Must read before seeing movie!

Finally reading these two dystopian/paranormal teen sensations!

I'm enjoying Beautiful Creatures much more than Matched.

What do you all think?

I've always been a late bloomer, so to speak, when it comes to reading what's hot.

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Children's Book Review: Exclamation Point by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

From the bestselling creators of Duck! Rabbit!, an exciting tale of self-discovery!

He stood out here.

He stood out there.

He tried everything to be more like them.

It's not easy being seen. Especially when you're NOT like everyone else. Especially when what sets you apart is YOU.

Sometimes we squish ourselves to fit in. We shrink. Twist. Bend. Until -- ! -- a friend shows the way to endless possibilities.

In this bold and highly visual book, an emphatic but misplaced exclamation point learns that being different can be very exciting! Period. (Goodreads)

It's been a little while since I've highlighted a children's book that I am reading. I couldn't possibly keep up reviewing all the books I read with my son. We read up to five daily. Since he just turned five, he is actively reading now. We are knee deep in the first step of chapter books. Frog and Toad are our good friends!

I've been getting some wonderful books sent to me from Scholastic and I just have to share them with you all. 

Exclamation Point by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld is absolutely delightful. When teaching our son how to read, we emphasized the importance of using emotion in your voice when you read a sentence ending in an exclamation mark. He would do it so over the top it was adorable. I just knew he would love this book and he did.

It's sweet. It's simple. The illustrations are just right on. I love that the Question Mark can only ask questions and once the Exclamation Point gets going, lets out his excitement! It has a sweet message. Finding who you are and being proud of it!

Thank you to Scholastic for sending me a copy to enjoy and share with you all.

If you have a young child in your life, this is a wonderful pick to read to them. Any of Amy or Tom's books do the trick. All of them are so lovely and well done.

Book Details:
Exclamation Point
978-0545436793
Price: $17.99
56 pages
Scholastic Press
Release Date, March 1

Author Websites:
Amy Krouse Rosenthal 
Tom Lichtenheld

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Audio Review Part 2: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

If you caught one of my earlier posts in December,you will remember I reviewed the first half of this audio book at that time. It is a total of 30 discs and I was only at 15 but really, really excited to talk about it even if it was just a little. I knew with the holiday coming up that it would take me awhile to finish it. I ended up shelving it for a month while I listened to two other audio books, just to mix it up.

I finally finished it three days ago and I am in a Stephen King fog. Now I just want to listen to more! Like I said previously I hadn't really read Stephen King since I was a teenager. I am a child of the 80s and he was the shit for a long time. Maybe it was just my lack of knowledge at the time but books and authors seemed different back then. There just weren't that many that were marketed as heavily as Stephen King, Danielle Steel, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, that sort of thing. These are who you read if you wanted horror, romance, mystery. 

I miss that. Also, Stephen King's books just conquer some weird nostalgia in me, like the feeling I get when I hear wind chimes on a windy evening in the country. Spooky, yet comfortable. I can't really explain it that well. All I can say is that I loved this audio book and I absolutely loved the narrator. He was amazing!!!!  And King was at his finest. Yes, it was lengthy and involved but damn, he did it well. It had all the politics and the drama and the love story that just kept it going.

I was also big into the Kennedy family when I was a teen. I did a lot of papers on them so to have the underlying story here be about the assassination of JFK really intrigued me.

I was hitting a wall previously with a certain disc/hour limit before this but now I am really opening my eyes up to other books that are longer. I don't mind investing the time if the story is going to rock my socks. 

For audio fans, pick this one up. It's well worth it. My husband picked up the book and read it along with me. He finished the book in less than a week. He is amazing like that! It was fun to talk about it together.

I'm off to placed a request for Under the Dome by him as well. Let the horror begin!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Review: Always Watching by Chevy Stevens

As a psychiatrist, Nadine Lavoie has a true desire to help people put their demons at rest, but she has demons of her own, some she can barely think about, and some she can’t even remember. Nadine’s mother was a wildly unpredictable manic depressive, her father an alcoholic, and there are whole chunks of Nadine’s life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for eight years.

After she’s attacked outside her office, Nadine decides to take a job at a hospital in Victoria as a staff psychiatrist. It’s the perfect opportunity: She won’t get as attached to her patients and she’ll be closer to her daughter. But when a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought in to the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels to their lives. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her own history, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?  (Good Reads)

My review:

Chevy Stevens had one of those debut novels that kicked the ass of many readers. Still Missing terrifies me to this day when I think of it. Because of the impact it had on me I have eagerly anticipated each book she has written. Her second Never Knowing packed a punch as well. I was fortunate to receive a galley of her third, Always Watching, due out in June of this year. It didn't take me long to get wrapped up in the crazy story she created.

It seems that Stevens is hitting her stride. The story was a bit more refined, less flashy and startling than her other two. There were still twists and turns and "holy shit" moments but it seemed a bit more fleshed out. More character development, more back story. 

The story included a twisted tale of a cult like leader which for some insane reason always fascinates me. How people could blindly follow the voice of another and have them completely control every aspect of their lives, I'll never know.

Nadine was a tough cookie but still had her vulnerable side. I did figure out some of the secrets within the book over half way through but it really didn't ruin it all for me. Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent thriller. I'm hoping Stevens takes longer breaks between her books so she doesn't get too formulaic. The authors that tend to churn them out lose their flash after awhile, in my opinion.

For readers new to Stevens, I would start out with Still Missing. I think it's her best but they are all worth reading.

Author Website: Chevy Stevens

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child 

A wonderful quote

Indeed.