Daily Dose 40

Daily dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly 

The Just-Go-Look-At-The-Last-One Edition

What inspires you?

just sayin,

-Kare

In My Mailbox 35

[In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren]


Random Buzzers:

Amen L.A. by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld


Randomly Showed Up On My Door Step:

Dark Vengeance by Jeff Mariotte 


Thanks to:
Simon & Schuster
Random Buzzers 


What did you get in your mailbox?

just sayin,

-Kare

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Description:
Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: she and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

Inspired by Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, critically acclaimed author of The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Kody Keplinger adds her own trademark humor in this fresh take on modern teenage romance, rivalry and sexuality


Epic Wins:

• Lissa- She was a character trying to find her own power and control who slowly learns sometimes you have to let go. She was smart, strong, and in the nicest way possible a control freak. 
• Cash- He was never pushy and always seemed to care about Lissa. He helped her out in ways she didn't realized he did. He was really quite sweet.
• For a book about a sex strike there was surprisingly no sex. I mean it came close to it and was talked of but never any actual sex. 
• Keplinger really brings forward some questions about why a who sleeps around is 'the man' but when a girl does that she is point blank a slut. 
• She also asks why do people put so much stress on if we choose to not have sex, why we are considered a prude but then and if we do have sex we are considered a slut. Further more why does it MATTER why we choose what we choose? Why do people care so much?
• The writing was addicting, once you started you really couldn't stop as it pushed further into the heart of the story. 
• Though I had never heard of the play Lysistrata before this book, I still loved seeing how the basic plot was explained in the writing and through the writing. (See you learn something new everyday!)
• There is tons of blushing between Cash and Lissa. I love this because it's kind of cute that they are all embarrassed about how they  feel about the other.  

Epic Fails:

• Randy- He is like the reason WHY guys get a bad rap. Even from the beginning I couldn't stand how he would just up and leave Lissa, without even really listening.

Overall:
A powerful story about love and life, and the difference between power and control. 


just sayin, 
-Kare

Daily Dose 39

Daily dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly 

The I-Have-A-Slight-Obsession-With-Capes Edition

What inspires you?

just sayin,

-Kare

In My Mailbox 34

[In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren ]


For Review:

Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay 


What did you get in your mailbox?

just sayin,

-Kare

The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

Description:

Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger.

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

Epic Wins:

• The setting-  The Faerie Ring Set in the lovely (or so I imagine) city of London, England. Hamilton makes this city fly off the pages and into your mind, creating a blissful picture. 
• The time period- The eighteen-hundreds always seems like the perfect time  period for faerie tales to occur in, which is fitting for The Faerie Ring because THAT is exactly what it is.
• Tiki is hard to pin down but at her most basic she is a survivor and heroine. She is tough enough to pull through some hard times both physically and mentally. She kind of rocks, a lot. I will always root for her.
• The handsome but aloof Rieker is almost Darcy-like. Sometimes he is infuriating but most of the time he is... *goes to thesaurus and looks up amazing* SMASHING!! (Yeah I went there and I did it with a British accent)
• Seamus, Finona, Toots, and Clara are all apart of Tiki's mock-family. She really acts as the mother, protecting them at all costs. 
• This book is VERY fairy-tale like, part Cinderella and Pride and Prejudice and other wonderful stories that I just can't remember now. 
• This book is soaked in Faerie lore and is presented in such a fierce and beautiful way. 
• It has that twisted history thing going for it. A plot surrounding actual historical people and places. It offers the 'Well, what if?' question. 
• Message scrambled: Sometimes you have to trust people, even when there is so much you are risking and have so much to lose. 
• Message in an omelet (uh... I might be craving some eggs. No?): Life has a funny way of working all it's kinks out, smoothing into something better. 

Epic Fails:

• I didn't really like Markus (I think this is his name, I could be off but I KNOW it starts with an M). However I actually LIKED Larkin despite the fact that she was evil and dangerous.

Overall:
A completely unique story about a girl, her make-shift family, and the lengths she will go for them. SMASHING!! (You think that's too much? Yeah me too.)


just sayin, 
-Kare

Author Interview with Kiki Hamilton

Hey guys, I read this book once about a faerie ring, a pick pocket, and the streets of London. I thought it was cool so I invited the author to an interview on the blog!! 

Kiki Hamilton author of The Faerie Ring

Hi there! Thanks so much for having me on your blog!

What was your latest epic win? (a small but meaningful accomplishment like finding a bag of Bertie Bott’s while packing)

Beating my super-smart 28 year old nephew in Scrabble.  HAHA – still cackling over that win. J

Epic fail? (basically this is an embarrassing moment that you can laugh about) 

Tripping over the last stair on an up escalator in the middle of a Nordies in Portland – not pretty.

What are your thoughts on your book being turned into a movie?

Yeah, that’d be cool.

What is the last book you read?

An ARC of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

In three words describe yourself:

Loyal, chocoholic, eclectic

One question you wish you had a definitive answer to:

when am I going back to London?

A quote you live by:

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.

In Your Perfect World…

I would have enough time to do all the things I want to do, I’d play guitar like Keith Urban,  I’d sleep like a baby, I’d lose those last stinkin’ ten pounds and there’d be world peace. Of course.

If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?

Time-travel and magic. Always with the magic. J

If given a time machine would you go back to the past or into the future?

I think always the past – so many unanswered questions, so many stories that haven’t been told or remembered.

Do you have any projects in the works? If so can you tell us about any of them? 

I’ve written the next book in THE FAERIE RING series and I’m waiting to see what my editor thinks. I just finished a YA contemporary and I’m waiting to see what my agent thinks and I’m halfway through a YA alternate history story with some steampunk-like twists that’s kind of fun. If only I had more time!! See question 8.

This was fun! Thanks again for having me on your blog!

xo

Kiki

Thanks for stopping by!! :)

Look for my review of The Faerie Ring later this week.

just sayin,

-Kare

Daily Dose 38

Daily dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly 

Dream Edition

What inspires you?

just sayin,

-Kare

I just need a moment, I swear

I am sort of geeking out right now.

In a major way!!

What do you guys think about it? I am so in love with it. 

That is all...

just sayin,

-Kare

Bibliomaniac (a definition)

Mr. Webster is going to define a word for me here...

(This is how I imagine Mr. Webster to look. Anyone else?)

bib·lio·ma·nia:  \ˌbi-blē-ə-ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə\ - extreme preoccupation with collecting books. 

So does that make us bibliomaniacs? I am pretty certain it does. It has to mean that! Through all my life people would always ask a silly getting-to-know-you question, one that I never thought I could answer. What do you collect? The thing was I didn't collect anything. Not stamps. Not Legos. Not Baseball cards. Not even those weird/fancy barbie dolls (What is the point of having a doll you can't play with?!?!?).

 I am a book collector.

How simple is that? Books. Books. Books. I love holding them, and remembering reading them. I love remembering what was going on in my life at the time that I read them. What makes us love them so much? What makes diving into a story so awesome that it leaves us in tears or giddy laughter? I don't think there is an answer. I mean you can come up with a million possible and probable answers, but when it comes down to it is there really one definite answer?

Just sayin, 

-Kare

Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday

Description:


Hartley Grace Featherstone is having a very bad day. First she finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the president of the Herbert Hoover High School Chastity Club. Then he's pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And if that weren't enough, now he's depending on Hartley to clear his name. Seriously? Not cool.

But as much as Hartley wouldn't mind seeing him squirm, she knows he's innocent, and she's the only one who can help him. Along with her best friend, Sam, and the school's resident Bad Boy, Chase, Hartley starts investigating on her own. But as the dead bodies begin to pile up, the mystery deepens, the suspects multiply, and Hartley begins to fear that she may be the killer's next victim.


Epic Wins:

• Hartley- She is sarcastic, quick to catch on, and brave. Think sarcastic Nancy Drew, so eager for the truth. I clicked with her instantly, she was easily loveable. 
• Chase-He can see through lies (at least the ones that Hart tells), he's a reader, a writer, and his super power is sarcasm. 
• All the action started right up . And by action I mean *uses creepy voice* Muuuurderrrrr. From there the need to figure out  the killer was mandatory. 
• Sam- She's the potty-mouth best friend who is trying to not curse which resulted in funny replacements. She was funny and reliable. 
• My mind lives for the who done it factor. It races ahead with the clues and tries to figure it out. Lucky for it this book is like the perfect puzzle that you never really can put together till the end. 
• I found it funny how Hart kept stumbling into dead bodies, literally. 
• Honestly answer this question, can you keep your eyes off that cover with out being remotely curious as to what lies beneath? 
• The writing was simple yet effective, I was hanging on every word. 
• The way the killer justifies killing, there was irony all over the place!!
• Because it's a murder mystery there are DEAD bodies everywhere!! This makes the book a bit... gruesome. I loved it!

Epic Fails:

• Josh meant well, I know this, but still I never understood some of his actions. Something with him was just off. 

Overall:


Quick cutting (pun intended) and filled with hilarity. I found myself wrapped up in this story like the ear buds wrapped around the victim's neck. 


just sayin, 
-Kare

Daily Dose 37

Daily dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly 

The Pizza Edition

What inspires you?

just sayin,

-Kare

In My Mailbox (34)

[Lets give props to Kristi (The Story Siren) for her amazing meme that allows us to drool over what books people got in their mailbox. If you want go get in on the IMM Magic check out Kristi's blog ]


For Review:

The Library:

(Audio book)

I think that's all of them *scratches head*


What did you get in your mailbox?

just sayin,

-Kare