Daughter of Smoke and Bone Invite

Today I received an invite from the Goodreads Team to join a group hosted by the publishers of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone to reread the series before the final book Dreams of Monsters and Gods is released in April.  I literally just finished DOSAB last week.  It was beautiful, tragic, amazing, funny, fill with hot angels...I could go on, but I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone.  The reread is helping with all the crazy confusing parts at the beginning by making it make sense.  Anyway the group is going to be having a giveaway, questions hosted by Laini Taylor, and of course discussions. My goal is to read Days of Blood and Starlight during the end of  February with the group.  Be sure to look up Daughter of Smoke and Bone Re-Read and join us.  It should be readtastic fun!

Friday Feature: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

This is the first book in the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins.  Yes it's true, she wrote a series before the Hunger Games.  Gregor the Overlander is a middle grade read about a boy who follows his sister down a laundry shoot and discovers an entire world living under New York City.  This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor is now in the middle of it because of a prophecy that was written long ago.  It has an Alice and Wonderland feel, but is definitely geared more towards boys. I picked this book up the summer after finishing Half Blood Prince and really needed some kind of adventure series to fill the void.  It did not disappoint!  I became very addicted to this series.  There are five books all together and each one is amazing!  When the series ended, I was so disappointed because I really needed to read more.  After several searches on the internet, I found out she was writing a new series called the Hunger Games.  I was standing outside Waldenbooks the day it was released.  It was not a highly anticipated book, so they hadn't even gotten it out of the shipping box yet.  I was so worried about starting Hunger Games because I was sure it would not surpass her first series.  As a testament to her amazing writing abilities, she completely wowed me again.  As great as Hunger Games is, I will always hold Gregor a little closer to my heart.  Maybe it's because it's the first book I read by her, maybe I it's because I liked the ending better, or maybe it was just the fantasy feel.  All I know is that whenever I think of this series it makes me smile.

Follow Along Read of Daughter of Smoke and Bone

I discovered that gingerreadslainey on twitter is hosting a follow along read of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  This has been on my TBR for a long time now, and this is the perfect excuse to read it.  I don't know anything about the book other than I heard that it is amazing.  I think there are monsters or demons, some kind of paranormal aspect.  If you want to follow along with everyone participating on twitter use #readDOSAB.  Hope to see you there!

Bout of Books Read a Thon Challenge #4

Today's challenge is hosted by WritingMyOwnFariyTale,and to be honest it's been the most thought provoking one for me so far!  I was able to come up with two pretty good pairings or dates for this challenge.

It's a Double Date Book Challenge!

The Rules for the Challenge:

You must pick two books that you would recommend someone read together (like a double date!) and explain your reasons for the recommendation. You can recommend the books because they are in the same genre, one is a retelling of the other, they deal with the same issues, or maybe they're complete opposites, whatever you want as long as you can explain why they should be read together. Just one exception: they cannot be books from the same series. You can leave your answers in the comments or post your answers wherever you're posting your Bout of Books updates and leave the link in the comments. Then make sure you fill out the Rafflecopter! And don't forget to have fun with it! I can't wait to see all the pairings you guys come up with!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel.  I'm a big fan of classic retellings. This Dark Endeavour tells how Victor Frankenstein becomes the person who creates his monster.  

The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.  They are both about humans training to fight demons.  They both have fantastic boy crushes and a kick ass female protagonist.

Bout of Books ReadaThon 9.0 Challenge Day 3

Challenge 3 is hosted by Doing Dewey:

Bout of Books is a great way to interact with new bloggers so I thought it would be a fun chance for us each to introduce other bloggers to a genre we love. For this challenge, pick a book or a few books that you think would make a great introduction to your genre of choice. Leave the answer or a link to your post where you answered in a comment to be entered in the giveaway. The winner will get to pick any of the books someone recommended for the challenge to be sent to them from Amazon or The Book Depository. The giveaway is open to people anywhere Amazon or The Book Depository deliver and will close tonight at midnight CST.

My favorite genres are horror and YA.  It's even better when you combine the two!  So I decided to try and narrow the selection down to my top 4 books that scared the crap out of me.


4. Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

I loved how scary this book was.  It's about a girl who finds out that on the day that her mother dies, it was also the day that several other kids lose their parents who were all members of a league that is sworn to protect the world from a demon that their ancestors released.  The teenagers then have to solve riddles that lead them to haunted places in order to destroy this demon.  Great start to a series!

3.  Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I'm so in love with this book!  It's another ghost story, but it should never be read at night...alone in your house...or without a light on.  It's about a boy who is a ghost hunter trying to hunt down the spirit that killed his dad.  He's been hearing rumors about a murderous spirit called Anna Dress in Blood and moves to that town to destroy her.  However he never expected to be intrigued by the mystery surrounding this ghost.  

 
 2. Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

What horror list isn't complete without a good zombie story, and this one is my favorite.  Yes the zombies in it are scary, but the humans are terrifying!  It's set in a world were zombies have taken over and humans have learned to survive by encasing themselves in these settlements.  Once you turn fifteen you are required to look for a job.  Benny decides to follow his brother Tom who is a zombie hunter.  Benny learns that the humans outside the gates can be more dangerous than the zombies.  I love this series!

1. The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

This is hands down one of the scariest books I have ever read.  I made the mistake of reading alone one night.  Bad idea...I couldn't sleep after that.  Tom is a seventh son of a seventh son and realizes that his chances of finding a good apprentice job are slim until the local spook comes calling.  He wants Tom to be his apprentice, but he must pass some tests first.  This story is full of ghosts, witches, demons, almost any kind of monster you could imagine.  It's considered a middle grade read, but I read it as an adult and I wanted to hide under my covers for weeks.

Those are my top recommendations to anyone wanting to read horror stories in the YA genre.  I can't wait to see everyones' lists and good luck to those who are entering!

Bout of Books ReadaThon 9.0 Updates

So I haven't given myself any major challenges or huge goals because of the kids going back to school and my job, but I at least want to give some kind progress update. This is my first Bout of Books readathon, and it's been very fun!  I would recommend it to everyone!

Monday:
Book Read: Frostbite by Richelle Mead
Number of Pages Read: 170
Participate in any challenges:Does signing up count?

Tuesday:
Book Read: Finished Frostbite by Richelle Mead (yah!)  started The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Number of Pages Read: 165
Participate in any challenges: The Sarahsaysread challenge (at home I had the laundry mat's pipes burst and ruined laundry day challenge)

Wednesday:
Book Read: The Luxe by Anna Godbersen 
Number of Pages Read: Only 45 my job and family came first today
Participate in any challenges:  Favorite Genre by Doing Dewey.  My favorite is YA horror and I posted a blog of my top 4.

Thursday:
Book Read:  The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Number of Pages Read:  40
Participate in any challenges:  The Double Date by WritingMyOwnFairyTale

Friday: 
Book Read:  The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Number of Pages Read:  20 sad but true
Participate in any challenges:  none

Saturday:
Book Read:  The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Number of Pages Read:  30
Participate in any challenges:  none

Sunday:
Book Read:  The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
Number of Pages Read: 50
Participate in any challenges:  none
 
I may not have participate as much as I would have liked, but I still had fun.  I finished a book, started another great book and read over 500 pages.  I had an unexpected family visitor (which was wonderful) and a very busy end of the week for my job.  Next year when I participate, I might take a week off of work and actually enjoy a quiet week of reading.  It was a great experience, and I think anyone with a passion for reading should try it at least once. Thank you boutofbooks for a fabulous week!

Bout of Books Read a Thon 9.0

So I wasn't sure I would have time this week to participate, but I decided I don't care!  It's like 40 below zero outside, which means it's perfect reading weather.   So here are my goals for the week:

1.  Frostbite by Richelle Mead

2. The Treachery of Beautiful Things by 
Ruth Frances Long

3.  The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

4. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
This should be a great start to my goal of 75 books 
this year!  And three of the four of these are part of my 
complete the series goal for 2014!  There is still time to participate!  Good Luck everyone!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team