A to Z April: Z Reviews: Zach's Lie by Roland Smith/Zombie Blondes by Brian James

Can you believe it?  April is over!  And I completed the A to Z Challenge with this post!  And believe it or not, I found two books I read that started with the letter Z that I hadn't reviewed yet.  The other Z book I had already reviewed.  One of these is more middle grade, then the other is definitely a teen read.

First is Zach's Lie by Roland Smith.  It's the first in a two book series, that concludes with Jack's Run, about a boy whose family has to go into the witness protection program.  The main character is Jack, who becomes Zach in the program.  And of course as boys that age might be likely to do, he does something that gets his family in danger again.  I'm a huge fan of Roland Smith, he is probably one of the first authors I really got to meet when I started on my current quest of meeting all my favorite authors/rock stars.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Jack Osborne's life changes forever the night men in masks break into his house, threaten Jack and his family, and ransack their home. Jack then discovers the reason these men have come into their lives-his father has been arrested for drug trafficking.

Jack, his mother, and his sister are then forced to enter Witness Security Program. Jack becomes "Zach" and moves to Elko, Nevada, a town in the middle of nowhere. There he meets Sam, the strangest school custodian he has ever encountered, and Catalin, a girl who might make Zach's uprooting worth the trouble. But just as Zach finally begins to piece together a new life, he finds himself in danger again-and this time his actions could determine the fates of everyone he cares about.

The second book I'm talking about today is called Zombie Blondes by Brian James.  I think this was one of the first YA zombie books I remember reading and really liking.  I think I also posted a review somewhere and even got a thank you from the author!  I just can't remember where.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.
     A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders—the most popular girls in school.
     The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.
     But Hannah wants desperately to fit in—regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: if she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead—just like all the other zombies in this town. . . .


Have you read any books by Roland Smith?  Are you a fan of zombie stories?  Will you try to read this one?  And while you're here, it's the very last day to enter my giveaway below!


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A to Z April: Y Reviews - The Year of Yes by Dahvana Headley/Yes Man by Danny Wallace

At first I only had one book I thought I could talk about, but then I went back and realized that one of the two I'm talking about today I read before I started this blog.  So I can share it.  And the common theme? Both actually have to do with saying "yes".

First is a memoir book that in a way is a chick lit type of story.  It's about a girl who was looking for her true love, and decided that for a year she would say yes to anyone who asked her out.  Whether they were creepy, not her type, etc.  That way she would be giving everyone a chance, and maybe she'd meet the right person that otherwise she might not have given a chance.  It was a very interesting read.  Not sure that I'm brave enough to try it to meet my Mr. Right, as I'm pretty socially awkward and introverted, and so the thought of going out with someone alone that makes me uncomfortable is just terror-inducing.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
"Why not go out on a date with everyone who asks you? Plenty of reasons. They might be crazy. They might be creepy. They might be something other than what you're looking for. But then again, how would you know? Isn't love supposed to be blind? Isn't it supposed to be about who the person really is, not about what they look like?"

The Year of Yes is an account of one woman's quest to find a man she can stand (for longer than a couple of hours). Frustrated by her own pitiful taste, writer Maria Headley decided to leave her love life up to fate, going out with everyone who asked her: homeless men, taxi drivers and yes, even a couple of women. Opening her heart and mind to the possibility that her perfect match might be the person she least expected, she spent twelve months dating most of New York City.

Second is a book, another memoir actually, about a man who decided to say "yes" to everything.  Part of it was for romance, but another part was just to meet more people.  Now they did make a movie from this, and there are some of the same things as in the book.  But honestly, some of the stuff he does in the book is way more hilarious, maybe because it is so real!  I had a good laugh as I read this book.  You should check it out as well.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Recently single, Danny Wallace was falling into loneliness and isolation. When a stranger on a bus advises, "Say yes more," Wallace vows to say yes to every offer, invitation, challenge, and chance.

In Yes Man, Wallace recounts his months-long commitment to complete openness with profound insight and humbling honesty. Saying yes takes Wallace into a new plane of existence: a place where money comes as easily as it goes, nodding a lot can lead to a long weekend overseas with new friends, and romance isn't as complicated as it seems. Yes eventually leads to the biggest question of all: "Do you, Danny Wallace, take this woman . . ."

Yes Man is inspiring proof that a little willingness can take anyone to the most wonderful of places.

Have you read either of these?  Have you seen the movie, Yes Man with Jim Carrey?  Do you think you could try the "yes" for a year in order to do something like this?  And don't forget, only one more day after today to enter my giveaway!

