bunnycates

**originally posted on www.bunnycates.com **Loved. It.How’s that for a professional review? haha. Seriously! OMGosh you guys. When I finished reading this book, it was like 3am. I ran upstairs where my Mr. was in his office and tossed the book in his lap, then I just started telling him about it. When I get excited I talk REALLY fast and I forget to breath. So, when I was finished, I leaned against the door and fake smoked a fake cigarette with a HUGE intake of air. He just looked up at me and said “So… you liked it then?” UGH!!! I could’ve punched him in the face! haha!!!How to review this story without giving away too much of the plot, hmmm…Filter is book one of a series, and thus the beginning of the story. In this installment we are following two timelines of events: the late 1800s and present day St. Louis. Told through alternating P.O.V. we meet the 1800’s young Katherine, and we also meet present day Rocky. Normally, I am not a fan of the alternating point of views in a book. It usually ends up distracting from the story instead of enhancing. However, in Filter, the author has written the p,o.v. transitions with such skill that the story just flows through the changes. I can’t imagine it being written any other way.I have to admit, I loved the Katherine/Viktor storyline (picture me saying “Veek-tor”, lol). There, I admitted it. I can no longer deny that I enjoy romance. *sigh* What has happened to me?! Katherine, a prominent St Louis attorney’s sickly headstrong daughter. Viktor a foreign Dr/Scientists sickly and handsome son. Meet. Sparks. Parents forbid them to be together. Ahh, young love.Rocky’s storyline: I headstrong orphaned teen, who flees to St. Louis on the hopes of finding her own path (and a promise of wealth through an unlikely bloodline). She is strong, independent, and smart. Usually. And “the Third”. OMG, *swoon*… yes, “the Third” makes my toes curl and my face to girl giggle…haha.How they are connected is a mystery, and the story is basically page after page of adventure as we try to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. The story is dark, gothic, romantic, and tragic. Yep, Ole Miss Bunny Cates cried her face off toward the end. When you finish a book, and you have to smoke a fake cigarette…that’s when you know you’ve read something amazing. I totally recommend this one for anyone who enjoys: historical fiction, romance, suspense, mystery, yaREAD IT. You’ll thank me for it, promise.

**Originally posted on my site BUNNYCATES.COM **My Thoughts: I was sent a copy of this book from the author. She, like us, is from Kentucky so I couldn’t wait for it to show up! I think I was more excited about it coming then Sis was! Can I just take a moment to comment on the cover art. GORGEOUS! Sis (age 10) and I read this one as a “read together” book. Each night, each of us would read a chapter aloud. I really enjoyed it. It was great mommy/daughter time, and the story was fun and different. From a mom’s perspective, I thought the book was great. I kept thinking The Magic of Finkleton would be an easy way to introduce the topic of a death (which is really a hard topic to introduce to younger ones). In the very beginning Uncle Harry passes away, and the family have to move to take over his store. The story touches on their loss of the Uncle, and throughout the book the continually talk in remembrance of him. I know I am “reading” a lot into it, but I thought that having them talk about Uncle Harry, etc. Shows younger kids, that may well have not had to deal with “death” yet, that it’s ok. People die, that happens. It’s ok to miss them, and ok to go on remembering them. I just thought it was a wonderful piece of the story.The mysteries kept me (the adult) reading and entertained. I couldn’t wait to find out “what” was going on. =D I enjoyed the kids mouthiness, and then how their secrets bind them as they try to solve the mysteries! Sis and I literally laughed out loud at the kids bantering back and forth at each other. “She’s not a LADY”… LOLMy favorite character in this book has to be lil Lizzy and her love for books. She has a smart mouth and a love for words. That child could definitely have been born to this house. LOLIn the end, I say this is a great book. Would be great for kids say 6+ (with help reading). I enjoyed this one, and Sis’s review of it will be up later this week if you’d like to see her take on the story.

