Barefoot and Balanced Review

Image from Netgalley 

Description from Netgalley; 

Today's kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need “rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses?

Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program—that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis—author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment.

Today it is rare to find children rolling down hills, climbing trees, or spinning in circles just for fun. We've taken away merry-go-rounds, shortened the length of swings, and done away with teeter-totters to keep children safe. Children have fewer opportunities for unstructured outdoor play than ever before, and recess times at school are shrinking due to demanding educational environments.

With this book, you'll discover little things you can do anytime, anywhere to help your kids achieve the movement they need to be happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

I got a lot more out of this book than I thought I would. When I started reading it there was a lot about problems in the classroom, studies that showed kids needed to move more, input from seasoned teachers, the authors experiences running a camp, and all of that is great. This book is well researched and well reasoned, the author makes her point clearly and concisely, but I didn’t feel like it pertained to me and my child. The Toddler has never been in a classroom, so the problems of school age kids, even preschool, seem very far off to me right now. It wasn’t until I got to chapter 8, When Is My Baby Ready For The Outdoors?, that this book really got my attention. Because up till now I’ve never really made outdoor play a priority in our day.

I never even really thought about letting her play outside, let alone play outside unsupervised. She’s my baby, why would she ever need to play without me? But after reading Barefoot and Balanced I’m thinking playing outside might be exactly what she needs. I’ve noticed a lot of things since we began packing for our move and one of them is that she depends on me, or whatever adult happens to be at our house, for play, independent play doesn’t really happen, and creative play doesn’t really happen either; a tea set is just a tea set, the play kitchen is just for storage, empty containers are just empty containers. I’m not giving her space to explore and be creative. She is my baby and she does still need me, but she needs to be able to explore the world and her own limits too. At first, I was sitting on the couch reading, going ‘that's not about my parenting, I don’t need to do that’ and I got a little defensive and wanted to quit reading, but I quickly realized that it is about my parenting, and that reading books like this one, accepting the new knowledge and doing better going forward was exactly why books like this are important to read. It’s not about criticizing parents, it’s about learning to be better parents who are better able to meet our kids needs and let them learn skills that will serve them for their whole lives.

Personal tangent aside; After getting past the school age kids part at the beginning, Barefoot and Balanced has chapters about what ages kids should be outside at, how to involve kids in outdoor time, how to overcome fears about letting kids play outside (I needed that part!), how to slowly transition to and encourage independent play, and how to get younger kids to be comfortable with less parental involvement.  The author also makes a point of saying that it’s still important to play with your kids, play is bonding and will always be important, which made me feel better because I hated the idea of not playing with The Toddler. There is also a large list of recommended reading at the back of the book, and I can’t say I’ll read all of them but it’s something I would like to take a closer look at.

There’s a lot of great information in this book, and I found it a great opportunity to grow as a parent, and I’ve decided to make outdoor play more of a priority for both The Toddler and myself. Since being outside is recommended to help manage anxiety I feel like we can both benefit from it. I gave this book 4 out 5 stars, just because the beginning is a bit preachy, when it comes to schools and recess, and things like that. This was a very informative read, and it’s encouraged me to look more into my parenting and things I could be doing differently. I’ve got a couple of books that are about the Charlotte Mason method  that I bought a few months ago but never read, so those will be coming up soon!

Okay, it’s been a couple of months since I wrote this review and I wanted to come in a update it. Since reading Barefoot and Balanced I have made an intentional effort to make outside time a regular part of our day. Nearly everyday we go outside after naptime. The Toddler plays in the yard while I read a book on the porch, and I have to say it’s probably the favorite part of our day for both of us. It’s relaxing for me and an energy burner for The Toddler. She sleeps better, she plays better, and she’s more independent. If you have children of any age I strongly recommend this book. It’s been a good thing for both me and The Toddler.

Find it on Goodreads here.

I received this book free through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Review: 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac

Image from Goodreads

Think positive.
Don’t worry; be happy.
Keep calm and carry on.

Maeve has heard it all before. She’s been struggling with severe anxiety for a long time, and as much as she wishes it was something she could just talk herself out of, it’s not. She constantly imagines the worst, composes obituaries in her head, and is always ready for things to fall apart. To add to her troubles, her mom—the only one who really gets what Maeve goes through—is leaving for six months, so Maeve will be sent to live with her dad in Vancouver.

Vancouver brings a slew of new worries, but Maeve finds brief moments of calm (as well as even more worries) with Salix, a local girl who doesn’t seem to worry about anything. Between her dad’s wavering sobriety, her very pregnant stepmom insisting on a home birth, and her bumbling courtship with Salix, this summer brings more catastrophes than even Maeve could have foreseen. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?

(Blurb from Goodreads)

Sometimes a book comes along exactly when you need it too, and I needed this book. Today my anxiety is through the roof because today I am pregnant and I know that it won't last. I honestly don't think it will last the weekend. And it's Mother's day weekend. I'm going to miscarry on Mother's day. How ironic. I've spent today trying to keep myself busy. I've tried to ignore the fact that I'm pregnant, I've tried to hold it all together and I just can't. I keep thinking about how after the age of thirty (and I'm thirty) the miscarriage rate goes up by 12%. How 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage. How only 76% (I think) of miscarriage women go on to have healthy pregnancies. I'm sure I read that somewhere.
I keep thinking that it can happen to anyone, and every story and blog post I read today, trying desperately to find some hope, some kind of solace to ease my mind just for a little while, was written by a woman who'd had multiple miscarriages. Multiple. So many women, and so much loss, and why should I be exempt from that? If it can happen to them for no apparent reason, it can happen to me. I think I also read somewhere, after my first miscarriage, that only like 4 or 5% of women have multiple miscarriages, and today I think I read every single one of their blogs. The 4 or 5% thing can't be accurate. There's no way that every single woman who's had multiple miscarriages has a blog and/or visits the same forum. They can't. It's not possible. 

And that's anxiety. 

And it's portrayed perfectly in 10 Things I Can See From Here. Today I was not alone in my anxiety. Although Maeve and I were worrying over totally separate things, just to know that her brain worked like mine does, and no one understands that, that made me not alone today. 

The only complaint I'd have about this book is that I wanted more. More of the characters. I want to know more about Salix and if she got into Julliard, what her life was life growing up in a bus, I want to know what happens to Maeve and Salix when Maeve goes home with her mom, I want to know how Maeve's relationship with her mom changes when she comes home, I want to know more about Billy and his sobriety. Just more. 

I need like a whole series of these characters. 

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommend.  Read it. 

Note: I received a free copy of this book through Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review. 

Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Image from Goodreads

One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale

She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.

She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.

She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.

She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.

The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller combines romance and action, steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.

(Blurb from Goodreads)

I picked this book purely based on the cover. I love the cover, and was happy that the book lived up to it. There were some really unexpected elements to this story that I ended up really enjoying, the steampunk element being the most surprising. 

I usually try to avoid steampunk. I've read a few books with steampunk in them but never really enjoyed it. The ones I read were just too illogical for me to be able to buy into the story, and now I just try to avoid them. This book went pretty light on the steampunk elements, just a few things here and there to let you know it was part of the story, you know, horseless carriages, a personal flying machine, no giant half-machine half-blue whale things flying around bombing the shit out of small towns or anything. 

It was light on the romance. This is a big one! The romance didn't really come into it until the end. I mean through out the book it's clear she's trying to deny feelings for Kiaran, there's a couple of points where I was sure they were going to kiss, but of course they didn't. I can see where the author is trying to get the whole 'love triangle' thing going on but I didn't really get that vibe from Gavin. Like I could see him being gay and them being really good friends but not a love interest. 

