The Raven Boys (ARC) Giveaway

Hi Guys,
Since I've finished my ARC copy of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, I've decided to host a giveaway for it! YAY! I'm going to be giving away my copy, so it may be a little worn (by shipping from Scholastic, to me) but it's not bad at all. It's just a little dinged up on the spine at the bottom, but other than that, it's in perfect condition. The picture to the left is not the cover of the book, it's a picture of main points of the story. I just thought you guys would be tired of seeing the cover of the book on my blog. I've posted it as my WoW, IMM, and my book review of it is coming up in September, so I don't want you guys to get tired of the cover. The characters at the top are (from left to right) Adam, Gansey, Blue, and Ronan. The other aspects of this picture are very relevant to the story. ANYWAY... let's get to the giveaway shall we?

Here is the info for the giveaway:

• This is a giveaway for the US only, sorry international people.
•  YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG!!!
• There will be ONE WINNER for this giveaway.
• The Winner must reply to my e-mail within a week, or the opportunity will go to someone else. 

• If for some odd reason my rafflecopter widget doesn't work for you, you may leave a comment on this post explaining the situation, and I'll enter you into the contest as well. BUT you MUST be a follower of this blog! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That is all you have to do to enter this giveaway. This giveaway will end on September 14th, 2012 (Four days before it's released to the US). Now I just need some cool swag for this book, to giveaway (and keep for myself) hahaha. JUST KIDDING! (Or am I?) :P Good luck to everyone who enters, and I hope everyone enjoys themselves.  

Infamous Book Review

Hi Guys,
I'm sorry I haven't posted a review this past week, but I've been at my marching band's band camp. Ugh! I'm sore, and tired, so I'm writing this review in, some-what of a, daze. This is 1 of the 6 books I have yet to review this summer. I'm going to try to post the other reviews soon, but until then, here is my review of Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This is the third book in the, action-packed, Chronicles of Nick series, and this book didn't disappoint. I finished this book when it was released, and I'm sorry I'm just now doing the review. Anyway, here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Go to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That’s the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier isn’t the average teenager. He’s a boy with a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.
He’s learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive and keep a girlfriend so dang hard? But that isn’t the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.
And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known, or he’ll be the one who ends the world. With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about. Even himself.

My first impression of this book was good, I'd read and loved the first two books in this series (Infinity and Invincible), so I knew I would love this book as well. This is my favorite cover of the series so far, and I also love how thick each of these books are, and I just fly through each one of them. I can't really say what happened in this book because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. This book was very action-packed, and so many questions were answered, and so many more questions were made. I loved reading about the old characters, and getting to meet new ones. I laughed so many times in this book, and that's one thing I like about this series. I love being able to read a chapter that would seem so serious, but end up laughing because of Nick's sarcastic humor. That's about as much as I can say, without spoiling anything at all. Overall I give this book 4/5 stars. This book was great, but it just wasn't a 5-star to me for some reason. I'm not sure, I just feel more comfortable giving this book a 4. The next book in the series, Inferno, is set to release March 4, 2013. I'm very excited to read it, I look forward to sitting on the edge of my seat, and laughing my butt off, in March. You guys should definitely check this series out, and let me know what you think of this series if you've already read it.

I believe my next book review will be on Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, but it might be on Wake by Lisa McMann, but most likely Shiver.

Isle of Night Book Review

Hi Guys,
I know that it's been FOREVER since I've written a review, I've wanted to, but I've been lazy... which it is Summer, so hopefully you can forgive me. I have about 6 books I need to review, and this book is the most recent I've read. The book I'll be reviewing today is Isle of Night (The Watchers #1) by Veronica Wolff. This is, obviously, the first book in a series of (as of right now) four books. I really loved this book, and I wanted to read the second one immediately after this, but I received an ARC copy of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater in the mail on the same day that I finished this. So I decided it could wait. I'm very excited to be doing this review, because I can finally let out my feelings about it, but first... here's the Goodreads synopsis:

Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.
When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.

My first impression of this book was great. I thought the cover was pretty cool, it looked eerie, and Gothic to me, and I really liked the two faces that were added into the sky as well as the castle at the bottom. I believe that the faces at the top belong to Annelise and Ronan, but I'm not 100% sure.  I thought this book sounded like Vampire Academy, mixed with The Hunger Games, with a dash of Divergent. Which, while reading this novel, it did remind me of each of these books... with so much more. I hadn't heard much about this novel from other blogger/vloggers, but that didn't stop me from reading it... THANK GOD! This book met sky-rocketed past my expectations, I loved it. It was a little slow at the beginning, but I believe it was written that way to establish Drew's (Annelise) background, as well as the way she acts, and reacts to things. Once she stepped onto the Isle of Night, the book took off. I could hardly put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen next, and I also wanted to know more about the mythology of this world. Almost everything I wanted to know, was answered in this book. It didn't answer everything so it could leave some things to be answered in Vampire's Kiss (The Watchers #2). The book didn't end on a cliff hanger, but it did end, immediately, after a very intense, and long, battle to the death. This book was very action-packed and I loved the plot, the setting, the characters, as well as the chemistry of the characters. Some aspects of Drew I didn't really like, but overall I thought she was a wonderful main character. Ronan was a very good character as well, I like how he took care of Drew, and his back story caught me by surprise. As you guys can tell, I loved everything about this book, and that is why I give this book 5/5 stars. It was phenomenal, and I hope all of you will check it out. The second book is already out, and the third book is set to release August 7th, which is very soon. I hope to get to the other books in this series very soon, and I will have more Book Reviews for you guys in the coming weeks. You can look forward to me reviewing: Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Wake, Fade, and Gone by Lisa McMann, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, and I'm currently reading The Raven Boys, and I'm loving it, so hopefully I will finish it soon, and I'll be hosting a giveaway of my ARC of it when I finish it, and you can look forward to the review of it, which I'll post close to the release date, so probably September 9th. I hope you guys check this book out, and come back to the blog to check out some of the reviews and such to come.

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

Hi Guys,
I'm sorry I haven't posted many blog posts lately, but I'd been vacationing in Baltimore this past week. It was an almost perfect vacation, with visits to great sites in Baltimore, including one very large Barnes & Noble... oh, and a trip to the ER. Yes, I had to visit the ER because we went to a river, and I stepped on a rusted piece of metal. So I needed stitches in my foot, and unfortunately, the 12 numbing shots he gave me during the stitching, didn't do their job correctly. But I'm okay, and I'm back in my hometown, doing another Waiting on Wednesday. YAY! Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This Wednesday I'm waiting on:

Etiquette & Espionage

By: Gail Carriger

320 Pages

Little Brown and Company

February 5th, 2013

Finishing School #1

YA

 Goodreads' Synopsis:

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.
First in a four book YA series set 25 years before the Parasol Protectorate but in the same universe.

After seeing the cover on Goodreads, I knew I wanted to read it. It looks a little too-girly for me, but I believe the steampuck-ish look, as well as the fifty's looking hair style, and of course the synopsis, did it in for me. I'm very excited to read this book, although I haven't read the other series by this author, which takes place in the same world. I'd always thought they sounded good, but they were adult books, so I didn't wanna pick it up, in fear of what I might get myself into. But now this is a YA series based in the same world, so I can finally check this author/world out, as well as staying in my YA comfort zone. If you are interested in her other series though, the name of the series is the Parasol Protectorate series. The first book in the series is Soulless. This book sounds a lot like Isle of Night to me, so I'm very excited to read it, because I LOVED Isle of Night, which, I'll try and post a review of Isle of Night sometime this week. I really loved it, and I can't wait to let you guys know what I thought of it. As you guys can tell, I can't wait to read this book... can you? Leave a comment about what you think of this book, or what novel you might want to see next week's WoW. Check out this blog next week to see the next novel I'm waiting for, and also comment on this post letting me know what you guys are waiting for this week.

July (2012) Book Haul (2)

Hi Guys,
This past Saturday I received a package in the mail which I wasn't expecting. When I looked at the package, it said that it was from Scholastic, which was an even larger shock to me. I tried remembering if I entered a contest, or requested an ARC recently. I couldn't remember either one, so when I opened it, I was very excited (and I might've done some happy dancing). I received an ARC of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! I forgot I'd sent an e-mail requesting an ARC of this, several months ago. I got an e-mail back saying that they would put me on the list, but I was not expecting to get one, because this is a new release from a very popular author. I'M GLAD I GOT IT! I've started reading it, but I'm only on page 30, because I wanted to finish Isle of Night first (which was a great book by the way, the review of it is coming soon). I've read Shiver by Maggie, but I didn't like it as much as I hoped to. The main character was very... I don't know, I just didn't like her. But almost everything else about the book I liked, with the exception of some minor things. I can already tell that I'll love the characters of this novel, there are several of them, and they each have their own personality and back story, and I really like it so far. I can't wait to finish it and review it soon. This book is set to release on Sept. 18, 2012. So I'll probably post a review for it at the start of September. Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I love this book so far, and I can't wait to dive further into the mythology, and the overall story of this novel. I'm very glad that I received this ARC, and I wanna thank Scholastic publishers as well as Maggie Stiefvater, for sending me this ARC. I hope you guys are as excited about this book as I am. I can already tell that this book will be one of my favorites.

First Editions Giveaway (2)

Hi Guys,
Happy Friday, in order to celebrate this wonderful Friday, I'm hosting a book giveaway. Last weeks First Editions Giveaway Winner was Kathleen C. Congratulations Kathleen! I hope you enjoy Delirium. Now that Kathleen won Delirium, it will no longer be available to be won. That leaves just three books to choose from. The books I'll be giving away are below, in a slide show.

Blood Red Road and Shatter Me are both Hardcovers, and Glass Houses is a mass market paperback.

These were all previously my copies, but I was thinking about a great giveaway, and First Editions came to my mind, so I was racking my brain for books, and these four were the top four to giveaway. I haven't read any of these books, so they are in great condition. Blood Red Road and Shatter Me, however, have a small cut under the back flap of the book, but it's not noticeable, if you leave the dust jacket on. The reason they are like this, is because I put my name and phone numbers on that part of my books, so I didn't want my phone info going out into the world. Also, Shatter me has a small binding problem on the title page only... unfortunately, I bought it that way, not realizing how it was before I bought it. I'm operating this contest a little differently. I'll host ONE giveaway every TWO weeks, and there will be only ONE winner for each giveaway. The winner of the first giveaway will get to chose which book they would like to receive. Then for the next giveaway, the winner will have the other three books to chose from, etc.

Here is the info for the giveaway:

• This is a giveaway for the US only, sorry international people.
•  YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG!!!
• There will be ONE WINNER for this giveaway.
• The Winner will be able to chose from any of these four books.
• The Winner must reply to my e-mail within a week, or the opportunity will go to someone else. 

• If for some odd reason my rafflecopter widget doesn't work for you, you may leave a comment on this post explaining the situation, and I'll enter you into the contest as well. BUT you MUST be a follower of this blog!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

That is all you have to do to enter this giveaway. This giveaway will end in two weeks, on July 20th, 2012. Good luck to everyone who enters, and I hope everyone enjoys themselves.

Cover Features (1)

Hi Guys,
Today, I'm going to be trying out another type of blog posts. They are called Cover Features, a meme hosted by Emily's Crammed Bookshelf where I will feature books that have the same theme in their covers. I saw this meme on Emily's blog, and I fell in love with it immediately, I often find myself staring at my bookshelves, and finding out what some different book covers have in common. I'm very excited to be doing this, and today's Cover Feature is... Tattoos. There are tons of YA books that have a tattooed up character on the front cover. I like getting books with tattoos, it makes the story all the more interesting to me, and my favorite kind of tattoos on the cover of a book, are Ancient Celtic looking tattoos. They always grab my attention, especially when the tattoo(s) is/are on the face of the character, that pikes my interest in the book.

Here are the books I chose to represent the Tattooed Covers of YA:

1) Wired by Robin Wasserman
2) Specials by Scott Westerfeld
3) Reckless by Cornelia Funke
4) Hidden by P.C. and Kristin Cast
5) Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
6) Crave by Laura J. Burnes and Melinda Metz
7) City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

I like all of these covers, the tattoos really bring everything together. My top three covers would have to be Reckless, Hidden, and City of Lost Souls. These three books have Celtic-like tattoos on the characters, and I love them. Specials came as a close fourth to me, I like the arrows going up the spine, that makes everything that much cooler. Wired would also have to be tied with Specials for fourth, I love the way the tattoos look like computer tech stuff, I don't know how else to put it... it just looks futuristic and cool. I love the other covers as well, but these five were the best to me. leave a comment letting me know of any other books that have tattoos on them. I would love to see them, and add them to my TBR pile. I believe the next Cover Features I do will be about... hmm... you know what, I have no idea, so leave a comment and tell me which cover feature you would like to see next. The one that I have the most covers for will obviously be posted as the next cover Feature.

