Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Book Review #2: Ask the Dark

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Ask the Dark by Henry Turner is a book about a boy who isn't loved by many because of all the bad things he has done. He has since changed his ways and is trying to make money in order to save his family from foreclosure. He finds it really hard because of people and their lack of trust. His task soon changes from making money to solving the towns current concern, finding the person responsible for many abductions and murders.

This book was unusual, there were three factors that changed what I thought about the book. At the beginning I thought this book was going to be annoying because of the three factors I will tell you about in a few minutes, but as I continued to read the book these three things contributed to this book being what it is. The three factors that changed my mind about this book were...
  1. The Narrative voice
  2. The way the book was written (i.e. long paragraphs with dialog mixed in)
  3. The pace of the book
This story is being told by a boy who's dialect is very prominent in the book. At first it was hard to get into that mindset and read the book without getting discouraged, but a few short chapters in I got used to it, even if I stopped reading and came back to it later. 

Another factor that made this book hard to read in the beginning was the fact that there were long chapters where the characters' dialog was hard to follow, it got easier once I understood how the book was written.

Finally this book is broken up into three parts and the first two have a lot of information that can start to become repetitive and  I found myself hoping the character would get to the point. Although I was glad the character gave us all these details because things just started to fall into place by the end of the second part . The "action" begins mid part two of the book and it's hard to put the book down. 

The book is a short read, but none the less it is a great read. It's different from other things I've read and I enjoyed that, even though it took me a few pages to realize that. I wasn't sure what rating to give this and I almost gave it a 4, but the ending made me change my mind so it got a full on 5 out of 5. 

I really enjoyed this book and I would definitely go out and buy it on it's release day, which is Tuesday April 7, 2015.  I want my own paperback copy of this book just to hold and call my own. 

*I recieved a digital copy of the book through NetGalley for review. I am not sponsored by anyone and all opinions are my own.*


Tuesday, March 24, 2015

My First Job Ever!

I come to you today with some great news (at least for me)... I now have a job! I am currently not actually working because I have to go to some training sessions, but I am so excited especially since I'm working with a great company. Of course I am not going to share what company that is and what I actually do because I'm not comfortable doing that at the moment especially since I have no idea what exactly my position entails. None the less I am very excited and since one of my New Years resolutions was to get a job/career, I wanted to share the fact that that goal was finally accomplished. 

I will still be blogging since I do this for fun, I might have to schedule some posts at times because I have no idea what days I will be working, but I will still be uploading every Tuesday. If anything changes I will let you all know ahead of time, but it seems like I won't have to make any major changes with my own schedule to actually do my job. 

This is my first job ever so as you can probably tell by all the  exclamation points (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) that I am very excited. I knew I wasn't going to get a career right away without experience, but I'm glad I am working with a company I know and trust as my first  job ever.

Anyways, enough about me, I want to know what your first ever job was and any funny moments from working (you don't have to share all the details).

I'm a working woman now! lol

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

St. Patrick's Day Outfits

Happy St.Patrick's Day!
Today I decided to share a few outfits I would wear today. As you can see I wouldn't make the green stand out as the main piece of my outfit. I love to be comfortable and these are a few outfits I put together to share my style, enjoy!


St. Patrick's Day Outfits


Crop top
etsy.com


Black shirt
$9.74 - amazon.co.uk


Scoop neck tee
$52 - jades24.com



Harvey Faircloth slim fit jeans
$460 - farfetch.com


Christmas legging
hottopic.com


Converse sneaker
topfanshoes.co



Converse sneaker
converse.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Book Review #1: Asylum

Today I will be reviewing a book I recently read. As I have mentioned before I want to start reviewing books that I read since I read a lot and love finding out about new books (as do others). This is the first of many reviews I am planning to write throughout the year and I hope you enjoy.

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

It took me a while to start reading this book and because of this I had forgotten the actual genre so I went in thinking it was a horror book. In reality Asylum written by Jeannette de Beauvoir turned out to be more of a historical fiction/mystery novel. Although most of the things the author wrote about did really occur in the past (according to the author's note) there are many fictional plots. 
The book is following a past and present story. We don't know it in the beginning of the novel, but the story first starts in the past where we follow the story of a young girl named Gabrielle. Throughout the novel her story is told, yet the character we actually follow (in the present) is Martine LeDuc. After a few chapters you can tell that these two characters are from a different time and lead different lives. 

The book is mainly about Martine LeDuc and a detective, named Julian, who are assigned to look into the deaths of four women. They go beyond expected and actually start investigating together and find connections that the police officers in charge of the case didn't pay much attention to. They finally figure out how all four women were connected, but they still don't know who murdered them. Martine LeDuc finds out a little to late who the killer is.



Overall, I gave this book a 3 out of 5. I enjoyed Gabrielle's story the most (even though her story was short snippets at the end of each chapter) because it's the story I actually wanted to read when I chose the book. Martine's story was okay, it had its good times, but there wasn't much that I enjoyed. I was starting to enjoy it once she was with the killer, but afterwards her story seemed to end quickly. I would have liked to see her interact with her step children one last time maybe had a change of heart/told them she loved them. Basically the book was slow at times and it felt repetitive at others and although they looked for a killer the entire time there was no actual deaths during the entire book (which I understand), but it is supposed to be about murders too. 

This book is out now, Tuesday March 10th, so if you do go out and buy it please let me know how wrong I am about the book and how good it actually is. 


*I received the book through NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.*

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

4 Things to do without Internet

My internet isn't the most reliable and I've had to deal with finding entertainment that doesn't include wifi plenty of times before. After having finished homework or any chores the last thing you want is to find yourself without wifi since almost everything is online now. So, I thought I should share a few things I do when I don't have any wifi.

Books/ Magazines
I am an avid reader so this is something I tend to do even if there is wifi, but it is one of the best things to do without an Internet connection. If books aren't your thing flipping through magazines is the next best thing, I have a huge pile of magazines I keep just in case (great for road trips too). 
There are many book apps you can use as well that don't need wifi (as long as the book is downloaded onto the app). There is a library app called Overdrive where you can borrow audio and digital books from your local library with your library card account, that is great. There is a social book app call Wattpad where people can write books and and anyone can read them, most of them are fan fiction ,but you can find some great books on there. The other common apps are iBooks and  Kindle where there are only a few free books, but you can definitely buy a book as well. 

Podcasts/Music
Almost everyone has some sort of iPod or music device where they can listen to music, but have any of you heard of Podcasts. There is an app on Apple products where you can download audio shows and listen to them whenever you want without wifi. It is the best thing to have when you want to listen to something other than the same pop songs on the radio.

Movies
If there is no internet then that means Netflix and YouTube is out of the picture so why not pull out an old DVD and watch that instead. 

Games
If you have a lot of people who want the wifi back why not pull out the old board games and play a game. Everyone loves group games every once in a while. If you want alone time though, there are a few games in the App Store that can keep you busy.

There are a lot of things you can do, but I hope you enjoyed these four tips on what to do.
Let me know what you do without wifi.