My Second & Third Award!

I've received The Heartfelt Award, thanks to Sammee from I Want To Read That.

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when you're relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and friends? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the Heartfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside.

And now...I must pass it on to the next 9 book blogs. Here are the rules:

Put the logo on your blog/post.
Nominate up to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside.
Be sure to link your nominees within your post.
Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.
Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

1. April - Good Books & Good Wine
2. Reggie - The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really)
3. Sharon - Sharon Loves Books and Cats
4. Lizzy - Cornucopia of Reviews
5. Taschima - Bloody Bookaholic
6. Yan - Books By Their Cover
7. Kristen - Bookworming in the 21st Century
8. Sara - The Hiding Spot
9. Jenn-ay - My Tea Time is Book Time

Congrats! I just wanted to say that I love visiting your blogs and reading your reviews. You are all so very awesome. :D

And...I've received yet another award from Patricia at Yay! Reads :) Thank you!!!

Friday Finds (3)

Friday Finds is held weekly by MizB at Should Be Reading.

I usually add about a dozen to my TBR list. Here's a preview of a few of them and as well as the songs I've heard this week:

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Leftovers
by Heather Waldorf

Description:

I make it to the flagpole second to last. No Poo Patrol for me. Not today. Today I draw the Grooming straw. Forget my own grooming; for three leisurely hours this morning, I''ll be washing, drying, fluffing and brushing out the matted and dirt-encrusted coats of a dozen-odd dogs of questionable parentage. Not that my own parentage is anything to brag about.

Fifteen-year-old Sarah Greene''s father-chef by day, camera buff by night-choked to death on a piece of steak. It was the best day of Sarah''s life. But a year later, Sarah still struggles with the legacy of her father''s abuse. While other girls her age are determined to find boyfriends and part-time jobs and dresses for the prom, Sarah is on a search-and-destroy mission: to find the shoe box containing her father''s collection of kiddy porn. After a brief skirmish with the law, Sarah is sentenced to do community service hours at Camp Dog Gone Fun, a summer program for shelter dogs. With the love of a big goofy dog named Judy, the friendship of Sullivan, a guy with problems of his own, and the support of a few good adults, Sarah begins to understand her past and believe in a brighter future.

Rage: A Love Story
by Julie Anne Peters

Description:

Johanna is steadfast, patient, reliable; the go-to girl, the one everyone can count on. But always being there for others can’t give Johanna everything she needs— it can’t give her Reeve Hartt.

Reeve is fierce, beautiful, wounded, elusive; a flame that draws Johanna’s fluttering moth. Johanna is determined to get her, against all advice, and to help her, against all reason. But love isn’t always reasonable, right?

In the precarious place where attraction and need collide, a teenager experiences the dark side of a first love, and struggles to find her way into a new light.

Geek Magnet
by Kieran Scott

Description:

Mean Girls meets High School Musical from the author of I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader!

Everyone loves KJ Miller, especially the geeks. She’s pretty, smart, and super nice to everyone, which has made her the geek pied piper of Washington High. If only Cameron, the star of the basketball team, would follow her around and worship her the way her dorky entourage does.

As the stage manager of the spring musical, Grease, KJ has to deal with a few geeks, but she also gets to hang out with Tama, queen of the popular crowd and star of the play. Tama has the solution to all of KJ’s problems: get cruel. After all, the nice girl never gets the guy. Can KJ actually pull off a transformation into a mean girl?

Shug
by Jenny Han

Description:

Shug is clever and brave and true (on the inside, anyway). And she's about to become your new best friend.

Annemarie Wilcox, or Shug as her family calls her, is beginning to think there's nothing worse than being twelve. She's too tall, too freckled, and way too flat-chested. Shug is sure that there's not one good or amazing thing about her. And now she has to start junior high, where the friends she counts most dear aren't acting so dear anymore -- especially Mark, the boy she's known her whole life through. Life is growing up all around her, and all Shug wants is for things to be like they used to be. How is a person supposed to prepare for what happens tomorrow when there's just no figuring out today?

