Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn #7

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn is a weekly feature here at Ruby's Books, in which I share some of the posts written by other fellow book bloggers over the last week, posts that I loved so much I have to share. 

Hey guys! *waves* I hope everyone who celebrates it had a great Thanksgiving and that you ate lots of tasty noms and that you had a chance to spend quality time with you family. 

This week I've lurked on tons of blogs and read tons of interesting posts. Here are some of them: 

• Tricia @ Cristina's Book Reviews writes about Cheating in fiction 
• Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat wonders if (and why) do you continue to read a series if you hate the first book. Honestly,  I have no idea why you would continue if the first and second books in the series weren't enjoyable for you *scratches head*
• Rachel @ Parajunkee shares the most hilarious and sarcastic Thankful post I've ever read. 
• Nikki @ Fiction Freak wonders how we'd feel now about those books we read before we became bloggers and tells us her feelings about some of those books after re-reading them.
• Traci @ Mad Hatter Reads has some gift ideas for book lovers and I have to say I adore her choices. Especially the map *swoon*
• Charnell @ Reviews From A Bookworm talks about paperbacks vs hardbacks, which is her favorite and why. I completely agree with her.
• Jeann @ Happy Indulgence talks about what makes love triangles tolerable in books.

Book Highlight - My Ex From Hell by Tellulah Darling

Title: My Ex From Hell
Author: Tellulah Darling
Series: The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #1
Genre: Young Adult, mythological

Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following:
a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)
b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.

Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy teen yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.

Literally.

This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.

Plus there’s also the little issue that Sophie’s last memory as Persephone was just before someone tried to murder her.
Big picture: master her powers, get her memories back, defeat Persephone’s would be assassin, and save the world. Also, sneak into the Underworld to retrieve stolen property, battle the minions of Hades and Zeus, outwit psycho nymphs, slay a dragon, rescue a classmate, keep from getting her butt expelled from the one place designed to keep her safe …

… and stop kissing Kai, Prince of the Underworld.

My Ex From Hell is a YA romantic comedy, Greek mythology smackdown. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book one of this teen fantasy romance series. Compared to Kai and Sophie, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.

My Ex From Hell will be on sale for 99 cents from November 28th to December 12th!

Amazon | iTunes | Kobo

When the going gets desperate, the desperate send email 

          To: ????
          From: bloomingoddess@gmail.com
          Subject: Seriously?

          Dear Your Royal Imperialness Demeter, Goddess of Grain and Fertility, Preserver of Marriage, and Bringer of Seasons,
          Or can I just call you Mom?
          Bet you never thought you’d be hearing from me. Sorry for not having written sooner, but until about twelve hours ago, I didn’t know you existed. Nothing personal.
          See, yesterday, I was plain old Sophie Bloom. My life sucked in your typical 16-year-old ways. I was stuck here at Hope Park Progressive School on probation again (“mouthy behavior”), dealing with cliquish poseurs, rampant hormones, blah blah blah.
          Then I met a guy. I know that’s the worst cliché ever. But sadly, it’s true. And of course, me being me, he couldn’t be just any bad boy. No. He had to be Kai, son of Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Anyway, he was really hot and there was this bone-melting kiss and … whatever. The point is, before he showed up, I thought I was human. Afterward, well, let’s just say everything changed. Who knew when I was cramming Greek mythology for my English final, I was studying the family tree?
          They say when you die, your whole life supposedly flashes before your eyes. When Kai and I kissed, here’s what flashed before mine—Mount Olympus, Zeus, the Underworld, Hades, and you. But that wasn’t my life. Or was it?
          Here’s the Wiki version. (Do you have Wi-Fi on Mt. Olympus?) Turns out I’m Persephone. Me, Goddess of Spring and Embodiment of Earth’s Fertility? Ew! Which makes me your kid, Hades’ target, and totally screwed. In the myth version, I’m the innocent maiden, you’re the grieving mother, and we’re reunited with great joy. Guess that’s why they call it a myth.
          I know I sound like a nut bar. And maybe I’ll wake up in a padded room restrained for my own safety. But in that moment with Kai, it felt real. Like I knew who I was. Or used to be. Those were my memories flashing before my eyes—not some fantasy or hallucination. Part of me remembered those moments. But where do I go from here? And is there an online tutorial I can take?
          I don’t exactly have your email. But if you’re a goddess, maybe you’ll know I’m writing. That I really need my mom right now. And if not—well, I guess I’ll save this for my obituary. Which I’ll probably need pretty soon because of the gods-wanting-me-dead thing.

          Take care.
          Sophie
          a.k.a. Persephone
          a.k.a. Goddess of Spring
          a.k.a. Your Daughter

Tellulah Darling

noun

1. YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3. Sassy minx.
Geeks out over: cool tech.

Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.

Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?

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TV Madness: Suits

This past few weeks I discovered the awesomeness called Suits. I have no excuse for waiting this long, I know! I'm ashamed of myself *hangs head in shame*.

