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Archive: Past Team Challenges
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FL1: Team #7 ~ Curious Raccoons
message 51:
by
Vi
(new)
Jan 27, 2013 09:23AM
LOL, Breann! I'm in another group challenge and it worked out luckily for me!
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Week 1 ~ Blue: State of Mind
1/27/13
★★★★✩
Alec and Grier are on the run from the Organization, a secret government agency that uses people called the Gifted. The Gifted have certain psychic abilities and are supposedly using them for the greater good. When Grier realizes there is corruption in the Organization the quickly deflects and is on the run. Alec is sent to find Grier, and bring him back to their leader, Ethan. The tables quickly turn on Alec and he is taken by Grier who then enlightens Alec about the shady shenanigans of the Organization.
The world building and plot was amazing. It had me guessing until the end. There were several secondary characters introduced that all had their own agendas. I love when stories have so many grey areas it’s hard to tell who to trust, even in the end.
These boys were snarky and fun. They were enemies in the beginning, so seeing them having to deal with each other in close quarters was all kinds of fantastic fun. I guess getting sent to capture the other and then being held hostage will do that to you. I enjoyed the slow progression of their relationship, from enemies to someone-I-maybe-trust, to damn-boy-your-hot, to friends, to someone-I-trust-always, then to lovers. It felt very unforced and real. The ending was more of a HFN, I would have liked an HEA. Always want an HEA with my guys.
Fast paced. Action packed. Twists & turns. It was damn good.
How's everyone else doing with their books?
Vi wrote: "Week 1: Books with Blue Cover
Book Title: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Date Read: 27 January 2013
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
Review: When this b..."
smart girl :-p
Week 1 - BlueBook:
Finished: 1/29/13
Rating: ★★★★
When I rate a book, I base that rating on how the book made me feel. Was I excited? Bored? Sad? Couldn’t wait for it to end? Could I relate to it? This is an unusual book. It’s a beautiful story that also contains several pages of philosophic musings. While those musings are not easy to get through, they really help illuminate the characters.
Renee is a 54-year-old widow who works as a concierge in an upscale apartment building in Paris. She has had the job for 27 years. She was born into poverty and is extremely intelligent, reading philosophy for fun and enjoying art, music and Japanese films. She hides her intelligence from the wealthy tenants in the building. She thinks that they think of her as a lowly, stupid servant and she doesn’t want to upset the order of things by revealing that she has a superior intellect. She has a low opinion of the tenants, and makes many assumptions about them.
Paloma is a 12-year-old girl who lives in the building. She despises her family (and just about everyone else). She, too, is extremely smart. She ultimately recognizes Renee as a kindred spirit and the two form a bond, along with a new resident, an older, very wealthy Japanese businessman who challenges Renee’s assumptions.
Honestly, not a whole lot happens in this book. It’s a simple story with a surprise ending. I could relate to some things, including (1) Many references to Anna Karenina, which I am currently reading (for the last few months!) and I just saw the Keira Knightly film; (2) flashbacks to struggling through the works of Kant, Lacan and Descartes in grad school (note: I have not picked these up for fun in the last 15 years!); and (3) Mozart. I have to explain this: one of the characters has a toilet that plays Confutatis from Mozart’s Requiem when it’s flushed. Can you imagine?? One of my All Time Favorite movies is Amadeus, so when I read the toilet scene, I immediately thought of the scene where a dying Mozart dictates the Confutatis to Salieri. If you’ve never seen this movie, you MUST! Here’s the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlPQD0...
The Next Best Book Club is reading this book in February. I look forward to seeing what others say about it.
Eeek, Am I last? I hoped to be done today but this week has been another awful one at work and I haven't had as much reading time as usual. My trusty kindle tells me I'm a little over 60% done so between tonight & tomorrow I'll finish up.
LOL, no you're not last. And it's okay if you were :)
I'm almost done with
. If it's not blue enough, I can read something else.
Alyssa wrote: "I'm almost done with . If it's not blue enough, I can read something else."Looks blue to me.
LOL! The second one is just amazing - TRUTH in all its 
Definitely blue enough Alyssa ;)
Good thing, Sandra. Cuz I was gonna be stubborn if ya'll had a problem with it. :-P
Does that mean the cupcakes could be in jeopardy?????
Alyssa wrote: "I'm almost done with . If it's not blue enough, I can read something else."Yes, it looks very blue! :-)
Week 1: BlueBook: Black Magic Sanction
Date Finished: 2/1/13
Rating ****
Wow, nearly all of Rachel's past, present & maybe in the future menfolk show up in this one. That made for less time with Rachel/Ivy drama and I have to appreciate that. I actually like each of them on their own but feel like their will they or won't they relationship was annoying and pointless. It's brought up but dropped pretty quickly in this book.
