Always Me

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by  Freda's Voice . These are the rules: 1. Grab a book, any book. 2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. 3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 4. Post it. 5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. This week I'm spotlighting my current read,  Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross .  It's book two in the Beau Rivage series , but you don't really need to read the first book, Kill Me Softly ,  to get this one.  I'm not very far into it yet, but this fairy tale retelling definitely takes its cues from Once Upon a Time .  I mean, Snow's (excuse me, Viv's) stepmother's/the Evil Queen's name is even Regina in the book.  Really?  And, I'm going to say tv Snow is a lot  more likable than Viv.  Viv is just coming off like an annoying, spoiled brat, but like I said I'm not that far into it yet - maybe things'll change.

The theme for this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , is Favorite Heroines from Books/TV/Movies.  I decided to take it to the next level and come up with ten for books, ten for TV, and ten for movies (keep in mind that some do overlap)!  In no particular order, here we go: Books: Hermione Granger Celaena Sardothien Nita Callahan Lihn Cinder Daenerys Targaryen Arya Stark Aibilleen Clark Katniss Everdeen Lisbeth Salander Esmerelda Weatherwax Movies: Hermione Granger Aibileen Clark Katniss Everdeen Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) Princess Leia Black Widow Mulan Matilda Wormwood Sgt. Rita Vrataski TV:  Buffy Summers Willow Rosenberg Lt. Abbie Mills Arya Stark Michonne FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham Rose Tyler Dr. Martha Jones Donna Noble River Song So, what do you think of my

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by  Freda's Voice . These are the rules: 1. Grab a book, any book. 2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. 3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 4. Post it. 5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. This week I'm spotlighting A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray .  It just recently came in at the library for me and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've heard so many good things! I always told myself nothing was ever going to happen.  Theo's older than me.  He's snarky and selfish and his arrogance would be completely repellent if he didn't have the brilliance to back it up.

❋  ❋  ❋ Jo Winter’s parents send her to live with her cousin in Manhattan, it’s to get married and forget about her brother death. She finds herself caught up in the swirl of her cousin’s flapper set—and their boyfriends—where she learns talk of marriage never stops, and behind the seemingly boundless gains are illicit business endeavors, gangsters, and their molls. Jo would prefer to be with the handsome but quiet Charles, a waiter at the Algonquin, than with a bootlegger. As Jo befriends a moll, she uncovers secrets to threaten an empire and destroy those she cares about. It was very interesting to read this shortly after having read In the Shadow of Blackbirds and The Cure for Dreaming both by Cat Winters. Personally, though, I was disappointed in the overall execution of the story. I've always enjoyed this time period when major changes are taking place in American society, but this was just kind of meh. The leading character, Jo (and her boyfriend), was just so bo

It's Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , and this time the theme hits close to home with book related problems I have.  You can go the serious or fun route, or a combination.  I think mine counts as a little bit of both.  Here we go: The cost of a brand new hardback. I could have saved so much more money if I didn't spend it all on books. I should not be trusted in a bookstore with a credit card. I buy new books before I've finished reading what I currently have. I'm running out of room to put them all. My tbr shelves and stacks are really starting to look a little messy. My Kindle just feeds my addiction. So does Amazon. And thrift shops.   Some day I just be able to walk by a beautiful new book - but not today! By the way, I got a spectacular deal today at my local Goodwill!  I purchased Longbourn by Jo Baker  (ARC), Guardians of the Dead by Karen Healey (ARC), The Devil's Compan

It's Presidents' Day!  What better way to celebrate than with a good book giveaway?  Of course, I could give away a book actually related to the holiday in some way, but no matter.  I would like to share my new found love of  The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black with one lucky person!   Just look at that gorgeous cover - doesn't it just make you want to dive right in? This giveaway begins now and will stay open until 12AM on Monday, February 23rd.  To enter see the widget below: a Rafflecopter giveaway May the odds be ever in your favor!

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Hazel and her brother, Ben, live in Fairfold, a town where humans and fae live side-by-side. The faeries' magic attracts tourists, but the citizens of the town know just how dangerous that magic really is, especially Hazel. When they were children, Hazel used to be a knight, and her brother a bard, who fought to stop them when things went too far. In the center of the great woods is a glass coffin where a decidedly non-human boy with horns on his head and ears as sharp as knives has slept for generations. Both Hazel and Ben grew up loving this mysterious figure and making up all kinds of fantastical stories of their adventures together with the horned boy at their side. One day, though, everything changes when the boy awakes and he's not at all what anyone thought. This is the first book I've read by Holly Black featuring faeries, as I have yet to read Tithe . I loved The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and The Curse Workers (I still have to read Black He

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Olivia Mead is a suffragist during a time that prefers its girls to be quiet and obedient. Olivia’s father, upset by her lack of femininity, hires a stage mesmerist to hypnotize the rebellion out of her and make her the perfect future wife for a young man. However, Henri, the hypnotist with interesting motives of his own, gives her the ability to see people’s true natures, even though she is unable to speak her mind and verbally express her anger. These challenges only make her all the more determined to speak her mind and fight for women's basic rights as American citizens. The Cure for Dreaming is only the second book I've read by Cat Winters, but I would say that she is well on her way to becoming one of my favorite authors. I love how she is able to so expertly combine a stirring historical fiction novel with paranormal elements that really enrich and complement the well-researched historical (great selection of real-life photos included) aspect of th

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by  Freda's Voice . These are the rules: 1. Grab a book, any book. 2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. 3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 4. Post it. 5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. This week I'm spotlighting The Darkest Part of the Forest  by Holly Black .  It's my current read and the author's most recent release.  I'm not too far along in my hardcover yet, but I'm really enjoying her return to fairy stories so far! And they did run, the barghest just behind them, weaving between trees like a leopard.  They ran and ran until they managed to wedge themselves in the hollow of an oak tree, where they hid, hearts thumping, breaths held, listening for the sweep of a tail or the pad of a heavy step.  They stayed hidden there until the late-afternoon sun was low in the sky.  Only then did they dare creep