Video | January Book Haul #1

ohhhh, you know...just a few books I got [so far] this month!

Thanks for watching!  Please go to the link up there on the right to subscribe to my channel!!

XOXO, Shelly

Video | December Wrap Up & January TBR

Just a quick little update post, NaNoWriMo style!

Okay peeps, I am sorry I haven't been doing my normal posting lately.  I am 10 days into NaNoWriMo and it's going well, but this means I haven't had a lot of time to read. 

I have signed up for 4 blog tours that all happened to fall this month, I have NO idea how I managed that! So, I have read one of those books thus far and I will have a review post up for that on Wednesday.  Then I have 2 next week and the last one the following week.  I am struggling to keep up with the reading and writing.  I will get those 4 books done and blog tours posted, but I won't be doing any more reading and probably no more posting until December comes.  

I have been doing a few NaNoWriMo videos and posting them on my YouTube Channel, but I am behind on those as well!  I need to just face facts that this is a crazy busy month for me anyway and then adding 50,000 words on top of that was just a little crazy town.  I am doing it though!  I have days where I am ahead and days that I am behind, but I am getting there and as each day passes the words come a little easier.

I guess since I know where my story is going I can give you a little information on it.  It's a YAish Paranormal,  the ish being that the lead female is in high school, but is just turning 18 at the beginning of her senior year and the lead male is 20 going into his 2nd year of college.  It will be YA in content though, I am not confident enough at this point to try to write a New Adult novel.  I don't, by any means, think that what I am writing is good!  I do think that with A LOT of help it could potentially be, but I am not confident enough in it at this point to even let anyone read it.  That may come eventually, but after some serious revision and all that fun stuff.  Right now I am just focusing on getting the words out.

The paranormal aspect comes in the form of young witches with powers of the elements and a curse that wreaks havoc on their town once all the witches have been endowed with their power.   This generation is determined to break the curse without one of the witches having to die, which is how they have been able to survive the curse in the past.   My main character Riley is one of the witches and her love interest Ezra will be a major player in breaking the curse.  I still have a lot of details to work out and I am not sure how it's going to end quite yet, but it's coming together nicely I think.

So, I will see you back here with on Wednesday with a blog tour post and a review of this book...

....until then, Happy Reading!

October Wrap-Up / November TBR AND a Book Haul Video

I have shot a couple new videos so I thought I would throw them up here for you to take a gander at. This first one is my monthly wrap up with an added bonus, a look at what books I am going to be reading in November!

Then I have an October book Haul Video for you...

I am also going to be starting NaNoWriMo today and my goal is to make a little video each day for that so if you want to check those out be sure to check out my YouTube Channel.  If you subscribe you will be sure to not miss any of the fun!

September Reading Wrap Up

This was another short month for me, but I feel like I read a lot!  I think that it looks short because a couple of the books I read were SUPER long.  Monsters took me over a week to read since it was almost 850 pages.  I am not doing too bad though, I just went over the 102 mark for 2013 on my Goodreads challenge.  I have 125 books on there so I am well on my way to hitting my target.  I have also now read 3 of the 25 books on my Challenge Bookshelf.  You can see those books here.

So here is a look at the books I managed to add to my "Read" shelf in September. 

There you have it!  I have a couple of video reviews coming up, but I am waiting on my new HD webcam to get here before I record them.  Also, I have been sick for the past week so my voice has been pretty scary and the coughing kinda ruins the videos!  I am going to be working on promoting my YouTube Channel so hopefully I can start to build my following over there.  I may also be posting videos over there on the days that I don't post here so if you don't want to miss those be sure to follow me over on YouTube.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Reading!

Reading Challenge Update

I finally took a little time today to look at my shelves and decide what books I want to read for this challenge.  At this point in time I have 8 books on my "to be reviewed pile", not counting kindle books, and I am keeping those on my list, but I also added 20 books that I have had on my shelves, some for a long time, that I haven't read.  So here is my list of 20 books that I bought on my own that I plan to read before the end of this year. These are in no particular order.

