Review: Pastworld by Ian Beck

I know it's been a long time coming, so without further ado, I give you my review for Pastworld By Ian Beck!

My review and thoughts:
Imagine London in a huge dome of sorts where all civilization is reproduced in the Victorian age, while the outside world is in the year 2048. Not only is London living in the past, but it's know as the Pastworld Theme Park for all the outside world. Tourists, also know as the Gawkers, come from all over the world as they pay big money to live the life of a Victorian, and enjoy the many entertainments of Pastworld.

Eve, a girl who's only known the life of London as it is-horse run carriages, harsh laws, gas lamps, and old buildings-decides to set out in the streets of Pastworld on her own. As she does she's met with the realization of what her home really is--a theme park, and money maker for the man in charge. Not only does she have to reassess her home, but herself as well.

Caleb, a boy from the outside world, brought to Pastworld by his father on Halloween, is left awe struck by how fascinating everything around him really is. But soon enough, when he sees his face on wanted posters for a murder he didn't commit, he's all but ready to return to his strict home life in the outside world.

But this seems to be the least of Eve's and Caleb's problems when the most dangerous and biggest attraction of Pastworld decides to show his face and destruction once again. They call him, The Fantom....

Intricate, compelling, and one masterfully told story. Pastworld is a place where many haunting worries are hiding in the streets, and around the darkest of corners. There is much adventure to be had, and many fun , interesting, and spooky characters to follow. You will find romance, friends, thieves, and many shocking murder mysteries to witness in the streets of Pastworld. This was definitely a page turner for me to the very end, and I find myself recommending it to you all! :)

:) More about Pastworld here :) I will also leave you with the trailer for the book below. It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself! Enjoy, and have a wonderful day every one :)





(Off topic---Man, it's been awhile since I last posted, but in my defence it's been crazy around here :) Also, with the way life is going right now the best time it seems for me to post will be on the weekends... What can I say, I'm a reader of all your blogs and I love it! How you guys keep up with posts and comments I'll never know! You're all awesome!)

Sharin' the Fun!!

I thought I'd share some of the pictures and fun we had!!! I hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween too! Halloween was tons of fun for us and I even had two costumes for Little Miss Aubriannah.

Ah, My Little Miss Snow White :) She was Snow White for the Trick Or Treating part of the day, and boy did she have fun! She couldn't keep her little fingers out of her candy, lol!

Here is Aubriannah in her Pirate costume getting ready to head to the Fair, which was tons of fun! :)

"Why so serious?" lol! :) My little Pirate ridding a Pony all by herself!

My little Pirate's first time ridding a ride ALL by herself! She was so serious on all the rides, I think, because she was a little nervous about falling off, lol! :)

This was taken a few days before Halloween with her Pumpkin. She really enjoyed carving them. :)

Ah, so sweet! My little knuckle heads!

Well, that's all she wrote, Folks! I hope you enjoyed them and your Halloween! :)

Happy Halloween!! Who's it gonna be....

Man, that picture is so cool! :)

It's time to announce my very first giveaways winners!! I had four awesome books to giveaway to four awesome bloggers, so who's it gonna be.... I used the Random Name Picker at Classtools.net, so without further ado I give you my Halloween Winners!

Drum Roll Please.........

The Winner of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson is

David Wagner

The winner of Lamentation by Ken Scholes is

Logankstewart

The winner of The Naming By Alison Croggon is

Michelle (Red Headed Book Child)

And the winner of Pastworld by Ian Beck is

Ryan G.

Yay! Congrats to all the Winners! I have a busy day today (we're going to the fair and Trick or Treating, of course! :), but I will make sure and email each of you before the day is over!

Happy Halloween to you all!

FireFlies and Randomness...

So tonight's post is brought to you by Fireflies! (Book stuff and links are at the bottom for those who want to skip my Randomness for the day....)

( I love music you can sing along too.... Not that I'm saying I'm any good at it! lol! :)

Wow, right! *Sigh* I love it! For those of us who love our dreams and fantasy worlds this song speaks volumes. I'm sure different music affects people in many different ways, though. His voice is so amazingly soothing, when I close my eyes I feel as though I'm eight, maybe younger, maybe older, running around trying to catch fireflies in a jar.

Favorite quote:

" 'Cause I get a thousand hugs

From ten thousand lightening bugs

As they try and teach me how to dance"

Fireflies are amazing in their own right, so it'd be something marvelous to see and feel, indeed. Ah, the joy of dreaming....

