It’s been a few days.

So, I’ve been gone for a few days, and I figure I should tell you why. First of all, since florida I’ve been literally working and shopping nonstop. When I’m not at the Sass (The salon where I work, Sweet and Sassy, I run birthday parties there), I’ve been at the mall finding last minute presents. I finally finished the last of my shopping on wednesday, and that night had my Sassy Holiday party at this indoor trampoline park called Skyzone. Such a fun night literally turned into a nightmare as I’m trying to leave. See the Skyzone parking lot is terrible. There are no signs to tell you whats a road and whats a parking lot, and absolutely no one follows the speed limit on the service roads, which is 15, mind you. As I’m pulling out of the lot, I didn’t see this person literally flying down the road and i ram into their front end. Both of my airbags deployed, and even with my seatbelt on, I flew up and slammed my head on the rearview mirror and the ceiling of my car. Needless to say my little ’94 Honda is completely totaled, while their jeep is completely drivable. I get out of the car, bleeding and in a ton of pain, trying to tell them how sorry I was, because it was my fault, and these guys don’t even have the courtesy to ask if I’m ok. I understand, I just caused an accident but are you fucking kidding me? Also the cop didn’t even ask if I was ok. So basically my car is totaled and I’m back on the bus, and looking for a bar tending or waitressing job within walking distance so I can save up for a new car.

I’ll be back with regular posts in a few days. Maybe tomorrow, I think I might try to blog every day, or every other day.

Thanks
Kelsey Maureen

Do you have a favorite author?

I’ve been thinking a LOT lately about the idea of “favorite authors.” Do we have them? I’m sure we all have that one author that we have read all of their books, and we are always the first to order their new books as soon as they pop onto Amazon. Most of us have a few, so here are some of mine.

Sarah Dessen. Sarah Dessen writes love story after love story that all seem to connect. Whether she recycles the locations, or reuses the characters, she keeps almost all of her books pretty connected. I think that is a big part of why I stay interested in her so much. If I really enjoyed reading about a background character in one book, I’d probably get to see them again in another book, either as another background character, or even as a more prominent player in any given book. My personal favorites of hers are “Dreamland” and “Along For The Ride.”

Ellen Hopkins. Now she’s a little different. Ellen Hopkins is a poet. She writes these books that are all free verse poetry, usually containing multiple main characters with intertwining story lines. She tackles more serious subjects, anything from mental illness and drug addiction, to sexual orientation and teen pregnancy. My favorites of hers are Crank, and Impulse, and their respective sequels. 

That is  not to say that these books are my “all time favorite books,” just my favorites from those specific authors. I really try not to label “favorites” because I’m not a fan of leaving things out, and I always feel like something better may come along. But I know that there are some books or authors that we will always love.

 

Who are yours? Let me know.

Kelsey Maureen

Do you guys know any holiday / winter books?

Hey guys, With Christmas coming up, I’ve been thinking about Holiday themed books. I’m sure we’ve all read the classic standbys, From “A Christmas Carol”, to “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” (Which are two of my personal favorites), but does anybody have any favorite books that are centered around the Holiday Season?

This holiday season I am going to have “The Chronicles of Narnia” at my bedside to read at my leisure. I would love to get my hands on “Let it Snow” by John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson, but my TBR is already WAY too big, so maybe next year. 

Do y’all have any recommendations? It doesn’t even have to be Christmas. Anything set in the winter would work. Winter here in Pennsylvania lasts until mid february/early march, so I’ll need some books.

 

Thanks in advance

Kelsey Maureen

How I plan to run this blog.

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time on this vacation writing up some posts for this blog, because I would like to take this seriously. So I’m thinking of some type of system of how often i post. I’d like to keep it consistent, obviously, and as regular as possible, but I don’t think I can sit here and promise daily posts or something like that. If i tried to post daily blogs, I would definitely run out of things to say. 

But I will be trying to do different types of posts here and there. You can expect book reviews, book “hauls,” where I will tell you about the books I buy, other book related topics, and some writing prompt, essay type things when I get bored. I’ll even post interesting things that happen in my life, and maybe even some original writing stuff. How does that one sound?

Well, now what did I do today? Well We switched from my grandmothers house in Ocala to my sisters apartment in Orlando. I had my first Tijuana Flats experience, which was great, and I was able to ignore the fact that I am lactose sensitive for a day. We put up my sisters Christmas tree, which I assume she will decorate some other time, because one of her best friends from PA, who actually lives down the street from my house, is coming down tomorrow night some time. The best part of the day was that we got to spend some time in Disney World. We couldn’t go into the actual parks, because that is INCREDIBLY expensive, but we did hit Downtown Disney, and I saw the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, my absolute DREAM JOB, and went to the Grand Floridian Café for dinner, because we are incredibly fancy, and went down to the dock to watch my favorite firework show in Magic Kingdom, Wishes. My two year-old nephew loved it, and so did I. As you’ll probably come to find out, I am a Disney Freak. But, I’m actually excited to head to bed early tonight, and hit Universal Studios tomorrow morning.

QUESTION : What is your favorite amusement park? Also, if you blog regularly, whats your posting schedule like?

Kelsey Maureen

Why I haven’t read much in Florida.

