Cleaning Up My TBR With a Giveaway (US Only) - Down the TBR Hole #39

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time. 


1.   Giant George:  Life with the World's Biggest Dog by Dave Nasser:

With his big blue eyes and soulful expression, George was the irresistible runt of the litter. But Dave and Christie Nasser's "baby" ended up being almost five feet tall, seven feet long, and 245 pounds. Eager to play, and boisterous to the point of causing chaos, this big Great Dane was scared of water, scared of dogs a fraction of his size and, most of all, scared of being alone.

GIANT GEORGE is the charming story of how this precocious puppy won Dave and Christie's hearts and along the way became a doggie superstar. In 2010, George was named by Guinness World Records as the Tallest Dog in the World-ever. He appeared on Oprah, and even has his own global fan club. But to Dave and Christie, this extraordinary animal is still their beloved pet, the one who has made them laugh, made them cry, and continues to make them incredibly happy.
 
My thoughts:
As adorable as this is, I know I won't have time to read it. 

Verdict:  Toss



2.  Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout:

Dying sucks
...and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand.

After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.

Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he's a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she's more than interested. There's just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she's willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't?

But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not've been an accident at all, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life.

For real this time.

My thoughts: 
I could have sworn I had a copy of this one somewhere. But I don't.  But I know I will want to read some day, so it's not going anywhere.

Verdict: Keep 



3.  Skinny by Donna Cooner:

Find your voice.

Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.

But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical—and partly to try and save her own life—Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.

With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own.

 

My thoughts:  
While I still think it sounds good, I think we have a copy in my school library, so I will just go grab it from the shelf if I want to read it, probably don't need to keep it on a list.

Verdict: Toss



4-5.  Shadow Days (Nightshade #0.5) and Treachery (Nightshade #2.5) by Andrea Cremer:

Shadow Days, told from Shay's perspective, chronicles the days before the start of the New York Times bestselling Nightshade, when Shay is taken away from the friends he loves and forced to live in his uncle Bosqu Mar's mansion, where the gargoyles seem to move, magic seems real, and nothing is as it should be.

Ansel's world is falling apart. The Nightshade pack led by his parents has been violently destroyed. His sister, Calla, abandoned her little brother, leaving him to answer for her crimes. And the Haldis pack that would have been his future is irreparably broken by Calla's betrayal. Suffering at the hands of the Keepers, Ansel is losing everything he's ever loved. The only chance he has to save himself means an alliance with his tormentors, and repaying Calla in full for her treachery.
In this novella, find out why Ansel makes the decisions he does in Andrea Cremer's "New York Times" bestselling novel, "Wolfsbane" 

My thoughts:  As much as I wanted to read these novellas that went with this series, since it has been so long since I read them in the first place, I don't know that I'm really that interested in them anymore.

Verdict: Toss

6.   Captive (The Blackcoat Rebellion #2) by Aimee Carter:

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever.

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

My thoughts:
I still need to read the first book in the series, so until I read that and know that I want to read on, there's no reason to keep this on my list.

Verdict:  Toss



7.  The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech:

From Newbery Medal winner and bestselling author Sharon Creech comes a grand, sweeping yarn that is a celebration of the great and unexpected gifts of love, friendship, and forgiveness. With a starred review from Kirkus Reviews calling it an "enchanting tale to treasure," The Great Unexpected captures the heart and the imagination.

Humorous and heartfelt, this is a story of pairs—of young Naomi and Lizzie, both orphans in present-day Blackbird Tree, USA, and of Sybil and Nula, grown-up sisters from faraway Rook's Orchard, Ireland, who have become estranged.

Young Naomi Deane is brimming with curiosity and her best friend, Lizzie Scatterding, could talk the ears off a cornfield. Naomi has a knack for being around when trouble happens. She knows all the peculiar people in town—like Crazy Cora and Witch Wiggins. But then, one day, a boy drops out of a tree. Just like that. A strangely charming Finn boy. And then the Dingle Dangle man appears, asking all kinds of questions. Curious surprises are revealed—three locked trunks, a pair of rooks, a crooked bridge, and that boy—and soon Naomi and Lizzie find their lives changed forever.