This book was a bit frustrating though. There were parts where I was just like "Tell the fricking truth, the whole truth!!" It would have avoided some frustration for the characters and Aileana does start doing that towards the end. 

This book is pretty sterotypical YA fantasy. The main character is beautiful, but she doesn't know it. She's clumsy, except when she's fighting gracefully and effortlessly killing monsters, She's tired of her life being caged in by society, but she's not ready to ditch her comfortable life in order to change it. If you've read a lot of YA you've probably read a lot of books like this one. Fortunately for me, I happen to love books like this and I think this main character manages to set herself apart with her interest in engineering, she builds her own weapons and vehicles, and I love that.  Also, the violence! This main character lives for the rush she gets from killing and the way it is written is wonderful, there are more eloquent prose about killing faeries then there are about the romance elements and I love that even more!

The thing I love/hate most about this book? The ending. OMG THE ENDING! I was reading and all the sudden it just stopped in a place where no book should stop. What? What! WHAT?! I was not happy and I loved it at the same time. It is certainly a cliff hanger and I'm so looking forward to the next book!

As for a rating, this book is not perfect, but I loved it anyway. 4 stars out of 5.
Note; I received this book for free, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Molly Bell and the Wishing Well by Bridget Geraghty

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Molly Bell is an eleven-year old girl who used to be a whimsical, sporty type of a child with a zest for living. All that has been turned upside down by the untimely death of her mother two years ago. To make matters worse, her father is getting remarried to a high-maintenance beauty that Molly seemingly has nothing in common with, and she comes with an annoying six-year old son, Henry, who finds a way to wreck everything in his path. Molly can't find anything about her new circumstances to be excited about, until her Aunt Joan tells her about the wishing well at Molly's grandparents' farm. According to Aunt Joan, every wish she ever made there came true. And it just so happens that Molly and Henry will be staying at the farm for a week while their parents are on their honeymoon. Molly is convinced if she could just find that wishing well, she could wish for her mom to come back to life and everything will be okay again. But Molly is in for a few surprises, and more than a few hard lessons about being careful what you wish for when the consequences of Molly's selfish desires wreak havoc on her entire family. Can Molly make things right again through the wishing well? Or will she need to find it within herself to bring back the joy in her life that has been missing all this time?

This book was magical. Not in the Harry Potter, Gandalf, Unicorns, kind of way, but in a much more real way. It's about the magic of love, and it's power to heal. It's about how a shift in point of view can change your whole life, and it's about letting kids who are struggling with loss know that they can find a way to be happy again. 

About 20 years ago I was one of those kids. My dad died when I was 1o, from cancer, like Molly's mom in the story, and though I didn't have that shift in perspective that Molly does in the story for many years, reading this book brought me back to that time. 

I loved the way the author wrote about Molly's feelings towards everything going on in her life. Her anger and sadness at her Dad for 'replacing' her mom, her dislike of her new step-mom, her complete indifference to Henry, her anger and disappointment in her friends for seemingly abandoning her when she needed them, and the complete, overwhelming grief for her mom. The part about Molly's friends really hit me because it was so true. When my dad died my friends seemed to disappear, no one at school would talk to me or even look me in the eye; most adults were the same way, murmuring meaningless words before shaking their heads and walking away. People don't know how to handle that kind of overwhelming grief, and that's why I think this is an important book for everyone to read. Having a better understanding of the feelings that go on when a child has lost someone can help them immeasurably, just to know that someone stills sees them the same way, and is still there and willing to sit next to them and look them in eye and say 'I'm here' when everyone else in their life seems to be avoiding them, is an amazing thing for a kid going through that kind of loss. 

The only criticism I'd have for the emotions portrayed in the book is that Molly's anger seemed really downplayed to me. In my experience the anger that comes with that kind of grief runs a lot deeper and is much harder to suppress than it seemed too for Molly. The author could have had a much different experience than I have with grief and everyone does process things differently so I can't say that her portrayal was wrong or bad in any way, though. 

