Monthly Archives: December 2011

Year recap

Posted by Jessica ( frellathon ) on December 31, 2011 None comments

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

This has been a great year for my blog, I’m so proud of my baby. In this time I’ve gone from what was mostly a blog for me to vent and bitch with the occasional review to a review blog where I from time to time bitch and vent lol

I’ve purchased my own domain name yay love that. I’ve got a great new look to the blog thanks to Jessica and now on wordpress thanks to Lady E.
I’ve gone from well not 100% sure how many followers a year ago but it was less than 100 to over 300 stalkers. I love you all :)

I had my first giveaway and a few since plus plans for many more in the future.

I’ve had many author interviews and have made so many great friends be they fellow bloggers or authors. I’m such a gushy dork but really thrilled by all the awesome people I’ve met thanks to this blog.

I’ve reviewed amazing products some grown up toys and many books.

I’ve had my first anonymous comment. Rude obnoxious jerk please leave your name then maybe you’ll be taken seriously till then your just the equivalent of a peeping tom. Anonymous comments mean you’ve hit the big time right? I’m going to feel like I have. Uh huh.

I love reviewing books and plan to focus most on that next year. I’ll quit reviewing toys soon. I’ve got an agreement with one company to link to them for 6 months, that being the case I’ll leave it as is with a toy review a month but about mid next year that will end and only books will be reviewed. Not to worry I am the way that I am so TMI shall still be the norm just less so.

I plan on being selective on the books I say yes to. I’ve met some great authors and have read some great books but taken on too much at once which becomes overwhelming and that is not wise. Must give myself a break.  I’ve got a kindle now so I’ll do the occasional ebook review though print will always be king.

I will do what I can to promote the awesomeness that is indie publishing and the great authors who’s work should totally be known.

Thanks to all for the friendship, for the books, for reading my little blog and for sharing in on the fun. More to come in 2012, you know till the world ends.

Happy New Year 2012 Giveaway Hop

Posted by Jessica ( frellathon ) on December 30, 2011 37 comments

Welcome all to another hop. This one to bring in the new year is hosted by the always fantastic I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and co-hosted by Babs Book Bistro. Thanks ladies.

I do not require a follow to enter though if you decide to please do so in a way other than GFC which will be ending very soon for all, for me on wordpress even sooner. The giveaway is for US only as I am shipping myself.

Please leave a comment, no need to leave your email in the comments as it’s visible to me anyway. Just let me know because I’m nosy if you got any great books for Christmas and if so which ones.

I’ll be giving away a copy of a book I read and reviewed recently. It is one that is about political and social issues not something I tend to like in the books I read but the author did a fantastic job in this case in creating interesting characters and a story that had me hooked and all in under 200 pages. An impressive feat as many authors can’t do it in double that.

All Her Father’s Guns by James Warner is a book I enjoyed and would love to share with one lucky winner. I’ll also be sending some amazing art cards and bookmarks that I’ve received from Seventh Star Press a publishing company who has been so kind to me sending me great books to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All awesome looking right? Well I have a ton they sent me to share. So again just one comment to enter, US only and no need to follow though I sure won’t mind if you do.

To get an extra entry if you wish add either All Her Father’s Guns or any of the Seventh Star Press publications to your TBR list on Goodreads. Leave a second comment telling me which one you added

The giveaway runs December 30th though January 3rd. I’ll email the winner and they will have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address or another winner will be selected. Good luck to all and have fun hopping on to the others participating. If the links to the other sites don’t show then click here for the list.

 

Top reads 2011

Posted by Jessica ( frellathon ) on December 29, 2011 1 comments

It’s that time of the year and everyone is doing it so I must as well. I’ve already mentioned my fave reads but this post is specifically that and nothing else. I’m also not going to do just the top 10 and I’m going to cheat a bit and combine any that are a series.

In no particular order the books I think are must reads. So add to your TBR pile asap.

The first great book of the year is one that surprised me as it’s not fiction. The subject peaked my interest and then obsessively I had to find the book and read it. Well written and fascinating topic.

Down Among The Dead Men : A Year In The Life Of A Mortuary Technician 

I read two great Alice Hoffman books this year. Both I adored. I love the way she writes. Her characters and story, always so rich and vivid and both character and story stay with you.

The Red Garden  and The Dovekeepers

The Hunger Games. Ahhh Katniss how you captured my attention and admiration. You a fictional character who I feel so much for, your journey through three great books, my switching from team Gale to team Peeta. I loved this series so very much. A brilliant job done with all three.

