IMM - In My Mailbox




IMM was really light this week. Got back from visiting my boyfriend and parents only to find out my grandmother is really sick. Deeply worried. Not to mention I have school that I am trying to get ahead on. PLUS I decided to help take my mind off my gma, I started catching up on True Blood new series. OH YEAH!! Even picked up a Merlotte's shirt for Halloween.

For Review -
Sign Language by Amy Ackley
**BIG THANKS to Amy for contacting me and asking me to review her book!!**

Bought -
Loved by Morgan Rice (Vampire Journals #2) ONLY 2.99!!!!
Check out my review of Turned - #1 in Vampire Journals

Borrowed -
As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott


I am currently listening to Beauty Queens by Libba Bray on audio. Has anyone read or listened to this book? It is CRAZY! The story line is so odd and yet, I find myself laughing hysterically. I am not sure if I like it or if it is just off the charts weird. Yet, I can't NOT like it.

Any opinions on this book??

Anyone read it yet?



What's in your Mailbox???

On My Wish List


Babe in Boyland
When high school junior Natalie - or Dr. Aphrodite, as she calls herself when writing the relationship column for her school paper - is accused of knowing nothing about guys and giving girls bad relationship advice, she decides to investigate what guys really think and want. But the guys in her class won't give her straight or serious answers. The only solution? Disguising herself as a guy and spending a week at Underwood Academy, the private all-boy boarding school in town. There she learns a lot about guys and girls in ways she never expected - especially when she falls for her dreamy roommate, Emilio. How can she show him she likes him without blowing her cover?

The Kitchen House
When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family.

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.

Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.






Review - Turned by Morgan Rice

Title: Turned
The Vampire Journals #1
Author: Morgan Rice
Publish Date: Jan 24, 2011
150 pages
Ebook format

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I was browsing through the steals and deals for Nook and happened upon this book. It is 99cents!!! I grabbed it right up. And was not disappointed. I have never read or even heard of Morgan Rice as an author. I kept getting her confused with Ann Rice when searching for her other books. But after reading this book, I am so happy to say I have added a new author to my list of authors I LOVE TO READ.

I am really excited because I just purchased book 2, Loved in the series for ONLY $2.99! These two books were only available on as ebooks otherwise I would have bought them in book format to own and keep.

The book starts out detailing Caitlin's life of moving around at her mother's wim. Her mother is vain and always looking for someone else to blame. She even goes so far as to claim Caitlin is at fault for her boyfriends leaving her after he made a pass at her. Sad. Caitlin just wants to blend in and be normal for awhile. This will not happen. As she turns a certain age she will change and not just in the hormonal, girl changes, but rather her need for blood. She is . . . different. And is immediately put into the spotlight due to her lack of knowledge of what is happening to her. At the same time she is losing a grip on her own life.

She finds a few friends and a few foes on the way, but I was completely mesmerized by this book. I loved it and was so engrossed I finished it in one morning. I think I blinked and was on the last quarter of the book. Good stuff and love that it is a series.

PS At the time of writing this review, all the other Nook ebooks in this series were only $3.99! After one being 99 cents and two being $2.99.

Summary -
Eighteen year old Caitlin Paine finds herself uprooted from her nice suburb and forced to attend a dangerous New York City high school when her Mom moves again. The one ray of light in her new surroundings is Jonah, a new classmate who takes an instant liking to her.

But before their romance can blossom, Caitlin suddenly finds herself changing. She is overcome by a superhuman strength, a sensitivity to light, a desire to feed--by feelings she does not understand. She seeks answers to what’s happening to her, and her cravings lead her to the wrong place at the wrong time. Her eyes are opened to a hidden world, right beneath her feet, thriving underground in New York City. She finds herself caught between two dangerous covens, right in the middle of a vampire war.

It is at this moment that Caitlin meets Caleb, a mysterious and powerful vampire who rescues her from the dark forces. He needs her to help lead him to the legendary lost artifact. And she needs him for answers, and for protection. Together, they will need to answer one crucial question: who was her real father?

But Caitlin finds herself caught between two men as something else arises between them: a forbidden love. A love between the races that will risk both of their lives, and will force them to decide whether to risk it all for each other…

Review - Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Title: Leaving Paradise
Author: Simone Elkeles
Publisher:
Publish Date:
Paperback, 303 pages

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I am quickly becoming a HUGE fan of Simone Elkeles. I have read two of her books and am excitingly waiting the next book to be ready at the library for me. I was worried about reading this book and being disappointed. Nicely, I wasn't at all. I really loved this one. It was just wonderful.

I loved this book. I fell in love with it. I thought the horrible incidents that were dealt to both Caleb and Maggie are things no one should have to deal with and yet, they did. I am afraid to speak too much about this book as I may reveal the ending of this book, but I highly recommend it. It was a quick and easy read, but so worth it. I think one of the reason I like Simone Elkeles so much is that she develops all characters around the main characters so well that they too stand out.

It is also a clean book for teenagers to read. Even though it deals with drunk driving, it is done tastefully and not revealing too much too early for those still trying to making choices. Very easy book to discuss with your fellow teenagers.

Summary -

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled.

After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.

Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.




Tuesday - Tune In & Teaser

Seriously, what girl doesn't just LOVE this song?!?!?!!!

Before He Cheats
Carrie Underwood







"The waves were small and inconsistent, and I was just kind of rolling along with them, relaxing on my board and my left arm dangling in the cool water. I remember thinking, "I hope the surf picks up soon . . .," when suddenly there was a flash of gray."

Soul Surfer
Bethany Hamilton

Review - The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Title: The Other Wes Moore
Author: Wes Moore
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Publish Date: April 27, 2011
Hardcover, 233 pages

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Amazon

I feel a bit odd giving a review of a book that details two men's real lives. Especially since I really didn't like the book. I thought the concept of the book was fantastic. Two boys with the same name, born in the same neighborhood only to grow up totally different choices and lives. But ultimately the book fell short. It had some good information, good history and great stuff on the insides of gang life. Sadly, it didn't pull me in and make me want read more. I finished it because I respected these men and their lives.

Summary -
The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.
Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound question.
In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.



IMM - In My Mailbox









Won:
Hotwire (Maggie O'Dell) by Alex Kava

Review Request:
The Safehouse by T. Thomas Ackerman

Steals and Deals for ebooks:
Sam I Am (October Trilogy) by Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton