Review of "Created" by Cindy M. Hogan

BOOK DESCRIPTION of Created by Cindy M. Hogan

Ari and her friends find themselves in an independent spy school in Belgium, Bresen Academy. Test scores reveal her true abilities and the director wants to send her onto to more advanced training school immediately. She is given a two week reprieve to explore the school's training program and hopefully make amends with both Reese and Marybeth. Despite her lack of advanced training, the director convinces Ari she would be the best fit for a mission that surfaces in Prague with a group calling themselves Division 57. Uncertain, but wanting to please, she agrees. She quickly discovers there is nothing easy about being a spy and finds her very life on the line.

MY TAKE
In this third and last book in the series, Christy aka Ari is finally not on the run anymore. Kinda. She's still running but it's for a different reason. My thought at the end of "Protected" was that she was being given survival skills that would make her great spy material. It seems someone else thought so, too.

In Belgium, you follow her through training and testing in the field as she tries to mend bridges with former friends all while figuring out her feelings for guys from her past and decisions about her future. There's plenty of action and some nice twists at the end. A satisfying conclusion.

Books 1 and 2

A to Z - Protected by Cindy M. Hogan

Protected by Cindy M. Hogan

 Click here for Melanie McCullough's blog, the next link in the tour.

Protected Description:

She has the guy. The terrorists have been taken care of and she is on the brink of being popular. Life is GREAT! Until they find her. Now she must run and leave behind everything she knows, including herself.

My thoughts? This is quite the ride. I was going to take my time working my way through this book, but I had to finish it. I really felt for Christy as she enters the witness protection program and leaves behind everyone she knew and loved in order to protect not only herself, but them as well. She's told she can never again be who she was.

To help keep her safe, she is trained in the arts of protecting herself. And boy does she need it!

Protected is the second book in the Watched series. 

In the first book:

It takes more than a school trip to Washington, D.C. to change Christy's life. it takes murder. A witness to the slaying of a senator's aide, Christy finds herself watched not only by the killers and the FBI but also by two hot boys. She discovers that if she can't help the FBI, who want to protect her, it will cost her and her new friends their lives.

Launch Day for "Protected" by Cindy M. Hogan

It's launch day

for

Cindy M. Hogan's

Protected,

the second book

in her

Watched series.

I've already read Protected and found it to be quite the page turner. I'll review it in April during the A to Z Challenge under the letter "P" naturally.

#PoetrySummer and Books, Books, and More Books

Week 8: #PoetrySummer

(This is from Dan Well's Summer Poetry Challenge.)

 My poem this week is another lyrics selection. It's from the book These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. As a girl I absolutely loved this books series and especially this book.

Golden years are passing by,

Happy, happy golden years,

Passing on the wings of time,

These happy golden years.

Call them back as they go by,

Sweet their memories are,

Oh, improve them as they fly,

These happy golden years.

Books, Book, and Books

I've been taking a break from writing, while my critique group and some betas read through a revision. As a result, I've actually had time to read. Imagine that! 

Here are some of the books I've either finished reading or am currently reading:

I have pages of notes that I've taken as I slowly listened to the tale again. Brandon Sanderson is one of those authors who, like Jo Rowling, likes to throw in unexpected twists that he's warned you about but you probably didn't realize you were being warned. He's got a complex storyline going here, and he has a wonderful gift of making me care about the characters.

Fun Romantic Suspense with a nice twist at the end.Stephanie received a Whitney Award for her book this year. It was well deserved. Click here for more details about this book and her other works.

1st book in the Saint Squad Series, a squad of Navy Seals who also happen to be LDS. I'm reading Traci's books to my hubby, and I swear every one of them makes him cry. Click here for more about Traci's books.

2nd Book in the Saint Squad Series

Book 1 in a series with characters from Freefall.

Book 2 in the series.

Something that I enjoy is when we're introduced to characters we love and get to see them again in other books. When we read Freefall we were introduced to a storyline that was back story and only hinted at. It was fun to realize when we began Under Currents that this was that story and involved a younger version of one of the main characters in Freefall. 

Listening to

Fun YA suspense. Click here for a write up.

 I've only got a couple more weeks of no writing (I think), and I've got several more books I'm hoping to get to. *sigh* I suffer from the librarian's lament even though I'm not a librarian.

So many books.

So little time.

So what have you been reading?

And the Winner Is ...

It's time to award my prize in the Cindy M Hogan Blog Hop for the release of her book Watched. As a reminder, my prize is a hardback copy of Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George.

From the inside cover:

Princess Rose is the eldest of twelve sisters condemned to dance each night for the wicked King Under Stone in his palace deep within the earth. It is a curse that has haunted the girls since their birth--and only death can set them free.

Then Rose meets Galen, a young soldier-turned-gardener with an eye for adventure and a resolve that matches her own, and freedom suddenly begins to seem a little less impossible. To defeat the king and his dark court, they will need one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all--true love.

And the winner is:

Bree

So Bree, email me at donnakweaver(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address.

"Watched" Blog Hop

(read to the bottom to see what my prize is)
And you could win lots of awesome prizes

                          and learn about             

        Watched,

        the hottest new teen novel,

       while making new friends.

Each of the following blogs is offering a different awesome prize!

(That's 14 prizes!)

And the grand prize is a $25 dollar gift card to Amazon.

                  Quick, Fast Entry

Pick a blog, any blog to get started

(just click on the underlined name)

Better hurry! There's only 4 days to enter -Tues., June 21st-Friday, June 24th
 **(Need more details? More complete entry details at the bottom of the page)

1.   Follow Rachelle Writes and leave a comment.   Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Rachelle's blog. (If you do both you get 1 entry into Rachelle's contest and one into the Grand Prize contest-You Must do both to enter either)

2.   Follow A Writer's Reality and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Melissa's blog.

3.   Follow Day Dreamer and leave a comment.

Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Christine's blog.

4.  Follow The Queen of the Clan and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Danyelle's blog.

5.   Follow Jordan McCollum and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Jordan's blog.

6.  Follow The Crazy Daze of Motherhood and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Jane's blog.

7.  Follow I am a Pistachio and leave a comment.

Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Rebecca's blog.

8.   Follow Chasing Dreams and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Tamara's blog.

9.   Follow Ramblings of a Random Writer and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Betsy's blog.

10. Follow Matthew Tandy-The Working Writera nd leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Matthew's blog.

11 Follow Weaving a Tale or Two and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Donna's blog.

12. Follow Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Tristi's blog.
13. Follow My Yellow Sandbox and leave a comment. Then follow  Cindy M Hogan and leave a comment about Abby's blog.
14. Follow Watched and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M Hogan and leave a comment about that blog.

13. Enter all 14 contests and you get an extra 5 entries into the Grand Prize Giveaway. (19 entries)
14. That's not all! Get 6 extra entries by buying Watched here (print book) or here (e-book) and sending her a copy of your confirmation cindymhogan at yahoo dot com. Easy peasy.   Wow! That's 25 entries!

           
Have fun and good luck!

**More Details on how to enter

• Click on the blog name
• Follow that blog
• Leave a comment that you were there 
• Jump over to Cindy's blog
• Leave a comment about what you liked about the other blog. 

Congrats! You've entered that blog's contest and earned one entry into the Grand Prize Drawing!

Enter one. Enter two or how ever many you like, but...

If you enter all the blogs' contests you get a bonus 5 entries into the Grand Prize Drawing.
That gives you a total of 19 entries to win the

Grand Prize- A $25 gift card to Amazon.
And don't forget to get your copy of Watched for a bonus 6 entries.
(25 total)
Remember- you only have 4 days to enter.
(Tues, June 21st-Friday, June 24th at midnight)  

and you must comment on both blogs for entry into each contest.

Individual blogs will award prizes on June 25th

The Grand Prize will be awarded on June 28th on Cindy's blog.
Check back to see if you won! You have 2 days to claim your prize.

A big thanks to my awesome friends for joining in on the fun.

1.   Rachelle Writes

2.   A Writer's Reality

3.   Day Dreamer

4.  The Queen of the Clan

5.   Jordan McCollum

6.   The Crazy Daze of Motherhood

7.   I am a Pistachio

8.   Chasing Dreams

9.   Ramblings of a Random Writer

10. Matthew Tandy-The Working Writer

11 Weaving a Tale or Two

12 Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author
13.My Yellow Sandbox
14. Watched

On the 25th, I will draw the name
of a winner
of a hardbound copy of

Princess of the Midnight Ball 

by Jessica Day George

(but you'll have to be a follower and comment on both my blog and Cindy's).

My Cup Runneth Over

I'm posting on an off day to let everyone know that Margo Lerwill over at UrbanPsychopomp kindly gave me the Blog on Fire Award.

Thanks, Margo! I'm honored you thought of me.

So now I have to choose someone to pass this on to. I've decided to give it to Cindy Hogan, a new acquaintance and author of the book Watched. She's been doing lots of training on her blog for people who may be looking at self publishing. She doesn't just talk about the pros and cons. She actually walks you through the process.

You should check out her blog.

And then Lia Davis, author of The Divinity Series gave me The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.

Thanks, Lia!

I didn't realize I'd failed to fulfill the requirements of this award when I posted about my first receipt of it here. I know. I know. I'm a slacker loser. But, I believe in making restitution, so I will pass this off to twice the number of people I would have if I'd received it only once.

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
Check

2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
A. I've lived or visited the following countries/colonies: South Korea, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong (wasn't part of China then), Germany, and Ireland. (I lived in three of them ranging from 18 months to 2 1/2 years). 
B. I'm a rabid Harry Potter fan and I get to see the last movie at 5 p.m. on THURSDAY, July 14th.
C. I am my city's election official, and this is an election year, so we're really busy gearing up. There's SO much work.
D. My next to youngest son was a cage fighter. Watching him fight (I couldn't let him go and not be there in case he got hurt) was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Fortunately he felt he'd proved himself when he won his fight and was happy to retire. 
E. I love being a grandmother and I miss my grandkids desperately. I was spoiled when they all lived within 20 minutes of me. Then their parents moved to far off places (like China and Hawaii--both very expensive to travel to). Skype chats just don't cut it. You can't hold children while you read to them on Skype, and they act all weird in front of the camera anyway. *sigh*
F. I used to commute to work, and when I changed to my current job I picked up 20 hours a week. Imagine what I could do with that time now--take a laptop on the bus. Put in those ear buds. Nope. I'll stick with what I've got now as wonderful as that job was.
G. I got a bicycle for Mother's Day, and I plan on riding it down the canyon soon. 

3. Pass the award along to 5 10 deserving blogging buddies. Please check out their blogs and follow them if you're so inclined:

Deanna -- Procrastination Station
Ashley -- Ashley Nixon
Margot -- Inklings
Shelly -- SeeShelWrites
Shelli -- *A* Musings
Joshua -- Joshua J. Perkey's Blog
Betsy -- Betsy Love LDS Author
CJ --CJ Duggan
Matt -- The Working Writer
Bryce - Bryce Daniels Preservation Society


4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.
Check