I also loved Molly's Grandpa Cody, in fact he was probably the most emotional character in the story besides Molly.  Grandpa Cody letting go of his anger towards the wishing well was probably something that helped Molly let go of hers and including his PTSD from the war  made him a very real character. 

I loved this book. It's easily 5 out of 5 stars for me and I highly recommend it for everyone. 

Note: I received this as a free e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  You can pick it up on Amazon here. 

What I'm Reading Right Now #12

This week has not been a good reading week. I realized on Tuesday that if everything happens when it is currently scheduled than we are moving in about three weeks. Which means I'm really behind on packing. So that has been my focus this week...Well, sort of. Truthfully I haven't been able to focus on much at all since I feel like everything needs to be done at once. I keep starting one thing then thinking of something else that needs to be done, so I go start that, and then I think of something else, and its a pretty nasty cycle. And it means that my house is a torn apart disaster area and nothing is actually finished. Since the house is torn apart I don't have anywhere I can sit and relax to read, so reading hasn't happened much, not that I could relax much anyways with so much stuff that needs to be done.

However, I realized yesterday that this presents a new opportunity. I can listen to books! I had an Audible subscription a few years ago and bought a ton of audiobooks but only ever listened to a handful, so yesterday I started listening to a book, and I really enjoyed it. I only got about halfway through the first chapter but I found listening easier if I sped up the audio to x1.50, Listening at the normal x1 was just too slow and any faster and I couldn't even hear the words.

As far as the RMSC, I've made no progress this week. Only the audiobook will count towards it for my currently reading books. Still at 9 out of 25 but I've still got the rest of the year to finish so I'm not worried. I expected things to slow down around moving time, so I'm sure it will pick back up once we get settled in the new house.

Books I Finished This Week

Image from Goodreads

The Furthest Station (Peter Grant 5.7) by Ben Aaronovitch - I got an E-ARC of this book from
the publisher, through NetGalley. I'm doing a full review of it closer to the actual release date but let me tell you, this book is pretty awesome. The whole premise of the series is cops who hunt ghosts on the London Underground (subway), and I love it! Release date it June 30th, so look for the full review in a few weeks!

Image from Goodreads

The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan - I got a free copy of this book through Blogging for Books. When I first started it I wasn't sure I liked
it. Some of the first characters we're introduced too are pretty unlikable people and I wasn't sure I wanted to read about them, but I kept going and I'm pretty glad I did. I'm doing a full review of this one next week so look for that on Monday or Tuesday!

The Perfect Girl by Gilly MacMillan - This book is a mystery/thriller book and I don't usually read a ton of those but lately they've been cropping up more and more. This one I really enjoyed. The main character is Zoe, a teenage piano prodigy, who was convicted three years ago of killing three

Image from Goodreads

other teens in a drunken car accident. When we meet her in the book it is the night of her first concert since her release from jail, she's performing with her new stepbrother as her mother and new stepfather watch. But the concert is interrupted and by the next morning Zoe's mother is dead and Zoe finds herself facing the police again.
I have some mixed feelings about this book. I found it interesting but not for the 'who killed the mother' plot line, it was the story of what happened to Zoe the night of the car accident and afterward that kept me reading. I didn't really get into the death of Zoe's mother until the end because I just knew in my gut that Zoe didn't do it. The ending was interesting, Zoe got the ending she wanted, probably what was best for her, her stepbrother, and baby sister, but not in the most ethical way. She found a way to use everything she learned from her own trial and in 'The Unit' to her advantage. The thing I didn't like about the ending is that we don't get to see how everything turned out for everyone. I don't like endings that tie things up too neatly but this one I felt left too many loose ends. How did Uncle Richard deal with his alcohol abuse, did he go to AA like he said he would? Is Tessa still seeing Sam behind Richard's back or did she and Richard make up and find a way to save their marriage? What happened to Zoe's dad? Tom Barlow? Sam with his health issues?
I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Book I'm Reading Right Now

Images from Goodreads and NetGalley

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - I've packed up most of my books so this one is the only paper book I'm reading right now. I'm going to try and focus on one paper book and one e-book at a time right now, so hopefully I can get though this one this week.

