Princeless: The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Plot Summary:

Princess Adrienne is taking a detour from rescuing her sisters and helps out "Princess" Raven, aka The Black Arrow, out of her tower and back onto her ship.

Review:

The latest book in the Princeless series, The Pirate Princess does a wonderful job of continuing the sense of fun and adventure. I absolutely love Raven's character and her interactions with Adrienne and Bedelia. All three are kick-butt ladies. The expansion of world this story takes place in is very well written and fits with with the series. I loved reading the history of the Xingtao bloodline. Everything about this book made me smile, especially the representation of the greatness of steak!

Hoot!Hoot!

Hoot!Hoot!

Hoo

Armchair BEA: Character Chatter & Blogging Q&A

Character Chatter

It's no secret that I am a complete Peter Clines fan girl. I literally jumped for joy when I got approved for an ARC copy of The Fold. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that the character I want to talk about most, that I would LOVE to meet in real life, is Barry (aka Zzzap) from the Ex-Heroes series. I was delighted to see him on the cover of the fourth book, Ex-Purgatory. 

I think one of the things I love most about Barry is that, yes, he's the comic relief, but he's also the most straightforward character. In a post-apocalyptic world with zombies and people pushing their own political agendas, Barry is always just trying to help out as many people as possible. He actually does help the most people because, in his Zzzap form, he's actually able to provide power for the entire Mount which allows the survivors to be productive and grow more and better food.

Best of all, Barry owns his role as the comic relief. Because he is the power source for the Mount in his Zzzap form for possibly days in a row, he gets bored. So to keep himself entertained he watches every DVD people can get their hands on. Of course, no new ones are being made, so he has to watch them again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and...you get the idea. Unfortunately this makes him a bit more difficult for Clines to write (you can't have Barry knowing about a pop culture reference from after the apocalypse) but I definitely appreciate the effort Clines puts into it. Barry's jokes are always just what I need.

To sum up, if I could say only one thing to Barry (aka Zzzap) it's this: 

Blogging Q&A

I'm not sure I've really been blogging long enough or well enough to be giving advice on how to do it. I guess I can summarize all the advice I've been given:

1 - Your blog, your rules. You set the schedule, you decide what gets posted.

2 - Don't stress the numbers. 

3 - If it stops being fun, stop doing it.

Armchair BEA: Visual Expressions & Social Media

Visual Expressions: Comic Books!

I haven't always been interested in comic books. I was certainly encouraged to read them, though. My mother grew up having to hide her Thor and Conan the Barbarian comic books so whenever I expressed the slightest interest, she encouraged. Truly my mom is awesome!

It wasn't until a little before grad school that I really got interested in comic books and graphic novels. This interest was sparked by a combination of reading The Watchmen for a class and getting interested in web comics. I actually credit Looking for Group with being my first ever web comic. I'm still reading everything that they're posting. 

My first real comic book series that I got into was The Goon by Eric Powell (not for the faint of heart). This is the series that I fall back on when I am in need of a quick, good read. Powell is great at capturing the dark side of the paranormal. I absolutely love this series and will continue to read it for as long as Powell writes it.

Social Media: To Each Their Own

When it comes to social media, I really did try to combine my blogging with facebook, but I learned quickly that I like to keep my "work life" and my family life separate. Facebook has become solely for family and friends that I've met in person. Twitter has become my book/blogging/gaming/hobby haven. I'm happy to have found my balance and am able to use both sites to help me out.

I have to admit, I do not use Instagram, Vine, or Tumblr. I've been tempted to use the first one, especially given how many Instagram challenges there are these days, but I just can't find the time to get into it. 

Armchair BEA: Introductions & Library Love

Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from? How did you get into blogging?

I haven't been blogging for very long. Just a year or so (even less time on this particular blog). But it is something that I enjoy very much.

I was born and raised in Michigan. The only time I haven't lived here was when I went to college in Iowa for 4 years. 

My first book blog was originally meant to be a collaboration between me and some friends for a reading competition we were doing. Didn't work out, but I've been continuing to blog book reviews since. 

What book are you reading right now?

Top of my list is Unnatural Creatures, compiled by Neil Gaiman. I've got so many books that I still need to finish. Been in a reading slump of late. :( 

What is the top book in your TBR pile?

Just one? Hmm...I've actually got a few books in the pipeline. A couple from French Press Bookworks and another that I'll be getting from the library. I try to read at least one non-fiction book per month and I haven't been able to finish any of the ones that I've started so I'll probably focus on one of those.

What is your theme song?

It changes from year to year, season to season, but for the moment, I'm gonna go with: Rhinoceratops vs Super Puma by Ninja Sex Party.

What is your favorite genre and why?

I used to always answer this question with "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" as though they were easily interchangeable. These days, however, I have to answer with Science Fiction. I love Sci-Fi so much more than fantasy, especially the stuff that is heavy on the science. I also like it more because, I'm noticing, the more we learn about science, the more "Fantasy" becomes "Science Fiction". 

Mini-Review: Go Ahead & Like It by Jacqueline Suskin

I have to admit, "Go Ahead & Like It" was a lot more interesting and a lot less interactive than I thought it would be. I thought this was just going to be a bunch of blank pages where you were going to write a list of likes based on a theme. Instead, I got a true story about the effects of writing and collecting lists of likes.

The graphics of this book were very good. Just as the author collects her lists of likes, the book itself felt like a scrapbook of likes.

This book is fun for a quick, somewhat introspective read. I'll definitely be giving a copy of this to my mother. I recommend it for anyone who needs a technique to handle copious amounts of stress in their lives.


*This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review by Blogging For Books.