...in books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

This week the girls want to know my 

Top Ten Characters Who Would Be My BFFs

Yes, I am one of those people who believe that boys and girls can be friends, mainly because most of my friends are boys and there is nothing more than friendship between us. Here’s my list of my top ten book characters who would be my BFFs. 

Finley Jayne from Kady Cross’ Steampunk Chronicles

Roux from Also Known As by Robin Benway

Hale from Ally Carter’s Heist Society series

Stephanie Plum from the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich

Nanny Ogg from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series

Grace from Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis

Nick Fox from Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg’s The Heist series

Maddie from Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

Professor Randolph Lyall from the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger

Cammie Morgan from Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girl series

I never intended to dissapear from the face of the earth :)

When I came back from Prague at the 6th of April I decided to take two or three days off from blogging to get my life back on track - organize my work stuff, blogging schedule, write and schedule some posts, prepare the photos I took in Prague to share with you, write all the reviews in my "Reviews to write" file, figure out a plan for when to take all the exams I need to take and decide on a study plan, etc.

You see, I had a lot of things on my major to do list and since there's one of my best friend's wedding next weekend I needed to find something to wear too.

Forward to today:
The week after I returned from Prague, work got crazy! I am tutoring students in English and suddenly they all discovered that they have exams coming and are not as good in English as students who pass their exams without any troubles, so they are coming to me for helps aka some magic :)
So this week flew by without me even noticing but at the 12th my Easter Break started and I was looking forward to some down time, reading time, blogging time but the mean mean flu hit me hard. So hard that I didn't even feel like reading.....

But finally I am feeling better and am still having a week off from university so I'm hoping to get everything back on track before I will head off the Amsterdam at the beginning of May.

To make this long story short:
I am still here, I am finally not sick anymore and I will take up blogging regularly again this week. There is still a photo post to my Prague trip to come, some reviews and other posts are also in the making....

My Life...

I arrived back from my three day Prague adventure late last night and I had a really great time. Not only did I start reading Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone on the bus going to Prague I also instantly fell in love with it. The city was beautiful (it was my third time there so I knew it already) and the weather was great too.

My plan for today is to get my things together and plan my mental April (there is just sooooooo much to do this month) and resume my regular blogging schedule from tomorrow on - hopefully!

...in books

Review

Forever and a Day

by Jill Shalvis

Forever and a Day is book 5 in the Lucky Harbor series and

I highly recommend reading the other books in the series before reading this one.

Otherwise you will spoil yourself.

First sentences:

Tired, edgy, and scared that she was never going to get her life on the happy track, Grace Brooks dropped into the booth of the diner and sagged against the red vinyl seat.

Summary:
Grace never thought she’d be starting her life over from scratch. Losing everything has landed her in Lucky Harbor, working as a dog walker for overwhelmed ER doctor Josh Scott. But the day his nanny fails to show up, Grace goes from caring for Josh’s loveable mutt to caring for his rambunctious kids. Soon Grace is playing house with the sexy single dad…

With so many people depending on him, Josh has no time for anything outside of his clinic and family–until Grace arrives in town. Now this brainy blonde is turning his life inside out and giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “good bedside manner.” Josh and Grace don’t know if what they have can last. But in a town like Lucky Harbor, a lifetime of love starts with just one day…

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

Forever and a Day is the sixth book in the Lucky Harbor series.

Grace is a free spirit and likes to keep herself unattached and Josh and the other side is a caring single dad with a rebellious sister he has to take care of too.

As always in Jill’s novels, the characters feel like friends and people you have known all your life. I really liked Grace even though she has a hard time adjusting to people liking her and wanting to be her friends. She is one of those people who are trying to be nice and help others but sometimes things just go terribly wrong – like the first time she is dog-sitting for Josh.

Josh is a super nice, adorable and hard-working doctor who is devoted to his work and tries really hard to have enough time for his son and his rebellious sister who is sitting in a wheelchair after an accident and has a hard time accepting that.

With the help of Grace, Josh is slowing getting his life back on track and might even be able to enjoy some free time and find love.

Reading a Jill Shalvis book always transports me into another realm. I love this made up town of Lucky Harbor and all his inhabitants. What I also really like about these books is that main characters from the other novels appear in the newer ones from time to time. This way you don’t have to say goodbye to them after just one book but seen them evolve over time in the other stories.

If you are looking for a good romance novel, give Jill Shalvis a try.

The books in the Lucky Harbor series are:

• Simply Irresistible (read my review here)
• The Sweetest Thing (read my review here)
• Head Over Heels (read my review here)
• Lucky In Love (read my review here)
• At Last (read my review here)
• Forever And A Day
• Under The Mistletoe
• It Had To Be You
• Always On My Mind
• Once Upon A Time 

For more information about Jill Shalvis visit her Homepage, her Blog and her Facebook and Twitter page.

Things I Love

Skiing

I can see my dad reading the title and starting to laugh out loud. Why? Because I don’t ski! Yes, that might confuse you right now and I can totally understand that but let me explain…

Ice Clown

Growing up in Austria with a dad and a grandpa who loved skiing and a mum who went along with it meant that I started skiing at the age of three. My parents and my grandpa would go skiing somewhere in Austria (we have more than enough mountains for that for one week each year).  I was enrolled in skiing for beginners’ courses for some years and after that my dad became my teacher. I never really enjoyed it and the only thing keeping my motivation above ground was the daily reward – an ice clown – at one of the local cafés. On the slopes I was easy to detect because I was the one singing to calm me down and to give me something other to do besides being terrified of getting down this mountain. 

After I successfully survived the two weeks of skiing in school (at the age of 12 and 13) I was allowed to stop skiing if I really wanted and I stopped but what didn’t stop was my love of watching ski races on TV. 

I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t watching skiing on TV and during winter (from October to March) my family can be found in front of the TV most Saturday and Sunday mornings watching men or women skiing. I am fascinated with the athletes who decided to become a professional downhill skier. Managing to get down the Streif at Kitzbühel in approximately two minutes is something I will never fully comprehend but it captivates me. 

I’m pretty sure you already guessed it but I enjoy watching men more than women. I love the dynamic between the competitors who also feel the pain of failing the course either by straddling a gate at the slalom or by passing a gate. I enjoy it immensely that even though they are all competitors, they are friends (at least some of them) and they are fair sportsmen. I cannot tell you how much I admire Aksel Lund Svindal every time he gets interviewed and asked about a competitor winning and him loosing and every time he is such a fair sportsman, congratulates the winner and tells the reporter that that’s part of the game and that he’ll try to ski his best next time again. 

I like watching it so much that during the winter months my planner holds all the races (men and women) and I usually try to schedule things around them (but please, don’t tell my friends). 

On March 16^th 2014, was the last race of this season and now I’ll have to wait till the end of October to get my regular skiing fix again and yes, that makes me sad but until then I’ll have all the time in the world for my friends again. :)