Hide and Seek - a Brand new reader book :)

So sorry for not posting anything in a while - I've been pretty sick with walking Pneumonia - plus school started and I'm home with my 4 year old and 2 year old all day - ugh! I've been reading some though - not a lot, but some - I read a couple of ARC books from Netgalley - but I can't post the reviews until closer to the release date, so that's why you're not seeing much the last 2 weeks :( Sorry! I'm working on it though :)

I am home-schooling my pre-schooler - I have NO idea what I'm doing, but we're getting there :)
I bought him a few of the "Brand new reader" books from the library book sale, and this week we have read "Hide and Seek" it's really a cute book about a frog and a fish playing hide and seek :)  Fish hides behind plant - Frog finds Fish - Frog hides behind Rock - Fish finds Frog - Fish hides behind Frog - Frog looks for Fish - Fish taps Frog - Frog finds Fish - the end :)

Cute book - Collin (my 4 year old) really loves it :)

SO for an arts and craft idea, we made a frog and a fish :) I used all of my punches to make them, and my die cut machine to make the mini bag - the bag represents the rock and plant (it has a flower on it :) plus he can put them inside the mini bag when he's not playing with them. I made one of each for myself too, but my 2 year old ate the frog head already and ripped the stick out of the fish *sigh* oh well - it was fun while it lasted :) 

Right now I'm reading "Second guessing Fate" and I have one more "Hold Me" ARC to read before I get back to reading regular books :) I think I have a couple of reviews I owe Chasity over at LovLivLifeReviews - so I'll be reading and posting soon :) 

I'm still sick, so reading is slow, but it's getting there :) 

Happy Reading all !

Exiled by M.R. Merrick

Exiled by M.R. Merrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really cute book - the ending leaves you wide open for more possibilities :)



True this book was predictable - I guessed everything early on - but you know what, it was ok - the book really pulled it off -

Sure you know what kind of demon book they were looking for, they dropped a lot of hints on that one - and it wasn't a big surprise to see who was in charge of the big mess at the end... but there was a lot of little things inside the story that made up for that -



Willy - He's the cutest half-demon! Sure he's a big strong guy, but with his stutter and him always afraid - it really really makes him that much of a cuter character. bringing in the truth that just because he's half demon, doesn't make him evil ... right?



Then of course there is Rayna - what the heck is she?? There is a LOT of stuff mixed in with her, but where did it all come from? She's a mystery, but a very talented mystery - with *hand that were both warm and soft *



I really liked this book for many reasons - everything was on impulse. and it seemed like everything was going wrong ... until everything started piecing together....



Now, once they get into this new demention - ok I'm not a big fan of leap frog in different dementions in my books - But M.R. Merrick did a really good job with this new world! Drakar is what it's called :) I loved the Purple river with water with a taste of it's own. The purest and richest water to ever touch his mouth.



And what about the "tiny bird" ?? Sure we could figure out what happens to it, but the magic that pumps out of it at the end is just awesome!



Really a great story - looking forward to reading the next one and finding out what happens :)




This review was made possible by Lovlivlifereviews - Thanks for the great Recommend!!

Deceiving the Protector by Dee Tenorio

Deceiving the Protector by Dee Tenorio

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Before I get into the review,  I do have to say one thing - Dee Tenorio could have stopped the book in a few different places and the book would have really good - but it's like she KNEW I wasn't ready to leave this couple yet, so she kept going - and made the book even more wonderful!

Awesome is the word I have to say -
I truly love the whole "Bonding/Mate" thing when it comes to wolves - it's just a whole magical attachment that no one can explain and it really gives me chills every time I read about it :) 

This book was no exception - but it was different in a way that really kept me on my toes -

The book starts off with Jensen Tate - or Tate - is searching for a stray shifter who has taken off - he can barely make out her scent, it's there but if he moves too fast, he'll lose it - Wolf. Distinctly female. A faint sent, tickling at his senses.
But there is something about her sent, something fresh, enticing in its elusiveness. Almost... Tempting.

Finally catching up with her , he approaches with caution. You don't want to spook a starving wolf - and from the looks of her, that's exactly what she is. But she's strong, and she scared and she's waiting for him to come closer.

"you don't have to worry, okay? I'm from the Underground and I've been looking for you. I'm here to help" 

The Underground is an organized group by the Pack where they help take in stray shifters of all kinds, give them food and shelter and help them feel safe. But there is a Killer out on the loose right now, someone is killing the strays in a brutal way, so they are moving shifters around to different safe houses, to keep the strays safe.

Now Lia is a very strong willed Stray - she has a past that no one could ever believe. She does what she needs to in order to survive, and she can't trust him - It's not that she doesn't WANT to trust him. She feels a slight pull whenever she looks deep into his eyes.

