GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

I know how EVERYONE who is a bookish freak like myself, LOVES book giveaways! Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews is hosting a giveaway for her 2 year blog-anniversary!

She has some AWESOME prizes available, probably one of the best prizes I've seen yet. So make sure you head on over to her blog and check her out!!

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Title: Lock and Key

Author: Sarah Dessen

Where I Got It: Borrowed it from my roommate

Why I Read It: I've heard numerous times that Sarah Dessen is a great author

Rating: 3/5 stars


Overview from Barnes and Noble:

"Ruby is used to taking care of herself. But now she's living in a fancy new house with her sister Cora - a sister she hasn't seen in ten years - and her husband Jamie - creator of one of the most popular online networking sites. She's attending private school, wearing new clothes, and for the first time, feels the promise of a future that include college and her family. So why is she so wary? And what is Nate - the adorable and good-hearted boy next door - hiding behind his genial nature? As Ruby starts to see, there's a big difference between being given help, and being able to accept it. And sometimes, in order to save yourself, you've got to reach out to someone else."

This book was an okay book. It wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't horrible at the same time. I think my biggest issue with it is that it started off really slow. And it doesn't go into a whole lot of detail why Ruby and her sister Cora had a bad childhood with their Mother. Don't get me wrong, it does explain it enough for you to understand, but in the same token, I feel like there could have been a little bit more information to make the story better. Does that make sense?

Ruby is the type of plain clothes person, who is happy with what she has. She doesn't expect more from people, and she takes what she can get. She understands that happiness comes from what you have, and you just have to take it as it comes. 

When Ruby is forced to move in with her sister, she had to change all of her beliefs about being happy with what she had, because Cora and Cora's husband Jaime were most "high class" than Ruby was ever use to. Ruby has a hard time dealing with this, and wants nothing more than to go back to taking care of herself. She wants to know who told on her, and who found out that she was the one taking care of herself, instead of her mother. She also wants to know what happened to her Mother. 

Ruby has been hurt so many times throughout her life, that it's hard for her to trust anyone. So, when Cora's neighbor Nate befriends her, she's very cautious and stays clear of him as much as possible.

As the overview states, this book is all about taking a deep breath, and being able to accept the help that's given, rather than saying that you're fine without the help of others. It's also about GIVING help to others, even while you need it yourself. 

As I stated, the book was a good book. Don't get me wrong, but it was just a slow starter. I think that's the main reason I gave it the 3/5 stars. If it would have caught my attention from the very beginning, it would have been at least a 4/5. 

I do recommend this book to those who like Young Adult books and/or Sarah Dessen. It's worth a read if you just want an easy read. It is quite a thick book, but it's a smooth reading book, so you can get through it at a decent pace, once the book starts getting interesting. 

Find Sarah Dessen online: www.sarahdessen.com

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/sarahdessen

My Rating:

One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald

Title: One True Theory of Love

Author: Laura Fitzgerald 

Where I Got This Book: From the Dollar Tree

Why I Read It: I was looking for a few new books, and this one caught my eye. I read the back of it, and instantly wanted to read it.

Rating: 5/5 Stars


Overview from the back of the book:

"Meg Clark believes in the "hokey pokey" theory of life, which demands that you put your whole self in; she even teaches it to her kindergarten students. But after  the love of her life betrays her, and her father takes a flying leap off the pedestal she set him on, Meg has a hard time putting this theory into practice. What's the point of opening yourself up if your heart comes back a little more broken each time?

Not only one man receives Meg's full devotion: her nine-year-old son, Henry. She's happy with her single-mom life. She and Henry are taking on the world in their own lively way, and it's enough. Still, sometimes love finds you, whether you're ready or not.

Love comes to Meg in the form of Ahmed Bourhani, an exotically handsome Iranian-American who befriends her and Henry over a game of chess in a coffee shop. Meg knows that second chances require a leap of faith, and the result more often a complicated mixed bag than a neatly packaged happily-ever-after. Sometimes in order to heal you have to hurt, but most of all you have to live your life and put your whole self in...."

This book was AMAZING! I don't know if any of you have Dollar Stores in your area, but it's probably one of the best places to buy books. I only spent $1.06 on this book and it was the best $1.06 I've ever spent. 

