The Sunday Salon (Aug.23)
This week I only finished one book. I have been busy reading, but not finishing a lot of what I read. Just not enough time in my days! LOL.
I did buy a couple of new books, though! Remember my “find vampire reads” kick that I was on last Sunday? Well, I went and bought a couple of the ones I’d found! The first was Christopher Pike’s “Thirst (vol.1)“. I’ve read the first of the three stories, so far, and it was really good. I can’t wait to keep reading!
The other book I bought was yesterday’s impulse buy at the grocery store… they had P.C. Cast’s “House of Night” series for 25% off each book… so I bought book 1, “Marked“. I read the first chapter already, just to get a feel for the book, and it seems like it will be interesting. I would’ve been able to get this one from the local library — had it on hold, even — but it would’ve taken a few months to come in, as I was number 26 in the queue… I just didn’t wanna wait. LOL.
Coming up this week, over at my book reviews blog, I have 2 blog tours, but there will be three (3) books featured! “The Buzzards are Circling…” and “God Has Never Failed Me…” (both by Stan Toler) will be posted for Monday, and “Hope Unleashed” (Andy Hawthorne) will be featured on Wednesday. All tours include the first chapter, so you can read that and get an idea of whether/not you’d like the book. 
I found these to be pretty good, though I enjoyed “Hope Unleashed” the most out of the three.
Next up to be read? I don’t know! I’m torn! I could choose any of the following: “The King’s Legacy” by Jim Stovall (review book), “Never the Bride” by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge (blog tour/review book), “Marked” by P.C. Cast, or “Thirst (vol.1)” by Christopher Pike. What do you think? The review books aren’t due for another 2 weeks… but I have more coming in the mail, so I almost feel like I should read these now. On the other hand, I have 2 weeks where I could read my own choices, before having to dig back into “obligatory” reads. 
So, what to do, what to do…
I’m really leaning towards reading/finishing “Thirst“… it’s good, and I’ve got such a “craving” (pardon the pun!) for vampire books right now! LOL. It’s fairly easy reading (I read all of the first “book” in 1 day), so I could probably get it done quickly…within a day or two. Hmmm…
Anyhoo. Happy reading, everyone! Here’s to a good week full of fantastic reads!
I think you should read what you feel like reading and get to your review books after. I find it’s really hard to read one book when your mind is craving something totally different.
That’s very true, Zia! Thanks for your input!
I read “Marked”. I thought the first chapter was stupid enough to put the book down. (Sorry. I’m picky about writing style.) I read it because a friend adored it and had read the entire story, so I sucked it up and read a couple more chapters. It actually turned out to be pretty interesting. Not great, but lets just say she gets progressively better as she writes and by her second book she’s really quite good.
Like you, I also have too many choices for my next read. They are sound so good! I recently purchased Never the Bride after reading a sample chapter on the Kindle app on my iPhone. I’ll have to check back for the blog tour.
I say read “Never the Bride.” Did you know the author, Cheryl McKay, wrote the screenplay version of Stovall’s book The Ultimate Gift? Coincidence you are torn between the two of them. And Rene did some sort of adaptation of the film version for a book.
No, I had no idea! That is a hilarious coincidence!
~MizB
I’ll be interested to see what you think of Marked. I am a total vampire series junkie but I just couldn’t get into that one as much. It was my least favorite of the YA series I’ve read so far. Although I did still pick up Hunted at Half Priced Books the other week