The Next Always

Title: The Next Always
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Inn of Boonsboro (Book 1)
Genre: Romance





Nora Roberts has always been one of my favorites. Her latest series centers around a family of 3 men and their mom who are renovating a historical building into a bed and breakfast. The first of the three men, Beckett has had a crush on Clare since he was in his early teens. She has gotten married, moved away, had 3 sons and then returned a widow. 

A nice and fluffy read. Lately I feel like I've been reading less plain, contemporary romance novels and this was a nice change. My favorite was Lizzy the ghost!

The Boys and Girls Learn Differently: An Action Guide for Teachers

Title: The Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Action Guide for Teachers
Author: Michael Gurian
Series: None
Genre: Non-Fiction




I've been doing some professional development over the summer. A few things that stuck out for me from this book:
- Males see better in a brighter light
- When testosterone is high, boys do better in math. 
- Boys need louder voices than females
- Boys learn better when they start with the general concept and then apply it
- Boys do better with abstract thinking, not necessarily manipulatives

There are a bunch of ideas that are listed that we already implement in my school.
- Rites of Passage
- Uniforms
- Ratio of 1:20 - ours is actually lower
- Team teaching and mentoring

A few ideas that I thought about bringing to the table next year as mentioned in the book:
- Stress Balls
- Buddy Rooms - Send a student to a safe place to work it out. Use another teacher who they are close with.
- BIST Model - While it's a little extreme for us, there are elements that I liked. including the Recovery Room, a THINK sheet and checking out with a teacher.

City of Glass

Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Mortal Instruments (Book 3)
Genre: Young Adult

City of Ashes

Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Mortal Instruments (Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult

City of Bones

Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Mortal Instruments (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult

Fifty Shades Freed

Title: Fifty Shades Freed
Author: E. L. James
Series: Fifty Shades of Grey (Book 3)
Genre: Erotica




By the time I got to this book I was in love with Christian and Ana and couldn't wait to finish!

Christian and Ana are going to get married (they've known each other how long?).  This time they experience the growing pains of a couple in the public eye.

I was disappointed in this book.  It seemed to fall flat where the others were done so well.  There was a lot of flash backs so that certain things were never covered, the drama seemed to be unexciting and the story telling was lacking.  "And then this happened, and then this happened and then this happened."  Whatever finesse had been around for the first two left during the third book.  I felt like it was a little kid telling the story without any real knowledge how to make it flow.

On top of it all I felt like it was too wrapped up in the end.  Perfect everything.

Fifty Shades Darker

Title: Fifty Shades Darker
Author: E. L. James
Series: Fifty Shades (Book 2)
Genre: Erotica




On to book 2 of the series that everyone seems to be talking about.

Christian and Ana have broken up at the end of Fifty Shades of Grey, but cannot seem to be kept apart.  They get back together when they go on a previously arranged "date" for an event.  The two have to learn to grow both as individuals and together to make it work.  This is a story about growth.

I was surprised at the growth of the two characters in this novel, and although unrealistic (who needs realistic?) in the amount of time, I still enjoyed laughing my way through the book.  Another simple and enjoyable read as long as you're not looking for the next winning piece of literature.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Title: Fifty Shades of Grey
Author: E.L. James
Series: Fifty Shades (Book 1)
Genre: Erotica




Shy, lip biting, insecure, blushing Anastasia Steele goes to interview the confident, wealthy, controlling Christian Grey.  She embarrasses herself (so she thinks) but get's the interview finished.  Christian, however can't get her out of his mind and seeks her out to start a relationship.


There is so much more to the story, yet not at all.  I had low expectations when I picked up this famous book.  With all the waves it's been making lately, I felt like I had to read it.  I didn't expect to think they were so funny.  

The books have been getting a lot of slack for not being that great.  Sure, the writings not fantastic - but what does one expect from Erotica?  I went in looking for a light hearted read that would hopefully get me out of this reading slump I've been in.  This definitely fit the bill.


The sex is less than I imagined, not much different than some of the romance novels I like to read.  That also was a surprise to me.  I would never go as far as to call it porn, that's for sure.  


And the "cliffhanger" type ending I keep hearing about?  I didn't feel it was that much so.  I mean I definitely picked up the next book right away, but I've been left with worse.


So they're also making this into a movie.  The sex is such an integral part of the story, I have no idea how they're going to make this anything less than essentially a porn.  So many important things revolve around the sex, I don't think it can be glossed over.


There are lists all over the internet for who should play Christian and Ana.  I would love to see some Ian Somerhalder - hot.

