CBRIV: Book#12: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Pinky McLadybits

Young Adult novels are my genre of choice right now, since most of the novels written for adults are stupid and smelly. Young Adult novels are really focused on worlds different from the one that we live in, yet worlds that could be ours someday. Case in point would be The Hunger Games Trilogy, which gives us a glimpse of what the future could be if we keep letting our leaders lie their way into more and more corrupt power. 

Divergent is also about our society changing in order to rebuild after a breakdown, but this time we chose to change in a way that was supposed to keep in power those who would work to avoid history repeating itself. Choices were made that broke society into five factions. The Abnegation are those that chose to believe that selfishness is what destroyed society, so they choose to be selfless. They are in charge of governing the factions since they are thought to be incorruptable. Our main character, Tris, originates from Abnegation.

CBRIV: Book#11: Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong

Pinky McLadybits

This book is the (thus far) very last book in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. It is the thirteenth book, fittingly, and brings all of the characters from previous installments together again to fight a Big Bad. This series, if you are unfamiliar, has werewolves, witches, sorcerers, necromancers, vampires, zombies, angels, demons, half-demons fathered by Lord Demons, and regulatory bodies for the supernatural. All of this is hidden from humans.

There will be mild spoilers.

CBRIV: Book#9: The Concubine's Gift by K. Ford K.

Pinky McLadybits

I won this Kindle version of K. Ford K.'s book The Concubine's Gift by replying in time to a Cannonball Read email. I had no expectations or any sort of idea concerning what this book would be about.

I can tell you that a book that begins with the sound of the clicking heels of long dead child prostitutes hasn't exactly ended in the place I thought it would. Not even close. I'm 100% certain I never expected a "sexual psychic" and a town called Valentine to be the subject of this book. 

CBRIV: Book#8: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Pinky McLadybits

I will say that this book, the twelfth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, was much better than book 11. That doesn't mean I liked it as much as previous entries in the series, but thank goodness some stuff happened. 

Sookie Stackhouse, as everyone probably knows, is a telepath waitress that lives in a world filled with vampires and two-natured people. And fairies. Do not forget the fairies, though I would LOVE TO. 

Before I go further I would like to say, for the record, that I hate the True Blood show on HBO. I hate how Alan Ball changed the characters. I hate how he didn't just use the vast, action-filled book series to guide him. I hate how he added characters that don't exist in the books. I hate how he made Jason Stackhouse a jackassed dolt. I hate hate hate hate it. I do, however, like the people cast in the roles that are in the books and I envision them while reading. Mmmmm, Alcide Herveaux. And spoilers ahoy.

CBRIV: Book#7: The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Pinky McLadybits

Gawl, I really love Kelley Armstrong books. I've read all of the Women of the Otherworld books, I've read her young adult Darkest Powers trilogy, and this is the second book in her young adult Darkness Rising trilogy.

The books all deal with supernaturals of all kinds. You have necromancers, werewolves, witches, half-demons, sorcerers, vampires, and now we have species thought to be extinct in the mix. IT RULES.

As always with Armstrong's books, the lead is a fierce, badass female who can take care of herself and the people around her. Do the women always have love interests? Yes, but these men are not their entire focus. Usually the women of the otherworld save the men. It's pretty awesome.

CBRIV: Book#6: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd

Pinky McLadybits

Conor O'Malley is a boy, though I cannot remember his exact age, who is going through quite a lot. His mother is sick. His father lives in America with his other family. He is picked on at school. He is glossed over at school. He has a recurring nightmare that terrifies him.

And then he is visited by a monster.

This book is a strange creature itself, being the product of an idea started by Siobhan Dowd and completed by Patrick Ness. Dowd passed away and the start of this short novel was handed over to Ness to finish. As I haven't read any of Dowd's previous works, I have no idea how close to her style or voice Ness came or if he even attempted to do that. I do know that this book was not exactly what I expected.

CBRIV: Book#5: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Pinky McLadybits

Samantha Kingston is a popular senior at Thomas Jefferson High School. She and her friends are at the top of the teenage food chain. She has a popular boyfriend, parties every weekend, and all of the things people deem important in their teenage years.

And she's dead. So that sucks.

I didn't spoil anything for you, kids. The book opens with Sam talking to you about what flits through your brain at the moment of your death. The flashes of memories and the things you hear and see and smell before you become no more.

Or before you think you'll be no more. Sam still is when she wakes up the next morning in her bed. Well, she wakes up that same morning in her bed, to be specific.

CBRIV: Book#4: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Pinky McLadybits

Endless descriptions of a circus so lovely and magical that you will long to visit it. A challenge of two players, chosen as children, neither of them fully comprehending the scope of their game or the rules they must abide by. An expansive group of involved people, both on the edges and further out, most unaware of anything happening within the circus that they exist within or follow obsessively. A love that should not be, that is doomed from the start. An ordinary man that is destined for extraordinary things.

These are the intriguing elements of The Night Circus. They are the elements that pull you in with promise and then continue to disappoint and stretch out into long swaths of nothingness as you wait for something to occur.

The very characters we are supposed to invest our feelings and hopes in are not those that I wanted to know more about.

CBRIV: Book#3: Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong

Pinky McLadybits

I read another book! I downloaded an app to my iPad, borrowed the book from the local library electronically, and read it. I am proud of myself.

This book is the latest in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld Series. I believe it to be book twelve of the series. I suppose this means that there will be spoilers in my review, but I'll try not to be an asshole about it. I would strongly suggest going back to the first book in the series, Bitten, and starting there if Spell Bound sounds intriguing to you.

CBRIV: Book #2: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Pinky McLadybits

I was told that I should read Daughter of Smoke and Bone a couple of months ago. So, as I usually do, I put in a request for it at my local library. Alas, my time is rarely my own anymore, with editing and scheduling and poking contributors for content, and my saved book languished for 7 days before being given to the next person on the list.

"Ah, well, " I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll have time to read in a few months or something." Unfortunately, I just keep getting books and then not reading them, yet returning them late and paying fees. Oops.

EvenStevens recently gifted me with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, among several other books, allowing me to read at my own pace. However, once I began reading Laini Taylor's story, I was hooked and had to finish it as quickly as possible. Yay weekends!

Hot Links: If I Eat The Wolverine Cookie, Will He Regenerate?

Pinky McLadybits

Daenerys was my favorite character in Game of Thrones and in the books. Well, Tyrion was too. And Arya! Jon Snow is pretty good...ANYWAY, someone made cupcakes that are strong like Dothraki! (justJENN Recipes)

Well that's just great. The time I tweeted about putting my bra on my dog's head to make a Weird Science joke will forever live in the Library of Congress. Still worth it. (Federal News Radio)

Have you ever looked at the reviews for odd Amazon products? There are some hilarious people out there with time on their hands. Start with these Otomix Baggy Workout Gym Pants in American Flag. Sample review: "What they don't tell you is that the two side seam pockets will neatly hold up to 24 Slim Jims."(Amazon)