Stuck In Books Giveaway

  Stuck In Books is doing a 

Follower Appreciation Giveaway!

  The contest is international as long as Book Depository delivers to your country.  Stop by Valerie's blog and follow the directions to enter and to read the terms and conditions. 

Stuck In Books

  

   Help Valerie reach the 1,500 followers mark by the end of the contest and she'll add a second winner!

WVMP Giveaway Winner!

The WVMP Series Giveaway Winner for my contest is 

Margi

Even though the contest has ended, there is still time to sign up to join us for the WVMP series Read-Along in October.  The deadline to register for this fun event is Wednesday, September 28th. 

For more details about the event, please check out my main post HERE.

As a reminder, besides discussions about the books, participants will also get the chance to "Hangout" with the awesome author, Jeri Smith-Ready and characters Shane & Ciara will be tweeting with us.

Also, before you sign up for the read-along you need to know that the material contained in these books is geared toward an adult readership.  Explicit language, strong sexual content and fairly graphic violence are involved.  Please pass on this read-along if you are sensitive to any of these. 

Join me and the spectacular ladies of  What's on the Bookshelf, Fictitious Delicious, & Living Fictitiously for a great time discussing this kick-butt series by one of our favorite authors!

Waiting on Wednesday (6): Indelible by Lani Woodland

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

Indelible

The Yara Silva Trilogy #2

Lani Woodland

Pendrell Publishing

September 27,2011

Yara is beginning to understand just how much her life will change now that her Waker abilities have emerged. She has come to terms with the fact that seeing ghosts is part of her life, but she isn't ready to let being a Waker dictate her choices. All she wants is a ghost-free senior year with her boyfriend, Brent, and her best friend, Cherie. But Yara soon discovers that there are more dark secrets in her school's history than just the curse she broke. While an angry ghost makes Yara question everything she thought she knew about spirits, she and Brent learn that there are long reaching consequences to last year's adventures. As new enemies emerge and old ghosts resurface, Yara finds herself in the center of another deadly mystery, and this time she has to contend with the living as well as the dead. -Amazon.com*

During the August YA Author Scavenger Hunt, I was introduced to the first book in the series, Intrinsical, and was immediately intrigued with this story.  It is NOT your average ghost story.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the first installment and enjoyed the plot twists I never saw coming. It was a quick read because I couldn't put it down.  before I get to review-y about the first book, let me just end by saying that I really am looking forward to this next installment to see what feats Yara will have to endure this time around.

"As new enemies emerge and old ghosts resurface, Yara finds herself in the center of another deadly mystery, and this time she has to contend with the living as well as the dead."

Pretty intense!  What are book are you waiting on to read?

*I normally try to use Goodreads.com for book descriptions.  However, they have the wrong summary listed and so I used Amazon.com instead.  This is in no way an advertisement or endorsement for their company. 

Tune in Tuesday (4): Anniversary Special Edition!

Tune in Tuesdays is hosted by Ginger at GReads to help spread the love of music!  I hope you enjoy and perhaps it will take you back.

My DH and I at our reception. My man in uniform! 

This week's tune I would like to share is Dan Fogelberg's "Longer."  Today just so happens to be the 8th wedding anniversary of my husband and I.  During our wedding ceremony, my sister-in-law played this on her flute and then it was also our first dance as husband and wife.  

My husband and I dated long distance while he was serving the military and I was in college.  During car rides, my mom and I would listen to the oldies & easy listening stations and every time this song came on, I was reminded of my sweetheart that was so far away. 

What song did you dance to at your wedding?  If you're not married, what song would you like to be your first dance?  Or do you and your current squeeze have a song?  I would love for you to share it with me :-)

Since today is my anniversary this is an extremely short post.  Join me tomorrow for Waiting on Wednesday!

Review: Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Remembrance
Michelle Madow
Create Space
Kindle Edition, July 27, 2011

New Hampshire high school junior Lizzie
Davenport has been reincarnated from
Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't
know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she seem to get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, the pair of them soon find that fighting fate isn't going to be easy. –Goodreads.com

First, let me tell you I enjoyed the book. Is it something that I will re-read? Probably not. While entertaining, I just didn’t fall in love with the story. I could identify and sympathize with the characters but it did not leave me wanting more of the story. For me, even if a book is a stand-alone novel, I still want to be left wanting more or thinking about what happened in the “happily-ever-after” and this time around I was okay with where the story ended.

After reading the summary from Goodreads, I thought it was going to be another retelling of Pride & Prejudice; it was and then again it wasn’t. If you read this expecting Lizzie and Drew to mirror Elizabeth Bennett & Fitzgerald Darcy exactly, you might be surprised. Yes, there are extreme similarities, but Lizzie & Drew are very far form their counterparts.

