Waiting on Wednesday - 1/25

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week my Waiting on Wednesday book is Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors by Molly Harper.  This is the fourth book in the Jane Jameson series which is absolutely hilrarious.  Click on the image to go to Amazon and read more about this book.

Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors (Jane Jameson, Book 4) by Molly Harper

Release Date: February 28, 2012
Publisher: Pocket Books
Length: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-1451641813

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

"Just as Jane Jameson’s unlife seems to be stabilizing, fate sinks its fangs firmly into her butt. Despite her near-phobia of all things marital, her no-frills nighttime nuptials to her sexy boyfriend Gabriel are coming along smoothly. But the road to wedded bliss gets bumpy when a teenage acquaintance is fatally wounded in front of Jane’s shop and she turns him to save his life. The Council pronounces Jane responsible for the newborn vamp until he can control his thirst.

Jane’s kitchen at River Oaks barely holds enough Faux Type O to satiate the cute teen’s appetite and maintain Gabriel’s jealous streak at a slow simmer. As if keeping her hyperactive childe from sucking the blood out of the entire neighborhood isn’t enough to deal with, the persnickety ghost of Jane’s newly deceased Grandma Ruthie has declared a war on the fanged residents of River Oaks. Suddenly,
choosing monogrammed cocktail napkins and a cake that she can’t eat seems downright relaxing in comparison.

Tensions inside the house are growing…and outside, a sinister force is aiming a stake straight for the center of Gabriel’s heart. Most brides just have to worry about choosing the right dress, but Jane fears that at this rate, she’ll never make it down the aisle for the wedding all nice girls dream of…"

DNF Early Review - Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan (1.5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 312 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Release Date: February 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1599559421
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in a new series?
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 1.5/5 stars

I got an eGalley of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. It was describe as a YA fantasy read and I was excited to read it. Unfortunately it really isn't what it was marketed as; this is more of a teen paranormal read. There were a number of things I disliked both about the writing and the story. I read about 40% of the book and then gave up.

Llona Reese is an Aura who can manipulate light. Normally her life calling would be to help people and use her light to make people's lives better. Her mother was killed by the Vyken and after that Llona is determined to play it safe and stay alive. She is determined to stay out of the limelight in school and determined to be insignificant so that she can hide what she is.

There was a lot I disliked about this book. It is marketed as a fantasy but ends up being a pretty typical YA paranormal fare; there is a lot of high school drama in the book and of course hot guys that Llona is drawn to despite her best efforts. That right there is enough for me to kind of not like that story but there were also a number of technical writing errors in the story.

Technical errors can be forgiven somewhat since I read this as an advanced reading copy (ARC). I have to say though, outside of self-published novels, I don't think I have ever read an ARC with so many mistakes. After multiple spelling errors and reading about a lady's high heals (they were supposed to be shoes) I started getting irritated. I mean seriously if you are going to market this book to the masses, the least you can do is make sure spelling and punctuation doesn't have too many errors.

I tried to look beyond that but the dialogue between characters was awkward and didn't sound at all natural. Then there were staging errors...let me explain. Llona's best friend would be in up in the bleachers and Llona would be talking to this boy while she was standing on the other side of the gym. Then all of the sudden there is someone else talking with Llona and the boy; who is the mystery person? where did they come from? Ends up it was Llona's best friend, who magically drifted all the way across the gym to join the conversation without the reader even knowing it. Things like this happen a number of times; its like the author isn't exactly sure where her characters are located in the settings. It was confusing and hard to read.

So, were the characters engaging? Not really, Llona is your typical whiny girl who is different and has powers but is trying not to stand out. In an effort to not stand out she starts using her powers to make people feel better; which will totally not make you stand out. The boys (I can't even remember their names) are super hot and one of them is really nice to Llona and gives her a lot of attention that she is leery of, yet enjoys immensely.

The plot, well I am not sure where it was going. Obviously Llona's life was in danger from some bad people and these bad people were getting closer to discovering Llona. I am not sure if this ends up tying in with a broader story (I hope it does) but it didn't in the first 40% of the book.

The only cool thing about this book was that Llona's power follow the cycles of the moon; so at some points she is super powerful and at others she really drags. Think Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (which I definitely recommend over this story) but a longer time cycle.

Overall I cannot recommend this book. There are so many great YA paranormal books out there. There are so many technically poor aspects to this book outside of the lackluster story. I would like to repeat that I read an advanced reading copy of thsi book, so the final book may have undergone a massive overall and be great. But what I read wasn't great, it was sloppy, confusing, and not all that engaging. Check out Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes or Nightshade by Andrea Cremer or any other of the millions of great YA paranormal series out there.

Review - Fodor's Costa Rica 2012 (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Everyone
Genre: Non-fiction/Travel
Size: 620 pages
Publisher: Fodor's; Pap/Map edition
Release Date: October 18, 2011
ISBN: 978-0679009399
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This is a great book with a lot of wonderful information on Costa Rica. Most of the information is focused on eco-tourism and adventure travel; although there are some pointers for family travel as well they are infrequent.

