Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors From 2015

Posted in Top 10 Tuesday by

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Blog Graphic- Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2015

I can’t believe it’s December already!  It’s definitely that time of year for looking back at 2015, and this list (all about my new favorite authors) is a good way to kick-off all of the end-of-year stuff I want to talk to about!

  1. Nnedi Okorafor.  I’ve read a couple of her books (Akata Witch and Who Fears Death), and I can’t wait to read more books by her!
  2. Chimamanda Adichie.  I read Purple Hibiscus, which I loved, and I got a couple of her other books from Audible to listen to (soon, I hope, because Purple Hibiscus was awesome).
  3. Andy Weir.  The Martian was a lot of fun to listen to, and I hope anything else Weir writes will be just as fun!
  4. Atia Habawi.  I loved The Secret Sky, and I’m looking forward to see what else she writes!
  5. Anna Banks.  Joyride was another book I loved, and I know she has some other books out that I want to check out.
  6. Nicola Yoon.  I have super-mixed feelings about the end of Everything, Everything, but overall I felt for Maddy and her mom, and I liked it enough that I would read whatever Yoon writes next.
  7. I.W. Gregorio.  None Of The Above is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year (most of the authors on today’s list have written some of my favorite books I’ve read this year), and I want another book from Gregorio.
  8. Malinda Lo.  I’ve read several of her books, but I think Ash is my favorite of the 3 I’ve read.  It’s such a great take on Cinderella.
  9. Stacey Lee.  Under The Painted Sky was great (I really recommend it, especially if you like historical fiction), and I think she’s one of my new favorite authors.
  10. Sarah J. Maas.  I really need to finish her Throne Of Glass series.  And I need to read A Court Of Thorns And Roses.

Nail Polish Talk: November 2015

Posted in Nail Polish Talk by

Nail Polish Talk is a once-a-month feature where I talk about the nail polish I wore and the nail polish I got.

In November, I wore Star Seeds and Imperial Serpent, If The Shoe Fits, Aubrey, Fiore and Melody and Penny.

Nail Polish Project- November 2015 Collage

The Week Of November 1: Star Seeds and Imperial Serpent, both by Mod

I wore Star Seeds and Imperial Serpent to go with my Halloween costume- they’re perfect Night Vale colors, which went well with my Cecil costume.

I love Star Seeds, and it reminded me of night time and looking at stars! Imperial Serpent is a pretty purple but I didn’t like it as much as I liked Star Seeds. They do have a liquid sand texture, and they chipped really easy- I washed my hands the same amount I usually do, but these 2 chipped more than most of the other polishes I wear. I got them off of Etsy, and I’m really sad that shop has closed down, because I would love to buy more from that shop. So I’m kind of torn about how much I want to wear them, because once they’re gone, I can’t buy any more, bu I also don’t want them to collect dust because I don’t want to use them up.

The Week Of November 8: If The Shoe Fits by Morgan Taylor

I got this one a few months ago and I just love the color. It’s a pretty silvery blue, and it has the perfect amount of glitter. I couldn’t stop looking at it. That’s all I can actually remember, even with the notes I have. I’ll definitely have to check out more Morgan Taylor polishes, especially if they’re as pretty as this one!

The Week Of November 15: Aubrey by Julep

Aubrey is described as a Rosewood shimmer, so I expected something more pink and gold, and this one was more plum colored. It’s a pretty color, though, and there’s something metallic/chrome about this one- almost as if it’s a blend between them.

The Week Of November 22: Fiore And Melody, both by Julep

Fiore is a really pretty brown that’s perfect for fall! One coat is a pretty brown, and two coats makes Fiore a brown-black. It definitely reminded me of coffee!

I also wore Melody, which is a new top coat that was randomly added to my Maven box. It made my nails look very glossy (so it being described as high gloss is extremely accurate) but I thought it failed as an iridescent glitter top coat. From what I could tell, the glitter was distributed evenly, and the bottle makes it look like there’s a ton of glitter, but when I applied it, you could barely tell there was glitter. I’d wear it for the gloss/shine it added, but not for the glitter, which is sad, because I love glitter.

