The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘crazy book tours’

Phoebe has always had an eye and a passion for vintage clothing. Every piece of clothing has a story and a life before it got into Phoebe’s hands. That’s what makes it interesting to her. After a career at a retail store, and a tragedy in the life of her best friend, Phoebe takes on a new endeavor. She opens her own vintage store.

But as with each piece of clothing article, she learns there’s much more than fabric in every aspect of life. This continues to ring true when she meets an elderly woman who is giving up her clothes after a lifetime of holding a major secret, a newspaper writer who becomes a blessing in disguise to Phoebe and a man who pushes the bidding to more than Phoebe can afford on a beautiful dress.

I have never really done vintage shopping, and until I read this book, I felt the same way that Phoebe’s mom did about the clothes – I don’t want to wear someone else’s clothes. I want my own. Now, all I want to do is start looking for some vintage masterpieces.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was that although the store was the main focus of Phoebe’s life and this book, it was about so much more. Because of the store, Phoebe learned so much about herself and was able to expand her horizons and meet so many new people. The side stories in this book meant more to me than the store itself. I loved that although this was fiction, this story could be 110% true.

I also really liked Wolff’s writing in this book. Since I have started writing, I have realized it is hard when you speak of something once, then have to explain it to someone else. Wolff did an amazing job of explaining things to person A and person B without repeating herself, but with pushing the story forward.

Even though the writing in this book was very descriptive, I wish that there were a few pictures to go along with the description of some of the dresses. I know I probably sound 10-year-old saying that, but the dresses on the cover of this book are beautiful. I would love to have seen a few more to get a picture perfect idea of what they really looked like.

I give A Vintage Affair 4 bookmarks – and am signing off to do some Internet vintage shopping

ISBN: 978-0553807837
Published: June 29, 2010
Author Website
Kari got this book from Crazy Book Tours

Juliette is on a much  needed vacation after her ex-husband was murdered and her most recent fling was with a movie star, secretly battling cancer  in the hotel where she worked. But her vacation is cut short when one of Hollywood’s biggest starlets takes a plunge in a fountain. Juliette, who has dealt with Mercy a number of times in the states, takes the drug filled star to the amazing property that she and her cousin share, complete with villas and a mini castle.

Juliette thinks she’ll let the star sleep it off and they’ll be done. Little does she realize that Mercy’s fling was just found dead and Mercy believes it is murder. Getting Mercy off the fountain was probably one of the most drama inducing decisions Juliette will ever make. This decision will put her on set of a movie, in the middle of a huge drug investigation, in the face of another possible murder and deciding between the arms of the hot-to-trot cancer fighting actor and her boss.

Upfront, I am going to say the books that The Starlet most reminded me of are the books written by Chuck Palahniuk. There are some of his I love, others I hate, but they are all so crazy. The Starlet follows in those footsteps. There is another crazy twist, murder, sex story around the corner and to me, it was definitely not what I expected. For that fact, I give props to Mary McNamara. I often read books and wonder “how did someone ever think of this?”. This is one of those cases.

Underneath all of the drama and drugs and death, this book does tell a good story of a woman who has been fighting getting over the death of her parents for over a decade. Juliette will not talk about the death with anyone, including her cousin, who also lost his parents during the tragic train accident. It’s a story of growth and recognition, with a little crazy mixed in.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters in this book. Mercy, through all of her drug problems and show-stopping antics, is just a teenager, doing the one thing she is good at. Juliette may be hard-headed, but she has a huge heart. This has gotten her in trouble, with her cheating ex, but she means well and all she wants is to help this troubled, young star. Gabe may have a rocky past that was riddled with cocaine, but now he is extremely level-headed and straight forward. And finally, oh my Devlin. Dev is Juliette’s boss and I absolutely love him. He always has the answers, even a sea away and is there in a second when he believes his girl, Juliette, is in trouble.

While reading this book, I wasn’t in love with it. I felt that it was slow at times and although there was a lot of drama, it didn’t really pull me in and keep me there. Looking back though, I don’t hate it. I give The Starlet 3 bookmarks. It was just Meh for me.

ISBN: 9781439149843
Published: June 20, 2010
Buy from Amazon
Kari got this book from Crazy Book Tours

Through the past almost two years of blogging, I can’t believe the world that has opened up to me. I started out with a small blog on my Myspace page that was sparked by my love for Jane Eyre.  I decided I wanted more, tried Blogger and WordPress and ended up with my own domain, which I love! I feel so powerful

Through all of my research to find out what people wrote about, what I liked to read and what blogs I liked, I have found so much. I wanted to share some of my favorite booking websites with you guys, so you can get your feet wet, if you already don’t stop by them.

