Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along, part 3!

It's that time again! I hope I'm not too far behind. Came down with a Sinus Infection this week, and I'm on antibiotics. Feeling a little better now, but for a while there I thought I was going to die. Anyway, happy times! It's my 3rd installment of the Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along questions!

http://www.tinasbookreviews.com/2012/07/read-along-fairy-metal-thunder-week-3.html">http://www.tinasbookreviews.com/2012/07/read-along-fairy-metal-thunder-week-3.html

Since I've already read the book, and have finished my re-read, answering the questions doesn't spoil me!

Unfortunately I don't have pictures this time, since I'm so far behind! But here goes...

Here are my answers to the third batch of questions:

In the beginning of chapter 14, poor Jason is having a tough time at work. Its busy, people are rude, there are hot girls talking to him, big lady's are about to starve, all in all bad work day. So tell us about a time when you had to deal with a pushy customer or rude behavior, did you freak, keep it together, throw a slawburger?

I'm a bit of a door mat, so whenever I had rude customers, I'd just sit there and take it. I worked at a bank as a teller, and thank goodness my manager had more guts than I did. She would swoop in and save me.

In chapter 16 Jason is getting ready to shoot his rocking music video and perform for a crowd. Have you ever made a rock video, been in a play or anything that shows you doing something with musical talent? Extra points if you want to show us.

Oh gosh, I did all sorts of musical theater growing up. I was Peppermint Patty in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"... TWICE. Once in the 6th grade with a community theater group, and then again when I was a senior in High School. I think this freckled, red-head was type-cast.

No, I don't want to show you. ;) Maybe if you get me drunk enough.

Speaking of videos, the boys have a little chat about Steven Spielberg in chapter 17, what is your favorite Spielberg movie? Can't think of one...well then tell us about one of your favorite Sci-fi movies.

I was scared crapless at Jurassic Park when I saw it in the theater. I didn't really watch the movie, I watched my mom's shoulder. (See if you can calculate my age there. XD)

At the end of Chapter 17 the guys say bye to Dred who is getting ready to move, did you ever have to start over in a new school or new place when you were in highschool? Was it good, bad...horrible?

My elementary school and high school were literally 1.5 blocks away from my house growing up. So, no. But going to college 60 miles away from my hometown was a bit of an eye opener. I was shy, spent a lot of time on the internet, and didn't make many friends. It wasn't great. But I met the guy who introduced me to my now-husband and father of my two beautiful daughters, so i can't complain.

If you had a pet Unicorn what would you name it?

I think my daughter would disown me if I didn't name my (her) new Unicorn after one of the G4 My Little Ponies unicorns. So I'd probably go with Rarity. She's my favorite. (I'm such a Mom that I know all the Ponies!)

And just for fun: Would you rather be pecked to death by a vulture or eat a Goblins toenails???

I think a Goblin's toenails would kill me! So um... How about being pecked to death while eating toenails? Might as well make my demise as spectacular as possible.

Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along, Part 2!

I'm excited to be participating in the Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along, second part found here:

http://paranormalbookreviews-kelly.blogspot.com/2012/07/fairy-metal-thunder-read-alongscavenger_13.html

Since I've already read the book, I'm hoping (and sort of failing!) to keep up with the hunt. Even chasing around a couple of kids, I'll hopefully be able to post. So long as I get things done early. :)

Unfortunately I don't have pictures this time, since I'm so far behind!  But here goes...

Here are my answers to the second batch of questions:

1. Unfairly grounded by his parents, Jason decides to lie to them so he can go to the audition in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, not only does the audition end poorly but his parents discover his lie and things go downhill from there. Tell us the most outrageous lie you've ever been caught in. Bonus points if you can provide pictorial proof. Reenactments eagerly accepted.
There was a time I was at camp, and one of the counselors at camp was dating a girl from my home town.  Of course, I didn't know they were dating... so when he mentioned her name I said "Oh, that's my brother's girlfriend." ...of course, it was a lie.  I think I threw him for a loop.  He seemed to be caught off guard by me saying it, and he started to ask me all sorts of questions about how their relationship.  Well, once I started, I couldn't stop!  So I made up stuff.  I was young and stupid.

When I got home, the girl came up to me with a smirk on her face, and said "so, I'm your brother's girlfriend, huh?" I hope that she got a good laugh out of it.  I was fairly mortified.

 2. In Faerie, Aoide is summoned to see the Faerie Queen. Have you ever met someone important like the Faerie Queen? Someone famous? Tell us the story behind how it happened. Once again, pictures are a plus!
I lead a relatively boring life.  I went to high school with John Lassater (of Pixar)'s Stepson, and did drama with him in school.  John was always such a sweetheart, and his wife Nancy remembered my name for years after school--even though I wasn't particularly close with her son.  My very best girlfriend went on to work at Pixar, so there's something of a claim to fame there?