As two worlds are woven together, Creech reveals that hearts can be mended and that there is indeed a gossamer thread that connects us all.


My thoughts:
I don't read a lot of middle grade books these days, so I'll probably skip this one.


Verdict: Toss



8.  Wool (Silo #1) by Hugh Howey:

An epic story of life, love and survival at all odds and one of the most-talked and anticipated books of the year.

In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.

Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.

To live, you must follow the rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.

Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.

Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last.

My thoughts:  
I still really think I want to read this one.  I hear a lot of good things about it.

Verdict:  Keep - for now


 9.  Black City by Elizabeth Richards:

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.
My thoughts:
Eh, kind of good, but not anything new really. 


Verdict:  Toss


10.  No Shelter by T.S. Welti:

When the environment is ravaged by rising sea levels and monstrous storms, America is divided and survival becomes more precious than love.

When seventeen-year-old Nada and Isaac stumble upon a handsome stranger in the woods, their cozy alliance and romance begin to unravel. This stranger promises Nada the impossible in exchange for helping him rescue his sister from a prison in the last corner of civilization in the western United States. But this rescue operation is wrought with complications, including the fact that the girl they are supposed to save is the ex-President's daughter. This mission puts everyone's life at risk, especially Isaac--the one person who has always been there for Nada. Now Nada and her small tribe must choose between a somewhat comfortable existence in the mountains and the chance at a life free of fear and starvation.
 
My thoughts:
Doesn't sound that original to me, so I'll probably skip.

Verdict: Toss



11.  Click by Lisa Becker:

Fast approaching her 30th birthday and finding herself not married, not dating, and without even a prospect or a house full of cats, Renee Greene, the heroine of Click: An Online Love Story, reluctantly joins her best guy pal on a journey to find love online in Los Angeles. The story unfolds through a series of emails between Renee and her best friends (anal-compulsive Mark, the overly-judgmental Ashley and the over-sexed Shelley) as well as the gentlemen suitors she meets online. From the guy who starts every story with "My buddies and I were out drinking one night," to the egotistical "B" celebrity looking for someone to stroke his ego, Renee endures her share of hilarious and heinous cyber dates. Fraught with BCC's, FWD's and inadvertent Reply to All's, readers will root for Renee to "click" with the right man.

My thoughts:
So, I have since read a few books by this author that I really liked, several years after I actually added this to my TBR list on Goodreads. But I think I still want to try this at some time!

Verdict:  Keep



Final Thoughts:
So I actually did 11 off my list this week, and I'm only keeping 3 of them, so that is good.

Once again you can see that I may have dropped some, but you can also see how many I've added during the week as well because I'm also pointing out how many books are on my Want to Read list on Goodreads each week.  This week, after taking these 8 off, I have 3,147 books listed now, and last week I ended with 3,149.  So I improved!  A tiny bit.

Have you read any of these?  Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing?  And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.      
 

Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  You get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  As I mentioned above, unpacking is finding a lot of books to get rid of, so you have even more to pick from this week!  Here are your choices:   

2018 ARCs:

2017 ARCs:

I'm continuing to add in my early 2019 ARCs now.  You can pick one of your two choices from the picture below, the other book you pick needs to come from the pictures above.  

And here are the older ones I've cleaned out as I unpack:

2010-2013 ARCs:

2014 ARCs:

2015-2016 ARCs:

Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below.   Disclaimer:  Unfortunately, while I've only had it happen once, I'm going to have to make a statement like other giveaways I've seen on blogs that I am not responsible for lost mail.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A to Z April - X: EXtras

One plus I would definitely say about e-books, is that there seems to be a plethora of short stories that are so much easier to get a hold of since you no longer have to wait until a compilation of short stories is released.  And today they are called novellas a lot of the time, and are often stories in between or before a series of books even started.  It is often neat to me to find out how things in a dystopian world became that way, since it often doesn't get into the nitty gritty details in the actual full length stories sometimes.  I also enjoy when an author does a little spin off with a minor character that may have stood out and I really would like to know more about them and their own story.  So below I will list 5 novellas that I think were of great added value to the stories they go with.


