2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge Sign Up

How can you say no to that dog?

Hi guys!! so I spent the last year basically challenge free yet this year I decided to participate in the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge hosted by 6 different bloggers, you can find more their name, more info and the sign up page RIGHT HERE.

But, basically, this challenge is about finally picking up those books that have been on your To Be Read pile forever! This past year I felt like I was focusing more on the review copies that I got and my TBR pile just kept growing, so now I want to read some of my own books, you know?

So there are different levels to this, but I'm going for Level 3 - A Sweet Kiss (21-30 books) and some of the books I plan to finally takle are: 

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

The Mocking-birds by Daisy Whitney

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Di Camillo

Fat Cat by Robin Brande

My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley

Some Kind of Wonderful by Barbara Freethy

The Espressologist by Kristina Springer

And Many more!

Cover Reveal Second-Rate Chances by Holly Stephens

Hello Guys! I bring you another cover reveal organized by The Readiacs. I think it's just adorable and the summary for the book sounds very cool. :) Oh, and there is also an International Giveaway going on, the details are bellow!

Sam wakes up in the hospital expecting to find his girlfriend by his bedside. Instead, he finds a bleached-blond diva, claiming to be his fiancée, hovering over him. When he learns that he's just woken up from a coma and has lost the last three years of his life, any semblance of stability he thought he had falls down around him. All he wants – all he needs – is Lil.

After countless visits with her shrink and too many sleepless nights waiting for the one man she loves to walk back through the door, Lil wants nothing more than to separate herself from the life she used to have. But the moment Sam smiles at her, Lil knows it's going to take more than self-restraint to stay away.

Second-Rate Chances is about a young man fighting to regain his memory, and the one thing in his life that felt real. A modern-day Samson and Delilah, it's a look at what it means to love and be loved, and to fight though it seems hopeless.

Release Date: January 10, 2013

About Holly

People have often told me that I live in a fantasy world. Little did they know, I was building an empire of stories in my head to one day share.

I'm a mother first, a wife second, and a writer third. I'm so thankful to have been given this chance to get my stories out of my head and onto paper.

When I'm not writing, I sell plumbing (no I'm not kidding) and read romances that leave my heart a flutter. I know a ridiculous amount of pop culture information and can quote certain movies word for word. Music drives me to write and to also sing off key.

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Book Review: Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris

At First Sight: Even though it isn't exactly her dream, budding artist Quigley has agreed to her best friend Anne's plan to get themselves some smoking-hot dresses for their Senior Formal, even if that means some crappy after school jobs (like working at a pizza factory or a dinner-theater thing).

That's how she gets dragged to Anne's mom design class to work as a model for Mrs. Parisi's class of budding designers. Quigley things it's all going to be a drag - and a bit humiliating to boot since she doesn't have the thin, waif body Anne does and no-one will chose her as a model - until she meets Zander.

He might not be able to draw, but his designs are beautiful, and he always picks Quigley as his model. He is nice and funny and charming, and sometimes it even seems like he's really interested in her.

But things aren't all smooth sailing for Quigley, between the signals Zander sends and she misreads  Anne escalating rebellious behavior and David, Quigley's nemesis who suddenly seems interested in way more than their not-so-friendly artistic competition. 

Second Glance: Will Work for From Dress had been on my TBR pile for a good long while, yet I always kept putting it off. I always figured it would be a fluffy, fun, little book to read, and I think that was it's intention but I don't think the execution was all the way there.

To start with, I thought the characters were nice but really underdeveloped, I never felt like I really got to know them in any sustancial way, it was all on the surface. And Anne was really annoying during 80% of the book (she always got Quigley stuck with the worst part of the jobs she lined for them, and gets them in really awkward situations).

There are times where your only information about certain characters comes in the form of third-party exposition that borderlines info dump. And the problems the girls face are more or less rather superficial. Anne acts out and does stupid stuff to lash out at her mom, Quigley assumes things and miss interprets stuff, oh and she doesn't know what her artistic style is yet and this is A Big Deal that only gets trotted out at convenient times.  And so on and so forth.

And, in the end, everything gets resolved in a very perfect, sweet and instantaneous fashion. All the troubles, big and small, get magically solved in the last twenty pages or so (maybe even less), and it's just weird.

Bottom Line: Sadly, Will Work for Prom Dress was something of a disappointment. It wasn't particularly bad, just inconsequential, almost like a place holder for every other story about girls trying to go to prom. It doesn't suck bad enough to be singled out, and it's not special enough to stand out. It's just, by it's very definition: Meh. 

1/2

Book Review: Wyoming Bride by Joan Johnston

At First Sight: Ever since her older sister Miranda left to become a mail-order bride, twins Hannah and Hetty and their sister Josie have been waiting for a letter from her. But when no letter came in months, and the twins were about to age-out of the orphanage, Josie convince Hannah to also become a mail-order bride. 

Hannah was never as self-sacrificing as their older sister Miranda, but she seems unable to say no to Josie and so gives up on her dreams of a prince to sweep her off her feet and agrees to marry Mr. McMurtry (a middle-aged Irishman who agrees to take her and her sisters with him to Wyoming, where he expects to open a dry goods store). 

Mr. McMutry is not the husband of Hannah's dreams but he's tolerant and patient, even after Hetty's behavior gets them kicked off the wagon train and they are forced to make their own way. Until he dies, leaving Hannah pregnant and in the middle of nowhere. 

Flint Creed was riding hard, trying to cool off his head after leaving his younger brother Ransom's engagement party to Miss Emmaline Simmons, the girl Flint was in love with in secret but who chose his brother instead. Flint knows things will get complicated once Ransom marries her and they have to live all together in the same house, and he quickly reaches the conclusion that he needs to find a wife of his own. 

And, as luck would have it, he finds Hannah in the prairie, alone, thirsty and sunburned... and with no memory of what happened to her sisters after Mr. McMurtry's death. 

Second Glance: I got Wyoming Bride via NetGalley, and I was hoping I would like it better than Texas Bride, the previous book in the series. And for the most part, I did. Hannah was likable enough as was Emmaline, Ransom and even Flint; and the story is pretty evenly distributed between the two couples once Hannah meets them.

But I had serious problems with the beginning of the story because quite frankly Hetty and Josie were just plain annoying and vexing. Hannah sacrificed herself to keep them safe but they are very ungrateful, and even after Hannah warns them to behave or they'll get kicked out of the wagon train, they don't care and do as their please: Josie spends all her time reading and not doing her part of the chores, and Hetty just flirts with two men, trying to get one to propose.

Once they were out of the picture, the story became a lot more tolerable. Even if Flint was a little too obsessed with Emmaline at first and remains so for a big chunk of the book, Hannah sometimes has moments of woe-is-me but it's not overdone and annoying, and she does have a bit of a spine, which is nice.

The story between Emmaline and Ransom went a little in circles but it also showcased some very real issues about life back in those days - Emmaline has a near-paralyzing fear of getting pregnant since her mother died during childbirth, and there is something going on with this guy who is trying to ruin every ranch in sight to become a powerful land-owner.

Bottom Line: All in all, Wyoming Bride (to be released January 1st, 2013) was a better read than the previous book in the series but it wasn't perfect by any means. Still, I find Ms Johnston's style oddly compelling and once I get into the story I can't stop reading, which is good. Plus, I wonder if she'll be able to redeem Hetty and Josie in their books, so I'm quite likely to read those books as well. 

At the Movies: Pitch Perfect

The Deal: Beca isn't exactly thrilled to start her freshman year at Barden University - where her father works and which she attends for free- she would much rather be in L.A. working toward becoming a D.J. 

But she's stuck at Barden, and eventually agrees to join the a capella singing group The Bellas, even if she doesn't really love the songs they sing. 

Still, the Bellas's leaders Chloe and Aubrey are determined to re-deem themselves after a disappointing performance in the previous year's A Capella National Championships (where Aubrey quite literally lost her cookies), and they put together a motley crew of singing voices. 

My Thoughts: I'm very torn about Pitch Perfect. On one hand I thought it was really funny and I loved almost all the characters, and the singing was pretty awesome. 

I particularly loved Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy, Brittany Snow as Chloe and Anna Camp as Aubrey (she's awesomely neurotic), but I HATED Anna Kendrick as Beca!! She doesn't care about anything or anyone but her dream of becoming a DJ, she's often rude and hurtful toward people who are just trying to be nice to her and I couldn't very well find it within me to like her. 

Also, I understand she was some type of musical genius but I don't understand why Chloe trusts her so fast. I quite frankly couldn't understand why anyone liked Beca, like, at all. 

Other than that, the movie is very funny and if it had had a leading lady a little more likable, I would probably be giving this movie an A. As things are, though, I think is more B- material.