The Week Of November 29: Penny by Julep

I love Penny! The name is absolutely perfect for this color, because it really does remind me of a shiny new penny. I did notice some silver in it, and part of me wishes that came out a little more. You also get full coverage with one coat, which is awesome, because I feel like you don’t get that with a lot of the polishes from Julep. It’s such a good holiday color, and it’s a color that looks great on everyone.

Maven Box:

I got Penny, Aubrey, Jo and Melody, so I wore most of November’s box. Jo is a good holiday color, and it’s a metallic nail polish, so it’s perfect for this time of year.

Maven- November 2015

I also can’t wait to get December’s box- all of the colors are so pretty, and I got a few add-ons.  I got a couple of mystery ones, so I can’t wait to see what they are!

I hope everyone has an amazing December!

Currently Obsessed With: November 2015

Posted in Currently Obsessed With by

Currently Obsessed With is a once-a-month (but sometimes more) feature where I talk about my favorite things from the last month.

Currently Obsessed With

(A Quick Note: This post is a re-post from a few days ago)

November was a busy month!  I did NaNoWriMo, which went well.  I also went to the Night Vale live show last month, and it was completely awesome!  It’s great listening to it, of course, but seeing it performed is even more awesome because you get to facial expressions and gestures and body language, and I can’t wait until the recording comes out so I can listen to it again.  Thanksgiving was fun, and it was nice to spend some time with my family.

November was a little weird, though.  I was sick the first week (and I was glad it was just a week, that was bad enough), and the time change really got to me this year.  I’d be completely exhausted by 7:30, and there were quite a few nights where I’d be in bed by 8:30/9 and mornings were just as bad.  I’d wake up at 4:30 and not be able to go back to sleep.  Sleep has been getting back to normal (sort of), so hopefully soon, I’ll be able to stay awake past 8:30.

Crochet:

I haven’t really been crocheting much.  I started some wrist warmers, and got almost done with one, but decided part of it looked weird, so I ripped it and did one row of a different pattern.  Honestly, my attention has been elsewhere, so crochet hasn’t been a focus.  Now that November’s over (and I’m done with NaNo) I should be crocheting at least a little more.

Books:

I bought Crochet Stitch Dictionary by Sarah Hazell, which I think will be really helpful!  It’s not the most comprehensive book, but it’s pretty detailed, with 200 stitches included.  I think it’ll be a good resource to have on my shelf.

Crochet Stitch Dictionary Cover

I’m still looking for a book that has granny square patterns, since I’ve decided to do 52 granny squares next year, but if I don’t, I feel like I’ve found more than enough on pinterest and ravelry.

T.V./Movies:

I saw Mockingjay Part 2!  I really liked it, and even though I get why people are disappointed, I thought it was pretty true to the book, and even the things that were changed, I didn’t really mind.  Then again, it’s not something that usually bothers me.  Splitting Mockingjay into 2 movies is weird, and it would have been fine as one movie. I know that’s the thing now, while it’s fine for some movies, it wasn’t the best idea with this one.

I’ve been watching season 5 of Pretty Little Liars, and re-watching this season of Once Upon A Time, and trying to keep up with my usual shows.  It’s been a little hard, though, when you’re trying to watch something and falling asleep during it, so I’ve been watching/re-watching stuff after it’s up on Hulu.  Hopefully I’ll be back to my normal sleep schedule once everything comes back next year.

Around The Internet:

Book Riot has some awesome posts: Breaking The Rules Of Reading, Defending Fan Fiction, Coming Back From An Off Year Of Reading and A List Of Bookish Podcast Recommendations.

I made brown butter carrots for Thanksgiving and they were amazing!

This is a great list of women authors of color.  I definitely need to check out a lot of these books.

I also need to make these Maple Walnut Blondies.

Seeing these bookplates make me want to buy some!

You can also check out everything cool I find over on my Around The Internet Pinterest board!  FYI: November was a really slow month, for some reason.  I saw some interesting things, but not a lot caught my attention.

Music:

I haven’t been listening to a lot of music, which is weird, because usually I listen to a lot of music during November.  I did want to share a couple of songs.

Hello by Adele.  I know it’s hard to escape this song, but I love it!

Break Up With Him by Old Dominion is another new favorite.

