It's My Birthday .... GIVEAWAY!

It's my birthday .... YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

So you get a giveaway... YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

The Rules
US only (sorry INT is $$)
Must be 13 with permission or an old person like me :P
Enter via the Rafflecopter below :)

The Prize
SHHHHHHH.... It's a secret 
You will have to win to find out - there will be books (duh) :P 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monthly Re-Cap: April 2016

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

And another month bites the dust... Luckily this month I was off to a great start in the first week I finished two books and a short graphic novel which really got me back into the reading groove. But then I started getting lazy again :/ and also doing stuff around the house in prep for my family visiting TODAY through the weekend. 

 I am really liking my TBR post- it is really helping me read more of my TBR list/ shelf.

How has your reading been? Any slumps? Are you kicking butt? 

And what did you read or listen to in April? 

Link me up in the comments section! 

 

     ~~Books Read in April~~     

                    

             

    
Decided to finally just DNF this one :/


How did I do on my April TBR?
I read 4 / 4 books - WOOO

My May TBR will be up soon - I have many plans -- it is Clean Sweep - an ARC challenge month, so I hope to read a lot of ARCs that I have had hanging around.

  
~~Links to Some Reviews~~

• Princess Mia (The Princess Diaries #9) by Meg Cabot (YA) - 5 stars
• Aphrodite: Goddess of Love (Olympians #6) by George O'Connor (GN) - 4 stars 
• Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2) by Jen Calonita (MG) - 5 stars
• Switched (Trylle #1) by Amanda Hocking (YA) - 3.5 stars
• Princess Forever (The Princess Diaries #10) by Meg Cabot (YA) - 5 stars
• The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (GN) - 4 stars
• I Hate Fairyland: Madly Ever After (Vol 1) by Skottie Young (GN) - 5 stars
• The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons (YA) - DNF 

~~ Reviews coming in May~~

• The Lost Twin (Scarlet & Ivy) by Sophie Cleverly (MG)  
• The Chess Queen Enigma (Stoker and Holmes #3) by Colleen Gleason (YA)

Waiting on Wednesday: Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

 

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date:  May 3, 2016

Goodreads Synopsis:  

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.

But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept from Lina for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.

People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.

Why I Am Waiting:
This sounds like a cute one.

Recent Reads: The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons - DNF

Disclaimer: I received this audiobook from Recorded Books, Inc. and Librarything Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Publication Date:  February 10, 2015

 

Format: Audiobook CDs


Rating: DNF


Goodreads Synopsis: 

With her wildly popular Article 5 trilogy, YA author Kristen Simmons has created an unforgettable series of dystopian thrillers. In The Glass Arrow, 15-year-old Aya lives in a world where females are so scarce they’ve become a lucrative commodity. Hiding away in the mountains, Aya is captured by hunters and thrust into an unimaginable fight for survival.

Review: 

This book was very slow going for me. I was listening to the audio and enjoying the story but it took almost 4 full discs for the real plot to get going. These first discs were a great set up for the rest of the story though, Aya (Clover) has been taken from her home in the mountains to be sold to the highest bidder in the city. All girls are considered property to be bought, sold, disposed of as needed by the Magnates that buy them to have babies. 

Aya is a strong girl from the wilderness whose only goal is to free herself from this burden and she tries many times to escape. The book is very 'girl power' and I love that about a female lead but the overall concept is so disconcerting. I feel like books have to over exaggerate the conditions for females in order to give them the power they already should have... if that makes any sense.

As for the audiobook itself, Recorded Books boasts that there are "tracks every 3 minutes for easy book marking" whereas I have found that the track lengths are actually more like 5-7 minutes long, which is still fine for book marking but a 3 minute track would be nice, especially since I am listening at work and often need to start and stop. 

Although the book seemed like it was going to pick up and run with this plot, I never really felt compelled to return to it and I had been listening to it on and off for months. So at this point I am going to call it quits. I made it over half way (disc 6/10) and am still not feeling it.