The love at first sight that happens is easily explained by the use of reincarnation which is okay -- at least it’s not instant-lust-ification-with-no-explanation. coughBella&Edwardcough*
In my opinion, Ms. Madow made it crystal clear from the beginning that Lizzie should no longer be with her boyfriend, Jeremy. Right off the bat I saw him as an egotistical, materialistic JERK-face. I just did not like his character at all. I could not understand why Lizzie was still with him. It was always my thought that Drew & Lizzie should be together. Drew was treating her how a boyfriend SHOULD treat his girl. I understand why Drew was standoffish and trying to distance himself from her. The explanation is a good one once you finally find out. You really do want to cheer for them getting together. However, I’m not sure the collateral damage was worth it…And here I get a little spoilery: (highlight to read)

I felt really bad for Chelsea and a little bad for Jeremy at the end. Funny enough, I felt those two should be together for most of the book.

The book is definitely filled with the themes of pride, prejudice, second chances, and destiny. However, not everyone gets the second chance to set things straight. Of course, most of the conflict in the book could have been avoided had the characters had more communication between each other, and not been in states of self-denial, but then where would the conflict be?

Okay so maybe I just realized I would like to know what happens with the people considered “collateral damage,” in my opinion. I’m just not sure it would warrant a sequel. Of course not everyone can have a happy ending like our lovers and that’s life. C’est la vie.

Overall, the story was entertaining and the plot was creative with an interesting twist thrown in from a place you least expect which pulled together all the loose strings nicely. Michelle tied up all the loose ends, dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s, but as I said above, the collateral damage made it a hard sell for me to be okay with the ending. 

I've Been Tagged!

TAG! TAG! TAG! TAG! TAG! TAG!

I've been tagged. This is kinda fun. Watch out. I may tag you next.
It's not bad - it's a fun way to share a bit of information about yourself
with your readers. I will tell you 10 random things about me and then
tag 4 other people. Soooooo...hey, wait...I'm pretty open with my
biz so I guess I need to think to get some random unknown facts...

1. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Temple U.
2. I was born on a rainy Monday.
3. My favorite movie is "Labyrinth".  Don't judge!
   "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have
   fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City
   to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as
   strong as your's and my kingdom is as great.  You have no
   power over me." 
4. During my senior year of high school, I was in Italy for a full
   week. *happy dance* Visited Verona, Venice, Assissi, Florence,
    Sorrento, Rome, Pompeii...
5. I can play the piano, guitar, flute, french horn and a bunch
   of other instruments (with a little refresher on everything but piano).
6. During three summers of high school I worked as a lifeguard.
7. In my life, my ambitions have been veterinarian
   (I have allergies so there went that), Disney animation artist (I can't
   draw to save my life! so this is funny) Olympic swimmer,
   musical theater performer, teacher...and now *maybe* a writer
   someday.  My prospects were much more exciting when I was five....
8. My current favorite color is purple. 
9. I love tea! Mint, raspberry, vanilla, Darjeeling,
   Candy Cane Lane & Nutcracker Sweet
10. I am an alumnus of THIS famous high school in Philadelphia. 

And there you go. Do you know me any better now? I was tagged by:

Lavender Girl so go check out her blog! and now, I'm going to tag...

Kimberly & Brittney

Thamy

Tamara

Have fun and I am excited to learn more about you! Tag. You're it!  

TGIF (2): Books to Television

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads.  Each Friday Ginger poses a question for us to share our thoughts on.  If you'd like to participate, head on over to her awesome blog and link up!

This week's topic:

Books to Television: Which books would you love to see made into a TV series or movie?
This question should be easy, right?  Wrong!  There are so many movie and television adaptations of books and sometimes Hollywood just does not do the book justice.  Major parts of story lines get the axe or the characters don't fit the image that I have conjured up in my head.  Therefore, choosing a series that I've read and loved and KNOWING it would be butchered in some way is pretty dang difficult.


If I had absolute faith and trust in a production company, I suppose here are some of my choices:

My Fantasy pick:  The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, & The Darkest Road 
This is a work I would probably trust in the hands of Peter Jackson and the WETA Workshop to produce.  It is very much like the Lord of the Rings,  an amazing work of fantasy.  I love this series SO hard.  In one word it is truly EPIC. 

The second in the series is my
favorite and the book that introduced
me to Lady Julia

My Adult pick:  The Lady Julia series by Deanna Raybourn

Silent in the Grave, Silent in the Sanctuary, Silent on the Moor, The Dark Road to Darjeeling, & The Dark Enquiry
Victorian London murder mystery series, sassy main leading lady, dashing and mysterious leading man, this would TOTALLY deliver on the screen!  The costumes would be gorgeous and the locales would be breathtaking: London, the Scottish moors, & India.

My YA picks:  
Shade series by Jeri Smith-Ready 
Shade, Shift, & Shine (due out in 2012)
I am sure my fellow members of #TeamKilt are with me on this one and I'm sure Logan's fans would be too!  A big concern I would have is the CGI treatment of ghosts.  It would be interesting to see how Hollywood would handle them.  The series may not be completed yet but it has easily become one of my favorite series.  If you haven't read this series, you should.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han
The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, & We'll Always Have Summer 
Who wouldn't want to see Belly & the Fischer boys on screen?  A young girl that is learning to navigate womanhood, love, romance, & growing up and two gorgeous boys that she has to choose between.  I would definitely love this one.


What would you like to see on screen?