Stacking the shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to highlight books received each week!

During the week of October 24th to October 30th, I got...

Finally got my signed copies of these books this week!

I got this from Netgalley. Why don't they believe in telling you when a book is a sequel?! :(

What kind of goodies did you get this week?

Review: Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins

Publisher: SourceBooks Fire

Publication Date: November 3rd, 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: eARC From Netgalley In Exchange For An Honest Review

Pages: 336

Add it on Goodreads!!

Summary (from Goodreads):

They exist in two different centuries, but their love defies time

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it's his own—and that the year is 1925—she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

As she searches for answers in the present, Cassandra discovers a truth that puts their growing love—and Lawrence's life—into jeopardy. Desperate to save him, Cassandra must find a way to change history…or risk losing Lawrence forever.

This book was SO good! I wasn't expecting to be so blown away by this book! But I was and it kinda punched me in the feels.

Cassandra is forced to spend the summer with her mom, stepdad, and little brother in a fancy rental home with a private beach in Crest Harbor, Massachusetts. She really doesn't act like she wants to be there and kind of acts out a bit toward her mom. One day, she is down on the private beach and watches the sunset when she sees a weird flash of light and suddenly there is someone else on the beach as well! That someone else is the handsome, Lawrence. Who, as it turns out, also lives in the house her family is renting, but in 1925. The only place that they can meet is on this beach. One day, Cassandra decides to go look up stuff about 1925 at the library and finds out something that puts Lawrence's life in jeopardy and she does everything she can to change time to save him.

Cassandra is your average angsty teenager who doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with family time over the summer. She is a bit of a drama queen, but I liked her. If I was in her shoes for that summer, I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with my family either! 

Lawrence is a bit angsty as well. But he's not really dramatic like Cassandra. He's upset with the fact that his life is pretty much being laid out for him by his family and he doesn't have a say. And I guess I'd be a bit angsty too if that were my life. He just wants to be a writer. He's super sweet and kind and I really liked him too!

The romance in this book was so sweet! It wasn't really instant. They mostly just confused each other the first few times they met each other because they couldn't wrap their heads around how they both thought they lived in the same house. But after awhile they started to fall for each other and it was SO CUTE. I just really liked them together. I want a Lawrence.

There really isn't a whole lot that goes on in this book, but I personally never felt like it was slow. I was pretty wrapped up in this book. They meet on the beach and that's the only place they can be together. So most of the book seems to take place on the beach. It has a bit of a murder mystery air about it. It has two points of view. Lawrence's point of view has a nice historical fiction feeling that I really liked. 

I can't really complain about anything in this book. I mean, it was so good! The ending was absolutely NOT what I wanted to happen, but it is the ending that makes the most sense.

Overall, I would recommend this book probably mostly to people who are really like romance. Because that is really the main point in this book. The mystery and historical fiction aren't terribly prominent features, but I still enjoyed them. I loved this book so much and I would probably read this book again and I would definitely buy this book just for the cover. So pretty.

Discussion: Halloween

Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought that I would discuss things that I like to do during Halloween! 

First of all, my Halloween jam is decorating pumpkins. Before I moved away from home, I entered the community pumpkin decorating contest every year. I won four years in a row! I never really carved the ones I entered for that contest, I liked to paint them more so.

So, the first pumpkin that I ever tried to win a contest with was for school when I was in college. Which I didn't win because there were other far more talented people than me that entered.

Me and another girl in my program worked on this one. Not pictured is his sweet Krusty Krab hat.

The next ones are all ones that I entered in the community pumpkin contest and WON with! Because I basically rock.

Cinderella's carriage! This one took a lot of work, but it was worth it!!

Another Spongebob attempt! I thought that the first one deserved to win so I made another. Also, I probably wasn't feeling very original.

Mike Wazowski! He was fun. A fun fact about this one, I bought a ridiculous amount of paint when I bought supplies so I went to return some and I was LUCKY enough to stand in line at customer service behind a lady who was returning over SIXTY items. Good times, good times.

My last pumpkin I decorated before I moved was a minion!

Since there is no pumpkin decorating contest in this town that I live near now, I entered a different kind of contest! In October, they have a contest called Bras for a Cause where you decorate a bra and they get raffled off and the proceeds go to a cancer foundation group. I tried my hand out at that my first year here and I failed. But my bra was pretty sweet.

SO besides the artsy parts of Halloween that are my favorite, this year I was fairly pumped to have my VERY OWN kitchen to make fall goodies in! I haven't made a whole lot yet, but this year I made pumpkin bread (one plain loaf and one loaf with chocolate chips) and caramel apples! The caramel apples were my favorite! I didn't do anything elaborate, I found some caramel wraps at the grocery store so it literally took me like five minutes.

Also food related, every year for Halloween my grandma makes homemade chicken noodle soup and everyone goes to her house to eat and then I usually take my little cousins out trick or treating. I haven't gotten to go for a couple years, but I get to go this year! I'm so excited! I don't think that I really have any little cousins that need an escort for trick or treating anymore, but oh well.

I also like to watch scary movies! Not necessarily so much actual horror or anything terribly gruesome like Saw (I cried during Saw III). But I like the more suspenseful, thriller types. I really like Practical Magic and The Others. This year I have only watched Sleepy Hallow so far, but I enjoyed that one! I want to watch a few more and I HAVE to get in Hocus Pocus! I think I'm going to bring that one home with me next weekend so I can watch it with my sister!

Then there's the fun of dressing my cat up. I bought him a Halloween shirt and a dinosaur costume. He hates me for it, I'm sure. But it's SO CUTE!

    

     

And to wrap this up, just a few other things that I like about Halloween are:

-Half price candy after Halloween! Reese's are my favorite!

-Haunted Houses! I think I moreso like the idea of them. One of the last haunted houses I went through I was with two friends and this group of three little kids came through with us. And like five seconds in those little kids were freaking out. So I ended up carrying one, one friend ended up carrying another, and the other friend ended up just wrapping her arms around the other because she was a bit too short to carry him. I was freaking out so hard that I didn't even notice until we got out that the little girl I was carrying had her hands death gripping my hair. There is a legit haunted house in the town I live near. It's called Scarecrow Hollow. It's in an old morgue and it's a guided tour and I'm too scared to go.

-Decorating my house! Since this is my first Halloween in my house and I could decorate, I whipped out all the decorations! But I'm too lazy to take pictures so you don't get to see this time. HA!

So! What about you guys? What are your favorite parts of Halloween? Do you have any fun traditions? Do you enjoy any of the same things as me? I would LOVE to hear from you!

Waiting on Wednesday (#20)

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

This week I'm waiting on...

After the Woods by Kim Savage

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016

Pages: 320

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

An emotionally-charged debut novel about the deadly lies hidden beneath a destructive friendship.

One year ago, two best friends, Liv and Julia, were attacked in the woods by a paroled predator. In an attempt to save Liv, Julia was left behind while Liv escaped. After spending three days in the woods trying to escape her abductor, Julia was rescued. She only remembers what happened in the woods in terrifying flashbacks. Now, on the eve of the anniversary of the attack, a body is found in the woods. This discovery rips open fresh wounds between the two girls as the truth about Liv's role in the kidnapping is revealed. 

This book sounds like an episode of a crime drama type show and those are my favorite kinds of shows! This book sounds so good!

Top Ten Tuesday (#18)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is a Halloween themed freebie! So I think that I'm going to list my top ten spooky books that I would like to read!

1. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke with stories by Various Authors

Whatever that thing on the cover is, I don't like it. It's creepy. So it's perfect for a Halloween read, right?

2. Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

3. The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

4. The Uninvited by Cat Winters

5. The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

6. Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski

7. We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean

8. A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

I am so excited to read this book, it sounds really good.

9. A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann

10. After the Woods by Kim Savage

Do you have any good suggestions for spooky reads? Are any of these books on your list?

Review: Four by Zack Scott

Our Dead Lives #1

Publisher: Shades of Grey Publishing

Publication Date: June 28th, 2011

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Review copy from the author

Pages: 528

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

A tragic past. A destined reunion. A decaying hope.

In Southern California, four friends must face a haunting nightmare from high school in order to save the future of humanity. But will their personal conflicts get in the way? Battling for survival, these fated four will choose whether to follow a destined path or continue their dead lives, while the zombie apocalypse feeds them one cliche after another.

Alec, Scot, Kale, and Jeff are four previously best friends. They drifted apart after a rather traumatic event in their lives and eight years later, they are having a reunion. The reunion doesn't go well considering three of the friends generally seem to just not like each other and the glue that tries to hold them all together, Jeff, is late. He is on a mission with the Vault Tactical Force to go open the Vaults. The Vaults are obviously vaults that were built to withstand an apocalypse. Only a few lucky people won spots in the Vaults and the apocalypse never came. The people have been stuck inside the vaults for six months when Jeff and his team come to let them out. But what they find inside are not living people, but the undead... And that's where this story begins!

This book was so good. I was scared going into this book because so far, I haven't really liked very many of the books I've been asked to review. But this one was so good and I was so pleasantly surprised! I got this book in like August to review and I just now read it because I suck so hard, but I shouldn't have waited! It was so good!

First of all, the characters were all so different! You have Jeff who joined I think the Navy after high school and then was recruited to join the Vault Tactical Force. He is the one in his group of friends who tries so hard to get things back to the way they were. He is a really good person and is really brave and cares about everyone. He tries to see the best in everyone.