1. Goodreads.com: I have been on Goodreads for a while now. It was one of the first bookish websites, other than blogs, that I found. I copy all of my reviews to Goodreads and compulsively check the giveaway pages. After months, I am still absolutely in love with this site. On a daily basis, I log in to see what new books have been posted. Now the enter vs. win rate isn’t very high. I have won three books from Goodreads, but it still keeps me coming back. I also love that on the site, there is a trivia. You can do general trivia, or only questions for the books you have read. As my library grows, so does my trivia number. I opt to only do trivia for books I have read, so I tend to run out from time to time. I try to add a few questions, although recently I keep forgetting, just to keep the trivia pool filled.

2. Librarything.com: Librarything is known for its book giveaways. They have two ways to sign up for books. The first is through the Early Reviewers Giveaway which is open for a month. There is also a Member Giveaway. I tend to find more books through the Early Reviewers Giveaway. These are primarily new books that are getting ready to be published. The Member Giveaway has nearly any book anyone wants to give away. Now, my ratio here isn’t wonderful either, but better than on Goodreads. I have won 5 books from these programs.

The next two websites are sites that I have just come across the past couple of months and I love, love, love them!

3. BookMooch.com: I had always heard about this website and about Paperback Swap. I never wanted to get rid of books, so I never went to them. That all changed a couple of months ago when I realized I had two book shelves filled with books and no where else to put them. And that’s just in my bedroom. So, I went through my books, kept the ones I loved, and posted the ones I was so-so about. I can not believe how fast some of them have gone. If you’ve never been on the site, you post a book that you are willing to send someone and you get a point. For every point you get, you can Mooch (request) a book from anyone else on the website willing to send to you. The only price you pay is shipping for the people who request from you. So I may not really be clearing out my shelves, because I am replenishing them with other books, but it’s giving me a chance to try new ones and try ones that I am not 100% sure about because I know I can post it and get a new one in return. I have received 7 books from this program and am waiting on 4 others!

4. NetGalley.com : If I had to choose right now, I would say that this is probably my favorite booking website. NetGalley has a list of hundreds of books that you can read for free and review. The one fallback for some people will be that all of these books are read online. There is a program you can download to your computer and read right from there. I don’t mind doing this, because I know it is saving me shelf space. The awesome thing about this site is if you have a Kindle or a Nook, you can have the books sent there. I am getting a Nook in the next month (yay for birthday presents), so I am looking forward to being able to read on there instead of toting my laptop with me everywhere. Now my laptop is just a little Netbook, so it’s not a huge hassle, but it’s still something else I have to bring with me on a daily basis when I am reading a book from there. So far, I have read and reviewed 7 books on NetGalley and I have 14 still to go. And out of the books I have to read, one was published last month, the rest are anywhere from the end of August until mid-November so I have plenty of time to get through them. If you don’t mind reading on your computer, or have some form of e-reader, I HIGHLY suggest this site.

5. Crazy Book Tours : I never really thought I would take part in Book Tours. They just seemed like a lot of work… well, it seemed stressful to have to read a book within a given time period, review it and make sure you get it mailed out. I am normally extremely organized, but when events that happened within the last week, including an awesome family weekend and a horrible day in bed with a virus come around, you can’t always be on top of things. But I ran into this website, posted from Jen on twitter and found some books that I thought looked really good. I have only read one book for this tour, but have signed up for a few. I just got another one in the mail and my 14 day clock starts. After taking part in one, I think I might expand my horizons. This site hosts adult fiction, non fiction and memoir books. My #6 will be for those of you interested in YA tours.

6. Around the World Tours : This site is held together by Princess Bookie. I have run across it a number of times, but never signed up. As stated before, a timeline of when things have to be done scared the crap out of me. Now that I know I can take part in this and get some awesome new books, I am going to sign up for more. I have not signed up for many on Around the World Tours, but as soon as this post is saved, that’s my next goal. One of my goals for the year was to read 25 books from the YA genre. I finished that last month, but I still want to stick with that genre, while I’m still in my early 20′s and allowed

I hope that you guys will check out and enjoy some of these websites! Are there any that you like that I missed? If so, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll definitely check them out. I’m always up for new bookish websites and fun!