Canivalesque by Neil Jordon - This one is an E-ARC and I'm going though it pretty quickly, I started it this morning and I'm already at 15%.

Welocme to the Farm by Shaye Elliott - This is another E-ARC I picked up through NetGalley. I'm at about the 30% mark and I love this book. I might have to buy a copy so I have one I can write in and mark up, it seems like the kind of book you can make your own like that. Not that I intend to be a farmer at any point...I just want to be able to grow a damn tomato, a skill that has some how alluded me in my 30 years of life.

The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson - This is the audiobook! I'm not very far into it but I'm making progress!

Upcoming Stuff

Bookshelf organization plan for the new house - I intend to do a post on this soon, I need to write it all out to figure out the actual plan.

Bookish crafts with The Toddler - We did fun stuff last week and I'm going to share a bit!

How to get cheap (or free!) e-books - It's very rare that I pay more than 99 cents for an e-book and I'm going to share how I do it.

What I'm Reading Right Now #10; Reviews, ARCs, and Fun with Formatting

The last week has been full of books! I did a readathon over the weekend, I did ARC's, I tore through A Court of Mist and Fury, and had book club meeting. Some of the books I finished were better than others, all of them had things I wasn't expecting. I finished three books, two of them counted for the RMSC, the 'Whole Deal' post for that can be found here.

Books I finished this week

Image from Goodreads.com

Naughty Professor by S.J. Bishop and Jeni Brown - This was an ARC I received from the authors for an honest review. S.J. Bishop is one of my favorite sports romance authors, I've loved all her books so far and I was really excited to read this one, even though it's not a sports romance. Adam is released from prison, he was convicted of financial crimes and took the fall for his friend Aiden, who he happens to look just like. Adam runs into Aiden and over drinks they decide to switch places. Aiden gets the freedom to travel and do charity work, and Adam gets to run Aiden's million dollar sports drink company, live in his Chicago penthouse and spend his money. When Adam (as Aiden) takes a lecturing position at a local college he meets Syrena and is instantly drawn to her. He doesn't find out till it's too late that she is his stepmothers estranged daughter. He keeps all his secrets from her, trying to shield her from the truth. But when Aiden's past come back to haunt him Adam's secrets come out.
This book had good parts and bad parts, so I'll start with the good.
The Good; I am a sucker for the whole 'oops, you're my stepbrother' storyline. I don't have a stepbrother, but I just love that particular trope. I also love the 'secret baby' trope. They're so much fun to read. The characters were well written. I particularly liked Adam, he was very well rounded, funny, sweet, and seemed like he was genuinely trying to do the right thing. I liked that it took place in Chicago, and not some fictional, unnamed city. Knowing where the location was made it that much easier for me to visualize the story. I was really into this story until about the 90% mark. Up until then it was a great, fun, easy read. Which brings me too the bad parts.
The Bad; This part has SPOILERS. If you don't want to know what happens don't read this part! Also if you are sensitive about miscarriage and/or infant loss this could contain triggers. I know some people hate trigger warnings but I think everyone deserves the right to decide weather they read about triggering subjects or not. So, the bad parts. Syrena has a miscarriage. A pretty violent one. I had an anxiety attack when I read it. I couldn't breathe, couldn't stop shaking, it was pretty bad for me, personally. If I'd known this book contained something along those lines I would not have read it. I would have stuck to S.J. Bishops normal sports romances and totally skipped this one. I actively avoid reading about miscarriages, even in fiction, because I know they have a bad effect on me.. Also, the woman Syrena's ex left her for dies in childbirth or shortly after along with her baby. I was able to over look that one since it's not described in any detail.
Also, the timeline of the story was not well defined at all. I had no idea how much time had passed between Syrena getting back together with Jamie and running into Adam at an awards show. Things really jumped around when Adam had his car accident. It seemed like the accident happened immediately when he left the awards show but then Syrena had to travel to get to where he was and could only skype with Jamie, which doesn't make sense if they were still in New York. I hate to admit this next bit but I hate Syrena's name. I don't like made up names, or 'unique' spellings of established names, and it really bothered me till about half way through the book. Every time I read it my eye would twitch a little until I got used too it.
It seems like a lot of bad, but really 90% of the book was excellent. It was just that last 10% that really got to me. I had a hard time coming up with a rating for this book. I settled on 3 stars, after much thought, because most of the story is excellent. Without the miscarriage part, which I really don't think it needed, there was enough drama going on without that, this would have easily been a 4.5-5 star romance.