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A to Z April: X Reviews - The Xander Years by Keith R.A. DeCandido/The X-Files: Book of the Unexplained by Jane Goldman

As you might have guessed, finding books for the X reviews was one of the hardest for the whole challenge.  I had about 6 to choose from and 3 were ones I had already posted reviews here on the blog, so I didn't want to do them again.  So the ones I've chosen are the other ones I hadn't reviewed for the blog.  And they are actually companion books to two of my favorite TV series.

First is The Xander Years Vol. 1 by Keith R.A. Candido.  If they did a volume 2 to this, I didn't ever get ahold of it, not from lack of trying I'm sure.  As when I started working at a bookstore, I began trying to order every last Buffy  book I could.  Unfortunately many were out of print, and I didn't want to order from used at the time and pay ahead of time.  I became a huge fan of the name Xander because of this show, and if I'd ever had a son, I would have wanted to name him that.  Here is the somwhat long blurb for this book from Goodreads:
TONIGHT, PART 1The argument started when Cordelia saw what Xander was wearing.

He had only just walked into the Bronze when Cordy started in on him. "My "God, " what is that outfit?"

"It's called 'clothes.'"

"No, "I'm" wearing clothes. "You" are wearing rags. Xander, do you even know what it means to accessorize?"

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the same time, Xander replied, "Yeah. "To accessorize." A verb deriving from the noun "accessory." Loosely defined as, 'Caring way more about what you're wearing than necessary for simple human interpersonal contact.'"

Gesturing as if she were pleading with Xander to not jump off a high ledge, Cordelia said, "Xander, clothes are what define who you are to the world. They put out a message that says, 'I'm cool' or 'I'm a jock' or 'I'm a computer geek" or in your case, 'I'm a loser with no redeeming social value.'"

It went downhill from there, at least up to the part where they made up by necking near the restrooms.

Xander returned home and fell more than sat on his bed, not even bothering to clear a space for himself -- he just collapsed onto the dirty laundry festooned on the sheets and stared at the ceiling. All in all, it had been a typical date: arguing for an hour, necking for an hour. "Not exactly how I pictured dating, he thought. Certainly not how all those fantasy dates with Buffy went in my head."

He turned toward the bedside table to stare at the photograph next to his clock radio. Willow's mom had taken that picture of Buffy, Willow, and Xander sophomore year. Buffy's hair was longer then -- so, if it came to that, was Xander's.

"Things were simpler then, hionship had been set.

Except, of course,for the necking part. That took another twelve years to develop.

The funny thing was, while Willow and Xander had gleefully formed the We Hate Cordelia Chase Fan Club -- they even held semiregular meetings -- Jesse had always had the hots for her, right up until the moment he died. And now Xander was dating her.

"Well, it could be worse, he thought. At least dating Cordelia isn't an immediate threat to my life. My sanity maybe, but not my life."

Shivering with a chill that had nothing to do with the typically warm Sunnydale night, he remembered a certain substitute biology teacher....

The 2nd book is from a TV series that I watched with  my mom, one that we loved and are excited to hear that there may be a reboot!  I was a huge X-Files fan.  Especially what they called the "monster of the week" episodes more than the mythology episodes.  These books, and I had two of them, were more about the true stories behind the UFO sightings and other wild stories that made up the TV series.  Here is a blurb from Goodreads:
At the beginning of its fourth incredibly popular season. The X-Files Fall 1996 season premiere had the highest rating Fox Television has ever achieved for a dramatic series. The show won five 1996 Emmy awards for special effects, outstanding writing, and best guest spots, and continues to garner new fans with each episode. HarperPrism is the only official publisher of The X-Files, and this season, we present three brand-new additions to satisfy the voracious appetite of the millions of fans.The facts behind the fiction are even more disturbing than the menace and mystery depicted in The X-Files episodes. Here are the actual accounts of UFO sightings, alien encounters, government cover-ups, psychic crime solving, faith healing, spontaneous combustion, reincarnation, and hauntings from which the show's writers draw their material for story lines. This in-depth, photo-tilled guide--complete with interviews from the show's cast, crew, and writers, as well as astonishing revelations from the world's leading investigations, scientists and officials--tells the terrifying stories behind our real life encounters with The X-Files.

Were you a fan of either of these shows?  If so, did you ever read any of the books that went with them?  Or did you even know they had books to go with them?  And while you're here, make sure you enter my giveaway below!

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A to Z April: W Reviews - Watchers by Dean Koontz/Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon/Why Girls Are Weird by Pamela Ribon

There were a lot of books that begin with the letter W, and there were 3 that I just couldn't give up when I tried to narrow it down.  So today you get three mini-reviews!

