2015 MGR Reading Challenge

I created this Reading Challenge for my book club, so I'm definitely up for the challenge. And again, I'm going big! It's WARP SPEED for me. I will review all of these books, as well. Whew, I've got work to do but I'm excited!

Please join us; all the deets are below.

Hosted by Mocha Girls Read

Reading Challenge Details:
The challenge is simple. The idea is to have fun reading books with titles that will spell out “MOCHA GIRLS 15” by the end of the year.

You can do this challenge in many ways: 

1) Choose books with TITLES that spell out "Mocha Girls" (1 title per letter of the alphabet). The title must begin with the letter you are completing.

2) Choose books whose authors LAST names spell out "Mocha Girls" (1 name per letter of the alphabet). The author's last name must begin with the letter you are completing.

3) Combine BOTH of the above; however, you can only have one title or author's name per letter of the alphabet.

4) Choose two books with TITLES that start with ONE and FIVE to complete "Mocha Girls 15" . The title must begin with the number you are completing.

2015 Audiobook Challenge

I'm a sucker for audiobooks, so I'm signing up for this challenge, and I'm going big ladies and gents!!! MARATHONER all the way. Please join me; all the deets are below.

Hosted by The Book Nympho and Hot Listens 

Reading Challenge Details:

• Runs January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015. You can join at anytime.
• The goal is to find a new love for audios or to outdo yourself by listening to more audios in 2015 than you did in 2014.
• Books must be in audio format (CD, MP3, etc.)
• ANY genres count.
• Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.
• You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, Facebook, LibraryThing, etc. – I’ve created a Goodreads Group for the challenge, feel free to join.
• If you’re a blogger grab the button (on the sidebar) and do a quick post about the challenge to help spread the word. If you’re not a blogger you can help by posting on Facebook or Tweeting about the challenge.

Audiobook Review: Breakable (Contours of the Heart #2) by Tammara Webber

Title: Breakable

Book Series: Contours of the Heart, Book #2

Author: Tammara Webber (Facebook | Twitter)

Genres: New Adult, Contemporary

Format: Audiobook (Amazon | Audible)

Narrators: Zachary Webber

Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins

Release Date: May 6, 2014

As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise - until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy.…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.

Tammara Webber, the New York Time best-selling author of Easy, now delivers a daring and entirely new perspective on love, and why falling for it is beyond our control.

FIRST IMPRESSION:: Landon in a hospital bed ... after. It was as awful as can be expected. I was not immune to cries for his mother; almost brought tears to my eyes in just a few sentences.

Cover Characteristic: Vintage

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Cover Characteristic: Men in Uniform

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Interview & Giveaway: Fake An Injury Day by Alshia Moyez

Title: Fake An Injury Day

Book Series: Spirit Week, Book #1

Author: Alshia Moyez

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Ghosts

Release Date:  November 14, 2014 

 

Fake An Injury Day
7 Deadly Sins Day
Fairytale Day
Hipster Day
Metal Day
Nerd Day
Bum Day

7 Spirit Week Days
7 painful ways to die.

When a high-schooler goes missing during Spirit Week, her best friends investigate her whereabouts. the search for her leads them to haunted Christopher High School, where the search has finally stopped, but the terror is just getting started, and it's always Spirit Week there. Each terrifying moment brings a deadly Spirit Week theme that threatens to pick these friends off one by one. Fake An Injury Day has new meaning in this chilling high school tale.

WELCOME ALSHIA MOYEZ!

Tell us about your book.

Fake An Injury Day is about a group of teens who get trapped during Spirit Week in this old, creepy, rundown high school, and they start getting killed one by one in different Spirit Week themes. It's basically a YA book version of the teen slasher films like Ouija or Final Destination or I Know What you Did Last Summer. But Fake An Injury Day also shows you how to make your Spirit Week costume. Each book in the series will do that. It's a lot of fun.

Top 5 Best Book Covers: December 2014

Top 5 Best Book Covers is monthly meme created by The Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The rules are simple: on the first Saturday of every month, post your 5 favorite books covers that are being released in the current month!

#1
Title:  Ticker
Author:  Lisa Mantchev (Facebook | Twitter)
Genre:  YA, Steampunk
Release Date:  December 1, 2014

A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count.