If you haven't already noticed, I really feel that today I'm all up for a blog post that has only a little to do with books, so this is my attempt at randomness, or lack there of ...

So, as many of my faithful followers know I've moved into a new house, a wonderful house, I might add. My favorite part about my new house is our Huge fenced in backyard. It's not only my favorite part, but my little girls and her puppies(Eskimo Spitz, Nala and a Husky, Roxie) , too. You should see them run around! CRAZINESS! It's very amusing and nice. Now the only problem left is figuring out where everything will go and what junk I need to ditch. Okay, okay, I admit it, I'm a pack rat, and no, I don't mean the actual pack rat! LOL! It's so hard to just throw things out. You end up losing or breaking so many things over the years anyway, right? I have so much stuff that I "could" get rid of, but how do I know what exactly to ditch? That, my friend, is why I'm a pack rat! I'm just thankful it's NOT the overbearing kind of pack ratness..LOL! It's definitely not that bad it's just too many boxes in the garage. I'm also a big Book Hoarder! Now I just need more bookshelves (Peter I'll let you know.... :)




On other news, my little girl is getting WAY too big for her own good! Her birthday is just around the corner, she'll be 2 on November 17th. Can you believe it? It feels as though just yesterday I was in the hospital holding her for the first time. Where has the time gone? Being a mother can be hard business, but it's all worth it! The smiles and laughs you get by the simplest of things is most definitely my favorite part about being a mother. Not to mention all the smiles and laughs she gets from me. Anyway, her favorite word right now is Apple. I never thought a word could be so cute! She loves to dance, especially to Hannah Montana or The Backyardigans. I am very serious, we have the Hannah Montana movie sound track CD in our car and we have to listen to it always. She really does get down to the music in her Car seat, and sometimes you can even catch her trying to sing. It's lovely. Kids are most definitely Gods gift to us.

Okay, now onto book news. Lets start with books I've finished over the past couple weeks that I haven't been able to write reviews for yet. Sorry, moving is tough work! :)

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins- All I can say is Awesomeness! If you are up for solid characters, great action, and crazy plot twists, then I would highly recommend you pick this one up! Anyway, here are a couple Blogger friends reviews for this title, Melissa @ My World and JuJu @ A Tales of Whimsy...

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie-- The first book in the First Law Trilogy-- Wow! It was one heck of a ride. This book was basically just the set up for a new world and well rounded, fantastic characters. Not to mention all the fight scenes that will leave your mouth hanging open. One thing I will say is The Blade Itself is definitely not a book for the feint of heart. Anyway, here are a few blogging buddies who have done wonderful reviews for this title, Melissa @ My World, Logan @ Rememorandom, and Alec @ Only The Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

:):):)

PastWorld by Ian Beck-- Wow, it was such an experience hanging out in the amusement park of London! I don't want to say too much about this one as I will be doing a review as soon as I am able. You can also enter my giveaway to win a Hardcover copy of it here!

Now onto books I am reading and want to read over the next few weeks....

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines -- Many thanks to J. Kaye @ J. Kaye's Book Blog for this ARC! Just started this one and so far so good.

Dune by Frank Herbert-- Many thanks to Alec @ Only The Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy for producing such a fantastic review that I just had to pick this one up. I'm really looking forward to starting this title.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice-- Many thanks to Deb @ Bookmagic for recommending this title.

And last, but not least, Embellish by R.L. Sloan -- Many thanks to R.L. Sloan for this review copy. I'm definitely hoping it's as good as it sounds!

(If you have a link to reviews for any of these titles, and I missed you, then feel free to leave the link to your review in the comment section.)

Well, that's it! Krista's Randomness 101! Hope you enjoyed it! If your in the mood for more and more Awesome Randomness, then I highly suggest you check out David's blog @ My Little Corner of the World.

Don't forget on your way out the door to check out all the wonderful blogs and the many reviews I mentioned! They're Great!

Teaser Tuesdays--Catching Fire

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Here is how it works.

• Grab your current read


• Open to a random page Share 2 or 3 “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm just now getting around to starting Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins! So far it's great, I might add!

"If a pack of wild dogs were to appear at this moment, the odds of scaling a tree before they attacked are not in my favor. I should get up, move around, and work the stiffness from my limbs." pg. 3

So there you have it, my Teaser Tuesday! Now it's your turn! What are you reading and have any quotes caught your attention more than the next...?