First is Watchers by Dean Koontz.  I know that I've already talked about one book by Dean Koontz, Strangers, but I couldn't leave out my very favorite one of his books, one that I read over and over, and still remember so many things about.  They did make a movie out of it, and it starred one of the actors I'd had a crush on, Corey Haim. But the problem is that the characters weren't supposed to be young, so he was definitely not the right actor.  Well, that's not the only problem, the movie really just sucked.  But I still remember the dog, Einstein, a golden retriever of course since that is the kind of dog Dean Koontz owns and loves.  And so much about the dog that made me sad, and happy as well.  Here's the very short blurb from Goodreads:
When Travis Cornell and Nora Devon meet "Einstein", they are touched by the dog's intelligence. Einstein is one of two altered life forms escaped from a top-secret lab. The other--The Outsider--is a deadly hybrid. To protect themselves, Travis and Nora must learn to be deadly as well.

Second is Wolf's Hour  by Robert McCammon.  It's another one of the books I used to read over and over.  It contains as you might guess from the title, a werewolf.  But it also takes place during World War II with the Nazis, and so it is a time period that I read a lot from.   Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
D-Day is threatened, but one man could rip the heart of the Nazis -- with his bare claws....

He is Michael Gallatin, master spy, lover -- and werewolf. Able to change shape with lightning speed, to kill silently or with savage, snarling fury, he proved his talents against Rommel in Africa. Now he faces his most delicate, dangerous mission: to unravel the secret Nazi plan known as Iron Fist. From a parachute jump into occupied France to the lush corruption of Berlin, from the arms of a beautiful spy to the cold embrace of a madman's death machine, Gallatin draws ever closer to the ghastly truth about Iron Fist. But with only hours to D-Day, he is trapped in the Nazis' web of destruction....

The third book is kind of a chick lit type of story, although maybe a bit deeper than some of the others that I've shared.  It's called Why Girls Are Weird. Something I liked was that it had a companion book titled Why Moms Are Weird that was also good.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
She was just writing a story.
When Anna Koval decides to creatively kill time at her library job in Austin by teaching herself HTML and posting partially fabricated stories about her life on the Internet, she hardly imagines anyone besides her friend Dale is going to read them. He's been bugging her to start writing again since her breakup with Ian over a year ago. And so what if the "Anna K" persona in Anna's online journal has a fabulous boyfriend named Ian? It's not like the real Ian will ever find out about it.
The story started writing itself. 
Almost instantly Anna K starts getting e-mail from adoring fans that read her daily postings religiously. One devotee, Tess, seems intent on becoming Anna K's real-life best friend and another, a male admirer who goes by the name of "Ldobler," sounds like he'd want to date Anna K if she didn't already have a boyfriend. Meanwhile, the real Anna can't help but wonder if her newfound fans like her or the alter ego she's created. It's only a matter of time before fact and fiction collide and force Anna to decide not only who she wants to be with, but who she wants to be.

Have you read any of these books?  Do any sound good to you?  Will you add any to your TBR list?  And while you're here, don't forget to enter my giveaway below!


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A to Z April: V Reviews - Vanished by T.J. MacGregor/Vitals by Greg Bear

I must admit I was surprised that I didn't have more books that started with V.  But most of the ones I've read actually have been since I've started reviewing.  And some I'd kind of already mentioned with other books by the same author.  A couple I thought about talking about were ones that I feel are already popular and so didn't really need any extra help from me.  So I picked two adult science fiction titles to share today.

First is Vanished by T.J. MacGregor.  I'm guessing I picked the book up because it compared the author to Dean Koontz, who I have mentioned many times before as one of my favorite authors.  I gave it 4 of 5 starts on Goodreads, and here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Hundreds of birds lined his maple trees. In his eighteen years as a country veterinarian, Max Thorn had never seen anything like them. They were watching, waiting until Max's wife, Ellen, left on her morning run. At the edge of their property, she turned to wave and began to fade before his eyes. One minute she was there, the next she had vanished, leaving no trace but a circle of dead foliage and birds.

Presumed guilty of Ellen's murder, Max finds himself on the run, desperate to prove his innocence. But as he soon discovers, his wife's chilling disappearance is not an isolated incident. Across the nation, other strange vanishings have been reported, other mentions of the mysterious birds and scorched earth, and it's clear that nothing will ever be the same again. Now, it will take a man, a woman, and a child to discover the chilling truth, before all hope vanishes. 

