Saturday Snapshot: March Challenges (03.09.13)

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at Alyce's blog, At Home With Books.

Like last week, I will be posting the pictures I took for my Bookish photo challenges... First up, #EstellaGram:

Sunday, March 3rd - Unread: Working my way through the One Year Bible… From the green post-it tab and on is what’s left!

Monday, March 4th - Fiction:

Tuesday, March 5th - Nonfiction: I don’t read a lot of nonfiction so there was only one shelf to choose from!

Wednesday, March 6th - Mystery: The Queen of Mystery, no less!

Thursday, March 7th - Crime: This is about all I had to choose from…

Friday, March 8th - Traveling:The only time we listen to audiobooks… Got this one on clearance…

Saturday, March 9th - Snacks: I’m not so much of a snacked when reading, but I like something to sip on. Today it’s lemonade

And then I am also participating in the Photo A Day Challenge over at Book Soulmates (#BSMPhotoaday):

Sunday, March 3rd - TBR Pile: This bookshelf is home to all of my physical TBR books (couldn’t fit them all in the picture). Far fewer than my TBR ebooks!

Monday, March 4th - Favorite Shelf: There are even more favorites in this shelf but I couldn’t fit them all in the picture!

Tuesday, March 5th - Teaser Tuesday:

Wednesday, March 6th - Bookmark:

Thursday, March 7th - Reading Ritual: Bible lesson and One Year Bible every day to start my day (6:30am most mornings!)

Friday, March 8th - Oldest Book in TBR: It’s probably a toss up between this and a few other classics…

Saturday, March 9th - Favorite Stationery:

And there you have it! Happy Saturday -- enjoy the weekend! Down here in GA it's a beautiful one. :-)

REVIEW: The Wizard's Ward by Deborah Hale

Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: July 2005, Luna Books
Format: Trade Paperback, 409 pages
Source: Purchased from Books-A-Million

Years before, the peaceful world of Umbria was torn apart by the ruthless Hanish invaders . . .

Yet that is the only life Maura knows. Until her wizard guardian announces she is to be queen -- but that first she must find and unite with their country's legendary "Waiting King" in order to overthrow the enemy occupation. Men have searched for the fabled warrior for ages -- what chance has a young witch gifted in life-magic? Especially since she has only till midsummer's moon . . .and her guardian's wisdom is tragically taken from her . . .

Filled with fear and determination as well as wits and magic, Maura sets forth. Her only ally is the outlaw Rath. Having Rath as a companion is as dangerous as having an enemy along -- but she must trust in him to save their country. As midsummer approaches, their mission is in jeopardy from the Han outlaws and treasure hunters -- and even their own folk, who are wary of "the witch and the wolf."

But the greatest complication is the knowledge that if they do not find the king, Maura need not sacrifice all to be queen . . .

MY THOUGHTS
The Wizard's Ward has been sitting on my TBR shelves for about three years. I found it (and its sequel) on the bargain displays at Books-a-Million and couldn't resist the pretty covers and the fact that they were fantasy stories. I'm not sure what took me so long to get around to reading these, probably the fact that I just have a massive TBR pile (both physical and virtual), like every other avid reader out there.

I really enjoyed this story! The writing is generally pretty good, though the dialogues occasionally felt a bit stilted, and the author does a fair amount of detailed world-building for someone whose native genre is romance. (The fact that Hale's native genre is NOT fantasy is likely why the dialogue occasionally came off a bit awkwardly.) This book is a blend of fantasy and romance, leaning more heavily toward fantasy. I greatly enjoyed the interaction between Maura and Rath from the very beginning, despite the fact that it was a rather predictable relationship. What can I say, I'm a sucker for boy meets girl, boy and girl despise each other, and eventually boy and girl fall in love. It works! (At least it does for me...) Admittedly, anyone reading this probably realizes relatively early on just how the story will end, but I do love a happy ending and enjoyed seeing the events leading up to it unfold. Maura and Rath have a very action-packed adventure, to say the least!

What I thought was lacking from the story was a broader cast of characters. The book revolves almost exclusively around Maura and Rath--and their quest to find the Waiting King--for the overwhelming majority of the story. Sure, they run into other people here and there, but with the exception of the first few chapters, this is almost entirely the "Rath and Maura Show." It just seemed a little unrealistic for a quest such as theirs. Of course, this gave me plenty of time to enjoy their building relationship, but I did feel as if something was missing from the overall story. Even so, I look forward to reading the sequel, though I am worried that I won't enjoy it as much, since the anticipation of the unfolding romance won't be there. This book has received mixed reviews, but I guess it was what I expected and what I was looking for when I picked it up, so I thought it was enjoyable!

Read this if you like...
- Lighter fantasy that's a bit shy of epic, with a splash of romance
- A story with a strong female heroine

**This is my second book towards the #TakeControl March 2013 TBR Challenge.

Booking Through Thursday: The Time Change

Here's this week's topic of discussion:

Clocks change this weekend here in the US, which means one less hour to read … does anybody else begrudge that hour like I do? Wish the Powers That Be would just pick a time-frame and stick to it instead of inflicting clock-driven jet lag on an innocent public twice a year?

(Yeah, so not a question so much about reading … except, of course, you do need to use your electric light to be able to read, so the hour it gets dark IS relevant!)

You know, it's a funny thing about the time change... Before I had a child, I honestly didn't care that much about it. Losing the extra hour in the Spring wasn't my favorite, though I did love gaining the hour in the Fall (and still do).

Since Laura was born, though, the time change has had more of an effect on our lives. I am never quite sure how Laura will fare and how long it will take to work her way back into her usual sleeping pattern. I am hopeful that with "springing forward," she won't feel the effects too much and that we'll be able to get her back into her normal sleep schedule pretty quickly. Somehow it seems more easy to control this time change, as opposed to "falling back" when she wakes up at an hour earlier than her usual time. I guess we will find out soon enough!

I hate to lose the hour of reading, especially since my week has been so crazy that I haven't really had much time to read. That said, I do look forward to it being lighter in the evenings now -- this weekend's time change is a herald of Spring, so that's a good thing, in my opinion!

REVIEW: Untraceable by S.R. Johannes

Genre: Young Adult Suspense/Thriller

Release Date: November 2011, Coleman & Stott

Format: eBook (Kindle)

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

16-year-old Grace has lived in the Smokies all her life, patrolling with her forest ranger father who taught her about wildlife, tracking, and wilderness survival.

When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him.

One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father.

Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves.

MY THOUGHTS
If you've been keeping up with my posts recently, then you may already know that I picked up this book because I'm going to an event this weekend featuring several Indie authors and I wanted to at least read one book by each of the authors in attendance on the day that I'm going. Untraceable by S.R. Johannes was the last book I had to read in this quest and I am so excited for this event on Sunday!

I was intrigued when I found out this book is set in the mountains of North Carolina, because I have been visiting that area my whole life on vacations every year. However, I will admit that Untraceable didn't really grab me until about a third of the way in, despite the fact that I was enjoying the author's writing style. It just didn't feel like there was a lot going on for awhile. Grace was a difficult character to warm up to initially and it just felt like her fight to find her dad was almost a lost cause. I couldn't figure out how the story would ever get moving, much less be resolved. Thank goodness for the arrival on the scene of Mo, though even then I wasn't completely hooked, but my interest was definitely piqued.

Finally events start to really get rolling and before I knew it, I was completely sucked in and could not put the book down until I finished it. There was some heart-pounding, scary action in a good third or more of the latter part of the book with plenty of great twists and turns, many of which I didn't see coming! Though a bit of a cliffhanger, thankfully Johannes throws us a bone at the end and we aren't left totally hanging. Of course, the second book is already out so it's not like I'm waiting months to read it, but sometimes it's nice to get some resolution before moving on to the next phase of the story. Given that Untraceable started off slow for me and there were a couple of minor grammatical errors, I had to deduct a star from my rating, but other than that, I loved this book and can't wait to read Uncontrollable and other titles by S.R. Johannes!


Read this book...
- if you like contemporary YA fiction that is NOT paranormal YA
- if you enjoy suspense/thriller novels
- if you are looking for a new indie author to try

**This is my first book towards the #TakeControl March 2013 TBR Challenge.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Wizard's Ward

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This month, I am trying to work through my TBR pile, as part of the Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Today's teaser is from a book I've had sitting on my shelves for about three years now, since finding a copy on the bargain shelves at our local Books-A-Million.

Experience had taught him that he fared best on his own. Yet he seemed doomed to go through life picking up followers, the way a long cloak picked up troublesome burrs. "First, I must go see if any of the others are still alive."

~ page 34 of The Wizard's Ward by Deborah Hale