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Friday, June 28, 2013

Book Review: Assured Destruction by Michael F. Stewart

This book is about a teenage girl named Janus Rose who is a hacker. She works at a shop that recycles and destroys computer hard drives. She has a secret though, she doesn't always destroy the hard drives that customers give her. She keeps them and creates social networking profiles for the hard drives by using the information she finds. The network she creates with these characters is called Shadownet As you can imagine, doing something like that can get a person in BIG trouble.

Things start to happen to the real people that these characters are based off of and Janus realizes the mistake she has made by creating Shadownet. Hopefully, she can make amends before something really terrible happens to someone.


I really enjoyed reading this book. Janus is a strong female character who is very tech savvy, which is a great respite from the usual female characters in many stories that I've read. I love that she's very intelligent and not exactly all boy crazy, but that's not to say that she doesn't have a interest in anyone though. There's a bit of suspense, some drama, and a little dash of teenage romance in the mix of this story.

I loved getting to know Janus and the other characters in this book. Janus really had a lot of depth and I could believe that she was an actual human being rather than some stereotype of a person. I'm sure there will be more in store for the rest of the characters along with Janus as this is a series.

I would recommend this book to any fans of computers, spy stories, and anyone who enjoys reading a story about a strong female character. This book is basically for anyone who enjoys a good story.

Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars!

To purchase this book for FREE on Amazon Kindle, click below:




To Purchase a paperback copy :




P.S. The next book in the series is called Script Kiddie and will be published in August of this year! 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Book Review: Pretending He's Mine by Lauren Blakely

Pretending He's Mine by Lauren Blakely is about an actor named Reeve who's trying to make it big. He's not having much luck with that and  his day job has cut him off. His luck turns around when he meets Sutton Brenner, a casting director who's in need of a pretend fiance. In order for Sutton to get a job for the hit new movie called Escorted Lives, she's made the producer's wife believe that she's engaged. The producer's wife doesn't want her philandering husband working so closely with a sexy, single lady such as Sutton. Sutton and Reeve partner up in the hopes of them both landing a job with the film. As the two play make-believe, there seems to be more than just acting involved in their love affair.


This is a sweet and steamy romance that's second in Lauren Blakely's Caught Up In Us series. You don't have to read the first one to enjoy this one by any means. There were some moments where I wanted to shake the both of them and tell them that they should get together RIGHT NOW, but of course, what kind of romance novel is without some sort of conflict, right? I enjoyed reading this book, but I kind of wished there was more romantic type moments. Sex is great and all that, I get it, but I like some actual romance in a romance novel. There were some really cute moments, I just wish there was a lot more of those moments.

The characters were truly believable. I could relate to them and I could really believe in them. I could picture how they would act and what they looked like, perfectly. Reeve could have had a little more depth to him though. I liked him anyway because the author made him seem like a very nice guy. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves romance and a good romantic story.


Overall, I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars.



To purchase this book for free on Amazon, click the link below!


Also, you can purchase the first book in the series:


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Book Review: Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You To Know

Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You To Know by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson


Eleven courageous canines tell all! This book is about 11 canines who tell exactly what they think of their humans. They tell it like it is! If you've ever wondered what your dog may be thinking, I'm sure this book will give you some clue. This book is hilarious, heartwarming, and sometimes can bring a little tear to your eye. I loved reading what these precious pups had to say about the humans who take care of them and why they do the crazy things they do.

Each dog has their own stylish background on which their letter-like messages are written. You'll always know which dog is saying what because there will even be a picture of them and their signature. The dogs consist of a Yellow Lab named Axelrod, a Border Collie named Bandana, a Boxer named Dimples, a Chihuahua named Tinkerbell, a Bulldog named Orson, a Cocker Spaniel named Sophie, a German Shepherd named Sarge, a Miniature Schnauzer named Charlie, a Mixed breed named Moonbeam, a Long-haired Dachshund named Gabby, and a Bloodhound named Rufus T.

You're sure to enjoy getting to know these dogs and maybe learning something about your own pooches in the meantime. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs.


Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars!



Thanks for reading,


Crys


To Purchase:


Thursday, June 6, 2013

Movie Review: Julie and Julia

This probably should have been up a long while ago, but you know how life can be, I'm sure. Since I took my time to read the book, I figured that it was only fair to watch the movie and review it as well.


This movie stars Amy Adams and Meryl Streep as Julie and Julia, respectively. I'm a fan of both actresses and I adore their movies. I will admit that when I first heard Meryl Streep speak in the movie, it threw me for a loop. I definitely wasn't expecting Julia to speak that way, I guess. I had to do a little more research on the real Julia Child to realize that she did a very good job at portraying Julia.

I enjoyed having a more indepth look at Julia Child herself and getting to know her and understanding how Julie and Julia were comparable. I have to say I like reading a whole lot, but I believe that the movie was better than the book. This is one case where the movie had more information than the book. Julie was almost exactly how I imagined her in the book with her bouts of rage and a fight with her husband. While watching Eric's reactions on film, I felt that he was much more assertive than in the book.


I'm usually a big advocate for reading books before watching movies, but I think in this case, either would suffice and you'd get a different perspective in both mediums. The book is more centered on Julie whereas, the movie is more  centered on Julia.


Overall, I give this movie a rating of 5 out of 5 stars! 


Thank you for reading,

Crys


To purchase this movie, follow the link below:
Julie & Julia : DVD
Julie & Julia : [Blu-ray]

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Book Review: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I found this book on the shelf of my local Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago. The first few times I saw it, I passed it up and went on with my day; but I figured since I'm seeing it so much, I might as well buy it! It was a great deal too, because if you know anything about Dollar Tree you know that everything is one dollar.

Okay, anyway, down to business.

What is this book about?

A woman nearing thirty who works as a secretary at a government agency in New York decides that she needs to do something more with her life. She wants to find herself, if you will. She decides to do that using her cooking idol Julia Child's cookbook titled: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She gives herself a year to complete all the recipes within the book and all sorts of craziness happens.


What Did I Like and/or Dislike? 

Okay, so I guess it's really no surprise to anyone who has read this book that I think Julie is rather whiny and self-centered. I don't necessarily dislike that about the book really. I think that's just her and how humans really are, basically whether we want to admit it or not. At least she's being honest and didn't write about how she was such a saint and all that. Since this is a memoir, it tells about Julie's life surrounding this challenge as well. I found her life experiences to be quite funny and I loved her writing style. The other people around her, I found really quite interesting. Isabel and her crazy antics and the crazy things she'd say and comment on Julie's blog. Eric who is indeed a saint for putting up with Julie and her frequent gripes (I know I would not have been able to stay as calm as he did throughout this challenge of hers). I loved to dislike Nate, her boss. He really seemed like a complete stinker of a man.

The things I disliked were the fact that I really didn't get to understand why Julie liked Julia so much. She didn't really go into too much detail about it, but maybe it was implied. I also would have liked to learn more about Julia as well during all this. The excerpts of letters that were included in the book helped out a little, but I still wasn't all that understanding of Julia.


Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed reading it and I even watched the movie as soon as I was finished reading! I have to say, this book has kind of inspired me to make a project of my own and see where it takes me. Anyway, I recommend reading this book if you like memoirs and cooking.


You can purchase this book from Amazon by following the link below!


Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Book Reviews!

Okay, I have decided that I am going to have this blog as a book reviewing blog! I love reading, but I need to work on giving feedback on what I've read and sharing the really awesome books that I'm reading. I'm usually much too lazy to bother to write reviews about ANYTHING really, so this will definitely be a good thing for me to start doing. I'm breaking the habit, I guess you could say. My second only book review on this blog will probably be about the book I'm currently reading called Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.

So, be on the lookout for that in the near future!

Also, I've been getting extremely behind on my 2013 reading challenge on Goodreads. My goal is to read 50 books and I'm 15 books behind schedule. Yikes! I really should get a move on, haha!


I wish you all the best!

Crys