Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My thoughts:
I bought this book for my Kindle, but kept putting off reading it so I borrowed the audio version from the library.  I alternated between the two versions, sometimes listening and sometimes reading.  Even though the audio version came with the photographs that are sprinkled throughout the book, I think they worked better on the page as you came to each at the appropriate time in the story.  I debated letting my children read or listen to this one, but decided some of the references the relationships between men and women seemed to be more than what I feel they are ready for.  I checked the recommended age for the book and it is older than they are, I do believe when they are older this is one that they will enjoy!

Jacob has been seeing things his whole life that everyone tells him are all in his mind.  He has been working with a therapist because of how strongly he has always believed his grandfather's stories.  Then a tragedy unfolds and he ends up going to Wales to see where his grandfather lived during the war in an orphanage on an island.  The problem is the orphanage is a ruin, but somehow when he is there he feels like there more to everything than what meets the eye.  He can hear them when no one should be there.  He finds the secret to the past which opens up a lot more questions about the future.  Jacob finds out the truth about his grandfather, himself and a part of the world he was always told did not exist.  The way the book ended was a bit open ended which made me wonder if there is supposed to be a sequel or if this book is intended to be a part of a fantasy series. 

I loved the way the author used photos he found at flea markets and similar places to come up with back stories about the characters and to lend an authenticity to these children who have such unusual talents.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781594744761
• Publisher: Quirk Publishing
• Publication date: 6/7/2011
• Pages: 352
• Sales rank: 971
• Age range: 13 - 17 Years

Meet the Author

Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children—Los Angeles. Along the way he earned degrees from Kenyon College and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, got married, and made some award-winning short films. He moonlights as a blogger and travel writer, and his series of travel essays, Strange Geographies, can be found at mentalfloss.com or via ransomriggs.com. This is his first novel.

Foreplay: A Succubus Diaries Prequel by Jill Myles

Overview:
Before there were the Succubus Diaries, there was FOREPLAY...


How did Jackie Brighton get turned into a succubus? She can’t remember – all she knows is that she woke up in a Dumpster. This short story tells the tale of that night, and sheds a little light on her masters’ motivations.

My thoughts:
I read this a couple months ago and for some reason never got around to posting a review of it.  I was introduced to the Succubus Diaries through a book tour a couple years ago and I have really enjoyed Jackie and her drama and how she is torn between Zane and Noah.  A little bit of how she became a succubus was covered in the first book, but this prequel takes that little bit of memory that she has and fleshes it out.  It is very short, definitely a one sitting kind of read, but a nice little treat to tide you over as you wait for another full length book in the series to come out.  It leaves you with a question to ponder too about Zane, so a bit of an incentive to keep reading to see if the answer comes out!

Product Details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 146 KB
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B0047GNDXE

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Overview

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

From New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty comes a strikingly original look at friendship, love, and sisterhood—in a future that is eerily believable.

My thoughts:
I liked how each chapter started with both characters names.  The name that was the right way on the page was the character whose point of view the chapter was written in and the upside down one was the opposite sister.  It is almost like they were mirror images of each other, they may look the same but their early life was so different, but for all that they still shared a lot of similarities and feelings about being expected to preg, get pregnant and give birth to a child.

In this future society, everyone is connected by technology all the time by the MiNet.  Almost a what if scenario based on how in touch people already are now and there are issues of how much of a good thing this is.  There are classes of students based on if they are having babies professionally, in a deal brokered by agents with money passing hands, or if they are amateurs who are doing it on their own.

The future of society rests with the very young and they are perhaps not as well equipped to deal with it all as they seem.  The stigma of teenage pregnancy is not if it happens to you, but if it hasn't yet.  Why are you wasting your good years?  You should be pregging for profit to pay for a good college and ensure your own future so you will have the money to pay down the line when you are ready to become a parent to your own child.

On the flip side in Goodside the church has very little technology and stresses marriage early on to have a blessed union in which to bring the new generation in.  It is almost as if they use no technology as a stand against Otherside.

I had not realized that this book was the beginning of a series, so I was a little disappointed when I got to the end and there was no resolution.  I think had I known beforehand that I would have been fine with it, but I never read much about the book prior to starting to read it so I was surprised.  I'll be looking forward to the next one to see how the events from this one play out.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061962745
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication date: 4/26/2011
Pages: 336
Age range: 14 - 17 Years

The Shadow of Your Smile by Susan May Warren

About the book: The Shadow of Your Smile

A beautiful blanket of snow may cover the quaint town of Deep Haven each winter, but it can’t quite hide the wreckage of Noelle and Eli Hueston’s marriage.

