Archives for March 2016

MONTHLY RECAP | March Madness Train (March 2016)

March 31, 2016 Comments : 6

march

Choo, choo I am a train that doesn’t stop! I’m non-stop!

WHAT’S UP?

In March—

I read a lot and wrote a lot of reviews.

Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but March is best and most productive month ever in my entire blog history! I usually average three-four reviews a month, but I have posted nine. That is an accomplishment that I didn’t know I could do! I’m so pleased by it because I’m never usually like this, and I love it. (Though, right now, I may be feeling a bit burnt-out, which sucks because I really do need to get reading and reviews done for April.)

Discussion

ARC April, Again We Go

March 30, 2016 Comments : 6

[note note_color=”#85C0C5″ text_color=”#ffffff”]After the big success of ARC August in 2015, Octavia and Shelly of Read. Sleep. Repeat. are back with a Spring edition—ARC April.

For those who do not know what ARC April/August is, it is an event that helps readers/bloggers get their ARC pile down. The rules are simply:

You read how many ARCS you want. YOU get to decide.
The book must be an ARC—physical or electronic. The ARC can be old or new ones. As long as it’s an arc, it’s okay.
Have fun!

You have until April 15th to sign up! I urge you to, especially if you have ARCs you need to read! Also, there’s a lot of wonderful readers joining in. [/note]

Another month, another set of ARCs to get through, and why not partake in ARC August?

It’s gonna be a busyyyyy April for me, and let’s all cross our fingers we get all our books read!

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW • The Ethical Thieves (The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry)

March 28, 2016 Comments : 4

The Classy Crooks Club

Twelve-year-old AJ is dreading spending the summer with her uber-strict grandmother—that is, until she’s recruited to join Grandma Jo’s heist club—in this hilarious and quirky twist on a summer vacation story.

AJ does not, under any circumstances, want to spend an entire month living with her strict Grandma Jo. Not only does her grandmother tell her how to walk, what to eat, and which rooms she can enter, she fills all of AJ’s free time with boring sewing lessons! Grandma Jo wants nothing more than to transform her adventurous, fun-loving granddaughter into a prim and proper lady…and AJ hates it.

But AJ’s dull summer takes an exciting turn when she discovers that her grandmother’s “bridge group” is actually a club of crooks! And when Grandma Jo offers to teach AJ lock picking instead of embroidery in exchange for help with a few capers, AJ is thrilled to join her grandmother’s madcap band of thieves who claim to steal only for ethical reasons.

But even the most respectable ladies can hide some truly surprising secrets, and AJ must decide for herself what it truly means to be one of the good guys.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Every single piece of furniture in my grandmother’s house has a name with too many syllables.”

What twelve-year-old wants to be stuck with their strict grandmother who wants to reform you to be a proper young miss all summer? As soon as AJ steps into Grandma Jo’s house, she is already yearning to go home. AJ is tired of her grandmother’s strict rules, telling her what she can do and not do and all the etiquette lessons, but she soon discovers that Grandma Jo and her bridge group aren’t what they seem. They’re a band of thieves, who rope AJ into helping them out on their “ethical” heists.

What kind of mischief can a twelve year old and a group of grandmothers get themselves into?

Typography

YOU’RE JUST MY TYPE | {37}

March 25, 2016 Comments : 3

I love fonts. You can say I’m obsessed with collecting them all. It’s no secret to those who know me. You’re Just My Type is a new feature where I showcase the fonts I absolutely adore and use. And hopefully, you will love the fonts I pick. Add all of them to your font collection! Let it grow!

After a unintentional long break, I have come back with fonts that you will make you go bonkers. There are cute script ones that I can’t believe are available for download, something wild and sea faring, and many more.

Go forth and add these fonts to your font book!

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember, when you download the fonts, look at the license to see what you can and cannot do with it. Majority of it will be for personal use only, meaning you can’t use it on stuff you’re selling. The ones with an asterisk* next to the font names are free for personal AND commercial use. )

TAGUS

Tagus is designed by Pedro Azedo.

**Note: Only uppercase letters.

Reviews

REVIEW • Serial Killer Jane Eyre (Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye)

March 23, 2016 Comments : 5

Jane Steele

“Reader, I murdered him.”

A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school where she fights for her very life until escaping to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her. After years of hiding from the law while penning macabre “last confessions” of the recently hanged, Jane thrills at discovering an advertisement. Her aunt has died and her childhood home has a new master: Mr. Charles Thornfield, who seeks a governess.

Burning to know whether she is in fact the rightful heir, Jane takes the position incognito, and learns that Highgate House is full of marvelously strange new residents—the fascinating but caustic Mr. Thornfield, an army doctor returned from the Sikh Wars, and the gracious Sikh butler Mr. Sardar Singh, whose history with Mr. Thornfield appears far deeper and darker than they pretend. As Jane catches ominous glimpses of the pair’s violent history and falls in love with the gruffly tragic Mr. Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past?
[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Putnam Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Of all my murders, committed for love and for better reasons, the first was the most important. “

Serial killer Jane, qu’est-ce que c’est?

You know what’s missing in your life? A gothic retelling of Jane Eyre with a murderess twist! I present to you—Jane Steele. You’ll be utterly charmed by this dark story about Jane Steele, who has suffered through many heartaches and tormentors, but she refuses to let them destroy her. She’s a survivor. If that means she has to kill her tormentors, so be it.