She goes willingly with Tate on their 2 day journey to the next safe house. The whole time Tate tries to talk to her, get her to loosen up a little, but she stays silent. Lol He talks to her, and when she doesn't respond, he makes up her answers - and some of them are so ridiculous, it's all she could do not to show any sign of amusement :) Until he starts whistling.  That drives her CRAZY! Nothing as loud as this, not for this long has  ever bothered her. this much. No matter how she twisted away from him, or changed his pace, he was right there. Whistling. Setting her senses warping from misery.  When she finally had to put her hands over her ears, he actually got louder. But when he laughed - he actually laughed at her! - "Don't you EVERY shut up?"

Lol well we learn that Tate in fact doesn't shut up :)  And he is good at annoying Lia :) But it also helps her to open up to him a little, too. She lets her guard down for a few mins here and there.

When they first pitch camp, deep in the woods, Tate is afraid to take his eyes off her. He makes a phone call and meets with Bertha (I love this girl) She is one of his enforcers of such , so she fills him in with the information of the latest murder - it's not pretty.

When Bertha leaves, he looks over to where Lia was sleeping, just a few yards over, but she was gone.

He followed her. Her scent was so dim he could barely smell it, but he did smell a strong sense of Fear coming from her. He followed that -

That's where we meet   Asher - Lia's  Forced Mate - This guy isn't a wonderful Mate either - sure he probably does adore Lia in his own sick and strange way , but he grabs her by the throat and digs his knees into the dirt pinning her down, She can't breathe, and she can't move.

She has never seen Asher's face, but she is terrified of him. When Asher asks why she has the scent of another wolf on her arm, she tells him that Tate is the brother of the Alpha, if she can keep him alive, he can lead her to the Alpha - So Asher gives her another day .....

And so the journey begins ...


*sigh* A LOT goes on in this book -.  so many details, so much emotion , it really stirs things up for the reader - I didn't know rather to laugh or cry half the time :)

I'm really excited I got the chance to read this book. I just bought the first one, and now I'm off to read that :)

Caged in Darkness by J.C. Stroube

Caged in Darkness by J.D. Stroube

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was pretty intense! Wow! I'm a little taken back by the ending though - but only because it wasn't what I was expecting - give me time to let it sink in :)


The book starts out with Savannah telling her story of her past - up until she was 9 years old, her life was utterly hell -

As witches, Her parents were thrown out of their coven because they started practicing dark magic - the really bad dark magic.
When Savannah was a baby, her mother adored her , but as time went on - they grew darker and darker and started making sacrifice by killing innocent people - Twice a week, Savannah watched it all take place from the inside of her cage.

When her parents couldn't find anyone to sacrifice, they used Savannah. She could feel the darkness dispense itself from her pores. It would take that bit of innocence with it. Her soul screamed at the loss as it was torn from her.

One day when she was 9 years old, she escaped the house through the tiny bathroom window. She knew of the town Meadow Falls as the town her parent's coven was in.
She believed she could find the coven and they would help her.

It was nighttime when she arrived, she had no idea where she was or where she was going, but she started walking. At the edge of town, she saw a few lights on in a few of the houses. One of the houses had the feel of protection on it. it beckoned her to approach.

As she inched toward the house, her emotions were bombarding her. She backed up and stepped on a sprinkler head, twisting her ankle until she heard the bone crack, and she went down in a painful cry.

An elderly woman stepped out the door and onto the porch. She screamed for her son to come down and help bring this lost looking child into the house.

When Savannah told them who her parents were, Maye - the older woman contacted the rest of the coven and "took care of things" with her parents.

Time laps on - ok the witches come into their power at the 16th anniversary of their first breath of life. So we are at Savannah's life, now at 15 years old - she is in high school. Still scared to be around people she doesn't know or trust - but she knows her 2 best friends, Izzy and Willow - and of course Ash - her foster brother.

Everything is going well in life as they know it until she learns that the house her parents owned was being sold. Maye wanted Savannah to go back to the house to go through their things. Savannah was scared to death to set foot back into that house, but all things considering, she went with Maye.

When Maye went upstairs to start going through things, Savannah went into the library - a strange thing happened while she was sitting in her favorite chair - she looked down and noticed a board out of place .. so she opened it up to see a lever - when she turned the lever, the bookshelf opened up into a hidden passage -

And That's where it all begins ... When she releases the demon into the world - the demon that her parents had somehow shoved into a box, everything turned around on her.

This book has it all - my favorite shifter of a Panther - the romance triangle, and the friendship and love that grows between these witches :)

Great book - I'm looking forward to the next one already :)
I'm still taken back by the ending though - it's going to bug me - if you've read this book, email me - I need someone to talk to about this ending ... lol


This review was made possible by Lovlivlifereviews - check out her blog for our double review -
(I accidently left out a lot of information - oops :)
Thanks for the great Recommend!!