After twenty-five years, they’re contemplating divorce . . . just as soon as their youngest son graduates from high school. But then an accident erases part of Noelle's memory. Though her other injuries are minor, she doesn’t remember Eli, their children, or the tragedy that has ripped their family apart. What’s more, Noelle is shocked that her life has turned out nothing like she dreamed it would. As she tries to regain her memory and slowly steps into her role as a wife and mother, Eli helps her readjust to daily life with sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-heartwarming results. But can she fall in love again with a man she can’t remember?

Will their secrets destroy them . . . or has erasing the past given them a chance for a future? Read the story behind the story here: http://www.susanmaywarren.com/books/the-shadow-of-your-smile.

My thoughts:
I received this book as part of a Litfuse Blog Tour.  I read it last month before the holidays and it was just the read I was looking for.  We did not have any snow last month, but it was easy to imagine how  treacherous roads can be and the stress of driving in bad weather.  When Noelle has her accident everything about her life as well as the lives of her family members changes.  But you are left to ponder if the memory loss is a curse or a blessing.  Thing of all the things we hold with us that are better left to fall away, what if you could let all that go in an instant.  No longer feel angry about petty life issues that can easily weigh us all down.  Whose turn it is to take out the trash, who is being taken for granted, who has let go of dreams or wishes.  To see all that gone and not even know it is gone might lift you up.

Noelle and Eli have to relearn each other and she has to relearn the life that she used to have and decide if that is the life she still wants to have.  Pieces of the puzzle of who she was in the twenty-five years that have been erased come back to her or to Eli and they don't always make sense until they are brought into focus and moved to the right place, getting a little bit of information from her friends, acquaintances and her children bring about a picture of the secrets she was keeping or that Eli stopped trying to share.  Eli has secrets as well that come to light.  The fragility of the marriage they had is opened up and decisions must be made.

I was drawn in by this couple and their struggle.  I wanted them to be honest with each other and to find their way.  So often when the going gets tough people head for divorce, but if there was something there worth believing in then one would hope it would still be there and just needs the chance to be nurtured and grown.  After reading this book I want to go back into Deep Haven and find out more about some of the other residents.  I haven't had the chance to look for those books yet, but they have been added to my TBR list!


About Susan: Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder ofwww.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)

A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at:http://www.susanmaywarren.com/.


Link to buy the book.

Blog tour schedule here.
 Come back to Deep Haven and Win!

Enter 1/9 - 1/28.

>

Sometimes love requires a little forgetting ... Come back to Deep Haven and find out what's been happening in your favorite quaint hamlet. If you're new to the Deep Haven series - this is the perfect book to start with - each book in the series is a stand alone story.



Susan is celebrating the release of The Shadow of Your Smile by giving away a prize pack worth over $200 from 1/9-1/28.

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A $200 Visa Gift Card (Use that to rekindle a little romance, treat yourself to a spa day, snap up those shoes you’ve been eyeing, or purchase a few great books!)

• The entire set of Deep Haven Books 

The winner will be announced on 1/30/12 on Susan’s blog, Scribbles! Just click one of the icons below to enter and tell your friends about Susan's giveaway on FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts (Book One of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy)

Overview

"America's favorite writer" (The New Yorker) begins an all-new trilogy-inspired by the inn she owns and the town she loves.

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett's social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen...

The launch of a new Nora Roberts romance series always raised pulse-raising possibilities, but the first of her Inn Boonsboro trilogy is a pleasure onto itself. At its center are Beckett Montgomery, an architect with ambitious plans and a longstanding crush, and Clare Brewster, a young widow bookstore owner who has returned to her hometown. Roberts places readers inside the crosscurrents of small-town America, showing us how relationships evolve and hit speed bumps. With its French-flap cover, an attractive paperback original.



My thoughts:
This is my first library loaned e-book.  Our local library started carrying them last Friday and I checked this one out.  I made the mistake of clicking seven day loan instead of fourteen and felt a bit pressured as this was a busy week, but I managed to get it done before today.  I feel like my reading time has really dwindled lately.

This book was a nice comfortable read.  It reminded me a bit of her Sign of Seven trilogy and the In the Garden trilogy.  The characters had similarities to me to the ones in those books, but it was still a fun read.  Clare owns a bookstore, my dream job even though I know tons of them are going out of business, and Beckett is an architect who works with his family and still does a lot of the physical work as well.  His family is renovating an inn and they are making it into a one of a kind place.  There is a resident ghost who I will be interested to see more of in the second book due out in May.

Clare and Beckett have a grown up romance, she has three young boys and is a widow whose husband died in war and Beckett lost his father young and has always had a crush on her.  They move around obstacles and learn to trust each other.  They encounter the types of issues real people face, kids and job demands, trust and misunderstandings, and everything else.

I love how at the inn they are making each room different and to reflect a couple from a different book, like Elizabeth and Darcy.  It made me want to read the books the characters were taken from!


