Friday's Featured Freebie: Venture Untamed by R.H. Russell

This is a little belated, but as they say "it's better late than never." Enjoy this free book I found on Amazon this week.  

Venture Untamed (The Venture Books #1)
by R.H. Russell

Free on Amazon

Venture Delving is a bonded servant, a member of the lowest class in the world. Already fatherless, when he loses his mother, he veers from energetic to out of control. But when Venture's rage saves the life of Jade, his best friend and his master's daughter, Venture finds himself in the last place he ever expected—a center renowned for training young boys to be professional fighters.

When Venture realizes he's fallen in love with Jade, he knows that the only way he'll ever have her, the only way he'll ever be free to live the life he's meant to live, is to defy convention, common sense, the trust of those he cares about most—and sometimes the law—and become the best fighter in the world, the Champion of All Richland. Venture must battle not only rival fighters, but the ghosts of his past and the members of a privileged warrior class who stand between him and his dream.

Cover Reveal: Mistaken by Heather Fleener

Enemies by circumstance of Creation

Sworn to their purpose, the Vampire and the Witch

were created to battle over the fate of mankind. 

He was the First

Until one Vampire sought a Higher Purpose.

She was the Beginning

And one Witch’s faith brought Darkness into the Light.

Their love would turn the course of the Ancient War…

Before the Prophecy, an Ancient Queen and the Vampire she loved

would forge the path for those that would follow.

Look for Mistaken (Ancients of Light, #4) 

Spring 2014

Check out Heather's blog for an excerpt from her new book!

Top Ten Worlds That We Would NEVER Want to Live In Or Characters We Would NEVER Want To Trade Places With

This week's Top Ten Topic is Top Ten Worlds That We Would NEVER Want to Live In Or Characters We Would NEVER Want To Trade Places With. As always Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & the Bookish.

Melissa's Picks:
Ok, so I wouldn't like to live in the Delirium, Hunger Games, or Divergent worlds. While I loved the characters and the courage it took for them to do what they had to do, I wouldn't want to be a random person living in those worlds, without love, or the strict and ridiculous government rules. I don't think I would want to be a Siren like Gemma is in the Watersong series, while being immortal and part fish would have its benefits, I couldn't imagine killing/eating innocent boys. YUCK! And I could never survive with zombies so Samantha in Zombie Island is one up on me there.

Rachel's Picks: 
I would not want to live in The Hunt world since the vampires are extremely creepy and in my opinion worse than zombies because they are lightning speed, bloodsucking monsters (no  charming Edward in the whole bunch). I would not want to trade places with the main characters from A Child Called “It”, Room, Burned, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. All of these characters deal with unspeakable abuses that I don’t think I could handle. In A Child Called “It”, Dave endures horrific abuses at the hands of his own mother…the worst part is that it is based on a true story. The woman in Room, is kidnapped by a man twice her age and then is held captive by her assailant in a 9 x 11 room. After years of being raped by her captor, she gives birth to his son. Pattyn in Burned has a very abusive father. When she finally gets away from him and his iron first, he still finds a way to crush what little happiness she found in the world and tears it away from her forever. While I admire Lisbeth’s resilient in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she gets the shaft in every aspect of her life. Everyone thinks she is mentally challenged when that is the farthest thing from the truth. She doesn’t have many if any people in her life she can trust. (SPOILER ALERT) The scene with Bjurman raping and sodomizing her made every single nerve in my body cringe.

What  book world wouldn't you never want to live in? What character would you never trade places with in a million years? 

Showcase Sunday #20

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea where you show what books you've purchased, borrowed, checked out from the library, received from giveaway, etc.

Rachel had a good reading week, she purchased at the local second had store:

Gregor the Underlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins

She was missing a couple in the series and read them so fast that she needed to borrow:

Gregor and Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins

 

 

I've been trying to catch up on my reading so I haven't purchased anything new, I did pick up Goddess Legacy by M.W. Muse and The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant by Veronica Roth for free.  I'm still pretty upset with Allegiant, but for free I thought I would check it out.

 

What books to you pick up this week?

 

Friday's Featured Freebie: Goddess Legacy by M.W. Muse

Look, look what I found!  It's been a while since I read a little mythology.  Also, I couldn't pass up a book written by a muse, I mean M.W. Muse. 

Goddess Legacy by M.W. Muse
Free at  B&N.com and Amazon.com

Legacy Kore is an average seventeen year old with your basic insane crush on the hottest guy in school... rather Adin Shepard was the hottest guy in school before he graduated a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s summer vacation and she’s not sure when she’ll get to see him again. Until he shows up at her surprise seventeenth birthday party. Cue saliva glands--it’s time to drool.

But her giddiness is cut short when her guardian delivers an emotional blow, telling Legacy her mother hadn’t died when she was baby, but that she’d left for Legacy’s protection all those years ago. After the initial shock, she expects some story about how her mother was in the Witness Protection Program or something else just as crazy, but when she’s told that her mother is a Greek Goddess and that Legacy is changing into one too, she thinks her guardian needs a trip to a mental hospital. Legacy a goddess? Um, yeah. Right. And her BFF is the Easter Bunny.

While trying to make sense out of something that was impossible to believe, Adin asks Legacy out on a date. She is thrilled that her fantasy might become a reality, but when she meets the new guy in town, River, she discovers everything isn’t always as it seems, and the legacy she wants just might not be the legacy she is destined to have.

What free finds did you pick up today?

Review: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Rating: 4 Wine Glasses

The title speaks for itself and pretty much sums up the premise for this book. Allan, the main character, decides on his 100th birthday to climb out the window and disappear without an exact destination in mind. When he gets to the bus station, a young man asks Allan to watch his suitcase while he uses the restroom. While the man is using the restroom, Allan’s bus comes and he decides to take the suitcase with him. This decision leads to a chain reaction of events and begins a surprising adventure starring many unusual characters.The book flips between current day and Allan’s past, leading up to the moment he decides to climb out his window.

This book is comparable to the movie Forest Gump in the sense that Allan stumbles upon an array of political figures over the course of his life (Truman, Mao, Stalin, and LBJ) and provides readers with a glimpse into some actual political and historical events that occurred in the last 100 years across the world. It actually made me want to research and read more about these events to find out how much was real versus made up. I am sure my high school history teacher would promote this book if he knew it sparked a new interest in historical world events.

My favorite part was Allan’s relationship with his cat, Molotov. I could just picture my father having the same reaction as Allan and doing something just as crazy. It was a bittersweet moment in the book – Allan having his first close companion and it being taken away from him.

This book made me sad at times and then at other times I found myself smiling. When you look at this book from the standpoint of how society views and treats the elderly like children, this book made me very sad. Once you get past that, you see that this book challenges our beliefs and even provides a sense of hope that when I turn 100 I could step out my window and start my own adventure. I loved Allan’s “things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be,” attitude throughout the book. Regardless of the highs and lows, I found a smile on my face when I closed this book that remained the rest of the day. 

Waiting on Wednesday: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to get our hands on.

Panic
by Lauren Oliver
Release Date: March 4th 2014

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

Why am I Waiting?
I love everything I have read so far by Lauren Oliver and I doubt this book will be an exception to that. I know all about growing up in the middle of nowhere so I am interested to see how Oliver portrays the little town of Carp. I also want to find out more about how the game Panic works.