Sunday Post #12: Is It Really Almost Christmas?

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

Sunday Post #12: Seriously, it's Christmas Week Already? Where did the Year Go?

So I haven't posted any of this type of posts in awhile, but I'm getting back on track and here we go.  A little bit more about what has been going on with me, my life has gone a bit crazy lately and with my mom breaking her foot and other real life stuff going on, I haven't had much time to do anything.  Like I said though, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

Was able to get almost all my Christmas shopping finished this weekend, I have three more presents to get, but will have to get those on Tuesday with my fiance.  Hopefully, we can get them quick and in time.  Now all I have to do is wrap everything, YIKES!! Someone come help me, save me from the one thing I hate to do during Christmas.  

I did reach my year goal for Goodreads, it was only 70 books this year, but so far I've gone over 2.  Going to shoot for a total of 75 by the end of this month.  I'm half way through the third so just maybe I might actually reach that goal as well.

My haul this week is going to be huge, a fair warning, the amazing publishing company Scholastic has sent me some pretty amazing books this past week and I'm super excited to show you what all I have received.

LAST WEEK ON THE BLOG

• A Shade of Blood by Bella Forrest (Review) 
• Take a Break Watch a Vid for the book Passenger (Which I'm reading right now) 
• Did I Mention I Love You Blog Tour: Spotlight and Giveaway 
• First day of the 7 Day Blogging Holiday Challenge

THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

This week is Christmas Eve and Christmas, but I'm going to get a few posts scheduled to go live this week, including at least one review. (Hopefully two!)

• It's Monday (My reading list for this week!) 
• Teaser Tuesday
• Top 10 Wednesday (YEP I joined this bandwagon.  I needed something for Wednesdays.) 
• Review: Christmas Curveball and hopefully Lover Unbound (Keeping my fingers crossed for two reviews this week)
• This week there will also be a topic post each day.  The 7 Day Blogging Holiday Challenge starts! (This started yesterday!) 

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE

• Over at Parajunkee, she is hosting a blogging challenge that I'm in this week.  It's all about Christmas and the holidays.  I love all the topics!  

NEW ARRIVALS TO ALI'S BOOKSHELF

I received a few boxes from Scholastic this past week and I'm very excited to share some of the books with you. Each of these are for review and will be posted as soon as I finish reading them.  There are more than what's in the pictures, but I'll share more of them possibly next weekend or the following weekend.  

For Review

 Whatever After Once Upon A Frog

Fortune Fall

TombQuest The Stone Warrior 

Ranger In Time

 Nnewts #2

Bunny Vs Monkey 

My Name is Not Friday

 Ninjago: The New Ninja 

Stella and the Night Sprites #1

Princess Pink and the Land of fake Believe #4

The Puppy Place Sugar, Gummi and Lollipop

Posy the Puppy #1

Blossom the Flower Girl Fairy 

Backstories Batman Gotham City's Guardian 

Pokemon Now You See It Kalos Edition

 Race the Wild  #4

Silver Pony Ranch #2 Sweet Buttercup

Sit, Stay, Love 

11 Birthdays 

Mark of the Thief 

Blue Lily, Lily Blue 

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

The Big Dark

Endure

See How They Run  

Gifted Books: (Still will be reviewed at some point) 

My amazing fiance got this for me for our Anniversary, we've been together for one whole year and before you ask I've known him since I was eleven.  Anyway, there are three great books in this little library collection and they are the school books from the Harry Potter world.  

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

Quidditch  through the Ages

The Tales of Beedle and Bard 

(A huge thanks goes out to Scholastic Press for most of these fantastic books.  Even the Harry Potter ones I got as a gift are published by Scholastic so thank you so much.  Reviews are coming soon!)


 

TOTALLY RANDOM

7 Day Holiday Blogging Challenge: Day 2

It's day two of this great challenge and I'm super excited about today's topic. Again the 7 Day Holiday Blogging Challenge is being hosted by the wonderful Parajunkee.  To learn more about this challenge, CLICK HERE. 

 

Today's Topic is Fave Holiday Scene in a Book

Now this one was hard for me to figure out.  I have so many favorite books that have Holiday scenes in them and most of you are going to say the obvious, which of course is Harry Potter.  Before anyone yells at me for not picking Harry Potter, it is one of my favorites, but I didn't want to use the example everyone was going to use.  So instead I picked one that I'm thinking not many will even think of. 

My favorite holiday scene in a book comes from The Ultimate Gift. Now this book was turned into an amazing movie on the Hallmark channel and I love the movie so much.  The book is way better of course, and there are three books to be exact in the series.  

The scene I'm talking about is one where the main character gives a little girl her Christmas wish, to ride a horse, but come to find out the little girl is scared of horses and the real wish was for her mom to get to ride.  She also really wanted to see snow and Christmas lights and of course he does that for the little girl as well. 

The main character in this story is one that was used to having everything handed to him and the grandfather ends up dying, he leaves him little tasks to do or tests and if he can complete them he will get what the grandfather called the Ultimate gift.  Well he met the little girl when he had to help a stranger and it all falls into place after that.  Oh and I don't want to give anything else away, but this book will make you cry.  Fair warning, don't come back to me yelling because I didn't warn you! It's a fantastic story though, about love and not giving up. 

and Merry Christmas (Even though it's a few day's early still)

7 Day Holiday Blogging Challenge: Day 1

This post was supposed to go live this morning, but real life got in my way and I had to take care of my mom today due to her breaking her foot in three places and she had to have surgery.  I'm the only one that's been able, other than my sister-in-law, to take care of her.  So with that being said, I'm going to jump right into today's post. 

For those of you that haven't heard of this challenge before, it's hosted by the amazing Parajunkee herself and I'm super excited about it.  To learn more information or to join in, CLICK HERE.

Today's topic is A Gift You're Giving. 

Not sure if you all know, but in my family I'm pretty much known as the Book Aunt and every year everyone of my nieces and nephews get at least one book.  That hasn't changed this year and of course I'm giving some great books this year.  Two of which are Insurgent by Veronica Roth and All Fall Down by Ally Carter.

I love giving books and sharing my love of reading with my family.  That of course includes my kids.  They are each getting about twenty books a piece this year which is honestly a bit low of a number for them, but hey sometimes you can only buy what you can buy.  

(I can't tell you who each of these books are for, seeing as one of the people I bought one of these fantastic books for reads my blog.) 

 

Book Blogger Hop #13

Book Blogger Hop is another post I'm going to be trying out and this one has a topic each week, which is something I've been trying to bring to the blog.  I'm really excited about this one because I have a hard time coming up with something fresh to talk about and I'm hoping this helps.   

If you would be interested in doing your own post, please CLICK HERE to learn more about this great hop! 

This Weeks Question

 

Which format do you use? Blogger, Word Press, or an independent format? Any reason for your choice?

Well first of all, this blog is hosted on Blogger and it will remain on Blogger.  Mainly because it's free and I actually like it.  It's what I've been using since the start, yes there are a lot of things I wish I could do on Blogger that I could do on Word Press, but I don't see any reason to change my blog over just for those small things.

I have my business websites on Word Press and really in the long run, I have liked Blogger better.

Review: A Shade of Blood (A Shade of Vampire #2)

Title: A Shade of Blood
Author: Bella Forrest
Series: A Shade of Vampire Book #2
Date Published:   April 8th 2013
Format: Ebook
Pages: 340 pages
ASIN #: B00C8324IS

In A Shade Of Blood, Bella Forrest transports you deeper into a unique, enthralling and beautifully sensitive story. Prepare to be lost in its pages… When Sofia Claremont was kidnapped to a sunless island, uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet, she believed she’d forever be a captive of its dark ruler, Derek Novak. Now, after months of surviving an endless night, the morning sun may soon rise again for Sofia. Something has possessed Derek’s heart and he offers her a gift no human slave has ever been given in the history of his cursed island: escape. High school, prom and a chance to move on with her life now await her. But will she be able to forget the horrors that steal her sleep away at night? … and the feelings that haunt her for that tormented prince of darkness?

In the second book of this fantastic series, we once again follow the story of Sofia and her beloved Prince of the Shade, but will is she really in love with him or does she just think she is? That's the main question that has gone through my head the whole time while reading this one.  Author Bella Forest is an author that can describe things and every time you read a word you can picture said item in your head.  For instance, the buildings/houses in the shade.  I can picture the Princes tree house in my mind clearly.  I really love that about these books, her descriptions are so vivid and come to life as you read the story. 

I'm still not sure about the Prince though, I don't want to give any spoilers away, but let's just say I was a bit more sure about what he wanted and what he was feeling by the end of this book.  Which of course made me very happy, because I wasn't so sure in the first book.  

The characters in this series are fantastic and I'm really enjoying the growth I'm seeing in each one of them.  Including all the other vampires in the Shade, you really get to know a few other's in this book, which again made me really happy.  Sophia is the one that surprised me more in this book than she had in the first.  Let's just say, she's a bit stronger than I was giving her credit for in the first one. 

Again, A Shade of Blood is told in three point of views, which at first I didn't enjoy, but now I am starting to really love.  You get to see the story from a different angle so to say. 

I was a bit taken back by a few of the new characters though and not sure what to think about them, even now that I've finished the book.  One in particular comes in at the very end and I was just staring at my Kindle like oh crap what's going to happen now? So I can't wait to start reading the next book.  So glad I already have the next and don't have to wait to read it. 

All in all, A Shade of Blood is a book that I would recommend to any of the Vampire loving Young Adult book readers out there.  I hadn't read a vampire book in a while before I started this series and now I'm head over heels for it.  The authors writing voice is perfection and even though there are so many books in this series, I'm not stopping now.  I can't wait to see what will happen and I'm pretty sure you will feel the same way.  

I have to give A Shade of Blood an Ali's Bookshelf

Here at Ali's Bookshelf we accept books in exchange for a honest review. The book above though I bought for myself, but still wanted to review it.