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780425243213
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publication date: 11/1/2011
Pages: 352
Series: Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy, #1
Product dimensions: 5.30 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Library E-Books!

Today our local library started lending out e-books.  I checked out my first book this morning and have it loaded on my Kindle.  I also checked out an audio book but I cannot seem to get it to transfer to my Ipod.  Not quite sure what it is I'm doing wrong there.  I downloaded one audio book from audible last month and got it to work, but the library system is different and I know I am probably just missing some easy piece.  Hopefully I'll get it sorted out so I can listen to a book while running!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I don't know quite why I haven't posted in so long, but hopefully I'm back in the swing of things now.  Perhaps it is that I haven't finished a book so I didn't feel like I had a review to post, but I missed the Saturday Snapshot, It's Monday, What are you reading? and Checkpoint this week which I don't have any good excuse for.  Time to start thinking about what pictures to use tomorrow!

Dating a Cougar by by Donna McDonald (Book One of the Never too Late Series)

Overview
After several decades of looking for true love and never finding it, aging model and lingerie designer, Alexa Ranger, has finally given up the search. A couple years ago, she got tired of the game completely and just stopped dating. Now friends and family keep her mostly content, so it’s shocking at 50 yrs old to find herself suddenly wanting a sex life again. It’s even more shocking to be attracted to a much younger man this time. She definitely thinks Casey Carter is sexy, but not handling her own age well, Alexa just can’t get passed their twelve year age difference to even consider a fling. Not that it matters anyway, anything resembling a normal dating relationship is totally out of the question because Casey is related to and living with her daughter’s boyfriend. The very last thing Alexa needs is yet another talk-show worthy drama in her already complicated life, no matter how amazing Casey’s kisses make her feel.


For a couple of years, 38 yr old, medically retired Marine, Casey Carter, believed his military injury had made him impotent. Having lost his wife to cancer, he hadn’t exactly been worried about the problem. Most days walking with cane was enough challenge for him. But now that he was ready to move on with his life, he had become more worried when none of the females his cousin brought around held any interest for him. So the last woman in the world he expected to start his engine revving again was the mother of his cousin's girlfriend. Even at fifty, Alexa is drop-dead gorgeous, and his libido certainly keeps reminding him she is the first woman he has wanted in a long, long time. Ironically, the more Casey gets to know and like Alexa, he finds out desiring the older woman is the easiest part. Jaded and cynical about love, Alexa is a difficult woman to convince of anything, but her kisses are all the proof he needs that they belong together. The former Marine decides his next mission is figuring out how to fit himself into her life.
 
My thoughts:
So I had a picture in my mind of what a cougar was, not just the actual animal cougar, but the women who are now referred to as cougars.  I saw an older woman, not sure how old but older than your usual bar crowd I guess, who was looking for a younger man.  And by looking, I mean actively seeking someone to date who is significantly younger, I guess I saw someone who was a predator like the animal, wearing tight clothes to lure in some young meat.  That sounds terrible, but that is what always came to mind with the word cougar.  Also, wearing animal print was up there on my list.  This book turned that notion around.  Yes there was an age difference, but Alexa was not out there looking to meet a younger man, she wasn't even looking to meet anyone, it simply happened and then the age difference  came front and center and had to be dealt with.  I read this book as a free downloads and I wasn't sure if it would be any good since I had never heard of it.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked the characters and came to care about them.  I am even considering looking into reading more in the series.
 
I read this book as a free e-book on my Ipod.  When I just checked now it is still listed as a free book.  Since my Ipod is still pretty new I've been trying out different features and wanted to see what it would be like to read a book on it.  I love that it tells me what page I am on of how many and also that it says how many more pages are still to go in my current chapter.  I love that feature because if it is less than ten or twenty I will finish the chapter before stopping, but if it is more like forty I will just bookmark it.  The tiny screen isn't the best place to read, but being back lite really helped while we didn't have power, except I used up the battery and then  had to wait to charge it!
 
Details
•Pub. Date: March 2011
•Publisher: Donna McDonald, via Smashwords
•Sold By: SMASHWORDS - EBKS
•Format: NOOK Book (eBook)
•BN ID: 2940011239090

Meet The Author
Donna McDonald has been a writer all her life and managed to complete her first novel in August of 2010. Her idea of success is to be on an airplane and see a fellow passenger reading one of her stories. If the person is laughing or smiling, she will consider it a bonus. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her fiancée, Bruce. Her work history covers everything from housekeeper to business owner to college English instructor. It also includes an eighteen year stint as a technical writer, publications planner, and information architect in the corporate world. Her current career goal is to be a prolific, multi-published author for the rest of her life and write stories readers will love to read. She thinks a little travel and adventure would be nice, too.