Friday, July 30, 2010

Whoohoo I'm adding CRESCENDO to the contest!!!!


So I've gotten 100 more followers since July 8th! SOOO I'm adding a pre-ordered copy of Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick to the contest. If you have already entered you are all set. I will randomly pick two contestants from the international contest and you will have your choice of Crescendo OR Clockwork Angel. If you haven't entered yet then get to it, tell your friends, and win some books!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

TGIF!! Friday's Hop and Follow Day! 7/30/2010

Just a little note: I've almost gotten one hundred new followers since announcing my very first give-away/contest. If I hit that one hundred I'll be adding a pre-ordered copy of Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick to the list.
This blog hop is hosted by Crazy For Books
RULES:

1. Enter your book blog link in the Linky List below
In your link, please state the main genre that you review: eclectic, contemp. fiction, ya, paranormal, mystery, non-fiction, etc. Please do not list every genre you review - if you are review a variety, please put eclectic! The Hop gets jumbled up if the title is too long, so please limit to one genre. I will be limiting the number of characters in the title to ensure the Hop doesn't look messy! Thank you!
Example: Crazy-for-Books (literary fiction)


2. Post about the Hop on your blog. Spread the word about the book party! The more the merrier! In your blog post, answer the following question (new question each week!). I have to thank my friend, Lori, for this week's question! I was drawing a blank and she came up with this fab question! If you have a question that could be used in a future Hop, leave it in the comments! Thanks!
Who is your favorite new-to-you author so far this year?

3. Visit other blogs in the Linky List! Make new friends! Follow new book bloggers! Talk about books! Rave about authors! Take the time to make a quality visit! Check out other posts and content, make a new friend! Don't randomly follow someone if you never intend on actually following them! No spamming please! (Please do not leave your link and not visit other blogs - it's just not cool and not in the spirit of the Hop!)

My answer to this weeks question is definitely Stacey Kade author of The Ghost and The Goth! I loved that book and can't wait for the sequel. You can see my review for it here
Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

Book Review: The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen

The Gardener
Author: S.A. Bodeen
Released: May 2010
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 240
Target Age: 12 and up

Summary from Barnes and Noble: Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children’s book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of an experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs—genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don’t need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this horrible plan, who is simply called the Gardener.

Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he’s longed for most?
The best part of this book for me was the strong male's point of view. Not that Mason never showed emotion because he did, though it never came across as cheesy or over the top. He does have his issues, quite a few actually. However, I didn't feel that he was really whiny about them. Mostly he just seemed matter of fact. Like this is the life I've been dealt, now let's deal with it. I think the issue that he has the most trouble with is not knowing anything about his father. Luckily, he has a great best friend Jack, and he helps Mason maintain some fun and spontaneity in his otherwise boring small town life. Jack also tries to keep Mason grounded when things take a turn for the strange. The Gardener was a fast paced read that left me thinking about the world and the things we do in the name of science for days after I had read it. I definitely recommend it, especially if you enjoy speculative fiction (Fiction that extrapolates from some phenomenon or theory and postulates "What if?".) If you are looking for a guy to love, some romance on the run, twisted with a bit of mystery, then I think you will enjoy this as much as I did.

Biography:

S. A. BODEEN’S first novel, The Compound, earned her a “Flying Start” from Publishers Weekly and was chosen by YALSA as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. She lives in Oregon with her family.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Waiting On Wednesday (07/28/2010)


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are anxiously awaiting.

This week I am eagerly awaiting:
Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Summary from Goodreads:
What if you knew exactly when you would die?
Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to ag
e twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedo
m. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

This sounds like one of those books that will make you think for days. What are you wishing for this wonderful Wednesday?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Teaser Tuesday (7/27/2010)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
This week my teaser will be brought to you by Douglas Rees's Majix: Notes From A Serious Teen Witch.

"Okay, so you believe in science. I believe in witchcraft. Why can't I believe what I want and you believe what you want?"
"Because I'm right," BD said.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Book Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires-Book One)
Author: Rachel Caine
Released: October 2006
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pages: 256
Target Age:
Young Adult/grades 9+
I own this book thanks to my friend Lauren
Summary from Barnes and Noble: College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

I'm really late getting to these books and I don't know why! I really loved the first book in The Morganville Vampires series and can't wait to read more about Claire, Eve, Micheal, and Shane. Claire is a college freshman but she's only 16, she graduated early with a 4.0 grade average. Claire wanted to go to a college like Yale, Caltech or
MIT but her parents felt she was to young to be that far away from them. That's how she ends up at Texas Prairie University in Morganville. Little did they know that Claire would have been so much better off far, far, away from Morganville. When Claire is thrown down the stairs by another girl from her dorm she decides that she needs to find another place to live and fast. Soon after she meets Eve and learns that Morganville is indeed a strange place to live and why so many students transfer out of TPU so quickly. If you haven't started reading The Morganville Vampires series you are seriously missing out on a great read. If you've read this book I'd love to know if you loved it as much as I did. Happy Reading!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

