The Truth About Forever

The Truth About Forever

By Sarah Dessen

12 hours and 14 minutes listening time

Grade A+

I read this book last July, and just felt this buzz to read it again. I think I loved it more this time than I did the first time. I have read almost all of Sarah's books, and I haven't read one that haven't liked yet.

My original review is here, so I don't want to go and repeat everything I said last year because none of it has actually changed. Just take this with you, I love Sarah Dessen, but I don't think she loves me because she won't retweet me, and I have tweeted her like 4 times. Oh well....guess maybe one day she will....

Sing You Home

Sing You Home

Jodi Picoult

17 hours 26 minutes listening time

Grade A

I finished this book about three weeks ago, but I have been stewing on it so I couldn't write about it. I have never had a book make me feel so many emotions before ever. I spent the first 1 hour of the book, bawling. I spent the next part of the book sad. Then I was happy and frustrated. After that, I was ANGRY and PISSED, and wanting to punch a couple characters in their stupid faces. I think I was scared for a minute then I was angry AGAIN. Right when I didn't think I would take anymore, it ended, and I was crying, again.

With a minimal amount of spoilers here is the run down, main characters suffer multiple losses, and then have a still born at 28 weeks, breaking their marriage, where only weeks after the still birth, the husband leaves the marriage. Wife ends up meeting up with a friend and spends all her time with this women, husband moves in with crazy Christian brother and sister in law. Wife then decides she wants to try for another baby and remembers there are frozen embryo in a fertility bank, husband decides he then wants them to give to his brother and sister in law since they are also having fertility problems.

There is so much more to it but I don't want to give away too much. All I know, is that you will need tissues. I didn't think I would be able to finish it in places, but the story attacked me in the first few minutes and wouldn't let go until I was done. I won't lie either, but I listened to the ending of the audio book probably 4 times just because I just wanted to live it again.

In summary, this book was amazing.

My recent books

So I have a few books to review, but a couple of them have been a little emotional for me, and I am still stewing on them. Soon, this weekend perhaps.

On my 30X30 goal, I started this goal at the starting weight of....ugh.....176. there I said it. The pictures I took were lost when my phone recently crashed, I will have my husband retake them this weekend seeing as I haven't lost any weight yet, but I am in a lot of pain thanks to my friend that is helping me at the gym. I am pretty sure every single muscle of mine hurts right now.

Going off in another direction, I started on my book again. I have been doing almost nothing else but writing. I have been dreaming about my characters, and as a matter of fact, I had to reconstruct part of my story line because thinking about what I was going to write, I almost started to cry. So I have a lot to rewrite now, but at least I will be more comfortable.

I am slacking in the books and reviews this year, but I plan on kicking it up a notch here soon. I started a new position at work, and I will be able to pick up my audio books again, and I am in the middle of like 4 books in print, and will be finishing most of those in the next couple of weekends.

Well there you have it. At least for now.

Empty Promises

Empty Promises

By Ann Rule

14 hours 7 minutes audio

Grade undecided

If you haven't read anything by Ann Rule before, and I hadn't, she is a true crime author. I had no idea what to expect going into this book but I kept my hopes up. And then I started the stories. Holy crap. Basically they are stories of people who get murdered by their significant others. I thought it would be one novel about one particular case, but this book had like 13 stories in it. And it was pretty good. I honestly cannot imagine a case where I would actually take someone's life. I mean I feel guilty freaking killing a spider or roach, and those are just nasty pests.

I will not lie, at about 12 hours of listening, there was a story about a little girl that gets murdered and I turned off the book. I wasn't sure if I would be able to pick it up again, but I did, and fortunately for me, it was over quickly. I think any crime against a child is the worst crime you could possibly commit because they are just such innocent pieces to our world.

I don't know if I will be able to read more of her books, at least I most definitely won't be able to pick them up any time soon because they are very stressful, but I think getting through at least one of them would be worth it.

And there you go.

Garden Spells

Garden Spells

By Sarah Addison Allen

320 pages

Grade B+

This book was similar to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. There is a family named the Waverlys and they have what would seem as magical powers. The older sister Claire lives in the family home as an owner of a catering company. However, her catering company is not like regular ones, because she cooks with the flowers from her garden, and special things happen when she cooks certain flowers with certain foods and when she pairs them up with each other. Honestly, some of the foods that she makes in the book sound completely and utterly delish and all I wanted to do was eat.

The younger sister Sydney, has flown the coup and lived a crazy life, leaving her in a terribly abusive relationship and a 6 year old daughter. When things get tough, Sydney comes home to Claire, however their relationship is really rocky.

Their cousin Evanelle, was by far my most favorite character in the book. She had the talent of knowing that people needed something, whether it was batteries for your smoke detector because there would be a fire that night, or a blanket because your heat would go out that night and you would be extra cold. I just loved everything about her character.

What I liked most about this book was that it was light. It wasn't terribly deep, but it was lifting. Sadly the two books that I read following this book were anything but. However, this book was just a feel good book, all around. I finished it in probably 2 days, I really couldn't put it down. And even though I was sure I knew what was going to happen, and I was right, I was just blown away by it.

I really really really enjoyed this book. The only reason why I am not giving it an A+ is because I was able to predict some of what was going to happen, but it was a good book. I say give it a chance if you need something light. A huge thanks to my friend Mandi in my book club that hosted this book in February. It was wonderful!

A quick update

Well, I have three books to do reviews on, and I will hopefully be getting those done this week.

I am also in the middle of three books, which I also hope to finish this week.

Today is ALSO the last day before "Operation Get Not Fat" starts. I will be getting off work by 230 tomorrow (hopefully) and heading to the gym right afterward (hopefully). Tomorrow is going to be my short day at the gym regardless because I also bowl Monday nights.

I will also be posting pictures of my fat ass this week with how much I weigh (ugh), and hopefully with measurements but that I cannot promise.

I have 6 months. 6 months to meet my 30 lbs by age 30. That is only about 5 lbs a month, which I hope will be totally doable.

Happy Sunday everyone!

One Night that Changes Everything

One Night that Changes Everything

By Lauren Barnholdt

256 pages

Grade C+

The premise of this book is that the main character, Eliza, has been writing secrets in her note book. Not so much secrets as just things she is really scared to do, simple little things, like sing karaoke, talk to (and make out with) a boy you have had a crush on, and a few other things. Eliza forgets her notebook in her locker one day and it's stolen by her ex boyfriend's group of friends. Throughout the night the guys call Eliza and tell her that she has to start performing these fears or they will publish her notebook online for all the school to see. A recipe for high school disaster right? Well, duh.

You all know how I feel about YA books. I have a soft sticky place in my heart for them. This book did not fail to provide me with fluffy YA enjoyment. I polished it off in about 24 hours, and as much as I am happy that I did read it, I should have waited to read it after the book I just finished, which I will review soon (probably tonight as well) because I needed something light and fluffy, but instead I picked a book that has had me in tears from the first page. Either way, if you are a YA fan, this book will not let you down.

I will leave you with my favorite quote of the book:

"That is definitely the work of a sociopath. Actually, I'm not sure what a sociopath is, exactly. But I think it has to do with not caring about the feelings of others."