Sunday, March 6, 2016

Currently Reading...

Hi everyone!

I wanted to take a quick moment to give you an update.

I want to apologize for the lack of activity. I have a lot going on right now (work, school, life in general) so I just have not had the time to blog or read much to be perfectly honest. My problem is that I am having a hard time trying to balance everything going on right now, as well as I just do not seem to have much motivation. However, I am graduating from university in exactly two months, therefore, I will have SO much more free time to blog and read as finishing school will mean a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I have big plans for this blog after graduation, so just bear with me until then! Thank you so much for all your support and for your follows.

Now onto what I am currently reading:


Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird #2)


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       Unhappenings


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Friday, March 4, 2016

Saven: Deception (Saven #1) by Siobhan Davis

by Siobhan Davis
Paperback, 426 pages

Published December 23rd 2015 by Siobhan Davis        


THE TRUTH DOESN'T ALWAYS SET YOU FREE

I’ve fallen hard for an alien, but he’s harboring secrets.
Massive secrets that threaten the very essence of humanity.
How can I give him my heart when his race plans on taking my future?

Sadie Owens has been slowly dying inside. Bit by bit, piece by piece, day by day. Trapped in a life she hates, she relies on only one person—herself.

Despised by her family and betrayed by an unscrupulous government, Sadie dreams of a different life. When she is chosen to participate in the government’s new social experiment, she is ecstatic at the prospect of spending six months in Thalassic City, the shiny new city under the sea.

Immediately drawn to Logan Chandler, Sadie is captivated by the beautiful boy with the ocean-blue eyes. Logan seems to embody everything that has been forbidden, but he isn’t all he appears to be.

Confused over Logan’s true intentions and concerned when best friend Jenna starts transforming in front of her eyes, Sadie partners with newcomer Jarod in a bid to uncover the government’s real agenda. The truth is more shocking than anything she could ever have imagined.

When Sadie finally understands why the Saven walk among us, will it be too late to save her heart and the human race?


“A craving to crawl out of my skin hits me like a bullet to the chest. It’s not a new sentiment. It’s an urge I feel at least once every hour. A potent desire to be anyone but myself. To live any life but this one.”
Siobhan Davis,
Saven: Deception

First, I would like to take a moment to appreciate that cover, because it is gorgeous! I have been a big fan of Siobhan Davis ever since I was lucky enough to get my hands on her first book True Calling. The True Calling series instantly became one of my all time favorites. So naturally, when given the opportunity to read the first book of a her new series, I simply could not refuse.

Obviously, I had rather high expectations for this new series. Saven: Deception did not disappoint. I am a lover of all things science fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed the world that Siobhan Davis created in this novel. Davis' world building was something I always admired in the True Calling series and with Saven, she continued to work her magic.

Taking place in a dystopian world, there are the cliche elements found in every dystopian novel. However, Davis is able to put her own spin and twist, making the plot unique and unlike other novels of the same genre. 

It is hard for me to really talk about the book without giving too much away. Just know, that I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves science fiction, fantasy, and/or dystopias. I felt that the beginning was just a tad slow for me, but the pace immediately picked up the more I read. I also loved that romance was not the center of the story. It is there of course, but there is so much more going on. 

Saven: Deception is a fantastic start into what I am sure will be an amazing series. It really is a page turner.

4 out of 5 stars

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate (Newsoul, #1) 
Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows
Paperback, First Edition, 374 pages
Published January 2nd 2013 by Katherine Tegen

New soul

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul

Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart

Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

“Who am I?" My first spoken words.
"No one," she said. "Nosoul.”

Jodi Meadows,
Incarnate

Let's be honest, that cover is gorgeous. I cannot deny that I was first drawn to this book because of how beautiful I found it. But hey, that is not a bad thing. The cover was attention grabbing; it made me want to pick the book up and see if the words inside were just as amazing as the cover on the outside. And let me tell you, they were.

I was hooked, almost instantly, from the first few pages. 

We have dystopian world where in the country of Range, souls have been reincarnating over and over. The people of Range have known each other for thousands of years and remember everyone and all their hundreds of lives. Then one day, someone dies, and instead of their soul being reborn, it is gone. No one knows what caused this soul to disappear. But in its place, a new soul was born. This new soul is our main protagonist, Ana. Unfortunately for Ana, most of the people of Range blame her existence for the loss of the other soul. Including her own mother, Li, who kicks her out of the house.