When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass “Ticker” in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it’s discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he’s put on trial for mass murder.

On the last day of Warwick’s trial, the Farthings’ factory is bombed, Penny’s parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings...or is the motive more sinister?

Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

Cover Characteristic: Pretty Fonts

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Cover Characteristic: Sports

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Making Up for Monday: Book Purchases

Hosted by An Avid Reader; A Wannabe Writer

Each week, there will be a book-related theme or game, or something fun to do that week. And you can play along! All you have to do is find the question for that week and write a post that day based on that question.

This Week's Topic/Question:

How do you choose a book to buy (recommendations, book covers, back summary, etc.)?

My Answer:

My answer is D, all of the above. Or more like E... I need the excetra.

• Favorite Authors: There is a select few whose new books get an automatic buy no matter the subject matter Jim Butcher, Nalini Singh, Lorelei James, Richelle Mead and Molly Harper White. I've got everything they've published, quite a few in multiple formats.
• Favorite Narrators: Same goes for my favorite narrators. I've been exposed two a lot of new authors and genres because of my love of audiobooks. Wil Wheaton and James Marsters are my two favorite male narrators with newcomer Luke Daniels making the mix. And I have quite a few more female - Emma Galvin, Cynthia Holloway, Angela Dawe, Scarlet Chase, Cassandra Morris and Amanda Ronconi.

I'm no stranger to all the traditional ways. Recommendations are huge a source o influence, especially now that I follow vloggers and blogger, as well as belong to multiple in-person/online book clubs.

Also I'm a sucker for beauty; covers, that is. I've read many a crap book because the cover was shiny. 

Excluding the word buy, browsing libraries is also a driving force. I always leave with too many to read in the alloted check-out timeframe. Doesn't stop me though...

Cover Characteristic: The End (Last Books In a Series)

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Making Up for Monday: War/Battle Novels

Hosted by An Avid Reader; A Wannabe Writer

Each week, there will be a book-related theme or game, or something fun to do that week. And you can play along! All you have to do is find the question for that week and write a post that day based on that question.

This Week's Topic/Question:

Do you enjoy war or battle novels? If so, which is your favorite? If not, why?

My Answer:

Hmmm. I suppose the answer would be yes, because I enjoyed the single book I finished, lol. The only war book I've read, and I'm going out on a limb here, would be the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, Game of Thrones. If that doesn't count, then a hesitant 'no' is my answer. I've strayed from books like this in the past because they then to be long and heavy like high fantasy. Yes, Game of Thrones is high fantasy, but I was motivated to read it after how amazing the first season of the HBO's adaptation was.

I may give it a whirl, but I dunno... A noncommittal maybe, final answer. 

Game of Thrones is my favorite, based on it being the only one I read but an equally amazing read at that.

Cover Characteristic: The Beginning (First Books In A Series)

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Audiobook Review: Deadly Sting (Elemental Assassin #8) by Jennifer Estep

Title: Deadly Sting

Book Series: Elemental Assassin, Book #8

Author: Jennifer Estep (Facebook | Twitter)

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Format: Audiobook (Amazon | Audible)

Narrators: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 11 hours & 6 minutes

Release Date: March 26, 2013

Red is definitely my color. Good thing, because in my line of work, I end up wearing it a lot.
Most people shy away from blood, but for an assassin like me— Gin Blanco, aka the Spider—it’s just part of the job. Still, it would be nice to get a night off, especially when I’m attending the biggest gala event of the summer at Briartop, Ashland’s fanciest art museum. But it’s just not meant to be. For this exhibition of my late nemesis’s priceless possessions is not only the place to be seen, but the place to be robbed and taken hostage at gunpoint as well. No sooner did I get my champagne than a bunch of the unluckiest thieves ever burst into the museum and started looting the place

Unlucky why? Because I brought along a couple of knives in addition to my killer dress. Add these to my Ice and Stone magic, and nothing makes me happier than showing the bad guys why red really is my color.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:: i love the book cover and how it ties with this story. No question, you can see that this is a story about one badass chick.