I can’t believe it’s December already!  This year has gone by really fast.  Happy December!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2016 Debuts I’m Looking Forward To

Posted in Top 10 Tuesday by

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten 2016 Debuts I’m Looking Forward To Reading

I’m the first to admit that I’m not someone who pays a lot of attention to release dates or if a book is a debut or not. But these sort of lists are always fun for me because it means I actually through through whatever lists are on goodreads and find some new books that look really interesting and cool.  Here are ten debuts that I want to read next year!

  1. This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.  Is it just me or does it seem like there’s been quite a few YA books that focus on school shootings over the last few years?  I’m intrigued by this one because it takes place in 54 minutes and is told by 4 different people.  I hope it lives up to the heart-breakingly awesome Hate List.
  2. The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig.  It’s time travel!  Across centuries and places (both real and imagined) and it sounds like it’s going to be completely awesome!
  3. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye.  Ancient duels leading to the winner becoming the Imperial Enchanter, and the loser being sentenced to death…this isn’t a duel I’d want to lose.
  4. This Raging Light by Estelle Laure.  I’ve seen two different release dates for it (a few days before Christmas for 3 of the 4 editions on goodreads, and the other being in January).  I could have sworn it was a January book, but I’m still putting it on the list because I have the feeling that Lucille (who is a teen who is taking care of her family and paying the bills, and falls in love at an unexpected time) is a character I will love and want to be friends with.
  5. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi.  Horoscopes and locked doors and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit…and a book that is inspired by Indian mythology caught my attention.
  6. Beyond The Red by Ava Jae.  Crimson deserts, rebel soldiers and secrets that could result in death sound right up my alley.
  7. The Reader by Traci Chee.  A girl growing up in an illiterate society who turns to a book to save her aunt…this appeals to my love of books and reading.
  8. These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas.  This book had me at Jane Austen meets X-Men.  That is all.
  9. Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia.  Something about this book reminds me of Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. Maybe it’s because this book is about a girl writing a book about a teenage girl and realizes she needs to have the “typical” high school experience so that people will want to read her book.
  10. The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith.  It’s compared to the incredibly amazing Speak, and while that’s an amazing book to live up to, if it’s even slightly good, I’ll be happy.

Book Review Round-Up: The Silkworm, Poison And Need

Posted in ARC, Audiobooks, Book Review Round-Up, Books by

Book Review Round-Up is an ocassional feature where I do short reviews of some of the books I’ve read recently.

The Silkworm CoverBook #1: The Silkworm by Robert Gilbraith, narrated by Robert Glenister

Published June 2014 by Hachette Audio/Length: 17 hours, 22 minutes

Where I Got It: I checked out the audio book from the library

Series: Cormoran Strike #2

Genre: Adult Mystery

What It’s About: When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

What I Thought: I really liked it!  I mean, it is J.K. Rowling, and I’m not at all surprised that she writes mysteries so well.  I definitely wanted to spend more time in the car listening, because I couldn’t wait to see who was behind Quine’s disappearance and eventual death.  Thankfully, I was able to jump right in without having read The Cuckoo’s Calling, and I liked it enough that I’m definitely looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

I did like it as an audio book (except it was such a long audio book that I really needed a break from audio books), and while Glenister is a great voice for Strike, I don’t know that I’d seek him out as a narrator.  Still, if I started listening to a book he narrated, I’d still listen to the book.

My Rating: 4 stars.  I didn’t love it, but it’s a really good mystery!

Poison CoverBook #2: Poison by Lan Chan (An Advanced Reader Copy)

Published September 2015 by Smashwords/287 pages

Where I Got It: I received Poison as a digital advanced copy from netgalley.com, which hasn’t influenced my review in any way.

Series: Wind Dancer #1

Genre: YA Dystopic/Post-Apocalyptic

What It’s About: Since the night her mother was murdered, sixteen-year-old Rory Gray has known one truth: There are no good Seeders.

In post-apocalyptic Australia, the scientists known as Seeders have built a Citadel surrounded by food-producing regions and populated with refugees from the wars and famine. To maintain their control, the Seeders poisoned the land and outlawed the saving of seeds.

It’s been six years since Rory graced the Seeders’ circus stage as the Wind Dancer and still the scars on her body haven’t healed. Even worse are the scars on her heart, left by a Seeder boy who promised to protect her.

Now the Seeders are withholding supplies from Rory’s region for perceived disobedience. Utilizing the Wanderer knowledge she received from her mother, Rory must journey to the Citadel through uninhabitable terrain to plead for mercy.

However, the Citadel isn’t as Rory remembered. The chief plant geneticist is dying and rumors fly that the store of viable seed is dwindling. The Seeders are desperate to find a seed bank they believe Rory can locate, and they will stop at nothing to get it.

To defy the Seeders means death. But Rory has been close to death before–this time she’s learned the value of poison.

What I Thought: Poison is really different than a lot of the post-apocalyptic books I’ve read.  I love the idea of a seed bank being controlled, and it’s a future that I (sadly) could see happening.  It’s a world so different than the one we know, and yet it’s one I can picture so clearly.  Post-apocalyptic Australia is also the perfect setting for this book, and I’m really looking forward to reading the next book to see what happens next.  It’s also refreshing to see a post-apocalyptic book set in a different country- I can see Australia being a popular choice, for some reason, but it works so well as a setting.  It’s definitely worth checking out, even if you’re a little tired of dystopic/post-apocalyptic books.

My Rating: 4 stars.  It’s different and refreshing than some of the other books in the genre, and worth checking out!

Need CoverBook #3: Need by Joelle Charbonneau

Published November 2015 by Harcourt Brace And Company/352 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Thriller

What It’s About: “No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better.”

Teenagers at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need…regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.

What I Thought: Need definitely wasn’t the book I thought it would be.  It seemed like it would be a lot more sinister than it really was.  Part of the problem is that there are too many different perspectives, and they take away from the main person narrating.  Also: what simple pranks is the summary referring to?  I felt like it jumped over simple pranks, right towards malicious crimes.

A social network that will give students whatever they want…as long as they do what Need tells them to do…it has the potential to be a lot more creepy and dark than what we saw in the book.  Clearly, the students didn’t care what they had to do in order to get what they want.  You’d hope that at least some of them would be smarter than to trust Need, but all of the characters were so shallow and flat that people died and I didn’t care. There were enough characters that I couldn’t tell them apart, and even though there’s a reason for a few different narrators, it also means it was harder to care about what actually happened to any of them.

The idea behind Need was interesting but again, I didn’t care when it was actually revealed.  It’s over-the-top and not in a good way.  It read more like cheesy thriller than chilling.

My Rating: 2 stars.  Interesting premise,  but it was a little over-the-top.

NaNoWriMo 2015 Update #2: Winner!

Posted in NaNo by

I think it’s time for another NaNoWriMo update!

NaNo Winner 2015

I have written 50,237 words this month!  Well, a little bit more than that, because I always try to write a little bit more than the 50k, but I reached my goal, and I did it a few days early.  I’m still going to be writing, but I won’t be writing the way I was for most of the month.  This story I’ve been working on is nowhere close to being finished-I have two books outlined, and a couple of ideas for a next book, but other than that, I have nothing.

I’m not sure where to go next: I’m not sure if I want to finish writing what I have outlined, if I want to work on the characters and the world, if I want to take a break before doing anything else, or if I want to try to outline the rest of the story.  Or some combination of those things.

A break would be nice, because it would give me some distance before starting up again.  But I’m also worried that the momentum I’m had for the entire month will vanish if I stop, and that I won’t go back to it if I take a break. We’ll see, I suppose.  It’s not like I have to decide right this instant.

It really has been an easy year- of the now 10 times I’ve done NaNo, this one has been the EASIEST year by far, and I think a lot of it has to do with having an outline and using Scrivener.  I knew where it was going, and that made it a lot easier to write, especially since I had quite a few days where I didn’t want to write whatever scene I was supposed to be writing.  It was really easy to jump to something I did want to write, and it was just as easy to go back and write the scenes I skipped over.  It was also really easy to move things around and combine scenes or add more scenes or even get rid of scenes if I needed to.

It’s also really nice to have this entire story (and everything relating to it) in one place.  It’s been nice having in one place and having it really easy to find, and having it fairly organized.  It’s a little weird, because I’m so used to using Word, but having used Scrivener for about a month, I don’t think I could go back to Word.