Three Little Secrets

 

Title: Three Little Secrets
Author: Liz Carlyle
Series: None
Genre: Historical Romance

I love when romance novels are slightly different.  When there is something about the story that takes it out of the norm.  In this case, the main couple had been irrationally married at Gretna Green when they were young.  Due to a misunderstanding, Maddie thought her father had paid of Merrick and that their marriage had been annulled, while Merrick believed that Maddie had run away from him and didn't want to be married to him anymore.

Both have lived a lot in the pats 12/13 years since that happened.  But when they see each other again, they have the same reactions to each other.  It's as if neither one of them has gotten over the other.  But since they both believe that the other had betrayed them, it's a long road to getting back to together.

I haven't read a straight romance novel in a while and I forgot 2 things.  One, how much of a simple pleasure they are.  Easy reads that make me feel happy and doe-eyed.  The second thing is how predictable they are and overall not that entertaining.  I guess going from A Game of Thrones to a "trashy" romance novel wasn't the best choice.

A Game of Thrones

Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
Series: A Song of Ice & Fire (Book 1)
Genre: Fiction; Fantasy

So, until I can figure out how to choose a custom size for my book photos, things are probably going to look a little odd.  That's what I get for waiting so long to finish another book.

I have just not felt the reading bug for a long time.  I bought this book brand new and have carried it around in my purse for months.  It looks well loved and beat up and until recently hadn't even been read.

I can't even give a description of the book - there are SO MANY characters and lots of plot lines to go along with it.  I'd been told by many friends to read this book, that it was slow in the beginning (try the first 300-400 pages) but that if I stuck with it it would get better.  I did and it did.  What started off as a chore to read, where I had to constantly re-figure out who I was reading about and what was going on, turned into a page turner in the end.

So what did I think?  I didn't think it was amazing but I did think it was pretty decent - maybe a B or B+ kind of story.  I was confused for a majority of the book.  As mentioned, there were so many characters, all with unique names and land holdings, that I couldn't keep track of anyone.  That in combination with each chapter being told from a different characters point of view was just horrific in my opinion.

But once I started to know the characters it got a lot better and I actually enjoyed the last several hundred pages.  I bought the books as a boxed set, so I'll continue to read the series.  But first, I plan on watching the first season on the TV series.  I'm hoping it solidifies these characters a little more for me and gets me ready for Book 2.

I Dream of Genies

Title: I Dream of Genies

Author: Judi Fennell

Series: None

Genre: Romance

Holy major reading slump! I just haven't had the urge to pick up a book in over 2 months. The only reason I even read this one is I was extremely slow at work and I had been carrying this book around in my backseat for months. I probably wouldn't have read anything otherwise.

Eden is a genie who is currently fulfilling a 2,000 year punishment of being confined to her bottle. She killed a previous master who wanted her to kill his children. She watches from the store front that her bottle is displayed in and sees her crush every day.

Then the day comes where the shop owner decides to close up and throws her bottle in the trash. Somehow the pressure of being in the garbage truck plus some help from her car friend Obo, she is thrown out of her bottle, landing right on Matt's lap.

Matt Ewing, Eden's crush, seems to have a thing for taking in strays and when Eden lands on his lap, he does just that. A bit hard to believe when she wakes up in his arms and the two of them start making out right away - really?

Eden is on the run trying to find all the things that make her a genie: her bottle, her bottle stopper and her bracelets so that she can be her own master and not have to answer to the keeper of the genies. She tells Matt the truth and the two start the journey together.

This was a lighthearted story that at times was hard to believe. While I'm okay with putting my beliefs of magic and what not on hold, I still want a believable relationship or story between the two characters.

I really enjoyed their journey to the djinn's eggs and the riddles they had to encounter, as well as learning about the genie world. This book seemed to get decent ratings on Amazon (4.5/5) but just left me feeling lukewarm.r

Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games (Book 3)

Genre: Young Adult

After Katniss shoots the arrow into the force field in Catching Fire, she is airlifted out to District 13. That's right, District 13 does exist and it's been built entirely underground. It is the home of the rebellion against the Capitol and Katniss is going to become the Mockingjay - and figurehead to the rebellion.

This book started out simply lukewarm for me. I didn't like that Peeta was missing (I mean nonexistent in the book - we know he's at the Capitol) and that Katniss had all this time with Gale that was missing all of the warmth and humor that she has with Peeta. Learning about District 13 was interesting enough, but when the battle started it went downhill from there.

When Katniss is actually placed in battle near the Capitol, it was the beginning of the end for me. I didn't like all the nasty things that happened during the battle. I understand that it was war, but it wasn't simply killing but the way people were killed and tortured. It was disturbing. When the end of the book came, I set it down and didn't want to go to sleep because I felt so disturbed.

