RAK’s and Their Affects {featuring Katherine Skye}

RAK’s, to those who aren’t aware, are: Random Acts of Kindness.

I’ve seen a lot of them mentioned across the ‘Net. Mostly by book bloggers (I’ll come to the awesomeness of them in my post scheduled for the 16^th). But this week, I was the recipient of a RAK that blew me away from the moment I knew it was coming.

You see, there is this lovely lady I’ve ‘met’ through the ‘Net (Heh—it rhymes), who said to me one day (coz she knows I read a LOT), if there’s any books you want to read, just let me know, I might have them. So, to make it easier, I shared my ‘wishlist’ with her, and she messaged me to say she had quite a few of those.

She wasn’t kidding.

And then she offered to send them to me.

But that wasn’t all.

You see, this lovely lady’s kindness has stretched far before this RAK. Anyone who pays attention to my tweets knows the Mini-Me has been sick quite a bit lately (mostly with ear problems). Guaranteed, if I tweeted about the girl being sick, Katherine would reply. Even when I don’t tweet, she often asks me how she is. So, I suppose I shouldn’t really have been surprised when she asked if there was any American candy the Mini-Me would like to try—because she wanted to grab some and send it with the books.

So when I mentioned that the main thing we can’t seem to get over here (unless we go to a specialised store and pay through the nose for a single item) is Wonka stuff, she said she’d send some.

O_O

Dude!

She sent a tonne!

Wanna see what I got?

Sure you do.

Well, first when the box arrived, I got a little excited. The delivery dude even got a special smile. With teeth.

Then I opened the box, and smiled some more, even though I could only see pretty tissue paper.

Then I peeled back the paper and smiled even wider, and the Mini-Me (peering over my shoulder) kinda went ‘Oooowhoah’.

Then we emptied out the candy. Mini-Me’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when I started pulling the candy out of the box. O_O <<like this!

The blue ones of these are scrummy.

And the strawberry ones of these are scrummy.

Laffy Taffy! I think I may have (already) developed a slight addiction. O_o

Mr B is rather taken with these.

And I don’t force the Mini-Me to share these with me because fizziness in sweets makes my eyes do a dodgy dance.

Then I dragged out the books.

These covers ARE as awesome as they look. I’m very excited to read these.

I’ve been wanting to delve in and discover what the fuss is about for the Mortal Instruments, but when I tried to nab a copy here, I could only get one with a fugly cover (and I only buy books with pretty covers–shallow, I know). And Enthralled has a great line up, so I’m looking forward to that.

Article 5 seriously sounds like my kinda book & I’ve been wanting to check out Slide since I first read the blurb.

Read Shadow Bound and have been wanting this one since.

Annnnd I even got this muchero unexpected bundle of swag. Check out the Lover Reborn bookmark in there!

Finally, after ogling and pawing everything, I gave Mini-Me the candy, before reverentially replacing all the books in the box for when I’m ready to read them.

After the last couple of weeks I’ve had, and with being ill this week with a viral infection the Mini-Me kindly shared, this pick-me-up could not have come at a better time.

So I have just one thing to say to you, Ms Katherine Skye.

You totally rock!

2012 READING GOALS—WHAT’S YOURS?

Okay, so let me start by saying I reeeeeeeeaaaaaally wanted to scream my latest news from the rooftops for this post, but alas having a contract means I have a marketing schedule to uphold and you’re all going to have to wait a little longer for what you all probably already suspect (sorry).

So … instead, I’m going to chat about my reading plans for 2012 and leave you all guessing for a little bit longer.

Onwards:

I’ve never set myself reading goals before. I simply read. And then I read some more. But since being on Goodreads, the marvellous folk I’ve met do a fine job of sweeping me up in their craziness. One of their crazy ideas is setting themselves personal challenges with regards to their reading.

So … I joined in.

The done thing is to start yourself a thread in the group for your personal challenge, openly declaring the challenge you’re setting yourself. So I went in. and I challenged myself to read 50 books throughout 2012.

Not merely content with that, I added to my challenge.

You see, I have a LOT of singles (titles not part of a series) sitting in my Kindle that I got for free (mostly through Pixel of Ink—love that site).

More than EIGHTY, in fact (just see image for proof–that’s on my Goodreads personal challenge thread and shows only SOME of them).

But due to my LOVE of series reading, they keep getting ignored.

So … on top of my challenge to read 50 books in 2012, I set the additional challenge of: for every series I read, I then have to read one of my freebie singles before I’m allowed to start on a new series.

Good challenge, no?

And that should have been that.

Maybe it would have been … if one Carole-Ann hadn’t sidled into my thread and told me my challenge number wasn’t high enough and I should up it to 72.

Now I respect Carole-Ann. Enormously. And if she thinks I’m up to that raised challenge, then I most probably am.

So I listened to her. And my 2012 reading challenge became: read a minimum of 72 books before year’s end and for every series I get hooked on, I MUST read a single freebie before I’m allowed to find another series to hook my talons into.

See? Simples! *Gulp*

How about yourselves? What 2012 challenges do you intend to rise to?

READ-A-THON–WRAP-UP POST! #WWReadathon

Oooooooooookkkaaaaaaaaaaay, it is now almost 10pm on Sunday evening, here in the UK, and after beginning my read-a-thon at around 9am Friday morning, I am calling this a WRAP!

Before I started, I blogged asking for help to choose my reading material, and from the suggestions I received I chose a potential five reads.

Did I make it through my five?

Um … no.

1) I’ve been pretty ill this weekend and each time I slept, I slept like a log. 2) I am not a machine. *stare*

Out of those I had recommended, I read: Strange Neighbors (a HOOT of a read), Succubus Blues (a great story that I flew through), 11% of Unholy Ghosts (sorry, that’s as far as I got due to the flow of the words just not carrying me along as fast as I needed to go, so I changed material) before moving onto Nevermore.

I’m only 70% through Nevermore. I had hoped to have it finished by the end of the eve–and I might well have done if I hadn’t spent a few hours trying to get into Unholy Ghosts and hadn’t needed to hit the shops for an hour or so–but what I’ve read through so far, I have REALLY enjoyed and shall definitely continue because I can’t wait to see how this story unfolds.

Many thanks to the following blogs for organising this weekend: Kindle Fever, My Shelf Confessions, and Letters Inside Out.

So, how about you? Did you get caught up in a Read-a-thon this weekend? How did you do?

 

READ-A-THON! #WWReadathon

Oooooooooookkkaaaaaaaaaaay, I’m back on a track I’m happier with. It’s almost 11:30 pm here in the UK as I write this up, but I have just finished my second novel in the readathon.

It was: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/203347023. I kept this review pretty short, too, so I can savour what energy I have left for my next read.

Here’s a copy of said review to save you lovely folk going back and forth:

I’m keeping my review (uncharacteristicly) short. I really enjoyed this. Loved Georgina. Loved Seth. Kinda had Roman’s number pretty early but kept hoping he’d turn out to be good, all the while believing she should be with Seth. And just when I thought I was going to be left on a sad ending, the author goes and slaps on that little epilogue that leaves me with a goofy smile. I’ll definitely be reading on in this series, for sure. )

Now … onto Book Number 3: Unholy Ghosts. Hope everyone else’s is going great. See you all in the morrow.

 

READ-A-THON! #WWReadathon

Oooooooooookkkaaaaaaaaaaay, I just finished my first read. Way slower than I would have liked, but I am really not feeling well this weekend and kinda crashed and burned at 8pm last night, when I took myself off to bed, read another 10% and floated into slumberland until 8:30 this morning.

 

Moving onward. First book to bite the dust is: Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase. Here’s a link to my Goodreads review (if you care): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8353172-strange-neighbors. I usually get carried away in my opinions and write an essay of a review, but I purposefully kept it short and sweet so I can move on faster.

Here it is in duplicate to save you lovely folk going back and forth:

This has got to be one of the whackiest books I’ve read in a long time. Yes, the dialogue left much to be desired. Yes, the way the author used said dialogue to give us a full description of the apartment Merry was moving into and an understanding of Jason’s lifestyle pre-Merry (amonsgt other things) could not have been more unnatural and bad.
BUT … I snorted so often (not in an ‘for ffs’ kind of way, but in a ‘chortle’ kind of way) throughout this book, that I am willing to forgive the parts that are not as high quality as they could have been.
If I had to some up this novel in one word? It would be: Insanity.

Now … onto Book Number 2: Succubus Blues.

How’s everyone else doing?

 

READ-A-THON! #WWReadathon

A few weeks back, I signed up for the Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon. As I read AAAAAAALLL the while around my writing anyway, I figured it wouldn’t rock my schedule too badly. But on top of that, I’d have a legitimate reason for THREE WHOLE DAYS of reading my a$$ off (thank goodness my Kindle has a huge supply of material), as well as earning the chance to learn about new books and interact with a load of others who are doing exactly the same as me.

So what’s it all about then, you ask?

From the blog of My Shelf Confessions:

Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon

October 21-23rd

Hosts: Bex @ Kindle Fever, Amanda @ Letters Inside Out, April @ My Shelf Confessions

Welcome to the sign up! We’d love to have your participation, we’re going to be having several challenges throughout the read-a-thon. We also have many great prizes already lined up! There will be prizes for participation and for challenges on various blogs. There will be international prizes! We’ll also have a hashtag on Twitter: #WWReadathon.

This is a Halloween themed Read-a-Thon but we’re not going to restrict it to only Halloween/creepy books, so pick whatever you want to read! If you don’t know how a Read-A-Thon works, you just read as much as you can for that specific time! It’s basically an online reading party!

