a gold digger who may or may not be named Anastasia? A nightmare. The old Lorraine would have sat by and let the chips fall where they may, but she's grown up a lot these past few months. She can't bear to see Marcus lose a chance for true love. But will anyone listen to her?
Now that the charges against her have been dropped, Gloria Carmody is spending the last dizzying days of summer on Long Island, yachting on the sound and palling around with socialites at Forrest Hamilton's swanky villa. Beneath her smile, though, Gloria's keeping a secret. One that could have deadly consequences ."

I don't know why.. but I thought Jillian Larkin's Flapper Series was going to have four books in her series.. not three, so Diva was the final book in the series and after finishing Diva, I wish there was a fourth book. I would have like Diva to have been a little more like Ingenue, with some action and developing our love for the characters. Because, although I like most the characters I was not deeply emotional about them. Making the finality of their stories kind of "eh" for me.

Besides, giving a ending to the series, Diva wasn't an overly exciting book. Once I was into the plot, was when the plot changed and the story ended. I would of liked Jerome to either have been more apart of the story line, or axed. Since, the roll he played didn't make me invested in his and Gloria's relationship. I did enjoy however, Gloria and Forrest. I thought her time with him at his place was very reminiscent of The Great Gatsby and I would have liked to have seen that carried over in a fourth book. As for Lorraine, it pissed me off how easy she ended up getting off, for how horrible she was in Vixen and Ingenue.

Bottom line. Diva was a decent book, but I really would have preferred a fourth book!

In My Mailbox (40)

Hosted By The Story Siren

Last week, My Grandma, Aunt Elena and Cousin Selina came down south to visit and while we were down here my Grandma brought me some books. = ) So Thank You VERY Much Grandma!

Gifts

The Fifth Witness By Michael Connelly

The Black Echo By Michael Connelly

The Black Dahlia Files By Donald H. Wolfe

Outlander By Diana Gabaldon

NetGalley

Serephina By Rachel Hartman

Mystic City By Theo Lawrence

Also, Thank You To Random House

Enchanted

Summary:

"It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.
When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.
The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?"

Plot: An original fairytale, within familiar ones. It is easy to say Enchanted is enchanting. You are instantly immersed into this magical world and don't want to leave. The only problem in the plot would be that I felt at times it was jumpy and maybe could have been stretched out in to another book, instead of one.

Characters: Sunday Woodcutter and Rumbold, the Prince are the main characters.. but the story is really wrapped around the whole family and the given aspects of each family member. Which leaves a lack of character building.

Pros: it is a fairytale!

Cons: sklighty jumpy and would of loved it as a series

Final Thoughts: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Fairytales and all the goes with it.. one of my favorite TV Movie Series was the 10th Kingdom and this book in a lot of ways reminded me of that. My only complaint is that at times, I had to go back and read something again, to make sure I didn't miss something and also, I was hoping that I would get a series out of the story.. and it seemed like it was going there but then areas of the story that could have been dragged out and enhanced the book and the depths of it, but they were cut short, to get to the main plot line.. which was in my opinion not that climatic.. had it been put into a series.. I would have been more emotionally invested in it. Was this book not a fairytale and based on other fairytales, I would not have loved it, the way I do.

Out of Sight, Out of Time (Book 5)

Summary:

"The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan--an ancient terrorist organization that has been hunting her for over a year. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and the dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home. 
Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The Circle is hot on their trail and willing stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer."

Plot: Book 4 began the transition into a darker and older side of The Gallagher Girls and Out of Sight, Out of Time dove head first into that.

Characters: I think you see the most transformation from Bex and a whole lot of vulnerability to Cammie. Also,

Pros: plot and character growth,while still being authentic to the series.

Cons: I wanted more!!

Final Thoughts: Talk about an emotional roller coaster, packed with action! I loved Out of Sight, Out of Time and I wanted more of it! I felt there could have been a little more.. cause I feel Carter tends to be predictable in how her writing structure is. You do all this build up and structure, with small little things in between and then in the last 50 pages or so an explosion of excitement and information and then the ending. So, I just wanted a little extra from this book, since I think it held a lot of important things for the series storyline.

Happy 4th of July and Fun Facts!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

So, what you may not know about me is although, I love most holidays in general.. 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. There are many reasons why... one being that I am quite patriotic and although I don't agree with a lot of political choices going on in our country right now (on both sides). I am still very proud to be an American. Mainly, because I am proud of how our country came to be, which leads to my 2nd reason I love 4th of July. I am a huge huge huge history nerd! I love history, so of course I love knowing the history behind out country and my 3rd reason is because every year my grandparents have had a huge Block Party! Which consists of softball,volleyball, games for the kids, potluck and plain good times with people we haven't seen in awhile.. Cause what is also cool about the block party is, people who used to live on the street years and years ago. still come back! Anyways. enough with all this sentimental jumbo. I thought I would honor the 4th with a post of  Not Commonly Known Facts about America and it's History.

1. Robert E. Lee married a woman named Mary Ann Rudolph Custis and they moved into her plantation named Arlington. Which is now called Arlington National Cemetery.  Also Mary Ann, was a relative of George Washington.

2. The Liberty Bell was made in London and came to America in 1752, a month after arriving the bell cracked. However, this is not the crack that we all famously know, since the Bell was recast twice after the original crack. The crack in the bell, that we know today is still a mystery as to how and when it happened.

3. Martin Van Buren was the 1st American born President after we gained our independence. MVB was also our 8th President.


4. The 1st Holiday to be celebrated Nationwide was the 100th Anniversary of George Washington's Inauguration April 30th, 1889.  


5. New York City used to be the Nations Capital. 


6. Grover Cleveland is the only President to hold office twice, non consecutively, making him both our 22nd and 24th President.. Benjamin Harrison was the President in between.


7. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4th,1826.


8. We were not called the United States of America until March 1st, 1781. Also July 4th,1776 is the day that they Declaration of Independence was adopted, not signed. It was signed by 54 delegates on August 2nd, 1776. The only person to sign on July 4th was John Hancock.


9. Of the 55 signatures on The Declaration of Independence only 2 of those men would become US Presidents.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.


10. George Washington was actually not the first president of America, He was just the 1st President after The Constitution.  In 1781 after the Articles of Confederation were signed we had our 1st (elected by Congress) President John Hanson. Altogether, there would be 7 Presidents before George Washington. The other 6 being Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, Nathan Gorman, Arthur St. Clair, and Cyrus Griffin. 

An Abundance of Katherine's

Summary:

"When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere."

Plot: The plot is kind of slow and definitely a coming of age, discovering ones self type of story. Personally, I didn't enjoy the separations between the Katherines and Gutshot. I expected  the Katherine's to really play a bigger roll, but knowing John Green's writing.. I understand it too.

Characters: Colin is almost the perfect awkward leading man. Cause he is odd, yet mildly attractive... then there is Hassan who is funny and quirky, but almost annoyed me at times. However, my favorite character was Lindsey. She reminded me of myself and I liked that.

Pros: Unique and very John Green

Cons: almost a misleading title. slow.

Final Thoughts:  I liked An Abundance of Katherine's but didn't love it, maybe that was my fault though for putting SO much expectation the book. That is all I can really say about the book.