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay

A friend well he’s no friend anymore but anyway someone recommended to me the next book one that brings me hits from people searching for reviews or information about it. It is disturbing and scary but brilliant.

When Rabbit Howls

Another brilliant female character written by someone with so much talent such a shame the world lost him and he didn’t get to live to see how much Lisbeth came to define strength and vulnerability to so many.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.

Bullying is done with so little thought and so much callousness and cruelty. I really cannot understand why. What does one gain by belittling another person? What is the point when you take into consideration all the consequences.

Thirteen Reasons Why

Paul Cleave is a genius. His brain is so disturbingly clicked in with serial killers that he had to have been one in a past life. He is also able to capture the human condition and most importantly considering what he does write it in a brilliant and entertaining way. I love his work. My favorite read of his so far is surely

The Cleaner

One of the things I love about the blog is that is allows me to read books that I may otherwise never have discovered. Gloria Brame’s smart, educational and yet enjoyable read about sex is one that should be mandatory reading. It sadly isn’t.

The Truth About Sex : A Sex Primer For The 21st Century Volume I : Sex And The Self

Do you like aliens, zombies and Star Trek? I do which is one of the reasons why I loved the next book one that combines all these things with fun characters and a great story. Zombie outbreak at a Star Trek convention. Just the thought of that made my toes curl.

Night Of The Living Trekkies

Just because I’m an old bitter cynical woman doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate entertainment and fun. Lucky for me fun comes in the form of books and being an adult doesn’t mean that fun can’t come in the form of a kid’s book. A smart funny one that I was lucky to read, everyone else should too young or old.

Scary School

Last one is the one that I’m going to call my favorite read in 2011. A book that I received from the author who happen to be only about an hour away from me so yay stalker time lol kidding o_O. For a 2011 fave read it’s not actually going to be released till 2012 I got lucky and got in early. I can’t say enough about this little book. It crams so much into a few short stories most of which are only about 20 pages but wow just wow. It caught my heart and mind and sucked me in. If you can get a copy please, please do.

While I’m Still Myself

The Crud Masters by Justin Grimbol review

Posted by Jessica ( frellathon ) on December 28, 2011 2 comments

I was asked by the author if I would be interested in reviewing The Crud Masters. It’s bizarro, it was offered. I said hell yes, send it right away and then ignored all the other books I have waiting for me and the book I was already reading and read this one instead.

It’s bizarro, priorities my loves. Bizarro is perfect for those who like a little variety, I for one love it. Okay bizarro is more than a little variety and The Crud Masters is something like The Outsiders with monsters and a transformer. I should say I’ve never seen or read The Outsiders though now I have to so I can compare.

Will The Outsiders have a lot of sex in it? With a sex bot and a guy by the name of boogers nailing a chick with an extremely uh pungent vagina? I doubt it. Will The Outsiders have a transformer? Probably not. Will The Outsiders have giant sea monsters? Highly unlikely. You know The Outsiders may be a classic but with all it’s lacking compared to The Crud Masters I’m beginning to wonder about it.

Let me put it this way two gangs the rich kids and the definitely not rich kids are gonna have a duel. In between you have some insanely cool characters with nick names that not even I could come up with and I’m known for giving nick names. Weird sex, monsters, and the freakiest body modification ever.

Deep down you have the have’s and the have not’s. Friends and taking sides. I liked it and I would recommend it to those who want a different kind of read and trust me if you haven’t read bizarro this is different.

Thanks to Justin for my copy.  Also The Crud Masters is worth getting just for the author photo inside which I must say I was sad to not be able to find on the net despite my searches. I had so wanted to share it. I salute Justin for putting himself all out there and by all out there I mean butt ass naked short of a postage stamp uh I mean giant banner covering his unmentionables. I wonder if we could make that mandatory for all bizarro authors publicity photos? Hmmm now that’s a way to get bizarro out there.

Edit – Justin kindly sent me the pic mentioned above. Thanks Justin you rock.

 

Teaser Tuesday

Posted by Jessica ( frellathon ) on December 27, 2011 9 comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

I’m still reading Cinder. No it’s not bad just that Christmas came along and I somehow ended up agreeing to review a couple books so I got sidetracked. Back to Cinder now. It’s coming out on the 3rd people so get your order in asap and don’t forget tweet the author a pic of you in red shoes and well idk what’s being given away but it’s gotta be something awesome.

From page 68

She dropped the magbelt and collapsed. Red warnings flashed across her vision until, in an act of cyborg self preservation, her brain forced her to shut down.