The Goddess Test by Amiee Carter

Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

I was leery of this one. Why? Not sure. But I am super happy I read it. I currently am obsessed with Greek mythology - side note - my class is putting on prom - and my students picked the Greek Isles as their motif. So I have to research it for a reason other than my own. Awesome!

On to the book. There were SEVERAL twists in this book. I did know about Mom - I guessed it but the other twists like who was trying to sabotage Henry, kill Kate, and the deception involved were awesome and I was shocked. I got to the last 100 pages and I HAD to finish it.

I liked all of the characters in this book. I liked that Ava was self-centered that Ella was a b@tch. I loved that Henry was broken hearted. I loved the symbolism of Eden Manor. I loved that the tests didn't turn out to be these astronomical and unbelievably hard tests - I liked the simplicity of them - and thought Kate did an excellent job.

Overall - I am happy that the sequel comes out at the end of March - and the novella in a few days. If you like Greek (or Roman) mythology - this would be a great book for you!

I'm a feature for Feature Friday!

I have been a fan of Feature Friday for awhile. In fact, I think that is where I met most of you!  I got the awesome email from Parajunkee on Wednesday night that I was going to be a feature. It's like an elevation in status in the book blogging world when this happens to you. I'm pumped! So I want to say thank you to Parajunkee and Alison for all their hard work!!!

On to the question! Oh wait - it's an activity!? 
Activity!!!
Take a picture or describe where you love to read the most...
Well, because of the weather I can't get an inside picture but I can give you this, the front view! This is my family's cabin. My grandfather and great grandmother bought property in the foothills Appalachians Mountains. It's a place very near and dear to me! 

I love to read here because it is so peaceful. No TV. No Internet. No loud vehicles. People can't find me, which means that I can get lost in my book and that busy world doesn't matter. It's a great place to get away with a book. But my tippy favorite time to read when I am here is when there is a thunderstorm. When the bursts of thunder sound, the cabin shakes a bit and I burrow into "my spot" (an old chair of my grandfather's) and read. It's the best!!! I def. think the atmosphere is the biggest draw for me!

Also I want to thank Rachel for the awesome button she made me!!!! Feel free to grab it and/or like my facebook page. I know that it's going to be tough with the new upcoming change with GFC, but you can sign up for my email updates or RSS feed! Let me know which one you prefer me to sign up too!
Some background on my blog - I focus heavily on Young Adult Lit - paranormal genre is my favorite but def. not limited to. I also post about my experiences in becoming a published author and the trials and tribulations that come with the journey! 
Below is the Linky list for the Feature Follow! Please sign up and continue to comment on every one's favorite place to read!!! Don't forget - you follow, they follow!!!!

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life. 

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger


Yeah - so I couldn't wait to get the next one. While the characters were consistant - the story line was very different. There was no serial killer involved and Violet wasn't the key component in the police force.  Instead Jay and Vi have settled into couple bliss. Vi doesn't wonder why Jay is with her. She knows why - which is refreshing compared to the "I just don't get why he loves me" cliche. It's actually funny because they banter back and forth that Jay is the girl because he keeps putting up the red flags about sex and Vi keeps trying to get around the flags. 

The major conflict of the story involves Vi's weird ability to find the dead and someone who wants to be her - not in the single white female way - but Vi's got a good life - and some people are envious of that. Eventually Vi gets wind of this danger and becomes uber aware of whats going on around her - she does become withdrawn from everyone, sadly, including Jay, because she is having a hard time in life.

Second conflict - The FBI sends Sara Priest to talk to Vi - yeah not about the serial killer but how she knows things. I want to say more - but it will give it away - so I'll stop.

I did like the first one better - but was happy with this one. I am curious to see what the third story line will be like.


Hey check out my new button!!! :) Grab it or follow me on facebook!!! I have a weak 29 likes!!!

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers. 

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him. 

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself



I read The Pledge in December and thought it was a great book. This one has been sitting on my shelf for awhile and I finally got around to it. Derting is becoming one of my favorite authors.

Violet is a likable character in every way. I liked how she "discovers" her best friend Jay all of a sudden and has all of these new feelings for him and has no idea what to do about them. I thought it was very genuine. I liked how she was close with her family (though I wish her parents were more involved in the plot line) including her Uncle Steven who is a major part of the book because he is the Police Chief.  I liked Violet because of her relationship with Jay (besides the fuzzy feelings). They are best friends.

