I'm Alive!!

I bet you thought I quit...I think I thought it once or twice!  After 6 weeks of my babies having surgeries and recovering, I'm finally coming back to the real world.  I would tell you all about it, but it was traumatic enough going through it all once, so I'd rather not go through it again!  It's enough to say that my boys are healthy, and almost completely back to normal.  I've read a slew of great books as I sat in hospital waiting rooms and can't wait to tell you all about them...but for now, you get a book trailer.  I know you've heard me gush about her before, but Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors, and she has a new book coming out this fall.  On Monday, she released the trailer for this book, the Raven Boys.  She makes all her trailers herself, including composing and performing the music, so I always look forward to them.  This book is going in a different direction than her other works so far, so I'm very excited to read it in a few months!  Enjoy!

A little horror is good for the soul (most of the time)

If you haven’t read any of my previous entries, here’s a little known fact about me.  I LOVE a good horror story.  I’m not talking about gore and violence, but a well done horror with a solid plot, and things that will make me gasp, want to sleep with the lights on, and question if I’m ready for the zombie apocalypse.  I love it when they make me think late into the night, keeping me from sleeping because I’m wondering what I would do in such a situation or keep replaying a scene over and over in my head.  And criteria number one for a horror story that I will love is it has to be fantasy or supernatural.  I don’t know if those are even the right terms for it, but it pretty much has to be about something that doesn’t really exist (or at least in my opinion doesn’t exist).  In my job I spend all day dealing with heart-breakingly depressing and frustrating situations (and no, I’m not talking about my job as a mom, but that of a juvenile probation officer) so I find when I read I want to escape reality, not depress myself even more by reading a story about someone’s entire family being violently murdered.  So basically I love a good zombie story or ghost story.

I was very excited this week because I was getting around to reading Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake.  It’s been on my to-read list for quite some time and it was finally available at the library.  Well, I found myself disappointed, and not for the reasons you are expecting.  Prepare yourself, here comes the mom in me…except I was always this way, even before becoming a mom.  I really liked the story and I wanted to like the book so bad, but the author used a lot of foul language and it just turned me off.  I’m not saying that foul language is ever necessary, but it REALLY wasn’t even necessary in the way she was using it.  It was just used randomly in the dialogue.  The story did NOT need it.  Now I can handle an occasional swear word in books and it doesn’t bother me, but I abhor the F word.  And when it was used more than once within the first 30 pages of the book, along with a few other swear words, my excitement over the book quickly deflated.  The book has such an interesting premise too.  It follows Cas, who in the legacy of his father, slays ghosts.  Wait, what?  Ghosts are already dead!!  I know.  He hunts down ghosts that are dangerous and kill or harm humans and kills them with his magic athame he inherited from his father.  Sounds cheesy?  Well, it doesn’t come across that way in the book, I promise.  So Cas has come to a small town to take care of Anna Dressed in Blood, who is a ghost who kills anyone who enters her house…except him.  His whole world is turned upside down as he finds himself helping her, and even protecting her and dare I say…falling for her?  Once again, sounds cheesy, but didn’t come across that way at all.  I wanted to like it all, but I’m turned off by the language.  I don’t know if I will be reading the sequel which comes out this fall.  Probably not.  So in this case, a little horror was not good for my soul.  And there are no other good horror stories coming out any time soon.  I can’t even satisfy my appetite for horror on television since the Walking Dead doesn’t come back until October!!  What’s a girl to do?


If you’ve read Anna Dressed in Blood, did you feel the same way?  I want to hear what you think and if swearing ruins or changes your opinion of a book.  Is there anything else in a book that ruins it for you?

The Calling

I almost thought I wouldn't have time to write this week!  The whole family came down with the plague, which led to ear infections and other fun doctor's visits.  I feel like I live there.  And then we took the kids to Disney World while we were all sick (what on earth were we thinking???) and I learned that sometimes Disney World is the place where dreams go to die instead of come true.  I felt extra bad because our dear friends who are currently expecting their first child were with us and I think that my children at Disney may have made them go home and cry.  I know it made me want to.  My 18 month old was on a medication for his lungs that makes him go crazy and I'm pretty sure he tried to rip my face off at one point.  I was about to scream "It's got sharp teeth!! Run away!"  Bad Monty Python joke...I know.  I had one of those moments where I'm pretty sure everyone at Disney thought I was the worst parent ever...oh well.  There are good days and bad days, right?  That good day has got to be coming soon!  On the up side of being sick, once the kids go to bed I don't feel like doing anything but laying down and reading, so in a matter of 48 hours I re-read The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong, and then the sequel, The Calling, which just came out last week.

Best picture of them the entire day!

This pretty much sums up their attitudes for the day!

Have you read The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong?  And have you read her Darkest Powers series as well?  If so, you need to read The Calling, because it came out last week and it was another classic Armstrong book (which is a good thing).  The Calling is the second book in Armstrong's Darkness Rising series.  You don't have to have read her Darkest Powers series to understand this series, but I feel like it definitely helps you have a little more insight into what is going on.  In the Darkest Powers, there were a series of youth who we learn have supernatural abilities, and were also experimented on to strengthen their abilities, sometimes to a dangerous level.  I really enjoyed this series and wish that Derek could be the awesome big brother I never had!  Okay, so I had a big brother, but he definitely was NOT like Derek....sorry Christian.  There is mention in the Darkest Powers series of other groups of kids that were experimented on.  Enter the characters in Darkness Rising!  We met the characters in The Gathering, and in classic Armstrong style, we were given a lot of info, but no answers.  Have no fear, because The Calling gave more answers than I expected...but still leaves lots of things for the third book to come out next year!  I find that her trilogies are amazing when you look at each trilogy as one long story.  If I try to judge each book individually, I just get angry because she raises a bunch of questions without giving answers and doesn't necessarily give a specific challenge that is overcome, ending with a satisfying resolution in each story, which is what makes us readers feel good inside when we finish a book.  So getting back to The Calling, we pick back up with Maya, Rafe, Daniel and their friends as they try to decide who to trust as they are lost in the wilderness, fighting for their lives and trying to figure out what is "special" about each of them.  I still don't know who they should trust and it has me all sorts of excited for the next book.  But what I'm most excited about is that they hinted that we may get to see the characters from the Darkest Powers series in the next book!  Yes, I'm a nerd, but as I said, I want Derek to be my brother.  I would highly recommend this book and all her young adult series to anyone who enjoys a good supernatural fiction.  I do NOT recommend Kelley Armstrong's several other series that she's written that are set in the same world and include many of the same characters.  Her other series are considered adult fiction...and they are definitely adult.  I tried to read one once, and got about a fourth of the way into the book before I returned it to the library.  This is one of the reasons I enjoy young adult fiction.  I want to read entertaining and uplifting stories...not pornography.  Anyways, I'll get off my soap box now and say that her young adult series are great and I will continue to read them as long as she writes them!!

How did I just come to realize I love a book I read a year ago?

It’s been an insane week and I finally found a moment to write! The week was filled with crying children who wouldn’t sleep because of all types of infections (including ones we had already treated and thought were gone), catscans for my 4 year old, our water accidentally being shut off, and Easter parties in which my child was given way too much candy and he got sick!  That's life, right?  Despite our apparent bad genetics when it comes to health issues, I have to say that I have come to the realization that my husband and I must have some awesome genes, because our kids rock.  My oldest son, “the actor”, is currently obsessed with all things Star Wars.  He glances down at his arm before his catscan, as he has just been given an IV and has tubes running to a machine, and says with excitement, “Mom!! Mom!! I have a robot arm!!  Just like Darth Vader!!”  I hate when people use this word…but it was totally EPIC.  Okay, back to talking about books!!

About a year ago, an author I follow recommended that I read Ship Breaker by Paulo Bacigalupi.  Which I did, because I’m always on the look out for something new to read.  I remember reading it, and I remember liking it, but not much else.  I am a compulsive re-reader (that’s my term for it, okay) and I often read things at least two or three times.  Usually, when I finish a book I love, I can’t wait to read it again.  I don’t remember feeling that with this book and it got put on the shelf and forgotten about until a few days ago.  I decided I had better read it again since I didn’t remember much about it and the next book in this series comes out May 1st.  In case you are wondering, that book is called The Drowned Cities.  But getting back to the point, as I was reading Ship Breaker this week I was astonished at how awesome it is and how much I love it.  It sucks you into this other world, which I guess you could call dystopian, but it’s not at all like the other dystopian novels out there.  Nailer is a ship breaker, a young boy who works breaking apart old ships to scavenge any valuable parts.  He’s grown up in poverty, with an extremely abusive, drug-addicted father and knows no other kind of life.  Nailer and a friend discover a wrecked ship and find a girl inside who has survived.  She’s a “swank”, or a rich girl, and Nailer’s life becomes increasingly complicated as he must make difficult and life altering decisions regarding what should be done with her.  The book has barely started when the action begins and the author packs an amazingly complex and detailed story into a not too long book (326 pages).  It turns into a book of adventure, danger, piracy, and even a touch of romance.  It was a page turner for me, and I read this one in about a day and a half.  With the crazy week I’ve had, that’s a strong testament to how addicting the book can be.  I highly recommend you read this one!  I can’t wait to read The Drowned Cities, although I have to say I’m a little disappointed that it’s not about the same characters!  I’m sure it will be great, and hopefully the new characters will come across our old beloved characters from Ship Breaker!

The Dark Divine

I’m in a bad spot right now.  I don’t know if other book nerds experience this or not, but I’m in a dry spell.  A bunch of new books came out in January, February and March…and now I’m waiting for the books that are coming out in May and June.  So for now, I’ve got nothing.  I find myself depressed and re-reading things in preparation for sequels, which is slightly pathetic.  I imagine myself looking something like this picture of my youngest son:

Okay...so hopefully it's not that bad.  Last night after work, I thought to myself that instead wallowing in a state of depression, why not backtrack a little bit and spotlight a book that recently came out?  If you’re looking for a fun and light read and you enjoy the whole YA supernatural genre, you might enjoy the Dark Divine trilogy by Bree Despain.

 It includes three books, including The Dark Divine, The Lost Saint, and The Savage Grace, which just came out in March of this year.  Warning, this is a little bit of a spoiler…no major plot points, but I don’t see how I can get around saying it.  If you don’t want to hear it, then stop reading!  It’s basically another werewolf book, but with a completely different take on the whole idea.  The change of pace was refreshing.  Grace Divine, a pastor’s daughter, comes to find out about Daniel’s little secret and can’t seem to stay away from him despite her brother and father’s desperate pleas to stay away from their old childhood friend.  There’s something terrorizing their small town and of course Daniel is suspect.  It’s got a twist at the end that I did not see coming, which makes the rest of the series much more interesting for Grace.  It’s got a touch of mystery and danger, a touch more of a superhero complex, and a little bit more romance.  It’s an easy, light read when you just want to have fun, but it still has deep issues of faith, forgiveness, and redemption.  I loved the way the author brought in the strong religious themes without making it a “religious” book.  The newest installment, The Savage Grace, was really long, but didn’t seem like it while I was reading it.  It had a resolute ending, but still had some things left unresolved, leaving the possibility for more books in this series.  The series is always referred to as a trilogy, so I don’t believe there will be any more, but who knows.  Hopefully that will keep you satisfied if you are as pathetic as I am this month.

FYI, there are two books on my radar that are coming out this month.  There’s the second installment in the Darkness Rising series by Kelley Armstrong, which is called The Rising, and the third installment in the Body Finder series, which is called The Last Echo.

Release of chapter one for City of Lost Souls!

I'm going to do another post this week that is hopefully much more awesome than this one...but just wanted to let fans of The Mortal Instruments know that Cassandra Clare is releasing bits of the first chapter of the City of Lost Souls on her tumbler.  She's released four parts so far, and you can click on the links to each of them from her page, found here.  She's also already released the prologue to the City of Lost Souls, which you can also find there.  You can call me a nerd all you want, but I'm counting the days until this one is released!  Which is May 8, 2012...in case you were wondering.

YA Mommy's top ten favorite books!

Since I’m just starting this blog and there are so many books and series that came out over the past several years that I absolutely adore, I figured I’d start out by doing a favorite top ten.  This was extremely difficult.  You guys are just getting to know me, so let me paint a picture for you.  I am to YA books, as those crazy people in costumes are to standing outside of a theater days before an actual movie comes out.  Having said that…I have also been one of those crazy people, so I can make fun of them.  I have much love for people who see movies in costumes.  Anyways, to make it a little less difficult, I decided to do books OR series, otherwise I would use up the ten spots with just a few series!  These are in no particular order, because if I had to put them in the order of how much I like them, my brain might have exploded.  And that would be gross and my husband would be really upset about having to clean it up.


1. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.  Let’s just get this one out of the way, shall we?  I don’t think I need to write anything about this, since if you don’t know what the Hunger Games is about then you have been living under a rock for the past year….but okay.  Futuristic dystopian society of Panem, throw in some awful yearly tradition to remember a botched revolution attempt, and you’ve got the Hunger Games.  Two tributes (children) randomly selected from each district, all put into an arena to fight to the death until only one is left standing, a-la reality TV style.  One of my absolute favorite series, and yet Mockingjay still manages to make me want to cry or fall into a deep, dark depression every time.


2.  The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  Oh Cassandra, how I love your writing style.  You wrap me up in your little Shadowhunter world and make me laugh until I cry.  If you haven’t read these, oh my gosh just go do it.  Do it now.  This is eventually going to be a six book series, of which four have been released.  They include, City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, and City of Fallen Angels.  It’s about Shadowhunters, who are part human, part angel, and their role in this world is to fight demons.  We follow the adventures of Clary, Jace (oh, Jace), Simon, and a bunch of other unforgettable characters as they fight the forces of evil.  Okay, I just wanted to say forces of evil…it’s not exactly like that, but you know what I’m saying.  This book has the most torturous and frustrating romance I’ve ever encountered in a book.  And Cassandra makes you love every second of it.  She’s excellent at creating characters that you want to be your best friends…or enemies.  The next book in this series (City of Lost Souls) comes out on May 8, 2012, and I will definitely be doing a post on it!  But read books 1-4 first, if you haven’t already!



3. The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare.  Just when I thought there wasn’t anything I could love more than the Mortal Instruments…out comes the Infernal Devices.  These are also set in the Shadowhunter world, but a couple hundred years before TMI.  Again, she creates amazing characters that make you want to be a part of her world.  We meet Tessa, who through a great big mess ends up residing at a Shadowhunter institute with Will, Jem, and a bunch of others.  She’s not a shadow hunter…but they don’t know what she is.  If you thought the relationship between Jace and Clary was torturous, then we introduce the Tessa and Will situation that can get so frustrating that you want to hit someone.  Don’t hit anyone though…that would be wrong.  The Clockwork Angel and the Clockwork Prince have been released, and the latter is probably one of my favorite books.  The Clockwork Princess, which will be the last in this series, is set to come out some time in 2013.  Frustrating…I know.


  4.  The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater.  If I had a favorite author, it might be Maggie.  She has an amazing writing style.  Even if she’s writing something horrible and disturbing (you should read some of her short stories on the Merry Sisters of Fate), the writing is still beautiful.  Everything has a poetic quality to it.  She is also hilarious, which endears me to her immediately.  This series follows Grace, who has always been drawn to the wolves behind her house, one in particular, who is actually a boy, Sam.  This series follows their journey to stay together and find a way to live a normal life.  I love this series because it doesn’t follow any of the typical patterns of normal YA books.  She refuses to give into that and end a book with a Happily Ever After.  These books are unique, sad, and beautiful.  The series is completed, and includes Shiver, Linger and Forever.


5.  The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner.  Oh, what can I say?  I found them disturbing, innovative, and heart-wrenching in the best way possible.  The series includes the Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, and The Death Cure.  This is one of those series that is best if you go into it not knowing what’s going to happen, so I won’t say much.  I’ll just say that Thomas wakes up with no memory of his former life and is trapped in some sort of Lord of the Flies type of situation where their lives depend on solving the maze.  It was full of surprises for me and I loved it.  The Scorch Trials might be my favorite, but the Death Cure totally surprised me, which is difficult to do as I am always figuring out which way a book is going to go before it goes there.  My husband hates this because I do the same thing with movies, therefore ruining all movies and books for him.  I am working on being better before he leaves me.  I never foresaw how the Death Cure played out.  So cheers to Mr. Dashner.  Cheers.


6.  Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick.  This one feels like a bit of a guilty pleasure because although I am addicted to young adult fiction, I usually don’t like the ones that seem more juvenile.  This one comes across as “young” in some ways, but I still love it.  It’s also not as smooth as most of the books I read, but like I said, I still love it.  Oh, and by smooth I’m referring to the flow of the story and consistency.  It bothers me when facts are brought up and then never addressed again or explained throughout an entire series.  Or worse yet, if they change facts without explaining why.  This book had a few of those, so normally that would have turned me off…but something drew me back.  I think it was Patch.  I just enjoy a character like him.  To sum it up quickly, Nora meets bad-boy Patch who has something different/special about him, which she eventually learns as she of course falls for him.  Classic YA plot, but this one definitely has some twists that I enjoy!  So far there’s Hush, Hush, Crescendo, and Silence.  There will be one more book in this series, and it comes out this fall.  When you want to indulge in some YA fantasy, romance with a classic bad boy who always has a witty comeback to everything, then this is for you.


