Cream Puff Murder [Review]

Stats:
#11 in Hannah Swenson series
353 Pages [Kindle]
Published 1 February 2010 [Kindle]
ASIN: B0031W1EK4
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Bad Kitty Meets Baby [Review]

Stats:
Bad Kitty series
160 Pages [Paperback]
Published 17 January 2012
ISBN:  0312641214
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Days of Blood & Starlight [Review]

**3.5 stars**

Stats:
#2 in Daughter of Smoke & Bone series
528 Pages [Kindle]
Published 6 November 2012
ASIN: B0076DCLF6
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Design: Movin' On

I was contacted by Aislinn of Movin' On for a little sprucing up for her blog.

She wanted greens/yellows with grey and a very cohesive, recognizable look. I got to have a little fun and use a little creativeness to show that her journey has taken her from Missouri to Mississippi.  Plus she said if I could work in a few clovers - that would be awesome. So I got the clovers in there - in her signature - and used her journey from state to state in her header. I used Ales & Wenches and Champagne & Limos for fonts.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Check out Aislinn's blog and new blog look!

Disclaimer: I found the clover on sweetclipart.com/

The Demon King [Review]

**3.5 stars**

Stats:
#1 in Seven Realms series
506 Pages [Paperback]
Published 7 September 2010
ISBN: 1423121368
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Bout of Books 7.0 - Starting Line//Daily Updates

 

You can see my goals and full book list: here.

But for now it's time to read!

Monday 5/13
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 50 (Beautiful Chaos) + 355 (Dare You To) = 405
Books Finished: 0
Thoughts: 1PM It's getting close to Twitter chat time. I have not read very much today so far. Hoping to change that. I also want to visit blogs. I think I'll do that during the chat.
10PM The Twitter chat was a ton of fun and went by quickly! Woah. I think that's the craziest chat I've ever participated in. 2 more hours and 50 more pages to reach my daily goal of 200 pages. I'm gonna visit and comment on some goal posts right now though!

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Tuesday 5/14
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 125 (Dare You To) + 35 (Spellbinding) = 160
Books Finished: 1
Thoughts: 7AM I am no good once I get sucked into a book. So even though technically I read until about 2AM last night, I'm counting those pages for Monday not today. I'll try and keep better track today. 12PM Yay! Finished a book and almost up to my page goal for today. 11PM One more hour today and 75 more pages to read. I got distracted making cookies and playing Candy Crush LOL

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Wednesday 5/15
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 93 (Spellbinding) = 93
Books Finished: 1
Thoughts: 8AM Scared today is not going to turn out so well. I slept horribly - thanks to my freaking allergies. Getting my cup of coffee in and trying to keep awake. 10PM I finally got time to read and then I ended up joining the twitter chat. Oops. Gonna try and make the most of these last two hours!

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Thursday 5/16
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 144 pages (Spellbinding) + 40 pages (The Vicious Deep) = 184
Books Finished: 2
Thoughts: 5PM I have yet to participate in any challenges, but I've followed a few new blogs and did two Twitter chats. I've also finished another book. :) Starting The Vicious Deep now

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Friday 5/17
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 58 (The Vicious Deep)= 58
Books Finished: 2
Thoughts: 7AM I have a hair appointment today that is supposed to take around 3 hours. I assume most of this will be sitting in the chair, so I'm bringing my book with me :) I went to bed early last night, so I didn't read much.

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Saturday 5/18
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 45 (The Vicious Deep) = 45
Books Finished: 2
Thoughts: 9AM I don't really have plans today, so I am really hoping that I can read for a majority of the day.

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Sunday 5/19
Current Book(s):

Pages Read: 225 (The Vicious Deep) + 14 (The Elite) = 239
Books Finished: 3
Thoughts: 8AM I've been tapering off and I hate when I do that at the end of a readathon. So today I plan to finish TVD and try and almost finish Beautiful Chaos. It's a rainy, icky day here. Yesterday I got totally wrapped up in catching up on my tv shows and gardening. 3PM Doing a lot better today, but I'm still kind of distracted lol 10PM Finished my 3rd book. Going to start my 4th here in a bit. :) Much happier with today's progress.

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Finish Line:
Books Finished:

Total pages: 1184

Thoughts: My goals were four books, three challenges, one chat, and 200 pages a day. I didn't quite get there. 3 books, 0 challenges, 2 chats, and only 2 days did I hit 200. It was a very busy week. However, last readathon I participated in ended horribly with 1 book read and 359 pages read. So I am very excited that I did way better. I didn't do as well as last BOB, but I still improved on my last readathon and got pretty close to my goals.

Carrot Cake Murder [Review]

*3.5 stars*

Stats:
#10 in Hannah Swensen Mystery series
352 Pages [Paperback]
First Published: 1 March 2008
ISBN: 0758287097
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Design: No Boys Allowed

Long ago, I belonged to a site called Cafemom. It's basically the Facebook for Moms. It was great if you stuck to small itty bitty groups - when you got to the big groups, things got REAL cray. I have met some of my very best friends there though including: Amber [who I've gotten to meet IRL too], Melissa, and this lovely lady, Bri. [plus many others - you know who you are, Clammies!]





Bri is taking a little blogging break at the moment, but her design is still beautimous and I wanted to share it. When she started blogging, it was just her and her two daughters [who are so cute!]. Then she met her amazing husband, Jesse, and got married. So we came up with the tagline [with the help of Amber & Melissa]: "Just the girls & the mister".

Bri wanted chevrons, arrows, and cute handwriting font. She also sent me a pin with a swatch of adorable colors that are so bright and happy. I used the fonts Sketch Nice & Pea Katrina.

Before:

After:

See Bri's design live...

..and leave her some love for when she comes back!

Vampire Academy [Review]

Stats:
#1 in Vampire Academy series
340 Pages [Kindle]
Published: 16 August 2007
ASIN: B000UZPIE8
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Bout of Books 7.0 Goals & Book List

This is my 5th time participating in Bout of Books readathon and I'm super stoked! :) Last readathon was a complete failure for me: I read 1 book and 359 pages. Last BOB, I read 4 books and 1456 pages. I was pretty proud of that. I'm setting the goals low this time and seeing how I do. Nick's deployed, so I have a lot of spare time at night when I'd normally be spending time with him.

The Goals:

• Read 200 pages each day.
• Finish 4 books
• Participate in at least 3 challenges 
• Participate in one Twitter chat

Books To Read:
1392 pages total with these four books.



Extras, if I have time:

Beautiful Darkness [Review]

*3.5 stars*

Stats:
#2 in Caster Chronicles
508 Pages [Kindle]
Published 12 October 2010
ASIN: B003UBTX6S
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May TBR List

This month, I plan on reading the books that are leftover from Feb/Mar/April during the 7th Bout of Books readathon. I am so excited for it - BOB is my favorite :) This also marks the first full month that I will have with a deployed hubs, so I am curious to see how my reading progress will change! It's kind of sad that before he left he kept teasing me about how much reading I'll get accomplished when he's not here :P

Books from February:

• Override by Heather Anastasiu

Books from March:

• After the Snow by S.D. Crockett

Books from April:

• Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
• Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl [We Heart YA - Series Read Along] 

Books for May:

• Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
• Something Blue by Emily Giffin
• Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
• Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke
• Bloodlines by Richelle Mead [We Heart YA - Theme BOTM]
• Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl [We Heart YA - Series Read Along] 
• Spellbinding by Maya Gold [NetGalley]
• Dare To You by Katie McGarry [NetGalley]

My Reading Challenges from We Heart YA Books! group on Goodreads:
50 States Challenge: 16/20 completed (ends 12/31)
A-Z Title Challenge: 17/26 completed (ends 12/31)
Spring Cleaning Challenge: 10/20 completed (ends 6/30) 
Spell out MOTHER (ends 5/31)
Read 2 books with flowers on the covers (ends 5/31)

Since I haven't read the first of the Percy Jackson books, I am going to be reading the first one for my random read this month :)