Out in the real world for the first time, lacking the skills and knowledge that everyone else in Range possess, Ana makes it her mission to get to Heart as she believes it is there she will discover the truth behind her existence. As Ana's story unfolds, we are introduced to a dangerous world of slyph, dragons, and people who want Ana dead. 

Jodi Meadows has a real talent when it comes to creating strong characters that you cannot help but get attached to. Ana is a strong character, even though at times she seems to be dependent on others, such as Sam. But when you think about it, she knows nothing really of the world and everyone else has had thousands of years to figure things out, so her dependency is understandable. And she grows as a character as the book and series progresses. Sam, you just can't help but love. From the very beginning, he is very accepting of Ana, even though she's the "no soul". Li, well, she is pretty awful and I can't stand her; that's all I have to say about her. 

The romance is perhaps the one thing that bothered me. But even then, it was not that big a deal honestly. The romance was kind of insta-lovey, which is pretty typical of the YA genre. Normally, this irks me quite a bit, but I enjoyed everything else about the book so much that I was able to overlook the insta-love just this once.
 
The world building in this book was brilliant, as was the writing style. I just could not pull myself away from the story being told and found myself desperate to get my hands on the rest of the triology (which I did, immediately!). The whole concept of reincarnation is fascinating and Meadows truly took a unique and captivating twist on this concept. Incarnate was action packed, unique and a fantastic read. I highly recommend it!

4 out of 5
 

Saturday, January 30, 2016

The Sinclair Most Likely Blog Tour

The Sinclair Most Likely Blog Tour


About the Book

Title: The Billionaire's Touch
Author: J.S. Scott
Publishing Date: February 2, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance


Publisher: Montlake Romance

Summary

After a troubling childhood, wealthy Evan Sinclair likes his life orderly and controlled. He rarely gives in to spontaneous urges—until he begins a chance correspondence with a mystery woman who sounds like his complete opposite. She intrigues and amuses him, and the interest seems mutual…which is more than he can say for his current obsession, Miranda Tyler, the tough-as-nails, sexy schoolteacher who’s made it clear she’s not impressed—or interested.

Miranda finally has it all: a good job, friends, and the security of living in the quaint coastal town of Amesport, Maine. She even has an anonymous pen pal—a man she’s never met yet has bonded with almost effortlessly. The only thing unsettling her life is Evan Sinclair. The handsome billionaire is arrogant, pompous, and far too used to getting his way. Miranda tries her best to avoid him, until Evan’s steamy kiss turns her world upside down.

Soon their red-hot desire is scorching the sheets and has them both spinning out of control. But when secrets are revealed, will their insatiable attraction keep them together or force them apart? In J.S. Scott’s The Billionaire’s Touch, the eldest Sinclair just might have met his match.

In J.S. Scott's contemporary romance series, the Sinclairs were born into one of Boston’s richest families, the siblings separate and leave their troubled childhoods behind…until life pulls them back together in the sleepy coastal village of Amesport, Maine. 

There they meet their matches, discovering that the satisfaction of having billions in the bank pales in comparison to the passionate love affairs that are shaking up—and righting—their worlds. 

Get to know each of the Sinclairs as J.S. gives readers a glimpse into each hero...

Which Sinclair is most likely to…

1)  … spontaneously fly a date to Italy to show her his favorite restaurant?

Dante, from No Ordinary Billionaire, will go far and beyond to show the woman he loves how much he adores her and a spontaneous dinner in another country might do just that.

2) … go on an extreme sports vacation?

Jared, from The Forbidden Billionaire, as we all know is the daredevil of the Sinclair brothers so it is natural to think he would think of an extreme sport vacation as a type of holiday!

3) … forget an important birthday because they were working on a million dollar merger?

Evan, from The Billionaire's Touch, has always been focused in his work. Being the eldest and the one responsible to take the role of the head of the family, makes it hard for him to let the business responsibilities to fall on someone else.

4) … write a romantic poem to their significant other? 

Evan. However regardless of being 99.9% business focused he will still indulge in something as romantic as writing a poem for his significant other.

5)  … take a ballroom dance class? 

Aww Grady, from The Billionaire's Christmas, known to the residents of Amesport as “the eccentric beast” he still has a soft side and will take pleasure in learning to ballroom in order to see Emily happy and have an excuse to be close to her.

6) … have the most children? 

Grady (but they all have a bet running on who will succeed).

This one was a tough one as all the Sinclair men love nothing but to show their women their Alpha and possessive side, however we thought Grady after discovering the miracle of Christmas and being surrounded by children in the youth center would love to see Emily carrying his babies.