View all my reviews

Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis

Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was lucky enough to recieve an ARC copy of this book - the book comes out Tuesday July 26th :)  go get it :) It's Great!

Its a real honest to goodness Detective story! When I first got this book in the mail, one look at the cover and the voice of Dan Aykroyd from Dragnet (1987) popped in my head - and THAT is the voice of Stan :)

This book is awesome! It starts off explaining the way the Supernatural’s (Supes) came to be known to the world (when Vamps and Were's came home from WW II ) and now living in an everyday life with the rest of us plain old humans .

Stan Markowski is a human - and he's a Decective - but he keeps the peace between the Supes.

The book starts off with Stan and his partner going into a local liquor store - nothing strange, just a couple of goblins hyped up on Meth with 2 hostages trying to rob the place.

*note* these Goblins are really cute :) Little green furry guys who speak very little English - so hearing Stan speak like Tarzan is really funny :)

Everything seems to be going well, until they notice the third goblin that was hiding from them...

A few weeks later, Stan and his new partner Renfer... Karl Renfer (He's a big James bond Fan :) Anyways - they get a call and head out to an old abandoned warehouse - Karl stays in the car while Stan checks it out - inside he finds 13 witches calling forth a demon - which is considered black magic - and black magic is illegal. SO when Stan jumps in to interrupt, things get a little crazy.

A few months later ... they get a call to a Supe's house - where they find a man tied to a chair after he was tortured to death. At first they didn't understand why they were called out - looked like a normal human's death - something for the police to get involved in, only this guy had a mark of a wizard on his wrist - which meant the crime was for them to get involved in.

For 5 full nights - Stan and Karl came up empty handed with no leads as to why this Wizard was tortured - and what was stolen out of his safe (They left the money, so obviously something of more value was in the safe)

Stan finally had about all he could handle and decided to call in a favor. Rachel Proctor is a witch - and she knows how to perform Necromancy - Only Necromancy is black magic, and she just doesn't do that stuff. But with the court's ok - making it Police business, it turns into Grey Magic - black magic used for good.

Against all of Rachel's better instincts, she agrees to it.

It takes her a full day of non-stop preparations for this type of thing. When She and Stan get to the graveyard to set up, everything was going perfect... Until something goes wrong.. very very VERY Wrong…

The plot thickens when we find out what was stolen out of the safe and Stan and Karl are forced to work with Vollman "The Man" of Vampires who happens to be a Wizard as well. He knows a lot of things that is going on. and when the strange and bazaar killings start to accrue, Vollman starts keeping little important things to himself. So Stan decides to broaden his search and find information himself. He has a lot of good contacts :)

It was a lot of fun reading this book :)

For the record, this isn't a romance book - Rachel was just a friend, and he has a couple of other female friends in the book, too but nothing but a few flirtation remarks accure. and I Love Stan's Humor - He's got a LOT of funny come backs (in his mind)

All and all this is a great book :) Glad I got the chance to read it :)

Here is an Awesome Trailer for this book! Even my kids loved it (Because they Hate vampires too :)


The review for this book was made possible by ♫♥ LivLifeReviews ♥♫   

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Just finished reading this book for July's Book of the month  -

If you're interested in joing the Book Bloggers Anonymous Club group and chatting up with us -

Our wonderful host is Jo-Anne from Strange Candy Reviews! Don't forget to check out her blog for fun activities in July!   

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was cute! Loved the story line - I'm not a huge fan of Steampunk books, though. I have read a couple, and they've turned out really well, but it's just not my favorite genre -

BUT, as I said, this book was cute. I'll probably follow the series when more come out. Just because I like a good drawn out romance :)

Finley is a girl with a bit of a temper. Seems every time she gets afraid or upset - another part of her personality comes out and scares her - a LOT!

The book starts out with her working as a Lady's maid, and just as she is about to retire to bed, Lord Felix takes advances at her. She is terrified of his drunken state and has heard he likes to hurt young women. So the only thing she could think of was to let her anger out and beat him up before he can hurt her any worse than a split lip and a bruised face. Luckily she heals quickly :)

She runs out of the house (knowing she'd be fired as soon as Lord Felix woke up anyways).

That's where she runs into Griffin and Sam - Literally - she runs right into them as they're driving through the Park on their cycles (motorcycle type bikes)

Sam is a little worried about bringing this girl to their home, but Griffin - The Duke - as a feeling this girl needs to be brought into their lives, and his instincts are never wrong.

Emily is a girl living there too - she is a smart girl. Completely in love with the science - She is very good with her hands and has made some healing slave to help speed up the process of Finley's cuts and bruises from being hit from the cycle.

When Finley wakes up - she is afraid of the strange surroundings and her "other" personality takes over. She lashes out at the maids and the footman goes flying through the door - luckly Griffen was there to catch the poor man before he could get hurt.

