Starting with a hiccup...and a disappointment

*Sigh* I suppose to go into my 2018 Books I Already Own Challenge and expect there not to be any hiccups in my reading plan would have been too optimistic, huh?

The new year started yesterday and so did my reading challenge! I was stoked.  I lined up a second book in a trilogy - one where I'd loved the first - trying to give myself a really great starting point.  Ah, best intentions...

So, I discovered that my plan to just jump right in and read all the books I own but haven't previously read has a fairly significant hiccup.  I forgot to factor in that many of the books I've bought were in fact bought YEARS ago.  I am very rarely a re-reader and I have a somewhat stellar memory for books that I've read, but even my powers of recall can be severely tested. 

For example, what I started my challenge with yesterday was the book Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer, book two in the Nightshade series.  I started reading, excited, as I remembered loving book one (hence why I own books two and three, in hardcover no less!, even though I haven't yet read them).  Sadly, as I read and realized I couldn't recall much of anything about the world, other than the main three characters' names, I looked back and saw I'd read Nightshade in 2010.  SEVEN years ago... wait, almost EIGHT now. 

Eight years of hundreds and hundreds of other books... and life experiences... to bump any recall I had about the plot of Nightshade right out of my little brain.  So, I got about a quarter of the way into Wolfsbane and then had to decide do I just forge ahead or do I go back and re-read the first book as a refresher. 

I'm a stubborn girl and re-reading was not part of my master plan so I forged ahead.  While Cremer manages to dump a lot of info onto the reader about the world in this book (seriously, it's one major info dump), she delved very little into what had actually happened in the previous book.  So, I found myself primarily focusing on where the characters were now and where they were going.  Which would be great if this was an adventure or mystery series.  But... when it's a paranormal romance based on a love triangle and one character is mainly absent for the whole of book two and you can't remember what their relationship was like in the first, it's very frustrating and hard to rekindle that connection you had with the characters. 

Add on to that a frustration that the main character does not seem as strong as you remember... and a desire to learn more about the side characters that suddenly seem more interesting than the intended trio, and you have a reader struggling to push through the bad middle book of a trilogy, just to dive into the final book and finish the series once and for all.

Sadly, as I start book three today, I have a feeling that I will be donating this pristine set of books to my Library so that someone else can enjoy them after I'm done reading them.  What had seemed at one point like a set I NEEDED to own, now is just taking up desperately needed space on my bookshelves.

And, I have to decide in the future if I want to take the time to re-read the book just prior to where I'm picking up a series as I go forward in the challenge. I think I may start looking at how long ago I read the original book and factoring that into my monthly reading plans.  So... you may not see reviews for every book that I read during this challenge (especially if I choose to reread) but I'll be trying to give you some updates and reviews on the particularly interesting books, good or bad. 

Recommended Werewolf Reads: Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, The Parasol Protectorate series, starting with Soulless by Gail Carriger, or The Immortal Empire series, starting with God Save the Queen by Kate Locke.

Isla and the Happily Ever After

Isla and the Happily Ever After 
by Stephanie Perkins
Anna and the French Kiss, book three

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. (Description from Goodreads.com)

Though my favorite book in this trilogy is still Lola and the Boy Next Door (go Cricket!!), I sincerely recommend this series, any book in the series, ALL the books in the series, to anyone looking for a romantic and joyous read.  

Each book has it's very serious moments, because no real relationship is all sunshine and roses, but you can have confidence that things will work out beautifully in the end.  There's realism and the type of romance we all hope and dream of here. In fact, while  this book focuses primarily on Isla and Josh's romance, the cameos that Anna, Etienne, Lola, and Cricket make are fabulous...and the final reason for their trip to France will leave readers of the entire series beaming! I shed a few happy tears myself. 

What I love best about Perkins' books is that ability to give me as the reader both a light, yet serious read.  The knowledge that there will certainly be sigh-worthy moments, but also ones that will reflect my own life, my own journey to figuring out not only who I was/am as a person, but what I wanted in life.  The questions that I had to answer to find (and keep) the love of my life.  You can feel the full and complex nature of Perkins' characters, relate to them, and cheer them on as they make their major life choices.  

