Monday, January 7, 2013

Review: 911


911
911 by Scarlet Blackwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Damon is morning his lost love ten years after 9/11. He keeps running into Simon who has his own grief but wants to move on with life. As they hook up it overwhelms Damon but he finally truly confronts his grief head on instead of hiding and is now actually headed toward healing.



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Review: Stranded: A Christmas Story


Stranded: A Christmas Story
Stranded: A Christmas Story by Fiona Wilde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Lydia has made some big changes to her body but it seems she also became a shallow diva. In her quest to get home and get the high school guy that didn't notice her she ends up risking her very life. Mason comes to her rescue but he sure has no plans to put up with a spoiled brat. She gets more than she bargains for in this rescue but she may have found the very thing she needs. I like that both of them knew that for things to work out compromise was involved and they knew it would take work. Not an easy perfect ending.



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Review: Lucky


Lucky
Lucky by Ana Bosch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Martel has always considered his dreads to be lucky and his source for getting any guy he wants. Then he has to cut them for work and he thinks everything is going wrong. But when Felix "rescues" him by coming to the office party with him Martel may find out that this might be the start of a whole different kind of lucky.



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Review: Gone Country


Gone Country
Gone Country by Lorelei James

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Another great addition to the Rough Rider series. I love the fact that Gavin doesn't seem to have all that natural confidence the rest of the McKay men do but when he gets moving he seems to be full blown McKay. I really loved the two daughters one a teen and one a young lady. Their interaction with each other and their parents really added to the story. I like how it doesn't gloss over the problems of being older and more "set in your ways" when you find love especially when there are kids involved. A very satisfying read.



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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2013 Themed Reading Plan

So this year I decided that instead of doing a bunch of challenges that sometimes require making more purchases I decided to make an effort to catch up (yeah, I'll buy new stuff, too) by picking a new theme or themes each month as a priority for my reading list.  These books will be put on the Special/Holiday shelf on my Nook.  Also, added to the shelf would be new books purchased for the first couple of weeks when they will be removed from this shelf to be read later.  Also, the books received from Secret Cravings Book Club each month will be added for the first month after received.  And finally the monthly free book from the Blushing Books website.

So what are my monthly themes are as follows:

January - New Year's, Winter, Short list pages*
February - Valentines
March - St. Patrick's Day, Menage
April - Easter, Fantasy,  Short list pages*
May - Spring, Historical
June - Weddings, Family
July - Fourth of July, Military, Patriotic
August - Summer, Western, Short list pages*
September - School, Fall
October - Halloween, Paranormal
November - Thanksgiving,  Short list pages*
December - Christmas

*In my notebook of to be read list pages when a page gets down to 3 or less books on the page I make a note of the page.  I will pick 3 or 4 of these pages to add to my reading list depending on how many other books are there for the other categories.

Happy Christmas to ME

After an unexpected Year End Bonus I decided to upgrade to the Nook HD.  Overall I really love it but like everything its not perfect.

So the PROS -
The profiles are wonderful.  Now Katy has profile, the "real" me has a profile, and my daughter has a child's profile.
The books and Apps I purchase from Barnes and Noble can be assigned to certain profiles.
Nothing I side load which is of course mainly Katy's stuff doesn't show up in the child profile.
The adult profiles need the password I created to get in but the child profile doesn't.
It does weigh less.
It charges faster.
And I think the battery works a bit longer but since my daughter keeps "borrowing" it while I'm busy doing something else I'm not completely sure on the battery life.

The CONS -
You can shelf from the search page.  So when side loading you have to search for it.  Find it.  Open it.  Then it shows up in recent and then you can shelf it.  This is a bit clunky and hope that will be approved in software updates.
When you close a book it takes you to the home page instead of back to the shelf so you can click on it and move it to another shelf or delete it.  You have to click on Library again and go back again to the shelf.  Again this seems a bit clunky but more livable then the first Con.
About 5 of my apps didn't work on the HD device.  One was my favorite solitaire and I haven't found a comparable one that will work on the HD and I used this app a lot.  Bejeweled 2 doesn't work on the HD but there is an HD version but it would need to be repurchased.  I have called BN and ask for some kind of credit to replace those apps.  They said today they would analyze my request and I should hear something within 4 days.  I'll try to post if I was successful or not.
When you change profiles it takes a minute for the device to catch up and the right things under the profile.

From my personal observation I think most of the cons are things that a software upgrade would probably fix all or most of my concerns.

RANDOM -
The biggest thing I notice was boy do I have a lot of books on my to be read pile.  As I made a purchase I would shelf it and move on to read and review.  But when it took the good part of one day to get everything back on their shelves wow.

So for fun here's Katy Beth shelves ---
Review  - this shelf is only used as a holding place for books that are finished and need to be reviewed.  From there they are either deleted, archived, or moved to a shelf for read books because I might want to read them again.  You know someday when I actually get all caught up.
Special/Holiday - This shelf is a secondary shelf.  Anything on this shelf is also on a primary shelf.  This shelf is where I'll place the books according to my 2013 reading Month Plan.  (Post coming soon)
Romance - Most of my purchases that don't fit on one of the other more specific shelves.
Magazine - These are for side-loaded magazines as the device has its own shelf for magazines purchased through BN.
Anthology -
Blushing Books - Books purchased through the Blushing Books stores or books I got through Bethany's Woodshed that are not available in the store.
Pink - These are books that are gotten as part of my membership to Bethany's Woodshed.  Why pink because I have a notebook with my to be read books listed and the divider they are behind is Pink.
DD Books - These are books that I got through my membership with Domestic Discipline membership.  I'm no longer a member but these were acquired during my membership.
Next - The next book in a series that needs to be read.
Series - Books that are part of a series but there is another book before them that needs to be read first.
Because It's Free - Books I got for free.  Some of course more interesting to other and because I didn't pay for them they aren't a top priority.
Read Series - Books read from a series not specify on another shelf.
Read Shadowlands
Read Lori/Lorelei
Read Incognito
Read Sean
Read Erotic - Books read not part of a series that fit the category
Read Vanilla/Blush - Books read not part of series that fit the category

December Reading Totals

So I decided a few months ago to keep track of how many books I read each month using the main Nook shelf it was stored on.  I decided that I would share the results of my reading list each month.  The totals this month were really high but I think part of the reason was that I had both the Silver and Dreamworks Advent reads and many of those were very short stories so I could get several read in one day.

So by Nook shelf --
It's Next - 4
Romance - 83
Anthology - 1
Blushing Books - 1

By Kindle Shelf --
Romance - 1


Total of shelves - 94