Second I chose a book by a more well known author, Greg Bear, and that book is Vitals.  I enjoyed Darwin's Radio by the author, and this title was probably one I got as a stripped cover at the bookstore where I work.  It has to do with living forever and the scientific search to find a way to do that.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Hal Cousins is one of a handful of scientists nearing the most sought after discovery in human history: the key to short-circuiting the aging process. Fueled by a wealth of research, an overdose of self-confidence, and the money of influential patrons to whom he makes outrageous promises, Hal experiments with organisms living in the hot thermal plumes in the ocean depths. But as he journeys beneath the sea, his other world is falling apart.

Across the country, scientists are being inexplicably murdered–including Hal’s identical twin brother, who is also working to unlock the key to immortality. Hal himself barely eludes a cold-blooded attack at sea, and when he returns home to Seattle, he finds himself walking into an eerie realm where voices speak to him from the dead . . . where a once-brilliant historian turned crackpot is leading him on a deadly game of hide-and-seek . . . and where the beautiful, rich widow of his twin is more than willing to pick up the pieces of Hal’s life–and take him places he’s never been before.

Suddenly Hal is trapped inside an ever-twisting maze of shocking revelations. For he is not the first person to come close to ending aging forever–and those who came before him will stop at nothing to keep the secret to themselves. Now every person on earth is at risk of being made an unsuspecting player in one man’s spectacular and horrifying master plan.

From the bottom of Russia’s Lake Baikal to a billionaire’s bionic house built into the cliffs of the Washington seashore, from the darkest days of World War II and the reign of Josef Stalin to the capitalist free-for-all that is the United States, Vitals tells an astounding tale of the most unimaginable scientific secret of all–exposed by the quest for immortality itself . . .


Have you read either of these books?  Or either of these authors?  Are you a science fiction fan?  And don't forget to enter my giveaway below!


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A to Z April: U Reviews - Uglies by Scott Westerfeld/Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman

My two book choices today couldn't be farther apart in what type of story they are. The first is a YA Science Fiction/Dystopian story, a series that I LOVE!  The second is a classic realistic fiction story about an inner city school and what a teacher who works there deals with while trying to do her best to educate according to her ideals.

First is Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.  I love, love, love this series.  The first book was what sounded like an idea world.  You go through your adolescence dealing with all the things everyone does now, awkwardness, acne, growing into your features, etc.  But then at a certain age everyone has surgery and becomes what is called a Pretty, which is the second book in the series.  It's kind of the way kids feel about when they finally become an adult, how all those problems are supposed to magically disappear, like having surgery.  Of course there is more to the story than just a surgery to fix your looks, as you'll find as you read it!  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license - for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all.

The choice Tally makes changes her world forever...

I also got to meet the author a year or so ago, here I am with him:

My second book is a classic called Up the Down Staircase.  I don't remember how I got ahold of this one, but it was an eye opener for me as someone who wanted to be a teacher.  I grew up going to a private school until 8th grade, then I went to a suburban school for high school.  So the way the students were in this book were not at all like I was used to as a student myself.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is one of the best-loved novels of our time. It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.

Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose dash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.

So, have you read either of these books?  If not, do you think you might want to now?   And while you're here, don't forget to enter my contest below!


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A to Z April: T Reviews - Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell/Tales of the Slayers/ Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth

Again the letter T has a lot of titles, so I narrowed it down to 3.  One of them is from the Buffyverse but each one in the series is by different authors, so I can't list that for sure in the title of this post.  And the other is the first book I read by an author that I think deserves more attention for her amazing teen novels.

First is Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell.  Ms. Chappell is an author that I feel deserves so much more attention.  Her books all have a great theme to them.  Some kind of hard hitting subject that you may not often see in stories, or at least they are not done as well as this author does.  This book I think was one of my first e-galleys, and I loved it.  I also got to meet the author the first year I went to BEA.

Here's the blurb for the book I'm spotlighting today from Goodreads:

Fin can't stop counting. She's always heard a voice inside her head, ordering her to listen, but ever since she's moved to the Sunshine State and her parents split up, numbers thump like a metronome, rhythmically keeping things in control. When a new doctor introduces terms such as "clinical depression" and "OCD" and offers a prescription for medication, the chemical effects make Fin feel even more messed up. Until she meets Thayer, a doodling, rule-bending skater who buzzes to his own beat—and who might just understand Fin's hunger to belong, and her struggle for total constant order.

Crissa-Jean Chappell's candid and vividly told debut novel shares the story of a young teen's experience with obsessive compulsive disorder and her remarkable resolve to find her own inner strength.