Alec.. I don't know. I think it's great how he was so committed to his relationship. He and Nicole have a cute relationship and she is basically his reason for being and his whole world. Which is great and all, but I feel like in this story, his relationship just kind of makes him into an ass. He comes off as very clingy and won't leave Nicole for anything!

Scot is the ladies man of the group. He royally screwed things up with the girl of his dreams and spends a lot of this book trying to fix things with her. He strikes me as that guy you know who is kind of purposefully always acting like a douchebag, but really he's got a good head on his shoulders and has good intentions. I don't know, I think that he was probably my favorite of the four friends.

Okay, now the last friend is Kale. What do I think of Kale? He doesn't really seem to think things through before he acts. Even if his action is in the best interest of everyone else, it doesn't really seem to go well for him. I don't know, I think that Kale is the friend I thought the least about during this book, but he is not my least favorite. He just kinda got the short end of the stick, I think.

There are a lot of other characters who play decently important-ish parts in this book. There are the girls with their group, Kelsey, Nicole, and Sadie. Sadie weirded me out. She kind of creates her own religion/diety and talks to it throughout the book. That weirded me out mostly because I knew a kid like that in high school and he said goblins followed him through the halls... ANYWAYS! I liked the other girls. There's a few other characters you hear a lot from in this book, but I feel like these are the main main characters.

There is romance in the book. Mostly it was discussed above. I didn't like Alec's relationship just because of how he acted about it. Scot's relationship with his girl, I did like. I was pretty excited because I have been trying to pick out books where there are some steamy-ish moments and I have been failing MISERABLY!!! And this book delivered that to me and I liked that.

The plot of this book is fantastic! There is never a dull moment during the zombie apocalypse! They all move around a lot, things are always happening. There are a lot of flashback moments to the traumatic event that happened eight years ago and that switched things up a bit which was nice. 

If I had to make any complaints about this book, I would complain about the number of points of view. There are like six at least. That in general is something that I don't care for, but it didn't even really seem that bad in this book. Also, it kinda felt long.

Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of zombies and The Walking Dead. It was a really interesting book and my biggest regret is not getting to it sooner! If you happen to dislike violence, profanity, and sex in your books, then this one is probably not for you. I will probably end up reading the sequel someday because I gotta know if they stop the zombie apocalypse or not!

Truthwitch Tuesday: #MySeaFox Coloring Competition

This week instead of doing a tag of any kind, I will be posting my sea fox picture for the Truthwitch Tuesday coloring competition! I'm gonna do a whole blog post on my sea fox so I can give her an overly elaborate background story.

If you want to join in the fun, check out THIS post!

I chose the name Nixie for my sea fox! According to the website I am looking at while writing this, it is German and means 'little water sprite'.

   

So I am going to give my sea fox the traits of the water sprites of various folklore tales.

The following snippet is a little description of a sea fox from the book that I got off of Nicola's blog post about the competition:

"When Ryber had described a sea fox, this was not what Safi had imagined.

     And she definitely didn't imagine that it would scream like the souls of the damned. A thousand layers screeched from the monster's mouth -- and then screeched from a second monster now towering over the Jana nearby."

One famous Nix of German folklore was said to sit on a rock and distract fishermen from the dangers of the reef with her voice. While, I don't fully know what a sea fox is or what they're like, from the little excerpt from Truthwitch provided and this little tidbit of Germain folklore, I'm going to say that Nixie here likes to sing. And I have decided that she's the got the prettiest 'souls of the damned' scream of all the other sea foxes. While it might only make your human ears bleed a little bit, it's a top screech amongst the sea foxes. She likes to elegantly swim through the water as though she were dancing.

Ancient Greek mythology talks of water nymphs said to guard fresh water bodies for the gods. SO weaving that information into my post here, I will say that she is VERY protective of her home. That's her singing and frolicking space and she doesn't take kindly to intruders. While she's generally a laid back sea fox, she won't tolerate your crap in her watery domain.

According to Japanese lore (which mostly contains some really creepy stuff about 'river imps') when the water sprites are feeling kind and generous, they are supposedly skilled teachers in the arts of bone setting and medical skills. SO with that said I'm going to say Nixie is caring (because it takes a caring individual to set bones and do medical stuff, I'm kinda struggling for what to say here) and will do anything to help her fellow sea fox.

Also Japanese lore says that they like to try to lure cows and horses to their watery deaths. So I think that my lovely sea fox has an insatiable appetite for horses (because they suck).

So long story short, Nixie here is:

-a rockstar with sweet dance moves.

-a very protective guardian of her watery realm.

-laid back but won't take your crap.

-caring and helpful to her fellow sea fox.

-an eater of stupid horses.

So, that's a little bit about my sea fox! Did anyone else color one? I would love to see it!

Stacking the Shelves (#18)

Stacking the shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to highlight books received each week!

