Random Thursday

Okay, when you start to watch Disney movies as many times as I do, you start to analyze them in ways that are not meant to be!

True, it is Disney and one must just accept it, but there are times when I cannot help myself! It's usually around the 100th viewing or so! ;) 

Note, if you haven't seen this movie, I am about to head into SPOILER territory!

Okay, so in The Princess and the Frog, Tiana kisses Prince Naveen as a frog and gets turned into one herself because she is not a princess. Yet, at the time, she was dressed like one. So she was "pretending" to be one. And the spell decided not to work.

Yet near the end, when Tiana's friend Charlotte is "pretending" to be a princess, because her father is King of the Mardi Gras parade, Mama Odie says the spell will be broken. If Charlotte kisses Naveen before midnight, ending Mardi Gras.

To me, that just didn't make sense. Charlotte and Tiana were both basically pretending to be princesses at the time, yet only Charlotte's kiss would break the spell? What's up with that?

I guess, while doing further analyzing, Tiana never really called herself a princess when dressed as she was. But because Charlotte's dad was "King" of the Mardi Gras parade, she was automatically a "princess".

Regardless it doesn't really make all that much sense. But in the long run, if Tiana's kiss would've worked, then we wouldn't have had a movie!

Review--Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…


OMFREAKINGG! Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! I finished reading Jennifer Armentrout's Onyx and yeah, I can definitely say that I am in love with this series! And naturally, in love with Daemon! So this review will be filled with definite gushing over this book!

I think the best part of this series is Katy. Katy is without a doubt my favorite YA heroine, because I feel like I can relate to her. Yeah, she's 18, I'm 25, but I see my 18 year old self in her. Granted I didn't start blogging until 4 years ago, but I was still an avid reader!

But what I love about Katy is her overall attitude. She doesn't take Daemon's crap, she fights back with her own sarcasm and wit. She's a perfect match to Daemon. And of course she has her inner doubting, Daemon has been acting a little too nice lately, and she believes it is due to their connection that they realized last time. She doesn't really believe that he wants her in the romantic sense. Feelings I would totally have too, if I were in the same position. She's realistic!

Daemon, wow, yeah, there's too much to say about Daemon, hell I could've used his character a few years ago on one of my many long paged papers from college. As I mentioned just above, Daemon is changing his behavior, but just a bit. He wants Katy, true, but he actually listens to her--just a little--and tries to prove that he wants to be with her by doing nice things for her.

My favorite act would be when he "helps" Katy do her IMM vlog. He was freaking hilarious and I was biting my lip so I wouldn't LOL here in the office! He made some rather interesting comments on the covers and why one dude just looks so douche-y...or something like that! Totally LOL moment for sure! And the comments Katy received on that post were amazing too!

The romance here is budding, but there's more to the story than that. There's a new boy in town, Blake--and omg I seriously just had to go look it up in the book because my mind blanked, and it soooo didn't help that Daemon refused to say his name right. Yeah, we're talking Biff, Bradley, Bart...and a whole lot of another names and some that were just very unique. Gotta love Daemon. But back to Blake, he's the new boy in town and has taken an interest in Katy and Katy feels some attraction to him too. The two make attempts at dating, but Katy cannot help but feel like she's missing something from this growing relationship. But as it turns out, Blake has his own secrets.

What amazes me is how some of the plot threads are so similar to Roswell (the TV show)! And I don't mean that in a bad way. It's like the series was slightly inspired by it or something. Yet here we are in book 2, and Katy is dealing with some of the same things Liz was dealing with, but in the middle of season 3, the final season. Katy has been developing strange abilities that are chalked up to her being healed by Daemon, sound familiar? Then there's also the DOD that constantly hounds Daemon and his sister and other Lux friends, well, Roswell had Agent Pierce in the special unit of the FBI. See, similarities, yet nothing that says this is a ripoff of Roswell. I actually LOVE that these two are similar because I adored Roswell and was shattered when it ended with three seasons--although there were four media tie in books that showed us their travels for a bit. Still not enough. But the danger and intensity of these two separate series are both incredibly high.

There's also some other surprises throughout the book and tons of laughs! But the surprises were nice and naturally there were some freaking shockers. Another great enjoyment came from reading a special scene at the end in Daemon's pov! Love being inside his head sometimes! Another part I enjoyed that I LOL'd on was when Dee, Katy, Adam, and Ash went to the movies the Luxen had their array of junk food. Dee dips her candy bar into the nacho cheese, gross right? Katy thought so. But it made me laugh because my friend did this in high school with her Snickers bar and she did say it was good. But yeah, she's not a Lux either!

Onyx was an incredibly fast paced read that I devoured way too quickly. The ending wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. True it was a cliffhanger, but not the "oh holy heck how am I going to get through the next year without a new edition to this series" kind of drama. There were some shocking surprises at the end too, both pleasant and not so pleasant. Luckily, Opal is in my bag and ready to go as soon as I finish up here. But the final ending was still shocking and it's definitely going to have a part in Opal. I don't even need to check to know that!