There were several page turners in this book, where I scrambled to the next chapter because I was worried Violet was in trouble or the killer was near. Speaking of the killer, I liked how Derting wrote a few brief pages with the killer's perspective. I am leary of changing POV but it was brief, it was a complete different voice, but I got to see what a sicko the killer was.

I ordered the second one the day I finished.

A new writing experiment

I'm at a writing standstill. I have broken my bond of the reading and blogging standstills. Though I am two for three, I want to be three for three. I have a friend Joe, who recently started his first draft of his first novel. We typically meet on Saturdays and write from anywhere between two to four hours. It's a fantastic release and beginning of my weekends. But life got busy for both of us and we haven't met for the last three weeks. We knew this would happen.

We did not count on the fact that both of our drafts would come to a screeching halt. It's not even writer's block. It's everything else and honestly when I'm tired, my writing is garbage. So what would be the point?

The point? The point is I miss my characters. Joe and My fix? For the last two nights we set the time (seven to eight) and write for an hour. I text him to say "Go!" and he texts me at the end to see how it went. The first night I did a lot of re-reading to get re-acquainted with my characters again. I got a page done of writing too. Second night - some revising and another half page.

What I like about this is, it's not taxing on my schedule and it makes me do it. I am someone who needs a buddy. Hello - My name is Michelle. Would you like to be my buddy in something?

So if you are at a wall, too busy, or want to try a different writing process, I suggest this one.

What you need:

• an hour of time 
• a buddy 
• your writing space and zone

Easy enough!

Do you have a writing process that's quick and easy? Let me know!

11 Question Meme!!

My girl Komal has tagged me in the 11 Question Meme. Komal was tagged with a set of questions she had to answer and now she has given me a set that I have to answer. I then, tag 11 more people (one of them must be from the Writers' Platform Building Campaign) and ask them a brand new set of questions.


My questions.
1. Who is your favourite fictional couple? AHHH OK. I can answer this. Four and Tris. Def. Four and Tris.
2. Chocolate, vanilla or strawberry? Vanilla
3. If you could be in any book or film, what would it be? The Vampire Academy series or Divergent but only if I get to be the leading lady. :)
4. What are you allergic to? Deadlines
5. Complete this sentence: I am the best at working under pressure!
6. What is your pet peeve? People who don't pick up on the fact that I am not interested in what they are saying and then they continue talking.
7. What is one type of food that you could eat forever and not get sick of? French fries. I love french fries.
8. Rollerblading or rollerskating? Rollerblading.
9. Imagine you got a brand new dog. Would it be a boy or a girl and what would you name him/her? Girl and her name would be Valhalla... Halla for short. St. Bernard.
10. What's your ultimate overseas destination? Greece!!!
11. Was it Colonel Mustard in the Study with the Wrench? No - it was me with the candle stick in the library. - the dude tried to take my book!


Diana at The Lovely Getaway
Melissa  at My World...in words and pages
Molli at Once Upon a Prologue
Logan E. Turner
Steph at The Non Sequitur Ramblings
Lulu at The Bookworm
Lindy at Lindy Legends and Other Such Nonsense
Rhiannon Paille at YA Fantasy Author
Michelle at Book Briefs
Ruby at Ruby Reads
Alexis at Reflections of a Bookaholic




And your questions:


1. What was your favorite book you read in high school? 
2. What makes a great hero in a book? 
3. True or False - All is fair in love and war? 
4. What was the best gift you ever got? 
5. What's your favorite word to say out loud? 
6. What is one blogging goal you have for this year? 
7. What is your guilty pleasure? 
8. How would you describe the perfect setting for writing or reading? 
9. What are the top three songs on your playlist? 
10. What are you scared of? 
11. What came first - the chicken or the egg?


Have fun with it!!!

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

I am going to get back on the reading horse. Life is just so busy!

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow. 

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Article 5 is a great dystopian novel and I am pumped that there is a sequel. Why? A few reasons. The first being the rule. In this novel if you come from a divorced family (before the war because after the war divorces are illegal) or if you do not have a nuclear family- you are sent to a reform school as a child and the adults are put on trial. There is only one church that everyone must follow. Most of literature is out-lawed. Men and women must follow the traditional gender roles.  I want to know more about the "war" that took place so I have a better understanding as to why these five articles are in place.