Overall, NaNo has gone really well this year, and I’m really excited about this story in particular.  I definitely can’t wait to keep working on it!

Top Ten Tuesday: Thanksgiving Themed Freebie!

Posted in Top 10 Tuesday by

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Blog Graphic- Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Random Assorted Thanksgiving Thoughts

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is in a couple of days!  November went by so fast.  I’m glad it’s a Thanksgiving freebie this week, because there are a lot of things and people I’m grateful for (and a couple of Thanksgivings I would want to attend).

  1. I am very thankful for Harry Potter.  I’m not kidding when I say that it’s changed my life.
  2. My friends.  They’re very, very cool people and I’m so glad I have them in my life.
  3. Family…particularly my grandparents, who are like parents to me.
  4. I would want to spend Thanksgiving with the Weasley’s.  They are such a fun family, and the holidays with them seem like fun.
  5. I’d love to spend Thanksgiving in Night Vale.  It would be weird and wacky but also fun.
  6. I am eternally grateful for NaNoWriMo.  I don’t write fiction for most of year (November seems to be the only time I manage to make the time) but I love the community and the people who participate each year.
  7. I am thankful I live in a place where the weather is warm year-round.
  8. I am thankful for the book-blogging community.  I don’t comment a lot, but I’m still glad to be part of the bookish internet.
  9. Yarn.  Yarn makes me happy.
  10. Books also make me happy.  Reading somehow makes everything better.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Quotes I’ve Loved From The Last Year

Posted in Top 10 Tuesday by

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Blog Graphic- Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Book Quotes I’ve Loved From The Last Year

Anytime I do one of these posts about book quotes, I always have such a hard time because I don’t keep track of quotes in any way.  A few I’ve read in the last couple of months, but others were not so recent (but all were books I’ve read this year).  These are some favorites!

“She cried for the girl who never belonged.  A girl who tried so hard, harder than anyone else, and still never had anything to show for it.”

-Fairest: Levana’s Story  by Marissa Meyer

“I read what I like.”

-Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

“Everything is relative.  If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause.  You don’t look at its manifestation.”

-Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

“You have ink in your blood, boy, and no help for it.  Books will never be just a business to you.”

-Ink And Bone by Rachel Caine

“Everything’s a risk.  Not doing anything is a risk.  It’s up to you.”

-Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

“LOG ENTRY: SOL 381 I’ve been thinking about laws on Mars.

Yeah, I know, it’s a stupid thing to think about, but I have a lot of free time.

There’s an international treaty saying no country can lay claim to anything that’s not on Earth. And by another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies.

So Mars is “international waters.”

NASA is an American nonmilitary organization, and it owns the Hab. So while I’m in the Hab, American law applies. As soon as I step outside, I’m in international waters. Then when I get in the rover, I’m back to American law.

Here’s the cool part: I will eventually go to Schiaparelli and commandeer the Ares 4 lander. Nobody explicitly gave me permission to do this, and they can’t until I’m aboard Ares 4 and operating the comm system. After I board Ares 4, before talking to NASA, I will take control of a craft in international waters without permission.

That makes me a pirate!

A space pirate!”

-The Martian by Andy Weir

“She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?”

-The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

“One should never save cake for later when it can be eaten now.”

-Winter by Marissa Meyer

“I’ve read many more books than you. It doesn’t matter how many you’ve read. I’ve read more. Believe me.”

-Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

“If anyone dies today it will be because they finally have something to believe in. Don’t you even think about taking that away from them now.”

-Winter by Marissa Meyer

Novella Round-Up #4: Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories

Posted in Books, Novella Round-Up by

I’ve read a few novellas, and when I’ve read a few, I do one big post of novella reviews- they’re usually too short for me to do one review, but at the same time, I want to review them, so I figured it was easier to talk about several of them in one post!

Today’s novellas are the short stories set in the Beautiful Creatures universe!  All three novellas are written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

The Mortal Heart CoverNovella #1: The Mortal Heart (Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories #1)

Published March 2015 by Little, Brown|51 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Genre: YA Paranormal

What It’s About: Everyone in Gatlin has a story…

Before she met and married Mitchell Wate, the beautiful and brilliant Lila Jane Evers was an honors student at Duke University. Studying late into the night in the rare books library, she is captivated by a single line of text on an old piece of parchment: “In the Light there is Dark, and in the Dark there is Light.”

