Sunday, December 30, 2012

2013

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and since that means 2013 is literally upon us, I wanted to take a moment to explain what this blog is going to look like in the coming year. I do have a plan of attack here when it comes to both reviews and just random topics. 

Let's start with reviews: I plan on doing both a Young Adult and an Adult review each week, so I've designated a day for each. Sunday is going to be the adult review day and Thursdays will be for Young Adult. I'm also adding a once a month review called, Wicked New Wednesday. This will be for a book that has been recently released, therefore current! Now, "current" can be defined in many ways, so let's just say it will be something from the last couple months, or something that seems to be on everyone's radar lately. In terms of HOW I am going to rate things from now, I've decided to adopt a BBP rating system. BBB standing for Buy, Borrow or Pass, of course these are my own opinions so I always encourage everyone to read a book on their before passing final judgement! I will also never trash anyone's  work, they are far more brilliant than I for even writing anything at all because I know I couldn't!

Along with reviews I have planed many different kinds of post. Everything from discussion on genres or trends to movies, pop culture and other bookish things. Personally I'm a huge fans of books that turn into movies and gatherings that involve everything nerdy so I would expect posts about things like that!

The final thing I am really excited about are the things involved with other blogs or social media. I've already posted about reading challenges and plan to update those here as I go along. I just signed on to do my first cover reveal with an author that will be coming in the next month!!!! Hopefully more of those will follow along with interviews, interacting with other blogs and much more, so everyone have a Happy, Healthy and Fun New Year and come back here to have a kick-ass bookish year on Bookmarks, Spoilers and Happily Ever After!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Challenges

There are so many reading challenges that I want to get into this coming year that I'm going to list and update them right here! Thank you to all the other blogs out there hosting these, challenges are some of the best fun out there in our community and I'm sure it takes a lot of effort and time to keep track of everything! If your interested you should join some of these, they can be really fun and a great way to get all those books you have sitting around off your to-read list!!!


A-Z Challenge- Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book 
A-Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
B
C- Crewl By Gennifer Albin
D- Divergent by Veronica Roth
E
F- Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
G- Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
H
I- Ironside by Holly Black
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U- Undeniable by Madeline Sheehan
V-Valiant by Holly Black
W
X
Y
Z


Time Line: 1/1/13-12/31/13





Just For Fun reading challenge- Goodreads: Just For Fun
I am committing to read just one book for fun each month!

JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
Time Line: 1/1/13-12/31/13



 The Great Winter Challenge(Goodreads)- Lovers of Paranormal
Goal- Read books with Fairies/Sea Creatures/Other Fanstasy beings such as dragons, trolls, elves, etc., pretty much avoiding the standard vampire/werewolf read!

Tithe by Holly Black
Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
Valiant by Holly Black 
The Changelings by Elle Casey
On The Prowl (Compilation)
Shield of Fire
Ironside by Holly Black
 The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling

Time Ling 1/1/13-3/31/12


 
Green Book Challenge(Goodreads)-Lovers of Paranormal
Goal- Read as many books with the color green on the cover!

Tithe by Holly Black
Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs
Valiant by Holly Black 
The Changelings by Elle Casey
Crewl By Gennifer Albin
Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs 
The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling


Time Line: 12/15/12-1/15/13



The Dustbuster Challenge(Goodreads) -Lovers of Paranormal
Goal- Finish as many books as possible from my "Owned-before-12/31/12" bookshelf throughout the year
Current Total on Shelf: 214

Tithe by Holly Black
Forever Fae by L.P. Dover
 Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
Valiant by Holly Black
The Changelings by Elle Casey
On The Prowl (Compilation)
Crewl By Gennifer Albin
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
Club Shadowlands by Cherise Sinclair
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs 
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Ironside by Holly Black
The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling

 Time Line: 1/1/13-12/31/13




Pick-A-Book(Goodreads)- YA Writers and Readers
Goal-Each month a partner will pick the book you'll read for the month
January- Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Review: Beautiful Disaster


By Jamie McGuire
Summary:                               INTENSE. DANGEROUS. ADDICTIVE.

