This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Blogs/Sites You Read That AREN’T about Books

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome people at The Broke and the Bookish

My Google Reader is out of control because I swear I can’t seem to focus on one particular thing so I end up trying to follow too many things.  BUT here are some of my favorite non-bookish sites to visit.

1. Totally Target: With the husband out of work for about two years and having two kids to raise and put through day care and school I’ve had to find ways to cut a few corners.  I love Target and this site is great for deals and coupons.
2. Chasing Cheerios: I am constantly looking for new ideas of things for my four year old and 22 month old to do and I love this site!  So many great craft and learning activity ideas.
3. Modern Parents Messy Kids: this is another great site for those with kiddos.
4. Play At Home Mom: ok and I had to toss in one more favorite parent/kid activity blog.
5. U Create: need a great party theme?  You have to check out this site! It is so amazingly inspiring.
6. Pinterest: I am a total Pinterest addict and it feeds my addiction for recipes, crafts, emergency preparation and more.
7. BabyCenter’s Community: I visit this site daily because the groups aren’t just about babies and pregnancy.  In fact, the groups I visit each day have nothing to do with babies.  There is the Book Club that I love, the Bargain Hunters group and a Cooking for the Family group.
8. Swagbucks.com: I visit this site pretty much daily to print out coupons, get the easy daily points and I use their search engine to earn free gift cards. In the past year I’ve earned almost $150 in Amazon gift cards just for using their search engine and doing the easy points activities. If you want to sign up please use my referral link!  Thanks!
9. Superpoints: this is a site that also allows you to earn free gift cards. I only signed up last month so I can’t rave about it like I can Swagbucks but my friends who use it love it. So far I’m halfway to earning my first $5 Amazon gift card and the only thing I’ve been doing is opening their daily points email and spinning the SuperLucky button every now and then.  Not bad for very little effort. Here’s my referral link if you want to sign up.
10. Sew Can Do: I can’t sew to save my life but that doesn’t stop me from drooling over some of the great things featured on this blog and pinning to my someday I will learn to do board on Pinterest.

Source: Borrowed from a friend (But ordering my own copy now!)

Publication date: November 29, 2011

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Series: Book #1 in the Lux series

Summary from Goodreads.com: Starting over sucks.When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up. And then he opened his mouth.Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens. The hot alien living next door marks me.You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

I’ve had this book on my To Read list since it first came out but it never climbed its way to the top of the pile until Tara from Tater’s Tall Tales kept raving about it.  She leant me her copy and holy Batman someone hose me down!  This book blew me over and had me on fire for Daemon.  In my next book order you can be sure I will be picking up my own copy and you might have seen that the sequel, Onyx, was my Waiting on Wednesday pick last week.

I went into this book a little leery since I already read Half-Blood, the first book in the Covenant series, and I thought it was just okay.  I know there are some haters out there who didn’t like Obsidian because it is very formulaic about the hot guy who is acting like an ass in order to try and protect those he loves and the hot girl who doesn’t realize she’s hot falling for said jerk.  I will admit I am a sucker for this formula and I thought Armentrout did a great job adding some originality to it.  No, Daemon’s not a demon, vampire or werewolf.  He’s an alien but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is some sci-fi focused book.

I’m not sure Daemon will knock Kaidan from Sweet Evil off the top of my book boyfriend list but he sure does come close.  He is a self-admitted ass but it is hard to fault his reasons for behaving that way when it’s partially due to being such a loving brother.  I enjoy his smart ass comments and the bantering that takes place between he and Katy.  I can totally relate to Katy’s feelings because his character makes me alternate between laughing and strangling him.

And Katy! How can I not love her when we are first introduced to her as a slightly introverted book loving blogger!  It was surreal reading about her creating her Waiting on Wednesday posts or doing a vlog about the books she recently purchased and of course the giddiness she experiences when she finds those oh so wonderful packages of books for her in the mail.  Even if she were not a book blogger I still would have loved her because she definitely has spunk.  She may not be able to kick so alien butts but she does hold her own and I love that she doesn’t take crap from Daemon’s fellow aliens, especially Ash.

The story was also great and would appeal to those who like the feel of something slightly X-File-ish (and for those of you who don’t know X-Files you’re making me feel old! lol.).  If you want an idea of just how much I loved this book let me just say I finished it in one sitting and totally neglected to do the house cleaning, home work, etc I was supposed to be doing.

Find Jennifer L. Armentrout Online: Twitter |  Blog | Facebook

The picture above is the cover of the second edition and the first edition actually had a slightly different cover.  Which one do you like better? I personally prefer the cover from the first printing (see below).