1. Divergent
2. Alice in Zombieland
3. Sweet Evil
4. 7 Years to Sin
5. Shatter Me
6. The Club Dumas
7. Venom
8. The Passage
9. Suttree
10. The Redbreast
11. For Darkness Shows the Stars
12. Shadow's Claim
13. Heart of Atlantis
14. Eon
15. The Dark & Hollow Places
16. Wake
17. Beautiful Creatures
18. Falling Kingdoms
19. Heart Shaped Box
20. Claire De Lune
21. The Moon Dwellers
22. Graveminder
23. The Luxe
24. The Pillars of The Earth
25. Insurgent

My plan is to come back here and mark these off as I get them read.  I tried to get a nice mix of genres and whatnot.  This isn't even 1/4 of the books on my "need to read" shelves!  I am just going to try to mix these books in with my "need to review"  books and hopefully I will get them all marked off by the time January rolls around.

Are you doing this challenge?  If so link me up and I will go follow your blog!

Happy Reading!

Cover Reveal "Dazzled" by Jane Harvey Berrick

I LOVED Dangerous to Know & Love by Jane Harvey Berrick and I am looking forward to reading her new book Dazzled.  Here is a peek at the cover!

When Hollywood calls, is the price for fame too high?

Miles Stephens is a young actor from London. Out of work, unemployable, and fired from his last job, he gets the chance to star in a break-out role in a big-time Hollywood film.

The film is a great success, propelling him to worldwide Hollywood fame – but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, and the pressure starts to get to Miles.

Throughout, he is supported by his friend, Clare, the girl next door whom he grew up with – and who is secretly in love with him.

Miles finds out that fame and fortune isn’t everything he’d dreamed about.

Keep a look out here for the review, I will be posting it in the next couple of weeks!

August Reading Wrap Up and A Reading Challenge

This was kind of a short month in the reading department and part of that is due to the fact that I am back working.  Another reason is that I have been sewing again and that takes time away from my reading, but I love it so much so it's a good trade off.  Now, I would be set if I were like Heather and I could listen to books on my MP3 while I sew, but I have a weird thing about listening to books and it just doesn't work for me.  I am one of those who, while reading, is totally in the zone to the point that I don't remember whole conversations with my husband and kids!  When I listen to books I have to concentrate too much on listening...sounds weird, but my mind wanders while I am sewing and I miss parts of the book.  I can listen to books that I have already read but I miss out on too much good stuff when it's something new.  It sucks for me because doing 2 of the things I love so much at once would be pretty dang awesome!

So...here is a quick look at what I did manage to add to my "read" shelf in August.

I still have to review most of these!  Actually I know that I will review For Nick, The Gargoyle and probably Ashes, but I don't know that I will review the others.  It will just depend on how my time goes.  I tend not to review every book I read anyway because I only have 3 posts a week and some weeks I do read more than that!  If there is one here that you would like me to review feel free to shoot me a comment and I will write something up.

I have decided to take part in a Reading Challenge that Nette's Bookshelf Reviews has issued.  This couldn't come at a better time too, because I have a TON of books that I have been adding to my shelves that I haven't read.  I tend to buy books nearly every time I go to town.  I get them at The Dollar Tree for $1, I get them at a local used bookstore 3/$1, I do a lot of buy 2 used books get one free, etc....  So here is a shot am my TO BE READ shelves and just a quick warning....it's a HOT mess right now.  

As you can see they are just crammed in there!  They are stacked in front of full shelves so there are a ton there and I think I have probably 10 more books on the top shelf stacked in front of others that I have read!  I have a real problem here!  I actually have an empty bookshelf that I need to fill so all my read books are going to be moved there and this whole shelf will be just for books that still need to be read. I have another shelf that is full of review books that I haven't read for some reason or another, but those are ones that were cold sends, etc... and chances are I won't ever read them.  I may need to do a giveaway so I can pass them on to someone who will enjoy them.

SO...my goal is to read at least 25 of these books (NOT new ones that I add) by the end of this year.  I am realistic enough to know that I am going to get new books and I am going to read those too, but this is in addition to the ones that I have for tours, etc...  I may actually go so far as to pick 25 books out and stick to reading just those from my unread shelf.  When I do I will make sure and post an update with the titles and all that fun stuff.  Oh and once I clean up this mess and get my shelves back in order I will post a picture for you as well.