In My Mailbox (3)

What a great book week I've had! Yay for me!
From the library: Dead Is A State of Mind and Dead Is So Last Year. If you haven't started the Dead Is series you're really missing out. It's so much fun. I'll be reviewing both of these soon. Waiting for me to read from the library still is Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci.I picked up a few at the goodwill in Williamsburg while we were there meeting Maggie! More on that later. Will be reading these asap: My Immortal by Erin McCarthy, Night Bites by Nina Bangs, Destiny Kills by Keri Arthur, Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu, My Demon's Kiss by Lucy Blue, Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop, and Bound By Shadow by Anna Windsor.

For review I received: The Fall Of The American Empire 2013 by Roger Lee Vernon, Earth Is Not Alone by John Knapp II.
See, I have a lot of reading to do. So what did you get to read this week?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

"Bloggy" Hop and Follow



RULES: (in hopes of simplifying things for everyone!)

1. Enter your book blog link in the Linky List below (be sure to include how long you've been blogging and what genres you review!).
  • If you have been blogging 3 months or less, please note that you are a NEW blogger!
  • If you post about the Hop on your blog, please link directly to your Hop post (don't forget to answer this week's question - see below!).

2. Visit other blogs in the Linky List! Make new friends! Follow new book bloggers! Talk about books! Rave about authors! (Please do not leave your link and not visit other blogs - it's just not cool and not in the spirit of the Hop!)
3. Post about the Hop on your blog! Spread the word about the book party! The more the merrier!

4. In your blog post, answer the following question (new question each week!):
TELL US ABOUT THE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING!

Right now I'm reading Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield and I'm really enjoying it. By page 25 it was a HOT read. It's got some great action as well. I'm a little more than half way through as of tonight hopefully I'll finish tomorrow.


To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
  2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - toreadornottoread-vampangel.blogspot.com/
  3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
  5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
  6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
  7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

Happy Follow Friday!

Book Review: Winter's Passage by Julie Kagawa

Winter's Passage
Author: Julie Kagawa
Released: June 2010
Publisher: Harlequin
This is a free download-able short story ebook from Barnes and Noble, amazon

Summary from Barnes and Noble:

Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.

Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

An eBook exclusive story from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series.
I loved this short story! I can't say too much without giving it all away because it IS a short story. I do have to say though that Ash makes me SO mad. SO mad! He really needs to redeem himself in the next book. I definitely would not want to skip this story before reading the next book it was that good. I have a feeling that I am going to be yelling at the next book much more than I did the first. If you haven't read Winter's Passage yet, then get to it. It is SO worth it, even if you have to read it on your computer. Enjoy and let me know if you liked it as much as I did.

I received this short story from NetGalley and received no compensation for my honest opinion.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Teaser Tuesday (7/20/2010)


Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

This week I'm r
eading Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield

"Waves of dark hair curled around the golden skin of his neck. The sheet slid past his hips, one leg slug out of the fabric, revealing every inch of his toned body. A body she knew she could never forget, never close her eyes late at night alone in her chamber and not see his image burning behind them."

Book Review: Dead Is The New Black by Marlene Perez

Dead Is The New Black
Author: Marlene Perez
Release Date: September 2008
Pages: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Target Age: Young Adult
Summary:

The grimly hilarious first installment in the creepy, campy Dead Is series.

Fans who mourn the loss of TV's Veronica Mars are in for a treat as Perez (Unexpected Development) delivers a wise-cracking, boy-lusting, determined sleuth of a high school protagonist named Daisy Giordano. Daisy comes from a crime-solving family of female psychics-Mom gets premonitions, sister Rose can listen in on people's thoughts and sister Poppy has the gift of telekinesis. To Daisy's chagrin, she's the only "normal" in the family-a nonpsychic. She doesn't let this unfortunate genetic deficiency stop her from investigating the mysterious deaths of high school girls around Nightshade, Daisy's wacky hometown, especially when sleuthing gets her face time with Ryan Mendez, Daisy's hottie crush and son of the town police chief. With a suspect cheerleading coach and an even more suspect cheerleading captain-beautiful Samantha "the Divine" Devereaux, who shows up for school pale and dragging a coffin everywhere-this quick, lighter-than-air spoof of the undead, cheerleaders and popularity is pure pleasure. Taken from Barnes and Noble