Justine's Thoughts: Perfect Nightmare by John Saul

Perfect Nightmare
By John Saul

Pages:

365

Book Description:

When Lindsay Marshall mysteriously vanishes from her bedroom during the night, her mother, Kara, fears the worst. Their neighbour Patrick Shields can easily relate to Kara’s grief -- he is still dealing with the pain of losing his wife and two children in a devastating fire. But heartache isn’t all that draws Patrick and Kara together. He, too, senses the hand of a malevolent stranger in this strategy. And as more people go missing, Patrick’s suspicion, like Kara’s, blooms into horrified certainty. Someone is trolling this peaceful community -- undetected and undeterred -- harvesting victims for a purpose no sane mind can fathom. Kara and Patrick, alone and desperate, are determined to unmask the monster who even now is watching, plotting, keeping a demented diary of unspeakable deeds. . .and waiting until the time is ripe to make another fateful move.

A quote:

All she wanted to do was slip into that blissful unconsciousness where there was no pain, no fear, no terror, where nightmares were something from which she would awaken...

Any thoughts:

• John Saul certainly knows how to tell a story with such words that can make you cringe. The plot itself was enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, especially when I read the diary entries the “monster” had written. Boy, that was creepy, but this is one of the things why Perfect Nightmare is such a great thriller/suspense novel.

• It’s the first one I’ve read, to be honest. I never really bothered to try and pick one out, but once I saw a review about it, which outlined how great of a novel it is, I decided to give it a shot. Then after I read it, I was glad I did because this is so good, I want to keep reading more of John Saul’s books, which are also of the thriller/suspense genre. So I should definitely keep that in mind.

• One of the thoughts I had throughout the novel was “Poor, Kara.” It was difficult to understand what she was feeling, what she was going through and how she could possibly cope with the situations she was in. But she doesn’t give up; she’s determined to find her daughter, because she believes she’s still out there, somewhere. The dreams she have keep her hopeful. It was like there was a connection between her and Lindsay that keeps her hopes up.

• The psychopath...or the “monster”, as he was described, is really that - a psychopath. A sexual psychopath who hunts for his victims undetected so he could take them to a “children’s playhouse” and do awful things to them. His diary entries will make you shudder, as I’ve said before, because of the reasons for his doings. They’re just so horrible and insane.

• There’s an unexpected twist at the end of the novel, which is when the monster is unmasked. Of course, I’ve been trying to figure out who it was the whole time. And once only did the actual character popped in my mind. I was never really sure, though, because it couldn’t be. However, once things were explained, it all made sense.

• Written in third person through the eyes of different characters in each chapter, this book will keep you turning the pages, just to, you know, take a tiny peek. But really, it’s a page turner, one that’ll be difficult to put down.

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine.

What If...All Your Dreams Came True?
by Liz Ruckdeschel & Sara James

Release Date:
December 8, 2009

Description:

Haley's come to the end of her junior year, and it’s time for her friends and readers to bid her adieu. But you’ve got one last job to do: leave her on a happy note! Can you give Haley the tools and friends she needs to lead a happy life? Should Haley follow up on her budding interest in photography—or should she spend her summer partying with the popular kids? SATs, college tours, and the all-important senior year are just around the corner. Have you prepared Haley?

Teaser Tuesday (3) - Love is a Many Trousered Thing

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

The rules are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• DO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS.

My teaser:

I hope doing this puckering malarkey is not going to mean I end up looking like Mark Big Gob. I had better not overdo it; no one wants to go out with a whale.

~"Love is a Many Trousered Thing"
by Louise Rennison

Big Box Challenge at Princess Bookie

Here are my entries for the challenge that Princess Bookie is currently holding:

New book cover of Chasing Brooklyn


Remake of The Six Rules of Maybe

Click here for the details!