**Originally posted on BunnyCates.com **Ok, I am guilty of buying this book because the cover is gorgeous. I’m not kidding. I had no idea what it was even about up until the moment I started reading it. This book takes place in the future, where, in the future world they have found a cure to cancer but somehow managed to wonk up our life spans in the process; thus causing everyone to die in their twenties. Since everyone dies early, girls are basically kidnapped and either whored out, killed, or forced into marriage to make babies.This book, for me, was just “OK”. My main problem with it is I just didn’t feel a connection to the characters at all. I mean, I didn’t care whether they made it through the book or not. The one I did actually feel a connection to, died. If you don’t care about the characters, I mean… ya know?Story wise, I loved the general idea of it. The whole possibility of ruining humanity by curing all our major diseases was kind of cool. What I didn’t enjoy was the execution of the idea, the lack of compassion I felt toward the characters (they were just bland to me), and the constant “repeating” of certain instances through the book. Like the author thought we might have forgotten already from 50 pages ago. I also don’t feel like anything major happened. I mean, the opening of the story is pretty heavy but story arc wise after that there was just build- no not even build… more “coast” than “build”…with minor “pay offs”, there was no big climax for me. I like series books that the books themselves not only lead into one another but have enough story to them to stand on their own, as well. Because there is no “big” finish with Wither, it feels almost like the author submitted A book and they decided to break it up to try to get a series out of the story. I’m not trying to be mean, but this story just isnt “BIG” enough for that. I haven’t read books 2 and 3 in this series, but I have a feeling if I did I would conclude they would have been fine as all one book. I mean book one was only 368 pages long, and much of it is rehash and story padding.Some things I noted while reading: Polygamy in a YA book. hmm. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I am not one to judge someone else's lifestyle for sure…but for me personally… ewww. 21 year old man getting a 13 year old girl pregnant. Not only is this skeevy, I totally don’t think it should be in a book meant for children. Much less be in a childs book portrayed as normal and acceptable. yuck. Yes, I know this is YA not a middle grade reader, but come on. Plently of 11-16 year olds will be picking this up. That cover is too gorg and enticing! lol Back to my original thought. YUCK!Linden was a nice, all be it naive, guy. Why didn’t Rhine just tell him she was kidnapped and not from an orphanage like he thought?Why didn’t she just ask him to let her brother live with them?Why didn’t she tell him about the baby?!Why not tell him that Vaughn killed Jenna?Speaking of Vaughn…House Master Vaughn was such a douchebag. I think. Why all the hinting at all his bad deeds? Instead just give them to us so we can truly hate him! I mean all the build up about how awful he is, and then… NOTHING. WTF! I sure hope he does some evil stuff and gets what’s coming to him in the later books, or there was no reason for him to even be in the dang story! Of course I’ll never know, because I didn’t care enough about the characters to venture on into book 2. *sadface* So in conclusion, and in my opinion…This book was just OK. I lacked any connection to the characters in the story and have no desire to continue reading the Chemical Garden series. I’ve seen that most other reviews LOVED this book, and compare it to Handmaids Tale by Margret Atwood. Umm, yea. I don’t know if it’s just because I am older or what but I don’t see that… at ALL. I say, its readable, but read it at your own risk. Actually, if you want to read it, I would probably wait for the entire series to be out and then you could read them all as one book. Hopefully the others will have more of a story arc, or at least complete the original arc.NOTE TO PARENTS:This book contains: violence, child pregnancy, polygamy

