Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

August 31, 2012 by Alyssa

Title: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

Author: Christopher Healy

Publishing Information: May 1 2012, by Walden Pond Press

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Humor

Series information: Book one in a planned series

Format: Hardcover, 436 pages

Source: Borrowed from my local library

Recommended For: Fans middle grade and fairy tale lovers of all ages

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change. Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Gustav stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other assorted terrors, and become the heroes no one ever thought they could be. (Via Goodreads)

When you’re a child, you start reading books for the entertainment. You want to get away from the real world and feel elation over the adventure. That is what this book did for me; it made me remember how fun it is to read.

I for one have always wondered why every king and queen in fairytale land named their son Charming. It turns out, they didn’t. In fact, these princes all have their own unique name and story, though you’d never know it due to those pesky bards! The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom focuses on four separate Princes Charming: Prince Frederic (He met Cinderella Ella at a ball), Prince Gustav (He saved was saved by a gal named Rapunzel), Prince Liam (He kissed a princess named Briar Rose and woke her up from a really long nap), and Prince Duncan (He and Snow White are rather perfect for one another). The princes have their own quirks and are vastly different though they find themselves thrown together in a quest that will save all of their kingdoms and teach them all what it means to become heroes of their own tale.

Life between the princes and princesses is not what any of them had anticipated it would be…

Ella wants adventure and life with Frederic is not at all what she had imagined it would be when she met him that night at the ball. While Ella would rather travel and explore, Frederic is much happier having a quiet picnic on his grounds – on a blanket of course, one must keep clean – or quietly admiring art in the safety of his castle, this difference in personality leads Ella to go off on her own, leaving Frederic to his safe, (somewhat boring) life.

Gustav often acts before thinking and therefore his mission of rescuing Rapunzel from her tower didn’t go as planned and she ended up leaving on her own, finding him wandering the forest, and rescuing him. As you can imagine, this is a rather sore subject for someone who believes himself to be quite the manly hero so he takes off to search for some adventure of his own and a way to make a name for himself, away from Rapunzel and his sixteen older brothers.

Liam, though arrogant, is really a bit more like the Prince Charming from the original tales. He is handsome, brave and well, princely. Unfortunately, when Prince Liam first rescued Briar Rose, he did not anticipate that she would be spoiled, selfish and an all-together mean person. This led to a rather awkward conversation in which Liam refused to marry Briar Rose and she threw a royal fit and vowed that she would marry him while he stood in shackles if need be. He promptly (and intelligently, in my opinion) put as much distance possible between himself and the princess.

Finally, Prince Duncan and Snow White are married and are quite happy for the most part. However, Duncan is rather quirky and sometimes Snow just needs some quiet time so she asks Duncan to “Go do something else” without her. He then blows Snow a kiss, leaves for a walk and becomes hopelessly lost. Lucky for him (and he will be the first to tell you just how lucky he is) he is found a few days later by Frederic and Gustav who are on their way to “rescue” Ella. Personally, I loved Duncan beyond reason. His antics and outbursts had me laughing out loud. He is definitely one of the sweetest characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about.

“Wild card, got it,” Duncan said. “Just like in Crazy Eights. I can be a diamond; I can be a spade. Whatever you need me to be, I’m that thing. That is so me.”

Both the princes and princesses are fabulous, though I hope we hear more from Rapunzel in book two and I greatly appreciated their vast differences and limitations that made them all stand out. The villains were also fantastic; I have a rather soft spot for a witch who uses a thesaurus spell so that she can insult people more creatively! The dwarves (not dwarfs) provide some snarky fun and the trolls are vastly misunderstood creatures.

This book made me insanely happy. It made me remember what it was like to curl up with my first Wizard of Oz book as a child. It made me smile, giggle and laugh out loud, a feat that few books are able to accomplish. But most of all, it helped me realize that I really do have a soft spot for Middle Grade novels. Thank you, Mr. Healy, for reminding me what it feels like to fall in love with reading for the first time.