The novel took me a little bit to get into but I don't know if it is because I have been so busy or it was actually a slow start.  But I really enjoyed the book. I really liked how Ember fought to get back to her mother. I liked how her relationship with Chase was love hate. The author gives you glimpses of their past which answered a lot of my questions and made their relationship more well-rounded.

Chase - sigh - I fell in love with him because he really does love Ember. Wait till you get a look at what he is willing to do for her. Plus the physical description of him, not shabby. But Chase has some personal demons, stemming from being involved in the war and now working for the new government. It's changed him and he knows his only focus is Ember.

Great read.

TGIF!

Who's ready for the weekend?!  I know I am!  I'm introducing a new(ish) feature for Fridays to re-cap the week's posts & to propose a question for my followers.  Feel free to get involved by linking up at the bottom. If not, I'd love to read your responses in the comments. Thanks!

This Friday's Question:

Book Appeal: When you're browsing goodreads, the library, or another blogger's reviews, what grabs your attention to make you want to read it?

If Komal, Melissa, or Diana have read it and loved it. I may not always agree that the book is the best, but I am never disappointed. I trust their judgements.
The cover is a big thing - I have noticed lately that I like the cover to have a "haunting" feature to it. Something that is unsettling. Happy covers and pretty covers don't grab me.
If it is written by one of my favorite authors - see the bottom right sidebar.
And if the book "blew up" all my other blogging buddies - like I go down my reader and all I see is that title - then I want to know why.

Insanity workout

At my school we are doing this weight loss, get yourself in shape competetion. I am not someone who needs to lose weight as I am someone who might keel over and die if I were being chased by zombies for an extended period of time. Zombies don't tire. We have been using the calorie counting website loseit.com. It's a great place for all of us to leave encouraging messages, log our weight, food and calories, and get swallowed up again by another social media... Loseit.com = facebook for calorie counters.

Now, I always swore up and down that I would never be a calorie counter. Hello, my name is Michelle Flick and I am a calorie counter. I eat probably the same weight in food but way better for me and throughout the day instead of just lunch and dinner.

My friend Lauren and I have been working really hard, especially her, about exercise. Well, my friend Heather gave me the Insanity workout CDs. 60 days and you have a banging, fit, toned bod. Sign me up. I leave for Cozumel in 60 days.

So we started with the fit test. It is so you can log how you are body is improving strength wise. You are suppose to push yourself for each minute long exercise (workout also include warm up, cool down, and stretching). Below you will see a transcript of me reaction during each minute.

What?
No way.
Son of -
Beep
OMFG
It hurts!
Why does it hurt?
He's hott.
OWWWWWWWW
How long is a minute.
Good sweet Jesus.
It hurts!


Oh my God. It hurt so bad. But I WILL succeed.

Real reason I'm doing this? If you do the challenge you get a free t-shirt that says: "Insanity" on the front and "I earned it" on the back

What is your opinion about working out?

Have you ever done Insanity or PX90?

Prophecy of the Sister by Michelle Zink

There is a new cover out of this book with actual people on it. I have it, but I find this one to be more haunting - and even though the book is not religious, this cover gives me that feel of it.

If you are new to my blog you know that I have been promoting my soon to be self-published novel, (Um, hello hoops), and I was very hesitant about reading this novel because like mine, it has a set of twin girls in it. I was worried that my ideas and plot would run its course along side this one. It is very different from mine. There is a good and evil twin in it. I liked the overall concept of the book. I liked several of the sub-characters, I actually like the bad twin the most.

Our narrator, Lia, fell flat for me. And I think it has to do with the females of that era. They aren't brazen or independent like current day heroes, like Rose. I want my lead to be like Rose. Yet, Zink stuck to the era, which is not an easy thing to do.

The book is more of a set up for the next. You unravel a lot of clues. I think it gives you a solid foundation of what you will need to know for the next novel, at least I imagine it does.

Spoiler in about four enters.



UM, I'm sorry, if my sister killed my handicap brother, no way would I greet the nut job and not tare into her for god awful she was for killing our baby brother. Lia was just so melancholy about it, almost nonchalant, like she expected it. Super frustrated by it.




PS. Click on the like button to your right :)