Karenschoice books

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares  by  Rachel Cohn and David Levithan  Source:  bought hardcover Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf Publication Date:  October 26th 2010 Age Genre: Young Adult Challenges: TBR - Cleaning my Shelves Challenges: Contemporary “I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”   So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors ofNick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions? Rachel Cohn and David Levithan...

River Marked by Patricia Briggs  Series:   Mercy Thompson #6 Source:  Bought Paperback Publisher:  Orbit Publication Date:  March 3rd 2011 Age Genre: Adult Challenges: TBR-Cleaning my Shelves Challenges: Sequel-Prequel Challenges: Flights of Fantasy Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. And she's never known any others of her kind. Until now. As Mercy comes to terms with this new information, an evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River. Something deadly is coming, facts are thin on the ground and Mercy feels ill at ease. You guys, it's so great to be back with Mercy and Co.! I've been putting off reading this one until I finished with my re-read of the series up to this point, and while I enjoyed that, I also forgot how fun it is to discover everything fresh alongside my favorite characters! Adam and Mercy are officially husband and wife as of this book (happy dance!) and their honeymoon is... eventfu...

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison  Series:   The Hollows #1 Source:  Bought Paperback Publisher:  Harper Voyager Publication Date:  January 5th 2012 Age Group: Adult Challenges: TBR-Cleaning my Shelves Challenges: Flights of Fantasy Welcome to the Hollows... Forty years ago a genetically engineered virus killed half the world's human population and exposed creatures of dreams and nightmares that had, until then, lived in secret alongside humanity. Rachel Morgan is a runner with the Ireland Runner Services, apprehending criminals throughout modern-day Cincinnati. She's also a witch. Used to confronting criminal vampires, dark witches and homicidal werewolves, Rachel's latest assignment - apprehending cable-stealing magic students and tax-evading leprechauns - have prompted her to break her thirty-year contact with the I.S. and start her own runner agency. But no one quits the I.S. Marked for death, Rachel is a dead witch walking unless she can appease her fo...

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell Source:  Bought Hardcover Publisher:  St. Martin's Griffin Publication Date: February 26th 2013 Age Genre: Young Adult Challenges: TBR-Cleaning My Shelves Challenges: Contemporary    Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor. Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. I joined the Rainbow Rowell bandwagon a while ago, when I read and loved Fangirl, so Eleanor & Park has ...

Sins of the Night   by  Sherrilyn Kenyon Series:   Dark Hunter #6 Source:  Bought paperback Publisher:  Piatkus Publication Date:  November 1st, 2011 Age Genre:  Adult Challenges:  TBR - Cleaning my Shelves Challenges:   Sequel-Prequel Challenges:   Flights of Fantasy In the realm of the Dark-Hunters there is a code of honour that even immortal bad boys must follow: harm no human; drink no blood; never fall in love. Alexion is the defender of that code. He is judge, jury and executioner; if they step over the line it's his wrath they will face. For centuries Alexion has survived alone. Isolated and haunted by his human past, he has learned to distance himself from his emotions and his role ensures that even his fellow Dark-Hunters give him a wide berth. However, this time the rouge Dark-Hunter is an old friend. Alexion cannot destroy him without at least allowing him one last chance at redemption. But to do this he needs the help of a fe...

Sea Glass by Maria V. Snyder Series:   Glass #2 / Chronicles of Ixia #5 Source:  bought paperback Publisher: Mira Ink Publication Date: Sep 6th, 2013 Age Genre: YA Challenges: TBR - Cleaning my shelves Challenges: Prequel-Sequel Challenges: Flight of Fantasy Find on Leafmarks! Like the colorful pieces of sea glass washed up on shore, Opal has weathered rough waters and twisting currents. But instead of finding a tranquil eddy, Opal is caught in a riptide. Her unique glass messengers which allow instant communication over vast distances have become a vital part of Sitian society. Once used solely by the Councilors and magicians, other powerful factions are now vying for control. Control of the messengers equals control of Sitia. Unfortunately that also means control of Opal. If that isn’t enough of a problem, Opal’s determination to prove blood magic is still being used is met with strong resistance. The Council doubts her, her mentor doubts her, and even her family is conce...

A Mosnter Calls by Patrick Ness Source:  bought hardover Publisher:  Candlewick Press Publication Date:  Jan 1st, 2011 Age Genre: Middle Grade Challenge: TBR - Cleaning my Shelves Challenge: Flight of fantasy Add on Leafmarks! Check out the beautiful trailer! The monster showed up after midnight. As they do. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming... This monster, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. I know, I know. What the heck? How could you've given this book three stars !? Well, it's... complicated... I... I mean... I think... I think I missed something, with this whole book. I love Patrick Ness. His Chaos Walking trilogy is one of my favorite series - an...

Rules of Attraction   by Simone Elkeles Series:   Perfect Chemistry #2 Source:  gifted paperback Publisher:  Walker Publication Date:  April 19, 2010 Age Genre: Mature YA (includes sex) Challenges: TBR / Cleaning my Shelves Challenges: Prequel-Sequel Challenges: Contemporary Find on Leafmarks!  Carlos Fuentes felt betrayed when the big brother he idolized, Alex, chose to get jumped out of the Latino Blood for a chance at a future with his gringa girlfriend, Brittany. Even worse, Alex has forced Carlos to come back from Mexico to join him on the straight and narrow path. Trouble is, Carlos just wants to keep living on the edge. And ties to his Mexican gang aren't easy to break, even when Carlos is living with one of Alex's college professors in Colorado. Carlos feels completely out of place in the suburbs. He's even more thrown by his feelings for the professor's daughter, Kiara, who is nothing like the wild girls he's usually drawn to. But Carlos and Kiar...

YOU CAN FIND AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS REVIEW ON AFTERWORDS The Ocean at the End of the Lane   by  Neil Gaiman Source:  Bought paperback Publisher:  Harper Publication Date:  April 8th, 2014 Age Genre:  Young Adult Challenges: TBR-Challenge Challenges:   Cleaning my Shelves A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly's wings and as menacing as a kinfe in the ...

I like reading challenges. I seldom follow through them, mostly due to laziness (I'm too lazy to post the reviews on the challenge itself, stupidly enough. It would make more sense if I actually, I don't know... was too lazy to do the challenge itself. But, I like to invent new levels of stupidness every day.) Anyways, in this post, I'm going to gather all the challenges I've decide to participate at in 2015. Some of those are legitimate stuff, and some are personal challenges. I've opened a personal challenge on LeafMarks for each one of those, where you can trace my progress! And yes, there is a ton. I'm counting on books fitting under more than one category. Don't call me a cheater, that's not nice! 1. Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge The name is pretty self explanatory. As an avid freebie downloader, I have more free kindle books than I can possibly read - but I'm going to try my best to! I've decided to try my hand at super saver (50 ...