Why I hate the first week of spring

I've been absent this last week for a very good reason: spring. Or more to the point, spring asthenia. I'm one of those rare people that sometimes suffer from it. Add a weird virus in the mix and the beginnings of a cold and you should have an idea about how craptastic my week has been. Between coughing, sneezing and being tired and sleepy all the damn time, I couldn't even manage to eat like a normal person. Anyway, I am feeling better, so I'm back on the blog :D I do hope your spring start was better than mine.

Cover Love (8)

This feature is hosted by Carmel @ Rabid Reads. The rules are very simple. Choose a cover (or two, or three), preferably new-ish, and share what you like about it. Grab the graphic or don't just so long as you link back.


My pick this week:

There's something incredibly creepy about this cover. For some reason, when I first saw it, I thought of Great Expectations set in modern times. I also love the broken mirror and the crows and the spider. I'm also wondering if she actually has that look on her face or if her reflection is sort of "watching" her and is coming alive. I know it sounds weird, but anyway...

What is your pick for this week?

Dirty Little Secret (4)

Dirty Little Secret is a weekly meme hosted by Under The Covers.

The rules are simple:

1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image and copy instructions.
3. Answer the weekly question.

For more information and for signing up, go to the Under The Covers blog.


This week's question is:

Which author introduced you to urban fantasy or paranormal romance?

That would be Charlaine Harris with her Sookie Stackhouse series. Then I read J. R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series and then Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters.

What about you?

February in Retrospect

This month has been a lot slower. I've been studying a lot, so I had less time for posting and reading than I liked. I did manage to read a few books, though.

Here are the books I managed to read in February:

1. On Message - Joyce T. Strand
2. Ugly To Start With - John Michael Cummings
3. Mistress Christmas - Lorelei James
4. Miss Firecracker - Lorelei James

Here are the reviews I posted this month:

1. Ugly To Start With - John Michael Cummings
2. On Message - Joyce T. Strand
3. Midnight Playground - Eliza Gayle
4. Hotel Transylvania - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Reading Challenges Progress:

1. TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2/20  
2. New Author Challenge  6/25 
3. 100 Books In A Year Reading Challenge 12/100

How was your month?

Book Review: Ugly To Start With by John Michael Cummings

Author: John Michael Cummings

My Rating: 4 cups

Source: copy provided by the author

Blurb (from Goodreads):

Jason Stevens is growing up in picturesque, historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in the 1970s. Back when the roads are smaller, the cars slower, the people more colorful, and Washington, D.C. is way across the mountains—a winding sixty-five miles away.

Jason dreams of going to art school in the city, but he must first survive his teenage years. He witnesses a street artist from Italy charm his mother from the backseat of the family car. He stands up to an abusive husband—and then feels sorry for the jerk. He puts up with his father’s hard-skulled backwoods ways, his grandfather’s showy younger wife, and the fist-throwing schoolmates and eccentric mountain characters that make up Harpers Ferry—all topped off by a basement art project with a girl from the poor side of town.

Ugly to Start With punctuates the exuberant highs, bewildering midpoints, and painful lows of growing up, and affirms that adolescent dreams and desires are often fulfilled in surprising ways.

This was a very interesting book. Set in the 70s, the story shows you different chapters from Jason's life, a teenager living in Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

The stories are all strong and some are sad and filled with so much irony it was a little painful. Jason is living in a small town, where everyone knows everyone and where you're judged by the size of your house or the street you live in or some other simple things, like is you nod or wave to your neighbors every day.

The book touches a lot of difficult, touchy subjects, like racism, homosexuality, cancer, alcoholism, poverty, physical abuse, but Cummings manages to combine these subjects so well and even though you might cringe at some point, you're still intrigued and you still turn the page, wanting to know more.

There were moments in the book where I couldn't relate to Jason at all, like in Ugly to Start With, when he rejects a cat because she was ugly, the same cat that had stayed by his bed when he was sick. I couldn't empathize with him, but I somehow understood his reasons for rejecting her. Then there where the moments where I completely understood him, like in We Never Liked Them Anyway, where he tries to lash out at the boy who's been bullying him for a very long time and Jason does that when the boy was hurt.

I loved the open ending. It kind of gave me a sense that Jason has the ball now, he can make the big decision of whether or not he should leave Harpers Ferry and become an artist or stay in his hometown and see his dreams ruined. Though part of me wanted a firm ending, the certainty that Jason will in fact leave his hometown and continue his education, I can see how that ending is an interesting subject to talk about and debate.

All in all, the books was a good read. If you're not bothered by the occasional cursing, then you should read it.

My Rating

Cover Love (7)

This feature is hosted by Carmel @ Rabid Reads. The rules are very simple. Choose a cover (or two, or three), preferably new-ish, and share what you like about it. Grab the graphic or don't just so long as you link back.


My pick this week:

I love her dress. That is the first reason the cover caught my eye. Second, the contrast between her elegant dress and the crossbow is amazing. I will be reading this book, as I am really curious now.












What cover caught your attention this week?