Image from Goodreads.com

Last Play by Taylor Hart - This was such a sweet romance! When Roman Young, star QB for the Dallas Destroyers, has to go home to Utah to sell his uncle's Inn he meets Katie Winters. She's strong, and funny, and married. Roman fights his growing feelings for her but when he finds out her husband was killed a year ago he has to decide if he really wants to sell the Inn and be done with Wolfe Creek Utah or if he could have a future with Katie and her son Josh. This was definitely a slow burn romance. There were so many times I was reading, going 'kiss her, kiss HER, KISS HER ALREADY!' I liked Katie's character. She's so strong, and so broken, but her willingness to dedicate herself to the people she loves is amazing. The town of Wolfe Creek was full of interesting characters, and the snowed in town was the perfect setting. I did feel like the whole story was a little bit rushed though. I would have enjoyed more details about the town and the people, just as context for the story. The whole 'small town' thing makes me think of Moose County from the 'Cat Who...' books by Lillian Jackson Braun, and the details about the setting are one of the best things about those books. I was surprised that this was a clean romance book. There was no sex. It wasn't a bad thing, it didn't take away from the story at all, it just wasn't what I was expecting. I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Image from Goodreads.com

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas - OMG. This book. Let me start by saying I loved the first book. I thought it was so amazing. But this book, this ending, totally blew the first book away. This does contain SPOILERS for the first book, so if you're planning on reading it skip it! Feyre, a mere human, has saved the Fey people of Prythian from the clutches of Amarantha. She spilled Fey blood and shredded her own soul in order to do it, but Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, and all the Faeries are safe. Feyre struggles with her own guilt and depression over what she had to do, while Tamlin struggles with his need to keep Feyre safe. When Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court cashes in on the bargain he and Feyre forged Under the Mountain, she begins to see that there may be other options for her besides being a caged pet of the Spring Court. With war coming from Hybern, Feyre has to decide what's best for herself and the people of her land, human and Fey alike.
I cried so hard during this book. Feyre's journey to heal herself is beautiful, and painful, and so amazingly written. And the romance! Talk about a slow burn romance! This takes it to another level! I feel like I can't write too much with out giving away too many details, but this book is amazing! I know I'm using a ton of exclamation points but really, this book needs all the exclamation points!

Books I'm currently reading;

Images from Goodreads.com

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson - I starting to question if I should keep reading this series. It's really taking me forever to get into this one. Granted, I haven't given it much time in the last week, but the other books I'm reading aren't taking this long to get involved in. The first book took a long time to get into also but I felt like it really paid off at the end. I'm going to try and keep going with this one for one more week and then we'll see how I feel about it.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - I didn't give much time to this one in the last week either. I don't know how much I'll get to read it this coming week but I'm going to keep going.

Some Practical Magic by Laurie Carroll-Kuna - I was given a free copy of this one for review. I'm about a quarter of the way through it and it's really good so far! I love books about witches, especially in a modern setting, and that exactly what this one is. I also have the sequel, That Old Black Magic, so I'm excited to read that one too.