**originally posted on BUNNYCATES.COM**OMGOSH! Cascade: A Novel (River of Time Series) is book 2 in the River of Time series. (see my review of book 1, WATERFALL, on my site). I have to say after waiting on this book to arrive for nearly two months, I was NOT disappointed!!!All the main characters (that I loved) from book 1 are back in this one. Gabi, Lia, Marcello, Luca♥, and now Gabi and Lia’s mom! OMGOSH! haha. You know, when I saw that in this one they were going to be taking their mom back with them, I was worried. I was really afraid that having their mom would tone down the action scenes a lot, or somehow make the girls “needy” and not the strong characters they were in the first book. I’m so glad I was worried for nothing! Momma She-Wolf turned out to be a little on the bad a$$ side herself. Complete with joining in the battle and saving a few men's butts! hoorah!This was a two day read for me. (and it killed me having to take that break in the afternoon… but I had LIFE to deal with. bluh.) Of course, I LOVED IT {proof –> my reading updates}In CASCADE, Gabi and Lia go back in time again and this time they take their mom along for the ride. They want her to see what she, as an archeologist, has been working on/for for so long. So much crazy stuff happens in this one. There are tons of “battle” scenes. Someone gets captured. Several someone’s actually – the one made me freakin CRY! ugh! Look, I’m tearing up just thinking about it! Oh and someone valiantly DIES and that TOO made me CRY! It’s not spoiling if I don’t say WHO!In CASCADE, we aren’t just fighting the battle, we’re racing time against the plague. There are a few “new” bad guys in this one, and a few new allies. Tons of heart wrenching moments, and quite a few “warm hugs”. You know I wont go into detail because I refuse to spoil the book for you. I can’t tell you how much I love this series. I read CASCADE last night. Finished it around 3am, and am sitting here waiting for my kids to go to bed tonight so I can dive into TORRENT. Two books in a row, Lisa T Bergren’s River of Time has kept me up past 3am reading! Here’s hoping I am still up moping pre-dawn with Torrent!!!

**review originally posted on www.bunnycates.com**I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. So this book is long. Scary long, but it is so worth it. I loved all the characters. The main character, Ethan is so sweet. Just a boy, who’s lost his mom, and kind of lost his dad. You just want to hug him. The book is told from his perspective and it is refreshing to read a book written from the “guys” POV. Lena, the main character girl, is so relatable. I mean, at least for me. A girl that’s “different” (ie not the cookie cutter cutesie type) moves to a small town, where she just doesn’t fit in. BUT she was totally ok with it, she’d rather just be herself. I got that. I LOVED that. So, of course, sweet boy meets different girl and falls all kind of in love. AND THEN… the crazy **** happens! I loved Amma, the boy’s family’s domestic help. I LOVED her and her parental scary southern ways. HAHA. She was just like any observant memaw oughtta be. Plus a little something extra for spite. hehe…My favorite character out of this entire story was Macon. Such a fun character. In my mind, I totally saw Jim Carey (in character in Lemony Snicket) for Macon. I don’t know why, but I did. Sweet, and silly, and scary, and quirky. And I loved him for it. Call me crazy, but I want a “prequel” series. One of Macon, growing up! Entire books of him. He. Makes. Me. Happy.As for the story – awesome.This is a story about a girl who must choose between being good or being bad (as we all do, I think.). Only in her case, its bad or good FOR REAL. As we get into the story, we learn that she must choose which path because of a curse that was set into motion a hundred or so years ago and has just become “the way it is” for her family. It is Ethan’s love for her that he risks everything to save her.Being one that really is not fond of “romance” books, I still loved THIS book. I did not like the ending. I mean like on a “personal” level. I will say that. I cried. I do not like crying. I am not THAT girl. bah!I do have one thing I don’t “get”, and it’s kind of “spoilerish” so don’t read this part if you haven’t read the books.If Lena chooses light then all dark casters die, and if she choices dark then all light casters die… Then how is it there are both light AND dark casters from older generations in this book. In theory, wouldn’t one or the other all be dead? Since every time someone turns 16 they have to choose… then every 16th birthday half the family would die off…Or am I combining book one and two in my head? Did that become part of it when it went to 17 moons instead of 16? Ugh, Im so confused now. LOL…In the end I say READ IT. It’s awesome!