So, I’ve been in Florida visiting my grandparents and my older sister for the past few days. We drove down on Sunday, leaving at 4 AM, to spend 15 hours in a car. I managed a good eight (ish) hours of sleep on the way down, and spent the rest of the time switching off between listening to Lorde’s Pure Heroine album (which is A+) and ModSun’s music (Which is BEYOND A+). I’m sure I would have read, but I have issues reading in a car. When we got here I enjoyed some family time, and some family getting drunk time. Somehow we decided to go for a walk around the seniors community, where we are staying, with my two older sisters, and my older brother, to look for Christmas lights and ended up in the pool (Which technically closes at night, and this was around 1AM, whoops). I spent some time reading “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner, but I still can’t get into it. If anyone has any insight or tips on getting into that book, I would appreciate it. I’ve had that on my TBR for almost a full year, and would really like to read it, considering I received the whole series at once for Christmas last year. 

Monday was a really calm day, My mother, father and I went shopping, where My mother basically told me that I was getting the Vera Wang Pink Princess perfume for Christmas, instead of buying it that day, which is lovely, because Ive been wanting it. We found alcohol at Walmart, which, being from Pennsylvania, we aren’t very used to. After finally getting my two year old nephew to sleep, we had some relaxing time, where I needed to nap. We had a HUGE dinner from the Sonny’s Barbecue in Ocala, Florida, which was AMAZING. I’m not a fan of, well, most foods, so I ended up with a burger, but had some brisket and fries as well. Shout out to Britney for handling our huge order, and handling the fact that we added on more things as she was packing our order. Needless to say, we are quite difficult.

I finally had some reading time, and decided to not bother with “The Maze Runner”, and picked up one of my favorites, “Did I Ever Wake Up” by Mod Sun. I can NOT wait to review this book on here, because It is definitely one of my favorites.  I got about an hour of reading in before the family invaded the sunroom. I spent the rest of the night working through my youtube watch later playlist, and even managed to go to sleep early. 

While my family is out shopping today, I hope to get some reading done. I’ll sit outside because It is damn nice out. I really feel bad for everyone stuck in PA right now, because, from what I hear, Philadelphia is covered in snow. I’m going to go enjoy the weather.

Kelsey Maureen

Review : Shannon Stoker’s “The Registry”

*SPOILERS PROBABLY*
The Summary : In the future of America, boys are raised from birth to be soldiers, and only soldiers, and girls are raised only to be brides. When boys finish their mandatory time in this seemingly never-ending war that America is a part of, they can come back and access The Registry. In The Registry, girls, starting at age 18, are appraised and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Our main character, Mia, is the highest priced girl in the whole Mid West Area, and is perfectly excited to get married until her sister comes home with a terrifying message. Now Mia has to rethink her entire future, and decides to escape to Mexico with the help of her best friend Whitney, and the cute farmhand, Andrew. The problem is, Mia is being hunted by a horde of government officials, and her husband who is determined to own her.

My Thoughts :

I need to start off by saying that I am SO GLAD that this is not a one-off book, like I had assumed. Originally, I thought that Mia and Andrew would make it to Mexico and the book would wrap in a cute little bow. Damn I was wrong.

The Characters : I liked Mia, while she was a little to naive and full of herself for my taste, her attitude and personality made sense with the character, an entitled beauty queen basically. She reminded me a little bit of Kylie Jenner, someone who’s used to getting all the attention she gets, and has come to expect it. Andrew, her guide, was perfectly stoic, and he acted exactly how a young man who is terrified of love would act. He had been trained his whole life to stay away from women and just care for his country. Grant was a complete dick, as expected, he was as arrogant and entitled as anyone who just paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a wife would be. Whitney was almost wallpaper, but I did find myself upset when she died. Frank, Alex and Rod, the people who helped them, were my favorites. The author made these characters incredibly easy to like. And lastly, Carter. Carter, Carter. Carter. I could have done without Carter and without any sort of love triangle. Carter just seemed to me like that high school jock who thought he owned the world because he wore a varsity jacket. I didn’t approve of Mia liking Carter, but I almost felt for him when he had to leave his father to die. Almost. All in all, the characters felt real, and they made a lot of sense in the world they lived in.

The Plot : I only got bored a few times, which seems like a lot, but It takes A LOT for me to stay hooked for that long. I thought the author came up with an interesting concept, that I had yet to see in any YA dystopia thus far. The idea of forcing men into the army, and auctioning off women to the highest bidder seemed real, like it could actually happen one day. There was no impending rebellion to keep things “interesting,” because no one in this world knew they needed to rebel. Maybe there will be more of that in the next book, but who knows. The author did a great job of keeping the reader as in the dark about why “the registry” and the mandatory service were in effect, and giving us multiple theories to go on, so we felt like we were in the world with the characters. I loved how it ended on a literal cliff-hanger, but, after reading the excerpt, the next book in the series picks up exactly where the first leaves off, which I love, because I hate feeling like I missed the characters whole lives.

The Overall: Overall, this book was a three star book. It was certainly not the best book I’ve ever read, but I would definitely recommend it. I had never heard of this book when I saw it on the shelf, but I am very glad that I gave it a chance. I would definitely recommend this book for lovers of The Hunger Games trilogy, and the Matched, Crossed, Reached trilogy.

Kelsey Maureen.

Welcome to Fearless Literacy.

Hey guys, My name is Kelsey Maureen, and I read a ton. I decided to start a blog to review all the books I read. If you have any recommendations for me, Please feel free to let me know.

Thank you

Kelsey