More News and gifs!

So, I'm sure some of you have been wondering:

I have actually been here, but taking a much needed reading vacation. I went into a major reading slump. I started out strong this year reading and then I started doing other activities. I recently started crocheting again. I hadn't done that since I was a teenager (20 years ago, shhh). I have got so engulfed in that, that I just haven't picked up a book since February. So far, I have made 2 blankets (for each of my kids birthdays), working on 2 for christmas gifts for my husband and friend and have 3 more planned out, one being for my parents anniversary next year. So, needless to say, that has been occupying a lot of my time.

Now you may be wondering, where does that leave the blog? Well, I have been toying around with ideas for it. I have been thinking of multiple ideas to bring it back to life. So bare with me on this. I would also love to hear your input in the comments section.

1. Bring in a co-blogger (which is a bit of a challenge because everyone that I know that loves reading like me already have their own blogs.)

2. Review at my own pace. I already know that I can't keep up with other bloggers out there being that I am a full time mom to a 8 year old and a 2 year old going through his terrible two stage. Also being a full time wife and mom is hard work. I have not only all the wonderful joys of staying home with my two wonderful kids, but starting this coming school year, we are exploring home schooling for the first time. We plan on traveling more this year, at least we are hoping to. I already have one trip planned out for going mining this year at the Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas. So not only will this be fun, but it will be educational. I am also planning a Thanksgiving trip to Arizona to see my snow-bird parents this year. SO, we will be very busy.

3. Not only blog about books, but the joys and mishaps of being a stay at home parent.  I could blog about book reviews (picture all the way to YA to cookbooks again), clothing, home school, crocheting projects, art projects and more. This would be fun, and it may take time to get used to running this type of blog, but I think it may be manageable.

Now, with these options, I would be updating the page itself. It would be a major over hall, the name would change, the background, colors, etc. So, weigh in your responses and let me know if you would be along for the ride, or if you still want strictly books or if it doesn't matter, let me know too.

Thanks everyone!

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I'm Back! *Waves*

Hi everyone! It has been way too long since I've been on leaving you my oh so wonderful reviews. Most of you are probably wondering where I had gone off to, some of you may know (if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter). As most of you know, I got married for the first time last year. If you don't know, I don't know where ya'll have been!!?? But seriously, haha, I did get married last year, and last year was amazing. We went on a mini vacation to New Orleans and got some really cool things. But then all of a sudden, I went MIA for what seems like a year. Now at the beginning of the year, I hosted tons on reviews and giveaways. Most of you got your packages, a couple did not. And for that, I apologize. This is where I fill you in I what has been going on.

This year has been full of exciting new adventures, rough times, and new beginnings.

The exciting: We bought our very first house! I'm not talking about our very first house as a married couple, I'm talking about our very first house ever! Yep! We moved in to our home in January. So we really didn't get to decorate for Christmas. Boo! But it was worth it, and this year our new home will be filled with tons of new Christmas memories, for two very good reasons. The first being that it's our new home. And the second I will get to soon!

As most of you know, moving takes a lot of work. I thought I would organize everything and perfectly label everything so that it would go to the right rooms. Well my husband and his nephew thought better and decided, even though everything was labeled, that didn't matter, so put everything anywhere. I KNOW! Appalling! I just now got my daughters room fully unpacked and put everything up in there and my office/den is just now coming together as well. (This is why some of the packages never got mailed out, plus other reasons which I will get to).

The rough times: My husband works in the oilfield. So when everyone is celebrating the low gas prices, my husband is losing hours at work because the price of oil per barrel goes down, which means he has less work. So, after buying our home and being here for a couple of months, his paychecks starting going down due to being laid off 2 days per paycheck. This has been very rough for us and we have just enough for bills and the bare minimum. Hence why some of your packages never made it out (plus I just found some while unpacking). If your package never made it out, please email me @ jumpintobooks [at] hotmail [dot] com and I will get back in touch with you as soon as I can so we can work something out. Slowly the prices of the barrels are going back up so we are hoping his hours pick back up soon.

The new beginnings: Our new beginning didn't just start when we got married last year or bought our new home this year. It happened in May, May 16th to be exact, when we welcomed the birth of our son, Kaden Bryce, He was a welcome surprise to us when we found out we were pregnant last year in August. For us, he was our starting over. My husband is 48 with a 20 year old daughter and I'm 36 with a 7 year old daughter. Our little Kaden tied our two families together and has brought so much joy to us these past 4 months already. He definitely keeps me on my toes. This is why I have not been reviewing as much. But I plan on slowing coming back in to reviewing as I post reviews of the series that I have been finishing this year and my subscription boxes, plus others things.