7.  Divergent series by Veronica Roth.  This is actually my favorite book right now.  Oh!  I did it!  I picked a favorite and my head didn’t explode!  Veronica created this amazing dystopian society in which there are different factions, where a certain character trait is honored and exemplified above all else.  Like Abnegation=selflessness, Dauntless=courage, Erudite=wisdom and knowledge…you get the idea.  You are born into a faction, but when you come of age you get to pick a different faction if you wish.  Beatrice does this, going from Abnegation to Dauntless.  The book then tells a heartbreaking story of her trials as she goes through the Dauntless initiation, all the while hiding the fact that she is divergent to hopefully save her life.  What does being divergent mean?  Read the book.  And Four (who is a person), if only Four was in this book it would be worth reading.  This book has adventure, romance, and I love that the main character is strong and refuses to compromise her morals!  There’s also lots of fighting, tattoos, plots to start a war…what more can you ask for?


8. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.  Once again, I can’t get enough of Maggie Stiefvater’s work.  The Scorpio Races is a stand alone novel, and it’s perfect that way.  She’s created this magical world that strictly speaking doesn’t have any actual “magic” in the book.  Puck lives on a small island where the Scorpio Races takes place.  It’s a race where men (until Puck enters, of course) race horses that come from the sea that eat people.  I’m sure there was a much more elegant way of putting that, but there you go.  Read it and see how (for reasons I’m not going into), Puck enters the race and becomes involved with Sean, who races every year and often wins.  Sean has this mystical bond with the horses…and in my opinion is just awesome and I want to be his friend.  Puck is a tough character who is willing to enter a race involving the very creatures that killed her parents.  This book is poetically beautiful, as Maggie’s always are, and I am basically in love with it and cannot wait to see it made into a movie…which it is going to be in the near future!


9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth series by Carrie Ryan.  Little known fact about me…I love zombies.  I loved zombies long before the Walking Dead and the hype began.  But it isn’t the blood and gore and fright factor that has me hooked.  I love the drama involved when zombies run amuck and what’s left of the human race has to bond together, work out the inevitable issues they face, and fight back.  I find it fascinating…and I don’t mind a good zombie scare and a little gore as well.  The Forest of Hands and Teeth series freaked me out (in a good way) and stayed on my mind for weeks.  The first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, was brutal, and I didn’t know if I wanted to read any more after that.  If you feel the same way after reading it, promise me you’ll make yourself read The Dead Tossed Waves because it is even more awesome than it sounds.  The 2nd book picks up with a new character, and a whole new story to tell, even though she’s tied to the character from the first book.  And folks, if you like the second one, The Dark and Hollow Places will knock your socks off.  I loved that book even though it made me jump every time I heard a noise and want to sleep with a night light for a week!  Above all, they have that underlying theme of “what are we willing to do to save humanity” that I love.  I can’t endorse these enough!


10. Delirium series by Lauren Oliver.  This will be a trilogy, with Delirium and Pandemonium already having been released.  Requiem comes out next year.  Lena lives in a dystopian, futuristic society…sound familiar?  Yes, but this is unlike any other book I’ve read, so keep going.  Love has been classified as a disease, Amor Deliria Nervosa, and upon the age of 18, everyone receives “the cure” which is basically a lobotomy that takes away your ability to love.  Lena can’t wait to receive the cure, until she meets Alex, a boy from “the Wilds.”  Oh how I love this book.  It’s heavy reading, kind of like Mockingjay.  It’s not all sunshine and rainbows and every challenge is not happily resolved, and I love that about Lauren.  She dives right into the awful, devastating truths that would exist in such a world and tears your heart out as you root for the characters.  Lauren Oliver is probably my new favorite author.  I first read her book, Before I Fall, and instantly loved her style.  She can fall into describing a situation for a page or two and you don’t seem to notice or ever grow tired of it because her description is able to paint such a vivid and lifelike picture in your head.  Delirium and Pandemonium should be at the top of your list!


Honorable Mention
The Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong (The Summoning, The Awakening, and the Reckoning)
Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity, Radiant Shadows, and Darkest Mercy)
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos…and more to come)
Fallen Series by Lauren Kate (Fallen, Torment, Passion…and more to come)
Host by Stephenie Meyer

You’re looking for Twilight…aren’t you?  Okay, okay, I give in.  I loved Twilight as much as everyone else, but surprisingly it also doesn’t top my list.  I love it, and I love the characters, but I also can acknowledge that there are bigger and better things out there…despite my collection of Twilight paraphernalia in my office.  Don’t laugh…you know you have one too.