Bout of Books Challenge - Bookish Survey

Good morning everyone! Welcome to Day 1 of Bout of Books!

Lori from Writing My Own Fairy Tale is hosting a giveaway today and the first Bout of Books challenge --- a survey! I do love surveys. 

1. How do you organize your shelves? 

Well since 90% of my books are on Kindle, I don't have too much of an organization issue. I have physical copies of my absolute favorite books and they are organized in the most boring way ever -- by size.

2. What is one of your favorite books that is not one of your favorite genres?

Good question! My favorite genre is YA Contemporary and my favorite outside of that genre is a mystery and thriller. It is You: A Novel by Caroline Kepnes. I LOVED this book so, so much!!

3. What is the last 5 star book you read? 

Just this morning, I finished Cress by Marissa Meyer. Holy crap, I love that series and can't believe I have to wait for November for the conclusion.

4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon?

Now that I have finished Cress, I am very excited to read Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. I loved All The Rage and this one gets great reviews as well.

5. What book do you recommend the most?

Hands down, one of my favorite books is Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read! 

What was your last 5 star read? What book are you most excited to read next (whether you are participating in the read-a-thon or not)?

Musing Mondays: Book to TV Adaptation of Wayward Pines Trilogy

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! This is when we speak about bookish rants or issues, among other things.

For this week's topic, I am talking about the book to TV adaptation of the Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch.

First of all, please tell me someone has read this series besides me?? It is seriously amazing. I read all three books in about two days. During the last book, I actually had to put the book down for a few minutes because my heart was pounding so fast from all the action. True story. But I couldn't put it down for too long because I had to know how it ended. 

Here is the synopsis from the first book: Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.


How excited was I when I learned it would become a mini series on Fox?? Ummm, there are no words.  I may or may not have done some serious squealing . . . mostly may. I think 

The series premiers this Thursday, May 14. Because I am a Hulu subscriber, I got to watch the premier early. I actually saw it a couple of weeks ago.

I really enjoyed the first season. I know that it may take a few episodes to do some sufficient world building, but the first episode did a great job of showing how creepy the town is. It has a very creepy, Twilight Zone type vibe. Matt Dillon did a great job of conveying his confusion. The first book was hella confusing for me as the reader too. So much going on, so much craziness. And the whole time, I am thinking: what the hell is up with this town??

Melissa Leo is excellent as Nurse Pam. My husband mentioned that he disliked her character and she seemed annoying. My response? She's supposed to be! She is perky and kind of resembles a Stepford wife, only the husband is the crazy cult like town. 

I am loving the casting choices so far, especially Juliette Lewis as Beverly and Carla Gugino as Kate. I am not sure how I feel about Shannyn Sossamon as Ethan's wife. She is not familiar to me at all. I am kind of lukewarm about her acting and I am not sure how much chemistry she will have with Ethan. But then again, she only had a handful of scenes in the first episode and it may be a while before she interacts with Matt Dillon. So I will give her a chance.

They are doing a great job with this show so far and I can't wait to see the mystery unfold!

Have you read this series? Will you be watching the show?

Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London!

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend. My husband and I had an amazing trip to London last week, but it was also a bit exhausting. So we are taking it easy this weekend.

One of my favorite things we did was visit the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Of course it was just a replica since the original was demolished by the Puritans in the 1600's. Damn Puritans!

We did go to the original site of the Shakespeare Globe, where they have a plaque to commemorate it.











They did an awesome job of replicating the theatre. There was an open roof and a very minimalistic stage.

When buying the tickets, you could choose the standing seats in the yard or sitting in the theatre. We chose to buy seats. There were wooden benches so renting cushions was vital. Even with the cushions though, it was tough. It did start to rain a bit during the performance though, which made me happy I was in the seats. We had a roof over our section and were pretty well protected. I didn't even know it was raining until I saw the people in the yard pull up their ponchos. The people standing were pretty dedicated fans. Not only did they stand for the entire duration of the play (three hours), but they dealt with the rain. I'm sorry, I do love Shakespeare but I also like to sit and I like to be dry.

We were also able to see Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Globe. Seeing a play at the Globe has been on my bucket list for the longest time. I'll be honest: Romeo and Juliet is not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I think I liked it more when I was in high school and actually believed in things like love at first sight and soul mates.

Nevertheless, the actors were amazing and it was so easy to get caught up in the emotions of it all. The play was so bare bones. There were so special props or sets. It was a very small traveling group of actors. A couple of actors even played more than one role. They all did such an amazing job. My husband managed to sneak some pictures of the play. They allowed you to take pictures of the theatre before the show and during Intermission, but not during the plays.

The picture on the left is from the balcony scene.

The one on the right is the scene where Mercutio is killed. I absolutely loved the actor of Mercutio. I know that Romeo is supposed to be the star, but every time he was on stage I was drawn to him. His comedic timing and his delivery were impeccable.

Seeing a Shakespeare play like this was so magical. There are no words to describe how amazing the experience was. This is how Shakespeare was meant to be seen!










Have you ever been to a Shakespeare play? How was your week?

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where we show off books we recently added to our TBR list or books we recently purchased, borrowed, etc.

So much for my temporary book buying ban to get my TBR under control. It wasn't my fault though! Well . . . it wasn't all my fault.

A very good friend got me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. And once I started buying, I couldn't stop!

Here are the books I bought:

Unteachable by Leah Raeder - Black Iris was one of my favorite books this year. I am so excited to read more of Raeder's stuff.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers - After reading All The Rage, I knew I needed to read more of her work.

Scarlett and Cress by Marissa Meyer - I read Cinder a few months ago and I NEED to read the other books in this series. Love it!

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

Alice and the Fly by James Rice - This is 1000% because of Cait from Paper Fury. Her review made me want to buy this IMMEDIATELY!! I had just used up my gift card money, read her review, and promptly bought it. And then I just couldn't stop.

P.S. I have read it already and LOVED IT!!

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - So many great reviews of this one!!

Little Peach by Peggy Kern

While in London, I also made a purchase, but this one was a hardcover.

I bought The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson. I am not really sure why this one has not received more press because the premise is kind of awesome. 

Here is the Goodreads synopsis: Two boys. Two secrets. David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long

Have you acquired any new books this week?

BOOK REVIEW: At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

This is a book review for At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Madeline Hyde, a young socialite from Philadelphia, reluctantly follows her husband and their best friend to the tiny village of Drumnadrochit in search of a mythical monster—at the same time that a very real monster, Hitler, wages war against the Allied Forces. What Maddie discovers—about the larger world and about herself—through the unlikely friendships she develops with the villagers, opens her eyes not only to the dark forces that exist around her but to the beauty and surprising possibilities.

There were several things I liked about this book. I loved the prologue. The book starts in 1942 when a young woman loses her baby. A few days later, she receives word that her husband died in the war. The prologue ends with the young woman walking into the Loch and killing herself. Chapter One begins Madeline's story and takes place three years later. I was a bit confused as to what the prologue had to do with Madeline's story. It took me a bit to connect with Madeline. At first, I kind of hated both Madeline and her husband, Ellis. They were spoiled and entitled. Ellis's parents were rich and they lived with them. As far as I could tell, neither one of them had any skills or any plans to work at all. I know that back then, the women rarely worked anyway. But even Ellis didn't have any job prospects. His parents gave them an allowance, for crying out loud. They spent all their time drinking and partying. It was all very frivolous and silly. After a party where Maddy and Ellis get quite drunk and humiliate themselves, Ellis gets in a huge fight with his parents and they kick him out. It is at this point that Maddy, Ellis, and their best friend, Hank, decide to go to the Scottish Highlands in search of the Loch Ness monster. 

Another reason why I loved this book was the setting of Scotland. I loved Sara Gruen's descriptions. She made the Highlands seem both beautiful and desolate. I loved the castles and the lakes and the small town village. I actually liked the people who worked at the small inn and lived at the village more than I liked Maddy, Ellis and Hank. Despite the premise and their desire to find this monster, that search actually turned out to be a secondary plot to Maddy's character development. Ellis spent most of this time searching for this monster with Hank, leaving Maddy at the inn alone. It isn't until about halfway through the book that the connection between the prologue and Maddy's story becomes clearer. It is at this point that I also started feeling somewhat more connected to Maddy and I actually started liking her. I did think the author would insert random war statistics in the story that didn't make a lot of sense or have anything to do with the story. There were a few air raids in the book and there was a lot of talk about food rationing, but other than that, they seemed pretty far removed from the war. I also thought the ending was wrapped up a bit too neatly for my taste. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow. It took me a while for me to connect with the main characters, but it was still an enjoyable read.

BOOK REVIEW: Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

This is a book review for Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt. It is the first book in the Once Upon A Crime Family series. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is May 19, 2015.

In Penelope Landlow's world, almost anything can be bought or sold. She's the daughter of one of the three crime families controlling the black market for organ transplants. Because of an autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise easily, Penny is considered too "delicate" to handle the family business, or even to step foot outside their estate. All Penelope has ever wanted is independence-until she's suddenly thrust into the dangerous world all alone, forced to stay one step ahead of her family's enemies. As she struggles to survive the power plays of rival crime families, she learns dreams come with casualties, betrayal hurts worse than bruises, and there's nothing she won't risk for the people she loves. 

I had heard mixed reviews on this one so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was excited to read a novel about the black market business of organ transplants. Unfortunately, this book wasn't really about that. Other than some vague talk about the political ramifications of the Organ Act being debated in Congress, there really wasn't a lot of other political stuff or crime stuff talked about. For the first five or six chapters, I was a bit bored with this book. Not a lot happened. We met Penelope and learned she is suffering from an autoimmune disorder (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura) that causes her to bruise and bleed very easily. I did feel bad for Penny because her parents were so afraid to hurt her that they never even hugged her. Other than that, she was a hard character to root for. She struck me as very whiny and impulsive. She kept whining about her family leaving her out of the Family business, but she kept making stupid decisions. Because of Penny's condition and because of how her family treats her, Penny (and also the reader) are completely left out of the politics and crime part of the business. The one time that she was allowed into a meeting about the business, she started daydreaming five minutes in and didn't stop until the meeting was over. How on earth did she expect to be taken seriously when she couldn't even pay attention to a simple meeting? For the first part of the book, she was also attracted to Garrett, her brother's best friend. I was kind of ambivalent about this romance. They did seem to have chemistry. but I just wasn't invested in it. Then she makes the stupid decision to run away with him. They had not even shared a kiss yet, just a couple of almost kisses. Yet, she was willing to run away with him and leave her family. She was willing to do this despite the fact that her condition required regular medical care. 

Almost halfway through the book, a tragedy strikes Penelope and her family. I won't give any major spoilers, but this is about the point the action picked up. There were tons of questions about who was behind it and who Penny could really trust. This caused Penny to go into hiding. But after a few chapters, the action slowed down again. Penny was running for her life, yet she continued to make impulsive decisions. Then she meets Charlie (or "Char," as she calls him) and I had to keep my eye rolling to a minimum. She literally runs into him and suddenly they are in love with each other and can't live without each other. She starts dating him, even though two chapters before that she was willing to run away with Garrett. I also had an issue with her waiting around to be rescued. Garrett had no idea where she was, but she just sat down and waited for him to find her. That attitude bugged me. Despite the fact that I hated the insta-love, I still found myself liking Char more than Garrett. Maybe it was the flirting or maybe it was the fact that he didn't know about her condition so he didn't treat her like she was fragile. I usually hate love triangles, but it was really hard to call this a love triangle when she was only having contact with one of the men. There was a secret about Char that I had guessed about two days into their relationship. I did not guess some of the other stuff though. After several slow chapters where Penny and Char are falling even more in love and Penny conveniently forgets she is supposed to be in hiding, the action picks up yet again. I kind of loved the last few chapters because they were so dramatic. I know this is supposed to be the start of a series, but I am wondering what the premise of the next one would even be. The good news is that this one did not end in a cliffhanger. I loved that. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow. There were some good parts, but it was just way too slow in several areas.

Sunday Post - April Wrap-Up And Birthday Giveaway!

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  This week I thought I would use the Sunday post to recap the month of April.

Today is my birthday!!!! 

I am 35 years old. Even though I am not exactly where I thought I would be in my life right now, I am still way more happy now than I was ten years ago. I wouldn't do my twenties over again if you paid me.

To celebrate my birthday, my husband and I are in the amazing city of London! I am excited to see Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Globe theatre (a bucket list item), seeing The Book of Mormon show, visiting the British Library, and visiting a bookstore with EIGHT floors! And I am sure there will be plenty of delicious food.

I read thirteen books in April, which is pretty good considering the fact that I was in a total slump after reading Black Iris.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Inside The O'Briens by Lisa Genova
All The Rage by Courtney Summers
Black Iris by Leah Raeder
What You Left Behind by Samantha Hayes
Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally
House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy
Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill
The Blondes by Emily Schultz
The Lie by C.L. Taylor
Undertow by Michael Buckley

Favorite Book Read in April:

Here are some discussions I posted this month:

Symptoms and Remedies of the Dreaded Book Hangover
Taking Control of My TBR Pile
Why I Decided To Quit My Challenges (yep, ALL of them!)

I posted some pics of the Amalfi Coast . . . . the most beautiful spot in Italy!

I also signed up for Bout of Books 13!

Top Ten Lists:

Characters I Would Love To Check In With
My Favorite Inspirational Bookish Quotes
Favorite Authors
Books With Strong, Kick Ass Female Characters

So in honor of my birthday, I am hosting my first giveaway! Nothing makes me feel better than to give to my fabulous readers.

I am giving away a $35 Amazon Gift Card! This giveaway is international. Once a winner is chosen, I will send the gift card by email. The giveaway goes until Wednesday, May 6. A winner will be chosen on Thursday. Good luck!


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