Summing Up "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown"

I'm not usually a vampire book fan, but this take on vampire fiction was pretty cool.

Why I Chose This Book:  This was one of the books I found in the BAM clearance section along with "Vitro."

Book Rating (1-5 Stars):  Hands down, 4 stars.  Not a book I would recommend without reservation, but definitely one I really liked.

Setting of the Book: A future USA where vampires are rampant in the world and places called Coldtowns have been set up to hold them.

About the Author: Holly Black was also the author of the "Spiderwick Chronicles" (well, she co-wrote that, but whatever).  She attended graduate school to get a Masters in Library Science, and she currently lives in Massachusetts with her husband and dog.

Plot of the book in one sentence:  Tana wakes up from a party where everyone in the house is dead - except for her, her ex-boyfriend, and a vampire, and she realizes she has to go to the nearest Coldtown to save them all.

If I Could Rename the Book:  I actually really like the title, so I can't think of a different one.

Genre: Vampire Sci-Fi

Point of View: Third Person Limited.  Strictly told from the main character, Tana's, point of view.

Favorite Character: Gavriel, the vampire

Least Favorite Character: Aiden, Tana's ex-boyfriend

Other (Main Characters): 
- Tana, a junior in high school
- Aiden, also a junior in high school (and Tana's ex)
- Gavriel, an old-school vampire

If the Book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters? 
- Tana would be played by Lily Collins, the daughter of the singer Phil Collins
- Aiden would be play by Daren Kagasoff, the jerk who impregnated Shailene Woodley in "Secret Life of the American Teenager"
- Gavriel the vampire is an extremely gritty, dark, old-school character, so he was really hard to cast, but I finally settled on Nico Tortorella.

Favorite Scene of the Book: The showdown between Gavriel and his nemesis in Coldtown was pretty awesome.  Tana was there, too, and she helped in a pretty surprising way.

Least Favorite Scene of the Book: After being in Coldtown for a day, Aiden and Tana become separated and when Tana finally finds her way back to him, the scene that greets her is ... pretty disturbing and dark.

Favorite Quote in the Book: I can't remember one.

Did I like the Ending? LOVED the ending - wish there was a sequel :(

Which of my friends could I see loving this book? Someone who likes vampire fiction :)

Which of my friends could I see hating this book? Probably Hannah, once again.

This book left me feeling: I can't really think of the word - enraptured, maybe?

How Long Did It Take Me to Read It: 3-4 hours; I couldn't put it down.

Summing Up "Vitro"

Now that I've been bitten by the book-survey writing bug, I wanted to summarize the last books I read in 2016 :)

• Why I Chose This Book:  Since Book Traders in Winter Haven closed, pretty much the only bookstore I like to go to is Books-a-Million in Lakeland - and a lot of times, I end up there with my mom.  In December, while we were out Christmas shopping, we found ourselves in BAM in the Clearance section.  And this book jumped out at me (not literally, because that would be weird.)  So I thought I'd check it out.
• Book Rating (1-5 Stars):  I'd give this book 3 stars.  It was slow-starting and hard to really get into.  I felt like it took way too long to develop, and not enough really happened in the book for my taste.
• Setting of the Book:  On a remote island in the Pacific
   
