Review: Pirate Vs Pirate by Mary Quattlebaum

PIRATE VS. PIRATE: The Terrific Tale of a Big, Blustery Maritime Match by Mary Quattlebaum, illus. by Alexandra Boiger

Book Description: Who is the mightiest pirate in the world? Bad Bart and Mean Mo both want that honor. And so they hold a series of contests: swimming with sharks, hurling cannonballs, and eating hardtack. Aarrr! The final contest—treasure counting--will decide the winner. This lively story, full of sea-dog lingo, will appeal to both girls and boys. Boys will root for Bad Bart, girls for Mean Mo—and in the end … well, that’s a BIG swashbuckling surprise.About the Author: I grew up in the country in a large family (7 kids), with lots of pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, goats, horses, turtles, chickens, ducks). My earliest memory is of my dad reciting nursery rhymes to me and my brothers and sisters, right before bedtime. We could each choose one. My favorite was “Hickory Dickory Dock,” and one of my sisters always wanted “Little Bo Peep.” Here's What I Think: My boys just loved this book. They are really into pirates right now so were thrilled by this pirate themed book. The story is easy to read and entertaining to even me - which is an aspect of children's stories that is often ignored. After all, the parents have to read the stories to their children and after the tenth time it has to at least be interesting. The illustrations in this book are also really great, very whimsical. All in all I would say this book would make a great summer reading book.

This is an epic tale of adventure, filled with seadog lingo as two rival pirates--Bad Bart, the burliest boy pirate, and Mean Mo, the maddest girl pirate--meet and hold a contest to declare the best pirate in the world. All their bluster turns out for naught as they fall head over heels in love. For more information and some fun pirate activities, go to Mary Quattlebaum's website

 

 

Disclaimer: Although I did receive this book for review purposes, I was in no other way compensated to publish this post.

If you are an author or publisher and would like an honest review of your title, please contact me at polsen11atcomcastdotnet

What Are You Giving Away This Thursday? BOOK Giveaway Linky - 4/28-5/4

If you have a BOOK-RELATED giveaway going on your blog/site please list it below - this means books (paper or eBook), bookmarks, book swag, booklights, eReaders and other things that are directly related to book reading.

If you have ANY OTHER TYPE of giveaway feel free to link the on my mommy blog giveaway linky: The Busy Woman's Guide to Surviving Motherhood.

Please link DIRECTLY to the book giveaway and not just to your blog's homepage.

Please keep your listings Family Friendly (if the item itself is adult in nature please include ADULT in your listing)

Please use this format:
Your Name: Blog Title (abbr ok) Item Description End Date
Your URL: a direct link to the giveaway

EXAMPLE:
Your Name: BWG2SM Bring Back Beatrice! By Jennifer Griffin ends 4/15
Your URL: http://sapphirereads.blogspot.com/2011/01/interiew-and-giveaway-said-spider-by.html


After you use the link please leave a comment, letting me know you were here (I just love comments, this is totally not required! LOL)

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - April 27, 2011

This week's Whatcha Reading Wednesday works like this:

Type in the sentence that you are currently reading. (Remember to indicate any spoilers!)

You can participate by leaving your WRW teaser in a comment below, or you can make a post on your own blog and link back to this post in the linky below. Feel free to use the WRW graphic, just please be sure to link back to Busy Moms Who Love to Read.

"My mother did the best she could, but without the pressure to make her children's every waking moment an optimal learning opportunity." When Did I Get Like This? by Amy Wilson 

So tell me: Whatcha Reading??

Review: Lover Unleashed by JR Ward

Lover Unleashed by JR Ward - The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 9

Book Description: Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, seductive cloth as her brother. Imprisoned for eons by their mother, the Scribe Virgin, she finally frees herself-only to face a devastating injury. Manuel Manello, M.D., is drafted by the Brotherhood to save her as only he can-but when the human surgeon and the vampire warrior meet, their two worlds collide in the face of their undeniable passion. With so much working against them, can love prove stronger than the birthright and the biology that separates them?

About the Author: J.R. Ward worked in healthcare in Boston and spent many years as Chief of Staff at one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation. She lives in Kentucky with her husband.

Here's What I Think: This is most definitely my very favorite series of all time. And once again I am totally fascinated as to how Mrs. Ward can keep coming up with new and exciting stories about the same group of people!! I mean every book is completely in and of itself a new adventure. She does keep a running chain of events but those are all background plots that just keep the lives all the characters going. I just love that each book has more than just the main plot going, and has a specific focus on two characters throughout - in this installment Payne and Manny. This was such an interesting story as they are two people thrust into a world that either knows much about. Their attraction is instant - as is usual for these stories but it is so confusing to the both, it really takes a while for them to understand it. I also love that this story took root way back in Vischous' book, in a very mystical foreshadowing of just one word - "Brother". If you have not yet read this series and you love an intense love story with lots of action and bit of paranormal activity (they are vampires) than you need to get started. Ward writes in such a way that you want to believe it is real!

Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated to publish this post.

If you are an author or publisher and would like an honest review of your title, please contact me at polsen11atcomcastdotnet

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - April 20, 2011

This week's Whatcha Reading Wednesday works like this:

Type in the sentence that you are currently reading. (Remember to indicate any spoilers!)

You can participate by leaving your WRW teaser in a comment below, or you can make a post on your own blog and link back to this post in the linky below. Feel free to use the WRW graphic, just please be sure to link back to Busy Moms Who Love to Read.

"There were a number of cars in the courtyard, some of which, under other circumstances, he'd have had a serious jones for, and also another, far smaller house made from the same stone as the castle." Lover Unleased by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood)

So tell me: Whatcha Reading??

