Waiting on Wednesday - April 15

Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday where everyone posts what new not-yet-published books we are anxiously awaiting. I'm new to this one also but I am looking forward to being a part of it and seeing all the wonderful new releases out there (and hoping my library will get the online card catalog back up so I can reserve books again).

My Entry for this week is:

From Amazon.com:

RAMPANT is a thrilling read, with strong girls, unusual and scary unicorns, and hidden dangers everywhere. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish! Please, miss: might I have some more? (Tamora Pierce )

As swift and sure-footed as a killer unicorn, RAMPANT weaves a vibrant new mythology from venerable threads. (Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series )

I love Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl books and this one sounds different and good. I love her humor and her blog so I will definitely read her new book when it comes out August 25, 2009.

Triple Cross Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my contest!

The winner is: samf36!

The winner has been contacted and the book will be going out tomorrow. For everyone else interested - the book should be on sale today, check it out it's a great read.

Also check out my new giveaway HERE.

Tuesday Teaser - April 14

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My teaser:

Oh - what Neferet had told my stupid step-loser John had been the truth. Cats do roam free all over the school. They often followed "their" kid to class. Nala, in particular, liked to find me several times a day. She's insist I scratch her head, complain a little at me, and then take off and go do whatever cats do with their free time. (Plot world domination?)

It's from Betrayed, House of Night Novel #2 by P.C. and Kristin Cast which I should finish at lunchtime. I was feeling a little nostalgic and sentimental picking this passage as tomorrow would have been my first cat's birthday - he would have been 12, but he died in May of last year. We got him just before we got married and had him for 11 wonderful years. We have a new cat now, but no cat can replace our Sebastian (named after the crab in the Little Mermaid - I loved the movie at the time). Besides I love the world domination comment at the end - so true of cats!

Threshold by Bonnie Kozek (and a giveaway!)

From the release from Author Marketing Experts, Inc. :

When a haunting past - which has left a couple of dead bodies in its wake - becomes a too painful predictor of the future, Honey McGuinness moves to Skid Row. She hires on at the local Salvation Mission - serving food to the homeless.

For awhile things go pretty smoothly: No one seems to be getting hurt. Her world becomes small and anonymous - her only real friend a prose-spouting diffident drunk named Billy. But like it or not, things change. Bad things start to happen.

Gentrification, crack and crime get a stranglehold on the neighborhood. And, when her friend Billy dies in her arms from a hailstorm of bullets, and she discovers a tape-recording device strapped to his waist, her refuge is in peril. Against her will, she is thrust right back into the slough. And, to sate the hunger for retribution that is gnawing in her gut, Honey will have to answer one fateful question: Is there any line she is unwilling to cross? Find out in Threshold, the debut novel of Bonnie Kozek.

About the author: Bonnie Kozek has written two works of nonfiction: Falling In and Out of Love . . . with Words, and Mania, a poetry book published in 2003. She also writes and produces oral histories through her company, Legacy Publishing. She has collaborated on numerous projects outside the realm of the written word with other artists, including Salvador Dali. She has worked as a sound/picture editor on features and documentaries for both big and little screens in Hollywood and New York, and has written and directed shorts, including films for Saturday Night Live. She created the first continuous running holographic movie, which premiered at the opening of the Museum of Holography in Manhattan.

She worked at and attended California Institute of the Arts. She has taught in the graduate writing program at The New School, and continues to teach writing workshops at FEGS and JCCA, both not-for-profit multicultural human services agencies in NYC. Her work has been recognized and honored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. Visit http://www.bonniekozek.com/.

My Review:
I won this on a quick giveaway from Melissa at Melissa's Bookshelf. It sounded interesting to me so I wanted to give it a shot. I'm pretty new to hard-boiled suspense/thriller books reading pretty much just the typical mainstream thrillers. I'm glad I got this book. It was a fast, enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the character of Honey McGuinness. She is not perfect, she has had a hard life and she knows it, but she moves on with her life. She has a lot of depth and even though she is not all good, she is really trying and she will do what she can for those she cares for, such as finding out who murdered her friend Billy, even if she has to risk her life, sanity and all she has worked for up until this point to find the murderer. The suspense line of the book was interesting, but I feel that the characters make the book, from the hardened character of Honey to the cowboy-cop, Skinner and the miscellaneous crew from Skid Row, you learn about all of them and their good and bad traits. The book had a very satisfactory ending but left me excited enough about the character of Honey to read the next in the series which will be out this year. I highly suggest reading Threshold if you enjoy suspense/thrillers with the hard-boiled edge, or even if you're not sure if you do and just want to try them. I think this is a wonderful book to try out the genre.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
Title: Threshold: A Hard-boiled Thriller
Author: Bonnie Kozek
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
ISBN: 978/0595497584
Publication Date: December 2008
Pages: 132
Price: $11.95
Publisher: iUniverse.com

I (with permission of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.) am giving away my copy of Threshold by Bonnie Kozek so another reader can enjoy this great book!