First Editions Giveaway (1)

Hi Guys,
Happy Friday, in order to celebrate this wonderful Friday, I'm hosting a book giveaway. The books I'll be giving away are below, in a slide show.

Delirium, Blood Red Road, and Shatter Me are all Hardcovers, and Glass Houses is a mass market paperback.

These were all previously my copies, but I was thinking about a great giveaway, and First Editions came to my mind, so I was racking my brain for books, and these four were the top four to giveaway. I haven't read any of these books, so they are in great condition. Blood Red Road, Delirium, and Shatter Me, however, have a small cut under the back flap of the book, but it's not noticeable, if you leave the dust jacket on. The reason they are like this, is because I put my name and phone numbers on that part of my books, so I didn't want my phone info going out into the world. Also, Shatter me has a small binding problem on the title page only... unfortunately, I bought it that way, not realizing how it was before I bought it. I'm operating this contest a little differently. I'll host ONE giveaway every TWO weeks, and there will be only ONE winner for each giveaway. The winner of the first giveaway will get to chose which book they would like to receive. Then for the next giveaway, the winner will have the other three books to chose from, etc.

Here is the info for the giveaway:

• This is a giveaway for the US only, sorry international people.
•  YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG!!!
• There will be ONE WINNER for this giveaway.
• The Winner will be able to chose from any of these four books.
• The Winner must reply to my e-mail within a week, or the opportunity will go to someone else. 

• If for some odd reason my rafflecopter widget doesn't work for you, you may leave a comment on this post explaining the situation, and I'll enter you into the contest as well. BUT you MUST be a follower of this blog!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That is all you have to do to enter this giveaway. This giveaway will end in two weeks, on July 20th, 2012. Good luck to everyone who enters, and I hope everyone enjoys themselves.  

July (2012) Book Haul

Hi guys,
The other day I received five packages in the mail, four of which I bought on eBay, and another that was sent to me by the author. From eBay I received: the first five books in the Night World series (in their original covers), the last two books in the Dark Visions series (in their original covers), and the first, second, and fourth books in the Vampire Diaries series (in their original covers). I actually ordered the third book in the Vampire Diaries series as well, but for some reason I didn't receive it in the mail, so I guess I'll have to get it from somewhere else. I bought these books, because last year, while at a consignment shop, I found the fourth Vampire Diaries book in the original edition, and I bought it for less than a dollar, and since I love the books, I thought I would try to collect all of them in their original covers. Now, I still have to get the third Vampire Diaries book, the first Dark Visions book, the last four Night World books, and the three Secret Circle books. I'm excited I'm a little over half-way done with my collection, and I can't wait to continue collecting them. 

I also received a book from Nancy Holder, author of several hit YA books (Crusade/Unleashed/Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc.). The book I received from her was her most recent release, On Fire: A Teen Wolf Novel, I was very excited when I saw this in my mailbox. I love the television show, and I just know I'll love this book as well. I love the characters of the show, and I can't wait to read about them in this novel. The character I'm most excited about reading about is Stiles. I didn't like the character in the original Teen Wolf movie, but Dylan O'Brien's Stiles is hilarious, and I can't wait to read about his experiences in this novel.

So i had a pretty good In My Mailbox this week, and I hope you guys have had a good one as well. I hope you guys check out each of these books, and I look forward to reviewing them for you guys on the blog.

The pictures below are of the original editions of the books I got this week, as well as a picture of the cast of Teen Wolf posing with On Fire by Nancy Holder.  

Winners of Dark Light Swag Giveaway

Picture from: The Lost Lola

Hi Guys,
             A few weeks ago, I posted info on the 2nd Giveaway that YAB has had. We got about 60 entries for the giveaway. Through a random selection, the winners were chosen, and e-mailed about their win. The Grand Prize Winner of this giveaway is: Karen, and the second place winners are: Susan Sowers Light and Tiffany Webb, I'll mail the swag to them soon, and I hope they receive it soon. CONGRATULATIONS GUYS! I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SWAG!

*Stay tuned for the upcoming giveaway (starting this Friday), and I will be giving away 4 AWESOME YA books. The name of the contest? FIRST EDITIONS!