What can it mean?

Then one night, Lila Jane meets a mysterious young man who may have the answer. His name is Macon Ravenwood, and for every secret he reveals, he is hiding another. With Macon’s help, Lila Jane uncovers the wonders of the Caster world–the Light and the Dark. But a romance between the Incubus who is fighting his own dark side and this fiercely independent Mortal is doomed from the start. The closer Lila Jane and Macon become, the more her life is in danger.

What I Thought: I liked it!  I’m glad they’re doing short stories on some of the other characters in the Beautiful Creatures series, and I loved seeing Lila and Macon fall in love.  Given how much he still seemed to love her, I wanted a little bit more of their romance.  I know it’s a novella, but I expected more to it, especially given how much I liked Dream Dark (Beautiful Creatures 2.5) and Dangerous Dream (Dangerous Creatures 0.5).

It felt good to be back in this world, but I really was hoping for a little more to this one.  Maybe I need to re-read the original Beautiful Creatures books before re-reading this one.

My Rating: 3 stars.  I liked it, and I think fans of Beautiful Creatures will enjoy this novella, but I also wish there were a little more to it.

The Seer's Spread CoverNovella #2: The Seer’s Spread (Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories #2)

Published July 2015 by Little, Brown|38 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Genre: YA Paranormal

What It’s About: “Fate is a powerful thing…”

Ethan Wate is still grieving the loss of his beloved Amma when he receives an unexpected gift–the old, yellow Whitman’s Sampler box that held Amma’s most closely guarded secrets. “One day I might let you have a look under that lid, Ethan Wate,” Amma used to say. “But today isn’t the day.”

Now it’s time for one of her greatest secrets to be revealed. In a long-lost letter, Amma tells Ethan the story of growing up as a young Seer with a remarkable gift for reading cards. But with a power that far-reaching comes responsibility, and Amma has been honoring her mission since before Ethan was born–to protect the Wate family at any cost. So when Lila Jane Evers enters Mitchell Wate’s life, bringing the whole Caster world with her, Amma turns to her cards. This time, it’s the reading that will define the rest of her life–and Ethan’s.

What I Thought: I really liked The Seer’s Spread!  I think I liked it a little more than The Mortal Heart, but Amma is one of my favorite characters, so I might be a little biased.  I loved seeing how she became a part of Ethan’s life, and how much she cared for him.  I loved seeing her do whatever she could to protect Ethan and his dad, while all respecting the fate that she saw in the cards.  More than any other character, I wish we got to see more of her life.  It just makes me love her more.

My Rating: 3 stars.  I loved getting more of Amma’s story, but I wish it were longer!  It’s a great addition to the Beautiful Creatures world.

Before The Claiming CoverNovella #3: Before The Claiming (Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories #3)

Published November 2015|42 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Genre: YA Paranormal

What It’s About: “You can’t hide from fate…”

While looking through her grandmother Emmaline’s keepsakes, Lena Duchannes comes across a little blue book with a big history–a book that changed Macon Ravenwood’s life and saved Lena’s.

When Lena was a baby, Seer and gifted card reader Amma Treaudeau saw a terrifying future in the cards that sent her to Emmaline’s door. When a powerful Dark Caster sets fire to Lena’s house with baby Lena and her father trapped inside, Amma, Emmaline, and Macon vow to protect the child. Lena’s grandmother and her Uncle Macon whisk Lena away, protecting her and moving her to a new place at the first sign of trouble. But a Caster can only hide for so long, and Macon must rely on the teachings in an ancient book to control his Dark nature. Ultimately, it will be his job to protect Lena–and keep her from surrendering to a Dark fate.

What I Thought: Of the three, this one is probably my least favorite.  I did like seeing more of Lena’s relationship with Ridley, and how connected her family is with Amma.  I enjoyed it, but it didn’t have something the other two had, especially The Seer’s Spread.  I did like seeing Lena before she moved to Gatlin.  Like the other two, I know they’re short, but they were too short, and I really wish they were a little longer!  Still, seeing how involved their families were was interesting, and I wish we saw more of that.