Chapter One was cute. Nice introduction back into the world of Gin and Finn. I love their banter, and Finn in general. He takes being self-conceit to a whole new level, but still remains loveable and charming.

Top 5 Best Book Covers: November 2014

Top 5 Best Book Covers is monthly meme created by The Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The rules are simple: on the first Saturday of every month, post your 5 favorite books covers that are being released in the current month!

#1
Title:  The Silence of Six
Author:  E.C. Myers (Twitter)
Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller
Release Date:  November 5, 2014

“What is the silence of six, and what are you going to do about it?”

These are the last words uttered by 17-year-old Max Stein’s best friend, Evan: Just moments after hacking into the live-streaming Presidential debate at their high school, he kills himself.

Haunted by the image of Evan’s death, Max’s entire world turns upside down as he suddenly finds himself the target of a corporate-government witch-hunt. Fearing for his life and fighting to prove his own innocence, Max goes on the run with no one to trust and too many unanswered questions.

Max must dust off his own hacking skills and maneuver the dangerous labyrinth of underground hacktivist networks, ever-shifting alliances, and virtual identities — all while hoping to find the truth behind the “Silence of Six” before it’s too late.

Cover Characteristic: Road Trips

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Cover Characteristic: Suspended in Air

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic. 

Top 5 Best Book Covers: October 2014

Top 5 Best Book Covers is monthly meme created by The Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The rules are simple: on the first Saturday of every month, post your 5 favorite books covers that are being released in the current month!

#1
Title:  The Passage
Series:  Beyond Two Worlds, Book #1
Author:  Nabille De La Luz
Genre:  YA, Dystopian, Science Fiction
Release Date:  October 6, 2014

It's finally Kino's turn to help The Passage; A virtual world with four zones and four tests that all of Zero's young people have to attempt in order to deserve to live in Lumen, far from the radiation that everyone in the world is exposed to. But there's just one thing... if you die in the game, you die in real life.

In The Passage, Kino meets Axel and the others that will be part of her team. But she is different. Kino is covering up something more than a slight mutation in her eyes. Something that she will discover that can change not just her body, but her life and also the lives of everyone in the world.

KINO:
''The Passage is not anything more than that; a test. And it depends on the score that you ended the Passage with, whether they give you a job or they let you study at the university of Lumen, or if not, you end up being an erotic ballerina or an escort to someone who bought you to avoid your almost certain death in Zone Four. Despite how weird, dirty, and ugly it sounded to have hopes of being acquired by a man, the majority of girls from Zero were anxious for that moment. It was like everyone's fairytale. But, instead of being saved by a prince, it was being bought by one.''

 

Book Review: Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

                                  

Title: Wallbanger

Series: Cocktail, Book #1

Author: Alice Clayton (Twitter)

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Humor, New Adult

Format: Audiobook (Audible)

Narrator: Heather Smith

Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins 

Release Date: May 13, 2013

USA TODAY bestselling indie author Alice Clayton delights readers with the sexy, laugh-out-loud romance of Caroline and Simon in Wallbanger, the first book in the Cocktail series!

The first night after Caroline moves into her fantastic new San Francisco apartment, she realizes she’s gaining an—um—intimate knowledge of her new neighbor’s nocturnal adventures. Thanks to paper-thin walls and the guy’s athletic prowess, she can hear not just his bed banging against the wall but the ecstatic response of what seems (as loud night after loud night goes by) like an endless parade of women. And since Caroline is currently on a self-imposed “dating hiatus,” and her neighbor is clearly lethally attractive to women, she finds her fantasies keep her awake even longer than the noise. So when the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts Simon Parker, her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. The tension between them is as thick as the walls are thin, and the results just as mixed. Suddenly, Caroline is finding she may have discovered a whole new definition of neighborly…

In a delicious mix of silly and steamy, Alice Clayton dishes out a hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight.

FIRST IMPRESSION:: I will have to admit this was a pleasant surprise. it was funny and sweet and sexy and believable. That doesn't always happen. I usually end up liking the main character or the love interest more, but, i actually liked Caroline and Simon pretty equally. Both funny, lovable characters. Can't forget about Clive. 

Cover Characteristic: Stilettos

Hosted by Sugar & Snark

Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite cover’s with that characteristic.