Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1)

If you have ever needed external motivation to beef up your food storage......here it is.  It heightened my naturally high anxiety level to 'frantic'.  I plan to begin stock piling wood, asprin, batteries, fuel, canned fruit and veggies, and canned chicken, like nobody's business.  And I am beginning to think that my vaulted ceiling was a mistake.  It won't hold in enough heat when the ash comes.  I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Teenager Miranda is your run of the mill girl.  She worries about blog stalking her Olympic crush. She's a little shallow. She wants less homework and worries about her changing friendships.  Then a once a life time meteor collision with the moon goes from block party atmosphere to apocalyptic.  The moon is pushed closer to the Earth causing it's gravitation to spur one natural disaster after another.  No longer is Miranda worried about which sport to play or the fact that she is growing apart from her childhood friends.  Survival is at the forefront.  Sacrifice, starvation, desolation, and death quickly take the place of free spirited American life.  Miranda captures it all in journal entries.

This is a superb work of post-apocalyptic fiction.  It is so believeable that you can't decide whether to keep reading or start hoarding.  It is very simply written and a tad slow at the beginning.  The simplicity makes it scarier on one hand.  The sense of desperation and grueling day to day survival is vivid.  And then sometimes I felt like the simplicity also took away.  I didn't get the sense of urgency that I think would exist during a crisis.  That took it down a point for me.  Also, I am now realizing......hello! Where was your weapon stock pile? How were they going to defend their wood, asprin, and canned chicken for Pete's sake. That part is so unrealistic I can't believe I forgot it was one of the point deductors. And I just have to put in my 2 cents....I realize the author can write any old thing she wants and if I were to author a book I could splatter my opinions everywhere....but I didn't like the Conservative slamming, from President bashing (which granted I would do if the President in the book I wrote were a so Liberal he was suffocating) to making Christians look like Kool-Aid sipping nut jobs. I think I may have been more forgiving if this book wasn't aimed at a younger audience. Just my opinion.



Rating 4
Rating PG 13  Crisis situations, death, destruction, scarey situations, talk of promiscuity.

A Loving Heart (Dicken's Inn #3)

*Spoilers*

The third installment of the Dicken's Inn saga picks up where the second left off.  Chas is pregnant with their second child.  Jackson has been baptized and they are looking forward to the time when they can be sealed in the temple.
We immediately find out that the baby Chas is carrying has a heart defect and may die at or before birth.  Jackson's former FBI associate calls to see if he will accept a woman in protective custody (hiding from the mob) at the Dicken's Inn. Jackson's sister comes to stay with the family to help.  Her son, a soldier in the war in the Middle East is injured and ends up moving in to the inn.  And Jackson's old FBI team member finally comes for a visit to help with the woman they are harboring........he may never end up leaving.

I think this may have been the best book in this series so far.  Jackson was all manly and cop like, which is a plus.  I do appreciate the way that Stansfield's characters approach situations and handle themselves very graciously and very gospel oriented, but I don't find it at all realistic.  This time Jackson seemed more human to me......especially when he whipped out his duty weapon.  Aside from the totally obnoxious fact that the characters are usually independently wealthy and function together as a couple.........ALL day, EVERY day (Which I consider to be the biggest work of fiction in these books)...the book was much more palatable.  It didn't have the emotional turmoil that many times harrows up these books.  I am ready for this series to be over.  I love Jackson and if he actually worked full time as an agent or a police officer he would probably be a much better character........but he runs an inn.....and is a little demasculinized by it.

Rating 3.5  More action.  Jackson actually uses a weapon....which he stopped wearing when he retired......and I find absurd.  The storyline containing the new baby was good and even though it was traumatic, it wasn't so mentally emotional that I felt like a dog going in cirlces after my tail.
Rating PG  Shooting!!!!

A Great And Terrible Beauty

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Gemma is left at a Victorian England boarding school after she witnesses the death of her mother in a vision.  She quickly realizes that she is an outsider in a place she used to long for.  Transplanted from India into a group of hostile mean girls, in a society she once ached for but now regrets how her desires came about.  Gemma is paired with Ann, another outcast.  Her quick wit, snarkiness and eventually her powers to see beyond,  cause the elite girls to see her as an asset.  The girls form a secret society using Gemma's supernatural powers.  They begin to realize the power they are capable of.....power to have anything they desire. 

Beautiful title, lovely book cover, likeable and entertaining story.  The drawback for me are the vision scenarios...I didn't get into them, or maybe I did. I didn't like the feeling of confusion, darkness, dreaminess.  It didn't make sense to me or wasn't concrete enough for me to grasp.  The lurking evil wasn't really explained well enough for it to feel as truly menacing as it should have been.  I think the book was capable of being much scarier which would have given it the substance needed to make it a great book.

Rating 3.5
Rating PG 13  Murder, supernatural.....scarey elements, sensuality.

The Wedding Dress

The Wedding Dress by Carrie Young

A compilation of short stories detailing life in the early 1900's on the plains of North Dakota.  The fictional stories feel real.  Some of them give the sense of ghost stories where you are just waiting for the creepy ending which never comes.  The stories are sweet, engaging, and poignant.  The characters are good, solid, moral people.  Endings were not always happy but the morality always shined through.

Rating a good solid 3  Easy to pick up and read bit by bit or as a whole.
Rating G 

Rumors A Luxe Novel

Is it wrong to swoon over a cover of a book so much that you don't care what takes place inside?  I would love to put on this blood red frosting and walk right into New York elite society 1899.

Spoilers if you haven't read The Luxe.

Elizabeth has gone to meet Will in a very underdescribed manner....out West.  Diana is hot for Henry.  Henry is hot for Di.  The fact that Henry was engaged to Diana's dead sister is keeping them apart.  Penelope is a hot mess as far as I am concerned.  Her kitty claws are out and ready to capture Henry.  Lina, the personal maid that Elizabeth fired is on the loose and vying for a place in a society she has envied her whole life.

I was completely caught up in The Luxe.  This book was a severe disappointment.  I quickly tire of the intrigue, gossip, backstabbing and jealousy.  I just want the people in love to get together.  The surprise ending was a nightmare.........a serious, serious nightmare which I don't understand.  And it will lead me to pick up the next book as soon as I can.

Rating  3  I HATED the end of this book.  It magnified how in need the rest of the book was. 
Rating PG mature themes but not entirely dirty

Spirit Bound (A Vampire Academy Novel #5)

If I haven't mentioned before.....I really hate the pictures on these books.  The people are not that hot and they are too old. 
Well, somehow I have submerged myself right into another love triangle.  I fall for it every time but I am getting REALLY tired of it.  Dimitri is still Strigoi and still alive after Rose failed to kill him.  She has returned to the Academy in time to graduate and become a guardian.  During this time she has promised Adrian to give a fair shot to a relationship with him.  The whole cast of gradutates go to court to await their new stations in life.
Rose has hatched a plan to use Lissa's spirit magic to somehow change Dimitri from Strigoi back to dhampir.  She needs information from the one person claiming to have already worked this magic.  This includes breaking an enemy out of a secure Moroi prison.
There are lots of side stories.  The book was entertaining as usual but by the time I reached the surprise ending and realized that this was NOT going to end the series I was.......perturbed to say the least.  I don't know how much more I can take of Rose not being settled in a relationship.  I want her to be with both Adrian and Dimitri......this seems to be a running theme in my life, er well, my literary life. 
The side stories were good.  The romance went up a notch.  The mysterious ending left me intruguied but praying that the next book will put an end to it all.  And finally, getting a little sick of the love triangle angle.

Rating 4  I will fully admit this is due to the emotion I felt over Dimitri, the gladness I felt over Rose and Adrian hooking up, and the intriguing ending.
Rating R  Very strong language for teen fiction including multiple uses of the F word, sexual situations, smoking, alcohol consumption by teens, contraception.

The Luxe

I have heard this series likened to Gossip Girl.  Since I have no idea what that is I can't say one way or  the other.  I suspect it wasn't always a flattering comaprison though.  Either way.......I have to admit up front that I liked this book.  Originally I was attracted to the cover like a child to a chocolate bar.  The dress is phenominal!  I still put off picking it up and reading it for a very long time......but like anything pink and glittery, I will eventually sucumb.
Elizabeth Holland is at the top of the richie rich game in New York elite society 1899.  She is in love with the stable boy.  She is engaged to Henry Schoonmaker; rich, handsome, playboy.  Liz's bestie, evil biddy wrapped in scarlet, Penelope Hayes.....wants her finely sharpened claws dug into Henry.  Liz's little sis Diana is in love with the Henry that no one else sees.  Not a one of them is going to get what they want. 
I can admit this is a fluff piece.  Yet I really connected with the heartfelt desire to have what you can't.  I am not kidding, I even shed a tear......well a few.  Yes, it was pool side and I do consider this light reading.  But I did feel strongly about the girls.....the saner two....having to watch while what they wanted more than anything slipped from their fingers. 

Rating 4.......I know, sort of fluffy for a 4 but I tell you, I'm in it for the desire.
Rating PG 13  Sneaking off to the stables and the green house, or one of the many kitchens in your mansion for a tryst gets you a PG 13.  It wasn't salacious really or even well described but I wouldn't want my 10 year old to read this even though she is literate enough.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

An Eclipse Novella

Meyer's Eclipse spin off novella was a sweet little bite to hold me over until the end of this month!  I am glad that I read this on line at Meyer's website http://www.breetanner.com/ .  It was a nice change from the Bella/Edward/Jacob intensity.
Bree was one of Victoria's newborn army, made to wipe out Bella.  The story doesn't involve much of Bree's background which she has forgotten after being made a vampire.  I was happy to see someone else's perspective but disappointed that I didn't really get the feeling of hunger and desperate desire that I thought would be driving Bree at her new stage.  I guess if she had been so overtaken with blood lust there wouldn't have been much of a story or any conversation.
Even though I knew she would end up dying by the end I still felt bad.  I had some connection with her and wished that she could have stayed with the Cullens.

Rating 3 Interesting but not the best.  I felt like it was a bit of a ploy for more royalties........so I am glad that I read it online.
Rating PG Some gore.......vampire feeding.

My Horizontal Life

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

I'm pretty sure that this is one of those things you shouldn't admit to liking.  I thought it was a book I could keep under wraps and no one would be the wiser.  Then my hubby found it.........and read it before I could. 

Chelsea Handler has no shame when it comes to laying out what she can recall of her wild sex life.  The antecdotes were funny and somewhat surprising what she wasn't willing to do. 
The read, like many loose girls was cheap and easy.  The language was foul.  The alcohol was flowing.  How she didn't spot the gay guy I attribute to Ecstacy blindness.  I feel like I should soon take an oath to get back on the wagon of cleaner entertainment......right after I read Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang! Bang!

Rating 2.5  I can't rate it higher than 'Vodka' which was a better book.  Still docking points for the blatant vulagrity and obvious alcohol and drug abuse......there can be too much of a good thing.
Rating R  Sex, language, drugs, alcohol.

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me Chelsea

Are You There, Vodka?  It's Me Chelsea

I shudder to admit that I read this.  But it was still funny.  Chelsea Handler of Chelsea Lately, a stand up comedian and unacknowledged alcoholic busts out short stories in this memoir.  As you may know, I am not a fan of many a memoir.  Ruined by 'Running With Scissors', I don't need to know the sick details of your putrid up bringing.  She keeps the family parts pretty upbeat though.  No molestation or reading your own fecal matter like tea leaves.
I am struggling between giving this book a 1 and an X rating for her obscene amounts of consumed alcohol, Ecstasy, and men.........and possibly a 3 and an R because I laughed pretty hard at parts.  She and her father together are a crack up.  Her dad reminds me of the dad on King of Queens. 
This book is light reading and pretty funny but beware.......so, so foul which is not a surprise if you have ever heard of Chelsea Handler.

Rating 2.5  I did laugh, but her explicit language and extreme substance abuse, whether real or beefed up....got a little tiring.  At some point it stops being funny.
Rating R   Lots of sex, lots of language, lots of drugs and drinking.