Where do you get all those books?

I have a few friends that have asked this numerous times. You see, I'm a recovering book-a-holic. That doesn't mean I don't read anymore, it means I can't go into a bookstore without having a book blackout and spending hundreds of dollars. But I love books, and I always have a new book to read, how do I do it? I'm magic! Seriously though, there's many different ways to get free books - legally. You can enter contests - I'm really good at winning those, just won one today. You can join a street team for one of your favorite authors; some of them give you advanced reading copies (ARCs). There's always Amazon, of course! And to help weed out the rotten freebies from the good ones, Bitten By Books has a nice list for ya! Click here, for free reads.

Book Universe is back!

So far my resolution to read more is going well. I finished the Paisley Scott book I mentioned yesterday and I wrote a brief review over on Book Universe. Guess we're back in business. Hah.

As of right now, I'm keeping Aly on the blog as well. She used to do reviews with me. The blog originally started out as a random occurrence. I wanted to keep track of the really good books I read and I liked the idea of having a blog dedicated to it. I ended up reviewing every book I read whether it was good or bad. Slowly, I began to get readers and eventually I had authors contacting me and asking me to read and review their books. I was in heaven - free books!!! But then I started getting busy with my own writing, and I wasn't reading/reviewing as much. I still did the books that were sent to me, but nothing else. Because I wanted to keep up with it, I asked my friend Aly if she wanted to collaborate. We've known each other since high school, and reading was one of the things we bonded over, so I knew she was the right person to ask. She was game, so then it was the two of us. Then I got busier, and it was just her. But she got busy as well, and I realized that we both didn't have the time for it anymore, so I decided to end it.

I will be chatting with Aly tomorrow, to catch up with each other, and I'll bring the blog up. I know she's busy with school and things like that, so if she decides to stay on I don't expect her to have reviews that frequent, but she's always welcomed. :)

Read More, Huh?

I think the universe has added a little incentive to my resolution about reading more.

I recently re-discovered a gem of a book called Secret Santa 4U by Paisley Scott and as fate would have it, Twitter suggested I befriend her, so of course I did! Well, she posted a tweet for an Amazon Best Sellers list of 100 erotic stories that they are currently offering for free. Guess who is at number one? Paisley Scott with a book titled, Sugar Shack. So of course I had to download it, and while I was at it, I decided to check the rest of the list out. I found a few books that piqued my interest. So, I have a feeling, I'll be reviewing soon. ;)

I linked my old review of Secret Santa 4U and linked the Amazon page in case anyone wanted to peruse. :)

Shameless Promoting

I don't know if I've mentioned this here (recently) but I have another blog on blogger, it's a book review blog. I try to read/review a book every other week, but I usually do it sooner...and sometimes it takes me longer.

I enlisted help from the "ex wife" (lol inside joke) and she reviews books there as well. That way I don't have to worry about putting a new review out there as much and can concentrate on other things...such as writing...and playing Sims 3. :D

Why am I mentioning this now? The last two reviews are of The Vampire Diaries and if you guys don't know already, I'm a big fan of L.J. Smith. So I want everyone everywhere to read how awesome her books are! ;-)

Book Universe <---Click to view!

Has Anyone Read The Vampire Diaries???

I'm in some serious need of a discussion!

Damon V.S Stefan

Anyone...anyone at all, that has read this series. I need to discuss.

Who do you like best?
Who do you want Elena to choose?
What about Damon and Bonnie?
Or Bonnie and Matt?

I'M DYING HERE!!!

I need to start a book club!

This Night Just Keeps Getting Better

I know I said I was going to bed like almost an hour ago but I have to blog about this.

I don't even think I can go to sleep tonight! I'm too hyped up.

This has been one of the best nights of my life...and I guess some of you will think it's sad when you read WHY it's been such an awesome night. But you know what...I don't give a fuck! :D

I have friends out there that will get me and those are the ones I'm talking to in this blog.

Let's recap my awesome points of the night:

I watched one of the funniest, saddest, best episodes of Bones.

I saw and am anticipating the season finale of Bones (Bones and Booth NAKED in bed together...doesn't get better than that)

My friend Dylan came over. YAY, I love her.

I get to see her perform Saturday.

I read and reviewed (http://bookverse.blogspot.com) an amazing book called Remembering Ashby by Heather Long.

*Drum roll*

The following events lead to the pinnacle of the night.

