hello, lovely

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I can’t even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. I loved it as much, if not more, than Sarah Addison Allen’s last book, Garden Spells.

It was magical. This is not a sequel to Garden Spells, but it has the same feel to it. Different characters and different stories, but there are many similarities. I love seeing Josey, the main character, come into her own, but my favorite part is actually about one of the “supporting” characters, Chloe. She has a very special relationship with books in that if she ever needs one (or if they think they need her), the perfect volume appears out of nowhere.

5 out of 5 stars. It’s fluffy, and cute, and it was a very enjoyable (and quick! I read 3/4 of it today!) read. You really need to read it for yourself, and if you read and loved Garden Spells, I think you’ll really enjoy this book. This is a keeper!

Coraline was a very cute, but slightly scary (considering it’s actually a children’s book!) story. I actually finished this a really long time ago, but I never got around to updating with a review. This was actually an audiobook, which I decided to use an audible.com credit on it when my friends and I decided we were going to go see the movie.

The story is actually a children’s story, as stated above, but I think it’s kind of scary for a kid, unless they’re older (say, double digits, agewise, maybe 8-9?) or not easily frightened. The world of Coraline is very of dark, as any Neil Gaiman world tends to be from the few stories I’ve read (um, half of Neverwhere, which I also got in audiobook form, and this story), but very fun and creative.

It was very full of imagination, and I think the story translated well to film. I’d recommend it if you’re in the market for a dark children’s story. Or, if you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman, or going to see the movie.

I read this book because before we went to see the movie last year, I was CONVINCED I’d read it. The movie started, and I was like “Oh, they must have changed this part.” LOL. NO, dude, I hadn’t read it yet. I liked the movie, and I liked the book. In true Nicholas Sparks fashion (at least from what I know of the few Nicholas Sparks books I’ve read), it’s really happy and really sad. Or happy with an air of sadness.

The book is different than the movie, but I like them both equally. The differences between the book and the film aren’t enough to ruin anything for me (ahem, Twilight), but I wish I would’ve read the book first. I kept picturing the characters as the actors who portrayed them in the movie & I think that kind of took something away. I like to be able to picture my own characters, and I just couldn’t.

4 out of 5 stars. All in all, I’d recommend this book to just about anybody, especially if you like to read great love stories. Have a box of tissues handy, though.

I finally finished my first book of the year, and I think it was kind of a dud. It was nice to have closure on the trilogy, but it all just seemed to end sort of.. abruptly, especially considering all they had to go through to get that far. It just seemed a bit anticlimactic.

It was nice to see the last couple come into their relationship, and a lot of it was kind of predictable, but it was a nice entertaining read. This trilogy is much darker than the other romance trilogies that Nora Roberts is known for, and I think it was an interesting change. I just wish the final book was as good as the first two.

2.5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it if you’ve read the first two books, Blood Brothers and The Hollow to finish out the series.

I signed up for a reading challenge for 2009. I’m planning to attempt to read 52 books in 52 Weeks. With all of the knitting I do, this may prove to be difficult. I am not a huge fan of audiobooks because I find it too easy to tune things out, and I don’t have anything like the Kindle to read them electronically. I don’t know that I would like that so much, either, because there’s nothing better than the smell of a book and being able to turn page after page after page in a book you just can’t put down, so I will most likely stick to in-print books. I have a lot of books on my bookshelf that I need to read, plus some that are coming out next year for some series (serieses? lol) that I read. I don’t think I’ll have any problem finding the quantity… it’s just being able to sit down and read them.

Here’s a list of books I intend to read:
- The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts. I’ve had this since it came out, and I’m kind of sad for the trilogy to end. This has been so different from her other trilogies, and I’m really enjoying it depsite how dark it is. Either way, I haven’t read more than two pages of it since I got it, so this will probably be the first book I read.
- Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. I LOVE the Stephanie Plum series!! I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read this one. I’ve had this since it came out, too.
- Mistral’s Kiss, A Lick of Frost, and Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton. These are the last three books in the Meredith “Merry” Gentry series. I’m so behind. I have all of these books on my shelf, too!
- Danse Macabre, The Harlequin, Blood Noir by Laurell K Hamilton. These are the last three books in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. I think I might have finished Danse Macabre already. I seem to remember having read that one, but I have The Harlequin on my bookshelf, and I’ll get Blood Noir as soon as I finish catching up. The latest installment in the series, Skin Trade, comes out June 2009, so I’m hoping to have caught up by then.
- Promises in Death and Kindred in Death by JD Robb. These don’t come out until February and November 2009, respectively, but it’s the only series of books so far that can make me put down the knitting and keep it down until the book is finished. This is my favorite series, and I will definitely get the books as soon as they come out.

There will definitely be more, but this is just off the top of my head. I’m really looking forward to this. I miss my books!