Author: Marissa Meyer

About the Author

Marissa Meyer was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, home of Almond Roca and Stadium High School, which was made famous when Heath Ledger danced down the stadium steps in 10 Things I Hate About You. Marissa didn't actually go to Stadium High School, but she did attend Pacific Lutheran University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. She still lives in Tacoma, now with her husband. Cinder is her YA debut.

Rebecca Soler is a film and voiceover actress who won a 2009 AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of After by Amy Efaw. Her audiobook credits include work by authors such as Judy Blume, James Patterson and Sarah Dessen. Soler has also narrated the popular young adult series The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Her voice over credits include various video games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Red Dead Redemption and television shows such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She lives in New York City. 

Marissa Meyer on Cinder, writing, and leading men

Which of your characters is most like you?

BOOK REVIEW: Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles - Levana's Story UNABRIDGED by Marissa Meyer (Book Series)

Now begins the waiting game

This book includes a preview of the final book, winter. So, I'll spend the next 6-8 months patiently waiting for it to come out and then probably forget half the plot.

The book just before this one left so, so many unanswered questions on the table so I'm glad from the preview that it sounds like we will be skipping back forward to the present.

This book in the series is all set in the past to give us a character background on the queen, her husband, and the two princesses.

Some is expected but most is not. I want to day more but would hate to spoil the book. I enjoyed the mini story but wish this was book .5 and not placed where it is but then again it's good to have a little mystery and this would ruin too much of that for book 1-3.

Disappointed that I still don't know what happened next other than the winter teaser. Now begins the waiting game.

Book Review: Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman

This murder mystery is a sad tale that merges real life mysteries from the past with the present. Most of the magical twists and turns are nothing more than personal secrets bottled up like a volcano and presented with beautifully written descriptors.

I enjoyed this short book. It immediately pulled me in and moves along at an even keel. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance novels, murder mysteries, or stories about people discovering their genealogy.

Written by: Carol Goodman

Narrated by: Jen Taylor

It's not Often I Return Books Unfinished...

Book Review: The Last Testament by David Javerbaum

I began this book like any other, with an open mind and an eagerness to get connected with the narrator and characters. That never happened. I tried to start the book multiple times and just didn't enjoy the narrator or story line. It's a satire on religion that, for me, was hard to listen to. A narrator change might have made a big difference, but who knows. You can't win them all.

Kiro's Emily (Book 10 of Rosemary Beach Series) by Abbi Glines

BOOK REVIEW: Kiro's Emily

Book 10, Novella, Rosemary Beach Series

Book Author: Abbi Glines

"Innocence Meets Hard Core Musicians"

Overall

Performance

Story

Recommended Age: Adult, Young Adult

Genre: Drama, Fiction, Love, Romance, Sex, Women's Literature,

Characters: Musician

Book Type: Audio, Novella

This book is a lot like the Notebook in some ways. A bit rushed at the end, full of cutesy romance and innocent quips.

The ending, for me, was unexpected. I found this book delightful. It's a bad boy meets good girl romance. At the beginning of the story Emily, the main character, is off on an adventure with her risque cousin. Her cousin is sleeping her way to and through a band that they are following around the country. Emily refuses to follow the status quo and sleep around, but somehow strikes up an unusual friendship along the way that leads to romance. Tragedy strikes towards the end, but in some ways works out as an epic love tale. The book has some pretty heart wrenching moments, and other moments where you wonder why anyone would act so foolishly.

I recommend this book as a romantic read, but gave it only four stars because it could have had more depth and the ending seemed rushed.

Book Review: Cursed (The Watchers Trilogy) by S.J. West

Cursed

"Blessed and Love Struck by This Mysterious Series"

S.J. West

Overall

Performance

Story

By S.J. West Cursed (Watchers Trilogy) epitomizes everything I love in a book or series. It offers romance, humor, and mystery. Author S.J. West doesn't spell out every detail in the series or answer all your questions up front, she lures you in with one mystery after another and leaves you yearning for answers, mystery, and a few more moments with her lovely characters. 

The Watchers Chronicles is blessed, pun intended, with not just one handsome lead male character, but three. The book includes a damsel in chronic distress, and her witty southern side-kick best friend. 

BOOK REVIEW: BANG (The Black Lotus Series Book 1) by E.K. Blair

Bang

The Black Lotus Series

E.K. Blair

Overall

Performance

Story

It all begins and ends with a bang.

E.K. Blair is a New York Times Best Selling Author, Bang (Black Lotus #1) (The Black Lotus Series), is the first book I've read by her. Bang is heart wrenching. I finished the first book in this series in one day and am now traumatized waiting for the second and third to be released. 

Last week (Feb 27, 2015) while interviewing indie author Nicole Collet, she recommended Bang and a few other books for me to read. This is the first book in her long list of recommendations that I dove into, head first. I nearly cracked my head and heart open with this book (diving head first). 

Book Review: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer

My New Favorite Chronicle

Overall

Performance

Story

“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.” 

“I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on.” ― Marissa MeyerCinder

"Science Fiction Meets Cinderella + All Your Other Favorite Fairy Tales"

The Lunar Chronicles starts off with a book called Cinder. This is a futuristic dystopian view of Cinderella in reverse. A young girl who loses everything in the worst ways possible only to discover things she never knew about herself and make lots of new friends against impossible odds on a mission to save two worlds. 

Book Review: For the Love of the Duke by Christi Caldwell

Woodsworth and Byron in the Heart of a Duke

Overall

Performance

Story

For the Love of the Duke is a historical fiction novel set sometime in the 17th to 19th century when the Thames River of London would freeze over. During this time winters where significantly colder in London than they are now. This time was known as the Little Ice Age. To celebrate Christmastide, what the book and that period fondly referred to as the winter or Christmas season, merry goers would brave the chill air with a little cup of alcohol to enjoy the Frost Fairs. At the time the River Thames would freeze over and they would walk an elephant across to prove it was solid. Then peddlers would set up tents of trinkets and goodies to sell, this would have seemed a lot like any other festival combined with a farmers market.

The first recorded frost fair was in 1608. The most celebrated frost fair occurred in the winter of 1683–84 and was described by John Evelyn: 

Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs too and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.

BOOK REVIEW: Listening Is an Act of Love by Dave Isay

"Fantastic makes me want to be involved"

Overall

Performance

Story

Would you listen to Listening Is an Act of Love again? Why?

This is touching. I loved hearing other people's life stories. You laugh and could cry with this book. It's short and I just want to hear more. It's fantastic.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The in love couple where great but there was an old man from a war that was touching also. How fabulous if our parents or great great grandparents had left us audio. It would leave you wanting more.