A-Z Wednesday - December 16, 2009

This week's letter is "S".

Synopsis: Ireland is a place teeming with fairies and earth magic. But this compelling story is not a tale of the fey, it is a tale of one who lives in the world of humans and yet has contact with the otherworld. Liadan of Sevenwaters is the child of Iubdan and Sorcha (whose story was told in Daughter of the Forest) and she is granted the power to hear and see what others cannot. She is a healer of mind, body and spirit. It is Liadan's gift of healing that brings about a meeting with a mercenary considered to be the enemy of her family. Liadan names this man without a name or history "Bran" and soon realizes that the information she has been told about him (and the world in general) is not what it appears to be. In too short a time, Liadan comes to love Bran with a fierceness that she never imagined possible, and yet their love cannot be fulfilled. Bran's life is not her life, nor is her life his. They must travel down different paths (at least for a while), knowing in their hearts that the bond between them is stronger than the things that pull them apart. This is the story of a powerful love, which might change the course of history for Liadan's people and the island of Erin.

Find Son of the Shadows at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765343266

My Thoughts: I read this book a few years ago when I was in college and it was one of the very few novels I've read that I couldn't pull myself away from. I skipped a few classes just to read this! Marillier knows how to tell a really beautiful love story and she sucks you right into the book with her descriptions of lush forests and fey magic! If you love Celtic legend, magical beings, and a story of love against all odds this is definitely a book to pick up! Do read the first installment in the series, Daughter of the Forest, about Liadan's mother Sorcha. It's not essential but you'll get more out of the second book and it's a great read as well.

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To join A-Z Wednesday, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:

1~ a photo of the book

2~ title and synopsis

3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.

(We all love comments, don't we?)

Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

*hosted by Reading at the Beach: http://ilratb.blogspot.com/search/label/a-z%20wednesday

Teaser Tuesday - December 15, 2009

This week's teaser comes from Believe by Victoria Alexander

"You are as noble now as you were as a youth. 'Twill do you no good but 'tis impressive nonetheless."

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If you want to join Teaser Tuesdays, here are the rules:

*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!

-Hosted by MizB at http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com

Debut Author Challenge Book List

Here is the (tentative) list of books I plan to read for the 2010 Debut Author Challenge:

1. Brightly Woven - Alexandra Bracken
2. Scones and Sensibility - Lindsay Eland
3. Bleeding Violet - Dia Reeves
4. Nevermore - Kelly Creagh
5. Everlasting - Angie Frazier

More to come!......

To sign up for the challenge, visit this page:

http://www.thestorysiren.com/2009/11/sign-up-for-2010-debut-author-challenge.html

2010 Reading Challenges!

For 2010 I'm going to be participating in quite a few reading challenges. Because I read so many different genres I thought this might keep it interesting. The challenges start on January 1, 2010 and end on December 31, 2010. We'll see how far I can make it. Here are the ones I'm going for this year:

*Romance Reading Challenge - Obsessed: Read 20 romance fiction novels

http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2009/11/romance-reading-challenge.html


*Fantasy Reading Challenge - Obsessed: Read 20 fantasy fiction novels

http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/fantasy-reading-challenge.html


*Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - Addicted: Read 12 historical fiction novels

http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2009/11/historical-reading-challenge.html


*2010 Debut Author Challenge - Read 15 Young Adult or Middle Grade novels from debut authors (the site set the required amount to at least 12 but I just like 15 better!).

http://www.thestorysiren.com/2009/11/2010-debut-author-challenge-information.html


*The 2010 Harlequin/Silhouette Romance Reading Challenge - A total of six books for this challenge. You must read at least one book in each of these six catagories:

1) Read 1 book with a weather condition in the title (i.e. storm, rain, snow)

2) Read 1 book with a person's name in the title (i.e. Mary, John)

3) Read 1 book with a title in the title (i.e. King, Prince, Princess, Sheik)

4) Read 1 book with a color in the title (i.e. red, blue, white)

5) Read 1 book by an author whose last name begins with the letter "R"

6) Read 1 book with an element in the title (earth, wind, fire, air, spirit)


http://socratesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010-harlequinsilhouette-romance.html


*2010 Chick Lit Challenge - Read 10 Chick Lit books

http://bookaddict4life.blogspot.com/2009/11/2010-chick-lit-challenge.html


*2010 Time Travel Reading Challenge - Read 7 time-travel books

http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/time-travel-reading-challenge.html



*E-Book Reading Challenge - Read 10 E-books

http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/e-book-reading-challenge.html

That's a total of 100 books for 2010. I'll update at the end of each month to keep track of my progress. In between those posts, I'll be writing reviews for some of the books that I read.
100 books is a pretty tall order so we'll see how far I actually get!