1.

 

Now this is the one I read the most recently, so is the freshest in my mind.  But, it was such a great prequel to the book Dorothy Must Die.  As I read the actual book, I wondered what had happened to make Dorothy such a bad person, and why was  Glinda not the good witch we remembered?  You learn quite a bit, about Dorothy mostly, in this really great prequel.

2.

 

Now this is actually a printed book, with 3 short stories in it.  But, it was an e-galley of this that I read. I had received the book The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa when I went to BEA in the summer of 2012.  But I had yet to pick it up, mainly because while I knew she was a popular author, I hadn't read anything of hers, and wasn't quite sure about it.  I read the short story in here, Dawn of Eden, which is a prequel to the story, and I was sold.  The writing, the plot, all of it was great.  So once again I think this was an awesome "EXtra" for a book series.

3.

 

The Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter is one of my favorite series.  This is a short story I also got to read as an e-galley.  But it has since been published as part of a physical short story collection called The Goddess Legacy.  This one tells the story of Hera/Calliope.  And I really enjoyed it because you don't really like her in the overall book series, and this book gives you a bit of sympathy for her, even though I still don't agree with things she does.  

4.

 

I love the Splintered series by AG Howard, it got me interested in Alice in Wonderland, when it had never really been one of my favorite fairy tales.  And this is a short story that gives another side of the story, from Morpheus and Jeb's points of view, instead of just Alyssa's.

5.

 

I hadn't read any of the series since I got to read an e-galley of the very first one before it was published.  And then I saw I could get an e-galley of the 3rd in the series.  So, I checked the 2nd one out at the library, and downloaded this short story.  And this was a great prequel short story that got me back into what the plot and who the characters were.  And Roar is someone you just really love in the books, so it was fun to read his side of the story and find out what made him the way he was.

So, have you had a chance to read many of these short stories that go with novels or books series?  I could have done a separate list of ones that were kind of a waste of time, especially if I had to pay for them, but I try to keep things on here positive and recommend things I liked.

If you want, there are 2 days left to enter my 900 Bloglovin follower giveaway HERE, and there are only 22 entries so far, so you have a good chance!

 

 

Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel, and Raven by Lauren Oliver

A lot of times the little 1.5 or 2.5 stories that authors make available are only in ebook format.  I'd assume these originally were as well, but I was excited to see they were all put together into one actual paper book.  I bought this with the Amazon gift card that I won from The Reader's Den.  And I'm glad to say it was definitely a good way to spend part of that prize!  I also often feel that the little in between stories are a waste of time, and while $1.99 or whatever the small price they cost seems fair, on occasions I am left feeling like I wasted that money.  As much as I love the Wither series by Lauren DeStefano, the short novella, Seeds of Wither, was actually kind of a disappointment.  There really wasn't that much new in it.  All three of the stories in this book though were 5 star stories in my opinion.  And so I'll review them each on their own.

Hana - This is the story of Lena's best friend from the first book, Delirium, it is considered 1.5 in the series, although it's not really in between the first and second books, just during the first one.  But I love hearing about their friendship from Hana's side.  To see things from her perspective really opens up the story.  Even makes me want to go back and re-read the first book to fit in my new thoughts as I read the story.  Whereas in Delirium, I actually didn't really like Hana.  Without this story it was hard to understand her.  This story really makes you like her, or it did me.  You even feel sorry for her and hope things could be better for her.

Annabel - Now we get to meet Lena's mother and what led up to her being put in the prison cell.  It is 0.5 in the series.  Learning how her "delirium" actually even worked when she got her "matches" so that she was able to marry the man she loved, even if he would never be able to actually love her like she loved him.  We learn about what her sister, Lena's aunt was like as she grew up.  Again, another emotional story that really added to the story.  Not just a little, but so much to learn about the world before, where all this began.  A great beginning to the series.  Although I think it is good to have read it after reading the actual stories, to make it all more emotional.

