Zombies again? Enclave by Ann Aguirre

So apparently recently I've been on a bit of a zombie and/or distopian kick in my reading apparently. I will eventually get around to reviewing all of them but today I'm writing Enclave by Ann Aguirre. This book is the first book in a trilogy called The razorland trilogy. The trilogy includes Enclave, Outpost and horde.

I'm not entirely sure that the "freaks" as they are called in this book are typical zombies in that they die and come back or if they are infected mutant cannibals of some sort.Being bit by the Freaks doesn't cause one to become infected like a typical zombie so I'm not sure how one gets infected. This book takes place after the apocalypse where the survivors live in enclaves underground. This story follows a girl named Deuce as she goes from being a nameless child to a huntress for her people. In the world after the holocaust/apocalypse children frequently die before reaching adulthood they aren't named until they reach a certain age. I don't remember the age but I'm sure it was in the teens since the oldest member of their enclave is 25 years old.

Duece is partnered with the only member of her enclave that wasn't born there by the name of Fade. He was found a few years before wandering around the tunnels they live in and is a bit of an outcast. After she is partnered with him things start to happen that start to affect how she views the world around her, especially after discovering one of the neighboring enclaves has been destroyed by freaks. The freaks that overran the enclave seemed a bit smarter than usual freaks and when she and fade try to warn the elders their warnings fall on deaf ears. things further change for her after she and fade are forced to leave the enclave and she discovers that things outside the enclave and tunnels she grew up in are different than she was lead to believe. The journey the two begin is of course full of dangers , feelings and new people.

I really enjoyed this book and after reading the copy from the library I just had to buy a copy for my personal library. I've also bought the second and hope to get a copy of the final book soon. I gave it a 4 star rating on my goodreads I would have given it a 5 star but it was never explained exactly what happened to the world. What are the freaks? How did they get infected? If not by getting bit how is the infection spread? Maybe these questions will be answered for me in the later volumes. My goodreads review is included in this post.

I'm currently trying to decide which book to post on next. The last few books I've read that I haven't yet blogged about are ---
Sweet evil - a book about the children of angels and fallen angels
That risen snow - a book about snow white and zombies (yes another zombie book)
Perfect ruin - a dystopian book that takes place in a floating city
The coldest girl in coldtown - a vampire book

I've also read 2 ebooks --
Tresspassers - about aliens and government agencies
No If ands and Bears about it - a paranormal romance novels involving were-bears

any requests bout which one I do next? I'm currently reading a paranormal romance book called Blood and rain about vampires. Then I will either be reading Decision at doona by anne mccaffrey or Outpost which is the second book in the razorland trilogy.






Enclave by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A dark and gritty story of growing up if I've ever read one. I very much enjoyed reading this one. The main characters Deuce and Fade had an interesting relationship. Duece wasn't the typical teenage girl that I've read in most stories. She knew what she wanted to do with her life and worked hard to get there. Of course things change and go wrong as they will. I found the world building interesting and believable and look forward to reading the rest of this trilogy.



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A Beyond cloud nine book review

I recently won a goodreads giveaway for a book called Beyond Cloud Nine by author Greg Spry. I received a very nice signed paperback copy of the book straight from the author, which i will admit is pretty damn cool. I'm not recieving any money to review this book, just the book itself which hey free books which is always awesome. Now on to the actual review.

The book takes place in the future after mankind has started colonizing space. Scientists are on the verge of creating a new technology which will allow them to travel faster than light. When the test pilot stumbles upon a conspiracy involving terrorist who call them separists and aliens things get crazy fast. The main character Brooke Davis is a very real feeling character to me. She wasn't a perfect person, she was flawed and not necessarily always a nice or good person. But Brooke was a strong and goal oriented person who wasn't going to let anyone in her way. When the occasion called for it brooke always stepped up and did what was necessary or right even if her superiors told her not to.

The world building was believable even with the required futuristic bits to make it a scifi book. The technology while very futuristic still came across as something that could be achieved. The aliens suprised me when their background came out, but I wont tell you too much about them because that would ruin the book for you. The only thing that didnt come across as realistic to me was the cereal boxes that become bowls with everything including milk in them. :) but you have to have something fantastic in a sci-fi book and if they did exist it would be very cool.

This book is going to be a series with the second book called "Beyond the Horizon" taking place years after this one and involving Brookes niece Maya and I very much look forward to its release because I will be reading it too. I gave this book 4 out of 5 on goodreads because while I did really enjoy reading this one it was a slow read for me.


