Positive Perception

Perception by Kim Harrington

* Book will be released March 1, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

4 out of 5 gnomes

Clare Fern is an ambitious snarky character who tends to get involved with and attract some very interesting characters.  She's from a family of psychics which of course makes many see her as a freak but things have changed a little since the outcome of the first book.

I love how the books in this series start out.  Right away you know that something horrible is about to happen and then in the next chapter you start however many days before the event and work back up to it.  It's a nice attention getter right off the bat and will leave you guessing as to what exactly is going on.

Kim Harrington seems to be a master at creating red herrings.  The first chapter is a great example of one just because of the use of a single pronoun.  I also had a hard time figuring out the bad person because of all the twists and turns

Two very hot guys are interested in her but she's just trying to see if she can stand to be friends with them instead.  There's also a potential third love interest but Clare doesn't seem to notice him, I have to wonder if that will change in the next book.  She finds it hard to choose, though I think that it's a pretty clear choice.  I always thought that it was clear who she was going to choose especially after a rather traumatic incident in the book.  I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the decision that she made at the end of the story.

I like how close she is to her family and how protective of them she is.  Perry her brother is still a little shell shocked after the events of the previous story.  He has some intense problems in this book too and you have to wonder what his next move will be.  Having a telepath for a mom has to be tricky but I do wish that Clare would have confided in her more.

The end of the book was great because just when you think everything is going okay you're in for a big surprise.  I was impressed with the teamwork that she has to use to get out of trouble in the end.  I figured out who the bad person was just a little bit before Clare did and wow what a creepy big bad this turned out to be. 

Overall a really fun mystery series with plenty of twists.  It'll be great to see what Clare accomplishes in the future and where the series goes from here.

Sentence Sneak Peek - Perception

Perception by Kim Harrington

The first sentence from each chapter of Perception, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* Book will be released March 1, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

"I STEPPED FORWARD WITH FORCED CONFIDENCE."

"I JUMPED WHEN MY BAGEL POPPED UP FROM THE toaster."

"WHO?"

"TIFFANY WAS A DRAMA QUEEN, SO LOUD SQUEALS and other attention-getting techniques weren't unusual for her."

"I DEFTLY AVOIDED MALLORY'S QUESTION AND MY conflicted feelings on the topic by claiming to have to hurry home."

"THE FIRST PERSON I SAW AT SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY was not Justin, but Cody Rowe."

"MY KNEES WENT WEAK, AND I SHOT A HAND OUT to brace myself against a chair."

"YUMMY'S IS THE MOST WIDELY LOVED RESTAURANT in Eastport."

"MY MOUTH OPENED."

"I HEFTED THE LAST SHOPPING BAG FROM THE trunk, carried it into the house, and dropped it on the floor."

"THE SHADOW CAME CLOSER AND FORMED A FAMILIAR frame."

"EW!"

"GABRIEL OFFERED ME A RIDE TO SCHOOL AGAIN Monday morning, and that might have been the reason I wore my tight, nice-ass jeans rather than the slightly baggy com-fortable ones I preferred."

"THE LITTLE HAIRS ON THE BACK OF MY NECK prickled."

"I AVOIDED EVERYONE THE REST OF THE DAY."

"I WAS DISAPPOINTED WITH WHAT LITTLE I GOT from the vision."

"I OPENED MY EYES."

"THURSDAY PASSED IN A HAZE OF CLASSES, AND THAT afternoon I sat in the kitchen."

"I STOOD AT MY LOCKER, PULLING OUT BOOKS AND watching the stream of kids go by."

"MOM NEARLY FELL OVER WHEN I TOLD HER I WAS going to a party."

"I ALLOWED THE STRONG, WARM HAND TO LEAD ME out of the dark chaos inside Kendra's house and into the sur-prisingly bright night outside."

"IT WAS SUNDAY, LATE MORNING, AND MOM WAS flitting around the kitchen, making a racket."

"I LEFT SCHOOL IN A ROTTEN MOOD."

"NOTHING PUTS YOUR PROBLEMS IN PERSPECTIVE like death."

"MOM DRUMMED THE STEERING WHEEL NERVOUSLY while she waited for me to settle in."

"I STRAINED TO TURN MY HEAD AND FACE MY attacker."

"SHH!"

"I SPENT MOST OF MY ENERGY THURSDAY TRYING not to think."

"THE BONFIRE WAS TOO HOT TO STAND TOO CLOSE, but I'd slowly built up a tolerance to the heat, so if I backed away from it, the night air seemed too cold."

"THERE WAS NO SECRET ADMIRER."

"KENDRA WAS ON GABRIEL LIKE A PREDATOR ON A slab of meat."

"THE SONG ENDED AND GABRIEL DROPPED HIS HANDS from my body."

"OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE, I SAW GABRIEL approaching."

"THE FIRST SENSE THAT RETURNED WAS TOUCH, I was surprisingly comfortable."

"WHILE WE WERE STILL IN DARKNESS, MY MIND struggled for a plan."

"TWO DAYS AFTER I FOUGHT OFF A CRAZED KILLER and saved the life of my mortal enemy, I lay on the couch, my ankle propped up on pillows."

Top 5 Sundays - Fave Ghostly Novels!

This feature was thought up by the awesome Larissa's Bookish Life

Rules:
1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.
5 - If you don't have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)
Top 5 Sundays - Fave Ghostly Novels!

Anna is one heck of a great character.  She's very very very creepy yes, but it's much more complicated then that.  Finding out why everything is so complicated makes for a definite must read book.  Let's just say if I may paraphrase a line from The Little Mermaid Disney movie, that Anna is a poor unfortunate soul.

This is my kind of ghost story, it has more hope then sadness or scary times.  It deals with death and the afterlife in a rather unique way that is once again more hopeful then sad.

The humor and the voice of the book is great and really draws you into the story.  When you add in the mystery of the new Jack the Ripper and a dash of paranormal goodness, it makes for a great story.

This is a great story full of ghosts and other great paranormal aspects.  I love the reason why Chloe can see ghosts and how she figures everything out.

This is such a great book and is chock full of ghosts.  The main character is actually raised by ghosts in a graveyard.  The mythology and just about everything else in this book is very well done.

Story Time

Story Time

The story will begin on the first of each month and end on the last day of the month.
I like this story so much that I think I'll keep it going and see where it goes from here:

Rules
1.) Only write 1 to 2 sentences
2.) Keep it clean
3.) Have fun and spread the word so the story grows


Here's the story that has formed so far:

Awesome people who have authored the story by adding lines so far: Sullivan McPig, Julie@My5monkeys, Susan Jane Bigelow, barmybex



Title: An Extraordinary Girl
Once upon a time in a time not that long ago there was a disturbance.

The cause of the disturbance was something that was well...truly disturbing.  In fact it was so disturbing that at first it was quite unclear what this disturbance was, because anyone who saw it was too disturbed to talk about it.

There came a noisy unruly girl who demanded that all must obey her.  She was the girl of the mayor and weird things did happen around her.  Pigeons tap danced when she blinked her eyes and cockroaches would mimic her words when she spoke.  Lights would go off and babies would cry when she passed.

This girl stood in the center of town, pigeons dancing, roaches waiting, lights flickering and babies crying all around.  She struck her umbrella on the cobblestones.  A hush fell over the town as purple sparks shot out of the tip of the umbrella and even the pigeons stopped their dancing and seemed to hold their breath.

As the astounded masses watched a massive hole slowly appeared in the middle of the street. As the dust settled it was revealed...a giant staircase leading down to complete darkness and then a faint music started to radiate from its depths.

There was such a ruckus in the town and trying to make sure that all the citizens were fine. The music coming out of the hole had a mesmerizing sound that attracted all the citizens.  It was almost like children's music.

The girl grinned mischievously and whistled along with the music while she slowly descended down the hole.

The further down she went the louder the music echoed. A strange shift filled the air and a cold wind howled past causing her hair to flutter round her face, but it didn't distract her. As she confidently walked on some of the pigeons and cockroaches followed her, cautiously and trembling with fear and a sense of foreboding.

"Wait," a high, piping voice said, "there are dangers below!" One of the pigeons had spoken. This was not a terrific surprise to the girl, who did not pause in her descent.

"Stay above ground if you don't have the courage to follow me," she stated calmly. "But I must go on. The faith of the town depends on this."

As she kept traveling downward the tone of the music seemed to change and become more insistent.  Then in the distance a faint shimmering light appeared.

It glowed a dull purple at first, but then changed to a harsh, angry blue that pulsated like a frantic heartbeat that got more aggressive the closer the girl got to it.

The light was actually calling to her, and only her. She was different from everyone else in the town. It was her duty.

She edged closer with her arm out in front of her. The blue light grew in intensity until she had to close her eyes against the glare, a warmth surrounded her arm from the light and she pulled in a satisfied breath and grinned.

Marvelous Monument

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

* Book will be released June 5, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

5 out of 5 gnomes

This book was a fast paced and entertaining read.  It takes the fantasy that most kids have of staying in a store overnight and doing whatever you want and adds a lot of cataclysmic events to the mix.

This isn't a happy-go-lucky kind of story.  A bunch of people die in the very first chapter and they aren't the last to die throughout the course of the book. 

The action starts right away as a hail storm starts on the way to school.  This is no ordinary hail storm though, massive hail stones break through the windows and batter the bus.  Having no other choice these kids end up inside a store that sounds a lot like a Super Target or Walmart.  

The main character Dean is a quiet guy for the most part and is seen as a little weird because he actually likes to write stuff down.  Writing is seen as weird because in this future time it seems that most everything is done on tablet-like machines.  He's pretty much a loner and at first doesn't really seem to be a heroic type of person. 

There are a plethora of personalities all stuck in one place.  The youngest kids are only five-years-old.  As you can imagine there are lots of power plays and kids behaving badly.  Watching this little group struggle and bond does makes the story fly by.

Calamity after calamity befalls this group and they try to make some sense of normalcy in a world that has turned horrifying.  As cliché as it sounds they or at least groups of them anyway become like a family.  It feels like you're watching some kind of great social experiment.  You'll think that you know where everything is going but then WHAM, you're in for a surprise.

It's not all gloom on doom though either.  There's humor to be found among all this chaos.  The funniest character is a first grader named Max.  He's my favorite of the little kids because of the hilarious stories he tells.  Batiste is also great because he annoys the heck out of everybody but also turns out to be an amazing cook.  All the little kids put into the mix of this horrible situation makes for quite an interesting read

I would definitely recommend this read.  This book was a pleasant surprise and the ending made me even more interested in reading the next book.

Sentence Sneak Peek - Monument 14

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

The first sentence from each chapter of Monument 14, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* Book will be released June 5, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

"YOUR MOTHER HOLLERS THAT YOU'RE GOING TO MISS THE BUS."

"I WAS SLEEPY WAS THE THING."

"WHO LIKES PIZZA?"

"WE WERE SHAKEN AWAKE AROUND EIGHT."

"WHERE'S THE MAIN CONTROLS?"

"JAKE STRAINED TO KEEP ME PINNED."

"THE KIDS FELL ASLEEP, AFTER A WHILE."

"I WAS MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, WRITING SOME STUFF DOWN, when Brayden ambled over and kicked the bean bag chair I was sitting on."

"THE NEXT MORNING THE LITTLE KIDS WOKE UP FIRST."

"AFTER DINNER, WHICH WE ATE WITH HARDLY ANY FUSS AND hardly any talking, really, Josie got up and put her plate in the trash."

"ONE WEEK BEFORE THE CEREMONY, I'D SAY I WOULD HAVE BEEN about as likely to read an original poem in front of my class-mates as I would have been to stand under Astrid's window and serenade her with a mariachi band."

"LUNCH: PIZZA."

"WHAT WAS I DREAMING OF?"

"I WOKE UP TO THE BEEP-BEEP-BEEP OF MY PANASONIC TRAVEL alarm clock."

"JOSIE AND BRAYDEN WORKED HARD ALL AFTERNOON AND BY the evening free play period, they had new sleeping quarters for us all."

"THE NEXT MORNING, I COULD HARDLY LOOK JAKE IN THE EYE."

"WE GATHERED IN THE KITCHEN."

"MOTHER JOSIE GOT ME CLEANED UP AND PUT ME TO BED."

"JOSIE TOLD US TO SUIT UP AND HEAD TO THE DUMP."

"WHEN MY ALARM CLOCK RANG AT SEVEN, SOMEHOW I FELT twice as bad as I had the day before."

"AT SEVEN A.M., I DIDN'T WAKE UP CHLOE."

"MY FIRST IMPRESSION WAS THAT MR. APPLETON WAS AN ex-army guy."

"NIKO AND JOSIE DISCUSSED WHAT TO DO WITH THE LITTLE KIDS while we all met with the grown-ups."

"AS WE NEARED THE KITCHEN, AND THE BUS, THE KIDS SWARMED out to greet us with a happy, fluffy Luna."

"I LET MAX HELP FIX THE BUS INSTEAD OF MAKING HIM COME do KP with me."

"AFTER BREAKFAST THE NEXT MORNING (CHLOE WAS MY HELPER and she said, "Just do whatever, Dean."

"BATISTE AND I REALLY WENT TO TOWN FOR THE FAREWELL dinner."

"EVERYTHING WAS QUIET AND DARK IN THE STORE WHEN WE woke to the sound of Luna barking and Astrid yelling her head off:
     "JAKENIKODEANBRAYDENGETOVERHERE!"

"THE LITTLE KIDS CAME SCREAMING OVER TO SEE WHAT HAD happened, and I grabbed Max and Ulysses and pushed them all back toward the Train."

"AS BONE WEARY AS WE ALL WERE, ONLY SAHALIA, JAKE, AND Alex could sleep."

"MR. APPLETON'S STILL BODY LAY ON ITS AIR MATTRESS HALFWAY down the Automotive aisle."

"NIKO, ALEX, AND JAKE WENT AWAY TO PREPARE JAKE FOR HIS trip."

"THE SOUND OF THE BUS RUMBLED THROUGH THE STORE."

"Waiting On" Wednesday - Incarnate

"Waiting On"  Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

This week I'm waiting on...

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

* Book will be released January 31, 2012

Check out the description from Goodreads:

"NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life."

This is another book with a great cover.  The story also sounds really intriguing.  I've read about reincarnation before but this looks like it will have quite the interesting take on it.  This is a book that I knew I wanted to read from the very first time I saw the description.  In other words I'm really looking forward to January 31, 2012.

Excellent Echo

The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting

* Book will be released April 17, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

4 out of 5 gnomes
This book is chock full of action and some major problems for the main character, Violet.  At first things seem to be going smoothly but then things really intensify with a serial killer on the loose. 

I really liked the pace of the story and felt that there was much more at stake then what was portrayed in some of the previous books.  This book just had more of a menacing vibe to it.  I was very happy that I ended up liking Violet as a character a lot more because she shows more of a range here and just seems to have the most character growth so far.

Once again there's a hinting at of a love triangle but it doesn't really materialize fully.  Her relationship with Jay seems pretty solid but he also seemed a tad too jealous to me.  My new theory is that her and Jay will eventually end up as just friends or that something horrible will happen to him.  With Rafe on the other hand she has an actual tangible spark.  They seem to compliment each other, I think that Rafe challenges Violet more and could be the one that helps her discover the full extent of her powers.

It's great to see more of the team and their different powers in this book especially Krystal.  I like that we learn more secrets about them and how this group came to be.  There are of course plenty of mysteries and secrets that have yet to be explored.

The bad guy was much more creepy in this book.  Getting to see things from the bad guys point of view in some chapters really adds to the story.  This is by far the creepiest villain in the series so far.  It just makes you feel a bit icky while reading, let's just say that this guy has a very twisted view on what a relationship should be.

I love the ending of this book because it really makes me look forward to what's going to happen next.  The ending also leaves Violet herself changed and in quite a bind.  This twist looks like it will lead the series in a potentially exciting new direction.

Sentence Sneak Peek - The Last Echo

The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting

The first sentence from each chapter of The Last Echo, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* Book will be released April 17, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

"VIOLET STRAINED, SEARCHING FOR THE SENSA-tion through the suffocating blackness."

"VIOLET FELT BETTER THE NEXT MORNING."

"HE SAT AT THE TABLE IN THE CORNER, KEEPING his head low, his eyes down."

"VIOLET GLANCED AT THE ASSORTMENT OF SCI-ence journals and National Geographics on the table in front of her."

"IT HAD BEEN HARD TO WAIT ALL DAY."

"SOMETIMES VIOLET FELT LIKE A FRAUD, LIVING A double life the way she did."

"HE STEPPED CAUTIOUSLY INTO HER ROOM, NOT wanting to disturb her too soon."

"VIOLET WAITED WHILE KRYSTAL SHOVED ASIDE magazines and wadded-up drive-through bags so she could get into Roxy."

"SOME DAYS THE RAIN JUST SEEMED TO FIT, AND today felt like one of those days."

"HE CREPT IN QUIETLY, MORE CAUTIOUSLY THAN he had before."

"ARE YOU SURE YOU HAVE TO WORK TONIGHT?"

"THE HAIR ON THE BACK OF VIOLET'S NECK TIGHT-ened, standing on end as she pulled into a tight space in the parking lot and took a deep breath."

"SHE WAS SLEEPING."

"VIOLET STARED OUT HER BEDROOM WINDOW AT a black sky punctuated by a million effervescent white lights."

"THE SCREAMING HAD STARTED EARLY, AND EVEN though he couldn't hear her from upstairs—not with all of the pre-cautions he'd taken in preparing her room—the speakers on the monitor he looked at still blared with her staticky cries."

"VIOLET HAD KNOWN BEFORE SHE WAS FULLY awake the next morning that she'd overslept, and she vaguely wondered why her parents hadn't come in to wake her."

"IT FELT GOOD TO GET OUT OF THERE, TO BE AWAY from her, even if the reprieve was only temporary."

"VIOLET SAT AT THE KITCHEN TABLE STARING numbly at the paper plate in front of her."

"IT HAD BEEN HARD TO SLEEP THAT NIGHT, AND Violet was up way earlier than she needed to be."

"THE EMERGENCY ROOM WAS CHAOTIC, EVEN ON a Saturday afternoon, practically combusting with echoes."

"HE WATCHED HER FROM THE DOORWAY, HIS heart aching."

"VIOLET HATED THAT SHE'D SPENT SO MUCH TIME standing in front of the mirror the next morning."

"SHE KNEW THE MOMENT SHE REACHED THE BOT-tom of the steps outside the outer door that something was wrong."

"VIOLET!"

"HE CHECKED HIS REFLECTION AS HE PASSED THE oversized gilded mirror in the lobby of the upscale boutique hotel."

"HER PARENTS HAD MET THEM AT THE FRONT door, and as much as Jay might have wanted to bolt, Violet was grateful that he'd stayed by her side."

"VIOLET WASN'T SURPRISED THAT NO ONE HAD come in to wake her."

"HE SAT IN THE RESTAURANT, WATCHING THE girl."

"VIOLET SIGHED WHEN SHE SAW THE MINIVAN IN her driveway, the one her aunt was always trying to con-vince her was cooler than a normal minivan."

"VIOLET GLANCED DOWN AT THE PIECE OF PAPER Sara had ripped from her notebook just before she'd left the hospital, just a scrap with tattered edges . . . and an address scribbled on it."

"VIOLET FELT LIKE AN IDIOT AFTER SHE LEFT Rafe's, and replayed the conversation in her head all the way home."

"THE FIRST THING SHE WAS AWARE OF WAS HER breathing."

"CAINE."

"HE WAS IN THE BED WITH HER."

"FRUSTRATION LICKED THROUGH HIM, SETTING his veins on fire."

"INSIDE THE BARN IT WAS EVEN DARKER THAN IT had been outside."

"SUNLIGHT."

"VIOLET'S PARENTS SHOVED THROUGH THE DOOR of the small sheriff's office as the patrol car parked in front."

Epilogue - "VIOLET STOOD AT THE CHAIN-LINK FENCING outside the park, curling her fingers through it as she stared at the playground beyond."