Current Giveaways

Click on the book cover to head over to the giveaway page for these books! None right now :)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

In My Mailbox (31) This is Teen author signing edition


I attended the This Is Teen event here in Miami, which was yesterday, Saturday. Meg Cabot, Maggie Stiefvater, and Libba Bray were there, and they were super hilarious. They answered some questions, and then signed books. I got 6 books signed, 3 are for me, and 3 are to giveaway to you guys! :) My recap post will hopefully be up tomorrow, with pictures and everything. I even met and saw some really awesome bloggers!

Books:
2 *signed* copies of Abandon by Meg Cabot
2 *signed* copies of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
2 *signed* copies of Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody
Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Still Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley

Swag:
This Is Teen flashdrives
2 Abandon post cards
1 Meg Cabot bookmark
3 This Is Teen post cards
The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls bookmark & *signed* bookplate

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (5)

While lurking on Amazon and Goodreads, I come across so many books that I want SO badly I could pee. These are what I like to call my Pee-Inducing Books, or Urine-Triggering Novels. Below is my current list. Please peruse it while I go get a new pair of pants.


The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…


This thrilling sequel to the much-talked-about Nightshade begins just where it ended-Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemy, and she's certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer-one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack-and the man-she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.

Riley Blackthorne is beginning to learn that there are worse things than death by demon. And love is just one of them…

Seventeen-year-old Riley has about had it up to here. After the devastating battle at the Tabernacle, trappers are dead and injured, her boyfriend Simon is gravely injured, and now her beloved late father’s been illegally poached from his grave by a very powerful necromancer. As if that’s not enough, there's Ori, one sizzling hot freelance demon hunter who’s made himself Riley’s unofficial body guard, and Beck, a super over-protective “friend” who acts more like a grouchy granddad. With all the hassles, Riley’s almost ready to leave Atlanta altogether.

But as Atlanta’s demon count increases, the Vatican finally sends its own Demon Hunters to take care of the city’s “little” problem, and pandemonium breaks loose. Only Riley knows that she might be the center of Hell’s attention: an extremely powerful Grade 5 demon is stalking her, and her luck can't last forever…


The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.
 What do you guys think of these awesome books?

Features

I have many different features that I've started for my blog. Have a look around and check out the fun features! :)

Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee
This is the feature with a funny name, haha. I started this after finding so many amazing books that, when I see them, I just want them so badly that I can pee!
Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (1)
Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (2)
Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (3)
Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (4)
Books I Want SO Badly I Could Pee (5)

Top Tens
This was a weeklong feature I did, listing various top tens in different YA categories.
Top Ten: YA Boys
Top Ten: YA Girls
Top Ten: YA Series
Top Ten: YA Standalones
Top Ten: YA Couples
Top Ten: YA Authors
Cover Loving
Just a feature to drool all over the pretty, pretty covers. *strokes covers lovingly*
Cover Loving (1)
Cover Loving (2)


Books on a Budget

In this feature, I show different ways to get books legally for free through various programs that publishers have. 

Discussion Posts

This page has links to every discussion post on What's Your Story. Check them out and feel free to leave a comment on any discussion! I check each of them regularly. :)

How Do YOU Choose the Books You Read?
Exactly what the title says. :)

"Oh crap, I shit my pants..."
An odd discussion post about YA characters having the magical ability to not have any normal bodily functions.

Is Dystopian the new 'IT' in YA?
Just some thoughts on whether the dystopian genre will be the next big thing in YA.

Long VS. Short Series
This post discusses the pros and cons of 'long series', meaning series that have more than 4 books, in comparison with trilogies and less.

Goodreads VS Shelfari
Discussing the pros and cons of the book social networking sites, Goodreads and Shelfari.

Sex in YA
Pretty much exactly what the title says, haha. A post about how much is too much when it comes to more mature themes?

Negative Reviews
A post about negative reviews, and whether they're helpful or not.

Spotlights

I like to shed the spotlight every once in a while on some exceptional authors and books that I think truly deserve it. Here is a list of all the spotlights I've posted.

Author Spotlight
Rachel Vincent

Creature Spotlight
Werewolves

Friday, July 22, 2011

Review: Life On Hold by Karen McQuestion

Author: Karen McQuestion
Pages: 168
Publisher: Amazon Encore
Genre: YA Contemporary
Reading Level: 13 years old+
Buy the Book
Gina and Rae Maddox are more like best friends than mother and daughter. Of course, free-spirited Gina’s rambling ways leave her daughter with little opportunity to make any other friends, as they constantly crisscross the country in search of “a fresh start.” But when Gina brings them home to her native Wisconsin, she promises Rae that this time, they’ll stay put...at least until Rae finishes high school. And when Rae begins to make friends at Whitman High, she dares to hope her mother is telling the truth. But then Rae is paired with another new girl, Allison Daly, whose bad attitude and unsettled family life put her at odds with Rae — yet draws her to Gina. When ugly rumors begin to fly about Allison’s past, Rae must choose between distancing herself from the troubled girl or using her own experience as an outcast to help her. The path she takes will not only change Allison’s life, it will affect Rae’s relationship with her mother and her understanding of her place in the world.
Life On Hold was a great novel about a girl finally finding a sense of "home", and bonding with her mother. It tells the story of Rae and her mother, who are constantly moving around. As such, Rae never feels the need to make friends or any deep connections. But she's been in Wisconsin for quite some time now, and plans to stay there until she finishes high school, so she feels it's safe to make two friends. Her life is pretty good. That is until a new girl shows up in school that is rumored to have killed her own parents by starting a house fire. From that point onward, Rae's life changes completely, and not always for the better.

I really enjoyed reading Life On Hold. It wasn't the kind of novel that I'm used to reading, but I liked it nonetheless. This is my second Karen McQuestion novel, and it made me much more eager to read more of Karen's work. It was a quick novel with good, solid characters and a clean and flowing writing style. Karen was able to create an interesting story in such a short book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do recommend this to fans of contemporary fiction.

My favorite aspect of this novel was Rae's relationship with her mother. They actually had a pretty crappy relationship, but I really sympathized with Rae as she confronted her mother on the issues between them. It was real. It was raw. There were several instances when I wanted to smack Rae's mom!

I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Review: Persephone the Phony

Author: Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams
Pages: 130
Publisher: Aladdin
Genre: MG Fantasy
Reading Level: 10 years old+
Buy the Book
AS PERSEPHONE'S MOTHER ENCOURAGES HER to do, she often "goes along to get along" instead of doing what she really wants. But when she meets Mount Olympus Academy bad-boy Hades, she finally feels she has found someone with whom she can be herself. He's the first person who actually listens to her, and she finds herself liking him, despite the fact that the other goddessgirls think he's bad news. But if he makes her feel so special -- and so comfortable -- can he really be all that bad?
If you've read my reviews on The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, or Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman, you would know that I am obsessed with the myth of Hades and Persephone. When I say obsessed, I mean it. One day, I saw Persephone the Phony featured in an In My Mailbox at Loving Books, and I knew I had to have it. I ordered it, and then immediately read it when I got it. I was actually surprised how small the book was! Only 130-something pages of text, and it was like triple spaced!

This was definitely meant for a younger audience, but I still enjoyed it. It was fun to take a break from the intensity of YA and just read a cute, light read. Honestly, it took me 30 minutes to read it. I really liked the characterization of Hades and Persephone, and the overall take on the myth. It was such a short book that there isn't much to say about it, except for that I really enjoyed it. If you're a mega fan of the myth of Hades and Persephone like me, this is a very cute book to read and I definitely recommend it! I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.

Be my NeoFriend!

Hey guys! I wanted to invite you guys to be my neofriends! What am I talking about? I'm talking about the super-fun site, Neopets.com. Lol, I've had an account for AGES, and I still love playing it, so I was wondering if you guys would like to as well. You should at least check it out.

If you do decide to make an account, could you please use the url below to do so? There's a cool referral program that gives prizes for referrals, so let me be the one to refer you!!

:) See you guys in Neopets! :)

http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=ash29952995

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Waiting On Wednesday 7/20

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we show a book that we're eagerly waiting for.

Lost in Time by Melissa de la Cruz
6th book in the Blue Bloods series


After their beautiful yet brief bonding ceremony in Italy, Schuyler Van Alen and Jack Force are forced to separate. To fulfill the Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler travels to Alexandria to search for Catherine of Siena and the Gate of Promise. But Schuyler quickly discovers that everything she believed about the Gate to be wrong. Meanwhile, Jack makes the difficult decision to return to New York to face his twin and former bondmate, Mimi. But instead of a bitter reunion, he is faced with a choice for which there is no good option.

Mimi, with a most unexpected travel companion in Oliver Hazard-Perry, jets off to Egypt, too, to search for Kingsley Martin, her long lost love. With all roads leading to Hell, Mimi learns that not all love stories have happy endings. But she'll have to put her own feelings aside if she's going to save her crumbling Coven.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Discussion Post: "Oh crap, I shit my pants..."

This is just a really random post that was written at a very early time in the morning, when I was sleep deprived and completely jet lagged and totally loopy, so it's probably not the most educated discussion post in the world. But, I digress...

I know, I know, a weird title, but it's relevant, I promise! This discussion post is about realism in YA, and what happens to normal human body functions with the characters. I don't know why, but I always notice that when characters are on the run from the big bad villain, and they're stuck living in basements and the forests or whatever, things like the need to use the bathroom are never mentioned. YA characters seem to be able to go days, even weeks, without peeing or crapping! It's amazing! The girls also seem to have the miraculous ability to NEVER GET THEIR PERIODS, which I am highly jealous of. Can I please live in this world?

