Friday Hops

This blogger hop was created by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.

Here are the rules:

1. Enter your book blog link in the Linky List below (be sure to include how long you've been blogging and what genres you review!). If you post about the Hop on your blog, please link directly to your Hop post (don't forget to answer this week's question - see below!).

2. Visit other blogs in the Linky List! Make new friends! Follow new book bloggers! Talk about books! Rave about authors! (Please do not leave your link and not visit other blogs - it's just not cool and not in the spirit of the Hop!)

3. Post about the Hop on your blog! Spread the word about the book party! The more the merrier!

4. In your blog post, answer the following question (new question each week!):

MY ANSWER:

This is a weekly blog meme created by Parajunkee's View.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - http://annettesbookspot.blogspot.com/

3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers

7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This week's question is: Do you judge a book by it's cover?

MY ANSWER: I use to hate this expression and never abide by it, but nowadays I find myself doing that. If I see too many naked bodies on the cover then I know the book's not for me.

As many of you know I totally adore Shannon Delany's 13 to Life series and at first all I saw was the cover and it totally captivated me! I had to read it! It was just one of the most stunning covers I ever seen! I'm a sucker for moons, woods and werewolves. Which this had all 3!

Covers are what give us that 1-second decision to see if the book is meant for us. Like I said, I don't usually go for the covers with the naked bodies on it, because I know it's usually not my kind of read, yet still be the right read for someone else. There are series I adore but don't really care for the covers. But that's what the Hide-a-Covers are for! Now I just need to get me a trade-paperback size... ;)

*Review--Betrayal by Mayandree Michel*

Where there is love and power, there is always... betrayal.

At seventeen, Cordelia is an ordinary teen with an extraordinary and frightening secret. A secret that induces vivid dreams which she not only experiences true love, but crippling fear while barely escaping with her life each night.

After a life altering event, Cordelia has an unexpected encounter with Evan, the mysterious boy from her dreams, who reveals who and what she is – a descendant of the Greek gods. At that moment everything she knows of her world is a lie, and she must leave the present and go into the past to assume the role she was put on this earth for – safeguarding her ancient empire amidst evil forces that toil hastily to destroy it.

In a race against time, Cordelia must decide if she is truly a part of this dangerous world, or risk defying the gods, and ultimately lose the boy who has put a claim on her heart.

Mayandree Michel's Betrayal was an interesting read. I was really excited for it since it had Greek mythology woven into the story and it was great! There were even vampires! The storyline itself was interesting as well with Cordelia dying like in the second chapter and being taken away to another time to live her old life, the life she left behind!

Yeah, kind of complicated but it's explained rather well. My problem with the book was that it took a long time to read. There was a lot of descriptive language and while nice as it was, sometimes it ran a little too long. For the last several chapters I was skimming the words to find out what was happening, so I might have missed a few details here and there, but I did catch onto quite a bit and it was all just shocking! 

Cordelia has an entire past she needs to remember involving people and it's hard to figure out who in this time and life she can trust. The characters were fabulous and well-rounded, didn't have a problem with any there, again the pacing was my main problem. While it could have been a really excellent novel there was just too much extra words in the way of the action. It kind of detracted from what was happening at times.

Overall rating then is 3/5, the pacing is what really brought the book down for me, but it was still a very interesting read.

This was another .99 read on my Kindle if you feel up to reading it! Click here to purchase.

Betrayal was also apart of my 2011 Debut Author Challenge

Waiting on Wednesday

                              I hate waiting...

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog post by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights releases we're eagerly awaiting.

My next book I can't wait to read is Jenna Black's newest series Dark Descendant! Of course when I went out of town this past Friday, I missed some blog posts and one was over at the Deadline Dames where Jenna totally fooled me into thinking that this book along with Sirensong weren't going to be published anymore! She really had me going! I didn't even take in the address completely because I was so in shock! 

From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.
 
Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . . . Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy. But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . .
 

TITLE: Dark Descendant
AUTHOR: Jenna Black
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2011

*Review--Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter*

Don’t miss this spectacular new series that will steal your heart and haunt your dreams, Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen…

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

**Yuppers, I had me a 1-day read!!

C.C. Hunter's debut Born at Midnight was fan-tab-u-lous! Totally blew me away! For some reason I really connect with books that focus on childhood friendships lasting or not lasting due to outer circumstances. Basically what I mean is that Lucas was a childhood friend of Kylie that we learn about early on, and it really just kind of hit me in the personal sense because I've been there, several several times, yet I don't get to see these friends ever again. I guess I envy these fictional protagonists that get to see their BFF.

So that's what really drew me deep into the story and fell in love with it. The supernatural camp part was exciting too. And what's even more thrilling are all the secrets going on with the storyline. Such as Kylie doesn't know "what" she is. But everyone's sure she has to be supernatural due to her brain patterns not being the norm of humans, either she's a supernatural, has a brain tumor or she's going crazy and frankly Kylie isn't sure what she wants it to be.

Kylie has a lot to deal with expecting the supernatural at her time, plus her parents are getting a divorce, she's seeing "things" and then there's the complication of two guys at camp. One a fae who seems to be very interested in her and the other is her childhood friend who has a troubling past of his own.

