My Goals: 31 Days of Halloween Event!

31 Days of Halloween
MY GOALS for 31 Days of Halloween Event:
31 Days of Halloween

I've already started reading for this already and I'm having so much fun creeping myself out!  Here are my overly ambitious goals.  I'm hoping to get lots of reading done this weekend because I'm sick and will probably lay in bed both days.  

Books I have out from the library already (Crossed out means I read it this week):
1. Alice in Zombieland
2. Bad Girls Don't Die
3. Girl of Nightmares
4. Sweet Evil
5. Ten
6. The Body Finder
7. The Summoning
8. The Unquiet
9. Vampire Academy
10.Velveteen
11. Xile
12. 666 Park Avenue

If somehow I finish all those:
1. Posess
2. The Ghost of Graylock
3. This is not a Test
4. The Devouring

If I missed a really good scary book let me know. 
 I usually don't read this genre so it's possible I've missed a lot.    


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Waiting on Wednesday #14

Waiting on Wednesday




Bloggers feature books that they are eagerly anticipating to be published.






Goodreads Summary 

There is no cure for being stung.

Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered—her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right hand—a black oval with five marks on either side—that she doesn’t remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. She’s right.

Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded while a select few live protected inside a fortress-like wall, their lives devoted to rebuilding society and killing all who bear the mark.

Now Fiona has awakened branded, alone—and on the wrong side of the wall.



Release date:  April 2, 2013

Why I am excited:  
This isn't usually something I'd be so excited about, but something about it really stands out to me.  I think because the cover is so unique and creepy.  And the fact the the character is waking up with no idea what happened and we will have to go on the journey to figure things out with her.  What do you guys think?
While you're here why don't you check out my review of


{Review} The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

4 Stars


Title: The Book of Blood and Shadow
Author: Robin Wasserman
Number of Pgs. 448
Publication date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Genre: YA
How I got the copy: Library


From Goodreads:

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. 

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.


I've been using a new way of reviewing that I saw over at Making the Grade.  It breaks the book down and makes it easier to rate.  The way it works is each category gets a score out of ten points.  Then you add them all up + 50 (50% automatically for each book) and that's your score out of 100.

Plot 7/10: The beginning was so boring I almost DNFed (did not finish) it.  I got to page 40 and was going to return it to the library.  I figured before I made any rash decisions I'd see what Giselle thought over at Xpresso Reads(her review can be found below).  I'm so glad I read her review because it made me decide to keep reading.  She said that around page 100 things start getting good and she was right.  Around pg 100 it's like a whole other book.  So much excitement and mystery.  It reminded me of a mix of Pretty Little Liars and The Divinci Code.  The plot twisted and turned so much I was never right when I tried to guess what would happen next.  The ending was insane.  I hope this becomes a movie.  Also, is there a sequel?

Characters 7/10: I love when a story provides characters that you can't trust.  I couldn't figure out who was the bad guy.  Unfortunately, this was more of a plot driven story though so I don't have much to say about the characters.  They didn't really go through any personal changes.  I love books that have characters with depth so that made me lower my rating a lot.  

Setting 8/10: I loved reading about Prouge and it's dark side.  Nora's hometown made the story feel more real because we got to know the characters before they went to a foreign country.

Pacing 4/10: I almost fell asleep in the first third of the book.  But when the action started I didn't want to stop reading.

Style 4/10: I'm all for foreign languages.  I minored in Spanish for fun.  But the Latin, Chzec, and Hebrew every few pages was too much for me at times.  I do give the author credit for writing what sounded like letters from Elizabeth's time period though.  And she must have done a lot of research for her book to be so believable.  But the actual overall writing style didn't impress me much.

Final Thoughts: If you can get through the first 100 pages without giving up you won't be sorry.  This book has mystery, adventure, and a touch of romance.  I don't think I'll ever read it again, but I'm  so glad I got it from the library.
Total: 80/100 
 
“You don't even realize you're living in a before until you wake up one day and find yourself in an after.” 
― Robin Wasserman, The Book of Blood and Shadow

“I believed in happily ever after as much as anyone, because Jane Austen, Prince Charming, and Hugh Grant promised me it could happen. 
But maybe that particular delusion was universal.” 
― Robin Wasserman, The Book of Blood and Shadow



   

Teaser Tuesday #7/Top Ten Tuesday#14

Teaser Tuesday



Miz B. from Should Be Reading


Each week bloggers share a few lines of the book they are currently reading.  No Spoilers please!

This weekend I took a 4 hr trip to NY and read Sweet Evil the entire time.  It made the time fly by it was such a good book.

"What do you want from me Kai?"

 "For Starters?" His voice lowered to sexy, dangerous depths.  "I want to introduce myself to every freckle on your body."

A powerful shiver ripped through me.

-Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

I'll be posting a review later in the week.


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http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com/ 

Brokeandbookish provides a topic each week and bloggers list their top ten within that category.


Top Ten Older Books I Don't Want People to Forget About:
(I'm only doing 5 this week)


1. Sloppy Firsts- I could read this series 100 times and never get bored of it.  The humor always has me laughing out loud.  I wasn't blogging when this book came out so I never really got a chance to talk about it with anyone.

 2. Can You Keep a Secret- I really want to reread this book.  It was so silly and fun.  I remember reading it a million times before I discovered blogging and new books lol.

3. Leaving Paradise- I read this series in a day.  I hope everyone reads Simone Elekes sometime in their life.  She's amazing.

 4. The Other Boy- Really anything by Hailey Abbott is great.  I don't ever hear anyone talk about her books and I always thought they were great when I was younger.

 5. Lock and Key- This is one of my favorite books by Sarah Dessen.  It came out a few years ago, but I've already read it many times.  I love that her books don't have to focus on romance and they can still be so powerful.



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 While you're here don't forget to check out 
my first ever event!

October Event: 31 Days of Halloween

Paranormal

Every year I get more and more excited about Halloween.  This year I decided it would be fun to read all scary books leading up to the big day!  That is why I'm starting an event for the month of October for anyone to join.  All you have to do is set a goal of what scary, creepy, or paranormal books you plan to read this month and post your progress in a separate post or in your Stacking the Shelves/Sunday Post every week.  Here's what else will be involved:

-A U.S. giveaway (with the winner announced on Halloween)
-An interview/guest post with a paranormal author
-Twitter Party Oct. 21, 2012 12pm

-Themed posts:
*Scary books vs. movies
*Halloween recipes
*On a Scale of not scary-peeing your pants chart

I'm still looking for a cohost so if anyone is interested in helping me come up with more ideas and running this let me know (harleybearbookblog@gmail.com).  This is my first event so I'm very excited and scared at the same time.

Here are some books I'm considering for my goal.  Any suggestions?




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