I love books that I can FEEL something from. I think that I could feel something so strongly because I have been going through a heartbreak for a while now. I'm a lot better than I was almost two years ago, but there are still those days where the pain comes back a little more, and you think that you'll never be able to love again, or be whole again. This book teaches you that you can't let yourself go, that life isn't always guaranteed, and that you have to "Put your whole self in." It's the only way to go about life, heartache, betrayal, and everything else that goes into living life. 

Laura did a fantastic job at bringing her characters to life. She gets deep into the personalities, the life, and relationship between her and her son Henry. While reading this book, you will feel like you KNOW these two, as well as the other characters through out the book. 

This book taught me that even though you're hurting now, and you think that you can't ever love again, you WILL find love again. This book teaches you that there is such thing as second chances at love. And, as the back of the book says, "Sometimes in order to heal, you have to hurt, but most of all you have to live your life and put your whole self in..."

I'm not a big fan of rereading books, but after doing this review (I read this a couple months ago), I am about 100% positive that I want to, and probably will, reread this book again. It's an amazing book. 

This book is for those people who have loved and lost, who have been hurt, who think they can never love again. It's for those people to teach them that it WILL be okay, the pain lessens, and you will be able to love again.

I really can't think of anything about this book that I DIDN'T like. It was just all around a fantastic book.

I highly recommend this book to you. Go out and buy this book, ask a friend for it, just make sure you read it. 

Visit Laura Fitzgerald online: http://laurafitzgerald.com/

My Rating:

Dream House for Bookish People!

Hey everyone! Just a quick bookish entry for all of you! I know i've been MIA, and hopefully all of you are still following me. Its just been an interesting couple of months. But, i'm going to try my hardest to get out of this slump and back into reviewing/book blogging! Anyways.

Here's a bookish entry for you.

I was reading Yahoo News (I am a huge News freak!) and came around this article titled: House of Shelves. It's this house that has been built out of shelves. Shelves and shelves and shelves for this person (or family), to put thousands of books inside of it! It's structurally safe to withstand earthquakes and what not too! When I came around this, I said that I NEEDED a house like this!

Now, for all of your bookish people out there, have you ever dreamed about what would be in your house for all of your books? In the years that I've been reading, I've always said I wanted a room that was my library. I want 3 of the 4 walls covered in book shelves from floor to ceiling filled with books I've read and/or wanted to read. Now, after seeing this article, and seeing the pictures, I may have decided I want a house like this one!

Make sure you check out this article/picture by clicking HERE. Let me know what you think. What are your dreams about your house, whether it's the one you live in now, or a future house, so that all of the books you've ever wanted would fit?

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Title: Sing You Home


Author: Jodi Picoult


Where I Got It: Bought it from Target


Why I Read It: Jodi is a favorite author, and I've read all of her books!


Rating: 5/5 stars




Overview from Barnes and Noble:

"Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.

Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter’s life. There’s the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.

For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.

In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don’t want that to happen.

Sing You Home is about identity, love, marriage, and parenthood. It’s about people wanting to do the right thing for the greater good, even as they work to fulfill their own personal desires and dreams. And it’s about what happens when the outside world brutally calls into question the very thing closest to our hearts: family."

While attempting to write the review for this book, I was trying to decide whether or not I should elaborate more on what the book is exactly about. I don't want to give away too much information, or spoil anything though. But after careful consideration, I decided to go into a little bit more detail.

This book is about loving someone you didn't think you'd ever be able to fall in love with. You know how the saying goes, "You can't help who you love." Zoe, one of the main characters in the book, falls in love with a woman at the school she does music therapy for. Zoe has never before been interested in other girls, and was married to her husband for a significant amount of years. Sadly, Zoe wasn't able to get pregnant, and the long hauls, trials and tragedies that most couples go through while trying to get pregnant, tore her and her husband apart. As Zoe falls in love with this woman, Zoe's family, including her ex-husband, ridicules her left and right for who she fell in love with. 

As I said, I don't want to give too much away. A lot more happens in this book that makes you take a look at your life and ask yourself, "What would I have done in a position like that?" And in the end, you really don't know until it's happened to you.

I know what it's like to be judged for the person you love by your family. I dated an African-American for 7 years and no one, except my Dad, Sister and Brother accepted it. My Mom tried for years to break us up, and did everything in her power to make her out to be incredibly racist. So, this book touched my heart in certain aspects, only because I know what it's like to be judged for loving someone "different". 

As you've probably guessed, a lot more happens in this book. But it's about finding new love, unexpected love, loving yourself, loss, happiness, and proving to others that all love, is good love.