This book is written in the "campy" horror style like you would see on syfy channel starring someone hilarious like Bruce Campbell. It is also very raunchy. Kind of like the movie FEAST, it cracks jokes at horror movies while having it's own gore, etc... I am giving it 3.5 stars because: though it was not my favorite kind of read - I did keep reading it (It wasn't bad enough that I had to put it in my DNF pile.) Pluses: It has some very funny moments, with some great one liners "ZING!" and I did actually LOL a few times. I loved the comedy, and loved the movie references throughout.The language for me was a turn off. Much cussing, and some kind of sex (or worse violent sex) in pretty much every chapter. The writing style itself kind of annoyed me a little too. HOWEVER, with that being said, I should point out that the book is written as a set of blog posts by a senior boy about to graduate high school. Grammar and writing style HAD to be as they were or the story would have lost all believability. Well, not that I believe in werewolves - but you get what I am saying. As a parent, would I want my son to read this one? NO. But with that said - the target audience for this book (by target -> I mean those that would probably enjoy it MOST) is probably males between the ages of 16-21. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under the age of 18, simply due to the content.NOTES FOR PARENTS:Language: Severe (if its a cuss word - its probably in here atleast once)Violence: Severe (murder, blood, gore)Sexual Content: Severe (sex, masturbation, rape)

I wouldn't be mad if one of my lovely friends gifted me this series. Nope, I surely would not. {*.o}*edit*WISHES do come true! I

**Originally posted at http://www.bunnycates.com/reading **LOVED. ‘Nuff said. =D This one only took me about a day and a half to read. I kept picking it back up every time I put it down because I needed to KNOW where that paragraph was headed. LOL. I liked it so much, in fact, I made the BFF take it home and read it. She, too, read it in like a day and a half. And gave it back with a big smile on ‘er face. So, yea… she liked it too. =DLoved the cover. It’s awesome. I totally bought this one just based on the cover art. ha!LOVED the underworld is named Mayhem. I swear I giggled every time I saw it because I kept picturing this guy…whose character’s name is Mayhem. Why, yes. I do watch entirely too much tv. LOL!!! Anyway, what was I saying…Loved the premise. The idea that we could be REPLACED as babies is CRAZY and awesome. It really plays on the fact that EVERYONE at some point in their lives have felt like they just don’t FIT IN.Loved the characters! YAY! Mackie is SO sweet, so… vulnerable. *sigh* LUV’D. I loved that his bff, Roz, was just THERE for him. No matter what, no matter how crazy, no questions just “what do you need me to do”. That, my friends, is what bein a BFF is all about. The whole you can’t bail me out because you’re sittin in the cell right beside, thing. B.F. F. I loved that Tate was fearless. I loved Emma and how much she loved Mackie. And mostly, I love the Morrigan! How awesomely freaky is a knee high tattooed ballerina fairy with sharp teeth and black eyes! YIKES Ms Brenna, scared ‘a you! LOL!!!I loved that the Morrigan is technically, a bad guy. But we end up rooting for her when it counts! LOL The lesser of two evils I guess. I loved THE CUTTER! What a flippin’ freaktoid! Holy CRICKETS! Just reading about him gave me the willies like the TALL MAN does in Phantasm! Ho-Ly CRICKETS!What didn’t I like? Well, I cant say without it being a spoiler, I think. There was some stuff mentioned that never really got fleshed out. I’m kind of hoping it was on purpose so there can be a sequel!!! Tell ya what. I’ll put it here in WHITE text so if you want to read it, then you just HIGHLIGHT OVER it with your mouse. (right cick and drag), k?xxxx -->spoiler removed for goodreads. You can read it on my original post on my site though. So, I’m hoping like there will be a book two. To clear that up. Otherwise I feel like its a big gaping HOLE in the story! Like my bowl of cornflakes, with no bananas. Come on, I NEED my bananas! lol.So, yep. There’s my thoughts. Guess what? I say: READ IT!!!!!!!!!! NOTE TO PARENTS:Just wanted to mention there are some pretty heavy cuss words in this book. GD (which is a no-no even for me as an adult). the f*bomb, which I can tolerate for me, but I think if my kid were reading this book – I’d want to know that was in there. So though it was written for teens – I think OLDER teens, maybe. Kind of a shame, really. The story is fantastic and eerie and I think middle-grade readers would love it but the language makes me feel like I shouldn’t be recommending it to EVERYONE. Kwim? It’s not even a LOT of cussing, only a few times. BUT they are the BIG ones…

Great fun story. Super quick read. Looking forward to the next in the series!

