#NowReading: McCormick Templeman's The Glass Casket and Stacey Jay's Of Beast and Beauty

Summary on Goodreads:

Death hasn't visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders' bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.

Rowan's village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan's door once again.

Only this time, its appetite is insatiable

Summary at Goodreads:

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2014

So, Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up and I hope to God that it won't be a failure on my part like last month. Ugh. I was torn between finishing a book or a starting a book on Camp NaNoWriMo but voted into starting a book. It's the one I've talked about a couple of days ago, the one that came to me in a dream (but then again all my books came from a dream). 

This is the book where the main character will be a boy (fingers crossed!). His name is Seth Matthews and he has two siblings, Jonah and Lesley and they live with their uncle James Warner (uncle from their mother's side). All three teenagers will have superpowers mostly something to do with ghosts while their uncle is as ordinary as everyone else in the world. 

Poor uncle James will have his hands full. 

As I said before, this will be the first time that I'll be writing a story with a boy MC so...wish me luck. Oh, and I haven't figured out a title yet. I'm going for my fall back title for now: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Summary

Seth Matthews and his two siblings has a knack for finding trouble, or as they often protested, trouble has a way of finding them. 

Having three teenagers in one house you expect a certain amount of trouble, but their Uncle James Warner, was so not prepared for their kind of trouble. 

When other parents have to worry about drugs, curfew, alcohol, and safe sex, James has to worry about noises in the night, things moving on their own and exorcism.

When other parents have to buy frozen pizza and soda in bulk, James is buying salt, occult books and fashioning iron bits into jewelry.

When other parents go to PTA meetings, James has a network of respected and dubious occult experts. 

It's hard to take care of three teenagers, it's even harder to take care of three teenagers with supernatural powers.

Excerpt:

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be delighted waking up to see two girls fighting over who would have his body.

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be screaming his lungs out when he figured out that he could actually see through both girls.

But he wasn't any other kind of guy, he was Seth, so when he saw the two girl-ghosts smacking the hell out of each other, he reacted like Seth would do: he blinked, yawn, scratched and thought about breakfast.

#NowReading Sarah Rees Brennan's The Lynburn Legacy 3 Unmade and Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass 3 Heir of Fire.

summary from Goodreads

Who will be the sacrifice?

Kami has lost the boy she loves, is tied to a boy she does not, and faces an enemy more powerful than ever before. With Jared missing for months and presumed dead, Kami must rely on her new magical link with Ash for the strength to face the evil spreading through her town.

Rob Lynburn is now the master of Sorry-in-the-Vale, and he demands a death. Kami will use every tool at her disposal to stop him. Together with Rusty, Angela, and Holly, she uncovers a secret that might be the key to saving the town. But with knowledge comes responsibility—and a painful choice. A choice that will risk not only Kami’s life, but also the lives of those she loves most.

This final book in the Lynburn Legacy is a wild, entertaining ride from beginning to shocking end

Summary from Goodreads

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

I know, both books are written by women named Sarah and both are the third books in a series. My subconscious likes to connect things. It does this often whether I'm buying movies or reading books there's always something similar. *shrugs*

About Boo and the Power of Procrastination

Boo, my kitten has gotten so big. They grow up so fast *sob*. He still likes to bite and nibble but we finally have a schedule. On mornings we play with monkeys and then if it's hot outside, I bathe him and dry ourselves outside while we eat and take naps. 

Then we play and then eat and nap some more. 

Since he's beginning to like run around I have to give him a bell. I didn't have a bell small enough so I had this big ass light bell that I attached to his collar (which I crochet. Ha). He nibbles on it first but then he sort of got used to it. 

Boo likes to run. A lot. Good thing we have monkeys so he jumps and chases after them. He spends a lot of energy when playing with them. 

Boo still likes to sleep on my arms and although I try to keep him of me when I had to work, he still perseveres as showed below. I actually lifted up my hand above my laptop and he was starting to slid off my arm but still he clung. Stubborn kitten. 

Anyway, I have been holding off on writing more of DreamWalkers because there's just something not right about it, I had to let it simmer inside my head for a while and lo and behold, finally figured out how to make things work. SOMEONE NEEDS TO DIE. 

See, procrastination does work. 

And yes, authors are evil. 

Snippet of something I'm working on.

So, I had this dream last night and I just had to write down.

Surprisingly, the main character is a boy. This is my first attempt on writing a boy as an MC. Pray for me. Will need to hit several of my boys for keeping the character in...well, character.

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be delighted waking up to see two girls fighting over who would have his body.

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be screaming his lungs out when he figured out that he could actually see through both girls.

But he wasn't any other kind of guy, he was Seth, so when he saw the two girl-ghosts smacking the hell out of each other, he reacted like Seth would do: he blinked, yawn, scratched and thought about breakfast. 

Copyright © 2014 by D.F. Jules

#nowreading: Cassandra Clare's City of Heavenly Fire

summary on Goodreads

Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the word in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!

I just caught myself giving a pep talk (to myself) on not fearing things to end before they begin in regards of reading the last book in a series (I haven't even touched Cassandra Clare's City of Heavenly Fire and Sarah Rees Brennan's Unmade because I'm so scared of reaching the end of the book) and it sounds painfully like when people encouraged their friends in the start of a relationship with their significant others. 

I'm such a nerd. LOL. #bookgeek #NerdandProud

Death is a messy business.

-Opening sentence in a yet untitled book.

Finally reaching the end of editing Wolf at the Door (Oathbreakers #1) so I can finally come back to DreamWalkers.

#NowReading: Frank Tuttle's All the Paths of Shadow and Marie Rutkoski's The Winner's Curse

Summary from Goodreads

“Walk warily, walk swiftly, walk away.”

The king’s orders were clear enough. “Move the tower’s shadow,” he bellowed. “I refuse to deliver my commencement speech from the dark.”

As the newly appointed mage to the Crown of Tirlin, Meralda Ovis has no choice but to undertake King Yvin’s ill-conceived task. Tirlin’s first female mage, and the youngest person to ever don the robes of office, Meralda is determined to prove once and for all that she deserves the title. The Tower, though, holds ancient secrets all its own. Secrets that will soon spell destruction for all of Tirlin—unless Meralda can unravel a monstrous curse laid by a legendary villain seven centuries before she was born.

An ancient curse. A haunted tower. A clamorous gathering of nobles, mages, and kings from the Five Realms come together in Tirlin for the fifth-year Accords. Meralda finds herself facing far darker foes than any mere shadow of the tower.

Summary from Goodreads

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.