Book Reviews by Today, I Read…

Back Cover of Hush, Hush

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

Three Quick Points About Hush, Hush

• Point 1: The best kind of bad. The smokin’ hot half-nekkid angel guy on the front cover barely does Patch justice.
• Point 2: Nora disappears in the story. I mean that figuratively, of course. Her personality disappears. Sometimes she felt like a shrinking violet. (Not altogether a bad thing.)
• Point 3: The names made me cross-eyed. OK, some of the character names were so far out there, I had to stop reading, process, shake my head, then continue.

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I have nothing against Twilight (I admit, I did read the entire series and see its addictive qualities), but this made me laugh a little on the inside.

According to the Vintage release, Nightlight follows a “pale and klutzy” girl named Belle Goose, who moves to Switchblade, Oregon, and meets Edwart Mullen, a “super-hot computer nerd with zero interest in girls.” The vampire-obsessed Belle becomes convinced Edwart is one of the undead after witnessing events she considers otherworldly (”Edwart leaves his Tater Tots™ untouched at lunch! Edwart saves her from a flying snowball!”). [EW]

Found via Jezebel: Sparkle-Vamp goes Geek in Twilight Spoof (hint: read the comments.)

I felt like the monster truck announcer guy writing that title–Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Anyhoo, moving right along.

Just got back from the store and since it’s so difficult to leave the store without purchasing at least one book, I decided to get four. (There was some logic in that sentence when I heard it in my head, but it escapes me at the moment.)

I nabbed the Norman Rockwell and Michelangelo books because I like art and I figure someone who likes art can’t have too many books on the subject. The Real Life Renovating I picked up, not because I plan on renovating anything (as if getting electrocuted installing a new ceiling fan wasn’t fun or anything), but because the pictures were phenomenal and it would help greatly in visualizing homes for my characters. And I got the Baby Animals book because…well…they’re baby animals, *squee*.

I’ve already read both the Norman Rockwell and Baby Animals books and discovered that I really would have loved to share a cup of coffee with Mr. Rockwell and that baby giraffes, when they’re born, drop seven feet to the ground—what a way to start your life.

Sunday Sketch 0.7

I’m going to cheat a little bit…

Instead of doing a scene from one of the books or stories that I’m reading, I’m going to do a sketch from the Baby Animals book because…(do we really have to go over this again? They’re baby animals, *squee*.)

I wanted to draw the baby rhino because 1) he’s adorable, and 2) they rarely receive love for their cuteness because they kind of stop being cute when they’re all grown up, but then I saw the baby field bunny.

I was tempted to color it, but I decided to save that for another day.

RIP IV Short Story Sunday

In order to get my short story fix, I incurred a book avalanche. Yeah, you heard me correctly. You remember that neat stack of books I created for my 24 hour read-a-thon book pool? Well, the book I wanted to read was halfway down the second stack and I decided it might be fun to try my hand at Jenga. It didn’t work out so well. At least I’ll have an easier time restructuring my book pool should the need arise.

Since I was out and about for a bit today, I only had enough time to read one short story: The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds from M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman.

Scary this story was not. It was, however, quite charming in a cute way. It took all the familiar nursery rhymes we heard growing up and transformed it into a noir whodunit featuring Little Jack Horner as the private dick and Humpty Dumpty as the victim.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get in at least a few more tales from this book, if not all of them.

Now…I’m going to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and going to bed.

This post is sticky until the contest is over. For newer posts, please scroll down.

This is one highly anticipated book, especially because of that burning hot cover…yummy half naked guy…hooray to that cover designer.

There has been much talk in the blogosphere by those few lucky enough to have received a review copy and much drooling by those who can’t wait for October 13th to arrive fast enough.

Now, if you’re in the latter category, here’s a chance for you to get your very own ARC.

You’re probably staring at the screen a little cross-eyed wondering what I must be smoking if I’m willing to part with my amazing, drool-worthy copy of Hush, Hush, but fear not…the copy I’m offering up for giveaway is an extra ARC sent to me by the wonderful folks at Simon & Schuster.

Since I want to do something a little different for this particular giveaway, it’s not going to be your typical “leave a comment to be entered” post. Nope. Not at all.

Well, you still have to comment, yes, but that’s not all. In order to be officially entered in this Hush, Hush giveaway, you must help write an angelic story.

WTF?!? I hear you muttering…

Let me explain.

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There are a ton of books marked as “To Be Read” around here, but since it’s October and I’m participating in the R.I.P. IV challenge, I’ve decided to limit my book pool to all things macabre, supernatural, and spooky. Werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, vampires, witches, poltergeists, mythological beasties, aliens, faeries, and psycho killers are all fair game.

And since I don’t know exactly what I’ll be in the mood to read from minute to minute come October 24, this list is going to be long and unwieldy and there’s a good chance I won’t finish all of them…I’ll probably be lucky if I finish four.

There’s some overlapping with my RIP IV reading pool, but I figure that’s OK.

* I decided to swap Unholy Child by Catherine Breslin for Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, but didn’t feel like taking another picture. Sorry. I got hit up by The Lazies™.