Wonderfully done.  I wish there were more coming, but I will definitely read whatever Stephanie Perkins does next. 

Full disclosure: Borrowed from my Library 

Cover Reveal: Lost in Starlight

Today bestselling author, Sherry Soule has some exciting news to share with us! She will be publishing a brand new Upper YA / Sci-Fi romance series: the “Starlight Saga” with scorching-hot character chemistry, exciting suspense, and epic romance.

To help promote the first book in this interstellar love story, “LOST IN STARLIGHT,” Sherry is doing this fun guest post to share the news with fellow booklovers.

LOST IN STARLIGHT comes out on June 26^th 2014!  

VOLUME ONE: Starlight Saga

High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks with his mind.

Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has no choice but to reveal his secret: he’s an alien hybrid.

They’re as different as night and day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking hot, antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.

Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge. After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life....

Read the first five chapters for free on wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/story/14214838-lost-in-starlight-syfy-romance

Places you can find Sherry Soule:

Official Blog: http://www.sherrysoule.blogspot.com/

Twitter @SherrySoule: http://twitter.com/SherrySoule

Please add LOST IN STARLIGHT to your TBR on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20707942-lost-to-starlight

The awesome book cover was designed by the talented, Kristen Thompson-Oh of KCT Designs at www.kctdesigns.com

Innocent Darkness Blog Tour - Guest Post with Author, Suzanne Lazear!

Today, I am *super* excited to welcome the author of Innocent Darkness, Suzanne Lazear, to the blog as part of the awesome Innocent Darkness Blog Tour hosted by Mundie Moms.

For my stop on the blog tour, I asked Suzanne to tell me what she thought Steampunk's place in YA's future might be, and she came up with a great answer!!

Steampunk's place in YA's future

By Suzanne Lazear

Young Adult books push boundaries. That’s what many teens do, why shouldn’t some books do the same? When someone says “you can’t do that in YA”, much like a teen, it juts out its jaw, meets the challenger’s gaze defiantly, and mutters “watch me.”

Steampunk, by its very definition is respectfully defiant. Is roots in innovation (and rebellion), Steampunk, especially as a written genre, it is constantly changing, discovering, seeing if it is possible to go places no Steampunk has gone before.

That’s partially why all of these discussions on what Steampunk isn’t or shouldn’t be irk me. This seems adverse to the very ideals of Steampunk itself. Sure, like all genres, there are establishing parameters, but Steampunk, like YA, is a genre grounded in exploration. Perhaps we should focus more on what Steampunk is. After all, we do that in YA, focusing on all the great and wonderful things the genre is instead of nitpicking and compartmentalizing.

So much about the very nature of Steampunk (rebellion, identity, hope, innovation, adventure) lend itself quite naturally to young adult stories. YA steampunk writers aren’t afraid to stretch the limits, borrowing and mashing up genres until perhaps it’s not even steampunk anymore yet still has that spark and spirit that make steampunk such an attractive genre to writers. INNOCENT DARKNESS is “fairytale steampunk”, a mashup of faeries, fairytales, and steampunk. Jay Kristoff’s upcoming novel STORMDANCER is set in Japan, and SHADOW AND BONE, by Leigh Bardugo is what she coins “Tsarpunk.”

I foresee Steampunk and Steampunkian tales (or those with Steampunkatude) as becoming a mainstay of YA. Because both genres have similar guiding principles. Because in both genres, when someone says “you can’t do that”, we say “why not?”

Because YA and Steampunk is.


I think Suzanne absolutely nailed it with this one! I love steampunk for its adventurousness, its outlandishness, the imagination it takes to imagine the possibilities, and beyond "traditional" steampunk, authors like Suzanne are pushing the envelope even further. I LOVE IT!! 

If you haven't checked out Innocent Darkness, yet, you can read my review here, you can check out Suzanne's blog here, and you can check out the list of all the other blog tour stops here! Once again, I just want to thank Mundie Moms for letting me participate in this awesome tour and I want to thank Suzanne for not only writing an awesome book, but also for taking the time to stop by my blog!!!