If you're already into this series, then we all know how incredibly awesome this book was. Especially for Katy. But if you haven't read this series, I strongly urge you to do so! I so love this series and cannot believe I waited so long to read it, having already adored Jennifer's Covenant series. The Lux books are friggin' fan-tab-u-lous! Yup, so amazingly awesome that it needs its own word!

And now I must share two quotes that stood out to me that I have to share here. They were the book blogger related ones and the reader/blogger in me squealed in delight with them:

"I grabbed a bookmark off the coffee table and shoved it in the book. Dog-eared pages were Antichrist of book lovers everywhere"  --Truer words have never been spoken!

"With the sun setting outside, I wrote a quick review for Monday and then a longer one for Tuesday. The longer one was because I couldn't stop gushing. I think I had a new book boyfriend and his name was Tod. Yumtastic."  --There's only one Tod that I know that can be called Yumtastic! Yay!


Overall rating 5/5 stars

Time for a Random Moment...

Okay, so I just got home, put on ABC Family because That 70s Show repeats are on and I like that show! It's background chatter to fill the empty house.

So I watch a bit of ABC Family, because Boy Meets World repeats are on in the morning while I get ready for work. And all week long, well late last week and so far several times everyday so far of this week, I have been seeing previews for the network premiere of Twilight.

And as you all may know, I am not a Twilight fan. So there's a lot of eyerolling going on and sometimes I hit the mute button, but sometimes I am too far from my remote and too absorbed in my blogging to get up and mute it. But every time it comes on and they show clipped "moments", I usually burst out laughing because I am thinking of the movie Vampires Suck. And particularly when that movie was making fun of that scene from Twilight!

Just had to share because I cannot get it out of my head every time I see the commercial. Vampires Suck was definitely one of my favorite movies from 2010! Can't believe it's over 2 years old already! Highly recommend it if you're not really a Twilight fan, I thought this does a great parody of the first two Twilight movies. And of course there's other media entertainment in it, like Buffy, Lady Gaga, Alice in Wonderland...and more!


Stay tuned for a review of Onyx!

House Rules Blog Tour

Welcome to this stop on Chloe Neill's House Rules blog tour!!

In a city full of vampires, trouble never sleeps.

At the tender age of 27, Merit became a sword-wielding vampire. Since then, she’s become the protector of her House, watched Chicago nearly burn to the ground, and seen her Master fall and rise. Now she’ll see her mettle—and her metal —tested like never before.

It started with two . . . Two rogues vanishing without a trace. Someone is targeting Chicago’s vampires, and anyone could be next. With their house in peril, Merit and her Master, the centuries old Ethan Sullivan, must race to stop the disappearances. But as they untangle a web of secret alliances and ancient evils, they realize their foe is more familiar, and more powerful, than they could have ever imagined.

For my review of House Rules, click here.

Here is Chloe's special quote for the tour on my blog:

You can pick up your own copy of House Rules at these booksellers: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, Book Depository.

What's up for grabs in this awesome Blog Tour? Check it out:

Prize One: The Paper Prize

• A complete set of autographed Chicagoland Vampires novels
• A $50 gift card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble (winner’s choice)
• A set of personalized bookplates, courtesy of Felix Doolittle
• A Chicagoland Vampires tote bag

Prize Two: The Tech Prize

• A set of Chicagoland Vampires audiobook CDs (Books 1-6), courtesy of Tantor Audio
• A $50 gift card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble (winner’s choice)
• A Chicagoland Vampires tote bag

Both prize packages will include plenty of Chicagoland Vampires and Dark Elite swag, including bookmarks, stickers, pencils, or other goodies (as supplies last) 
 

For a complete list of the blogs participating check out Chloe's website.

Also up for grabs on my blog is this fabulous swag pack:

A Chicagoland Vampires Tote bag

Biting Cold and House Rules bookmarks

A Chicagoland Vampires Pen

An "I Survived Hard Bitten" button

A SIGNED copy of Biting Cold!

Unfortunately this contest has to be US only, sorry about that! But I do have 3 other contests running, one is run by Jess Haines and I am not 100% on that one if it's international, but the other two are, as long as TBD ships to you, so be sure to check those out! To enter to this contest fill out the Rafflecopter form!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.

What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America?

It's time to kick some hellion butt...

After not really surviving her junior year (after all, she did die), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to the find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity and the rest on each other. And so she–and her gang–make plans to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.

But then she meets Wrath. And Kaylee realizes that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. Especially when one more person she loves is taken...


OOooh I soooooo cannot wait to read this finale!! Yay Tod!!


TITLE: With All My Soul
AUTHOR: Rachel Vincent
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
GENRE: YA Paranormal
RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2013