Bedtime Story: Saturday with Daddy

 

Synopsis: "A young elephant and his Daddy spend Saturday running errands, sipping lemonade, and having a cookout. The charming art and simple story make this a perfect summertime book for fathers and their preschoolers."

My Review: This book was given to Munchkin's daddy for fathers day to share. It is a cute story about hanging out with daddy and doing things they both like. The books is really good quality, the pages aren't paper but a thick plastic coated paper so they won't rip easy and maybe can withstand a little drool. The images are cute and simple. It is a fun story to read at bedtime after a day of daddy/baby time.

 

My Rating: It was a cute book for Munchkin and Daddy to share. Next year they will have even more fun with each other as Munchkin grows and can do some of the things in the story.  I give it a rating of Three Paws.

 

 

Good Night! Sweet Dreams!

After Dark Review of Survive My Fire by Joely Sue Burkhart

I have added After Dark Reviews to my blog as a way of notifying you of a review of a book with Adult themes and scenes. From now on I will keep my reviews of all books I read that have explicit scenes in them for late night posts for those of you who prefer to avoid them or easy to find for those of you who seek them out ;)

 

 

Synopsis: "Chanda, cursed to dragon form for her sins by She Who Hung the Moon, and Jalan, the Krait warrior who is her perfect match, must win an impossible battle. Jalan must love her...and then kill her. She must love him...and die."

My Review: I enjoyed this story, it was short but still a fully developed story. I really like how Burkhart managed to keep the personalities so separate from dragon form to human form. You could really feel the difficulty the Krait people are facing and the desperation Jalan must be in to face Chanda. Lovely story with an emotional rollercoaster conclusion!

 

My Rating: While this was a quick novella it was wonderfully developed and you weren't left wanting.  I give this one a rating of Three Paws.

Christmas Wishlists

So I have been working on my shopping lists for the holidays.  I know its early but I know the next two months are going to be insane (I am even going to get my cards done and addressed this weekend).  As I write down everything I need to go shopping for, I start to put together my own Christmas wish list.  I am usually pretty simple to shop for I like warm fuzzy socks and pjs, maybe a sweater or two and then of course things we need for the house (dish towels, new spatulas, etc) and never to be forgotten books or at least gift cards to go get books!

 

I have been browsing my list of books to purchase and have finally narrowed it down to books that family can easily find (most of them don't shop online or know how to hunt down the older books I still need).

 

On my Wish List this year:

 

The Harry Potter series (yes, believe it or not I still haven't read them)

The Warriors series by Erin Hunter (at least start getting the series)

The Inn at Rose Harbor & Rose Harbor in Bloom by Debbie Macomber

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Fahrenheit 451 on Audio CD

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak on Audio CD

 

 

 

So what books are on your wish list? Are they easy to find? Do your families usually feed your bookish habit?



Wednesday Writing

So Wednesday is my official writing update day. I have so many story projects going on and I need a push to get some done. So I will be trying to post each Wednesday about how my writing adventures are going (and I may need a swift kick in the pants by you guys sometimes).

Current Active Project:

Princess Bs - 34,317 words

A story about a woman, recently divorced and returned to her home town to figure out what is next. She encounters an old friend and spends a weekend with him and his daughters. Feelings that are long since buried are rising up again, but are her recent loss and his current life going to stand in the way of their happily ever after?

Tamlyn Marie's Grace - 5,811

Think Cinderella only with a matchmaker ;)

Other Works in Progress:

The New Old Home - 17,193 words

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery, but what would you do with that money? That is the question presented to Natalie, when she is at the lowest point in her life, she is presented with an opportunity to make any normal person's dreams come true, but all those winnings can't give her what she wants most.

Night Rider - 17,229

Alice is a recent high school graduate who is a very accomplished competitive rider in Hunter/Jumper, Dressage, and Western/Rodeo. Her parents had arranged for her to attend a private college on the east coast geared specifically to equine professions. However, Alice wants to focus on her studies in English Literature. When she arrives at the college she hides her riding abilities, but can she keep her talent and love of horses hidden?

The Last Mountains - 13,468 (handwritten) = 15,766 (typed)

A equine shapeshifting family is being hunted to near extinction and the young new leader must go against all her lessons and approach the elite council for aide. Will they help her? How will she keep her family's traditions and values alive, let alone her herd?

Other Ideas Plotting:

Bloodsoar's Story

A pegasus struggles through life, ejected from the herd, near capture by humans.

The Assassin's Assassin

A student learns what the school is really teaching and sets out to destroy those who support the program.

Angel Story

Angels battle out an age old feud in a parallel world

All in the Company
A business that keeps to itself, employees marry employees and live on company property. Lissandra is ordered to marry Cody but both are always on business and don't know one another.

Little Wind Guides
Little Wind must lead her clan to new territory as the gods of the Fire Forest are cleansing their home with wrath.  Will they follow her while she holds so many secrets.

 

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I finally finished transcribing what I have written on Tamlyn Marie's Grace! One more goal done for the year. And guess what that means?! It means I am going to participate in Nanowrimo this year, in fact I have already signed up.  I have decided that I am just going to pants it this year, I am not planning on using any of my story ideas. Instead I plan to use some simple prompts to get the gears moving and see where my mind can take me. I am hoping this Nano will get me motivated again and maybe give my muse a kick in the butt.

