Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Waiting on The Dream Thieves

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

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, # 2)

By: Maggie Stiefvater

Expected Publication: September 17th 2013 by Scholastic Press

416 pages

( Goodreads )

Goodreads description--The second installment in the all-new series from the masterful, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater!

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

I wasn't blown away by Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, but as she's one of my favorite authors, I figure I should give book 2 a chance--hoping that it'll be better than book 1. (My review of The Raven Boys.) What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Top 10 Spring 2013 TBR List



Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and this week's topic is Top Ten Books on my Spring 2013 TBR List.
 
First off are the books being released before Summer 2013 that are on my TBR list and will be read as soon as possible.
 
  
1) Fragments by Dan Wells
2) Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
3) Dare You To by Katie McGarry
4) Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

The others are already in my possession and need to be read ASAP...
 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Waiting for Mercy - Review

Waiting for Mercy (Cambion, # 2)

By: Shannon Dermott

Published: April 17th 2012 by Wicked Truth Publishing (first published 2012)

448 pages

Source: Borrowed from my SNL, Holly @ Words Fueled by Love

( Goodreads | Amazon )

Goodreads description--What do you do when you’ve been to hell and back, literally? For Mercy, it meant the beginning of the end for everything. Love, Happiness, Life.

When the people important to her are thrown into danger and she is forced to choose who to save, what will Mercy do? When the demon within her has its own agenda, going to new lengths to fulfill it, how will she cope? And when a new nemesis arrives, with a sole focus to take what belongs to her, how will she survive?

Some situations make you stronger, some make you weak. She used to run from confrontation but the need to uncover secrets will harden her resolve to make new choices.

In the end, someone else will suffer the consequences. Who will be burned by her very existence? And what will become of everything she holds dear?

Mercy’s life wasn’t easy before and things aren’t getting easier now.

I need to say up front that I did enjoy Waiting for Mercy. But I have a feeling that this review is going to come off more negative than I intend, so I wanted to get that out up front.

As mentioned in my review of Beg for Mercy, Mercy finds herself in the middle of a love-pentagon instead of a love-triangle. There's Luke who she loves, but being with him will supposedly condemn him. There's Flynn who claims to care about Mercy a lot, and we see instances where it's clear that he does. But just as often he appears apathetic and spiteful as any other positive emotion he might feel towards her. There's Paul who she had a crush on a couple of years ago. They became best friends of sorts, and because of her relationship with Luke, Mercy realizes that she loves Paul like a brother more than anything else. And then there's Sebastian who she claims to have a "connection" with.

I struggle with this. On the one hand, I get being a flirt. I get having feelings for two different people and struggling with to do with that. But I really struggle with a girl having four guys that she bounces back and forth between. And if it's so obvious to her who she loves, then why is it so difficult for her to be around these other guys without finding herself in compromising situations? I don't handle cheating well in any circumstance and I don't want to read books, watch movies, or even hear about cheating. And granted I'm not sure I can say 100% that Mercy did cheat on Luke, but she certainly doesn't close herself off to the advances of other guys. And I've only mentioned the main 4 competing guys. As with book 1, Beg for Mercy, there are other guys who compete for Mercy's attention making brief appearances here and there. The only way I ended up making it through was chalking up her behavior to being influenced by her succubus. Granted more so in Waiting for Mercy than Beg for Mercy, but it's fairly obvious when Mercy's overtaken by her succubus. So how does she explain all of these other times when she was the one in control? She can't. All she can say is that she has a "connection" with all four of these boys. And I find that to be borderline bull.

Shannon Dermott does a good job conveying Mercy's frustration about being kept in the dark to the reader, because I'm just as fed up as Mercy is about not having a clue what's going on. It truly does appear that every other character (just about) knows what's up except Mercy, and if that be true, then surely somethings could be disclosed that wouldn't make everything turn to pot--not any more than it already has.

Our minor characters were allowed more development in Waiting for Mercy and interesting things appear to lie ahead for some of these characters, specifically Maggie. And there's an event at the very end that I need to know what happens next. So I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book. But one thing's for certain, Mercy's got to make some decisions when it comes to these guys and stick to them.

Aside from that, my last complaint is the sheer amount of errors in this book. I always hesitate to call out errors because I know I have typos, misspellings, and incorrect grammar on my blog and most certainly would need some major editing if I ever tried to write a book. But come on! Beg for Mercy was the same way. Missing words, incorrect words, sentences that don't make sense. Hire a new editor! Seriously. One or two can be overlooked, but this book was FILLED with them.

Overall, I'd give Waiting for Mercy 4 stars. Have you read it? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Sunday Post - 36 & Stacking the Shelves - 9

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Husband is sick again. Bless him! It's not the flu this time, but whatever it is seems to be worse than when he had the flu back in January. They diagnosed it as bronchitis, but he doesn't really seem to be getting better. In other news, I ordered "My Favorite Thing" for my upcoming girls' beach trip in April. There are 6 of us girls that went last year and are going this year, and we each bring a gift for everyone called "My Favorite Thing." Although it's really fun, it's also extremely difficult to come up with ideas that aren't going to overlap with someone else's. Oh well, it's loads of fun, and I finally found mine. Now...I just hope they each like what I picked out.

THIS PAST WEEK:

Monday: Review of Notorious Nineteen (Stephanie Plum, # 19) by Janet Evanovich (3 Stars)

Tuesday: Top 10 Series I Want to Start

Wednesday: Waiting on Dark Triumph - Bummer that I never saw the linky go up for the day.

Thursday: Review of Beg for Mercy (Cambion, # 1) by Shannon Dermott (4 Stars)

Thursday/Friday: Lunar Love Giveaway Hop - Ends March 13th

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of Waiting for Mercy (Cambion, # 2) by Shannon Dermott

Tuesday: Top 10 Tuesday: Top 10 Books on my Spring 2013 TBR List

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday & Lunar Love Giveaway Hop Ends

Thursday: Review of The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

Because I'm participating in Take Control of Your TBR Pile hosted by Kimba The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, I figured it was only fitting to forego acquiring any new books this week to focus on reading the ones already in my possession and on my TBR list. I can't promise that I'll keep this up all month though. We'll just have to see.

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Lunar Love Giveaway Hop


2nd Annual
Lunar Love Giveaway Hop
March 8th to 13th

This hop features books with paranormal, supernatural, science fiction or space travel element or books that have something to do with the moon or have a moon on their cover.

Winner gets to choose between one of two books. Considering this giveaway hop is for Lunar Love, what better way to showcase that than with the Lunar Chronicles?
 
 
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the other blogs participating in the hop and enter their giveaways.