Review: Shade

Title Shade
By John B. Olson
Pages 416
Recommended by Me

First Sentence A tear ran down Melchi's cheek, losing itself in the curl of his wild beard.

Synopsis
Hailey is a grad student in San Francisco. One night a dark monster attacks her and she is rescued by a strange homeless man. Melchi has lived his life on the streets tracking a monster known as the Mulo. When the Mulo attacks a woman and he saves her, both their lives we'll be changed forever.

What it has going for it
Well, I really wanted to like this one. It sounded so good and it's a bit obscure so I was hoping I'd found a gem but no such luck. It was pretty action packed, however, with lots of things constantly going on. It jumps right into the story with out a lot of back story to weigh you down and had an interesting premise, which is always good. Um, yeah, I can't think of much else it had going for it.

What's lacking
I love when a book just jumps right into a story and doesn't do so much explaining that you feel like yelling, "yeah, OK, I get it!" And while this one jumped into the action right away it never got to that point where you understand what's going on from character's conversations or actions. Seriously, four hundred plus pages and it never really made sense. I had to drag myself kicking and screaming through the whole book and was left just staring at the last page with an angrily raised eyebrow. A reviewer on Goodreads described it saying, "like I was looking through a steamed up window all the time.  I  just wanted to wipe it clean so I could see better." Agreed! Oh well, at least I finished the dang thing!

Yea or nay?
I'm sure plenty of people will like it and do like it but I wouldn't recommend it.

Because It's Been Awhile

If you guessed this was going to be a soccer post, you guessed right. If you thought I was just going to gush about hot soccer players you're wrong.

After being promised a new episode of House last night, and then finding a boring NASCAR race on instead, I watched for ten minutes while making my dinner. So there I was wondering why on earth anyone would choose to watch this "sport" and was inspired to write this post.

Five Reasons I Watch Soccer (that have nothing to do with the hot guys)

1 A soccer game is 90 minutes long. An hour and a half. Yeah, OK, in knock out stages in some cups it must be played longer if the games tied, but even then, it has two 15 minute overtimes and then goes to penalties so it does end. And all around two hours. That's considerably shorter than most sports.

2 There are NO FREAKING time outs every five seconds! (I'm looking at you basketball and football) The clock starts and doesn't stop till the game is over.

3 Because there are no time outs, there are no stupid commercials. You get to sit down and watch your game and ONLY your game. 

4 Despite what people say about soccer being boring because they hardly score, it's not! Let's consider, shall we? What's more boring? Basketball, where they score so many times it's not even a novelty and hardly worth cheering about, or soccer, where they have to work incredibly hard and use some actual technique and skill to score? Seriously, people.

5 Alright, alright! I can't list five reasons to watch soccer without mentioning the hot guys! I really can't! Thank goodness for the workout regime that soccer enforces to create bodies like this.

Sergio Ramos

Sunday Salon

Welcome to the new Sunday Salon. A weekly update post about my boring life. ;)

Weather Small Talk: Sunny but cold! Stupid deceiving weather!

On The Idiot Box: Quite a few shows weren't on this week for some unknown reason. Grimm was on, though, and I really like this show, but if they don't throw us some real story instead of filler I'm going to give up.  Any one else watching this one and agree with me? 

Weekly Reads: I read and LOVED Partials by Dan Wells and I'm still trudging miserably through Shade by John B Olson. :( I wanted and still want to like it but it's just not that great. Don't ask why I'm so determined to finish it. Just stubborn I guess.

Crazy Kitty: It was VERY windy all day yesterday and there were lots of scary noises....for a cat anyway.  

This Week: I had a stupid sore throat for most of the week that has now settled into a lovely sinus infection. It's making my teeth feel like they're going to pop out of my mouth. So fun. 

Movie of the Week: I saw Chronicle and I think I enjoyed it but I was so motion sick from the way they filmed it that I'm not sure. 

Food Talk: I'm trying really hard to live on a self imposed budget and since it's the end of the month the budget is gone. So, I've been eating what I have around and it's getting very sad. 

Soccer Sightings: My boys played today and won. (yay!) but for some reason they played at 4:00 PM which is 8:00 AM my time! Come on! It's the weekend! Of course I still got up to support them...shhh, no need to mention I would have been up anyway for early church. Anywho, I think the only reason they scored was because of pure luck. Check it out. It's only 10 seconds in so you don't have to watch the whole thing...unless, like me, you like to watch them celebrate. 

Music Discoveries: Again nothing "new" so I'll share some boring song you probably don't care to listen to. This one is rather weird but I've liked it since I first heard it years ago. If you like it let me know because I've yet to meet anyone that does. 

Plans For The Week: Wednesday night I'm going to Barnes and Noble to purchase my very own copy of Partials because the author will be there! Yay, another signed book. Did you know that will make this 32 books I have signed?

Review: Partials

Title Partials (Partials 1)
By Dan Wells
Pages 472
Recommended by Me

First sentence Newborn #485GA18M died on June 30, 2076, at 6:07 in the morning.


Synopsis
I'm going to do something a little different. I HATE book trailers. I could tell you why but it would take too long. However, the book trailer to this book is so freaking awesome I thought I'd use it for the synopsis. Enjoy!

What it has going for it
 I've been so excited for this one and when the awesome Emily let me borrow her ARC I was ecstatic!  I enjoyed Dan Wells' John Cleaver series and I love his writing so you can imagine how high those hopes were.  Because of those high hopes I was also afraid I might be disappointed. Well, I needn't have bothered. I LOVED it!  It was action packed and had me turning pages as fast as I could and holding my breath. I had to keep making myself slow down and concentrate so I wouldn't miss anything. There were lots of twists, some that took me totally by surprise and others I saw coming but not till the perfect moment, like right before the characters.  I love that! Oh, and I totally fell in love with Samm and I can't wait for more of him.

What's lacking
Sigh! I could be wrong, and I REALLY hope I am, but I don't think very many people are going to like this one. See, most people like character driven novels over plot driven ones. Not me, though. I mean, It's important that I like at least one character but the plot is much more important to me. I love when an author can come up with an amazing story that astounds and entertains me and doesn't waste precious time talking about a character's "feelings". Not that this one doesn't have amazing characters (did you hear me mention my new found love for Samm?) but there's hardly any romance or character drama. At least in  my opinion there wasn't. There's also a lot of talk about science that I found fascinating but I can see how it might bore other people.  

Yea or Nay?
Of course I still hope you give it a try, but if you're expecting another romance with a meager plot you might be disappointed.

Finally!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Squeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Whoohoo!!!!!!
I've waited and waited and it's finally coming out!!!! If you could have seen the happy dance that ensued when I saw this...well, let's just say it freaked my cat out.