That's when we find out about the powers Griffin has over the Aetheric world (spirit world) and is able to manipulate Finley's aura so she's not frightened anymore - he promises that she is safe and he wouldn't turn her into the Peelers (cops) just as she passes out of exhaustion.

We learn about Sam - he is a big guy, very strong and even more so now that Emily saved his life - he was attacked by a machine and it killed him. but Emily would do everything she could to save him.

When she placed the Organites (not sure how to describe what this is- but the book does a good job of it :) in his body, which turns the more than broken parts of him into metal. It heals him and brings him back to life - and he is stronger and heals faster than ever before.

Sam isn't happy about being part metal , he has a lot of grief in him and he takes it out on everyone. But he especially doesn't trust Finely. And he has a good reason not to :)

This book was very interesting. It had a LOT of details about these strange contraptions - It was pretty cool :)

The love triangle - there were a couple of those - first the attraction between Finley and Griffin is great! Only she doesn't feel she is worth of the love of a Duke - Then we meet Jack Dandy - he is a very scary criminal who fancy's Finley's alter Ego - the scary side - Finley has an attraction to him as well - Maybe in the next book we'll find out who she kisses first :)

Then there is the love triangle between Emily, Sam and Jack - Jack is one of Griffin’s American friends who has come to England to help Griffin. He becomes one of the gang with his super speed. And his flirty charm finds himself smitten with Emily... which really makes Sam jealous.

The ending of the book sets does a really good job at setting up the next book - I will be looking for that one when it comes out:) I am anxious to find out more about this group of "super beings" and find out more about their special powers that keeps evolving :)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


WOW! This book was defiantly not what I thought it would be - I didn't read any other reviews – in fact I didn't even read the back of the book - yes I'm a Robert Pattinson fan , and I’m not afraid to admit it :) SO of course I had to read the book. I knew it was going to be good - but I didn't know that I would have loved it this much .

I love Elephants - always have, always will - but after this book - I think I see them in a whole different light - Rosie was the star of this book (ok no Jacob was, but Rosie was the star of the ring :) I loved her sense of humor - who would have thought Elephants were like that :) HA! And she smiled – a LOT :) I just keep picturing an elephant smiling :)

OK here it goes …

First of all, The book is told in 2 different ways - One is from Jacob's (not going to attempt to spell his name without the book in front of me) POV when he's an old man - 90 or 93 years old .. he's not sure which, and isn't sure it really matters either. Life as an old man, he has all his teeth, but they still make him eat jello and mashed up foods - he can still walk and get around on his own, but they make him sit in a wheel chair all day so he doesn't risk falling down.. he's miserable.. His kids (all 5 of them) couldn't take him in, so they set him up in a nursing home. He tries his best to make the most of it, but after awhile. things start to get to him.. They rotate their visits between the kids, grandkids and great grandkids – he doesn’t know any of them anymore so it doesn’t matter…

He sleeps - and when he sleeps, he dreams of his past.....

The book started out with Jacob had a happy life - he grew up helping his dad out as vet - when he was 23, he was in his final stage of collage to earn his license then was to partner with his dad. Only things don't always go as planned when we're focusing on our future - we try our hardest to do what we want to do - but sometimes things happen for a reason - Poor Jacob's whole life got turned around when his parents died. He didn't have any money, didn't have his degree, and didn't have a place to live - so in a blind state of mind, he started walking away from the town - after a few hours, his feet started hurting. He heard a train - he started running after it- then he threw himself into a stock car... only to be greeted by a couple of circus workmen...

Jacob wins over the friendship of Camel , one of the guys who knows everyone in the show and he offers to help Jacob land a job with the circus. Since Jacob isn't afraid of hard work, and he's a good kid, he excepts this offer..

When he meets with Uncle Al - the head ring master , Jacob tells him that he didn't quit finish his collage exam, so he doesn't technically have his vet license, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone - he is a vet enough, and in Uncle Al's eyes, he's a good asset to the circus.

This book has everything in it - I'm so excited for the movie . I am hoping they can change a couple little parts to turn the movie into a PG 13 movie. The book is a little descriptive in some areas - at the cooch tent for starters, but for a movie , they could easily moderate it so she isn't fully ... "twirling around" lol

The whole thing with August and Marlena being friends with Jacob was great. I loved that August seemed to generally care of Jacob at first - he seemed to believe that he was a good asset to the circus and that everything was good in his life. I was disappointed for the most part of the book, knowing that Marlena and Jacob were suppose to be together, but she was married to August . But after awhile, everything really falls into place.

The book is a pretty fast read I think - a lot of details in the book. There isn’t' really a lot going on, other than a few months being on the road with the circus , then a full day with him in the nursing home, but the end of the book is classic - It brought good tears to my eyes to see this old bitter man happy again :) I really deserves it :)


Great book - I'm more then anxious to see the movie now :)