• About the Author:  There's not much about Jessica Khoury, even on her website.  She lives in Colombia, SC, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she was 4 years old.  She has a BA in English, and she loves traveling the world to follow soccer.
• Plot of the book in one sentence:  A girl named Sophie and her childhood friend, Jim, travel to a mysterious facility on an unknown island to save Sophie's mom who works there.
• If I Could Rename the Book:  For a Slightly Mediocre Sci-Fi Adventure, Read Me
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Point of View: Third Person Limited.  It switches off between three main characters, Sophie, Jim and Lux.
• Favorite Character: Probably Lux
• Least Favorite Character: Sopie's mom, Moira
• Other (Main Characters): 
  - Seventeen-year-old Sophie LaCrue
  - Seventeen-year-old Jim Julien (pilot)
  - Seventeen-year-old Lux (Sophie's twin sister who Sophie never knew about)
  - Sophie & Lux's mom, Moira LaCrue
  - Nicholas, a native of the island
• If the Book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?
  - Sophie & Lux would be played by Chloe Grace Moretz.  She's proven herself to be a good actress, whether in a drama like "If I Stay" or in a Sci-Fi movie like "Kicka**"
  - Jim Julien would be played by Logan Lerman, the same one who played Percy Jackson
  - Moira LaCrue would be played by Mary Mastrantonio, the same woman who played "Naz" on the TV show "Limitless"
  - Nicholas would be played by Jonathan Whitesell, currently an actor on the FreeForm show "Beyond"
• Favorite Scene of the Book: When things start to get real (no spoiler, but I will say a gas chamber is involved), Sophie gets help from the unlikeliest of allies.  I may have pumped my fist even.
• Least Favorite Scene of the Book: Sophie is kidnapped by a psychopath who lives on the island, and realizes this character is the real reason she came to the island.
• Favorite Quote in the Book: Didn't have one
• Did I like the Ending? Yes and no. One of the main characters dies, and I actually really liked that character, so I was pretty upset.  Other than that, the ending was good.
• Which of my friends could I see loving this book? I don't have a lot of friends who love Sci-Fi like I do (that I know of), but my mom is going to read it after me.
• Which of my friends could I see hating this book? Hannah. Hands down. lol
• This book left me feeling: Bored (and glad it was over)
• How Long Did It Take Me to Read It: In all, about 5-6 hours (I read it in multiple sittings).

Summing Up "The Night Bird"

Hello, everyone!  I have officially finished my first book in 2017 :)

*waits for applause to die down*

Thank you for the acknowledgement ;)

So for each summary of the books I've read on my book list, I'm going to be filling out a survey of sorts.  Just a fun and easy way to disseminate each book.

Without further ado:

• Why I Chose This Book:  As an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book each month, and there are usually 6 books to choose from.  For January, this book seemed the most interesting to me, so that's why I chose to read it.
• Book Rating (1-5 Stars):  I'm going to give this book 4 stars.  It was a good book - well-written and extremely riveting, but due to the fact that it's a Thriller (which is not usually up my alley), I probably would never read it again.  Plus some scenes freaked me out a little.
• Setting of the Book: The book took place in modern-day San Francisco.  No world-building here.
• About the Author: Brian Freeman is a best-selling author of psychological thrillers, and The Night Bird is his most recent book.  It's on the Amazon #1 Bestseller's list right now.  He specializes in books with haunting characters and lightning-fast paces.
• Plot of the book in one sentence:  People keep dying by having mental breakdowns out of nowhere, and a cop is trying to figure out why.
• If I Could Rename the Book:  Don't Read This Book Unless You Want to Have Nightmares About a Guy Wearing a Creepy Mask
• Genre: Psychological Thriller
• Point of View: Third Person Limited.  The POV alternates between the three main characters.
• Favorite Character: The cop, Frost Easton (cool name, right?)
• Least Favorite Character: Obviously, the killer.  And the decoy killer.  lol
• Other (Main Characters): A therapist name Frankie Stein (haha, Frankenstein) and a 25-year-old woman named Lucy Hagen (who has the hots for Frost - will they end up together?  You'll have to find out! Muahahahaha)
• If the Book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?
  - The cop, Frost Easton, would be played by Reagan Osborne.  He's a pretty great actor. lol
  - The therapist, Frankie Stein, would be played by Victoria Justice.  But like, Victoria in about 5 years, because she's only 23 now.
  - The 25-year-old, Lucy Hagen, would be played by Dreama Walker.  Don't know who that is?  Look her up ;)
• Favorite Scene of the Book: Honestly, I didn't really have one.  Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of Thrillers.  One thing I DID appreciate about the book was it's psychological-ness.  You see, all of the victims are former patients of Frankie Stein.  They came to see her to get help facing their worst fears (triggered by a past event in their lives).  What Dr. Stein would then do would be to administer memory reconsolidation where she has them relive the memory of the past event, but she reframes it or changes details of it so the emotion tied to the memory is no longer debilitating for the client.  It's pretty fascinating, really.
• Least Favorite Scene of the Book: Probably the climax of the book when the cop, therapist, and 25-year-old are all in the same room as the killer and stuff gets real.  Like, REAL real.  It's freaky.
• Favorite Quote of the Book: "Everything in life came down to memories. The good. The bad. The real. The imagined. Put them all together, and that was the person you were."
• Did I like the Ending? Meh. Not particularly. But I didn't hate it either.
• Which of my friends could I see loving this book? Probably Reagan.  He's the only person I know who likes scary movies, so he may like this book.
• Which of my friends could I see hating this book? There's not one specific person that comes to mind, but pretty much any friend who usually likes romance novels, because this is not that.  At all.
• This book left me feeling: Creeped out.
• How Long Did It Take Me to Read It: About 3-4 hours :)