Because Lisa Pietsch introduced me to Heather Long and her book, I befriended Heather on myspace...

And you would not believe who one of her top friends is!

LISA JANE SMITH!!! OMG!!!

L.J. Smith is the person responsible for my book addiction. The reason why I read and review books! I used to read in class and participated in Battle of the Books, and even read ahead in reading class...but I never thought to read outside of school...

Until The Forbidden Game Trilogy by L.J. Smith.

The summer after 7th grade...me and my two best friends at the time, the Anna twins, were at my house bored out of our minds! Well it so happens that Anna Maria had a book she just took out of the library and so we decided, what the heck! Let's read it out loud to eachother, its something to do.

I went first...I was only supposed to read the first chapter but they liked the way I read and I was digging the book so I just kept doing...

An hour later I was halfway done with the book and hadn't even noticed I had read for so long. I begged Anna M. to let me borrow the book overnight. And the rest, is history.

After I read the first part of The Forbidden Game I went to the library and got the other two. Then I moved on to The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, and Dark Visions. From that moment on I've been reading, I've never stopped. And it's all because of her.

Then she kinda just fell off the face of the earth, no one knew anything from her since like 1998. I even remember once a while back googling her and not coming up with anything. And TONIGHT I stumbled across her and I was shocked and amazed...

And then I went to her site. And you will not believe what I just found!!!

The Vampire Diaries: The Return!!!

OH MY GOD! NEW STUFF! NEW OLD STUFF!!! WHAT CAN BE BETTER THAN THAT!?!?

So I am beyond giddy! I can't sleep, I don't know what to do with myself. I am so excited! I wish there was a 24hour Borders around so I could go buy the book! And I'm so thankful that I'm the book geek I am and that a few years back I saw The Vampire Diaries at Borders and bought them. So I have the 4 books. So I can re-read them (because it's been years since I've re-read any of her stuff) and then read the NEW one!!!!

And that's why I'm on top of the world right now.

1 migrane and a couple of headaches

That's why I haven't blogged. I swear it's not an excuse! LOL I could barely read much less write. Today is the first time that I've been able to be on the computer for more than 10 minutes, and I'm going to cheat. Instead of writing a blog (though some would consider THIS a blog) I'm just gonna tell you to go to my OTHER blog and read the new book review I just put up. :D So gooooo to Book Universe. You know you want to.

2 Free books and a robbery

Today was a crazy day, to say the least. First I won 2 contests, both over at Coffeetime (yay free books). Then, less than 30 minutes before I left work, I got held up. The guy took 2 packs of Newports and all the money in the register, which was about $300.00

We got a pretty good view of him on our cameras, and I gave a description to the police, I may or may not be able to recognize him though, because he was wearing a baseball cap that covered his eyes. But if he wears the same coat I def. could! Hehe.

Trust me when I say that just because I "sound" ok and like I may be joking around, I was pretty freaking scared. I've never been robbed before, and I've never been told that they have a gun and are going to use it if I don't give them all the money I've got. At first I didn't even believe him, I thought it was a joke. Once it was established that it wasn't and I gave him the money and he ran out, I was kinda in shock. Then I felt my insides trembling, but my 5 year old nephew was around and the police were there so I didn't have time to break down. Even the police officer that saw the playback of the tape said I handled it very well, I told him, "Wait till I get home, I won't be handling it all."

So after I got home, I thought about drinking, but didn't. Felt like crying, but didn't. I ended up just laying in bed and letting the fear grip me, and then I took a nap. How was everyone else's day?

Up in Smoke by Katie MacAlister

I just wanted to take a few minutes of my time and write about Up in Smoke by Katie MacAlister. It's the second book in her Silver Dragon series (which is I guess stems from the Aisling Grey/Green Dragon series). It came out about 2 weeks ago, and I finished reading it a few days ago, and I want to burst! It left me in suspense, and I don't know how long till the next part comes out.

Anyway, if you haven't read this series (or the Aisling Grey) you really should. It's got your paranormals (Dragons, Guardians, Demons, Imps, Doppelgangers, etc.), it's got romance (really yummy sex scenes too, hehe). The books are just great, I also like the way she communicates with the readers. She writes in first person, and talks to us, not as if she were telling a story that already happened, but more as if we were there, and she's just making comments about what's going on, and what she's thinking.