My family and I were considering taking a trip to Costa Rica this spring so I was very excited to be offered this book through the Amazon Vine program. The book comes with a very nice full size map that is easily removed from the book. The first section of the book does an excellent overview of the region and suggests some iteneraries for various lenghts of stays.

The second chapter focuses on the biodiversity of the region and tells what you can expect when visiting rain forests, volcanoes, cloud forests, dry forests, wetlands, and shoreline areas. After that the book is broken down by region. There are chapters focusing on: San Jose', the Central Valley, the Northern Plains, the North Pacific, the Central Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. The chapters start out with a map and then talk about the top things to see in that region. This is followed by more detailed information by city on where to stay, eat, etc (normal travel guide stuff).

Overall it is a very informative travel guide with nice pictures and a lot of great information. The only thing I noticed is that this book is pretty focused on eco-tourism and adventure travel. There is a little information here and there about traveling with kids, but it is definitely not the focus of the book. I think I tagged maybe three or four places in the book where there were mentions of good activities to do with kids.

There are also a number of comments throughout that hint that you have to be cautious traveling to Costa Rica and also many mentions of how few short hikes there are (most are all day activities). This, combined with the lack of things to do with small children, made us decide to hold off for a few years until my son is older for this trip (he is five now and many of the activities mentioned required an age of 8 or older). I think when we do plan our trip to Costa Rica we will find this book useful, but we will also have to get a more family focused guide that helps us find activities the whole family will enjoy. If my husband and I were going by ourselves this would be an excellent guide.

In general this is an excellent guide; but if you are traveling with children I would supplement it with something more family friendly as well.

Review - Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom (Courtney Crumrin, Book 3) by Ted Naifeh (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Graphic Novel
Size: 128 pages
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: October 12, 2004
ISBN: 978-1932664010
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Courtney Crumrin series
Source: Gift for Xmas
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the third book in the Courtney Crumrin series; I believe there are four books in this series with the fourth book titled, Courtney Crumrin's Monstrous Holiday. It was a fun read but I didn't like it quite as much as the previous two books.

Courtney has switched schools again; she is in the Coven's special school for magical studies. Courtney takes a trip back to her old home to hang with an old friend. Then she helps her fellow classmates journey into the Twilight Kingdom to fix a problem they create when a magic spell goes wrong.

The first chapter was all about Courtney going back home so that her parents can sell their old house. She hangs out with an old friend who has changed for the worse. I didn't enjoy the first chapter as much because it didn't really have anything magical or mystical. It basically just gave a little back story on Courtney and solidified the fact that her parents are losers.

The remaining chapters were much more interesting. Courtney and her classmates journey through the Goblin market and the Twilight Kingdom. Her classmates get into trouble and she helps get them out of trouble. It was interesting, fun to read about, and action packed.

The illustration matches the mood of the story well. The pictures are easy to follow and add a lot to the story; it is easy to tell the characters moods by their expressions.

The story is wrapped up nicely and things are set up for Courtney's monstrous holiday with her uncle.

Overall I really enjoyed this installment in the Courtney Crumrin series. I was a bit confused about what relevance the first chapter had and didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the book. I highly recommend this series for fans of fantasy graphic novels. This graphic novel is appropriate for middle grade and older.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Graphic Novel Challenge
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Dreaming of Books Giveaway Hop Winner!

Hi Guys!  Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the Dreaming of Books Giveaway Hop.  Also thank to everyone who follows this blog :-)  

The winner of the $10 Amazon gift certificate was:

Juana

There were 497 entries into this giveaway.  The winner was chosen using random.org.  

In My Mailbox and Mailbox Monday - 1/23

IMM is a meme started at The Story Siren with some inspiration from Alea of Pop Culture Junkie.

Anyone can participate in IMM and you are not limited to only sharing books that arrive via your mailbox. You can also share books that you've bought or books that you've gotten at the library.

Mailbox Monday can be found at: The Printed Page

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This week I got ten books.  Most were from the library.  One was for review and two I bought.  You can watch the video below or click on the images below to go to Amazon.com for a synopsis.

Hope that you all got some great books and are looking forward to a wonderful week of reading!

For Review:

Filaria by Brent Hayward

Bought:

 

The Bride Wore Black Leather (Nightside, Book 12) by Simon R. Green

Glitches by Marissa Meyer

Paperbackswap.com:

  

Blue Noon (Midnighters, Book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
At the Gates of Darkness (The Demonwar Saga, Book 2) by Raymond E. Feist
Gauntlgrym (The Neverwinter Saga, Book 1) by R.A. Salvatore

Library:

   

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

Foiled by Jane Yolen

Dark Wraith of Shannara by Terry Brooks

The Hour of Dust and Ashes (Charlie Madigran, Book 3) by Kelly Gay

News - Book Releases for Week 4 (Jan 22nd - 28th)