R7: Team #11 ~ Psychedelic Oysters

[Amber]

Will read one of these for the Dystopian shelf or

[Amber]

will be back with my pick for the free space.

[Desperado]

GREAT JOB, Amber! You're on a roll!

[Jennifer H]

Bookshelf: Dystopian



Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Finished: 7/8
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥+

This book is a must read for anyone who...
♦Grew up spending quarters at the arcade
♦Learned what a conjunction was from watching "Schoolhouse Rock"
♦Has watched "Return of the Jedi" more than 12 times
♦Has taken the "Pepsi" Challenge

I loved the story and the characters. An easy read that keeps you turning the pages even when you know you should go to sleep.

This could easily become one of my favorite books of all time.

[Vi]

Book: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Date Read: 28 June 2013
Shelf: Cover-Love
Rating:★★★☆☆
Review:
The first 3/4th of the book was soooo good I couldn't put it down. The last 1/4th sort of let me down. It didn't capture my attention as much I'd have liked it to. While I could understand the characters' motivation, I just wanted them to get to that point faster.

I'm continuing the series - I've heard the next two books are even better.

[Vi]

Book:Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb
Date Read: 9 July 2013
Shelf: Dystopian
Rating:★★★★☆
Review:
My library recently got the ebook versions of the In Deaths series which for some reason triggered re-reading.

Conspiracy in Death is one of the most emo books in the series so far. It deviates from the pattern of the earlier books and has Eve fighting for her career. Apart from the bond Eve and Roarke share, this book also develops the secondary characters. This is really an asset of the series.

I think I'll stop re-reading at this point but I can't believe Robb has this series going strong at nearly 40 books.

And I don't why this was shelved as dystopian by that 1 person.

[Vi]

I still have my angels & Demons book to go. I'm still undecided on my book though.

[Desperado]

GOOD JOB, Vi! I completely agree in reference to the epic IN DEATH series. Some days I want to kick myself for starting it. No matter how many books in it that I read (I finished #6 in May) I'm always gonna be a bajillion books behind because she writes 1+ book a year.

ETA: Thanks for rec'ing the zombie smut, Sam. ^_^ I want to read it so bad but I keep hearing that the heroine is TSTL. Ugh.

[Desperado]

ANOTHER STAMP FOR TEAM PSYCHEDELIC OYSTERS! EXCELLENT JOB, LADIES!

I-8 COVER LOVE: 5/5! COMPLETED!

LethalLovely: Siege and Storm-★★★★☆ REVIEW
Sam: Hush, Hush-★★★☆☆ REVIEW
Jennifer: Shadowfever-★★★★★ REVIEW
Vi: Finnikin of the Rock-★★★☆☆ REVIEW
Amber: Connected-★★★★★ REVIEW

[Steph, Serious series addict]

LethalLovely~I'll Be Your River wrote: "I love me some Mal but in this book I wanted to stomp on his dangly bits a few dozen times."

ROFL!! Lethal! How I love thee .... ;)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

CONGRATULATIONS, Psychedelic Oysters!
You now have an updated BINGO card with a stamp on 'cover love'. 

[Your updated BINGO card can be viewed on page 1]

Good Job!! :D

[Jennifer H]

LethalLovely~I'll Be Your River wrote: "GOOD JOB, Vi! I completely agree in reference to the epic IN DEATH series. Some days I want to kick myself for starting it. No matter how many books in it that I read (I finished #6 in May) I'm alw..."

The "In Death" series is the one series I'm completely up-to-date on. I just love Eve and Roarke :)

[Desperado]

Steph wrote: "LethalLovely~I'll Be Your River wrote: "I love me some Mal but in this book I wanted to stomp on his dangly bits a few dozen times."

ROFL!! Lethal! How I love thee .... ;)"

I love thee as well, my friend. ^_^

@ Jennifer: I love Roarke too. Eve? Not so much. She gets annoying sometimes with her exclamations of "THIS IS THE LAW AND WE WILL FOLLOW IT, GODDAMNIT!" You broke the law when you (view spoiler)[married a criminal (hide spoiler)] Eve. Get over it and live a little!

[Steph, Serious series addict]

;)

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Congrats Psycho Oysters!

[Amber]

Quick ? does this book work for the free space. If so will have a review up in the morning.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yes, Amber, its on the Group Bookshelf :)

[Amber]

thanks so much sandra. looking this stuff up on the phone is a pain in the neck. I'm out of town again this weekend and away from my computer.

[Vi]

I'm done with my Angels & Demons book!