This show got under my skin fast, from Donna's coolness, to Mike's ability to annoy Harvey faster than blinking, to Louis Litt's love for cats and his funny, sometimes weird way of looking at things. I love the banter, the constant movie quotes, the inside jokes between characters, the suits (let's be honest, most men look good in a suit, but the men on this show look damn hot in them!). I love Mike's story, even though I'm completely confused as to why he didn't try to enroll in a different college (but since I don't know how the educational system works in the US, I'm going to assume it's something related to either that or money). I love the banter between Harvey and Donna and how Donna makes saucy remarks just to get Harvey annoyed. I love how Harvey proves over and over how loyal he is to Mike and how he protects him even if it could cost him not only his career, but his entire life.

It's been a while since I've seen a show about lawyers and didn't immediately think of Ally McBeal. Not once during Suits did I think of the craziness populating that show. It's so refreshing. I love the actors, the dialogue is pure gold and the music fantastic. The suits are, again, amazing. And some of the women's fashion I've seen on this show is so gorgeous and elegant.

The entire show is great. And I don't think there's one thing that I didn't like. However, there's one thing, a huge, huge thing that I love more than anything else and it's this:

Harvey Specter's Vinyl Collection

That's right! Harvey's vinyl collection. Not many people know this about me, but I'll take vinyls over CDs or MP3s any time, any day, for my choice of indoor music player (just like I'd take cassette tapes over CDs and MP3 players in my car, but that's another story). I grew up in the 90s and I remember the years before CDs and MP3 players (at least in my neck of the woods, we were a tad behind with all the technology). And one of my fondest memories growing up was listening to old theater plays (think 40s and 50s) in my bedroom, while playing with dolls or coloring or just being lazy. Or listening to ballet music or old rock records. There's nothing quite like the sound of the vinyl and that noise at the beginning, the surface noise, is glorious and it's like making a promise, a promise of good music.

So when I saw the first two episodes and saw Harvey had TONS of records, I fell in love. It was insta-love, yes, but I couldn't help it. God bless whomever decided to make Harvey Specter a lover of vinyls. Good choice!

Now I'm waiting like crazy for the show to start again, because that last episode was epic! I am biting my nails, waiting to see what Harvey and Mike will do after... well, if you've watched the show, you know what I'm talking about! O____O

Obsessed With Covers #16: China Dolls, City of Eternal Night & Made You Up

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

This cover reminds me so much of those old photos I see from the 20's and I love it for that. I adore the fact that the background is sort of foggy and you can't really see that bridge. I wonder why. You know me, I'm all about figuring out if the cover fits the book. The model fits the title, if you ask me. Not only is her makeup really beautiful, her clothes remind me of the clothes of a china doll. So I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with that.








China Dolls - Lisa See

I think you guys know by now how obsessed I am with cartoonish covers, creepy covers and beautiful dresses. So if a cover has all those three elements together, you get awesomeness and an excited puppy called Ruby *points at self* Let's start with the dress, shall we? Her corset is made of leaves. I love that! And the gold and green colors blend together so well and it makes her stand out against the dark, creepy background. Why creepy? Well, you have the full moon (love!) and the tons of beads that hang from the tree and they remind me of Mardi Gras (would love to see it one day) and of spider webs. Not to mention those black thingies below her elbow which look like bats to me, but I may be wrong. And the entire city is dark violet. And her eyes are scary, because I barely see her pupils. Okay, I'll shut up now.

City of Eternal Night - Kristen Painter

This cover is very, very different from the other two. First, it reminds me of a Rorschach test. And after reading the blurb, I applaud the cover artist for making it like this, because it fits perfectly with the idea of this book. It isn't a happy cover, it kinda hints to a very serious, sad, incredibly heartbreaking story, yet it still gives me hope that there's going to be a happy ending in there somewhere.









Made You Up - Francesca Zappia

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn #6

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn is a weekly feature here at Ruby's Books, in which I share some of the posts written by other fellow book bloggers over the last week, posts that I loved so much I have to share. 

It's been a while since I did a post in this series and I'm sorry for that. There are tons of good posts out there that deserve to be read by as many people as possible, so I decided to bring this back. Here are some of the posts I read and loved this week:

• Alicia @ Awesome Book Assessment talks about Second Book Syndrome 
• Laura @ Laura Plus Books talks about Being An Easy Reviewer
• Anya @ On Starships and Dragonwings gives great Advice for Starting a Blog
• Kritika @ Snowflakes & Spider Silk talks about the books that put science in science fiction in "Because Science!" (a rant)

I'm late to the party (I'm so sorry guys!) but November is the Sci-Fi Month. This is an event hosted by Rinn, Asti, Leanne and Kelly. There are a lot of amazing posts done by a lot of bloggers, so if you want to check them out, go here and read more about the event and the bloggers participating.

I've read tons of other good posts since I've been missing, but since I have a tiny brain, I didn't think to save all the links *head meet desk*. 

Are there any good posts you've read and loved recently?