My Review: UNCOMMON CRIMINALS by Ally Carter

Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society, #2)Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life: Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

There are only three problems. First, the gem hasn’t been seen in public in thirty years. Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald keeps it for long — and in Kat’s world, history almost always repeats itself. But it’s the third problem that makes Kat’s crew the most nervous, and that is . . . the emerald is cursed.

Kat might be in way over her head, but she’s not going down without a fight. After all, she has her best friend — the gorgeous Hale — and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses and realizing that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time.

Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

My Review:

Sequels are often tricky. Often pale in comparison to their predecessor. Often try too hard to live up to the success from the first book. And often fail.

Friday Fives: Five (er...10) Favorite First Lines

My recipe for what I'm sure is going to be a great weekend:
- Gorgeous, sunny day here in Seattle - check!
- No rain in sight for d.a.y.s. (oh, God, I may have just jinxed it...oh please no!) - fingers crossed check!
- No work for 48 hours straight. Huh. When you put it that way, it just doesn't seem right. None-the-less, check!
- I bought me some PowerBall tickets - it's $133 meeel-e-un dollaaars (muwahaha!) - that's almost $70 cool mil, if you take the cash lump sum. I believe an offshore account somewhere in the Grand Caymans or Switzerland, is standing at the ready with my name on it. (Someone's gotta win it and I've been practicing REALLY hard!) - that's a seriously BIG CHECK!!! 
- And today's PaperHanger Friday Five topic? Five Favorite First Lines! Total check!

Friday Fives: Five Best Writing or Book Contests

 

Another Friday is upon us! 

And on top of that, it's finally sunny here in Seattle! I think we've had a total of 72 hours of sun, since the year started...and I know, I know, many of you are suffering with 100+ degree heat and enough humidity that would make my hair bring better reception to my cell phone - but it's been so. gross. here. As in yesterday, it was raining, gray, and a whopping 62 degrees. That was the high temperature for the day folks, not the low. And it's July freakin' 22nd for cryin' out loud (well past July 5th, the official start of summer for Seattle!).

But today is beautiful - waaaaaay too pretty to be sitting in an office, that's for sure! And today's Paper Hanger Friday Fives question is a fun one, although, most of the contests I know of, ended this week - but, here goes!

The Five Best Book / Writing Contests

1. WriteOnCon and TheReadingRoom.com: A first 500 MG/YA words contest. Grand Prize is $1000 AND an author profile page on TheReadingRoom.com. In addition, your work will be considered for possible representation by literary agent, Catherine Drayton

2. Writer's Digest: Young Adult Fiction Contest. There is an entry fee of $20, but the prizes?

Prizes:

  • First Prize: The First Place-Winner receives $1,000 cash, promotion in Writer’s Digest, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.
  • Second Prize: The Second Place-Winner receives $500 cash, promotion in Writer’s Digest, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.
  • Honorable Mention: Honorable Mentions will receive promotion in Writer’s Digest and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.

Check out their website for all the details! 

3. Goodreads book giveaway for POSSESSION, by Elana Johnson

4. GoodReads book giveaway for SHUT OUT, by Kody Keplinger

5. LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR, by Stephanie Perkins - plus 2 other books, on Carolina Valdez Miller's blog!

Friday Fives: Five Favorite Writing Communities

Welcome to Friday! What a long week it's been, that's for sure! Probably because I took all of last week off on vacation...so this week decided to really sock it to me!

Anyhow, it's Friday (yeah!) and today's Paper Hanger Friday Fives topic?

What are your Five Favorite Writing Communities?

Here are mine:

1. WriteBrained Network: A great friend of mine, Bridgid Gallagher (she's the awesomeness that designed my website!) introduced me to this great on-line group of writerly pals, last year. Amazing writers, great community, and wonderful information. And, I head up the YA subgroup for the site - YAwesome Writers (catchy, I know!). Love this group of people - you should really jump on over there and join!

2. NaNoWriMo: I attempted this for the first time, last year - and won (I actually wrote well over the 50k word goal)! I'd been suffering a GINORMOUS case of writer's block for several months leading up to November, and wouldn't you know, NaNo and all the great people I met there, brought my muse out from hiding and gave a hefty kick to that crappy writer's block. Who knew a little competition and one small deadline were all I needed? Me thinks this bodes well if I ever do get published!

3. GoodReads: Okay, not sure if this is technically a writing community - but since a ton of writers hang out there, I think it counts. Love this site. Have met some fab-u-lous writers through GoodReads - not to mention, found some a-mazing reads!

4. Twitter: I never, ever, ever, thought I'd succumb to the madness that is Twitter. And the ONLY reason I did, was because of the huge writer / agent / editor community that takes part on it, every day. I've met so many wonderful people through Twitter. Even found really cool writerly contests. And besides, what better way to stalk, um I mean follow, agents you're interested in? 

5. QueryTracker.net: Another fab community of writers, all trudging through slush pile hell together! Patrick (he's basically the Wizard of Oz behind QT) is completely anal (yeah, I just said that out loud. On my blog. You're jealous. :) ) about keeping all of the content regarding agents & editors up to date. He's fab. And the site is one of my absolute favorites without a doubt. Although, it's basically put my excel spreadsheet on querying, out to pasture - and those who know me, know how I love me my excel spreadsheets, not to mention my lists!!! So that's got to say something.

Okay, so those are my five! Can't wait to hear everyone else's favorite writing communities - I'm always looking for more!

Friday Fives: What Are Your Five Fav Research Tools?

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today's Friday Fives topic? What are your five favorite research tools or resources? Here are mine - what did I miss?

1. Google. Pretty sure I don't need to elaborate on that one.

2. Seventh Sanctum - I've mentioned this one before, but this is where I find all of my character names. 

3. Wikipedia - Okay, so I know it's not supposed to be the most trusted source...so take from it what you will!

4. Urban Dictionary - again, a previous mention of mine...but where else can you dig deep into the slang of teens these days, without stalking them in person? 

5. Thesarus.com - I'd gladly pay a monthly service for this site - that's how much I use it!

My Review: RULES OF ATTRACTION by Simone Elkeles

Rules of Attraction (Perfect Chemistry, #2)Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.

My Review:

It's not often I write a review on a book I didn't particularly care for. Maybe it's because being a writer myself, I don't want to knock the writing of someone else - after all, I know how much heart and soul one puts into their pages. Maybe it's because I'm sure plenty of other people liked what they read.

Whatever it is, I'll say I thought RULES OF ATTRACTION was just okay and give a couple of reasons why: