27 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted in gif post, just for fun, Uncategorized
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Me seeing a bookstore:
My family trying to keep me out of the bookstore:
Me entering the bookstore anyway:
Me finding the Young Adult section:
Me finding the Epic Fantasy section:
My family when they lose track of me:
Me finding a book I want:
Me at the checkout:
Me leaving the bookstore:
30 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in gif post, just for fun
Me seeing classmates:
Me trying to be social:
Me when the teacher walks in:
Me doing homework:
Me after a classmate claimed Freedom of the Press is a bad thing:
Me when the teachers go off on personal rants:
Me on test day:
Me when people ask about my grades:
13 Wednesday Aug 2014
This summer has been consumed with creative expansion (watching Merlin), social networking (wasting time on the internet), mind feeding (pretending to study), and writing/editing (staring at the screen for hours on end and occasionally typing). It has been hectic to say the least.
Especially when you throw in this whole divorce debacle and the stuff that comes with it. (Adult children aren’t supposed to get caught up in this thing, but because I’ve been live in nanny for two years, that sort of happens by default.)
Despite all that, I have completed the bajillionth round of edits on the Daindreth’s Assassin book. Remember Daindreth’s Assassin? The one I was supposed to finish editing over the summer before I started on Argetallam six? More than a year since I first started writing it, the story is off to my first beta reader. I am left with the first 1,500 words of Argetallam six and the first 105,000 words of the third book in the Daindreth’s Assassin series.
Right now the statistics of my thought processes are something like this:
7% Merlin
30% Worrying about family
5% Random internet memes and fandom references
1% Origins of the universe
50% Daindreth’s Assassin
7% Guilt over books I haven’t read
That last part brings me to the apology portion of this post—the lack of reviews for the past two weeks. There are no reviews because, well, I haven’t been reading. :O I’ve been devoting my spare time to either watching Merlin with my brother or writing. Plus, I really just haven’t found a story that I wanted to finish lately, I’m in another one of those slumps.
I have one or two reviews that I haven’t yet posted which should be appearing soon, but I may fall behind more on my reading challenge and on my weekly reviews.
Of course, if I just cut back on the internet, things could work out…
Bear with me! Things might be getting worse as I start taking four different college classes this upcoming semester, but I just ask that you be patient with little me and keep in mind that I have not forgotten about you guys or my writing.
25 Wednesday Jun 2014
Tags
aristocats, despicable me, doctor who, gid, Harry potter, my review explanation, ratings, reviews
You may notice that there are a lot of 5- and 4-star reviews around here. Very rarely will you see a 3-star and I don’t think I’ve ever posted a 2-star on here. (Maybe one? Not many.)
Now, this does not mean I fall madly in love with the 5- and 4-star books. It is actually very rarely that a book gets me fangirling enough to earn itself a spot on my Shelf of Awesome. Sometimes I give 5 sparkly stars to a book when I know I don’t want to read the sequels (I have also been known to eventually go and gobble up whole series of the books I only gave three).
When I rate a book, I try to give credit where credit is due. Reading is a highly subjective thing and to some degree I try to stay objective. Like many writers, I tend to edit in my head a I read books, but I can turn down the volume on my inner editor enough to enjoy a book with bad mechanics, bad formatting, or even plot holes—so long as it has some other literary qualities I enjoy (such as dragons or pretty much any form of magic). By the same token, I might open a book to find flawless formatting, perfect copyediting, succinct dialogue—but for whatever reason it will just fall flat for me.
Just because I didn’t enjoy a book doesn’t mean I think it was written poorly and just because I enjoyed a book doesn’t mean I think it was written well. For example, Hidden by M. Lathan brought me far less enjoyment than Captured by Erica Stevens, yet I’ll be the first to admit that Hidden was the better book. From an editorial standpoint, the plot was better formed, the formatting was superior, the mechanics were pulled off without a hitch—I just couldn’t get into it the way I did Captured because Captured “clicked” for me and Hidden didn’t.
Certain books “click” for me that don’t “click” for other people and vice versa—that’s just the way it is. I try to take that into account when I write my reviews. I also try to take into account if a book is well written or not. That is why some of my favorites only got four stars and some of the five stars were deleted off my Kindle straightaway.
This is making me sound like a mature, focused reviewer, right? Wrong. There have been rare occasions where I have discounted a book down to 4-stars when the characters made me angry *coughcoughCrownofMidnightcoughcough* and given 5-stars to a book I loved that should have realistically been 3.5-stars. What can I say? I’m still human.
When it comes down to it, I really don’t like writing negative reviews. I really don’t. That’s why my star ratings hover around 4-5—if I enjoyed a book, it seems just rude to give it anything less. If I didn’t enjoy the book, but I think all the mechanics were decent, I still want to acknowledge the good points.
In the dreaded situation that the book fails both standards…well then I close my eyes, give it three stars and do my best not to feel like an evil witch.
