The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘kate brian’

When it comes to the holidays, I am like a kid looking through a Christmas toy catalog. And I’m like that from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas. I put my tree up as soon as my husband lets me, I program the stations that play Christmas music the day they start, I’m already about 1/3 the way done with my Christmas shopping, I DVR every Christmas movie I can find, and I watch Elf as many times as humanly possible in a month’s time.

Until last year, that was the extent. That was until I found that there were such things as Christmas Reading Challenges. I found one at True Book Addict last year, and another one is being held this year. Last year, I read 5 holiday themed books. Click here to see my list. Since I knew I wanted to take part again, I love to reading with the seasons, I have been stockpiling holiday books all year long.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be diving into this year, between at-home screenings of Elf:

 Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark
Snowbound by Lindsay McKenna, Cara Summers and Laura Marie Altom
High Heels and Holidays by Casey Michaels
The Best Girl by Emma Harrison
Christmas Spirit by Amy Garvey
Last Christmas by Kate Brian

And lets not forget the ones I have on NetGalley:
Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde
Twas the Night by Sandra Hill 

There are three levels in this year’s challenge:
1 Book: Candy Cane
2-4 Books: Mistletoe
5+ Books: Christmas Tree

Considering I have 9 books already on the shelf screaming to be read, I went with Christmas Tree.

There are still a couple more that I would like to add to this list including:
Snow in Love by Claire Ray
Snow Queen by Emma Harrison
Suite Dreams by Rachel Hawthorne

Obviously, I have some pretty big expectations for just over a month, but I am really excited for this challenge and getting into the holiday spirit.

Are you stocking up on holiday books too? Have any suggestions for me?

Reed comes back from St. Barths to find her whole life at Easton has been bulldozed. Everything she knew, everything she loved, the one thing that made her feel like she was something special, gone. But she is bound and determined not to let Billings die. And when she gets a book, dating back to 1915, explaining a secret society of former Billings’ girls, she has her answer. Now she has to find the right girls, find the right place to hold the meetings and do it all under extreme care because the new headmaster is out for the head of the Billings’ girls.

Now of course the drama follows Reed. Don’t think that a near-death experience on a tropical island would slow her down. Reed has as much drama as ever, well, that may be a lie. No one tried to kill her in this book, but she has plenty of boy and girl drama to go around.

This is my least favorite book out of the series. I had waited a while between the last book and reading this one. The last one was filled with crazy twists and turns and this one just didn’t live up to the hiatus hype as I had wished.

I have always liked Reed throughout this series. She was the low man on the totem pole who worked her way up the ranks. There were times where she turned her back on friends, but I was still able to understand. In this book, I couldn’t. I know she was going with the “rituals” and history, but I felt like she really turned to the B word side. There was no reason she couldn’t add 4 more people into the Billings Literary Society. As mentioned by one of the girls, no one was going to rise from the dead and confront Reed for adding and extra person.

Now while I pretty much hated Reed in this book, I did admire her for standing up to the former Billings women who came after her. She has gotten some serious confidence since entering the school, but as mentioned in the last paragraph, it may be too much for her own good.

The only thing that will keep me reading this series after this book is the very last couple of pages. If anything, Kate Brian leaves us with great cliff hangers. I give Scandal 2 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9781416984702
Published: March 9, 2010
Buy from Amazon
Kari bought this book from Borders

On my bookshelf is my own little twist to In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren.

Take a look at what I scored this week:

Bought:
I had a coupon and $5 in Borders Bucks this past week, so I bought myself a couple of books I needed in the series’ I am reading.
Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
Scandal by Kate Brian

Publicist:
I got contacted by Jamie Freveletti’s publicist, Kaye Publicity, about her new book Running Dark. It sounded great and i have heard a lot of goof things about it from other readers, but I wanted to read the first in the series first. They were awesome enough to send me both copies.

Running from the Devil: “A chemist for a cosmetics company and an ultramarathon runner, Emma Caldridge in en route from Miami to Bogota when her plane goes down int he mountains near the Venezuelan border. Thrown unhurt from the wreckage, she watches in horror as guerrillas drag the other passengers into the jungle. Stranded and alone in a deadly environment, Emma has no choice but to follow — and stumbles across Cameron Sumner, an injured government agent who was left behind to die.

As a Washington, D.C. , task force races to the crash site in hopes of finding survivors, Emma and Cameron creep closer to a nightmare they may be powerless to prevent. But Emma is no ordinary woman — and she guards a secret both powerful and deadly that her adversaries would gleefully kill to possess.

And now she must run…”

I am getting ready to start Running from the Devil, as fast as my little fingers can get this post typed out!