Book 2, Onyx, is due out in August 2012. I can’t wait!  You can add it to your Goodreads list here.

Thanks to everyone who entered my Spring Blog Carnival Rising Stars Booth giveaway.  The winner of the giveaway is:

Tiffany from Book Cover Justice!

In addition to winning these two awesome books:

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

and

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

I also tossed in a pre-order of Tiffany’s most anticipated 2012 release:

Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos

If you didn’t win I still really encourage everyone to go buy their own copies.  I absolutely adored Sweet Evil and Everneath.

Source: Borrowed from the library

Publication date: April 17, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Series: Book #2 in the Catherine Ling series

Summary from Goodreads.com: Catherine Ling was abandoned on the streets of Hong Kong at age four. Schooled in the art of survival, she traded in the only commodity she had: information. As a teenager, she came under the tutelage of a mysterious man known only as Hu Chang—a skilled assassin and master poisoner. As a young woman, she was recruited by the CIA and now, she is known as one of their most effective operatives. Having lived life in the shadows, Catherine is aware of the wobbly moral compass of her existence and even more aware of just how expendable she is to those she deals with.

When her old friend Hu Chang creates something so deadly, and completely untraceable, the chase is on to be the first to get it. With rogue operative John Gallo also on the hunt, Catherine finds herself pitted against a group so villainous and a man so evil that she may not survive the quest to protect those she cares about.

I somehow missed the release of this book so I was glad when I stumbled across it in my Internet wanderings through the book world.  I loved Catherine Ling when we first met her in Chasing the Night and then when we meet John Gallo in the Eve Duncan trilogy about Bonnie I became fascinated by the undeniable attraction between Catherine and John.  When I read this book was focusing on Catherine and that John Gallo was back I was over the moon!

Sadly I ended up with mixed feelings when I finished this book.  I thought the character building was great as we get to see more of Catherine’s background and how she met her mentor and friend, Hu Chang.  This book just makes you so much more amazed at how strong Catherine is and the ordeals she has had to overcome.  We also get to see more of her budding relationship with her son and having to deal with the aftereffects of him being raised by a mad man who did his best to turn him against Catherine.  Hu Chang is this complex character that it’s hard to decide if you want to love him or strangle him with the way he manipulates everyone around him.

What I didn’t care for so much was the actual story of Hu Chang’s kidnapping and the quest to bring down his kidnappers.  I felt like there was too much build up and the story kind of started dragging as the villain, Nardik, pretty spends his time fantasizing about torturing Catherine, his jealous assistant and pretty much every other person around him but nothing really interesting ever happens.  The ending wraps up so quickly and neatly that I kind of felt like “woah, what just happened?”.  Maybe it’s because if it had been any other author and not about Catherine I would have given up on the book but instead I sort of checked out part way through.

Overall I found this one disappointing especially since I had so looked forward to seeing more of Catherine.  If you are a new reader to Johansen’s books I definitely suggest you go with her Eve Duncan books instead.

Source: Borrowed from a friend

Publication date: May 29, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Series: Book #1 in the Darkness Before Dawn trilogy

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads.com: This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won.

Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters….

I’ve held off on writing this review for awhile mainly because it was such a “meh” book for me I had a hard time thinking about what to write about it.  I don’t know if it suffered in comparison because I had just finished Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins which I absolutely adored and anything read after it paled in comparison.  It was by no means a horrible book but nothing that reached out and made me go “Wow, that was awesome!”.

Dawn came across as a pretty bland character to me.  Yes, I felt bad for her because she lost her parents and had all this responsibility shoved onto her but also I couldn’t believe some of the stupid choices she makes just because she wanted to feel a little rebellious.  Her boyfriend Michael also did not do it for me in that he is supposed to be this stellar guy but he comes across as this macho man who is mostly concerned with being the alpha dog.  Even when he’s supposed to come across as worried for Dawn and being protective it doesn’t strike me so much that he wants to protect her because he loves her but rather to prove he’s hero material.

Victor was probably the only character that really grabbed me.  I loved the contrast between he and his father and also hearing about his history of living as a vampire, the friends he’s made and the people he is trying to protect.  My heart broke when he introduces Dawn to a vampire family that he is trying to help and tells her their story.

The villain is pretty easy to guess and it did frustrate me that most of the characters even had an inkling of what was going on or that something was wrong.  The part that ruined the book for me and almost tempted me to give this a lower rating was literally the last few sentences in the book.  We are hearing the thoughts going through Dawn’s head and they royally pissed me off.  I couldn’t believe after everything that just happened those were the thoughts she was having and that instead of accepting the consequences of her own choices she was villainizing someone else.