Usual rules apply:

Entries can be made by the following (put all of your entries in one comment, I'll count them):
1. Comment for the first entry (make sure I have a way to contact you)
2. Become a follower or subscribe to my blog for another entry (or let me know you are currently a follower/subscriber).
3. Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/cfulcher) (or let me know if you already follow me)
4. Tweet this or post on your blog about this contest (+1 for each)

The contest will go through next Monday, April 20th and I'll announce the winner on the 21st.

What Are You Reading Monday - April 13

Come post weekly and see what others are reading too just so you can add to your tbr - I always do! For more information see J.Kaye's Book Blog and join in!

Books Completed Last Week:
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult - Fiction - audiobook - Wonderful book - I will write the review either today or tomorrow - I enjoyed every moment of this book.
Isolation by Travis Thrasher - Christian Suspense - This was great! Could hardly put it down. Review here.
Threshold by Bonnie Kozek - Mystery/Thriller (hard-boiled) - Really good - my first real go at a hard-boiled and I really liked it - review in the next few days. I received this one from Melissa at Melissa's Bookshelf and I'm thrilled she passed this one on to me.

Reading Now:

Where the Heart Cries by Cindy Woodsmall - Fiction - I'm only a few pages in, but enjoying it so far. This is my current car book.
Betrayed by P.C. and Kristen Cast - Young Adult Paranormal - House of Night Book 2 - I'm about 70 pages in and loving it.
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb - Fiction - I have to return this to the library today but I did start it and I will finish it - just not this go round. I read about 150 pages of it and really like - will probably purchase this as it's a chunkster that is a two-week book at the library.
At the Edge by Cait London - Romantic Suspense - good book - have been switching around a little too much in my books this week and need to get back to it.

Next:
Seven up by Janet Evanovich - Mystery
Chosen by P.C. and Kristen Cast - Young Adult Paranormal

Last week was crazy with something to do every night. With this being my oldest son's week off from school, this one is a little more sane, hopefully some more time in the evening to read and enjoy.

Musing Mondays - April 13

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. You can click on the link (or the picture) to see her blog and read everyone's Musing Monday post.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your to be read list…

How do you respond to the comments on your blog? Do you try to email individually or comment on post yourself answering the comments above? What do you think is the best way to respond to comments and do you respond to all of them? Do you feel slighted if you don't receive a response back from the blog owner? (question courtesy of Jenn)

Wow - this is such a great question since I'm fairly new to the blogging and receiving comments world. I love receiving comments but have not been sure about answering - do people come back and see if I answer, am I talking to myself. Do I email or would someone think I'm bugging them? I'm not sure and still not sure - I'm learning here and don't want to offend anyone - I read all the comments and will start figuring out a way to respond properly because I don't want to lose readers, otherwise I am just here talking to myself :)

So there is my non-answer - I'm off to read other answers and learn more about this blogging world. I honestly started this blog to keep track of books I read and review, then found the wonderful world of book bloggers and memes and all the fun to be had. Now it's a small social outlet to share with other people who love to read so I love the comments, I learn from comments so please keep commenting, and if you want a reply and I haven't feel free to bug me!

Have a great Monday!

Triple Cross by Mark T. Sullivan Giveaway!

I have an ARC of Mark T. Sullivan's Triple Cross which is coming out next Tuesday that I would love to give away!


Here's the description from Mark T. Sullivan's website:

It’s New Year’s Eve at the Jefferson Club, a luxurious private ski resort in the mountains of southwestern Montana. Seven of the world’s wealthiest men and a U.S. Senator are among the guests gathered in the ballroom of the club’s spectacular main lodge for a private party.

Expensive champagne flows and multi-billion dollar deals are getting done, when, at the stroke of midnight, a ruthless and well-armed militia attacks the club. Self-described anti-globalists, they intend to to put the wealthy patrons of the club on trial for crimes against humanity, live on the Internet for all the world to see.

As the first trial unfolds, it becomes a new-media sensation, with tens of millions of viewers who are allowed to vote as jury members. It seems harmless, funny, until one of the tycoons is convicted and put to death just as stock and bond trading opens for the New Year. The markets are rocked by the execution, and start to plummet as more of the billionaires are put on trial.

The only people who can prevent an outright market crash, stop the madness, and uncover the true reasons behind the brutal attack are Mickey Hennessy, the club’s director of security, his three fourteen-year-old children and Cheyenne O’Neil, an FBI financial crimes specialist.

Ultimately capitalism and anti-globalism collide with stunning consequences in a searing narrative that’s a lean blend of suspense, dark humor and explosive action, as well as a novel that raises compelling questions about who the real criminals are in a world where financial markets can be manipulated on an unfathomable scale and a powerful few profit at the expense of the many.

My review is here.
Author website here.

Official rules:

Entries can be made by the following (put all of your entries in one comment, I'll count them):
1. Comment for the first entry
2. Become a follower or subscribe to my blog for another entry.
3. Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/cfulcher)
4. Tweet this or post on your blog about this contest (+1 for each)

I'll run this contest through Monday April 13 and post the winner on Tuesday.

Thanks!