BORROW BOOKS FOR FREE!

I just found an awesome site that I wanted to share with you all. Book lending is a website where you can lend and borrow books Kindle ebooks.  I just started an account so I can't say whether or not I like the site, but it looks totally awesome. I've already lent someone a book, and I'm hoping to read some of the books on my to-read list. Overall, It is just a simple set up that links you to people who want to read certain books, and when you lend books you get more popular books more often. 

Maybe most of you already know about it, but I just found it today, and I am giddy about it. I think it is a great resource, and you should check it out!

 Book lending.com

BOND GIRL: ERIN DUFFY

Ok, so I'm currently a little burned out on the silly YA books that I have picked up as of late so I found myself on a blog that reviews books about the older gals. I spotted a rave review of Bond Girl, so I picked it up at the library. This was an interesting read for me, because it doesn't seem to have any real plot development. It is more just random anecdotes that author Duffy might have experienced herself while working on Wall Street. Also, our heroine Alex is a spoiled rich girl who makes some obviously bad decisions about her dating life. But guess what? I loved the book anyway. Maybe it is the business major in me, but I found the setting of the finance world utterly fascinating. Especially the character portrayals of the men Alex works with day-to-day.

BOOK BLURB:

When other little girls were dreaming about becoming doctors or lawyers, Alex Garrett set her sights on conquering the high-powered world of Wall Street. And though she's prepared to fight her way into an elitist boys' club, or duck the occasional errant football, she quickly realizes she's in over her head when she's relegated to a kiddie-size folding chair with her new moniker—Girlie—inscribed in Wite-Out across the back.

No matter. She's determined to make it in bond sales at Cromwell Pierce, one of the Street's most esteemed brokerage firms. Keeping her eyes on the prize, the low Girlie on the totem pole will endure whatever comes her way—whether trekking to the Bronx for a $1,000 wheel of Parmesan cheese; discovering a secretary's secret Friday night slumber/dance party in the conference room; fielding a constant barrage of "friendly" practical jokes; learning the ropes from Chick, her unpredictable, slightly scary, loyalty-demanding boss; babysitting a colleague while he consumes the contents of a vending machine on a $28,000 bet; or eluding the advances of a corporate stalker who's also one of the firm's biggest clients.

Ignoring her friends' pleas to quit, Alex excels (while learning how to roll with the punches and laugh at herself) and soon advances from lowly analyst to slightly-less-lowly associate. Suddenly, she's addressed by her real name, and the impenetrable boys' club has transformed into forty older brothers and one possible boyfriend. Then the apocalypse hits, and Alex is forced to choose between sticking with Cromwell Pierce as it teeters on the brink of disaster or kicking off her Jimmy Choos and running for higher ground.

Fast-paced, funny, and thoroughly addictive, Bond Girl will leave you cheering for Alex: a feisty, ambitious woman with the spirit to stand up to the best (and worst) of the boys on the Street—and ultimately rise above them all.

Interestingly, as I read the reviews of those on Goodreads that did not like this book, I agree with their reasons for not liking it.  But I found myself completely mesmerized by the world Duffy created and I don't think I will ever look at Wall Street the same again. The book has some flaws, but it has some real strengths too.

Read more about it HERE.

CARTER FINALLY GETS IT: BRENT CRAWFORD

Last year, after delightedly laughing to myself during my first read of Carter Finally Gets It, I wondered this: Who else is going to like this book? It is irreverant, crude, and kind of offensive, so anyone who I share this book with is going to think I'm nuts. But at the same time, it is all those things while also being hilarious, smart, sweet, and touching. In the end I had to admit it: I freaking fell in utter love with Carter. As I have shared this book with a few trusted friends, I have found that I am not the only one falling for his charms.

BOOK BLURB:

Meet Will Carter, but feel free to call him Carter. (Yes, he knows it's a lazy nickname, but he didn't have much say in the matter.)

Here are five things you should know about him:

1. He has a stuttering problem, particularly around boobs and bellybuttons.

2. He battles attention devicit disorder ever minute of every day...unless he gets distracted.

3. He's a virgin, mostly because he is not good at talking to girls (see number 1).

4. He's about to start high school.

5. He's totally not ready.

Join Carter for his freshman year, where he;ll search for sex, love, and acceptance anywhere he can find it. In the process he'll almost kill a trombone player, face off against his greatest nemesis, get caught up in a messy love triangle, suffer a lot of blood loss, narrowly escape death, run from the cops (not once but twice), meet his match in the form of a curvy drill teamer, and surprise the hell out of everyone, including himself.

Take a hilarious walk into the mind of the most real 14 year old male voice I have ever read. A boy who talks like he is a lot older than he is, but acts just his age. Carter is so darn endearing because he is so aware of what makes him uncool, which only makes him more popular in school and cool to the reader. 

I just re-read this because the third Carter book was just released. The two sequels are not as great as the first, but my friends who are true Carter fans still love them.

Read more about it HERE.

ON THE ISLAND: TRACEY GARVIS GRAVES

I've heard so much about this book and I was really excited that it now has been published by Plume and my library acquired it right away. This survival story was almost impossible to put down. I kept allowing myself to read just one more chapter (they are short, and addicting), and before I knew it. I wasn't tired anymore and it was 2 AM.

BOOK BLURB:

When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day. T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island.

Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

This isn't a perfect book, and I had some issues with it. I enjoyed the alternating male/female POV, but I thought they sounded pretty much like the same person. Also, I could picture the island so clearly that little story issues stood out to me. Like tell me how boxes of tampons survive a plane crash in the ocean? 

I'm surprised I felt so connected to the characters because the writing style is a little plain and straight forward. It sometimes just feels like a list of what is happening and not much of what the characters are feeling. Despite Graves’ style, I was involved completely with Anna and T.J. 

Some language, not much though. Sexual situations and frank talk about sex in general. This isn't an island romance novel with love scenes for the sake of just having them to entertain.

YOUNG ADULT GIVEAWAY HOP: SIGNED COPY OF DIVERGENT

A couple weeks ago I got a paperback copy of Divergent signed to give away to one lucky reader. I am giving it away this week!

Veronica Roth gave the best advice about writing. She said you should do it because you enjoy it and have a love for writing, not because you want to get a book published. I am paraphrasing here (hence the absence of quotes), but I thought that she shared the most obvious yet most overlooked answer to the question: "What advice would you give aspiring authors?"

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DAIRY QUEEN: CATHERINE GILBERT MURDOCK

I just finished re-reading one of my favorite reads of last year. Dairy Queen is the kind of book that makes you want to cheer at the end. I put off reading this for the first time for a while because I hate football and reading about a farm girl who is good at football sounded, like totally lame to me. So why did I end up absolutely loving it? Well, it is because Murdock completely masters voice in this. D.J.'s character is so clear to you, and her rambling hilarious voice is just so easy to love.

Dairy Queen is the first of a trilogy and I wish I could say I love the second and third books as much, but I don't think they have the same spark. (Although, I have had plenty of friends disagree and love the entire series.) After reading them again I feel like both books could have been combined into one. They are still great reads overall, it is just hard to be as awesome as Dairy Queen.

And can I give a shout out to good old Brian? He might be the most honest and real teenager boy ever. He isn't perfect or smooth or all that nice sometimes. But he is exactly what I remember boys being like at his age.

BOOK BLURB:

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Harsh words indeed, from Brian Nelson of all people. But, D.J. can't help admitting, maybe he's right. When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn't so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won't even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself. And why Brian is so, so out of her league. When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D.J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.

Read more about this HERE.