Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

I'll start my review by saying that I really, really loved Sisters Red, and I really adore Jackson Pearce. Her vlogs and Twitter feed never fail to entertain me and I think she's someone who would be pretty cool to hang out with IRL.* It kind of baffles me that we're the same age. I feel like, she's got three published books with two more on the way and I, well.... what have I done?

I was more than excited to meet her at DBF and happily came home with my signed copies of Sisters Red and Sweetly. I was finally able to tuck in to the latter recently, and I was more than excited given my past love of Sisters Red.

Sweetly was a modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel, a story that I honestly didn't know a ton about other than what I learned from the short version I had as a child. But I loved Jackson's spin on Little Red Riding Hood, so I was excited to dive into this story.

I have to admit that, with the exception of the beginning of the book, I didn't fully get the connection to Hansel and Gretel. It seemed to be a pretty big deviation from the original story, at least what I know of it. It was less a modern retelling, more a story inspired by a fairytale. That being said, I enjoyed it and it was a fun read with some very interesting characters, and I would recommend it to others for sure. I just didn’t love it the way I thought I would and admittedly, it’s quite possible that my expectations were way too high, and that some personal stuff going on in my life while I was reading this kept me from really enjoying it the way I could have otherwise. I just couldn’t quite give it 4 stars, but it was so, so, so close.

If there’s one thing Jackson can write, it’s an awesome bond between siblings. I loved Ansel and Gretchen’s relationship and how they relied on each other, and knew each other so intensely. Individually, Gretchen was a pretty interesting character too. Lots of scars from the past and yet still pretty badass. Her conflicting feelings about Sophia were my some of my favorite parts to read (next to the steamy little side romance that was a lot of fun too).

Not a real complaint, just an observation: I would really have loved to get a little more insight into what’s happening with Rosie, Scarlett and Silas. I know it would be sort of pointless, and wouldn’t have contributed anything meaningful to the plot, but I’m nostalgic like that.

In the end it was a good read that’s would be perfect for a little rainy afternoon escapism. I’m looking forward to Fathomless which is based on the original Little Mermaid story and is the final in the retelling series. If you like fantasy-type stories set in the “real-world”, I suggest you pick up both this and Sisters Red.



*Is that weird of me to say? I'm totally NOT a stalker. I promise.

Nesties do Decatur

It's taken me a little while to be ready to write this. I was processing.  I think I'm ready now.

My weekend in Decatur was absolutely full of awesome.  Not only did I get to meet some amazing authors and sit in on some really great panels, but I also got to hang out, in person, with some of my favorite people and fellow book lovers.  I cannot tell you how amazing this was.  To be able to make reference to things like "DG",  or "Friday Confessions Post" and not have to explain myself, for a full 48 hours, was heaven.  These are my people.  I spend a good portion of my days with them, more so than with my non-nestie friends, so it was like coming home. To steal a quote from Julie (I think), it was like returning to "the mother ship". I loved every minute of chatting and laughing with them, and I can't wait to do it again.

While I know the other ladies have posted this picture on their blogs, and other nesites are probably getting sick of seeing it, I'm posting it... because, aside form the fact that I'm standing at a very weird angle and look...large, I love it.

Tameka, Jacki, Crystal (and me)

Julie, Jennie, Heather

I was, yet again, to chicken to ask for photos with any of the authors, but I did get to have a nice little chat with Libba Bray and she helped play a joke on my husband (who has a reputation with his reading and choice of television shows). Her panel with absolutely hilarious.  I would pay to have just 1/2 of her energy. Also, her "why I became a writer" story? So inspiring. 

She signed my copy of Beauty Queens "To B___, You're beautiful just the way you are.  Love Libba"  Hehe.

After Libba, we met with Lauren Myracle, who is pretty funny on her own as well.  But alas, no pictures. I did get a beautiful signed copy of Shine, which I can't wait to read.  It's also on my husband's TBR list.

Lunch on Sunday.... Crystal, myself, Tameka.



Jacki, Jennie, Julie

My highlight was the Jackson Pearce, Rachel Hawkins and Victoria Schwab panel on Sunday afternoon.  Everyone knows that I adored Sisters Red, and pretty much adore Jackson Pearce, whose blog/vlog and tweets I follow religiously.  Needless to say, I made of fool of myself fangirling over her any time we saw her over the weekend. 

