Friday Fun- May 16th 2014

I am going to be sharing with 3 different book memes on Fridays: Friday Finds, Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56. So, let's get started.

(FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). )

There is only one new book that I haven't mentioned yet, which I am not sure I am going to be reading. It is The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

(Please join Gilion Dumas for Book Beginnings every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.)

My book beginning is from Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

"I pace in our cell in Erudite headquarters, her words echoing in my mind: My name will be Edith Prior, and there is much I am happy to forget."

Once again Tris finds herself captive. Why does it seem there is always someone in authority out to get her? I am wondering how long it will be before we learn more about Edith Prior and why this society of factions was really created in the first place. I am eager to get to the bottom of it.

The Friday 56 is hosted over at Freda's Voice.

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
(If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

Here is my Friday 56. 

Seeing as I haven't gotten that far in Allegiant, I am going to share my Friday 56 from Insurgent.

"People rush into the hallway, wearing gray and black and yellow and red. Peter surges toward me in a half crouch, and punches me in the stomach. I hunch over, but the pain doesn't stop me-I let out something between a groan and a scream, and launch myself at him, my left elbow pulled back near my mouth so that I can slam it into his face."

W...W...W...Wednesdays for May 14th 2014

To start this off, here is how you play along with W...W... W... Wednesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What am I currently reading?

I am still reviewing The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen. This is the second book I have read by this author, though I am having a harder time getting into the story. Plus, it has been way to easy to put it aside to read other books, like Insurgent and Allegiant, plus the A Matter of Trust which I reviewed last week.

I haven't finished Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner yet. Once again, too easy to put down so I can pick up the others.

I have also picked up another book that I was supposed to review a while ago. I just remembered about it and will be trying to get it finished. It is Storm Warning by Billy Graham

I am currently reading Allegiant, the third book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I have heard that it is not as good as the other two, which has me worried a bit, but I will give it a fair shot. I didn't like Mockingjay very much either the first time I read it. After a second reading I liked it more.

What did I recently finish reading?

I did not plan to be able to say I finished reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth this week. I was 9th in the queue and suddenly I received an email notification on Saturday that it was available. We put everything aside to go grab my book, and I spent the rest of the day reading the book. I will be writing my review soon, but needless to say, it was a fast moving, can't put this down book. Not quite as good as Divergent, but I enjoyed it.

What do I think I will read next?

Now that I have read Insurgent and am reading Allegiant, I no longer have them on my TBR list. The problem is, the books I planned on reading by Ted Dekker are now being put on the back burner as I have the Triple Thread series from Lis Wiehl available to me. I am hoping they will be as good as A Matter of Trust.

Teaser Tuesday: Allegiant

It is time for:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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 and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I did not think I was going to be reading the next books in the Divergent series any time soon as I was 9th in the queue for Insurgent. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I got the email on Saturday saying that the book was in at the library. Of course I picked up Allegiant, the third book in the series, while I had a chance; didn't need that one to disappear on me. I have already finished Insurgent and have started in on Allegiant, so that is the book I will be sharing today.

Here is my teaser:

"I close my eyes. The faction bowls are printed on my eyelids, tipped on their sides, their contents in a pile on the street. The symbols of our old way of life, destroyed-a man dead, others injured-and for what?"

p. 38 Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Friday Fun- May 9th 2014

I know Friday is almost over, but I finally got a chance to concentrate on getting this post up. I am going to be sharing with 3 different book memes on Fridays: Friday Finds, Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56. So, let's get started.

(FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). )

After finishing A Matter of Trust by Lis Wiehl in 2 days, I put the 4 books of her Triple Threat Series on hold.

 

I can't wait for the library to get them in!

(Please join Gilion Dumas for Book Beginnings every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.)

My book beginning is from The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen. I have been having a hard time getting into this book, which is a bit disappointing seeing as I devoured her first book. The book is set in 1815 England. We find Alec Valcourt moving his mother and sister from London to Devonshire to get a new start. This ends up being harder than he thought, seeing as he hoped to continue on as a dancing master but dancing has been forbidden in his new town. 

From the prologue: "We observed the first of May as we always did. We dressed somberly and rode in the black barouche from Buckleigh Manor into Beaworthy. It was tradition, my mother said. But I knew she had another reason for visiting the village on that particular day."

The Friday 56 is hosted over at Freda's Voice.

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
(If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

Here is my Friday 56. 

Seeing as I have The Dancing Master right here beside me, I will grab my excerpt from here.

"Julie eyes him shrewdly. 'And what is it you do when you are not prowling about the woods, Mr. Valcourt?'

'I...' He hesitated, uncertain he ought to mention his profession.

He was saved from answering by the hearty greetings of Sir Herbert and Lady Allen."

A Matter of Trust: A Mia Quinn Mystery {a book review}

A Matter of Trust, by Lis Wiehl, is the first in a series featuring Mia Quinn, who works in the District Prosecutors office, prosecuting violent crimes. The book begins with Mia overhearing the murder of her friend Colleen who also works in the same office. So, of course, a huge concern is that she herself may not be safe, may be targeted for death, especially because 5 years earlier another prosecutor had been killed in exactly the same way as Colleen.

Mia is a widow, trying hard to raise her teenage son and 4 year old daughter after her husband died recently, leaving her with mountains of debt. She struggles with trying to find a balance in her home life and her two new cases at work, finding her friend and co-worker's murderer, plus trying to prove that a suicide of another teenager was brought about by the criminal actions of other teens. While she is investigating these teens, her own son is drawing further away from her as she demands too much from him.
Mia partners with Detective Charlie Carlson, who she distrusts because of actions he made a while back that caused someone she was prosecuting to walk free. How can she trust him to help bring Colleen's murderer to justice? They need to work together well, trying to cull the list of suspects, which instead of growing smaller seems to grow larger as the story develops. Was Colleen's murder related to her co-worker's? Was the killer gunning for prosecutors? Was there a more intimate or personal reason behind the murder?

The story is told in third person from multiple points of view, the main ones being Mia and Charlie, though at times we are seeing the story centered around her son Gabe and others. The characters were well developed and I really got to feel that I know them.

This story leaves the reader guessing until the end, which I loved. Just when you think you know what is going on, the author throws in another twist. Though some stories have twists that are awkward and not quite believable, Lis Wiehl has done a wonderful job of pulling the story together. She herself is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former federal prosecutor, so she knows her "stuff" and makes sure her reader does as well.

The author did include some current controversial topics, which made me wonder at first if she was just trying to push her believes on the reader, but I was pleased to find that that was not the case.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. A Matter of Trust was my first introduction to this author and I have already put all the books of another one of her series, The Triple Threat Series) on hold at the library.

W...W...W...Wednesdays for May 7th 2014

To start this off, here is how you play along with W...W... W... Wednesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What am I currently reading?

I am still reviewing The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen. This is the second book I have read by this author, though I am having a harder time getting into the story.

I found the book Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner at the library while the children were enjoying Story Hour last Saturday. This is a young adult suspense book which has an interesting plot. 

I have also picked up another book that I was supposed to review a while ago. I just remembered about it and will be trying to get it finished. It is Storm Warning by Billy Graham

What did I recently finish reading?

While I was supposed to be reading the books listed above, they sort of got pushed to the back burner while I read A Matter of Trust: A Mia Quinn Mystery by Lis Wiehl, with April Henry.

I discovered this book when I received the BookLook Bloggers May email with available review items listed. The second book in this series was one of the selections, so I decided to grab this book from the library to see how I liked it. Let's just put it this way, I couldn't put the book down, and it was finished in 2 days. Not bad considering I still got our schooling done. I seem to be drawn to these murder mysteries right now and this one was full of plot twists just the way I like them. You can see my full review here.

What do I think I will read next?

Well, I would love for it to be Insurgent, but I don't foresee the library getting it in anytime soon as I am 9th in the queue. I will also be looking to put some more of Lis Wiehl's books on hold. I still have these books by Ted Dekker in my to be read library book box. So, we will just have to see.

Teaser Tuesday: A Matter of Trust

It is time for:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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 and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

It has been a long, long time since I participated in Teaser Tuesdays. I was thrilled to see that some of these memes I used to join in with are still running strong. 

I ended up picking up a new book yesterday. Wasn't one I was planning to read at all, but I saw the next book in the series in a mailing of books to be chosen from a book blogger review company and it looked intriguing. I thought I was up for a little murder mystery. 

Here is my teaser:

"She hadn't had time to sit down and have a real breakfast since she went back to work.
The inside of her head felt swollen with the remnants of her dreams, a terrible amalgam of Colleen's bubbling breaths and Brooke's inconsolable cries."

p. 39 A Matter of Trust: A Mia Quinn Mystery 

by Lis Wiehl with April Henry