Raven - The 3rd and final short story, counts as 2.5 in the series.  Now of course, it does go back a little, and kind of meets up with the 2nd book, Pandemonium, but it also ties in to the end and I believe leads us up to read book 3, although I haven't read it yet!  I can't wait to read it, but no money, and since I have so many other things to read, it's on the list for maybe a library check out this summer.  I don't remember a ton about Raven from the 2nd book, but again, this story really helped to meet her and get to know her.  I do remember Blue from the 2nd book, and so reading about her and Raven was really emotional.  Just another viewpoint that gave so much more information about the story, a whole other aspect of a character.  And not just "extra" but more to the story.

If you're going to pick short novellas to spend the money on, these are definitely worth it.  All 3 of them.  I wouldn't leave any of them out.  If only all novellas had this much.  Really the only one I can remember that I felt had this much to it was in The Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter.  I'll keep trying them though!

The Goddess Inheritance (Goddess Test #3) by Aimee Carter

This is a series I was a bit behind on reading.  I didn't even get started until last summer, when I knew I was going to get the chance to meet the author, Aimee Carter, at BEA.  So I started reading them as soon as I got to NYC to visit my sister last year, and was hooked!  I read right through the first one, and all the others that were available at the time, even the short story that was only available as an e-book.  So I was very excited when I saw that The Goddess Inheritance was going to be available on Netgalley.  So I have to thank Harlequin Teen for once again allowing me to read one of their awesome titles early!!
Warning!  If you haven't read any of the series yet, there will definitely be spoilers, so you might want to stop now!!
We left off with Kate being pregnant with Henry's child, thanks to Ava working her powers.  But Calliope now has Kate held prisoner at Cronus's palace, or island where he escaped to from Tartarus.  Kate doesn't think that Henry knows she is pregnant with his child, and Calliope intends to take the baby and then kill Kate.  But Cronus is grateful for the little bit of kindness that Kate had shown him when he was able to escape, and wants to keep her as his queen, even as he intends to take revenge on his children, and probably ultimately destroy the humans.  Kate must figure a way to help the council fight him.  But also she now wants nothing more than for her child, who she names Milo, to be safe.  Even if she never gets to see him, if she must sacrifice herself to be Cronus's partner, as long as he gets to be with family, Henry, her mother, then she will be happy.  However, without Calliope, and Ava who is there with Calliope, seeming to be her partner, the council is not sure how they can beat Cronus.  Ava says she is on their side, only there to try to save Nicholas, Calliope's son, and Ava's husband.  While Kate is able to escape with the help of Ava, she is unable to take Milo with her.  And now must scheme to figure out how to save her son.  She also must figure a way to save Henry, as Calliope was able to injure him with a weapon that Nicholas helped her forge, that will kill the gods.  So while the council wages small battles, and searches for other gods on earth to help them fight, Kate goes after other Titans to try to find a cure for Henry.  If she can save Henry, then she can go to be with Cronus knowing Milo will be with his father.  But like all of the Goddess Test books, there are twists and turns at all points, and it is not at all predictable.  There are deaths at the end, some good, some sad.  But in all a good ending.  Although, I think there is some stuff I wouldn't mind seeing continued on in future books.  Hint hint.

All in all, if you haven't picked up this series yet, you need to get busy!  Once this book comes out, you'll be able to read them all right in a row, without even having to wait in between!  Another great story, while not my favorite of the whole series, Carter once again does not disappoint!!

