series

One of My Favorite Series

Angela7 Comments

I have been reading cozy mysteries pretty heavily for the past year, but still pick up another type of book from the library every visit. I seem to always find the best books from just randomly wandering through the aisles and looking at different books that the title or cover grabs my attention.

One of those great finds was the Flavia DeLuce series, written by Alan Bradley. Whenever I find a new series that I adore, I always wish I had found it sooner. But sooner I was reading a different great series I loved and thought the same thing about.

Flavia is an 11 year old girl with two older sisters who love to torment her, a father who is aloof, and a housekeeper whom she seems to adore as much as she dislikes. Her father’s friend, Dogger, seems to be the anchor for Flavia in a family that frustrates her. Dogger is the groundkeeper, chauffeur, and basic man-of-many trades who lives on the estate with the family.

Flavia’s skill with chemistry, and her own extensive lab, has her solving murders in her village that seem to give the police force a run for their money. With Dogger’s help, Flavia seems to stay one step ahead of the police, and the murderers, and each new story builds upon the last, giving you a picture of the dynamics of this broken family, this motherless child, and the friendships she forms from solving mysteries.

There are only two books in the series I have not read yet, and hopefully I can get them from my library soon!

What is the last great read that you discovered?

Are You A New Author? I Want To Read Your Story!

Angela34 Comments

*UPDATE* 11-30-2014*

*I want to thank everyone that was willing to allow me a peek at your in-process, about-to-be-published, and published stories for me to review and edit when requested. I am down to a minimum of stories to still get finished, and it will not be a long process from here on out. As of today, I will not be accepting any more stories for editing and reviewing through this blog. This is strictly due to the fact that I want to finish up the stories I have left to do, as well as begin reconstructing my blog, or likely setting up a website, where I can strictly offer these services. With Christmas 4 weeks away, I want to make sure I do not overwhelm myself as I prepare for a very busy 15 more days at my company before our year ends, as well as getting my home-schooler squared away and on task before the new year begins. Thank you again for all of the responses, I have gotten to read some absolutely fabulous stories, and made some friends along the way as well! I hope as I get closer to setting up a website that I can call on those of you whose stories I reviewed for honest feedback on my abilities to proofread/edit!*

I will in the very near future be offering my knowledge and skills for proofreading (usage and formatting), editing (line and copy), sentence and paragraph structure, plots (and those plot holes we all dislike so much), point of view, structure of the story, and other services the author deems necessary to publish the best, most polished book they can.

There are some things you may, or may not know, about editors. They love books. They really, truly love books. They also love authors. They love that you are making this sacrifice and commitment to get the written word out to the masses, and an editor wants to help you with that. An editor really can help you publish the book of your dreams; a book you are going to be proud to market, autograph, and host release parties for.

I have to date reviewed numerous books I have read by choice, and books I have been asked to review. I have met many great new authors who truly deserve to be famous in the world of books. In that aspect, I am not asking or expecting you to give me your book for free in exchange for an honest review. I go to the bookstore all the time and buy books by authors I have never heard of, because I like the summary of the story, and the cover caught my eye. With that being said, I also do not have the means currently to be spending hundreds of dollars on books in order to review them.

In return for my review, I would like an honest review on my proofreading and editing abilities. If you want someone to find any spelling or grammatical errors, I am that person. Are you not sure if you are writing in the proper point of view for the story? I can fix that. Plot holes? I can make them disappear.

So you would probably like to know what exactly makes me a qualified editor for your work that you have invested so much of your time and talents on, correct? Correct.

I love the English language. I love everything about our complicated, hardest-language-to-learn in the world. I love spelling complicated words, and how a sentence can be structured to be an amazing line of thought-provoking letters and punctuation. I am currently working on my MBA, and have portfolios of all papers written for my previous 2 college degrees. I have maintained a GPA of 3.83 to 4.0. That 3.83 was courtesy of Statistics classes. Yikes!

I read to learn, so I have vast fields of knowledge in various areas that may be of benefit to you. I love history and everything about it. From the Civil War to now, if it is out there and I found it, I read or watched it. Mythology and various religions have also been areas of study for various classes and research papers. I love to research information, and document it. Are you citing someone else’s information? I can make sure you are protected from any possible instances of plagiarism. If you need to add information but you are not 100% sure it is correct, I can find and fix it for you.

If you are interested in an honest review of your book, I would love to review it! I do not post a review that I was asked to provide without the author first seeing it. It is not my intention to harm anyone’s future as a famous writer. I will also provide the review to Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, your blog, website, or publishers website. If you want it posted somewhere specific, you just need to let me know.

I can be contacted in the comment section to this blog, or reached at angi.gibbs@yahoo.com. This is my personal email address, and any instances of spam will be immediately deleted, and you will be blocked from any access to my emails or blog. Thank you for your understanding!

I look forward to great readings and reviews to come!

Unsouled – Neal Shusterman – almost finished

AngelaLeave a comment

I am midway through Unsouled. I thought with all of my free time I would have been finished by now. Not yet, but hopefully by Monday night!

This story seems to be starting to tie up some loose ends about mid-story, so I am thinking this is likely only a 3-book series. I am not sure if I am happy about this or not; I’ll let you know when I get to the end!

Everyone also seems to be in a place (location) at this part of the story that they do not want to be. Emotionally as well as physically.

Cam is bound and determined to do what he needs to do to earn Risa’s love and respect. Conner and Lev have finally caught back up with each other, at a reservation that Lev has a history with. Starkey is travelling the country with the remaining storks from the Graveyard, blackmailing their way to Nevada, and a harvest camp they plan to rescue every teen from.

An interesting couple of paragraphs in the story:

“In this case blackmail for blackmail was the right move, and the man caves, just as Starkey had known he would. Even the hint of harm to his precious children was too much for the man. Incredible. It never ceases to amaze Starkey how far society will go to protect the children it loves and to discard the ones it doesn’t” (Shusterman, N. 2012, pg. 109)

“‘You want to know the real reason unwinding keeps going strong, Miss Risa Ward? It isn’t because of the parts we want for ourselves-it’s because of the things we’re willing to do to save our children.’ She thinks about that and laughs ruefully. ‘Imagine that. We’re willing to sacrifice the children we don’t love for the ones we do. And we call ourselves civilized!'”(Shusterman, N. 2012, pg. 173)

Food for thought, and the central theme to this series. One never really knows what they would do to save someone they love, until they have to make that choice, do they?

Unsouled-Neal Shusterman-Quick Update

AngelaLeave a comment

 

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Unsouled- Book 3 in Unwind dystology

Unsouled, the third book in the Unwind dystology, started off running and hasn’t slowed down yet. The second book, Unwholly, basically left you hanging so unless if you are the type of person who does not need to know how a story ends, or a series in this case, you could skip this book and go about your business never caring what happens to Conner, Risa, Lev, and Cam.

Is this even possible?

I have only ever had one book I could not finish because it was so terrible, and it honestly still bothers me that I couldn’t finish it. It is on my bookshelf, and no matter how much I look at it, I cannot bear to even open it.

So…..getting into Unsouled…..

Risa stays true to herself and lets the whole world know exactly why she turned and became an alleged supporter of the unwinding practice. Cam takes great offense to the brush-off from Risa, just when the public was beginning to accept him for what he was.

Conner and Lev? Winging it once again. Coming up with an idea, and running with it. This seems to only work about 50% of the time for these two.

Starkey is still on the hunt, determined to take down the Akron AWOL (aka Conner) and take out anyone who gets in his way. He will do anything to make the storked kids come first for once.

Oh. And Nelson. The Black Market Parts Pirate? He’s pretty ticked off too since he had the Akron AWOL captured, only to lose him. He also had Lev and lost him too. Kind of makes you wonder how he makes a living on the black market, doesn’t it?

There is much more to come, as I am only beginning to get into this book. I am most curious to know if this book is the last, or if there is another one to come! I am trying to be good and not Google for that information, so the end of a book will remain a surprise.

What has you tearing through the pages at the moment?

 

Hot Off The Presses!

AngelaLeave a comment

It arrived today, and now I am debating if I want to read it. For two reasons. 1) it is several books in of a series of books, none of which I have ever read, and 2) it is signed by the author.

Accused, by Lisa Scottoline (read more about her here). Stories about an all-female law firm called Rosato and Associates. Reading the jacket has me really wanting to read this story, but I try to not pick up books in the middle of a series of books. I prefer to go back and buy lots more books to read to get myself caught up 🙂 Like I need another reason to visit Barnes and Noble.

From the jacket; Mary DiNunzio has just been promoted to partner and is about to take on her most unusual case yet, brought to the firm by a thirteen-year-old genius with a penchant for beekeeping. Allegra Gardner’s sister, Fiona, was murdered six years ago, and it seemed like an open-and-shut case: The accused, Lonnie Stall, was seen fleeing the scene; his blood was on Fiona and her blood was on him; most damning, Lonnie Stall pleaded guilty. But Allegra believes Lonnie is innocent and has been wrongly imprisoned. The Gardner family is one of the most powerful in the country, and Allegra’s parents don’t believe in reopening the case, so taking it on is risky. (Scottoline, L. 2013, Accused)

Accused cover
Accused cover

This storyline is right up my alley of types of books I like to read, and I don’t know how long I can leave it sit on the bookshelf without cracking it open. And since I need to go to the library tomorrow, I have to hope no one else is looking for this gem of a book and I can snatch it up and have it read within the week.

Have you read her stories, and what did you think of them? It seems along the lines of James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series, which I enjoy as well.  And why would I buy a book by an author I was not familiar with? Yes, because it was signed. I have a couple of other books that are signed and very important to me.

Lisa Scottoline Autograph
Lisa Scottoline Autograph

To read or not to read? That is the question that will likely keep me awake tonight until I can go tomorrow and borrow or buy another book 🙂