I felt as if the trilogy was amazing - but that it started on a high point and went down from there. Mockingjay was definitely my least favorite book of the three.

Catching Fire

Title: Catching Fire

Author:Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games (Book 2)

Genre: Young Adult

After winning the Hunger Games with their Berry move, Katniss and Peeta are going on a tour of the Districts. But before they can go, Katniss finds out that they are in major trouble. The Capitol, and namely President Snow, don't like being made the fools. President Snow even makes his own personal visit to Katniss to remind her to make sure that she looks like a fool in love - because he doesn't believe it. He threatens her with her family and friends.

When the tour begins, everything in the districts seems to be a bit tense. It seems that Katniss's move in the Hunger Games has made the districts want to rebel. The Hunger Games this year are the 75th Hunger Games. Each 25 years there is a little yellowed note that is read to determine what the extra twist is going to be. Imagine how horror struck Katniss is when she learns that this year, the Hunger Game "contestants" will be the victors from previous years. Since she's the only girl from District 12, it looks like she's going back in.

Twisted me - I like when they are in the Games. I think that's why I enjoyed the first book so much and this book got better to me once they were in the games again. Aside from that Katniss has turned a little wishey washey and seems to not really know what to make of most things. I feel this book is a little dirtier, with everyone having lived a little and not being so naive. In my mind Gale never has a chance against Peeta - it's clear to me as a reader. But I hate this in between, Gale doesn't like me anymore stuff. I want more Peeta!

It was another page turner and you could just feel the rebellion growing. I know that in book 3 all hell is going to break loose.

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games (Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult

In a future society, that use to be North America, there are the Hunger Games. Surrounding the Capitol are 12 Districts, each completely unique and making something for the Capitol. Each year, one boy and one girl from the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen to compete. Your name gets added once a year at least. You can also choose to have your name added additional times to "pay" for food and oil for your family.

Katniss is the main character, a 16 year old girl who volunteers herself for the game to save her younger 12 year old sister Prim. For District 12, the Hunger Games usually spell death. Katniss promises her sister she will do her best to win, and heads off to the games with Peeta, the boy chosen from District 12.

The Hunger Games are a fight to the death. 24 contestants enter, and one leaves the winner. The Gamemakers have the ability to alter the weather, terrain and many other variables in the arena where the game is played. Many contestants starve to death, die from dehydration or other exposure to the elements.

Without giving the story of the Hunger Games itself away, I could not put the book down. I've been so busy with work lately, and tried to start reading many books, but have not had the energy or heart to continue with them. I was hooked into the Hunger Games within the first few pages. I felt for Katniss and her practically starving family, and found myself getting up to eat constantly throughout this book. The descriptions of being hungry and thirsty were so intense I had to sate myself.

The story is told from Katniss's point of view, which I thought was perfect. The reader never knows everything that is going on, much like Katniss and it gives you that same slight sense of panic about what is going to happen. I found myself crying throughout the book as it is full of hard decisions and death.

I have seen this book around the bookstores for years, but have always been put off by the (in my opinion) unattractive cover. I heard there was a lot of hype and heard about the releases of the next books, but still I didn't pick them up. It wasn't until I found out there was going to be a movie (March 23, 2012) that I decided it was time. I don't know what took so long!

Succubus Revealed

Title: Succubus Revealed

Author: Richelle Mead

Series: Georgina Kincaid (Book 6)

Genre: Paranormal

Georgina and Seth are working on their relationship and rationing sex. Everything seems to be going pretty well until Georgina finds out she's being transferred to Las Vegas. It seems like a Succubus's dream, but not Georgina's.

She goes and checks it out and everything seems perfect. Seth even wants to move with her, but then his sister has cancer and seems to be doing very poorly. Georgina doesn't want to let him leave her family alone.

And then things start to not add up. Georgina's paranormal group of friends are thinking about how something is not right. Georgina's transfer seems to be a way to keep her and Seth apart. It's time to try and think about the contracts again. Through some past life regression, Georgina and her friends find some very interesting information.

Quite an end to the series. I did feel as if it were a little far fetched (although apparently, making deals with Hell is not?) but enjoyed it just the same. Everything is wrapped up and ended on a perfect note.

Wolfsbane

Title: Wolfsbane

Author: Andrea Cremer

Series: Nightshade (Book 2)

Genre: Young Adult

Calla wakes up and she is in the Searchers' Academy, although she doesn't know that right away. Since switching sides and going against everything that she knows - she is now in a situation where she knows nothing. Within a short time of waking she is reunited with Shay. The two of them along with the Searchers start making a plan to overthrow the Keepers.

