Care for a viral apocalypse? A review of The Passage by Justin Cronin.

What are virals, you say? Some call them smokes, jumps, or dracs. They’re lightning fast, strong, and utterly vicious. And they have a taste for blood. Imagine the world getting run over by these terrifying creatures. This is my review of Justin Cronin’s The Passage, one of the best books I’ve read in a while.

About the book 

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, turned to hell. All that remains is the long fight ahead for the stunned survivors faced with a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.As civilization crumbles, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project, and Brad is determined to protect her. But, for young Amy, escaping is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun in the first place.

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Of books, new jobs, ultimate frisbee, and other things

You guys remember the Budweiser TV ad? Pretty cool, right? Anyway, just felt like rambling on over here. I’m falling behind my “two non book related posts a week” thing so I wanted to do a quick update plus there are a few things I’m totally excited about and I just wanted to share my little bits of “happy” with you guys!

Reading like crazy

Before anything else I just want to give you my excuse for failing all my grand blogging and writing plans. Here it is. I’m trying to go through my review list before the year ends so I’ve been reading like crazy. I have 16 books on my list for this year. Yeahboy. I know. Definitely ambitious for me, but I bit off more than I can chew so now I’m scrambling like crazy. Haven’t joined any blog tour I liked unless it’s scheduled for next year. That means I’ll probably be in trouble next year. Woohoo! Good luck to me!

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Review & Giveaway: A Practical Arrangement by Nadja Notariani

Thought I should spice things up by joining the blog tour for a historical romance novel! Yeahboy, romansa. This is my review stop for A Practical Arrangement by Nadja Notariani. I was hoping this book would be like the classic period romances, which I actually like. Check out my review and enter the giveaway for two Kindle copies!

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Review: The Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes

I love fantasy books for young readers. They make for such light, easy and entertaining reads. The Rock of Ivanore by author Laurisa White Reyes was no exception.

About the book
The annual Great Quest is about to be announced in Quendel, a task that will determine the future of Marcus and the other boys from the village who are coming of age. The wizard Zyll commands them to find the Rock of Ivanore, but he doesn’t tell them what the Rock is exactly or where it can be found. Marcus must reach deep within himself to develop new powers of magic and find the strength to survive the wild lands and fierce enemies he encounters as he searches for the illusive Rock. If he succeeds, he will live a life of honor; if he fails, he will live a life of menial labor in shame. With more twists and turns than a labyrinth, and a story in which nothing is at it seems, this tale of deception and discovery keeps readers in suspense until the end.

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Review & Giveaway: Golden Chariot (Dangerous Waters, Book 1) by Chris Karlsen

Today’s my review stop for Golden Chariot, book 1 of the Dangerous Waters series by author Chris Karlsen. I signed up for this tour because the book summary said something about a sunken ship! You know what that means–pirate treasure! Aarrggh! (Um, yes, I have a very extensive criteria when it comes to choosing blog tours.) Anyway, quickie review down below. Be sure to check out the tour-wide giveaway at the end of this post.

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Review of Other Worlds Than These, an anthology of portal fantasies and parallel world stories

I am such a sucker for fantasy and science fiction. This anthology has the best of both worlds by combining the best portal fantasy stories and parallel world stories. Come, let’s dive into other worlds!

About the anthology
What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world?

We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.

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Review & Giveaway: I Am Just Junco Dot Com by J.A. Huss

It’s my review stop for the I Am Just Junco Dot Com blog tour! This science fiction series by author J.A. Huss totally took me by surprise. “Just Junco” turns out to be a foul-mouthed super badass heroine and the series totally kicks ass.

In the first pages of book one we are introduced right away to Junco, our heroine who is by no means a girly-girl. She’s the type who knows all her weapons and firearms, would probably go nuts over a motorcycle helmet sale, and could care less about fashion and anything frilly. All she knows are secret military ops and assassinations. She’s been trained to be a ruthless killer since birth and she’s pretty good at what she does, but we learn that there’s so much more to her and everybody wants her for themselves. Everybody here means the aliens or Avians as they are called, and the humans, all the different factions and republics. They all have an agenda and Junco is right smack in the middle of it all.

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What’s up, Doc? Of giveaways, new posts and what not

Lemme first congratulate Alina for winning the Jane Austen Giveaway on my blog! BIG thanks to everyone who joined the giveaway! If you didn’t win, don’t worry. There are more giveaways coming up! I’ll be posting about another big one on November 5th and we have the Gratitude Giveaway Hop on November 15th. Of course, I’ll be hosting giveaways in December, too. :)

In the meantime, have you joined any these ongoing giveaways yet?

In other news, check out my new post over at Color It YOU! I talk about how I created my author bio box at the end of this post. I’ve to say I’m enjoying this new blog right now. I feel bad about neglecting my writing blog. I just got a new comment over there about the 30 day creative writing challenge that I was supposed to do LAST MONTH. Good grief. I really need to get on that. 
Anyway, hope you’re having a great day! :)

Giveaway & Interview: Marisol Murano, author of Valentina Goldman’s Immaculate Confusion

Here’s a great interview with Marisol Murano, author of Valentina Goldman’s Immaculate Confusion. Part “Bridget Jones Diary,” part “Modern Family,” Valentina Goldman’s Immaculate Confusion is the story of a South American woman trying to get a handle on her wacky life in America.

Read on to know more about Marisol and enter the giveaway to win one of three e-book copies of her book!

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