Off the Bookshelf: RUINED, by Paula Morris

Sometimes you get the nicest surprises in raffle baskets.

This YA book came in a basket I won at a writing conference, and like so many others in my to-be-read bookrack (3 shelves still) it has been waiting more than a year for me to pick it up. I finally grabbed enough books to fill the small folding bookholder that sits on the table next to my bed, committed on Goodreads to actually read these specific titles, and now I'm going through them. It's actually turning into a good system -- you commit, you've written it down somewhere, and you actually go through with it ....

This one is rather sad, and a little disturbing, when you get down to it -- but I can't tell you the disturbing part without giving away so much of the story! Other than to say that some people are so selfish and consider themselves entitled to the point that they will do in their own family so they can come out on top.  Question: Why don't people ever learn that in trying to evade a prophecy, or twist it to end up your way, you're actually causing the prophecy to come true?

What's it about? Well, Rebecca is a New York girl sent to live with some relatives in New Orleans -- only she's pretty sure her aunt and cousin aren't really blood relatives -- when her father goes to China on company business. Immediately she is flung into the conflict of the class struggle in the microcosm of an exclusive girls' school. She's an outsider, a nobody, as the girls tell her, outright or with every action and look and word. Her "aunt" is an unique character, with her own style, and tells fortunes for a living. Then there's the cemetery across the street, and the snobby kids who go into the cemetery at night to hang out. As you would expect, one of the snobby boys turns out to be angsty and unhappy with how his "gang" treats other people, and he seems to want to be friends with Rebecca. What isn't expected is that one of the friends Rebecca makes is a ghost living in the cemetery.

Secrets and curses and prophecies and class struggle and the excesses and snobbery of Mardi Gras and krewes and a strong taste and feel for what it's like in NOLA in the winter ... this one grabs your attention and carries you along to a satisfying and sad ending.

Off the Bookshelf: FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, by Rhonda Stapleton

I always like to pick up books in a series -- and books by people I know -- so FLIRTING WITH DISASTER already had points in its favor before I picked it up.

To be honest, it's been sitting on my shelf for more than a year .... but as anyone who regularly visits here knows, sometimes my goal of at least one book a week ... falls by the wayside. I have so many deadlines of my own, sometimes it takes me two and three weeks to get to the end of a book that I'm reading just for pleasure and fun.

And this book is both.

This is the second book in the STUPID CUPID series, a YA series that's teen angst and comedy and high school torment and romance. Felicity is ... Cupid. Or at least she's one of thousands of modern cupids, using technology to make matches. Only sometimes things don't quite go according to plan. Face it, the girl -- a high school student -- has a lot to learn about putting people together. Especially when it comes to "easy solutions" for her own heartache problems and making her best friends happy.

I won't give too much away by telling you what's essentially on the back cover copy -- Felicity matches up one of her friends, who promptly forgets all the rules of being a BFF for the sake of the guy ... and then matches up the boy she's been in love with for years, to end her own angst and temptation ... and by mistake makes the entire school fall in love with him. Fortunately the initial love spell only lasts a few weeks, but a lot of things happen in those weeks.

Lots of fun, some deep wisdom and lessons learned. You'll grin and sigh and nod and sympathize your way through this book -- and the series.

Do you visit GOODREADS?

I hope you visit Goodreads regularly -- but if you don't, then start NOW!

Why?

Because I give away FREE BOOKS on Goodreads -- they're called Giveaways -- and that's the tab you want to look for under the Explore section. Or you can click here on GIVEAWAYS. Isn't that easy?

Starting today, I am giving away 2 copies of SUNSINGER, the first book in the Sunsinger YA science fiction series, belonging to my Commonwealth Universe. The giveaway will last 2 weeks.

After that, a new giveaway starts, with a copy of SPACER'S CREED, the 2nd book in the Sunsinger series. Every 2 weeks, a new book to give away, until we get all the way through to Book 10, SCOUTS.

And there are tons of other books being given away FREE on Goodreads every day. If I didn't have so many books piled up, waiting to be read, both in my to-be-read bookrack and in my iPad, I might be haunting the Giveaways page every couple of days and entering more giveaway drawings.