As an aside: There isn’t one thing I would change about this novel. On top of having a lyrical and phenomenal story, the illustrations were a wonderful compliment to the tale. Also, I am definitely not a person who longs for books to be made into movies. In fact, I rather hate when it happens. However, this book was different. According to Christopher Healy’s website, it has been announced that 20th Century Fox Animation has optioned the film rights to The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. I am thrilled and can’t wait to see where this goes!

For fun extras on the heroes and to find out what they’re up to next, check out Christopher Healy’s blog or twitter.

Top Ten Tuesday (24)

August 28, 2012 by Alyssa

Top Ten Bookish Confessions

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish which I adore and therefore chose to adopt into my weekly blog posts!

We’re all friends here, right? No judging? If you promise then go ahead and read my bookish confessions. I just hope you won’t stop being my friend because in my head some of them are truly terrible.

I totally judge a book by it’s cover. Don’t get me wrong I don’t ever look at a book, hate the cover, and decide not to read it but I do scan shelves at the book store and pick up the books with covers that stand out to me. Shame!

Sometimes, I like the movie more than the book. It’s a rare occurrence but I enjoyed The Princess Bride film significantly more than the novel and only recently read Stardust by Neil Gaiman and felt the same.

I love trashy vampire lit. Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Mary Janice Davidson? Sign me up. I once saw a cartoon of a bookseller commenting to a customer on how Laurell K. Hamilton’s first books were good but then they just turned into stories with…um..relations with shape shifters & vampires. In the next picture it shows the customer holding a leaning tower of Laurell K. Hamilton novels. That’s me, totally.

I become drastically more upset when an animal is abused or killed in a book than when a human is. I’m not sure what this says about me as a person but I always want to scream “WHY IS THAT NECESSARY?!” when that sort of thing happens. Anna Dressed in Blood SPOILER ALERT: This book contained people being massacred and I just kept reading without (metaphorically) blinking an eye, but when the cat died? FORGET IT. I was MAD.

I totally judge you by what you’re reading. I am a librarian and therefore it is a severe NO NO to judge someone by their book choices, but sometimes I can’t help it. When you come up to me asking for your book on hold that just happens to be 50 Shades Darker and you want to spend 20 minutes talking to me about how awesome this book is? Just no. Stop. Please.

I have read a pathetic amount of so called “classic” novels. I know what they are, I know why they’re awesome but for the most part they continue to remain unread on my beautiful bookcases. Rory Gilmore would be ashamed.

I never use a bookmark, yet I probably own a hundred. Being a reader people always think “Oh let’s buy her a bookmark” for her birthday/Christmas/Wednesday but guess what? I usually end up using a gum wrapper or simply commit what page I am on to memory.

I really love my e-reader and no, I don’t think the popularity of e-readers will make libraries and books in print obsolete. I also kind of judge you if you do. Readers will always be readers and a true lover of literature loves to hold the physical book in their hands and smell the pages. I own both digital and print copies of books I truly love.

I have irrational feelings toward some books and feel a little tinge of jealousy when people I know read and/or want to discuss them (see: Harry Potter). These feelings also go for non-readers who try to discuss books and have a completely different opinion than my own, RAGE.

My number one book confession and there really are only a handful of people that know this because I am so ashamed…

Dear Kitty: I hate The Diary of Anne Frank. Wait, Wait! Let me explain! I completely appreciate the heart wrenching and horrific details of this story and cannot even begin to imagine the harrowing circumstances that led to the writing of this diary. I also think there are many factors that go into my loathing of the book. I believe it’s mostly due to the fact that I was forced to read it over and over again in both high school and college. I am obsessed with Shakespeare and can’t stand Romeo and Juliet for this same reason. Please, don’t judge me and think me heartless, I am ashamed enough as it is.