**Originally posted on www.bunnycates.com May 23, 2011**My Thoughts:The storyline of this book sounded a lot like the Harper Connelly mysteries I read a few months back by Charlaine Harris. I loved them, so I picked this up.According to my reading updates, I enjoyed this book. It looks like it only took me a couple of days to get through it. That’s the kind of books I really like. The ones you can get “into” and through in a few days. =D I do think I was a little “under” wowed, because I kept comparing it in my mind to the Harper Connelly books, which are adult fiction. This book was like the YA version of Harper, and instead of seeing Violet, I kept seeing “young” Harper. lol…I loved the relationship between Violet and Jay. It felt, real. The best relationships start out as friends and BUILD. I thought it was really refreshing to see that kind of relationship in a book for Teens, as opposed to the seeing seeing the guy and then instantly being madly in love, like some of the more popular teen books portray.This book has a good “mystery” going, in that they need to find this serial killer. I might add, I was totally WRONG about who it was too. That means it was really good, right? But, as far as mysteries go – the story doesn’t really give us a lot of options as to who it is. And then there are the things Violet does, to find the killer. Uhmmm… I think her parents should have *whipped her tale* a few times, for the non-minding. But, realistically I suppose that’s how teens are, right? There were a few things that happen in the book, that I totally don’t “get” but, seriously, they weren’t so bad as to make me want to quit reading the book. And really, I think if I hadn’t already read that other series and had high expectations… I think I would have been totally satisfied with this one instead of just ho-hum.I did enjoy it enough that I want to read the sequel Desires of the Dead (Body Finder). I have total faith that with book two, the author (who was a debut author with this book, BTW) will be able to stretch the characters a little more and be more comfortable with her writing – enough to weave in a few more characters and details to help “build” the mystery for us!So there ya go- I say READ IT. Just keep in mind its written for a TEEN audience. =D

meh. So, this book just ENDS at 196 pages. Actually it says "Breena, Kian and Logan's story continues in Book 2". No character building, and then no climax? And then like a 40 page excerpt from a totally unrelated book is included? What book does that?Not to be nitpicky, but I found the sentence structure to be a little annoying as well. Lots of -- in sentences as well as a third ". I don't know if it was intentional or missed by the proof people but there are also several "double space" and even "triple space" in some spots making the print very blocky.The story is a good story idea, I just don't feel it is executed well in this book. The book would be good for maybe a 6th or 7th grader (*there is kissing, but I think it's ok for that age range.*)I don't know, maybe I'm just bitchy today, but I expected more.