Happy Reading!

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews, that features books I've received and/or purchased during the current week or in this case weeks.  I have gotten quite a few books recently so I decided not to wait so long to do this post to save myself a little time later on!

For Review

• Burn by Maya Banks (Sullivan & Partners was kind enough to send me the 1st 2 books as well)
• Infinityglass by Myra McEntire (Media Masters Publicity was also kind enough to send me the 1st 2 books in the series)
• For Nick by Taylor Dean
• Joshua's Folly by Taylor Dean
• Nemesis by Bill Pronzini

Special thanks to Sullivan & Partners, Media Masters Publicity, Taylor Dean and TOR/Forge for the review copies.

Bought

This is where if gets a little crazy!  Books A Million is having an awesome summer sale, their reduced price books are buy 2 get 1 free and I got some great books there recently.  I have to stay away though because every time I go in there I find something else I want! Some of these I got at a used bookstore, but most of them are from BAM.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anthology 1, 2, 3
• Claire De Lune by Christine Johnson
• Seven Years to Sin by Sylvia Day
• The Stranger I Married by Sylvia Day
• The Bloodcoven Vampires, book 1 by Mari Mancusi
• Eona by Alison Goodman
• The Luxe by Anna Godberson
• Rumors by Anna Godberson
• Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher
• The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
• Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Ashfall by Mike Mullin
• Bright Young Things by Anna Godberson

 For Kindle

I was a little more conservative in my Kindle selections this time!  I didn't go quite as crazy and one of these was a Kindle loan and 2 were gifts from a friend.

So, this is what my last could weeks looked like.  I have a couple more review books on the way, but I have A LOT of catching up to do!!

Happy Reading!

Stacking The Shelves...the LONG edition!

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews, that features books I've received and/or purchased during the current week or in this case weeks.  The last STS I posted was WAY back in the middle of April so this post will be pretty intensive, especially in the Kindle section!

For Review

• Blood Street by Carl Alves
• Imposter by Susanne Winnacker
• The Rockin' Chair by Steven Manchester
• The Curtain by Patrick Ord
• Burning Embers by Hannah Fielding
• Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
• Perfection by J.L. Spelbring
• The Georgia Corbins by Kara Leigh Miller
• Quarantine: The Loners by Lex Thomas
• Quarantine: The Saints by Lex Thomas

For Review, Kindle

• Killing Sarai by J.A. Redmerski
• Dangerous to Know & Love by Jane Harvey-Berrick

For Review, Netgalley

• The Returned by Jason Mott
• Wicked Beat by Olivia Cunning
• Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead
• The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler
• Dare You To by Katie McGarry
• Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover
• To Sin With a Viking by Michelle Willingham
• Being Me by Lisa Renee Jones

Signed Book
(oh, how I love a Ryan Winfield Signed copy!)

 Bought

• The Perks of Being a Wildflower by Stephen Chbosky
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Taking by Dean Koontz
• Dance With the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• River's End by Nora Roberts
• Playing With Fire by Gena Showalter
• Passion Untamed by Pamela Palmer
• Rapture Untamed by Pamela Palmer
• Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith
• Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
• Schooled by Anisha Lakhani
• Steig Larsson by Jan-Erik Pettersson
• The Faculty Club by Danny Tobey
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The books in the middle photo I got 3 for $1 at a used bookstore near me and the last photo are all hardbacks that I got at Dollar Tree for $1 each!  If there is one thing I can't pass up it's a good book deal!

Now here is where it gets a little crazytown!

Added to my Kindle

I am not going to link all these up because that would take ages, but I will tell you that some I got for free, some were Kindle loans and some were gifts, but I did buy a bunch.  I am going to have to take it easy on the Kindle spending for awhile until I get more of these read!

So, I am curious...have you read any of these books or picked up any of them recently or am I the only crazy one when went WAY overboard with my books in the past couple months?!!