Book Reviews by Today, I Read…

I finished reading Gena Showalter’s Blacklisted on Tuesday, and I wanted to publish a few book notes. Think of this like a flash review until I can publish the extended edition.

When I was about 9/10ths of the way through this book, I realized that it was a sequel to Red Handed, which was sitting on my bookshelf—unread. That was definitely a *facepalm* moment if I do say so myself. So, if you already have Red Handed, read that one first.

Aside from reading the book out of order, I enjoyed my little detour.

• The action never stopped. It seemed that Camille and Erik were always being chased, shot at, and when they weren’t Camille was getting a little action of her own. (There were a couple scenes which would definitely place this book on the 16+ list.)
• The characters were well-drawn, if not a little stereotypical. I would have preferred, however, if Camille’s cowardice and goodie-two-shoes-ness was shown more clearly in her actions before we got to see the brave, strong Camille that she never realized she could be. But it was no big. I also wish the bad guys had been a little badder. (Eh hem, I’m looking at some of those A.I.R. agents.)
• Reading it made me reminisce about old Alien Nation episodes that I used to watch as a kid. Yes, folks, I just admitted that I watched Alien Nation. The concept of aliens inhabiting the earth alongside humans has always been intriguing to me and the thing that I loved about both the series and this book was that it didn’t sugarcoat it. It showed some of the tribulations that different species might encounter as a result of simply being different.
• There were more editing mistakes than I’d expected. The book started off strong, with an easy flow, then all of a sudden, errors started cropping up. The errors seemed random and gave the book the feel that it was a rush to complete and get to print. While it didn’t detract entirely from the story, there were more than a few moments when I had to stop and re-read a sentence because I thought my mind was playing a trick on me.

Put plainly, I had no idea what to expect with this book, but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a great lazy day read when you just want to kill a few hours.

And since I won’t be reading this title for my Sunday Salon post, I won’t be able to use this sketch for my Sunday Sketch. Rather than let it languish, I’ve decided to include it here.

This is my interpretation of Kitten, one of the A.I.R. agents that took on Camille and Erik.

I have no idea why I chose to draw Kitten—in fact, I didn’t even know I was drawing her until I was done. I really wanted to draw Cara or Erik, but never quite got around to it…maybe while I’m reading Red Handed.

(Sorry about the image bleed-through. I sketch in my Moleskine notebook and these particular pages are thin.)

Thanks to Jill at Breaking the Spine, I present another edition of Waiting on Wednesday…

My current lust is Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.

Although there has been recent buzz about Hush, Hush, I actually knew about it from late last year. As soon as I read the synopsis, I knew I had to have it. I just couldn’t wait until it came out (and I’m still having a little trouble waiting if I told the complete truth).

And now that I get to see a cover, my little fingers are burning. Isn’t that cover the complete hotness?

Anyhoo, without further ado, here’s the rundown:

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.

The book is scheduled to arrive in October 2009 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Remember how I said that I was reading The Great Perhaps last week? Well, yeah, I’ve set that aside for a minute.

Gena Showalter’s Blacklisted is my current detour. It’s an easy read. In fact, I’m nearly finished—so close to finished that I will be in the next fifteen minutes. It hardly seems fair to use it for my Teaser Tuesday piece, but it is the book I’m currently reading. So, here goes…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
• You also need to share the title of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

“They pounded toward us, guns raised. But there was surprise in their eyes, as if they hadn’t expected to see us.” pg. 129 Blacklisted by Gena Showalter

So far, I’ve enjoyed reading this book. It’s light and fluffy and, in some cases, stereotypical, but entertaining. I don’t feel as though I’ve wasted my time with this detour. (I needed one of those “shut your brain off and jump into the story” reads and this definitely fits the bill.)

When Giving Up the V by Serena Robar entered my radar, I immediately thought it looked like a fun read.

What’s So Wrong With Waiting?

Spencer Davis just turned sixteen. But unlike most hormonal teenagers who seem obsessed with sex — like her entire crew of friends — Spencer just doesn’t get it. She’d rather wait for the right guy and the right moment. But that moment may be arriving sooner than she’d thought.

Enter Benjamin Hopkins, a new transfer student who seems to have his eyes on our V-card-carrying heroine. He’s gorgeous, funny, suave, athletic, and capable of making Spencer’s knees wobble with a single glance. Spencer has never felt this way about anyone before, but is Ben truly V-worthy?

It tackles a subject that’s not always the easiest to deal with and one I haven’t seen too many recent YA titles dealing with, so it may wind up being an emotional read. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

From now until the end of the month, I’ll be holding a giveaway for one copy of Giving Up the V.

Entering is simple: Leave a comment on this post.

Want some extra entries? No problem. +1 if you’re subscribed to the RSS feed. +1 if you’re subscribed to the TIR newsletter (the sign up form is in the right hand column). +1 for each blog or tweet you make about the giveaway.

Just make sure you mention each of your +1’s. For instance, if you’re subscribed to the newsletter and you write a tweet about the giveaway, make sure to mention them in your entry comment or comment twice. (That way it will be easier for me to keep track of all the entries.)

The fine print: This contest is only open to people in the US and Canada. The winner will be chosen at random. The contest will run from now until 9AM EST June 30th, 2009.

Since the winner will be contacted via email, please make sure to leave a valid email address when entering.

That’s all.

Good luck!

This contest is now closed. Thank you so much to everyone who participated. The winner will be announced on Tuesday July 1.

Yesterday, I found a new-to-me blog called Between Fact and Fiction and I instantly fell in love. Natalie has a regular feature called Saturday Sketch where she displays her (awesome) sketches. From what I’ve seen so far, her sketches vary between characters in her novels and stories, characters in other books and stories that she’s read, and a few other surprises in between.

Seeing this, I was not only blown away by her talent, but I was inspired to dust off my own artistic skills which I’d kept locked away since high school. Specifically, it was her post on practice that gave me the idea–I’d love to start my own regular art feature here at Today, I Read… (and possibly at Today, I Wrote…, which I’ve been totally slacking on, but that’s going to change soon).

Getting back to drawing (and watercolor painting) is something I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time. Plus, I’ve been meaning to keep up on my Sunday Salon posting, so doing a Sunday Sketch feature would help. (Saturdays are too busy for me, plus I’ll be too busy checking out Natalie’s sketches. Sundays are the days that I usually lounge around reading and pretending to get things done.)

To help me practice and refine my hand-eye coordination, I’ll start sketching the characters of the book I’m reading and publish with my Sunday Salon post. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to look back at my first sketch and laugh.

* The picture above is a 5-minute sketch I did around 2 o’clock this morning (couldn’t sleep). It’s the MC in a short story I’m writing called The History of Objects. It was drawn in my Moleksine notebook, which has off-white pages and, since I felt lazy, I took the picture with my web cam, so please excuse the picture quality. I promise to avoid laziness for future sketches.

** I owe a huge thank you to Natalie for the idea and inspiration, however, Natalie, if you have any problem with this whatsoever, please let me know.