Blood of Gold

This book...hmmm this book. The description made it sound pretty intriguing and original. And it was only a $0.99 cent ebook on my Kindle, so I decided to give it a whirl. I think I went in expecting too much.

"Her young man stepped out of nowhere onto a mountaintop...

Her high school counselor came from Hell. Literally..."

How could that not make you a little curious?

The down side to the story was all the cliches.

It's Haley's first day of Junior year and her wild child best friend, Brooke, tells her that there is a new boy at school (Seth). And when all the girls see him it's almost like they fall under some sort of spell simply because he is so "dreamy" and "beautiful". They start fighting over him. Even Haley and her best friend have a huge fight over him. He, of course, doesn't notice any of them except Haley. He says he's drawn to her. But he is on a quest and is worried he is being distracted by her and he will not fulfill his destiny. Then he finds out she has a "special ability" that helps him and his ability.

And for every hero there is a villain. This villain is handsome and intriguing, as well, but in a scary way. He wants Haley for his own reasons.

My problems: The entire book is filled with her complaining about how short she is. Right when you think it is letting up she stands next to Seth (and apparently he is tall) and she starts all over again.

They've only known each other maybe a week and she'll say stuff about how she's never seen Seth look so annoyed or angry over something. Oh no, she hasn't seen him that angry in the entire 7 days she's known him! He must be REALLY angry then. *eye roll*

Haley goes from the daughter that tells her dad everything, to lying to him about everything. And she openly admits it and cannot believe she is doing it, but continues to do it anyway.

All in all it was alright. Maybe a 2.5/5. The good parts kept me hanging on through all the downs and cliches, but just barely. If you want an easy read, this would be a good one. If you are looking for one with more originality, I wouldn't suggest it.

Wisdom (My Blood Approves book 4)

Disclaimer: Okay, so I know starting off with reviewing book 4 first is well...backwards. But I just finished reading this yesterday so it's all nice and fresh in my memory. When I have fewer books on my shelves and on my Kindle to read, I'll re-read the first three and then review them too. I'll be nice and give a little bit of background on this series first. And I'll try and review it fairly without giving stuff from the other stories away.

This has to be one of my favorite series. The author, Amanda Hocking, is self published via Amazon and their wonderful invention known as the Kindle. I can spend hours on Amazon browsing their books and finding tons of new ones to read. I have pages of book titles that are "to-read" to prove it. That is how I found this series. It came up as a suggestion when I was looking at another title. I read the synopsis and liked the sound of it (I'm a sucker for YA fantasy romance), read some reviews and everyone had good things to say. So for only $0.99 how could I say no? And yes, you read the pricing right. So I purchased the first book (My Blood Approves) and devoured it in one night. Then over the next week paced myself with the next two (which jump in price to a whopping $2.99). And then I had to wait for this one. But it finally came out and I got to read it right away.

4/5.

Definitely worth the wait. This is 4th installment in the "My Blood Approves" series by Amanda Hocking. But it has just as much romance, action, mystery, thrills, and twists and turns at the first 3. So you may be asking "If it was so good, then why only 4/5?" Well, now that you've asked, I'll tell you why.

I only have a few problems with these books. First of all, I love that she is self published. It makes me feel like she's really been able to stay true to her stories without some publishing company telling her to change her direction to better suit their needs. But that is also a bit of a problem. There are many grammatical errors, misspellings, and misuse of words. I don't think enough to detract from the story for the average reader, but for me, who has this thing about grammar, it started to get annoying. But I pushed through. Next thing I had a problem with was the swearing. She has characters drop the "eff bomb" quite a few times in these books and to me that always seems unnecessary. Some swearing I can look past and it doesn't bother me, but it started getting a little too pervasive for my liking. And lastly, the sex scene. Though it is small and brief (insert immature 'that's what she said' joke here), for me again, unnecessary. I don't like them in YA books. Not that I actually like them in anything, but especially not in YA.

Everything else about this book was pretty enjoyable though. You get to see Bobby, her brother's boyfriend, a lot more and he is so likable (yes, I said brother's boyfriend. They are gay, but not like flaming, but still, if you don't like that don't read these books). For me, Jack started getting annoying in the middle-ish of the third book and really in this book. Maybe it's just because I love Peter. I was totally rooting for him the second Alice saw him in the first book. I had my 'Team Peter' foam finger and jersey on the entire time I was waiting for and reading Wisdom (metaphorically speaking of course). And I loved him in this book, especially in the end. He just comes off as a really great person and character.