I met Lucy Lawless in Disneyland once.  Oh, and I think that Dave Foley thought I was yelling for him once in California Adventure, even though I was calling for my daughter.  He turned around and looked at me expectantly, and I had to tell him I was calling for my little girl.  I'm sure my face was bright red.

 3. Caught lying to his father about his non-existent job at the car wash, Jason has now found gainful employment at Buddy McSlawburger's - where he's forced to wear "the funny hat" as part of his uniform. What's the worst job you've ever had? Did it involve a particularly noxious uniform? Tell us about it - in riveting, full-color detail!
There's an establishment where the coffee servants wear green aprons.  I worked there.  I love serving coffee, but I hate scrubbing toilets.  So that job didn't last!  Other than that, I've never worked somewhere with a uniform.  At least, not an obnoxious one!

 4. In an effort to regain their stolen instruments, Aoide and Rhodia travel to the sugar swamp to hire a hunter. Wouldn't you love to live somewhere where the water is sweet and the grass is made of sugar cane? Show us a picture of you enjoying your favorite sweet treat. Or, rewrite history and tell us how your version of the sugar swamp would differ from the one in the book.
I'm a bit of a sweet junkie, to be perfectly honest.  And what's great is there's a company called "Milkmakers" that makes cookies that support lactation!  As I'm a Nursing Mama, I find their cookies to be absolutely wonderful.

I think the Sugar Swamp in the book is SO creative!  I love the way that the Fairy World seems to run on sweets, and even the vegetables are sugary!  I imagine the swamp to be a lot like the swamp from The Neverending Story, only with huge, bamboo-like sugar reeds sticking up everywhere.  The only thing I might have changed would be to make it more colorful?  In my mind it's a dreary swamp.  Now that I'm writing this, I'm not sure if the colors are mentioned specifically, but that's what I would have done.  Brighten it up, maybe?

--

So, I finished Fairy Metal Thunder, and I've started reading JL Bryan's book Helix.  Looking forwrard to continuing the Scavenger hunt, though!

Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along

I'm excited to be participating in the Fairy Metal Thunder Read-Along found here:

http://theunreadreader.com/2012/06/coming-soon-fairy-metal-thunder-read-along-scavenger-hunt.html

Since I've already read the book, it's going to be easy for me to keep up with the hunt. Even chasing around a couple of kids, I'll hopefully be able to post. So long as I get things done early. :)

Here are my answers to the first batch of questions:

1. At the beginning of the story, the Assorted Zebras are just a garage band, but they are expecting to make it big. Who knows, you just might find yourself at one of their concerts someday. Until then, show me your favorite concert t-shirt. It could be a picture of a concert you actually attended or a pic of a vintage tee of your favorite band. Be sure to tell me the story behind the tee.

Concert T Shirt There was this boy that I liked. I remember seeing him at a party, and telling the host to give him my number. Of course, he didn't, so I had to wait for another party to 'bump' into the boy again. The second time I was a bit braver than the first, and gave him my number. We went to a concert (He liked metal. Eep!) and out to a Hitchcock double feature at the Stanford Movie Theater in Palo Alto, and then we went to see The Killers in San Francisco. Tegan and Sara opened, and I couldn't have been more excited, more giddy. The Killers was one of my favorite bands at the time, so I made sure to buy this shirt to commemorate the night. It was the night of our first kiss, and the night we decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend. It was April 19, 2005. Four years later our first daughter was born on April 18th.

2. Jason’s mom forces him to agree to do some yard work for Mrs. Dullahan, which wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t rumored to be a witch. Tell me about the worst chore you were ever forced to do. Who make you do it? Bonus points if you have a picture to share of you doing the dirty work.

Worst Chore My cats aren't as mean or as scary as the Dullahan, but their poop is probably as stinky. And I have to change the litter box. I'm supposed to do it every day, or at least every other day. But with a toddler and a relatively newborn, it gets to be a bit much. Sometimes it goes almost a week, and I feel awful about how dirty it gets in there. If only the cats would stop pooping, then I wouldn't have to clean the box, right? So, I guess they're the ones who "force" me to do the work. Stupid cats. ;)

3. Uh oh! There seems to be a jewelry thief in the neighborhood. Have you have had anything stolen from you? Or have you ever lost something precious? Did you ever find it? Make a Reward if Found poster for the stolen or lost item. Convince us to find it for you. Make the reward good!

Reward Poster Speaking of cats, one of mine went missing a while back. It was difficult to explain to my toddler where he was. She spent a lot of time looking for him in the house, no matter how many times I explained to her that he was outside and we didn't know where he was. A few days had passed, and I was worried that we were never going to find him again. One of my neighbors, who I often see out walking her dog, came and knocked on my door. The dog had found my cat, apparently, in a bush around the backside of our condo complex. I went out there with a can of tuna, and after a few hours of coaxing, I was able to get him back into our house.

I never gave the dog his reward.