Book: The Darkest Edge of Dawn by Kelly Gay
Date:10 July
Rating:★★★★☆
Review: It had been a while since I read the first book (which shows how generic it was) so I was floundering a bit at the start. I remembered the characters and stuff like something BIG happened. But that was about it.

I was glad I picked up though - the world gets more fleshed out and the characters are developing. Charlie being a single mom is seriously the one single thing that's different from other UF h. The conflicts with her daughter did feel real even though I wanted to shake some sense into her. The other thing was re-hashing stuff with her ex. Any more and it'll be a spoiler.

Anyway, I did continue the series and finished off the next two books - there's no indication that the author is continuing the series (she hasn't been recontracted yet)

[Vi]

LL - could you do me a favor and have this BSB R7 Excel link up in the Master Post? Thanks.

[Desperado]

Vi wrote: "LL - could you do me a favor and have this BSB R7 Excel link up in the Master Post? Thanks."

Of course! BTW, great review!

[Desperado]

YET ANOTHER STAMP FOR THE PSYCHEDELIC OYSTERS! AWESOME JOB, LADIES!

O-21 ANGELS & DEMONS: 5/5! COMPLETED!

LethalLovely: Wait for Dusk-★★★★★ REVIEW
Sam: Magic Slays-★★★★★ REVIEW
Jennifer: Angels' Blood-★★★★☆ REVIEW
Vi: The Darkest Edge of Dawn-★★★★☆ REVIEW
Amber: Unearthly-★★★★☆ REVIEW

[Sam]

Dystopian:

- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Finished: July 13th, 2013
Rating: 3/5 stars

The plot itself was fun, though not great. I was also pretty annoyed at the whole "we can talk in our heads!" thing since I'm PRETTY sure this is the third week in a row where I've read a YA paranormal novel where the author thinks it would be SUPER original to have the characters communicate telepathically. I actually groaned when that plot element came into play. That said, the book was fine. It wasn't awful, it wasn't great, and I'm not dying to immediately run out and grab the second book. Plus I think I need a break before the next book, I'm not sure my body could handle any more eye-rolling if there's as much petty high school drama crap in the next book as in this one. OH GOD the high school drama! Seriously, I don't remember being half as annoying as Ethan at 16. Not to mention that really, it barely furthered the plot. I'm sure that I'll still, at some point, pick up the next book (since I usually don't like to judge an author off of only one book,) but it's not likely to be any time soon.

[Sam]

The shelf is up, and this week it's...



(Sorry, couldn't resist!)
Shelf link

[Vi]

Thanks, LL! I keep losing the link.

LOL, Sam!! Any recs for this shelf?

[Vi]

Ok, Aliens is so not good for our shelf. It doesn't even give us a 3-in-a-row. And the shelves for us to win (based on our current 3-in-a-row) is urban-fantasy and shifters and both are winning shelves for other teams. We haven't been lucky this round (yet)

[Sam]

Yeah Mr. R hasn't been very kind to us lately! Not to mention that I don't really have a lot of alien books, except ones that are like 700+ pages long. Ugh.

[Vi]

So far, the books I've shortlisted are:


None of them are tempting me right now. I wish I hadn't caught up on the Charlie Madigan. I totally forgot it could work for aliens.

And there are sooooo many Animorphs series books in the shelf. I didn't know the series was that long.

[Sam]

Yeah see that's my issue too right now. All the books I have on my shelf that would work are either super long, or really hardcore sci-fi, which I'm just not feeling right now, or I'd have to start another YA series which, honestly, after last week, me and YA are on a break LOL.

Right now I'm leaning towards , but since this shelf doesn't help us much anyways, I think I'll probably finish my free space book first.

[Vi]

Ditto, Sam. It was really hard to find those 6 books of which 4 are YA. I've heard one of my friend say Obsidian is like Twilight only the female lead is more kick-ass than Bella. Doesn't exactly make you read the book, does it?!

[Sam]

Haha yeah not really...I have heard good things about Gone though. I know absolutely nothing about it, except that it's pretty popular and supposed to be good. I still have one more YA novel on my to-read-soon list, but at least it's the second book in a series I've already started, not a new series, and I really liked the first book so I'm less iffy about it. After Clockwork Prince though, me and YA are going to be seeing other people for a while!

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Well, me and Twilight weren't BBF but I quite enjoyed Obsidian. There are usually plenty of Amazon scifi/rom freebies - just pick one that is 200+ pages ;)

[Vi]

Thanks for letting me know, Sandra. I might be going with Obsidian. That's the only book my library has available.