Beyond Cloud Nine by Greg Spry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I recieved this book from the author via goodreads for free and jumped right in. I've never read anything by this author so didn't know what to expect and I really enjoy discovering new authors. This was a great read, the world was a believable but technologically advanced future. I quite enjoyed the main protagonist, she was flawed but basically a good person. She had a goal she worked towards and didn't let anyone or anything stand in her way. I loved that the plot had a twist that was unexpected. I can hardly wait for the next book in this series.



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FEED by Mira grant

I recently finished reading "FEED" by Mira grant this is the first in a trilogy called the Newsflesh series. It took a little while to figure out that the title was a wordplay on news words and not a reference to eating but I can occasionally be slow that way.

I loved it! Where has this book been and why haven't I heard of it before? The world this story is set in is so well written and vivid that it drew me in so completely that I stayed up late one night to finish it. It took me just a little over 1 day to read the whole thing. The two main characters are extremely engaging and developed that I found myself axiously awaiting what would happen to them next.

The story takes place 26 years after a virus turns people into zombies. In this book people don't loose all technology and after things start to fall apart civilization don't start to right itself. Many years down the line while people live in fear of amplification(where the virus in their blood becomes active) or being bitten the world does still go on. Bloggers have become a more trusted source of information and news due to the fact that initially the governments and newscasters claimed the zombie apocalypse was hoaxes while bloggers got information out.

Feed follows a brother and sister team of bloogers and their techie/fellow blogger as they follow a presidential candidate on campaign. The sister while everyone believed her to be completely humorless actually had a dry snarky with that left me snorting with laughter and the brother was just so outrageous that I found myself wondering if he was just a bit crazy. I really enjoyed how the back history of what happened to the world and to the siblings was given through the news blog the characters and occasionally through their thoughts instead of spending alot time in the first few chapters. Definately a must read and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of this trilogy.The copy I read was a library copy so I still need to buy the first one too. I gave it 5 stars on my good reads because this was an absolutely great read for me and I enjoyed it alot. This book can be found in the Young adult section

I just started reading Beyond Cloud Nine by greg spry, which I won on good reads how I love free books and it looks like its gonna be interesting. And just recently finished reading Obsidian Mirror by catherine fisher which I hope to get the review up soon.





Feed by Mira Grant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved it! The world this story is set in is so well written and vivid that it drew me in so completely that I staid up late to finish it. The two main characters are extremely engaging and developed that I found myself axiously awaiting what would happen next. The sister while everyone believed her to be completely humorless actually had a dry snarky with that left me snorting with laughter and the brother was just so outrageous that I found myself wondering if he was just a bit crazy. I really enjoyed how the back history of what happened to the world and to the siblings was given through the news blog the characters and occasionally through their thoughts instead of spending alot time in the first few chapters. Definately a must read and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of this trilogy



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At Twilight by Maggie shayne

Whoo hoo I do believe my reading slump is officially gone. Now to power thru some of my book collection and pick up some library books to hopefully discover some new worlds to enjoy. I've finished two books since my last post but I'll only do one per post because the last time I did more than one it was a really big post. I threw a random selection of book names in a jar and will randomly choose names of books to read because if left to my own devises I seem to pick the same ones each time because I know I like them.

Unfortunately since alot of my books are pretty old because I've been in a slump for the last few years I didn't remember what order some of them were supposed to be in when I put them in the jar so I may end up reading a few out of order like the one I'm posting about today. I recently finished read "At Twilight" by Maggie shayne. This book is published by silhouette in 2002.

At Twilight is a bindup/omnibus of books 4 and 5 of the wings in the night series. It is ok to read the series out of order because each book is basically about a different couple, but several of the characters do show up in other books in the series so if you've read the previous 3 you would recognize other characters and know their back stories. The wings of Night series is a paranormal romance series about vampires. In this world some people are born with a certain antigen called belladonna which enables them to become vampires, but if they don't become vampires apparently they will eventually become sick from the antigen. There is a society call the department of paranormal investigations which basically wants to eradicate all vampires and chosen as those with the antigen are called. they often use chosen as bait and capture vampire and chosen alike to torture and experiment on.

The first book is "Born in Twilight" this is the story of Jameson who has known and been protected by several vampire for most of his life and Angelica a novice nun who was forcibly turned in a dark alley. She then kills her maker after he kills a homeless man from the shelter her order helped at. Jameson has been captured by DPI and rescued again and one night goes wandering and stumbles upon angelica who feeds upon him and drains him to the point of death which his friends turn him to rescue him. Angelica ends up in the care of the DPI for several months till a now vampire Jameson rescues. their romance is a very rocky one and lead to a very interesting story. The experiments that the DPI did on angelica led to some interesting consequences for both of them.