LOVED this book. Loved the characters (I "girl-giggled" every time Luca was even mentioned toward the end of the book!!!) haha. Great story, once it got going it was really hard to put down. That says a lot because I don't even LIKE "romance" books! Waterfall wasn't as much romance as it was a time traveling adventure. CAN NOT WAIT for book two! (secretly hoping Hollywood comes calling!!)REVIEW below originally posted on BUNNYCATES.COMOne afternoon, I saw a post on my twitter that was a RT of an author asking if anyone be interested in reviewing her book. I added her and re-tweeted the post for her. She then asked me if I’d like to review it, and I said YES. I sent her my address and my site info so she could see where it would be posted. Shortly after, she emailed me and asked me if I was “sure” I wanted to review it since ROMANCE was not something I normally read. She didn’t say it, but I’m sure she was thinking I would HATE the book since its listed as a “romance” lol.. I told her to go ahead and send it since I loved the movies TIME LINE and the TIME TRAVELERS WIFE. So she did.I picked the book up trying to make myself forget it was a “romance” novel. I mean, just the word makes me roll my eyes a little. I got called to do some work right after I started reading so the book got set aside for a few days (by a few I mean more like 2 weeks). When I picked it back up, of course I couldn’t remember anything I’d read so far so I just started over. I restarted on like early early on a Sunday morning and ended up staying up until 4am the next day just to finish. {my reading updates on goodreads} I could NOT put it down! Yes, 4am. Guess what that means. I LOVED IT!Waterfall is a romance book, but there is so much MORE going on then that. The action and plot kind of draw you in and make you FORGET it’s a romance. The characters are fantastic. The main character Gabi is a strong young female. Which I love. There is no whining, needing rescued by a boy going on with her. Her sister Lia is just as strong. Marcello is so sweet, and his friend Luca… omgosh. I want an entire series of Luca. He is funny, hot, loyal, and fierce. He needs his own series! LOL!I don’t want to say anything more about the plot than what is in the synopsis because I want you to DISCOVER this one for yourself. I will say “From the moment the girls step back through time, until I turned the last page I was totally sucked into the story. I missed phone calls, didn’t answer emails, and even read one handed while cooking dinner. I’m not kidding.”I can even honestly say that because of this book – I even have an interest in Italy’s past history and am looking forward to reading some non-fiction on this time period. Really. I’m not even making that up, I swear.I was sad this book ended and have been pestering my mail man for weeks waiting on CASCADE to arrive! I’m pretty sure he hides until he thinks no one is looking out the window now. LOL!!!If you like romance, time travel, historical fiction, action, or anything of that nature… PICK UP THIS ONE. NOTES TO PARENTS: this is considered Christian Young Adult. There is NO cussing, no sexual content (a few kisses), minimal violence (battle scenes and general war type activities)

Originally posted on my review blog at www.bunnycates.com/readingYou know I’m not into spoilers so what can I tell you about this book that’s not mentioned above?I really enjoyed this book! From looking at my reading updates on Goodreads, it looks like it took me about 100 pages to get sucked in, and about 370 pages before I started crying. LOL… I didn’t get it at first, why everyone was so googoo over this book. I even said so on Facebook and my friends were like “Keep reading!” The main character wasn’t that likable in the beginning, and shoot she croaks right off the bat. *Thats not a spoiler because the back of the book tells you she dies* I was thinking the book was really going to be bad. All my friends LOVED IT. and CRIED THEIR EYES OUT…Nope, she died and I’m not crying…“Keep reading!”Ok – totally honest now, by about “Day 6”… I was all tears. I loved the characters in the end. All of them. And in truth, I’m sad the book is over. I need more. I need to know the characters are all OK, especially Kent! Before I Fall is one of those books that when it ends…you can’t stop thinking about it.Think Groundhog Day + Mean Girls + Permanent Record = lots of tears!

wow. Horrible, horrible story. I'm tired of crying. This book is unforgettable.Full review on my blog at www.bunnycates.com/reading

Good book. I cant believe I cried at the end, but it felt so good to have a "complete" ending to the story. This was a really good series, and I would recommend it to anyone who like mysteries, thrillers, and/or paranormal schtuff. Loved the characters and Im going to miss them.

Originally posted on my review blog at www.bunnycates.com/readingThis one just might be my favorite in the Harper Connely series! From looking at my reading updates, it seems it took me a whopping ONE DAY to read this one! I have to say, I’m not a fan of the “relationship" change between Harper and her ex-step-brother Tolliver. As someone who has quite a few EX-STEPS, I can honestly say ex or not it doesn’t matter, I still see them as a sibling. I can’t imagine thinking of them in any other way. So that is a little off putting and distracting to the story. Or it was to me, at least.Forgetting about that, the story in this book was GREAT! A serial killer, many missing youngsters found dead, thinking it’s figured out and being OH SO WRONG! I really loved this one, and couldn’t put it down until I knew who did it!