Reboot - Amy Tintera ★★★★ 1/2

I saw this book as one of the Goodreads.com First Reads contest giveaways and I was little hesitant to enter it because I wasn't sure if I would like the plot of the story, but I entered it anyway.

And I won.

And surprisingly, glad I did win.

In what we know as Texas, a virus is wiping out most of the young population. Sort of. When someone contracts this virus, they die and then they wake up; As a Reboot. The longer they are dead, the less human they feel. The longer they are dead, the more powerful they are as a Reboot. They are then taking to a facility that trains them, feeds them and excepts them to do their dirty work.

Wren Connolly, died for 178 minutes. She is the facilities best weapon and only trains the highest numbered reboots. That is until Callum Reyes, a "22" comes to the facility. He is the youngest (only dead for 22 minutes before he rebooted) that has passed through the facility in a while and no one excepts to live passed a week. Wren takes on Callum but when she fails she is ordered to take Callum out. She has a choice to make, either dispose of Callum or escape with Callum so he lives.

This isn't like all the typical zombie apocalypse books out there in the way that they are still human. Some still feel, laugh, cry, while others don't. I liked how even Wren, a 178, starts to feel. The book itself seemed like a quick read, but towards the ending of the book I expected a little more. Things just seemed to easy. I do look forward to reading the second book in the series when it comes out though.

4 1/2 stars.

Received this book through Goodreads.com First Reads Contest Giveaway

Walking Disaster - Jamie McGuire ★★★★★

In order for you to understand most of what goes on in this book, you need to read the first novel; Beautiful Disaster. However, you do not entirely need to read the first to get an understand, but it is recommended. Read my review on Beautiful Disaster here .

I liked Beautiful Disaster, but I loved Walking Disaster. I thought it was going to be boring, since I would be reading the same story over but it wasn't. Although it was the same story, it still was a different story all in its own. We finally understand the root of Abby's nickname. What I thought were Travis' psychotic moments were really more played up by Abby then what really happened. This made me develop MORE of a crush on Travis than I already had. Read the first book and even if you don't like it, still read the second. The story is a lot better in Travis' prospective.

I liked the ending as well - it was more detail to the "happily ever after" ending.

5 stars.

If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch ★★★★1/2

I borrowed If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch from my sister who won it off the first reads giveaway contests by Goodreads.com and I highly enjoyed it.  Carey (15) and her younger sister, Janessa (6) live in the woods. When they were younger, their mother took them away from their father to protect them. Carey is the only one who does the protecting. Their mother is a drug addict and has disappears for days on end. It happens to be this one day, five weeks of not seeing their mother that a man walks into the woods calling their names. At first sight, Carey knows this man as her father. He has found them and come to take them home. We then go through the next few months of Carey and Janessa living with their father in a completely different world. They now have running water. They now have mittens on cold nights. Everything has changed and what the girls knew, could have been a complete lie.

I rated If You Find Me 4.5 stars because it left a lot of questions unanswered. Murdoch did a wonderful job of character development. Within the first few pages you feel for these girls. You wish them the best and no harm ever come to them. You dive into the book wanting to know more. When you get to the end...you realize you still are wanting to know more but there are no more pages to read. I am hoping there is a sequel because there is just so much I need answered.  If you are looking for a story with love, strength, change, emotional impact.. then this book is for you. If you are not looking for that, then I still suggest you read it anyway.

Murdoch - make a sequel. I need to know about Joelle. Does she get what she deserves? What about Carey now that she told about the White Star Night? What progression is there with Ryan? My biggest question...How's Shorty??????

Someday, Someday, Maybe. - Lauren Graham ★★★★

Note: I won this book from Goodreads.com from the first reads giveaway contest.

Actress Lauren Graham has stepped out of the acting world and has now taken a seat at a writers desk. Someday, Someday, Maybe is her first novel and I think she did fairly well on it.  Someday, Someday, Maybe is the tale of Franny Banks wanting to be an actress. She moves to New York, takes an acting class and goes to auditions here and there. She hasn't been making the progress she needs so she set a deadline. If she doesn't become an actress by her deadline, she'll give up.

I liked Graham's writing style. It reminded me of how she was in Gilmore Girls (I liked that show!), so although there were times when Franny went off on these Random tangents...it didn't bother me. I was use to Lorelai (in Gilmore Girls) doing the same thing. It just seemed fitting to me. I liked the Filofax pages and I liked how........* INSERT SPOILER ALERT HERE.....READ BOTTOM OF REVIEW FOR SPOILER........   The only thing that I disliked in Someday, Someday, Maybe was Franny grew up wanting to be an Actress. She attends acting school, yet it seemed like she wasn't too familiar with how things go in the business. I'm not an actress and I even know what the terms mean or what the "protocol" is. It happened a few times, but it wasn't anything to big that deterred me from liking the book.




*SPOILER: I liked how towards the end it discussed how she regrets not going with the agent that she liked in the first place. Not going by her gut instinct and choosing the "big name."  Just because something is big, famous and well known...doesn't mean its the best choice. Someone else may be the underdog, but they may be the one to help your dreams come true.

The Racketeer - John Grisham ★★

John Grisham is a popular author, with roughly 30+ books under his belt and a few which were made into movies. As of today, he is in the #14th spot for most popular artist on Goodreads.com. With that being said, I thought the Racketeer was going to be one that I couldn't put down.

The Racketeer is the story of Malcolm Banister, ex lawyer, now federal prison inmate #44861-127.  Malcolm is in prison for a crime he had no intentions of making and now he wants out. He gets his chance at freedom when a Judge gets murdered and Banister is the guy who knows what happened. Banister won't give the FBI the information they need, not without his own demands first.

While reading the first half of The Racketeer, I felt as though I was reading a history book. Grisham kept rattling off numbers and facts (not sure how factual they are) that related to the subject, I didn't think was a necessity. It seemed more like it was there for page fillers.  The premise of the story, is a decent subject although its been done before. Guy goes to jail, guy is innocent, guy gets released but gets his payback. The story was somewhat slow paced and then when it gets to the pivotal moment it then seems very rushed. Too rushed....and after all of Banisters "melodically" thinking when I reached the last few chapters it became predictable on what was going to happen and then gave this "Eh...could have been better" finally.

Read it if you like, but this isn't one that I would consider recommending.

Full Measures: The Desperate Measures Triology #1 - Kat Lee ★★★★★

An author that I have read and liked a few books of (Elle Casey) has created an adult series under the pen name Kat Lee. Just like the Young Author novels, this one met full expectations. I loved this book! Its rare for me to say that I loved a book. It had to have something that I highly enjoyed.

Full Measures (book 1) in the Desperate Measures Trilogy is the unlikely story of three complete opposite ladies meeting at a book club meeting. Kiki, a retired fully nude pole dancer, Elizabeth the anti social reserved accountant and Aimee - soon to be divorced homemaker, not only become friends but business partners. The three bring out something in each other that they didn't know they had.

I loved this book because it was more realistic although fiction. It has drama, action and hilarity. I actually laughed out loud quiet a lot. I adored Betty and her comments. The characters are three ladies that you wish you became friends with. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a great story and laughter.

Apocalypsis - Book 1: Kahayatle - Elle Casey ★★★★

Elle Casey has a few different series out there. I've now read the first book in three of those series, Apocalypsis Book 1: Kahayatle being the latest. Bryn Mathis is 17. Most of the world population is around her age because a disease took over and killed off anyone over 21 and under a certain age (12 I believe?). Things start off somewhat well, until the food supply runs out and the kids start attack kids. She meets Peter who was staying at his cross dressing uncle's house and together they take off to a safer place. Along the way they meet Bodo, a German exchange student and more "canners."

As I've mentioned in other book reviews, I don't really read Zombie/Apocalypsis books but with Elle Casey, I had to give it a whirl. Yet again, I wasn't disappointed. The only drawback I had was I didn't understand what kind of disease it was. I know its fiction, but it just didn't make sense and it really wasn't explained why it only killed off people of certain ages.

Now, not only will I know how to survive on an Island and fight off evil faeries, but I'll also be able to survive a trek 250 miles with everyone and anyone trying to eat me. Book 2 of all three, here I come.