Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

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Schuyler Van Alen is a freshman at the prestigious Duchesne School. A loner by nature, she finds her life thrown into turmoil when she turns 15. Suddenly she is allergic to the sun, craves raw food, and if she cuts herself, her blood is blue. Schuyler has no idea what is happening to her. As more and more curious things happen, Schuyler must confront her family and friends to discover the truth behind her blue blood. But there are bigger problems soon to be faced. When a girl in school is found dead, with mysterious bite marks on her neck, Schuyler is more confused than ever about her heritage…and her destiny.

Blue Bloods is yet another interesting take on the myth of the Vampire. In Blue Bloods Vampires are fallen Angels they have been expelled from paradise and now go through cycles. This is certainly a curious look at the myth of vampires, but in the book it is given as a well explained one. Like in Marked the Vampire side of them starts to show in the high school ages. They than become Blue Bloods, humans are called Red Bloods.

While you can tell that Blue Bloods is obviously the set up book for the next book in the series it was still an enjoyable read. It has a likeable group of characters, and of course like others it has its dislikeable ones as well. One thing that makes me giggle a bit is that it seems the “bad guy” or bully is always blonde. In Blue Bloods it’s the popular girl Mimi Force. Ah but Mimi has a twin brother named Jack, who Schuyler ends up getting a crush on. To bad for them it doesn’t seem to be meant to be. Or so it seems. Never know what will happen later in the series.

You follow Blue Bloods along the line that it’s setting up, giving you information about the history of the Blue Bloods. Some of the better bits are when they comment about their exploits in Rome, and Egypt. It would seem as long as they have been on earth they are the people of influence and power. They have money, and are pretty much the elite. It was a fast read, and a good read but it is obvious that it’s a set up book.

When the book comes to its conclusion it’s not a conclusion at all. It is obvious you wont find out about the bad guys of the book (now I can’t tell you who that is it would give away a plot twist) are fully up to. You also won’t learn how to bring them down, unless of course you read on. Which I plan to. If you’re a series reader, like different takes on Vampires and don’t mind a smattering of religion and history Blue Bloods is for you.

The Sunday Salon – My First

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The Sunday Salon.com

This is my first Sunday Salon, so you will have to bear with me while I get my feet wet. Today I am going to talk a little bit about my trouble reading this month. I feel like it was a reading slump. I started the month ahead in my book reading, but I quickly fell behind because I could not keep focus on what I was reading. This is not the books fault; all of the books I have read have been good. Maybe not the greatest but none the less.

So what’s wrong with me? I will sit down to read and my mind will wander off to all the other things I should be seeing about doing. And I end up heading off to do those things. Or I end up taking a nap. I can say this month I have also been fairly sick this month perhaps that has something to do with it.

I am happy to report however that I have gotten myself back on task this week. And I am reading Blue Bloods currently which has gone fairly quickly I expect I will finish it today as long as I can keep my focus. So my fellow readers have you ever had reading slumps? And if you did what did you do to break it? I am enjoying my challenges and I am enjoying trying to keep on top of them as I know when renaissance comes I will fall behind. I have accepted that, Renaissance will keep me busy and I will have make up to do after it. I am planning on bringing books down there with me, but there’s no saying if I will have time to read any. Ha ha.

Quotable Sunday #10

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Welcome to Quotable Sunday! I can’t wait to get around and read your quotes today. The rules of course are never changing but in case this is your first time joining in, I would like to welcome you and let you know the basics:~Post one or more of your favorite quotes on your blog in a post.~Come back here and link your post in the mister linky below(on http://www.juststopscreaming.com/ ).~Check back throughout the day and go read some awesome comments and leave some luv!

This week I am a new Kitty Grandma again,one of my baby girls had some babies. So I am going to do Cat Quotes in their honor.

You can’t help that. We’re all mad here.” – The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland

“No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” – Mark Twain

“With their qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience, dignity, and courage, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?” – Fernand Mery Her Majesty the Cat

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” – Hippolyte Taine

Actually, cats do this to protect you from gnomes who come and steal your breath while you sleep. – John Dobbin

Don’t think that I’m silly for liking it, I just happen to like the simple little things, and I love cats! – Michelle Gardner

Everything I know I learned from my cat: When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet’s, pee on your owner. – Gary Smith

Fans think they want to see more than the 10 to 20 seconds of Itchy and Scratchy that we put on the show, but my feeling is less is more. Once you’ve skinned and flayed a cat, ripped his head off, made him drink acid and tied his tongue to the moon, there really isn’t that much to say. – Matt Groening, 1993

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things. – Pablo Picasso

Book Review: The Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell

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The glorious, turbulent sixteenth century is drawing to a close. Elizabeth, Queen of England, has taken on the mighty Spanish Armada and, in a stunning sea battle, vanquished it.But her troubles are far from over. At home she is challenged at every turn by the brilliant but reckless Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, whose dangerous mix of passion and political ambition drives the aging queen to distraction. Just across the western channel, her colony Ireland is embroiled in seething rebellion, the island’s fierce untamed clan chieftains and their “wild Irish” followers refusing to bow to their English oppressors.

In the midst of the conflict is Grace O’Malley, notorious pirate, gunrunner, and “Mother of the Irish Rebellion.” For years, the audacious Grace has plotted and fought against the English stranglehold on her beloved country. At the height of the uprising Grace takes an outrageous risk, sailing up the River Thames to London for a face-to-face showdown with her nemesis, the Queen of England.

The historic meeting of these two female titans — perfectly matched in guts, guile, and political genius — sets the stage for the telling of the little-known but crucial saga of Elizabeth’s Irish war, a conflict at the very root of every subsequent Irish uprising. No one breathes life into these strong and pugnacious women as does Robin Maxwell in this captivating novel, a rousing tale that makes history gloriously real.

Being Irish and the fan of the reign of Elizabeth I as well naturally I was drawn to this book. Now it did start off a little slow, I will not lie to you there. But once you get through about the first 30 pages or so the book picks up. After that first hard block it is like the writer found their rhythm and settles into telling you the story.

Getting to be privy to a fun fictional look at the meeting between the famous Queen and the famous Irish pirate is fantastic. Grace O’Malley was one tough cookie! The Irish Pirate Queen is a fantastic woman who stood up for what she believed in against the English. Now granted in true life not all of what she did was thought of as good, but nor was the tyranny the English committed against the Irish. And as much as I love Elizabeth I she was one of the worst with Irish relations.

But you have to admire how the famous meeting went between the two women when Ní Mháille (Grace)

Sons were taken captive she wasted no time in petitioning the great Queen and her enemy. She met with Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace, wearing a fine gown, the two of them surrounded by guards and the members of Elizabeth’s royal Court. Ní Mháille refused to bow before Elizabeth because she did not recognize her as the Queen of Ireland, and wished to show Elizabeth this. It is also rumored that Ní Mháille had a dagger concealed about her person, which guards found upon searching her. Elizabeth’s courtiers were said to be very upset and worried, but Ní Mháille informed the queen that she carried it for her own safety. Elizabeth accepted this and, though the dagger was removed from Ní Mháille’s possession, did not seem to worry The women were only 3 years apart in age, an its said they got along very well. Their meeting was conducted in Latin as Elizabeth did not speak Gaelic, and Ní Mháille spoke no English.

If you have a passion for history, and love the time period this is the book for you. It gives you a close look at not only the meeting but the inner workings of the court of the mighty English Queen. And just how much her courtiers were after. Generally their own purposes.


Cultural Home Decor

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Cultural Elements is a very cool website that has décor made in all parts of the world. My favorite category has to be the bed and throw pillows. Mostly because I enjoy bedding and bedding décor. They have some positively fantastic items that are true to their cultural origins from each section of the world they come from. They have a beautiful Mauve bed cover that I would kill to have! So pop on over and check them out. Click for great Ethnic Home Decor.

Friday Finds #12

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I don’t really have any new books I heard about this week but I do have a few from my TBR Pile to share with you all. I just finnished Marked Last night and it was excellent, than there is also the book I just started reading this moning The Wild Irish.


Online Survey Site

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If you like to do surveys and give your opinion online here is a pretty cool place to check out. paid online surveys from My Opinion Now, they are a relatively new sight but they have a very easy to use interface. You also get paid for referrals which is handy, not new but great anyways.

If you head over to the My Opinion Now website you can see how easy they are to navigate they have a whole section of FAQ’s that can answer all of your questions from how to become a member, to what is the benefit of joining. I have done a few survey websites myself and this is a good looking one. You earn on a point system and than you can redeem those points for cash. Not a bad idea if you ask me. The website is comprehensive and as I said before easy to use. So head on over and check it out. If you have some time and want to earn a little bit of extra cash you will enjoy this one. It’s not a get rich fast idea, but you can earn some extra money.And with the economy as bad as it is right now, you can use all of the little extra pocket cash you can get.

Book Review: Marked by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast

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The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird’s world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire–that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny–with a little help from her new vampyre friends.

Marked was a branch out for me. You see I am a Vampire “purist” as generally I only read Anne Rice. But than my friends insisted I read the Twilight Saga, and I did and lo and behold I loved it. And so when these same friends recommended the house of Night I decided to read it. Well I have to say good choice.

The house of Night is a school, and to me the way the story is written it’s a little Harry Potter meets Twilight. But that makes for a great combo. You see in the reality that is marked people (humans) are well aware of Vampires. And in-fact vampirism is something that happens with your DNA right around puberty instead of ageing bit. You go through “The Change” you are marked by a Tracker than need to get your hinny to the Vampire school pronto or it won’t go well.

Life isn’t all easy pie with those being Marked, after all your body can reject the change and than you die. Simple as that. The Cast’s write an excellent and compelling book that’s filled with the twists and turns of just wanting to be accepted all the while being different, even among the others you’re changing with. Zoey is after all special, and has some major gifts but even that makes her feel like a bit of an outsider.

Marked even has its own Draco Malfoy in the form of a blonde girl who has dubbed herself Aphrodite (you rename yourself when you start your “New” life.). She is the school bully and makes Zoey’s new friends uncomfortable. But lucky for everyone Zoë can stand up to her. If you like Vampire novels, and don’t mind some teen angst this is a good book for you. The angst is more adult than Twilight, but its there. I really did enjoy reading Marked, and you can bet I will be happy to start reading the second book in the series.

Booking Through Thursday: A second first time?

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What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?

(Interestingly, I thought that I had thought this one up myself, but when I started scrolling through the Suggestions, found that Rebecca had suggested almost exactly this question a couple months ago. So, we both get credit!)

Oh that is a good one. I think for me that woulde Huckleberry Finn. I loved that book, still do I have read it more times than I can count.

Wicked Wednesday #5

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Wicked Wednesday a place to be wicked to other book readers and make them get those TBR piles growing. The concept is simple. Pick a book or two and tell s about them. If its one you read tell us what you liked. If its one you found tell us about that to. Than leave a comment to let us know where to find your Wicked Wednesday titles. Make sure to link back in your posts for other people to follow Wicked Wednesday.

What can I say I have Vampires on the brain. This is an excellent book so far. Give it a chance.

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