I really enjoyed Daisy and her adventure through the town of Nightshade. This book had it all; werewolves, psychics, vampires, and mystery. Daisy is determined to help her psychic mom figure out who is killing girls around town even though she has no psychic abilities of her own. She enlists the help of her long time best friend Ryan, who happens to be the police chief's son and the cutest boy in school. The characters in the book were so adorable and really had me laughing and falling in love with them. I thought I had the mystery solved pretty early on, but then the author threw in a little twist and confused me there for a bit. I hadn't really heard of this book until I received the forth book, Dead Is Just A Rumor to review. I figured I'd read them in the order written to better review the forth. I'm so glad I did. I read this in one day easily as it's a quick, fun and light read. Perfect for a summer day by the pool or beach. I hope you will pick up this book and have as much fun with it as I did. If you do be sure to stop back by and let me know what you thought.

I picked this book up from my wonderful, local library and received no compensation for writing my honest opinion.

Good News... Wind Warrior Release Party Coming Soon


I have some great news to share with you! Come September, I will be participating in a huge blog tour put on by Cynthia Roberts, author of the upcoming romance novel Wind Warrior!
There are some pretty exciting prizes for everyone involved - Cynthia is giving away $600 dollars worth of wonderful items! YOU could win one of five fabulous prizes! There will be something romantic, something succulent, something exquisite, and two others that will offer you lots of choices... Curious? Check out what you could win on the official blog tour giveaway website, here! You can also learn more about how this giveaway will operate.
I'm looking forward to being a part of this great blog tour, and I hope you are, too!


Sunday, July 18, 2010

I've been interviewed!



Heather over at A Bibliophile's Paradise interviewed me today for the "Beach Reads" Summer Challenge. That is the very first interview that I have ever done for anything. It was a lot of fun, thanks Heather. To see everything that Heather is doing for this challenge and to read my amazing interview you should definitely head over to her place and check it out.

Headquarters for the challenge are located here.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Friday, July 16, 2010

It's that time again! Friday's Hop and Follow

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
  2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - www.onceuponachapter.com
  3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
  5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
  6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
  7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

Happy Follow Friday!

Also:

RULES: (in hopes of simplifying things for everyone!)

1. Enter your book blog link in the Linky List at Crazy For Books (be sure to include how long you've been blogging and what genres you review!). If you post about the Hop on your blog, please link directly to your Hop post (don't forget to answer this week's question - see below!).

2. Visit other blogs in the Linky List! Make new friends! Follow new book bloggers! Talk about books! Rave about authors! (Please do not leave your link and not visit other blogs - it's just not cool and not in the spirit of the Hop!)

3. Post about the Hop on your blog! Spread the word about the book party! The more the merrier!

4. In your blog post, answer the following question (new question each week!):
RIGHT THIS INSTANT, WHAT BOOK ARE YOU DYING TO GET YOUR HANDS ON (PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE)?
I can't wait for Mockingjay to come out. I loved both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and I NEED to know what is going to happen next.
I'm also looking forward to Crescendo, Clock
work Angel, Early to Death, Early to Rise, and Sleepless. Okay I've decided that it is just too many to list.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Book Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King
Author: Julie Kagawa
Released: February 2010
Pages: 368
Publisher: Harlequin
Target Age Group: Young Adult
I received my copy of this book from NetGalley for review
Summary:

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart. From Barnes and Noble

First off I have to mention how much I love the cover of this book, it SO beautiful. Second, what a great book (in my oh so humble opinion)! I'm so glad that I picked this book to read during the book-a-thon, it grabbed me and I was anxious to find out what was going to happen to Meghan, Puck, Ash and Ethan. There were parts of this book that made me stop and go "WHAT!" and I would have to go back and read that part again. ~Ethan standing over his mother~ aaaahhhhh! That was just creepy! Meghan starts on a journey to save her brother and has to grow up a lot on the way. She has to make some amazingly tough decisions cuz man those fey are shifty and sly. There is danger and mystery constantly. Tons of sarcastic humor, heartbreak and of course romance. What more could you ask for in a novel? I found some of the elements in the book very reminiscent of some favorite classics like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz which just made this book all the more fun. Loved it! You should definitely pick up your very own copy of this, cuz you are not getting mine! Here is one of my favorite quotes from The Iron King: “Try not to bleed so much on the thorns," he said as I jabbed myself in the palm and hissed in pain. "Right now, anyone could follow us, and you are leaving a very easy trail." "Right, 'cause I'm bleeding all over the place for shits and giggles.” Grimalkin and Meghan

I received no compensation to read or review The Iron King.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Read-A-Thon Update and Mini Challenge Day 2



Still reading! I haven't gotten as much read today. My son required a bit more attention today. That's okay, I finished The Iron King (i was going to finish last night but couldn't keep my eyes open long enough). I'm also reading Winter's Passage and Glass Houses and hoping to finish at least one of them and maybe both before sleep claims me tonight.

I've also participated in one of the mini challenges today hosted by Confessions of a Bookaholic
1. Tell me what makes you the most emotional when you read it in a book.
Death. When an author can make you truly feel the grieving of one character over the loss of another character. Oh and I get truly annoyed when I feel like a character is getting screwed. Like Meghan in The Iron King. Those damn Fey always wanting to make a deal and screwing you over in the process. Love triangles annoy me too even though I love them. Why do they always want the one they can't have and reject the one that adores them. It makes me scream!!
2.What book has made you the most emotional?
Where The Red Fern grows in the fifth grade.
Zoya by Danielle Steele I grab her books when I need a good cry.
Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
Beautiful Dead by Eden Maguire
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
and so many more!!!

I hope you are having a great day and that you are enjoying the read-a-thon!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Read-A-Thon Day 1

It's been a great first day of the read-a-thon! I started and finished Dead Is The New Black and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book. Reviews from the read-a-thon will be posted later in the week and into next week. I will be finishing The Iron King before bed and I've started Glass Houses which I'll finish up tomorrow. Now for Monday's Challenges. This challenge was hosted by The Eager Readers

Mini Challenge Part 1: Post about your favorite fictional couple and enter to win a copy of Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder!

Dougless Montgomery and Nicholas Stafford from A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux (I LOVE this book, I think it's almost time to read it again)

I hope to post more tomorrow during the challenge. Today we had a small internet issue it will resolved tomorrow though.

Shari

Book Review: Skinned by Robin Wasserman

Skinned (Gripping Trilogy Series) Author: Robin Wasserman
Release Date: September, 2008
Pages: Hardcover 368
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Lia Kahn was perfect: rich, beautiful, popular – until the accident that nearly killed her. Now she has been downloaded into a new body that only looks human. Lia will never feel pain again, she will never age, and she can’t ever truly die. But she is also rejected by her friends, betrayed by her boyfriend, and alienated from her old life.

Forced to the fringes of society, Lia joins others like her. But they are looked at as freaks. They are hated...and feared. They are everything but human, and according to most people, this is the ultimate crime – for which they must pay the ultimate price. Summary from Barnes and Noble I really liked this story. It wasn't action packed and sometimes it felt a little slow but the overall story was good. I finished it a few days ago and I'm still thinking about it. It's a little, no a lot creepy to think about this situation. If your body was beyond saving would you want your memories saved and downloaded to a computer brain? At first I was adamant that I would not! However, Lia feels real to herself, she argues that she has free will, and that she still has emotions. So then I started thinking well maybe this wouldn't be so bad, but wait I'd be a computer? Like I said, lots of thinking to be done with this book. The post atomic war references were really interesting as well. So if you are looking for a great romance or lots of action you won't find it here, not that there isn't any it just isn't the main focus of this book. However if you want to think and speculate for a while then you can't go wrong with Skinned. I will definitely be reading the second book in this trilogy.

Robin Wasserman grew up in suburban Philadelphia. She went to college and majored in the history of science. She also edited children’s books. Robin is the author of the Seven Deadly Sins series, the Chasing Yesterday trilogy and Hacking Harvard. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Despicable Me! You gotta go!

My son turned six on Wednesday and he really wanted to go see this movie as part of his present. So yesterday I made his wish come true. We had such a great time. This movie was FABULOUS! I laughed, I cried, and I danced in my seat. Steve Carell was amazing and those little minions were so cute. We left that movie and all of us talked about it for over an hour and then when we got home we had to tell daddy all about it as well. We can't wait to see it again. If you get the chance to see this movie I can't imagine that you would be disappointed . I think this is my new all time favorite cartoon movie.

Friday, July 9, 2010

TGIF!! Friday's Hop and Follow Day!

Follow My Book Blog Friday is hosted by Parajunkee, and it's a great way to find new blogs and to show the blogger love:) She also does a weekly blog feature on Friday to go with the follow. Visit her blog to see all of the details and rules regarding the follow.
Crazy For Books hosts the weekly Book Blogger Hop which is another way to find blogs so that you can make your blogging world even bigger. Bigger = Better you know. Visit her blog for all of her rules and details. The question of the week at the Hop is....Tell us about some of your favorite authors and why they are your favorites!
One of my more recent favorite authors is Charlaine Harris. Her books keep me up reading long into the night and I love that her books always make me laugh. Snarkie humor is so much fun.
I feel I must also mention Maggie Stiefvater her writing is so beautiful and her characters just make me happy (well usually).

Have a great day and enjoy your weekend!