Sorry blogging world

I've been gone a long time.

Things started sliding at the end of October when I got a new job that has been a little challenging to adjust to. It's father away, the community is different, and I thought all of the change was the reason I've been dead on my feet tired lately, I've hardly been reading and I was spending very little time with my friends, which is highly unusual for me. As it turns out, for the last few months I've had mono. Who even gets that outside of high school. Some of the side effects of mono are a susceptibility to illness, which explains why I've had the flu twice and strep throat (all in the last 3 months), and you're also very, very, very, tired.

Apparently I've had it for a few months now, and I think it's beginning to go away because I have a bit more energy than I did last month. However, I'm going to continue to put a hold on the Blogging so that I can not only continue to get better, but look into someone to do a custom blog design for me. I think a change of face would really perk things up for me.

So don't lose faith Blogging world. It's not that I've forgotten about you, or even that I'm not reading and scribbling down reviews in a notebook, it's that I've been diseased. I'll be back to writing regularly updating in not time!

Friday 56 #6- First World Problems by Leigh Ann Kopans

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

"Losing control of myself, of my body, was one of the scariest things I could imagine."

Review: Silence by Natasha Preston

Publisher: Createspace
Publication Date: May 9, 2014
Rating: 2/5

For eleven years, Oakley Farrell has been silent. At the age of five, she stopped talking, and no one seems to know why. Refusing to communicate beyond a few physical actions, Oakley remains in her own little world. Bullied at school, she has just one friend, Cole Benson. Cole stands by her, refusing to believe that she is not perfect the way she is. Over the years, they have developed their own version of a normal friendship. However, will it still work as they start to grow even closer? When Oakley is forced to face someone from her past, can she hold her secret in any longer? (Goodreads)

I chose to read this book because I read a review by someone else and I was intrigued. Oakley is our main character here, she's 16 (I think) and she hasn't spoken a word to anyone since she was five years old. Her parents (mostly her mother) has tried to figure out of something is medically wrong with their daughter but for the most part, they live with her as she is. Oakley has a best friend who lives two houses over named Cole and they do just about everything together. He understand Oakley better that her parents and is head over heals for her.

Most of the book is about Oakley trying to stumble her way through forming a relationship with Cole that surpasses friendship. So we as the readers know that something has happened to Oakley, probably something along the line of sexual abuse. We know that her father is involved and it's easy to think that her father was the one sexually abusing her. I was okay with the story (there were some issues but I was living with them) until the end. I like how Oakley called Cole to come and help her, but it was all pretty anticlimactic, maybe I'm dramatic but there should have been fighting, chasing, something, but Cole just showed up and drove her away. Then the father and abuser are arrested and Oakley and her family randomly decide to move away. I haven't read the second book but I assume the ending was to set up the second book but I didn't like it at all. With some editing beginning and middle of the book could have been more solid (more details and substance) but the ending was all wrong. It was suppose to leave us wanting more, but... it just didn't work.

This book was almost there, but then fell flat.

The Friday 56 #5- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

 

 "I thought of Dante and wondered about him. And it seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without darkness. Wow, a world without darkness. How beautiful was that?"

Waiting on Wednesday: Finding Mr. Brightside

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

Abram and Juliette know each other. They’ve lived down the street from each other their whole lives. But they don’t really know each other—at least, not until Juliette’s mom and Abram’s dad have a torrid affair that culminates in a deadly car crash. The funeral is uncomfortable, to say the least. They don’t speak.
Fast forward to the neighborhood pharmacy, a few months later. Abram is on Paxil. Juliette is on Adderall. Abram decides to say hello. Then he decides to invite her to Taco Bell. To both of their surprise, she agrees. And the real love story begins.

~*~

Release Date March 24, 2014 

Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Title: I'll Meet You There
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Stars: 4 of 5

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper. (Goodreads)

Review:
Skylar Evans, lives with her mother in a trailer park. 9 times out of 10, the only future that inhabitants of that town have to look forward to, are trailers, a job at a gas station, and babies.Sky, and her friend Christ are the only members of their graduating class leaving for college and Sky just has to make it through the summer. However as the summer progresses Sky's plans are derailed by her mothers renewed drinking problem that seems to be nurtured by a bad news guy who has friends with her dad (not deceased after a drunk driving accident) and the return of an old co-work/ town heart throb Josh Mitchell. Through out the Summer Sky and Josh (who lost a leg in Afghanistan) grow closer as Sky unconsciously helps Josh with his PTSD, and a relationship develops.

My Thoughts:
I liked this book, it reminded me of The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry. My heart went out to Sky. She'd kept away from all temptations while classmates, drank, partied, and dallied in romances, because she was so focused on her goals which she achieved with a full Scholarship to an art program in San Francisco. I liked how we were able to see how Sky's art affected her, how it was what she used to focus when life got out of control. The relationship progression between Sky and Josh worked for me. I always make a face when characters start throwing the world love around (and I did it in this book as well), but... I don't know, it didn't both me as much as it has in other books. I can't speak too much to Josh's PTSD because although I come from a military family, my family members were lucky enough to have had to experience hand to hand combat. I imagine that Josh's struggles were very real, jumping when car backfire, experiencing flashbacks when they hear certain phrases, adjusting to relationships now that he's, not only been to war, but come back without a leg.

All in all I was happy with the characters, the setting, and I like that we have a rather ambiguous ending. All of our questions aren't answered, but I wasn't left unsatisfied.

The Friday 56 #4- I'll Meet You There

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

"Seeing the leg sitting by itself--- that was the moment when I really understood what had happened to Josh."