What's up next;

That Old Black Magic by Laurie Carroll-Kuna (Free copy for review)
Practicing Normal by Cara Sue Achterberg (ARC)
Anaconda by Lauren Landish
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Coming Soon on the Blog;

Reading Habits Post #2; Coffee Shops - I had meant for this post to go up last week but with the Book Club post needing to go up I had to push it back.
Still working on the 'Books I Want to Re-read' post, there are a lot more of them than I originally thought.
March Wrap-Up post is coming early next week! I going to be a long one!

Wow! This post turned out a lot longer than I thought it would. I'm playing with some formatting things on this post, since I'm still learning what all the buttons do so if something doesn't look right let me know!

ARC's; Part 2 Taking the Plunge...Again

I talked about my first experience with an ARC a few days ago. My anxiety is just getting back to normal after that. It was bad. The book was bad. Everything was bad. Well, I got an email from another author's mailing list that I'm on this morning, asking for ARC readers, and since I've read her books before and loved them I signed up. And I got an ARC copy of her newest book! I'm pretty excited about this one. I've already started the book and it's amazing! I might even post my review here as well as Amazon or wherever she wants reviews posted.

However, this puts me back up to reading four books at a time again. I guess it's starting to become my normal. At least I'm enjoying all the books right now. I'm only going to do ARC's for authors I've read before from now on, things seem to be better that way.

ARC's

I've a few ARC's (ARC means Advanced Reader Copy, I was so confused till some one at the bookstore told me that) over the years. When I was working at Border's we got a them quite often, mostly just so we could recommend them. Recently, I signed up for a spot on an author's ARC team. The first 25 people to respond got a spot. I probably shouldn't have signed up since it was an author I'd never read, but I've signed up for a lot of ARC teams and never gotten a spot so I expected this one to be the same. A couple of days later I got an email that the first ARC book was being released to the ARC team, which apparently included me. I was surprised and so happy that I got to read a book and review it before it was released! I downloaded the book and sat down to read it right away since The Toddler was napping.

The prologue was terrible. The story was okay but the writing was awful. There were parts that contradicted each other, odd word choices, sayings that didn't make any sense. I thought for sure the rest of the book couldn't be like that so I kept reading. How could a book have made it all the way past editors and beta readers with such horrible writing all the way through? I was wrong. I read up until a horribly written but very detailed rape scene in chapter five and at that point I just threw my kindle down. This book was bad. So very very bad. But I was an ARC Team member. The author was waiting for my feedback. She wanted a link to an Amazon review. How could I give this a review? In the first ARC team email the author had asked that we email her first if we felt we had to give a bad review so I did. I tried to not sound like a horrible bitch, and say a few good things with the amazingly huge heap of bad but I'm afraid I came off a bit condescending. I really didn't mean too but it seemed like there was no way this book had been on the desk of a competent editor at some point and I may have suggested she look into a line editor. It's been bothering me a lot though. I know it's just my anxiety, but I can't stand the thought of someone being mad at me, or hating me, even a stranger on the interwebs. I feel like I have an obligation to post a review though. For some reason there are people giving this book 4 and 5 star reviews and I feel like readers need some warning of what they are buying, but I don't want to go on a smear campaign against this author either, not that anyone is paying attention to my opinion, but still. I've decided to just leave it at emailing the author. I'm sure she'll remove me from her ARC team but that's probably for the best. I feel bad for having to tell her how bad it was but I couldn't lie.

In other news; I've read two books for the RMSC! I'm working on three and four. If I can keep up this pace I'm going to blow the goals out of the water, we'll see how it goes though. I also have decided to put a link to the blog on my Goodreads profile. I only have like 11 friends on Goodreads so I don't think it will get much attention if any but still its a step towards sharing the blog, which my anxiety doesn't want me to do. Anxiety says 'Your blog sucks! Delete that shit!' and maybe if does suck but I'm enjoying writing so suck it anxiety.