Woo, that was hard! Perhaps reading your book confessions will make me feel better about my own…

Book Hoarders Anonymous (2)

August 22, 2012 by Alyssa

On Saturday, the beau and I decided to take the trip to Niantic to visit The Book Barn and have a nice lunch by the shore. I decided to go prepared this time and I made a list of books to look for. I still took my time browsing the shelves but it was nice to have some authors in mind. I am pleased to say that I was able to find almost every book I had on my list at The Book Barn for only $1.00 each!! You just can’t beat that.

This is what we look like on the way to The Book Barn. (New Year’s Day 2010)

If you live in New England, I highly recommend you take a drive to Niantic and visit The Book Barn. It’s lovely in all seasons, though I prefer to go in the Fall. The “About Us” page on their website provides some insight regarding their mission: “The primary mission of The Book Barn is, of course, to serve as a provider of books, uniting people and books together in biblioholic bliss.” That sums it up but really, The Book Barn is so much more. It’s one of my favorite places to be, even if you aren’t a bibliophile, it’s worth taking the drive.

Besides the amazing books that you will find, The Book Barn also hosts some other fun perks, such as:

They have a plethora of kitties on the grounds! Their website even offers a handy “Guide to Finding Our Cats” This is one of my favorite things about The Book Barn and I have to give a little shout out to my dear friend Frank who passed away last year. He was my buddy, and we had quite a few snuggle sessions over the past few years.

Frank!

There are comfy chairs all over the place so you can lounge and browse and/or read!
They provide treats like donuts, tea and COFFEE
They have a goat!
There is a ~~secret~~ basement that houses SO MANY BOOKS and some very quiet corners if you need to curl up and read for a bit.
The grounds are gorgeous, flowers everywhere and they have picnic tables so you can bring your own lunch!
There are now three separate locations! My favorite categories are as follows: The Book Barn: Fiction and Young-Adult, The Midtown Store: Children’s and The Downtown Store: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Cookbooks and SHAKESPEARE. There are, of course, many other genres and maps with all of this nifty info can be found at the main barn!
The staff is amazing and unique, and they are always happy to chat! In fact, Jim from the Downtown store and I were partaking in some “book people” chat just this weekend, mostly to confuse the boyfriend but also just because we can!
Speaking of the staff, they’re hilarious. I sometimes feel as if I belong to this awesome “book people cult” when I laugh out loud at their left-handed humor. An example can be found in this blog post regarding their shelf labeling.

Yes, that is a book about Snooki on the “Odd Beasts and Beings” shelf.

I bet you’re actually wondering what I picked up on this trip? Here is a picture of the haul I picked up this time – keep in mind I held back as books are currently taking over the apartment:

All priced less than $10 each!!

Being a collector of all things Wizard of Oz I obviously had to buy that one.

The Gates by John Connolly

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier

Into the Green by Charles de Lint

Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint

Also, not present in the picture, I picked up some books for friends and family.

So there it is, my weekend day trip that I look forward to a few times a year. It is a wonderful place to visit for both book lovers and lovers of book lovers – you need someone to help you carry your books, don’t you?

Find The Book Barn on Facebook or Twitter

Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

August 17, 2012 by Alyssa

Title: Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

Publishing Information: July 3, 2012 by Harper Collin’s Childrens

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Romance, Retellings

Series information: Standalone

Format: Hardcover, 292 pages

Source: Borrowed from my local library

Recommended For: Fans of strong heroines, Peter Pan and fairy tales

“Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you’ve heard. The boy and girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn’t win. In some places, there is something ultimately good about endings. In Neverland, that is not the case…”

I have never been a huge fan of Peter Pan. I like the premise and sure, Hook is one of my favorite movies of all time but there were always pieces missing for me in the story. A few weeks ago I even listed Peter Pan as one of the characters I’d like to switch places with so that I could learn more about what’s going on inside his head. This might be why Tiger Lily called to me, though it also might be the fact that I never could stand Wendy and really longed to hear more about Peter before she came in and babied him. Thankfully, Tiger Lily was exactly what I needed in regards to Pan’s story. I have actually been struggling with this review because I found the book to be so brilliant that I haven’t been able to put into words how wonderful it truly is.

