Scotland!

I have been back from my vacation in Scotland for over a week now and I still feel like I am on vacation . . . or maybe that is just wishful thinking because I loved Scotland so much.

Scotland was amazing and had some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. No, this is not a bookish post but I wanted to share some of these beautiful pictures. I swear, every place we went looked like it came from a postcard. And we got incredibly lucky with the weather. With the exception of one day, it was sunny and beautiful all week. 

First we flew into Edinburgh and spent a few days exploring the city. 

Then we rented a car for some exploring. We drove to St. Andrews, where we walked the oldest golf course in the world. I am not even a fan of golf, but I was still in awe of the beautiful course. And we actually got to walk on the course, where Tiger Woods has walked before! Then we explored the ruins of the nearby castle and cathedral. St. Andrews is a beautiful town.

Next we took a very scenic drive from St. Andrews to Fort William. We passed through the Trossachs National Park and Glencoe. Yeah, these pictures are just a few of the beautiful ones we took. This was really the only day where it rained off and on all day. Even with all the clouds and the rain, it was still beautiful scenery!

Next was the Jacobite train in Fort William! I really get why this is one of the most scenic train routes in the world. It was so beautiful. And we were lucky to have a great seat by the window and all that scenery. Now I have never seen Harry Potter, but Harry Potter fans should recognize the train. Apparently, the kids rode in this very train in one of the movies!

Finally, we went to the Urquart Castle, which was right on Loch Ness. It was such a gorgeous day!

I hope you enjoyed my pictures of Scotland! I can't wait to go back!

BOOK REVIEW: Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

This is a book review for Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is July 28, 2015.

She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head. Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.

This was my first Mary Kubica book, but it will not be my last! This book did start out a bit slow. Heidi is married to Chris and they have a twelve year old daughter. Heidi is still haunted by the pregnancy she had to abort eleven years earlier. Heidi had gotten pregnant and then discovered she had cervical cancer. Because of the advanced stage of the cancer, Heidi was forced to have an abortion and then she had to have a hysterectomy. When she sees Willow and her baby on a train platform, she can't get her out of her mind. Before her family knows what has happened, Heidi has invited Willow and the baby to stay with them for an undetermined amount of time. There is a mystery with who Willow is and whether she is being honest or not. The book tells the story from Heidi and Chris's (her husband's) POV. It also has Willow's POV, but this section involves Willow answering questions from a police detective. It is obvious that both Heidi and Willow are in trouble with the law, but what isn't obvious is why.

At first, I was annoyed by the writing style. The author just told EVERYTHING about these people's lives. I don't need to know that Heidi put on lipstick or that Chris grabbed his briefcase by the door or that Heidi bought a cup of coffee and . . . well, you get the idea. But at some point, I got used to that style of writing and it just worked. Yes, all the details that went into this story became kind of necessary. It took a couple of chapters for the pacing to speed up a little, but then I was hooked. I loved Willow's chapters because she went into detail about why she was a runaway and how she became homeless. Heid's chapters struck me as a bit cold and strange. It did not help that the author painted her as a jealous, insecure, selfish wife. I mean, she invited this stranger to stay at her home and gave NO consideration to how her husband and daughter would react. She didn't seem to care that much about whether they were okay with it or not. And at first she was genuinely concerned about Willow and her baby. But then she becomes a bit obsessed with the baby. Man this mystery was ENTHRALLING. I mean, seriously . . . there were so many things going on. What did Heidi and Willow do to land themselves in trouble? Was Willow who she said she was? There were a few things I predicted as the story progressed, but some things I just didn't see coming. This story actually went in a completely different direction than I was expecting.

One thing I didn't necessarily understand was why Heidi was holding on to the pain of her hysterectomy for so long. I know it was traumatic, especially since she wanted a bigger family. But her job was kind of a social worker. It was never really explained it in detail, just that she spent all her time helping homeless people and children living in poverty. So I guess my question was why this woman? Why this baby? Why NOW after so long?? I guess that was never fully explained. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: If you are a fan of mysteries, I say buy!

BOOK REVIEW: Hyacinth Girls by Lauren Frankel

This is a book review for Hyacinth Girls by Lauren Frankel. I received this ARC from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Thirteen year old Callie is accused of bullying at school, but Rebecca knows the gentle girl she's raised must be innocent. After Callie is exonerated, she begins to receive threatening notes from the girl who accused her, and as these notes become desperate, Rebecca feels compelled to intervene. As she tries to save this unbalanced girl, Rebecca remembers her own intense betrayals and best-friendships as a teenager, when her failure to understand those closest to her led to tragedy. She'll do anything to make this story end differently. But Rebecca doesn’t understand what’s happening or who is truly a victim, and now Callie is in terrible danger.

This was another one of those books that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did. After I requested the ARC, I saw a few less than rave reviews on Goodreads and I almost let them put me off from reading it. At first, I just did not like the characters very much. Rebecca is guardian to 13 year old Callie, who is the daughter to Rebecca's best friend and her cousin. Both Callie's parents are dead and this book goes back and forth between what is happening with Callie and the events leading to her parents' death. At first I though Rebecca was another parent refusing to see her child as anything but perfect and this annoyed me. Despite witnesses, Rebecca refused to believe that her child could possibly be a bully. Instead, she believes Callie's excuse that Robyn must be lying and just saying this stuff to get attention. But I kind of get why she refused to see it and that question lay at the heart of this book. How well does anyone really know their children? What I didn't like (and what the author was maybe trying to say) was that Rebecca could be a bully just like anyone else. The way she spoke about Robyn (the girl who said Callie bullied her) and her mother just made my skin crawl. When Robyn was with the mothers of Callie's friends, they reminded me just as much of the mean girls in high school, just older.

The book also has excerpts that Callie is writing regarding her interactions with Robyn, the girl she is accused of bullying. These excerpts made it even harder to figure out who was telling the truth. According to these excerpts of IM's and emails, they started out as friends. So what went wrong? The last part of the book brought everything together when it finally told the events from Callie's POV. I was torn between feeling bad for Callie and being mad at her. And there were so many mean girls who influenced Callie's behavior. Reading Callie's POV made me remember just how intense adolescence could feel. Every heartbreak was magnified by a thousand and it was so easy to spiral because of what people thought about you. In Callie's case, she went through so much. It really just hurt when she thought her dead mother would have regretted having her because of things she had done. This book was very moving and had very real characters and emotions. This was a great read!

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Buy this one! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Books Added to My Ever Growing Collection

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. They feature a different top ten list every week. This week's topic is top books that last came into my possession. And I may have cheated a bit and listed more than ten. I am just so happy about all of these books!

These are ARC's I have received from NetGalley

1. Are You Still There by Sarah Lynn Scheerger
2. Your Voice Is All I Hear by Leah Scheier
3. Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

4. Vivian Apple Needs A Miracle (Vivian Apple #2) by Katie Koyle
5. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
6. You And Me And Him by Kris Dinnison

These are some that I have purchased

7. A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
9. Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
10. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
11. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
12. This Is Not A Test (This Is Not A Test #1) by Courtney Summers

And I won this one! (Thank you so much Cait @ Paper Fury!!)

13. Isla's Inheritance (Isla's Inheritance #1) by Cassandra Page

What are some of your favorite books that you have recently acquired?

DISCUSSION: I had plans to procrastinate, but then I found something else to do . . .

Ahhh . . . I have been in such a blogging slump lately! And by slump, I mean that I am finding any excuse to procrastinate on reviews and posts. I schedule a few in advance when I am traveling, but then I return from my travels, my unscheduled posts run out and I have no clue what to do next. Well, that's not totally true. I actually do have ideas on future discussion posts. The problem is that I want to do anything else!

There have been countless times where I start a draft of a simple book review. I look at the blank screen and then proceed to open another tab to do whatever strikes my fancy.

Here are some of the things I have been doing instead of writing posts:

1. Check Bloglovin for new blog posts to read . . . I do this even if there were zero new blog posts five minutes before.

2. Check email.

3. Check Facebook.

4. Check Twitter.

5. Google song lyrics for random song I hear on TV show.

6. Google Youtube for videos of songs that I like.

7. My Budget (yes, I actually like doing this. I love working with numbers.)

8. Browse books on NetGalley or Edelweiss

9. Read (this one is usually last for a reason . . . as long as I am doing something on the computer, I don't feel it is out of the realm of possibility to actually finish my post.)

Hopefully this procrastination thing ends soon. If not . . . eh, at least I have a lot of other stuff to keep me busy!

BOOK REVIEW: Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty

This is a book review for Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is July 14, 2015.

Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of the Biltmore estate. There's plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate's maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is:a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore's corridors at night. Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of the Biltmore's owners. Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak's true identity before all of the children vanish one by one.

One of the main reasons I requested this book was because of the setting. The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC! I know it sounds random, but that place holds a special place in my heart. That is the place my husband and I went on our first weekend trip together while we were dating. And Biltmore Estate is also where he proposed almost eight years ago. The author did an awesome job with the setting of the book. Biltmore Estate is huge and I loved the descriptions of all the elaborate rooms and secret passageways. And I had never thought of the mountains surrounding Biltmore as creepy until this book. 

There were times while reading this book that I was irritated at the main character, I think because she is only twelve years old. There was so much more immaturity and lot more stupid decisions. Now I can forgive those a lot easier with a twelve year old character, but she was just harder to relate to. I don't think I really became engaged in the story until about halfway through. I loved the mystery of the missing children and the friendship between Serafina and Braeden was precious. Maybe if Serafina had been written as older, the author would have probably ruined it and made them fall instantly in love or something. But I liked the friendship the way it was. The author did a great job of building the mystery and when Serafina was trying to stop the Man in the Black Cloak, I actually did get creeped out a few times. There was a bit of a supernatural twist to the story. I can appreciate that this was a stand-alone book, but I still thought the ending was a little too neat and clean.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow. There were a couple of issues with the book, but all in all, it was an entertaining read.

BOOK REVIEW: A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery

This is a book review for A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. 

When high school senior Kelsey's identical twin sister, Michelle, dies in a car crash, Kelsey is left without her other half. The only person who doesn't know about the tragedy is Michelle's boyfriend, Peter, recently deployed to Afghanistan. But when Kelsey finally connects with Peter online, she can't bear to tell him the truth. Active duty has taken its toll, and Peter, thinking that Kelsey is Michelle, says that seeing her is the one thing keeping him alive. Caught up in the moment, Kelsey has no choice: She lets Peter believe that she is her sister. As Kelsey keeps up the act, she crosses the line from pretend to real. Soon, Kelsey can't deny that she's falling, hard, for the one boy she shouldn't want.

This book is kind of hard to rate because I am still unsure about my feelings towards it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really like it that much either. But I guess I liked it just a little bit more than I hated it. I didn't feel all the emotional pull that I thought I would with this book. Maybe it's because everyone's grief seemed kind of removed. They find out about Michelle's death and then suddenly it's after the funeral. And the author kind of sped through the weeks following the funeral as well. I saw her parents' grief, kind of, but not the grief of any of Michelle's friends. And I didn't really see much grief from Kelsey either. 

When it came to Peter, I did like him but I thought he moved fast with Michelle. When Kelsey met Peter for the first time (right before Michelle died), he told Kelsey he was on love with Michelle. This was despite the fact that they had only been dating for three weeks and a lot of that time was long distance. I just didn't buy it, especially since he couldn't even tell the difference between the twins. I know a lot of people didn't find it very realistic that Peter couldn't tell the difference between Kelsey and Michelle. I didn't have that much problem believing that part. Peter and Michelle hadn't known each other for very long after all. That just proves my point that he didn't know Michelle very long before declaring that he loved her.

I did kind of understand why Kelsey was doing what she was doing . . . at first. But I was annoyed because most of the time she was falling for Peter, she had a boyfriend. She had a very nice boyfriend. Yet she was pretending to be Michelle with this other guy and she even went on a trip with him behind her boyfriend's back. Then she gets mad at said boyfriend and starts trying to pick a fight with him just because she feels guilty about Peter. I just don't like cheating in a book. That's one of my things, I guess. 70% of the book, I just wanted her to be honest with EVERYONE. I guess that would have made a much shorter book though. Despite all the issues and drama, I was kind of rooting for Kelsey and Peter. I liked the ending, but I felt it was maybe wrapped up a little too neatly for my taste.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip. I don't think there is enough here to warrant a recommendation to read it.