The second book is "Beyond Twilight" is the story of vampiress Cuyler and Ramsey who is the DPI agent sent to capture her. She spends alot of time basically playing pranks on him and generally making his life difficult. At the beginning of this story she kidnaps him and takes him to one of her safe houses. She is confused by him because as far as she can tell he does not have the antigen to be a chosen yet she is drawn to him and to protect him.She gives him information that starts him questioning DPI but then of course DPI interferes and makes things interesting.

these were both great reads and remind me why I was reading paranormal romance before it officially became its own genre and not just a sub genre. My copy is old enough to be marked romance instead of paranormal romance and I have read it a few times. The world in this series is an interesting telling of the vampire mythos. I really enjoyed the characters and how you see a few characters in the various books. I can invest in the couple in the book while still seeing familiar characters and how they all interact with each other. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads.com and am looking forward to both re-reading the books I already own and buying the ones that came out after the ones I already have. on side note the cover is pretty cool too, I found it a bit creepy but not horror story creepy.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1267581248

The forest of hands and teeth review

Look not dead yet :) but I've been reading undead . I just finished reading a book called The Forest of Hands and Teeth and loved it. This is a young adult post zombie apocalypse book.I've always been a fan of zombies movies but never read any zombie books before this one. I think I've been afraid that books would ruin the violence and gore that I've often loved about zombie movies.

This was a great read to start reading zombie books. The world just sucked me in and I just had to know how it ended. While I did find the main character Mary to be a bit annoying at times I couldn't hate her because at other times I found her to be a strong engaging character whom I really hoped would end up getting what she wanted. She was basically a typical teenage girl coming in a world that was not necessarily the easiest to live in. I can't wait to read the other books in this series and world.

This story takes place many years after the dead rose during what has become known as the return. The village that the main character Mary lives in is in the middle of a forest called The Forest of Hands and teeth filled with zombies which they refer to as the unconsecrated. Her great great great grandmother came to the village during the time when the dead first started rising. The women of her family have passed down stories of the ocean which they say is too big for the unconsecrated to conquer and the time from before. When tragedy strikes her village she is determined to make it to the ocean which she firmly believes to be safe from the unconsecrated. I can hardly wait to get my hands on other books in this series and the short stories in this world. I gave it a four star rating on my goodreads. if you would like to read my goodreads review here is the link

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I just finished reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth and loved it. I've always been a fan of zombies movies but never read any zombie books before this one. This was a great read to start reading zombie books. The world just sucked me in and I just had to know how it ended. While I did find the main character Mary to be a bit annoying at times I couldn't hate her because at other times I found her to be a strong engaging character whom I really hoped would end up getting what she wanted. I can't wait to read the other books in this series and world.



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blegg!! some days just don't wanna

First I made a little progress stitching this month. worked a little on both Mai and snow white. Now onto todays rant :P

Every now and again I rant at work about how lazy todays youth tend to be. most of them have little to no work ethic. An example is a few months ago my secondary baker at work called me at like 5 in the morning wanting me to work her shift. she told me "I woke up covered in blood and having cramps so I can't work today" considering I had been cramping all night and didn't get any sleep and often end up working my days off I told her no and that she had to talk to the manager. needless to say since it was only her first solo day she didnt last very long. she quit shortly after because the manager told her being on her period wasn't a good excuse since the majority of the workers were female and they all managed to come to work and that if hers was that bad she had to provide a doctors excuse. I thought of her today because I woke up covered in blood cramping so bad I could barely stand up with a killer headache that made me so nauseous that it was all I could do to keep yesterdays food down. know what I did? Got up took a quick sponge bath, a handful of midol and Ibuprofen, got dressed and zombie walked my very unhappy ass to work. Sure I glared at everyone who so much as thought in my direction but I went and did all my own work. why? because I work an important position that if its empty the story doesnt open and I know that someone has to do it and since there's only a couple of people trained for it they can't just point at someone and go "your doing this today. I wish I had the kind of work ethic that means I can just not care if I'm screwing everyone else over. okay rant over.. I'm gonna go take some pain pills now

not dead yet and a little Mai cross stitch

Wow its been forever since I last posted anything here. I haven't done much except work in the last year. I did work on one cross stitch project every now and again and it was my oriental lady Mai. Here is a picture of where she is currently at.






I know since the last posting I've finished the scarf over her arm and worked on quite a bit of the background. I hope to finish her this year.