Here's a little bit about Up in Smoke (I wont spoil anything I promise)

It continues about 6 months after May (a doppelganger and a wyvern's mate to Gabriel, wyvern of the silver dragons) sacrifices herself for Gabriel and the sept, and ends up stuck in Abaddon becoming a consort to the demon she was bound to when she was first created. So May and Gabriel have to figure out how to get her out of Abaddon without releasing the demon to the mortal world. Of course in between all of this there's a whole bunch of drama involving dragon politics. With the Black dragon trying to make their sept official again, and fighting with the Silver dragons (because there's some history between both septs, which I wont talk about), the Blue dragons are in the middle of a civil war with eachother, the leader of the Red dragons is stuck somewhere in Abaddon (I won't say how she got there, but I will say it happened in the Aisling Grey series), and so on and so forth. It sounds a bit overwhelming, but trust me, it's all laid out neatly.

So come on folks, hop to it, buy the book, read it. Support this great author, who wants to her book to do well.

Last Couple of Days

*Sighs* Where to begin...

The concert was awesome!!! I always forget that Pat Benatar sounds so much better live (if that's even possible, which it is) I didn't want the night to end, and the opening act was pretty good too (Linsay Rush).

Ok, so let me rewind to this past Saturday (when I got my cute cute dress), I wrote on my previous blog (or the one b4 that, I can't remember) that some-not so good-stuff happened. Well I'm not going to get into MUCH detail, I will say however that it involves Darnell (what a shocker). I don't know what his problem is, but he was distant since he picked me and my friends up, then he was cold, then when I asked him what he tought of my dress he said it was "fine" and when I asked him if that was it, just fine, he shrugged and walked out the store, and got into his car. After I finished shopping, and we headed to the car, I asked him why he left and he said I was being "annoying". Well it really hurt my feelings...more than hurt my feelings actually, but whatever, he was like this for the rest of the weekend.

Mind you, I'm so sick of his deal, I have enough issues with myself as it is, I don't need him to give me a new complex. So I've just been keeping my distance, and out of the blue he calls me yesterday to see how I am, and to see what I've been up to, blah blah blah. Ok here's the deal: He acts like such a mean jerk, and then doesn't talk to me for a few days until I've "cooled down" and then calls me and pretends like he wasn't an asshole, and I'm supposed to just sit here and take it? Oh no no no, he forgets who he's dealing with, just because I've tolerated it for the last few months doesn't mean that I'll continue to do so. I'm the type of person that tries things out, and can admit that sometimes I can be in the wrong, but once I've hit my limit, all bets are off. Mr. Leo is in for a rude awakening because this Capricorn is fed up. So I talked to him yesterday, but kept my answers short, and didn't ask him anything. And he called me again today to ask me to dinner, and I told him I was relaxing in a mumu (sp?). I'm going to give him a taste of his own medicine, and just how he throws it in my face that I'll miss him eventually and come crawling back...that's how I'm gonna play things, and he WILL miss me.

Season premiere of Gossip Girl was Monday, and it was really good. I'm glad Serena and Dan are back together. Leighton Meester's hair is lighter which is cute, but I prefer her w/ darker hair.

Bones' 2 hour premiere was yesterday, and it was orgasmic! Funny, funny, cute, funny (lol) and sad. I cannot believe Hudgens and Angela broke up! They finally get her husband to sign the divorce papers and then everything goes downhill. I can't help but to blame Cam for that, and for the record I KNEW she was going to sleep w/ him... "Can I get a ride to the airport?" HAHA! that's my new pick up line :) (Too bad I never need an actual ride to the airport, since I never go anywhere)

I'm sure I also mentioned before that I got the anthology in the mail (the one I won over at Something Wicked) and I read Cynthia Eden's story first (Spellbound) and it was soooo super good!!! She had me at a witch named Serena lol. Yesterday I finished "Turn Me On" by Noelle Mack, and it was so super good as well. I really like her imagination, I loved her idea, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her stuff (guess that means I need to take a trip to the bookstore soon).

I guess that's all I've got to report...it's all I can think of, sorry but this whole Darnell thing has got me super upset, I'm not getting much sleep, and when I DO sleep I have bad dreams of him. I haven't even worked on my novel (man I'm never gonna get that done)...Truth be told, I don't think I CAN do it, how in the heck am I supposed to write 50,000 words!? I'm nowhere near that, I'm at like 5,000. I swear, I just don't have the discipline, I need a good smack in the face. Argh!