Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon Sign Up and Goals

As you all know I love read-a-thons and I especially love the WWW Read-a-Thons hosted by My Shelf Confessions, so I'm excited to announce my official participation in the Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon.

I'm also going to pair this read-a-thon up with the BookTube-A-Thon Hosed by Airel Bissett on Youtube. I'm not going to go into the debate about Book Bloggers vs. BookTubers because personally I watch and follow both formats. I enjoy them both.

The BookTube-A-Thon has a number of reading challenges that I would like to compete, but since the BookTube-A-Thon only goes on from July 14th- July 21st it is hard to complete the challenges in that short time frame, so here is the catch I'm going to let the BookTube-A-Thon challenges run through the end of the Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon as well as participating in the Wicked Wildfire mini challenges. Overall this is going to be a fun week so let's get on to what I'm reading.

The BookTube-A-Thon challenges are:
A book with pictures.
Start and finish a series.
A book with red on the cover.
A book someone else picks out for you.
A book from the genre you've read the least this year.
A book to movie adaptation
Read seven books.

I'm going to combine a bunch of these and skip a few that will be impossible for me to finish. I'm hoping to finish my current read Popular before Monday, but otherwise that will be on my updates as well. I will have quite a few hours taken out of my time this week with work and babysitting, but I will hopefully add some hours in with the dog sitting that we are doing this week. This is one of the busiest weeks of the summer, but I'm excited. 

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu, I'm counting this book for the book with pictures, and a book somebody else picks out for you. Technically I picked this myself, but I used Random.org and picked it for my June random read so I'm going to count it. 

Little City by the Lake by Celcia Wilkins. I'm counting this book as the genre I've read least this year (I have not read very many middle grades), and A book with red on the cover (see the carriage in the corner. It is red). 

My last book that I hope to read is Ash by Malinda Lo, my July random read. This one doesn't complete any of the challenges, but it would help me out with my TBR list for the month. 










I doubt I will get done with all three of these books. As for the start and finish a series challenge, a book to movie adaptation, and read seven books I'm going to skip those for now. Mostly because I'm just not a fast enough reader nor do I have the time to complete all the challenges. 

Summer Library Challenge: Library Storytime

Hosted by The Book Monsters

You are probably wondering what happened to my enormous pile. Well I read some of the books such as The Rules for Breaking and Rumplestiltskin, but others such as The Frog Princess, Tender Morsels, and Clockwork Angel I decided to return unread. Bringing my pile down to only three books. I'm currently reading Popular by Maya Van Wagenen, then I hope to start The Real Boy by Anne Ursu, followed by Little City by The Lake by Celia Wilkins. Then I'm going to read random books for the rest of the month. 

Sorry about skipping last weeks topic, but I just couldn't motivate myself to write the post. To answer the question simply Yes, I do review library books in fact most of my reviews are library books. 

This week's topic is Library Storytime. I shared my library story during my Library Books Read-A-Thon so you can check it out. 

As a Kid: As a kid my daycare provider used to take us to the bookmobile and we could check out books on her card or our own. In those days I loved picking out a new book to read and get a new sticker on my library card. Then when I entered school we had library time where we could either read books that we had

already started or read new ones. I loved to browse the shelf and start new books during this time. I was always reading something. Library time was my favorite part of the day. My favorite books in later elementary were The Fudge Series by Judy Blume and The Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne. Reading opened my eyes to a whole new world. I have never stopped living in that wonderful world.

In Middle School: In Middle School library time ended, but despite that teachers still encouraged us to read. I believe in 6th grade we had to finish one book per quarter, in 7th and 8th grade we had certain number of AR points we had to earn. AR stands for Accelerated Reader basically you read a book, take the test, and earn points based on how well you knew the book. Then we eventually get to spend the points at the AR store. This was the time where I fell in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I begun reading her books in

6th grade and then I learned that there were books about her Great Grandmother Martha, her Grandma Charlotte, her Mother Caroline, and her Daughter Rose, so I begun reading all the spin off books starting with Rose and then moving on to Martha and Charlotte. I'm still working on the Caroline series. I was constantly in the library requesting a new Little House Book to read. This is also the time where I started to read The Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke which has its own movie series on The Hallmark Channel. I fell in love with this 12 book series so much that I have even read the whole series and its companion series twice. Another think I loved about The Love Comes Softly series is that it returned to the pioneer spirit I was so interested in. In middle school I was a frequent visitor at the library.

