November 24, 2011

Okay readers - it's the final round in the Goodreads Choice Awards. Go and cast your vote! 

The list of categories include:
  • Favorite book of 2011
  • Fiction
  • Mystery & Thriller
  • Historical Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Paranormal Fantasy
  • Science Fiction
  • Horror
  • Romance
  • Humor
  • Nonfiction
  • History & Biography
  • Memoir & Autobiography
  • Food & Cooking
  • Travel & Outdoors
  • YA Fiction
  • YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
  • Middle Grades & Children's
  • Picture Books
  • Graphic Novels & Comics
  • Poetry
  •  Goodreads Author
See, there is a category for everything you read! So go and let your voice be heard. 

November 23, 2011

There's more than Silence between Patch & Nora

I am a huge fan of Becca Fitzpatrick and her characters Patch and Nora. When I started the YA teacher book club at my school, Hush, Hush was the first book I wanted to introduce to my colleagues. I anxiously await each of her novels. There is something about her writing style that really speaks to me as a reader.

I'm even on a mission to make sure Fitzpatrick visits the Decatur Book Festival next year because I am dying to hear her speak and have her sign my book. Check out the picture to the left. I'm planning to do a post on this, so keep your eyes open for more.

In the mean time, let's discuss her latest novel, Silence. 

Summary (from the book jacket):

Nora Grey can't remember the past five months of her life. After the initial shock of waking up in a cemetery and being told that she has been missing for weeks--with no one knowing where she was or who she was with--she tries to get her life back on track. Go to school, hang out with her best friend, Vee, and dodge her mom's creepy new boyfriend. 

But there is this voice in the back of her head, an idea that she can almost reach out and touch. Visions of angel wings and unearthly creatures that have nothing to do with the life she knows. 

And this unshakable feeling that a part of her is missing. 

Then Nora crosses paths with a sexy stranger, whom she feels a mesmerizing connection to. He seems to hold all the answers...and her heart. Every minute she spends with him grows more and more intense until she realizes she could be falling in love. Again.

My thoughts:

In the latest installment,  Nora must come to grips with her past, present, and future with only the help of those around her. She cannot remember the last five months of her life, which means she is missing a big piece of herself...Patch. But destiny is what it is, and the two will not be kept apart for long. Fitzpatrick masterfully intersects these two in the only way that would satisfy fans of the series - Patch saving Nora.

From the moment Nora awakens in a graveyard until the novel's conclusion, I was engrossed. The writing in this novel provides an intriguing, well-paced plot that left me feeling satisfied. Readers will be pleasantly surprised with where we are taken in this novel. While I predicted where she would take me, I was still satisfied with the "reveal." 

There is war on the horizon between Nephilim and the fallen angels, and the leader of The Black Hand needs Nora. There are two questions that will be answered in this installment: who is The Black Hand, and why does he need Nora?

As a reader, the toughest part of this novel was  experiencing the lies and misinformation Nora's mom and best friend give her; while they are trying to protect her, they seem to not realize that the one they are keeping her from, Patch, might be the only one who can save her from The Black Hand, and from herself.

The chemistry between Patch and Nora is still there, and this is a result of Fitzpatrick's gift of storytelling. Even though these two are not "together" in this novel, when the two of them are on the page together, there is heat. Yes, you read that correctly - heat. And that heat cannot be ignored by either one of them, as much as they want to.  

If you are a lover of paranormal romance and you have not yet experienced Becca Fitzpatrick's series, you must make sure to add it to your mound of reads. It is worth every single page.

Patch and Nora FOREVER!

November 12, 2011

MIA?

Hello fellow readers! My last post was right before Halloween, so you might be wondering where I've been (or not).

See that arm...that COULD be mine!
Well, I have been drowning. That's right - drowning in papers. And not even in books but in papers of my students. I've also been working on my teacher of the year paperwork, which is due this Tuesday and still is not done yet.

Oh yes, instead of getting a parade as TOY, I get to write several essays about why I am awesome, why my teaching is awesome, why others should think I am awesome. I think I prefer the parade, but alas 'tis not meant to be. How ever did I survive teaching AND Grad school? 

I have been reading Silence by Beccca Fitzpatrick, but by the time I finish working on paperwork and scoring essays, my brain is so exhausted that I reward myself with just a single chapter (it's all I can take at this point). So, I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break next week when I can at least enjoy a few of the great books I've put my hands on recently.

So in the midst of keeping up with my grading and essay writing, I've also been plotting. I am on a mission to bring Becca Fitzpatrick to the Decatur Book Festival next year. And if she cannot make DBF, maybe the Southern Book Festival. Either way, I'm on a mission to hear her speak next year! 

What have all of you been reading? What steals your time away from books? I would love to hear from all of you.

Happy reading!

Cathy effectively demonstrates what my living room currently looks like...and the beads of sweat? 
Yep, that's me!