So I may end up asking you guys to give me a random event if I get stuck through out the month so keep a look out for my Wednesday Writing posts through out the month of November for updates and questions!

Review of Avow by Elizabeth A. Reeves

Synopsis: "A Last Selkie Short Story.

A tragic life cut short.

What can be Chrysler than facing death alone?

Twenty years before Adrift, a young man named Ethan Tanner found out he had a inoperable malignant brain tumor and had less than a year to live.

Impossibly, help comes in a mythical form."

My Review: Not to sure about this one. It started off good, started making you really feel for Ethan and the turmoil in his life. Then things got short and you were told how he felt instead of allowing you to become involved in the story and truly feel it for yourself. While the things you didn't want laid out in black and white were, the things that needed further explanation were not put in the story. I may consider reading a full length novel in this series, because I think there were some good ideas and characters forming but this short story just didn't get enough time to develop.

 

My Rating: The beginning really started to draw me in but then the emotion dropped off quickly. I feel like the author felt the need to cram everything into a very short story instead of letting it develop on its own.  I give it a rating of One Paw and a Stump Wag.

Monday Reading List

Its Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Shelia at Book Journey. Share what books you have finished in the last week, are currently reading and what might be coming up next!

Reviews Posted Last Week:

Links will take you to my review

 

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay
The Road to Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart (After Dark)
Whose Baby am I?  (Bedtime Story)
Frankenstein Agent of Shade Vol. 1 by Jeff Lemire (Graphic Novel)

Books Finished Last Week:
Reviews will be posted at a later date

I'll Follow the Moon
Avow
Shadowed Blood
Survive My Fire
Juliet Immortal
The Palace Library
Marriage Merger
 

Currently Reading:

Dark Chatter by Andrew Branch - Kindle - 17%
The Tale of the Taconic Mountains by Mike Romeling - Nook - On Page 32 of 389
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen - PB - on Page 40 of 383
Return to Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart - Kindle - 46%


 Books to be Read Soon:

 

Water Harvest by Eric Diehl (Requested Review)
Judgment by Jade Varden
Dollhouse by Anya Allyn

 



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Woohoo! A great reading week this last week! I made a last minute decision to join the Dewey readathon and had a good time. I didn't get as much reading time as I would have liked but I hope I can plan a little better next time and get Hubby and Munchkin out of the house for peace and quiet.  It was a big week last week around here, we finally picked a daycare for Munchkin and will be starting a few days next week and then November I can finally go back to work full time! I will finally have more time at the office for reading and writing (after I get my work done of course).

So I am very excited for everything coming up! Oh and guess what I just realized that this month is my 3rd Blogoversary! Wow! Another year gone by and this last year was fantastic around here! I didn't have time to arrange a big event after those two surgeries, but I hope to have something coming up soon.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Dewey Readathon Wrapup post

A little late posting this because well, I was finishing up the final hour and Munchkin woke up and it has been go go go with him ever since! Gosh toddlers are exhausting!!

 

I got about half way through my final book and hope to finish today or tomorrow at least.

 

 

Here is my final survey:

 

Which hour was most daunting for you?  Probably Hours 15 - 18 because Hubby got home and was pestering me (I swear at times he is worse than my little boy).

 

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I definitely couldn't put down Marriage Merger (in fact the whole Married to a Billionaire series was good), and while I didn't read them for this readathon I highly suggest the Deck of Lies series by Jade Varden, they keep the pages turning!

 

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? My only thought was to have more activities on the main blog. At times I would have liked to participate in a mini challenge but linking to other blogs and then getting distracted from the main goal of reading was a difficulty for me.

 

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The motivation from the co-hosts and of course the cheerleaders that stopped by and encouraged me were awesome!

 

How many books did you read? 2.5 I really wanted to read more but just had too much trouble with a house full

 

What were the names of the books you read? Marriage Merger, The Palace Library and Return to Shanhasson

 

Which book did you enjoy most? I found Marriage Merger to be the best for me, kept my attention to the end.

 

Which did you enjoy least? The Palace Library, it was too much like The Chronicles of Narnia to be truly unique and capture my attention

 

If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? NA

 

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I really want to participate again but maybe will have to change the locks and kick Hubby and Munchkin out for the day LOL!

 

 

 

All in all I thought I did pretty good this readathon considering the toddler, dog, cat, mom and hubby, not to mention the several friends that chose to stop by throughout the day.  I read a total of 10-11 hours, I know I can do better and plan to do that next time!

Dewey Readathon - Hour 22 Update

Sorry to say I crashed at 1am this morning, Hubby was definitely not helpful and kept pestering me to go to bed. But the good news is that it is now 5:30 am and I am awake again. I have to take my mom to the airport here in a few minutes and then I can come home to finish out the readathon in style (called my PJs).

 

I am still reading Return to Shanhasson though and probably won't finish it by the end of the readathon but that's ok, I don't mind I am just proud I got as much reading done as I did!

 

 

How are all of you doing? Did you make all through the night? Or did you crash for a bit like me?

 

We are almost done! Lets at least finish strong!