Toby Streams the Universe by Maya Lassiter

Toby Hay is a psychic living in New York City, supporting his screwed-up family using his visions to play the stock market. He also helps his private investigator best-friend with the occasional case--all while trying not to read the future of every person he meets. Such as Toby's new neighbor, a beautiful painter hiding from her violent Ex. Or Toby's psychic, sex-pot, sister, scared of her own future. Or his quirky virtual-assistant, struggling to care for her sick child. Toby wants to help them all, but his super-psychic father trained him not to interfere, lest he lose his own sanity in the process. Toby's father knew everything--he must have had good reasons for his rules. Of course, he vanished nearly a year ago...
Then a voice speaks in Toby's mind, offering a path away from the dark future predicted by the Family Histories--if only Toby will challenge what his father taught him and learn to use his visions, rather than merely control them. Now Toby must find his father, uncover the identity of the voice, and save his friends from their futures, all while figuring out how to live inside his own, increasingly strange mind. From Goodreads.

This was better than I expected. This is Toby's journey to find a way to escape insanity. I like the way he tries to help people change their sad futures even if they think him a stalker in the process. I will definitely read more by Maya Lassiter at some point.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection: 1000 Member Celebration!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III
A Million More Pages Hogwarts Challenge

The Little Christmas Kitchen by Jenny Oliver

Christmas at the Davenports’ house was always about one thing: food!
But when sisters Ella and Maddy were split up, Ella to live in London with their Dad, and Maddy staying in Greece with their Mum, mince pies lost their magic.
Now, a cheating husband has thrown Ella a curved snowball…and for the first time in years, all she wants is her mum. So she heads back to Greece, where her family’s taverna holds all the promise of home. Meanwhile, waitress Maddy’s dreams of a white Christmas lead her back to London…and her Dad.
But a big fat festive life-swap isn’t as easy as it sounds! And as the sisters trade one kitchen for another, it suddenly seems that among the cinnamon, cranberries and icing sugar, their recipes for a perfect Christmas might be missing a crucial ingredient: each other. From Goodreads.



Ella and Maddy are two sisters that got split up when their parents divorced. They both resent the parent they didn't live with as they felt discarded.
Now many years later Ella, after her marriage breaks up, comes to Greece to stay with her mum and Maddy goes to London hoping not to meet her dad. The girls used to be close but they both felt the other has a better life than they themselves do, but as is often the case looks can be deceiving and not everything is as it seems.
It is a Christmas story and a romance so of course all ends well.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Yahtzee Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SS
The Challenge Factory - R5: Team Challenge SSS
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (O-zorilla)
Crazy Challenge Connection Monopoly
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III
A Million More Pages Hogwarts Challenge
Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2014

Elfhunter by C.S. Marks

Elfhunter is the first of the tales of Alterra, The World That Is. It concerns the quest of an unlikely pair of heroines, Gaelen and Nelwyn, who are Wood-elves of the Greatwood Forest. They are hunter-scouts in the realm of King Ri-Aruin, and they have sworn to protect their woodland home, but they are drawn into a quest to defend all the Elves of Alterra as they seek to destroy the 'Elfhunter', a monstrous entity intent on exterminating the Elves until none remain. Along the way, Gaelen and Nelwyn are joined by other interesting characters as they make their way through the realms of Alterra in pursuit of the Elfhunter, whose true name is 'Gorgon'. What headstrong Gaelen and her gentle cousin do not know is that Gorgon is in league with the Dark Power, and that the forces of Evil have forged an entanglement between Gorgon and Gaelen herself. Now she and all she loves are in jeopardy, and only an inspired plan put forth by Orogond, a mortal man, can save her. From Goodreads.


This is okay but no more, it is a bit too much a copy of LOTR. There is an evil that the elves have been fighting for millennia. There is a ring, not the same purpose but still an important ring. Elfgirl and ranger together, and a stone to look in to see the past and the possible future. I have the next two books but I am not convinced I will read them.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection: 1000 Member Celebration!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Novel Books & Reading Challenges - Baby Got Book
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet O-xoni)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III
A Million More Pages Hogwarts Challenge

Promise by Kristie Cook

First installment of award-winning author Kristie Cook's bestselling Soul Savers Series
Alexis Ames has a life full of promise...but not all promises can be kept.
When Alexis Ames is attacked by creatures that can't be real, she decides it's time she learns who she really is, with or without the help of her mother, who guards their family's secrets closely. After meeting the inhumanly attractive, multi-talented Tristan Knight, however, Alexis retreats behind her façade of normalcy...until she discovers he's not exactly normal either. Then their secrets begin to unravel.
Their union brings hope and promise to her family's secret society, the Angels' army, and to the future of mankind. But it also incites a dangerous pursuit by the enemy - Satan's minions and Tristan's creators. After all, Alexis and Tristan are a match made in Heaven and in Hell. From Goodreads.



