Over here at Paper Boyfriends, we talk books. Either in the form of reviews or essays or nerd chats or articles, the topic is always going to center around books. Because that's what we do. Nina and I wear many hats in our lives, but at the heart of us, at the core, we are readers.
And today, the day I turned 27, being the reader that I am paid off in a big way.
Right now, my little family and I are visiting my mom, stepdad, sister and grandma in Tennessee. The husband had to visit the VA here and so my boys and I decided to tag along and spend mine & my mama's birthdays together. This morning started off like any other. I got up. Ate cake for breakfast, because if you can't eat cake for breakfast on your 27th birthday, when can you? Afterwards, I wandered outside to smoke my morning cigarette and crack open the latest book I'm reading. I was lost in the world Julia Hoban created when I heard my mom scream out my name. My full name. And I knew as I was dropping my half smoked cigarette and running for the door it had to be serious, because I've always been and always will be her baby name for me unless something is desperately wrong.
And it was. Oh, God, it was.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
A town bursting with vamps: Morganville 1-12
Rating: 4 of 5 stars.
Oh, Morganville, I shouldn't love you like I do.
Here's the thing, The Morganville Vampires series aren't particularly good books. I can think of at least one major continuity problem. Apparently getting shot in Morganville translates to a stab wound? Pretty major screw up. They're rollarcoasty and often end with a cliffhanger and in books 10 & 11, we get treated to alternating POV's, often a shift from third person limited to first person then back to third. Claire Danvers is a strong character, with no real physical attributes given to her. In 11 books, all I can tell you about Claire is that she's on the small side and has short hair, which is probably brown but also maybe red. Basically, she could be anybody anywhere, and maybe it's so we can slip her on like a pair of jeans. I don't know. Aside from Monica and her pack dogs, everyone mostly loves her unless it's crucial to the plot that they don't. She's insanely smart, pretty talented, and despite going on and on about how she's the biggest geek ever, she ends up with one of the hottest boys in town who is insanely in love with her. She's a little Mary Sue, is what I'm saying here. Not the Maryest Sue that ever did Sue, she's no Bella Swan, but she is on the scale. And maybe a 5.
But, God, all that said, I could not stop reading. It's like the best crackfic ever. Things are always happening in Morganville and Claire and the Glass House gang are always smack dab in the middle, getting the hell beat out of them. This we can get to Caine hands down. She has no qualms about putting her characters through the ringer. Even if their wounds change over the course of the books.
The Curious Case of Mr. Darcy.
"But I can assure you," she added, "that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man."
(Mrs. Bennet to Mr. Bennet about Mr. Darcy)
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Always had a Thing for Artsy Boys.
Easy by Tammara WebberMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've been circling this one for a couple months. Dipping my toes into the New Adult waters, I've been seduced by the sexy, gritty angst. The choices and decisions someone makes when they're on their own for the first time. The boys that show up and the nights that don't end. And Easy was touted amongst them, but I kept side-stepping it.
I can be completely vain and tell you it was because of the cover.
God, I'm a horrible person, but the guy looked like a Richie Sambora kind of rocker and my brain kept thinking cheesy rocker fan-fiction and I kept turning the other way. Then my soul sister read it and I knew it was okay now. Time to do this.
I absolutely adored this book. I swooned, clutched it to my chest, and found myself a new boyfriend. And he looks nothing like Richie Sambora.
More like Trent from Daria.
Hullo, Lucas.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Sex with a Vulcan.
Slave to Sensation by Nalini SinghMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've been attempting to start Singh's other series Guild Hunters for awhile now and I can not get past the first twenty pages to save my life. I've heard such great things, and yet I keep getting hung up on the writing style and how it's keeping me outside of the story. So I figured I'd take a stab at this whole Psy-Changeling thing since this is the other series everyone is all hot and bothered over.
There was no difficulty in getting into this one for me. None. For the first half of the book I didn't want to put it down. It was such an interesting and sexy introduction into this world of Psys and Changelings. Basically the Psys are Vulcans and the Changelings are hot blooded animal shifters and they live in a world where the Psy are the emotionally void politicians and the Changelings own businesses and have different Packs with different Alphas, but there are uneasy truces going on. That is until the cat Pack have one of their own murdered and they smell Psy at the scene. They've figured out that there have been several well-calculated murders that stink of Psy, the race that isn't supposed to feel anything and has no recorded instance of violence.
Super interesting set up that spoke to the geek girl in me that digs world building and the romance fan that likes to see two people face crazy, tension-filled odds in their I Just Gotta Have You transformation.
Roads made of blood and lands of dust.
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.
I am a total dystopian, post-apocalyptic, apocalyptic, everything going to shit, junkie. I don't know what it is about this genre that I'm so crazy about, but it's there and it's a thing and I'm damn near obsessed with it.
Blood Red Road is getting a ton of crazy good reviews and, from what I understand, it's already been picked up by Ridley Scott to be made into a movie. And you know what? I completely understand why.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Oh, Augustus. I do too.
Rating: 5 of 5 stars.
DISCLAIMER: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AFTER THE CUT."Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you."
It's been months now since I finished this book and I am still absolutely gutted every time I think about it. My thoughts are stars I still can't fathom into constellations. (DID U C WUT I DID THAR...AGAIN?) GREEN, YOU MADE ME FEEL SO MANY FEELINGS.
And I guess you could argue this is an annoying way to review, but dammit, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it because visuals are so very needed. Yes. This is going down in .gif form.
Brace yourselves: OPAL COVER REVEAL.
No one is like Daemon Black.
When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well... There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on.
But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love.
After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.
Together we’re stronger... and they know it.
Follow this link to an ~~~ EPIC CONTEST ~~~ Announcement. You will want to bookmark this page!
USA TODAY Bestselling author, Jennifer L. Armentrout, lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell, Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She also writes adult romance under the name J. Lynn.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Nerd Girl Chats: ER. MAH. GERD.
I will not say what exactly happened last night, but I will say, that something happened, something that will be revealed tomorrow, and, well, Willow and I kinda lost our shit for a minute.
Observe:
W: OH MY GOD.
W: OH MY GOD.
W: Wait. I was texting you. Hold on.
Exactly one second later:
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Nerd Girl Chats: Lux Edition.
"Wait! We weren't done yet. Hey Pepe, can you say glow stick?"
So, Willow and I found ourselves on gchat the other night and we were discussing random things, birthday parties and crybaby husbands with the sniffles when suddenly:
P: UM I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'LL EVEN GET THIS OR IF YOU'RE CURRENTLY PARTYING HARD BUT HOLY FUCK DID YOU SEE THIS: http://www.good
Beiber? Bieber? Whatever.
W:...a lot of spontaneous combustion? Give me a minute.
P: I was looking through our Lux reviews earlier, trying to figure out how to combine them and I found all these Daemon extras Armentrout posted on her site and I AM DISTURBED BY HOW BADLY THIS SERIES HAS MADE ME LOSE MY SHIT.
P: But seriously? Those extras? Good shit, dude. I'm not saying I threw my panties at the computer, but I'm not saying I didn't either.
W: Wait....wait. There are extras. Extras with Daemon?
P: YOU DIDN'T KNOW?!
W: Uh, no, dude. I didn't know this. I'm getting squeaky right now
P: OH GIRLFRIEND. LET ME SEDUCE YOU.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Passing Notes: Perfect Chemistry.
Dear Willow,
I have a bone to pick with you. We need to clear the air. We need to address the elephant in the room. I need to get this off my chest so that we, as partners and twins and reading soul sisters, can move on to bigger and better things.
Yes, I'm talking about Perfect Chemistry.
Crazy feminists & the boys who love them.
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.
I liked Graceling. Let's get that out of the way right now, before I start talking ethics and agendas and propaganda. I liked Graceling and I think Cashore is a pretty awesome writer and I plan on continuing with this series because it's original and exciting and things happen and I like when things happen. Katsa is the kinda heroine I adore, a girl who isn't motivated by a man or her love for that man and is not a damsel in distress, but instead will take a bitch out by herself. There's quests. I love quests. The only thing that would have made this story more epically amazing is if Katsa found a dragon and trained it and together, she and her dragon steed, flew around the kingdoms, striking wrong-doers down and chomping them. Perhaps breathing a little fire for kicks. Po was just there, and I liked that he was just there, that this male character was suddenly the Love Interest that is just hanging around and does some things, sure, but not like The Hero. I liked seeing those roles reversed.
And I liked that Katsa was anti-marriage, anti-baby and pro-sex. Okay, perhaps pro-sex isn't the best word, but, she had a sexual relationship with Po, with no plans for marriage. You know what they say, "it's not premarital sex if you have no plans on getting married." Or maybe that was just me who said that. To my dad. Who is a preacher. ....awkward.
ANYWAY!
Oh, Tina T, you're breaking my heart.
Rating: 5 of 5 stars.
There's some zombie books where things constantly happen. There's constant fights and narrow escapes and the entire story, you're on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next thing to happen.
This is Not a Test isn't that book.
Monday, September 17, 2012
My soul for a dragon.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars.
Wait. Stop right there. Stop giving me the side eye for my 4 stars. Let me explain.
There are dragons.
Okay. They're kinda like dragons. Like, practically dragons, but they don't fly so they're basically dragon mutants or something but they have scales and wicked tails and they breathe fire. DRAGONS, OKAY. NOT-DRAGONS. KINDA-DRAGONS. DRAGONS ARE AWESOME.
There was some crazy stuff going on in the Defiance world. There was tyrannical leaders, and oppression and widely accepted misogynistic attitudes and highway robbers and fucking Tree People and sweet bread baking old men and secrets and spies and sword fights and crazy tech inventions and DEFIANCE (I C WUT U DID THAR) and it was a lot of awesomeness topped with a lukewarm romance. If you ignore the romance aspect of it (and good Lord, that was hard, especially towards the end,) it was glorious.
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