CHALLENGES: Anne & Kristilyn 2013 Reading Bingo

So, I gave up on Challenges awhile ago. However. Recently I have seen some challenges that look fun and decided to participate in them. One of them is Anne and Kristilyn's 2013 Book Bingo Reading Challenge.

Parlor Games

Summary:

"A sweeping historical novel about a beautiful con artist whose turn-of-the-century escapades take her around the world as she's doggedly pursued by a Pinkerton Agency detective

The novel opens in 1917 with our cunning protagonist, May Dugas, standing trial for extortion. As the trial unfolds, May tells her version of events.
 
In 1887, at the tender age of eighteen, May ventures to Chicago in hopes of earning enough money to support her family. Circumstances force her to take up residence at the city’s most infamous bordello, but May soon learns to employ her considerable feminine wiles to extract not only sidelong looks but also large sums of money from the men she encounters.  Insinuating herself into Chicago’s high society, May lands a well-to-do fiancé—until, that is, a Pinkerton Agency detective named Reed Doherty intervenes and summarily foils the engagement.

Unflappable May quickly rebounds, elevating seduction and social climbing to an art form as she travels the world, eventually marrying a wealthy Dutch Baron. Unfortunately, Reed Doherty is never far behind and continues to track May in a delicious cat-and-mouse game as the newly-minted Baroness’s misadventures take her from San Francisco to Shanghai to London and points in between.

The Pinkerton Agency really did dub May the “Most Dangerous Woman,” branding her a crafty blackmailer and ruthless seductress.  To many, though, she was the most glamorous woman to grace high society. Was the real May Dugas a cold-hearted swindler or simply a resourceful provider for her poor family?

As the narrative bounces back and forth between the trial taking place in 1917 and May’s devious but undeniably entertaining path to the courtroom—hoodwinking and waltzing her way through the gilded age and into the twentieth century—we're left to ponder her guilt as we move closer to finding out what fate ultimately has in store for our irresistible adventuress."

Plot: If you are expecting some witty, fast paced con story passed in the "turn-of-the-century". Than this is not for you. The story is slow and repetitive and I wouldn't call Ms. Dugas a con artist, more of a Survivalist Gold Digger.

Characters: I didn't like May and I had a feeling I wouldn't when she started with a sentence along the lines of "trust me friends, it wasn't my fault and this account will prove it". I didn't hate her, I just couldn't find her likeable.

Final Thoughts: I was really disappointed. The book was not what I was hoping it would be. It was a lot of repetitive-ness and I kept reading it, in hopes that the book would turn around and give me some big shocker, like it led me to believe it would have. I will say, for a long book, it did go by pretty quickly. Since it is based on account of the real May Dugas, you may enjoy this book, but as far as fun historical fiction books go. I wouldn't recommend it.

In My Mailbox (48)

Library

The Golden Lily By Richelle Mead

Charmed Thirds By Megan McCafferty

Speechless By Hannah Harrington

Bord Wicked By Jessica Spotswood

Catching Fire By Suzanne Collins

The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel By Y.S. Lee

For Review (Netgalley)

The Nightmare Affair By Mindee Arnett

The Aviator's Wife

Summary:

"For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure."

Before reading this book, I only knew two things about Charles Lindbergh, He was a famous Aviator and that his child was famously kidnapped. Besides that I didn't really know much more about him (although through this book, certain things rang a bell) and I definitely didn't know anything about his wife.

Melanie Benjamin does a fantastic job at telling the story of Anne and Charlie, telling the stories decade to decade and intertwining it with Lindbergh's last days on earth.  Benjamin did a good job and getting all the information she could and appropriately asserting the emotions these characters would have felt at this time. I truly think she did a great job at writing this story and making me feel that this is really how everything went done. Not only did I learn that Lindbergh was an odd man but that his wife was a great woman in her own right.

If you were a fan of books like The Paris Wife and Madame Tussaud, or a fan of aviation and history. I do suggest you read The Aviator's Wife. I was in tears towards the end.

Last Sacrifice (Book #7, Vampire Academy Series)

 

Summary:

" Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules. She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir's Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardians to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose - for a crime she didn't even commit. She's in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She'll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose's life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back...and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your whole life is about saving others, who will save you?"

For the last book of the Vampire Academy Series, I was pretty happy with how it ended and overall how it was written. Mead did a good job with finishing the storylines of Vampire Academy while adding room for storylines in the Bloodlines series. I would have enjoyed a tad more action, but other than that I was think fans of the series will be happy with its ending.

Top Ten Tuesday: 2013 Debuts

Hosted By The Broke and The Bookish

I don't really pay THAT much attention to this kind of stuff and it took me a second to realize that this was Debuts and not books we are looking forward to (since I thought we may have already done that) Which then led me to wonder does debut mean authors whose first books come out on 2013 or just books that are not series (or 1st of their series) that debut in 2013?

I thought about this and decided I would just do my best and add both = )

1. Isla and The Happily Ever After By Stephanie Perkins

Yea, I am already cheating a little. But it really ISN'T a series.

2. Gameboard of Gods By Richelle Mead

This is going to be a series, and I still haven't read the summary of this book. However, I just finished the Vampire Academy Series and have decided Richelle is one of those authors whose books I just blindly buy and hope for they are just as good as her other books.

3. Just One Day By Gayle Forman

The reviews have raved about this book and I loved If I Stay and Where She Went. So. I am down for this.

4. My Name Is Rapunzel By KC Hilton

I am on the fence about this one. But I am sucker for fairytales and retellings.

5. The Madman's Daughter By Megan Shepard

Frankly, I am being a cover and title snob. 

6. Paper Valentine By Breanna Yovanoff

I had the chance to read this early, but somehow forgot or didn't realize I was approved and missed my chance to read it! 

7. The Nightmare Affair By Mindee Arnett

The Summary reminds me a little of Hex Hall and Holly Black's Curse workers. But there is something about being a Nightmare. That intrigues me.

8. Frozen By Melissa De La Cruz

I am obsessed with her writing and from what I remember she wrote this book with her husband.

9. School Spirits By Rachel Hawkins

Is this one cheating too? Cause technically, we are just following another characters from a previous series..

10. Pantomime By Laura Lam 

Gah! Everything about this book makes me excited so far!

Anatomy of a Single Girl

Summary:

"With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love--romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl.
After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one. 
The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.
But I couldn’t avoid my future forever. 
In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through."

First off I didn't realize this book was a follow up, but that really didn't make a difference in my reading experience. I would also like to warn you, that this book is basically all about teenage sex and 90% of the book is just Dominique and her hook up having sex. This book was a decent read, although there is no real plot to it.  However, I think this book would definitely fit in the "New Adult" genre. Since I think it is easily relate-able to girls in their late teens, early 20's.