Friday, October 23, 2009

Embellish


As a young girl, Solis Burkes is raped at the hands of ruthless school bullies-an incident that hunts her into young adulthood. Then she meets Nacio, a strikingly handsome man who seems to know everything about her-including the painful past Solis hasn’t told anyone about. But what Solis doesn’t know is that Nacio has been with her every step of the way, protecting her since that fateful episode.

It’s a destiny he’s been working up for the last 257 years.

Now, Solis enters a dark world of vampires, voodoo, and passion, she’ll need all the protection she can get. Unbeknownst to her, those responsible for Solis’s rape have returned. Connected to the evil voodoo Priestess Aldicia, they’ll stop at nothing in their plans to spew violence and mayhem throughout the city. And an old family feud dating back centuries puts Solis first on their list of targets. But not if Solis unravel the clues fast enough, and inflict her own brand of revenge.

Embellish mixes sexy romance with high-stakes paranormal intrigue for a keeps-you-guessing, fast-paced and savvy thriller, right up until the shocking finale.

I thought this was a very enjoyable book. I love stories about vampires and magic and one thing that I really appreciate about Embellish is that unlike Twilight, I really liked the lead character so when she was happy, it made me happy. I found that every time I picked it up, I was lost inside it and could feel and see what was going on in the book in my mind. It never seemed to drag on, as soon as I thought I knew what was going to happen, something else would! The author did a great job writing this book for readers who want to feel what’s happening in the story, and I can’t wait to read the sequel!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Rumer and Qix


Rumer, a petite 16 year old with a flair for fashion, loves zipping the vast cityscape of 31st century Nanjing for her job as an apprentice reporter for the Global Quotidien. There's one big problem, though. For some reason, the stories she's assigned are always tedious and never interesting. To make matters worse, her insensitive boss wants her to report on the activities of Alfa, the same mega-conglomerate where her parents died mysteriously when she was eight.

Feeling frustrated, the rebellious Rumer escapes into the indie networks and, along with her pocket-sized sidekick, Qix, soon finds herself puzzling over a series of images of bizarre nature sightings posted by seemingly credible eye-witnesses. Ever since the world's flora and fauna were replaced wiht Alfa's Syncov replicas eons earlier, nature sightings like this have been routinely dismissed, but Rumer senses that something is different this time.

When ethereal voices relay a coded message confirming her hunch that something is terribly amiss, Rumer slips away with Qix on a globe-trotting quest for answers. Two colossal forces are about to square off for the final epic battle that will determine the fate of the planet. Who will triumph, Dr. BigCo, the ruthless CEO of Alfa bent on expanding his empire at all costs, or his nemesis, MoNa, the vulnerable matriarch of the cosmos? The fate of the world hangs in the balance and Rumer holds the key in a race against time.

This wasn't exactly one of my favorite books. I never really found myself being sucked into it. I was always thinking 'okay ...where is this going...' or I was thinking how easy it was to tell what was going to happen next. One of the best and worst qualities of this book was the vocabulary. It was amazing because I learned so many new words(through parts of it I almost had to go get a dictionary) but at the same time,sense it was in the 31st century, a lot of the words weren't real and made no sense what-so-ever to me and the author really didn't attempt to explain them until the end of the book! This wasn't the worst book I've read, but it really wasn't my favorite. I think part of the reason may have been simply that I didn't enjoy the storyline that much, but if you're into the whole end-of-the-world save-us-Mother Nature thing than it would be a good book for you...I'm just not that person.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Thanksgiving At The Inn


Ever since his mother left, life hasn't been easy for Health Wellington III. Between his father's (Junior's) bouts with alcoholism and literary rejection, and Health's own wrongful suspension from school, there hasn't been all that much to be thankful for.
But following the tragic death of estranged grandfather Senior, father and son alike stand to inherit a life-changing fortune...with one catch.
Heath and Junior must spend the next three months managing Senior's bed and breakfast, located in the same Massachusetts home Junior has spent the last eight years trying to escape.
Upended from his everyday life and relocated to a town where everyone knew and loved the grandfather he can't even remember, Heath finds an inn full of some of the strangest people he's ever met.
And at a nearby school is Savannah, Junior's first love, and her adorable, autistic daughter, Tori.
But most of all, there's Junior himself, vinegar to Heath's oil. As Heath adjusts to his new world, what he needs most is to start anew with his father, to understand that Junior, too, is dealing with loss, and to realize that, even in the tragic of times, there's a lot in life to be thankful for.
Thanksgiving at the Inn is a beautiful story of family and forgiveness, and a sure holiday classic. Tim Whitney's fantastic, heartwarming debut is one you'll want to read with the whole family for years and years to come. (From the cover of Thanksgiving at the Inn.)

The thing that I personally loved most about this book, was the lesson that you learned well you were reading it. I didn't even realize all the things that you can easily take for granted in your life. I liked the character Health a lot just because he's such a nice person. I never would have done the things he did like he did. I think the author did I a great job in choosing the characters and also the story line. The thing that I thought needed fixing was that, unlike in some other books, I didn't find myself......getting lost in the book. In some books I love it so much and get so into it were I forget where I am and I see myself with the characters. In Thanksgiving At The Inn I only found myself getting lost a few times. Yet, the ending is one of my favorite parts!!