What to expect

• More posts regarding different subscription boxes. ie owlcrate, uppercase, charm with me and even some apps such as boxed.
• Hopefully more reviews, anywhere between picture books up to young adult and cookbooks.
• Maybe some bookish product reviews
• Memes
• Possibly some video review posts (if I feel brave enough haha)
• Swag giveaways

Thanks for sticking with me! My first post will go live on Monday, September 19th, and will be a compilation of all my Uppercase Boxes with short reviews!

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October Giveaway: 2 Great Giveaways + September's Winner

Hi everyone! Welcome to October's giveaway, this month I have 2 giveaways! Remember this giveaway will remain open until the end of the month. I will pick a winner on November 1st as well as post next months giveaway.

But first, here is last month's

(I will email you later today and congrats!)

Giveaway 1:

This contest is open to US entrants only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway 2:

This contest is open to US entrants only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Announcement: Blogging Hiatus and What that Means

Hey Guys and Gals! I hope everyone had a great summer and was safe. I finally went on a much needed vacation this year and went to New Orleans with the husband and daughter. I have lived in Louisiana since 2008 and never have I once been to New Orleans, can you believe it? We had a great time and visited the Audubon Zoo and the Audubon Aquarium. We even went to the French Quarter. It was a blast and none of us wanted to leave, but then we had to come back to reality.

Well, as you can see by my picture above, I am going on a blogging break. I just kinda got burned out from writing reviews and even reading a little. Plus, I have so many commitments coming up with my daughter in first grade this year, to looking for a new home (we're trying to buy our first house!), to family medical emergencies and deaths in the family, I just decided that I needed a break. But have no fear, I will be returning. I'm not sure exactly when, it could be a month from now to two months to even a New Years return. It just really depends on if everything calms down around here and if I finally get out of my reading slump.

What this means for you? Well, even though I'm taking a break from reviewing, there still might be the occasional tour pop up or even the occasional meme. But this isn't all. For every month that I am gone, there will be a giveaway posted.

Yep, you read that right. EACH MONTH A NEW GIVEAWAY!!! So make sure you stick around, because you may be able to win some cool prizes. I have prizes that range from swag packs on up to entire book series! Isn't that totally great! So make sure when you see a giveaway pop up, you run over and enter it, and tell your friends. Because, not only am I hosting giveaway for the entirety of being gone, but they will each run for 1 month, so that's plenty of chances to get in your entries.

Here's what up for grabs:

1. Swag packs

2. The Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis (books 1-4, including paperback novellas)

3. Three (3) children's book prize packs

4. Signed hardback of Elusion by Claudia Gabel & Cheryl Klan (bookplated)

5. ARC pack of White Space and The Dickens Mirror by Ilsa J. Bick

6. ARC pack of Frostfire and Ice Kissed by Amanda Hocking

7. Paperback set of The Kanin Chronicles by Amanda Hocking

8. Two (2) hardbacks of Ava and Taco Cat by Carol Weston

9. Hardback of Frank Einstein and the BrainTurbo by Jon Scieska

Plus there might be more! So remember, each month there will be a new month long giveaway. During the month of October there will be a couple extra giveaways due to my blogoversary!!

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Happy New Year and 2015 Challenges!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone was safe last night but had a blast! My daughter, fiance and I decided to stay in and play video games and then crash early (I know, we are such party animals!). I've made a few New Year's resolutions for me personally and for the blog. I'm hoping to stick with them this year.

Personally:

1. Eat healthier...I recently reviewed a cookbook called Skinnytaste, there was plenty of awesome recipes in there so we are hoping to start cooking up some of that stuff. Plus, I just bought a book to make all natural fruit and vegetable juices/smoothies, so that should help too.
2. Exercise....I won a raffle at my daughter's school and I got a 1 month membership to the local gym, 3 free yoga lessons and 3 free training sessions with the personal trainer, I hope I can stick with it after all that.
3. Go on Vacation....I know, it's not much of a resolution, but I haven't been on one in so long, I think it's overdue.
4. Lastly, this one really isn't a resolution, but it's still exciting to me. I'm getting MARRIED! Yep, we are getting married in April, we plan on packing up a few suitcases and the rugrat and travel from Louisiana to Florida to visit a blogger friend of mine, go to the beach, maybe Universal and then get married! So it looks like I will be getting that vacation after all. A family vacation and honeymoon all in one.