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match


Review:  This "New Adult" (I am absolutely going to be posting about this new genre later on, so stay-tuned for that) read has recently received some pretty intense reviews online, and I'd like you to hear me out before passing judgement on my opinion of this book and subsequently my review. Obviously, if you haven't read this book yet, then you have no idea why I would give this kind of warning, so let me back track and tell you a little about Beautiful Disaster and the issues that are involved within.
               Abby is a college freshman determined to put her past well behind her. She moves away to college to escape her once famous gambling father, who was on top of the world once upon a time, and her own gambling run-in, being one of the youngest poker stars in Vegas.
                Travis is the college frat-boy ladies man, who makes rent by entering into secret MMA fights in the college underground scene. Coming from an all male family, having lost their mother when Travis was very young, he has never had a meaningful relationship with a women, and never wanted too. Being aggressive in nature, it shocks everyone when he falls head-over-heels for Abby, even though she wants nothing to do with him.....at first.
               Now, this is where things get interesting. After being around each other for weeks, Abby and Travis make a bet that lands Abby living in Travis' apartment for a MONTH. During which time their feelings for each other go on a roller coaster of a ride, Travis being the aggressor for a relationship. Abby on the other hand, does not want to take a chance on a relationship that may end being to intense for it to actually work. After going through some harrowing events, and learning more and more about each other, this book does get its' happy ending. So let me tell you what ultimatly made up my own mind about this book:
  • Does Travis have issues? Yes, but so does Abby
  • Is he violent at times? No doubt about it
  • Are there undercurrents of obsession, abandoment, and broken family problems? Absolutley
  • Is this an abusive relationship? I will only answer this question for myself, and my opinion is: No
                  There are points in this book that I thought we were going down a very, very bad path. There are points I myself thought this relationship was not a good idea, in fact I still agree that Abby was right to not involve herself romanticly in the beginning. However, Travis grew on me. As we saw what his past was like and all the changes he was going through from the second Abby came into his life, I was surprised. It may take more time than this book took place in, but I do think he can change and be less of the violent, impulsive Travis and be more calm, and Abby is the person that can bring that side of him out.  I think the reaeder can see that by all the changes Travis had made from beginning to end in these pages. My point is, Travis isn't a hero, he's a human. Both of them are college kids with a hard past but an even longer chance at a bright future. They aren't living in a fairy tale where everything is perfect, Travis isn't Prince Charming saving a princess. They live in the same world as you and me, just trying to make it one day at a time. I really enjoyed reading this book and I'd recomend you checking it out too, it may surprise you ;)

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! Just wanted to stop by and say that before everyone is up and running around my own house. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and that your happy, healthy and just having fun! I'll be back in a couple days for another review!!!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

My favorites and first review

OKAY! On to what I started this blog for in the first place......BOOKS! My favorite genre, as of late, has been Paranormal Romance. However, I really read so many different types of books from Young Adult to Sci-fi to Biography. I love the urban genre especially when it is mixed into things like fantasy and paranormal reads. Some of my favorites series include:
Harry Potter by J.K Rowling
The House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast
The Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole
The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordian
 Saga by Brian Vaughan
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Lords of the Underworld by Gena Showalter
Mythos Academy by Jennifer Estep
and I'll read anything that has the Xmen in it!

I'm going to review a lot of these series here so you can come back and see what I thought about them in depth later, but right now I'd like to talk about my first book for review Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (WARNING: Here there be Spoilers, but I'll try not to give anything major away!)


 Summary:                          In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
   Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
   Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
   As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
   Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