So there it is.  My book summary for "The Night Bird."  What do you think?  Would you read it based on my review?  What other questions should I add to my book survey?  Do you like Psychological Thrillers?  Let me know!

Book Review Survey & Rating System - Just FYI

For my book reviews, I'm going to be filling out a survey of sorts.  Below are the questions I have chosen.  If you can think of any other questions to add, let me know!

Why I Chose This Book:  

Book Rating (1-5 Stars):  

Setting of the Book:
About the Author:

Plot of the book in one sentence:  

If I Could Rename the Book:  

Genre: 

Point of View: 

Favorite Character: 

Least Favorite Character: 

Other (Main Characters): 

If the Book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters? 

Favorite Scene of the Book: 

Least Favorite Scene of the Book:
Favorite Quote in the Book: 

Did I like the Ending? 

Which of my friends could I see loving this book? 

Which of my friends could I see hating this book? 

This book left me feeling: 

How Long Did It Take Me to Read It: 

Also, I'd like to go over my Book Rating system really quick.  It's between 1-5.  Here are the parameters:

1 - I'm in shock and disbelief that I actually finished this book (or maybe I didn't).  It was either badly written, had multiple typos, or profanity out the wazoo.

2 - I finished the book, but I really wasn't impressed.  At all.  It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, and I would never read it again.

3 - The book was mediocre.  I finished it - I didn't love it, didn't hate it, but I won't read it again.  I may recommend it to a friend, but I probably won't gush about it.

4 - This was a GOOD book.  Well-written, interesting, had great characters and a good plot.  I might read it again in the future (maybe once), and I would definitely recommend it to friends.

5 - This book was AWESOME!  I loved it!  I'll probably read it multiple times in the future, and I'll recommend it to ANYONE - regardless of what type of genre they like.  This book has restored my faith in the printed word.

5+ - I mean, I don't know if I'll EVER have cause to rate a book this way, but if I did, it would be because I LOVED the book and I would read it once a year (or more than once) if I could because it's THAT GOOD.  Or maybe it changed my life in some significant way.

So there you have it.  What do you think of my rating system?  How do you rate the books you've read?  And do you have any questions to add to my book review survey?  Let me know!

Book List 2017

I'm a book lover.  A Sci-Fi/Fantasy obsessor.  And a list-making fanatic (even if I don't stick to them).  So here's my TENTATIVE book list for 2017 (I pretty much just wrote down the books I either purchased or rented through Amazon Prime that I'm planning to read soon. lol)

1) Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
2) Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
3) Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4) Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
5) Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
6) Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
7) Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
8) The Night Bird by Brian Freeman
9) The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling
10) Edgewood by Karen McQuestion
11) Timebound by Rysa Walker
12) Under Different Stars by Amy Bartol
13) The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble
14) The Blue Tattoo: Life of Olive Oatman by Margot Mifflin (Literally the ONLY Non-Fiction book in my book list. lol)
15) The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
16) Where the Heart Is by Billie Lets
17) Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
18) The Pretenders by Lisi Harrison
19) Rewrite Ravensboro by ME!
20) Finish Harkness by ME!

The last two are added for benefit of rounding out the list at 20, but I figure this list should get me to end-of-April, maybe even halfway through the year if I get burnt out on reading.  Yayyyy!  Can't wait :)

New Year's Resolutions - 2017

By now, we all know how bad I am at making plans AND STICKING TO THEM.

But oh well.  Plans are still fun to make.  And then, when I ACTUALLY stick to them, it's AH-mazing!

So here are my resolutions for 2017:

1) Lose another 50 pounds (this will bring me down to my high school weight - which would be awesome!  I've already lost 25 pounds since mid-October!)

2) Pay off all of our immediate debt (by immediate, I mean everything that isn't my student loans - because that will take WAYYYY longer than just one year to pay off).