In High School: By the time we started High School most of my friends that were once readers had lost interest. It wasn't cool to sit around and read anymore and the teachers stopped encouraging pleasure reading. I had one friend who still loved to read, but we had totally different tastes. We challenged ourselves Freshman Year to read a book of the others choosing. I can't remember anymore what book my friend chose for me or what book I had her read, but it was such a fun challenge. It is actually a challenge that my sister and I are trying to complete this year. It was my idea, but my sister has completed 3/5 books I chose for her whereas I have completed 0/5 that she chose for me. I think we are always trying to push ourselves to read books that we otherwise wouldn't have picked up. That is the point of me and my sister's challenge. In high school I continued to read constantly, but it was coming to a point that I was running out of books that I was interested in. I had quit Janette Oke by this time no longer interested in the books I hadn't read by her, I had finished the Twilight series, and I basically just read Nicholas Sparks and Sarah Dessen. I wanted more variety in my reading and I wanted to find books that I was interested in. Why I'm such a big advocateinter-library loan, The Year I Turned 16. The Library in fact saved my reading in high school because without the library I'm sure I would have given up a long time ago for having nothing to read.

for books to movies is because in my younger years many times the way I found a new book to read was by the latest movie we had seen or I saw a trailer for the movie. It gave me something to read that I wanted to read. Through Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior year of high school I struggled to find authors I liked and books to enjoy. People magazine and authors I already loved became my biggest ally. I also had two friends by Junior Year that liked to read so I played off them a lot and got book recommendations. Of course I have always had my sister who has similar taste. Colette who is a life vlogger on Youtube did a book recommendations video at one point. I believe I would have been a sophomore at the time and my sister and I started to read many of those books off her list. Then we were constantly trying to find videos on Youtube that didn't exist. In August of 2012 right before my senior year we discovered Goodreads and a few months later I started this blog. Now the world of books is endless. The library helped me every step of the way along my reading journey. They helped me to discover new books to read and even got my first book through

In College: As many of you know I'm about to start my Sophomore Year of College. Although I have plenty of books that I want to read on my Goodreads TBR list, the fact about getting the books is another story. I go an hour away for college and sometimes don't come home for several weeks making library books hard, but since I still don't have money to buy books I had to find a way to make library books work. I signed up for the public library in my town. I was less than impressed with this library system. Their hold system doesn't get you any books. All my holds have expired without me ever seeing the book and when you look on the shelves their adult section is stacked, but their Young Adult section is lacking. I knew I wasn't going to be able to read the books I want with this library. I decided I would continue to use my at home library that I have used basically my whole life. For the most part I have kept up with the due dates and returned the books on time. There has been a couple times where I had to pay a fine. What's great is that my sister can pick up my holds for me and I returned the favor during the summer since I go to work right by the library. Now I read a variety of books and majority of my books still come from the library although I'm slowly owning more books. As you can see I have had a long love for the library. If you made it this far congrats.

Book Review: The Rules for Breaking by Ashley Elston (Rules for Disappearing #2) (no spoilers)

Book: The Rules for Breaking
Author: Ashley Elston
Publication: May 20th, 2014
Series: Rules for Disappearing #2
Source: Local Library
Read: June 26th-July 4th, 2014
Summary (from Goodreads):

Anna Boyd almost lost her life to get what she wanted most in the world: freedom.

 But just when it seems that her family has finally escaped Witness Protection, the illusion that Anna could resume a normal life comes crashing down.

 The deadly man Anna knows as Thomas is still on the loose, and now he's using her as a pawn in a dangerous game with the drug cartel determined to silence her forever. When Thomas and a mysterious masked man capture not only Anna but also her fragile younger sister and her boyfriend, Anna decides it's time to break all the rules-even if it means teaming up with the lesser of two evils.

 Anna will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and win her life back once and for all. But her true enemies are hidden in plain sight. Before long, Anna will learn that putting her trust in anyone may be the last mistake she ever makes.

.

My Thoughts:

I loved The Rules for Disappearing so I was excited to read The Rules for Breaking. The Rules for Breaking was good although The Rules for Disappearing was a lot better. I think this is common with sequels. They just can't compare to their predecessor. 

What I liked was that in The Rules for Disappearing Anna formerly known as Meg built up all these rules for herself and in The Rules for Breaking she is ripping those rules apart. I really enjoyed the romance between Anna and Ethan in this book. I didn't feel like they were just together because they were in this desperate situation. Although in real life I don't think their relationship would last forever. Ethan and Anna did what they had to get out of this desperate situation and I liked that. 

A good portion of this book Anna and Teeny were spent locked up, which was hard to keep the novel exciting. There were some really slow parts in this novel. The villain Thomas didn't really come off as evil to me. If he was more evil he would have done more. The mole in the operation was interesting, but then again it eventually got old too. 

I rated this book 5 stars because despite all that I still enjoyed the book. I would have liked to see more of Teeny, but overall I did enjoy this novel. I think The Rules for Disappearing was miles better, but I can't wait to see what this author comes out with next. I would recommend reading The Rules for Breaking. 

Fairy Tales With a Twist Read-A-Thon Sign Up #CoyerSummerVacation

Sign Up Here

This read-a-thon is apart of Coyer Summer Vacation, but you do not need to be participating in Coyer to participate this weekend. This Read-a-Thon will run from July 11th-13th

My hope is to get partway done with The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

June Wrap Up and July TBR

June was a super busy month. My one class I'm taking online this summer had a lot going on this month and we aren't really slow down until I'm done with the class. I had Kindercamp at the beginning of June and it was so much fun. We had such a good group this year. This class of Kindergarteners are going to do great. Then I got a call the 2nd week of June for an interview at a church daycare. I started the last week of June. So far I love how flexible the schedule is and getting to interact with kids all day. I know in my last wrap up I said I wasn't working this summer because I had given up hope. Then this opportunity came along and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to work the rest of this summer and then I will be back over Christmas Break and have a job to come back to next summer. I will make more next summer just because I will be working from the start. If you have been following me closely you would know I have been loving this job so far. My first career of choice was to be a daycare provider and I would be lying if I didn't say I still think I might do that job. It will be after my kids are born so I have the ability to stay home with them. Right now I'm excited about being a teacher. Its been great starting my first real job.

In other news this month the rainy days have seemed to end for now that has been most of my summer so far. My twin cousins were born this month. Sydney and Cameron were both 7 pounds and healthy. We were so excited to meet them and hold them. We happy for such a healthy pregnancy.  I also made a trip to visit my friend who lives 4 and 1/2 hours away. It was quite a drive, but we had a fun weekend.

In reading world I read 7 books this month or if you want to get technical 4 novels, 2 novellas, and 1 audiobook. I started out the month with a slower read and ended the month with one also, which is why the final book I started in June will be on my July wrap up. I started the month with Deception's Princess by Esther Friesner. This book was pretty slow. There was a lot of world building to accomplish, but I gave it a high rating because I did enjoy the ending and most of the book. At the same time I was reading The Subtle Beauty by Ann Hunter which I got as a kindle freebie during fairy tale fortnight. This was a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast and I loved this novel so much that the author offered to give me a free copy of Moonlight, which is about the parents in Subtle Beauty. Then I continued on the month with The One and Only by Emily Giffin, which is by far not my favorite one of her books, but I did enjoy it a lot. If you love football you will fall in love with Giffin's new novel. At the same time I was reading Maelyn by Anita Valle. This is part of the 9 princesses novella series. The first book is free on amazon. I loved this book a lot and will be doing a quick review on it in the future. I will be purchasing the second novella Coralina. Then I dove into City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. I feel like I'm repeating the same words over and over again. City of Heavenly Fire was amazing. I loved every single page of this novel. Then I read my April random read, yes I know April was three months ago, The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston. I loved the action of this book and it was a nice short book after City of Heavenly Fire. Then I went to my friend's house as I mentioned above. She lives 4 and 1/2 hours away and so I had a 9 hour round trip and I needed something to do in the car since I would be by myself. I listened to an audiobook of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. I did enjoy the narration, but the book was just okay for me. My full review will be up soon.

Did you notice review links have finally made their way back in the wrap ups. I have been behind on reviews since March and I finally caught up this week so from now on you will see reviews as I write them as I finish books. I just finished The Rules for Breaking by Ashley Elston.

This is about the time last year I gave up on my monthly TBR list. I couldn't stand the pressure and I wasn't keeping up. I so want to finish every book I put on this list, but I know that isn't always possible. If you have been following my weekly library posts then you would know that three books have sat on the list the whole time, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, and The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker. As much as I want to read these books my time has run out and I will be returning them unread along with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell which I cannot renew and my three weeks are up. It just isn't the right time to be reading these books and I'm sure that I will read them sometime this year or even next year just not now. As of now I have three books on my TBR list that I will read this month the rest of the month I'm unsure about. I will either pick random books from the library that I pick off the shelves (something I rarely do) or I will read books that I own such as The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer Smith, To All the Boys I have Loved Before by Jenny Hann,  The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Mrycle, or some of the new books I got this month coming up below.

July marks a year since I have attended Summer Bridge see my wrap here.   It was easily the four most stressful weeks of my life, but I think I gained a lot from the experience. I only read three books last July so I think this record will be easy to beat this year.

The books are Popular by Maya Van Wagenen, The Real Boy by Anne Ursu (June random Read), and Little City by the Lake by Celia Wilkins.

 I won three giveaways and received the books this month. Gemini by Carol Cassella is the book I won from Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon so thanks to the hosts for hosting this amazing read-a-thon. Then I recieved Titan Magic and Titan Magic Body and Soul by Jodi Lamm from Fairy Tale Fortnight hosted by Misty @ The Book Rat and Bonnie @ A Backwards Story (they are even signed), and the last book is The Distance Between Us by Kasie West, which I recieved from Aly @ My Heart Hearts Books. Thanks to everybody for these amazing books. I can't wait to read them.







Since my Sister always comments how bad I am at selfies I thought I would try to take one with books. This was no easy feat.

Sorry for such a long wrap up as you can see June was a huge month even though it is only 30 days. If you made it this far congrats. If you decided to skip this post totally because it is so long I don't blame you.

Happy Reading!