Books

  • Review: The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker (Strangely Beautiful #2) by Leanna Renee Hieber

    The illuminating, ghostly second installment of the Strangely Beautiful series by Leanna Renee Hieber, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, picks up right where Book I left off. The dark, brooding professor Alexi Rychman and ‘reincarnated’ Grecian goddess Persephone “Percy” Parker are soul mates….destine for each other. They are now planning their hasty wedding in the midst of the turmoil which prophecy has brought on. With the coming prophecy has come the war which was also for told….the Whisper World is threatening all The Guard holds dear. The Guard knows that their fight is far from done….the Whisper World and Darkness threaten to claim the now mortal goddess (Percy)…

  • Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Strangely Beautiful #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber

    In the dark allies of Victorian London, phantoms, ghosts, and demons alike haunt the city streets. A group of six are chosen as protectors known as, The Guard, helping keep London and the public safe from paranormal danger. The first night of their meeting, they are told of a prophecy who will be put in their path to strengthen The Guard and make them complete not just as a group but for one member in particular–their dark, brooding leader, Alexi Rychman. In Leanna Renee Hieber’s para-romance, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, we meet the shy, meek, phantasm-like name sake: Percy Parker. She arrives at the London school Athens Academy feeling…

  • Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

    What would you do if you had a face that could literally stop time? Or if you could really clone yourself? How about meet and greet your fav literary character? In the world of SpecOps and LiteraTec (Literary Detective division) extrodinaire, Thursday Next, all of these things are possible. My sister recommended the book, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, to me a few weeks back…and now that she wants to commandeer the book from me, I figured I better get a move on since she will be wanting it by Christmas no doubt. This speculative fiction book is a hodge-podge mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, time travel, YA, mystery/detective novel,…

  • Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

    Bah humbug! The snow is falling, Christmas carolers are in the streets London, dinner is in the oven, families are laughing around the fire, and Ebenezer Scrooge is busy ‘bah humbug-ing’ everyones Christmas cheer! In the timeless classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts: Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. The ghosts are sent to help Scrooge realize the importance of giving, being thankful, and of course being merry during the holiday season. I decided to read this book for both the Victorian Literature and the Christmas Spirit reading challenges since I have never actually read the classic novel. As a child I remember watching…

  • 2012 Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire Series) Reading Challenge, Sign up now!

    Winter is coming. Well I guess technically winter is already here in Oregon’s as is it almost everywhere else in the Northern hemisphere….LOL :). As many of you know I am hosting the Outlander series reading challenge again this year…..and I know I said I was a little over epic book series, but I am totally going to make an exception for this series! I have heard such great things about the Game of Thrones (a Song of Ice and Fire series) and I have had the first 2 books on my shelf at home begging me to read them. The time has come, I can no longer ignore the…

  • Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

    Like the misty, whispering moors of northern England, Emily Bronte’s one and only novel, gets under your skin….tapping oh so quietly on the lattice window like Cathy asking that you only let it in to come home. Every Thanksgiving break I read Wuthering Heights, don’t ask me why but somehow it became part of a holiday tradition but this year I was able to enjoy it knowing I was also reading it as part of both the Victorian Literature Reading Challenge and the Gothic Literature Reading challenges. I had hoped to read loads more Victorian novels this year but sadly I don’t think I will satisfy my original challenge goal of…

  • Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig

    Tis the season for purloined pudding! Christmas pudding, bonnets, love, and mystery are all literary in the air in Lauren Willig’s book The Mischief of the Mistletoe. This book is #4.2 in Willig’s wildly popular Pink Carnation series. I saw this book advertised on Goodreads a few weeks ago and fell in love with the cover and….suddenly I had to read it! So I picked up a copy and then I saw the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge hosted by  the True Book Addict and suddenly I couldn’t wait for it to be Christmas season so I could read this book! Biding my time, I started the book the day the challenge started and finished the book…

  • Review: The Devil’s Ribbon (Hatton and Roumonde Mystery #2) by D. E. Meredith

    Green, the symbol of Irish pride and a symbol of Irish rebellion–this is what forensic scientist and doctor Adolphus Hatton is thinking when he pulls a green ribbon from the mouth of cadaver. In D.E. Meredith’s latest thriller, The Devil’s Ribbon, London is a pressure cooker….the searing July heat of 1858, the wretched stink of the Themes, deadly diseases lurking in every inch of filth from Highgate to the Rookeries of  the East End, and….feuding Irish and British tensions are at their breaking point. Hatton and his assistant Albert Roumande, are knee deep in a spike of cholera deaths when Inspector Grey of Scotland Yard approaches them with a curious case….a predominant…

  • The Christmas Spirit 2011 Reading Challenge

    The holiday season is upon us! With the year coming to a close in a few weeks, I was not going to join anymore challenges but I just couldn’t resist! The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2011 was just too cute to pass up! The challenge is being hosted by the True Book Addict on her special blog page devoted just for this challenge! Since the challenge is only going on for a few weeks, I am only planning on reading one book (maybe two if I am lucky) so I will be going for the ‘Candy Cane’ level (1 book). I might make Mistletoe level (2 books) since crossovers are ok,…

  • Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

    How strange it is to have the power to literally transform yourself into other people and yet be unable to put yourself in their place. This is the problem that plagues shapeshifting heroine Tessa Gray in Cassandra Clare’s steampunk novel, Clockwork Angel. Part of a trilogy The Infernal Devices, this first book blends romance, sci-fi/fantasy, steampunk, and adventure all together churning out 400+ pages of entertainment. When I first started the Steampunk Reading Challenge, I considered reading this book as one of my five books but then I started the Parasol Protectorate series instead. But as the year is winding down I still needed one book for the challenge, Clockwork Angel…