Manicure Monday (7): How To Woo A Reluctant Lady

Hello! Welcome to Manicure Monday, a feature where I share my current read and my current manicure. Manicure Monday is pretty popular in the beauty blogging world but not so much in the book world, and I wanted a way to share my love of nail polish with you. I don't really do nail art or anything like that so my manicures are pretty simple. Sometimes they match, sometimes they don't. If you'd like to participate in this feature, feel free to grab the graphic above and leave your link in the comments. 

This week's manicure is super matchy, which wasn't really my intent but I kind of like it.

This is Illamasqua Jo'Mina with How To Woo A Reluctant Lady by Sabrina Jeffries. Jo'Mina is this crazy bright lilac. It's actually brighter than it appears in the picture, but purples are hard to photograph sometimes. I love it though. It's super girly but the brightness also gives it an edge.

As you might have guessed, How To Woo A Reluctant Lady is a historical romance. It's so funny but I found it on my shelf and had no idea where I got it. Did I borrow it or did I get it at a convention? Pretty sure I did not purchase it. I still have no idea. But I did read it and really liked it. The main characters had great chemistry and I definitely going to find more books by Ms. Jeffries to read. 

What do you guys think of this color? Too bright or just right?  Also, if you're interested in bookish nail art, my friend found this awesome tumblr page called Pages and Polish, which has some great stuff on it. :)

ETA: Alright trying this out with a Linky widget since a few people have already signed up. I'll try it this week but, if it gets too complicated, may just have you guys go back to just leaving links in the comments.

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Out And About! (2)

Out And About! is a meme hosted by my friend Kimberly from The Windy Pages where you showcase where you've been reading in the real world. If you would like to participate, head on over the Kimberly's blog and link up. 

 
I didn't have much of a chance to read outside this week. The weather wasn't awesome and I just didn't have time. But I did run an errand over the the outdoor mall during the week and was able to grab a few minutes of reading time by the fountain. Sorry you can't see the fountain very well in this picture. I took the pic with my phone and could barely see anything with the sun on my screen. I wish I could have caught a shot of the fountain spraying water to some crazy song, but alas, I missed it. If you want to know what I was reading, come back tomorrow to see my Manicure Monday post. Thanks for stopping by!

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Stacked (45)

Good morning! Did everyone remember to change their clocks today? I always hate losing that hour of sleep but I do love more sunlight so I suppose it's a fair trade off. I have some fun books this week. Part of my pre-birthday celebration this weekend included a trip to Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach, where I picked up a few books I have been meaning to read. Also caved and bought a few new e-books. Curious? Let's take a look!

Wait for You by J Lynn - New adult romance by Jennifer Armentrout (writing as J Lynn). I have read a short story romance by J Lynn and thought it was pretty good. Also a big fan of her YA Lux series so I had to give this a chance, esp since it was only $0.99.

Wild Invitation by Nalini Singh - This is a short story anthology set in Singh's Psy-Changeling world. If you don't know already, I adore Nalini Singh, so you can bet this was a pre-order. Read it already and loved it.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover - Everyone keeps saying that this book is awesome and it also went on sale this week on Kindle, so I snatched it up.

Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill - Mysterious Galaxy had signed copies of this book and I could not resist. I really like the cover and the whole dream premise sucked me in. I have a fascination with dreams since I always have really weird ones. 

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett (signed) - We happened upon Mindee Arnett signing her new book this weekend at MG. Since I have been wanting to read this one and Mindee was right there, into my cart it went. She was super cool and I can't wait to read this one. 

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal - I've been wanting to read this for a little while now but every time I look for it in the bookstore, it's never there. Finally tracked down a copy at MG this weekend. Excited to start it.

I don't usually include my movie purchases in this post but just thought I would mention that I also bought Wreck It Ralph this week. I saw it in the theater and just loved it and have been waiting for it to come out on video. It's still as good as I remember it. So I've been watching that pretty much non-stop this week.

Anyone have good plans for this upcoming week? Like I said, my birthday is coming up but I am not sure if I am going to do anything on the actual day. I'm at an age now where it's not a huge deal if I don't do something on my birthday. Though I would like some cake...

Also, very excited to be getting my new Kindle this week! Yes, I finally ordered a new one. Old one is about 4 years old and still works though it does get glitchy. Audible and Amazon were running a program to get $100 off if you signed up for an Audible subscription, so I did it. I am getting a new Kindle Keyboard. A little nervous about transferring my books over since I have a lot, but we'll see how it goes. This was super chatty so going to go now, but hope you all have a wonderful week!

 

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Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Sign Ups

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to let you all know about this great challenge going on in May. The Clean Sweep ARC Challenge is hosted by The Caffeinated Reader and The Windy Pages. It runs from May 1 - 21. It's such a great idea for all of us readers who have a backlog of ARCs to read. You can read physical or digital copies for this challenge. If you wan to sign up, please head on over to this post and sign up. Sign ups close May 15.

Since I am not the best at challenges, I am going to try to keep my list pretty small in the hopes of actually completing it. These are the books I hope to read during the challenge.

Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Too Hot To Handle by Victoria Dahl

Soulbound by Heather Brewer

As you can see, most of these are older ARCs that I just never got around but still want to read. Check back in closer to May and I'll have more details up. I encourage you to sign up for the challenge. It's going to be a lot of fun!

 

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Uncovered (54): Unnatural Creatures

It's Friday and that means it's time for a dose of cover love. This week I have Unnatural Creatures, an anthology of stories collected by Neil Gaiman. Other than the fact that I will read anything that Neil Gaiman puts his name on, I also think this cover is quite beautiful. Obviously the text is a big element and I really like the way it is incorporated into the decorative border.The border is where a lot of the really cool details are. I don't have a high-res image of this but I can see that there are lots of tiny details in the border. Like I can see a mermaid and a really cool lizard and some awesome tentacles. This cover also looks like one that is going to have an embossed or textured surface (at least I hope so) which will make it look even better.

This one doesn't come out until April unfortunately but it's already on my Amazon wishlist. What do you guys think? Love it, hate it? Let me know in the comments below!

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