Temporarily Away

I am so sorry I have not been active in the last week and barely so the weeks before. My life has been temporarily interrupted by a flood in my home. A little over three weeks ago my house had a rain storm from my second floor. I was out of my house for the last 3 weeks with very limited or no access to the computer. I am now back in my home and putting everything back together. So I will be absent til the end of this week and hopefully back on this weekend. I am so sorry, I miss my blogging and my reading and can't wait to get back to my normal life. On a positive note... no books were harmed in the flood. 

Delightful Discoveries #65

Delightful Discoveries are books that I have discovered recently... old, new, just released... from blogs, Goodreads, libraries, friends, or bookstores. 

 Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten

  

It's the return of Point Horror for the Internet generation! Don't open the door. Don't answer your phone. And whatever you do, DON'T turn on your computer. . . .

Cole and Greg love playing practical jokes through Wikipedia. They edit key articles and watch their classmates crash and burn giving oral reports on historical figures like Genghis Khan, the first female astronaut on Jupiter. So after the star soccer player steals Cole's girlfriend, the boys take their revenge by creating a Wikipedia page for him, an entry full of outlandish information including details about his bizarre death on the soccer field.

It's all in good fun, until the soccer player is killed in a freak accident . . . just as Cole and Greg predicted. The uneasy boys vow to leave Wikipedia alone but someone continues to edit articles about classmates dying in gruesome ways . . . and those entries start to come true as well.

To his horror, Cole soon discovers that someone has created a Wikipedia page for him, and included a date of death. He has one week to figure out who's behind the murders, or else he's set to meet a pretty grisly end.

The Second Shelf by Claire Lovell

"My name is Lori,In the USA alone there are 376,480 people with the same name.So why this happened to me, I'll never know."
*******
When the mysterious new Stanley twins moved in opposite Lori, she had no idea how much her life would change. That chance meeting with the gorgeous Ryan Stanley sparks a life changing event which will leave her fearing for her life.
On the night of her 22nd birthday Lori splits in two. Literally. The product is her (Almost) identical twin and evil alter ego.
Now she's battling strange questions, a twin that wants her dead and the intense pull she feels towards the dark haired Ryan. 
The closer they get the more their twins push them apart, but why?
Something bigger is coming.It's a chance,It's a change,It's The Second Self.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black 

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Love, Lucy by April Linder

  

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.

Inspired by E.M. Forster's A Room with a View.

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

There are three rules in the Walled City: Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife. Right now, my life depends completely on the first. Run, run, run. 

Jin, Mei Yee, and Dai all live in the Walled City, a lawless labyrinth run by crime lords and overrun by street gangs. Teens there run drugs or work in brothels—or, like Jin, hide under the radar. But when Dai offers Jin a chance to find her lost sister, Mei Yee, she begins a breathtaking race against the clock to escape the Walled City itself.

Waiting on Wednesday #110

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Very Bad Things by Susan McBride
October 14th 2014

Katie never thought she'd be the girl with the popular boyfriend. She also never thought he would cheat on her-but the proof is in the photo that people at their boarding school can't stop talking about. Mark swears he doesn't remember anything. But Rose, the girl in the photo, is missing, and Mark is in big trouble. Because it looks like Rose isn't just gone…she's dead.

Maybe Mark was stupid, but that doesn't mean he's a killer.

Katie needs to find out what really happened, and her digging turns up more than she bargained for, not just about Mark but about someone she loves like a sister: Tessa, her best friend. At Whitney Prep, it's easy to keep secrets…especially the cold-blooded kind.

Review: Fat Boys Vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach

Title: Fat Boys Vs. The Cheerleaders

Author: Geoff Herbach

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publishing Date:  May 6th 2014

Pages: 320
Genre:  YA Contemporary Humor

Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC

  

It's geeks versus jocks in an epic battle of the beverages!

From "one of the most real, honest, and still funny male voices to come around in a while" (YALSA) comes a brand-new cast of quirky characters, pitting fat boy Gabe against the high school cheerleading team in a battle over control of the school's soda machine.

The war is ON! Never have the stakes been so high. Never have the trenches been so deep. Never has one soda vending machine been so vital. When the high school cheerleading team takes over the machine's funds previously collected by the pep band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.

This was a very fun book to read. It was written in a very different format, and I actually enjoyed the way it was written. The main character was fun and easy to connect to, the story was just funny, and there were a few emotional up heavals that left me teary eyed. Mostly though... It was tons of laughs.


