Teaser Tuesday, June 20th

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The Purple Booker.  The purpose? To check out teasers from all the books our fellow book addicts are reading and add them to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Here is my teaser (I clearly have trouble sticking to the two sentence rule...):

"The irony is, I'd been logging in to suspend my account. After almost two years of internet dating debacles and equally disappointing men, I was ready for a break.  But then I'd received the perfect match message.  Therefore, I did what any normal person would do.
I internet stalked him."

Audiobook Challenge 2017 Update

It’s time to check in and write about our 2017 Audiobook Challenge progress! This challenge is hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  The purpose is to check the original level you chose, add up the audios you listened to and see if you are on track. Then be sure and enter the giveaway!

Audiobook Challenge Levels:
Newbie (I’ll give it a try) 1-5
Weekend Warrior (I’m getting the hang of this) 5-10
Stenographer (can listen while multi-tasking) 10-15
Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me) 15-20
Binge Listener (Why read when someone can do it for you) 20-30
My Precious (I had my earbuds surgically implanted) 30-50
Marathoner (Look Ma no hands) 50+


My Progress:
I chose the Socially Awkward level at 15-20 audiobooks for the year.  So far, I have listened to 11.  My absolute favorite so far is 11.22.63 by Stephen King.  

1.  Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
2.  The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer
3.  Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter
4.  Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
5.  Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones
6.  A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
7.  Witchy Sour by Gina LaManna
8.  Jinx and Tonic b Gina LaManna
9.  A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
10. The Watchmaker's Daughter by C.J. Archer
11. Dying Breath by Heather Graham
12. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

I am right on track and will probably finish more than my goal by December so I am actually going to up my goal to Binge Listener!

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at the Book Date and is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit, comment on other blog posts, and add to that ever growing TBR pile! 

What I just finished:

I can't say enough about this book.  I listened to it on audio and never wanted to get out of the car.  Not your usual Stephen King horror, in fact, not horror at all.  It is a perfect blend of history and time travel.

I did write a review if you are interested in my thoughts.  No spoilers. 






What I'm reading now:

Almost done with this one.  It was given to me in exchange for an honest review and I'm enjoying it so far.  One of the few authors of romance that interest me.

I'm listening to this one on audio.  I've read all of the Krewe of Hunters series.  Fast, fun reads if you like paranormal stories with some romance.  Most books follow the same story pattern but I still love them because they always have a historical element or interesting location and then add a murder mystery and some ghosts to the mix!






What am I reading next?

Another of the rare romance authors I truly enjoy.  Penny Reid has her "Knitting in the City" series and it is a lot of fun.  I'm participating in the blog tour at the end of the week so I'll be starting on this tomorrow or the next day.





What are you reading?

Review: 11/22/63

When I was a teenager, I went through a huge Stephen King phase, reading one right after the other, watching the movies/mini-series on television, and impatiently waiting for the next book to come out.  My favorites included The Stand, Carrie, Pet Cemetery, The Langoliers, It, and Needful Things among others.  As I got older, I fell out of this habit and moved on to my career, kids, etc.  Up until about a month ago, it had been years since I read a King novel.  Why did I suddenly go back?  I'm not really sure what made my final decision but I remember seeing a post on Twitter about 11/22/63 and then someone I was with also mentioned it.  After reading the synopsis and a few rave reviews, I decided to get it on audio for my morning commute to work.

Oh my goodness... I have been away too long Mr. King.  I have to admit, since this wasn't his usual horror genre, I wasn't really expecting to fall in love with this story, but I did.  I fell hard about two chapters into it and I found that I didn't ever want to get out of the car. The narrator did an excellent job reading and I hung on every word.  You won't find any spoilers here but I will share a few thoughts.  

First, there is the perfect balance between history and fantasy here. I am not a nonfiction fan but the factual history in the story was so interesting that I found myself wanting to know if Oswald was the real assassin.  I even looked up more information and photos of the time once I finished listening. I love fantasy so the time travel aspect of the story gave it the twist that kept me listening even when I wasn't driving.  Very well done.  Next, I absolutely loved the connections to other King novels, especially when the main character went to Derry, Maine, where he actually had the opportunity to meet characters from one of the books I mentioned above.  This was written flawlessly and I actually saved the clip and listened to it a few times because it was so delightfully creepy. Finally, the story had me feeling emotions all across the board.  I laughed, I cried, I felt empathy, fear, relief, stress, love, and hate right along with the characters.  When a story can have that affect, it's a winner for me.

I both wanted to know the end and didn't simultaneously, but when it came down to the last 30 minutes of the audio, I was so satisfied with the ending that I both teared up and started talking to my car radio.  The people passing me on the highway probably thought I was nuts but I didn't care.

What a great story.  I'm so happy that I decided to give it a chance.