The second book is kind of a series.  If you watched the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series you know that there have been slayers all throughout history.  And we also know that there are those in training up until the current chosen one dies, and then one of them is called into service. This fascinating side series goes into the stories about the other slayers.  There are some great authors that wrote the different books in this series, included Nancy Holder, Christopher Golden, Yvonne Navarro, Mel Odom, just to name a few.  Here is the blurb for the first one from Goodreads:
A collection of original short stories based on the hit TV series created by Joss Whedon

Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, to find the vampires where they gather, and to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. In our time, that girl is Buffy Summers. But Buffy is merely one Slayer in an eternal continuum of warriors for the Powers That Be.

We've known of others; The Primal Slayer, who stalked the earth and the forces of darkness in fierce solitude... Nikki, the funky hipster whose demise at Spike's hands lent an urban edge to his wardrobe and a bigger bounce to his swagger. Slayers by nature have a limited life expectancy; for each one who falls, another rises to take her place.

Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 1, chronicles Slayers past who have influenced -- and are influenced by -- the traditions and mythologies of yore. From ancient Greece, to aristocratic Slayers holding court in revolution-era France, to the legend of the Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory, to 1920's Munich, each girl has a personal history, a shared moral code, and a commitment to conquer evil, regardless of the cost...

The last book I want to talk about today is the first in another series, it is called Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth.  One that I don't feel got the attention it should have either.  It was a science fiction type of story, about people who can communicate with the dead.  People born with violet colored eyes.  But their lives are not as easy, even though they have jobs just lined up for them.  Because now they have a serial killer after them.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
In a world where the dead can testify against the living, someone is getting away with murder. Because to every generation are born a select few souls with violet-colored eyes, and the ability to channel the dead. Both rare and precious—and rigidly controlled by a society that craves their services—these Violets perform a number of different duties. The most fortunate increase the world's cultural heritage by channeling the still-creative spirits of famous dead artists and musicians. The least fortunate aid the police and the law courts, catching criminals by interviewing the deceased victims of violent crime.

But now the Violets themselves have become the target of a brutal serial murderer—a murderer who had learned how to mask his or her identity even from the victims. Can the FBI, aided by a Violet so scared of death that she is afraid to live, uncover the criminal in time? Or must more of her race be dispatched to the realm that has haunted them all since childhood?

Have you heard of either of my authors I've talked about here that I feel need more attention?  Have you read their books?  How about the extra stories for the Buffyverse?  Do you think those sound like fun?

While you're here, make sure you enter my giveaway below!

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A to Z April: S Reviews - Strangers by Dean Koontz/Summer to Die by Lois Lowry/Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Since there were soooooo many books that started with the letter S, it was really hard to narrow it down to just two to review today. So I'm going to do three that are ones that I just couldn't give up on as I tried to decide.  The first is one of my all time favorite Dean Koontz books.  The next one is one of the books I read as a teen over and over.  And the last one is a sequel to Gone with the Wind, one of my favorite all time books ever since high school.

First is Strangers by Dean Koontz.  I read this book over and over, even at over 700 pages, I could read through it in a day or two because of what a good read it was.  It is a UFO type of story.  There are bits that make you think of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but all in all it is just one of Koontz's great earlier stories.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
A surgeon, a writer, a motel-keeper, a priest and a thief; they have nothing in common - nothing but one hot summer night at the Tranquillity Motel: a night filled with unending terror; a night when an awesome power stripped them of their memories.

Now the evil is creeping back into their minds. Slowly, tauntingly, maddeningly, they are recalling the unspeakable events of that fateful moonlit evening. And as the vision of evil grows clearer, the guests of the Tranquillity Motel seek each other out. Some of them will not live to face the power head on. But some will - in a terror-packed climax unlike anything ever experienced before...

Second is A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry.  It's one of her sad teen stories that she wrote so many of.  It's not at all a dystopian story like The Giver.  This is about a girl who gets leukemia and how her family deals with it.  I don't know if I can put my finger on all the little things that have influenced my life from this book, but there are many.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Meg isn't thrilled when she gets stuck sharing a bedroom with her older sister Molly. The two of them couldn't be more different, and it's hard for Meg to hide her resentment of Molly's beauty and easy popularity. But now that the family has moved to a small house in the country, Meg has a lot to accept.

Just as the sisters begin to adjust to their new home, Meg feels that Molly is starting up again by being a real nuisance. But Molly's constant grouchiness, changing appearance, and other complaints are not just part of a new mood. And the day Molly is rushed to the hospital, Meg has to accept that there is something terribly wrong with her sister. That's the day Meg's world changes forever. Is it too late for Meg to show what she really feels?

The last book I want to talk about today is Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley.  When this book came out I devoured it.  Shortly after the book was out, they made a mini-series for tv of it.  And while it was okay, it skipped some of the parts I loved about the book. But isn't that how it always is?  This book picks up after Rhett left Scarlett.  It includes her taking a trip to Ireland to be with her father's side of the family.  She finds out that Rhett seems to be done with her when she went back to try to get him back.  Her mother's family demands she has nothing to do with her father's family, it all leads to her trip to Ireland, along with a new romance, one that soon turns into a murder, that Scarlett will be blamed for.  Here is the pretty nondescript blurb from Goodreads:
The timeless tale continues... The most popular and beloved American historical novel ever written, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal of men and women at once larger than life but as real as ourselves. Now bestselling writer Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course, Scarlett. As the classic story, first told over half a century ago, moves forward, the greatest love affair in all fiction is reignited; amidst heartbreak and joy, the endless, consuming passion between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination. Rich with surprises at every turn and new emotional, breathtaking adventures, Scarlett satisfies our longing to reenter the world of Gone With the Wind, and like its predecessor, Scarlett will find an eternal place in our hearts.

Talking about all three of these has made me want to read them again!  So tell me, are you a Dean Koontz reader?  If so, have you read this one?  Did you read Lois Lowry as a teen?  And have you read this sequel to Gone With the Wind?

While you're here, be sure to enter the giveaway that is going along with my A to Z challenge!

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A to Z April: R Reviews - Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler/Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

My books today are from two opposite genres.  The first is one of two books that draws on the obsession so many people have with Jane Austen books, both readers today as well as those when the books were written.  The second is a science fiction book, the first in a series that I got behind after four or five, but hope one day to maybe get back into them.

First is Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, and it is actually the 2nd book in the Jane Austen Addict series.  But it fit into my A to Z to do this one, so I'll discuss it today.  The first book in the series had to do with a modern day girl, Courtney, back into time period of the Jane Austen books. This 2nd book takes the girl she kind of replaced in that time period, Jane, and plops her in modern day life in Los Angeles.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
While Confessions took twenty-first-century free spirit Courtney Stone into the social confines of Jane Austen's era, Rude Awakenings tells the parallel story of Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter from Regency England who inexplicably awakens in Courtney's overly wired and morally confused L.A. life.

For Jane, the modern world is not wholly disagreeable. Her apartment may be smaller than a dressing closet, but it is fitted up with lights that burn without candles, machines that wash bodies and clothes, and a glossy rectangle in which tiny people perform scenes from her favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. Granted, if she wants to travel she may have to drive a formidable metal carriage, but she may do so without a chaperone. And oh, what places she goes! Public assemblies that pulsate with pounding music. Unbound hair and unrestricted clothing. The freedom to say what she wants when she wants-even to men without a proper introduction.

Jane relishes the privacy, independence, even the power to earn her own money. But how is she to fathom her employer's incomprehensible dictates about "syncing a BlackBerry" and "rolling a call"? How can she navigate a world in which entire publications are devoted to brides but flirting and kissing and even the sexual act itself raise no matrimonial expectations? Even more bewildering are the memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who is as attractive and confusing to Jane as the man who broke her heart back home. It's enough to make her wonder if she would be better off in her own time, where at least the rules are clear-that is, if returning is even an option.

Second is Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  It is a really cool story about a plant that has some kind of mutative powers when ingested.  And it has created a monster.  A monster that is transported to a museum where it creates havoc. Loved this story, and just ignore the horrible movie made from it!   Also this story brings together two people who will be a duo that the series will follow.  Here is the blurb for the first one from Goodreads:
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?


Are you a big Jane Austen fan?  What would you do if you were all of a sudden living in that time period?  What do you think about a mystery in a museum of a killer creature that no one has ever seen before?  Scary?  Have you seen the movie they made of the book, which for the most part was pretty bad?

While you're here, don't forget to enter my month-long giveaway that goes along with the challenge.

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A to Z April: Q Reviews - Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot/Queen of the Slayers by Nancy Holder

You would think book titles starting with the letter Q would be few and far between. And really, that is true for the most part. But I had two that started with the word queen, so that worked perfectly for the first post this week.  One is a chick lit book, another by that popular author Meg Cabot.  The other is a story from the last season of one of my most favorite tv series ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


So, as I said, the first is by Meg Cabot, it is the first in the Queen of Babble series, and that is its title.  It's kind of an American girl in Europe story.  The main character Lizzie just cannot keep her mouth shut.  And she is always opening up and letting the wrong things slip in front of the wrong people.  Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:

What's an American girl with a big mouth, but an equally big heart, to do?