19 Thursday Jun 2014
Posted in gif post
Me reading about fictional couples:
Me meeting real couples:
Me reading a kissing scene:
Me seeing people kiss:
Me when people talk about book couples:
Me when people talk about real couples:
Me when book couples do PDA’s:
Me when real couples do PDA’s:
11 Wednesday Jun 2014
Posted in character chat, gif post, just for fun
In the wake of last week’s bromance talk, I decided to write up a blog post detailing my top ten favorite bromances.
Darmik and Neco (True Reign series by Jennifer Anne Davis)
Their bromance isn’t really in plain sight until the second book in the trilogy, but I adore it. They have that whole brothers at arms thing going on and that just gets to me.
Peter Pevensie and Edmund Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis)
These two brothers fight, argue, and are basically just boys. But they always have each other’s backs. I especially love how Edmund is there for Peter in the later books and movies. So sweet.
Gimli and Legolas (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien)
I particularly like the Legolas/Gimli dynamic. They start off making racist jibes at one another and end up sailing off into the unknown as BFF’s. (Shh, don’t tell Thranduil.)
Devon and Julian (The Kindred series by Erica Stevens)
Unless you’ve read the last three books in the series, this won’t make sense. Devon and Julian are literally trying to kill each other in books 1-2, but bond over their shared love of Cassie and their desire to protect her. In the end, they get over their jealousy of one another and stand shoulder to shoulder, a true bromance.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)
If this one needs explaining, go read the books and then we’ll talk.
Will Treaty and Horace (Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan)
In the beginning, Horace is the bully who kicks little Will’s backside for laughs. Then as girls, war, bigger bullies, giant pigs, battles, and other horrors assail them, they become close friends, even besties. I may have decided I disliked this series after book 5, but their relationship was still adorable.
Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, and Castiel (Supernatural, created by Eric Kripke)
Okay. Talk about a bromance! Nine seasons of these idiots killing monsters, betraying, making up, going to hell, going to heaven, coming back, dying, resurrecting, hunting, crying, being there for each other, missing each other—yeah. It’s just really hard not to love these guys.
Dorian Haviliard and Chaol Westfall (Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas)
As Crown Prince and Captain of the Guard, there is a certain class barrier, but they’re both one another’s only true friends and it’s precious to see them tease and scold each other. I really hope their friendship isn’t damaged after Crown of Midnight because that would suck rotten eggs. (GO TEAM CHAOL!!!)
Terence and Sir Gawaine (The Squire’s Tales series by Gerald Morris)
They start out as a teacher/student type duo, but as Terence gets older, Gawaine becomes closer to Terence than his own siblings. Then they become brothers-in-law, thus canonizing their bromance.
Arthur and Merlin (The Adventures of Merlin, created by Julian Jones)
Oh my gosh, I started this series two weeks ago and I’m besotted. The brotherly relationship between Merlin and Arthur—with all their teasing and name-calling and being willing to die for one another—is definitely one of the highlights.
Thus concludes my Top Ten. If you haven’t read/watched any of these series, you really should. What are you favorite bromances?
03 Tuesday Jun 2014
Love, power, and magic collide with war in the second book of the Falling Kingdoms series
Auranos has fallen and the three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now united as one country called Mytica. But still, magic beckons, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the world…
When the evil King Gaius announces that a road is to be built into the Forbidden Mountains, formally linking all of Mytica together, he sets off a chain of events that will forever change the face of this land, forcing Cleo the dethroned princess, Magnus the reluctant heir, Lucia the haunted sorceress, and Jonas the desperate rebel to take steps they never could have imagined.
Blurb and cover from Goodreads
5 out of 5 stars
Me when Gaius decides Magnus and Cleo are getting married:
Me when Lucia meets Alexius:
Me when Jonas meets Lysandra:
Me when we meet Prince Ashur:
Me on page 296:
Me on page 316:
Me on page 360:
Me on page 376:
Me at the end:
How I feel about the next book:
06 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in gif post, just for fun
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First, a brief explanation of “shipping”:
Me picking out my ship:
Me waiting for my ship to get together:
Me when my ship finally gets together:
Me when my ship argues:
Me when my ship has a falling out:
Me when a love triangle threatens my ship:
Me when my ship reconciles:
Me when evil forces threaten to tear my ship apart:
Me if my ship sinks:
Me if my ship overcomes:
29 Tuesday Apr 2014
Posted in gif post, only book people will understand
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Me starting a new series:
Me when I decide I’m a fan of a new series:
Me when I finish the first book:
Me realizing the next book isn’t out yet:
Me when they announce the official release date:
Me when, after moving it back four times, they announce the “official” release date:
Me being forced to wait:
Me when the sequel finally arrives:
Me when I start reading the sequel:
Me when I finish the sequel:
24 Thursday Apr 2014
Me at the beginning:
Me when Jonas’ brother dies:
Me when we met Magnus:
Me when Cleo and Jonas “meet again”:
Me when Theon turns up for Cleo:
Me when Magnus turns up:
Me when Jonas is in the battle’s aftermath:
Me when Magnus goes to see Lucia:
Me at the end:
How I feel about Gaius:
How I feel about reading the next book:
Inkspelled Faery 