This book is chock full of information. We learn about how Guardians came to be (supposedly the real story), what's up with the Keepers and the Searchers and more about everyone's background. Sure there wasn't a lot of action until the very end, but I felt like it was full of information that will be needed to fully understand the war going on.

The reader is often left feeling confused and not completely sure about the happenings...much like our main characters. We are in the same boat as them and learn about things as they do.

There were a few parts in this book where I was shocked by the acts of violence that happen or are mentioned. This is definitely going to be a bloody war.

Spell Bound

Title: Spell Bound

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Genre: Paranormal

Series: Women of the Otherworld (Book 12)

I recently finished reading this book, and couldn't even explain what it was about. It was a book full of fluff.

At the end of Waking the Witch, the cliffhanger was that Savannah has lost her powers. Well, at the end of Spell Bound, she still has no powers. The other characters of the stories that we know and love don't make much of a showing (just Adam). Adam and Savannah's relationship doesn't move forward past friends.

Throughout the story Savannah is looking for who took her powers and how to get them back...she doesn't really get any information regarding this. She does learn that there is a group of paranormals who want to be able to be out in the open. They briefly kidnap her...but there still isn't much that develops from that.

Hopefully this fluff will be rounded out with a great next book.

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron

Title: The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Series: Highland Pleasures (Book 3)
Genre: Historical Romance



Lord Cameron, a Mackenzie, never wants to get married again. His late wife, Elizabeth, was abusive towards him and his son. He's never really emotionally healed from that and now sleeps with married women of the ton.

Ainsley Douglas, the queen's confidant, has been sent on an errand to retrieve some stolen love letters of the queen. She is caught by Cameron rooting around in his bedroom looking for the letters.

It seems at first that Cameron wants to make Ainsley his mistress and she hems and haws about it, not wanting to embarrass her family. Although she knows that she loves him and would like to be pampered and taken care of. She finally puts her worry for her family aside and agrees to go away with him. He surprises her, instead, by taking her to get married. But the happily ever after doesn't happen then. Ainsley has to help him to work through his emotional scars left by his wife.

Again, Jennifer Ashley put something a little different into her story. The MacKenzie family is a strange breed and I feel like each sibling's story has something not 100% traditional about it. How often do you get an abused man in a romance novel? She also wins for longest book names.

I fell for Cameron right away, although was irritated by Ainsley's name. I had a hard time remembering she was the main female character, because I find Ainsley to be a boy's name. I kept thinking - who is this guy?

Overall, I felt there could have been a little more conflict to the story - they came together too easily. But otherwise it was another original read.

The Duke's Perfect Wife (Hart's Story) is up next, due out April 2012

A Night to Surrender

Title: A Night to Surrender
Author: Tessa Dare
Series: Spindle Cove (Book 1)
Genre: Historical Romance


Spindle Cove is Susanna Finch and many other ladies oasis. It is a small seaside town that has few men and what men there are aren't much bother. The ladies who go to Spindle Cove are those that just don't fit in the rest of society. They may be spinsters, "ill" or simply not get along with their husband. It is a perfect retreat where their days are filled with activities and womanly fun.

Then Victor Bramwell, a hurt soldier who only wants to return to the battlefield, arrives to speak with Susanna's father and everything is set on it's head. The women are forced to be around men again - and that includes Susanna. Susanna and Bram are drawn to each other and don't let much get in their way.

The character of Susanna was such a strong character, yet seemed to totally change once Bram was on the scene, I felt much in the same with Bram. It's like the author created 2 characters initially then completely changed to different ones. I understand that a character might develop within a relationship, but in this story did not feel that was the case.

I felt that the book wasn't fantastic, yet it wasn't horrible. Another luke warm story that is too predictable. I know most romance stories come together in a predictable way, but sometimes it's just too much. I'm going to continue to read the series to see what happens anyway.

Another Chance to Dream

Title: Another Chance to Dream
Author: Lynn Kurland
Series: De Piaget (Book 1)
Genre: Historical Romance


Gwen has a large dowry of land, homes and money. It's only natural that her father would want to use her to the best advantage when looking for a husband. Unfortunately, high spirited Gwen falls in love with landless Rhys de Piaget when she is merely 10. The two pledge to each other and plan to get together, but it never seems to work out in their advantage.

Gwen's husband Alain is being led around by his brother, who harbors a deep and twisted love for Gwen. He does his best to keep her from ever having any peace and love with Rhys.

I felt like this was the never ending story. Gwen and Rhys are going to get together...but then it's 5 years later and they're not. They plan it again...and time passes and their not. It did irritate me that Gwen had 2 kids with Alain and still wanted to leave him asap, even though I wasn't a fan of his character in general.

I would also have liked to have seen Rhys find out about his son, but expect it may happen in a later story.