Lizzie Nichols has a problem, and it isn't that she doesn't have the slightest idea what she's going to do with her life, or that she's blowing what should be her down payment on a cute little Manhattan apartment on a trip to London to visit her long-distance boyfriend, Andrew. But what's the point of planning for the future when she's done it again? See, Lizzie can't keep her mouth shut. And it's not just that she can't keep her own secrets, she can't keep anything to herself.

This time when she opens her big mouth, her good intentions get Andrew in major hot water. So now Lizzie's stuck in London with no boyfriend and no place to stay until the departure date written on her non-refundable airline ticket.

Fortunately, there's Shari, Lizzie's best friend and college roommate, who's spending her summer in southern France, catering weddings with her boyfriend, Chaz, in a sixteenth-century château. One call and Lizzie's on a train to Souillac. Who cares if she's never traveled alone in her life and only speaks rudimentary French? One glimpse of gorgeous Château Mirac - not to mention gorgeous Luke, the son of Château Mirac's owner - and she's smitten.

But while most caterers can be trusted to keep a secret, Lizzie's the exception. And no sooner has the first cork been popped than Luke hates her, the bride is in tears, and it looks like Château Mirac is in danger of becoming a lipo-recovery spa. As if things aren't bad enough, her ex-boyfriend Andrew shows up looking for "closure" (or at least a loan), threatening to ruin everything, especially Lizzie's chance at ever finding real love...

Unless she can figure out a way to use that big mouth of hers to save the day.

The 2nd one is from the last season when the only way for the Scooby gang to win was to get all the slayers in training up to full slayer power.  Of course it takes magic, and Willow is there to do that. Even with the misgivings of the last time she did big magic and what it turned her into.  After they've saved the world, what does it man to have all of those slayers now, instead of just the Chosen ONE.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:

No vacation. No benefits. And the only retirement is an early death. 

With the closing of the Hellmouth and the awakening of hundreds of potential slayers, Buffy Summers thought she had overturned the Slayer's self-sacrifice and earned herself a much-deserved break. But the thrill of victory is short-lived. The Forces of Darkness are not ones to graciously accept defeat, and the collective rage unites disparate and powerful parties more eager than ever to reclaim dominance.
Willow's magickal distribution of the slayer essence left girls across the world discovering their latent power. Giles races to reorganize the now much-needed Watchers Council, and the Scoobies relocate to Europe. And there in Rome, Buffy is drawn to the Immortal -- a charismatic, if inscrutable, figure. But then comes word that a number of the fresh slayers are being coerced to join an army of slayers -- governed by the mysterious "Queen of the Slayers," an awesome evil determined to claim the intoxicating slayer essence for herself.
Xander is sent to Africa to learn more about the origin of the slayer essence. Instead, he returns to report that, alarmingly, there's not enough good in the world to counteract the overabundance of evil, and that the deciding apocalypse is drawing much too near. Alliances are formed and loyalties betrayed as it comes down to slayer versus slayer, leading to an ultimate battle of champions -- from Buffy's past and present. And then an unimaginable gift arrives...

If you are a Meg Cabot fan, have you read this book, or this series?  I believe I need to finish the series.  Are you a Buffy fan?  If so, have you read any of the books or graphic novels based after the tv series ended?

While you're here, don't forget to enter my giveaway below!

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Sunday Post #24 and Stacking the Shelves April 19th, 2015

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Last week on the blog:

• A to Z Challenge:  K Reviews, L Reviews, M Reviews, N Reviews, O Reviews, P Reviews
•  Review and Blog Tour: Supervision by Alison Stine (Giveaway)
• Blog Tour:  Never Sleep by Cady Vance (Giveaway)
• Review and Blog Tour:  Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke (Prisoner of Night and Fog #2) by Anne Blankman (Giveaway)

My mini-reviews are going pretty well.  It was nice having them all done for this past week ahead of time.  Later today I'm going to try to get all of them done for this week.  It was nice realize that I'm halfway done with the challenge as well.  As much as I'm enjoying being a part of it, I don't always do some of the other memes I do because of it, and I do miss those.