Then when there are problems arising at the camp and it's a possibility that it might be shut down, Kylie and her new friends will have to work together to solve the mystery! Not quite Scooby-Doo, but still very interesting. And I love how I knew more about Della thanks to the short freebie story, it really helps to know the full backstory. And there is definitely much more to learn about Shadow Falls camp and its residents!

Sooooo looking forward to the next one Awake at Dawn coming October 11, 2011--way too long of a wait!

Overall rating 5/5 stars

This book was apart of my 2011 Debut Author Challenge

Review--My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

Teenager Alice Bonham's life feels crazy after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave, he's unlike anyone she knows. Then she meets his brother, Peter. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him. Falling for two guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood.

Amanda Hocking's My Blood Approves is sort of a Vampire Diaries meets Twilight. There's vampire family love, there's two irresistible vampire bros the girl is caught between and yet it was still a rather good read! As you know I'm not really a Twilight fan, but I wasn't disgusted or annoyed with this book at all.

Some parts were a little "eye-roll-y", but that can happen with any book when something eye-roll worthy occurs. Basically here the story goes that Alice finds herself falling for Jack the vampire and once she finally learns that he's a vamp still wants to be with him. 

Yet there is some strange connection between her and Peter, his vampire bro and yet Peter doesn't seem to want her. There's still a connection between them that even he acknowledges, but tries to deny.

The storyline is kind of simple and sometimes predictable as teen vampire romance goes, but again it was still enjoyable. And the ending, while not cliffhanger like, still leaves you wondering what choices Alice will have to make. Sure, some were made here in the first book, but you know that's not the end. Especially with 3 other books in the series. I definitely will have to add these to my Kindle as soon as I get my TBR pile down a few books!

Overall rating 3.5/5 stars

You can read this book on Amazon Kindle for only .99!! What a deal!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly blog post by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

Reading My Blood Approves and it's pretty interesting so far. Kind of a Vampire Diaries meets Twilight without being vastly annoying!

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a page

3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE

4. Name the title, author, etc.

"'We don't want anything with you.' He bit his lip and looked over at me. 'We just want you to be one of us.'"

TITLE: My Blood Approves
AUTHOR: Amanda Hocking
GENRE: YA Paranormal
RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2010

Cover art--Lili St. Crow

The electric finale in New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow’s Strange Angels series!

Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She’s battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a fullfledged svetocha—rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires—the worst is yet to come. Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she’s ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?

DRU ANDERSON’S NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK. BUT SHE SHOULD BE.

Reckoning releases November 1, 2011! Sooo can't wait! And Defiance isn't even out yet, at least here in the US.

It's Monday! What are you Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Read:

One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen

My Review

Possessions by Nancy Holder

My Review

Sacrifice by Dakota Banks

My Review

Intertwined by Gena Showalter

My Review

Ascension by Sable Grace

(Review Posted)

My Review

Currently Reading:

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

What I Plan to Read this Week:

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

Betrayal by Mayandree Michel

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Unraveled by Gena Showalter

Other Posts of Interest:

I'm Back!

Cover Art--4 titles

**I might be over-estimating how much I'll get done this week, but this is what I'll attempt to read!

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly blog post hosted by Kirsti over at The Story Siren and inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

A decent week for books I'd say!

Last Sunday I hit another closing Borders and relooked over their bargains and found one, but since it was a second book in the series I had to go to another store and buy the first book!

Allyson James' Stormwalker and Firewalker! I ended up getting the second one for $3.50! And I had a coupon for the other so that was a deal to, it came out 2 for 1 at regular price!

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter! This took a little digging to find. I went on Thursday after it released and it wasn't on the shelf, so after asking for help the sales assistant found a copy in back! Yay!

Then in Maria V. Snyder's book trivia contest--which I always enter and am somehow always the first one to enter, since Magic Study! I got a SIGNED After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar copy of , an anthology of miscellaneous tales by different authors. Think Canterbury Tales!

Then I also downloaded an e-book onto my Kindle: Betrayal by Mayandree Michel. This was only .99 cents!

This is another Greek mythology themed YA book!! So can't wait to read it!

And while not a book or immensely book-related I also bought 2 necklaces from Etsy shops, Bella Lili created the smaller one layered over the larger one with beads, and Cemetery Cat created the pentagram one! I saw them both and just fell in love with them! I had to have them!

And that was my fabulous mailbox this week! What did you get?!

Top 5 Sundays

Top 5 Sundays is a weekly blog meme created by Larissa at Larissa's Bookish Life.

Here's a little info about the meme taken from Larissa's blog:

Every Sunday I will post a TOP 5 list on the blog. It can be about anything and every week I'll have a new theme {You can vote on next week’s theme on my left sidebar!} and I will ad the Mr.Linky bellow the post so you can do a list with the theme and add you link to it.

Rules:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week's topic is: FAVE PARANORMAL YA SERIES

*In no particular order

Completed Series

The Forbidden Game trilogy by L.J. Smith

My FAVE L.J. Smith series!

Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

The Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong

The Guardians of Time trilogy by Marianne Curley

The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith

To me this series is now completed since L.J. won't be writing them anymore! :(

ON-GOING SERIES

The Demon Trappers by Jana Oliver

Gods and Monsters by Kelly Keaton

The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

13 to Life by Shannon Delany (Anyone surprised?)

Cover Art--4 Titles

Saw some cover art that I just had to post to reshare! So can't wait to read these books!

The first is Jeanne Stein's Crossroads which releases August 30th

Then there's Cheyenne McCray's Vampires Dead Ahead which releases November 29th

Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide by Michelle Rowen with Richelle Mead! This is like the first companion type book or whatever that I so desperately want to read!! This one releases November 15th

Now just for another cover that I saw that I thought was strange/funny I guess. I never understand how the same cover or elements of one cover can be used for another book entirely, but here it is:

I've been wanting to read Lisa Cach's Wake Unto Me, but have yet to find it in stores, when I saw Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale by Christine Warren up at Larissa's blog and thought hey...that looks familiar! Not that I'm angry or anything, I just never quite understand how aspects of the same cover art can be used for more than one title. I guess it's just the artist's dealio. Whatever they decide to do. 

I do find it funny that the same embracing couple is used on both YA and adult. Cool how on the adult they got the guy to look not ghosty!

You have to look pretty close with them next to each other to see that they're the same, but I caught it pretty quickly cause I'm trying to track down Wake Unto Me!

I'm Back!

I'm back from Dayton, Ohio and pretty wiped and yet still energized! It was a looong trip with traffic jams both ways at one point, but it was a very fun trip!

I got to see Maria V. Snyder, Julie Kagawa, and Mara Purnhagen, plus 3 other debut authors there and it was most enjoyable!

Maria was actually "voted" to do the into and it was very last minute kind of thing, but she did a very good job at winging it!

I wore my specialized Maria shirt! It has a very famous quote by Janco on the front and the back says Maria's Study Hall--for when I got it those were her published books! And Julie loved it!

Afterwards Maria and I, along with my mom who drove me{because despite being 23 years old I look like I'm in high school! A shop owner even asked me if I was on spring break shopping and I was like, nooo,I have my degree but am job hunting right now. So yeah, kinda needed someone else to make this trip with}--who's the coolest mom ever!, all went out for drinks and chatted for awhile! 

It was a really fun night and I totally enjoyed it! It made the long drive and quick trip totally worth it because not only did I get to hang out with Maria again, but I got to meet other GREAT authors too!

Review--E-ARC Ascension by Sable Grace

The gates of hell have opened, and one woman will stand in the crossfire as the Dark Breed -- vampyre, demons, shape shifters -- and mankind fight their last battle for survival.

Kyana is half Vampyre, half Lychen...and the last of her kind. Determined, dangerous, and damned, she has no love for the mortals who have imprisoned and misused her. But when the Order of Ancients entrusts her with a mission -- to find the key that will send the Dark Breed back into Hell for eternity -- Kyana has no choice but to accept.

She is furious to learn her assignment comes with an escort. . . Ryker, a demigod and fierce warriour who long ago found a way under her skin and stayed there. In a shaky alliance, they discover an ancient cult with dangerous motives and a god who seeks to destroy all others. And as Kyana begins to feel the heat that threatens to bind her to Ryker, she knows she has to resist. For it could only mean the undoing of them both...

I received this E-ARC from NetGalley for review.

Sable Grace's debut, Ascension is quite an interesting read! The heroine has sass and wit plus attitude which is how I like my heroine. She's not timid or docile. She's tough as nails and strong and knows exactly what she wants.

What made me like this book a lot was the Greek mythology weaved into the story again. 2 books in 1 year, who would've thought?! This is not a world we are totally familiar with, it's still Earth but at a different time where the gods are ruling, but there is an entirely different set of rules involved. There are bad guys as well who are supernatural creatures. It took some time to adjust to the new world setting but it was still rather interesting. 

And of course I loved the Scooby-Doo reference that popped up and I used in a past teaser! Scooby and Scrappy were even mentioned a few paragraphs later!

Despite the complexities of the world, the plot was simple enough. Find the key to lock the gate to stop the monster and other bad things from escaping. But to do that Kyana must work with Ryker, her sort of old flame. There is some past between them and it didn't end happily so Kyana isn't too thrilled to be working with him again.

It was told in third person p.o.v. and the switch from being behind Kyana's shoulder to Ryker's was compelling. It allowed you to see what they each thought of one another, the feelings deeply buried inside them. And when the danger starts striking the ones Kyana cares for most in the world she is willing to do anything to save them.

Overall it was an interesting read. I will admit to having my mind wander a little bit here and there, but I think it came from being in a completely new world than what I'm used to. And it ended with a sort of unfinished-business-in-some-ways cliffhanger, so I will likely look into the next book as well.

My rating then is a 3.5/5 stars! A truly great read for a debut author!

OUT OF TOWN

On the road now to Ohio for the Harlequin Teen Tour stop in Ohio, so I won't be participating in the Blogger Hops this week. I'll be back some time Saturday, so I will still have my Sunday posts up on time!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!