See? Even Hermoine gotta pee.

I mean, I guess it would be awkward to mention that too much. And how awkward is it to think of your favorite YA hottie having to go take a crap? (Everyone now, please imagine Jace on the toilet. See? Awkward.) But at least once, right? Sometimes an entire novel could go by where the main characters are on the run and stuck camping out in weird places, and not one mention of ever having to use the bathroom comes up.  I always end up thinking, "Well, maybe they're a bit irregular."

The one series that I can think of off the top of my head where the main character actually does have normal body functions is the Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow. The main character, Dru, is on the run a lot and being attacked by demons and stuff, and usually after a big scare or monster attack, the first thing she thinks is that she has to pee. I always notice for some reason.

I guess there wasn't really much significance to this post other than to ramble about characters in books peeing and stuff... But still! Share your thoughts! What do you think of YA characters and normal body functions?? Should there be more? Less? None at all? Let me know!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

In My Mailbox (30): The Super Mega HUGE Edition

I went on vacation to Israel for 2 weeks, and during those two weeks, I obviously wasn't here to do IMM. So this Super Mega HUGE edition of in my mailbox is all the books and bookish things I got during those two weeks. Before I left, Kristi from The Story Siren, who also hosts IMM, contacted me and said I had won the April Debut Author Challenge. The package arrived while I was away and was full of gorgeous books and a TON of aweosme swag, which is shown below. THANK YOU SO MUCH KRISTI!!! :)


Books:
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Fateful by Claudia Gray
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder
The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg
The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney
Griffin Rising by Darby Karchut
Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
Entwined by Heather Dixon
The Liar Society by Lisa & Laura Roecker
Shade by Jerri Smith Ready
Witch Song by Amber Argyle
Sirenz by Charlotte Bennardo & Natalie Zaman
Defiance by Lili St. Crow
Altered by Aubrey Coletti
Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen
Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Persephone the Phony by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Ebooks:
Haunt by Amber Delaine
Black Waters by Maija Barnett
Hidden Gem by India Lee
Helper12 by Jack Blaine
Reborn by Ley Mesina
Cat Calls by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Fallen From Grace by M.J. Putney
Switched by Amanda Hocking
The Arrival by Nicole MacDonald
Tempest by Holly Hook

Swag:
Bookmarks:

  • Possession by Elana Johnson (signed)
  • The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder
  • Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard (signed)
  • Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton (signed)
  • Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris (signed)
  • Across the Universe by Beth Revis (signed)
  • Dogsled Dreams by Terry Lynn Johnson (signed)
  • Memento Nora by Angie Smibert
  • Warped by Maurissa Guibord
  • Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
  • Born at Midnight by C. C. Hunter
  • Clarity by Kim Harrington (signed)
  • Head Games by Keri Mikulski (signed)
  • Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer (signed)
  • The Revenant by Sonia Gensler
  • A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford (signed) 
  • Moonglass by Jessi Kirby (signed)
  • The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton
  • The Liar Society by Lisa & Laura Roeker (signed)
  • OyMG by Amy Fellner Dominy (signed)
Postcards:

  • The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver
  • The Revenant by Sonia Gensler
  • The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton (signed
  • Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout (signed)
  • Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis 
Other Goodies:

  • "lips" temorary tattoo (The Lipstick Laws)
  • Possession keychain
  • white spaceship pin (Across the Universe)
  • blue spaceship pin (Across the Universe)
  • cover art pin (Across the Universe)
  • The Lipstick Laws pin
  • ELF cosmetics lip gloss (The Lipstick Laws)
  • adhesive decal (The Demon Trapper's Daughter)
  • iron on patch (The Demon Trapper's Daughter)
  • Angelfire sticker (signed)
  • The Lipstick Laws magnet
  • The Lipstick Laws sticker
  • The Lipstick Laws card
  • (2) Lipstick Pens
  • Lips keychain lip gloss
  • Wax lips
  • Across the universe card
  • The Revenant sticky notes
  • The Year We Were Famous card
  • Born at Midnight goodie bag
  • A Touch Mortal sticker (signed)
  • Griffin Rising bracelet
  • The Iron Witch stickers
  • Half-Blood guitar pick
  • lucky kitty phone charm (Sirenz)
Weekly Recap
Tuesday
The Bookarazzi: Edition 1
Giveaway: *Signed* Copy of Star of the Sea

Wednesday
Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Thursday
Author Spotlight: Rachel Vincent
Cover Reveal: SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi

Friday
Review: Released by Megan Duncan
My Current TBR Pile (Over 100+ books!)

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