Running Dark: “Emma Caldridge is on mile thirty-six of the fifty-five-mile Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa when a roadside care bomb explodes. Dazed and disoriented, she regains consciousness after the blast to find a man standing over her with a white plastic injector. She feels the prick of a needle and the rush of the medication under her skin, but before she can make a sound, the man is gone.

Shaken by the event and unsure of what substance was pumped into her, Emma calls the one person who can help her figure things out: Edward Banner of the security company in Darkview. But Banner has his hands full with another emergency: Somali pirates int he Golf of Alden have attacked a cruise ship, and Darkview has been hired to assist with the rescue.

However, according to intelligence sources, the ship is carrying cargo far more valuable than wealthy passengers — something that could be a new weapon of unknown origin. Suspecting the weapon may be chemical in nature, Banner asks Emma to infiltrate the ship and use her professional expertise to identify it.

Emma konws it’s a risky job, one that she might not survive, But when she learns that special agent Cameron Sumner — a man who has saved her life in the past — is among the hostages, nothing will stop her from getting on board, no matter what the cost.”

Librarything:
And finally, I won an ARC of Infinite Days from the Early Reviewers Program

“After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires — to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year0ld, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her…forever?

How fun does that sound? And I can’t wait to see what brings them back to life! Wonder if the Cullen’s would do it

What did you guys get this week?

Last year, my first year of blogging, I sat on the edges and watched Book Blogger Appreciation Week unfold. This year, I am jumping in head first.

This year, BBAW is September 13-17 and this year, you can nominate yourself! I have heard that there are many unhappy campers about nominating yourself. I personally don’t feel like it’s a pat on the back. To me, it’s more of a “I didn’t get a nomination last year and don’t want to miss out again this year.” I think that’s reasonable.

There are a number of categories this year. I am entering into two of them.

The first is Best Young Adult Book Blog. The posts I am entering are my reviews on:
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Invitation Only by Kate Brian
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
Tangled by Carolyn Mackler
Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

I am not going to lie, while adding those posts, in my head I was an announcer at an awards show. I need a life!

Before this year, I had an eclectic reading life. I would read Chick Lit, YA, Murder Mystery etc. This year, 23 of 43 books I have read have been YA. Because of that, I consider it to be a semi-YA book blog, and that’s the reason I entered it into the BBAW awards.

However, the very first book I ever reviewed and the book that sparked by love of reading back up was Jane Eyre. I guess that in itself makes my tastes eclectic, going from books that revolve around high school cheerleaders/spies to one of the most classic books in history.

Good thing there is also a Best Eclectic Book Blog section. I’ll let the judges determine what suits me best For this section, I am adding:
sTORI Telling by Tori Spelling
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Death by Sudoku by Kaye Morgan
Season of Water and Ice by Donald Lystra
Mania by Craig Larsen

The Eclectic selection was much tougher than the YA selection. I have read such a hodge-podge of books this year, I wanted to get a little of everything in. I think I did a clean sweep across the board.

Check out the link to the BBAW website, enter yourself, get involved! I have met so many awesome people through book blogging and can’t wait to see who is standing out this year.

Are you entering? Send me the link to your post! I only have one shelf of TBR books and definitely need to start stockpiling!

It’s Thursday, another meme day! I haven’t participated in BTT in a while, haven’t thought I could offer a worth response. But today, we have a very loaded and fun question: 

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

Wow! Where to start on this! I actually have two bookshelves in my bedroom. One on top of my dresser, the other, by my bed. So, I have TONS of books next to my bed. Half of the top shelf contains “read” items – starting with J.K. Rowling and finishing out the alphabet by author. The rest of the book case contains my “to be read” books. The ones on my top shelf are the urgent ones. Some of these include the Jessica Darling Series, Last Christmas by Kate Brian and Anna Karenina, which I keep putting off. I have actually started a second row on my second shelf. And my third shelf are “to be read” hardback books. Most of my second and third shelf books I received from library sales.

The book that I am currently reading, which is with me at all times, is an advanced copy of Beautiful Malice. I just started this last night, but the first line is:

“I didn’t go to Alice’s funeral.”

Can’t get much more dramatic that than.

When it comes to other books in the house, the book Michael is currently reading resides on the couch in the living room. I have a wire bookshelf in the living room that holds books from college that I have kept. We also have books in our entertainment center. We have actually run out of room. We each have two shelves of books on the bottom, and our movies are on the top.

I got rid of 7 books last week, just to buy 15 more. I am definitely going to have to get some type of reader, otherwise I am going to have to part with beloved books. I definitely don’t want to do that