WWW Wednesday | Dec. 31

December 31, 2014December 27, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

First, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Years Eve. I can’t believe how fast 2014 went by.

Now, it’s that time of the week again when I participate in WWW Wednesdays hosted by Should Be Reading. Feel free to leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments.

To participate in WWW Wednesday, you need to answer three questions.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

CURRENTLY READING

RECENTLY FINISHED READING

WHAT I MIGHT READ NEXT

Teaser Tuesdays | Dec. 30

December 30, 2014December 23, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

It’s almost the end of the year and this will be my last Teaser Tuesday in the month of December and essentially in the year 2014. Crazy right!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. It’s easy to participate. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

CURRENT READ | YOU AND EVERYTHING AFTER BY GINGER SCOTT

“I fell back asleep, but not until after watching Ty for almost an entire hour – every breath, every rise and fall of his chest, the way his arm twitched slightly from the weight of my head – I was building a mental scrapbook of all these tiny little things.”

My Adorable Nephew Reading

December 29, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 4 Comments

While I was browsing Instagram photos I came across a picture of my adorable nephew reading a book by the fire. I thought this was so cute that I had to share it with all of you. He’s reading a book I got him called Go Dog Go. I’m sure some of you have heard of it. It was one of my favorite books as a kid and it was so great seeing him reading it.

Book Review | If I Stay by Gayle Forman

December 29, 2014December 23, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 7 Comments

Book Review | If I Stay

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the one decision she has left—the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.”

MY THOUGHTS

I was really looking forward to reading this book and finally purchased it from Target. I thought I would cry while reading the book, but nothing ever came. The story was great, but it didn’t have enough emotion for me and I didn’t really relate to the characters who all seemed to be these hipster music people to me.

Even though I wasn’t fond of the personalities of the characters, I did enjoy the overall message of the book (or at least what I thought was the message). Never take the small things for granted. Seeing as I have lost two very important people in my life, I do miss the small things. Like watching Friends with my mother. That seems like something very insignificant, but now that I can’t share that time with her I really miss it.

While Mia is trying to decide whether to move on or stay she thinks about a lot of things we take for granted, like spending time with family, friends, and significant others. Essentially, when you’re time comes you don’t care what you did, but who you shared your life experiences with. At least that’s what I will think about.

If Mia really could decide to live or die, she’d have to come to terms with the people closest to her being gone. I’m not sure if I would decide to stay if I’d be an orphan and my young brother was gone. It would be really hard to cope with that kind of loss.

Now, I’m completely biased with my next comment, but I didn’t feel that there was enough of a connection between Mia and her boyfriend. There wasn’t a lot of romance between these two characters and I felt like there could have been more to it. But that’s just my hopeless romantic side talking.

Overall, If I Stay is a good book, but it didn’t live up to my expectations and sometimes I set those expectations too high.

FAVORITE QUOTES

“For the first time, I can sense how fully agonizing staying will be. But then I feel Adam’s hand.”

OVERALL RATING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications as Jane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Buy Links: Amazon, B&N, iBooks

Social Media Links: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr

Publishing Company: Dutton, Penguin Group

Release Date: April 2, 2009

Genre: Young Adult

2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge Completed

December 28, 2014December 27, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 4 Comments

I completed my 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge!

I finished reading 15 books this year. For 2015, I’m setting an ambitious goal of 25 books.

Here are the list of books I read in 2014:

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks (My Review)
Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin (My Review)
Family Inheritance by Terri Ann Leidich (My Review)
This Is Falling by Ginger Scott (My Review)
Things I Wish I Could Have Told My Younger Self by E.A. Davis (My Review)
Walt Before Mickey by Timothy Susanin (My Review)
The Forgers by Bradford Morrow (My Review)
Upside Down by Lia Riley (My Review)
Sideswiped by Lia Riley (My Review)
Inside Out by Lia Riley (My Review)
The In Between by Olivia Pierce (Review Coming Soon)
What a Bride Wants by Kelly Hunter (Review Coming Soon)
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Review Coming Soon)
Finding Zoe by Brandi Rarus & Gail Harris (Review Coming Soon)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Review Coming Soon)

What will your reading challenge goal be in 2015?

Sunday Quotes

December 28, 2014August 21, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

Stories Unfolded | Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

December 27, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 6 Comments

I’m proud to say that I have been nominated for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award by Safa from Books Over People. Thank you so much Safa for nominating me. It’s such and honor to be recognized by my fellow bloggers.

RULES OF THE AWARD

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
2. Put the award logo on your blog.
3. Answer the ten questions they’ve set you.
4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Nominate ten people.

QUESTIONS FOR ME

1. Which is your favorite book blog here? – I can’t say that I have a favorite, but I do visit two particular blogs quite often. Those are Paris Baker’s Book Nook and Living Life With Joy.

2. If you could get any quote tattooed on your body, what would it be? – I don’t think I can answer this question because I wouldn’t get a tattoo. Needles scare me. But I will share a quote from a book by my favorite author. “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever” – Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

3. Favourite author and why? – Nicholas Sparks is my all time favorite author. I have to own a physical copy of all his books (one day I will get them all signed) and I tend to read his books within days. I can’t wait for him to release a new one. He writes romantic love stories and I’m a hopeless romantic.

4. First book you remember reading. – The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

5. Favourite OTP from a book. – Sorry, I’m not sure what OTP is and my brain is too fried to figure it out. Lol.

6. The book/series that made you fall in love with reading. – When I was young, I loved the Goosebumps series. I think that’s where it all started.

7. Most over rated author/book in your opinion. – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

8. One book you regret having read. – Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

9. If you could forget one book to experience it all over again, which one would it be? – Any of the Nicholas Sparks books.

10. One book that changed your life. – I can’t really think of a book that changed my life.

MY NOMINEES

Paris Baker’s Book Nook

Living Life With Joy

Coffee n’ Notes

Franthebookie

Stephanie’s Book Reviews

QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES

1. What did you do for the holidays?

2. What did you recently finish reading?

3. What are you plans for New Years?

4. How many books do you want to read in 2015?

5. What’s your New Years Resolution?

6. What was your favorite book in 2014?

7. What’s the most recent book you purchased?

8. What’s your favorite beverage to drink while reading a book?

9. Where’s your favorite place to read a book?

10. Would you live in a bookstore if you could?

Upcoming Book Review | The In Between by Olivia Pierce

December 27, 2014December 23, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ Leave a comment

“Tara Jenkins and Justin Westcroft used to be childhood BFFs. Now in high school, Justin’s a popular, all-star athlete, and Tara spends her days admiring him from afar. But when Tara saves Justin from nearly drowning in a freak accident, he’s unable to get her out of his mind. In no time at all, Tara and Justin fall deeply in love. And even though it’s only high school, they seem destined for a Happily Ever After.

Until tragedy strikes—and this time, Justin’s not so lucky. Tara passes through her days as a shell of her former self: Justin’s dead, but she can still feel his presence, and she can’t seem to let him go.

But there’s a reason for that, and it’s not just grief: Justin is In Between, and he’s still holding on.

They say that when someone saves you, you’re tied to them for life. But what about in the afterlife?”

Friday Finds | NetGalley

December 26, 2014December 23, 2014 ~ Danielle Olson ~ 1 Comment

Happy Friday everyone! I hope some of you got the day off like I did. If not, I still hope you’re having a great day.

Well, it’s my last Friday Find of the year 2014 and I just can’t believe that there’s literally 5 days left until we ring in the new year.

For this week’s Friday Finds I wanted to shine the spotlight on a few of the books I recently got approved for on NetGalley. You know I’m addicted to this site.

“What if you could do it all over again?

Jennifer Wright is pretty sure her husband doesn’t love her anymore. She and Max used to be the perfect couple, but the pressures of work and kids have pulled them in opposite directions. Now , Jen is full of “what if” questions about whether her bland, suburban existence is all she was ever destined for.

When a terrible accident sends Jen into a coma, she is able to see what her life could have been if she had run off to Australia with the handsome, dangerous man she met on vacation, or if she had stayed with her workaholic college boyfriend. Would she ever have loved another child as much as she loves her daughters? Could she have become rich? More than anything, Jen wants to do the right thing for her family. But what she discovers may leave her with even more questions about the choices she made, and no easy answers about what to do next.”

***

“Sometimes, the past can haunt you.

Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine’s best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie’s abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work?

Sometimes, the past is best forgotten.

Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn’t figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn’s turn to vanish without a trace.”

What did you find this week?

Feel free to post a link to your Friday Finds in the comments.