Blogging:

1. More reviews....I was going pretty strong at the beginning of the year last year and then starting faltering. I felt like I was in a reading slump and I couldn't pull myself out of it. I decided to broaden things and start reviewing more children's books and I added cookbooks into the mix because I love cooking. So look forward to not only Young Adult, Middle Grade and Children's but also Cookbooks this year.
2. More Meme's....When I first started blogging, my blog was nothing but daily memes and then it started to slowly go towards weekly and then monthly to eventually nothing. I'm hoping to change that this year.
3. More ARC giveaways....Just like above, I started out strong with ARC giveaways, but then it started to fall by the wayside, hopefully not this year.
4. More follow-through....I started a bunch of challenges last year but when I went into my reading slump, those eventually went with it. This year I have already signed up for two reading challenges and set my goal for 50 books on Goodreads. So I hope that I can follow-through.
5. New Look....I'm also hoping to update the look of the blog later this year so that we will look nice, new and sleek.

Now that you know mine, what are yours? Also, I had mentioned challenges. Here is what I signed up for and how you can join....

This one is hosted by Jana @ The Artsy Reader Girl. The purpose of this challenge is to introduce us to new authors and to read 12 or more new authors during 2015. What counts is the book must be the author’s MG/YA/NA 2015 debut. If you aren't sure who is a new debut author, here are some helpful links for you.

Goodreads list of 2015 Debut Author Challenge books.

Google Spreadsheet of 2015 debuts.

Want to sign up? Follow the link here.

Hosted by Jaime and Erin @ Fiction Fare & Swoony Boys Podcast. This is to challenge us to read real physical book copies instead of books on your devices. It's open all year from January 1st to December 31st 2015. On the first of each month there will be a wrap-up post on each blog and giveaways. There is even levels that you can achieve. I'm going for:

31-40 - Real Book Aficionado

They have a mailing list you can join for updates, so click here.

Click here for their Goodreads Group.

And if you want to sign up, click here and join this awesome challenge.

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[News] I'm Moving...

Well, it's that time again. I'm am moving. But don't worry, I'm not moving websites or anything like that. I'm am once again packing up my entire apartment and moving across state lines, back to Louisiana. I haven't moved in 2 years. The last time I did it, it was under horrible circumstances. I had moved from Louisiana back home to Michigan for 2 months after my fiance and I decided to call it quits (or rather he decided to call it quits). I made the trek back down south and moved in with my friend in Mississippi in March of 2012. While here, I had made some great friends (who I will miss very much) and found out who enjoyed using me and stabbing me in the back.

I feel this move will be good for my daughter and myself. We will be closer to her daddy, which it will make it easier on us to get her back and forth. There are also JOBS out there! I have been living in the town I live in with no work for the past 2 years living off of my child support and living with my mom. But when I move, I have a job waiting for me and a house and my ex's family who is willing to help me out. So things are looking up for us finally.

And it will be looking up here on the blog too. I will be hosting more giveaways with my reviews and so much more. So look out for some ARC giveaways to come with my reviews, they will be held for US residents. Also, I do have a donate button on the blog if you would like to donate. All donations go to help fund International giveaways.

The move date for us is set for the weekend just after Valentine's Day. So the blog will be shut down for a maximum of 2 weeks. I will have some automatic posts going up more then likely, but I will not directly post myself unless I'm back from the move.

Happy Reading!

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The Sacred Fruit Book Club & Trading

I thought that I would take some time and post about this awesome new Book Club and Trading site that just went up recently thanks to my good friend Jessica @ Crossroad Reviews and Frishawn @ WTF Are You Reading?. You can trade anything there, from children's all the way up to mature books. They even have a Facebook page where we can talk about the books and vote on what we want to read next. You can check that out here.

So stop on by and check it out! Everyone is welcome to join! Here is the wonderful button for the site too!

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The Winter 2014 Dark Days Tour

So, I'm sure most of you know by now that the 2014 Dark Days Winter Tour is coming up. But for those of you who don't know I thought that I would post about it here for you.

Pitch Dark has the Dark Days Winter Tour coming up with some amazing authors in attendance. Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me), Kiersten White (Paranormalcy, Mind Games), Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky) and Sophie Jordan (Univited, Firelight).