Hex Hall and Demonglass are pretty books awesome too! I haven't read The Near Witch yet, but I purchased a copy to have signed and will read it soon!

Rachel writes the cutest messages in her books. 

My friends made sure to let Jackson know of my fangirl status, and then convinced her to take a picture with me outside at the end of the festival. Poor Jackson.

Lastly, we saw in on the Stephanie Perkins panel and OMG I love her.  She's seriously the most adorable thing I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, we missed out on snagging early copies of Lola and the Boy Next Door, but I had Anna and the French Kiss signed, and made a fool of myself by telling her that I'd loved it so much I hugged it when I was done. She's too sweet.  Finally, at the end of the weekend, I had the guts to ask for my own picture.

First of all, her sense of style is flawless. Secondly, she's super tiny and gorgeous, and makes me look like I'm having an allergic reaction to something.  But I love this picture anyway.

Some other awesome things:



adorable bookstores

shoe tree art



Homemade Harry Potter cookies from Jacki. 

I was all "oh, they're so cute I can't even eat them." 

But then I did.  And they were awesome. (T, I stole your pics)

Such a great weekend! I'm lucky to have had the chance to go and spend some time with these awesome ladies, and I'm excited to see them all again soon.

On why I love book nerds, authors and the internet

So apparently things like THIS also make a book nerd squee.   Oh... oh, HI John Green.  S'up?  Ya- we're like totally BFF's now IRL.

Okay, maybe not.... so why does this make happy dance in my office chair?  Let me try to explain.

One of the awesome things about Twitter, Facebook and social networking in general is that it gives you the opportunity to connect with some of your favorite people instsantly and in real-time.  Whether it's personally, professionally or fangirly.... these people are at your fingertips.  My IRL friends ask me why I spend so much time online, or tell me that they don't "get" Twitter... or ask "why don't you join a real book club"??? yadda yadda yadda.... well here's why.  I have a lot of online friends thanks to a book forum I belong to and I would never have "met" any of these people if it wasn't for the wonderful world of the interwebz.  These are people who I talk to on a daily basis about my favorite topic... BOOKS.  But beyond that, we have a comfort level established that has led to much more than just a book club and I look forward to really meeting these people in the future (damn geography keeping me from nestie gtg's).  So, those friends alone make it worth the while... but they're not the only reason I love the e-world so much.

Now it's true that I follow a lot of people on Twitter and true many of them are celebrities who wouldn't respond to me to save their lives (not that I send messages to most of them), but it's cool to see their updates and know what they're up to, working on, getting charged with etc.  Maybe I should follow LiLo?  I'm sure it would be entertaining to say the least... but I digress. Where Twitter becomes especially cool is with some of my favorite authors that I have the pleasure of following through their days.  I love getting updates on how their next book is coming,  teasers about sequels and just funny little insights into their lives, or what they like to read... etc etc etc.  Authors are my ultimate celebrities because I read a whole heck of a lot more than I watch TV or movies, and what's super cool is that a lot of these totally awesome authors actually respond to your Tweets.

What's that you say? You want examples? 

I tweeted yesterday about going through vlogbrothers withdrawls and wondered where John and Hank Green were... and got the above linked response directly from John. 

I read and LOVED Sisters Red, posted a Tweet about how awesome it was and got an almost immediate response from from Jackson Pearce saying that she was so happy that I liked it. 

I've exchanged random tweets about the fabulous Hex Hall and life in general with Rachel Hawkins.

Although I've never reached out to her personally, I know several of my NBCer's have had coversations via Twitter with Maggie Stiefvater (author of Shiver, Linger and some other awesome books) about her books and other randomness.

I think the best example of this involved my NBC girls, a Jessical Darling/Marcus Flutie'd Christmas poem and Megan McCafferty. Lets just say it was hilarious, Megan loved it, sent signed books and hashtagged the crap out of the key term in the poem. FAN- FREAKIN'- TASTIC.