See? Easy-Peasy.

I shall be blogging, Tweeting, & FB’ing any books I manage to get through in the (very) short space of time. To kickstart my Read-a-Thon, I am heading into the abyss of fiction with: 1) Strange Neighbours 2) Succubus Blues 3) Unholy Ghosts 4) Nevermore 5) First Grave on the Right. All of them chosen by the good folk who visited my blog and helped me to pick.

Wish me luck! See you on the Other Side.

 

How about you? Did you sign up? If not, do you wish you had?

 

SO … WHAT DO I READ? #WWReadathon

A week from today is the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon, scheduled to run from the 21^st to 23^rd October.

And this nutter (crazily) signed up for it. Thirty-six hours of pure reading!

The only problem now is I have NO idea which books to read for it.

So I thought I’d ask for some help. From you guys!

Below is a list of books on my Kindle, as well as one or two paperbacks. Skim through. See if anything catches your eye. And stick it in the comments. If I get a tonne of suggestions, I’ll probably go with the first suggestion from each commentor before moving on to the next recommendation. Cheers (VERY MUCH) in advance.

Here’s my list:

1) Fire Bound—a Belador Short – Sherrilyn Kenyon/Dianna Love     2) Five – Christie Rich

3) The Arranger – L.J. Sellers     4) Strange Neighbours – Ashlyn Chase     5) Nightshade – Andrea Cremer

6) Night Life – Caitlin Kittredge     7) Enclave – Ann Aguirre     8 ) Kitty and the Midnight Hour – Carrie Vaughn

9) Shine – Lauren Myracle     10) Friday Night Bites – Chloe Neill     11) Hades – Alexandra Adornetto

12) Nevermore – Kelly Creagh     13) Night Rising – Chris Marie Green     14)  Leaving Paradise – Simone Elkeles

15) Wolf at the door – Christine Warren     16) Forgive my Fins – Tera Lynn Childs     17) Abandon – Meg Cabot

18) First Grave on the Right – Darynda Jones     19) Dark Time – Dakota Banks     20) Bad Taste in Boys – Carrie Harris

21) Airborne – Constance Sharper     22) Queen of Shadows – Dianne Sylvan     23) Last Wolf Standing – Rhyannon Byrd

24) Marked – Elisabeth Naughton     25) Touch the Dark – Karen Chance     26) Dragon Actually – Gena Showalter

27) To Catch a Spirit – Carrie Pulkinen    28) Jacob – Jacqueline Frank     29) Halfway to the Grave – Jeanine Frost

30) Fantasy Lover – Sherrilyn Kenyon    31) Storm Front – Jim Butcher     32)  Amaretto Flame – Sammie Spencer

33) Embrace the Darkness – Alexandra Ivy     34) On the Prowl – Karen McInerney     35) Fangs for the Memories – Kathy Love

36) Deadworld – J.N. Duncan     37) You Slay Me – Kate MacAlister     38) Full Moon Rising – Keri Arthur

39) Bad Blood – L.A. Banks     40) Sold to the Highest Bidder – Donna Alward     41) Blue Moon – Lori Handeland

42) Touched by Angels – Peggy Webb     43) Quick Bite – Lynsay Sands     44)  A Ripple in Time – Julia Hughes

45) Shadow Touch – Erin Kellison     46)    Sleeping with the Fishes     47)  Lonely Millionaire – Carol Grace

48) Deadly Sanctuary – Sylvia Nobel/Christy Moeller     49) Bitten &Smitten – Michelle Rowen

50) Throwaway – Heather Huffman     51) Slave to Sensation – Nalini Singh     52) When the Devil Whistles – Rick Acke

53) Covergirl – Maura Moynihan     54) Masked by Moonlight – Nancy Gideon     55) Bright Young Things – Anna Godbersen

56) Broken Wings – Sandra Edwards     57) Divine by Mistake     58) Ill Wind – Rachel Caine

59) Covet – J.R. Ward     60) Succubus Blues – Richelle Mead     61) Rosemary & Rue – Seanan MacGuire

62) The Devil Made Me Do It – Amelia James     63) Tempest Rising – Tracy Deebs

64) Unholy Ghosts – Stacia Kane     65) Isaac – P.H. Dillard

66) Cutless & Musket—Tales of Piratical Skulduggery (anthology)     67) Kiss of Crimson – Lara Adrian

68) Riding the Storm – Sydney Croft

See? See why I need help choosing?

And if you’re participating in the Read-A-Thon yourself, but struggling with what to read, why not grab yourself a copy of my E-Book Fated Encounter. It’s FREE! And it’s SHORT (so it’ll be a notch on your bedpost with little time used to achieve it).

For E-Reader, click HERE!

Or for Kindle, you can nab yourself a copy HERE!

How about you? Are you signed up?

See you all next week!