My Rating: 3 stars.  I liked it, but not as much as the other Untold Stories.  I am curious if they’re doing another short, and what it would be about.

Some Random Thoughts About All Three:

I really am wondering if there are going to be more, because I would like to see what else they’d write.  At the same time, though, what I loved about Beautiful Creatures (and the Dangerous Creatures spin-off) seemed to be missing in these stories, and I don’t know if it’s the length or the fact that I just haven’t been in the mood to read lately or that maybe the Beautiful Creatures universe would have been fine without these stories.  It doesn’t seem like overkill (unlike anything set in the Shadowhunter world), and I did enjoy the stories but I didn’t enjoy them like I thought I would.  Maybe because it’s my first time reading, and not listening to them?  I wonder if that was part of it.

Basically, I enjoyed them…but I think I might have been fine not reading them because it didn’t really add anything to the world.

A NaNoWriMo 2015 Update

Posted in NaNo by

I haven’t done much blogging lately, except for the odd review round-up or a Top Ten Tuesday post, but I did want to talk about NaNoWriMo since I have yet to talk about it this month.

I’m a huge supporter of NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been a fan for years.  For anyone who isn’t familiar with it, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, where writers from all over the world write their own 50,000 word novel in one month.

NaNo 2015 Participant Badge

This is my tenth year doing NaNo, and my blog actually started out as me blogging my way through NaNo.  It was the year I decided to do three 50k novels in one month, and I have never done 3 in one month again.  You can click here to read about my previous NaNo novels, or here to see all of my NaNo posts.

Last year, I wrote a YA paranormal book about an amulet that needs to be destroyed, other humanity will be wiped out.  You can read more about the original idea here.  I had the hardest time with world-building and I wasn’t sure where I wanted it go, but I decided to write it anyway, and found that once I reached my 50k, it was a book I really wanted to re-write.  I’m still not sure how I want it to end, but I have a slightly better idea of what I want to do with it than I did last year.

I think, of all the years I’ve been doing NaNo, this has been the easiest year by far.  I’ve never been one for planning my novels out, because I’m much more of a pantser but I’m actually surprised at how much easier writing is when I have an outline.  There have been 2 or 3 days where I didn’t want to write.  Even though I knew what I was writing, I just didn’t have the motivation to write very much, so I have a few days where I struggled. I’ve been consistently ahead of the 1667 pace, so I felt okay not writing as much because I’ve had a buffer.  If my lowest day is 1000 words, I’m doing pretty good, and I am trying really hard to maintain that buffer, because I don’t want to lose that momentum.  I’m currently at 21,373, so I’m doing really good.  It’s sort of surprising, considering I was sick the first week (waking up sick on November 1st was horrible) and with how much Daylight Savings is really messing with me this year.

It’s vague enough that I feel like I have flexibility in where things go and what I’m writing, but it’s also specific enough that I know where things are going.  I can move things around as needed, and since I have an outline, it’s a lot easier to jump around if writing a particular scene or chapter isn’t working.

I’m using Scrivener this year, and I absolutely love it!  It makes it easier to jump around when I can’t focus on a particular scene, and the split screen feature is completely awesome and super-helpful.  I have the scene I’m writing on one side, and the chapter outline on the other side, which makes it easier to write each scene when I can see how it fits in with the rest of the chapter.

Unfortunately, I didn’t work on any character sketches or world building, and I still need to go through last year’s novel to see if I want to keep any of the world-building or character stuff from last year’s novel.  But this year, as I’m writing, I am adding that information to Scrivener, for when I have the time to properly focus on it. It’s daunting because I have to go through Word, and I don’t even know what I’m looking for, or where to find it.  With Scrivener, even if I’m not completely sure where to find a particular scene, I at least have a general idea of where to find it, and it’ll be easier to stay organized once I’ve worked on characters and the world more, particularly with a series.

I don’t know how much I’ll be talking about NaNo this year- at the very least, I’ll be doing a post at the end of the month, and maybe something in between, but I’m not sure.

If anyone else is participating, you can always add me as a buddy!  I’m wingedcreature (or click here to see my NaNo profile and my progress).

Happy almost mid-November!