Review:  Unearthly is one of my first reads involving angels, and at first I was a little wary with the topic, but I was pleasantly surprised with it in the end. Clara Gardner is a teenager that got picked up and moved three states up from California to Montana to fulfill a divine mission all because of her ......bloodline. Her divine mission, called a Purpose, is given to Clara because she is 1/4 angel, also known as an Angel-Blood. Her mother is half angel and passed along the bloodline to both Clara and her little brother Jeffrey. Starting with dreams and getting more intense to include actual visions (some in the middle of the day, even in front of other people) Clara sees the events leading up to and during the moment in time that her Purpose will actually happen. After seeing a boy of her own age in forest in Montana with a raging fire behind him, her mother packs up the whole family and moves there so that she can complete her purpose exactly when Clara is suppose too. In doing so Clara finds herself in the middle of a love-triangle that has her split between what she WANTS to do and what she's SUPPOSE to do, and it has some very real consequences, but I didn't really get any answers as to what those consquences are....yet.
  Without giving you away the entire story, I'll start by saying this: This Book is definitely a love triangle read. Normally I'm not thrilled with triangles, but this one is a little different than most. Clara knows who she loves, and the second guy in the equation isn't a matter of her loving him at this moment, but feeling like destiny is putting them together. I felt that was a 180 degree turn from most YA triangles. The girl doesn't love two boys (at least right now) but she feels she is suppose too. It's a refreshing take on the romance scene because it isn't a fleeting choice, this could be life or death, Clara just can't figure out if what she chooses now is going to do something horrible in the future, and she is torn over it. Here's where my frustration lies with this book, Clara's mother.
  Margaret will not tell Clara ANYTHING about being an angel-blood, just that they each have a purpose and that they exist. She won't even tell Clara her own purpose, and I think she puts Clara in a lot of danger. Why you might ask? One reason, angelic war. Apparently there are White Wings and Dark Wings in the world and they are locked into a heated battle to keep good and evil at bay, and she told Clara NOTHING about it and continues to leave her in the dark about almost everything in the angel-blood world.
  There are so many questions that are left to be answered about Clara, her family and the everything else about angels in general after reading this that it left wanting so much more.....and that's probably exactly what I'm suppose to feel because there are two more books in this series at least! Overall I would recommend this book to anyone, even if they weren't an angel  or paranormal reader because it isn't a world that the reader can't picture themselves in, really it's the opposite. Clara's world you can see as your own, just with some things that are really remarkable.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Intro

I thought I'd start this off with a little bit about me and what interest I have both with books and outside of them!

My name is Kathy, and I'm from a small town in Massachusetts called Methuen.

Favorite Music: I'm usually listening to POP music, anything on the radio really: Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, FUN etc

Favorite Food:Gotta be between BBQ and seafood

Favorite TV Show: currently my favorite would be Arrow, also love The Voice( Team Terry McDermitt) and The Sing Off, and The Big Bang Theory, as well as anything on Bravo! and the Syfy network lol


Favourite Movies: Transformers, Bless the Child, anything superhero related ( The Dark Knight, Avengers, Thor etc), Finding Nemo, Star Wars, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Star Trek just to name a few

Other: I am an equally enthralled sports fan as I am with books. The Boston Bruins and the New England Patriots have most of my heart in this topic, the other portion going to NASCAR. I love going to the races up in New Hampshire, and Sundays in the fall are COMPLETELY filled with football and fast cars! The polar opposite of that world, would be my interest in all things nerdy. I love comic books (which I plan on discussing in a couple weeks), I have been to San Diego Comic-Con and would die to go back, as well as several other smaller cons. I own a Darth Vader Light Saber as well as many other geeky collectibles and I can never resist anything Dr Who!
      When I'm not watching sports or Star Wars..... or reading, I do actually work, currently at an appliance repair service but I recently graduate with my nursing degree and hope to have my career started in the near future! But enough about me, my next post will be what I really made this blog for in the first place, BOOKS! TaTa for Now-Kathy


Monday, December 17, 2012

WELCOME!!!!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!!!

GOOD AFTERNOON!!! (At least here on the East Coast while I'm typing this intro together)

Welcome to Bookmarks, Spoilers, and Happily Ever After , a book blog that I decided to start because of my love of reading... pretty much EVERYTHING! My name is Kathy and I'm writing this from the State of Massachusetts(go Red Sox!)

I recently decided to create something like this after spending the last year or so on social networking sites such as Twitter and Goodreads, and diving into everything Bookish online. I follow literally more than 70 websites including blogs, social media, e-stores, publisher websites, author websites , discussion groups, book clubs, and chat boards. ALL of them about books, plus my local bookstores probably know me on a first name basis I'm in them so often!! Looking at everything I enjoy doing about one subject, I created this to join the community I love so much! So here I go...