This week on the blog:

• A to Z Challenge:  Q-V posts
• Review:  An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
• Review:  The Replaced (The Taking #2) by Kimberly Derting
• Possible Reviews:  Of Shadow and Stone by Michelle Muto or Be Not Afraid by Cecilia Galante
• Trailer Reveal:  Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidit
• Cover Reveal:  The Gatherers by Ashley Ehlers

I'm trying to sign up for less tours that I have to review the book, just because I have so many e-galleys to read I'm not getting to books I have sitting on actual bookshelves!  I only work one night at the bookstore this week, so hoping to get a lot more reading done.  I've got a few e-galleys I downloaded from Netgalley that I'm going to just give a quick feedback on as I had trouble getting into them, and that will hopefully help bring my percentage up on that site.

My Fit/Walking Goals:
I'm trying to work on getting back into shape, and I am a walker.  I've got a Fitbit and so I'm using the steps on that until I get better/more time to walk.  I'd like to get back to my 20 miles of walking a week.  For now I'm walking when I can, and trying to get about 10,000 steps a day.  Starting next week I'm going to post a daily update of steps on this post, as well as how many miles I walked.  My 20 miles a week is separate from how many steps I get a day. While those steps from the miles count towards my daily step goal, the normal daily steps don't count towards my 20 miles.  Does that make sense?

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.
HI, my name is Lisa, and I'm a bookaholic.  (I'll pause while everyone reading says "Hi Lisa").  I sometimes can't believe how ridiculous I am about books.  It's like a serious addiction. There is no way I will ever get to all the books I have sitting in my house to read, yet I keep adding more!  Anyway, here's the past week's additions.

Physical copies of books:

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I checked the first one out from the library.  I've seen the sequel's egalley up somewhere and it reminded me that I'd wanted to read the first one.  Hope to get around to it.  The 2nd one was a strip cover from the bookstore, and I don't like this cover as much as the hardcover one, but it may make more sense for what it is about. And I found the third book at Half Price bookstore for less than half price, and I really need to finish that series!

For Book Tours:

Free ebooks:

I haven't read either of these series, but this novella was free, so I thought maybe I'd try reading it and see if it got me interested at all in the two series.

E-galleys:
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Both are from Edelweiss.  I've still asked the publisher for a physical ARC of Persuasion, because I got an ARC of the first book last summer at BEA and would like to have a matching set, but we'll see what happens!

Those are the things I added this week.  What about you?  What are your plans for the week?  What have you added to your shelves?  And don't forget while you're here to enter my month long giveaway that goes with my A to Z Challenge below!

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A to Z April: P Reviews - Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen/The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt

For the last post this week I've got an old romance novel and a YA paranormal story.  Both are books I really enjoyed, and remember well.

The first book I want to talk about is one that I did actually review on my blog. But it is a series that I don't think gets enough attention.  So I want to bring it back by linking you to my reviews of the first two books in the Past Midnight series by Mara Purnhagen HERE.  And then I'll share the blurb from Goodreads below.  I just loved the ghost story, the characters, the mystery, such a great story!
Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I'm not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV…no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I'm usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven't gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents' research trip in Charleston—and now I'm being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fit into a new school and keeping my parents' creepy occupation a secret from my friends—and potential boyfriends—is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear.

All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive….

The second book is one that I happened upon by chance.  I had been hanging out with my aunt and cousins for the day because my parents were busy for something I can't remember now. We'd gone over to her grandmother-in-law's house.  I was bored, it was before I always remembered to bring a book with me.  So I saw a book sitting on a table and asked if I could read it.  Or maybe I picked it up and started reading, and the lady who it belonged to actually told me I could take it with me when we left. I'd always thought peacocks were cool, so that is one thing that got my attention. The other thing is that opals were my birthstone, and in this book I first learned about black opals, and probably became really obsessed with all types of opals.   Here is the blurb for it from Goodreads:
Victoria Holt demonstrates her mastery once again in her most exciting novel set in turn-of-the-century England where a young woman grows up in the shadow of the great estate - and privileged way of life - that was once her family's birthright. But a unique inheritance compels Jessica Clavering to marry the owner of a fabled opal mine and leads her to faraway Australia. There she will discover the mysteries - and evil - surrounding the greatest opal ever found. There she must confront the danger that lust for the stone has aroused even in her own husband - and there she must find love.

Actually both books I've chosen today have ghosts in them!  Or seem to maybe have ghosts.  And romance. Have you read either of these?  I am friends with the author of the first one, Mara Purnhagen, on Facebook.  And I've asked her what book is next. Nothing so far.  But I enjoy her writing so hope there will be more soon.  I've tried other books from the 2nd author, but haven't found any I loved as much as this one.

While you're here, enter my giveaway below!

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