During the week of October 17th to 23rd I got...

This one was $2.99 for my Nook so I had to hop on that deal.

And that's all I got. Any day now, Books of Wonder, my preorders of Six of Crowd and Ice Like Fire can get heeeeeere...

Discussion: Blog Schedules

Hello lovely readers! Today I have a discussion post for all of you. How exciting! For my first discussion post in a long time, I want to talk about blog schedules! 

I have decided that I want to implement a schedule for my blog. I don't really have any kind of organization as to what I post or when and I think that I need to get into some kind of a schedule. Because lately I feel like I've just been doing the general weekly memes and lots and lots of tags. And then the occasional review. And I didn't start a blog for the tags and memes! 

Anyway, so the schedule I am going to test out looks like this:

Sunday: Blog Tag/Off 

Monday: Review

Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday

Thursday: Discussion

Friday: Off

Saturday: Stacking the Shelves

I really like the blog tags. I think that they're so fun! So I want to keep doing them and I have found SO many that I want to do so I gave myself a blog tag day. So I can do one a week instead of doing multiple tags in a week so I have something to post on a given day.

I have been working my way through a lot of ebooks that I have been putting off that I got from Netgalley or from authors for review. And I just haven't been loving them. So I have just been putting off reading because I don't even want to do it. But I think that having one review day a week will be doable. The backed up books won't last forever. Then when I get more reviews built up, I think I will change Friday into a second review day a week.

I really want to try to do more discussions too so I worked that in. I don't know what I'll talk about, but I'll think of something. Once a month I am thinking I'll do some kind of discussion or post about me/my life so you can get to know me. As if you all care, but maybe you do.

I know that I don't have to have a post everyday, but I want to. I really don't have a life so I have plenty of time on my hands.

So yeah! What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you have a schedule that you follow for what you post and when? Or are you more of a 'fly by the seat of your pants' blogger? What do you think of the schedule I'm trying out?

Waiting on Wednesday (#19) + GIVEAWAY

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

This week I'm waiting for...

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: January 5, 2016

Pages: 292

Add it on Goodreads!!

Summary (from Goodreads):

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival. 

I actually just got accepted to read this on Netgalley! So YAY! Can't wait til I can get to this one!

What books are you waiting on this week?

Also! Check out this great giveaway from SourceBooks Fire for ARCs, chalkboards, and chalk! How fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also check out the tumblr page made for the book!

http://thisiswhereitendsbook.tumblr.com/

Top Ten Tuesday (#17)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is Ten Wishes I'd Ask The Book Genie To Grant Me! This will be fun!!

1. For my first wish, I would ask for a magical system where every book I added to my To Read shelf on Goodreads would show up on my bookshelf. This would be so amazing and also so horrible in terms of running out of space.... fast.

2. Next, I would wish for all of my ARC requests to be granted. This would probably also end up being horrible in terms of space and also time. But also it would be soooo awesome!

3. I would also wish for my house to have a library room! One that has a cute little reading nook in it somewhere. Maybe a window seat or something. I would love that! I have some nice views out the windows at my house!

4. I would request that the book genie bring Celaena Sardothien to life to be my real life best friend. Also Fleetfoot. That would be so awesome! Because she likes books and chocolate and shopping for pretty clothes and what more could you possibly ask for in a best friend?!

5. I would wish for Liam Stewart to be my real life boyfriend as well. On the side. I kinda like my current boyfriend. But Liam is soooo sweet and adorable and he would probably be the perfect boyfriend.

6. I would wish for there to be a fun book event somewhere near me! Like in the Black Hills somewhere. That would be fun for any authors or anyone else who would have to come here for such a thing! And it would totally be worth it for everyone because there's lots of fun stuff you can look at and I would get to go to a book event!

7. I also wish that I could go to all the amazing book events that are far away from me! I would just wish that I had the power to teleport to the locations of the book events and an unlimited supply of money specifically for such events. If only...

8. I wish that I could meet Alexandra Bracken! Because she is the best ever! And it would make my life!

9. Another wish would be for there to be a bookstore somewhere closer to me than 2-3 hours. There was a used bookstore/coffee shop in the town I live near, but I don't think it's open anymore. Also, I think I checked it out once and it was basically like all old Danielle Steele books or other really old looking books. Like all trashy romance novels. Also, there is a ShopKo here, but I swear they have the most random selection of books on the face of the planet. I probably wouldn't need this because of wish #1, but maybe I'll feel like going out to browse or something.

10. I would wish that the library near me would be better! They're not very big and don't have a wonderful selection of books. I think that they mostly have services for littler kids. They are always advertising library things on the radio for little kids. They need to work on the YA section! I could help! I would wish that they would give me a job and let me fix it! Or something.

So those are my wishes! What are some fun things that you would ask the book genie for? :)