Gabe, who is called Chunk, (love the Goonies nostalgia) gets tired of being the funny fat guy. The final straw breaking that leads to war with the cheerleaders/dance team and lifestyle transformation comes from loss of band funding. Gabe is in the band and loves summer band camp. He also loves Mountain Dew which he buys in abundance from the school coke machine. Gabe justifies his Mountain Dew buying because the funding goes to the band. Gabe learns that the funding now goes to the new dance team and his life get turns upside down. Everything changes including his diet and excercise, his freetime, and his friends.



I so really enjoyed this book. I connected to Gabe right away, I was invested in the story pretty early on, I loved the writing style and format. Everything was just right for me.  

The story started off with a bang and ended with bang. It was really easy to jump right into this story. The story starts off with Gabe being interviewed by an attorney for the crime of robbing the soda machine. The story is only told from Gabe's side of the interview and it continues throughout the entire book. I haven't read a book with this writing style before and I really liked it. It was just a tad bit confusing in a few parts but not many and I only needed to re-visit the entire paragraph to understand what was going on. Other than that, it was very easy to read and I found it very easy to get wrapped up. The writing style was fresh and very lively. I would forget I was reading a story at times. This being said... the characters were just great. 

Of course I was a bit more connected with Gabe than the rest of the crew, simply because the story was told from Gabe. It was a bit different than most first person point of views because of the interview style, I was only able to know what Gabe wanted me to know. I wasn't in his head, I was hearing his story as if I was the interviewer. The great part, Gabe is pretty much open with everything. I felt that he said what he thought. Getting to know Gabe was easy, quick, and fun. I liked his personality, his quick wit, his stupid decisions, and his friends. He was quite a funny kid. 

I liked Gore quite a bit too. She was the most level headed and very sweet. Her feelings about Gabe were evident from the very beginning, the romance was quite sweet between the two. It was a bit slow in the making, but oh so evident. There is also RC III. He was quite a character. Ultimately the instigator of everything and never a player in the game. But he was kind of cool too.

Another awesome character, Gabe's grandfather, he cracked me up. He was exactly who Gabe needed on his side and he held nothing back. He made Gabe's family life and my reading experience so completely amusing. I would love to have a grandfather like this one, actually I kind of do... maybe that is why I loved him so much. Tough when he needed to be, loving when tough wasn't needed. Smart and smart mouthed. He was way too funny. Loved him! 

So it all rocked, great story, characters, and writing, It was quite the page turner and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Hilarious, heart warming, and just a fun read. 

I am the author of the YA title, Stupid Fast (June 2011 from Sourcebooks Fire). I also wrote The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg, a Novel from Three Rivers Press. When I'm not writing books, I'm writing for Radio Happy Hour or developing ridiculous musical bits.

When I'm not writing, I'm teaching writing at Minnesota State, Mankato, which means I write a lot of comments about writing on student writing.

Writing a lot of writing and reading about writing and writing on reading.

Teaser Tuesday #106 and Top Ten Tuesday #96

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Bloggers choose two

sentences out of our current read to peak others' curiosity.

Party Games by R.L. Stine

                                 

Teaser premise by R.L.Stine:

It’s about girl named Rachel, who Brendan Fear invites along with a bunch of other people to the Fear’s summer house on Fear Island, in the middle of a lake. They’re 17, in high school. It’s Halloween time, and they’re reopening the summerhouse just for this party. Brendan invents games, he loves games, and one by one the guests start getting murdered—every murder is attached to a game. One girl is found all folded up and there’s a note that says, ‘Twister, anyone?’ They’re trapped on an island, and there’s a killer there who wants to kill everyone.
 

Teaser:
I raised my eyes to four screens. The Pictures were in black and white. I figured out  that two cameras were posted at the front of the house and two at the back.

Top Ten is an original feature/weekly meme created here at

The Broke and the Bookish that features a great bookish top ten every week.

Top Ten Creepy Book Covers I would frame and hang.  

Genre Definition and Recommendation #64

Genre Definition and Recommendation is a feature where I will define a genre and a sub-genre definition and the make some recommendations.  

Suspense- Definition found on Wikipedia

Suspense is a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, tension, and anxiety developed from an unpredictable, mysterious, and rousing source of entertainment. The term most often refers to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. 

Detective fiction Definition found on Wikipedia 

One of my favorite genres!

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective - either professional or amateur - investigates a crime, often murder.

My Recommendations:

Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz

  

Some secrets shouldn't be kept...

Up until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes anything but ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe the rumors, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. She's inexplicably drawn to Ben and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help-but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something... but he's not the only one with a secret.

From the best-selling author of Blue is for Nightmares comes a story of paranormal romance that's sure to be a thrilling and chilling teen favorite.

No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale 

  

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 689 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.