3) Rewrite Ravensboro (after stepping away from the book for a year, I've realized how haphazardly it was written.  I want to tighten up the storyline, simplify it a bit, and reduce the number of characters so I can really develop one or two.)

4) Finish Harkness (I'm about halfway done - WOOT!  But I'd really like to be ALL the way done, you know what I mean?)

5) Journal/Blog more.  It's been so long since I actually journaled my life, and that's definitely a way for me to reevaluate and emote about things.  Plus, I feel like it improves my writing ability.  So there ya go.

6) Find out where I should be career-wise.  I know I'm not working where I want to be for the rest of my life; I just don't know where my niche is.

Obviously, I have way more things that I would like to do, but these are my immediate focus.  Also, in the "Journal/Blog more" category, I would like to start keeping track of books I've read and recapping them.  My friend, Hannah, has a blog strictly dedicated to this at oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com - you should check it out.

ANYWAY, that's enough for now!  Do YOU have any resolutions?  What are they?  Do you feel like any of mine are unreasonable?  Would any of them be hard for you to do?  Lemme know in the comments! :)

2016 in Review

When I think of where Tyler & I were at the beginning of 2016 and where we are now, I am FLOORED at the number of changes God has wrought in our lives in the past year.

The BIGGEST change I can think of is that we moved TWICE in 2016!  That's right - you heard me - TWO TIMES in a year.  (By the way, I'm fond of emphasizing words by using all-caps; just so you know, it's not that I'm yelling at you in text form. haha)  In March of 2016, we moved from the apartment we'd been living in since we got married (a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment in Auburndale) to a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in Winter Haven.  And we did it all in one weekend, with the help of our families.  The house we moved into, funnily enough, had just been vacated by my best friend, Hannah, her husband, and their two dogs, Major and Colonel.  The house is owned by Pastor Osborne (the pastor of the church I grew up in - Faith Baptist Church) and his wife.  It was a blessing for my husband, myself and our two cats, Jojo & Jeeves (pictured below) to have a place to stretch out in.

After living in the house (and did I mention it was on a LAKE?!) from March - October, we realized God was trying to get our attention about our finances.  We were pretty deep in debt (from schooling and other investments into our current jobs), and with a rent payment, we couldn't afford to make the payments needed to get rid of our debt.  So we started praying about it, and I asked my mom if we could move in with her until we got our debts squared away.  She graciously agreed, and so, at the end of October, we moved (once again in a weekend) from the "Lake House" to my mom's condo, which was a whopping 2 minute drive down the road.  haha   It has been such a blessing to be with my mom during this season.  We did have to make a few adjustments though.  The hardest adjustment for me was getting rid of our cats.  I probably cried for a week straight after we got rid of them, but thankfully, the woman who took them attends the same church we do, and she's kept me up-to-date with pictures and cute little anecdotes, so I know she's taking good care of them!

The second change I can think of is that Tyler, after having to move between jobs since we got married, is finally established as a mechanic at a full-service gas station and auto shop in Lakeland.  It's such a blessing to us to know that we both have consistent income in order to pay off the aforementioned debt ;)  Of course, I'm going on three years of being employed as an Office Manager at a tax & financial office in Winter Haven.  It's not my dream job/career, but it's a full-time job doing something I'm qualified to do, so right now, I'll take it!

Tyler and I are currently attending Life Church in Auburndale where I serve as the Choir Director and he serves as part-time Bass player/part-time member of the security team.  Being involved in the worship team there definitely keeps us active parts of a body of Christ, and it's a good feeling!

I'm still continuing with my hobby of writing; unfortunately, it's taken a backseat for me in light of other commitments on my time.  Apart from work and spending time with my husband, I started a healthy eating plan back in mid-October and have lost 30 pounds so far!  Below is a before and after photo JUST OF MY FACE!  I recently joined a gym, so I'm going to try to become a regular at lifting weights, running on the treadmill, shaking my groove thing in a Zumba class, or whatever I have to do to reach my goal of either (a) losing 80 pounds by the time I turn thirty or (b) dropping 5 dress sizes - whichever comes first.

Well, that's all I can really think of for now.  Hope you're all having a great 2017 so far, and if you'd like to learn more about my adventures over time, feel free to look around my blog!