Just A Little Red

Confessions Of A Bookaholic – Guilty Pleasures Edition #50 – Sweet Valley High #52 – White Lies

Posted on December 8, 2014 by DMW

This is a book with bad advice, childish tantrums, lies, melodramatic teen love, what not to do in a relationship, and one twin showing her sociopathic tendencies… so you know, just another day in Sweet Valley…

“White Lies”

Sweet Valley Scale: 3.5 out of 5 Twins

John Pfeifer, the sports editor for the Sweet Valley High Oracle, is worried that his good friend Jennifer Mitchell is becoming too involved with dropout Rick Andover. When he finds out that Jennifer plans to run away to New York with Rick, he enlists Elizabeth Wakefield’s help to stop them. And then Rick is arrested. Jennifer is convinced that her father has framed him and tipped off the police. Furious, she refuses to speak to her father ever again. But John is the one who is really responsible for Rick’s arrest. But there is no way he can admit it now that Jennifer has turned to him for comfort. Until Mr. Mitchell becomes seriously ill, and John is faced with a terrible dilemma. Should he tell Jennifer the truth and risk losing her friendship, or let her go on thinking that her father is to blame?

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Guilty Pleasures, Reviews | Tagged "bad boy", "book review", "bypass surgery", "heart problems", "reading list", "running away", "sweet valley high", book, sweet valley | Leave a comment

Confessions Of A Bookaholic: Guilty Pleasure Edition #49 – Fear Street Books 38-39, and Super Chiller #10

Posted on December 7, 2014 by DMW

Another Fear Street list that was completely new to me. I had not read any of these books until now and each one was different and R.L. Stine tried something new (and it paid off in each case!) just when he had done so much already – things could have gotten repetitive and stale. But they don’t! 🙂 Why do I love Fear Street? These three books are three prime examples of that answer!

“The Confession”

Fear Street Scale: 4 out of 5 Fears
Pick Of The Bunch Rating: Third Place

All of Julie’s friends hated Al. He was bullying them into loaning him money, cars, making threats… But that doesn’t mean one of them killed Al. Julie knows her friends and she knows they are innocent… until one of them confesses. Julie and her friends promise to keep the killer’s secret; after all they have all been friends for so long and promised to be friends forever. And they know Al’s killer would never kill again. Or would he?

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Guilty Pleasures, Reviews | Tagged "book review", "mistaken identity", "r.l. stine", "reading list", "Serial Killer", "super chiller", "vampire slayer", book, confession, fear street, guilty pleasure, misogynist, murder, mystery, psychopath, reading, suspense, Thriller, vampire | Leave a comment

Confessions Of A Bookaholic – Guilty Pleasures Edition #48 – Sweet Valley High #51 – Against The Odds

Posted on December 5, 2014 by DMW

I was kind of “meh” with this book. I love a book that focuses on Elizabeth Wakefield’s boyfriend Jeffrey French (Team Jeffrey!) but it was hard for me to get into a dilemma that didn’t seem like a dilemma at all. Spoiler alert: The moral of this story is to be true to yourself… no that’s not it, play your hardest… nope not that either, be all that you can be… um not so much… I got it! Steer clear of sleaze ball bookies. Yep, that’s the one! 😛

“Against The Odds”

Sweet Valley Scale: 3.5 out of 5 Twins

Ronnie Edwards is having the time of his life… By betting on high school sports, he has made more money than he knows what to do with. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been keeping up with payments to his bookie, Big Al, and he owes about $2,000. When Big Al tries to collect, Ronnie is out of cash. So Big Al offers him another way out: if Ronnie can fix the state championship soccer game, all of Ronnie’s debt will be forgiven. Ronnie turns to the only friend he has – Elizabeth Wakefield’s boyfriend and star soccer player for Sweet Valley High, Jeffrey French. A college scout is coming to see the game and if Jeffrey doesn’t play his best, he’ll jeopardize his future. But if he doesn’t help Ronnie out by not playing his best, his friend may not have a future.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Guilty Pleasures, Reviews | Tagged "book review", "college scout", "get rich quick", "jewelry designer", "reading list", "sweet valley high", “high school”, bet, book, bookie, gambling, soccer, sweet valley | Leave a comment

Days of Thankfulness

Posted on December 4, 2014 by DMW

So I meant to do 30 Days of Thankfulness on Facebook, but NaNoWriMo kind of consumed my life. 😛 So, I have collected all of my thanks here. Here are my 30 days of thankfulness. I apologize in advance if you don’t like cheese, because at times I just couldn’t help being a little cheesy. 😉

Day 1 of Thankfulness: I am thankful for my life. Sometimes it is wonderful, sometimes it seriously sucks, and usually it is messy or complicated or both. But it’s mine. And as someone who has done the whole death thing a few times, breathing is a gift, and time is a blessing or luck depending on your word choice preferences. And I am thankful for every day I have, even those messy, sucky days. Because there is something seriously beautiful in all that mess.

Continue reading →

Posted in Family, home, Inspiration, Journal, Life, Love, Personal, Relationships, Thoughts, Writing | Tagged friends, gratitude, growth, learning, reflection, thankful | 2 Comments

The End Of NaNoWriMo

Posted on December 1, 2014 by DMW

November is over, which means that National Novel Writing Month has officially ended. How did you do? I was behind for the entire month, and I mean like really behind. I kept writing in this step ladder fashion. I would not write a thing, almost get caught up after a few sprint days and then just fall right back behind again. It was a cycle I was working, but that wasn’t working for me.

My last NaNoWriMo check-in post (Nanowrimo… It’s Almost Over And I Am STILL Behind!) I made the promise that I would kick this cycle to the curb and write every day. And I would make the goal word count of 50,000 words on time. And I did, in fact I finished on November 29 with 50,117 words! I am thrilled that I actually did write every day with the exception of two days, but because every other day that I did write, I wrote more than I needed to, including three major sprint days I was ahead of the game by November 26 and stayed ahead until I finished one day early.

So I finished, and that’s great. And it was fun, to make this kind of commitment and watch other friends try it out too (although I only had two official writing buddies, so if I participate again I want that number to triple or grow even more) now I get to figure out if it’s really worth it overall. It was something I kept coming back to while I was toiling away, trying to make my daily word counts: if NaNoWriMo was beneficial or not – at least when it comes to me and my writing.

Continue reading →