The Goddess Legacy (Goddess Test #2.5) by Aimee Carter

     Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for allowing me to read this egalley.  Once again Aimee Carter has done a wonderful job in retelling the myths of the Greek gods and goddesses.  She's given them lives and back stories, given us reasons to either sympathize with those we before didn't like, or given us reasons to despise those we used to feel sympathy for.  This is called 2.5, although really it could be categorized as 0.5, as they all lead up to where we start in The Goddess Test.  
     The first story, The Goddess Queen, is about Hera.  In the past I've always disliked her, or felt she was kind of a pain.  She was always so jealous and evil seeming, and even though I knew that Zeus was her husband and cheated on her, she was just always portrayed as a cranky old witch.  But this first story gives you sympathy for her.  As you see how she tries to just keep her power as queen.  She doesn't want to marry Zeus, she is, or thinks she is, in love with Hades.  But eventually Zeus does everything he can to change, and prove to her that he does love her.  And their marriage starts out great.  But soon, he is back to his old ways, and try to fight or prevent it, she does.  And she even tries to overlook and be forgiving, taking in his bastard children and trying to raise them as her own.  But more and more she is betrayed, by Zeus, and even her own sister.  She finally attempts to get the power away from Zeus, and distribute evenly among the original 6 of her brothers and sisters, but instead Zeus finds a way to make her guilty of treason and sends her away, stripping her of her power.  Obviously it is so much more understandable why she became the way she did.
     The second story, The Lovestruck Goddess is about exactly who you think it would be about, Aphrodite.  Again we are given a chance to see her side, to see who she really loves, and to learn that yes, you can love more than one person.  Something I saw a picture of from Eclipse, reminding me of when Jacob said the same thing.  You see the people she comes in contact with, and how she affects their lives.
     The third story, Goddess of the Underworld, is about Persephone.  While you somewhat begin to feel sorry for her, I still feel she comes out as selfish to Hades.  Especially what happens with Hermes.  But again, we get to see how she feels and why she makes the decisions she does.  You again think of Aphrodite as selfish, and see Persephone unselfish in her final love and sacrifice for Adonis.
     The fourth story, God of Thieves, is finally told from a male stand point, that of Hermes, who is James in The Goddess Test.  You now see him as not such a great guy as you thought he was in the first two books.  Even though we don't completely trust him in those, we see other reasons to not like him.  He has also fallen out of favor with the council.  But he has been sent to figure out why certain gods have been fading.  He has a theory, but instead of being able to go to the mortals to test it, he is sent on a mission to just see which other gods and goddesses might have faded.  After he does this though, he sneaks away to the mortals.  There he discovers it is because of a change in religions.  People no longer believe in all of them.  There is one god, or a few, but not all of them.  Before he can get back to save a mortal he has come to care for though, Zeus finds him and takes  him back to Olympus.  So again, a not so happy ending.
     The fifth and final story, God of Darkness, takes us to Hades, who has decided he wants to fade.  He goes to the council, they ask for 100 more years.  And this is the beginning of what will lead to The Goddess Test.  We get to meet the first girl, Ingrid, and watch Hades, or Henry as he is called now, fall in love with her in his own way, even though Persephone will always have his heart it seems.  But then she is killed.  And once again Henry is devastated.  We read about him going through this with all the other girls that we heard about in The Goddess Test, and at the end, we read the beginning of his last chance, when Kate is born.
     I love, love, love how this book ended.  The way it made me feel sympathy and root for Hera, even though I knew as Calliope she would be someone to hate.  You understood a bit more about why Henry is the way he is.  Aimee Carter really knows how to pull out the details and make the old myths and stories more personal, and even in a way that makes sense and seems like it could be real.  I'm so glad this book is here to tide us over until #3, The Goddess Inheritance comes out in 2013.

Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

I was so excited to finally get to see Aimee Carter at BEA and get this book signed by her!  Instead of moving on with the egalleys I had on my Nook, I read it! And I was in no way disappointed!  In fact, you may have seen several posts from me lately about how the 2nd book in the series, while I found them necessary to move the story along, were not as good as the 1st book.  This book however, I actually think was just as good, if not BETTER, than the first one!  I of course had just downloaded and read the 1.5, The Goddess Hunt, before I started this one, but it wasn't needed.  There wasn't much reference to that in Goddess Interrupted, other than we know that Kate spent her 6 months off with James in Greece.  We start out with Calliope serving her punishment by meeting with one of the girls before Kate, Ingrid, that she killed.  But while she is here, she is distracted by a fog on the edge of Ingrid's After Life realm in the Underworld.  Turns out this fog is Cronus, the King of the Titans, and also the "father" of many of the gods.  As the mythology goes, they trapped the Titans in Tartarus, but now they are trying to break lose.  Which is not good for the gods or for humans!  Kate must rescue Henry, and also must figure out how to help the gods keep Cronus from rising.  But instead of coming home to the husband she is looking forward to getting to know and become close with, she comes home to Henry even more secretive and stand offish.  She keeps trying to get him to open up, to the point where she becomes quite a nag it seems.  In fact, this is the only part that almost kept me from giving it a 5 star rating on Goodreads.  With all the talk of how girls are not being strong and we are romanticizing bad relationships in these books, I could see how people might say this is the type of relationship they seem to have.  I don't agree, but I can see people saying that, so it was one thing that detracted from the book for me.  I loved though all the back stories we got, all the interpretations of the Greek myths.  I had to look some of them up online to see how close the book was coming once again to what I remembered reading.  Persephone comes back into the story, and so Kate's whole family dynamic is played out even more.  And while you want to hate Persephone, like Kate, you can see what happened, and kind of be a bit more sympathetic to her case.  Again, part of what will make Kate such a great queen of the Underworld is because of this empathy she has.  And wow, the end of this book, such a cliffhanger!!! And I can't believe who is the betrayer in this!  I had actually suspected this person a bit in the first book, so for it to be that person in this book, so unbelievable!  And I cannot wait till book number 3!!  Fortunately I do have the 2.5 book in the series, The Goddess Legacy to download from Netgalley!  I'll be doing that soon! And here is my picture when I got to meet Aimee Carter at BEA, even though I didn't get the book till the next day!

The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test #1.5) by Aimee Carter

So, I was getting ready to read my brand new autographed copy of Goddess Interrupted from BEA, when I saw something on the bookmark I got with it about this story.  And I know that you don't usually HAVE to read the short stories set in between the novels to keep up, but I decided to go ahead and quickly download the $1.99 e-book on my Nook and read it before I jumped into the next full length story.  This was an interesting and short look into Kate's world in the 6 months after she's married Henry (Hades), and has been sent out into the world to have experiences before she spend her first 6 months with Henry ruling the Underworld.  In it, she's taken off with James (Hermes), to do some sightseeing, and of course the first, and most likely place they visit is Greece.  James seems to have a plan though when he takes Kate and they get "lost" on a hike in the woods. It is here that they run into Castor and Pollux, who are on the run of course from the other gods.  See, one was immortal, the other was not, and they wanted to share the immortality, but Zeus, now called Harold, tricked them, and said while they could share, one would be on the surface, while one would be in the Underworld.  And the thing was that they had wanted to be together!  So Pollux has broken Castor out of the Underworld.  Well, James has always been nice to them, and so he seems to want to just visit with them.  But instead, they end up running into other gods.  I think the point of this little story is to give us a look into how Kate will rule the Underworld.  As we saw in the first book, The Goddess Test, she doesn't agree that the way the council of gods often rules or makes their decisions makes sense.  Henry learns that he doesn't want to lose his wife, and that her decisions are a fresh, new outlook that is probably needed in their world.
I read this really quickly, and moved on to Goddess Interrupted.  I have to say that what I am really liking about these books is that they are doing the same thing that the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan did in a way.  As I read about the stories of the gods as told by Aimee Carter, the author, I am having to go back and look up the actual myths to see how close the interpretations are.  And I love that!!

End of BEA Thoughts

Well, overall, BEA was a great experience.  I got to meet a lot of great authors, and talked to some really cool publishing companies.  I did have some experiences, waiting in line and being told 10 people before me that they'd run out of books, not being allowed to take books and being told to come back later, then those books were given away, that didn't make me too happy.  But I have learned how it works, and by the final day I pretty much made the main things I wanted.  So if I go again, I'll be a bit more prepared.  I am also exhausted, and honestly, haven't had much time to actually READ during the show.  I thought I'd be able to read while waiting in line, but most of the time I was surrounded by other awesome book bloggers and lovers, and so had lots of great conversations with them.  I will do some actual posts about who I met, and the books I got, but more of that will happen when I get home from NYC and can sit down in my own house and get unpacked, etc.  I have decided though, that I probably don't need to buy any books for quite a while!!!  I'm already a little stressed about how I'm going to afford to send all the books I did get home.  Hoping I can get that done for under $50, because I've got to have enough money to last till Wednesday before I go home, then I don't get a paycheck from the bookstore next Friday since I didn't work at all this week.  It'll be interesting to see how cheaply I can live!  Here are the pictures from each day of the things I got.  The only thing not pictures is my copy of Goddess Interrupted as I forgot to put it in the day 3 picture when I was talking it.

Stay tuned for more detailed reviews of the conference, including lists of books, and pictures of authors I met.  Also, the cupcake adventures I've had, and will continue having for a few more days!

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I waited so long to read this, but I'm glad I finally did. I really enjoyed yet another take on the after life, as well as the Greek gods, or Olympians. Basically Kate is our main character, and Kate has just moved to the town of Eden, where her mom grew up. The whole moving thing is s good starting point for a lot of stories it seems. Her mom is sick, dying really. Kate knows there is little time left, so even though she loves living in New York City, she agrees to go with her mom to Eden, to let her end her days in the town where she grew up. Now, of course, things seem to start happening, weird things, right away. One night she almost has a car accident, and sees a very handsome teenage boy at the scene. At school, this one guy, James, who is cute, but kind of eccentric, immediately comes up and starts talking to her, even though she doesn't give him any encouragement. Then, one of the more popular guys seems to take notice of her, and his girlfriend, Ava, doesn't seem very happy about it. She calls Kate and tells her if she'll come to this big party this once, so that the guys can all meet her, she'll leave her alone. Kate agrees, just to get this girl out of her hair, because she seems to be like a mean girl. The girl comes and picks her up, and takes her out by this big mysterious mansion, near where Kate had seen the mysterious guy. She gets her to a stream, then says Kate has to swim to get there, or basically just tells her it's a big setup. But, Ava hits her head when she jumps in the water, and even though Kate is scared of water, she jumps in to try and save her. Well, Ava is dead, can't be saved. But the mysterious guy, Henry, shows up, and offers to save Ava, bring her back from the dead, if only Kate will agree to come live with him in the estate/mansion, and to read up on the myth about Persephone. She agrees, not thinking it is real. So then the next day or so at school, all of a sudden Ava is back and wants to be best friends with Kate. Which seems weird.
But when Ava dies again, because Henry says if Kate doesn't come with him he won't be able to keep her saved, Kate goes to the mansion to beg for Ava's life. Not to mention that as this all happens, Kate's mom goes into a coma and is at the hospital. So of course, Kate also wants to save her mom. Henry says at this point it is too late to save Ava, but he can give her a chance to say goodbye to her mother instead of her passing away in a coma. So of course, Kate agrees again. James, the cute guy from school, warns her not to give in, but promises to keep an eye out for her mother while she is gone.
Once Kate is at the mansion, she learns about tests she must pass, and what she is expected to do with this deal. She also learns that Henry's "life" is on the line if this doesn't work,and that Henry is Hades, and that all the other girls before her, didn't even make it until Christmas time from the start of fall without dying or not passing.
I really liked the book. I liked the story, the way Kate dealt with all that happened, as well as how she came about her feelings for Henry. Kate had so many familiar faces show up as the Greek gods, within the actual story, before you or she knew they were, and then at the end, an even bigger surprise, which I kind of had figured out from the little "prequel" chapter at the beginning. Really, good, can't wait to read on, kind of sorry that I didn't bring the 2nd book with me to NYC this week to read now!

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