In the end I am doubtful I will read book 2 unless I hear some great things about it that redeems my faith in Dawn and shows that the characters show a little more originality.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.  I just recently found out about this one and it sounds really interesting.

My pick for this week is Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout due out August 2012.

I finished Obsidian yesterday in one day and someone hose me down because that book was smoking hot!!  I cannot wait to see what happens between Daemon and Katy next.

Summary from Goodreads.com: Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarre connection. I’ve sworn him off even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But against all common sense, I’m falling for him. Hard.

Our relationship issues aren’t out biggest problem…

The Department of Defense is here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we’re linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And when a new boy shows up a school with a secret of his own, things get complicated fast. I need to choose between my own instincts and Daemon’s.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. Daemon’s never going to stop searching until gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies.

Source: Received for review

Publication date: March 20, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Series: Book #4 in The Secret Circle Series

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads.com: Keep your enemies close. . . . 

For the first time since moving to New Salem, Cassie Blake feels normal. She’s dating her soul mate Adam and making new friends in town. But between the secret coven of witches she belongs to and the incredible power she holds within her, Cassie is leading a far from ordinary life. When tragedy strikes the Circle, Cassie realizes being extraordinary can be a curse. 

The Circle is being hunted by an unknown enemy—and anyone could be the next victim. As they struggle to protect themselves, alliances are formed and relationships are tested. No one knows who to trust or who to fear. Will Cassie be able to save the Circle . . . and herself? Or will her choices break it apart forever?

I cannot believe how disappointed I was with this book.  I am a huge fan of the original Secret Circle trilogy and while I haven’t been keeping up to date with the TV series the few episodes I’ve seen have diverged enough from the books to not overly suffer from comparisons.  I went into this book not realizing that it was ghost written so I can’t even blame my disappointment on judging the book more harshly because LJ Smith did not actually write it.

At first it seems to pick up not long after the last book ended which was nice as I worried they might change it to match the TV series.  As I continued to read my heart sank.  First off was Diana’s character. In the original series she was such a goody two shoes that it was hard to believe that someone could be THAT good and kind hearted.  In The Divide she comes across as snobby, judgmental and even petty at times.  Then as if that were not bad enough Adam has gone from this stand up, unbelievably mature teenager to a little hornball!  I mean seriously, all he wants to do is make out and grope Cassie even more there are obviously much more important things they should be doing.  It’s always been a pet peeve of mine when people can be chased by killers, in the middle of a war, etc. but still have to take a moment to make out with someone or have some mad sex before continuing to escape death or stop some madman.  It was like someone gave Adam a shot of pure hormones that reminded him he was a teenage guy and sex is all that should be on his mind.  Nick on the other hand is portrayed as the more mature and understanding guy, which since I was a huge Nick fan it was nice to see, but still was rather out of character.

And then OMG, don’t even get me started on Cassie!! She showed no character growth since all of the events with Black John occurred and seeing the damage her insecurity and inability to trust her friends caused before.  She repeats all her past mistakes but compounds them with even dumber mistakes like deciding “oh, my mom is keeping secrets from me so I’m going to be petty and keep things from her out of spite even though it probably would be a good idea to talk it over with her.”  And then to constantly have the circle, other than Faye, tell her it’s all ok, there’s nothing to apologize for had me wanting to slap them all.  Of course she should be apologizing for her stupidity!!  Wake up folks!  I was especially aggravated with how she kept prodding Nick about how she misses spending time with him and their close friendship but continues to make out with Adam pretty much in his face.  Talk about rubbing salt in a wound.

The story line itself was predictable as you could tell right off who the bad guys were going to be.  I really wish they had come up with some more original ideas of who the villains were and why they would target the circle.  The only thing that kept this from being a 1 star book was the fact that I did enjoy how Nick’s character was portrayed.  Sadly, despite my adoration of the original series I doubt I will continue reading the new books.

Source: Received for review

Publication date: May 3, 2012

Publisher: Orchard Books

Series: Book #1 in the Slated series

I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads.com: Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance – as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

After reading that synopsis how can you not want to read this book right?!  It sounded awesome and right up my alley so you can imagine how excited I was to receive a copy to review.  I have to admit that it did start off a little rough.  The first chapter or so felt very jagged in the writing style which I believe is meant to enforce the feeling of confusion Kyla is feeling as she is preparing to be “released” into the regular population after being Slated.  Once I got past the first few chapters the story definitely picked up.

