Books Read in November & reviews....

The following is the books I read in November - a total of twelve. I actually have a few short stories that I read on my e-reader and I haven't posted those, but I will. I love me some angst but I have to say, when reading angsty books and you're in an angsty state, you must lighten it with happy music. God help me, I listened to some seriously gag-worthy happy music this month.

Broken Angel by SW Vaughn ***
Almost to Die For by Tate Hallaway ***
Beastly by Alex Flinn ****
White Cat by Holly Black *****
Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick ****
Spun by Sorcery by Barbara Bretton ***
Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler ***
That Voodoo You Do by Jodi Redford ***
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers ****
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride ******
Bitten in Two by Jennifer Rardin *****
The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu *****

Broken Angel by SW Vaughn(3 stars) isn't an urban fantasy. In that I mean there aren't vampires or other supernatural creatures running around. Its the story of Gabriel, a young man searching for his sister in NYC. What he finds is an underground fighting and prostitution organization run by some seriously bad guys. The book is all about Gabriel's unwilling transformation from a young, if not innocent, man to a bad-ass fighter. There isn't a good guy to be found in this story and yet I liked the characters despite their dark souls. I have to say, tho, that for a good portion of the book I thought there was going to be some guy-on-guy moments. It felt like it was leaning that way. It never happened. It was just a good, solid, interesting story.

Almost to Die for by Tate Hallaway (3 stars) This was a funny little story of Ana, a girl just about to celebrate her 16th birthday. Her mother is a witch but Ana doesn't have power. The ceremony starts only to have things go haywire. Not only does Ana not pass the test, she discovers her father is a vampire. And all hell breaks loose. Her best friend is shunning her, the boy she likes is a slayer and her mother just wants to control her. Entertaining.

Beastly by Alex Flinn (3 stars) A modern day Beauty and the Beast. Kyle is a stuck up little shit who treats others badly. He messes with the wrong girl - and is turned into a horrible beast. He has to find true love to save himself. His father abandons him to the care of a housekeeper and a blind tutor. He kidnaps a girl who he feels bad for in hopes she will love him. And he learns that outside beauty is nothing compared to inner beauty. I thought it was well done and entertaining.

White Cat by Holly Black (5 stars) Cassel comes from a family of curse workers - people with a gift to curse you with luck, memory loss, death, etc. Only he has no powers. The books starts with him dreaming of following a white cat. He wakes up on the roof of his dorm and realizes he's been cursed. What follows is a roller coaster ride where he learns that nothing NOTHING he believes is right. I won't say more than that. Read it. It's amazing.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (4 stars) This is the follow up to Hush Hush and I actually liked it better than the first book. Nora, the main character, is trying to figure out her relationship with Patch (who is now her guardian angel) which is quickly unraveling. Enter Scott, a boy she knew as a child who is nephilim. Lots of emotional angst and sadness and really stupid choices. I liked it.

Spun by Sorcery by Barbara Bretton (3 stars) This is the third in a series about Chloe, a sorceress, who runs a small Vermont town and Luke, her human boyfriend. The book starts after an epic battle (book 2) where the town is missing. What follows is a desperate roadtrip to Salem, MA to try to figure out what happened. This wasn't my favorite book because I missed the quirky residents of Sugar Maple. I thought it dragged a little. But I love Chloe and Luke's relationship, so I still liked it.

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (3 stars) I'm going to preface what I say about this book with a warning - this is not a book for the faint of heart. This book is a very real look at anorexia, an illness that is very familiar to me since I suffered with it from 13 until 21. (You'd never know it looking at me now - lol.) For that reason, I had a tough time reading it. I loved Death and I thought the story was very clever. Who better to understand famine than a girl who deliberately starves herself? This book hit me on a very visceral level. I think a lot of people would be turned off by it, but I recommend it.

That Voodoo You Do by Jodi Redford (3 stars) Okay, this was an e-reader. It starts off with a majorly steamy graphic sex scene where a sweet, innocent woman seduces her gorgeous guy friend. Only it turns out he's her familiar (he shifts into a tiger) and having sex with him triggers a curse that raises zombies. Then it gets even naughtier with the introduction of a werewolf. To fight the zombies, she has to have sex with both of them! Eek! Can you see me blushing?! Holy smokes. Okay, so I'm a prude or something cause I was just like WTFH?
I liked the story. And the sex scenes didn't gross me out, so I have to say it was...um, interesting. And good. Definitely good.

Personal Demons by Lisa DesRochers (4 stars) Mary Francis is a girl with a dark secret - well, actually she has several. Luc is a demon sent from hell to tag her soul. Gabriel is an angel sent from heaven to stop him. Only once Luc meets Frannie, he doesn't really want to tag her. In fact, he falls in love with her. And he might be growing a soul. Now hell is sending other demons to do his job and Luc and Gabe have to keep her safe - not an easy job. I liked this book & I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (6 stars) Yes, it gets a super star! I LOVED this book. Go out and buy it! Sam is a short order cook, a slacker who's floating along in life until one night he and his friends are playing potato hockey outside their fast food restaurant. Sam hits a shot that breaks a car's tail light. That brings him to the attention of Douglas, a psycho crazy necromancer. What follows is a dark, scary, funny, brilliant story that will alternately have you laughing and freaking out along with Sam. An absolute MUST READ!

Bitten in Two by Jennifer Rardin (5 stars) Another wonderful story about Jaz Parks. This one was hard to read, because Jaz is in a bad place in the book. Vayle has forgotten who she is and she's desperately trying to find a way to get his memory back and worrying about being alone. The angst Jaz feels was exacerbated by my angst reading it - because I kept thinking about Jennifer Rardin who passed away recently. This was the series which got me back into reading and I had several conversations with her (she was a super nice lady) as well as a signed book. I loved the story and this series is one of my favorites.

The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu (5 stars) A very dark story about Maxine, a Hunter, and Grant, her boyfriend who is a former priest and more than he seems. But then again, so is Maxine. She had her boys, demons who during the day live as tattoos on her body and at night peel off and help her hunt demons. Maxine comes across a kid in an alley and draws the wrong kind of attention. Suddenly, someone or something wants her dead. This is one of the darkest series I've read and it's absolutely fascinating. Like I said, I love angst. This has it in spades.

So, that's the list. I'm currently cranking through the next two books in Marjorie Liu's series while dealing with a kid STILL out of school (can I say my school district SUCKS?!) and suffering from severe anxiety, and a father in the hospital with a very scary infection. I put up two Christmas trees - one upstairs, one downstairs, I'm blasting Christmas music all day and doing lots of donating this month. Gotta mix the dark with the light, people. Just wish a little of that light would roll my way....

What I'm Thankful For....

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd list what I'm thankful for....

1. My P's in the Pod - the psychiatrist, psychologist and educational advocate who work tirelessly to ensure my son has the best future possible. Each of them has a last name that begins with P, hence P's in the pod. Our lives would be much different without them.

2. The authors who engage their audience through blogs and contests. My life is often chaotic and depressing, and these small things they do give me moments of happiness. Winning a signed book is like a little mini birthday.

3. My dog. He's a fine beast, a loving beast, a smart sneaky beast and he never fails to make me laugh. I swear he can sniff out an empty paper towel roll from 500 feet away. And he can say "out" perfectly.

4. My books. They're my escape. They're my comfort.

5. Big flat screen HDTV. Yes, its too big for my room, I know. Its like being in my own personal movie theater without all the assholes. And I love it.

6. My computer. It connects me to the world when I am often trapped in my house by circumstances, I can still have human contact.

7. The color black. It hides the fat.

8. My son. Who taught me perseverance (the ability to persevere under difficult circumstances) as well as perseverance (the ability to hyper-focus on something until you make everyone around you insane). My life would be empty without him.

9. My husband. He pisses me off. He makes me laugh. He buys me things like e-readers and new computers and big screen HDTVs just because....

10. My family. Because they say the damndest things and never let me forget where I came from or who I am. Which isn't always a good thing, but is sometimes exactly what I need.

Word Count Widgets | National Novel Writing Month

Word Count Widgets | National Novel Writing Month: "

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Only because I type 125 words per minute & I've had a story stuck in my head for a month....
I've decided sleep is not nearly as important as writing & attempting to de-stress. So, damn it, I'm writing.

An Emo Post (ignore if you don't want to wallow in my misery)

Soooo.... *sigh*

My son is out of school. He hasn't been able to make it thru a day in 3 weeks. In fact, most of those days, he's suffered massive panic attacks & not even made it out the door. Why? Mix aspergers, anxiety, cruel teenagers & adults (some well-meaning, some not) who just don't get it into a big mixing bowl, stir & bake.

Here's the problem in a nutshell. Social interaction. Social rejection. The inability to fit in no matter how hard he tries. He's not a normal kid. No matter how well he learns to "fake normal" he will never be normal. Kids pick up on that. Kids are cruel.

