Help!!! Challenges.

So I see so many people joining challenges for the new year...but I'm not quite sure how it all works.  I've never participated in a challenge on here before, and I'd love to try.  Any info would be great. 

My big questions. Do I put my main blog link into Mr. Linky or do I need a separate page to track challenges on?
How do you update at the other site that you're moving forward/made progress as you go?

Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

Most people think of blue bloods as the old elite families...but they are more than that. They are an anceint race of Vampires that have been living for generations peacefully among the Red Bloods, or humans. But recently something has begun to kill the young off before they come into their powers. They face the choice of ignoring this threat and hoping it will go away or confronting it once and for all.


Schuyler Van Allen is vampire, a Blue Blood. These vampires are not your traditional vampires. They are nearly invincible...sunlight, stakes, silver...all seem to be myths. So when Schulyer and her friends find that something is out there that is able to kill them off, they set off on a hunt to find what it is. This hunt for answers leads to more questions than they started with.

The teenagers, Schulyer and her Blue Blood schoolmates, are fascinating characters that cover the entire specrum of personalites. There are some you love, some you hate, and some you won't be able to make your mind up about. They are dynamic and adjust their life perspectives as situations change. The story was portrayed wonderfully, revealing enough to keep you reading without giving away the critical information to figure out who the killer is. I'm starting book two later today.

There were some typos and a few times the story jumped in a awkward way as if the author wasn't sure how to segway into the next section. I'm hoping her skills become a bit more polished as she continues with the series.

On a side note, I absolutely loved the cover.  The picture is perfect and the wounds on the neck are actually indented in to give the picture some texture.

3/5

Giveaway Link: Knight of Pleasure

Drey's Library is giving away a wonderful book, Knight of Pleasure by Margaret Mallory.  The contest is open through 6PM CST on Dec 21.

For more information click HERE.

Book Review: Ring of Fire by P.D. Baccalario

Every hundred years four children are selected to take on the task of....something. Even after finishing the book I'm not entirely sure what that task is fully. The four children, Elletra, Harvey, Mistral, and Sheng find themselves thrown together by the oddest of circumstances. It becomes obvious that these circumstances have been set up to place these four key players in the correct position to begin.


And so it does begin...in Rome. The descriptions of the city were quite nice and my version included a few pages of colored photos af some of the points of interest which was nice since I know not much about Rome.

The story itself revolves around the action the four children take once they meet and find themselves in posession of several strange articles. We follow their escapades as they try to solve the mystery of what these items mean and the power they must hold, for a killer has been set on their trail that will stop at nothing to have them. The children are likeable but there is very little depth or growth to them. Their journey is filled with accidental findings to help them continue when there were no apparent clues to help them.

The book ends with an obvious cliff hanger which I feel inclined to add to my TBR list if only to figure out what the task set for the children really is.

3/5

Book Review: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian is the story of a hunt for Dracula...the original...Drakulya...Vlad III Tepes. Several generations of scholars, mostly historians, are discovering strange and ancient books. These books spark their curiosity and the search is on....for the true resting place of Vlad Tepes. The majority of the story is told through stories and notes from Paul to his daughter Eva, with small parts actually told through Eva's eyes.


The story is captivating. Kostova has done her research and her description of events, places, and historical documents is fascinating. You can see her love of history and places in every page. The majority of the story moved quickly and I didn't want to put it down. There was a section near the end that started to drag a little for me as the search seemed to go on endlessly...but I'm sure that was the point, to show how long and tiring the characters worked in all their efforts.

The characters were beautifully written and I became attached, especially to the character of Helen, Eva's mother. She is a strong female personality that was more than a match for the men she encountered in her travels.

Overall this was a great book. I would have liked to see the action progess slightly faster, which lowered my rating slightly.

3.5/5

Weekly Finds 12/06/09

Only one new book this post week.  My pile of TBR under the coffee table is getting fairly large, so I hope to be clearing quite a bit of those out over the holiday.

The Heart of the Buddha by Elsie Sze.  Received as a review copy from PR by the Book, a book publicity company.

From the back of the book:  When Marian, an earnest romantic and idealist, goes missing in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhautan, her prim and pragmatic twin sister, Ruthie, journeys from Canada to search for her.  When Ruthie uncovers Marian's passion for a Bhutanese monk and her hazardous trek over a mountain pass into Tibet, she fears the worst.  And those fears only intensify when a sinister Tibetan reveals that he is also in pursuit of Marian.  As the sisters struggle to reach each other, they must overcome the demands of their own hearts and spirits.

In easy, poetic prose, Elsie Sze paintss an enchanting picture of Bhutan as she spins a tale of mystery, adventure, and romance, recounting the two sisters' physical and spiritual journeys to find each other and their true selves.

Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is the story of Ali, how his actions as a child growing up in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over shaped not only his life, but the life of his childhood friend Hassan. Having grown up together they were best friends, they were like brothers, but their social standings prevented them from ever considering themselves as such. A shocking attack splits their friendship apart, driving them away from each other. Ali's response to this sets the stage that overcomes both of their lives.

This book opened my eyes to how life was like in Afghanistan before and after the "bad times". It is a wonderful story of a culture, a people, and a family. I was drawn into their lives from the first page and longed for more of them after I finished the final page. The story is full of harships overcome and losses that are profound, family lost and found, childhood ruined only to be built back up again. I met several generations of Ali's family from different walks of life and different beliefs. The book is well worth all the accolades it has received.

I'm adding Hosseini's book A Thousand Splendid Suns to the top of my to be bought list. He has a skill with words and a way of telling stories that is one of the best I've ever seen.

5/5 (A memorable read for the year)