First, the characters: Tiger Lily is told not from her point of view, but from Tinker Bell’s. Tink (so named by Peter) does not belong to Peter; she is actually enamored by Tiger Lily and has watched Tiger Lily grow since she was just a baby. As Tiger Lily and Tink spend time with Peter, Tink does develop love for him as well but ultimately her loyalty lies with Tiger Lily and she does all she can to keep her safe from harm. One lovely thing about Tink is that as a faerie, she is able to “hear” people’s feelings. She can read their minds to some extent but more specifically she is able to hear their hearts and therefore understand their true feelings for situations. Tink describes this, “As a faerie, you can hear when something tugs at someone. It’s much like the sound of a low, deep note on a violin string.”

Tiger Lily is strong, daring and at times, heartless. The village shaman, Tik Tok, found her abandoned under a flower from which she gets her name. Tiger Lily is different from all members of the village. When the village girls scream and run from something they deem dangerous, Tiger Lily grabs her hatchet and runs toward the danger. She is quiet and contemplative and does not give herself completely to anyone, until she meets Peter.

Peter is a complicated character. He is brave on the exterior yet cries at night from his utter fear of the pirates and letting the lost boys down. He falls in love easily and acts before thinking in many circumstances. It is his openness, courage and devotion that Tiger Lily falls in love with.

The secondary characters were also written wonderfully. Tik Tok was rather unique as Jodi Lynn Anderson wrote him in a way that blurs the lines we are used to seeing. Tik Tok is a man, who dresses and acts like a woman. He is completely devoted to his craft and loves Tiger Lily as if she was his real daughter. Aunt Fire and her son, Giant were both grotesque characters and were written in a way that really made me loathe them as much as Tiger Lily did. Both Pine Sap and Moon Eye were lovely contrasts to Tiger Lily and I appreciated the way that they represented her connection to her village and a sort of grounding as she was falling for Peter more and more. To be honest, I sort of had a serious crush on Pine Sap from the beginning. He was the character who understood Tiger Lily like no one else, the perfect best friend.

Though the pirates played a significant part in the plot they weren’t really “on stage” that much but it was interesting to see Captain Hook portrayed as an aging drunkard and Smee as a rather sinister murderer. Like the pirates, Wendy of course had a strong impact on the conclusion of the story. However, she was not a major character throughout the novel and I am glad of it. I did not love her, but I don’t believe we were meant to. She was childish and silly and was a wonderful presentation of everything Tiger Lily was lacking in her character. The duality was as vivid as day and night.

“Watch that boy,” she said. “You’re stronger in many ways, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take you apart.”

The Setting: Gorgeous and vivid, Jodi Lynn Anderson portrayed that forest as lush as I had imagined. The “cave” in which the lost boys lived was dank and was so described that I really felt as if I could smell the earth surrounding them. I found myself cringing away from the lagoon in my mind, wary of the carnivorous mermaids and longing to stand with Tiger Lily and Peter at the top of the mountain, looking out at the wild horses. There was one scene that really stuck out for me, in which Peter had the lost boys bring out their bedding and light the trees with candles. He told Tiger Lily they were sleeping in the trees because he thought she would enjoy it and I felt myself become giddy with excitement. Imagine how gorgeous it must have been and how amazing it would have felt to sleep in the trees by candlelight. Gorgeous all around.

The Story: Honestly I still don’t know how to write this. From page one I was taken by Tiger Lily and they way she was vastly different from those around her. I fell for Peter as she did, little by little she gave into him and let him into her heart. Through Tink’s eyes I was able to see how she couldn’t quite give enough and wasn’t exactly what Peter needed. There were times I was so frustrated with her and just wanted her to be what he needed her to be even though I knew it wasn’t her, I knew she didn’t know how to give in without giving up herself. I loved how the author looked at different forms of jealousy through different characters and she showed each characters vast strengths and weaknesses. As a reader, it made me invest even deeper into the story. I’ll be honest, the ending was so heartbreaking yet beautiful at the same time that I read it over and over. I felt my heart break and mend almost simultaneously. It was phenomenal.

