Where the Stars still Shine

Where the Stars still Shine
Bloomsbury
Stand alone
Net Galley
Sept 25

Callie has been living with her mom. It hasn't been the easiest life. When her mom is driving in a car with a busted tail light and No drivers  licence. She finds out that she was kidnapped from her dad. She goes and lives with him in Florida. Her dad has a new family .

Callie has been on her own for so long, and she has nightmares still. She isn't used to living with a family and checking in with her dad. She is also living in a air steam for the time being.

She meets her cousin Kat  and her friends. She also has known one type of relationship with boys since she has been moving so often. She meets Alex and very attracted to him. While meeting Kat , she learns that he is bad news.

Callie starts sleeping with Alex and keeping secrets. She doesn't know what she wants out of life. She also meets her big Greek family , and her Grandma.

This book was amazing and I was crying while reading it. I loved that she learned to stand on her own two feet, and that she let others into her life. She also learns about having a family. She is struggling with friendship with Kat. I loved that this book touched on the same subject as another book I read ( Uses for Boys) but did it better. I loved that this book had some romance but the relationships were important.

Alex has a job on the boat , and there you can see the stars shining in the night time. I also know that stars are dirty looking masses, but far away they are beautiful. I loved learning so many Greek words.

Now I need to read her other book.

Book Review= B+

Thank so much to Bloomsbury for the book and this is my Honest Review
This book comes out Sept 25

Rutherford Park Book Review

Rutherford Park
Berkley
Publisher
Stand Alone
Already out

Octavia Cavendish is the lady of the house . She has been in a marriage that is slowly dying. William is her husband , but he hasn't been very faithful. Henry is the son , and has dreams but also a secret relationship. Louisa is the daughter looking for love.

Many of these changes happen at the manor. Someone finds herself, and love. Many secrets are being kept through the house.

This did remind me of Downton Abbey because we are able to know about the help.

Book Review= B

Thanks so much to Penguin for the book and this is my Honest Review

Sweet Legacy Cover Reveal & Out today

The stunning conclusion of Tera Lynn Childs's Greek mythology–based Sweet Venom trilogy is perfect for teen fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.

The girls cannot hesitate as they seek the location of the lost door between the realms, even as monsters and the gods of Olympus descend on San Francisco in battle-ready droves.

Greer must use her second sight to step up and prevent anything from stopping her sisters' mission, even though a god is playing with her mind. Grace wants to trust her adopted brother, Thane; but will his secret put the girls in even more danger? And Gretchen has trained her sisters to stop the monsters, but her role as a huntress comes with more responsibility than she ever imagined.What will the girls' immortal legacy be? Three teenage descendants of Medusa must unite to restore balance to the world in this action-packed series with plenty of romance 


Be sure to pick up your book today for this ending to this series.

An update of sorts

Kids are back in school. I have gone back to college, and working towards my degree. I am working a little during the day. Dh job has been a blessing too. He has more responsibilities . So we are busy here. Tough mudder will be here soon. 

#AreYouAllegiant

The last book is coming out Oct 22

Aren't you excited for this last book ? I know that I am very excited for it .

Crown of Midnight Book Review

Crown of Midnight
Bloomsbury
2nd in series
Net Galley
For Review
Aug 27

Celaena is still the king's assassin and doing his bidding. She has feelings for Chaol. Dorian is still trying to figure out things with Celaena. Celaena still loves to read and shop , and hang out with Nehemia .

More secrets are revealed regarding the the symbols, and not everyone is telling their secrets. Celaena does pick someone , so there isn't a triangle. A death rocks her to her core , and she becomes even more bad ass.

There is magic , witches , and even Fae. This book had it all. There were so many emotions I felt through out the book . No sophomore more slump at all. I can't wait to see what happens next in this series. There were times I was waiting for the shoe to drop for Celaena situations.