What Are You Giving Away This Thursday? BOOK Giveaway Linky - 4/14-4/20

If you have a BOOK-RELATED giveaway going on your blog/site please list it below - this means books (paper or eBook), bookmarks, book swag, booklights, eReaders and other things that are directly related to book reading.

If you have ANY OTHER TYPE of giveaway feel free to link the on my mommy blog giveaway linky: The Busy Woman's Guide to Surviving Motherhood.

Please link DIRECTLY to the book giveaway and not just to your blog's homepage.

Please keep your listings Family Friendly (if the item itself is adult in nature please include ADULT in your listing)

Please use this format:
Your Name: Blog Title (abbr ok) Item Description End Date
Your URL: a direct link to the giveaway

EXAMPLE:
Your Name: BWG2SM Bring Back Beatrice! By Jennifer Griffin ends 4/15
Your URL: http://sapphirereads.blogspot.com/2011/01/interiew-and-giveaway-said-spider-by.html


After you use the link please leave a comment, letting me know you were here (I just love comments, this is totally not required! LOL)

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - April 13, 2011

This week's Whatcha Reading Wednesday works like this:

Ok I am still reading the same book I was last week so instead of sharing that again I have a question:
What's the faster you ever read a single book and what book was it?

You can participate by leaving your WRW teaser in a comment below, or you can make a post on your own blog and link back to this post in the linky below. Feel free to use the WRW graphic, just please be sure to link back to Busy Moms Who Love to Read.

I read Lover Awakened by JR Ward in just under 25 hours! It is the third book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. A close second would be reading Charlaine Harris' Dead and Gone - book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse series in about 28 hours.

So tell me: Whatcha Reading??

Review: River Marked By Patrica Briggs

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Book Description: Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She's never known any others of her kind. Until now. About the Author: Patty steadfastly refuses to write a biography. She considers them narcissistic, and besides, she'd rather write something interesting!

An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father's people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help...



Here's What I Think: Often times when a series has as many installments as the Mercy Thompson series (this is the 6th book), the stories can become redundant, and this was my biggest fear with this book. But my fear was never realized. Briggs created a whole other plot that went down a completely different path. Really only two of the characters from the previous books play main roles in this book - Mercy and Adam. Don't get me wrong other staple characters are still part of the story, but they don't play a main role in the integral plot of this story. This storyline dives into Mercy's Native American Heritage and ventures into the legends and myths of the old tribes. I really enjoyed this book and dare say it is my favorite in the series since the second one. My favorite part of this story was actually a sideline that delves into the truth about who or rather what Mercy's father was. If you haven't read this series, it is very interesting and covers the whole supernatural/paranormal gamut when it comes to types of characters.

Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated to publish this post.

If you are an author or publisher and would like an honest review of your title, please contact me at polsen11atcomcastdotnet

What Are You Giving Away This Thursday? BOOK Giveaway Linky - 4/7-4/16

If you have a BOOK-RELATED giveaway going on your blog/site please list it below - this means books (paper or eBook), bookmarks, book swag, booklights, eReaders and other things that are directly related to book reading.

If you have ANY OTHER TYPE of giveaway feel free to link the on my mommy blog giveaway linky: The Busy Woman's Guide to Surviving Motherhood.

Please link DIRECTLY to the book giveaway and not just to your blog's homepage.

Please keep your listings Family Friendly (if the item itself is adult in nature please include ADULT in your listing)

Please use this format:
Your Name: Blog Title (abbr ok) Item Description End Date
Your URL: a direct link to the giveaway

EXAMPLE:
Your Name: BWG2SM Bring Back Beatrice! By Jennifer Griffin ends 4/15
Your URL: http://sapphirereads.blogspot.com/2011/01/interiew-and-giveaway-said-spider-by.html


After you use the link please leave a comment, letting me know you were here (I just love comments, this is totally not required! LOL)

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - April 6, 2011

This week's Whatcha Reading Wednesday works like this:

What's the FIRST sentence of the SECOND chapter of the book you are currently reading?

You can participate by leaving your WRW teaser in a comment below, or you can make a post on your own blog and link back to this post in the linky below. Feel free to use the WRW graphic, just please be sure to link back to Busy Moms Who Love to Read.

"You'd never know it living here, but Jackson, Mississippi, be filled with two hundred thousand peoples." The Help by Kathryn Stockett

So tell me: Whatcha Reading??

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Matched by Ally Condie

Book Description: In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.About the Author: Ally Condie (www.allycondie.com) is a former high school English teacher who lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. She loves reading, running, eating, and listening to her husband play guitar. Here's What I Think: This books falls into the Hunger Games/Maze Runner idea of an alternate way of life set in the future. The world has become a very planned and sanitary and safe place for Cassia and her family and friends. The book is very well written and even leads you to believe that this life might be better in the first half of the book. Each meal is delivered to your kitchen with your name on it and no one else can touch it - portioned and fortified just for your body. Every activity - even running on your treadmill - is planned out for optimal enhancement of your body. Even your  life mate is selected for you based on a number of criteria including personality, and the genes you both have which will produce the perfect baby. The book starts with something of an anomaly when two kids that actually know each other are matched. This rarely happens, as usually you are matched with someone from another city that you have never meet. But it all goes awry when she sees a different face on the microcard she is provided to learn about her match, even though she has known Xander her whole life and knows everything about him. I really liked the plot of this book. It is always interesting to think of the "what ifs". I did struggle with the voice of the book, as it is written the way that Cassia thinks. So sometimes the thoughts are incomplete, but all in all it is a great story. Yes it another YA book, but again the only thing that makes it YA is the lack of sexual overtones as well as foul language. It's a great story for an adult or a teenager. The next installment of this triology - Crossed - is due out in November of this year.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated to publish this post.

If you are an author or publisher and would like an honest review of your title, please contact me at polsen11atcomcastdotnet