Happy One Year Anniversary to ME!

I cannot believe it’s been ONE YEAR GUYS!!!

I have been off the grid for awhile but I just want to thank everyone who has supported and stayed with me through my fails and my hits… I hope you will continue on to grow with me.

In my first year I had a “to do” list of sorts and I thought it might be cool to share that now and see how I fared:

1. Reach 100 followers on my blog – BIG YES to this – thank you to everyone who follows my flog!

2. Get a Twitter Account and get 200 followers there (I thought this might be tough) – but happy to report I MADE IT! Thanks guys!!

3. Befriend one amazing author and help support their work. WOW Yes, I have so many people to thank here – Jessica Park, Emma Chase, Katie McGarry, Colleen Hoover, Lauren Oliver, and so many more! I have met via online more authors than I could ever dream – the authors I dream about taking time to talk to me on FB or Twitter has meant more than anything else, it’s why I wanted to become a blogger to support these wonderful people!

4. To get a chance to read books “before” they hit the market – so sue me, I wanted to be part of the cool kids club. and YES i have to say I don’t get every book I ask for, but I do get a good part, nothing to complain over for sure! I still buy my fare share, so Amazon never has to worry about losing me as a customer….

5. To get to know what Indie writing is all about. WOW have I really learned about this this year – some of my best reads for 2013-2014 have been the indies that were self pubslished and still stole my heart. I try to promote these as often as i can – these books and characters deserve as much love as the largest authors and stories out on the market. The indie writers have touched my heart, but more than that they have made me feel like maybe i have  a place in this world outside of blogging….

6. To evaluate my own life and what part reading plays into it. Well, like all things “me” i dove in head first and over did it. Then I had to put the breaks on, now I’m trying to work some balance into the picture – so we shall see how this goes. I still read a TON but I’m trying to be more selective of what I review and only review things I feel like I really want my readers to read and/or at least know about. No worries about my reading habits here though, I still read pretty much anything I can get my hands on…..haha…

7. To Become friends with other bloggers I can share my love of books with: Now to this I would say YES in some ways and NO in others. When I first came along I spent the time to troll other blogs and communicate. I was honestly hoping I would find a book BFF somewhere in the internet land.. No one I know shares my true love of books and especially the genres I love so much – so while I have been active on forums I haven’t found my “click” yet. The cloest thing I have to a blog I follow and would love to be a part of is the Aestas Blog – I follow them religiously and they seem like cool chicks – maybe one day I can be part of that, maybe not – for now i’m happy sharing thoughts and seeing their thoughts about my favorite subject.

8. Did I say 10 really?? Hmmm… #8 to really start looking outside of the YA genre. When I started thsi that was my main focus. If you read my blog at all, you will know that I have OVERLY achieved this. I have fallen in love with this new genre… New Adult (Iknow everyone has mixed feelings here) and I also love the adult world to a point (AKA Sylvia Day, Alice Clayton, E.L. James, and of course Emma Chase). I have been introduced to so many new authors and for that i’m thankful everyday! So keep it coming in this aspect!

9. I want to attend a BEA Conference. This is one of my biggest wishes – and I don’t know that it can happen this year…. but I want it to happen soon. All my dreams would come true here, to be part of the real blogging community and to meet some of my favorite authors – nothing would be better! It would be like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one – are any of you guys going this year???

10. Last, but certainly, not least I would like to meet Stephanie Meyer. Without “Twilight” I don’t know that I would have gotten back into reading on this scale and fallen in love with this genre leading to my blog/etc. Meeting her would be…amazing.

11. I have to add one last one, I want to have a blurb – Yes a blurb on the back cover of a book or in a description of a book on amazo – i’m not picky, i’ll take what I can get but to see my writing helping show off soemone else’s would be amazing!

All Right guys that’s about it. I can tell you about one cool thing I did this year and why it was a “bookish” cool thing..

I was in NYC last month for Toy Fair (yes for my real job) and I had a minute, and i picked to site see the NYC Public Library – specifically the Rose Reading Room. Have you been? If not you are missing out big time! For readers, it’s like…heaven. THe smell of books, the quiet, the smell…ahhh I could have spent all day there. Most importantly i was picturing a scene from one of my favorite books there – If you have read “Beautiful Stranger” in the “Beautiful Bastard” series you know what I mean – and that scene is HOT. So, I flushed, sniffed the great smell, sat in a chair in the famous reading room and bid it a fond farewell – believe me I’ll be back. It was then I realized just how much books had become a part of my life. Here I was picking this of anywhere to sight see – and it was the best place i’ve been there in a long while. Just to enjoy the quiet for a few moments, to know all the words contained in all those books I can’t wait to read. The whole expanse of knowledge and stories I have yet to find… It’s humbling and amazing all at the same time.

So happy blog anniversary to me! And to you – thank you ALL for sticking around and making it worth my while!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Your fellow Blogger –

Kell

ARC Review of “Left Drowning” by Jessica Park

Book Girl From South Carolina

So I was super exicted to read this –  I hope you all enjoy my review and most importantly – READ this wonderful book!

Title: “Left Drowning”

Author: Jessica Park

Published by: Amazon Children’s Publishing

Publish Date: July 16, 2013

Overview of Story Thanks to GoodReads:

What does it take to rise from life’s depths, swim against the current, and breathe?
Weighted down by the loss of her parents, Blythe McGuire struggles to keep her head above water as she trudges through her last year at Matthews College. Then a chance meeting sends Blythe crashing into something she doesn’t expect—an undeniable attraction to a dark-haired senior named Chris Shepherd, whose past may be even more complicated than her own. As their relationship deepens, Chris pulls Blythe out of the stupor she’s been in since the night a fire took half her family. She begins to heal, and even, haltingly…

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“Twisted” by Emma Chase is FINALLY Here!

Yell to the stars ladies – “Twisted” is in today with more of our ever-loveable Drew Evans and his unforgettable shananigans!

Author: Emma Chase

Release Date: 3/25/14

How I got a copy: I can an advanced E-Copy thanks to my awesome blogger status – so I have been sitting on this gold for 2 weeks! Now I finally get to share!!!

The Short of it….

There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who look first, and the ones who leap. I’ve always been more of a looker. Cautious. A planner. That changed after I met Drew Evans. He was so persistent. So sure of himself – and of me.

But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice, the most important of my life. Drew already made his –in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville. Alone. Well, sort of alone….

What I’ve come to realize is that old habits die hard and sometimes you have to go back to where you began, before you can move ahead.

TWISTED picks up two years after Tangled’s end, and is told from Kate’s POV

*Thank you GoodReads for that great summary!

What I thought:

Up until now I have been doing reviews a little differently – putting a few different paragraphs together and then trying to make sense of it all at the end, but I think I just want to write and I hope you all want to read. So i’ll try to make this meaningful to those readers who “get” this book and help anyone on the ledge understand WHY they MUST read it. So now that I have my mission, here I GO!

I Love Their Story

Emma had me all tied up with Drew and Date in “Tangled” – the #1 Read for me in 2013 by FAR!! So to say I was excited about this new release is an understatement – who wouldn’t want more Drew and Kate. It was honestly addicting getting into that pure male brain of his. I have never laughed as hard at any story, while wanting to at the same time slap the sense into someone – it was rather a strange feeling. But in the end, Drew didn’t let me downa nd he did want he needed to get his girl, being Kate. Seeing there was a second part of their story, I could NOT wait to see what the next adventure brought. I was also interested to see things (for the most part) from Kate’s POV this time. We know how Drew’s sleezy brain works – why not see a story in a more …understandable format for all us gals huh? Emma did it – “Twisted” was amazing.

I have to start off saying that for the first 50% of the book I was almost entirely absolutely horrified. If you have yet to read, I don’t want to ruin anything – but the current thought running through my head was WHAT???? and HOW???? and OMG DREW YOU IDIOT!!!!. Yes, there may have been expletives invovled as well  – a true lady cannot say…so you will have to imagine. So true to it’s title, you can tell the book had even me, the lowly reader, absolutely twisted by mid point. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew one thing I was not to do was put the book down.. This is one of those books I started understanding my rear woul be on that cough or chair until I read the very last page and true to form, I did just that.

Emma’s writing was still as hilarious as ever, I still had some great laugh out loud moments – but I loved the seriousness she wrote into the story too. I mean – this story does have some serious subject matter and I was glad to see that not only was it handled in an amazing way, it was handled and written with the grace, humor, and class I have seen from Emma Chase since the first book I read from her. This book was not “Tangled” by any means since there was much more humor there, but she did take that humor and insert it into “Twisted” to make it a story all it’s own with it’s own feelings and needs – that’s what i loved about it. I wasn’t just one of the same, it was the living next part of their story and it just fit.

Lastly, I will say I walked away from this book an utterly happy woman and in utter need for the next story. I walked away feeling resolved and happy. I don’t want to spoil the ending, so I will digress no more – but READ it TODAY! You can see what I love about this and what you will love about this series and this author. Emma Chase is an absolute go to author for me from this point on – Someone i will always have my eye on for her next book out. It’s hard to find, sexy and romantic books that include male POV’s that are so real – they arn’t fake or silly – they are just real and that makes them even more funny. I just cannot say enough about her… Or this story.

If you love Drew and Kate. Go and get this today and be prepared to not put it down until it;s down. It will pull at your heart strings, make you laugh, but in the end you will be happy with how Emma concluded this part of their story – I can promsie you that.

I can’t leave without a quote – so here it goes….

Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Live happily ever after? Join the club. Apparently happily ever after only lasts two years.
Don’t check the title. You’re in the right place. This is still the Drew and Kate show. It’s just twisted around. Messed up. Welcome to Oz, Toto. It’s a fucked-up place to be.
What’s that? You think I sound like Drew? That’s what Delores says—that he’s infected me with his profanity. She calls it Drew-speak. I guess after two years, it kind of rubs off.
So I can see that you’re wondering what happened. You were so in love. You were so perfect for each other. Tell me about it.

I know this might not be the best quote, but it’s something showing even from early on there was some seriouis stuff going on and Emma still pulled her humor through. You cannot expect this book to be “Tangled” because if you do, you will be dissappointed. What you can expect is the next part of Kate and Drew’s journey in real life style – unfiltered. LIfe gets hard, you don’t ride off into sunsets – Kate and Drew are right about that. If you’re ready for the real tale of how their life goes on from here, then read “Twisted” and you won’t be dissappointed” – my feel is that any true fan of the first story cannot be anything but impressed, so there’s my opinion….

MY THOUGHTS

The story rocked. Emma Chase did yet again an amazing job, and I will be absolutely reading the next story and the next. So get this one today and i’d love to hear your feedback!

 

Happy Reading!

Kelley