Alexis doesn't know what she is, she just knows she is not quite like the other teenagers. She and her mother has moved a lot and Alexis never fit in anywhere. She is surprised when Tristan shows an interest in her. This book kind of finishes in the middle of things but then the author in her foreword has actually written that this book and the second was meant to be one. I have the next two books and will most likely read them.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection: 1000 Member Celebration!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III
A Million More Pages Hogwarts Challenge

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Through a mirror is a dangerous world. For years, Jacob Reckless has enjoyed its secrets and treasures. Not any more. His younger brother has followed him. Now dark magic will turn the boy to beast, break the heart of the girl he loves, and cause chaos to rule forever... Unless Jacob can find a way to save them. You thought you knew about fairy tales? Think again. From Goodreads.

This is very different from the Inkheart books but it is still good. I enjoyed reading about Jacob and Will's quest to save Will from becoming a Goyl, a stone like creature. Only problem is we are more or less thrown into the middle of the story. I would like to have known more about the attack on Will and also more about Clara and Will's relationship as it actually doesn't seem that strong. I did like Fox and it will be interesting to see what happens to her in the next book.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection: 1000 Member Celebration!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection Monopoly
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III
A Million More Pages Hogwarts Challenge

A Million More Pages - Scavenger Hunt > December

Scavenger Hunt > December hosted by A Million More Pages on Goodreads.

Another challenge that gives me points for the Hogwarts challenge. though this is not an actual Hogwarts challenge.

Each month we will post a list of  20 items to be found while reading. The rules remain the same, but the lists will change each month. Go the monthly threads to add your name and results.

RULES:
1. Must read more than 3 books.
2. Any genre except Children's Lit. YA should be over 140pps. All others should be over 125 pps.
3. Items found in reading, not in title or on cover.
4. No more than 5 items per book.
5. In your post, list TITLE, PAGE #, and SENTENCE where the item can be found.
6. For non-fiction the caption texts are not allowed, however, anything within the main text or article would be allowed.
7. No audiobooks are allowed.
8. For e-readers, use LOC#.
9. Words not found will ROLLOVER to the next month.

POINTS
+.05: Each book read (finishers & non-finishers)
+1: Participation (only for non-finishers)
+5: Completion (only for finishers)
*Part. & Comp. CANNOT be claimed together

Books:

Reckless by Cornelia Funke
1. GLOVES/MITTENS (loc 2901) The King pulled his GLOVES over his claws.
5. SNOW (loc 1755) On an evening that already carried the scent of SNOW, they finally reached the river beyond which the royal fortress lay.
11. FUR (loc 662) It fell down her back so long and thick that it looked almost as though she were still wearing her FUR.
16. TOY (loc 1260) A game with the TOY her dream had shown her.
20. ROOF (loc 499) When Jacob had come here some years earlier with Chanute, the red ROOF tiles had shone through the undergrowth so brightley,

Promise by Kristie Cook
6. SOUP (loc 3175) Instead, he made me homemade SOUP and we watched my favorite movies.
13. GIFT (loc 2968) I think I have the perfect GIFT, but I want to know what you want,
14. ANGEL (loc 3351) And it has wings - they're supposed to be like ANGEL wings.
15. DEER (loc 2022) I stared wide-eyed like a DEER caught in headlights.
18. BIRTH (loc 3749) Your conception and BIRTH seemed like miracles to us.

Elfhunter by C.S. Marks
8. CHESTNUT (loc 4404) three horses; a bay, a CHESTNUT, and a black.
10. RED CLOTHING (loc 1544) that now fastened her dark RED CLOAK at her shoulder.

The Little Christmas Kitchen by Jenny Oliver
2. SCARF (loc 79) and an aztec print SCARF.
4. COOKIE (loc 1904) the melt-in-your-mouth little COOKIES,
7. CHIMNEY (loc 2483) and the CHIMNEY hadn't been swept.
12. BALLET (loc 4013) inappropriate BALLET pumps that...
19. CAMEL (loc 42834) Her CAMEL coat was draped casually over

Toby Streams the Universe by Maya Lassiter
9. POPCORN (loc 5461) and POPCORN. A favorite snack among the nurses.
17. BELL (loc 5328) and he thought the BELL, when it chimed, might be different,

Still missing:
3. CANDELABRA