***

And now get to know the Evan, the newest Sinclair hero, better with an excerpt from The Billionaire's Touch:

“Can I ask you a question?”

She lifted a brow before asking, “What?”

“Does Beatrice give out these stones to everyone?” Evan pulled the crystal from his pocket and held it out to her.

Hesitantly, Randi reached out and took the rock into her own hand. She turned it over and over a few times before handing it back with a perplexed look on her face.

“Hardly ever,” she admitted. “You got one, too?”

“She mailed it to me with a letter a few months ago, telling me I was going to be married within six months,” he answered reluctantly, slipping the Apache tear back into his coat pocket. “I think she might be demented.”

Randi laughed, and a bolt of pleasure raced through Evan’s body at the husky, sultry sound.

“She’s not crazy. She’s just a little eccentric. Sometimes her predictions actually do come true.”

Evan shook his head. “She’s destined for disappointment with me.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Randi admitted, reaching for the door of her rapidly defrosting vehicle. It was a deep-purple SUV that somehow suited her bold personality. Evan could finally see the make and model clearly.

“Randi?” he questioned huskily.

“Yes?” She turned and looked at him, her expression no longer hostile.

“Don’t worry about my coat. I have another one.”

It wasn’t what he really wanted to say, but he couldn’t exactly tell her what he was thinking. She was likely to apply a knee to his balls, and he rather liked them intact.

“I told you to send me a bill if the stain doesn’t come out. You might try the dry cleaners here. They’ve done miracles with some of my clothes. Stains are a job hazard for teachers,” she told him amiably.

It was her smile that made Evan snap. Her eyes were warm and happy, her lips curving into a beautiful expression of joy when she talked about her profession. But the grin was aimed at him, and Evan couldn’t possibly resist seizing the moment. He’d never made an impulsive move in his entire life, but he couldn’t seem to control his mind or body when she smiled at him this way.

He stepped forward without debating his options first, pinned her body against her vehicle, and without a cautionary thought in his head, he kissed her.

Evan groaned as his lips crashed down on hers, knowing that he’d just made a mistake that would probably cost him his sanity. Her body stiffened as he wrapped his arms around her, one hand threading through her hair to protect her head and keep it exactly in a position that allowed him complete access to her mouth. An unfamiliar sense of male satisfaction moved deep in his gut as the clip holding her hair fell to the ground and the dark strands tumbled around her shoulders.

***

Buy Link


About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author J.S. Scott is an avid reader. While she loves all types of books and literature, romance has always been her genre of choice. Because she writes what she loves to read, she excels at both contemporary and paranormal romances. Most of her books are steamy and generally feature a to-die-for alpha male, and all have a satisfying happily-ever-after ending. She just can’t seem to write them any other way!

Social Media Links


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Thursday, August 13, 2015




Plagiarism is defined as,"the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own". 

Over the weekend, it was brought to my attention that someone had stolen a review of mine and claimed my words as their own. In my anger, I called the blogger out on Twitter because I felt that people should know what she had done, also because I felt that if someone plagiarizes then there is a good chance that they have done so before and I wanted others to be able to check out her blog, not to humiliate her but to make sure no one else's reviews had been plagiarized as well. However, after the blogger sent me an apology and took down my review, I took down the tweet because she asked even though, as she told me, I did not owe her anything after what she did. She seemed genuine in her apology so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and believed her to be sincere when she said this was the first and last time she would ever do something like that. And even though she was right, I did not owe her anything, I still felt some guilt for outing her. 

I am sharing this story because plagiarism is not just something that goes on in classrooms. With so many different forms of media and ways of expressing ideas, words get stolen all the time. While it is not the most important issue in the world, it is still a problem. It is unfair to take someone else's words and ideas and claim them as your own, even if it is for something as little as a book review. Someone else put effort into those words, put in time and feeling, while you just copy/pasted it and put your name on it. 


I hope that plagiarism will not be an issue again. I have the author of the novel I reviewed to thank for pointing the issue out to me. I will keep the author and blogger anonymous but I was notified on GoodReads by the author of the novel saying that she was going through reviews for her novel and noticed one looked eerily similar, in fact even identical to mine. She left a link and upon reading the other blogger's review, I saw that the reviewer copy/pasted my review and then tacked on a couple paragraphs of her own. The only reason the author even caught this was because her book had not been released yet and therefore had limited reviews, allowing her to be able to go through all the ones that had been written. 

Bottom line is, be careful, you never know who is taking credit for your words. And if you ever feel the need to plagiarize anything because you are having a hard time writing, do not take the easy way out and steal someone else's work. In the long run, it will hurt you more than it will help you. 


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Giveaway Haul


Hi everyone!

I recently won a giveaway hosted by the author of the True Calling series, Siobhan Davis. This is a series that instantly became one of my all time favorites and I am so glad I have had the ooprtunity to be in contact with the author herself and help promote her books.

The giveaway itself was pretty awesome as I received the second novel in the series Beyond Reach. Davis wrote a lovely note and signed the book. But what is really awesome was the fact that a quote from my review of the book is included on the back of the first page in the Blogger's Praise section. I just got so excited seeing my name in a book!

Anyway, if you have not heard of the series or want more information, I will leave links below.

Happy Reading!

Click on the covers to read my reviews for the books!


    

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

ARC Review: The Body Institute by Carol Riggs


**E-copy ARC received courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

The Body Institute by Carol Riggs
Paperback
Expected publication: September 1st 2015 by Entangled: Teen
Meet Morgan Dey, one of the top teen Reducers at The Body Institute. 

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, Morgan can temporarily take over another girl’s body, get her in shape, and then return to her own body—leaving her client slimmer, more toned, and feeling great. Only there are a few catches…

For one, Morgan won’t remember what happens in her “Loaner” body. Once she’s done, she won’t recall walks with her new friend Matt, conversations with the super-cute Reducer she’s been text-flirting with, or the uneasy feeling she has that the director of The Body Institute is hiding something. Still, it’s all worth it in the name of science. Until the glitches start…

Suddenly, residual memories from her Loaner are cropping up in Morgan’s mind. She’s feeling less like herself and more like someone else. And when protests from an anti–Body Institute organization threaten her safety, she’ll have to decide if being a Reducer is worth the cost of her body and soul…

Every time I read a dystopian novel I tend to feel grateful for the world I live in, despite all the horrible things going on, because the world I just finished reading about is usually a whole lot worse off. It also tends to frighten me a bit because the future is unknown and I do not want to live in a world that has annual events that pit children against one another to fight to the death, or a world where I am trapped in a god awful maze or have a disease that turns people into zombies that chase me down the street trying to eat my brain. 

Despite how frightening it is to picture any of those scenarios, the scene this novel sets is perhaps the most frightening because I personally feel it is not something completely unbelievable. The Body Institute is science fiction and dystopia at its finest. A world were people are taxed for being overweight and shamed for their appearance because of being overweight is not that hard to imagine. In real society today people are made to feel bad about how they look. The media portrays beauty as being model thin, or having fair skin, etc. This portrayal makes everyone who does not look like the women they call beautiful to feel self conscious, to hate their bodies, and some go to extreme measures to live up to what they believe are the world's expectations of themselves. The extreme measure in this novel was going to the Body Institute to become a Loaner.

A Loaner allows another person, a Reducer, to pretty much take over their body through mind-swapping technology. The Reducer's body lies in suspended animation while they inhabit the Loaner's body and their job is to get the Loaner into shape. It is kind of a freaky concept really. While it seems like its for the betterment of humans, getting into shape means living a healthy life, it also brings about some ethical issues which brings us to those who oppose the Body Institute. Just like those who would go to extreme measures to meet society's standards, those opposed to the institute also go to extremes.

Our protagonist Morgan is very fit and in shape. However, because her grandfather has collected quite a hefty amount of debt, her family is struggling financially. This financial struggle is what leads Morgan to enroll in the Reducer program as credits are rewarded to those who help the cause. After her first assignment, Morgan is given another which could eliminate her family's debt completely, so naturally she finds it impossible to turn down. Well, a TON of stuff goes down once she takes her second assignment. Protesters go too far, lines between who is wrong and right become blurred, and we see how awful Morgan's Loaner body was treated by others because of her heaviness.

This book had me hooked. It was amazing in every way. The writing was wonderful, the characters relatable and the romance just right. There were so many times I was caught off guard by what was happening which is exactly why I loved it. 

The Body Institute was more than just a novel. It showed a harsh reality as well. People are treated differently because of how they look and it is very unfair. If we continue on our judgmental path, a future like the one in this novel, where people are cruelly treated and cast out of society for being overweight, may not be too far away. Appearances are only part of who we are, we are much more than what we look like and that is what I believe was the moral of this novel and why I would recommend it to everyone.


5 out of 5


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