The story was riveting. It was heartbreaking, tender, harrowing, compelling, breathtaking and all around gorgeous. I recommend it to fans of strong heroines such as Scarlet, fans of Peter Pan and readers looking for a fantasy novel that will make them feel an array of emotions.

“If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl’s heart, after all.”

Top Ten Tuesday (23)

August 14, 2012 by Alyssa

Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish which I adore and therefore chose to adopt into my weekly blog posts!

These choices might be a little more hopeful on my part but as I was remembering these books and their romances I realized that the relationships that I thought would work in the real world revolved around the partners accepting one another for who they really are (even if one of them is an assassin) and the two of them growing together into a loving relationship (even if they didn’t like one another very much in the beginning).

Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from The Harry Potter series – These two went through puberty together, there really isn’t anything more horrifying.

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice – Who hasn’t seen hate turn to love (or vice versa, I’m afraid).

Snow White and Bigby Wolf from Fables – Sure, one of them is The Big Bad Wolf but Snow sooths the animal in him and their strong personalities work well with one another.

Liadan and Bran from Son of Shadows – Liadan brings Bran back from the brink of darkness within himself and it is then that he is able to be happy enough with himself to fully love another, (one of my favorite couples in literature).

Cimorene and Mendanbar from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles – Mendanbar loves Cimorene and all of her crazy ways, even the way she kind of loathes him upon their first meeting and her desire to live with dragons rather than be rescued by a knight in shining armor.

Ismae and Duval from Grave Mercy – She’s an assassin and he loves her just the way she is. “Whenever you are ready, or if you never are, my heart is yours, until Death do us part. Whatever that may mean when consorting with one of Death’s handmaidens.”

Claire and Jamie from The Outlander Series – I have only read book one and though I didn’t love it, their love was the one constant that I adored throughout the novel. They grow together and accept one another with all of their flaws.

Scarlet and Robin from Scarlet – She is a rather prickly sort and he loves her anyway, they work together as a perfect team.

Caitrin and Anluan from Heart’s Blood -Caitrin finds her home in Anluan and he finds the peace he has spent years yearning for.

Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games Trilogy – “Real or not real?”

Who do you guys have on your list of couples that could make it in the real world?

Review: Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

August 10, 2012 by Alyssa

Title: Fathomless

Author: Jackson Pearce

Publishing Information: September 4, 2012 by Little Brown

Genre: Young-Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tales

Series information: Book 3 in the “Fairytale Retellings” series

Format: Paperback, 291 pages

Source: ARC from the publisher (BEA 2012)

Recommended For: Fans of mermaids and fairytales

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant — until Celia meets Lo.

Lo doesn’t know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea — a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid — all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she’s becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she’s tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude’s affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there’s only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul. (Via Goodreads)

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this novel, I didn’t particularly enjoy Sisters Red yet I liked Sweetly enough to want to continue on with the “series.” I won’t say I’m sorry that I did but I was disappointed in a lot of ways.

I suppose these are more “companion” novels than novels in a series yet I still wanted to hear more from characters in the previous two books. Characters in Sweetly were alluded to, it’s no surprise that “Lo” is also “Nadia” the lost sister from Sweetly, but I wanted more. I have to give credit where it’s due, all three novels are tied up in a way that make them not dependent on one another. However, upon finishing this book I couldn’t help but wonder if there was going to be another novel to finally bring everyone together. It really felt to me like the “series” is just getting started. Note: If the series is just getting started then these loose ends would make sense to me. However, I have not yet heard or read any indication that there will be more novels in this series. If you have, please, enlighten me!

I found that kept asking myself questions while reading the novel, “Why do these sisters have powers,” and “Where are these werewolves that plagued the first two novels?” Don’t worry, they show up for a brief episode, and we learn where they come from, kind of. All three novels gives us a major piece of information in regards to the fenris, how one is made, what they do to the girls they “steal” and so forth. Yet I was still left with feeling like I only read parts of different stories thrown together.

First, there is the idea of it being a “retelling” of The Little Mermaid. True, there was a mermaid who longed to be on land but for me, that is where the comparison ended. Lo longs to have her old life back (the life of Nadia) and she has been told that the only way to do this is to make a mortal fall in love with her so that she can steal his soul. Second, there are the triplets who just happen to have these powers to see the past, present and future. How and why do they have these powers? I’m not sure. For the sake of this story the powers enable Celia to assist Lo in remembering her life as Nadia, to help hold on to her humanity.

There were things I really enjoyed in this novel. The point of view changed between Lo (and Nadia) and Celia so it was really a story from three different characters. This kept the novel interesting. I also liked that Lo wasn’t a mermaid in the way that we know them, the fins and so forth, but more of a girl who can live and breathe underwater indefinitely. I also really enjoyed the ending to the novel. Jackson Pearce has great success in writing endings that I really don’t see coming. In fact, I went back and re-read my reviews for the prior two novels in this series and I mentioned the same things: how I didn’t love the novel throughout, but the ending redeemed it for me. Interesting. Celia, Jude and Lo were fantastic and layered characters that I really grew to love, I felt connected to them as I did the characters in Sweetly. I would have liked to have learned more about Celia’s sisters, as I mentioned earlier a little explanation of their powers would have been enjoyable and would have given the characters more depth, but they played their parts in the end.

I honestly don’t completely know how I feel about this novel. Parts were riveting and beautiful and parts didn’t click with me. If Pearce decides to continue on with this story, I will be back for more but it isn’t something I feel compelled to read. If you are looking for a different type of mermaid story, one slightly sinister yet also endearing, I encourage you to take a chance and read Fathomless yourself.

Side note: I have to weigh in, I really, really adored the covers of both Sisters Red and Sweetly and to be honest, I am extremely disappointed in the cover of Fathomless. Alas!

Top Ten Tuesday (22)

August 7, 2012 by Alyssa

Books Take You Places

Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

“Wild card, got it,” Duncan said. “Just like in Crazy Eights. I can be a diamond; I can be a spade. Whatever you need me to be, I’m that thing. That is so me.”

For fun extras on the heroes and to find out what they’re up to next, check out Christopher Healy’s blog or twitter.

Top Ten Tuesday (24)

Top Ten Bookish Confessions

Book Hoarders Anonymous (2)

Find The Book Barn on Facebook or Twitter

Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

“Watch that boy,” she said. “You’re stronger in many ways, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take you apart.”

“If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl’s heart, after all.”

Top Ten Tuesday (23)

Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World

Review: Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Top Ten Tuesday (22)

Top Ten Posts On My Blog That Give the BEST Picture of ME

Posts to learn more about me:

Posts where I rave about my favorite books:

“Wild card, got it,” Duncan said. “Just like in Crazy Eights. I can be a diamond; I can be a spade. Whatever you need me to be, I’m that thing. That is so me.”

For fun extras on the heroes and to find out what they’re up to next, check out Christopher Healy’s blog or twitter.

Top Ten Bookish Confessions

Recommend A…Book With a Character Who Plays a Sport!

My choice this week is: The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Mischief Managed!

Find The Book Barn on Facebook or Twitter

Recommend A…Book By A Debut Author!

My choice this week is: Storybound by Marissa Burt

“Watch that boy,” she said. “You’re stronger in many ways, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take you apart.”

“If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl’s heart, after all.”

Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World

Recommend A…Book With a Blue Cover!

My choice this week is Lost Voices by Sarah Porter!

Top Ten Posts On My Blog That Give the BEST Picture of ME

Posts to learn more about me:

Posts where I rave about my favorite books: