Book Review: TAKE ME THERE

Title: TAKE ME THERE
Author: Carolee Dean
Release Date: July 2010
My Rating: 3/5--Mixed feelings.
One Word Plot: Drama
Good if...you liked PERFECT CHEMISTRY

Dylan has a bad-boy past and a criminal record. He knows that rich, beautiful Jess is way too good for him—but she has always been the one person who sees through his tough exterior and straight to his heart, and he has been hopelessly in love with her from the first time they met. He would change his life for a chance with her. But trouble follows Dylan wherever he goes, and a deadly mistake soon forces him to hit the road and leave his dreams behind. He’s on the run and in search of answers—answers to questions he wishes he’d never asked.

My Thoughts:  I cried at the end of this book. I gave it 3/5 stars, but that number is kind of deceiving. This was a 5/5 star book with a crap ending...so it just had to average out to 3/5. The end wasn't terrible terrible, it was kind of expected, but really what's the point of reading if you can't have that happy ending you want. That's the way I see it. Basically, I'm still angry with how this book ended.

Book Review: ENTICE

Title:ENTICE
Author: Carrie Jones
Other books by Author: NEED and CAPTIVATE
Release Date: December 2010
My Rating: 3.5/5--Decent.  It was okay.
One Word Plot: Pixies/Werewolves
Good if…you’ve been following along with this series previously.

In My Words:Werewolves vs. Pixies. So to recap, Zara has now turned herself into a Pixie in a desperate attempt to save her werewolf boyfriend Nick. Astley plays a bigger role in this novel as Zara is now his pixie queen. And with Astley’s help Zara sets off to get Nick back. Only problem, wares hate pixies. Will Nick even still love her once she finds a way to get him back?

My thoughts…I loved loved loved NEED and loved CAPTIVATE, but I only liked ENTICE.

This book was kind of slow and repetitive. (As most middle-of-the-serious books are.) I felt like Carrie Jones was just stalling for time for the majority of the novel. It had small moments of greatness and the last 50 pages or so was a bit more action packed, but overall it didn’t have the level of pizazz as the others. So I give it 3.5/5 and I will be reading the finial book—the 4th book—whenever it comes out in the future I just hoping it ends on a really high note. On another note…I am so team ASTLEY! And I loved Nick too! So me wondering who Zara will choose in the end is the main reason I just have to read that fourth book, when it comes out that is.

2011 Debut Authors Challenge!

This is the 2nd year that I will be taking part in the Debut Authors Challenge run by Kristi over at The Story Siren.  As I myself hope to one day be a Debut Author--hey, a girl can hope--I'm always willing to give my support to other Debut Authors. Besides, I think they're the best kind anyway.  Sure, I have my favorites, but its Debut Authors that keep the Un-Published hopeful!  :)  So if you want to join in the challenge yourself--click here--and happy reading!

Reviews for this challenge:
1. UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand
2.

Wannabe Writers #43 (Focus)

Wannabe Writers is an Internet writing group. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find more about how it works.

Here's the deal.  I've stopped doing my post weekly (on Saturdays) and have started doing them basically whenever I feel the need.  So if you still follow my Wannabe Writer posts then feel free to do the same and then just link below whenever you write your own post. 

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished. Still.  UGH!

My current problem(s): Losing momentum.  If you read my last post you probably noticed how eager I was to get back into writing and how excited I was about my current novel.  All that good stuff is quickly dropping.  I'm still working hard on finishing this first draft, but it's getting harder and harder to keep up the same level of work each day.  HELP!  It's the same old problems holding me back...self doubt, well really just self doubt. 

My question this week: What keeps you focused on your writing, even when it gets kind of boring?

In My Mailbox #21

This is In my mailbox a meme run by Kristi at The Story Siren. Here's what I got this week...

Entice by Carrie Jones
The 3rd book of 4 in Carrie Jones' NEED series. 
Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out. For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla? And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't turned into just any pixie. . . She's Astley's queen.

--OMG!  I will be reading this very soon and I cannot wait!  If you follow my blog you know that I'm a big Carrie Jones fan and loved her first two novels in this series.  So of course I'm excited about this one.  Review coming soon

Shadowspell by Jenna Black
The sequel to the novel GLIMMERGLASS (click here for my review and if you want to get a better idea about what this story is really about..the summary below isn't very helpful IMHO).
On top of spending most of her time in a bunkerlike safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking has long been the nightmare of the Fae realm. A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her – and her rare Faeriewalker powers – dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind?

--NOW I wasn't crazy about GLIMMERGLASS.  I gave it a 3/5 rating before, but it's actually a story I really want to continue reading.  Something about it has stuck with me and I'm way too curious not to read this next novel.  I think it was the huge cliffhanger ending to GLIMMERGLASS that has me still wondering.  And the cover was just way to pretty to pass up.  Anyone read SHADOWSPELL yet?

Book Review: THE ETERNAL ONES

Title: THE ETERNAL ONES

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publication Date: August 2010

My Rating: 4/5--I mostly enjoyed it!
One Word Plot: Reincarnation

Good if...you're into reincarnation books like Fallen

In My Words: The story of Haven Moore, a high school senior, who has visions of a past life as a girl named Constance.  Despite her stubborn Grandmother trying to convince her it's the devil doing this to her, she knows the boy, Ethan, she sees in these visions is her soul mate.  Ethan and Constance died years ago, but now Haven is convinced that she really is Constance and a rich playboy socialite named Iain Morrow is her beloved Ethan.  Now all Haven has to do is escape from her small town, go to New York, find Iain and convince him that he's her Ethan.  Except Ethan and Constance never lived happily ever after, they died tragically in a fire--and this mystery is much larger than Haven ever expected. 

My thoughts...I was surprised to find this book was a mystery and that I liked it as much as I did.  It's a reincarnation story about a girl and boy who have been living over and over again for ages.  (Sounds a lot like the novel Fallen, but I it's very unique and good in it's own way.)  In each life they try to find each other and be together but something always stands in their way and they can never get it right.  The big question looming in this novel is will they get it right this time? 

Kirsten Miller is an excellent writer and story teller.  The mystery of it was very interwoven yet surprisingly easy to grasp.  The backstory, plot, and characters were all perfect.  My only complaint was the connection/romance between her and Iain.  When she finally meet Iain--after we'd had all this build up from how wonderful Ethan was--I thought it would be a little more romantic than it was.  Kristen Miller told us they were in love but I wanted to feel it.  I wanted to fall in love with Iain like I did with Jace or Patch or Edward or Tam in other YA books.  I wanted to and kind of almost did, but not quite.  That being said--this still was a very good story and I still think you should read it.

If you liked THE ETERNAL ONES; then you will like...
FALLEN by Lauren Kate 
EVERMORE by Alyson Noel

Wannabe Writers #42 (Lengthy Projects)

Wannabe Writers is an Internet writing group. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find more about how it works.

Hello!  It's been a really long time since I did a post for Wannabe Writers!  I'm so sorry that I've been away and then once I got home I just didn't write anymore.  But--I've been writing non-stop for the last 3 days!  I guess everyone needs a good break every now and then.  So the good new is I am bringing Wannabe Writers back in hopes that it will keep me writing, but the bad news is that my posts are going to be a little less frequent.  You see, the problem is that with my new job my life doesn't fall in line on such a neat schedule anymore. And then when I'm home I'm jet-lagged a lot.  But I'm going to attempt to 3-4 times a month.  SO, here's the deal.  Since I'm going to be posting whenever I feel like it, I think everyone else should too (if anyone still follows this) and then if you want just link to my latest post.  (If you post more fequently than me, just post more than once on my post.  Cool?)  So, let's get started...

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished.  Still.  And still trying to finish this one novel I've been working on for nearly 2 years now.  I got a new surge of engery about writing though recently and I have high hopes!  Don't you love when something just clicks and suddenly you know how things should be in your novel.  That happened to me!  My hope is that by the end of January I'll be finishing this thing up!  (We'll see.)

My current problem(s):  Trying to merge two different drafts of my novel together.  I'm cherry picking the best parts and combining them to make one super-duper draft!  I hope this works.

My question this week: What the longest you've ever worked on one writing project?

Book Review: NIGHTSHADE

Title: NIGHTSHADE
Author: Andrea Cremer
Release Date: October 2010
Rating: 4.5/5--Really good! Worth your time!
One Word Plot: Werewolves
Good if...you want a Romeo and Juliet style story involving werewolves

In My Words:Calla is the alpha werewolf leader of the Nightshade pack and she is destined to marry Ren who is the alpha leader of his pack. But with her impending wedding quickly nearing, Calla violates the laws of her master's (The Keepers aka witches) when she risks every to save the life of a human boy. Calla then starts to question her fate when she begins to fall for the human and him her.

My thoughts...Wow. This book was pretty addictive and the marketing department gets an A++. I mean how could you not buy this book with a cover like that? And--plus side--it was actually pretty good. It's rather long but it kept my interest from page 1 to page...well, until the very end. I've been dying to read a really good werewolf book for a long time (Linger did nothing for me) and this one fit the mold. Kickbutt, tough werewolf girl falls for the human boy who's life she spares. Can't get much better as far as storylines go. It delivered too. I was happy with the beginning, middle, and end (even though the end was a major cliffhanger). I will so be reading (and buying) the next book--WOLFSBANE--which is due out in July2011.