Review: Hammer of Angels by G.T. Almasi

About the bookIn G. T. Almasi’s thrilling alternate reality, the United States, the USSR, and the Republic of China share a fragile balance of power with Greater Germany, which emerged from World War II in control of Europe and half of the Middle East. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, the four superpowers pursue their ambitions with elite spies known as Levels, who are modified with mechanical and chemical enhancements.Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, code-named Scarlet, is a kick-ass superheroine with killer Mods and an attitude to match. She’s considered one of America’s top Levels, even though her last mission nearly precipitated World War III. So now Scarlet and her new partner, Darwin, have been sent to Greater Germany to help sow the seeds of anarchy and prevent Germany’s defection to Russia and China.But where Scarlet goes, chaos follows—and when her mission takes an unexpected turn, she and Darwin must go ever deeper into enemy territory. As Scarlet grapples with a troubling attraction to her new partner, explosive information comes to light about the German cloning program and one of its prisoners—a legendary American Level who just happens to be Scarlet’s father.Add this book on Goodreads.

And here’s where I ramble about review this book

I was immediately drawn to the cover of this book. After I read the summary I got even more interested because the kickass heroine reminded me of Junco Coot, one of my favorite book characters ever. You know how I love me a kickass heroine.The book, unfortunately, got caught in my blogging and reading rut and was pushed further and further down with the rest of my review pile. I picked it up a few weeks ago and finally finished it last weekend.

Rambling Tuesday: I seriously suck as a book blogger right now.

So the question that’s been on my mind lately is this: Am I still a book blogger if I haven’t been reading or reviewing any of the books I’m supposed to be reading and reviewing?

Last Friday I was all, “Have a good weekend, people. Read a book.” on Twitter and all weekend I was having a hard time getting back to the book I’ve been “currently reading” for weeks now. And it’s a pretty exciting book, too, with a really kickass female heroine, and I was having a hard time getting back to it. I finished it finally at the last hour.  Yay for me, but then I still have tons of books to go.

I’m kind of stuck. And I suck because I’m kind of stuck.

Relax, sit back, and read a webcomic!

Aside from hopping around book blogs and awesome websites, reading about the latest innovations and cool stuff about everything, looking at pictures of cute kitties and doggies, scouring the interwebs for awesome graphic tees, and stalking my friends on Facebook, I also love reading comics online!

I’ve already posted about some of my favorites yearssss ago, but I thought I should post about them again because, really, you can’t go wrong with spreading some web comic love.

If you’ve never read a web comic before, here are great places to start.

What I look for in book blogs when I’m “working”

When I first started book blogging I was fortunate enough to be hired as an assistant at an author PR and marketing firm. Later on I worked with the author who was my manager from that company. These days I just help her out with stuff as needed.

In my work as an assistant, I often have to do a lot of hopping from one book blog to another. I know, it’s an awesome job. I spend a lot of time looking at blogs to find potential reviewers or to check if a blogger has put up a review or a feature post as agreed. I enjoy it because book blog hopping not only lets me in on what’s happening in the community (what’s new, what’s trending, what are bloggers excited about these days, etc.), but it also helps me discover new blogs and gives me a chance to read about new or even old books.

For work purposes, I tend to zero in on a few things on a book blog. I get giddy when I see a nice design and a clean layout (I’m kind of obsessed with blog design), but those are not the only things that get my attention. Here are a few things that I usually look for in a book blog when I’m looking to connect with bloggers about an author or a book.

It’s Banned Books Week! And We’re Doing a Giveaway Hop!

Yay, it’s time for the giveaway hop celebrating the annual Banned Books Week  I first discovered this cool event last year and I just couldn’t pass up participating again this year. This year’s Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop is hosted by I Am A Reader Not A Writer and BookHounds. Check out what this awesome event is all about and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a banned book of your choice!

I Followed The Yellow Brick Road + A Giveaway

This is the story of my I’m-moving-to-WordPress adventure. It’s a bit long so you can actually skip through all the rambling and go straight to the mighty Rafflecopter! I say, woot.

After months and months of  contemplating and research, I finally transferred this blog from Blogger to WordPress! All together now, YAYYYYYY. And I did it all by myself, too, because I’m a cheapskate and, well, I really wanted to learn to do it myself. I have more than one blog that I want to transfer so I figured I should learn all about it.

Off to Oz Giveaway Hop

Ah, yes. It’s another giveaway hop, my friends. I’ve realized spreading the good vibes is always a good thing even in blogging. Everytime I win stuff on the internet, my sister dear always says I’m so lucky and I always respond that it’s only because I enter so many giveaways that I’m bound to win one even if it’s just an e-book. The point is, I enter almost every giveaway on giveaway hops because I luuurve giveaways and I luuurve hoarding e-books! Mwahahaha! 

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Come, my friends! Take my hand and let us enter these blog giveaways together! Off we go on the yellow brick road!

Using a robot proofreader: Yay or Nay?

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because I wanted to pit myself against a robot, or in this case a program, and see if I would survive the robot apocalypse. Something like that.

Okay, not really. I was going to do a post about my favorite freelancer’s tools when I received an email about Grammarly, an automated online proofreader. According to the website, it ‘corrects contextual spelling mistakes, checks for more than 250 common grammar errors, enhances vocabulary usage, and provides citation suggestions.’

I was iffy about it at first but the Grammarly rep emphasized that the tool is meant to be a ‘second set of eyes’ to help people with their writing and not as a replacement for a human editor. Okay then. I figured I can at least do a quick test.

Are Legends Born or Made?

As a freelance writer I come across a lot of interesting things from tips, sources and websites I follow. Most of them are branding or marketing campaigns that are unlike anything I’ve seen and pretty much off the hook.

One of the latest cool things I’ve come across is Heineken’s Voyage campaign, where they try to find out what men are really made of when taken out of their regular lives and dropped off into the unknown. They find these random dudes from all over the world and then drop them off in a seemingly random location. Imagine getting dropped off in the middle of Alaska with nothing but a giant life-ring, a tuxedo and a plane ticket for home, and the airport is miles away. Holy legendary adventures, Batman!

Review of Fury by Shirley Marr

This review is a long time coming. I won a paperback copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway last year and I’ve only gotten around to reading it this month! Ack. I know. At least I’m making a tiny bit of progress with my review pile, right? Gah.

About Fury

Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.

Strap yourself in…

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

Add it on Goodreads