MOVING!

I just wanted to let my followers know that I am MOVING! Yippee! I am going to be renting a house now which I am super excited about since our teeny tiny apartment was a little small for me, my fiance, and our 4 cats. Yep, 4 cats. We are THOSE people.

The official move date is this Saturday but there's tons to do between now and then so I expect I'll be MIA until next week. Just wanted to let everyone know! Hope you all have a fantastic rest of the week and a fantabulous weekend. And Happy St. Patty's Day in advance! Eat or drink something green! And as always, HAPPY HAPPY READING!! *XOXO*

Teaser Tuesday: Sapphique

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

-Grab your current read
-Open to a random page
-Share two “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 and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser comes from Sapphique by Catherine Fisher. Sapphique is the sequel to Incarceron.

The deep vaults were damp and chilly. Squeezing between the barrels and wine casks she hurried to the darkest corner where the high bronze doors reared to the roof and found to her horror that they were shut. The great snails that seemed to infest this place clung to the icy metal; their trails crisscrossed the damp surface. pg. 51

I haven't gotten very far into this one yet, but I really enjoyed Incarceron and hope that this one is just as good! What are you reading? Leave me a link and I'll check out your teasers! Happy Reading! *XOXO*

Manic... TUESDAY!!

Welcome to Manic Monday on TUESDAY! You have to love busy work weeks! Normally, Manic Monday is all about finding things to look forward to on Tuesday because we all know Tuesday means NEW RELEASES!! So on each Monday, I highlight a book or two that are coming out the next day. Just a little something to help my followers find that silver lining!

Since today is Tuesday, I'll be highlighting a book that actually releases today. So if you're looking to grab a new read today, this one could be for you! The book I'm highlighting today is Balthazar by Claudia Gray:


Synopsis:

Haunted by memories from his first days as a vampire, Balthazar has spent hundreds of years alone—without allies, without love. When he emerges from his isolation to help Skye Tierney, a human girl who once attended Evernight Academy, Balthazar has no idea how dangerous it will be. Skye’s psychic powers have caught the attention of Redgrave, the cruel master vampire responsible for murdering Balthazar and his family four centuries ago. Having learned of Skye’s powers and the remarkable effect her blood has on vampires, he plans to use her for his own evil purposes. As they stand together to fight the evil vampire, Balthazar realizes his lonely world could finally be changed by Skye...just as Redgrave realizes that he can destroy Balthazar once and for all by taking her for his own.

In a story filled with forbidden love and dark suspense, one of the most beloved characters in Claudia Gray’s New York Times bestselling Evernight series will captivate readers with his battle to overcome his past and follow his heart.

SQUEEEEEEE! I really enjoyed the character of Balthazar in the Evernight Series and I can't wait to read a book where he takes center stage! And YOWZA!! This one sounds AHHHHH-mazing. Love, danger, romance, vampires... what's not to love? Bring it!!

*REVIEW* Lies Beneath

Synopsis:

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

Lies Beneath is a romantic, tragic, and heartfelt story about a young merman torn between love and family. I was very excited to dive (pun intended!) into this story after reading the synopsis, and it did not disappoint. There’s something truly magical about mermaids and Anne Greenwood Brown’s take on them was interesting to me. The only other stories about mermaids that I am familiar with is Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Tera Lynn Childs’ Forgive My Fins books and the mermaids in Lies Beneath are FAR from the benign creatures those other stories portray.

Lies Beneath introduces us to Calder, a merman who is fighting desperately against his nature. See, mermaids kill humans to feed off of their emotions but Calder has been trying to abstain longer and longer periods of time. And although he’s showing success in this, there’s one thing he cannot overcome: the pull he feels to rejoin his sisters in Lake Superior. And this summer will be different than ever before—Jason Hancock has been found. Calder and his sisters blame Jason Hancock for the death of their mother and revenge has been a lifelong goal.

A plan is formed that involves Calder seducing Jason Hancock’s older daughter, Lily. Lily is eccentric, beautiful, and compelling, and soon Calder finds himself falling for her, completely unplanned and unpredicted. Will Calder be able to see the plan through, or will his falling in love with his prey threaten the revenge, his family, even his own life?

You really need to scoop this one up when it releases on June 12, 2012. It’s got all the makings of a great supernatural YA romance and the perspective being from a male character is refreshing and unique. This book held my attention from beginning to end and I will definitely be grabbing the sequel when it comes out in 2013. Happy Reading! *XOXO*

*thanks to Random House Children's Books and Netgalley for providing the ARC for review*

FUN FRIDAY (7)

Happy Friday!! :) Welcome to FUN FRIDAY where I reveal something about me, some personal tidbit that will allow my followers to get to know me better. I follow several blogs and I sometimes wonder who the bloggers REALLY are behind the words, so I thought it would be a cool thing to open up a bit and to reveal more about who Karen really is.

Today's tidbit: I give too much of myself sometimes. This is relevant to me today because I have a friend going through a roller coaster relationship, full of crazy ups and super low downs. And I love this friend DEARLY and want to be there for her each step of the way. But it's starting to get me down a little because maybe it's the counselor in me, but I have a hard time not getting sucked in by others' emotions at times. Couple that with the fact that my life is pure INSANITY at the moment and the result is one seriously-stressed Karen.

I think my friend's situation is getting to me so much because I see my past self in her now and I have to wonder why so many of us women base our worth on our romantic relationships. There's so much more to us than being a wife, girlfriend, fiancee, whatever, but it seems like that main relationship can be what makes or breaks our happiness. Maybe it's the nature of women because we tend to place more value on our relationships with loved ones, who knows. But it's really got me thinking that if we spent a little LESS time obsessing about our men, and a little more time focusing on other things that make us happy, we'd be a whole lot happier in the long run.

Anywho... enough thinking for the day. Work is winding down and then it's back to stripping wallpaper and painting. Moving BLOWS, in case you didn't know! Hope you all have a great weekend and I hope all the ladies out there know that they are worth WAY more than one man's opinion. *XOXO*

2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge: February Update!

I LOVE this challenge! It's really motivated me to read some books that I had been passing over for WAY too long. I managed to read 5 books in February that had been sitting on the shelf, feeling lonesome and ignored. Click the link to read my review of each book and if you're interested in the challenge, it's not too late to sign up! Click the picture on the right of my blog for more information :)

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison

Early to Death, Early to Rise by Kim Harrison

Something Deadly This Way Comes by Kim Harrison

Waiting on Wednesday... Leap Day Edition!

Synopsis:

The twins of prophecy have been split. Nicholas Flamel is near death. John Dee has the swords of power. And Danu Talis has yet to fall. The future of the human race lies in the balance—how will the legend end?

Release date: May 22, 2012

I had gotten to a point in my reading where I was OVER open series. I read a lot and thus would end up forgetting a lot, so re-reading had become par for the course. And re-reading takes up valuable time I could be spending reading brand spanking new books! So I decided to wait to start some series and this is one of those. I've got all the previous books sitting on my shelf and I'm super stoked to give these a whirl. When The Enchantress is released, I will be ALL over this series like white on rice!

Anything you're waiting for? Leave me a link and I'll check it out! I hope you use some of this extra day for reading! *XOXO*