That left time for a lot of the stuff I like in this series, like the world Harrison has built and the interesting races that populate it. I enjoyed learning more about the demon/elf/witch history and we even got some cool info on the creation of the ley lines. It's a bit anti-climactic that it basically comes down to power plays via paperwork in the end but I find it interesting how much better Rachel has become at negotiating with those in power. She uses those skills to extricate herself from situations with Al, Trent & The Coven. I don't think that the Rachel in the early books would have been able to pull that off. I wouldn't recommend starting here but if you like this series this is an enjoyable entry in it.
Just a few more hours until our new category (?)
Um, if Alyssa doesn't post her review, then we can't do the next round, right?
Right. If we have all our RR&R's in I'll draw a card in about 3 and a half hours.
I finished
on 2/1/13.Rating: ★★★★★
Review: It was really good. So good, that I'll be reading the next book as soon as we land on purple space.
Sorry this is so late. I finished reading like a day ago and just forgot to do my review last night. I'm at work right now doing it on my phone, so that's probably why this looks like a mess.
Card: 4 of diamondsColor: Yellow
We moved to space #4
Sigh, if only
was out...I'm stupidly excited for that book. :)Since I have another 6 months or so to wait for that one I'll read
KarenF wrote: "Sigh, if only was out...I'm stupidly excited for that book. :)"Heck yes! I'd be all over that if it was out.
Yay! I think I can fit -
. WOuld this be yellow enough?
All of your choices look yellow to me :)Happy Reading!
Yellow? Yuck.... Be back soon with my pick.
I'm wishing
was out, because I'd be reading it right now.... But it's not..... :-(I'll read
.
Alyssa wrote: "I'm wishing was out, because I'd be reading it right now.... But it's not..... :-("
Oooo, that's a good one too...
Alyssa wrote: "I'm wishing was out, because I'd be reading it right now.... But it's not..... :-("Another one I can't wait for! So many good releases coming this year.
Some Kate & Curran (and Julie & Derek) for you too...
Week 2 ~ Yellow: Lover Enshrined
2/4/13
★★★★✩
I really don’t know how to rate this one. I don’t know whether I should rant or rave. So I think I’ll do a little bit of both and see where I end up.
Rant
Phury & the wizard - ERMAHGERD could this man have thrown a bigger pity party for himself? No. He could not. I get it, he’s had it rough, needs some smoky smoke to get through it all, but talking to himself through “the wizard”? No, please, never again do I want to read about the British man living in Phury’s head.
Phury & Cormia - It’s been said a gazillion and a half times, but it’s worth repeating, these two got cheated out of a seriously great story. For reals. This is supposed to be “their” story and they managed about 50% of the book. There wasn’t enough page time devoted to them to develop any real chemistry. They spent all of zero time together and then they’re in love? How? You’ve been living separate lives for months!
Lash - I don’t care.
The WARDen - I love this series, I really do, but the writing style... with the acronyms, the abbreviations, the slang, the overused words... it’s just too much.
The Name Dropping - Even the mothereffing bottled water needed a brand name. They got money. I know.
Rave
Cormia - She is such a lovely female and I enjoyed every second of her learning how to live on the other side. We were able to watch her become her own person, separate from the Chosen. Watching Dirty Dancing with JM? Priceless. Ward is able to create such delicate, feminine heroines who are still badass in their own right. Cormia, still being the innocent Chosen she is, did not put up with Phury in the end and wasn’t going to stick around for more of his crap. Good! You shouldn’t. This, of course, kicked his butt in gear.
Phury (minus the wizard) - He’s selfless, brave, thoughtful, honorable, everything a male of the species should be - when he’s not stoned. He’s sacrificed for others his entire life. His parents, Z, the Brotherhood, and now for the entire race by becoming Primale. Having to spend a lifetime dealing with the Scribe Virgin by being Primale has got to wear a person down. I absolutely love the changes he made with the Chosen. It needed to be done, they were living in the 1800’s, Phury really stepped up for the females.
John Matthew - Sex.On.Legs.
Zhadist - I love being able to see the Brothers we’ve already read about living out their HEA and here we were able to see Z continue to live a normal life with Bella. He was even the mature one here and held his brother responsible for all Phury’s BS. Bravo, Z!
John & Blay & Qhuinn - I enjoy every scene with these three. I love their loyalty, their humor, their chemistry, their bond, everything.