So you want to know where? Just look below:

For more information visit the Pitch Dark website here. If you're going I hope you have loads of fun! Unfortunately I won't be able to make it this year due to the fact of being 5 hours from Brentwood and 4 hours from New Orleans and a broken down car. But let's keep our fingers crossed that my car is fixed in time to go this year! Yay! 

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{News} Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl to Write Spinoff

#1 BESTSELLING AUTHORS KAMI GARCIA & MARGARET STOHL

RETURN TO THE WORLD OF BEAUTIFUL CREATURES WITH ALL-NEW SERIES

Series launches with Dangerous Dream to be published as an enovella on December 17, 2013,

followed by Dangerous Creatures in hardcover and digital formats on May 6, 2014

New York, NY [September 10, 2013] – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will publish Dangerous Creatures, a new young adult book series from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, it was announced today by Megan Tingley, the division’s Executive Vice President and Publisher. Dangerous Creatures returns to the world of Beautiful Creatures, Garcia and Stohl’s #1 New York Times bestselling series and international sensation, which was recently made into a major motion picture.

The Dangerous Creatures series will follow Link and Ridley, two fan-favorite characters from Beautiful Creatures. Readers will catch up with Ethan, Lena, and Link as they graduate from high school and get ready to leave the small Southern town of Gatlin, along with Link’s sometime girlfriend, Ridley. The series will launch on December 17, 2013, with Dangerous Dream, an enovella that will tie Dangerous Creatures to the world of the original series. Dangerous Creatures, the first book in the new series, will be published simultaneously in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats on May 6, 2014.

“Our fans have supported Beautiful Creatures and both of us from the beginning, and we are so grateful. This is for them,” said Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. “We can’t wait for them to return to Gatlin with us this December. We have more than a few surprises in store for them.”

“We are ecstatic with the massive success of Beautiful Creatures, which has sold nearly 3.5 million copies to date,” said Megan Tingley. “We’re eager to satisfy Kami and Margaret’s passionate fans with the swift release of a riveting enovella just in time for the holidays, and a brand-new novel the following spring.”

To celebrate the announcement of the new series, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl will answer fans’ questions during a live Twitter chat on Tuesday, September 17, at 4:00 p.m. PST/7:00 p.m. EST. Fans can ask questions about the new series using the hashtag #DangerousCreatures.

Beautiful Creatures is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, IndieBound, and internationally bestselling young adult book series. The series includes Beautiful Creatures (2009), Beautiful Darkness (2010), the ebook Dream Dark (2011), Beautiful Chaos (2011), Beautiful Redemption (2012), Beautiful Creatures: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion (2013), and Beautiful Creatures: The Manga (2013), and has been translated into thirty-nine languages and sold in fifty countries. Beautiful Creatures was made into a major motion picture in early 2013 from Alcon Entertainment and Warner Brothers, staring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, and Jeremy Irons, and was written and directed by Academy Award-nominee Richard LaGravenese.

Kami Garcia’s solo debut novel, Unbreakable, will be published on October 1, 2013. The first book in the highly anticipated Legion series, Unbreakable is a romantic paranormal thriller described by Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, as “tense and deliciously twisty . . . a breath-stealing midnight run through some of the creepiest locales I’ve seen rendered in fiction.” Eagerly awaited by her fans around the world, Garcia’s forthcoming novel has been praised by Kirkus Reviews for its “cinematic, gripping ghost scenes…[The ending] will leave readers reaching for the next book.” Publishers Weekly hailed, “The reality [protagonist Kennedy] is living is a page-turner.” The book has been sold in fifteen foreign territories thus far.

Margaret Stohl’s solo debut novel, Icons, was published in May 2013. Icons is the first book in Stohl’s sci-fi series set in a near-future Los Angeles and was praised by The Magician’s Lev Grossman, who stated, “I love this book.…It’s full of passion and deep truths and the kind of power that people only find when they’re driven far, far past their limits.” Booklist added, “The strong messages of questioning authority, daring to resist injustice, and loyalty to one’s group will resonate with teens who loved The Hunger Games.”

Icons is being developed into a major motion picture by Alcon Entertainment, the studio behind Beautiful Creatures, with a screenplay penned by Massy Tadjedin. The second book in the Icons series, Idols, will be published in July 2014.


Check out their interview here at Hollywood Crush

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