The Anita Blake Challenge

Another challenge I'm joining is the Anita Blake Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.

The timeline for this challenge/contest is Jan to Dec 2010. I have already read the series until Burnt Offerings so I'm going to start from Blue Moon. This is a loooong series with 19 books so I hope I'd be able to read them all by end of this year.

Anita Blake series in order:

1. Guilty Pleasures
2. The Laughing Corpse
3. Circus of the Damned
4. The Lunatic Cafe
5. Bloody Bones
6. The Killing Dance
7. Burnt Offerings
8. Blue Moon
9. Obsidian Butterfly
10. Narcissus in Chains
11. Cerulean
12. Incubus Dreams
13. Micah
14. Danse Macabre
15. The Harlequinn
16. Blood Noir
17. Skin Trade
18. Flirt
19. Bullet

If you want to join this challenge too, go to Book Chick City for the details.

Goodluck to me!!

Book Review: The Boy Who Changed The World by Andy Andrews, Illustrated by Philip Hurst

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 

This book is about a boy who changed the world by doing small things in the past. The book tells us that everything we do matters. Even how small and insignificant we think it is, it can be life altering to someone. I read the book to my 4 year old son and I was surprised that I was able to make him understand that the things he does now matters even if he thinks he's only a boy. I love the graphics and the colors are perfect for my young son.

My husband who is a guidance counselor working in a school also enjoyed reading this book. The book is perfect to read for preschool kids and preschool teachers, a great addition to your collection of children's books.







Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a review copy of this book free from BookSneeze through the book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Book Review : Blue Bloods by Melissa dela Cruz

Title: Blue Bloods (Book 1 of Blue Bloods Series)
Author: Melissa dela Cruz
Paperback: 336 Pages 
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (March 27, 2007)

Ratings:

★ ★

My thoughts:

My first book for the September challenge. I picked up this book since the cover looks good and also I've read a number of good reviews about this series.

Ohwwwkay. Where to start?
 Names and characters. I didn't like the names, especially the main character Schuyler, too weird for me and there were also a lot of characters in this book. I understand that the story needs it but there were a lot, like more than 15 people mentioned in this book that I was having a hard time remembering all of them.

Well the story, at first it was great. The author tried to give a whole new history on how the vampires existed. There were twist and turns however it was presented in a way too complicated and too confusing for the readers.

 The storyline was like reading Gossip Girl with B and S turned vampires. The descriptions of the things like designer clothes, bags, fame and money were unnecessary and can be distracting.

 The author told the story using almost everyone's POV which made it harder to understand. It keeps on jumping to another POV that made it impossible to get to know the characters one by one. I found myself skimming all over the book so I could be done reading it. It didn't have the "peak" which I keep on hoping to read because I've read good reviews on this book. Well, it ended with nothing to think about. I guess I will be okay without reading the sequel.

I didn't like the story but here are some of the positive reviews for this book: read HERE

About the book:

Within New York City’s most elite families, there lurks a secret society of celebrated Americans whose ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. They are the powerful and the wealthy—and in fact, they are not human. They are the Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires.

Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne, her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapidated mansion. Schuyler is a loner—and happy that way.

But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. She has a mosaic of blue veins on her arms, and craves raw meat. The death of a popular girl from Duchesne is surrounded by a mystery that haunts her. And strangest off all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.

She wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

About the author:

Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.

Her books for adults include the novel Cat's Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.

She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney's, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews.
Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).

She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter. - Amazon

Author's website: http://melissa-delacruz.com/

Challenge: Summer Spectacular Reading

I'm joining this challenge hosted by Steph of The Thoughts of a Book Junkie. And what's more, I could win Steph's give away too! This is open internationally!

The rules are simple, join the challenge too!

• It will start September 1st and go on through September 30th. 

• You have to pick 5 books that you have to read for a month - one book a week. At the end of the week, post your review on your blog and add your link to the Mr. Linky  HERE!!. You can join too even if you don't have a blog, just send an email to Steph about your review.  * Sep first starts on a Wednesday so you can start your first book on Sunday the 29th if you want.

• At the end of each week a giveaway will be posted. That's 5 giveaways!! The only thing you have to do to is, link your review on that weeks Mr. Linky. Plus get an extra entry if you add the September Spectacular button to your post or sidebar! ( Open Internationally)

I know the first two books are children/gift books but these are on my TBR list and I already have these books since first week of August and I need to clean up my TBR shelf. Okay, here we go, here are my chosen books for the whole month of September!