Book Review: Blondes, Books & Bourbon (ARC)

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Author: R. M. Ridley
Release Date: March 13, 2015
Series: None
Genre: Urban Fantasy | Crime > PI | Anthology | Magic/Elementals | Paranormal
Edition: mobi
Pages: 21709 (kindle pages)
Publisher: Xchyler Publication
Source: Author (Thanks a lot Mr. Ridley!)

Attention! Reviewer Wanted!

wanted-responsiveHello everyone!

I’m in need of a reviewer/contributor who’ll help me review titles that my blog, The Reading Bud, receives for reviewing.

It doesn’t matter whether you already have a blog or not. The only thing I’m looking for is the will to read and review books honestly.

If you are new to reviewing then don’t worry, I’ll help you with the process and everything.

Contact me at: thereadingbud@gmail.com

Have a great day!

Book Review: The Lupane Legacy (Joshua Denham and Devon Kerr #1)

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Author: Darby G. Holladay
Release Date: September 1, 2014
Series: A Joshua Denham and Devon Kerr
Genre: Thriller | Mystery | Fiction | Political
Edition: mobi
Pages: 3441 (kindle)
Publisher: Manor Minor Press 
Source: NetGalley

Book Review: Almost Adept

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Author: Olga Godim
Release Date: January 5, 2014
Series: None
Genre: High Fantasy | Romance | Young Adult | Magic/Elementals
Edition: mobi
Pages: 4339 (kindle pages)
Publisher: BURST
Interest: Requested by author
Source: Author (Thanks a lot Olga!)
Buy it here: Amazon

Book Review: The Bone Treaty (Seal Of Solomon #1)

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Author: T.C. McKee
Release Date: August 1, 2014
Series: Seal Of Solomon
Genre: Fantasy | Paranormal > Angels/Gargoyles | Young Adult | Urban Fantasy
Edition: mobi
Pages: 3853 (kindle pages)
Publisher: BookFish Books
Interest: Requested by Publisher
Source: Author (Thanks a lot Erin and Tammy!)
Buy it here: Amazon

Book Review: Impervious (Ascension #1)

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Author: Heather Letto
Release Date: March 19, 2014
Series: Ascension
Genre: Science-Fiction | Dystopian | Young Adult | Post-Apocalyptic 
Edition: mobi
Pages: 316
Publisher: BookFish Books
Interest: Requested by publisher
Source: Author (Thanks a lot Erin and Heather!)
Buy it here: Amazon

Book Review: Frostbite (Vampire Academy #2)

Frost Bite

AuthorRichelle Mead
Release Date: April 10, 2008 
Series: Vampire Academy 
Genre: YA | Fiction | Paranormal-Vampires | Contemporary
Pages: 327
ISBN NO.:  -
Publisher: Penguin India
Preceded by: Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1)
Followed by: Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3)

RMFAO 2015 MY Bookshelf Challenge

We all buy a lot of books but more than half of the time the books end up sitting unread on our shelves. But not anymore… gear up to read each and every book on your2 bookshelf in order to clear your conscience 😉 To participate in this challenge, write an announcement post with the logo and if possible add picture(s) of your bookshelf. To follow the discussion board of this challenge visit here at RMFAO. Also please leave a comment below with the link to your post, so that I can visit your blog and also know who all participated. Lets read all the books on our over-loaded bookshelf so that we can buy many more!

Here are some snaps of my bookshelf:

RMFAO 2015 Genre Challenge

Hello dear readers,
I’m very excited to announce that I’ve created a reading-challenge: 2015 RMFAO Genre Challenge.
Every year we all think of reading atleast one book from all the genres but as the year progresses everything changes. This challenge will help you make sure that you read all the major genres in 2015.

Merry Christmas

Hello dear readers,

I’ve been MIA from last two weeks as I was busy with V’s birthday preps, and now I’m gonna be busy with my own b’day! So please be patient and hold your horses for another week as soon I’ll be back with a lot of book reviews (once I get free from all the celebrations…) Till then I wish you all Merry Christmas!

FROM Heena

Word Of The Week #3

Word Of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve your vocabulary by learning new words every week.

WOW

If you want to participate then simply do a post with your WORD and leave the link to your post as a comment on my WOW post (like this one.)

Book Review: Pet Sematary

Pet SemataryAuthor: Stephen King
Release Date: January 1, 1983 
Series: None 
Genre: Thriller | Fiction | Paranormal | Horror | Adult | Fantasy | Zombies | Suspense | Dark-Fiction 
Pages: 465 
ISBN NO.: 978-0-340-95146-0 
Publisher: Hachette India
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Blurb

The house looked right, felt right, to Dr. Louis Creed. Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Book Review: Skive

skive 
 Author: Paul Adam levy
 Release Date: April 19, 2014
 Series: None
 Genre: Dark-Comedy | Fiction 
 Edition: mobi
 Pages: 114
 Publisher: Self-Published
 Interest: Requested by author
 Source: Author (Thanks a lot Paul!)
 Buy it here: Amazon
 

Blurb

Skive is a black comedy that introduces a dysfunctional man who, disillusioned with his boring, hum drum life working in a supermarket, is thrown into panic when an unexpected opportunity is offered to him. Suddenly, he feels trapped in a life he wishes to escape.