I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE!! Especially if you think you in some way could relate. Jodi Picoult is an AMAZING author, and she does extensive research in all of her books, making her books very real.

On a side note, Ellen DeGeneres has bought the movie rights to this book. She plans on making the movie almost identical to the book. You can find more information about this by clicking here.

Let me know if you any of you have already read this book, and if not, when you do read it, let me know what you think of it!!! 

Find Jodi Picoult Online: www.jodipicoult.com

My Rating:

SORRY EVERYONE!!

Hey Everyone! I just wanted to write a real quick post, apologizing for not having anything posted in a very long time!!! I moved into a new apartment, and we JUST got internet in the new apartment. I will HOPEFULLY be back on regularly, and able to post reviews!

Leaving By Karen Kingsbury

Title: Leaving

Author: Karen Kingsbury

Where I got it: Karen did a contest on her Facebook page where 40 of us out of thousands got to read an Advanced Copy of this book, and I was one of them that was chosen!

Why I Read It: Not only do I love Karen's books, but Bailey is one of my all time favorite characters EVER!

Rating: 5 stars




Summary from Barnes and Noble:

The Bailey Flanigan series begins with Bailey leaving Bloomington for the adventure of a lifetime. She has won an audition for the ensemble of a Broadway musical in New York City. She's determined to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but is she really ready to leave family and friends for the loneliness of the city? And what of Cody? His disappearance has her worried about their future and praying that their love can survive.

In order to be closer to his mother in jail, Cody takes a coaching job in a small community outside Indianapolis. New friends, distance, and circumstances expose cracks in his relationship with Bailey Flanigan.

Love, loneliness, big opportunities, and even bigger decisions highlight the first book in the new Bailey Flanigan series that features members of the popular Baxter family and finally completes the Bailey Flanigan/Cody Coleman story.

~~

So, as was mentioned in the summary, this is the first book in the Bailey Flanigan series. For those of you who don't know who Bailey is, she's a character from other books that Karen has written. Bailey is such a lovable character, that Karen decided to make Bailey her very own series. 

This book was absolutely amazing. It was heart warming, funny, sad, heart breaking, inspiring, and incredible all rolled into one. Karen has a way of making ALL of the characters come to life in your mind when you're reading her books, and this book was no exception. I felt like I was BEST FRIENDS with Bailey, and knew her family in real life. When a book can make you feel this way, you know it's a one of a kind book!

This book is about Bailey finally realizing that her dream is coming true, and in order for her dream to come true, she has to Leave her family and friends in her own state of Indiana, and move to New York to be in a Broadway play. It's not easy for ANYONE to leave loved ones behind to make your own dreams come true, but Bailey shows us that it's okay to do so. And that God has a plan for ALL of us, and that once he opens a door for that plan, we must take it with our heads held high or we'll regret it for the rest of our lives. 

I've been on both sides of this book. I've been the one who has left, when I went to a new city for College and left my Mom, who is my hero, behind. And I've been on the side where I've been the one who has been left behind. My ex boy friend and I split up and went our separate ways because God opened doors for him to follow his dreams, and I didn't, and couldn't, get in the way of that. 

This book teaches us that it's okay to follow our dreams. That it may hurt to follow your dreams because you're leaving your loved ones behind, but in the end, it's what you accomplish that matters the most. 

Anyone who is struggling with finding their way in life, finding out if love is worth fighting for, and WHO is worth fighting for, who is trying to find a relationship with God, or rekindle their relationship for God, or those of us who aren't sure if dreams really DO come true, should read this book. You don't have to necessarily read the books that Bailey is in in the other series outside of this series to understand the back stories, so if you're starting with The Bailey Flanigan series, it's okay. You'll enjoy them just as much as I did and do! 

A cool fact about Bailey, and this series is that it's pretty much based off of the life of Karen. Almost everything that Bailey goes through, Karen's daughter Kelsey has been through too. Not EVERYTHING in Bailey's life reflects Kelsey, but a lot of it does. 

Kelsey plays Bailey on Facebook, so "Bailey" has her own Facebook page, which can be found HERE.

I'm excited for the next book, Learning, to come out on June 22nd! I can't wait to see where Life, and God, takes Bailey next!

As I mentioned, I was picked as a winner in a contest from Karen where I got to read an Advanced Copy of this book and do a review for her. This book will be published and available for everyone to read on MARCH 22ND, 2011!

Find Karen Online:

www.karenkingsbury.com

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorKarenKingsbury

My Rating: