It's Monday...What are you reading? Week #2

I can't believe it is already my second week of joining in Sheila @ Book Journey's What are you reading? meme!

This past week I got through my goals as I planned. I finished Water for Elephants and read Finding Summerland: The Ameryn Chronicles #1! 

I'm going to add another book to my list of books to read this upcoming week. I'm hoping to read through them, or at the very least when next Monday comes around, I'll be through most of my final book.

First on my list that has been sitting on my desk for sometime now is Jim Butcher's Fool Moon, which is the second in the Dresden Files.

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work—magical ormundane.

But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses —and the first two don't count...

My initial thoughts: I'm looking forward to reading this book. I really enjoy the way that Jim Butcher writes his books. At times I find comedic relief in his stories. I've only just started this book this morning and so far it is written the same way the first book was. I'm looking forward to seeing this story unfold.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

My initial thoughts: A few of my coworkers and one of the groups I joined on Goodreads has been reading this lately. So, with all the talk of this book, I figured I've got to find out what the fuss is all about. Reading the synopsis given by the author, it definitely looks interesting. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"War," says the Mayor. "At last." Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge - the electrifying finale to the award-winning "Chaos Walking" trilogy, Monsters of Men is a heart-stopping novel about power, survival, and the devastating realities of war.

My initial thoughts: I've read the first two books in this trilogy and the first two were amazing. The second book definitely left off on a cliffhanger, but I didn't want to do 3 reviews in a row of the same series. How boring would that be for my readers? I imagine you'd like to see reviews on different books. Don't worry, I'll still do one on this one of course, but I just wanted to break it up with a few books in between. Anyway, I'm excited to see how the war in this book turns out. I definitely have suggested this story to multiple people.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nick squeezing in the picture while at the park...

It took me a little longer than I anticipated to finish up Finding Summerland, but that's more than likely because I had a pretty busy weekend. I took Friday off so I had a nice 3-day weekend! Friday, Hailey, my mom and I went to the county fair. We spent a good three or so hours there. We stopped by the library to exchange books and such. Then followed a trip to the grocery store. My husband got home around 8:15 pm and since Hailey had a wristband for the rides and we already paid for parking, us three headed back out to the fair for a little longer.

On Saturday, Nick's cousin got married so we attended the reception, but ended up leaving early because all the youngsters were coming to party. We headed to my father-in-law's house to help out cut up vegetables for Sunday's events. (We diced, sliced and peeled like mad-men!)

Sunday morning, we headed up to the hall the family rented for Nick's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary! We helped set everything up and by the time it was over we had been there over 6 hours. We stopped home and Nick and Hailey took a quick nap. Then we went up to the park to let Hailey play while Nick studied for his clinical exams and I read.

Now I'm working on laundry. I'm pretty sure almost our entire wardrobe needs to be washed. But with a weekend as busy as we had, there is no wonder on how the regular chores went untouched. Ah, now to go swap out a load in the washer...

Have a great Monday! :)

-Jenkies

Finding Summerland: The Ameryn Chronicles #1 Review

Finding Summerland: The Ameryn Chronicles #1

Author: Paige Bleu

Series: The Ameryn Chronicles

Book #: 1 out of 5

Read: August 14, 2012 - August 20, 2012

My Rating: 4 stars

Author's Synopsis:

After his brothers recent disapearance Wesley Rochester wished he could just fade into obscurity. Searching for closure, he's haunted by visons. Consumed with decoding the messages, he begins turning dangerously deeper inward. Enter an intriguing, 'not quite' human stranger, who mysteriously arrives just as he feels all hope is lost. Together they begin to realize that their destinies are intricately tangled in a drama reaching far beyond the realms of the wold they know. Discovering the secrets plaguing wesley since childhood are no coincidence, and everything he believes is shattered. Captivated by her, he must decide between the life he has and the one he'd forgotten. 

'Finding Summerland' is like 'Twilight' in the sense that it is a supernatural, coming of age romance—but has a genre bending, metaphysical element and a much deeper rabbit hole. Follow the journey of two star crossed souls as they explore who they are and the ties that bind them. Enter a world intentionally forgotten. A place buried by history, where only the chosen are aware of its existence. A place covenants are made and broken, where myth leads to truth and forbidden love threatens to destroy or be destroyed, becoming just another casualty in their shadow war. 

The introductory novel in a series of five, called 'The Ameryn Chronicles'—but compelling enough to stand alone—'Finding Summerland' is sure to be savored by anyone craving to stretch the bounds of ordinary imagination, edgy enough to engage readers who enjoy unravelling a mystery, and sweet enough to grab onto the hearts of the romance lovers! Where legends breathe and dreams are alive. A 'trippy' journey to a new reality.

Jenkies' Review:

This book was provided through a Read to Review. A great big thank you to the author for sharing this with me. Here is my honest review of the book...

This book is described as something similar to Twilight and while I can see some similarities, I think it definitely has its own story.  I enjoyed the love story aspect and watching it unfold. I also loved the characters. I felt that I could really connect with the main character, Wes, and understand everything he was feeling.

Let's start with the intro - I liked how the story started. It quickly gave away that there was some sort of supernatural feel to it. While it gives that much, it doesn't nearly explain all parts and, to be honest, leaves you confused and wanting to read more to make sense of it. However, I should warn you the end of the book doesn't explain the entire first scene and definitely leaves you on a HUGE cliffhanger.

I rated this a 4 instead of a 5 because I found myself getting a little lost when they were providing some back-story. At the beginning, it seemed to go slowly because I was so eager to find out what they were talking about during the first scene. The book really started picking up about 75 or so pages in. The last 100 pages seemed to go by very fast because I couldn't put the book down.

I'm pretty bummed the second book isn't out yet. I want to find out what happens next! I truly believe that this is going to be a great set of books.