4. In Faerie, Jason declares himself as Jason the Guy Who Wants That Necklace Back. Weird, but then again every name has a meaning. What does your name mean? What is the origin? Do you go by any kind of nicknames? How did you get that nickname?

Name Meaning "Missy" is my nickname. It's my penname, one that I chose about a decade ago when I was involved with online role-playing. There was a girl that I knew of in college who was named Melissa, but went by Missy. I thought it was a nice name, and started to use it. It's become almost more me than my legal name is, hence my using it as my pen name. I've chosen my mother's maiden name as my last name for my writing, because I think it flows better than my legal name.

Anyway, I never thought about what Missy means. Apparently it means Bee. Where did that come from? Crazy. I don't think of a Bee when I think of Missy. I'm assuming they mean a bumblebee, and not a spelling bee. Still, I think it's bizarre.

5. When Jason gets home from his all night adventures through Fairy, his parents unfairly ground him for a month! Care to share a time you were grounded by your parents for no good reason?

I don't think my parents ever grounded me for no good reason. I always gave them a reason, it was just a different severity of good. One of the worst groundings I ever got was when I snuck out of the house in the middle of the night with a girl who was sleeping over and a couple of my brother's friends. My girl friend and I were Freshmen, and my brother's friends were juniors in high school. We were stopped by the police about a mile from my parents' home, and my father had to come out and get me. As punishment for sneaking out of the house, I was forbid from going to the graduation ceremonies to watch my friends graduate.

I went anyway.

Review of Olympia Heights: The Weight of the World

Olympia Heights: The Weight of the World by Amy Leigh Strickland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It feels like so much time has passed since I read the first in this series! I love the writing style; frank and funny, with careful attention to detail and gentle reminders. There are twists that you don't see coming, and though I was attempting to dig into my (embarrassingly) shallow depths of Greek Mythology knowledge to try and figure out who was who and what was going on, I didn't find it distracting. Not like some of the other Greek Mythology-based Young Adult fiction that's out there now-a-days.

The story picks up a little while after it left off, but it feels as if no time has passed at all. I have to admit that I was reading so quickly and excitedly that I found myself having to re-read sections, to go back and try and figure out what I'd missed. I had a little bit of trouble remembering who was who, and which character represented which Greek God, but that's probably because I have a tiny baby distracting me!

I'm finding that I'm falling in love with some of the characters, and wish they were in more of the scenes! Speaking of scenes, I'm loving the scenarios and interactions, and I'm loving the action sequences that take place, keeping me on the edge of my seat.

All in all, I highly recommend this series to everyone I know that loves adventure books, young adult books, greek mythology, or an overall good time. :)

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Review of Fairyland by JL Bryan

Fairyland by J.L. Bryan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's always a good day when I get to download a new Songs of Magic book to my Kindle. Since my second daughter was born 12 weeks ago, I've been a bit out of the loop, so when I found out that Fairyland was out and that I could download and read it, it gave me a serious happy.

This one is a bit more of a roller coaster than the last one, even though they've all been action packed. I'm thrilled that we were given a chance to explore the Fairy world with a set of Human eyes, and that we were able to find out more about certain characters (some of which we had inklings about in the previous works).

There's a lot of comedy along with the adventure and action. It keeps the pages turning. I found myself reading too fast sometimes, and having to go back because I'd missed bits of the action! That's how much I love these books! :)

I highly recommend this series to everyone I know who's looking for something to read, and will continue to do so.

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Review of Rival Demons (Peachville High Demons, #5)

Rival Demons by Sarra Cannon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love this series. It's all building to the conclusion, one that I'm sure to buy and be glued to until it wraps everything up in a nice bow. I've been following Harper's journey from the first book, enjoying the twists and turns of her learning about magic, finding her place, and then discovering the seedy underbelly of the world she was growing to love. Finding out such dark secrets hasn't been easy for the girl, nor has it been easy for us as readers! With every new discovery, we're gasping and turning pages, eager to learn more about this world and what it means for Harper to be involved with it.



Now we've seen more than in any of the other titles in this series; we've been shown the Shadow Demon world--and we love it! Everything from the moons in the sky to the strangely colored animals wandering around the obsidian forest. Now that some other questions have been answered, others have come up. What's going to happen next? Can Harper actually sever the connection between her and Aerdeen? Will she stay in the Southern Kingdom now? Will she and Jackson ever find their happily ever after?



I can't wait to find out.



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Review of Shadow Demons (Peachville High Demons #4)

Shadow Demons by Sarra Cannon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Every time I get to the climax in one of the books in this series, I can't help but think "How on EARTH is she going to get out of this one?" In this book more than the others I've read so far. Sometimes the antagonist is really obvious, though I didn't find that to be much of a problem with this book. I knew who one of the 'bad guy's was from the start (it's obvious from the previous title!) but there were a couple that caught me slightly off guard.



I'm thrilled with the ending, though. I'm rather excited to see what happens next. The next great adventure has started for Harper, and I'm excited to be with her through it.



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