December Favourites

It's a little late, but these are a few of my favourite things for the month of December!

Favourite Read: Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

(Honourable Mentions go to Pushing The Limits and Daughter of Smoke & Bone)

Favourite Song: They Don't Know About Us by One Direction

Favourite Failed Recipe: Snickers Caramel Apple Salad.  I may have screwed up the apple-to-whipped cream ratio.  How I managed to mess this up continues to confuse me.

Favourite Christmas Moment: The ongoing battle that is playing cards with my family.  We all get a little competitive.

Favourite Caffienated Beverage: Grande Nonfat Caramel Brulle Latte with whip from Starbucks.

Favourite Gift I Gave: An assortment of Bath and Body Works treats for my mom, who works amazingly hard and deserves to pamper herself.

Favourite Gift I Recieved: Hockey tickets (even if we lost the game...) and books.

Favourite Memory of 2012: No clue.  It was such a roller coaster year, and I'm excited for 2013!

Much love, Samantha

Book Review: Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Published December 11th, 2012
Entangled Publishing
452 pages (Paperback)

No one is like Daemon Black.

When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well... There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on.

But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love.
After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Together we’re stronger... and they know it. (From Goodreads)

I've only started reading JLA's books since shortly after this blog started, and I've reviewed them all (a couple have yet to be posted), but they all seem to go the exact same, in that I can't find words to express my adoration.

Yet again, a brilliant story that left me an emotional wreck.  Literally.  Ask my roommate. We decided it was a good idea to read this during exam period (AKA when we should have been studying).

I will say this though: the ending was cliche.  I don't want to give too much away, but I saw something like this happening.  Anytime you have two characters clearly in love, something has to happen and get in the way of their epic romance.  Authors are awesome, but they have a vicious side that never wants to let us be too happy about our character's romantic interludes for very long.  Regardless of my suspicions, I was devastated.

If you have yet to read this series, you're missing out.  Get on it.  It excites me that Chapters (Canada-land's main bookstore) is finally stocking the series on their shelves, so go check it out!

Book four in the series, Origin, won't be out for a while (tentatively July 2013?!?!), and will be written in dual POV between Katy and Daemon.  Again, we should have seen that ending coming.

Much love, Samantha
PS. Daemon really should try leather pants.
PPS. Katy's mom is too awesome.  As a nursing student trying to plan her independent placements, I want her mom as my preceptor.  Seriously, drunk's detoxing are the worst.