There's a what is supposed to be a "big twist", but I had it figured out when we met this other certain character in the third book. Still a good twist, especially when it happens. The ending was satisfactory (except for the whole Peter thing). It pretty much answers everything, but Amanda still left it open just in case she decides to do a 5th book. Until I find out for sure I will be blog stalking her til she gives me answers.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

I was supposed to read this book in middle school, but I chose not to because I knew the story already and I was home schooled so I could do stuff like that. I chose not to read it because I was a big chicken. It made me sad just thinking about it and I did not want to read about what this girl who was my age was having to go through.

Now, just about 10 years later I decided it was time to man up....erhmm...I mean, woman up and read it. I had been missing out on so much. It was beautiful, inspiring, and tragic.

This girl starts out with everything and gets it all ripped away from her because Hitler blames the Jews for the fall in Germany. Anne's diary starts off a few days before they have to go into hiding, then for the remainder of the time they are in their "Secret Annexe" .

What I loved about it is that she is just a regular girl. She's not trying to write anything special, just the goings on in their secret life. How they eat, how they sleep, how they go to the bathroom. How one day she feels so grown up and independent and the next she needs everyone around her. She misses school and cannot wait to go back. There is always an underlying fear though, that they will get caught and sent to a concentration camp and die there, or not even make it that far and just get killed the second they are found. But she is almost always optimistic. Writing about how when the war ends and they get to leave their hiding place she is going to take all of her notes and scribbles and make them into a book about how those years in hiding were.

It has such a sad ending though. I knew it was coming but I couldn't help myself wishing and praying that something would change. So if you are not in the mood for a tear jerker, you should probably postpone reading this one. I say postpone because I now will not encourage skipping it entirely. It is too good of a story.

4/5 is my vote. I thought about 5/5 but since the end made me cry and not in a good way I had to take a point away.

Happy reading. :)

Eat. Pray. Love.

A story about a woman who has everything, but wants none of it.

Unhappy in her marriage for many reasons (which she discloses very few of), Elizabeth Gilbert decides to leave her husband after a very messy breakdown on her bathroom floor. Apparently she cannot handle being alone though, because she quickly falls in love with her rebound lover. But, as most rebound relationships go, they end up not working out after a series of break-ups and get-back-togethers. Which of course, this devastates her, as well.

During all of this she goes to Bali for a yoga retreat and meets on old healer who tells her she will be coming back to live with him. This is what gets her going on her journey and inspires her to really go out and see the world and live how she has always wanted to.

Now, since she starts off the book by telling you everything that she has in life, but how all of it is wrong and not what she wanted, she comes off as...selfish...and self-centered. But Gilbert is very witty and definitely a people person, so that helps as she tells you about her travels. And she is honest about herself and what she has done which also helps.

In Italy and India she is great. I love that she really starts to find herself, create herself, and center herself. The beginning of Bali is good too, until she meets Felipe. I did not like how the story progressed after that....well actually, the lack of progression. The whole story builds up to if she will let love in again but when the moment comes it just plops. There is nothing to it. I actually started wondering if she really did love this man or if she was doing just what she did before and running to him because she couldn't be alone any longer. There was no spark so it left me wondering where her passion for him was because it sure did not show in her writing. When I finished the book and put it down I just felt so unsatisfied.

Overall it was only an alright book. My vote would be 2/5...maybe 2.5/5

Welcome!

Hello there!

My name is Jessica, I am a book-a-holic, and it's an addiction that is only getting worse. But it's a good addiction to have so I guess "worse" wouldn't be the appropriate way to describe it....oh well.

Anyway, I do love reading. Mostly YA fiction/romantic fantasy, but sometimes other books do pop up on my radar and grab my attention. I also love dystopian books.

I have this really bad habit of talking about the books I am reading. It's like word vomit though...I just can't help it. And I don't have a lot of friends that like the same kind that I do so it's hard to just talk about them. I really have to watch myself around my husband because he finds books about vampires, faeries, or fallen angels to be quite silly and I prefer not to have my taste in books bashed...thank you very much (though he is mistaken...that is not all I read about). One of my best friends loves almost all the same kind of books that I do. Thank God for her!

But she has her own husband, a child, work, and I moved 800 miles away almost a year ago...so our book discussions are few and far between now.

My husband is in the Army, so when we moved I didn't go back to work so that I could stay at home and be with him when he's off (the entire we dated it was pretty much long distance so spending time together was a must) and the whole moving all the time and having to find a new job each time didn't appeal to me, right now. So now I have more time on my hands. What to do with it? I wondered. I started doing some research online and found that book blogs were actually really popular and Tada! my book loft was born.

Now I have somewhere I can talk about books all I want and no one can stop me; muwahaha! :D

But I am a total noob at this so I will accept most suggestions gratefully.

Thanks for stopping by!!