[Desperado]

LMAO @ Sam! Very nice announcement for the new shelf. Thank your for posting it, as I had work from 2-10 pm yesterday.

I concur; the shelf this week sucks, not only because it doesn't really help us get bingo but because the selections are meh at best. Why couldn't one of the books I picked up through ILL (interlibrary loans) yesterday be on this shelf!

The books I've shortlisted are


I'm not WooWoo about reading any of them, TBH. Ah well. I'll be finished with my "Dystopian" read soon; then it's on to Infamous Aliens!

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY READING, TEAM!

[Amber]

FREE SPACE DONE
found off group shelf

7/11/13
4*
Had a hard time deciding what to rate this. The story for me was a second half book,because the first half Dragged. A couple surprises, twists & turns made the story worth pursuing in the end. Enjoyed all the characters old and new and can't wait to see if Jace and Clary get to have any Happy ending together...?

[Amber]

will be reading one of these for the aliens shelf
or happy reading ladies.

[Amber]

my picks for the dystopian shelf will be one of these , , or .

[Steph, Serious series addict]

CONGRATULATIONS, Psychedelic Oysters!
You now have an updated BINGO card with a stamp on 'angels & demons'. 

[Your updated BINGO card can be viewed on page 1]

Good Job!! :D

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Congrats Psycho Oysters!

[Vi]

Thanks, Steph & Sandra!

Way to go team!!

[Jennifer H]

Yay Team!!

[Amber]

yay team will be done with aliens book real soon. went with my first pick.

[Sam]

I'm about halfway done my free space book, then I'll be starting on my aliens book. Should have the free space one done in the next couple of days.

[Jennifer H]

Bookshelf: Aliens



Strangers by Dean Koontz
Finished: 7/18
Rating: ♥♥♥

Review:
First, let me state that I am a big Dean Koontz fan. I have enjoyed everyone of Dean's books I have read and this one is no exception. While I did enjoy Strangers, I do not think it is one of Dean's better efforts. The first half of the book is way too long. I found myself saying, O.K. I get it, can we move on now? The second half of the book is very interesting and thought provoking. I would have given this book at least 4 stars if the first half had been shorter. If you are a Dean Koontz fan, by all means read this book. If you are new to Dean, do not start with this one.

[Sam]

FREE SPACE:
(found on the group's bookshelf)

- Cassandra Clare
Finished: July 18th, 2013
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is a great follow up to Clockwork Angel, which I'd read last year. For a YA novel, it still feels more mature than some of the others I've read lately, and the plot is completely engrossing. This is also probably the only book I've read where I can say that I kind of love the love triangle aspect; normally I find them tedious and they don't seem to further the plot, but Clare does it really well! The cliffhanger ending was great too, definitely makes me want to pick up the next book as soon as possible!

[Sam]

Now onto the dreaded aliens book...LOL. I have one more book I want to finish first, but I'm hoping to at least get a start on before the next shelf is called.

[Amber]

I'm done and will have review up by morning. will start the next book then ladies. happy reading!!!

[Amber]

DONE- Aliens shelf
READ-
FINISHED-7/17/13
RATED- 5*

This was my first ever Aliens book, and I have to say I loved this story and the authors style of writing. Just like Serena I feel in love with Hunter and his domineering Arum ass. I definitely want to know more about Luc too. Will continue this series and seek more books from this writer for sure.

[Vi]

Aliens Shelf



Book::Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Date:: 16 July
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review:
I've heard so much hype about this author that I was fairly eager to try this author.

The book started off ok and really as expected. Katy is a little passive in the beginning but she does get better as the book goes on. Daemon is honestly your HOT male lead. The tension between Katy & Daemon is well-done though there are times when I wanted to shake both of them.

The biggest minus for me was that the book was sooo predictable. It didn't really hold my interest. There was the Twilight similarities of course but oddly enough it didn't bother me that much (it became fun once I started counting)

Will I be continuing the series? Maybe. When I want a quick-fix YA contemporary. But I am not burning to get the next book.

[Desperado]

EXCELLENT JOB, LADIES! WE'RE DOING AWESOMAZING! And guess what? A NEW STAMP FOR US!

FREE SPACE: 5/5! COMPLETED!

LethalLovely: Heart of Obsidian-★★★★★ REVIEW
Sam: Clockwork Prince-★★★★½ REVIEW
Jennifer: Vamps and the City-★★★★★ REVIEW
Vi: Heart of Obsidian-★★★★½ REVIEW
Amber: City of Fallen Angels-★★★★☆ REVIEW