2009- My Top Favorites- Giveaway!!

I thought that since this is the 1st of October I'd get my FIRST contest up and running..... 4 books, 4 winners!!!!

This giveaway is going to consist of four books I've read over this year-2009- that have been some of MY favorites! What better way to get your favorites and favorite authors out there, then by giving one away?

Here are my four favorite reads so far this year.... In order of most enjoyable for ME...

My favorite read so far this year has been Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson! View my review and book synopsis here.

Lamentation by Ken Scholes is the first book in The Psalms of Isaak series, wonderful read! View Synopsis here.

The Naming is the 1st book of the Pellinor series by Alison Croggon. I loved this whole series! And Guess what? If you happen to have this book and are missing one of the other three, no worries, I'll send you which ever book you are missing....

I just finished reading Pastworld by Ian Beck and I must say it rocked! I haven't read any other books by him before now, but I'm sure to go and find more of his titles now!


To Enter:
US and Canada only- sorry!

All you have to do to enter my giveaway is leave the title of the book you would like to win and your email address so I can contact you.


Extra Entries:
+2 New followers
+3 Old followers
+4 Linking this contest to sidebar, Twitter, blog post. (Include links please!)


This contest will end on Halloween(BOO!) October 31st! I will email the winners (a winner for each book) and they will have 72 hours to contact me with their shipping info or a new winner will be chosen! I wish you all the best of luck!

Moving and First Giveaway Info....

Hello fellow followers! I just wanted to let you all know that over the next week or so I'll be moving into a new house. What does this mean, you ask? Well, my Internet and computer access will be on hold for awhile. :-( Alas, no new posts, and sorry to say, but I won't be able to comment much either.... Very sad, indeed! Don't worry, though, I'll be back soon enough to stalk you all!

But hey, with bad news comes good news, right? Or, at least, that's how it should be! So, I am as happy as this little puppy to announce that I have decided when I get back I'll be having my very first and 60 follower giveaway! Woot! Woot! That will be something to look forward to, right? I haven't decided what exactly this giveaway will contain, so I'm up for any and all advice if you have it?

Have a great Week all! Stay cool!

Book Review: Oh. My. Gods.

Which one? They both seem to fit the book perfectly, but being the girlie girl I am, I have to say I like the wing sneakers best (the one I bought..LOL!)! Both are very fun covers, though!

Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Genre(s): YA, Fantasy
Publisher: The Penguin Group
Publication date: May 2008

Recommended? Yes, especially to those looking for a good run!
Reread? For sure, this was such a fun read, so I don't see why not!

My Review:
Phoebe Castro has just crossed the finish line in hopes of making all her dreams come true--a chance at the full track scholarship to USC with her best friends, Nola and Cesca. Little does she know her Mom's waiting at the finish line with news that could destroy all these plans. Her Mom has decided to marry a man Phoebe has never meet before and move them across the world to Greece. But this is the least of her problems. She finds herself on a secretive Island known as Aegean and attending the elite Academy, run by her stepfather, full of students that are anything BUT normal--they're descendants of the Greek Gods, where superpowers are a given. Not to mention the fact they're not fond of mundanes and want to make her time at the Academy total pandemonium! How can she possibly win the race to total freedom?......

I went into this book looking for something really fun, laid back, and entertaining and I was highly rewarded with this tale. This was such a fun book to read! Phoebe, the narrator, is a really fun character who seems to be able to handle herself quite well. She may have a few bullies, but there's no way she's going down without a fight! She even has the guts to go after Griffin, descendant of Hercules, and the boyfriend of her arch enemy!

The story line is very entertaining and at times I found myself laughing-out-loud. Oh. My. Gods. is definitely a book that could really help anyone get out of a funky mood, that's for sure! I recommend this book if you're looking for a good laugh, a fan of Greek mythology, want to reminisce on old high school days, and especially to those that love the feel of a good run: "the steady rhythm of my sneakers hitting the ground, the adrenaline and endorphins pulsing through my bloodstream, the cotton of my PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY tee rubbing against my skin with every step." ( Favorite Oh. My. Gods. quote)

Other Favorite quotes:
"wondering what Plato meant when he said, We can easily forgive a child who is scared of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

"You," I say, leaning in and giving him a peck on the cheek, "are a rock star in coward's clothing."

My Rating: 4/5 Wonderfully fun!!!


Thanks to JuJu at Tales of whimsy.... for recommending this book! She has tons of great book reviews!


(All comments welcome!)