Saturday, May 31, 2014

Book Review: Avra's God by Ann Lee Miller





Forgiveness.  Each character in this story has to learn to forgive.  Avra needs to forgive Cisco.  Cisco needs to forgive his father.  Jesse and Kallie need to forgive each other.

This story revolves around four friends attending Daytona State University.  Cisco comes from a broken home and loves the atmosphere of family he finds at Avra's.  Avra has had a crush on Cisco but has always felt she wasn't worthy.

Jesse is in a band and has grabbed the attention of squealing fangirls.  One of them is not Kallie.  She's just a friend...a friend he wants to make something more.  Holding Kallie back are the girls and the band atmosphere.  Is Jesse the right one for her?

I don't know.  I didn't really connect with this book.  I can't really explain what it was, but I never really felt like I knew the characters.  Too much was going on and I was trying to keep characters straight in my mind.  I don't know.  It wasn't a bad story.  I just couldn't connect to it.

I read this book as a review request.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.



This is my last book review.  I have found over the course of doing book reviews that I really don't enjoy writing them.  I love reading, but writing book reviews takes joy away from that.  It even has me dreading finishing a book!  I love to write as well, but book reviews are not something I enjoy writing.  I'm going to miss getting free books, but it is for the best.  I'll find some use for this blog, yet!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Dancing With Stars 2014



I didn’t always watch this show.  When it first came out, I rolled my eyes at it (as I do most things).  I think I took it as like lonely housewives watching soap stars.  I can’t remember what season it was that I came across it because nothing was on (no baseball).  I enjoyed it.  It wasn’t until a few seasons ago that I really paid attention and watched it full time.

I have social anxiety.  That is a majorly crippling psychological disease.  It’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.  If you don’t have it or know someone who suffers from it you don’t understand.  Basically, I’m stuck inside my shell wanting to come out, even knowing how to come, but not being able to do it.  I know how to act in social situations.  I know what I should be saying and doing.  That does not mean when the time comes I will be able to do that.  I lost out on a great guy because I was too shy to form at the very least a friendship with him.  I do take medication and it has helped tremendously but it won’t make it go away.

I’m 31 years old and yes, I do think of myself as too old for this stuff, but I watch Degrassi on Teennick.  I’ve been watching it since season 2 so I think it’s okay for me to be sitting here watching it at season 13.  There were a few seasons in the middle that I missed out due to such things as moving, but I came back.  I’m a Christian and you think I shouldn’t like this show, but I do. 

That show is what brought me to Big Time Rush.  I don’t watch Nickelodeon.  I’m 31 years old and have no kids so I have no reason.  I had heard of BTR when they first came out.  I thought it was a cool idea for a TV show (hey I am a fan of The Monkees and boy bands, I will admit).  I did support BTR in that I wanted them to make it in the industry.   But, I didn’t watch the show or buy their music.

I was actually mad when Teennick (a channel I deem myself too old for but Degrassi) brought Big Time Rush and Victorious reruns to the channel.  They were still in original run on Nick and they were taking away space for Degrassi!  I don’t know if it was because I record Degrassi at night (yes, I still use an old-school VCR) or because I was turning Degrassi on during the day, but I did come across a BTR rerun on Teennick.  It reminded me a lot of The Monkees.  I thought it was cute, clever, and goofy, so I stuck around for more reruns.  I became hooked.  Scott Fellows and his team are amazing.  I love everything put into this show.  It’s unique and detailed. 

So, that’s how I became a fan of BTR.  If you know me you know I have to pick a favorite out of anything I like, but I couldn’t do that with BTR.  I like the guys all the same.  Season 4 came along and I actually watched that in original run on Nick (shh, no one’s supposed to know I’m watching a children’s network).  Episodes like Big Time Tour Bus and Big Time Tests had me falling in love with James’s talent.  I’m a sucker for eyebrows.  I don’t mean big bushy things (sorry, Kendall), but show much expression via the eyebrows (like Kevin Arnold of The Wonder Years).  James is cute, but aside from that, being able to act via his face, I loved it.  There are many other reasons I think James is talented (acting, singing, dancing…), but the eyebrows did it.

BTR ended as all good things do.  I was terribly upset that we may never get to see the wonderful talents of Mr. James Maslow again.  As I am a fan of Dancing with the Stars my first thought was “Hey, he could be on Dancing with the Stars.”  I knew it wasn’t going to be season 17 being that he just ended a summer long tour and a four season show.  He needed a break (plus I don’t think BTR had officially gone on break until October).

Without regularity, I visited the official Dancing with the Stars message board during season 17.  Towards the end there was a post (I think it was official) asking who we’d like to see on the show.  I was nervous (as my social anxiety does extend to the internet) but I simply typed in James Maslow and gave it no more thought.  I mean I gave the thread no more thought.  But, I did constantly keep thinking that I wanted James on the show.  I even asked God!  

I’m not a big Twitter user (except when something excites me like James on DWTS) so I missed out on all of James’s hints.  One day I was checking my email and found it was Grammar Day.  I was going to tweet “Happy Grammar Day!” (I have a degree in English, we like things like this), but I got completely sidetracked when I signed on and saw Logan’s tweet about James being on this season of Dancing with the Stars.  My wish had come true.

I could not believe it!  James is a Nick star so that really had me thinking that Disney owned ABC would never put him on this show.  The next thought was I didn’t know how big or strong the Rushers are so I was afraid he would go home very early.  I kept contemplating in my head we’d get such and such many episodes out of him.  I knew he had the talent.  I wouldn’t have suggested him if I didn’t think he could do it.
James is a member of a boy band and I was afraid that would get major backlash on this show. I know, I know they’ve had Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Drew Lachey, and Aaron Carter (not a boy band member, but he is a teen pop star and brother of a boy band member), but they aren’t current boy band members.  I didn’t know how people would react to someone whose fans are of the kiddie crowd (more of the teenager/young 20 something crowd, I think).  James isn’t 17, though.  He’s 23.  I think that makes a difference.  Looking back, I think it compares to Corbin Bleu.  He is of High School Musical Fame and that’s sort of recent (but not that recent) teen-pop fangirlishness as well, but everyone respected him because he’s not a teenager and he can dance.

Every week James came out and brought it.  He showed who he was.  He danced.  He listened to the judges and took their advice to get better.  He worked.  He rehearsed.  He didn’t complain.  He didn’t cry.  He didn’t whine.  He worked.  He showed who he was—an incredibly hard working, respectful young adult with great abs who has the ability to put together a great dance.  Every week he was safe!  He outlasted Cody Simpson (the person deemed his rival) and NeNe Leaks.  He outlasted Drew Carey and Danica McKellar.  He outlasted Mr. Olympic Gold Medalist Ice Dancer Charlie White to be the last man standing.

Except for one package that showed him frustrated to the point of cussing there was nothing bad in his packages.  No fighting.  No struggling.  No I-Can’t-Do-This.  No injuries (even though he claims he was suffering from a slight hamstring injury NOT a strain).  Aside from the Peta Showmance they tried thrusting on them thanks to one date back before the summer tour (I have come to decide that platonic is James’s new favorite word), there was completely no drama for this guy.  This is something I really appreciate.  We need more stars like this.  Every day we see a new Disney or Nick star go off the deep end.  It’s refreshing to see one that’s not.

James accomplished so much on this show.  He got the first perfect score!  He outlasted every other male and all but three females.  He’s made friends.  He’s gained fans.  He’s shown the world that he’s more than just a Nickelodeon Boy Band Star.  He’s shown that he’s not just talented on the outside, but on the inside as well.  He’s shown the world what a fantastic muscular body he has and that with a bit of hard work and dedication the chubby kid can become the hot guy.  If you want it go out and get it.  Who you are in middle school does not have to define who you are for the rest of your life (which is good because I had rabbit teeth in middle school and thanks to braces I won’t be defined by that the rest of my life).

I had no reason to be worried.  James Maslow was a part of every episode this season.  He showed he can do it and the fans showed they want him to do it.  When he brought out his salsa dance week two jaws dropped, not just from his abs, but from his dancing.  I loved seeing the message board light up with surprise at his talent (he was known as the dark horse and the underdog early on).  He had my dad asking between him and Peta who was the star and who was the pro.  Heck, my dad’s favorite freestyle was James’s (I think his freestyle was manlier, but I liked seeing him flip).  My dad has no idea who James is.  He knows who Meryl and Charlie are thanks to the Olympics and he calls Candace “the Christian girl from that TV show” (among other things—he’s never had a great memory).  It is cool to see him liking what James does.

Let me make this longer because I love to write. :p  It’s already three pages according to Word.  I could keep waxing poetic about this for days and days.  I may not be wordy when I talk but I make up for it when I write.

James was refreshing on the show.  To quote Paula Abdul, he’s a “breath of fresh air.” I’ve already talked about the no drama, but also he’s a rising star.  He’s young (but not that young) and introducing himself to the world rather than being an outdated, over-the-hill, has-been (OK, no offense to anyone who’s been on the show.  I’ve loved the “has-beens” like Jennifer Grey, Ralph Macchio, and others I can’t remember at the moment.  Also, not every older contestant is a has-been.  They’re just a “not that busy right now so I can take time to do this time consuming show for three months).

I absolutely love the fans.  I write fanfic, but aside from reviews I’ve never really had much contact with the Rushers.  It has been something else.  The @team_jeta account was something else.  It kept us all connected.  It was (and still is) a gathering place for those of us supporting James and Peta..  Seeing every other fan inspired me more.  Without Team Jeta I would not have gotten the courage to try to stay up all night and vote (I didn’t last though—my body telling me I had to go bed somewhere around 2AM).  I would have stuck with my 10+ accounts and let that be.  It was really fun rallying together in support of the pair.  Also, the updates were great.  The pictures, the interviews, the articles…fun, fun, fun.  Thank you, team_jeta!

2014 hasn’t exactly been the greatest year for me.  I’m stuck in a rut I feel like I can’t get out of (won’t go into details on that but it does have to do with my social anxiety).  My uncle had been sick with lung cancer for a long time (he’s a smoker—lesson learned DO NOT SMOKE) and was on his deathbed come March.  He died the weekend before the premiere of Dancing with the Stars season 18.  I will admit, I was really afraid I was going to miss the season premiere (no, I need to see James dance for the first time!).  My grandmother, his mother, my mom’s mom, has been suffering from dementia for a while (she’s 97 years old) and it’s gotten worse lately.  In the course of the season she was admitted into the hospital.  And then this past weekend, the end of DWTS, she was admitted back in the hospital (it’s all blood pressure related).  It makes me think the end might be near for her.  This season has been bookended for me by all that drama (and there was a point when we thought we’d have to put one of our dogs down, but it’s like the minute we told her that she made sure to get better).  Every week has been full of family emotion.  Also, I live and die by my baseball team (Atlanta Braves) and the last month or so they’ve been stinking it up to high heaven.  Dancing with the Stars has been a great distraction from all of that.  It’s given me something to look forward to every week. 

Thank you, James Maslow.  Thank you, Peta Murgatroyd.  Thank you, @team_jeta.  Thank you, fans.  Thank you, Dancing with the Stars.  Season 18 will not be topped (though it would have been better if Harold Wheeler had been there).

P.S. Did you know “fangirl” has just been accepted into the Merriam-Webster dictionary?

P.P.S. I must also add during the season I had the drama of my laptop dying, buying a new one only to find out it’s a major lemon, getting a refund on that, and buying another new laptop.  That is one frustrating process (especially when the delivery guy delivers the laptop to the wrong address!).

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Book Review: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski





A tainted batch of the flu vaccine gives an entire homeroom (minus two students who did not get the vaccine) the ability to read minds.

There's not much to the story.  There's no depth and really no character development.  There are a lot of characters being that this is about what happens to an entire 10th grade homeroom.  There are a few that we focus on more than others, but it's a still a number that doesn't allow us to get that close to them.

It's a cute story that I could see made into a cute teen-made-for-TV-movie, but it lacks depth. The issues these kids have to deal with aren't explored very much.  All the reader sees is there is a problem and either it's caused or enhanced by their ability to read minds.  And even the ESP thing isn't focused on in great depth, either.

The ending was also a dissapointment.  That's not to say I am unhappy with what was decided, but again, it just lacks that depth.  It just happens.  Decisions are just made.  It seems very superficial and on the surface.  I really feel there is a lot that could have been explored.

I read this book as a review request from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell





Eleanor was the new girl in school and Park was just the boy sitting alone on the bus.

Set in 1986 this is the story of two, I don't want to say outcasts, that unexpectedly fall in love.  Eleanor returns home after being thrown out of the house by her stepfather.  She's a bit overweight with red hair and freckles--a combination that doesn't help her make friends at her school.  Park is half Asian with a few friends but he's not a majorly popular boy or anything.

Eleanor has her own troubles aside from Park to get through, not that Park is a trouble.  She had been thrown out of the house by her stepfather and now returns home to a life where her siblings like or pretend to like him.  She can't stand him and he can't stand her.  She feels creepy due to situations in the house.  Park is her escape.

The book is not a clean read.  There is cussing.  In the beginning it was a lot and I was afraid every page would be littered with dirty words, but fortunately they died down quite a bit.  I'm against cussing, but I'm not going to turn a book away because it has in it.  I read for the story and the story here was really good.

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.




Monday, March 10, 2014

Book Review: Dark Eyes, Deep Eyes by T. Neal Tarver





I finally finished this book.  It's not so much the book's fault.  It got caught in that time period where I took a break before Christmas.

Wayne and Nick.  Father and son.  Heaven and Hell.

Described the book right there and that's pretty much my problem with it.  The story has nothing.  No depth. A story like this could really have depth.  It could really focus on the characters and how they got to where they are.  But, I never found that.  They're just there.  There's a little explanation to why they're where they are, but in the whole grand scheme of things it's nothing.   I was not impressed with this book.

I read this book as a review request for Book Look Bloggers formally known as Book Sneeze.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Book Review: The Book Thief by Mark Zusak





A story of Nazi persecution in Germany as told by an interesting narrator...death.

Liesel Meminger is an orphan going to live with her foster family.  Her brother dies along the way.  At his burial she comes across a book, The Gravedigger's Handbook.  This book helps to save her.  She does not know how to read, but her new father helps her learn and together they make to the end of the book. Liesel is in search of more books.  She wants to read.

This story is not just about a girl wanting to read.  It's about living in Germany in 1939 after they hosted the Olympics and Jesse Owens won his medals, after he became a hero to a young white boy named Rudy.  It's about hiding someone in the basement.  It's about Nazi Germany, Heil Hitlers, and the Hitler Youth.

I've read a few Holocaust stories.  This story is different.  While not the narrator, it is told from the view of a Jewish sympathizer.  But, it's not like Anne Frank or Number the Stars.  It's not about hiding and all that stuff.  It's about discovery.  I wish we could have gone deeper into Liesel's head, but I was intrigued by death being the narrator, so maybe the story would not have been so good if he wasn't.

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Book Review: Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn



The second book in the Glenbrooke series follows Teri, a character we met in the first book as a Spanish teacher at the Glenbrooke high school. This book is different from the rest of the series in that it is set in Hawaii and not Glenbrooke. It is easy to find that Robin Jones Gunn is in love with Hawaii with how many stories she has set there.

Teri travels to Hawaii for summer vacation to spend a few weeks with her sister and with the hopes of rekindling a relationship she had with a man named Mark from the previous summer. When she gets to Hawaii she finds things are not as she planned. She does find romance, but it is not the one she's looking for. Is it the one she needs?

As I've found so far all RJG books are good. I just wish this book had kept its self more in Glenbrooke as this is part of that series. It is attached because of Teri being a Glenbrooke resident and she was an important character in the first book, but the only part that is "in" Glenbrooke is talking to Jessica.

I read this book for pure pleasure. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review in any way.



Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Book Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares





From the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants comes a story of time travel, romance, and saving the future.

With a plague overtaking their time, Prenna James and her family join a group of people who travel back in time to 2012.  On this travel, her father didn't make it and as her brother was a victim of the plague, it left only Prenna and her mom among the others.

The time travelers have many rules to follow, two of them being not telling anyone who they are and not allowing them to get close (especially physically) with anyone of the current time.  Unfortunately for Prenna she becomes close with one Ethan Jarves.

The story isn't about romance.  That's a side plot to what's really going on.  A supposedly homeless man wants Prenna to change the course of the future.  Something bad happens on a certain date and he knows if it can be stopped the dystopian future that awaits them will not be so messed up.

This story is technically science fiction but it feels like it goes along with the realistic fiction I liked to read and I think that's what helped me enjoy it more.  I have read The Traveling Pants series and this book is the first thing outside that of Brashares that I have read.  It shows me she is able to write successfully about other characters.  I'm going to have to check out other stuff by her.

I read this as a review request from Netgalley.com using the Kindle app on my phone.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.



Monday, January 27, 2014

Teaser Tuesday


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following


  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.