Book Review= B+

Thanks so much to Bloomsbury and this is my Honest Review

Jessi Kirby is my rockstar-- Reminders of Home

doing Tough Mudder 

https://twitter.com/JessiKirby
http://www.jessikirby.com/

She is my new favorite author. I inhaled Golden ( my review) , and she is very lyrical with her worlds. Her book , I admit it got me thinking about my life and my choices. That's why I am going back to school and doing a Tough Mudder. I also love that she is California author , and always on twitter I see the Beach so often. 

Going back to college and my books

I asked for a Top 10 list :

GOLDEN is a story that is near and dear to my heart, in large part because the setting is based on my hometown, Mammoth Lakes, CA.

When I wrote MOONGLASS, I had just moved into a little beach cottage, where I fell in love with every little detail and nuance of the beach. While I was writing IN HONOR, I took a road trip to Sedona, where I went on a sunrise vortex tour, swam in the creek Rusty and Honor took a dip in, and spent one heck of a Dime Beer Night at the Museum Club, which inspired the country bar they visit.

But writing GOLDEN was different. I wasn't writing about a place that was all new and fresh to me, or a place I'd never visited. I was writing about a place where my friends and I spent too many nights to count driving endless loops around our little town hoping it'd somehow get bigger; where we spent our summer days hiking trails and daring each other to jump into the freezing lakes, and where I spent many a winter night looking up at the stars from my bedroom window that perfectly framed Orion against the black sky.  

When I was writing this book, I was writing about home.

In the fall of 2012, while I was working on it, I decided to take a trip home, and drive the roads I drove as a teenager, and find all the old spots I wasn't sure I'd remember how to get to, because it seemed important for this story. And it was. The places I remembered, and the way I saw them through old and new eyes all found their way into Parker and Julianna's story. So today, I thought it'd be fun to give you a personal, behind-the-scenes tour of the place I called home as a "young adult."

There are supposed to be images but I couldn't copy them. But here are some of her memories. 

This is the front of my high school, and an image that instantly conjures up for me all the complicated feelings of being seventeen. It hasn't changed AT ALL since I was there!

I said the hallways felt small. There were three in my high school, and this is "Senior Hall." It's the place Parker, Kat, and Trevor share a few scenes, and it too looks exactly like I remember it, except for the "Class of" year on the lockers, of course.

Summit Lake is beautiful, and has a tragic history in GOLDEN, and in real life, Convict Lake does too.  It's a still, quiet, hourglass-shaped lake, just outside of my hometown, and was the perfect place to use as the site of Shane and Julianna's tragedy.

These are some of the carved up aspen trees that border the creek spot where we all used to um... convene. On weekends. At night. Sometimes with questionably acquired beverages. It had a name amongst us local kids, which I will not reveal here, but in GOLDEN I called it "The Grove".

There is a scene in GOLDEN where Parker visits a place Julianna wrote about, only to find it totally different from how it was described in her journal. "McCloud Lake" is, in reality, "McCleod," and it does indeed have a whole swath of bleached-white, skeleton trees at the base of its trail. They're so eerie, and I thought were perfect to show how much things had changed in the 10 years between 

This is actually McCleod Lake, which I used to walk the half-mile trail to with nothing but a notebook and a blue pen--always blue, because I thought black seemed too somber. I went there to think, and to write. It was a place I thought of as my own, peaceful and quiet as I often found it, and so it worked its way into the story as that same kind of place for Julianna.

I took this shot on my way into town, but this what you'd see on your way out of town too, and that's how I envisioned Parker seeing it--a wide open road and a big, huge sky full of possibility.  I can say from experience that she couldn't have been more right.

I don't really believe in the saying "You can't go home again." I did, while I was writing this book, and I do every time I look at these pictures.  GOLDEN is a story that is close to my heart for many, many reasons, but I think the biggest ones are right here. It's the book of my home, and of what I remember of being a teenager.  

Thanks so much Jessi for being here and I am honored to share my love for the book Golden too. This book did remind of the road less traveled , and the journey I need to continue on. I at times totally could relate to Parker . 

Mindy , Jaime  , Rachel