My favorite part of the book was trying to figure out who were the characters that were really on Kyla’s side or who was hiding their true motives.  Kyla’s mom was one of my favorite characters.  She is compared to a dragon and does initially come off as the biggest PIA (as a nice way of putting it) but as the story goes on we get to see that there is more to her actions than meets the eye.  The complexity of her character and each revelation Kyla experiences in regards to her mom just made me enjoy her all the more.  Kyla’s dad is another mystery that I can’t wait to find out more about and I can’t wait to see whose side Kyla’s doctor ends up being.  It is hard to tell if she really is on Kyla’s side, is one of the bad guys or just someone so driven by scientific curiosity that she’s not truly good or bad.

The only character I did not really care for was Ben.  He was of course the love interest that is expected in almost every YA book these days.  He’s the cute guy who is nice to everyone and that everyone loves but he fell a little flat for me.  I get that the discoveries of what is really going on and the ability to really think for himself for the first time can be mind blowing but his erratic behavior did not flow well.  At one point he makes a very dramatic decision about the supposed terrorists that seemed to almost come out of nowhere.  I was never clear why he went from one extreme to the other even when a more sensible option was available.

Still the story itself took some interesting turns, both expected and unexpected, and the ending leaves you wondering where this new twist is going to take readers in the next book.

Find Teri Online:

Twitter | Teri’s website |  Facebook | Slated on Goodreads

Source: Received for review

Publication date: May 8, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Series: Book #2 in the Revenants series

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads.com: Kate and Vincent have overcome the odds and at last they are together in Paris, the city of lights and love.

As their romance deepens there’s one question they can’t ignore: How are they supposed to be together if Vincent can’t resist sacrificing himself to save others? Although Vincent promises that he’ll do whatever it takes to lead a normal life with Kate, will that mean letting innocent people die? When a new and surprising enemy reveals itself, Kate realizes that even more may be at stake—and that Vincent’s immortality is in jeopardy.

It’s funny how when I think about this book in general I would say I really liked it and it was hard to put down but when I get into the details there were quite a few things that bugged me.  Still I loved Die For Me, the first book in the series, and this one was just as enjoyable.

Kate and Vincent are still going strong and deeply in love despite all the complications in their relationship.  The main hiccup is Vincent’s promise to try and not die while he is together with Kate.  This makes him hesitate when he sees someone in trouble and makes Kate feel guilty about if this might mean some innocent person might die because of Vincent’s promise to her.  Of course, this dilemma starts leading towards problems between the two as they each try to find a solution that is more satisfactory.  This leads to one of my issues with the story.  I don’t get why Vincent and Kate have to be so secretive instead of telling each other what they are doing.  Vincent’s argument that he doesn’t want to upset Kate doesn’t make sense as obviously not knowing is already making her upset and Kate even admits keeping secrets from Vincent about what she’s doing doesn’t make sense.  Yet this doesn’t stop her from doing so and then the secrets just leads towards more problems.

My other minor issue with the story is the villain is so obvious and the characters are so oblivious to who the villain is that I wanted to scream at times.  None of them are dumb people and yet they could not seem to see obvious things occurring right in front of their noses.

Still the book is an interesting read as we get more history about the Revenants, how they are related to the Numa and we meet some new characters.  Favorites like Jules and Kate’s sister Georgia are still very present and add some extra fun to the story.  Jules is just sexiness personified and I love his easy going personality.  Georgia is one of my favorite characters.  She’s fun and can be flighty at times but she’s also clever and extremely loyal to Kate.  The observations she makes are quite accurate and yet at times they are disregarded because some of the others view her as somewhat air headed.  I’m happy with how much she shined in this story and really proved she is more than just a pretty, bubbly and vapid big sister.

As for the ending I don’t want to expose any spoilers but let’s just say it will leave you hanging at the edge of your seat!  I definitely cannot wait for the third book, If I Should Die, to come out.

Find Amy online:

Her website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Angela from Reading Angel, Candace from Candace’s Book Blog, and Lori from Pure Imagination are throwing the second annual Spring Blog Carnival. Booths are basically specific challenges and giveaways.  Each blogger that hosts a booth will have a fun challenge that you can complete to win prizes.

I’m hosting the Rising Stars Booth!

2012 has already seen some awesome new books from debut authors.  I’ll be giving away copies of two of my favorites so far this year:

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

and

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

All you have to do is leave me a comment with what 2012 debut author book are you most looking forward to and your contact information.  The winner just may get an additional surprise along with their prize (hint, hint)

Open to US Residents only (sorry money’s tight)

Ends May 13, 2012

Visit some of the other booths