Tomorrow we go back to home tutoring. Maybe home schooling. He has no friends. None. Because of this group of kids who invited him into their group & then rejected him, he doesn't even want to try anymore. Fifteen. The kid is fifteen. And friendless. Alone. Rejected. Ostracized.

As a mother, I don't see the point anymore. Why should I force him to go to school to be made fun of, to be teased, to be bullied? Why should he have to accept that because he's different, he needs to work harder to blend, to be less of himself, to be "normal" when normal is unkind and hateful? Why should he have to take medication to just get thru that school day so that he can tolerate that hatefulness?

And yet, he's a smart, funny, loving kid. He's kind. He's brilliant with computers. He could have such a bright future. How is he ever going to function in this world that's not user friendly for him? I don't know. If I don't see it, how can he?

I don't know how often I'll be able to post now. All else falls away when we go thru these times. This isn't the first time he's had to regroup & start over from scratch because the world failed him. Each time I worry he'll make sure it's the last. My world is upside down. Again.

Be nice to others. The next time an odd person who won't make eye contact approaches you in the store and tries to strike up a conversation about Star Wars figures or books or whatever, instead of treating them like a freak, take a minute and talk to them. That little piece of conversation may be the only social interaction that person (who likely has aspergers or autism) has in a year. For those minutes you talk to them, they feel connected - like they matter. They don't feel that often. Too many people make sure they believe that different is worthless.

Books read in October with ratings

Total books read - 12

I'd like to spend time writing reviews of these books & I'll try to edit at some point, but I'm having crazy days. I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I did it unofficially last year and have been writing like crazy ever since. (I seriously had forgotten how much I loved writing.) On top of that, my 15 yr. old has decided school is too stressful. He's throwing a huge pity party, the school is trying to just get him to his 16th birthday so that they can write him off & I'm scrambling like a madwoman. Fun days.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff ****
Raphael by DB Reynolds ***
Jabril by DB Reynolds ***
Venom by Jennifer Estep *****
Double Cross by Carolyn Crane ****
The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa ***
Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow ****
Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow ****
Redemption Alley by Lilith Saintcrow *****
Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow *****
Heaven's Spite by Lilith Saintcrow *****
Sweet Disgrace by Cherrie Lynn ****

I will say this - I highly recommend all the book I read this month. Even those with 3 stars had interesting stories that kept me reading. And Lilith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet series? Oh my God! Phenomenal.

Fun Fun Fun

So, there was one good thing that happened on my birthday. My husband and son got me a Cruz Reader. I will admit, I love paper books and I never thought I'd want one of these electronic devices. Read books on a stupid little screen? Not me.

Hah.

This thing runs android. I can get my emails. I can play Pandora radio. I can play games. Oh, and the books? What on eath was my husband thinking? At the touch of a click - A CLICK - I can purchase a book.

My wonderful computer savvy son downloaded the Kindle store to it and voila. Books for under $5?! Oh my God. Someone pinch me.

My husband (God bless him) actually said "We'll save a little money on all the books you buy." I didn't have the heart to tell him that he had just set me up with a library that I could go bat-shit crazy filling.

I'll never willingly give up paper books. I love them too much. If anything, I'm going to make sure that I purchase every hard copy of every book I love before they disappear. But oh man...

Happy Birthday to me?... :( An emo post

So how will I celebrate my birthday today? Hmmmm....

My 15 yr. old will refuse to go to school because yesterday his asshole health teacher decided it was a good day to embarrass, insult and generally bully a socially inept aspergers kid who's failing his class to make sure he KNEW that he completely fails at life & no one likes him.

I will attend a meeting with the head of guidance, the special ed teacher, the nurse, the counselor & probably as many people as the school can come up with to attempt to bully me into agreeing that this is my son's problem & not the teacher.

I will take my son to his psychologist for the 2nd time in 3 days (he went 2 days ago- and needed 2 hours with him - because he was so anxious about school & the fact that he has NO friends & feels isolated and alone and is treated "like a tool") so that the psychologist can try to undo the damage done by the teacher.

I will studiously avoid any and all phone calls from people who want to wish me a happy birthday because I might just burst into tears. (Most of them avoid us like we have the plague anyway because they don't want to lose their rose-colored glasses.)

I'll pretend that its okay that my husband didn't get me anything (my son has already informed me that they didnt) & read the stupid joke cards he buys & do my best not to cry.

I'll follow the ridiculously time-consuming, painful new method of caring for my crappy teeth (and gums (twice a day) after gum repair surgery & seriously contemplate the benefits of dentures.

Today is a seriously emo day....I wish it was over already.