Word Of the Week #2

Word Of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve your vocabulary by learning new words every week. wowIf you want to participate then simply do a post with your WORD and leave the link to your post as a comment on my WOW post (like this one.)

Guest Post: SUPPORT By R. M. Ridley

Guest post by R. M. Ridley, the author of Tomorrow Wendell.

Heena R. Pardeshi's avatarVerbatik Media

Hello dear readers! Please welcome my first Guest-Blogger, Mr. R. M. Ridley: Writer of Fantasy and Horror and the author of  Tomorrow Wendell

A couple of months ago, through my blog The Reading Bud, I had the pleasure of reading his book and I was totally spellbound by it’s fascinating plot. 

Visit his blogCreativity From Chaos to know more about him.

Presenting R. M. Ridley…

When Heena asked me to do a guest blog post I was honored, delighted, and completely at a loss. What did I know about writing? What made me an expert in any way? How could I claim to hold profound knowledge previously untold?

The answer is that I don’t.

What I do have is a smattering of experience backed up by a lot of support. And maybe that is the key. Maybe that is what I should share—support.

With the help of McKeena…

View original post 1,205 more words

Word Of The Week #1

Word Of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve your vocabulary by learning new words every week. wowIf you want to participate then simply do a post with your WORD and leave the link to your post as a comment on my WOW post (like this one.)

The first post!

My Author Blog

Heena R. Pardeshi's avatarVerbatik Media

Hi guys!

My name is Heena Rathore P. and I’m a writer in progress. This is my 3rd blog and I hope that all the readers of my other two blogs as well as the new readers have a great time browsing though this blog.

I blog at The Reading Bud, which is a book blog.

I’m presently working on my first novel (contemporary romance) and in the process I’m getting to learn a lot of things which I’d love to share with my readers and fellow bloggers!

I hope you have a great week!

Regards

Heena Rathore P.

(or as most of you know, The Reading Bud!)

View original post

Word Of The Week Meme… by me!

Hi folks! Like most of the bloggers, I love participating in memes and prompts related to books and blogging. My favorite one being Top Ten Tuesdays! I’ve also decided to create a small weekly meme named Word Of The Week.

I know how much vocabulary means to each and everyone in the blogosphere. Whether you are a writer or not, you still need a pretty well developed vocab in order to express yourself perfectly. I’m a fan of fancy words and I try to keep up with the latest slang. Being a book-blogger and an avid reader I come across atleast dozens of new words every week. I note them down in my book (it’s my personal vocab builder), but it is quite hard to remember them all until I start using them often. So as a solution to this problem, I’m starting this meme ‘Word of the Week‘ (WOW) in which one can share stuff about “one” word per week.

BookBlogWriMo Week #1

What is #BookBlogWriMo?

Basically, it’s a lax version of NaNoWriMo for book bloggers. The author at Book Bumblings created prompts for each day, discussing different topics around books, blogging, and books + blogging. Visit here to know more about this prompt.

Week #1

1 – History of Your Blog – Tell us how you got started! When did you start your blog? Why? What have been some of your trials and tribulations? How many pigs did you have to sacrifice to get people to see your Facebook posts?

I’ve always been an avid reader. Call me crazy, but I’ve always been attracted to ‘something’, but never was I ever able to point out exactly what it was. I used to have this undeniable urge to discuss a book that just read with anyone who’s read it. Once I spent 2 hours talking to my cousin about ASOIAF (he’s the one who actually introduced me to the series.) We debated like cats and dogs and it really gave me a kick. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m really opinionated and well, that was where I thought that reviewing will be good for me. 

What Do Stories Mean to You – HEENA RATHORE P. (The Reading Bud)

My Guest-Post on Chesapeake Films about How Stories Changed My Life.

Free Writing: The Best Exercise For Writers!

Ten Books I Want To Reread

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by the awesome authors of The Broke and the Bookish.

Today’s topic is:

Ten Books/Series I Want To Reread:

  1. The HobbitThe-Hobbit-flat-cover

  2. Lord Of The Ring SeriesLOTR_book_covers

  3. A Song Of Ice And Fire SeriesA_Game_of_Thrones_Novel_Covers

  4. Hunger Games SeriesHUNGER-GAMES-COVERS_510

  5. Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Series????????

  6. Twilight Seriestwilight

  7. The Clifton Chronicles1394651071

  8. Da Vinci Coden56931

  9. All Nicholas Sparks Books 91Gr+GkbA8L

  10. All Sidney Sheldon BooksSidney Sheldon Books

New Review Format

Whenever I sit down to review a book, all the things that I wanna say about the book instantly floods my mind and sometimes I see that I’ve mistakenly forgotten to write about 1-2 points. That’s the reason I broke my review in 3 categories- Positives, Negatives and Conclusion. But from last month or so I’m feeling like this is also not enough. So, after considering a lot of options I’ve come to a conclusion to change my entire review criteria.

Image Credits: Literacy Blog: Melissa Musser
Image Credits: Literacy Blog: Melissa Musser

From now on I’m gonna break down my reviews in 8 categories so that I don’t miss out on any point. In these 8 points I’m gonna include Blurb and Cover art as well cause I  think that these are the 2 things that draws the readers attention to the books and no one ever really talks about them in reviews. I think that these are also important enough to comment on. The categories in which I’m gonna break down my review are as following:

  1. Plot 
  2. Characters
  3. Romance
  4. Writing
  5. Beginning 
  6. Ending (it’s really important, specially in series.)
  7. Cover Art (90% of the time I decide whether to read a book based on it’s cover art.)
  8. Blurb (yes, sometimes they mislead and that has to be pointed out!)

I’m having a great feeling now that I’ve made it official. The only concern is that I’ll have to review the old titles again in this format (but that can wait, right!)

I’d love to hear what you think about my new format. Fell free to share what’s on your mind 🙂

Have a great day 😀

Book Review: Exotica (Nightshade cases, Ep-2)

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Genre: Crime | Paranormal | Thriller | Episodes

My Rating: 5+1/2 out of 6

Read my review of Exotica at JC’s Book Haven.

You can also read this review at Goodreads.

Blurb:

Bodies wash up on the Silver City beach all the time, but this one is different. Detective Geraldine Meyers is hot on the case, with help from medical examiner Dr. Rachel Hunter and anthropologist Dr. Kinsey DanAllart, uncovering the truth behind deaths at a popular new nightclub. Will they deduce a logical explanation for the murders? Or will the three friends uncover a deeper conspiracy hiding the truth about what’s stalking their city’s streets?

Welcome to The Nightshade Cases, a series of twenty-one episodes in twenty-one weeks. Please note: this episodic series is based on the television show model, with screenwriting notations and shorter formats. There will be a complete mystery each week, with cliffhangers only occurring in the full season story line.

NaNoWriMo

Finally after giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, after all it’s about having fun and interacting with other authors, and yea… writing (a lot!)

This will be my first time participating in a writing competition, except for a few I took part in when I was in school. I’m really nervous as I’ve just started writing and that too I write around 300-500 words per day, so this is going to be huge. I’m gonna try and write atleast 1500 words per day (pssst…. like that’s easy) and I’m just gonna make sure that atleast by the end of November I have a solid plot and strong characters.

I’m sure that you guys might also be participating. My profile name is Heena Rathore P. and the link to my NaNoWriMo profile is here. I’d love to be your writing buddy… the more we are the better! Please leave your profile links or names in the comments section and I’ll be happy to add you 🙂

10694326_10152844196391972_1173854102381313588_oA quick update on RMFAO Buddy-Read: Me and my friends (11 people) will be starting with Pet Sematary today. I’ll be posting my progress and few discussions here weekly or so. If you wanna join our buddy-read, drop in at RMFAO and just introduce yourself at the discussion board.

A Wish Come True!

Hey guys…

I have a very happy post to share with all you lovely people today! I’ve got my Note-4, Charcoal Black!

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My Baby!

Since the time I got my first Note, I’ve been a huge fan of Samsung phones (yes, I like them even more than iPhones!) I love the easy interface of Notes and the unlimited access to all the apps you can possibly imagine (thanks to android!) I love everything about them, right from the feel of the phone to the looks, they are just brilliant!

Last week I saw the video launch of Note-4 and since then  I haven’t been able to sleep (you can watch it here.) I love Note-2 but I didn’t like the design of Note 3 so I passed on the chance to get it. But Note-4 is like perfection redefined! The brilliant display and the unbelievably smooth touch are just amazeballs! The front and back camera is pretty awesome and I absolutely fell in love with it that day when I first saw it in that video.

Vishal knows how obsessed I can get when it comes to gadgets (being a girl doesn’t mean I can’t obsess over gadgets!) and he really understands my love for technology. I knew that my behaviour will lead him to buy this baby for me but I thought I’ll get it as my birthday present in December. What I didn’t know was that Vishal knows me so well that he already booked Note-4 just  one day after it’s release in India, and trust you me,  he totally took me by surprise when he took me to the Samsung Store today and started talking to the guy about our product! I really got hysterical and when I realised that he was talking about my phone I literally burst into tears! OMG it was such a precious moment!

But in no time I wiped my tears, hugged and kissed him and then jumped to the Note 4 kept for display. I was playing around with it the entire time till we got ours. Then we just rushed home and I cried some more (God… I was so overwhelmed!) and then I did a long happy dance, which I’m sure was a treat for Vishal! lol!

I was glued to it the entire evening and right now I’m writing this post on my Note-4 itself! I’m really, really happy and here’s my first Note-4 Selfie:

First Note-4 Selfie!
First Note-4 Selfie!

Thanks for reading the post and being a part of my happiest day!

PS: As promised in the post L’ORÉAL’s Medium-Brown it is!, you can see the hair colour I was talking about in the above picture! 😀

I hope you all have a great day ahead!

Ciao 🙂

Book Review: Shadow Cursed

Shadow Cursed


Author: Gelo R. Fleisher
Release Date: March 21, 2013
Series: None
Genre: Fantasy | Fiction | Paranormal
Edition: mobi
Pages: 110
Publisher: Self-Published
Interest: Requested by author
Source: Author (Thanks a lot Gelo!)
Buy it here: Amazon

Blurb

Bolen is a thief, plying his trade under the spires of an ancient and sprawling city. Worried that he’s growing too old, Bolen has lined up a risky job, just to prove that he can still pull one off.
Tonight, he’s going to break into a nobleman’s vault and help himself to its contents. What he doesn’t know is that inside is the key to a secret as old as the city itself.
Kings have killed for it, demons have coveted it, priests have prayed for it, and in a few moments it will be in his hands. And when it is, the adventure of his life will begin.

Review

4Positives

Shadow Cursed is a beautiful tale of a thief named Bolen and how he lands in an unexpected situation and ultimately overcomes it. The character of Bolen is developed beautifully and I felt the connection with him almost instantly. The plot is quite simple but it’s simplicity is quite mesmerizing! It might sound weird but this book had an odd satisfying feel to it, the way fairy tales have on children. It made me feel that the world is a good place and that it’s not as wicked as we believe it is. This book made me feel like a child who is just hoping for a good ending throughout the entire read. I wanted to see Bolen happy at the end more than anything.

This book had me under it’s spell and that too a really fine one! It has some really good surprises which makes it a must read for everyone.

Negatives

None.

Conclusion

Shadow Cursed is a powerful short and simple read. I’d recommend it to everyone who loves to read a fine book.

You can also read this review at Goodreads | Leafmarks | Booklikes.

Other Stuff

Opening Line: “All through the city, the first signs of daylight made themselves known.”

Highlights: Simplicity of the plot.

Low-lights: None.

Memorable Quote:

But laying there, looking out over the city, he felt content. He was happy, truly satisfied for the first time that he could remember. He’d done something worthwhile, something that would last after he was dead and gone, and that felt good. “I don’t know what comes next. Maybe it doesn’t matter.”

Final Thoughts: A beautiful story.

 

RMFAO Buddy-Read #1: Pet Sematary

Hi guys!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

As most of you know that I’ve created a group on Goodreads, RMFAO (if not, then read about it here or visit the group on Goodreads here.) In November we’ll be having our first buddy-read. Being a huge Stephen King’s fan I wanted to begin the buddy-reads with one of his books and the book that got selected through poll is Pet Sematary. Pet SemataryIf you are interested in reading this book with us in our buddy-read then you are most welcome! There are total 10 people so far who’ll be reading in this buddy-read. You just have to let me know and obviously be prepared with the book by 1st Nov’14.

As everyone already has tons and tons of books to read, we’ve planned to read a single book in the entire month (this way you can participate in this buddy-read without affecting your schedule.) We’ll discuss the pages we read everyday, so feel free to drop by anytime (even if you aren’t participating.)

You can also participate in the discussions if you’ve already read the book.

Lemme know if you have any queries (lol! like this is an exam notice….psssttt…), still lemme know if there’s anything! Visit the discussion board of Buddy-Read#1: Pet Sematary here.

PS: Currently I’m running a poll at RMFAO for deciding the genre for Buddy-Read #2 (Dec’14). If you wish to participate in that then drop by and vote for your favourite genre! Vote here.

Have a great week ahead!

Keep blogging ❤

Book Review: Girl Nevermore

22931555Genre: YA | Contemporary | Dark-Fiction

My Rating: 3 + 1/2

Read my review of Girl Nevermore at JC’s Book Haven.

You can also read this review at Goodreads.

Blurb: Last week, Cooper Mesa was a quiet, studious bookworm.
This week, she feels unworthy of love or forgiveness.
When Cooper’s twin sister, Kayla, tries to end her own life, Cooper blames herself. If only she had paid more attention…
Desperate to understand her sister’s decision, Cooper starts down a dark path, discovering her own inner turmoil. Losing herself is easy, but finding a reason to live is becoming impossible.