QHUAY!! - Well, duh, right? That kiss. Oh man, that kiss.
(view spoiler)
My original rating is 4 stars, and I think I'm going to keep it there. There were things I enjoyed more the second time around. Especially Rehv, JM, & Tohr, mostly because I’ve read their stories, I’m already invested in their characters and care a whole hell of a lot more about them this time. Despite my gripes about this series I still really enjoy it and it has been worth a reread. I’m going to continue rereading until Lover at Last is released where I will immediately drop anything I’m doing and read. At last.
Sandra wrote: "Does that mean the cupcakes could be in jeopardy?????"I don't know if I could ever be mean enough to take away the cupcakes..... *laughs evilly* Mwahahaha....
Week 2: YellowBook:
Finished: 2/5/13
Rating: ★★★★
This is an author I have enjoyed before, and she didn't disappoint this time for the most part. The book follows close to 50 years in the lives of Rosie and Alex. They are best friends since childhood, but Alex moves to Boston from Ireland to attend Harvard and become a heart surgeon. Everyone knows these two are destined to be together but life and stupid decisions get in the way. The story is told with letters, emails, instant message chats, and texts. The format bugged me at first, but it grew on me and I appreciated how the reader could get many different viewpoints this way. There were funny and tragic moments, and I like the way Ahern didn't make the tragedies too melodramatic. What I did not like was the boneheaded decisions the characters kept making, especially Rosie, who never put herself first and constantly let herself be a doormat. An enjoyable read overall, though!
Week 2: Yellow
Book Title: Stained Glass Monsters by Andrea K. Höst
Date Read: 7 Feb 2013
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
A very interesting YA fantasy by Andrea K. Host.
It is told from the POV of two characters Rennyn and Kendall. Ren's family has been working in secret to stop the Black Queen's grand summoning from happening. Ren and her brother Sebastian are the only two people from her family left who knows the secret. Ren is forced to reveal herself when she saves Kendall.
The rest of the story is about the Ren's quest - whether she is able to stop the Summoning and the consequences of her actions. The two POV were used very efficiently giving new insights to the characters.
I'm definitely picking up another book from the author.
Week 2
Color: Yellow
Rating: 3.5*s
Date Finished: 2/7/13
As usual there are a fair amount of laughs in this book. Humor is so subjective and I think Laurenston/Aiken definitely has a style that either appeals to you or puts you off. I find myself snort-laughing while reading many of her books so it works for me.
I do like the dragon books but Izzy & Eibhear are never going to be my favorite couple. They had their amusing moments but in some ways they too much alike to be a really fun romantic coupling. My favorite books in this series are the "opposites attract" stories. Izzy * Eibhear are both warriors, both physically powerful and both spoiling for a fight. It makes for some fun arguments between them but in the end, not a lot of conflict.
One of the best parts of the book is also one of the weakest. It's great to visit everyone from previous books. It's fun to see the offspring grow up and new blood come to join the group. But at the same time, it gets a bit confusing. There are sometimes too many POVs. I also found there were a lot of characters with similar names and between that and the POV switches I sometimes had to stop and really think about who's POV it was and what their relationship to the others was.
Even with that confusion, this was a fun read. If you enjoy Laurenston's shifter books, I would think you'd like the Aiken books as well. It's the same mix of alpha females, alpha males, over the top violence & humor.
Just FYI for everyone. We're due to have a major winter storm here today & tomorrow. They're forecasting about 2 feet of snow and heavy winds. I'm far enough away from the coast to avoid the worst of the winds so I shouldn't lose power but you never know. So if I'm not around with a book pick that's probably why. To top it off I'm leaving on a business trip on Monday. It shouldn't cut into reading time but my review will probably be a lot shorter than normal.
Stay safe, Karen! We're also looking at a winter storm here in Minneapolis this weekend, but not nearly as bad as what's predicted for the East coast!
Thanks everyone! So far it's just been "pretty snow" but it's starting to pick up. The governor just announced a complete traffic ban on all roads starting at 4:00. I've lived here most of my life and never remember them doing that before. I'm sitting home with the phones & kindle all charged up!
Good planning Karen, stay warm and dry ;)
Week 2 - YellowI finished
on 2/9/13.Rating: ★★★★½
Review: I really liked it. I haven't read too many books with angels in them. Beth and Xavier were sweet. Gabriel and Ivy were pretty cool.
I want to read the next one some time in the near future. It just depends on what my funds will allow. :-(
SOS: Serious Overload of Series
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Chloe Neill (other topics)Elizabeth Vaughan (other topics)
Nalini Singh (other topics)
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