  • "Anita slapped Teri's leg, and Teri bit her lip.  'I don't mean, going out with the whales, I mean going out to sea to see the whales.'  She rolled her eyes at Anita.  This was not going well."
    P.75 Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn

    Saturday, January 25, 2014

    Secrets (Glenbrooke #1) by Robin Jones Gunn





    Not only the first book in the Glenbrooke series but the first adult book Gunn wrote as her previous work had been with Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen, and the like.

    Jessica Morgan is running away.  From what?  She won't tell anyone.  She's running to Glenbrooke where an old friend has a job as a teacher waiting for her.  On her way to her new home she gets in a bad car accident which leaves her with no car, barely any money, and stitches on her upper lip.  The accident causes her to meet her hero, Kyle, a firefighter who rescued her.  She has a hard time dealing with her relationship with Kyle because she does not want him to get close to her.  If anyone finds out about her secret they could treat her differently, but more importantly it could get back to the thing she's running away from.

    Robin Jones Gunn is a master at writing Christian romance.  I haven't read her teenage works, though that's what she's most famous for.  I've pretty much enjoyed everything of hers that I have read and this was no exception.  It's simple, sweet, and easy to read.



    Monday, January 20, 2014

    Teaser Tuesday


    Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following


  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

  • "The scar was easily seen.  The whitish, half-moon shape perched half on her lip and half on her face, about a quarter of an inch from the corner of her mouth."
    P. 56 Secrets (Glenbrooke #1) by Robin Jones Gunn

    Tuesday, January 14, 2014

    Book Review: Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert





    I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  I thought when I picked it up it would be an okay read, but I did enjoy it more than I thought I would.

    Bethany Quinn's life is falling apart.  She finds out from her mom that her childhood best friend, whom she hadn't spoken to in ten years, is losing her husband to the clutches of death.  Then her favorite person in the whole world, her grandfather, dies of old age.  Add to that losing her precious job with an architectural firm and her boyfriend being transferred halfway across the country.

    Bethany's grandfather left her his farm, a farm she loved and cherished as a child but wouldn't give a second or even a first glance to now.  She had left behind her old life in Peaks when she went away to college and she didn't want to go back.  For her, she felt, there was no turning back.

    The joy in the story is not in the ending, but in the journey.  Bethany had a tragedy upset her life as a child and it caused her to turn her back on God.  The journey between the pages of this book, will they lead her back to the Father?

    I got this book from Waterbrook Multnomah, but it's been a while so I don't remember exactly how I received it. I don't think it was a review request.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.



    Teaser Tuesday


    Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following


  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.


  • "Bethany didn't strike him as the type who'd venture out in the cold to brush a horse.  Come to think of it, Bethany didn't strike him as the type who'd venture out in any weather to brush a horse."
    P. 33 Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert

    Tuesday, January 7, 2014

    Teaser Tuesday


    Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:


  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.


  • "When she'd left Atlanta for New York, she had such high hopes of making a name for herself as a designer.  Marginal successes along the way had not contributed much toward soaring, only toward staying afloat.  And even that was in jeopardy now."
    4% Kindle, Always the Designer, Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker

    Thursday, January 2, 2014

    Book Review: Sweet Nothings by Janis Thomas





    Caveat emptor.  OK, what's the saying for let the reader beware?

    This is not a clean romance.  It's not a smutty, trashy romance novel, but it does contain one sex scene, which my innocent mind would not allow me to read, and a few cuss words here and there.

    This book reminded me of a cheesy Christmas movie.  I guess that's appropriate with most of my reading having taken place during the Christmas season.  This is not a Christmas story.  I'm not saying that.  It's like a cheesy Christmas romance movie where you roll your eyes and know what's going to happen next but you simply cannot look away until it's over.

    Ruby's husband, Walter, runs away from their life, their marriage, their house with a co-worker he deems his soul mate named Colleen.  This leaves Ruby in quite the mess as she has to deal with her two teenage kids, the mortgage on the house which she finds has not been paid in some time, the fact that Walter has stripped their bank account bare, and her not so successful cake shop named The Muffin Top (you can probably guess now why the title is Sweet Nothings).  The story revolves around Ruby putting her life back together and finding out who she is and what she wants out of a romance.  I did say there is a sex scene so a guy shows up, obviously, but I'm not going to spoil anything else in case you do want to read this for yourself.

    I won this book in a giveaway at booktrib.com.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.