They run contests on Twitter, ask for feedback, opinions, random trivia, post pictures etc. And they are actually there reading and responding.  It's so freakin' cool to interact regularily with the people you admire most (and ok... in the case of John Green, fangirl over).  There's something genuine about a lot of these authors because they're truly grateful that you read and buy there books and they really want you to enjoy them.  I'm sure it's also pretty cool for them to see people trending about their books... something they put so much time into. And lastly, many (if not all) of them are book nerds to, so you have that in common to connect you and I love it.

You rarely get that kind of interaction with movie/television/music industry stars... but I get it on a daily basis with some of my favorite authors who are, in the end, just really cool people.  How awesome is that?

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Part I- No Spoilers

I flippin' loved this book. It's dark, it's romantic, it's exciting and most importantly, it's unique! Such a seductive read.

Yet again I've found another story told from alternating POV's that just rocks my socks. Scarlett and Rosie are so connected, and yet so different at the same time. It's really interesting to read about the bond between the sisters and their takes on different events/situations from each of their perspectives. You feel like you really get to know the characters.

I really enjoyed Silas as the male lead. His character was strong, but filled with humor, compassion and a sensitivity that made him really easy to love. I enjoyed reading all three characters.

5 stars for sure. Great read.

Part II- Spoilers
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I have to admit that after the first run in with the Atlanta Fenris, I kind of had an inkling about Silas being the Perspective. It was something in the conversation where one of them talks about thinking they had found him out in the country..... BUT, then Pearce threw me off track when they had the run in at the bowling alley. I figured, if Silas really was the perspective they would have made a move for him that night. So, the end still surprised me and all came together.

I had 2 favorite parts that I must mention:

-The first is when Rosie escapes captivity by "channeling" her sister, eye patch and all. Great writing.

-The Second is the last chapter written about the sisters separation and yet remaining deep connection with each other. There's so much emotion in those pages. Loved it.

Needless to say, I'm beyond anxious to get some info on the next book. I can't wait to see where these characters go.

My TBR Pile

I haven’t been able to do a lot of reading in the past week and a bit- actually I’ve done a ton of reading, but it was for school so that doesn’t count- and I’m falling way behind on my TBR pile. I thought I'd do a post about what’s coming up because I’m excited to get to them.

Right now I’m about 100 pages into Through the Fire by Shawn Grady. I won this book on GoodReads ages ago (I think back in November) but I didn’t actually receive it until the end of March. I’m finally getting around to reading it now. It’s ok so far. I’m about 100 pages in and it hasn’t grabbed me yet, but it’s not bad.

Next-up… Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins! My friend Crystal over at Crystal Clear Reading had an awesome giveaway for a signed copy of this much talked about book… and I won! I originally planned to put down Through the Fire and spend a night flying through Hex Hall, but the guilt got to me and I decided to wait and finish one before I pickup another. I can’t wait though!

Also sitting waiting patiently for me is Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green. I have mixed feelings about this book. I had no desire to read it for the longest time until I discovered vlogbrothers and thought “I have to read anything and everything John Green has ever written” and immediately ordered my own copy of WGWG. I anxiously awaited its arrival and squee’d when it hit my mailbox… and it’s still sitting there. My husband even picked it up and read it (and loved it) but for some reason, I just haven’t felt like starting it. Strange right? So, I’ve decided for sure that it will follow Hex Hall.

Counting the books I have on hold at the library along with the stacks of unread books on my shelves at home, the last thing I needed to do was place a Book Depository order. But I did. Because my birthday is coming up and so I made my husband pay for the order as my birthday gift

On there way to my house as we speak are:

Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz- the sequel to Deadly Little Secret. Although I thought the first was just “good” I wanted to continue with the series to find out what happens.

The Line by Teri Hall- I LOVE dystopian novels (think Hunger Games, The Giver, Unwind etc) so I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book. Unfortunately, my library doesn’t have a copy, nor do the have intentions to get a copy. So I finally broke down and ordered it.

I also pre-ordered:

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce- I don’t know what it is about this book, but I’m dying to read it.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater- I really enjoyed Shiver and have heard raves about the Linger ARC’s being passed around so I’m pretty excited about this one too.

So that’s it. With our plans cancelled for this coming long-weekend, I’m taking the Friday off any way to get caught up with school (yes… I’m already behind). So hopefully that will leave 3 days where I can get through a couple of these books. Can’t wait!